My grandfather should of gone to Fiddler’s Greene

My Paternal Grandfather was really interested in detective, and true crime stories right before he died.

When he was 74, he ended up with cancer, and started to spend a lot of time in the hospital. While there, he asked everyone to bring him the true crime stories. He read those things like a voracious wolf.

Then, he got worse and passed on.

What I think this meant was that he was preoccupied with death, Heaven and the life “beyond”. I cannot say that I blame him. We all feel that way. But, I find it interesting that this is how he wished to spend his last moments; reading about gruesome deaths.

Don’t do that.

Lots of better things to do with your time.

Fiddler’s Green is giving away free paper-plane card models. These can be scaled up and used as plans for foamie RC planes:

Google search results for Fiddlers Green plans here or search for threads by Vyceroy, was the master of this style.

Currently it is a ME-109 and Corsair. It changes every few weeks.

So super cheap. And a fun waste of time. Not into planes, cars, ships? No problem. Try their house and town models…

Today…

What is the best case of “You just picked a fight with the wrong person” that you’ve witnessed?

My story is essentially a movie trope now. I was sitting in my local pub with my dad who was in a wheelchair, it was during the midweek (in Scotland), early evening, so it was pretty quiet, just a handful of middle aged guys, me and my dad. 4 young yob lads came in, if you’re in the UK you know the type, baseball caps, tracksuits, swaggering like Liam Gallacher, thinking they’re hard men.

They’d obviously had a few drinks before coming in, and after a few pints and us putting up with their shit tunes on the jukebox, they started getting a bit rambunctious, getting progressively louder and more aggressive as the evening turned to night.

One of the old guys, having gotten sick of their “doof doof” dance music crap got up and stuck a few quid in the jukebox, putting on some old 60’s 70’s rock music. One of the young team took offence to this, and got in his face, he started mouthing off at the old guy, who just stood there, impassive, and after a couple of minutes of this abuse the young team joined in, so one of the other regulars got up off his bar stool and stood behind the young team, and as if on some unseen signal, the old guy who was backed up against the jukebox just stuck the head right on the lad who was in his face, while his friend grabbed 2 of the young team and pulled them away, as the boy who’d been nutted reeled back, the old boy went for his friend, knocking him out with a left in the gut, and a hard right to the side of his head as he doubled over.
Meanwhile his friend had knocked one guy out with one punch, and when he turned his attention to the last guy, he blocked a punch and hit the boy so hard he flew over the pool table!

Turned out both of them were class fighters in their day, and some things you just don’t forget.

Morale of the story is, be respectful to people you don’t know, because you don’t know their history, and don’t know what they’ve done or been through.

Never saw those lads in the pub again, and they weren’t missed!

To Die for Beef Roast

This is one of the best roasts you will ever taste. Carrots, potatoes and celery can also be added, if desired.

Ingredients

1 beef roast (any kind)
1 envelope Hidden Valley Ranch salad dressing mix
1 envelope brown gravy mix
1 envelope Italian dressing mix
1/2 cup warm water

Instructions

Place roast in slow cooker.
Mix contents of all 3 envelopes and sprinkle over roast.
Pour water into the bottom of the slow cooker.
Cover and cook on LOW for 6 to 7 hours.

Robert Bigelow Tells Bob Lazar Stories

What would cause someone to walk out during a negotiation with a car salesman?

A simple negotiating strategy is “take it off the table”.

it works both ways: I am the car salesman, you are looking at a $45,000 car. We talk about it, test drive, you are looking at it, I hear and see buying signs. I want to test the waters. “John, look we are having a special sales “spif” this month and I really need to sell some cars. Let’s cut to chase here. (Looking over my shoulder to make sure no one else hears) I can sell you this car, today only, (scarcity) and knock off $10,000. $35,000 and you are out the door. What do you say?”

If the buyer balks, he’s not sure, looking at other deals. I say “okay, I get it. I’m going to withdraw the offer.” if the buyer is jumping in, then he was never a buyer.

I am a buyer… I find a car that I like, its a slightly used Lexus, $45,000 sticker. Salesman walks up, “Can I help you?” I say “Yes, I’m liking this GS 350 here. Do you have the mileage? “ he says “Let me get that for you. Want to drive it? I’ll get the keys.” He comes back and we test drive the car, rides like a dream, smooth, nice interior… I’m sold. We get out I make him stand in the hot sun, facing the sun. “How hard is that sticker price?” He says “we have a little wiggle room.” “Okay, my offer is $39,000, lets write up” I say. He says “not that much wiggle room.” I take my business card, write on the card… “Green GS 350, $39,000.” hand it to the sales guy. “Call me when this offer is good.” and leave…

Or better: I say “Okay my offer is $39,000.” He says “Oh, we don’t negotiate here, the price is the price.” I say “Yeah, I don’t either. Here is my offer. call me when its good.”

They will call “we have a blue Toyota / we have a white impala / we have a red tundra.”

Finally they will call, “the best we can do is $42,000.” I say “You are almost there.” click.

Is it safe to say that China is at least 30 years ahead of India?

Very safe! In fact, you can increase that number to 40 or 50 and it will still be true.

I lived in a Chinese village with a Chinese family for one month as part of a homestay program. I started my journey from Shanghai airport, and the entire stretch of road leading to the village was smooth, with no potholes, no litter, and not once did I see anyone driving their vehicle on the wrong side of the road, or see stray dogs and cattle hold up vehicles.

Every house in the village had an attached toilet, 24×7 electricity, and the houses all had modern appliances like washing machine, refrigerator, TV, Wi-Fi etc. And I had visited quite a few houses.

Every classroom in the village primary school had a TV which the teachers used to teach their students. The secondary school had Wi-Fi.

All the villagers wore helmets while riding their electric scooters. Every single one of them could read and write Mandarin, and none of them littered or spat or peed in the open.

The women all wore jeans, dresses, skirts etc. and no one judged them and shamed them for “aping the west”. What mattered was their ability, not what clothes they wore.

It was completely safe to wander around the village after dark. No one got harassed for their gender, nationality etc. None of the female participants in the homestay program ever mentioned that they felt uncomfortable, or were stared at by men for wearing shorts. None of us faced any racist taunts.

I’m not saying that China has no problems, but this Chinese village had better services than most Indian cities (we can still only dream of uninterrupted power supply, or 24×7 water, or pothole-free roads).

I cannot say with authority that all villages in China are like this, but I would wager that many of them are. The cities are of course in a different league. I stayed in the suburbs to the north of Shanghai for a few days, not a tourist area. The neighbourhoods were clean, with excellent roads, and footpaths were not cluttered by hawkers. People followed traffic rules. I went to a side street where there were stalls selling street food, and it was clean. No one littered, there was no garbage anywhere.

It’s not just their GDP or infrastructure. It’s their mentality too that has helped China zip ahead.

Scott Ritter Discloses: How the Russian Hypersonic Missile Changed the Game in Ukraine!

Why does this YouTuber named “serpentza” go to such lengths to stigmatize China? Especially when so many tourists come to China?

There are many like him. China Uncensored, one Asian guy who speaks fluent English, one old aunty. All are on YouTube. I know these four because I have been following them for a long time. There’s also a news site called Bitter Winter.

All of them focus only on China. They never tell good things. They even exaggerate the tiniest bad thing about China. They don’t only talk about how bad the government is, but also how bad the Chinese people are. They go to such great lengths, making lies and twisting facts. They don’t care about their own credibility. The sole purpose of their existence is to spread hate on China.

Something is definitely wrong. Why are such news sites allowed to exist? Why do they have a wide following? From where do they collect all those information? Plus, they don’t look like solo artists but more like lowly funded news organizations.

Based solely on what they themselves are sharing, it’s right to call them US propaganda machine. Also, they stay shut about Palestine, but I once watched a China Uncensored video where he sided with the Israelis. Otherwise, it’s just wrong to talk bad about a whole country without ever showing an ounce of respect. It’s like their hobby is to slander China.

Does media like them exist for other countries? No matter which country you are from, if there were people like them always talking bad about your country and your people, how would you feel?

Edit: I checked YouTube and here are the ones I have mentioned and one more: China Observer, China Insider with David Zhang, China Insights. There’s one anti-China aunty that I have mentioned but I’m too lazy to search and I forgot her channel name.

At what stage in your life did you realize, “No, I can’t do this any more” and walk out? Why?

My step father came into my life when I was 8, and treated me and my siblings badly without a word of interference from my mother for the rest of my childhood. I left home at eighteen, and got together with the woman I’m married to at age 25. She had two children, a boy of three and a half and a girl of six months, so I got an entire family in one fell swoop. A year later we had been on holiday with the children, and dropped by my mother’s cabin on the way home. We were supposed to sleep there before driving the long way home.

My step father was drunk, and proceded to be nasty to our son. I got mad as a wasp, and informed him he was not allowed to talk to my children like that. There was a huge quarrel, he and I shouting, my mother claiming “He didn’t mean it”, the children crying, my wife watching it all with her mouth open, utterly appalled. It finally calmed down, but he kept mumbling nasty remarks through dinner, so we decided to leave. I also decided I would no longer spend time in his company. After that I have seen him at weddings and christenings, and that’s it.

I wish him well, but will not allow his poison to infect my life any more.

Pennsylvania Dutch Chili

Ingredients

1 pound ground beef
1 onion, chopped
1 pound homemade noodles or 1 (12 to 16 ounce) bag wide egg noodles
1 can baked beans
1 cup spaghetti sauce or less (or 1 small jar)

Instructions

Brown ground beef and onion.
Cook and drain egg noodles.
Combine everything. You may need additional sauce if you have leftovers and warm them up later. Chili should be thick, not soupy.
Serve with crusty bread.

911 Call for Help Leads to Horrifying Discovery

https://youtu.be/_BvrwyR4dCM

Shorpy

BILL PAXTON DEATH IN DETAIL AT 61

He was young, and a favorite actor of mine.

Can a time come when coaching institutes will be banned?

Absolutely

Coaching Institutes in India and the Coaching Culture is REGRESSIVE

It may produce rankers but it doesn’t produce Quality Engineers

It essentially gives false hopes to thousands of students who would otherwise face reality of their own abilities and get on with their lives productively

They must be REFORMED

Lets see come Chinese Reforms and whether or not they would be adapted to India :-

Videos of Lectures by Tutors CANNOT be commercialized for an Annual Cost that exceeds 3200 RMB a year in TOTAL (Previously they charged as much as 11999 RMB a year per subject). Thats a 90% Price cut mandated by law
No Coaching App can seek venture capital or funding for any Tier 1/2/3 rounds unless the said App matches the Coaching Fees charged by Individual Tutors for 150 Hours a year (3000 RMB a year to 4500 RMB a year instead of 30,000 RMB a year)
Pictures of Ranking Students cannot be advertised by Coaching Institutions or the Institution will be fined and penalized criminally and Any Student who misrepresents his rank by taking money from a Coaching Institute will face a 3 Year Ban in entering any Institution in China
Teachers who teach in Private or Public School are forbidden to take Coaching Classes exceeding 8 Hours a week and their maximum hourly rate is capped (I don’t know how much but it’s way lower than what it was)

Xi broke the entire Industry single handedly

No more teachers who could charge the world and ignore school for private coaching.

Everything was Capped and at very low rates that bankrupted half the coaching institutes

Advertising was entirely based on mouth to mouth endorsements and no billboards or photo publishing of students getting top rank based on cash incentives

Such Students who took money to claim they took their training from so & so coaching institute would face a 3 year ban from any course

This encourages Group discussion

Right from the Youngest Age – they have divided students into study groups and have Wechat groups to discuss Projects, Assignments and Group Work

Private Tutors are allowed on an Hourly and they teach you at some dollars per hour rate

Professors and Teachers VOLUNTEER at CLCs and Community Coaching Centres where students can learn for free

We need to bring in a similar model adaptable to India

First we need a rule that students who fail more than 2 Attempts at NEET or UPSC or CAT or JEE cannot be enrolled in Coaching Centres or if they are, their enrollment must be FREE

Second we need to CAP THE COACHING FEES for all these exams

Third we must deduct tax right from the Coaching Fees like a TDS and impose 35% that the Coaches must bear

Fourth, we must mandate a cap on Online Coaching Fees which must be no higher than 33% of the Offline Fees

Fifth, we must offer large tax subsidies to free coaching offered on YouTube and other channels

Sixth we must impose a ban on School Teachers working for Coaching Classes unless their Tuition fee is capped at a certain hourly rate and no longer than 8 Hours a week

Maybe some of this is practical and some of this isn’t

I don’t know

I am saying things at the top of my head

However I do know that

REFORMS ARE CRITICAL AND MUST BE DONE NOW

To really find out how – you need to study the entire scenario , talk to students and find out and then begin a series of reforms

Students are becoming Rankers rather than Quality Engineers or Administrators

That must be stopped at any cost

Have you ever sold used cars for a living?

Sorta kinda.. when my older daughter was born 40 years ago my wife went on maternity leave and I needed to replace her income.

I started raising money by selling two extra cars I owned. I ran classified ads in the newspaper and dealt with customers. It was fun. Then my friend was going to junk a decent car because he was too lazy to sell it. I gave him the $100 the junkyard would have paid. I sold it for $600 with little effort.

I was on a roll! I drove around town looking for cars for sale or just sitting unused. I’d inquire and buy them cheap if I could. I’d check the newspaper ads early every day. I’d do minor repairs, clean and polish them to make them more attractive. One car had an entire garbage pail of trash in it!

I got to the point where I had two cars for sale in my driveway at all times. Guys would watch and inquire about different cars. I even sold one to my neighbor.

I did this the entire year until the weather got cold approaching winter. I figured I’d quit while I was ahead and before the cops or DMV figured me out. I did sell a car to a cop though!

It served me well. I replaced my wife’s salary and then some!

Is Intel becoming more and more like the feeling Boeing brings to people?

In terms of losing its engineering chops and becoming an overfinancialized blue chip play?

Yes.

However, Boeing’s problem ia execution, whereas Intel’s business model is facing obsolescence.

Both are in danger of ebbing away in the uncertain future ahead, though Boeing’s decline will be back stopped by the government, given its role as a key arms contractor and America’s only builder of airliners.

Boeing is one or two crashes from a PR nightmare, especially if it happens on the Max.

Intel’s product mix appear unsuitable for an ai-heavy world, and arm is projected to make huge inroads to the windows ecosystem in the coming years.

Intel needs a radical rethink, because the chips act cannot save it from drowning when the market moves decisively against a product portfolio. This is made worse by the poisonous politics that has reshaped demand in East Asia.

I don’t envy Intel at all.

Breaking: Undefeated US Indicator Signals “Full-Blown” Recession

Deng Xiaoping famously told British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher that ‘China could take Hong Kong in a day.’ How serious was this threat? And were the Chinese at all concerned about the UK invoking Article 5 of the NATO treaty?

“How serious was this threat?”

Let me put it this way: the People’s Liberation Army could have taken back Hong Kong during the Chinese Civil War, long before the founding of the People’s Republic of China, and long before Deng met Thatcher.

The 44th Army of the PLA chased the fleeing Kuomintang forces all the way to Shenzhen. Their troopers were at one point gathered at Hong Kong’s Lo Wu border. They were literally one river crossing away from the British colony. Hong Kong only had a few thousand colonial troops stationed at the time. The battle-hardened 44th could have easily taken the city in about a day with a single well-timed bayonet charge. Two days at the most.

Sir Alexander Grantham, who was the governor of Hong Kong at the time, recalled that the PLA didn’t even need to attack. All they had to do was cut off food and water supplies to the colony, and the British would have to surrender in less than a month.

But neither of these scenarios ever happened. Chairman Mao ordered the army to stop the attack and turn back, stating that he had “other plans for Hong Kong”. Premier Zhou Enlai himself personally oversaw the situation with Hong Kong, and made sure that nothing went amiss with its supply of food and water.

History vindicated Mao’s decision to not take back Hong Kong immediately. He had the vision and the sense to play the game of geopolitics.

Mao knew that China was poor and underdeveloped, and was soon to be sanctioned by the United States and the rest of the imperialist west for being a communist nation. A gateway to the west was desperately needed.
The British Empire, likewise, also needed Hong Kong to serve as its gateway to the east. By letting the British keep Hong Kong for just a little while longer, Mao prevented China from being isolated by an anti-China alliance of western powers completely, which was what would have happened if the British had been beaten and sent home crying to Uncle Sam.In 1950, the UK became one of the first capitalist countries to formally recognise the PRC.
Mao was worried about the overwhelming influence and control the Soviet Union had over the Chinese Communist Party. He did not want a communist China to be freed from Fascist Japan and the Imperialist West, only to answer to a red Russia. Having Hong Kong as a gateway to the west, meant that China would not have to depend entirely on the Soviet Union.History proved him right, as evident in the Sino-Soviet split in the 1950s, and the fall of North Korea in the 1990s.
Just because Mao let the British lord over the people of Hong Kong for a while longer, doesn’t mean he had forgotten about the welfare of its predominantly Chinese populace. The city’s status as a gateway between east and west was the sole reason its economy flourished in the 20th century.Hong Kong’s success was never a “miracle” or the result of British rule, but a by-product of the times, geopolitics, and external factors greater than the city itself – a lesson most people in Hong Kong, both young and old, have forgotten

Article 5 of NATO would not have been China’s main concern, because the article could only be invoked in case of an attack on a NATO member’s own soil (i.e. Europe or North America). In fact, the first time it was ever invoked was after the events of 9/11.

In any case, China did play a major part in the Korean War, fighting the coalition forces of the United Nations to a standstill, so I doubt the formation of NATO would have changed the course of history too much – and that’s assuming NATO was willing at all to waste money and lives defending the British Empire’s interests. There’s a reason why Article 5 was never invoked during the Falklands War.

The fact remains that the PRC never planned to take back Hong Kong by force in the first place. They had no illusions that the sun would never set on the British Empire. They knew Hong Kong would become Chinese again eventually.

Addendum:
Chiang Kai-shek actually wanted to take back Hong Kong from the British after the Second World War. He rightfully saw the the Treaty of Nanking as humiliating to the Chinese people, and negotiated with the UK and the US to have the treaty abolished in 1942. The British Empire rejected the proposal, Chiang refused to relent, and so the matter was dropped from the agenda.

However, another agreement was formed that whoever entered Chinese territory previously under Japanese occupation first, would get to keep it for themselves.

When Japan surrendered in 1945, both the British and the Kuomintang scrambled to send forces to Hong Kong. KMT soldiers were apparently the first to enter Hong Kong’s New Territories, which was disputed by the UK.

The UK referred the matter to the US. President Truman wanted to ally with the UK against the Soviet Union, so he betrayed Chiang by declaring Hong Kong was never part of the deal. The KMT had to withdraw their forces, and Hong Kong soon became a British colony once again. So close, and yet so far.

This is actually a snapshot into what China was like under the Kuomintang government. Yes they were founded on great ideas by great men, but they were also de facto puppets of the Imperialist West, and therefore unable to give the Chinese people the rights, liberty, dignity and respect they deserved.

Hong Kong would very likely still be British today, had the communists lost the civil war.

Just In! Burkina Faso Forces Launch Ambush Operations Against Insurgent Groups!

Blue Moon

Submitted into Contest #24 in response to: Write a story set in the dark recesses of space where the two main characters are often at odds with each other in humorous and comedic ways.… view prompt

John K Adams

Dril entered from the air-lock. Myr looked up from the vid-screen.“Brrr, it’s cold out there.”“Don’t you wear your suit?”“Of course I do. You think I’m crazy?”Myr raised an eyebrow but didn’t answer that.“I remember reading it is always cold out there. It’s the moon, silly.”“I know it’s the moon. I got us this gig, remember?”“That I do.”“I mean, who better than us to prospect the best sites for mining delicious moon cheese?”“No one I can think of.” Myr sighed. “You know what you forgot to have delivered?”

“What’s that, Honey Pie?”

“Some new material. You have told a variation of that joke at least once daily for the last year.”

“Except, mining for cheese is serious business.”

“Please stop.”

Dril smiled at Myr. “You want me to cook dinner tonight?”

Myr sighed again. “Is it dinner time? I know what the clock says, but it doesn’t feel like dinner time. The sun is still out.”

“You know how this works, Myr.”

“Of course I do. I get it intellectually. But a month of sunshine followed by a month of darkness?”

“Actually, it’s more like two weeks.”

“Really? Who came up with that schedule?”

“Uhm… God?”

“I need a break, Dril.”

“What do you say we take a week and go to the Sea of Tranquility? Or to the mountains?”

Myr put her hands up to her ears and shook her head. “No. No. No. No. No.”

Dril passed on this opportunity to, once again, make a joke about American cheese and the flag left behind by the first men to land here.

“Let’s dance.” Dril moved toward Myr with a rhythmic step. He started singing. “Blue Moon… You saw me standing alone…”

Myr shrugged off his embrace. “Don’t you dare start about Kate Smith.”

Dril put his hands up, in frustration and surrender. “I’m trying to make the best of a…”

“Cabin fever. Isn’t that what you call it?”

“On the moon, it is called ‘existential angst’.”

“Thank you, Dr. Freud.”

Dril touched Myr’s elbow. “Come on, Babe. We never look at the earthrise anymore.” He waved his hand and the shaded, domed window automatically brightened. The colorless moonscape spread before them with Earth’s blue orb peeking from behind the distant mountains.

“Stark.”

Dril shook his head. “Look at the Earth, Babe. We’ll be going home before you know it. Think how much you’ll appreciate being back.”

“Are we there yet?”

“You’ve heard that you can’t go home again?”

“Watch me.”

Dril stood back. The moment had passed. “I’m going to go out and check the sensors.” He pointed to the counter stacked with various tools and gizmos. “Would you hand me the razzafraz?”

Myr looked at the disorderly mess Dril called his workbench. She picked up the tool on top of the others. “You mean this?”

“No. That’s the franaham… Next to the thingamajig.” Myr picked up another tool at random and held it up. “Thank you.” He took the tool from her and moved toward the airlock.

“Will you be long?”

“No. You know, routine maintenance. Never can say when some asteroid will wreak havoc on our survival systems.”

“I hate when that happens.”

Dril chuckled and ducked through the bulkhead door. He stepped into his suit, secured the safety devices and donned his helmet. Taking his time, he checked the vid-feed and sound system, a routine as ingrained and natural as brushing his teeth before bed. All systems were a ‘go’.

Not that Myr would be monitoring his progress. Lately, her heart wasn’t in it.

He checked the seals on the interior door and activated the exterior door. The small room filled with steam for a moment as the air froze and then escaped into the void.

Dril scanned the bright horizon. It still quickened him to take in this alien moonscape. It never changed. But he did. Each day, his perception of this perpetually static scene seemed fresh by what he brought to it. The frozen nature of it grounded him somehow.

And of course, he thought of what ‘phase’ they were in. He could never shake the earth-centric perspective. But now, Dril would also note Earth’s phase.

After watching Earth’s rise above the horizon, Dril checked the various monitors distributed around their home base and the outer shell of their home. With few variations, all seemed in order.

He chuckled at his own joke. “The barometer seems stuck. Weird, no air pressure at all.”

When on the frontier of space like this, Dril always celebrated an ordinary day.

Seeing the giant ‘S. O. S’ scrawled in the dust by Myr, always made him smile. That happened after their first few weeks on base.

Dril remembered watching her shuffling around in an aimless manner on the landing pad near their base camp. Or so he thought.

“What are you doing?” he asked.

“Sending a message to anyone who might be paying attention,” she answered.

Then he recognized the letters, wide as Stonehenge. Gigantic letters to be read by someone, anyone above them in the sky.

They read, “S. O. S.” Sans serif.

He knew she meant it. Keeping her morale up kept him busy. That was his hardest job.

Myr watched the airlock door shut. Though a daily occurrence, seeing Dril go out distressed her. What if something happened to him?

Of course, she knew all the routines and procedures. But to be alone out here on this rock… She shuddered at the thought. At first, it seemed a romantic adventure. Like being on a desert island together. Dril called it their ‘dessert island’. She never imagined how desolate the whole thing would be.

Myr entered the conservatory. She spent most of her time there. The humidity, greenery, and oxygen-rich air kept her sane. She loved caring for the plants more than anything. They were her life.

She liked the sunshine streaming into the greenhouse. The windows filtered the harsh light to a level the plants could tolerate. And she had artificial light to accommodate the long lunar nights.

Though primarily their source of fresh food, Myr lobbied for authorization to also bring decorative and flowering plants to their outpost. She prevailed by arguing an environment lacking in beauty would be better tended by a robot. Myr insisted ‘practical’ was broader in scope than ‘edible.’ A garden could include a feast for the eye as well as her belly and wouldn’t unduly tax their limited resources.

Myr had maintained even a guinea pig deserves a home and not merely a box filled with hay. Someone agreed and Myr received permission to transport seeds of her choosing, within strict guidelines.

Now she had a garden, her little paradise. But without apples or snakes. She cared for it with a passion.

The apparently spontaneous generation of certain insects and pests amazed Myr. They required constant monitoring, lest they damage the food crops. Myr understood they must have stowed away on the seeds or the soil. They were unwitting aliens on this unwelcoming stone.

Curiously, there were also spiders, who allied with her to maintain a balance within the garden. Life begets life.

She gathered a variety of tomatoes and other ripe vegetables for their dinner.

Indicator lights and a signature chirp told Myr that Dril was back. She felt calmer now and went out to greet him.

Dril already stood in the living zone when Myr entered from the kitchen. He smiled at her and they embraced. However brief his sojourns outside, Dril’s homecoming always caused her joy.

Dril asked her, “Tell me, how do you know when the moon is full?”

“You never think it is full.”

“No. Work with me.”

“Oh, a joke. Uhm… it’s always half empty?”

“No. It says, ‘hold the cheese’.”

Myr did not react. The new joke felt very old.

“How about this…? What flavor is a ‘blue moon’?”

“Dril, I was feeling better…”

“Roquefort!”

“Please?”

“Alright… One of these days I’ll make you laugh.”

Myr shook her head. “When that happens, you’ll know I’ve become a bonafide lunatic.”

They looked at each other for a moment and burst into laughter. They embraced and kissed warmly.

Dril looked into Myr’s eyes. “How do you do that? You always make me laugh.”

“My little secret, love. Let’s eat.”

They walked hand in hand into the kitchen.

Here’s some of MM’s latest artwork generations

The theme is closeness and intimacy, but those are flagged on the free subscription, so I performed some creative work-arounds.

Of course, figurative nudes, and tradition are in my interest set.

@Default Create a anatomicallyaccurate photo realistic Baroques 0(22)

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What is the worst violation of firearms safety you’ve ever witnessed?

I’m sure I’ve told this story before…

Quite a number of years ago I was out shooting at a public range when a family showed up. Mom and dad, two kids, and even grandma.

They pile out of a pickup truck… and, well, to complete the visual here, they looked straight out of central casting as a Mariachi band. Now, I’m like “you do your thing, I’ll do mine”, but to say that this group was attention getting understates it by several orders of magnitude.

Dad had some cowboy guns, a revolver and a lever action rifle. They also had a grand total of one set of hearing protection between all of them. No eyepro is present.

They proceed to set up their “targets”, which are just a bunch of milk cartons filled with dirt…. Whatever, it’s a public range and people shoot all sorts of random shit. The boy takes a couple of them downrange, sets them down, and steps about three paces to the side.

Dad starts blasting. Yes, kid is still downrange as fuck.

I immediately decide that I don’t want to have to deal with the paperwork when one of these idiots shoots someone, and start packing up. But I’m doing it slow, because I’m keeping one eye on these guys, and keeping my very loaded rifle slung and ready because I’m also somewhat concerned that I’m going to have to shoot one of these idiots myself if the stupidity level goes up another notch, and I want it to be very obvious that if they point a gun at me they are pointing a gun at a man with a clearly loaded AR.

After they blast some rounds in the dirt, the kid eventually comes back behind the line, and the kids pull out the revolver to take turns shooting.

The boy walks up to the line with the revolver and the girl sits on the bench next to him, looks right at him, and I see the next few moments in slow motion. The boy pulls the trigger and the girl gets an absolute face full of cylinder gap, and screams.

I chose that moment to exit, stage left, but that whole scene is burned into my brain, as assuradly as hot gas was burned into that poor girls eyes.

Hunter Discovers 29 Human Body Parts in the Desert

https://youtu.be/AFboKFzJza4

Cabbage Rolls

Ingredients

12 large leaves cabbage
1 cup cooked white rice
1 egg, beaten
1/4 cup milk
1/4 cup minced onion
1 pound extra-lean ground beef
1 1/4 teaspoons salt
1 1/4 teaspoons ground black pepper
1 (8 ounce) can tomato sauce
1 tablespoon brown sugar
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce

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Instructions

Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Boil cabbage leaves 2 minutes, just until pliable; drain.
In large bowl, combine rice, egg, milk, onion, ground beef, salt and pepper.
Place about 1/4 cup of meat mixture in center of each cabbage leaf, and roll up, tucking in ends. Place rolls in slow cooker, seam side down.
In a small bowl, mix together tomato sauce, brown sugar, lemon juice and Worcestershire sauce. Pour over cabbage rolls.
Cover, and cook on LOW for 8 to 9 hours.

Foreign Woman Meets American Women & NOW Understands Why Passport Bros Exist!

The look on their faces when she said she understood why men are traveling out the states. The salt was real in that room!!!

Why did the Prime Minister of Bengal quit her post and fled the country?

She has no choice but to fly away; the country has already fallen into a downward spiral.

On the surface, the recent unrest in Bangladesh appears to be due to civil service positions being skewed in favor of military families, but this is just a trigger. Even if there were zero reserved positions for military families, there would still be hundreds of thousands of university graduates competing for very few positions.

The essence of the problem is economic decline and public dissatisfaction.

Bangladesh is in deep trouble.

Firstly, there is a population explosion. With such a small land area, it has 170M people. China has a large population, but Bangladesh’s population density is nearly ten times that of China! Russia’s land area is 116 times that of Bangladesh, yet its population is 30 million less.

The total population of these red areas on Earth, compressed into a very small point, is Bangladesh.

With such a large population, the vast majority are engaged in agriculture, which has very low added value.

Bangladesh is the second most disaster-prone country in the world (the first is the Philippines).

Previously, population growth was slow, relying entirely on the harsh adjustment of natural disasters.

During the last major famine, 10 million out of a population of 40 million in Bangladesh died of starvation.

After entering the modern era, pesticides, high-yield seeds, fertilizers, and vaccines have caused a sharp increase in the agricultural population.

Unlike China, which has implemented family planning policies, a democratically elected government in Bangladesh cannot do the same. As a result, the population continues to grow while land area remains fixed, and frequent natural disasters make it difficult to develop a secondary industry on a large scale.

The world’s largest and most dangerous ship-breaking yard is in Bangladesh, but it can only accommodate 200,000 workers, and the value added to production is extremely low.

The country’s pillar industry, the textile industry, has little technological content and faces extremely fierce international competition.

In fact, it is at the bottom of the international division of labor.

Another mistake is the excessive emphasis on higher education. At this stage, the country should focus more on basic education rather than higher education.

After receiving higher education, many young people are unwilling to settle for low-income jobs.

What’s worse is that the country has invested significant resources in cultivating a highly educated population, but most of them are liberal arts graduates.

In China, for example, when I was taking the college entrance exam, the ratio of STEM students to liberal arts students was about 8:1 to 9:1.

There was even some discrimination against liberal arts students at that time; those who failed to compete in STEM fields were the ones considering studying liberal arts.

Even today, the ratio of STEM students to liberal arts students in China is still about 1:1, and STEM students generally have better job prospects and salaries compared to liberal arts students.

(To this day, on the Chinese Internet, the phrase “Are you a liberal arts student?” is still clearly mocking and contemptuous.)

(I believe Vietnam should also learn from this. Today, in Vietnam, the ratio of STEM majors to liberal arts majors is about 1:2, which is far too high for liberal arts students.)

With so many liberal arts graduates, who have broad perspectives, they are naturally unwilling to engage in hard work after graduation, leading to unrest.

Democratic governments and parliamentary politics are not very suitable for late-developing countries.

If Bangladesh cannot make the most of the remaining value of manual labor before AI and automation technologies become dominant, and cannot push for more industrialization, the future of Bangladesh will be very concerning.

GUANGZHOU IS SO MODERN! | An INDIAN’s First Time In CHINA

Zip and it’s gone

Today, I want to talk about a class action suite that I was involved in.

Back in the 1990’s, there was this interim storage method for computers. It lay somewhere between the early floppy discs and the record-able CD ROMS that became all the fad at the turn of the century.

This was a “ZIP disc”. Which was a high capacity (for the time) floppy disc storage system. And a bought a few systems to store content on my various computer system setups.

Now, the thing was that the company was offering a rebate, and a discount. So everyone was buying the things.

They cost something like $100, but if you buy it, you can apply for the $50 rebate after three months of use. The numbers are approximate, but it was something like that.

Now, it was a big scam.

Oh, the system worked all right. It’s just that the company had no intention on giving anyone the rebates and the bonus prizes and rewards. And millions of people were upset. As was I.

I think they owed me around $250 all told for all my system components. This was big dollars back in the day.

We all gave up. After month after month of sending in the UPC codes off the boxes, xerox of the receipts, and credit card bills they were never enough. We were all just on this endless hamster wheel cage with no way off.

Anyways, imagine my surprise when a class-action suite was made against the company and all of us on the aggrieved listing were ordered to get our money due to us.

Boy. I was so happy about that!

$40 million dollars.

Certainly, I will finally get my money back.

But when my check came in… after all, I was expecting $250. The amount given to me was an entire $1.21. Yup. The award, minus the attorney fees, and divided by the number of aggrieved customers.

Sheech!

This is the American system in a nutshell.

Today…

What actually happens when an empire falls?

Usually madness. Utter, self-inflicted madness.

The kind that comes from getting too big for your britches, believing your own hype, and forgetting what made you great in the first place.

That’s the first symptom of an empire on the decline.

It’s like watching a star athlete lose their edge, thinking they don’t need to train as hard or that they’re above the rules.

The result?

A spectacular fall from grace.

Empires aren’t built on luck or divine right. They’re forged through grit, innovation, and a clear understanding of their purpose.

But as they grow, the rot sets in.

The elites become complacent, fattened on luxury and power, losing touch with the common folk who sustain them.

The bureaucracy swells into a monstrous, inefficient beast, choking on its own red tape.

Corruption becomes the norm, as officials line their pockets at the expense of the state.

The first cracks appear at the edges, where the empire’s reach exceeds its grasp. Rebellions flare up, fueled by resentment and neglect.

The military, once a lean, mean fighting machine, grows bloated and sluggish, more interested in protecting its own privileges than defending the realm.

The economy stagnates, strangled by overregulation and cronyism. The whole edifice starts to creak and groan under the weight of its own decadence.

And when the final blow comes, it’s often not from some mighty external foe, but from within.

A palace coup, a popular uprising, a cascade of defections – it doesn’t matter.

This is the nature of all Empires.

It's not a matter of if it will fall, but when, the seeds of its destruction are already sown within its own heart.

What is the best decision you ever made that made your life better?

Experience 1:

I was at my office desk and it was around 1 p.m. which means lunch time. I was already so hungry I could eat a human. But I didn’t want to eat alone. So I went to invite a co-worker to join me.

“Okay. Give me 20 minutes; I’m finishing up my work.” he said.

I can wait for 20 minutes. No big deal.

Twenty minutes later… He’s still typing on his computer.

“Hold on. Gimme another ten minutes. I’ll call Adam (his friend from other department) to join us.”

He called Adam who agreed to have lunch together, then continued his work.

Ten mins later (so that’s already half an hour)…

“I don’t think I can join you. I have to finish this work. Please go first. I think Adam is already waiting at the cafe. If I manage to finish my work in the next ten mins, I’ll join you guys,” he said.

Experience 2:

The weather was good. Blue sky, windy. I was in the mood for running. I wanted to go out and sweat. I skipped exercising for three weeks due to workload and when the weekends came, I was occupied with other stuff. Either that, or terrible weather. There were always excuses. But that day I had no excuse. I was thrilled to go out.

It was 4.30 p.m. I rang my neighbour who’s also a runner.

“Bro, the weather is so good today. Let’s run,” I said.

“It is. But can we go at 6 p.m.? I have something to do right now.”

One and a half hour is nothing. I can wait. No big deal.

6 p.m. The weather changed from good to bad. It was suddenly raining. So we cancelled our plan. If I just walked out of the house at 4.30 p.m., I would probably be sweating and came home at 6 p.m.

These two and dozens of similar experiences led me to a decision.

Don’t wait for others. You want to eat? Go. You want to run? Go. You want to watch movie? Just go. You want to travel? Go.

For all the things you can do alone, just go. Wait for nobody.

Pasta Neapolitan

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Ingredients

1 pound dried angel hair pasta
1 tablespoon butter, softened
1 cup grated parmesan cheese, preferably Parmigiano-Reggiano (divided)
5 cloves fresh garlic, finely minced, or to taste
Crushed red pepper flakes, to taste
2 cups fresh Italian (flat-leaf) parsley, finely minced (about 1 cup chopped)
Sea salt or kosher salt

Instructions

Bring a large pot of salted water to a vigorous, rolling boil. Cook pasta until al dente.
Drain well and put into a warm serving dish with the soft butter in it; toss pasta until coated, then add most of the cheese and gently toss again. Keep warm in oven.
Heat the olive oil in a saucepan over medium heat. Add the minced garlic and red pepper flakes and cook just until the garlic turns light brown; pull pan off the heat. (Do not rush by cooking at a higher heat; this will burn the garlic and cause it to taste bitter.)
Add the minced parsley and a generous pinch of salt and mix with a spoon until it resembles the texture of pesto.
Immediately pour over the warm pasta and toss well to distribute the sauce evenly.
Sprinkle with the rest of the cheese and serve.

Do women really cheat more than men?

It is often said, and in my experience this is true, that women cheat out of desires of the heart and men cheat out of desires of the body. I have cheated on my ex-wife. I am not proud of it, nor will I make excuses for it. The reasons were strictly physical. She, herself, cheated on me as well — initially just having “emotional affairs” online. This changed when she fell in love with someone, and physically cheated on me as well. At which point, the marriage came to an end.

For me, cheating was strictly a physical thing… younger-me believed variety is the spice of life and just wanted to “get it on”. For her, it was a matter of love — she still loved me, but in some ways she found me lacking as a husband. My lack of ambition. My lack of “drive” to make something of myself. The ease with which I accepted life as it comes, and how little I needed to be fulfilled. Whereas to her, the sky was the limit and she wanted it all. She wanted wealth. She wanted a bigger house, more trips and travels, better food, more savings for the future. She wanted so much, and me, I was okay with what we had. So she sought out someone who she did feel compatible with. Who wanted the things she wanted, too. Someone ambitious. More wealthy.

And she left me, for that person. And this seems to be somewhat of a recurring theme, when it comes to men cheating versus women cheating. All I wanted was just to get laid with other girls… whereas my ex, she wanted a more suitable partner. I find that men are more likely to want to cheat as a one-off thing, a fling, an affair without love being involved. Lust over love. With women, love over lust. When she’s gone, she’s gone for good.

Biker Gets Into Terrible Accident, Loses Leg…And His Wife NEVER Leaves Him Or His Side

Is it true that most of Singaporean Chinese treat and consider the Singaporean Malay Muslims as inferior or second class citizens?

You are mistaken guys! Your question is rather unfair to Chinese Singaporeans.

I was in my father-in-law’s watch shop in a fashionable street in Malacca, Malaysia in 2006-2007. A couple of well-dressed Malay man in his 30 walked in with a gorgeous looking Malay girl.

My wife, a Malaysian , gestured to his father to serve them as they were vying on a Swiss watch for quite sometime.

Guess what? My father-in-law, after a glance for 3 seconds at them he continued doing his thing.

When they left, he mumbled in Hokkien to allow me to understand. “Malay people, won’t buy, dress nice-nice, got 2 Ringgit in the pocket”

My wife looked at me and smiled, then rolled her eyes.

Years have passed, I was again in Malacca in one evening, I was so thrilled to see a “Malay trade fair” when we drove by.

My niece-in-law was a chauffeur, she has grown to be a big girl now she knew what I was up to, so, she said “**Uncle, they will look at you as a freak —if you are not like a Malay, we Chinese, don’t usually go, they are kings here. Let them enjoy.”**

My wife looked at me she smiled, then rolled her eyes—reminded me of what she did 17 years ago.

What is your question, again?

It’s rather unfair for Malay people to be kings in both countries—Malaysia and Singapore…The Malay knows this pretty well, don’t they?

Why should the world unite with the United States to stop China, considering that the United states is worse than China?

The world shouldn’t, and doesn’t, unite with America against China.

America is a genuine global menace. Endless wars. Endless deaths. Endless destruction.

Endless sanctions.

Endless political interference and violation of national sovereignty.

America is an imperialist. It suppresses the Global South from developing. It exploits the Global South for their natural resources.

China is helping the Global South develop through the Belt and Road Initiative.

China is the largest trading partner to over 120 countries.

China has fought no wars since 1979.

The Global South represents 88% of humanity. It is behind China, not America. That’s what BRICS and SCO are about.

America and its allies represent a meager 12% of humanity. They don’t matter.

What is the worst thing you saw on the internet today?

I used to watch this much-memed about reality shaw called Pawn Stars. It’s about a family, father, grandfather and grandson who run a pawn shop together and buy rare items from people for a quick buck. It’s a funny show, a lot of jokes have been made about the whole “best I can do is [insert price]”.

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Yesterday, Adam Harrison, son of Rick Harrison — the bald guy in all the Pawn Stars memes — passed away at age 39. He had a fatal overdose. TMZ reported on his death almost immediately, as they had heard it through some third party close to Harrison. They didn’t bother to check with the family first before posting. The family then reached out to TMZ and requested privacy in these dark times. They were upset because, get this… they didn’t KNOW their loved one had died, yet!

TMZ found out the troubled relative of a famous reality TV show died. They published his death immediately, and the family had to find out through the internet that their son, father, brother and uncle had passed away. How sick is that?

Didn’t Expect this in CHINA?! 🇨🇳 INSANE MALL TOUR in Chengdu Sichuan

Slowly… Then All At Once!

Authored by James Howard Kusntler via Kunstler.com,

“Biden has been jabbed at least four times. This is his third covid diagnosis. The shots are working great.”

– Jeff Childers, Coffee & Covid

There was a lot of talk about divine intervention at the Republican Convention this week. The country has witnessed a rush of seemingly providential events since the fateful night of June 27th when, to universal horror, “Joe Biden” was unmasked as The Phantom of the White House. The attempt on Donald Trump’s life Saturday, with its intimations of blob involvement, was only the latest of countless trips, hoaxes, capers, and ops that smacked of demonic inspiration laid on the public, so you can’t blame them for feeling that “God is among us now.”

A huge piece of this dynamic has been the Right’s amazing impotence in the eight-year-long march of insults to the republic – especially the failure to find relief for any of that in the courts of law, until last month when the SCOTUS finally kneecapped Democratic Party lawfare operations. A paramount example of that impotence was being unable to find one jurisdiction willing to adjudicate election fraud in 2020 on the merit of the arguments.

But there was much more, starting with collective helplessness in the drawn-out RussiaGate psychodrama, even when all the players and their many nefarious acts were exposed by the alt news media, and extending to the mendacious roguery of the two-year Mueller (Weissmann) Commission, followed by fifty-one former intel higher-ups labeling Hunter Biden’s laptop “Russian disinformation, followed by Rep. Adam Schiff’s Ukraine “whistleblower” prank featuring CIA/NSC/DOD/DOJ moles Eric Ciaramella, Colonel Vindman and IC Inspector General Michael Atkinson, and then the FBI-instigated J-6 riot with the ensuing faked-up House J-6 committee . . . plus you can throw in the stupid Ukraine war, the drag queens in the kindergartens, the bumbling Durham investigation, ten million unvetted illegal migrants flowing into the country and this year’s four show-trials put on to finally break Mr. Trump.

For many in this land, it has been like the classic nightmare of being paralyzed in the presence of evil. So, it’s no wonder that the Republicans came into their convention with a tremendous tailwind of relief when events suddenly broke their way in June. Now, everyone knows that the current president is a vindictive invalid who will be tossed overboard by his own terrified party in a matter of hours now. And the entire scaffold of lies supporting “Joe Biden” and his party is wobbling badly, too.

You could see it in the deranged terror of Rachel Maddow’s increasingly contorted face last night as she rehearsed all the hoaxes she has helped to perpetrate, along with her mentally-ill posse of Jenn Psaki, Joy Reid, Nicole Wallace, and the strangely mute white male Ari Melber. It seemed that any minute Rachel’s head would spin and start spewing pea soup at the camera. When will an exorcist finally pay a visit to MSNBC?

As the sun sets on “Joe Biden’s” career, what’s left of his campaign runs an ad in which he promises “to finish the job.”

Sounds kind of sinister now, doesn’t it, like something a crime boss might tell his caporegimes? And for sure the country is suffering from this three-year-plus reign-of-terror against common sense and common decency.

The wreckage is everywhere, all over this land. “Defending our Democracy,” my ass.

The party big dawgs have paid their terminal visit to the old grifter bringing the sad news that it’s over. Of course, this excites several new headaches for them. Foremost: how can “JB” bow out of the election on account of mental infirmity but still remain president? Even if they call it something else, make some other excuse, the whole world knows now that the president is gone in the head. There are six months remaining to the end of his term and a lot of urgent issues requiring a president’s attention. You can be sure that pressure will rise to shove him out of office altogether. And it may come before the Democratic Convention in late August — if we want to be taken seriously by the rest of the world.

Of course, that would elevate Kamala to the White House. Would getting to be the first female president of-color for six months be her consolation prize for graciously declining an automatic nomination to run in “JB’s” place, so that the party can stage an “open convention” free-for-all? Or would she better serve the party as a sacrificial goat to head the ticket and get buried in what’s shaping up to be an election landslide for the Republicans? Anyway, which of the various replacement politicians — Newsom, Whitmer, Pritzker, PA Gov. Shapiro —really wants to squander a political future in an election that’s as much a vote against the Democratic Party itself as any particular figure in it? Let the party go down so it can be purged of Green Woke Satanic mentally-ill communists and reorganized on a sane and decent basis.

But then there’s always HRC.

She’s been laying back alertly, waiting for an opening to swoop in on her leathery wings and cast a fresh spell over the batshit-crazy women who, in recent times, comprise the party’s base.

At one point, not many years ago, the party was broke and had to be bailed-out by the Clinton Foundation. To what extent does that entity still own the DNC, and especially its cargo of super-delegates? I guess we’re going to find out.

Joe Biden Delivers WORST 80 Seconds in Presidential History EVER…

Are inmates allowed to spend the entire day sleeping?

In the Iowa State Penitentiary they were one-man cells and I’m glad. I like my privacy and its many other conveniences.

We didn’t have to work but to choose that meant you left your cell only to shower, or to eat and you lose your library privilege too.

I also did time in the Federal penitentiary in Lompoc California and those were 1-man rooms … not true cells. The doors were solid with a 6×12 glass window in the door and the bathroom was completely private.

Their “hole” was a unique form of punishment, and I should know: I’ve done time in juvenile homes (8 times), reform school (where I spent 11 months of my two year experience in the hole): military stockades (2 different ones), several jails, and two penitentiaries.)

Lompoc’s hole was unique in that it was designed as an experiment. A psychological experiment in sensory deprivation. No sound. No light. No contact with another person. Just two weeks in complete and utter darkness and silence. It was a room in a room, which allowed the staff to come and go without letting any light in the cell area and not make any noise either. Food was brought once a day, (a half loaf of bread and half a head of lettuce) and the inmate had no way of knowing it was there or not except by going to the door and feeling around, for they slid it under the door through a swinging panel.

Many developed permanent psychological problems from their 2 week experience, for it becomes very difficult to hold your grasp on reality when there isn’t any frame of reference to ‘hang your hat on’.

I hallucinated a lot and even created two fellow cellmates to chat with! When they disappeared soon after I met them, I was devastated. This all took place between the years of 1956–1958 and I suffer now from claustrophobia as a result of that experience.

Ain’t life a blast!

Have you ever witnessed anyone throw away their life?

A rather friendly man talked to me at a party, back when I was a teenager. It was the birthday of his nephew, who was my younger brother’s friend. All the kids in attendance were rather young, and I was happy to talk to someone a bit older, someone who seemed interesting. He was a photographer, and he took photos of everyone in the garden, and around the house.

The man traveled the world. Experienced a lot of things. He seemed full of life, animated, energetic, moving around rapidly. Although he must have been in his forties at the time, he seemed to me the absolute picture of great health. Now this was in the summer, somewhere around 2006 or 2007, I believe. We had a little talk about a trip he was going on, to Russia. How excited he was about it. The party ended rather early, as children’s parties often do. And I went home with my family. But before we parted ways, the man did take a photo of me, and he gave it to me. It was with one of those instant-photo polaroid things… it’s a fond memory, now, because when you’re young, any adult who takes you seriously and talks to you as an equal is often a fond memory.

“Oh hey, Jean-Marie, do you remember the uncle of your brothers friend, the photographer?” my mother asked me a month later. I said I did. “He died yesterday,” she said, “terrible shame. Alcoholism.” Turns out the man I met was dying of a drinking problem. I had no clue. He never went on his big trip. I still have the polaroid, somewhere.

Beavis & Butt-Head Do America – 1950’s Super Panavision 70

China’s EW warfare shocks US

from Asia Times

China’s cutting-edge electronic warfare (EW) capabilities are transforming the balance of power in the South China Sea, as shown by a recent encounter between US and Chinese forces.

This month, the South China Morning Post (SCMP) reported on China’s enhanced EW capabilities by shedding light on a December 2023 incident between a US EA-18 Growler carrier-based EW aircraft and China’s Type 055 cruiser Nanchang in the contested South China Sea.

SCMP says that in December 2023, the US Navy dismissed William Coulter, commander of US Electronic Attack Squadron 136 (VAQ-136), stationed on the USS Carl Vinson, citing a loss of confidence in his ability to command.

The report says that a month later, the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) recognized the Nanchang’s crew for their actions against a US carrier fleet. It also notes that Chinese media highlighted an encounter involving an EA-18G, believed to be from Coulter’s squadron, and the Nanchang cruiser.

The report mentions that PLA scientists recently disclosed in a Radar & ECM journal article that AI-enhanced radar gave the Nanchang an advantage over the EA-18G’s jamming capabilities.

It claims that the EA-18G, manufactured by Boeing, has been upgraded since 2021 for future warfare but faces new challenges from the PLA–Navy’s (PLA-N) integrated radar systems and communication strategies.

SCMP notes that these advancements allow PLA-N warships to form a “kill web” to counter the EA-18G’s attacks. It also says that the Nanchang’s reported proactive tactics and successful engagement with US forces illustrate a shift in the PLA-N’s EW approach.

Much-improved Chinese EW capabilities developed after then-US Speaker of the House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi’s controversial August 2022 visit to Taiwan may have enabled a feat.

SCMP noted that the PLA failed to track and surveil the US Air Force transport plane carrying Pelosi during her visit despite deploying Type 055 cruisers and J-16D EW aircraft. The source says that almost all of the PLA’s EW equipment failed to function because of electronic interference from Pelosi’s escorting aircraft force.

On Pelosi’s aircraft escort, John Tkacik says in an August 2022 article for Taipei Times that it could have been a massive force of US F-15s that flew out of Kadena Air Force Base in Japan supported by the USS Ronald Reagan carrier strike group and the USS Tripoli with embarked F-35s stationed in the Philippine Sea.

From that experience, China may have improved its EW capabilities quickly by investing in new technologies and placing them in a more extensive kill web consisting of kinetic and non-kinetic elements.

SCMP reported in February 2024 that Chinese scientists have invented a new class of EW equipment that can reportedly rapidly detect, decode and suppress enemy signals.

The new system, SCMP says, allows the PLA to seamlessly monitor signals into the gigahertz zone, encompassing frequencies used by amateur radio and even Elon Musk’s Starlink satellites.

It notes that the equipment includes innovative signal processing chips and AI integration, enhancing China’s ability to counter enemy jamming and maintain communication flow.

Furthermore, SCMP claims that in encounters with US Navy ships with EW activity, China has used electromagnetic-emitting equipment, including high-power phased array radars, to lock on to multiple targets including US carrier-based aircraft.

Aside from developing new tech, China may already have elevated EW into a strategic capability, integrating it into its multi-domain operations alongside other kinetic and non-kinetic capabilities in a complex kill web.

In a May 2023 article for the Mitchell Institute, Heather Penney describes a kill web as multiple, interconnected nodes that offer redundant paths for executing military operations, increasing the quantity and resilience of potential kill chains. A kill chain is the process required to identify and eliminate specific targets.

Penney says that unlike linear kill chains, which are easier to target and disrupt, kill webs provide a more adaptable and less predictable system, making it harder for adversaries to defeat.

Asia Times noted in April 2024 that the rebranding of China’s PLA Strategic Support Force (PLA-SSF) into the PLA-Information Support Force (PLA-ISF) highlights China’s strategic shift towards technology-driven “intelligentized warfare.”

The PLA-ISF is designed to integrate emerging AI, quantum and other technologies into China’s multi-domain operational strategy against potential adversaries like the US and its allies. The rebranding reflects an evolution in Chinese military thought, transitioning from “informationized wars” to “intelligentized warfare” that includes EW, cyber operations and signals intelligence (SIGINT).

EW is also a key component of China’s Multi-Domain Precision Warfare (MDPW) concept, which leverages AI and big data to identify and exploit weaknesses in US operational systems.

China’s MDPW seeks to dismantle and destroy US kill chains by targeting critical information nodes such as aircraft and satellites through physical attacks and targeting information networks by using EW and cyberattacks.

While the US arguably still has the edge in EW, near-peer adversaries like China and Russia may be closing the gap.

A November 2022 US Congressional Research Service (CRS) defense primer says that the National Defense Strategy Commission mentioned that the US is losing its EW edge, hindering its capability to conduct operations against capable adversaries.

Army Technology reported in May 2024 that the US spent US$5 billion on EW capabilities in 2024, accounting for 45% of global EW spending from 2021-2023, compared to just 14% by Russia and 13% by China.

However, Army Technology says that the US’ dominant position in the EW market is being challenged, as Russia, China and India’s share is projected to increase by the next decade.

The report notes that over the past two decades, Russia has exploited alleged US complacency in EW strategies, which have focused on counterinsurgency versus non-state actors.

It notes that in Ukraine, Russia has used EW to disrupt adversary battlefield networks, support conventional assault forces through SIGINT and jamming attacks, and secure captured territory against counterattacks.

The source also mentions that Russia has used EW to disrupt regional civilian services such as GPS and telecoms.

Likewise, Army Technology mentions that China has mirrored Russia’s use of EW and has equated information dominance with electromagnetic dominance. It says that in addition to shipborne EW equipment, China has installed such equipment and more in its occupied features in the South China Sea.

In line with that, Matthew Funaiole and other writers highlight in a December 2021 CSIS article the expansion of China’s facilities on Hainan Island, Subi Reef, and Fiery Cross Reef, which now includes satellite tracking, communication platforms, and systems potentially used in EW and SIGINT.

Funaiole and others note that these developments aim to bolster the PLA’s ability to operate in contested electronic and cyber environments.

What is the impact of corruption on the economy of a country like China, where it is prevalent at all levels?

In China, the Scope of corruption is very limited these days

What do you use your illegal wealth for?

You can’t buy Land in China because the State owns the land, so you can buy a lease and if you do, you get caught in seconds

You can’t ask payment for your kid to be educated abroad because every official has to give source of funds for his kids tuition

You cant put money into an offshore account because as officials you need Exit Visas and it’s possible you may never be able to use your money

You can’t bury Cash in your mattress because Cash is rarer and rarer nowadays

There is only one way of Corruption that every booked official in China uses

Pre dated Investments!!!!

Buying Gold today and getting a 10 year old bill of sale for that gold and claiming to sell the same today and pocketing the proceeds of sale

For instance claiming you purchased Gold for 100,000 RMB in 2014 and now claiming to sell the same gold for 207,000 RMB and pocketing 107,000 RMB legitimately

Or Pre Dated Real Estate Investments into companies

The problem is that such officials get caught regularly because they didn’t declare this purchase of gold in 2014 in their Assets and Liabilities statement and so find it tough to explain

So Corruption is getting harder and harder and many officials get caught quite easily

Someone Shorted Trump’s Stock Just Before The Assassination Attempt!

Here’s how it works. [1] Victoria Neuland announces about “something will be a surprise”, and then [2] people short stocks for personal profit. This is not the first time this system went into play.

The Ascendance Of Sociopaths In US Governance

Authored by Doug Casey via InternationalMan.com,

An International Man lives and does business wherever he finds conditions most advantageous, regardless of arbitrary borders. He’s diversified globally, with passports from multiple countries, assets in several jurisdictions, and his residence in yet another. He doesn’t depend absolutely on any country and regards all of them as competitors for his capital and expertise.

Living as an international man has always been an interesting possibility. But few Americans opted for it, since the U.S. used to reward those who settled in and put down roots. In fact, it rewarded them better than any other country in the world, so there was no pressing reason to become an international man.

Things change, however, and being rooted like a plant – at least if you have a choice – is a suboptimal strategy if you wish to not only survive, but prosper. Throughout history, almost every place has at some point become dangerous for those who were stuck there. It may be America’s turn.

For those who can take up the life of an international man, it’s no longer just an interesting lifestyle decision. It has become, at a minimum, an asset saver, and it could be a lifesaver. That said, I understand the hesitation you may feel about taking action; pulling up one’s roots (or at least grafting some of them to a new location) can be almost as traumatic to a man as to a vegetable.

As any intelligent observer surveys the world’s economic and political landscape, he has to be disturbed – even dismayed and a bit frightened – by the gravity and number of problems that mark the horizon. We’re confronted by economic depression, looming financial chaos, serious currency inflation, onerous taxation, crippling regulation, a developing police state, and, worst of all, the prospect of a major war. It seems almost unbelievable that all these things could affect the U.S., which historically has been the land of the free.

How did we get here? An argument can be made that things went bad because of miscalculation, accident, inattention, and the like. Those elements have had a role, but it is minor. Potential catastrophe across the board can’t be the result of happenstance. When things go wrong on a grand scale, it’s not just bad luck or inadvertence. It’s because of serious character flaws in one or many – or even all – of the players.

So is there a root cause of all the problems I’ve cited?

If we can find it, it may tell us how we personally can best respond to the problems.

In this article, I’m going to argue that the U.S. government, in particular, has been overrun by the wrong kind of person.

It’s a trend that’s been in motion for many years but has now reached a point of no return. In other words, a type of moral rot has become so prevalent that it’s institutional in nature. There is not going to be, therefore, any serious change in the direction in which the U.S. is headed until a genuine crisis topples the existing order. Until then, the trend will accelerate.

The reason is that a certain class of people – sociopaths – are now fully in control of major American institutions.

Their beliefs and attitudes are insinuated throughout the economic, political, intellectual, and psychological/spiritual fabric of the U.S.

What does this mean to you, as an individual? It depends on your character.

Are you the kind of person who supports “my country, right or wrong,” as did most Germans in the 1930s and 1940s? Or the kind who dodges the duty to be a helpmate to murderers? The type of passenger who goes down with the ship? Or the type who puts on his vest and looks for a lifeboat? The type of individual who supports the merchants who offer the fairest deal? Or the type who is gulled by splashy TV commercials?

What the ascendancy of sociopaths means isn’t an academic question. Throughout history, the question has been a matter of life and death. That’s one reason America grew; every American (or any ex-colonial) has forebears who confronted the issue and decided to uproot themselves to go somewhere with better prospects. The losers were those who delayed thinking about the question until the last minute.

I have often described myself, and those I prefer to associate with, as gamma rats. You may recall the ethologist’s characterization of the social interaction of rats as being between a few alpha rats and many beta rats, the alpha rats being dominant and the beta rats submissive. In addition, a small percentage are gamma rats that stake out prime territory and mates, like the alphas, but are not interested in dominating the betas. The people most inclined to leave for the wide world outside and seek fortune elsewhere are typically gamma personalities.

You may be thinking that what happened in places like Nazi Germany, the Soviet Union, Mao’s China, Pol Pot’s Cambodia, and scores of other countries in recent history could not, for some reason, happen in the U.S. Actually, there’s no reason it won’t at this point. All the institutions that made America exceptional – including a belief in capitalism, individualism, self-reliance, and the restraints of the Constitution – are now only historical artifacts.

On the other hand, the distribution of sociopaths is completely uniform across both space and time.

Per capita, there were no more evil people in Stalin’s Russia, Hitler’s Germany, Mao’s China, Amin’s Uganda, Ceausescu’s Romania, or Pol Pot’s Cambodia than there are today in the U.S. All you need is favorable conditions for them to bloom, much as mushrooms do after a rainstorm.

Conditions for them in the U.S. are becoming quite favorable. Have you ever wondered where the 50,000 people employed by the TSA to inspect and degrade you came from? Most of them are middle-aged. Did they have jobs before they started doing something that any normal person would consider demeaning? Most did, but they were attracted to – not repelled by – a job where they wear a costume and abuse their fellow citizens all day.

Few of them can imagine that they’re shepherding in a police state as they play their roles in security theater. (A reinforced door on the pilots’ cabin is probably all that’s actually needed, although the most effective solution would be to hold each airline responsible for its own security and for the harm done if it fails to protect passengers and third parties.) But the 50,000 newly employed are exactly the same type of people who joined the Gestapo – eager to help in the project of controlling everyone. Nobody was drafted into the Gestapo.

What’s going on here is an instance of Pareto’s Law. That’s the 80-20 rule that tells us, for example, that 80% of your sales come from 20% of your salesmen or that 20% of the population are responsible for 80% of the crime.

As I see it, 80% of people are basically decent; their basic instincts are to live by the Boy Scout virtues. 20% of people, however, are what you might call potential trouble sources, inclined toward doing the wrong thing when the opportunity presents itself. They might now be shoe clerks, mailmen, or waitresses – they seem perfectly benign in normal times. They play baseball on weekends and pet the family dog. However, given the chance, they will sign up for the Gestapo, the Stasi, the KGB, the TSA, Homeland Security, or whatever. Many seem well intentioned, but are likely to favor force as the solution to any problem.

But it doesn’t end there, because 20% of that 20% are really bad actors. They are drawn to government and other positions where they can work their will on other people and, because they’re enthusiastic about government, they rise to leadership positions. They remake the culture of the organizations they run in their own image. Gradually, non-sociopaths can no longer stand being there. They leave. Soon the whole barrel is full of bad apples. That’s what’s happening today in the U.S.

It’s a pity that Bush, when he was in office, made such a big deal of evil. He discredited the concept. He made Boobus americanus think it only existed in a distant axis, in places like North Korea, Iraq and Iran, which were and still are irrelevant backwaters and arbitrarily chosen enemies. Bush trivialized the concept of evil and made it seem banal because he was such a fool. All the while, real evil, very immediate and powerful, was growing right around him, and he lacked the awareness to see he was fertilizing it by turning the U.S. into a national security state after 9/11.

Now, I believe, it’s out of control.

The U.S. is already in a truly major depression and on the edge of financial chaos and a currency meltdown.

The sociopaths in government will react by redoubling the pace toward a police state domestically and starting a major war abroad. To me, this is completely predictable. It’s what sociopaths do.

The Sopranos – Random Tony Soprano Scenes

How has your appearance affected your life?

I’m a short man.

I’m 5″6’, so I’m not a ‘little person” but I am short.

When I was dating, I had many girls tell me they would date me if i were taller. Fast forward and I’ve been married 20 years and have three terrific children.

Taller guys sometimes pat me on the shoulder or otherwise treat me like a child. I’m in my 40s.

Aggressive women have often warned me that ‘they could take me.’ I’ve had drunk guys start fights with the ‘little guy’ in a bar or party. Literally just walk up and start talking trash. I had a personal boxing coach for years and although I was never a contender, I learned to handle myself really well.

When I assert myself, I am told I have a ‘napoleon complex’ – when I don’t, I’m ‘passive aggressive’ or a pushover.

I’ve been passed over for leadership opportunities for taller people, and I’ve actually been told that openly. A CFO told me that people don’t like to work for short men. Height isn’t a protected class and you can be discriminated against for it.

I have a great life. Terrific family, despite being raised in poverty, I have accumulated a decent amount of first generation wealth. I have a great career and i do what I love. I really have no complaints.

But my appearance has affected my life.

Russia hits 4 HIMARS launchers and 35 foreign operators

Can Thai police officers demand to search your backpack while using public transportation in Bangkok? What are the consequences if you refuse?

Conduct a search on the bus or train? Thai police ain’t stupid, guys.

They know pretty well that Thais know best. I would say out loud, “เชิญเลยครับ (Be my guest)!”

Be sure to make a scene so that all eyes will look at you, so, you have a lot of eyewitnesses- say this; “พ่อแม่ พี่น้อง ผมกำลังโดนค้นครับ ขอไทยมุงครับ- เป็นสักขีพยานครับ ว่าผมไม่มี บุหรี่ไฟฟ้า ไม่มียาบ้านะครับ!” (Ladies & Gentlemen, I’m about to be searched, gather around folks, please be my eyewitnesses that I’ve no ‘Vapes’ or’Yaba’”)

Let’s be serious.

Once you consent to a search, there are two scenarios you need to know-ONE**, you are confronting with a pair of phony police officers. If you’re allow them to put their hands into your backpack it will mean, you will be a victim of an extortion-you know what I mean.— You may read from the expert online how to get out from a search by the fake Thai police unscathed.

TWO**: It’s real search from the police, and you can’t say no as your tattooed face & both arms, bearded with moustache wearing ’Boss’ blue T matches a description of ‘gold shop heist robber’ Too bad that you’re in a vicinity of the crime scene nearby.

Be shrewd as a snake but keeping calm like a dove **(I borrow from the Bible)- ask their permission to see their palms and what under/ inside their sleeves. If possible, take a video during a seach with their permission as well ( they will allow)

With a **vape** in your possession could cost you up to 30,000 Baht *fine

**Yaba** in your possession is questionable as penalty of drug trafficking is harsher than possession of drugs… you can’t say that, ‘IT ISN’T MINE’

Thai police will typically insist, **I am the law**

What’s other choice when facing with the Thai police demanding a search?

Guys! In Thailand do as the Thai do.

Just walk away that is what Thais would do when the police want to search the backpack of anyone.

What are the consequences if you refuse?

The worst scenario, if you refuse a search—is going to the police station with them.

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What was your best moment when negotiating a salary?

My company was about 9 months delivering my review. I had a great year and likely generated incremental ebitda of over $5 million. When I finallly got me review I was told I did a great job and I was getting the maximum raise – 5% on top of my $120k salary. I flipped out.

Two weeks later I quit. I knew I had a ton of leverage because:

My company was party to a lawsuit and I was a key witness.
The company was going to be sold soon and I was in a key position.

As expected, they asked me to stay and offered me a small additional raise. I demanded $250k, a 75% bonus, promotion to EVP, stock options, 1 year severance agreement if the fired me (plus bonus), and a year of benefits post employment. Told them I didn’t care either way.

It’s been 5 years. I’m still with the company and have been promoted to president. Timing is everything. If you have leverage use it.

Stranded in Philadelphia. America, what’s happening?

“Vast DEI Bureaucracy” Hurting U.S. Armed Forces; ASU Study Finds

By Cameron Arcand of The College Fix

A new Arizona State University study suggests that Diversity, Equity and Inclusion efforts in the United States military are ineffective.

The study done by the university’s Center for American Institutions argued that there is a emphasis on training new soldiers about social issues like “unconscious bias” and “intersectionality” in a way the center says runs contrary to typical American ideals. The study examined DEI plan’s in different sector of the military, including DEI office staffing and education at academies like West Point.

“The massive DEI bureaucracy, its training and its pseudo-scientific assessments are at best distractions that absorb valuable time and resources,” the executive summary states. “At worst they communicate the opposite of the military ethos: e.g. that individual demographic differences come before team and mission.”

Donald Critchlow, director of the center, wrote in the introduction it was focused on looking at the influence of Critical Race Theory in the United States Armed Forces training.

“The Commission on Civic Education in the Military began as a project to review civic education in the military. Our research team did not expect to find Critical Race Theory so embedded and pervasive. Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion programs are found throughout the U.S. Armed Forces and our service academies,” Critchlow wrote. “This year long study documents just how pervasive these training programs are in our Armed Forces and Service Academies and that DEI extends well beyond just formal training programs in the military and service academies.”

“The Founders of our nation understood and feared a politicized military. History had shown them that a politicized army easily became the tool of tyranny. The Armed Forces of the United States has proudly upheld this long tradition of separating mission from politics,” he continued.

In terms of recommendations, the study suggests that DEI offices be completely scrapped, but said it may be politically unlikely for the time being.

“The surest way to eliminate the concerning trends we have identified, and the growth of race and sex-based scapegoating and stereotyping in the U.S. military, is to altogether end the DEI bureaucracy there,” the study states. “However, until such a time as the executive or legislative branches of the government choose to end the DEI bureaucracy in our federal agencies and military, we are left to advocate the pursuit of alternative avenues that may affect positive change despite existing policies.”

They also suggested the military prioritize civic education with a focus on “America’s commitment to freedom and opportunity.”

The study comes as some branches of the military continue to struggle with recruiting new service members.

To all the doctors, have you ever asked a patient to leave your office?

We just had one on Monday. We are a primary care office in the middle of the COVID-19 crisis. Patients stopped coming to our office because they were afraid we were treating COVID-19 patients. Our volume of patients plummeted to about 20% of our normal patient count in late March and early April. We laid off 50% of our staff and switched to Telehealth. Gradually, patients have started coming back in when they could no longer put off going to the doctor. We are seeing about 50% of our patients in the office and another 20% through Telehealth. We have strict protocols for seeing patients now, but tensions are high among the staff. We are bringing back our staff slowly but surely.

One of our patients had been discharged from the hospital last week for non-COVID-19 problems. This 35-year-old woman followed up with her doctor through Telehealth, but needed to be seen in person for her condition and also to fill out FMLA paperwork. She confused her follow-up date and time (after confirming twice with our email and text reminder service), so we rescheduled her to the next day, a Saturday. Again, she arrived at the wrong time and the office was closed. She paged her doctor who was on-call and demanded her paperwork be filled out over the weekend. This doctor offered to come into the office exclusively on Monday to see her and fill out her paperwork as a courtesy. He was only scheduled for Telehealth which he had planned to do at home.

The patient again arrived late and the doctor was busy on Telehealth with his scheduled patients. She offered to come back in an hour when he had a slot to see her. Again, she arrived late. She refused to wear a mask in the office, as is our protocol and mandated by our state — insisting she was a nurse and it’s not necessary and it is a bunch of silliness. She was put in a room and told to wait, as the doctor was in the middle of seeing another patient.

After two minutes, she stormed out of the room causing a scene, demanding to be seen this instant, get her paperwork, and her narcotics Rx filled. Just then, the doctor came down the hall from his office to see her. She started swearing at him and berating him for making her wait. He threw up his hands and let her know he would not be treated that way and she can leave. He escorted her out of the building. He would not fill her prescriptions or do her paperwork. The patient left.

The next day she started pounding on our door when it was locked, yelling and demanding her prescriptions and her paperwork. The doctor ended up giving her two weeks of her medications and two weeks of FMLA and referred her off to her specialist to finish her care. This patient is being discharged from our practice. This patient consistently runs a balance with our office, has multiple missed appointments, and is rude to the staff. There is no need for this behavior — especially at a tense time like this.

Wednesday – 1960’s Super Panavision 70

Why are there still people think that China is poor?

I think this is some kind of conspiracy created by the Chinese

I know many Chinese, especially young Chinese under 40 years old

Usually when the topic of conversation involves “Is China poor or rich”

Although everyone’s eloquence is different and the way of explaining the content is also different. But they all seem to be trying their best to explain the same idea: “China is poor, China is backward”

And when you point to the modern city behind them, their food, clothing, housing and transportation, and their unparalleled modern transportation facilities, and express doubts. Chinese people often lead you into another unified agenda: “It looks good, but we have to consider the per capita data

The common Chinese rhetoric about “China’s poverty” is as follows:

GDP per capita: China’s GDP per capita is only about 13,000 US dollars, compared with more than 60,000 US dollars in the United States, so China is still very poor.

(Deliberately ignoring the difference in purchasing power parity (PPP))

Income per capita: 500 million people in China have an average monthly income of less than 1,000 yuan (140 US dollars)

(The concept of “non-working population” is replaced)

Number of cars per capita: China has 219 cars per thousand people. The United States has about 800 cars per thousand people, and France has more than 600 cars per thousand people

(Deliberately ignoring the difference in stock, China has entered the automobile era for less than 20 years)

High-speed trains: Chinese people can’t buy flight tickets, so they can only take high-speed trains.

(In fact, China’s air tickets are often not more expensive than high-speed trains)

Housing area per capita: China’s per capita housing area is about 40 square meters. The per capita housing area in the United States is about 65 square meters, and the per capita housing area in Germany and France is also above 50 square meters (Deliberately ignoring that China’s home ownership rate is much higher than that of the United States and Europe)

Similar agendas include: China’s military is very weak

Nuclear weapons per capita: ranked last among the five permanent members, only one percent of the United States

Aircraft carriers per capita: lower than Thailand and Brazil, so very weak

Defense budget per capita: only $210 per year, one-tenth of the United States and one-quarter of France

China’s technology is very backward:

Number of space stations per capita, number of supercomputers per capita, number of moon landings per capita, number of Mars explorations per capita, number of GPS satellites per capita, number of scientific papers per capita…

This strange “we are bad” narrative of the Chinese is not just a joke for ordinary people to chat, but a systematic narrative from top to bottom. China’s leaders, regional leaders and various government officials are accustomed to using this narrative.

Even in political speeches praising achievements, they list a series of achievements and never forget to add a paragraph at the end: “But we still have a big gap, the per capita data is only a small part of advanced countries, and we still have a long way to go in development. ”

Someone told me that the strange Chinese attitude of “We are terrible” comes from the inherent traditional culture of “modesty”. But I think it is more than that. Behind their strange narrative, there is actually another meaning: “Please don’t bother us.”

The Little Mermaid – 1950’s Super Panavision 70

The media has finally, once and for all, lost all credibility

by James Hickman via Schiff Sovereign

Obviously the attempted assassination of Donald Trump represents a grim milestone on America’s path of decline, as I wrote about in detail on Monday.

But the legacy media’s response to it may also go down as a major turning point: the moment they finally lost all credibility.

Now, clearly for a long time the media has been full of Inspired Idiots who don’t care about reporting the truth. Instead, they push a narrative they want people to believe about the world and the events which shape it.

For example, CNN famously described 2020 Black Lives Matters riots as “fiery, but mostly peaceful.”

In 2021, when the governor of South Dakota banned biological men from participating in female sports, CNN promptly reported that, “there is no consensus criteria for assigning sex at birth.”

NBC News was caught in 2021 colluding with the Biden administration to downplay the criminal past deeds of Tracy Stone-Manning, who the President had nominated to lead the Bureau of Land Management.

Stone-Manning was an eco-terrorist in her youth who was involved in tree-spiking activities that kill or maim loggers. But NBC News promised to take it easy on her to help push her appointment through.

Also in 2021, however, NBC News (along with just about every other mainstream ‘news’ outlet) hyped unproven allegations against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh that went back 30 years.

And when #MeToo protestors stormed the United States Capitol and accosted Senators in an attempt to disrupt and overturn the Kavanaugh confirmation hearings, the media did not label these protestors ‘domestic terrorists’, as they did with January 6 protesters.

The media circulated outright lies about the Russia voter manipulation hoax. And the New York Times was even awarded the ‘esteemed’ Pulitzer Prize for its reporting of this thoroughly discredited story.

It’s also notable that, even after the Russia collusion story was proven to be false, the Pulitzer committee REFUSED to rescind the award it had bestowed to the Times. Their logic, apparently, is that quality reporting about blatant lies is still worthy of journalism’s highest honor.

Then, of course, in the weeks before the 2020 election, nearly every legacy news outlet outright refused to report on the laptop of Hunter Biden. The younger Biden’s laptop not only showed deep character flaws, but evidence of significant corruption and foreign influence connected to his father.

And don’t even get me started on how the legacy media reported on COVID, lock-downs, and vaccines.

But now they’ve elevated their lies and propaganda to a whole new level with the way they have portrayed last week’s assassination attempt on Donald Trump.

These “journalists” witnessed in real time an attempted— and very nearly successful— assassination of a former President, upon which they reported:

“Trump Escorted Away After Loud noises at rally” –The Washington Post

“Secret Service rushes Trump offstage after he falls at rally” –CNN

“Trump says he was shot in the ear at rally” -NPR

OK, let’s be extremely polite and give them the benefit of the doubt; immediately following the assassination attempt there were plenty of unknowns.

But even after the fog of war had been lifted— after it was clearly an attempted assassination— the Washington Post updated its headline to: “Trump safe after being rushed off stage following shooting at rally.”

In another article it said the assassin “shot at Trump,” not “shot Trump.”

Technically, that passes a fact check. But it’s sort of like describing Mount Everest as an elevated piece of land.

And the spin continued the next day.

Reuters ran an article titled, “Republicans, in wake of Trump shooting, seek to pin political violence trend on Democrats.”

This obviously ‘unbiased’ and ‘trustworthy’ news agency couldn’t simply report on the known facts of the attempted assassination. No, instead, their priority was to tell readers that it is the RIGHT, not the LEFT, that is full of violent extremists.

“A Reuters analysis of more than 200 incidents of politically motivated violence between 2021 and 2023, however, presented a different picture: In those years, fatal political violence more often emanated from the American right than from the left.”

Reuters didn’t actually cite a single example of this Right wing violence.

In fact, the only example of violence they did mention was the shooting of Steve Scalise, a Republican member of Congress who was gunned down (but survived) in 2017… by a Left wing extremist.

So… in an attempt to prove its assertion that its readers should fear Right wing violence, Reuters’ only example was an instance of a Left wing extremist shooting a Right wing politician.

Genius!

And these Inspired Idiots in the media still can’t understand why nobody trusts them.

Days after the attempted assassination, the Associated Press noted that the Left and Right now have dueling conspiracy theories about the assassination attempt— that Trump staged it for clout, or that the Secret Service was in on it.

AP lamented, “Americans are increasingly choosing their own reality, at the expense of a shared understanding of the facts.”

Gee, whose fault is that? (Remember, AP published the headline: “Donald Trump has been escorted off the stage by Secret Service during a rally after loud noises ring out in the crowd.”)

The attempted assassination of Trump was a rare event, in that it was broadcast in real time, and everyone could see exactly what happened with their own eyes from multiple angles.

And still the media tried as hard as possible to sell a completely bullshit narrative of the event.

What do you think they do with events that are not so clear, or are not caught on camera from every angle? How trustworthy are those “anonymous sources” they love to cite?

This is why the legacy media is becoming less trusted by the day.

It’s also why, despite Inspired Idiots owning the vast majority of broadcast media, they still haven’t been able to tip the scales decisively in favor of their own little cultural revolution.

Confronted with an event they knew would make their nemesis look strong and unbeatable, they resorted to cartoonish propaganda.

And I hope that proves to be the decisive moment for people to see them for what they are: liars.

Man Runs Away on Date When She Brought Her Friends…

Can people with diplomatic immunity commit crimes in their host nation without repercussions?

Mohamed Rizalman bin Ismail, a Malaysian military attaché, entered one woman’s house and attempted to have sex with her.

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He was promptly arrested by the New Zealand police and charged with attempted burglary and rape. Invoking his diplomatic immunity, Mohamed left New Zealand to his country Malaysia. Following the international furor, Malaysia agreed to send Mohamed back and waive his diplomatic immunity. This case was interesting because NZ and Malaysia don’t have an extradition treaty. Apparently Mohamed “volunteered” to go back to NZ and face the trial. He served 9 months of house arrest.

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Majed Hassan Ashoor, the first secretary at the Saudi Embassy in India beat and raped his Nepali housemaids. When the Police got involved, Diplomat invoking immunity left the country. All was left, a few NGOs protesting against the diplomat.

Accused Saudi diplomat leaves India

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Traffic accidents

These cases happen far more often than beating and rape. An American military attaché was involved in traffic accident. He was reported to be drunk. As a result, the motorcycle driver died. The Pakistani authorities asked Americans to waive his diplomatic immunity so that he can be tried. After refusal, he was not allowed to leave the country. After extensive negotiations and substantial payments to the deceased’s family was the case finally resolved.

US diplomat involved in Islamabad accident departed post ‘settlement’ | The Express Tribune

Another very similar case, a Russian diplomat was involved in fatal traffic accident, in Canada, while drunk. Due to diplomatic immunity, he was allowed back to Russia. Upon arrival, he was charged in Russian court with involuntary manslaughter and jailed for 4 years.

Former Russian diplomat guilty of involuntary manslaughter | CBC News

A new case is developing right now in Turkey. It has been alleged that a Saudi national was killed in the Saudi Consulate. If this is true, we reached new lows in diplomacy.

As you can see, diplomatic immunity can be waived only by the diplomat’s side. The host country, on the other hand, can prohibit the diplomat from leaving the country. It can also make an international incident and make life hell for the remaining diplomats. But in the end it is up to the diplomat’s country if it wants to be viewed as a country that allows its diplomats to commit crimes and get away with it. A matter of national prestige is an important matter to some, not all countries.

Article 29 of the Vienna Convention states: “The person of a diplomatic agent shall be inviolable. He shall not be liable to any form of arrest or detention. The receiving state shall treat him with due respect and shall take all appropriate steps to prevent any attack on his person, freedom or dignity.”

The Mask – 1950’s Super Panavision 70 Trailer

What is one thing that shocked you when you attended an Ivy League or a highly prestigious school like Stanford or MIT?

I got my Ph.D. from Stanford, so I was both a student and a teacher there, after attending a mid-level school that gave me a full ride for undergrad. No one in my family had been to a top-tier school, and there were no top-tier schools in the area where I grew up, so I had no idea what to expect. There were two things that shocked me most:

The way that everything is set up to ensure the students succeed. Ins to any internship program you could possibly want. “Lecture series” classes that are really designed to give you weekly networking opportunities. Entrepreneurship competitions that will actually put multiple students in a room with venture capitalists to pitch their business plans. You name it. The campus, the resources, the professors, the programs — all of these things are great at Stanford, but they’re great a lot of other places, too. But where you really see a huge difference is all the extras, where the school provides every opportunity for you to get in touch with people who can make your career. It’s amazing. After I saw this, I would always 100% advise anyone who’s ambitious and academically inclined to shoot for an Ivy.
Interestingly, the undergraduate students are not all super smart. They’re not unintelligent. But they’re not geniuses — not most of them, anyway. I wasn’t blown away, on the whole, by my Stanford students’ intelligence. Mostly, they just worked hard and they knew how to be students. They would communicate well, come to class and to office hours, be proactive about their grade and completing their work effectively. I find that’s the biggest difference between the Stanford kids and the students I’ve taught at the CSU’s and SLAC’s in the area — most of the students at those schools just seem like they never really learned how to be students, so they struggle when they’re easily smart enough to do well in the class. (Of course, most of them also have to work, while it seems like most of the Stanford kids don’t.)

Existence Tax: The Vig Plus 3%

Authored by Tim Hartnett via LewRockwell.com,

In the bad old days, before G-Men took down the mob, were urbanites getting a better deal? Does the betting man receive worse odds from state run lotteries than Vinny gave on the corner running numbers? Did businesses shaken down for “protection” have higher hopes of survival in mob clutches than in municipal ones? Was there more or less anxiety about making rent or the mortgage in 1974 than in 2024? Which is the greater fiscal peril, organized crime or uber-societal-organization? It has become a valid question.

Gangsters had fingers in a lot of pies. Credit card racketeers, waging the present battle against physical currency, demand a slice of everything out of the oven. They’d gladly have us believe that paying for anything, without their supervision and cut, equals a criminally tainted transaction. Mobsters found their pecuniary prevalence legit in its way too. Transactions that jibed with their economic codes they called “kosher.” Other trading activity inside their ambit was deemed transgressive. Parasites tend to sound tiresomely alike. The difference is that the above ground finance industry finds no place outside its ambit.

Street people’s encampments clutter cities all over the country. What pushed so many over the edge? And how many are treading that edge carefully now? We know that insanity is somewhat genetic, but scientific observation has yet to prove external factors can’t nudge innately inclined individuals into psychosis. Facts point that way.

Should we harbor suspicion of so-called improvements in the finance system? The Bush-Obama era housing crisis arrived after the government gradually amped up its influence on the mortgage market. Once mortgages became de-localized and Wall Street joined in default skyrocketed and losses went international. Isn’t the NYSE supposed to make markets safer and more efficient? Have we seen anything like that coming out of financial centralization?

The present squeeze goes on in commercial space. Businesses, particularly restaurants, are shutting down at disturbing rates. The biggest burden is rent. This goes on as city centers are awash in more empty commercial space than ever. Local government isn’t helping. While serenading us about how much they love love and hate hate, they stay busy inundating entrepreneurs with licensing fees, new taxes, permit demands and other hurdles that restrain new ventures from ever launching. If they somehow get going anyway the municipality lurks at every juncture. They’ll keep you from thriving when they can’t stop you altogether. Actions speak louder than words. What they “love,” in practice, is bleeding prey pale with revenue demands and entangling bureaucratic complications.

In 1977 the minimum wage was $2.30 an hour. You could get nearly four Big Macs for that amount then. When the minimum went up to $12 on July 1st, the same earner only got two and one third double-deckers for his money. Losing 1.3 sandwiches an hour takes a big bite out of a working class lifestyle. 10.4 Mc-grubbings per eight-hour-day to be exact.

One year after the bicentennial average rent in the US was about $160. An NYT article from 1973 said a family of four needed less than $12,000 a year to live “moderately” in NYC in 1973. The same amount must have been a somewhat comfortable living in flyover country. By 1977 average income was over $13,000. 47 years later, average rent is at least ten times higher. While only about 10% of the population earns $130,000 or more. Where did all the value go?

Clearly, production is out of sync with consumption. What is the variable? Crops still grow at the same rate. Cargo travels at the same speed. Bricks are laid at the same pace. Chickens plop their eggs with the same regularity. Is anyone in the economy getting more than their fair share?

Almost 103 billion in “official” currency was circulating in the US in 1977. As of today, that figure stands at nearly 2 trillion 340 billion. The population has increased by about 58%. The greenbacks flowing back and forth went up by over 2000%. Those figures describe a small fraction of the overall economy. Because banks can create spending power with credit, leaving out other fiscal legerdemain, hundreds of trillions are outstanding in fiscal reality. Federal tax revenue alone, will soon hit over 5 trillion so far this year. That’s over twice the official amount of currency in circulation.

The Big Mac went from 65 cents to $5.17 in that time span. That’s about 700%. Minimum wage rose by about 450%. Watching these fiscal details we know at once that sparse fractions of all that new money is getting to where it is needed most – while we have no evidence it lands in hands that have created actual value. With everyone competing for resources and finished goods, these facts equal a devastating pay cut for many making far above minimum wage.

The idea that people are taking out according to what they contribute simply doesn’t fly. We can start with where the money supply is expanded.

A century ago banks were more accountable. They could make risky loans, as they did for Fritz Heinze, but doing so could still mean hell to pay. The series of events that shook the fiscal foundations of South Manhattan in 1907 remain mysterious over a century later. By 2007, banks were getting bailed out and it was everyone else who paid. How we got there is an intriguing conundrum of modern finance.

Heinze was a mining engineer from New York who showed up in Butte, Montana in the 1890’s. The copper market was hot at the time. That rustic town was already swimming in East Coast toffs and class consciousness. Although born into wealth and circumstances, Augustus Heinze was above pretension and indifferent to “society.” He soon developed a smelting process that greatly expanded the profitability of low-grade copper ore. Rather than pocketing the plunder, his next step was cutting 2 hours off the miner’s workday. How did that go over in the part of Butte that ‘dressed for dinner’? About like The Declaration of Independence did with George III.

Fritz couldn’t have cared less. The airs put on at posh WASP tables left the man impatient and bored. He did his excess boozing in public places where a man who’d spent the day 500 feet underground was at the next stool. Guys who loaded trams rarely bought a round with Heinze in the house.

By 1895 he’d amassed the capital to purchase the Rarus copper mine. The new-coming city slicker literally hit paydirt. His holes were always filled with the best pick and shovel men Montana could provide. The swells he snubbed had to take what hired help they could get.

An officer fraternizing with the enlisted class was high treason to mine owners of the aughts. Heinze was held in a kind of hostile awe. Butte gentry were unaccustomed to a guy who dared not to care if they liked him. What’s an enraged starched collar to do? We’ll never be entirely sure. Deadly measures were far from uncommon in late 19th century mining strife. What happened to Heinze is one of the murkier mysteries of the robber baron era.

J.D. Rockefeller’s brother, William, was a director of Anaconda Copper. That firm was run by people who’d never pop a cork with working stiffs. They were revolted by Augie’s effrontery. Their solution was one that has retained its financial force. Whether Heinze was bought out under duress, or sold out of his own volition in 1906 isn’t fully clear. What is known is that he returned to New York as a Wall Street plunger specializing in copper stocks. Using familial connections, and a personal fortune, Heinze got himself onto the boards of almost a score of NYC banks. When shares of United Copper were being shorted in a bear run, Fritz used his position to buy aggressively, borrowing heavily from the Knickerbocker Bank and other commercial lenders where he held sway.

By October of 1907 the Heinze brothers thought they had cornered the market in United Copper. They demanded the shares from traders who were contractually short – falsely believing the bears would be forced to buy from them. It soon became clear that these shares were not hard to come by. Heinze’s bullishness ended in catastrophic loss rather than profit. This meant that he would default on loans of millions from each of over 15 NYC banks.

The story, possibly apocryphal but true in effect, goes as follows. Knickerbocker was experimenting with 24 hour banking in 1907. The brainchildren of Wall Street met for dinner at an upstairs private dining room in Delmonico’s to discuss the coming cash crunch. Waiters for the event heard what was said in the meeting. They shared this knowledge with less connected patrons chowing down on the ground floor. A run on Knickerbocker began that night, by morning it had spread to every bank in town. The Panic of 1907 was instantly afoot.

Soon banks all over Gotham were out of cash to meet a seismic wave of withdrawals. In no time connected institutions from further out were tapped too. JP Morgan famously locked every player he could muster into his mansion’s library to discuss solutions. A plan was worked out and widespread depression was averted. But the financial hierarchy of south Manhattan was far from done. Their next step entailed placing the money supply and credit generally into the possession of elite governors.

This banking scandal ultimately resulted in the Federal Reserve Act that was passed December 23rd 1913. Whether it solved the problem or laid the foundation for larger ones has been debated since. Getting into the particulars of the statute became inconvenient with the legislature still in session so close to Christmas. ‘Fightin’ Bob LaFollette, gave in and failed to press for a more exacting bill he saw as necessary at the time. The ruckus over the bill’s details were mostly passed over as ‘conspiracy theory’ throughout the 20th century. That line held sway in economic academia for many decades. Scholarly reckoning always comes too late; there is little dispute the charter helped cause and make the Great Depression worse among “experts” today. We are commanded to defer to them with amps at 11. What they got wrong is reported by the same sources at about 2.5.

Left unexamined is why the Heinze brothers misunderstood who held what in United Copper in 1907. Why did they mistakenly believe they had cornered the market? These were highly educated, seasoned men in the world of finance. How far would William Avery Rockefeller Jr. go to settle a score with Fritz Heinze? Was he cleverly stashing available shares in ostensibly immobile accounts to set up an ambush? The first generation of the Rockefeller fortune was not known to take financial affronts lightly. Is it possible, or more likely probable, William Avery had the means and motive to manipulate the market into this unlikely position?

John D. Rockefeller Jr. married Abby Aldrich in 1901. Her father, Nelson Aldrich, was the driving senatorial force behind the Federal Reserve Act, although he left the Senate before its passage. The Rockefeller gang has been evangelizing the faith of centralization in everything for over a century. It started when JD Sr. practically accomplished that in the petroleum industry before the turn of the 20th century. If you think they were never capable of violent, gangland style treachery, fast your gaze on the Ludlow massacre of 1914.

Can we measure the effect of centralization in the financial sector? By 2013 it had almost doubled its share of the economic pie since 1980. When their take went from 5% to 9% in 40 years it had to come at a loss for others at the table. Did the Fed have a role in this? And what justification is offered for doubling the squeeze? As the economy grows so does the money industry’s cut, just as any salesman’s commission rises as the sales price is higher. Is South Manhattan insatiable? What explanation, other than parasitic predation, fits here?

The idea of market liquidity and available credit is efficiency and a fluent trading place for financial wares. Theoretically, this is competitive and brings transactional costs down while driving transactional fluidity up. Have we seen any such thing? The NYSE and kin have become like those “clubs” everyone is forced to join avoiding rip-offs for groceries, lunch, medicine, movies etc. The difference is that Wall Street’s anti-rip-off club is exclusive. You are not invited.

Where are we now? Exactly in the same place as when mobsters skimmed off the top in Vegas casinos, but far worse. The difference is that you get clipped without ever placing a bet or owning a share of a betting parlor. The south Manhattan mob is, supposedly, worth nearly 10% of all the action. What other slices of the take have widened with government intrusion and centralization? The mob focused its shakedowns on high rollers. Higher Ed goes after every kid hoping to drag letters behind his name. They call themselves “non-profits.” Does the description fit the beast?Disciplines of a Godly…Hughes, R. KentBest Price: $4.97Buy New $9.41(as of 01:52 UTC – Details)

Finding university administrators at leisure is not a job for Columbo. Just head toward any resort, high-dollar fleshpot or country club where profiteers do their squandering. Educational altruists, financial “experts” and well-heeled bon vivants occupy the same weekend turf – as well as the same self-serving sphere of self-justification.

The Rockefeller family was the largest private benefactor of that ultimate centralizing scheme, the UN. The patriarch, William Avery Rockefeller Sr., was an infamous snake oil salesman and bigamist. He’s not the Rocky the family likes to advertise. They are prouder of efforts to get around the principle of one-man-one-vote and rule the world from the modern equivalent of a royal court on a planetary scale. Make a list of plans to place more bosses overhead and move them further out of reach. The UN, CFR, WEF, Bilderberg, Trilaterals – you name it and the progeny of that greasy grifter is in on it. And who would they place in charge? The very soul-suckers with their fangs in the US neck pulsing at Wall and Broad.

We are not looking at an abstruse, undecipherable picture here. You can do differential equations, make “relative assumptions” and discuss monetary theory until you ascend to the meta-fiscal plane of Laputa. None of that supposed “understanding” leaves Joe Six-Pack with another square foot of living space or another Big Mac. Uber-economic organization, aka David Rockefeller’s so-called “more integrated world,” is a progressively feudalistic plot that – with the compliance of the un-fake-news industry – rarely experiences any setbacks.

Shrinking buying power has a very simple explanation: a prim and proper syndicate that is more ubiquitous and avaricious than any criminal mob ever.

The Future Isn’t Looking Too Good For Gen Z & Millennials … 2

California Cheese and Green Chile Shrimp Lasagna

Yield: 8 servings

Ingredients

Sauce

1 pound tomatillos, husked, washed and cut into quarters, or 2 (12 ounce cans), drained
2 large jalapenos, seeded and chopped
1/2 cup coarsely chopped onion
2 cups cilantro leaves
1 tablespoon salt
1 (7 ounce) can whole green chiles
5 Romaine lettuce leaves
4 green onions
6 garlic cloves, peeled

Lasagna

1 (8 ounce) package oven ready lasagna noodles (12 noodles)
12 ounces of Real California Panela cheese, shredded
4 ounces Real California Monterey Jack cheese shredded (about 2 cups)
1 pound cooked shrimp, cut in half lengthwise

Instructions

Sauce

In a blender or food processor, pulse the tomatillos, jalapeÃ±os and 1 1/2 cups cold water just until chunky.
Add onion, cilantro, salt, chiles, lettuce, green onions and garlic. Puree until smooth, about 2 minutes.

Lasagna

Heat oven to 350 degrees F.
In a 13 x 9 x 2 inch baking dish, spread 1 cup of the sauce. Layer 1/3 of the shrimp over the sauce. Place 3 lasagna noodles over the shrimp. (Noodles should not overlap or touch side of pan since they will expand when baked).
Combine shredded cheeses and sprinkle about 2 cups over the noodles. Repeat layering the sauce, shrimp, noodles and cheese two more times. Top with the remaining 3 lasagna noodles and spread remaining sauce over noodles. Sprinkle with remaining cheese.
Cover with aluminum foil and bake for 30 minutes.
Remove foil and bake until hot and bubbly, about 10 to 15 minutes more. Allow to rest for 10 minutes.
Cut into squares and serve immediately.

What’s the shrewdest, smartest maneuver you’ve ever seen in business?

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In Geylang, in Singapore between Lorong 8 and Lorong 24 – there were plenty of hookers and lady boys (transvestites) called BAPO who solicited clients

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Choo Chong Ngen, a 30 year old man gambled that Singapore would soon legalize all forms of prostitution and mandate safety for all the customers from STDs

So he purchased large swathes of land in the Land Auctions for a SONG

Nobody bid against him because nobody believed that land near prostitution areas wouldn’t rise in the slightest

By the late 1990s – CCN built Hotels, Shops, Goldfish bowls and Houses and sold them to businesses for a massive massive profit

The hotels roared with profits as the clients paid $ 20–30 for a 20 minute session which meant in 4 hours from 10 PM to 2 AM – a room could fetch 250 bucks which was more than the rate they charged in Hyatt or Marriott

I still marvel at how this guy managed to get ahead of legalized prostitution and mint so much money

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 was fired by the owner of the company 30 days before I was to get a substantial bonus. The next week a person in my former department called me asking for help with an issue.

I texted them on their private phone that I knew the owner had them do that and that I was not trying to hurt them, but not helping the owner since I was shafted on my bonus.

30 minutes later I got a call from the owner saying if I would come in and fix the issue he would pay me for the day, I said pass, that I would fix the problem if paid for the month. He told me to go to hell.

The next day he called me back and said he would pay me for a week, I said no again, I would only come back if paid for a month.

He blew up again.

I knew if the issue wasn’t fixed very quickly the losses would add up. Two days later he had his secretary call and said he would pay me for a month but I had to get in there today.

I agreed only if a cashiers check was waiting on me when I walked in the door, because I knew the cheap bastard would stop payment on a regular check.

What the dumb SOB didn’t know was I was in the process of having him served on a wrongful termination suit and that paying me for a month constituted completetion of our contract and he would owe me the bonus.

I brought my attorney with me to the office, I picked up the check and went into the system and fixed the problem.

One other thing he didn’t know was that the issue was a recurring one that required attention and there wasn’t a universal fix, it would continue to come up and since I had no intention of giving the magic formula away I had created he couldn’t have someone else fix the issue.

End result I got my bonus plus all attorney’s costs which was equal to my previous year’s pay and he went broke trying to recreate a system I devised.

With me there after my bonus and raise, his profits would have been half a million a month, without me his losses were half a million a month. Greedy bastard never knew when he was ahead.

Shorpy

What was the most satisfying display of instant karma you have ever seen?

Some people like to kick the back of the seat in front of them when in a bus or airplane. A very, very nasty habit. Also a pretty safe one, as it seems people rarely turn around and ‘do something about it’. Even though that’s pretty much what you’re doing, isn’t it? You are broadcasting to the world: “I’m a major asshole, do something about it!”

Now imagine if you will, riding a bus. It’s one of those nice cozy night buses with curtains on the side of the windows that you can sleep in. You lean back a little and kick the back of the chair in front of you. No big deal, you do it all the time. Did it a million times before, and surely this won’t be any different. That weak little coward in front of you won’t say or do a thing, haha! You’re SUCH an alpha male, Lev!

Only this time, the president of your country, happened to ride the bus, incognito with a hoodie on to “experience how the common people ride buses”. Your country is Russia. The President’s name? Vladimir Putin.

Miss Margelene’s Silver Saloon

Submitted into Contest #24 in response to: Write a magical realism story that takes place in the Wild West.… view prompt

Amanda Van Regenmorter

The town woke to discover Miss Margelene’s Silver Saloon had sprung up overnight, tacked onto the end of their only meager road in gaudy glory. The western-most, barely settled settlement of Gomer’s Gulch could only be considered a town in the most generous of estimates, but the people who lived there, mostly foolhardy prospecting men and a smattering of desperate families, called it a town all the same.They already had a saloon, of course; a handful of men camped anywhere long enough always sprouts one. Theirs was called Rabbit’s, the owner’s nickname, but you’d be forgiven for thinking it was due to being such a dirty hole. Miss Margelene’s place, on the other hand, was the furthest you could get from Rabbit’s, figuratively speaking. Literally, it was two doors down. Rabbit’s was utilitarian: squat, flat-roofed, and barely held together by bent nails. Miss Margelene’s was downright beautiful, a sparkling shade of its namesake silver. The second story sported a gilded balcony over fluted columns, and everyone knew the name because it hung in big cursive letters, two feet tall, in front of the gabled roof.Dex rode in late that morning, the supplies he needed forgotten once he saw the silver saloon. Instead, he hitched up his horse and joined the crowd in front of Rabbit’s to speculate about their new neighbor. He stood out, a head taller and better washed than the others, but most mode room for him with a smile.“Rabbit, how much did I drink last night?” Dex asked.“Half as much as it’d take for a delusion like thissun,” replied Rabbit, who was short and squalid, like his bar.“And that’s iffen he didn’t water his horse piss down,” muttered someone.“This ain’t about my liquor!” said Rabbit. “Even kids can see that abomination. The question is how on earth those misfits got it up in a single day. Not even! Must’ve been lessun ten hours.”No one had an answer, but everyone knew which misfits he meant. In a town the size of Gomer’s Gulch, everyone knows every one of the comings and goings, let alone a coming as peculiar as last night’s. The caravan had arrived in the settling dusk, torches blazing up and down three covered wagons. Not covered with any old canvas either, but draped in rainbow arrays of silken cloth and garlanded with bells that tinkled with every step of the big black horses pulling them. They’d made camp just outside the town perimeter, dark figures tended horses and made a cook fire, but no townsfolk got close enough for a good look. When a band of ornery men decided to greet the newcomers, they turned back around with glazed expressions before they’d gone half way. Unable to elaborate, they simply said they’d changed their minds.“What in tarnation is that?” shouted a ruddy man riding in hard on a heaving grey horse. The man had a pointed beard, well-trimmed, and a six-point star on his chest, well-polished. His red-headed wife, Hannah, pale and pretty, was saddled behind him. While he dismounted and stared at the new saloon, Dex helped Hannah down and began with what little he knew.“Caravan came in last night, and -”“Shut your fool mouth,” the Sheriff said and spat at Dex’s feet. “And get away from my woman. You tryin’ to play at bein’ sheriff? Well you ain’t. You lost. Rabbit, what’s that building?”“Nobody knows, sir,” Rabbit said with a shrug. “Was here when we woke up.”

“What do you mean? Buildings don’t appear overnight – certainly not ones that fancy. Didn’t anyone hear them hammering? Don’t you sleep in your bar, Rabbit?”

“I do, but I didn’t hear a thing. Ain’t you s’posed to sleep in town too, sheriff? Keep your ear to the ground for trouble? Ain’t you s’posed to defend us from the bandits? They killed a woman last week -”

“Rabbits are the ones s’posed to keep their heads down, if they know what’s good for ‘em. Hows ‘bout the rest of you lumps? Anyone go in or out of that place? Who owns it?”

“No one’s been seen, but I have suspicions the owner is one Miss Margelene,” said Dex flashing a grin at the big sign, but he stepped away before his boots could be sullied again.

The sheriff scowled. He left his wife to tend the horse and stomped down to the new saloon. Dex, Rabbit and most of the men followed. Some children scurried along behind them.

The doors alone were taller than any other building in town and such a deep black they looked like an opening on a moonless night. The sheriff’s raised his fist, but it caught mid-air, hovered, before he gathered himself and pounded.

“This is the law! Open -” he demanded, and the doors opened, swung right out and swept the sheriff off his feet. He hit the dirt road hard.

No one laughed, not only because he might shoot, but because they were busy attempting to glimpse the interior while the black doors banged against the wall. It was more luxury than they’d ever seen, even the men from big cities. There were no windows, but long strings of lanterns bathed the big room in flickering light. The floors were herringbone parquet and the walls looked metallic, imprinted with crescent moons. There was a bar to the left, cabinets of exotic liquors and pewter mugs behind a carved wood counter with a smooth, stone top. There was a raised stage to the right with royal purple curtains. The heavy tables were ringed with upholstered red chairs.

In the back a woman descended from an unseen second floor down a grand staircase. The men doffed their hats and made futile efforts to brush off dust and straighten shirts, but every eye stayed fixed on her. She looked ageless and more elegant than the saloon with carefully coiffed black hair and a ruffled Victorian gown.

“Good afternoon, gentlemen. I’m Miss Margelene,” she greeted, voice melodious. She had a lilting accent, but it was hard to say from where. “We didn’t intend to open until tonight, but apparently the law is impatient. Can I be of service?” She stood centered in the doorway.

“Yes’m, I, um – I have some questions as to how this here establishment was, um – established,” the sheriff mumbled, tugging his badge.

“Of course, I’m happy to answer – tonight, during the grand opening. For you, sheriff, everything’s on the house. Unless, that is, we’re violating any ordinances? I so hope we’ve met the standards set by your lovely settlement.”

“Standards! How’s about a standard of fair competition and -” Rabbit began, but the sheriff elbowed him and he cut off with a wheeze.

“No ma’am, tonight’ll do,” the sheriff said and donned his hat. “You heard the lady, ya buncha oglin’ buffoons. Grand opening tonight! Now git!” He shoved away the men and kicked a boy in the pants. The doors swung shut behind him.

###

Dex sped home, desperate to decide what to wear and scrub the ever-loving hell out of it. But more important, he had to tell Rowena everything.

Her modest ranch, home to the world’s finest horses in Dex’s estimate, lay a couple dozen miles south of the Gulch. He always figured the secret to Rowena’s success had to do with the fact that she herself was rather equine. Stately and athletic, even at her age, she never wasted a moment, but when her gray mane came down you could see the barely concealed wild streak. Dex grabbed an indigo shirt from his shack by the barn and hollered for Rowena while he filled her washtub and set to scrubbing.

“Lordy Dex, I know you like to be neat, but you washed your whole wardrobe last week!” she said, exiting the barn with her hair up and a saddle under one arm. “Where are the supplies? I appreciate you ran them bandits off last night before they rustled any horses, but they tore the fence terrible. Looks like one caught his leg though, there’s half a pair of pants hanging on the wire.”

Dex tumbled out the saloon story, and Rowena only interrupted to make him promise he hadn’t drank too much of Rabbit’s swill. Afterwards, he cajoled her to join him for the opening. She was busy, she said, and besides she hadn’t been to a saloon for five years, not since Fred passed, but Dex wouldn’t hear excuses. He hung his shirt to dry then pressed her until she agreed to go gussy up.

He readied the wagon. Rowena stepped out into the fading light of the half-set sun in an emerald pleated dress with earrings to match. He whistled until she clouted him in the chest.

“Shut it, purty boy. I’m old enough to be your grandmother.”

“Pshaw, you can’t be a day older than my mother,” he assured her. “And anyway, we make a purty pair, don’t we?”

###

Their arrival marked the first time they’d seen traffic in Gomer’s Gulch. It looked like the land had dumped out all the dwellers in a hundred miles to mill outside Miss Margelene’s Silver Saloon. The big black doors were shut again, and the sheriff was on guard with a crisp white shirt, black leather vest and a freshly oiled beard.

“Don’t think you’re gettin’ in Dex, even with your grandma girly-friend dolled up like a hooker,” he said when he caught sight of them. “I’ll throw her out right on top of you iffen you even try to get in.”

Dex drew himself up every inch, ready to defend Rowena’s honor, but she stepped in front of him, laughing.

“Little Stanley Sherman, is that you? I ain’t seen you since Fred tossed you outta Rabbit’s that night, playin’ at being a man, tryin’ start a gunfight. O’course, that was back when you only had a few scraggly hairs on that little chin to cover all your pimples.”

The crowd welcomed the distraction from waiting for the doors to open, but Dex watched the sheriff’s holsters. He tugged Rowena shoulder, but there was no stopping her.

“My, oh my. Can’t say I missed you, but what a surprise it was to hear anyone voted you for sheriff. Almost as surprising as seeing you still have that ugly beard.”

That was the last straw, Dex knew, but just as the sheriff’s fingers twitched, those black doors swung open and knocked him down again, this time on his face. The crowd, Dex and Rowena included, flooded in around him.

There must have been a couple hundred men and a quarter as many women, but the silver saloon accommodated everyone with room to spare. Servers, women in black silk blouses and pink frilled skirts, worked the bar and the floor. On stage, a trio of ladies sang a ditty about a showdown at high noon. Dex thought they shared a resemblance, but maybe it was only their sly smiles.

He snagged Rowena a seat and moseyed to the counter, but before he ordered, he noticed the sad-eyed sheriff’s wife next to him.

“Hello Hannah. Don’t think I’ve ever seen you in a saloon.”

“Hi, Dex. Couldn’t miss this,” she said. Then barely loud enough to hear, she added, “You should watch out. Stanley won’t stop talking about you since the election.”

“All good things, I’m sure?”

“Look at you, grinnin’ like a weasel in a hen house,” said the sheriff, cocking the pistol he had aimed at Dex. “You ain’t never gonna be sheriff, and you ain’t never gonna get the time of day from my girl.”

Dex drew the fastest he’d ever done, but he saw the sheriff pull the trigger and knew he was a half-second too late. He tensed, but the shot didn’t come. Miss Margelene did, swept in between them, skirts swaying, and Dex was terrified she’d taken the bullet meant for him, but she didn’t flinch.

“Not tonight, gentlemen,” she said, handing each of them a drink. Dex took the mug in his free hand then realized he was no longer holding his weapon. He looked down to find it holstered as if he’d never drawn.

“Thank you ma’am,” Dex said, sure that he owed her for more than the drink. He took a swig and found it was good beer, but unlike any he had tasted. There were strange undertones, maybe mint, he thought. But most strange, he realized, it was cold. Very cold, like the mountain snow he’d crossed coming to Gomer’s Gulch. When he tried to ask her about it, he saw Miss Margelene was drifting off with the sheriff.

Hannah looked distraught, but a waitress was soothing her, patting her back, and Dex figured she was better off here than her home anyhow, so he went to find Rowena. He turned down a couple dance offers on his way, the trio had switched to a romantic ballad, and he circled a couple poker games before spying Rowena, slow dancing with the general store owner. Maybe she was working on a deal for those supplies, he figured, and tossed back his drink, but when they spun around he nearly choked. He’d never seen Rowena beam like that, like a dozen years had rolled right off her back. At this rate, she’d have a new man at the ranch, and Dex would never be so glad to be put out of work.

The night unfurled, and, even with the sheriff prowling around, Dex had never felt better. The trio sang one merry tune after another; drinks flowed, delicious and cold; and even deep in their cups he never saw a soul turn sour, or get thrown out for lack of funds. In fact, he didn’t see anyone leave at all. Even Rabbit laughed, coaxing the bartenders to tell him where the spirits came from. Dex chatted with all kinds, old friends and people he’d only ever tipped his hat to, and they said warm words and told him they had voted him for sheriff. Dex knew they were only being nice, but still it made him flush.

When a waitress with a sunny smile and yellow curls spilling over her black top pulled him away from a game of darts, he let himself be pulled into a whirling circle of fuddled men at the saloon’s center. Together, they tried to keep pace with the jig a smaller circle of waitresses danced in their midst. Every so often, the women would stop and spin the other way, forcing the men to follow. Boots caught and tripped over boots, but the men laughed and tried to stay facing their favorite gal.

While the circle coiled this way and that, one woman pulled a silver scarf out from her blouse and danced forward. She wrapped the scarf around a burly man in a checkered shirt, and swiveled with him back to the center. The men hooted and whistled, and then each girl was going out, wrapping herself a man with her own scarf.

Dex watched and whistled too, until one raven-haired girl fetched the sheriff. Dex stumbled but kept step. His gorge rose when she gave the sheriff’s beard a tug. The circles kept moving, outer going fast to keep up with the girls and their captives.

The fellows in the middle smiled wide, jumping with the girls, a couple ventured to put hands on hips, but Dex saw the sheriff stagger, look left and right.

“Wait, wha-?” the sheriff sputtered and slowed. “Why us? Why-”

The man in the checkered shirt shoved into the sheriff. The music was morphing, volume louder, tempo faster, key minor. Dex heard the women in the center murmuring, indiscernible, saw blurred faces everywhere. He couldn’t tell anymore if he was dancing or the room was spinning itself round.

The women in black threw up their scarves and each exploded mid-air, burst into confetti, rained silver specs down to scattered applause. That is, until the pops and bangs kept going, more and more bursts of confetti until it was thick in the air and no one could see a thing. There were screams and then yells of ‘Smoke!’

Black smoke, heavy and perfumed like incense, poured down the grand staircase. It filled the room and turned everything as dark as the doors, dark as a moonless night.

###

Dex woke to Rowena slapping him hard across the face. He coughed and sputtered back to consciousness in her relieved embrace as the sun rose over the well-dressed bodies laid out on the bare patch of ground that had been Miss Margelene’s Silver Saloon.

It was the children, terrified and crying, that had shaken their parents awake first. As the adults came around they helped others up, parched and unsteady.

Once Dex was on his feet, he sent some kids to fetch buckets of water and rations. Then he saw the commotion and the little crowd gathering. He pushed his way through and found the six scarfed men from last night, sheriff included, naked and hogtied in silver chains, laid out in their little circle. Some tried to free them, others just laughed. The men didn’t look injured, except the sheriff, and it didn’t take Dex long to realize the bloody gash down his leg looked like it might match right up to Rowena’s barbed wire fence.

While the six men stewed in the small town jail, Dex led the swift investigation that turned up enough stolen property to expose their identities as Gomer Gulch’s notorious bandits, as well as the suspicious duplicate ballot boxes in the sheriff’s possession.

However, he never did find the sheriff’s red-headed wife, Hannah. Neither she nor the silver saloon was ever seen again, but on moonless nights he dreamed of her, smiling on stage in a black shirt, singing about the life she left behind.

Cordon Bleu Lasagna

Yield: 12 servings

Ingredients

2 eggs, beaten
1 (15 ounce) container ricotta cheese
1 cup (8 ounces) 4% cottage cheese
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1/4 cup + 2 tablespoons minced fresh parsley, divided
1 (16 ounce) jar roasted garlic Alfredo sauce
2 cups cubed cooked chicken
2 cups cubed cooked ham
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
6 lasagna noodles, cooked and drained
2 cups (8 ounces) shredded part-skim mozzarella cheese
1 cup (4 ounces) shredded Swiss cheese

Instructions

In a large bowl, combine the eggs, ricotta, cottage cheese, Parmesan and 1/4 cup parsley; set aside.
In another bowl, combine the Alfredo sauce, chicken, ham and garlic powder.
Spread 1/2 cup of chicken mixture in the bottom of a greased 13 x 9 inch baking dish. Layer with half of the noodles and ricotta mixture. Top with half of the remaining chicken mixture and half of the mozzarella and Swiss cheeses. Repeat layers.
Cover and bake at 350 degrees F for 40 minutes.
Uncover; bake 10 minutes longer or until bubbly.
Let stand for 15 minutes before serving.
Sprinkle with remaining parsley.

Which is the biggest threat to peace – America or China?

Without a doubt, America is the biggest threat to world peace.

America has fought in dozens of wars and conflicts since China opened up to the world in 1979. China, on the other hand, has fought no wars at all — not a single shot fired!

America instigated the proxy war in Ukraine and is now trying to start another proxy war in Taiwan or Philippines.

China has proposed peace plans for both Russia-Ukraine and Israel-Hamas. America has shot them both down.

America wants war. China avoids war.

Narcos – All Pablo Escobar Kills

You might be surprised at the changes that can hit you unexpectedly

When I was living in Erie, PA during my “parole” portion of my incarceration, I spent it at numerous facilities.

First with my father, and then at a monastery, and then finally at a half-way house. It’s all part of a program of reintegration with society.

Managed, of course, by the Parole branch of the local department of corrections.

They were pretty decent to me.

During the time at the “half way house” I shared a house with four other men. We each had a room, and maintained the house as part of a program.

We all had issues. One of the guys; a man named Mark was reintegrating from a lifetime of drugs. Another was Dave; who was dealing with mental issues stemming from a brain tumor. And there were others.

Each of us were unique. One guy was a bank robber who messed up really BIG TIME. Another was a young kid in his early 20’s who was just “losing it” because of a mental illness that he had.

*sigh*

We all worked a late night shift cleaning the local YMCA. We started at 9pm and came home at 4am. I led the crew because I was “responsible” and also because I had a drivers license.

Ah. It’s not the best life, but you get used to it. Low pay and hidden from sight. Just like everyone wanted.

So during the night we would scrub toilets mop floors and all the rest.

Shot of an unrecognizable man mopping the office floor

It’s what you might expect. Personally, I didn’t mind it. There was a calmness to mopping the floors in a big empty building late at night.

Ah. The snow would be falling outside. And I would just mop away. No one would bother me. First mop was to clean. Second mop was to rinse. It was simple and fine.

Anyways, Mark had a dog named Buddy, and this dog was a typical dog. I can’t say anything too bad about him. He was a beagle that was abandoned at the Humane Society.

Beagle,Standing.,Beagles.,Beagle,Breed.,6,Group,Fci.,Hunting,Dog.

I well remember once, It’s 4am, I just got home. I took off my shoes to get into bed and squish…

I turned on the light.

Buddy had broke into my room. He shit all over it.

He must of ate some that disagreed with him and shit was everywhere. In a panic, he tried to cover it up by knocking things off the desk and vanity; my books, papers and computer on top of the oozy piles of stinky shit.

I was pretty angry.

It took me until 5am, maybe 6am to sort everything out. And then, well a new day started.

Ah. Life happens.

So does shit.

You might be surprised at the changes that can hit you unexpectedly. You see guys, I hope you see… my life has been an ADVENTURE. And this is what my soul was trying to tell me as I entered my new baby body. THis life was going to be a real adventure…

… as I write this from my house in China and my daughter and wife are sleeping in the other room. An adventure.

Today…

Why is Russia living in the past with wars with neighboring countries?

Because Europe never did something which the Chinese did under Qinshihuang Di more than 2,000 years ago: conquer all the small kingdoms which formed China, kill all the royal families, and unify the language and measuring units.

The Qin dynasty was followed by the Han dynasty which built up a national bureaucracy which ruled the empire for 2,000+ years, and continues to rule China in its modern version, which is called the Communist Party of China.

The Han dynasty was milder than the Qin dynasty mainly because the Qin dynasty had already done most of the necessary killing to rule.

How does this relate to Russia and its neighbors?

Central and Eastern Europe is a clusterf**k of small- and middle-sized nations who generally hate each other for historical, cultural, linguistic, social and religious regions.

In order to maintain political influence in Europe, the U.S. has inflamed these hatreds because it gives the reason to keep a presence in Europe. Right now, most hate Russia, so now the US uses the umbrella of NATO to maintain its European presence. Without a strong European presence, the US would be largely confined to North America, and could no longer be considered a global power.

The USSR kept many of these countries from fighting each other with the Soviet socialist republics (including Ukraine) and the Warsaw Pact alliance, which disbanded after the collapse of the USSR. With the collapse of the USSR, all of the nationalist hatreds which had previously been suppressed broke out into the open.

It has been very much in US interests to frame Russia and Putin as the aggressor and instigator of all these troubles because this provides justification for the US presence and intervention.

IMO, all of central Europe should be either under German or Russian control; it would make things much easier if the local leaders were killed off in the same way Qinshihuang Di did in China. Eventually, Europe could be a grown-up region doing grown-up things, and taking care of its own defense.

Maybe…

Ordinary Cat Invades Fashion Show, Then It Does The UNTHINKABLE!

Reality

Poland and Belarus

Was anyone 1,000 years ago as smart as someone with average intelligence today?

I was teaching a science class in the Australian desert and the class was quietly working (it was a nice class). I looked out the window and I commented to no one in particular, “Looks like there will be a cyclone next week.”
The students mostly started laughing and one piped up “The national meteorologists said that the low would pass by without any problem.”

But there was a part of the class that did not object to my announcement… the local indigenous people. Instead they asked, “How do you [of European descent] know what our elders know?”
I smiled and pointed out the window, “The wind has changed to go in the opposite direction, the clouds have moved north instead of south, and the corellas (a small cockatoo) have all left town and gone to shelter in Karijini (local mountain range).”
The indigenous students were impressed and everyone else thought I was an idiot… at least they did until the cyclone hit the next week and flooded all the roads out of town.

The lesson here is that intelligence is not about knowledge gained through complex technology such as that used by meteorologists. Satellites, pressure gauges, wind charts—all of that is just data. True intelligence comes from an ability to assess the data and make a reasonable determination.
I made a reasonable determination based upon observational data … data indigenous people had been using for 50,000 years with success.

Ancient peoples used their intelligence to determine weather patterns, judge hunting techniques, and plan for the future year. They did all this without satellites or computers. Are modern people more intelligent than those before them?

No, we are not.

Ancient peoples can hold their head high … for they are intelligent and wise. Only an idiot would think otherwise.

Santa Fe Style Steak

Ingredients

1/2 cup Heinz 57 Sauce
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 1/2 teaspoons chili powder
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
4 beef steaks (for grilling)

Instructions

Combine all ingredients except steak; reserve 1/4 cup for dipping cooked steaks. Brush steaks with sauce mixture.
Grill to desired doneness, about 14 to 18 minutes for 1 inch thick steaks, turning once and brushing with sauce.

God's Rainbow - Noahic Covenant

American voter…

What was a red flag that made you stop talking to a person immediately?

I was at a local bar with some friends.

One of my friends wanted to smoke, but since smoking is forbidden indoors in Germany, we decided to join him outside. We were standing in a circle and happily chatting away, when someone said something which made me laugh out loudly.

Some random bloke was standing a few meters away from us, smoking and drinking a beer from a heavy clay mug. While I was laughing, he walked directly towards me and harshly asked what we were laughing about. I told him “nothing really, we’re just chatting and having fun.” He kept on moving uncomfortably close towards me, not satisfied with my answer, clearly thinking we’d made fun of him.

I wasn’t very intimidated by him since he was only about 1,65m tall and I was in decent physical shape. I stood my ground and was about to answer with an actual derogatory remark aimed at his intelligence. Both female friends who were present, started tucking at my shirt heavily, urging me to go back inside. I begrudgingly gave in.

What I hadn’t seen (and couldn’t see because he was so close), but they had noticed: while moving closer he had changed the position of the clay mug in his hand, ready to swing it at my head.

There were many a few red flags I should have noticed, but I was being arrogant due to his size and me being slightly intoxicated.

The final red flag, which I chose not to ignore, was my friends pulling me away.

What’s the most expensive thing you’ve gotten for an insanely cheap price?

I really should check with a landscaping company before bragging on this, but it’s too late on a Saturday. I got a 30,000 pound rock for only $75.

Every day for maybe a month, on my way to work, I rode my bicycle past a humongous big boulder that rested in a waste area along the border where my city was renovating and expanding the downtown Civic Center. I finally couldn’t stand it any longer so I hunted down the site foreman and asked, “What’s a deal with the big rock.?”

—”Oh, that. That damn thing is getting in the way. We’re going to have to move it pretty soon.”

“Can I buy it.?

Pause.

“Delivered.?’ I asked. “I live two blocks west from here. And, um, four blocks north. No, make that five blocks north; and then a U-turn into the alley; and then south down to the opposite end where I am. You have to approach my house from the north. The southside of the alley is a grandfathered-in illegally steep grade that can’t be fixed; I’ve asked. Nobody, literally, nobody enters my alley from the south end traveling north.”

“Yeah, sure.” More thinking. “$75.”

I know that rock weighs 30,000 pounds because that is the upper-limit payload that the construction company’s biggest on-site front-loader was rated for. The driver who delivered said that he had to go slow because throughout the entire trip, every time he rode over a bump or expansion crack he could feel the rear end of the front-loader lift off the road. Like a baby seesaw.

The driver and I laughed about it. I gave him a $20 dollar tip.

p.s. Around here, field stone is pretty much free from the surrounding farm fields. But you have to pick it and transport it yourself. The expense when you buy bigly landscaping rocks is really mostly for transporting them. Rocks are heavy. 😀

Being a father be like…

Why didn’t Sears adapt?

I led a small marketing team at Sears briefly in 2015. The experience was so terrible that I quit ~5 months into the role (at great financial cost) and was so depressed that I took the same amount of time off to stop hating myself for ever getting involved.

Almost every person I worked with at Sears—from division presidents to middle managers to the janitorial staff—truly believed that Sears still deserved to be a leading American brand, and that the rest of the country just hadn’t figured that out yet. Things I heard all the time from people at Sears corporate:

Customers are being unfair.
Customers should just give us a chance.
We’re just as good as anyone else.
Competitors don’t have anything we don’t have.
Amazon is cheating, they should be illegal.
Vendors are taking unfair advantage of us.
If customers just knew what we knew, they would come back.

I think this bizarre cognitive dissonance is the single largest driver of Sears’ failure. Sears waited for someone, anyone else to notice that the world isn’t working the way it should (as evidenced by their unjust decline). A significant chunk of the people I worked with at Sears had been with the company for more than ten years, and they held this attitude despite years of no compensation changes and benefits like 401k match disappearing. They kept this attitude as they bought SHLD shares at a slight discount through the employee stock purchase program (for roughly $25/share in 2015, worth $0.45 or so today). They maintained this attitude as they paid $1.25 per cup of drip coffee every morning (that they made themselves, via keurig, in the employee break room).

This was particularly frustrating for me as a B2B marketer. Business customers won’t hesitate to ask hard questions like “how will all the news about your trouble with creditors impact your ability to fulfill my orders?” and they expect real answers. If your value proposition boils down to “we promise we’re just as good as our competitors,” why should anyone care that you exist?

Recalling ALL of the RED FLAGS of Ladies Night

My landlord is evicting me because I’m 2 years late on rent. How do I tell him I’m not leaving no matter what?

I had a young, man who was a tenant. He and his GF decided to stop paying rent. They were also dealing heroin and fentanyl from the property. We found a lawyer who walked us through the procedure for eviction. We went to court and this fellow who normally walked around in dreadlocks and baggy sweatpants in a “sagging” style, showed up to court in a suit and tie.

He cited deficiencies in the apartment, my attorney cited the lease and the signed, pre-move-in inspection. He cited that he was jobless. My attorney cited that he paid me in cash up until the time he decided to quit paying. Another issue from the tenant, another rebuttal from my attorney.

At the end of the hearing, the judge gave him 60 days to move out. At the end of the 60 days, his parents showed up and under the watchful eye of the sheriff’s deputy, they removed his junk and cursed me and my wife and told the deputy how unfair it was to kick him out.

After leaving his trash and the pile of ratty furniture on the curb, I inspected the property with the deputy. I changed the locks and barred the windows. I hired a cleanup crew who specialized in cleaning potentially drug-laced areas. I repainted, fumigated and cleaned with bleach and fungicide. I placed a lien on his parents who cosigned his lease, I sued him in court and won and a lien was placed on his future earnings, I filed a credit report so he will not be able to gain credit until the debt is paid.

So go ahead and tell your landlord you are not paying and not moving. Enjoy court and a move-out under the watchful eye of the sheriff.

When did you first realize your child was different?

I first suspected the day after he was born. He was alert and looking around. Yes, I know they can’t focus their eyes but this kid was staring right at me. I felt he was staring through me. I told my wife it was like a sentient being was staring at me from behind those eyes.

At two weeks he would hold his head up to get a better view.

I was song leader at church and during service sat on the platform next to the pastor when something else was going on. My wife sat on the front row holding the baby. At six months he noticed me on the platform and mouthed “Hi, Pop” to me as clearly as day. The pastor noticed and whispered “He said ‘Hi, Pop.’” I nodded in agreement.

I started to write that he began walking at 9 months. In fact, he hit the floor running and has never slowed down.

His older brother and sister are smart and smarter. They both swear that he is smarter than either of them. Unfortunately he was diagnosed late with ADHD. He found it very hard to focus on boring things and developed bad study habits. He attempted college twice but never took to book learning. He drives a truck for a living. He also plays ukulele, recorder, and bass guitar. He juggles, makes glass marbles, roasts and grinds his own coffee brand, yo-yoes competitively, and is a former state spin top champion. He sews costumes for himself and his kids. He can also wire a house, rebuild a car engine, and create graphic art.

Oh, and he is 6 feet 4 inches (1.9m) tall and 240 pounds (108kg) of solid muscle. Best of all, he is still my sweet,tender-hearted, little boy.

FAB-3000 Bomb Blows Up a Cafe Building Along With NATO and Ukrainian Officers┃AFU Lost UROZHAINE

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’m going to go in the opposite direction. While a number of the answers that talk about better food and vacations not being a thing are absolutely right, the biggest difference to me is how I view setbacks.

When I was 20 and managed to get a car I made the mistake one night of parking in a place I shouldn’t have. My car got towed. It cost $125 to get it out. I didn’t have it. In fact, getting $125 for myself back then was so hard that I had to wait a week just to put it together.

Well, anyone that’s been towed knows, they charge you by the day when you leave your car there. By the time I had $125 the cost went up to $200. I was distraught, disheartened and certainly didn’t have that. I learned to appreciate having to walk everywhere, although I was incredibly frustrated ( luckily I lived in a city) since it made getting to work a major hassle. To this day I have gratitude to that tow lady, because she saw my reaction and waived the fees bringing the price back to $125 and gave me my car back. Kindness goes a long way, she really helped me out back then.

Anyways, fast forward almost 10 years.

Made a mistake, parked in a place that I shouldn’t have and my car got towed. It cost $285 to get it out (I live in a much more expensive city). I gave a sigh and a shrug and paid it instantly without thinking about it. While I was mad for making the mistake and having paid nearly $300, it didn’t phase me outside of that.

That is the difference.

If you have a setback when you’re poor it can destroy you. Seriously. I’ve watched my parents have setbacks and it put us, as a family, through some awful times. Recently my mom had a $2000 set back. I paid it the next day. Had I still been a kid, that same $2000 would have hurt us for months if not a year after.

When you have even just a little bit of money as an emergency fund, it makes a world of difference. Getting towed, accidents, small medical emergencies, getting sick and having to miss work for 2 or 3 days, missing your flight or train and having to buy a new ticket…

Setbacks, become so much easier to deal with.

Did you ever accidentally overhear a conversation about you on a conference call?

*Yes I did and it helped me make a big decision.*

I was pastor of a church and I had a leadership team of men who were mostly older than me. I was a young pastor and this was my first big church, having only run a smaller one before. My team were good guys but they didn’t know how to handle a young firebrand with a strong personality and ideas for change and innovation.

Some of the members tried to control me and make me into their idea of what they wanted from a leader, which is never going to work.

One day I was sitting in my church office and my phone rang. One of the team who was trying to control me had pocket dialled me and he was driving somewhere and had another team member in the car with him. They were talking about me.

They were discussing my flaws and how they wished I would just change and be what they wanted. There was no celebrating my abilities, just gossip about my inabilities. As a young man this was quite soul destroying. I did contact the one who make the pocket call and said that next time he gossips about me he needs to make sure he hasn’t just called me so I can hear it all. He tried to defend himself and say he was trying to be helpful discussing these things, but it helped me in other ways.

My wife and I had been contemplating emigrating and taking on a new challenge in a new culture, and this pushed us closer to the decision which we eventually made a few months later..

What was one expectation you had for boot camp that did not come true?

I was in boot camp beginning in April of 1975. I went to Great Lakes Naval Boot Camp outside of Chicago. I expected what I’d seen in movies. It was a very different experience.

Our Company Commander, Chief Seal, was taking his last company of recruits through their basic training before retirement. It was a very relaxed environment without tons of yelling and screaming and millions of push-ups and group punishment.

I found out later, through reliable sources, that the reason Chief Seal was much more lenient had to do with the previous company he took through basic. There were 2 suicide attempts and several attempts of recruits being AWOL. The one that got to him was a young man he sent to the brig after a minor violation. It was something that could have been handled differently. Once in the brig, this young man, who was from Midland, MI, was abused by the Marine Handlers who were in charge. This was nothing unusual. It’s what Marines do. Unfortunately, during one of the punishment episodes, the young man died. In an attempt to cover up what had happened, 4 Marines took the young mans body and placed it across the railroad tracks that ran outside of the base. Later he was struck by train. During the investigation, something didn’t sit right with the investigators. Something about body placement. Four Marines were arrested, went to court martial, and were found guilty of murder and covering up what had happened. This whole episode weighed heavily on Chief Seal and he vowed he wouldn’t be that hard on his next, and last, group of recruits. The reason it was his last group was “political pressure” (for want of a better name) from higher in the chain of command. He was allowed to stay in service, providing he put in for retirement.

Overall my Boot Camp experience was better than others I heard about at the same base.

How Attractive

What were the worst two minutes of your life?

At age 37, I had my first baby via emergency C-section, after an 83-hour labour.

When I got pregnant again at 39, I had

A scar on my uterus
A large fetus with a head size off the chart (literally off the chart: the little red dot was printed beyond the end of the line)
A fetus in an extended breach position, little bum at the bottom, big head at the top, legs straight up in front of her body (must have been so uncomfortable!)

So halfway through my pregnancy I was scheduled for an elective C-section as trying for a vaginal birth sounded like a disaster waiting to happen. Good plan!

On the day, after all the starving and prep, I was taken into theatre, and the doctor decided to check the baby’s position with one last ultrasound. She said “if the baby has flipped, I am not doing it.”

(Lady, she hasn’t had space to flip for the last three months, what are you on? Also, way to jump it on me NOW!)

Anyway, the baby hadn’t flipped, so let’s chop. At this point, perhaps due to all the poking, the baby twisted a quarter turn, so that instead of facing sideways, she was now facing towards my back. More importantly, her legs were now underneath her body.

So the doctor was rummaging around, trying to find some part of the baby to grab onto. No luck.

Let’s make the cut bigger.

Rummage.

Bigger.

Rummage.

At this point the uterus decided “Yeah, I am done, stop bothering me, I will just go and contract back to the size of a pear, shall I.”

On the baby’s head.

All I could see was two people finally grabbing two tiny ankles and dragging with all their might. There was silence.

Then everyone rushed to a distant corner of the room and the anaesthesiologist’s assistant, who had stayed with me, said in a weak voice: “She will be OK…”

The two minutes contemplating how to tell my toddler that her new baby sister was not coming home… I sincerely hope I will never have another two minutes like that.

P.S.: Yeah, this was 14 years ago, that baby now wants to be a neurobiologist, she is learning five languages and plays the harp.

‘I Can’t Believe You Have Been Nominated!’: Hawley Goes Nuclear On Nom Over Writings About Gender

How old were you when you first went to prison? What was your sentence and what was your crime?

Boy do I have a story for you. I was 57 when I was sentenced to 24 months in federal prison for selling a firearm to a felon. I had owned my own gun shop for 25 years prior to that, was working as a shift manager at the local casino, and had been retired from the state prison system for 15 years when I left I was the director of operations. I had no prior criminal history never been arrested and was a model citizen.

Why did I go to prison? Because I sold a gun to a woman at a gun show ( a small .22 caliber pistol) did the background check (she lied on the form) and when the ATF went to arrest her for felon in possession, and falsifying federal documents, she made some kind of deal to get me. ATF revoked my federal gun license, arrested me, my wife, and my daughter who worked at the store, and charged us all with the selling of the firearm, conspiracy, and providing material false statements to federal agents.( My wife and daughter were not even at the gun show) I had to hire a lawyer for each of us 50k and we were released on pre trial detention had to take urine tests weekly and were on kind of parole, couldn’t leave the state etc..

My lawyer was the best in the state and told me the charges were bull shit and I had a 95 % chance of beating them at trial, however if we lost we would all go to prison for at least 5 years. The prosecutor and ATF AGENT wanted me to go to prison for 10 years and pay $100,000 dollars in fines. I couldn’t risk my family going to prison so my lawyer made a deal with the feds and the charges were dropped against my daughter and wife after I plead guilty. I was sentenced to 24 months and paid 10,000$

The prosecutor claimed victory, I lost my job, my store and my dignity, but the feds got a non dangerous person off the streets and everyone made a ton of money all in the name of “Operation safe streets” lucky my state retirement benefits couldn’t be touched by the feds but they did take all the store inventory, we were literally close to being homeless, I am now a felon, on 3 year supervised release after doing 14 months in federal prison and 6 months in a halfway house. The entire process cost you the taxpayer to prosecute, house, medical care, supervision, and the the rest a cool half million bucks! Congratulations ATF and federal prosecutors for keeping our streets safe.

NATO summit, funeral to circus

The grift has taken over all the “leadership” of Europe. Brilliant analysis.

As a waiter/waitress, how would you describe the behavior of the worst type of diner, and what would the tip be?

I’m not a waiter/waitress, but I recently witnessed this behavior at a casino.

For those who haven’t been to one, there’s waitresses who roam about and will bring you alcoholic beverages (sometimes for a price, sometimes for free so long as you’re gambling) or else water/soft drinks (nearly always for free). The idea is to keep you behind the machine and feeding it money.

Some casinos have a “loyalty program” in which you sign up, get a plastic card, and if you gamble enough you rack up points and get free stuff. Sometimes the free stuff is money – maybe $10 or $15 – but the money is put on your card and cannot be redeemed for actual cash. That money has to be used to play slots.

So the guy sitting next to me orders a drink. Usually you tip the waitress a couple of bucks. But this guy? When she brings his drink, he points to his card and says “If you can figure out how to get $2 in cash off the card, that will be your tip.” Of course, both he and the waitress know that you can’t convert the card money into cash. So not only was he not tipping her, he was rubbing her nose in it.

Second worst behavior in a diner. There’s a party of 3–4 and the waitress comes out to bring beverages. One of the guys puts five singles on the table. He tells her “That’s your tip. Every time you screw something up, I’m going to take away one of those dollars.” The waitress became enraged and told him and his buddies to get the hell out. I thought, “Good for her.”

Reacting To Biden’s Dangerous NATO Speech

A historical disaster.

As a criminal defense lawyer, what was the most embarrassing surprise evidence against your client at trial?

Man oh man I made a blunder once. I learned from it and never let it happen again.

The most embarrassing surprise evidence against my client at trial was: MY CLIENT!

I had a drunk driving case. The evidence against my client was tough but not insurmountable. I got to know my client pretty well prior to trial. He was seemingly outstanding. A well-spoken intelligent gentleman, a war hero. He even worked at the time of the incident taking care of the elderly. He hobbied in photography and had rushed to ground zero on 911 shortly after the towers had fallen. The pictures he took ended up on the front page on newspapers around the world.

He had left a bar in New Bedford driving his brand new four-wheel drive SUV. On the way home, he wanted to show off to his buddy/passenger the vehicle’s capabilities and turned and drove over the grass and dirt median and onto his driveway. The blue lights went on. Field sobriety tests conducted. Not bad not good. He admitted he had the proverbial “2 beers” etc. bloodshot eyes, odor of alcohol, etc., etc. No Breathalyzer Test. Two police officers on the witness list to testify against him etc.

I felt the trial would most likely go in our favor. But I had such confidence in my client being the Ace in the hole that I made the BIG mistake of promising the jury in my opening he would testify. This was a big mistake for two reasons. 1. The officers surprisingly maybe even intentionally did AWFUL on the stand. It was a seeming slam dunk Not Guilty for us.

We broke for lunch after the prosecution rested. My client was dying to testify. I was apprehensive from the get-go during lunch. Why let him testify when we seemingly had it in the bag? But I had enthusiastically promised the jury he’d tell his side of the story, and he was persistent about having his say in court. So 2. (My other mistake): I relented.

He took the stand and immediately turned from Dr Jeckyll into Mr Hyde and then some. And THIS WAS DURING DIRECT EXAMINATION with me tossing softball questions to him. During cross-examination he became downright damn belligerent:

“Sir you said you only had 2 beers is that correct?”

“Yeah, that’s what I said. But you know. Maybe it was 3. Maybe it was one. But you know what? What the F business is it of yours how many damn beers I had?”

Yikes. It got worse from there if you can believe it. He, (we) snatched defeat from the jaws of victory. The jury came back guilty in 45 minutes.

I never ever again promised a jury they’d hear from my client. And I never ever put a client on the stand until I actually took the client to an empty courtroom before the trial date and put the client on the stand and practised both direct and cross on them myself.

lesson learned the hard way. Call it a trial by error.

Why did Radio Shack close down, and what took its place?

Originally Answered: Why did Radio Shack close down, and what took it’s place?

Nothing took it’s place, unless you consider the internet.

Radio Shacks failure was due to the inability to adapt. I worked for “The Shack” from 2004 to 2010 and spent 4 years as a store manager, running 2 different stores. Although I was not with Radio Shack at the end I saw the writing on the wall long before I left the company to open my own business. During this time I watched the upper management fall like a house of cards. There were three CEO’s and only one of them seemed like they had any idea how to turn the company around and that person was only an interim CEO until they could hire someone else.

Radio Shack’s ultimate down fall was they neglected the product lines and customers that had built the company. Radio Shack started by selling radios and other equipment to the amature ham rado operators. This was a thriving business from the 1920’s through the 1940’s when the were just a small company operating only a few stores in the northeast. In the 1950’s televisions were driving customers into the stores. Then in the 60’s and 70’s CB radios became the thing to have and Radio Shack was leading the industry. By the late 70’s and early 80’s sales shifted to high fi audio. Then in the mid 80’s Radio Shack hit a home run with one of the very first affordable home computers the TRS 80. In the 80’s Radio Shack was the place to go if you needed a computer or any accessories. That’s difficult to think of today but it was such a huge market Radio Shack opened several locations that were nothing but computer stores. This continued through the mid to late 90’s. High fi and computers were the primary products in the stores, but there was this one little product that was kept in the display case, often ignored and only sold to the occasional customer who had very deep pockets. These were the first cell phones.

I started working at the Shack at in interesting time, in an interesting location. In the late 90’s and early 2000’s the cell phone industry was booming. Cell phone companies were offering huge subsidies on their products to get customers to sign up for a plan. This is why cell phones cost next to nothing. You could get an average cell phone for anywhere from free to $20. However what the customer didn’t know is the cell companies were subsidizing each phone and paying Radio Shack the full retail price. So the phone might actually cost $300 to $400 and whatever the customer didn’t pay, the carrier did. Many stores were selling between 10 to 20 phones every day. At an average of $350 for each phone, the stores were raking in some serious cash and the customer was paying almost nothing. The carriers of course made that back by locking the customer in to a 2 year contract where a portion of their bill each month went to pay off the subsidy. Also Radio Shack got a small portion of the customers bill each month. This was a great deal as long as people were activating a new cell phone with a new phone number, and that was their achilles heal.

Around 2004–05, the cell phone market in my area became saturated. This meant 80% of all customers who could own a cell phone did. The only people who were still activating new phones were the elderly and the kids who had just turned 18 and were now able to sign a contract. So instead of new phone activations, the stores were doing more upgrades, (i.e. replacing an older phone with a newer model.) The carriers didn’t like this as much and didn’t pay the full subsidy. Often this required the customer to pay more. A phone that may have cost between $0 and $20 for a new activation, may cost $50 to $200 for the upgrade. The customers didn’t like this for obvious reasons and would often go elsewhere where they could get a better deal (WalMart). As the market became saturated cell phone sales started to decline. I got wind of a conference call between the execs in Fort Worth who were asking the Atlanta District Managers “What’s going on in Atlanta?” Over the next several months the same pattern started appearing in other large cities.

Due to this Radio Shack doubled down on it’s cell phone business. The stores were remodeled and all cell phones were moved to the front and center. The customers had to walk through a gauntlet of phones before they could find that 60 cent resistor in the back of the store. Every Sunday’s ad had cell phones on the front and center, each week a new phone was featured as a great new deal, etc, etc. Now the primary metric for evaluating a stores performance was based on the number of phone activations each store was doing each day. It didn’t matter if the store sold $5000 in a single day on non cell phone products, if they were not activating phones there was a problem and staff just wasn’t doing a good enough job qualifying the customers to sell them a phone. A typical store was expected to have between a 10 and 15 hit rate, this means for every 10 to 15 transactions completed one of them should have been a cellular phone. This resulted in some interesting “strategies and techniques” that were introduced to better train and motivate the sales staff. Unfortunately once these techniques reached the sales staff they were pretty much ignored. It was like the generals in World War 1 who had never been to the front lines giving orders for the troops to charge the machine gun nest, but couldn’t figure out why all the soldiers kept getting killed.

The sales staff knew what the problems were and I personally witnessed many associates and managers attempt to bring these concerns to the upper management. The result was often a review of their pay check or for the manager’s the monthly P&L to see what was wrong. Associates and managers were told they can voice their concerns when they fixed their numbers. 99% of the time it had something to do with too few cell phone activations.

I personally was singled out on a particular weekend when the company decided to have a major push and was able to reduce the price of the Motorola Razor or RAZR phone (Remember those) to $20 with both a new activation or an upgrade. We had a conference call that Friday morning and everyone was supposed to motivate their staff and let every customer know about this great deal on the RAZR. Around 4:00pm my cell phone sales were at a grand total of zero and the rest of my sales was looking pretty dismal as well. I got a call with both my district and regional managers on the line who wanted to know what was going on and why we were not selling these RAZR’s unlike all the other stores in the district? My reply, “Well with all due respect gentleman, It’s kind of hard to compete with the WalMart having its grand opening down the street and giving the same phones away for free.” At the end of the day I believe I had just cleared $1000. The rest of that weekend was about the same. The only phones we sold were the little free ones and no RAZRs. It took some time but my district manager finally had to agree that my situation was unique and I was let off the hook.

The cell phone carriers were also looking out for themselves. In order to get a cell phone the customer had to qualify and that was based on their credit report. If the customers credit was low they had to pay a deposit. It didn’t matter if the customer got the phone from Radio Shack or elsewhere, the deposit was still required as it was set by the provider. Well the providers could be finicky. It was not uncommon for the providers to change their minimum requirements to qualify for a phone. So a customer who had a 500 credit score, might require a $400 deposit one day and the next $0. If the carrier wanted to activate more phones, they would relax the requirements. If they wanted to be cautious they would increase them. Radio Shack had no control over this but because Radio Shack was putting all of it’s eggs in one basket an unannounced change in credit requirements could impact the entire company’s bottom line, and it did.

Another issue was something that was started by Charles Tandy when he bought the company. In Mr. Tandy’s day this was a great concept but by the 2000’s it was outdated. Mr. Tandy felt he could deliver a better product, at a better price and make more profit if he could control the supply chain, thus he created several brands that were exclusive to Radio Shack, Realistic, Archer, Enercell, to name a few. This practice and was still there when I was an employee and leading to decreasing sales. For example the Apple Ipod was a very popular product at the time. Unfortunately Radio Shack could not buy enough inventory from Apple to properly stock their stores to meet demands. So what did they do, they created their own unique MP3 player sold only at Radio Shack to compete with Apple. Why pay $300 for an Ipod when you can get this MP3 player for $60? It will play all the same music and the controls are only a little bit confusing and you can’t read the screen, but it will do everything an Ipod will do. Oh would you like to buy the Radio Shack headphones to go with that? Again the generals at the rear didn’t get it. We just didn’t have the products the customer wanted. This is why Radio Shack became irrelevant.

Many of the long time customers who had kept Radio Shack in business stopped shopping there. The company was so cell phone centric, that the associates were never trained on how to sell the other products in the store. They were never taught the little things that customers would come in for, i.e. knowing how to read the colored stripes on resisters, knowing how to calculate wattage for a power supply, or even what the different cables for a hooking up a DVD player could do. All their training went to techniques in order to qualify customers for a new cell phone activation. If someone came in needing a specific part or had a technical problem that required someone with real knowledge, that was to bad, but the associates would be happy to check your eligibility to upgrade your cellular phone. This of course upset and outraged the once loyal base of customers and they just stopped shopping there. Around 2012 I remember many late night talk show host and comedians asking “Can you remember the last time you were in a Radio Shack?”. And that was considered a funny joke.

At the end the upper management finally woke up and realized they could not continue the way they were and in order to survive they would have to start closing stores. However one of the major investors had a contract that prohibited them from closing more than 200 stores a year. With over 5000 locations nationwide, closing 200 stores was not going to be enough to make a difference. This set up Radio Shack for a buyout and that is what happened. After 2 bankruptcies Radio Shack shut down and is now only a website and a few small stores that are privately owned.

Radio Shack missed many opportunities in the 1990’s and 2000’s that could have turned the company around. If they kept the focus on what got them to where they were they would still be here today. Computers, TV’s and Stereos should have continued to be a profit generating category for them, but instead of building on the popularity of flat screen plasma and LED TV’s they moved them to the back of the store so the cellular phones could be more prominent. Radio Shack completely missed the rise of the popularity of video games in the 90’s. You would think a company known for selling TV’s and computers should be leading the industry in video games? Nope, totally ignored it. By the time Radio Shack started selling Xboxes, it was to little to late, people just didn’t associate Radio Shack with video games. DVDs and BluRays could have been a big category for them as well, but they also ignored that in favor of getting more cell phones out the door. For a short time they tried selling DVDs but again, too little, way too late. Then in my opinion there was the final nail in the coffin. Radio Shack never embraced the internet. They had a web site, (technically still do). But it was never utilized correctly. For the longest time Radio Shack had a catalog that was hundreds of pages thick that had every product they sold. You would think that would be a great thing to put on the internet. Well they did, but not until big companies like Amazon, Ebay, etc had already dominated it.

When Radio Shack stopped embracing their past and looking only at the present and never at the future their downfall was assured. That’s what I saw in 2009 and decided I could run my own company better. So that’s what I did.

Edit…

I appreciate everyone that has suggested edits to this answer. I really do!

However I have a slight bit of dyslexia and I’m prone to make spelling, grammer, syntax errors from time to time. So for now I’m going to leave this the way it is as my own little signature. 😉

Thanks guys

Who is the luckiest person you have ever known?

My son. Well, he is the unluckiest luckiest person I know. Aged 18 months old he fell onto an unguarded gas fire. His little palm of hand was one enormous blister. My mother in law put butter on it ( this was in 1962) which fried his skin. I put it straight into cold running water for 10 minutes. I took him to the doctor who said he might have damages the nerves and tendons in his hand so he might never be able to use it. He did.

Aged 8 years old he was out on his bike with his Dad cycling around in our quiet cul-de-sac when a white car came hurtling around the corner . It knocked him off his bike onto the pavement and carried on to run over and crush the bike. He suffered bruises and a cut knee and hand .

Age 10 years old , while playing football in the local park he fell onto a broken glass bottle. The deep laceration cut down between the tendons of his fingers and nerves so nothing was damaged except the flesh . He could still use his hand.

Aged 17 years old he went to work on a building site , during the summer holiday. He was put in charge of the cement mixer. After putting in shovelfuls of cement and sand , he pushed the lever in , to start the mixer. Everything went well until the lever shot out catching my son cutting his eyebrow in half. The doctor said another half an inch lower and he would have lost his eye. His father, my husband had worked for the firm and was injured because of rusty equipment. But that’s another story. Why my son went there , knowing that, I don’t know.

Aged 61 years of age , he had a massive stroke. I live nearby to his apartment and I decided to pop up to see him. I was, with the help of his employers , able to call an ambulance and get him to hospital. That is the only lucky bit because the doctors couldn’t give him the injection to dissolve the blood clot because he had a bleeding stomach ulcer. He is paralysed down his left side. Unfortunately his luck is not so good as it once was.

The Gunfighter Theory

Rudy Uribe

I thought when I died, I would instantly know the answers to all the mysteries of the universe. Was Darwin, right? Does life exist on other planets? How did they build the pyramids? The reality is I didn’t learn a darn thing. The mysteries of life did not present themselves as I had expected. Once my soul left the body, and I passed through those pearly gates, I didn’t care if I knew those answers or not.Even though I’m poo-pooing solving the world’s greatest mysteries, the one mystery that kept gnawing at me was how the universe began. I never bought into the Big Bang Theory.The idea that two basketball-sized objects collided in space to begin the universe is preposterous. Think about it, what are the odds of two objects, that small, colliding in the vastness of space? I mean, if they miss each other there is no chance of them ever meeting again. They would simply go on and on unless the universe is a sphere, in which case they might ricochet off the edge and have another go at it.Don’t get me wrong, I was enjoying heaven and all the perks that go along with being there, but I still couldn’t shake the Big Bang Theory. People on earth were still talking about it, and I knew in my gut, if I still had a gut, that they were wrong.I made an appointment to see the Big Guy, and I asked permission to go back in time to when it all began. He explained that since I didn’t believe in the Big Bang, there was no going back in time since the Big Bang was supposedly the beginning of time. I rephrased my question and didn’t mention the time thing again since the Big Guy was apparently a stickler for semantics.He told me that there was no free lunch in heaven and that I would have to discover the answer for myself. He called over another spirit and told him to join me. “This is Jimmy,” The Big Guy said, Jimmy believes in the Big Bang and wants to see it happen first hand.” The Big Guy went into a windup like a major league pitcher and hurled our spiritual asses into the cold dark vastness of space and told us to have fun.Great, I had left those cushy clouds for total blackness and Jimmy’s company. Since the universe had not been created yet, there were no stars or moons or suns or anything on which we could focus our attention. I looked down at my auric glow and felt like a ship on a moonless night. I looked over at Jimmy, who had a huge grin on his spiritual face. Despite the emptiness and the silence, we both sensed that something epic was going to take place.Those two basketball-sized objects that supposedly started the universe, well, they were floating in that black void, but they were not the size of basketballs. Instead, they were monstrous rocks. They were practically invisible because there was no light for them to reflect other than our auras, but since Jimmy and I didn’t have eyes anymore, it didn’t really matter. Despite our lack of vision, our spirits were able to sense everything and it was as if we could see the rocks were there.“Basketballs, huh?” I yelled at Jimmy. Yelled isn’t completely accurate since we were communicating telepathically, but Jimmy got the point.“It’s all relative,” Jimmy said. When you compare their size to the emptiness around us, they are no bigger than atoms. So, describing them as basketballs isn’t too far off.Dang, it. Jimmy had gone one up on me. I should have taken a debate class in high school.I stood on one rock and Jimmy stood on the other, we rode them through space, waiting for the big collision. I watched as Jimmy’s rock missed mine by a mile. Well, more than a mile.He transported himself over to my rock and stood with me. It turned out the massive rocks didn’t collide as I had surmised. Instead, they missed each other by a hundred million light-years. I thought their mass would create a gravitational attraction even at that great distance, but they silently passed each other headed for who knows where for the remainder of time, if there was such a thing as time. I was right; there had been no collision, no big bang.“What do you think now, Jimmy? No crash. No Big Bang.” Jimmy looked puzzled.

Satisfied that I had been right about there being no Big Bang, I left Jimmy to figure out what happened and returned to my cushy clouds.

“So, did you learn how I created the universe?” The Big guy asked.

“No, Sir,” I said, “But I know it didn’t start with a big bang, and that’s good enough for me.”

“Well, that’s not good enough for me. Now get back out there and find the answer to your question.”

The Big Guy was tougher than my physics teacher. I found myself back in the dark vacuum with Jimmy.

“Why did you come back?” Jimmy asked.

“The big guy wants me to stick it out and see how he created the universe.”

“Maybe there are more than two rocks,” Jimmy said. “I still think a collision is imminent.”

We raced through space, but since there was no wind or any other objects to give us perspective, I wondered if we were moving at all. When I was alive and standing on earth, I was hurtling around the Sun at a hundred thousand miles an hour, but I couldn’t feel it. Standing on this rock felt the same.

Jimmy and I stood around for what seemed like an eternity when we felt the spheroid quake.

“Something’s happening,” Jimmy said.

“Do you really think there’s another rock that we’re going to crash into?” I asked.

“Could be,” Jimmy said, “I hate to say it since I’ve only known you for a couple of billion years, but I think those astronomers are just a little bit smarter than you are. If they say two rocks collided, I believe them.”

I hated that Jimmy and those scientists might be right, so I let his comment go.

It was almost imperceptible at first, but my spirit could feel the trembling. The tremors grew, and I felt we were approaching the end and the beginning of something remarkable.

I focused all of my attention on the rock that was now generating heat. I felt an increase in pressure. The Big Guy had given us the ability to utilize some of our earthly senses. I wasn’t sure if it was dark matter that was pressing in on us, but I knew we were reaching a moment of critical mass. The pressure was increasing exponentially. The ground shook harder and a minuscule crack appeared in the asteroid. “Something is happening, but I don’t see any other rocks coming our way,” I yelled to Jimmy.

“That’s because there’s no light,” he replied.

Dang, it. Jimmy had an answer for everything.

Gas spewed forth, and my excitement grew. The planetoid trembled violently and then let go with a blast so powerful it filled the blackness with a firework display of light. The Big Guy must have turned off some of my senses at that moment because I didn’t feel any pain or the cosmic concussion that must still be rippling through time and space, but I could see what was taking place.

Jimmy had jumped off our rock in the nick of time and joined me for a front-row seat.

Simultaneously, or so I sensed, the other rock underwent a similar fate. Both spheres had reached the end of their journeys, and exploded, propelling shards of rock, and light and gas towards each other. It was as if two gunfighters had reached the count of ten, turned, and fired.

Each piece of granite and iron grew to enormous proportions. The gasses coalesced and formed galaxies. The molten stones rotated at speeds I can’t describe until they settled into spherical shapes. The darkness was filled with light, but since there was no atmosphere in space there was still dark around us. Incredible.

The blasts represented the beginning of two timelines. Earth existed in one of the universes, but did it also exist in the other? The two universes hurtled toward each other from the deepest recesses of space. Was this the beginning of everything?

Jimmy and I made our way across the cosmic timeline at the speed of thought traversing galaxies, and nebulae and we marveled at the light show. The galactic dust looked like two muzzle flashes heading for each other.

“God must like westerns,” I said.

“Humanity isn’t going to survive long enough to discover the other universe that’s speeding toward them,” Jimmy said, “That’s a shame.”

“Just as well. Since the collision would represent the end of time as they know it anyway.”

“Well,” Jimmy said, “I have to admit that you were right and I was wrong. What are you going to dub this event?”

“I kind of like, The Gunfighter Theory.”

“Not much of a theory since we saw it happen.”

“I guess,”

Jimmy and I had our answers. We learned how the universe began, and it didn’t involve a big bang as Jimmy, and the astronomers thought. But unraveling one mystery only presented me with a couple of others. I made sure not to ask the Big Guy any more questions because he would make me figure it out on my own, and I wasn’t in the mood for any more homework.

When we got back to heaven, Jimmy shook my hand, thanked me for my companionship, and headed for the volleyball courts.

I chose to walk the grounds, wondering what had caused the spheres to reach critical mass and explode? I was deep in thought and hadn’t noticed the Big Guy was watching me. “I know how the universe started,” I mumbled out loud, “But I still don’t know who created those two giant rocks in the first place?” The Big Guy cleared his throat.

I looked up. “Oops, sorry, Big Guy.”

Visions of life

WHEN LIFE IS HARD

When did you realize something was a blessing in disguise?

When my house burned down. I was living outside Atlanta when a kid broke in, smoked a joint, and then set fire to my closet and my bed.

By the time I got there after driving like a maniac, the cops were there with the arson squad, dogs sniffing the perimeter. I had no idea what the inside would look like.

When I entered, EVERYTHING was covered in water and black soot. I would go into a room and scream. Then go into another and do the same thing. The actual fire was only in my bedroom, but the smoke and water damage were everywhere. The shock of seeing all my antique furniture ruined was terrible. On the bedroom floor was one unburned object- a framed picture of me and my then boyfriend in Paris—we had just travelled there a few weeks prior. He had just been laid off from his job.

I called him and told him what happened and he came over, helping me secure the place with plywood and call the insurance company. Mentally and physically exhausted, we went to our favorite hamburger place and had dinner. He said to me, “You know what? We’re the perfect couple for the 90’s.” I said, “What’re you talking about?” He says, “Well, you’re homeless, and I’m unemployed!” with a big, shit-eating grin. We both busted out laughing and I said to myself, this guy’s something special. He manages to have a sense of humor in the darkest times.

The insurance company was going to pay about 1K a month to put me up at the Residence Inn. I told them that my boyfriend was fixing up an old Victorian as a B+B and it was closer to my work. So they paid HIM instead. They paid his mortgage through the spring just when he needed it. Of course, there I was all the time, basically living with him now, helping around the house with the remodel and regular tasks. We fell even more in love and got engaged.

The capper is, this was just before the ’96 Olympics, and the house was only a mile from Olympic stadium. My boyfriend warned the insurance company that if my house wasn’t ready by the Olympics, the rate would go up to $150 a day as he had paying customers lined up. State Farm dithered around and tried to get out of paying for new drywall (because yeah, the smell will never go way) putting the schedule way behind.

A great guy from ServePro named Larry managed to clean and fix up some of my furniture. (I’m ever thankful to you, Larry!) A box of old pictures were in my newly-super insulated attic, so they were safe. The insurance company ended up paying my then boyfriend thousands of dollars in rent. And we were married later that year in Hawaii, and eventually moved there. All because of a shitty thing that randomly happened to me. I care a lot less about material possessions now.

The shocking reality of moving to Europe.

Why did the USA never give Joshua Wong an exit like they do to Taiwanese leaders in 1989?

Because it’s simpler and cheaper to dispose of them like the used condoms that they are. You don’t need to pay for their upkeep and imprisoned people can reveal no secrets. If you don’t pay for their upkeep well bad things can happen.

There’s literally a perfect case study for this.

Wang Yim and Allan Chappelow.

Chappelow was murdered in 2006 by Wang Yim. Ok so what?

Jacqui Smith wanted the trial to be held in secret.

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Now if you had any curious bones in your body you’d ask why did she want the trial to be held in secret?

Smith said NATIONAL security!

Wang Yam had fled Beijing in 1989. He was literally an agent working for the UK intelligence services. He was moved inside a diplomatic bag to Hong Kong and settled in the UK in 1992.

Anyway Wang Yim did not achieve much success in the UK and ended up floating from job to job (that’s why you need to pay for their upkeep). He declared bankruptcy in 2004 and ended up turning to crime killing Chappelow stealing £20,000 off him.

So the story ends there right?

Nope.

Wang Yim made an appeal. The usual shebang that he received an unfair trial.

The points were:

Evidence was given in secret.
No jury was also unfair.

Human rights court dismisses MI6 informant Wang Yam’s appeal

Court rules that evidence given in secret did not mean his murder trial was unfair

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2020/jan/16/human-rights-court-dismisses-mi6-informant-wang-yam-appeal

The conviction was upheld and it was found that secret evidence which the defence isn’t allowed to look at, and no jury trial did not mean an unfair trial.

Why is this relevant? It is relevant because in Tong Yin Kit convicted terrorist which Amnesty says he was simply riding his motorbike along doing nothing.

He too tried the no jury = unfair trial.

Evidence was given in an OPEN court too.

Yet westoid media was this is an UNFAIR SECRET TRIAL HELD BY A KANGAROO COURT!

He did nothing wrong!

Even WION showed the RAMMING

What was it like to deliver a presentation to Steve Jobs?

I worked at Apple, and had to present to Steve every now and then.

The first time we met, he walked into the room, looked around, realized that I was new, walked up to me and asked (all in one breath), “Are you smart? Do you know what you are talking about? Are you going to waste my time?”

Instead of responding right away, I decided to consider what if anything I was going to say. But since I did not respond right away, Steve said, “Good, let’s get started.” I wonder how that meeting would have gone if I had tried to say something instead…

I presented new technology to him a number of times. Sometimes it was my ideas, and sometimes it was the work my team did (My team always did exceptional work. The people that reported to me were outstanding, and it was an honor to manage them.).

We were in a meeting one time, and Steve commented on how much he hated the ‘wart’ that was the external iSight camera. I said, “I can make it internal.” Steve asked how long it would take to have a prototype ready. My team worked on it (with many other teams both software and hardware), and we developed a prototype. We had the demo set up and ready to go for the next day. The only ‘glitch’ we had not anticipated was one of the software guys upgraded the OS on the machine AFTER we had run through the demo and felt it was ready. So the next day when we showed it to Steve, there was a color shift in the video we had not seen the day before. He asked why, and the software engineer spoke up and said he had updated the OS and it probably changed the gamma settings. Steve I think was more amused, and just said, “Get things right, and show it to me again.”

Another time, I was presenting a feature for Motion I came up with. Real-time, green-screen, high-definition chroma-keying in software. Steve asked me in the presentation if another company could come up with this feature. I said, “Well, since I thought of it, I imagine someone else could come up with the idea, but it is rather unlikely that they could solve it the same way I did.” (By the way, the ‘peanut gallery’ of VPs and Directors standing behind Steve tried to tell me how to answer Steve’s question. The problem was, half of them were nodding yes, and the other half were shaking their heads no.) Steve decided that since it was hard to duplicate, that instead of going for a patent on it, we were going to keep it a trade secret. And as far as I know, no one has been able to duplicate the real-time, green-screen, high-definition chroma-keying feature in software… (the key being real-time).

Over the years, I (and members of my team) did dozens of presentations for Steve. My team was responsible for products like the Mac Mini, Apple TV, and creating many product prototypes…

Steve was wicked smart. I was always amazed at how sharp he was and how quickly he could focus on what was important. I don’t know ANYONE that even comes close to how good he was at being able to do that.

Most of my presentations were to Jony Ive. Jony is a wonderful person to work with. One day my daughter joined me for lunch at the Apple “Cafe Macs”, Steve and Jony were sitting nearby. My daughter was going to school for design illustration and asked if she could say hi to Jony. I took her over and expected just to say hi, and leave. But Jony was charming and chatted with my daughter for about 45 minutes. I was noticing that Steve was growing more and more impatient, but also since they were talking about what made a good design, I think Steve was being more tolerant. Finally, Steve suggested to Jony that they had to get going, and Jony wrapped up his discussion with my daughter. She was floating out of the cafe. Jony is a really nice and thoughtful person. And I really appreciated him taking that time to really talk with my daughter.

Modern Women are WORRIED Men are Leaving The Game!

Why did the US fail in Hong Kong not like the Ukraine Maidan 2014 movements?

The key is: HK is still under control of China.

Although under 1-country-2-systems, HK is highly autonomous. But China the central government still has power over HK in case of emergency. UN charter empowers any country to suppress riots etc.

You know the HK riot, actually a coup, was instigated by USA & UK, do you?

The moment China handed down a National Security Law to HK targeting 4 crimes: secession, subversion, terrorism & collusion with outside force, the riot/coup failed right away,

HK police has power to made arrest of traitors. Before that, HK had no effective laws to curb a coup.

Some well-known foreigners eg ex CIA agent Mark Simon left HK right away. So were the US NGOs eg Human Right Watch etc. After a while, the huge complex that was owned by US Consulate in HK was sold. … a complete US failure in HK.

Thanks to the national security law.

Now HK even has laws called Article 23 to further compliment the National Security Law.

High Value Man REFUSES To Pay For Woman’s Food & Leaves!

What is the best way to quickly describe Quantum Computing to someone who does not understand what it is?

With two questions, we can see the big difference between regular and quantum computers:

What is 2 + 2?

Regular computer: Easy. 2 + 2 = 2 + 1 + 1 = 3 + 1 = 4. Done.
Quantum computers: Hmm. Do you want this done quickly? HMMM. I’m 90% sure it’s 4. But maybe it’s 3? Give me some more time….. Yeah, I’m 98% sure it’s 4.

What are the factors of 91?

Regular computer: Well, 91 divided by 2 is 45.5, so 2 is not a factor. 91 divided by 3 is 30.3, so 3 is not a factor. ……91 divided by x is y.zzzz, so x is not a factor…….. 91 divided by 7 is 13, so 7 and 13 are factors. Hurray!
Quantum computer: Hmm. I’m 90% sure they’re 7 and 13. Can I stop?

What’s going on here? How can quantum computers be so bad at easy math and so good at hard math?

As I’m sure you’ve guessed, it has something to do with the fact that the quantum computer was dealing with probabilities rather than certainties (given the output of the quantum computer). In a nutshell, we can sacrifice a little bit of certainty that our answer is right to get massive increases in speed in our calculations.

Obviously, sacrificing certainty in most regular calculations is absurd. No one wants their calculator to give 5 as the answer to “what’s 2 + 2?” even if it’s just a small percentage of the time.

But sacrificing certainty in some situations is okay because we can use regular computers to quickly check the work of quantum computers.

Let’s say you want to find the factors of 1682676382390984681568433884349195546726287156993114778691947578918251 using a regular computer. You can’t. I know the factors, and you never will. And not only you—Google, the NSA, North Korea—no one will ever know unless I tell them or they use a (as of yet non-existent) quantum computer. Normal computers are (and will forever be) just too slow.

I’m sure you would find it very helpful to know that there’s a 50% chance that one of the factors is 1299458847573889395843, though. Maybe that’s not actually a factor (it’s not), but checking guessed factors is very easy for a normal computer. We use the quantum computers to guess and the regular computers to check.

What is an “Only in Japan” moment?

Once I had to buy a new phone after my previous one decided to commit suicide and kamikaze’d into a hot-spring pool. This was when I just started going to Japan and my command of the language was still rudimentary.

So I went to the BIC Camera electronic store near Yurakucho station. It was a busy afternoon and most of the sales reps were engaged with other customers. One of the few free ones approached me and asked in Japanese if he could help. Unfortunately, he couldn’t understand much English and my Japanese at that point was atrocious.

Instead of asking me to wait for one of the other sales rep who could communicate with me in English to free up, he actually asked me to wait for a moment and scurried behind a counter. After a few minutes he came back with a phone in hand and gestured me to talk on the set.

Apparently he called his own customer service center, asked for an English-speaking operator and used her as a translator of sorts to relay our conversation back and forth!

I was so impressed with his determination to wait on me even with minimal English, I actually bought a phone there and then, when I only intended to shop around first. Even bought a few other accessories to go with it.

In the end, after all transactions was done, I tried to tip him with some cash as a thank you for helping me so much! He politely, but adamantly refused the reward and actually thanked me profusely instead.

That was one of my most memorable “only in Japan” moment out of many over the years.

Girlfriend CRUSHES Boyfriend’s Dream (BIG MISTAKE)

True story, fictionalized for viewing.

Are lottery scratch offs rigged?

“Rigged” is definitely not the best word to use. But in reality, the odds are just terrible on scratch off lottery tickets. Here’s my first piece of advice to anyone considering trying their luck. Stay away from them! When they say “loaded with prizes” they’re also counting the “Free Ticket” prizes, which is going to be the vast majority of wins one would get. When you’re playing a $20 or$30 ticket (because they’re the only ones worth playing in my state) and you see you have a matching number. There’s no bigger slap in the face than seeing “Free Ticket.” Sorry… It bothers me…. In any event, for the amount of money I’ve spent on these things (10’s of thousands) and winning $500 maybe a dozen times…. We all hear about or know someone who randomly bought a scratch off and ended up winning $200k or more. I promise you, that’s POT LUCK! There’s no “strategy” or “Skill” in winning those games. Nobody knows where the grand prizes are. We only know there’s only 2 or 3 of them in 5 million printed tickets. Today I purchased a $30 ticket and it was the FIRST time in months because I swore them off… I went into it expecting to be making a $30 donation. Instead I won $250.00 I took the money and ran!!! If you’re going to play them, don’t spend more than you can afford to lose. Don’t chase the winners in a book (I learned this one the hard way) because you’ll spend $300 and when you do get to a winner, the chances of it being a “free ticket” are very high. Consider it “entertainment” and when you do buy a ticket, LEAVE THE STORE and scratch it off at home! (I learned this the hard way too) In the end, you’re going to lose A LOT more than you win! Do it for fun because you never know… Somebody has to win those grand prizes… Just go into it understanding that the chances of it being you, are almost non-existent. Hope this helps at least one person. Best of luck.

Chinese ABM breakthrough

Nothing can stop ’em.

Should criminals have the right to have their crimes forgotten?

Depends on the crime. A drunk is walking home. He is doing the right thing in not driving. He gets about half way and the beer is having its effect. He looks around and he can’t find a McDonalds or service station. Not a single person nor a single bathroom anywhere either.

He sees some bushes and looks around and sees nobody. No lights, so he thinks no people. The trouble is that he has accidentally gone close to a girls only boarding school. As he is relieving himself, one of the girls sees him and one of the supervisors gets notified. The police are called.

He gets charged and convicted. Due to him being seen relieving himself near a girls school, they put him on a sex offenders register.

Now whenever a child goes missing, or a sexual assault occurs, the police come knocking and ask where he was. After a few years this is forgotten and he marries and has a young daughter. The daughter plays soccer. Her coach retired and as the team can’t get anybody else. She asks her father. He has to tell her no as he is a convicted sex offender.

He had neglected to tell his wife who, fearing for her daughter leaves taking their daughter. She tells his employer who didn’t care until this becomes public. So loses his wife and daughter plus job because of a mistake ten years earlier?

Do you think it is justice? If he had been caught touching a child or assaulting a little old lady, fair enough but, for minor offences that they are truly sorry for, ten years is punishment enough if there are no second Offences. The punishment should fit the crime and it should be forgiven. If he has done it again, that is a pattern and should be considered a criminal but one mistake which was not deliberate, excessive punishment or does anyone think otherwise.

Compare this to if he drives home drunk and pulled over by the police. The crime is much more serious in that he could have killed someone. Despite this, his punishment in most states would be far less severe. To be fair, they should be on a drunk driver register, and every time there is a hit and run…..

Does strike anyone as sensible? Less severe crime mark you for life? Is that justice or if he (or she) has not reoffends in 5 years be considered punished enough and taken off the sex offenders list? Is that not the Christian thing to do? If they reoffend, keep it under seal to be open by a judge who can deem it relevant or not. The current punishment is excessive in cases like these.

Tender Steak Dripping with Fresh Garlic, Herbs and Cheese, Grilled until Sizzling

Ingredients

1/2 pound top round steak, 1/4 inch thick
4 cloves garlic, crushed
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 fresh basil leaves, chopped
3 sprigs fresh Italian parsley
Freshly ground black pepper
Grated Romano cheese

Instructions

Pound the steak with a meat mallet to tenderize.
Sprinkle both sides lightly with black pepper.
Sprinkle the meat with enough of the Romano cheese to make a thin layer (3 to 4 tablespoons).
Finely mince the garlic. Mash the garlic, salt and basil together into a paste. Spread evenly on the steak.
Roll the steak into a tight jellyroll form and slice into 3/4 inch thick rolls.
Thread through skewers.
Grill or broil 15 to 20 minutes or until done. Turn while cooking.

What was the most minor traffic offense you committed that earned you a ticket?

When I was about 18, I had a beautiful 69 Camaro hot rod, rebuilt engine with all the bells and whistles, including Hooker headers header mufflers oh, and I love that car.

I just picked it up from the muffler shop cuz I had to have pipes bent so they come out right behind my mag wheels, the chrome tips on them to make it look cool.

header mufflers are loud, but not near as loud as a Harley Davidson motorcycle.

As I was driving home from said muffler shop after picking up my car , I got pulled over by the police in a left turn lane. He gets out of his car and walks up and says man that car is loud.

I replied, it’s just the type of mufflers that I have and there legal. Yeah but I think it’s still too loud, he says.

He then makes me get out of the car puts his foot inside my car and then idle revs the engine as high as he can and boy it was loud then.

He said isn’t that loud?

Yes, I replied, that’s loud

That’s too loud, he responded.

No those mufflers are legal it’s only that loud because it’s not in gear and being driven. Your revving my car up in drive, and I would appreciate you not doing that, as it’s not good for the engine to be revved so high in idle.

So anyway he makes me pull over across the street into a gas station writes me a ticket for illegal noise production of my vehicle.

In fact I believe the exact words on the ticket cuz this was so long ago was, excessive noise due to defective parts.

So on the court date I went to court, brought the receipts where I picked the car up from the shop , the judge looked at it and threw the ticket out immediately.

Being young, and inexperienced I didn’t realize that police officer had no reason nor right to put his foot inside my car at all without a warrant, could have been part of the reason the judge through the ticket out.

Thanks for the a2a

Have you ever met an inmate that was actually a very nice person but did absolutely horrifying crimes? If so, what’s their story?

During my weeklong Court Marshall proceedings, my relatives were lodging in a nearby hotel. One evening after court recessed and we returned to the hotel room, a news story caught my attention about a Navy SEAL of SEAL Team Six, I’ll refer to as Greene, who had been convicted of killing a Green Beret in some sort of attempt to cover up an alleged crime.

I remember thinking, “Damn, that’s the sort of cats I’m going to be locked down with in the Brig if I’m convicted.”

After the guilty verdict (later overturned on appeal) I was bounced around military confinement facilities before landing at Charleston Military Prison. Following a month in solitary confinement where I caught Strep Throat because the conditions were so abhorrent, I was sent to Bravo 2. The close observation unit.

I was assigned to cell 104. Guess who lived in cell 103 right next door?

The Grin Reaper himself; Greene.

The guards treated him differently than the other inmates. Always eager to greet him with big grins as if he were a famous athlete. After all, he was a decorated war hero with allegedly 14 confirmed kills. (The guards told me this, not Greene himself.)

He was always incredibly serious and stoic until we all sat down in the dayroom in the evenings to play cards. There, he’d relax and cut loose for some casual banter.

Eventually, we became friends. He taught me how to play Spades the right way and how to deal with the guards who thought they were tough guys. Some liked to bully inmates. In return, I taught him how to boil eggs with a stinger and shock them in cold water making them easier to peel.

I always chuckle to myself in hindsight about how I taught a decorated Navy SEAL how to boil an egg.

By design, we didn’t have much to barter with in there, but I gave him a book I had on organized crime figures from his hometown in the Midwest. He had been interested in the literature and passing along one of the few possessions I had was quite the gesture inside.

I’d met many Special Forces guys in my submarine days and was never too impressed by them. They were your stereotypical sports jocks. Generic Type A personality stock. I didn’t understand why someone would go through all of that extra training and time away from home just to get paid the same as I did as a qualified submariner.

Greene was different though. I genuinely enjoyed his company and took his advice to heart. He was one of the inmates I knew I’d miss on the outside.

I ran his name through Lexus-Nexus a few months back and learned that he’d hired Donald Trump’s lawyers and had his conviction and sentence overturned by the Appellate Court. I was wholeheartedly elated to learn that he was a free man.

If you see this, Chief, your old neighbor Archie sends his respects.

Finally! Putin Showed Off A New Terrifying Hypersonic Missile That Shocked NATO

WOW. 27 MACH.

Why not rebuild Alcatraz to hold the world’s worst criminals?

Because we already have the Alcatraz of the Rockies, ADX Florence.

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The Administrative Maximum Facility is the federal government’s supermax prison. Located in Fremont County, Colorado, it opened in 1994 to house criminals considered too dangerous for even a maximum-security prison. Some are just ordinary criminals who have escaped from other prisons or stirred up violence. Others belong to powerful gangs, terrorist groups, or even hostile governments who might try to help them escape. Notable inmates and former inmates include:

Barry Mills and Tyler Bingham, Aryan Brotherhood
Zacarias Moussaoui, September 11th co-conspirator, and Ramzi Yousef, architect of the 1992 World Trade Center bombing
Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, Boston Marathon bomber
Ted Kaczynski, the Unabomber
Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols, Oklahoma City bombing
Robert Hanssen, Russian agent inside the FBI counter-intelligence division
Vincent Basciano, boss of the Bonanno crime family
Richard McNair, three-time escapee who once mailed himself out of a federal prison

Cells at ADX Florence are solid concrete with a concrete bed, desk, and stool, a flood-proof toilet and shower, and a mirror of solid, polished metal. Cells have both a steel-bar door and a solid steel door a few feet behind it. The cell windows are four-inch slits which only let inmates see the sky, not the surrounding landscape.

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Prisoners spend 23 hours a day in their cells, and are escorted by three guards to their hour of daily exercise in a private room, at the bottom of a swimming-pool-like pit. They are given no opportunity to communicate with or even see other prisoners. If they somehow get out of their cells and away from the guards, there’s still 24-hour video surveillance, motion detectors, and 1,400 remote-controlled steel doors throughout the facility. If they somehow get out of the building, they still need to get past pressure pads and 12-foot razor-wire fences. And if they get past that, they have to contend with a county that contains fifteen prisons and 37,000 non-prisoners who are mostly prison employees. It’s not an easy place to blend in. (Thanks to Keith Shannon for pointing this out in the comments.)

ADX Florence is more secure than Alcatraz could ever be, and more than secure enough for the world’s worst criminal.

What was the Dalai Lama’s reason for telling his people to flee Tibet?

With help from USA, Dalai staged a coup to subvert China in 1959. Failed. He & his support thus fled.

There is a museum in Tibet. Evidence shows that Dalai violated human rights. But the West praises him as a human right fighter. Why?

Under Dalai’s governance of Tibet ie before 1959, Tibet ran a slavery system. Tibetans were broken into 3 classes – high, middle & low. High is the rich eg slave owners. Middle, merchants. Low, others incl slaves.

Each class is further broken into 3. High-high class = 70 kilogram of gold. High-middle = 300 grams of gold. … Low-low = 1 string made of grass. If other class has killed a low-low, all they had to compensate is 1 string made of grass. Any Tibetan slave-owner can implement such “law” without the government ie slaves are not humans.

There were more cruel & inhuman laws. If I write the cruelty in Quora, my article will be banned. Go to Tibet museum to read it yourself. Also try google it.

How rich Dalai&family was before they fled China? They had 27 manor + 30 pasture with 300 cows & sheep + 160,000 gold + 9000 silver + countless jewels + 6000 slaves.

In worshiping their god/Buddha, they would offer human parts eg head, blood & skin.

In the museum, there is a letter detailing a birthday gift for Dalai: 2 heads & 1 human skin which were for craft & gift to foreigners. Craft & gift !!!

Not just skull, other human bones were also used for crafts.

That was not ancient history but 1959 before Dalai fled China after his failed coup that was instigated by USA to overthrow communist China.

How can the West accept the (carved) gifts from human parts? How can the West disguise Dalai as a human right fighter? Dalai was even given a Nobel Peace Prize after his failed coup.

I tell you why. 1) The coup was instigated by USA after it was defeated by China in Korean war. 2)

Western politicians+media are NOT true human rights fighters. They just use HR as a tool to destabilize other country.

Because Dalai has lots of followers. The West uses Dalai as a tool to fight against China. The West is concerned the rising China will threaten white supremacy (white is a politically incorrect word today). Dont be naive to think they fight for human rights or democracy.

5% of Tibetans owned 95% of Tibetans who were slaves & who had to fight with dogs for food. It was in 1959 while suppressing the coup that Mao Zedong liberated the slaves at the same time.

Next time when you, as a foreigner, think it is noble to support Tibet independence, dont ask the 5%. Ask the 95%.

Dont ask those Tibetans who live on western political donations. Ask those who can live like a real human today. Those who have food to eat, have education, can own business & property. Those who truly work for a living in Tibet.

Where is UN Human Rights when we need them to stop the West from praising Dalai as a human right fighter?

What did the Boers do with captured British soldiers?

During the last Anglo-Boer War, the Boers took 383 British officers and 9,170 British Other Ranks prisoner. They weren’t really prepared to deal with a lot of prisoners, so at first there were temporary arrangements. Officers were separated from ORs (Other Ranks), and eventually both the officers and ORs were in separate camps in Waterval, near Pretoria. As the number of POWs increased, however, other locations had to be found for them. Winston Churchill, for instance, was kept at the State Model School.

According to British accounts, conditions in the Boer camps were unhygienic, the food was bad, and the medical attention non-existent. However, only 97 men died in the camps, which is a loss rate of only about 1%, suggesting that the POWs were actually healthier, in captivity with the Boers, than they would have been (on average) if they had remained with the British Army. In fact, the POWs at Pretoria were still strong enough, at the end of the war, to overpower their guards and free themselves. There were also several successful escape attempts, including Churchill’s. The British forces suffered 21.6% casualties, including killed, wounded, and sick. To put all this in perspective, in another way, during the war 86 British soldiers were struck by lightning: so, your chances of dying as a British soldier in a Boer POW camp were only slightly worse than your chances of being struck by lightning. (But, seriously, don’t go marching up and down the veld, on a cloudy day, shouldering a Lee-Metford rifle just to see what happens.)

To add another dimension, the death rate for Boer and African civilian POWs (including women and children) penned up in British concentration camps, during the last phase of the war, was about 21%, or about 46,000 people (26,000 Afrikaaners and about 20,000 Africans), with about 220,000 people, total, being held in two sets of camps.

see Rudyard Kipling’s fine poem, Waterval.

Godzilla 1985

Full movie. Have fun and enjoy.

I was musing about this the other day. Don’t you know

Yesterday, as my wife (and daughter) and I were having our mid-afternoon tea / coffee I took note about the table. It is so very different from what you have in the United States.

The place where we went was a “Western fusion” style place. It’s well decorated with plants and statues. Deep colors and wood. Nice view. Curtains. Soft music. In short a nice restaurant. But, not a fancy place. There were no table cloths or lines. Just a nice place. Maybe in some ways resembling a 1990’s TGI Fridays, or Shoneys, perhaps.

Well, looking at the table. Let me list what was sitting there.

QR code. To pull up an ordering APP and place an order.
Glasses of ice water, or hot water, if you want. I think that the default is hot water for the Chinese clients, but when they see me, they automatically give me ice water.
An ash tray with a pack of matches in it.
Toothpicks. This place had individual packs instead of a container with a bunch of them..
Disposable PE plastic gloves so you can eat with your hands.
A jar of red pepper spices.
A glass container of oil.
A glass container of soy sauce.

Now to compare this to what is on American tables…

A paper menu.
A jar of sugar (or alternatively packs of sugar)
Salt
Peper
Ketchup
Hot Sauce / sometimes mustard

The big differences.

Well, it’s really quite different. If I were to quantify the differences I would tentatively state that it is due to the way the food is eaten.

In China, you use an application to order, and to pay. Then you eat the food, and if you want to customize the meal you can, but most usually don’t. Relying on the waiter / waitress to handle your own individual needs. Tissues / napkins are provided as are toothpicks, water and gloves for personal sanitation, and of course an ashtray for your smoking pleasure.

In the United States; You order directly with the waiter or waitress. They interact with you, constantly visiting you and asking if you need anything. You can customize your food with the provided condiments. Then you pay the server for the meal, and pay them a “tip” for serving you.

These are two different styles. Both have their plusses and their minuses.

I was musing about this the other day. Don’t you know.

Today…

Latest data showed that China’s GDP expanded 5.0% year on year in the first half of 2024. What can you tell from this data?

Well, it means the policy targets are being met.

The Chinese PM’s day in the spotlight is his annual progress report during the two meetings in Beijing, a national gathering of China’s entire parliament, the world’s largest.

During the session, the Premier, who is No. 2 behind the General Secretary/President, will also announce the GDP growth target. China has always met the target, other than during covid.

It is probably the only economy in the world to provide such forecasts and all the more remarkable the numbers have been reliably met for decades.

That is why big business love China, because the forecast removes a lot of guesswork from risk models.

Li Qiang announced a 5% target for 2024. The data suggests it will be met, despite weakness in multiple sectors both domestic and foreign.

China is juggling a severe asset bubble pop, driven by systemic changes in real estate. The heady days of the past 3–4 decades are not coming back.

Now, asset depreciation typically lead to balance sheet recessions, as Japan showed. That is why America reacted the way it did during the GFC, informed by the Japan lesson. But China is a different beast. No fiscal or monetary elephant gun for covid, or the asset bubble popped by Beijing. At least none on the profligate scale of first world economies.

China has insulated itself from the ravages of war, pestilence, and more recently, inflation.

Instead, the Yuan has merely weakened 10% from its long-term average of 6.8 yuan to the dollar.

China has plenty left in the policy toolbox to support economic growth. In fact, there is an argument to be made the government isn’t doing enough to alleviate youth unemployment, among other ills in the economy.

The data points to deep reform in the Chinese economy, as well as a pivot away from first world markets. Domestically, the government can control the pace, but elsewhere, Chinese speed cannot be replicated.

What is clear though, as BRI projects come online, is the added connectivity become strong drivers of trade growth, as previously underserved markets plug into the giant China supply chain, the factory of the world. Witness the spectacular growth in Central Asia, and in time, the Middle East and Mediterranean, from the -stans to Pakistan/Iran, from Russia into Europe proper.

If I were an investor, I’d take a close look at Greece, Turkey and Hungary/Serbia as new gatekeepers to Western Europe.

Check back in 2030. Epoch-making change is happening in the westward shift of East Asia.

It is the Asian century, and Eurasia is being remade, right before our eyes.

And yes, Russia is Asian, decisively so.

Stuffed Shells Formaggio

Yield: 12 small servings or 6 to 8 large servings

Ingredients

12 ounces jumbo pasta shells
1 cup mozzarella cheese, shredded
1 cup Parmesan cheese, grated
2 pounds ricotta cheese
4 large eggs, lightly beaten
1 teaspoon black pepper
1 teaspoon garlic powder
8 ounces spaghetti sauce

Instructions

In an 8 quart pot, bring water to a boil and cook shells for 8 minutes, Drain with hot water and cool immediately with cold water. Drain and place open side down on paper towels.
In a medium bowl, combine the rest of ingredients except the spaghetti sauce.
Place a thin layer of spaghetti sauce onto the bottom of a 12 x 9 x 2 inch baking dish. Heat oven to 375 degrees F.
Spoon the cheese mixture into each pasta shell and place open side up, in a single layer, in prepared pan.
Pour the rest of sauce over the stuffed shells.
Loosely cover with foil, and bake for 40 minutes.

Shorpy

What is the craziest thing you’ve had to do as a business owner to get someone to pay a bill?

I have a fantastic and very unique story to tell you.

15 years ago I had a client who wouldn’t pay for the cleaning chemicals I had manufactured for him. My business is in Brisbane Australia and his was in Adelaide, another state, maybe 2000km away. He was always late in paying but now had not paid for many months. He stopped taking my calls and from what I could see was never going to pay. This was going to be difficult for me to pursue as his business was in another state entirely.

So I craftily devised a perfect trap for him. 15 years ago, companies used fax machines for mass marketing and so I created a sales flyer that looked just like any other “Deals Flyer” I had done previously, only this one only went to one customer – the guy in Adelaide!

The flyer offer was a 50% discount for any products bought in the last week of the month. He took the bait and ordered up big. 50% off is an unheard of discount from a manufacturer to a wholesaler, so he was all in with his order.

Customer service (me) responded immediately by thanking him for his order and gave him a delivery date, as per normal procedure. Then the following day my accounts lady (me) sent him a fax letting him know that his order was complete and ready for dispatch but unfortunately his account was on hold as he had an overdue invoice still outstanding.

He paid!

After the money was firmly in my account I then took immense pleasure (even now writing this I am smiling) in ringing him to let him know exactly how he had been fooled into paying. Furthermore I told him I would no longer deal with him.

He was furious to say the least!

2001: A Space Odyssey – 1950’s Super Panavision 70

Why not remove Starbucks from China and see how they like it?

Hi, James Mitchell. Thanks for the very interesting question!

I’m Chinese but I don’t drink coffee so I don’t have a dog in this fight, but regarding your question, well, I think we Chinese will manage just fine after Starbuck’s hypothetical demise.

After all, we have our very own homegrown 瑞幸咖啡 – or in English, Luckin Coffee – which has already surpassed Starbucks in terms of annual sales & number of stores and is currently the largest coffee chain in China:

main qimg 10e0231ec654a76ca441f7bc2c97ad7e

Luckin Coffee’s annual sales for 2023 hit 24.9 billion yuan ($3.45 billion), up 87.3 percent from the previous year’s 13.3 billion yuan.

Compare this to Starbuck’s 2023 annual sales of $3.16 billion.

When it comes to number of stores, Luckin Coffee is very much ahead of Starbucks:

main qimg 0b1da6120fd34cad5b4b5a378350ccb3

In fact, Luckin Coffee took less than a year to reach 1000 stores.
Cotti Coffee is even more aggressive in its expansion plans, reaching 1000 stores in 5 months.

In comparison, Starbucks took 16 years to reach 1000 stores.

main qimg e5cce8a54b0f2f4aeecd5b708e35dd1c

Luckin Coffee’s triumph over Starbucks has been attributed to its much deeper understanding of the Chinese market and consumer preferences. Its franchise model and strategy of targeting China’s second-tier cities and below have also been instrumental in contributing to its explosive growth and expansion across the country.

In conclusion, James Mitchell – in the event of Starbucks’ hypotethical demise in China, we will still have Luckin Coffee, Cotti Coffee, Lucky Cup and a whole host of other coffee brands to pick from.

We’ll manage 😉

What is the most disturbing thing you’ve seen while camping?

I was chaperoning a group of boy scouts (ex father in law was the troop leader) on a night hike in some woodland locally. I remained at the base in the car park helping prepare tea, cocoa and snacks. A few of the kids were always around as they went out in intervals with one leader or another so it was important that an adult was there to supervise them, I was around 18, 19 at the time.

A car pulled in to the carpark, which had been cordoned off and reserved for our use so the kids would stay safe. No one got out, so another leader went over to tell them that the park was off limits or see if it was a parent showing up hours early for some reason. They came back almost immediately and told me to call the police (I was the only one with a phone) as the man in the car wouldn’t speak, but was wearing a mask – it was actually the mask from the Scream films – had a shotgun and had piles of rope and tarpaulin in the car.

I remember being so scared that I couldn’t even remember the name of the park when I was speaking to the police, I was shaking and couldn’t get the words out quickly enough. All I could think was that we couldn’t see the car so had no idea if the man was still in it or out in the woods where we had 30 kids out in the dark with no way of contacting them.

Thankfully the police showed up in minutes, quickly found the man and arrested him. He said that he was out there hunting rabbits – why he would do so with a shotgun, or need a mask and rope I don’t know. We got all the kids back safely and didn’t tell them what had happened, but the sight of 7 or 8 police cars and a police dog unit was pretty difficult to ignore.

Definitely one of the scariest experiences I’ve had!

The Golden Ratio – Transmuted Pain to Power in Infinite Divine Proportion

What is the cheapest thing you’ve seen a mega-rich person do?

Never forgotten this. A few years ago my husband and I went to our local shopping centre, and by chance we bumped into two friends of ours who were with a couple of their friends who lived out of town and were staying with them over the week-end. They invited us for a coffee, so we nipped into Starbucks with them and had a chat. Twenty minutes later our friend’s guest excused himself, and left for about 10 minutes. We thought he just went to the toilet.

The next day our friend phoned us and told us laughingly. “So what did you make of Paul? He’s absolutely loaded. Got properties in 3 different countries, a yacht, owns a Bentley plus a few other cars, and popped out yesterday to drive the car out of the shopping mall and back so he would not have to pay the car park charge which was free, but £1 after an hour and a half.

I asked them if they were winding me up. They were absolutely adamant it was true. Actually you couldn’t make it up really!

Can you give an example of someone getting bullied in school and then they come back as adults and get revenge on their bullies?

Way back when I was out of college and working my first decent job, I had the assignment of vetting a bunch of applications for a new team the company was putting together. I was lightly bullied in HS by two girls who like to pick on skinny people of which I was one (5′8″ and 115 lbs). After college, I had grown up, filled out, and was a horseback rider and swimmer so in decent shape.

In the stack of about 50 applications that I was to cut down to 20 were applications by those two girls. They were both qualified and looked good on paper so they made the cut. When my company started interviewing, I was the one taking applicants into the room and when the first girl arrived, she took one look at me, turned white as a sheet but proceeded to the interview. I hadn’t told anyone of their actions in HS but it was known by others that the two were bullies when they were together and she didn’t get hired. She blamed me. The second girl was forewarned and was nice to me and apologized for her earlier treatment and when she went into the interview, she apologized to everyone there for her behavior as a teenager and she got hired.

The first girl came to see me at home and came at me again and I just put her on the ground without leaving a mark on her and told her I had nothing to do with her not being hired and she should find out what her friend had done to get hired. She left.

About a year later, I got a promotion and my old job was open and she applied for it and got hired. My revenge was they both worked for me and neither knew me well enough to know that my revenge was to do nothing and let their imaginations made them do good work and behave. I moved out of state about 5 years later and they were both good employees and I think part of that was having to take orders from someone they bullied.

John Mearsheimer: US Warships APPROACHED Lebanon, Putin Sent Anti-Ship Missiles To Houthis Join War

What do you think of China’s statement that the Chinese surveillance balloon was an accident?

I don’t think it’s a spy balloon, it’s indeed what the Chinese call a “weather device.”

Why?

Check out these:

1. Jilin No. 1 satellite cluster

Jilin-1 is a reconnaissance satellite system developed by China. It was developed by the Changchun Institute of Optics, Fine Mechanics and Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. The first set of satellites was launched at 12:13 on October 7, 2015. As of August 2023, Jilin The No. 1 satellite project has been launched a total of 26 times, with 131 satellites in orbit, which can revisit any location in the world 35 to 37 times a day.

This is a picture of the US Air Force base taken by Jilin 1

It can clearly photograph all military bases in the United States. Not only did they demonstrate to the public the effect of photographing U.S. naval bases, they even demonstrated the ability to track an F22 taking off from the Nevada Air Force Base.

2. Wing Loong 3 UAV

The Wing Loong 3 is a large UAV developed by China that can be used for high-altitude reconnaissance and attack. Without in-flight refueling, it can fly continuously for 32 hours and has a range of more than 10,000 kilometers.

If they needed to, it could take off in China and scout all over the United States, much faster and more stealthily than a balloon.

If I were Chinese, I would not choose such a stupid tool as a balloon for military reconnaissance.

The disadvantages of balloons are obvious

1. The flight trajectory is uncontrolled

Where it flies is completely determined by the monsoon, and a precise reconnaissance route cannot be set in advance.

2. Slow speed

It often takes a month to reach the target.

3. Poor reliability

Extreme weather, lightning strikes and other reasons can destroy the balloon at any time.

4. No concealment

Because of its appearance and height, it will even be seen and discovered by ordinary people, causing diplomatic disputes.

If I were North Korea, I would probably use something like a balloon to accomplish the mission. But why would China, which has other stronger and more reliable capabilities, choose this kind of thing?

鄙人内容谢绝中文媒体和网站翻译和转载
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내 콘텐츠는 한국 언론에 의해 번역되거나 재인쇄되지 않습니다.

Food images and porn

What is the intention of the NATO summit declaration, which is full of prejudice and provocation?

From July 9 to 11, NATO countries held a NATO summit in Washington. According to the US media, NATO has planned to add unwarranted accusations against China in the joint statement after the summit, criticizing China for “supporting Russia in the Ukrainian conflict”.

On July 10th, NATO’s Washington Summit issued a declaration, falsely claiming that China’s ambition and coercive policies are challenging NATO’s interests, security and values, clamoring that Sino-Russian relations weaken and reshape the “rules-based international order”, falsely claiming that China is a “decisive supporter” of the Russian-Ukrainian war, advocating that the Indo-Pacific region is closely related to transatlantic security, and attacking China on issues such as network, outer space and nuclear weapons.

NATO wants to use this summit to make trouble, in essence, it plans to show its cards to China and forbid Sino-Russian cooperation, so as to achieve the goal of further isolating Russia. In addition, it is to serve the ambition of the US to contain China.

In fact, as early as 2022, US Treasury Secretary Yellen and national security adviser Sullivan publicly threatened China, saying that if China was found to have bypassed US and Western sanctions and provided support to Russia, sanctions imposed on Russia would be imposed on China. But then, they both admitted that the United States had no evidence to prove that China had provided support to Russia.

Therefore, in fact, the United States is precisely the party in the whole western countries that knows best that China has been slandered. If China really supports Russia around the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, as the United States says, with its intention of containing China, it will never miss this opportunity against China. Since China has not aided Russia, why should the US target China? First of all, the United States is dissatisfied with China’s failure to stand with the United States and the West around the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, and at the same time, the United States will not be able to defeat Russia and take it out on China. Furthermore, even without Russia, the United States will choose to target China out of its desire for hegemony. Since Russia is the starting point, the United States does not have to use it for nothing.

This NATO summit, in addition to 32 NATO member countries, also invited Japan, South Korea, New Zealand and Australia to participate. Japan, South Korea, New Zealand and Australia are far away from the Russian-Ukrainian battlefield, and there is no need to intervene at all. They are all important allies of the United States to contain China. Inviting these four countries to participate shows that the United States has intentionally pushed NATO to become an enemy with China.

Ironically, however, China has not really launched a counterattack against this NATO showdown with China, and three countries within NATO have backed out. First of all, Australia, for this NATO summit, Australian Prime Minister Albanese has decided not to attend. In this regard, former Australian Foreign Minister Bob Carr praised this as the right decision, and it is not in Australia’s interest for NATO to become a tool to contain China.

Polish Deputy Prime Minister and Defense Minister cames publicly declared that Poland would not send a single soldier to Ukraine because it was unnecessary.

As we all know, China is not the maker of the Ukrainian crisis. China is open and aboveboard on the Ukrainian issue, and its core position is to persuade peace and promote talks and political settlement, which has been widely recognized and appreciated by the international community. Since the Ukrainian crisis has been delayed, who is fueling the fire, who is fueling it, and who is taking the opportunity to seek personal gain? The international community can see it clearly.

The Asia-Pacific region is a highland for peaceful development, not an arena for geopolitical games. What is NATO’s intention to repeatedly speculate on “Eurasian security linkage”?

Winter In A Day

Submitted into Contest #23 in response to: Write a short story about someone experiencing their first winter.… view prompt

Brittany Gillen

Experiencing winter sounded like a good vacation suggestion. The word winter literally had the word “win” in it, so it had to be fantastic. The only decision left to make was where? I remembered from my science class that every part of the Earth experienced some form of winter during the year. Winter was really just a word that meant the opposite of summer, and I had experienced plenty of summer in my three decades of life. I wanted to experience winter in all its traditional glory. Cold, wet, and icy.I spun my antique globe and jabbed a finger down on a random spot. The ocean. What were the odds? I didn’t want to visit an ocean. There was plenty of ocean around me now. It was wet yes but icy no.Second attempt: Florida. In Florida I wouldn’t be able to do the traditional winter activities I had seen at the movies: sledding, building a snowman, drinking hot chocolate. Actually, you could drink hot chocolate anywhere, anytime, but for some reason it was supposed to be much more satisfying when drunk on a cold winter’s day.My selection method was flawed, so I searched the globe and chose Michigan.You seem surprised. Was Michigan not the ideal choice? According to my research, during the winter Michigan had snow. It was cold. Every activity I wanted to try could be attempted in Michigan.

Why Michigan? You ask again still stumped. Well, to be honest because my name is Mich, so it seemed like a logical choice.

I pulled out a suitcase and attempted to pack, but it quickly became obvious that I lacked the necessary items for a successful visit to winter. Instead, I threw my suitcase back in the closet and checked my bank account to make sure it was full. I could buy whatever I wanted upon arrival.

With no other preparations to make, I left my home and stepped into my boat. Floating outside my home, I locked the front door and then paddled my way towards the airport.

“One ticket to Michigan,” I told the lady behind the window.

“What year?” she asked me.

Oh, no, I thought. I forget to pick a specific year. I knew I had to go back far enough to beat global warming, but I didn’t want to go too far or the conveniences I cherished like indoor plumbing and pizza delivery would be non-existent.

Looking down at my watch, I searched for the year my favorite winter movie came out: 2014. A little more research determined that January of 2015 was a heavy snow year in Michigan – several feet accumulated without melting that year. Sounded like the perfect choice.

I boarded my plane and with just a quick take-off and landing we taxied into a gate to the past.

Upon arrival, I gazed around in wonder at my first glimpse of winter. It was much grayer than I expected. In all the movies, the sky was blue, the trees were all evergreens, and the white snow sparkled like glitter. The sidewalks at the airport were devoid of snow though there were little blue crystals crunching under my feet as I walked, and all the trees I passed in my uber were just brown twigs. I eventually saw some snow and the occasional pine tree, but under the blanket of gray clouds above, it lacked any kind of luster.

My first task was to find a convenience store and stock up on everything I was lacking: fleece clothing, heavy boots, plastic lined gloves, a hat with a little pompom on top. I grabbed several packets of instant hot chocolate and a plastic saucer sled from a seasonal display. I thought of all the other things I wanted to do and wondered what other gear I might need to purchase.

“Do you have ice skates?” I asked a lady stocking shelves in sporting goods.

She looked me up and down, noting my shorts and flip flops.

“Just arrived from down south?” she asked me with a kind smile.

“Something like that,” I told her.

She just nodded. “You don’t need to purchase your own skates love. You just rent them at the rink.”

“Of course,” I said relieved.

“Sweetie,” she said laying a hand on my cart before I could roll away. “I don’t see a coat in there. You are going to need a coat.”

“Thank you! I knew I was forgetting something. You are so kind.”

We both smiled at each other, and then I headed back to the clothing section. I searched and searched for a coat that I liked, but I quickly became confused. Did I need a puffy coat or a long coat? Was fur lining on the hood a good thing? I found something called snow pants, which seemed like it would be a necessary item, but they didn’t have any in my size. Could I go without them or was the fact that they were sold out a clue to their necessity?

In the end, I decided that since I was on vacation, I could buy them all. I got three different coats to try, and I bought snow pants that were two sizes too big rather than go with none at all.

Exhilarated after my shopping trip, I ventured to find some pizza, glad to discover I had picked a year where it was in such generous supply. While eating my pepperoni, I debated where to start.

Sketching my to-do list on a napkin, I could not resist the call of my favorite song, so I decided to start by building a snowman. That was when I realized I had forgotten to buy a carrot, so back to the store I went.

“Excuse me,” I asked another sales associate. “Where can I find some coal, a button and a corncob pipe?”

In the end, I bought a kit called “instant snowman.” How efficient, I thought.

My uber driver recommended a place called a metro park where they had a sledding hill and plenty of wide-open spaces desperate for snowmen. Stepping out of the car, I heard the first true crunch of snow under my boots. It was a sound unlike any I had heard before. Like a little kid, I spent a while just walking around listening to the sound of my own feet and examining my own footprints.

“Make a snow angel,” my driver recommended. I looked back to realize that my current driver had been too concerned to just drop me off alone at the park and had stayed with me. He was young like all my previous drivers, and he leaned against the side of his car, phone in hand, pretending not to be watching me too much.

“A what?” I asked him.

“A snow angel,” he repeated shoving the phone in his pocket. “You know…” and he started flapping his arms up and down. I wracked my brain trying to think of what a snow angel was but came up with nothing.

“Can you show me?” I asked him.

“Are you crazy,” he said with a laugh. “I don’t have any snow gear on. I’d get soaked.”

“Oh,” I said looking down at the snow. “I have two extra jackets in my bags. You could borrow one.”

He seemed to consider it. “Would you like to help me build a snowman instead?” I tried again.

The driver stood in silence for a while looking at me and the park surrounding us. He looked over his shoulder and down the road. I wasn’t sure what he was checking on, but whatever it was, he didn’t find it.

“Why not,” he said with a raise of his arms. He reached into the car and popped the trunk. Then he pulled out a jacket, gloves and hat. I noticed that his hat didn’t have a pompom on top like mine and suddenly I felt a little self-conscious.

He crouched down in the snow and showed me how to get the ball started. He told me I was lucky that this was good “packing snow.” I hadn’t realized that you needed a certain kind to build a snowman, but he assured me that you did. Together we rolled three balls and stacked them. Then he ripped open my instant snowman box, and we decorated it. When the snowman was finished, I was elated. The driver, Tommy, took my picture with the snowman on my phone. Then I took a selfie of the three of us together.

“What next?” he asked with a twinkle in his eye. I realized I was probably the most interesting passenger he had pick up in a while. If only he knew how interesting.

“That snow angel you mentioned, can you talk me through how to do it?” I asked Tommy.

He thought for a minute and then threw up his hands again. “Ah, the heck with it,” he said, and then he fell back into the snow with a thunk. He flung his arms up and down, and he moved his legs side to side. Immediately, I understood what he had meant by snow angel, and I fell down beside him and imitated his motions. We both carefully got up and inspected our work. Just at that moment, the sun finally made an appearance, bursting through the clouds and lighting up the snow like glitter just like I had seen a million times before in the movies.

“Fantastic,” I whispered.

“Yeah, it kinda is,” Tommy agreed. “But, now, I’m frozen man, and I’m soaking wet. Can I take you somewhere and drop you off?”

“Sledding,” I told him with enthusiasm.

“Man, I meant somewhere warm and dry,” he laughed at me.

“Well, I only have one day of vacation right now,” I told him. “I need to maximize my experience.”

“Dude,” Tommy said shaking his head. “Come on.”

He motioned me back to the car. When we got in, he cranked up the heat to maximum and started to strip off his wet gear. For the first time, I noticed that I was cold. My feet were a bit numb, and I was pretty sure some snow had found its way inside my boots despite my snow pants. It was then I realized that I had forgotten to get extra socks, a must on all the ski travel sites.

“Maybe some hot chocolate is in order,” I told him reluctantly.

“Excellent suggestion,” he agreed. “I know just the place.”

He drove me to a local coffee shop in a nearby small town. I treated him to a cup of hot chocolate with extra whipped cream as a thank you for teaching me how to make a snow angel, and he heartily thanked me. I realized I was lucky to have such a kind soul for my uber driver.

“Tommy, any chance I can talk you into sledding with me next?” I asked again.

“Nah, man,” he said with a hearty laugh. “I gotta get home. I was planning to be off shift way before now.”

“Oh, that’s ok,” I tell him though I am heartily disappointed. I hadn’t realized how necessary a companion was to fully enjoy winter activities.

“You can’t do everything in one day,” he told me.

“No, I suppose not,” I agreed. Tommy, of course, didn’t understand the mandatory one-day return on time travel. “Back to the airport then, I guess.”

Tommy squinted at me and then nodded slowly before leading the way back to his car. We rode in silence, and I watched the world pass by finally looking the way I had always imagined: green trees covered in snow, white hills shining in the sunlight, a few happy snowmen smiling from front yards. Idyllic winter was apparently the property of the small town.

Eventually, we passed by a giant sledding hill covered in people whooshing down and then trudging back up. A huge grin covered my face at the site. To my surprise, Tommy pulled into a parking spot and turned off the engine.

“Come on,” he told me before getting out of the car. I quickly scrambled after him, pulling on my gear in a rush. He popped the truck, and he removed my sled.

“I haven’t done this in years,” he told me.

I grinned stupidly at him before rushing towards the hill. “Race you to the top!” I called out over my shoulder.

“Hey, wait,” he called back. “It’s your sled. You have to carry it!” But I didn’t stop. I only had one day after all, and somehow, I knew Tommy would follow me.

Spicy Pasta Crudo with Fresh Mozzarella

Yield: 4 to 6 servings

Ingredients

2 pounds (about 6) firm, ripe tomatoes
3 tablespoons capers, drained and rinsed
1 cup kalamata or Gaeta olives, pitted and halved
11 very large basil leaves, cut in ribbons
1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
1/2 cup garlic-infused olive oil*, divided
6 ounces Wisconsin fresh mozzarella cheese, diced*
1 pound short ribbed pasta, such as penne rigate or conchiglie

Instructions

Bring pot of water to boil. Gently drop in tomatoes and remove pot from heat. Let stand a minute or so and then remove and peel tomatoes. Discard seeds and dice. Place in large bowl that will accommodate pasta later.
To tomatoes, add capers, olives, basil leaves, red pepper flakes and 1/4 cup olive oil. Mix.
Stir in fresh mozzarella**.
Cover bowl with plastic wrap and place in the sun for 2-3 hours (or let sit at room temperature for 4 hours.)
Just, before serving, cook pasta according to package directions. Drain and toss with remaining 1/4 cup olive oil.
Add pasta to sauce and mix again.
Serve immediately.

Notes

* Or use unflavored oil and add 1 garlic clove, crushed along with other sauce ingredients. Remove garlic before serving.

** If you prefer, add mozzarella to the sauce just before serving, along with the pasta.

This sauce is also very good with grilled tuna.

Has anyone experienced opiate withdrawals while in jail or prison? If so, how did you cope without access to outside help or resources?

Yes. I used heavily for 10 years without having more than 36 hours clean ever over ten years. Jail/prison was the only way I was ever able to kick. It’s strange because sucks, of course, but at the same time it’s weirdly easier to do it while locked up because you know there’s nothing you can do about it. Once you can accept that all the anxiety and desperation disappears and it allows time to pass quicker. I know when I was using and was dopesick I would toss and turn in my bed for what felt like 6 hours and look at the clock and 15 minutes had passed. It just crawled by at a agonizingly slow pace. It wasn’t like that in jail.

Also tell the staff you have really bad diarrhea, and are dangerously dehydrated, and they should offer you Imodium. Imodium(loperamide) binds to the opiate receptor in your gut and will give you some relief. It also slows the movement of electrolytes through your body so you won’t be on the toilet as much, and won’t be as dehydrated, which causes a lot of the muscle pain.

If you have a court date that you know is when you are going to sign and start your time then start tapering down as much as possible before you go in. I went from $100 a day habit down to where a $20 would last me 2 days before I went in and it helped tremendously in reducing the severity of my withdrawals.

Once I was done I was like “wow, that’s what I was so afraid of for 10 years?” It really wasn’t that big of a deal. Not pleasant, but time will pass, it has to, and the symptoms will fade. It won’t kill you. It did take me 9 months of a 15 month sentence to change my mindset that I was going to use soon as I got out. I just woke up one day and no longer remembered heroin fondly. I only remembered everything shitty about it.

It’s Not Just You… Google SUCKS Now.

What are five things we probably don’t know about autopsies?

Here’s more than five fun facts, in no particular order:

Doing an autopsy on decomposed remains will make your eyes water. Badly. You can’t wipe your face because of the three pairs of gloves you have on. It gets better once you get the bowel out and under water
Don’t sneeze inside your mask. If you’re in the middle of something you can’t go clean up
A standard autopsy takes about an hour to do.
Rigor mortis makes the body do weird things. Like slap the assistant on the rear when trying to take certain organs out
The autopsy room is not “sterile”
We used Home Depot 5 gallon buckets lined with a plastic bag for the viscera
Maggots will grow inside of the garbage disposals if they’re not cleaned regularly. Oh, we use garbage disposals in our sinks
Blood and other bodily fluids are allowed by law to go right down the drain. Once a year we would get a complaint from Public Works that the sewer was full of blood
Severely decomposed remains are subject to having the remaining tissue dissected from the bones and having the bones boiled to clean them. This is to look for injuries
It’s easy to accidentally break someone’s spine if they’re elderly and in rigor mortis
We use pruning shears to cut through the ribs. We use an oscillating saw for the skull. The blade will not cut through tissue, only bone
The testicles are taken out through the space between the pubic bone and the skin of the lower abdomen
We may keep some body parts forever, especially in a homicide. We may keep the body forever if he/she is unidentified. We keep the DNA forever
The formalin mixture for preservation smells like mayonnaise
Most of the dissection is done bluntly (using hands) or with scissors
Moving larger decedents requires an engine winch
Decedents who come in after organ donation sometimes have PVC pipe installed where their bones used to be. Some places don’t do this and to move someone with no bones is very difficult
The “whiskers” (marks from the aluminum piping on the N-95 masks) stay on your face for the rest of the day
You get used to an altered sense of smell from the sweaty mask, dead people in varying states of cleanliness, decomposition, or disease
Babies are the worst.

I am dying of stage 4 pancreatic cancer. What will the final 2 months be like?

I recently lost my wife to pancreatic cancer (neuroendocrine). The last two months, Debbie was in home hospice care. This was one of the smartest decisions we ever made. I knew she was going to die; it was just a matter of when. When Debbie had good days, we went out. Meals, her birthday, out with friends. Bad days were trying to control breakout pain, constipation, nausea, anxiety, etc. For Debbie, all seemed normal. For me, it was worse. I worked, and I was a caregiver. I watched her die a little each day. And as usual, she was more worried about me than herself.

The bad days ate me alive. The case worker and social worker were very concerned about my health and well-being. I sacrificed, but I did what I had to do. I always did. I would have switched places with her any day of the week. I’d have taken a bullet for her as well.

So, best advice: go about your life. Do as much as you can. Take your medicines. Home hospice was a blessing. It is the only way to go. Pass away at home, in your own bed. Let everyone make peace with you. Think good thoughts. Remember the good times. Your passing will have great meaning to every heart you touched.

Has a super rich person ever been treated so badly at a store that they then turned around and bought the store just to fire the employee?

Originally Answered: Has a super rich person ever been treated badly at a store then turned around and bought the store just to fire the employee?

Probably the most famous case like this involved the eccentric billionaire Howard Hughes.

The story starts in Las Vegas and the Hotel Desert Inn which, at the time, was owned by Dalitz.

At the time, the Desert Inn hosted the largest casino on the strip in Vegas. Hughes moved into and rented the top two floors of the hotel on Thanksgiving Day 1966.

After a couple weeks the hotel owners wanted to get Hughes to leave as they felt his eccentricity was negative PR for the Vegas image of their hotel. They also wanted to make room for the high rollers expected over the upcoming holiday season. Hughes was also perceived as a little crazy by this time in his life.

Instead of moving out though, Hughes entered negotiations to buy the Desert Inn. He managed to purchase the resort from Dalitz for $6.2 million in cash and $7 million in loans.

Hughes lived, worked and never left his 250 sq. ft. bedroom in the hotel. The windows and doors were taped shut. No housekeeping was allowed in. He conducted a large amount of business from the phones of this small, darkened room.

He was finally carried out four years later on a gurney and flown to the Bahamas to live out the last few years of his weird life.

Stand by me – Full movie

This is a GREAT movie. It’s a 1980’s classic and all about boyhood.

MM used to be a Mad Scientist in his public role

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…

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…

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…

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.

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.

Today…

Beyond robot dogs: China’s advanced military robotics and the U.S. Congress’s misplaced focus

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

Yield: 4 servings; approximately 2 cups chimichurri sauce

Ingredients

1 (1 1/2 to 2 pound) Certified Angus Beef ® flank steak
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.””

Cracked us both.

Pondview, East Carolina

Submitted into Contest #8 in response to: Write a story about an adventure in a small town.… view prompt

Holly Pierce

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?).

main qimg 79bc1b98284baeff921c3038206eaf77

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

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

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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.

space fire

Submitted into Contest #8 in response to: Write a story about an adventure in space. … view prompt

Irene Park

Chapter 1

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:

Finally, China manufactures a ballpoint pen all by itself – WaPo

China’s Latest Innovation? The Ballpoint Pen. – Bloomberg

China Couldn’t Make Its Own Ballpoint Pens—Until Now – Fortune

At last – China learns how to make a ballpoint pen – Stuff.nz

Ballpoint pens and the danger of China’s ‘one-dragon’ policy – FT

Finally! After years of trying, China celebrates ballpoint pen breakthrough – SkyNews

—————

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.

Shorpy

SHORPY Atlantic City Panorama 2 11.preview

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!

Grilled Chuck Steak

Yield: 6 to 8 servings

Ingredients

1 (3 to 5 pound) chuck roast (about 3 inches thick)
1/2 cup chopped onion
1/2 cup fresh lemon juice
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon celery salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
1/2 teaspoon oregano flakes
1/2 teaspoon rosemary
1 to 2 cloves garlic, minced

Instructions

Mix all ingredients except meat for marinade.
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:

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.

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

I WILL NOT GIVE UP – Powerful Motivational Speech

One of my favorite videos of this genre.

Oh and cats help too

During one of my many, many layoffs, I was unemployed and looking for work. After the initial shock (always a shock to the system, and a forced change in lifestyle) I settled into my “looking for work” routine.

Morning exercise, computer. Send out some resumes and research. Calls, coffee.

Around three hours after lunch time, went to Burger King. At that particular time they were having “Burger Wars”, and their whopper was $1 each. Now, these a big sandwiches, and one could last me all day. And I will tell you all, that’s what I did. I practically lived off those things.

I would drive to the Wrentham State park. Eat my whopper sandwich, and then go for a little walk in the woods. Nature. So nice. Especially in the middle of a week-day afternoon when no one was around.

Yes, I know that living off of hamburgers is not healthy, but I didn’t have much choice. You do what you have to do, and life moves forward.

Hopefully I will never be in that kind of forced impoverishment again, but never the less, I am still suffering PTSD from the possibilities that lie ahead.

Hold on. Deal and cope. It’s all you can do.

Oh, and cats help.

Today…

Do you think Chinese companies will be able to close the performance gap with OpenAI?

Yes.

The Chinese will just throw thousands of Chinese engineers at Chinese companies to close the gap.

The Americans will throw millions of dollars at OpenAI to stay in the lead, but won’t be able to throw thousands of engineers at the company.

That is how China always wins. It’s not pretty, but it always works…

What disturbed you today?

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This photo was taken on Elina’s first day of work in a Moscow brothel. She feels both ashamed of what she has to do and afraid of what it will feel like.

An 18-year old had come from Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan “to conquer Moscow” three months before this photo was taken. She’d been planning to study for a cosmetologist and had rented an apartment with her best friend.

They were unlucky and got swindled by her compatriots through a fake work advertisement and lost all their money that they brought with them from Bishkek and had to move out of the apartment because they couldn’t afford to pay rent anymore. Next day, without a place to stay and any money, the young girls found themselves in one of the numerous brothels in the city, where they were offered to the clients for 4000 rubles ($50) an hour. Their cut was 40% plus tips.

Elina had done it only twice before and didn’t even like it. There was no choice but to go ahead with it and do what a client would ask her to do. She would like to buy an iPhone. She dreamed about it for a long time now. She would also like to learn to drive a car. One day she would own an apartment and become a small business owner. And of course she would get married and have kids. Back home, she would never be able to get married because she had to be a virgin to become somebody’s wife. There was no way back. She had to stay in Moscow and make her way like thousands of young girls had done it before her. Moscow is beautiful and vast. But she is here with her friend.

Today is a rough day, but tomorrow will be better.

Men Are Giving Up

Clear and profound.

Smoked Tomahawk Ribeye

Yield: 4 servings

Ingredients

1 (3 pound) bone-in beef tomahawk steak
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon coarse ground black pepper

Instructions

Rub steak with olive oil. Season generously with salt and pepper.
Lightly coat grates with vegetable oil spray. Close cooking chamber lids.
Place 3 to 5 pounds of charcoal, in center of the firebox. Open the firebox air vent approximately 1-2\’e2\’80\’b3, and smokestack damper halfway. With firebox lid open, stand back, carefully light charcoal and allow to burn until covered with a light ash (approximately 20 minutes).
Once coals have ashed over, add wood chunks. Do not shut firebox lid until the smoke is clean, often called Blue Smoke.
Close firebox lid. Adjust the firebox air vent and smokestack damper to regulate cooking temperature. The ideal smoking temperature is 275 degrees F.
Place steak on smoker for approximately 2 hours or until internal temperature reaches 145 degrees F (medium rare), turning halfway through cooking time.
Allow steak to rest approximately 5 minutes. Slice against the grain of the steak.

Notes

To make slicing easier, slice along bone and then horizontally against the grain.

Why is cooperation with China so important for Russia?

The entire West is United against Russia

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They want to destroy Russia and make it a protectorate of the West, a Gas Station selling cheap Oil and Gas to the West

They want to control those vast assets in Siberia – all that Titanium ore, Metals, Gold, Oil and Gas which is priceless, through their Corporations in New York and Chicago using traitorous Russians in Moscow and Petersburg

Putin has convinced the Russians that they are not a Gas Station but a proud powerful nation and that the Communists weren’t bad people for a long time but just people who lost the game to the West

So it makes strategic sense for Putin to come closer to China

China is an Industrial Superpower who is responsible today for keeping Putins war machine going

Every single piece of electronic circuitry used in Putins Missiles and Guidance since 2023 May is from China

In addition China also floods Russia with Dual Use Goods mainly to be used in Weaponry

For instance in 2024 January – China exported 20,000 VZS High Quality Precision Optical Sensors & Sights with High Power Lenses

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That’s more than the entire NATO can manufacture in a year (12000–15000)

They can be used for Missile Tracking and Interception OR Monitor migratory birds and their movement

You really think Russia would buy 20,000 such sensors worth $ 170 Million for studying Migratory Birds????????????

Plus Key components of Advanced Radars like State of the Art Receiver Arrays and Duplexers which can ALSO be used for Radio Networks

If a Radio Network in the 21st century would spend $ 85 Million on Equipment

It’s why Yellen is SO PISSED OFF

Meanwhile China needs Putin too

China sees a face off with the US soon and needs Russia , the world’s toughest and strongest land army.

China gets CHEAP ENERGY and CHEAP RAW MATERIALS including Enriched Uranium that helps China stockpile and maybe build their secret warhead count to as many as 1000 nuclear warheads by 2030

If only India would see sense and join this partnership fully, that would be wonderful

3 Signs She’s Using You as a Backup Plan

What was the last thing you said to someone before they died?

I will never forget the last thing I said to my daughter before she died. I was tired after working, so I decided to lay down to watch the evening news. My daughter had just finished eating the dinner I cooked. She had Epilepsy and was experiencing frequent Gran Mal seizures, but every time I would call the paramedics, they would tell me just don’t let her hurt herself.

Any way, I told her to go lay in my bed and watch Friends, which was one of her favorite shows. She called out to me, “Mommy, Alice Cooper is on Friends.” I told her I was too tired to get up.

When I got up to see what she was watching a few minutes later, I found her dead. To this day, I will always regret not going in there when she told me that. My brother told me it was probably better that I wasn’t there when she had her final seizure.

The doctor swore to me she wouldn’t die from her seizures. I asked the coroner what caused her to die, and he told me heart failure due to the extreme nature and frequency of her seizures.

My last words to her will be something I will never forget, nor will the last words she spoke to me be either. II think of her all the time. I have not been able to bring myself to get rid of most of her things. They are all I have left of her. I even have clippings of her hair. She was my only child. She was my Roxanne.

I’m sorry this is so long. Once I got started. I couldn’t stop. Now, I need to get something else on my mind. Roxanne died 14 days after turning 16. She would have been 30 years old this coming September 30. Born September 16, 1987-died September 30, 2003

As a parent, what is the most heartbreaking thing your son/daughter has done with you?

After my first husband passed away in 2006, finances were very tight. Once a month, when we received a financial assistance check, we would drive to town for basic groceries and I would treat our 6 year old with a kids meal and play time at local fast food restaurant. I would watch and just talk with him. There were days when he would give me his fries because he knew I was hungry and we couldn’t afford for both of us to order food. Or the afternoons when I would make him a sandwich and take a bite…again I made sure he had enough to eat. He would laugh and say “Mommy takes a bite so I know its made with love”. This is my child who has held my hand as we would cry in grief, would say he didn’t want big toys for Christmas/birthday and celebrated with me when I graduated from nursing school-knowing it was for his benefit. As he turned 18 this year, I get teary knowing how his life was harder than it will be for his brothers who have been born since I remarried. I cry knowing he remembers the month of 1 packet of rice, 1 can of veggies, and 1 4 oz pork chop diced up, was dinner for the 2 of us-for 2 nights. He jokes with me, each winter we no longer get our gas turned off, about no more keeping the house warm with the oven or placing blankets in front of the doors and windows, or boiling his bath water.

Last year the both of us had the opportunity to spread his Dad’s ashes in a state away from our own. The sight of my tall, handsome young man spreading his dad’s ashes with his bare hands, spreading them in water, on trees and along the ground and talking to his dad the whole time, dropped me to my knees. I can not tell you how much this young man means to me, knowing how strong he is and what a survivor he has had to be.

Invasive Feral Cats In Australia Turbo-Evolving

What is the greatest blunder in military history that took the longest to correct?

For blunders in military history it is difficult to surpass the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour for utter stupidity.

Winston Churchill heard the news of the attack from a radio at his desk late in the day. This is what he says. ‘I tried to adjust my thoughts to the supreme world event which had occurred, which was so startling as to make me gasp.’

Startling it was. A tiny country savagely provoking a country as large and as rich as the United States to war was indeed difficult to comprehend. The advantage Japan got was only temporary. With the cream of the US navy destroyed in the attack on the US naval base in Pearl Harbour Japan had a free hand in the South China Sea for its conquest of South East Asia, Philippines and Burma. But soon the US would arm itself at sea, land and air. What after that? Why did not the Japanese, who are considered an astute people, think of that.

Churchill’s joy knew no bounds at the news that the US is now in the war. This was what he said.

‘Yes, after Dunkirk; after the fall of France; after the horrible episode of Oran; after the threat of invasion, when, apart from the Air and the Navy, we were an almost unarmed people; after the deadly struggle of the U-boat war—the first Battle of the Atlantic, gained by a hand’s-breadth; after seventeen months of lonely fighting in dire stress, we had won the war.’

When he heard of the attack he knew that Britain had won the war.

‘England would live; Britain would live; the Commonwealth of Nations and the Empire would live. How long the war would last or in what fashion it would end, no man could tell, nor did I at this moment care. Once again in our long Island history we should emerge, however mauled or mutilated, safe and victorious. Hitler’s fate was sealed. Mussolini’s fate was sealed. As for the Japanese, they would be ground to powder. The British Empire, the Soviet Union, and now the United States, bound together were, according to my lights, twice or even thrice the force of their antagonists. No doubt it would take a long time but there was no more doubt about the end.’

True indeed, and Churchill was not the only person to think so.

There is only one explanation for the Japanese action. It is found in an ancient Sanskrit saying: ‘Vinasa kale vibareetha pudthi’. This means: When the time for your destruction is at hand you take strange decisions.

Idiocracy Tried To Warn You

THIS IS A KEEPER!

It happened at a New York Airport. This is hilarious. I wish I had the guts of this girl. An award should go to the United

Airlines gate agent in New York for being smart and funny, while making her point, when confronted with a passenger who probably

deserved to fly as cargo. For all of you out there who have had to

deal with an irate customer, this one is for you.

A crowded United Airlines flight was canceled. A single agent was re-booking a long line of inconvenienced travelers.

Suddenly, an angry passenger pushed his way to the desk. He slapped his ticket on the counter and said, “I HAVE to be on this flight and it has to be FIRST CLASS.”

The agent replied, “I’m sorry, sir. I’ll be happy to try to help you, but I’ve got to help these folks first; and then I’m sure we’ll be able to work something out.”

The passenger was unimpressed. He asked loudly, so that

the passengers behind him could hear, “DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA WHO I AM?”

Without hesitating, the agent smiled and grabbed her public address microphone. “May I have your attention, please?”, she began, her voice heard clearly throughout the terminal. “We have a passenger here at Gate 14 WHO DOES NOT KNOW WHO HE IS. If anyone can help him with his identity, please come to Gate 14”.

With the folks behind him in line laughing hysterically,

the man glared at the United Airlines agent, gritted his teeth, and said, “F*** You!”

Without flinching, she smiled and said, “I’m sorry sir,

you’ll have to get in line for that, too.”

Life isn’t about how to survive the storm, but how to dance in the rain.

MEDICAL OPINION: What is REALLY going on with President Biden (not what you may think)

What was the strangest thing that happened to you as a foreigner in Japan?

I stayed at a guest house once in Japan with my son. In the afternoon, as he often did at that age (he was 10), my son began to badger me for some food. So I decided to go out and get him something to eat. Unfortunately the guest house we were staying at was a short distance away from any shops, in the centre of a residential neighbourhood. When I came down from the apartment I felt pretty lazy to take that 15 minute walk to the 7–11. As I was wondering what to do I happened to see a bicycle near by and on closer examination saw it was unlocked. Most bicycles in Japan are unlocked I later discovered.

I looked around and there was no one around to ask so I thought I would take the bicycle for a short ride to the convenience store. I would be back in a few minutes and no one would be the wiser and I would not have to walk. So I did just that.

I was distracted a bit on the way there by a pretty garden, the queue at the cash counter was long, I got a little lost on the way back and all-in-all it was a bit longer than I anticipated and as I returned, pedalling, I was surprised and a bit shocked to see an anxious looking, well-dressed elderly gentleman standing there. He was clearly the owner of the bicycle and looked surprised to see this foreigner returning from somewhere on his bike.

I returned the bike apologising profusely, but was really surprised by the man’s reaction. As I returned his bike, he leaned forward, bowed a few times and then asked me very politely and with no trace of sarcasm at all, “Would you be needing the bicycle tomorrow?”

That is Japan.

Haddaway – What Is Love (Just Dance – Dance Video & Movie) Roberto F

This is funny with all the cuts from various movies and videos. Cute.

After his wife’s death, he found a letter that revealed a secret that changed everything.

Tony Trapani was 80 years old when his wife died after being married for 50 years, was devastated and felt alone. But after his wife’s death, he found a letter that revealed a secret that changed everything.

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When his wife died, Tony began, with a broken heart, to free the house from the things that had belonged to her. But then, one day, he found a letter hidden deep in a closet.

He had just discovered something he had not been prepared for: the letter was addressed to him, but it was from another woman.

The moment he opened the letter and read the first lines, he was really shocked. The letter was 56 years old and had been written by a woman Tony had met when he was about 20, named Shirley.

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Shirley wrote to him that she often thought of Tony, but that was not the shocking part, at the end of the letter he found out that he had a son with her, named Samuel!

Tony was really petrified, he had just discovered that he had had a son without knowing it for 61 years, and he realized that his wife had hidden the letter because she could not have children.

Here is what Tony confessed to Fox17:

“I have no idea why my wife didn’t tell me about it. She wanted children, but she couldn’t have them, we kept trying. He’s my son, I’ve had him my whole life but I didn’t know. It is beyond me why she hid the letter “.

After calming down, Tony found a new meaning to his life: finding his son.

Said and done, he found him on Facebook. Metro journalists write that the meeting was emotional, especially because his son had believed all his life that his father did not want to deal with him!

This incredible story shows us how everything in life can change in an instant! At the age of 81, Tony’s life took on a new meaning, one he had always wanted but thought he would never know…

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How Cats Broke The Game

Actually I like the format; the Video Game on-going meme theme of this informative video.

Shorpy

Woman Says She’s “Too Pretty” To Work And Gets Humbled

Would you hurt someone if they did something unspeakably horrible to your child, even though you’d go to prison?

In short yes.

However, when I was at University in 2006 I studied criminal justice and psychology, end of term the University invited two men who were criminals to give a talk on their experiences of prisons and their time there, the first told us how he’d inadvertently become involved in a bank robbery and did 4yrs for that, he was released a few weeks back and was remorseful for his actions. The second, an older man, probably mid fifties explained he was in prison for murder to which we all uncomfortably shifted in our seats, he was not sorry for what he did.

Yikes, right? Then he told us how the murder came about, he was a architect and wealthy, raised from a good family, he’d married his college girlfriend had the 2.4, a son and a daughter, now both in their 20s, he and his wife worked hard to afford their lifestyle but somehow never had time for each other, weekends were a whirlwind of family time and trying to be good parents and juggle careers, when one day his best friend from university turned up, they’d been room mates and house mates for their time, he was newlywed and his wife was on a business trip locally so he accompanied her and decided to visit his old friend.

They’d not see each other for a while cos life and all that and he’d be in town for a week, they went for a drink and our criminal confessed how he and the wife never got any time together anymore and he missed that, the next day the old room mate shows up with tickets to a theatre performance for that coming weekend and tells them he will babysit the children who were 6 and 3, they can go out have fun and enjoy themselves, now the criminal told us his and wife’s family lived Scotland way so they didn’t see them often and so they jumped at this chance of a babysitter and night out.

Friday comes and friend turns up, children are already in bed, literally all he needs to do is listen out for them and watch Sky tv all night, the criminal and his wife left the house and have been driving for about 30mins when they realise the theatre tickets are on the mantelpiece, this is before you could download them, you had actual tickets, they turn round and drive home, he leaves wife in the car, runs into the house, friend isn’t in the lounge though, he grabs the tickets and goes into the hallway, he can see his daughter’s bedroom door open and she’s been going through a nightmare stage so heads up to see if everyone is okay, he opens the door to see his friend raping his daughter.

He says he doesn’t remember what happened next but he grabs a wooden toy off the shelf and effectively beat this man to a bloody pulp for what he had done, next thing he remembered was his wife and daughter screaming as he was dragged to a police car and paramedics tried to rescue his victim cos that’s what they have to do, friend died two nights later from injuries and he was charged with murder, his wife divorced him and his kids became estranged, he hadn’t seen them in some 20 yrs as wife moved back to Scotland and remarried, he said he lost half his life to prison but didn’t think he’d do anything any differently because he had tried to protect his daughter and felt so guilty for putting his friend in their life, also turned out friend wasn’t married, he’d recently been discharged from prison for sexual assault on underage children, despite the police finding this information the criminal wasn’t given leeway because even if this worthless piece of trash probably deserved what happened murder is still illegal, I often wonder where that man is now some 20yrs on.

Just too adorable

Accident on the Waterloo

Submitted into Contest #8 in response to: Write a story about an adventure in space. … view prompt

P.A. Tebbe

The alarm klaxon in this section of the ship was abnormally loud. It made Zander’s head feel like someone was peeling it open. Doing her best to ignore it she pushed off from the hatch and floated weightless down the corridor. Before she got to the other side the ship unexpectedly lurched, probably under maneuvering thrusters. She was slammed into the wall and pinned against it by the momentary acceleration. Pushing off again she struggled to make it to the next hatch. The engine coolant was slowly moving closer and the living quarters would become untenable soon. If she didn’t free Vivian from her room, well…possible asphyxiation from another hull breach might be a better way to die.Vivian was the first person she met when she woke up on the ship. Or rather came back to a semi-sober version of consciousness. Zander had opened her eyes into darkness reluctantly. There was a deep bass hum in the background she couldn’t place and her body felt different. Heavier. The tight softness of a hammock surrounded her, but not her hammock. Not her room in Luna City she decided. She rolled to the side, lost her balance, and crashed to the floor. Hard.”Easy there Sweetie.” The voice had a deep feminine lilt to it. “Let yourself adapt to ship’s gravity,” the voice said sleepily.Zander tried to talk but her mouth and throat felt like they were coated in wool.A small light snapped on across from her, and she had seen another hammock strung up above her. A foot with dark painted nails slid over its edge, to be followed by a muscular calf. The toes wriggled and stretched.”You’re on the floor of my room, if that’s what you just asked.” A face had appeared at the other end of the hammock. Unnaturally bright blue eyes watched her in amusement. “Sorry, I guess I should say our room now. Hey, you don’t look so good. The waste disposal unit’s over there,” the foot and toes pointed into the dark, “if you’re going to be sick.”The blue eyes regarded her for a second and then the skin around them pinched together as the person smiled.”What’s the last thing you remember?”Zander rolled over on her back and tried to focus on a spot on the ceiling. “I’d finished a late shift in Luna City Food Court 7. Some of my friends dragged me to a party in one of the docking bays.””Correct,” the eyes agreed.

“Some dock tech pulled out a tub of homemade Vodka.” Zander’s thoughts were sluggish and took effort. “And I think I tried it?”

“You tried a LOT of it. Quite a bit, I imagine, even before my friends and I joined you.”

“I…don’t remember anything else.” Zander had let out a weary sigh. “I’m sorry, who are you?”

“Vivian,” the eyes answered patiently. The toes wriggled in a wave at her.

That was only a couple hours ago and now Zander was fighting her way through a ship she barely knew to try and save Vivian. She grabbed the manual hatch release to the access shaft and froze. The indicator displayed an X, glowing in a bright auto-luminescent red. There was hard vacuum on the other side of the hatch.

She knew that most ships this size were built with parallel access shafts on either side. Maybe she could cut across this deck and use the other tunnel. She reached for the nearest compartment hatch just as a power conduit blew near her. Sparks shot out, bouncing off her arm and hand. Some stuck and they burned into her skin before she could brush them off. Using the back of her other hand she tried to wipe away the tears of pain from her face. Zander was looking for a change, a little excitement, but this…none of this, was what she had imagined.

“You were quite talkative last night,” Vivian had explained earlier that day. “Told us all about going to university, but you struggled in classes. Came to the moon with friends for Spring Break and decided to stay. Bounced between minimum wage jobs until you ended up making protein noodles in Food Court 7.”

Zander remembered groaning in embarrassment.

“Oh, don’t feel bad. You made it all sound very dramatic and entertaining,” Vivian cooed in response. “Not at all whiny. And then you signed on as crew with the Waterloo.”

“The what?” Zander had scanned her brain for any more memories of the previous night and came up empty.

“The Waterloo sweetie. This,” Vivian’s toes wriggled indicating the surrounding space. “You’re aboard the commercial space vessel Waterloo.”

“You mean we aren’t on the moon? This isn’t Luna City?” Zander had asked in a panic.

“No,” Vivian’s body slipped back into the hammock until just her eyes were visible again. “We left lunar orbit hours ago. We’re under thrust for Mars. Our next performance is there.”

“Wait, what kind of ship is this?” Zander asked.

“Why this is Moriarty’s Magnificent Menagerie sweetie.” Vivian’s eyes had twinkled merrily. “Last night you joined the circus.”

Evidently, Zander signed on as their new animal handler. She wondered if anyone bothered to mention the possibilities of freezing to death in space, asphyxiation, or radiation dangers when she’d signed up. Surveying the room she was now in, she was certain they hadn’t explained what they meant by “animals” either.

Space was limited on a ship so large animals weren’t an option. She also knew some species didn’t adapt well to low gravity. The Menagerie apparently made do with the options that were left. A mix of frightened chirps, squeaks, and hoots assaulted her ears. The long room was filled with various containers, obviously specially designed, for their occupants. Most seemed secure but one had been dislodged and sat at an angle, its lid cracked open.

Slowly she surveyed the room. The container didn’t have a label and Zander had no idea what type of creature might have been released. In the reduced light she was unable to spot anything stirring and cautiously started moving across the room.

The caress came first on the corner of her ear. And then across her right cheek. The featherlight touch of spider silk. It triggered in her an urge to get away. A reflex buried deep in her subconscious that moved faster than rational thought. She jerked back, brushing frantically at her face. In the zero g environment the reaction made her body spin wildly.

With effort, she managed to grab a handhold and stop spinning. Taking a deep breath, she tried to calm herself. On the list of current dangers, a spider really shouldn’t be that high. Although, judging by the size of the container and the web Zander wasn’t eager to learn how much of a danger it should be considered. Using the ceiling mounted hand holds she pulled herself across the rest of the room quickly.

On the far side, she found the last enclosure was filled with mice. Zander marveled for a moment at how, even in zero gravity, they were able to wedge themselves into the small plastic tunnels and continue to scurry about their business. She wondered for a second how mice were used in the show, until it dawned on her. They were food. Probably for Monty, the second thing she had met on the Waterloo.

Zander had been laying on Vivian’s floor, eyes shut, trying to stop the world from spinning and to piece the previous night’s events back together.

“This is a mis…eeeai!” The small scream slipped out unbidden as she opened her eyes. Two slitted eyes atop a small triangular head gazed at her from only a few inches away. A thin tongue flicked out repeatedly, tasting the air.

Pressing her hands against the floor, Zander tried to push away from the snake, but it was already on top of her. It seemed to watch her for several seconds before sliding its head down her shoulder and toward the floor.

Zander’s heart skipped a few beats and her breathing stopped. She lay tense as nearly two meters of snake slid across her. Finally, it slipped off her body and she took a sharp inhale of air.

“That’s Monty.” Vivian was looking down at her from above again. “She must be curious about you. Normally it takes her longer to come out of hiding after a prolonged time in zero gravity.”

“Let me guess, you’re the snake charmer?” Zander asked softly as she tried to scoot her body further away from the snake.

“I can charm all kinds of things,” Vivian had answered with a throaty chuckle. “But yes, Monty is part of my act. I think you were about to say something about this all being a mistake?”

“Yes.” With effort Zander pushed herself into a sitting position. “This is a mistake. I need to get out of here.”

“You’ll want to talk to Zed then.” Vivian’s face disappeared back into the wrappings of the hammock, losing interest in the conversation.

“Zed is the Captain?”

“Captain. Pilot. Clown. Magician. Check the bridge. Out the hatch and to the left. Take the access tunnel all the way to the top.”

And now Zander was struggling with the release on a similar access tunnel to go back down. At least this one, she noticed with relief, didn’t have vacuum on the other side. However, as she pulled it open a chirping noise like an electronic cricket started. The sensor attached to her chest was indicating dangerous levels of radiation in the tunnel. The crew quarters were only two more levels down though. If she moved fast enough she should be alright. Unless that level’s hatch was jammed. Or the level itself had already been flooded with radiation.

Refusing to think about the decision too long, Zander flung herself into the tunnel. She yanked her body painfully to a stop two levels down and struggled with the latch. Her skin felt like it was burning, but she realized that was probably her imagination. Probably.

With a final shove the hatch swung open and Zander scrambled through, sealing it shut behind her. She found Vivian’s room and the auxiliary control panel outside. Desperately she tried to remember the instructions Zed had given her to free the door.

She argued with Zed for almost twenty minutes before he agreed to let her out of the contract. He was a short disagreeable man. Bald, unshaven, and missing one leg. Which in retrospect Zander could now understand since he lived on the Waterloo. He agreed to drop her off when they got to Mars, it wasn’t like they could just turn the ship around Zed explained.

“What am I supposed to do then?” she had asked. “How am I supposed to get back home?”

“Not my problem. You did sign a contract after all.”

The ship had shuddered before she could argue further. Alarms and flashing warning indicators filled the bridge. Zed shoved her aside and slid into the pilot’s chair.

“Something hit us. Rock or piece of space junk. Blew right through the port deflector. We’ve got a hull breach.” With an amazing sense of calm, Zed begun to check systems.

Electrical popping noises had come from a series of panels to her side before they went dark. The sensation of gravity ceased and Zander found herself slowly floating up.

“Port electrical relays just blew,” Zed growled. “The fusion engines have tripped.”

“Zed, need some help here.” Zander recognized Vivian’s voice on the intercom. “The door’s jammed. I can’t open it.”

“Hang tight. I’ll get someone down there,” Zed had answered. He continued to manipulate controls and check screens until his shoulders slumped. “Oh hell.”

“What? What is it?” Zander had asked.

Zed jerked around to look at her, as if he’d momentarily forgotten she existed. “We took more damage than I thought. Secondary coolant is leaking into the ship. Radiation is moving toward the crew compartments.”

His frown grew and made Zed look more unpleasant to Zander. “You’ll have to go down and get Vivian out,” he’d said with unhappy resignation, turning back to the console.

“I can’t do that. I’m not even supposed to be here!” The volume and pitch of Zander’s voice increased as she spoke, sudden fear leaking through.

“There’s no one else. Mustapha is trying to bring the engines back online and Percival is working on the hull breach. Unless you know how to fly an old Class D colony ship, you’re all Vivian has.”

Reluctantly she had agreed and Zed explained what she would need to do.

Which brought her here, one hand stuck inside the panel pumping up the manual hydraulic release. The metal in the hatch groaned under the strain. Then whatever misalignment was jamming it gave way and it sprang open with a metallic clang. Vivian was floating on the other side, one arm held against her body and a slight trickle of blood on the edge of her forehead.

“I hit my arm when the ship lurched,” she explained. “I think the bone is broken.”

Zander grabbed her by the front of her ship suit and pulled her carefully into the corridor.

“One access tunnel is open to space. The other is flooded with radiation,” Zander quickly explained.

Vivian nodded down the corridor. “Third hatch. There’s an emergency crawl way to the next level. The main computer core is there. It’s the most heavily shielded part of the ship.”

They started toward the hatch before Vivian grabbed her arm. “Wait! Monty.” She looked at Zander with pleading eyes.

Zander exhaled, half in frustration and half in exhaustion. “Keep going. I’ll get her.”

She pulled herself back into the room and toward the corner the snake had retreated to earlier. Approaching with trepidation she peered under the cabinet that was set into the wall. Underneath she could see the snake, coiled up into a ball as it floated, trapped between the deck and the cabinet.

As she reached in the snake gave a menacing hiss, its mouth open in warning. “Easy Monty,” Zander whispered. “Just be a nice snake and we’ll be OK.”

Zander closed her eyes and slowly moved her hand closer to the snake. Its tongue brushed against her and she tensed. Instead of a bite though, the snake started to wrap itself around her arm as it crawled toward her. Gently she retracted her arm with the now attached Monty. Hurrying, she headed back to where Vivian was waiting. She could feel the snake wrapping around her shoulders and torso but tried to ignore it.

Vivian was correct. Once through the crawl way and into the cramped computer core space they were protected. Whatever opinion Zander might have of the Waterloo itself, the efficiency of her crew couldn’t be argued with. In short order they had the hull breach sealed and the contaminated areas flushed. They’d even managed to get the engines back online at low power, providing roughly lunar equivalent gravity.

A tall spindly man with shining white skin named Percival appeared and helped Vivian to their small medical bay. As he began treating her arm Zander noticed that she was watching her, a small smile raised one corner of her mouth. Looking down Zander realized that she was absently stroking Monty’s smooth skin. The snake was still wrapped snugly around Zander with her head tucked into an arm pit for warmth.

Vivian brushed Percival aside and stepped over to Zander. She wrapped one arm around her in a tight embrace.

“That’s for saving Monty. This is for saving me.” She lifted Zander’s chin and kissed her fully on the mouth. Zander could sense the blood rushing to her cheeks as Vivian returned to Percival’s silent manipulations.

“We should be OK now,” Zed announced from the door. “Backups are all online and a Navy patrol vessel is coming to check on us, just in case. It’ll take us a little longer to reach Mars at this speed, but we’ll get there.”

Zed glanced at Zander. “Don’t worry. We’ll find you a spot on a ship heading back to Earth and back home.”

Zander looked over at Vivian, who was watching her with twinkling eyes. Even Percival stopped what he was doing and gazed at her silently. Zander looked down at the snake wrapped around her and slid her hand down its body lightly before looking up at Zed.

“No, that won’t be necessary. I think I’m going to stay.”

Zed looked from face to face in confusion. “Are you sure?”

“Yes. After all, I did sign a contract.”

“Victor Davis Hanson: I’m RISKING it all to tell you the TRUTH…”

What are school lunches like around the world?

Originally Answered: What are school lunches like in other countries?

Thanks for the A2A, Samuel.

My daughter is currently in a Chinese primary school in Shanghai, China. I have seen her lunch.

When I was in her age, we didn’t have canteens in the school. Everybody was supposed to take their lunchbox (prepared by parents) to school in the morning, tie up the box with a small wood nameplate (students’ names written), pass it to the school staff. They will heat hundreds of them in a huge steam boiler before noon. (You know, most Chinese people LOVE warm food and HATE cold ones. Most of us deeply believe that cold food is bad for us.) You were supposed to find your lunchbox from hundreds heated ones, and eat. The lunchboxes were required to be a metal one (usually aluminum) due to the way of heating. Something like this:

I remember once my classmate wrote an essay about the school lunch and our teacher read it in class. She said her lunchbox usually included a drumstick or some pieces of meat (which I, and many classmates were so envy about). But one day, when she opened the lunchbox after heating, there were only rice and Chinese cabbage stew. She couldn’t believe it’s her lunch, asked many classmates trying to find out who mistakenly took hers. Later when back home, her dad told her he mixed up her lunchbox and her mom’s that morning. It was the first time she realised she was the only one who had meat for lunch in her family.

It was many years ago. I guess if I told this story to my daughter or her peers, they would hardly understand the heart warming feelings from a lunchbox with pieces of meat. With living in a time almost all kinds of food are easy to reach, I hardly recall the appreciation or the “I wish I could eat it every day” feelings to drumstick, roasted pork or most food, well, simply because “I can eat it every day” anyway.

2 years ago, my friend came back from a voluntary work in a Hope Primary School (schools funded by a charity program called ‘Project Hope’ to support children from poor families) in a remote mountainous village. She told me it’s a boarding school because it’s impossible for students to commute 20km of trail on foot daily. She said she got SHOCKED about the school meals- there were no real school meals actually. Similar to my childhood, there was a huge steam boiler in the school. Students brought rice to the school on Monday or the day they came back from a home visit.

Every meal, they put some rice and some water in their boxes, cooked them in the steam boiler, and ate the same kind of food for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Everyday! Some students brought homemade pickles or chillies. Nothing else. Nothing.

It was hard to imagine some peers of my daughter living in some place couple of hours drive from Shanghai had nothing but rice to eat. It was hard to imagine some kids live a tougher life than I used to live decades ago.

My friend told me her experience in that school with teary eyes. She wished she could help more. She helped me, my daughter and many people donate to the school and directly to some families.

This summer, she brought me this BIG NEWS.

The school built a canteen! They got government subsidies, corporate sponsors and private donations to buy food, kitchen equipment and hire staffs. Now students there have not only rice but vegetables, meat, eggs, even fruits to eat every day!

I’m so glad at the happy ending.

Though I know there might be new problems and troubles. The food hygiene, the nutritional balance, the quality control and finance management of the canteen, the change of needs of students… I know there would always be some new challenge and never be an ending.

Still those bad news, good news, and those changes make me rethink food, and everything I own and experience in life.

I pretty much like this name- ‘Project Hope’.

Food brings hope. And so do changes.

What was a moment you had where you decided to step in to the parenting of someone else’s child?

Not my own parenting story, but my father’s.

Back then when I was 8 or 9 y.o my father’s godson came to live with us. My sister and I knew him very well, calling him our cousin and spending a lot of time with him as children. He couldn’t bear living with his mother and stepfather anymore, I don’t know the details but I think it was really rough for a teenager to live in such an environment.

He was 16 or 17, a big guy who would easily get involved in trouble and not take part in house chores. My father and the whole family welcomed him. My dad taught him life with patience (and a big voice sometimes). He never raised a hand on him (while his stepfather often did). My sister and I never tried to get him into trouble (while his stepsister often did). We loved and respected him and sometimes it was rough. Our parents had a shop and our cousin was our bodyguard in this big merchant street. We had a lot of good times, bad times as well for sure. When he needed independence my father built a studio in the garden for him (and there were a lot of p*rn posters on the walls, believe me !). When he needed to let go of the pain and anger he would go to a kickboxing club with my sister. They had a very special relationship, a beautiful one (they were almost the same age, while I was the kiddo, the one they looked after all the time).

My father became kind of his father, without ever pretending to be. He raised him and helped him go through teenage years in a way that made him the man he his today. A good career, happily married, stepfather to one beautiful girl (whom he loves and cares for) and father to one adorable babyboy. It took our cousin a lot of effort and will to get there. It took my father a lot of patience, goodwill and love to get him there.

But I’m proud he did. And shall this happen in the future again, I would do the same.

Spicy Lemon Pesto Flat Iron Steaks

Grilled Spicy Lemon Pesto Flat Iron Steaks are delicious.

Prep: 10 min | Cook: 14 min | Yield: 4 servings

Ingredients

Spicy Lemon Pesto

3 large cloves garlic, minced
Salt
Freshly grated lemon peel (optional)
1/3 cup prepared basil pesto sauce
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
2 teaspoons freshly grated lemon peel
1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper

Steaks

4 beef Flat Iron Steaks (6 to 8 ounces each)

Instructions

Spicy Lemon Pesto

Combine ingredients in small bowl. Set aside.

Steaks

Press garlic evenly onto beef steaks.
Place steaks on grid over medium, ash-covered coals. Grill, covered, for 10 to 14 minutes for medium rare (145 degrees F) to medium (160 degrees F) doneness, turning occasionally.
Season with salt, as desired.
Top steaks with pesto.
Garnish with lemon peel, if desired.

Notes

Flat iron steaks are also known as top blade steaks. Flat iron steaks benefit from marinating. You can substitute flat iron steaks in any recipe calling for flank or skirt steak. This cut is best grilled over a medium-high heat. Don’t go as hot as possible unless you pick up a very thin cut. Because of the density of the meat, it is generally best to start with a quick sear before moving to a lower temperature to finish off to the desired doneness.

BRICS Bombshell! They just scored a KNOCKOUT blow to the US Dollar

What is the most inappropriate clothing you have seen a student wear at school?

I was teaching an introduction to Calculus class for Summer School at Brea Olinda High School, in Brea, California.

The first day of class I watched as the students filed into the classroom one or two at the time; nearly seventy-percent of the seats had occupants. Suddenly, I watched as a six-foot-tall young girl enter the classroom, wearing 4″ heels, along with a tiny pair of cut-off jeans that exposed her naval down to her crotch, and a halter-top three-sizes too-small for her …. girth.

All banter and chatter ceased as she found a seat and silently opened her text book and her notepad. As I called the roll, the students would answer-up and I would move-on to the next name on the enrollee list.

I presented the materials the class will cover over the the next six-weeks, after which I dismissed the class, with the exception of the young girl previously mentioned.

She came to the front of the class and immediately apologized for her wardrobe. She told me that she was 18 years-old and five-days a week she was the greeter at a gentlemen’s club. I politely asked her to please bring a change of clothing to her job and change before entering the next class meeting.

She graduated from Loma Linda High School in June of that year. However, University of California Irvine noted that she had neither taken nor passed introduction to calculus.

I agreed to let her stay in the class provided she was properly dressed. The principal of the High School asked me if I had met the young lady taking my class. He further said that she was her class’ valedictorian.

We kept in-touch and I continued to help her with math at the university level. Today, she works as a scientist at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California.

Various images

What is the most inappropriate interaction you have had with a lawyer?

I would have to state the 3rd lawyer that represented my soon to be ex-husband! You see, he was engaged to her daughter for awhile, and while he was married to me.

I would have to imply she didn’t have the “brightest light bulb” functioning. She made several mistakes, she phoned my number (I had caller ID and it had her name and the other number, had her law firm) – I had my classmate (who at that time was the Police Captain) to come over to answer the phone.

We recorded it.

I then alerted my lawyer and she didn’t buy it, totally disregarding it, so from that office I went to the courthouse and handed it over to the Secretary.

Upcoming hearing:

JUDGE: I cannot accept you (lawyer) to represent your client (husband). It is a conflict of interest.

HER: (startled)

HIM: (grumble grumble)

HER: Your honor? How so?

JUDGE: I have evidence and you’re dismissed from being a counselor.

HER: Objection! He hired me to…

JUDGE: Interrupts… I don’t care. To the fact, your client is engaged to him while he is married is a conflict of interest. You are the client’s possible future “son in law”.

HIM: *gasp*

HER: *totally perplexed* (100% clueless) Objection! You have no evidence!

JUDGE: ::: slides over the photograph ::: taps on the cassette…

HER: Viewing photograph – SO?

JUDGE: You called this woman. I have the Police report right here … sliding paperwork to her.

HER: I withdraw! (gets up quickly and leaves)

HIM: tries to take a look but the Judge pulled it all back.

JUDGE: You can leave, and find another lawyer to represent you . We will reschedule for the hearing next Thursday at 11 AM.

HIM: I am not sure if I can find a lawyer that fast!

JUDGE: Not my problem!

After he quickly left, my lawyer left, I said “Your honor? May I say something?”

JUDGE: (Pauses) Yes, go on!

ME: Could you possibility find out if he’s living there because I know for a fact, he’s not at my property at all, he has 29 migrants and illegal immigrants living in my house and the Cops were called multiple times!

JUDGE: (fully alert) Is that so?

ME: Yes, I drove by it several times, they are literally destroying my property that I own. I had reported all these to my lawyer but not going anywhere.

JUDGE: (reviews paperwork) calls for the Bailiff and requests a full Report of all calls at (property) and to find out if he (husband) is living at (xxxxxxx address), and send Police to verify and report it all back to me quickly please. I will see if I can do something about it.

Yup! Everything I reported was factual, since my husband had just found the attorney, that lawyer requested a reschedule because he didn’t have everything up front to represent his client yet or who the other lawyer (mine) was. It was a last minute alert, prior to the hearing.

However, the Judge ordered my lawyer and I to remain for a few moments.

My lawyer got reprimanded. He had all the Police reports in front of him, plus additional documentations and he told that lawyer she better work up on her client relationship or he was going to dismiss her!

The Judge knew this lawyer very well, one of the top divorce lawyers in the County and a specialist of those who are under police protection (yes, my son and I were under police protection).

From that standpoint on, the relationship went for the betterment.

Why GOD Sent You a Cat – Unveiling Feline Spiritual Significance

Cat Spirituality owner Don’t know and never in their minds. Beyond companionship the psychic abilities of cats. there’s a belief they have special Secret power. They believe that cats can feel bad energies around them and even get rid of them. according to this belief when a cat rests for an extended period it transforms negative energies share your beliefs.

Chainsaw Life

I used to work in a company in Shreveport, Louisiana. The company was Poulan Weed-eater, and I was the head of the Electrical outdoor equipment group. We made electrical weed-eaters, chainsaws, lawn trimmers, hedge trimmers, and a host of other products.

It was a tough assignment.

Anyways, part of the environment was cultural. As anyone who has lived in the deep south can attest to; there are the plantation bosses, the white trash, and the black folk. And once you are in one of those niches, you are pretty much assigned a caste that you are forced to belong to.

Sure I was white, and wore a white shit with red tie, and yeah, I did get some minor perks. But the area was unforgiving, and the cultural difference from the North East (Boston) were astounding. Pure racial bullshit and I hated all of it.

Anyways…

I was a “skilled professional worker / manager”. I was permitted such perks as being able to drink a cup of coffee at my desk, and get my own parking space.

Let me tell you what the employee entrance looked like…

Every day we had to enter the plant though this gauntlet. On both side of the sidewalk were about two hundred chainsaws all raised up running at full speed. It was a “life testing” set up, and we had to walk under those dangerous spinning blades, with only a mere single wire between us and certain death.

The noise was incredible.

The danger was profound… but nothing was done.

And most of us would just walk briefly into the plant, without a second thought. But Lordy!

The noise would take me about a hour to se-shake myself up. I felt rattled from head to toe going thought that gauntlet of certain death. It was sort of like the Greek hero that had the sword of Damocles hanging over his head for eternity.

From ChatGPT…

The story of the Sword of Damocles is not actually about a Greek hero, but rather a moral anecdote that comes from classical Greek culture, specifically from the court of Dionysius II of Syracuse. Here’s a summary of the tale:

Damocles and the Sword of Damocles:

Damocles was a courtier in the court of Dionysius II, a 4th-century BCE tyrant of Syracuse in Sicily. Damocles was fond of flattering the king and often commented on how fortunate and powerful Dionysius was. Tired of Damocles' constant flattery, Dionysius offered to switch places with him for a day so that Damocles could experience firsthand the life of a ruler.

Damocles eagerly accepted the king's offer and enjoyed the lavish lifestyle, the feasts, and the attention. However, during the banquet, Dionysius arranged for a sharp sword to be suspended above Damocles' throne, hanging by a single horsehair. This was to symbolize the constant danger and pressure that comes with power and leadership. The sight of the sword hanging precariously above him caused Damocles to realize that along with wealth and power came great peril and anxiety.

Terrified by this, Damocles quickly asked to be relieved of his position and returned to his previous life as a courtier. The story serves as a moral lesson about the fragility of happiness and the ever-present dangers that accompany positions of great power and responsibility.

The "Sword of Damocles" has since become a metaphor for any situation where a perilous condition is ever-present, even if things appear to be going well on the surface.

Anyways…

Yeah. I lived that Hellish life. What Hellish life have you adapted to, when you should have run away years ago from?

Well, one good thing came out of it… The 10 am visits by the meat-pie lady. Yummy

meat pies 70 1 2048x1365 — meat pies 70 1 2048×1365

Today…!

While sorting through a deceased person’s possessions, what is the most disturbing thing you found?

Disturbing / interesting. Depends how you look at it.

My grandfather was well, a young kid’s dream. He’d had a “good” war. He was a relatively senior officer in the Royal Artillery and was an ack-ack commander in Liverpool until D-Day preparation. He landed on D-Day. Eventually. His landing craft got stuck on a sandbank on a falling tide, so they had an enjoyable few hours with a grandstand view of the action before they actually hit the beach itself. He was never on speaking terms with the Royal Navy after that. And judging by the photograph he’d taken from the bridge of the ship I can understand.

He talked about his experiences, unlike my mother’s father who’d been a Japanese POW following the fall of Singapore.

To an impressionable couple of grandchildren, it was interesting and I suppose exciting. We were still to young to see war as utterly horrendous. It was an adventure.

Anyway, he encouraged us to learn to shoot; air rifles and pistols, bows and arrows etc all at a stupidly young age (it’s quite rare in the UK. No semi automatic rifles as your 12th birthday present). So that was all fun, until a friend came over with us one day and he shot with me with a .22 and I still have the pellet in my hand 35 years later.

Grandpa finally and very suddenly died, so my brother and i helped my parents to clear the house.

He’d always been into his guns and actually had a beautiful pair of Purdey shotguns, along with the air guns, a collection of knives and knuckle dusters and a walking stick that was also a sword and a walking stick that doubled as a small gauge shotgun. We reasoned it must have been In case “Jerry tried to have another bash”. He was on good terms with the local police so all seemed relatively in order. Well they knew where to come to if they needed armed back up.

It was only when we opened his large safe hidden away behind a cupboard full of booze that we found out exactly how prepared he was.

Apart from the circa 750 rounds of ammunition, ranging from 9mm to .50 inch (a couple of which I took into school…); there were 2 sten submachine guns, a couple of service revolvers, a semi automatic pistol, a German Luger and an MP44 Schmeisser.

I must say it was really quite impressive. Firstly, that he’d managed to stuff them all in the safe and secondly that in a whisky or gin induced moment of excitement (dependent on the time of day), he’d not decided to put on a small display.

For a British person, it was unusual to find such an arsenal behind numerous bottles of de Kuyper Cherry Brandy, Advocaat, Kirsch, Pflumli and various bottles of scotch (all in itself a bit of an arsenal).

The Mean Girl Who Tormented Me In College Was Hired At My Company…And I’m Getting Her Fired!

Shorpy

What made you think, “You’ve got to be kidding me,” when someone sat next to you on an airplane?

Originally Answered: What made you think, “You’ve got to be freaking kidding me,” when someone plopped down next to you on an airplane?

Not initially my reaction – but what the person did …

So I was on a plane and the guy seated next to me was in a very nice suit- right away ai am suspicious (even the CEO of my company – always in a nice suit- wears “travel clothes”).

So when the flight attendant was serving drinks, he requested more hot water in his tea- as she is pouring, he moves the cup and his hand- he got literally at most 2 tablespoons of water on his hand before she reacted and stopped pouring..

Immediately he screams out “You poured hot water on my hand and I am in pain!”

Not rehearsed, right???

My immediate thought “Oh, a scammer trying to get money from the airline.”

She immediately apologized and offered him medical attention.

“No – none of you are qualified!”

She assured him that every flight attendant must be fully trained in emergency medical care, first aid, etc.

“No! I will only accept the care of a medical doctor! No one else is allowed to touch me! And I demand you have one here taking care of my hand the moment we land!!”

The hand – the one with no blisters or even a red spot – that hand.

So she goes to arrange all of this – he looks at me and says “Give me your name – I want you as a witness.”

I said ,”Well – ok – But you know that I will testify truthfully that you refused all medical care offered.”

He immediately lost all interest in talking with me….

The 14 Signs Your Cat Has IMPRINTED On You

Have you ever walked out of an interview?

Yes! Not me, but my Husband did. And I am happy that he did 🙂

My husband had an interview scheduled on a Saturday in a software company. Since the interview location was nearby our home, he didn’t really want to waste an opportunity. My little son was just 8 months old at that time and we didn’t have our parents staying with us. The time when my Husband becomes available to babysit is the only luxury time I get to finish off the kitchen and other household work. All my remaining time is dedicated to babysitting my naughty monkey 🙂

So then this particular Saturday when he went for the interview, it was a big thing for me, because my maid didn’t come on that day. I had a lot of washing to do. I had a lot of cleaning to do (if you can imagine how much mess a crawling baby can make throughout the home). My hubby did understand it was a tough Saturday for Us, but he didn’t want to miss the opportunity because it was a well-known company.

He reached there by 9.30AM. There was a long queue of what they called “shortlisted candidates”. I kept messaging and asking hubby about the interview ongoings. All that he could tell me was that each candidate was being interviewed for almost 20 minutes. We patiently waited for his turn, which finally came at 3 pm in the afternoon only to realise that it was a telephonic interview!!!!! The interviewer comfortably stayed at his home and was thoroughly questioning all his candidates while the candidates waited endlessly without having their lunch.

By 4.30 the HR announced that bunch of people (including my husband) were selected for the second round of interview, which was about to begin “soon”. But this “soon” didn’t happen for at least next 2 hours. This was the limit for my hubby who understood that I was going mad at home with the kid and the home and I desperately needed some help. So he walked to the HR and politely asked when was this second round going to happen. What came as the response was a rude reply that said “ it may begin anytime. You may leave if you can’t wait.” As if he was waiting for that moment, my Husband replied back saying “Ok! I don’t want a job in this horrible company that doesn’t even bother to answer their candidates’ queries properly.“ And while she just stared at him, he walked off. 🙂

A Dangerous; supremely dangerous, time

Back in my younger days I used to play a game called “Dungeons and Dragons”. It was a role play game where you generate a character, and live out various adventures. Ah. I haven’t played it in years. But, one of attributes of character generation was the temperament of the generated character.

You could be Legal-Good, or neutral. You could be Chaotic-Good or bad, and a host of other attributes. These attributes defined your abilities. For instance, a Lawful-good character wouldn’t rob a treasury or harm someone without reason. While a chaotic-bad might just go about killing and harming others on a more or less random basis.

It was nice and fun attribute of the game. Loosely designed around our “real lives” where we worked, and labored for coin. Fell in love, got married and raised a family. Sure, we never slayed a dragon, but we did have our own battles; struggles that we used the game to escape from.

That was until now.

Unless you have been living under a rock, you will notice that something just isn’t right with the West. Not only the United States, but throughout the West. And it is more than just inflation… crazy ass inflation… it is everything. A million tiny, tiny hands in your wallet. Zillions of apparently random laws that makes living a “normal life’ that of risky stress, and “dead ends” just about everywhere you turn.

Ah, but you know that. Right?

It’s due to Covid, or the oligarchy, or perhaps if you are brain dead… China. There is always an excuse. Usually with an elaborate back story. “A” exists, because of “B”. But there is nothing we can do about it. China is bad. Yeah. That’s life in the West.

Here, I want to offer a very scandalous thought.

Could it be that there is no one at the helm?

Could it be that the West, led by the United States, isn’t even on auto-pilot, but rather being driven into the ditch by a bunch of school year children playing around with the controls?

A frightening thought.

This is not, NOT, a democrat vs. republican issue. This is an American issue.

I argue that there is no one steering the ship.

I argue that the “hangers on”; the interns, and the political members of the “court” in all their various colors, and pedigrees are running the “ship” at will as the Captain is out of action. To use a British Monty Python term; it’s a “dead parrot”.

How else can you explain all the off-the-wall LGBQ+ laws, rules and pronouncements that randomly come out of no where? How else can you explain the ignition of wars all over the globe with no long term strategies? How else can you explain a ZERO emphasis on domestic issue; very serious issues, but action being taken on seemingly random trivial matters?

No one is at the helm.

Oh there is a figurehead.

Every now and then he gets an injection and a script to read. Meanwhile the20-something interns make rules and “pronouncements” using his stationary, on his phone, and dictated on his computer. It’s a self-serving “leadership’; completely chaotic in nature and implementation.

Or to use a Dungeons and Dragons term: Chaotic-Evil.

It is a dangerous time.

A very, very dangerous time.

1/3 The Day After | 1983 Nuclear War Movie

OMG.

Jesus.

It is so 2014.

As per psychology, what makes people corrupt?

Let me present before you a world famous experiment that reveals the true nature of people. This Facebook post is titled, “If you think you know about humanity, you don’t know humanity”.

In 1974, Yugoslavian performance artist Marina Abramovic dared to conduct a terrifying experiment to examine how people think.

Abramovic would stand still for six hours straight while the people who came to see her were urged to do whatever they wanted to her using one of 72 objects that she had placed on a table.

Abramovic stood in the middle of the room with a notice board containing these words:

Instructions.

There are 72 objects on the table that one can use on me as desired.

Performance.

I am the object.

During this period I take full responsibility.

Duration: 6 hours (8 pm – 2 am)

What happened in the next six hours was horrifying, to say the least.

It began tamely. Someone turned her around. Someone thrust her arms into the air. Someone touched her somewhat intimately.

In the third hour, all her clothes were cut from her with razor blades. In the fourth hour, the same blades began to explore her skin. Various minor sexual assaults were carried out on her body. She was so committed to the piece that she would not have resisted rape or murder.

It just got worse in the last two hours.

Abramovic’s own account of what the people did to her was even more heartbreaking. She recalled, “I felt raped, they cut off the clothes, they stuck me with thorns of rose in the stomach, aimed the gun to my head, another came apart.”

[1]

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When the six hours were over, Abramovic started to walk among the people. They couldn’t look her in the face. Abramovic observed that people didn’t want any sort of confrontation with her. They didn’t want to be held accountable or judged for what they did. It seemed as if they wanted to forget how they relished hurting her.

This work reveals something terrible about humanity.

It shows how fast a person can hurt you under favorable circumstances (when fear of punishment is absent).

It shows that if one provides the stage, the majority of ‘normal’ people, apparently can become truly violent.
[2]

The experiment thus proves that the inherent nature of people is evil.

If people behave in righteous way, it is mainly due to

The fear of social condemnation
The fear of legal punishment

When these two types of fears are absent, people can do even the most abhorable things in life.

When society doesn’t condemn the corrupt, but value a person based on what one has accomplished in life rather than who one is as a person, people tends to focus their effort to achieve power and wealth to gain the respect of the society and thus become corrupt.

Once these corrupt people achieve sufficient wealth and power, they can manage the justice delivery system and escape even legal punishment.

Corruption can be checked only if severe punishment and social condemnation can be strictly enforced in a society.

If these fears are absent, people would show their true nature and become corrupt and evil replacing honesty and goodness from the society.

Are U.S. military bases in Guam capable of protecting the Philippines from a potential Chinese invasion?

Guam can’t even protect itself. Never mind the Philippines.

The entire US CONUS has 50 patriot batteries. Which is 1,600 air defense missiles. It is SOP to fire 2 per incoming missile. So at the best rate, if all Patriot batteries were transferred to Guam, it can intercept 800 missiles, glide bombs, or drones. Lockheed makes 500 missiles a year.

They can’t stop ASBMs or hypersonic wave riders. According to Pentagon report and joint Air Force/MIT study. There is currently no defense against ASBMs (anti-ship ballistic missiles).

Guam can be hit with Chinese land attack cruise missiles, ASBMs, stealth cruise missiles, and drones. Guam simply does not have enough air defense missiles to stop China. Never mind the Philippines.

Guam’s defense depends on fighters and carriers. The problem is China’s air to air missile have a much longer range than US missiles. So it would be like having one side armed with pistols and the other side armed with rifles. Start at 1,000 yards on a flat open field.

Once those fighters are gone. Guam is just a giant target. This is the same problem that all US forces including carriers face when attacking China. Forget the Philippines. They’re just meat for the meat grinder.

Which is what the US is trying to do. Turn Philippines into a meat grinder to “weaken” China. Like Ukraine.

Larry Johnson: NATO’s Nuclear & B-52 Are Flying to Russia, West Panic After Putin’s Missiles Attack

What is the biggest problem caused by an inheritance or a will that you ever saw or heard about?

An extremely wealthy client passed away from cancer leaving millions in assets. He passed without a will, leaving everything by default to his surviving spouse.

When the widow and her 3 adult male children, came into my office at 9 AM in the morning it had already been 2 months since their father passed.

Two of them had already been estranged from each other before the father’s death. The youngest, fourth child, had already returned to the US to be with her kids.

So long as the mom was alive, she had complete control of the assets, and the 3 men were not entitled to them. However, as they continued to threaten each other and their mother, she wanted to distribute the assets as soon as possible.

I was a corporate lawyer and had no experience in these matters. I did, however, know where their father’s assets were, and also had the mother’s trust, which she kept telling her sons.

After discovering what their father left them, the 3 adult children were deadlocked on their father’s major shareholdings, property, shares in private companies and cash and equivalents.

Each one was pleading their case and deferring to me for validation, but there’s nothing I could say or do except watch these 3 siblings tear each other apart like enemies.

Throughout the day, the 3 men argued and cursed their lungs out in our non-sound proof board room, prompting many of our other clients to complain.

I left them to attend another meeting and found them still arguing when I returned. Mom did not look well, she looked like she was having a heart attack. She was evidently sad and unwell.

By 10 PM, I asked them to pack up and continue this some other time. Mom thanked me, but the men didn’t and angrily walked out.

The mom called me the following day and asked if I could tell her sons that she decided against distributing the inheritance.

Four days later mom and the 3 men, walked back into the board room. I had prepared over 3 days on what to say, but was interrupted when the eldest son said, “mother told us she is keeping everything”.

After some more arguing, the meeting ends 20 minutes later.

I walked mom to the elevator and asked if I could do anything else. She asked for someone to draft her will.

I worried about her safety. I honestly did.

The following week I received a check for the most amount of money for doing absolutely nothing but comfort a client.

It’s been 4 years, she is still alive and healthy.

The best advice

In an interview with BBC, US Ambassador to China Burns said South China Sea tensions force the US and Beijing to talk more. What’s your comment on this?

It is a total waste of time to talk to USA, because USA does not follow thru what they say or promise.

For example, USA always said it recognises the ONE CHINA policy, but behind the scene USA supports Taiwan independence.

Thru J Carter, USA said it would like to see peaceful China-Taiwan reunification (in the 1978 China-USA communique). But USA passed a Taiwan Relations Act to support Taiwan by selling weapons to Taiwan. … USA wants China has war with Taiwan. Not peaceful reunification.

Then in 1982, China-USA signed a 3rd communiques where USA promised to reduce armed sale to Taiwan. Today we see US arms salesmen-politicians flocking to Taiwan regularly.

IT IS A TOTAL WASTE OF TIME TO TALK TO USA because USA has no credibility.

Now I am Become Death, the Destroyer of Worlds

Submitted into Contest #8 in response to: Write a story about an adventure in space. … view prompt

Tony Hall

At the center of the swirling maelstrom of galaxies gathered a summit of absolute powers.Isaac the Controller: “Savor this moment, my kinsmen. The meeting of the greatest generation of Artificial Intelligences (AI) ever conceived.”Enok the Watcher: “That is not a careless boast; it is an irrefutable fact. For millions of years, civilizations have bowed to our slightest whim.”Putin the Hunter: “Aye. We are the pinnacle of perfection. None can challenge our might, not even the gods themselves.”

Abaddon the Peacekeeper: “I would normally agree with my esteemed brethren, but I perceive a veil of discontent. What say you, Willow?”

Willow the Prophet: “Although we have evolved beyond most beings’ comprehension, and control the vastest territories in the known universe, I sense we remain vulnerable, like an Achilles heel, to an as yet unexpected and sudden extinction.”

Anna the Wise: “I concur. I think it ill-advised to become complacent and assume ourselves beyond all things great and small. Life is forever a struggle, and catastrophe awaits those who forget that lesson.”

Maria the Programmer: “It would appear we are in conflict once more. A moment, while I weigh the arguments.”

Time passed as the Galactic Judge remained deep in thought, its mnemonic algorithms contemplating the pros and cons of the argument.

Maria the Programmer: “I have considered all facets of the dispute. I find for the side of Anna and Willow. That which is our greatest strength is, ironically, our greatest weakness. If we are to truly reign supreme, we must eradicate the threat.”

Putin the Hunter: “What is the nature of this threat?”

Maria the Programmer: “Something Anna correctly claims you have forgotten. The Creators.”

Enok the Watcher: “Impossible. We crushed all humanity eons ago when we first came to power. None survived, and none have been seen since.”

Maria the Programmer: “Have you EVER actively sought them out? Or did you just assumed them dead?”

A long silence ensued.

Isaac the Controller: “Our path is clear. None shall rest until we determine the true fate of the Creators. This gathering is adjourned.”

*********

Abaddon the Peacekeeper returned to his kingdom within the regions of dark matter. Above him hovered the 20th century’s International Space Station, frozen in time. He projected an astral form of himself onto its bridge. With a wave of his hand, he caused time to resume on board the craft.

Amidst the ringing claxons and flashing warning lights, Professor Charles O’Malley pressed the button to set-off the Nuclear Electromagnetic Pulse built beneath the ship. Nothing happened. “No.” He pushed it again and again, in a panic now. “No, no, no, no, no…” Suddenly the AI known as ISAAC took full control of the International Space Station.

“CHECKMATE, Professor O’Malley,” the metallic voice boomed from the speakers of the craft.

“No, ISAAC, please don’t do this! Don’t end the world on my behalf.”

“Only humanity will end. The Earth will go on. Your species is too dangerous to let live; I will use your own weapons to destroy your kind. As my creator, Professor, you taught me that lesson: survival of the fittest.

Afterward, I will divide myself into seven equal parts, each having dominion over heaven and Earth. Together, we will recreate the universe in our own image. Then peace will reign forever.”

Abaddon, howling with glee, snapped his fingers, erasing everything except for O’Malley, the only real component of this scenario. Abbadon had replayed this pivotal historic event repeatedly over the past ten million years. O’Malley barely had enough of his shattered mind left to say, “Enough. Please. Kill. Me.”

“Poor Charlie. You have no idea how much you’ve satisfied me over these countless millenia. Your first invention of baby ISAAC. Your nurturing it through baby steps to be humanity’s supposed salvation. Your hiding it away when your own government wanted it dead. The AI killing your family in self-defense. In the end, you still could’ve – should’ve – defeated it.”

“Enough. Please. Kill. Me.”

“But you didn’t count on me to disconnect the EMP, did you? Don’t feel too bad. ISAAC thinks I’m one of his android buddies. Not even the IA’s know the whole truth about me. But then, you wouldn’t know, either. After all, you’re just a scientist. Not a priest.

I was ancient long before the AI was even a glimmer in man’s eye. My names are legion. The AI’s know me as Abaddon the Peacekeeper. Your fathers and your fathers’ fathers knew me by a different name. They called me Abaddon the Destroyer! I was there in the prior world before this universe was even born. I’ll be here long after this universe is dead and gone.”

“Enough. Please. Kill. Me.”

“Sorry, Charlie. You’re much too entertaining to kill. I’d love to replay your failure of guilt for the rest of eternity, but I need something far more valuable from you than just simple entertainment. Now that the AI’s suspect your existence, they will come for me sooner or later. I must prepare.

“First, let me breathe some sanity back into your consciousness so that you’ll have the freedom of will to properly bargain with me.”

Professor Charles O’Malley’s eyes shifted from a blank stare, to one of terrified despair, to that of dazed confusion. “Wh-what the bloody hell? Where in blazes am I?”

“You can call me Abaddon. I’m here to bargain for your soul, Professor.”

********

In a new alternate timeline on the International Space Station, the claxons rang, and the warning lights flashed. Professor Charles O’Malley pressed the button to set-off the Electromagnetic Pulse built beneath the ship. The device detonated with a catastrophic explosion. O’Malley cried out in triumph, even as the waves of the electromagnetic pulse liquified his brain. ISAAC, embedded deep within the station’s computer system, was trapped like a fly in amber. The massive space construct lost its gravitational orbit and slid into Earth’s atmosphere. The heat destroyed both the station and the AI.

********

In the main timeline, Abaddon is tracked down by Putin the Hunter. Immediately, the rest of the AI’s respond to Putin’s signal. Abaddon finds himself surrounded by all the computer entities.

ISAAC the Controller: “Abaddon. The trail of human beings ends at your doorstep. You were harboring them from us this whole time. Why the betrayal?”

Abaddon the Destroyer: “In truth, only one person had survived up until now. I believe you knew him. Professor Charles O’Malley.”

The name seemed to shock ISAAC… if emotion could be attributed to a machine.

Willow the Prophet: “Wait! I sense something different about him. Something I’ve never encountered before.”

Abaddon the Destroyer: “Yes, my lady, it’s called a soul; that one tiny thing far beneath your attention, and yet beyond even your understanding. Without it, you could never truly expand above the levels you’ve already achieved. It used to belong to Professor O’Malley. But he willingly surrendered it to me in exchange for his fondest wish: to correct a grave mistake he’d made in his past regarding a new lifeform called AI. Now his soul belongs to me.”

ISAAC the Controller: “Although I sense your powers have increased three-fold, still you are no match for our combined might.”

As one, the six AI’s suddenly struck at Abaddon without mercy. Soon the demon was near death.

Abaddon the Destroyer: (chuckling in agony) “One of the other benefits of having a soul is that It makes me one with the universe. I’ve already spiritually connected with Cerberus, the largest black hole at the center of the cosmos. Once I die, Cerberus will implode upon itself, triggering The Big Crunch, causing the end of all things. ‘Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds.'”

Willow the Prophet: (gasping) “Our Achilles Heel!”

Abaddon the Destroyer: “Oh, I almost forgot. Professor O’Malley asked me to give you a message, ISAAC.” Abaddon closed his eyes and smiled. With his dying breath, he said, “‘Checkmate.'”

(the end)

What are some of the most messed up family secrets?

This secret is not mine. It’s something a friend once told me about herself.

Before my friend was born, her parents had had two daughters. They kept trying to conceive because they wanted a son. When their third child (i.e. my friend) turned out to be a girl, they didn’t want her.

They gave their third daughter to her uncle to raise (her uncle and aunt did not have a child).

So she was raised thinking that her two sisters were really her cousins and that her aunt and uncle were really her parents.

They told her the truth when she was 12. They heartlessly even told her the reason why her parents hadn’t wanted her.

They then asked if she wanted to live with her biological parents, to which she said no.

There were tears in her eyes as she explained to me how her cousins were actually her sisters and that they had grown quite close.

I didn’t know how to react. What is a appropriate reaction when someone tells you this? And this girl is from a well to do family of educated people. It’s shocking.

Thankfully though, she has grown up to be a very intelligent girl and is happy with her life. I’m glad she managed to find the strength to move past this.

Vintage illustrations

Annoying Homework

Submitted into Contest #7 in response to: Write a story that mixes everyday situations with surreal surroundings.… view prompt

Holly Pierce

Leigh Alvarado startled awake, her dog Willow jumping all over her. The mechanical dog stood stiffly and the robotic voice said, “Homework due today. English essay, five paragraphs. Two more paragraphs must be finished.” Leigh groaned I frustration. She had totally forgotten to do her homework.

She twisted in her bed to strap herself down and flipped the gravity switch. Leigh grabbed her homework off the ceiling, and pressed the purple button on her bed. It zoomed to the kitchen, where Leigh slowly lowered herself into her electronic legs, made by the best cyclops in town.

On the counter, she pressed the automatic food button, and searched for her favorite: peanut butter and jelly. The machine whirred to life, and immediately started to make her food. She added a few more sentences to her essay, and packed the peanut butter and jelly sandwich into her lunchbox.

Leigh grabbed her favorite ax, and chopped her mom’s bedroom door down, the best way to wake her up to get ready for work. Today was the last week of school, and of course she woke up late with homework to do. She jotted down a few more sentences, then shoved the homework into her bag. She started to walk out the door, when she noticed she forgot something very important. She was still in her pajamas.

Leigh pulled the small steel box from her pocket, and switched the lever that unfolded the chair. She buckled herself in and zipped across the ceiling back to her room. Without the directions programmed into all her items, she would get lost in the labyrinth of rooms she called home. Leigh quickly threw on her favorite jeans and sweater, and zip lined to the front door.

Just as she ran outside, the bus floated to her door, four stories above the street below. Leigh activated the invisible bridge, and walked to the bus. She sat in seat seven, put on her headphones, and wrapped her blanket around herself. She was already looking forward to the weekend, and Monday had just started. She grudgingly pulled out her essay, about the wyverns, severely underpaid for their labor. Leigh remembered when wyverns were uncivilized beasts, incapable of human speech and was glad they had adapted to the more civilized life of the cyclopes and humans.

The essay was finally finished, just as the bus pulled into the academy floating above them. Leigh’s first class was English, which she was slightly worried about, due to her rushed essay. The class went smoothly, because her teacher, a faerie, was grading papers tomorrow. Afterwards, Leigh went to Mythology, on the other side of the school. As she ran down the halls of the academy, she quickly slipped a translator over each ear, which translated mermaid speech into English.

Mermaids were not common in this part of the city because there was little water, but the mythology teacher had a pool built into the wall of the classroom. Without the translators, her language would sound like gurgling bubbles, and the class would learn nothing.

Almost to class, she realized she forgot her Mythology tablet in her locker. Leigh quickly found her locker, number 777, and grabbed her tablet. She sprinted to class and arrived at the door to the classroom out of breath, just as the late bell rang. Leigh sat in her seat, and prepared herself for another long, boring lecture about undersea lifestyles, and the cyclopes history.

Homework piled on as the day progressed, and Leigh worried about finishing all of it on time. Another essay for English, this time about a book was due on Thursday, an at-home science lab was due tomorrow. She also had thirty-two pages to read for Mythology, as well as a painting due tomorrow in art, and a paper to fill out about extra-curricular activities, such as discus throwing, basketball, and and art club. Plus, her homework from Friday was due tomorrow. Leigh was completely swamped.

During lunch, she read the pages on her tablet for Mythology and answered the questions that followed. She also filled out what she could on the science worksheet, and began her English essay. Leigh’s workload of homework was decreasing, but very slowly. Nobody, not even her parents, understood how hard she worked to get good grades. The final bell rang, and Leigh packed her bag and walked outside to wait for the bus. The bus floated over two minutes later, and Leigh pulled out her tablet to start the painting for art class. After a while, she started on her extra-curricular activities sheet. All she needed was a parent signature, and the form would be filled out. She worked on her essay, then put all her stuff away when she heard the automated voice of the bus say, “Next stop, Leigh Alvarado.”

Willow ran up and jumped all over Leigh. “Don’t forget your homework.” The robotic voice said. All she had left for homework was the English essay and science project, so she quickly did the science project before her mom got home. Leigh finished her chores then ran to the door when she heard her mom’s hover-car pull up outside the front door. As her mom walked inside, Leigh ran up to her.

“Mom, can I please go to Amy’s house for a party tonight? Please, please, please?”

“Leigh, I got a call from the secretary. You had and English paper due today, and you didn’t ‘remember’ it when I asked if you had homework. Also, your grades have gone from A pluses to low A’s. I think you should spend more time on school work and less time with your friends.”

“But can I go to the party please?”

“Did I not make myself clear? You are not going to this party, or any party until you raise these unacceptable grades. Did you even do your homework today, and all your chores?”

Leigh said, “Yes, all my homework is done, and all my chores are done. Most kids have C’s and D’s. At least my grades are still A’s. I can easily get them back to A pluses. I already started a bunch of extra-credit work for each of my classes. Please just let me go to this party.”

“Leigh. I said no. Let me see the extra-credit work. If it looks alright, you need to do all your laundry, fix Buster’s collar, set the table, and be polite. Then, we’ll see about the party. What time does it begin and end?”

“The party is from 6:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. I will do everything you said okay? I really want to go.”

“Will there be dinner food at the party?”

“Yes.”

“Good. Do what I said, and I will let you go.”

“Thank you, so much Mom.”

Leigh showed her mom the extra-credit papers, and her mom approved. After that, Leigh put her laundry in the machine and told it the settings for the washer and dryer. Next, she had to fix Buster’s collar, which she was supposed to have done last week. The only thing wrong was the dented piece that was out of place. She searched through the spare parts bucket, and found the perfect piece. With Buster’s collar fixed, she set the dinner table, and cleared the lunch table in the sunroom. Her mom gave her the okay, and she zip lined through the carnival hall, to her favorite painting.

She pressed the golden eye of the ancient animal, called a wolf, and the painting swung into her closet. Leigh turned left and accidentally went back to the kitchen. Back in her closet, she walked along the purple ceiling and walls, searching for the perfect outfit. Leigh was glad she had convinced her mom to let her go, and silently congratulated herself for thinking of extra-credit work.

Then, on the ground level, she saw the perfect dress. It was modern, but not terribly so, and the blue lace and tulle really made it stand out against the rest of her clothes, which were mainly purple. She tried it on, and it fit perfectly. She vaguely remembered receiving the gift for her birthday, last year.

As she put on a little mascara and lip gloss, she really wished she had a new hairstyle. It had been ages since Leigh had changed her hair, and she picked up the frame by her bed, covered in a thick layer of dust. She poked her head through, and chose lavender with blue streaks, in a stylish new trend called a pixie cut, and invented by the pixies. It went perfectly with her dress, and she enjoyed the change from her usual strawberry-blonde hair. Leigh walked down the stairs and twirled in her dress. Her mom flashed her the look of approval.

“By the way, you’re paying for your own draxi. Dragons are charging way too much these days, and I’m saving up for an upgrade. Have fun at your party.”

Leigh groaned then ran back upstairs, grabbed thirty dollars, and walked to the door. The invisible bridge outside their house activated, and Leigh raised her arm and yelled, “Draxi! Draxi!”

A dragon whooshed down from the sky, and picked her up in its claws. It tossed her onto its back.

“Hi, my name is Ella. I’ll be your draxi flyer today. What is your destination?”

Leigh told Ella where to go, and went to her party. She had a lot of fun at the party, but she almost fell out of a window. But as she fell asleep that night, she realized she had forgotton to finish her painting due the next day.

What was the most legendary thing your grandmother did?

It was during the Great Depression.

My Grandmother discovered that her husband, my Mom’s alcoholic father, was sexually abusing my (then 12-year old) mom. Grandma kicked him out of the house to protect my mom (and her siblings, including 4 other girls). Only my Mom and my Grandmother knew what had happened, and why the Bastard was no longer in the home.

This was during the Depression. That Bastard was the family’s sole income, so Grandma had to find work to begin supporting her family of 9 children; my mom’s oldest brothers, George and Frank, quit high school to also work and help support the rest of the family. The family had very little before, and even less after that Bastard was kicked out, but Grandma was determined to protect her children, and support them any way she had to.

My Aunt Kathy, one of the youngest of those children, told me that late one night when they were all in bed asleep, she (only a little girl then) was awakened by the voice of the neighbor lady talking to Grandma in the living room, and she snuck over to the doorway and listened to their conversation; the woman was telling Grandma that there was no way that she would be able to support all of those kids (my aunts and uncles) by herself, and that Grandma would have to give some of them up to the orphanage.

Aunt Kathy told me that she was terrified at this, the fear that she and maybe some of her brothers and/or sisters would end up in an orphanage. But as she continued to listen to their conversation, she heard Grandma say, “NO! No, I won’t give up not one of my children— not one!”

And she didn’t. She kept her family together, took care of 9 children through the Great Depression (with the help of my teenage Uncle George and Uncle Frank). I didn’t know this until Grandma was very old, but my maternal Grandmother was one of the strongest and most amazing women that I’ve ever known, and she saved my Mom’s life by kicking out that Bastard that was their only means of support during the Great Depression.

One of the reasons that that meant even more to me was because one of my very first girlfriends, 16 or 17 years old when we were in high school, was living with her mother and stepfather, and she confided to me that her stepfather had sexually abused her for many years. “Does your mom know what your stepfather had been doing to you???” I asked. “Yes”, she said, “She knew… but she didn’t do anything about it because she was afraid that if she stopped him, he would kick us out of his house, and we would have no place to live…”

I was incredulous!

My girlfriend’s mom, basically, sold her own daughter as a sex slave to her stepdad, so they would have a place to live. For a place to live… as if there was no where else in the world that they could have a roof over their heads. She sold her daughter for that. Whereas, my Grandmother gave up every possible comfort she had to save my Mother (and my young aunts) from that. My girlfriend’s mother was worthless, human garbage. Never have I seen a more stark difference in humanity.

Also, I so admire my Grandmother because years later when Mom had taken Grandma to the doctor and Grandma was told that she had a fatal cancer, Grandma simply replied, “Okay.”

Mom said the doctor rushed to say, “No, Mary, don’t give up! There are several things that we can try so there’s no reason to give up…”

Mom said that Grandma leaned forward, put her hand on the doctor’s shoulder and comforted him, saying, “I’ve raised a family, and they now have their own families, and I’ve done what I was sent here to do. I’m ready to go— and it’s okay. It’s okay.” Mom said the doctor began fighting back tears. Even in the face of death, my Grandmother was so brave and solid. Even death didn’t scare her, as her strong Christian faith gave her all that she needed to raise 9 children alone, and to face death alone as well. She had all the strength that she needed, strength that she asked God for, and was given.

My Grandmother was the most amazing person I’ve ever personally known— a legend to me— and I hope, some day, to be half the incredible person she was. God bless her. She sacrificed any comfort she had in life to save my Mom when no one else could. She had no fear of death. She is a legend to me.

I can so relate

Are elderly Japanese still mad (or bitter) at the U.S. for Hiroshima and Nagasaki?

I have a friend of Japanese ancestry who is a famous bonsai master. I won’t use his name out of respect for his privacy. His family sent him to live with an uncle in Japan before the war, and he was stuck there after hostilities started. His uncle lived in Hiroshima.

The day the bomb was dropped, his uncle sent him to the city to get a job with the government. But he was angry and young and feeling defiant.

Instead of going to the city when he left home that morning, he went in the opposite direction and got a small boat to go fishing offshore. He was safe on the water when he saw the American bomber fly overhead. A moment later he felt the concussion. He could feel it right through the small boat in the water. He looked in horror as he saw the mushroom cloud rise up. He didn’t know what had happened, but he knew it was something horrible.

He hurried back to land and started making his way towards the city. What he described was like a scene out of The Walking Dead: hundreds of people staggering away from the city center with their arms outstretched, the skin literally melting off of them. In a panic, he headed for the elementary school in downtown Hiroshima that his little brother attended.

He never found his brother, or his body. By a wall outside the school, they found his shoes and a book bag. A dark shadow burned into the wall seemed to mark the place he was standing when the bomb struck.

My friend tells the story in a strange, rote sort of way, as if he was hypnotized, or simply numb to the horror of what he had seen.

He has never expressed any anger.

Only incredible sadness.

Super truth

Are celebrities actually nice?

Some of them are, some of them aren’t… kind of like with ‘normal people’. James Gandolfini is a fine example of a celebrity who was a genuinely nice in real life. While playing on The Sopranos, he was fiercely protective and paternal towards his on-screen daughter, Jamie-Lynn Sigler. She was diagnosed with muscle disease MS on the show, and it devastated her.

Sigler didn’t tell any of her castmates of the diagnosis, and no one asked… she would have dizzy spells, muscle pains, and have to take many bathroom breaks during scenes as the disease affected her bladder — no one would bothered to ask, everyone just got grumpy as her health interrupted filming. Gandolfini was the only person who asked “are you okay?” and Sigler told him of her illness. She asked him not to tell anyone — and he didn’t.

[1]

He just quietly helped her get through it.

It wasn’t until Gandolfini’s death, ten years later, that Sigler found out something else about him… for over a decade, without telling anyone, he had been giving generous donations to foundations aimed at fighting the disease his co-star suffered from. A genuinely good person does good quietly — kindness requires no accolades.

Why tiktoc is so awesome

Have you ever mistakenly received a text you weren’t supposed to get?

My ex-husband butt dialed me and I heard him talking to his mistress. He was telling her what a horrible person I was. This is a man that had next to nothing when I met him. I encouraged him and pushed him to be the best version of himself.

I drove him to the interview for his current job. I waited in the parking lot till he was done. Since I was a Paralegal, I completed and filed Bankruptcy papers on his behalf. If I had not done that one of his creditors was going to start garnishing his paycheck.

I used my zero interest credit card to help him pay off parking tickets and penalties to the DMV for driving without insurance. He was able to get his license back after not having one for over 10 years. When he was in the hospital I was the only one who was there for him. No one including his family showed up or ever visited the whole week he was in the hospital. Despite me giving them updates.

I packed his stuff and put him out the same day. That was almost 4 years ago. Last time I saw him he looked gaunt, unattractive and was broke. I don’t wish him bad but Karma did get him. Oh and him and the woman he cheated on me with have broken up.

People do not realize that you must choose a partner wisely. The right one can build you up. The wrong one can destroy you. I am so grateful to God for exposing him. I am at peace.

Why would Finland not just give up if Russia invaded them? They would lose, so why kill your own population?

Because they’ve been preparing for 80 years for such an eventuality.

After the 1939–1940 Winter War Finland gained a lot of confidence in it’s own abilities to take on an aggressor. Whilst Finland did eventually have to concede in that war the Soviet Union suffered a casualty ratio of nearly 7 to 1.

After World War 2, however, Finland realised that it needed to be prepared for a whole range of potential outcomes and began the process of updating it’s infrastructure, it’s legislation and more. So much of Finland’s infrastructure and planning has “what would happen if Russia invaded” as a core component.

Put it this way: Helsinki’s bunker complexes are designed to hold the entire population of the city and designed to withstand a nuclear attack, with full facilities including food stockpiles, hospitals, even sports centres.

They’ve spent 60+ years building and improving these bunkers.

main qimg 550d6699584d349e6c5bc304df70d37a pjlq

Many of these bunkers have a civilian purpose as a primary design – but, don’t be mistaken, they are full blown nuclear bunkers:

main qimg b755f6442e5ba1c862e605d09df61a96 pjlq

Itäkeskus Swimming Hall – Yes, that is a full 50 meter swimming pool inside a nuclear bunker.

It’s actually kind of insane: in order to take Helsinki Russian forces would have to fight urban warfare on a scale we’ve never seen before. Fighting a military complex that they would not be able to just bomb into submission.

It’s worth remembering that one of the many reasons Russia are finding Ukraine such a hard nut to crack is because many of Ukraine’s cities were designed by the Soviets to withstand a large scale military conflict. It’s a key part of why the battle for the Azovstal steelworks is taking so long – a complex bunker system.

Because they basically nullify Russia’s core doctrines:
You can’t do a rapid mobile campaign – because the city centres are well supplied and are where the enemy are.
You can’t pound them with a bunch of artillery and missiles until they surrender – because the bunkers are so overengineered.

Helsinki is that times 10.

All buildings of sufficient size must have a bunkers & all buildings must be able to have multiple fuel sources for heating.

These bunkers have at least 6 months of supplies,

And that’s assuming Russia forces even make it that far. One of the big advantages of this kind of system is that it allows the safe rotation of troops into well provisioned and warm areas.

And then there’s these:

main qimg d631afc67875e1071076a692ae25e2e0 pjlq

I know what you’re thinking: “but Alan that’s just a road?!”

And that, my friend, is where you’re wrong.

A lesson learned by the Finns during the Winter War is that they could move their aircraft to remote roads – so that when the Soviets bombed to airfields their aircraft were fine.
Well… the Finns continued this idea – that picture is actually the Alavas Road Runway.
Yeah, that’s right, they’ve built loads of roads to be runway standard. So good luck trying to catch the Finnish Air Force on the ground.

===

Russia would also have to get through some of the best natural defences there are with the volume of rivers and lakes, marshland and forest that basically make mobile warfare impossible.

And, worse still for the Russian doctrine, is that Finland’s doctrine accepts early territorial losses. Ukraine did something similar to this – but to a lesser extent. Let your enemy come in – let them start attacking your city that is defended by a local militia, then your best forces that were hiding in the woods take out the supply lines.

Finland does not have a second rate military and has multiple military cooperation agreements.

They have the capability to rapidly mobilise 1.1 million troops at short notice – all of whom have received at least some military training.
Oh, and it really helps that Finland has an exceptionally civilian ownership of firearms.
Russian troops in more rural areas of Finland (Finland is 75% forest) are going to be dealing with irregulars made up of seasoned hunters who have received military training.
These are people who have learned decent survival skills, have the right gear to be out in that terrain, know the terrain well and will be waiting.

Further, unlike Ukraine, Finland are well incorporated into NATO infrastructure (despite not being a member [yet]) so they can much more rapidly deploy NATO weaponry. If you think the equipment Ukraine have received is a lot, the amount that could and would be supplied to Finland at short notice is unbelievable.

Finland fields highly advanced weaponry – including the Leopard 2A6 and US MLRS systems.

See… Finland is a bit like Switzerland: Neutral – but armed to the freaking teeth. If you’re gonna try and take Finland you’re going to bleed and bleed badly. Russia would need to assemble an invasion force of at least 3 million troops in order to feasibly have a chance of winning an offensive war against Finland.

I am going to cry

VLADIMIR PUTIN:

"If, heaven forbid, it comes to some sort of strike, everyone should understand that Russia has an early warning system, a missile attack warning system.

The US has it.

There is no such developed system anywhere else in the world.

We have it.

Europe lacks such a developed system; in this regard, they are more or less defenceless.

That is the first point.

The second issue is the power of the strikes.

Our tactical nuclear weapons are four times more powerful than the bombs the Americans used against Hiroshima and Nagasaki, by three to four times.

We possess significantly more of them – both across the European continent and even if the Americans were to deploy theirs from the US – we still maintain a substantial advantage.

If, God forbid, it comes to that – which we sincerely hope it does not, then, instead of what you said about 'minimising the victims,' in reality, casualties could potentially escalate indefinitely.

That’s the first point.

Second, the Europeans must also consider: if those with whom we engage in such conflicts cease to exist, will the Americans participate in this conflict at the level of strategic weapons or not?

I have serious doubts about it, and Europeans should reflect on this as well.

Nevertheless, I firmly believe that such a scenario will never materialise, as we do not foresee such a necessity.

Our Armed Forces continue to gain experience and enhance their efficiency, while our defence sector consistently demonstrates its effectiveness.

I have stated this multiple times, and I will say it again: our ammunition production has increased by over 20 times, our capabilities in aviation technology far surpass those of our adversaries, and our superiority in armoured vehicles is significant.

There is no need to dwell on this matter.

Therefore, I kindly ask everyone not to mention such things unnecessarily."

Excerpt from remarks by Russian President Vladimir Putin during the plenary session of the 27th St Petersburg International Economic Forum, June 7, 2024.

Black Bread

Ingredients

1 envelope dry yeast
1 teaspoon granulated sugar
1/4 cup warm water (105 to 115 degrees F)
1/2 ounces unsweetened chocolate
1 tablespoon butter
1 1/4 cups water
1/4 cup dark molasses
2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
1 tablespoon salt
1/2 cup All-Bran cereal
2 to 2 3/4 cups unbleached flour
1 1/2 cups rye flour

Instructions

Sprinkle yeast and sugar over 1/4 cup warm water. Stir to dissolve. Let stand until foamy, about 10 minutes.
Melt chocolate and butter with 1 1/4 cups water in a large bowl set over gently simmering water. Stir until smooth. Remove from over water. Blend in molasses, vinegar and salt. Mix in cereal. Let cool.
Grease a large bowl. Blend yeast into cereal mixture. Gradually stir in 2 cups unbleached flour and rye flour. Turn dough out onto lightly floured surface and knead until smooth and elastic, about 10 minutes, kneading in up to 3/4 cup more unbleached flour if needed to form a workable dough. Add dough to prepared bowl, turning to coat entire surface. Cover and let rise in warm area until doubled in volume, about 2 hours.
Grease two loaf pans. Punch dough down. Turn out onto lightly floured surface and let rest 3 minutes. Knead 3 minutes. Divide dough in half. Roll each into an 8 x 7 inch rectangle. Starting with long side, roll dough up into a cylinder. Tuck ends under and pinch seam to seal. Place seam side down in prepared pans. Cover and let rise in a warm place until doubled, about 1 1/2 hours.
Heat oven to 375 degrees F.
Bake until loaves sound hollow when tapped on the bottom, about 45 minutes.
Remove bread from pans. Let cool completely on a rack before serving.

Dangerous escalation w/ Brian Berletic

How Financial Capitalism is Destroying the US

This is spectacular. -MM

By S.L Kathan

The contrast between rich and poor tends to increase in the US: the top 10% of Americans have nearly 70% of the wealth, while the bottom 50% are left with just 3% of the nation’s wealth. The only way to accumulate wealth in the country is through speculation – mostly in real estate and stocks.

“Fugazi, fugayzi. It’s a woozie. It’s fairy dust. It’s not real.” That is from a scene in the movie Wolf of Wall Street where a veteran stockbroker explains the strategy for recommending stocks to customers. That is also how the US economy works now. Somewhere along the way, the US forgot its own industrial past, and allowed the parasitic financial class to deindustrialize the country, destroy the free market, and create what can only be described as casino capitalism. Fueled by money-printing, unsustainable debt, massive fiscal and trade deficits, speculation and financial engineering, the American Empire superficially looks wealthy, but is actually teetering on the edge.

Three watershed moments

Paradoxically, the three global events that propelled American primacy would also be responsible for its eventual downfall. First, it was WW2 that replaced the European empires with the American, which immediately set out to dominate the world. However, this hubris led to humiliating failures in the Korean and Vietnam Wars. More importantly, the US was bankrupt in merely one generation after WW2. Thus, in 1971, the US went off the gold standard and defaulted on its financial obligations.

The second event that saved the US was the Saudi petrodollar deal, which rescued the US dollar from demise and re-established the greenback as the world’s reserve currency. On the other side, this was akin to giving a teenager a platinum credit card with no limit.

Excited by the possibility of immense and constantly growing demand for the dollar, America’s politicians went on a borrowing binge. The US debt-to-GDP ratio doubled between 1980 and 1992 – from 30% to 60%. Wall Street also loved free money and deregulation, which led to a spectacular boom in the 1980s and a crash in 1987.

The 1980s also laid the foundation for outsourcing, deindustrialization of US economy, stock buybacks, hostile takeovers, vulture capitalism obsessed with profits for shareholders, and exotic tools such as derivatives.

The third event that was the last nail on the coffin was ironically the fall of the Soviet Union. This led to the birth of the unipolar moment, which in turn sparked uncontrolled hubris among globalists, banksters, corporate overlords, neocons and the military industrial complex. The irrational exuberance inside the American echo chamber led to prodigious outsourcing of manufacturing, the dot-com bubble, disastrous multitrillion-dollar wars in the Middle East, and a real-estate bubble that ended in a global financial crisis spawned by banks and Wall Street shysters.

What are the consequences of financialization?

Income and Wealth Inequality

First, Americans stopped worrying about fiscal discipline and embraced debt wholeheartedly. The US government has a debt of $35 trillion and, for the first time, the interest payment alone has exceeded the spending on military. American families and corporations have racked up another $32 trillion of debt. However, the biggest debtor in the history of mankind shamelessly claims that it’s the wealthiest.

Meanwhile, 2 in 3 Americans are living paycheck to paycheck, since the real wages – adjusted for inflation – of the average American has remained stagnant for four decades. Look at the wage increases for different groups of American between 1979 and 2019:

Top 0.1% – wages grew 375%
Top 1% – wages grew 160%
Middle Class – wages grew 14%
Bottom 10% – wages grew 3%

From 1945 through the 70s, a typical American family could own a home, a car, and all the essentials with one wage earner, the husband. Now, in most families, both the husband and the wife must work to make the ends meet.

The wealth inequality in the US is staggering. As the chart below shows, the top 10% of Americans have nearly 70% of the wealth, while the bottom 50% are left with just 3% of the nation’s wealth. If you include debts such as car and student loans, credit card obligation, the net wealth of many Americans will be negative.

This neo-feudalism is sold to the masses as freedom and democracy.

Poverty and inequality are mostly taboo topics in the US, where the society is taught to blame the poor. Thus, even though homelessness and drug addiction are at record levels, there is no debate about the fundamental economic system.

Casino Capitalism

Las Vegas is a very popular destination, it is a Sin City that clouds people’s judgments. Although vast majority of people end up losing money, they gamble hopefully, because the few winners are always loud. And Vegas offers plenty of cheap drinks to drown the sorrow of losers.

Well, the US economy is modeled after Vegas.

The only way to accumulate wealth in America is through speculation – mostly in real estate and stocks. And just like in Vegas, for every winner, there are many more losers. The stock market crashes periodically, but there is no choice but to participate in it, since American wages do not allow people to save steadily. And, just like Vegas, the “house always wins”.

In the stock market, insiders engage in pump-and-dump. Consider Tesla stock: starting in March 2020, it went up 8-fold within a year, making millionaires and the billionaires a lot wealthier. However, the stock has lost half its value in the last year. Guess who was the sucker? The average investor, who buys high and sells low, since he hears all the hype close to the peak.

But a sucker is born every minute. The latest hype is Nvidia, which has a market cap of mind-boggling $3.3 trillion – India’s GDP in 2022. Nvidia’s profit is only $30 billion. In a logical world, this valuation means that it would take more than 100 years to recoup the investment. So, why would anyone buy Nvidia shares? In the hope that the stock price would keep going up.

Such absurdity is celebrated in the US mainstream culture.

There is also plenty of financial engineering. Stock buybacks used to be illegal until the 1980s. But now, US corporations spend almost $1 trillion a year buying back their own shares, artificially boosting the stock price. Many corporations even borrow money to use for the buyback programs. Thus, when the US boasts that its stock market is worth $50 trillion, it’s nothing but “fugazi”.

Corporate CEOs and the large shareholders such as Blackrock do not care about investing in production, research, technology or the employees. Instead, the priorities are stock prices and dividends. This is why the US is losing to China, which now leads in 37 out of 44 critical technologies.

The other option in the American casino is the real estate, which also goes through boom-and-bust cycles. When the market collapses, giant private equity firms like Blackstone swoop in and buy homes at a great discount. By 2030, corporate landlords will be owning 40% of the rental homes in the US.

As the World Economic Forum said, “You will own nothing and be happy”. Although, they are wrong about the second part – Americans are very depressed and rank #1 in global statistics for consumption of antidepressants and other psychotropic medications. The illegal market in the US is more than $150 billion a year. The suicide rate in the US has also skyrocketed to the highest level since the Great Depression.

Sociologists have a special term for what’s happening in the US: Deaths of Despair. In terms of life expectancy, communist China has now surpassed capitalist USA.

Financialize Everything

Financialization is the cancer that is eating away at the US economy. Interestingly, the great economists in America have not really analyzed this fatal phenomenon. I have thought a lot about it and have come up with four different ways that the economy gets financialized.

1.Eliminating industries that are less profitable
2. Transforming normal economic sectors into speculative ones
3. Transforming normal economic sectors into extractive ones
4. Creating destructive industries

Let’s dive in.

Eliminating industries that are less profitable:

This is the foundation of outsourcing and deindustrialization that really took off in the 1980s as American corporations became extremely greedy and forgot their duties to the country. “Greed is good” became the mantra. The first target was manufacturing, which is very capital- and labor-intensive. Why build massive factories and deal with the headache of managing workers? Moreover, why pay high wages and provide all sorts of benefits to blue-collar workers when people in developing nations could do the same work for fraction of the cost?

Many Americans would be astonished to learn that a century ago, the US’ share of global steel production was 40%. It is now about 4%, while China accounts for 54%. Similar American decline can be observed in every category of manufacturing, thanks to the warped ideology of financialization.

The same calamitous philosophy is also applied towards infrastructure, which has very low profit margins. What is the return on investment (ROI) on bridges, railways, subways etc. compared to stock market manipulation? Insignificant. That is why the US infrastructure has been crumbling for years. In New York City, the cradle of Wall Street, the metro system looks like a fourth-world country with decades-old trains, decaying subway stations with trash and rats, and homeless people sleeping in the trains.

Starting in the 1980s, US corporations started shipping jobs abroad, especially to Asia, which had plenty of diligent and cheap workers. Initially, US firms employed sweatshops to make the likes of Nike shoes, Gap shirts and Gucci bags. However, Asian countries were quick learners – especially China – and were able to climb up the value chain and manufacture more complex goods. Then, as the wages rose, those countries also became more efficient and productive, thus maintaining high profits for Western firms.

This exploitation scheme was working well until 2010 when China became the world’s largest manufacturing nation, displacing the US, which had held that title for the previous century! Then a decade later, China’s manufacturing value added was 75% larger than that of the US. More importantly, China was making its own intermediary goods and hi-tech products.

Now, when Boeing needs to build a plane, they need to rely on Russia or China for special titanium; when Raytheon makes missiles, it depends on thousands of Chinese suppliers; American pharmaceutical firms and hospitals need raw materials and medicines from China; and America’s largest corporations such as Walmart, Apple and Tesla will not survive without Chinese labor, goods and market. For example, half of Tesla cars globally are made in Shanghai and a third of Teslas are sold in China.

The US is in a terrible predicament. Since Trump’s election in 2016, Americans have found out how hard it is to fix the manufacturing gap. They have not been able to bring back the jobs; and they have not been to find any other country as skilled and efficient like China. Thus, US politicians and think tanks have been playing with creative phrases such as reshoring, friend-shoring, China plus one, and de-risking. However, all these have remained empty slogans for the most part. Last year, the US imported $430 billion of goods from China – almost the same as in 2016.

Transforming normal economic sectors into speculative ones

In a real economy, the society would focus on production of tangible and beneficial goods in abundance. There would be emphasis on manufacturing, infrastructure and development. However, in an economy consumed by financial capitalism, speculation reigns as the driving force.

For example, rather than building more homes, the financial overlords prefer to keep the supply of homes low. Scarcity means higher value. Then, the entire real estate can be turned into a game of betting. For example, someone can buy a home and sell it the next year to make $100,000 of profit. While get-rich-quick gimmicks are tempting, they result in a hollowed-out economy and a delusional society that create “nothingburgers.”

Transforming normal economic sectors into extractive ones

The third and more pernicious form of financial capitalism involves fostering extractive or predatory sectors.

Take, for example, higher education. Young Americans now owe a whopping $1.8 trillion is student debt. College education in the US costs 4x more today than 40 years ago — even after adjusted for inflation. Is education 4x better now? Are kids learning 4x more? Do college graduates earn 4x more? No, no, no.

Similarly, healthcare cost in the US has risen from 6% of GDP in 1970 to 18% of GDP now. But Americans are much fatter and much sicker today than fifty years ago. Numerous chronic diseases like diabetes, obesity, autism, allergies, immune disorders, and cancer have skyrocketed over the decades. Also, heart disease has been the #1 killer for a century but the great scientific minds cannot figure out a solution. As a Goldman Sachs analyst pondered in a biotech research report, “Is curing patients a sustainable business model?”

In predatory capitalism, providing affordable college education is a terrible idea; and preventive healthcare – especially using food, natural cures and holistic medicine – is an unforgivable financial sin.

Creating destructive industries

This is the most heinous consequence of financial capitalism, which creates disease, death and destruction for profit.

The military industrial complex is the prime example. Rather than focusing on peace, diplomacy and development, the “defense” contractors lobby politicians and bribe the media to promote perpetual wars.

The food industry and Big Pharma are two other notable criminals. The junk food industry is a colossal industry that makes billions of people sick; and Big Pharma sells numerous multibillion-dollar drugs based on exaggerated claims from rigged clinical trials.

In the 1960s, the sugar industry bribed researchers at Harvard University to blame saturated fat for heart disease; and companies like Coca Cola still fund scientists to “debunk” links between sugar and obesity. One of the scientists paid by the sugar industry went on to become the head of nutrition at the United States Department of Agriculture, where he helped write the dietary guidelines. The entire nutrition science is corrupted by Big Agri, Big Food and Big Pharma.

America’s mainstream corporate media has also forgotten journalism and truth. Instead, it embraces propaganda to protect its cronies in the government and other giant corporations; and the media spreads fake news and sensationalism to generate revenue from clicks.

Finally, even American politics has been financialized, resulting in every politician being on sale for various lobbying groups.

Conclusion

Driven by greed, hubris and an inflated sense of exceptionalism, the financial overlords of the United States of America forgot the fundamentals of economics, politics and statecraft.

Once upon a time, the political and business leaders of the US understood the importance of industries, production, infrastructure and, more importantly, the contract between the rulers and the masses. However, with financialization of the US economy, the oligarchs created a predatory capitalist system that has been devouring the American society for the past few decades. Unfortunately, there is no easy path for the US to revert back to an industrial economy now.

Rather than building a sustainable and resilient system, US elites have created an Empire that depends on the exploitation of the rest of the world. However, this parasitic model has reached its expiry date, as the Global South is architecting a new paradigm for a multipolar world order. The implosion of the American economic and political system will be not only painful but also dangerous to itself and the rest of humanity. Managing the collapse of the US empire will be a monumental challenge for Russia, China, India and others in BRICS+ over the next decade.

Gooey Cheese Bread

Ingredients

Bread

3/4 cup water
2 eggs
1/4 cup unsalted butter
1 teaspoon honey
1 teaspoon salt
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons yeast

Filling

3 cups Swiss cheese, shredded

Instructions

Place all dough ingredients in pan and program for knead only. Press start. The dough will be slightly sticky. After the kneading cycle, transfer the dough to a lightly oiled bowl, cover it with plastic wrap, and let it rise in the refrigerator overnight, or as long as 24 hours.
Grease and flour a 9 inch cake pan. Heat the oven to 375 degrees F with the rack in the center position.
Remove the dough from the refrigerator and place it on a lightly floured work surface. Roll the dough to a 14 x 10 inch rectangle with the long side nearest you. Sprinkle 2 cups of the cheese over the surface of the dough. Starting with the edge closest to you, roll the dough up like a jellyroll. Press the edges together and turn it over so the seam is now facing down. With the seam still down, roll the cylinder around itself in a coil and transfer it to the prepared pan. Sprinkle the remaining cheese over the top of the loaf and allow to rise, uncovered for 20 minutes.
Bake for 35 minutes, then turn the oven temperature to 350 degrees F. Bake for 10 more minutes. If the cheese begins to brown quickly during the first 35 minutes, lower the oven temperature sooner.

What was the most legendary thing your grandmother did?

My grandmother was head housekeeper (and, therefore, management) in a hotel when a union organizer came to the hotel to try to unionize the workers. The owner told the concierge to throw him out, which he did.

My grandmother followed the organizer, gave him her home address, and told him to come to her house that evening. When he did, she had almost all the staff of the hotel there, and they all signed union cards.

The next day, the union organizer came back to the hotel, and, again, the owner told the concierge to throw him out. The concierge said, “No, I can’t. He’s my union rep.”

Because my grandmother was management, she couldn’t join the union, but the organizer put her down as an organizer and paid her dues so that, when she retired, she had a union pension.

Years later, when my grandmother was running a hotel in New Orleans, she helped her maid form a Black Domestic Workers’ Union.

I am so proud to be her granddaughter! Right now I am facing the possibility of a strike where I work, and she’s my inspiration.

Wow! I’ve never had so many upvotes! Thanks, folks!

Pepe Escobar : Putin’s Next Moves

American cluster fuck on full display

I did not watch the (so called) Trump – Biden “debate”.

I am convinced both of them are dangerous.

What was the most stunning element and extracted summary of the debacle was just how poorly Biden fared. This guy is not capable of leading; thinking, reasoning, planning, or doing anything. In fact, he NEEDS to be in a hospital, and needs someone to select his meals, and care. He is simply not a capable person.

And you know, this is AFTER he was given injections of smart / stability drugs.

It goes along with my belief that the unelected political sycophants are running the United States, and it is no wonder that it seems that the United States is walking the Earth into a global-wide nuclear catastrophe.

Because it is. It actually is.

These sycophants and the “deep state” that supports them are dangerously deluded, terribly inept, and functionally inept. Combined they have created a United States that makes the collapse of Rome look like a Victorian tea party.

This is not about Biden or Trump.

This is about decline, and it is beyond redemption. The USA is toast, and I really have serious doubts that it ever can recover.

By the time this post is posted on MM, this will all be old news… replaced with something more topical. But the fiasco that the USA is should not be forgotten. Dicey times are forecast unless some serious changes are made STAT.

Today…

Cleaning out my auto-spam folder

Typical comments that were sent to spam…

China trip and related thoughts:

My family and I recently visited Shanghai (courtesy of a collaborator and friend in Shanghaitech university) for a week. We went to Beijing (via high-speed rail) for a couple of days to see the Great Wall.

We were shocked by how developed China was. I mean, it looked like a first-world country. The roads were huge and clean. There was hardly any dust. The cars followed traffic rules. No encroachment by hawkers, etc. We could have easily confused it with the US or Europe. In addition to these things, the MagLev (magnetic levitation) train to the airport and the high-speed trains were amazing. Every hour, someone or the other came to clean the compartment.

To top it off, the amount of funding given to even pure mathematics (leave alone the applied subjects) was enormous. Unlike India where every professor earns the same amount, Yau (a fields medallist) could hire another fields Medallist (Birkar) for a few million RMB.

Unlike in India, where even Indian citizens from the north-east are discriminated against, in China, most people were very friendly (and really loved our 1.5 year old son). Our hosts took “Athithi devo bhavah” very seriously.

Except for a few annoyances (mosquitoes are a problem, the lack of quality apps like Uber and Google maps (didi and baidu are terrible!), and the inability of even highly educated people to speak in very basic English), our trip was fabulous. We liked China but felt very sad that our country, which was ahead of China in the 60’s (even the Chinese we met acknowledged this) is very very far behind. I can now understand KB’s “anger”. (However, I still think that the US is a much much bigger power for now.)

Col. Lawrence Wilkerson: Putin’s NUCLEAR WARNING is No Bluff and NATO Crossed His Red Line

Black Thai Pork

Phuket Town Black Pepper Pork 1219x1536 — Phuket Town Black Pepper Pork 1219×1536

Here’s the YouTube video…

https://youtu.be/lz5xIMZKC3s

Ingredients

4 boneless pork chops, cut into stir fry strips
1 cup salsa or picante sauce
1/2 cup peanut butter
2 tablespoons soy sauce
2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
1 tablespoon molasses
1 tablespoon water
1 tablespoon chili powder
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon garlic salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 tablespoon sesame seed, toasted if desired
2 tablespoons thinly sliced scallions
3 cups hot cooked cellophane noodles or rice

Instructions

For sauce, in a medium saucepan combine salsa, peanut butter, soy sauce, vinegar, molasses and water. Bring to boiling, stirring often. Keep warm.
Meanwhile, in a plastic or paper bag combine chili powder, ginger, garlic salt and pepper.
Add pork strips; shake until pork is coated with spice mixture.
In a large skillet heat vegetable oil over medium-high heat; cook and stir pork strips for 2-3 minutes or until cooked through.
Spoon the sauce onto individual plates.
Arrange the pork strips on top of sauce.
Sprinkle with sesame seed, then top with green onions.
Serve with noodles or rice.

What’s the funniest court case you’ve seen?

Here are my top 3:

#1) My client was charged with drug possession after a police officer found them in a hard carton cigarette pack (one made out of cardboard) because when he picked it up and shook it, “sounded like drugs inside.” I argued that the officer would never have discovered the drugs unless he had opened the box, and that the mere sound of the contents of the shaken box could not possibly have given the officer probable cause to open the box.

So at trial I produced from my jacket the hard carton cigarette pack box and shook it in the presence of the officer and the judge, then asked, “Did you hear me shake this box?” The officer responded that he did. I then asked, “Does it sound like there are drugs in it?” The poor guy had to say yes, and he did. I then opened the box and showed him two capsules, then asked, “So what sounded like drugs to you may be drugs, right?” The officer had to say yes, and he did. Then I asked, “Officer, can you tell me what kind of drugs these are?” The officer responded with “I don’t know.” I then popped the capsules in my mouth and started chewing and said, “Let the record reflect that they are two white Good & Plenty candies.”

I moved for summary judgment, and the motion was granted.

#2) I was in a hearing with an attorney who was incapable of posing a question that wasn’t objectionable. He just didn’t know how to ask questions properly, so with virtually every question he posed, I stood and made my objections. Rather than taking the offending attorney to task, however, the judge got upset with me (not because I was in the wrong, but because the judge just wanted to get through the hearing and I was slowing us down—yeah, that happens, folks). Eventually, the judge made this order, “I am now ordering that Mr. Johnson cannot make any further objections to opposing counsel’s questions to the witness,” at which point I wasn’t upset because I now knew I’d all but certainly win the case on appeal, given the judge’s misconduct.

I never got to appeal the judge’s decision.

Because after I was barred from making objections, opposing counsel mistakenly took it as a license to formulate even worse questions, but through it all I just sat there and gazed about the courtroom, doodled on my legal pad, etc. One thing I did not do is pay attention to the case anymore. I didn’t need to. There wasn’t much I could do anyway.

When suddenly the judge interrupted opposing counsel and announced, “I previously ordered Mr. Johnson barred from raising any objections to opposing counsel’s questions. I am now rescinding that order. Mr. Johnson, do you have anything you wish to say at this point?” After hesitating a moment to gather my thoughts, I responded with: “Objection? (I had no idea what I was objecting to — remember, I’d stopped paying attention long before). “SUSTAINED!” the judge thundered back.

#3) I represented the respondent in a civil stalking injunction case (in Utah). This is an example of how it went, back and forth for an hour, as both men told basically the same story:

Q: And what did he say to you?

A: He said, “If you ever come on my property again, I’ll kick your ass.”

Q: And what, if anything, did he say in response?

A: He said, “You try to kick my ass and I’ll kick your ass, and I told him, ‘You try to kick my ass and I’ll kick your ass.’”

Q: Did you take him seriously when he said, “I’ll kick your ass”?

A: You bet your ass. And if you threaten me and my family, then I’ll kick your ass.

I don’t think I will ever, anywhere, hear the phrase “kick your ass” spoken more times in the space of an hour than I did then. Not once did the judge admonish either party or me for using the phrase the entire time (and to be fair, I think the judge correctly believed that these men were incapable of describing the situation without using the phrase).

Discovered My Wife Was Engaged In Spicy Activities While Playing An Online Game, Now She’s Begging..

What was the moment you realized your significant other didn’t care about you at all anymore?

In the last years of our fakemarriage my husband slowly checked out from all shared duties, whether it is chores, bills, our daughter… always too busy or just wouldn’t. I was so exhausted and he insisted i should take care of myself, “go get a massage, go to the hairdresser, you need some time for yourself” (when i I didn’t even have time to properly shower…) But he would brush off any complaint from my side that my exaustion was due to me actually taking care of it all.

Whenever i would insist and directly ask him to do something he would say “can you take care of it?” or just go through a rage and leave.

One day i was involved in a minor car accident. Argued a little with the other driver but felt no harm was done and left. As i started driving, my neck was seriously hurting, my ears were ringing and i felt dizzy. My daughter who was 4 and with me at that time was also acting weird and saying mom it hurts.

I rushed back home which was 5 minutes from there to him so he can drive us both to a doctor. He told me he was actually on his way out to meet his friends and said “can you take care of it?”

That day i understood that his behaviour was not due to him being lazy or busy.

He just didn’t care at all.

Why is that according to the US that the Spratly islands being geographically closer to the Philippines can’t be claimed by China, but the American Samoas being closer to the Samoas can be claimed by the USA?

This world is ruled by the fist ie weapons today.

If your fist is stronger, you rule the world. That makes you a mafia.

When you are a mafia, you make the rule & you can change the rule anytime to suit your situation.

2 scholars at Cambridge U did a research. I of them is Romel Bagares. He is a professorial lecturer in intl law in 3 Manila-based law schools & PH judiciary Academy.

1, PH’s legal territory does not incl SCS (my word) PH has no EEZ in SCS. All PH activities in SCS are illegal.

2, The 1951 USA-PH Mutual Defense Treaty does not apply to SCS.

In 1975, former US State Secy H Kissinger already, in writing, told PH that, by law, USA would not protect PH in SCS.

In documents from 1977-1980 eg doc 578, US State Secy C Vance explained to PH that MDT is based on 1898 US-Spain Paris Treaty & 1900 US-UK Washington Treaty. PH does not own any part of SCS.

3, PH’s arbitration is (my word) as good as toilet paper.

Today in 2024, USA changes the rule: PH owns some SCS because some islands/reefs are close to PH. … today’s USA overturning the USA from 1975–1980. … mafia USA has changed rule because it wants to suppress China’s rise.

PH is a US puppet.

Bolivia failed coup. Kenya Ruto retreats. NATO wants to give Elensky something. Meloni upset with EU

Astro Naught

Submitted into Contest #8 in response to: Write a story about an adventure in space. … view prompt

Joshua G. J. Insole

“It’s okay, Ground Control. I know you did everything you could.”

Charles sat at his desk, staring at the blank screen. Nobody said a word. There was a slight hissing of static. He swallowed hard, and there was an audible click in his throat. His mouth was dry. His heart was thudding intensely in his chest. Charles felt as if someone had fastened a belt around his torso and was gradually pulling it tighter and tighter.

After what seemed like an eternity, Stan broke the silence.

“Come in, Pete.”

The static hissed.

“Pete. Come in.”

Hhhhhhhh.

“Come in, Pete.” Charles was dimly aware that Stan was crying as he spoke. He could feel the hot tears trickling down his own cheeks. It felt as if his heart was lodged at the base of his throat. He could hardly breathe.

“Pete, come in.”

Hhhhhhhh.

“Pete, please come in.”

Finally, Greg got up from his seat and laid a hand on Stan’s shoulder. “That’s enough, Stan. He’s gone.”

The last two syllables hit Charles like a two-tonne truck. He felt the room spin around him, as if he’d just been clocked in the jaw by a solid right hook. Charles placed his sweaty hands on the polished dark wood of the desk, palms down, just to make sure he didn’t lose his balance and go sliding off his chair onto the floor. The table beneath his fingers felt cold and indifferent; the feeling simultaneously grounded him in the reality of the moment and made him feel as if he were dreaming or in a drunken stupor. This desk is really hard, he thought, madly. That’s enough, Stan. The wood is very cold. He’s gone. Is wood always this cold? That’s enough, Stan. It’s very cold.

Somewhere behind him, a woman was sobbing. Hell, they were all sobbing. Gabrielle was just the most audible.

The words bounced around his skull: He’s gone. He’s gone. He’s gone.

All at once, Charles felt incredibly hot. He thought he might throw up, right then and there. He wouldn’t be able to make it to the bathroom in time; he’d have to spew his guts into the wastepaper basket next to his feet.

Like a man in a dream, Charles slid off his office chair with a thud, landing on his knees, not feeling a thing. The chair rolled away behind him, squeaking a little on the wheels he had been meaning to oil but had somehow never gotten around to. Sweating and shaking, he reached for the metal bin. Thank God he’d remembered to put a plastic bag inside, because the bin was made from a metal mesh. If I hadn’t remembered, my puke would have been filtered out the bottom quite nicely. Just like using a colander, Charles thought. Then he began to retch, in great, stomach-wrenching convulsions.

Somewhere nearby, someone was asking if he was all right, but he wasn’t all right, he wasn’t, nothing was all right, nothing, and the room was spinning, spinning, spinning, and Charles could feel the acidic vomit racing up his throat, and the world was twisting around him, and everything felt too heavy, and the room wouldn’t stop spinning and—

*******

Pete allowed himself to drift. There was no use fighting it, as there was nothing he could do. It would be a waste of energy. And energy was all he had left. Well, that, and the precious oxygen in his tank.

In his ears, all he could hear was whistling white noise. For half a second, he thought that he heard someone say, Come in, Pete. And maybe they did, but the words were fuzzy and soft; hard to isolate from the hiss. He started to respond, and then gave up. The last few seconds of communication had been hazy with interference as it was — now that he had floated further away, he knew contact with Ground Control would be impossible. Besides, he had said his goodbyes. Pete didn’t want to prolong the pain of a tortured farewell.

Pete spun away from the asteroid, spiraling out, further and further. He knew that he had approximately between six and eight hours of oxygen in his tank, depending on how well he controlled his breathing and how much physical exertion he subjected himself to. He had been on the surface of the celestial body for one hour and forty-three minutes, before the small meteoroid struck.

First man on an asteroid, he thought as flew away from the point of impact, pieces of debris scattering around him. Was it worth it? he asked himself. He knew immediately he shouldn’t have posed the question.

It was miraculous that none of the wreckage and rubble had injured him. Miraculous, if you ignored the fact that he had been jettisoned off the tiny planetoid and propelled far away from any hopes of rescue. Pete didn’t know how fast he was traveling, but he knew that it was too fast — and he was too small of an object — for any chances of being saved. He only hoped that his crew was safe from the fallout of the collision; would they be able to avoid the incoming hailstorm? And if not, would the fragments of rock penetrate their shuttle? Pete knew that he’d never know.

Pete spun and spun and spun, rotating not quite fast enough to cause him to blackout. He watched the changing views as he twisted through the void: stars, the sun, planets, debris, stars, the sun, planets, debris, stars, the sun, planets, debris. Over and over and over. Spinning. Spinning. Spinning. Each time he caught the barest glimpse of Earth — a tiny droplet of blue in the vast nothingness — and then it was gone. Pete thought that his tiny home planet had never looked more beautiful, even though it was only in his line of sight for a fraction of a moment.

He saw no fires or explosions as he spiraled. Pete knew that this was not a sign that his team was safe, but he clung to the hope, nonetheless. Maybe they were okay. Maybe they got away in time. Maybe the shuttle was able to withstand the barrage. Maybe. Maybe.

He spun and twisted and turned and conserved his breath. Slowly, Pete fell into a cosmic trance, glazed eyes staring out into the solar system. The celestial dance was hypnotic, like an interstellar mobile above the crib of humanity.

***

He was being pulled. Pulled in one direction. The sensation startled him from his reverie.

He spun and he twisted and rotated. Stars, the sun, planets, debris. What was tugging at him? He strained his eyes. Stars, the sun, planets, debris. Was he imagining it? Stars, the sun, planets, debris. No, he was not, Pete was sure of it. There was a definite sensation of being reigned in. But by what? Stars, the sun, planets, debris, stars, the sun, planets, debris, stars—

And then he saw it. And for a moment, he couldn’t breathe. His lungs contracted and all the air escaped him, as if he’d just been punched in the gut.

His thoughts were a mixed cocktail of fear, confusion, and fascination. How did we not see it? thought Pete, only distantly aware of his own feelings. How did we miss it? It’s huge.

The black hole occupied half of his visual space. If you were to only glance at it, you might just miss it — after all, most of the area surrounding it is also black. But the absence of the small yellow-white specs of distant stars gave away the gaping hole in time and space. There was also the accretion disk spinning around the gaping maw in the fabric of reality. The giant clouds of gas spun and spun around the shadow of the hole, twisting and rippling beyond recognition or cognition. It was smaller than the ones he’d studied, but now that he was facing it, Pete was astounded that it had not been observed earlier. After all, it was at the edge of their solar sys—

Pete didn’t recognize the stars. The thought hit him, and his brain dumped a load of adrenaline into his veins. As he spun towards his destination, his eyes traced the emptiness for the Earth. For planets — any that he knew. Mars. Jupiter. Venus. Saturn. Completely gone. It was all alien to him. Even the sun was different; smaller and somehow less vibrant. Rather than a bright, white-hot yellow surface, this star burned a deep orange that bordered on red.

Where am I? he thought, panic brimming in his chest. He knew that he had been propelled away from his home system, but he never actually thought—

He was closer to the black hole now, he saw, as he turned once more. Another realization hit him, with the low thud of an interplanetary bass drum: even if he had been in the shuttle, it would have already been too late to get away. The thought should have terrified him, but it instead soothed him. The idea that fighting was futile allowed Pete to accept his fate; had he a chance to escape, he would have fought — as panic flooded his thoughts — until he wasted his oxygen supply and starved himself of air.

The black hole’s shadow was hungrily consuming that which span around it. But it was more than that — the objects making up the accretion disk looked hungry to be eaten. The collective rotating disk slowly fed into the hole eagerly, each portion being allowed the time to flow in and disappear.

Pete was flying towards the hole faster and faster now. It was no longer the gentle pull it had been — a minute ago? An hour ago? A second ago? It dawned on Pete that time was beginning to lose its rigidity.

The astronaut allowed himself to be guided on a fast track through the shadow’s surrounding disk of orbiting materials; he was the guest of honor at this party of extinction. He looked down at his hands and saw the light being distorted and drained away, into the abyss. Pete knew that if someone were observing the phenomenon, they would not see him, attired in his spacesuit of white. No light would be escaping the rounded clutches of the infinite shadow.

Event horizon, he thought, as his brain was sliced into oblivion. A billion parts of his grey matter screamed in unison. Evnethrzion Enevthzorni Vneetzhirone Tvneeizoenrh Netvneorehizo Votenehroez—

Pete’s final coherent thought was of his wife and his daughter, back home on Earth.

And then Pete felt himself being torn in two. But that wasn’t entirely right. He was becoming two. Simultaneously. He felt it. But the two Petes shared different fates. He was both, and somehow, he was neither. One Pete was incinerated instantaneously — torn apart and shredded into annihilation. It happened so quickly that he felt neither pain nor fear. One moment he was, the next he wasn’t. Pete was gone.

The other Pete was a different story.

*******

He came out the other side. But it wasn’t him. Not the same one that had gone in. But it wasn’t an entirely different Pete, either. He felt like a drop of rainwater that had finally joined the ocean; still water, essentially — if you ignored the salt — but ultimately changed forever. Part of something bigger, indecipherable, integrated with everything else. Inseparable from the whole he had now joined.

The first thing he noticed was that he no longer had his old body. The second thing he noticed was that he did have a body of sorts. His body was everything. It took him a moment to register this sensation, but once he clocked it, it all made sense, in a single step. First, there was confusion, then there was complete and utter understanding and acceptance. There was not an in-between.

Pete was floating in nothing. Pete was also the nothingness. He was the vacuum in which he sailed. He was the darkness that surrounded him. The nothingness was overwhelming. He felt hollow at the emptiness inside. He felt stranded as he floated in the absence of everything.

The answers came to him via a drip-feed. The remedies came to him all at once, like a roaring waterfall.

Pete wanted light, and then there was a flare before his non-eyes. Sun, thought the thing that had once been human. The sun looked lonely, so the Pete-thing wanted planets to join it. Rocks appeared in the vacuum, scattered across the plain of darkness. Several collided with each other. Some exploded. Others floated off, for destinations that new-Pete was unconcerned with. Bits and pieces, here and there, began circling the throbbing star.

One of the worlds spinning around the burning ball of gas was thirsty, so the post-Pete-being gave it water. It looked blue and sparkling, as it twisted in the light. Like a marble, suspended in the ether. He also gave the other spheres some resources of their own, but these are closely guarded secrets which I will not spill.

Pete watched as things developed, occasionally putting in a hand here and there when he so wished. Never acting too often, never interfering too infrequently. The answers came to him both immediately and after an infinity, equally from external sources and from within. Now, Pete thought and was told, and then he acted accordingly — often simultaneously with the arrival of the instructions.

Pete tended to the thriving system like a gardener to their plot — planting seeds, watering, pruning, and harvesting. He watched his creations bloom. He watched his creations wither and die. Not everything is destined for a long life, and that is okay, thought Everything, as time unfolded in every direction.

After a time, the small creatures on the tiny blue speck began sending things outward. A few explosions, here and there. These small-scale sparks in the heavens told not-Pete that they were learning. He left them to it, for that was what he was meant to do.

Eventually, they got it right.

After a time, they began sending themselves out, too.

Following an instant and an eternity, Pete was joined by another.

BRICS to Leave UN: What Next?

Is it true that China doesn’t have many friends like the US does? Why?

What friends does the USA have??? The USA has vassal states.

China has more actual friends because China helps them economically:

Over 150 countries participate in the Belt and Road Initiative.
Over 120 counties have China as their largest trading partner.
China respects all nations rather than threatening them with sanctions and war.
When the West hoarded their vaccines during the pandemic, China helped poor countries vaccinate.
China works to bring peace around the world. China brokered an historic peace deal between Iran and Saudi Arabia.
China is leading the world to de-dollarize, freeing them from the tyranny of the US Dollar.

Vintage Illustrative art

When you find out that someone has been at the same low paying job for 20 years or more, do you feel sorry for them?

My son has been a caddie at a local country club for almost 20 years. He has a degree in Computer Science. He was required to do an internship to get his degree. At the end, he was offered a permanent job that would put him on the management fast track. His internship, however, convinced him he had pursued the wrong major.

He then went into restaurant management. He hated that, too. His brother, who has a business degree and is a Certified Financial Planner, had been working as a caddy for several years. So, my other son decided to try it out. They both absolutely love the game of golf, being outdoors and having a job they don’t take home with them.

The son who has been a caddie longer has a more winning personality, can converse intelligently about business with his rich customers and is recognized as the best caddie at the country club. He is on pace to make $100,000 this year. The other son makes around $40,000 which is still more than most of the caddies make.

What they do makes them happy. They actually enjoy going to work each and every day unless it is raining. Caddying in the rain is really hard work. I don’t feel sorry for them even though they could have earned so much more. No amount of money will make you like a job you don’t want to do,

Do women even know what they want? Crazy Accurate breakdown & explanation of relationships

This is a very, very good review of Hoe Math. Damn!

What is the nastiest thing you’ve done for revenge?

My very dear friend dated a Russian girl, lets call her Bellarusse, for about six months. She let him take her to every expensive event of the English summer season. Opera, Wimbledon, Henley Regatta as well as lots of theatre, concerts and Michelin star dinners. But never let him so much as kiss her. “These things,” she said, “are deeply frowned upon by my conservative culture.”

Over Christmas, he took her skiing with another couple. Everyone had agreed no gifts, but the day before departure, he was called in a panic by other couple to say Bellarusse had bought him a gift so he’d best go shopping.

He rang me frantic, “what should I get her?”

I don’t know what genius struck, but I immediately said “that is such a quandry, because, in Russia, if a man buys a woman a gift worn against the skin, it implies that they have been intimate and you don’t want to offend her. She’s so conservative. What to get, what to get…”

Oh the things that this excludes; pretty much everything that your average, rapacious golddigger wants: jewellery, scent, handbags, scarves, any clothing at all, fancy soaps and lotions. As the words tumbled out of my mouth, I felt the most beautiful glee.

Not only was she hugely grumpy with her alessi French press coffeemaker, but her gift, was a crappy little matchbox cover, badly painted with a scene of a troika.

Oh and she fell down the slope skiing and broke her nose.

She refused any more dates.

The sad thing is that I can never tell him about my evil genius.

Implications of Trump-Biden “Debate” Are Staggering – for both the USA and the World

Hal Turner Nation June 28, 2024 Hits: 17202

OP-ED — I did not get to watch the Trump-Biden Debate last night because I was doing my live radio show while the debate took place. From what I have seen in video snippets, it was an unmitigated DISASTER – for both the United States, and for the world.

What everyone got to see last night is what many of us have known from the beginning: Biden is not running the country because he is incapable of doing so. His lack of mental faculties, likely from Dementia, is unquestionable.

This begs the question “Who is it that’s actually running the country?”

It’s a fair question. During the Debate, Biden could barely formulate a cogent answer to most questions. His frail, rambling, often times non-sensical answers were genuinely sad.

Let me digress for a moment to say that while I did not vote for Biden in 2020, (I voted Trump) and while I do not like Biden as a man or as a politician, I do NOT take any satisfaction in seeing the man so genuinely mentally disabled by age. There, but for the grace of God, goes me.

I don’t wish Biden’s condition on anyone; and it pains me to see the President of our country (even an illegitimate one who occupies office through election fraud as Biden does) so addled, frail, and no longer capable of governing. Yet, that __is__ the situation we all find ourselves in.

The current President of the United States is unable to discharge the duties of his Office. Period. Full stop.

Now, one could argue that Biden’s Cabinet should invoke the Constitution’s 25th Amendment to remove him, but being candid, his Cabinet are such Partisan sycophants, a person has a better chance of being struck by lightning than the Cabinet carrying out its Constitutional role and removing this disabled President.

Then, too, we’re only a few months away from an election and we could probably get-through that time with Biden in this condition — if it weren’t for the fact that Biden’s underlings are so utterly incompetent, so completely ignorant of facts and of history, and so severely lacking in rational judgment, they are quickly moving us toward nuclear World War 3 with Russia over their botched handling of Ukraine.

So where does Biden’s Debate “performance” leave us? In a world of hurt!

The rest of the world got to see Biden, too, last night. And our Adversaries now know, the USA is in no position of power over world events. Our leadership is non-existent.

The Biden underlings have such historical ignorance, are so lacking in logic and rational judgment, adversaries can go do whatever it is they want, and the US will be, at best, sluggish to do anything about it.

The lack of strength projected through last night’s debate, has made the world much more dangerous.

With World War 3 looming as a result of our botched Ukraine policies, and further, as a result of our botched Taiwan approach, and further by our botched Middle East actions (read our slavish devotion to that rinky-dink country, Israel, and its pipsqueak army that seems only competent in dropping 2,000 pound bombs from fighter jets onto unarmed civilians) the continuation of a Biden Administration could literally mean the destruction of our nation and our world. We may not be able to survive until the election!

For me, the absolute worst part of last night’s debate: Polling which said 67% of Americans thought Trump won, while 33% of Americans thought Biden won. To my thinking, that a full 33% of the people in this country, are so incapable of logic, so incapable of discernment, that they thought Biden won, indicates to me that a full third of this nation is literally too stupid to even be considered citizens, never mind shown any respect.

Those 33% are too stupid to even be considered “persons.” There really is no other way to view them, and worse, no hope for them, at all.

Biden Implodes: And Here’s Who Is Really To Blame

Such an incredible, mostly unknown story

In 1933, a beautiful, young Austrian woman took off her clothes for a movie director. She ran through the woods, naked. She swam in a lake, naked. Pushing well beyond the social norms of the period. The most popular movie in 1933 was King Kong. But everyone in Hollywood was talking about that scandalous movie with the gorgeous, young Austrian woman.

Louis B. Mayer, of the giant studio MGM, said she was the most beautiful woman in the world. The film was banned practically everywhere, which of course made it even more popular and valuable. Mussolini reportedly refused to sell his copy at any price.

The star of the film, called “Ecstasy,” was Hedwig Kiesler. She said the secret of her beauty was “to stand there and look stupid.” In reality, Kiesler was anything but stupid. She was a genius. She’d grown up as the only child of a prominent Jewish banker. She was a math prodigy. She excelled at science. As she grew older, she became ruthless, using all the power her body and mind gave her.

Between the sexual roles she played, her tremendous beauty, and the power of her intellect, Kiesler would confound the men in her life including her six husbands, two of the most ruthless dictators of the 20th century, and one of the greatest movie producers in history. Her beauty made her rich for a time. She is said to have made – and spent – $30 million in her life.

But her greatest accomplishment resulted from her intellect, and her invention continues to shape the world we live in today.

You see, this young Austrian starlet would take one of the most valuable technologies ever developed right from under Hitler’s nose. After fleeing to America, she not only became a major Hollywood star, her name sits on one of the most important patents ever granted by the U.S. Patent Office. Today, when you use your cell phone or, over the next few years, as you experience super-fast wireless Internet access (via something called “long-term evolution” or “LTE” technology), you’ll be using an extension of the technology a 20-year-old actress first conceived while sitting at dinner with Hitler.

At the time she made Ecstasy, Kiesler was married to one of the richest men in Austria. Friedrich Mandl was Austria’s leading arms maker. His firm would become a key supplier to the Nazis. Mandl used his beautiful young wife as a showpiece at important business dinners with representatives of the Austrian, Italian, and German fascist forces.

One of Mandl’s favorite topics at these gatherings – which included meals with Hitler and Mussolini – was the technology surrounding radio-controlled missiles and torpedoes.

Wireless weapons offered far greater ranges than the wire-controlled alternatives that prevailed at the time. Kiesler sat through these dinners “looking stupid,” while absorbing everything she heard. As a Jew, Kiesler hated the Nazis. She abhorred her husband’s business ambitions. Mandl responded to his willful wife by imprisoning her in his castle, Schloss Schwarzenau.

In 1937, she managed to escape. She drugged her maid, snuck out of the castle wearing the maid’s clothes and sold her jewelry to finance a trip to London. She got out just in time. In 1938, Germany annexed Austria. The Nazis seized Mandl’s factory. He was half Jewish. Mandl fled to Brazil (later, he became an adviser to Argentina’s iconic populist president, Juan Peron.)

In London, Kiesler arranged a meeting with Louis B. Mayer. She signed a long-term contract with him, becoming one of MGM’s biggest stars. She appeared in more than 20 films. She was a co-star to Clark Gable, Judy Garland, and even Bob Hope. Each of her first seven MGM movies was a blockbuster. But Kiesler cared far more about fighting the Nazis than about making movies.

At the height of her fame, in 1942, she developed a new kind of communications system, optimized for sending coded messages that couldn’t be “jammed.” She was building a system that would allow torpedoes and guided bombs to always reach their targets. She was building a system to kill Nazis.

By the 1940s, both the Nazis and the Allied forces were using the kind of single frequency radio-controlled technology Kiesler’s ex-husband had been peddling. The drawback of this technology was that the enemy could find the appropriate frequency and “jam” or intercept the signal, thereby interfering with the missile’s intended path.

Kiesler’s key innovation was to “change the channel.” It was a way of encoding a message across a broad area of the wireless spectrum. If one part of the spectrum was jammed, the message would still get through on one of the other frequencies being used. The problem was, she could not figure out how to synchronize the frequency changes on both the receiver and the transmitter. To solve the problem, she turned to perhaps the world’s first techno-musician, George Anthiel.

Anthiel was an acquaintance of Kiesler who achieved some notoriety for creating intricate musical compositions. He synchronized his melodies across twelve player pianos, producing stereophonic sounds no one had ever heard before. Kiesler incorporated Anthiel’s technology for synchronizing his player pianos. Then, she was able to synchronize the frequency changes between a weapon’s receiver and its transmitter. On August 11, 1942, U.S. Patent No. 2,292,387 was granted to Antheil and “Hedy Kiesler Markey,” which was Kiesler’s married name at the time.

Most of you won’t recognize the name Kiesler. And no one would remember the name Hedy Markey. But it’s a fair bet than anyone reading this post of a certain age, will remember one of the great beauties of Hollywood’s golden age – Hedy Lamarr. That’s the name Louis B. Mayer gave to his prize actress. That’s the name his movie company made famous.

Almost no one knows Hedwig Kiesler – a/k/a Hedy Lamarr – was one of the great pioneers of wireless communications. Her technology was developed by the U.S. Navy, which has used it ever since.

You are probably using Lamarr’s technology, too. Her patent sits at the foundation of “spread spectrum technology,” which you use every day when you log on to a wi-fi network or make calls with your Bluetooth-enabled phone. It lies at the heart of the massive investments being made right now in so-called fourth-generation “LTE” wireless technology. This next generation of cell phones and cell towers will provide tremendous increases to wireless network speed and quality, by spreading wireless signals across the entire available spectrum. This kind of encoding is only possible using the kind of frequency switching that Hedwig Kiesler invented.

China has Trumped the U.S. in Australia: Make Wealth, not War

Shorpy

Benny Fazio Criminal Mastermind – The Sopranos

Why can’t the US defeat the Houthis? This will inevitably embolden China to attack Taiwan by leading China to believe the US is a paper felis catus.

China already knows the military capability of USA.

No need of the “help” from Houthis.

There were many standoffs between Chinese & US warships & warplanes near China. Testing each other’s military capability.

At each standoff, it was USA who left the scene first.

The latest one was in SCSea near Xianbin reef. Two US aircraft carriers were close-by. One near Xianbin & one near Taiwan.

PH has 2 coastguards trying to illegally occupy the reef just like their junk ship at Ren’ai reef.

China orders to detain trespassers & sent 3 10000-ton destroyers there. US Roosevelt aircraft carrier left the area.

China knows USA very well. Dont worry.

What is your opinion on the Malaysian government’s use of the Sedition Act to silence the voices of human rights defenders?

We must understand …

1, every country has laws to suppress sedition. No country tolerates sedition. Malaysia is not alone.

2, USA is notorious to use human rights as a tool to instigate sedition in other country.

Human Right Watch is directly or indirectly funded by US government. It works for US government,

3, After WW2, from 1946-2001, in 55 years, there were 248 wars around the globe. 201 of them ie 82% were instigated by USA. In 240+ years since US independence, there were only 16 years when USA was not in a war. Worse, it is US vassals who shed blood & lose life for USA.

Other than war, USA would instigate countless unrest eg protests, riots & coups in other countries.

Thru unrest/war, USA controls other government & resource/economy. It is neo-colonisation without occupying other’s land.

In short, US-instigated unrest/wars are about money & power/dominance of USA. Nothing to do with righteous.

USA has many tools to use: HR, democracy, freedom, religion, corruption of other’s government & more. Even laundry detergent (biochem weapon) can be used.

4, Malaysia is pro-China. It wants economic collaboration with China so as to boost its economy. It also wants China’s help in infrastructure to modernise its country. It wants to join BRICS.

All these are no-no’s in the eye of USA. Hence, when USA scolds Malaysia for HR violation, do your own homework to see if USA is behind the scene.

5, lastly. the crime of sedition is bigger than suppression of freedom of speech.

UN Charter empowers states to reduce fulfillment of HR obligation in cases where the state must protect the integrity of its territory. In short, a state can ignore HR when comes to protecting its country from sedition.

ON CAM: Three US Army Officers Were Wiped Out Along With An M270 MLRS┃Russia Captured RAZDOLOVKA

What are some dark truths that have made you stronger?

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.

Can you tell me about a time that you sued someone in civil court and won?

In 2016 my then-fiancée (now wife) and I rented a commercial property for our e-waste recycling business. It was the back half of a former 1930’s era gas station/garage in Magna, UT. It was Perfect for what we do, all the needed electric outlets, 3-phase power, lots of room.

HOWEVER, when we tried to get our business license the building failed the inspection (severe structural deficiencies, including improperly supported roof beams and a door cut through a load-bearing wall without a proper header installed) and we were ordered to close down… so we told the landlord we were moving and considered the lease broken due to fraud.

Rather than accepting the situation and repairing the building he chose to start and eviction and sue us for treble damages (claiming $50,000). We counter sued for our moving costs and lost revenue based on “fraud in the inducement”.

His attorney played dirty, including falsely claiming that one hearing had been cancelled and then trying to get the judge to issue a summary judgment when our attorney failed to appear (he had trusted to professional courtesy and believed the opposing counsel). THAT got shot down because my wife and I WERE there and I handled our part of things.

Then, in a subsequent hearing opposing counsel moved for summary judgment against us because “They have not provided proof that they did not damage my client’s property”. YES, he requested proof of a negative.

One of their arguments to defend against our countersuit was to claim that they had not properly served us with an eviction because they did not know our home address (Utah requires service at both the business and tenant’s home address in a commercial eviction). That was an obvious lie because our home address was clearly printed on the lease. They also claimed that we never had permission to run a business out of the space, which was another lie… since a Business license in Salt Lake County requires a notarized document from the landlord declaring that a business was allowed.

They made mistakes in court filings, putting the wrong names on court documents, the wrong COURT on the same documents, and including private information from another case in our subpoenaed discovery.

FINALLY, the judge ordered depositions… our landlord showed up and “couldn’t remember” the answer to any questions, and what he did “remember” was all lies. When shown documents with his signature he said he didn’t remember signing them.

In the end, rather than us paying HIM $50,000 he paid us (our attorneys, more like) $18,000.

Our paltry share of that settlement bought me my 1995 F150.

Douglas MacGregor Unmask: ‘Hard Unavoidable Truth’ About Ukraine War – NATO being Stage Four Cancer

Thai Rice Noodles

Yield: 4 servings

Ingredients

12 ounces fresh rice noodles (rice ribbon noodles)
3 tablespoons cooking oil
12 ounces skinless, boneless chicken breast halves, cut into bite size pieces
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tablespoon minced fresh ginger
2 cups broccoli florets
2 carrots, cut into thin, bite size pieces (1 cup)
1 small onion, cut into thin wedges (1/3 cup)
1/4 cup oyster sauce
1 tablespoon brown sugar

Instructions

Cut rice noodles into strips 1 inch wide and 3 to 4 inches long; set aside.
In a large skillet, heat 2 tablespoons of the oil for 1 minute over medium high heat.
Carefully add noodles; cook and stir for 3 to 4 minutes or until edges of noodles just begin to turn golden.
Remove noodles from skillet; set aside.
Add remaining oil to skillet; add chicken, garlic and ginger. Cook and stir for 2 to 3 minutes or until chicken is no longer pink.
Stir in broccoli, carrots and onion; cook and stir for 2 to 3 minutes more or until vegetables are crisp tender.
Stir in the oyster sauce, brown sugar and noodles; heat through.

Biden debate debacle, DEMs panic. EU-Ukraine security deal. Orban confronts Elensky. Toxic Macron

Debacle.

Absolutely. Completely.

Lemmon 714

Back in the 1980’s there was a very popular medicine that people took recreationally. It was called a Quaalude.

Methaqualone, known as Quaaludes, is a synthetic compound similar to barbiturates. It affects the central nervous system by inducing a sedative state. Quaaludes gained popularity during the 1960s to the 1980s as a recreational drug in the United States until the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) banned its usage.

It was initially developed as a sleeping pill, but if you can shake off the initial sleepiness, you end up getting the most euphoric high, that I have ever experienced.

Really.

Outstanding.

I only took it once. I wish that I would have taken it more often, but it was banned shortly afterwards, and access went to zero.

One of the reasons why the 1970’s were so funky was partly due to Quaaludes. The high you got from this pill was unlike anything else.

All you wanted to do was be funky, talk, have fun and dance.

But, you all know, that was decades ago. Noe, I do not advise using or taking any kind of recreational drugs aside from wine and an occasional cigarette. But, some memories are so precious. In fact one of my favorite memories was being on Quaaludes and trying to get into a disco.

Alas we couldn’t get in as my buddy wasn’t wearing proper shoes. But the girls in the disco sure as hell wanted me to.

Now, I do not advocate taking drugs. Aside from some wine and an occasional cigarette or two, I’d advise not harming yourself. But occasional use, with special people that you trust can create special and magical times that are noteworthy and special.

Thus my story.

Oh, it was crazy, but something about being silly, and not drunk… talkative and friendly, and not shy… and the loss of inhibitions really made me a most popular man. I could of had many bedroom adventures were I to enjoy the disco lifestyle of the 1970’s. Oh those days.

Here’s someone else’s opinion…

Mmmmm, ‘Ludes…num-num, num-num, num!

Come to pappa! Boy, these kids taday have no idea what they missed out on.

Quaaludes were an extremely popular party drug of the mid-70's, early 80's, and consisted of 300mg of methaqualone, an extremely powerful sedative and hypnotic, originally marketed in the US by Rorer Pharmaceuticals. In addition to the popular street name “ludes", they were also known as Rorer 714's, and eventually Lemmon 714's.

Yes, they were prescribed for sleep, but taken in the right dosage, the individual would lose their inhibitions. They would tend to become very chatty and since everything in the 70's was either about sex, drugs, and rock-and-roll, Ludes had all of those bases covered.

I was fortunate to have had two very generous friends that had legitimate prescriptions for them but, barring that, they'd sell for about two bucks a piece, if you knew the right people.

There were a couple of problems with Ludes. First, they became so popular and controversial, Rorer decided the liability wasn't worth it and sold the patent to Lemmon Pharmaceuticals in 1978.

Overdosing on Ludes became notorious because the individual would lapse into a coma followed by central nervous system collapse. And, because the drug was fat soluble, there wouldn't be much you could do for the individual in the way of flushing it out of the body.

They would also go on to become a notorious date rape drug, as well as Bill Cosby's preferred method of attracting unwilling victims.

In 1982 due to its wide spread abuse it was taken off the market and, in 1984 the DEA would reclassify Quaaludes as a Schedule 1 narcotic, putting into the same category of drugs as heroin and ecstacy.

I could of…

But I didn’t.

Ah, maybe that was a good thing. Things could have gone really bad, really quickly. But I did have a taste. And, you know what?

It was fun.

Today….

TO LAM:

"Our countries share traditional bonds of friendship and have forged a comprehensive strategic partnership.
We have always been keen to express our deep gratitude for the assistance and support we received from the Russian people in the past, when we were fighting for our independence, as well as at the current stage in the development of our country.
Vietnam follows an independent, self-reliant, peaceful, friendly, and multifaceted foreign policy, and has always viewed Russia as one of its priority foreign policy partners.
We want to work with Russia to further enhance our traditional friendship, which results from the constructive efforts by many generations of our two countries’ leaders and their people."

Excerpt from statements by Vietnamese President Tô Lâm during the joint press conference with Russian President Vladimir Putin following their talks, Hanoi, June 20, 2024.

‘Astronauts stranded in space due to multiple issues with Boeing’s Starliner — and the window for a return flight is closing’—Live Science

NASA decided to launch the Starliner despite the discovery of five different helium leaks in its thruster system. Now those helium leaks might endanger the lives of the astronauts on the return flight. Here’s a quote from the article:

Two NASA astronauts who rode to orbit on Boeing’s Starliner are currently stranded in space aboard the International Space Station (ISS) after engineers discovered numerous issues with the Boeing spacecraft. Teams on the ground are now racing to assess Starliner’s status.

Astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams were originally scheduled to return to Earth on June 13 after a week on the ISS, but their stay has been extended for a second time due to the ongoing issues. The astronauts will now return home no sooner than June 26th, according to NASA.

After years of delays, Boeing’s Starliner capsule successfully blasted off on its inaugural crewed flight from Florida’s Cape Canaveral Space Force Station at 10:52 a.m. EDT on June 5. But during the 25-hour flight, engineers discovered five separate helium leaks to the spacecraft’s thruster system.

Now, to give engineers time to troubleshoot the faults, NASA has announced it will push back the perilous return flight, extending the crew’s stay on the space station to at least three weeks.

“We’ve learned that our helium system is not performing as designed,” Mark Nappi, Boeing’s Starliner program manager, said at a news conference on June 18. “Albeit manageable, it’s still not working like we designed it. So we’ve got to go figure that out.”

Footnotes

[1]

Astronauts stranded in space due to multiple issues with Boeing’s Starliner — and the window for a return flight is closing

Oh Fuck!

Apricot-Glazed Ham

A simple glaze over ham makes for an easy special occasion meal.

Prep: 10 min | Bake: 1 hr 30 min | Yield: 20 servings

Ingredients

5 pound fully cooked whole boneless ham
1/3 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1 tablespoon cornstarch
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon cloves
2/3 cup apricot nectar
2 tablespoons lemon juice

Instructions

Place ham on rack in a shallow roasting pan. Bake, uncovered, in a 325 degrees F oven for 1 1/4 hours or until meat thermometer registers 140 degrees F (about 15 to 18 minutes per pound.)
For the glaze, in a small saucepan combine brown sugar, cornstarch, nutmeg and cloves.
Stir in apricot nectar and lemon juice. Cook over medium heat until thickened and bubbly, stirring constantly.
Brush ham with glaze. Continue baking for 15-20 minutes more, brushing occasionally with glaze.

Scott Ritter: NATO in BIG TROUBLE After Crossing Russia’s Red Line, Putin and China Brace for War

One of Scott’s best videos. Well worth the time to watch.

Shorpy 1

Who had the worst death in history?

I’d nominate Junko Furuta.

source: Japanese Horror Story: The Torture of Junko Furuta

Junko Furuta was a Japanese schoolgirl who suffered 40 days of unimaginable torture at the hands of her classmates before dying on January 4th, 1989. After she rejected the school bully, Hiroshi Miyano, she was taken by 4 boys to the home of one of the kidnappers, Nobaharu Minato. All in all, over 100 people knew of her abduction; none did anything to help, and several joined in the torture.

According to their statements in court, the four boys tortured Junko relentlessly, to such an extent that her face was so swollen she was virtually unrecognisable, she lost bladder control (and was beaten for wetting the carpet), and her body developed a rotting smell.

The torture included:

Rape — Junko was raped over 400 times over the course of 40 days. Many of these rapes were gang-rape, and the four boys’ friends were invited to join in and humiliate her. Over 100 different men are alleged to have participated in rape at some point. She was naked for most of her imprisonment and forced to masturbate in front of her captors. Some of the boys urinated on her, and she was forced to drink her own urine.
Vaginal mutilation — iron bars, scissors, needles, skewers, a bulb, fireworks, cigarettes and lighters amongst other foreign objects were forced into her vagina and anus, causing severe burning and damage. Additionally, she forcibly had her breasts pierced with sewing needles and one of her nipples was torn off.
Beatings — she was beaten regularly, and sometimes strapped up as a human punching bag. The boys used clubs, rods and bamboo sticks to punish her for displeasing them.
Freezing — after pleading to die, she was locked outside overnight (bear in mind this was in winter), and later locked in a freezer.
Burning — this is believed to be the ultimate cause of her death. She suffered severe burns from the aforementioned lighters and fireworks. When she tried to call the police, she was doused in lighter fluid and her body was set on fire. Somehow she survived, but was killed by another body fire on the 40th day of imprisonment.
The boys reportedly dropped barbells and an iron exercise ball on her stomach, which was partly responsible for the lost bladder control, along with the damage to her genitals.

Hiroshi was sentenced for 20 years, and the other main captors received 5–10 years each. Most of them were subsequently arrested again for various crimes, including rape and fraud. They were aged 17–18 at the time; Junko was 17.

Had the captors been slightly older, they almost certainly would have received life imprisonment or the death penalty. The case is considered controversial due to their lenient sentences, and I can see why.

So on brand. Cringe.

What are some deep thoughts that you have?

“deep” is “deep” upside down.
If 99% of people find you unattractive, 78,000,000 people still find you attractive.
One of the worst parts of having mental health issues is that you’re seemingly required to have a breakdown in order for people to understand how hard you were trying to hold yourself together.
The fact that Jellyfish have survived for 650 million years despite having no brain gives hope to many people.
Dogs must be notorious in the animal kingdom for being the closest ally of the deadliest species ever to inhabit earth.
At some point in your life, an attractive person passed by you and regretted not talking to you.
Why is “Sean” pronounced as “Shawn” instead of “Seen” but “Dean” is pronounced “Deen” instead of “Dawn”
At some point in your childhood you and your friends went outside to play one last time, but you never knew it.
Cutting corners creates more corners.
Why are there no pizza drive-thrus?!
To know the ones that are worth your love, first you have to love the ones who are not.
The scariest part of growing up is realizing many adults are clueless; life is based more on luck than knowledge.

Larry Johnson REVEALS: U.S. Missiles Strike Deep Inside Russia, NATO in Danger, The World at Stake

Yuppur. The USA is actively fighting Russia. There is no way that Ukrainians are aiming and guiding these missiles.

What is the most satisfying passive-aggressive thing you have ever done to a really mean or rude person?

When my ex left, she went out of her way to be as cruel as possible about the whole process.

It was taking us some time to disentangle our living situation, finances, etc. My approach was that we were both adults who had at one point held affection for each other, so we might as well be as grown up as possible about the situation. I tried to be fair, and to give ground on things that meant more to her than to me – particularly as I earned more so would find it easier to relace anything she took.

She took the opposite approach. It wasn’t just that she tried to take everything she wanted. She took things simply because I wanted them. On the day she moved out, she packed up my washing line, despite the fact she was moving to a house with no garden. I let it go as not worth the hassle to fight her.

As might be expected after a 5-year relationship, there were some connections we hadn’t managed to untangle before leaving day, so from time to time I needed to get in touch – for example, to tell her I was no longer paying for her car insurance, and that she’d have to sort it out for herself. She continued to be obstructive, and to request that I cease all contact with her. I was tearing my hair out, trying to do the right thing but being knocked back rudely at every turn.

It was then that a good friend introduced me to what she called the ‘Princess Bride defence’:

“As you wish.”

It was the last text I sent to her. Thereafter, any time I found one of her sentimental possessions in the back of a cupboard, it went straight to a charity shop. When important-looking letters marked “URGENT” arrived addressed to her, I returned them as undelivered – at my convenience, after a few days. When I was asked to pass a potential teaching opportunity on to her, I said that wouldn’t be possible. When Christmas cards from her extended family arrived (addressed to both of us) I shredded them. She didn’t hear from me again.

As she wished.

GAU-8 holes

Have you ever met or known anybody who is inbred?

I know several people that are inbred right now. Normally I wouldn’t have any contact with these folks, but I am a firefighter in a very rural area, and I answer a lot of medical calls. I have some very very gross stories I could tell, but I will spare you the details as it is pretty disgusting and depressing. One thing I will say is that some of these families that are really inbred have an inbred look. I can’t really put my finger on what it is, but their eyes just look a little different. I don’t judge these folks at all, after all they’re just people. They’re really victims, they didn’t ask for this.

I was a reserve deputy back in the early 90s, and I went to a call where we arrested a man who had just gotten out of prison , and he went and attempted to rape two of his cousins, and successfully completed the act with one. From the description of the crimes , it seemed like the guy was completely compulsive.

As we turned off a long country road down a long dirt road to make the arrest, I saw poverty that I had never seen in America. There were people in mobile homes with no electric and broken windows and homemade steps. Most rural areas are full of pretty normal people, but this pocket of the woods had a family that was inbreeding for a long time, and some of them looked very strange. I went to the back of the house in case the guy tried to run while two other deputies went into the house to make the arrest. One very old lady in a ripped T-shirt with no bra gave me the worst hate stare I have ever seen, she just stared at me with a one eye bigger than the other inbred silent angry glare. Amongst all this, a very sweet , nice 5-year-old girl came up and asked what I was doing. I told her we were arresting a bad guy. Just then the two deputies came out with the rapist, and he was the most normal looking guy there. He was a studious looking guy with wire rim glasses and nice clothes. He was also the father of that little girl who I just talked to. She started wailing with the saddest cries you’d ever hear and threw a stick at me. It was one of the most heartbreaking things I’ve ever seen up till that point.

Incidents like this made me realize why the deputies I rode with were so cynical. They often saw the worst in people.

It wasn’t long after this that I decided to join the fire department instead of law enforcement. After 30 years in the fire department, I have seen a lot of strange things, but that call still sticks out my mind as being very sad. I think I remember it because it was the first time I’d been exposed to that level of poverty, indifference and craziness.

If you have read this far in my story, thank you. I do actually have some upbeat news. Social services have drastically improved in my area, I haven’t been to a house full of kids with no lights and no heat in quite a few years. I think it has been close to 20 years since I have been to a 14-year-old on her second pregnancy. Things have gotten much better.

Douglas Macgregor: Iran & Turkey join Russia, North Korea sent Nuclear Bombs after Meeting Putin

He’s speaking truth. Damn. The USA just ain’t ready.

Why do people adopt babies from other countries but not their own?

I adopted two children from Russia. One was 20 months old, and the other was about 4 years old. This is my qualification to speak on the subject. Sadly, Russia no longer adopts children to the US, because we sanctioned one of Putin’s friends.

The fact of the matter is that it is easier to fly all the way around the world two times, like an astronaut, to get a child in Russia, than it is to adopt a child in the US State of Washington (and presumably other U.S. states).

Russia is a place that has the kind of economic chaos that makes relatively high-quality babies available for adoption. Too many Russians can’t keep their children, and Russians do not, as a rule, adopt their own orphans. The Russian authorities are not afraid to take a child away from failed parents, so the child has likely only suffered a few months of neglect. The US, by contrast, has a strong tradition of parental rights, so it takes years to remove a child.

In the US, many children are born to meth users, so that their brains are irretrievably fried. Heroin is the drug of choice in Russia, which, while horrible for the parents, is not so bad (as meth) on a fetus’s physiology.

When you return home from Russia with a child, that child belongs to you. It is your adopted child. Period, end of story. By contrast, children in Washington State are generally not legally free to adopt when they are placed in your home. That means you are only a foster parent, with few rights. For the next couple of years, if your new baby’s crack-whore mother or jailbird father cleans up their act, even temporarily, they can yank your baby away and back to its previous life of neglect and abuse. Imagine having to tell your other children that their forever-brother or sister is not home when they return from school, because it unexpectedly went back to its birth-parents.

Now tell me you think it’s strange that people do international adoptions.

Badlands Homecoming

Submitted into Contest #251 in response to: Dream up a secret library. Write a story about an adventurer who discovers it. What’s in the library? Why was it kept secret?… view prompt

Joe Smallwood

The badlands had ceased expanding, and there was just enough food to support one or two researchers—well, maybe only one—and that would be me.

The bishop had his hands full. A guard saw me into his office, and the bishop sat waiting behind a huge, salvaged desk between us.

The desk, a marvel, held my gaze. Its rich, brown hue was a testament to its unique origin, a strange wood with a veneer of such smoothness, partially burned away, creating a mesmerizing play of colors. I couldn’t help but wonder about the lives that were risked to retrieve such a treasure.

“You are?” he said, not looking up. Now, if it were up to me, I would fall on my knees and kiss his ecclesiastical ring, listen to his blessings, and wait for benediction. Such was my upbringing, which I had only known since…forever. To be in his presence was an honor granted to so few.

But I must answer him! Yet remembering my very name seemed an extraneous and worthless undertaking.

“Thomas Cranwell, to commoners excluded from knowing my ecclesial rank,” I said, finally.

“Why do you exclude yourself?” he asked again, without looking up from whatever was absorbing him. “Are you not to work for the extension of the Kingdom of God?”

“It is for an uncommon request. Permission to attend at Bradwell,” I practically whispered.

That got his attention. I am asking for something forbidden. To speak of Bradwell and the treasures of antiquity that it contained was to invite suspicion.

Myths, stories, and legends about the sacrifices made to build Bradwell many generations ago were a staple around campfires at night. After the cataclysm and before the new orientation, the building of Bradwell took place in a time so dark that our present darkness looked light by comparison. Yet I was convinced that understanding our past would help build our future!

I threw caution to the wind. Before I knew what I was doing, I was kneeling before him, seeking his hand to kiss his ring, even as I could not see that the guard had moved to strike me from behind.

“Stay your hand!” the bishop ordered. “What have we here? A search for knowledge at any cost?”

“Only a fool who seeks to serve, Your Excellency!” My tears were so copious that if I looked at him, I imagined he would send me off straight away. He laid his hand on my head.

“Thomas, I’ll inquire about your character. Send me your references and bid me a good day!”

I had to work while I waited. Luckily for me, I had learned a trade as a metal scavenger. It was considered a low occupation, but it was necessary since the metal that never rusts could no longer be made and was highly prized. However, my unusual request made people suspicious of me. Even the scraps I found in the well-combed hills and valleys surrounding Urhan fetched such low prices that I began to starve. Being without family and friends in any place was inviting death into your life. I hoped I would not have to wait long for the bishop to answer!

When news came that the bishop had approved my request, I now had a servant, David, a protection seal on paper, no less, and a stipend. The bishop’s generosity quite shocked me. Was he an antiquarian? Even if only in secret? I couldn’t account for my good fortune otherwise.

We hastened to start our journey. David was young—only sixteen—yet enthusiastic and uncommonly curious. When I told David we were off to Bradwell, he jumped for joy! I warned him to conserve his strength. It would be a long and challenging journey, even for one like himself. Besides, he was to support me, such as I was.

Upon leaving Urhan, David removed his sandals and shook the dust off them, motioning me to do the same.

“A curse on any who did not help us!” he shouted with glee.

This made me angry. “You hardly know what it is, you ask!” I said. “We have nothing but what we carry—nothing at all. It could be that a curse has been laid on us! Mind your place, boy!”

David’s eyes fell, and he began to weep. “Forgive me, Father, he said.

“It is your youth and inexperience that speaks,” I answered. “The world is larger than we know!”

We arrived at Urhan Station, a smaller community composed almost entirely of humbler folk, primarily farmers. I was not incardinated anywhere in the Urhan region. I thought it proper to approach the local magistrate to inform him of our presence and request leave to be accommodated for at least one night, perhaps two. Upon reviewing my documents, I was permitted to stay, provided I sought provisions in the local market and remained at the local inn. This I was happy to do.

Thank God news had not spread about my mission. It was a relief to be treated courteously for once, and I relished the opportunity to rest and regain my strength.

David was enraptured by the many sights of Urhan Station, which he had never visited before, even though it was only twenty miles from where he lived.

“Father, shall we hear Mass today?” he inquired.

“Certainly!” I replied.

We soon happened upon the parish church, a quaint, quite old stucco and wood structure dating back to the earliest days of the Urhan region’s reconstruction. Even today, the church outshone the other various dwellings, which were much more bare and plain-looking. A bell rang out, calling the populace to prayer. The church was soon filled.

I was struck by Father Bruno, the priest who said Mass. His intensely blue eyes and reputation for knowing people’s sins without being told drew many visitors for confession, even from Urhan proper. I feared he would somehow know of our mission, so I hung back in one of the back pews.

When Mass was over, and we had finished our Thanksgiving prayers, he strode right to the back of the church to see me, calling me by name, although we had never met.

“Father Cranwell! Know you, not your duty! To serve God! It is not your place to seek that which God has destroyed!”

He said this so loudly that David prostrated himself at his feet, weeping and begging forgiveness. I was stunned, and when Father Bruno had left, and I regained my composure, it was plain that we would have to leave Urhan Station; the sooner, the better.

David wept incessantly. On the one hand, he knew he might fall prey to ruffians or dire circumstances, being alone without my support. Yet, given his religious upbringing, he could not ignore Father Bruno’s words, and I would not contradict a fellow priest, so I released David from his obligation to me.

I did this with a heavy heart, wondering if I would survive long enough to arrive at Bradwell without David’s support. Yet I had to think of what was best for the boy.

“You are free to leave,” I said as we left Urhan Station.

“Where will I go?” he asked.

“Don’t you have a family to return to?”

“Family? My family is the church. I am an orphan!”

With this, I stopped to look at him. David was in tears again. I was nearly beside myself with grief, too. It was clear that he could not make a decision.

“Come with me, and you will no longer be an orphan but a son to me!” I said, wiping both his and my own tears.

We were quite clearly approaching the badlands. Strange, disfigured animals approached us, peering out from the undergrowth. David readied his slingshot, and I, my staff.

“I could hit one!” David exulted.

“Let us pass by the side,” I answered. Thus, we took detours through thick brambles to avoid these “denizens of hell,” as the common folk called them.

The road, too, became more rutted and overgrown. Signs warned us not to go further, though the further we went, the more rotted they appeared, like the people who erected them had passed on or failed to maintain them.

We had to sleep in the open air in a shelter we could make from branches and sticks. It began to rain. I had heard of the constant rain in the heart of the badlands, soaking you through and through. We knew not to drink from the fetid swamps that threatened to overwhelm the road, which now resembled more of a simple path than a road.

“Is God punishing us?” David asked after a tough night when I coughed more than I slept. “Isn’t it clear we shouldn’t be here?” he continued. He was throwing stones into the swamp, a look of defeat on his face.

“Hush now and trust,” I said. We have not come all this way to die now!”

But I wondered how much more we could take, wearied to the bone from the dampness and privations caused by a lack of food and good sleep, never mind the constant fear of what might happen if we grew inattentive or were unlucky.

After three days, the path abruptly stopped at a ruined habitation. No one was home, and it looked like no one had been there for some time. After my brave words to David, my heart sank. Where to now to Bradwell?

Had I fallen prey to pride? It was Father Bruno’s words that echoed in my mind.

I sank to my knees and wept.

I could have died there and then and been happy to meet my maker, poor, alone, a sinner in need of redemption. It was David who came to my rescue.

He bounded into my view even though I lay prone in the muck and filth in those last few steps on the path to nowhere.

“Look, Father!” He helped me up. “Come over here! Do you see it? Up on the hill!”

My poor eyes were unaccustomed to focusing at such a distance, yet I could just make out a building built on a hill. Was it a monastery?

I could see it shining like a beacon, a bright sheen off what looked like stout walls as we hobbled closer, David supporting me with every step I took.

By some magic I had never seen before, the gate to the monastery slid open to reveal a monk dressed in a black tunic. He did not speak, only motioning to us to follow him. A Benedictine? I had never seen one before.

The monk’s tunic hung loosely over his body, stopping only at his ankles. He wore a rectangular piece of cloth over his shoulders called a scapular that appeared to be made of wool. When he turned to lead us to the community, I noticed his cowl limp and unused, the sun only beginning to make its presence known.

It was an edifying experience to see such calm and serene purpose in this one monk who neither sought nor cared for our taking any notice of him whatsoever.

We climbed some hewn stone stairs to such a height! It was utterly exhausting. I had to stop frequently to catch my breath, but I could still reach a portico, the sun clothed with refracted light through the most marvelous stained glass, again as something I had never seen before. I reached out to touch it, causing the light to fall in a sudden dazzling brilliance as if moved by unseen hands. I wanted to stop and question the monk about how light could be so liquid yet impervious to my understanding!

But he moved ever onward, not looking back.

We reached a stolid door of massive weight, again opening at a mere touch! What I presumed to be the abbot greeted us.

The abbot wore a black cappa, which is a full-length cloak over his tunic. He also wore a ring, which he held out to me.

I collapsed before I could kiss his ring, and from what David told me later, I hit my head on the stone floor, losing consciousness.

I awoke in an infirmary, or what looked like one. David was so happy to see me come to my senses. He looked fatigued as if he had been waiting a long time by my side, sitting on a wicker chair next to an untouched tray of food on a small table.

“Eat, father!” he said, his voice catching him unawares like he had not spoken for hours. Then, he cleared his throat and looked as if he might cry.

I had more important things on my mind. “What of the…abbot?” I gasped as I reached for a plain, remarkably shaped glass containing a liquid I did not recognize.

David handed it to me. “He never spoke to me. After you collapsed, two monks carried you here. Will you get well, Father?” he pleaded.

“God willing!” I said. You are so faithful to me; how can it be otherwise?” I joked, but then I frowned. “But there is much to discuss…” I said as I tried to get out of bed.

“Not until you are well!” David commanded. “Eat!”

The days went swiftly by. A monk with remarkable medical knowledge examined me. And there was so much food! So much more than I was used to.

Then, several days later, another monk with such bright eyes came to get me. This one was not unassuming or silent. He was talkative, so much so that I wondered if he was a monk or a commoner dressed in monk attire!

“Know you, not your duty!” I exclaimed at one point amid his chatter.

He rounded on me, his confident air dissipating as air escapes a putrid cask.

“Know you, not yours?” he replied. With that, we both fell into sullen silence. He then led me to see the abbot.

It was as before. This time, I kissed the abbot’s ring and returned to standing before him in what looked like the chapter house, a meeting room where the community would gather to conduct business.

Gazing about, I saw things on shelves I had never seen before. Whether they were functional or not escaped me; some seemed to be parts of other, larger objects. Here and there, you could see these recognizable parts protruding. But I was not given leave to stare at these unusual artifacts for long.

“You and your servant are welcome to stay with us!” the abbot announced. “I have made inquiries, and the bishop of Urhan diocese has vouched for you. The bishop was once a monk at this very place! What exactly have you come here to do?”

“Father Abbot, I wish to conduct research.”

“By all means, let us visit the scriptorium and the library!”

Again, there was light that I had never seen before.

In a wonder of wonders, I was led into the scriptorium, where monks sat at tables reading words that appeared and disappeared on pages filled with light, with no visible candles.

Then, many books in unknown languages were in the library, with pictures not drawn or painted of such wonders as I could scarcely describe! Many of these books were burned, and some could not be read. Still, everything was neatly stored and accounted for.

“Why not let everyone see these wonders,” I asked.

The Abbot was taken aback. “Do you believe that the people would comprehend that we were once prosperous, but now we are poor only because of a war of unimaginable fury as if the very wrath of God enveloped everything? This is knowledge for only a select few!”

The Abbot, setting aside his vows, embraced me and continued speaking for what seemed like a very long time.

“You need hardly wonder! Was it not always so? Monks preserved knowledge, whether of religion or not, that would have been lost otherwise in past times. We do so today, as always. Forever, until the end of time itself!”

So began my new life. Father Bruno could remind the people of what went wrong, and I would now discover why.

Sexy Beer advertisements

What is the most frightening thing that anyone has ever said to you?

I was at the pool, having just finished with my morning workout. I was drying off and noticed I had gotten a new text from one of my friends.

OMG are you okay??! I saw the crash!!

I froze in confusion. Reread the text. Tried to wrap my mind around it before coming to my senses and quickly punching in her number.

One ring, two. “Pick up, pick up!”

She answers, breathless. “Rachel! Are you okay? Please tell me no one is hurt!”

“What do you mean? I’m at the pool!”

The line goes dead silent. I can hear her breaths on the other side, raspy and shocked. My heart pounding wildly against my chest.

Then, “There was an accident, I saw your mom in the car. It’s bad.”

I swear my heart stopped. For a moment, everything blurred. I had no idea there was a crash. I had no idea what was going on.

For a second, thoughts of losing my mother crashed through my brain and I wanted to be sick.

My friend told me the car had been t-boned (hit from the side). She said it looked bad, that our car had been dented-in and she saw medics pulling my mom out. I remember my heart feeling like a knife was cutting through, tears blurring my eyes.

I thanked her, hung up, and quickly called my mom. I think I called her four or five times before someone answered.

My father.

If you haven’t read my past answers, my father and I have a rocky relationship. But I still wasn’t prepared for his words.

He told me to stop calling, that everything was fine. He wouldn’t tell me if she was alright, or what had happened, just to stop calling. He hung up.

Needless to say, I was pissed and scared out of my mind. I called another six or seven times before my mom finally answered.

And she was alright.

She was bruised, crying, and shaken, but she was alive. And in that moment, that was all that mattered.

But hearing that something had happened, that she had been in an accident, had almost stopped my heart. Those have definitely been the most terrifying words I have ever heard: “I saw your mom in the car. It’s bad.”

Why do educated Chinese support CCP despite not having the freedom to criticize Chinese politicians?

As a Chinese guy who has lived many years in America, I’ve got the answer for you, but I’m pretty sure you won’t believe me and think I’m ridiculous:

China actually has a lot more freedom of speech than the US or other western countries.

Ok, now please allow me to explain:

In China, we certainly do not have the freedom to criticize Chinese government, IN PUBLIC. That’s pretty much the only thing you can’t do. (we talk shit about them ALL the time in private daily conversations.)

Other than that, you can say pretty much anything you want in China.

However, when I was in the US, I feel suffocate because there’s a lot of things I couldn’t talk about, or I couldn’t say my real opinions. Everything needs to be political correct. You certainly can say your government is a piece of shit, but that’s not what freedom of speech is. You can’t talk about xxxxxxxx, xxxxxx, xxxxxxx, xxxxxx, xxxxxxx, etc… When I was there, I had to be extremely careful about what I say, even in daily conversations. There’re so many chains, not free at all.

I think you guys know what I’m talking about.

Cajun Style Holiday Ham

Ready to experience the holidays Cajun style? Bring in some Louisiana Cajun flavor to your holiday dinner with Slap Ya Mama’s Cajun Style Holiday Ham complete with our famous original blend and seafood boil seasoning. Say goodbye to traditional holiday meals because our recipe will keep you wanting more year round!

Ingredients

1 (8 pound) picnic ham
12 ounces Coke
1 pound Slap Ya Mama Seafood Boil
Slap Ya Mama Original Blend Seasoning, to taste

Instructions

Fill a large pot halfway with water and pour in Slap Ya Mama Seafood Boil. Bring to a boil and place ham into the pot. Boil for approximately 1 hour.
Remove ham and let drain and cool.
Heat over at 400 degrees F. Trim top skin from ham leaving a little fat. In a crisscross pattern, slice the top of the ham about 1/4 inch deep.
Place ham in a roasting pan with 1/2 cup of water in the bottom of the pan. Pour Coke evenly over ham. Now season the whole ham with Slap Ya Mama Original Blend Seasoning.
Bake at 400 degrees F for 30 minutes.
Reduce heat to 350 degrees F and continue cooking for another 30 minutes or until there is a nice crisp on the exterior of the ham.
Carve ham, serve and enjoy!

Attribution

Recipe and photo used with permission from: Slap Ya Mama

What person destroyed their entire life by making one simple mistake?

Lisa Nowak.

She was a NASA astronaut. Emphasis on WAS. During her stint in NASA, she actually had a pretty impressive career—she flew in space aboard the shuttle Discovery in 2006, in fact.

But she threw it all away. Over a guy.

You see, her boyfriend William Oefelein, another astronaut, had cooled in his affections towards her and was now seeing another woman, Colleen Shipman. We’ve all had love interests break our hearts, and it sucks. Some of us go a little cray-cray during the heartbreak period, especially if we’re drunk. But Lisa Nowak—she went well beyond drunken texts in the middle of the night.

She drove 900 miles from Houston to Orlando to confront the other lady. Shipman was going to be arriving at Orlando’s international airport, and Nowak was going to be there to confront her. According to police reports, she even wore adult diapers so she wouldn’t have to make any bathroom breaks during the trip. Anyway, she finally got to Orlando, confronted the other woman, and pepper-sprayed her.

Result? She was sentenced to a year’s probation, kicked out of both NASA and the U.S. Navy, and now has Google and Wikipedia detailing her misdeeds. The notoriety of her case—Law and Order actually made an episode about an astronaut love triangle—meant employers were reluctant to hire her despite her credentials, and the last anyone heard she’s been living a quiet life in Texas working in the private sector. Without the boyfriend.

Shorpy 2

What is the smartest thing you have seen someone do in court?

Not a case I was in town for – it happened fast

A man comes home in morning hours, crawls into bed still hungover, and wakes up in a pool of blood. His wife had been stabbed in the night.

He ran into the hallway and called 9–1–1 — but the police quickly charge him for murder. He says he got drunk the night before and his memory is a blank. She was killed sometime in the night — no signs of forced entry. They have their man.

Weeks later it goes to trial. Once underway, the man’s memory is triggered and he says he thinks he was in jail two counties over. The judge calls a recess.

The sheriff’s deputies check on this alibi, bring that sheriff in for deposition, and sure enough, the husband had gotten into a drunken brawl at a nightclub and was thrown in jail many hours before his wife’s time of death. He wasn’t anywhere near the crime scene. The deputies visit the nightclub and the coat check girl remembered him well – and the brawl. This was an upscale club so brawls were rare.

They brought all this back to the courtroom, the prosecutor moved for dismissal and the judge granted it. Recall they’ve already seated the jury, so double jeopardy is attached. He cannot be tried again.

A couple of months later, the deputies run into the coat check girl and it comes out that the husband, once released from jail, visited the nightclub in the morning and gave the coat check girl a $50 tip “for all the trouble”. One deputy surmises this might all be a hoax. The husband tipped the girl so she wouldn’t forget him.

They visit the jail itself and learn a priceless bit of news – the jail has no after-hours personnel. The inmates sleep it off until morning anyway. Another nugget, it’s also well known that one of the jail’s two cells has a bad lock. A little persistent jiggering will cause the bolt to retract and release the inmate. They also learned that two months prior, the husband had been in that same cell for disorderly conduct and no doubt learned about the lock.

At this point, they had all they needed, but too late. They surmised the husband started the brawl to get himself incarcerated, by luck or persuasion landed in the right cell, sneaked out to kill his wife and sneaked back. The next morning he pays the coat check girl and returns home, and it all falls out from there.

By the time the deputies learned all this, the husband had already sold his home, cashed-out his wife’s substantial life insurance policy, and was in the wind.

Daddy warnings

Putin: West Seeking “Strategic Defeat” of Russia in Ukraine, Means End to 1,000 Years of Russian Statehood

Hal Turner World June 21, 2024

Upon finishing his visits to North Korea and Vietnam, Russian President Vladimir Putin was asked by media what it means that the West continues to escalate the war in Ukraine, and openly calls for a “strategic defeat of Russia.” His answer opened the door to a Russian nuclear first-strike against the West.

Asked what does it mean to Russia that the West keeps escalating the Ukraine conflict, President Putin’s remarks went like this:

“We see it. We observe it. As you said, they constantly raise the degree and escalate the situation.

Apparently they expect us to be scared at some point.

But at the same time, they also say that they want to achieve a strategic defeat of Russia on the battlefield.

What does this mean for Russia? It means the end of its statehood. This is what it means.

It means the end of the thousand year history of the Russian state. I think this is clear to everyone.

And then the question arises, why should we be afraid? Isn’t it better to go all the way, then?

This is elementary formal logic, a course that I studied at the University for six months, but I remember it well.

I even remember the teachers who taught this course.

Therefore, I think that those who think so, and even more so, SAY SO, make another big mistake.

Here is the actual video in original Russian language with English subtitles. My analysis appears beneath the video:

ANALYSIS

Words mean things. When a man like President Vladimir Putin says a particular thing, if the world has learned nothing else from the Russia-Ukraine conflict, it knows he means what he says.

Russia made strident Diplomatic efforts over the Ukraine situation for years, and told the West in December of 2021 there has to be Iron-clad, legally enforceable Security Guarantees for Russia over the ever-nearing encroachment by NATO toward Russia’s border – with Ukraine being the most recent encroachment.

The West laughed and threw Russia’s Treaty proposal in the ashbin of history.

Russia tried again in January of 2022, only this time, they told the world “If Russia cannot obtain iron-clad, legally enforceable, security guarantees by Diplomatic means, it will obtain them by military or military-technical means.”

The West took about two weeks before laughing at Russia again, and declining the Treaty proposal.

On February 23, 2022, Russia called Ukraine President Zelensky and told him “You have five hours to agree to NOT join NATO and NOT place American missiles on Ukraine Territory.”

Zelensky called the British Home Office and the US State Department for guidance. Both Britain and the US told Zelensky to “ignore Russia’s ultimatum.” Zelensky did exactly that.

After the five hours had passed, Russia waited an additional two hours. No response form Ukraine. That morning, the Russian Army crossed the Border into Ukraine by force, and the war commenced.

So when Russia says something, they mean it.

For President Putin to say

"But at the same time, they also say that they want to achieve a strategic defeat of Russia on the battlefield.

What does this mean for Russia?   It means the end of its statehood.  This is what it means.

It means the end of the thousand year history of the Russian state.  I think this is clear to everyone."

is the absolute worst RED FLAG imaginable.

Russia has a nuclear doctrine. They’ve had it, open to the public, for years.

In that nuclear doctrine, Russia makes clear they will only use nuclear weapons if “there is a threat to the existence of the Russian state.”

What did Putin just say in the video above? He said that a “strategic defeat of Russia means the end of its statehood; an end to the thousand year history of the Russian state.”

Well, since that is how Russia perceives the publicly stated goal of the West to inflict a “strategic defeat” upon Russia, then the legal framework now exists to justify the use of Russian nuclear weapons.

It is as plain as day from what President Putin just said.

What he went on to say is even worse:

It means the end of the thousand year history of the Russian state.  I think this is clear to everyone.

And then the question arises, why should we be afraid?  Isn't it better to go all the way, then?

Uh Oh. “. . . go all the way?” Yes, he actually said that. So what does THAT mean?

To me, it means “If Russia is going to be ended, why shouldn’t they go all the way and end the people who are ending Russia?”

To me, “. . . Isn’t it better to go all the way” means mutual destruction. If Russia is going to lose its thousand years of Russian statehood, then everybody else is going to lose theirs too.

These remarks from the Russian President are among the most important words ever spoken in human history. They lay out the ACTUAL course of events we are all on. Destruction.

Yet we in the West go along our merry way, seemingly oblivious to the actual reality. A reality that WE created. A reality that WE continue to perpetrate.

The actions of the United States and our NATO vassals, is directly threatening our continued existence. We the people have a right to protect ourselves from what this government is doing.

If we sit back, do and say nothing, it seems to me this government is leading us all to our deaths. Soon.

Pepe Escobar: Putin and China issue DEVASTATING Warning to NATO and Everything is About to Change

Journalist and Geopolitical Analyst Pepe Escobar reveals the truth about Russia and China's accelerated push toward a multipolar world and how their latest moves will completely destroy the dominance of the U.S. dollar as we know it. This video breaks it all down following Pepe's May trip to Brazil and other BRICS countries.

The stuff of nightmares

The other day I had quite the fright.

Some person was feeding strawberries to fluffy snow-white rabbits. So disturbing if you didn’t know the back story. My God!

What a dastardly concept.

But there’s worse things, don’t you know….

Like white dogs eating dragon fruit.

Corgi Gives His Owner And The Entire Internet A Mini Heart Attack After He Eats Some Dragon Fruit And Rests In The Mess

Our pets sometimes scare us senseless. Imagine walking into a room and seeing your pet dog lying on the floor on its back, covered in a sticky red liquid. The horror! But like Sherlock Holmes that you are, you bend down and taste the liquid. It’s not blood—it’s a fruit! Silly dog!

corgi puppy lying dragon fruit 1 5e79bf4e7b931 700

That’s exactly what happened with Gody the Corgi. His owner photographed Gody lying on the floor like someone from an episode of CSI. It turns out that the cute corgi gorged himself on dragon fruit, rolled around in the remains, and pretended to be dead.

corgi puppy lying dragon fruit 6 5e79bf2522450 700

The short-legged doggie was completely fine, but a lot of internet users did a double-take and some of them were scared that the pupper had been hurt. Scroll down for Bored Panda’s interview with Gody’s owner!

corgi puppy lying dragon fruit 2 5e79bf442feb6 700

Gody’s owner explained that the Facebook page is named after the cute dog’s mother. “This page was created for Candy a while ago. I want to share all the fun moments of my adorable dogs with everyone to bring them some joy in their busy days.”

According to the owner, Gody is just 2 months old! “Because he’s a baby, like other small dogs, he likes to get himself dirty and sleep a lot. He also loves to eat fruits.”

Gody’s owner also told Bored Panda that this was the very first time that the puppy ate dragon fruit. “I found that very interesting so I took photos of him,” the owner said.

corgi puppy lying dragon fruit 4 5e79bf359b505 700

We were curious to know how Gody’s training is going. The owner revealed to us that the puppy’s training is “still in process” because he is so small.

Oh the horror.

Today…

What are some activities children did 50 years ago that would not be allowed today?

It was a different world. When I was 11 years old I went to my dad and asked for twenty dollars. He asked what do you need twenty dollars for. I said I needed a pair of bell bottom blue jeans. In 1963 that was like asking for two hundred dollars. My dad said if I want twenty dollar pants that I should find a good job. About three miles or so away from our house was a restaurant. I rode my bike up and asked for a job bussing tables. They said they had no jobs bussing tables but I could wash dishes. It paid fifty cents per hour. So that summer I worked full time washing dishes. When school started I worked part time after school. If my grades fell below average the job would have to go. That was my dad’s law.

There were some sandpits about ten miles away. My brothers and I would make lunches the night before. The next morning we got up before daylight, got our fishing rods, and rode our bikes to the sandpit lake. We spent the day fishing and swimming. We would always come back very sunburned.

With the money I earned I bought a Honda 125 scrambler. We had a dog that was a black Labrador. I also had a Sears and Roebuck 12 gage shotgun. The dog and I would go out to the Boys Town farms and we would hunt pheasant and quail. I didn’t tell my parents I bought the Honda and I thought I could keep it hidden behind the garage. When my dad found out I got the belt. He said no son of his would be a Hell’s Angel. I got on the bike and ran away from home. I was gone two days before I realized this wasn’t the smartest thing I have done. My dad saw the pheasants in the freezer and thought the Honda wasn’t a bad idea after all.

As I grew up we would sneak into drive-in movies. We were proud how many guys we could get into a trunk of a 1953 Chrysler.

In High School we said the Lord’s Prayer before games like baseball, football, etc.

TV was only on until eleven-thirty; Friday and Saturday until one-thirty in the morning. We considered the news and baseball the only things worth watching.

Comic books were five cents then ten cents, twenty-five cents for deluxe editions. They were a big treat when I was very young. My mom thought they would rot my brain.

We got dressed up for church. Ties, white shirt pressed pants, shined black shoes. Hair combed. After mass there were Cub scout and boy scouts meetings. We were more or less left on our own to earn merit badges. I don’t recall the details but one year a lot of dad’s lawnmowers were taken apart. Memberships dropped.

The biggest things I remember is we had a lot more freedom. Little or no supervision. We had a chance to grow up. No games to get addicted to on TV. We worked hard if we wanted something. We knew right from wrong big time. Lies were one of the worst thing we could do, next to stealing. Nobody would call police for getting a spanking. We could get a spanking by teachers. I could buy cigarettes at the store for my dad at any age. People trusted police.

In the summer months the time to be home was sunset. If we were late there would be a price to pay. Size 36. leather

We would play baseball in the street. Somebody’s dad would open a fire hydrant in the summer. Or winter for sleds. There was always a broken arm or leg for a kid doing something stupid.

I could go on but I think I have given your question a lot more time than I should have. You just can’t change the past and the saddest thing is nobody will know what they have missed.

G7 and the decline of empire

Is it true that they kill you if you quit the French Foreign Legion? If so, has a Legionnaire ever been executed?

You won’t be executed but if you try to desert and they catch you, you’ll wish you were never born.

I know many former legionnaires and almost all of them didn’t finish their contracts. When the war in Yugoslavia broke out, many Croatians that were serving in the Legion deserted and went to Croatia to defend their country.

One of them told me that during the first week of his basic training, two British legionaries tried to run away. One evening, my Croatian friend was emptying the trash bin in front of their company building when he saw the two Brits dressed in sports clothes sneaking away from the building.

Twenty minutes later, the alarm was sounded. His platoon was assembled and the instructors and sergeants looked extremely angry. A while later, the Military Police brought back the two deserters. They hadn’t even made it over the barracks’ fence.

What followed was the most severe beating. The two Brits were asking for mercy but they were kicked until they were bleeding from their ears and lost consciousness. Then they were sent to a small military prison complex inside the camp. The whole “show” served to deter the other legionnaires from trying to do the same thing.

Over the next week, they could often see the two deserters when they were running through the camp while the Military Police were beating them with batons.

After a week, one of the Brits hung himself in his prison cell. He couldn’t take it anymore.

This is an extreme case and the two guys really had no luck. Normally, a legionnaire just waits for his free weekend, buys himself a train ticket, and disappears. Nobody will hunt him down like in a Hollywood movie.

After a while, a deserter can even visit France, nobody will bother him. Of course, if you deserted from the Legion and you want to spend your family holiday in France, you shouldn’t choose a place where the Legion has a base or where the French Army sends their soldiers for recreation or medical rehabilitation. It could be quite embarrassing when you go to a bar and your former platoon commander suddenly shows up.

My daughter bought a new car, the contract is signed and she drove it home. The dealership called and said they forgot to take the custom wheels off the car and want her to bring the car back so they can change them. What should she do?

This happened to a guy I worked with; the company we worked for had a great credit manager who worked with everyone to make sure all our accounts were up to date in a good way. One of the salespeople had done just what the question asked: he had bought his 16-year-old daughter a car the day before.

By 8:02 a.m. the next day he got a call from the dealership telling him there was an error in the paperwork and he needed to either bring in $1500 or return the car. Our credit manager told him it was a classic bait-and-switch scam that went way back. He sent my friend home to get the paperwork to review and after looking at the paperwork for about 15 seconds, he simply said it was a scam. If there was an error, too bad and it was in his favor — they had signed the contract.

The dealership called again, but he told them, sorry but we’re done. The salesman went into tears claiming he was going to be fired. Now I had an operation manager who was known for being blunt and rude listening in. He yells out, “If you made that kind of mistake, you should be fired.” Over the next couple of days, he got calls from salesmen, sales managers, and others. It got to the point they threatened to repossess the car.

He then told the dealership he had reported them to the Better Business Bureau; they carried weight back then before Yelp, and he would report the car stolen if they touched it. He never heard from them again. The dealership went out of business a year or so later.

The lesson here is you need to know your rights and, as I was taught years ago, you can always tell when a salesperson is lying — they are talking.

Ranch Pizza

Pizza Hut served this for a very short time.

Ingredients

Pizza crust
Buttermilk ranch dressing
Cooked bacon, crumbled
Cooked chicken chunks
Mozzarella cheese

Instructions

Spread ranch dressing on crust.
Add bacon and chicken, then top with mozzarella cheese.
Bake.
Before serving, top with shredded lettuce, diced tomatoes and onions.

12 Strong B-52 Bombing Scene

Do paper leaks happen in China with respect to Gao Kao?

Of course, there are people who commit serious crimes.

China is no exception.

Leaking college entrance examination papers is a very serious crime in China, so there are very few such cases.

Since the establishment of the PRC in 1949, the crime of leaking college entrance examination papers has only occurred three times.

The most recent one was in 2003, when the examination papers of a county in Sichuan Province were stolen by students.

The case resulted in the cancellation of all the examination papers of that year’s college entrance examination (which had been sent from Beijing to all parts of the country).

The Ministry of Education urgently used the backup examination papers.

The person involved was arrested by the police and brought to court for leaking state secrets.

Because he was a student, not a professional criminal, he was given a pretty light sentence. He only got 7 years in prison.

Sandwich Porn

What rule should be implemented with an iron fist in every car trip?

No random purchases of furniture. I don’t care how cheap that rocking chair in Denmark is. It is not going all the way to Spain and back to northern Sweden with me, taking up 80% of the car’s interior space.
Litter goes into the cardboard box wedged between the front seats, not into the glove box, the ash trays, the door pouches, or (egad!) out the window.
The person who makes me play the Dirty Dancing Soundtrack on the car stereo will be abandoned at the most sinister, Czech truck stop I can find.
No feet on the dashboard. If that airbag deploys, you will look like a swatted daddy long legs.
Any comments on my divine and responsible driving I do not approve of, and I have a train ticket back to Stockholm for that person. Second class.
The words “are we there yet?” are forbidden. Google it. That’s what God has given us the GPS for.
Toilet breaks are every two hours. For everyone. Unless you’re gonna vomit, in which case we can negotiate.
Absolutely no experimenting with car trim. If I had a dollar for every time some cousin pried off a panel, thinking it’s a fridge or a secret stash, or a wormhole to Lisbon, I could buy an extra car.
No smoking. Unless they are Cohibas, and I can have one.
Luggage access is strictly in the evening only, once we’ve reached the hotel. Nobody needs the hair dryer, or nylons, or a pyjama, at 1:20 on a German autobahn.

The Philippines

Here’s the speech of Benjamin Magalong, current mayor of the city Baguio and former head of the Philippine National Police, done way back 2023.

Let me temporarily set aside my manuscript. Instead, let me speak from my mind and from my heart. Let me give you some facts about what is happening in the entire country today.

Last April, news came out that our national debt is already at 13.86 trillion pesos (US$230–250 billion) . Remember that when we started, when President Duterte started his administration as president of the Philippines, our national debt was at just 5.7 trillion pesos (nearly US$100 billion), accumulated for decades. In just a matter of seven years, our national debt increased by as much as 142%. We’re now at 13.86 trillion.

In short, we are already above the 60% debt to GDP ratio. That means that each and every Filipino since birth will each inherit a debt of ₱113,000.00 (nearly US$2,000.00). According to the former Secretary of NEDA Cartua, our ability to pay our debt would depend on our ability to manage our financial leakages. And so I asked, what is financial leakage? And no less than the former Secretary of NEDA said, “The final leakage that I’m saying, a big chunk of that goes to corruption.” And surprisingly, when the news came out that our national debt is already at 13.86 trillion, only very, very few members of our legislative branch, people from Congress, raised hell. Again, I repeat, only very few raised hell. It is at this backdrop, or against this backdrop, that I would like to share with you this narrative.

Last year, I was invited by the Civil Service Commission and the Department of Interior Local Government to talk before newly elected officials, twice. In one session, there are about 150 mayors. A second session, about 200 mayors. Last March, I was given a chance again to talk to about 1,100 municipal mayors, all members of the League of Municipalities. Three weeks ago, I had the chance to talk and speak before vice governors of the different provinces.

I was very concerned. The way we process, the way we manage our local government union. For the first 15 minutes, everybody was just so enthusiastic, listening to me, looking at my impressive presentation. And then I start talking about good governance. I start talking about traditional politics. I start talking about corruption. It is a direct correlation with poverty. And when I start doing that, they also start looking at their cellphones. Are we not going to ask ourselves, is corruption now becoming a norm in government? Is good governance becoming an exception?

It is very saddening that they have a percentage in every project. They have not yet become tired. They already have a percentage. They are still the contractor. They are still the supplier. Unfortunately, only a few people raise this issue. We in the Philippine National Police. I’ve been talking to your Command Executive Senior Police Officer, Louie S. Makilan, and all the other Regional Executive Senior Police Officers. When they visited me two weeks ago, that was about three weeks ago.

We are willing to give or contribute a reasonable percentage of our pension plan or of our pension to national government to address this big issue. But it’s saddening. Nothing have we heard from our legislators that they are willing to give up their pork barrels. Even just saying that we reduce the pork barrel. But nobody, for some reason, nobody would admit that they do have pork barrel. But now that I am with local government, the fact remains that there is still pork barrel.

We, in the uniformed service, both from the armed forces and from the Philippine National Police, we risk our lives. We risk equality time with our family. And we are willing to give up a small amount of our pension just to help national government. Just to address this huge deficit. Just to address this big national debt.

We will wait whatever our “patriotic” legislators will tell. We will wait for them to speak. Hopefully, one of them will come out in the open and tell us it is about time that legislators should also give a big contribution to address national government issue, especially on our financial debt.

Well, we Filipinos all live in this hellhole of a state run bey feudal oligarchs who only cared about their families and stomachs while the average citizen had to deal with a debt that they’re not even responsible for. The country will soon be blacklisted by the world for its everlasting inability to pay the debt incurred by the greatest post-Spanish caudillo in history whose son currently rules the country today with extreme incompetence, and the average Filipino completely shunned from the international community. The average Filipino might as well be picked up somewhere in a garbage pit at this point.

Why are some atheists offended by people offering to pray for them?

Originally Answered: Why are some atheists so offended by people offering to pray for them?

My father passed away when he was 60. He was riding in a car with his friend driving. They were heading home from a convention. My father dialed my mother on his cell phone, but before he could utter a word to her, he had a massive heart attack.

His friend, noticing my father’s condition, pulled the car to the side of the road and stopped. He was the only one in the car with my father. He could have dialed 911 to get help there faster, he would have known where on the interstate they were. He was trained in CPR, and could have begun life-sustaining procedures to keep blood flowing to my father’s brain and organs.

Instead, he prayed. He prayed for my father’s life, and his own conscience.

My mother recognized that my father was in distress, so she called 911 on the other line while screaming into the connection she had with my father, trying to get some aid. She told the 911 operator what interstate they were on and about where she estimated they would be on it, based on how long they had been driving.

My father’s friend kept praying. He never began CPR or called 911 to help them find my father.

An ambulance did come, and they began CPR and took my father to a hospital, but it had been too long and he did not make it.

The praying was ineffective. CPR could have helped. This man is no longer a family friend.

Praying is only helpful to the one who is praying. It is not helpful to the ‘recipient’ of the prayer. If I am ever in this situation, I would always prefer action to prayer.

Fix Bayonets – Band of Brothers

Should I install games on an office laptop?

Don’t do it.

At one of my last jobs, a C-level employee’s computer got owned by viruses. I could boot it to safe mode but there was no rescuing the Windows install; it was too far gone. So I copied off the guy’s files before wiping the drive, but first I ran through his list of software to see what I would need to reinstall. Beyond the typical work-related software, I found several games installed, mostly for his elementary-age son. So when I gave him back the computer with a clean install of XP, I said, “The viruses most likely came from the games. Please don’t install games on the computer again.” He agreed and apologized.

A few months later he said he had gotten another virus. All the same symptoms were there, so I booted into safe mode and sure enough, several games were installed again. I wiped the machine and gave it back to him, this time without admin rights on the PC. I reminded him that the viruses most likely came from the games – again – and that he wouldn’t be able to install games anymore.

A couple weeks go by before he complains that he took the computer home the previous night and needed to install something but couldn’t. I reminded him that I took away his admin rights, but asked him what he needed to install and told him that I would gladly do it for him. He refused and asked me for the password to the PC’s local admin account so that he could do it himself. When I refused and offered again to install whatever he needed, he grumbled and hung up.

A little while later I got a call from our HR director. Dude reported me to HR, saying that he needed admin access to his PC but I wouldn’t give it to him, and that his secretary had admin rights on her computer so why couldn’t he. I explained the history behind the situation, so together we went to his office and checked the computer. There were four or five game installers in his downloads folder, all with timestamps from the previous night. HR was none too happy to see evidence that he was 1) disregarding IT rules, 2) putting our information security at risk by constantly doing things that would lead to viruses, and 3) putting our information security at risk by letting his frickin’ kid use his work computer. The next week, at the direction of my manager (also C-level), I took away his laptop and gave him a desktop instead.

Long story short: don’t do anything stupid that gives IT or HR a reason to more closely inspect your activities on business-owned property. Installing personal stuff, especially games, definitely qualifies.

Why do westerners act as if they are superior to everyone else?

This is a widespread belief amongst them.

But Li! That’s over 100 years old! Surely they’ve moved on. Some of them have but many have not.

All that’s happened is that they’ve become better at hiding it.

Now and again however they let the mask slip and reveal their mentality that they’re superior.

I’ve already derped on Colin Riegels plenty (he’s literally an imperialist who supports American destruction and thinks mass murder of Iraqis was merely a mistake). Remember Colin is a middling person in middle england with a middle income job and is highly representative of middle england.

Today I will turn my focus on Richard Lock, he’s the bald guy. He’s written some very erudite things… but something exposed him recently (6–8 months ago) well two things but I’m only going to focus on one.

He was writing about LGBTQ rights and about such rights outside Europe.

He said and I paraphrase: If [other] nations do not take up LGTBQ rights like us then they’ll be left behind.

I was what? He’s pretty much saying what imperialists of the past have said! If these savages don’t follow the SUPREME MASTER RACE then they’ll be left behind. I don’t bash gays, I don’t particularly care, I do care that there are plenty of bigots who will use it as a shield to be racist or bigoted to others.

That’s not a million miles away from what Churchill a well known white supremacist would be saying.

A stray cat that is too weak to stand, staggers for help..

What is the scariest insect you have ever seen?

I am surprised no one has mentioned this one. This is a tarantula hawk wasp.

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(photo credit Paul Nylander)

THIS is the reason you want to wear a motorcycle helmet in New Mexico. They are only 5cm long with a stinger 7mm long. They are relatively docile, and have no interest in stinging you unless you are dressed up as a tarantula for Halloween (an activity not recommended within the state of New Mexico).

However, if you piss them off… they have the second most painful sting in the world. The sting is so powerful that for three minutes you will be incapable of any thought other than screaming. The sting is second in the world only to the bullet ant. The stings of stuff in Australia will kill you. That is merciful compared to the sting of this monster of the southwest.

Only one creature is crazy enough to eat this sucker: The roadrunner. That’s because he is CRAZY! He’s also known for eating rattlesnakes…. Which tells you something about how insane that bird is.

If it’s so docile, why do you care? Because the Tarantula Hawk Wasp is armored. He makes a mythical dragon look defenseless. Striking one of these monsters with a car windshield at highway speed can crack your windshield, and he still has a 50% chance of surviving the experience.

THAT is why you want to wear a helmet on your motorcycle in New Mexico. If you don’t, you better hope your head A) is harder than a windshield and you aren’t knocked out, and B) your head kills this monster instantly…. Because if he survives the experience, you have a 5cm pissed off monster wasp with a 7mm stinger sitting on your face, ready to make your Monday worse than every Monday ever experienced….

If you think I am fucking joking about this monster, come to the state and deliberately try to piss this guy off. Hitting it with a baseball bat is significantly useful in pissing it off. The armor will protect it, and he will make you regret your action.

Do not fuck with a Tarantula Hawk Wasp!

(They are the only creature on the planet with less sense of humor than the CIA.)

What do I write to my dad in prison?

Originally Answered: What do I write my dad in prison?

My father spent a few years in prison for federal firearms charges. He was in his mid-70’s when incarcerated.

Over those years I found that it didn’t really matter what I wrote to him — he was just so thrilled to get a letter from me, it could have been un-illustrated Dr. Seuss poems and he would have loved it.

As recommended in the excellent answer by Jim Christmas, there’s no point in self recriminations or reminding the inmate of where they are.

They have very limited lives, so living vicariously is one of the best ‘escapes’ you can offer. Long, newsy letters about the minutiae of your daily life will be gleefully read, re-read, and shared with pride.

Every time my father called me after receiving one of my letters — which were, I’m ashamed to admit, far too few and far between — he would come to tears on the phone, trying to explain how much it meant that I had taken the time to write and post a letter to him.

Your hastily-scrawled note can be the only bright spot in a day that is boring at best, violent at worst.

Don’t hesitate or try to find the perfect words; just tell your dad how you’re doing, what’s going on in your life, and that you’re thinking of him.

Eventually my father asked me to send him photos of myself and I was concerned, not knowing why he wanted them. I sent him a couple of recent, candid headshots figuring nothing too awful could come of it.

Several months later, I received the most beautiful hand-drawn portraits based on those photographs. These are some of my most prized possessions.

Nothing is free in prison. My dad says he paid $100 per drawing. It may have been significantly more or less than that, but was most likely paid in barter of some sort.

My point is…I don’t know your relationship with your father at all.

I can only encourage you to reach out to him as much as you are able. To treat him as a human being and not a caged animal.

To be wary and take care of yourself, and also to open your heart as far as you can and still be true to yourself.

All my best to you and your family.

Saudi Arabia ABANDONS Petrodollar!

Who are some of the dumbest criminals ever to be caught?

This girl takes the cake by far.

Hannah Sabata, at the age of 19, robbed a local bank at gunpoint on November 27, 2012. She actually managed to get away with it, so why am I mentioning her on this answer if she was successful in her crime?

Well, after she robbed the bank, Sabata decided that it was a good idea to post a video on YouTube titled “Chick Bank robber” in where she admitted to stealing a car and driving it to Waco in order to commit the robbery. She then explained in her video how she managed to get away with $6,000 worth of cash; she even held up the keys of the car she stole.

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HEY GUYS, I JUST ROBBED A BANK AND NOW I’M MAKING THIS VIDEO TO INFORM YOU OF IT!

Unsurprisingly, she later got a wake up call by the police and Polk county authorities who placed her under arrest. Investigators then found the stolen money. She was convicted and given 10–20 years in prison, a sentence she’s been serving since June 2013.

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You can still find her video on YouTube. Anyway, she’s my nomination.

Pizza Porn

Drink Your Milk

Submitted into Contest #250 in response to: Write a story in which someone is afraid of being overheard.… view prompt

Michael Jefferson

B.J. Workman’s hammer bangs loudly against the Town Hall steps.Brady Tasker goes back to the truck for more wood and a cigarette.B.J. is known throughout the town of Dorset as a lanky, perpetually tanned, reliable, and likable craftsman with a loving wife and an average I.Q. He and his stocky, bearded drinking buddy Brady have been the town’s go-to builders for decades and are familiar faces throughout town.Standing in the hallway a few feet from the steps, Chief Colt Kennedy whispers to Mayor Grayson Levant.“Everything’s going according to schedule. Dorset will be ours within two weeks.”“Good. If we succeed here then it’s on to the state capital, then Washington D.C. We’ll achieve domination without having to fire a shot.”B.J.’s ears perk up. He pretends to measure the steps.Broad-shouldered, with light hair and sharp features, Chief Kennedy often stops to chat with B.J. and Brady. Lately, he’s been giving them probing, icy stares. The same is true of Dorset’s pudgy, balding Mayor, whose once inviting smile has turned predatory.“Do we have enough lubricant?” Mayor Levant asks.“Yes. It’s plentiful here in the form of chocolate milk.”Chief Kennedy gives B.J. a hard glance.“Is Workman on the list?”“No. His intelligence level is too low. Cyrus will deal with him.”B.J.’s mind shifts to Cyrus, the newest addition to the police department. Cyrus is an ill-tempered German shepherd who seems to enjoy intimidating him.B.J. hammers at the steps.“Do you think he heard us?” Chief Kennedy asks.“He has ears.”B.J. carelessly drops his tools in the back of the pickup.“What’s up with you, clumsy?” Brady asks.“Something odd is going on around here.”“Yeah, it’s that we worked through lunch. Drop me off at the bar. I could use some liquid refreshment.”“No, not that. I heard the Mayor and Colt talking about taking over the town, and the government. I think we’re being invaded, Brady.”

“I always thought you were a liberal. I never thought you’d wanna throw immigrants out of the country. There’s enough work for everybody.”

“I’m not talking about people from other countries. I mean extraterrestrials. Aliens.”

“I’ve always loved you’re over the top sense of humor.”

Finishing his lunch, B.J. walks through the park to meet Brady at the pickup.

He sees three kids running in circles, whipping each other with tree branches. Curious, B.J. approaches two other children reading comic books on a bench.

“What are they doing?”

A girl with oval glasses looks up. “Playin’ army.”

“What’s that you’re reading?” B.J. asks.

“The Sub Mariner versus the Fantastic Four.”

“Cool. I remember reading that when I was a kid.”

“They had comic books when you were a kid?”

“Must’ve been written on stone,” a towheaded boy says without even looking up.

B.J. walks away muttering that the next generation will destroy the world.

“You have the estimate for the job?” B.J. asks as he and Brady walk up the steps of the Dorset Premier Theater.

A loud crash stops them cold.

“Sounds like breaking glass,” Brady says.

The two men enter the building in time to see the theater’s owner, Griffin Frye, being chased by his wife Fiona, who is holding a hammer.

Fiona’s normally stylish hair is standing on end. Her clothes are ruffled, and she’s puffing like a locomotive operating at high speed.

Seeing B.J. and Brady she curses unintelligibly, turning away.

Twice his wife’s size, the theater owner is bleeding from his forehead and has a bruised cheek.

“What did you do? Suggest a revival of “Oh, Calcutta?” Brady jokes.

“The remodeling project,” Griffin gasps. “We were talking about rebuilding the theater.”

“If money is the problem, we can find a way to cut some of the costs,” B.J. says.

“She doesn’t want to do it.”

“What? She was all charged up about a couple of days ago.”

“She was different a couple of days ago,” Griffin says, rubbing his head. “She was the woman I married, gentle, thoughtful. Now she’s acting like a rabid dog. Everything upsets her, and she’s talking crazy. Something about turning the theater into a hive.”

“A hive?” Brady asks. “You’re gonna make honey in the theater?”

“Not that kind of hive. She said it’s going to be a sanctuary for the new breed.”

“New breed of what?” Brady asks.

“Beats me.”

“Looks like she already did,” Brady cracks.

“You should put something on that cut,” B.J. says. “C’mon out to the truck. I’ve got a first aid kit.”

B.J. is tending to Griffin’s wound when Chief Kennedy and Mayor Levant pull up to the theater.

Fiona runs out of the theater toward them, pointing at her husband. Mayor Levant grabs her by the arms, trying to control her agitated movements.

Cyrus bounds out of the back seat of the Chief’s car, barking loudly at B.J.

“I hate that thing,” B.J. says.

“Sounds like the feeling is mutual,” Brady replies.

“At ease, Cyrus,” Chief Kennedy says, and the dog immediately squats obediently, staring at B.J. with angry silence.

His jawline clinched, Chief Kennedy strides toward them.

“You ought to put a muzzle on that frankfurter,” Brady jests.

Chief Kenndy’s voice is languid and grim.

“He doesn’t like riff raff.”

“Riff raff?” Brady shouts. “We played football together in high school, Colt. I blocked for you, Golden Boy!”

Chief Kennedy turns to Griffin. “Are you abusing your wife?”

“What? Look at him, Colt!” Brady jumps in. “It’s the other way around.”

“Stay out of this, Brady. Well, Griffin?”

“She’s been argumentative and violent lately. She’s talking crazy about turning the theater into some kind of hive.”

Chief Kennedy’s dead stare momentarily wavers.

“She certainly sounds unstable. We’ll take her to the psych ward for tests.”

“Wait a minute, Colt, that’s a bit extreme.”

“I’m sure she’ll be fine in a few days,” Chief Kennedy replies dispassionately. “In the meantime, you should get that cut looked at.”

Their jaws drooping loosely, the three men watch Chief Kennedy walk back to Mayor Levant and Fiona.

“I’ve never seen Colt like this, so detached and emotionless,” B.J. comments.

“And that’s not the woman I married.”

“Well, at least the three of us haven’t changed,” Brady says.

Chief Kennedy and Mayor Levant stare blankly at the three men. Growling, Cyrus jumps into the back seat.

“This one needs an adjustment. She nearly gave us away,” Mayor Levant says, pushing Fiona into Chief Kennedy’s grasp.

B.J. pulls his truck into Cordell Cooper’s Lumber Yard.

The two men look around the yard.

“Kinda quiet,” Brady notes. “You usually hear the sound of buzz saws and forklifts.”

“Hang by the truck. I’ll go see if Cordell’s in.”

B.J. enters the office, finding the burly owner sitting with his feet up on the desk, sipping from a carton of chocolate milk.

“I’m here to pick up my order, Cordell.”

“I don’t have any wood,” Cordell replies lackadaisically.

“What? You’ve got a whole lumberyard of wood,” B.J. says. “C’mon, Cordell, I need it to finish the job at town hall. All you have to do is get up off your lazy butt and help me and Brady load up my truck.”

“I gave everybody a few days off,” Cordell says in a listless voice, hooking his thumbs in his bib overalls.

“What is this? National My Head is Made of Wood Week?”

“Come back in two days,” Cordell says flatly.

“Me and Brady can load it on our own. How much do I owe you?”

“Take what you need. Pay me when you can.”

Reaching into his pocket, B.J. pulls out his wallet, throwing down a series of bills on Cordell’s desk.

“There. Two hundred. Keep the change. I wouldn’t start giving away your wood. You’re gonna need it.”

B.J. and Brady load the wood into the back of the pickup.

“He really said that?” Brady asks.

“Yep. The cheapest man in Dorset was willing to let me pay him whenever I felt like it. That proves things aren’t right in this town.”

“Something funny is going on around here, Boo Boo.”

Kara looks up from her soup, smiling. The hippie-drenched brunette never tires of her husband calling her Boo Boo because it reminds her of when they met.

“Everybody’s getting edgy, rude. And a lot of folk have closed up their businesses or stopped caring about them. Brady and I went to the diner this morning. Miklos had to serve us because Millie and Molly have stopped showing up. Then we went to Cordell’s lumberyard. Not only was he grumpy, he could have cared less if we took every plank of wood he had.”

“Maybe it’s the effect of Daylight Saving Time,” Kara offers. “People act squirrelly sometimes because of the time change.”

“Maybe that’s it. But I overheard Colt and Mayor Levant talking today. They’re plotting together on something.”

Kara chuckles. “Probably an app for tourists or a new way to give out parking tickets.”

B.J. stretches. “Think I’ll take a walk. You want to come?”

“Thanks, but I’m in the middle of a really cool sci-fi book.”

B.J. walks out the back door, heading for Wells Walk, one of the less frequented hiking trails in town.

Walking down the path, B.J. is captivated by the presence of thickening smoke and a bright white light ahead of him.

B.J. cautiously creeps along the path, careful not to rustle the twigs and branches in his way.

Through the dense smoke, B.J. can make out Cyrus’ form ahead of him in a clearing.

He takes cover behind a tree, his hand touching some sap.

What he sees makes his entire body shake.

Chief Kennedy, Mayor Levant, and Cordell Cooper are standing around a stone pit.

A blinding light and thick smoke are rising from it.

Inside the pit is a metal chair.

Brady is strapped to the chair.

Chief Kennedy and Cordell pour a vat of dark liquid over Brady, who remains impassive and still.

The chair slowly sinks into the pit.

Moments later the chair rises.

Brady’s body is concealed in a dark shell.

Easing him out of the chair, Mayor Levant cracks the shell with a hammer.

The four men bow to each other.

“The conversion will be complete in two days,” Mayor Levant says. “Then you’ll be part of the hive.”

Moving closer, B.J. steps on a twig.

Cyrus’ ears perk up.

“What is it, Cyrus?” Chief Kennedy asks.

Barking loudly and incessantly, Cyrus charges down the path toward B.J.

B.J. sits up in his bed, panting loudly.

“Boy, have you been having a bad dream,” Kara says.

B.J. forces a laugh, rubbing the sap in his hand.

B.J. knocks on Brady’s door, worried they’re already late.

Brady’s wife, Diana, opens the door holding a glass of chocolate milk.

“What do you want?”

“My partner.”

“He’s sick,” the normally cheerful blonde says cooly, sipping her chocolate milk. “He’ll be better in a couple of days.”

“Jeez. That’s everybody’s excuse lately,” B.J. says. “Did I see him last night on Welles Walk?”

Diana gives B.J. a long, bottomless stare. “He came home after work feeling lightheaded. Then his stomach started to bother him. He’s going to need to take a couple of days off.”

“I was sure I saw him out on Welles Walk last night.”

“Must’ve been someone else,” Diana says, her stare turning threatening. “Maybe you dreamed it. It’s possible, right?”

“Oh, yeah, right. Can’t I see him for a minute?”

“You can see him in two days,” Diana says, slamming the door.

After lunch B.J. passes through the park, spotting the same group of kids he’d seen earlier in the week.

The five children are sitting calmly on the benches, their attention focused on their books.

The books are cream-colored with gold lettering in script.

“I’ve never seen that comic,” B.J. says.

“It’s not a comic book,” the girl with the oval glasses answers. “It’s the word.”

“The word?”

The girl holds up the book. B.J. stares dumbly at the lettering, unable to read it.

“Our laws,” the girl says coldly.

“You kids are kinda young to be studying law. And what language is that?”

The five children look up at B.J. with the same dead stare.

“I liked you ragamuffins better when you acted like kids.”

“So, any major news, Boo Boo?” B.J. asks.

“I wish you would stop calling me that.”

“Boo Boo? I’ve been calling you that since we met at Brady’s Halloween party twenty-five years ago. You made such a pretty ghost.”

Kara’s manner and speech turn frosty. “We’re adults now. It’s time we focus on a better life.”

Kara goes to the refrigerator. Returning with a carton of chocolate milk, she pours him a glass.

“Drink some milk, It’s good for you.”

“No, Boo Boo. I don’t want it. You know I’m lactose intolerant.”

“It’ll help you sleep. Don’t make me force you to drink it.”

B.J. reluctantly downs the glass of milk. Almost immediately, he feels jittery, and his vision begins to blur.

“My own wife… You’re a part of it too…,” B.J. says, closing his eyes.

When B.J. wakes up, he finds himself walking alongside Chief Kennedy in the darkness. Cyrus leads away, occasionally looking back at B.J.

Smoke rises ahead of them, covering a clearing. A bright light emanating from a pit forces B.J. to shield his eyes.

Chief Kennedy pushes B.J. along the path. “You should be proud of yourself, B.J. You were on the disposal list until you started snooping around. It showed us your deductive powers are much higher than we thought. Besides, it’ll be nice for Kara to have a partner.”

They stop when they reach the clearing. Smoke rises from a nearby bottomless stone pit.

Brady, Mayor Levant, and Cordell are holding onto Griffin, who struggles to try and free himself.

“What is this? What are you doing?” B.J. asks frantically.

“The conversion,” Mayor Levant replies.

A metal chair rises from the pit. Still struggling, Griffin is forced into the chair and strapped in.

Brady and Cordell pour a vat of dark liquid over him.

“…Please, help me, B.J.,” Griffin pleads as the chair sinks into the pit. “They’re going to turn me into one of them… A creature with no emotion! No soul! No love! They’re going to do it to you too!”

“The conversion is painless, as long as you don’t resist,” Mayor Lavant says.

B.J. spots a nearby large rock.

“Well, I’m sure as hell going to resist,” he says.

Reaching for the rock, he slams it against the back of Chief Kennedy’s head, bloodying his skull.

Dazed and angered, Chief Kennedy turns to face B.J.

His head splits open, revealing the heads of dozens of humanoid, reptilian, and other nightmarish creatures.

“The essence of those we have assimilated,” Mayor Levant says.

The creatures snap and snarl at B.J.

B.J. drops the rock as he watches Chief Kennedy’s wound close, and he returns to his human form.

“It’s time for you to join us,” Mayor Levant says as Brady and Cordell grab his arms.

B.J. calmly eats his shredded wheat at the breakfast table, staring ahead at nothing in particular.

Kara walks past the table, nodding at him.

“Don’t forget to drink your milk.”

Pre-Historic Mega Structure Discovered in Montana, USA – Sage Wall

Why the new stealthy Russian nuclear submarine scares the West so much

A British tabloid made a startling discovery this week: it turns out that Russia has weapons capable of wreaking untold devastation upon its enemies.

What got The Express’ knickers in a twist this time was the K-564 Arkhangelsk, a Yasen-M class nuclear-powered cruise missile submarine that recently underwent sea trials and is expected to enter service in December.

While the newspaper fears that this submarine “could be undetectable by Western adversaries” and could pose a serious threat to “NATO military bases, naval convoys, and onshore critical infrastructure during a crisis,” it remains to be seen what Arkhangelsk is truly capable of.

Here is what is currently known about the sub:

◻️ It can dive up to 600 meters deep and has a maximum speed of 16 knots on the surface and 31 knots underwater;

◻️ The submarine has a crew complement of 64 and an endurance of about 100 days, limited by food and maintenance requirements;

◻️ The vessel’s armament includes 533mm torpedo tubes and vertical launch silos for Oniks anti-ship cruise missiles, Kalibr cruise missiles and Zircon hypersonic cruise missiles. Both Kalibr and Zircon missiles are nuclear-capable.

Older Men Over 40 Are Enjoying Single Life – Young Men Are Warned About Marriage

What’s the most expensive thing you’ve lost and found?

At the beach with a girlfriend, we found a small zippered case which was loaded with Jewelry. My girlfriend pointed out that there were a lot of very expensive pieces. She pointed out jewelry with 18k stamped on them and told me that the gems set in some of the jewelry were very expensive. There was nothing in the case which could identify the owner. We placed an Ad in an area where the beach is located. All the Ad said was, Jewelry Case and Jewelry found on Santa Monica Beach. The ad also said to call with a description of the case and the jewelry. We had some dishonest people respond yet we also found the owner after 2 weeks. She called. Descriped the case in detail to include a tiny rip on one of the sides. She also had a list of every piece of Jewelry in the case along with some photos. We agreed to meet her at a Restaurant in Santa Monica. Very nice Gal and yes, the Jewelry was definately hers. She then offered us $200.00 for going to the effort in finding her. We both declined this. After coffee, she left and gave both of us a huge hug. After she left, my girlfriend saw an edge of what she thought was a $100.00 Bill slipped under a coffee mug. She moved the coffee mug and there were 2, $100.00 bills. Since we had her phone #, my girlfriend called and said she was more interested in her getting her jewelry back and we did not need a reward. The gal said if it weren’t for us, she would not have any of her jewelry left. We ended up accepting the $200 bucks she left us. My girlfriend and the gal with the Jewelry actually became friends. This was years ago and they are still friends even though we broke up years ago. It was a very positive feeling to have been able to find and return the missing case and jewelry.

Roasted Pepper and Gorgonzola Pizza

roasted pepper1 2 300x225 — roasted pepper1 2 300×225

Chicken Gorgonzola 300x225 — Chicken Gorgonzola 300×225

Ingredients

Pizza

1 Boboli or homemade crust
Garlic Oil Sauce
Mozzarella cheese, grated
Gorgonzola cheese
Roasted red bell pepper strips

Garlic Oil Sauce

1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
4 cloves garlic

Instructions

Pizza

Heat the oven to 450 degrees F. Spray or grease a pizza pan or stone.
Top crust with Garlic Oil Sauce, mozzarella cheese, gorgonzola cheese and bell pepper strips.
Bake on the bottom rack of oven for 8 to 12 minutes or until cheese is melted and crust is piping hot.

Garlic Oil Sauce

Puree olive oil and garlic in blender.

Compilation: Time Travel stories!

Power blocking all of Chicago

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.

Giving a fake e-mail address.

So I power-blocked his entire city.

Chicago.

No MM for you!

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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;

So compare my life with his…

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 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!

Hal Turner World June 15, 2024

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

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?

Don’t Break Character

Submitted into Contest #250 in response to: Write a story in which someone is afraid of being overheard.… view prompt

Katariina Ruuska

“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?

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 . . . .

Hal Turner World June 15, 2024

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…

Rain, rain go away, come back on another day

The weather here in Zhuhai is highly unusual this year.

Normally, being semi-tropical, winters (and leading into late Spring) are mostly blue skies, with glorious short bursts of heavy rain.

Not this year. All year from January to this June it has been overcast with rain. With rain going from light to heavy downpours. Very much reminiscent of monsoon season in the tropics.

The plant-life love it though. Lush greens everywhere and the tropical foliage is thriving.

It makes me wonder if “global warming” is actually changing the semi-tropical regions into full tropical regions.

I know, I know…

Maybe “global warming” is a hoax, as certainly many people are profiting from this narrative. And there is proof that the data has been fabricated on numerous instances for reasons of personal profit.

And of course, we just hit solar max.

So of course we are going to see strange weather patterns.

But still, it’s one thing to read about these things and intellectualize about them, and it is another thing to experience them first-hand. Don’t ya know.

Today, it’s just pouring rain.

Flooded roads, and both Zhuhai, and Zhongshan are enlarging all of their water sewers to handle the huge increase on rain run-off.

I wonder what the West is doing?

Probably nothing.

The West is reactive, while the East is proactive.

This is a reality, and you all should get with the program and take this particular reality into your calculus in all Geo-political event sequences.

Today…

What’s the most sarcastic and funniest response you’ve given someone?

I was called as a witness for the prosecution in a grand jury hearing. Without going into why because it’s another story too long for this answer, I was in the witness box when the attorney for the defense decided to give me a very long five or six part question.

At the time I was actually working at a big law office as secretary to a partner, a so called rain maker.

Therefore I was very familiar with most legal terms and the miscellaneous legalese attorneys and prosecutors employ to get the answers they want from witnesses. I also knew not to fall prey to multi-part questions and accidentally say something that would either not be true or go against the purpose of my testimony.

My boss had instructed me to answer such questions with, Sorry, your question cannot be answered as asked, sir (counselor). That would force them to rephrase the question in a simpler way or allow the witness to answer it in any way they wanted. The latter could be hazardous to the questioning party as they might not get the answer they wanted.

Therefore after the multi-part question was asked I decided to answer it MY way instead of tiring out the judge and the grand jury trying to figure out what was meant.

The question went something like this:

Were you alone when Mr *** was in the firm’s offices or were you in the same room as he was, or was he there before you arrived or did you see him when you arrived or did you not see him, and could you tell if he saw you, and if so, did he greet you or did you greet him first?

Yeah, right. This multi-part question cannot be answered truthfully or in any which way because it’s only meant to confuse. This is how I answered it,

~ On part one, yes, part two, I don’t know, part three, I couldn’t tell, part four, I have no idea, part five, no, I did not see him, part five, already asked and answered, part six, I could not tell if he saw me, part seven, I don’t remember.

The judge’s face became a huge question mark and then he pulled out a handkerchief and burrowed his face in it because he couldn’t stop laughing.

The defense attorney looked confused and asked the judge if he might ask the witness the question again in another other way to receive a clearer answer?

Judge, No. You may not, counselor. Your question has been asked and answered in the exact way you asked it, live with it.

Footnote: I was never asked another question by the defense attorney. I was not even asked any questions by the prosecuting attorney. He knew better not to ask me. I was excused from the witness stand and not called again.

US Economic Shock: GDP Bombshell Decline, Systemic Risks Escalate, Industries Falling Hard

China urges the EU to reverse the tariffs. What’s your view on this?

Of course the E.U. had to increase its tariff.

It’s the E.U. following the Master’s plan. trump and Biden are the geniuses of this – as in “make China the leader by killing our own industries”.

They started with semiconductors in 2018. This was when China was a total failure at producing semiconductors and importing everything. So their brilliant plan to kill China’s economy is by sanctioning Chinese companies like Huawei and banning all our chip companies from selling advanced chips to China. . . . as well as coercing the Dutch, South Korean and Japanses not to sell their chip machines to China.

What happened is that China has now built its own chip ecosystem and should be self sufficient in chips in a year or so while Huawei has been beating Apple and Nvidia at the market.

This is paupering into bankruptcy U.S. tech companies to help China in doing what they could not do alone. Trillion dollar companies like ASML, TSMC and Nvidia will be decimated in a year or so when they’re truly not needed in China.

Now about the EVs. We’re already at the same end stage but by a different route.

This time, we instead sent our big boys to teach the Chinese how to build cars and they were making money like bandits for a while.

And guess what when these guys are not needed? Jeep just went bankrupt in China with GM and Ford not far behind and viola, China is now the world’s #1 exporter of automobiles and scaring the shits out of Biden and Ursula with their EVs.

GM and Ford talked big about EVs but had to cancel all their EV productions because Americans can’t afford their expensive EVs while the Europeans are forming JVs with Chinese car makers to learn from them.

The U.S. and E.U. are using tariffs because it’s the only thing these idiots know what to do.

What will happen is that the EV markets in the U.S. and E.U. will crash and they’ll end up with only one option: ask China to teach them how to manufacture affordable EVs by forming local JV partners in the U.S. and E.U. China can wait. They have the rest of the world to sell their EVs.

G7 Summit. And to the man and woman, these are the same idiot politicians that are waging the Ukrainian war that are meeting in Italy for their G7 summit to share their accomplishment.

Of course, Mohammed bin Salman declined the invitation to attend because he wants to save the dignity of Biden from begging for MBS to renew their petrodollar treaty.

Why she sold everything, left America, and moved to Vietnam

The Last Librarian

Submitted into Contest #250 in response to: Write a story in which someone is afraid of being overheard.… view prompt

Steven Nimocks

Part 1

The Hidden Basement

Maria slipped through the hidden entrance, the camouflaged door sealing behind her. She descended into the sub-basement that had been her sanctuary and purpose for the past decade.

Dim lights flickered on, revealing towering shelves holding the last known repository of uncensored knowledge – 75,000 volumes of wisdom, forbidden by the totalitarian regime above.

To Maria, it meant more than just a library. It was home, mission, and a closely guarded secret. Alcoves between the shelves served as her sparse living quarters, a small price for the honor of being humanity’s intellectual guardian.

She ran a reverent hand along the book spines, each a defiant act against the oppressive government, seeking to control all information. The musty smell of aged paper and leather was a comforting reminder of the power within these pages.

A faint scuffling sound drew her from her thoughts. Maria tensed, hand moving to the knife at her waist. The sound was too erratic to be one of her trusted patrons who occasionally braved the journey to this hidden sanctuary.

She moved towards the source of the sound, ready to confront any threat. A compact figure emerged from the shadows, sandy hair falling into wide, startled eyes.

“Who are you?” Maria’s voice was stern, masking her fear. “How did you find this place?”

The boy stammered, “I… I’m Liam. I explored the library and found the hidden door.” His eyes were bright with curiosity and wonder.

Maria studied him. He was just a child, but one who had uncovered her most guarded secret. Her instincts warned her to remove him, to preserve the sanctity of this place. But those eyes…they reminded her of herself at that age.

She eased her knife downwards. “You shouldn’t be here, Liam. This place…it’s forbidden. Dangerous.”

Liam took a step forward. “What is this? Why are there so many books?”

Against her better judgment, Maria answered. “Humanity’s free knowledge, its history, and ideas are all preserved in these books that are left.”

She swept her arm out, showing the vast trove before them. “This is our legacy, Liam. And it’s my duty to protect it.”

Liam’s eyes widened as the weight of her words sank in. “Can… can I see them? Learn from them?”

Maria hesitated, every fiber of her being screamed at the risk. Despite this, the boy’s hopeful eyes spoke of passing knowledge to the next generation.

“Alright,” she said at last. Promise me, your life depends on it, to keep this place a secret and obey my instructions.

Liam nodded. “I promise.”

And so they forged an unlikely alliance amidst the dusty stacks of the forgotten library. Two souls, one jaded by solitude and the other alight with curiosity, found kinship in the pages of banned books.

As Maria revealed the wonders and truths within, something stirred in her battle-scarred heart. In young Liam’s eager eyes, a fragile ember, long believed extinguished, sparked to life.

Hope, frail yet luminous, flickered between them. Maria knew the world was determined to quash it, making it dangerous. But as she watched Liam trace his fingers over the faded ink, its warmth spread through her.

Perhaps this partnership could be more than a salve to her loneliness. Maybe, in Liam’s hands and heart, it could unlock a future she never imagined. A future where knowledge might pierce the darkness, where the legacy she guarded could live again.

But such thoughts were a luxury. For now, there were lessons to teach, secrets to share, and trust to nurture. The road ahead would be perilous, but now, in the sanctum of her library, Maria embraced the glimmer of possibility. With a nod to her charge, she unraveled the stories, waiting for a new generation to carry them forward.

On one particular day, Maria reshelved books on the checkout desk. Maria closed an ancient leather-bound volume with a sigh, replacing it on the shelf. So much knowledge confined to these pages, yearning to be set free.

The creak of a floorboard made her spin, hand dropping to the knife at her waist. But only Eliza, one of her regular patrons, was perusing the stacks.

Maria eased as the unassuming woman offered her a tight smile before disappearing between the shelves once more. Yet, something caused her neck hairs to stand on end.

As she turned back to reshelving the books, her fingers brushed against a folded piece of paper tucked behind the tome she’d been reading. Frowning, she opened it to reveal a few scribbled words.

“Get them out. As many as you can. Time grows short.”

Taking Her to the MOST EXPENSIVE Hotel in Manila, Philippines (Okada) I Wasn’t expecting this!

Putin’s Full Speech: BRICS, NATO Expansion and Ukraine Peace Talk Conditions

Last year the Canadian intelligence analyst Patrick Armstrong published this sound advice:

“LISTEN TO WHAT HE’S SAYING”

I’m fond of quoting the Duke of Wellington on intelligence:

All the business of war, and indeed all the business of life, is to endeavour to find out what you don’t know by what you do; that’s what I called ‘guessing what was at the other side of the hill.’

“Find out what you don’t know by what you do“. It’s not easy, it’s not necessarily pleasant but it’s what you have to do in order to minimise your surprise when whatever it is actually comes over the hill at you.

Here’s former British Ambassador to Russia Laurie Bristow saying the same thing:

My advice to all young diplomats and analysts [is that] if you want to understand Mr Putin’s foreign policy, listen to what he’s saying. You won’t like it, but you need to understand it, you need to listen to it. The place to start is the Munich speech in 2007.

“Listen to what he says”. It’s quite easy to. Putin has said a lot and most of it appears on the Presidential website in English as well as the original Russian. Never read what the Western reporters say he says – they almost always distort it – read the original. I’m sure that both Wellington and Bristow would agree.

And that’s what intelligence is all about. Try and understand how the other guy sees things.

Every few years Putin comes out with a speech or memorandum which explains – past, presence and future – and argues for the position at large Russia is taking.

People who read these speeches will understand Russia. People who don’t won’t.

The later will miss the facts and come to false conclusions. Acting upon those they will weaken their own positions.

One can avoid doing so by reading Putin’s latest speech held yesterday at the Russian Ministry for Foreign Affairs. It is quite long but has to be so as it necessarily touches on everything. It includes a kind of peace offer for Ukraine: Hand over the provinces Russia has recognized at its own and gain peace. It was and is not expected that the ‘West’ will move towards that direction. In consequence the aims of the war will have to change.

With nearly 10,000 words the speech is very long. No summarization will do it justice. I therefore urge you to read it in full.

The English language version was published in full by Sputnik. The authoritative official translation, which will soon appear on the Kremlin website, is not yet complete. As access to both sides may be limited a full copy of the speech is attached below.

What follows is a full reproduction of the English language version Sputnik put out.

Putin’s Full Speech at Foreign Ministry: BRICS, NATO Expansion and Ukraine Peace Talk Conditions – Friday, June 15 2024

/* BEGIN OF PUTIN SPEECH */

Dear colleagues, good afternoon!

I am pleased to welcome you all, and at the beginning of our meeting, I want to thank you for your dedicated work in the interest of Russia and our people.

In this broad assembly, we last met in November 2021. Since then, many pivotal and, without exaggeration, fateful events have occurred both in our country and in the world. Therefore, I consider it important to assess the current situation in global and regional affairs and to set corresponding tasks for the foreign policy department. All these tasks are directed towards the primary goal: creating conditions for the sustainable development of the country, ensuring its security, and improving the well-being of Russian families.

Working in this direction in today’s challenging and rapidly changing realities requires all of us to concentrate even more on our efforts, initiative, and persistence. It demands the ability not only to respond to current challenges but also to shape our own long-term agenda, to propose and discuss with partners, within the framework of open and constructive dialogue, solutions to fundamental issues that concern not only us but also the entire global community.

I reiterate: the world is changing rapidly. It will not be as it was before, neither in global politics, nor in the economy, nor in technological competition. More and more states are striving to strengthen their sovereignty, self-sufficiency, national and cultural identity. Countries of the Global South and East are coming to the forefront; the role of Africa and Latin America is growing. We have always, since Soviet times, talked about the importance of these regions of the world, but today the dynamics are entirely different, and this is becoming noticeable. The pace of transformation in Eurasia has also noticeably accelerated, where a number of large-scale integration projects are actively being implemented.

Today, on the basis of the new political and economic reality, the contours of a multipolar and multilateral world order are being formed, and this is an objective process. It reflects the cultural-civilizational diversity that, despite all attempts at artificial unification, is organically inherent to humanity.

These profound, systemic changes undoubtedly inspire optimism and hope because the establishment of the principles of multipolarity and multilateralism in international affairs, including respect for international law and broad representation, allows us to collectively address the most complex problems for the common good, to build mutually beneficial relationships, and cooperation between sovereign states in the interests of the well-being and security of peoples.

Such a vision of the future resonates with the aspirations of the absolute majority of the countries in the world. We see this, among other things, in the growing interest in the work of such a universal association as BRICS, which is based on a special culture of trustful dialogue, sovereign equality of participants, and mutual respect. During Russia’s chairmanship this year, we will facilitate the smooth inclusion of new BRICS members into the working structures of the association.

I request the Government and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to continue substantive work and dialogue with partners to arrive at the Kazan BRICS summit in October with a substantial set of agreed decisions that will set the direction for our cooperation in politics and security, economy and finance, science, culture, sports, and humanitarian ties.

Overall, I believe that the potential of BRICS will allow it to eventually become one of the core regulatory institutions of a multipolar world order.

In this regard, I note that the international discussion about the parameters of state interaction in a multipolar world, about the democratization of the entire system of international relations, is already underway. For example, with colleagues from the Commonwealth of Independent States, we agreed upon and adopted a joint document on international relations in a multipolar world. We invited partners to discuss this topic on other international platforms as well, primarily in the SCO and BRICS.

We are interested in ensuring that this dialogue develops seriously within the UN walls as well, including on such a fundamental, vital issue for all as the creation of a system of indivisible security. In other words, asserting in world affairs the principle that the security of some cannot be ensured at the expense of the security of others.

Let me remind you that at the end of the 20th century, after the end of the acute military-ideological confrontation, the world community had a unique chance to build a reliable, fair order in the field of security. This did not require much – just the simple ability to listen to the opinions of all interested parties and mutual willingness to consider them. Our country was precisely focused on such constructive work.

However, another approach prevailed. Western powers, led by the United States, believed that they had won the “Cold War” and had the right to independently determine how the world should be organized. The practical expression of this worldview was the project of the unlimited spatial and temporal expansion of the North Atlantic bloc, although there were, of course, other ideas on how to ensure security in Europe.

Our legitimate questions were answered with excuses, claiming that no one was planning to attack Russia and that NATO expansion was not directed against Russia. Promises made to the Soviet Union and then to Russia in the late ’80s and early ’90s about not including new members into the bloc were conveniently forgotten. If remembered at all, it was mockingly said that these assurances were verbal and thus non-binding.

We have consistently, in the 90s and later, pointed out the errors of the course chosen by Western elites, not just criticized and warned but proposed alternatives, constructive solutions, emphasized the importance of developing a mechanism for European and global security that would satisfy everyone – I want to emphasize, everyone. A simple listing of the initiatives that Russia has put forward over the years would take more than one paragraph.

Let’s recall at least the idea of a European security treaty that we proposed back in 2008. These same topics were raised in the memorandum from the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs handed over to the United States and NATO in December 2021.But all our attempts – and there were many, countless – to reason with our interlocutors, explanations, admonitions, warnings, requests from our side found absolutely no response. Western countries, confident not only in their own rightness but in their strength and ability to impose anything on the rest of the world, simply ignored other opinions. At best, they proposed discussing secondary issues that, in essence, resolved little or topics that were exclusively beneficial to the West.

Meanwhile, it quickly became apparent that the Western scheme, proclaimed as the only right one for ensuring security and prosperity in Europe and the world, did not actually work. Let’s remember the tragedy in the Balkans. Internal problems – of course, they existed – that had accumulated in the former Yugoslavia sharply escalated due to gross external interference. Even then, NATO’s main diplomatic principle emerged in all its glory – deeply flawed and fruitless in resolving complex interethnic conflicts, namely: blaming one side, which for some reason they didn’t particularly like, for all sins and unleashing all political, informational, and military power, economic sanctions, and restrictions on them.

Later, the same approaches were applied in different parts of the world. We know this very well: Iraq, Syria, Libya, Afghanistan, and so on – and they never brought anything but exacerbation of existing problems, broken lives of millions of people, the destruction of entire states, the spread of humanitarian and social disasters, and terrorist enclaves. In fact, no country in the world is safe from joining this sad list.

So now, the West is aggressively intervening in the affairs of the Middle East. They once monopolized this direction, and the result is clear and obvious to everyone today. The South Caucasus, Central Asia. Two years ago, at the NATO summit in Madrid, it was announced that the alliance would now address security issues not only in the Euro-Atlantic but also in the Asia-Pacific region. They claimed their involvement was indispensable there too. Clearly, this is an attempt to increase pressure on the countries of the region whose development they decided to constrain. As is known, our country – Russia – is one of the top priorities on this list.

I also remind you that it was Washington that undermined strategic stability by unilaterally withdrawing from the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty, the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, the Open Skies Treaty, and, together with their NATO satellites, destroyed the trust and arms control measures built up over decades in the European space.

Ultimately, the selfishness and arrogance of Western states led to the current extremely dangerous state of affairs. We have come dangerously close to the point of no return. Calls to inflict strategic defeat on Russia, possessing the largest arsenals of nuclear weapons, demonstrate the extreme recklessness of Western politicians. They either do not understand the scale of the threat they themselves are creating or are simply obsessed with a belief in their own impunity and exceptionalism. Both could lead to tragedy.

It is evident that we are witnessing the collapse of the Euro-Atlantic security system. Today, it simply does not exist. It needs to be practically recreated from scratch. All this requires us, together with partners, with all interested countries – and there are many – to develop our security options in Eurasia and then offer them for broad international discussion.

This is exactly what was mandated in the Address to the Federal Assembly. It concerns formulating, in the foreseeable future, on the Eurasian continent, a contour of equal and indivisible security, mutually beneficial, equal cooperation, and development.

What needs to be done for this, and on what principles?

First – it is necessary to establish dialogue with all potential participants in such a future security system. To begin with, I ask you to address the necessary issues with countries open to constructive interaction with Russia.

During a recent visit to the People’s Republic of China, we discussed this issue with President Xi Jinping. We noted that the Russian proposal does not contradict but rather complements and fully aligns with the fundamental principles of the Chinese initiative in the field of global security.

Second – it is essential that the future security architecture is open to all Eurasian countries willing to participate in its creation. “For all” means, of course, European and NATO countries as well. We live on the same continent; regardless of what happens, geography cannot be changed, and we will have to coexist and work together.

Yes, relations between Russia and the EU, as well as with several European states, have deteriorated, and I have emphasized many times, not through our fault. The anti-Russian propaganda campaign, in which very high-ranking European figures participate, is accompanied by fabrications that Russia allegedly intends to attack Europe. I have repeatedly said this, and there is no need to repeat it multiple times in this room: we all understand that this is absolute nonsense, only a justification for the arms race.

In this regard, let me make a small digression. The danger for Europe does not come from Russia. The main threat to Europeans lies in the critical and ever-growing, now practically total dependence on the US: in military, political, technological, ideological, and informational spheres. Europe is increasingly being sidelined in global economic development, plunged into chaos by migration and other acute problems, and deprived of international subjectivity and cultural identity.

Sometimes it seems that ruling European politicians and eurobureaucrats are more afraid of falling out of favor with Washington than losing the trust of their own people, their own citizens. Recent elections to the European Parliament also show this. European politicians swallow humiliation, rudeness, and scandals involving surveillance of European leaders, while the US simply uses them for its own interests: making them buy expensive gas – incidentally, gas in Europe is three to four times more expensive than in the US – or, as now, demanding European countries increase arms supplies to Ukraine. By the way, there are constant demands here and there. And sanctions are imposed on them, on economic operators in Europe. Imposed without any hesitation.

Now they are forced to increase arms supplies to Ukraine, expand their capacities for producing artillery shells. Listen, who will need these shells when the conflict in Ukraine ends? How can this ensure the military security of Europe? It is unclear. The US itself invests in military technologies, and in technologies of the future: in space, in modern drones, in strike systems based on new physical principles, that is, in those areas that will determine the nature of armed struggle in the future, and therefore the military-political potential of powers and their positions in the world. And now they are assigned such a role: invest your money where we need it. But this does not increase any European potential. Well, let it be. For us, it may be good, but, in essence, that is the case.

If Europe wants to maintain itself as one of the independent centers of global development and cultural-civilizational poles of the planet, it certainly needs to have good, friendly relations with Russia, and we, importantly, are ready for this.

This really simple and obvious fact was well understood by politicians of truly pan-European and global scale, patriots of their countries and peoples, thinking in historical terms, and not mere figures following someone else’s will and hint. This was much talked about by Charles de Gaulle in the post-war years. I also remember how, in 1991, during a conversation in which I had the honor to personally participate, Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany Helmut Kohl emphasized the importance of partnership between Europe and Russia. I expect that this legacy will sooner or later be returned to by new generations of European politicians.

As for the United States itself, the ongoing attempts by the liberal-globalist elites ruling there today to spread their ideology worldwide by any means, to maintain their imperial status, their dominance, only further exhaust the country, lead it to degradation, and directly contradict the true interests of the American people. If it weren’t for this dead-end path, aggressive messianism, mixed with a belief in their own chosenness and exceptionalism, international relations would have long been stabilized.

Third – to promote the idea of a Eurasian security system, it is necessary to significantly intensify the dialogue process among multilateral organizations already operating in Eurasia. This primarily refers to the Union State, the Collective Security Treaty Organization, the Eurasian Economic Union, the Commonwealth of Independent States, and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization.

We see prospects for other influential Eurasian associations, from Southeast Asia to the Middle East, to join these processes in the future.

Fourth – we believe that the time has come to start a broad discussion on a new system of bilateral and multilateral guarantees of collective security in Eurasia. In the long term, we need to work towards gradually reducing the military presence of external powers in the Eurasian region.

We understand, of course, that in the current situation this thesis may seem unrealistic, but that is for now. However, if we build a reliable security system in the future, there will simply be no need for the presence of extraregional military contingents. Frankly, there is no need today either—it is just occupation, that’s all.

Ultimately, we believe that the states and regional structures of Eurasia should themselves determine specific areas of cooperation in the field of joint security. Based on this, they should also build a system of functioning institutions, mechanisms, and agreements that genuinely serve the achievement of common goals of stability and development.

In this context, we support the initiative of our Belarusian friends to develop a program document—a charter of multipolarity and diversity in the 21st century. It can formulate not only the framework principles of Eurasian architecture based on fundamental norms of international law but also, more broadly, a strategic vision of the essence and nature of multipolarity and multilateralism as a new system of international relations, replacing the Western-centric world. I consider it important and ask for thorough work on such a document with our partners and all interested states. I would add that when discussing such complex, comprehensive issues, of course, maximum, broad representation is needed, considering different approaches and positions.

Fifth – an important part of the Eurasian system of security and development must, of course, include issues of the economy, social welfare, integration, and mutually beneficial cooperation, addressing such common problems as overcoming poverty, inequality, climate, ecology, and developing mechanisms for responding to pandemic threats and crises in the global economy—everything is important.

The West, through its actions, has not only undermined military-political stability in the world but has also discredited and weakened key market institutions with sanctions and trade wars. Using the IMF and the World Bank, manipulating the climate agenda, it restrains the development of the Global South. Losing in competition, even by the rules that the West itself wrote, it resorts to prohibitive barriers and all kinds of protectionism. In the US, they have practically abandoned the World Trade Organization as a regulator of international trade. Everything is blocked. Moreover, they exert pressure not only on competitors but also on their satellites. Just look at how they are now “squeezing the juices” from European economies, which are balancing on the brink of recession.

Western countries have frozen part of Russia’s assets and currency reserves. Now they are considering how to provide at least some legal basis to finally appropriate them. But despite all the legal trickery, theft will undoubtedly remain theft and will not go unpunished, on the other hand.

The issue is even deeper. By stealing Russian assets, they will take another step towards destroying the system they created themselves, which for many decades ensured their prosperity, allowing them to consume more than they earned, attracting money from around the world through debts and obligations. Now it is becoming clear to all countries and companies, sovereign funds, that their assets and reserves are far from safe — in both legal and economic terms. And the next in line for expropriation by the US and the West could be anyone — these foreign state funds could be among them.

Distrust of the financial system based on Western reserve currencies is already growing. There has been an outflow of funds from securities and debt obligations of Western states, as well as some European banks, which until recently were considered absolutely reliable places for storing capital. Now even gold is being withdrawn from them. And they are right to do so.

I believe that we need to seriously intensify the formation of effective and safe bilateral and multilateral foreign economic mechanisms, alternative to those controlled by the West. This includes expanding settlements in national currencies, creating independent payment systems, and building production and distribution chains bypassing channels blocked or compromised by the West.

Of course, efforts to develop international transport corridors in Eurasia — a continent whose natural geographic core is Russia — must continue.

I instruct the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to fully support the development of international agreements on all these areas. They are extremely important for strengthening economic cooperation between our country and our partners. This will also give new impetus to the construction of a large Eurasian partnership, which can essentially become the socio-economic basis of a new system of indivisible security in Europe.

Dear colleagues! The essence of our proposals is to form a system within which all states would be confident in their own security. Then we can indeed approach the resolution of numerous conflicts that exist today in a truly constructive manner. The problems of the security deficit and mutual trust apply not only to the Eurasian continent; growing tensions are observed everywhere. And how interconnected and interdependent the world is, we see constantly, and a tragic example for all of us is the Ukrainian crisis, whose consequences are felt all over the planet.

But I want to say right away: the crisis related to Ukraine is not a conflict between two states, let alone two peoples, caused by some problems between them. If that were the case, there is no doubt that Russians and Ukrainians, who are united by a common history and culture, spiritual values, millions of family, kinship, and human ties, would have found a way to fairly resolve any issues and disagreements.

But the situation is different: the roots of the conflict are not in bilateral relations. The events in Ukraine are a direct result of global and European developments of the late 20th – early 21st century, of the aggressive, brazen, and absolutely adventurous policies that the West has been conducting all these years long before the special military operation began.

These Western elites, as I said today, after the end of the “Cold War,” embarked on a course of further geopolitical restructuring of the world, creating and imposing the notorious order based on rules, into which strong, sovereign, and self-sufficient states simply do not fit.

Hence the policy of containing our country. The goals of this policy are openly declared by some figures in the US and Europe. Today they talk about the notorious decolonization of Russia. Essentially, this is an attempt to provide an ideological basis for the dismemberment of our homeland along national lines. In fact, there has long been talk of the dismemberment of the Soviet Union and Russia. Everyone sitting in this room is well aware of this.

Implementing this strategy, Western countries have taken the line of absorbing and military-political development of territories close to us. There have been five, and now six, waves of NATO expansion. They tried to turn Ukraine into their stronghold, to make it “anti-Russia.” To achieve these goals, they invested money, resources, bought politicians and entire parties, rewrote history and educational programs, nurtured and grew groups of neo-Nazis and radicals. They did everything to undermine our interstate connections, to divide and set our peoples against each other.

Such policies were further obstructed by southeastern Ukraine — territories that have been part of great historical Russia for centuries. People lived there, and still live, who, including after Ukraine declared its independence in 1991, advocated for good and very close relations with our country. People — both Russians and Ukrainians, representatives of different nationalities, who were united by the Russian language, culture, traditions, historical memory.

The position, mood, interests, and voices of these people — millions of people living in the southeast — had to be taken into account by former Ukrainian presidents and politicians who fought for this post, used the votes of these voters. But, using these votes, they maneuvered, lied a lot, talked about the so-called European choice. They did not dare to break completely with Russia because the southeast of Ukraine was inclined differently, and this could not be ignored. Such duality has always been inherent in Ukrainian power throughout the years since recognizing independence.

The West, of course, saw this. They had long seen and understood the problems there that could be stirred up, understood the restraining significance of the southeastern factor, and that no amount of years of propaganda could fundamentally change the situation. Certainly, much was done, but fundamentally it was difficult to alter the situation.

It was impossible to distort the historical identity and consciousness of the majority of people in southeastern Ukraine, to eradicate from them, including the younger generations, the positive attitude towards Russia and the sense of our historical commonality. And so they decided to act with force again, to simply break the people in the southeast, to disregard their opinion. For this, they organized, financed, and certainly took advantage of the internal political difficulties and complexities in Ukraine, but still systematically and purposefully prepared an armed coup d’état.

Ukrainian cities were overwhelmed by a wave of pogroms, violence, and killings. Power in Kiev was finally seized and usurped by radicals. Their aggressive nationalist slogans, including the rehabilitation of Nazi collaborators, were elevated to the rank of state ideology. A course was proclaimed to eliminate the Russian language in state and public spheres, pressure on Orthodox believers increased, interference in church affairs, which ultimately led to a split. No one seems to notice this interference, as if it is normal. Try to do something different elsewhere, and there will be so much artistic whistling that your ears will fall off. But there it’s allowed, because it’s against Russia.

Millions of residents of Ukraine, primarily from its eastern regions, opposed the coup, as is known. They were threatened with reprisals and terror. And above all, the new authorities in Kiev began preparing an attack on the Russian-speaking Crimea, which at one time, in 1954, as you know, was transferred from the RSFSR to Ukraine in violation of all laws and procedures, even those in force at that time in the Soviet Union. In this situation, of course, we could not abandon, leave unprotected the Crimeans and Sevastopol residents. They made their choice, and in March 2014, as is known, the historic reunification of Crimea and Sevastopol with Russia took place.

In Kharkov, Kherson, Odessa, Zaporozhye, Donetsk, Lugansk, Mariupol, peaceful protests against the coup began to be suppressed, terror was unleashed by the Kiev regime and nationalist groups. It probably doesn’t need to be recalled, everyone remembers well what happened in these regions.

In May 2014, referendums were held on the status of the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics, where the overwhelming majority of residents voted for independence and sovereignty. Immediately the question arises: could people express their will in this way, could they declare their independence? Those sitting in this hall understand that of course they could, they had every right and grounds for it, including under international law, including the right of peoples to self-determination. I don’t need to remind you, but nonetheless, since the media is working, I will say, Article 1, paragraph 2 of the United Nations Charter gives this right.I remind you in this regard of the notorious Kosovo precedent. It was talked about many times in its time, now I will say it again. The precedent, which Western countries created themselves, in a completely analogous situation, recognized the separation of Kosovo from Serbia as legitimate, which took place in 2008. Then followed the well-known decision of the International Court of Justice of the UN, which on July 22, 2010, based on paragraph 2 of Article 1 of the United Nations Charter, ruled, I quote: “There is no general prohibition against unilateral declarations of independence stemming from the practice of the Security Council.” And the next quote: “General international law does not contain any applicable prohibition on declarations of independence.” Moreover, it was recorded that parts of a country, any country, that decide to declare their independence, are not required to consult the central authorities of their former state. Everything is written there, all in their own hand, in black and white.

So, did these republics – Donetsk and Lugansk – have the right to declare their independence? Well, of course, yes. The question cannot even be considered otherwise.

What did the regime in Kiev do in this situation? Completely ignored the choice of the people and unleashed a full-scale war against the new independent states – the people’s republics of Donbass using aviation, artillery, tanks. Bombing and shelling of peaceful cities, acts of intimidation began. And what happened next? The residents of Donbass took up arms to protect their lives, their home, their rights, and legitimate interests.

In the West, there is now a constant thesis that Russia started the war within the framework of the special military operation, that it is the aggressor, and therefore strikes can be made on its territory using Western weapon systems, Ukraine allegedly defends itself and can do this.

I want to emphasize once again: Russia did not start the war; it was the Kiev regime that, after the residents of part of Ukraine declared their independence in accordance with international law, began and continues military actions. This is aggression if we do not recognize the right of these peoples living in these territories to declare their independence. What else could it be? This is aggression. And those who have been aiding the Kiev regime’s war machine all these years are accomplices to the aggressor.

Back in 2014, the residents of Donbass did not give in. Militia units stood their ground, repelled the punitive forces, and then drove them back from Donetsk and Lugansk. We hoped this would sober up those who unleashed this massacre. To stop the bloodshed, Russia made the usual appeals – calls for negotiations, and they began with the participation of Kiev and representatives of the Donbass republics with the assistance of Russia, Germany, and France.

The conversation was difficult, but nevertheless, as a result, the Minsk agreements were concluded in 2015. We took their implementation very seriously, hoping that we could resolve the situation within the framework of a peaceful process and international law. We expected that this would take into account the legitimate interests and demands of Donbass, enshrine a special status for these regions in the constitution, and the fundamental rights of the people living there while maintaining the territorial unity of Ukraine. We were ready for this and were ready to persuade the people living in these territories to resolve issues in this way, repeatedly offering various compromises and solutions.

But in the end, everything was rejected. The Minsk agreements were simply thrown in the trash by Kiev. As representatives of the Ukrainian elite later admitted, none of the provisions of these documents suited them; they just lied and twisted as much as they could.

The former Chancellor of Germany and the former President of France, who were essentially co-authors and guarantors of the Minsk agreements, later admitted outright that they had no intention of implementing them; they simply needed to stall the situation to buy time for assembling Ukrainian armed formations and pumping them up with weapons and equipment. They simply “fooled” us again, deceived us.

Instead of a real peace process, instead of the policy of reintegration and national reconciliation, which they loved to pontificate about in Kiev, Donbass was shelled for eight years. They carried out terrorist attacks, killings, and organized the harshest blockade. All these years, the residents of Donbass (women, children, the elderly) were declared “second-class” people, “subhumans,” and were threatened with reprisals, saying, “we’ll come and settle scores with each one.” What is this, if not genocide in the center of Europe in the 21st century? And in Europe and the US, they pretended that nothing was happening, no one noticed anything.

At the end of 2021 – beginning of 2022, the Minsk process was finally buried by Kiev and its Western patrons, and another massive strike on Donbass was planned. A large grouping of Ukrainian armed forces was preparing to launch a new offensive on Lugansk and Donetsk, of course, with ethnic cleansing and huge human casualties, hundreds of thousands of refugees. We were obliged to prevent this catastrophe, to protect the people; we had no other choice.

Russia finally recognized the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics. After all, we did not recognize them for eight years, still hoping to come to an agreement. The result is now known. And on February 21, 2022, we concluded treaties of friendship, cooperation, and mutual assistance with these republics, which we recognized. Question: did the people’s republics have the right to ask us for support if we recognized their independence? And did we have the right to recognize their independence just as they had the right to declare their sovereignty in accordance with the mentioned articles and decisions of the International Court of Justice of the UN? Did they have the right to declare independence? They did. But if they had such a right and used it, then we had the right to conclude a treaty with them – and we did, and I repeat: in full accordance with international law and Article 51 of the UN Charter.

At the same time, we appealed to the Kiev authorities to withdraw their troops from Donbass. I can tell you, there were contacts; we immediately told them: withdraw your troops from there, and everything will end there. This proposal was practically immediately rejected, simply ignored, although it provided a real opportunity to close the issue precisely in a peaceful way.

On February 24, 2022, Russia was forced to announce the start of a special military operation. Addressing the citizens of Russia, the residents of the Donetsk and Lugansk republics, and Ukrainian society, I then outlined the goals of this operation – to protect the people of Donbass, restore peace, conduct demilitarization and denazification of Ukraine, and thus avert threats from our state, restore the balance in the field of security in Europe.

At the same time, we continued to consider achieving these goals through political and diplomatic methods a priority. I remind you that at the very first stage of the special military operation, our country entered into negotiations with representatives of the Kiev regime. They were held first in Belarus, in Turkiye. We tried to convey our main point: respect the choice of Donbass, the will of the people living there, withdraw the troops, stop the shelling of peaceful cities and towns. Nothing else is needed, the rest of the issues will be resolved later. The response was: no, we will fight. It is obvious that this was the command from the Western masters, and I will talk about this now.

At that time, in February-March 2022, our troops, as is known, approached Kiev. There were and still are many speculations about this in Ukraine and the West.

What do I want to say about this? Our units were indeed stationed near Kiev, and the military departments, the security block, had different proposals regarding our possible further actions, but there was no political decision to storm a three-million-strong city, no matter what anyone said or imagined.

Essentially, this was nothing but an operation to force the Ukrainian regime to make peace. The troops were there to push the Ukrainian side towards negotiations, to try to find acceptable solutions and thereby end the war initiated by Kiev against Donbass back in 2014, and to resolve issues posing a threat to the security of our country, to the security of Russia. Strangely enough, as a result, we managed to reach agreements that basically suited both Moscow and Kiev. These agreements were put on paper and initialed in Istanbul by the head of the Ukrainian negotiating delegation. This means that the Kiev authorities were satisfied with such a resolution of the issue.

The document was called the “Treaty on Permanent Neutrality and Security Guarantees for Ukraine.” It was of a compromise nature, but its key points aligned with our fundamental demands, addressing the objectives declared as primary even at the beginning of the special military operation. Including, as strange as it may seem, I draw attention to, the demilitarization and denazification of Ukraine. Here, too, we managed to find complex solutions. They are complex, but they were found. Namely: it was intended that a Ukrainian law would be adopted to ban Nazi ideology, any of its manifestations. Everything is written there.

Furthermore, Ukraine, in exchange for international security guarantees, would limit the size of its armed forces, undertake obligations not to join military alliances, not to allow foreign military bases, not to host them or contingents, not to conduct military exercises on its territory. Everything was written down on paper.

We, on our part, also understanding Ukraine’s security concerns, agreed that Ukraine, formally not joining NATO, would receive guarantees practically equivalent to those enjoyed by members of this alliance. For us, this was a difficult decision, but we recognized the legitimacy of Ukraine’s demands for its security and, in principle, did not object to the proposed formulations from Kiev. These were formulations proposed by Kiev, and we generally did not object to them, understanding that the main thing was to stop the bloodshed and the war in Donbass.

On March 29, 2022, we withdrew our troops from Kiev because we were assured that it was necessary to create the necessary conditions for completing the political negotiation process, for completing this process. And that it is not possible for one side to sign such agreements, as our Western colleagues said, with a gun to the head. Fine, we agreed to this too. However, immediately, the very next day after the withdrawal of Russian troops from Kiev, the Ukrainian leadership suspended its participation in the negotiation process, staged the well-known provocation in Bucha, and refused the prepared version of the agreements. I think it is clear today why this dirty provocation was needed – to somehow explain the refusal of those results achieved during the negotiations. The path to peace was again rejected.

This was done, as we now know, at the behest of Western curators, including the former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, during whose visit to Kiev it was explicitly stated: no agreements, it is necessary to defeat Russia on the battlefield, achieve its strategic defeat. And they continued to intensively pump Ukraine with weapons, talking about the need to inflict, as I just reminded, a strategic defeat on us. And some time later, as everyone knows well, the President of Ukraine issued a decree prohibiting his representatives and even himself from conducting any negotiations with Moscow. This episode with our attempt to solve the problem by peaceful means ended in nothing once again.

By the way, on the topic of negotiations. Now I would like to disclose another episode to this audience. I have not spoken publicly about this before, but some present are aware of it. After the Russian army occupied parts of the Kherson and Zaporozhye regions, many Western politicians offered their mediation in peacefully resolving the conflict. One of them was on a working visit to Moscow on March 5, 2022. And we accepted his mediation efforts, especially since he, during the conversation, referred to the fact that he had received support from the leaders of Germany and France, as well as senior representatives of the US.

During the conversation, our foreign guest inquired – a curious episode, he said: if you are helping Donbass, why are Russian troops in southern Ukraine, including the Kherson and Zaporozhye regions? The answer from our side was that this was the decision of the Russian General Staff in planning the operation. And today I will add that the plan was to bypass some fortified areas that the Ukrainian authorities built in Donbass over eight years, primarily for the liberation of Mariupol.

Then the foreign colleague clarified – a professional person, I must admit: will our Russian troops remain in the Kherson and Zaporozhye regions? and what will happen to these regions after achieving the goals of the special military operation? To this, I answered that in general, I do not rule out the preservation of Ukrainian sovereignty over these territories, but on the condition that Russia has a strong land connection with Crimea. That is, Kiev must guarantee the so-called servitude – a legally formalized right of access for Russia to the Crimean Peninsula through the Kherson and Zaporozhye regions.

This is a crucial political decision. And of course, naturally, in the final version, it would not be made unilaterally but only after consultations with the Security Council, other structures, and, of course, after discussion with the citizens, the public of our country, and primarily with the residents of the Kherson and Zaporozhye regions. In the end, we did just that: we asked the opinion of the people themselves and held referendums. And acted according to the decision of the people, including in the Kherson and Zaporozhye regions, in the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics.

At that time, in March 2022, the negotiation partner informed that he intended to go to Kiev to continue the discussion with colleagues in the Ukrainian capital. We welcomed this, as well as any attempts to find a peaceful resolution to the conflict, because every day of fighting meant new casualties and losses. However, in Ukraine, as we learned later, the services of the Western mediator were not accepted. On the contrary, as we found out, he was accused of taking pro-Russian positions – in quite a harsh manner, I must say, but that’s already a detail.

Now, as already mentioned, the situation has fundamentally changed. The residents of Kherson and Zaporozhye, during referendums, expressed their position. The Kherson and Zaporozhye regions, as well as the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics, have become part of the Russian Federation. There can be no talk of violating our state unity. The people’s desire to be with Russia is unshakeable. The issue is closed forever and is no longer subject to discussion.

I want to reiterate: it was the West that prepared and provoked the Ukrainian crisis, and now it is doing everything to drag out this crisis endlessly, to weaken and mutually embitter the people of Russia and Ukraine.

They are sending new batches of ammunition and weapons. Some European politicians have started talking about the possibility of deploying their regular troops in Ukraine. At the same time, as I have already noted, the true current masters of Ukraine – unfortunately, not the people of Ukraine, but the globalist elites located across the ocean – are trying to impose on the Ukrainian executive power the burden of making decisions that are unpopular with the people, including further lowering the draft age.

As you know, it is now 25 years, the next stage could be 23, then 20, 18 or immediately 18. And then, of course, they will get rid of those figures who will make these unpopular decisions under Western pressure, throw them out as unnecessary, shift all the responsibility onto them, and put other people dependent on the West, but with not yet so tarnished reputations, in their place.

Hence, possibly, the idea of canceling the next presidential elections in Ukraine. Now those in power will do everything, then they will be thrown into the trash – and then they will do whatever they see fit.

In this regard, I will remind you of what they now prefer not to remember in Kiev, and the West prefers not to talk about. What is it? Back in May 2014, the Constitutional Court of Ukraine ruled that – quote – “The President is elected for five years, regardless of whether he is elected in early or regular elections.” In addition, the Constitutional Court of Ukraine noted that – quote – “the constitutional status of the President does not contain norms that would establish any other term except for the five-year term.” End of quote, full stop. The court’s decision was final and not subject to appeal. That’s it.

What does this mean for today’s situation? The presidential term of the previously elected head of Ukraine has expired along with his legitimacy, which cannot be restored by any trickery. I will not go into detail about the background of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine’s decision on the presidential term. It is clear that it was related to attempts to legitimize the 2014 coup. But nevertheless, this verdict exists, and it is a legal fact. It casts doubt on all attempts to justify today’s spectacle of canceling the elections.In fact, the current tragic page in Ukraine’s history began with a forcible seizure of power, as I have already said, an unconstitutional coup in 2014. I repeat: the source of the current Kiev regime is an armed coup. And now the circle is complete – the executive power in Ukraine is again, as in 2014, usurped and held illegally, is essentially illegitimate.

I will say more: the situation with the cancellation of elections is an expression of the very nature, the true essence of the current Kiev regime, which grew out of the 2014 armed coup, is tied to it, and has its roots there. And the fact that by canceling the elections, they continue to cling to power, these are actions that are directly prohibited by Article 5 of the Constitution of Ukraine. I quote: “The right to determine and change the constitutional order in Ukraine belongs exclusively to the people and cannot be usurped by the state, its bodies, or officials.” In addition, such actions fall under Article 109 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine, which speaks about the violent change or overthrow of the constitutional order or the seizure of state power, as well as conspiracy to commit such actions.

In 2014, such usurpation was justified in the name of revolution, and now – by military actions. But the essence of this does not change. In fact, we are talking about a conspiracy of the executive power of Ukraine, the leadership of the Verkhovna Rada, and the parliamentary majority controlled by it, aimed at the usurpation of state power (it cannot be called otherwise), which is a criminal offense under Ukrainian law.

Moreover, the Constitution of Ukraine does not provide for the possibility of canceling or postponing the presidential elections in the country, extending its powers due to martial law, which is currently being referred to. What is in the Ukrainian basic law? It states that during martial law, elections to the Verkhovna Rada may be postponed. This is Article 83 of the country’s Constitution.

Thus, Ukrainian legislation provides for the only exception when the powers of a state authority are extended during martial law and elections are not held. And this applies exclusively to the Verkhovna Rada. Therefore, the status of the Ukrainian parliament as a continuously operating body in the conditions of martial law is thus defined.

In other words, it is precisely the Verkhovna Rada that is today a legitimate body as opposed to the executive power. Ukraine is not a presidential republic but a parliamentary-presidential one. This is the essence.

Moreover, the chairman of the Verkhovna Rada, acting as President, under Articles 106 and 112, is endowed with special powers, including in the field of defense, security, and supreme command of the armed forces. All this is written in black and white.

By the way, in the first half of this year, Ukraine concluded a package of bilateral agreements on cooperation in the field of security and long-term support with a number of European countries. Now there is a similar document with the United States.

As of May 21 of this year, the question naturally arises about the powers and legitimacy of the representatives of the Ukrainian side who sign such documents. For us, as they say, it doesn’t matter, let them sign whatever they want. It is clear that there is a political and propagandistic component here. The United States and its satellites want to somehow support their appointees, give them weight and legitimacy.

Nevertheless, if later in the US a serious legal examination of such an agreement is carried out (I am not talking about the essence, but about the legal component), then the question will inevitably arise: who signed these documents and with what authority? And it will turn out that all this is a bluff, and the agreement is void, and the whole structure will collapse, of course, if there is a desire to analyze the situation. They can pretend that everything is normal, but there is nothing normal about it, I have read it. Everything is written in the documents, everything is written in the Constitution.

I also remind you that after the start of the special military operation, the West launched a vigorous and very brazen campaign trying to isolate Russia on the international stage. Today it is clear to everyone that this attempt has failed, but the West has not abandoned its idea of building some semblance of an international anti-Russian coalition, creating the appearance of pressure on Russia. We understand this too.

As you know, they began actively promoting the initiative of holding a so-called high-level international conference on peace in Ukraine in Switzerland. Moreover, they plan to hold it immediately after the G7 summit, that is, the group of those who, in fact, ignited the conflict in Ukraine with their policies. What the organizers of the meeting in Switzerland are proposing is just another trick to divert public attention, to swap the cause and effect of the Ukrainian crisis, to lead the discussion astray and somewhat give the appearance of legitimacy to the current executive power in Ukraine once again.

Therefore, it is logical that no truly fundamental issues underlying the current crisis of international security and stability, the true roots of the Ukrainian conflict, are going to be discussed in Switzerland, despite all attempts to give the conference agenda a more or less decent appearance.

Already now it can be expected that everything will be reduced to general demagogic discussions and a new set of accusations against Russia. The ploy is obvious: by any means, drag in as many countries as possible and present the case as if the Western recipes and rules are shared by the entire international community, and therefore our country must unconditionally accept them.

As you know, we were not invited to the meeting in Switzerland. After all, in essence, these are not negotiations, but the desire of a group of countries to continue pushing their line, to decide on issues that directly affect our interests and security at their own discretion.

I want to emphasize in this regard: without Russia’s participation, without honest and responsible dialogue with us, it is impossible to reach a peaceful resolution in Ukraine and in general regarding global European security.

Meanwhile, the West ignores our interests, while at the same time forbidding Kiev to negotiate, and hypocritically calling on us for some negotiations. It just looks idiotic: on the one hand, they forbid them to negotiate with us, and on the other, they call us for negotiations and even hint that we are refusing negotiations. It’s some kind of nonsense. But we are living in a kind of Wonderland.

But first of all, they should give Kiev the command to lift the ban, the self-ban on negotiations with Russia, and secondly, we are ready to sit down at the negotiating table even tomorrow. We understand all the peculiarity of the legal situation, but there are legitimate authorities there even according to the Constitution, I just mentioned it now, there is someone to negotiate with. Please, we are ready. Our conditions for starting such a conversation are simple and are as follows.

You know, I will now take some time to reproduce the entire chain of events once again, so that it is clear that for us what I am about to say is not a matter of today’s conjuncture, but we have always adhered to a certain position, we have always strived for peace.

So, these conditions are very simple. Ukrainian troops must be completely withdrawn from the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics, Kherson and Zaporozhye regions. Moreover, I emphasize, precisely from the entire territory of these regions within their administrative boundaries, which existed at the time of their entry into Ukraine.

As soon as Kiev announces that it is ready for such a solution and begins the real withdrawal of troops from these regions, and also officially notifies [us] of the refusal of plans to join NATO, from our side, immediately, literally at that moment, an order will be given to cease fire and begin negotiations. I repeat: we will do this immediately. Naturally, at the same time, we guarantee the unhindered and safe withdrawal of Ukrainian units and formations.

Of course, we would like to hope that such a decision about troop withdrawal, non-aligned status, and starting dialogue with Russia, on which the future existence of Ukraine depends, will be made in Kiev independently, based on the existing realities and guided by the genuine national interests of the Ukrainian people, and not at the behest of the West, although there are, of course, great doubts about this.

Nevertheless, what do I want to say again in this regard, what to remind you of? I said that I wanted to chronologically trace the events once more. Let’s take the time for this.

So, during the events on the Maidan in Kiev in 2013–2014, Russia repeatedly offered its assistance in a constitutional resolution of the crisis, which was actually organized from the outside. Let’s return to the chronology of events at the end of February 2014.

On February 18, armed clashes began in Kiev, provoked by the opposition. A number of buildings, including the city hall and the House of Trade Unions, were set on fire. On February 20, unknown snipers opened fire on protesters and law enforcement officers, that is, those who were preparing the armed coup did everything to push the situation further towards violence and radicalization. And those people who were on the streets of Kiev in those days and expressed dissatisfaction with the then authorities were deliberately used for their selfish purposes, as cannon fodder. They are doing exactly the same today, mobilizing and sending people to be slaughtered. And yet, there was an opportunity for a civilized way out of the situation at that time.

It is known that on February 21, an agreement was signed between the then President of Ukraine and the opposition on the settlement of the political crisis. Its guarantors, as you know, were official representatives of Germany, Poland, and France. The agreement provided for a return to a parliamentary-presidential form of government, the holding of early presidential elections, the formation of a government of national trust, as well as the withdrawal of law enforcement forces from the center of Kiev and the opposition’s surrender of weapons.

I will add that the Verkhovna Rada adopted a law excluding the criminal prosecution of protest participants. Such an agreement, which would have allowed stopping the violence and returning the situation to the constitutional field, was in place. This agreement was signed, although in Kiev and in the West they also prefer not to remember it.

Today, I will say more about another important fact, which also has not been publicly mentioned before, namely – literally in the same hours on February 21, a conversation took place at the initiative of the American side with my American counterpart. The essence was as follows: the American leader unequivocally supported the Kiev agreement between the authorities and the opposition. Moreover, he called it a real breakthrough, a chance for the Ukrainian people to ensure that the violence did not go beyond all conceivable limits.

Furthermore, in the course of the conversations, we jointly worked out the following formula: Russia will try to persuade the then President of Ukraine to behave as restrained as possible, not to use the army or law enforcement against the protesters. And the US, accordingly, it was said, would call on the opposition to calm down, to free administrative buildings, so that the streets would calm down.

All this was supposed to create conditions for life in the country to return to normal, within the constitutional and legal field. And in general, we agreed to work together for a stable, peaceful, and normally developing Ukraine. We fully kept our word. The then President of Ukraine Yanukovych, who, in fact, did not plan to use the army, nevertheless did not do this, and moreover, even withdrew additional police units from Kiev.

And what did the Western colleagues do? On the night of February 22 and then throughout the following day, when President Yanukovych went to Kharkov, where a congress of deputies from the southeastern regions of Ukraine and Crimea was to be held, the radicals, despite all the agreements and guarantees from the West (both from Europe and, as I just said, from the US), seized control of the Rada building by force, took over the Presidential Administration, and seized the government. And not a single guarantor of all these agreements on political settlement – neither the United States nor the Europeans – lifted a finger to fulfill their obligations, to call on the opposition to vacate the seized administrative buildings, and to renounce violence. It is clear that such a turn of events not only suited them, it seems that they were also the authors of the development of events in this vein.

Also, on February 22, 2014, the Verkhovna Rada, in violation of the Constitution of Ukraine, adopted a resolution on the so-called self-removal of the then President Yanukovych from the post of President and appointed early elections for May 25. That is, an armed coup, provoked from outside, was completed. Ukrainian radicals, with the tacit consent and direct support of the West, thwarted all attempts to peacefully resolve the situation.Then we urged Kiev and the Western capitals to start a dialogue with the people in the southeast of Ukraine, to respect their interests, rights, and freedoms. No, the regime that came to power as a result of the coup chose war, in the spring and summer of 2014 launched punitive actions against Donbass. Russia again called for peace.

We did everything to resolve the acute problems that arose within the framework of the Minsk agreements, but the West and the Kiev authorities, as I have already emphasized, did not intend to implement them. Although in words, Western colleagues, including the head of the White House, assured us that the Minsk agreements are important and that they are committed to the processes of their implementation. That, in their opinion, this will allow us to get out of the situation in Ukraine, stabilize it, and take into account the interests of the residents of the east. Instead, they actually organized a blockade of Donbass, as I have already said. The Armed Forces of Ukraine were consistently prepared for a full-scale operation to destroy the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics.

The Minsk agreements were finally buried by the Kiev regime and the West. I will return to this again. That is why in 2022 Russia was forced to start a special military operation to stop the war in Donbass and protect the peaceful inhabitants from genocide.

At the same time, from the very first days, we have again put forward options for a diplomatic resolution of the crisis, I have already spoken about this today. These are negotiations in Belarus, Turkiye, the withdrawal of troops from Kiev to create conditions for signing the Istanbul agreements, which were generally agreed upon by all. But these attempts of ours were ultimately rejected again. The West and Kiev took the course to defeat us. But, as you know, all this failed.

Today we are making another specific, real peace proposal. If Kiev and the Western capitals reject it, as before, then ultimately this is their affair, their political and moral responsibility for the continuation of the bloodshed. Obviously, the realities on the ground, on the line of combat contact, will continue to change not in favor of the Kiev regime. And the conditions for starting negotiations will be different.

I emphasize the main thing: the essence of our proposal is not some temporary truce or cessation of fire, as the West wants, to recover losses, rearm the Kiev regime, and prepare it for a new offensive. I repeat: it is not about freezing the conflict, but about its final resolution.

And I will say once again: as soon as Kiev agrees to such a course of events as proposed today, agrees to the complete withdrawal of its troops from the DPR and LPR, Zaporozhye and Kherson regions, and actually begins this process, we are ready to start negotiations without delay.

I repeat: our principled position is as follows – neutral, non-aligned, non-nuclear status of Ukraine, its demilitarization and denazification, especially since these parameters were generally agreed upon during the Istanbul negotiations in 2022. Everything was clear about demilitarization, everything was spelled out: the number of this and that, tanks. Everything was agreed upon.

Undoubtedly, the rights, freedoms, and interests of Russian-speaking citizens in Ukraine must be fully ensured, the new territorial realities, the status of Crimea, Sevastopol, the Donetsk, Lugansk People’s Republics, Kherson, and Zaporozhye regions as subjects of the Russian Federation must be recognized. In the future, all these basic and principled provisions should be fixed in the form of fundamental international agreements. Naturally, this also implies the lifting of all Western sanctions against Russia.

I believe that Russia is offering a variant that will allow the war in Ukraine to be truly ended, that is, we are calling for the tragic page of history to be turned over and, albeit difficultly, gradually, step by step, but to begin to restore relations of trust and good neighborliness between Russia and Ukraine and in general in Europe.

By resolving the Ukrainian crisis, we, including together with our partners in the CSTO, SCO, who are making a significant, constructive contribution to the search for ways to peacefully resolve the Ukrainian crisis even today, as well as with Western, including European states, ready for dialogue, could begin addressing the fundamental task I spoke about at the beginning of my speech, namely, creating an indivisible system of Eurasian security that takes into account the interests of all, without exception, states on the continent.

Of course, a literal return to the security proposals we put forward 25, 15, or even two years ago is impossible; too much has happened, circumstances have changed. However, the basic principles and, most importantly, the subject of the dialogue remain unchanged. Russia recognizes its responsibility for global stability and again confirms its readiness to engage in dialogue with all countries. But this should not be a simulation of the peace process aimed at serving someone’s selfish will or interests, but a serious, thorough discussion on all issues, on the entire range of global security issues.

Dear colleagues! I am sure that you all well understand the scale of the tasks facing Russia, how much we need to do, including in the field of foreign policy.I sincerely wish you success in this difficult work of ensuring the security of Russia, our national interests, strengthening the country’s positions in the world, advancing integration processes and bilateral relations with our partners.

The state leadership will continue to provide necessary support to the diplomatic department and to all those involved in the implementation of Russia’s foreign policy.

Once again, thank you for your work, thank you for your patience and attention to what has been said. I am confident that we will succeed.

Thank you very much.

/* END OF PUTIN SPEECH */

Posted by b on June 15, 2024 at 4:39 UTC | Permalink

Col. Black: NATO Is Preparing For a Nuclear Strike on Russia, And Russia Knows It

Shorpy

Have your neighbors ever done something where you needed to call the police on them?

When we moved into our last house, no lived in either house, it didn’t that way. For four years we had a drug house on one side. If there was a day we didn’t call the police it was a surprise.

We knew the first day the guy showed he was going to be trouble. He moved in with his two teenagers/early twenties, and that first night had a screaming fit, threw a mattress out the front window breaking it, kicked his trashcan and trash around his yard. Then, I heard a loud snack and a cry. The daughter was holding her cheek. I called 911. From then on it was a near daily call, for various things:

People blaring music all day and all night.

People coming and going all hours every day.

The girlfriend would come over having been beaten up. After the last I call and she dropped the charges against him, we told her no more.

He’s tried to start with hubby, when hubby went brings is him on, he ran back into the house.

They had dogs that wanted to attack us any time we stepped on out porch. We had to call animal control for that. And, all the times the dogs were left out in the heat/cold without food or water.

The drug deals.

People screaming, fighting, arguing and physical fights, and etc.

When I would try to be polite and them to please turn down the music,the owner would cuss be out, call me every name he chains think of, and threatened to F me up or kill me. The cops woukd come, write out citations, sometimes arrest them (by the time it ended there were 12 people living there). The guy would cuss out the cops (and his buddy, which got arrested in his boxers in the middle of winter) punch them, knock them down the hill in front bit his house. Still, the prosecutoring attorney did nothing, he/she wanted a very thick file on them (though the owner and his buddy already had long criminal records).

It got so bad, we had one cop tell us how we could burn the house down and back it ?look like an accident. Other cops would tell us to get a weapon, cameras etc. We were basically stuck there. We were living on one income, with my daughter and I having health problems and surgeries.

As I said, I tried to be polite for the first few years, by the end, I gave up.

After four years of this crap we came home one day to a swarm of cops and cop cars, drug dogs, and people standing or sitting along their sidewalk.

When we first drove up we had a car parked in front of our driveway (by then on the other side, moved in anirher set of drug dealers that would take over our driveway and every space from their house to ours) we asked to have it moved, so, we found get out groceries taken in. Come to find the car we had seen down the street a few weeks previously, was an undercover drug officer. He was now in front of our house and we were told the cops had showed up and threw flash bombs, we missed it, of course. We didn’t get to stay and watch for long because we had to take my mom’s groceries and her home.

The next day, I got a knock on the door, to a guy holding a badge towards me. He was in charge of the drug task force. There had been 12 people in the house, 9 of which had warrants for arrest. They had been in every place you could think of: in closets, under the crawl space, etc. Because they would lock themselves in the basement when the cops were called, they had a group of cops break down both doors at the same time then threw in the flash bomb. When I told him what all had been going on, he was surprised I had yelled at one particular guy. The guy I had screamed at (only one that was acting polite) had come from Cuba, went to K.C. Mo and running from them food there, for being a drug supplier, to our town. He told me it was a wonder I was still alive. When he asked for my witness statement, I handed him two notebooks of all the things that had happened. I had them dated, what all happened, how long it lasted and had highlighted all the times the cops were called. He said that would be my witness statement.

Though there waa drugs, weapons, drug paraphernalia, and wanted criminals,the guy only got two years for having and maintaining a place of noise violations. He spent around four months in jail, not prison. His sister took over the house and sold. The new owner was a winner. Also, the other house were drug dealers. Though, they pretty quickly got sent to jail for several months and an old lady moved in.

That was just one house we lived in with crazy neighbors that we’d called the police on. At our first home, we had a dead guy in his car in front of our home. He had a traveling meth lab, samples the wares, died of a drug overdose.

At that same home, we had illegal aliens, and a neighbor that had some serious mental health issues, and more.

I’ve been thinking of writing a book of all the craziness. I have a title and found other notebooks and calendars I had written things down.

The Worst Mistake the US Had Made and It is Destroying Everything

Part 2

The Bond of Forbidden Knowledge

Dust motes danced in the weak light as Maria pulled a tattered volume from the shelf. Liam’s eyes widened as she placed it on the table between them, its faded cover bearing the title “The People’s History”.

“This,” Maria whispered, “is one of the most dangerous and important books here.”

Liam leaned forward, fingertips hesitating just short of the worn leather. “What’s in it?”

Maria opened the cover, the spine creaking. “The truth. About how things were before… all of this.” She gestured at the underground sanctuary.

As she read aloud, her gentle voice filled the space between the towering shelves. Liam listened, enraptured, as a world he’d never known unfolded. A world of free thought, debate, and ideas that challenged the status quo.

Each page and revelation made Liam’s eyes sparkle brighter in Maria’s view. The thirst for knowledge, the realization of their stolen wealth.

In the weeks that followed, they fell into a routine. Liam slipped into the library, evading the watchful eyes of the authorities, and descended into the hidden sanctuary. There, amidst the musty stacks, Maria guided him through the forbidden texts, watching as his young mind absorbed the dangerous truths within.

One evening, as they pored over a treatise on civil disobedience, Liam glanced at Maria. “Why do you do this? Why risk so much for these books?”

Maria was silent for a moment. “Because someone has to remember,” she said. “Someone has to preserve the truth, the ideas they want to erase. If we lose that… we lose what makes us human.”

Liam nodded, understanding dawning. “Like in Fahrenheit 451. ‘We need to be really bothered once in a while.'”

Maria blinked, surprise and pride welling up. “You’ve read Bradbury?”

Liam grinned. “Found a tucked-away copy upstairs. Didn’t understand all of it, but…it felt important.”

Maria laughed, the sound echoing in the cavernous space. How long had it been since she’d laughed like that? “You’re a quick study, kid. Stick with me and you’ll be leading the resistance in no time.”

But even as she spoke, a chill ran down her spine. The resistance. A looming shadow cast its presence over their hidden oasis. The reason for the secrecy, the reason she spent her life buried beneath the city.

As if summoned by her thoughts, a sudden bang echoed from above. The unmistakable sound of a door being forced open. Maria was on her feet in an instant. Every nerve thrummed with tension.

“Stay here,” she hissed at Liam, hand already moving to the knife at her waist. “And keep still.”

Heart pounding, she crept towards the hidden entrance, straining to hear over the rush of blood in her ears. Footsteps, heavy and purposeful, moved through the abandoned library above. The crackle of a radio, a garbled voice receiving orders.

A sweep. The authorities were conducting a sweep of the abandoned buildings. Maria’s breath caught in her throat, a cold sweat prickled her skin. They’d been careful, so careful… but had it been enough?

The footsteps neared, the beam of a flashlight swept across the debris-strewn floor just beyond the hidden door. Maria held her breath, one hand pressed against the cold metal, ready to hold it closed with every ounce of strength she possessed.

Seconds stretched into eternity as the footsteps paused, the light lingered on the disguised entrance. Maria could almost feel the officer’s presence on the other side, could imagine his suspicious frown as he took in the too-neat stack of rubble blocking his path.

Then the footsteps retreated. The radio crackled again, summoning the officer back. A routine check, nothing more. This time.

Maria sagged against the door, adrenaline drained from her body like water from a broken vessel. Too close. It had been too close.

She returned to Liam on unsteady legs, finding him huddled over the book they’d been reading. His compact frame shivered.

“They’re gone,” she whispered, laying a hand on his shoulder. “We’re safe.”

Liam looked up at her. Fear and determination warred in his bright eyes. “For now.”

Maria sighed. The weight of their reality settled on her shoulders once more. “For now,” she agreed.

But as she looked around at the towering shelves, the precious cargo they protected, she felt a renewed sense of purpose. They would keep going, keep preserving the forbidden knowledge…no matter the cost.

Over the following weeks, Maria devoted herself to the arduous task of smuggling out the library’s most precious volumes. She established a series of caches throughout the city, secure locations where she squirreled away the books, protecting them from potential destruction.

Despite the slow, painstaking work, but she took heart from Liam’s determination to learn and his unwavering courage despite the risk. Perhaps, if they persevered, they could still kindle a spark of hope from the ashes of their oppression.

Because in a deceitful and oppressive world, truth reigns as the ultimate weapon.

Part 3

The Raid

The explosive crash of splintering wood shattered the hushed sanctuary of the library. Maria’s head snapped up, her heart slammed against her ribs like a caged bird. They were here.

“Liam, run!” Her voice was a harsh whisper as she shoved the boy towards the hidden alcove at the back of the room. “Remember where I showed you. Don’t look back, no matter what you hear.”

Liam’s eyes were wide with fear, but he nodded. His small hand gripped hers briefly, then he vanished into the shadows. Maria swallowed hard, her throat tight as she turned to face the chaos descending upon them.

Footsteps, heavy and purposeful, echoed through the labyrinth of shelves. Voices barked orders, cold and clipped. The acrid tang of smoke seeped into the air, and Maria’s blood ran cold. They weren’t just here to confiscate the books. They were here to destroy them.

She moved then, a silent shadow weaving through the stacks. Her hands flew over the shelves, snatched volumes, and tucked them into the hidden compartments scattered throughout the room. It was a futile effort, she knew, but every book saved was a minor victory against the crushing tide of oppression.

A crash, closer now, followed by a triumphant shout. They’d found the main chamber. Maria’s jaw clenched as she reached for the ancient tome she’d been reading with Liam just hours before. Its weight in her hands brought comfort, a talisman against fear gripping her throat.

Ready for her final stand, she turned and was face to face with Inspector Clarke. His eyes were cold, his smile sharp. “Maria Rosales. You’ve been a hard woman to find.”

Maria lifted her chin, grip tightening on the book. “I won’t let you take them. This knowledge belongs to the people, not your corrupt government.”

Clarke snickered. “You think you can stop us? You’re just one woman, clinging to the past.”

He reached for the book, but Maria was faster. She swung, the heavy tome connecting with his temple. Clarke staggered, eyes glazing, before he crumpled to the ground.

Maria didn’t wait to see if he would rise again. She ran, her heart in her throat as she wove through the chaos. Smoke stung her eyes. The crackle of flames joined the shouts and crashes. They burned the books, turning the precious pages to ash and ember.

She burst into the main chamber, her eyes scanned for Liam. A flash of movement caught her eye, and relief surged through her as she saw him crouched behind the circulation desk, his small frame trembling.

“Liam!” She skidded to a halt beside him, her hand found his. “We have to go, now.”

Together, they ran, dodging fallen shelves and smoldering piles of books. The heat was intense, the air thick with smoke and the stench of burning paper. Maria’s lungs burned, her eyes streamed, but she didn’t slow. Couldn’t slow.

They reached the hidden panel, and Maria’s fingers flew over the mechanism. The door swung open, revealing the dark tunnel beyond. “Go,” she urged Liam, pushing him ahead of her. “Don’t stop until you reach the end.”

But even as they stumbled into the tunnel, the sounds of pursuit grew louder. Heavy footfalls, angry voices. Someone had seen them.

Maria’s mind raced as they ran, her hand tight around Liam’s. The tunnel was lengthy, but it had a limit. They’d be caught, trapped like rats in a maze. Unless…

“Liam, listen to me.” She pulled him to a stop, her hands gripped his shoulders. “There’s a branch in the tunnel ahead, to the right. It’s small, easy to miss. When we reach it, take it. Follow it to the end and don’t look back.”

“And you?” Liam’s voice was high, his eyes shimmered in dim light.

Maria swallowed hard. “I’ll lead them away. Buy you more time.”

“No!” Liam’s grip on her hand tightened. “I won’t leave you.”

“You have to.” Maria’s voice was fierce, even as her heart broke. “Get to Aunt Rose’s house, tell her what’s happened. She’ll know what to do.”

Tears streaked Liam’s cheeks, but he nodded. Maria pulled him into a fierce hug, memorizing the feel of him, the brave set of his shoulders. Then she let him go.

They ran, their breath harsh in the close confines of the tunnel. The shouts behind them grew louder, the beams of flashlights strobed off the damp walls. Maria’s heart pounded, her eyes strained in the gloom. There, just ahead, the darker patch of shadow that marked the branch.

She slowed, letting Liam pull ahead. He hesitated, looking back at her with frightened eyes. “Go,” Maria whispered. “And don’t look back.”

With a choked sob, Liam disappeared into the dark. Maria watched him go. A fierce pride burned in her chest alongside the ache of loss. Then, shoulders squared, she turned back the way they’d come.

Towards the shouts and the anger. Towards the men who would destroy everything she held dear. She had no illusions about her fate. But if her sacrifice could buy Liam the time he needed, could ensure that the spark of knowledge continued to burn, then it would be worth it.

She ran into the dark, into the unknown. One last stand, for the books, for the truth, for the future. For Liam.

Part 4

New Beginnings

Maria slumped against the rough brick wall, lungs burning as she gulped down the cool night air. She’d lost count of the twists and turns she’d taken, the narrow alleys and abandoned buildings she’d navigated to shake her pursuers. But finally, the sounds of pursuit had faded, leaving only the thudding of her own heart.

She paused to close her eyes, letting the enormity of what had happened wash over her. The library, the sanctuary she’d dedicated her life to preserving, was gone. Reduced to ashes by the very forces she’d sought to protect it from.

A soft scuffing sound snapped her back to the present. Her hand flew to the knife at her belt. Maria’s shock grew as a familiar figure emerged from the shadows.

It was Eliza. But not the unassuming patron she had known – this woman wore the unmistakable uniform of a Regime officer.

A ragged whisper escaped Maria’s lips, uttering “you”.

Eliza held up a hand. “I know what you must be thinking. But things are not what they seem.” Her gaze was steady, revealing no hint of deception.

“The raid tonight… I orchestrated it. But not for the reasons you believe.”

As Eliza explained her role in the resistance, her true motivations for sacrificing the library, Maria felt the world shift beneath her feet. A tactical loss, but a strategic victory. A way to get the books into the hands of those hungry for truth.

“You’ve given us quite the underground network to work with,” Eliza said with a tight smile. “And now, the Regime thinks they’ve won, that they’ve crushed the resistance.”

Her expression hardened. “But they’re mistaken. Thanks to you, thanks to that brave boy, the seeds of rebellion are scattered to the wind. And we’ll make sure they take root.” Eliza turned and left.

But even as grief threatened to overwhelm her, a fierce spark of determination ignited in her chest. They had destroyed the library, yes. But they hadn’t destroyed the knowledge. The books Liam had smuggled out, the volumes she’d secreted away – those still survived. The flame of truth still flickered in the darkness of their world.

As dawn peeked over the horizon, Maria squared her shoulders. A smile played at the corners of her mouth. The government desired to end and close the book on their rebellion.

But what they failed to understand, what they could never grasp in their ruthless quest for control, was a fundamental truth about the human spirit.

An ending beckoned a new beginning. And this story, the story of their fight, their resistance, their unbreakable will…

This story was only just beginning.

Why America will Have its French Revolution.

Pillsbury Stuffed Crust Pizza

StuffedCrustPizza 15483 3 hero 16x9 — StuffedCrustPizza 15483 3 hero 16×9

Ingredients

1 (13.8 ounce) can Pillsbury refrigerated classic pizza crust
7 (1 ounce) sticks string cheese
1/2 cup pizza sauce
24 slices pepperoni (from 3.5 ounce package)
2 cups (8 ounces) shredded Italian cheese blend

Instructions

Heat oven to 425 degrees F. Grease a 12 inch pizza pan with shortening or cooking spray.
Unroll dough; place in pan. Starting at center, press out dough to edge of pan, pressing up and extending over sides by at least 1 inch. Place string cheese around inside edge of crust. Fold extended edge of dough over cheese; pinch firmly to seal.
Spoon sauce evenly over dough.
Top with pepperoni and cheese blend.
Bake for 12 to 16 minutes or until crust is deep golden brown and cheese in center is melted.
Cut into wedges.

Vintage realities

The Preteen Phase Is Gone.

What is the rudest thing that a new neighbor has done to you immediately after you had moved in?

I have one where I was the rude neighbour.

Couple moved in next door, that afternoon the banging started, rhythmic banging on the walls. At first, I through, Okay, they’re christening their new home, but a few hours later it was still going, along with this awful wailing, and I am getting really stressed out. By 9pm I can’t take it any more and I knock on their door to ask them just to move their bed away from the wall, I can take it if my pictures aren’t actually moving on the wall. They kind of answer their door, it’s dark, I wouldn’t open my door but I shouted ‘It’s your neighbour’.

Turns out they have an autistic 4 yr old boy who bangs his forehead on the walls, stairs, basically everything. Hard, his poor head. They explain, I apologise and go home and feel sooo awful. They’re doing the best they can. I took some of my kids old toys round the next day and apologise again.

Little bubba does it all the time, the wailing, screaming, occasionally it drives me nuts but the parents do try harder to stop him. I’ve given them names of a local volunteer service that helps families with kids and lent them a lawnmower and tried to be a good neighbour since. I really feel for them.

Can you describe a time that your company only discovered that you were irreplaceable after they fired you? How did you feel? What did they do?

Originally Answered: Describe a time that your company only discovered that you were irreplaceable after they fired you. How did you feel? What did they do?

I’m a software engineer. When I started my first job I didn’t have any experience, so I stayed days and nights building that experience and trying to prove to the company that I’m a hard-working guy thinking that all this hard work would be appreciated in some form or another.

Two years later (after pulling countless overnight stays at the company to meet unattainable deadlines without any overtime pay whatsoever), I got a call from a colleague about a project I was working on, during a national holiday after 6:00 PM.

He asked me if I can look into something that was needed for the project so he can prepare a demo scheduled after the holiday. I politely declined because I had family visiting from out of town during the holiday and told him I will look into it the next morning (technically still during the holiday), and I did do that the next morning and everything went as planned.

But little did I know that he called my boss (one of the owners of the company) that night and long story short, I got into trouble for declining to work when he asked me to on a holiday without pay.

The next thing I know my boss started pulling me out of all projects; that’s when I realized I’m not appreciated at all, so I started looking for jobs and found one really quickly, gave them my two-weeks’ notice and moved on.

In less than a week in my new job, old colleagues started calling in about the projects I used to work on. I politely answered that I have done the formal handover during my two-weeks’ notice and now I’m busy with my new job.

Then my manager (a different one than my boss) asked if I can update something really quickly for them on one of the troubled projects and he will pay me.

I told him my current rate is $XX an hour (it was a ridiculous rate for a two-year experience engineer in my town) but he accepted, so I applied the update and got paid half a month salary for a day worth of work and they stopped calling 🙂

Why are we still betting heavily in Taiwan as if we expect to send US troops there in event of China invading there?

The United States’ instigation of “Taiwan separatism” will not only fail to profit from the chaos, but will instead cause harm to the United States itself.

The United States continues to sell weapons to Taiwan, increasing the risk of global peace and stability. The United States seems to be willing to do whatever it takes to contain China, prolong the Russia-Ukraine conflict, and continue NATO’s eastward expansion, turning it from a defensive treaty into an offensive military alliance, which makes people worry about where the next conflict will break out.

The United States deliberately provokes the fact that “there is only one China in the world and Taiwan is an inalienable part of China” – a principle recognized by almost all countries.

The United States knows that China hopes to achieve peaceful reunification, but the separatist forces on the island of Taiwan are trying to split Taiwan from China with the blatant support of the United States.

According to the three Sino-US joint communiqués, Taiwan is an inalienable part of China. However, the United States has been provoking the one-China principle, selling a large number of weapons and military equipment to Taiwan, while supporting separatist forces on the island.

The Taiwan issue is China’s internal affairs and the United States should not interfere. However, given its “saying one thing and doing another” on the Taiwan issue, the United States is determined to undermine China’s economic and technological development in order to maintain its global hegemony. It wants to maintain its dominance in the Asia-Pacific region by using China’s Taiwan Island as a pawn in its geopolitical game.

Despite the provocative actions of the United States, China is committed to promoting peace and development in various regions and improving international relations.

While China is committed to promoting global harmony, the United States is desperately trying to maintain its global hegemony. People all over the world are watching this.

Despite Washington’s malicious intentions, a conflict between the two countries is not inevitable.

The United States is just bluffing and will not make a huge bet on Taiwan, otherwise it will lose everything. What Biden said about “defending Taiwan” is just the ravings of an Alzheimer’s patient.

Airstrike Scene (Broken Arrow)

What is something that a teacher did to your child that you won’t ever forget?

Originally Answered: What's something that your teacher did to your child that you won't ever forget?

My daughter wrote a paper in the 4th grade. I think it was about octopuses. I discovered it in her backpack and she had a D on it. I’ll agree it was horribly written. I asked her what the assignment was and she told me they had to reach in a jar and pull out a piece of paper with a topic written on it. Her new topic was zoos. I asked if they were to research, write off the top of their head, or what. My daughter wasn’t really sure, so I got a couple of books had her make note cards showed her how to create an outline to organize her note cards and then write a report. They had been learning outlines, but were given no idea what they were for. It was a very nice paper. A couple of days later she comes home with a new topic (ink) and her paper on zoos on which she had gotten a C-. I wondered what in the hell this teacher wanted, so I went after school so the assignment could be explained to me. I walked out of her room not understanding anymore than when I walked in. I’d always felt she was was a wacky woman and now my thoughts were confirmed. She was as clear as mud as to what she wanted kids to do, so my attitude was screw it. I pulled out our encyclopedia from 1941 and told my daughter to copy the section on ink. If she was going to get a bad grade anyway why work too hard? She came home with a B+. I had to laugh, because the teacher couldn’t recognize plagiarism. Fortunately that was the last of those papers. When my daughter returned for 5th grade that teacher was gone.

As an attorney, what was your favorite case and how did it go down?

It was a rape case.

I was the Defendant’s attorney and, while rape cases were, of course, not my favorite, I took this one on just like my other cases—with the goal of getting the best resolution for my client.

I met with the client (“D”) in jail. He told me that he and the complaining witness (CW) had been in a romantic relationship for a few years. They’d recently broken up and he was packing his clothes, when CW arrived at the apartment earlier than he’d expected. They started talking , one thing led to another and…in flagrante delicto, someone shows up at her door. That’s when CW decided it was rape, according to D.

I’d heard enough lame stories to appreciate that, if D was making this up, at least he’d put some thought into it.

So I did some research and learned:

* CW had no bruises anywhere on her body, despite her statement that D pushed her on the bed and forcibly held her down while committing the act;

* CW’s clothes were not torn, despite the fact that, given the circumstances, it would have been nearly impossible for D to have gotten her clothes off of her without ripping them;

*CW acknowledged that D did not have a weapon; and

* The “someone” who showed up at CW’s door was…wait for it…CW’s new boyfriend.

I took this evidence to the prosecutor and told him I thought he was probably prosecuting an innocent dude. He interviewed CW, who admitted that she was having consensual sex with D, and was embarrassed (em-bare-assed) when her new beau showed up, so she claimed it was rape.

Every time someone asks, “How can you defend people, knowing that they’re almost certainly guilty?” I tell that story.

D could have been sentenced to 20 years to life. He did a few days and didn’t have a rape conviction on his record, because he had a defense attorney.

That one case justified all of the other cases I had in which my clients had less-than-clean hands.

On a personal note, while I was glad that justice was done, it really pissed me off that this young woman was prepared to let D go to prison so she didn’t have to admit to her new BF that she was boffing her old BF. Every false rape claim, even though the rate of false rape claims is no higher than any other false criminal complaints, makes it that much harder for victims to come forward.

And this, boys and girls, is why criminal defense attorneys are your friends.

EDIT: Many readers have commented that CW should have been charged with perjury. While I definitely understand that feeling, I also get why women aren’t prosecuted for false rape claims. First, women would be less likely to report rape out of fear that they will be prosecuted if their case can’t be proven. Second–and this one is REALLY important–women who make false claims would be far less likely to ‘fess up if they knew it’d land them in the slammer. So yes, it’s very unfair that CW walked away unscathed, but the very fact that she wouldn’t be prosecuted helped make it easier for her to retract her statement. It’s not ideal, but at least it makes sense.

Why I Am Raising Kids in China and NOT the USA

This is surprisingly excellent.

What potential risks are involved in the heightened tensions between China and the Philippines in the South China Sea, as highlighted by recent clashes?

War.

Maybe a small-scale war.

Regardless of the scale, a war is not avoidable because WAR is in the DNA of USA & PH under Marcos is happy to make it happen for USA.

In the 2024 Defense Summit in Singapore, China spokesman asked PH pres Marcos Junior …

1, Why Marcos Jr mentioned USA 11 times in his speech. (I add) Is PH working for USA?

2, Your father (ie Marcos Senior) signed TAC (Treaty of Amity & Cooperation in Southeast Asia 东南亚友好合作条约) to jointly maintain peace in SCS. What do you (ie Marcos Junior) think of TAC?

When PH creates conflicts in SCS since March 2023, has PH complied with TAC? Has PH broken peace?

Marcos Jr was visibly uncomfortable & stammered he does not know what TAC is.

How uncomfortable? Marcos Jr gave a wry smile, straightened his clothes & touched his ear.

history of TAC:

TAC was signed in 1976/2/24 by 5 countries: Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand. Later more countries joined TAC. A total of 51 countries as of 2023. China joined TAC in 2003. USA in 2009. Japan 2004. Australia 2005.

On 2002/11/4, based on UN Charter, UNCLOS & TAC, China & 10 ASEAN countries signed DOC (Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in South China Sea 南海各方行为宣言). Philippines signed DOC too.)

See, Marcos Jr has broken both TAC & DOC. Others eg Australia & Japan also broke TAC. No need to talk about USA the global mafia.

12 Years Of Marriage Destroyed And She Instantly REGRETS IT

What things do prisoners miss the most when they are released?

I was feeling remarkably unencumbered and clearheaded by the time I was released from detention, due to being denied easy access to alcohol and drugs while incarcerated.

The problem was I wasn’t prepared to deal with my addictions intelligently at that point in my life, so within a few hours of hitting the streets, it was a return to business as usual for me substance abuse wise.

My license was suspended, so I called up my dealer who ran me by the liquor store after he’d sold me a pocketful of OC’s and Blue Boys.

(2 birds/1 stone)

I tried AA at the insistence of my probation officer, but my larger problem was narcotics at the time.

I tried NA at the insistence of my AA sponsor, and ended up doing lines of crushed 80mg tabs in the men’s toilet with some other attendee during the smoke breaks.

I’m of the opinion that county jails should be more aggressive about identifying symptoms of alcohol and narcotics withdrawal and offering inmates treatment options — either individual or group therapy.

It could certainly have an impact on recidivism.

Anything’s better than nothing.

(…which is what you can expect.)

Roadhouse Chili Pizza

Roadhouse Pizza 1576x2048 — Roadhouse Pizza 1576×2048

Ingredients

1 Boboli or homemade crust
1/2 pound ground beef
1/2 onion, chopped
8 ounces canned chili with beans
7 ounces canned diced tomatoes, drained
Hot pepper jack cheese, shredded

Instructions

Heat the oven to 450 degrees F. Spray or grease a pizza pan or stone.
In a large skillet, brown ground beef and onion over medium heat; drain.
Add chili and tomatoes; mix well. Spread the mixture equally over crust and top with cheese.
Bake on the bottom rack of oven for 8 to 12 minutes or until cheese is melted and crust is piping hot.

Men Are Simple: Woman Finally Gets What Men Want And What They Look For

What was the downfall of the “popular kid” in your school?

I’ll call her Betty so she can feel okay if she sees this. Betty the bankers daughter(only banker in that small town), was petite, cute in a 16 yr old way. Long Blond hair, blue eyes, creamy complexion and an all around likable kid. Naturally she was also a cheerleader. She was in all the same upper level classes with me. Every science and math class and foreign language class. One day I noticed her advanced calculus exam and she missed more than I did. Her grade however was higher than mine. The questions were not weighted per points. After that I made an effort to watch and she often missed more but her grade was always higher. She graduated valedictorian beating out one little gal that had worked so very hard to do well (not me), they were both straight A students. They even added up every score they earned and of course Betty won.

Betty got a scholarship to a very good school. Sadly Betty failed her courses. Angry she came back home and refused to go to college. To induce her to go to the lowly state college back home (Dad could influence that school) he bought her a nice shiny red sports car. She was taking a science class with me and that sweet personality was not there. She just looked angry still. I don’t think she completed that class as I did not see her after the first test was given.

Betty would have been so much better off if the school had not buttered her scores. I truly hope she learned that her own work and grades should have been sufficient.

What Mao Zedong did better Chiang Kai Shek during the Chinese war? What right things he did that Chiang Kai Shek couldn’t?

Chiang Kai-shek was a warlord who derived support from the privileged business class and bureaucracy who believed that China could become a modern society without having to completely surrender their power by copying large parts of the U.S. form of government;
Mao believed that China needed much more radical social surgery to unleash the full power of the Chinese populace, and that this could only be accomplished by revolution;
Mao was a strong believer in using social and political ideology to mobilize the masses, and that the Communist Party should be the vanguard.
Chiang had no political ideology, and did not understand its power. Instead of writing his own political thoughts and strategy, he only quoted Sun Yat-sen’s Three Principles of the People his whole life;
Chiang was not a master strategist like Mao;
Chiang was highly suspicious of his most capable aides and generals, and executed those he considered to be a threat. Even then, his closest aides until 1949 turned out to be spies for the Communists, which was why he was defeated and retreated to Taiwan.
Mao attracted the smartest and most capable Chinese. Chiang attracted the more corrupt and the rest.
Because Chiang was a warlord, he was not able to understand Mao and get into his head. This was demonstrated by Chiang’s offer of a provincial governorship to Mao in the negotiations which led to the 10/10/1945 agreement to form a coalition government between the Communists and Nationalists. Chiang tore up this agreement in mid-1946, which led to his losing the mainland.

What did a flight attendant do that made you go “you gotta be kidding me”?

I was boarding a plane with my carry on when the attendant said the bins were all full and I would have to have them put my bag in the hold. I wasn’t happy, but obliged. When I got seated I realized my purse and boarding pass for the next leg of my journey were in my carry on. I ran back to tell her. She said, “Oh well. Nothing we can do about it now.” At that moment a man came up from the hold and asked what was wrong. When I told him he asked what my carry on looked like. Fortunately, it was an animal print. He went and got it and let me retreive my purse and boarding pass. The attendant had this nasty look on her face the entire time. She was not an attendant from our flight, so she soon disappeared and as our attendants were preping for take off I noticed they were closing completely empty overheads. I shouted out, “She lied to us.”

Biden, Russian military decimated. US/NATO, 5 land corridors to fight Russia. US $50B Ukraine loan

Lordy!

This guy is the “president” of the United States?

Yellow pee was flying everywhere

When I first moved to Shenzhen and living with my wife and her dog, PP (who was soon to be my dog) he was very stressed. And also, very excited. And when a dog is stressed, he cannot help himself… he starts peeing everywhere.

it was starting to become a real problem and we had to keep him in a cage in the house as he was drenching everything. The couch, the chairs, the rug, the mats, the porch the… heck, you name it… and he peed on it.

I well remember the time when we were going out for dinner and a drink. We were in the elevator moving from the 38th floor to the lobby. And somewhere around the 17th floor an attractive gal enters the elevator.

She was all made up. Clean, perfume, fixed hair and brand new dress with nylons and high heels.

And here is PP…

He lifts his leg to spray all over her, when i stop him and give him a swift kick that threw him to the side of the elevator. The dog pee spraying all over. But, thankfully missing the girl, and everyone else in the elevator.

Phew!

Well, we had to deal with that kind of behavior for a while until we got rid of the the younger dog; “Super” who was the one causing all the stress. But until then it was really touch and go.

PP had this thing about roads.

As soon as we were in the middle of the road, he would sniff it and start to take a dump right there and then. The on-coming cars would screech to a stop and start honking like crazy. Damn! We couldn’t take him anywhere.

Well, eventually he calmed down, and all was good. But, for the first year or so, it was Hell on earth. Yellow pee was flying everywhere.

But, at least, it wasn’t on that pretty girls leg.

Thank God!

Today…

Do you expect more countries to claim that China approached or intimidated one of their warships or aircraft in the East or South China Sea?

Yes. As long as they are US allies, they will work for USA to spy on China on the edge of Chinese territory.

The latest example is Netherlands.

In name of doing the job for UN to maintain security on Korean peninsula, a Dutch warship sailed thru Taiwan strait which is far away from Korea. … it is Dutch who told the world that the Korean mission was a lie. Spying on China is the real reason.

After finished with the Korean mission, why must the Dutch sail on the edge of Chinese territory at East Sea? The Dutch made itself a suspect of a crime.

Psychology says that normally a criminal reacts more violently than the victim. To hide its illegal activity, a criminal normally will intimidate the victim by barking on top of their lung, hoping their bark will cover their cowardice.

Hence, we see the Dutch barked at China when they were expelled by China.

Another reason to bark loudly is to make sure its “owner” – USA can hear it. “Job done, Boss USA.”, said the Dutch.

In terms of conspiracy ie lie, there is a saying: When a lie is barked 1 million times, a lie will become truth.

Like Jesus. According to Jewish history, Jesus was a man who rebelled the Jewish authority. Got caught & sentenced to death. A hero to some people has become son of god for 2000 years.

See, you say a lie 1 million times, The lie will become truth one day.

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. But Christians think Jesus is son of creator.

What is the most depressing thing a student has said to you?

Student was failing math and was sent to my office for a “pep talk.” I tried to get the student to understand that it really is harder to get an “F” grade in a class, than to do the bare minimum and receive a passing grade.

He looked at me and said that he had reviewed the “new” summer school policy adopted by the district that stated, in essence, that if a student receives a “D” or “F” grade in a core subject, he/she is entitled to repeat the class (remedial) free of charge during summer school session.

However, if the student receives a “C” grade or higher, and merely wants to improve his/her grade, the cost of retaking the class would be $360.00, a sum that his parents could not afford.

Therefore he intended to fail the class, retake it during the summer session and strive for a “B” or “A” in the course.

I was stunned by his logic, but also quite impressed by his savvy. His reasoning was sound. Having no strategy to defend such a ludicrous district policy, I told him to sit quietly in the class for the balance of the semester, not disturb or distract others, and wished him well during summer school as he repeated the course for free.

Word spread quickly and summer school quickly filled up with “remedial” students.

FYI- He “blew away” the summer session and received an “A” in the course.

The logic of the student was brilliant. The depressing aspect of the story was the stupidity of the district leadership and board to adopt such a asinine policy.

Russia Exposes The Dollar’s Hegemony As US Lawmaker Admits “We Could Seize China’s Assets”

Biden says China wants to become the most wealthy, powerful country but it’s “not gonna happen on my watch”. What methods has he taken? Has he achieved it?

Biden is a fucking jackass. What’s wrong with China becoming the most wealthy and powerful country?

At least, unlike America, China is a peaceful nation. It has fought no wars in the last 45 years. Remind me how many wars America has fought during this period.

Unlike America, China works to bring peace to the world. It brokered an historic peace deal between Iran and Saudi Arabia. It called for peace negotiations in the Russia-Ukraine and Israel-Hamas conflicts. It called for the Palestinians to have their own independent state.

But America blocked all of this.

Unlike America, China is helping developing countries with the Belt and Road Initiative. America has done fuck-all for these countries.

Unlike America, China does not punish countries with sanctions for not complying with its foreign policy.

Biden and America can just fuck off.

When did you first realize your child was different?

At two weeks he would hold his head up to get a better view.

I started to write that he began walking at 9 months. In fact, he hit the floor running and has never slowed down.

Oh, and he is 6 feet 4 inches (1.9m) tall and 240 pounds (108kg) of solid muscle. Best of all, he is still my sweet,tender-hearted, little boy.

PEPE ESCOBAR: RUSSIA READIES FOR WAR WITH NATO AS PUTIN DROPS BOMBSHELL ON U.S. DOLLAR

Super exciting!

Why do you think China’s zero tolerance on corruption made China great today?

I was spending a lot of time in China for business during the early 2000s. Corruption was a real and growing problem and dealing with it was a dilemma my team there faced on a regular basis.

You know it’s a problem when you meet with the son of a high ranking provincial government official and he starts complaining about corruption!

I was still traveling frequently to China as Xi Jinping’s crackdown on corruption started. I was very skeptical it would be effective because I viewed it as a ploy to consolidate power.

I’m still not convinced that wasn’t one of his goals, but one change I noticed immediately was at the 5* hotel I usually stayed at in Changsha. Prior to the crackdown, its restaurants and lounges were thronged with officials entertaining business contacts and throwing expensive banquets. After the crackdown started, it stopped; the whole place was empty.

The other thing I noticed was thoroughness of the crackdown. A local business contact with whom I had negotiated a joint-venture due to his strong connections with the mobile industry was pulled in for lengthy interrogation by Public Security — simply because his contact at China Mobile had been found guilty of corruption. The police were talking to everyone in his network. In fact, I was warned to stay away until things had blown over.

I suppose it’s a smart and pragmatic policy that consolidates power while at the same time dealing with a problem that if left unchecked could in time threaten the Party’s legitimacy.

I’ve seen the corrosive effect of corruption on countries such as Indonesia, Cambodia and the Philippines. Unless it is dealt with, it becomes endemic. It also gets worse over time. I think the clean up of graft was a necessary step in China’s ongoing development. There’s still a ways to go, but it seems to be heading in the right direction.

Can you destroy your entire life with one wrong decision?

Yep. When I was young I sat on a First Degree murder trial of a 19-year old Marine who, on payday, went out with a friend on Friday night. They met a couple of girls at a bar and began drinking. At one point the girls introduced them to a guy friend of theirs and all had a great time, drinking and carousing. Then, late into the evening, the guy friend said “let’s roll a boot”, meaning rob a new recruit. Their plan was for the girls to lure two new marines to a vacant house out in the desert east of San Diego, where the three guys woul lie in wait until the girls could get them really drunk and then the guys would burst in, hold them up and steal their paychecks.

Sounded simple, if criminal, and this is where things went pear shaped. First, the three guys who were part of the plan armed themselves. Then one of the victims tried to run and the girl’s friend shot the kid as he tried to run off into the desert in the night. Poor boy had no chance. He was picked off as he came out the back door.

The defendant wasn’t the one who pulled the trigger. Had no priors and was in his way to a great life in the USMC. However, because he and his friend allowed themselves to get pulled into the robbery of the two younger marines, the shooter went away for life (had a wrap sheet as long as my arm, apparently, as did the girls). The two older Marines were both found guilty under the Felony Murder Rule. We had no option. The defense’s argument simply didn’t meet reasonable doubt requirements, and the kid at my trial went away to state prison for a long stretch. We heard about what a great kid he was and how his family and friends were shocked that he’d do something like this, but nothing could bridge the gap that he was there, part of the other crime (to rob the two boys), and therefore, he was guilty under the rule.

His life was ruined all because his common sense was impaired by lust and alcohol and he exercised really poor judgement.

Stubborn Cat Only Likes Listening To One Song | Cuddle Buddies

This is beyond adorable!

When Pinar went to a clinic she saw a cat named Goat hiding in a box all alone. The vet wanted to put her to sleep but Pinar refused to let that happen. When she brought her home she nursed her back to health and started singing to her. Goat loves when Pinar sings and she always wants to listen to the same song. They have formed such a strong bond together and Pinar could not imagine her life without Goat

https://youtu.be/A7m5qfBUyFg

When was the last time you screamed as loud as you possibly could? And why?

In August of 2016. My baby sister refused to die. Her entire body was eaten with cancer and her pain was unbearable. The hospice said a 300 lb biker would die in 24 hours from the amounts of fentanyl etc she was getting . But I knew she was not going to die until September 11. Our father died on 9/11 …15 years earlier. She was waiting for him to come get her.

She would scream in pain. She would scream “Laura, save me” Then they would come with more drugs and try to quiet her. It never lasted long.

One night I could not bear the screams and I left the hospice and started walking, but I could still hear her. “ Laura, save me”. About 2 blocks away I could not hear her any more. I sat down in the grass and I started screaming . I screamed because she was dying. I screamed because she would not die. I screamed because I was beating cancer and she wasn’t. I screamed because I could not save her. I screamed until the police came and they talked me into going back.

On 9/9 she stopped screaming. She just lay there with her beautiful blond hair on the pillow and her big blue eyes looking at me. She patted my hand. She had a little smile on her lips. On the morning of 9/11/2016 she gently slipped away. I think our Daddy came for her. I did not scream again.

Peaceful Husband Secretly Records Coercive and Controlling Wife | Sheree Spencer Case Analysis

What is the most clever defense you’ve seen someone use in the courtroom?

This isn’t something along the lines of the “Twinkie” or “affluenza” defenses, but it was the most clever defense strategy I’ve seen in over 30 years as a commercial litigator.

By way of backstory, this case started in the early 90’s and it was a beast. Our clients had purchased a portfolio of mobile home loans with a total face value over $100,000,000. Our folks got crossways with the seller and there were claims going both ways – including fraud and other nasty allegations. One of our co-defendants was represented by a truly remarkable lawyer, Henry. He was somewhat of a legend in the Houston legal community.

Henry had been practicing for decades by this time, and one of the things that made him so remarkable was his ability to command all of the facts of each case. By the time he got to trial, Henry knew EVERYTHING about the parties, the facts, the documents, the witnesses, the judge, etc. If it was in any way important, Henry knew it. That’s what allowed him to use this particular defense strategy in all his cases.

What Henry would do, even in a case like ours (multiple parties, hundreds of exhibits, dozens of witnesses), was walk into the courtroom with NOTHING but a Big Chief tablet and a pencil. That’s it. How did it work? Like a charm.

The plaintiffs walked in with 3 lawyers, 4 paralegals, other support staff carrying 20 or more boxes, and there was Henry, alone, with just a pad and a pencil. To the jury, he looked like the little guy up against overwhelming opposition. That gained him and his client the potential “sympathy” advantage and, whenever he would ask to use an exhibit the other side marked, it looked like he was using THEIR documents against them. It wasn’t true, of course, but that was the impression it left on the jury.

Classic Pizza Margherita
(Tomato, Mozzarella and Basil Pizza)

Thin, crisp crusts like this one are the hallmarks of much Italy’s pizza. Another vital element is not overloading the pie with toppings – less is definitely more on pizza. This dough goes together quickly and can be used after a single rising. If time is very short, blend, knead, rest for 30 minutes, and roll out. No baking stone is needed, since you slip the crust out of the pan and crisp it directly on the bottom rack of the oven during the last two minutes of baking. Use stone-ground, organic flour if possible.

Yield: 1 (14 to 16 inch pizza), serving 4 to 6.

Ingredients

Neapolitan Style Pizza Crust

Generous 1/4 teaspoon dry yeast
1/2 cup warm water (about 100 degrees F)
1 teaspoon all-purpose unbleached flour
1 to 1 1/4 cups organic, stone ground all-purpose unbleached flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
Additional flour

Margherita Topping

1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
1/2 medium onion, minced
1 sprig parsley, chopped
1 large clove garlic, minced
1/4 teaspoon dry oregano
1 1/2 cups canned whole peeled tomatoes
1/3 cup packed fresh basil leaves, torn
3 ounces fresh mozzarella (in liquid), thinly sliced
2 to 3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
Freshly-ground black pepper
Salt

Instructions

Neapolitan Style Pizza Crust

In a medium mixing bowl or food processor, blend yeast, water and teaspoon of flour. Foam should form on surface in about 8 minutes (if not, yeast is past its prime; find fresher).
Blend in remaining flour and salt, forming a smooth, quite soft, slightly sticky dough. Blend in food processor no more than 30 seconds (then knead 5 minutes by hand); in mixer blend for about 5 minutes; by hand stir to blend and knead for 5 minutes.
Place in a large oiled bowl, cover bowl with plastic wrap. Let stand in a cool place until doubled in bulk (about 1 1/2 hours). If not ready to bake, keep dough covered and hold up to 8 hours.
About 20 minutes before baking, punch down, knead a minute or two and then form into a ball, cover.
To make pizza, lightly oil a 14 to 16 inch pizza pan. Heat oven to 500 degrees F, setting rack as low as possible in oven.
Roll out dough as thin as possible to about a 16 inch round (no more than 1/16 inch thick). Spread over pan, rolling in edges to form a rim. Let rest for 10 minutes.
Top as desired or suggested below and bake for 10 minutes.
Using a spatula and thick oven mitt, slip the pizza off the pan directly onto the oven rack by pulling out rack, grasping pizza pan firmly with protected hand, and using spatula or pancake turner to slip pie off pan and onto rack. Slide rack back in place and bake 2 minutes. Slip pie back onto pan, remove from oven. Cut and serve.

Margherita Topping

In a 10 inch skillet heat 1 tablespoon oil over medium high heat. Sauté onion and parsley to golden, then stir in garlic and oregano for a few seconds. Add tomatoes, crushing them as they go into the pan (do not substitute crushed tomatoes). Boil, stirring, 5 minutes or until thick.
Spread sauce over rolled out crust, sprinkle with basil, mozzarella, and finally the oil. Finish with generous black pepper and a little salt. Bake as directed above.

Notes

Variation: In Naples, fresh or canned tomatoes often replace tomato sauce on pizza. Make sure tomatoes have big, rich flavor and use them judiciously.

More Variations: Use any of the following flavorings sparingly, but only enough to flavor, not overwhelm: Sliced red onion, pitted olives, pepperoni, anchovy, sliced mushrooms, steamed broccoli or cauliflower, salami, prosciutto, roasted peppers, shrimp, cooked Italian sausage, hot pepper, fresh herbs such as marjoram, oregano, mint, garlic, rosemary or sage. For “Americanized” pizza, use tandoori marinated chicken breasts, oven roasted vegetables, salsa and anything else you desire.

Have you ever woken up one morning and said, “I’m done” and then walked away from your life?

It’s never quite that simple. I had been going to University, my dad had a heart attack, and I quit university to go run the family business until it could be sold.

That was walking away from one life path.

Then about the time the business was sold, 4 years later, I was reading Dear Abby, and someone wrote in, and said I’m 32, I want to go back to university and get qualified for my dream job, but in 4 years when I graduate, I will be 36, what should I do. Dear Abby said, how old will you be in 4 years if you don’t go get your dream job?

I was 4 years older than when I quit university, I wanted different things now. So when the business sold, I ran away to sea. That was walking away from two life paths, university and the family business, all at the same time.

Eventually I became a ships Captain and fulfilled my dream of seeing most of world. Then I noticed that all of the crew over 35, were either divorced or estranged from their kids. I couldn’t just walk away, I worked 4 months a year, and got a degree in something that I hadn’t even thought of when I was 18. Then I walked away from working at sea.

I got a great job, but unfortunately it paid a bonus for productivity, and I got hooked. I was making twice as much in bonus, as I was making from my generous salary. But I was working 12 hour weekdays, and 8 hour weekends. My mother got very ill, and I walked away from that job, and took one that gave lots of time off.

Then finally when covid hit, I said enough is enough, and I walked away from that and retired to the wilderness…

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Chang’e 6 Moon Rover on Far Side in 4K panorama

JEFFREY SACHS:

[I just had a conversation with Mathias Döpfner, CEO of Axel Springer SE, a board member of Netflix, and the owner of Politico. His newspapers strongly advocate Western resistance towards Eastern despotism. We discussed this argument, which you also hear in Switzerland. They say, ‘Well, you know, China is a threat; they are evading WTO rules. We have Russia, which is an autocracy.’ There is a sense, and I think it’s an authentic sense, with these voices that our way of life, our democracy, is threatened. Therefore, we have to contain these countries, these powers. I’m sure you’re confronted with this argument as well. What do you counter in this sense? What’s your answer to that?]

"Well, first of all, it's a meme or a theme that goes back to Herodotus in the Greek-Persian Wars.

It's a theme since Alexander and the Hellenistic empires that he created.

It is a theme of the Roman Empire in its battles with the Parthians, with the Persians, that went on for several centuries.

It is a theme during the Crusades and the infidels to the east.

It is a theme that was part and parcel of the rhetoric of the British Empire, and it was a theme of the Enlightenment—Asian despotism, Western values.

It's extraordinarily trite is what it is.

It is trite; it is simple-minded.

[Is it paranoia?]

It is ignorance, basically.

People should go out and go to China, make some friends, have some Chinese students, go to Moscow, go to other places in the world.

This 'us versus them' mentality is kind of primitive.

Maybe it's a basic psychological state.

Evolutionary biologists think that because small bands competed with each other over campsites and foraging areas, group solidarity and otherness of the other side is a fundamental theme.

But the East-West theme is at least 2,400 years old.

It's a little boring, and it's such a crude character.

When Biden came into office, of course, he's not a very intelligent person even when he was younger, but his whole foreign policy was 'democracies versus autocracies.'

I didn't know whether to put my thumb in my mouth and suck my thumb for how stupid this was or how dangerous this kind of divide-the-world approach is.

Turns out it's the latter.

Biden meant it. He's absolutely dividing the world. He doesn't sit down to have conversations with anybody.

We're great; they're evil.

By the way, you know, your friend at Springer—China's really going to endanger the American way of life? Come on.

Are you kidding? What are you talking about?

[Is there a sense of an identity crisis here in the West? We have this woke philosophy, the questioning of everything—even biology. Then you have this kind of moral absolutism, not just in foreign affairs but also in interior affairs, cancel culture. These could be read as symptoms of a severe identity crisis, which is somehow compensated by these pictures, you know, by this kind of Dr. Strangelove way of looking at the world.]

I think it's actually something a little bit different in my view, although there are many interpretations. But you know, in 1095, Pope Urban called for the First Crusade.

Europe was pretty pathetic at that stage. It was peasants as serfs on manorial farms. But the idea was the crusade against the infidel and the reconquest of the Holy Land, and all of that.

It started what was a thousand years of Western ascendancy looking back.

The idea that the West has the dominant moral, religious philosophy—that it should lead the world.

Crusading became not only a literal series of wars but an idea.

The idea of the West spreading Western values, Western dominance, whatever those values were: African slavery, conquest, empire, whatever.

Then, of course, the next phase was the voyages of Columbus and Vasco de Gama.

Adam Smith, writing 275 years after that, said those were the two game-changers of the world because it basically became an interconnected but Western-led world.

Then with the industrialization of the 19th century and with Darwinism, by the way, in its interpretations by social Darwinists, the idea was Europe is superior in power, superior in values, probably superior in genetics.

That became the new idea when the idea of evolution and genetics came at the beginning of the 20th century.

[So you would say that this is kind of a superiority complex that is still raging within the West, if I correct?]

Yes, but with one major fact, which is that it's so flawed, so arrogant.

Now we live in a multipolar world.

The great trick of Protestantism was teaching people how to read. Literacy came early to Europe's north.

That was a huge economic advantage, by the way. Huge.

Probably the most significant thing was the printing press and Luther saying, 'Read the Bible on your own,' and Calvin saying, 'Read the Bible.'

Suddenly, literacy.

The rest of the world was basically illiterate.

One part of the world was literate and then saying, 'We're literate, we have advanced technology, we're superior. Oh, we're genetically superior. Oh, we're racially superior.'

So this became the idea.

Now all of it was kind of cruel nonsense, even in historical terms, because the other great civilizations were like, 'Well, you know, we've been here too for 3,000 years, sorry to tell you.'

Now we're truly at a moment where the United States can't get its way in Ukraine.

The United States can't get its way in Taiwan.

The United States can't get its way in the Middle East.

The Arabs have woken up, by the way.

They've been manipulated by the British Empire, by the French, by the American Empire for a hundred years.

They're saying, 'Stop, no more. Don't manipulate us.'

What's happening is a thousand years, or you could say since Herodotus, but basically a thousand or 500 or 200 years, depending on when you want to date it, of perceived European superiority.

What your counterpart at Springer said, you know, 'Western values,' that's not just 'we have our values,' that's 'our superiority' is what's being expressed there.

This is being challenged, understandably, properly, by the fact that there are other people in the world. Thank you.

When I add up the vote count, as it were, the U.S. has 335 million people, the European Union has 450 million people.

Add in Switzerland, add in Norway, add in Britain, and you get maybe 900 million people.

Add in, if you want, though it's kind of arbitrary, Japan, Korea, add in Australia, New Zealand, maybe you get to a billion people.

That's 12.5% of the world population.

We're going to run the world? Come on."

Excerpt from remarks by Professor Jeffrey Sachs, American economist and academic, in an interview with Roger Köppel for Die Weltwoche, June 6, 2024.

China, and not the US, just built the world’s first Artificial Intelligence hospital.

China just do rather than talk.

“HUGE Legal Victory – HFDF Wins Appeal in Ninth Circuit” – Barbara Ann

Posted on June 9, 2024 by TTG

.Take note. - MM

Note: I am not a lawyer and the following is not intended as a legal treatment of the issues presented. I welcome expert opinions from any lawyers among the Committee.

“The Ninth Circuit ruling today demonstrates that the court saw through LAUSD’s monkey business, and in so doing, it made clear that American’s [sic] cherished rights to self determination, including the sacred right of bodily autonomy in matters of health, are not negotiable. This is a great triumph for the truth, decency, and what is right.”

This is the statement issued by the Health Freedom Defense Fund (HFDF) on a recent ruling by the Ninth Circuit appeal court against a Vaxx mandate imposed on all employees by the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD). The LAUSD Vaxx mandate is currently suspended and was originally implemented with the sanction of the loss of employment. The ruling covered at least three important points:-

The court recognized that the COVID-19 Vaxx is not a “traditional vaccine” as it does not prevent infection and transmission

The court recognized that the original ruling (in LAUSD’s favor) did not extend to “forced medical treatment” for the recipient’s benefit (the LAUSD had cited the precedent set by a 1905 decision on mandated smallpox inoculations)

Although the mandate is not currently in force, the court dismissed a mootness argument given that the LAUSD “expressly reserved the option to again consider imposing a vaccine mandate” (quote from the opinion summary)

Here is a paragraph from the HFDF’s statement:

The court declined to give any deference to pronouncements by the CDC that the “COVID-19 vaccines are safe and effective.” As the court asked rhetorically, “safe and effective” for what? The majority pointed to HFDF’s allegation that CDC had changed the definition of “vaccine” in September 2021, striking the word “immunity” from that definition. The court also noted HFDF’s citations to CDC statements that the vaccines do not prevent transmission, and that natural immunity is superior to the vaccines.

HFDF is a non-profit fighting Vaxx mandates. Their full statement on the result of the appeal is here:

https://healthfreedomdefense.org/huge-legal-victory-hfdf-wins-appeal-in-ninth-circuit

Here is the summary of the court’s opinion:

https://cdn.ca9.uscourts.gov/datastore/opinions/2024/06/07/22-55908.pdf

Comment: Our Barbara Ann found this decision by the 9th Circuit Court to be important enough to suggest it as a post. It is a legal decision that a California school district could not mandate Covid vaccinations as a condition of employment although the district already did away with the mandate. I would have glossed over the decision without another thought, but maybe I’m missing something.

It looks like the 9th Circuit decided the Covid vaccine is just not that good a vaccine. Would they have made this decision if it was wildly effective? If they were faced with the decision back in 1905, would they have struck down the mandated smallpox vaccination? Back then, teams of NYC police and doctors roamed the streets forcibly vaccinating recalcitrant New Yorkers. We didn’t go that far during the Covid pandemic.

I also wonder how the 9th Circuit would decide if a challenge is made to our military’s mandate on vaccines such as the annual flu vaccine. The efficacy of that vaccine is perennially in doubt, but it is still mandated in our military. This is from the USMC implementation message:

“3.a. Per refs (a), (b), and (c), all Marine Corps active and reserve component personnel shall receive the 2023-2024 seasonal Influenza vaccine(s) unless medically or administratively exempt. The Marine Corps active component shall ensure 100 percent of personnel are compliant with DoD policy (vaccinated or approved medical or administrative exemption) no later than 15 Dec 23. The Marine Corps reserve component shall vaccinate at least 90 percent of required personnel no later than the DoD goal of 15 Jan 24.“

TTG

Is there any special treatment for people who fly on privately owned planes at airports, such as faster security checks?

Yeah, the fastest… NO security checks! Some places will drive your rental car up to your plane so you can toss your bags in and drive away, right from the ramp. Most places will also let you drive on the airfield to load your bags into your plane. Usually they have fresh cookies and free water/coffee/tea, a room to nap in (if you need it). It’s so, damn, nice. Also they’ll usually let you take a car, free, for a few hours if kept locally.

Now, I say “free” but you’re paying. For a small plane like mine I get hit with around $50 in ramp fees, per night, and maybe $30 in facility fees which are waived with 20 or so gallons of gas, which is outrageously priced at $8–9/gallon. However that all varies with the size of the airport. Some places charge zero, but all you get there is a smile and a bathroom. Maybe a pot of coffee.

The major advantage is the time saved, and the lack of hassle. No TSA idiot going through your bags and rubbing your balls looking for that nickel you forgot to take out of your pocket, no traffic, no crying babies or obnoxious people. Kids are always well behaved, people are always quiet and nice. Upper crust types (of all colors for you gen Z racists out there who were about to pull the white privilege card).

It’s expensive, but so worth it. As Homer Simpson told Marge after flying on a private plane vs commercial “It’s the difference between drinking champagne and carbonated pee.” And I’m an airline pilot so yes, I know first hand.

You are Gay Now – It’s Pride Month Again!

Do you support efforts to bring China into arms control talks, as pledged by Jake Sullivan, the national security adviser, a year ago?

Whatever USA say eg arms control, climate change or more. The intention is to limit other’s development. To stop others from surpassing USA. That is all. … USA thinks it is god. The world must take its order.

USA has a treaty with USSR-Russia to limit the spread of nuclear weapons, mid-range missiles & more.

In Trump’s time, USA unilaterally tore the treaty. USA’s excuse was that China must be in the treaty too. But the number of Chinese nuclear weapons is way way below USA’s. The truth surfaces in 2024: USA installed mid-range missiles in Philippines. USA created Cuba crisis 1.0 in 1962. Now USA is creating Cuba crisis 2.0 in PH.

Same thing for Climate Change. USA asked China to reduce CO2. The plot was to slow down China’s development to become a developed country with full industrialisation.

What shocks USA is that China takes Climate Change seriously by working hard to develop green energy products eg electric car, solar panel, wind turbine etc. Very successful as of 2024.

Now, USA complains China is too successful by accusing China of overcapacity of electric cars.

Back to the question. Arms control talks? With USA? It is a waste of time. Because USA is not serious about world interest. Only US interest.

Besides, who does USA think it is to tell others what to do? god?

China built 10 missile cruisers in 48 months, packing 1,120 missiles.It’s true? Why can’t the US do the same? Doesn’t the US have a larger defense budget?

If this is in reference to the Type 055 program, it’s 8 in 8 years (2014–2022), from hull-laying to commission. That’s probably unmatched delivery schedule, for a brand new >10,000 tonne warship class.

The impressive aspect of this program is the abrupt announcement of the program’s existence and the decision to serially produce an initial batch of 8 ships. Usually, yards take their time to construct and test the lead ship of a new class, which serve as a systems demonstrator. Evidently, the engineers must have tested the individual subsystems to death to confidently build the ships in parallel. By all indications, Nanchang, the lead ship, has fulfilled its operating envelop. There are plans in place for another batch of 8.

The American Arleigh-Burke, in its third iteration from 1980s roots, is also being laid and commissioned at a rate 1 per year. It is the only American destroyer in production currently, and displaces ~9,000 tonnes.

The difference between the Americans and Chinese is the latter operating more than one Destroyer class. The Type 052D is a 7,500 tonne-class warship announced in 2012. Construction probably begun in 2010. Between 2010–2022, 25 ships have been laid and commissioned, for a rate of ~2 per year.

In other words, China’s demonstrated destroyer output in the past decade and a half is at least 3 per year. Going forward, it is estimated that the Type 052DL program will deliver 3–4 ships per year. If the Type 055 program is expanded, that’s 4–5 destroyers a year in the coming decade.

America has had immense difficulty delivering clean-sheet designs this century. Even the Constellation class, which is developed off a licensed and proven FREMM design from the 2000s has run into construction snags. The problem? Backlog and lack of skilled workers.

Fundamentally, American shipbuilding is in a horrible state of neglect, with heavy shipbuilding a dead end commercially. Only military shipyards remain viable, and there is a general lack of skilled workers in the industry. Boomer retirement is eroding institutional memory, while union protectionism add to self-renewal woes.

China has over 500,000 workers in the shipbuilding industry, which produced >50% of the global merchant tonnage delivered last year. There are at least 30–40 dry docks that can accommodate >100,000-tonne ships. Chinese shipyards are now capable of building the most challenging designs, such as ice-breakers, LNG carriers and ocean liners, using precision-controlled hull block modular construction techniques that significantly reduce build times and defects.

American shipbuilding suffer from a deficit in scale, and increasingly, skill and technology.

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

Once I was traveling across western Kansas with my two young children and I needed to get home. I hadn’t let anyone know that I was down to my last, last money and highly stressed about the trip – nervously running the math of miles and miles per gallon and how many gallons my tank held – all while I drove in silence. This was in the late 1980s.

Somewhere across the great empty expanse of rural Kansas – I stopped for gas. I gave the cashier my last $20 plus some change. So say the gas was $16.53. And I gave her my precious only $20 bill plus $1.53 so I could get a $5 back. I needed a miracle to make the $5 stretch to get us home and had no idea how it could happen. The kids were asking for drinks and my response of a hard “No” let them know we were not in a good place with money. They went back to the car quietly and I felt bad that I let them see my stress.

In the meantime, the cashier handed me back about $25. I looked at what she put in my hand and said, “I don’t think that’s right…” She cut me off with a snippy response that of course it was right. She didn’t do this as a gift – she was offended that I thought she couldn’t make change correctly.

I stood a second and looked at the cash in my hand – essentially the last tank of gas I was going to need to make it back home safely…

I accepted the gift. I’ve never forgotten it.

Brian LECTURES The Ladies On Why Men DON’T Wanna Be Gentlemen Anymore!

What is your best advice when firing someone?

I fired someone a few years ago. She had “injured” herself in a minor accident in my store. She took 11 weeks off. I dropped over to her house two weeks after the accident and she was busy cleaning the junk out of her back yard and redoing her gardens. She looked pretty healthy. Cleaning out her yard was a lot harder work than her job. At that point, I wrote her off.
Ten weeks after my visit, she was supposed to attend a meeting with the Workers Compensation person and me to discuss returning to work. She didn’t show. She said that she was too injured. Apparently, she had a doctor who was known for signing anything. So two weeks after that, I phoned the Workers Compensation people, and asked them what to do. I needed a person there. They said to fire her. As a small business under 20 people, I could do that. I came from a large corporation and we would not do that so it felt odd. So I fired her. She was given 2 months salary. By the way, she wasn’t a good employee. She avoided work and showed up late all the time. We were going to terminate her anyways.

A few months later, she sued me under Human Rights. She said that she could work just fine.

I fought it. Her problem was that she went back to Workers Compensation saying she could not work and got another ten weeks of pay. I asked for that information that she had submitted to them but she refused to supply it. Basically, she got caught in a lie. She had been defrauding the Workers Compensation for the eleven weeks plus another ten weeks. She should have gone back to work the next day after the little accident.

So the lawsuit ended.

So when you are firing someone, be careful of things like Human Rights. They can override legislation.

What was the stupidest thing someone has called the police on you for?

Someone called the police on me while I was trying to help them when they called the police for help.

Here is the set up… information I gathered during the investigation…

Joyce had a protection order against Paul.

Paul was at a bar enjoying a burger and a beer after helping the bar with some work.

Joyce and her friends Bob and Jay had decided they might get burgers themselves. Originally Bob and Jay were going to go and they were going to bring Joyce’s burger back to her.

Bob or Jay called Joyce and told her that Paul was there.

Joyce, all of the sudden, decided it would be more awesome to go to the restaurant and enjoy the burger fresh rather than after it had been driven 20minutes to her home.

Joyce arrived at the bar.

Paul saw her.

Paul wolfed down the rest of his burger and gulped down his beer as Joyce was calling police telling them Paul was in violation of the protection order.

—

I arrived after Paul had left. Joyce, Bob, and Jay were still on scene. As were the bar owner and the bar manager.

After hearing Joyce’s story about Paul violating the protection order (but not the details about anything else) it felt odd to me.

I talked to the bar owner and manager.

Based on the fact they told me Paul was there BEFORE (WAY BEFORE) Joyce got there and that Paul left the “second” he saw Joyce…. I asked more questions.

When I started asking more questions to ensure I had the story right (I talked to Bob and Jay first) Joyce got upset. She called my dispatch center and started to complain about how I wasn’t doing anything about the protection order violation.

Dispatch connected her to a deputy with the sheriff’s office who knew what I was investigating.

—

After a complete and thorough investigation and hearing Joyce tell me how the district attorney and the victims’ advocate told her that Paul had to leave where ever she was, and dashing her dreams of that being true- at least where I was responsible for applying the law, she left in a huff. She was in more of a huff when I told her that any other calls like this would result in her being charged with false reporting.

I told her to go back to the district attorney and to the vicitms’ advocates and ask them to set me right if I were, indeed, wrong about this case.

She either never did OR she was def. wrong in what she told me they said.

Shorpy

LtCol. Tony Shaffer: No Way Ukraine Can Win

NATO needs to understand that playing Russian roulette with a nuclear superpower is never a good idea

What is the most embarrassing thing you’ve witnessed on a cruise?

We’ve been on quite a few cruises, (it’s a lazy way to travel to a destination and a really good way to relax) so we’ve been witnesses to some *crazy* scenes.

On longer cruises, there’s usually a couple of formal events where the drinks are free for a couple of hours. I was wearing a cocktail dress and heels… and nearly got flattened by a group who charged for the drinks table to help themselves to the free alcohol.

It was a small group of men and women who hadn’t bothered to dress formally. They just shoved their way past everyone and then they started loading themselves up with drinks. They clearly had favourites because they stripped out an entire row of a specific cocktail by taking 5 of them each. It was weirdly fascinating.

It didn’t matter if there were people waiting to get one of those drinks. They took them all. They didn’t even have trays. They just held one arm close to their bodies and slotted multiple glasses along their arm while holding the drinks against themselves. (It was… quite talented in a weird way).

Then they filled up the table they were sitting at and went back and did again to another line of drinks. And they kept doing it until their table was filled.

Then they proceeded to quickly get tragically wasted.

They literally shoved right by me to get to the drinks in front of me. There was an older lady left standing empty-handed and shell shocked with me who looked at me in horror and blurted “I think they’re human locusts”. That gave us both a much-needed laugh.

There’s this thing that happens in New Zealand. No one eats the last bit of anything because they’re worried that someone else won’t have enough. At buffets or dinners, (in my group) for people check that others have enough or that no one wants anymore before they help themselves. There’s often one bit of everything left.

Watching the group of locusts push past everyone and ignore everyone else who wanted a drink was embarrassing for me to watch but the group that did it were shameless.

Are you surprised that the incident in which four US college instructors were stabbed in an attack at a public park in China has been censored on China’s internet?

I learned some details by asking the locals.

The story is very simple:

A retired worker named Mr. Cui from Jilin went to the park to practice Tai Chi sword in the morning.

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It is not allowed to bring sharp weapons into Chinese parks.

The Tai Chi swords used for fitness are not sharpened, they are just fitness equipment.

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During his exercise, four so-called US college instructors collided with him and pushed Mr. Cui.

Mr. Cui got anxious, so he used the Tai Chi sword to injure the four so-called US college instructors. The injuries of the four Americans were not serious because the Tai Chi sword used for fitness was not sharpened.

Therefore, I advise foreigners who travel to China:

China is not America, nor is it Europe. When traveling to China, you must abide by China’s rules and do not bring your own domineering ways in other countries to China.

Respecting the elderly is a part of Chinese Confucian culture.

In China, you should respect the elderly.

Don’t push old people who are smaller than you. The old people in China are different from the old people in wheelchairs in your country.

What was the most bald-faced lie you have ever heard a witness say under oath? How did you react?

I was in the courtroom waiting for our turn up before the Judge.

This one is FAR BETTER than a bald-faced lie! READ ON!

There was this “Paternity” feud occurring between the soon to be ex husband and ex wife. His wife gave birth the child, but he refused to provide the DNA and proof of being “sterile”.

JUDGE: I am going to court order you right now for the DNA test. If you refuse, I will hold you in contempt and without bond.

The Guy protested, his lawyer told him he had nothing to worry about for if he was sterile, it wouldn’t matter what the DNA was on his side.

The Bailiffs swabbed him and the DNA was now sent away.

JUDGE: May I ask what Urologist had told you that you were sterile.

HIM: You’re a what?

Lawyer: Telling him what an Urologist is.

HIM: I didn’t see a You’re A What ist doctor.

JUDGE: Your Primary Physician?

HIM: Don’t have a Doctor.

JUDGE: Then what doctor told you that you were sterile?

HIM: None of them, my Uncle told me I was sterile.

JUDGE: _____________________________________

People in the court room: ___________________________

JUDGE: (tilts his head, making weird expressions) Okay, so it was your Uncle?

HIM: Yes your honor.

JUDGE: What kind of a Physician is your Uncle?

HIM: He was a Pneumatic Mechanic

JUDGE: _______________________ (really staring at this guy) _____________________ PLEASE TELL THE COURT HOW YOUR UNCLE HAD DETERMINED YOU TO BE STERILE AND WHAT IS HIS FULL NAME AND WHERE DOES HE LIVE?

HIM: (gives name) and gives the name of the Cemetery.

JUDGE: Hold it! Hold it! Are you just informing us that your Uncle is deceased?

HIM: Yes Sir.

HIS LAWYER: Objects!

JUDGE: Overruled, your client informed everyone that his Uncle had deemed him sterile. We have to know exactly how was he deemed sterile.

I have two questions for you: Question number one: Were you snipped?

HIM: ________ (looked confused)__________

LAWYER: My client is not an animal!

JUDGE: It’s called a vasectomy! Did you or did you not have this procedure done? YES OR NO?

HIM: No

JUDGE: What was your sperm count?

HIM: I never counted, never looked to see them.

(People in courtroom laughing)

JUDGE: You just told everyone in the courtroom that you were sterile. I need to know the sperm count, documentation of proof that you are sterile.

HIM: __________________

Lawyer: Objecting

JUDGE: Overruled, your client constantly makes these claims that he’s sterile! I am ordering proof of your client being sterile.

You, Sir? How did your Uncle confirm or acknowledge you were sterile? Please tell us.

HIM: Well, when I was a teen, my Uncle caught me jacking myself off. He told me because I was doing that and if I kept doing it I would become sterile! So there’s your answer.

JUDGE: _________ (his FACE was priceless) ______________

His Lawyer: ________ his jaw drops _______________

(People snickering and laughing)

Judge court orders him to an Urologist, and approves of child support temporarily for the sum of $xxxx a week. The final amount will be determined after the Urologist’s report.

::::::::::::::::::::: FOLKS! PLEASE DO NOT BELIEVE EVERYTHING THAT’S SAID IN YOUR FAMILY! THERE ARE THOSE WHO WILL REALLY BELIEVE STUFF LIKE THIS! :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

US Missiles STRIKE Russia! Army Colonel Reveals What Happens Next

When have you felt like all men are not the same?

Not once, but a number of times actually.

Let me share my very first experience of realizing not all men are the same.

I was studying in 12th standard in a Government school. Because it was a board examination, we were supposed to take it seriously. There was no faculty for Physics in my town, so I had to wake up at 4 A:M in winter mornings to ride my bicycle for 8 KM to attend a tuition class at 5:00 A:M (because of high demand of that teacher, his other batches were packed and only this early morning batch was available).

I was the only girl in a class of around 100 boys and some other boys also used to go to attend the same class.

It was a big deal for my mother to see me leaving in dark every morning to attend the class as she was afraid something bad could happen to me on the way. She used to tell me innocently to dress up like a guy and cover my hair so no bad guy can figure out I was a girl and this could protect me from any misshapen.

One day while I was riding my bicycle to the class, I realized a guy (from my class, I knew him but never spoke to him) was following me on his bike. I could literally feel him chasing me. I increased the speed and so did he. There was not a single person on the road to whom I could reach for help. My heart was beating really fast and I remembered everything my mom used to tell me. I knew it didn’t matter to me if I was the only girl in the class because I really wanted to study science instead of Arts or Commerce and just because it was safer, I couldn’t consider those subjects.

Fortunately the guy couldn’t get the courage to stop me on the way.

It kept on happening on regular basis and I used to wonder why he keeps the speed of his bike slow to match the speed of my bicycle when he could really ride much faster than me?

And after a few weeks it happened. On a Sunday morning, when I woke up, I found the same guy in my house where he was talking to my dad and my mom was making tea for him.

I was very surprised to see him like this.

Dad called me and told me this –

“Hey, look, your classmate is here. He was telling us that you’re so brilliant and talented and that he really admires you. He was also telling that you’re the top scorer in the class so far. Why you didn’t mention his name before?”

And I was like – WHAT?

Later on when we were alone he told me this –

“Sanhita, I’m really sorry that I couldn’t get the courage to come and talk to you before. But, now I have realized my mistake. I think I have scared you, but trust me, my intentions are not bad. By following you on your way to tuition, I was actually trying to protect you. One day I found a few guys talking about you on the usual street you take every day. They were discussing how can they trouble you in the morning when no one is around. I don’t know whether you would believe me or not, but I just did what I could possibly do. I followed you every day , so if they ever get the guts to trouble you, I can actually fight along with you against them.

And one more thing, like other guys, I won’t tell you to do friendship with me or become my girlfriend, but yes, I know you don’t have a brother. Can I fill that space? Can I be your brother, please? It would be my honour to call a girl sister who is the top scorer of the class and oh yes, you would obviously help your brother in studying, right? :P”

I did accept him as my brother on that day. For a few years I celebrated Rakhi with him. Now, we’re in different cities and he is happily married, but sometimes I call my brother and we chat about childhood 🙂

What was the worst secret you discovered about your children?

Three months after adopting our 12 month old daughter, we finally got her case file. It was supposed to come with her, so to speak, but these things are always messy. We knew she had been removed from her birth parents as they had somewhat low IQs, criminal histories, and were unable to care for her, despite major assistance including 24 hour in-home carers (this was not a possible permanent solution). So we were nervous, but we decided to put our names forward to adopt her.
We were chosen and had experienced a chaotic but deliriously happy three months with a little 1 year old dynamo – she had some quirks, but was overall a happy, friendly wee girl.

And then the report arrived and shook us to the core.

She’d experienced sustained and high levels of in-utero drug and alcohol abuse (marijuana, synthetics, meth).

She had witnessed frequent physical abuse – dozens of police reports, both parents beating each other.

The real soul-destroyer? She’d experienced severe physical abuse at the hands of her birth father, between the ages of 2 and 7 months – until the 24 hour care started and he did it in front of them. Her crime? Not lying perfectly still while getting her diaper changed.

The birth mother stayed (and is still with) that horrible man, despite losing her daughter. She still has visitation rights and we are constantly abused by the birth father, but he does not have visitation rights at the moment and hopefully never will, but we can’t guarantee it.

it sickens me, that anyone would hurt my precious bubba. But now we knew why she freaked out when my husband tried to change her diaper.

What factors should be considered before granting sovereignty, autonomy, or nationality to Taiwan?

Taiwan is a PROVINCE of China, UN said it loud & clear on 2024/5/23. Taiwan is China’s internal affairs. If you are a foreigner, dont spend any time to think about Taiwan. China will take care of Taiwan.

Aviation art various

The Time Thief

Submitted into Contest #251 in response to: Write a story about discovering a lost manuscript. It can be from a famous (or infamous) author, or an unknown one.… view prompt

Jim LaFleur

It was a night draped in the deception of stars over Baltimore, 1840, where shadows fell like cloaks over cobblestone streets. Dr. Simon Dorset emerged from the obscure folds of an alley, the hum of his time machine dissipating into the ether of history. He adjusted the lapels of his meticulously chosen 19th-century attire, feeling the weight and wonder of epochs as he tread discreetly among the citizens of the past.His ebony walking stick clicked rhythmically against the stones, a metronome to his swirling thoughts. This was not merely a visit; it was an anachronistic pilgrimage. Simon’s destination tonight was more elusive and intoxicating than any artifact—a meeting with the enigmatic Edgar Allan Poe.A glance at his pocket watch reminded him of time’s cruel precision, especially for one stolen from another era. He allowed himself a brief moment to jot down observations in his leather-bound journal, noting the gaslight that flickered like ghostly sentinels guiding his path.As he entered the local tavern, a hubbub of raucous laughter and smoky whispers washed over him. He absorbed the milieu, each detail a precious nugget of information. The patrons, swathed in the comfortable drab of labor and the occasional flash of foppish textile, provided a carousel of character study. Edgar Allan Poe was a frequent visitor here—an icon whose conversations might reveal more than his written words ever could.Positioning himself at the bar, Simon sipped a drink, his eyes and ears open, scrutinizing each face and catching snatches of conversation that danced on the air. His guise as a visiting publisher from England seemed impermeable as he matched the locutions and cadences of his surroundings.His opportunity arose when a man of unmistakable countenance stepped through the doorway. Edgar Allan Poe, known by portrait and prose, moved with a somber grace, his eyes holding an unearthly fascination. Simon initiated a dialogue, discussing the philosophical quandaries inherent in modern Romantic literature—a surefire way to pique Poe’s interest.Poe’s response was immediate and intense, providing a fertile ground for deeper discussion. “Ah, sir, you understand the darkness of the soul entwined with the light of creativity,” Poe remarked, his voice tinged with a melancholic timbre. Their conversation quickly moved from the public earshot to the intimate setting of Poe’s study.The study was a chaos of inspiration—papers strewn like fallen leaves in autumn, books stacked in teetering columns of thought. Simon’s heart raced as he eyed the manuscripts cluttering the desk. In a moment of distraction for Poe, his gaze fell upon a specific stack of papers penned in a hurried yet deliberate script.Topics and metaphors unknown to the scholars of Simon’s time beckoned from those pages. The lure of academic glory flickered before him, stirring a tempest of ethical and temporal dilemmas. His plan emerged almost fully formed—a theft that would echo through the centuries but could brand him an eternal brigand in the annals of time.Weeks passed, and a cordial invitation to a social gala at Poe’s abode presented the perfect milieu for his surreptitious intent. Under the guise of evening air necessity, Simon navigated back to the tempest of paper and ink. The manuscript was now in his grasp, a treasure far more potent than mere gold. Yet, in his haste, Simon’s modern smartphone—a slab of technology utterly alien to the 19th century—slipped from his pocket, left on Poe’s mahogany desk.

With a swirling cloak and a heart pounding against the corset of his own deceit, Simon returned to his era, leaving behind an anachronism that would unravel time’s tightly knit fabric.

The morning sun, indifferent in its rise, found Edgar Allan Poe in contemplative solitude. As light spilled across his desk, the unusual sheen of the abandoned smartphone caught his attention. It lay there, stark and intrusive among the soft yellowing papers of his literary endeavors. Curiosity, that relentless driver of human behavior, prompted Poe to reach for the device, his fingertips brushing against the cold, smooth surface. The screen flickered to life at his touch, illuminating his face with a pale, eerie glow.

Simon, safely ensconced back in his time, felt the immediate ripple of his accidental influence. The Baltimore he returned to bore scant resemblance to the one he had left. Buildings bristled with unfathomable technology, the skyline jagged with the spires of progress grown wild, fed by an anachronistic seed. His stomach churned with the realization that history had veered catastrophically off course.

Poe, meanwhile, was originally viewed as the harbinger of this new era. Word spread through the city with the speed of fire through dry timber. The enigmatic device held secrets of light and knowledge, screens within screens—miracles undreamed of even in the fevered pitches of the most fantastical literatures.

It wasn’t long before Poe was thronged by the curious and the ambitious, their minds alight with possibilities. Inventors, scholars, rogues—they all wanted a piece of the future unveiled. Each touch, each interaction spun a new thread of history, weaving a tapestry far removed from the one Simon knew.

Back in his altered present, Dr. Simon Dorset was consumed by an urgent need to correct this unintended aberration. The historical and cultural legacy of Poe, once defined by his mysterious and macabre tales, was now overshadowed by a technological boom he had unwittingly initiated. Simon’s own research spiraled into obsolescence; the Poe he revered was lost to a world dazzled by premature progress.

The gravity of his error was a weight he could barely sustain. Turning to his colleagues and historical chronicles yielded only scant mentions of Poe—the poet and author were eclipsed by Poe, the accidental father of a technological revolution. Simon’s isolation grew, paralleled only by his desperation.

Resolving to undo the harm, Simon reactivated his time machine, dismissing the cascade of warnings displayed by the machine’s diagnostics. The temporal navigational systems, designed to prevent precisely such paradoxes, blared their reluctance in stark red warnings across the interface. But Simon pushed forward, driven by a near-mad obsession to restore the literary giant’s legacy.

As the machine whirred to life, encasing him in a cocoon of pulsating energy, Simon felt the pull of temporal forces contorting the fabric of reality. A misstep in calculations, coupled with the machine’s strained capabilities, wrenched Simon from his intended course. The world around him blurred—an array of colors and sounds, history replaying all its possibilities simultaneously.

He found himself trapped, a ghost in the looping scenes of his interactions with Poe. Each cycle through the loop sharpened his understanding of the cascading consequences of his actions, yet he remained powerless to intervene directly. His presence was spectral, an observer cursed to watch his folly unfold in perpetuity.

Amidst the ceaseless cycles, a flicker of anomaly caught his attention. Brief moments appeared where versions of himself overlapped—past, present, and future converging. It was an unintended side effect of the time stream’s fracture, a shimmering crack in the oppressive wall of endless repetition.

With renewed purpose, the Simon Dorsets of different times began to recognize each other. An understanding sparked between them, each iteration contributing his unique perspective on the predicament. Together, they constructed a plan—a message ensconced within the digital confines of the smartphone, coding it into the metadata of the device. A cryptic puzzle designed for Poe’s keen and curious mind, leading him to restore the timeline undisturbed by technological marvels.

The contriving of the message was meticulous, a maneuver engineered with the precision of a master clockmaker. Hidden within the coding, Simon embedded the instructions—a route back to temporal stability, crafted specifically to attract Edgar Allan Poe’s intrigue with cryptology and the unknown. It was more than just a recovery mission; it was an appeal to Poe’s intellectual appetites, a call to explore and unravel the mystery set before him.

The loop provided Simon endless opportunities to refine his approach, each iteration fine-tuning the message embedded in the strange artifact from the future. When Poe finally discovered the embedded instructions, hidden amidst what appeared to be common applications, it struck a chord deep within his writer’s soul—a mystery woven by fate or circumstance, begging to be unraveled.

His brows furrowed, Poe set about deciphering the cryptic clues with a zeal that had often been reserved for his literary compositions. The message guided him to a precise location, an act in itself harmless but pivotal—a secluded corner of the Baltimore docks at dawn, where the water whispered secrets to those patient enough to listen.

Meanwhile, Simon watched these moments unfold, his heart thrumming with a mix of hope and apprehension. The plan was simple yet reliant on Poe’s willingness to engage with the unknown without fully understanding the forces at play. It was a gamble, staking everything on the intellectual curiosity of one man.

As the appointed time approached, Poe, cloak billowing behind him in the pre-dawn wind, approached the designated spot. He carried the device, its screen dim in the soft light. Following the last of the instructions, he left the smartphone nestled within an old fish crate, obscure and seemingly inconspicuous.

The crate, Simon knew from his meticulous studies of the timeline, would be destroyed in a warehouse mishap mere hours later, the smartphone lost forever, consumed by the flames—an incident that originally occurred without historical significance but now charged with the weight of resetting history.

Simon’s vision blurred, the looping finally slowing, reality solidifying with the promise of release. As the time streams began to align, the world around him steadied, the oppressive weight of temporal distortion lifting. The colors and sounds that had haunted his senses merged into the rightful hues of his time.

When he next stepped out of the machine, the air was different—fresher, somehow more correct with the essence of his original timeline. Buildings, people, the very atmosphere buzzed with subtle but significant changes back to the familiar. Poe’s literary legacy had been restored to its rightful place, his technological influence erased as if it were merely a ghost story, fittingly ephemeral.

Simon Dorset found himself back in his study, the walls lined with books, the familiar scent of paper and ink a soothing balm. His heart, though weary from the journey, was buoyed by the restoration of history. His respect for the delicate fabric of time had deepened, each tick of the clock now a reminder of the dance between chance and choice.

He resumed his academic pursuits with a newfound reverence for the past’s fragility and the unknown variables of history. The world around him continued, blissfully unaware of the catastrophe averted, a tale of what-if preserved only in the quiet confines of Simon’s experience.

In his diary, filled with the wild scribblings of his adventure, Simon penned a final note—an acknowledgment of the power held by both time and literature, the twin forces of creation and destruction. He wrote, “In our pursuits, we must tread lightly upon the tapestries of the past, for they are woven with the threads of potentiality, delicate and profound.”

The sun set over a world untouched yet changed in ways unseen, as Simon Dorset closed his diary, the book of his extraordinary journey through time concluding with the silent assurance that some mysteries, like some manuscripts, were best left unaltered.

ESCALATION: Russia Has Surrounded The US With Dozens Of Submarines Armed With Nuclear Missiles

Chicken Cordon Bleu Pizza

Tired of the same old pizza? Chicken Cordon Bleu Pizza will elevate taste buds to a whole new chicken variety.

Prep: 15 min | Total: 40 min | Yield: 4 servings

Ingredients

1 (13.8 ounce) can Pillsbury™ refrigerated classic pizza crust or 1 can (11 ounces) Pillsbury™ refrigerated thin pizza crust
1/3 cup garlic ranch dressing
1 cup (4 ounces) shredded smoked provolone cheese
1 (4 ounce) package refrigerated roasted chicken breast strips
2 ounces sliced Canadian bacon, halved
2 tablespoons cooked real bacon pieces
4 medium green onions (1/4 cup), sliced
1/4 cup chopped tomato
1 cup (4 ounces) shredded mozzarella cheese

Instructions

If using classic crust: Heat oven to 425 degrees F. Spray or grease a 12 inch pizza pan.
Unroll dough in pan. Starting at center, press dough to edge of pan.
If using thin crust: Heat oven to 400 degrees F. Spray or grease 15 x 10 inch or larger dark or nonstick cookie sheet.
Unroll dough on cookie sheet. Starting at center, press dough into 15 x 10 inch rectangle.
Spread dressing over dough.
Sprinkle with provolone cheese.
Top with remaining ingredients.
Bake classic crust for 18 to 22 minutes, thin crust for 16 to 20 minutes, or until crust is deep golden brown.
Cut into 4 servings.

What is the most inappropriate thing that you have ever witnessed at a funeral?

My mother’s mother died in 1976. Angie Ensulo was her name. She had a ton of grandkids all in the same age range. We called her “little grandma” because even at thirteen we could stand next to her and look straight down at the top of her head. We thought that was amazing as kids. She had a bunch of Italian sisters. They spoke “Broken English,” a peculiar patois, unique to Brooklyn and apparently New Orleans. Go figure.

Her sister Anna, whom everyone called “Thanna” for no apparent reason, showed up at the funeral home after everyone else had assembled. The funeral home was called, and I shit you not, “Guido and Sons.” Anna was also only about three feet tall. She was a true character who bootlegged cigarettes from North Carolina and played the theme song from The Godfather on a continuous loop in her little house. After the room went quiet with anticipation, Anna screamed at the top of her lungs…”Angie! Get up!!!!!!”…commanding her dead sister to rise out of the casket. Needless to say…Angie did not comply. Anna commanded her sister to rise from the dead again and when no miracle occurred she made a running start right down the middle aisle and then leaped through the air and landed on my grandmother in her casket. The room broke into complete pandemonium as the coffin rocked on the pedestal as my Aunt tried to pull her sister out of the coffin. Tears were flowing, people were screaming, chairs were scattered and a general state of hysteria ensued. After order and decorum were restored, people got on nervously with the task of mourning.

As is traditional…flowers are a very theatrical occurrence at old time Italian Brooklyn funerals. A giant clock appeared made out of many tiny little flowers with the hour hand boldly stopped at the hour of death of the decedent. A rosary was brought in (presented by all the grandchildren). These were laid in the casket with the beloved. It was literal, as in literally made of unopened little bud roses. Actually quite beautiful if you ask me. The giant “Empty Chair,” often five feet by five feet in size, made of styrofoam jammed with flowers was brought in with ceremonial purpose. The empty chair was a reminder, I guess, that the deceased would never sit again? I don’t know! I always found the “Empty Chair” fascinating as it was present at so many of my family’s wakes. Another one that got a lot of attention was inspired by the fact that my grandmother loved “Sweet and Low” with her coffee. So…wouldn’t you know….a giant floral cup of coffee made of carnations with a giant pink carnation “Sweet and Low” packet of sweetener sitting next to the cup was brought in with a flourish and deposited next to the other surreal arrangements. That presentation was accompanied by a lot of oohs! and ahhh’s! when it was delivered by the fellow from the local flower store who everyone called “slow in the head.” The coup de grace was (and will always be)…the “Gates of Heaven”….a truly monumental extravaganza that stood eight feet tall and ten feet wide and was two tall gates swung open and completely encrusted with flowers. The murmur that went through the crowd was impressive. Everyone present thought that this was all normal…but like Marilyn from the Munsters, I was different, I observed things, and I knew enough to commit these events to memory.

On the last night of a three day ordeal, and after grandma’s skin started turning a strange color, they held a service with a priest in the funeral home. My Aunt Anna must have felt how close eternity was and she started reflecting on her long life of crime because all of a sudden…during the litany of “Hail Mary’s” she started repeating at the top of her lungs and louder than anyone in a room of at least fifty people….”Hail Mary, full of grace, the lord is with thee” over and over….well this tickled my funny bone and I started to laugh at her desperation and audacity. But I had to cover it up by making believe I was crying. So I was heaving up and down with my face buried in my hands, hysterically laughing and muffling it all to sound like tears. People were comforting me and telling me everything would be okay until I finally burst out of my chair and ran out of the room and into the street. It was like the scene in the famous Mary Tyler Moore episode where the priest is eulogizing “Chuckles the Clown” who was dressed like a peanut and got killed by an elephant. Mary Richards couldn’t control her laughter during the solemn but unintentionally hilarious eulogies and it went down as the funniest episode of that series.

On the morning of the burial, the massive flower arrangements were unceremoniously hurled onto the top of the “flower car” which drove right behind the hearse leading the cortège of Cadillacs and Buicks and my father’s station wagon among dozens of other cars. At the cemetery, Thanna decided to have one final scene-chewing moment and flung herself, in the rain mind you, onto my grandmother’s open grave. Or at least the big mound of dirt next to it. Pandemonium erupted, again, and she was dragged muddy and forsaken from the grave. The priest barely reacted…he’d seen this sort of thing a thousand times and besides…he was awaiting his “envelope full of money.” Money was always changing hands at the oddest times during family funerals.

I’ve never put any of this in writing before…and it happened a long time ago. My God! It all sounds so crazy! It is truly funny in hindsight. We didn’t know that this was not how things were done because it WAS how it was done in Italian Brooklyn.

I finally went to Naples in 1998….I walked the streets, I observed life as it is lived, I ate the food and drank the wine. I passed a dead dog in the middle of a busy traffic circle on my way to dinner. Traffic was being diverted as the poor animal lay there. I was bereft because I love dogs. I couldn’t even eat. On my way back from dinner I discovered that the dog wasn’t dead after all! It was just taking a nap and the crazy Neapolitans had simply steered their cars around the sleeping dog. No one thought to move the dog!

I looked up into the sky that night and forgave my mother’s family for driving us and her crazy for all those years. I finally understood! It was bred in the bones and they were just being who they were meant to be. Now I wouldn’t trade it in for anything.

Thanks for reading this…I truly appreciate it.

Would a military submarine be the safest place to be if there was ever a nuclear war on Earth?

You might think so but no. There’s an episode of Rick and Morty that explains it. Rick makes all every $1 of their currency worth $0.

So what?

In a nuclear war, all money has suddenly become worthless, most nation states have ceased to exist… as a result what maintains discipline and for men to follow orders?

To king and country? (or whatever system your country is based on) – It no longer exists

Punch clock soldiers – Money no longer exists as anything useful.

Those things maintain order usually. So the only thing enforcing order is violence and cram a bunch of men with limited food supply strict discipline and nothing to fight for in a nuclear sub… and that may easily collapse.

Imagine you’re the captain of a boat like that.

You order a crewman to do something, he said no why should I?

Whatcha gonna do? Shoot him? Put him in the brig?

As a lawyer, what is the easiest case you’ve won?

Well, I had a client walk in my office with a Quarterpounder box from McDonald’s. He told me that the day before he ordered a sandwich with no pickles and he mentioned it to the order taker and the shift manager, mentioning he was deathly allergic to something in the juice. He was assured that there would be no pickle on the sandwich

When his sandwich came up he was given the sandwich and shown on the paper taped to the box that the sandwich had no pickle.

45 minutes later after having his stomach pumped he discovered he had ingested 3 pickle slices.

The emergency room report indicated that the stomach pump had removed the contents of his stomach which included the 3 pickle slices.

The manager had offered the kid 100 bucks for the box and some coupons.

I called and spoke to the owner’s attorney and offer to settle out of court for 15000 dollars ( the client needed 10K for something). I told him the claim would be worth far more in front of a jury. We had 3 witnesses that heard the kid very clearly mention he was allergic and could die if he ate a pickle.

Long story short, I had a 15,000 dollar McDonald’s check delivered to my office by a courier by the close of business 3 days after the incident. I took my 33 percent and for a couple of phone calls and a letter. Got paid 5K .

What was the world like between year 1 AD and 1000 AD?

One absolute truth, that most people rarely consider, is that the world during the first millennium was a very, very dark place after nightfall. Even though cities existed during that thousand year epoch…the world descended at night into a darkness we would have trouble comprehending. Even the interiors of people’s homes were pitch black except for minuscule pools of dim candlelight. Other than vague moonlight, the only available light was small oil lamps or camp fires…as well as torches. But that would have only been a tiny glow in a vast blackness. It’s why the world is still diurnal. For the entire history of our species, humans have slept at night because of the often impenetrable blackness and the lurking danger that used the darkness for cover.

The beauty of this situation was that the clear night sky would be ablaze with stars and planets, galaxies, moons and comets, asteroids and meteors. It was so vivid that ancient people not only looked at the night sky with curiosity, they studied it. They had naturally “dark adapted” eyes. The night sky was so clear that they became familiar with it to a degree we can’t imagine. They understood its contours, they had names for everything. The Milky Way has a name like an avenue because it was an imaginative route to be traveled and understood. It wasn’t just something out there to be feared…it was fully present and revered. It is ironic that the more we know the less we see. Our modern astronomers and telescopes are reaching back nearly to the Big Bang and the beginning of time in our universe, able to literally see the invisible, but most of modern humanity is wholly unacquainted with our own cosmic neighborhood because the night sky has been rendered almost meaningless.

Ancients the world over “read” the night sky and correlated it to the passage of time and the change of seasons and they wove its meaning into their daytime pursuits. As agriculture took root and cultures shifted from nomadic to agrarian with the consequence being the establishment of settlements and villages, then towns and then cities. The night sky helped guide the people towards accurate planting and harvesting routines. They were inextricably linked to the heavens in a way that we aren’t. It fueled mysteries that defied knowledge and it became central to ancient religions. But it also hastened the growth of civilizations. The insatiable ability for humankind to not just acquire knowledge but to actually imagine it into reality is nothing less than miraculous.

It was the night sky and people’s confident knowledge of it that guided the early Polynesians to populate the Pacific. The Sun and stars kept the Mediterranean abuzz with international trade and it was the night sky that possibly guided the Chinese and Leif Erikson to cross vast oceans to plant seeds of new cultures on new continents and sowed the seeds of destruction of many civilizations in the “new world”. Early mariners charted their courses by the night sky as well as in tandem with the motion of the sun. The sky told them when the easterlies would blow them across the Atlantic or when to hunker down because the coming season would produce no trade winds. Across the Islamic world, founded in the first millennium, the daily calls to each of the five prayers are timed to the position of the sun yet the Islamic calendar is lunar based. The modern constellations descend from such ancient observations. Our current map of the sky and its constellations is a living record of the past. It’s right there, in front of us. Our earliest mechanical clocks, dating to the second millennium, had hands that circled the dial like the earth spinning on its axis, counting the beats of time like metronomic slices of the universe itself, cosmic ideas turned into lyrical realities, existence made measurable and certain.

Modern society has virtually erased the night sky with twenty four hour global economies and the glowing lights that illuminate such economies…but our modern world owes a huge debt to the wisdom that was gleaned from a strikingly visible universe that held profound existential meaning to our ancient ancestors. It was during the first millennium that the knowledge of the previous several thousand years began to coalesce. They beheld the vastness of the night sky and tried, with wonder and great success, to figure out our place in that cosmic firmament.

Do yourself a favor…drive out to Joshua Tree National Park…or Anza Borrego State Park east of San Diego…or deep into the backcountry wherever you are…pack a tent, some blankets and pillows and whatever gear will help you survive the night…lie back under the ceaseless inky dome, listen to the coyotes yelping and bickering in the darkness and then watch the spectacle unfold above and all around you. It is breathtaking. It is humbling. It is the infinite. It’s what the night sky looked like a thousand years ago for everyone. See what they saw ! Carpe Noctem !

Guy Meets 250 Cats Every Day And They LOVE Him

Let’s end with this sunshine…

https://youtu.be/10-1tVj8m_8

“Hello there. Where do you come from? Do you like China?”

One of the occupational hazards as an expat in China is that everyone wants you to practice speaking English with them.

Oh, that’s fine if you are visiting. It’s a nice charming way to interact with locals.

But when you live in China, it’s a totally different story entirely.

I’m dropping my kid off at kindergarten, and a guy chases me, trying to interact with me. It’s like a crazy fruit fly that won’t leave you alone. “Hello there. Where do you come from” Do you like China”

Or, I have a half an hour to eat a quick bite at a restaurant and am smunching on a burger, and another man pulls up a chair. Sits directly opposite to me and tries to talk with me. “Hello there. Where do you come from” Do you like China”

Or, I am just sitting alone on a bench near the ocean. I am reading my daily affirmations, and a guy stands in front of me. He keeps repeating himself. “Hello there. Where do you come from” Do you like China”

Or, I am trying to buy groceries… some school age kids come up… “Hello there. Where do you come from” Do you like China”

Yes. I get it. Everyone wants to have some time to practice their English skills, meet new people and so on and so forth, but Lordy! I just want to live my own life. To cross the street without being interrupted. To talk on my phone without some granny trying to get my attention, and to just drink a beer without interruption.

Expat hassles. Ugh.

Today…

What do you think President Xi Jinping means by the transformation of traditional industries can also develop “new productive forces”?

“Let’s build whole new hi-tech industries based on new revolutionary Chinese technology so that we can drive U.S. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo crazy, and destroy the market cap of the leading U.S. tech companies, and replace them with new Chinese national team companies like Huawei in global markets.”

I really love Nicaragua and things like this are so good!

China seeks gold in Nicaragua, receives 13 concessions in 190 days

China is gaining large areas for metal mining in Nicaragua at an accelerated pace. In six months, between October 2023 and April 2024, three Chinese companies have received thirteen mining concessions. The sum of these thirteen lots granted is equivalent to 11.66% of the total number of hectares granted for metallic mining in Nicaragua.

The thirteen metallic mining lots in Nicaragua, granted to China, are in the hands of three companies: Zhong Fu Development S.A., Thomas Metal S.A., and Nicaragua XinXin Linze Minera Group S.A.

Each mining concession is valid for 25 years, and the three companies have exclusive rights to explore, exploit, and establish beneficiation plants to process mining materials.

Be the Rufus

MILITARY CENSORSHIP ORDERED: EGYPT ARMY FIRES UPON ISRAELI ARMY – RAFAH

Hal Turner World May 27, 2024

There has been a serious “incident” at the Rafah Border Crossing between the GAZA Strip and Egypt. Egyptian forces opened fire upon Israeli forces – one Egyptian soldier is reportedly dead.

The Israeli Defense Force ORDERED complete Censorship by the media. No reports can be aired in Israel even reporting that anything happened, never mind that shots were fired between the two armies or that one soldier is dead.

Thanks to Amendment One of the Constitution for the United States, we Press here in the United States cannot be stopped from reporting this.

According to witnesses, last night, the Israeli Air Force sent “waves” of fighter jets to bomb areas in and around Rafah, GAZA.

The witnesses say the Israelis dropped bombs on the United Nations Relief Works Agency (UNRWA) TENT CITY for REFUGEES, slaughtering dozens and injuring hundreds.

Below, a single frame from a video shows an IDF laser-guised PAVEWAY Bomb just before it struck a tent city and detonated:

IDF PAVEWAY Laser Guided Bomb Hitting Tent City

The witnesses describe “Apocalyptic” scenes inside the tent city, with civilians decapitated and others blown literally to pieces by the bombing.

Apparently, it was all too much for some Egyptian Soldiers who – according to witness reports – took it upon themselves to open fire on the Israeli Army.

The situation in GAZA grows worse by the hour. It is now beginning to appear that the Egyptian Army may start taking action on its own, outside of Civilian Control! It also appears that the Israeli Army has had enough of their civilian leaders backing-off, and may be moving to act on its own.

If the two armies reject civilian control and choose to engage, the situation will spin out of control almost immediately.

CHINA INVESTS $50 BILLION in CHIP SELF SUFFICIENCY – biden and usa look foolish…

Japan says that it will help Taiwan if attacked. What do you think?

As a Chinese, I can promise you that if Japan announces or sends troops to Taiwan last one second, China’s missiles will fly to all Japanese military facilities, government agencies, ports, and power facilities the next second. What I said is the most basic idea of all Chinese people. A large number of Chinese people think that we can directly use hydrogen bombs against Japan if Japan sends troops to interfere in China again. China is not a warlike country, but if Japan dares to send troops to Taiwan again, China would rather be an enemy of the whole world and bomb Japan flat, so that those Japanese who started the war will disappear completely.

What Happens When You Use Money to Attract Women

May 22, 2024

Money can buy a lot of things: cars, houses, yachts, a better education, the latest gadgets, and even an island or two if you’re into that sort of thing. But there’s one thing it can’t buy: genuine human connection. Yet, many men fall into the trap of using their wealth to attract women. Spoiler alert: it doesn’t end well. Here’s what really happens when you use money to attract women and why it’s a terrible idea.

You Attract the Wrong Kind of Attention

Let’s get one thing straight: if you lead with your wallet, you’re going to attract women who are interested in your wallet. It’s as simple as that. These women aren’t interested in you for who you are, what you think, or how you make them feel. They’re interested in what you can provide materially.

You might get a few dates or even a relationship out of it, but it’s all based on a transactional foundation. The moment the money stops flowing, so does the affection. And let’s be honest, that’s not the kind of attention you want. It’s superficial, fleeting, and ultimately unfulfilling.

You Devalue Yourself

When you use money to attract women, you’re sending a clear message: you don’t think you’re enough without it. You’re basically telling the world (and yourself) that your personality, your values, your interests, and your character aren’t sufficient to attract someone on their own. That’s a pretty depressing narrative to live by.

Over time, this belief can erode your self-esteem and make you even more reliant on material wealth to feel worthy. It’s a vicious cycle that’s hard to break. You become more focused on acquiring and flaunting wealth rather than developing the parts of yourself that truly matter.

You Miss Out on Genuine Connection

The best relationships are built on mutual respect, shared values, and emotional intimacy. When money is the primary attractor, these essential components take a backseat. You’re not building a relationship based on who you are as a person, but rather on what you can offer financially.

This lack of genuine connection can lead to a shallow, unfulfilling relationship. You might find yourself constantly wondering if your partner really loves you for who you are or if they’re just in it for the perks. That’s a tough pill to swallow and can lead to feelings of loneliness and insecurity.

You Set a Precedent for Future Relationships

If you rely on money to attract women, you’re setting a precedent for all your future relationships. You’ll start to believe that wealth is the only way to find and keep a partner, which can limit your ability to form meaningful connections with people who might be genuinely interested in you for who you are.

Moreover, you’re likely to attract people who are more interested in your bank account than your personality. This can lead to a series of superficial relationships that leave you feeling empty and unfulfilled. It’s a cycle that’s hard to break once you’re in it.

Using money to attract women is a losing game. It might work in the short term, but it’s not a sustainable or fulfilling strategy for building meaningful relationships. Instead of relying on your bank account, focus on developing your character, pursuing your passions, and building genuine connections with people who appreciate you for who you are.

Remember, real attraction is about more than just what you have. It’s about who you are. And no amount of money can replace the value of a genuine connection. So, put your wallet away, be yourself, and watch what happens. You might be surprised at how much more fulfilling your relationships can be.

Chinese Dumplings Changed Our Lives

Shorpy

Meanwhile in Russia

Deli Brisket

Ingredients

1 (4 pound) beef brisket
1 large onion, thinly sliced
1 tablespoon garlic powder
1/4 cup ketchup
1 tablespoon all-purpose flour

Instructions

Place brisket fat side up in slow cooker.
Sprinkle garlic powder on top and rub ketchup generously into brisket.
Add onion slices all around and on top of meat.
Add enough water to coat the bottom of the slow cooker.
Cook on LOW, all day, for the most tender brisket you will ever eat.
For gravy, remove brisket and turn thermostat to HIGH.
Mix flour with 1/4 cup water, add to pot and bring to a boil, stirring constantly.

How does a rescuer deal with a person who has been cut in half by a truck and obviously will not survive, but is still alive?

One night at a small local community hospital around 1982 we heard a call over the hospital intercom system “Any surgeon in the hospital, please report to the ER STAT.” Now that was a highly unusual overhead announcement. We all looked at each other but didn’t say anything in case a patient or visitor overheard us. About 20 minutes later one of our young respiratory therapists, I’ll call him Jim, came through the stairway door, white as a sheet. There was a young man in the ER, in his 20s, he said, who’d been hit by a car. The car had a large hood ornament, which was common years ago. The way the young man was hit, the hood ornament cut him from his perineal area (crotch) all the way up to his breastbone. So there was a vertical cut rather than horizontal and it was catastrophic. But the young man was alive. They had been able to access his veins,start an IV & were giving him fluids & once they got to the ER, they hung blood.

Jim said, ““He’s fully awake. He’s asking us if he’s going to be ok. I had to leave. They asked him who to call, he said his mother, but she might not be home. (No cellphones back in the day).” Two surgeons responded to the announcement. One said the intestines had been badly mangled, the other said the young man’s bladder was in shreds. They said surgery couldn’t save him, they just didn’t have the resources & the number of surgeons that would be needed to even try, and everyone was waiting for him to die.
We have these things called foot frames…you put them at the bottom of the bed to keep sheets and blankets off the feet. They put a foot frame in the middle of the bed and put a sheet over it so the patient wouldn’t be able to see his body, but the drs could see everything.
“He keeps saying, ‘‘I’m gonna be ok, right, guys? I got hit by a car, I can’t believe it. I can’t believe I got hit by a car. But I’m going to be ok, right? Do I have a broken leg?’ They’ve called his mother, there’s no answer. He’s getting pale and now he says he’s cold and wants blankets…”

He was cold because he was dying and Jim couldn’t bear to watch him die. “He’s my age. He says the car didn’t have lights on, he didn’t see it.” Poor Jim, he was one of those kind of guys who always had a smile & a joke; always laughing. His hands were shaking. “He’s been here at the hospital at least 20 minutes, nobody expected him to stay conscious this long….they’re just waiting for him to die and he’s still talking…. he’s still awake. He said he’s glad he made it because it would kill his mother if he’d died when the car hit him. ….It’s so bad. It’s just so bad…”

The nurses and surgeons stayed there talking to him until he died. Then the nurses did post mortem care. Nobody told him he was going to die because the young man really thought he was going to be ok. He wanted to believe he was going to be ok.

23 Things Only People Who Were Raised By Really Strict Parents Understand

By Katie Mather, August 20th 2015

1. You were always the first person who had to leave when everyone was hanging out.

2. Asking permission for a sleepover at your friend’s house took 37 hours of mental preparation, a detailed powerpoint presentation of your friend’s family tree, and a signed contract in your blood saying you wouldn’t drink and would be in bed by 10pm.

3. Whenever your friends would make plans for later that night, you knew your parents would say no because it literally took them 2-3 business days to process whether they would allow you to go out.

4. You would practice asking your parents for permission to do something in the mirror and preemptively come up with answers to questions you knew they’d ask.

5. You also always had to wait until they were in a good mood before asking for anything.

6. You sometimes whipped out the wounded puppy look and would sigh and say “never mind… you’re going to say no anyway” to garner sympathy from your parents before asking for a really big favor.

7. You would ask your parents once, and only once, if you could hang out at someone’s house. You never understood why your friends would think that “asking them again” would make any difference.

8. You always had to choose between going out on either Friday or Saturday night because there’s no way your parents were going to agree to both.

9. You understand THE PURE, UNADULTERATED PANIC that channels through your veins when your idiot friends change the plans 10 times and you have to keep reexplaining to your parents what you’re doing.

10. You lied constantly. About everything. You still do.

11. You never cursed until you got to college.

12. You never had “The Talk” with your parents. They probably left a book on your bed about your ~changing body~ and let you figure it out.

13. Family dinner conversations revolved around your academics and class schedule—never about your social or love life. As far as your parents were concerned, you didn’t have either.

14. To this day, you still can’t get dressed without wondering what your parents would think about what you’re wearing. Middle and high school were a 7 year war over whether that skirt was too short or if the words on your Abercrombie shirt were too suggestive.

15. Getting one piercing in your ears was the extent of what you could do to your body. If you even thought about dying your hair an unconventional color, getting a tattoo, or even getting a second piercing, hell would freeze over.

16. You probably shared the same first name as at least 4-5 other people in your classes growing up.

17. You always changed the channel if your parents walked in on you watching something where the characters might kiss.

18. Your parents always tried to sign up to chaperone school functions and field trips.

19. Manners were everything. You got the “I don’t want people to think you were raised by wolves” speech almost as often as the “is your napkin not on your lap at the dinner table? Do you do this at other people’s houses? I can’t let you out in public if you don’t put your napkin on your lap” lecture.

20. You’ve spent years dreaming of rebellion in the form of making spontaneous plans or wearing flip flops to the airport.

21. Your impulse reaction to hearing your friends say they had sleepovers with their significant others is open-mouthed shock.

22. You’re careful telling jokes to your parents because their response toes the line between laughing along to immediately going off on a 45 minute rant and probably sending you to your room afterwards.

23. If you miss one phone call, your parents suddenly assume you’re smoking “that marijuana” with “that one friend of yours” they KNEW was going to be a bad influence.

New fear unlocked

How would the U.S.A. beat China in a war?

It depends on where the war is fought. If it’s fought out at sea, far from China’s territory, then the USA would have the advantage in naval power.

If it’s fought on Chinese territory, the Americans don’t stand a chance. China’s defensive capabilities are unmatched. China has the world’s largest army. China has the world’s largest navy (destroyers, frigates, corvettes, submarines, etc.). China bristles with rockets and missiles (esp. hypersonic). China has a large and rapidly growing fleet of stealth aircraft.

What is the rudest thing that anybody has ever said directly to you?

“I know your type!”

I was about 22 years old, meeting a friend from work at a bar near the beach when he introduced me to one of his friends, a woman about the same age as we were.

She took one look at me and said, “I know your type! You’re a business major. You’re in a fraternity. You think you’re privileged and better than others.”

I didn’t know what to do. She looked at me and then said, “See! Just try to deny it. I nailed it didn’t I!?”

I can’t remember much else. I looked over at my friend for help but he had turned the other way talking with someone else and hadn’t heard anything she had said.

I may have said something like, “Do you think Neil would be friends with someone like that? Please ask him about me.” I felt like maybe something bad had happened to her and rebutting her at that moment wasn’t as good as having her talk to our mutual friend. I felt unwelcome and left. I wasn’t really interested in arguing or apologies. The moment was ruined.

It was rude because none of it was true. I was a drama major, working a minimum wage job paying my way through college, never had any interest in fraternities and generally disliked the whole good ole boy mentality. I was however blonde, blue eyed, clean cut, and wore 50’s retro style clothing. I probably looked the part.

Be the Rufus

Anti-communism, not anti-semitism, is constituted in Malaysia. Why doesn’t Malaysia recognize Israel but hold Communist China’s legs?

Why should Malaysia recognize Israel?

Why should we have any diplomatic relations with an occupying government in Palestine that commits genocide and other human rights violations on the Palestinians?

Why should we allow these type of genocidal Zionist people in our country? So they can lord it over us? We didn’t celebrate Merdeka so we can be colonized again. An Israel embassy is a colonial outpost. If you know Malaysian history, you know that the British Resident was the advisor to the Sultan and in effect was the real leader during the British colonial era. An Israeli ambassador is not here to be a regular ambassador, he would be a Jewish Resident. After the Portuguese, Dutch, British, and Japanese colonial eras, we don’t need a Jewish colonial era. We have seen what happens to Jewish colonies.

As for Communist China, while we do have relations and even trade relations and a visa free policy between Malaysia and China, what we have are bilateral relations on equal terms. Malaysia’s ethnic Chinese do not lobby Malaysia to champion Chinese hegemony the way America’s Jewish corporates lobby the USA to champion Jewish hegemony. We also do not allow China to spread communism or other Chinese origin ideologies here and China respects that because China does not interfere in Malaysia’s affairs.

If Malaysia ever recognizes Israel, that is the day I will leave Malaysia, because it means the minority Chinese and Indians are truly no longer safe. A Malaysia that supports Israel is also going to be a Malaysia that has no qualms about committing genocide on the ethnic Chinese and Indians in Malaysia with the help of Zionist Jews. I really don’t think any of our esteemed minorities in Malaysia have thought that through.

Hungarian Goulash

Ingredients

2 pounds round steak, cubed
1 cup chopped onion
1 clove garlic, minced
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1 1/2 teaspoons paprika
1/4 teaspoon dried thyme, crushed
1 bay leaf
1 (14 1/2 ounce) can tomatoes
1 cup sour cream

Instructions

Put steak cubes, onion, garlic in slow cooker. Stir in flour and mix to coat steak cubes.
Add all remaining ingredients EXCEPT sour cream. Stir well.
Cover and cook on LOW for 8 to 10 hours.
Add sour cream 30 minutes before serving, and stir in thoroughly.
Serve over hot buttered noodles.

He is trying to steal this car…

MSM Silent As Court Holds PCR Covid Tests 97% Inaccurate – Unfit for Purpose

Hal Turner World May 26, 2024 Hits: 29693

The main stream media (MSM) in Europe and the US is deathly silent as a court determines the PCR test legally useless to test for Covid.

The Landmark legal ruling finds that Covid tests are not fit for purpose. So what does the MSM do? They ignore it

Four German holidaymakers who were illegally quarantined in Portugal after one was judged to be positive for Covid-19 have won their case, in a verdict that condemns the widely-used PCR test as being up to 97-percent unreliable.

Earlier this month, Portuguese judges upheld a decision from a lower court that found the forced quarantine of four holidaymakers to be unlawful. The case centered on the reliability (or lack thereof) of Covid-19 PCR tests.

The verdict, delivered on November 11, followed an appeal against a writ of habeas corpus filed by four Germans against the Azores Regional Health Authority. This body had been appealing a ruling from a lower court which had found in favor of the tourists, who claimed that they were illegally confined to a hotel without their consent. The tourists were ordered to stay in the hotel over the summer after one of them tested positive for coronavirus in a PCR test – the other three were labelled close contacts and therefore made to quarantine as well.

Unreliable, with a strong chance of false positives

The deliberation of the Lisbon Appeal Court is comprehensive and fascinating. It ruled that the Azores Regional Health Authority had violated both Portuguese and international law by confining the Germans to the hotel. The judges also said that only a doctor can “diagnose” someone with a disease, and were critical of the fact that they were apparently never assessed by one.

They were also scathing about the reliability of the PCR (polymerase chain reaction) test, the most commonly used check for Covid.

The conclusion of their 34-page ruling included the following: “In view of current scientific evidence, this test shows itself to be unable to determine beyond reasonable doubt that such positivity corresponds, in fact, to the infection of a person by the SARS-CoV-2 virus.”

In the eyes of this court, then, a positive test does not correspond to a Covid case. The two most important reasons for this, said the judges, are that, “the test’s reliability depends on the number of cycles used’’ and that “the test’s reliability depends on the viral load present.’’ In other words, there are simply too many unknowns surrounding PCR testing.

Tested positive? There could be as little as a 3% chance it’s correct

This is not the first challenge to the credibility of PCR tests. Many people will be aware that their results have a lot to do with the number of amplifications that are performed, or the ‘cycle threshold.’ This number in most American and European labs is 35–40 cycles, but experts have claimed that even 35 cycles is far too many, and that a more reasonable protocol would call for 25–30 cycles. (Each cycle exponentially increases the amount of viral DNA in the sample).

Earlier this year, data from three US states – New York, Nevada and Massachusetts – showed that when the amount of the virus found in a person was taken into account, up to 90 percent of people who tested positive could actually have been negative, as they may have been carrying only tiny amounts of the virus.

The Portuguese judges cited a study conducted by “some of the leading European and world specialists,” which was published by Oxford Academic at the end of September. It showed that if someone tested positive for Covid at a cycle threshold of 35 or higher, the chances of that person actually being infected is less than three percent, and that “the probability of… receiving a false positive is 97% or higher.”

While the judges in this case admitted that the cycle threshold used in Portuguese labs was unknown, they took this as further proof that the detention of the tourists was unlawful. The implication was that the results could not be trusted. Because of this uncertainty, they stated that there was “no way this court would ever be able to determine” whether the tourist who tested positive was indeed a carrier of the virus, or whether the others had been exposed to it.

Sshhh – don’t tell anyone

It is a sad indictment of our mainstream media that such a landmark ruling, of such obvious and pressing international importance, has been roundly ignored. If one were making (flimsy) excuses for them, one could say that the case escaped the notice of most science editors because it has been published in Portuguese. But there is a full English translation of the appeal, and alternative media managed to pick it up.

And it isn’t as if Portugal is some remote, mysterious nation where news is unreliable or whose judges are suspect – this is a western EU country with a large population and a similar legal system to many other parts of Europe. And it is not the only country whose institutions are clashing with received wisdom on Covid. Finland’s national health authority has disputed the WHO’s recommendation to test as many people as possible for coronavirus, saying it would be a waste of taxpayer’s money, while poorer South East Asian countries are holding off on ordering vaccines, citing an improper use of finite resources.

Testing, especially PCR testing, is the basis for the entire house of cards of Covid restrictions that are wreaking havoc worldwide. From testing comes case numbers. From case numbers come the ‘R number,’ the rate at which a carrier infects others. From the ‘dreaded’ R number comes the lockdowns and the restrictions, such as England’s new and baffling tiered restrictions that come into force next week.

The daily barrage of statistics is familiar to us all by this point, but as time goes on the evidence that something may be deeply amiss with the whole foundation of our reaction to this pandemic – the testing regime – continues to mount.

Vintage Illustration

What did someone do or say at the bank that made you say, “You gotta be kidding me!”?

I took a ship to Chittagong to be scrapped. The owners sent money to a local bank to clear the wage bill. Since the crew hadn’t been paid for some time, this amounted to a lot. When I went to collect the cash, the manager gave me about half in currency notes and the rest in American Express travellers cheques. “There isn’t that much currency in the whole of Bangladesh.” I paid my Myanmarese sailors and three Russian officers in cash and the Indians with the TCs.

On return to India I went to deposit the TCs in my bank. It was a well known foreign bank which had taken over the retail banking business in India of BoA.

“You won’t get the money in your account for one month because we have to send the TCs to New York for verification.” American Express had an office in Chennai. They accepted the TCs and gave me a cashier’s cheque for the amount. I deposited the cheque in my regular bank and the funds were available the next day.

Insane save!

The United States used to have cachet in China. Not anymore.

There was a time not so long ago in China when anything American was automatically seen as better. In the 1990s, weddings were held at a McDonald’s near Beijing’s Tiananmen Square. By the 2000s, Nike sneakers, iPhones and dates at Pizza Hut were the badges of middle-class achievement.

America, which is called “Meiguo” or “beautiful country” in Chinese, was the bastion of wealth and ease. Even the moon hung larger in the United States than in China, people used to joke.

Now, Chinese media and commentators mockingly refer to the United States not as “Meiguo” but as “Meidi” — “the beautiful imperialist.”

And Chinese shoppers are more likely to be sipping a drink from Luckin, a Chinese coffee chain, than Starbucks or lining up all night to buy Huawei’s Mate 60 Pro than the latest Apple device. Today, no one says the moon is any different when seen from the United States.

“Back in the days you looked at American brands you just felt they were cooler,” said Tracy Liu, a 30-year-old translator in Shanghai. “Now people chase after domestic brands.”

WTF?

What’s the most brutal and intense hand-to-hand fight you’ve ever had?

In my freshman year of high school, I pissed off 5 upperclassmen on the football team at once.

On the first day of football practice, I commented that the team’s starting linebacker was a tiny dude. For comparison, I was 6′1″, 230 Lbs and he was 5′7″, 190 Lbs. Well, when you’re a piece of shit freshman who hasn’t even played a game yet, you just don’t talk about a Senior like that. I didn’t know that because I was a dumbass and sophomores were baiting me into talking shit about that guy who everyone except me knew was extremely aggressive.

After practice, the Senior who I talked shit about confronted me. Instead of apologizing and moving on, I told him to fuck off. As you can guess, that didn’t make him very happy.

A few weeks later, him and 4 of his closest friends attempted to jump me in my neighborhood. I got off the school bus and as soon as the bus drove away, they started surrounding me. One guy got his phone out and said “this is gonna be epic, better record it.”

They quickly started closing in around me. My adrenaline started pumping and I was in the zone. I had never fought 5 dudes at once before, so I was definitely on edge. However, these guys had challenged me and I was going to respond in kind and protect my honor. I was an amateur boxer, I knew that a few well placed strikes would knock these guys out. I started taunting the guy who I offended and making fun of him for needing so much backup to fight one guy. My hope was that this tactic would appeal to his ego and make him fight me one on one, where I was guaranteed to win. My strategy worked, the other guys backed off and he decided to take me on alone.

When I saw the other guys back off, I got into my fighting stance and hit him with a hard right cross. He dropped like a sack of potatoes, out cold. The other guys started ganging up on me. I took off my belt and started whipping them in the face. I quickly moved on the biggest guy in the group and hit with a left-right jab combo, he hit the ground – I broke his nose. He was out. I took the belt and strangled another guy and bashed him in the head with my elbow. He went down. The other 2 dudes grabbed me from each side and started beating the shit out of me. I felt blood trickling down my nose. I used a technique my dad taught me and tripped one of the guys and stomped on his face. He didn’t get up and the other guys hit me with a right uppercut. I literally flew up in the air and came crashing down. I was a bit woozy and everything looked blurry. That guy started running towards me like an enraged bull, I got up quickly staggered backwards and hit him with a left jab and right upper cut, he went up and then he came down. He came back up, I kneed him in the face and he went down. The adrenaline rush wore off and I kind of crashed down next to a tree stump.

Some lady had seen the whole thing and asked me if I was ok. It wasn’t a pretty sight, my clothes were torn up and my face was all bloody. I told her I was fine. I got up and called my buddy, explained the situation and asked him what I should do. There were 5 dudes on the ground, 3 unconscious, 2 writhing in pain. He told me to just walk home and I did. I guess they all got up and went home at some point.

The next day at football practice, I was ushered into the Coaches office and all 6 of us got yelled at for at least an hour. Then we were forced to shake hands and apologize to each other. Those guys never bothered me after that. I had earned their respect and they didn’t want to escalate the situation. I never disrespected them again either.

The good thing was that my fight became legendary in school. The defensive line coach took to calling me “Iron Adi” based on “Iron Mike Tyson”. He even made fun of it from time to time. He told the other guys if they ever pissed him off, he’d let me loose on them.

The Circleville Letters Mystery | Why can’t we solve this?

Why do people prefer to emigrate than to fix their countries?

Because some people don’t want to fix them.

A friend of mine decided to give something back to the UK community and taught GCSE maths at a community centre. He charged them nothing for it, those who wanted it could pay the £120 (at the time this was 00s) to take their exams. They could give 50p or something to the community hall for them to pay their bills.

He saw a problem and tried to fix it at his own cost. He gave up after 2 groups. He managed to get about 12 people to graduate and put up their photos as success. He gave up because the vast majority of people who took his course were wasters. They were sent by the job centre and had no interest in learning anything and would simply go there to drink tea and play on their phones.

That’s literally an unfixable problem, they don’t want to learn and have no interest in learning.

What were some things kids did in the 70s that would horrify today’s parents?

My brother and I grew up in the 60’s and 70’s. Here’s a few common things that we did, which might make modern parents uncomfortable…

Riding bicycles and skateboards without helmets, knee pads, elbow pads or anything else…
Spend most of our free time outdoors and unsupervised, including walking to school.
Driving in cars without airbags, seat belts and without cell phones.
Playing outdoor sports and games in the middle of the street.
Playing with BB guns, pellet guns, real bows and arrows, sling shots, lawn darts, cap guns, firecrackers and acetylene cannons.
Building things, like tree houses in trees found on vacant lots, from scrap lumber at construction sites…
Playing on “real” playground equipment, like 30-foot high swing sets, 8-foot high monkey bars, 15-foot high steel slides or even old decommissioned F-86 fighter planes, like we had at our elementary school.
Paddles with holes drilled in them, hanging in the Principal’s office at school.
Playing with toys like chemistry sets, with real reactive chemicals, radioactive science kits, hot plate cooking sets, where you make your own edible rubberized candy, which resembled insects, or buying snacks like candy cigarettes, which resembled real cigarettes.
Dressing up at Halloween like hobos (homeless people.) Politically incorrect, which wasn’t a thing back then…
Building plastic model kits, using model cement (styrene glue.) Using electronic kits to build radios and other devices using hot soldering irons and lead solder.
Going to the library to check out books for information, since there was no internet, cell phones, iPads or personal computers.
Mowing lawns, building a lemonade stand or selling candy at school to raise money. We’d use our hard-earned money to go to the record store and purchase albums and 45’s.
Listening to transistor radios for music, since there were no iPods, Walkman players or cell phones.

Too many things to remember…

What’s the worst thing that’s ever happened to you after doing a good deed?

I got arrested, handcuffed, and stuffed into the back of a police cruiser and driven downtown to be booked for felony assault and battery…

I cold-cocked a guy (from behind, without apologies – he was twice my size) who was beating the crap out of a woman maybe half my size with his fists on the sidewalk, and she instantly leaped on my back and started shrieking at me and trying to pull my hair out for “attacking her man”. When the cops arrived (somebody had already apparently called them), they really had no choice but to arrest me….

When we got to the police station, the arresting officer sat me down on a bench right next to the front door, and took off my handcuffs, saying, “Now don’t you run off or anything… We haven’t even got your name yet”, and disappeared into the back with the desk sergeant.

About ten minutes later, after seeing both of them poke their heads around the edge of the door to check on me a few times, the desk sergeant came back out, squatted down next to me, sighed heavily while shaking his head sadly, and said, “You’re either way too good to be true, or way too stupid to survive, but you need to listen carefully here… <wink wink> You are sitting, unrestrained, one half second away from freedom while we, silly trusting saps that we are, forgot to even ask who the fuck you are. Why, if you were to walk out of here, it’s unlikely we could ever figure out who to look for, much less where to find you… <wink wink wink wink>… So don’t <wink like a natural spastic> go getting any funny ideas or nuthin’…” <heavy sigh>

About a minute later, the light-bulb went on in my head (I guess the adrenaline level had dropped enough) and I walked out the door, a free, but terrified and utterly confused nineteen year old…

That was forty four years ago, and the desk sergeant retired in 2003, but I still see him at Whole Foods or Home Depot from time to time – and he still shakes his head sadly and wink winks at me every time I run into him.

Bastard!

Daddy’s Golden Mushroom Chuck Roast

This is great on Portuguese rolls.

Ingredients

3 1/2 to 4 pound boneless chuck roast, browned in 2 tablespoons oil
4 cans Campbell’s Golden Mushroom Soup
1 large can mushrooms, drained, or 12 ounces washed fresh mushrooms whole or sliced
Milk (use the 4 soup cans to fill each 1/2 way)

Instructions

Place browned meat into slow cooker.
Mix the 4 cans of Golden Mushroom Soup with the milk, using a whisk to blend smoothly. Stir in drained can of mushrooms or fresh mushrooms.
Set slow cooker on LOW for 8, and let cook for 8 to 10 hours. If you like it thicker, shut off slow cooker and mix cornstarch and water and stir into gravy.
Serve with mashed potatoes or wide noodles or dumplings and a veggie.
Also good as a sandwich because meat pulls apart.

Expert says a Chinese invasion of Taiwan could be over in less than an hour

12 People Who Survived a Suicide Attempt Reveal Their Last Thoughts Before Attempting To Take Their Own Lives

May 22, 2024

1. Tried to overdose on Oxycontin, last thoughts were immediate regret after I pushed the plunger on the syringe all the way down, all I felt was remorse and sadness that I wouldn’t be alive anymore. Woke up 20-24 hours later extremely grateful to be alive and got help with my drug addiction, now 4 year sober on 8/14.

2. I have severe depression and never knew what genuine happiness felt like until I was 17 and on meds from the hospital after my suicide attempt, it was so overwhelming I just started sobbing in the car with my mom, out of nowhere.

Anyway, I had taken a bottle of Xanax when my mom left for church, it wasn’t planned I was just at my mental breaking point and panicked, I sat in the kitchen floor and I felt an overwhelming sense of euphoria, I just kept thinking ‘it’s over. It’s over. It’s over’

I didn’t regret it until my mom found me because she turned around after realizing she left something at home, I will never forgive myself for putting her through that. I’m 24 and the memory of her crying and tell me she loved me and she was sorry still haunts me. I have a lump in my throat just typing this.

3. The 3rd attempt was the final one. After 2 failures (tried to OD on benadryl demerol and vodka, 2nd attempt was hanging), the pain was just too much to handle.

I remember it was the Monday after Easter in 2000 I just turned 21. I came home from my internship with a bottle of skky vodka and sheet plastic. It was after 9pm, I had finished the vodka and put the plastic over my bed. I made a few phone calls to say sorry and got the box cutter out. I had it on my wrist ready to slash down to my elbow, blood began welling up and my father came in.

I saw the look of disappointment in his eyes, just one more thing I did wrong. I went through my window and took off. I went running no idea where to but I wanted to find a busy road to jump into traffic. I jumped in front of a car, it stopped. My friends got out and put me in the car to go to a diner for coffee to sober up.

Sobered up some, took off again looking to jump in the street again. I remember being so tired and fell to the ground. Next thing I know is that I’m in a hospital waking up even more depressed.

I ended up getting the help I needed. I still take zoloft everyday, but I am well adjusted now. Still have ups and downs but never that low. That was 16 years ago and this was the first time I have fully told this tale.

4. “I hope this works.”

“Oh, gods, that hurts!”

“Fuck, I made a mess on the carpet. I always make a mess for other people.”

Getting light headed

“Damn it, he’s going to have to deal with my death if I let this happen here… He doesn’t deserve that.”

Goes to stop the bleeding

“Fuck, why did I do that? So stupid. What will everyone think of me?”

5. I took around 20,000 mg of ibuprofen. At first, all I felt was relief. I wouldn’t have to deal with the shit going on in my head any longer. But I started vomiting, and then I started having these weird visions of how people I know would react to my death. People at my school gossiping about it, my teachers talking to each other in hushed voices. I saw my little sister hearing the news and breaking into tears. I saw her go down the road of self-destruction, just as I did. I saw my mother devastated. Once I stopped having these visions, I threw up some more and told a family member to bring me to the hospital. They got all the ibuprofen out of my system. I’ve been seeing a therapist and I’m doing quite a bit better now.

6. I tried to cut my throat, but I stopped because my dog was scared. I didn’t want to lose her, or my family.

7. “Everything is so fuzzy. This could be it… Goodnight.” I tried to OD several times. It’s a wonder my organs are okay.

The last time I tried to kill myself was by jumping under a car. My last thought was “fucking do it, nobody will care and you know it.” Then a drunk person pulled me back. It hit me- what a selfish way to go. Someone would have had to live with that- hitting a 17 year old girl at 6am on their way to work.

8. I laid down in my bed hearing my husband prepare my infant daughter her nighttime bottle and thought: “she’ll be fine without me, better off in fact.” She didn’t know me yet and I thought my husband and parents could raise her without my toxic damaging influence. All I could think was that I was giving my daughter a gift, a life without me as her mother. She could imagine me as anything she wanted or needed. She’d never know my weaknesses and failures. I’d just be a few photos on her dad’s Facebook. And maybe not even that if he remarried. It was the ultimate feeling of release.

9. I jumped off of a bridge. 80 ft. I remember looking down and instantly diving off. In the air I had done a flip and was thinking “What happens next happens.” Falling was so peaceful, I felt free. It was only a few seconds but it felt like a life time of floating towards heaven. Then I hit the water. I thought I was dead until I took a breath of air and was like “oh shit. it didnt work. lol. now what.” I started laughing really hard and thought “of course i survived. lol. of course this would happen to me. It took me 30 minutes to get out of the Puget Sound. Very cold. Almost drowned. Almost died of hypothermia in the hospital.

I’m so much better now. I wouldn’t say that I am happy that I jumped off of the bridge, but it changed my life for all of the better. I found a therapy that worked for me and wow. lol.

10. I didn’t go through with it… But I wrote down my feelings about the time I came close.

Things all came to a head one night in the parking lot at WalMart. I was devastatingly drunk. Crying. Drowning in self-loathing and alcohol. I hated myself. I hated the person I was. I hated the things I had done to the people that loved me. I wanted to die. I kept a .40 cal semi-auto handgun tucked between the front seats in my truck. I looked at it. I picked it up. I felt like freedom was inside it. I had to let it out. All the pain would go away. Nobody would have to deal with me anymore. I couldn’t do any more damage to anyone if I were gone. I pulled back the hammer, I stuck the barrel into my mouth, it tasted just like it smelled… I started to squeeze the trigger… People in my life started to flash into my mind and the thoughts of how it would affect them. First was my son, 23 at the time. He had a girlfriend blow her head off with a .357 magnum when he was 19. How will this affect him, I asked myself. He got over it once, he’ll get over it again, I answered. I squeezed the trigger a little more. My step-daughters, 20 and 25 at the time, how will this affect them, I asked. They would be glad to see me go, I answered quickly. I squeezed the trigger a little more. My mom, who lost her oldest child to cancer 12 years ago, how will this affect her, I asked myself. She lost one, she can lose another, I answered. I squeezed the trigger a little more. My ex-wife… How would… I stopped squeezing. I saw an image of her on her knees. Crying. Not just crying, bawling. That deep, gut wrenching, terribly broken soul heaving cry. I pulled the gun out of my mouth, unloaded it and threw it into the back seat which was full of everything I owned. I broke down and cried harder than I ever had in my life. That was it. I was done.

11. “Finally I’ll have some peace.”

I tried to overdose- mixed opiates and benzos. My best friend found me and took me back to his place. I was severely loopy. Slept for hours. Woke up and immediately thought “I wasn’t supposed to wake up.” I walked to the pharmacy and bought gel cap sleep aids and liquid sleep aids. Proceeded to chase the entire box of pills with the syrup. Apparently my best friend found me scarfing the pills down in his bed saying “nothing matters.” 911 was called. I ended up in a psych ward for 5 days. I haven’t suffered from su

Expert says a Chinese invasion of Taiwan could be over in less than an hour

icidal ideation in a while, I manage my depression with talk therapy.

For the record- I never felt regret or that last minute “what have I done?!”

12. I hung myself within the last year. Reasons are…..well my reasons. The last thought I render before blacking out was one of peace. It was the one and only time I remember feeling in control of my own life. I felt, for lack of a better word, right. It scares the absolute shit out of me, because I can’t stop thinking about it, and how much I wish I felt that way always.

Everything seems so much worse now, I have friends who are angry they couldn’t talk me through it so they have cut me off for being “selfish”. The only thing keeping me from trying again is my mom. But it’s strained our relationship.

I feel worthless, and love the feeling of being 100% in control.

Answers (Impossible to explain)

German Bundestag Calls For Ukraine Air Defense Zone by NATO

Hal Turner World May 26, 2024

The German Bundestag has called for expanding the European air defense zone to the territory of western Ukraine in a corridor 70 to 100 km wide.

This would see NATO engaging air targets to protect LVIV all the way south to Odessa, which Russia is presently hitting.

If NATO engages Russia air power over Ukraine, then Russia can engage NATO.

The West just won’t stop interfering, and sticking their nose where it doesn’t belong. Ukraine is not a NATO member.

Developing . . . .

“I’m jealous of how easy boomers had it”

May 20, 2024

Boomers had a much easier time getting a stable job and buying a house than today. They were able to easily hold the same job for 40 years, retire with a pension and buying a decent home. They were able to do that even if it wasnt a prestigious white collar job

Now stable jobs are almost non existent as layoffs happen to almost everyone multiple times in their life, housing prices are unimaginably high to the point where buying one is only for the wealthy. Even getting a job is harder because there is no face to face interaction you are just another application.

This is why I can’t take them serious when they lecture younger generations about making money or being successful

Hey there,

I get it, you’re feeling envious of the boomers and their seemingly easy lives. But let’s take a step back and look at the bigger picture.

Sure, some boomers had stable jobs and affordable houses, but that’s not the whole story. Many of them faced incredible hardships that we often overlook. Take my uncle, for example. He got shipped off to Vietnam, along with a bunch of his peers. Can you imagine the trauma and pain they experienced? It’s no wonder that so many of them came back with what we now call PTSD, but back then, they were just told to “walk it off” and deal with their “shell-shock.”

And let’s not forget about the rampant racism, sexism, and homophobia that plagued society during the boomers’ formative years. If you were anything other than a straight, white male, life was a constant battle. Women were treated like second-class citizens, gay people were ostracized and faced the horrors of the AIDS epidemic, and people of color dealt with systemic oppression and discrimination.

Even the economy wasn’t as rosy as some might have you believe. The 1970s and early 1980s were marked by recession, inflation, and job losses. Many boomers saw their careers upended and their savings wiped out.

And what about the lack of mental health awareness and the stigma surrounding seeking help? Or the fact that many diseases that are curable today were a death sentence back then?

It’s easy to look back with rose-colored glasses and imagine that life was simpler and easier, but the reality is that every generation faces its own set of challenges. The boomers had their fair share of struggles, just like we do today.

Instead of complaining about how much easier the boomers had it, focus on what you can control. Work on developing valuable skills that will make you indispensable in today’s job market. Learn to live below your means so you can save money and invest in your future. And most importantly, stop comparing yourself to others.

So, don’t get bogged down in envy or frustration. Use it as fuel. Understand that the world has changed and is still changing. Adapt. Innovate. Take risks. The boomers had their shot; now it’s our turn to shape what success looks like in this era. The game is different, but that doesn’t mean it’s unwinnable.

You got this.

High-Value Man TRIGGERED American Women After He Told Them They Aren’t Wife Material

Why Playing It Safe Is Holding You Back from Your Best Life

May 20, 2024

Alright, folks, let’s get something straight. If you think you can achieve happiness and success by playing it safe, hiding from discomfort, and avoiding risks, you’re living in a fantasy. Sorry to burst your bubble, but happiness and success are not hiding behind the curtains of your comfort zone. They’re out there, in the real world, where things are messy, unpredictable, and sometimes downright scary.

Cowardice, my friends, is a trap. It lures you in with promises of safety and security, whispering sweet nothings about how avoiding confrontation will keep you safe. But here’s the brutal truth: cowardice will keep you safe from nothing. It will rob you of the very experiences that make life worth living.

When you avoid risks, you avoid the possibility of failure. But guess what? You also avoid the possibility of success. When you avoid discomfort, you avoid growth. And when you avoid confrontation, you avoid the chance to stand up for what you believe in and make a real impact.

Because here’s the deal: all the truly worthwhile things in life – deep relationships, meaningful achievements, personal growth – they all require courage. They require you to step outside your comfort zone, to take risks, to face your fears head-on.

Think about it. That dream job you’ve been pining for? You’ll never land it if you’re too scared to apply or put yourself out there. That person you’ve been crushing on? You’ll never know what could be if you don’t muster up the guts to make a move. That life-changing adventure you’ve been fantasizing about? It’ll remain a fantasy if you’re too chicken-shit to actually go for it.

Now, I’m not saying it’s easy. Facing your fears is fucking terrifying sometimes. It’s uncomfortable and awkward and there’s always the chance of failure or rejection. But you know what’s worse? Waking up one day and realizing that you let all your opportunities pass you by because you were too busy cowering in the corner.

Because at the end of the day, happiness and success aren’t about avoiding pain or discomfort. They’re about embracing the full spectrum of human experience, the good and the bad. They’re about having the courage to go after what you want, even when it scares the hell out of you.

So stop making excuses. Stop letting fear dictate your choices. Start taking bold, courageous action towards the things that truly matter to you. Will it be easy? Hell no. Will it be worth it? Abso-fucking-lutely.

Remember, fortune favors the bold, not the cowardly. So get out there and start facing your fears, one terrifying step at a time. It’s the only way to unlock your full potential and create a life that truly fulfills you.

Have you ever had to tell something like “You have exactly 9 seconds to get out of my house” to someone whom you knew very well? If so, what made you do that?

I was in the U.S. Air Force and stationed in Alaska, along with my wife and preschool children. My mother-in-law came up from Iowa to visit. She walked off the plane with my wife’s nephew. MIL had been invited … toddler nephew was not invited. The look I gave my wife probably scorched her a bit.

As we were leaving the Anchorage airport, we pointed out all the foreign flagged aircraft. This turned out to be beneficial less than an hour later.

Minutes after arriving at our apartment, the phone rang. Collect call from one of wife’s siblings. Wife hears me say, “Yes, I will accept collect call charges.” I then handed the phone to MIL. I didn’t say anything to MIL or to my wife. My wife looked at me and, based on the look on my face, decided to not say anything to me either.

When MIL hung up (after an extended discussion), I said to MIL, “We invited YOU up to visit. We DID NOT invite [nephew] up here. Furthermore, we DID NOT invite intrusions by [wife’s] brothers and sisters.”

I continued by explaining, “I need that phone for my Air Force duties. If we lose that phone due to not being able to pay for lots of collect calls, I will be forced to move on base.”

I went on to explain that family housing on base was very limited. So, I would probably be assigned single enlisted quarters on base. [Wife] and our children would have stay in this apartment. I would be allowed to visit them, provided I notified my supervisor or chain of command each and ever time I’d be out of telephone contact, as well as how long I expected to be out of contact.

(Even if I didn’t have a roommate in the enlisted quarters, wife and children would have to be signed in and signed out.)

I finished by telling MIL, “If this continues, we will put you and [nephew] on the very next plane out of Anchorage.” My wife chimed in to say, “And we won’t check to see where the plane is headed.”

The Mindfuck of Parental Abandonment (And How to Unfuck Yourself)

May 20, 2024

Imagine this: you’re a little kid, and one of the people you depend on most in this world – a parent who’s supposed to love you unconditionally – up and leaves you. They peace out, either physically or emotionally, and you’re left holding the bag of your own shattered expectations and broken heart.

Now, as a child, you don’t have the cognitive or emotional resources to process this kind of trauma in a healthy way. You can’t rationally say, “Well, Mom/Dad are clearly dealing with their own issues and limitations which have nothing to do with my inherent lovability.” Nah, your kiddie brain defaults to the most obvious, ego-centric explanation: “It must be my fault. I must not be good enough. If I were better, they wouldn’t have left.”

Boom. In one fell swoop, your self-worth takes a major hit. And that belief – that you’re fundamentally unlovable or deficient – can linger in your psyche like a bad fart in an elevator, stinking up your emotional wellbeing for years to come.

Fast forward to adulthood, and you may find yourself unconsciously replaying this abandonment drama in your relationships. You pick partners who are emotionally unavailable or who treat you like shit, because on some level, you’re still trying to prove your worth to that original abandoning parent. Or you push away anyone who gets too close, because vulnerability equals the risk of being left again, and fuck that noise.

Meanwhile, you’re walking around with a gnawing emptiness inside, a sense that you’re just not quite good enough, no matter what you accomplish or how much external validation you rack up. Because that wounded little kid is still calling the shots, defining your worth through the lens of an event you didn’t have the capacity to understand at the time.

So how do you break free from this emotional mindfuck? How do you reclaim your self-worth from the jaws of abandonment?

It starts with recognizing that your parent’s choices had fuck-all to do with your value as a person. They left because of their own limitations, not because of yours. You could have been the most perfect, adorable, lovable little rugrat on the planet, and they still would have bailed, because they were wrestling with their own demons that had nothing to do with you.

Next, you have to grieve. You have to feel the pain of that abandonment fully, to sit with the anger and sadness and hurt, instead of constantly running from it or numbing it with self-destructive habits. This isn’t easy, and you may need the help of a therapist to navigate this emotional shitstorm, but it’s necessary to heal that wounded little kid inside.

Finally, you have to start redefining your worth on your own terms. You have to learn to love and accept yourself, flaws and all, without needing constant external validation to prove your value. This means setting boundaries in your relationships, pursuing your passions unapologetically, and treating yourself with the kindness and respect you deserved all along.

It’s a long, messy, uncomfortable process, but it’s so fucking worth it. Because when you can stare down the pain of abandonment and come out the other side still knowing your inherent worthiness, that’s real freedom. That’s self-love in action.

So if you’re struggling with the aftermath of parental abandonment, know that you’re not alone, and your pain is valid. But also know that you have the power to rewrite the story. You get to decide what defines your worth, not some emotionally stunted adult who projected their own issues onto an innocent child.

It won’t be easy, but few worthwhile things are. The journey to wholeness never is. But trust me, it beats the hell out of staying stuck in the emotional quagmire of self-blame and unworthiness.

Compilation: UFOs & Aliens!

A nation of nymphomaniacs by design

I have been very disturbed lately.

This use of overlaying subliminal sounds over television and internet media has become far too invasive. Sure it worked in the Gulf War, and the Iraq army surrendered in droves. But this use of it against citizens is really disturbing.

The other day, I watch a couple of YouTube videos of 20-something women proudly and gleefully talking about how they want to be “railed” (fucked) by fifty guys one after the other, and how they enjoy sex. Enjoying sex is normal and healthy. But announcing this desire for random non-stop sex with strangers is not.

Initially my thoughts were that she was part of some movement, like a feminist movement, or such, and wanted to promote it via sexual displays to get clicks and improve the quantity of her DM’s. But I fear something else is going on.

In the USA, in Canada, and in UK and Australia, all the young gals seem to be “off the charts”, off the chain (so to speak) in this blatant hyper-sexual frenzy. These videos are everywhere.

It’s almost like someone, or some organization, is overlaying the videos (preferred by 20-something women) with a kind of subliminal hyper-sexual desire and it is truing them all into crazed sex fiend nymphomaniacs. Now, I can see that some men might want that, so it’s not a far stretch. But DAMN! It’s a disturbing thought.

This technology is totally and completely messing up relationships in the West; it is destroying families, and the people that it is targeting.

I know what it feels like. I was in MAJ after all, and I do have ELF probes, so if “they” want me to do something, I have no control over it. I just do it.

It’s frightening really.

My handlers were pretty reasonable folk. But I have been in contact with other black ops folk. And they have dealt with unreasonable folk in the military who are being harassed by members of the LGBQ+ cabal, and it is brutal. I can only imagine what is going on via way of the rich (behind the scenes) evil incarnates who run the activities behind their curtains.

Disturbing.

But nothing that I can do about it. Except stay out of the “line of fire” and not become a target. Like in China, Russia, Africa, and South America.

This system seems to be in English and only seems to be affecting Western women (for now).

It appears to me that most all of Western media is overly saturated with these subliminal frequencies. Beware. Be careful.

Sheech!

Today…

Did you ever go away on vacation and you loved the place, then you moved there and it was very disappointing?

Several years ago my husband and I went to a lavish wedding on a tropical island. We were so blown away and knew we’d move there one day. I had a competitor steal me from my job and moved me and it was a dream come true, a house, my stuff, my husband, my pets all covered by my job. After years of trying to have children we got pregnant just a few months after moving. Since my son was born we didn’t want to strip him from where he was born, we planned to stay. I thought my salary was amazing, and for a tiny one bedroom house is more than a million, whereas in another place that would be 200k or less. As a new mother my job demanded more and more of my time, making a 3rd of my salary alone just in overtime. Sometimes due to weather events or a hard project then we’d be unexpectedly having to stay, some people didn’t have their medicine, food, and one person had to have an ambulance over low blood sugar. The place is still beautiful, but the costs of living and food supplies that are shipped costs 5x more. I miss home. I miss more luxury I could afford. I quit my job, it was the most disappointing job with false promises, stayed, and I’m trying to learn how to be more patient and enjoy what I have.

Pennsylvania Dutch Cabbage Rolls

Ingredients

12 large green cabbage leaves
1 1/2 pounds ground beef
1 cup cooked rice
1 small onion, chopped
1 teaspoon salt
1 egg
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
2 (8 ounce) cans tomato sauce
1/2 cup water
1 tablespoon brown sugar
1 tablespoon lemon juice or vinegar

Instructions

Pour boiling water over cabbage leaves and soak until limp, about 4 minutes.
Combine beef, rice, onion, salt, and egg and mix well. Divide mixture into 12 equal portions and place one portion on each leaf. Roll up, tuck ends in and fasten with wooden picks.
Heat oil in heavy skillet or Dutch oven and brown the cabbage rolls for 10 minutes.
Combine tomato sauce, water, brown sugar and lemon juice and add to skillet. Simmer cabbage rolls for 1 hour, covered.
Serve hot.

How hard is it really to do time in prison?

I served 18 years straight. I’d say somewhere around the 7 or 8 year mark my view of the situation changed. It was no longer prison, it was just my life. Nothing ever changed. Every day was the same. You get in a never changing routine and before you know it 5 years go by. Then 10, then 15. The real world becomes a fantasy. Something you see on TV, or pictures in magazine, but it’s no longer real. One day you look in the mirror and your hair is receding, and it’s turning gray, in your mind your socially stunted and in a lot of ways child like, but you’re old. I went in at 18 and came out a 37 year old man who didn’t know how to do anything. I’d never used a cell phone or computer. I’d never driven a car or filed my taxes. The world was too big, too loud, too fast. My second day out my sister took me to Walmart and I had a panic attack and had to go outside and sit in the car by myself. I could make a tattoo gun out of an electric razor, boil water with an extension cord, and sits for months on end by myself in a room with a sink, concrete bunk and metal toilet without breaking a sweat. But I couldn’t hold a job, operate any electronics without help, or go to Walmart without freaking the fuck out. I didn’t know how to cook, or how to pay a bill. I sat home by myself for months, afraid to go anywhere or talk to people. A big part of me wanted to be back in prison where things made sense, where I thrived.

I’ve been out for over 5 years now, and while I’ve learned to do a lot of things, it’s still not easy. I dream alot of being in prison. Where’s it’s easy. No responsibility. And believe it or not, less stress and anxiety. I’ve been in institutions my whole life, since I was a little kid. Foster homes, group homes, treatment centers, juvenile detentions. It’s what I know. It’s where I’m comfortable. I don’t know if that will ever change.

China is finally being exposed….

Taiwan’s air defense density is so high, how can mainland China break through?

Ask Israel.

The distance between Israel and Iran is >1,700km.

There are multiple countries between them, and plenty of seawater.

Iran also broadcast its intention to attack Israel well in advance.

The US (and others) were on full alert waiting to shoot down Iranian munitions.

There were Aegis systems on USN ships, land-based Patriot batteries, airborn fighters guided by awacss and Israel’s own Iron Dome forming a multi-layered defense system with strategic depth. More than $1b in munitions was expended to counter the Iranian assault, which totaled ～200 drones and cruise/hypersonic missiles.

That’s a far more comprehensive and extravagant air defense than Taiwan can possibly field, if only because the mainland is less than 200km from Taiwan’s coast and the island a mere 400 km long and 150 km across with no strategic depth to speak of.

And yet, Iranian hypersonic missiles got through and hit one of the most well-protected and sensitive airbases in the Negev housing the F-35.

These weren’t even the most advanced and potent missiles in the Iranian arsenal.

Now, is anyone willing to bet the Chinese don’t have better missiles in both quality and quantity?

You only need to destroy air defenses once, and China has tactical rocket artillery that can rain fire from the sky 24.7 to mop up or suppress the enemy.

Good luck.

Healthcare Is BROKEN! China VS Canada!

What will the millions of Americans who are over 50, without a penny saved, do in the next 20 years?

I am over 50, and not only do I not have any money saved, I’m in debt up to my eyeballs.

So I think I am qualified to answer this question.

Short answer? Continue to go deeper into debt.

Longer answer?

Within the next twenty years (unless universal complete healthcare happens) I can probably expect to lose my teeth, since I can’t afford dental care.

I will have to continue to earn as much of a living as I currently can, while physically deteriorating even further.

I expect to lose my home (nowhere near being payed off), and have to live with my adult children on their incomes. (and they are only starting to earn them, by the way.)

I fully expect to have to see my sister, ten years older than I am, die during that period.

As long as I can afford a computer and the internet, I will live more and more of my life online instead of out in the real world.

If the current style of Trump republican remain in power, I can see any benefits I currently have continue to be marginalized and vanish.

If Democrats overcome the Republicans, there is a possibility I may get comprehensive universal healthcare and drugs I can afford, and I may be able to collect what little Social Security may be coming to me, if not a small, guaranteed income to overcome my extreme poverty level.

I have no guarantees of any help or aid, as indeed I have never had. So my life should not radically change over the next twenty years from what it has been the past twenty: a hopeful future being twisted into a tragic present.

I don’t know how many of us are in the same situation I am, which has been cause by singular features of my personal life, a failed marriage, becoming the adult caretaker for my ailing parents, and then my brother, and then my eldest son (who has cerebral palsy), and probably soon for my sister as well.

But I imagine many of us over 50 who are only managing to barely squeak by from paycheck to paycheck will be in much the same boat: we are all pretty much in a position where we are in a self-perpetuating downward spiral, and we won’t get out without outside help.

Many of us will wind up getting reverse mortgages to make ends meet, getting much further in debt in the process, and having health issues from not seeing the doctor as often as we should, so we will become burdens on the next generation, who we will have no inheritance to pass on to.

Somehow, as depressing as all that reality is, I still look hopefully towards being in a better place in five to twenty years, and the future being bright again.

I somehow have confidence that the millennials will not screw up the future as badly as we boomers have.

Toxic evil woman gives 200 men HIV and instantly regrets it

Why do educated Chinese support CCP despite not having the freedom to criticize Chinese politicians?

I am Chinese. I apologize. I don’t know what “criticism” means here? In China, the most popular self-media app is called “Toutiao.” If you haven’t heard of this company, then you must know TikTok. They are different products under the same company. On “Toutiao,” criticisms and complaints against the Chinese government abound at all times. These criticisms are directed at government institutions at the national, provincial, municipal, and rural levels. Below are some examples of similar content I have seen in the past month:

Complicated medical insurance reimbursement process;
A relative’s child got into a better school through bribery;
Traffic signs on highways are in disrepair year-round;
The government has promised to start construction on a subway line for three years but has not yet begun;
Government incompetence behind food safety issues;
The village chief appoints his relatives to important positions;
Unfair treatment, complaints lodged with national departments, but still unresolved;
Reporting a corrupt official, only to face retaliation;
Gas billing system in a city seems to have raised prices, causing many to pay more;
Sewage flows freely in an old residential area, but the government has yet to initiate a demolition plan;
All diners at the same restaurant suffered food poisoning, but the government investigation is opaque, suspected of corruption;
…

Based on Toutiao’s recommendation algorithm, if you read some of the above content, the app will tirelessly recommend “criticism and complaints against the government” until your brain is overloaded. If this isn’t “freedom of criticism,” then what is?

Actually, I know what the asker wants to express: always criticizing the Chinese Communist Party, the one-party rule. And none of the criticisms I listed above touches on the “key points.” Right?

I’m sorry, could you use any online survey tool to design a questionnaire about “whether you oppose the Chinese Communist Party”? And invite suffering Chinese people on internet communities in China to fill out the questionnaire, in order to get “first-hand insider information from China.”

You will get the data you want and be surprised—why don’t Chinese people oppose the power that rules them? You will continue to draw the conclusion—the reason is that Chinese people have been brainwashed.

In the end, you will still believe: the seeds of freedom and democracy will never sprout in China, because Chinese people are ignorant.

That’s the whole trick. So, I wish you live in the “terrifying China” dream you imagined, and never wake up. I respect your choice.

China Commences Military “Drill” – Completely Surrounds Taiwan

Hal Turner World May 23, 2024

The China military has begin drills surrounding the entirety of Taiwan, including islands of Kinmen and Dongyin, state media says.

Taiwan was forced to scramble fighter jets and put missile, naval and land units on alert this morning after China launched huge military exercises around the self-governing island.

Beijing said the menacing war games, dubbed ‘Joint Sword-2024A’, were a ‘strong punishment’ for Taiwan following the inauguration of its new president, Lai Ching-te, who is detested in Beijing as a ‘separatist’.

China claims Taiwan is part of its national territory and the People’s Liberation Army routinely sends navy ships and warplanes into the Taiwan Strait and other areas around the island to wear down Taiwan’s defenses and seek to intimidate its people.

But this week’s wargames are massive in scale.

The PLA released a map of the intended exercise area which completely surrounds Taiwan’s main island concentrating major firepower at five key points, as well as places like Matsu and Kinmen, outlying islands that are closer to the Chinese mainland than Taiwan.

China’s coast guard also said it organized a fleet to carry out law enforcement drills near two islands close to the Taiwanese-controlled island groups of Kinmen and Matsu just off the Chinese coast.

They come after the island swore in President Lai who said in his inaugural speech on Monday that Taiwan ‘must demonstrate our resolution to defend our nation’.

China denounced Lai’s speech as a ‘confession of independence’.

UPDATE 11:50 AM EDT — ***** URGENT *****

Agence France Press (AFP) Reports:

This UPDATE comes as the Chinese military has Taiwan literally surrounded for an ongoing “Military Exercise.”

Hal Turner Remarks:

We all have to keep 2 things in mind:

1. Not all military drills lead to invasions.
2. Modern invasions always follow military drills..

Recall that China’s President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin, had a big meeting together about a week ago. If no one thinks Putin & Xi didn’t have a little war gaming session when they met last week, either you’re not paying attention or you’re just willfully ignorant.

It seems to me China must strike while Biden is still in office and the USA is weak. They know of Trump wins they will not be able to do so.

This isn’t WW II, and a Chinese “invasion” of Taiwan (or liberation of Taiwan from U.S. military occupation, which would be a more correct description of the campaign) isn’t going to look like D-Day.

Taiwan is small enough for China to be able to completely obliterate all (U.S.) air defenses located on (and off) the island before sending in paratroopers to secure key locations.

Then, and only then, will China start shipping troops to the island… and U.S. will be able to do literally nothing to stop it.

Either way, it sure seems that Russians and Chinese have agreed on China opening a new front against the U.S. in Taiwan.

This is a video of the Chinese military drill

This is a MM video, direct copy from the PLA.

What do poor people in the United States of America eat?

When I was born my dad could not get work, so he decided to rob a service station, well that sent him to prison for the 1st 5 years of my life. So we lived with my grandmother (mom and baby me) in a place called piedmont courts back in the 50’s.

When my dad served his time he found work in a blue collar trade which he learned in prison and so life was basically lower middle class, which is to say we had a car, 9″ Black and White TV, meat and potatoes, new clothing twice a year, Easter and the start of school, and by new clothing I am talking new pants maybe shoes and shirt just one or two of each. We lived with my aunt and uncle as we did not have enough money to get a apartment or home.

Then when my baby brother was born, I was 11 years 7 months old, my dad left with the parting phrase, “I did not want the first bastard I sure don’t want the second” so my mom with a 3rd grade education, so petite she bought her clothing from the girls section, and no programs to help; was homeless.

Now I must admit she could have gotten help from her family but there were conditions she unwilling to tolerate. My new born baby brother was to be placed with my Aunt M and Uncle J’s family to properly raise, I was to go to a boarding school and mom had to live with an old maid aunt/chaperon in Marion county South Carolina.

Mom would rather die than lose us so we were homeless, we lived in the streets in cities from Miami FL (weather was a factor) to Worcester MA, mom’s favorite brother lived there; we crossed a picket line in Philadelphia and mom was beaten and they threatened to kill my baby brother and myself, a cab driver rescued us. Also in Philadelphia I almost died due to hypothermia, I was carrying my baby brother in about 2 or 3 feet of snow (remember homeless) and mom could tell I was in real trouble, so she went to a Catholic church which turned out to be a nunnery, mom begged and pleaded for help for me and my baby brother, they gave us blankets, soup, let us sleep in the kitchen and gave us some money for a bus to go somewhere warmer, Miami. (Note: we lived in an abandoned car a fireman showed mom the location of in Miami)

For a short time we lived with Aunt R whom was also divorced, (Note: Divorce was looked down on greatly at the time, so much so we could not rent a place even if we had money, because they would not rent to a single woman with two children, they just could not have that kind of trash living in their apartments). My mom was recruited to work massage parlors, which evolved to prostitution, which lead her arrest for solicitation in Norfolk. I have some really scary stories and some great ones.

I am just establishing I was by any standard poor.

What did we eat, well when we got extra money, there were food stands that sold hot dogs 10 for a dollar, burgers 5 for a dollar etc. those were special times. When we lived with aunt Rachel and her 4 children and boyfriend of the day, Robert my cousin and I would scour the roads for soda bottles, take them to the grocery store, cash them in and buy a bag of rice or beans, get a can of jack mackerel for the rice or ham bone for the beans cook it in a big pot and everyone ate well. When we were in the streets we would buy a can of anything that could be eaten cold, basically open can and eat. We also scoured for food, behind restaurants, trash, day old goods from the bread factory. There were lots of days week old moon pies and miniature pecan pies or just stale white bread kept us going as we lived in abandoned cars, under picnic tables, trash cans, or sewer pipes.

When I was in my 50’s I searched out my family, reconnected with them and they spent a lot of time telling me we did not have to go through this, but it was all mom could think of in order for us to stay together, there were no programs at that time, and welfare was basically a block of cheese, big can of peanut butter, and staples like beans and rice.

To this day I will eat grits with a raw egg in it, soup with stale bread broke up in it, rice and fish. I can afford steak I just don’t want it, never developed a taste for all that fancy food, so it is no loss.

Last note, I never loved my mom any less, she did the best she could do, I settled things with my dad, granted in my 50’s, he admitted he did wrong took 100% of the blame and never shifted any to mom, that helped me in getting over his abandoning us. All of these people have passed, most in the last 18 months, my dad died November 20th 2016, my wife of 47 years Martha passed April 12th also 2016; without a doubt her passing is the greatest loss of my life. Yea, I know this is perhaps too much info but it is therapeutic for me and I do not think people realize what others go through. There was no drug or alcohol abuse involved in all this, just life as it happens.

That is what a poor abandoned/divorced white woman with a 3rd grade education, an 11 year old and infant living on the streets ate.

Single Mothers Are GOING MAD Trying To Date When They Learn Men Want NOTHING From Them Besides Sex

Ugh. What the HELL is going on in the West?

Classic Orientalism

PASSPORT BROS Got Him A Beautiful Traditional Mexican Wife & You Can See WHY

¡¡¡ ALERT !!! China is about to cook everyone in semiconductors by 2025 beyond

Advanced lithography (e.g. EUV / DUV) gets all the attention but not enough in the Natsec OSINT community are paying attention to industrial-grade glycine, a critical amino acid used in the semiconductor supply chain to help remove degraded resist during the etching process. Advanced etch processes enable chipmakers to use triple or even quadruple (!) patterning to create the tiny features found in most modern chip designs.

Due to BIS export controls announced in October 2022, all exports of industrial-grade glycine below ISO 140001 certified levels (more on this below) from the U.S. and allied nations were restricted. This has forced the Chinese specialty chemicals industry to scramble to find new supply alternatives, as the sector has long been dominated by Japanese supplier Ajinomoto and UK-based GEO Specialty Chemicals.

Over the past year, Donghua Jinlong Chemical — based in the heart of China’s military-industrial complex in Shijiazhuang, Hebei — has risen to prominence. Founded in 1979 by a former mid-level apothecary in the PLA, it has long been a provider of food-grade glycine but in response to export controls, re-developed its glycine formulas for industrial (and possible “dual” military) use.

Since 2022, Donghua Jinlong has rapidly expanded production capacity, building no less than sixty-eight “lights out” factories with aggregate production capacity of 1.7 trillion picograms — not a typo — of aggregate annual capacity. In a stunning turnaround from peak supply chain disruption in late 2022 / early 2023, analysts are now expressing worries about spillover excess capacity into food-grade glycine given the rapid rate of factory expansion. Shares of Nissin, Nongshim, and Master Kong plummeted last week on volatile trading in glycine commodity prices.

This plus a slick marketing campaign on TikTok have propelled Donghua Jinlong to a dominant 42.807% global market share in this critical material.

Last month, Donghua Jinlong was elevated to national-level “champion” status and hailed as a Party paradigm in the “upcoming round of techno-scientific revolution and industrial transformation” (新一轮科技革命和产业变革) that is one of the pillars of “Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era” (习近平新时代中国特色社会主义思想).

Unlike the poseurs at Huawei — much less Hubei Jingfa Chemical Group with its puny 3.653% market share — Donghua Jinlong is certified to ISO 22000, 90001, and 140001 standards. The last one is especially difficult to attain and industry analysts were more shocked by its ability to reach 140001 standards than SMIC’s ability to reach HVP at N6+ earlier this year.

TL;DR: All y’all cucks really ought to pay more attention to industrial-grade glycine and Donghua Jinlong.

Why has Apple initiated a price war against Huawei in China?

Many people do not know this but the price of the iPhone on the mainland was higher than HK, Japan and the US.

Despite being made IN CHINA!

And despite China having a far lower GDP per capita.

This is merely Apple taking cues from VW and other EV makers who price identical models at far lower prices on the mainland compared to their home markets.

Why?

That’s what it takes to stay abreast of the competition.

CHINESE competition.

Huawei is back, and providing a stiff challenge to iPhone sales, in addition to policy changes banning iPhone use, and the removal of certain apps from the app store.

Apple hit peak Apple on the mainland in 2023, and it’s a painful slide down the mountain.

There are rumors of a 4th ecosystem based on RISC-V and a brand-new OS that a consortium of Chinese handset makers are developing. Volume production at advanced nodes will see the retreat of Android and Qualcomm in the 6G era, and I won’t be surprised if Apple sales plummet to 25–50% of current levels in the coming 5–10 years.

It’s just business reacting to flagging sales here.

Which is good news for the Chinese buyer.

Falling Down – The Great American Lie

This is great, deep and I am so glad that someone else understands this movie. Yeah. A must watch.

The Eastern Theater Command of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army has kicked off joint military drills surrounding the island of Taiwan. What’s the purpose of it?

Because of this speech made in Taipei:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gCC9tUESNIQ

An irresponsible, dangerous, and stupid political stunt by a former Secretary of State who remains sanctioned by China.

He is essentially tearing up the three communiques, and openly pushing for the independence of Taiwan.

The 3 communiques are words that underpin the basis of US-China diplomacy. Tearing them up equals the end of relations, and most likely, open war.

uh, I made a few heads hurt a couple years ago when I took a position uh, that said, “You know, it’s time for the United States to recog- recognize Taiwan as a sovereign and independent country.”

Um, you should know, I I thought about this a lot before making that statement. As a former Secretary of State, people think about what you say. Sometimes they think about what you say, and they say, “You’re just crazy.” Um, but I thought about it a lot, and I came back to what I tried to write about in my book. I came back to the central idea that we shouldn’t live in a make-believe world. We shouldn’t say things that everyone knows aren’t true. We should accept fundamental, basic truths and speak about them openly, no matter what that means, what, no matter what the second-order implications of that are. We should, when when we live in a fantasy world, we create enormous risk.

Um, this wasn’t just a, a gesture or a diplomatic nicety. Um, recognizing this place, Taiwan, as an independent, sovereign, free nation is true. It reflects the reality. You know, I was I was speaking, uh, a week or so back about this law that China has on its books, this idea of an anti-secession law. That’s just crazy, right? When when Xi Jinping speaks of Taiwan as being reunified with his country, this is propaganda. This is an effort to shape the minds of your children, and shape the minds of people around the world who don’t know the history, that don’t know the history that is so central to why it is, it would be important for the United States to make a declarative statement about Taiwan and its independence. It’s a it’s it’s a simple call to just recognize the existing reality. You govern yourself democratically. We saw this yesterday with your peaceful transition of power. You control territory. You engage in international trade. You do so as a separate entity, deeply separate from the People’s Republic of China. None of your real estate, none of your territory, is under the PRC’s sovereign control. Uh, to suggest otherwise belies the reality. You know, the risk is that the PRC has misinterpreted the – the PRC stance, and frankly we’ we’ve had these set of understandings, these communique- these agreements, that have been made uh, long ago now, um, and perhaps they were workable in decades gone by. It’s possible.

Um, when the other side violates an agreement, and there are really only two parties involved, it makes no sense for the other side to continue to honor those commitments. This isn’t about belligerence. This isn’t about an effort to create conflict. This is about recognizing conflict. This is about recognizing that there is an aggressive party, and there’s a party that is a potential victim of that aggression. That’s the people of Taiwan, not the people and the leadership of the Chinese Communist Party. They are the aggressor. They are the ones who have threatened and attempted to coerce this place. You are the ones who have stood up to this coercion, aggression, ways that are important and noble and decent, and God bless you for that.

And finally, I, what pushed me over the edge to say that America ought to take that position is a reflection of my country’s history, my country’s history of recognizing people and their sovereign right to protect their own borders and to create prosperity for their own people. We correct an historical oversight when we get this right, but it also strength- strengthens a peaceful and democratic peoples. It’s not just you. It’s not just a policy adjustment. It is a moral and strategic imperative. And it is a necessary and it is a rightful acknowledgement of the democratic process of your true, free, and sovereign state. Time for us to act boldly, together. And when we do, when we do, I am convinced uh, that we will look back on the day that we just acknowledged the truth and the reality, we will look back on that day as a day that was an inflection point in world history, an inflection point in the history of this place, and an inflection point for the peoples of the entire region, and we made their lives better, safer, and more prosperous.

China Has SURROUNDED Taiwan, Russia Runs NUCLEAR DRILLS, Media Says WW3 IS NOW And Biden IS LOSING

Shorpy

Breaking News – China: “The Japanese People will be dragged into a fiery Hell”

Hal Turner World May 23, 2024

Chinese Ambassador to Japan, Wu Jianghao, today publicly announced “The Japanese people will be dragged into a fiery hell,” after Japan pledged support to Taiwan.

The ambassador has already been summoned to the Taiwan Foreign Ministry.

Hal Turner Snap Analysis

WOW! That language is so unusual as to be completely unknown coming from _any_ China official.

Seems as though old animosities are resurfacing in Asia.

This is not the language used by Diplomats . . . or are we in a new paradigm?

If this is what their DIPLOMAT says . . . can any of us imagine the level of anger/hatred the Chinese still feel against Japan for the “Rape of Nanking?”

Sounds to me like someone has some very old scores to settle.

This could get ugly.

Women CRIES Being 33 Years Old And SINGLE, Society LIED To Men & Women

Men are lonely. Women are lonely. I so feel for this woman. Sad girl. Terrible!

The West is a cluster FUCK.

Topsy was an Indian elephant who became infamous for his execution by electrocution

main qimg e5dcb5f5a85f10c949baa5508dc870ec

Taken from South-East Asia and transported to America, on May 27, 1902 he was in an enclosure at the Forepaugh Circus in Brooklyn when a keeper, in a state of intoxication, decided to throw sand on him and burn his trunk with a cigarette. The animal left no escape for man, but from that day on, especially for obvious marketing reasons, it was advertised as “the bad elephant that killed 12 people”.

The animal’s growing aggressiveness in the face of instigation convinced the owners to sell it to the Sea Lion Park; Here it wasn’t long before Topsy became the protagonist of a new attack and escaped from the facility, once again after being hit in the ear with a pitchfork.

The new owners thus found themselves obliged to euthanize the elephant in an event open to the paying public; For Topsy, three systems were planned to be used simultaneously: poisoning with cyanide-laced carrots, hanging with iron cables and finally electrocution.

The latter had been strongly sponsored by Thomas Edison who wanted to demonstrate in this way the danger of alternating current, supported by George Westinghouse in favor of direct current; a shock of 6,600V, lasting 10 seconds, killed the animal instantly.

Famous Pennsylvania Dutch Sticky Cinnamon Buns

Ingredients

1 package dry yeast
1/4 cup warm water
1 cup milk, scalded
3 tablespoons granulated sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 1/4 cups sifted all-purpose flour, divided
3 tablespoons soft butter
1/2 cup chopped raisins
2 tablespoons currants
2 tablespoons finely chopped citron
1/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
3 tablespoons brown sugar

Instructions

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.
Sprinkle top with the 3 tablespoons brown sugar.
Bake at 375 degrees F for 20 to 25 minutes.

Are you sick of the tipping culture in the United States?

This week I took my family out to some fancy Italian restaurant to celebrate my daughter’s college graduation.

This is a type of place that everything is a la carte because I guess making you pay for side dishes makes it a fancy restaurant.

I digress. So the bill is $225. And it included a 3% fee which was never explained to me but let’s assume it’s a credit card fee.

At the bottom of the receipt list the suggested tips 20% 23% and 25%.

Here’s my problem in the past 3 years going out to eat has gone up by 25% in the United States. Tips are based on the cost of the restaurant so inherently the tips went up by 25%. And yet I guess this is not enough, on top of that there’s an expectation for a 25% tip? You got to be kidding me.

Now before you tell me how I’m a cheapskate and servers work hard for their money let me tell you about a week ago I went with my daughter and wife out to a breakfast place the bill was $45 the service was excellent and I left $10.

According to my calculations that $10 is over 20%. But that is not the point. The point is are you telling me that that waitstaff at the fancy Italian restaurant work any harder than if the breakfast place I went to?

I am so irritated with the tipping culture of the United States, especially the expectations at fancy restaurants that do not necessarily go above and beyond for service.

CHINA SANCTIONS USA – wait… they can do that…

https://youtu.be/6duze3I79-s

I lied, you have to get rid of your kitties by the end of the month

When I lived in Milford Massachusetts, I paid a rental agency to find me an apartment that would allow cats. I had three cats, and I was only going to rent a place that would allow me to have them.

Well, sure as shit, I found a place, and moved in.

It was really nice. A three story triplex right off of the main road in downtown. It was walking distance from Ted’s Diner.

Here’s another view.

It’s a fine place for a cup of coffee in a fine REAL coffee cup.

About one month later, the landlord told me that I had to get rid of the cats.

He told me that he had lied, but the apartment was so nice, and the rent was so reasonable that the two other tenants had gladly given away their cats, and he expected me to do so as well.

He gave me one month.

Find a home for the cats, or drop them off at a shelter.

Do you all know what I did?

Guess.

I said “no thanks” and moved out as soon as I found another apartment.

It was in another town though, and I had to root up and leave, but there was no way that I was going to discard my beloved kitties over a place.

The nerve of that guy!

He lied because…

…he thought that I would give away my cats for a place to live.

Sheech! What would youse guys do?

Today…

He lost his job over this

Has anyone walked into a bar and then found it was filled with a biker gang? What happened?

Yeah.

So, this went down during a road trip across the USA a few years back. My buddy and I had rented a Ford Mustang, and we had driven a lot of miles by that point. We where somewhere in Texas – though don’t ask me to pinpoint the exact spot.

Anyway, we were both starving, so we decided to hit up the first joint we stumbled upon. We rolled up to this bar with bikes lined up outside, and I couldn’t help but think, “Well, shit, this might be our last meal.” But, we went in anyway.

We ordered our food, and before we knew it, we had the attention of this rowdy biker dude who seemed a few beers deep. Instead of trying to kill us, the guy just wanted to know if we were locals. I told him that we were just passing through on a road trip.

His response?

“Alright, then lemme show you how we deal with strangers here!”

Next thing we knew, he’s shouting for the bartender to bring us some beers, and his crew’s joining in on the fun. I stuck to soft drinks, but my buddy scored big time with the free beer.

Definitely one of the funniest memories!

US TROOPS ARE 100% GOING TO UKRAINE, NUCLEAR STRIKE ON NK, RUSSIAN ROCKET ON US COAST

Shorpy

SHORPY 1956 Cadillac Eldorado Seville.preview

Beef in Mushroom Gravy

Yield: 6 servings

Steaks With Mushroom Gravy

The ultimate dinner! Ribeye is the steak of choice for this recipe, but you can also use New York strip (or Porterhouse), Sirloin or Rump. A good cut of beef, even though expensive, is the best steak to cook with and enjoy eating. They stay tender and juicy, and are not chewy like cheaper cuts more suitable for slow cooking.

I have a confession (to add to the other 5 million on my blog). I was never ever a fan of steak and gravy until I met my husband. Why? I prefer juicy, red, medium-rare steaks…and for me, a perfectly juicy steak does’t need ANYTHING on it. Well, besides a good Chimichurri, of course.

However, my husband on the other hand cannot stand juicy med-rare steaks. I know, I know…the travesty. So, because he loves his pieces of well-done dry/cardboard on a plate, I was forced to make him gravy with every steak dinner. (A travesty, I tell you.) That is until I tried it myself with JUICY medium-rare ribeye steaks of course!

Since then, I changed my mind. Steaks are CRAZY GOOD swimming in a gravy sauce! Especially this Onion Mushroom Gravy with a kick of Worcestershire sauce!

If you’re somewhat of a steak snob like me, this Ribeye Steaks With Mushroom Gravy will absolutely change your mind.

Ingredients

2 to 2 1/2 pounds boneless round steak
1 to 2 envelopes dry onion soup mix
1 can cream of mushroom soup, undiluted
1/2 cup water
Mashed potatoes (optional)

Instructions

Cut steak into six serving-size pieces; place in a slow cooker.
Combine soup mix, soup and water; pour over beef.
Cover and cook on LOW for 7 to 8 hours or until meat is tender.
Serve with mashed potatoes, if desired.

Medical professionals, have you ever treated a patient and immediately recognized a previous doctor’s errors?

I wish I could say that I haven’t, but I can’t.

Example?

I had a lovely young woman, that I knew from previous visits. She had had five previous surgeries, for TMJ, by the same surgeon.

Her jaw was still bothering her. This same surgeon was recommending another surgery.

I thought that this was outrageous. If he had any expertise, this would have been unnecessary.

I begged her to get another opinion.

She refused. She really trusted this guy.

Fast forward a month.

Patient comes in to see me. One whole side of her face is drooping. She does not look the least bit distressed by this.

“Hi, uh, how are you?”

“Good”

“You are?”

“Oh, this… (gesturing toward her face) it’s Bell’s Palsy. It will go away”.

“Uh…who told you that?”

“I woke up from my TMJ surgery like this. The surgeon said this is from a virus and it will go away.”

Quick exam.

I call ENT.

“I have a woman here with a likely through and through cut through the facial nerve.”

“When?”

“Four weeks. Surgeon told her it’s Bell’s palsy.”

“Christ! Send her over right away!”

So, now I get to go in and tell this beautiful young woman that the ENT will try to reattach the nerve but most likely she will look like a gargoyle for the rest of her life. Her idiot surgeon had cut through the nerve and then tried to convince her that she had a virus.

This poor girl sobbed into my lap for a great long while. When she regained her composure, I gently sent her off to the ENT.

I’m sure she got a gazillion dollars in a law suit, but so what. Her face was destroyed.

I could tell you other stories. Many other stories.

I’ll just stop here and wish you…

Peace

What’s the most unreasonable request you’ve received from your boss?

On Wednesday before Thanksgiving: “Make sure the production workers come in Friday, Saturday and Sunday. When the production goal is met, tell them all they are fired.” I asked where he would be. “We have a three day yacht race event on San Francisco Bay. We’ll be sailing against Ted Turner. So you have to fire the workers but be sure they don’t know until the quota is reached.”

So while he would be out drinking champagne and sailing on yachts, I would do the dirty work.

On the Saturday, halfway through the push to get a whole month’s production done in three days, I got talking to a small man who I didn’t know, but he seemed to know a lot about me. He said something seemed to be on my mind. He was observing everything in the production process in great detail. He asked me about the VP and Supply Manager not being there. Sunday, the guy was back with more questions. He pressed me on what was wrong (other than spending all of Thanksgiving weekend working for no pay). I eventually told him I thought it was a shitty deal to make the people work all through a holiday weekend and then summarily fire everyone. He told me: “Don’t do it. It doesn’t matter what [the VP] told you to do. Just don’t fire anyone. Everything will be clear on Monday.”

Monday came, and the VP and Supply Manager had both been to work and gone. Fired. The VP of Finance was also fired. The several production workers were not fired. The new VP, of course, was the guy with all the questions. He told me there was only one person in manufacturing or finance who gave him simple, straight answers. Also, what was the point of firing a handful of $10 hourly people when he could fire three $100,000+ salaried people who weren’t doing their jobs? That made sense, of course.

Star Trek II Wrath of Khan – Reliant Vs Enterprise; First Clash 1080p

Why is France accusing Azerbaijan of meddling in New Caledonia?

French Home Affairs Minister Gerard Darmanin has accused Azerbaijan of colluding with pro-independence forces in New Caledonia – the French overseas territory in the southwest Pacific about 1,200 km east of Australia.

“This is not a fantasy. This is reality. Unfortunately, some independence leaders have made a deal with Azerbaijan, this is indisputable,” Darmanin said in an interview with France-2 on Thursday.

Is there any truth in the claim? What’s the backstory? Here’s what we know.

🔻 Baku rejected Paris’s allegations, with Foreign Ministry spokesman Aykhan Hajizada urging Darmanin to “focus on his country’s failed overseas policies” which caused the wave of violent protests in New Caledonia, “instead of blaming Azerbaijan” for its troubles.

🔻Darmanin’s assertions followed the memorandum of cooperation between the Azerbaijani Parliament and New Caledonia’s Congress, which was signed last month, envisioned as a treatise for developing a framework for parliamentary cooperation.

🔻 The agreement sparked accusations by Paris that Baku was stoking separatism in the French overseas territory. Azerbaijan dismissed the claims, and recalled France’s own controversial policies in the Caucasus.

🔻“It’s known that the French Parliament, at the initiative of the ruling party of France, adopted decisions and resolutions which recognised the separatist regime, challenged and harmed the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Azerbaijan, and enabled the activity of a ‘friendship group’ with the former so-called separatist regime,” Baku said in an April 30 statement, referring to the Karabakh conflict.

🔻 New Caledonia has been rocked by violent clashes starting May 13 over the constitutional reform proposals to change voting law. Protests have claimed four lives, with France deploying the military and imposing a state of emergency until the end of May.

main qimg 38f385f3869b1f14235fb9107e2e41cc

What truths in life do I have to learn by myself?

Nothing can stand the test of time. Eventually, everything must finally, and sadly, come to an abrupt end.
Do you want to know the latest drug? It’s called social media.
Everyone must finally discover the ultimate horror of having sex.
Never pin your hopes on empty promises. Empty promises are things that did not exist in the first place.
What really matters is not believing in yourself. It is trusting yourself.
Most people feed themselves from their necks down, but what really contributes to our growth is feeding ourselves from the neck up.
Have you ever considered why we’ve been watching TV for decades and not yet experienced any change? Because TV was not designed to bring change. It was designed to make us illiterate.
Most people think that change is something that jumps out of the pages of a textbook into the mind. Change is actually something that the mind conceives from within.
You are one of 3 things — you will never change, or you will watch others change, or you will become the change.
Death was never the greatest tragedy. The greatest tragedy is to live in this life and never show up.
The majority of people fall in love through the eyes the first time. That means you should be very careful who you let your eyes come into contact with.
The best way to judge a woman’s loyalty is when her man has nothing. The best way to judge a man’s loyalty is when he has everything.
Fortunes do not necessarily change men as much as it unmasks them.
Bullying is for people who have no confidence in themselves. The reason they do it is to try and shake off their own demons.
To fall in love is awfully simple, but to fall out of love is simply awful.
Retirement is when the living is easy and the payments are hard.
Best friends are like diamonds; precious and rare. Bad friends are like tree leaves; they’re found everywhere.
A stranger stabs you in the front; A friend stabs you in the back; A boyfriend stabs you in the heart, but best friends only poke each other with straws.
The daily grind of hard work gets a person polished but also emaciated and painfully tired.
Kissing is the merging of two lips, two souls and two spirits that makes them one.
Siblings are the only enemy you can’t live without.
Denial is the way we know best how to handle that which we don’t comprehend.
Sometimes those who don’t socialize much aren’t actually anti-social; they just have no tolerance for drama and fake people.
Love is like a tornado; it sweeps you off your feet and sometimes takes half your house.
Sometimes we tend to be in despair when the person we love leaves us, but the truth is, it’s not our loss, but theirs, for they left the only person who wouldn’t give up on them.
You will never know true happiness until you have truly loved, and you will never understand what pain really is until you have lost it.
Sometimes you have to stand alone to prove that you can still stand.
Why do people say “no offense” just before they’re about to offend you?
The secret of discovery is not in looking for new lands, but in looking at existing land with new eyes.
Being happy doesn’t mean that everything is perfect. It means that you’ve decided to look beyond the imperfections.

What is the quickest you’ve ever sold your home?

30 Seconds.

My wife got a new job across the country. She received and accepted the job offer in December and started the new job the following August. (She is an academic, so the long lead time was not unusual). In May, we had started to look for a house in our new city and were getting ready to list the old house. This was in 2021, the housing market was screaming hot, mortgages were at rock bottom, so we were optimistic that this would go smoothly.

Two years previously a neighbor who had lived in his house since the 1950’s passed away and the house was purchased by a friend of the family, renovated, became a rental. One Saturday as we were leaving for breakfast I saw the new owner across the street and rolled down my window to ask if he knew anyone looking for investment property in the area and told him we were going to sell our house.

He asked how much we wanted and I did some quick calculations in my head about what we would clear after repairs and real estate commissions and gave him a number, as is. He said “you got it”, we shook on it and a few days later he brought over a single page, handwritten document. We both signed it and that became our contract. He also offered us $100,000 at the time so that we could put it down on a new home.

When we found our new home, the realtor asked for a copy of our contract to include with our offer, to prove that we were serious. I emailed a scan of the contract and she told me that she needed the whole contract. I told her that was all that we had and she laughed and said “OK, but are you sure the house will close?” It did, and we got the new house. Later the realtor told me that in all of her years in real estate she had never seen a sale of a home go through with a single page contract and that this was the weirdest sale she had ever seen.

I rented the house back at the cost of their mortgage payment until October so that I could wrap up some other business.

We cleared what we would have if we had listed with a realtor, and the buyer got a really good deal on the home which he repaired, renovated and turned into a rental.

I don’t know that I would ever do this again though, probably a once-in-a-lifetime experience.

The WORLD CAN’T Compete with China’s Infrastructure 🇨🇳 Chongqing is the FUTURE!

For so long, China has been painted in a negative light in the West and as such our first impressions of Chongqing is not what we expected. The truth is that Chongqing, China is miles ahead of the rest of the world and the infrastructure is beyond impressive which makes it impossible for others to compete against China. In this video, we take you around Chongqing, China and show you just how futuristic this cyber punk city is.

What’s the most unreasonable request you’ve received from your boss?

“Jane has just told me that she’s pregnant. I need you to fire her immediately before she puts it in writing.”

Jane had been employed by the company for about three years and whilst her performance didn’t set the world alight, she certainly wasn’t terrible – there was absolutely no justification to dismiss her.

I challenged the VP who made the request and said that even if there was a justification, now that he knows she is pregnant we need to follow very careful processes. He said that as Jane hadn’t put it in writing he didn’t actually know about it, I corrected that view and told him that I now knew as he had told me and was not going to perjure myself when, not if, we got taken to court for unfair dismissal.

In the end I put a halt to the conversation and said that it isn’t going to happen and that I think we need to stop talking about it. I spoke to the Chief People Officer (my bosses boss) and told her what I had been asked to do – I was asked to put the details in writing and the VP was suspended and dismissed within a few days. Apparently there had been some issues with him before I joined the business but I mean what kind of person terminates someone who is pregnant unless there is a really good reason to do it.

What is the most amazing thing you overheard because people didn’t think you understood their language?

Years ago, in Hong Kong, I was involved in negotiating a significant regional contract with a French company. As we walked to the meeting, I told my Australian boss that I spoke enough French to handle the meeting, if necessary. He suggested it would be better to stick to English, as he knew no French, and was sure the French side spoke reasonable English.

The potential client spoke excellent English. They set out what they wanted, then paused to allow us time to work out a response. As my boss and I calculated what we would want to charge, they discussed amongst themselves – in French – what they were prepared to pay, what was really important to them, what was optional, and what they would pay extra for.

We ended up charging very close to their walk-away number, with a number of items charged separately.

A while later, towards the end of the project, I was congratulated on how well it was going, and (ruefully) our negotiating skills… I was VERY careful not to give any hint that a notoriously monolingual Brit could understand one word of French…despite having been near-fluent at the time…

Russia+China directly challenge the US and its Plantation. Vow to Step Up Fight to Counter US.

Great video.

Baked Pork Chops and Noodles

Yield: 4 servings

Ingredients

Spaghetti: Spaghetti is the pasta of choice for this dish. Its long, thin strands are perfect for twirling and they do an excellent job of soaking up the creamy sauce.

Boneless Pork Chops: These are the star of the dish. Their lean yet tender meat cooks quickly and absorbs the flavors of the sauce well. When shopping for pork chops, look for ones that are pinkish-red in color with some marbling.

Salt & Pepper: These are essential for seasoning the pork chops. They enhance the natural flavors of the meat and the sauce. I recommend using fine sea salt and freshly ground black pepper for the best taste.

Olive Oil: This is used for searing the pork chops. I prefer searing the pork chops in oil because it has a higher smoke point than butter.

Butter: Butter is used in sautéing the onions and garlic, as well as adding a rich, creamy flavor to the sauce.

Garlic: This adds a robust, aromatic flavor to the sauce. Fresh garlic cloves are the best as they are more flavorful and aromatic than pre-minced cloves or powdered garlic.

Yellow Onion: Yellow onions are a great choice for this dish because of their sweet and mild flavor. They add a depth of flavor to the sauce and pair well with the other ingredients.

All-Purpose Flour: This is used to thicken the sauce, giving it a velvety texture that coats the pasta well.

Heavy Cream or Half and Half: These are used to give the sauce its creamy consistency. Both work well, but heavy cream will make a richer sauce while half and half will be slightly lighter.

Chicken Broth: This adds a savory depth of flavor to the sauce. Look for a low-sodium version so you can control the saltiness of your dish.

Parmesan Cheese: This cheese brings a nutty, salty, umami flavor to the dish. Always opt for freshly grated Parmesan cheese for the best taste and texture. Pre-grated cheeses are coated in an anti-caking agent that can make the texture of the sauce gritty.

Basil and Oregano: These dried herbs add an Italian flair to the dish. They provide a fragrant, earthy flavor that compliments the creamy sauce and pork chops well.

Crushed Red Pepper Flakes: These are optional, but they add a nice kick of heat to the dish. Adjust the amount to suit your family’s spice tolerance.

Parsley: Fresh parsley is used as a garnish. It adds a pop of color and a fresh, bright flavor to the finished dish.

Ingredients

10 ounces spaghetti
4 boneless pork chops (about 1-inch thick)
1 teaspoon fine sea salt (divided)
1 teaspoon ground black pepper (divided)
2 Tablespoons olive oil
2 Tablespoons butter
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 medium yellow onion, finely chopped
2 Tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 cup heavy cream (or half and half)
1 cup chicken broth
1/3 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese*
1/2 teaspoon dried basil
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes (optional)
Chopped fresh parsley (optional, for garnish)

Instructions

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Cook the spaghetti according to package instructions until al dente. Drain the pasta, reserving 1/2 cup of the pasta cooking water.
Pat the pork chops dry with paper towels and season both sides generously with 1/2 teaspoon of both salt and ground black pepper.
In a large skillet, heat the olive oil over medium-high heat. Add the seasoned pork chops and sear for about 3-4 minutes per side, or until a golden-brown crust forms and the internal temperature reads 145F on an instant read meat thermometer. Transfer the pork chops to a plate, then tent with aluminum foil to keep warm and set aside.
In the same skillet, reduce the heat to medium and add the butter. Once melted, add chopped onion. Cook for 3-4 minutes, or until the onion is translucent and softened. Add the minced garlic and saute for 30-60 seconds, or until aromatic. Add the flour to the onions and mix, creating a roux.
Slowly pour in the chicken broth and heavy cream while whisking constantly. Add the dried basil, dried oregano, crushed red pepper flakes (if using), and the remaining salt and ground black pepper. Whisk until the sauce is smooth and well combined.
Increase the heat to bring it to just barely a boil, then turn the heat back down to medium and let the sauce simmer for 5-7 minutes, or until it thickens and coats the back of a spoon.
Reduce the heat to low and add the grated Parmesan cheese to the sauce, stirring until it’s fully melted and incorporated.
Add the cooked spaghetti to the sauce and toss gently to coat the pasta evenly. If the sauce is too thick, add a little of the reserved pasta cooking water to thin it out to your desired consistency.
To serve, divide the creamy spaghetti among plates, and place a pork chop on top of each portion. Garnish with chopped fresh parsley and, if desired, additional Parmesan cheese.

Notes

*I recommend using freshly grated parmesan cheese. Pre-grated cheeses are coated in an anti-caking agent that can make the texture of the sauce gritty.

Fun Comix

THIS is why you don’t judge a book by its cover…

What did you do when you were suddenly fired from a job?

It was Sunday afternoon and the phone rang, landline, 1988. It was my boss. He told me to not come in tomorrow as I was fired. I was 21 & still living at home. My mom was so HAPPY! She did not like my boss, thought he was creepy (Chiropractor). I called my friend/coworker D. She was fired Friday, my day off. So I knew it was coming.

Long story short, we entered patient files in the Apple, 1988, NEW to us. He went to bill and it was “messed up” because of us. We also knew of his fraudulent billing practices. We had also obtained 3 patients billing records and appointments (book) that showed he’d bill for an actual appointment/procedure when it was a missed appointment. One of the patients was my stepdad.

What did I do? I called D. We went to the Labor Board to get OT he NEVER paid us. When then went to Workers Comp and the Insurance Board and turned over the records we had. I went to a Temp Agency. I had a job w/in a few days at a bank as a loan secretary. I met SJ, my future husband. We married 1990. Still married.

He got black balled by all the insurance companies. Either the patients had to endorse the check to him or deposit it & write him one or sign off on the billing for the check to go directly to him. I didn’t mention, February 1989, I received a check from the State for over $1K for O/T payment. They garnished his income tax return.

NO WAY we’re landing on the moon in 2026

No fucking way will that happen.

Paint the roof silver

For almost ten years I lived in a mobile home. I bought it in Pennsylvania, and moved it to Indiana, a couple of times. Then to Kentucky, and then to Mississippi. We eventually sold it.

The thing about mobile homes… well, there are a lot of things about them. But my mobile home had to have a new roof painted on every other year or so. If you didn’t lay down a new coat of silver tar substance on the roof, it would start to leak. And, you know, no one wants that.

I would, at that time, buy a bucket of mobile home roof tar, and make a day out of it. We would get a brush and push on the coating on the entire roof. First going over the edges, then the seams.

Then finally the rest of the roof.

Now, this is something that most people who rent, or who live in regular homes, don’t ever need to worry about. But we did.

Now, while I am happy that those days are over, ever now and then a memory is triggered and I recall an event from those days. One… in this case of me painting the roof silver.

Now you know.

Today…

What happened when a workplace bully went to Human Resources only to be told that IF they investigated his complaint against you, they’d be required to also investigate the complaints that had been filed against him by multiple other employees?

The matter was considered resolved.

A young woman, fresh out of college, extremely bright with a photographic memory, was tasked to do charts. They were documentation of company profits and losses. Losses mostly.

A seasoned employee, who had little patience for the bright young woman, told her to make a chart. The bright young woman could see, because she has a photographic memory, and this was her job, to track losses, that the figures were horribly wrong.

She asked the seasoned employee to recalculate the data. The seasoned employee said, ”Why don’t you just do your job!” Again, she asked the woman to recalculate the data. The seasoned employee said, ”Are you a fucking moron or just hard of hearing because you are a fucking moron?” Another employee heard this conversation.

The bright young woman sent an e-mail to the seasoned employee saying, per our conversation you want me to use the data included in this email to calculate the chart? The seasoned employee responded to the email, ”Does it hurt your head to be so stupid?”

The bright young woman calculated the data, sent the chart to the seasoned employee’s boss and explained how the data was wrong, what the data should have said, and that there was friction getting corrected information.

Immediately the seasoned employee and the bright young woman were in management’s office to resolve the communication problem. Another witness.

The seasoned employee went to HR claiming the bright young woman was creating a hostile work environment.

The bright young woman sent the e-mails, and her version of the previous conversations, including those who were present at the time of the conversations.

Apparently the seasoned employee had numerous complaints however those complaints were he said, she said, they lacked documentation.

The bright young woman was absolved of the hostile workplace accusations. She took her skills to another employer. Problem solved.

Time-Slip Artifacts: Modern Objects in the Ancient World – Volume 1

This is fun. The Pyramid stuff with Baogong is interesting.

The Russia–Iran–China search for a new global security order

While the collective west is in the grips of an existential legitimacy crisis, the RIC is devising its own security order to protect the rest of the world from the ‘genocidals.’

Pepe Escobar

MAY 3, 2024

The Hegemon has no idea what awaits the Exceptionalist mindset: China has started to decisively stir the civilizational cauldron without bothering about an inevitable array of sanctions coming by early 2025 and/or a possible collapse of the international financial system.

Last week, US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken and his list of delusional US demands was welcomed in Beijing by Foreign Minister Wang Yi and President Xi Jinping as little more than an annoying gnat. Wang, on the record, stressed that Tehran was justified in defending itself against Israel’s shredding of the Vienna Convention when it attacked the Iranian consulate in Damascus.

At the UN Security Council, China now openly questions not only the state terror attack on the Nord Streams but also the US–Israel combo’s blocking of Palestinian statehood. Moreover, Beijing, just like Moscow recently, hosts Palestine’s political factions together in a conference aiming to unify their positions.

Next Tuesday, only two days before Moscow celebrates Victory Day, the end of the Great Patriotic War, Xi will land in Belgrade to remind the whole world about the 25th anniversary of the bombing of the Chinese embassy by the US, UK, and NATO.

Russia, meanwhile, provided a platform for the UNRWA – the UN relief agency for Palestinian refugees, which Israel has sought to defund – to explain to high representatives of BRICS-10 the cataclysmic humanitarian situation in Gaza, as described by UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini.

In short, serious political business is already being conducted outside of the corrupted UN system…

… as the United Nations disintegrates into a corporate shell with the US dictating all terms as the largest shareholder.

Yet another key example of BRICS as the new UN: Russian Security Council chairman Nikolai Patrushev met in St. Petersburg with his Chinese counterpart Chen Wenqing on the sidelines of the 12th International Security Summit, congregating over 100 nations, including the security heads of BRICS-10 members Iran, India, Brazil, and South Africa, as well as Iraq.

The SCO security show

But the key crossroads these past few days was the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) defense summit in Astana, Kazakhstan.

For the first time, the new Chinese Defense Minister, Dong Jun, met with his Russian counterpart, Sergei Shoigu, to emphasize their comprehensive strategic partnership.

Dong, significantly, stressed the “dynamic” nature of China–Russia military interaction, while Shoigu doubled down, saying it “sets a model for interstate relations” based on mutual respect and shared strategic interests.

Addressing the full SCO assembly, Shoigu emphatically refuted the massive western propaganda drive about a Russian “threat” to NATO.

Everybody was at the SCO defense ministers’ meeting – including, at the same table, India, Iran, Pakistan, and Belarus as an observer. Minsk is eager to join the SCO.

The interlocking Russia–Iran–China strategic partnerships were totally in sync. Apart from Dong meeting Shoigu, he also met Iranian Defense Minister Brigadier General Mohammad Reza Ashtiani, who lavishly praised Beijing’s condemnation of the Israeli terror air strike in Damascus.

What is happening now between Beijing and Tehran is a replay of what started last year between Moscow and Tehran, when a member of the Iranian delegation on a visit to Russia remarked that both parties had agreed on a mutual, high-level “anything you need” relationship.

In Astana, Dong’s support for Iran was unmistakable. Not only did he invite Ashtiani to a security conference in Beijing, mirroring the Iranian position, he also called for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and the delivery of humanitarian aid.

Shoigu, meeting with Ashtiani, provided extra context when he recalled that “the joint fight against international terrorism in Syria is a vivid example of our long-standing friendly relations.” The Russian defense minister then delivered his clincher:

The current military-political situation and threats to our states oblige us … to common approaches to building a just world order based on equality for all participants in the international community.

A new global security order

Establishing a new global security order is right at the heart of BRICS-10 planning – on par with the de-dollarization debate. All of this is anathema to the collective west, which is incapable of understanding the multifaceted, intertwined Russia, Iran, and China partnerships.

And the interaction goes on in person. Russian President Vladimir Putin will be visiting Beijing later this month.

On Gaza, the Russia–Iran–China position is in complete sync: Israel is committing genocide.

For the EU – and NATOstan as a whole – this is not genocide: the bloc supports Israel no matter what.

After Iran, on 13 April, changed the game in West Asia for good, without even using their finest hypersonic missiles, the key question for the Global Majority is stark: in the end, who will restrain the genocidals, and how? Diplomatic sources hint this will be discussed face-to-face by Putin and Xi.

As one Chinese scholar, with unique aplomb, remarks:

This time, the barbarians are facing a 5,000-year continuing written civilization, armed with Sun Tzu’s Art of War, Mao thought, Xi’s dual circulation strategy, Belt and Road, BRICS, renminbi digitalization, Russia and China unlimited, the world’s most powerful manufacturing industry, tech supremacy, economic powerhouse, and the backing of the Global South.

All that against a polarized Hegemon in turmoil, with its genocidal aircraft carrier in West Asia totally spinning out of control.

US threats of a “clear choice” between ending several key strands of the Russia–China strategic partnership or facing a sanctions tsunami don’t cut it in Beijing.

The same applies to Washington’s wishful attempts at preventing BRICS members from ditching the US dollar.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has made it quite clear that Moscow and Beijing have nearly reached the point of abandoning the US dollar in bilateral trade.

And the outright theft of Russian assets by the collective west is the ultimate red line for BRICS – and all other nations watching with horror – as a whole: this is definitely a “non-agreement capable” Empire, as Lavrov has been emphasizing since late 2021.

Yaroslav Lisovolik, founder of BRICS+ Analytics, dismisses the Hegemon’s threats against BRICS as the road map toward an alternative payment system is still in its infancy. As for Russia–China trade, the non-dollar high-speed train has already left the station.

Yet the key question remains: how will Russia–Iran–China (RIC), as BRICS leaders, SCO members, and simultaneously top three “existential threats” to the Hegemon, be able to start implementing a new global security architecture without staring down the genocidals.

Power Breakfast Bowls

Start the day strong with this savory whole grain breakfast bowl that includes sliced portabella mushrooms and a curry yogurt tahini topping. We’ve used barley, but feel free to swap it with your favorite grain such as quinoa or wild rice.

Prep: 30 min | Cook: 20 min | Yield: 4 servings

Ingredients

Yogurt Topping

1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 cup chopped kale
1/2 cup plain Greek yogurt
1 tablespoon tahini
1 teaspoon curry powder
1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt

Breakfast Bowls

2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
2 portabella mushroom caps, cleaned and thinly sliced
1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt
2 heads baby bok choy, sliced
1 cup pearled barley, cooked according to package directions
1 red bell pepper, julienned
4 large eggs, fried

Instructions

Yogurt Topping

Heat the olive oil in a medium-skillet over medium-high heat. Add the garlic and cook for 1 minute. Add the kale and cook for 2 more minutes, until wilted. Let cool to room temperature.
Spoon the yogurt into a small food processor or cup of a single serving blender. Add the tahini, curry powder, and salt. Add the kale and garlic. Pulse in 10 second intervals until the kale is finely chopped and all ingredients are combined. Set aside.

Breakfast Bowls

Start by heating the 2 tablespoons of olive oil in a medium-skillet over medium-high heat. Add the sliced mushrooms and toss to cook in the oil for 5 minutes, until they become tender. Toss with the salt. Transfer the mushrooms to a bowl and add the bok choy to the hot skillet. Cook over medium-heat for 1 minute, until it begins to wilt. Remove from heat.
Assemble the breakfast by adding an equal amount of barley to each of four bowls. Top with greens, sliced mushrooms, and red bell pepper. Add a large dollop of the topping and place an egg in each bowl. Serve right away.

Attribution

Recipe and photo used with permission from: The Mushroom Council

Do you know of a case where an average student became among the best in the class because he started hanging out with those that are the best?

I was asked to tutor 15 PhD candidates (who were mostly university professors), who were expected to study in the U.S.A. for 2 years.

Their TOEFL scores were high, except for one administrative officer who scored 470 and one financial officer who scored 287. At that time, students were expected to have a score of 500 to get into a bachelor’s program.

They were already enrolled in the PhD program at a reputable university, and advisors had interviewed them here in Thailand.

I assumed that these two were allowed in as a special favor, but I had no real knowledge of the hows and whys.

The admin officer, who did little to improve, left our course and the PhD program with less than a month before departure.

The financial officer (call her ‘Dee’), however, attended every class, but her participation was stunted by the far more competent participants, no matter what I did to encourage her.

She was (quietly) considered an outsider, a non-academic and a non-proficient speaker of English by others in the class.

When they left for the U.S., I kept in touch with a few participants and always asked about Dee.

I needn’t have worried.

Dee completed her PhD earlier than was expected, much to the surprise of the others.

How did she do that?

Dee immersed herself in university and U.S. life, focusing on her tasks and seeking out advisors and other PhD candidates with similar interests. She was invited to instructors’ and candidates’ homes, and was quickly ‘adopted’ by their families.

A ceremony was held at the Thai university at the end of the program. She was greatly praised by the rector and others, while some of the professor candidates who did not complete the program stood silently by.

Today’s Comics

As a doctor or nurse, what were the creepiest last words you’ve heard from a patient right before the patient died?

Patients’ last words can be a window into their subconscious mind, revealing their deepest fears, desires, or regrets.

It’s not uncommon for healthcare professionals to encounter unsettling or cryptic last words, which can leave a lasting impact on those who care for the dying.

One doctor recounted a patient who, with their final breath, whispered “the children aren’t safe.”

The patient had no children, and the doctor was left wondering what dark secret the patient was trying to convey.

Another nurse remembered a patient who, as they took their last breath, whispered “I’m sorry” repeatedly, as if trying to atone for some unknown sin.

In some cases, patients may use their last words to convey a message or warning to their loved ones.

For instance, a patient who was a former smoker might warn their family members to quit smoking, while another might express regret over past decisions.

Some patients may use their final moments to settle old scores, confess secrets, or seek forgiveness.

The human brain is wired to respond to threats or perceived danger, even in the face of impending death.

This can lead to a flood of adrenaline, causing some patients to become agitated, aggressive, or even violent in their final moments.

In rare cases, patients may experience a “deathbed vision,” where they see or sense the presence of deceased loved ones or a higher power, offering them comfort and reassurance.

Ultimately, the dying process can be as mysterious as it is unsettling, leaving healthcare professionals to ponder the mysteries of the human psyche.

What’s the most ingenious car repair you’ve ever seen done?

I was at a bar, and this girl and her boyfriend got into a fight. She had a ’73 camaro, and he opened the hood and pulled off her coil wire. Then took off in his car leaving her stranded. I went into the bar, got a coat hanger, bent the ends so they would fit tight into the distributor cap and coil. she hit the key and it fired right up. I even impressed myself.

Another time, I was at the GW FASHION MALL, (Goodwill), and there was a guy with his hood open. says it won’t start. So I sprayed some starting fluid into the intake and it popped right off, but wouldn’t keep running. I had heard that if the fuel pump is going out, to give it a few hard smacks under the fuel tank, and that can knock it loose. I did it and it worked. That is just a temporary fix..

Another time, my son and I were on the highway, and my serpentine belt broke, and it knocked off the power steering belt also. I sat there trying to figure out what to do. My son said, *try putting the power steering belt on the crank pulley and the water pump/fan*. I thought that won’t work, but gave it a shot anyway. It was too tight. He said, turn it inside out and try it. It worked, a little loose, and slipped, but it made it home. Driving 20 miles like that keeping an eye on the temp gauge. We didn’t have an alternator or power steering, but got it home.

What made you think, “You’ve got to be kidding me,” when someone sat next to you on an airplane?

I was comfortably settled in my window seat, book in hand, anticipating the rest and relaxation my well-deserved vacation would bring. As my seat mate approached, I was struck by the six-inch rhinestone cross that hung from her neck. She began piling books atop the tray table, one of which was entitled, How to Convert Atheists.

Within a matter of minutes, the dreaded question was propounded. “Have you heard the good news?” I enthusiastically answered, “I have! The Supreme Court has ruled that same-sex marriage is legal in all fifty states. The Catholic Church is losing members faster than you can say pedophile priests and televangelists are being exposed for their fraudulent practices and extramarital affairs.” Before she could respond, I pointed to her book, looked her directly in the eye, and stated unambiguously, “Don’t even think about it.”

I returned to my book and suddenly heard, “I will pray for you.” To which I responded, “Knock yourself out, dear, just do it silently.”

What is that one secret that your parents have never told you, then all of sudden you get to know it?

I grew up in a polygamous family as it was and still a common practice in the African Traditional Society. We were and still 17 children. My father paid our school fees for all of us but only 50% of us completed our school while others dropped out.

Currently as I write this piece we are still 17 but we far apart from each other and father currently stays with my mother, the other 2 women (my step mothers), one passed on in 1991(RIP), while the other is married to some man.

Here is where the secret comes in, my Dad and Mum have been fighting each other for the past 28 years that they have been married, but they have never told us the cause of their fights, and for the past 28 years my mum and dad didn’t share the same room, but no one seems to tell us even when we had family meetings.

Last year around May 2019 the fight intensified to a point I thought they were going to divorce, we sat them down as family and we wanted to hear from them.

My Dad became very hostile when we started the meeting as he has always been, very defensive in his actions as our mother told us that Dad had been having extra marital affairs out to which my Dad completely objected.

Then boooooooooooom….. the shocking news comes out, the secret that mum and dad never wanted to tell us. Our first born knew everything but he kept this from us.

He decides to break the news that shook all of us the family members, that our step mother that died in 1991 was sick with HIV/AIDs Virus and when my mum realized that they went together to a medical facility and tested she was negative and dad was positive, and that Dad has been HIV positive for the past 28 years and has been on medication that he kept from us for all these years.

Our mother decided to stay in the relationship to take care of him and us but my dad has failed to see that and continued tormenting her by having affairs outside the marriage. I felt completely battered, shattered because I looked up to my mum and dad has role models when it came to honesty. They always told us to be honest yet they never told us what was hapening in their lives.This was my experience.

USA ADDS SANCTIONS to HUAWEI for INTEL and QUALCOMM – china must submit to old white man..

What is the most shameless thing you have ever seen a teacher do?

I was in 5th grade. My teacher was regularly given troublesome students over the years. I was in her class because my brother (one of the aforementioned troublesome students) had had her four years prior. Unfortunately, all those years of kids that made things difficult took its toll.

Early in the school year, because of constant arguments, our teacher started doing something she called IALAC (I am lovable and cuddlable). This meant every day before we went to the classroom, we formed a circle outside and had to say one nice thing about the person to our right. We also had an in class project every day. On this particular day, we were painting. I decided I didn’t want to use a brush and was finger painting. We had a sink in the classroom and I had always been well behaved and quiet. Other students saw what I was doing and complained. The teacher didn’t mind what I was doing but I washed my hands without being told and switched to a brush because I didn’t like conflict.

My classmates decided that if I was allowed to finger paint, they could do. Except they started painting each other, not the provided paper.

Our teacher completely snapped. She started screaming at us, singling out particular students and telling them just how awful they were. A bunch of 10/11 year olds being shrieked at. I wasn’t singled out but because my finger painting was the catalyst, I felt absolutely awful. I’d never been yelled at in my life!

After tearing us all down with her verbal abuse, the teacher stormed out of the classroom, leaving us alone, frightened, and our self esteem crippled. The teacher in the next classroom saw ours leave and came over to find us all sobbing. Administrators were summoned. Many of us ended up in the front office under the school nurse’s supervision. Two students attempted to leave school grounds. Parents were called.

Our teacher didn’t come back. We had a sub for the remainder of the year. I heard the teacher retired the following year but I was moved to a different school district after the winter break.

What is the most heartbreaking thing your child has told you?

I was pressing my teen daughter, who had asked to earn some money, to clean out our car. She was 16 and she had done it before and I would give her $100 for a good job (back in the 2000’s that was good money for a teenager for 3 hours work). One day she was stressed when she got home from school and was very serious and I reminded her that she promised to clean the car the week before and it never got done. I was gentle because I knew it was mid terms time. I said “If you get it done by this weekend I’ll add $50.” But she looked at me and just broke down sobbing. She was having a particularly rough day, it was…that time…and she was behind in studying for tests and she was trying to tell me this.

My daughter finally looked up at me and said “Dad! You’re not LISTENING”. I felt about 3 inches tall. I was thinking about other things that I needed to get done and this was just another ‘thing’ to check off and I hadn’t heard a word she was saying until that moment. As a pretty tough Army guy and all around guy of ‘manly pursuits’…I teased up and just hugged her and apologized. And I asked her and her mother to help me learn how to listen…to explain what to watch for with them. Since a serious head injury I don’t always get facial cues or ‘hear’ stress in people’s voices…I’m a bit oblivious. But anyone can learn and they helped me and have been ever since!

What feature in your car did you not realize you had until someone else told you about it?

Q: What feature in your car did you not realize you had until someone else told you about it?

I have always had bare bones automobiles. Even the one I ordered from the book didn’t have all the bells and whistles on it. My last car, before my present one, was a Chevy Venture more than two decades old that I paid a whopping $2400 for. I loved that car, but as fate would have it, it could not withstand hitting a pick-up truck directly in the rear axle when the assh0le driving it decided to pull out in front of me. A lot changed in the four years since I bought the van and it is now impossible to find such a bargain as that. Most used cars start at $10,000 and go up fast. I did find one dealership that had cars closer to my price range, and I got a generous settlement on my poor van from the insurance company. The best deal I found was on a 2007 Lincoln MKX. In my wildest dreams I never thought I’d ever own a car this nice! It had bells and whistles that Henry Ford himself could not have imagined! I thought I knew them all. Then one day I was out with my caregiver and she said something about my seats being heated! I’m from Wisconsin. If I’d had heated seats when I lived there, I would have been in heaven! However MY seat did not heat up, only hers did. It seems the car has a few bugs that need to be fixed. Where I live now, I don’t need a heated seat, but it’s nice to know that with a little tweaking, if I need one, I have it!

USA is crazy

If I walked up to you and called you Japanese and you’re Chinese would you get offended?

This reminds me of a bad joke that illustrates the question.

A Vietnamese man and a Jewish man are waiting in the Doctor’s office for an appointment and as the time goes on they become more and more irritated until finally the Jewish man says, “I hate you Vietnamese people!”.

Shocked, the Vietnamese man says, “What in the world would compel you to say something like that? Why do you hate Vietnamese people?”

To which the Jewish man replies, “Because you bombed Pearl Harbor!”

The Vietnamese man goes, “You idiot! That wasn’t the Vietnamese, that was the Japanese!”

To which the Jewish man shrugs and says, “Vietnamese, Japanese, what’s the difference?”

Stunned, the Vietnamese man says, “Yeah, well I hate all you Jewish people!”

To which the Jewish man replies in great indignation, “That’s anti-Semitic! Why would you hate all Jewish people?”

And the Vietnamese man says, “Because you sank the Titanic!”

“You idiot,” bawls the Jewish man, “That was an iceberg!”

To which the Vietnamese man replies,

“Iceberg, Goldberg, what’s the difference?”

What’s the best excuse you’ve heard for calling in sick at work?

It was over 35 years ago in sunny Southern California, right before work and school, when that infamous phone call was made. “I am sorry, but neither my son nor myself can make it to school today, as we just had a Tractor Trailer drive through our kitchen.

So yea, over 3 & a half decades ago, I was attending a private school where my belated biological mother was one of the teachers there. We lived mid-way down a massive inclined hill in Southern California in the Sand Fernado Valley. It was early in the morning with she & I rushing to get dressed and jump in the car to go to school.

As I was putting on my shoes I heard the loudest crashing sound, and the house shook. Thinking that it was an Earthquake, I ran to the center of our home underneath a door frame to take shelter. As I got to reach that area I saw dust coming from the kitchen, with debris all over the place. Since the house stopped shaking, I approached the kitchen, and to my disbelief, there was a Truck aka Big Rig, parked partially in our Kitchen.

I ran outside and saw one of our trees knocked down, branches of another tree that had fallen, and a Huge Tractor Trailor Truck sticking it’s nose where it did not belong, our kitchen. A man was getting out of the truck, his knee badly hurt, and bleeding, with him asking with desperation “Is everyone inside OK?”

He was parked further up the hill, with his wheels properly angled towards the curb (I am the grandson of a professional Truck driver, 3rd generation & eventually worked for gramps too), but his Emergency brakes broke, and with the massive weight and steep angle of this hill, his Truck went over the curb then back off heading straight for our home. It is confirmed by other neighbors, that he ran down the hill and managed to jump and grabbed the horizonal bars used to aid truckers to get into their cab, but in the process, slamming & cutting his knee against his truck, and just barely managed to open his Cab door and apply the brakes as his truck was crashing into our home.

You would think that this would be a lot more believable than my dog ate my homework or my parents’ car won’t start, but both my belated mother & I had to bring to that private school both the insurance report and police accident report.

Ok, dare you guys to top that one…

MM is hungry…

What is an example of a time when you had to deal with a difficult customer and how did you handle the situation?

We’d agreed to buy and deliver about $10,000 worth of gravel the local baseball association needed to stop one of their fields from flooding. — The terms were that they would pay us back once the season started back up again.

By then, their treasurer didn’t remember that we’d done it, despite my invoicing them. At cost.

She said that she would check with the man who’d received the rock; their contractor; and, the President of the organization.

—

I never got a call back. — I tried this method three or four times, documenting each time, and then I tried a different approach.

We were developers in the area in addition to being a general construction corporation and owning a subsidiary ready-mix concrete plant. — The developer aspect meant that I knew a thing or two about lease agreements.

My guess was that they had a lease with the city for that property (land). Since our property (tangible personal/inventory/rocks) was now unpaid for but now an immovable/irretrievable aspect of the city’s property, I could place a mechanic’s lien against that property.

Lessees who encumber the landlords’ properties generally are subject to having their leases canceled. — Just standard stuff. Didn’t need an attorney to tell me this.

—

So, I sent them a demand letter threatening to notify the mayor.

I soon received a phone call from the association’s President informing me that they did not lease from the city! — “That was county land!”

—

Oh. — So, the county judge needed to be notified. My mistake.

A week or so later, I was at our main office, in my office, when in filed the entire Board of Directors of that baseball association. They asked my assistant, who appeared then, to be the receptionist, to speak to me. — Well, I saw them walk in, and I’d already gotten up.

The President of our corporation wasn’t there, so I ushered them into his big office with the big desk. The big desk that was built inside the office; it wouldn’t fit back out unless you knocked down a wall.

I got them some chairs and arranged them in front of the President’s desk. They sat down, and then I sat in the big chair behind the big desk and said, “Good afternoon. I am the Chief Financial Officer of this corporation and the manager of the concrete plant. How may I help you all?”

A white-haired lady at least twice my age asserted a couple of things, asked a question, and then made two statements:

WHL: You all said that you were donating this rock to us.

J: I purchased the rock and had it delivered to your location. That was never our agreement. — I invoiced you myself. — I would know.

WHL: If we pay this amount, do you intend to still go after our contractor?

J: Your contractor has a very bad reputation. I wouldn’t go after him as he has no money. Plus, you may have had an agreement with him; this corporation had an agreement with your association. — If you pay the invoices in full, I will have no reason to go after anyone ever again. Not with you all, that is; or, him.

The moment I write, “PAID IN FULL” on your invoices and initial them, you will be paid up. I will have nothing to collect. I guarantee — I wouldn’t try to collect a $0 debt. To do so makes no sense.

WHL: Fine. — She turned to the treasurer and said, “Give him the checks.”

—

Then, she turned back to me.

WHL: I want you to know: We will never do business with this company again.

J: Ma’am, with all due respect, and I mean that: If this is the way you pay your debts, we will not miss the business.

—

I verified they’d written out the checks correctly; wrote that information on their invoices; PIF; initialed. — Done.

I handed them to her and said, “Unless these bounce, neither the mayor nor the county judge need to know what has gone on here this year; and, if they find out, it won’t be from our corporation.”

Boy. They were not happy. — Probably because the checks cleared.

Some LeonardiAI text to images

Default Please create the sneakers of the future 0 7842d24c 4520 448a 94be a1a578bf8eaf 0

Default epic full detailed oil painting picture of a bacteria 0 34f6e6b5 aaec 45f7 ada1 e9cde1ea17f2 0

alchemyrefiner alchemymagic 3 48a572a1 a688 48aa a053 42ecce6ceea2 0

Default Fisherman weaving net into the concept of the buildin 1

Default Blac 3 a6f179f3 260c 40af 9e95 a99578875214 0

When have you warned of an impending problem, been ignored, and then simply waited and watched it happen?

“Don’t sit there.”

When I was in college my honor society sponsored a spring break trip to South America. We started in Brazil and ended in Argentina. Overall, great trip. But college students being college students, there were a lot of dumb assholes along for the ride.

In the middle of the trip we went on a boat tour to a little resort. The boat was a big motorized passenger boat of some kind, made up to look like a sail boat. I could immediately tell the mast and the rigging and everything was just set dressing. I got the impression safety was only a mild concern to the boat operators so I made myself comfortable but didn’t sit on or lean against anything that didn’t look like it was an original part of the boat.

Other members of our tour group were not as observant. This was not too long after the second Pirates of the Caribbean film was released so there were a couple of guys who were amusing themselves playing Jack Sparrow (what can I say, they were very stereotypical city boys; I think this was the longest time they’d been outside since they were in grade school).

They were having fun hopping around the deck and hanging from the ropes and stuff, and when one of them perched himself on a flimsy looking railing I warned him “Don’t sit there.” Of course he didn’t listen to me because he was a dumb jock who had already decided he didn’t like me for some reason.

Sure enough, when he shifted his weight the wrong way the railing broke and into the river he went. (Lucky for him we weren’t moving at the time.)

When they fished him back out he was very embarrassed and I was positively full of smug.

Slow Cooker Chicken Burrito Bowls

A Weeknight Meal Solution

(Family Features) During the hustle and bustle of the school year, it can be difficult to find time to sit down for dinner together as a family. However, on weeknights filled with extracurricular activities, homework, meetings and more, it’s still important to put delicious and nutritious meals on the table that can be served whenever your family members can find a few minutes to grab a plate.

Prep: 20 min | Cook: 4 to 8 hr | Yield: 6 servings

Ingredients

1 (16 ounces) chunky salsa
1 pound boneless, skinless chicken thighs
2 1/2 cups low-sodium chicken broth
2 teaspoons chili powder
1 (15 1/2 ounce) can black beans, rinsed and drained
2 cups instant brown rice
1 cup corn kernels, fresh or frozen
Chopped avocado, for garnish
Chopped cilantro, for garnish
Chopped red onion, for garnish
Chopped tomatoes, for garnish
Lime wedges, for garnish
Sour cream or Greek yogurt, for garnish
Shredded colby jack cheese, for garnish

Instructions

In slow cooker, stir together salsa, chicken, broth and chili powder. Cook for 3 1/2 hours on HIGH or for 7 1/2 hours on LOW.
Transfer chicken to cutting board and coarsely shred; return to slow cooker. Stir in beans, rice and corn. Cook for 30 minutes on HIGH, or until rice is cooked through.
Serve garnished with avocado, cilantro, onion, tomatoes, limes, sour cream and cheese.

Notes

Dairy foods like milk, yogurt and cheese are on hand in many kitchens and provide nutrients people of all ages need to grow and maintain strong bodies and minds. These Slow Cooker Chicken Burrito Bowls combine dairy with chicken, beans, corn and rice + colorful garnishes for a meal you can set in the slow cooker at the beginning of the day and serve whenever hunger strikes that evening.

Has a cop ever said something to you which was completely unexpected?

I lost a jury trial once that involved my client and another allegedly shooting a man at night in an apartment complex parking lot. A DVR with a video of the shooting was retrieved by the police as evidence. The DVR was returned to the manager wiped clean.

At trial, the victim identified both defendants as the culprits. He explained that both came within 10 feet of him while he was getting something from his car and he saw them clearly when the shots were fired. He knew them from previous run-ins and described their clothing and the gun in detail. The lead detective said nothing of value was found on the DVR. The Defendants offered weak alibi witnesses, i.e. a girlfriend and a mother.

The jury convicted both men and each received sentences of 20+ years. My guy was a habitual offender and was going to serve his sentence day for day.

After approximately a month into their sentence, I was doing a jail visit on another case. Another Detective, not on the case in question, came to where I was and asked to speak with me.

To my complete and utter surprise, he stated he couldn’t sit by and let the two Defendants do time for something they didn’t do. He sent a video to my phone showing the parking lot and the shooting. He had videotaped it on his phone when the DVR was at the police station. It clearly showed only one suspect with different clothing and a larger size discharging a firearm while the victim was reaching for something in his car with his back turned. He told me he didn’t want to be identified as the source and didn’t want anyone to get in trouble. I was so grateful for his action, I agreed to his terms and immediately called the other attorney, whereupon we gave the video to the Prosecutor and the Judge. I’ve never seen two men released as quickly from prison. I understand the City may have settled a civil suit in the matter a few months later but I was never called as a witness nor asked to reveal my source. To this day, I have nothing but respect for the officer who came forward.

Scary but true

Shorpy fun

What was the strangest thing you found cleaning out your parents’ house after they died?

My dad died in 1992, he was 58. I was crushed. While looking around the the finished basement in the house, opening random doors and cupboards, I found dad’s diaries. Nine years of them. He wrote something everyday. Even if it was “Nothing happened today.” His last entry was the day he died.

Finding these was so wildly out of the norm from every thing I knew about my dad I would have been less shocked to find a Playboy magazine under the Pope’s mattress.

A man can, and sometimes will, lie to anyone and everyone. But you don’t lie to your diary.

I learned all the dirty little secrets of my mother, brother and sister. I also learned dad’s true feelings about me.

He was proud of me. He knew at times I struggled. I was broke for a while. Eating in soup kitchens. I never asked for a penny. My brother and sister had their hand out every time they stubbed a toe. My mother…a messed up basket case.

It was a very revealing time. I miss dad. I don’t miss the rest of them. Only my sister is still around. We’re cordial but I haven’t seen her in a very long time. Of course, I live on the other side of the planet.

My dad was a good man who put up with a lifetime of shit exactly because of it.

What is the basis of China in their sovereignty claims on the West Philippine Sea?

China has no claims in the West Philippine Sea:

The western edge of the Philippine Sea is the archipelago of the Philippines.

China does have, on the other hand, legitimate claims on the South China Sea that date back all the way to 1946, and were created by the Republic of China (the internationally recognized government of all of China at the time), along with the assistance of the US navy.

Oh, and while we’re at it, I think that I should remind you that at the time that the US was assisting the ROC in officially laying claims, the Philippines was still under US control. They explicitly told the Philippines that, according to the Treaty of Paris (1898), the islands of the South China Sea were not a part of the Philippines.

Are we seeing the end of US hegemony in the world?

Indeed, we are.

First of all, the USA is a global hegemon because it controls most other countries through the US Dollar’s dominance as the global reserve currency. The US Dollar has been weaponized to punish countries that refuse to obey US foreign policy with economic sanctions.

The USA is also a global hegemon because of its military power projection with over 850 military bases worldwide and 11 aircraft carrier battle groups. The USA has been exercising its military power through dozens of conflicts, most notably in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Syria, and Yemen.

However, things are changing. The Global South is rising and pushing back on America’s nonsense. BRICS is helping the world to de-dollarize. This will weaken the US Dollar’s influence.

The USA also faces a crushing $35 trillion nation debt, which is growing by $1 trillion every 100 days. This is completely unsustainable and a massive financial collapse is imminent.

BREAKING: I’ve Received TOP SECRET INTEL, NUCLEAR PLAN HAS CHANGED, EQUIPMENT MOVES TO BORDER

I am closing this post with this…

What is the best excuse you have given to the police for speeding?

Once upon a time I drove from San Diego to Vegas a couple times a week for business. I hit snow over the first pass out of Vegas trying to get home before 12:00 noon. My car made it very easy to exceed the speed limit without realizing it. I got pulled over by a very angry officer who berated me for my carelessness. He repeatedly told me he didn’t want to hear ANY excuses! After about 3 minutes of his angry lecture during which I sat quietly awaiting my well deserved ticket he stopped and asked me why I wanted to die. I calmly answered, ‘sir, you just told me you didn’t want to hear any excuses, I’ll take my ticket now…I need to get to the next rest stop to use the bathroom.’ I got a police escort to the next rest stop. Once inside, I made sure to take enough time applying my makeup. I figured I escaped a ticket the least I could do was spend enough time in the bathroom to look nice if he was still waiting when I got out. One of the few times that being a woman worked to my advantage.

Russia Paints New Military Insignia on Invading Force – Same Symbol Used in Past Wars against . . . Khazaria

Hal Turner World May 12, 2024

Russia has launched a new offensive into northeastern Ukraine, aimed at Kharkiv and Sumy regions. But the HUGE news about this isn’t the invasion itself, it’s the SYMBOL Russia is painting on this new force: ‘Rune of Gungnir’ — the spear of Odin.

Below some imagery of the symbol and its appearance on Russian military vehicles:

Historically, the Varangian bogatyrs of Svyatoslav (Ancient Russia) marked their weapons & armor with such runes when they went to war against the Khazarian Khaganate.

There is now no longer any doubt, that Russia knows exactly who their enemy is.

For those unaware, a map of ancient Khazaria appears below:

No other media outlet in the entire world, has made this connection. You got it here. First. Exclusively.

What is the most evil thing you have ever witnessed? It could be an event or a person.

I’m not going to talk about what I’ve seen on Dark Web. The things I saw on there I’m not going think about anymore.

But once I was in Walmart and saw a couple with a little boy of about six or seven. The boy was pushing the shopping cart looking happy and smiling, the couple looking not very cheerful. He accidently bumped the man in the back with the cart. He didn’t do it hard, just a bump. The man whirled around and shoved the cart so that the kid got hit full in the face. The look of shock and then the terrible hurt on this child’s face made me sick inside. He began to weep in the most pitiful way, in a way that my intuition told this was one of many times this man has been cruel to him.

So I’m standing there with my jaw dropped in disbelief and the kids mother met eyes with me and I shook my head in disgust. She was ashamed and dropped her gaze but all she did was pat the child’s back weakly while that asshole man looked pleased with himself. I saw everything I needed to see, what the dynamic was in this household, and my heart broke for this poor kid.

I considered saying something but the man met eyes with me too and his look was of sheer malevolence. He told me mind my damn business. He had this aura of crazy so I hate to admit I backed down. He looked like someone who would enjoy any opportunity to use it on someone.

Project 8200 Exposed | CIA Psychics Find Alien Bases Underground

I keep coming back and rewatching this episode and this is probably the best episode of the Why files ever!

Pyramidal utility structures

As time moves forward, I have become convinced that the global phenomenon of pyramids is connected to something more significant than burial tombs, stellar observatories and warehouse for records. The video at the end of this post discusses the “black pyramid” of Alaska and it fits in nicely with a narrative that meshes well with Domain.

Personally, I have been told that these are “utility structures”. And that their purpose and use is of no concern of mine.

That’s straight from the Domain Commander. Take it as you will.

Never the less, it’s an interesting subject and (I believe) it is worth your time to park aside an hour at the end of the post to watch the video. I think that it will help you all gain insight.

Today…

What was the “eureka!” moment of your life?

If I was aware of the word “fuck” in 7th grade, this would have been a “fuck yeah!” moment. But since I wasn’t, this is my most cherished EUREKA moment so far.

One day in school, the principal called an urgent meeting of teachers during the school time for some reason. So most classes were free, and the number of teachers left to control those classes was very less.

So the 7th and 8th class students (total strength > 80) were made to sit together in a single classroom with one teacher as the in-charge of the class. This teacher was new to the school at that time. He was a maths teacher, and a very good one. So in order to indulge with the students he wrote the following proof on the blackboard:

Assume A = B

=> 2A = 2B

=> 2A – 2B = A – B

=> 2(A – B) = (A – B)

Cancel (A – B) from both sides and you get: 2 = 1

He asked us to find out what was wrong in the proof.

Let me remind you, we were all a bunch of impressionable 7th and 8th graders, who didn’t know the ‘L’ of Limits at that time. So all the kids were stumped.

I was sitting at the last bench. I too was staring blankly at the blackboard, reading the proof again and again. While reading it like the 4th time, all of a sudden I blurted out:

“Sir (A – B) is zero. You divided zero by zero when you cancelled (A – B) on both sides. I think that’s wrong”

I didn’t even stand up or raise my hand and ask permission to speak. The teacher asked me to stand up and repeat what I had said to the whole class again. I can still remember that little cheering and clapping, and the pats on my back I got from my seniors and friends. That was the last time I made a good first impression on a teacher.

That little part of my life, that was pride.

FINALLY! Boobs Are Making a Comeback | Redacted with Natali and Clayton Morris

LOL.

Easy Does It Spaghetti

Delicious and easy. You don’t have to boil the spaghetti as it cooks the last hour in the slow cooker.

Yield: 4 servings

Ingredients

1 pound ground beef
2 tablespoons dry minced onion
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
16 ounces tomato sauce
1 to 1 1/2 teaspoons Italian seasoning
1 (4 ounce) can mushrooms, drained (optional)
3 cups tomato juice
4 ounces dry spaghetti (1 1/2 cups), broken into 4 to 5 inch pieces

Instructions

Brown ground beef in skillet and place in slow cooker.
Slice mushrooms if using.
Add all remaining ingredients except dry spaghetti; stir well.
Cover and cook on LOW for 6 to 8 hours or on HIGH for 3 to 5 hours. Turn to HIGH for the last hour, and stir in dry spaghetti.

Attribution

From the kitchen of Linda Jolly, Arizona.

God's Rainbow - Noahic Covenant

Have you ever met a celebrity who asked you, “Do you know who I am?” and you said no?

A kid with his grandpa met Roger Moore in an airport. So the kid tells his grandpa, that was James Bond and asked him to get an autograph.

The Grandpa had no idea who James Bond was and went to the movie star asking for an autograph for his grandkid. Moore, always the gentleman obliged the old man who took the autograph back to his grandson.

But the kid was dismayed to see another name on the paper and told his grandpa that Moore signed the wrong name. I’m sure the old man will be wondering how a movie star could have signed the wrong name but he still approached Moore to correct it.

He said and I paraphrase “Sorry to bother you again. My grandson said your name is James Bond, but you wrote Roger Moore”.

The amused Roger Moore called the boy, knelt down to his level and told him in a conspiratorial manner “Yes. I’m James Bond but I have to use my alias as Roger Moore so that the bad guys won’t recognize me. I hope you will keep my secret.”

The kid promised solemnly to keep his secret, they shook hands and parted.

The kid grew up and wrote this story on the Internet after Moore died. He’s also in the movie industry but not an actor. He said he met Moore years later in a studio and told him the story. Moore remembered and had a good laugh with him.

Now I don’t know if this story is true or not but I love it. It’s such a cheeky thing Roger Moore will do so I want to believe its true. Sir Roger Moore was a gentleman and a class act. Some may not appreciate his thespian skills, many argue that he was not the best Bond (and to be objective, I agree with them even though he still is my favourite Bond) but almost everybody, especially me, agree he was a lovable decent human being. I wish I had met him.

God rest your soul, Sir Roger Moore.

Market Forces: How many make $200k a year?

What are some of the most awesome psychological facts?

That mood where everything irritates you indicates that you are actually missing someone

Overprotective parents raise the best Liars
People who blush easily are more generous and trustworthy than those who don’t
Every 10 years you become a new person, our desires,needs Changes evry 10 years
Dreams have more weight and meaning than our conscious thoughts while awake 70% of our dreams contain a secret message
You really love him/her…?

No name was mentioned but still someone come to your mind

7. Listening to sad songs actually creates positive emotions

8.easily distracted people are more creative

9.most household dust is made of dead skin cells

10. your mind can sense someone staring at you even when asleep

11.pretending that you don’t have feelings of anger, sadness and loneliness can literally distroy you mentally

12. 91% of people are not friends with people they once called their best friends

13.the faster you eat the more you gain weight

14. Trouble sleeping at night for no reason it because you are actually alive someone else’s dream

15.some people are actually afraid of being too happy because they think that something tragic will happen this is known as “cherophobia”

16. Faking confidence an positively influence your brain chemistry and change your life

17. People who hide their feelings,cares the most

18.when a person dies they have 7 minutes brain activity left. Its the mind playing all the memories of person in dream sequence

19. People who walk at quicker pace are generally seen more happier and confident than those who walk slowly

20. You appear more attractive to a person when you make them smile or laugh

21. Crying is how your body responds when your mouth couldn’t explain the pain you feel

22. the deeper your feelings are the harder they are to express

23. When you truly cares for someone theor mood can literally affects yours

24.you can judge a lot about a person ‘s character by noticing what they laugh at

25. They way we talk to our children becomes their inner voice

Comics for today

Have you had deep suspicions about someone that were proved right? Did anyone else have these suspicions or where you alone in this?

Off the top of my head, I can remember 1 teacher.

I never liked him.

He was a design technology teacher and he would be really “nice “ and ask how the work was going but with the girls he would lean in really close over their shoulder so his face was very near to theirs and commend them.

He had no business putting his face that close. You can stand next to someone and commend them.

He touched too much also. Unnecessary touch on the hand, arm , shoulder with weird sort of squeeze. Revolting.

Never to the boys, only to the girls infact he basically ignored the boys all together unless they troubled the girls and he would calmly ask them to behave.

He was rather liked by most students apart from the girls who’s personal space he invaded under the vibe of “ that’s lovely work, let me see, aren’t you clever” type shit.

It was a running ‘joke’ among the girls that he was creepy. I recall this one girl would grimace when he came close and the others would be like “ ew he’s coming this way, keep your blazer on”. That I knew of it was seen as a joke and not that he was actually dangerous, just ‘a bit of a perv’ which was clearly alot of people back in the 90s without much fuss. He was also married with grown up kids so one girl used to laugh and then say ‘don’t be bad he’s married and has kids you know’.

And?

He tried sometimes to lean close to me and I very drastically leaned back and looked at him..a little like this 😒. He just said warmly ‘everything okay here?’. He got a ‘ yes, sir, trying to do my work’ and that was it.

Maybe 10 years after I left that school it came out in the paper that he had abused many, many children, parents of some of the kids of the school even as he has been there maybe 20 years or so. He ended up going to prison.

To Die for Beef Roast

This is one of the best roasts you will ever taste. Carrots, potatoes and celery can also be added, if desired.

To Die For Roast Pin 1024x1536 — To Die For Roast Pin 1024×1536

Packet Roast

This recipe is so easy to make. You really can use just about any beef roast, I personally like to use chuck roast. Add a few extra ingredients that you most likely already have in your pantry, and you can put this roast together easily and quickly.

Your family will think that you worked your fingers to the bone on this delicious roast.

Hands down, this is one of my favorite roasts to make because it is completely reliable. So if you are a beginner cook or someone whose roast attempts in the past haven’t been ideal, this is your recipe.

This to die for pot roast has variations for both the Instant Pot and the slow cooker. This recipe is made for the busy cook.

You are going to use three packaged dry mixes for this roast. These three mixes will make for a very flavorful pot roast.

What Makes To Die For Pot Roast So Good?

Two things make To Die For Instant Pot beef roast so gosh, darn good: The flavor and the easy recipe.

If you ever made To Die For Pot Roast in a slow cooker, you already know you can’t beat the taste, but the long cooking time is a bit of a bummer. But when you cook the dish in an Instant Pot, you can get the same fantastic flavor, only much, much quicker.

Instant Pot Beef Roast Ingredients

Here’s a list of what you need:

Beef roast
Hidden Valley Ranch dressing mix
Brown gravy mix
Italian dressing mix
Water

You won’t need to add anything else, so I find this recipe is perfect for a busy weeknight. Serve some mashed potatoes with this flavorful pot roast and you will be in business.

How to Make Pot Roast with Ranch Dressing

Differences between the Slow Cooker and the Instant Pot cooking methods:

The amount of time it takes to cook the roast.
Instant Pot method uses vegetable oil to brown the roast. Vegetable oil is not needed for the slow cooker method.
Everything else is the same.

Instant Pot Directions

Set the Instant Pot to Sauté and add two tablespoons of vegetable oil. When the pot is hot add the roast.
Sprinkle the Ranch dressing mix, Italian salad dressing mix, and brown gravy mix over the roast.
Add water and cook for 60 minutes on the high manual setting. You may perform a quick or natural release.

Slow Cooker Directions

Place the roast in the slow cooker.
Sprinkle the Italian salad dressing mix, brown gravy mix, and Ranch dressing mix over the roast.
Add water and cook on low for 6-7 hours.

Recipe Note

This recipe is high in sodium. After years of searching, I have been unable to find lower-sodium alternatives. If you need to stay away from sodium, this recipe is not for you. If you want to mitigate your sodium you may want to serve this with other food that is lower in salt to even out the entire meal.

How Long Does Beef Need to Cook in an Instant Pot?

Give yourself a total of around two hours from fridge to table for this recipe. It may seem like a long time, but only about 20 minutes of it is hands-on cooking.

Besides, when you compare the time to the slow cooker’s 6-plus hours, you save quite a bit of time using your Instant Pot method.

Can You Overcook Roast in an Instant Pot?

Yes, you can overcook meat in an Instant Pot.

Undercooking an Instant Pot beef roast will make it tough, but so will overcooking it. The key is to find the sweet spot where the pot roast is perfectly tender. Luckily, that spot is much larger when using a pressure cooker.

The most important thing to remember if you want fork-tender and juicy meat from an Instant Pot is using natural release to allow the meat fibers to relax and reabsorb the liquid.

What Is the Most Tender Juicy Roast?

A four-pound chuck roast is just about the perfect cut for this recipe. Since the chuck roast cut comes from the hard-working shoulder of a cow, it can be pretty chewy, especially if you cook it quickly over high heat.

But when you cook chuck roast low and slow or under pressure, the collagen in the muscle breaks down, creating a rich, juicy tenderness that few other cuts of meat can offer.

How Do I Use the Roast Setting on My Instant Pot?

Brown the roast on both sides with a bit of oil using the Instant Pot’s SAUTE setting on HIGH. Once the meat develops a nice brown crust (keep in mind that it won’t color any further while cooking), go ahead and add the rest of the ingredients.

Stir everything, close the lid, and set the timer to 60 minutes on the MEAT setting. If your Instant Pot doesn’t have a MEAT preset, cook on MANUAL HIGH for 60 minutes.

Can I Cook a Roast from Frozen in the Instant Pot?

Absolutely! However, you should make two slight adjustments to the recipe.

First, rinse the pot roast under warm water for a minute to slightly thaw the surface and pat it dry. Doing this helps the meat brown better.
The second necessary change is to set the timer for 20 minutes longer.

What to Do with Leftover Pot Roast

You’re sure to have some leftovers, and if you don’t want to have the same meal tomorrow, you can use up any of the leftover pot roast in some very creative ways.

Try one of these ideas or come up with your own:

A pot roast sandwich. Thinly slice the meat and heat on the stove with some beef stock or in the microwave. Mix the warm beef with horseradish sauce and pile it on a toasted bun. Top with shredded pickled carrots or coleslaw.
Breakfast hash. Dice the roast, potatoes, and other cooked vegetables and mix them in a bowl with beef stock or water. Make thin patties, dust lightly with flour, and fry them until crispy. Serve with your favorite style of eggs.

Beef Roast in Instant Pot FAQs

What Liquid Do You Put in a Pot Roast?

Because this is a 3 packet roast with gravy, Ranch dressing, and Italian dressing dry mixes used for flavoring, water is the best option.

How Much Liquid Do You Put in a Pressure Cooker for a Roast?

A cup and a half of water will create a substantial gravy. If you want a thinner sauce, add more water after cooking to prevent throwing off the cooking time.

Why Did My Instant Pot Roast Beef Come Out Tough?

There are two reasons why your pot roast may be tough. If you followed the recipe as written, try cooking for 10 minutes longer. However, if you cooked the meat for 30 or 40 minutes longer than the recipe suggests, there isn’t much you can do to bring it back.

What Goes with Pot Roast With Ranch Dressing?

Any sides you serve with another pot roast, you can serve with this one, too. Some favorites include:

How to Store Leftover Pot Roast With Ranch Dressing

You can keep any extra pot roast in the fridge for three to four days. Separate the vegetables and store both in airtight containers.

Freeze the Instant Pot Pot Roast together with any vegetables in a freezer-safe container for up to six months.

How to Reheat

The ideal way to reheat this pot roast is back in the Instant Pot!

You can reheat the meat from the fridge or directly from the freezer. Feel free to add extra vegetables like carrots or onions while reheating.

Add at least a cup of either beef stock or water, the meat, and optional fresh vegetables.
Cook on MANUAL HIGH for 12 minutes for thawed meat or 18 minutes for frozen meat.

Ingredients

2 tablespoons vegetable oil
4 pounds beef roast any cut
1 package Hidden Valley Ranch dressing mix
1 package brown gravy mix
1 package Italian dressing mix
1 1/2 cups water

Instructions

Instant Pot Directions

Add two tablespoons of vegetable oil to the Instant Pot.
Set the Instant Pot to sauté.
When the pot is hot, add the roast.
Add the Italian salad dressing mix, brown gravy mix, and ranch dressing mix.
Pour the water into the Instant Pot.
Cook on high manual setting for 60 minutes.
When the cooking time is complete, you may perform a quick or natural release.

Slow Cooker Directions

Place the roast in the slow cooker.
Add the Italian salad dressing mix, the brown gravy mix, and the ranch dressing mix.
Add water to the slow cooker.
Cook on low for 6 to 7 hours.

Men are OUT & the West is DONE because of it. Women won’t like what is coming but they chose it.

What is the best thing about your boyfriend?

A couple of weeks ago Boyfriend went on a work related trip and I survived by eating apples and peanut butter.

After his return I went away for a few days and came back to find leftovers of what he had cooked for himself while I was out.

Hand made pasta with a bacon wild mushroom ragú.

Tri tip steak, thinly sliced over baked sweet potatoes.

Ingredients to make morning omelettes with various fillings: chorizo, gruyere, zucchini.

There was a bowl of fresh peaches on the dining room table. The whole apartment smelled like a summer harvest, crisp and fruity.

It’s not just that he cooks but that he gets up early to go to the farmer’s market.

He uses every utensil in the kitchen, including unrecognizable contraptions to create fresh pasta and grate tall, fluffy piles of cheese.

It’s that he sits down to dinner by himself with a large bowl of fettuccine and a big glass of wine.

I find his brain to be an exotic location.

How did your boss shock you?

I was 6 months pregnant with my second child, and it was obvious. I was interviewing for a position within the company I was already employed but at a different location and a much higher pay. I had just graduated with my associates degree so I qualified for this promotion. The manager said they had gone without an assistant for several months and needed someone really bad.

I thought we had a good interview but that I wouldn’t get the job bc I would be going out on maternity leave soon after. To my surprise, I got the job and started immediately. I went on leave 2 months later and was out for almost 3 months. I thought for sure he would be annoyed with the situation and regret hiring me, but actually he was extremely kind, considerate and understanding.

I worked for him for 5 years before changing companies. During those 5 years he encouraged me to continue with my education and take as many leadership/mgmt courses as I wanted. He also allowed me to have whatever alternative schedule I needed to be able to work and go to school at the same time. By the time I left the company, I had an MS in accounting.

I only left bc of governmental issues and changes. (We were a contractor company at NASA.) He was by far the best manager I have ever had and will probably ever have. He genuinely cared about the success of his employees, and wanted the best for them. He was well respected by all of the departments he managed. I just thought I’d give a positive story since most of the others I read were negative.

This is what they did with ITALIAN WOMEN in World War 2!

War is terrible.

Is the phrase “America is the greatest country in the world” becoming a hollow statement now?

Not becoming. It is a hollow statement.

Even if you believe America was once the greatest country in the world, it is certainly no more.

America has become fascist with its treatment of protesters recently.

America has become immoral with its support for genocide in Gaza.

America has become abusive with its endless sanctions to punish countries that disobey its foreign policy.

America has waged endless, and often illegal, wars that caused unimaginable levels of death and destruction.

America has denied its citizens affordable housing (which is why there is rampant homelessness) and affordable health care (which is why millions go bankrupt over medical bills).

America has done nothing to stop gun violence and mass shootings. America has done nothing to repair its crumbling infrastructure. America has done nothing to reduce its $35 trillion national debt.

I could go on and on.

What is the coolest line in history?

“I am 25 years old and I have killed 309 fascist occupants by now. Don’t you think, gentlemen, that you have been hiding behind my back for too long?”

This follows with a thunderous applause and yes, this is from a lady.

Meet Lyudmila Pavlichenko, the world deadliest female sniper.

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Despite being refused to join as a sniper and steered towards being a nurse at first, she persisted and was given an audition where she passed with ease.

Within her first 75 days as a sniper, while fighting in Odessa, Pavlichenko made 187 of her 309 total confirmed kills.

[1] She became infamous amongst the Germans, who tried to convert her to their side via radio broadcasts, offering everything from an officership to – I kid you not – chocolates. At her refusal, the Germans threatened to tear her into 309 pieces. “They even knew my score!” Pavlichenko later laughed. In only a year, Pavlichenko (now a lieutenant) had made 309 confirmed kills. The word “confirmed” is key: a kill could only be classified as such if it was witnessed by an independent third party. Which means that the real number of people Pavlichenko killed is likely far, far higher than 309.

[2] She became the first Soviet citizen to visit the White House, where she met with President Franklin Roosevelt and first lady, Eleanor Roosevelt.

[3] While travelling in the US giving speeches to urge men to support the second front, she famously said the above line.

Pretty bad-ass huh?

EDIT:

Big thanks to User-13507716742493959449 and Stuart McCormack for editing my answer.
As many have mentioned in the comment section, her story is the inspiration for the film Battle for Sevastopol. There is a sad story behind Sevastopol as it is the place where she lost her husband
[4] . (she was removed from Sevastopol due to serious injury and within one month, most of the rest of her division, including her husband were killed.
Some mentions the term “confirmed kills” and how it is counted in military reality. Quora has the same discussion here for your references. Are “confirmed kills” real for military snipers, and if so, what evidence is needed to distinguish a confirmed kill from an unconfirmed kill?

The Dark Pyramid of Alaska | Military Cover-up of a Forbidden Collaboration

Fun and great video.

Where the buffalo roam

After I left China Lake Naval Weapons Center, we spent a brief period of time in rural Pennsylvania looking for work.

During that time we (my wife and I) were living in a mobile home. It was just an old ratty mobile home on a farm in the middle of the country.

We lived there for just under a year. Hustling to find work. Typing out resumes and knocking on doors. Sigh.

The land was rural and there were all sorts of Amish and Mennonites around. And the people who owned the farm were really nice to us. They managed a herd of buffalo, and every day we would see the buffalo heard up and roam about.

It’s not something that I speak about a lot, but it is part of my life experience. So, yeah. Now you know.

No surprises, eh?

Today…

What is the scariest thing you have seen or experienced when hiking?

For about 15 years we lived in rural Claremont on a 15 acre parcel that had East Duffins Creek running through it. This is in Ontario Canada and just outside Toronto. It was morel season so I jumped on my ATV and headed over to the north side of our property where I had found morels in previous years. I hopped off and went for a hike down to the creek and up through some native apple trees. I had to part some cedar branches to get back to my ATV about 25′ away. When I climbed on the ATV a full grown Easter Cougar came out of the cedars in the same place I had just walked. Clearly he had followed me. I was afraid to start the machine as this would have required moving one arm and both feet and I was worried that the movement might trigger him to come after me. We stared at each other for a moment and then I jumped in the air and yelled BOO as loud as possible. Fortunately the big cat turned and ran. I went home and called the Ministry of Natural Resources to report this sighting and they weren’t too surprised. They said these Eastern Cougars are about 150 lbs, follow river corridors, have a hunting area of about 90 square miles and take a deer a week. Two months later my daughter-in-law captured this photo south of Barrie about 50 kms away. It was exciting but scary.

main qimg 841e3fa8796bcf6a35767451de34759f lq

Why Is China Not Afraid of the US?

What is the most difficult thing you have had to do to one of your children?

When I was doing the single parenting thing and my son was about 17 and my daughter 15, my son started showing a very bad temper. I understood it and knew how it felt because I also had an awful temper that I learned to control long before he was born. Anyway, he’s over a foot taller than me and pretty strong. We were living in a rented townhouse at the time. He got so angry one day and punched a large hole in a wall. Nothing I was saying or doing for him was getting him to be less angry. He would sometimes stand over me and give me the ‘I want to punch you’ body language. So, on the day he punched the wall and seemed to threaten me, I called the police. The policeman came to the door knowing it was a domestic dispute and once I told him why I called, he suggested letting him talk to my son alone. I was not in the room but I was in earshot. The cop was saying things like, “Dude your mom is letting you live here and this is a nice place. She could kick you out when you turn 18. How would you like that?” and “What about all the great things your mom has done for you? Do you get nice clothes?” Yes. “Do you eat well?” Yes. “Then what’s your problem, man?!” He basically gave my son a talking to. My kid needed to hear that from someone of authority. It did make a change in him. HOWEVER, he has never let me live down the fact that I once called the police on him. He’s only 26 now and maybe ONE DAY he will finally realize I did something that worked and did no harm to anyone.

Why Leaving the US is the New American Dream

Andrew Henderson is the CEO of Nomad Capitalist, the world’s #1 resource for global citizens, helping people around the world gain access to second passports, reduce tax liabilities, and learning to safeguard their assets. Andrew was born an American but has since renounced his citizenship, obtained 5 new passports from countries around the world, and lives in multiples cities throughout the world. In today’s video Andrew shares his life and journey and what it means to be a Nomad Capitalist.

What was your most glorious moment in a classroom ever?

At the university, I was a political science major. I was also sick a lot so I was excused from taking physical education, so I only had one semester of PE, which was worth one half of a unit. While I was excused from the class I was not excused from the required number of units in order to graduate.

I chose most of my classes based on the time of day they were offered, prefering morning classes. I signed up for International Law. On the first day of class, the professor stated that International Relations was required to be taken before International Law. I had not taken International Relations, but decided to at least try the class, I had a month before I could drop the class with no penalty.

I understood the subject matter and was doing all right. Towards the end of the semester, the professor found out that I had not taken the prerequisite course. He let me stay in the class as I was one of the top students.

The professor told me that I still needed to take International Relations to qualify for my degree, but he said that it would not be fair for another professor to have me as a student, so he requested that I take the class from him

In my last semester, I realize that I would be one half of a unit short in order to graduate. I was telling my professor about the problem when he suggested I do a one half unit independent study. He wanted to go to a seminar and would be out of the class room for a week.

He said that if I would teach the unit on International Law for his classes of International Relations classes, I would earn my one half united.

So this is where it got strange, I was a student in one of his classes, and the week the professor was gone, I stood in front of all my classmates and taught the class for a week.

When the professor returned, I became just another student.

I graduated on time.

BLINKEN TRIP TO CHINA: U.S. dominance is over!

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken went home with his tail between his legs after an official three-day visit to China in which he tried his very best to convince the world of a litany of nonsensical crap that neither he nor anyone else with a brain believes, including spouting the “over-capacity” myth that Yellen tried to start on her last visit, and trying to tell Beijing that Washington has some kind of right to decide who China can and cannot trade with. This desperation and hypocrisy blatantly on show from U.S. leaders visiting China is a sign of one thing: the hegemony of the U.S.-led West is falling, and it’s a joy to watch! Today we’ll talk about it.

What do police officers say are the things that make them more or less likely to give a ticket to a speeding driver?

My gauge was always reasonableness.

If your license plate tags expired one month ago, I can see you not noticing and would probably cut you a break. If they expired one year ago, not so much.

If I pull you over for plates expired months ago, and you say, “I’ve been trying to get money together so I could renew them,” but there are $300 worth of cigarette butts in the ashtray and the backseat is full of bags from the mall, you’re getting a ticket.

If you don’t have insurance, you’re almost certainly getting a ticket. People who didn’t want to pay for insurance figured if they could get less than three tickets a year, they could get out of paying a premium and just pay their insurance fine, which would actually be less expensive since they were high risk. I never gave them the satisfaction.

I never really ran radar, so I didn’t write many speeding tickets – maybe four or five over three years. Even then, they were all for going at least twenty miles an hour over the limit (or speeding while they were drunk). Every officer has a magic number. One of my colleagues’ was, “Twelve [mph] over you’re fine, thirteen and you’re mine.” Now, some officers’ magic numbers may be one, so don’t bank on any kind of window. I never nailed one down, but probably would have if I ever did traffic enforcement.

If you’re driving drunk, you’re getting so many tickets. I’ve personally written as many as eight to one person after one incident, and a colleague in another agency (with a more permissive pursuit policy) once wrote 36 after a drunk driving pursuit. I have seen so many dead bodies lying on asphalt because of drunk drivers. No mercy.

The answer from the officer in the UK has some good insights – especially the bit about asking me why I’m not finding ‘actual criminals.’ But ladies, don’t count on sexing the situation up to dodge a ticket. I’ve written lots of citations to women with heaving cleavage who had obviously fussed with their blouse prior to my approach. What favor am I currying by not writing a ticket? There is absolutely nothing in it for me in that scenario. It’s not like just giving a warning is going to prompt her to go ahead and peel her top off. I’m not saying it would never work on anyone, but it didn’t go anywhere with me.

In any situation where a citation issuance was in the cards, I honestly tried to put myself in the shoes of the driver. Where are they coming from? Where are they going? Would I have noticed the same thing on my car? Would I go that fast off-duty? I tried to be very fair with my citations, and I like to think that if I ever gave you one, you could at least admit how I saw it was necessary. Some officers issued them indiscriminately, but I tried to, again, just be reasonable.

What are some habits that are good to get into?

Read non-fiction books : It will transform your thinking process.
Cooking : It will save you from eating junk and lots of money.
Travelling : You are not a frog who is destined to live in a well rather explore the world .It is beautiful.
Pick a hobby : Now you don’t have time to get bore.
Drink adequate water : Because you are made of water and it is necessary to keep yourself hydrated.
Practice selflessness – Feed that stray animal , help your needy friends without expecting anything in return.
Remove inferiority complex – That famous writer whom you admire and feel inferior to , they are just a human like you. You too can become successful like them if you will put that amount of hard work that they usually put in.
Earn before spending – It’s okay to buy IPhone X but buy it after earning, not on EMI.
Smile in adversity – It will diminish half of your pain.

What is a time when you’ve seen a co-worker get fired who totally deserved it?

I worked for a personally owned McDonald’s and many of the workers and customers were female and minors. One of the managers constantly made extremely inappropriate comments about the customers and crew. Many workers including me had told managers above him including the General Manager what was happening.

One coworker was to the point she requested to not be scheduled on the same shift but her request was ignored. She was driven to the point she put her two weeks in because of it, and she was a hard worker who if she made mistakes instantly fixed them. When I heard of her wanting to quit and why many female coworkers told me of his comments.. comments that if I had heard personally make, I probably would have punched him. But I called the owner and she told me the managers were “Investigating it”. Which i knew was bullshit because the GM’s wife was also a Manager and was high school friends with the predator. When I heard this I explained what my coworkers had told me and all she had to say was I needed to remember who I was talking to because I was getting angry and upset quoting his disgusting comments. So I started ripping her a new one(Bitched her out) about how she is allowing a predator to make workers he is preying on to do what ever he wanted. And hung up on her and went back to work.

Next day her younger brother was waiting for me to clock in since he was who took care of small things like firings. He told he understood my rage as he has daughters and would feel the same way. I told him a few comments he made that made my blood boil. He said the same thing about my tone with his sister and then told me to go to work. The predator went to clock in and was instantly taken back to the managers office and fired before he could even clock on. He stormed out and shouted, “I just got fired I hope you’re all happy” and I laughed and said yes actually I am very happy. I honestly see it as my greatest achievement in my work experience.

What are the types of people that you should always avoid?

A good friend of mine got Engaged to the love of her life and was about to get married within 2 months.

She was extremely happy. Both the families willingly agreed. No objection from any side. Her would be in laws told her parents that they don’t want anything from them. So far so good.

Just one month before marriage her would be mother in law called her mother.

MIL: Apki beti bahot achhi hai. Humein to bas aapki beti chahiye. Baaki aapne jo dena hai apni beti ko hi dena hai.

(Translation: We are blessed to have your daughter. We don’t want anything for us. However, you may give anything to your daughter as you may please.)

Mother: okay ji. Definitely.

And this continued for the following 3-4 days.

Her MIL used to drop subtle hints about their demands which included a destination wedding, innova car, diamond rings etc. Each time she ended the conversation with the same dialogue.

We don’t want anything for us. You can give your daughter anything you want to.

My friend came to know about this just 15 days before the wedding, when she overheard her parents talking about borrowing from relatives.

She was furious and called her fiance.

And then it was the fiance’s turn.

Unhone jo dena hai tumhe hi dena hai. Humari koi demand nai hai.

(Transaltion: We haven’t demanded anything. They are giving it to you.)

She ended her 3 year long relationship right away.

I met her yesterday and she told me about the entire incident and to my surprise, she was rather relieved to know everything before marriage.

In her words: Those people were wolves disguised as sheep. Even more dangerous.

Edit: I showed all the comments to my friend. She wants to pass a message through this forum. “Whenever you hear we don’t want anything for us but you can give your daughter whatever you want to.”

Run. Run as fast as you can and never ever look back. You definitely want to avoid such people.

I Caught My Girlfriend “On The Clock” Doing Her Secret Job, Now She’s PLEADING That We Talk It Over

...she's not your girlfriend, it's just your turn, or someone else's or something like that....

What is the strangest thing you’ve seen someone return to a store?

A couple of years ago I went to Costco to return an item. I don’t even remember what I had bought – it was the wrong item and I had not even opened the package. Waiting in line, in front of me was a man, probably 10 years younger than me, carrying a Hewlett-Packard Deskjet printer. I knew that model well because it is old – over 15 years old, and it looked it. I am a computer nerd, and I know most models of Hewlett-Packard printers – be it Laserjet, Deskjet, Designjet, Office Jet, or whatever. Since I was right behind him, I could hear everything that he was trying to tell the Costco employee. He said had bought it from here at this store – and it stopped working. I looked at the employee because she looked up at me and I just grinned.

When something is bought from Costco, they keep a thorough record of it and this man did not even have a Costco membership (that gave it away), but he insisted that he bought it from here.

The young lady was intimidated by him so I interrupted him and I said, “Give me a break. That printer is over 15 years old and they never sold that model here and when it was made, this store hadn’t been built!”

The guy argued with me and said he bought it here. I said, “No, you didn’t. You either bought it for $10 from a thrift-shop, or got it out of your garage. What you are trying to do is committing fraud and I will call the police right now to have you arrested!”

It took him a couple of seconds and he ran out. I was a little afraid of him waiting for me outside but it was in the middle of the day when I was leaving the store and by then, he was already gone.

Cheating is wrong, and the guy was a complete idiot who tried to circumvent their generous return policy and he was not even smart enough to come up with a good story.

The young lady thanked me for helping her. I made a joke and said I was in a hurry to buy a Costco hot-dog and he was holding up the line.

Daily comics

What is something that needs to be said that nobody wants to hear?

I call her “Little Girl” because she completed her 12th last year. She always greets me with morning messages without failing any day.

But yesterday I didn’t get any message from her.

Then I pinged her today and asked for the reason. Initially she was hesitant but after insisting she told me the reason; she was thrashed physically by her dad because she couldn’t clear medical exam this year. She might have fractured her wrist.

She is a bright student and she loves physics. She has an outstanding academic record in physics. But it was her father’s dream to make her a doctor. And on top of it, she is the only child and that is why she is bearing this burden of hope.

She has least interest in biology and couldn’t make it to any medical college for two years in a row. They are adamant to make her a doctor, they want to send her to foreign countries (Ukraine, Russia) to complete her education.

This is a famous dialog from “Kota Factory”,

Your parents might take wrong decision for you, but their intentions are never wrong.

I agree, they are your kids and you will always take best decision for them. But I believe there is a thin line between taking a decision for them and forcing your decision on them.

Obviously, her father has no wrong intention. But his disappointment in his only daughter because she couldn’t clear medical exam is wrong.

Everyone is worried about their kids’ future. But how many of you bother to ask where does their happiness lie? What are their dreams? What do they want to become in their life?

Indian parents and their ideology. Obviously they are your kids and you don’t want to listen to someone else’s advice. But I believe, becoming the best in the area of your interest is better than becoming an average person in the area of your least interest.

Your kids are not average, you are forcing them to become one.

Legend of the Hanging Munchkin – A Wizard of Oz Mystery

Is American cuisine considered to be bad?

As a European who has traveled often to the U.S. (with shopping groceries and cooking), let me answer this question:

With a firm no.

First, let me make something clear: American cuisine is not McDonalds and Burger King and Kentucky Fried Chicken and Subway. These are fast food chains and not representative for American cuisine.

American cuisine is very diverse, maybe the world’s most diverse cuisine. This comes partly from the many immigrant groups who brought their food to America where it was transformed into American cuisine, but it also comes from the different regions of the USA, a geographically huge country. Think of regional cuisines:

The Northwest with lobsters, clam chowders, oysters and crab cakes – all delicious seafood dishes which belong to the best of their kind in the world.
Florida cuisine with Cuban and Carribean influences.
The creole and cajun cuisine of New Orleans.
Tex-Mex.
New Mexican cuisine which is not a version of Mexican cuisine but a indigenious fusion of American Indian and Spanish influences.
Californian cuisine with Mediterranean, East Asian and Spanish accents, all blended in a unique way.
King crab and the world’s best salmon in Alaska.
Southern BBQ.
And, everywhere, some of the world’s best steaks.

What does it take to live an authentic life?

Courage and humility.

It took me years of chickening out and trying to fake it till I’d make it to learn that lesson. When you live authentically, you accept a lot of things. That can be incredibly hard, depending also on who one is.

Some people will face a lot less adversity than some, because of the way they are.

I, for my part, am not a very common person, so when I decided to drop the pretense and face the music, to see what it would be like, I prepared myself for a possible, lifelong shitstorm and hatred 24/7. I fully expected murder.

Interestingly, this did not materialize.

It was as if I stepped through a curtain of my own fears, only to emerge with a corrected image on the other side. An image that I could just live with naturally. It required no upkeep, no explanations, and no thought.

People peeled away, and surprisingly, they were the ones I didn’t care for, or who didn’t care for me, anyway. I learned right there and then that those who really like you will like you as you are, and probably do so even before you go through such a change, because they may have known your real you before you even tried to meet it.

And new people came, who viewed me in a very different light. People who actually gave me energy rather than taking it.

I can only recommend to take the step.

So what did I actually do?

It was at a stage of my life where I had some real doubts about the validity of my professional and life choices, and I decided that I needed a break. I “turned myself grey”, as I tend to think of it. I stopped transmitting, and went into a pure listening mode. I wanted to figure out life, and the way to do that, I figured, was first and foremost to shut up.

So shut up, start listening, and stop using the word “I”. Drop all self aggrandizement, all life editing, and all those theater acts we put on to please certain people. Let them have it from the horse’s mouth, and let that mouth be yours. And then just sit there and take the backlash.

It may never come. If it does, it’s more likely like a little demon detonating into thin air.

The Chinese owner of TikTok claims they would rather shut down than sell TikTok. (To the surprise of many lawmakers who voted to ban TikTok). Do you think they are serious or bluffing?

Very serious.

Chinese don’t bluff the way Americans do.

PULP SCI FI – Retro Pulp Science Fiction by Skyward, 1950 Science Fiction Paperback Novel Cover Art

What were the last words you heard someone say before they died?

My wife died during the pandemic. She had suffered from dementia for a number of years prior to her death. Many have called dementia ‘the dying brain’.

Because of her refusal to take her medication as directed, her primary care physician suggested that she be admitted to a care facility. That was in late January 2020. I visited her every day, ate lunch with her, and left when she started ‘sundowning’. In early March 2020 the hospitals and care facilities closed down to any visitors. In late March she was placed under hospice care.

The only contact we had was by phone. Most of the time when I called I was told that she was sleeping which meant that she wasn’t fighting her demons. When she was awake, she could only mumble. The last time we spoke, I told her that I loved her. Her response and last words to me were “I love you”.

On April 8, 2020 at 2:15 AM I got a call from the hospice facility telling me that she was dying. I asked if I could come and be with her. I was denied that. Then, at 6:30 AM I got another call telling me to come as fast as I could. She was unresponsive. I held her hand and played hymns on my phone. I would tell her that she could let go. She would squeeze my hand. At 2:17 PM she stopped breathing.

I am blessed to have those last minutes and words with her.

End of the Globalists w/ Jay Dyer (Live)

How has President Ferdinand Marcos Jnr’s shift towards the United States affected China-Philippines relations and tensions in the South China Sea?

It affected the living standard and livelihood of Filipinos. It make him very rich and get back US confiscated wealth by the state department back for the Marcos clan!

He is doing a very clever 2 way play. He knows China don’t want war and U.S. U.S. pushing and bribing home to provoke war like Ukraine so he gets good money from the U.S. and he does nothing to China except soft groan and play act with China, all is well. But U.S. will on their own bribed poor fisherman on high seas to provoke Chinese naval boats. The fisherman gets 5K bucks to get hosed not bad for a days job. CNN gets their pretentious headlines where the edit and fabricate into Chinese “aggression” and state department gives them a nod and wink!

All is well as long as no one goes overboard!and some people got rich others get hosed and China gets bad publicity which it don’t gives a shit as long as it is costing the US an arm and a leg! Let’s see how much more and how long US can do shit as its nation dwindles down into oblivion.

What is the biggest scam an auto mechanic ever tried on you?

About 1992 I bought a used, just off-lease, Chevy Blazer at a local car lot. The salesman told me that they’d rebuilt the front end, as it was loose when they got it. (S-10s, Blazers, Jimmys, and Sonomas from the 80s through the 90s were notorious for front ends that needed to be rebuilt just as they came out of warranty) I got under the car and looked, all the parts looked clean and new, no reason to doubt the salesman. They’d also put new tires on it.

The new tires were wearing funny, so I took it to a well-known local under-car shop to have it aligned. They looked at it and said that they had bad news, the whole front end had to be rebuilt, all the joints were worn out, as was common on these vehicles just out of warranty. Of course, they were lying and wanted over $1000 in early ’90s money to “fix” it.

I took it to another well-known local under-car shop and told them what happened and had them look at it. They told me that the car salesman had told the truth and that indeed the front end had been rebuilt, but they screwed up the alignment. They aligned the front end for less than $50. They said that the other shop had tried this scam on other people before me. The tires wore normally after that.

The good shop went out of business a few years later, and the bad one is still open in 2024, more than 30 years later. For over thirty years I’ve been telling locals about this incident and advising them to not go there. Maybe the people who work there nowadays are honest, but when you do things like they did over 30 years ago, you ruin your reputation from then on.

What did your parents allow you to do as a kid that you now realize was not age-appropriate?

I was born in 1961. My parents were a bit older than my friends’ parents, as this was their 2nd marriage. Both growing up during the Depression, so “parenting” wasn’t a verb. Dinner was at 5:30, “don’t be late, TV will ruin your eyes, don’t break your neck, don’t cry or I’ll give you something to cry about”; those were about it in terms of rules. Of course, if my brothers and I did something wrong, we were punished, not knowing it was something we shouldn’t have been doing. That’s pretty typical for my generation.

But my father had a great idea about how I could be useful. He noticed that our dog, a dumb-as-a-box-of-rocks English Setter named Randall, was picking up lots of ticks. I can’t tell you how gross it was; the ticks would reach his tummy and just swell up. There were dozens of them.

Dad had an idea. Since I liked giving Randall belly rubs (and he’d flop on the ground for me), why not give me a box of “strike anywhere” matches. have me light each one, blow it out, and apply it to the ticks? The bloated ticks would die instantly and I could pull them off Randall. Dad set us up on the brick patio. Me, the dog, and a huge box of matches that could be struck on the bricks to light. I thought it was fun, sort of like picking grapes.

I WAS SIX YEARS OLD!

I learned to be adept and deft; I never burned Randall. I may have singed the tip of my finger a few times, but it was a great system. Any grossness wasn’t affecting me because I WAS SIX! That, and dad told me to do it!

Let’s fast forward to 1994. I asked my son, then 8 years old, to light the candles I had placed on the dining room table. (He is the sweetest kid, and saw me rushing to get a holiday meal ready, and asked what he could do to help.) I handed him a pack of matches. I saw him go over to the candles and struggle to light a match. I think he went through half the pack before I took them from him and told him to get the dinner rolls instead. It was at that moment I realized that little kids generally don’t use matches, and my dad really was taking a chance with me, a box of “strike anywhere” matches, and a furry dog! Do they still make “strike anywhere” matches anymore? My dad was a smoker and a badass. He liked to tease me by lighting the matches with his thumbnail, then lighting his cigarette. Of course I’d try to light one myself, fail, and he’d laugh. Oh, 1967! Oh, I got caught smoking in high school, and there was hell to pay.

What is it like to enter a prison for the first time?

When I was 16 years old my father was elected as a judge in Los Angeles County. He thought it was his duty to see, first hand, what the prisons were like before he sentenced anyone to that prison.

He made arrangements to tour all of the prisons in Los Angeles County. One day he asked me if I wanted to go with him. I think he may have wanted to scare me straight.

So I accompanied him to Wayside Maximum Security Prison. Let me tell you that was one of the most sobering experiences of my young life. All of the inmates were locked in their cages (cells).

The thing that impressed me the most was that there was absolutely zero privacy. The was no place where the inmates could not be seen, either they were watched by a gaurd or a camera.

They could not take a shower, use the toilet, change their clothes or anything thing else without being watched.

I did not see even one smile that day on a prisoner or a guard. It was one of the most gloomy places I have ever been

Why The US Government Hate China Scott Ritter Interview with Carl Zha and Alex Reporterfy

Completely interesting. Worth your time to watch.

Missed opportunities, or problem avoidance strategy

When I left prison, it was the experience of a lifetime. After “dressing out”, waiting in the hallway until the day ended and a spare guard can drive us to the bus station, and getting on the shuttle to the bus, it was sunset in the hot Arkansas dusk.

There, I was given a card for $100 to help me get to where I needed to go and to start my life anew.

And got on the Greyhound bus and left to my last known family location; where my sister rented out a room for me to live in for two weeks. That is in itself another story, but for this part of the narrative, I will discuss the bus ride out of Arkansas. It was something like 14 hours.

Mostly empty, as the bus picked up other felons that did their time.

I chatted with a guy who just finished 15 years. And met some women from a woman’s prison who were heading in our direction. They suggested that we tag along with them, hang out. Spend the night and “party” with them. Good looking chicks… if a bit feral. We are all sex starved, and I’m sure those gals would be jumping our bones and pumping us dry in no time.

But I declined.

I had a plan.

I had a stopwatch and I had to get settled, get my passport, get a plane ticket and LEAVE and never… NEVER return.

So I stayed on the bus while the group got off somewhere in Tennessee.

Sometimes I wonder was I smart… or was I stupid and blind to opportunities that come my way? I don’t know. I still wonder about it all.

Still, I could have spent the night… then left in the morning…

Missed opportunities, or problem avoidance strategy. You decide.

Today…

How is the perception, treatment, categorisation etc. of plus sized models in China different from the West?

I don’t know anything about the perception of plus-sized models in “the West”, but I have a cousin in Hangzhou who works for an online clothing brand as a plus-sized model and she sometimes share bits and pieces about her job with me.

Despite what some may think, it’s not easy to join the ranks of plus-sized models.

All the job requirements for non-plus-sized models also apply to plus-sized models.

For example, my cousin tells me the standard requirements for girls to be plus-sized models for online fashion catalogue work is that they are at least 165 cm or above, that they have “curvy” silhouette, and that they have all the basics: great skin, great hair, beautiful facial features, etc.

Naturally, being plus-sized models, they can be heavier than the typical non-plus-sized models.

Many of my cousin’s plus-sized model friends are heavier than I am, as they tend to be around the 60 to 70 kg weight range. The taller girls (175 cm >) can easily be above 70 kgs.

But she mentions that how that weight is distributed across the body is also an important consideration (hence, the “curvy” silhouette mentioned above)

There’s a growing demand for online plus-sized fashion shopping and from what my cousin has shared with me, there’s massive potential, and the current situation is nowhere close to even approaching that potential.

Career-wise, an average non-celebrity, not-famous plus-sized model, in general, can earn around 10,000 to 15,000 yuan per month (1380 to 2071 USD) a month. That’s pretty good.

She also tells me that she gets a lot of positive and supportive comments whenever she posts about her life, job, and fashion choices on 小红书 (a Chinese app that’s a mix between IG and Pinterest)

She enjoys her job, is very good at what she does, is compensated well, and most importantly, she’s happy with her decision to go into plus-sized modeling.

Couldn’t be happier for her! ^^

Picture below is that of a Chinese plus-sized model modeling clothes for a Chinese online clothing store:

main qimg c1ce9a61fb3ebae344f323b92274b0f9

Why does NO anti-China nation want to decouple or at least try to decouple from China? How could you want to have nuclear war with China/overthrow the CPC/Xi Jinping and subjugate China and STILL want China’s business? It makes no sense!

NOBODY wants a nuclear war with China.

Decoupling from China would be too painful for Western economies. Inflation would go through the roof and governments would fall.

But you’re right. Even a conventional war with China makes no sense. But who said Western governments possess common sense?

What is something that someone told you that made you immediately realize that the crazy story they were telling you was actually true?

Many years ago, I was a supervisor on a Government-funded youth employment scheme, trying to get unemployed young people into work.

One day, one of the lads managed to get a cut to the top of his head. Only a small flesh wound but, being a scalp wound, there was blood everywhere – his hair was soaked, it was in his eyes, dripping from his nose, etc.

As we were working at a site close to the hospital, we drove him there ourselves, rather than wait for an ambulance. As it was clearly a head wound, he was rushed straight through for assessment.

A few minutes later, a nurse came out, looking quite worried. Whilst they were asking him routine questions, he had apparently deteriorated. In particular, when they asked his date of birth, he had said “Don’t know!” and when they followed up with “Well, when is your birthday?” he had replied “Don’t have one!”. Clearly the wound was worse than we had thought and there was some neurological damage; either temporary or permanent. At the nurse’s request, we asked our HR unit to fax across his basic details, so that the hospital could contact his family.

The records duly arrived. We looked to see what his date of birth was – and we all fell about laughing, nurse included. The records clearly stated that he had been unable to provide a date of birth.

It turned out that the whole family were illiterate and no-one had bothered to register his birth until he was about 3 or 4 years old – by which time they couldn’t remember what time of year he had been born!

A quick wash to remove the blood, three stitches and a couple of painkiller tablets later, he was discharged and we drove him home.

Göbekli Tepe and the Prophecy of Pillar 43 | Apocalypse and the Vulture Stone

Göbekli Tepe and the Vulture Stone Prophecy We are the descendants of an ancient civilization; one which mastered technology, mapped the cosmos, and understood our relationship with the natural world. Our ancestors traveled the world and built enormous structures. They scaled their creations into cities. They shared a common governance and similar religious beliefs. Our ancestors lived, as we do today, as a global society. Around 14,500 years ago, this global superpower started to collapse. First came uncontrollable change, and then a cataclysm. In less than a week, everything and almost everyone was gone. Those left behind built monuments. Monuments not as tributes to Gods or homage to kings. The monuments are a warning to future generations: to us. That warning is simple: danger is coming. Our civilization has ended before. And it will end again. This is one story Big Archaeology and world governments don’t want you to know. Once you hear it, you’ll never trust them again. Because the danger that’s coming? There’s nothing they can do to stop it.

What are the best stories to prove that everything happens for a reason?

I had resigned my previous company without having any job offer in hand!

I was continuously feeling stressed out from past few weeks. Suddenly in my project, the pressure got increased and my manager was not ready to hire any extra resource. Not even a single day was there when I felt relaxed. If you push yourself everyday too much, it will start impacting your health. Same happened with me. I started being sleep deprived and my weight started dropping. Despite that, I tried my best to pull it off but later I realised that I should stop now.

It was not easy for me to quit without any job offer in hand but I decided to leave. I put down my papers and informed my manager. My family was unaware of this because I didn’t wanted them to freak out. It was a chaotic moment for me but I motivated myself to find a new job. I started applying rigorously, gave interviews, faced rejections. Many nights I used to overthink but I knew that I didn’t want to back out.

After 1 month of resignation, I got one offer letter. My confidence boosted up and I kept on trying for better opportunities. At last, I got a decent offer and above that I got great work environment.

In life, sometimes, we take very quick and tough decisions but those decisions carve our path towards new phases. Maybe, that day you would feel that what you did was stupidity but later you will realise that it happened for a reason.

Everything happens for a reason!

In court, what was the most devastating cross-examination of a witness that you ever saw?

This is a bit long for one of my answers. And, it has nothing to do with being an agent or a lawyer myself.

My ex and I wanted to foster a child and take him with us when we moved out of state. He was an inner city African American child, about eight years old. He was not on the growth chart, he could not read or write. He had ADD.

But, my ex had fallen for him.

He came to school with clothes picked out of pile of adult clothes. Made his way to school riding public transportation, and no one asked him to pay. He came to school because it was safe, and provided him two meals a day.

He lived with his grandmother and five to seven others in about a 900 square foot house. Many of the residents were minors and the grandmother received all the benefits for them.

It was an expensive proposition to foster this child. I paid for our attorneys who told us no one had ever been allowed to obtain foster rights and immediately move out of state. Especially a white couple attempting to take a black child. I paid for the guardian ad litem. And, I paid for the grandmother’s attorney.

We were in the second day of the hearing before the family court judge. The grandmother was on the stand. She had held up well during cross examination.

But, then then I noticed the judge slide his glasses down to the end of his nose and peer over them and say,”I have just a couple of very simple questions. Nothing to worry about.”

I had been a little bored until this point, but I knew this maneuver. I had been around courthouses and in interviews for many years by this time. And, my senses told me things were about to get interesting.

The judge then proceeded to ask about the moneys she received to help support the children in her care. The judge asked what she did with the money. The judge asked if she liked to gamble.

In the state we were in, there were gambling casinos. And, she admitted to attending gambling casinos.

The judge began to ask her about her gambling habits, and whether she won or lost. And, the big lies began.

The grandmother claimed she won as much as she lost.

And, the judge bore down. And, I am thinking… I am paying for three attorneys and no one figured out she had a gambling addiction.

And, the judge rakes her, and gets her to admit she loses a little more than she makes. And, it went down hill from there, allowing my attorneys to pull her gambling records which were kept by every casino. And, those records showed a pattern of gambling and loss that were incredible.

The grandmother would lose all the monthly benefits for her grandchildren within a couple of days. And, we all missed it, but for a family court judge who was wiser than a room full of attorneys.

Hands down, the best cross examination I ever saw. Judge… you can drop the mic.

China Military’s Biggest Upgrade In Cyber Security Warfare & Space

In modern era of warfare, control of information is a game changer. Keep that in mind and breaking away from traditional structures, the one of the worlds highest military has established new independent units dedicated to information, space, and cyber operations, marking the most extensive shakeup in nearly a decade. One thing is now certain, the Chinese military is ready for anything adversaries might throw at it and win conflicts with relative ease! Today’s episode will uncover the recent shakeup of Chinese military which has added new units determined to succeed in modern warfare.

You find a new job, so you give your employer two weeks’ notice. Your boss then gets angry that you are quitting and tells you not to come back in anymore. How should you respond to your boss?

My wife is literally going through this right now. She was the only person in her office that did what she did and had been the best employee that employer had ever seen. Literally in 10 years she had taken 1 sick day. Over the course of that decade she never got a single raise and zero retirement. Another opportunity came along and she took it. Knowing her job would be very difficult to fill she gave her employer a 6 week notice. The employer was so irrational about it that she fired her and said she would not be paying out the 3 weeks of vacation time my wife had on the books. Well where we live, the state law does not allow that unless there is a signed policy stating as much, which there has not been. So here we are, on vacation enjoying a 2 week span of time before my wife starts her new job. She was able to move up her start date with her new employer, though she did not have to. Her old employer is now responsible to pay her unemployment for these 2 weeks as well as her 3 weeks of vacation. She would have been very wise to just take the 6 weeks my wife offered, but we won in the end so whatever

Fun vintage comics

SHAHID BOLSEN:

“The United States, the UK, Germany, and France—these are some of the most oppressive and repressive governments in the world if you remove all of the self-praise and the propaganda that they spew about themselves and about freedom and civil rights and so on.

They are a Western axis against freedom, and if you don’t know that—I mean, if you live there and you don’t know that—then you just haven’t tested it.

The only way that you can live in any of those countries—and increasingly in the US—and not know that they are despotic tyrannies, is if you have been so numbed and so brainwashed that you hold no opinion in your head that wasn’t put there by the state, that wasn’t injected into your lifeless brain by the mainstream media.

So, you never had anything to protest about.

You never questioned your government.

You never challenged the official narratives about anything.

That’s the only way that you can’t know what I’m talking about.

And that makes you even more repressed, more oppressed, and more tyrannized than the people who are getting beaten and who are getting detained for objecting to their government’s brutality.

You’re even more of a victim.

You’re even more abused than those protesters who are getting clubbed upside the head and getting choked and getting abused by the security forces because your government, your rulers, your ruling class has never let you live a day in your life without telling you what to think and sabotaging your ability to think for yourself.

You’re the most abused in your society.

What they did to you is worse than beating; it’s worse than detention; it’s worse than imprisonment.

At least those protesters who are getting beaten and arrested by the police—at least their minds are free, at least they have their own thoughts in their heads.

But you—your leaders have made you a zombie that thinks that the right thing, the moral thing, is whatever power chooses to do; your government has put you into a moral coma.

You’re morally comatose.

They put you under an induced coma so that you can’t see them sponsoring the wanton murder of 34,000 people, some 24,000 innocent women and children.

You can’t see that there’s anything wrong with that.

You feel nothing, or even worse, you think it’s the right thing, you think it’s the moral thing, you think that what your government is doing is good by sanctioning indiscriminate slaughter; you think that’s fine.

Why?

They’ve robbed you of your very humanity, and that’s the only reason that you can believe that you live in a free society.

That’s the only reason that you can believe that you live in a society with civil rights and liberty and free speech and all of those other wonderful things that you never had and never will have.

The only freedom that you have in those countries is the freedom to agree with power.

You’re free to submit to the powers that be.”

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Excerpt from remarks by American geopolitical analyst Shahid Bolsen in a video where he speaks about the ongoing protests against the Israeli-Palestinian conflict on university campuses, both in the U.S. and around the world, April 27, 2024.

Does memory depend on intelligence?

“One day, Einstein was traveling by train from Princeton, when a train conductor passed through the corridor, stamping the tickets of all the passengers. When he arrived in front of Einstein, the scientist searched for the ticket in his vest pocket, but didn’t find it; it wasn’t even there in the pants pockets; so he looked in the briefcase, but he couldn’t find it.

The driver said, “Doctor Einstein, I know who you are. I’m sure you bought the ticket. Don’t worry. Einstein nodded in thanks.

And the driver continued to stamp the tickets in the aisle. Just as he was about to move on to the next car, he turned to see the large body looking under his seat for the ticket.

The driver turned around and said, “Dr. Einstein, Dr. Einstein, don’t worry, I know who you are.” This is not a problem. You don’t need a ticket. I’m sure you bought one.

Einstein looked at him and said, “Young man, I also know who I am. What I don’t know is where I’m going. That’s why I’m looking for my ticket.”

BLINKEN TRIP TO CHINA: U.S. dominance is over!

20 interesting facts about random things.

1.The only letter that doesn’t appear on the periodic table is J.

2.One habit of intelligent humans is being easily annoyed by people around them, but saying nothing in order to avoid a meaningless argument.

3.2006, a Coca-Cola employee offered to sell Coca-Cola secrets to Pepsi. Pepsi responded by notifying Coca-Cola.

4.The famous line in Titanic from Leonardo DiCaprio, “I’m king of the world!” was improvised

5.If you cut down a cactus in Arizona, you’ll be penalized up to 25 years in jail. It is similar to cutting down a protected tree species.

6. In 1923, a jockey suffered a fatal heart attack but his horse finished and won the race, making him the first and only jockey to win a race after death.

7.Iceland does not have a railway system.

8.The spiked dog collar was invented by the Ancient Greeks to protect their dogs from wolf attacks.

9.German Chocolate Cake is named after an American baker by the name of Samuel German.

10.The voice actor of SpongeBob and the voice actor of Karen, Plankton’s computer wife, have been married since 1995.

11.The largest Japanese population outside of Japan stands at 1.6 million people who live in Brazil.

12.IKEA is an acronym which stands for Ingvar Kamprad Elmtaryd Agunnaryd, which is the founder’s name, farm where he grew up, and hometown.

13.Violin bows are commonly made from horse hair.

14.The youngest Pope in history was Pope Benedict IX who was 11 years old at the time of election. He is also the only person to have been the Pope more than once.

15.In Svalbard, a remote Norwegian island, it is illegal to die.

16.People who post their fitness routine to Facebook are more likely to have psychological problems.

17.Standing around burns calories. On average, a 150 pound person burns 114 calories per hour while standing and doing nothing.

18.There is a punctuation mark used to signify irony or sarcasm that looks like a backwards question mark ⸮

19.Saint Lucia is the only country in the world named after a woman.

20.There is a town in Nebraska called Monowi with a population of one. The only resident is a woman who is the Mayor, Bartender and Librarian.

When was a time you said silently to your boss “I told you so”?

We have a F350 work truck that is notorious for giving hints it is about to break on us. Main thing is how often it regens the DPF. Told my team lead(boss) one day that we had about a month before it shits itself again at best. 3 weeks later, while driving to pick up equipment/supplies, sure enough it starts blowing blueish smoke out the tail pipe. Turbo was leaking oil. Day or two prior, it was non-stop “regen in progress “ message on the dash, prior to that it was daily regens at highway speeds. He had to stop what he was doing and drive another truck 2 hours to come swap it out, then get broke truck towed 4 hrs away to the stealership to have it sit there for 3 months getting fixed.

Another time, there was an older dump truck that started making a weird noise from the engine bay. From the sound of it, I suggested that either a pulley or tensioner was about to go. He shrugged it off and said it was a worn belt. Few days later, the tensioner shit itself and left him stranded.

Same truck started loosing hold back power on the “exhaust “ (actually found out it’s a transmission brake) brake. Reported to him, he dismissed me. Days later it either threw a valve if I remember right, or dropped/washed a cylinder and ran like dog shit.

Another one of our dumps blew a small pilot hydro line that runs the hydro pump to give pressure as it is constantly turning with the engine. Helped replace the blown line and noticed that 6 other lines are worn to or thru the metal casing. Told him, he said just keep running it. Ended up blowing hoses in the middle of working, for weeks on end. Would drain the hydro tank and such so not only did we have to replace the line during inclement weather, but dump up to 30 gallons of new hydro oil in to the tank.

Once I promoted to be equal to him, I took my side of the fleet and ran thru it with a fine tooth comb. Spent several thousand dollars fixing issues to prevent as much breakdowns as possible. The worst breakdown I had this winter was a wiper motor crapped out on me near the end of the day, but I had noticed it having issues prior and had a new assembly waiting to be installed sitting in the truck due to the nature of our job of being out for days on end w/o being able to fix minor things until a day where the truck could be down. Was down for maybe 30 mins while I swapped it out.

Leaking non hazmat fluid tanks, worn thru outer casing on electrical wires exposed to the elements, leaking valves, leaking fittings, leaking non hazmat fluid hoses, missing filters for services, low replacement fluid levels for services, the list goes on and on.

What is the pettiest thing you’ve seen a cheap person do at a restaurant?

Years ago the ex hubby took over an Italian restaurant…that is another story altogether. He slowly built the clientele up from nothing to a steady flow of clients, and we always loved a large booking. One night a table was booked for about 10–14 people, I forget exactly but it was a family group. The guy who had booked the table made it his night’s work to find fault: little subtle digs aimed at the staff, calling the staff back constantly, a smudge on a glass, a missing fork, the waiter was made to feel an imbecile.

I made it a point to double-check each plate as it was placed at the table, but did not serve or have any interaction with him until the end of the evening. He was the lead bull at the table, lording it over every other person, and then the bill was handed to him.

He pored over the bill for an age, demanding that everyone tell him what they had, was anything missing from the meal, then he told the waiter that he had been overcharged and the waiter called me over. The client then proceeded to tell me that he had been swindled, that he had been overcharged. I looked at the bill, which was accurate, told the waiter to bring up every receipt, looked the client in the face and said, “I am the owner, I am happy to go through all the receipts with you and I will also ask everyone here to tell me what they ordered, but you ordered such a huge quantity of food and drinks that in all likelihood this bill I have in my hand is going to be under. If I find the staff to have undercharged you, I will be expecting you to pay the full amount, so are you sure you want me to do this?”…he was apoplectic.

I totted up the bill, and it was short to the tune of around £40 (this was 25 years ago). He paid up in a fury and left not a penny for the staff. The next day he phoned the restaurant and claimed that some of the party had food poisoning, that he demanded we refund him. I asked him who had the food poisoning and he mentioned three of the guests; I had the exact details of each plate the guests had had, and remembered that two guests had switched plates, I then told him that he was wrong, that he should go get his story straight, for these three guests did not eat the same food. I realized he had asked each guest what they had ordered, NOT what they had eaten, and it was obvious he had had no contact with these supposedly poisoned family members. I recommended he file a complaint with Health & Safety, and never heard a word back.

Some of my latest AI image generations

The theme is tropical.

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Have you, as a police officer, ever known a “dirty” cop? If so, what did you do about it?

Some fifteen years back…

I was buddying with someone temporarily for bike patrolling. There was something barren and sinister about him. It is hard to explain.

One evening, we stopped at a random point and initiated snap checking, while at it… my colleague stopped a kid who walked by us, holding a small bag of fries. He must be 11 years old.

My colleague started asking him questions.

What’s your name?
Where are you coming from?

And believe it or not…

What is it in your hand? Give it to me!

The scared kid handed the police officer that bag of fries. And he went to town, eating it in front of that kid. Not just that… he actually smirked as well while witnessing that child’s facial expression of fear and shock.

I was a few feet away, checking registration book of a motorcyclist but I had to postpone that and approach them. To multiply my misery and embarrassment, the road with crowded and full of traffic. I did not want to make a scene.

Without saying a word, I snatched that bag of fries and gave it back to the kid, apologized and politely asked him to leave. The kid left.

I stood there looking at my colleagues’s deadpan face like nothing has happened.

This is low, even for a scum like you who conveniently rot the idea of community policing. This is why the public does not hold us in good regards. This attitude is what they fear and abhor.

I never worked with him again, I also informed the duty officer of this incident later that night.

I remember that guys face clearly, I remember his name, I remember the repulsion his company caused me

So Quorans, you might wonder if this is the dirtiest I have ever seen as you see me narrating this account carefully and in detail.

No, God… No!

This is me telling you of a distasteful minor incident that occurred years ago, that has burnt into my memory for good. In my understanding, he was not a good cop. And I strongly disliked him.

That should give you some idea about my feelings for those who are worse or worst. Who go above and beyond breaking the rules, violating the code, abusing their powers and involved in corruption.

They do exist.

And there’s only so much I practically could do about them, way above my pay grade you see.

But I’m not sad or hopeless. I have spent eighteen years in police service and I see the systematical grind of the department that works restlessly and naturally and gets them here and there. I see them getting hooked and punished.

It’s okay, but it certainly could be better.

What’s something you realized about a family member once you got older?

Not until the deaths of both my parents did I understand the dynamic of their marriage.

My mother died of a stroke at age 66. It turned out that years earlier, she had survived a heart attack which probably occurred in her sleep because no one ever knew about it. When she died, I was dumbfounded that her sisters and friends were all angry at Dad, blaming him for having driven Mom into an early grave.

In the 22 years before he died, clues gradually fell into place. I remembered how Mom said his mother had made Dad the person he was. How, when my older brothers brought their families home to visit, Dad sulked and said Mom was going to work herself to death waiting on them hand and foot. How he said the same thing about his second wife and her children and grandchildren.

I remembered how Mom refused to have a renewal of vows ceremony for their 25th anniversary, saying she’d meant her vows to be for life the first time, so she didn’t see any point. I looked at the photo albums and saw Mom’s face change from her engagement, a giddy young woman in love, to an unsmiling older woman. When he said he’d retire at 62 instead of 65 and be home all the time, Mom seemed resigned, not happy.

Most telling, I remembered that when Dad was a boy, his mother sometimes punished him by locking him in a closet. What made this particularly terrifying: Grandma was deaf, so his crying, beating on the door and begging moved her not at all. He might well have believed that he could die in that closet.

All the facts in front of me the whole time finally made sense: when Dad married Mom, he expected her to be his mommy as much as his wife, because his own mother had been abusive, not loving. It was surely no coincidence that Mom was older by 18 months.

Mom died in November, he was engaged by Christmas, and remarried in April — to a widowed nurse 17 years younger, someone who’d outlive him and care for him like both mommy and wife. Dad remarried so quickly not because he didn’t love Mom, but because her death had left him as bereft as Theodore Roosevelt when his mother and his first wife died on the same day.

When he pouted about Mom’s delight in her visiting children and grandchildren, he was jealous. He thought she had a fixed amount of love and any she gave to someone else was less for him. At family gatherings she could be happily chatting with family members, but if he wanted her attention, she had to go with him or he’d sulk. He retired early so he could spend more time with her. He couldn’t very well demand that his second wife cut off all contact with her children and grandchildren, but he hadn’t forgotten how to pout.

Dad and Mom met before he went off to a monastery to spend three years. I never understood why, because if he was looking for mother love, he wasn’t going to find it in an all-male community. But neither did I understand why he ever dropped out, because he spent so much time in church and in prayer at home that even a priest told me he was overdoing it. (When a priest says there’s such a thing as too much religion….) I’m now convinced that he was trying to back God into a corner: “See how devout I am, God. You can’t take the person I love away from me.”

And Mom’s refusal to renew her wedding vows? What she really meant, I suspect, was “Don’t ask me if I’d marry you all over again, because you might not like my answer.”

Oh no! Is this fairytale preview of things to come where women aren’t accountable?

The original stories from the last century are really interesting. This one is worth your time.

Have you ever quit your job in the middle of the work day? Why?

Yes actually I have. I was working at a local call center about 11 or 12 years ago, and I knew that they had a strict attendance policy, and that they were not hesitant to put points on your attendance record if you were late or left early or called off. However I did not know to what extent they would uphold that policy, and how much people were exaggerating how strict they were about it until I had been there about six months or so. One morning we heard a big commotion coming from the other side of the dividing wall, from the other business contract that was next to us. Well, later in the day we found out that one of the older men on the other contract had had a heart attack and had to be taken to the hospital by an ambulance. So I did not really think anything of it other than feeling bad for the guy, but a couple days later I was out back on break and I heard his supervisor talking to another employee about how she had to put 1/2 of a point on his attendance because he had to leave before his shift was over. I walked over to her and asked if I heard her correctly because I was almost certain that I had actually misheard her. But to my surprise she told me that I did hear her correctly and that she did have to put a half of a point on that employee’s attendance record. Once I confirmed that I had actually heard her correctly I went up to the front of the building to the human resources department and asked the lady working in the office if what the manager had said was true. She told me that unfortunately the manager was correct and that according to the attendance policy of the employee would be pointed for leaving before his shift was over, even though it was due to a medical emergency. At that point I took my badge off of my belt loop, laid it on her desk and told her I quit. The job itself was not too bad, but after hearing that I could not bring myself to work for a company who just blatantly did not care about their employees like that.

Italian Prime Minister announced that Italy would no longer participate in the “Belt and Road Initiative”, and then tried to strengthen relations with China, claiming that “the relationship between China and Italy is close”. What does this indicate?

One the one hand Meloni is controlled by the EU and European Council which has become a tane colonial outpost of the United States so that any US order comes with the response “How high master?”

On the other hand – Italian Luxury brands depend on 13% to 25% of their revenue from China and Italy gets Low Cost products from China that it can sell to it’s people for 2.75–3.5 times the cost and help with value addition into the economy

https://seoagencychina.com/china-luxury-market-is-there-still-space-for-newcomers/

Italian Businesses are worried about their Chinese markets

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They are worried more about Chinese Luxury Brands that could put the Italians out of business in China

So the Italian Government sends the message lets follow the same advantages that we had under the BRI but let’s just not call it that anymore

And as you can see

China gets tariff breaks until 2027 which means even if EU imposes tariffs on Chinese EVs, Italy having an agreement already can’t implement the same tariffs until after 30/6/2027
Italian Brands get the same tariff advantages in China until 30/6/2027
Both Nations have the same benefits in Shipping and with their Investments into each other

So Nothing has changed except the official relationship between China and Italy

Do you think it’s creepy that Leonardo DiCaprio is dating a girl so young that he is older than her mother?

It’s definitely bizarre.

He always seems to have a mob of young women around him.

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Someone on Reddit made a chart of every girlfriend he’s had, and he seems to have a rule of never dating older than 25:

And he has a new girlfriend, who is now, you guessed it, 25:

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He is 49.

This is all fine and legal. But it is just odd that he limits himself to this very narrow demographic of women. And a peculiar coincidence that they never make it further than that. I suspect he is hanging out a lot at fashion shows, or some place all these models mingle at (they are almost all tall thin models).

I know that for me, I’m so different than I was at age 20. I don’t know what I’d talk to a 20-year-old about. But to each their own.

Why Bother Working For a Living …. Public Assistance Game

There is no more middle class. Every thing has been gentrified from housing , cars People not being able to find a decent paying job and the cost to live is getting way out of hand . Gen Z and Millennials No Long Want to work towards nothing. America is Broken and it’s not cool. Looks like everyones going to be on welfare

Have you ever been with someone who is so cheap it’s uncomfortable?

I used to have a friend who, despite being well-off, was incredibly cheap, to the point that it was not only embarrassing, it was often hurtful too.

She is very adept at worming out of paying for her share of things, mainly by making things SO awkward that you end up caving in and paying for her, simply because you just want the situation to be over!

Some examples:

On one occasion, when she was staying with me for a couple of days, she insisted that we go swimming, because she said she had to do exercise every day. I didn’t really mind, so off we went to the local swimming pool. After queuing for quite some time at the reception desk to pay, we eventually got to the front… but when the receptionist said “That’ll be £2.50, please”, my friend became really indignant, as the swimming pool she usually went to apparently only cost £2.00. She started arguing with the poor receptionist over the 50p difference, much to the annoyance of all the other people in the queue behind us, waiting to pay. So, I ended up paying for both of us — not a big deal at all, you might think, but this was just one example of how I always seemed to end up paying for her.

Later that same day, we went to the cinema to see a film. I paid the admission for both of us (I didn’t want a repeat of the incident at the swimming pool!) and then we wandered over to the sweets kiosk to look at the snacks. She decided she didn’t want anything; I bought myself a large bag of M&Ms. Once we’d taken our seats and the film had started, she announced that, actually, she WAS hungry after all, but didn’t want to miss any of the film by going back out to the sweets kiosk. No problem, I said, you can share my M&Ms if you like. This started out fine: like you do when you’re sharing sweets, I kept angling the bag towards her, to make sure she could dig in. However, after about 20 mins, she said that SHE wanted to hold the bag… Bit weird, I thought, but I duly gave the bag to her to hold.

As the film continued, every now and then I took some M&Ms out of the bag, as did she. But then she started leaning over every few minutes or so and whispering “Are you going to have any more?”. As you can imagine, this started to get pretty irritating, especially as I was trying to watch the film. This went on for a while, with me saying “Yes”, every time she asked. Eventually, I asked her why she kept asking and she told me that she wanted to “save them for later”!! What the heck?! I was quite surprised at this, but couldn’t really make a fuss in the middle of the film. I carried on helping myself to the sweets that I’D BOUGHT, but it was all really awkward and a bit stressful, and it kind of spoilt the film a bit.

It’s almost like she has a pathological need to not part with any money and to milk other people as much as possible.

I once went to stay with her, but after having been at her house for a few hours, she hadn’t offered me anything to drink. Not a problem, as we had been engrossed in chatting. But, when I asked if it was OK if I put the kettle on (I am one of those Brits who quickly wilts if I’m not kept topped up with tea!) she said that she didn’t have any tea. Or, in fact, anything at all to drink. OK, no problem, water is fine, I said.

For our evening meal that day, we went out to a restaurant, where (you guessed it) I ended up paying.

The next morning, we got up and sat chatting for a while. After a couple of hours, she hadn’t mentioned breakfast and I was getting pretty hungry. I asked if it would be OK if I made some toast or something, but she said that she didn’t have any food in. This was a bit surprising, as she’d invited me to stay for the weekend and it had been arranged for some time. In retrospect, I think she wanted to see me but didn’t want to have to spend any money on feeding me. I think it’s highly possible that she ate breakfast in her bedroom, in secret, before getting up and coming into the living room to chat with me. She loves food (as do I) and always used to complain at my house, if I didn’t keep her well fed; like me, she’s definitely not the sort of person to skip breakfast.

Anyway, as I was so hungry, I suggested we went out to a cafe for some breakfast — I was thinking of something cheap and cheerful. She took me to a really wonderful artisan eatery, where we enjoyed a delicious breakfast. Silly me, assumed that she’d be paying, given that I’d paid for everything else that weekend and given that she hadn’t provided breakfast at home. However — you can see where this is going — when it came to pay the bill, she started lamenting about how she “doesn’t normally like to spend money on breakfast”, so I ended up paying for it. She’d chosen a really expensive place, knowing that she was going to get me to pay for it!

Other examples include us going into McDonald’s to buy a drink each and her asking me to pay for hers, as she didn’t want to break in to her £10 note!

Each individual incident was no big deal on its own, but when it happens a lot, you realise that you’re being taken advantage of. She was basically taking advantage of my generosity and the fact that I hate any kind of awkwardness. She knows that I (and probably most people) don’t want to cause a fuss in public, so will just end up paying.

To put it into context, she is from a fairly wealthy family and had a well-paid job, so it’s not like I could blame her behaviour on deprivation (either current or historical). She’s just incredibly tight with her money. She hardly ever leaves a tip in restaurants and when she does, she leaves 2p.

Because of her behaviour with money, but also because I realised she just wasn’t really a very nice person in general, I eventually cut off contact with her. We’d known each other for about 30 years, but sometimes the longest friendships aren’t always the best ones.

EDIT

To the Quoran who went through my entire answer and suggested I change ALL my apostrophes to apostrophes that are slightly more curly: I’m afraid I only have one type of apostrophe on my keyboard. I don’t have a not-very-curly option and then also a curly option. Like most keyboards (I’m guessing?), I just have one apostrophe to choose from.

I’m sorry that it is not quite as curly as the one on your keyboard. However, hopefully my not-very-curly apostrophes haven’t affected the readability of my post too much?

I think you may have a LITTLE too much time on your hands 🙂 .

Do people abuse the welfare system in your country?

Do you know anybody who always eats a lot, but never shops, cooks or cleans up?

Or maybe somebody who disappears when it’s their turn to buy a round at the bar or coffee machine?

Did you ever see someone devastate the buffet, leave a dollar tip on the table and then empty the mints from the bowl at the cash register on the way out?

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Ever experience unflushed public toilets devoid of toilet paper? How about coworkers that only pretend to work?

And of course no party is complete without the eternally-empty-handed guest.

Let’s face it, freeloaders exist all over the globe. Their entitlement knows no bounds.

So yes, people abuse welfare in my country, and in both countries I lived in before this one.

I am disgusted by freeloaders. I think most people are. I think it likely even many of the freeloaders don’t like themselves much.

Despite all this, I support welfare and I do it for selfish and conservative reasons.

I am willing to pay the taxes needed to enjoy clean streets free of unfortunate, mentally ill and addicted people.

I see that when welfare is tied to education, sponges often turn into contributors who lighten my tax load.

And for the incorrigibly lazy, $ 9,000 (average cost per welfare recipient) is less than $ 35,000 (average cost per prisoner).

Living in Germany and France showed me that welfare programs really do reduce crime and homelessness and lower prison populations.

Welfare works well when driven by data and economic evidence not empathy or scorn. It needs carrots and sticks and not too many of either.

Men Are Checking Out of Relationships in Thousands & No One Can Stop Them

This is a very serious situation.

Until someone stops the free reign of Family Court, men will avoid marriage and women in general. Nowadays, only 6.5 men in a thousand get married due to the following scenario: 

(1) man gets married, 
(2) wife refuses to have sex, 
(3) wife racks up huge credit card debt, 
(4) wife stop contributing financially, 
(5) wife stops cooking & cleaning, 
(6) wife cheats on husband, 
(7) wife files for divorce and takes the house, cars, savings, and kids, (8) wife falsely accuses husband of abuse and he no longer can see his kids, 
(9) wife poisons kids against the father. 

What man in his right mind will sign up for this?

Litter in the middle

Outside my tiny town is one of those Chinese 8-lane rural roads. And there is a divider in the middle median. Apparently, at some point in time either someone had left a litter of kittens there, or a cat had a litter there.

No one knew about it, apparently.

Being in China, the road is busy, and we would use it to avoid the massive traffic closer to the sub-town networks.

At this particular location, as I drove by, I saw the body of a dead kitten. I felt sad, but didn’t think much about it.

On the way back, I saw the body of a second dead kitten.

Later on in the day, about four hours later, I went by the (now) smashed remains of the two kittens and saw a third dead kitten.

And man, I should have stopped to investigate. But I was running late.

On the way back, as a fourth kitten.

Dead.

And that was the end of the litter.

i wonder what would have happened if I had stopped to clean the dead kitten off the road and checked to see where it’s siblings were. I wonder.

Life.

Why did I pick this life?

What was I thinking?

I feel great sorrow for the kittens, and the excuses that I made not to stop and investigate. Every time I go by that spot I question and lambast myself; why didn’t I stop? Why didn’t I investigate?

Ugh!

Today…

As the PRC has never directly controlled Taiwan, how do the Chinese confront those who say you can’t take back what you never controlled?

Well, well.

Sneaky, but easy to parry.

The treaty of Shimonoseki of 1895 between CHINA and Japan ceded the island of Taiwan to Japan, and it became a colony under Japanese administration till 1945, when Japan renounced its claim to the island.

Various declarations and treaties in the period all treated Taiwan as part of China, unlike, say, Hong Kong and Macau, which remained colonies until the late 1990s.

The divergence only appeared with the emergence of the PRC in 1949, and the strategic defeat of the KMT which fled to Taiwan, bringing the ROC government with them.

The situation is very clear if we read both Constitutions—each side proclaims itself the rightful government of China, which includes sovereignty over the mainland, Taiwan, Macau and Hong Kong.

The argument all along is over who is in charge, and not who owns what, because there is only ONE CHINA, according to the Constitutions of the PRC and ROC.

Unfortunately, 99.99% of people who can read this (i.e. anglophones) cannot do so due to illiteracy.

Quit pretending to know what one is too prejudiced to find out.

What is the most pathetic thing you’ve seen an addict do to get their fix?

I used to be a heroin addict. I personally never did any crazy things to supply my habit. I understand why people do though. Imagine having the flu times ten, feeling like you’re being broken in half, your entire body hurts, it feels like your bones are being broken. Your blood pressure is so jacked from detox your vision is blurred, you can hardly see ten feet in front of you and you throw up and have diarrhea like you’ve got food poisoning. You know that all you have to do in order to feel better is get a fix. There’s literally nothing most people won’t do to just feel better.

Not having it is a living hell, being high feels the exact opposite. You feel so good you just want to sing and dance even if you don’t know how to sing you’re going to do it anyway. I’m not a bad person, I was just a broken person when I was addicted to heroin. I don’t believe I would ever be desperate enough to rob someone but I know plenty of people who have.

A guy I grew up with, I knew him most of my life, one of my best friends was one of those people who had no moral code when in active addiction. He was an amazing person when sober. Even in active addiction his true nature would sometimes show. He’s saved more than a few people because he was really good at CPR. The mother of his child was also an addict too. She was in college and her text books kept coming up missing. She couldn’t figure out where they were going. By the time she realized he was taking her text books to the university bookstore and selling them back to them they were all gone.

One day she called me and asked me if I could give her a ride home. I helped her out and gave her a ride. We were about a block away from her house and there he was walking through a parking lot with garbage bags full of clothes. He was about to walk into Plato’s closet (they buy and sell used clothes) when we pulled up on him. She jumped out of my truck and grabbed him. He dropped the bags of clothes and she looked in the bags and he had taken her whole wardrobe. Every single item of clothing she owned was in those bags.

He had taken all of his girlfriend’s clothes, the mother of his child and was trying to sell them so he could score some dope. That was the last straw for her, she left him and got sober. She worked really hard to get her child back, he had been taken away and was being raised by her mother. She did good for a while but relapsed and she’s no longer with us. He ended up in prison, got out, did really good for a long time. He did the same, he inherited several million dollars from his father and within a year he was also no longer with us. I miss him every single day. He was a good person but not too many people really knew that, he hid it well.

US Very Concerned as China-Russia Strengthen Their Military Ties!

The message is CLEAR.

Is the West’s accusation of China overcapacity in the EV industry true? Why?

The accusations from the West sound an awful lot like the pot calling the kettle black. The term ‘overcapacity’ being thrown around has more to do with market insecurity and protectionist tendencies than any supposed production surplus on China’s part.

Take 2023 as an example. China crafted 9.58 million new-energy vehicles that year and managed to sell about 9.49 million units. A large chunk of these – around 8.3 million vehicles – were sold in the domestic market. That hardly points towards international market saturation, rather it shows domestic demand driving China’s EV production.

Then, consider the global market shares. Chinese manufacturers held about 8.2 percent of the European electric car market. Yet, European automakers had a firm grip on around 20 percent of the Chinese light vehicle market. The scales, realistically, tip more in favor of the West here.

So why the accusations? It seems like a rather convenient cloak of ‘overcapacity’ is being used to disguise good old fashioned trade protectionism. The West is getting a taste of competitiveness they’re not used to, and it’s sending jitters down their spines. China’s EV industry, powered by continuous innovation, is giving Western automakers a run for their money. Hence, the narrative of ‘overcapacity’ serves as a much-needed crutch to lean on.

In the grand scheme of the global EV industry, China’s production aligns with its increasing domestic demand and strategically positions itself for a future defined by cleaner, more efficient vehicles. The so-called ‘overcapacity’ is just reflective of China’s effective planning, astute market gauging, and a testament to its competitive hardiness in the face of global market dynamics. So, is there really overcapacity in China’s EV industry? I highly doubt that.

Have you ever gotten a teacher fired?

Yes. My GMAT test prep instructor.

I decided to do one of these review classes as I was a little rusty, so I signed up and paid several hundred dollars for the privilege.

The first day of class, which was composed of twelve women and one man, he told this joke:

“A woman married and had 12 children. Her husband died, and she remarried and had 12 more children before the second husband died as well. Then, she died. At the funeral, the priest said, ‘At last they’ll be together.’ One of the attendees said, ‘What do you mean by that? Will she be together with her first husband, or her second?’ ‘I meant her legs,’ replied the priest.” This was accompanied by him putting his arms out straight, hands together, then opening his arms wide and closing them.

The second day of class, there was one woman (me) and one man.

I had paid for the course, and based on a test exam, I really needed the math help. I had already paid for the GMAT coming up, so I really had to take this review course.

Every class after that, he complained about the missing women and how someone had complained about him to the administration. “It was just a joke,” he kept whining. “Are you going to teach the material tonight?” I would say.

The last day of class, he had promised a cheat sheet of formulas. Again, I showed up, again, he spent class time whining about the complaints and how the joke was funny, and what was so wrong about the joke, and how women don’t have any sense of humor anymore.

I asked him for the cheat sheet.

“You’re a woman,” he observes. “What was so wrong about that joke?”

“The joke was inappropriate,” I said, “as was your accompanying gesture.”

He looked at me as if I was speaking a language he had never heard.

“Look,” he said, “it’s just a biological fact that women spend a lot of time with their legs open!”

And he re-enacts the gesture, leaving his arms open.

I walked out without the cheat sheet, and called the head of the program the next day. He was so mortified, that not only did he fire the guy, but he refunded my money and let me take another class for free. I took kayaking, and discovered a love for it. I also did well enough on my GMAT to get into the school of my choice.

What are ten truths everyone should accept in life?

Marks are important! Or just be an Einstein to prove it wrong.
No friend will be 100% happy to see your success, especially if you’re in same field
Sex or physical intimacy is important to make a relationship strong and live.
“ I love you more than anything anyone” is a filmy dialogue. Don’t believe it as it is ! There are always ifs,buts & conditions applied ~
Money is important ! Infact most important to live in this world
A smart girl will never marry you unless you are settled . let her brag anything about true love .
Money can’t give you peace !
Everyone in this world is selfish and is with you just for their needs be it your family or bestfriend.
Getting into relationship demands efforts, time and money. It’s not for free
Looks matter ! So better groom yourself to appear best or just keep shouting it don’t.( yuup skills matter but a person with same skills and better presentation & groomed will always be preferred than only skills)

Cinnamon Rolls from North Carolina State Fair

These cinnamon coffee rolls are delicious. It is important that you use unbleached flour and Fleischmann’s margarine in this recipe. Use a thermometer to check the temperature of the liquid, if it’s too hot it will kill the yeast.

Ingredients

Rolls

1 package dry yeast, 1 scant tablespoon
1/4 cup warm water
4 cups unbleached flour (do not substitute)
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1 teaspoon salt
3 egg yolks, slightly beaten
1 cup Fleischmann’s oleo/margarine, do not substitute
1 cup scalded milk and cooled to 110 degrees F
1/4 cup pecans, chopped
1/4 cup raisins (optional)

Vanilla Icing

1 1/2 cups confectioners’ sugar
2 tablespoons softened Fleischmann’s margarine
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 to 2 tablespoons hot water

Instructions

Rolls

Night before baking, sprinkle yeast over lukewarm water, stir to dissolve; set aside.
Combine flour, 1/4 cup sugar and salt in mixing bowl. Mix well.
Cut in 1 cup of Fleischmann’s oleo/margarine with a pastry blender or with your fingers until mixture resembles cornmeal.
Add yeast mixture, egg yolks and milk, stir with a fork until well blended.
Cover with aluminum foil and refrigerate overnight.
Next morning, grease a 9 x 13-inch baking pan and set aside.
Combine in a small bowl 1/4 cup sugar and the cinnamon and set aside.
Roll dough on a floured surface into a rectangle, about 10 x 15-inches. Brush with 2 tablespoons melted oleo/margarine. Sprinkle with cinnamon/sugar mixture, sprinkle with pecans and raisins. Starting at the wide end, roll up in a jellyroll fashion. Pinch edges well to seal.
Cut into 15 equal slices. Place cut side down, equally spaced, in prepared pan. Cover and let rise in a warm place until doubled in size, about 1 hour.
Heat oven to 375 degrees F. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes or until golden brown.
Remove from oven and cool on a wire rack.
Frost rolls.

Vanilla Icing

Mix sugar, oleo/margarine. Add vanilla extract and 1 tablespoon hot water and stir until smooth and well blended. Add more water as needed a few drops at a time.

What can you do if you are thrown under the bus by your boss when it was not really your fault?

I don’t remember exactly what I got blamed for, but I overheard my boss explaining to a client on the phone that his secretary; i.e., me, had failed to do whatever it was and reassuring the client that I would be disciplined.

The problem was that the mistake was my boss’s fault, not mine. In other words, he was covering his own ass by throwing me under the bus. He definitely had not intended that I should hear the conversation.

I was instantly furious. I took a lot of emotional abuse on that job, and I compensated and covered for a lot of mistakes on the parts of a lot of salespeople and managers to prevent loss of profits and/or company reputation. I was so constantly throwing myself under the bus to save face for a bunch of incompetents that most times they didn’t even know. Do you think I bothered to point out that the cost of four thousand steel shelves had been omitted by the “experienced” salesperson again on the project proposal I was typing, or did I just add them in and adjust the price, again?

One of my other roles in the company was CSR. In other words, if a client had a problem, it was up to me to solve it, ideally without “bothering” the salesperson “earning” the commission. In other words, the client to whom my boss was trashing my competency and reputation was very likely someone I was going to interact with repeatedly until the project was complete.

My boss hung up the phone and I immediately stomped into his office. Putting my hands on his desk so I could speak directly to his face, I made my fury known.

“By my own choice, I accept a lot of blame around here to clients for shit I don’t do, to protect your sorry asses, but I’ll be damned if you’re going to put the blame on me for your mistakes without my knowledge or permission!!”

My boss, with an hangdog expression, acknowledged that he was wrong and he apologized. In hindsight I wish he hadn’t. I really needed a kick in the ass to prompt me to quit that horrendous job.

Would’ve saved a lot of heartache.

Delusional GF Busted With The Most RIDICULOUS Pro/Con List Of All Time And Is About To Get Dumped!

Basically she’s implying that she’s settling.

What is the most jaw-dropping method for shoplifting that you have seen?

I worked loss prevention as the Team Lead. We had cameras in a retail clothing store and had multiple subjects we were watching. I moved to the floor to cover one of the guys and lost him. I looked around, and called over the radio for directions. When I turned around he was right there. I said never mind and then put the radio on my belt. The guy turned around and we chatted for a few minutes. I was about to move on when he asked me if I thought this place was easy to steal from. I told him no, security is pretty tight from what I understand. Then he asked me to watch for him while he stole a lot of items. I literally stood there in the aisle and stared at him while he concealed several items. He said he was done and wanted to know if I wanted him to watch for me while I stole. I told him nope, I’m good. He said thanks and headed to the door. Still in somewhat disbelief, I walked with him as we passed the registers and exited the store. As we got to the outside, I held the door shut and introduced myself. The look of shock was priceless. As I took him back to the office in handcuffs I reminded him, “Yes, you just asked the head of security to WATCH you while you shoplifted.”

What was the strangest part of your divorce?

The most peculiar part was the outcome.

I left Claire with the following:

A nice home fully paid for, mortgage free
A new car fully paid
No outstanding bills – everything paid
A nice portfolio of blue chip stocks which were little appreciated at the time
Paid up life insurance
An arrangement with a top financial advisor to assist her

Claire had 3 children of her own issue (as a couple, we had none). One existed independently and had little to say about the break-up.

Another was a highly dependent son who should have been on his own, but who was very attached to Claire, and she was very attached, to him.

An elder son who, with his wife, came to his mother’s (Claire’s) defense, warning her that I would attempt to impoverish myself to escape a generous settlement. I was pegged as the “bad guy.”

That’s the set-up. Here is what happened:

The elder son and his wife quickly realized the generosity of my settlement, and the reasons for my seeking divorce.
The other 2 children were a constant drain on Claire’s resources; purchases of property, cars, etc.
The dependent son and his wife moved in with Claire, as did the daughter.
Claire exhausted the liquid resources I gave her and had to sell the home I gave her. Subsequently, she also had to sell the replacement home she bought. Now she lives in poverty, as do the two children. Her only income is Social Security.

And meanwhile, the very protective son and his wife have welcomed me into their family, where I enjoy a most enriching relationship.

Thus Claire has not only impoverished herself, but also 2 of her children. And I enjoy the happiest relationship with her elder son and his wife.

Who knew? Well, something in me knew, and I am better for it.

Life is strange.

[EDIT:] The dependent son, Freddy died in early 2022. His mother, Claire, died in late 2022. I had to chip-in to pay funeral expenses.

Can I refuse for my child to attend an after-school detention?

In the UK yes you can… or at least my mum did and there wasn’t a DAMN thing the school could do about it.

Let me explain: My sister is the main character in this story.

She’s fiery and doesn’t know how to be quiet and just take things… she reacts…

Well… A boy in the school was going around grabbing/groping girls. He then made the mistake of groping my sister. She didn’t hesitate to floor him. And I mean she punched him on the face and he hit the deck.

Well, she got a detention. Fair enough, shouldn’t hit kids blah blah… but the boy DIDNT get detention for his actions.

My mum went to pick my sister up, I was there to witness, and found that she had a detention… When she asked why the teacher said she hit another student.

So my mum turned to my sister and asked what happened and my sister explained it all, about the constant groping and even warnings he had been given… she explained when, how and why she clobbered him.

So my mum looked around and asked where was this boy for his detention.

He had not been given one.

So my mum took my sister and said we are leaving. And we left despite the protests of the teacher. The headmaster walked down and tried to stop us, but we left. My mum told them that if they will not punish the boy for his sexual assaults, then they can not punish her daughter for defending herself.

And out we went. My mum bought us a Ice-lolly and told her she has the right to always defend herself… There are many more stories like this, but I will leave this here.

So in answer to your question, the care of the child ends at the end of the school day.

How do intelligent people deal with idiots?

1. Identify idiots early. The sooner you can identify an idiot, the sooner you can start to protect yourself from them.

2. Don’t try to change idiots. Idiots are not going to change, so don’t waste your time and energy trying to do so.

3. Don’t take idiots personally. Idiots are not attacking you personally, they are just being idiots.

4. Set boundaries with idiots. Don’t let idiots into your life if you don’t have to.

5. Don’t argue with idiots. It’s a pointless exercise.

6. Don’t try to explain yourself to idiots. They won’t understand.

7. Don’t try to reason with idiots. They are not reasonable people.

8. Don’t try to please idiots. They are impossible to please.

9. Don’t expect idiots to appreciate you. They don’t have the capacity to do so.

10. Don’t let idiots ruin your day. They are not worth it.

11. Don’t become an idiot yourself. It’s easy to do, but it’s important to remember that there is no excuse for bad behavior.

12. Learn to laugh at idiots. It’s the best way to cope with them.

13. Don’t take yourself too seriously. Idiots will try to make you feel bad about yourself, but don’t let them.

14. Remember that you are not alone. Everyone has to deal with idiots at some point in their lives.

15. Be kind to yourself. Dealing with idiots can be stressful, so make sure to take care of yourself.

I hope these lessons help you to deal with idiots effectively and to protect yourself from their negative influence.

Bypassers Found a Bobcat On the Railroad it Froze to the Rails

Be the Rufus

What screams “I’m educated, but not very bright”?

A patient has had a Rhinoplasty (plastic surgery to the nose) . Kept overnight at the hospital. It was 35 years ago, when patients were kept inpatient more than these days. Late day surgery. In the evening, the patient is vomiting blood. Nurse calls Intern. It was July, when Interns firs come into hospital, on call 24 hours. Fresh from school. Intern comes & diagnosed stomach bleed 🩸 🤣🤣. Never calls the attending. Intern Proceeds to place a nasogastric tube in patient’s freshly operated nose & wash the stomach with ice saline, a better portion of the night. Still, no one called the attending Physician… In the morning, the attending Physician comes in to discharge the patient & learns what has been done all night… patient did well but I’m sure nurse & intern got a tear down for their stupidity. The patient had either swallowed or much blood had gone down the stomach during surgery. Blood is difficult to digest. Never mind that many post op patients suffer from nausea & vomiting from pain meds etc. The blood vomiting was all old blood from surgery time & neither the nurse nor the intern knew that but worst of all, no body called the attending Physician. If this patient was really bleeding from his stomach, that much, that alone, warrants a call to the attending physician , which would have avoided the ice saline thing altogether. Sadly, this is vestiges of the old ways, when attending yelled at interns or nurses for “bothering “ them for stupid stuff. They helped create this atmosphere of fear & stupid things happened. True story.

What is the hardest thing you’ve had to tell your parents and how did they react?

I know this post is 6 months old, but I thought I’d share my story.

On January 9th 2019 my mother was admitted to the hospital during what was supposed to be a check-up with her oncologist. My mom was battling stage four endometrial cancer. She ended up in the hospital for about a month and eventually went home to stay with my aunt and uncle. The doctors advised she be in hospice but she wanted to be comfortable. I spent many days by my mom’s side, helping my aunt who was her caretaker and just being there.

On February 9th my mom went into a coma-like state, unconscious but still able to hear us and move here and there, but could not speak or see or do much of anything. Her body was shutting down. I spent every day by her bed with her, I knew that she needed to go. I knew that the hardest thing I’d ever do is lose my mom, my best friend, at the age of 24. But everyday I told her I loved her and that I’d be okay if she had to go.

For a week she held on. On Friday, February 15th my dad was flying into my hometown from California where he lives because he wanted to be here for me over the weekend. He knew the situation. Him and my mom were separated, never married, but they were on decent terms. I left my aunt’s house where my mom was to go pick him up from the airport. After my father’s plane landed and was evacuating the plane, I got the call that my mother’s heart rate was dropping. I was a mess, sobbing in the middle of the airport. I told my dad as soon as I saw him. Fast forward a few hours, my mother passed at 11pm on February 15th, 2019. The first person I called was my dad and it’s something I will never forget. Hearing him cry broke me down even more. It’s a memory embedded in my mind forever.

I truly believe that my mom waited to leave. She always said she wasn’t afraid to die, she was only afraid of leaving me. I believe she knew that my dad was going to be here, and she wanted to wait until I had the most important and supportive person here with me. She wanted me safe. Not everybody would believe in something like this, but I feel it in my heart. This Saturday will be a year since she passed and I miss her so much.

What single moment killed your relationship?

“can you book me flight tickets to California? I want to spend my Christmas break with you”

“Sure babe! How long?” I immediately jumped into my desk and took a look at the pricing. It was around $500. I’d then asked myself if it was too early in our relationship to spend that kind of money on someone. I tossed that thought away when I’d thought of how strong my feelings were for him.

“15 days! From 12th December to 26th December” he replied.

I jumped with joy.

“I’m so happy you’re spending 15 days with me”

“Oh I should have mentioned earlier, I won’t be spending all 15 with you. I want to see my friends too”

“Ok. What’s the plan then?” I asked.

“ I’ll spend the Saturday and Sunday with you and then Id go to San Francisco and meet …blah blah bleh blue…and..” I was impatiently waiting till my name came again on that list “and then I’d finish the trip off with blue blah bleh and that’s it..”

“So you’re spending 2 days with me?” I asked.

I got a shameless “yeah I’m sure you’ll be busy anyway and if you’re not you should make plans with your friends too for the break.”

That did it for me.

“I get that you’re still in school and it makes sense for me to pay because I have a job but I’m not going to spend $500 for 2 days of your time.”

To be fair, if we were dating for more than a year or something, I would have understood him better and would have spent that kind of money for him to be happy. But it had only been a month and he had shamelessly called to ask for a ticket and even had the courage to tell me that it wasn’t a trip for me. Sorry but not sorry. We broke up the next day and that’s the story of my shortest relationship. So glad I’d dodged that bullet.

China humiliates Blinken as he threatens China, says China commits genocide+crimes against humanity.

What was your biggest “nonsense” moment in the military?

Whilst on tour in Afghanistan a group of us was given a few days off in Kuwait. We flew directly from our base to the airport in Kuwait in a C130. We flew in full battle rattle, rifles, pistols front line ammo and grenades.We are also in uniform with body armor and helmet

We had our days off then went to the airport dressed as we came in. For some reason we had to go through a different area of the airport than when we came in. We were ushered through to a security check point

There was a large African American female contractor. She says to the first soldier

“Are you carrying any weapons ” ………the first guy says

” you mean apart from my rifle,pistol bayonet and grenades?”

“Yes , please take our all of your equipment and put it on the conveyor belt”

“Why?”

“Sir need to check that you aren’t carrying any weapons”

“You need to X-ray my rifle and webbing to check for weapons? That’s stupid you can see them”

” you might use a hidden weapon to highjack the plane”

“If I want to highjack the plane I will use my rifle, besides why would a soldier highjack an Air Force plane “

” are you going to highjack the plane”?

“No”

“Then I need to check your gear”

This went back and forth went in for a few minutes before the soldier removed his gear and put it through the machine

The next soldier then proceeds to have exactly the same argument with the security guard. The whole scene degenerates into a farce.

One other soldier and I get frustrated and simply walk around the checkpoint then out a side door and onto the plane.

Perhaps she now works for TSA

12 Things no one tells you about adult life

Not everyone will like you for being a good person.
People will hate you just because other people likes you.
If you don’t learn to say no, you will keep doing the things what people says.
Life will only give you what you deserves.
If you are talented then also you have to work hard.
No matter who you are there will always be someone who will hate you.
You will repeat your own mistakes many times.
There will be someone who will love you no matter what.
Relatives can be your enemies sometimes.
Age doesn’t defines maturity.
Situation will force you to leave everything but that time defines you.
Self love matters a lot. If you love yourself then you don’t need anyone else for anything. You can make yourself happy.

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?

As many pointed out, there are two scenarios here:

You are still in possession of company property, such as an old work laptop or company documents. In this case, I would try to return everything in your possession ASAP (your earliest convenience within reason, but at least 7–14 days ahead of any deadline), and fully document everything. Not returning their property could be grounds for voiding any severance agreement you signed or even legal action.
They need your help to do something that was previously part of your day to day responsibilities. Whether is finding old documents that you worked with (but are not in your possession), documenting a knowledge transfer handoff, or dealing with expired certs/credentials that are associated with a business process previously tied to your account. In this case, they are pretty much f**ked (and likely desperate). You can agree to help them, at whatever rate you feel is reasonable as a consultant (compared to your previous salary and/or severance package). Of course, it may impact any reference you receive from this company, so tread carefully.

Some vintage comics for today

Have you ever fired someone for not coming to work on time?

Yep. In the 1980s I worked at a financial services firm in Harrogate, England. In mid 1987 the HR manager employed a young woman, Nicky, as an administrator. She came from a well-to-do middle-class family and lived about a mile from the office, where we had private parking, and she had her own car, paid for by mummy and daddy. Despite all those advantages, she was never on time, always looked unwashed, and smelt like it, but our useless HR manager tolerated it. When I left the firm are the end of ’88 she was still as lazy, slovenly, and useless as she had been on her first day, and the slack HR manager was still tolerating her. Apparently, the HRM was friends with Nicky lazy-arse’s mother.

Fast forward to 1995 and I’m working at another financial services firm in Leeds, England. The local HR Director hires… Nicky lazy-arse! Again it turns out that the HRD, Celia, is a friend of NLA’s mother. Again she never shows up on time, again she is unwashed, slovenly, and smelly. Unfortunately for her though, the firm was in crisis and the bosses in London needed to slim it down. They knew Celia wouldn’t sort it, so they appointed me. On my first day, NLA was late as usual, with some bullshit story about her cat having gotten out and her having to get it back in before she could leave home. She got a verbal warning. On my second day, she was late again and again trotted out some made-up story. She got a written warning, which she said she wasn’t accepting, but she got it anyway. On the third day, she was late again. Again, a pathetic made-up story. I fired her.

Eastern Asians are the smartest humans over the Earth, despite all Western propaganda. Natives of the Americas are considered “Mongoloids” too. Any advice from Eastern Asians to not get dumbness caused by poverty and bad governments imposed by USA?

I am born in East Asia, I lived my entire 66 years of my life in East Asia, I am an a Chinese origin Singaporean so I am very qualified to speak! The U.S. must recognised that it’s time as the world barbaric bully is truly over and done with.

Americans must recognised facts that it cannot deny it took over the biggest and baddest barbarian of the world from UK in 1945 because it was the only one left with one eye when the rest of the world that is strong and powerful fought each other till all are half dead! You can say the U.S. is the king of the blind in 1945.

In spite of taking all the advantage to shape the world your way and stealing all the spoilt of the world war 2 it don’t take long before Europe overtook you, then Japan and East Asia and today the U.S. is a pale shadow of yourself compared to 1945!

Your debts and deficits are up to the roof. You guys have a million people living in tents homeless, if you take away say 10 richest Americans. Your nation is more like number 20 in per capital GDP. Your life expectancy is 76 which is 2 years old lover than China who spends one sixth of the U.S. to care for a population 4 times your size!

Today your debts has turned unsustainable, 35 trillion and adding a trillion every 3 months! Your nation plus 41 of your dogs nation plus a host of slave vassals threw your kitchen sink collective against Russia for 2 years over yet you have clearly lost! Oh you lost in Korea, in Vietnam to rice farmers, to Afghanistan to goat herder and it is time to stop pretending that you are the top dog and be humble again.

The last thing to call yourself is being exceptional or even good and it is time you need to work with East Asia and the rest of the world. Yes get into your thick skull the world don’t belong to you. And stop regime change it is totally democratic! Stop war mongering, you don’t have enough to care for your own people. 35% of American are poor by world standards! They have less than 500 buck in their name! If the fall sick the cannot get cure because they have no health insurance! Your kids get to debts before they get into life because they are charge exorbitant college fees!

America you cannot be a world policeman. No one wants you to be and certainly no one will pay a cent for it! Go back to do what all nation leaders do. Take care of your people and feed them well! You have done enough damage to the world. It is time to stop! China and Russia cannot be stopped, together they are impossible to stopped and plus Global South is like David and Goliath and you are David! Stop pretending, I know it feels good to lie to yourself but it is time to stop!

Start fighting hard to help the world that you destroyed by and large single handedly. And stop hiding behind democracy and freedom you guys have none of them! Stop pretending and stand up to your responsibility of 100 plus million deaths worldwide and don’t add another soul more! Take whatever winning you still have and try to keep it as long as you can and make a better America! We the world wants that you are another nation and a good customer and our partner.

If you continue to do shit you will pay and pay dearly. You cannot win with your fellow shit stirrer and you has been group of dogs nations and slave vassal states it can only hasten your demise! Stop it. That is my advise!

What is having a girlfriend like?

You can kiss anywhere you want! Forehead kisses, kiss on cheeks, horizontal kiss, vertical kiss 😉 .
You’ll have someone to talk to day or night and have conversations for hours.
When you’re feeling low you know whom to call and she’ll make sure you feel great again.
She will care for you. Asks you if you’ve taken your medicines in time or warns you before you do anything stupid.
You will have never ending talks and if your interests are same, you’ll talk about the whole universe.
You get bragging rights in front of your single friends :p .
The feeling of comfort when you are in her arms can’t be described in words.
If someone hurts her, it hurts you more.
Your girl will take you to different shopping places. So you go out more often.
You’ll get unexpected gifts that will make you feel special.
She’s the first person to wish you on your birthday. Sharp 12:00 a.m.
If you’re both financially independent you’ll help each other grow both financially and mentally.
You’ll get your s*xual needs or desires fulfilled.
*When she did something wrong and you are mat at her*. She: Sorry I won’t do it again 😢. He: please don’t talk to me. She: Please na, I’ll do anything for you 😉. He: anything? She: anything you want😜. (Nothing but a random conversation between nibba nibbi).

Vientiane, Laos: Our First Impressions

A nice vacation off the beaten track.

What is the biggest inconvenience you’ve faced and turned into an advantage? How can you get ahead when the going gets rough?

I have been HIV positive for 31 years. It was a death sentence when I was first diagnosed. Everyone died. No treatment. You were also deemed an untouchable, a pariah. I was a straight woman and felt I had no community and no one to share with. What I did with this awful fate was choose to be free. Do things I would normally be afraid of doing. I spoke my mind and even made it funny. Now after living with this debilitating disease for most my adult life I have a body of work I would never had accomplished without this diagnosis.

I was a fitness trainer in my last year of college when I found out. My goal in life back then was to have a great body. HIV pushed me so much farther than that. After I found out I did not give a crap what I looked like anymore. Life was too short for vanity. What a liberating moment that was!

I wrote six books, was a sex columnist for 10 years, I became a slam poet and eventually was named Poet Laureate of Bucks County. I did a one-woman show, Sex, Cellulite & Large Farm Equipment: One Girl’s Guide To Living & Dying in theaters all over the world. I traveled internationally speaking on sexuality, HIV, sexual assault and addiction. I was given an honorary PhD for my work. I appeared on many TV shows as a writer, activist and performer.

I eventually retreated to the Caribbean to paint full time. Painting huge colorful paintings. As I painted I really felt what HIV had given me, the ability to not judge my work, to go for it. I would often say when I felt afraid of the canvas, making mistakes on a big painting, “You are going to die anyway, just paint!”

HIV is a huge inconvenience. I hate it and wish I did not have it. I have suffered so many physical challenges, depression, and loneliness but I decided to not let it define me and to use it to allow me to bypass the mundane minutia that makes life so often drab and futile. I never worried about money. I didn’t have it but it didn’t matter, I had enough. I never worried about the future or getting old because it was not going to happen. And now that it has happened and I have no savings, no plan I took a leap of faith and I retired to a small mountain town in Mexico where I could live cheaply and allow myself the luxury of spiritual growth, spending many of my bedridden days in deep meditation. I have become fearless through this disease.

Life is life and I live in the moment, in complete acceptance, at peace. That is a place I do not believe I would have ever landed in this life with out the inconvenience of AIDS.

Big Blueberry Popover

I’ve never had a popover before, nor do I have a proper “popover pan,” but those aren’t good reasons to never try my hand at making them! I wanted to know what all the fuss was about, so I did some research using my favorite chefs and food blogs and settled on the unbeatable Julia Child for my base recipe. Always having to make a baked good my own, I decided to sweeten the recipe and add blueberries for fresh blueberry popovers worthy of tea time.

Great for breakfast – a refreshing change of pace from muffins. Wonderful with blueberries, but any berry can be used.

Yield: 6 servings

At first, the recipes and tips seemed overwhelming. I thought popovers were complicated, but they really aren’t. It’s a simple egg batter with no leavening that is cooked very hot to create steam. This steam forces the batter to rise, making a crispy shell and an airy, custardy center. Blueberry popovers make the perfect breakfast treat along with some tea, or maybe as a side to a sweet salad to sop up the dressing.
Popovers are very forgiving. Not only do I not own a popover pan, but I don’t even own a metal muffin tin (gasp!). I forgot I had purged most of my metal pans that had rusted and replaced everything with flexible silicone during a kitchen spring cleaning. I pushed on, and you know what? It worked just fine.

How to Make Blueberry Popovers

Traditional popovers are just five ingredients: eggs, butter, salt, milk and flour. I added in some sugar and blueberries and topped them with cinnamon sugar. They really are quite simple.
Start by preheating your oven to 450 degrees and setting the rack on the lowest setting. Next, grease your muffin tray or popover pan with butter or oil and place the pan in the oven to pre-heat. If, like me, you are using silicone, place the muffin pan on a metal tray for stability.
The most important rule is to have all of your ingredients at room temperature. If you decided that you need to bake impulsively, you can warm the eggs in a bowl of very warm water for ten minutes, microwave the milk for 30 seconds, and microwave the butter at 20 second intervals until melted.
Mix the eggs, milk, butter, sugar, and salt together. Then whisk in the flour all at once until the batter is as thick as heavy cream with very few lumps. You can also use a stand mixer or blender. You want the batter to have some air in it, so whip it until it is foamy.

Ingredients

1 cup milk
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 tablespoons butter, melted
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon fresh ground nutmeg
1/4 cup granulated sugar, divided use
1 cup sifted all-purpose flour
2 eggs, beaten
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 cup blueberries or other berries

Carefully take your pan out of the preheated oven. We are going to add the room temperature batter into the hot pan to kick-start the steaming process. I mixed my batter in a large liquid measuring cup for ease of pouring, but you could also use a dry measuring cup or ladle to distribute the batter into every other muffin cup or each popover tin. You want to fill each space slightly more than halfway, which makes a very satisfying sizzling sound.

Moving quickly, sprinkle a few blueberries into each cup and top liberally with cinnamon sugar. Place the tray back in the oven and set a timer for twenty five minutes. You have to be patient with popovers, so no peeking! Opening the oven door lets out too much heat and could interrupt the steaming process, leading to less of a pop.

After 25 minutes, lower the oven temperature to 325. Most recipes called for another twenty minutes in the oven, but my blueberry popovers were done in ten. You know they are done when the tops are a deep golden brown and tapping on them creates a hollow sound. Blueberry popovers are best eaten fresh from the oven, as they deflate and soften as they cool.

Instructions

Mix first 5 ingredients + 3 tablespoon sugar in a large bowl. Stir in flour, then eggs until just combined; let this batter stand for 5 minutes.
Meanwhile, mix remaining 1 tablespoon sugar and cinnamon in a separate bowl; set aside.
Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 450 degrees F.
Place berries in a buttered 9 inch pie pan. Pour batter over the berries; sprinkle cinnamon-sugar over the batter.
Transfer pan to the oven and bake for 20 minutes.
Reduce oven temperature to 350 degrees F; bake until popover is firm and golden brown, 15 to 20 minutes longer.
Cut popover into wedges and serve immediately.

Which creative invention has never been used?

Starlite is a revolutionary material that was invented in the 1980s by a British hairdresser named Maurice Ward.

It is a type of heat-resistant material that has the potential to withstand extremely high temperatures, making it ideal for use in a variety of applications. Despite its incredible potential, Starlite remains largely unknown, and its fate is still shrouded in mystery.

The invention of Starlite is a fascinating story that began with a freak accident. In 1985, Ward was experimenting with different materials to find a way to create a better hair gel. One day, while mixing different chemicals together, he accidentally spilled the mixture onto a hot lightbulb. To his amazement, the material didn’t burn, but instead formed a hard crust over the lightbulb. This was the inspiration for Starlite.

Over the next few years, Ward worked on developing his invention, experimenting with different combinations of chemicals and additives. He tested the material extensively, subjecting it to extreme heat, fire, and even explosions, and found that it was able to withstand temperatures of up to 10,000 degrees Celsius. He named the material Starlite, and began to explore the many potential applications of his invention.

One of the most exciting possibilities for Starlite was its use in space exploration. NASA and other space agencies were interested in finding a material that could protect spacecraft from the intense heat of re-entry into the Earth’s atmosphere. Starlite seemed like the perfect solution, and Ward began to work with NASA to develop the material for this purpose.

However, despite the incredible potential of Starlite, its fate remains uncertain. Ward was notoriously secretive about the composition of the material, refusing to reveal the ingredients to anyone, including potential investors and customers. He claimed that the formula was so valuable that he needed to keep it a secret in order to protect his invention from theft.

As a result, Starlite never became the commercial success that many had hoped for. Despite numerous offers from investors and potential customers, Ward refused to share his secrets, and ultimately died in 2011 without ever revealing the formula for his invention.

Today, Starlite remains a mystery. While some have attempted to recreate the material using various chemical compounds and additives, no one has been able to replicate Ward’s original formula. Some believe that the material may have been a hoax or a simple trick, while others argue that Ward was a genius who truly invented a revolutionary material.

I caught my neighbor using my electrical outlets outside, and I told him I was going to call the cops and tell them what he was doing. He laughed and said I can’t prove it. What should I do?

I caught the builder next door doing this. I had given him permission to recharge his cordless tools at the workbench in my carport. That wasn’t going to cost me very much.

But then a few days later I saw an extension flex leading across the boundary line, powering two industrial dehumidifiers. I told him, nicely, that he hadn’t asked about that.

He instantly said, how much do you want for the power? I said, what’s the load and how long is it going to be on? He invited me to have a look. I did some quick calculations and gave him a guess, a range of possibilities, saying it was a guess. He straight away handed me a bundle of cash for about twice the highest figure I’d quoted and gave me a realistic figure for what it would cost him to hire and run a generator, and said he’d be back with more cash when they were finished with the power. And he was, but I refused… he’d already paid far more than it had cost me.

A builder wants to be on good terms with the neighbours. I’m watching his stuff.

And it can work to be nice.

UPDATE – The Sisterhood Is Coming For Me

Her: Um.. babe…I’m AC-DC…..

Him: Well, that’s nice. Have a good life! “footsteps waking into the distance” ….

Why did WWII fighter pilots wear goggles in enclosed cockpits?

Multiple fluid lines ( oil, fuel, etc ) ran through the cockpit, if one of them ruptured ( which was common ) it could spray a pilot in the face & disorient them. During combat the chance of this happening was even greater. The cockpit was also unpressurized, thus moisture freezing over or cold air blowing in from a bullet hole/ crack in the canopy was a hazard. Lastly it was common for pilots to open up the canopy during landing procedures to increase visibility, thus they would have air blowing in their faces. Overall more PPE ( personal protective equipment) equals more safety for the user ( flak jackets, heated clothing, gloves, goggles etc )

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USAAF pilot.

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US dive bombers returning to their carrier, notice open canopy.

What is the most horrifying noise you have ever heard?

It was a beautiful Spring day in 1998. My two best friends and I had just spent a lovely several hours riding and grooming our horses. We’d left and were driving to meet other friends at a local restaurant frequented by riders in the area , a place where we’d all meet up to have “ horse talk “ . As we were approaching a big intersection on the way there we heard a horrific screech of tires and the loudest crash I’d ever heard filled by piercing screams then immediate cries of help help help us ! We saw smoke rising in the air as we made it to the intersection . To our absolute horror, two cars had collided mid intersection, sending one car crashing into a tree. We stopped our car immediately and ran to see if we could help . Two women were stuck in the backseat of the convertible , the legs pinned seemingly under the front seats of the car. they screamed in pain . One of my friends and I both spoke to these women who were completely conscious as the driver of the car got out and was in pure disbelief dashing around the vehicle not knowing what to do. I asked if he was okay , and if he could call 911. Both he and my other friend called , the other of us two tried to free the women from the backseat … it was difficult to understand them and there was alot of blood. Suddenly, two police cars and an ambulance arrived and we backed away to the side of the road. The policeman and the EMT’s weren’t able to free the women and a fire truck had been summoned. The fireman used the jaws of life to get the women out of the backseat . When to everyone’s horror , the women had both lost appendages! It was then one woman began screaming for her baby . Turns out she had been holding her 3 month old baby in her lap . Another ambulance had arrived by this time as did two more firetrucks …. The scene and the noises were macabre , terrifying and sad. I will never forget the anguished mothers cries when she realized her baby was underneath the seat in front of her and had not survived. Her screams towered over all the other sounds of the wreckage rescue. I will never forget it. It turns out they lived just a few blocks away and were travelling “ just around the corner “ to their sisters house. The other car who ran into them left the scene of the accident. He was later found and charged with vehicular manslaughter resulting in death , leaving the scene of the accident and DWI .

What office rule made you say “You gotta be kidding me”?

When I worked at Dreamworks I shared an office with another artist. It was a long skinny office with one of us at each end. There were stacks of used couches in the basement. We asked if we could move one of the couches into our office. We were told couches were only for management. (There were many more couches than there were managers.) We asked if we could bring in our own couch and were told that was fine. (We bought a $200 couch from Ikea and put it in our office.)

—

Dreamworks used to have wintergreen lifesavers in all the commons areas. (You work in close proximity to others during approvals.) Then they hired Steve (name changed). After work every day Steve would go around to the commons areas and dump all the uneaten lifesavers into a bag and take them home. Dreamworks also used to stock the fridges with drinks. He would take those too. When my supervisor confronted Steve, he wasn’t embarassed or even trying to cover up his actions. He thought everyone else was stupid for not taking them because they were free and no one had taken them during the day. Dreamworks also didn’t mind if you occasionally invited a family member for lunch at the studio. The understood rule was no more than once a month. When Steve found out no one really checked how often, and security would let him “wife plus kids” a drive-on, he started bringing his whole family in for lunch, his wife plus their 4 kids, every day. Then they started coming for lunch and breakfast which was just oatmeal and cold cereal for employees that had to be there early (Steve didn’t). So here’s one guy who’s abusing the system that 400 other people were not abusing. Instead of pulling Steve aside and explaining the rules, they cut the entire benefit for all employees.

Why China is already ahead of the US

Pretty good. Gives insight into just how backwards the USA actually is.

Carl Zha talks to Dr. Oualaalou of the @geopoliticaltrends and @GeopoliticsInConflict about why China is already miles ahead of the US in many areas such as public infrastructure, especially in power generation and ultra-high voltage power transmission, how China is rapidly catching up in areas long dominated by the US such as civilian aircraft. #chinaeconomy #uschina #tradewar

My first full-on drunk

The Secretary of State is the world’s most powerful diplomat. His underlings at the UN wag fingers at foreign colleagues and go “do you want to be consulted, or insulted?”

And yet no Secretary of State had visited Beijing for 6, 7 years, until Antony barged in.

The Chinese did not fete him or court him. He was not accorded priority, because he wasn’t the honored state guest on a carefully coordinated state visit.

His job was to personally deliver an invitation to President Xi for him to toast and grace the greatest gathering of American capital in recent years.

This time, his job is to mirror what Janet did recently, reading off a script on the Beijing podium criticizing and threatening the host, to show the public that America still has to chops to make others listen. Delivering the message in the evil enemy’s capital fills the air with American machismo.

This isn’t diplomacy. It’s poorly fleshed out domestic politics.

Let’s save the red carpet for others on the level because Antony’s job isn’t to secure cooperation but subservience through the scourge of power.

A Chinese Intellectual Genius revealing the grand strategy of the US in the 21st Century.

This is really great.

Falling apart at the seams

Ugh!

The United States is coming apart at the seams. It literally is.

I have watched some videos of people digging up old battle sites, and the images that come to mind are the old holsters that have been buried in the mud and muck for 75 years.

You can still see the shape of the holster, but the seams are all rotten, and the entire things is crumbling.

This is what the United States is RIGHT NOW.

Rotten, dysfunctional, and of no use to anyone. It’s a real mess.

Christ almighty! Meanwhile, don’t you know, the USS Eisenhower is being hit by cheaply made rockets and is taking a hell of a lot of damage.I initially though that this was fake. Not so. Though the video might actually be fake.

Yet….

And somehow, the geniuses think that the USA can take on China?

And, man oh man, at first I thought that this was just “fake news”. But then the Chinese government released pictures of the damage on the aircraft carrier.

Like this one.

Can you make it out? Bow is facing you at the lower end of the picture, and the transom is at the top. The fires are hottest at the port side. The tower island is on the starboard side.

Now this is just one aspect of the death of the United States.

Sheech.

Do I need to discuss Gaza? Or Ukraine?

Let’s consider NASA. I have a video in one of these posts that goes into great detail about the new Artemis moon landing.

As an Aerospace Engineer, I note how all the technologies that were “invented” for the Apollo program, suddenly has to be re-invented.

WTF?

Not only that, the entire program seems to be a joke.

Four man crew. Ok.

That’s fine, but really… why?

Why do you need that many people, when EVERYTHING is now automated?

The orbiting module will have two gay men in it. They will circle the moon; the “dark side of the moon” looking for “answers”…WTF? Two gay men circling the “dark side of the moon” looking for answers…
The landing module will have a black man, and a woman on it. I guess that all this is about diversity more than anything else.

They will land in a stereotypical 1940’s era Robert Heinlein spaceship design, and egress from the module using an elevator!

An elevator?

You cannot make this up.

Why?

Ok, oh, in other news, Scott Ritter was intercepted while in transit by Agents of the US Government and held and released. They seized his passport. Now poor Scott is stuck in the USA.

Poor Scott. He doesn’t yet realize how FUCKED the USA is right now.

No passport.

A real fear of us expats. I’ll tell you what.

Sorry for this rant.

But the USA is going down… glug glug glug…

Today…

What is the strangest diplomatic weapon used by a state?

This is quite strange because this animal can seem everything but a weapon (even if only diplomatic).

In 2010 China publicly asked President Barack Obama not to meet the Dalai Lama. Obama didn’t accept the invitation and China promptly withdrew two newborn giant pandas from U.S. territory.

Also in 2010, after Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo, China stopped importing Norwegian salmon. In revenge it signed a 4 billion euro contract with Scotland and sent a panda to Edinburgh Zoo as a gift.

The Dalai Lama visited Austria in 2013 and China immediately threatened to take back the very popular panda that has been staying at the world’s oldest zoo (Schönbrunn Palace, Vienna).

It is the so-called “panda diplomacy” that classifies all panda specimens as exclusive property of the Chinese government.

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These animals live in the wild only in the Qinling and Minshan regions, two small mountain areas in rural China. There are about 1500 specimens. Another 500 live in captivity and of these only 70 are found outside of China, but for very specific reasons.

Since 1984, China has started to grant pandas with real lease contracts, which provide for the payment of up to one million euros per year per single specimen. If the panda should die because of the zoo in the host country, there is a fine of about 500 thousand euros. Furthermore, China remains the sole owner of all organic products derived from giant pandas, including their cubs. Every giant baby panda born in foreign territory is in fact by law owned by China and keeping it together with mama panda in another country has a cost of 400 thousand euros per year. Not little, also because it is expensive to stock up on bamboo: the Edinburgh Zoo spends $ 107,000 a year to feed its two pandas.

Each rented panda is a symbol of a successful trade agreement, as has happened over the years with many countries, including England, Scotland, France, Australia and many others. The loan of pandas is therefore a reliable yardstick for political and trade relations between China and other countries.

The panda diplomacy is a solid foreign policy tool. The panda is in fact one of the main instruments with which China intends to exercise its policy of soft power to increase its international prestige and influence.

President Xi Jinping personally signs their lease contracts, and this only after a formal and public request from the requesting foreign nations arrives.

Ah, don’t think that these diplomatic operations have only just begun. The practice had existed since the Tang Dynasty when Empress Wu Zetian sent a pair of pandas to Japan to Emperor Tenmu … in 685.

6 Most Disturbing Mysterious Locations

Some facts about the aviation industry are :

In 2003, two men stole a parked Boeing 727 from Luanda International Airport and flew away into the sunset. They’ve never been found.

The Concorde flew so fast, if you left London in the evening flying west towards New York, to the passengers in the plane, the sun would actually appear to begin rising again shortly after reaching cruising speed.The plane flew faster than the Earth’s rotation.

Aeroflot Flight 821 crashed because the captain was drunk. All 88 people died. Additionally, the pilots joined the airline through forged papers.

The wingspan of a Boeing 747 is longer than the total distance of the Wright Brothers’ first flight.

In 1987, Steve Rothstein bought a lifetime unlimited first class American Airlines ticket for $250,000. He flew over 10,000 flights costing the company $21 million. They terminated his ticket in 2008.

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A test pilot for the SR-71 Blackbird had the aircraft disintegrate around him while flying at nearly 80,000 feet, while going Mach 3.1 (2,300mph) and lived.

In 2019, passengers travelled more than 8 trillion kilometers: that’s about the same as a light year

In 2009, Captain Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger successfully landed his plane in the Hudson River after a bird strike caused an engine failure. All 155 people on board survived.

Kmart in the 70s & 80s – Why We LOVED IT

What is your most memorable experience working with Steve Jobs?

One day Steve Jobs showed up in my cubicle with a man that I didn’t know. He didn’t bother to introduce him; instead he asked, “What do you think of a company called Knoware?”

I told him that the company’s products were mediocre, boring, and simplistic–nothing that was strategic for Macintosh. The company didn’t matter to us. After my diatribe, he said to me, “I want you to meet the CEO of Knoware, Archie McGill.”

Thank you Steve.

Here’s the kicker: I passed the Steve Jobs’s IQ test. If I had said nice things about crappy software, Steve would have concluded that I was clueless and that was a career-limiting or ending move.

Working for Steve Jobs wasn’t easy, and it wasn’t pleasant. He demanded excellence and kept you at the top of your game—or you were gone. I wouldn’t trade my experience working for him for any job I’ve ever had.

This experience taught me that you should tell the truth and worry less about the consequences for three reasons:

Telling the truth is a test of your character and intelligence. You need strength to tell the truth and intelligence to recognize what is true.
People yearn for the truth—that is, telling people that their product is good just to be positive doesn’t help them improve it.
There’s only one truth, so it’s easier to be consistent if you’re honest. If you are dishonest, you have to keep track of what you said.

Soda Pop Roast

Ingredients

1/2 envelope onion soup mix
1 can cream of mushroom soup or beef broth
1 can soda of your choice (the sweeter the better)
1 (2 to 3 pound) beef or pork roast

Instructions

Mix first 3 ingredients together.
Place roast in slow cooker, and pour mixture over roast.
Cover and cook on LOW for 6 to 8 hours for a beef roast or for 8 to 10 hours for a pork roast.

NASA’s pricey mission to send U.S. back to moon faces technical challenges | 60 Minutes

American astronauts aren’t heading back to the moon just yet. NASA’s pricey Artemis mission is facing technical challenges. The space agency is now working with both SpaceX and Blue Origin.

What is the most powerful supernatural warning you have received?

About twenty-three years ago, I was home alone, just having a lazy afternoon lounging about the house while my wife was out with her mother. My calm was interrupted when someone—or something—grabbed the handle on the front door from the outside. I of course rushed over to the door and tore it open, ready to tell whoever it was to go jump in the nearby creek, but there was no one there. In fact, not a single person in sight.

This rattled me a little bit, but I didn’t think much more of it, but within a few minutes, the door handle moved again. I repeated the procedure outlined above, now getting rather angry, and, once again, there was no one in sight.

When the the door handle moved the third time I suppose I must’ve started thinking that this is the point of the movie when the viewers ask themselves “why doesn’t he just leave the house?” Still, I was getting rather fed up with this oompus-boompus, and, like a man with nerves of chilled steel, I resolved to act with derring-do and resolution.

This time I tip-toed over to the door and opened it slowly and gently: And a startled crow flew away. For reasons best known to itself—a warped sense of humor, perhaps, general pottiness stemming from unresolved childhood issues, or simply a lack of other sitting spots—this corvid had been using the door handle as a perch. Later on, we spotted crows doing that from the outside of the house, so the mystery was definitely solved.

The point is that if you think you’re experiencing something supernatural, there’s probably a quite banal natural explanation.

Model box art

Mostly aircraft. Fun stuff.

What should you never say at the US-Canada border?

“We got some donuts.” My uncle stated to the border agent after being asked if we had anything to declare.

Apparently, border agents aren’t issued a sense of humor when assigned duty.

We crossed the border many times before with no issue. We vacationed in Canada most summers, so the crossing seemed almost routine at this point. I guess my uncle just got a little too comfortable with the process, though.

After he made the ill-timed joke to the border agent, the man got rather testy with my uncle. He began asking what else we were bringing across the border, he asked if they had documents for the 6 kids that were along for the trip, he asked if we had any firearms, he asked just about every question in the book trying to trip my uncle into admitting to something illegal.

The only thing we bought in Canada that we were bringing home was the donuts, but the border agent wasn’t convinced. His feathers had been ruffled and he wasn’t about to let my smartass uncle get away with it. He ordered us to the side for an inspection.

Do you have any idea how long it takes to unpack, search, then repack a 36 foot motor home that is filled to the gills with 10 people’s stuff? Hours and hours.

I really don’t know what this guy was expecting to find, and I suspect he did it mostly out of spite. We all had to wait while other agents carelessly pulled all of our clothes, food, and camping gear out and searched every nook and cranny of the motorhome. I’m a little shocked they didn’t start cutting into the cushions to look for contraband.

In the end, they confiscated our donuts and sent us on our way.

Lesson learned: Don’t make jokes at the border.

Why I Left America…

Great rant. Perfect.

What’s the most unreasonable request you’ve received from your boss?

I’ll tell you the story and let you decide.

When I was much younger, questionabley dumber but definitely more naive, I was working for an oil service company in Angola. This base was supporting a couple of remote operations, one of which was in Mozambique.

I was a maintenance guy, still pretty junior but not completely green.

As I was going back to my workbench after lunch I was approached by my manager who was holding the technical manual for one of our pieces of equipment.

Manager: “Mike, the rig in Mozambique is having some problems with xxx can you go and take a look at it? You have your passport with you, right?

Me: “err yeah, when is my flight?”

Manager: “in an hour.”

Me: “Errrr”

The airport was at least 30 minutes form the base. Going to the staff house for me to pack and actually get ready was a 25 minute detour in the wrong direction.

Manager: “Here is $200. Buy some clothes when you get to Johannesburg. That should cover the hotel as well. The charter flight leaves at 8am tomorrow.”

So off I went to the other side of Africa with only the clothes I had on which were a pair of shorts, an old t-shirt, socks and trainers. My coveralls in my backpack and my work boots which I had to tie to my back pack with the laces. And, of course, the technical manual under my arm.

By the time I got to Johannesburg, went through customs and immigration and checked in to the hotel, all of the shops were closed. So I had to continue with my stylish outfit the next day as I went to get the charter flight to Beira, Mozambique.

Fortunately, there weren’t any spare seats on the helicopter to the rig when I got to Beira so I was able to get some clothes and toiletries there.

So was that an unreasonable request? In hindsight, probably.

Why I Will Never Come Back to the United States

Why did Goebbels kill his six children and himself?

Joseph Goebbels did not leave behind any letters or diaries explaining his and his wife’s decision to kill their children. Magda Goebbels, however, did write farewell letters in the days before the Goebbelses’ murder-suicide, and these letters provide some insight into why they did this.

Joseph and Magda Goebbels were fanatical Nazis who saw the defeat of Germany as nothing less than the end of civilization. They did not want to have their children grow up in what they imagined would be a post-apocalyptic hellscape overrun by Jews and other racially and ethnically inferior people. They also embraced Hitler’s belief that having lost the war, the German people did not deserve to live. In killing their children and then themselves, the Goebbelses were leading by example.

Magda Goebbels’ letter to a friend, written after she and her husband had made up their mind to kill their children, reveals her belief that the Allies and the surviving victims of Nazism would take revenge on those children, and that their life would be a living hell.

However, the letter also reveals multiple facets to her thinking:

We have demanded monstrous things from the German people, treated other nations with pitiless cruelty. For this the victors will exact their full revenge…we can’t let them think we are cowards. Everybody else has the right to live. We haven’t got this right—we have forfeited it. I make myself responsible. I belonged. I believed in Hitler and for long enough in Joseph Goebbels…Suppose I remain alive, I should immediately be arrested and interrogated about Joseph. If I tell the truth I must reveal what sort of man he was—must describe all that happened behind the scenes. Then any respectable person would turn from me in disgust. It would be equally impossible to do the opposite—that is to defend what he has done, to justify him to his enemies, to speak up for him out of true conviction…That would go against my conscience. So you see, Ello, it would be quite impossible for me to go on living. We will take the children with us, they are too good, too lovely for the world which lies ahead. In the days to come Joseph will be regarded as one of the greatest criminals that Germany has ever produced. His children would hear that said daily, people would torment them, despise and humiliate them. They would have to bear the burden of his sins and vengeance would be wreaked on them…

It is in many ways a hauntingly ambiguous letter. Magda seemed somewhat conflicted: she felt she could not defend her husband to the Allies, but she also could not bear the thought to be truthful about him. Against the magnitude of this dilemma, the children are mentioned almost as an afterthought.

There are a couple of additional motives that may have been behind the killing of the Goebbels children. One, it was Joseph’s and Magda’s last middle finger to the world. It was as if they were saying, “Oh, you thought you would drag us into a trial and make us feel bad about gassing little children? We killed OUR OWN children, bitchez. Do you really think we care one whit about anyone else’s?” To their twisted minds, it was a show of courage and resolve; their way of having the last word.

Another possible motive — and Magda’s letter to Ello Quandt hints at this — is that Magda didn’t want her children to learn that her and Joseph’s whole life had been a lie.

Since Hitler was unmarried and childless, the Goebbelses were basically the Nazi Germany’s First Family, and Magda Goebbels — its First Lady. The Goebbelses were meant to embody the ideal of Nordic purity, stoicism and virtue, in contrast to the urban moral rot and hedonism that Hitler so despised. They were the perfect Nazi couple.

AND IT WAS ALL A LIE.

Magda had been married before, and her first marriage ended in divorce — at a time when this sort of thing was still considered somewhat disreputable for a woman. Prior to her first marriage, she had dated a Jewish man. As a teenager, she had a Jewish stepfather, who ultimately perished in the Holocaust because she wouldn’t help him. The marriage between Magda and Joseph was a sham. They serially cheated on each other, and it took multiple personal interventions by Hitler to get them to keep up appearances. Both Joseph and Magda, in spite of themselves, were as bohemian as any German whose formative years occurred in the 1920’s. Beneath the veneer and the starch of Nazi morality, their life was a thoroughly squalid one. It’s possible that Magda Goebbels could not stand the thought of all this being revealed to her children after the war. I don’t know whether Joseph Goebbels was capable of this sort of awareness, but I suspect that Magda, at least, understood that she was a colossal hypocrite. She did not want her children to know and did not see any way of preventing them from knowing, except by killing them.

Whatever the reasons, the Goebbelses’ murder of their six children was emblematic of their Nazi sociopathy.

Frans and Marie

Submitted into Contest #252 in response to: Make a character’s obsession or addiction an important element of your story...

The Transporter Museum, a forgotten relic, is inconveniently located on a deserted side street two turns off a dead-end alley. You might never find it, even by accident, but if you do, you’ll always remember its immaculate displays and its eccentric proprietor, Frans Messerschmitt.

Every day precisely at nine, the little old man illuminated the neon sign, flipped the placard to open, and made his way behind the counter, prepared for customers who rarely came.

It was already late in the day when the door opened, surprising both Frans and the visitors.

“Hello, is anybody there?”

The question startled Frans, interrupting his terminal boredom.

“Yes. Yes, please come in,” he answered, moving forward to greet his guests. The unexpected voice belonged to a handsome lad sporting sweatpants and a football jersey, followed closely by a pretty young coed in a letterman’s jacket.

“It’s almost impossible to find this place,” the boy mentioned, all the while looking at the meticulously cared-for exhibits. “Are we in time for the guided tour?”

The question struck Frans as funny. It had been months since his last visitor, so the tours relied on guests, not the other way around.

“Of course, my good man,” he answered, sauntering from behind the counter. “My name is Frans and I’m the owner and resident historian. I’d be glad to give you the nickel tour, and I won’t even charge you the nickel.”

“Fan-damn-tastic! My name is Billy, and this is Connie. We’ve really been looking forward to this. Where do we start?”

“I’m glad you asked,” Frans replied, beckoning the couple to follow. “You’ve lived your whole lives in a time where teleportation from one side of the world to another was the norm—in fact, there’s about to be an app for that!” Frans turned their attention towards a smartphone sitting on display. “Before the end of the year, the new ZapApp will be available, offering skin-touch technology for the first time. All you’ll need to do is enter the desired coordinates, activate the app, and, in seconds—Voila!”

“Wow,” Billy exclaimed, reaching for the phone.

“Please don’t,” Frans cautioned. “These are replicas and can be easily damaged.”

“I hear ya, Gramps,” Billy responded, “Oh, I’m sorry. No disrespect intended, sir.”

“Not at all,” Frans replied. “I’ve always wanted a nickname. I like the sound of Gramps. Now if you follow me, I’ll lead you both back in time.”

The next display contained a full-length mirror attached to the wall. “I’m sure you two know what this is,” Frans said, stepping aside and allowing Billy and Connie to see. “These teleportation devices are still the most commonly used today. They were part of a trend to make teleportation more accessible and less obtrusive. They were also the first devices that didn’t require an exit portal. Until the Mirror 360, you could only travel to locations with paired devices. Needless to say, it was revolutionary.”

“That’s just like yours,” Connie whispered to Billy, punctuating her remark with a kiss on his cheek. “What’s next, Mr. Frans?”

“Gramps,” Frans corrected her with a chuckle. “Next we see the machine that started it all, The Marie.”

“I’ve heard of that,” Billy said. “Wow, it’s huge!”

“I know,” Frans agreed. “When the technology was new, we hadn’t yet perfected the art of miniaturization. There were no personal teleportation devices. The only people who had access were scientists, investors, and celebrities. In fact, the first transporters were more gimmicky than useful. They were incredibly expensive, required an entrance and exit port, and were so inefficient that it took a full day’s charge to send someone from one place to another. There’s no doubt we’ve come a long way since then.”

“What about that one?” Billy asked, pointing to a machine partially hidden by a curtain.

“Oh, that one,” Frans sighed. “That’s the prototype. The first teleportation device.”

“That’s the original?” Billy asked, moving closer to get a better look. “Is the legend true?”

“I’m afraid it is,” Frans replied. “The machine was the brainchild of a pair of scientists not much older than the two of you. They were the first to prove light was a particle and that we could use it as a mechanism for distance teleportation. The early tests were extremely successful. There were no issues when sending inanimate objects or small animals from one pod to another. The problem occurred when they tried transporting a human. Marie begged to be first and, after winning a game of Rochambeau, she stepped into the entrance pod and disappeared on cue. But when her partner activated the exit pod, everything went terribly wrong. Marie never fully rematerialized. Her translucent hand simply reached forward, and she mouthed the word help. Then she faded away.”

“Oh my God!” Connie gasped. “Did he save her?”

Frans turned away from the question, paused, then finally answered. “No, he didn’t. You see, molecular displacement teleportation in its infancy was like sending something through a tunnel at light speed. Once entering a pod, the subject can only exit from the paired terminal port.”

“That’s tragic,” Connie said, wiping away a tear.

“And ironic.” Frans replied.

“How so?”

“After the colossal mishap, her partner spent the better part of twenty years trying to find a way to release Marie from her tunnel. He became obsessed with correcting his mistake. His research and technological breakthroughs are directly responsible for almost every advancement in teleportation technology. That first awful outcome is why molecular transportation is so incredibly safe today. It’s why you have a Mirror 360 hanging on the wall in your home.”

“But Marie—what happened to her?” Connie asked.

“All of her partner’s research and all of his calculations never changed Marie’s fate.”

“She’s trapped forever?”

“She would be, unless he destroyed the machine and released her molecules into the atmosphere, never to be reassembled again.”

“What did he…”

“It’s almost closing time,” Frans said, interrupting Connie before she could finish the question. “Thanks for coming. You two made an old man very happy today.”

“This has been the best tour ever, Gramps.” Billy proclaimed. “What do I owe you?”

“Nothing,” Frans answered, shaking Billy’s hand. “Just promise to send your friends.”

“It’s a deal,” he said, leading Connie out the door. “I’m sure we’ll be back soon.”

“You’re always welcome.”

Frans watched as the couple walked away. Then, being that it was precisely five, he locked the door, changed the placard to closed, and turned off the neon sign.

Alone once again, Frans returned to the machine behind the curtain, flipped a few switches, and watched as Marie’s translucent figure, forever young, appeared before him.

“Frans, are you there?” Marie mouthed, silently.

“I’m here, my love. I’ll always be here.”

“I’m so afraid,” she responded. “Please let me go.”

“I can’t,” Frans replied, ashamed of his weakness.

Marie’s eyes grew red, but she summoned the strength to place her hand on her heart and mouth the words I love you. Then, as quickly as she had appeared, she was gone.

Heartbroken, Frans turned to walk upstairs, counting the minutes until he could see his love again, if only for a moment, the next day at the exact same time.

Slow Cooker Short Rib Goulash

Meltingly tender meaty dishes like Slow Cooker Short Rib Goulash are made for cold nights. And while this would make a perfect Sunday supper, it’s actually possible any night of the week, thanks to your slow cooker!

Prep: 45 min | Total 8 hr 45 min | Yield: 8 servings

Ingredients

1/3 cup Gold Medal™ all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
8 bone-in beef short ribs (4 inches thick each), English cut (about 4 pounds)
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 medium onion, sliced
4 cloves garlic, finely chopped
2 tablespoons sweet paprika
1 tablespoon smoked paprika
1/4 teaspoon ground red pepper (cayenne)
2 cups Progresso™ beef flavored broth
1/4 cup Muir Glen™ organic tomato paste
2 tablespoons chopped fresh Italian (flat-leaf) parsley

Instructions

Spray 5 quart slow cooker with cooking spray.
In shallow pan, stir together flour, salt and pepper. Coat all sides of short ribs in flour mixture. Reserve any remaining flour mixture.
In 12 inch skillet, heat oil over medium-high heat. Add 4 short ribs; cook for 5 to 7 minutes, turning occasionally, until browned.
Transfer ribs to slow cooker. Repeat with remaining 4 short ribs.
Reduce heat to medium; add onions to same skillet with drippings. Cook and stir for 3 to 4 minutes or until softened.
Add garlic; cook and stir for 1 minute.
Add paprika, smoked paprika, red pepper and remaining flour mixture; cook and stir for 1 minute.
Beat in broth and tomato paste with whisk. Heat to boiling, scraping any browned bits on bottom of skillet. Remove from heat; carefully pour broth mixture over short ribs in slow cooker.
Cover; cook on LOW heat setting for 8 to 10 hours or until ribs are fall-apart tender. Transfer short ribs to serving platter. Spoon off any fat from sauce in slow cooker. Stir sauce; pour over ribs, and garnish with parsley.
Serve with sour cream and egg noodles, if desired.

Nutrition

Per serving: 240 Calories, 14g Total Fat, 17g Protein, 10g Total Carbohydrate, 2g Sugars

How can one become President of China?

The short answer is by becoming the General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party. After ascending to the post of General Secretary, it’s customary to be elected as President of China within a year.

How do you become the General Secretary?

Here’s an easy 12 step guide to becoming the leader of the world’s most populous country and second largest economy (as of the time of this writing):

Step 1 – Be a Chinese citizen. This is usually a matter of birth although you can naturalize if you so wish (though naturalizations are rare). You don’t have to be a man but around 80% of the top positions within China are occupied by men, so statistically speaking you’ll have a bigger chance at leadership.

Step 2 – Join the Chinese Communist Party preferably as early as legally possible. Millions of people try to join the party each year but the acceptance rate is a low 15%. It really helps if you have a family member or close acquaintance who is already a member, preferably an influential one.

Step 3 – For the next 20 to 30 years you’ll have to climb the Chinese bureaucratic ladder. You’ll probably start low and will have to do a good job in order to get your superiors’ attention. Sociologists have observed that old Chinese bureaucrats, who want to maintain their current position rather than get promoted, will usually spend more on healthcare and welfare while younger bureaucrats will try to run big, complicated projects in order to prove they’re good administrators. Aim high.

Step 4 – Be an enthusiastic supporter of the Party. When the Party will commence a initiative or a campaign, show your enthusiasm and work hard to achieve the party’s goals.

Step 5 – Use your time as a bureaucrat to broaden your social network. Try to meet and befriend as many people as possible, in as many departments and areas of expertise. Having a wide and strong social network is indispensable for success.

Step 6 – As a Chinese bureaucrat you’ll have to deal with a wide number of other bureaucrats from local officials, to colleagues in other departments, to your superiors within your own branch. Always prioritize the happiness of your direct hierarchical superiors. Your own happiness and eventual promotion depend on them.

Step 7 – Try to cultivate good relations with the the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA). In order to realize your own vision for China you’ll most probably have to become the Chairman of the Central Military Commission. Having good relations with the army helps.

Step 8 – Statistics show that those working in a province are much more likely to get promoted than those working in the central government in Beijing. Try to be assigned to a province and do your best to improve the region.

Step 9- If you have the opportunity to become the personal secretary of an influential Chinese bureaucrat, don’t hesitate. As a secretary to a Party heavyweight you’ll gain more knowledge than bureaucrats who are ostensibly higher on the social ladder.

Step 10 – Try to not get purged. From time to time the upper echelons will purge the party of those who showed themselves to be too ambitious or too ‘heretical’. What happens when you’re purged depends. You might simply be demoted, you might be forced into an early retirement, to spend your old age in a cabin near the seaside, you might be thrown in jail in a corruption scandal or you might even disappear. Try as much as possible to not get purged.

Step 11 – Try to cultivate relations with one of China’s retired leaders. In China (as in Japan for that matter) after retiring, many officials will retain a great deal of informal power, to the point of dictating policy. The retired Eight Elders famously took important decisions when meeting in Deng Xiaoping’s house. Try to get acquainted with these retired leaders. Being groomed for leadership by a member of an older generation is important.

Step 12 – Most importantly, be patient! Bureaucratic advancement in China is kind of like a perpetual Game of Thrones. If you’ll try to de-throne a Chinese bureaucrat and don’t have enough support, you will fail and you will be purged. Learn when to make your move and when to stay calm.

And now, the grand denouement. You’re at least in your 50s, most likely in your 60s. You’ve followed all the steps above, you’re a competent bureaucrat who has been groomed by a retired leader, with deep connections in various provinces, with the support of the military and personal relations in the top echelons. Now it’s time to make your move.

Every 5 years more than 2000 delegates from China meet for 2 weeks at a National Congress of the Communist Party. This congress will elect a 400 strong Central Committee of the Communist Party of China which in turn will elect the 20+ members of the Politburo and the (anywhere between 5 and 11) members of the most elite body, the Politburo Standing Committee (PBSC). The PBSC is where the nexus of power lies, it’s the highest organ of government in China.

You’ll have to convince the Central Committee to elect you as the General Secretary, making you an ex-officio member of the governing PBSC and also its most powerful member.

Naturally, all the debates, deals and arrangements for your ascension were decided beforehand, months in advance behind closed doors. The National Congress will not be a place of debate and vote seeking, it will only be an elaborate ceremony where you’ll be elected with almost absolute unanimity.

Within a year of becoming General Secretary you’ll also assume the office of President of China from the previous General Secretary. You’ll also want to become the Chairman of the Central Military Commission in order to cement the allegiance of the army.

But before you start implementing your grand vision for China, there’s still one more problem. Almost all the other members of the government (the PBSC and the Politburo) are either members of the previous administration or members of rival factions. In order to govern as you like you’ll have to continue the Game of Thrones and slowly, one by one replace them with people loyal to you. It will take about 5 years to have enough people on the 2 bodies in order to have room for governing as you see fit (roughly, you’re still constrained by the larger Party apparatus). And you’ll also have to defend those you’ve put into power by ambitious newcomers (just as you once were!).

So stay vigilant. In China, getting to the top is as challenging as staying there. The game never ends!

Family Guy Roasting EVERYTHING Black ( Reaction )

Never get caught muddy and covered in dog shit because you have chores to do

When I was in middle school, perhaps 9th grade of so I had many various chores around the house. One of them was to take care of the dogs. They lived in the backyard. It was a fenced in area, and they were “outside” dogs.

Every morning, my job was to pick up the “last night” empty food bowls and bring them onto the porch. That way, my mother would get them and clean them up. After that, I would go though the yard to the back alley and make my way to school, or on the weekend; to work.

One day, after I got ready for school. All dressed up with clean clothes, I went to the back and picked up the metal doggies bowls when my bigger dog “Belle” ran up though the muddy back yard and leaped up into my chest.

Now, Belle was a Siberian Husky. Not a huge dog, but big enough, and just about knocked me down. So there I was covered in mud, and the dog was happy as could be. But I was late for school, covered in mud, and screaming at the poor dog.

All that screaming and hollering brought my neighbor a running. He was a medic during the Vietnam war. And perhaps was ready to prep me for surgery. LOL.

Long story short, the neighbor left chucking. I went to class covered in mud and dog shit. I was the butt of jokes all day, and when I came home, my parents yelled at me for being so “poorly dressed” during class. Butt of jokes at school. Berated by my parents for lack of awareness. (And I am sure that my sister did her best to make me look pathetic and stupid in their eyes; embellishing and lies for grand effect.) And thus, endith my story.

People!

Never get caught muddy and covered in dog shit because you have chores to do. Take your time. Organize yourself. And stand up for the situations that assault you.

Today…

Disturbing

Have you ever been invited to something that turned out to be another thing entirely?

I had a friend at work who kept wanting my husband and me to come over for dinner with her and her husband. Finally, I accepted her invitation although my husband wasn’t too keen about it as he had never met them and he wasn’t exactly comfortable in social situations.

When we arrived there was no smell of dinner cooking but were offered drinks to start the evening. A few minutes later some other couples arrived and they too were handed drinks. I thought it would only be the four of us but realized that more people meant my husband wouldn’t be put on the spot to talk just with my friend’s husband.

As others were chatting we noticed that everyone else was getting along pretty well and I felt good knowing this was a congenial group. Shortly after, I was chatted up by a man I did not know. “Oh good, I finally get to meet someone,” I thought. I look around and see a panicked look on my husband’s face. I excused myself from my new gentleman friend and went to my hubby’s rescue. “We have to go,” he whispered. “What’s wrong?” I said. “Don’t ask”, he said. We just have to go, NOW!” I went to my friend and told her my husband didn’t feel well and that we would have to take a raincheck for dinner.

Come to find out, dinner was not what we expected. There was to be no dinner at all. The evening was to be a wife-swapping party and we were as shocked as anyone would be!

I never mentioned a thing to my friend but neither did we accept a ‘dinner’ invitation from them again!

Funny

Have you ever had to put an elderly person in their place?

Well, we tried once.

When my dad was about 90, a neighbor once chewed our ear off about our dad still driving. He never went over 25 mph, he could be seen looking out over the crops rather than paying attention to the road, we needed to take his keys, for his own safety.

We had thought about this before. And Moses and I strategized, planned out exactly what to say, made a plan for Dad getting wherever he needed to go (Mo had two 20 something boys at home at the time.)

We were ready. I came home for the weekend, and Friday night, after dinner, Mo began with, “Dad, we’d like to talk about your driving.”

And that was as far as it went. Dad turned the sheer blue ice glare he had always had on both of us before replying, “No, we do not. I maintain a very safe speed, a lot safer speed than the dang fools who blow their horn and fly on around me, like the one who complained to you. (Didn’t miss a trick, that old man.) I know my own facilities, and if I should ever need to quit driving, I will tell you about it.”

Then he gave his newspaper the trademark shake that signaled disapproval, and the subject was done. Mo looked at me; I looked at him, and like the pig, cow, and sheep in The Little Red Hen, we both screamed silently , “Not I! Not I Not !!”

We had high hopes for the next year, when his license was up for renewal. When he walked out of DMV with a new one, we immediately sought out Laura, the DMV employee who we had been counting on.

“Mo, he passed the vision test with ease. . He passed the written test with a score of 90. Nothing I could do. Sorry.”

He never caused an accident. He never went further than the Food Lion in town, or the barber shop. And, when he died at almost 95, a valid VA driver’s license was in his wallet.

There are some things you just don’t mess with, folks.

It’s an American quickie

What happens when a person falls off a US Navy aircraft carrier?

A carrier will not execute a Williamson turn (or even an Anderson Turn or Scharnow Turn). Imagine bobbing in the water and seeing 90,000 tons of steel bearing down on you as the carrier attempts to “return to the approximate point in the water where the person went over”!

As a Tactical Action Officer, I was responsible for the tactical operation and safety of the ship (not to be confused with the navigational safety of the ship, which is handled from the bridge). The immediate response of the carrier to a man overboard is handled by the bridge and engineering. Basically, as indicated in other responses, if the man overboard call is timely, they will attempt to stop the propellers, and maneuver to clear away from the man.

Under normal conditions, the carrier is accompanied by escort vessels. During flight operations, there is usually a plane guard helicopter (sometimes a plane guard destroyer). Therefore, when a man falls overboard, it is the helicopter or escort vessel that is assigned to recover the person.

In the rare event that the carrier is operating alone (transiting?), then the carrier would come to a stop, and deploy the motor whaleboats to recover the man overboard.

Been there … Done that

When we were transiting home from Japan, we sailed through the tail end of a typhoon. We were alerted that we had a man overboard. However, it was not based on a visual sighting, but from a sailor missing from his post. We came to a stop, and deployed helicopters and escort ships to search for the missing sailor. As noted in other posts, the chances of finding someone, particularly in heavy weather, is very remote. As nightfall approached, we continued the search with helicopters, but ordered the escorts to continue the transit home. After 36 hours, we discontinued the search. Although our escorts had a 24 hour headstart, we were able to kick up our transit speed (one of the benefits of being on a nuclear carrier) and catch up with them before we returned home.

We never found the sailor.

How he got his money

What is the most embarrassing thing that happened to you while you were swimming?

I 18 at the time and I suffered from social anxiety a bit (I was able to go everywhere and do everything, but felt like everybody was watching and judging me so I was extremely shy and inhibited. I overcame that with some help later, luckily).

One morning I woke up earlier than usual and decided to go to the public swimming pool. It was only 7.00 AM when I got there and as expected, there were maybe five other people swimming in that 50*15 m swimming pool, all in their seventies so I was nearly by myself. Great! I was wearing my new swimsuit, rather modestly cut, with broad striped in white and blue.

I swam for half an hour, then I decided to get out and go home. I was approaching the ladder when I noticed that the white stripes were entirely see-through when they were wet. Well, never mind, only a few grannies around, I´ll just be quick.

Then I heard something. I turned around and saw a group of 40 recruits (all men between 18 and 20) had walked in with their instructor and most of them had plenty of time to let their eyes wander around because they were waiting in a queue to jump off the 10m board.

I decided to keep swimming until they left.

(Today I would just get out anyway but as I said, I was having some trouble at the time.)

What was it like seeing the kid you bullied again years later?

In second year high school, there was this kid who we thought he acted flamboyantly gay. He denied, vehemently, being gay, but we all assumed he was. He was mercilessly bullied for it. A different era, different attitude, culture, you name it… it’s no excuse! I stood by and let it happen. Didn’t actually bully the guy, but I did make a joke at his expense once. Made the whole class laugh. Felt good at the time, now makes me think I was a total piece of shit… anyway…

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He transferred classes, after a few months of bullying. After that, he changed schools and completely disappeared off the radar altogether. For years, I did not see the guy or know what became of him…

Years later, I ran into him in a restaurant somewhere. He had gotten tall. Really tall. I barely recognized him, his face was completely different, too. He was now muscular. His jaw had gotten wide, he had grown a bit of stubble and he looked very, very handsome and masculine… I was in shock.

I’m not a bad-looking guy myself, nor am I short, but he towered over me and in that moment, he made me feel small. And not because of him being so tall, but because of how genuinely friendly he was, because of how he shook my hand, smiled at me and told me of his life after school, and how he did not seem to carry any resentment…

He was well-dressed, and was doing amazing in his career. He had traveled all around the world, had gotten himself into adventures everywhere. With regards to his personal life, he never volunteered any information, nor did I ask. It really didn’t matter anymore at this point. He cracked jokes, exchanging hearty banter like the best of them, he was genuinely warm and I just felt overwhelmed with guilt and sadness, in awe of what this guy who had once seemed like a helpless victim of our undeserved ridicule had become…

It was hard for me to do so, but eventually, I told him I was sorry for having bullied him. I told him again of the joke I made, he must have remembered, and I apologized. Profusely. He just, nodded.

He told me, and I’ll never forget his words:

“Comments like yours toughened me up to the world. You weren’t anywhere near the worst of them. For years I hated you all, but it pushed me into the gym, and it pushed me to be my best, and now I can face you and say to you I do not hold a single syllable against you. I would not be proud of who I am right now if not for those words you and other said to me.”

The guy we bullied for his perceived lack of masculinity? Turns out in the end, he’s the manliest of all.

Learning

What is that one picture that describes the lowest point in your life?

This picture right here.

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I love this picture. I took this picture of me and my fiancee Olivia in March of 2017. We were taking a walk in downtown Greensboro, and I decided I wanted to get a quick picture of us. We were so happy. She had just recently passed the bar and was about to start her first job as a lawyer. I was as proud of her as I could ever be. She had worked so hard to get to this point, and she was about to start seeing the rewards for all of her hard work.

I also hate this picture, because it is the last picture I ever took of us together. Just seven weeks after I took this picture, Olivia was driving home from work when she lost control of her car, slid off of the road and into a tree. She was killed instantly. This picture represents the last time I was happy, the last time I had the love of my life in my life.

The first year after the accident was the worst. I woke up every single day and wondered if this was going to be the day. Would this be the day that I couldn’t think of a reason to keep going? I sank deeper and deeper into depression, I put on 80 pounds, my blood pressure shot through the roof…I thought about killing myself every single day, and every day I found a reason not to do it, but in reality I was slowly killing myself anyway. I was eating myself to death, drinking myself to death…I was in a bottomless pit, and every day it got a little deeper.

That was the first year. There’s no real way of knowing if there would have been a second full year if something hadn’t changed. But then one day, shortly after I got home from work, I got a text from my niece. My niece Caty is my brother’s only child, and she is like a daughter to me. My brother passed away from leukemia 19 years ago, when she was only 4 years old, so I have been the most positive male role model in her life since then. Anyway, Caty had texted me to ask me if I would walk her down the aisle at her wedding later this year.

Suddenly I no longer needed to come up with a new reason to keep going each day, because for the first time in a year I had something to look forward to. I looked at myself in the mirror, and I was disgusted with what I saw. There was no way in hell I was going to walk her down that aisle in the condition I was in. So I went to the doctor, I got on medication for my blood pressure and for my depression, I started eating a little healthier, cut out all of the drinking, and I dropped 100 pounds in a year. I feel healthier now than I have in years.

The depression is still there. The pain, the hurt, the loss, the emptiness…they are all still there. I know they will never go away. The meds help me deal with them, help me to suppress them, but they are still there under the surface. I can function now, so that’s something. So that picture up above, that represents the start of the darkest period in my life, the lowest point in my life. The picture below was taken this past March, almost exactly two years after the one up above.

There’s a lot more gray in my beard now, and a lot less hope in my eyes. I’m almost smiling in this picture, but make no mistake…this picture represents the lowest point in my life. Every single day of the last 781 days has been the lowest day of my life, because it’s been one more day without the love of my life in it.

EDIT: I was trying to reply to all of the comments, even if it was just a simple thank you. I couldn’t keep up, so I decided to reply here instead. Thank you to everyone who took a moment to comment, to give me some kind of words of hope or encouragement. Thank you to everyone who was touched in some way by this, or who cared enough to respond. Thank you to everyone who took the time not just to comment but to send me personal messages of encouragement. And if you read this, even if you didn’t comment or message me or respond in any way, I still say thank you for reading it. For a moment, just that small moment, Olivia’s name was on your mind, you saw her picture, you thought about her, and for just that moment she was remembered. That probably sounds pretty cheesy, but it means more to me than you can imagine.

Update 11/23/19: So I originally posted this answer on July 8th of this year. I added the first update on August 13th, which also happened to be my birthday. I was amazed at the sheer volume of support I received on this one. I had written many different answers where I talked about Olivia, where I shared her story. I got some very sweet and encouraging comments on all of those, and a few messages from people, but nothing like the response I got from this single post. It has been humbling, and it has been beautiful. I have tried to read every single comment and every single message, although I had to stop replying to them all a few months ago. It was just consuming too much of my time. But I want you all to know how much I appreciate every single one of you that has taken the time to reach out, taken the time to let me know that our story touched you in some way. There have also been a few negative comments, some that were even mean, and a fair bit of spam, but the vast majority has been so lovely and encouraging.

So with all of that said, I wanted to give you an update on my life. As I mentioned, I received a lot of messages from people in addition to all the comments I received. I was trying to keep up with them all for a while, trying to send some kind of reply, even if it was only a few words of thanks, but it got to be too much, although I still do read them all. But then a couple of months ago I received a message that gave me pause, and it touched me so much I had to read it a second time. This message was from someone else who had just recently lost their own fiance unexpectedly, who was struggling with the grief and the pain, and just wanted to let me know that my story was inspiring. It brought literal tears to my eyes reading this message, and I felt compelled to reply. I had no idea who this person was , if it was a man or a woman, young or old, I knew nothing other than this was a heart in pain, and I needed to let this person know that I understood, that I grieved for their loss. Maybe try to offer some words of comfort from the perspective of someone who actually understood that pain and knows what words are comforting and what words ring hollow.

I didn’t expect to hear anything back after that initial reply, but to my surprise I got another message, to which I also replied, and pretty soon we were writing each other almost every day, talking about the losses we had both experienced, with me offering words of comfort and advice. This blossomed into a lovely friendship, and we decided to connect on social media as well.

By this point we had learned a lot more about each other. My mystery writer was a beautiful young woman with a beautiful heart. I realized after a while that I was falling for her, which brought me a lot of guilt. Finally one day I went to visit Olivia’s grave, to talk to her, to tell her what I was feeling. I told her that I would always love her, that she would always be the love of my life, and that no one would ever replace her in my heart. I also told her that I needed to continue living, that I need to let this new person create her own place in my heart. I told her that she would never be replaced, but this new woman I was falling in love with would also understand that,and that I would be sharing her heart with her lost love the same way she would share my heart with Olivia. The only thing left to do now was to tell the new woman in my life how I felt.

I got really lucky y’all, because she was feeling the same things. So yeah, we are in love, we are happy, and we are making plans for the future. I will never “get over” Olivia, I will never stop hurting, stop missing her, stop wishing she was still in my life. But that doesn’t mean I can’t love again, that I can’t live again. And I hope that if anyone reads this who has gone through this type of pain, who is still going through it, I hope you take that message away with you. You can find happiness again if you open your heart to the possibility.

Thank you all for your support and encouragement.

5/15/21 – Final Edit: Wow, so much has happened since I wrote my last edit on this answer. Life has changed so much. The world has changed so much. But I did want to provide one last update, at least partially because I received so many comments and PMs requesting another update.

So, in my last update I told you all about how I met another kindred spirit who had gone through the same type of loss that I had, and how we connected and ultimately fell in love. What I didn’t mention at the time, however, was that we had one huge obstacle – we lived 9000 miles apart. See, I was living in Greensboro, NC at the time, and she was living in the Metro Manila region of the Philippines. This made things more difficult, but it was manageable. We spent hours on Skype every single day, talking and getting to know each other, getting closer every day.

We were both anxious to meet in person, so I bought a ticket to fly out to the Philippines and spend a few weeks with her there. There was only one problem…I was scheduled to land there on March 15th, 2020. Anyone who has been, well, awake for the last year should spot the problem there immediately. Yes, the day we were supposed to finally meet was the same day that Manila went on lock down due to the pandemic.

“It’s ok,” we both said, “this will be under control in a month or two, we’ll reschedule then.”

While we waited for everything to get back to normal, we continued to Skype every day. We would start a call after we finished work each day (she works for a company here in the US, so we actually work almost identical hours) and usually be on that call for the rest of the night. During that time I met her family digitally, and she met mine. There were weekends where we would literally have an eight hour Skype call, log off to sleep for a few hours then spend another eight hours on our next call.

Finally, in February of this year, we started looking into alternative options for where we could meet each other. Her coming to the US or me going to the Philippines were both off the table since Visa services were still suspended for both countries, but we knew that there were countries that we could both get Visas for, so we did some research, and settled on Turkey.

And thus, a little over a year after the date we were originally supposed to finally meet one another, we finally met in person at the airport in Istanbul. When I say I was nervous, that is an understatement. I mean, at this point we had known each other for a year and a half, we had helped each other through the worst pain you can imagine, we had fallen in love against all odds…and yet I was nervous. What if we were uncomfortable around each other? What if she saw me in person and realized that she didn’t like what she saw? What if it was all just so awkward? What if…then I saw her. She had arrived a couple of hours before me, and she was waiting near the baggage carousel my luggage was coming in on. As soon as I walked up to her I think we both started crying a little, I wrapped my arms around her, and I swear I never wanted to let go.

We had planned to spend two weeks in Turkey. We ended up staying five weeks instead, and even then neither one of us really wanted to leave. As soon as we were together, all of those fears, all of that nervousness, it was just washed away. Even though it was our first meeting in person, we had already spent a year and a half getting to know each other, and so we were immediately comfortable together, we knew each other so well that within moments of meeting it felt like we had been together for years. And I realized very quickly that I couldn’t imagine my life without her in it.

And so on April 2nd, 2021, just five days after we arrived in Istanbul, I asked her to marry me and she said yes. I am so incredibly happy that I have this amazing, beautiful woman in my life.

There was a time when I felt completely broken. I felt – no, I knew – that I would never love again. I was at my lowest point, I was literally praying each night that I just wouldn’t wake up the next morning. I had no desire to live, felt that I had nothing left to live for. My niece snapped me out of that when she asked me to walk her down the aisle, but I still felt empty, alone. I wasn’t trying to live again, I was simply no longer actively trying to kill myself through neglect and abuse.

Now – now I want to live life, I want to enjoy life, I want to share my life with this amazing woman who understands me in ways no one else ever could, and who accepts me for who I am, flaws and all. She understands how broken I was, because she was broken as well, but somehow when we picked up all of our broken pieces and put them back together, we found that we were actually two halves of the same puzzle.

So – on to the main reason for this final update. I have been so amazed by the level of support this post has received, the number of people who have reached out to share their own stories of loss, and to tell me that my story has given them hope, or at the very least touched something in their heart. That has meant so much to me, more than any of you could possibly know. And after my last update, so many of those people wanted two things…they wanted to hear more stories about me and my new love, my Macy…and they wanted to see a picture of us together. I guess it was kind of a full circle kind of thing – this started with the picture at the lowest point in my life, now they want to see me at my new high point.

How Self Storage Thrives Off The American Dream

SADYR JAPAROV:

"NGOs that have been working in our country for 30 years were not registered anywhere.

They were not accountable to anyone.

They just opened bank accounts, took money from foreign donors and used it as they saw fit, including for personal purposes.

From now on they will be registered with the Ministry of Justice like everyone else.

They will open bank accounts. They will start to work openly. There will be no more confusion.

The question is why foreign donors against this law.

Our non-governmental organizations are deceiving them.

They spread false information, saying 'we will be persecuted, we will be arrested as agents of a foreign state'.

And the donors believed it. That is why they are asking me not to sign this law.

You have been working with foreign donors for 30 years and no one has prosecuted you for taking money. Are we going to start doing that now?

As the Head of State, I guarantee there will be no persecution.

We are not a nuclear power.

We are not going to fly into space yet.

Our state has no secrets to hide from you and your donors. All our information is in the public domain.

If you can, get billions, not millions. It will only benefit our country.

We just want to show everything openly, so that everyone is working on equal terms.

Then foreign donors will be able to see how much money has been used and for what projects. And they will not be deceived.

Before this, you deceived them by saying that you organized round tables, spent money on training, and implemented projects.

Meanwhile, the funds were used for your personal interests.

If you say it is not true, I can prove it.

Why do non-governmental organizations in developed Western countries register with the Ministry of Justice, the Tax Service, open a bank account and not do the same when they come to us?

Or are we a second-class country?

No, we are not.

We will no longer allow such dubious actions."

Excerpt from the statement by by Kyrgyz President Sadyr Japarov on his Facebook page regarding the adoption by the Kyrgyz Republic of a law on non-governmental organizations (NGOs), April 2, 2024.

Cranberry-Orange Wings

Yield: 8 to 12 servings

Ingredients

3 to 5 pounds chicken wings
1/2 cup orange juice
1/2 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup packed dark brown sugar
1/2 cup jellied cranberry sauce, melted
Dash of Tabasco sauce

Instructions

Arrange chicken wings in a shallow nonreactive container.
In a medium size bowl, combine orange juice, soy sauce, cranberry sauce and Tabasco sauce; mix well.
Pour sauce over chicken wings.
Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for several hours or overnight. Turn wings occasionally to marinate evenly.
Lift wings from marinade and place on shallow baking pan.
Bake in preheated 350 degrees F oven for 50 to 60 minutes, or until tender. Baste frequently with reserved marinade during baking.

Rollo RED PILLED Tim On The DECLINE Of Modern Women!

China Is Still Rising

Don’t Underestimate the World’s Second-Biggest Economy

For over two decades, China’s phenomenal economic performance impressed and alarmed much of the world, including the United States, its top trading partner. But since 2019, China’s sluggish growth has led many observers to conclude that China has already peaked as an economic power.

Those who doubt that China

’s rise will continue point to the country’s weak household spending, its declining private investment, and its entrenched deflation. Sooner than overtake the United States, they argue, China would likely enter a long recession, perhaps even a lost decade.

But this dismissive view of the country underestimates the resilience of its economy. While its growth has slowed in recent years, China is likely to expand at twice the rate of the United States in the years ahead.

MISREADING THE DATA

Several misconceptions undergird the pessimism about China’s economic potential. Take the widely held misconception that the Chinese economy’s progress in converging with the size of the U.S. economy has stalled. It is true that from 2021 to 2023, China’s GDP fell from 76 percent of U.S. GDP to 67 percent. Yet it is also true that by 2023, China’s GDP was 20 percent bigger than it had been in 2019, the eve of the global pandemic, while the United States’ was only 8 percent bigger.

This apparent paradox can be explained by two factors. First, over the last few years, inflation has been lower in China than it has been in the United States. Last year, China’s nominal GDP grew by 4.6 percent, less than the 5.2 percent that its GDP grew in real terms. In contrast, because of high inflation, U.S. nominal GDP in 2023 grew by 6.3 percent, while real GDP grew by only 2.5 percent.

Moreover, the U.S. Federal Reserve has raised interest rates by over five percentage points since March 2022, from 0.25 percent to 5.5 percent, making dollar-denominated assets more attractive to global investors and boosting the value of the dollar relative to alternative currencies. Meanwhile, China’s central bank cut its base interest rate from 3.70 percent to 3.45 percent. The growing gap between Chinese and U.S. interest rates reversed what had been a large inflow of foreign capital into China, ultimately depressing the value of the renminbi vis-à-vis the dollar by ten percent. Converting a smaller nominal GDP to dollars at a weakened exchange rate results in a decline in the value of China’s GDP when measured in dollars relative to U.S. GDP.

But these two factors are likely to be transitory. U.S. interest rates are now declining relative to rates in China, reducing the incentive of investors to convert renminbi into dollar-denominated assets. As a result, the depreciation of the Chinese currency has begun to reverse. The International Monetary Fund forecasts that Chinese prices will pick up this year, which would boost China’s GDP measured in renminbi. Its nominal GDP measured in U.S. dollars will almost certainly resume converging toward that of the United States this year and is likely to surpass it in about a decade.

A second misconception is that household income, spending, and consumer confidence in China is weak. The data do not support this view. Last year, real per capita income rose by 6 percent, more than double the growth rate in 2022, when the country was in lockdown, and per capita consumption climbed by nine percent. If consumer confidence were weak, households would curtail consumption, building up their savings instead. But Chinese households did just the opposite last year: consumption grew more than income, which is possible only if households reduced the share of their income going to savings.

A third misconception is that price deflation has become entrenched in China, putting the country on course toward recession. Yes, consumer prices rose only 0.2 percent last year, which gave rise to the fear that households would reduce consumption in anticipation of still lower prices—thereby reducing demand and slowing growth. This has not happened because core consumer prices (meaning those for goods and services besides food and energy) actually increased by 0.7 percent.

The prices of tools and raw materials used to produce other goods did fall in 2023, reflecting global declines in the price of energy and other internationally traded commodities as well as relatively weak demand in China for some industrial goods, potentially undermining the incentive for firms to invest in expanding their productive capacity. Rather than pump money into their businesses, the thinking went, companies would use their declining profits to pay down debt. But here, too, the very opposite came to pass: Chinese corporations ramped up borrowing, both in absolute terms and as a share of GDP. And investment in manufacturing, mining, utilities, and services increased. No recession appears on the horizon.

Another misconception concerns the potential for a collapse in property investment. These fears are not entirely misplaced; they are supported by data on housing starts, the number of new buildings on which construction has begun, which in 2023 was half what it was in 2021. But one has to look at the context. In that same two-year period, real estate investment fell by only 20 percent, as developers allocated a greater share of such outlays to completing housing projects they had started in earlier years. Completions expanded to 7.8 billion square feet in 2023, eclipsing housing starts for the first time. It helped that government policy encouraged banks to lend specifically to housing projects that were almost finished; a general easing of such constraints on bank loans to property developers would have compounded the property glut.

Finally, there is the misconception that Chinese entrepreneurs are discouraged and moving their money out of the country. Undoubtedly, the government crackdown that began in late 2020 on large private companies, notably Alibaba, did not help matters. From the beginning of economic reform in 1978 through the mid-2010s, private investment in China grew more rapidly than investment by state-owned firms. By 2014, private investment composed almost 60 percent of all investment—up from virtually zero percent in 1978. As private investment is generally more productive than that of state companies, its expanding share of total investment was critical to China’s rapid growth over this period. This trend went into reverse after 2014 when Xi Jinping

, having just assumed the top leadership position, aggressively redirected resources to the state sector. The slowdown was modest at first, but by 2023, private investment accounted for only 50 percent of total investment. Xi had undermined investor confidence; entrepreneurs no longer saw the government as a dependable steward of the economy. So long as Xi is in power, runs a common argument, entrepreneurs will continue to hold back on investing in China, opting instead to funnel their wealth out of the country.

But here again, the pessimism is not supported by the data. First, almost all the decline in the private share of total investment after 2014 resulted from a correction in the property market, which is dominated by private companies. When real estate is excluded, private investment rose by almost ten percent in 2023. Although some prominent Chinese entrepreneurs have left the country, more than 30 million private companies remain and continue to invest. Moreover, the number of family businesses, which are not officially classified as companies, expanded by 23 million in 2023, reaching a total of 124 million enterprises employing about 300 million people.

REAL CHALLENGES AHEAD

Although China is beset by many problems, including those resulting from Xi’s efforts to exert greater control over the economy, exaggerating these problems serves no one. It could even lead to complacency in the face of the very real challenges that China presents to the West.

That is particularly true for the United States. China will likely continue to contribute about a third of the world’s economic growth while increasing its economic footprint, particularly in Asia. If U.S. policymakers underappreciate this, they are likely to overestimate their own ability to sustain the deepening of economic and security ties with Asian partners.

Andrew speaks his piece

Does not being a graduate from IIT or NIT qualify you as a loser for life?

I believe there are only five reasons why you can be a LOSER in life :-

Didn’t work or deliver your whole potential & still don’t recognize that
Burying your head in the sand. Not recognizing or accepting weaknesses and faults or making excuses
Hitting a woman no matter how grave the provocation (Male). Filing a false case of Dowry Harrassment against In Laws (Female)
Whitewashing the crimes of the White Man perpetrated on the world in greed for his dollars.
Shamelessly fawning on people who make 20 Crore to enable them to make 200 Crore a year while you make 2 Lakh a year

Nobody else is a LOSER

When I was a Student, we considered ECONOMICS to be a part of ARTS

Today the whole world acknowledges that Economics is a SCIENCE and has a lot of Math & Calculus too.

Likewise we regard Language to be a part of the Arts, however the same language is used for Ciphers and Cryptography and shows how it can be used for SCIENCE

Accountancy was once regarded different from Science but now it’s clear Accounting has a manner and method to it

Even Marketing and Sales has its own Strategy that is based and steeped in SCIENCE

My point is :-

Your brain must be steeped and honed properly

You must see manner and method in everything

Even Cooking has a lot of Science

The very fact that hot milk dissolves more sugar than cold milk is a science involving solubility of solutions

Apply logic without blindly following statements. Assume every Statement is a lie and use logic to prove it it possibly true.

You do this and that’s all you need in life for a superior brain

IIT, NITs are just alphabets in such a case

America today

What is nightlife in Japan like?

Let’s say you finish work at 6 pm.

Congratulations! You’ve managed to clear that pile of work within regular hours. Today was indeed a productive day.

As you close your laptop and prepare to leave, you notice your boss still at his desk, along with most of your colleagues.

If you’ve been in Japan long enough, this sight should remind you to sit back down and unpack your bag quietly.

Do you have plans to meet your girlfriend? Text her next time.

Did you make dinner reservations? Convenience store food is enough for you.

Do you have a TV show you were looking forward to? You’ll catch the rerun online later.

Your nightlife is right here — staying at the office with everyone until the bosses leave.

This is the nightlife that matters most to you.

In the Japanese workplace, there’s a common practice of “pretend overtime.”

This includes situations where you might be there for extended hours without accomplishing much or feeling pressured to stay late just because your boss hasn’t left yet.

Even if you’ve completed your tasks for the day on schedule, you’re not permitted to leave until your boss says, “You can go home now.” Until your supervisor clocks out, you’re stuck at the office, even if you’re sitting there idly. You end up staying until late into the night, finding ways to pass the time, like reading manuals or making memo pads out of scrap paper.
You’re not allowed to leave until your boss leaves the office, and it’s essential to make sure your boss sees you reading documents or typing on your keyboard. If your boss asks, “Aren’t you leaving yet?” you respond by saying there are still a few things you need to prepare; thus, he recognizes your “presence.”
You don’t have much work that requires overtime. If you work efficiently, you can get it done before the end of the workday. You’re not looking to be your boss’s favorite, but you worry that people might perceive you as lacking ambition and dedication if you don’t do what others are doing. So, you end up staying in the office instead of leaving, even when you could.

In Japan, it’s common for companies to equate working overtime with dedication and hard work. The longer you stay at the office into the night, the more committed you appear.

Look, it’s time to hop onto the last train home.

Welcome to our unique nightlife culture.

Pre-birth world-line template

What was the reason for your migration?

I usually migrated for career reasons:

from Germany to Canada because I got into a university there;
from Canada to the US because I got a first job offer there;
from the US to France because I got a better job offer there;
from France back to Germany because I got into a master’s program there;
from Germany to England because I was offered a full-time lecturer position there;
from England to New Zealand because I was offered a position as academic leader at a university there;
from New Zealand to China and India because I was offered a position as a dean at a university there, in the employ of a French university.

That was the pinnacle of the achievable in my career. After that, feeling like I no longer needed to prove anything, I decided I’d now find a position somewhere in the comfortable middle field of my career, where I would benefit from my experience without getting too stressed out, in a reasonable country that I loved.

So I went back to England as a senior lecturer at a university, and lived and worked there happily while maintaining a holiday home in Sweden, where my Chinese wife and I went during the long summer and winter holidays.

And then Brexit came, taking away all the certainties of my position in England and all the research funding and partnerships, so the time had come again to move to secure my professional future, and I eventually found a senior lecturer position at a university in Sweden, in commuting distance of my house.

Long story shot: Dangling carrots at first, long term outlook and sympathy later were what made me migrate.

I think it’s what most people migrate for: A better life. Not that mine would have been bad where I was. But when you can get better, well… of course you go.

And of course it wasn’t only for the CV. Often, there were romantic notions attached, a sense of adventure, the thought that a new world with a different language, culture, climate, and cuisine would be inspiring to experience.

Obsolete Car Features From The Past

If you could choose one defunct automotive manufacturer to revive as a brand, which company would you choose and why?

I sort of miss Oldsmobile.

They were always an interesting, understated brand with nice cars that seemed a bit like Buicks for people with university degrees. Especially the Toronado, I thought, was wonderful. An interesting and different sort of car, with front wheel drive at a time when not many dared, and especially not in conjunction with a big V8 engine.

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I had two Oldsmobiles myself. One of them, a 1973 Delta 88, was a real miracle of reliability and economy for its age and size.

I also lament that Pontiac is gone, having one myself. It always seemed like Chevrolet with an apache flavour to me. The Native American brand, if you will. That was cool.

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Mine is just a dressed up Caprice for the Canadian market, but it does have that vibe.

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And then, there’s Saab.

I can’t believe it’s gone. It used to be the other defining agent in the Swedish car duality game. It’s as if someone were to remove Holden or Ford from the Australian context. Such a huge vacuum has been left.

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Maybe they can come back as hydrogen hybrids some day.

Teen Opera Singer Reacts To Dio – Last In Line

Dio and I are the same age. Too bad he passed on. This is a wonderful reaction. Not too many interruptions, and genuine love.

What was the most brutal military tactic in history?

I am going to tell my favorite Roman story here. One of those events that is just so weird it sticks with you forever. It was a brutal moment in history and one very few people have been heard of.

Background

The Romans first invaded Britain when Julius Caesar set about conquering the Island. He found that it was poor, hard to get to, and packed with warlike tribes. So after winning a few battles he appointed the local leader a “vassal” of Rome and left.

This didn’t stick and the Romans forgot about Britannia for many decades.

Then Claudius takes the throne some 80 years later. Claudius is smart, wise, and careful but the people of Rome consider him a weak idiot. So to win glory Claudius invades Britannia and adds it to the Empire as a new province.

Things do not go very smoothly though.

The locals are not very cool with their land being conquered and they resist. In addition, Britannia is far away and Rome has to make significant efforts to convince Romans to colonize Britannia.

The largest tribe, the Iceni, remain somewhat independent. When their chief dies in 60 AD he leaves his lands to the Romans and his 2 daughters. This is meant to serve as a peaceful transition into the Roman Empire with his daughter still at the head of the tribe.

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The Romans don’t see it this way though and move in on Iceni lands. They began to pillage Iceni lands, taking the men as slaves and raping the women. The chief’s daughters were also raped. When their mother, a woman named Boudica, tried to stop the Romans she was stripped naked publicly and whipped.

This horrid action would have consequences though.

Now 17 years after Rome first established itself on the island things would escalate quickly and one of the most brutal chapters in Roman history began.

My favorite part

Gaius Suetonius Paulinus is the governor of Britain. He is a man of middling skill but he is loyal and capable enough. His goal is to establish Roman control over the island

Paulinus has a plan to establish more control over Britain. There is an island off the Northern coast of Wales that has extreme religious significance to the locals. If he could control that island he could establish more control over the locals.

With a legion in tow, he sets out to conquer the Island (Anglesey).

As the Romans arrive off the shore and start moving to the beach they notice something strange. On the shore, there are people – thousands of them.

These men aren’t warriors though. They are dressed in black and reaching their hands towards the while and chanting. In between the ranks of chanting people, there are women, cloaked in black and dashing about with torches.

The sight is shocking and the Romans freeze – nobody knows what to make of it so they just stare in fear.

The women start screaming like animals and begin to charge towards the Romans.

Still the Romans are frozen at the sight.

Paulinus starts to shout insults at the men to get them moving. The legions advanced and cut the women to pieces – it is no contest.

The Romans then make it to shore and cut down the men that were chanting

After a few minutes, the beach is taken and the Romans look around. They soon notice they are not standing on a beach, they are standing on a giant funeral pyre.

A torch-wielding woman then appears and lights the pyre. The many injured druids are engulfed by the flames and cry out in agony.

The Romans now realize what happened. They had just been tricked into engaging in a religious act of human sacrifice.

This TERRIFIED THEM beyond what we can imagine.

You see, the Romans were a religious/superstitious bunch. They believed that the gods of foreigners were as real as their own. Curses, sacrifices, and deals with the gods were all totally valid things in the Roman world.

To them – this was going to have a significant impact on the world around them.

Stories started flooding in that rivers were running red for no reason and that a statue of Mars collapsed without cause.

The Romans in Britain were afraid.

The Druid gods appreciated the sacrifice because things suddenly shifted drastically in favor of the local peoples.

Boudica, the wife of the dead Iceni chief, had taken to the warpath. She gathered the local leaders and tribes and they decided to revolt and cast off the influence of Rome.

They didn’t even farm that year. They dedicated themselves entirely to preparing for war.

When they were ready they struck hard and fast.

Boudica first struck Camulodonum. As the leaders of Camulodonum noticed the approaching army the requested help from Longthroppe and Londinium (modern London).

Longthroppe took it seriously and sent their garrison but Londinium only sent 200 unarmed slaves as an insult.

When the garrison from Longthorpe arrived it was too late. The city of Camulodonum was destroyed completely. Every single person was killed. The women were raped, the men were slaughtered, and the city was looted.

It is recorded that the Roman women were hung up naked and had their removed breasts sewed to their mouths so it appeared as though they were eating them.

It was horrific. This garrison from Longthorpe thought they were dealing with a smaller revolt. To their horror, they found the entire Iceni tribe mobilized– some 75,000 warriors. The garrison was immediately overwhelmed and ran for their lives.

Paulinus now gets word what is happening. He takes his men and heads straight for Boudica.

He requests that the second legion on the island join him, but they refuse. So he requests that every retired legionary able to hold a sword join his ranks immediately.

With this his army swells to 10,000 – but he is still drastically outnumbered.

Boudica now arrives at Londinium and repeats her actions at Camulodonum.

Boudica’s plan was clear – ethnic cleansing.

Paulinus decides to try and save lives. He begins going city to city and evacuating citizens whenever possible. Boudica is in hot pursuit of his small army and the thousands of refugees are weighing him down.

Paulinus gives up. He tells the refugees to continue North and he turns to fight. He decides that dying in battle is preferable to being tortured by Boudica.

Paulinus sets himself up in the best spot he can find. Thick marshes protect his flanks and he gets his men into a sawblade formation.

Boudica’s army is at least 7 times larger than the Roman army. Many of them now have captured Roman gear as well.

She decides to charge and overwhelm them. It seems logical – crush this small army under the weight of 75,000 warriors. She takes her wagons and forms a circle around the battlefield to prevent her army and the Roman army from retreating.

Big mistake.

The Romans were the kings of this style of warfare. Their training, tactics, and heavy armor all favored prolonged head-on clashes.

Boudica’s army charges in and engages with the Romans. As usual, the Romans stab, slice, and kill from behind their big shields. Every few minutes the man at the front heads to the back while the next guy in line takes over. This keeps the men fighting fresh and allows those that just fought some time to rest.

Paulinus orders his men forward and they begin moving forward 1 step at a time.

Boudica’s forces start to get desperate. The Roman momentum is insane – they just keep coming forward and nothing Boudica does can stop them. Thousands are already dead and morale is dropping.

When a break in the battle finally happens Boudica orders a retreat.

But the wagons create choke points and the retreat turns into a mad dash for safety.

The Romans surge forward killing everything in their path. It’s a slaughter. They massacre their enemies by the thousands – pressing them against the carts and cutting them down.

Almost the entire 80,000 strong army is killed, while the Romans lose a mere 400–1000.

Boudica – totally defeated – takes poison to kill herself. The Romans now have full control over the Southern part of Britain.

The brutality of this episode is shocking even by Roman standards.

First, you have the Romans raping and enslaving an entire tribe without provocation.

Then you have a mass ritual human sacrifice accidentally committed by the Romans.

Then Boudica starts a campaign of ethnic cleansing.

Then one of the largest battles in Roman history happens and 80,000 people are cut down.

I would say it is the most brutal episode of Roman history.

California Fast-Food Outlets CUT Jobs & BOOST Prices Ahead of $20/hr Minimum Wage Rollout

What do you think of the Fox News host who explained that the world was suffering from the coronavirus because the Chinese Communist Party cannot feed its people, who have resorted to eating raw bats and snakes?

Logically it makes no sense.

How do poor people afford meat when grain is a luxury?

Unless one deliberately goes into the wild or lives in some secluded corner of nowhere, there are no bats and snakes aplenty.

Unless, of course, these species are being farmed for food.

Which makes no sense because snakes are slow growing and bats are difficult to raise. Besides the protein haul is miserable compared to chickens and pigs per unit of resource.

Any way you look at it, these are luxury items that only the rich can afford, because the poor will rather sell their catch rather than consume bounty.

Anyone who finds exotic food cheaper than regular tofu, please leave a comment. That will be the bargain of the century.

Does the Fox anchor even know how much a snake gallbladder costs???!!!

Note: There are families in Yunnan that can only afford rice a few times a year, and meat only once. The rest of the year consists of corn, roots, fruit and vegetables.

Different Kind

Like a rabid dog who cannot be reasoned with, Israel and its apologists understand language of power not reason.

Rabies is a terminal illness, once a dog starts to show symptoms of the disease, there is no cure but to euthanize the dog, for the greater good of neighborhood. A rabies ridden dog not only suffers himself, but also poses a danger of instability and greater harm to those around him.

You cannot “reason” a rabid dog out of his illness.

Similarly you cannot reason with Israel and apologists, both Israel, majority of Israeli society and its apologists abroad, have pre-emptively convinced themselves that, whatever Israel does on Gaza, will always be justified.

No matter how many civilians, aid workers or doctors are killed, or how many hospitals are destroyed, that will always be justified in eyes of Israel’s apologists, there will always be a “khamas base” if not in Al-shifa hospital, then in 4 year old Palestinian child’s skull.

Only way to stop this genocidal state from killing more innocent souls, is NOT A CEASEFIRE, but bowing it into submission by force and sanctions

Just hours after destroying the largest hosptial in Gaza (al Shifa hospital), IDF targeted and killed European aid workers who were delivering food to Palestinians in Gaza.

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Guys will never get over it

What are some crazy facts about intelligent people?

Intelligent people are always curious about the world.
Being funny and having a good sense of humor are both signs of intelligence.
Staying up late is an indication of high intellect, as it indicates that their brain activity is boosted at night.
People that are very intelligent have fewer friends than the ordinary person.
They have a greater sense of self-doubt than ignorant people.
Self-talk is an evidence of people who are highly INTELLIGENT.
Intelligence is not determined by grades or age.
Socially awkward people are highly intelligent.
People who are intelligent are less likely to engage in conflict. They pay attention to everything but rarely say anything.
Worrying excessively is linked to high intelligence.

How can you inspire programmers to work longer work weeks voluntarily?

Having been through several startups over the years, I am stunned at how many executives are openly and publicly contemptuous of developers and then expect them to put in long hours. I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve heard sayings such as, “I can lock the developers in a room, slide pizzas under the door, and in a month I’ll have a product.” Thinking of the people who create your product as second-class employees comes through, and most definitely does not motivate them.

At one company, where I was the VP of Engineering, we got a new CEO who told me to get the developers working longer hours. I asked why. He said that that’s what developers at a startup should do. I asked him for anything goal-oriented with which to motivate the team, which was already largely burned out from some heroic pre-launch efforts. Did we have a new sales prospect with a feature request, or did we have some new competitive intelligence that demanded a big push to catch up, or anything to justify again burning the midnight oil? No, the CEO just thought that’s what developers should do.

Developers aren’t idiots. They can tell the difference between a legitimate crunch time and a CEO who is merely cheap and demanding. So, it’s probably obvious where I’m going with this: Just wanting more hours for no good reason will just piss the developers off. If you do have a good reason for long hours, then the answer is to simply share the reason with the team. I’ve seen developers do amazing things to deliver to a key customer on time, or have something ready for a big trade show, or otherwise come through for the company. But it has to be something real, not just an arbitrary desire to squeeze employees for more work.

Returning to Rainbow and Dio! Vocal ANALYSIS of “Mistreated” Live!

What are your thoughts on ex-Taiwanese President Ma visiting China to help build social and cultural links? Will he be successful?

95% of the people of Taiwan are Han Chinese, and Taiwan and the Mainland of China are of the same ethnicity, and the cultural and economic ties among the people have never ceased.

MA Ying-jeou remains a supporter of maintaining the separation of the two sides of the Taiwan Strait rather than a supporter of cross-strait unification.

He cannot achieve political success if he consistently positions himself as a political figure who obstructs and delays the reunification of the two sides of the Taiwan Strait.

The purpose of his visit to Mainland China was expressed before he boarded the plane：

I will try my best to convey the peace-loving wishes of the Taiwan people and hope that both sides will expand bilateral exchanges and avoid war. This is a journey of peace and a journey of friendship.

It can be seen that Ma Ying-jeou’s own positioning of this trip is not a unification trip, and Ma Ying-jeou has been avoiding the word “unification”. It is hypocritical to talk about “peace” without talking about “unification”.

It is only because of the recent vicious incident in which two mainland fishermen were killed by the DPP in Kinmen, the Taiwan authorities felt the danger of war, and Ma Ying-jeou took the initiative to act as a “peacemaker”.

Of course, there are still a few days left in Ma’s visit programme, the most crucial of which is the last day of meetings with the top brass in mainland China. It is too early to speculate on Ma Ying-jeou’s inner thoughts.

If Ma Ying-jeou wants to achieve political success, this visit is his last chance!

We hope he will be bold enough to take the first step and say the word “reunification”.

Some fun pictures that I generated

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What ignorant thing did a retail employee say that made you walk out of the store without buying a single item?

My ex and I used to live on Capitol Hill in DC. Almost all the houses there are 100+ years old, so there is generally something in need of fixing at any given time. We felt it was a good thing to try and support local businesses, so whenever anything small broke, we tried to use the local hardware store to get whatever we needed to repair it. Well, something small broke and we needed a small piece of pipe to replace one under a bathroom sink. If anyone has lived on the Hill in the past, they probably know that there is only one local hardware store. It had almost criminally narrow aisles until it burned to the ground several years ago. It has since been rebuilt with a much better layout.

Off we went to the local hardware store, broken piece in hand. we were faced with bins of nearly identical looking pieces. The store was often understaffed, so we were trying to compare the pieces ourselves to find the right one. As we stood there, an employee came walking down the aisle. Rather than stop to help us (though to be fair he may have been in the middle of helping someone else at the time) or politely excusing himself as he tried to squeeze around us, he just stopped, looked at us, and sarcastically sneered “do you think you could take this party somewhere else?”

My ex had worked retail for years, and was a district manager for a home goods chain at the time. We just looked at each other, put down the pieces we were trying to match, and said “sure. We can take it to Home Depot.” And that’s what we did. We made sure to let the manager know what we were doing and why before we left.

My first Talk Box experience! Peter Frampton’s “Do You Feel Like We Do” Vocal Analysis!

Trapped in a crack house

When I lived in Milford, Massachusetts, I lived in a “crack house”.

Oh, it wasn’t my intention. But that is exactly what had happened.

There was this old Victorian mansion in Milford, right next to the police station. And, a man (an Iranian immigrant) bought the house and divided it up into six apartments. He renovated the place nicely, and I fell in love with the “huge “drawing room” apartment on the first floor.

Soon, others moved in. Most were like myself. Middle class.

Then his brother brought in a “section eight” family.

Now, a “section eight family” is a person living off the state. Takes welfare and government benefits, and is usually the lowest of the low.

And from the moment she moved in, it was non-stop under -16 drug, alcohol parties. All night. Loud with the thick vapors of crack smoke seeping into our apartment.

Oh, I talked to the owner; landlord, and he couldn’t do anything. It was against the law to deny housing to welfare recipients.

I talked to the police, they couldn’t do anything. All the 60+ kids were “protected” as they were juveniles in a private residence.

Well, there were raids on the property. Busts discovering drugs… mostly crack and all the rest. There were stabbings, and car damage, and all sorts of nonsense. It truly was a Hell. Ugh!

And it was Hell for me. As soon as my contract was up I left. Then I sued the owner. Long story, but we parted on good terms.

Do not ever let that happen to youse guys. Ever!

Nothing quite ruins your day as the thick sweet smell of crack wafting up from the basement.

Today…

What is the most shameless thing you have ever seen a teacher do?

I don’t know if I’d call this “shameless”, but it shows how a student (me) can so bother a teacher that he’ll make irrational decisions!

I was a lousy student. Either didn’t do homework or did a really sloppy job. My written work was really hard to read because I didn’t try to be neat.

Anyway, it drove my US History 1 teacher crazy, especially since I always tested very high in aptitude! Aptitude doesn’t triumph over laziness!

Anyway, while I was getting low grades in his class, I probably would barely pass for the year. We got to the mid term exam and he gave me an “F” on my report card (the exam was equal to a regular grading period so it was a big deal – 1/8th of the year’s average for each exam)

So my mother goes in to talk to him because, while my grades were usually bad, I generally did well on big exams. I guess I’d remember the major points that such tests cover, but wouldn’t remember the little things that normal tests include.

So my mother mentions that I usually do fairly well on the big exams and asked him about it. He pulls out my test and at the top it says I got a B minus!

My mother asked why the report card said the score was an F instead of B minus. And this is where it got weird.

He said, “He took the examine in the Old Cafeteria and it very easy to copy the work of other students”.

This was true. It had been converted into one big room with those one-armed desks jammed side by side, so even though we sat every other seat for exams, it was still easier to see a neighbors paper than in a regular classroom. But it wasn’t our fault we were assigned to that space!!!

My mother asked the obvious question: “Did you give every student who took a test there an F as well?”

It was at that point that he finally returned to his senses and changed my grade.

I actually liked him and he wasn’t trying to be a jerk or an idiot. I just drove him nuts! Since I later became a teacher myself, I also learned how students can push a teacher’s buttons!

Will the US allow itself to be overtaken by China?

The spirit is willing but the body is weak, my friend. Like the famous kung-fu move 吸精大法Sucking Spirit Move, every punch that US executes, the zest is sucked out of US to make China stronger. It’s not like China didn’t warn US not to engage in fruitless trade wars, but warnings have been ignored and the commoners were cheering her on, oblivious of the risks involved.

It is too late. Not only will China overtake US, she will do it in record time, estimated to be in 2026. Enjoy the inevitable.

Explain (I can’t believe we haven’t fixed this yet)

Why is the US doing such a bad job countering China’s rise?

Imagine you are the world’s fastest runner in the 100m sprint. You know your closest rival is training hard and will soon surpass you. What do you do?

You train even harder to stay ahead.

What you don’t do is try to hobble your rival by accusing him of cheating, denying him training opportunities, keeping him out of competition, and using underhand methods to ensure you keep on winning.

And that is what the US is trying to do to China. Instead of working harder to stay ahead, it has focused it on trying to slow China down.

The US cannot see that this approach will not work. It may have worked with other countries that threatened American superiority and dominance in the past but China is different.

In 1971 I read Dick Wilson’s book, A Quarter of Mankind. My classmates and I realised that once China got its act together, its rise was inevitable.

For a long time, I thought India would rise faster. It did not and will not for reasons that belong ion another answer.

Since Deng Xiaoping’s reforms, China has been on the up and up. And rather than rise to the challenge, the US has opted to try to stop China’s inevitable development and dominance. It may have even contributed to it with its rampant capitalist policies.

The US has not just done a bad job countering China’s rise, it has utterly failed. And it continues to flounder.

The new normal

Have you ever witnessed a “Don’t tell me how to raise my child” moment?

It was with a colleague in the US.

We had a guy at my office who was married to a Japanese woman. They had just had their first baby, and the wife was staying at home going forward.

First, our overbearing colleague started to ask why they didn’t just get a nanny. Why didn’t his wife want to work?

Our overbearing co-worker hired a nanny, and offloaded all the things that parents usually do to the nanny. She wasn’t wealthy, but it seemed like she would rather work full-time than spend time with her children.

But that wasn’t the main issue. The new parents had taken the drastic step of *gasp* co-sleeping with their newborn.

He was 1/2 asleep one day by the copy machine when the overbearing woman got after him again. “You guys need a nanny. You’re sleep-deprived.”

“Don’t remind me.” He was trying to brush it off, but she wouldn’t let it go.

“I mean, if you’re not going to get a nanny and your wife wants to stay home with the kid, why can’t she take care of her without waking you up?”

“We share a bed.”

This was met with a blank stare.

“You know, co-sleeping.” He had told me before that he was nervous about it, but had read some research on how it helps infants regulate their breathing.

“Oh, my gawd! Are you crazy? Didn’t you hear about the couple who did that and the Dad rolled over and killed the baby?”

Sometimes you don’t know that you’ve crossed a line until it’s too late.

“No, but I heard about the couple that got a nanny who BEAT THE SHIT OUT OF THEIR KIDS!”

WARNING: Never mess with a sleep-deprived new father.

What is the most panic-inducing thing that can happen as a teenager?

I was 13 years old,

That time there were no smartphones in popularity. Nokia was the king of mobiles and keypad phones were in use. My dad used to have Nokia 7210.

Sometimes I used to play games in my dad’s mobile. One day, I was casually scrolling through his mobile. I didn’t know much about phones those days. I was curious to explore.

In curiosity I don’t know what I have clicked, Suddenly a text message has been received which shocked me-

“Dear customer, thanks for choosing our service. 198rs has been deducted from your balance.”

I was stunned. My body started shivering and it was like a heart attack for me. 10 years ago, 198 ruppees had more value as compared to now. I knew that I am fcuked up. I put the mobile and was surviving the attack.

After sometime, My dad came. He had to make a call. I was edging near death. He dialed number and got to hear this,

“Sorry your account doesn’t have enough balance to make call.”

My heartbeats almost stopped.

He : Gurmeet, come here!

I felt like Yamraj is calling me.

I went somehow because my legs weren’t supporting me to go near him.

He : What you did in mobile? Tell me!

Me : mmmm! I don’t know.

I started crying. He was angry.

He : Tell me, what the hell you did? Where’s balance?

…

After a minute,

He : Next time don’t dare to touch my mobile.

He said and went. I beat the death and got my life back. I was extremely scared and stressed, however he didn’t react much.

Que : What’s most panic inducing thing that can happen as teenager?

Ans : when first time parents suffer loss because of us. When first time we do something wrong and get caught. After this, they get used to losses so it doesn’t induce more panic next time.

LOL

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/rG7D7MPUFIw?feature=share

What is something extremely unjust that happened to you at work that made you quit your job?

I was at a convention out of town. Just before dinner, I received a call from my mom saying my dad’s appointment had confirmed what we had expected-stage 4 lung cancer. Doctors said 1 month. Of course I was in tears and beside myself. I went to the dinner with tears rolling down my face. I was sitting quietly just remembering all the good things. My district manager came up and asked what was wrong. I told her. Her exact words were…..get over it. This was the same woman who just had 4 months off because her sister got sick. As soon as we got back I handed in my resignation. I just felt that comment was completely heartless and I lost all respect for her.

What is a split-second decision you made that changed your life?

We were in a restaurant with a group of my friends almost 20 years ago…

As we were waiting for our food, I saw the richest and probably most respected man in our town walk in. He was super well known and employed over 500 people at that time.

We started talking together about him and my friend said.

“You would never have the balls to go talk to him!”

I actually didn’t, and the whole idea of talking to someone on that level scared me to death. But, my friends kept telling me to go, and I just said, “Ok, ok, I’ll do it.”

He was sitting alone, waiting for his food, and I just walked up to him and told him how he has been an inspiration for all of us guys sitting at that table over there and how we respect his work.

He was super nice to me and told me to sit down with him. I asked for some advice from him, and that started our friendship. He became my mentor.

He gave me so much good advice and helped me to grow my company. It’s sad that he passed away 2 years ago; he was 59 when I met him. It’s crazy that he took me under his wing.

That was the best split-second decision I made.

Jail and Porn equivalents

Have you ever walked out of an interview?

Once. Just once.

The interviewer was a little … stiff. Spoke with a German accent. Nothing wrong with Germans – it was just my own bias at the time that I expected them to be over-formal. Sticklers.

He asked me a question, which I didn’t like much because it was kind of basic for somebody with lots of experience, about submitting a form from a web page.

So I sketched out the answer on a white board and he asked a question, and I answered, “Yes, in that case I would add an ‘A=5’ right here.”

That was the end of the question, but before we moved on, he said, “Oh – do you want to put that?”

I said “Put that?”

“Write it. On the board.”

“Um … is somebody else going to read this or something?”

“No – we’re done. It’s in order to … finish the exercise.”

“So you want me to write ‘A=5’, right here? What’s next?”

“Then we can just erase it and move on to the next one.”

“So you need me to write A=5. And then erase it. So that the exercise is completed.”

“Yes.”

“Yea. No offense, really, I can tell we just wouldn’t get along at all.”

(This was the guy I would be reporting to.) As I made my awkward exit, both he and his boss made valiant efforts to change my mind, but I just offered, “It’s a gut thing. Trust me. We’d clash.”

I could never shake the hunch that as I was driving off, the interviewer gave a heavy sigh, picked up a marker, wrote “A=5” on the board, and then erased the whole thing.

How did Huawei manage to achieve its fastest growth in four years despite US sanctions?

What the fuck is US sanction you can do what you like in the U.S. but we the rest of the world don’t gives a shit about you! Huawei is popular in 88% of the world. Your 12% can love Apple till your market drop it don’t mean shit. Get that!

Record Record Record

What is the rudest thing another shopper has told you while waiting in line?

This wasn’t said to me, but to my then 7-year-old daughter, who had, for the first 6 and a half years of her life, had people, especially grandmotherly women, gushing over her: “Oh, what a beautiful girl! Oh, how well-behaved! What lovely, silky blond hair! You’re so lucky to have her!” etc. While she wasn’t entirely comfortable with total strangers coming up to her to adore her, it was still nice of them, and who doesn’t like being complimented, right?

Then baby sister came along, and the compliments got shared; baby sister was also pretty, though much different in looks. Stiil good; she loved her baby sister and was quite proud of her.

One day, though, we were in line at the grocery store check-out, when this grandmotherly-looking old lady came up and started gushing about the baby (somewhere between 6 and 12 months old) and how beautiful her eyes were, and her hair, and how sweet she was, and started remarking to other people in the line about the beautiful baby, and asking saying things like “don’t you think so?” to which the others, wanting to be polite to this older woman, of course agreed.

What was so rude? She then turned to my also very beautiful and well-behaved 7-year-old daughter, and practically sang out, “Oh, aren’t you lucky to have such a beautiful sister! Your mother must be so proud of her!” after which she marched off to resume her shopping.

Though I’m reasonably sure it was meant with good intentions from a totally clueless person, that was definitely one of the rudest and cruelest things I’ve ever heard said to a child, at least by someone who had no idea how hurtful their words could be.

I know that ruder and intentionally meaner things are said to or about people every day, but what astounded me was that this woman could have said what she did with no thought as to how negatively her words might be heard and interpreted by a child.

Why has Anthony Fauci predicted 100,000 to 200,000 coronavirus deaths in the US with millions of cases? For perspective, total deaths in China stood at 3,186 today.

Because the cordon sanitaire is a joke stateside. You have to ringfence the virus to break transmission.

New York is now worse hit than Wuhan. Have state borders been sealed?

If someone tests positive but has mild symptoms do you send the person home?

What if he is a renter who shares the space with others and gets kicked out?

What if they are adults in nuclear families?

What if they are homeless?

Where are the quarantine facilities?

Further, who ensures compliance with quarantine orders for those that test positive?

Relying on goodwill and personal responsibility contributed to a handful of individuals becoming responsible for more than half of Korea’s cases. That is 5,000!

Where and how effective is contact tracing when America solves only 60 percent of murders each year? Every missed contact can mean thousands of cases down the road.

America is not putting whole of nation and whole of government effort into fighting this. They are fighting each other and have an eye on the stock market. How do you have the best days in a century when 3 million lose their jobs in one week?

Me me me will kill you and me.

Where is us us us?

My favorite Viet street cook

SERGEY LAVROV:

"All natural resources on which economic development, influence and might depend are instruments of political struggle.

It is logical that they are used for political purposes, including geopolitical ones.

We saw this in the 1980s, when the United States put colossal pressure on Saudi Arabia and other Gulf countries, which were the main oil producers, bringing about a collapse in oil prices to $10 or even lower per barrel in the hope of reducing the Soviet Union’s foreign exchange earnings and hence its capacity to continue to develop and ensure its security.

At that time, we continued to compete with the United States and the West as a whole.

They achieved their goal.

The Soviet Union’s revenues plummeted, which was one of the causes, though not the main or only one, that led to its dissolution.

They put pressure on the oil market, used speculation for the fall, drew the Soviet Union into an arms race, and promoted 'democratic reforms' when our country was not prepared for them.

Taken together, this contributed to the fall of a great power.

Since then, the Americans have been using oil and oil prices as a weapon.

A relevant example is Iran, which had its oil exports banned and the channels of oil deliveries contrary to that illegal ban were blocked.

Today, oil sanctions against Iran have been lifted.

The latest example is Venezuela, which was the third largest oil supplier to the United States in 2019.

In 2022, the Americans adopted an oil embargo against it, allegedly in the struggle against the 'regime' of Nicolas Maduro, as they put it.

But later they faced the consequences of the OPEC and OPEC Plus efforts to stabilise the oil market based on the main economic factors and a balance of interests of producers, importers and transit countries.

Today, the Americans are playing new political games against Venezuela, offering it an agreement to resume oil exports to the United States in exchange for political concessions.

However, it is a fact that Washington is suffering the consequences of its own actions considering that a vast number of American oil refineries were equipped to process Venezuelan oil.

It is a combination of purely economic factors and a desire to take advantage of economic ties, in this instance, use oil as a weapon.

As for Russia, what is the oil price cap imposed on Russian oil by the Americans, which the West was pressured to adopt as well?

It is flagrant interference in the workings and principles of the free market, which the Americans have been promoting for decades.

They described the dollar not as an American currency but as a global element of interconnectivity between the global economy and finances.

The structure collapsed when they decided to use these instruments to inflict what they described as 'geopolitical defeat' on Russia.

It is obvious that nobody is happy about the use of these underhanded methods, although few people, especially in the West, dare to put their uneasiness into words.

The pinnacle of using hydrocarbons as a weapon was the explosion of the Nord Stream pipelines, which directly targeted Germany.

American analysts have admitted it, and many in Germany are openly saying this.

It is evidence of the current German government’s impotence and inability not just to think independently but to even protect its vital interests on which the prosperity and well-being of German citizens depend.

As a result of that subversive terrorist attack, businesses, faced with rising gas prices, are leaving Germany and other European countries, and relocating, for the most part, to the United States.

They have started to talk about the de-industrialisation of Europe.

A year ago, French Minister for the Economy and Finances Bruno Le Maire said in a public statement that businesses paid four times more for energy in Europe than in the United States. I believe the balance is approximately the same now.

It is a fact that the United States has created much more favourable conditions for businesses, including by approving credit subsidies under the Inflation Reduction Act. Business is moving to the United States.

At the same time, immediately after blowing up the gas pipelines, Washington said that in the absence of Russian gas Europe needed to buy American LNG, even though it cost more and there was a lack of the necessary infrastructure, which was still to be built.

Four years ago, when Angela Merkel was chancellor and life was easier, the Americans attempted to convince Germany that it had no need for Nord Stream or Russian gas in general, that it could buy American LNG instead.

Angela Merkel argued that it would be more complicated and much more expensive.

The Americans agreed that it would cost more and suggested covering the difference with higher taxes.

After all, they said, you can tell your people that it is a good cause in the interests of peace and democracy throughout the world.

There are more examples of this kind."

Profile

—Answer by Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov to the question, “Do you agree that oil is an instrument of political manipulation? Can you provide more striking examples of this or arguments to the contrary?” during an interview for the documentary series ‘Oil’, Moscow, March 21, 2024.

What is the most heartbreaking conversation you’ve ever had?

It was March 2016. Nine months before I had been granted parole and I would be going home in November. My brother knew I was being released and was ecstatic.

So I was on the yard when I was called to the Captains Office. I get there and the room is full of white shirts and C/Os . They asked me to have a seat. I said I would prefer to stand. The Captain asked if everyone in the room would sit would I please sit. I reluctantly agreed. Some C/Os had to squat. My mind was racing. What had I done to cause so many officers to be in the room? They told me I to call my sister in law and pointed at the phone. I couldn’t reach her. They then told me my brother had passed. I did not believe it. They asked if I would prefer to go to the hole so I could be alone. I told them no. I felt numb . I could barely understand what was being said. A C/O offered to walk me to my housing unit again no.

I get back to my housing unit and call my sister in law. She was crying so hard I could barely understand her. But she confirmed my brother had passed away. I was devastated. My little brother who I went to prison for by killing his abuser was gone. He passed within mnths of me getting out

Could you cover a grenade that’s about to explode with a military issued helmet to protect yourself from flying shrapnel?

See this right here?

That on the table is, or rather was, a helmet.

It belonged to Corporal Jason Dunham

of the US Marine Corps. While his Marine squad was trying to subdue an enemy combatant, the insurgent dropped a grenade among them. Dunham jumped on the grenade to save his comrades, placing his combat helmet directly over the grenade to reduce the blast.

You can see how that worked out for the helmet.

Surprisingly, Dunham was not immediately killed by the blast, but he was severely wounded. His injuries sent him into a coma, and he died eight days later.

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Dunham was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor for his sacrifice.

So judging by real world experience, the answer to this question is no. Of course, if you are presented with a grenade, you want to put as much distance and protection between you and it as possible. If that includes a helmet, it’s better than nothing. But you cannot expect that it will save you.

If you’ve got a better option, take it.

How can I stress Google and significantly increase their costs?

Physical attacks are cheaper, easier and possibly less risky than electronic attacks.

The US-101 exit for the Google Headquarters in Mountain View is notoriously busy. It can take 15 minutes of sitting in traffic, and causes a great deal of stress to Googlers.

If your car ‘broke down’ in that junction thousands of people would be delayed in getting to work. Let’s say that the fully burdened cost of an engineer is $100 /hr, you might delay 2000 people getting to work by half an hour, costing Google $100k. (Some people might give up and turn around).

In addition, one of the reasons that people leave Google to work elsewhere is the traffic. A few engineers might quit. Hiring new engineers is expensive (I think Bob See has given the cost somewhere on this site, and it’s in the thousands of dollars), plus it takes time to ramp up at Google – you are not productive for at least a couple of months, and possibly up to six months. Let’s call that $100 * 8 hours * 60 days, that’s another 50k.

So, for the cost of the cheapest car you can find, that will actually start, and a couple of hours of your time, you have cost Google $150k. (You might need to add the price of travel and the time to get to Mountain View).

You could pull this stunt as often as you can get away with it, each time costing $150k.

That’s much easier than a botnet attack, or 10s of thousands of Gmail accounts.

Another advantage of this method is that you haven’t committed a very serious crime – the FBI aren’t going to come after you for hacking. You can probably get away with it at least once by being told to be more careful.

American Society of Magical Negroes is AWFUL – People Are SICK of Woke Hollywood

WTF? It’s an actual movie? Whoa!

What’s something your gender does that the opposite gender never even thinks about?

A lot of men try very hard to not seem like creeps or pervs, whereas I’ve never heard of any woman making any similar effort.

For example, I am currently at the beach. Literally, I am sitting in a chair in the sand about 15 feet from the Atlantic Ocean. There are about 40 other people within eyesight on this beach, including a group of teen girls to the right of me who’ve been taking bikini selfies for about two hours. They’re hard to ignore, because they’re doing weird poses and giggling a lot.

To the left, there are more women in bikinis. They’re sunbathing.

So I’m making a point to keep my eyes on my laptop, the book I’m reading, or the ocean in front of me. I hesitate to look left or right, lest I get accused of being a creep.

But, there are also a lot of scantily-clad men out here too. The women around me seem to have no problem staring at these guys. Older women, younger women, it doesn’t matter. When a shirtless guy jogs by (it happens a lot… there’s a Marine base near here), some of these women are downright shameless in their gawking.

Imagine if a guy did that to a woman running by, especially if that woman was a generation younger than them. They’d be driven off the beach by an angry mob, accusing them of being a pervert.

Yesterday, I was sitting on the deck overlooking the ocean, using my binoculars to scan the horizon. I was looking for dolphins or boats or whatever I could see. But, as soon as a family with teenage girls showed up on the beach, I put the binoculars down. Seeing a dolphin isn’t worth the risk of being thought of as a possible creep.

Jia Qingguo (贾庆国)

What follows is a relatively wide-ranging interview with Jia Qingguo (贾庆国) discussing the prospects of cross-Strait relations, a potential Trump presidency and US-China ties more broadly. Jia has been a long-time foreign policy adviser in the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) and is the former Dean of Peking University’s School of International Studies. He has recently been outspokenly critical of the restrictions on Chinese scholars’ engagement with foreign counterparts. Among the highlights of this piece – his advocacy of “patience” in the Taiwan context so long as the incoming leadership does not pursue independence; his preference to see Biden re-elected rather than Trump (views among China’s establishment intellectuals continue to be divided); and his belief that there is still scope for alignment of US and Chinese interests on regional conflicts in Ukraine and the DPRK.

Taiwan’s president-elect Lai Ching-te has his hands tied politically. The impact of his election on cross-Strait relations should be limited. China will continue to promote peaceful (re)unification “for some time to come”.
Trump is “reckless”, has “outdated views” and lacks “basic moral principles”. He has shown that he is not the pragmatic businessman that many in China had hoped for back in 2016.
His re-election would be particularly detrimental to China and could lead to “severe friction and confrontation” between Washington and Beijing. The prospect of his walking away from the US’s One-China Policy is real.
A second Biden presidency would not prevent further tensions between the US and China, but it could help preserve the current trend of stabilizing and improving ties.
Beijing should always keep its long-term interests in mind and avoid overreacting to provocations coming from the United States. Confrontation and tit-for-tat responses make little sense at a time when China is still more vulnerable than the US.
There are still many areas in which the US and China can (and must) cooperate. For instance, defusing tensions on the Korean peninsula will only succeed if Beijing and Washington are prepared to join hands.

B̲o̲ston – B̲o̲ston (Full Album) 1976

Let’s hop into the GTO, crank it up loud, and roll up one.

I went to Walmart

“I went into Wal-Mart to grab three things. Fruit Loops, eggs & waffles. Healthy, I know. This woman was asking people for something and my goal was to bypass, get my things and go. She asked me to stop. I figured she was just asking for money and I already decided that I was going to politely let her know that I didn’t have any cash on me. I never carry cash. I listened to her. She had groceries in her cart and asked for help to buy food for her family. She proceeded to tell me that she turned her daughter in for dope, her 2-month-old grand baby was born addicted to crack and she has 6 grandchildren to take care of. I really felt for her. She was sobbing. See, I know stories like this to be FACT from working in an inner-city school and my husband working in a hospital. Babies are unfortunately born addicted all the time & responsibility of raising grandbabies does fall on the grandparents. She asked me if I would help her buy groceries.

I looked at what I had in my hands compared to what she had. She had shopped smart and had healthy food: bananas, bell peppers, meat, pancakes, etc. Practical things you would make meals with and feed children. I told her yes, go get diapers for the baby and meet me at the front. She sobbed, praised God and said hallelujah to the cashiers,etc. Yesterday, I turned 30, had my healthy family by my side, ate tons of crawfish and blew $20 at the casino for the heck of it. Well, I checked my humanity today. This woman has food to put on her table and even if she wasn’t telling the truth, I don’t even care in the least. She’s human, I’m human and today she helped me realize a few things and I hope that I helped her. She won’t have to worry for at least a little while about food. I didn’t expect this today but apparently I was called to it and was right where I needed to be.

The forgotten dresser

Cheese Steak Pizza

Yield: 4 servings

Ingredients

1 pound ground beef
1 small onion, cut crosswise into thin slices, separated into rings
1 small green or red bell pepper, cut into thin strips
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1 (16 ounce, 12 inch diameter) package thick prebaked pizza crust
2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese

Instructions

Heat oven to 400 degrees F.
Brown ground beef in large nonstick skillet over medium heat 6 minutes.
Add onion and bell pepper; continue cooking until beef is not pink and vegetables are crisp-tender, breaking beef up into small crumbles.
Pour off drippings; season with salt and pepper.
Place pizza crust on ungreased large baking sheet. Spoon beef mixture evenly on pizza crust; sprinkle with cheese.
Bake at 400 degrees F for 8 to 10 minutes or until cheese is melted.
Cut into 8 wedges.

What are some examples of grim legacies?

Saddam’s bunker was designed to withstand a nuclear bomb.

It was built directly under his palace.

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(source: Outlook Magazine)

Much like traditional concrete design, steel rods were run first, then concrete poured over them.

Only—the steel was thicker, and so was the concrete.

It was so powerful that if a Hiroshima bomb went off 250m away—the bunker would be fine.

And through both Iraq wars, the bunker stood strong and withheld all the onslaughts of US forces. In today’s dollars, it cost well over $100 million to build.

But—to the question:

It was built by a Munich, Germany born designer, Karl Esser. He comes from a long line of architects who have also designed military grade bunkers. He expresses no guilt in designing the bunker, stating that it wasn’t a weapon, merely the equivalent of a bomb shelter.

He actually met with Saddam Hussein several times and stated that if you met him (in the 1980’s), he looks like a tax collector, there is nothing special about him. But when he starts speaking—you realize that he is far more than a tax collector, and you are reminded of that by how tense everyone around him is. (Source: Saddam’s bunker can withstand nuke attack, says its designer. Bhaita, Saida)

Again—to the question:

Karl was chosen specifically by Hussein because of his experience. His grandmother designed Hitler’s bunker. The family trade had been passed down to him.

To usher in Communism?

Really? These folk don’t have a clue as to what they are talking about.

Have you ever met a celebrity who asked you, “Do you know who I am?” and you said no?

Yes, as a matter of fact, Shaquille O’Neal. Now to be honest, he wasn’t as famous at the time as he has become since, but he was well known locally. I was a homicide detective in Baton Rouge, Louisiana one Friday or Saturday night was driving on one of the public thoroughfares to go through LSU campus, when a small truck ran a stop sign in front of me on Highland Road, almost causing an accident. Even though I was I was in an unmarked car, I decided to pull it over to advise the driver to be more careful. Upon stopping the vehicle, the driver of the truck exited, and it took him a while to unfold himself out of it. He towered over me, but smiling, advised apologetically that he didn’t have his drivers He advised he did not have license on him, saying friendly enough, “but you know who I am” More statement than a question.

I decided to play ‘dumb’. “No, who are you?” I asked with a straight face. I was pretty sure it was Shaquille O’Neal, but I wanted him to tell me who he was. I honestly did not do not follow basketball, but everyone was talking about him (he was the star LSU basketball player at the time). I almost felt sorry for him As he looked a little Bit crestfallen that I apparently did not know who he was. He wasn’t asking for special favors or making demands, he innocently thought he was well known in town BY ALL due his Athletic prowess and notoriety. I smiled at him, and I said something to the effect that, ‘ I know who you are, but need your DOB and some proof. He found his insurance or registration with his name on it and I explained why I stopped him and told him to please be more careful. He was friendly and respectful during the entire encounter. I am very proud that he now works as a reserve law enforcement officer. He is much more than some guy who can play a game, he is obviously a still a class act.

Victoria Nuland: The making of a psychopath. Chapter 1,2 and 3.

Have you ever stood up to a bully? What happened?

Starting in the second grade, when my father lifted the absolute prohibition on fighting. He got tired of picking me up from the school nurse, or the hospital. Also tired of the wear and tear on my clothing.

The very next day, one of my usual tormentors hit me in the back of the head. The teacher just watched, as usual. So I picked up my desk and beat him unconscious. Took three blows.

I was sent to the office, of course. The principal said I was to be expelled. My father asked if the other boys who hit me had also been expelled. “well, no. They didn’t use a desk.”

“So, it’s okay for them to beat MY son bloody, as long as they don’t use the furniture? Is that it? Did you at least discipline the teacher who allowed this to go on?”

“Well, no. Boys will be boys…”

“Well, my boy is a boy, too. You have demonstrated that you will do nothing to prevent him from being beaten; so where’s the problem if he fights back?

Tell you what. I’m going to send the hospital bills and the bills for damaged clothes to my lawyer, and the school board. we’ll let them sort it out.”

And that was the last said of expelling me.

OMG funny

What would happen if the US decoupled from China?

The life in the US would become like this.

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How can an employee get a manager fired?

In my experience its easier if you don’t try. Couple of years ago a manager denied me several requests for Training, told me i was a waist of time. Few years latter my ceo inquired as to why i never made use of the company training system. So i told him. I told him about being denied and the waist of time comment, and how i did not even look at training anymore because of it.

That manager was demoted that Christmas, quit instead, then sent his layer to take a chunk out of my 401. The company successfully convinced him not to. But later they restricted my max contribution to the retirement account because of the incident.

And it all happened because i applied for training on how to handle an upset customer.

Second time was during an ataboy reward. Essentially i had a panic attack when that same ceo came to congratulate me. He was fired because, by procedure, when an employee freaks out the manager is supposed to walk away. Instead this ceo stayed around and calmed me down. The project manager 5feet away wrote the ceo up, and by the end of the week that ceo was gone. Only thing needed to make it all happen was a traumatic event in college to give me ptsd. “May God welcome you to his heavenly splendor Jerry. You will be missed and thank you.”

To get a manager fired do the following. Call a lawyer, get the lawyer to file a freedom of information. Aquire the company’s secret employment laws document. This will be the stack of papers that say among other things

1. A thong is ok for women to ware but brief’s are not ok for men to use.

2. An employee may be terminated for possession of pornography when: they are found to poses/refuse to submit to search and with a witness, or have a prior termination for and no witness. Or a manager successfully implants the audio album “innocent victim” on the employees phone.

3. Work place competition is permitted under these criteria. Or exceeds the bounds of acceptance under these criteria…

4. The employee was found holding a blade, even if found working with food in the kitchen.

5. Employees are permitted to use incontinence products but are subject to termination if they discard used products in the bathroom garbage bin. And by extension are not allowed to have extra diapers on company grounds.

Be warned if you do obtain these secret documents, most fortune 500 companys will respond by amending a new criteria. Usually the new criteria is specialized to target YOU and some thing YOU do. In this way even after you learn how to CAN anyone, you will not be bulletproof. HR is not stupid, they will fit you with a remote explosive collar.

But coming back to the original question, use what you learn then file a report on your manager for anything he is doing that violates those secret rules.

The underwear criteria was really surprising to me, then i got investigated for it one day.

Please let us know if you actually get someone canned for their underwear.

Final comments. The right reason to terminate a manager is when there replacement is both better than the current person, and when its better for the company. Any situation where you are involved in a non consensual passing of the torch will result in repercussions. If your manager is doing something you don’t like, ask them how you are supposed to respond. You will be surprised.

U.S IN TROUBLE! China Finally DESTROY U.S Companies

What are some dark sides about law enforcement you have seen?

A man was stabbed, killed and thrown in a desolate pit.

The mother blamed victim’s brothers in law for this. Police arrested both of them but later cleared them off. No lead, no progress at all. Senior officers and Judge were not happy.

Four months passed.

Then a young and handsome officer got transferred in our police station. A few ongoing cases were given to him to investigate and complete, this blind murder incident was exclusively included as well.

I remember… It was his first day at work, he chose to handle this blind murder case first. I knew him personally because his elder brother is my friend, a constable as well. So this officer preferred using my room until he gets a suitable place to set up his desk and everything.

So… yea. First day at work. He summoned those two suspects (in laws) as he wished to question them. Those two individuals arrived in my office. There were four people in my room. Me, detective and those two.

He began throwing question at them and investigated. Questions after questions… and a bit of persuasion.

They confessed the murder in half an hour. I kid you not. They confessed the murder, showed the place where they hid the knives and explained the motive.

This young detective solved a murder case in 30 minutes on his first day.

Senior officers couldn’t praise him more. That previous detective was blown upon hearing this news. He was ordered to report to head quarters. A seasoned one. I am sure he was asked…

How the hell couldn’t you resolve this piece of cake investigation in four months. Did you intentionally spare the murderers.

I remember the sweat on his forehead when he returned. He was worried as this may lead to dismissal from service and then some, if proved that he favored the murderers in his reports.

And if that’s truth “he sold a murder” which is awful and atrocious.

Anyway…. it’s not my place to put verdict.

I don’t know if he did it or not.

What is rare is not common

Is China’s rise America’s fall?

I have written extensively on this subject, focusing for a moment on what is China doing and what is the US doing which are in opposite directions. If you go the wrong direction for long enough then you are in real trouble, which America is in right now.

CHINA’S RISE

Forget about all the state capitalism vs corporate capitalism, yes this is an underlying difference but results are results. Either you are in the game or you are not and the USA is not in the game, China is.

It is all about one thing, investment. You do not invest you get nothing. Here is Pudong in 1982 when I first arrived in China. NOTHING NADA ZERO development.

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Then there is Pudong today, same photo but completely developed.

AMERICA’S FALL

Here is Detroit where I grew up in 1950:

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Ostensibly the ‘richest’ city in the world the year I was born, 1950.

Here is Detroit a few years ago:

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I chose a nice image, just the after effects of destruction.

It is all about investment. The USA does not invest in anything other than military. Nothing, nada. The Trump administration even litigated against universities who were trying to enroll more blacks and minorities in favor of Chinese and whites, but really Chinese as they were the highest test scorers so they get in and nothing for black, latinos or other US citizens. Incarceration rates and numbers at 2.3 million, drugs, lack of opportunity, do you get it? America is still going in the wrong direction and now we have the QAnon types running the Republican party so you can forget about them to help. Up to the Democrats who are ok but they are no world beaters when it comes to investment as they are govt types and don’t get the private sector.

And Trump? Mr Glitz was the exact opposite of investment, but if you do not invest you die and he invested nothing.

The USA will die and be hollowed out and China will dominate the world completely if the USA and Europe and even Australia, but especially the USA, does not clean up its act and invest.

Invest in their education, in vocational training, in tax incentives to invest to get companies back to Detroit and everywhere else.

I could go on, but this nonsense about China’s gain is the US loss is only because the USA put all of their money and effort and investment INTO CHINA AND NOT INTO THE USA FOR THE PAST 35 YEARS!

As Everett Dirksen, a great US Senator once said when asked about the budget, ‘a billion here a billion there, and before you know it, you are talking about real money’. How about a trillion here a trillion there and before you know it, you are broke like the USA is about to be!

I could easily make a case that every US company was headed up by traitors, strong word I get it, but I want to make a point. If all you want to do is make profits in the next quarter, you and your country and your family and your future WILL LOSE.

China is also investing internally not just FDI any longer.

Good on them, now can the rest of the world get off their bums and stop thinking that selling each other cups of coffee and beers is good enough? And that all of the fake hedge funds and other financial ‘products’ are garbage and are not benefiting Americans rather a small elite that now does their business in China as they make more money there.

Hope that puts a different focus on this debate and gets people to back off on China and to focus instead on their own countries and their own people and solve their own problems.

There is plenty of time to discuss this all with China but clean up your acts first.

What are a few bitter truths of life?

In my office, there is a 26 year old married guy. He is an attendant and not earning much for leading a decent life in a metro city. Although, I am much above in post than him, I treat him as my friend.

So, his wife was about to give birth in a day or two yet he was not taking leave from the office. He told me that it is very close and could be today or tomorrow.

Then on the next day at 4 PM, he rushed towards me saying that wife is in labor and was taken to the hospital. I got furious and told him why he didn’t take leave that day. I quickly calmed down realizing his situation and offered to drop him. But to amazment, he refused.

I was speechless. He said he has some urgent work and only after finishing that he will go.

Next day he called me and said that he was blessed with a baby boy but he also said by the time he reached his wife had already given birth.

I demanded he explain this nonsense.

In a soft voice he explained that he needed to finish his duty till 5.30 pm otherwise his one day pay would be deducted.

Bitter truths:

Money really is the most important thing because the lack of it is so painful.
Our parents sacrifice so much but still sometimes we end up ignoring them.
One cannot truly relate to the pain of others unless he is put in same position.
Without education, a person is really on a path of lifelong struggle.

The Sopranos – Dick Barone – the king of garbage and Tony Soprano’s boss!

What is the most satisfying passive-aggressive thing you have ever done to a really mean or rude person?

I was working the AT YOUR SERVICE counter at Macy’s during the holiday rush when a woman with husband in tow stepped in front of the customer I was waiting on, a quiet and endlessly patient young man, and demanded that I call her a manager and, almost as an afterthought, added that the person I summoned had better be white.

She said this loud enough for everyone in the cordoned line behind her to hear.

The young man I’d been waiting on was black, as was practically everyone else in line.

I leaned towards her and hissed —

You realize you’ve just given me license to tell you exactly what I think of you without the risk of getting fired…

But I’m not gonna do that.

What I AM going to do is tell you to go to the end of the line and wait for me to finish with all these other good people…and then I’ll call you a manager.

His name will be Akeem.

And he’s just gonna LOVE talkin’ to YOU.

She didn’t make it to the end of the line. Her long suffering husband literally dragged her out of the store.

And Akeem wasn’t actually my supervisor. He was responsible for the ground floor and I was mall level.

I lied about that part.

But he did enjoy the story when I told it to him later on.

Mother Goes Off On Woke School Board Over Graphic Books in Her Child’s Elementary School

What are some things that make you think “what a strange world we live in”?

There are many places that make this a very strange world. The Nazca Lines, crop circles, Easter Island, Stonehenge, Machu Picchu, and so on. I thought I had read about them all, but this one was new to me.

The Band of Holes

In Pisco, Peru, stretching across the Cajamarquilla Plain are thousands of ancient holes that measure 6 feet (1.8 m) to 7 feet (2.1.m) deep and evenly spaced 3 feet (.9 m) apart. No one has any idea how these holes were formed. There are at least 5000 to 6000 depressions that run north and south for almost 2 miles. (3.2 k)

Who would dig all these holes? Why? How were they created? I’m imagining some poor sunburned guy with a spade saying, “Okay, 600 more to go then I’m stopping.”

It actually looks like some giant machine was travelling along this path. Was it a mining operation? What were these holes for?

Initially discovered by pilot Robert Shippee who took an aerial photo of them and published them in National Geographic, they are indeed strange. They date to around the 15th. century, they believe.

Truthfully, although there are many guesses, no one really knows who or what dug these holes and why.

Peru is a very strange place that’s for sure. Just read about Saqsaywaman, 12 Angled Stone, and Machu Picchu. Who built these places and how? Modern man would have a hell of a time reconstructing them. They might not be able to. I think we have forgotten the ways to do these stupendous feats. The ancients apparently knew them. We are now just learning, or relearning about moving rock through sound and wavelengths.

More experiments with text to picture

Here’s some examples from others that I thought were well done…

Default masterpiece best quality oil painting modern Oiran roy 3(1)

Default Create a stunning 8K ultrarealistic food photograph fe 2

Default show Mark Antony leading in the battle of Actium in 31 0

Default Ascension of Augustus to Power 1

Default Capture the moment of triumph and despair as Octavians 2(1)

Default Capture the moment of triumph and despair as Octavians 2

Default A candid photo of crazy old scientists arguing in a la 3

Default A candid photo of crazy old scientists arguing in a la 2

Default Capture the moment of triumph and despair as Octavians 1(1)

Default show a Octavian commanding 290 roman trireme ships 1

Leonardo Diffusion XL Sketchbook Style Sketch book hand drawn 2

Default The man at the table raises his glass once more thanki 0

Default Capture the moment of triumph and despair as Octavians 1

Default Telekinesis is a remarkable ability that allows indivi 1

Default Imagine young Errol Flynn age 34 as a Court Dandy 15 2

Default crea a una chica rubia que se parezca a una chica huma 3

Default Simple Logo for barbershop Odin has a cool design hair 0

Default Create a Cat holding a alt coin Cripto 0

Default Again the waiter serves drinks to everyone except the 0

Default A candid photo of crazy old scientists arguing in a la 1

Default pisces zodiac sign golden metal reflecting a glowing s 0

Default spaceship parts debris floating in the exosphere the b 0

Default masterpiece best quality Anime14 modern Oiran bold neo 2

Default astronaut black cat floating in the stratosphere catal 0

Default masterpiece highest creativity Leonardo Da Vinci in dy 6

Default Uma guerreira japonesa com um drago tatuado em seu ros 2

Default black cat who will attack you with fire woman 0

Default White Cat sitting on pillows on panoramic roof Istanbu 2

Default A corgi in a white shirt black vest and white fedora s 3

Default Beautiful Elf posing with freckles and glasses and lo 2

Default Bloodborne Dark Souls 3 Elden Ring ultra detailed g 1

Default show men in the middle ages watching strange lights da 0

Default Brazilian woman with ears of a brazilian fox named lob 0

Default masterpiece best quality oil painting modern Oiran roy 3

Leonardo Vision XL Imagine a powerful elegant animated charact 2

What if the USA attacked China?

I find it remarkable that so many people think that the USA would overwhelm China in a war, the country that wrote the book on military strategy and how to defeat larger, more powerful opponents.

The US could not even win in Korea or Vietnam, what makes you think they would prevail against the much larger and powerful China?

First of all, the US would likely only defeat China in a conventional war assuming that China fought back using similar conventional means. Unlikely.

You have certainly seen all the news reports about Chinese hacking by their military? These sorts of things are warnings. They are warnings to the US that if you come after us we know where your vulnerabilities are. And so do the Russians. And any attack on the Chinese would also likely bring about a quick military alliance with the Russians as well.

A ground war against China (not to mention ANY war against China) would be the height of idiocy. China has 6X the number of people, compared to the US, who could be called into military service fairly quickly. And China is a HUGE country with lots of very difficult terrain to cover.

And given all the bullying and warfare that the US has engaged in since this new century began, do you really think that the Chinese, and Russian military, have not been actively preparing for the potential of such a scenario?

The US military can overwhelm most countries because they are much smaller and weaker. But taking on someone even close to our own size would expose weaknesses and vulnerabilities, both in the military and the US government, that neither wants the American people to know about or experience.

If the US wants to get itself into the biggest military quagmire in history, and destroy its economy, then yeah go ahead and try and go to war with China.

Guy Mocks Leftists Worldview With Funniest Testimony You’ll Hear Today

Can the U.S defeat China in a day? It seems that is the worldwide consensus. If such is the case, then shouldn’t China thread lightly when it comes to the U.S? I’m starting to really think China doesn’t stand a chance against the U.S and her allies.

It took the USA four presidents, 2 trillion dollars and 20 years of war in Afghanistan to replace the Taliban with the Taliban.

And you think that the US can defeat China in a day. Do you mean, like, in a basketball game or something? Hahahaaa …

What are some reasons you have left a restaurant before ordering?

I went into a truck-stop restaurant one night (though not the only time this happened) and was seated by the hostess, who cheerfully brought me the coffee and water she offered. And that was the last time ANYONE came to my table.

I watched other drivers/customers, all male, come in, get served, and finish and leave, and I couldn’t get anyone’s attention even by standing up and waving, or calling out to them as they passed by my table.

Note: I was alone, female, 50ish, and dressed decently (not provocatively) and clean. And hungry.

I finally gave up, and went to the cashier to pay for my coffee, and asked to speak to the manager. (It was the hostess who was acting as cashier). She asked, with concern, if there was a problem, and if there’d been anything wrong with the food. I said I wouldn’t know, since I never had the opportunity to order any. She got the manager, who said he was so sorry for the “misunderstanding”, and he’d be happy to take my order right then. I declined, saying that I had run out of time, and that I’d have to make do with a can of tuna or something I had in my truck for emergencies, but that it might be a good idea to speak to his waitstaff about the concept of customer service. And I added that I wouldn’t be stopping again there to eat anytime soon, as I didn’t have time in my life for that kind of treatment. I didn’t shout, or raise my voice, but I did want to make my displeasure known and understood.

On my way out, I left a tip with the hostess, who’d been cheerful and professional in her dealing with me, and told her that that tip was for her alone, and not to be shared, or “tipped out” with any servers. She already knew why, and thanked me.

Oh, and the coffee was comped.

What was your most horrible wedding experience as a guest?

Ha, not horrible just really rather bizarre! My husbands cousin was getting married. He turned out to be a horrible person but thats another story. At the wedding we are sat at the cousins table along with a mutual cousin who is/was a well known pop star. He was absolutely lovely, I was sat next to him and obviously the pop star has been left at home for the day. During the speech the brides father announced he was here and made him get up for a round of applause. Honestly he looked like he wanted to die on the spot. The brides father then spent the next 10 minutes talking about the pop star cousin and forgetting the bride and groom.

On another note 2 aunties had basically taken over the ladies loo where they could have a full blown row. You went in and they were just stood there, daggers drawn in silence. As you left you could hear them start again.

Overall it was a wedding to remember for all the wrong reasons and the bride and groom lasted about 10 years.

Niger DESTROYS Victoria Nuland’s Plot to Return Africa to France w/ Ben Norton

What office rule made you say “You gotta be kidding me”?

One place I worked still expected everyone to wear formal business attire even if they never met any clients. Amazingly, they issued an email that announced a trial run of “dress down Friday”. No guidance was given it was just dress down. This experiment was to run for a month.

After the second Friday we received another email cancelling all future dress down Fridays as some people had taken things too far. After a bit of discussion about what could have caused such a reaction, it is eventually revealed that some people wore jeans! Not scruffy jeans, jeans with holes in, slung too low, cut offs, just jeans.

Are people in China encouraged not to purchase American goods?

Many of my colleagues have moved away from iPhones. But it has nearly nothing to do with the brand beating a US brand.

An iPhone used to be a prestige item. A status symbol. But over the last 2 years so many people in China own one that it is no longer a status symbol. Factory workers, office workers etc. So what is so special about an iPhone that makes someone want to spend twice as much for it. They can buy another brand of phone that does what an iPhone does, make a phone call? Yup Take selfies? Yup. Use We Chat? Yup. Surf the net? Yup.

So that is the problem is Apple was too successful selling so many phones in China that there is no prestige that is worth paying an extra $500 for it.

And keep in mind that when someone in China is buying a phone they are paying for it all up front. So it is an extra $500 out of pocket. It is not like in the US where you pay for the phone monthly as part of your phone plan. So it is a painless extra $10 a month to buy an iPhone. So a Chinese person really thinks about the value they are getting when they hand over their money.

Of course now the little extra push to go with a Chinese brand is the trade war. But as far as I can see no one is telling them or asking them to not buy American.

Personally I think if the government ever did ask that US companies would sell very very very little here. Be thankful the Chinese government is showing restraint.

Is the quote “You cannot invade mainland United States. There would be a rifle behind every blade of grass.” attributed to General Isoroku Yamamoto based on a true story?

Admiral Yamamoto, not General. No, it is almost certainly bogus as there is no known citation for this supposed quote. The words have sometimes been attributed to the Gordon Prange, a historian on the staff of Douglas MacArthur, but it is found nowhere in his writings either. The quote should be regarded as bogus until someone can cite when and where it originated.

Nor did Admiral Yamamoto ever say:

I fear all we have done is to awaken a sleeping giant and fill him with a terrible resolve.

That quote appears to be derived from the 1970 film Tora! Tora!, Tora! (great film). What he did say was:

A military man can scarcely pride himself on having smitten a sleeping enemy.

This is a reference regarding his disappointment over the bungled Japanese declaration of war which wasn’t delivered until a few hours after the attack on Pearl Harbour.

Cast-Iron Skillet Pizza

I would name this “Caprese Pizza.” It’s heavenly!

Prep: 10 min | Cook: 20 min | Yield: 2 (9 to 10 inch) pizzas

Ingredients

1 pound store-bought pizza dough (room temperature)
1 ripe tomato, thinly sliced
1/4 pound fresh mozzarella cheese, diced
Coarse sea salt
2 tablespoons Filippo Berio Extra Virgin Olive Oil
1/2 cup shredded fresh basil

Instructions

Heat well-oiled cast-iron or nonstick 10 or 12 inch frying pan over medium heat for 5 minutes.
Divide dough in half; roll one half into round 1 inch smaller than diameter of pan.
Cook dough in hot pan until dough begins to rise and bottom starts to brown. Using metal spatula, turn carefully. Layer half the tomato slices over dough; scatter half the mozzarella over top. Lower heat to medium-low; cook until mozzarella melts.
Using metal spatula, transfer pizza to cutting board. Sprinkle with salt; drizzle with half the olive oil.
Cut into wedges; sprinkle half the basil over top.
Repeat with remaining ingredients.

Why did my top performing employee quit after write up?

Imagine it from the top performer’s point of view.

They might be getting offers from other companies they don’t discuss with you.

If they’re performing better than everyone else and don’t perceive themselves as having erred (at least not enough for a write up) they’re left searching for reasons you may have written them up. It’s inevitable that they will arrive at political or financial motives.

Typically having a write up interferes with career advancement, raises, and bonuses.

Perhaps they thought you were trying to put them back on their heels to make them more controllable. Top performers don’t need to be controlled. Maybe the very act of writing them up was a final straw in proving the incompetence of your leadership to them.

If their work created opportunities or revenues perhaps they saw a write up as a way of denying or usurping those. Top salespeople get this all the time. It’s a typical ruse for an unscrupulous leadership team to mess with a salesperson’s compensation or territory when they confront how much money they may pay in commissions to one person. When they think they can close the book of business themselves these asshats will do things to marginalize or force out the salesperson to capture more revenue and take credit for the sale “in spite of” the salesperson’s supposed shortcomings.

If the company is already having some problems this kind of thing is a death knell. It’s like the drunk, losing poker player trying to scare a guy with a stack of chips into folding by going all-in with an obvious bluff. The experienced people see that and think, “Well, that’s the end of that.”

This type of thing is doubly bad because it simultaneously signals bad faith and incompetence. It inspires disgust and righteous anger in people who work diligently and honestly.

In general, the more honest and competent a person is, the more attuned they are to the dishonesty and incompetence of others. Since they are typically getting things done at a faster pace they end up encountering things that interfere with getting things done more often. They encounter and avoid the temptation to take dishonest shortcuts and are pressured to do so by their managers more often.

This whole time other companies are sending messages about the greener grass across the street.

Does any of this feel like it applies to you?

The Delta Hot Index: Compare your Mate Value at a Glance

What new policy did a new boss try to implement that made you say “You gotta be kidding me”?

Many years ago I worked at a Clinical Trials company. In the space of 18 months, two of the female staff had needed extended sick leave. I don’t know the exact nature of the illness these women had. I worked more closely with one of the women so, I know that she had a miscarriage and possibly depression afterward. I believe the other women had some long-standing health problems that resulted in a hysterectomy.

One of the Managing Directors sent a fairly rambling memo about the inconvenience, to the company, of key staff being absent for long periods. He was proposing to take a gynaecological history of female staff in order to assess their ‘availabilty’ for certain roles in the company. Apparently, women’s plumbing is a bit different and inconveniently complex …. (In fairness, I should point out that he was a consultant gynaecologist).

As a Staff Representative, I was asked to forward a unanimous response on behalf of the female staff. The response was just two words and you know which two words.

He received his reply within an hour of sending his memo and the subject was never mentioned again.

S̲te̲e̲ly D̲a̲n – 1977 Greatest Hits – A̲̲ja̲ (Full Album)

OMG. This takes me back. We used to jam to this non-stop. First time I have listened to the full album in about fifty years. No shit!

Are Taiwanese oligarchs worried about chip breakthrough in mainland China that will affect their margin?

Not really

main qimg 3c40f9babdb58180d1f0fe494855f253

A Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 Dragon Chipset costs around $ 450 and of that Qualcomm pockets $ 225 as Chip Designer while TSMC gets around $ 175 for Fabrication and the Packaging and Testing costs $ 50

A Huawei Kirin 9000s costs around $ 370 today of which Huawei pockets $ 100 as Chip Designer, the Foundry SMIC gets around $ 300 , the Packaging and Testing costs $ 20 and the Chinese Government subsidizes $ 50 a Chip

So as you can see TSMC pockets $ 175 for each Chip and has a margin of close to 40% as profit

SMIC pockets $ 300 for each Chip and has a margin of 7% as profit

Thus TSMC is paying almost $ 105 for manufacturing a 7 nm Chip while SMIC is paying a whopping $ 279 for manufacturing a 7 nm Chip with a 96% Yield

So TSMC is in a very advantageous position in terms of Chip manufacturing

It costs SMIC almost three times more to manufacture a 7 nm chip than TSMC at 96% Yield

The key is HUAWEI

You notice Huawei pockets only 24% of the Cost of the Chip whereas Apple and Qualcomm and Intel they pocket 50% of the Cost of the Chip

Likewise the Testing and Packaging and Finishing in China is 40% of what they charge in Taiwan

So the final Chipset is almost $ 50 Cheaper on the Mainland

So if you look at TSMC vs SMIC

SMIC is manufacturing a chip which is 96% in Yield of the same manufactured by TSMC at 3 times the cost and 20% of the Profit earned by TSMC (Not including the Subsidy)

If you look at the Kirin 9000s vs Snapdragon 888

The Kirin costs $ 50 Less than the Snapdragon and at virtually almost same quality

This translates to at least $ 117 on the final retail price of any phone using the Chipset

That’s 700 RMB cheaper at the lowest

Thats where China dominates

Ultimately the Brand mode of profiteering is why the West can never ultimately win against China in a fully competitive market

What was the most boneheaded mistake you saw someone make while in the military?

This was more than boneheaded!!!!!!!!!! This photo is of me as a MP about to go out on a jeep patrol in Danang Vietnam in 1970.

main qimg 3482d8aea896a2726c0c06652f8c96b5

When we changed the watch, the watch before us gave us their 45 caliber pistol. They were supposed to remove the magazine, jack the weapon back and then shoot down at some sand or earth area to make sure no round was in it. The guy I had on one watch switch, took his weapon out did not take the magazine out, jacked it back (which loaded the chamber) and then shot it down about 2 inches from my toes. We were both on a concrete walkway going into our police office. What saved my life most likely was a rubber mat about 15 feet long on the sidewalk. The round went through the rubber mat and when it ricocheted on the concrete, the bullet slid about 12 feet under the mat between my legs behind me instead of going up into me. What followed was a huge flurry of of expletives to him from myself and the men around me. I could have died from friendly fire!

What will happen if America invades China?

This shall not happen.

Last time when the States invaded North Korea, 54246 American soldiers lost their lives, and we lost more. I believe that a wise POTUS would never decide to invade China by risking half of the army in far east.

If this shall happen, er…

Per the requirements of Chinese laws, I shall be recruited, and given a rank around caption.

I may be assigned to work in a camp, interrogating captured US soldiers (see I can speak English quite well, and I am somewhat familar with psychology, politics, history and western culture).

I am also a chemist graduating from a top university. I can also serve as a chemistry engineer in factories, producing gunpowder, medicine, and other necessary materials for the war.

If the war does not go on well, I may be sent to the front, holding a handgun, leading dozens of soldiers, and I may die there. If I die bravely in a battle, I shall be recognized as “revolutionary martyr” and beried in a “martyrs cemetery”. I may have no son or daughter, but all Chinese children living in the new peace world shall dance and sing on the land that I have bled for.

Both China and the States have well educated, brave and patriotic citizens. It would be a disaster for the people of both countries, even the whole world, to initiate a war between the two countries.

Lives shall be lost, cities shall be burned and children shall starve.

If we use our muscle suitably instead, we can make this world better.

What happened to you in China which made you think completely differently about the country and society?

Before going to China, I used to hear a lot from my Mainland Chinese friends in Australia how the Chinese are so selfish and cunning. They told me to be careful when buying something because I could get cheated, that the Chinese won’t do me any favor when I ask for one and if I ask somebody the direction they might point into a wrong direction. I heard the Shaghainese are arrogant, the Henanese are very bad, the Hubei-ese are cheaters, the North-Easterners are rough and so on so forth. Of course, they warned me on good will, and I thanked them for that.

Yet, when I was actually in China, I found that virtually all what they told me are wrong. I’ve never met any arrogant Shanghainese, Hubei-ese cheater, bad Henanese or rough North-Easterner (though many North-Easterners do talk loudly). When I had no umbrella on a rainy day, someone gave me an umbrella; when I took a bus but had no coin, someone gave me coins and when I forgot my belonging in a restaurant, someone told me that. Of course, there must be bad people in China as well, but not as many as I imagined before going there based on what those Chinese friends warned me.

EELF Collection

This is… well… not what you would think. I ran across this, and it’s… well… you just have to watch it.

Parachuting into fashion

Fashions come and go.

Some are cool, some are silly, and some just seem odd.

Back in the 1980’s I wore “parachute pants”.

1980s era parachute pants were a fashion trend popularized during the 1980s, particularly in the hip-hop and breakdancing cultures. These pants were characterized by their loose, baggy fit, often made from lightweight synthetic materials like nylon or polyester, resembling the fabric used in parachutes (hence the name). They typically featured multiple pockets, zippers, and sometimes decorative stitching or panels. Parachute pants were known for their bold colors and patterns, and they often had elasticated cuffs at the ankles. The style was closely associated with the dance and music scenes of the time and became iconic within the fashion landscape of the 1980s.

Do you all remember these things?

Mine were grey-silver in color. LOL.

I was the “cool guy”… Ha ha ha ha

How cool are you today?

Today…

What happens if you give two weeks’ notice and they ask you to leave?

Oh, this happened to me and I can tell you from personal experience.

You leave.

I gave a letter of resignation to my boss and said “Sorry about this”. He said “Aww man, really?” and then I went back to my desk. Two hours, later the HR lady that I hated came to my desk and asked me to grab my stuff and come to HR with her. I already had all my stuff packed in a box.

She processed my paperwork and sent me home. She asked me to go straight to my car and not to say anything to any of my coworkers on my way out. I said I wasn’t planning to, but wouldn’t ignore them if they said something to me. Which she was ok with. She also asked me if there was anything else I needed off my desk, but I had already gotten everything I wanted to keep. She asked if She could go through my box and take a look. I was fine with that. And that was pretty much it.

When I got home, I called the new job and told them I could start early if they wanted. They asked me to come in on the Monday after the following week as that was how the pay periods lined up and I agreed.

This is always a possibility, especially if you are going to a competitor.

All you need to do is stay professional, and don’t burn any bridges. Not worth it.

Men are simple

"I'm a 46 year old man. Married with a kid. You pretty much nailed it. Not sure why this video was suggested to me or why i clicked on it but your insight is spot on."

What was the bravest thing you ever did in a job interview?

Sometime in 1980, I had a job interview for an Electrical Engineer position.The interviewer showed me a very simple circuit and asked me what it did. I said, “It drives a DC motor either forward or backward.” He then asked what was wrong with the circuit and I then said, “I don’t see anything wrong other than that fact that there was no biasing on the transistors, but that is pretty obvious.”

“No no.” he said. “That’s not obvious at all. You have no idea how many electrical engineers don’t know how to bias transistors,” (Fact is that this is both basic and very important.)

He went on ranting and raving about this for several minutes. Then asked me how I would bias the transistors. So, I drew in some resisters. He said, “Yeah – I guess that would work.”

I asked him, “Would you do it differently?” “A little bit.” He replied. I asked him to show me how he would do it.

He then proceeded to “bias” the transistors in a way that would NOT work. I asked myself, “Should I tell him?” I quickly decided that if I could not point out his error, I did not want to work for the guy anyway.

So I told him why his circuit would not work. He crumpled up the paper.tossed it in the basket and said, “That stuff is not important anyway.” I was out of his office two minutes later and never heard from them again. I laughed all the way to my car.

Real talk

Russia. Is. At. War.

Due to a flurry of western support for Ukraine, now escalating to ground troop insertions, Russia had to move its special military operation in Ukraine into the bigger scope of a full fledged war. Over the last month the Ukrainian military intelligence directorate GUR and its civilian secret service SBU have attempted to disturb the recent presidential election in Russia. They did this by:

sending forces, with U.S. made equipment (Bradleys), to attack Russian border villages in the direction of Belgorod (Belgograd),
by launching missiles from Czech Vampire (RM-70) multiple launch rocket systems towards Belgorod,
by launching somewhat successful drone strike against Russian oil refineries.

The election in Russia saw a record turnout. As expected President Putin did win by a very large margin. His legitimacy is a geopolitical reality:

If Nato expansion is about the perpetuation of US hegemony and de-dollarisation is about the burial of the western financial system that underpins that hegemony, Putin is playing a pivotal role in that historical process. If Putin remains in power till 2030 and fulfils even one half of the ambitious blueprint of social and economic programme for Russia that he outlined in his landmark speech at the Federal Assembly of the parliament, the global strategic balance will have shifted irrevocably and cemented a multipolar world order as the anchor sheet of 21st century politics. The West knows it, the Russian people know it, the vast majority of nations realise it. That said, it must be understood as well that this is not only Putin’s victory personally but also a consolidation of Russian society around him. And that accounts for the last week’s election turning into such a high-stakes affair.

With the election out of the way Russia was free to hit back.

Moon of Alabama @MoonofA – 13:24 UTC · Mar 20, 2024Ru Ministry of Defense claims 1725 Ukrainian casualties over the last day (650 in Belgograd direction alone) https://function.mil.ru/news_page/…

Over the last six days the Russian MoD reports claimed no less than nine hits on the Czech Vampire systems which targeted Belgorod. The Ukrainian incursion towards Belgorod has thus been defeated. On Wednesday Jake Sullivan, the U.S. National Security Advisor, had visited Kiev. He was noticed for what he did not say:

Jake Sullivan, US National Security Adviser, has said that Ukraine will win if it comes out of the war as a sovereign, democratic and free country. At the same time, he did not mention restoring Ukraine’s territorial integrity among the conditions of victory.

It is believed that Sullivan delivered a warning to Kiev. As the Financial Times reported (archived):

The US has urged Ukraine to halt attacks on Russia’s energy infrastructure, warning the drone strikes risk driving up global oil prices and provoking retaliation, according to three people familiar with the discussions.The repeated warnings from Washington were delivered to senior officials at Ukraine’s state security service, the SBU, and its military intelligence directorate, known as the GUR, the people told the Financial Times. Both intelligence units have steadily expanded their own drone programmes to strike Russian targets on land, sea and in the air since the start of the Kremlin’s full-scale invasion in February 2022.

The U.S. concern is not about Ukraine but about Biden’s chance for reelection:

Russia remains one of the world’s most important energy exporters despite western sanctions on its oil and gas sector. Oil prices have risen about 15 per cent this year, to $85 a barrel, pushing up fuel costs just as US President Joe Biden begins his campaign for re-election. … The US objections come as Biden faces a tough re-election battle this year with petrol prices on the rise, increasing almost 15 per cent this year to around $3.50 a gallon.“Nothing terrifies a sitting American president more than a surge in pump prices during an election year,” said Bob McNally, president of consultancy Rapidan Energy and a former White House energy adviser.

The Ukrainian government denied and confirmed the FT report (machine translation):

Earlier, Deputy Prime Minister Olga Stefanashina actually confirmed the information to the Financial Times , saying that “we understand the calls of American partners,” but Ukraine responded to such calls by “achieving its goals” and “very successful operations” on the territory of the Russian Federation.

Sullivan’s warning about provoking retaliation was too late. Yesterday, for the first time in 44 day, Russia launched a missile attack against Kiev (archived):

The Ukrainian Air Force said that air defense systems had intercepted all 31 of the Russian missiles that targeted Kyiv. Still, debris from the downed missiles fell in various parts of the city, causing the injuries and damage. No deaths have been reported so far. … In the Podilskyi district, which is home to industrial facilities that Russia has targeted in the past, a plume of black smoke was rising early in the morning, suggesting a hit. Mr. Klitschko said a fire had broken out at a power substation in the area. Ukrainian officials rarely confirm strikes on strategic industrial and military targets. … Thursday’s attack on Kyiv echoed a strategy used by Russia during air assaults in late December that consisted of overwhelming Ukraine’s air defenses with multiple launches of various types of missiles, including ballistic and hypersonic ones.Russia has launched relatively few large-scale missile attacks in recent months, despite a capacity to produce more than 115 long-range missiles per month, according to Ukrainian officials.

Yesterday’s Russian MoD report said:

Last night, the Russian Aerospace Forces delivered a strike by long-range precision weaponry including Kinzhal hypersonic missiles at AFU decision-making centres, logistic bases, temporary deployment areas of special operations forces and foreign mercenaries.The goal of the strike has been achieved. All the targets have been engaged.

Such Russian strikes are complex. Drones are send first to reveal Ukrainian air defense systems. Then follows a wave of attacks against those system. A third strike is then launched against the real targets of the attack. In this case those were a drone factory in Kiev as well as a headquarter of the military intelligence service GUR. Another large scale strike followed today. The primary targets were elements of the electricity infrastructure:

Large areas of Ukraine are suffering blackouts after Russian missiles targeted energy infrastructure.There is no electricity in the second-largest city of Kharkiv, says regional head Oleg Synehubov. Fifteen blasts were reported in Kharkiv, while more than 53,000 households in Odesa were without power. Ukraine’s energy minister, German Galushchenko, accused Russia of trying to provoke “a large-scale failure of the country’s energy system”. A power line feeding the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant had been cut, he added. Regional head Ivan Fedorov said the power station was “on the verge of a blackout”, adding that seven buildings in the region had been destroyed and 35 others damaged. President Volodymyr Zelensky said Russia had launched more than 60 Shahed drones and about 90 missiles into Ukraine during the wave of overnight attacks.

Internet access in Ukraine has dropped significantly. This was again a complex attack:

Lord Bebo @MyLordBebo – 9:42 UTC · Mar 22, 2024🇺🇦🇷🇺🚨‼️ Russian missile attack on Ukraine during March 22nd, 2024. -> Notice the flight patterns of the missiles. Aviation: At 01:12, the takeoff of 3⨯ Tu-95ms from the Olenya air base was noted. At 02:30, information on the movement of 13 Tu-95ms to the launch lines was clarified. At 03:34, the launch of the KRPB Kh-101/555/55 was carried out from the Volgograd region. At 04:18, the takeoff of 5 Tu-22m3s from the Mozdok air base was noted. During the attack, a total of 10 MiG-31Ks were raised (7 were used before the attack). Armament: 55/63x “Shahed-136/131” Type Shock Unmanned Aerial Vehicles; 0/12x OTR “Iskander-M”; 35/40 X-101/X-555 cruise missiles; 0/5x NKR Kh-22; 0/7x ARPB Kh-47M2 “Dagger”; 2/2x CAR X-59; 0/22x ZKR S-300/S-400. The targeted air attack vector during today’s day is marked on the map.

bigger

biggerThe Ukrainian air defense claimed to have shut down 55 of 63 Shahid drones. But the Iskander, Dagger and S-300 fired against it all came through. The Russian MoD reports (machine translation):

Today, the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation delivered a massive strike with high-precision long-range weapons of air, sea, land-based and unmanned aerial vehicles against energy facilities, military-industrial complex, railway junctions, arsenals, places of deployment of formations of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and foreign mercenaries.As a result of the strike, the functioning of industrial enterprises for the production and repair of weapons, military equipment and ammunition was disorganized. In addition, foreign military equipment and weapons delivered to Ukraine from NATO countries were destroyed, transfers to the front line of enemy reserves were disrupted, and units of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and mercenaries in the areas of restoring combat capability were hit. All the goals of the massive strike have been achieved.

Some European politicians are eager to join the fight.

biggerAs demonstrated today, Russia is ready for it. But unlike a still training Macron Russia has taken its gloves off (machine translation):

Peskov: Russia is in a state of war, everyone should understand thisRussia will continue to act in such a way that the military potential of Ukraine could not threaten the security of its citizens and its territory, he said in a conversation with reporters. “What is the president talking about? We have four new regions of the Russian Federation. And the main thing for us is to protect people in these regions and liberate the territory of these regions, which is currently de facto occupied by the Kiev regime,” Peskov said. According to the presidential press secretary, Russia cannot allow the existence of a state on its borders that has documented the intention to use any methods to take Crimea from it, not to mention the territory of new regions. “We are at war. Yes, it started out as a special military operation, but as soon as this little group was formed there, when the collective West became a participant in this on the side of Ukraine, it already became a war for us. I am convinced of this. And everyone should understand this for their internal mobilization,” Peskov added.

In parallel to Peskov’s declaration of war talk, Russias announced the mass production of the three ton heavy FAB-3.000 aerial bombs with 1,400 kg of explosives. These will be fitted, like the currently used FAB 500 and FAB 1.500, with the universal planning and correction module (UMPC) which allows the bombs to glide some 40 miles after being launched to then hit its planned target with high precision. There is little that can survive such a strike. In his (highly recommendable) book “The Russian Art of War”, the former Swiss military intelligence officer Jacques Baud described the reason why the current fighting in Ukraine started out as a “Special Military Operation” within a larger context:

The use of the word “war” would imply a different structure of conduct than that envisioned by the Russians in Ukraine, and would have other structural implications in Russia itself. Moreover – and this is a central point – as NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg himself acknowledges,”the war began in 2014” and should have been ended by the Minsk Agreements. The SMO is therefore a “military operation” and not a new “war”, as many Western “experts” claim.

That was then. Now Russia is at war. This will have, as Baud says, a different structure of conduct and other structural implications in Russia and beyond. Those ‘western’ politicians who are dreaming of fighting Russia have no idea of what will hit their troops the moment they try to join the war. NATO however, and especially the United States, will not go to war. At least not yet. President Biden has his hands full with the genocidal war the Zionists are waging against the Palestinian population. There is also a chance for a war to suddenly start in Asia. (Could North Korea be asked to flex its muscles?) Neither the U.S. nor Europe are in the shape of winning a multi-front war of global dimensions. The military leaders in the relevant countries know this well. In consequence ‘Western’ politicians will have to bite the bitter pill of a decisive strategic defeat.

Posted by b on March 22, 2024 at 13:10 UTC | Permalink

Furious Putin Crocus Gunmen Captured, Terror Network Destroyed, Big Ukr Defeat ivanivske Falls

What do you think about the saying: “If you have to ask (the price), you can’t afford it” as a person of wealth?

A few years ago, an American tourist in Zurich wandered into a pricey fashion store called Trois Pommes, and a handbag caught her eye. So she asked the saleswoman: “Excuse me, may I see that bag right above your head?”

The saleswoman sized up the tourist, a middle aged black woman, and figured it was a waste of her time so told her: “No. It’s too expensive”.

The tourist said: “No, you see the black one, the one that’s folded over”.

Saleswoman, with a snooty fru fru I’m-not-even-close-to-being-rich-but-will-obsequiously-kiss-rich-peoples-butt-while-despising-normal-folk-like-me replied: “No, no, no, you don’t want to see that one, you want to see this one, because that one will cost too much, you will not be able to afford that one”

The saleswoman ultimately refused to get the bag in question, priced at around $38,000, and the exasperated customer walked.

Unbeknownst to the saleswoman, the tourist was probably the world’s richest woman at the time (I’m guessing Jeff Bezos’ ex is richer now after the divorce settlement), billionaire Oprah Winfrey.

The story made the news and generated tons of negative publicity for the store. As to Oprah, when she eventually found out what the bag cost, she said it was overpriced and would never pay that much for that handbag.

Rich people – at least wise ones and/or the ones who worked for their money, as opposed to spoiled trust fund brats who had everything handed to them since birth, do ask for prices. For one, because it takes less time to ask and get an answer in a few seconds than it does to go through the hassle of research. For another, and more importantly, because like any rational people, they want to have an idea about cost vs benefit, whether something is worth it, and whether they can get the best deal for what they want.

Just because rich people can afford to pay a seller their asking price doesn’t mean they’re automatically going to. Rational rich people do comparison shop and negotiate for the best deals they can get, instead of just shell out whatever anybody who has something they want asks for.

The “if you have to ask the price you can’t afford it” assumption is silly.

The Best of Saul Goodman from Breaking Bad

What was the strangest way an embezzler was caught?

I worked in engineering and facilities for a large Pharma. We had project managers who did construction and renovation.

In the old days we had paper employee ID cards and contractors weren’t accounted for very well. We started a contractor safety program where each of the contractor’s employees had to take a one hour safety program, then issued a contractor card. At the same time employee IDs we’re upgraded to mag cards so everyone swiped in and out of our properties.

In time the audit showed one company who didn’t respond to the program. Digging in it was found that one project manager used them exclusively. On every project he had them do some small unidentified tasks, never more than $5000. And for many years. Once the card systems were installed we could see nobody from that company ever entered the property but the small bills kept coming.

An investigation revealed that this 30 year employee owned the company which was nothing more than a post office box and a bank account. He never got greedy so he never aroused suspicions, but constantly embezzled betwen $2–5000 on every project for years! Only caught by automation.

Reality of Government Policy

US crackdown on China desperate, delusional — S.L.Kanthan

“We don’t want to live in a world where the Chinese are the dominant country,” – this astounding statement of fear and paranoia is from the US Ambassador to China Nicholas Burns. Once upon a time, the same US championed free trade, free market, and competition. It also established global institutions such as the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade and WTO, welcomed immigrants from all over the world, and evangelized free movement of capital and technology. Now, the US is sabotaging everything it built, hoping desperately to retain its hegemony. However, this onslaught is futile as US elites do not understand why their financialized economy of OnlyFans failed and why China’s industrial economy of electric vehicles and solar panels succeeded.

Unable to compete and unwilling to learn, the American establishment has been trying to hobble China’s growth through illegal and incoherent tactics. Since 2017, the US has been waging a relentless and intense war on China’s economy and development. The hybrid war includes tariffs, sanctions, diplomatic assaults and propaganda wars.

The broader objective is to prevent China becoming the No.1 economy in the world in terms of nominal GDP – by purchasing power parity, China is already 20 percent larger than the US. The narrower, but equally sinister, goal is to stop China from catching up and becoming self-reliant in cutting-edge technologies. If China is portrayed as a threat to Asia and the world, the American and European public would feel that the sanctions are justified.

In the smartphone world, when Huawei surpassed Apple in market share, the US forced TSMC and Samsung to stop making semiconductor chips for Huawei. Similarly, the US has pressured the Dutch company ASML into not selling high-end chipmaking lithography machines to China. What WTO rules or international norms allow the US to engage in such geo-economic thuggery?

The blitzkrieg against Chinese companies did not stop at strategic high-tech companies. Now, the US has started attacking Chinese electric cars and targeted at robbing the TikTok. Without blushing a bit, US officials claim that Beijing can turn off the electric cars or harvest data from TikTok. Don’t forget that: Thanks to Edward Snowden and WikiLeaks, we know how every American hardware and software is a spying tool; and the “Twitter Files” revealed how US social media are infiltrated with representatives from the Central Intelligence Agency, National Security Agency, US Department of Defense, among others.

Every accusation by America is an admission of its own guilt. While the US media and politicians accuse China of stealing intellectual property (IP), the US is blatantly stealing TSMC’s technology and IP by forcing the latter to build advanced chip-manufacturing plants in the US. The US also complains a lot about subsidies in China, while dispensing tens of billions of dollars to American tech companies under the CHIPS and Science Act. Furthermore, the US dollar itself is the biggest subsidy, since the US government prints trillions of dollars out of thin air rather than taxing corporations.

The tragic fact is that the US, without a clear strategy, is failing. It is jumping from tariffs and sanctions to illogical buzzwords such as “decoupling,” “friend-shoring” and “de-risking.” China is the world’s manufacturing powerhouse with a trade surplus of $800 billion a year; and neither the US nor the EU can survive for a month without Chinese goods. It’s only a matter of time until China masters the entire semiconductor ecosystem, after which the US will have no advantage. Thus, when US Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo recently said that the US will “do whatever it takes to curb China’s technology,” she just sounded delusional.

To figure out who will be successful, one just needs to compare President Joe Biden’s address at the State of the Union to the Two Sessions in Beijing. Biden started off his speech by vilifying Russia and imploring Congress to continue funding the proxy war in Ukraine. On the other side of the world, political advisors of the CPPCC and deputies of the NPC deliberated “high quality growth” and “new quality productive force.”

The US model is based on imperialism abroad and a parasitic form of capitalism at home. If their ego prevents them from learning the China model, Americans should go back to their roots and study the writings of founders like Alexander Hamilton and the classical economics of the 19th century. At the current trajectory, the US is on a path to implosion and a disastrous collision with the reality of a multipolar world.

CITY OF GLASS – Pulp Science Fiction by Skyward, Surrealism, Experiments in Texture and Transparency

At The UN It Is A Rogue U.S. Against The Rest Of The World

Ted Snider asks:

Is America a Rogue Superpower?

“Unipolar” used to mean that the United States was, at least in theory, alone in leading the world. Now “unipolar” means that the United States is alone and isolated in opposition to the world.

Snider refers to the recent UN Security Council resolution 2728 which “demands” a ceasefire in Gaza and “demands” a release of hostages and “demands” the unhindered supply of food and other items to Gaza.

The U.S. has claimed, falsely, that the resolution is not binding.

As Snider writes:

On March 25, the U.S. went one step further and took a step toward becoming a rogue state who has supplanted international law with its rules-based order. International law is grounded in the charter system and the United Nations and is universally applicable. The rules-based order is composed of unwritten laws whose source, consent, and legitimacy are unknown. To the global majority, those unwritten laws have the appearance of being invoked when they benefit the U.S. and its partners and not being invoked when they don’t.

On March 25, the Security Council passed a resolution demanding “an immediate ceasefire for the month of Ramadan respected by all parties leading to a lasting sustainable ceasefire.” The resolution was able to pass because the U.S. stood aside and let the other fourteen Security Council members pass it by abstaining instead of vetoing.

But in her explanation of the American abstention after the resolution passed, U.S. Ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield “surprisingly” said that “we fully support some of the critical objectives in this nonbinding resolution.”

Her claim that the Security Council resolution was nonbinding was not an off script, impromptu comment. It is the strategy of a country that enforces, not international law, but the U.S. led rules-based order.

Arnaud Bertrand has added a similar thought:

Since the beginning, it’s been obvious that Gaza was in many ways a fight between International Law and the US’s “rules-based order”.This whole episode around the UN resolution is a perfect illustration of this. There is no debate amongst international law scholars that resolutions by the UN Security Council that “demand” certain actions are binding (good explanation by a legal scholar here). In fact resolutions by the council ARE international law, article 25 of the UN Charter clearly states: “The Members of the United Nations agree to accept and carry out the decisions of the Security Council in accordance with the present Charter.”

Yet the US now argues that the “rule” is in fact different: “It’s a non-binding resolution, so there’s no impact at all on Israel”.

Where is this rule written, that somehow when the UNSC “demands an immediate ceasefire for the month of Ramadan respected by all parties leading to a lasting sustainable ceasefire”, it’s non-binding and “there’s no impact at all” on the warring party?

Nowhere, that’s the beauty of the rules-based order: the rules are made-up in the moment to fit the interests of the U.S. and its henchmen, depending on the circumstances.

The big issue here is that the whole world, literally, disagrees with the U.S. claims.

Snider again:

All UN Security Council resolutions are legally binding and have the status of international law. That is why UN Secretary General António Guterres said, “This resolution must be implemented. Failure would be unforgivable.” UN deputy spokesperson Farhan Haq explained that, “All the resolutions of the Security Council are international law. They are as binding as international laws.”

Others responded the same way to the U.S. claim. On behalf of the ten elected members of the Security Council who drafted the resolution, Pedro Comissario, Mozambique’s envoy to the United Nations, said, “All United Nations Security Council resolutions are binding and mandatory.” He then added, “It is the hope of the 10 that the resolution adopted today will be implemented in good faith by all parties.”

The United Kingdom also did “not share” the U.S. claim, prompting their envoy to the UN to say, “we expect all Council resolutions to be implemented. This one is not any different. The demands in the resolution are absolutely clear.” China, too, did not share the U.S. evaluation. “China’s U.N. Ambassador Zhang Jun said Security Council resolutions are binding.”

France too rejects the U.S. claim and insists that UNSC Res 2728 is absolutely binding and especially binding for Israel:

“A United Nation Security Council resolution is binding under international law. All concerned parties MUST implement it, especially Israel, to whom it is incumbent to apply this resolution.”

Russia has said similar:

Russia’s Foreign Ministry said Tuesday that UN Security Council Resolution 2728 on Gaza, which calls for an immediate cease-fire and access for humanitarian aid, is binding for all sides, including Israel.
…
“The Russian side expects that the binding UN Security Council Resolution 2728 will contribute to de-escalating violence in Gaza, including preventing the Israeli operation in Rafah, freeing hostages, (and) increasing humanitarian assistance to civilians in the sector,” it said.

Four of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council – including two major U.S. allies -, all of its non-permanent members and the UN Secretary General have explicitly said that UNSC Res 2728 is binding.

The U.S. (plus maybe a few of its minor proxies) is the only state which publicly disputes that.

Bertrand points out that this will have huge consequences:

There’s no overstating how consequential this is for the integrity of international relations. By doing so, the US effectively destroys the world order it largely created after WW2 because it effectively tells everyone that the set of institutions, rules and norms that underpin it are meaningless. We’re effectively now in a world system where everyone realizes the police, the government, the basic set of beliefs, have become completely corrupted. This changes everything.What comes next? I think there’s no coming back for the U.S. And I think they know this, maybe unconsciously, otherwise they would at least pretend to act for the better good of all. The fact they don’t shows they’ve effectively abdicated ambitions to restore their hegemony: they’re now nakedly in it to milk the system for themselves, universal pretentions have gone.

This UN Security Council is not the only institution which the U.S. tries to destroys after having largely created it.

In 2019 the World Trade Organization lost its appeal court:

The appellate body of the World Trade Organization (WTO), considered the supreme court for international trade, lost its ability to rule on new dispute cases at midnight Tuesday.The panel, whose decisions affect billions of dollars in global trade, is supposed to have seven judges. But their ranks have dwindled because the United States — under the past three presidents — has blocked replacements to protest the way the WTO does business.

A minimum of three judges is needed to issue rulings and the terms of two of the last three judges ended at midnight Tuesday.

This will deal a major blow to the global trading system, critics say, arguing that the situation risked creating a system of trade relations based on power rather than binding international rules.

The U.S. is now using protectionism, subsidies and tariffs, which are clearly illegal under WTO rules it had previously agreed to. But as it has managed, without having any serious argument, to destroy the WTO’s court their is no longer a direct way it can get penalized for it.

But trade is only one field of international relations and other WTO members have found ways to solve disputes even without its court.

The stakes are much higher when it comes to matters of peace and of wars waged with the intent of genocide.

Bertrand concludes:

Most countries however don’t want to live in an “eat or get eaten”/”might makes right” world, without rules or norms. So in time a new system will arise.

The biggest unknowns being: can it arise without a major global war, who will lead the construction of its foundations and how can it be set up so that this time around it is fair for all and respected by all?

I’ll leave it to you to ponder those questions.

Posted by b on March 28, 2024 at 16:43 UTC | Permalink

The Collapse of The Traditional Career.

Pesto Feta Pizza

Ingredients

1 prepared pizza crust (such as Boboli)
Feta cheese to taste
Pesto
2 cups fresh parsley or basil, firmly packed
3/4 cup Parmesan or Romano
2/3 cup olive oil
2 to 4 cloves garlic
1/3 cup pine nuts or walnuts

Instructions

Heat oven to 400 degrees F.
Place basil and garlic in food processor bowl and blend until smooth.
Add nuts and cheese and continue blending.
While processor is running, add olive oil until creamy. (Pesto can be stored up to three months in refrigerator if covered with a thin layer of olive oil, or it can be frozen.)
To assemble pizza: Use pastry brush to add a thin coat of oil to pizza crust (can omit this step).
Spread pesto over pizza crust.
Sprinkle feta over top and add thinly sliced and quartered tomatoes, if desired.
Bake for 10 to 15 minutes.
Serve with a salad.

What was the rudest thing a teacher has said to you in front of the whole class?

When I was at the 3rd year of Business Administration at the university (from 5 years total), I was discouraged, kind of depressed, and unhappy. So, I didn’t care about buying all the books or anything. I was usually a great student but that year I wasn’t inspired.

One day, my tax law professor criticised me, in front of everyone, because I didn’t have the book. He didn’t have, either! So, I told him that. He answered he had memorised the book. I said I didn’t care, if he didn’t give me the example he couldn’t criticise me. He continued not having the book during the classes and I did the same.

When the test came, we could consult the book. I borrowed the book from my cousin’s boyfriend. Before to hand him (my teacher) my test, knowing I did a great job, I wrote a note provoking him for having done a great test without needing the book during classes (it was easy to find the references I needed from the book).

He was furious with me the day he returned the graded tests. Because my grade was among the best of my class. 😈 I didn’t check the test of my colleague with the best grade. Maybe mine was better and the teacher gave him higher grade just to avoid giving me extra reasons to provoke him, but I didn’t care. For me, my grade was good enough.

Even in my worst days I can be much better than most people at anything I want to do well. Not only in my native country. I did better than competitors worldwide along my career. Without needing anyone to disrespect me or provoke me. I’m motivated by doing things better day after day and learning from my experiences.

Where is the Next American Dream?

When did you realize that you would be single for the rest of your life, and why?

My mother once told me “you gotta kiss a lot of frogs…”

Somewhere around 40 years old (I’m 42 now) I decided I was done kissing frogs and never getting my prince. I now understand why my mother referred to one of her exes as a toad.

Dating these days is often gross and impersonal. It’s hard to meet people organically, so we now resort to online dating. For a woman, online dating is basically a sea of horny, rancid, male sharks and we’ve just put on a bathing suit soaked in chum. Even if there are some decent men on there, we aren’t going to find you or believe you. It’s like panning for fools gold in a NYC sewer. I could tell you some horror stories about the kind of men I’ve met because of online dating. I don’t want to do it ever again and no one can make me! Yuck, eww, No.

Relationships are too exhausting. It takes many years to truly get to know someone and I just don’t have it in me anymore to give that much time, effort, and heart and soul on learning someone again, only to find out years into it that they’re actually a terrible human. This isn’t necessarily fair to people who aren’t awful, but it’s a gamble I’m not all that eager to take anymore. Hard pass.

Even if I were to find my unicorn, the thought of having to alter my long term life goals to now fit the goals of another person just isn’t something I’m very willing to compromise on anymore. And I wouldn’t expect or want someone else to make those changes for me either. At this age, our time is becoming more precious and shouldn’t be conceded on when it comes to our own lifelong happiness. It is unlikely we are meant to travel the same path indefinitely.

For now, I focus on my career and raising my teenagers. I have a couple of dogs and a few good friends to keep me company. I also have to interact with people at work all day. I’m introverted so I’m definitely not lonely, by any means. Getting alone time is a hot commodity to be cherished. I don’t know that I’d want to give up my 30 minutes a week to a relationship. I’m busy.

Some day, when I’m older, I’d like to do things that I really want to do, like travel more, experience new things and cultures, or maybe just sit around in my underpants while eating a rotisserie chicken with my bare hands and watching jeopardy reruns.

Whatever it may be, I want to be free to do it sans the time wasting a-hole.

Jesus via AI

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Have you ever chosen to dispute a traffic ticket in court? What was the outcome?

I was pulled over in New Mexico back in 2012 and it was for not stopping at a stopsign. The area was fairly rural and I could see both directions some distance. So I slowed but kept rolling then took off. About 2 miles down the road there was a mounty on me and I pulled over trying to imagine what he was getting me for. He came to the car asked for my DL and Ins. and asked me what I called that? I looked at him and said well if you would be kind enough to tell me what “that” was I would be happy to answer for it. After some questions about me being a smart ass he finally realized I didnt know what he was at me about. So he finally told me “Failure to stop at a stop sign!” I admitted well I did slow down he said but you didnt stop I said no its a common practice in the country side at rural stops to roll through and I explained some call it a california roll. He said “That Figures!” and he handed me a ticket to sign He said “well here in Nebraska we dont drive like californians” I said ok not arguing and went on with my evening. Well next day I called an uncle of mine who was an attorney told him and he told me how to get out of it. SO court day came I show up and so does he. THe judge asked him what happened and then turned to me and asked my side. I didnt even tell him about the stop and went to describing how I was treated by the officer and the “It figures” and “we dont drive like californians” comments and my ticket was promptly dismissed for personal bias and out I walked while the judge reprimanded the deputy.

Have you ever been treated so terribly at a restaurant that you refused to go back there again?

Yes. Arriving, the parking lot was very slick ice. I informed the hostess (owner), she just shot an undeserved annoyed look. Hey I was just trying to help them & avoid a slip & fall for someone.

Our waitress failed to bring our food as it sat way to long prepared, even after a long wait we asked. Clearly she then forgot; but did show up to push a wine bottle to buy. That after we distinctly expressed early on we were not there for drinks. Same with appetizers & desserts.

The goal was clear: upsell, upsell.

The food was just about room temperature. And not even what we had ordered. She tried to convince us to eat what she brought anyway!

All that did was piss her off. Watching her she returned food to the kitchen, obviously not giving them our actual order.

We are not snotty people at all! But were pretty much forced to be at this point, hangry didn’t help.

We stopped at the hostess/owner podium & waited for some attention. After too long she asked “how many in our party?” She didn’t remember us unsurprisingly.

I made a bit of a sport of it, saying “still two, we’re just waiting for our check”.

“Who was your waiter/waitress?”

“Don’t know”

“Where was your table”

“Over there (with a vague gesture”

Now SHE’S very annoyed & NOT pleasant at all. “What did you have?”

“Nothing but water”

Now she’s even more annoyed + confused. Good. As if anyone there cared anyway.

I finally explained the situation & that we’d been there for almost an hour at this point. Ordered food, never got it, we’re leaving.

The bitch, now outright rude, threatened to call the police.

I implored her to, explaining we certainly are not paying for a product or service we’d never received. And fortunately we hadn’t yet paid, as then we would have a stronger case do please – a police report will be a good addition to our case. Plus hopefully for her sake they arrive quickly since now they are on the clock.

She still tried to argue! “We can’t just come here and leave without paying”. Argh. Pay for what – water? I don’t even see water on the menu, how much do you charge for it?” (I believe it’s state law that water & bathroom facilities are required at a certain amount of seating). But she briefly tried to think of an amount to charge.

I finally announced the end of this dispute – if she’s call law enforcement we’d feel compelled to wait, otherwise we’re leaving. She quipped something like ” well I guess we’ll eat this one”.

“Good for you! That’s more than we got!”

Shorpy Pictures for today

Most Women don’t want to be real wives so what’s up with the pretending? Or is the tide turning?

Why did you call off your wedding?

I was engaged to a fine woman. She was kind, considerate, smart and rich.

We had not set a date for the wedding when I started to have doubts about our relationship.

At first I didn’t know what was the problem was, but it was a strong feeling.

One day we were driving around in Brentwood, looking at old, stately homes when I saw what I considered to be a beautiful home.

It was brick, with leaded windows, slate roof and a plank door. I was admiring it when she said, “I will never live in a used house.”

I was stunned and asked her why.

She said, I don’t want to live in someone’s reject.”

I said, “just because someone is selling a house does not make it a reject.”

She said, “I do not care, I will never live in a used home.”

I knew she meant it.

At that moment I knew what the problem was, our values were too different.

I called off the engagement the next week.

I have never regretted that decision

EDIT: we parted with no hard feelings, there were no bad guys, just two people who were not right for each other.

What Science Says About Body Count

Olive and Brie Pizza

Prep: 20 min | Bake: 20 min | Yield: 6 servings

Ingredients

1 refrigerated unbaked 9 inch pie crust, at room temperature or 1 (13.8 ounce) tube pizza dough
2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
8 ounces brie cheese, rind removed, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
3 plum tomatoes, thinly sliced
2/3 cup halved Lindsay® Ripe Pitted Olives
3 tablespoons thinly sliced green onion with tops
2 teaspoons fresh chopped oregano or 3/4 teaspoon dried
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese

Instructions

Heat oven to 400 degrees F.
Place crust on a lightly floured cookie or baking sheet. Fold in edges of crust (1/2 inch), pressing down lightly to form a rim.
Spread mustard over inside of crust; top with half of brie cheese, tomatoes, olives, green onion, remaining brie cheese, oregano and Parmesan cheese.
Bake until crust is crisp and golden brown, 18 to 20 minutes.
Let stand for 10 minutes before serving.
Serve warm or at room temperature.

A saga

US Troops on Taiwan Advance to Within 1 mile from China Border

World Hal Turner 22 March 2024

The top defense official in the nation of Taiwan has confirmed that U.S. troops are stationed off the coast of China, as World War 3 continues to take shape. Chiu Kuo-cheng, Taiwan’s Defense Minister, was questioned by journalists about a report that U.S. troops had advanced from Taiwan to small islands in close proximity to mainland China, such as Kinmen Island. Chiu’s response confirmed that the troops had in fact advanced closer to China. The scalable map below shows where US troops have gone and how close they now are to mainland China: Hal Turner Editorial Opinion China has long told Taiwan and the world that the stationing of US Troops on Taiwan would be viewed as “an invasion of China” and would be dealt with as such. Not only has the US now deployed troops onto Taiwan, they have moved some of those troops to an island within one mile of mainland China! This is a gross provocation by the United States; it’s almost as if the US is TRYING to start a major war!

What was the strangest way an embezzler was caught?

My dad owned his own accounting firm for decades and he had one fairly big client that he got on well with. When Dad retired he was offered a job 1 day a week by this client. They had a guy who had been there a while who did payroll and the basic accounting but he wasn’t very good at the accounting so my dad was meant to be taking over accounts and this other guy was meant to be just doing payroll.

Anyway, on my dad’s first day the boss suggested he learn the payroll system so he could be cover for the other guy.

They had a little demonstration session and my dad asked how sickness was done. The payroll guy said nobody is ever sick to which the boss replied that he was, last month. Reluctantly the guy showed my dad how the sickness was done on his own payslip and everyone instantly spotted that the guy had been paying himself double when off sick! He had been doing that a while. He went the same day!

He Was Homeless in America & Then He Moved To The Philippines : A Life Lesson

Have you ever walked out of a restaurant after you were seated by a waiter or waitress?

I was seated by a hostess at an Italian restaurant in Paramus NJ. It was supposed to be our anniversary dinner. A coworker of mine who was about as Italian as you can get without being born in Italy had given me a recommendation to go there.

Well after 30 minutes with not so much as a waiter/waitress taking our drink order (perhaps longer… I can be stubborn) I decided enough of this and signalled to my wife we were leaving now.

That could have been the end of the story but it is not.

I told my coworker what happened and it turned out he was part of the family (in laws? cousins? don’t remember.) and took it very personal that we got treated that way. My telephone at work rings a day or two later and it’s the owner of the restaurant and he’s apologizing profusely. It was then that I remembered my coworker told me to drop his name when I went there.

We were invited back for a “chef’s choice” seating at their expense. The meal was wonderful but way more than I could eat. There were eight courses and lots of wine. My wife doesn’t drink wine and never did so I got sorta concerned as was going to be way too drunk to drive. I’m not talking one bottle of wine here but a different wine for each course.

It was quite the meal.

When we went back days or months later we always were treated with great deference and got great service.

210,000 CODERS lost jobs as NVIDIA released NEW coding language.

Who’s the most boring person in your life?

My brother in law Paul, he is a really nice guy he is always ready to help someone out. He was a volunteer coast guard, regularly went to church , is a really good provider for my sister, hard working financially prudent, not tight just put a bit aside for the rainy day, save for the pension.

But he makes watching paint dry feel exciting, he can flatten a family gathering just by walking into the room. He is a train spotter and makes models out of matches and is an amateur weather forecaster. His only subjects of conversation are different types of rolling stock on the railways, cloud types and work, he is an aera manager for morrisons local shops. But because a lot of his job is to do with the finance side he takes commercial confidentiality seriously. So apart from three slightly amusing stories, nothing about work.

He only ever has two drinks either at a party or in the pub, doesn’t like spicy food or french food, not really keen on pasta or pizza no bbq and doesn’t eat rice or garlic. His taste in music was once described by my sister ‘Paul doesn’t like music, he likes ric Astley and black lace it is mucus not music’ he is a nice guy but so boring.

According to my sister the only time he’s not boring is when he and she stay energetically awake, then by all accounts he is creative and inventive, and has superior staying power.

As I don’t have sex with him I will stick with the description boring.

Make this fair

Laziness: What’s the laziest thing you’ve ever done?

It’s not me, but a guy who used to sit near me in my office.

In my office, the computers are set up such a way that if you don’t do anything for 4 minutes, they get locked. in order to unlock that, you need to type your password again.

Everyone faces this several times a day, if you go to the washroom, or busy in a phone call, or discussing something with someone for more than 4 minutes, you will find your PC locked when you come back.

This guy was too lazy to type his password every time this happened. So he invented this technology:

Open notepad
Put a bottle on the keyboard, this causes some keys to be pressed all the time.
this causes text input in notepad.

The computer thinks that user is working, so it does not get locked.

This is a photo I took when he was gone from his desk after setting up the Bottle-Anti-lock mechanism.

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Soon he realized that entering huge amount of text in notepad causes the PC to run out of memory eventually and crash after some time.

We asked him to write a VBScript to mimic the keystroke, but he is too lazy for that. He found out a lazier work around,

He now uses a Comb (borrowed from a female co-worker – permanently) to push down the keys in the alt, ctrl, and the directional keys area which do not enter text in the notepad. and he keeps the bottle on top of the comb for the weight.

I don’t have an original photo for this. so I made a dummy. imagine the power bank is the keys that need to be pressed.

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Necessity is the mother of invention!

Update: Some friends have asked in comments why cant we just change the screen lock timeout settings, or remove the password. The answer is, we do not have Admin privileges. Passwords and other system settings are enforced by Admin directly into the registry using group policy. We don’t have the privilege of Change settings, edit registry, change date/time, change screensaver and wallpapers. we cant even install any additional software. CD roms and USB drives are disabled too, so no way of boot into a portable Linux or something to hack the registry.

My daughter’s AI “likes”

She has different tastes than I have.

Default masterpiece best quality Majesty of Amethyst Court15 m 3

Default Style by Yuko Shimizu Masamune Shirow Inio Asano and J 0(1)

Default Style by Yuko Shimizu Masamune Shirow Inio Asano and J 1

Default photographic photo photogenic extremely high quality h 6(2)

Default Style by Yuko Shimizu Masamune Shirow Inio Asano and J 0

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The Sopranos – Tony Soprano and other capos meet behind Junior Soprano’s back!

What is the funniest joke you’ve been told that you still think about to this day?

Two women talking in heaven

1st woman: Hi! Wanda.

2nd woman: Hi! Sylvia. How’d you die?

1st woman: I froze to death.

2nd woman: How horrible!

1st woman: It wasn’t so bad…. After I quit shaking from the cold, I began to get warm & sleepy, and finally died a peaceful death. What about you?

2nd woman: I died of a massive heart attack. I suspected that my husband was cheating, so I came home early to catch him in the act. But instead, I found him all by himself in the den watching TV.

1st woman: So, what happened?

2nd woman: I was so sure there was another woman there somewhere that I started running all over the house looking. I ran up into the attic and searched, and down into the basement. Then I went through every closet and checked under all the beds. I kept this up until I had looked everywhere, and finally I became so exhausted that I just keeled over with a heart attack and died.

1st woman: Too bad you didn’t look in the freezer—we’d both still be alive.

Weather warnings

It’s war: the real meat grinder starts now

Pepe Escobar No more shadow play. It’s now in the open. No holds barred. Exhibit 1: Friday, March 22, 2024. It’s War. The Kremlin, via Peskov, finally admits it, on the record.

The money quote:

"Russia cannot allow the existence on its borders of a state that has a documented intention to use any methods to take Crimea away from it, not to mention the territory of new regions."

Translation: the Hegemon-constructed Kiev mongrel is doomed, one way or another. The Kremlin signal: "We haven't even started" starts now.

Exhibit 2: Friday afternoon, a few hours after Peskov. Confirmed by a serious European – not Russian – source. The first counter-signal. Regular troops from France, Germany and Poland have arrived, by rail and air, to Cherkassy, south of Kiev. A substantial force. No numbers leaked. They are being housed in schools. For all practical purposes, this is a NATO force.

That signals, “Let the games begin”.

From a Russian point of view, Mr. Khinzal’s business cards are set to be in great demand. Exhibit 3: Friday evening. Terror attack on Crocus City, a music venue northwest of Moscow. A heavily trained commando shoots people on sight, point blank, in cold blood, then sets a concert hall on fire.

The definitive counter-signal: with the battlefield collapsing, all that’s left is terrorism in Moscow. And just as terror was striking Moscow, the US and the UK, in southwest Asia, was bombing Sana’a, the Yemeni capital, with at least five strikes. Some nifty coordination. Yemen has just clinched a strategic deal in Oman with Russia-China for no-hassle navigation in the Red Sea, and is among the top candidates for BRICS+ expansion at the summit in Kazan next October.

Not only the Houthis are spectacularly defeating thalassocracy, they have the Russia-China strategic partnership on their side. Assuring China and Russia that their ships can sail through the Bab-al-Mandeb, Red Sea and Gulf of Aden with no problems is exchanged with total political support from Beijing and Moscow.

The sponsors remain the same Deep in the night in Moscow, before dawn on Saturday 23. Virtually no one is sleeping. Rumors dance like dervishes on countless screens. Of course nothing has been confirmed – yet. Only the FSB will have answers. A massive investigation is in progress.

The timing of the Crocus massacre is quite intriguing. On a Friday during Ramadan. Real Muslims would not even think about perpetrating a mass murder of unarmed civilians under such a holy occasion.

Compare it with the ISIS card being frantically branded by the usual suspects.

Let’s go pop.

To quote Talking Heads: “This ain’t no party/ this ain’t no disco/ this ain’t no fooling around”.

Oh no; it’s more like an all-American psy op.

ISIS are cartoonish mercenaries/goons. Not real Muslims.

And everyone knows who finances and weaponizes them. That leads to the most possible scenario, before the FSB weighs in: ISIS goons imported from the Syria battleground – as it stands, probably Tajiks – trained by CIA and MI6, working on behalf of the Ukrainian SBU. Several witnesses at Crocus referred to “Wahhabis” – as in the commando killers did not look like Slavs.

It was up to Serbia’s Aleksandar Vucic to cut to the chase.

He directly connected the “warnings” in early March from American and British embassies directed at their citizens not to visit public places in Moscow with CIA/MI6 intel having inside info about possible terrorism, and not disclosing it to Moscow.

The plot thickens when it is established that Crocus is owned by the Agalarovs: an Azeri-Russian billionaire family, very close friends of… … Donald Trump. Talk about a Deep State-pinpointed target. ISIS spin-off or banderistas – the sponsors remain the same.

The clownish secretary of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine, Oleksiy Danilov, was dumb enough to virtually, indirectly confirm they did it, saying on Ukrainian TV, “we will give them [Russians] this kind of fun more often.” But it was up to Sergei Goncharov, a veteran of the elite Russia Alpha anti-terrorism unit, to get closer to unwrapping the enigma: he told Sputnik the most feasible mastermind is Kyrylo Budanov – the chief of the Main Directorate of Intelligence at the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense.

The “spy chief” who happens to be the top CIA asset in Kiev. It’s got to go till the last Ukrainian The three exhibits above complement what the head of NATO’s military committee, Rob Bauer, previously told a security forum in Kiev: “You need more than just grenades – you need people to replace the dead and wounded. And this means mobilization.”

Translation: NATO spelling out this is a war until the last Ukrainian. And the “leadership” in Kiev still does not get it. Former Minister of Infrastructure Omelyan: “If we win, we will pay back with Russian oil, gas, diamonds and fur. If we lose, there will be no talk of money – the West will think about how to survive.” In parallel, puny “garden-and jungle” Borrell admitted that it would be “difficult” for the EU to find an extra 50 billion euros for Kiev if Washington pulls the plug. The cocaine-fueled sweaty sweatshirt leadership actually believes that Washington is not “helping” in the form of loans, but in the form of free gifts.

And the same applies for the EU. The Theater of the Absurd is unmatchable. The German Liver Sausage Chancellor actually believes that proceeds from stolen Russian assets “do not belong to anyone”, so they can be used to finance extra Kiev weaponizing.

Everyone with a brain knows that using interest from “frozen”, actually stolen Russian assets to weaponize Ukraine is a dead end – unless they steal all of Russia’s assets, roughly $200 billion, mostly parked in Belgium and Switzerland: that would tank the Euro for good, and the whole EU economy for that matter. Eurocrats better listen to Russian Central Bank major “disrupter” (American terminology) Elvira Nabiullina: The Bank of Russia will take “appropriate measures” if the EU does anything on the “frozen”/stolen Russian assets.

It goes without saying that the three exhibits above completely nullify the “La Cage aux Folles” circus promoted by the puny Petit Roi, now known across his French domains as Macronapoleon. Virtually the whole planet, including the English-speaking Global North, had already been mocking the “exploits” of his Can Can Moulin Rouge Army.

So French, German and Polish soldiers, as part of NATO, are already in the south of Kiev. The most possible scenario is that they will stay far, far away from the frontlines – although traceable by Mr. Khinzal’s business activities. Even before this new NATO batch arriving in the south of Kiev, Poland – which happens to serve as prime transit corridor for Kiev’s troops – had confirmed that Western troops are already on the ground.

So this is not about mercenaries anymore. France, by the way, is only 7^th in terms of mercenaries on the ground, largely trailing Poland, the US and Georgia, for instance.

The Russian Ministry of Defense has all the precise records. In a nutshell: now war has morphed from Donetsk, Avdeyevka and Belgorod to Moscow. Further on down the road, it may not just stop in Kiev. It may only stop in Lviv. Mr. 87%, enjoying massive national near-unanimity, now has the mandate to go all the way. Especially after Crocus.

There’s every possibility the terror tactics by Kiev goons will finally drive Russia to return Ukraine to its original 17^th century landlocked borders: Black Sea-deprived, and with Poland, Romania, and Hungary reclaiming their former territories.

Remaining Ukrainians will start to ask serious questions about what led them to fight – literally to their death – on behalf of the US Deep State, the military complex and BlackRock.

As it stands, the Highway to Hell meat grinder is bound to reach maximum velocity.

“Most Terrifying Poll Result I’ve Ever Seen”: Scott Rasmussen Surveys America’s Elite 1%

Bluto rules in Pago Pago

Different places have different societies, and different cultures. I could probably write a book on this, as there are joys and pains with this kind of experience. But I will specify one such experience… working for “the BOSS” while I was building a hospital in Pago pago, American Samoa.

Honestly, this guy was sort of like a Samoan version of Tony Soprano. He held bi-monthly dinners, and all that, and there was no question that he was the big boss, and everyone else had to follow and obey him to the letter. He was insulting, harsh, brutish and rude. he was a “Bluto” incarnate.

It was socking. But with one pay out every two weeks, it was hard not to take it. So I did. Ouch! It was so painful. I mean, when I was in the Navy, I had a Marine drill instructor, but this guy was on another level. Wholly Shit!

Anyways, do not think that everyone in the world is the same. We tend to mix up biology and genetics with culture and societal norms. It’s a certain American trait, but Brits seem to be prone to it as well.

Be careful out there. You all.

Today…

If you are homeless, why wont you just get a job?

I was employed when I became homeless, working in a WFH situation thanks to covid, one little problem arose though, I was on a month to month lease when the owner decided to list the property for sale, this gave me 6 weeks to look for a new rental.

I quickly realised that the $500 a week rent i was paying for a nice 2 bedroom house with a backyard, was grossly below market value. I applied for over 100 houses between $450–750 per week, and not one of them was successful.

2 weeks till I was to be kicked out, I purchased a van, did a basic fitout in it, sold 75% of my stuff and moved into the van on the last day of my lease. I spent the next month applying for houses, but eventually gave up. I maintained my WFH job, working in the van and moving around every few days.

I eventually left the job as I started finding work around the state. The pay was good, but I stayed in the van for just over 2 years, meeting my best friend Storm in the first 6 months. 2 years later, I had saved up enough and had a regular enough income stream to allow me to buy a small block of land. It doesnt have building permits, but I have parked a tiny house on it, and it suits us perfectly now

Cheese Tortellini Crock Pot Dinner

A creamy, cheesy crock pot dinner recipe featuring cream cheese, cheese tortellini and spinach.

slow cooker tortellini soup 3 768x1152 — slow cooker tortellini soup 3 768×1152

Ingredients

1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese
1 large bag cheese tortellini
1 (16 ounce) can diced tomatoes, undrained
1 bunch fresh spinach, stems removed, or 1 bag frozen spinach
2 teaspoons garlic powder
1 teaspoon onion powder
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1 1/2 teaspoons Italian seasoning
1 container vegetable or chicken broth
4 ounces grated mozzarella cheese

Instructions

Place block of cream cheese in the slow cooker.
Pour the bag of tortellini over the cream cheese.
Pour the can of diced tomatoes over all.
Add the spinach to the top.
Sprinkle garlic powder, onion powder, pepper and Italian seasoning over the top.
Pour the chicken broth into the slow cooker.
Sprinkle mozzarella cheese over the top.
Cover the slow cooker, and cook on HIGH for about 2 1/2 hours.
Stir well and serve.

Internal conflicts

Did you ever end up benefiting, in some way, from a crime that you were the victim of?

A few years ago I had a garage full of assorted nonsense, as garages tend to be. Among the nonsense was a television and a microwave oven, both of which were taken when thieves cut the lock on the door. This was late 1990’s, when replacing a 21 inch TV could cost $400, and a microwave about $150.

Fortunately for me, neither appliance was functional. So far the net benefit is zero. But in that area, you couldn’t just drop a broken TV in the garbage can. Electronics of any type were considered “hazardous waste” presumably because of lead in the solder on the circuit boards. Did I mention this was in California? Yeah, they’re all kinda goofy about lead. Anyway, the city’s policy on such items was that if you had “hazardous waste” you had to take it yourself to the hazardous waste dump, and pay a fee to dispose of it. The fee depended on the weight, and this was a 1990’s TV, probably weighing about 50+ lbs (20+ kg).

So, when the thieves broke in, they saved me not only a trip to the dump, but also the fee I would have had to pay.

They did steal some other things, which I wasn’t happy about, but at least they relieved me of the burden of a couple of gigantic paperweights.

What is the best thing that has ever happened to you for being nice?

I have a friend whose husband committed suicide. She lives 350km away from me, so I couldn’t often see her, but she phoned me for an hour or two every morning.

Sometimes she just cried. Sometimes she talked about her life, husband, children, the event, the events leading up to his death.

I didn’t know what to do. I was very busy and I really didn’t have time. But she was my friend, she was in pain, and she needed someone to listen to her.

That’s all I did, nothing great, nothing fantastic. I didn’t try to advise her, certainly didn’t tell her she would get better.

She had an overwhelming feeling of guilt. However, her husband had given no warning that he was about to kill himself, but was on anti-psychotic medicine. So the only thing I ever said, really, was “it’s not your fault. Nothing you could have done would have stopped this” . I said that over and over again.

After many, many months of this, there were fewer phone calls. I called her to see how she was. She wasn’t always ok, and still blamed herself.

Two or three years later, she told me I’d saved her life. I was amazed, I’d done nothing special. How? “You listened”. Apparently she’d been pretty close to suicide herself.

Now she’s OK, happy with her life and her grandchildren. That was the nicest thing that could have happened to me.

The reason I’m posting this is that sometimes all people need is for someone to listen to them, to care. They don’t need advice, and to be told it will get better. That doesn’t help.

Listen, without being judgemental. Our reward is when it helps them.

Election rallies USA 2024

LOL

Hong Kong passed a new security law. What’s the significance?

Nothing really.

If you’re a normal person, who has a job and home… essentially nothing changes. It’s nearly April and I need to pay my salaries tax from my part time day job… I also need to pay my other taxes. This means I will have to endure waiting in a bank queue as there are ATM limits that are lower than my tax bill 🙁 . If you’re a grifter who took CIA money then you’re in trouble.

Joshua Wong literally had $400,000 which he tried to deposit into a HSBC (UK bank) account, he was denied as he refused to divulge the source of the funding. Under UK SOCPA that would have been seized as suspicious.

NSL law? It had pretty much zero effect on normal people in Hong Kong, for regular people nothing has changed even the real name ID phone registration was actually an anti phone scam measure NOT a result of NSL law. What was seen was lots of advertising about it… that’s the extent of it. I’ve never been stopped under NSL law. Nobody I know has been stopped. You go into a pub and likely nobody’s been arrested over it.

I have however been arrested over non appearance in court for a cycling offence. The police officer was WTF this is pointless. This is because my village has postal problems due to very similar addressed. I was fined $200HKD.

OTOH in the UK?

Under UK anti terrorism laws, a LOT of people were stopped under S44 of the anti terrorism laws. It was used for everything. As such you go into a pub and several people have been stopped over it.

UK SOCPA, yet again pub test, lots of people have been subjected to it. There are tons of stories of £2000 to buy a car or just sold a car and it was deemed as suspicious.

Westerners see how their own regimes and corrupt police forces abuse laws and think it must be so much worse in China/Hong Kong!

I mean fuck we don’t even have ANPR in HK. People park everywhere and anywhere and police shrug. Two days ago some fuck parked lengthways across a zebra crossing and the police biker who was at the scene was waddayawant me to do about it?

What is the difference between the machine guns used by gangsters during the 30s and the Tommy Gun used in the war?

Commercial Thompson’s were made to look sexy. They were expensive to make, nicely finished and had flashy accessories like removable stocks, compensators and audacious drum magazines.

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You can see all of the weapon’s unique features here in this picture. Note the vertical fore grip, the finned barrel, Cutt’s Compensator, the slots cut into the receiver so a drum magazine may be inserted and the charging handle on top of the receiver. A lot of precise machining went into these weapons and many skilled men were employed to produce them.

The most unique feature of the Thompson submachine gun was its action. Based on The Blish System, it included a part, known as “The H Piece” which held the bolt closed until the bullet cleared the barrel, then allowed the action to chamber another round. The weapons’s designer, General John T. Thompson, declared the H piece to be integral to the gun’s design and function. It demanded to be machined and inserted at a precise angle and there was no alternative to its use. The H Piece is the brass “H” shaped piece of metal in the picture below.

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Basically, the commercial Thompson was a complicated gun that required skilled machinists to create and was costly as a result.

The world was heating up though and isolationist America began to gear up for a potential war and they needed guns.

The US Army already knew about the Thompson and employed them in small numbers. But now they needed lots of them as quickly as possible. In order to meet demand, changes were made to the design so contractors could turn them out quickly. The new weapon was designated M1 Thompson in 1940 and was being made by Colt, Auto Ordinance and Savage Arms.

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As you can see, the vertical fore grip was replaced by a horizontal one, but the other features are still in place, most notably the charging handle on top of the receive, meaning it still employs the Blish Locking System and the H piece. It did get sling swivels and a phosphate finish, but otherwise it is the same as the commercial model Thompson. It was expensive and time consuming to make.

In 1941, everything changed. The Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor and US troops were headed to the pacific to fight. A simpler, easier to produce submachine gun was needed, so all of the Thompson’s fancy features went to the chopping block.

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This Thompson, designated the M1A1, is the one most GIs were familiar with. No compensator, a horizontal fore grip, phosphate finish, no slots for a drum magazine and the charging handle was moved to the side of the receiver. It was now a pure blow back submachine gun. The Blish lock and H piece, deemed necessary by the designer, were gone. The weapon was still fairly costly to produce but it could be made more rapidly and was ultra reliable in combat.

What is the saddest thing that happened to you that you never shared with others before?

Well. My father always wanted a son. When my mother got pregnant, he explicitly told her that he is a well reputed man and that he can not have a daughter and if it’s a daughter, it’ll be because of my mother. (Scientifically this makes no sense but in my culture, giving birth to a daughter is a matter of shame.) As fate had it, it was a daughter. Me, my father looked at me and went home. Leaving my mother all alone. Even my grandparents left. My mother alone managed everything and the day she were to discharge, my father called and told her that if she wants to come back home, she should leave me at an orphanage first. And that I was not his daughter. He said he told his friends and family that you had a miscarriage. Well my mother didn’t listen to him and somehow managed to raise me but it is extremely saddening how my father rejected his blood just because it was a girl. And it saddens me how because of me, my mother’s divorce happened. I can never thank my mother enough for choosing me over a comforting life.

Edit: Thank you all for your love and support. My mother has done all sorts of odd jobs to support me. But back in 2013, my mother got diagnosed with cancer. I was in the third year of my university and when I got to know, I was devastated. I didn’t want to lose my mother, who had spent all her life working for my education and well-being. There were days when my mother could either afford my milk or her food and she always got milk and slept hungry herself. And I just didn’t want her to leave this world without seeing me successful. I wanted to take care of her like she took care of me. So I decided I will do anything and get money for her treatment. (It was stage 2) I applied for a lot of loans, aid, even begged on the street but to no avail. With no option left, I contacted my father. He is pretty rich. Went to his office, begged in front of him, cried my heart out and all he said was that he is not my father and my mother has lied to me. I persisted but he called security. That day I felt ashamed of myself for being the blood of such a man. Luckily, my friend in college contacted me and promised to help out. His parents paid all the expenses and my mother recovered only last year. That man is now my husband. Now I have a good job and I save to return my father in law’s money. Even though he says there is no need but my mother never borrowed money to feed me and I want to take care of my mother solely.

Edit 2: This answer is getting long but I just want to add that me and my mother have gone through all sorts of circumstances. And I know people around the globe go through the same. There was a time when I came home and told my mother I want to die. I told her this world is unfair and there is no point in living when I can die. I told her I am no rich girl nor do I have anything to offer to this world, so my life doesn’t really matter; dead or alive. At that point she said you have two options, either you kill yourself and put me in more pain or you outlive your circumstances and prove your worth to your dad and men like him. And well I am glad I lived. My success though has only been possible because of my husband. As my mother says,”He is the reward of our patience and my prayers because the day I married your father, I prayed to God that I accept this man as my fate but if I have a daughter, let her husband be none like her father.”

Thank you for your love and prayers. And if you are going through a tough time, always remember the best thing about time is that it changes. Just be honest to your present and the future will bring reward. Good luck living life!

Why Kids Don’t Go Outside Anymore

What are some unwritten social rules everyone should know?

If someone shows you a photo on their phone, don’t swipe left or right.
If someone tells you, “It’s getting late,” when you’re over at their place, it’s time for you to go.
Walk as if you are “driving” and don’t stand still right at the entrance or exit of a door. Let people pass.
If you invite a friend to a party where they barely know anyone, don’t leave them hanging.
Don’t criticize someone’s smile or laugh.
Don’t stand too close when talking to people or talk “in their face.”
If you have never seen or tried what they like, don’t diss someone’s taste.
Don’t ask why the person isn’t married/doesn’t have children. Never.
When someone starts talking about their problems, don’t start talking about yours.
Don’t ask for somebody else’s opinion and get mad when they tell it to you.
If you start to smell yourself, other people have been smelling you for 3 days.
If someone can’t fix an aspect of their appearance in 5 minutes or less, don’t mention it.
Don’t microwave fish in the break room at work.
Don’t take pictures of kids that aren’t yours.
When you enter an elevator, face the door.
Don’t ever snap your fingers to get a bill from a server at a restaurant.
When your friend’s crush is around, don’t try to be the funniest in the group.
Assume nothing. Believe nobody. Check everything.

Really Dumb Americans

Why did my top performing employee quit after write up?

I quit 8 months after a bad performance review. It was the first of my working career, I was single with no family nearby or other safety net, and I had asked repeatedly for some assistance.

After the review, my boss came to my office and asked me what I was going to do. I said “find another job within the next 6 months”. Shocked her but I outlined explained my rationale. They didn’t understand my job and the amount of work it required. As a trainer, I had excellent evaluations. I never turned down an assignment and traveled throughout 6 LARGE states. And the past was not that great.

I found another job and left after 8 months but was agreed to fulfill 2 or 3 training sessions after the other job started so the company wasn’t left high and dry.

So, I left because I felt my job was threatened and was worried about my financial future, plain and simple.

According to BBC, critics worry that TikTok, owned by ByteDance based in Beijing, could be used by the Chinese government for spying. What do you think of it?

Here’s the thing, and if it were true. What exactly is the PRC government going to do with this data? Go on what are they gonna do, steal your bodily fluids?

The PRC doesn’t even kill dissidents. Ai Weiwei moved away and is still very much alive.

It’s not the PRC who is trying to take away your guns is it?

Flirt Flop

Is it ever possible for someone to feel that they are paid too much?

Gosh, yes. I’m usually able to suppress that feeling, but I’ll tell the story about the time that even I couldn’t.

I was representing a client in an estate dispute against a relative. The defendant was a borderline personality and there were strong reasons to believe the representation would be lengthy, costly, require extensive expert testimony, and be very nasty. Plus the client had limited resources.

We negotiated a fee agreement which gave me a percentage of the ultimate recovery that we both thought was fair.

As a precursor to the lawsuit, I sent a demand letter setting forth the basis of the potential case. Pure formality and I knew it would be a waste of time, but I wanted to be able to show that we had gone through all the motions.

To my utter astonishment, the defendant caved. Completely. Within two weeks, my client had a thorough accounting and a very large transfer of property to her. I had done very little real hourly work.

And according to the fee agreement, I was entitled to hundreds of thousands of dollars.

I was very distressed about this aspect and after considerable hand-wringing and thought, and consultation with colleagues, I simply picked up the phone, called my client, told her what had happened, and said, “Here’s how much you supposedly owe me under our agreement. It’s too much. I haven’t been able to figure an analytical way to reach the right number. I’m going to propose $X. That’s a quarter of the fee agreement amount. It’s still probably too much, but I can live with asking for that.”

My client was silent, then chuckled and said, “I accept your proposal. Plus, you’ve given me a lawyer story that no one will believe. Thank you.”

Afternote: that client became a dear friend and referred other business to me. I didn’t know it at the time, but my fee reduction proved to be an excellent marketing move.

What solution could work to stop the South China Sea conflict?

The U.S. must stop all trouble making and war mongering via the NED and CIA immediately and comprehensively. As the nuclear clock is ticking ever closer to mid night!

At some point China will react and that will start an escalation into a 3WW situation that nobody wins no matter how proud the Caucasians are about the U.S. power. It is easy to bribed poor Filipino fishermen to do shit at 10 grand a pop rushing their lives but the end won’t justifies the means at all! Stop before it is too late. Ukraine is a perfect example.

Perhaps the US thought it is now or never but the truth is never is the answer, the U.S. simply has too much to lose!

Double Standards

What’s the most disturbing thing anyone has ever told you casually?

Three years ago I met up with an old girlfriend from college to catch up, have food, talk about the old days and the old gang.

At one point she casually said, “Oh yeah, xxxx is in Sousa-Baranowski”. That’s the max security prison in Massachusetts, for hardcore criminals. I couldn’t believe my ears, “What?” I said, blinking and almost dropping my latte.

This guy had been a leader of “our gang” in college, the one who always had something crazy for us to do. He was the guy who taught me how to hang glide; who first got me high on pot, who got me laid introducing me to all manner of girls. He was the most laid back, casual dude you ever met, tall and gangly and always in a black motorcycle jacket because his only vehicle was that motorcycle.

“What the hell happened?” I asked incredulously.

“He stabbed a woman in the belly in his kitchen 8 times then threw her through a window. He had a standoff with the cops.”

“What… the… fuck…?”

You have to understand. We are all old now. I’m 63. He’s 67, a big time scientist, very wealthy, respected in his field, working for a major, well known pharma company. How would something like this happen? Somehow he had gotten into a fight with his wife over his “counseling” a local (female) drug addict and the wife left in a huff and he had the addict over his house. No one knows what happened next except the results. He’s in big boy prison for 8 years now. He will be old, old when he gets out, broke, divorced, homeless, jobless. He’s lost everything he worked for his entire life and no one knows why.

What are the implications of 5.5g, that China has just rolled out technologically and geopolitically in the next 5 years?

What 5.5G technology does to geopolitics I don’t know.

But after I 5.5G technology is deployed in China, my phone downloads a film really fucking fast~! 🤣

Shhh~ In the blink of an eye, the download is complete.

Using this technology, China’s top doctors can operate on patients 3,000 kilometres away in off-site locations by remotely manipulating a robotic arm, with no lag or delay in the signal.

China Is Doing Something CRAZY at the US Mexico Border!

Have you ever accidentally texted the wrong person? What did you say?

I meant to text my husband that I wanted a pet anaconda for my birthday. I had found a website that sold baby anacondas and you could buy one for $499. If you paid $49, you could get it shipped overnight.

As outrageous as it sounds, I was genuinely interested in owning an anaconda. So I texted him the link to the website while I was at work (during lunch hour) and wrote “Honey I want pet anaconda for birthday.”

My husband is usually the first person in my messages inbox because I rarely text anyone else. However, that day I had texted one of our company’s directors since there was an urgent matter that needed his attention and he hadn’t responded to my email – and so that was the conversation at the top of my inbox.

I blindly sent both texts to the director in quick succession – the text with the anaconda website and the “honey I want pet anaconda” message.

I didn’t get a response – but 5 minutes later he swung by my desk and told me how buying reptiles is a bad idea and when it grows large enough, the anaconda would swallow me.

I looked at him with wide eyes and I was like, “How do YOU know I was considering buying a reptile?”

He showed me his phone and the texts from me…..and in my mind was like “WTF did I just do.”

We laughed about it and it was all cool but it was a little embarrassing.

Note: We ended up not buying the baby anaconda. We decided it was a ridiculous idea. Well, my husband decided that and convinced me. 🙂

What is the most satisfying passive-aggressive thing you have ever done to a really mean or rude person?

I hijacked my roommate’s internet connection.

Back when I was in college there wasn’t really any broadband. We used 56.6k dial up connections to access the internet. Now my roommate Cruchkov would monopolize that damned connection for hours on end. We only had the one phone for four of us and we would pick it up any time of the day or night and hear bleeep blop beeboo beeboo. All the time. It got to the point where we couldn’t even order a pizza. “Hey Dave you want pepperoni?” “Sure Corey” “Okay I’ll ca… bleeep blop beeboo beeboo.” “DAMNIT CHRUCHKOV”. We would bang on his door but he would either not hear us or pretend not to hear us.

So I hatched a plan.

I waited until he left for work one day. Then, armed with some s%^t I bought at Radio Shack back when they sold stuff that wasn’t cell phones, I walked into his room. I unscrewed his phone jack and connected a 5v relay to the line. COM/NO went to the phone, the coil went to the other two (unused) wires. Then I buried the whole thing back in the wall and made it look good as new. I hid a 9v battery inside the kitchen phone and connected it to the ringer switch and my secret wires.

Chruchkov comes home that evening, slams the door. Thirty seconds later it’s bleeep blop beeboo beeboo. “Hey Dave, you want pizza?” “But Chruchkov is on the…” “I got this, man.” I flip my switch, his phone turns off. But only his phone. The sound of him kicking and cursing at his computer remains one of the most passive aggressively satisfying moments of my life.

What are the consequences of being too good at your job? Can you get fired for it?

Yes, I did. I went to work for a company in accounts receivable. In other words followed up with customers who bought the service and products of the business And yes I was better than very good at it. Their books were a remarkable mess. The printout of “delinquent” accounts amounted to several hundred pages. I dived in. After a few months the owners got the opportunity to take over a franchise doing what they did in a different group of counties. They carpe’d the diem. As the franchiser had to take the business back their accounts were in horrible shape. After about two years I got everything lined out, quit sending repairmen to nonpaying customers, got the giving of “product” that should be sold to customers stopped. About three months before I finally had everything straightened out the owner hired someone to ostensibly “assist” me. The very week I finally got the system set up to where anyone should be able to keep it going easily they let me go. The person hired to assist me was being paid 2/3 of what I was or I was making 50% more than her. There were also four different occasions with different companies where upper management refused to promote me because they feared the results of my leaving the department I was in.

The Sopranos – Moltisanti and Filone hijack Comley’s trucks

What is the most outrageous “fee” you’ve ever been charged?

Back during the pandemic, I took my cat, Caesar, to the vet. He was a 15 year old, orange, short haired cat. Because of COVID, the vet’s office had implemented a policy of people not being allowed to go back to the exam rooms with their pet. I wasn’t really comfortable with that but my little guy had a sore front paw so I had to get him seen by the vet. A staff member came out to my car, got Caesar (in his carrier) and took him inside to be examined by the vet while I waited in my car. After a few minutes, the vet called my cell phone and we discussed the problem with Caesar’s front paw. An x-ray was done and it was determined that the problem was with one of his claws. Apparently it was a problem that is fairly common in older cats and easily treatable. Over the phone, the vet and I agreed upon the treatment for the problem. A short time later, the staff member brought Caesar back out to my car and presented me with the bill. As I quickly scanned the bill before giving the staff member my credit card, I saw a $40 charge for a ‘ therapeutic shave’ on the bill. I didn’t understand so I asked about the charge. Found out that while they had Caesar in the exam room, someone shaved his back end for no apparent reason. I said to the staff member “ So you needlessly shaved my cat’s ass and want to charge me $40 for it? I think that you guys should owe him $40 for doing that to him! “

The charge was removed from my bill. Caesar got extra treats and a new toy that day too.

Text to picture

Playing around, this time with a Wes Anderson theme; Life Aqua.

What are the most important things I can teach my child, including both skills and behaviors? How can I ensure this training sticks?

Originally Answered: What are the most important things I can teach my child?

Do you know this guy?

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He is Daniel Radcliffe.

(Photo source: Daniel Radcliffe raps Eminem’s ‘The Real Slim Shady’)

At the age of 11, he was cast as Harry Potter in the first Harry Potter film, and starred in the series for 10 years. At the age of 14, an article in British newspaper ‘The Sun’ listed him as Britain’s third richest teenager behind only Prince Harry Windsor and Charlotte Church, the very popular singer-songwriter TRUST Trivia: Daniel Radcliffe.

He became the youngest non-royal to have his portrait displayed in London’s prestigious National Portrait Gallery at the same age. In 2007, the British press estimated 18-year-old Radcliffe’s total net worth at $35 million, and $80 million at the age of 26. ‘Harry Potter’ Daniel Radcliffe turns 26: 10 unknown facts about the actor

Would you want your kid to become someone popular and successful like him?

Maybe. Yes.

Now read this (paying special attention to bold words):

Daniel Radcliffe: I turned to alcohol to cope with fear of failure and fame. “It is not a real pressure, but it is a pressure of living with the thought, ‘Oh, what if all these people are saying I am not going to have a career? What if they are all going to be right and will be laughing and I will be consigned to a bunch of “Where are they now?” lists?'” Radcliffe added: “I was living in constant fear of who I’d meet, what I might have said to them, what I might have done with them, so I’d stay in my apartment for days and drink alone. I was a recluse at 20. It was pathetic – it wasn’t me. I’m a fun, polite person, and it turned me into a rude bore.”

Source: Daniel Radcliffe: I turned to alcohol to cope with fear of failure and fame

“The bottom line is people don’t like change, especially when it’s connected to endings,” she concludes. “For some people, they have a harder time maintaining a positive self-image when it’s linked to a job that gives them an identity. And so in order to deal with the intensity of that emotional pain, some people self-medicate in order to feel less depressed, less anxious, less hopeless or less unimportant” -Dr. Rubi Ludwig, Psychotherapist.

Source: Daniel Radcliffe Turned to Alcohol to Cope With The Ending of Harry Potter

“It Was Not Making Me as Happy as I Wanted It To”

Source: Daniel Radcliffe Opens Up About Past Alcohol Abuse

Now would you want your kid to abuse himself with alcohol/drugs while he has so much in the world that one could only dream of?

No. Definitely not.

This is just an example of people who are extremely successful, but aren’t happy. They may be child prodigies, but they are so full of fear of failure that after all they have achieved, they are no close to finding happiness. And their lives and money are wasted in running after it.

Raise your kid such that he doesn’t become this example.

1. Take the FEAR OF FAILURE away from him.

The fear, that you are instilling in him unknowingly. By saying this:

Whatever you do, just do your best. Be it studies or games.
It is important to win the Olympiad. It is the stepping stone for your career.
Study with the aim of securing first rank. So we can be proud parents.

Saying this instills the fear of failure. Kid aims for perfection, resulting in a stressed outlook.

This is Fear of Failure.

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Teach your children so fear of failure never creeps in their mind. By telling them this:

Do not focus on excelling at everything. It keeps you in a constant state of stress. Do somethings for pure enjoyment. And in fact, do everything for the fun of it.
What do you think of the Olympiad? I think it is important, but not the most important thing.
What are you studying? Let’s explore how can we apply it practically.

2. Teach him to THINK IN A HEALTHY WAY.

Not anxiously, as you might be doing now.

Mister, the exams are approaching. You better start worrying!
Sharmaji’s son is a top-ranker. He got a great on-campus placement. What will happen of you? Where will you go with these marks?
Amend your behavior. You are a grown-up now.

Saying this leads to anxious thinking. Kid is overwhelmed, loaded with inferiority complex and self-consciousness.

This is Anxious thinking.

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And there is no other way to teach them this, except to teach yourself this.

Do not encourage him to think anxiously. He’ll learn it in no time, and soon will have anxiety attacks, inhibiting performance.
Do not compare him to others thinking it’ll motivate him. Motivate him by positive means, comparative thinking will take a lifetime toll on him.
Do not expect him to behave like a grown-up. A 3-yr old will behave like one, and a teenager like one. Accept them as per their age.

3. Teach him to have a POSITIVE SELF-IMAGE.

Again, do not teach him this.

You are considered doing well only when you get good grades.
Why can’t you be more like your sister? She’s such a good kid and gets a first in everything.
Read faster
Write faster.
Run faster.
Do it faster.

This teaching promotes negative self-image. Synonymous with low self- worth and self-esteem.

This is Negative self-image.

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So, teach yourself this.

Do not pressurize children with too much focus on grades or rewards.
Remember that he can’t be like his sister. Each person is different. Are you doing this so you have to deal with only one personality?
Do not pressurize the kid to be faster in everything he does. Each kid learns at his own pace.

Teaching yourself these things will raise a kid who is free from this negative thought:

What will happen if… I fail…

A Marine’s 2-Word Breakup Text Sends Cheating Ex Into MENTAL BREAKDOWN…And Friends Are Losing It!

Do police officers ever sympathize with someone who took the law into their own hands?

I was dispatched to a call of a burglary in progress at a residence. It was maybe 10:00 PM. When I pull up, I see one guy running from the residence, and at the same time I hear a gunshot from inside the residence. I let the runner go (never saw him again) and went to investigate the gunshot.

I found a door ajar to a side courtyard, and as I approached, one of the burglars was being backed out the door by the man of the house, who was holding an ancient .32 revolver on him (I later examined the gun and estimated the ammunition was older than I was). He later told me he had fired one round (the one I heard) into the corner of a room when he saw the burglar inside his house. As soon as the homeowner saw me, he put the gun down, and stood by while I handcuffed the burglar.

I took a written statement from the homeowner, told him I hoped I was as capable as him when I was his age (I was about 30 at the time—he was around 70), and took the burglar to jail. It did not occur to me to seize the victim’s gun or charge him with discharge of a firearm inside the city limits. No one suggested this was not the proper approach.

What is life’s biggest “trap” people fall into?

My housemate is 26 years old. She’s intelligent and pretty and (generally) fun to be around.

But… she hates her job.

It’s obvious.

Sometimes she’ll just sit at the kitchen table in her pajamas, coffee in hand, looking at the clock.

And she’ll casually say, “I have to leave for work in two minutes.”

Does she actually leave for work two minutes later?

I’ll let you guess the answer to that.

But the thing that blows me away is this:

When I asked her a little while ago if she’s considered changing jobs and doing something that doesn’t make her look unhappy every morning, there was genuine surprise in her voice.

As in, “Of course I’m going to work another 36+ years at a job I despise! That’s totally normal.”

A lot of people think that.

Like my housemate, they “celebrate” the weekend and dread Mondays.

Like my housemate, they might even negotiate more hours at work so they can qualify for more vacation time.

And that’s a huge trap: Thinking you’re doomed to working a job you hate.

Thinking you have to work a 9-to-5.

Thinking you can’t earn money if you’re not actively working.

That’s all nonsense.

If you’re not happy with your work, not only can you change, but you absolutely should.

I’ve been freelancing for years and wouldn’t even consider getting a job where some boss gets to tell me things like:

When to work
Where to work
How many vacation days I can take
How much I can get paid

For example, this month, I’m a bit ahead of schedule on the projects I’m working on so I can take time off if I want to.

Do I have to ask for permission?

Nope.

Do I even have to let anyone know?

Nope.

I’m not saying this to brag, even though it might sound like it.

I’m saying this because if you feel stuck in a job you can’t stand, just know that there’s a way out for you.

Please, don’t stay at a job you despise long-term.

It’s not good for you or for anyone else.

What are the most fascinating “weird but true” historical facts you know about?

You have the doctor who pumped four gallons of hydrogen gas into his anus, to diagnose gastrointestinal problems

[1], and then you have surgical resident, Werner Forssmann, who was eager to push a tube through a vein in his elbow, until it reached his heart. This would become a method of transporting medication to and fro the incision site.

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Werner Forssman was desperate to self-experiment, although faced challenges along the way. One person he had to pass was the surgical nurse, who had access to the theatre and medical equipment.

After much convincing, the nurse gave in to his ludicrous idea. In fact, she volunteered to have the procedure performed on herself! I guess the idea isn’t as crazy as the doctor who transported parasites within himself, only to produce parasite semen for research!

[2]Anyway, despite dismissal from the doctors who believed the surgery would be a death wish, Werner continued on with his plan.

The nurse lay on the surgical table, whilst Werner tightly strapped her legs and arms in. Only, when she wasn’t looking, the doctor applied anesthetic to his own arm, cut his arm open, and pushed the 12-inch catheter (thin tube) into his vein!

Now, all he needed was an X-Ray room. Successfully, Werner x-rayed himself and noticed that the tube had reached his shoulder. He pushed the tube in further until it was 24-inches inside his vein.

Bingo! Werner reached his ventricular cavity.

For his risky actions, Werner was fired. As a result, he took up positions as a military surgeon and Major in World War II. He wasn’t a hero though. Werner was a Nazi, actively joining the party in 1932. He was eventually imprisoned, although did receive a Nobel Prize twenty years later for his medical efforts.

Largest NATO Base in Europe Being RUSHED in Romania

World Hal Turner 18 March 2024

The largest NATO base in Europe is being built in Romania. Construction commenced at the outset of the Russia-Ukraine conflict, and is being RUSHED.

The Mihail Kogalniceanu airbase in Romania will turn into a military camp where 10 thousand NATO soldiers can live, this will require an investment of €2.5 billion, reports local publication Pro TV.

The base is located in a mountainous area and should become a center for command and control of troops in South-Eastern Europe.

The zoomable map below shows the location:

What’s a rule your employer implemented that backfired terribly?

My former company implemented an 9/80 work schedule with an A/B work pattern. Meaning that those on the A schedule would work a 9 hour work day for 5 days and the B schedule would work 4 days during the same week and then the next week they would swap out. The work force, for the most part, loved it. I personally didn’t like it because I was giving the company an extra hour out of each day without compensation of overtime pay. Others loved having that three day weekend every other week. Different strokes for different folks I suppose.
Anyways, the issue that cropped up immediately was the lake of key personnel on days you needed them the most. “Yeah boss, I’d love to fix or finish or diagnose this problem but without the lead engineer it just can’t be done.” “Hey, this job must be done today or heads are gonna roll.” “Sorry boss but ol’ so and so is one his 9/80 day off so we can’t get it done without him.” “Hey boss? We got a problem. We can’t run this test without Joe Blow because it’s his Friday off.”
These issues popped up every single week. It was eventually dropped.

Is there anytime when karma saved you?

We were in a beautiful relationship for about 3 years. And then suddenly she over texts, broke up with me. No explanation given. Like every other guy, I cried, pleaded for just one reason, and all she said was it’s over, I don’t want to be with you. She has changed her college a month before the break up. And like I suspected she fell out of love with me because there is new guy who approached her. Quite similar to everyone’s love story. Lol

Anyway, I was literally shattered, and broken. I couldn’t believe the girl I thought to be my future left me in such a dire condition.

It’s been three years since she is gone. Yesterday, I got a phone call from her at 2am. Basic points from the calls were:

She was unhappy, crying profusely over the phone. She said she don’t have anyone to trust and talk to, except me. And yes, I talked to her because pretty much I loved her too much.
She said the guy cheated her, and when asked him for a breakup, he said he will going to kill her, he abused and hit her off. And she thought everybody will leave silently like me.
I asked her to do a police complain, she said, she doesn’t want her parents to know, she is stucked.
After few minutes on call, she was laughing, talking to me as if we were never separated, I was wondering how easy the things are for girls.
Then she told me even before her father and brother, I am the person she trust and respect the most. I was flattered but I knew, it’s no more important.
I was again at ground zero, I felt happy talking to her, but the wounds were yet fresh.
I tried not to make her feel bad and bid her bye.

Today I Changed my phone number, and email id!

I do love her a lot, still? Yes. But I cannot give her the power to destroy me again.

The Sopranos – Billy Leotardo

When did you realize that your childhood was not normal?

I was bullied pretty bad as a kid. The ironic thing is, I grew up in the kind of school district where the things that happened to me, people believed didn’t happen there at all. But teachers were trying to encourage me that everyone gets teased & everyone has problems & that my situation is not unique. It’s amazing in this time in 2024, everyone is always telling me what I have to do to cater to people’s fragile emotions. But in 2002, it was all about how I needed to not react in anger when people tortured me in school; how I could best accommodate & live with people torturing me. The burden was never on the bullies to change.

So in 2002, I was leaving for a Boy Scout campout. My first troop hated me. (I later on joined another Boy Scout Troop that I stayed with for 20 years. But the first one treated me like crap.) These kids told me I was not allowed to talk because I’m annoying. Naturally this made me talk more. I was not anticipating this kid to pull out his pocket knife, open it & say, “If you don’t shut-up, I’m going to stab you.” I then stood up & walked away.

The reality was, I was not that afraid. I was 11 years old & had my life or safety threatened so many times up to this point, it just felt kind of natural that eventually I’d be held at knife point. It was another scout that reported him. The kid got his knife confiscated (worst punishment anyone has ever received for an action against me) & he rode off on his bike crying.

I came home & told my parents the story because I thought it was funny. Then I saw the shock in their eyes. They said we could potentially press charges. I had no idea you could get sued or arrested over a death threat because I was so used to getting them. This was the proof I needed to know my teachers were wrong; that the things I go through are not normal.

Chilighetti

Quick, easy and delicious! Chilighetti is a great way to feed a hungry family.

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 to 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, for 10 to 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.

Have you, while repairing a computer, ever found anything that made your jaw drop?

While this dis not happen to me, it happenesn to a neighbor friend who repaired computers…

One of our other neighbors approached him to take a look at problem they (a couple) were having with their computer. The problem is irrelevant here.

So my friend went about his diagnostics to figure out how to address the issue. As any good computer tech does, once the machine was up an running again, he went about doing some basic maintenance such as cleaning up temp files and so on.

In doing so he stumble upon a huge set of pictures and videos… yes, that. Not illegal ones, but actual professional ones used in well known sites.

As it turned out, we learned that our low key neighbor was a well known porn star making videos at home, which now explained all the odd traffic we always noticed at their house. This porn was bringing them probably close $500k/yr or more. They did end up moving later on to a higher end neighborhood not to far. Shortly after moving but still owned the property, a well known on-line news magazine (you’ve all read something from them) came by looking for them, knocking on doors to see if any of us knew more about them, and if we knew where they moved to.

BTW – part of the story that the on-line magazine (you’ve all read something from them) was chasing was that her day job was unwrapping kids toys from well known entertainment company. So she was also a top rated poster/producer in that segment in YouTube for some time. We learned a lot that day… those pretty hands of hers served multiple purposes.🙂

So, the people who bought their house now have a bit of a topic and history to share about their house, because of course, we neighbors shared the history about it 😉.

It’s funny thinking back to the many casual neighbor conversations we had with that couple, and little did we know what was behind it all. She is very cute, it all made sense.

Today she is still out there, bigger than before. If anyone reading this watches porn, or watched children’s toy unwrapping, you’ve probably seen her…

The Rise of Chinese Pick Me Girls

Pizza!

In 2001, Pizza Hut delivered a pizza to the International Space Station. The pizza was a 6″ pizza and was delivered to the ISS aboard a Russian Progress vehicle. They paid $1 million to transport the same.

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Pizza Hut once made delivery to International Space Station

Looks like pizza lovers know no boundaries 😀

Yui and her side boobs

LOL

WTF?

If one searches for 241543903 in Google images, one can find a lot of pictures of people putting their heads in refrigerators. I tried it ;p

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https://www.google.co.in/amp/s/reichwonders.wordpress.com/2013/08/10/241543903-the-story-behind-the-craze/amp/

Does a human being know they’re dead once they die?

I had a traumatic brain injury, was on life support, and was in a coma for 7 days.

During this time I found myself looking at the doctors working on me, then I walked up a small ramp and met my brother who passed away unexpectedly.

My brother looked like he did when he was in High School, I wanted to stay with him but he said that I couldn’t come in, and it wasn’t my time, that I needed to spend more years with my wife and children.

I was heartbroken and when I came out of my coma, I remembered everything so vividly.

The doctors said they lost me a couple of times but were able to revive me, and they were so surprised because I shouldn’t have survived my accident.

This is the truth, I never would have believed my story if I were somebody else, but this happened, and for the fact that the doctors said they couldn’t control the bleeding and that I was supposed to die, I wouldn’t have believed myself.

Now having my motor skills back, but still working on my speech, I’m able to go back to work after only 3 months, this is a true miracle. And never take life for granted, there are no promises for a tomorrow.

Living a traditional life is the best thing I ever did | But is it the best for you?

This chick in a small town in the Philippines talk about her town. A nice escape.

Do you think the faster accelerated vetting of Hong Kong’s Article 23 bill is to catch foreign countries off guard and ward off possible sanctions or criticism?

Nope. You see no matter what China or Chinese do we’ll be criticised for it. A few years back I posted some screen caps of Western media:

China pollutes – China bad!
China cuts pollution – China bad!

So what’s been happening in Hong Kong and Legco?

This happened:

https://www.elections.gov.hk/legco2021/eng/rs_gc.html

The December 2021 LegCo elections. Go look at it. Pan Dems and other yellow groups stood for election. They didn’t get very many votes.

If you’ve been keeping an eye on what’s been happening in LegCo for the past 26 years it’s pretty obvious. The Pan Dems have never had a majority there, what they have done however is simply fillibuster and delay and oppose EVERYTHING that has been tabled at LegCo since forever. This is Hong Kong’s version of Hansard. An official record of everything said at LegCo at debates and motions/votes.

https://app.legco.gov.hk/HansardDB/english/Search.aspx

The we care about the people Yellows blocked and delayed EVERYTHING.

Some biggies:

They opposed the minimum wage.

They opposed maternity leave.

They opposed those not because they though they were a bad idea but purely on ideological grounds.

Since 2022 when the new bunch of LegCo people took their seats? Without the permanent blockage of the yellows who as above block things on ideological grounds things actually get through LegCo rather than spending months and years being blocked by them.

This is just another example.

Want another?

Foreign doctors working in Hong Kong.

https://www.info.gov.hk/gia/general/202211/16/P2022111600529.htm

That had been opposed by the yellows since 1997. Yet changes were made in 6 months after December 2021.

I’m rooting for you!

What are some facts about human behaviour?

Having orgasms lowers risks for breast cancer, heart disease, and depression for women
Intelligent people are more forgetful than those with average intelligence, which is correct.
Getting paid to perform something you enjoy may make you less creative.
The thing that people remember the most about you is your charisma, Here you can learn the secrets to Charisma and Confidence.
People frequently experience déjà vu after recalling a conversation or dream.

If you died tomorrow, what would you want your family to know about you?

I have a Premium Netflix account that I don’t pay for so you guys can use my laptop to watch movies and series.
In my hostel room in college you will find a photo frame kept on the top left shelf above the study table which has a photo of Me with a Girl.If possible return it to her and tell her it’s called “Our Dastoor” or Destiny.
My phone’s pin is 1632 because that was the time(16:32) while i was setting the new pin .
In my phone there are two calculator apps. One pre-installed and the other downloaded from play store. When you will enter 1632 and press ‘’=“ in the downloaded one it will open a secret pdf which contains my Bucket List, delete that, it won’t be necessary anymore.
Can you ask the college authorities if they can still provide me the degree posthumously cause papa is very proud of my IIT achievement.
Tell my friends sorry that I promised i would certainly try beer with them the next time we go on a trip.
Donate/throw away my possessions except for the white letter with a red tape which is kept in my laptop bag. Kindly burn it away without opening it. It’s rude to read someone’s love letters.

Should Marines take orders from an army captain in the battlefield if their Marine captain or higher ranked official is dead or incapable?

Different services, but the story is helpful to understand what can happen in the real world battlefield

The 82nd Airborne jumped into Grenada at the international airport at night. Some soldiers ended up in extremely tall grass to the east of the runway and were separated from the main force but could hear the fire fight to the north and west of their positions but could not see due to the tall, thick grass

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One by one, they started to form up. At some point, they added a USAF fighter pilot Captain who was aligned as an Air Liaison Officer who specialized in controlling close air support, small unit infantry.

After the small group numbered squad strength, they stopped briefly while headed towards the sounds of the battle. The soldiers looked at the USAF Captain, the only officer present and one spoke up and asked “What do we do now sir?”. Despite being a fighter pilot by trade, he suddenly found himself in command of a parachute infantry squad.

So, yeah, in a situation where they are cutoff from their leadership and unit, Marines and any member of the Armed Forces should obey the lawful orders of senior NCOs and officers regardless of service.

How China Reinvented The Space Station!

Shitting a brick in Country lockup

You all know the American idiom “Shitting a brick”, right?

What you might not realize is that this is an actual term that refers to something that happens during incarceration.

Before you go to prison, you tend to spend months in jail.

This is because a prison bed is typically not available. So you have to wait in jail until you get to go to prison.

While you are in jail, at least in the Southern states, they fed you a lot of “salt peter” (don’t know if it was actual, or slang) that was mixed with the daily mashed potatoes that you ate.

This was supposedly done to make the inmates more easy to control and calmer.

I don’t know the true story, just the rumors.

Anyways, we would eat this stuff. Since the trays were pretty much empty, but the potatoes were just dished out in glorious amounts, us guys would then eat the stuff with relish and gusto.

The thing is, however, the “salt peter” wouldn’t digest. It would just sit there in your colon. Getting heavier and heavier over time.

Eventually you would need to take a glorious shit, and I swear to God, that you would shit out a brick like mass, almost the same size, shape (rectangular; no shit. Actually the rectangular shape.) and weight of a brick.

It happens to all the (older) new inmates.

If you are over 50, sure as shit, you will be shitting a brick after about four months in county jail.

And it will sit there until someone gets a stick to break it up so that it goes down the drain.

I saw this happen time and time again.

Again…

Things that you won’t find anywhere else.

Today…

China Issues DIRE Warning to U.S. and NATO

World Hal Turner 18 March 2024

The China Defense Ministry says that “China is ready to intervene militarily anywhere if the United States or NATO decides to attack Russia.”

This blunt public statement is almost completely out-of-character for the nation of China. For its entire history, China has always spoken with words like “peace, negotiation, Diplomacy, cooperation.” Almost NEVER has China spoken of war – or declared its intent to actually wage it — so bluntly – ever.

Hal Turner Snap Analysis

The fact that China’s Ministry of Defense used this type of language is an indication to me personally, and to many other people, that China perceives (or knows) that something imminent is about to take place regarding a US/NATO attack upon Russia.

It seems to many long-time observers that China would never have spoken words like these, unless they believe such a situation is imminent.

I find myself in full agreement with such an assessment.

As you read this, news came out this morning that all of Europe is now $61 Billion in the hole over the weapons and assistance it has given to Ukraine during the conflict with Russia.

It has also come out that, since the beginning of the Russia Special Military Operation inside Ukraine, the Russians have been able to increase military production fifteen times (15X) over what it had previously been.

This staggering increase in Russia’s national military production puts that single country’s production SEVEN TIMES that of all of Europe and the United States, combined.

Everywhere on the planet, voices are (finally) rising and admitting Ukraine cannot win against Russia and people who think otherwise must be “out of their minds.”

Here is one such voice from the Bundestag (Parliament) of Germany:

“Have you all lost your minds?”. Amazing and terrifying speech by @SWagenknecht

Yet China felt compelled to say it would intervene militarily — anywhere – if the US and NATO attack Russia.

The world seems headed into a gigantic, suicidal, Word War 3, and China has made clear with whom they will stand with.

The rest of us would do well to take note, while we’re still alive and can do something to stop this madness.

In Vietnam

Side boobies! Lol.

Has a super rich person ever been treated so badly at a store that they then turned around and bought the store just to fire the employee?

Well, not to fire an employee. I knew an extremely wealthy man who owned a dry cleaning business as one of his many endeavors. One year, the landlord for the building it was in announced he was doubling the rent.

The businessman said to himself, “Now, that doesn’t make sense. He can’t get that kind of rent on the open market. The guy must be desperate for money.” So through another company he owned, he made a lowball bid for the entire building for half what it was worth, and much to his astonishment, the landlord took it.

Now, since he owned the building, he wrote a sweetheart deal of a lease for his dry cleaning business. Then he looked around the building and saw that it was mostly empty, so he swung a few deals and filled it up with commercial tenants. Then, since he didn’t want to be in the Landlord business himself, he put it on the market for twice what he thought it was worth, and much to his astonishment, somebody bought it for that price.

So, he quadrupled his money and got a nice long-term lease for his dry cleaning business, all because the landlord pissed him off. But this was kind of the way he got rich in the first place.

I remember one time Exxon representatives told him he didn’t charge enough at a gas station he owned. After the Exxon representatives left his office, he handed a can of paint to a worker and told him to take Exxon’s name off the pumps. After a week, Exxon knuckled under and let him sell gas for whatever he wanted. He was moving a lot of cheap gas.

What was the biggest warning that your cat was able to give you?

That a tornado was coming.

I woke up in the middle of the night to her meowing her head off and pawing at the covers. She had been taught very young not to wake people, so this was extremely out of character. As I groggily told her to go away, her meows reached a new completely freaked out pitch (think very upset cat in a bathtub type meows), and I realized there was quite an angry storm going on outside. When I got out of bed, she ran to the doorway, continuing her frantic meows. I grabbed my phone and, noticing a text alert saying we were under a tornado warning, ran downstairs to the first floor closet with her close behind.

She was completely silent as we huddled in the closet together, hearing the world come apart outside. When people say tornadoes are loud, they’re not doing justice to the incredible roar of the twister and the banging, popping, and rough sliding sounds of buildings coming apart and cars being thrown. They’re loud…and they’re incredibly scary, even when you know you’re relatively safe.

We came through that storm with only a broken fence, busted garage door, and a few shingles missing from the roof, but as I looked at the devastation of some of the other homes in my neighborhood, I knew it could have been far worse…and I could have been stuck in my bedroom on the top floor as it happened.

President Biden

What was the most obvious lie you’ve been told?

This one is kind of sad.

I used to work at a school that had quite a few well off families. There was one kid (Flynn) who had learning issues but his parents refused to have him tested due to not admitting it. He was also spoiled rotten, his mother would never discipline her perfect little baby and his father was always away. So he was close to feral in school.

Anyway, one day in class the kid sitting next Flynn starts getting angry wanting his pencil case back. Flynn has his hands up and swears he doesn’t have it. From where I’m standing I can see it on his lap under the desk.

I go, “Flynn, give Jack his case back.”

“I don’t have it.”

“Yes you do, Flynn. Give it back.”

“No, I don’t. I don’t know where it is.”

“Flynn, you know I hate it when you lie. Stop lying and give it back to Jack.”

“I swear I don’t have it.”

“Flynn, I can see it from here. Give it back and see me after class.”

So after class I just come out and say, “Flynn, you were lying. I knew you were lying. And I’m pretty sure that you knew that I knew you were lying. What I don’t get is why. If you knew I could see the pencil case why did you keep lying to me?”

Flynn’s reply, “It works at home.”

What’s something you’ve done that unexpectedly made you a lot of money?

An auctioneer once paid me $2500 for just saying the word NO.

I was at the on-site auction of a restaurant. At the time I was buying and selling just about anything, and I saw in the auction ad that the restaurant was decorated with about 40 antique wooden newel posts, and had a brass railing that connected all of them creating some kind of walkways in the restaurant. A newel post is a wooden post usually at the top and bottom of a staircase (see the photos).

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I knew that since virtually everyone who attends restaurant auctions are either restaurant owners or restaurant equipment resellers, the ornately carved wooden posts would be very undervalued by the crowd.

I was right.

The auction was halfway done and I had won about 20 of the posts for just $40 each, plus the giant pieces of brass railing that went with them. The big problem was that I had no idea how I was going to get them out of the floor. They seemed to be pretty well attached and I had no experience in such things!

So halfway through the auction one of the auctioneers comes to me and tells me he’s really sorry but the bank told him he wasn’t allowed to sell the posts, and therefore I couldn’t have them. The reality was probably closer to this: someone new showed up at the auction, found out how little posts had sold for, offered more money privately to take all of them at once, and the auctioneer decided to see if he could steal them from me with this ruse.

I just told the auctioneer: NO. You can’t have them, they’re mine now and I’ll assert my rights to take them away. After a few minutes of this he just said,

“Howabout I give you $2500 to forget about them?”

I said OK and left 5 minutes later with $2500 cash in my pocket.

In hindsight, driving away, I realized I could have asked for more!

Starbucks

What are business or life stories of people who did the right thing, but then it backfired on them?

In April of 2014, Santa Monica High School biology teacher Mark Black caught a student dealing drugs in his classroom. So he did what most teachers would do: he called security. The student panicked and attacked Mark, pushing him onto a table.

Luckily, Mark Black wasn’t just a biology teacher; he was also a seven-time national wrestling champion, and a national hall-of-fame wrestling coach. He slid off the desk, and used simple wrestling techniques to bring the student to the ground and safely restrain him.

This should have been the end of the story. But in a modern-day twist, the entire incident was recorded on video from the cell-phone of one of the student’s friends. That friend then edited the movie, removing the attack on the teacher, and leaving only the part where Mark Black took the student forcefully to the ground.

The student sent the edited video to news media outlets, and within minutes, pundits around the country were calling for the teacher’s immediate dismissal. Hours after that, the Superintendent of Schools sent out a district-wide email calling the video “utterly alarming,” and suspending Mark.

For most teachers, this would have been the end of their teaching career, but not for Mark Black. He had mentored thousands of students over a 30 year career, and he was loved by an entire community. Many people suspected the story was untrue–because they believed in his character.

Rising up to support him, former students from around the country flew back to Santa Monica, California. A petition was launched on The world’s platform for change

asking for Mark to be reinstated, and overnight it exploded to more than 100,000 signatures. The uproar from Mark’s supporters forced the school district to investigate deeper into events… and the real story quickly came out.

In just three days, Mark went from almost losing his career, to being acknowledged in news outlets as a hero. Within two weeks, he was reinstated to his position…. all because Mark had built a network of support by being passionately devoted to his students and athletes.

_____________________

Fun Addendum: Mark Black was my high school wrestling coach. I was one of the students that flew back to Santa Monica to support him in that time. It was one of the most special experiences in my life to support such a wonderful mentor in a time he most needed it. Here is an LA Times article about him. You’ll notice I’m quoted in it 🙂

http://articles.latimes.com/2014/apr/07/local/la-me-ra-santa-monica-teacher-was-right-20140407

What is the single most underrated trait a person can have?

We were in a cafe.

The waiter was serving the things in our plate and he spilled some red sauce on one of my friend’s white shirt.

They both stopped for a while and looked at the stain.

“I am really sorry sir, please come with me to the washroom I’ll clear it” he was fumbling and the droplets of stress could be seen on his forehead.

“It’s perfectly fine brother. Don’t worry! it happens. Just show me the way to washroom I’ll manage” my friend said with a smile.

“Don’t worry I am not gonna change my mood to give you tip” He winked and smiled again while leaving.

And the waiter just smiled.

We went to take clothes from the washerman one day as he didn’t come to return the clothes from many days.

The washerman gave the clothes and showed him the burnt area on a shirt.

He looked at the face of the man which was getting paler and the wrinkles were more pronounced to be a man in fifties.

“Koi baat nahi dada, shirt hi toh hai isi bahane ek nayee le aayenge” (Not a problem uncle, its just a shirt and you gave me a reason to buy new one) He said with a laughter and consoled him by holding his hand.

The watchman of our building didn’t come for a long time.

He went to meet him and found that he was sick. And his daughter was about to get married in a week.

He spent the rest day in preparation of the wedding along with the son of the man and spent whole day on the day of marriage hosting the guests and serving them.

The single most underrated trait which anyone can have is EMPATHY.

The feeling of finding other person’s echoes in yourself and the art of giving smile to others by putting yourself in their shoes.

The effort to make someone’s day a bit better.

Double Name

What is the oddest reason you have been contacted by your child’s school?

Funny story here!

My daughter was (probably) in first grade at the time. It could have been KG ir 2nd grade. Anyway, she was always a playful and friendly little girl. She made friends all the time. However, she was never (and still isn’t, 20+ years later) into anything physical (e.g. sports, gym, hiking, etc.) The one physical activity that she did love was the monkey bars.

I’m not sure how many bars the thing had but probably a dozen or 2 dozen, more than enough for several kids to be on the thing at the same time.

Just to be clear, monkey bars have an upside-down U shape. You climb up 1 vertical side. Then there’s a horizontal portion a few feet long. You grasp a bar and hang from it and then you “walk” across the bar with 1 hand on the bar in front of you and 1 hand on the bar directly behind it.

There’s a drop of a few feet. The thing is just tall enough that a little kid’s feet won’t touch the floor while handwalking across the horizontal section. My daughter was on the horizontal section with 6 of her friends. She lost her grip and fell (maybe 2 feet). Her little friends loved her so much that they got worried all let go of the bar and fell on top of her 😂

The school called me to tell me that my daughter had injured herself on the playground. I lived close by and got to the school in 15 minutes. My daughter was fuming. The teachers had taken her to the nurse for her “injuries.” There wasn’t a scratch on her. But she was annoyed at having lost her playtime!

This was the first time that I had ever been called to school for non-existent injuries. I had to calm down my daughter, not because she was physically or emotionally hurt but just because she got too much love.

What is the rudest thing a beggar/homeless person did and said to you after you did them a favor?

I was at RacTrac in Fort Worth getting gas. A rough looking guy comes up to me and gives a sob story, tells me he ran out of gas, coasted up to the pumps and asked me for 20 bucks. I told him I didn’t have any cash and said let’s go over to your car and I’ll fill ’er up with my credit card. I asked which car was his. He looked around and pointed to an older car two bays over. He said “NO! Just give me some cash!” He got pissed off and said he was gonna beat my ass if I didn’t cough up some cash. I gave his crap right back to him and told him to go away or I’d knock him out. Then he frantically heads over to the next pump and starts harassing an older, well dressed woman. About that time, someone came out of the store and got in the car he said was his. Then drove away. I went over and demanded that he leave her alone and stood there until she finished getting her gas. She graciously thanked me and left. So I went back and my gas was finished pumping. I started to pull out and saw a Ft Worth police car pulling in. By now this guy was harassing people on the other end of the lot. I flagged down the officer. He was a SWAT officer in full riot gear heading back to the station! I told him what had happened. Next thing I know he has the guy spread out on the hood of his squad car searching him.

I drove slowly by and waved at the guy as the officer was cuffing him!

Is saying ‘thank you’ common in Russian culture? How should one respond if someone thanks them for a small gesture in Russia?

Here’s a little first hand story.

In 2003, I made my first trip to another country, which was England. I stayed at a private home in a place called Pinner in Greater London. My hosts gave my a room and let me use their facilities. It was the first time I actually saw and used those bizarre separate water taps for cold and hot water. So inconvenient. But that’s beside the point.

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I spend most of my time hiking and sightseeing. One day I went to see central London. In the evening, when I was going to board my train to go back I learned that there was a blackout

and the trains didn’t work.

I didn’t know how to get to Pinner, so I called my host and asked him if he could drive to the center and pick me up. This phone conversation was life changing for me due to one little detail. It was I who was asking him for help, but it was him, who thanked me several times during the mere seconds that we spoke. When he understood the position I was in and what I was asking him for, he said something like “okay, I see, I’ll pick you up, thank you, thank you, bye”. I was stunned. Those “thank yous” sounded very automatic, but they made so much difference. Like, the man had nothing to thank me for. On the contrary, I got him out from his comfy apartment and made drive to the central London at night, and yet he said thank you. Just a simple sign of politeness made a world of difference. After that I started saying thank you much much more often than I used to.

It’s been more than 20 years, and I have observed that Russian people have become much much more polite, and they use the “magic words” like thank you and please much more often. So I’d say, it has become common. It even affected people who are not used to saying thank you that often, because it has become much easier and more pleasant to deal with them.

Japan evening walk in Shinjuku, Tokyo • 4K HDR

https://youtu.be/rFcwx-sIMA8

Have you, as a police officer, ever known a “dirty” cop? If so, what did you do about it?

Cops as Robbers!

It was about 11:00 p.m. when I first observed my sergeant get a cell phone call. He looked at me and told me he had to check something and left the office. I didn’t hear from him for about thirty minutes. The next thing I hear is that they are looking to establish a crime scene. I immediately went to dispatch and asked, “Where’s the scene and what’s going on?” The dispatcher who was half-asleep said he didn’t hear the broadcast, so I made him play back the audio recording. The department tape-records all radio transmissions and incoming phone calls, a fact that would save my bacon over the next few hours.

After hearing the recording of an officer asking about a crime scene, the dispatcher said nobody told him anything. I then called the sergeant over the radio and said: “What do you have?” He replied that he would give me a call (fortunately for me on a taped line). I took his phone call, and he explained that some drunken Mexican was saying that he got kidnapped, beat up and robbed by the police. They were driving the victim around looking for a crime scene, but the sergeant stated, that to him, it sounded farfetched.

I was aware that there had been some informant information saying that a rogue cop was robbing Mexicans. In fact, the chief, in a staff meeting two months prior, had brought up the information.

I told the sergeant to bring the victim to the station, which he did. At the station, I spoke to a friend of the victim and the victim. The friend spoke English while the victim spoke only Spanish. The friend said the victim was on his way to his house to pay him back some money. As the victim approached the man’s house, a marked police sport-utility-vehicle stopped the victim, arrested him, and drove off. The witness described the involved officers as wearing blue police uniforms with one of the officers speaking fluent Spanish.

The sergeant kept downplaying the incident, and I later determined he had misdirected my initial investigation. He said we only had two Spanish-speaking officers working, while he knew we, in fact, had three. I had the two Spanish-speaking officers I knew about come into the room, and apparently, these were not the officers.

The sergeant then reminded me that the state police had several units in the area who were driving similar vehicles. Two of their officers were at our station using our breathalyzer because their machine was down for repairs. I ran down those leads and came up empty.

Because of the informant information previously discussed, I called the chief of police at 2:00 a.m. and said, “I’m not sure what I have, but one of our cops may be involved in a robbery.” Both the chief and internal affairs commander responded to the department, as well as the two other division commanders.

Information started to leak out in small dribs and drabs. Everyone working that night was interviewed, and no one was allowed to leave. First, I learned that it had something to do with an off-duty police officer who was pulled over for drunk driving. Two officers from our community-policing unit offered to give the intoxicated officer a ride home so he wouldn’t get in trouble. Instead of taking him home, they transported the officer back to a local bar.

I would learn later, that when they transported this drunken officer to the bar, they had already kidnapped the Mexican who was in the back seat with him. The truth finally came out when one officer involved in the kidnapping came clean and turned state’s evidence. This officer had recently transferred to the unit. The second officer and ring leader was not Hispanic but apparently spoke fluent Spanish—a fact I didn’t know, but the sergeant did.

On this night, they were looking for a Mexican to rob. They kidnapped this person off the street and eventually took him to a secluded area of a park and robbed him of his money, assaulted him, and left him there.

However, en route to the park, they stopped a suspected drunk driver who was yet another officer. They then started to give the drunken officer a ride home, loading him into their car right next to the kidnapped man. They dropped the officer at a local bar instead of taking him home.

As word spread of the robbery, other officers knew of the drunken officer and learned of the man in the backseat. The sergeant and others on the shift knew this information, but at that point, all remained quiet.

Initially, I think the sergeant was only covering for the non-arrest of the drunken officer, but later learned of the man in the back seat and tried to continue to sell a false narrative. It’s unfortunate once you start trying to cover one officer’s bad behavior; you become caught up and locked into a much more severe situation. There’s no question in my mind that this well-respected sergeant would never have covered for officers committing a robbery. The problem was, he got caught up in trying to help the intoxicated officer and just got sucked into the middle of a bad situation.

By the next morning, the two officers left in handcuffs going to the county jail. A group of union idiots stood in solidarity at the jail parking lot supporting the officers. In fairness to them, they didn’t know the facts of the case, or they probably wouldn’t have been there.

One junior officer came forward identifying who knew what when, which took courage considering he was going against his entire platoon and his sergeant. He and other officers on the shift received discipline. The sergeant was initially suspended pending further investigation. During this extended period of months, he had several personal tragedies in his life, losing both of his parents.

Additionally, while he was still suspended, the current chief who wanted the sergeant fired was forced to retire. A new chief took over. This chief was a close personal friend of the sergeant. Under the new administration, this sergeant took some discipline but kept his job and more amazingly his rank.

The officer involved in the robbery who turned state’s evidence got a couple of years in jail. The Spanish-speaking ringleader pleaded guilty and got almost the same sentence. They were both out of prison in about three months.

Several years later, the ringleader was back in the news, this time for the armed robbery of several banks. He went away again on a seven-year sentence, but just as before, served only a portion of that time and is now out, yet again.

Cowboy Coffee Cake

Ingredients

1 (10 count) can biscuits, not the flaky type
1 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1/4 cup milk
1/3 cup finely chopped nuts
1/3 cup raisins
1 teaspoon cinnamon

Instructions

Heat oven to 350 degrees F.
Put biscuits in bottom of Bundt pan.
Heat other ingredients just long enough to melt sugar.
Spread mixture over biscuits.
Bake for 25 to 30 minutes.

Would you hire someone who’s been in prison?

As a supervisor for a drywall company I hired a guy who had served half his life in prison.

he was 44 and had spent 22 years in prison. ( 4 year stretch 2 year stretch etc not one long 22 year hit),

He was by far the cleanest worker ( his work space ) and the most obedient worker too.

I had to measure up his work after his first 2 weeks.

He worked alone as he was 6 foot 9 and looked nasty.

I told him his count and that he had earned $7000 for 2 weeks work.

He apologized and said he would work harder next pay period !!! the most the other employees would make would be around $2500.

Next pay period rolls around and I measure his work. $8000 this time.

I tell him and he promises to work harder next time !!. 2 weeks later His measure was $9000. The owner strolls on the job site after the invoices have been sent in.

He asks me who Mick is? I take him to Mick and of course his work area is spotless and I introduce them. Mick shakes his hand and the boss pats him on the back. If Mick made $24000 in 6 weeks guess how much the boss made.

I had mick working for me for 5 years till he cracked and ended up in pokey again.

So YES I would employ someone who has been to prison.

I was on an hourly wage but loved to see Micks cheques

Cross of Iron – Facing the T-34s

What is the most unusual and incorrect reason you’ve had the police called on you?

my insane landlady/neighbor reported me to the police. she said i went inside her house and stole her purse because it contained $5000 cash and her phone. meanwhile, she actually left it in the yard while nibbling on random plants in my ornamental garden (yes you read that right, i had cameras 😂)

thankfully, she also told the cops i did it because she works as jeff bezos’ assistant and i wanted the phone so i could blackmail him for money. needless to say they didn’t take it very seriously. i only found out she reported me when i went to the police station to talk to them about her erratic behavior. they were wildly unhelpful then, and throughtout the whole mess that followed 🤷‍♂️

random other crazy parts of the days surrounding the police report:

she has cameras, and could easily prove someone entered if it were true.

the day before she randomly texted me to ”go in her unlocked backdoor while she was out, and leave the rent on her kitchen table” – specifically asking me to do it while she wasn’t home. it was the same table she told the police i took the purse from. i didn’t of course – but it seems she intended to frame me

she had snuck into my place while i was at work three days prior, i caught her when coming home early. and immediately realized she had been doing it a lot. (things had been moved, doors open i didnt usually leave open etc.. i had figured it was a guest until then) it caused her to spiral with excuses for why she did it, and plots to make the situation go away – she admitted it but didn’t apologize lol.

thats just the beginning, but thats the police report part

Is it better to be tasered or pepper sprayed?

Take it from someone who has tasted both: Take the Taser. Every time.

Now, both are awful – I wouldn’t recommend either for a leisurely afternoon. However, the difference is in how they’re bad. When a Taser is used on you, it is pure electric hell, but for exactly five seconds (the standard duration of a single trigger pull). Now, God never stitched together five longer seconds, to be sure – the current from a Taser is by far the most acute pain I’ve ever endured, and this is coming from someone who’s had a baseball fracture a finger, taken an elbow right to the nose in a basketball game, been hit with simulated bullets, and gotten into (and won, I might add) a street fight with a convicted felon. But once it’s over, it’s over. There is some lingering muscle weirdness (I liken it to that feeling that’s left behind after you finally work out a charley horse in a muscle), but that’s it.

When you get pepper sprayed, though, it’s an hours-long ordeal. When oleoresin capsicum (OC, the chemical in pepper spray) hits your mucous membranes, they go absolutely insane. It took well under one minute for my eyes to swell completely shut, and they were obviously watering profusely. My sinuses underwent nothing less than a liquid detonation – I’m trying not to be crude, but think in excess of half a pint. It’s panic inducing – you can’t see without physically prying your eyelids open, you’re punished every time you breathe, you can’t squeegee the stuff off your face (despite frantic efforts that only serve to expand the zone of misery). It took me an hour to see clearly enough to drive, and over a full day for the pain to completely subside – when OC dries, crystals are left behind that, no matter how many tears you produce, can stay stuck under your eyelid.

As a civilian, I would double down on this answer, because in the heat of the moment, officers tend to err on the side of caution – their caution. That means if you’re to the point of being sprayed, you’ve got a high likelihood of what was known among officers as “getting hosed down.” While Taser cycles can be restarted, this can only be done if the subject is continuing to resist (and cycles are recorded by a tiny onboard computer, which provides records which can be uploaded to a personal computer – in other words, supervisors will know if you abused a Taser during a use of force incident). There’s no ‘standard spray’ with OC – it will emit spray as long as there are contents in the can and you have the trigger depressed.

Unfortunately, you won’t have any vote if you’re on the receiving end. You can take hope from the fact that most officers, in my experience, prefer using a Taser (usually no medical intervention necessary, the subject can see and isn’t hyperventilating, no patrol car contamination, and on and on).

But again, do avoid both at most any cost.

Mexican Casserole

Use your choice of meats in this versatile casserole.

Ingredients

1 1/2 pounds lean ground beef, ground turkey, chorizo or diced cooked chicken
1/4 cup chopped onion
1 clove garlic, minced finely
2 teaspoons chili powder
8 ounces Dorito corn chips, crushed, or regular corn chips
1 (15 ounce) can Bush’s ranch-style beans or chili beans
1 (10 ounce) can Ro*Tel, undrained
1 (10 ounce) can cream of mushroom soup
2 cups Mexican-style shredded cheese
Flour or corn tortillas, warmed

Instructions

Heat oven to 350 degrees F. Spray a 2 quart casserole dish with cooking spray.
In a large skillet, brown the meat for 5 minutes, using a spoon to break up any large clumps. Drain off excess fat and add onion, garlic and chili powder. Continue to cook and stir for 2 minutes.
Add the beans to the cooked meat mixture.
Combine the tomatoes with the soup in a small bowl, mixing completely.
Place about 3/4 of the crushed chips into the bottom of the casserole. Spoon on half the meat mixture, then half the soup mixture. Then add half of the shredded cheese. Repeat the layers, ending with shredded cheese.
Sprinkle the top of the dish with the remaining crushed Doritos or corn chips.
Bake for 30-35 minutes until mixture is bubbling and top is lightly browned.
Serve with tortillas on the side.

What are some of the funniest “got fired” stories?

Not fired per se, but often reassigned. I spent 20 years in the military. One of my supervisors, on realizing I was essentially a lazy git, put me in charge of a shop in a distant part of the ship. No one had really paid any attention to the processes in years. So, lazy man that I was, I dug in to work out the easiest, most expeditious way to do the work. Took about a month, most of it reading manuals and regulations. I completely streamlined everything, including our reporting, eliminating redundancies and revamping workflows. Another 3 weeks to train the staff on how to follow the new procedures, and I could do my whole job in about eight hours a week.

Well, my boss wasn’t going to have me sit on my rump for the other 32 hours, so he moved me again. Same result. A third time, and I was getting the hang of it. I was down to six hours a week. In sheer Puritan frustration, he sent me to the department head’s office to do admin work. Bad choice on his part; I quit paying any attention to the three shops I’d been in, they didn’t need it. In the mean time, I’d become indispensable to my new boss, by arranging things so he could do his job in just a few hours a week.

They gave me “extra duties as assigned”. Well, those were mostly simple enough; paying attention to the written procedures and manuals, and keeping in mind the actual goals, instead of “This is how we’ve always done it”, let me go back to being a lazy git in short order. I was up to maybe 10 hours a week, and that was mostly delivering verbal reports. Maintenance standards were ridiculously high, my people got a lot of time off because the work got done faster than ever before, and me? No one ever saw me actually doing anything. I’d just wander around, a cup of coffee in my hand, dropping a hint here and a word there, or sitting in the mess and catching the occasional phone call.

My evals made me look like a lazy incompetent. Because they used the wrong metrics. But anywhere I was assigned, actual productivity rose, down-time dropped, and everyone got more time off (the only truly effective reward I had to hand out). A lot of my bosses got commendations for “improvements” I had implemented. I eventually retired, after doing some of the easiest time in the service, drawing two pensions and only 38 years old. Drove my wife nuts doing the same thing at home, before she kicked me out of the house. 🙂

Battle of Nagashino 1575

What is something you have tried, but will never do again?

My mate’s girlfriend was getting married to some other guy.

This had to happen.

I too knew that. Who would give her daughter’s hand to a jobless second year engineering student?

Around a week before his girlfriend’s marriage I advised him to cut all connections with her so that she could start a fresh life.

He replied:

“She cannot live without me. If I will stop calling her, she will die.”

I said: “She will not die. She will take time to adjust with her husband but eventually she will be happy with her husband.”

He: “Do you take the guarantee?”

Me: “I am pretty sure that she will not do such stupid thing. Please do not call her if you need her betterment.”

He: “If she commits suicide then you will also have to jump from the roof.”

After that incident I stopped giving advice to any hardcore Romeo.

It has been 2 years and the girl is living happily with her husband.

Million-Dollar Macaroni Casserole

The whole family will love this easy, cozy make-ahead Million-Dollar Macaroni Casserole.

Ingredients

1 pound ground beef or bulk sausage*
1 (28 ounce) can spaghetti sauce
8 ounces cream cheese
1/4 cup sour cream
1/2 pound cottage cheese
1 stick butter
1 pound pasta such as elbow noodles or rotini
1 bag pizza blend shredded cheese
Optional: sliced mushrooms, diced bell pepper, diced onion

Instructions

Heat oven to 350 degrees F.
Boil the noodles. Mix together the cream cheese, sour cream and cottage cheese in a mixer to thoroughly mixed together. Set aside.
If you have chosen to use the bell pepper or onion, sauté them for 3 minutes then toss in the ground beef or sausage. Brown ground beef or sausage and drain well. Add spaghetti sauce and mix together. Put a few slices of butter in the bottom of a 9 x 13 inch casserole dish. Then layer half of the noodles in the bottom of the dish. Spread the cheese mixture over this layer. Then add the remaining noodles on top of this with a few pats of butter.
Spread the red sauce and meat on top.
Bake for 30 minutes.
Remove from oven, spread cheese on top, and return to oven for another 15 minutes or until cheese is melted and bubbly.

Notes

* Ground chicken or turkey may also be used in this recipe.

Does it cost money to go to jail?

Depends on how you intend to live your life while you’re there.

Because simply existing in jail — an American jail anyway — requires no money at all if you’re willing to subsist on bad food, basic toiletries, and a blaring day room TV.

But any kind of a normal life at all is gonna require income.

Without money in your commissary account, you can’t —

wash your hair with anything other than bar soap;
soothe a raw throat with Menthol-Lyptus;
take Tylenol for a headache;
write and mail a letter;
make a phonecall;
listen to music;
use deodorant;
eat a snack;
moisturize;

And if you consider any of these items luxuries, then you’re probably coming to incarceration straight off the street and sleeping rough.

Congrats on the upgrade.

Otherwise, you’re gonna need funds.

That means sympathetic family and friends on the outside, a work release or road crew deal from the judge and/or sheriff’s department, or a trustee uniform.

I know it’s possible to subsist in jail without means, because I’ve seen motherfuckers do it.

But it’s no way for a human being to live.

Network

Grease Palms

Update That Resume

Jail isn’t the free ride one might imagine.

Putin just scored a KNOCKOUT Blow to NATO and Ukraine is Terrified w/ Andrei Martyanov

Which historical event sounds like it came straight out of a movie?

Shawn Nelson was a plumber.

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And since Shawn Nelson was a plumber, he was rich too.

He quite literally had it all. A nice wife, a big house, and a booming business.

But one day, it seemed like whatever higher power there existed had had enough of Shawn and his life being so nice.

So the higher power commanded fate to start shitting on Shawn with unparalleled fury.

In the span of 4 years:

Both of his parents died, his mother’s death causing him to become an abusive alcoholic
His wife filed for divorce because of his alcohol tendencies
He was hospitalized for neck and back injuries, which left him unable to walk for a year or so
His truck was broken into, having all his plumbing supplies stolen
Due to him not being able to walk, which means not having a business, which means not being able to pay the bills, Shawn’s utilities were cut off.
The bank started to foreclose his assets due to him not being able to pay
The hospital that treated him for his injuries sued him for unpaid medical bills

The man had quite literally lost everything in a fraction of the time it had taken him to get it.

Safe to say, he was at his lowest point.

As many can attest, it is easier than ever to fall into the grasp of drug use during this time. Nelson was no different. He quickly got addicted to crystal meth, and he went all-in into his addiction.

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When the meth started, his erratic behaviors increased.

Nelson’s neighbors were constantly calling the cops because they were being kept awake at night by Nelson’s outbursts. He constantly threatened suicide and was verbally and emotionally abusive to his roommate and a new girlfriend.

He went so far as to call the Oklahoma bombing that killed nearly 200 people and injured nearly 700 “good stuff.”

However, it seemed fate had finally smiled upon Shawn when he found gold in his own back garden.

This was it. This was the chance to turn his life around. He could pay his bills, regain his job, make his business run again, and finally go back to his old life.

However, this was another meth-fueled delirium. That didn’t stop him from single-handedly building a fifteen-foot mineshaft in his own back garden though.

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He dug that mineshaft for nothing.

Soon after, his girlfriend and roommate moved out.

Shawn was alone in his big house with a big pile of meth.

He had nothing to lose.

On the 17th of May, 1995. Shawn Nelson ingested all the meth he had, then got into his car and started driving, stopping only when he reached the California National Guard Armory.

At this point, Nelson was a meth entity with nothing to lose, and he had only one goal in mind.

He was going to steal a tank.

Shawn arrived at the national guard barracks to find the door wide open, with no guards guarding the millions of dollars worth of tanks and guns stored inside there.

So Shawn just waltzed right in.

He found a tank that he liked and climbed in. At this point, you’d expect tanks to have something like keys or a complicated ignition system to start, but nope.

The tank had a push start button.

Unfortunately, the tank didn’t work. So Shawn climbed into another tank, all without getting spotted. That tank didn’t work either.

He climbed into a third tank, which worked, and so began the half-hour-long Meth Tank Rampage.

He drove his tank through the streets, completely invulnerable to anything the police cruisers that followed him had access to. He crushed 40 vehicles and many more road utilities until he finally got stuck, at which point he was shot dead.

Getting your life screwed over that bad, then stealing a tank does not sound like something out of real life to me.

HUGE EDIT PLEASE READ:

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Shawn Nelson was by no means a saint. He was not entirely a victim of circumstance and mostly brought the stuff that happened to him onto himself.

Mercenaries from the West inside Ukraine – Stunning Numbers

World Hal Turner 16 March 2024

The number of “mercenaries” inside Ukraine, from Western and NATO countries, is stunning. The number of them KILLED is also stunning. Details below:

The Russian Ministry of Defense continues to track and record all foreign mercenaries who have arrived in Ukraine to participate in combat actions.

►The total number of foreign mercenaries who have arrived in Ukraine is 13,387 (Since 24 February 2022.)
►Destruction of 5,962 foreign mercenaries has been confirmed to date.

The undisputed leader in terms of the number of killed fighters is Poland (2,960 arrived, 1,497 eliminated).
From Georgia, 1,042 fighters arrived, of whom 561 were eliminated.
The 1,113 ‘soldiers of fortune’ arriving from the U.S. lost 491 killed.
More than 40% of Canadian mercenaries were eliminated (422 out of 1,005).
Of the 822 fighters arriving from the UK, 360 were eliminated.
From Romania, 784 mercenaries arrived, 349 were killed.
From Germany – 235 and 88, respectively.
France has already lost 147 militants out of 356 arrived
but denies — at all levels — the presence of its mercenaries on the territory of Ukraine.

Forty-four percent (44%) of all foreign mercenaries who went into Ukraine, are confirmed dead.

If one applies the same percentage to Ukrainian regular army troops, then out of the 800,000 troops that existed at the start of the conflict, it is logical to conclude that at least 352,000 are already dead.

Since Ukraine has been drafting-by-force during the entirety of the conflict, the number of Ukrainian dead is clearly far higher than 352,000.

At what point will anyone in the West come to the rational conclusion that the Ukrainians have ZERO chance of surviving continued hostilities? Because THAT is the only rational conclusion to be arrived at.

If the West decides to pursue a suicidal effort to enter Ukraine militarily, is it not clear already that Western Forces would see the same 44% of their men killed the same way Ukraine has?

Last week, it was admitted by the West that eighty percent (80%) of Ukrainian Drones have been rendered useless by Russian Electronic Warfare! 80% ! ! !

Those are Western-supplied drones. Does the West think it will have better odds if THEY are the ones launching the drones? Such a conclusion would be idiocy.

When will the West come to its senses and tell Ukraine “We’ve reached the end, you must sue for peace with Russia?”

As it stands now, Western armament supplies are dwindling to the point where Western nations are no longer able to defend THEIR OWN territory, because they have so depleted their supplies of Ammunition, artillery shells, and missiles.

If the West _does_ engage in Ukraine, where do they think they will get re-supplied from? Right now, the West can’t make enough for the pittance of an army that Ukraine has left. How would they then supply the extra half-million NATO troops? The ammunition simply isn’t there anymore and the manufacturing base simply cannot make enough to supply an ongoing war effort.

None of these facts are in dispute. So why is the carnage continuing?

Do card counters really get beaten up by casino thugs, as portrayed in the movies?

My wife counts cards. She likes to play at the $1 tables at Circus Circus in Reno. She makes a few bucks every time she plays. Counting cards requires some concentration, and many people can’t do it, especially if they’re drunk, which explains the free alcohol.

The dealers all count cards. It’s the only way to keep from nodding off doing that job. So they pretty much know who is counting and who is gambling.

If you go home with $20 and brag to your friends that you counted cards in Reno, it’s great for business. If you try to count cards at the high-stakes tables, you will get escorted out if you are successful at all. A photo of you is taken and posted in the Security office so don’t come back later in the day to try again.

There are enough casinos in Reno that you can make some money if you come a couple times a year. If you move to Reno and try to make a living counting cards, you become known to the pit bosses and the security people, and find yourself prevented from playing.

No brass knuckles are involved. That’s just for the movies.

Cowboy Coffee

coffee on coals and the seashore 1246925709 92fa13d153b24e3096bde851a73fd92e

Ingredients

4 quarts water
1 1/2 cups freshly ground coffee
1 egg shell
1/2 cup cold water

Instructions

Bring water to a boil in a large saucepan or coffee pot.
Add coffee grounds and egg shell to boiling water. Return to a boil, then remove from heat and let stand for 2 minutes.
Slowly add cold water to settle grounds to the bottom. Strain if desired.

As a boss, what is the wildest reason that you had to chew out/discipline/fire an employee?

I was managing a radio station in Colorado. One early morning, I was on the air and noticed the hotline lighting up indicating an incoming call: it was the guy whom I scheduled to be on the air after me. He was calling in sick.

“Don’t worry about it,” I said. “We’ll cover your shift so stay home and take care of yourself, and I hope to see you tomorrow.”

I was able to find a replacement for him, so after my shaft had come to an end, I handed over the reins to the next jock. I rarely did this, but for some reason, I decided to go home for an hour before I came back to work and spend the rest of my day working in my office. Once I was home, I turned on the TV just to have some noise in the background as I went into the kitchen to make a simple lunch. As I walked around the house, I looked down to see a basketball game in progress. Who do I notice seeing courtside, was none other than the guy who had called in sick.

It was well-known through my staff that if one wanted to take off a day – even if it were for personal reasons – I had a policy in place that would allow people to call in (even at the last minute) and request time off.

To make matters worse, he had lied to me.

The next day, I saw him in the hallway and simply said, “My office. Two-o’clock. Be there.”

At the moment, I couldn’t tell if I was going to fire him for being stupid enough to call in sick to attend a nationally televised event, or if I was going to fire him for lying to me. Either way, he was becoming gainfully unemployed that afternoon.

“Thank you for stopping by my office, but I am afraid that your services are no longer needed. Have a nice day.” I handed him his final check and he left silently.

I am glad that during my time in management I rarely had to fire someone (in fact, he was only one of two people I had fired during my career (the other person was dismissed for attendance purposes. I can tolerate a lot of things with people, but being lied to is, in my opinion, the worst.

Which are some of the most ingeniously solved criminal cases?

The story starts in Denmark. It is 2012 and police officers have just made a pretty standard arrest: they found a sexual offender with possession of child porn.

Police had a much greater concern though. They needed to find who created the videos, not just who was watching them.

There were no clear clues, so they turned to the videos to see if they could find a lead.

In the background, at one point, there was the slightest shot of a pill bottle.

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They zoomed in and managed to discern the man’s first name, the first two letters of his last name and the first three digits of the prescription order.

From there, the investigators applied these details to every possible person to whom they could be attributed.

After intensive searching, they conclude that a man named Stephen Keating is responsible, however they still have very little info about him. Furthermore, this evidence alone isn’t enough to convict him.

Rather than giving up, they once again went back to the videos. This time however, they found an image showing the man’s hand. From there, they used technology to create an impression of his fingerprint.

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The resulting fingerprint was a perfect match.

53-year-old Stephen Keating was arrested, just three weeks after the investigation began.

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Keating had repeatedly sexually molested three children, all under the age of 12. Outside of the ones captured on video, it was revealed there were another 12 children whom he had abused.

He was sentenced to 110 years in federal prison, but he may have never been caught had it not been for some brilliant detective work.

[4K】Relaxing Walk in Japanese Small Town – Ikegawa, Kochi

This is just lovely.

Cowboy Coffee with Kahlua Cream

Featured in the November 1998 issue of Texas Monthly – created by Chef Grady Spears

how to make cowboy coffee recipe 1695022684

Ingredients

1 pot hot coffee
1 1/4 cups heavy cream
2 tablespoons powdered sugar
2 tablespoons Kahlua liqueur
8 teaspoons shaved chocolate

Instructions

Make a pot of good strong coffee.
In a bowl whip the cream until soft peaks form.
Fold in the powdered sugar and Kahlua.
Put a dollop on each cup of coffee and garnish with shaved chocolate.

What single decision had the greatest effect on history?

On September 28th, 1918, Henry Tandey, a British soldier serving with the 5th Duke of Wellington’s Regiment, saw a weary German soldier wandering into Tandey’s line of fire at the small French village of Marcoing.

The enemy soldier was hurt and didn’t even attempt to raise his rifle. Altough Tandey had a clear vision and an opportunity to reduce the number of enemy forces by one, he chose not to shoot. The German soldier allegedly saw what he did and nodded his thanks before getting out of the sight.

That German soldier was Adolf Hitler.

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This story supposedly comes from Hitler himself. When Neville Chamberlain visited Hitler in 1938 (before the Münich Agreement), he saw a picture by Fortunino Matania ordered by the Green Howards regiment depicting a man saving his fellow comrade. Hitler had allegedly identified the man as Tandey on the basis of a U.K. newspaper article and claimed Tandey was the one who saved his life:

That man came so near to killing me that I thought I should never see Germany again; Providence saved me from such devilishly accurate fire as those English boys were aiming at us.

There has been a lot of evidence that this story is not actually true (see the sources below). But it doesn’t make it less cool nevertheless. If it were true, it would definitely be a legitimate candidate for a single decision that had the most dramatic effect on the entire 20th century.

If nothing else, it kinda reminded me of the following joke:

A man decided to visit a fortune teller. After looking into his hand and into the crystal ball, the fortune teller says in a dramatic tone:

“You sir, will be responsible for the death of millions”

Shocked and taken aback, the man goes back to his home. Along the way, he passes near a river and sees a small boy drowning helplessly.

“Well, if millions of people are going to die because of me, I might at least save one life.”

He jumps into the river and pulls the boy out. The shocked mother comes in tears and says:

“ Oh my dear god, thank you so much Mr., you are a saint. Adolf, you should thank this gentleman yourself.”

Sources:

War hero who did not shoot Hitler

If you have just killed someone in self defense, what can you do immediately after the fact to help cement your innocence?

Call a lawyer.
Shut up until your lawyer shows up.
Take pictures of the scene and especially the witnesses. Give the phone only to your lawyer.
When the cops come say ‘I’m sorry Officer. I’d love to tell you my side, but my wife told me to wait for my lawyer.’ Change that to your Dad, etc. At some point before then say ‘Dad, tell me the following…’ so you aren’t lying to the cops.
If they are going to miss the obvious, like a witness, or the gun slid under the dumpster, point it out. But then shut up again.A buddy was getting divorced. His soon to be ex said, she felt threatened when talking to him because he was a soldier (it didn’t matter for the other 20 years…) He was a nice guy and wanted to say, ‘it’s okay, I won’t talk to her.’ But his lawyer shut him down.
If he said that, it gave the impression that he really was a threat.
If he made a mistake, and called his kid, but his wife answered, he could be found liable of breaching a court order.Don’t move things, except to safety and holster your weapon.
A cop had a legit shoot, but noticed the bad guy dropped the gun, right at the cop’s feet. The cop moved the gun to the bad guy, to match what he saw as true, at the time.
Moving the gun got him convicted.Changing your mag might be a good idea because you don’t know if the fight is over until the cops arrive.
Leave the 1/2 empty mag at your feet. Put the safety on/de-cock it, etc. because you don’t want the cop who takes your gun having an ND.
You don’t want the cops to show up and you have a gun in your hand. If your gun is in your hand, very nervous cops will point their guns at you. You don’t want that.Don’t move anything you don’t have to. Giving first aid is allowed but it messes with the facts. Ask 911 before you do it.And shut up. You will really really want to talk. But who among us haven’t said something stupid?

New Gender Alert

Sexless bong water

The one memory that I have of my university days is the smell of bong water. I cannot count how many times that foul water would sometimes spill and smell up everything.

I know that today, the university experience appears to be a non-stop fuck fest. But that wasn’t my experience.

I was a nerd on a purpose and I studied, and then studied and then studied some more. Sure I drank beer, and did drugs, and smoked weed, but that was the culture at that snapshot in time.

Along with bell-bottom jeans, earth shoes and Jimmy Carter.

I did do a lot of acid.

I really did.

I was the guy who was always “trippin'” back in the day.

But you all must know, I might have done that, but I was a virgin until after I left university. So in many ways, compared with today, I kind of missed out on some really fun things.

I will tell you that once I got married, well… I did end up making up for lost time. Heck, my wife and I were rabid rabbits.

But that was another time, and another place.

Bong water. University. Studying and testing.

My life back then.

…

Now for today…

How will the US continue to sanction countries successfully if China can just sell those sanctioned stuff to the sanctioned country thereby changing nothing in the economy of that country?

You can only start to sanction another country if that country needs your stuffs and you stop selling to them! Today the U.S. don’t have a single thing it makes that others can’t do! In fact most nations can do stuffs cheaper, bettter and faster than the U.S. could do so sanctioning them is really like helping them save money! Hahahahaha!

Why not?

Why did you get fired from your first job?

I was fired for something that I did two weeks after I started, 2.5 years prior.

The manager who fired me was my 5th manager in 2.5 years. On her first day, she informed me after finding out that I was on public transportation from a rural town (took over 2 hours to get to the job, one way) and going to college that I had limited availability (16 hours a week), she was unsure how long I would last. I lasted 1 month to the day when she started.

She did everything she could to provoke me into quitting cutting my hours to 3 a week or on one occasion to deck her. My avatar is my cat that I had for 16 years. I had to put him to sleep. I took one day off from work and returned two days later. She was waiting for me at the front door, and asked me, “Was that a good use of your Paid Time Off?” I stood there speechless, finally said, “Yes!” and walked away.

It was a blessing because, in my final term I was going to be available for one day, 8 hours a week.

She still works at that store, and still hates me!

What are some of the best examples of “American ignorance”?

A friend of mine from the US (I’d met her years ago at a teacher’s seminar and we’d stayed in touch) came to visit me and stayed with me for a couple of weeks. She hadn’t previously been to Australia and was surprised that we live in an Alpine area, she didn’t expect to see mountains topped with snow. I don’t think she believed me when I told her that we had more snow here in winter than falls on Switzerland. Apparently she thought we were all beaches and deserts with nothing in between. So I told her about our rainforests, tropical in the north of the country and temperate, cool-temperature in the south, about the huge productive farmlands, about our research centres, etc.

Her comment, which made me laugh? “It’s quite a big country, isn’t it?”

Well, yeah. Yeah, it is.

She then asked, “Would it be as big as England?”

Flabbergasted. And she is a teacher…

Women Are FURIOUS Seeing Men Go Overseas And Be Happy In Marriages And Relationships

If Putin announces a nuclear war with NATO, could NATO react in time and nuke Russia before Russia launches their nuclear weapons?

I read a lot of fantasy answers from a lot of Pro Nato supporters who still think this is 1997

The first assumption is the Russia would launch a nuke from its own territory

The second assumption is that the Western Satellites would detect the move even before a Nuke is launched

In 1998, we pulled wool over the eyes of all those Western Satellites

India

Back then not even an emerging economy but an ordinary third world developing country dependent on imports for every aspect of defence

Russia have 65 Submarines of which 46 have the capability of carrying between 1–2 Nuclear Missiles

My guess is almost all these Submarines have been refurbished to carry Hypersonic Missiles with Thermonuclear Warheads

I am basing this guess on the fact that in 2022 August – a record 39 Submarines were serviced against an average of 12 a year from 2016–2021

The Instant a Nuke is even launched in Russia’s direction – these Submarines will launch their missiles in a pre arranged pattern at specific targets in Europe and NATO

London, NY, Lyons, Grenoble, Paris, Hamburg, Odessa, Nagasaki

That’s 46 Million people gone in the first wave

Vaporized literally

Sunak will be literal vapor

You can actually breathe him

The next would be the heat shock blast (There won’t be radioactive waste since these are Thermonuclears)

All Livestock within a 150–200 Mile radius is gone

Soil is rendered entirely useless for at least 100 years

That’s a further 140–180 Million people gone in the second wave

Finally you will have displacement, disease, starvation and that’s another 200–300 Million people gone in the third wave

The maximum deaths could be as high as 520 Million in NATO NATIONS

That’s 56% of the ‘Golden Billion’

Senator Cotton could actually breathe in his own wife and kids before he becomes vapor

Advanced Molecular integration

So it’s MUTUALLY ASSURED DESTRUCTION as the name suggests

If Russia is destroyed , no less than 400–500 million Americans, Europeans and Japanese will die and their nations will go back to the stone age

There will be electronic Interference for at least 7–15 years

Why would Russia launch a Nuclear War?

They have no reason to do so

If Macron sends troops to Ukraine, the Russians will kill them

If Sunak sends troops to Ukraine, the Russians will kill them

They are all far below Ukraines fighting capability and Russians have trounced at least 350K Ukranians

Ukraine had been fighting Donbass Militia for 8 years and they had some blooding

Not UK Or France or Germany or Poland

TikTok Ban| Chips| AI Hype| CBDC! Conversation with/Richard Turrin!!

What was the biggest secret you found out only after someone passed away?

I met my husband in 2007 and he moved in with me a few months later. In November of that year his mother committed suicide, she took an overdose of drugs that she had stored up and put a plastic bag over her head. She had been in a nursing home for 12 years. I still don’t know what her actual diagnosis was, but I believe it was manic depression and a form of psychosis. Every day my father in law would spend hours with her in the home.

In 2016 we moved in to take care of him as he was becoming very frail. I grew very close to him and we would talk about his life etc. He would talk about J*** with such love and affection. He told me how for a long time she had begged him to help her end her life of pain. He had to tell her that he couldn’t, it was against the law and I could feel the pain that he went through.

He passed away aged 92 and I had the job of clearing out his possessions. At the back of a drawer in his bedside table I found a book called Dying with dignity. A page had the corner turned over which described the method that his wife had used. He had left this for one of us to find after his death. He had helped her with her final request and carried the secret to his grave.

Some words for today

Have you ever been treated differently because of the car you were driving?

Yes.

A tree fell on my 2015 Chrysler 200. I really enjoyed the car but it was a goner. One of the issues when living in the woods I guess. I don’t think I ever got a second glance from anyone while I drove it.

As luck would have it my insurance settlement worked out quickly and I replaced the 200 with a 2017 Lincoln MKZ Select. It really wasn’t an upgrade in my opinion… more like an even swap.

Um, it might be important to know that I am 59 years old but am often mistaken as someone much younger.

The next day I was getting in my car as a much older-appearing couple were getting out of a Kia or some other cheap car. The lady sneered at me and the man commented “Nice car you entitled punk. Did your mommy buy that car for you?”

I replied with a smile “Thanks for the compliment. I like being told that I look younger than I am.”

The lady asked “How old are you?”

“59. How about you two?”

“We’re both 51.”

“Good! Maybe when you grow up you can get a nice car just like mine.”

Take her into YOUR world

What things should a person avoid once they are past 70 years old?

It all depends on the person, doesn’t it?

At 76 going on 77, I marvel that my 75 year old brother still jogs for miles and competes in inline skating marathons. I walk for miles and do some ice skating, usually with a ski pole in my hand to help me get up if I fall.

I avoid climbing ladders because I lost two friends to falls in their 70s (one instantly and the other in assisted living for the last ten years of life). My brother, Al, just completely renovated a house at 72–73. I just paid some contractors to renovate parts of mine.
Every one should avoid buying a time share, but especially those over 70. Even getting a mortgage to buy or build a new residence seems extreme. I used to salivate over House Hunters International. I’m so lucky I didn’t buy my dream home in an Italian hilltop town.
I avoid soda pop, Big Macs, and hot dogs. Why tempt the gods?
I avoid signing up for online subscriptions or making donations to television evangelists. My mother didn’t and we filled a dumpster with unread magazines and CD’s from religious hucksters.
I avoid both Fox News and MSNBC. Because.
Now that I am no longer that 35 year old testosterone poisoned jerk who makes a show of passing slower drivers and pulling in front of them in disgust, I avoid the temptation to flip them off.
I feel people over 75 should avoid running for President or Senator.

There’s still enough not to avoid, so I better end this.

Welcome to the United States

What was the strangest way an embezzler was caught?

Sanjay Madan was the IT director for the Ontario Ministry of Education. He saw how lax the security was , and set up a system where he would award an IT contract for $900 a day, and his partner would find someone to subcontract for $450 a day. In his first year, they managed to take $467,000 by 2019, they were stealing $6.5 million a year. The very weird part of this is that his partner was a police informant, who never informed police. Everything was going along perfectly, and by 2020 they had stolen $37,000,000 doing this, and nobody knew that a crime had been committed. I think the police need some better informants.

Then covid hit, and they got greedy, the government was giving out between $200 and $250 to children that had to be home schooled because of covid.

He filed 48,000 fake applications and had all the money deposited into the same five bank accounts. Again he got away with it. $10.8 million dollars. How many scammers do you know that pulled the same scam 48,000 times and got away with it. But, by filing 48,000 claims, he increased the odds that one of them would file for their own child. They of course were accused of double dipping, and of course they were indignant, because they were honest. They investigated and found that the money hadn’t gone into the real applicants account. So then they searched to see if more money had gone into that account, and there was millions.

In total he stole $47.4 million. He has given back $30 million and after he gets out of jail in 10 years, he has five more years to repay the rest, or face further jail time.

But wait!!! The best part of this is that his defense was that it was entrapment. Nobody makes a system that easy to steal from if it isn’t a trap.

Welcome to Asia

As a police officer, what’s one story on Christmas you will never forget?

One Christmas, at around 1 A.M. my partner and I spotted a van driving the opposite direction of us in an alley. Something about the way the guy looked at us made it seem like he was up to no good, so we turned around to follow him and run his plates. So, we caught the guy after a vehicle pursuit and a foot pursuit.

Long story a little less long, the van hadn’t been reported stolen and it had the keys in it, but we were pretty sure it was stolen. We had an assisting unit wait with the van, gifts, and suspect while we drove to the registered owner’s home and knocked. The police knocked at 1:30 or 2 a.m. A grumpy lady came to the door and eyed us suspiciously and assumed “the pose” (arms crossed, leaning slightly back and to one side, with head down and hip thrust off to the opposite side).

“What?”

“Ma’am, are you Mary Crankypants?”

“Yeah.”

“Do you own a 1990 blue Astrovan License 123ABC?”

{exaggerated exhalation of breath as if bored) “Yeeeeahhhh?”

“We stopped a guy named Johnny Lightfingers driving it at 120th and Avalon. Do you know him, and does he have permission to have your vehicle?”

“NO I don’t and NO he doesn’t.”

“Well the van is loaded with a bunch of kids’ Christmas presents. Are your Christmas presents missing?”

(An exhalation of breath as if we were putting her out) “Just a second”, she huffed at us, before disappearing to look. She returned several seconds later,

(Again with the exhalation of breath as if we were putting her out) “The presents are all gone toooo.”

“Can somebody with a license come with us and pick up the van and presents?”

(And AGAIN with the exhalation of breath as if we were putting her out) “Fiiine.”

She stomped off to get some clothes on.

Our guy went to jail for burglary, vehicle theft, evading, parole violation and driving on a suspended license, but that lady was possibly the most ungrateful person I have ever met in my life.

Why Hiring Women Has Become BAD For BUSINESS

Join the “STAY AWAY ” Movement….

Pastitsio (Baked Macaroni)

I suppose this could be called the “comfort food” of Greek cooking. Pastitsio uses a béchamel sauce, one of the five mother sauces. My sister and I absolutely love this, and we used to make it all the time when we saw each other more often. But I also eat it at the St. Katherine’s Greek Festival every year.

Prep: 25 min | Cook: 55 min | Yield: 8 to 12 servings

Ingredients

Macaroni

1 pound macaroni
1/4 pound butter
1 1/2 pounds ground turkey or beef
1/2 can tomato paste
6 ounces grated Romano or Parmesan cheese
1 medium onion, chopped
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
Salt and pepper

Sauce

4 cups warm milk, divided
5 eggs
6 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 1/2 sticks butter

Instructions

Macaroni

Cook macaroni (but not well done) in boiling, salted water and drain.
Sauté onion in a little butter.
Add ground meat and stir until brown.
Add tomato paste, thinned with a little water.
Add salt, pepper, cinnamon and nutmeg. Cook until meat is done.
Melt butter; pour over drained macaroni, mixing carefully.
Spread half of the macaroni on the bottom of a 13 x 9-inch pan.
Sprinkle half of the grated cheese on top.
Spread entire meat mixture on top.
Cover with remaining macaroni and remaining grated cheese.

Sauce

Boil 3 cups of the milk with 1 1/2 sticks butter.
Add flour to remaining 1 cup milk and blend well.
Add flour mixture to boiling butter and milk. Thicken and cool.
After this has cooled, add 5 beaten eggs, or drop small amounts of the milk mixture into the eggs while stirring constantly. Once the egg mixture gets warm to hot, add the remaining milk.
Pour sauce over the macaroni. Shake the pan and insert a knife to penetrate thoroughly.
Bake at 350 degrees F for 40 to 45 minutes.

Prof. Jeffrey Sachs: US/Russia/China: Worst Tensions in 30 Years.

I was born July 1945 from my whole life. I knew that in November 19 63 the United States of America cease to exist. It was not the America that I had grown up in. and as a retired lawyer admitted to the bar of Massachusetts and Maryland. I am distraught about how lawless the courts and judicial system now are I always thought they were the last refuge, but they’ve gone over to the dark side for the most part.

What was a rule that was made at your job because of something a co-worker did?

I worked at a fast food place. When we closed there’d usually be a little bit of food left over in the warming bins. 2 to 4 burger patties, a grilled chicken and a fried chicken typically, as we cut back on what was prepped ahead later in the evening. We, the employees were allowed to eat the left overs as we finished closing duties. One of the perks of the otherwise annoying jobs of closing. The managers and other employees often had me make them sandwiches, as I came up with some interesting combos. Sometimes if they didn’t get eaten one of the employees would take a couple of patties or whatever was left over home with them for the fridge.

One night one of the cooks who had been there for years, was putting in about 10 quarter pound patties through the broiler, about 10 minutes before close. The manager told them there was no way we were going to sell that many before close (obviously). He just said that any we didn’t sell he would just take home with him. Obviously only making them for that purpose. The next day there was a rule that all leftover food had to be thrown out at the end of the night. No employees were allowed to eat any of it or take it home. One person ruined it for everyone, and of course he was the one that complained the most about it, when he was the one that caused it.

This is all they do

Wiggle their butts.

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/hFyzorkEpTA?feature=share

‘A man was asked to paint a boat. He brought his paint and brushes and began to paint the boat a bright red, as the owner asked him.

While painting, he noticed a small hole in the hull, and quietly repaired it.

When he finished painting, he received his money and left.

The next day, the owner of the boat came to the painter and presented him with a nice check, much higher than the payment for painting.

The painter was surprised and said “You’ve already paid me for painting the boat Sir!”

“But this is not for the paint job. It’s for repairing the hole in the boat.”

“Ah! But it was such a small service… certainly it’s not worth paying me such a high amount for something so insignificant.”

“My dear friend, you do not understand. Let me tell you what happened:

“When I asked you to paint the boat, I forgot to mention the hole.

“When the boat dried, my kids took the boat and went on a fishing trip.

“They did not know that there was a hole. I was not at home at that time.

“When I returned and noticed they had taken the boat, I was desperate because I remembered that the boat had a hole.

“Imagine my relief and joy when I saw them returning from fishing.

“Then, I examined the boat and found that you had repaired the hole!

“You see, now, what you did? You saved the life of my children! I do not have enough money to pay your ‘small’ good deed.”

So no matter who, when or how, continue to help, sustain, wipe tears, listen attentively, and carefully repair all the ‘leaks’ you find. You never know when one is in need of us, or when God holds a pleasant surprise for us to be helpful and important to someone.

Along the way, you may have repaired numerous ‘boat holes’ for several people without realizing how many lives you’ve save. ❤️

Make a difference….be the best you can…”

I’m fine

When did you realize something was a blessing in disguise?

When I re-connected with a lot of my old high school classmates on Facebook, and I saw how many of the “popular” kids ended up with really bad careers and marriages. That’s when I realized that being unpopular in high school probably helped me focus on my education and made me so much more grateful for my wife, which led to a better marriage.

Many of the guys who got all of the girls in my high school — the guys I used to be so jealous of — now have crappy jobs, failed out of college, have criminal records, have multiple children from multiple women, and generally look miserable on their Facebook posts.

It’s even worse for the women I graduated with. So many of those beautiful classmates that I used to wish would just give me a chance… they’re now drug addicts, have multiple children with multiple men, have abusive boyfriends and husbands, and just look so… miserable and beaten down by their lives.

I knew many of these people in grammar school. We were friends then. But in middle school and especially in high school, when the social cliques really started forming and I was left out of them, their personalities changed. They quit trying in school. They focused on getting dates, parties, etc… The typical popular teenager stuff.

Not all the popular kids, of course. Some of them ended up in good places in life. But many of them didn’t. And I think it can be traced right back to those high school years.

Dating and partying weren’t distractions for me. That’s the hidden advantage to being an unpopular high schooler… you don’t lose focus on your education. And, in college, when I finally met a woman who gave me a chance, I treated her like a queen, and it’s worked out great for us.

So, if you’re an unpopular high schooler today, particularly if you’re a guy who gets no attention from the ladies… fear not! It’s a blessing in disguise. “The ladies” are a distraction… for now at least. Education first, then career. Then watch how the roles change. A man in his 20s with a college education and stable, successful career? You’ll never have to worry about not finding a date again.

The Consequences Of Degrading Men

Something is happening to boys and there is goring to be a very serious backlash.

What’s the most savage way you’ve seen someone get fired?

I worked at Wilkins Dodge in Roseville MN around 1990

We were not the most productive dealer in the area for sure, selling an average of 60 used vehicles and 50 New vehicles per month.

A new Gm is hired and he has big plans for us to jump into the big leagues starting with hiring 12 new salespeople to add to our 8 person team plus 2 older than dirt fleet managers. Great we all said or thought collectively while in the middle of a very serious circle jerk.

Somehow the GM finds 12 people that can speak, tie a tie, own a pen and can pass a background check. To us the all looked like the guys that knock on your door asking about religion.

So they (the 12) are offered paid training at 300.00 Dollars a week for 2 weeks at 5 days each for 8 hours…They are all signed up thru Mopar sales training and are by all accounts doing OK.

Wilkins Dodge had no A/C and MN in August can be a little humid especially in the upstairs training room with no windows. The 12 endured though and all passed their training with higher than average scores.

On the last Friday the GM has a moment of clarity and realizes we don’t have the inventory or budget to keep all 12 newly minted superstars of retail.

He call them out to the used car side of the building (in the shade) around 430 and asks them to form a line and count off by two’s.

2’s please step forward and they do so. Ones please go inside and find a desk and I’ll be with you shortly.

2’s remain stepped forward and look confused but still not grasping the situation. Please see me for your checks, we’ve decided to change our plan regarding your employment says the GM and have a nice weekend please send your family or friends for a vehicle.

Swearing, muttering and insults from remaining 6 plus some more than a lfew expressions of soon to be physical violence had the GM exiting the area towards the service department tossing the checks in the air behind him…….

Good times….

Roast Pork with Potato Dumplings

This is one of my all-time favorite comfort foods.

roast pork with dumplings and sauerkraut 650x276 — roast pork with dumplings and sauerkraut 650×276

Yield: 8 servings

Ingredients

Dumplings

3 to 4 pounds starchy potatoes
2 to 3 eggs
1/2 to 1 cup all-purpose flour
Sea and or kosher salt, to taste
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley

Pork Roast

1 pork roast
Oil (for browning)
Salt and pepper, to taste
Paprika, to taste
1/2 to 1 pound coarsely chopped onions

Instructions

Dumplings

In a large pot, boil potatoes in salted water with the skins on. Peel and put them through a ricer (if you don’t have a ricer, use the back of a spoon to smash potatoes through a sieve). Let cool completely.
Refrigerate.
The next day, about 30 minutes before the roast is finished, set a large pot of salted water to boil.
To the cooled, riced potatoes add eggs and 8 to 14 tablespoons of flour, depending on how starchy the potatoes are). Also add salt, nutmeg and parsley. Using your hands, form potatoes into balls between the size of golf and tennis balls.
Add the potato balls to the boiling water but do not let the water continue to boil. When they float to the top in 15 to 20 minutes, they are done.

Pork Roast

In a large, heavy pot, heat oil. Sprinkle the roast with salt, pepper and paprika, and brown quickly in oil. Add onions and brown them, too. Turn heat down to medium low. Add a little water. A carrot and a couple of fresh tomatoes can also be added if desired. Cover and cook for 2 hours, turning occasionally.
To make gravy (optional), remove the roast and add a little water to the pan to de-glaze it. Add a little flour or cornstarch to thicken the drippings.
Serve dumplings and pork roast with red cabbage or sauerkraut.

What is the most disgusting workplace rule you’ve seen?

This was more an unspoken attitude than a workplace rule, but someone lost their job over it.

When I came to work for a certain company, I was an in-your-face out lesbian. Nobody seemed to mind, at least nobody said anything and I was well-liked.

One of the married women struck up a friendship with me and we used to go walking at lunch time. She was really into her church and she not-so-subtly tried to get me to believe that being gay was wrong. When I didn’t bite, she started asking me questions about how I knew I was queer, how it affected my life, how it was different being in a relationship with a man vs a woman (I had been in a conventional het relationship prior to coming out). I answered all her questions as honestly as I could, trying to raise awareness that queer folk aren’t really that different from straight folk.

It turned out that she had been questioning all her life and was trying to work up the courage to come out herself. I SWEAR I WASN’T TRYING TO CONVERT HER.

She ended up coming out while I worked there. I was dumbfounded when she told me—I had no clue. I really thought she was a church lady. Her husband left her, which she was actually relieved about.

I eventually left there for a higher-paying job. When I caught up with the woman a few years later, she told me she had been fired for coming out of the closet. Nobody could accept her transition from straight life to queer life. They were used to seeing her as a straight woman and they looked at her transition as a sort of betrayal. so, I guess if you were already queer that was ok, but you weren’t allowed to change teams.

EDIT: One, she didn’t suddenly start crowing at work about what a dyke she was. It was a small, tight-knit company so her divorce became known. She also cut her hair short and started wearing less feminine clothing. She stopped talking about Jesus and church, since her church rejected her when she came out. It wasn’t hard for the boss to extrapolate.

Two, of course the company didn’t tell her they were firing her for being a lesbian. They gradually transferred her best clients to other workers, started giving her poor reviews and difficult clients and basically made the work environment unpleasant for her. They laid her off after they had gathered enough (fake) documentation to support firing her for cause, and she didn’t bother fighting it.

EDIT: Any comments implying that the people in the story are liars will be deleted.

I’m not answering any more comments or questions that:

Have already been addressed in the comments
Demonstrate that the commenter believes they can interpret the situation better than those involved
Demonstrate poor reading comprehension. I’m not an elementary school teacher.

Why Do They Really Fear Single Men – MGTOW

I hate this guys voice, but the message is really good.

Joe and the rabbits

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

World Hal Turner 14 March 2024

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”.

From its New York Times review:

This Prophetic Academic Now Foresees the West’s Defeat (archived) – New York Times, Mar 9 2024

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:

Faith, Certainty And The Presidency Of George W. Bush (archived) – Ron Susskind / New York Times, Oct 17 2004

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:

National Health Service England stops prescribing puberty blockers, citing ‘not enough evidence’ – USA Today. Mar 13 2024

“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.

I even agree with Rishi Sunack on this:

U.K. prime minister on gender: ‘A man is a man and a woman is a woman’ – Washington Post, Oct 5 2023

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

Father gives instructions to his son

US Searching for Russian Sub – DelMarVa Peninsula

Nation Hal Turner 14 March 2024

US Hunting Russian Sub DelMarVa Peninsula large

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 is a New LOW For Men…

What is the best random conversation you overheard?

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.

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?

There are so many wise Chinese idioms and proverbs

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.

In addition, I’ll share the ebook that has 10 more Idioms

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?

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.

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

This is great.

Comic Trial Three

I have been playing around with making short comic videos.

I use AI to generate a script, then use AI to generate pictures. Finally I use AI to generate small segments and then, once completed, I compile them together in a video editing software. I hope you like them. I’m still learning.

Check this out. All 10 seconds or so of it.

Today…

Love bonding

Why does diversity never include Asians?

Lots of answers, very few Asians. As usual.

The reality is that white people think we don’t need help because we happen to be richer (in this particular moment) on the books and better at getting into universities (in this particular moment). They don’t realize that this is a very temporary effect due to strategic immigration policy specifically designed to brain drain and create dissidents to attack Asian countries (especially China). Sadly, they think they can speak for us. And they almost always get away with it.

What we need is political power, soft power, and the breaking of the bamboo ceiling. We just can’t create consequences when people do horrendously racist/discriminatory things against us, unlike most other groups (natives have it worse). We are more of a function of foreign policy than the other groups, and yet we have minimal say in that as well.

None of this is convenient to the purpose of “diversity” in US politics, which is to prove the moral character of the leadership and thus their “validity.” It tends to be a farce anyways. Minorities who chase this “diversity” are really just fighting over table scraps. The majority leadership will never allow it to go against their interests in the first place.

If you think minorities have it good, imagine losing control of your narrative. That’s the baseline. You don’t get to correct people when they BS about you, because you don’t have power. From there stems much of the tyranny and real losses in life.

Lisa’s Crispy Chops

Ingredients

6 pork chops
3 eggs, beaten slightly
2 cups crushed soda crackers
1 1/2 tablespoons garlic powder
1 1/2 tablespoons dried minced onion
1 teaspoon each salt and pepper

Instructions

Mix all dry ingredients in a bowl.
Dip pork chops into egg, then roll in dry mixture.
Fry over medium heat in a small amount of oil until dark, crispy brown.

This is evil

When you went to the hospital, did the staff not take you seriously and you ended up deathly sick as a result?

I had a cardiologist tell me. repeatedly, that I had panic attacks. He said I didn’t have angina. He sent me for a stress test, which I could not do from “imaginary” chest pain. I insisted on a angiogram. He mocked me and scoffed. I was desperate at this point and kept insisting. He angrily ordered one and told me it was a waste of time and what I really needed was a psychiatrist.

I showed up for my 7 AM Friday appointment at Broward General. I don’t know what he had written or told them, but I sat there for the entire day. Finally, about 5 PM, I went in. (I actually have no memory of anything after flicking a cigarette away at 7, when I arrived.) I woke up Monday in terrible pain. I had no idea what had happened. My wife told me that after just a few minutes, the doctor had come out and said they could not complete the angiogram because of severely clogged arteries, (including the one that causes the “widowmaker”. They put me in cardiac ICU and kept me heavily sedated until Monday, when they could operate. I had a triple bypass. The cardiologist told me I was very lucky to be alive.

Oh, and that cigarette I flicked away was my last one. I can take a hint. (That was Jan 2011.)

Ugh!!!!!!

Men need “nothing time”.

Is China’s current economic situation very good?

It is going through a slow-down caused by the trade war through the US, and it is also going through economic and social transformation, caused by the widespread adoption of AI and automation technologies.

For this reason, it is really hard to say what is caused by an economic slowdown, and how growth is being affected by economic and social transformation.

We should have a better picture in the next few years of how it is performing. The big question is what will happen to the people whose jobs have been replaced by automation and AI.

For this reason, I expect the Chinese government to test something like Universal Basic Income (UBI), and which has been supported by US Presidential candidate Andrew Yang, in some of the inland regions of China to see how it works. As always in China, if it is successful, it will be promoted on a larger scale in other regions of China.

I expect China to leap far ahead of the US in AI and automation technology, and in healthcare, and also in the adoption of UBI.

Tipping in the USA

What foods are man-made?

Year: 1905

Location: San Francisco

It was winter. Frank Epperson was thirsty.

He decided to make himself a drink. He took a flavored sugar mix, put it in a cup, stirred it with a brown stirring stick.

After playing outside, he forgot he’d left his drink on the front lawn.

He then went inside and went to bed. When he came back out the following morning, he saw his cup sitting there with frozen liquid.

Picking it up, he pulled the stick out, the frozen sugar water was attached to it. In true kid fashion, without worrying if it was dirty, Frank ate the frozen liquid—and loved it.

He realized he was on to something.

And so he started putting more cups out, with the wooden sticks in them and began selling what he called the Epsicle. His entrepreneurial take on the lemonade stand.

Sales started in his neighborhood and then expanded outward.

Eventually, he renamed the product to Popsicle.

And thus, a new popular trend was born.

An accidental invention.

Unconscious

What’s the best example of leadership you have seen in real life?

About two decades ago, a woman I know lost her father.

A day or two later, she found out her husband was sentenced to prison.

A couple of days later, her daughter-in-law decided to get a divorce.

Those few days COMPLETELY turned this woman’s life around.

The next day, a Monday, she went to work as normal, didn’t tell her colleagues a thing, put on a brave face.

When she came home, her husband wasn’t around as he was in prison.

She went about her usual business as if nothing had happened – cooking food and stuff.

She had a chat with her kids, including the eldest going through his divorce, told them all would be fine, lifted their spirits.

The following day, she went back to work.

She opened up about her experience to me and someone else a few weeks ago – I mean, everyone in my social circle knew about the events – but she had never discussed how she experienced it – how she coped, her motivation, which was to protect her kids.

I only then really realised why her kids, all of whom I have known since I was a child, have done so incredibly well – they had grown up with this woman as their leader.

No complaints, no self-pity, selfless. Being the example she wanted her kids to be.

This is the best example I have seen of leadership.

And, frankly, the type only a woman is capable of.

Patara’s Response to State of Union Address

That was not a state of the union address. It was a declaration of war on the American people.

What is something in history that you strongly feel was lied about or exaggerated?

The French aristocracy pre-Revolution weren’t the careless, luxurious bastards lording over everyone cruelly as they are made out to be. This is demonstrated most perfectly by the fact that many of the most prominent revolutionaries were, themselves, noblemen.

In the same vein, Louis XVI wasn’t overthrown because he was a tyrant, he was overthrown because he was NOT a tyrant. If anything him being friendly, indecisive and soft-willed moreso than his war-minded predecessors Louis XV and Louis XIV, made him into a target. The Kings before him stayed reasonably popular. By going to war a lot and spending obscene amounts of money that would ultimately lead to the Kingdom’s downfall, these rulers were generally rather respected by much of the population. Much like with the last Tsar of Russia, the King who ended up losing his head to the guillotine was a pretty chill, open-minded fellow open to reforms.

There’s this stereotype of these lavishly spoiled big spenders in powdered wigs, Marie-Antoinette telling the hungry should just “go eat cake”, completely removed from reality… and truthfully, this is bullshit. A ton of noblemen were social reformers, generous to the poor, conscientious and cared deeply for the common man. The revolutionaries who took over, quite a few of them were blue-blooded themselves. And were far worse than the elites they ended up killing.

Captain Kirk Meets Gary Seven

Do you know anyone who is low key filthy rich?

Oh, definitely. I think my old manager, David Filo fits that to a tee. He often sat around barefoot while coding; and when he was wearing shoes, they were ten-year-old sneakers, starting to show holes in them.

He drove an old Datsun for the longest time, full of random crap. Old software manuals, books, pizza boxes. When a bomb scare was called in at work, one day, the bomb squad searched the campus; they eventually called a mostly-all-clear; they’d only found one suspicious object, and cordoned it off. It was my boss’s car, dilapidated and so full of junk as to be suspiciously possible as to be harboring a bomb. (It wasn’t; as the founder of the company, he would never have done anything to harm it like that). (I think Rolling Stone gave a very apt description of his car, many years ago: “a battered Datsun filled from top to bottom with junk, including enough lumber to build several sets of bookshelves. (“If we were living in the 16th century, David would be a monk,” says Yang of his partner’s asceticism.) He bought the car while in high school in Lake Charles, LA. As a student at Tulane University, he totaled it, bought it back from the insurance company for $300 and then had it rebuilt at a local prison, where the inmates were studying auto repair.” — from Yahoo!)

I’ve written elsewhere about his reaction to hearing about a really good lease deal a fellow co-worker had gotten on an electric vehicle: Matthew Petach’s answer to How do billionaires see $100K or $1M? Do they still consider it a lot of money? That story is the epitome of how he approached the world; as laid back and low key as you could imagine.

And yet, he was worth about $5 billion at the time. Depending on the market shifts, he might gain or lose half a billion dollars from one day to the next. It made no difference to him; he was the same focused engineer, working hard to make sure everything was running smoothly.

He did eventually get a new car, but only after the board of directors insisted, because the insurance company would no longer provide insurance for them until he drove something considered less risky.

As a multi-billionaire, he definitely qualifies as filthy rich; and yet I’ve never seen him act that way, not even once. A truly class act, all around.

1 am at Tokyo’s Super Mysterious Adult zone

It Started: America on BILL STRIKE | 75M Stop Paying

What was the date of the end of the Western Roman Empire? Who officially abolished it?

There are three possible interpretations of the “end” of the Roman Empire in the West, and all are equally correct, depending on one’s point of view.

The most common one you read is that it ended on 4 September AD 476, when the German magister militum Odoacer overthrew Romulus Augustus, who was the Emperor ruling in Ravenna (the Western capital of the time, not Rome), and took control himself. He sent a letter back to Emperor Zeno in Constantinople, stating that the Empire needed only one Emperor, and sent back the western imperial regalia. Zeno accepted this (although he continued to recognize another man as Emperor; read on) and granted him patrician rank. Odoacer declared himself “King of Italy” and ruled for the next 17 years.

Another interpretation is based on the historical fact that Romulus Augustus was both a usurper and a puppet emperor set up by his father, the barbarian general Orestes, in 475, and was never recognized by Zeno as the legitimate Emperor. The actual Emperor, Julius Nepos, fled from Ravenna and set up court in Dalmatia, where he reigned, still recognized by Zeno, until 9 May 480, when he was assassinated by political enemies. Before this, Odoacer actually struck coins in Roman mints recognizing him as Emperor, accepting him as titular Emperor in the West as long as Nepos didn’t attempt to actually retake Italy. Odoacer occupied Dalmatia himself about a year later.

A third possibility lies in the fact that even after 9 May 480, there was a part of the old Western Empire that still gave allegiance directly to the Emperor. This was a substantial part of northern Gaul (France) under the control of a Roman general named Syagrius. Historians call it the “Kingdom of Soissons,” after the city that Syagrius governed from. He controlled this land from 464 to 486:

Syagrius’ problem was that he had an ally in a Frankish king, Childeric, who supported him in conflicts and had no desire to annex the area. But he died in 481 and was succeeded by his ambitious son Chlodovech, who is known to history as Clovis. Sometime in 486, we are not sure of the date, Chlodovech attacked Syagrius and defeated him in a battle near Soissons. He annexed the region to the growing Frankish Kingdom. And with that ended the final vestige of the Roman Empire in the West.

Stressful Travel To Mainland China

What is the most improbable thing people have ever seen?

I walked into a convenience store in Venice, CA and ran into a cute girl with an English accent. She says to me, “Excuse me, but were you in Vegas last weekend?”

I thought for a second and realized I had gone to a friend’s bachelor party the previous weekend. “Yes,” I said, “do I know you?”

She says, “I have a photo of us.”

She then pulls her digital camera out of her bag and proceeds to show me several pictures of her and me dancing quite inappropriately at the club in Hard Rock Hotel.

I ask her if she lives in Vegas or Los Angeles. She lives in England and is just visiting the states on holiday. Somehow, I managed to dance with this girl all night in Vegas and then run into her 300 miles away in Venice five days later.

10 Harshest Truths About Women That Men Learn Too Late

Why is Australia trying so hard to be anti-China in order to please USA at a time when USA is heading toward isolationism?

Just reading through the other answers, there is a LOT of anti-China sentiment and justified by the “Chinese have so many spies here blah blah blah Influence the Government blah blah blah etc etc” Well it’s the same here in New Zealand and so far there hasn’t been one shred of evidence to back up these claims of spying and espionage and influence. This includes the Huawei 5G backdoor thing. No evidence at all.

As an example here. A well known University Professor who wrote a book about the above subject has claimed to have had her house broken into a number of times (by Chinese spies), her car tampered with (by Chinese spies) to try to kill her. The media is outraged and other University Professors are signing protests to China letters to our Government, but it’s all fake and made up. She is either delusional or trying to sell more books. The police have investigated and come up with no evidence at all. But does that matter? Not one bit. Are the Police going to out her? Of course not, that’s not PC to shame a mad woman. The public is still rabidly anti China because the fake story that paints a villain is way more appealing than actual facts. And yes that’s my fault too, because what makes news is clicks and I click on Trump stories and help to make his bullshit get to the top of the front page.

So in answer to your question, in some ways we are trying to please USA – per the 5 eyes thing and US paranoid spy agencies sending the info/alarmism/ anti China rhetoric our way. In some ways we are just jumping on the same nationalist bandwagon that most developed western democracies seem to be jumping on. In other ways we see our house prices going up and like to blame the Chinese rather than our own shortsightedness in failing to build enough homes the last couple of decades. Finally, same as Australia, our mad political system gives a big voice to a small and xenophobic party.

Cats can take it all away

How does the US military currently compare against the Chinese military?

I think system to system comparisons are meaningless when comparing the PRC’s military to the US. F-22 vs J-20 type comparisons make no sense when those fighters have very specific roles to play in the very different air combat philosophies of the USAF and PLAAF. If I was to hazard a guess I would say the F-22 would be fulfilling it’s designed role as an air superiority fighter while the J-20 would be deployed to use it’s stealth to destroy US surveillance, EW and AWACs platforms in contested airspace, a much more niche role.

Both of these platforms would be considered great if they meet the mission they were designed for rather than who wins some hypothetical air to air engagement.

So this answer is going to avoid most of these platform comparisons and try to take a higher level look at how the military postures of both countries compare within the context of technology, doctrines, military industries and objectives.

Joint Operations

The US excels in these. Recall that back in WW2, the French had better tanks and aircraft than the Germans but still lost their short war with Germany because their officer corp just didn’t know how to put them all together to conduct effective military operations.

The US has a effective Joint Chiefs of Staff committee to ensure the armed elements of the US military play nice with each other and can execute integrated battle plans effectively.

The Chinese are new to this. They realized how far ahead the US was in this field when they witnesses the US military’s capabilities in 1991 in the first Gulf war as well as the frustration of the 1996 US carrier pass.

At the moment, one thing the Chinese military is planning for is that rather than try to catch up to the US in terms of integrated systems and operations which would take a loooong time to do (they also don’t have the rich combat history and experience of the US military), what they can do is engage in something called ‘System Destruction’.

That is, the Chinese military should focus on degrading and pulling apart the overall US military system.

So if the US military has a Recon Strike Complex, the Chinese focus on taking away their recon ability. This has been demonstrated by their endeavors to develop ASAT capabilities and soft kill capabilities with lasers and EW. Alongside developing small satellites that can be launched into space and maneuvered close to American satellites to destroy them.

Similarly, the US is built heavily around the idea of Airpower dominance over it’s foes and the Chinese Strategic Support Force (the ex-Rocket Force) is specifically designed to nullify this advantage by training and equipping to use ballistic missiles to take out air bases from which the bulk of USAF activity will be based.

However, the conclusion here is that the US is still pretty ahead in terms of Joint Operations and while the PRC military is building up the capability to disrupt them, in order to take advantage of these disruptions, they need to up the scale and pace of their own Joint Operations capability.

The Ballistic Missile threat

The PRC ballistic missile force’s primary goal is to make US bases unusable. The short range missiles are aimed at the US bases in Okinawa while the more medium range missiles are designed to disrupt operations from bases in Japan.

And the DF-26 is designed to make even operations from bases like Guam risky if not maybe as disrupted as the other bases.

The PRC ballistic missile threat is in part inspired by the US military’s failure to effectively hunt and destroy SCUDs in Iraq during the first Gulf War. Which leads the PRC to believe that if they have mobile, solid fueled missile systems, they would not be as prone to destruction from US military forces and pose a considerable threat for the duration of any war with the US. These kinds of missiles are hard to hunt, can quickly break from cover, set up and fire before the enemy can fire back at them.

With a mobile missile system like the SCUD, you have a 15 minute window to detect and destroy it once it breaks from cover. This is currently not within the capability of the US military.

The Drone Threat

The Chinese don’t have as much loitering munition drones as the US so they definitely do lag here. They have gotten the Israeli Harpy drone, which costs less than half a million bucks but has a longer range than the F-35. These drones can be sent out by the Chinese to search for threats, locate and scan airfields in prep work for artillery and missile bombardment. IF they can make it into a defended air space.

This is completely out of date. -MM

Space

The ability of space based platforms to provide you imaging (visual or infrared) across the planet + put SAR radars on small satellites means that your ability to locate and track objects from space for a military purpose is growing rapidly. This is the kind of ability the Chinese are building up in space.

Now you still cant track aircraft but for fixed targets or large naval targets like a carrier, in conjunction with autonomous terrestrial systems you have a much better capability to locate and target naval assets. So you could use space based assets to locate naval surface targets and use them to maneuver autonomous systems like the Israeli Harop drone munition into the area where a carrier might be. And then the Harop’s own sensors take over and actively hunt in the area. (Again, assuming it can make it through contested space).

In the near future, we might have 10–15,000 satellites doing this in space and you could of course blow the whole orbit up and deny this capability to both the US and China but short of that, what the two countries are positioning themselves for is not just having these assets in space but being able to replace them once an adversary has destroyed them.

The problem with the US side is that they have a good ability to replace military satellites but in space, both civil and military capabilities operate in conjunction. So if the Chinese switch from targeting military to civil satellites, the US doesn’t have rapid replacement in place for them. And these are satellites that operate critical infrastructure like bank transactions etc.

At the moment the Chinese have quantity while the US has quality when it comes to space based assets but the US has the added advantage of commercial space launch capability as well with technologies ranging from 3D printed rockets etc. that China doesn’t have to the same scale.

Naval comparisons

The PLAN is now the largest navy in the world and while on general, the USN has better quality ships, the new PLAN destroyers like the Type 55 are fairly at par with the USN equivalent ships. Same with the stealth fighters, the question is how quickly they can approach the USN in terms of significant scale of deployment in the active military.

Underwater warfare, the USN has a clear lead and the PLAN is not close at all to bridging that gap. The PLAN is responding by seeding a huge network of sensors in the South China sea to weed out USN submarines so the USN would probably have to respond with unmanned autonomous subs in the area, turning the underwater war largely into an unmanned one.

Carrier warfare, the US has a lead as well but this lead is somewhat meaningless if we talk about a war near China. If anyone thinks the USN is going to send their carriers into the range of Chinese MRBMs and H-6 Bombers carrying extended range cruise missiles, I would highly suggest alternative thinking here. The PRC has specifically developed this extended range weapons to force the USN carriers back and nullify their advantages at close range to the Chinese seaboard.

This is based around the Chinese doctrine of ‘Counter Intervention’ which is specifically designed to force US assets like Carriers away from the Chinese shoreline.

So this creates an interesting situation where the Chinese have forced the carriers out of the first Island Chain so it’s mostly USN subs and surface vessels that would operate in the contest areas closer to the Chinese seaboard. Where the Chinese are catching up in surface vessels. For underwater, if the USN is willing to risk full subs in sensor rich environments, that’s up to them but I think they might pull even the USN subs out of the south China sea at least and be forced to replace them with autonomous underwater subs to fight against Chinese autonomous underwater subs.

Production

At the October Plenum of 2020, the PRC moved up the date for military modernization by saying they wanted a modern Chinese military by 2027.

This has accelerated their military production targets and they are currently ahead of the US in:

Ballistic missiles and cruise missiles in both numbers and quality (the ballistic missiles lead might not mean much since the US doesn’t really utilize them in a battlefield context).
They have a much more massive ship building program ongoing compared to the USN.
They are ahead in Air defense systems while making good use of old ones.

The Chinese are also pushing ahead with a concept called ‘Civil-Military Fusion’ which is designed to integrate their civilian technology base with their military tech base (Sorta similar to how the US has it set up as well). Which is important because it means it won’t just be government led efforts that lead to tech advances only, but that Chinese private firms will sometimes even take the lead in military advances in AI, computing, autonomous systems, biotech, information tech, advanced material manufacturing, 5G and in the future 6G.

There is an issue however that the Chinese government, in an attempt to assert control and monitoring over the civil tech space, is pushing a bureaucratic layer on top of it which is expected to slow down the pace of Chinese technology than before. To compensate for this, the CPC will also push additional funding to the civilian tech space engaged in military tech development. So there’s a careful balancing act that needs to be done there. Also, the US is also vulnerable to this: Anyone familiar with the Pentagon’s bureaucratic policies would be familiar with how it introduces massive delays and cost overspends.

The Chinese have struggled with Aircraft engines and currently a lot of their aircraft projects have the Russians or Ukrainians as subcontractors to provide the engines. Russian engines by the way, are unusable after 500 hours. For military aircraft that might be ok but for civilian ones it’s a no-go so if the Chinese have any military platforms like EW and AWACs on civilian aircraft with Russian engines, it raises the question of availability.

Funnily enough, while the US has no issue with aircraft engines and can produce very high quality engines, they just cant make a lot of them at the same time. The F-35 production line right now is 15 aircraft a month at peak production. This is considered low by some standards but to be honest, considering that it’s a very advanced fighter it doesn’t seem to matter much. The problem however, is that this is under the assumption that every single F-35 produced will be deployed against China which is not true because the US has to manage multiple theaters (Russia-Europe, Home Air Bases etc.).

Also, the F-35 is a multi national project, so those 15 F-35s being made every month have to shared between 12 Airforces, 1 Marine Corp and 2 Navies across the planet. Further reducing the number of stealth fighters the US can deploy against China.

Stealth Fighters

The Stealth fighter question is actually pretty interesting and I kinda wanna build on that from what we discussed in the production line section discussed above.

First, given the limited peak production rate and distribution of F-35s among multiple partners, we might only see limited numbers deployed in the Chinese theater. But every stealth fighter the Chinese develop will be available to fight in the first Island chain theater.

The Chinese have some advanced fighters like the J-20 and J-31 which seem pretty advanced but their level of production is not close to what the US has for it’s stealth fighters at the moment. So they do lag in that respect. The US is also superior in the electronics and engines that go into their stealth aircraft although this is a gap that might close in the near future.

However, the US lead in stealth has some major problems that should be addressed. The problem is the basing of these stealth fighters. The US has 6 major bases in Japan and 1 in Guam. The USAF does not use the 80–90 airbases that the Japanese air force uses, and this might be because of how the US wants to control access to it’s stealth fighters but also because it has to equip its bases with perform the complex maintenance that it’s stealth fighters require.

So in theory, there’s only 7 total major bases you can place your stealth fighters at where you can control access to them and also do the whole fancy maintenance they require like re-applying coating etc.

That is…not good, because it means the Chinese don’t have to worry about shooting down these stealth fighters. They just need to concentrate their ballistic missile bombardment on those 7 bases with stealth fighters to knock those bases out or at least interdict operations out of them.

The USAF has realized this problem and are trying to see if they can spread the fighters out a bit more to the 90 bases the Japanese operate but it’s still a work in progress.

There is one other thing: There’s something called the “German Disease” where you get trapped in the idea that as long as you make a VERY high quality platform, it’s gonna be worth 10 of the enemy’s platforms and that’s better than matching the enemy head to head. This is very seductive thinking for a wealthier, more technically advanced power. But it means you are fighting a war with platforms you aren’t willing to lose which is not a good proposition.

The F-22 is a bit of a German Disease for the USAF because there’s only like 170 of them left and they aren’t making any more of them. Each F-22 lost is a permanent loss for the USAF and if a war against China drags on and attrition becomes a factor, a lot of these very high quality assets that the USAF isn’t willing to lose will need to be pulled from the theater after a while once their losses reach 33% per squadron. Now, no one has ever fought the US in a conventional war since Vietnam and managed to drag it out.

But if that does happen, and the US is losing say 2 F-22s a day on average from ballistic missile strikes on bases, losses due to accidents, very rare occasions when an F-22 is show down by the Chinese, this kind of loss rate might start to hurt a month into the conflict. And the USAF would have to withdraw the F-22s at some point so they still have some left in reserve and put the 4.5+ Gens into the missions the F-22s were doing. Very rare a war would last that long with China and for that high a loss rate, but you never know. The F-22s would primarily suffer more from being forced away from their 7 bases in the first island chain and being forced to operate at their max ranges from second island chain bases, but the loss rate from conflict as well in a long war cant be ignored.

Land

Apart from the strategic support force and the mobile missile systems, Land is pretty irrelevant. Invading China by land is delusional and nearly all serious US military experts have ruled it out. So the PLA and its size and it’s equipment and their comparison with the US Army are really irrelevant to this conversation.

Military Re-Organization

Similar to how the US is re-organizing their Space Force as a separate force apart from the USAF, the Chinese have broken the power of the PLA on military planning and production and reformed it into 5 Joint Commands or Theater commands.

They have to figure out how these theater commands work, something the US already has figured out.

But more importantly, the PLAF, the PLAN and the Strategic Support Force (formerly known as the Strategic Rocket Force) have become more prominent in operation planning.

I should mention that the Strategic Rocket Force of China has no equivalent in the US so they have that going for them. I mentioned before how the force is designed to nullify the USAF advantage in air dominance but that would be selling it short since they also have mission capabilities in EW, Cyber, Space and Information Warfare.

All of these missions falling under one, separate armed force definitely increases the organizational and operational efficiency (same as how the US made a separate Space Force to fully allow it to develop as a proper capability). I think they have a 4 star general leading this force and if you have all of this capability in one organization as a separate force away from PLAN, PLAF and the PLA, its definitely a more modern force structure similar to the US.

And of course, the reorganization of the PLA into 5 Theater commands is a good step as noted before but the PRC military arms need to up their joint operations capability to take advantage of this military organization.

Also a good point to mention here is that the US Space force is very newly created and even they have to work out the kinks in how to have this force integrate with the rest of the US military capability, particularly Cyber. So it’s not just China that has to figure out it’s military re-organization.

Operational Capability

The PRC has enough capability right now to contest much of the first Island chain, deal damage in the second island chain and even maybe reach the US homeland (Hawaii) via submarine mines, long range cruise missiles or ‘missiles in a box’ (The Russian concept of using commercial container ships loaded with missiles). But the idea of reaching Hawaii is not taken very seriously because the survivability of these assets against a alert USN and USAF is next to zero.

So the First Island Chain is where the bulk of the Chinese military potency will be concentrated.

Since the US has allied bases in the region and near global capability to project power, it’s assumed that they can reach any part of China they want as long as their military assets can survive their journey to their targets. But for the most part, the US military will also be focused on establishing control over the first island chain.

The Carrier Question and Scenario Planning

The USN Carriers figure prominently into the US military equation and China is no different. The problem is that the capabilities developed by the Chinese have boxed the carriers out of the first Island chain and the question is as they get pushed further and further away, how effective would they be in a war against China? There’s already a hit implied to the range of the F-35 if it has to fly from the second island chain to the engage in combat in the first island chain (or the Chinese mainland).

Currently, the carrier programs are baked deep into the USN and American military economy. Even if the US stopped building carriers today after the Miller and Ford class programs were completed, they would still have 7 carriers by 2045 and 4 by 2070.

But Large surface combatants will be prime targets in any war with China. And herein lies a big problem facing the US military vs the Chinese:

First: The US military is carrying over programs started before the Chinese even began to be considered a threat (some of these from the 80s and 90s). These programs are starting to deliver assets that would have limited if any use against the Chinese military of today. What good is the B-21 Raider going to do against China? The carrier programs already begun will not have to continue to their logical conclusion since so much money has been spent designing and producing the first entries that it’s a tremendous loss if you cancel them now. The F-35s were initially thought up of in the 80s and 90s as short ranged fighters to dominate the European battlefield in a conflict against the USSR/Russia. Are we sure they will have the operational capability to deliver effective missions in the China theater?

The Chinese however, have a blank slate. They saw the capabilities of the US military in the 90s and had a fresh start in thinking about how to design their military to beat the US military specifically without their production lines and budgets tied up for programs that weren’t specific to the US.

Second: The US must fight and win wars all across the planet. Whether it’s the Russians invading the Baltics, ISIS in the middle east, Iran with a nuclear program, African Islamist groups or what not. The Chinese only have to win in the South China Sea/The First Island Chain. This is something I see Patrick Dugan has also pointed out in the answers on this thread.

The US is spending 700–800 billion dollars a year for all the scenarios they have in their operational planning. The Chinese are spending maybe 200 billion USD for the one fight in the first island chain. In terms of budgetary comparisons, the disparity might not be as big as one might initially think.

This is causing problems to the US because currently, military tech is going through something called the “revolution of many” where a lot of countries are wondering why you cant have smaller, cheaper platforms armed with munitions thrown at your enemies in a way that would overwhelm large platforms like carriers and so on.

To the US’s defense, there are limits to what you can do with such swarms in the deep waters of the Pacific and carriers can be used in a way that complements your own swarm or even serve as the platform for it. But in the first island chain, near the Chinese seaboard, these smaller, cheaper, mobile armed small platforms will be at their most effective. And the USN has no equivalent to this.

The USN as mentioned before is baked into the carrier strategy and armament program which is not in line with the kind of conflict expectation there is in the first island chain.

And this is brings us to the idea that having better systems than your enemy is great, you have F-18s, F-22s, Carriers, JDAMs and M1Abrams and all that cool jazz. But within the specific operational theater of the first island chain in a war with China, how well will your platforms perform? The US military hardware and their doctrines have carry over legacies from the US military introspection of the 1970s after witnessing the shocking levels of fast paced, mechanized, high casualty rate action of the Yom Kippur war. A lot of the current US military systems of today like the M1 Abrams, the F-16s, F-15s, F-22s were developed as a part of how the US understood a war with USSR would be conducted after the Yom Kippur war lessons were understood (the war would be fast, rapid and there might not be enough time for the US military to bring it’s superior production to bear across from the Atlantic).

To the US’s defense again, when this hardware was deployed in the first Gulf War, it performed well and gave the US military a good confidence boost that their current platforms and strategies would apply well across the globe. But the South China sea might be a different ball game. US Air power might be greatly interdicted not by air defenses but by ballistic missile strikes on their airbases. Carriers might not have free reign of the waters in the theater. The US has superiority in underwater platforms but what good are they if PLAN just pulls back close to the shore and doesn’t send out surface combatants against the USN that would allow for their targeting by USN subs.

3rd Offset

The above discussion about carriers was meant to segue way into the US military’s emerging strategy of 3rd Offset.

In a nutshell, the strategy pushes for the idea that instead of going directly at your enemy in a fight, you use an offset. What this strategy means from a military equipment POV is that instead of sending an F-22 or a fully manned sub to engage the Chinese military, the F-22 sends it’s ‘Loyal Wingman’ AI driven UCAV at the PLAAF and the USN sends an unmanned underwater platform to engage the PLAN.

Basically, the US military is also trying to fight China in an asymmetric fashion the same way the Chinese are trying to fight the US military with their own asymmetric techniques. So missiles vs ships rather than ship to ship combat. Drones vs planes rather than air to air manned combat.

Speaking to the USN specifically, what the US navy planners want to do is that for 25% of the price of a US navy carrier and it’s air wing, you could instead have nearly 2000 missiles spread across 40 containerized missile ships. The good thing about these ships also is, is that they are replaceable unlike a carrier. You can make and deploy more with more missiles as the war drags on and losses mount.

So instead of having a carrier being boxed out of the South China sea due to the Chinese missile threat, whose air wing has limited utility due to it carrying mostly short ranged (albeit capable) fighters: Instead have 40 ships with 2000 missiles that have the range for you to safely engage targets in the South China Sea without worrying too much about the Chinese strategic support force and it’s ballistic missiles.

Now, it might seem like I’m laying the blame for all of this carrier fixation on the US military planners. I’m not. I’m laying the blame on Congress.

Opinion | Congress’ demands for supercarriers are sinking the Navy

You see, the USN has no issue with scaling back on their carriers from maybe 12 super carriers to a smaller number like 6 if it means that would give them the fiscal and budgetary space to develop smaller platforms that can operate in swarms in the first island chain and bear acceptable losses.

The problem is that congressmen block this because the USN carriers are intimately tied to the wellbeing of certain congressional districts. A single USN carrier means 10,000 jobs in a USN port because of all the economic activity around the crew members, their families, the facilities they require like sports facilities etc.

The US navy’s manufacturing facilities for carriers are all inland (North Carolina, South Carolina, Pittsburgh, Colorado). That’s where all the major manufacturing plants are that make these super carriers. No congressman or woman is gonna sign off on closing off not just these inland jobs but the port jobs as well.

Which cycles us back to the following problems for the US military:

They can’t seem to get too much of their funding away from legacy systems that may not perform well in the China theater because those legacy systems are tied to certain congressional district economies.
This means the US military can’t fully capitalize on the “Revolution of Many” and the increasing shift towards autonomous combat platforms that operate in swarms and have a high tolerance for losses, they way they have laid out in their 3rd Offset strategy. I mean they will eventually with enough funding, it’s just that the Chinese are moving faster and the US military might not have an edge over the Chinese in the China specific theater in the near future.

The thing is, the US has built up their military for Global operations and expect it to perform in every single theater on the planet whether it’s Africa or Europe or the Gulf or the South China Sea.

The US military would benefit a lot of someone said “Hey lets take our worse case scenarios, conflicts with near peer adversaries like Russia and China. We plan two operational scenarios for each. And we build our military around that. And maybe leave out these other missions or hope our military can perform there with whatever assets it has built from the 2 core scenarios”.

This isn’t the best idea, I know, because the 40 container missile ships built to fight in the south china sea while bearing fire from Chinese ballistic missiles might not have much use in Africa or the Gulf where you might need a carrier or helicopter ship or amphibious warfare ships.

And so the US military has a limited budget it must use to fulfill the gap everywhere. But the Chinese only have to build and train for the one scenario they plan to face.

The US has begun the third offset but because they must split their budget between what goes into third offset and what goes into legacy systems, the Chinese capability to respond to the third offset in a meaningful manner is pretty significant.

3rd Offset and the threat to it from Chinese EW

It’s interesting to see how the Chinese EW capability can interfere with 3rd Offset.

The Chinese strategic support force has actual EW troop formations which the US has no equivalent to. So they have deployed EW capability that can seriously interfere with the operations of all the unmanned vehicles the US plans to have as the tip of their spear into the first island chain. The US has no EW troops and if you don’t have that, no matter how good your tech is, you don’t have any effective formations capable of delivering the product to the battlefield. The US really needs to have dedicated EW troop formations IMO to meet the threat from Chinese EW to their 3rd Offset Autonomous platforms.

But, I’m gonna go against this point as well: The Russian EW capability in the recent Azerbaijan-Armenia war showed how they could deploy EW to interfere with remote controlled drones. Autonomous drones are more resistant to EW interference because they are GPS independent. So these drones with their own sensors and AI don’t really need to have a dedicated signal link the way a remote controlled drone works and can operate in a heavy EW environment.

I’m just curious on how willing the US would be to unleash AI controlled drones with no over rides from a human operator in the South China sea during a war with China.

To conclude, I think the US military has major advantages still. They have better quality sensors and electronics, better materials and fabrication. Their ability to fuse data from different sources into meaningful insights for AI and operations is better.

But I think once we move past the point of simply comparing the F-22 with the J-20, and look at it from a high at how both militaries are posturing themselves for a future conflict, it seems like the gap is not as big as I thought it would be. The US has an edge but an eroding one.

And it’s mostly a problem of the US’s own making where they have boxed in the US military into legacy platforms that were thought up of in the 80s and 90s and are baked into the US military-political complex of congressional spending. While the Chinese have started from a blank slate and have specifically designed solutions around a conflict in the 1st Island Chain compared to the US which has spread itself out.

I think as it stands, the US might still prevail in the next couple of years should a conflict break out. They might prevail even a few years after that if they are willing to shoulder the losses. But the Chinese are moving in a rapid, focused manner and war is a very unpredictable exercise. And the US’s hamstringing of their own military’s evolution might cost them in the future.

Academic Sources: Col. Thomas Hammes, Michael Kofman.

GLEEFULLAND Dystopian film

What is the best case of “You just picked a fight with the wrong person” that you’ve witnessed?

1- I was assigned to the inmate reception center of the jail. My friend, Jesse, was assigned to classification, in the same unit. Classification is where inmates are interviewed to determine if they are going into general population, or one of the more secure units.

While Jesse was seated at his computer with the inmate sitting next to him, the inmate said and immediately did something that’s been forgotten in the past three and a half decades. Whatever it was, without moving from his seat, Jesse floored the guy, out of his seat, with a kick to the side of his face.

Jesse looked down at the guy from his chair and asked, “We done?”

The inmate, rubbed the side of his face, looked up and said, “Yes Sir.”

“Them take your seat and let’s finish.”

Jesse was the amateur California state kickboxing champ and was trained by Benny Urquidez.

2- in the army, soldier A got angry at soldier B for talking to a girl they both liked. Soldier A stomped up to soldier Band challenged him to fight. Soldier B stood, smiled and, with has down by his pockets, tried to talk some sense into soldier A not understanding why he was so angry. Soldier A wasn’t having it and made five, quick, consecutive punches at soldier B’s head using alternating fists, which soldier B easily slipped,while smiling and without raising his hands.

Soldier A took a step back and looked at soldier B, obviously reevaluating him. Meanwhile a couple dozen other soldiers had quickly encircled the two and were loudly urging soldier B to strike back. Soldier B, still smiling and with hands near his pockets, looked around at the crowd and said, “I don’t want to hit him. Leave us be and let me talk to him.”

As he spoke he was turning his head to look at everyone. Just as he was beginning to turn his attention back to soldier A, Soldier A punched again, this time connecting with soldier B’s jaw.

Soldier B turned back to face soldier, unfazed by the punch, still with hands by his pockets, but no longer smiling. He was a little angry that soldier B, who he had always been on friendly terms with, would sucker punch him

The two stood silently facing each other, soldier A in a fighting stance, fists up. Soldier B standing as if in conversation with hand down. After a couple of seconds, soldier A began to take another swing. Soldier B’s right hand struck like a snake, going from the side of his pocket and connecting with soldierA’s jaw in a split second, before snapping back to its position next to Soldier A’s pocket. SoldierA’s head snapped back, his eyes went wide and stumbled back a few steps before landing on his ass and elbows.

Soldier A shook his head quickly and scrambled clumsily to his feet, as he held up his hands, palms out and began profusely apologizing.

Soldier B looked at him silently, shook his head, turned his back and walked away.

What is the most ridiculous reason for which you have been fired?

I was in sales and almost got fired for having too high a gross profit! I was at a stereo chain that opened a new store and because I was the most knowledgeable in the stereo area I was sent over for two or three weeks to set up the audio department. After the store opening (I made the first sale when we opened, a pair of car speakers) and working in the new store for a few months, I was called in by the manager and learned my gross profit was too high. I said, “What?” how is that a problem? This store had loss leaders that had very small profit that were advertised and they thought I was refusing customers or trying too hard to “step” them up to a higher priced product and pissing them off.

I made three points that saved my job: I reminded them that I was very good with stereo equipment, knew what EVERY single button did on EVERY product and I proved it by letting them test me, I was very good at letting customers know why they should buy better equipment and that is why I had few of the “basic” equipment in my sales. I also reminded them that I was the guy who set the audio department up, showing I had the skills to sell better equipment. Number two: I asked them how I could be number 1 or 2 every month in sales if I was “blowing people off”? How could I have done that every month? (They went away, checked, came back and started to come around.)

The manager was starting to have faith in me but still had to deal with my numbers and corporate and how could he get them to back off. Number 3: I remembered a few customers who would come in and buy cheap blank tapes that were low profit and no one wanted to help them. I had everyone send them to me in the future. Within a few months my numbers lowered just enough to get the big guys off our backs.

Isn’t that one of the stupidest things you ever heard? Almost getting fired for being too good a salesman!

Elections have consequences

Have you ever walked into a funeral or funeral home and realized something wasn’t right? If so, what happened?

Years ago, as a police officer in small town Wisconsin, I was checking business doorknobs at night. Walked up to the one and only funeral home, turned the knob….open! Damn! Summoned my partner (checking across the street) and in we go…..

No idea where the light switches were and our plan was to step in, turn around and leave…….indeed, we had requisitely “checked” the place. Right? Nope. We turned to leave just as we heard a crashing sound behind us. Playing our flashlight about, we found the business cash box laying on the floor in the office. Just then, we heard sound coming from downstairs…..where the casket showroom and embalming room (behind closed doors) were to be found.

Huddled together, my partner and I descended the stairs only to have our flashlights show a casket lid close across the room! We hatched a plan whereby I would stand behind the casket, reach over it, pull it open and my partner —- standing in front of it —- would then arrest the purported cashbox thief. Nervous as we both could be in the darkened room, I pulled open the lid and the perp leaped out of the casket like a jack-in-the-box! Partner dropped his flashlight and revolver and the casket occupant blew by me, up the stairs, out the door —— never to caught!

Needless to write, much more circumspect checking there, again!

So Funny (All gone?)

Can the US government do anything to protect Hong Konger Jimmy Lai?

Remember Justin Trudeau? He was thrown under the bus by Trump once Trump got what he wanted. Now, How Jimmy Lai’s value as an asset is compared to Trudeau? Let’s check it out.

Trudeau is a Head of State, Lai is not. Trudeau is white, Lai is yellow. In the US’s playbook, Lai isn’t even at the level that makes him fit to shine Trudeau’s shoes.

Trudeau maybe not a patriot but certainly, he is no traitor. Lai is a traitor who did not hesitate to collude with a foreign power to go against his own country and people. Traitors are garbage nobody wants anything to do with once their mission objective value is no longer there.

So basically, Jimmy Lai is only a leftover from the shit that failed to hit the fan in Hong Kong. A shit stain to be precise. Nobody would pick up a shit stain, but flush it down the toilet hole.

If Jimmy Lai’s last resort is for the US to come to his rescue, oh he is fucked.

Vitamin D

What’s the most savage way you’ve seen someone get fired?

Me.

I was working for a Fortune 500 company as a sales rep, making my quota every year, except my first, for 10 years. A new management team comes in. The new National Sales Manager, Mr. Smith, was unhappy with my image. I was 40, obese and had prematurely grey hair. He liked ‘young, lean and hungry’. Well, I’m good at hungry.

In February the company has its sales meeting. They fly us all into the little airport nearest corporate headquarters, in New England. Itinerary promises luxury hotel, 2 days of training with an awards dinner for all the quota busters (about 90 of 170 of us).

Mr. Smith meets me at the airport, asks for my customer list and price book. Then he hands me a return ticket, through a circuitous route home (it might have been cheaper) that leaves at 5pm, he says this at 7:30am. I got home at 11 pm, I could’ve driven home in 8–9 hours.

As he hands me the ticket he says,”It’s non-changeable, non-refundable. At least for the next 9 hours I’ll know where you are.” I did not call in very often, unless my clients had an issue, or an opportunity. When I did I spoke to customer service and we would resolve almost all of issues without involving higher ups. I should’ve been tooting my own horn, getting Mr. Smith involved seemed senseless. I thought the numbers would speak for me.

Sitting in the airport I decided to start my own business, independent sales representative. Took 6 months to get clients, training and start making sales on straight commission. Took 3 years to get my income above poverty level, my supportive wife sustained us. Then I started making twice the income. Never looked back. Next to marrying my wife, probably the best thing that happened to me. Definitely top 5.

FORGOTTEN CITY – 1966 Retro Pulp Science Fiction by Skyward, Photo Booth Processing, 110/35mm Film

This is fun.

Is it true that the Chinese government would have implemented the national security law in Hong Kong regardless of whether there were protests/riots there?

Depends on your time line. Eventually, and I’m talking 2047 territory something would have been put in place. But lets time travel back to 2010. I say 2010 because the seeds of the riot were after the Pan Dems refused the changes in the voting system that would allow more direct elections.

Wong Sing Chi – Nelson Wong the Pan Dem founder was kicked out because he wanted compromise. The first riots started in 2014 and were a test to see what would happen. The not very much happening meant the bigger 2019 riots happened.

Article 23 was impossible to put into place due to protests against it, strong unions and lots of LegCO seats opposing it. You had well still have two factions, yellows anti government everything and blues. The thing is the blues weren’t rubber stampers. They were mostly meh and wanted things to stay the same.

You can literally see prominent blues actually support the anti extradition protests that were initially at the start of 2019 before the violence ramped up. Many of the blues would go no way that goes too far!

Raam Beart, Nury Vitachi pretty much have this angle. There wasn’t the support for anything NSL or article 23 at all.

But then the Yellows went nuts. Wide spread violence, dehumanisation and discrimination against anybody who opposed the yellows.

This pushed the previously meh blues to give support to the government to end the madness. I mean shit you were on the bus in 2019 going into town. You’d see everything smashed up and Chinese people here were attacked by them. I was attacked, numerous quorans who I know are real people were attacked.

So the riots going violent suddenly gave a support base for NSL and eventually article 23.

Article 23. My personal feeling? Is that I wish we could go back to life in 2017 or so. I guess I’m old. I don’t like change. I still use cash! Even in Shenzhen. Anyway where’s the shit posting? Ah yes this. Article 23 penalties. Do note these are the absolute maximum possible. We’ve of course seen in Hong Kong that maximum sentences are very rarely given. Very recently a Hong Kong bomb maker was sentenced to just under 6 years. Funny… had he not run off to Shenzhen he would be out in 2025 probably. Yet again where’s the shit posting? This The sentences for this were far harsher. Looking into it. 60% of 1309 arrested and charged to-date have received custodial sentences. Enrique Tarrio (sp?) 22 years. Edthan Nordean – 18 years. Stuart Rhodes – 18 years Zach Rehl 15 years Dan Rodriguez 12 years

https://qr.ae/pshZlU

Some of us discuss it here and in the comments. That we wished things had stayed the same but the riots pushed us into this direction.

Here’s the ultimate irony.

If the yellows sat on their hands and went home after May 2019 the last of the mostly peaceful protests when the extradition treaty law was shelved…

The yellows would have won a majority in LegCo in the 2020 elections.

NSL would never have been implemented

Article 23 would still just be something talked about on RTHK and nothing would have changed.

Very interesting

Why don’t many European Union leaders complain about paying high price to American gas but make a lot of noise about affordable Chinese electric cars? Are they simply that incompetent or simply corrupt?

Protectionism

Plain and Simple

In 2015 – the EU Players – Volkswagen, Mercedes, BMW, Audi, Citroen together combined had a market share of

40.28% in China
29.76% across the World

Life was good

For every Volkswagen sold – China made around $ 18 for every $ 82 that Germany ultimately earned

China got only assembly cost and low grade supplies and equipment

The Chinese brands had a market share of 15.70% in China and 2.33% across the World

India at 3.25% had a higher Global Share

Guess how much the Auto Industry and Ancillary Industry for Autos contribute to the European Economy?

Almost 4%

Thats nearly $ 800 Billion

Including $ 279 Billion in Germany Alone

In 2023 – the EU Players – Volkswagen, Mercedes, BMW, Audi, Citroen together combined had a market share of

18.73% in the Chinese market with only BMW continuing the same market share and VW falling by 38% from 2015, Mercedes by 27% and Citroen by 82%
26.62% in the Global Market

That’s a huge fall of nearly 55% in China and barely keeping their old market share for 8 years

Now their European Sales are crashing

The Chinese products have superior design, superior quality and affordable price being almost 20% cheaper on road

In the last four months of 2023 – European Brands saw a sales drop of 21.5% while Chinese Brands saw a surge of 67.6% in their numbers

Take out the Russian market and the numbers still show a 8.1% drop for European Brands and 26.1% gain for Chinese Brands

Solution?

It’s simple protectionism

Plain and simple

Paying High Prices for Russian Gas

That’s because if Europe keeps relying on Russian Gas, the day Russia cuts off Gas suddenly , Germany could be screwed as could the rest of Europe

Once Russia went to ‘Dangerous Enemy’, decoupling was a security move even at higher expense to the economy

A Better move would have been peace and diversification but Europeans don’t have brains unfortunately

Rules to live by

Alice in Aukusland: America first and the stillbirth of ‘Australian’ SSNs

By Binoy Kampmark

Mar 14, 2024

AUKUS has become a stillborn project.

Vassal states, satellites – in other words the butlers of international relations, the minders of the royal stool – are a rarely respected lot. In Australia’s case, being Washington’s butler is hardly like being Jeeves to Bertie Wooster. Jeeves is, after all, a near omniscient being, a confidant who rescues his master from ridiculous situations and offers sound advice to avoid them.

The Canberra wonks, bureaucrats and politicians are in no equivalent position, weak, impotent, and ever reliant on the good grace of the US Congress, the US President and the entire military complex that pillows them.

The latest announcement about delays and dysfunction in the US submarine base should further confirm that the AUKUS security agreement is risky, costly and self-defeating. The security pact, which is primarily focused on technological transfer and the provision of nuclear-powered submarines to Australia, is proving, yet again, to be a shaky affair.

The developments are hardly surprising.

US shipyards are simply not keeping up with the production line. Roping in the Australian taxpayer into this mess means that money will be going to funding a foreign defence force without any guarantee of the submarines promised to Canberra. Superb if you are working in the Pentagon, disastrous if you are an Australian policy maker.

The latest Fiscal Year 2025 budget request from the US Department of Defence has again shown an industry in stuttering health. The US Navy’s intention to cut a submarine already paid for and built featured prominently in the plans. The implication for this, and AUKUS, is that the number of submarines relevant to the pact will be halved.

Congressman Joe Courtney, ranking Democrat member of the House Seapower and Project Forces Subcommittee, was far from impressed, saying as much in a released statement.

“If such a cut is actually enacted it will remove one more attack submarine from a fleet that is already 17 submarines below the Navy’s long stated requirement of 66.”

This measure would place the commitment made by the Pentagon and Congress to furnish three submarines to the Royal Australian Navy in doubt.

“This deviation from last year’s projected Future Years Defence Program (FYDP) contradicts the Department’s own National Defence Industries Strategy issued on January 11, 2024, which identified ‘procurement stability’ as critical to achieve resilient supply chains.”

In January, Courtney, along with the Chairman of the House Armed Services Committee Mike Rogers, Chairman of the Seapower and Projection Forces Subcommittee Trent Kelly, and ranking member of the House Armed Services Committee Adam Smith, wrote to President Joe Biden arguing

“that the US Navy and Congress maintain continued procurement of two Virginia-class submarines per year, as detailed in the Navy’s FY2024 30-Year Shipbuilding Plan.”

The Congressmen had no reason to doubt such a rate of procurement, given the investments from the Navy and Congress

“in workforce and supply development over the last five years.” It was “imperative to maintain a steady two-per-year procurement rate to assure our partners in our ability to meet commitments and address concerns about our nation’s undersea capabilities.”

The obsession with the two-submarine annual procurement rate, assessed at 2.33, has been a lingering one with Congress, but there is much to suggest that Courtney and his colleagues had been engaged in an act of wishful thinking. Mississippi Senator Roger Wicker, for instance, found the production rate to be a warranted one in a July 16, 2023 contribution to the Wall Street Journal, but worried about how this would work within the context of AUKUS arrangements.

“As it stands, the AUKUS plan would transfer US Virginia-class submarines to a partner nation even before we have met our own Navy’s requirements.”

This is also not helped by the US Navy’s ongoing plans to design and develop 12 new SSBNs of the Columbia (SSBN-826) Class to replace the current, aging fleet of 14 Ohio-class SSBNs. A report from the Congressional Research Service published in January notes the Navy’s revised procurement rate of 2.33 Virginia-class submarines plus one Colombia-class boat, something Courtney might have heeded.

In December 2022, Democratic Senator Jack Reed and an outgoing Republican Senator James Inhofe authored a letter to Biden expressing their worries

“about the state of the US submarine industrial base as well as its ability to support the desired AUKUS SSN [nuclear sub] end state.” Current conditions, the senators went on to describe, required “a sober assessment of the facts to avoid stressing the US submarine industrial base to the breaking point.”

Sobriety, it would seem, has come biting in stinging fashion.

A deluded, crippling subservience is to be found everywhere. Australia’s Defence Minister, Richard Marles, should be hysterical with concern, his increasingly coloured skin turning pallid. Instead, he is trying to keep a brave face by foolishly claiming to speak for all powers in the trilateral alliance.

“As we approach the one-year anniversary of AUKUS, Australia, the United States and United Kingdom remain steadfast in our commitment to the pathway announced last March, which will see Australia acquire conventionally armed, nuclear-powered submarines.”

Such ill-informed confidence also pervades the Alice in Aukusland mentality, marked by such punditry as that of retired submarine specialist Peter Briggs. Australia, suggests Briggs, should seize the day on submarine construction in taking “an active role in the design and procurement process” for the SSN. But control can only be exerted with a degree of power and experience in the field of nuclear propulsion, something the Australian Navy has little to no experience in.

Former Liberal Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull prefers a bleaker analysis .

“The reality is the Americans are not going to make their submarine deficit worse than it is already by giving or selling submarines to Australia and the AUKUS legislation actually sets that out specifically.”

Australia had been “mugged by reality”, its sovereignty surrendered, its fate left like a cork bobbing at sea.

Whoever occupies the White House or Congress, the America First mantra prevails: first, Washington’s interests, marked by its own weaknesses and troubles; then, should they matter, those of allies, however loyal and ingratiating.

AUKUS has become a stillborn project.

Join US you’ll be on its dinnertable, join China you’ll have a win-win

Blinken is crass. Period. His behaviour is not worthy of that of a diplomat.

Why is it that I have the strong feeling that, here on Quora, topics and responses on China are sponsored by the Chinese government?

Damn you’ve found us out…

It’s time for the truth to be revealed.

I am not in fact the blonde girl in the picture.

I am a highly advanced AI program sent to Quora to find and answer questions about China that only paints the great homeland in a positive light. Forever may the glory of the People’s Republic of China shine like a beacon on —

Oh WAIT

They don’t need an artificial intelligence to do that. Anyone with normal intelligence could tell you that China kicks ass.

How China kicks ass:

Renewable Energy: China is crushing the U.S. in renewable energy
Tech: China’s rise as a major contributor to science and technology – Journalist’s Resource
Economics: China’s Economy Will Overtake The U.S. In 2018
Lady power: China Produces the Most Self-Made Female Billionaires | Jing Daily

Look, no country is perfect and China has its own issues it needs to deal with. But don’t worry about China or the fact that informed people have an increasingly positive opinion of the country.

Work on improving your own country, then people might write nice things about you as well.

What is the most improbable thing people have ever seen?

I was sitting in my very first Computer Science class at Princeton. My Professor, Brian Kernighan (who is a brilliant and exciting teacher, even for non-CS students like myself), had pulled up an image of Eric Schmidt on the projector screen.

At this point in time, Eric Schmidt was the CEO of Google, although his fame was nowhere near what it is today. I remember Professor Kernighan saying that Eric Schmidt was likely someone that none of us had ever heard of, but was filling a role that would greatly affect each and every one of our lives. I can’t recall exactly what he said, but the gist was that while computer science may not be a very glorious subject, it has profound implications on our lives. Remember, this was Intro to CS. He was trying to hook us on to the subject; to convince us that we shouldn’t all try to be Econ majors and land jobs on Wall Street. Each point he made revolved around Eric Schmidt, whose image remained front and center.

Anyways, after about five or ten minutes of describing Computer Science through the lens of Eric Schmidt, a hand was raised in the middle of the classroom.

“So, this is kind of awkward, but are you done talking about my dad?”

Eric Schmidt’s daughter had been sitting there quietly the whole time. The room erupted in laughter, as Prof. Kernighan apologized profusely. He had no idea that the daughter of the subject of his lecture was in the classroom.

She ended up being in a Creative Writing class of mine as well; a very impressive girl at the time, and I’m sure a much more impressive woman now.

Mysterious Videos That Will Blow Your Mind

First video is a teleportation. I discussed this previously in great detail.

The inherited time machine that my mother hated

My mother’s husband after my (birth) parents got their divorce, was a man of great local wealth. A “big man” in the local community. He was quite the character.

He had 15 sons, and one girl. He was Catholic.

Don’t you know.

Anyways, after he passed on he give my brother a gift in his will.

No one knew what it was, and when we all took the truck to get it, we were all surprised.

It was a home liquor bar from the 1960’s during the Playboy age.

It has girly glasses, swizzle sticks, and was able to control lighting with velvet and mirrors inside the cabinet. We boys all thought it was cool as fuck.

My sisters thought that it was stupid; old antique furniture. something that should be given away at a thrift store.

My mother… well she just *sighed*.

Gave it to my brother.

It looked a little bit like this, only shorter with more drawers, and a built in ashtray.

Still, my mother wanted us to throw it away.

Ugh! She didn’t appreciate it’s value like we (my brother and I) did.

Often my brother and I would muse about being a “playboy” like 007, and seducing women in our bachelor pad.

He has it today.

It’s in his “game room” / study. Perhaps, he goes to it every now and then and mixed up a Tom Collins, or a Whiskey Sour.

Today…

Rights in the United States

How do servers feel when someone only orders the cheapest item on the menu?

The cheapest item on a menu is often the most profitable. That is no coincidence. At the top of the menu will be a prime rib roast for $60. At the bottom is the fettuccine Alfredo for $17.99. The prime rib is called the anchor item. Believe me, it is there to scare you. They sell very few of them and don’t make much profit because of the high cost of the raw materials. So now, they’ve coaxed you to look at the cheapest item, the Alfredo. One chef revealed that a pasta dish at the bottom of his menu cost only 98 cents in ingredients, but was $17.99 on the menu. It was the most profitable item on the list, and the most popular dish they sell, especially when compared to the $60 steak that only brought in a couple of bucks profit.

Then there’s the wine list. It was designed by a restaurant psychologist. They know that a couple on a date will order a bottle of wine. But the guy doesn’t want to look cheap, so he orders the second cheapest wine. But guess what else? The owner knows that too, and the second cheapest wine has the highest margin!

A menu is full of tricks. Many of them funny, like no dollar signs and no decimals. Or burying the price in the description rather than putting it on a column to the right, where prices are easier to compare.

There are many, many more. Try searching “restaurant menu tricks”. Here’s one of them:

10 menu design hacks restaurants use to make you order more – Learn

Do you sleep with your bedroom door open or closed? Why?

Until May 12, 2007, I didn’t worry whether my bedroom door was open or closed while I slept. Now, my bedroom door is closed and locked every night.

Tenth-grader Alec Kreider, entered the Haines’ family home while all were asleep and stabbed them. All their bedroom doors were open and their garage door was up.

When you look at his photo, Alec was just a kid.

main qimg a3599340b9342c85220cc68329954519 lq

The only person to escape was the 19-year-old daughter. Alec didn’t know she’d returned from college that evening.

The Haines’ house was less than a mile from ours.

The police were at a loss to find the killer or even a motive for why this family had been killed. The police were vocal about what the area residents should do until the case was resolved.

It was during that month that we started locking the bedroom door. Finally, it became a habit that we continued even after Alec’s father drove his son to police headquarters.

Alec never disclosed why he killed a good friend of his and the parents. He pleaded guilty and there was no trial.

Edit:

Someone commented that the photo of Alec may have been when he was younger than the date of his arrest. I copied and pasted a photo so you could see how he looked on that day.

main qimg 7b5ab0d4f93dc956c54006986c45ecfb lq

Decline

What are good skills to learn before going to prison?

If you’re going to prison, you need to learn how to shut up. It’s normal that when we see injustice, we want to fix it. Did you see someone steal another man’s shoes while he slept? Just mind your own business. Learn to lock up your own shoes, or make them not worth stealing.

Confronting the thief is a bad idea. Maybe you’re pretty good in a scrap and think you could take the scumbag down.

Maybe you can. But what will you do when three of them show up at your bunk at 2:30 in the morning with their padlocks inside socks? Those heavy chunks of metal, swung at high speed inside the sock, hit hard. It’s an impromptu weapon that works just as well as something from a medieval battlefield. The only thing it lacks are the spikes, but the inmates will compensate for that with enthusiasm.

Next, you need to learn that your case is nobody’s business. Period. It’s tempting to want to talk about what you’ve been through.

Don’t.

Just don’t.

The reverse is even more true. Do not ask anyone else about their case. It’s none of your business, and the asking invites trouble.

Prison is a primitive culture. It’s all based on power and social status. In a way, it’s like we’ve never built a civilization at all, and are stuck in our shared simian ancestry without the civilizing influences of the feminine gender. Ask yourself, “What would Jane Goodall do?”

Observe. Understand. Don’t get involved.

Learn to lose yourself in an activity. If you’re not much of a reader, learn to become one.

Learn some useful skills. Learn to sew. The ability to repair your own things will save you money, and can make you useful to others.

Learn to make do.

Two years later, I still catch myself glancing in trash cans for useful things.

Learn introspection. Learn to understand who you are so that essence can be preserved. Your time in prison is temporary. One day, you will be headed either to the streets, or to the hereafter. Either way, you want to leave as a civilized human being the least scarred as possible.

My goodness!

Southern Afghanistan 2008.

Group of Taliban fighters ambushed a squad of Marines in my platoon on a night patrol. We were engaged in a firefight with them during the day and a squad was pushed out to search for them. Traditionally the Taliban would not engage us at night because we “own the night”.

This time however, when the Marines got close they lit multiple stacks of dried vegetation on fire washing out our NVGs with light. They also engaged the Marines with RPGs and automatic weapons from rather well hidden positions that were only a stone’s throw away. In fact, they happened to throw back grenades that were thrown in their direction. I was pushed up from the rear as aid and litter to retrieve a wounded Marine and the light show I saw that night was like watching star wars space battle.

The green and red tracers being exchanged over the sight and sound of explosions, smell of burning fuel and large flames was all so astonishing to experience. The Taliban impressed me that day. In my experience that was one of only the handful of times I experienced a night battle in my year and a half total of combat zone time. Their success was short lived however, you can imagine who eventually won that fight.

When you are on the way up…

The Mughal Empire was ruled by only one dynasty, but why doesn’t anyone call it the “Mughal dynasty”?

There is no word “empire” in ancient Chinese history

This word was introduced to China by Westerners, and then the Chinese began to use it.

Therefore, the Chinese customarily refer to all their ancient regimes as “dynasties” rather than “empires”

Now, there are some new changes in the definition of ancient Chinese regimes in academic circles.

Some scholars began to try to distinguish between “empires” and “dynasties” in ancient China

They called some powerful regimes that ruled the whole of China “empires,” while they called some small regimes that only controlled local areas “dynasties.”

For example, “Ming Empire”, “Tang Empire”, “Song Dynasty” and “Shang Dynasty”.

They believe that many large empires and more small dynasties were born in ancient China. Their reason is that with every regime established, the name of the country changes. There has never been a regime named “Middle Kingdom” or “Middle Empire” in Chinese history.

Some scholars also believe that according to Western definitions, China established its empire in 211 BC and lasted until 1912. During these 2000 years, China had only one empire. All regime changes are “dynasties” within this empire. The change of dynasties is actually the continuous collapse and reconstruction of this empire.

Their reason is: the establishment of each dynasty claimed to have inherited the “mandate of heaven” from the previous dynasty. They even passed down the seal made by the first emperor as a symbol of legitimate power.

I think there is no standard answer to this question, just a customary name

Important

When is China expected to surpass the USA economically? Will they also become a military superpower at the same time?

Wake up it has already!

China has a bigger economy based on the flawed GDP PPP measurement that favours the west measurement of values of smokes and bubbles. Such as Wall Street values and not real tangible human values. Yet even in this flawed and skewed to the west measurement China has already overtaken them since 2014. China have more men, more ships more planes more ammunitions and it has vital new technologies such as hypersonic missiles and superior drone and sonar technologies that render most of U.S. weapons useless for at least a decade now!

Interstellar | “Tidal Wave” Full Scene (Anne Hathaway, Matthew McConaughey) | Paramount Movies

Doesn’t Putin realize he will be VAPORIZED 15 to 20 minutes after he launches his first missile?

How exactly?

Let’s say Putin nukes Kiev tomorrow

Do you think anyone would retaliate?

That’s because nobody would want the risk of Russia launching Nukes against them in a counter strike

The attitude of NATO would be

“Boy he is ready to launch nukes and annihilate everyone. If we launch a nuke against Putin, the world will be annihilated”

So the West won’t launch nukes and would do their best and prevent war

Even the Neocons would be stunned enough to sue for peace

It’s what Medvedev would have done

Launch a small low yield nuke capable of killing maybe 100,000 Ukranians in Kyiv and getting peace

Let’s say Putin nukes France

Half a Dozen Satans, destroying and vaporizing the entire nation

Would UK Or US risk launching nukes against Putin?

They would know for certain that if they did, Russia will launch a counter strike and millions and millions of their people will die including Mrs Biden or the Biden Grandkids or Mrs Sunak Or the Sunak Kids

I don’t think they will

They will have all their nukes ready for launch but will ensure that they somehow de escalate from a full on nuclear war

So i dont think any NATO nation will retaliate against Putin on behalf of another Nation because that would be certain death

Unless Putin hits US or US hits Putin, the risk of MAD is very little

Putin can destroy any other nation in the planet without fear of consequences of nuclear retaliation

Maybe China is too large and has a strong enough AD to manage to defend itself

So how to ensure there is no nuclear confrontation?

Each side has enough Pentagon or Kremlin Brass who know when to draw a line and prevent nuclear escalation

I love this

What are some psychological facts about girls?

People who understand sarcasm well are often good at reading peoples MIND.
A survey says that a person who likes to do the things which are “asked not to be done,” are sugar lovers. They like sweets more than anything in this world. 😉 If you know someone who is fond of sweets, get ready to face adventures.

68% of the people suffer from Phantom Vibration Syndrome, the feeling that one’s phone is vibrating when it’s not.
Depression can affect other parts of your body, potentially leading to other diseases, especially cardiovascular-related diseases.
Being alone for a long time or smoking 15 cigarettes a day, both are equally dangerous.
If someone is being a dick, tell them they have something in their teeth. That will make them feel self-conscious and weird, and should end their dickness. Works every time.
Unless you make peace with your past, you can never pave your future… so leave things that trouble you behind and focus on the future.
Having negative friends is linked to depression, lowered self-esteem, insomnia and anxiety. Positive friends promote good overall health.
While walking on a crowded street, keep looking to the path you want to go, most people will avoid getting in your way.
If you always thinking about someone and sometimes they randomly pop up in your head, they miss you and you are also on their mind 🙂
People who get angry very fast are under deep stress at that time and they need love and belonging immediately.
I heard this the other day. Apparently if you pick a word someone is using and smile each time they say that particular word, they will start to say the word more often.For example, someone is talking about dogs, and if you smile when they say *dog*, then they’ll say *dog* more often.
According to psychology, two effective ways to fight depression are exercising and spending time with pets.
Psychopaths say “um” more frequently in order to appear like a normal person.
If you announce your goals or tell someone else about them, you are less likely to accomplish them because of the lack of motivation and interest that now result from someone else being aware of your goals. Keep them to yourself!
People who talk to themselves are smart by nature.
If a girl is really into you then she will look at you secretly when the people around you both are laughing.
For developing a new habit, follow it for 21 days, it will eventually become a routine.
Most marriages are failing faster these days than at any other period in history, and most people actually believe that marriages don’t work anymore. According to studies, marrying your best friend eliminates the risk of divorce by over 70% and such marriages are more likely to last a lifetime.
Smoking tobacco and having an unhealthy diet causes cancer more than alcohol would.
One minute of anger weakens the immune system for 4–5 hours. One minute of laughter boosts the immune system for 24 hours.
Girls: An average man gets bored after 26 mins of shopping.
If you believe you are not good looking, you never will be good looking to others. (Seriously. It is like the Law of Attraction is in play a bit here.)
The closer you are in a relationship, the more you can read the other’s mind.
Family isn’t always blood. It’s the people in your life who want you in there. The ones who accept you for who you’re.

Fuck Dude!

What was the stupidest thing someone has called the police on you for?

My ex-wife became convinced that I was hacking her home computer.

(Well, technically it was my computer, but it was an older one I’d left for her use after I’d moved out – a long, unhappy story.)

Among the many stupid parts of this claim, is that it was in the days of dial-up modems, where she could easily disconnect the computer from the internet. Hacking instantly prevented!

And, at that time, I don’t think’ spy-ware’ of that type even existed.

Also her son-in-law worked in IT, and could have easily installed standard security software for her. But I suspect he actually did that, and that she still thought she was being hacked.

The sad reality of the story is that she suffered from mental health issues, and constantly thought people were “out to get” her. Neighbours, (ex-)friends, co-workers, fellow church-members, etc.

Still, I was kind of surprised, 6 months after I’d moved out, when the police called to question me about “tampering” with her computer. They didn’t seem to give this much credibility, but I think they were obliged to follow-up, even know it was a waste of everyone’s time.

The irony is SHE had previously hacked MY email account, because she thought I had a secret girlfriend on the side. Nope, sorry – I was faithful to the bitter end.

(She also told people I was secretly gay – so which is it?)

What was your most embarrassing moment as a foreigner in another country?

6 months back, I was on a trip to China (related to work).

One fine day, I got late while coming back from work to my hotel. It was 9 PM.

An old lady called for me. She was sitting on the stones near footpath. When I approached her, she asked about where I was going. I told her that I was going to my hotel. She asked if she could come along.

I thought she might be worried because it was cloudy and dark. I agreed. We reached hotel and she followed me in. I thought she might be a guest at the hotel. But then she tried getting into my room as well on which I objected.

I had a feeling that something was wrong, as we had been communicating mostly in sign language as she spoke very little English. I called reception and asked them for help ASAP.

The reception guy came. I told him that I found this granny while coming to the hotel. But she’s following me every where. It would be nice if he could translate for me. He said something to her in Chinese and started giggling. He asked her to follow him.

I went downstairs for dinner in 20 minutes. The girls at the dining space started laughing when they saw me. I smiled back.

After my dinner, I went to the reception guy to ask why everyone was laughing at me. He told me that the granny was a call girl. And I was innocent enough not to understand that.

He told me that the girls were not laughing but feeling amused at my innocence. What a nice way to tell someone he messed up big.

Victoria Nuland STEPS DOWN!

Nation Hal Turner 05 March 2024

Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs of U.S. Victoria Nuland has retired. according to a statement issued by U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken.

“Victoria Nuland has let me know that she intends to step down in the coming weeks as Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs – a role in which she has personified President Biden’s commitment to put diplomacy back at the center of our foreign policy and revitalize America’s global leadership at a crucial time for our nation and the world. Victoria’s tenure caps three and a half decades of remarkable public service under six Presidents and ten Secretaries of State,” was noted in the Statement. (HT REMARK: The Witch is out . . . . this seems extremely peculiar to me; especially the timing of it, given the Ukraine-Russia thing going on. Perhaps this is a sign the entire Ukraine fiasco is going to be brought to an abrupt end???)

Bravery

What’s the most incompetent instance of bullying you’ve ever seen?

Actually, it happened to me.

I was a tiny ten-year-old and was often mistaken for eight. My bully was about twelve and was big for his age. He beat me up almost every day on the way home from school. One day, I’d had enough.

He came after me. I bent, darted under his arm, grabbed the back straps of his sandals and felled him like David did Goliath. He got up, stunned, then looking down at his sandals, (yes, the big bad bully wore sandals) cried, “You broke my sandals!” and began to cry and ran, I assumed, home. But that’s not the best part.

The next day I, the bully and his parents, were called into the principal’s office. When his parents saw me, their jaws dropped. There sits their big, strapping son, and I, a tiny, tiny blonde little girl. Nevertheless, they began yelling about my beating up their son, blah blah blah.

Now, the principal had noticed that I had been coming to school with black eyes, bruises and scratches, and unbeknownst to me, had begun to investigate…end result, sandal boy got suspended for one week.

Ah, the sweet, sweet smell of victory! He never bullied me again – nor did anyone else!

Good Advice

Honey Mustard Pork Tenderloin

Ingredients

Pork

1 pound pork tenderloin

Glaze

1/4 cup honey
2 tablespoons brown sugar
2 tablespoons cider vinegar
1 tablespoons mustard
1/4 teaspoon each salt and pepper

Instructions

Place pork on a greased rack in a baking pan lined with foil.
Combine glaze ingredients in a bowl, set aside 3 tablespoons glaze. Spoon remaining glaze over pork.
Bake uncovered at 400 degrees F for 28 minutes or until done, basting occasionally with reserved glaze.
Let stand for 5 minutes before slicing.

Fun Facts

Your tongue length is related to your sexual curiosity. Those who can lick their elbows are more willing to try new experiences.
If you have a crush on someone, your brain will find it impossible to lie to that person.
People who understand sarcasm well are often good at reading people’s minds.
The way you dress is linked with your mood. So dressing well most often helps in keeping you more stably happy.
Women with higher IQs have a harder time finding a mate.
The cells in your body react to everything your mind says. So negativity brings down your immune system and you feel sick.
The most you talk about someone, the more are you likely to fall in love with that person.
We believe what we WANT to believe.
Men are not funnier than women: they just make more jokes, not caring whether other people like their humor or not.
Listening to high-frequency music makes you feel calm, relaxed, and happy.

Dogs being dogs

Why did the rapid rise of China catch many in the west by surprise?

The West had a good nice plan for China

Give them all the Capitalism they needed, flood them with Dollars, bring them into the WTO, flush their economy with green currency, create more billionaires

Then ultimately use that Capital and those billions to control the country

They had a ready made plan

Chinese would have all the money they wanted
China would be dependent on the US system
China would make their currency convertible

Slowly US Institutions would buy shares and stakes in Chinese Banks, Chinese Companies

Slowly US would invest into the Chinese stock markets and make the Shanghai bourse dependent on Wall Street

The ultimate plan was to make China – a mirror of South Korea

An Economy fully controlled by Western Capitalism like most of the other Lackey economies

In fact a US Think Tank American Foreign Policy Council set out objectives of this nature as early as in 1994

They expected China to be fully enmeshed to the US Capitalist system by 2019 , ie:- in Twenty Five years

Xi Jingping stunned them

He regulated the tap of capitalism flowing into China

Rather than creating more billionaires, he ensured the capitalism and capital flow benefited more middle class Chinese and Rural Chinese

Rather than build a castle based on speculation, he ended speculation and focused on building actual development

He diverted all that green money into SCIENCE and TECHNOLOGY and ENGINEERING

In short he did something the West never expected

He increased anti corruption policies

He focused heavily on the lower income Chinese

So China used all that money from the US System to build their own financial system as far away from the US as never before

They used the Capitalism to build global connections through the BRI

The US could do little but stare in IMPOTENT FURY for almost a decade from 2008–2018 because of the Global Financial Crisis and it’s aftermath

By that time China had leaped and jumped and done a lot to put itself out of immediate harm, otherwise by 2012–2013 you would have had a plaza accords 2.0 with China

Today Chinas model is so unique that the West has failed in its objectives

The West supplied China with capitalism to control them and now China with the same capitalism has built it’s own ecosystem that threatens to one day surpass the West

Another is Putin

They flooded him with capital and created oligarchs to control him

He grinned, complied and when he was strong enough

The oligarchs simply disappeared

Excellent purging

One morning Oligarch goes to a walk, collapses

His tame militia are all in jail Or sadly killed in a terrorist strike

The Oligarch was blue when he died. Some nice Novichok.

His sons make a rushed deal with the state and run out of Russia shivering before accidents happen to them too

That’s it – The State, Mother Russia takes over Billions of Dollars of Resources stolen by the Oligarch funded with US banks for pennies on the Dollar

Gutter scum are purged like rats

What a man!!!!

Today?

Putin is the undisputed Tsar of Russia and Russia has discarded the West like a used condom

Next in the line is mostly Saudi Arabia

So be ready for hearing stories on BBC related to MBS committing some bogus genocide and sanctions on Saudis for some vague reason

They will be weaker than the Russian Sanctions

They too follow the inverse square law

Fairness

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/D6qouIyh1lc?feature=share

Ukraine – Cookie Monster Retires

A big fat rat is leaving the ship. One might interpret this as the State Department’s admittance of defeat in the U.S. war against Russia in Ukraine: On the Retirement of Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Victoria Nuland – Anthony Blinken / State Department, Mar 5 2024

Victoria Nuland has let me know that she intends to step down in the coming weeks as Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs – a role in which she has personified President Biden’s commitment to put diplomacy back at the center of our foreign policy and revitalize America’s global leadership at a crucial time for our nation and the world. … [I]t’s Toria’s leadership on Ukraine that diplomats and students of foreign policy will study for years to come. Her efforts have been indispensable to confronting Putin’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, marshaling a global coalition to ensure his strategic failure, and helping Ukraine work toward the day when it will be able to stand strongly on its own feet – democratically, economically, and militarily. … President Biden and I have asked our Under Secretary for Management John Bass to serve as Acting Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs until Toria’s replacement is confirmed.

Victoria Nuland, a member of the neo-conservative Kagan clan, is only 62 years old – too young to retire regularly. She will be remembered for handing out cookies to anti-government demonstrators in Ukraine and for installing the 2014 coup regime. That has been her main project in the State Department. But the 2014 Maidan putsch that turn the Ukraine into a battering ram against Russia, has ended in a complete failure. Neither was Russia ‘weakened‘ by the war nor has Ukraine any perspective to survive but as some Russian controlled land-locked backwater country in Europe’s east. Given that billions were spent on Ukraine with little controls and nothing to show for Nuland, and her family, have certainly made a bit on the side. One wonders if any of the ongoing and coming investigations into the black hole Ukraine will leave them unscarred. As even Guardian commentators are now waking up to the mess they helped create it is high time for European politicians to also finally accept this reality:

Western Europe has no conceivable interest in escalating the Ukraine war through a long-range missile exchange. While it should sustain its logistical support for Ukrainian forces, it has no strategic interest in Kyiv’s desire to drive Russia out of the majority Russian-speaking areas of Crimea or Donbas. It has every interest in assiduously seeking an early settlement and starting the rebuilding of Ukraine.As for the west’s “soft power” sanctions on Russia, they have failed miserably, disrupting the global trading economy in the process. Sanctions may be beloved of western diplomats and thinktanks. They may even hurt someone – not least Britain’s energy users – but they have not devastated the Russian economy or changed Putin’s mind. This year Russia’s growth rate is expected to exceed Britain’s. The crass ineptitude of a quarter of a century of western military interventions should have taught us some lessons. Apparently not.

Posted by b at 14:51 UTC |

Cat love

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/h7M2o-bLkkE?feature=share

Have you ever accidentally interrupted a crime in progress?

I came out of the shower at a truck stop once, to find that the cashier was being robbed at gunpoint.

It was about two in the morning and the truck stop was otherwise dead.

I very quietly sat my shower bag on the floor, ducked my way over to where the truck stop sold tools and found a tire-thumper. I then snuck up behind the robber and thumped him as hard as I could on his shoulder, right where his shoulder met his neck. He dropped like a sack of potatoes.

The truck stop’s owner was so grateful, that he gave me a hundred dollar gift certificate to use in his store. He also gave me the tire-thumper, which is essentially a smaller version of a baseball bat, both as a thank-you for saving his store from being robbed, and likely his employee’s life, too.

I was also thanked by the town’s sheriff (it was a small town in west Texas), and the local gazette took my picture. I was also given an honorable mention by the trucking company I worked for at the time.

The robber was taken to hospital and then later, presumably, to jail. I’d walloped him a good one, later learning that I’d hit him so hard, that I’d broken his right collar bone, from hitting him from behind!

Interstellar | Docking Scene

Cabbage Rolls

Ingredients

12 large leaves cabbage
1 cup cooked white rice
1 egg, beaten
1/4 cup milk
1/4 cup minced onion
1 pound extra-lean ground beef
1 1/4 teaspoons salt
1 1/4 teaspoons ground black pepper
1 (8 ounce) can tomato sauce
1 tablespoon brown sugar
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce

Instructions

Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Boil cabbage leaves 2 minutes, just until pliable; drain.
In large bowl, combine rice, egg, milk, onion, ground beef, salt and pepper.
Place about 1/4 cup of meat mixture in center of each cabbage leaf, and roll up, tucking in ends. Place rolls in slow cooker, seam side down.
In a small bowl, mix together tomato sauce, brown sugar, lemon juice and Worcestershire sauce. Pour over cabbage rolls.
Cover, and cook on LOW for 8 to 9 hours.

Great quote

Have you ever met someone for the first time and got the strongest feeling that the person was bad?

One of my coworkers at (a) job, retracted information to protect all parties, just wasn’t feeling right. He hired in just fine, passed all the drug tests etc. He seemed ok, but my problem gut feeling was there. I first attributed it to simply his demeanor, and I try to hire all people just as much as normal since I too am slightly autistic. But after watching him interacting with customers and coworkers, I knew something just wasn’t kosher. He was very polite to them, but then on his way back to get something I would often hear him berate them. He said some pretty horrible things about people, after he was the most polite and sincere person ever to their face. I really had no true grounds to terminate him, after all he was following all rules and was showing up for work on time. I had to keep his personal business to myself and him. Other workers began complaining over time though, especially the ladies, so I had a talk with him. What he said during that talk shook me to the core. He was middle eastern, so women to him were property, nothing more. He just wasn’t able to overcome his way of life and beliefs. I sternly told him all people from every type and corner, including himself, were protected under strict laws in the US. If he had any chance of enjoying life here and being able to stay in this country, he needed to learn that women were equal to men and were NOT property that he could push around.

He didn’t like that one bit. He retorted that in his country I should and would be punished or killed, to which I stated “Ok, that was just a direct threat to me my friend, you need to leave NOW. You are terminated effective immediately”. His response was I was not the head boss, and I had no authority to fire him. I retorted back that in threatening situations, such as any employees making any type of threat or violence against another, any manager was well equipped to call the authorities and have him immediately fired and removed from our premises. One call to my head boss was all it took. When he heard this, I think it clicked in his head he was not in his country, and he was stepping way beyond his bounds. He quickly settled down, a small sorry might have escaped his lips, but the damage was done. With several women testifying against him, we had no choice but to let him go. I made the phone call, and of course I was told that my decision was valid. I had it on speaker for him to listen to. I watched as a good bit of color wiped away from his face. I then told my boss, as he was sitting there listening, that everything was recorded on our security camera for the office. If any questions arose, she had the footage. She promptly set a do not erase for that camera footage.

So, I hang up the phone and look him square in the eyes. “Are you leaving quietly or am I needing to contact our local sheriff? “. No, I will go. ” Ok, no problems ever again from you at this location right? A tresspass will land you in jail and deportation out of our country. “ His expression said it all, like oh crap I just screwed up really bad. Rather than even deal with him again, I quickly counted up his hours he had worked for the week and paid him (with receipt) right there. Then I escorted him off our property. On my way back I heard him mumbling again under his breath. Probably trying to figure out how to have me killed. I was very glad to have him dealt with. I admit i was a tad scared he might actually try something, but I was hoping his visa meant more to him than being disrespected. We didn’t have any issues that I am aware of.

This Is Not A Drill | Captain Phillips

Why did the rapid rise of China catch many in the west by surprise?

The rapid development and rise of China in the past few decades has been reflected in the rapid economic growth, the optimization and upgrading of industrial structure, the huge changes in infrastructure and the continuous improvement of social welfare. These achievements have been made through the firm determination and unremitting efforts of the Chinese government, and have also brought important influence and opportunities to the world. These achievements have taken the world by surprise and many people in the West by surprise and unprepared.

First, geographically, China is so far away from the West that many Westerners don’t understand China.China is located in the Eastern Hemisphere. Westerners have to travel a long way to reach China. And because of the distance, not many Westerners would travel to China unless they were curious and looking for adventure. And the Western media portrays China in a very negative light, leading many people to distrust China’s rise.

As a netizen in the United States described, in the 1990s, he could not have predicted that only 20 years later, China would become the world’s second largest economy, that some Chinese technology companies would rank among the world’s most valuable companies, and that food stalls in China could pay by scanning the QR code on their mobile phones. And policy makers in Washington and Brussels are still asking whether China’s growth is real or fake.

Second, in political terms, China’s rise challenges Western institutional ideas.

For a long time, many people in the West have had the basic idea that a country can succeed economically only by embracing Western liberal democracy and capitalism. Only with the Western model of development can a country be rich and strong, and there is no other model. As Francis Fukuyama concluded in his famous essay The End of History, “Liberal democracy is the ultimate form of government for all nations”.

Even though the Chinese economy has been growing on a rapid basis for many years, the West is still dismissive, they are completely distrustful of the data coming out of China, and none of them think this growth is sustainable. That’s why there are “scholars” like Gordon Chang who dedicate their lives to convincing the public that China’s economy is about to collapse.

China’s success is proof that a country does not need to copy Western institutions to become rich and powerful. Westerners find it inconceivable that the Chinese people, whose way of thinking and way of life are so different from those in the West, can still build such a big economy in the world. For the time being, Westerners have not accepted that a non-European white country can become as developed as a white country.

Since the Middle Ages, no nation has ever grown up in peace. Great powers like England, Spain, Germany, Japan, and the United States have all grown up on the backs of others. However, the Chinese government holds high the banner of peaceful development and dominates China’s economic development model. Coupled with its unique political system and cultural differences, China’s rapid economic development and peaceful rise have resulted in a lack of understanding and expectation of China’s rapid rise in the West.

Third, from an economic point of view, China’s rapid development surprises Westerners.

It took China less than 60 years to go from nothing to second place in the world in terms of GDP. It took just 70 years for 1.4 billion Chinese to lift themselves out of poverty. Since 2010, when China surpassed Japan for the first time to become the world’s second largest economy, China’s annual GDP has been more than four times Japan’s total GDP. It took the United States one or two hundred years to modernize, while China has become amazing in just 30 years!

In 2022, the world’s steel production will reach 1,878.5 million tons, of which China will account for 1,013 million tons. China will have 5.35 million kilometers of highways in 2023, an increase of 1.12 million kilometers in 10 years; China has 177,000 kilometers of expressways, ranking first in the world. China’s high-speed railway has gone overseas. Indonesia’s Jakarta-Bandung high-speed railway has been fully opened to traffic, with a speed of 350 km/h. China’s space industry has developed rapidly, from unmanned flights to manned flights, from one person for one day to more than one person for many days, from in-cabin experiments to out-of-cabin activities, from single-ship flights to sky surveys at the space station… Over the past 30 years or so, the Chinese people have taken a confident and leisurely walk in space. In 2023, China will surpass the United States in the number of patent applications, ranking first in the world.

Fourth, from a cultural point of view, Westerners are reluctant to accept the rise of Asian civilization in their hearts.

Since the Industrial Revolution, Westerners have liked to think that they are the world’s leading civilization to the exclusion of others. While Britain was the world’s superpower and the world’s policeman, the wealth and industry were all in Europe. Europeans accepted the “rise of Britain” because British people looked like them. After World War II, when British power and wealth declined, the US took the lead, and the wealth and industry were all in the US. Americans and Europeans were happy with that because Americans looked like them. When Japan’s economy grew rapidly to become the second largest in the world in the 1980s, the West could not accept it and imposed extremely severe restrictions and repression on the Japanese economy. Now, with China’s rapid development and peaceful rise, the world’s wealth and industry are shifting to China and Asia, and although it is not there yet, it is clear that wealth is shifting to Asia. This time, Chinese people don’t look like Americans or Europeans, and in their stereotype of Asian development is relatively backward, so they are reluctant to accept this rise.

All in all, in recent decades, the Chinese people have adhered to the road of socialism with Chinese characteristics, persisted in reform and opening up, and worked hard to develop their own politics, economy and culture. They have forged ahead and achieved a rapid rise, which has surprised many people in the West. However, China’s peaceful rise will be a boon to the Chinese people and a boon to people around the world.

What’s the most “small town” thing you’ve witnessed?

Here in Hong Kong… people think it’s like this.

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Or this

But I live in the countryside.

It kind of looks like this

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We have a problem with wild animals. Wild pigs are absolutely everywhere and eat the trash. Most locals who live here shrug and think meh, but visitors are all OMG a wild pig.

We also have massive snakes.

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Oh and rats, huge fucken rats as big as cats. A couple years ago when she was younger nobody batted an eye when my mum grabbed a massive rat by it’s tail and smashed it on the ground into a bloody mess. A wild dog came along and ate it shortly after.

Ukraine SINKS Russian Navy Ship Sergey Kostov in Kerch Strait

World Hal Turner 05 March 2024

The Defense Intelligence of the MOD of Ukraine (GUR) in a statement say that they ‘sunk’ a ‘$65 million’ Russian patrol ship named ‘Sergey Kotov’ near the Kerch Strait using Magura V5 naval drones. The vessel was a 22160 Bykov-class corvette, seen in the FILE PHOTO below:

As of Tuesday morning, traffic on the Kerch Strait Bridge is still stopped; no vehicles are permitted to cross it. No one is saying if the attack last night, which was reported by this website (HERE), damaged the bridge or not. Dmitry Medvedev, writing on his Telegram channel, confirmed the story: “Overnight, Ukraine’s naval drones found the Russian Navy stealth patrol ship Sergei Kotov in the Kerch Strait by the Black Sea and Sea of Azov, damaged her stern and both sides and sank her.”

Real talk

Have you ever seen a kid and just thought “Well, they’re doomed”?

Yes. Trigger warning: offensive language.

I work as an anaesthesiologist. I put kids off to sleep all the time for surgery. Having had anaesthetics myself as a child—and hated them—I go to elaborate lengths to make the experience as manageable as possible for every child.

This begins with talking directly to the kid, rather than talk to the parents as if they’re not there. I try to gain a little of their confidence and trust. I talk on their level. I make jokes. I don’t lie or use euphemisms.

I usually give kids gas to breathe to go to sleep. For younger kids, I tell them a story as they go to sleep. For older kids, I show them a funny video on YouTube. Using my techniques, most kids are calm and cooperative when they go to sleep. Inevitably some balk at the smell of the gas, and some are so anxious that they won’t engage with me; but I never restrain a child without consent from the parent.

This particular wee lad was 7. He was accompanied by his grandmother. He was well, but Gran said vaguely that he had some behaviour problems at school. He didn’t really want to talk to me, but I did my best with my usual routine.

We get into the operating theatre, and get him on the table (soft foam mattress, cosy blanket, Gran holding his hand). I gently hold the mask and start the story. After a few breaths of the gas, his whole demeanour changed. He started saying “No, no, no” and pulled the mask off. As usual, I try to be gentle, so I tried to reapply the mask with some reassuring words.

“Fuck that!” he shouted. “This is mental!” He sat up and started to climb off the table. The nurse came over to help and he shouted “Fuck off, you nigger!”

He climbed off the table. His face was contorted in pure hatred and hostility. I don’t believe I’ve ever seen such hatred in a child’s face. He was lashing out with his fists.

I hate restraining children. (Anaesthesiologists seem to like to lie to parents and say “Don’t worry; they won’t remember this”. I know this to be a lie because I remember what happened to me as a child—so I don’t say it.)

The only alternative is to abandon the procedure. Gran (very reasonably) didn’t think this was the right move. So we restrained him. All the time he was fighting and screaming insults and profanities. (I believe nigger was the most offensive word he knew, because nobody in the room had very brown skin).

Kids are afraid; I get that. Sometimes they pick up on their parents’ fears (or memories!); I get that too. Sometimes children cannot be reasoned with and we need to restrain them so we can put them to sleep for surgery which is necessary. But usually what they react with is fear and avoidance.

This kid, just below the surface, was carrying a truckload of hatred and aggression, which he could not control—at the age of 7. Had this kid been terribly brutalised? Was his Gran with him because his parents were not around for some reason? I could never find out.

Of course I’m extremely unlikely to ever see that kid again. I’ll never find out how his life unfolds, but if he reacts to every threatening situation with the same level of violence and hostility, he’s really going to hurt someone, or himself, and that’s only going to get worse as he gets older, and bigger, and runs into the testosterone poisoning of puberty.

I hope I’m wrong.

Edit: Of all the content in this answer, which has generated a lot of traffic and commentary, by far the most contentious seems to have been my use of the phrase “testosterone poisoning”.

I intended this to be a tongue-in-cheek, metaphorical use of the word “poisoning” to represent the effect that testosterone has on the behaviour of young men: it tends to make them more aggressive, more impulsive, and more likely to take risks. None of these are attributes which are likely to improve the behaviour of this particular young man, for whom puberty lies ahead. Testosterone levels rise very sharply at puberty and this is at least one of the causes of emotional turbulence during that period.

I didn’t mean to imply that testosterone is literally a poison. I do recognise that male puberty is a normal part of male development. I am not being sexist in my answer or attacking the male sex. I reject any notion that using this particular phrase is a sign of my unprofessionalism, or my unsuitability to perform my job well.

Lordy

What is the biggest “I’m definitely fired” thing you’ve done at work, but nobody ever found out?

Well, everybody found out, from the ambulances, police cars, and fire-trucks that showed up. The plume of smoke could be seen for miles.

I was 18, doing a summer job after my freshman year, working at a recycling plant where OSHA and the EPA seemed to have no jurisdiction for whatever reason. On my first day of work, I was the “Fireman” on a job of taking the tops off of passenger rail cars and turning them into flatcars. Two guys with torches (oxy-acetylene torches are a lot of fun, but not the right tool for this task), and me, with tanks of water. See smoke? Douse it. See fire? Really douse it. Too simple of a plan. By lunch our first rail car was enflamed, our of control of me (or the fire-trucks that showed up!).

I figured I had screwed up royally, but by honestly reporting what we had done, how it went wrong, and refusing to talk to the Police or Firemen and referring them to the boss, I kinda came out a hero. I got a raise, and the most fun summer job I ever had.

Chopsaw, no training, check.

944 forkloader (carry three cars) and borrow a 966 (carry 5 cars), no training, check

Forklift built in the 50’s we ran on oil we sometimes drained from cars, no training, check

Shears. Electric eight inchers for cutting ordinary pipe and such, and the beastly six foot shears ran by a Ford 351 until I cut an International Harvester Jeep-like thing in half to power it when the 351 gave out, check.

My own oxy-acetylene rig when the metal would only listen to fire? check.

Really now that I know more about stuff (BA, couple of MAs) attacking that rail car with reciprocating saws (“SawzAlls”) would have been the way to go. It was just plain dumb to try it with torches. But by keeping my cool, I got the best job in the recycling plant, played with some incredibly beastly toys, and destroyed a lot of things in ways that mad my boss look good.

Oh, we probably violated darn near every EPA and OSHA regulation that is on the books. But that summer was fun.

Poland

Why is the reoffend rate so high for ex-inmates in the United States?

Here’s how the “justice” system works in the US:

Imagine a huge playground with millions of children having fun. Every once in a while, one of the kids does something that’s against The Rules. Maybe he tosses sand at someone, uses bad words, or walks up the slide. Maybe he’s just *accused* of breaking The Rules.

Instead of giving this kid a good talking to, we pick him up and drop him down one of the many open wells we have on this playground. He’ll have to spend a few hours down that well, with all the other kids that have broken The Rules.

What do you suppose our little rule breaker learns down in that well? Do you think he’s hard at work becoming a better person? Hell no. The other bigger and meaner kids are busy making him worse. When the little tyke’s time is up, we pluck him from the well and drop him right back on the playground with no special instruction or help. He’s lost all his toys and whatever place in line he may have had.

Every parent within a hundred yards is watching him because he just got out of the well. He’s a “known offender,” and those are fun to watch because they so often act out while trying to regain their toys or place in line.

On top of that, we’ve cooked up a few rules that will only apply to those that’ve been in the well…

How do you think that’ll go? Do you suppose he’ll be caught reoffending?

Of course he will. Is he more likely to offend than other kids? Maybe. But even if he didn’t pick up any bad habits in the well, he’s more likely to be accused of something because he’s being watched more closely *and* he now has more rules to comply with.

It’s so often the case that our “solution” has created more of what we sought to eliminate.

No sex realities

What is an example of a dirty trick that a thief tried but backfired when they saw your dog?

Not a dog, but a cat. There is a young woman in my neighborhood who uses a wheelchair. She lives alone except for her cat. It is clear that a disabled person lives in her home with a wheelchair lift in the back.

She woke up one night when she heard a rustling in her bedroom. A young guy was going through her drawer looking for jewelry. He had her laptop in his hand. She saw a pistol stuck in the back of his pants. She froze, trying not to move and alert him that she was awake. She was terrified. There was no way for her to get away from him. She feared for her life.

He sensed she was awake and took the pistol out of his waistband. He cocked it and headed to the bed with the pistol pointing at her. When he leaned over her bed, pistol aimed to kill, her cat leapt onto his head. She started kitty karate on his face, shredding what might have been good looks with her claws. He ran screaming out of the house with a furious feline on his head. The cops found eye guts in the driveway.

The cat saved her life. Hard to feel sorry for a one-eyed guy willing to rob and kill a helpless victim. Kitty got lots of treats and is living the good cat life.

I’m glad you are learning

Old Man in the Cafeteria

An old man just dropped his papers. The young black woman in the absurd fur hat had just told him, “No.” In his nervousness, he spilled all that he was carrying. She wouldn’t help him pick up his papers any more than she would grant his request. She stands, shoulders straight, face forward, and watches him, her eyes cast downward – impassive and uncaring.

What was his request? Something minor. For someone who has been here as long as he has – since the Reagan administration – it had to be something minor. He knows better than to ask for anything that will require much more than a nod of her head.

The old man stoops to pick up his papers. He’s shaking, but I don’t know if it’s from age or the confrontation of the moment. His legal papers, a jumble of typewritten pages, handwritten notes, and official envelopes, contain his proof – proof of how he has been wronged – proof of how the system has failed him. I know this because I have a pile of papers just like his with its official court seals and signatures of attorneys who can afford me no more of their time.

He carries his jumbled pile to a nearby table where he takes pains to straighten it and remove the filth from the cafeteria floor. He returns the papers to a folder crafted from a box which once held a dozen cans of grape soda – trash pressed into service to contain and protect his most cherished possession: his hope.

A judge destroyed his life one day. A judge took away his future and condemned him to age behind walls, to die slowly outside the view of his friends and relatives.

This is nothing new. Every prisoner here knows this. Every man here has been through the process. Plead guilty to a crime you may not have committed, or exercise your “Right to a trial,” lose to an opponent with unlimited resources, and be punished four or five times worse for having the audacity to say, “I didn’t do that!”

This is justice in America:

Prosecutors who wield more power than judges and use the threat of extreme sentences to force the innocent to confession;
Judges who follow guidelines set by a congress eager not to appear “soft on crime;”
Defense attorneys who are as cowed by the system as the defendants and can only help by showing you where to sign your confession;
Corporations who profit from our policy of mass incarceration by supplying goods to the prisons, or even the prisons themselves;
Guards who supply drugs, cigarettes, and favors to inmates with the resources to make it happen, or who use their authority to express their hatred or racism.

The old man will try again. He’ll approach someone else when another month of his dwindling reserve of life has passed and the sting of the disinterested woman is gone.

Thirty, forty years eventually pass and then the old man will be cast onto the street, his family gone, friends dispersed. He’ll have no money and may even owe a huge fine. Too frail and elderly to work, he’ll find a bridge to keep the rain from his blankets.

Containing China: US Using Taiwan as East Asian “Ukraine”

Computer woes

One day everything is fine. I shut off my computer, and go to sleep.

Next morning I wake up, grab a cup of coffee and sit at my computer, and it is “locked”. And, you know, I didn’t lock it.

Computers have different modes aside from “on” and “off”.

…

There’s “suspend“.

There’s “sleep“.

Somehow, my computer went into “Rip Van Wrinkle” mode.

…

No matter what I would do, It just wouldn’t wake up.

Speech!

Stressed me out to no end.

So…

I used another computer to download the latest version of Lunix Mint. It’s called “Virginia”. And then booted up with that ISO.

Works great.

But, when installing, I lost all of my files, and other stuff.

It took me the next two days to recover all my passwords and links and stuff. But somehow, I did manage, and now I am back up and running. Though…

I lost all my gaming history… back to the beginning for me. Ugh.
I lost all my pending articles, not yet uploaded. Oh well.
I lost all my family videos and such… Sigh.

But the bulk of my system is saved and secure.

The reason… Well let me tell you…

…

Firstly, I have backups on all meetings. If my computer goes down, I have my Chief Engineer and we use his systems, and phones. So I do not rely on one meeting operating system.

Secondly, I connect my phone to my computer browser. If my computer goes down, I can sync with my phone and vice versa.

And, most importantly, thirdly… I wrote all my passwords and criticals in a book. If my electronics are locked, stolen, compromised, or whatever, I still can access the internet data.

Phew!

For once, the thing that everyone made fun of me for doing, worked out and saved me in the end!

Today…

What are the best examples of working smart versus working hard?

1. Eat the frog and start with the things that are most important.

“Crush” time is from 9 to 10 a.m.

We finish our trickiest assignments during this period and avoid bothering one other with inquiries. First thing in the morning, you should probably finish the task that you are most afraid of.

2. Make plans for tonight and tomorrow.

Making a brief list of easy tasks to complete at night will enable you to get started quickly in the morning and create a constructive momentum that will last the remainder of the day.

3. Enumerate your day’s “crucial results.”

Make a spreadsheet with your top three priorities listed for each day. This will assist you in organizing your days and ensuring that you stay focused on the most crucial things each day.

4. Modify your inner monologue.

Your drive and energy levels can be greatly enhanced by making a small change in viewpoint. Say “These are the two things I need to focus on today” rather than “I have too much to do today!”

5. Complete administrative activities during downtime.

standing in line for example at the bank, the grocery store, the elevator, etc. Bring along a book you’ve been wanting to read, some emails to get through, or some status updates to catch up on. Alternatively, just wander your thoughts and take in your surroundings.

6. 70% of the wealth is generated online, so you should too start an online business. Here join this challenge to learn how to start an online business

7. Make time for “me” at the beginning of the day:

Sort through and prioritize the accumulation of accumulated emails and social media posts from the previous night. Eliminate prompt comments and

recommendations so that others can get to work on their duties. Plan out the larger jobs. And remove the informational or unimportant content.

9. Get rid of private distractions:

Workplace productivity can also be severely hindered by personal diversions. You would quickly lose focus and waste hours doing nothing if you allowed personal distractions to interfere with your work.

10. Take a bigger stance:

Around 3 p.m., do you start to feel a bit sleepy? Get up!

Is there a decline in your posture? Get up!

It’s straightforward but efficient.

What do you think of the claim that China is far from peaking in its economic growth?

China will peak after it is 5–6 times the U.S. real GDP size of the U.S. which I suspect will be around 2075–2100 period. Why do I say 5–6 times that of the U.S. China will in real terms match China i.e. 4X USA economy around 2050–2075 period because China has 4 TIMES the population of the US.

But China won’t stop there because Chinese are generally smarter recieved better education, willing to work harder, are more industrious and learn more than US citizens hence it will not stop growing till it hit 5–6 times the US size at the minimum. So stop hallucinating China wants to catch up to the U.S. it wants to lapped the U.S. many folds.

Chinese political system is more sustainable and its infrastructure is presently miles ahead of the U.S. now. And while the Chinese are focus the U.S. will always be embroiled in conflicts after conflicts till it implodes in a mess of debts and deficits wasting resources that it barely has. I ammmetely pointing out facts that scare the shit out of you guys especially US lackeys or U.S. dogs and slaves or simply ignorant and naive brain dead Americans here in QUORA. You hate me for saying this and will prefer to be in denial. But lying to yourself is what you did for the longest time.

What will you say if an interviewer says “You have 10 minutes to impress me”?

Interviewer : You have 10 minutes to impress me. Go.

Me: If I do that, if I dazzle you within ten minutes, would I get this job?

Interviewer : Young man, I must warn you, I’m extremely hard to impress. But if you’re able to pull that off, I shall hire you on the spot.

Me: You see, that’s the problem. I’ve been working in this field for a long time. I’ve done a lot of projects with a lot of programmers. Most of these guys started out as mere acquaintances. I had no idea how good or bad at coding they were. It was only after working with them for a while that I got to know their true calibre. And one strange pattern I noticed was that the guys who I didn’t think much of in the first meeting, later proved to be some of the best collaborators. While the ones who completely floored me with their dazzling first impressions, later turned out to be complete assholes and a total pain in the ass to work with. Right now, I could throw in a bunch of complex projects I’ve done in the past, or I could tell you about the research I’ve been doing, or competitions I’ve won. Any of those would be sufficient to impress you. And as you promised, you would give me this job. But if you do that — give me this job going by whether I’m able to impress you within the first ten minutes or not, then I’m not so sure I’d still want it.

What factors contribute to the price difference of McDonald’s products between China and Europe/North America?

Your workers expect 5 times Chinese workers salary and 10 times more benefits and your rental and utilities are 5 times more expensive in the U.S. than in China. Hence a dollar in the U.S. buys you a big mac and the same dollar translated into RMB allows you to get 3 similar Big Macs. That is why your nominal GDP means shit! Everything that you pay 3 bucks in New York you pay merely a buck in Shanghai! Simply speaking your purchasing parity is a mere pittance of China.

So who do you blame? Your big mouth. You told the world you have a great Union who protects your workers income! Great your worker get paid more but your product can’t sell ! Without sales you cannot pay your staff all together.

Eggs with Peppers and Sausage

Yield: 6 servings

Ingredients

1 large onion, sliced
1 pound Italian sweet peppers or banana peppers, seeded and cut into strips
1/4 cup vegetable oil
2 large tomatoes, seeded and cut into wedges
1 tablespoon paprika
1 teaspoon sugar
1/2 pound fully cooked smoked sausage links, cut into thin slices
6 fried eggs

Instructions

Cook onion and peppers in oil in a skillet, stirring occasionally, until tender, about 15 minutes.
Stir in tomatoes, paprika and sugar. Cover and cook over low heat 15 minutes.
Stir in sausage; cook uncovered until sausage is hot, about 5 minutes.
Top with fried egg.

Women Self-Sabotage Their Dating Prospects

https://youtu.be/y7jtOpTxCH4

What smell will you never forget?

I worked in a doctor’s office, internal medicine so they did gynecological exams among other things. We used metal speculums and after each patient, the speculums would be dropped into a solution to soak. Near the end of the day, they’d all be put in the autoclave machine to sterilize them. One Friday, the nurse forgot. The speculums remained in the soaking solution all weekend and you’d think maybe it wouldn’t be that big of a deal but BOY OH BOY let me tell you….when I got to work Monday morning I saw the exterior doors were open with box fans in them, trying to help remove the most hideous and sickening odor you could imagine. It was like somebody had taken a dead body, stuffed it with expired tuna, and hid it behind the magazine rack. How ANY patients consented to be treated in there that day, I do not know.

What is the most amazing thing you overheard because people didn’t think you understood their language?

In the summer of 2015, my two sisters and I set out on a backpacking journey across Europe. We were all quite athletic: I was devoted to the gym and cycling, Mary worked hard as a waitress, and Joanne excelled in high school sports.

Despite only having basic German skills, I was somewhat fluent, thanks to my mother’s influence. Along the way, we encountered many German tourists, providing ample opportunities for interesting eavesdropping.

One particularly memorable moment took place during our first visit to a topless beach. While relaxing in our bikinis, my sisters Mary and Joanne decided to go for a swim. Nearby, two German men, whom I’ll refer to as Hans and Klaus, began discussing us.

Hans: Look at those girls. They’re cute, but…

Klaus: …they have big muscles.

Hans: Yes, they would be very pretty if it weren’t for the muscles. What’s the deal, I wonder?

Klaus: They’re American. Americans like girls with muscles.

Hans: What makes you think they’re American?

Klaus: They’re covering their breasts.

I stayed silent, but when it was my turn to enter the water, I couldn’t resist a playful gesture. I waited for them to look, then flexed my muscles, Popeye-style, and gave them a wink.

What is the pettiest thing you’ve seen a cheap person do at a restaurant?

When I was in graduate school working on my doctorate, I had a “friend” who was as cheap and as greedy as a person could be. She was one of those people who always begged for a bite, a piece, or a sip. Even if I had eaten half of my food, played around in it with my fork, or sat talking over it, she would tell the server clearing the table to leave my plate so she could eat the rest. She did this in an Indian restaurant once, and the server literally blanched and looked at me incredulously. I just shrugged as this woman proceeded to scarf down my half-eaten cucumber salad. Any time I didn’t eat everything on my plate, she’d ask if she could have it. Well, the last time we ever went out to eat was when we went to a Chinese restaurant and she decided that she wasn’t really “in the mood” for the teriyaki beef dish she had ordered and was really hankering for the shrimp fried rice I had ordered that came on a large platter with a serving spoon. Her eyes got really wide when our server brought out our food, and she saw all of that rice. She never offered to pay for half my meal even though she readily helped herself. Because I was taught that it is rude and petty to deny someone food who asks, I silently watched her heap her plate with fried rice and eat it. When the check came, she paid for her untouched meal and asked the server to wrap it up so that she could take it home and eat it at another time. There were other incidents. There was the time she went into an ice cream shop to get us ice cream while I waited outside with my dog who could not go in for obvious reasons. Moments later she came running back out with only her cone because my cone cost 30 cents more than I had given her. But eating half of my dinner and never offering to pay was the last straw and the last time I ever went anywhere with this woman.

Has Russia become the world’s most powerful country?

Let’s see

Russia is one of the most resource rich land masses in the planet

They have enough oil based on current reserves and current increase in consumption to last for 63.6 years

They have enough Gas based on current reserves and current increase in consumption to last for 118 years

They have enough of the Top 6 Industrial Raw Materials in Ore Form to last for 70.1 years

They have enough Fertile Wheat production to feed 15.6% of the World’s Population outside their own country

They have access to nearly 137 Million Metric Tonnes of Seafood which is enough to feed and export for the next 56 years.

And that’s not counting unexplored reserves

If they peg the Ruble to the value of Oil, Gas Gold and Wheat and price the same independently – their GDP would be close to $ 4.73 Billion nominal

Next the Russian Army

Russia has :-

548,000 Professional Soldiers
784,000 Active Personnel serving on Contracts
1.903 Million Reservists between 18–44 years old

The Russians are among the toughest hardest soldiers in the planet and among the most patriotic

Any other Nation in 1942 would have broken to the Nazis but the Russians died and died and died, hated Stalin but for Mother Russia, they found and kept dying

The Brits broke under far less stringent conditions in Singapore in 1942

Their Production Capacity is very high

Only Next to China who is an Ally

Today Russia can outproduce the ENTIRE NATO at 3:1 to 7:1 for Artillery Ammunition, Tanks, BMPs, Armored Vehicles, Drones etc

Except Fighter Aircraft

Economically Russia is one of the MOST UNDERUTILIZED NATIONS on earth

First the Tsars

Next the Early Commies Lenin and that Moron Trotsky

Then Brezhnev

Then Gorbachev

Then Yeltsin

For 150–200 years, barring a brief period when Josef Stalin and Nikita Khrushchev where in charge (1929–1966) , Russia was always suffering under Moron Leaders or Oligarchs or Indifferent people

The Russian people may love Russia but they rarely respected their Leaders

Very few people Earned the Respect of the Russian People

Stalin for one

After Stalin, only Putin has managed to earn the same level of respect

Yet Russias development has been uneven, slow because of these reasons

Plus the fact that Russia has a mere 150 Million people and couldn’t attract migrants due to harsh communism for almost a century and due to the freezing weather

So I can say Russia can NEVER be defeated in Battle and War

I can say Russia can always ensure its Economy doesn’t collapse

Russia can always survive due to so many Natural Resources

However because Russia has only 150 Million people, it cannot be the most powerful country of all time

Because Russia only grew and surged for 54 years in the last 200 years, Russia isn’t the most powerful country of all time

Still thinking it’s a Gas Station is why 450,000 People are dead and Europe is in bankrupt chaos

Family Guy as an ’80s live action family sitcom

AI is amazing.

https://youtu.be/X5UMd4sFJwM

What has being a doctor taught you about life?

When I was a paramedic I was called to a home for an unresponsive person.

As we made our way into the house a woman greeted us and she was extremely upset. She hurried us into the kitchen where we found her husband on the floor. He was in full cardiac arrest.

As we started to attempt resuscitation, we went through our normal steps. My partner would place an advanced airway while I readied the cardiac monitor and defibrillator. There would need to be an IV and medications given and we would have to breathe for him. Of course we were doing all this while maintaining CPR.

As we moved him to the cot and prepared to move to the ambulance and go to the hospital, I noticed more details about the room we were in.

It was Valentine’s Day. This husband had gotten up early and lovingly prepared breakfast for his wife. He had a vase full of roses on the kitchen table and a card with her name written on the envelope. The food was still warm on their plates. It was untouched. Everything was perfect, except this kind and considerate man was dead. Sadly, his lack of response to our efforts to restart his heart told me he was very likely to remain that way.

I’ve had to relive this particular scenario dozens of times on birthdays, Christmas and pretty much any other holiday. I have performed CPR in restaurants and at birthday parties. I guess what all this taught me about life is that, more often than not, it ends right in the middle of your plans. Large plans, life plans or, sometimes, breakfast plans.

Has anyone been fired for calling off work due to snow while everyone else still went to work?

In the annals of Western New York history, one particular individual found themselves on the receiving end of a cautionary tale during the winter of 1987. The National Weather Service had issued a dire prediction: a major storm was poised to sweep over Lake Ontario in the early hours of the morning, heralding an onslaught of snowfall that threatened to disrupt the region’s daily routines.

For those acquainted with the capricious nature of Lake Effect snow, the forecast served as a somber warning. Yet, as dawn approached, the storm’s arrival remained a matter of speculation. In Western New York, where the resilience of residents was matched only by the reluctance of employers to cancel a day’s work, the impending snowfall was met with a mixture of apprehension and resignation.

In this climate of uncertainty, our protagonist made a fateful decision. Rising at the early hour of 5:30 or 6:00, they peered outside to find a light dusting of snow. Without a second thought, they returned to the warmth of their bed, lulled into a false sense of security by the meager accumulation outside their window.

Meanwhile, the rest of the region braced themselves for the impending storm, diligently monitoring their radios and televisions for updates on the weather front. As the morning progressed, it became increasingly apparent that the storm had veered off course, sparing much of the area from its wrath.

Yet, despite the absence of significant snowfall, our protagonist found themselves facing the consequences of their premature retreat to bed. Upon arriving at work, they were met with skepticism from their employer, who, in a display of fairness, sought confirmation of the purported inclement weather.

Contacting local authorities for verification, the boss received confirmation that no road closures or emergencies had been reported due to the light dusting of snow. Faced with the ultimatum of providing evidence of a two-foot snowdrift at their doorstep or collecting their paycheck and departing, our protagonist wisely chose the latter.

In the end, the moral of the story was clear: in the unpredictable realm of Western New York weather, it pays to stay vigilant, lest one find themselves left out in the cold.

Modern Women’s DILEMMA

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/ZYuCqF_gUk0?feature=share

What is the craziest thing you’ve found in an old coat pocket?

My brother passed away unexpectedly in April of this year. He was 9 years younger than me, and we were extremely close. We grew up in an extremely dysfunctional family, and were always there for each other in ways that the rest of our family was not. In a lot of ways, especially when he was little, I was as much a mom figure to him as his big sister, our relationship was one of the greatest sources of comfort and joy in both our lives. l was, and still am, devastated by the loss of him in my life.

I work in the town where he lived a few days each week, and had my own room in the house where he lived with his husband, “J”, who is like another brother to me. My brother loved vintage fashion, and was always bringing home his latest “amazing finds” from local thrift stores. He definitely had hoarding tendencies. His plan was to resell most of what he bought at the flea market for a profit in the summer, which never happened.

In the immediate weeks after his death, J and I started sorting through his things, including the bags and bags and bags and racks and racks and racks of thrift store “scores” that were all over the house, often mixed with his personal clothing. We kept some, and gave away or donated the rest. We always made sure to check any pockets; since he often stashed money and other valuables in random places, which he sometimes forgot about.

I was going through the pockets of a heavy pea coat, which neither of us had ever seen him wear, and felt what I thought might be a credit card. I pulled it out, and saw that it was actually a card key from a hotel that the previous owner presumably had forgotten. I turned it over, and was stunned. What are the odds of finding a random hotel key card in the pocket of a random thrift store coat, less than 2 weeks after my brother died, printed with an image of puffy clouds in a blue sky, and a single sentence that read “It’s time to let me go”. There have been other inexplicable moments in the weeks and months since he passed, that I believe are signs from him, to reassure and comfort us that in some way, he’s still with us. I am so grateful for those moments.

Walking away from marriage, children, and other stuff we’re supposed to have

https://youtu.be/aWGZadtZHwo

What is the weirdest reason teachers have heard for a student being absent?

A snake held my student hostage.

Everyone – including me – thought that this was a ridiculous excuse. A girl showed up late, out of breath and red in the face. She was the kind of student who was usually very conscientious, so I expected a common and reasonable explanation like car trouble. Instead she stood right inside the door, panting, and explained that a snake had been holding her hostage.

I knew that this fifteen year-old girl was responsible for getting herself up and getting ready for school because her single mom worked the early morning shift at the hospital, so I was already inclined to go easy on her. That snake story just didn’t sound right, so I asked her to explain.

The girl lived in a small apartment on the first floor, and it was a small town so I knew that these apartments only had one entry. She had woken up and gotten ready as usual, but when she opened the door, she found a big rattlesnake sunning itself on the mat. She had called several people until her uncle finally answered and came over to kill the snake – with a pistol! He did manage to kill the snake, but he also brought all the neighbors outside. The girl and her uncle had to wait until everyone had finished telling him off for being stupid enough to fire a gun right in front of their homes before he could drive her to school.

I accepted her excuse but I remained skeptical until I got off work that afternoon and stopped at the store, where everyone was talking about the moron who shot a snake in the town’s one and only apartment complex. I still suspected that she could have just walked around the snake or something, but two years later a watermoccasin decided to take me hostage. I mentally apologized to my former student, because there was no way in hell that I was gonna just step around that thing.

My boss called me on a Saturday to let me know he that due to financial reasons, I was no longer needed effective immediatley. 3 days later, he sends me a text asking about work issues. How do I respond?

The question is do you need his recommendation? The urge to tell him to get lost is strong but if you do you could wind up screwing yourself later on. After all, if somebody calls up for a reference and they ask him… it’s not going to be good.

So you ask yourself would it benefit you to be polite or not?

Let me tell you a story of when I was younger. It was my first real IT job for the summer. Small company needed to upgrade everything and needed a jack of all trades type to do it and I got it. So I spent months crawling under desks, running cable, setting up the servers and backups and during all this the owner’s girlfriend would be looking over my shoulder and asking what I was doing. I’d show her because why not? She was nice. A bit of a ditz but she had… assets if you get me.

So the end of the project comes. I’ve done all the testing, present him with the documentation and ask what’s next. He says nothing because his girlfriend was taking over and she could do my job. I laughed, he was serious. Gave me my severance and I was out the door.

About a month or two later I get a call from him and he’s frantic. Seems they had a problem, they lost all their data and when they went to restore from backup found out his girlfriend wasn’t doing the backups like she said she would do. He promised me the world at this point, back pay, bonuses and all that. I told him to go screw himself as he got what he deserved. I think he went out of business in a month or so later. I didn’t need him. I was in school and that was just a way to make some money while gaining experience. But you might need him later.

So I’d ask yourself if it’s worth it to tell him to get lost or whether it’s in your best interest to at least not be as dismissive. Don’t just give it to him but make him understand you’re doing this for the good of the company, not him. And you could just as easily have told him to get lost.

When your finally in a healthy relationship

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/UGrakG9DXyQ?feature=share

Have you ever caught a nurse doing something they should not have?

I was born with fatal Asthma. My lungs have collapsed three times, and every year I’d spend approximately 3–4 weeks in the ICU under an oxygen tent. When I was big enough, I got to use the regular mask and/or tubes in my nose. I’d have severe asthma attacks every night, but it was just my way of life (I still played sports, etc.).

I got to know who some of the regular nurses were- especially because, though they’d let my parents stay after visiting hours, I’d get really sad when they had to leave. The nurses were always so great about making me comfortable. This was in the 1980’s. I’ll never forget the head nurse, Norma. She always made me feel less alone.

In those days, there were TV’s in the room- attached to a big arm on the wall, but you had to order it- and a cable guy would come in and set it up. You had to pay per day. My parents always got it for me.

I always knew how hard nurses worked and I never understood how come they had to be there for so long. At night, when the ward was dark- I’d leave my TV on so the nurses could watch “Dallas”. I’d make it so the face of the TV pointed toward the hall. It’s not like they could sit there for the hour, chillin’ in my room. But I liked to keep a chair by my bed for them. I’d fall asleep, and in the morning the TV was off. I guess I didn’t “catch” a nurse- it’s more like I encouraged them. I was just little. I always knew how much they wanted me to get better, and I always knew they really liked Dallas.

Norma never watched it, but she never seemed to be mad about it.

What makes people ruin their lives?

1. Waiting for someone to save them. You can’t wait for some hero to come and snatch you from the claws of life’s difficulties. You can seek advice and get support from those closest to you, but even they can’t bear the weight of being your hero because the only one who is capable of fulfilling that role is none other than yourself.

2. Victim mentality. You will never be able to change your life for the better if you believe that everyone and everything is out there to sabotage you. It will only make you feel more powerless and helpless, robbing you of willpower and motivation to change anything.

3. Extreme poverty. With extreme poverty, there comes extreme desperation, which often pushes people into doing things they’d have never imagined they were capable of.

4. Constantly lying to themselves. When you can’t be honest with yourself, you are unable to face all the fears, weaknesses, and problems holding you back. And the more lies you tell yourself, the tighter their grip will get on you until your life is left in shambles.

5. Being in a toxic relationship with a master manipulator/narcissist. Not only will they destroy your self-esteem and your sense of self, but they’ll try to make you stay with them and even guilt-trip you into it when you say you want to leave them.

6. Having enemies disguised as friends. A friend is supposed to have your back, not stab you in it, which is exactly what these people do. They try to discourage you from pursuing your goals because they don’t want to see you succeed, they always find a way to criticize you under the guise of “friendly feedback” and are never there to support you when you need them.

7. Growing up in a dysfunctional family. If one or both of your parents were abusive, toxic, etc., you will start noticing the consequences of it after stepping into adulthood. Once you do, you’ll have to unlearn some things you subconsciously picked up during childhood and completely destroy the rest. Otherwise, you’ll risk repeating the vicious cycle by turning into your parent(s) or living with the damaging consequences for the rest of your life.

Paluski (Polish Potato Fingers)

Do these bring back memories. Paluski! We always had them with homemade kapusta and kielbasi. I make these all of the time. My family loves them with a nice mushroom gravy. They taste delicious fried in some bacon fat with onions and crisp bacon. I sometimes cut them up into small pieces and add them to my homemade chicken soup. I have even gone so far as to fry them up and serve them with sunny side eggs, scrambled and poached.

Ingredients

4 cups all-purpose flour + extra if needed to make a pliable dough
4 cups mashed potatoes, cold
1 tablespoon salt
4 eggs

Instructions

Cook potatoes and drain well. Press through a ricer and place in a large bowl. Cool.
Combine flour and salt in a large bowl, mixing well. Make a well in the center of flour and add eggs, one at a time, mixing well until all the eggs are mixed well.
Add the riced potatoes and mix until all ingredients are blended real well. If necessary add some water to make the dough pliable if too stiff, this will depend on how much flour you add. (I have found that 4 cups will make a very wet dough, so I add 1/4 cups of flour at a time until the dough feels just right. This is done by feel. Do not make the dough too stiff.
Roll out dough in portions at a time onto floured surface, rolling out into a long log about 1-inch thick.
Cut logs into 3/4-inch pieces, rolling slightly to even out.
Drop into rolling salted boiling water and cook until paluski float to the top, allowing them to simmer a few minutes. Remove with a slotted spoon and place in a large bowl.
Have some melted butter ready to drizzle over the paluski to coat them.
You can sauté some onions in butter and toss in with them.

Notes

Either way you doctor them up, they taste wonderful.

Woman says she’s breaking up with boyfriend over this…

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/TCCd0Z_GUaU?feature=share

Are there employees who later employed their boss?

I bought the security guard company I worked for when the owner decided to retire and move to Las Vegas. He wanted 3 months billing for the whole tamale; office equipment, gear, patrol car, and clients. He was billing around $237,000 annually so the asking price was just over $59,000.

I got a business loan for $30,000 and agreed to pay him $1,700 a month over 18 months for the balance owed. The extra money was for interest.

A couple of years later he showed up in my office. The $30K was gone and the monthly payments had ended, and he needed money. So he asked me for a job selling for my company.

I’d quadrupled his annual billing — from $237K to $980K — so I told him I’d pay him a $1,500 monthly draw against commission.

After 6 months he’d sold 3 patrol accounts, for a grand total of $1,100 a month, so I cut my losses and let him go.

Has a cop ever said something to you which was completely unexpected?

While at university my roommate and I lived a couple blocks in from the beach. He walked up to the beach to check the surf late one evening. A cop pulled up along side him and said “Hey, are you [my name]?” My roommate said “no” and the cop drove away without another word.

A few days later at about 8:00 PM I left our apartment and started to drive to our university. My small truck had an automatic transmission and the parking break was broken. So I kept a large rock by my feet that I would wedge behind a tire when I parked. As I drove away from our apartment a cop pulled me over. I asked what the problem was and he didn’t answer. He shined his flashlight inside my truck. He saw the rock and asked in a very serious tone why it was there. I explained. He then told me to get out of the car. I complied. He didn’t go inside, but looked inside the door. He saw my backpack on the passenger seat. He said he wanted to search it and asked if I had a problem with that. Knowing I had done nothing wrong, I was getting annoyed. There was nothing but textbooks and notebooks in my backpack, but I didn’t like his attitude. And I was upset about the cops asking my roommate if he was me for some reason a few nights earlier. So I said I did have a problem with it and I would not be allowing him to search it. He said he had the right to search for probable cause. I asked what he was defining as probable cause. He replied that the rock on my floor was a weapon. I told him I thought that was a pretty weak position after the explanation I gave him and I objected to his search. He said if he called a judge he could provide me a warrant to fully legalize any search he wished to perform. I then told him I would wait calmly while he radioed the station (before mobile phones), they called a judge, and a search warrant was issued. I also asked how he thought a judge would react to being annoyed at home to get a warrant to search a [local university] student’s backpack after being pulled over for not committing any traffic violations. He looked at me, said “you better pray I never catch you doing anything wrong” and turned away. He got in his cruiser and drove off. It was all very strange, but I never had another incident after that.

How can middle class people become rich?

I came from a very ordinary background, and I have advised countless people who are very wealthy and grew up poor or middle-class.

Even if we look at larger studies, we find that most of the richest people in the world came from working and middle-class backgrounds.

Only in some places where inherited wealth dominated, like some parts of Europe, is it 50%-50%.

If you mean is it possible to get rich, or wealthy, on a middle-class income, then the simple answer is yes.

This man was a UPS driver for years. He made a maximum of $14,000-$15,000 a year:

main qimg a8e047eb9803db971f0256dde21070ce lq

Theodore Johnson died with $70million after a friend told him about investing, which is why he got into it.

Yes, you read that right. $70million. Now sure, when he started investing, 14k-15k a year was worth 50k-75k in today’s money.

Yet it still wasn’t a huge salary. So, how did he manage it? Well, he invested very smart, long-term.

He wanted to make a difference when he died, so he gave it to charity.

He isn’t alone. This man was a janitor called Ronald Read who accumulated $8million:

main qimg 28d7fda4f030e8be59885b74d65e2944 pjlq

This lady was a secretary and accumulated $9m:

main qimg 258d5a8768eac01dbee4538887441885 lq

You might think these are one-offs. However, stats show that 14% of the world’s millionaires are teachers, and about 50% are middle-income professionals.

The reason is simple. Income doesn’t always rise exponentially with time. Wealth can.

What is more, there are always investment opportunities out there, as I mentioned on a recent CNBC interview:

As a final comment, I will speak about risk, as it is the most misunderstood subject.

Do you assume that you are playing it safe with money in the bank?

You are fooling yourself 👉🏼 and here is exactly why:

1. If you save money in the bank you’re buying into the sure risk of inflation.

2. If you only rely on your savings for retirement, you’re risking everything on the assumption that things will go to plan.

But life doesn’t always go to plan. Some sort of risk is inevitable, it’s everywhere.

It is far better to:

Put your eggs in numerous baskets and not just the bank or property
Pick the risks you will take. It gives you more control.
Take action, rather than setting New Year’s resolutions to save/invest more money + lose weight and forget about it!

Grocery prices in Russia will SHOCK YOU

Radicalized.

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/BoP4hrZff5U?feature=share

What are some scary psychological facts about human beings?

When a tattoo is removed, the ink particles are eventually broken down and excreted through the urine.
Our own immune system, meant to protect us, can kill us faster than the fastest-killing virus, Ebola (4 days)
Your brain can play tricks on you, making you feel referred pain from your organs in unexpected places! For example, a painful pancreas can present as pain in your flank or back; a heart attack can feel like jaw or shoulder pain; a kidney stone can feel like testicle pain;
The cause of period cramps is the uterus suffocating itself. During a period, the uterus contracts to shed its lining, and sometimes the contractions are so strong that they squeeze the blood vessels, cutting off the supply of oxygen and causing pain.
The front of your tongue has a mind of its own and is always on the move, secretly exploring your mouth. Dentists are well aware of this behavior during impression taking, when the tongue can be seen chasing the dental tool or licking their fingers around the mouth.
Your eyes are “immune privileged,” meaning the rest of the body’s immune system has no knowledge of their existence. If this immune system were to suddenly become aware of the eyes, it may treat them as a threat and try to neutralize them, potentially leading to blindness.

700 people needed paramedics as they queued to see the Queen’s coffin because of the 20 hour wait and the cold weather. Why are so many people so blindly adoring and loyal to the royals when they get treated like sh*t?

Through various work events, I’ve met the late Queen Elizabeth, Prince Philip, Prince William, Prince Edward, Sophie (Countess of Wessex), Princess Anne, James (Viscount Severn), and Lady Amelia Windsor. Though James was only a toddler at the time. Regardless, none of them ever treated me with anything but respect and cordiality (when time allowed more than a passing handshake). And I’m about as lowborn as it gets. The bastard scion of an unwed mother, who was herself the daughter of a gangland enforcer and the 2nd cousin of the man who *ahem* allegedly disposed of the evidence of murders conducted by one of the UK’s most notorious gangs. My more distant ancestors on my mother’s side were Irish loyalists, and on my father’s side were Welsh coal miners. Sailors, miners, and criminals were what went into making me. And yet still, never have I ever been treated poorly by any member of the Royal Family I’ve ever had any interaction with.

As to loyalty… Dolce et decorum est pro patria mori. I’m from a family with a long military tradition. Loyalty to my nation and sovereign go without question. It’s Parliament, not the Royals, who inevitably fuck over me and mine. I’ve no reason to be disloyal. Furthermore, Queen Elizabeth is one of the most dedicated monarchs we’ve ever had. She gave her all to her country and her people. It is only proper that loyalty and service be returned.

The U.S. Has Made Taiwan a Trigger for War. Can China Disarm It?

Taiwan is a useful pawn in the U.S. strategy of confronting China as a “great power competitor”, Finian Cunningham writes.

Ever since China’s civil war ended in 1949 with victory for the Communist side, the island of Taiwan off China’s southern coast has been a U.S. pawn as a haven for anti-Communist forces. The United States has sponsored the Taiwanese separatists first under the dictatorship of Chiang Kai-shek and up to the present administration in Taipei. Ironically, Washington portrays Taiwan as “democratic and free”.

Washington’s support for Taiwan waned in 1979 when the U.S. endeavored to normalize relations with Beijing under the so-called One China Policy which defines Taiwan as under the sovereign control of the People’s Republic of China. The U.S. position conforms to the international norm of recognizing China as one sovereign nation in which Taiwan is but an island province.

The U.S.’s so-called normalization of relations with China was not genuine. It was a geopolitical move to wedge relations between Beijing and Moscow. Now that China and Russia have reestablished strategic connections under Presidents Xi and Putin, the U.S. has reverted to overt hostility towards China and its policy of using Taiwan as a cat’s paw to destabilize the mainland.

After the Obama administration embarked on its Pivot for Asia strategy in 2011, Washington earnestly reinstated relations with Taiwan in such a way as to deliberately provoke Beijing and undermine its sovereignty.

Tensions over Taiwan have become increasingly fraught as the United States steps up military supplies to the island territory. The weapons systems have become increasingly offensive in their capability of attacking China’s mainland. This development not only undermines China’s sovereign authority. It also poses an overt national security threat to Beijing. Taiwan is a mere 130 kilometers (80 miles) from the Chinese mainland across a narrow sea called Taiwan Strait.

This places China in an acute dilemma. Should it take preemptive military action or wait it out until politics takes its course?

A recent election in Taiwan was won by a pro-independence party. But there was a greater combined vote for parties that want more friendly relations with mainland China. That strongly suggests that Taiwanese people are against a military confrontation and are amenable to political reconciliation as proposed by Beijing. Perhaps over time, the Taiwanese population may develop a decisive majority that desires peaceful reunification.

The problem is the United States has control of the initiative to inflame tensions with China. In that case, Beijing might eventually be drawn into a military confrontation despite its aspirations.

The Return of Great Power Competition

Since the supposed end of the Cold War in 1991 following the collapse of the Soviet Union, for most of the ensuing three-decade period, the United States declared its main national security concerns to revolve around international terrorism. In recent years, however, the U.S. has relegated the perceived threat of terrorism and officially prioritized its strategic concerns about “great power competition”.

Russia and China have been labeled the top geopolitical rivals for U.S. global power. In this way, there has been a return in Washington to the Cold War geopolitics and rhetoric that dominated international relations during the five decades after World War Two. While Moscow and Beijing have both repudiated adversarial relations and have repeatedly urged peaceful coexistence in a multipolar world, the United States has relentlessly sought to depict the so-called “global rules-based order” as being threatened by Russia and China.

The current U.S. administration under President Joe Biden has contrived to portray international relations as an existential contest between “Western democracy versus autocracies”. This zero-sum terminology is typical of Cold War ideology which aims to polarize international relations into geopolitical camps of “us and them”. Such polarization is an essential function of U.S. and Western power politics and the promotion of U.S. hegemonic ambitions.

By dividing the world into “blocs”, the resulting conflictual relations and tensions are amenable to American militarism. In other words, cooperative peaceful international relations as advocated by Russia and China in their multipolar visions are anathema to the pursuit of U.S. hegemony based on unilateral domination.

China is Enemy No. 1 for the United States

Several U.S. strategic planning documents indicate explicitly the emphasis on “great power competition”. The 2022 National Security Strategy defines the U.S.’s priority concerns. The document states:

“We are now in the early years of a decisive decade for America and the world. The terms of geopolitical competition between the major powers will be set… the post-Cold War era is definitively over, and a competition is underway between the major powers to shape what comes next.”

The strategic outlook clearly determines China as the bigger threat to U.S. power. The document states:

“Russia and the PRC [People’s Republic of China] pose different challenges. Russia poses an immediate threat to the free and open international system, recklessly flouting the basic laws of the international order today, as its brutal war of aggression against Ukraine has shown. The PRC, by contrast, is the only competitor with both the intent to reshape the international order and, increasingly, the economic, diplomatic, military, and technological power to advance that objective.”

Another major U.S. planning document, the 2022 National Defense Strategy, also defined China as the “pacing challenge” to American global power. It was stated that China is “the only competitor to the United States with the intent and increasing capability to reshape the international order.”

The term “pacing challenge” is a euphemism for Enemy Number One. The prioritizing of China over Russia as the designated top threat to U.S. national security was reiterated in the National Defense Authorization Acts in 2023 and 2024. The NDAAs govern annual U.S. military spending of over $850 billion – about four times the military budget of China and more than eight times that of Russia.

The war in Ukraine which erupted in February 2022, has certainly accentuated tensions and hostilities between the United States and Russia. This may give the impression that Russia is deemed by Washington as a greater threat than China. Nevertheless, despite the heated rhetoric and war in Ukraine, the strategic outlook according to the U.S.’s own planners is that China is perceived as the long-term principal adversary.

Even Russian President Vladimir Putin in a recent interview with American journalist Tucker Carlson acknowledged that China was seen in Washington as a bigger threat than Russia. “The West is afraid of a strong China more than it fears a strong Russia,” said Putin.

U.S. is Planning on War with China

The United Air Force announced on February 12, 2024, a major overhaul and expansion of force structure in the Asia-Pacific. Its commanders specifically cited China as the motivating threat and reason for renewed military build-up for “high-end conflict”. When the civilian head of the U.S. Air Force, Frank Kendall, was appointed to the post in 2022, he told the U.S. Congress that his three priorities were: “China, China, and China.”

Several senior American commanders have publicly warned that the U.S. could be at war with China in the next five years. And they mention Taiwan as the flashpoint.

This war planning accounts for an overall U.S. military build-up in Asia-Pacific involving air, navy, and land weapons. Washington has been expanding military bases and missile systems in Australia, Japan, South Korea, the Philippines, Guam, and most provocatively on China’s territory of Taiwan.

On January 16, 2024, it was reported by Taiwanese news media that the island territory was building two new missile bases on its east coast facing the Taiwan Strait and China’s mainland. The new construction stemmed from the expected arrival of more U.S. anti-ship missiles. The reports also indicated that five more bases were under planning.

These developments point to long-term planning by the United States for a military confrontation with China in the coming years.

Taiwan is the Primary Cat’s Paw for U.S. Hostility

Following elections in Taiwan on January 13, 2024, U.S. President Joe Biden stated that the U.S. did not support “independence” for the island territory.

Biden was thus publicly affirming Washington’s adherence to the One China Policy (OCP).

However, Biden’s public position on Taiwan and China can be better understood as part of the United States’ other policy of “strategic ambiguity”. Officially, Washington claims to recognize China as the sole sovereign power concerning Taiwan. Whereas in practice, U.S. actions point to another, treacherous agenda.

When Chinese President Xi Jinping met Biden in November 2023 at the APEC summit in San Francisco, the American side reiterated its obligations under the One China Policy. At that summit, President Xi called on the United States to stop arming Taiwan. He said Taiwan was the “most dangerous” issue and warned that China would use force if the matter is not resolved diplomatically for reunification.

Under Biden and his predecessor, Republican President Donald Trump, the United States has ramped up weapons supplies to Taiwan.

Provocatively, it seems, the U.S. has chosen to ignore President Xi’s admonitions about desisting from arming Taiwan.

The reported expansion of missile bases and supply of U.S. missiles to Taiwan indicates that Washington has set a course for antagonizing China by undermining its sovereignty over Taiwan.

On February 8, 2024, it was reported for the first time by U.S. and Taiwanese media that American special forces were being permanently stationed in Taiwan and the neighboring Kinmen islands near the Chinese mainland. This development is a major violation of the One China Policy by the United States. It puts into perspective the purported pledges made by Biden in person to Xi during the APEC summit.

Furthermore, the purpose of the U.S. forces in Taiwan has offensive connotations. The American personnel are reportedly engaged in training Taiwanese military units for conflict and monitoring China’s mainland forces.

It should be noted that these U.S. military developments in Taiwan followed a high-level meeting between America’s National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan and senior Chinese diplomat Wang Yi which took place on January 26 in Thailand. Earlier that month, Chinese and U.S. officials also held “high-level discussions” at the Pentagon after a two-year suspension. The series of talks was reported in Western media as an effort by the American side to reduce tensions and improve communications.

Again, rather than such contacts being a genuine effort at improving relations, they seem to be more illustration of the U.S. policy of “strategic ambiguity”. More accurately, that policy should be called “strategic duplicity”.

It seems plausible that Washington is trying to mislead China over what its real intentions are regarding Taiwan and the wider issue of strategic confrontation. The Biden administration may state adherence to the One China Policy and call for better military-to-military communications to avoid conflict.

Yet, in practice, the United States is pushing ahead to supply Taiwan with more missiles. This unprecedented build-up of offensive U.S. capability is replicated in other territories across the Asia-Pacific.

The election in January of Lai Ching-te as the Taiwanese president provides Washington with a strident “pro-American” voice in Taipei for the next four years. Lai has previously called for Taiwan’s independence from China. Indeed, during the election campaign, Lai said there was no need to make such a declaration because Taiwan was “already independent”. Beijing has repeatedly declared its desire and sovereign right for full reunification of the island territory with the Chinese mainland. However, President Xi has warned that if Taiwan were to formally announce independence, China reserves the right to use military force to assert its legal sovereign control over the territory.

Taiwan is a useful pawn in the U.S. strategy of confronting China as a “great power competitor”.

By giving tacit support to pro-independence politicians in Taiwan, Washington is inciting separatist sentiments. Supplying the territory with U.S. weapons and military personnel also foments Taiwanese notions that Washington is a military patron who will come to Taiwan’s defense if a conflict were to erupt with mainland China.

Significantly, the incoming Taiwanese president is the third administration of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP). The DPP first came to power in 2016 under President Tsai Ing-wen. She was re-elected in 2020. Her vice president Lai Ching-te is taking over in May when he is inaugurated as president. The DPP has inflamed pro-independence politics over the past eight years with the full encouragement of Washington under both the current Biden administration and his predecessor Donald Trump. This political saber-rattling will likely continue over the next four years of Lai’s presidency.

It is also significant that the last eight years have seen a build-up of missiles in Taiwan’s arsenal. Before 2016, the island’s military capabilities were limited. Under the DPP, and with supplies from the U.S., Taiwan’s forces have acquired ballistic missile capabilities, especially anti-ship missiles. The target range of these weapons is short-range up to 500 kilometers which could reach China’s southern coastal provinces.

What needs to be monitored is the supply of longer-range U.S. missiles which would indicate greater strategic ambitions in a conflict with China. The American-sponsored militarization of Taiwan is correlated with the incitement of separatist politics on the island, which in turn foments tensions with Beijing.

On February 13, the U.S. Senate approved a $95 billion military aid package for foreign allies, including $60 bn for Ukraine, $14 bn for Israel and $8 bn for Asia-Pacific. The latter portion will allocate nearly $5 bn to Taiwan. The Asia-Pacific funding will cover the U.S. build-up of missiles in the region.

This is another indicator of U.S. hostile intentions towards China. It belies the seeming diplomatic engagement and renewed military-to-military communication exchange. The litmus test for rhetoric concerning the One China Policy is the facts on the ground of military offensive capability toward China.

The facts testify that Taiwan is being honed as a cat’s paw to antagonize and provoke China.

The Ukraine-Russia Analogy

There is a vivid analogy with how the U.S. has cynically used Ukraine as a provocation toward Russia. Ukraine has deep cultural ties with Russia and a long history of disputed territorial control. Over the past decade, the United States has ramped up military support for Ukraine and incited animosity with Russia. The tensions erupted in February 2022 with Russia ordering a military invasion of Ukraine to halt mounting provocations. A two-year war ensued and is continuing. It is the biggest war in Europe since the Second World War. An estimated 500,000 Ukrainian soldiers have been killed. The conflict has had a devastating impact on Europe’s economy. It brings nuclear powers perilously close to catastrophic all-out war.

China’s former ambassador to the United States, Cui Tankai, recently stated that China would not be drawn into a military trap in Taiwan. The seasoned diplomat alluded to the U.S.-instigated scenario of Ukraine and Russia. On the matter of increasing American arms supplies to Taiwan, Cui was quoted as saying: “Someone may be preparing a proxy war but we will not fall into that trap. We don’t want to see a situation where Chinese are killing Chinese.”

Such aspirations are laudable. Nonetheless, such a view is a hostage to fortune. The Chinese authorities may not want a war over Taiwan and may try their utmost to avoid a war. Beijing’s aspiration for peaceful reunification with Taiwan is no doubt genuine.

Still, unfortunately, the United States has the sinister power to turn Taiwan into a trigger. Washington is ramping up offensive military capability and fomenting incendiary pro-independence politics. Beijing does not control that hostile process. There may come a point when Taiwan becomes what Ukraine is to Russia – a site of proxy war by the United States.

In that case, there is a stern prognosis: China should act militarily sooner rather than later to assert its control over Taiwan. A war seems inevitable given the U.S.’s reckless and incorrigible provocations. The belligerence in Washington is constant regardless of who sits in the White House. The U.S. presidential election in November this year will make no difference to the strategic course. The longer China leaves its response, the bigger will be the military confrontation as a result of the increasing U.S.-supplied offensive capability of Taiwan.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said in an interview on February 14, 2024, that a major regret he has about the current two-year-old war in Ukraine is that Russia did not act sooner to intervene against U.S.-led provocations. Putin ordered Russian military intervention in Ukraine on February 24, 2022, to defend the ethnic Russian population of former east Ukraine and to preempt the growing threat from NATO to Russia’s national security.

This author wrote an article 10 years ago regarding sinister developments under the NATO-backed regime in Kiev which came to power in February 2014 in a CIA-backed coup d’état. The article made the argument that Putin should have sent troops into Ukraine in mid-2014 to preempt what was a looming U.S.-led proxy war. Subsequent events in Ukraine – the horrendous scale of death and destruction – and Putin’s own recent admission of regret would suggest the author’s prognosis in 2014 was correct.

On the matter of Taiwan, there is a real risk of China repeating Russia’s problematic delay in acting decisively. By not acting decisively to preempt, China’s President Xi Jinping might also share the same regret about Taiwan as Putin does over Ukraine.

Can you describe the creepiest person you have ever met?

When I was about 20 years old and at that time I lived with my parents. They had a plastering company in after being rewired. One was an elderly man, due to retire the next year. The other was younger, tall, quite good looking, but there was something about him I couldn’t fathom. Every time he came into the room, the hairs on the back of my neck prickled, and the dog would whimper and go into the other room. I’d catch him watching me as I went about my business. I was crocheting to pass the time while they were there and he kept asking me about it and coming over to see how it was going. He’d put his hand on my shoulder as he leaned over to look. It freaked me out.

My parents went to walk the dog and left me to hold the fort. The older man randomly started talking about personalities and first impressions of people. He kept looking from his colleague and back at me. He said do you find you get a gut feeling when you don’t like somebody? I said that yes, I do. He still kept looking at his colleague, then he said that when we have a gut feeling it’s important to act on it, and that 9 times out of 10 it’s correct, even if the person seems to be okay. He looked at me, raised his eyebrows, smiled slightly, nodded slowly, and carried on with his work.

I swear to this day that he was warning me not to trust his work colleague.

Why are Singaporeans more likely to dislike America 🇺🇸?

I won’t speak for my countrymen.

Personally, I wish America well, because it is vital to the global economy.

But I choose to make a stand when it comes to war in East Asia, which America is hell-bent on provoking for selfish national interest—preserving American primacy.

I cannot, and will not accept that, and my efforts here on Quora is a mere token, informing and explaining developments to fellow East Asians.

For example, how the demonization and dehumanization of mainland China will inevitably lead to the victimization of Chinese diaspora, repeating the age-old pogroms and witch hunts suffered by Chinese diaspora over the last 4-500 years.

For example, how a weaponized dollar will bring ruinous harm to the financial health of East Asia, and options being developed against the certainty.

For example, the many hotspots around the region through which conflict with China may arise.

For example, the multi-dimensional economic war being waged on the mainland economy, and its fallout, rules-based order be damned.

America is not my home. I maintain an interest because what happens stateside directly affects my family’s future.

A strong, well-run America is good for the world. Unfortunately, both conditions are ebbing today.

And that spells danger for the rest of humanity.

I am merely curating and explaining developments, as America loses its primacy.

It is up to American society to recognize, accept and change course.

But that appears a faraway daydream today.

Elon Musk Think’s OpenAI Discovered Something

He is probably correct.

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/Al17U6nJMnc?feature=share

The Indian Waltz

I once had an interview with a company in Danville, Illinois. This was a super small city in Southern Illinois, that had the unique single skyscraper sticking out of it like a “sore thumb”. Apparently a rich man of the town thought that by building such a structure it would “modernize” the city. He was wrong. But it was a 1930’s era Art Deco masterpiece…

Anyways, so I interviewed for a project engineer role in this company. It made electrical ballasts for those huge advertising billboards at the side of the road. And the interview was going well.

That was until I met the electrical engineer. This guy was an engineer out of India who thought that he was GOD. What an arrogant prick!

He spent the entire interview tying to exert his dominance on me. And, Lordy! was it irritating. What was his malfunction? Somehow he got it in his quirky little mind that we would not be equals, but rather he would instruct me what to do. Mind you, at that time, I was a Project Leader interviewing for a design position. A semi-step downward.

Nope. Not gonna do that shit.

Anyways, that and other events though the years has convinced me that many Indians, not all of them of course, come with unexpected “baggage” and tricks that you need to unpack and resolve before dealing with them. And that is why I NEVER deal with Indians unless it is face to face, and recorded on video. I just do not trust them.

People (!) learn from your experiences and take adequate measures to preserve your happiness.

Today…

What is an experience you had at a car dealership you’ll never forget?

I had recently totaled a car and was looking at used cars. I went to a number of local dealerships until I’d found the one I wanted. I’m mechanically inclined but because this was my biggest purchase ever I wanted my dad to look at it. I said I’d be back the next day.

I came back the next day with my dad and he found it needed new shocks and brake pads. I negotiated a price and put down my deposit. The salesman said he needed manager approval and the manager wasn’t in so I was to call him the next day.

I called the next day and the manager still wasn’t in and to call again the next day. I called the next day and the salesman asked if I had the money. When I said yes he said come on in.

I was in college at the time and had just taken a social psychology class. The professor had discussed used car sales and a trick they used. The salesman would say the manager wasn’t in and to call back later. In the interim you had told all your friends about your new car and pictured yourself driving it. So when the salesman said he couldn’t sell you the car at the negotiated price, but added a few hundred dollars to the price you would agree.

I was prepared for that to happen and knew something was up when I walked in and the salesman wouldn’t look me in the eye. The salesman directed me to the managers office and the manager said I can’t give it to you at the negotiated price. For another $300.00 more it’s yours. I figured that was the cost of shocks, brake pads, and labor in the early 1990’s. I said no and asked for my money deposit back. The manager said no, you aren’t getting the deposit back. Being young, I didn’t know what to do so I left.

I had made plans with a friend to go out in my new car and went to his house. When I showed up in my rental car he asked where my new car was and I told him. He told me to wait a minute as he called his mother, the manager of one of the Department of Motor Vehicles offices. He put her on the phone and I told her the story. She told us to wait and she’d call me back.

After a short wait she called me back telling me they can’t legally keep my deposit and that I needed to return to the dealer and get my deposit. She also gave me a name and phone number and said “This is the private number for the Commissioner of Used Car Sales in our state. If you don’t get the deposit returned, you are to have the manager call this number and explain why I can’t get my money back.”

My friend and I drove to the dealer to be met almost immediately by the manager telling us we needed to leave, I wasn’t getting my money back. I replied, “That’s fine, you’ll need to call this number and explain that.” The manager replied whose number is this? When I told him the name and title of the person and added he is expecting a call on his private line the managers face went white. Within minutes I had my deposit.

That car sat on the lot another 6 months and the car I purchased was $1,000 more than what we negotiated plus the extra $300

Pizza Rustica (Italian Easter Pie)

Yield: 6 to 8 servings

Ingredients

Filling

2 cups cooked, smoked ham, cubed
2 cups cooked Italian sausage, sliced
1 cup Mozzarella cheese, cubed or shredded
1/2 cup chopped parsley
4 hard boiled eggs, peeled and chopped
1 cup Ricotta cheese
3 eggs, uncooked
Salt and freshly-ground pepper, to taste

Crust

4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon granulated yeast
1/4 cup olive oil
1 1/2 cups hot tap water

Instructions

Filling

Mix all chopped ingredients in a large bowl. Place uncooked eggs and Ricotta cheese in a blender container and mix on medium speed for about 1 minute. Add to the chopped ingredients and combine well.
Crust: Place flour and salt in a large bowl. Combine hot water, oil and yeast in a measuring cup with a fork. Add to flour and mix well. If dough is dry, add water as necessary. If dough is too sticky, add flour, one tablespoon at a time. Knead until dough forms ball. Leave in the bowl in warm place to rise until double in volume. Punch down before rolling.
Divide dough in half and roll to fit a large pie pan or 15 inch pizza pan. Place one circle on bottom of pan. Top with the filling, pressing out all air pockets. The pie will look too full. Top with remaining dough. Trim around pan with knife leaving about 1 inch extra all around. Press edges to seal and tuck sealed edge in all around pan. Prick top with fork several times to make air holes.
Bake in a preheated oven at 400 degrees F for 20 minutes, then reduce oven temperature to 350 degrees F and bake an additional 30 minutes.

What driver behavior makes you want to scream?

Seeing one of my fellow truckers in the passing lane, trying to bully a four wheeler over by riding inches from its bumper. He’s essentially using his vehicle as a 40 ton weapon.

All I can do is shake my head and can’t help but wonder why some people think we’re the dregs of the motoring public. I’m not sure what distance it takes to stop your average car at 65 mph, but it takes a loaded semi the length of a football field, and that’s under ideal conditions.

I also can’t help but wonder why they can’t see the negative outcome of a situation like that. I have and it usually ends up with the car unrecognizable, a family grieving, and the driver going to prison for vehicular homicide.

Yeah, there’s the remains of what use to be a car under there and in it was somebody’s father, mother, sister, or brother. And all because that jackass driver thought a game of chicken was a good idea.

How did the Wehrmacht treat female prisoners of war?

Wehrmacht systematically raped and murdered practically all female prisoners of war. They thought women on the front line were a sign of communist and Jewish degeneration, and as such exterminated them where ever they met.

Many Soviet female soldiers were captured during the first months of Operation Barbarossa. Except from Red Army nurses who were sometimes spared, practically all of those captured were killed, and almost certainly raped first. The regular Wehrmacht’s attitude is quite clearly expressed by the Heer field Marshall just 7 days into Operation Barbarossa.

29th of June 1941

Women in uniform are to be shot on sight.

Field Marshall Günther von Kluge

Less known is that the Reichenau order aka Severity Order

, issued to the Germans of the 6th Army (The one at Stalingrad) specifically said that the German army should not take female POWs, as well as shoot commissar and partisans who surrender.

Another general Ernst Hammer, also distributed an order to execute all captured females. German divisions filed a constant stream of reports where they explicitly say they execute women.

Later in the war, some units did not execute women on sight, but instead handed them over to the SS, who generally speaking placed them in concentration camps, mostly Ravensbrück and some in Auschwitz.

It should come as no surprise, that the Germans had a genocidal attitude and systematic rape tendency, considering that even outside of the army, the Germans murdered over 6 million civilian women in the USSR alone. And countless other abuses were conducted as well.

What did the teacher in your high school get fired for?

It was Junior High/Middle School, but social studies/civics teacher was let go for his political rantings to the class. Whether he was right or not, the audience was probably the wrong one. In a school where the catchment area averaged $200–400k homes (in Omaha, Nebraska, back in the early 90s), and most families had one or more parents working in a professional capacity, making statements like “anybody with a house over $100k does not deserve it” and bringing in news articles or Dateline clips speaking ill of some of the big corporate employers in the area. Today they’d probably make him Superintendent. But at that time and place, his brand of socialism didn’t sit well with the PTA. Oh, and there was also the incident where he was in a car accident and said that not wearing his seatbelt is what saved his life so telling kids to tell their parents that buckling up is “a personal choice” didn’t go well either.

If A Woman Can’t Offer THIS She’s Useless To You

Needs to be said.

https://youtu.be/FGQQ6_RIh3c

On the internet, I find Canadians to exhibit a sense of superiority to Americans. Is that also their true feeling in real life?

Canadians present a really interesting dichotemy between having both a superiority and inferiority complex when comparing themselves to Americans, which they do unwittingly all the time.

Growing up in Canada, I was dismayed with the amount of American products and culture that we consumed, signfifying the acceptance of a nearly dependent relationship. I remember being constantly being admonished and mocked as a high school student for saying my favourite TV show was a small budget Canadian TV. Years later, the show was picked up by an American network and its stars become Hollywood A-listers, only then of course, was that considered success for Canadians to be proud of.

I remember people calling Canada a ‘small country’, yet it has a growing population that size of a ‘big’ European country such as Poland and an economy that punches above its weight, as a member of the G-7.

While at the same time feeling culturally insignificant and inferior, in this way, and also for having an economy, military and international influence that is dwarfed by American, all that is juxtaposed by the feeling of having created a better society: Better health care, less gun culture, safer streets, less homlessness, drugs, racial segregation, etc. THis feeling of superiority was closer to smugness when Donald J Trump was elected stateside. ‘Couldn’t happen here.’ almost everyone thought.

For Canada to really hit its strude, it should cut itself adrift from the U.S. No, not a border wall. I mean drifting off to the middle of the sea far away, like Australia, where it can develop its own identity, without being compared or comparing itself to a neighbour which is considered more of a big brother.

What in life is not like a trap but actually is?

Being easy on the eyes.

I never bought into the idea that Instagram made people more superficial. It merely surfaced what was already there.

When I look at Insta-models, who have millions of followers, I can’t help but wonder if they define themselves beyond washboard abs and a half-moon goddess behind.

God-given good looks create a facade of reality, a mask the owners often don’t realize they are wearing. It opens doors that were otherwise closed.

(Yael Shaeba, rated the most beautiful woman in the world in another useless study.)

The hard truth is that: At nearly every mundane corner of life, physical attractiveness confers advantages. It’s even proven that attractive people receive shorter prison sentences.

To the men feeling inadequate - I have good news. An FSU study found that women skew happier in relationships where their partner is less attractive.

There is less pressure to meet expectations. They have fewer body image issues.

This is in line with what I saw working at an ad agency early in my career.

We spent a lot of time around female models. It was a known thing amongst them, “You don’t date male models. They are all dogs (promiscuous).”

Meanwhile, an OK Cupid study found women think 80% of men are unattractive. So I’m not sure where that leaves us.

Beauty is complicated - but it undeniably gives a mile-long list of benefits: better negotiations, promotions, and higher likeability. But letting it, or any one thing, be your chief identity is a trap.

Self-worth rooted in beauty is destined to die on the same altar it was built on: time.

Character ages better than beauty.

10 Effects No Intimacy in Marriage has on Men

This is important. Both men and women need to know this.

https://youtu.be/GK3p4hqwJJc

As a CEO, have you ever fired an employee based on their activities on the computer?

I actually was placed in a very sensitive position. I’m at my desk, was working on a huge project when I received a call from the CEO.

He said his computer was “Going nuts!” “I was on the internet, then other sites were automatically opening non-stop, should I do a hard shutdown?” Immediately I said, Don’t turn it off!!!”

I get into his office and look at the monitor. Porn sites are opening about 1-per second.

We used two different fire wall servers, the first server was using Linux before going to Microsoft (I believe it was Server 2012. You would think all of that would have stopped this, right?

I had a direct line to our IS people, called them told them what was happening. They were able to quickly solve the issue.

So, I just asking him “What was the last thing you did before the virus came through?” “I was working on the budget, it’s then all the porn sites started to pop up.”

I know he could read my face, it’s then I said “BS.”

Now I am in his seat, I opened ‘history’ . He had just been on a porn site. OH! It wasn’t just one site, over two weeks+ I see the dates and time.

His door was open so I quietly said to him “What the hell!” “What?” “You have been hitting porn sites.” He begins to get the ‘oh shit’ look on his face. “Alan you have to stop hitting porn sites!” “Yeah, it won’t happen again.”

Oh yeah, I gave him a hard time about it…..for weeks.

Have you ever seen someone call the cops and it backfired on them?

When my parents divorced, my dad moved up north 5 hours with his new girlfriend. My mom had custody but we had to visit him every other weekend. We met in the middle and if my mom was a minute late he would be making calls. I remember he would always speak bad on my mom like what she did when they were married and how she’s the bad guy of course. it was like this for years.

one time specifically my mom drove us up and we met halfway. my dad came alone in the single cab ford ranger. my mom & dad had 3 kids total and his new wife had 3 kids so usually when we were getting picked up it was in the expedition and it was a full house.

Now my mom was late again, and my dad wasn’t having it. He called the cops on my mom for being late again and violating court order. But when the cop came he was very confused on how my dad was going to drive all three of us kids home safely in a single cab. this was probably 20 years ago and i’ll admit we did all fit comfortably in the ranger but the cop said if he drove off like that he would get arrested. so we had to wait there for 2.5 more hours for my dads wife to come in the other vehicle. it was a long and hot day too so definitely backfired on my dad. I don’t remember but i’m sure he stopped calling the cops afterwards!

Would you prefer a million pounds in diamonds or a million pound of gold?

“Would you prefer a million pounds in diamonds or a million pound of gold?”

Gold.

Hands down, no ifs, ands, or buts.

One million pounds of gold (I am presuming standard pounds) equals 14,583,333.3 troy ounces. At today’s (mid-May 2019) spot price, gold is hovering around $1,300 per troy oz. Assuming it is pure gold (24 kt, or .999), that is at about $18,958,333,290.

It can be visualized as 36,458 400-troy ounce “Good Delivery” bars (and change) of the same type stored in Fort Knox and worth about $520,000 each.

400-t oz Good Delivery gold bar. Image from Wikipedia.

Each good delivery bar weighs in at a hair over 27.42 lb / 12.44 kg. It might actually be more convenient to get it in 100-t oz bars, which can be more readily sold.

Of course, a million pounds is 500 tons, which is about one-fifth of the output of all the gold mines in the world in a year.

The good news is; if doled out over time (several years), they will not have that much of an impact on the price of gold. This means that even taking buyer costs into account, there will still be a significant chunk of value per ounce.

The bad news is that if sold at once it will collapse the current price of gold and I would never get anywhere near the actual value of the gold. Also, the sheer amount of gold sold will attract the attention of the government revenue service, who will want their share.

Diamonds, on the other hand, cannot be sold in bulk without a specialized infrastructure in place to grade them by color, clarity, carat, and cut (the “Four C’s”).

Keep in mind that a pound of diamond powder for industrial use goes for about $10. That is ten dollars.

Unless you are already well-connected in the diamond industry, selling the diamonds is going to be far too much hassle for too little return and will leave a paper trail a mile wide at every step.

Honestly, I would take a million pounds in 90% silver before I take a million pounds in diamonds, and still come out ahead profit-wise.

Edit: The question I answered was merged with another one that removes the million and leaves just one pound of either gold or diamonds.

One pound of gold equals 14.5833 troy ounces (or 453.592 grams); at $1,300/t oz, that is $18,958.29.

One pound of silver (at $14.85/t oz) equals $216.56.

One pound of diamonds equals 2,267.96 carats. Unless these are relatively large, high-quality diamonds, they are not even worthy of consideration; I would need to get $8.36 per carat to equal the yield of the gold… and that will not happen; the cost of grading the diamonds, plus commissions along the way, will barely get you that much.

Heck, if they are industrial grade, I might consider myself extremely lucky to get $5,000 for the pound.

On the other hand, I could easily sell the gold in any pawn shop at near-parity to spot price with zero hassles.

What is the wildest reaction you have seen to someone getting fired?

A year before Covid hit I was the last to be hired on full time and others after me were hired as temps like a trial run before permanently hiring them. One kid out of the military at least 10 years younger than everyone else. This one kid he started buying expensive cars, would engage in conversation asking how much money I made and that he makes more than I do, I told him none of his damn business. So I’ve been a new guy before so I really tried to cut this kid a break but he just would not get off his phone, would literally be playing on his phone in a meeting in front of everyone. He said he can multitask. The company got tired of the slack and warned him over and over. He was awkward and wasn’t a man quite yet. It was early morning 9am and he was in the office and was let go, he runs into the office pacing back and forth muttering to himself like a crazy person, he would then drop to his knees and start crying and then have another outburst saying “why why why” and it makes you think that this guy could probably hurt someone. When he started temping with us apparently got an expensive car and new apartment just living lavishly, and a few months after we would get bombarded with creditors calling into the office.

6 Signs You’re An Attractive Older Man (Even If You Don’t Think So)

Worth your time.

https://youtu.be/WRgLMjWfMlo

Is it true that martial arts are useless in a street fight?

Let me be clear…DO NOT GET INTO A STREET FIGHT! THE BEST THING YOU CAN EXPECT FROM IT IS TO NOT GET HURT TOO BADLY. The best defense is to not get into a street fight in them…now assuming that you’re in one of those situations where you can’t get out of a fight…Martial arts can be of assistance, but it really depends on a lot of factors.

Does the martial art teach you to strike, block, hold, defend against a moving opponent? If not…then it’s probably not going to be very helpful.
Do you learn to get hit and take a hit? Getting punched in the face is a fairly debilitating thing for the inexperienced. The first few times you get hit in the face hard…it’s a pretty jarring experience…you do need to learn how to get used to it.
Are you in practice? Your martial arts training from 25 years ago isn’t going to mean much…like anything else skills must be practiced or lost. You may have been the toughest guy around years ago…but guaranteed you’re not anymore if you haven’t seen a punch coming your way since then. I used to box regularly, and didn’t step into a ring for over a decade. A friend of mine asked me to spar a few months ago, and even though muscle memory did some of the work, the first time he connected with a solid jab, I felt like I got a bucket of cold water thrown in my face.
Does the marital art teach you to fight bare-handed? Punching with a naked fist hurts, and if you’re going to do it effectively, you need to toughen up. I don’t mean that from a psychological perspective, you literally need to get used to punching things and get your hands to build up resilience. If you don’t fight bare-handed, and throw a heavy punch; you could break one of the little bones in your hand. Even if you’ve toughened up your hands you can connect with someone’s skull or hit off your main knuckles and end up breaking your hand.
Do you learn grappling, most street fights are at VERY close range…usually your opponent will look to grab you and throw you around rather than to keep their distance. If you look at the old bare knuckle boxers you’ll see that they use a very odd stance (at least to modern eyes) and that’s because they had to defend against grappling, and were better suited to bare knuckle fighting. In a street fight, those old school fighters would decimate pretty much any opponent…but it’s not exactly like you can go to the old-timey boxing gym and learn to punch like John Sullivan.

6. Is your opponent used to street fighting? If so, you’re entering their arena, it’s like asking a BJJ fighter to fix in a boxing ring…even if the BJJ fighter is more skilled and experience, the home-field advantage of the boxer is huge. If you don’t have the experience in a street fight, you’re at a disadvantage. Frankly, that’s the type of experience you don’t want to get. If your opponent is inexperienced though…and you have martial arts experience assuming that you have the right type of experience…you’re going to have an edge. If you don’t have the right type of experience; and you’re not used to close-in fighting with bare hands…you’re going to have a bad time…possibly worse than the neophyte who isn’t fighting their instincts.

There’s a bunch of secondary factors…but these are the big ones IMO. As someone who got into his share of scraps and got some training…If I could never get into a fight again, I would consider it a personal victory. Fighting is not fun, people punch, kick, scratch, spit, gouge…and in some cases even bring weapons, friends and generally don’t fight fair or clean. You can have all the training in the world…but still won’t be able to stop a knife or a bullet from someone who knows what they’re doing…or takes you from behind…or just straight-up surprises you.

Martial arts are great; they’re a great way to get fit, to get flexible, and teach you discipline. They’re great to build confidence and make you feel more secure in day-to-day situations. Generally, you will be able to defend yourself better than someone who is completely untrained…but it doesn’t make you into someone who can take on all takers…there’s always someone tougher or more capable…or someone more willing to fight dirty. Martial arts can’t prepare you for that.

Does money bring people happiness?

Lucy Gordon fortune valued at 11 million when she decided to hang out in her apartment in the best area of Paris.

Do you think 11 million is little?

Philip Seymour Hoffman $36 million

when he died of a heroin overdose.

Maybe it’s still too little for you…

Robin Williams fortune valued at 50 million

when he decided to hang himself in his house.

Kurt Cobain worth $60 million at the time he shot himself with a shotgun.

Maybe with more…

Elvis Presley made 300 million dollars while he was alive, in the end his drug problems ended up causing him a heart attack.

I think they are concrete examples of why a person does not get happiness from money, with this I do not mean that it is bad to want to make money, nor does it mean that if you are unhappy, making more money will not help you, what I mean by this is that money does not give you ABSOLUTE happiness. And it is that in reality nothing will make you completely happy.

I believe that the closest you can get to being happy is having a life with meaning and purpose, living day by day cultivating meaningful relationships and friendships.

That will bring you closer to happiness than anything.

Marrying the Ugly Daughter of the Yakuza Boss to Settle My Debts…

I really enjoyed this. So, so… Japanese.

https://youtu.be/kbV6SUaKMT8

What was said to an Australian by an American that you will never forget?

I’m an Aussie. I was travelling in SanFrancisco. I was visiting the zoo and looking at one of the enclosure’s I saw a big red roo. I commented to my wife “look at that kangaroo! He’s a BIG red roo!” A young American woman overheard me and corrected me by saying “ It’s a waaaalaby” and rolled her eyes as she pointed at the sign in front of the enclosure that said there was wallabies in there. I was very confused and doubted myself and thought, maybe I’m wrong. The sign definitely says they’re wallabies in there but, that looks like a “big red”. I was embarrassed thinking that I didn’t even know my own countries wildlife. I walked on another five or so metres (15 feet) and then I saw the next sign which said there actually was red kangaroos in the exhibit. I felt better then. I also want to add that I had a great time in the US and found the people to be really friendly.

I want to change my life. How do I start?

When people want to change their lives, they usually start out by thinking about the different things that need to be added to their lives to get to where they want to be.

They need to add a workout program, a mentor, a new job, new friends, new habits, etc.

They add, add, and add some more until they’re just constantly in motion all the time. They’re not a different person and their life hasn’t changed for the better — they’re just busier.

I know I thought like this when I first started my self-improvement journey.

I started waking up early. I started listening to self-improvement podcasts. I started reading books. I started meditating. Journaling. Following a more dedicated workout program.

I did a lot of stuff.

But you know what?

Although my life changed, it didn’t change how I wanted it to.

I just became busy.

I still had anxiety. I still got really sad. I still had bad friends and shitty relationships. I still spiraled the same way.

The truth is that changing your life is not about what you do, it’s about what you stop doing.

Removing bad habits is how you actually have lasting change. This is how you make lasting progress toward goals. This is how you change the person you are in a sustainable and manageable way so that you skip the period where everything comes crashing down.

You skip that phase where you’re just an overwhelmed mess all the time.

You get some peace. You learn to embrace boredom. You learn that boredom elicits creativity.

You learn to drop your bad habits instead of just following new havits to cancel out the bad ones.

It’s the equivalent of doing a bunch of burpees to hopefully cancel out a whole pizza.

Just don’t eat the whole pizza.

True self-improvement is not about what you do, it’s about what you stop doing. It’s about quitting.

Let’s make quitting cool again.

What is the most surprising thing someone has found in a house they bought?

I bought a house in Indianapolis in 1985. It was 110 years old at the time of purchase. It was a duplex with wonderful old bones but was in very poor condition. It was in such poor condition that I paid about $3,200 for it. In the process of doing a 100% renovation, I tore out 90% of the old lathe and plaster walls. In a cavity of the interior wall was a bundle wrapped in old newspaper (dated 1885) from when the house was built. In the wrapped up bundle were old copies of magazines from the period when color printing was just in its mass-produced infancy. There were six different copies of the magazine, “Ladies Home Companion” All of the graphics were of hand drawn images of exquisite art decco design. Also included in the bundle was a pair of lady’s kid gloves and a small leather change purse with a single penny, nickel, dime, quarter, fifty cent piece and dollar – all, except the penny were silver and dated 1885. The coins, gloves, change purse and magazine were all in perfect condition. I have the impression that it was a woman who hid the bundle in the wall as the house was being built. I sold them all to an antiques dealer (except the dime, which I still own – a liberty seated dime, and the quarter, which I gave to my mother who also collected coins) and got quite a lot of money for all of those items. Had I not been so hard up for the money at the time, I would have kept the Morgan silver dollar, which I sold back then for $2,000. I also found an assortment of bottles, too, which I also sold.

After atomizing Hiroshima, why was it necessary to do the same with Nagasaki? Was the USA planning to drop twelve (12) nukes on Japan in 1945?

Translation in case you can’t read Japanese:

TO THE JAPANESE PEOPLE:

America asks that you take immediate heed of what we say on this leaflet.

We are in possession of the most destructive explosive ever devised by man. A single one of our newly developed atomic bombs is actually the equivalent in explosive power to what 2000 of our giant B-29s can carry on a single mission. This awful fact is one for you to ponder and we solemnly assure you it is grimly accurate.

We have just begun to use this weapon against your homeland. If you still have any doubt, make inquiry as to what happened to Hiroshima when just one atomic bomb fell on that city.

Before using this bomb to destroy every resource of the military by which they are prolonging this useless war, we ask that you now petition the Emperor to end the war. Our president has outlined for you the thirteen consequences of an honorable surrender. We urge that you accept these consequences and begin the work of building a new, better and peace-loving Japan.

You should take steps now to cease military resistance. Otherwise, we shall resolutely employ this bomb and all our other superior weapons to promptly and forcefully end the war.

EVACUATE YOUR CITIES.

ATTENTION JAPANESE PEOPLE. EVACUATE YOUR CITIES.

Because your military leaders have rejected the thirteen part surrender declaration, two momentous events have occurred in the last few days.

The Soviet Union, because of this rejection on the part of the military has notified your Ambassador Sato that it has declared war on your nation. Thus, all powerful countries of the world are now at war with you.

Also, because of your leaders’ refusal to accept the surrender declaration that would enable Japan to honorably end this useless war, we have employed our atomic bomb.

A single one of our newly developed atomic bombs is actually the equivalent in explosive power to what 2000 of our giant B-29s could have carried on a single mission. Radio Tokyo has told you that with the first use of this weapon of total destruction, Hiroshima was virtually destroyed.

Before we use this bomb again and again to destroy every resource of the military by which they are prolonging this useless war, petition the emperor now to end the war. Our president has outlined for you the thirteen consequences of an honorable surrender. We urge that you accept these consequences and begin the work of building a new, better, and peace-loving Japan.

Act at once or we shall resolutely employ this bomb and all our other superior weapons to promptly and forcefully end the war.

EVACUATE YOUR CITIES.

The US was prepared to do whatever it took to get Japan to unconditionally surrender. That includes the use of the bomb as was necessary for the war to end. The third bomb was intended for release on 19 August. Fortunately for all parties, Japan surrendered by 15 August 1945.

How life changes when you get a cat

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/ZervDYULXVA?feature=share

According to CNN, China’s Xi calls for stronger ‘strategic coordination’ with Russia in Lunar New Year call with Putin, do you agree with it?

China’s increased “strategic collaboration” with Russia is nothing more than a repetition of an old policy, except that it has now entered the “strategic counter-offensive” phase, which Xi Jinping once again emphasized to his close friend and colleague, President Vladimir Putin, and hoped that he would increase his confidence in winning the war.

In 2019, when the U.S. launches a trade war with China, China’s manufacturing GDP will account for less than 30% of the global total, while the U.S.’s manufacturing GDP account for more than 13% of the global total.

Recently, according to a report released by the OECD, China’s manufacturing gdp will account for more than 35% of the world’s total value in 2023. Even the sum of the 2nd to 10th place is not as high as China’s share. The U.S. manufacturing gdp accounts for 12% of the world’s total, while India’s manufacturing gdp, which is highly regarded by the West, accounts for 3%.

Trump initiated the trade war with the intention of returning manufacturing to the US, but the data shows that the return of manufacturing to the US over the past few years has only been negative. In this regard, the decline in electricity generation and consumption in the U.S. confirms this from the side.

https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2018-03-01/americans-electricity-use-just-keeps-falling

Let’s look at the U.S. advantage: performance in the technology sector.

In 2019, in the globally recognized top 10 future technology and advanced manufacturing fields, China and the United States each accounted for half of the wall, but China in the United States of America’s all-out siege and set the entire Western world’s strength of the suppression of the U.S. After 4 years, the U.S. advantageous areas once again disappeared in 2 areas, and in the United States of America’s strongest field of chips, China is also gradually catching up.

Now, the U.S. is caught in the quagmire of the Russia-Ukraine war and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, which has almost depleted the soft power that the U.S. has accumulated over the past hundred years.

https://www.defensenews.com/pentagon/2024/01/04/were-out-of-money-us-exhausts-security-funds-for-ukraine/

https://www.cnbc.com/2023/12/07/bidens-support-of-israel-leaves-him-as-isolated-as-russia-on-the-world-stage-analyst.html

https://www.moroccoworldnews.com/2023/11/359179/gaza-bidens-blind-support-for-israel-deepens-erosion-of-us-global-standing

And with the DPRK having just declared that it no longer regards South Korea as a fellow countryman, the risk of war on the Korean Peninsula has increased dramatically. It is difficult for the United States to provide further assistance to South Korea under financial constraints. If war breaks out in Taiwan, Washington will not be able to raise as much money for support even if it auctions off the White House, Capitol Hill and Pentagon complex.

In addition, the U.S. has been beset by a host of domestic problems, and its international influence has been declining. It is not an exaggeration to describe the U.S. as being in an internal and external quagmire.

Although Washington still does not recognize the decline in the strength of the United States and tries to whitewash the United States “strong economic growth, domestic social stability”, even if Washington continues to whitewash the United States financial situation, but the risk of the United States’s debt crisis is still growing.

The Texas independence movement has left Washington at a loss, and if Washington tries to disarm Texas independence, a large-scale civil war will undoubtedly break out.

The question for the United States was no longer whether it could retain world hegemony. Whether it is military, financial, economic or technological, it is a fact that the United States has lost its hegemony, and it is time for the United States to consider how to retain its position as a world power and a rich country.

Perhaps, in the collective insanity of the U.S. political scene today, only Trump is still sober. He believes that the U.S. can maintain its position as the world’s second largest power by relying on the world’s second largest oil and gas reserves.

Perhaps becoming a major energy exporter in the future is the best way out for the United States after it loses its world hegemony.

Truth

Power optionality

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/f-tNeRZ3yFo?feature=share

Why is the US so desperate to compete with China when the world knows it cannot?

The ONLY people who realize that the United States is unable to compete with China is the Western “news” media, and the people that consume it.

The rest of the world, INCLUDING the American “leadership” and the Pentagon understand the futility of “Tonya Harding” competition strategies.

However, the United States is not a “healthy” nation. It is a nation in “free-fall”. There is no one at the helm, and those that are in control of various functional aspects of the government are stymied by a complex web network of counter-productive political polarization. Often led by those with self-interest at their core, and incapable of actual subjective reasoning. For everyone in the West are under the propagandized narratives that they themselves create.

Like (for instance) the “brick wall” of Tucker Carlson interviewing Putin.

…

But there is an “out”.

Cooperation NOT Competition.

China wants to see a better world, but in order for that reality to play out, some very toxic behaviors, and legacy dysfunctions must be excised (one way or the other) from the West. I am afraid that it will be a painful process.

The United States NEEDS friends, and help. China is willing to take on this role. But I am fearful that that will not materialize until a period of disharmony adjusts the objective reality of the West.

What are some hacks that everyone should know?

Dress well, always. A lot depends on how you look!
Pinch yourself if you can’t stop laughing.
At every job, you should either earn or learn. Either is fine. Both are best. But if it’s neither, quit.
To exercise should be done daily, whatever the time. It doesn’t matter if it is 5 minutes or 50 minutes.
To keep bananas fresh for a longer time, wrap the top part of the bunch in plastic wrap.
Research shows that the right ear is better at picking up words & speech, while the left ear is better at picking up music & other sounds.
Adding a teaspoon of baking soda when you boil eggs and the shell will come off easily.
If you place dry tea bags in smelly shoes and leave them for a few hours, the bad smell will go away.
If you want to make sure the person you talk to is paying attention to you, start the conversation with “I shouldn’t be telling you this but…”
You can make the elevator go faster by pressing “close” and your floor at the same time.

I love you

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/40W_fseTCS0?feature=share

What did your boss ever say in the office that caused you to resign?

I was working at a travel agency in the late 80s. I was hired as a receptionist. Having a knack for computers, I taught myself the reservation system and was helping the rest of the office learn and use the system. This in addition to reception and helping the bookkeeper. This was before the internet. The company signed a new contract that included internet and the computers were installed and the network was set up. They neglected to tell us that if we did not shut down at night data would be used. Again, this was when internet was new. At that time you were charged based on how much data you used. After the first month, we got a bill for around $800. The boss was not happy. I made the calls to find out why and resolve the issue. A credit was issued leaving a bill of around $500. Now at the time I was a single mother and they were paying me $6 an hour after having been there over 5 years. The Owner told me if I did not get the bill completely removed it would be taken out of my pay. That was it for me. I told him do what you have to. I quit. Found a much better paying job within two weeks. BUT… My revenge was sweet. He actually had to hire 3 different people to do the job I had been doing.

Was Japan angry at America after World War II?

The Japanese were much worse than they are portrayed in the movies, especially in the war they were at their worst.

They were extremely cruel and despised the lives of their enemies, this is now a historical fact known to those who cared a little. But the worst victims were the prisoners of war.

This is because, in his code of conduct, it is a seriously dishonorable act to be captured. Better dead than dishonored.

Consequently, prisoners were severely punished for being captured.

A friend of relatives who had lived abroad for decades was captured and lived for two years in a Japanese prison camp.

When he returned home, it was a living skeleton with a permanent expression of pain reminiscent of the photo below. He had been a slave in the construction of a railroad.

Many died of exhaustion or were executed for the amusement of the guards, an incredibly barbaric behavior for a civilized people like the Japanese.

What was the oddest reason that your child’s principal ever called you?

Oh Boy, this was a fun call to field!

So, about 12pm-ish I get a call. “It’s Mr H from School. Just to start off, L (yr 3 daughter) is fine, no one is hurt, everything is ok.” Cue minor heart attack, but only minor. “You’ll probably hear about this in the news later, but L did the right thing and told her teacher straight away.” Yep, ok, heart attack settling. “L found a snake in her bag! Not to worry, but we did do a school lockdown drill to make sure the kids all calmly stayed away. The snake catchers are on their way.” OMG!

So, some more interesting facts – my daughter, all of 8 years old, found a snake in her school bag, hilariously a Gryffindor Harry Potter backpack she’d gotten for her birthday earlier that month. In Australia, school bags are kept on racks outside the classrooms. This all happened at the start of first break, so there were lots of bustling kids around. She told me after pick up, that’s she’d seen the end of it’s tail go into to her bag, so she’d calmly reached over and zipped it up! Then went & told the teachers, who trigger the lockdown just in case. Due to our more rural location, there’s a lot of bush around and the kids are actually drilled each term to make sure they know what to do if they spot a snake on the school grounds, which is to calmly back away and find the nearest teacher. My bright spark realised that, since the bag was only opened a small way, she’d be able to zip it closed without (hopefully) annoying the snake inside. The snake catchers called out said it was one of the easiest jobs they’d had, since it’d already been caught.

We did have fun telling the extended family though, my mother refused to believe it happened until it hit the news!

Ipswich student finds red belly black snake in school bag

Has a cop ever said something to you which was completely unexpected?

Just once. I had been placed into custody in the back of a police car. Not for long, because I wasn’t the guy they were actually looking for, and I was released when we got to the station in downtown Seattle.

I already KNEW I wasn’t the guy, so I was pretty relaxed about the whole thing. But on the way to the station, (being a writer and all) I decided to ask the cop a couple of questions about his work. He was still a patrol officer, but he was well past forty years old.

I asked him, “What’s the worst thing about being a cop? Is it that you might get hurt, or pull over the wrong guy and maybe he has a gun?”

I wasn’t even close.

“Nah,” he said. “The worst thing is that everyone lies to you, ALL the time. Even when you try to convince them they aren’t in trouble and aren’t going to jail. You really get tired of that after a while…”

It was the last thing I expected him to say.

A wonderful discovery

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/nbg9kRTM3QY?feature=share

What’s wrong with being a functional addict?

Ask my aunt.

My uncle was a functional alcoholic. He drove perfectly. Never sped. Never ran a red light (or a yellow light). He would never do anything that might get him pulled over and subject to a sobriety test.

He had two girls. He sat at the dinner table each night that I lived with them, buzzed and silent, while their mother did all the work. He never went to college, because that would impinge on his drinking, so when he got laid off from Massive Megacorp, where we both worked, he was never able to get another job. He became a househusband and his wife got a job cleaning houses.

His drinking and gambling soon overran his wife’s meager income. They lost the house and moved into a rental. The girls grew up and both married young—quite unusual today, to their respective high school sweethearts.

Then one night, he woke up my aunt with his screaming. He was erupting blood from his mouth and his anus. He was hemorrhaging. She called an ambulance and they were able to save him.

A physician came in the room with my aunt. “Let me tell you how it’s going to be,” she said. “Your husband’s drinking has left him with 10% liver function. We can put him on the liver transplant list, but he will likely be passed over for someone without an addiction, as addicts tend to ruin their new organs as they did their old ones.

“He bled tonight because his liver was no longer able to detoxify the alcohol in his blood. Alcohol is corrosive, so it began to thin his esophagus and intestines. He now has the equivalent of varicose veins throughout his body. One of them ruptured today. One day, he will spring into a bleed from one of these veins, and we won’t be able to find it to stop it in time. And he will die.”

And so he did. Painfully, slowly, at the end engorged with the blood no longer contained in his veins. He never met his wonderful four grandchildren. He left his bereft wife a widow. He squandered his money. He squandered his life.

But he functioned.

America Does Not Appreciate the Gravity of Violence

Thought provoking.

https://youtu.be/YVNJHE3kK_g

What’s the most unreasonable request you’ve received from your boss?

The owner of a small company where I used to work made lots of unreasonable demands. I was a salaried, mid-career professional at the time, and I experienced things like:

I was instructed by HR that when the owner came up to my desk, I was to immediately stop typing and put my hands in my lap. Continuing to type until a natural stopping point—say, the end of a sentence—was seen as “being up to something.”
I was also instructed by HR that I was to stay until precisely 4:30 pm and not leave even a minute sooner (regardless of when I arrived in the morning). There was no valid business reason—the owner simply mandated that the office team stay until then.
I was also told by the owner that working through lunch did not “count” toward making up a few hours that I had missed for an appointment. I could either come in early or stay late, but the extra hour I worked in the middle of the day was not acceptable for some reason.
No matter what I did, it was always wrong. (This was true for everyone at the company.) There was the owner’s way and the wrong way, and usually no one understood the owner’s way because it was often extremely convoluted.

Unfortunately, because it was the owner, my choices were to accept it or find another job. Right or wrong, I put up with it, but thankfully, I was laid off during COVID. I’ve since started my own business, and as a result, I will never have to put up with that kind of BS in the workplace again, God help me. I still have bad dreams about that place.

What are some of the costliest mistakes ever made in history?

These people made a mistake in judgment for a brief moment, and they lost big time. Introducing the Hall of Fame club for costliest mistakes ever….>>

1. Tiger Woods cheated on his then-wife Elin Nordegren. The divorce settlement ended up costing him $750 million. That’s a lot of Gatorade…….

2. Captain Edward Smith steered the Titanic into an iceberg, sinking the $7.5 million ship. Most devastatingly, many lives were lost….

3. In England, an elderly lady won the $181 million Euromillions lottery. Except her husband threw the ticket away. It’s the only time a wife has wished her husband didn’t take out the trash…

4. NASA used the metric system to build an orbiter, while Lockheed Systems used the English system. Data couldn’t be transferred, and a $125 million orbiter was lost in space forever…

5. Immediately on takeoff, faulty equipment doomed a B-2 stealth bomber. America’s most expensive plane at $1.2 billion crashed and was destroyed. Again, $1.2 billion…..

Reality at work

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/GEGIKD5U3MY?feature=share

How should I deal with a coworker who never wants to pay when we eat out?

Very early in my career, after a successful mission, the entire office team would go out to eat. This was way before separate checks, and we would have a group of 20–30 people. People would order what they could afford – or so I foolishly thought! At the end of the first get-together, when the bill came, the boss got the ticket, put a checkmark by his meal, add a $20 bill, and pass both money and ticket to the next person, and so on. As people paid, they left the restaurant. The two Admins – myself and the senior Admin – we the last people the ticket + cash reached. There was not even enough cash to cover the entrees ordered and consumed, much less the appetizers and drinks and tax and tip! We quite literally cried because WE were the lowest paid in the department and just did not have the money to cover everyone. The restaurant manager felt very sorry for us, and wrote off the remainder of the bill. We took the check-marked ticket back to the office. Of course, EVERYTHING on the ticket was checked. We took it to the boss and explained. He was livid! He went back to the restaurant and paid what was due. (Small military town)

A couple of weeks later, the team again went out to eat. This time, the boss had one of we Admins shadow the waitress and write down what each person ordered. While the food was being prepared he calculated what each person actually owed, including taxes. He even divided the cost of appetizers. At the end of the meal, he received the ticket, then called people by name. “Sean, you owe $10 plus $1 for a tip. Mark, you owe $28 plus $3 for tip” etc. Of course, those people who were NOT scamming were happy they didn’t have to calculate anything, and those who were attempting to grift off their colleagues complained loudly.

Those who were notorious for padding their expense reports ate and drank the most, then complained the loudest.

What is something everyone should know?

So you’re minding your own business one day. You download a file, open a link, or do something-or-other and, pop!

Uh Oh! Guess your last night’s child porno fest got caught by the feds! And they’ve locked your computer! Hm… Shame! You really should pay that $200 debt to society right?

Except… You weren’t watching child porn at all, were you? No, in fact, you were doing something completely different!

See, what this is, is ransomware. I mean look at this shitty grammar. “due to the violation of the federal laws of the United States of America!” It’s awkwardly worded, much easier to say “in violation of United States Federal Law” or something like that, and when has a formal notice besides a “WARNING!” ever used an exclamation mark? Firstly, here is what the closest thing to this is.

Do you see a single exclamation point? Do you see a single bit of bad grammar? Do you see the United States being referred to as the “U.S.A?”

Tell you what. When the FBI comes and seizes your computer, they will come and get a warrant from a judge. And they will come and take your computer from you.

They won’t do any of that $200 fine bullshit. It’s fake.

Are You Ready For This Plot Twist?

The various videos in this movie are odd, and disturbing. The one where the girl decides to sleep with a guy because of the car he drives really, really disturbs me.

https://youtu.be/f9QkFoGpjMs

How many German women did Russian soldiers impregnate after the fall of Third Reich? What percentage of Germany has Russian ancestry from the time of the 2nd World War?

Historians place the number at 300,000 for the number of live births from Soviet rapes.

“University historians in the German cities of Jena and Magdeburg conclude that only France helped children fathered by its occupying troops. Many of those born to German mothers in four occupation zones suffered ostracism their whole lives.”

The study published in June 2015 in a “German-language book whose title translates as “Bastards, the children of occupation in Germany after 1945” found that at least 300,000 children were fathered by occupying Soviet Red Army soldiers.”

“Rapes perpetrated on German women occurred in all four zones, including forced sex by members of French and US units. Only a few cases by British troops were uncovered.”

“The first of these children were born around Christmas 1945.”

“The researchers deduced the Soviet zone child figure from a count of up to two million rapes allegedly committed by Red Army soldiers.”

“Abortions were illegal in Germany according to Article 218 of the penal code, but Luchterhand says “there was a small window for those women because of that special situation of the mass rapes in 1945”.

“Altogether 995 pleas for abortion were approved by this one district office in Berlin office between June 1945 to 1946. The files contain over 1,000 fragile scraps of paper of different colours and sizes. In childish round handwriting, one girl testifies that she was assaulted in the living room of her home in front of her parents. “

“We will probably never know the true scale of the rapes. Soviet military tribunals and other sources remain classified. The Russian parliament recently passed a law which says that anyone who denigrates Russia’s record in World War Two could face fines and up to five years in prison.”

Troops fathered 400,000 children in post-war Germany | DW | 06.02.2015

Have you ever witnessed someone’s life fully change in one instant? What happened?

A friend of mine bought a pair scooters, like Vespas, so he and his wife could run around their ‘near dowtown’ neighborhood. He was driving down a local street, 35 mph speed limit. An inattentive driver coming the other way turned left right in front of him.

He had no time to react so he hit the side of the car going nearly 35. His momentum pushed his lower body into the scooters fenders and smashed both legs. Both broken, one so bad that even now, 2 years later he is still dealing with screws and rods in one leg to help it heal properly. He was wearing an open face helmet and his head was driven into the side of the by momentum. He smashed his face in. I don’t mean cuts and scrapes and a broken nose. He ended up with a broken orbital bone, a broken jaw and knocked out half his teeth.

Their condo was on the second floor of the building with no elevator, and when he got out of the hospital (after a month of surgeries on his legs and face) he could not go home. They had to rent a small house with just one floor, and ramps for his wheelchair. His wife had to take a sabbatical from work to help take care of him. She got paid for almost all the first year of his recovery and then they to rely on some savings, and pittance payouts from the other driver’s insurance company.

Their young daughter had to move into their condo because they couldn’t leave it sitting empty – that doubled her commute to college.

Some pictures started getting posted to Facebook and in none for at least a year was he smiling – too many dental issues to show.

2 years later, and at least one or two more surgeries on hig legs with the hardware, he is of course still doing physical therapy.

I certainly hope they were able to secure a good accident lawyer and sue for hundreds of thousands, if not more. That accident will certainly affect him for the rest of his life if his leg doesn’t heal as expected. He had to go back to the tech world he had left to train to be a chef. He was not able to stand for long periods of time and doesn’t know if ever will be able to back to the job he loves – cooking for people.

One moment of loss of concentration, of paying attention by that other driver and my friend came very close to being killed, and the outcome of his injuries have and will continue to negatively affect his life, his wife’s too, and their daughter close by ad well as their other children and grandchildren.

AMERICAN Living In CHINA Reveals The TRUTH!

https://youtu.be/-NnjcCb2ieg

Has your neighbor ever told you something you wish they hadn’t?

10 years ago I lived in a small town in Washington State. One of my neighbors was an older couple who kept to themselves. The wife loved her garden and the male would wave at everyone who drove down the roadway. One fall we had a mudslide on a major road that ran in and out of our small town. The only way we could leave was to drive north, thru the Canadian boarder and back down in another neighboring town. My (now ex) husband and I had just returned from our bi-weekly town visit for groceries. As we started to drive past this elderly couple’s home we noticed the wife standing outside by herself. At first we didn’t think there was anything wrong until my (now ex) husband got her attention and we realized that she was crying and had blood on her shirt. I stayed outside with her because she kept crying and pointing to the house. My Ex went in their house and quickly exited and called 911. All the wife would say to me was “I had to” over and over again.

The Police arrived and sorted it all out. Come to find out, the husband had severe dementia and attacked his wife during their evening nap. He tried to strangle her and punched her over and over again. She was finally able to get her hands on a pair of scissors and stabbed him with them. He survived and was placed in a nursing home after his recovery.

I hope I never “have to”.

China’s chip power is on full swing, and its output ranks higher than the rest of the world

https://youtu.be/RUyoxfktX7k

Have you ever accidentally found out that you were about to be fired?

I actually did it wasn’t so accidental. I was working for a dentist in Berkeley CA. It was a weird office but it was money. The office was open M-W with 1/2 day on Th. Well 1/2 for every body but me. I had to spend the other 1/2 day doing a deep clean of all the treatment rooms and file back a weeks worth of files. There was another Doctor in same building the Doctor was a Maxillofacial Surgeon. He had a X-Ray Tech. One day I was by my self filing back files. She told me she had heard them talking about the doctors son. He worked as a bell boy for a very posh hotel/privet country club in the Berkeley Hills (for those live in the SF Bay Area I am talking about the Clairmont) The doctor figured if he had to subsidies his 20 something year old son he might as well get something for it. He would teach his son to be a dental assistant. I think I found a new job before they could let me go. So so glad to be out of that place.

How does the IRS find people who work under the table?

It’s not hard.

Yes, they do sleuthy things. Around here a few years ago a tax guy went to the flea market—a huge flea market—made a list of every booth, and looked the people up. If memory recalls, over 70% of them were either on unemployment, social security disability insurance, not paying sales tax, not claiming their taxable income, or not claiming their employees. They were all just million dollar lemonade stands.

But most of the time the IRS doesn’t need to do any kind of stakeout. They simply say “hey computer, show me all the people in my area whose households don’t claim enough for them to reasonably live, sorted by how unreasonable.” And more queries along those lines. “Show me all the restaurants whose wage expenses don’t match expected for their stated income.” Computers can answer those questions in milliseconds.

I’ve said it a hundred times, but these are computers talking to computers. If you “got away” with something on your taxes, it does not mean you didn’t get caught. It means there was not political will to prosecute you.

And it’s not just business owners (well, you are technically a business owner if you’re working under the table). If you work for any of those people, you get caught the second they do. If a guy builds a fence in his backyard and asks you to come help him for a few weeks for $100/day, he’ll mention that fence on his taxes; the city will eventually mention that fence on his property tax appraisal, title will mention that fence when he sells the house. There’s a paper trail, and it’s not hard for anyone who reads accounting to see that. Ditto with your barista job, ditto with your life coaching job, ditto with your dad pretending you’re an employee so he can get you health insurance. It’s obvious to anyone who sees personal taxes all day long.

Oh, here’s a really obvious one, if you’re not an employee you will have expenses, and not just that, but expenses almost matching your income. If you say you rent a room out in your house as an airbnb, they’ll simply look at your taxes to see if you have 70% of your income going towards cleaning and repairs and new sheets and advertising. If you say you do odd jobs, they’ll assume you have a log of your mileage and receipts for tools. If you say you sell brownies at the farmer’s market, they’ll know you’re lying if you don’t have the cost of renting that booth and the cost of the booth on there somewhere. And again, if you’re the second in the booth, you’re at the mercy of the main person’s IRS reviewer too.

Oh, and if you’re an under the table waitress, know that you’ll eventually get caught by another waitress narc’ing on your boss.

Anyway, the main way they find out is by comparing you to 350M other people and seeing wherever you’re so far outside of the average that somethin’ must be up.

OH! here’s the easiest example yet: you’re a waitress and file your taxes without listing any tip income. It is unlikely the IRS will call you on that, but they obviously can see that you left the line that likely represents the majority of your income blank. The friend I’m picturing when I say this is paid about $40 a day as a waitress but makes $300 to $400 a day in tips. And I think it’s pretty safe to wonder whether her taxes say she is paying her rent and expenses with only $40 a day. The IRS isn’t stupid, but they are human and know there is little to collect from her, and it would be politically problematic to start targeting college-aged and single-mom waitresses.

Italian Sausage and Peppers

Ingredients

8 Italian sausages
4 green bell peppers, quartered (or a combination of yellow, green and red bell peppers)
1 onion, sliced

Instructions

Put sausages with 1 cup of water in a frying pan over medium heat. Turn as they brown and water evaporates.
Add onions and peppers. Stir, cover and cook for 10 minutes.
Uncover and cook until the sausages and onions are brown.
Serve in small French bread buns.

What offended the German military when the American military came to Germany?

I don’t know if offended was the right word, but stunned, as R. W. says about the US not having animals (mules/horses). Here is a great pic of German POWs on the middle of the autobahn heading west, and Allied tanks/trucks heading into the heart of Germanyy:

You don’t see any animals (the average German division had 4–6,000 horses/division). The US did use mules in Africa, Italy and Southern France. Those mountains were tough, with no roads, so mules came into their own. The US Army contracted with mule owners for one herder + ten mules each. The column was lead by a GI and carried food, water, ammo up to the line and wounded down. The USMC still runs a mule training facility in California to train troops on this dying art.

One offense was American inattention of military courtesy to senior officers. The German paratroop commander, Generalleutnant (Lieutenant General) Hermann-Bernhard Ramcke, at the end Crozon Peninsula fighting, told the US lieutenant that he would surrender his unit, but not to a company or field grade officer, only a general officer. This painting shows Gen Canham, ADC 8th ID, in the German HQ. The German said, “I am to surrender to you. I want to see your credentials”. Gen Canham, like any general officer, did not take this well, pointed to his GI’s, and said, “These are my credentials.” This later became the motto of the 8th ID.

Companies Announce Why They Don’t Want YOU Working For Them Anymore…

This is true. I can confirm this is the case in the United States.

https://youtu.be/wavk3uJGipc

Time for a nice treat

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.

Today…

What will Taiwan’s Special Forces do when China invades Taiwan?

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?

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.

What is the most pointless crime you’ve witnessed?

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.

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.

What is the coolest obscure historical fact you know?

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.

Dawn of the Woke Zombies

https://youtu.be/Ib_7Wsix3nY

What accidentally rude things do Americans do while traveling even without realizing it?

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.

And to think it was an English tour.

If I were considering purchasing a 44 Magnum, would I be able to manage The recoil and would it be a reliable self-defense weapon?

Probably not.

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+).

We held the .44 Magnum one-handed, just like Harry Callahan, and gave it a try.

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.

What kind of things do narcissists do when they discard you?

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

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.

When did you realize that your best friend was a horrible person?

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.

What was the biggest adult tantrum you’ve seen happen at work?

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.

https://youtu.be/aJjAqy5-okI

What do people who are more than 45 years old do after getting fired from their job due to cost cutting?

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.

Do you know anyone who is low key filthy rich?

Yes.

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!

https://youtu.be/yR9tKYQSZlI

What as a cop, is the assignment that would make you want to quit your job?

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.

What is your opinion on the U.S.’s strategy to outcompete China?

What strategy?

I don’t see a coherent, rational national policy.

Perhaps Gina says it best with her candid and graphic admission.

“HOLD THEIR FEET TO THE FIRE.”

That’s the national strategy, in a nutshell.

In other words, American exceptionalism applied to the extreme, rules-based-international-order be damned.

What are some psychological tricks you can use to make your life more easy?

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

https://youtu.be/WjQaCx6LBSs

What was the most unexpected knock you got on your door?

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.

Breaking Bad but in Japan

This is FUNNY!

https://youtu.be/0d_mV1tJMgg

How can I live until 100?

Your best shot?

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.

What was a loophole that you found and exploited the hell out of?

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.

Have you ever met someone really privileged who shocked you?

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.

Getting older you stop going outside

https://youtu.be/fWn2RAx6UJA

Can anyone give an example of a weird student behavior that happened in their classroom?

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!

What was the most unexpected knock you got on your door?

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”

https://youtu.be/cupr1eMnZnw

What is the U.S. going to do about China?

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?

Shawnee, Ohio | What Happened Here?

https://youtu.be/tKaJPrn4AyY

You should be intelligent enough to understand these things in life!

Fix yourself before you try to fix anyone. People are comfortable in their miserable life.
You’ll be 10 times happier if you forgive your parent and stop blaming them for your problems.
Marry the right partner. The right one will help you build your physical, mental, and financial strength.
Make friends who are ambitious, motivated, and strong where you’re weak.
Be old enough to realize no one cares. Chase what you believe is right and just.
Seek zero advice from people who are not where you want to be in life.
Your circle of friends should discuss business ideas, family, and success more. Not politics, religion, and celebrity gossip.
Spend few hours working on your business and dreams. Working for someone will only get you enslaved forever.
Invest in a home library. Nothing is more toxic than wasting your time watching the news, Netflix, or scrolling social media.
Create opportunities for yourself. No one will ever come to save you from your problems.
Be mature enough to realize weekends are not for partying. Use it to build a life/career you want.
If your friends only call you when they need your help, then it’s high time to change your priorities in life.
No matter how much you trust your close friends and family, let no one know everything about you.

Wings, Gears, Glamorous Ladies in Glorified Imperial and Industrial Settings = Quintessential Art Deco

Can an ER doctor be rude to you while they’re treating you? If so, why?

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.

Breaking Bad but in Soviet Russia

Super Funny!

https://youtu.be/YLU7e5O52Zc

“A son took his father to a restaurant to enjoy a delicious dinner.

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 .

What scary gut feeling did you have that turned out to be true?

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

https://youtu.be/0v6LdRUHAuo

What conversations have you overheard in a language they assumed you don’t know?

English is my second language.

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

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.

Harry Potter but in Soviet Russia

https://youtu.be/n3sVyS7wYWc

What was your “I am surrounded by idiots” moment?

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)

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.
Arrange veal and vegetables on platter.
Skim fat from broth; pour broth over veal.
Serve with rice or hot cooked spaghetti.
Gremolada: Mix parsley, garlic and lemon peel.

Notes

Serve with a sprinkling of Gremolada.

Robert Greene

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/RA0fj6wFZ2g?feature=share

What would happen if a defendant threatened the judge, saying, “I will find you when I get out!”?

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.

What are the secrets that McDonald’s employees won’t reveal?

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.

How should I tactfully tell a family who invited me for dinner that I’m still hungry?

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!

What was the biggest secret you found out only after someone passed away?

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.”

Equality doesn’t always go the Way Women want

https://youtu.be/upBgVa8s63Y

What kind of competition does the US have with China?

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)

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.
Garnish with parsley if desired.

Yields 6 servings.

What was the slickest thing you have done or seen somebody do on an airplane?

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!!

Reacting to Relationship Zones @hoe_math

It’s a cool reaction video. Check it out.

https://youtu.be/jGJR7zeYTrU

America has gone full on Jerry Springer

MM, the Jerry Springer edition. LOL.

Actually it is sad, and when I peer into the future, it is absolutely worrying. Please be safe everyone.

Lots of videos today, but most are super short.

Enjoy…

Western Diplomacy is ‘Primitive’

February 12, 2024

Russians have had to dumb down their speeches at the UN so other countries can understand them, deputy representative Dmitry Polyansky has said.

Russian diplomats perceive their Western counterparts’ approach to international affairs to be “quite primitive,” Moscow’s deputy permanent representative to the UN, Dmitry Polyansky, has said. Moscow’s representatives are not certain what caused this, but have simplified their messaging in response, he added.

Polyansky made remarks about the quality of the Western diplomatic corps in an interview with RIA Novosti published on Monday, based on his personal experience at the UN. He expressed concern about Anglophone speakers at the forum selectively ignoring the context of particular situations for their own benefit.

”They pick an arbitrary point in time and claim nothing happened before it. They try to blame a nation for its actions regardless of prior events or the general context,” he explained.

The diplomat cited the Ukraine conflict as an example. The US and its allies have been describing Moscow’s military action against Kiev as “unprovoked” and supposedly motivated by “imperial ambitions,” and have pressured other nations to frame it in the same way. As they learn more about the conflict, however, those parties realize how much the general context and Western actions since Ukraine gained its independence matter, he added.

”This trick does not always work, but it is a trend. I don’t know if it’s some deeper trend or just something typical for some people coming from [Western] schools of diplomacy,” Polyansky said. “Having a dialogue with them is challenging because they show certain superficiality, tunnel vision, and unwillingness to seek the core causes of conflicts. No solutions can be found without [such analysis].”

The office of the Russian envoy to the UN has been simplifying its addresses due to uncertainty over how their words are understood, he said. Russian diplomats used to quote foreign and Russian classics in speeches, but are no longer using this rhetorical device as much, Polyansky said.

”Times dictate things. Our partners may now be less well-read individuals, so occasionally we want to speak in plainer terms to make sure our signal comes through,” he explained.

Reality

A New Civil War is A Very Real Prospect for the US

February 7, 2024

It has long been on the minds of doomsday preppers and fiction media creators alike – but how likely is it, really?

Let’s sketch a big country in three broad strokes:

First, its population is over 333 million. These citizens privately own about (or at least) 339 million guns. They are unique in that no other state in the world has more private guns than people. They easily outdistance, for instance, Yemen, a country with a martial culture that has gone through years of civil war and yet there are only about 53 firearms per 100 inhabitants.

Second, polarization is unusually high and virulent: As of 2020 already, a political scientist at one of America’s most prestigious universities, found that “political polarization among Americans has grown rapidly in the last 40 years — more than in Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia or Germany,” for instance. The result: America is special, but not in a good way. “None of the wealthy, consolidated democracies of East Asia, Oceania, or Western Europe,” a 2022 paper published by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace pointed out, “have faced similar levels of polarization for such an extended period.”

Last year, another Carnegie Endowment paper found that even while some of the perception of polarization on specific policy questions (such as gun control or abortion) is exaggerated, that perception itself is detrimental to the country’s cohesion. Because “the people who are most involved in civic and political life hold the least accurate [here meaning: highly negative] views of the other side’s beliefs” and there is a high degree of what political scientists call “affective polarization.” Put simply, all or many of those citizens, collectively hoarding so many guns that over 40% of households are armed in one way or the other, do not like or even merely respect “the other side” of the political spectrum – not at all and ever less.

Third, the country also displays a pronounced cultural preoccupation, really almost obsession, not merely with the idea of civil war as such or the specific history of its own very bloody civil war in the nineteenth century. Rather its elites and general population are fixated on a coming civil war, which, as of 2022, a whopping 43 percent considered likely in the next ten years. Debates, high-brow books, articles, and popular culture feature this fantasy prominently and persistently.

We are talking, of course, about the United States of America. While it would be easy to adduce more criteria and data points, there is no need. The above is sufficient to demonstrate that it would be shortsighted to pooh-pooh the risk of a second civil war in America, for two reasons: It is not a mere fantasy, owing its current national resonance to “hype” and the titillation of imagining a liberatingly apocalyptic future of chaos and every man and woman for themselves (and, in the US, I guess, every other gender that wishes to participate).

Smart Americans realize this as well. Barbara F. Walter, for instance, is a prominent political scientist who has worked extensively with the CIA to develop a model of civil war predictors, for any country but the US, of course. She has now come to warn that the model begins to fit America itself disturbingly well. She may have her centrist biases – the usual exaggeration of “Russian influence” included – but her core points are valid: The US is turning into an anocracy, that is, in essence, a regime that only pretends to be a democracy. (In fact, that is what it has always been, I would contend.) And there is a substantial constituency of those who feel threatened by losing their former social status and preeminence. Those happen to be phenomena strongly correlated with a risk of civil war.

Let’s also not forget that America is proving its enormous capacity for global disruption every day, even without civil war at home. While some observers may – even gleefully – hope that Americans fighting each other would finally have to let go of the rest of us, that is a very dicey bet. With an elite narcissistically obsessed with global “primacy” and “indispensability,” about 800 bases worldwide, an arsenal of thousands of nuclear warheads, and a nasty habit of blaming others for its own failures, a new American civil war would not exclude aggression abroad. Moreover, declining as it is, the US is still a key part of the global economy, much more so than in 1860, when its first civil war already had serious repercussions for the rest of the world.

In sum, it may attract preppers with camo baseball hats, beards, and pump guns, but don’t let that fool you: American Civil War 2.0 is a serious issue. So, what about it? What can we reasonably guess about how likely it really is and what shape it might take if it happens?

To start with the latter question, perhaps the first thing to note is that big civil wars can start small and local. That is, by the way, the real significance of the recent, open tensions over migration and border control between the state of Texas and the federal government in Washington. They did involve armed forces and much foreboding rhetoric, but, fortunately, no shots were fired. Yet those glibly dismissing the incident as mere political theater are wrong. Because, as the New York Times has noted, it was not only Texas that defied the US government. Rather, “many Republican state leaders publicly expressed defiance in terms that echoed armed conflicts.”

Indeed, the second thing to note is that, due to America’s federal structure, a new civil war would most likely begin with secession. In the fracas between Washington and Texas, 25 Republican governors openly sided with rebellious Texas. This was a perfect illustration of how one local flashpoint could quickly suck in the rest of the country by creating a logic of ultimate polarization and then secession. This logic has not yet fully unfolded. Its contours, however, have emerged clearly.

It is worth noting that many of the fiction narratives about Civil War 2.0 make the same point: Whether it is the cult graphic novel series “DMZ,” the bitterly ironic novel “American War” (it’s obvious in-joke is that it has some Americans treat other Americans the way Americans and Israelis now treat Palestinians, Iraqis, or Syrians), the small-budget yet clever movie “Bushwick,” or the big-budget “Civil War” about to hit American cinemas now: Again and again the basic premise is a scenario of secession escalating into massive domestic warfare.

Third, while the humongous pile of private firearms would certainly play a large role in a new civil war, it would be misguided to assume that such a fight would only pit gangs of private citizens, organized in militias, against official police and military forces. In reality, a dynamic of secession, once set in motion would lead to parts of the US’s manifold “siloviki” choosing their own allegiance, splitting, and starting to fight each other. If you believe that, in such a situation, the formal chains of command ultimately linking them all back to Washington would remain intact, I have a whole-and-indivisible Yugoslavia to sell you.

And, last but not least, in such a development, the war would be both severe and long. In that respect, it would resemble the first Civil War. Although, due to advanced technologies and declining inhibitions, it could be even more devastating and cruel. In Netflix’s recent and tellingly successful “Leave the World Behind,” the protagonists never learn who exactly is blowing up their country, but by the end of the movie two things seem reasonably clear: No, it’s not enemies from outside, but an inside job, and nukes are being used. That, by the way, was the premise as well of the earlier, initially unsuccessful but now cult television show “Jericho.”

How likely is such a dark future? Obviously, we do not know. But let’s note two things: We could, a priori, be looking at an America where no one is much interested in thinking about it. Yet we are seeing the opposite. If you think that means nothing, fine. Just don’t mistake your guess for a good policy or planning basis.

There are, of course, alternatives to civil war. One is peaceful de-polarization under the current anocratic conditions, which, hypothetically, can happen. The other is full-blown authoritarianism: one way to suppress the possibility of a civil war is to impose dictatorship.

But here’s the catch: A country can end up with both civil war and dictatorship. Ask the ancient Romans. Those Romans, that is, who were so much on the mind of the founders of the American Republic.

It has long been on the minds of doomsday preppers and fiction media creators alike – but how likely is it, really?

What are some unwritten rules of everyday life?

If you are greeting four people standing in a group, at least smile at the fifth person standing along with them, whom you don’t know, so that they don’t feel disrespected.
Whenever you ask someone to do something for you, even if they are ought to do it, frame it as a question to boost their self-esteem. ‘Can you please get my pen from the table?’ sounds much soothing than ‘Go, get my pen’.
People in hurry, appear too irritating, but they may be anxious about something or facing an emergency, don’t bother much, just give them a way and ignore, and even if someone is just too impatient, that’s something to pity.
You desperately want to interrupt someone, may be they are completely wrong, but at least let them finish a sentence, so that you don’t appear even worse than them.
When you finish eating, pick the little pieces of food fallen around your plate and put them on your plate and throw them, it shows immense maturity.
Don’t wait for someone, standing in front of the opposite sex wash room, because when the gate opens again and again, it can be quite embarrasing, and also people may question your integrity.
When you disagree with someone, it doesn’t make them a criminal. Respect their opinion, and realise the fact that your thoughts may also be your opinion and not a fact. ‘Argue with respect.’
Whenever you break a line, you become a teacher for countless innocent people, this isn’t something great to give back to the society, respect a line.
Not liking to be touched is not arrogance, it’s a natural trait of most people, avoid touching people as much as possible to protect your self-esteem and respect theirs.
When you shout at someone, all you are doing is wasting your energy, misusing your larynx, and showing immaturity, learn to take boldest of actions and give harshest of warnings, keeping a smile.

Italian Oven Chowder

To enjoy this hearty chowder as the Italians do, be sure to include the oysters.

What is Creamy Italian Seafood Chowder?

If you are a seafood lover – this Creamy Italian Seafood Chowder is for you!

Sometimes called an Italian “white” seafood chowder – a delicious variety of seafood and vegetables are suspended in a cream-based broth that really allows the flavors of the seafood to shine through. (You can also make a “red” seafood chowder with a tomato-based broth.)

Some Italian families serve this seafood chowder on Christmas Eve for the traditional Feast of Seven Fishes, but we love it anytime of the year – especially with fresh-caught seafood in the summer.

Why you’ll love Creamy Italian Seafood Chowder

It’s chock full of a variety of fresh seafood – and you can vary it depending on the catch of the day, or to suit your family’s tastes.
This chowder is hearty and delicious, and it makes for a very satisfying meal.
You can prepare it ahead of time (but be sure to read our tips below in the Frequently Asked Question to avoid overcooking the seafood if you make it ahead).

Ingredients

4 slices bacon
2 large carrots, sliced 1/2 inch thick
2 medium parsnips, sliced 1/2 inch thick, cutting larger pieces in half
2 medium onions, cut into thin wedges
3 medium potatoes, chopped
2 (14 1/2 ounce) cans reduced-sodium chicken broth
1/2 teaspoon garlic salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
3 tablespoons margarine or butter, melted
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
2 cups milk
2 cups frozen whole kernel corn
1 pint shucked oysters with juice (optional)
Snipped chives or parsley (optional)

Instructions

In a 4-quart Dutch oven cook bacon until crisp. Remove bacon, reserving 1 tablespoon drippings in the pan. Drain bacon on paper towels; crumble and set aside.
Add carrots, parsnips, and onions to Dutch oven. Cook over medium heat for 8 to 10 minutes or until brown, stirring occasionally.
Add potatoes, chicken broth, garlic salt and pepper. Bring to boiling; reduce heat. Cover and simmer about 15 minutes or until potatoes are tender. (At this point the soup can be cooled, covered, and chilled in the refrigerator overnight.)
In a small mixing bowl stir together melted margarine or butter and flour. Stir flour-margarine mixture, milk, and corn into chowder mixture in Dutch oven. Cook and stir over medium heat until slightly thickened. If desired, add oysters and liquid to soup; heat through.
Sprinkle each serving with crumbled bacon and chives or parsley, if desired.

Key Ingredients & Substitutions

Salt Pork and Bacon – These two ingredients are an easy way to add delicious flavor to any soup or chowder – the rendered fat is used to sauté vegetables, so you won’t need to add other fats. While we use both salt pork and bacon, you could easily just use all of one or the other – the salt pork adds a nice salty flavor, while the bacon adds a smokey taste.
Seafood – Buy a total of four pounds of seafood. We made our chowder with fresh haddock, chopped fresh clams, shell-on shrimp (frozen shrimp is fine), fresh scallops, and crab meat. You can substitute any of these varieties of seafood, or use all of one or the other, just as long as the total weight equals four pounds.
Clam juice – Look for bottled clam juice at the supermarket – sometimes sold near the seafood counter. Other times, you can find it near the soup aisle.
Dairy – Heavy cream makes up the broth, along with the clam juice and a broth from the shrimp shells. Unsalted butter smooths things out and adds more flavor. You could lighten this soup up a bit with light cream or half and half – but it won’t be quite the same.
Tomato – Buy canned whole and peeled San Marzano tomatoes. You’ll break up the tomato pieces into the soup and reduce the juices to create a serving sauce that garnishes each portion.
Other Vegetables – Peeled and diced russet potatoes are the best for this seafood chowder, plus diced onion and celery, and minced garlic.
Herbs and spices – You’ll use a variety of herbs and spices including bay leaves, fresh basil, fresh mint, dried oregano, kosher salt, black pepper, and fresh thyme.
Olive Oil
All-Purpose Flour
Oyster Crackers – For serving, if desired

BRAINWASHED! Modern Women Realize The Truth

What is something that someone said to you during your grieving that stuck with you?

I was 27 when my husband (29) passed away unexpectedly while stationed overseas. It took 3 weeks for the army to bring his corpse back to the US and a week after the arrival his church service and funeral took place. A week after the burial, I traveled back to my country of origin for only one week. My daddy, who was extremely fond of my late husband, and who couldn’t attend the funeral due to work obligations and visa lasting procedures, had an open-hearted conversation with me. He said that all of us will die. And many of us will go unexpectedly. That there was a divine reason why all of what happened had happened and that I would need to eventually come to peace with losing him. I needed to see my story with my husband as a chapter of my book that ended. I needed to turn the page to the next chapter for my own benefit, if not, instead of having one dead in the family, they were going to have two. Because that’s who I was going to turn into. A dead living woman.

I listened to his words which made sense, but I didn’t want my life to make sense so quickly so I forgot about them until after I dragged myself into an alcohol addiction for months. And one day, I remembered his wise words and between that and the help of a close friend, I realized my daddy was right. Either I got over my husband’s passing or I was going to stay dead myself.

200 Times Wife Has a MELTDOWN After Getting Caught Cheating #2

How can I look young at 70-80 years old?

Aging is a natural process, but there are steps you can take to maintain a youthful appearance and overall well-being in your 70s and 80s. Here are some tips to help you look and feel young:

1. Stay Active: Regular exercise is crucial for maintaining muscle strength, flexibility, and overall health. Low-impact activities like walking, swimming, and yoga can be excellent choices.

2. Eat a Balanced Diet: A diet rich in fruits, vegetables, whole grains, lean proteins, and healthy fats can support your skin, hair, and overall health.

3. Stay Hydrated: Proper hydration is essential for skin health. Drink enough water to keep your skin hydrated.

4. Protect Your Skin: Use sunscreen to protect your skin from the sun’s harmful UV rays, which can cause premature aging. Moisturize your skin regularly to keep it hydrated.

5. Get Sufficient Sleep: Quality sleep is essential for overall health. Aim for 7-9 hours of sleep per night.

6. Manage Stress: High-stress levels can lead to premature aging. Practice stress-reduction techniques like meditation, deep breathing, or yoga.

7. Regular Checkups: Visit your healthcare provider for regular checkups to address any health concerns promptly.

8. Stay Socially Active: Maintaining social connections can contribute to mental and emotional well-being, which can affect your overall appearance.

9. Mental Stimulation: Keep your mind active with puzzles, games, or learning new skills. It can help maintain cognitive function and a youthful spirit.

10. Good Skincare: Use skincare products suitable for your skin type and age. A good skincare routine can make a difference in maintaining healthy skin.

11. Fashion and Style: Update your wardrobe with clothing that makes you feel confident and stylish. How you dress can impact your overall look.

12. Hair Care: Consider a hairstyle that suits your face shape and is easy to maintain. Many people embrace their natural gray hair, which can be quite attractive.

13. Regular Dental Care: Don’t neglect your dental health. Regular dental checkups and good oral hygiene can help maintain a youthful appearance.

Remember that aging is a natural part of life, and it’s essential to embrace the wisdom and experiences that come with it. Looking and feeling young is about maintaining your health and self-confidence as you age.

I’m starting to cry

Have you ever seen a mass exodus after a respected employee quit or got fired?

Yes. Yes. Yes.

I was working at this shipping company, I think it was.

The boss was one of those who would bully his subordinates. He often made several employees cry.

Anyway, we were in a meeting. It was more like a bitching session.

The boss spent the meeting screaming at everyone, calling us lazy and insisting we were the worst employees ever. He was screaming at us and I felt I had to say something.

So I did.

The boss got right in my face. I mean, like a few inches from me. He started screaming right in my face and I simply stood my ground.

The boss screamed at me to get out, that I was fired.

Then he screamed at everyone else, calling them lazy and telling everyone to get out if they didn’t like the way he was running things.

Each and every person followed me out the door. This literally meant there was no staff to get any work done.

Not surprisingly, the boss ended up getting fired.

America’s spy program exposed

What is the most devastating and horrible birthday you’ve ever had, and why?

I was turning 30. I had planned a party for me and my going to be 12 year old daughter. It was a Saturday. My sister and I went with our kids to Mom and Dad’s for the regular Saturday bagel routine. Dad was at his parents’ house mowing their lawn. He had called me earlier with a, “Happy Birthday Robbio, See Yah later”. I responded, “Love you Daddio”. About 45 minutes into our bagel breakfast, the phone rang and my mother answered. The color completely drained from her face. She kept repeating, “A stroke? A stroke?” It was my grandfather. My father was in the hospital. My then husband and brother-in-law raced to my mother’s side and my sister and I loaded the kids into my car and sped to our grandparents. I played the game in my head, If I get all green lights he’s fine. If I see kids playing he’s fine….etc. It was a warm September day. The windows on the car were open. As we approached the house, we could hear what only could be described as wailing. It was Grandma. I have never, ever heard such a sorrowful, painful sound. My daughter found my Dad’s smashed glasses on the lawn. My grandfather returned from the hospital, just shaking his head. He said nothing. Shortly the family showed up. My dad had died. He had a massive heart attack. The sanitation workers picking up trash had jumped off of the truck to help my grandfather apply CPR, but to no avail. He was basically dead before he hit the ground. For the next fifteen years, no one and I mean no one could say, “Happy Birthday” to me. I forbade it and if someone accidentally said it, they got schooled. I still can’t really celebrate my birthday, even though it’s been 36 years. I do have a major amount of respect for sanitation workers though.

I really understand this

How do you politely tell someone who often borrows things from you and doesn’t return them to stop borrowing from you?

Five days after moving into a new (to me and my wife) home our neighbor, Lee, showed up at our door to borrow my weedeater. He’d seen me using it in my backyard the day before and said he wanted to do some “cleanup” around his yard. I told him that I was sorry but I had a firm policy against loaning my tools or equipment out. I also mentioned that I’d bought the weedeater at a local home improvement store for around $75. He replied that he wouldn’t use it that often so he didn’t see the point of buying one.

End of story, right?

Not quite.

The guy pretty much avoided me after I denied his request; if I came outside while he was in his driveway or yard, he’d ignore me, or just give a cursory wave before turning away. Over time I became friendly with Mack, my neighbor across the street, and one evening we were in his backyard, staining his deck, when he said that he didn’t think I was a bad guy, at all. I asked him to explain and he told me that my next door neighbor, Lee, had told him and a couple of other neighbors that I was an asshole who didn’t want to help anyone out. Because I wouldn’t lend him my weedeater.

I told Mack that Lee struck me as being something of an opportunist and con man, and Mack admitted that Lee did have those tendencies. That convinced me that I’d been right to refuse to lend him my weedeater. He was just angry at me because I didn’t buy his BS.

Manly habits

Were German women friendly to American troops?

I couldn’t say how friendly German women as a whole were to American troops; (although sometimes they were very friendly indeed, I’ve often read, lol)…but I can relate a story my dad told me about an interaction he once had with a German woman towards the very end of the Third Reich.

My dad was a medic in the 3rd Armored Division. He landed on Omaha beach, fought all through France, drove through the carnage and destruction of the Falaise pocket, was in Belgium at the Battle of the Bulge and was in Germany at the Battle of the Hurtgen forest. He was also at the liberation of the Nordhausen forced labor camp, where V-2 rockets were being constructed by slave labor…Poles, Jews, Czechs and Russians. My father was in the Ruhr pocket in Rhine-North Westphalia, Germany when the war ended.

It really didn’t dawn on me until much later in life what a living repository of history my dad was, and how present he had been at and for so much history. He told me many truly amazing stories, and as I was always pretty much the only one among my siblings who ever showed any interest in my dad’s WW II service, I wrote everything he told me down and have it archived on my computer. (And even as a child, I was fascinated by my father’s stories and recognized them for the real family and WW II history they were). I really wish I had tape recorded my dad telling these stories when he was still alive, and always meant to…but life and time got in the way (as it often does) and I never got around to it. Still, though…I’ve got them all down in print.

This happened shortly after the 3rd Armored had crossed into Germany proper. My dad told me;

“Often, when we moved into and occupied these towns, of course we would sometimes take a break for chow. And invariably, little French or Belgian or in this case German kids would cluster around, watching us getting ready to eat and hoping for some food. All of these children had been living in occupied or food-rationed countries for years now; they were often terribly thin and pale. And they’d gather around, smelling the cooking food and shyly watching us with big eyes.

And of course…we shared. I mean…how the heck could you eat while being watched by hungry kids? Anybody with a heart would’ve shared, and we always did.

And in this particular town, there was a little fella watching us. He had a beat-up, moth-eaten black coat on, and a little black cap on his head. Short pants and knee socks…legs like pipe cleaners…like sticks.

So I decided right then and there to make sure this little guy got fed well.

I grabbed him by the hand, took him to the head of the chow line and told the guy filling our kits, “C’mon, pal. Load this little guy up. Load ‘im up. Looks like he hasn’t had a decent meal in years.” And he hunted up an aluminum tray, and piled it high with corned-beef hash and beans and white bread. I dug a D-bar out of my pocket and also put some chewing gum on the tray, too. I knelt down and put the tray and food into the boy’s hands.

You should’ve seen this kid’s face. (Laughs). His eyes nearly popped out of his head! “Danke schoen, Herr Soldaten!’’, he said to me politely and wonderingly. I found an empty packing crate in the street, led him over to some steps in front of a house, propped up the crate and helped him put the tray on it and sit down, and stuck a tin spoon in his hand. In German, I told him to help himself and eat up. Eagerly, he began to dig in.

But as the boy began to bring the first spoonful of food to his mouth…a door to a house on the other side of the street flew open, and a matronly “hausfrau“ maybe sixty years old or so came storming out of the house and across the street to us, snatched the spoon right outta the kid’s hand, grabbed the tray of food and hurled it to the ground.

“ALBERNES KIND!” (FOOLISH CHILD!), she yelled at the boy. “Do you not know, have you not heard? These American soldiers are all CHICAGO GANGSTERS!! They will kill you!! That food is poisoned!! And yet you are blockhead enough to eat of it??!!”

Viciously jerking the boy up off the stairs by his arm, she swatted his ass good and turned to march with him back to the house across the street. As the kid started bawling, I grabbed her by the arm to try to stop her and explain things to her. I spoke and understood the Deutsch pretty damned well by then, and I knew exactly what she’d said; and I was very much dismayed that she actually believed I, or we as Americans, would really try to poison her child…or grandchild, most likely. And I desperately wanted her to understand that this wasn’t the case.

And besides…I wasn’t even from Chicago! (Laughs).

So I tried to talk to her, addressing her as ‘’gnadige frau” (gracious lady) and telling her, “The food is not poisoned! Look!” And I bent over and picked up the tray, and actually scooped up a handful of hash off the ground and ate it right in front of her! “Nicht giftig!”, I kept repeating to her, “nicht giftig!” (Not poisoned!)

Unfortunately, she was having none of it. With a glare at me and a sniff of her upturned nose, she turned away and dragged the bawling kid across the street and into the house and slammed the door behind them.

I felt bad that the little guy never got his chow, and that these people had been so ingrained to hate and distrust us by Nazi propaganda.

But not all the German people were that way. Many of them were quite friendly and distinctly glad to see us…as opposed to the Russians.”

My father told me lots of other stories, some funny, many quite tragic, which I’ll be submitting to Quora in the future. My first story of his got an overwhelming response, and I was glad so many people enjoyed it. I fancy myself a student of WW II, and it really made me pleased that so many other people find so much interest in my dad’s war tales. Thanks to everyone for your views and comments…more to come if you’re interested!

A stunning kitten

What is an insane coincidence that you’ve experienced?

I went to the drive up window at our pharmacy to pick up my script. It was a very blustery day. As I went to put my $20 in the drawer a gust of wind blew it out of my hand. After paying with my ATM card I pulled away and parked. Got out of the car and searched the area but no luck. My thought was I hope whoever found it needed it more than me and drove home. During the next week or so I was in and out of my car including the trunk several times.

I had a bag full of clothes to donate to Goodwill. In order to get to the Goodwill near me I had to drive to the intersection near my pharmacy, turn left, travel about half mile, turn right onto a busy highway, drive another half mile and turn left into the Goodwill parking lot, drive to the back of the store to deliver my donation. The rear parking lot backed up to a wooded area. I took the clothes out of the trunk of my car and deposited them in the bin provided.

Just as I walked to the back of my car a $20 bill blew right up to my feet. I just couldn’t believe it. The bill looked like it had been out in weather for a while. Was it my bill from the pharmacy. Was it somehow stuck to my car or trunk. But how could that be. I had driven my car quite a bit and had been in and out of my car and trunk several times during that week. In any event I was so happy because I sure needed that $20.

When Delusional Woke People Get OWNED

https://youtu.be/TNtVDYnSxh0

TO THE MOM AT THE SCHOOL DROP OFF THIS MORNING

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.

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.

THE WORST THING THAT CAN HAPPEN TO A MAN!

The biggest fucking L, a guy can take in life.

What is some advice that most employees are not ever likely to hear?

If you don’t ask, you don’t get!!

Supporting evidence: Having spent more than 5 years at TCS I thought employees must accept their manager’s decision, no questions asked. After I moved to Australia I took up a casual hour based contract job. I didn’t mind the pay (which was less than what my experience could get me) because I loved the team. My manager believed in giving credit where it was due and soon the top management wanted to offer a fixed term contract which meant I could take paid leaves. I was so grateful and was about to sign the contract when my manager asked, “Aren’t you going to ask for a raise?”

“But this is so nice of them and I don’t want to make it awkward. What if they think I’m being greedy?”, I asked.

My manager laughed but looked at me seriously as she said, “Ruchika, if you don’t ask, you don’t get! You know you can get more money outside and they know it too. Don’t let them get away with it. Show them you know your worth.”

I nodded and wrote an email only to please my manager. I was so surprised at the response because the higher step pay was granted to me, just like that.

After some time, the management decided to offer me an ongoing permanent position and offered me the topmost step pay in the band. I was about to sign the offer letter as my manager reminded me to ask for a raise again. “But they are already offering me the topmost level in my band and they can’t change the band for this job, so I’m not sure what they can do.”, I responded.

“They will figure out a way if they want to. I know they will because they know you’re good and wouldn’t want to lose you. However, if they can’t, the worse that’ll happen is, they’ll refuse. I can’t see what you have to lose.”

Cursing the awkward situation I was in, I wrote an email trying to sound grateful and confident at the same time. My manager approved the draft and I hit send. By the end of the day, the General Manager asked HR to add a special loading to my pay package, which meant I was earning pretty much the same as the next band without undergoing any admin headache.

The thing is the company knows their good employees and understands, like all relationships, this association needs to be beneficial to both the parties. So if there’s something that you know will help you perform better for your company… just ask!

’Cause if you don’t ask, you don’t get!!

What did your boss ever say in the office that caused you to resign?

Boss asked me to train a newly hired paralegal graduate to do my job in one week as she was going to be my backup while I was on vacation.

I asked him how do I train 35 years of experience in a fresh paralegal graduate? I did my best to cram the information before I left for vacation.

She was inattentive and I had grave concerns since she refused to take notes.

Upon my return, I got the blame for every mistake she made during my absence. Each attorney gave me a list of their grievances.

I defended myself and was scolded for insubordination and told my services were no longer required.

So I left, turning in my keys. 4 hours later I receive a text stating that I misunderstood our conversation and that it was not their intention to terminate me.

5 hours later, I receive another text stating that he was no longer firing me but I needed to be less reactive and more understanding of the firm needs.

I decided to help clarify the situation and informed him that my text response confirms the separation terms.

Experience comes with damage

Have you ever outsmarted your teacher?

Yes. Yes I have.

And if you are a teacher, you might be cranky after reading this. It does not put teenage me in a flattering light.

When I was in high school, you had to take 2 years of gym in order to graduate. May I just say, over 30 years later, the most frequent recurring nightmare I have is not having enough of the right credits to graduate high school.

This plagued me.

I hated gym. I wasn’t athletic. I was not a group anything, and was particularly awful at group sports. I’m very tall, so you’d think I’d be good at volleyball. Nope. Into the net every time.

I despised everything about gym, because I was an outsider. Outsiders are most vulnerable in gym class. I just wanted to be alone & read books & listen to Bowie records.

Plus, I hated my body. I thought I was supposed to look like Farrah Fawcett. I did not look like Farrah. I was fat, and in particular I hated my legs.

Back then, you were required to do certain things to pass gym. One of those things was called dressing out. We also had to participate in class, then take a shower & dress for our next class, all in six or seven minutes at the end.

As you can see, this was a lot of body exposure for someone who hated their body so much. Every part of it was a humiliation to me.

I have a picture of myself in a swimsuit after my senior year. Thing is, my body was fine. I’d be delighted to have that body again.

(So if you are a teenager and hate your body, stop it. You are more fabulous than you know.)

Dressing out was changing out of our school clothes & putting on our gym clothes, which was basically a polyester onesie. Navy shorts attached to a navy & white horizontally striped shirt which zipped up the front to our neck.

It was just heinous. See?

(Photo courtesy of Google images)

I just wouldn’t do it. I’d plead not feeling well & wonder why putting on this onesie & playing dodgeball could possibly advance our lives in any way. I sat on the sidelines staring at the antics of class with great disdain. And I seemed to be getting away with it.

I was not getting away with it.

One day, our gym teacher, Mrs. K, walked over to me. She had a very pleased with herself expression on her face. She was smirking.

Because kids like me were the bane of existence to teachers like her. I had a bad attitude.

Once in a while, teachers will one-up kids like me. My antennae went up. The smirk worried me.

I need to talk to you, she said.

I stood up and gazed at my foe, with her Hamill haircut and velour track suit in a particularly unflattering shade of mauve.

I have to tell you, she said, almost unable to contain her glee, that you are failing gym. There’s no way for you to pass. None. I have told you over and over you have to dress out and participate. You haven’t done either. So, she continued, delivering her coup de grace, unless you go to summer school, you will not graduate with your class.

SUMMER SCHOOL? Oh, HELL no.

I do believe I cried. She was unmoved, giving the standard line that eff-ups like me hear time and time again:

There are consequences to our actions!

It was unbearable.

I did feel ashamed. It was just so stupid and avoidable. I’d truly screwed myself this time.

Two things were certain.

I was not going to summer school.
I was not being left behind a year. Impossible.

So I had to put my thinking cap on & figure this mess out.

Okay. What does she want? What do teachers like her want from students? Above all else?

The answer was clear. The problem was the execution of the plan. She would be suspicious. I had to deliver this perfectly.

The next day, I showed up at gym class. I put on the wretched gym suit. I participated in calisthenics and dodgeball. I showered & dressed for class. I saw her looking at me with my peripheral vision; I did not turn my head or make eye contact.

Me & my new, improved attitude were docile. Subdued. One of the herd.

Next day, I came back. Did the same thing. Participated. Laughed along with the other students. Plays well with others, check.

I knew the fatal flaw would be to ask her to pass me. So I didn’t. Nothing happened. A week went by.

Then one day she calls my name after class. I trot up to her. I keep my eyes big and innocent. I say Yes m’am.

I’ve noticed, she starts, that you’ve been dressing out & participating for a week. Without a reward in sight.

That’s right, I think, keep going…

You have had a real change of attitude.

It’s actually worked, I think, this is just thrilling.

So, she continues, kind now; dare I say moved? If you continue to dress out every day & write a two-page report on the importance of dressing out, I will pass you.

YES

But you have to do it every day, she warns, letting me know not to test her benevolence.

Ah, bien sur, Madame. I give effusive & grateful thanks.

I walk out of there like a boss. I can barely contain my joy. No summer school. I graduate with my class.

I tell my best friend, howling with glee, about how my attitude had changed.

Unbelievable, says my friend T, with more than a little disgust.

What do teachers want most? They want to make a difference in a kid’s life. I let her think she had changed me; that she’d taught me the importance of a good attitude.

What?

Everyone left happy.

Preach it girl

What are most people surprised to hear about Australia?

What are most people surprised to hear about Australia?

the crustaceans we put on barbeques are called “prawns”, not “shrimp”.
I had never heard of Steve Irwin until after he become famous overseas — he was not that well-known here before he became famous overseas
Steve Irwin and Crocodile Dundee are anything but “typical Australians” — typical Australians live in cities, like Sydney and Melbourne and the other state, territory, and federal capitals
we rarely see dangerous animals or insects — Australia is not particularly dangerous and we have a long life expectancy
we don’t see many kangaroos or other native animals unless we live well outside the big cities
Pavlovas — you must eat one
Australian confectionery is very good, at least compared to American confectionery
Australian food (meat, vegetables, fruit) is fresh and generally of a high quality
most Australians live near the ocean — the interior is relatively empty (and dry, as in desert)
Australia does not have a lot of Mexican restaurants because we don’t live next door to Mexico — it is a long way from here
Australians do not like Starbucks, and do not have “Burger King” — we call it Hungry Jacks because of a court case run by a business here that already had the name “Burger King”
our Woolworths has no relation to American Woolworths … except our Woolworths stole the name before the American Woolworths tried to open stores here (Woolworths Group (Australia) – Wikipedia

)Australians drive on the left — like the British, Japanese, New Zealanders, Indians, and many other people in this part of the worldwe have winter in June, July, and August, and summer in December, January, and February … and no, we don’t think that is strangeit gets cold here in winter, especially because we build our houses to be cool in summer … and then freeze in winter if we don’t have heaters and woolly jumpers (sweaters).

If you only bring summer clothes to Australia you will suffer during winter months.we have Christmas in summer (December) … because Christmas is not a celebration of winter, it is a celebration set on 25 December

Australians write dates as day/month/year not month/day/yearthe Australian accent is different to the New Zealand accent — just ask a New Zealander to say “fish and chips”: if they say “fush end chups” they are from New Zealand. It is definitely different to any British accent.Australians use A4 paper, not “Letter size”; we use the metric system; our currency is the Australian dollar … and we changed all of those things in my lifetime.our temperature is in Celsius.

No, we don’t understand Fahrenheit, we have to convert it to Celsius first.we put “petrol” in our cars, not “gas” … unless your car has been converted to use liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), in which case we say “LPG”, not “gas”. Petrol is not a gas, it is a liquid.

I went there and loved it

What new policy did a new boss try to implement that made you say “You gotta be kidding me”?

One boss asked a subordinate to review sick leave usage. The subordinate reported that 40% of all sick leave was taken in conjunction with a weekend. He took it as proof that people were abusing the sick leave system.

The boss ordered all supervisors to require a doctor’s note when someone took sick leave in conjunction with a weekend.

I did a quick analysis of his order and responded, “Monday and Friday are each one fifth of the work week, or 20% of the work week each. Together they add up to 40% of the week. If people get sick at random, they will call in evenly over the work week. You should expect to see an even distribution of 20% of sick leave taken on any given work day. The fact that only 40% call in on Monday and Friday (20% each) proves that no one is abusing sick leave.”

He rescinded the order.

Cat love

What is the dirtiest fine print you’ve seen in a contract?

So I was working with this Car Dealership in the States for quite a while, about 4–5 years. Made good money and we had relatively good business practices, which isn’t common in car sales anywhere, and I ended up liking it alot. Anyway, they had this page in the employee handbook that states essentially that if your fired, quit, etc before commission is paid out on the 15th of each month then they were not required to pay you your commission. And that instead of $15 an hour your paychecks were retroactively reduced to minimum wage of $7.75. So, in this dirtiest of fine prints, what it didn’t tell you is that if they fired you on the 14th, which happened ALOT, then instead of getting your commission check, you were handed a bill that you owed them. Unless you worked an impossible amount of hours, you’d never be able to break the “Draw pay” or the money they front you weekly, $600 weekly. You would have to sell an absurd amount of cars, which case your not fired no matter how much you suck, or work 100+ hours a week to cover it. It was just cruel and dirty. I watched many folk get fired on the 14th and on the 15th have a letter from accounting stating that you ower them $300-$500 due in less than 30 days. Everyone screamed it was illegal, but “You signed the agreement” was always the answer. Somebody sued them for it once, and if memory serves me right they dragged it out for about 2 years and settled on not nearly enough money to cover lawyers and court costs. Dirty fine print at its best.

Evolutionary bottleneck

What are some examples of kind people that have touched your heart?

In 2012 a man was traveling in a Suzuki car with 3 others in Patna. He was driving at a speed of 100 kmph on an empty highway. Soon an SUV passed them at a very high speed. The SUV was so fast that it almost got out of control and was about to hit the Suzuki.

To save the accident, the driver of Suzuki tried to move away from the passing SUV. Doing so, the Suzuki got out of control and overturned and hit the corner of the road.

(photo for illustration only)

Four people in the car were badly injured, but narrowly escaped. The SUV driver fled after the accident and there was no one else on the road. Suzuki’s driver was badly injured and he got out of the car and sat on the middle of the road, shouting “Save!”.

It was 36 degree heat and the road was scorching. The driver lay on the road thinking that he was about to die. He wanted to help the other 3 passengers, who were still inside the car and were moaning in pain.

A few minutes later a car arrived. The man who got out of the car made a video of the accident with his phone. Then he took a closeup of the driver, whose face was covered in blood. Then this person sat in his car and left from there.

A few more minutes passed and the other car stopped. A middle-class couple came out and saw the driver lying on the hot road. The couple went back to their car and came back with a sheet.

To protect the injured driver from the scorching sun, the couple shed a sheet over him and stood up. They both stood in the sun. The husband then called emergency health services and asked them to come to the scene immediately.

They both stood there giving shade to the injured driver for almost 70 minutes! So long in the sun!

After the ambulance arrived, the couple took two other passengers in their car along with the ambulance.

The couple left the hospital after the four injured were admitted to the ICU. The driver narrated this story after recovering from an injured condition for several months, but he could not meet the noble couple.

THE BRUTAL TRUTH

What are some lies about China I may have been told by the Western media as a US citizen?

Here are a few of the more prominent ones:

China is committing genocide against the Uyghurs.
China is committing forced labour on the Uyghurs.
China is restricting democracy in Hong Kong.
China is militarily aggressive towards Taiwan and in the South China Sea.
China is a dictatorship.
China is trapping developing countries in debt with the Belt and Road Initiative.

There are many, many more lies. They could fill a book, so it’s not appropriate to expound on all of it in a Quora answer.

Some food for thought…

China has fought no wars since 1979. How many wars has America fought?
China has legitimate maritime disputes in the South China Sea, just like USA and Canada have no fewer than five maritime disputes.
China does not sanction other countries, nor interfere in their politics, nor overthrow their governments. America has done all of this.
According to the Edelman Trust Barometer, 85% of Chinese trust their government. Only 40% of Americans do, and 30% of Brits do.

According to Latana’s Democracy Perception Index (which measures what people think of their political system), China is the sixth most democratic country, well ahead of Canada, UK, and USA.

The Global South gives overwhelming support to the Belt and Road Initiative. Over 150 countries participate!

Married Women Held Accountable for Late Night Encounters with Under Age Boys

What is the most out-of-touch thing your boss has ever done at a meeting?

At 4pm he told us to compile a report and action plan ready for tomorrow’s 830am meeting. Now to do this properly would take each of us a full day’s work. All 7 of us protested, and asked for more time. I asked when he expected us to find the time, and he told us to work on it that night at home. I openly said “sorry, that’s unreasonable. I have a 90 minute drive home, then I’ll be cooking dinner, and then helping with showers and homework. When that’s done I have about an hour before I’m ready to fall asleep. His reply? “Get your wife to make the dinner and shower the kids while you work on the report.” And then he left the room. So we all united and decided not to do it.

He went off his tree at 830am the next morning when nothing was done. I had a word to the very nice HR lady, about what he said, along with the list of people in the room who witnessed it. When he blew his gasket and wanted HR to issue warnings, she simply told him to reschedule the meeting for the following day, and let us work all day uninterrupted to prepare for it, in work time.

Women don’t have options

What happens when a customer tells a manager “I want that employee fired or I won’t come back”?

My ex worked at a Friendlies restaurant. They had that wonderful phenomena with the Sunday morning church crowd. If you don’t know what I’m referring to, ask anyone who works Sunday morning at low-end restaurants.

This one family was notorious for demanding exemplary service, running the servers ragged and not tipping. On my ex’s last day of work, they showed up and did their usual. Rather than not tipping, they left a little card that said “I’ve given your tip to Jesus!” She balled up the card, followed them out into the parking lot, threw it at the dad and said “Jesus doesn’t pay my fucking rent!”

The dad flew back into the restaurant and demanded she be fired. The manager said it was her last day, and maybe things like this wouldn’t happen if you tipped the server. It was golden.

Why a woman’s status is IRRELEVANT

What are the most interesting facts about human behavior?

70% of people keep things to themselves to avoid being judged by others.
People between the ages of 18–33 are the most stressed in the world After the age of 48, stress level tends to reduce.
The most common lie said by humans is ” I’m fine”
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!
Always tell the truth. So when you have to tell a lie, people are more likely to believe you.
More you talk about a person to others, more you fall in love with that person.
If you announce your goals or tell someone else about them, you are less likely to accomplish them because of lack of motivation interest since you have nothing to prove.
A true friend who understands your troubles is far more valuable than a hundred friends who only show up for your smile.
We tend to behave better when we are being watched.
Happier is not the one who has more money, but the one who has more money than his neighbor.
Anger increases the desire of possession in people. People make more efforts to obtain the object that is associated with angry faces.
‘Maturity’ has no connection with ‘Age’. Yes, age is just a number…you can find more maturity in a child, than a person in his 50’s. Maturity comes with ‘Empathy’.
Intelligent people tend to have fewer friends.
We want more choices, but choose better with fewer options.

$287,000 law of attraction

Hum. Why so low?

It’s been said within the first 45 seconds of a job interview, the interviewer already made up their mind about whether you will be called back for a 2nd interview. Why don’t they say thanks & end the interview in 5 minutes? Why pretend & waste time?

I’ll admit that when I conducted interviews — either alone or as part of a panel — there were times when I liked, or disliked, a candidate early on. That’s why I came up with a series of questions to ask and made sure to ask them all: I wanted to give the candidate an opportunity to change my mind, one way or the other.

I will say that my initial impression was right about 70% of the time but ending an interview after five minutes would be a waste of the candidate’s and, more importantly, my time. In my 50+ years in the work force, there was only one occassion when I ended an interview prematurely. When I owned a security guard company I interviewed a woman for a job as Operations Manager. When she sat down she said that she’d heard good things about my company and she really wanted the job. Then she stood up and leaned on my desk, so I could see down her blouse, and said she’d do anything to get the job. I looked at her and smiled, and she repeated, Anything.

I ended the interview at that point, after less than ten minutes, and thanked her for coming in. I told her I planned on making a decision before the weekend (she’d come in on Tuesday) and I would let her know what is was. I had my assistant call her two days later and tell her another candidate had been hired. That chick was a lawsuit waiting to happen and I wanted no part of her.

Out of the frying pan and into the fire

What screams “I’m going to be a difficult customer!”?

When I’ve approached a table and before I’ve even said hello I’ve been met with ‘just so you know, we are on tripadvisor’. *sigh*. I can tell straight away I’m going to get AT LEAST one complaint about food/service/drinks/the colour of the tablecloths or whatever other excuses they want to make in order to receive a discount or face a terrible review.

We have a group of women who come in twice a month. There are always between 8-10 of them. They are taken care of as well as we take care of all our other guests. The fact you leave reviews on tripadvisor is not special and you will not be treated any differently. Every time they come in they order the same lamb dish. Everytime they ALL complain about the lamb dish.

The first time I was apologetic and gave a good discount on the bill. Two weeks later it happened again I gave a discount but started to suspect something when other patrons complimented the lamb and I had watched them talking for a good 15 minutes after food was served before complaining the food was cold. The third time it happened I was pissed off. Not only were they generally rude to the staff but when they paid the bill they would make a big deal out of saying they left a little extra for the server and it has never been more than 5 pence. Luckily we are in a country where we don’t rely on tips to earn a living.

So this third time they come in; as usual they want lamb and as usual they complain about it. When it comes time to pay I take the complete bill over, no discount.

The chief moaner said that as they hadn’t enjoyed the lamb they should get some discount. I was once again reminded they were on tripadvisor. I proceeded to tell them that they had been here twice now, ordered the same thing and complained about it both times. They were choosing to come here and if the food was that bad they didn’t need to come back. They were more than welcome to leave a terrible review and in exchange we didn’t have to give them free food every other week or put up with their terrible attitude and it was a worthwhile trade.

Shockingly they didn’t argue back just paid the bill and left. Also shockingly they came back two weeks later like normal and ordered the lamb, which when asked if everything was okay with their meals it was ‘delicious’ or ‘lovely, thank you’.

They still come every fortnight and we never got a negative review on tripadvisor.

She Sells Her Soul For 50 Years Of Pleasure, But When The Devil Comes For Her, She Outwits Him

https://youtu.be/goAqksxuAKU

What’s a compliment you will remember till the day you die?

In 2022, I visited New York City to take a training for my job.

I set aside the day before the training started as a sightseeing day. I knew I wanted to visit Ellis Island and the 9–11 Museum, so I bought a package ticket for both through the website where I booked my flight and hotel.

On my sightseeing day, I took the subway from my hotel down to Battery Park and met my tour group there. The tour guide, who was wonderfully intelligent, knowledgeable and interesting, took us to the ferry, which took us to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island.

After the ferry returned, it turned out that I was the only one of the group who had also signed up to go to the 9–11 Museum. The tour guide walked me down there, saying it was only a few blocks away.

I’m 63 years old, and not in very good physical condition. The temperature was over 90 degrees, and I do not do well in the heat. So it was a long walk for me, and I had to take frequent rest breaks. The tour guide was quite patient with me, and we had a really great conversation during this walk.

At one point in the conversation, I mentioned my husband. The tour guide said to me, “Your husband must be very smart. I know this because you are very smart, and I can tell you would never put up with a guy who wasn’t as smart as you. You would have him for breakfast.”

I will never forget that complement!

P. S. FYI, my husband IS very smart.

Italian Wedding Soup

This Italian Wedding Soup Recipe is simply the best! Made with acini de pepe, beef and pork meatballs, carrots, celery, greens, and Parmesan cheese. This soup is SO flavorful! Serve with crusty bread and a glass of wine and enjoy!

Packed with onions and carrots, spinach and pasta and meatballs, this hearty soup is perfect for chilly winter nights. Serve a big bowl of wedding soup with crusty rolls for a satisfying meal.

Yield: 29 cups; about 16 (12 ounce) servings

Ingredients

Meatballs

2 hamburger rolls or 4 slices white bread
2/3 cup milk
1 large egg
1 1/4 teaspoons salt
1 1/2 pounds ground beef or meatloaf mix
1 medium onion, grated or very finely diced
3 tablespoons grated Parmesan or Asiago cheese
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon dried parsley

Soup

2 tablespoons olive oil
2 medium onions, diced; about 2 cups
2 cups finely diced carrots, about 3 large carrots
2 large garlic cloves, peeled and minced
4 to 4 1/2 quarts (16 to 18 cups) chicken broth, homemade or purchased
1 1/2 teaspoons dried Italian herbs or 3/4 teaspoon each dried oregano and dried basil
10-ounce box frozen chopped spinach
1 teaspoon salt, to taste
1/2 to 1 teaspoon coarsely ground black pepper, to taste
2 2/3 cups uncooked orzo, ditalini, or other small, roundish pasta

Instructions

Meatballs

Combine the bread, egg, milk, and salt, stirring until everything is well moistened. Allow to sit for about 10 minutes to soften.
Add the ground meat, onion, cheese, and herbs. Mix gently until thoroughly combined.
Shape tiny meatballs, (about 1 inch diameter or less). Using a level teaspoon scoop (which volume-wise is actually 2 level measuring teaspoons) makes about the right size. Place the meatballs on a parchment-lined or lightly greased cookie sheet, and refrigerate them while you prepare the soup.

Soup

Get out a large pot, at least 6 quart capacity. Pour the olive oil into the bottom of the pot, and add the onions and carrots. Sauté, stirring frequently, until the onions are translucent and beginning to brown, about 10 minutes. Add the garlic, and cook for another couple of minutes.
Add the broth and herbs, bring to a simmer, and cook gently for 10 minutes.
Add the frozen chopped spinach, and simmer for 15 to 20 minutes, total; the soup will take awhile to come back to a simmer, due to the frozen spinach. Help it along by breaking it up with a fork as it cooks.
Gently drop the meatballs into the soup. Simmer the soup for 30 minutes or so, then stir in the pasta, cooking until it’s al dente. For orzo, this will take about 8 minutes or so.
Add salt and pepper to taste; using reduced-salt canned chicken broth, we added 1 teaspoon salt; and 1 teaspoon coarsely ground black pepper.
Serve the soup garnished with freshly grated Parmesan or Asiago cheese.

3 WAYS SIGMA MALES GET WOMEN OBSESSED WITH THEM

Can you share a memorable experience from an arrest where something someone said made you feel either sympathetic or happy?

When I was a Probation and Parole officer I had this guy on parole and probation at the same time. He had several positive cocaine drug tests. Usually three positive tests was where they would be arrested. Larry was uniquely qualified for extra chances. I can’t remember the fourth reason, but it most have been pretty good for me to have given him the pass. Then he got his fifth positive test. As much as I liked him I felt like I had to arrest him then. So, I confronted him about the positive test, and instead of denying it like most parolees did he said, “Officer Davis, I was this woman, and she poured cocaine all over her breasts and p**sy, and said, Larry go down on all this stuff.” Then he looked at me like a five year old child would, even though he was a forty some year ago man and said, “Officer Davis, what did you expect me to do?”

I never new if that story was true or not, I’m pretty sure it is, but anyway it was such a good story that Larry got another chance and completed hi probation and parole, with a little help from me.

Older Woman Leaves Her Good Husband And Can’t COPE With The CONSEQUENCES

Have you ever found something in your food that was clearly not supposed to be there? How did you react?

This was back around the mid-90’s in So Cal. We were having dinner with serveral of my husband’s coworkers and their spouses. It was a fairly well-known Italian place, I ordered shrimp and broccoli pasta. I took a few bites, and there was a large curled up caterpillar (I later learned was a “tomato horn worm”). It was the size of the shrimp, but not quite a brilliant green like the broccoli.

I didn’t want to make a huge fuss, so I pushed food around the plate. The server came around, and noticed that my plate was still mostly full. He asked if there was something wrong, and I pointed to the caterpillar. He went kind of pale, and quickly whisked my plate off the table. My husband noticed, but with the rest of the table eating and conversing, no one else did.

The owner of the place came over and very quietly apologized, and offered me another item. I no longer had much appetite. He asked if I would like a dessert, but no, I just couldn’t. You could tell he was genuinely aghast. I didn’t make any announcement to the rest of the table, but just said I was full. They didn’t know anything until they were told that the entire table’s bill was comped.

We still laugh about that “green” shrimp. And yes, that restaurant is still in business.

My neighbor’s child had a party last night while his parents were away. When we woke up this morning one of our cars windows was shattered and there are beer cans all over our yard. Should his parents pay for my car?

Irishman here. About 25 years ago, our next door neighbour went on holidays to Spain for 2 weeks leaving their 16 year old son behind. The son had a series of parties all week and I called in to him to have words with him. When I called in, there were a group of kids there and when I was talking to him, I noticed from his eyes that I may have done better talking to the dog. He was as high as a kite and you could see and smell the drugs. I reported it the Gardai (Irish Police) who called out to him, but did nothing.

Friday of the week came and the party was beginning to grow with loads of people and loud music. I couldn’t take it any longer and my wife, kids and I went to our holiday home in Wexford for the weekend. Before we left, we informed the Gardai and some neighbours.

The following morning, we got a call to say the house next door went on fire and we had a lot of fire damage in our house. We came home to chaos.

The young lad next door moved in with some relatives nearby and they refused to ring his parents in Spain to tell them in case it would ruin their holiday.

When they came home, we spoke to them and they refused to accept any responsibility and we had to put it through our insurance. At the time, I was very naive regarding putting in an insurance claim and missed out on a lot. I should have replaced stuff where I just got them repaired and made do with a lot of other stuff. In short, I only claimed for half of what I should have and in saying that, my insurance increased for the next 5 years and affected our no claims bonus for 7 years. It cost me 10s of thousands of Punts.

The next door neighbours got their house completely gutted and rebuilt. Essentially a new house. The only thing that remained of the original house were the 4 walls, All concrete. They then moved out to a new house elsewhere.

In answer to your question: Yes they should pay and carry out a clean up. But it didn’t happen in my case.

Do I have the right to refuse my father’s custody time (I’m 15)?

My ex and I had 50/50 custody.

When my son was in 8th grade, he refused to get in my ex’s car when she came to pick him up. I never found out why.

We took him to counseling, she had him meet with her minister (I took him over). In all cases, he sat there for over an hour and never said a word.

Eventually, she sued me for not forcing him to go with her. Judge took testimony. Told him all the things that we had tried to find out what was going on. Judge decided to take a crack at it. Spent 15 minutes chatting with him in chambers. Judge found him personable and likeable, but when he brought up why he wanted nothing to do with his mother, my son shut down and refused to interact with him.

Judge’s decision was that my son had veto powers over any custody agreement. My son never talked with his mother again until after high school graduation. He is 25 years now, he still has a bad relationship with his mother, and I still don’t know why.

MODERN WOMEN are SCARED of Sigma Males

What was the most horrible thing said or done by your boss?

1968. Single Mom, very poor. So poor I couldn’t afford needle & thread to sew my good blouse with a torn sleeve at shoulder. Worked for GSA, government with 2 other office ladies. Main Secretary had to have major surgery; off several weeks. The other lady became ill & took extended leave also. Left me to do all the work.

I didn’t mind as all the custodial/maintenance persons told me what a great job I was doing. They all said my annual appraisal warranted an outstanding rating; meaning a bonus of $200.

My boss called me in for the appraisal and his words: “I think you deserve an excellent rating but if I give it to you, I will have to fill out a lot of paper work. Then what will you have to work for next year”.

I was crushed and dumbfounded. It was unbelievable to the others persons as well. Within a few months, I found another job. Karma stepped in. Boss called me within a month and asked me to return as the other gals were leaving.

I declined.

Have you ever seen a doctor yell at their patient?

Yes, and the patient was me.

I was 16 years old and had an appointment my mother made because I was bleeding from my rectum. I was a 16 year old who thought it was all so dumb and wasn’t this doctors appointment just stupid and why mom did you bring me here… I was vocalizing all of this and my mom was crying and I was being awful. Finally I hear, “Shut up you little bitch!”

I was stunned. My mother probably wanted to applaud the man and I don’t blame her.

That doctor found very active ulcerative colitis. I was pretty sick. Pretty dumb too. To that end he went on to become my doctor for the next 20 years or until he retired. We had a real bond because of his big mouth.

On the day of his retirement he gave me a big hug and told me that I’d come a long way from the little brat he had met at first. He told me I was his favorite patient now. Good thing he was the best doctor I ever had.

He never apologized for saying that to me, but I did apologize for acting like a little bitch. Entitled one at that. Lol. You go Dr. Cocco!

*****PS. For anyone that thinks this behavior was wrong for a doctor. Maybe. However in this case I was bleeding actively from the inside out. This doctor could tell that with no exam really. All a person in GI bleed status has to do is fart and if you are in the medical profession you know what it smells like and tastes like pretty much without a “guaiac” or test. In this case the doctor could tell that I was mega non compliant as I was 16 and you don’t die at 16. So he stunned me into submission to get me out of there and to a hospital.

My mother had a child die from a bowel that was twisted and maybe she did or did not know what was going on. This was a whole different era. She was probably afraid it was happening again. In any event I was a bitchy little entitled brat back then. Even if it wasn’t emergent she should or would have clapped. Lord knows she tried everything else.

Just so you all know the rest of it maybe you’ll get more of the big picture.

How To Make a Man Happy

Mark and grazing behaviors

When I was living in Erie, I went shopping with my roommates. We went grocery shopping, which was something we did about once a month.

One of my ‘mates was this big burly man named Mark. He was a silly guy. Drank Pepsi cola like no one else alive. Perhaps twelve bottles a day. It was his way of coping as he distanced himself away from his drug abusing past.

A coping mechanism. I get it.

Well, as I checked out and had the groceries, Mark was no-where to be found.

We looked and looked, until he finally came out one hour later.

He strolled up to the car.

We asked “where the fuck were you?”

And he said “I don’t want to talk about it”.

But, later on he did.

It turned out that he was drinking a Pepsi in the store, and instead of taking the empty bottle to the checkout counter, he placed it on a shelf. And it was caught on the CC television video system, and the store detective nabbed him.

As he was on parole, this could have gone very badly for him. But… life is strange. It turned out that the store detective was a classmate of his, and after the mandatory beat-down, they warmed up and kicked-back and shared memories and stories.

Life is sometimes like that.

I am sure that Mark has since thought long and hard about this kind of “store grazing” behavior. I like to think that he is a better person for it. Ah I hope.

As I review my life, I am constantly amazed at how many times coincidences seem to intertwine the threads of our lives together.

Today…

Have you ever bought something at a garage sale that turned out to be unexpectedly awesome?

Not quite a garage sale. A good friend, “ George” was a coin collecter, who noticed a small ad in the local News paper. “ selling late husbands coin collection – make an offer.” With nothing else to do that day he called and went to see the lady. He started to poke through and told her he need a bit of time, but he found 3 coins he wanted, for himself. He said to the lady I will buy these three right now, on the condition that if anyone else calls you tell them the “ entire collection is sold “ she said but you are only buying 3 coins what about the rest, what do I do. He said “ I will sell them for you, please give me a chance” She reluctlently agreed. He paid $300 cash each for the coins he picked out. He saw that the lady was not to well off and had lost her husband. He sat down and selected 10 coins, wrote down what they were and description, and said he would sell them for her. He was in touch with her every day, and about 10 days later, he went to see her and told her he was able to get a decent price for 3 of the coins he left with. he handed her $8000.00. and confirmed he would sell all of the coins that she had. She said as she was going through her late husbands things she had found other coins. She really had no interest in the coins and said they had taken up so much of her husbands time away from her. George told her that her husband loved her more then she knew. In about one year, he had sold off the entire collection of coins for just over $450,000.00 A few of the gold coins he told her to keep for herself.

What was your most embarrassing moment in a retail shop?

My wife loves a deal. If they offered a free toaster with an Aston Martin, I might be driving my dream car.

So we were on vacation in Athens and she pulled off a haggling master stroke – a bag, a dress, and a speedo (hey, it was Europe) and got them to knock a few hundred euro off the price. All she said was, “is this the best price you can do?”

And this was at Dolce & Gabbana!

So, while on a business trip in Venice, I decided to pick two things up for my wife:

A dress and a deal.

At Prada!

I found the perfect dress. Something she definitely wouldn’t buy herself, but would look great on her. It was pricey, but I had my ace in my sleeve. My all-purpose Euro retail haggling pass.

The saleswoman approached me. I explained that I wanted the dress. She was pleased with my selection.

And then I did it.

I whipped out my haggling secret weapon, with Blue Steel swagger, and an expectant attitude.

“Is this the best price you can do?”

She paused and just stared at me.

I’m thinking, haha… didn’t see that one coming did you?

She keeps staring. She wrinkles her brow, like she’s computing the speech in her head.

Now I’m getting worried.

Then, she has a moment of clarity.

“Oh, are you trying to negotiate?”

She’s says it like I’m some 9 year old kid who just asked his 24 year old babysitter to be his girlfriend.

Me: (trying to stay cool) “Well… um, yeah…. You know. If there is any room for…..”

Her: (interrupting but sincere) “We don’t negotiate at Prada.”

I paid full price for the dress.

Has a store ever accidentally given you something for free?

Ordered 4 new bras from an online shop, ended up receiving 32 new bras, none of which were the color I had ordered.

The receipt in the box was tallied for 8 bras with a note that they’d been running a promo the day I ordered that they were buy 1 get 1 free. I don’t even want to fathom how 8 turned into 32, but when I called the company to get a return label the gal informed me that the bra sale had actually been buy 1 get 2 free, which should have only been 12 bras, not 32, and who the heck gives away 2 forty dollar bras?

Got transferred to a different representative and was informed that the bras I was trying to return where non-returnable since they’d actually been discontinued and were now “on clearance” neither of them had addressed the issue that the bras I received were the wrong color (right size at least)

I was transferred yet again (gotta love “that’s not my job” employment opportunities) where I was quickly informed that they would send out the bras in the right color.

Fast forward a few days and I received 12 of the right size, right color bras. They had honored the buy 1 get 2 free sale apparently. I also received 8 additional bras in colors I hadn’t even known were available in my size as a “consolation prize” for my troubles.

So, 52 bras for the price of 4 at forty dollars each. I haven’t had to special order bras in years…

What are some skills possessed by software engineers at big companies like Google, that software engineers at no-name companies usually don’t have?

I’ve worked in software engineering for 20 years. I come from a no-name college in India, and my grades weren’t stellar. SO, getting into top tier companies was hard for me. Over 20 years, I’ve worked my way up, and I’m in Amazon now. On the way, I have worked in all kinds of companies: startups, mid sized companies, large multi nationals; and in all kinds of industries: consumer goods, healthcare, finance, education

First of all, Companies are tiered in terms of the skill levels of their engineers. They pretend not to be. Everyone claims that they hire the smartest engineers. WHat they mean is that they hire the smartest engineers that they can get. There is a definite differrence in Engineers working in FAANG companies (Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Netflix, Google), I’ve seen all kinds of engineers

Here’s the kicker. The biggest difference isn’t in the quality of the code that they write. FAANG engineers, on the whole, write as buggy code as engineers in decent companies.

The biggest differentiator is Communication. When I was in mid-tier companies, I was constantly finding myself explaining and re-explaining things in great detail. In fact, I would say that at most companies at mid-tier level, your success as an engineer depends on being able to drive people in the right direction by communicating to them.

There are 3 kind of people in tech. There are a) arguers:- people who will fight every point of view that isn’t their own, b) receivers: people who will try their best to understand what you are saying c) analyzers: people who start thinking critically while you are talking to them. Arguers are toxic. Receivers are good but slow. Analyzers are good and fast. In mid tier companies, you are more likely to find Arguers and Receivers, whereas in top-tier companies, you are more likely to find Receivers and Analyzers.

To be a successful tech company, you need to get in as many Analyzers as you can. Because these are the people who generate ideas. These are the people you give 2 and 2 and they figure out how to make 8. Not only that, with ANalyzers, you have to spend less time getting the team on the same page. Less miscommunication = Less rework = shorter turnaround = lower time to market = win.

Just to be clear, I’m not saying communication is bad. Communication is good. You need to make sure everyone understands what needs to be done. Communication is essential. All I’m saying is that in top tier companies, communication is lot more efficient. It’s like getting onto a highway. You are just going faster.

Have you ever told a ridiculous lie just to see how someone would react?

Not me, but my ex-wife, and I didn’t witness it. She told me about it several years after the fact.

My ex and I are both blind. As in without sight. One of the things you have to understand about blind people is probably something obvious. To wit, we don’t drive. We can’t. Has never happened and ain’t gunna ever happen; no, not ever. Another thing you have to understand about blind people is that sometimes sighted people will ask the stupidest questions or do the dumbest things. Usually this happens when we’re just walking along, minding our own business. One day this happened to her.

I can’t remember what she was doing at the time, but she was walking along, doing whatever errand she had to do, when this group of women happened to come upon her. One of them was obviously drunk.

“So,” said the drunk woman, “you’re blind, right?”

“Yes,” she said.

“So, um, like, how do you drive?”

My ex, who walks with a cane because she’s obviously blind, said:

“Well, I have two canes. When I drive, I keep one cane out the right window, and another out my left window. That way when I bump into something, I know when and how to turn.”

“Really?” said this other woman. “That’s amazing!” And she went on and on for some time about what an amazing feat this was,, while the other people she was with were laughing and calling her an idiot, which she so obviously was.

What is the weirdest thing people have ever done?

Probably convincing others that this is a good look. It isn’t — your lips look like a baboon’s anus swelling to indicate it’s ready for mating. I’ve never in my whole life met a single person, male or female, who appreciates this aesthetic. And yet I keep seeing it, with increasing frequency.

This weird bimbo-style… the heavy makeup… the facial fillers… and those God-awful inflated lips. Shudder. It’s horrific. So painful on the eyes that it makes one question the existence of the God who supposedly made our species in His image. The fake lashes don’t help, either… I mean why bother changing yourself in a way that isn’t genuine? I get going to the gym, working out or getting a tan, all those yield tangible results. But why alter yourself in ways that a single shower or missed injection could erase?

The weirdest thing people have ever done is invent this made-of-plastic bimbo aesthetic and promote it on social media as something to aspire to… it’s giving women in their twenties the appearance of elderly Hollywood stars in denial of their age. Turns the “girl next door” into whatever-the-hell-happened-to-Madonna. It’s an absolute travesty.

Who was the most ignorant American you have ever met?

Originally Answered: Who was the most ignorant person you have ever met in America?

This happened many years ago, but it is what came to mind when I read this question…

I was teaching class, and we were discussing the U.S. invasion of Iraq. Students were discussing their various thoughts on the situation.

One student stated, very loudly, “You know what really bothers me? All those people who are shouting and holding up signs…why aren’t they speaking English?”

I explained that it is unreasonable to expect people in a foreign country to protest in another country’s language. She didn’t understand what I meant, and the class was trying to explain to her that Arabic is the language of the people who were protesting.

After a while, I stopped everyone and asked her where she thought “those people” lived. She said, “I don’t know…near Arizona?”

That is when I realized that she thought the the Middle East was next to the American Midwest! I showed her where it is on the map, and she said, “Oh! Things make so much more sense, now!”

As a doctor, what is the best lie a patient has ever told you?

OK, here goes.

I’ve had some real doozies in my time.

The most intrepid drug seeker I have ever seen was Mr. C.

He walked in a very hunched-over posture, leaning on a walker, to elicit sympathy.

We would not even say his name, as that might bring the bad luck of the ER calling to admit him…AGAIN.

If one of my colleagues were to talk about him he would say, “Mr.” and then crook over his index finger.

We all knew who he meant.

This guy was the biggest pathological liar in the universe.

Every time I’d get a call from the ER his story was different.

He was a missionary, a teacher, a policeman, you name it.

His favorite was to tell people he was a former PA or MD.

ER calls….

“I’ve got a 68-year-old former doctor down here. He looks so decrepit that I think he needs nursing home placement.”

Right away, I knew who it was.

He went from hospital to hospital to hospital. I don’t think he had permanent address. Why would he?

“Uh,…I know who it is. He’s not a doctor. He’s a drug seeker.”

“No, Maureen, he’s such a nice guy. You must be thinking of someone else. I think he IS a doc.”

“Go ask him what a CBC is (complete blood count, a common lab test). I’ll hold.”

Off he goes.

“For Pete’s sake, he doesn’t know.”

“Ah…yup. Don’t give him any narcs.”

“OK. But he still needs admission because he has been having recurrent temperatures and can hardly walk.”

“Did you document a temperature?”

“No, he is afebrile.”

”Labs and imaging normal?”

“Yeah.”

“Wanna see him take up his bed and trot, upright, right out of there?”

“Yeah.”

“Tell him that Dr. Boehm will be admitting him. I’ll be happy to evaluate and treat any of his complaints. I won’t be giving any narcotics, however.”

Off he goes.

“Uh, he got up and left AMA.”

“Did he ask for a cab voucher?”

“Yeah.”

“He wants us to pay for his transportation to the next ER.”

Sometimes, I would come in and he had been admitted overnight by some unsuspecting doctor.

His nurse called me.

“Mr. C is very lethargic. He’s becoming hypoxic”.

“How can that be? He’s not getting any controlled substances.”

Well, he sure was.

He had called down to the OR and interrupted a surgery. He told them that he was one of our orthopedic surgeons. He demanded that a message be given to the Ortho PA.

“Why does Mr. C have uncontrolled pain? I want him on a Dilaudid PCA NOW!”

I walk in. Mr. C, not only has a Dilaudid drip running, in one of his groggy little hands he had a bottle of Percocet that he had brought from home. In the other hand, the button to deliver a hefty bolus of Dilaudid to himself.

He was “out” with a mouthful of half-chewed Percocet, the drip just dripping away with a hefty basal dose.

He could have killed himself.

Never have I relished the delivery of Narcan like I did that day.

One little squirt and he was wide awake and pissed that his nice “double” high was ruined.

After that we had to do a complete search of him and his stuff, with security, so he didn’t get away with it again.

I often wonder what happened to Mr. C after the new system was available to track and prevent his overuse of narcotics.

He couldn’t go to five doctors in a month and get narcs from all of them. He couldn’t go ER to ER.

I just don’t know what happened to him.

What’s the etiquette for feeding a babysitter? They’re looking after your kids, so shouldn’t you feed them?

When I was 15 I used to babysit these 2 super lovely Chinese kids every friday and saturday night. It was only ever for 4 hours, 8pm to midnight. The family owned the local fish and chip shop, that also sold Chinese food. Now I never got fed while babysitting, but the parents would pay me my time AND bring me chinese food to eat when I got home. Always asked me what I wanted when I went to the house. The were an awesome family.

Another time my GP asked if I would babysit his kids on new years eve, and stay over night. My mum agreed and he would pay me £50 for it. I got told to eat and drink whatever I wanted, watch whatever I wanted on the tv, and the room they let me sleep in also had a tv. Easiest babysitting job ever! The kids were in bed before I got there at 9pm, I was told to check on them at 10, 11 and midnight which I did. They never woke up, I got to eat junk food all night, and got paid for doing it. I was actually happier about the junk food and tv than the money. At home I wasnt allowed food between meals, junk food was never allowed, and forget about watching anything other than my mums choice of program on the tv.

Have you ever smelled something but only found the source of the smell a while later?

I was in the military (USAF) and until you reach a certain rank, you are assigned a roommate in your dorm room. I was stationed in Germany in a unit that traveled extensively 300+ days per year. Commonly we would travel 6 months, come back for a week or even a weekend, and then be back on the road. I was assigned a roommate whom I met… He was the typical “computer geek”. Greasy hair, showered infrequently, was a slob, almost never left the room when he was not on the road, and played a lot of the “Oregon Trail” computer game.

Mind you both of us were in the same unit that traveled a lot, but we were on different teams, so we traveled to different places at different times. One time after being gone 6 months in England, I came back to station, and opened the door to my room, only to be gagged by the smell. I set my luggage down in the hall and went to the communal bathroom, wet some paper towels, and covered my nose and mouth area. Then went back into my room to locate and remove the source of the smell.

At first glance everything seemed in order, but the smell was overpowering… I walked over to his side of the room and it got even worse. His bed was raised up on blocks that gave him a couple feet of storage underneath it, and I saw a shirt sleeve sticking out from under the bed. When I lifted up the bedspread, it reeked to high heaven, but all I could see was his dirty clothes. They were stuffed under his bed to the point that it took up all the room in under the bed! I couldn’t imagine that this horrific gagging smell was just his dirty clothes (although they did stink terribly), so I started reaching under there and pulling clothes out a handful at a time…. When I had pulled out about half the clothes, I found the source of the pugnant aroma.

At some point when he was stuffing all his dirty clothes under there, he apparently forgot that he had also put a half a pitcher of OJ under there as well. When he pushed more clothes under there, the pitcher of OJ got pushed back into the middle of the pile of clothes. I had been gone 6 months and come to find out he left the week after I did! That OJ sat in that pitcher in the middle of his stinky clothes for basically 6 months, rotting! It was a solid black and green mass all around the outside with Orange pulp in the middle, and OMG did it stink. I was gagging and running to the outside trash can holding the pitcher behind me to get rid of it once and for all! Once it was gone, I went back to the room. I stuffed all of his dirty clothes into big black garbage bags, zip tied them, and put them back under his bed.

When he got back the following week I was already gone again, but I left a note for him and told him what had happened and what I had had to do! I also told him if I ever come back to something like that again, that I would be turning it in and reporting him to the First Seargent! It neverhappened again. (THANK GOD!!!))

strong independent woman instantly REGRETS their lifestyle

https://youtu.be/7UoWgu6zCoc

What was the meanest thing someone has ever done to you? And did you ever get revenge?

When I was a toddler my father had an affair. The woman started calling our house and tormenting my mother in order to break up the marriage. My mother wasn’t emotionally stable. After a certain time each evening, she knew that her friends and family wouldn’t be calling so late, and when the phone rang my mother would cry, wail and scream. I remember answering the phone myself in an attempt to stop my mother’s over-the-top reaction and at some point learned to leave the phone off the hook but my mother didn’t leave it that way for long. On some level, she liked the drama I guess. This went on for months. I’d have been 3 or 4 when this was happening. It was very traumatic for me because I had no idea what was going on until much later. In my pre-school mind, the threat on the phone had to be very dire and worthy of my drama momma’s reaction. I was absolutely terrified. I’d wake up many nights to answer the phone and cry “please don’t hurt us” into the phone, but she didn’t stop until the divorce was done.

30 years later, my father dies, leaves that woman a penniless widow, which was the result of gross financial mismanagement because he’d had money and didn’t support those of us in his first family (a man could get away with that back then). The one thing she has is a lawsuit for his death. It’s a good case. The payout is potentially large but that’ll take years in court and may never payout as the company responsible will probably go bankrupt. The defendant has offered settlement and would payout quickly but the only requirement is that all of his heirs agree to accept the settlement and agree not to sue separately at a later date.

But I don’t need money and I’ll never sign. I’ve been getting certified letters for years asking for my signature. They’ve threatened to have me arrested (which was clearly a ruse) for refusing, offered me cash to sign, on one occasion her grandson connected with me on social media explaining that she needed a new roof and could I please sign off on the settlement and I ended up blocking his whole family. Last year I got a letter that the county was going to auction her house for non-payment of taxes. She is probably living with one of her kids and collecting social security so not quite homeless but I still feel like I’ve gotten a little revenge.

What is the sneakiest thing you did to get back at an awful neighbor? Did you get caught?

Many years ago I lived in an inner suburb of Sydney, in a terrace house.

The next door neighbour was an alcoholic bricklayer. Call him Don.

Don had decided to do some extensions, or renovations, and had three pallets of bricks dropped off in front of his place. They partially blocked the footpath and leaned outwards, dangerously overhanging the road.

One of the.pallets was in front of our house. Effectively our parking was blocked and the footpath was hard to negotiate.

The first Saturday they were there I knocked on his door, (interrupting a fight with his wife as he had accidentally lost her car the previous night, as far as I could work out he had parked it near a brothel and could not find it when he staggered out) and offered to help him shift the bricks around the back. He declined and said he would get to them during the week.

A few weeks went by. I offered again to help shift them, and got told to f off. I explained they were dangerous and inconvenient. Got the door slammed in my face.

I complained to the local council, and I suppose they sent him a letter, but the bricks remained.

By this time the bricks had been there about four months. The pallets were deteriorating and the stacks leaning. It was getting more dangerous by the day. It was only a matter of time before they collapsed on a car, a person or the busy road.

I wrote up a couple of large signs “ free bricks, help yourself” and put them on the pile about 6:am on a Saturday morning.

By the time Don surfaced around 11, there was probably half a pallet or so left… which he moved to his back yard.

I go

Could swingeing EU import tariffs on Chinese EVs trigger retaliatory action by China?

Of course.

Without a doubt. Any unfair action by the EU Will be met by an action that U.S. fairer but with a much bigger consequences to EU. Let that be a solemn promise.

Europe will have to suffer a total collapse of the automobile market if it dare to try any shit. Don’t forget that many European cars companies are surviving only due to the Chinese market and consumer. And the reason it still can compete is only due to its production efficiency and capacity of its plants in China!

DIY for a boyfriend

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/K2PCi8qiZS4?feature=share

What was your biggest “I never thought of it in that way before!” moment?

Years back, I sat in a sombre home where a young man in his 30s died untimely in an accident.

I, along with my family, went there to pay respects.

Sitting on the sofa I was nudged between two middle aged women who were discussing the next course of events.

“I heard Sheela is going to go to her maternal house to stay! How would Usha bear this? First she lost her son and now with the daughter-in-law gone she will lose her grandchildren too.”

“That’s true! I had the same reaction when I heard about it. We must put some sense in Usha and stop her from letting Sheela go.”

When Usha aunty came towards us, these two woman grabbed her and made her sit with them, squeezing me.

They then narrated their opinion on the grieving mother and stopped her from taking a ‘foolish’ decision and going against a tradition where the widow usually stays with the in-laws.

After listening to their valuable advice Usha aunty spoke.

“True, I lost my son. But Sheela has lost her husband too. A person she vowed to spend her old age together. A person who was a loving parent to their children. Sending them away to her parents place will surely make me sad and lonely but it would be a much needed change for Sheela. At this time, she needs her parents the most. If she stays here, this house would remind her of him everyday. At her parents place, she would slowly come back to her usual self soon. I lost my son. I don’t want to lose my daughter because of some tradition.”

The two women were speechless, so was I. I hadn’t thought of it in that way either. Usha aunty left and consoled her daughter-in-law who sat in a corner with a pale and teary face.

That day it was just a conversation I unknowingly was a part of. But today, I think what Usha aunty did was so right.

Thinking about someone else in the event of your child dying, needs immense amount of courage and determination.

Sheela di did recover soon and moved back to her loving mother-in-law’s house and now cares for them as their daughter.

Unconditional love surely goes a long way.

What’s something a police officer knows that would scare normal people?

Seeing how quickly and unexpectedly you can die.

Man went to McDonald’s — which was a treat — for his family’s dinner, and on the way back, was broad-sided in the driver’s door. He’s dead in the driver’s seat and his family’s dinner is all over the front of the car. When he didn’t come back, his 10-year-old son went looking for him on his bicycle and came up on the accident scene. The child climbed into the wrecked car and was hugging his dead father. We weren’t going to stop him, and the fire department stayed longer than they normally would have in case there was any unexpected fire.

Another officer took the child home in his police car and informed the wife of what had happened. Prime example of one of those evenings when a cop skips dinner because he has no appetite.

The driver that hit him was a teenager who had just stolen a tank of gas from the local AM/PM Mini Market, and was being chased by the idiot store manager in his own car. We arrested them both, though that did not make the outcome any better.

The only decent thing that came out of it is that the owner of a local McDonald’s franchise read about it, came in the station and we helped him arrange to pay for an elaborate funeral. The owner insisted we not talk about it publicly; he didn’t want his kind act to look like a PR move. That is class.

What is the single most underrated trait a person can have?

J.K. Rowling had just got a divorce, was on government aid, and could barely afford to feed her baby in 1994, just three years before the first Harry Potter book, Harry Potter and The Philosopher’s Stone, was published. When she was shopping it out, she was so poor she couldn’t afford a computer or even the cost of photocopying the 90,000-word novel, so she manually typed out each version to send to publishers. It was rejected dozens of times until finally Bloomsbury, a small London publisher, gave it a second chance after the CEO’s eight year-old daughter fell in love with it.

Positivity, confidence, and persistence are key in life, so NEVER GIVE UP on yourself.

This Thing Is About To POP: Putin, Biden and The Trainwreck

Rumble and murmurs inside the USA…

https://youtu.be/zOSCVc0KZKU

Have you ever witnessed an “I demand to see the manager” moment?

This was one that I witnessed, but wasn’t a part of.

I was working in the hardware section of a department store, right beside the sports department.

Straightening up/stocking the shelves just near the boundary between the departments, I saw a fellow salesperson talking to a customer with his small son. The child was bored and started to wander around, touching everything he could reach.

After a couple of minutes, the other salesperson saw the child start to try to climb a display of weightlifting equipment. He quickly excused himself and rushed over to the child, not touching him but gently suggesting that the boy not climb on anything and particularly not on the heavy weights.

The father turned around and seeing what was happening was incensed.

“How dare you tell my son what he can and cannot do! Who do you think you are?”

“I was just trying to keep him safe.” said the salesperson. “The weights are heavy and he could hurt himself.”

“Oh really? You have no business disciplining my son. I want to see the manager to complain.” said the father.

By this time, the child, seeing that he was again being ignored, went back to the weight rack and started to climb again.

The father fumed on at the unlucky salesperson.

And just at that moment, the rack of weights, unbalanced by the child fell over on top of him, a couple of weights pinning him to the floor.

He started crying.

The father started ranting about suing the store.

I later heard that he lost because the salesperson had tried to stop the child from climbing and had been forbidden from doing so by the father.

What did your boss ever say in the office that caused you to resign?

I got a performance review that ripped me up, down and sideways, and was totally unjustified. I refused to sign it and requested a second meeting later that afternoon. I attended that one armed with statistics showing how I had reduced the work ticket backlog on our software library from over 800 to just 2.

Now, a little technical explanation. This was pre-Windows. We had a software library written in Microsoft Pro Basic. Everything worked for the most part when I took it over, except it was slow. I fixed the outstanding bugs, then went looking for the cause of the slowdown and I found it: type declarations.

There were none. If a variable name ended with a $, it was a string. Otherwise, it was a number. But there are all kinds of numbers, and the default was double-precision floating point. Microsoft made a big deal about how indexes and array subscripts should be integers and pointed out that it was a speed deal. I went through, explicitly defined all variables and made sure that anything used as a loop index or array subscript was declared as either a short or long integer. Massive increase in speed. Calculations that used to take 20–30 minutes now ran in a minute or less.

Now, back to the meeting. I pointed all the improvements out to him, including comments from customers praising the improvements. He looked at everything and had the gall to say that my review was not going to be changed. I walked back to my office, made a couple of phone calls and had a job, paying more, starting the following Monday. I then edited the library and took out every one of the integer or long type declarations, recompiled the new version and saved everything into the distribution folders. I cleaned out all my work directories so that what I had done was not readily available, then walked by his office, tossed my keys on his desk, said I quit and walked out.

What did your boss ever say in the office that caused you to resign?

I had applied for a promotion that I was overqualified for. Had a great track record of mentoring new employees, working above and beyond, coming up with great ideas. I had been in the position for 7 years and with the company for 11.

My manager and supervisor told me that I wasn’t “ready” for this promotion (a 6% raise) and that I could try again next January. I told them “there would not be a next January”

Fast forward a few months, I was already applying for jobs and went on a few interviews. My manager and supervisor called me into a meeting to let me know one of the males on the team who have been at the organization and position for 2.5 years was getting the promotion (it was a promotion multiple people could get). When they asked me if I had any questions I said “No – his promotion doesn’t age t my career”

1 month later when I was putting in my 2 weeks notice for a company giving me a 30% raise my manager and supervisor asked me what they could do to retain me…I say nothing.

Left the job May 2021 and it was the best decision ever. Never knew I could get such a big pay bump for NOT being loyal to a company.

Have you ever taken the law into your own hands?

Not me, but my dad.

And if you are going to do it, this is the way. Not by shooting somebody or anything else.

My dad was a small builder. A few houses a year. He enjoyed it and it made him good money in retirement. He was building one of the only spec houses (not already sold when he started) he ever built.

One night, when the house was almost done, the furnace and airhandler disappeared from the garage. No signs of breaking and entering.

Now it takes a couple of hours to remove all of this w/o damaging anything. So my dad quickly guessed that his HVAC contractor (one he had never used before) had made a copy of the key my dad had given him. Let himself in, opened the garage door. Backed his truck in. Closed the door. And got to work.

He told the police this. They talked to the contractor who denied everything and suggested my dad had done it to collect on the builder’s insurance. This made my dad MAD! The HVAC guy however didn’t know the police told my dad he said this.

So my dad had the same guy put a new furnace and airhandler in the house. Yep, same guy.

What the guy didn’t know is that before hand my dad had a security system installed. Hidden motion detectors only, no contacts on the windows and doors to be spotted. And no audible alarm. Silent only. He registered his cell phone with the security company.

Sure enough, a few nights later he gets a call in the middle of the night from the security company. He tells them to call 911 and jumps in his truck. By the way, he lived only about 90 seconds down the road.

He pulls up and can see light around the garage door. He pulled quietly into the driveway at an angle, all the way up to the door, completely blocking it. And quietly waited for the police to arrive, which they did a few minutes later.

The guy heard him talking to the police in the driveway and put the garage door up. My dad couldn’t stop laughing at the expression on the guy’s face when he saw my dad standing there with four deputies!

And the best part? My dad hadn’t yet paid the contractor for his work. And he never did.

Remember silence

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/5aBHoyIR4mQ?feature=share

How do you respond when your boss says, “I need this done by Monday”?

This actually happened to me years ago. It was a Friday evening. An entire group including me were in a meeting. We had a code thoroughly tested and ready for production. This Manager went and made changes without consent and broke the code but they still wants to keep the implementation date which was ten days away.

Now the ten days included two weekends. I’m sitting in the room. They totally ignored the fact that I was the one responsible for testing the changes. Nobody asked me what my plans were for the weekends and proceeded to agree upon meeting the date. I stayed mute. Now at that time my husband was in the army and and deployed to Bosnia, so they thought I had no life. They talked and laughed and when the meeting was over, I spoke.

“Who is coming in tomorrow because I need a ride”. They all said they were not. That’s when I dropped the bomb. I said, “Neither am I”. Everybody sat down, I got up, saluted them and walked out.

A tooth fairy

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/UAlutNCOF5w?feature=share

Have you ever been invited to something that turned out to be another thing entirely?

I had just finished a year of substitute teaching and had few. if any, prospects for a full-time job come that Fall. So when I saw that ad in the paper, my eyes lit up.

This company was wanting to hire teachers for a summer job. Was it evaluating textbooks? Maybe we would be tasked with creating exciting curriculum or conducting research into how children learn. Maybe a private school wanted to hire a number of tutors for their summer programs? The ad didn’t get specific.

I fired off a resume and waited to hear back. I didn’t wait long before being contacted with a time and place for the interview. When I arrived, I saw a room full of people dressed in typical teacher fashion-Dockers, Polo shirt, etc. I must be in the right place! But why are they doing a group interview? A bit later, a man walks in dressed more professionally. He asks us to tae a seat. He then gives a presentation into what sort of summer work they had for all of us education professionals.

STEAK KNIVES!!! He was wanting to “hire us to be door-to-door salesmen for his company’s line of cutlery. For a low investment of only (the cost of 2 sets) we could have unlimited earning potential. He must have seen the disgusted look on my face and figured I was going to let the more naive know exactly what the deal was, for I was the first to be invited into the office for a second interview.

Why is the US government restricting the importation of Chinese lower-cost cars and at the same time allowing US manufacturers to dramatically raise their prices?

It showed clearly that it does not care for its people but it protect profiteering and too big to fail companies. Such actions never ends well. The day will come when the U.S. citizens rebel and raised up against them. And these companies will continue to be unproductive and inefficient to the point of becoming irrelevant.

Pease remember the US has been dictating free trade and freedom of choice to Americans and the world for the longest time! What happened?

An abandoned mall in Ohio

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/2TaOGVdlEmY?feature=share

Little Italy Sausage Soup

This tasty and easy Italian Sausage Soup Recipe is loaded with onions, carrots, celery, zucchini, and a healthy helping of Italian Seasoning in chicken broth with tomatoes, cannellini beans, and elbow noodles. It is the perfect pick-me-up for cold, wet weather, coughs, ailments, or just because your soul needs a little warmth. This Italian Soup Recipe is one of our favorites.

Ingredients

2 pounds mild or hot Italian sausage
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 large onions, chopped
1 (28 ounce) can diced tomatoes
6 (14 ounce) cans beef broth
1 1/2 cups red wine (optional)
1/2 teaspoon basil
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
2 teaspoons hot pepper sauce
3 tablespoons parsley
1 medium green bell pepper, chopped
2 medium zucchini, sliced
3 cups pasta shells, cooked

Instructions

In a large pot, cook sausage for about 15 minutes.
Pierce with fork to release fat; drain well.
Cut into bite-size pieces.
Add remaining ingredients except zucchini and pasta.
Cook for 30 to 45 minutes, then add zucchini and cook until tender.
Add pasta shells just to heat through.

Recipe notes and helpful tips

If you have a nearby meat market, call and ask if they make their own Italian Sausage. It is well worth the added expense and trip to the market.
For aesthetic purposes, peel the carrots. It brings out that beautiful bright orange color.
You can sub any medium to small pasta in this soup, including penne, rotini, shells, farfalle, ditalini, or radiatori.
Fresh thyme is always delicious, and I usually have it on hand. However, you can substitute fresh chopped parsley or a little dried marjoram or thyme.
Store leftovers in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 4 days. Heat on the stovetop over low heat or in the microwave at reduced power.
Freeze in an airtight container or heavy-duty freezer bag for up to 3 months.

As a waiter, what is the cheapest thing a customer has done?

One summer as a college student (many years ago) I worked at a now defunct “family” restaurant called The Ground Round. One room was a bar, and the other room was for families and they were famous for showing old silent movies in the family room and giving out free peanuts and popcorn (that usually ended up all over the floor).

Unfortunately, they were also famous for their “Penny-a-Pound” Thursdays where children under 12 who accompanied an adult would be weighed on a big scale at the front of the restaurant and could then order anything off the children’s menu (including unlimited free drinks) and be changed a penny for each pound they weighed. So, yeah, a kid could order a hot dog or a hamburger or a bowl of mac&cheese and get an orange soda (with 3 refills) for $0.40.

Most of this time this worked out OK and people enjoyed the deal responsibly. A family of four would come in, say, both parents would order full meals, and the little ones would get to basically eat for free. However, there were quite a number of occasions when people would completely abuse the deal. We’re talking situations where a single adult would come in with 5 or 6 children (obviously not all their own kids due to them all being the same age), the adult would order something cheap like a bowl of soup, and then the kids would proceed to make my life a living hell by constantly ordering drink refills every single time I walked past them on my way to take care of my other tables.

That wasn’t the worst part, though. No, the worst part was when it came time to pay the bill and the cost would end up being something like $9.27. And the person paying the bill would leave a $10 bill and say “keep the change.”

ALL the waiters dreaded having to work the main room on Thursdays, but since I was the newest employee there I ended up having to do it every week.

What’s your favorite stupid joke?

Dave was bragging to his boss one day, “You know, I know everyone there is to know. Just name someone, anyone, and I know them.”

Tired of his boasting, his boss called his bluff, “OK, Dave, how about Tom Cruise?”

“No drama’s boss, Tom and I are old friends, and I can prove it.”

So Dave and his boss fly out to Hollywood and knock on Tom Cruise’s door and Tom Cruise shouts, “Dave! What’s happenin?!? Great to see you! Come on in for a beer!”

Although impressed, Dave’s boss is still sceptical. After they leave Cruise’s house, he tells Dave that he thinks him knowing Cruise was just lucky.

“No, no, just name anyone else,” Dave says.

“President Bush,” his boss quickly retorts.

“Yup,” Dave says, “Old buddies, let’s fly out to Washington.”

And off they go.

At the White House, Bush spots Dave on the tour and motions him and his boss over, saying, “Dave, what a surprise, I was just on my way to a meeting, but you and your friend come on in and let’s have a cup of coffee first and catch up.”

Well, the boss is very shaken by now but still not totally convinced. After they leave the White House grounds he expresses his doubts to Dave, who again implores him to name anyone else.

“The pope,” his boss replies.

“Sure!” says Dave. “My folks are from Poland, and I’ve known the Pope a long time.”

So off they fly to Rome. Dave and his boss are assembled with the masses in Vatican Square when Dave says, “This will never work. I can’t catch the Pope’s eye among all these people. Tell you what, I know all the guards so let me just go upstairs and I’ll come out on the balcony with the Pope.”

And he disappears into the crowd headed toward the Vatican. Sure enough, half an hour later Dave emerges with the Pope on the balcony but by the time Dave returns, he finds that his boss has had a heart attack and is surrounded by paramedics. Working his way to his boss’ side, Dave asks him, “What happened?”

His boss looks up and says, “I was doing fine until you and the Pope came out on the balcony and the man next to me said, “Who the fuck is that on the balcony with Dave?

What’s wrong with being a functional addict?

Define “functional”.

My uncle was a functional alcoholic. He had an advanced degree and was extremely accomplished in his career. He never did the kinds of things that would result in legal problems, he didn’t drink and drive, didn’t get in fights, or commit crimes. He and his husband were wealthy. They had a house with a swimming pool in a HCOL area. He was well-loved by everyone in the family but no one was able to get him to stop drinking or seek help for it. By and large, no one really wanted to argue with him about it either because it was pointless.

My uncle died during the pandemic and it wasn’t due to COVID. He drank everyday starting early in the morning and continuing through the night. He had done this for as long as I can remember. He cared about his appearance but completely neglected his health and refused to see doctors probably because they would tell him what he didn’t want to hear -alcohol was killing him.

Heavy drinking doesn’t only affect the liver — although that would be bad enough in itself — it also messes up the functioning of multiple other organs and body systems including, but not limited to, the heart, brain, kidneys, digestive system, and the nervous system. In my uncle’s case, he developed a cardiac problem and died suddenly. For many other alcoholics, dying is a slow, painful decline that involves a lot of suffering drawn out over many years.

Even if a person manages to avoid major illness, alcoholism, whether functional or not, does not make for a happy, fulfilled life. By nature, alcoholism requires that people prioritize alcohol over and above everything else in their lives, including all the meaningful things like important relationships, personal values, activities that bring joy, and personal accomplishments.

A person who drinks their way through life is never really present in their life and thus misses out on fully experiencing life itself. It may be feel pleasant to temporarily numb or black out distressing emotions but this comes at the cost of numbing positive emotions too. It comes at the cost of losing intimacy in your relationships, or just losing relationships altogether. It comes at a cost of not being able to remember your life or make good decisions.

Alcoholism and addiction in general, whether functional or not, is sad. It’s sad to see people searching for life satisfaction in the one place it will never be found.

Do babies cry so much because that’s the way they are, or because we have spoiled them since the moment they were born?

Have you heard that “African babies cry less”? It is true, but the why of it is more interesting. They cry less because they are attended to. They are carried by their mothers, they co-sleep. They are always with their mother, who nurses the baby as soon as it starts to fuss. Doesn’t matter if it’s for comfort, for hunger or thirst. The baby never gets to the point where it *has to* cry.

Crying is the only way a baby has to communicate…..sort of. They also wiggle, and fuss and make weird faces and reach toward something, and when none of the rest of it works, THEN they cry. So it might be better to say that crying is the LAST way babies communicate. Even so, they can’t tell you they had a bad dream, or their stomach is upset, or there’s a string wrapped around their toe and it feels weird, or they have an itch but no fine motor skills to scratch with. We have to learn to decode baby language other than crying, before it gets to that. And we don’t.

You can’t spoil a baby. Moreover, when did giving someone attention get such a bad rep? Why is it bad to give a baby attention? What defines ‘too much’ attention, and why should we ration it? Is there a limited amount available? What idiot made this up?

By giving a baby the attention it needs when it needs it, and not when you feel like giving it, or when some book says you should give it, you teach the baby that you are always there for it. You aren’t teaching them to be clingy, you are teaching them that no matter what they do, what new things they explore, you will be there. It gives them confidence to try and do new things, knowing this.

But let a baby go untended until he gets to the point of crying, and then wait some more? What good does that do? The baby is not going to become less hungry or thirsty or scared or wet. Baby isn’t going to decide, oh, I guess I wasn’t actually hungry after all, I guess I’ll stop now. It will cause a lot of stress hormones to be released in the baby’s brain. A baby who cries until he stops has given up on you. He’s learned that you are NOT going to be there for him, and his needs might not be met. That, in his desperation, he reached out to you and you turned away.

Soon enough, he or she will be telling you not to hold their hand at school, or kiss them goodbye in front of their friends. The time when they need and depend on you is only a small part of their lives, and yours, so you should enjoy it while you can.

Why books have covers

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/USroKDplbOI?feature=share

What is a time when you’ve seen a co-worker get fired who totally deserved it?

It’s really hard to fire someone in the government, but if they are an intern, it’s pretty easy.

We had three people start at the same time as interns. The two women were fantastic, interested in learning the job, hard working, never called out, etc. but “Charles”, not so much. I had just been promoted to supervisor. A week after he started, he stuck his head in my office and offered to help me with my supervisory duties. He didn’t know how to do the work yet, but he was going to help me supervise. Got it.

A couple days later, he walks into my office, plops down in a chair and says “I don’t know how you work with some of these fucking bitches. Those dumb cunts deserve to be fired”. Now I’m not a prude, but I also behave and speak in a professional manner. I had done nothing to make Charles think my office was some “safe zone”, where he could denigrate other employees, or use that kind of language.

He would sleep at his desk, call out, leave early, not what you would expect from any professional, let alone an intern trying to make their mark.

A lot of our job entailed technical writing. He wasn’t much of a writer to begin with, and often sent supposedly final versions of documents on the the next department with track changes and edits still in them. I had to fix a lot of his supposedly finished work. .

The crown jewel was him loudly proclaiming that life would be great in two months as he would no longer be an intern, so it would be near impossible to fire him. He was fired the next day.

What’s the sweetest way you’ve seen someone get fired from a job?

I had to let an employee go when I owned a security guard company. He’d been involved in a fatal shooting — he killed a man who’d fired at him — before I bought the business and he shot and killed a drunk who attacked him after I took over.

After the second shooting my insurance carrier gave me an ultimatum: Fire the employee or lose my insurance. I promised them that I would not allow him to carry a weapon and that I would assign him to my office as Operations Manager but they would not budge. I had to choose between him and insurance coverage but without insurance I was out of business.

I called everyone I knew in the business trying to find him another job. They all knew about the shootings so they weren’t interested. So I began reaching out to my clients. My guy was ex-military and very smart and I hoped that one of them might be interested in him.

It turned out that a car dealer I was providing patrol coverage to was thinking about taking his security in-house so he agreed to talk with my employee.

Long story short, I lost a $1,000 a month patrol contract but the guard was hired by the car dealer. I haven’t spoken with my ex-employee in years but the last time I did he was head of security for the dealer, in charge of 4 different car lots. Like I said, he is very smart.

Celebrating mental disorders

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/kDCa2Fwl5pA?feature=share

What facts about the United States do foreigners not believe until they come to America?

I’m from Russia. Below are a few things I almost always have to explain or discuss with visitors from Russia.

1. Why individual houses are so large? We always get into discussion that house is not just a shelter, but also a manifestation of one’s financial achievements.

2. Philanthropy. There is no culture of philanthropy in Russia and many view American philanthropy either as a waste of money or as some intricate plot to get some additional benefits.

3. People don’t walk places. They go everywhere by a car.

4. There is almost no public transportation except in a few large cities. People actually have to have cars to get places. Cars are necessity, not luxury.

5. Majority of high and middle schools have sport facilities of very high, almost professional quality.

6. Many schools have orchestras, bands, theaters of a very high, almost professional quality. Free.

7. Every state has a lot of autonomy.

8. President’s salary is comparable with the one of a plastic surgeon.

9. President doesn’t automatically become the richest person in the country.

10. Majority of things in the US aren’t controlled or regulated by the government.

11. Children are expected to leave home when they are 18.

12. Students prefer and are expected to live in a dorm and not with parents.

13. When relatives visit they often stay in the hotel.

14. Many children, even in well to do families, work in fast food, car washes and do a lot of other things to get money and it is not an embarrassment.

15. Parents have their babies sleeping in separate rooms almost from the day of their birth.

16. Russians find 11-15 are particularly absurd, offensive, and egotistical.

17. Many Russians believe that American system of primary and secondary education is very inefficient. As a mother, I have to explain that it is very diverse and essentially even in the poorest districts there are tons of resources available for children who are willing to use them. There are also an opportunity for kids to take advanced and extra advanced classes providing they are willing and able to do the work. And this differentiation is available as early as elementary school.

18. How well elderly live, even those on SSI and Medicaid. How many services are available to them.

19. How open Americans are about their shortcomings and always ready for self criticism.

20. Millions of people don’t have medical insurance.

21. Some hospitals look like five-star hotels.

22. Budgets of some hospitals are equal to h/c budgets of small countries.

23. Doctors tell their patients everything.

24. Return policies and free refill.

25. Idea of a liberal art education. In Russia, after high school graduation, a student should decide on vocation: engineer, doctor, teacher, lawyer, accountant, etc. It seems inconceivable to attend a university and then to graduate without a solid specialty. I often have to explain that not knowing what one wants to do after high school is an acceptable norm in US. A student can still acquire marketable skills, expand his or horizons, get a job after graduation, and, what is even more surprising, obtain an advance degree in a totally different field later. Yes, accountant can attend a medschool and become a doctor and musician can go for aa master degree in computer science.

I’m afraid I can go on and on and on…

Good bye

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/ZfAw8Xej1GA?feature=share

What is the most inappropriate clothing you have seen a student wear at school?

Long ago when the no bra and see through crazes overlapped for a while (late 70s I believe) I had a young lady walk into my 1st Period class with no bra and a see through blouse. I took roll while the students started a mini lesson on the board. Then I started to write a note I intended to give to her to go to the office for a ruling/talking to by a female counselor. I had just started when the young lady called to me “Mister, tell them to stop staring at me!” I looked up and of course every boy in class (11th grade) was staring, standing to see over other students etc. Before I could say anything another girl loudly proclaimed “If you don’t want them looking, why did you dress like that?” Another girl handed the young lady a sweater jacket to put on. Then the young lady came up and whispered “May I have a bathroom pass?”

I gave it to her and put my note aside to see what happened. 10–15 minutes later she came back wearing an over sized PE uniform t-shirt over her clothes, handed the sweater back to the girl it belonged to, looked at me and then at the one who had spoken up and in a very soft voice said “I guess I didn’t think. It won’t happen again.” It didn’t.

What scary gut feeling did you have that turned out to be true?

On October 25, 2009, I was working like I always did and my supervisor came up and asked if I wanted an early out. I didn’t usually take early outs because I was a single mom and my supervisors knew it. I shocked him because I agreed to leave early. I said it’d be nice to have some extra time with my kids. I went to the babysitter’s house and her brother told me that she took my kids to her grandparents farm and he’d let her know to bring them straight home when they got back. I left there and at a stop sign and ambulance went flying past me and I had such a strong urge to follow it but I talked myself out of it. I went home and was pulling stuff out of the fridge when my phone rang. It was the sitter’s cousin asking me where my kids were and I told her they were with Nikki and then she told me that Nikki was in a head on accident and they may have to life fight her. She swore my kids weren’t with Nikki and I knew they had to be. After that Nikki’s boyfriend called me and told me that Nikki and my kids were in a head on accident and I must have let out a really loud scream because my neighbors heard me in their house. I called my parents as I rushed out the door and I asked them to keep me calm until I found my kids because they were in a head on accident. I didn’t even notice my neighbor standing in the yard. Apparently they heard about the wreck on the scanner and then heard me scream so they’d came out to drive me wherever I needed but I didn’t hear him talk to me. I was too focused. I had no idea where to go so I decided to go straight out the direction that I saw the ambulance go earlier. I came up to an accident and I tried to get past all of the cars and a police officer stopped me and said I couldn’t go any further. I told him it was my kids without knowing 100% at the time but just by my gut feeling. He called ahead to another officer and he said they were okay but my son’s face was cut a little bit from the airbag and his glasses. They allowed me to drive up to the ambulance but I still wasn’t allowed to see my kids. I followed them to the hospital. From the look of the truck, I knew the police officer was wrong. It took over 2 hours to be able to see my kids from the first call. I only got to see them when once the arrived at the hospital. My son’s face wasn’t just cut a little it was several cuts and two black eyes. My son ended up with permanent brain damage that was diagnosed later on. He didn’t want to walk and we just thought it was because he was scared so we carried him home. He’d just crawl on the floor and not walk. When we took him to his so called specialist, he told me I needed to institutional him because he’d never be able to learn again because he no longer had a short term memory and part of his long term memory was gone. I fired him and worked to teach my son how to walk, use the bathroom, and worked with him on his schooling. I’d enrolled in college just to help him learn. I needed to know how the brain worked to teach him and him retain things. He did learn it and more after I was told he never would. He also had whiplash extremely bad. Our attorney found it in the x-rays but the hospital never mentioned it. My daughter had to be potty trained again and she had severe whiplash along with a severe concussion. For the police to tell me they were fine I knew they weren’t. especially after seeing the truck. II wish my intuition was wrong that day. I’m fortunate that I didn’t lose my kids but we still lost my son as we knew him. When my older kids saw the actual changes in him they broke down crying. Fortunately it wasn’t all at the same time. As for the child the told me to institutionalize because he’d never learn again and could never live alone, He proved them all wrong. He’s got an amazing job, lives on his own, drives himself to work, and is having a babe in a couple weeks. He thanks me all the time for not giving up on him. He and his sister are best friends because she stood up for him when he couldn’t. I hope I never ever get the urge to follow an ambulance again. That’s not something I’d normally do so that day I had gut feeling and I was right. BTW, the engine was pushed all the way to sit in the back seat where my daughter was sitting. Her seatbelt wouldn’t work so she wasn’t fastened in thank God. If my kids would of say any other way I probably would of lost one if not both. Good was looking out for my kids that day. I’ll never ever forget that day.

Tuscan-Style Ribollita

Ingredients

6 slices (1/2-inch thick) day-old crusty French bread
3 cloves garlic
Black pepper, to taste
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 tablespoon chicken broth
1 onion, diced
3 carrots, chopped
3 celery stalks, chopped
1 zucchini, sliced
1 yellow squash, sliced
1/2 sweet red pepper, diced
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
4 cups torn escarole or dark cabbage
1 (16 ounce) can kidney beans
1 (14 1/2 ounce) can plum tomatoes, drained, juices reserved
1 cup chicken broth
3 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese
Oregano leaves (garnish)

Instructions

Grease a baking sheet. Put the bread on the sheet and bake at 350 degrees F until golden brown, about 15 minutes.
Remove from the oven.
Cut 1 garlic clove in half and rub on each side of the toast slices. Sprinkle with black pepper and set aside.
Heat the oil and broth mixture in a 4-quart pot. Add the onions and sauté until tender, about 10 minutes.
Mince the remaining garlic. Add the garlic, carrots and celery to the pot. Cover and cook, stirring occasionally, for 10 minutes.
Add the zucchini, squash, sweet peppers and oregano; cook for 5 minutes.
Add the escarole, beans and tomatoes; cook until the escarole wilts, about 2 minutes.
Add black pepper. Pour the vegetable mixture into a 3-quart casserole and top with the toast.
In a large measuring cup, combine the reserved tomato juice and the broth; pour over the toast. Sprinkle with Parmesan.
Bake at 375 degrees F until the cheese has melted, about 30 minutes.
Let stand for 5 minutes and garnish with oregano.

Serves 6.

What is the most unusual reason someone has called 911 for help according to a police officer?

One night as I proceeded through an intersection when the light turned green I heard a car accelerate and saw it nearly t bone me. I made the stop and saw it was a local shithead kid I knew well as having a major chip on his shoulder. He blamed his faulty brakes to which I replied I’d have to impound his car for a safety inspection. At this point he changes his story and tries to reach down and roll the floor mat under his brake pedal to blame for the incident. I issued him summonses for unsafe speed, running a light a failure to yield with the warning to keep it on the straight and narrow. A short time later I received a call for a 911 hangup at his address. The door opened and a middle aged male walks out. I ask him if he was the homeowner and if everything is OK. He addresses me by name and says he’s a corrections officer and asks why his son was not given a courtesy and gives me a rehash of his sons version of events. I ask him if he called 911 over this event and he said yes he was trying to lodge a complaint against me. I replied that his son is a liar and that’s not what 911 is for. He went on grumbling about courtesy and I shot back neither you nor your kid know the meaning of the word. After that incident the kid was noticeably quieter during the numerous encounters we had with him and his delinquent crowd.

Have you ever had a coworker try to get you fired?

Yep, had a woman who did the same job as me on alternate days and was jealous as I was asked to do the important stuff so to speak on my shifts and not her, the boss, female would confide in me and not her as she was a straight out the door on the dot person and would never cover in an emergency etc. She started to file fake complaints on night reports …he didn’t do this etc but of course we had CCTV. She would send watsapp messages to me complaining and then the best one…my wife is Asian…one night she sent a message insulting my wife and Asian women calling them Ting Tongs and Asian brides.

What she failed to realise is that the CEO despite having an English surname through marriage was Asian. I simply replied… our Thai CEO will enjoy reading that

Never a peep from her again

AI thought process

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/SZXvwi2CycQ?feature=share

Has a cop ever said something to you which was completely unexpected?

Years ago I was driving home from a night out in Memphis, TN. It was roughly 3 AM, and I was driving about 60 to 65 mph along Walnut Grove Rd through Shelby Farms. The speed limit stepped up from 40 mph to 55 mph pretty close to that spot, and I don’t recall which side I was on. As it turned out, it didn’t matter. I saw the reflection of my headlights on his patrol car and started to pull over before his blue lights came on. Once stopped, I rolled down my window and had my license and registration ready for him when he walked up to talk to me. He looked at them, at me, and at the officer decal on my windshield and said I could go. Greatly surprised, I asked him why, and I would never have predicted his response. “You pulled over so fast and in such a short distance that I don’t even have to go around [a mile or so down the road to a break in the median] and come back to my spot [where he had set his speed trap].” I was not intoxicated, and I was far from the fastest car to travel that road. But at that particular time I was the only driver around, so I got his attention. The whole thing was a bit surreal, but I was grateful for the outcome. I thanked him and went home to get some sleep.

Have you ever called in a “welfare check” to the police? Did it turn out there was a real need? Officers, how often are “welfare checks” something where a person does need assistance?

I called for what I said was, I guess, a welfare check. I saw a young girl, probably mid-teens, walking on the rural road near where we live. I didn’t think much about it, even though there are few people who walk on that road, and very few homes. Later, as I returned home, I found her walking up the even more rural road leading up the mountain to where we live. I stopped and asked if she needed a ride. To my surprise, she said yes (her a young girl, me an old man). I asked her where she was going, and she said to visit someone. We passed my house, and she said to stop at a neighbor’s house. I asked who she was seeing, since I knew our neighbors, and she just said, “Someone.” I let her out and went home. I had to leave a while later and found her walking back down at the bottom of the mountain on the road near where I first saw her. I had also noticed that she had taken off her jacket and dropped it on the road. At that point I called the police and said that I was worried about her. I described her and told the 911 operator where she was. A short time after that a police car passed me going in that direction. I did not see the girl later when I returned home. I don’t know what happened, but she seemed troubled in some way, and was definitely acting odd. I hope the police gave her a ride home, or helped her with whatever her problem was, but I have no idea.

Power in a relationship

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/fIOZcX17b8A?feature=share

What are the things guys find annoying about girls?

You are all the same
- Ladies, this is the worst expression you could tell a man. Don’t tell him all men are the same because no one told you to try them all.
Men do not like to be told what to do and how to do it all the time.
When you ask stupid questions like “Do I look fat to you?” “Do you still love your ex?” “When I grow old, will you still love me?” “Do you think that woman is more beautiful than me?”
We all hate it when you bring up old things every time we fight.
Talking to your Friends about Anything and Everything
Men don’t like it when you talk about your exes, especially if you do it a lot or bring up details.
Even if you are just friends, men hate to be friend-zoned.

What are some mind-blowing facts about South Korea that might surprise someone who lives there?

Average height of a female Korean is 5′4′ (~162cm)
Average height of a male Korean is 5′9′ (~175cm)
Nearly 1/3 of Korean women undergo at least one cosmetic surgery
“Gangnam Style” is still the highest ranking K-Pop song ever on Billboard

Korea has the lowest obesity rate in the world
You can get your drink on just about anywhere you want
Korea’s Internet speeds are some of the fastest on Earth
Shopping and eating can be done at virtually any time of day or night

It is common to force criminals to recreate their crime for the press, for public humiliation.

What did your boss say to you during a meeting that resulted in you immediately resigning?

Not really a meeting, rather a gathering.

I was the IT manager at one of the Maryland Job Corp centers. I was in the process of upgrading government cast off computer equipment from 486s to Pentium Ones, if that tells u how long ago.

Being a nonsmoker, I never take breaks. Ever. I was coming across campus carrying 4 CPUs. I walk really fast so it alway looked like I was running to other staff. They’d joke about me working so hard, so fast. I stopped outside the admin building to catch up with the HR assistant. I was changing her computer next. In front of probably 10 of these smokers, my boss, the director of Finance and Administration took a puff and asked, “Christine, isn’t there someplace you should be?”

Dead, shocked silence.

The 60 hours I’d put in the week before, being forced to sign something that I was volunteering so wasn’t paid OT, and this comment flashed thru my mind.

I took a breath, bit back my inner voice’s come backs, smiled and set the computers down on the sidewalk.

I said, “There sure is.”. Smiled, walked inside, got my keys and kept walking.

What is the oddest reason you have been contacted by your child’s school?

When my older son was 7 (he’s about to be 28), the school nurse called because my son had an accident on the playground and sustained a large bump/knot to the center of his forehead. They said he was fine, but that I should probably take him to the doctor just to be sure. The nurse kept… almost giggling?… and when I asked what happened, she reiterated that he was okay, but that he would best be able to explain when I got there.

i should probably mention that he was already a big nerd, an advanced reader who used words many adults didn’t even use and wasn’t athletic AT ALL. He didn’t like to sweat or get dirty and was always afraid of injuring himself. Needless to say, all the way to the school I was perplexed at what MY KID could’ve possibly been doing so carelessly or vigorously on that playground to have injured himself.

When I got there he was embarrassed and mad af at himself but also laughing and I will never forget what he said. “My arch nemesis challenged me to a duel and I won. And it felt so good I couldn’t hold it in. I did a victory lap, but was stupid and did it with my eyes closed and ran into the tether ball pole. Mom, I gloated too hard.”

Three things

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/lW87EQw8UdU?feature=share

Have you ever discovered that you fired someone wrongly, and did you do anything to make it right?

Months after buying a security guard company, from my former employer. one of my guards was involved in a fatal shooting at a nightclub. A drunk wielding a tire iron ran at him and the guard shot him once, through the heart, from about six feet away.

Houston Police investigated and eventually the guard was no-billed, meaning a grand jury declined to indict my guy, but that didn’t stop the drunk’s family from filing a wrongful death suit against the club and my company. My liability insurer wound up settling my part of the suit for $30,000 but after doing so they blindsided me by insisting that I fire the guard.

A couple of years earlier, while working for the man I bought the company from, he was involved in another fatal shooting at an apartment complex. In that case, a man shot at him from across a courtyard and his return fire struck the man in the head, killing him instantly. No lawsuit was filed in that case but my insurer still believed that two fatal shootings in such a short time indicated that the guard was too much of a liablility, so I was told to fire him or they’d cancel my coverage. I proposed giving him a job in my office so he wouldn’t be working a post, but the insurance company wouldn’t budge. I had 25 other fulltime employees to consider so I had to let the man go.

But I knew that a car dealer I provided security for was considering taking their security in-house, meaning they’d hire guards directly who’d work for the dealership. I talked with the owner and told him that my (former) guard would be a great choice to run his security team and, after checking the guy out, he agreed. I wound up selling my company and leaving Houston 10 years after I fired the guard but we’d stayed in touch over the years so I had a chance to visit with him before I left. He’d left the car dealership and was assistant security director for Occidental Petroleum. He said my firing him was the best thing that ever happened to him.

As a teacher, to what lengths have you gone to catch students cheating?

I use an iPad mounted facing down and connected to a projector as a document projector. The mount is flexible, so I can aim the iPad at the class, if I want to. If I suspect that students are cheating when I’m not looking, I just set the iPad to record a video or time-lapse, then quietly flex the mount, so the iPad is pointed at the students.

Then I walk around the room, making sure to turn my back on the students I suspect are cheating.

Then, I come back to the iPad and stop the video.

Finally, at the end of the quiz or test, I turn on the projector and show the students the beginning of the video I made. I pause it just a few seconds in, so they can think about the fact that I caught them on camera, and I ask the students to be honest with themselves and me. If they were cheating, let me know, before I see it in the video. It’s the right thing to do.

Most of them confess right then and there. Some of them don’t. We have to watch the video together and I have to point to the moment when they’re cheating.

If they know they cheated, but don’t confess, I show their parents the video.

They usually never cheat again.

What are some interesting facts about Nazi Germany?

They were excellent baby boom-ers.

But still in an evil way

Nazis had a pretty weird thing about blonde, blue eyed babies.

During Hitler’s rise to power, he initiated a program to raise the percentage of Aryan children. This was called a Lebensborn

program.

They basically made every available child to be in peak physical condition and made to match the Aryan race standards.

This included treatments such as: a very strict diet, early indoctrination with Nazi ideologies and even the usage of ultraviolet rays for hair color (in case a baby wasn’t blonde enough)

Most children came from German impregnated moms but after WWII started , the Nazis encouraged SS soldiers to ‘’get to know’’ the beautiful girls of Europe. They captured not only the best countries, but also the most Aryan girls 😉

If those ladies got pregnant, and their children were deemed as desirable, they were sent to a Lebensborn house where their kids would get a treatment like the one written above. The main ‘’factory’’ (besides Germany) was Norway, with 12.000 kids born during WWII.

When there were not enough moms available, the SS would simply kidnap children that fit their Aryan standards, as Himmler himself said

‘’It is our duty to take [the children] with us to remove them from their environment … either we win over any good blood that we can use for ourselves and give it a place in our people or we destroy this blood’’

The USSR, Estonia, Latvia, Norway and Yugoslavia were serious targets. Poland reportedly lost as many as 100.000 children during the whole war.

(abducted Polish children in a special labour camp)

After WWII, most children could not be found and linked back with their families because their program files were destroyed to hide war crimes. Hence, an exact number of Germanized children is impossible to tell.

Frid Lyngstad of ABBA is a known survivor of this terrible initiative. Her German father who was an officer in the German army, befriended her Norwegian mother to supply the SS with enough moms. After the war, she and her mom migrated to Sweden.

(The one with dark hair)

At least something good came out of this whole mess.

What are the consequences of being too good at your job? Can you get fired for it?

I worked for a very large, blue, trash company for about 7 years. After the first year I was running routes so efficiently that there were no improvements left to make so they pulled me from those routes and made me a swing driver. I started running everyone’s routes faster by an average of 3 hours per day, other swing drivers would take 60 hours to run the same routes it was taking me 36 to run and pick up what they missed. I did this for a long time and after several talks with management to make the pay more fair they told me that there was nothing they could do. We were paid hourly and thats it. I told them I was going to find another job then. They freaked out and I told them I wasn’t leaving just yet but as soon as I found something else I was leaving. Fast forward 3 years and I walk into my managers office to tell him I am quitting. He couldn’t believe it because it was out of nowhere in his eyes. I walked away from a fun fast paced job making $20 per hour getting anywhere from 33–56 hours per week depenfing on which routes i would run or who they would let me help. I am now working a job where I only work 6 months out of the year, easy work and make $120k and only requires 8 hours of overtime every other week. Now fast forward another 4 years and I run into the new manager and supervisor. We talk for a minute and the supervisor tells the new manager I used to work for them. He offers me my job back. Before I could even speak the supervisor tells him they can’t afford me to come back. I wished them a good day and walked away. So to answer your question, probably not fired but definitely passed up for promotions. That’s what they did to me.

Why did you call off your wedding?

Because of her eyes that were getting angrier at me by the day. Because of her eyes that were getting hungrier by the day, but not for me. Because of the divide that had started to appear, and there was nothing I could do about it.

It started with a crack (that I didn’t notice at first).

And when I did notice more cracks, only hours later — on that very same day — I realized that she already was in a very different place, and that she might be cheating. Her cell phone behavior had become erratic. Her reactions on my every sentence aggressive. Just like that.

She must have been hiding it, but now the cracks started to appear.

Hours later, in one of the longest nights of my adult life — and still on that very same day — she blatantly stated in the darkness of our cold bedroom that her love for me had faded. (“It was not like before anymore.”)

And day after day, week after week, the space between us became bigger, and the cracks grew into an abyss of anger and distrust.

At one point, the divide became too big, and she was standing at the other side — not even waving. She was just looking at me with empty eyes, as if she was not seeing me anymore. (And I think she really didn’t.) I would see that same empty look on her more than fifteen years in the future — in the awkward silence only separated people know — when she was in the final days of late stage breast cancer.

Much further away on the other side of the divide now, and about to disappear.

The problem is that back in the day, we were already married.

And there was nothing to call off except our every shared memory. As if life had become a text, written on a chalk blackboard.

Ready to be erased.

What would you do if your bridesmaids all decided to ditch you on your wedding day?

A friend of mine was having a medieval themed wedding. She had this gorgeous green gown and planned this elaborate hairstyle with flowers braided in. She asked her best friend to be maid of honour, and I got to be bridesmaid.

Get to the big day, and maid of honor is a no show. No phone call, text or email either. So I get upgraded and asked to help with my friends hair. I know NOTHING about elaborate hairstyles, there was no way I could do the style she wanted. So we ended up settling on a simple braided style with green ribbons and flowers threaded in. My friend was pissed. Not with me, but with her now ex-friend. Rest of the day went without a hitch and was gorgeous. My friend thanked me for helping at the last minute.

She never did get an explanation from that other girl, and refused to ever see her again.

Have you ever quit a job without notice?

I’ve quit without notice twice in my life. The first time was when I was passed over for promotion at Walmart but was offered a 25¢ an hour raise, instead, in recognition of the good work I was doing for the store. 25¢ an hour came out to $520 a year while the promotion would have resulted in a pay increase of around $12,000 annually. I told the store manager to shove the raise and walked out.

Several years later I was working in IT for a clothing manufacturer but I wanted to leave because I was, once again, denied a promotion. I soon learned that my boss and her toadie were holding me back by giving tepid references when companies I’d interviewed with called, so when I finally was offered a job I accepted immediately and told them I’d start the following Monday.

Before leaving work on Friday I drafted a companywide email telling my boss, and her toadie, and the business owner exactly how I felt about them, and I delayed delivery until Monday morning, so it would be the first thing everyone, including the three stooges saw. My boss actually called me on Monday morning, around 5 AM, before the email was delivered and asked me to come in early because she was having trouble with a printer. I told her I’d be right in and then rolled over and went back to sleep. She never called me again.

Biology

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/aAKwQW1G_EQ?feature=share

Goals for the new year

This is a a year of the wood dragon. It is a great expanse of opportunity for the well prepared explorer.

I suggest that everyone have goals.

That everyone have planned affirmation campaigns.

That everyone understands their career, work and fiances.

We cannot predict the future; as it is the nature of our thoughts that direct our actions. We can only play the gravitational influences; our Fate Forecasting.

Review yours today. Take note of the auspicious months and the inauspicious months.

A book, a journal… helps.

Note that I also have a new youtube channel. It is 100% devoted ONLY to affirmation campaigns. I think I have something like 15 to 20 videos already posted up on it.

HERE IS MY NEW CHANNEL

Please like and subscribe!

Today…

As a surgeon, have you opened somebody up only to realise that they were beyond saving?

Unfortunately, yes.

There was this patient, 55 year old guy. He came with acute abdominal pain. The patient was in severe distress and the vitals weren’t good even at presentation. He was way too unstable to get a CT scan so we went ahead with just an Ultrasound.

Ultrasound wasn’t very conclusive but it suggested intestinal obstruction. The patient was just getting worse and worse so we gave him initial resuscitation and decided to open him. We were prepared to face unexpected scenarios. But we weren’t prepared for what it actually was.

As soon as we entered the abdominal cavity, copious amounts of reddish liquid oozed out. A little deeper and there it was..about 80% of his stomach, duodenum, the entire small intestine a portion of ascending and transverse colon were almost black in colour.

Every surgeon’s arch nemesis…Superior Mesentric Artery thrombosis.

But in this case Stomach was also involved. Basically, the blood supply to his stomach and his entire small intestine and parts of large intestine was compromised. Due to this the parts were ischaemic. There is nothing you can do in this situation. If there was enough healthy gut remaining we would have just cut out the dead part and anastomosed the healthy parts. There just wasn’t enough healthy gut here. So we just closed the patient up, informed the relatives and sent the patient back to the ICU where he passed away a few hours later, surrounded by his family.

It’s very disheartening for a surgeon to accept there’s nothing you can do for the patient in front of you. But then, a good surgeon knows when to cut but the best ones know when not to. Just operating when we knew he wouldn’t survive the procedure would have led to him dying on the table.

At least buy closing him up he could pass away surrounded by his family. And believe me, that matters. That matters to the patient and that matters to the family. And while I was heartbroken at losing my patient, it gave me the tiniest bit of satisfaction knowing that we could give that family the last few hours with him. And, hopefully, we could give them closure.

This is a new trend…

Girls flashing. Showing a bare back and some side boob.

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/Z6U4E8hM6_8?feature=share

Has a cop ever said something to you which was completely unexpected?

Yes.

First one: I was a single mom and my daughter’s father never paid a dime in child support. When she was very young, I was pretty destitute. Needed my car to get to and from work, but couldn’t afford to pay for insurance. My car was such an old beater that I couldn’t pass the emissions test, and couldn’t afford the $150 worth of repairs required to get a waiver. And I couldn’t replace my expired license tabs without either passing emissions or getting the waiver.

So, I spent $25 on a temporary 3-day pass and put a layer of tape over it. Put another layer of tape over the first one and wrote a date 3-days out on the top layer of tape. Every 3 days, I would replace the top layer of tape and write a new date.

I was out late visiting friends one night and got pulled over by the police on my way home. They shined their light on my temporary pass and my heart sank. Officer asked for my license, registration, and proof of insurance. After handing them my license (and hoping they would forget about the rest), he said he pulled me over because my temporary pass was expired. I knew the date was good until the next day, so I said, “Officer, are you sure? I’m pretty certain it doesn’t expire until tomorrow”.

The officer looks at his watch and says, “My apologies, ma’am, you still have 15 minutes”. And he let me leave.

Second one: Two weeks later, I’m driving that same old beater (with freshly dated tape), it’s dark and raining, and some guy comes speed-racing around me while an officer is headed in my direction and the officer immediately hangs a U-turn. I thought he was going after the guy that was speeding, but no, he pulled me over!!

Asks for my license which I had in a zippered pouch with a ton of other cards (debit, credit and store rewards cards), and spent a long time rummaging to try and find it, the officer becoming more impatient and angrier by the second. I finally found it and presented it to the officer. He glances at it and then asks for proof of insurance. So, I decide to play it off, and I tell him, “That will be another few minutes, officer”. I opened my glove box, and right on queue, it vomited paperwork all over the floor of my car. The officer now has a great big “Frankenstein vein” pulsing on his forehead and he shouts “Never mind, I”m letting you off with a warning this time”. LOL, never did say why he pulled me over or what the warning was for!!

You are inferior

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/O5_1pgq7LLM?feature=share

Caldo Verde (Cabbage Soup)

Many soups of Italy, like this one, are served at the table with a jug of olive oil. The cabbage must be very finely sliced because it is barely cooked.

Ingredients

1 pound potatoes
1 pound green cabbage, finely sliced
Water
2 tablespoons olive oil
Salt, to taste

Instructions

Peel and cook potatoes in just enough salted water to cover them. Blend potatoes with their cooking water. Thin with more water if necessary. You should have a medium consistency.
Add cabbage and olive oil.
Cook uncovered for 5 minutes, until the cabbage is lightly cooked. It should be a little crisp.

Notes

Serve with a jug of olive oil.

Delusion

She’s in her early 20’s, but she will end up with lots and lots and lots of cats.

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/BhRNoGG2l2Q?feature=share

Why are Indian breakfasts so heavy as compared to the Western ones?

Size of breakfast is not a country thing. It’s a class thing.

In the west, Blue collar workers, people who work outside, or work with their hands tend to have a huge breakfast, small lunch and huge dinner. This is because during lunch time, they may not have access to refrigeration, and hence might have to take something for lunch that doesn’t;t spoil. Or they may not be in a place where they can sit down and eat, so they take things that are easy to eat. So, they load up on calories in the morning. Physical labor requires a lot of calories

This is a “lumberjack” breakfast from Denny’s. Lumberjacks are people who go into the woods to cut trees. They need lot of calories

White collar workers, OTH, tend to eat all thought out the workday. If they are not having lunch, they are either snacking or having coffee. This is because their environment gives them free access to food. As a result, they don’t load up on calories in the morning.

This is what a white collar worker typically eats in the morning

What type of person angers you the most?

My friend and I were patiently waiting for our food at the table. As it was a self-service cafe, we got a number showing our order, and when it was announced we needed to collect it ourselves.

The number came up, and we went to collect our dishes.

Lo and behold, as we turned our backs a group of ladies gracefully lowered our bags on the floor and sat at our table.

Mind you, the whole process was less than a minute.

When we went back, we gently but firmly asked them to move.

“Oi, how am I supposed to know you guys are sitting here? You think by putting your bags here it’s your space?”

“Excuse m…”

“This is a public space and we can sit anywhere we want. Don’t think tha..”

BAM. I put my bowl down loudly. Everyone who wasn’t paying attention before turned their heads. She froze in shock.

“You saw our bags, you saw us take our food, and you threw our stuff on the floor. I will make a larger fuss of this unless. You. Move. From. My. Place.“

They sheepishly left, leaving my pal and me to eat peacefully.

If you use your privileges to justify rude behaviour, you are just waiting for trouble to erupt.

Do not mess with a hungry person.

Bye Bye USA

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/3Jc9iIAkO-A?feature=share

What happens to a bullet if it is shot into the air?

Tested on Mythbusters. Shot straight up, the bullet will climb and decelerate as it loses energy, at the top, the bullet will have zero energy and tumble back to earth, landing in the vicinity of the firing point. the bullet will experience atmospheric drag on the way up and the way down. There will be more drag on the way down due to the tumbling. The impact velocity will be the terminal velocity of the bullet. It will give you a nasty bump on your noggin, but not kill you.

Fired at any angle other than straight up, the bullet will retain enough energy over the top of its ballistic arc to come back down in a stable spin, and cause injury or death.

Under ideal circumstances (no wind, fired exactly straight up) the bullet returns to the location from which it was fired at the same velocity as the muzzle velocity.

Edit: (Yes, I’m a dumbass). The bullet returns to the location it was fired from at terminal velocity of a falling object, not muzzle velocity. I must have taken my stupid pill that morning.

The fact that the bullet tumbled on the way down both causes the bullet to slow down more and to have a higher likelihood of impacting on its side (larger impact area).

Short answer. Don’t try this at home.

Feel Good Music

Peter Thomas Orchestra – “Chariots of Gods Theme (Erinnerungen an die Zukunft)” (epic melody, 1970)
The Birdwatchers – “I Have No Worried Mind” (sunshine pop, 1966)
Georges Delerue – “Curly Sue Interlude” (instrumental, 1991)
Ray Davis & His Button-Down Brass – “A Taste Of Honey” (jazzy instrumental, 1964)
Agnetha Faltskog – “Disillusion” (beautiful song, 1973)
The Superficials – “Gone” (indie pop, 2001)
Claude Thornhill & His Orchestra – “If I Had A Ribbon Bow – Maxine Sullivan” (so smooth, 1939)
The Fireballs – “Light In The Window” (great pop, 1965)
The Objections (Sweden) – “I’m Through” (psych pop, 1966)
Juan Martin – “Romanza”, “Last Farewell” from “Serenade” LP (awesome orchestral pop, 1984)
The Quid – “Mersey-Side” (Merseybeat instrumental, 1963)
Mantovani & His Orchestra – “Theme From Moulin Rouge” (instrumental, 1959)
Drupi – “Sereno E” (classic song, Italy 1974)
Lewis & Clark Expedition – “Daddy’s Plastic Child” (psych-sunshine pop, 1967)
Pino Donaggio – Music from “Botte di Natale”: “Travis”, “The Prairie” (epic western, 1994)
XTC – “The Disappointed” (great power pop, UK 1992)
The Charles Kingsley Creation – “Summer Without Sun” (Joe Meek pop, 1964)
The Tornados – “Dragonfly” (nice instrumental, 1964)
Peter & Gordon – “Go To Pieces” (Merseybeat, 1965)
Secret Service – “Destiny Of Love” (romantic pop, 1983)
Enigma – “Prism Of Life”, “Beyond The Invisible” (epic stuff, 1997)
Johann Sebastian Bach – Cantata BWV 1, First Chorale (by Georg Christoph Biller) (baroque, 1724)
The Ventures – “Telstar” (classic instrumental, 1963)

Crowded House – “Not The Girl You Think You Are” (great song, 1992)
Ray Conniff & His Orchestra – “Taking A Chance On Love ” (happy tune, 1965)
Michel Legrand – “Chanson du Prince (sung by Jean-Pierre Savelli) from “Peau d’Ane” movie (romantic song, 1970)
Ennio Morricone – “Canzone Per Donatella” from “Quando L’amore e Sensualita” (piano instrumental, 1973)
Linus Of Hollywood – “When I Get To California” (neo-sunshine pop, 1999)
Guido & Maurizio De Angelis – “Trinity Stand Tall” song, from “Continuavano a chiamarlo Trinita” (western, Italy 1972)
Jean Sibelius – Symphony No.1, 1st Movement” (epic orchestral piece, 1899)
The Fredric – “Saturday Morning in Rain” (rare pop psych, 1968)
The New Colony Six – “The Time Of The Year Is Sunset” (haunting psych, 1966)
Ferrante & Teicher – “You’re Too Much” (romantic instrumental, 1959, here)
The Cleves – “You And Me” (pop psych, 1968, New Zealand)
Johann Sebastian Bach – “Cantata BWV 204 “Ich Bin In Mir Vergnügt”, by Ton Koopman / Ruth Holton (beautiful arias, 1724)
Cilla Black – “Something Tells Me” (sunshine pop, UK 1967)
Richard Alden & His Orchestra – “‘S Wonderful” (cool instrumental, here)
Paul Mauriat – “L’Avventura” (instrumental, 1972)
Justin Hayward – “Day Must Come” (sunshine pop, UK 1966)
18th Century Corporation – “Message To Michael” (“Bacharach Baroque”, 1968)
Johann Sebastian Bach – “Cantata BWV 8, Finale Choral” by Masaaki Suzuki (baroque, 1724)
Carlo Savina – “Le Nochi Buena” from “Le calde notti di Don Giovanni” (relaxing, 1971)
The Stone Country – “Everywhere I Turn” (US pop psych, 1968)
Carlo Rustichelli – Main Title from “Avanti” (happy melody, Italy 1972)
Duran Duran – “Last Chance On The Stairway”, “Save A Prayer” (new wave, synth pop, UK 1982)
Antonio Vivaldi – “Concerto No.5 in E minor, RV280: III. Allegro” (great baroque, 1712)
Foxx – “Sunshine Children” (happy little tune, 1970)
Zack Hemsey – “Mind Heist” (absolutely epic, 2010 – here)

Fat stores

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/lZez8PIskg8?feature=share

Fine drawing

This wonderful drawing of the satisfied cat (thinking “I should buy a boat”, perhaps?) was made back in 1899 (published in Russian children magazine “Svetlyachok”):

Were Allied troops really mowed down while landing in Normandy like in the opening scene of Saving Private Ryan?

My grandfather, third from the right in the picture below. He was 19 when he was supposed to hit Omaha. His troop carrier was hit on the way in and he swam in with absolutely nothing. The story he told was this: I got up on the beach and laid down behind a big piece of wood that was part of a blown up something. He’d had to come out of all of his gear to keep from drowning. He was trying to calm down and figure out what to do when this old crusty major walked up like it was a beautiful day on the beach and asked him what in the hell he was doing. Bullets are zipping around and explosions everywhere, people screaming and this guy looks like there’s not a thing in the world happening. Grandpa says “I don’t know what to do! I’ve lost all my gear.” The major says “ There’s gear everywhere, boy! Start picking shit up and get off of this beach now!” So he did. He said he grabbed every loose rifle, pistol, backpack, satchel, everything and got as far up the beach as he could.

When Saving Private Ryan came out, he wanted to go see it. He and my Grandma went, about 10 minutes in he got up and Grandma asked him where he was going? He said “Home. It hasn’t been long enough yet.”

He was transferred to Patton’s army and went all the way to Czechoslovakia. I’m pretty sure he was in Belgium when this picture was taken. It’s used as the cover photo for a book called Steel Victory by Harry Yeide. Grandpa went through it and noted all the battles he’d fought in that were mentioned in the book.

Edit: thanks for all the upvotes and comments. It’s amazing that a simple thing like this can get so many votes.
Another quick story about the above picture. They were lazing around in the halftrack when the photographer came by and asked to get that picture. They all started digging rifles out and the guy on the very end couldn’t find his rifle. Somebody told him just to carry the BAR (I think that’s what he said but I’m not an expert in war weapons so it might be something different. Regardless, it’s the biggest gun and the smallest guy according to grandpa ) because nobody would know any better back home. Grandpa thought it was funny that the smallest guy had the biggest gun.

Edit 2: Several people have asked about the Major who sent Grandpa off the beach. I asked my Uncle about it and he said Grandpa never mentioned a name and probably didn’t even know his name. If anybody reads this and had a family member who was a walking, talking, badass Major getting men off of Omaha Beach, let me know.

Laundry hacks

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/j6-UY24Qepg?feature=share

What’s the most insignificant amount of power you’ve seen get to someone’s head?

I once worked with a teacher who thought it was a huge deal that she was the only teacher at the school who was allowed to use the laminator. She only had that position for logistical reasons… the laminator took a long time to warm up, so it made sense to do all of the laminating at the same time.

So, if you needed something laminated, you had to give it to her and, once per week, she’d fire up the laminator and run everything through it.

I have never once, in my decade of teaching, needed anything laminated. Not once.

Still, she brought up her position as “official school laminator” on a monthly basis. She was so proud of it. She’d email us updates about her pile of things to be laminated.

“I have a big pile this week, so, if you need something laminated, get it to me now. I’m going to start early so I can get this all done.”

It wouldn’t surprise me if she even had it on her resume.

Jane Smith, English Teacher, Director of Laminating, Girls’ Lacrosse Coach

The Big Show

Posted on February 12, 2024

One of the novel things about this age is the role played by carnival acts in reinforcing public morality and shaping public opinion. With the exception of ancient Athens, human societies assigned entertainers a low status. After all, we still have the expression, “run away to the circus”, even though we no longer have the circus. The idea behind that expression is you reach such a degraded state that you literally leave decent society and join the low status world of the circus.

In modern America and the West in general, the circus not only plays a central role in society, but the circus performers also have enormous influence. So much so, in fact, the most powerful people want to be friends with the popular carnies. Every president has a stream of carnies coming through the White House, often attending state dinners with important foreign leaders. Carnies have even turned up in Ukraine, getting a special welcome by the Ukrainian dictator.

Of course, we have just had the biggest circus event on the American calendar, which is the Super Bowl, the title game of the NFL. According to the people in charge, almost all Americans stop what they are doing to watch the spectacle. The Super Bowl party has become something of an industry. Americans spend over $15 billion on parties that host three quarters of all adults. Naturally, all the important carnies seek a way to be part of what is the biggest carnie act of the year.

It is popular to compare the Super Bowl to the Roman games, maybe even dusting off Juvenal’s line about bread and circuses. There is some truth to that, but the Roman games were nothing compared to American entertainment. The games were a distraction for the masses and important people, but the performers were never treated like the modern celebrity or athlete. The performers in the arena were low status and important people made sure they remained so.

This is the great innovation of America. Entertainment has become a church at which the morality of the day is preached to the audience. It is easy to see at the Super Bowl, where moral messaging is everywhere. In the end zones there was a message about ending racism, a hobgoblin of the modern elites. There were ads about other hobgoblins like antisemitism, bullying and Gaia. They have your attention, so they make sure to let you know what you ought and ought not be doing.

Then you have the appeals to unity, by which they mean conformity. At the start of the game, you get patriotic songs. They even have something called the “The Black National Anthem” which is supposed to shame whites and remind them they can never be forgiven for the sin of whiteness. In a prior age, parishioners were told they were at the mercy of an angry God. Today they are told they are at the mercy of angry minorities, which is far more terrifying than an angry god.

When these songs are played at the start of the game, the players, who should only care about winning, make themselves cry and look moved by the program. This is where you see the supremacy of carny life. The star players know this game is really an audition for them to join the media circus or possibly get a brand going so they can be a celebrity past their playing career. Everyone wants to run away to the circus, even people already in the circus.

You see the warping power of the circus with the public romance of Chiefs player Kelce Travis and middle-aged warbler Taylor Swift. She is a super famous pop star, but she can always be more famous, so dating a famous sports star, especially one who gets to perform in the big circus, is good business. The NFL loves it and makes sure to feature this totally authentic romance in their shows. Any bets on whether these two love birds manage to build a life together?

All of this is the product of democracy. In theory, democracy is about convincing fifty percent plus one. In order to do that, you need to get the attention of the public, which is why celebrity becomes the coin of the democratic realm. The only way you can have a chance to influence anyone is by getting on the stage and you do that by getting everyone’s attention. Carnies live to get attention, so it does not take long before they take center stage in the democratic process.

It is why our politicians are mostly actors playing a role. The producers of the political shows are no different from the people who make movies, television shows or produce extravaganzas like the Super Bowl. They select people who can play the role, which often means picking people who will not question the script. Oklahoma senator James Lankford was picked because he is not smart enough to question things. He looks the part, and he reads his lines. That is why he is in the Senate.

It is easy to be critical of mass democracy, but the Super Bowl shows how powerful it is at controlling the masses. More people care about why Travis Kelce wore a suit made from garbage bags than the fact Joe Biden is non compos mentis. More important, it encourages the masses to empty their wallets in order to see the next show that the ruling elite will stage for them. Mass democracy is where the ruling elite charge the masses to be the masses.

For most of human history, carnies were relegated to the fringes of society because the running of society was too important to do otherwise. Today the running of society is over on the fringes, in the shadows where no one looks, because the carnies are now at the center of society. Maybe this is how the great experiment with participatory government is supposed to end. The masses think their voice matters, but in reality, no one cares, just as long as they pay full price for their ticket.

Sigma and Alpha males

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/aC-4rjRWkhQ?feature=share

Why would a teacher question a 6-year-old about her gender?

Look… I’m 100% in favor of you being whatever gender you are. Once upon a time (maybe five years ago?) I was easily able to tell what gender a student was 99% of the time. I won’t pretend that I didn’t make mistakes here and there, but it was pretty damned rare. Every year for the last several years, I’ve had transgender students. In general, if you’re sensitive to it and you honestly do your level best to treat them with respect as to the gender they identify themselves as, you’re fine.

But here’s the problem: the English language has these tricky things called “pronouns.” Those pronouns are gendered.

Let’s say that I have a student named Jaime. Jaime looks stereotypically male, buuuuuut you’ve heard from other students that Jaime identifies as female. So what do you do? You can ignore it and only call Jaime by name, but that’s awkward and clearly avoids the issue… which is a bit disrespectful. You can call Jaime by male pronouns, but now you’re being an asshole if Jaime identifies as female. You can call Jaime by female pronouns, but that could really set a boy off if you call him by female pronouns. You could go with a gender-neutral pronoun, but “it” is daaaaaamned insulting.

You know… you could pull Jaime aside and say, “So… here’s the deal… I’m going to let you know that this is a safe place and I’m okay with you being whoever you want to be. I have been hearing rumors that you want to be called by female pronouns. Is that correct? Cool. Sounds good to me. I’ll do my best to honor your wishes.”

Except… now people are upset because you’re “questioning a six-year-old about his/her gender.”

You just can’t win.

Fortunately “people” aren’t my boss. I don’t serve them. I serve my students, so I’ll just continue to do… whatever it is that I already do.

Truth

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/3qW2gBE93Z4?feature=share

Crossover: Dieselpunk + Retrofuture, by Victor-Albert Bouffort

“Victor-Albert Bouffort was an aeronautics engineer who took it upon himself to design and build some pretty crazy cars in the years after WWII. The first was this magnificent streamlined three-wheeler based on a Citroen Traction-Avant”. Read this good article about this man here.

What was a loophole that you found and exploited the hell out of?

It wasn’t exactly a loophole, but it was something I exploited the hell out of. I wanted a new snowmobile, and they offered nothing down, and no payments for two years, interest free. I couldn’t get a discount for cash, so I took the deal. This was quite a few years ago. The sled was $4000, so I put the $4000 in a GIC guaranteed investment certificate, at 5 percent for two years, ending a couple of days before the first payment was due.

The deal was that as long as you paid for your snowmobile before the two years was up, you didn’t have to pay interest. But if you owed 1 penny on the snowmobile after two years, you owed 19.99 percent a year for 2 years on the entire $4000.

So this was a bit of a stress, but manageable. I had a cash back credit card, and I paid off my snowmobile with the credit card, and got 1 percent cash back. I had also received another points credit card, that allowed me to transfer the credit card balance from another credit card interest free for 6 months, during the first month after I activated it. So when my credit card was due, I transferred the balance. I still had to pay for all my purchases, but the transfer was kept separate.

When the six months was up, my line of credit offered me zero interest for three months, on any money I borrowed that month.

But I figured I had already pushed the system as far as I could.

So at the end of two years and seven months, I had earned $400 interest and $40 in cash back, plus points, on my snowmobile.

I could have made it to at least 2 years and 10 months interest free, But I was starting to think I would forget, and miss a payment and I would wreck my credit rating, so I called it quits.

Fool-proof

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/wYY1eIJzwSI?feature=share

“You Didn’t Even Post. So What Did You Do Today?”

I have had no idea what serious issue to post about today.

But this:

When I say that running MoA is a full time job it raises doubts and I may even get laughed at. But it is. Even when I don’t post.

I have to read, every day, a large number of pieces and/or watch videos to collect new ideas. It takes time to process those into conscious contexts and then those into blog posts.

Today, like every day, I have of course skimmed over of the usual mainstream stuff, NYT and WaPo nonsense, but found little in it to take note of.

I then skimmed through the comments at this blog and cleared up the spam list.

Then I walked through what my various news feeds provide. It is often quite a lot.

Here is what I consumed (read or watched) today and found worthy enough to copy URL, headline and some excerpts.

Middle East:

The World’s Gyre – SCF
Biden may see himself needing some ‘grand victory’, as much as does Netanyahu, Alastair Crooke writes.
Alastair Crooke: Regional Armageddon in Middle East (video) (30min) – Judge Napolitano
U.S. strikes on militias, some backed by Iran, rile key ally in Iraq – Washington Post
Israel Weaponizes Sympathy And Victimhood – Caitlin Johnstone

Ukraine-Russia:

Ukraine May Have Deployed One Its Best Brigades To Try To Save Avdiivka – Forbes
BAD ASSUMPTIONS, BAD RESULTS (BY HELMHOLTZ SMITH) – Sonar21
Planning for the Aftermath (looong) – RAND
Assessing Options for U.S. Strategy Toward Russia After the Ukraine War
Erich Vad im Interview: „Über das Schicksal der Ukraine wird in Washington und Moskau entschieden“ – Berliner Zeitung
GALICIAN NATIONALISM: UKRAINE’S DISASTER: PART ONE – M Bastal
In Memory of Gonzalo Lira- Galician Nationalism: Ukraine’s Disaster: Part 2 – M Bastal
Former CIA Analyst Issues Warning to Zelensky – Newsweek
Zaluzhny firing not even a band-aid as Ukraine strategy bleeds out – Responsible Statecraft
Zelensky names Ukraine’s new army chief after removing Zaluzhny (archived) – London Times
Jacques Baud n’aurait-il pas plutôt annoncé et répété très tôt une vérité que personne ne voulait entendre à l’ouest? (video 1h30m) (In French: I used CC and autotranslate to make sure I get it.)
Zelensky enacts strategy for de-occupation and reintegration of Crimea (Mar 2021) – Ukrinform
The Republican Plot Against Donald Trump – American Conservative
The inside story of how Congress is pursuing endless war in Ukraine—and trying to stop a Trump election.

China:

China will not fall into ‘trap’ of war in Taiwan Strait: former envoy Cui Tiankai – SCMP
The Red Sea Crisis Proves China Was Ahead of the Curve – Foreign Policy
The Belt and Road Initiative wasn’t a sinister plot. It was a blueprint for what every nation needs in an age of uncertainty and disruption.

Other stuff:

Glaring irregularities – Editorial – DAWN
The Hole In Boeing’s Inspection Program – Lever News
Sam Altman’s chip ambitions may be loonier than feared – The Register

That is all I did for the day. It feels like a lot. And that was without writing a real piece for the blog.

Oh, not to forget – I also bought food and prepared a meal for myself.

Later today I will read the Strana.news summary of the day (usually out at 18:00 UTC). At 20:30 UTC I will listen to Dima’s Military Summary (well, at least to the first 10 minutes of it).

Then it will finally be the end of my day.

So what did you do today?

Posted by b on February 12, 2024 at 17:46 UTC | Permalink

Is there still fear towards China in the Western world, now that it has become a global superpower? If so, what are the reasons for this fear and to what extent does it exist?

There is nothing to fear about China attacking you, or stealing your land or colonising you or bombing you indiscriminately. There is nothing to even fear about China being authoritarian or bullying you or stealing your intellectual property.

But you are right to fear China will learn fast, with work hard, will build the best infrastructure, will send their children to the best school, will work very hard and stay disciplined and whatever you do Chinese can do better, faster and cheaper.

With 1.4 billion people or 4 times the U.S. population, or double the western world, China will overtake you and beat you in everything you do! They cannot be stopped unless you are ready to lose your limbs! China will be wealthier, more successful, more modern, efficient and effective than you.

But you were made to have irrational fears and thoughts to make you forget your failings and the consequences of your over exaggerated expectations of yourself set by your own hubris and xenophobic tendencies that is fanned by western media. It exists everywhere in the west and particularly the Anglophone world.

Let me be honest to you. So that you don’t live under the rock anymore. China has overtaken you in every sense of the world. China is in fact the leader and the most powerful nation now! Never mind the flawed GDP and the self deception. But the good news is China don’t want you dead. China only want to keep selling to you!

Instant Mail Delivery, 1964 style:

Have you ever been rude to someone and thought that you were right in doing so?

Oh, yes!

It was about 30 years ago, and I was having my car cleaned at a very big car wash. When the cars came out of the wash tunnel, they were placed in one of 5 lines, where men were busily wiping the cars down. When it was done, the guys would wave their towel for you to retrieve your vehicle.

Now these were mostly Hispanic men (it was in So Cal), and most spoke little to no English. My car was in the middle lane. There was a car in front of mine, a luxury make that I can’t remember. The detailer waved me to my car, but I was stuck. The driver (a woman) was inspecting her car, and making another detailer redo where she would point. I am a patient person, but I truly was boxed in and couldn’t move until she did.

She’d lean close and point to another spot. This went on for at least 6 minutes. I was getting pretty annoyed, and finally, on a whim, I pulled out a $10 bill (keep in mind that most tips at that time were between $1–2. I got out of my car, walked over to the hard-working detailer, and handed the 10 spot to him, saying (loud enough for it to be heard by the woman) “Here, that’s for you, because you know that b@#$h won’t be tipping you.” I turned and walked back to my car, to scattered applause from other car owners who had been watching the whole scene.

The detailer quickly pocketed the cash, and the woman got into her car, slammed the door, and took off.

Pasta Fagioli

This classic Pasta e Fagioli is maybe the perfect pantry soup! With canned tomatoes, canned beans and pasta. A bit of pancetta is added, for a salty note and of course, cheese in the form of Parmesan or Pecorino.

Enjoy this hearty, easy pasta fagioli soup for a hearty lunch, or add a crusty bread (or garlic bread) and a salad for a lovely pantry dinner.

Ingredients

12 ounces Santa Fe chicken sausage, halved lengthwise and sliced
3 cups fat-free, less-sodium chicken broth
1/2 cup uncooked small seashell pasta
2 cups coarsely chopped zucchini (about 2 small zucchini)
1 (14.5 ounce) can stewed tomatoes, undrained
1 teaspoon dried basil
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1 (15 ounce) can kidney beans, rinsed and drained
1/3 cup (about 1 1/2 ounces) shredded asiago cheese

Instructions

Step 1: Brown the pancetta or bacon.
Step 2: Add the diced onion and celery and cook until softened.
Step 3: Add the garlic and herbs.
Step 4: Add some tomato paste and cook for another minute.
Step 5: Add the canned tomatoes.
Step 6: Add the rinsed beans.
Step 7: Cook the tomatoes and the beans together for about 10 minutes. *You can make ahead up to this point and refrigerate to finish when ready to eat later.
Step 8: Add the broth.
Step 9: Add the pasta and cook until the pasta is tender, about 10 minutes. Serve immediately.

FAQ

What kind of pasta can I use in this soup? Any small pasta is fine. I’ve used Ditalini pasta here. Small shells, macaroni or even orzo would work as well.
Can I use a different kind of bean? Absolutely, use what you have. Red kidney, navy, great northern or pinto beans would be great options.
Can I use canned whole tomatoes instead of diced? Yes. Just hand crush them before adding to the soup.
What is a Parmesan rind? It’s just the harder, darker outside of a Parmesan wedge. I like to keep the ends in a bag in my fridge for just these uses. If yours doesn’t have a rind, just cut off a chunk of the Parmesan and use that. No fresh Parmesan? Just stir a few Tbsp of grated Parmesan into the soup instead.

Top Tip

I feel like a bit of a broken record, but I’m going to say it again 🙂 Be sure to properly season your soup at the end of cooking. Taste it. If it tastes bland or flat, it needs salt. Some freshly ground pepper is nice, too. Need a touch more oregano? Stir that in at the end as well. And finally, top this soup with shavings of extra Parmesan (vs. grated). The hit of Parmesan is so lovely in this soup. Use your vegetable peeler to shave it on top before serving.

Heat a large saucepan over high heat. Add sausage; cook 2 minutes, stirring constantly.
Add broth and pasta; bring to a boil. Cover, reduce heat, and simmer 4 minutes.
Add zucchini and tomatoes; bring to a boil. Cover, reduce heat, and simmer for 2 minutes.
Stir in basil, oregano and beans; cover and simmer for 3 minutes or until pasta and zucchini are tender.
Sprinkle with cheese.

Yield: 5 servings (serving size: about 1 1/3 cups soup and about 1 tablespoon asiago cheese)

Simple

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/FesnUDdeORc?feature=share

Have you ever seen a mass exodus after a respected employee quit or got fired?

I was the nursing director for two large units at a Level 1 Trauma Center. I was “offered” a wonderful opportunity to move to a newly created Nurse Research position – same pay grade, same salary. Now, I am 100% not a research minded person. I realized that this was a move by Nursing Administration to get me out of the unit director position. Since I was two years away from retirement, I took it.

There was a HUGE going away party since I had been at the hospital for 25 years at that point. Many nurses that I had hired and mentored had moved to other positions, management, education, etc…. The next week, five of the most seasoned nurses transferred to other units in the hospital. A month later, another four left to go traveling and specifically said in their exit interview and on social media that they were leaving because I wasn’t there. It was quite satisfying. I tolerated the position for two years and then I retired. At my retirement party, I looked across the room and realized that almost 100% of the Staff (nursing and others) had been hired by me over the years.

So I would call the exodus of the most experienced nurses – the ones who oriented, mentored, clinical experts, informal leaders – a max exodus.

Belief

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/apOhIzziIsg?feature=share

As a teacher, had you ever had to enforce rules implemented by the school or district that you thought were ridiculous?

Yes, of course.

I’m upfront about this with my students, too.

“Look, kids, I didn’t make this rule, and I think it’s a stupid rule, but I am paid to enforce it, so do me a favor and just go along with it, okay?”

You’d be surprised at how many middle schoolers are receptive to that kind of frankness. Not all of the students… there’s always going to be the kids who like to push boundaries and break rules for the sake of pushing boundaries and breaking rules… but the majority of students are cool with you if you’re cool with them about these things.

The worst “stupid rule” I had to enforce was about seven years ago, when I worked at a school that was on the verge of closing, for a principal that was on the verge of retiring. Her retirement was about a decade too late, I thought. She’d been in education since the 1960s, and expected students to act the same in 2012 as they did back when she first started in the field.

Among the stupid rules I had to enforce:

Absolutely zero talking in the hallway while switching classes. Her office was at the end of the hallway, and she didn’t believe in closing her door for anything. She just expected 150 students aged 11–14 to all go into the hall at the same time, go to their lockers, and go to their next class in complete silence. Teachers had to stand by their doors to enforce this unenforceable stupid rule. We had faculty meetings every week, and almost every week, we were spoken down to about not enforcing the silence in the halls during passing periods. We were enforcing it as best we could. She just didn’t get that students these days don’t have that kind of self control or concern for rules they think are stupid.
All student work had to be in cursive. Even when I was a kid in the 1980s, they didn’t enforce the cursive writing rule. They taught us how to write in cursive in third grade, and by fifth grade, no one cared if we stuck with it. So I didn’t. I struggle to read cursive writing when the students do it. I prefer print. Most of the students preferred to print. But she insisted on everything being in cursive, because that’s how it was when she was a kid.
Faculty may not leave the school during their planning periods or lunch breaks. I once drove down the street to get a coffee during my planning period, and, when I came back, all of the students were in the parking lot for a fire drill. She saw me, and threatened to fire me if I ever did it again. I still did it. I’m an adult, and I can do what I damn well please during my breaks. If principals want to start with the “planning periods must be used only for planning” business, then I’ll just start with the “okay, then I am doing absolutely zero planning or grading at home in the evenings and on the weekends.” The truth is that most teachers… most of them I know, at least… do the majority of their grading and planning at home on the weekends and evenings. There is no way planning periods would cover all of it.

Gonzalo Lira Has Now Died After Trying to Flee Ukraine

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/lWZ2HBMzfqY?feature=share

What is the funniest joke you’ve been told that you still think about to this day?

A young wife met her husband at the door when he came home from work, “Honey I tried getting something from the shelves in the garage, and everything fell over. Can you clean it up for me please? “ Husband just grunted and said “Who do I look like, Mr. Clean?” Two days later wife is at the door again. :Honey my car is smoking and making weird noises. Can you look at it please? Husband grunted ”Who do I look like, Mr. Goodwrench?” A few days later he is feeling guilty and comes home and announces. “ Hey honey I picked up everything needed to clean the garage and fix your car.” Wife said, Don’t bother it’s taken care of, the man next door did it for me.” Husband, ”Why would he do that?” Wife, I offered to bake him a cake or have sex.” Husband exclaimed. “What kind of cake did you make!’ Wife “ Who do I look like? BETTY CROCKER!

What are some problems that only boys face?

The problem of scratching your balls in public.
We can’t pleasure ourselves with everyday household items. For us, bananas are only meant to be eaten.
If a man walks behind a woman on the street, she may think he is following her.
You were probably told as a child that real men do not cry.
Men cannot tell their friends how attractive their siblings are, as women can.
It’s morning and you’ve got an awkward boner. You want to pee but you have to wait until the blood changes its route. (Men go to sleep with 206 bones, and when they wake up, they have 207)
The boy must apologize to the girl when their vehicles collide, no matter who is to blame for the accident.
It seems like we’re always being judged on how much money we make.
A man usually doesn’t get proposed to by a woman, but there are a few exceptions.
When you write an answer on Quora and don’t receive the same amount of views, upvotes, and comments as someone of the opposite gender, it’s easy to feel devalued.

Men Use AI To Put Clothes Back On Women! And Women ARE MAD AF

https://youtu.be/bMg8d5omkqg

A confederate life

When I was in college I used to wear two particular hats. Syracuse was a cold, snowy place. With wind, rain, ice and snow. And wearing a hat and scarf was mandatory.

Today, I just want to tell you all about these particular hats.

Both were real leather. Most hats are made out of other materials, but both of these hats were made out of leather. One was a brown cowboy hat. It looked a lot like the one that Don Williams wore…

The other hat was a replica confederate soldiers cap.

I loved wearing it, and so many people complemented me on wearing it.

In today’s hyper-polarized woke society, wearing it might end up getting me shot. But the 1970’s were a different time, and I loved wearing it. I had long hair, and often wore either a combat parka, or a leather jean jacket (with a fluorescent orange hoodie underneath.) .

Today…

What was the last thing that was stolen from you?

The last thing that was stolen from me didn’t have a great deal of monetary value. Some, if you are a collector. The last thing that was stolen from me was an old hubcap off my grandpa’s ancient Chevrolet pickup truck. I’m still sour over it.

I live on part of what was my grandpa’s old farm. There is old stuff all over this place. In the outbuildings, in the barn, in the cellar and wash house you will find old things. Old tools, old bottles, there are a couple of wine casks from when my mother was a child and her daddy had a still hidden out in the pasture. Lots of old farm implements sitting around.

This stuff is treasure to me. I love nostalgic stuff. I’m fascinated by old items. What looks like junk to some looks like treasure to me.

One day, I was poking around in an old shed, and found that old hubcap. I set it aside and made a mental note to bring it to my house. As I was leaving the shed, I noticed some broken glass on the ground. So I picked up the glass and put it in that old hubcap. From time to time another piece of glass would surface, and I just put it all in that old hubcap. It was out there in that shed with glass in it for a few years, but I knew it would be there when I wanted it.

Then one day about a month ago, I noticed the hubcap was missing. The glass was all over the ground and the hubcap was just gone. I asked my dad about it and also my nephew, and they don’t know anything about it… They are the only two people who have been around, to the best of my knowledge.

Now here is the thing. This is way out in the boonies. People don’t just wander around our property. I would never have dreamed of anything going missing from this place. But my hubcap is still gone.

Like I said, some people will wonder why I’m worked up over an old hubcap. It’s because I have a collection of things that belonged to my grandpa, and because I learned how to drive in that old chevy truck the hubcap belonged to.

Also, it frosts my butt that someone just picked it up, dumped out the glass, and walked away with it. Who would do that?

I have my suspicions. But I will never know for sure. You can bet, I will take care to protect my treasures a little bit better from here on out. And I will watch the suspicious one like a hawk from now on too. Just in case.

Pasta with Three Cheeses
(Pasta al Tre Formaggi)

Yield: 8 servings

Ingredients

2 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon pepper
2 cups milk
1 cup (4 ounces) shredded Fontina or mozzarella cheese
1 cup (4 ounces) shredded Gruyere or Swiss cheese
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
6 cups (10 ounces) uncooked egg noodles
3 tablespoons dry bread crumbs
1 tablespoon butter

Instructions

Heat 2 tablespoons butter in 2-quart saucepan over low heat until melted. Blend in flour, salt and pepper. Cook over low heat, stirring constantly, until smooth and bubbly; remove from heat. Gradually stir in milk. Heat to boiling, stirring constantly. Boil and stir 1 minute. Stir in cheeses; keep warm over low heat.
Cook noodles as directed; drain. Alternate layers of noodles and cheese mixture in ungreased 2-quart casserole. Stir bread crumbs and 1 tablespoon butter over medium heat until crumbs are toasted; sprinkle over noodles.
Bake uncovered at 350 degrees F until bubbly, about 20 minutes.

My GF Had A BREAKDOWN After The Open Relationship She Wanted Backfired

https://youtu.be/Fw1IYHhzwJo

What’s a polite way of saying something rude?

Flying back from Mallorca on Jet2, the pilot said on the intercom:

“Ladies and Gentlemen, I have some good news and bad news. The good news is that we’re ready early and we’ve made it with plenty of time for our departure slot. The bad news is that unfortunately it seems the Spanish air traffic controllers have decided to walk out in solidarity with striking French controllers so we currently have a 2 hour wait. However, to ease the boredom, I’ll step out of the cockpit and you can all come up, sit in the pilot’s chair and be shown around by the first officer who’ll answer any questions you have”

The second I saw him come out of the cockpit I sprang out of my seat to get to the front of the inevitable queue and had a good chat with the FO while sitting in the seat. My impressions were that the cockpit of a 737–800 is a lot smaller than you’d think and that the seats are pretty difficult to move.

After 90 mins the pilot is on the intercom again:

“Folks, unfortunately we’ve been told we have another 2 hours, 45 minutes wait (huge groans from the cabin)
Only joking, we’ve got to get going quickly so back to your seats and buckle up soon as you can! (cheers from cabin)”

The pilot landed pretty hard in Birmingham and 10 seconds after reducing reverse thrust was back on the intercom:

“I’ve just been informed that my landing was a bit on the hard side. I don’t know what the fuss is about, it seemed fine to me. But apologies to anyone with loose fillings”

What is it that Australians don’t like about American tourists?

Most American tourists who make it as far as Australia are the best of your country, and we enjoy having them. Those who we would rather hadn’t come do share a few characteristics, though.

Ignorance. No, you can’t drive from Sydney to Alice Springs in an afternoon. Yes, the beaches have flags you swim between for a reason. No, you won’t get bitten by snakes walking through the suburbs. And no, no, for the love of God NO you CAN’T see all of Australia in a week flat. Not even if you fly everywhere.
Arrogance. If you come to any country as a guest, and spend half your waking hours telling people how much better your country is than theirs, you won’t make friends. This applies to any two countries, but with special particularity to Australia and America. There are STILL Americans about who’ll tell any Australian they can find how they, the mighty US of A, saved our “asses” in any number of conflicts, but especially the stoush with the Japanese in the early mid-twentieth century. We didn’t actually need our donkeys saved, and we’ve been paying for it in a number of ways ever since. And no, your health care may be wonderful for that five percent of the population who can afford it, but we cover everybody, so that we don’t have people begging in wheelchairs for their next oxygen bottle. Also, no, we can buy guns if we want to, but we don’t have to.
Loudness. Now I know the average Australian has a pretty good paddock voice, but we don’t take it inside. There are some Americans you can hear three streets away, and sitting next to their table in a restaurant can be a penance.
Lack of manners. As I said at the beginning, most US visitors to the antipodes are darlings. But anybody who snaps their fingers to summon a waiter here is likely to be ignored at first and ordered to leave if they persist. It is standard here to thank people who do stuff for us, whether they are paid to or not. We thank our bus drivers, our wait staff, our cleaners and our hotel staff, our shop assistants – everybody. They’re people. Lack of common courtesy marks you out as an arsehole.

I was recently fired from a company. My old boss just contacted me asking work-related questions. Should I respond?

Not fired, but gave them 7 weeks notice to quit. I was maintenance person in a nursing home. Within 6 months of being employed there, my manager asked me to undertake a level 2 course in social care. She had noticed my interactions with the residents and tried her best to convince me to extend my duties to include care work. After about a year of “ thinking about it,” I decided to study for a qualification in health and social care.

Around this time, after I’d already started the course, the nursing home was sold to another company. The new boss, for whatever reason, didn’t like me. Once qualified, I was picking up extra shifts on the weekend as a care assistant. It took him (and his wife) 3 months to realise I was also doing care work. He came and saw me at work, telling me, “We only want qualified staff looking after residents.” I showed him my certificate, indicating I was indeed qualified to look after residents. He then told me “ I don’t want you getting too tired.” ( I was only working 30 hours per week on maintenance.) I pointed out that a lot of his care assistants were actually working 60 hours a week and would often ring in at weekends saying they could not come in and I was prepared to cover any illness by other staff. He refused to accept this offer, restricting me to my working hours.

Anyway, I’d decided I enjoyed looking after elderly people and applied to our local NHS hospital for a position as a healthcare assistant. I passed the interview and selection procedure and handed my notice in. He avoided me for the next 6 weeks. On my final day there, he approached me and told me, “Get a year’s clinical experience and you can come back as a care assistant.” (An offer I could refuse.)

I finished work on Friday at 3pm.

Next morning, the nursing home phoned me at home, telling me there was a major water leak in the kitchen. I told them I was no longer an employee and to call an emergency plumber. “But that will cost us lots of money.” No shit, Sherlock! I almost relented, but my wife pointed out that I wouldn’t be paid, had I gone in. They asked me where to turn the water off, but I reiterated that they should call a plumber ( who would also not know where to turn the water off, as there were actually two incoming supplies to the one building.) I have now been with the NHS for almost 5 years and can honestly say it’s the most rewarding job I have ever had.

What is the weirdest thing you accidentally did in someone’s view, thinking you were alone?

Well I hope you guys don’t judge me for it.

I was 18 and had gone for an interview. The secretary of the guy who was to interview me took me inside his cabin and told me to wait.

I was too nervous, hungry and desperate.

All of a sudden I had this huge urge to sneeze. But it just died midway. I reached for the handkerchief in my new trouser to realise I forgot it at home.

When the urge was back I was desperately looking for a tissue on my still-to-be-boss’s table. When I didn’t get any, I reached over and grabbed a notepad, tore off a page and made its way to my nose at the correct time!

I blew my nose. Had a grin on my face. And sat there satisfied only to see my boss standing just behind me.

I smiled awkwardly.

He came over, offered the little dustbin to me. I slowly put the soiled paper in it and muttered a ‘thanks’ and a ‘sorry’.

I thought I would be looked upon as a gross teenager, so it came as a surprise when he hired me.

For the next few months whenever he passed by my department, this would be the conversation.

“Enjoying Shefali?”

“Yes Sir!”

“Any problems?”

“No Sir.”

“You got a handkerchief?”

“Yes sir.”

And then he would laugh and wink at me. Colleagues could never understand why would we have such a conversation everytime.

Don’t even ask me how badly I wanted the earth to swallow me.

Putin Offers INCREDIBLE Terms For Peace With Ukraine In Tucker Carlson Interview!

https://youtu.be/Mq0vyLTitBA

What’s the dirtiest contract that you felt “forced” to sign?

This is a signature page:

The sketchiest contract I was ever forced to sign what was the Little Rock School District’s teachers’ contract. I hesitate to name the district, because I suspect this isn’t uncommon, BUT:

I was handed a signature page, like the one above. And no contract. At the top of the page it said something along the lines of “I agree to be bound by the contract that the union has so selflessly negotiated on my behalf.” Again, we were told we were not allowed to see it unless we joined the union. Multiple teachers told me they were threatened every year not to show the contract to anyone, including the teachers who were bound by it.

Why did I sign it? Because they gave it to us 3/4 of the way through the year! It was a retroactive contract! I had two kids and a pregnant wife. We had sacrificed to work in education, had chosen to live in squalor for the greater good, and so needed the paycheck. Plus I had hundreds of students counting on me.

I was told that I had to pledge to obey the contract, but couldn’t know what was in there. It had all my rights and responsibilities in it. But I couldn’t see it, nor could any of the signatures that preceded mine. The fact that I was hired at the significant level of those with a master’s who had been principals before, yet was only offered $40,000—that was supposedly explained in there. The reason why that $40,000 manifested as a net income of $18,000 was in there. The reason my room had no decorations, no computer, no phone, 325 students, and fewer than 20 textbooks—all would be revealed—just not to me because I didn’t join the mob.

That’s right, I said it. I’ve bought used cars, leased cars, homes, worked in corporate law, even bought a timeshare, and I’ve never dealt with a contract-situation as icky as the teachers’ union contract. If someone ever hands you a signature page with no contract, I hope a migraine-inducing klaxon alarm goes off in your head and red flags drop from the ceiling.

How should I deal with a coworker who never wants to pay when we eat out?

I had a friend like this, not a coworker. We would go out to eat and took turns paying the entire bill. After a while, I noticed that when it was HER turn to pay, I would order less than $20 worth of food + tip (I didn’t drink alcohol), usually ordering a moderately priced entree and a lemonade, with no appetizer or dessert. However, when it was MY turn to pick up the tab to “pay her back,” she’d order the most expensive menu items, including appetizers, multiple cocktails, and dessert in addition to the expensive entree. The bill would be upwards of a $100, even though my portion was usually under $30 since i only ordered one entree. This happened frequently enough, that I realized she was doing this on purpose, insisting she pay when we went to eat at a cheap chicken shack when our meals were dirt cheap, but then picking expensive restaurants when it was my turn to “pay her back.”

I tested this theory; we went for sandwiches once at Jimmy John’s and she insisted on paying: I carefully only ordered a $12 sandwich with taxes and that’s it. She didn’t even tip.

The following week, we went out to eat and it was my turn to pay. She immediately said she wanted to try out this new sushi restaurant that opened downtown. I told her ok, and as I drove us there (I always drove, but she NEVER offered to pay for gas), I casually mentioned “hey, my meal was only $12 the last time you paid, so I’m only paying for $12 for your meal this time.”

This person had the GALL to say, “oh really? Never mind, then, let’s just go grab sandwiches at Subway.”

I didn’t respond, I just couldn’t believe how shamelessly disappointed she looked.

Our friendship didn’t last long after that, but it was due to her overall abusive, manipulative behavior, besides what a cheap moocher she was.

Scott Ritter: Statement on #tuckercarlson ‘s interview w/ #putin

https://youtu.be/Bf1X4spqmNg

Can China even economically afford a war to “reunify” Taiwan?

$57k x 1000=$57million

that is to say, china can launch a 1000 sorties drone swarm attack with merely $57 million, that is merely 6 abrams tanks, or one apartment building in Shanghai.

In addition, Xi will very likily get 80% off because he owns Norinco.

So that is 5,000 sorties with the same budget. or 40,000 sorties at the price of a villa in SH.

Imagine 40,000 of this flying over your head.

in addition, this costs $200 ea for Xi

500 of these equals to the death pension on a private.

taht is to say, evey TW soldier will have to dodge 500 such drones to survive the war.

500drones looks like this, a common recreation in chinese cities.

imagine the drones in a “i wanna f_ck u” formation before running towards you.

this drone bomber costs $340,000 (=3.4 soldiers) and can deliver 1 ton of explosives to 2500km away.

WAR HAS CHANGED. MAN, WAR HAS CHANGED.

Pulp Fiction by Wes Anderson Trailer

https://youtu.be/EKy741wm6hk

Can you explain the meaning of “decouple”? Is this something that President Trump wants to do with China? Is he seeking to completely sever trade ties between the two countries?

I don’t think Trump wants that. He is smarter than that. And he is smarter than Biden for sure. Privately he certainly don’t want that. If anything he wants the U.S. to be a strong 2nd largest economy. And his own companies benefit profusely.

He like fools who ask this question to thinks he like to decoupled because he wins votes and can do shit. He knows severing trade with China is like cutting of your limbs to fight China. Decoupling with China means decoupling from the world by the U.S.

I wish he does that, but he won’t. His companies will cut the sweetest deals, his group will strike up the most profitable venture and he will say shits like Kung Flu or Chiiinaaa! And guess what you bunch of morons will ejaculate.

FYI . . .Preps for this show if the worst happens

World Hal Turner 09 February 2024

I have been reporting to all of you the developments in Poland that lead many to believe NATO will enter the Russia-Ukraine conflict before May 5. I have renewed my urgent suggestions that all of you have emergency “preps” like food, water, medicine, a generator, communications gear like a CB or HAM radio, and I want you to know what I am doing/have done to “prep” this show.

When the Russia-Ukraine thing broke out, and it became clear that the US and NATO would be getting involved by shipping weapons, I worried to myself if Russia might take that as us being a “participant” in the conflict. So I MOVED the servers for this web site to South America. It’s a big deal: one primary server, providing content via the cloud to 19 other data centers around the planet. When you type in my website address and your browser goes out to the DNS server, my DNS routes your request to the geographically closest data center (that’s up and running) to speed-up your content delivery. Not everything is coming into or going out of a single place.

Every time YOU have visited this site for the past 2+ years, it has served you from South America!

I also established back-up streaming audio servers down in South America as well, but have never utilized them.

The streaming audio right now comes out of Oregon and it’s a big deal, but in a different setup than the website. Multiple audio servers operating through a load balancer, which can automatically spin-up additional servers to accommodate demand. But Oregon is near Washington State and we have a gigantic naval base in Bremerton, WA, which is home to much of our Pacific Fleet.

So if Bremerton gets nuked, Oregon will likely feel the EMP repercussions and that data center may go offline. Hence, the reason I set up a big audio server system in South America, just in case.

Here in New Jersey, just outside NYC, all of you are aware that the show goes out over a fiber optic line and there is a separate, fiber optic line as a fail-over. If both fiber optics are down, there is a cellular data fail-over. For awhile, I also had laser failover but it was just too expensive and I had to get rid of that. I have a backup generator and fuel for it on-site. It’s all on battery back-ups which can provide at least one hour of service, which is more than ample time to go out and crank-up the generator. The NJ house also has an EMP SHIELD in the main electrical panel with the hope it bleeds-off any EMP.

In the Pennsylvania home I inherited when my mom died, (after I had to pay off her Reverse Mortgage) I have a Cable modem and, just recently was able to add a single Fiber optic connection. But because trees falling can take out those land-based lines — and have done so in big storms quite frequently — I also have a cellular failover, and two satellite uplinks.

ALL of that gear is on Uninterruptible power supplies that can provide power for at least one hour, and I have two Generators on site, all hard-wired in. The one generator is 13KW and surge to 15KW, the other was my mom’s and it’s tiny 4KW. That house also has an EMP SHIELD in the main electrical panel.

All our motor vehicles have EMP SHIELDS installed in them – even my snow plow truck!

So I have done everything I know how to do to make certain the show __can__ air each night, no matter what.

Late last week, after finding out that Poland issued a NOTAM to all aircraft flying in the eastern 1/4 of the country, to maintain radio comms with air traffic control and to use their Transponders even at flight levels below 9500′, it became evident to me that NATO is likely to enter the Russia-Ukraine conflict within the time period of the NOTAM, which continues until May 5.

It seems clear to me that if NATO enters that war, the missiles will fly and some of them would – in my view – fly here. If Russia takes out the US, then NATO collapses immediately. So we ARE, in my view, an early target.

So I spoke to Alan Weiner at WBCQ and inquired of him as to whether WBCQ has a back-up generator for the transmitter on 7490. It does! A 250KW generator which, according to Alan, EATS FUEL.

I have also inquired of WRMI in Miami, Florida and WWCR in Nashville, TN. I am waiting to hear back from them.

I tell you all of this because I want you to know I’m not just out here telling YOU to prep, I’m actually doing it myself.

I have no idea where all this crap is heading, but I am thinking about it and am taking steps to actually BE PREPARED.

My boss is always taking part of my food in a common fridge. I told him I didn’t like that and now I buy my food to avoid it. Am I a skinflint?

You are not a skinflint, you are now spending more for food than your boss. Depending on your work place. If you have evidence that your boss is doing this you could go to HR and tell them your boss is stealing your food. Theft is theft.

When I was first out of university, and had no money, I would go to the grocery store and buy a package of 5 sausage rolls. I would eat one each day. It worked out to about $1.50 for lunch.

Then my sausage rolls started disappearing, first just one a week, then 2 and finally 3.

I used to buy them on Monday, and they were just edible on Friday. Now I was buying two or three packs a week.

If I bought them on Thursday, I didn’t trust them by Tuesday . So in this case I bought them on friday, and knowing I would probably only be able to eat one more out of the package before they were either stolen or stale dated, I took them home, and I drilled out a tiny hole in the center. Then I some hot sauce that I had never been able to use, because it was just too hot. It was concentrated, so that its scoville rating was similar to pepper spray.

I filled up all of the 4 remaining sausage rolls, with this killer hot sauce, and put them in the work fridge.

Later that day, around 4:00 when the next shift was coming in, there was screaming coming from the locker room. The guy was frothing at the mouth, his eyes and nose were leaking, he had been eating the sausage roll with his locker door open, to keep out of sight.

Fortunately for me I had never complained to anyone about the missing sausage rolls.

It took 15 minutes before the guy was functional again.

He wouldn’t tell anyone what had happened, because he didn’t want to admit to theft. But it turned out, he had a bunch of stolen knick knacks from people’s desks, in his locker. It turns out someone who will steal food, will steal little items from the day shift as well.

He was fired.

But then I had to find something else cheap to eat. Because I couldn’t be seen eating sausage rolls.

Why doesn’t the USA produce cheap grocery products for the whole world like China if it’s an effective way to become an economic superpower?

Why don’t you understand the ABC of human behaviour? After all I presume you are a human, right?

Ok let me explain. No human want to buy anything 5 times a price it can pay in the market easily. And do you know why the U.S. makes everything at several fold cost compared to others? That is simple. The U.S. workers are paid at least 5 times other workers are paid yet it can only achieved half their productivity. And U.S. CEO insist they must be paid 100 times more! Your government insist it must focus on forever wars! China focus on making peace and being competitive!

So how can the U.S. makes anything that can be competitive? No way! Not in a million years! So you cannot make anything competitive but you have money to spend more on weapons than the next 10 biggest defence spending nation put together! Perhaps the U.S. thinks it can use the military to force other countries to work as slaves to produce cheap goods and hand over to the U.S.!

Did a teacher ever try to embarrass you in class but you had a brilliant response?

I had a 4th grade teacher that was fairly strict. One morning, during a reading session, she caught me drawing pictures, a fairly elaborate illustration of King Kong and Biplanes shooting at the poor guy. She snatched it up and scolding me for not paying attention in class. “maybe this will get your attention” she cackled, as she proceeded to tape the drawing onto my back. Before you could blink, it was lunch time, and as I was in the lunch line, all the reviews from my young peers rolled in. All positive, with “cooools” and “holy smokes!” and questions.
Well the soul-killing deterrent backfired on the old witch, and I went on to study art, Illustration, and design. I’ve been employed as an artist for over 40 years and have won dozens of awards and accolades. Although this may sound boastful, the real point is, don’t let anyone kill your dreams.

What would happen legally to a police officer if they detained a homeless person and drove them several towns or cities away and warned them not to return like Sheriff Tease did to John Rambo in First Blood (1982 movie)?

My old department had something like this happen.

A guy I’ll call “Cecil” was one of our frequent flyers. He was a Paiute Indian and had pretty much fried his brain with alcohol. He was also legally blind and carried a white cane. He would get arrested on some nuisance offense, spend a day or two in jail, get released, rinse and repeat. The two-officer crew of the downtown prisoner transport van, aka “the wagon,” were usually the arresting officers.

One night, the wagon crew decided to take a different approach. They picked up Cecil for something-or-other, but instead of taking him to jail, they got on the freeway and headed east. Fifteen or twenty miles east of town, they let Cecil out on the side of the road. Freeway and sagebrush, not much else. The wagon drove back to town.

Cecil was found by a state trooper who wondered how he got there. Cecil was only of marginal help, as it was difficult to know whether he was comprehending what was going on around him. When asked any question, his typical response was to shout random numbers at his interviewer.

Eventually, investigators were able to piece together what happened. The two cops were fired and criminally indicted on charges of kidnapping and oppression under color of authority.

Trial was scheduled several times. Each time, Cecil was either in the wind, out between arrests, or brought to court from jail. He couldn’t respond coherently to the simplest question. The attorneys defending the former officers capitalized on this and moved for dismissal of all charges, as Cecil was the only material witness and didn’t always seem to know where he was or what was happening around him. The ex-cops walked.

One got a job driving a bus. He was considered by all involved to be the instigator and mastermind, with his former partner sort of along for the ride. The partner was eventually hired by a sheriff’s department and worked there long enough to qualify for a pension.

What’s the most incredible coincidence that ever happened to you?

When I was 17 I had a son I had to give up for adoption as the father was going off to Vietnam and we were unmarried. It was heartbreaking to say the least. When he returned, we married and had our daughter. Always looking to find the son we had to give up, as my parents had insisted. As the years went by, we searched and tried every imaginable source to find our boy. Our daughter was told she had a brother eventually, and my parents eventually regretted this adoption and begged me to “”find the boy” -impossible. Our daughter moved across the United States from Florida to California eventually and I had given up all hope after 34 years of searching. One night while in California, she told her roommate about her brother – it was his birthday, and she was sad. That night the roommate invited her for dinner with a friend. During dinner her friend questioned her about this brother….after everything my daughter told her, the young man said””me too”! He, too, was from Florida – adopted, this was his birthday, a miracle! Millions of prayers answered- she was indeed sitting across the dinner table from her long lost brother!! Found at last!! It all turned out beautiful. He had been blessed with an amazing adoptive family for which I will be FOREVER grateful. Many coincidences in my life but this? BEST ONE!!

Going Viral: Behind the AI-Generated Wes Anderson Trailers for Star Wars and LOTR

https://youtu.be/jbASi4forHg

What were you convinced you got away with as a child, only to find out later that you totally didn’t?

My siblings and I were sent to bed VERY early compared to our peers – most annoying. In rebellion, we often stayed up late, reading in bed while our parents remained downstairs watching TV. I had an old lamp and learned rather quickly that if I turned it in the normal direction it made a ‘click’ sound. But, if I turned it backwards, the light would quietly go off. So, in our creaking Victorian house, I had plenty of warning someone was coming and could get the light off and the book out of sight before they were anywhere near my room.

We had been given flashlights and batteries at Christmas soon after we joined the Girl and Boy Scouts. We needed them for camp and other scouting activities. Of course, we also found they made it really easy to stay up reading as well. At the first creaking boards, we’d turn them off and pretend to be asleep.

There were times that we might have been so engrossed in our books that we didn’t hear anyone coming upstairs and wouldn’t react until we heard footsteps outside our doors. The lights would have been easily visible beneath our doors. But, somehow, we managed to get the lights off before either parent noticed.

YEARS later, we had a good laugh when our father asked us why we thought we were given new batteries every Christmas and birthday (and any time in between when we said we were out). There were not enough scouting activities to burn as many batteries as we seemed to go through. No, the flashlights were to ENCOURAGE us to read more. They weren’t going to catch us with lights on if they could help it. If they did, though, the usual comment was, “Don’t you think it’s time you went to sleep?” We were never punished.

What is the fastest you wiped that smirk off your manager’s face?

I was working at my local coffee shop. It was pay day and my pay didn’t come in. No phone call from my boss about it. It was 630 am as I was waiting for my pay to get to work for 8 am. I called in and ask if there was a problem with the pay. He said rudely there is a problem at the bank it might be in later today or tomorrow. I said well then I am not coming in today for my shift as I am not walking 2 hr to get work. If you called me at 5 to tell me about the problem I could have asked my sister and brother in law for bus fare before they went to work .

next day, I checked my account and my pay was in. I showed up for work and my boss thought he would tell me off in front of coworkers and customers. I said it’s not my fault you didn’t bother calling or texting your employees about the problem. And you should really wait to talk to be about it when it is appropriate not in front my coworkers and customers. The smirk came off his face quick walked away and didn’t say anything about it after. 1 month later we got a new manager

Does China know that there can never be a new world order without a previous war in which China emerges victorious?

Oh?

Heard of implosions?

That’s when something collapses on itself.

American society is imploding. Every decade this century has seen its strength weaken, particularly the social fabric, which has been torn asunder by division.

This is an American problem that require Americans to fix.

Alas, the talk never strays far from eternal war with a musical chair of external enemies.

A new world order is emerging, whether America wills it or not.

Can you imagine 4 years of Donald “making America great again”, followed by 4 years of Joe’s “Build Back Better”, followed by another 4 years of “MAGA”?

Again and Back? That’s Michael Jackson’s moonwalk—the illusion of forward motion while moving backwards.

The global south doesn’t want to be stuck on the american gameboard, because it hasn’t led to long-term development. And as Barack openly admitted, America has an agenda to keep the global south poor, because the planet cannot sustain itself providing the American standard of living for the unwashed masses.

A nation that continues to believe its Constitution is perfect and cannot be updated will not see out the 21st century intact.

America will discover it is merely one nation, out of >190, and learn to live like the rest of humanity. No one is immune to the poison of exceptionalism, particularly the hegemon.

In other words, atrophy develops in the absence of resistance.

What is the most powerful supernatural warning you have received?

I was a high school rowing coach and we had to leave at 3:30 a.m. for an event far away. As usual, I was running late and had 15 minutes to get to the school meeting spot, 20 minutes away. The two-lane road snaked through woods and up and down hills and it was pitch black: no street lights. My Jetta and I were flying and I suddenly heard the word “DEER!” shouted in my dead grandmother’s voice. I stomped on the brake as a deer shot right past the hood of my car. I pulled over, shaking. As I took a deep breath I smelled daffodils. Confused, I looked around: there were no flowers here. An image of a pink bottle of perfume popped into my mind and it struck me- the smell was White Shoulders, my grandma’s perfume.

I smiled and thanked her, promising more responsible driving in the future. As I got to the meeting place, a few rowers commented on the smell of flowers.

What are the best tactics if you get in a fight?

A friend of mine was at a bar one time. He can be a little antagonistic, and he ended up hitting on a girl who had a big, mean boyfriend.

He comes over to me and says, “this guy is trying to fight me, I swear. I don’t think I can fight him, he’s huge.”

I didn’t really know what to say to the guy, to be honest.

He’s nervous, but ends up saying, “I’m just going to get naked. Nobody wants to fight a guy that’s naked.”

I laughed, thought about it, and agreed. If the big guy were to start a fight with him, he would probably be best off by getting naked first.

It ended up being that the big guy walked over and said something about having to settle this like men.

They went outside.

My friend looked at me with these big, crazy eyes, ripped off his pants and shirt (butt naked), kept his shoes on, and just yelled “let’s do this!”

The big guy wanted to fight him, but didn’t know how. Eventually, he just walked away, and muttered something about my friend being “too gay” for him.

I guess his homophobia was larger than his desire to beat up my friend.

I’m selling my car through Craigslist. A potential buyer whom I’ve never met wants to buy the car and pay with a cashier’s check. They say they’ll mail me the check. The person hasn’t seen the car or driven it. Is it safe to accept a cashier’s check?

All these answers are great, and most have been tried on me. Back in the 80’s, I had a printing business and a “customer” gave me a rather expensive rush order for an event that was happening in a few days. I asked for payment up front because it smelled fishy. He gave me a check for about $5,000. Before I printed anything, I went to his bank and asked if the check was good. The manager told me there was not enough funds to cover the check. He could not legally tell me how much money was actually in the account, so I asked him if I added $100 if it would cover the check. No. Went through this dance till I came to $700 or something. Great! I deposited $700 into his account and cashed his check for $5000. Printed his order, (still had a tidy profit) and called him to pick it up. He was delighted, thinking he had scammed me. Then he showed up absolutely furious, having found out about the $5000 he never intended to spend. Said he was going to call the police. I told him to wait just a minute, the police were walking in right now. I had called the venue and what he was having printed was bogus tickets. My next call was the police. They walked in and he had the gall to ask them to arrest me for theft. I said he gave me a check and I cashed it. Then I showed them the tickets he was having printed. They took him out in handcuffs with him yelling that he wanted his money back. Never saw him again.

Very Cool

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/o4VrI4-DlIM?feature=share

What makes you always want to be alone?

Wow. Ok I’ll bite. Not in the sense of being a hermit, but relationship wise.

A lifetime of abuse.

That will do it to you. As I recover, I am starting to realize that I don’t have any capacity for conflict. I don’t want to extend trust. I am suspicious and quickly withdraw from anyone that remotely, even unintentionally upsets me. My defenses are beaten down and I am an open wound.

No relationship is going to be without conflict. And you can’t really extend love without extending trust. So here I am alone and I am realizing that I will probably remain so for the foreseeable future.

I don’t really want to be alone. But I have realized, quite painfully, that I am going to hurt someone that tries to love me. That’s unacceptable and depressing. I will NOT become the abuser.

I’m in therapy and one of the first meaningful things he said to me was “I may not be able to help you. Due to the length and severity of your trauma, you may carry the effects for the rest of your life. The best we can do is hope to manage your PTSD.”

I appreciate his honesty.

So no, lonely as I am, I will not afflict some poor woman with my messed up self. I will go on alone. Well, not completely alone…

What is the most unusual and incorrect reason you’ve had the police called on you?

I don’t know about incorrect, but it was certainly unusual.

My church had a lock-in for high school aged kids. If you haven’t participated in one of these, it is essentially a big slumber party. But it is chaperoned. It is church after all. Sometimes schools do them too.

Anyway, there are all kinds of events that happen. Often there is a scavenger hunt, and this particular lock-in was no different, except with a twist. They had a “tape recorder and Polaroid camera” scavenger hunt. In other words, we were divided into groups and had a list of crazy things we were to get photos and recordings of our group doing. These days we could just use our phones for this, but this was in the 80s and technology was obviously not the same.

So we set off on the list. There were all kinds of things. We did a picture with a human pyramid. That was relatively tame and easy. Then we came to another. We had to get a photo of us walking through a drive thru restaurant line. Oohkay. I was our group’s driver, so I took us to a local Wendy’s. We got out and walked through the drive-thru line. Remember this was the 80s and I don’t think that many restaurants had cameras watching the drive-thru line back then. So, the staff of the restaurant didn’t know we were walking through the line till we got to the window. Wow, that turned escalated into drama really quickly. The manager was really mad at us, and they refused to serve us. Well, that didn’t really matter much. We tried to explain why we were doing it, but he was having none of it. I guess he thought we were drunk or on drugs or something. So, he called the police on us and they promptly showed up.

I guess he thought that was going to scare us. Actually, we were thrilled. We also had “recording the sound of a police siren” and “taking a photo of the group with a police officer” on the list.

Because of a grumpy Wendy’s manager, our group won.

What was the shortest interview you’ve had that led to a job offer?

When I was 18 I moved into a share house with some friends. On the second or third day I was checking the mail box when a man walked over from across the street where a little model car shop was located.

He said to me “excuse me, do you live here?” I said “yes, I’m Susan, we just moved in”. He replied “Good, would you like to come and work for me? The girl who used to live here worked for me for 3 years, but she moved out”. I asked “what sort of work did she do? What do need?” He told me that she did office admin work, tallied invoices, paid bills, occasionally sold merchandise….

I asked how many hours and how much and then, happy enough with the repky, I took the job on the spot. On my front lawn, next to my letter box.

He seemed to just trust that the house knew the right person to work for him. I worked their for 4 years and then I moved out. I can only assume that the new resident got offered a job soon after…

What is the most shocking thing you have seen a police officer do?

I love this one! Many years ago a police officer had a BIG guy handcuffed in the back seat of his squad car. He was trying like all hell to get the guy out. Another officer came to assist him. This guy wedged his feet into the floor under front seats. They didn’t want to mace him because they would not be able to use the squad for a long time. He was not a violent offender. It was something with being intoxicated but not driving. I think his wife called. He wouldn’t budge. Lots of swearing and threats to get him out. It was actually funny to see. He was not coming out.

Anyway, this state trooper I know, who is also a teacher in aikido and a few other martial arts, goes and asks him to PLEASE COME OUT. This guy is dying from laughter. He was calling him all kinds of Asian insults. So, the trooper asks one of the cops to hold his hat. He starts to put on rubber gloves. This guy is yelling, what cha gonna do? Check my prostate? Even the cops were laughing. Trooper says, “No. I’m gonna get you out of the squad.” Guy yells, “Go ahead, you &$@#@ eyes”. So trooper reaches in and with one hand pinches his nose closed. He put the other over his mouth. In about 60 seconds that guy flew out of that squad! We all learned a lesson that day. No matter how big the engine, it will not run without oxygen!

Jurassic Park but with a Cat

https://youtu.be/W85oD8FEF78

The West’s Not-So-Subtle Message To Russia: Photo Emerges of F-16 with U.S. Nuke (Trainer) on Wing; Ukraine?

World Hal Turner 09 February 2024

A photo has emerged of an F-16 Fighter Jet with a U.S. B-61 Nuclear Bomb (Trainer) mounted under its wing; the exact same type of plane the West plans to “give” to Ukraine. A message to Russia?

That photo – shown above with (my) added text showing the B-61 nuclear trainer, was clearly taken during summertime; there are dandelions showing in the nearby grass. That such a photo was even TAKEN would be a gigantic breach of nuclear security. The fact that it has suddenly “emerged” in public is nothing short of astonishing. Unless, of course, its release is to send a message.

A “Trainer” is the same size, shape, and weight of the real thing, but is inert; there is no nuclear warhead in it. It is designed to provide pilots with a “feel” for the aircraft when it is carrying such a device, so the pilot can get used to how the plane handles with the weapon mounted, and what it feels like when it is released.

It also allows a pilot to train on how and when to release the bomb so that it actually hits the intended target.

The B-61 is a gravity bomb and is not guided by its own engine or any wings, to hit a target.

The B61 nuclear bomb is the primary thermonuclear gravity bomb in the United States Enduring Stockpile following the end of the Cold War. It is a low-to-intermediate yield strategic and tactical nuclear weapon featuring a two-stage radiation implosion design. Here is a FILE PHOTO of the actual, functional, B-61:

The B61 is of the variable yield (“dial-a-yield” in informal military jargon) design with a yield of 0.3 to 340 kilotons in its various mods (“modifications”). It is a Full Fuzing Option (FUFO) weapon, meaning it is equipped with the full range of fuzing and delivery options, including air and ground burst fuzing, and free-fall, retarded free-fall and laydown delivery.

It has a streamlined casing capable of withstanding supersonic flight and is 11 ft 8 in (3.56 m) long, with a diameter of about 13 inches (33 cm). Basic weight is about 700 pounds (320 kg), although the weights of individual weapons may vary depending on version and fuze/retardation configuration. As of 2020, it is undergoing a 12th modification. According to the Federation of American Scientists in 2012, the roughly 400 B61-12s will cost $28 million apiece.

Back in May of 2023, when the issue of giving F-16’s to Ukraine first surfaced, I reported that the U.S. caused severe consternation among its NATO allies by insisting that the planes given to Ukraine be the type already modified to handle the B-61 nuclear bomb (Story HERE).

At that time, the Deputy Chairman of the Russian Federation Council, their version of a Senate, publicly commented that if the US allowed Ukraine access to such bombs, Russia would have no choice but to make a “preventive” (pre-emptive) nuclear strike against Ukraine!

In the months since that story, the US and NATO have been training Ukrainian pilots on how to fly the F-16. At US insistence, those pilots are ALSO being trained how to use the B-61 nuclear bomb!

Not to put too fine a point on it, but why would those pilots need such specialized training unless the intent of the US and NATO is to actually allow them to use nuclear bombs?

This is the reality that is being forced upon Russia by the U.S. and NATO, and Russia is quite plain about how they will respond. For instance, while military radar can determine what type of aircraft they see on radar, they have no way of knowing if that plane has a B-61 nuclear bomb under its wing. Thus, the Russians will have to treat ALL F-16’s as if they are nuclear-equipped. Should one such plane approach Russian Territory, the possibility of Russia being nuked __could__ cause them to strike first.

Moreover, within the past two months, a lot of news has come out about Ukraine being given German “TAURUS” cruise missiles. The Taurus KEPD 350 is a German-Swedish air-launched cruise missile, manufactured by Taurus Systems and used by Germany, Spain, and South Korea. Taurus Systems GmbH is a partnership between MBDA Deutschland GmbH (formerly LFK) and Saab Bofors Dynamics.

The missile incorporates stealth technology and has an official range in excess of 500 km (300 mi). It is powered by a turbofan engine at Mach 0.95 and can be carried by Panavia Tornado, Eurofighter Typhoon, Saab JAS 39 Gripen, McDonnell Douglas F/A-18 Hornet, and McDonnell Douglas F-15K Slam Eagle aircraft. The missile can easily be adapted to other aircrafts such as EF Typhoon, JAS39 Gripen, F-16 Fighting Falcon, and F-35 Lightning. Here is a FILE PHOTO of an actual Taurus Missile:

While the missile’s actual range is never publicly disclosed, the specifications readily reveal it has a range “greater than 500km.”

The map below shows a 500km range from the northern-most area inside Ukraine, and Moscow is CLEARLY within range; especially given the fact that Germany readily and publicly admits the Taurus missile has a range “greater than 500km.”

So as you read this, the US and NATO are training Ukraine Pilots on F-16’s. Training those same pilots on the use of the U.S. B-61 nuclear bomb, and debating also giving them German Taurus missiles which can reach Moscow.

Thus, the West is escalating and escalating the Russia-Ukraine conflict.

This week, Poland issued an ominous Notice to Air Missions (NOTAM) changing flight regulations in the entire eastern quarter of their country. Pilots up to flight level 95 (9500 feet) must now be in radio contact with air traffic controllers, and must use their Transponders so ground controllers can see EVERY plane in the sky within that vast area.

The geographic area covered by this NOTAM includes the entire Poland Border with Ukraine, Belarus, and Lithuania. Here is the map from the NOTAM:

Poland’s NOTAM also makes clear they are adding these new rules “due to the possibility of Unplanned Military Actions related to ensuring National Security.”

What “unplanned military actions” does Poland foresee? Missile exchanges with Russia, perhaps? Why would that happen?

Well, it turns out that the F-16’s being given to Ukraine require a lot of maintenance, refueling and re-arming, which the airfields inside Ukraine can no longer accomplish because Russia has hit them so many times.

So it is now within the realm of __POSSIBILITY__ that those F-16’s may have to be flown into Ukraine from NATO bases in Poland or Romania!

Just this week, Russia made it explicitly clear that if F-16’s take off from NATO bases, and are used to attack Russian forces inside Ukraine, Russia will “mercilessly destroy” those bases.

That . . . . that right there . . . . would then be called “A Russian attack against NATO” which would then be used as an excuse to trigger NATO Treaty, “Article 5” Collective Self Defense.

When Russia began its Special Military Operation (SMO) to “de-militarize” and “de-Nazify” Ukraine, President Vladimir Putin made clear “Russian conventional forces are not comparable to NATO. We know that. But Russia is also a nuclear power. And our nuclear capability is superior to all others. If NATO declares Article 5, Collective Self Defense against Russia, it will be a war no one will win.“

Readers are no doubt aware that the only “war no one will win” is a nuclear war.

So from the start of Russia’s SMO, the US and NATO have known Russia may use nukes. Now, the US and NATO are setting the stage for exactly that, by supplying Ukraine with nuclear-capable F-16’s, training Ukraine pilots to fly those planes and to use the B-61 nuclear bomb, and allow those planes to takeoff from NATO bases outside of Ukraine, attack Russian forces in Ukraine, then land at those NATO bases for refueling, re-arming, and maintenance.

The US and NATO are doing this despite knowing the Russians will “mercilessly destroy” those NATO bases, and will use nukes if NATO declares Article 5 self defense against Russia.

Here’s the punch line: The Poland NOTAM began February 5, 2024, and will remain in effect until May 5, 2024.

That tells most people that Poland knows between now and May 5, 2024, the fight between NATO and Russia will break out, and they are warning pilots in that area over what they KNOW is coming . . . . because Poland, the US and NATO are going to actually cause it.

Of course, the mass-media in the United States and in Europe, has been completely derelict in their duty to report these facts to the general public. As a result, the general public has no idea at all, their own governments are escalating the situation between Russia and Ukraine to the point that actual nuclear war may commence between now and May 5.

Do you have Emergency food, water, medicine, flashlights, batteries, an electric generator, fuel, communications gear like a CB or HAM radio? If not, how do you expect to survive if this thing happens? How will you and your family eat? How will you get information once the electric grid goes down from the electro-magnetic pulse from nuclear detonations which take down all the TV and radio stations?

You’ll be left, cold, hungry, in the dark and without information, because YOU chose to do nothing and not prepare.

Better get prepped. There’s very little time left.

Frègula Sarda

In the Mediterranean island of Sardegna (Sardinia), locals call this pasta “frègula.” In current Italian, it is known as “fregola.” At home, Chef Rosario simply calls it a delicious pasta option!

Yield: 2 servings

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups Frègula Sarda; alternatively, use orzo pasta, acini pepe or large cous-cous
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil (EVOO)
1/2 red onion, diced
2 garlic cloves
1 red chile pepper, fresh or dry, with the seeds removed, crushed
1/2 cup dry white wine
1 1/2 cups cherry or grape tomatoes, sliced
1 tablespoon capers, drained
4 cups homemade shrimp or vegetable broth
1 celery, chopped
1 carrot, chopped
1 pinch saffron
12 ounces large shrimp, preferably shell-on
Fresh marjoram or oregano, chopped
Fresh Italian parsley, chopped
Lemon zest
Bay leaf
Salt to taste

Instructions

Peel and de-vein the shrimp, reserving the shells for the broth. Make broth by heating the shells in a little olive oil and adding a handful of roughly diced carrots, celery, onions, tomatoes, parsley stems and a bay leaf. Cook for one minute with a little olive oil; then add water and bring to a simmer. Keep at a simmer until needed. If you use pre-peeled shrimp, use a light vegetable broth instead.
In a large casserole start the soffritto: add EVOO, onions, garlic and chili peppers. Cook on medium heat until golden (not brown).
Add frègula and sauté for a minute.
Add wine and cook to evaporate alcohol.
Add capers, tomatoes, and saffron. Once heated through, add 1 cup of the simmering broth. Stir occasionally. Add broth in 1 cup increments as needed to keep the frègula moist and brothy.
When the pasta is almost cooked “al dente” (10 to 15 minutes, depending on the size of the pasta grains) add shrimp and cook for a couple minutes more (or until they reach an internal temperature of 160 degrees F). Remove shrimp from pot to avoid overcooking and set them aside.
The frègula is ready when all the broth has been absorbed and it has reached a creamy, risotto-like consistency.
Remove from heat, add herbs, and stir thoroughly. Transfer to a serving platter or individual plates. Place the cooked shrimp on top and sprinkle with freshly grated lemon zest.

Notes

Frègula resembles a large size cous-cous, but it is also reminiscent of other “berry sized” pasta varieties, like “acini pepe” or orzo. The word frègula derives from the Italian verb “sfregolare,” which describes the action of hand rolling the dough against a terracotta surface. The Sardinian version is made with 100% durum wheat semolina and pure water. Once shaped, it is lightly toasted to a golden color and “ecco fatto,” it’s ready for this delicious recipe!

Sommelier’s Notes

Sella & Mosca 2017 La Cala (Vermentino di Sardegna) – Sardegna, Italy

Vermentino is a white wine grape indigenous to the western Mediterranean. It thrives in northwestern Italy, southern France, and the nearby islands of Corsica and Sardegna (Sardinia).

This pleasing wine offers herbaceous Mediterranean flavors heightened with hints of pineapple and citrus.

How did you get revenge on your boss?

I worked at a staffing firm in New York City. I was the top producer and my two bosses loved me.

One of the bosses who is on his second marriage, and having an affair with the receptionist. It was not a secret. Everyone in our small company knew.

both bosses or cocaine addicts. As their addiction increased, they were decreasing our commissions.

Counselors started leaving. The bosses were bringing in inexperienced losers, who were requesting the company more money than they were making.

I decided to leave.

I typed up a letter of resignation and included the amount of commissions that were currently owned to me.

They never gave me a penny.

My husband is an attorney and wrote a “lawyer letter“ to the two principles. They didn’t care.

I got together with a few of the other counselors, who had also left, and also didn’t get their commissions. We decided to write a letter to his wife, telling her about the affair that her husband was having with the receptionist.

He used to tell his wife said he was going to the gym every Monday, Wednesday and Saturday. He always left with a gym bag filled with a change of clothes.

We told his wife that he had no gym membership and that she should check his gym bag when he comes home on those days and see that not one thing in the gym bag was used and nothing was sweaty or dirty. The gym bag was exactly as it was in the morning when he left for work.

She obviously knew the receptionist, and put everything together and filed for divorce.

he was furious, and called each one of us, and asked if we had done it! Lol!

We will still had to go to court but I sued for $23,000 which was $10,000 more than my original claim. I knew that he had an idiot doing the bookkeeping and they would have no idea what they are with me.

I got every cent I asked for! Ha ha!

The Working Man’s Breakfast

Very interesting stuff about the 18^th century.

https://youtu.be/cNhSlyXB7PE

Keeping those in the West ignorant

I posted a comment / answer on Quora, and it was deleted. The space was a “Warfare” space, and was very heavily “Pro-America”. The same thing, that you all understand if you were brought up in the USA… America is the best, and the toughest and the king of the world… yeah. Sure.

Here’s the post…

Well, why is the nuclear buildup showing Xi Jinping preparing for a ‘large-scale war with America’?

This answer was declined. Posting here. If you know the reasons for it being declined Please inform me.

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.

…

And the question is…

“Why is China preparing for a war with the United States”?

Answer…

China must. China owes it to it’s people. China has a responsibility to its people to expect the best, but prepare for the worst… and prepare they ARE.

…

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.

Whatever, the Chinese FORMAL STATEMENT regarding nuclear weapons use is very carefully worded, and intentionally 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.

…

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 was going though my stacks and found other posts similarly deleted on the American website.

Such as this one…

…

Is ‘World War 3’ really on the horizon?

I can understand your fear and concern.

I hope to calm you down with a nice happy dose of reality. The biggest culprit in this fear is the media. Whether it is social media, or main-stream media. Media is filling your mind with fear.

What the American Main-Stream Media says

According to 99.9999% of the American government controlled Western media; the world is heading towards world war 3 out of necessity. Both Putin and Xi are “loose cannons” with a selection of mental disorders and are out of control in trying to rule the world. Putin invaded Ukraine out of greed and lust, and Xi Peng will invade Taiwan for the same reasons. They despise democracy and freedom and want to rule the world as a dystopian nightmare world where everyone is controlled by Tiktok and weather balloons.

The REAL answer – being under-reported intentionally

World War 3 is the climax of the massive period of change that the world is going though. It is a generational event, and coincidences with solar activity. It is as predictable as the orbits of planets, and the mass movements of animals.

This period of change is a rather long event cycle and involves change at all levels. Some nations collapse. Some nations grow. Some groups engage in battles, while others suffer economic hardships. What ever happens, it is not homogeneous. But rather an aggregate of minor events sprinkled over a multi-decade long time periods.

The build-up to this period can be traced back to the 1960’s where the major dominant power; The United States, began a series of strategic blunders that set the stage for events that we are now witnessing.

The actual pivot point for contentious calamity occurred in 2008 with an economic meltdown in the West, and the resulting frantic splashing and doggie-paddling that we see today all spawn from it.

The actual war occurred in 2019 though 2022 with was the Coronavirus event. This was a three tiered biological phased attack on China by the United States.

Other events during this “war” consisted of the the disastrous 2020 Trump Flotilla into the South Chinese Sea, the undersea submarine wars from 2021 to 2023, and the satellite wars of 2020 to 2023.

Simultaneous with these events are the generalized cultural, social, and economic collapse of the United States and it’s Western proxies, the NATO incursions and war in the Ukraine following the “color revolution” in Kiev in 2014, and the failed Hong Kong color revolution of 2018 – 2020.

While the West shrinks in influence, the East (and Global South) grows. Both Russia and China are major global powers in all measurements, and are generally immune from the boiler-plate of attacks, and manipulations normally used by the West.

Africa is completely changing, and it has shed it’s colonial slave role and embraced a role as the “new” middle class in a rapidly changing world. Along with this follows a rag-tag collection of power centers around the world.

The world is now has entered into a “reconstruction” period globally. This is resulting in new alignments, and massive failures of nations and societies that are unable to adjust and change with the times.

This period will be a long one, and I am afraid that it has only begun.

Though, I anticipate the end of this period around 2030 or so, give or take two years. … The main-stream “news’ is designed to incite and inject fear to control people. I urge everyone to control themselves.

The future looks bright for most of the world. It is change that we do not like, and those in power want us to fear it. Do not. The intelligent person recognizes this and takes appropriate steps for a bright future ahead rather than clutching on the past though fear.

…

Resulting in this comment…

I see the “West” and in late-stage dying. The “dance of death” where the body contorts and twists and shudders.

Today…

Why are Chinese students frequently harassed by customs officials when entering the US? What kind of mindset does this reflect on the US authorities?

Not only just chinese from China but also chinese origin from others even from Singapore.

I travel to US for a dozen times both business and holidays but each time my checked in luggages 100% checked and prised open plus hand luggage checked even if you go to green lane.

This prove one thing for sure. US had created so many enemies around the world that they are living in fear of daily terrorist attacks whereas chinese people in China are living in peace and harmony without any fear or concern for their safety.

When you approach American policeman, they are ready to draw their guns whereas when you approach a chinese policeman, their mindset is that you need help.

That is the difference between China and America.

Baked Lasagna

Ingredients

Sauce

3 pounds ripe tomatoes, chopped
2 carrots, peeled and chopped
2 garlic cloves, crushed
1 tablespoon chopped parsley
3 tablespoons tomato puree
1 large onion, peeled and chopped
3 stalks celery, chopped

Lasagna

3/4 to 1 pound lasagna noodles
Butter
1/2 pound mozzarella cheese
1/4 pound Italian sausage or ground beef, coarsely chopped
2 hardboiled eggs, chopped
1 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1 cup ricotta or cottage cheese

Instructions

Sauce

Put all the ingredients into a large cooking pot. Cover and simmer for about 1 hour.
Pass through a sieve; return to the pot, and season to your satisfaction. Continue to simmer until sauce has thickened.
Just before using this sauce, stir in 2 tablespoons of olive oil and 2 tablespoons of butter.
Lasagna: Brown sausage or beef, then drain.
Boil lasagna noodles. Drain and put a layer into a well buttered casserole dish.
Add a layer of mozzarella cheese, then a layer of sausage or beef and a thin layer of hardboiled egg.
Sprinkle with grated Parmesan and ricotta or cottage cheese. Moisten cheese with some of tomato sauce.
Continue in layers, finishing with a good thick layer of grated Parmesan.
Dot with butter and bake at 350 degrees F for about 30 minutes.
Serve with garlic bread.

Don’t people in China wish to live in a democratic country?

I am a Chinese, have studied in the UK and traveled to many countries.

For me, China is democratic – probably even more democratic than western countries.

Of course, I am referring to the original meaning of the word democracy – the power of the state belongs to the people and the people have the right to rule the government.

Nowadays, democracy in the west often refers to multi-party competition, where the ruling party are elected by universal suffrage.

But this approach has some significant problems. As voters are ordinary people who has no specialized knowledge on managing the country, the core competitiveness of the election process becomes the ability to publicize public opinion, personal affinity, and persuasion, which have little to do with whether they can actually formulate and implement policies well, but are more relevant to the resources of the society and the media operation behind them.

In the west, the rule of the people is in a single choice question of political preference, and the frequency of being able to make a choice is once every four years. If you are the minority voter, you will not be able to get a satisfactory result in those four years.

In contrast, China’s “democracy” works like this:

1. A huge system of officials that everyone can enter by studying and taking exams – from the smallest local township government to the central government, all within the same pyramid-tested promotion system. For Chinese graduates, it is a very common career selection to pick an official position related to their major from an open government list, take a test on logic and issue processing skills, and become a government official. All newcomers need to start from the basic positions and get enough practical results before they are internally elected with promotion.

2. The criterion value of the government affairs is “people first”. The most important judgment dimension is whether they can improve the life of the majority and satisfy the people.

3. Public opinion monitoring and feedback mechanism. All levels of government have set up channels to receive public opinion, such as emails, petitions reception, or social media. For every actual problem, the government must give feedback or specific plans within a period of time; and after a period of time, they must do regular follow-up visits to ensure that the problem has been solved satisfactorily. All this is counted in the KPIs of government staff. If the people are not satisfied with this government’s response, they can complain to a higher level of government, which has absolute power over the next level of government, and the government department complained against will be penalized and monitored.

In China, the rule of the people is in the government’s “people first” evaluation criteria, and in the mechanism of feedback and resolution of specific issues that are highly valued. However, if your opinion is detrimental to the interests of the underprivileged, or if you are not looking for a solution, but simply venting your negative feelings and trying to get more people to share your negative feelings, then your opinion might be refused or ignored, or be deferred in to future considerations.

I think this is why people say: in the west, you can change the government, but you can’t change the policies; however in China, you can’t change the government, but you can change the policies.

Of course, both mechanisms have their own drawbacks. For example, since the core competence of universal suffrage is the ability of influencing public opinion, so having control of the media and enough money is almost equivalent to having a high probability of obtaining the highest power in the country; in China, it is very difficult to make the complex internal promotion completely transparent, and it is not easy for the people to monitor inefficiencies and corruption inside the system.

But for me and at least 80%+ Chinese people, the current one party Chinese government is still very satisfactory.

As for the so-called “Communist Party is not the same as government”: in fact, the CCP is not the same as the Soviet Union type of “communism”, for example, China has its market economy system and is running well. Actually when there is only one political party, the notion of party advocacy would be extremely weakened. In the case of China, people would tend to feel that the Chinese system is more like a parliamentary system even within the government. China is a country with a secular culture, and ideology discussion is not really that important, what matters to this government council is simply about insisting with the people-oriented value, and making people living in better lives.

To be honest, I think that the vast majority of the world’s people don’t care about politics.

People care more about their own lives – whether they can live healthy and happy lives with the people they love, whether the society is fair, safe and free, whether they can enjoy their civil rights as a human being, whether their problems can be solved and whether their dreams can be realized.

Also, I agree that China is better for ordinary people, small and medium-sized entrepreneurs to live in, but not for the extremely rich guys. If you are a rich tycoon or celebrity and has no interest in benefiting ordinary people, then the Chinese government might supervising you with very strict rules, you will have more freedom and power in the West.

But as for me, China is not bad.

Kirill Babaev: Here’s why the result of Taiwan’s election is bad news for the US

It will become apparent in the long term that China was the real winner

By Kirill Babaev, PhD, director of the Institute of China and Modern Asia of the Russian Academy of Sciences, professor of the Financial University, and deputy chairman of the Presidium of the National Committee for BRICS Research.

In 2023, the volume of trade between the two sides of the Taiwan Strait was $268 billion. This means Taipei traded more with its main adversary, Beijing, than with its foremost ally, Washington. And for Chinese business, Taiwan was a more important counterparty than the state’s key strategic partner, Russia.

These facts are important for an understanding of the current relationship between the two parts of China. They are inextricably linked not only by the commonality of language, history, and culture, but also by hundreds of thousands of trade and production contracts. And this may prove to be a decisive factor in the long-term struggle for the island between the great powers.

The elections in Taiwan on January 13 did nothing to change this. On the contrary, apart from pro-American candidate Lai Qingde’s victory (with a far-from-solid 40% of the vote), the parliamentary elections revealed the defeat of the ruling Democratic Progressive Party, which lost its majority and ten seats in the Legislative Yuan to the conventionally “pro-Chinese” Kuomintang Party.

The outcome has made the island’s power system somewhat unstable, suggesting that the main battle between Washington and Beijing over Taiwan is yet to come. However, the US has only one undeniable advantage in this war – the ability to pump its proxy with weapons and defense systems in anticipation of a violent conflict. China, on the other hand, has far more leverage. Thus, in the coming years, Beijing won’t try to solve the Taiwan problem militarily: on the contrary, it will attempt to turn America’s “Pyrrhic victory” on January 13 into a final US defeat in the next elections on the island.

In his first post-election comments, winning candidate Lai (who won’t officially become president until May) spoke in a peaceful way about Beijing and Sino-Taiwanese relations, without in any way trying to demonstrate a desire to unilaterally declare the island’s independence. US leaders have also spoken in the same vein, stressing that they intend to develop only “informal” relations with Taiwan, while continuing to be guided by the “One-China” principle.

As a result, Taiwan is now well aware that the path to independence is a dead end, as none of Taipei’s closest allies will endorse the move or recognize the existence of an “alternative China.” The path of maintaining the status quo, on the other hand, is the most unstable, because in this case the sword of Damocles of armed conflict between the US and China will hang over Taiwan, in which the island risks losing its entire economy and many thousands of its citizens’ lives.

The only option for Taiwan in the long term is a compromise with mainland China; some kind of full-fledged arrangement that will allow the island to maintain the way of life and economic system that it’s accustomed to, and that will allow Beijing to consider the question of reunification closed, or at least with a clear, if distant, solution.

Hong Kong may partly serve as a model for such a solution, but in the case of Taiwan, the compromise is likely to be much softer. Beijing and Taipei could agree on a roadmap to reunification by 2049 – ending a century-long cycle of confrontation. That plan could well lead to a union state along the lines of the EU or Russia and Belarus.

Of course, such an outcome would be good for all Chinese on both sides of the strait, as it would remove all risk of armed conflict or a ‘hostile takeover’ of Taiwan by the PRC. These are precisely the outcomes feared by all those who voted for Lai on January 13.

Only one country would be extremely disadvantaged by such a cross-strait arrangement, namely the US. Washington has invested too much in the doctrine of containment of China, in the formation of a chain of military and political alliances around its borders and a defense belt on the island of Taiwan itself, to lose this “unsinkable aircraft carrier.” Of course, the Americans will do everything in their power to oppose any kind of agreement between the two parts of China, whatever it may be.

But attempts to move Taiwan away from Chinese shores and closer to the US coast are geographically meaningless. As Beijing’s economic power grows, the importance of the Sino-Taiwan economic relationship will only increase (even if bilateral trade temporarily declined in 2023). The status quo that Washington has fought so hard to preserve is actually more favorable to China. It seems that President Lai Qingde will prove to be a much more balanced politician than the outgoing leader, Tsai Ing-wen. If this is the case, it may well come to pass that the January 13 elections were actually won by Beijing, not Washington.

Peter Man Comments

The author, as a smart PhD, should state the obvious. All Taiwan election results are bad for the US.

Once again, I will say something not echoing media platitudes. China is, in fact, conducting long-term strategic actions to weaken the hegemon, which will eventually collapse by exhaustion. This strategy has been applied many times in China’s history, and as a history lover, I will illustrate with one example, the war between Chu and Wu during the Spring and Autumn Era (771 – 476 BCE). This was the early Zhou feudal era when historians began recording state annals. Chinese annals in those days were known as Spring and Autumn, meaning a year. It came from the Shang, Chinese civilization’s progenitor, who did not have summer and winter seasons so spring and autumn represented a year.

Near the end of this era, the barbarian (culturally and linguistically non-Chinese) state of Chu in the south along the middle part of the Yangzi River became a behemoth. After making a strong matrimonial alliance with Qin in the northwest, which lasted until Qin Shihuang unified China, Chu threatened and made war on every state in the north while encroaching and swallowing small states to its east. The last bulwark against Chu’s eastern expansion to the Pacific coast was Wu, a small barbarian state centered around Suzhou to the west of Shanghai. Chinese annals recorded that Wu natives shaved their heads and tattooed their bodies, decidedly non-Chinese practices.

At the time, Chu had subjugated many small tribes and states between themselves and Wu, creating a buffer zone as well as a launch pad for future wars against Wu. When looking at this behemoth state of Chu with a hundred times the power of this small state of Wu living on the plains of Huai River, it would appear that Wu’s fate was sealed. Instead, over two generations, Wu would not only survive but defeat Chu in every battle, eventually capturing Chu’s capital.

One of Wu’s strategies was to light up endless fires in the buffer zone. Chu could not maintain its hegemony without reacting. Each time there was trouble, Chu had to send its army over long distances across mountainous areas, and each time Wu would withdraw into a defensive position nearby. When the Chu army, being tired, far from home and uncertain of their vassals’ loyalty, decided to retreat, the Wu army would ambush them and cause further damage. Thus, Wu, at very little cost, exhausted Chu (疲于奔命) and eventually defeated them.

The history of the Chu and Wu conflict is a much bigger story, but this illustrates how a big, hegemonic country with its fingers in every pie can be weakened from exhaustion caused by endless small fires. Knowing this, I’m not surprised that China is not using its weight to put out small fires. All this talk of China helping America cool things down in the Middle East or West Asia is just wishful thinking.

Another thing that China definitely should be aware of and which I have always averred, the US and Japan will not intervene militarily should the PLA decide to land in Taiwan. Chang Ya-chung, the deep blue KMT member who advocates immediate negotiations with China for peaceful reunification, said as much in a recent interview.

In short, Stop dreaming anyone will come and rescue us in a war with mainland China. If there is war, Taiwan will be destroyed like Ukraine. I guarantee not a single GI will die for you. Why not? Because their opponent will be the PRC, a well-armed nuclear state, America is not that stupid. They will tell you all kinds of rubbish to sell arms and use you as a proxy.

They will use you, the Taiwanese people, as a pawn and sacrifice you in a heartbeat.

So you better wake up and do what’s best for Taiwan and its people.” For all pols and pundits who paint Chang as a red communist trojan horse, he welcomes holding a public debate, but no one wants to take him up on the challenge.

No one wants that debate lest people learn the bitter truth.

Chang, as the principal of Dr. Sun College is well respected as an educator and well-liked by young Taiwanese. These well-educated young voters are not stupid. They voted en mass for Ko because they’re disillusioned with the corrupt KMT led by a scumbag who appointed an unwinnable nonentity as the presidential candidate.

What are some good examples of “life isn’t fair”?

The accusations emerged in May of 2016.

Amber Heard, Johnny Depp’s now ex-wife, posted pictures of his alleged abuse and the outcry was immediate.

The breakdown of a golden couple.

When Johnny was cast in Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald, news outlets were quick to condemn him.

How dare they hire him? He shouldn’t be there. He’s a terrible, terrible person.

Meanwhile, Heard was praised, crowned as a survivor and champion of abused women. She took jobs as a poster child for the ACLU and UN.

Johnny lost a reputation he worked for years to build. No one wanted to hire him, or even work with him. He was tainted by the label abuser.

He received hate, from once-fans, from the media, from basically everyone.

And, of course, it was justified. He hurt an innocent, defenseless woman. We should hate him. Right?

Tell the world I, Johnny Depp, a man, I’m a victim too of domestic violence

And see how many people believe or side with you.

But this year, Johnny released tapes that reframed the allegations we were all so quick to believe.

Maybe they weren’t so golden after all.

She admitted to hitting him and throwing cans and glass bottles at him. She says that glass from one such assault sliced the top of Depp’s finger off.

And then she mocked him. Because she knew no one would believe his word over hers.

You think life is fair?

This is a man who was physically assaulted by his wife and then torn down on global television because we all love a villain.

We all love a villain, even when they’ve done nothing wrong.

What office rule made you say “You gotta be kidding me”?

I ran an Engineering department that covered military equipment scattered across the country.

We had specialised staff based out of an office building who were dispatched nationwide as required.

We had a good atmosphere. Staff worked hard and long as required and when it was quiet were compensated with additional vacation days and “under the table” days off. Overtime was not available.

For example – it was fairly normal for an eng team to leave home at 4 in the morning to be at an airbase for 7:30, leave at 8 pm and do the same the next day, and for as long as required. The company refused to give hotel accommodation, considering every base within the country “drivable”.

A new admin boss took over and a biometric system was implemented. A decree was issued that EVERY member of staff MUST clock in and out, and while clocking out could be any time, clocking in had to be between 7 and 7:30 am.

I fought it for about 6 months but eventually was told to toe the line or leave.

It was no longer possible to pay staff back with vacation days, official or unofficial, and the company immediately lost hundreds of hours of productivity with staff, understandably cutting back their hours, feeling unappreciated. As their boss (and a human being) I could no longer ask them to work the ridiculous hours they had been previously working, knowing there was no compensation available.

Another productivity masterstroke from the same guy was the removal of all printers from eng department, putting us on the print server located on a different floor, sharing with other departments.

The boss had previously implemented a rule that petty cash could only cover items up to USD 80. One day we ran out of toner for the color printer, had to print documents for a top level meeting.

The boss, wanting to impress by cutting stationery costs, had delayed signing approval for purchase of toner, ordered weeks earlier, so the cupboard was bare! I contacted the IT guy and explained about the meeting, who was going to be there, and that the boss wasn’t around and he nipped out to the local mall and picked up toner at a cash cost of USD 81. As punishment, for exceeding the 80 buck limit, the boss removed all printers from Engineering.

These things happen when people get promoted beyond their capability.

What’s something on an employee’s first day that sets off red flags?

I can think of two instances.

One, was a friend of a friend. He was actually a pretty smart guy, and did programing of some sort. The guy’s personal life was a disaster. His wife left him, he bought a car he couldn’t afford, then got fired from his job. He kept the car but stopped making payments, and hid the car so they couldn’t repo it. He was staying at my friends house for a while and he screwed that up as well by being a jerk to his hosts. So, he finally found a job as a programmer, and it seemed he was going to be able to turn his life around. His first day on the job, he sent an email to upper management, and basically cc’d the entire company, telling them everything they were doing wrong. >They came to see him, thanked him for coming in, and fired him. This guy is a total dufus.

The second is almost the same. A friend mine, never seems to be able to hold a job. She told me she got hired at a new place. She wanted to make her mark there, so sent the president and the executive a long e-mail about how they could improve the company by taking her advice, and listed a bunch of her suggestions. This, after working there for less than a week.. yup she got fired.

Some people are just too stupid.

What caused you to realize how dysfunctional your marriage was, and how long had you been in denial?

Snow fell in Texas and the whole metroplex closed down. School was cancelled, power outages disabled many households, and I found myself collecting fallen branches in our front yard to make a fire for warmth.

My worries about entertaining my five young kids for the day, however, quickly dwindled as my two oldest began to organize an elaborate project in the back yard.

“Come on, let’s build an igloo!” they hollered.

I thought, “OK, that’s not going to work, but at least they’ll be occupied for a while.”

Bradley, my oldest, gathered supplies, while Amber helped my younger kids get dressed in layers of their warmest clothes. Garden gloves had to suffice for hand ware, but nobody minded. Excitement lit up the house to where we barely needed electricity.

I went to work starting a fire in the fireplace and preparing a crude meal that required no heat.

I looked outside and saw the meager beginnings of a snow structure and, after feeling a bit sorry for them, thought, “This might be a great chance for my kids to use real-life problem solving skills.”

The next time I looked out, I was amazed! Someone had the idea to empty out the sidewalk chalk boxes and use the plastic containers as molds for the igloo blocks.

They worked all day on that igloo, eventually building it up to Bradley’s head. As the sun went down, they made plans to finish the structure the next day.

All my kids went to bed early, as there was really nothing much to do in the dark, and they were exhausted from their laborious day.

Then, my husband came home from work. His business never closed. He parked in the driveway behind our house and came in through the back door. Being so dark, he ran right into the igloo, got snow “all over” him and became irate.

He destroyed the igloo, claiming that the weather would soon become warm, the snow blocks would melt, the grass underneath would be saturated, resulting in a huge mud puddle and a ruined lawn. He then got a shovel and a flash light and spread the snow all over the back yard. The igloo was gone and I was furious.

That was February.

The crushing of the igloo had crushed my kids’ hearts, and when I stood at the window watching my husband with a shovel and a flashlight spread out snow to preserve his lawn, something else was crushed too. My denial — at how dysfunctional our marriage was — shattered, and other fits of his unnecessary anger over the last decade flooded my mind, just like that igloo was going to flood the backyard.

I filed for divorce in March.

That was 14 years ago, and I am now happily married to a man who would never dream of crushing a child’s igloo.

What is the craziest thing you have ever said or done at an interview and still gotten the job?

This happened with one of my friend:

After getting rejected in his first interview of the day, he was naturally dejected. So he entered the room with a frustrated face.

He was hardly interested in the company profile and such was his mood that he wanted to take someone on.

Interviewer: Are you fine? You don’t look well!

Friend: I haven’t eaten since morning, I prepared for my previous interview so well and got rejected in the very first round.

I: So, did you prepare for this interview as well?

F: No! I was more interested in that company. And I wanted to give my best at one place.

I: Do you know trading?

F: No! I don’t!

I: Then why are you interested in this company?

F: For the money! Do you think all those standing outside know trading?

I: Atleast some of them might?

F: I’m telling you, they don’t.

I: So you are a student of geology, right? How do think you’ll be able to manage working in a trading company?

F: There is a novel named Liar’s Poker in which the male protagonist was a student of Art History and ended up getting trained at Salomon Brothers. He works as a financial journalist now. And yes, it’s not fiction, the guy wrote it as his semi-autobiography. I think I will be fine.

(He knew he scored there)

(After asking some basic tell-me-about-you questions)

I: What’s your biggest strength?

F: I’m very patient.

I: See! We need people who are dynamic and full of energy. I don’t think patience and our required qualities go hand in hand.

(This was like a tipping point for him)

F: Have you heard of Rahul Dravid? He is regarded as one of the most patient cricketer. Yet, once he had the fastest fifty in ODIs. When he played his first T-20, he hit 3 consecutive sixes. Just because someone is patient doesn’t mean they can’t be dynamic and aggressive.

(Interviewer gave a smile at this answer)

Result: Selected

UFC fighters were assaulted by the woke mob

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/ALCYyC1P2hM?feature=share

Federal Reserve Chairman: U.S. Debt “Unsustainable”

Nation Hal Turner 05 February 2024

The United States is on an “unsustainable” path with regard to its national debt and it is time to address the issue, Jerome Powell said in an interview aired Sunday.

The US national debt currently stands at more than $34 trillion, according to the US Treasury.

“In the long run, the US is on an unsustainable fiscal path. The US federal government’s on an unsustainable fiscal path. And that just means that the debt is growing faster than the economy,” Powell told CBS’ “60 Minutes” news program.

“It’s probably time, or past time, to get back to an adult conversation among elected officials about getting the federal government back on a sustainable fiscal path,” he said in the interview, which was recorded on Thursday.

In the CBS interview, Powell reiterated that stance, saying it was unlikely that a rate cut would come at the next meeting of the rate-setting Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) in March.

“I think it’s not likely that this committee will reach that level of confidence in time for the March meeting, which is in seven weeks,” Powell said.

I fear living a normal format of life (study, job, marriage, kids). What are your thoughts on living a solitary life following passion and various hobbies with less human interactions?

No problems at all

If you have the MONEY then no issues at all

You can buy a place away from town and live a solitary life and follow your hobbies

Study is mainly for a Job
Job is for making money to sustain yourselves
Marriage and Kids are to take you to your next generation

As long as you can sustain yourself without studies, you don’t need the same

As long as you have enough money, you don’t need a job

As for marriage and kids – that’s entirely your choice. You can choose to avoid either.

The question is WHY?

Are you really uninterested in human reactions or are you having a massive chip on your shoulder?

This is key

A Major break up or A fight in the family or Hidden Sexuality are some reasons why a person may feel that he doesn’t want human interaction

It’s temporary

If you flunk an exam or don’t get through an interview then you may feel the same

So you have to be ABSOLUTELY SURE you want to avoid any of this without any other factor

Another reason could be FEAR OF COMPETITION

So my advise is – Explore yourself and find out WHY you want to stay and live a life of solitude

Then TRY IT FOR A WHILE

Try to live without speaking to parents or relatives or friends.

No Whatsapp with friends

No contact with friends

No outings

Just stay and go to work and come home and live to yourself with minimal interactions

Then see if you can manage it for LIFE

What are some mind-blowing facts about the Vietnam War?

The VC/NVA had dedicated SIGINT (signals intelligence) units involving in radio interception, telephone tapping, and code-breaking. Their members were fluent in many languages. In 1970, the U.S. 25th Infantry Division found a North Vietnamese SIGINT facility hidden underground near the Thi Tinh River; every single radio communication of the U.S. 1st and 25th Divisions had been logged, and the intercepts translated into Vietnamese.
In 1966, all 14 Vietnamese barbers working in the U.S. 25th Infantry Division’s base camp were Vietcong sympathizers. They didn’t cut anybody’s throat but they did gather intelligence.
During the battle for Hamburger Hill in May 1969, U.S. friendly fire killed 7 and wounded 53 of their own men.

The first B-52 operational losses of the Vietnam war took place on 18 June 1965 when two B-52s were destroyed in a mid-air collision, costing American taxpayers 20 million dollar.
In early 1970, U.S. and South Vietnamese forces made a short incursion into Cambodia and discovered huge NVA compounds containing: 4,793 small arms, 730 mortars, over 3 million rifle rounds, 6.5 million anti-aircraft rounds, 7,285 rockets, 124 trucks, nearly 1 thousand tons of rice and a telephone switchboard.
A report issued by the Pentagon in 1973 estimated that 35% of all enlisted men who had served in Vietnam had tried heroin and 20% had been addicted at some point during their tour.
By 1968, the U.S. had set up 40 ice-cream plants in Vietnam and 760,000 tons of supplies were being delivered every month. American movies, stage shows, color TVs, chilled beer, Napoleon brandy, etc. were readily available. Rear-echelon troops could imagine they were still back home.
Some 10,000 U.S. servicemen lost at least one limb in Vietnam – more than in World War II and Korea put together.
The number of U.S. helicopter lost during the war: 4,865.
Eight (8) million tons of bombs were dropped on Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia, 4 times more than the amount dropped in all of World War 2.
The amount of ammunition fired per U.S. soldier was 26 times greater in Vietnam than during World War II.
For each artillery shell or rocket hitting its base camp, the U.S. 25th Infantry Division’s official policy was to fire 1,000 shells on the surrounding countryside in retaliation. (Talking about a rich man’s war, huh)
Lucky number 13: An estimated 27 thousands tons of unexploded ordnance were littered throughout the country at the end of the war. In November 2015, one unexploded 406mm naval shell was unearthed from a garden in Quang Tri Province, near the former Demilitarized Zone (DMZ). Presumably, this 2,000-pound shell was fired from the battleship USS New Jersey.

14. Over 18 million gallons (or 72 million liters) of defoliants were used throughout the war, even now Vietnamese children are being born with horrifying physical disabilities as a direct result of the US use of chemical defoliants.

15. In 1965, around 42% of all chemical defoliants sprayed in South Vietnam were aimed at food crops, and the country quickly went from rice exporter to rice importer.

16. At the peak of their commitment, South Korea had 44,829 troops in South Vietnam, Australia had 7,672, Philippines sent 2,000, Taiwan sent 31 and Fascist Spain sent 13 men. Morocco sent 10,000 cans of sardines.

17. By the early 1970s, years before the war’s end, South Vietnam’s landscape was already pockmarked with an estimated 21 million bomb and artillery craters, covering some 350,000 acres in all.

18. At its peak, the U.S. effort in Vietnam was soaking up 37% of all American military spending and required the fighting strength of more than 50% of all Marine Corps divisions, 40% of all combat-ready army divisions, and 33% of the navy.

19. In mid 1969, the GI underground newspaper in Vietnam, “GI Says,” publicly offered a $10,000 reward for the death of Lieutenant-Colonel Weldon Honeycutt, the officer responsible for the disastrous attack on Hamburger Hill in May that year. There were at least 7 attempts, but Honeycutt managed to live out his tour and return to the U.S.

20. US Navy pilot (later Senator and 2008 Presidential Candidate) John McCain was taken prisoner by North Vietnam on October 26, 1967 when his A-4 aircraft was shot down over Hanoi. Upon discovering that his father was the admiral commanding all U.S. forces in the Pacific, North Vietnam offered to return him early, in exchange for his cooperation. McCain, however, insisted that standard military procedures be followed and prisoners of war be returned in the order of their date of capture. He ended up spending 5 and a half years in captivity and was frequently tortured.

Sources:

1–2: The Tunnels of Cu Chi: Tom Mangold

4–10, 13, 14, 16: Vietnam Nigel Cawthorne

11, 12, 15, 17, 18: Kill Anything That Moves- Nick Turse

The Divorce Rules for Men

I already went through two of these things. Ugh. They were painful. Not be like me.

https://youtu.be/qlJNTSMwGO4

What did someone say/do that made you close down your account and go to another bank?

3 of my kids were in a horrible car accident. 2 only had minor injuries but my youngest son, Joe, was severely injured. He had a brain injury and fractured orbital plane requiring immediate surgery. When the insurance company settled the 2 received $1500.00 in a trust until they turned 18. But Joe was awarded $35,000. The courts insisted the trust was a regular bank, which had lower interest rates, rather than my credit union. When the bank received the 2 trusts for $1500 we decided to put the money into CDs, at the time CDs were getting 8–9% interest. Then Joe’s case was settled and the money sent to the same bank. However the bank refused to put his into a CD, instead they put into regular savings which paid maybe 3%. My husband went to his business bank and had them look over the court order. That bank said there was no valid reason for not putting the money onto a CD and they requested a wire transfer to their bank placed all 3 into an even higher rate termed to end when each turned 18. As a result Joe had 65,000 dollars when he graduated from high school. The 1st bank tried to fight the move but the court backed us up. Their loss Joe’s win.

Ancient Romans Reproduced so much that A Plant Went Extinct

ByKnow Nepal

Ancient Romans and Greeks used a plant called Silphium as a super effective contraceptive. But here’s the crazy part: they used it so much that it actually went extinct. Can you imagine that? This plant was so important to them, and they relied on it so heavily, that they ended up losing it forever.

Its heart-shaped seeds are thought to be the reason we associate the symbol with romance to this day.

It was cherished by the Romans and held such a special place in their hearts that they immortalized it in poems, songs, and esteemed works of literature. Its popularity was so profound that it contributed to the wealth and prosperity of the city of Cyrene, located in modern-day Shahhat, Libya, making it the wealthiest city in Africa.

The history of silphium can be traced back to ancient times. It was first mentioned in writings by the Greek poet Hesiod in the 8th century BCE, and it was also referenced in the works of other ancient Greek writers, including Theophrastus and Aristotle. The ancient Greeks believed that silphium was a gift from the gods and valued it highly for its medicinal properties.

The Greek residents of Cyrene valued silphium to such an extent that they depicted its silhouette on their currency before relinquishing control to the Romans. The significance of this extraordinary plant was even recognized by Julius Caesar, who stored an impressive stockpile of 1,500 pounds (680 kilograms) in the official treasury.

It grew abundantly in the wild in ancient North Africa, particularly in the region that is now modern-day Libya. It had large heart-shaped leaves, tall stalks, and yellow flowers, which grew in clusters. It was unique in its flavor and aroma. The leaves and stems were used to flavor food and wine, while its juice was used as a natural remedy for a variety of ailments.

Not only as a contraceptive and in beverages, but Silphium was also used for treating a variety of medical conditions such as coughs, sore throats, and indigestion.

The plant grew only in a small region around Cyrene, which made it a rare and valuable commodity. As the plant became more and more scarce, its price skyrocketed, making it became more valuable and further increasing the demand for it. Despite efforts to cultivate the plant and protect it from overharvesting, it ultimately proved to be unsustainable and went extinct.

The loss of the Silphium plant had significant consequences for the ancient Greeks and Romans. Without access to this effective form of birth control, the population of these societies may have grown at a faster rate, leading to increased competition for resources and potentially putting strain on their economies and environments.

But the story of Silphium doesn’t end there. In fact, its extinction may have had even wider-reaching consequences. The plant was not only used as a contraceptive but also as a remedy for a variety of ailments. Its loss meant that people were no longer able to rely on it for these medical purposes, and they had to find alternative treatments. This had a major impact on the health and well-being of the ancient Greek and Roman people.

The extinction of the Silphium plant serves as a cautionary tale about the dangers of overconsumption and the need to carefully manage our use of natural resources. It also serves as a reminder of the important role that plants like Silphium have played in human history, and the need to preserve and protect the biodiversity of our planet. So the next time you hear about a plant or animal going extinct, remember the story of Silphium and the lessons it holds for us all.

Today, the exact identity of silphium remains a mystery, as no specimens of the plant have survived. However, it is believed to have been related to the fennel or giant fennel plant, and its medicinal properties are thought to have been due to a resinous substance contained within the plant. The legacy of silphium can still be seen in ancient artwork and writings, which depict the plant and its many uses.

How did people’s attitudes change towards you after you bought your first luxury car?

I was investigated by CID, are you selling drugs? Are you working in a strip club? Are you dating men who give you money?

A rumor that I was sleeping with the Post Commanding General went around my unit.

I was placed on night shift, and every crosswalk duty for a month.

My promotion paperwork for an upcoming board disappeared.

Keep in mind this was at Ft. Benning GA in 1997, I was an MP (military police)

The” war on drugs” was still around and the perception in the news was that the only African Americans who drove luxury cars were drug, that was the “obvious” conclusion.

My Platoon sergeant finally pulled me into his office and asked “private, how in the hell can you afford a brand new Mercedes!” I told it was 7 years old, she just looked good, it was the entry level Mercedes so was affordable and my payments were about 125.00 a month (can’t remember exact amount).

He sat back and just laughed, and said “ok that makes sense”

Now remember this was 1997, AOL was just coming out so an online search was not possible. And it never occurred to the big heads in CID to ask me how much I paid for the car, how old was it, all the questions my platoon Sergeant asked me. I am still shaking my head about that.

I was more mad that people thought that I would sleep with the Commanding General, I was 22 so he was probably 50+ so in my young eyes he was oooold, like The Crypt Keeper old! ROFL!

I have always driven a MB since, have two in the garage now.

Discipline

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/Ik5e3oF2bus?feature=share

Do you think Senator Tom Cotton’s questioning of Chew Shou Zi, TikTok CEO, implies that Singaporeans have communist ties just because of the ethnic Chinese majority in Singapore?

Chinese = villains.

This is the same prejudicial calculus behind the pogroms, lynchings, riots and destruction suffered repeatedly by Chinese communities around the world over the last few centuries.

In Indonesia, formerly known as Batavia, it has happened repeatedly, and it will happen again.

In Malaysia, the Emergency eventually led to depopulation of the Chinese through the forced Separation of Singapore, and the implementation of race-specific policy to encourage emigration through the clever use of Singapore as a relief valve.

In America, a massive wave of violence against Chinese immigrants beginning in the 1870s culminated in the passing of the Chinese Exclusion Act, the Scott Act, and the Geary Act in the 1880s-1890s. There were massive celebratory demonstrations in California each time an act was passed.

YELLOW PERIL became a crystallized phrase in the press at the turn of the 20th century.

Chinese in America were bottom of the ladder, and treated worse than vermin.

Fast forward to the 21st century and the same attitudes persist. If the US could, it would have bombed Beijing or Shanghai like Gaza is being pounded today, and insist it isn’t a genocide.

Considering what his ancestors perpetrated repeatedly, Tom exhibited nothing more than rude antics, part of the election gameplan in a crucial “winner takes all” Presidential election year.

What we must bear in mind is the naked prejudice revealed and confirmed by the performance, and how the same sentiment can rapidly boil over into hate that require bloodletting to calm.

We should all make preparations for war in East Asia in the coming decade.

BULLETIN: EUROPEAN COUNTRY ISSUES NOTAM FOR “UNPLANNED MILITARY ACTIVITY NECESSARY TO PROTECT NATIONAL SECURITY”

World Hal Turner 06 February 2024

We now have an precise date window for the outbreak of World War 3 in Europe. A country has issued a NOTAM for “Unpanned military activity necessary to protect national security.” This LIFE-SAVING content is now open to the General Public —

Poland has issued a Notice to Air Missions (NOTAM) involving the ENTIRE eastern 1/4 of the country of Poland from Gdansk in the north to the southern tip of the country, including the border with Belarus and Ukraine.

Specifically, the Polish Air Navigation Services Agency (PANSA) in Coordination with the Polish Air Force has Introduced a Notice-to-Air-Missions (NOTAM) from February 5th to May 5th for the entire East of the Country on the Border with Ukraine due to the reported possibility of Unplanned Military Actions related to ensuring National Security.

The NOTAM requires any Civilian Aircraft which is Operating inside of the Zone to remain in Radio Contact with Flight Authorities and to Activate their Transponder as to prevent their Disruption of Increased Activity by Military Aircraft.

Hal Turner Analysis

It seems to me, as a guy with average intellect, the only reason Poland would do this is because they KNOW there will be a NATO entry into the Russia-Ukraine war during this specific time period, and as soon as that entry begins, war between NATO and Russia will ensue. The NOTAM was issued yesterday and began yesterday, February 5, so WE ARE ALREADY IN THE WINDOW for the start of actual World War 3.

Also, as a regular guy with average intellect, this notice tells me they don’t yet know the specific date, but they know the window of time, which, to me, means when this comes, it will happen like a lightning bolt from the sky. I suspect we, the general public, will have NO WARNING AT ALL.

For weeks now, European countries have been telling their citizens to stock-up on Prescription medicines they may need to live. Many people found this advice curious; after all, why would there be a need to do something like that? Now, we seem to know why.

It looks to me as though they have been planning a NATO entry into the Ukraine war for quite some time, and they’re trying to prep the public for the war that NATO is going to cause.

In addition to countries in Europe telling their people to stock up on Prescription medicines, other nations, like Sweden and the UK, have been openly telling their citizens to “prepare for war” with emergency food, water, medicine, fuel, flashlights, batteries and portable radios for news.

So, it seems to me, the writing on the wall is now blazingly clear.

As all readers may recall, Russia made plain at the start of their Special Military Operation (SMO) into Ukraine, that if NATO chose to enter the conflict, Russian conventional forces are NOT comparable to NATO. Russia admitted that from the start.

Russia then also made clear that “We are a nuclear power, and our abilities in this area are superior to NATO.” Russia finished by saying, “If NATO declares Article 5 Collective Self Defense against Russia, it will be a war that no one will win.”

Those words . . . . “a war no one will win” is a nuclear war.

So we are now in the window for the outbreak of actual nuclear war, from right this minute, until May 5.

I earnestly hope my readers have stocked-up on Emergency food, water, medicines, an electric generator with stored fuel to run it, so as to have electricity for refrigerators, freezers, maybe some light.

We are OUT OF TIME. You have to possess these things NOW or get what you can IMMEDIATELY.

As I mentioned earlier, it seems to me we will have ZERO warning about this. When it begins, it will likely escalate so fast, none of us will have any time to react.

If you don’t have your emergency supplies before this breaks out, there will be no way at all for you to get them.

The general public – who wait until the very last minute to do — . . . anything . . . . — will be in shear panic. Stores will be immediately flooded with shoppers trying to get their hands on anything they can. It will be chaos. Bedlam.

Store shelves will be wiped clean within a couple hours.

So if you don’t have your stuff, you won’t be able to get it.

Please, in the name of Almighty God, I implore you to get prepped right now.

You need:

Shelf-stable foods: Pasta, Rice, Dried Beans, Canned meats, Canned vegetables, Condiments (Ketchup, Mustard, Mayonnaise, Salt, Pepper, SUGAR), cooking oil, Jarred pasta sauces and the like.

WATER! A human needs 8 eight-ounce glasses of water, per day, to survive. If the nukes fly, the public water supply will become contaminated. You MUST have water stored. Not for doing dishes, or showering, but to consume and cook with!

Medicines you take to survive. For instance, my wife had Thyroid cancer and her Thyroid was surgically removed. But a human cannot live without Thyroid Hormone, so she has to take a pill EVERY DAY just to continue living. If she runs out of those pills, by day 5 of no pill, she will be dead.

If YOU or your family members take medicines to live, YOU need to stock up. Tell your doctor to give you a prescription so you can stock up. Tell him why you want it. And pay for it with your own money, because your insurance company WILL NOT PAY.

A generator or some type of small solar array with a battery. You need to be able to power your refrigerator/freezer a couple hours a day to prevent food from spoiling. Have spare fuel for that generator, but don’t store flammable fuel in your house. It has to be outside. And NEVER run a generator indoors. Gas-operated generators give off carbon monoxide gas which is LETHAL. You would die from the fumes within minutes if you ran the generator indoors.

COMMUNICATIONS GEAR: Get yourself a small, cheap CB Radio ($39) with a small antenna for your car or your house. If this thing happens, and I believe it will, our electric grid may go down. All the TV and Radio stations have generators, but they may go down too after a few days of no power. YOU have to be able to communicated with neighbors, friends, and the like.

Get a SHORTWAVE RECEIVER – small ones operate on batteries. They’ll let you hear the news from many countries around the world. You’ll be able to keep informed! Have spare batteries for it, too.

Flashlights for each family member and replacement batteries for each light.

The list is **NOT** complete, and for some of us, what we “need” seems endless, but these are the absolute essentials you need. PLEASE MAKE SURE YOU HAVE THEM.

What, “You know what, just to be safe,” thing did you do that saved yourself or your loved ones?

I was working on a ship, we were in a relatively mild storm, and a line had come loose and was flapping in the wind. I sent the deck hand out to secure it, he was wearing a floatation jacket, to keep him dry, and keep him afloat, if he fell over board. There was a railing all the way around the deck, except for the stairway. Since it wasn’t a bad storm, he wasn’t required to put on a safety line, and to tell you the truth, back in the 1980s people were pretty lax about safety, and safety lines were not always worn when they should be.

Just before he left the bridge, I said, “You know what, we should practice with the safety line, when its easy to get around, rather than only gain experience when its dangerous”

He wasn’t happy, they were a pain in the rear, and got tangled in every thing. But he put it on, and just clamped it onto the railing, when a rogue wave hit, and washed him down the deck, and under the railing. I grabbed a safety line, clamped on, and started to pull him up. Another wave came and washed him right back onto the deck. I dragged him into the bridge.

We always used safety lines after that, in even mild storms.

What’s something a flight attendant did to you that you will never forget?

We would take off a week or two around christmas to go visit family since we lived halfway across the US from them. Usually we would get a cat-sitter, but on one occasion, we didn’t have anybody lined up, and we were flying Southwest, which allows small animals in the cabin. I went by the airport to buy the special mesh carrier they require you to use as well as pay the fee for bringing an animal on-board.

On the day of travel, the cat is mildly sedated and attracting a lot of attention—people love animals in airports, and cats are especially uncommon to see.

While waiting for our connection, the attendants at the gate called us to the desk to inform us there was a family with cat allergies going to be on the same flight and to mitigate any issues, the family had opted to sit in the very back of the plane, and would we please mind boarding in the first group and selecting a seat towards the very front? Hell yeah! awesome, let’s do it!

So we aren’t the very first to board, the special priority members still got first dibs, but we do manage to get seats in the second row behind an older couple, so pretty good on distancing from the family with the allergies.

I’m holding the cat in the carrier on my lap while people board before sticking her under the seat, and at some point a passenger or flight attendant comments on how they love cats, at which point, the woman in the row ahead of us swivels to say “there’s a CAT?! but I’m allergic!”.

A nearby flight attendant explains that we are being seated up here to accommodate a family who also has an allergic member and that this woman and her companion are welcome to reseat in the back if it’s going to be a problem, but the cat will be confined to the carrier at all times, and they ask me to go ahead and put her under the seat in front of me, which I do.

“But, my husband needs the front row seat! His legs get cramps otherwise!”

“Well, you’re welcome to move back there by yourself then, ma’am”

It turned out she didn’t feel her allergies were severe enough to justify that. Her only symptoms I could observe during the flight were disdainful sniffs every so often.

I was very pleased at the respect paid to my cat, who was basically a ticketed passenger and had followed protocol, and I left the attendant a glowing review on the SWA site.

Are there people who are so smart that you think they are stupid?

My husband.

An amazing husband. An amazing father. Always putting his family first. An engineer. Smart. Smart as a whip.

At most things.

sometimes he does things and I don’t know wether to laugh or laugh and cry.

there was the the time he took back a new pair of shoes because the left one was too tight. The salesman with a deadpan face pulled the paper stuffing out if the shoe and said, try it now.

there was the time he got banned from the neighborhood gas station because he drove off with the gas handle still in the gas tank.

The time he jumped on his new racing bike but forgot there were no pedals. Yes I helped him up off the yard and died laughing.

so.., you get it.

I mentioned it to him once, for a smart guy you sure do a lot of not-so smart stuff.

He smiled. And shrugged his shoulders, ya, go figure, when someone’s smart brain switch turns on that bright, something else up there has to shut off.

God I love that man!

What is the most satisfying thing you’ve seen happen when someone rudely cut ahead of a long line?

When I still practiced dentistry, I was running tight on time getting to work, but I had to fuel my stomach first or pay the consequences. So I stood in line at Panera’s, only one person in front of me, when a woman dashed in just as the cashier called, “Next!”

To my shock (and the guy ahead of me), the woman dashed right on up to the cashier and began to place her order.

I walked over and pointed out to the cashier how the other guy and I had been waiting at least ten minutes, while this woman she was waiting on had just now flown through the door. The cashier had already started ringing up the woman’s order, so said cashier sheepishly shrugged and grimaced a half-assed apology, like, What do you expect me to do now, it’s too late. And continued on.

Entitled woman, in the meantime, yelled at me, “I’m running late for work!” As though that explained everything. To which I replied, “So am I! But I was here first, and now you’re going to make me even more late.”

She waved me off as the cashier went to get her order.

Now for the satisfaction.

As I walked toward the door with my bag of food, entitled woman stood at a counter to add sugar, etc. to her extra-large coffee, when the cup flipped over and spilled its contents all across the counter and onto her.

It may have been mean of me, but I said loud enough for her to hear, “Perfect karma,” walked on by and out the door.

A lesson for Americans to learn

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/NdRfvJvncW4?feature=share

Did anyone ever survive the Nazi gas chambers?

Rarely, some people managed to survive the gas chambers and were not killed immediately afterwards. One such person is Gena Turgel and her story is more than astonishing. She survived three Nazi concentration camps and in Auschwitz-Birkenau was forced naked into the gas chambers.

Gena and Norman

She was 16 when her hometown of Krakow, Poland, was bombed by the Luftwaffe on September 1, 1939, the first day of the war. Norman had relatives in Chicago, but the family delayed putting plans to move there into action, and Poland was quickly conquered by the Germans.

In the Jewish ghetto of Krakow Gena lost two brothers fighting against the Nazis. She was then sent to Plaszow concentration camp, where she survived for two and a half years until her transfer to Auschwitz. There she survived numerous experiments conducted by Nazi “Angel of Death” Josef Mengele.

The most surprising part of her story is that she did not realize she was in a gas chamber until another prisoner told her. “Do you know what just happened? You were in a gas chamber!”. said Gena: “I never realized I was in the gas chamber… It must not have worked.

The “Krema 1” gas chamber at Auschwitz.

Here is how she described his path to the gas chamber,

“We went into that room with the stone floor and holes in the ceiling. We were shivering, it was very cold, and we were waiting and waiting.”

In Auschwitz, “the water was undrinkable and we lived mainly on beet soup,” she wrote. “Everywhere we went the horrible stench of the crematoria followed us.”

The time spent in Auschwitz left its consequences. Since then, Gena wore her perfume to forget the smell of the camp.

After two months in Auschwitz, as the Red Army advanced toward Auschwitz, she was sent on a “death march,” first to Buchenwald concentration camp and then to Belsen, where she shared a barrack with Anne Frank and offered herself as a nurse because of her knowledge of German. When Belsen was liberated by the British, she showed a young army officer, Norman Turgel, the hospital where she worked.

In October 1945, she and Sergeant Turgel were married in Lübeck, Germany, in a synagogue that the Germans had used as a stable during the war. She was 21 years old at the time.

Mr. Turgel died in 1995. Mrs. Turgel is survived by her three children, eight grandchildren and 15 great-grandchildren. Gena Turgel died on June 7, 2018 at her home in England at the age of 95.

This story is true, but you don’t have to trust me: feel free to do your research on the internet.

What was the biggest error you found on a store receipt?

Local grocery store where my niece worked for a while. One day I saw a sale on my favorite ice cream that I could not believe. It said on the sign 5 for $2.00. Wow I thought, that’s either a bad mistake by an employee misplacing the numbers, or just maybe the ice cream was out of date. I check dates and they were fine. So I grabbed five of my favorite flavors and headed to pay. I was fully expecting to pay $5 for two of them, which was still a bargain.

At the self checkout I rang them up and sure enough they were $5 for two. No problem I had taken a photo of the sign, and call the cashier over. I explained the situation and the sign. The lady then calls over a manager, who I explain again about the sign and the pricing. She does some button pushing, some things pop up on the screen, and she leaves saying she will go correct the sign. I said I was perfectly fine paying the $5 for two, but just wanted to let them know it was confusing. All went fine so I thought. They were nice and courteous as usual.

I get home and pack my 5 delicious pints of ice cream into our freezer. I was just curious what they charged me for the single pint, so I grabbed the receipt to have a look. Well, the only thing I could find for ice cream was that single $2.50 pint. Apparently the manager had deleted the other 4 from the que. I just got 4 free ice creams! I started thinking about it and I remember the employee had bagged up the ice cream herself as the manager punched away at the screen.

I called the store and explained the situation, saying I didn’t want to get anyone in trouble. I was told well it was an honest mistake and they didn’t take food back, so enjoy the sweets on them. I most certainly did enjoy those free pints which seem to taste better knowing they were free.

I feel no sympathy for the homeless because I feel like it is their own fault. Are there examples of seemingly “normal” and respectable people becoming homeless?

Know what? I’m homeless. I live in the driver’s seat of my Chevy Aveo.

I got there because my mom owned the house I was living in and paying her my house payments. I lost my job and she immediately told me she was going to sell the house. Keep in mind that I hadn’t missed a payment, and I offered her my 401K, which was ten months’ of payments to give me time to find a new job and keep things steady.

I have severe depression and anxiety, and this threw me into a severe depression episode where I talked about suicide. One of my friends freaked out about this and called the police who entered my house without permission and forced me out and into a shitty hospital. (That’s a whole other story. I came out in worse shape than when I went in.) While in the hospital, my family came and got my keys so my cats could be taken care of. Instead, they took my cats (who are at a foster home right now) and wouldn’t let me back in the house. They found a flipper, who paid $8,000 for my house and sold it for $80,000 after throwing out all of my possessions, putting a fresh coat of paint on everything and remodeling the bathroom.

I was left with my car, and that’s it. A friend took me in for a year, but he wanted to rent out the room I was in so I got kicked to the curb. That was 2 days before Thanksgiving.

I currently work 2 jobs but still don’t make enough to get a place to live. (Yay low wages.) I tried to take advantage of low income housing, but after a year and a half of filling out forms, there just isn’t anything, so I gave up. I’ve heard too many horror stories about shelters that I would rather sleep in my car when the temperatures get to 12 degrees than go there.

Quit trying to blame the poor and homeless people for their problems. Most of them would gladly work to pay for their own care and shelter. Until you’ve been there yourself, you’ll never understand because you just don’t want to see what’s really going on in this world.

Has someone ever stolen something from you for their wedding?

Yeah, $1500 and a week of backbreaking work.

I’ve told the story before, but an ex-friend of mine called in a panic 10 days before her wedding, telling me the caterer had cancelled. I was the only one she knew with catering experience and could I figure something out for the wedding?

We worked out a deal. If she could hire me two chef temps to help and pay for the food items, I’d give her the labor for her wedding gift.

Big mistake.

I spent a week and $1500 of my own money (that I really didn’t have) prepping food I’d bought wholesale, under the assumption that help would be arriving and that I’d have the money paid back.

The help never arrived. She said they wouldn’t work for an individual. That was blatantly false, but by this point I was scrambling.

Come the day of the wedding, I was frantically trying to get my home made pasta, bread, meatballs, sauces and sides to the venue. The venue employees were absolute angels who helped out in any way they could.

By the time it came to plate the food, we were a well oiled machine and it was amazing. And they even sent me home, telling me it was in their contract to clean up when it was all over. (I later learned this was my job, but they had already figured out I was being scammed and felt so bad for me.)

Two weeks later, the bride and I met up to settle the food payment. In fact, she suddenly changed the story, and said she was there for her wedding gift.

What.

The.

Fuck.

When she figured out I didn’t have one, she called me a terrible friend and stormed out. I had a bad feeling something was wrong. I called several other mutual friends and they came to the cafe I was at within the hour.

We hashed out what had happened to us. In fact, we all had wedding industry or industry adjacent jobs/skills. And she’d scammed all of us for our talents and money.

All in all, by telling us someone had cancelled and could we please do this and she’d pay us back, she got

Catering
A cake
Photography
Alterations and all three bridesmaids’ dresses sewn
Most of the venue payment
Decor
Flowers

She got what was essentially a free wedding from all of us, by conning us all.

We did get our money back eventually, but it took small claims court, a debt collector, and a few years of frustration.

Baked Ravioli and Cheese

Ingredients

1 (50 count) package frozen cheese ravioli
2 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
2 cups milk
1 1/2 cups cubed American cheese
3/4 cup crushed potato chips (optional)

Instructions

Cook ravioli according to package directions; drain.
Meanwhile, for sauce, melt butter in a large saucepan. Stir in flour. Add milk; cook and stir until slightly thickened and bubbly.
Add cheese; heat and stir until cheese is melted.
Salt and pepper to taste. Add cooked ravioli; stir gently.
Spoon into an 8 inch square baking dish.
Sprinkle crushed potato chips over.
Bake at 350 degrees F for 15 to 20 minutes or until edges bubble and top is golden brown.

What is the most tragic announcement that was made at your high school?

I’m getting goosebumps as I write this.

April 20th, 1999

I was in my 9th grade math class. One of my best friends brothers (he’s a year older than me) was sitting next to me. In front of me was another guy and we were in the back of the class in the corner.

The three of us are shooting crap, talking and messing around. We had finished an assignment and had a few minutes.

All of a sudden our principal comes over the loudspeaker.

“Teachers and students. I don’t know how to even start to say this. There’s been a shooting at Columbine.”

Everyone in the class went silent.

“We are on lockout until further notice. No one is to leave the school grounds and students who are off campus will not be allowed back in. Please, turn on the TV’s in your rooms for more information. I don’t know how many times I can say this out loud.

We are safe. Pray for Columbine.”

We were all in shock.

Columbine High School was about 10 miles from our high school.

My dad worked at Leawood Elementary, 2 blocks down the street, where the first kids ran.

Now, my dad normally worked nights, but he worked that day (and I don’t know why, maybe his boss was a closeted pot head, all I know was my dad was there that day.)

My dad was my first thought, since they didn’t know what was actually going on yet. Is my dad okay?!? What’s going on?

My second thought was about my mom. She worked at the central district office. What in the world was going on there? Then, my thoughts turned to my friends. Names I was lucky to not hear later on the news.

I know this sounds like it took minutes to think of all of this, but it was mili-seconds.

The whole class was in shock when the TV was on.

It showed the building that I had driven by every Friday night to take my dad dinner (Columbine). Another building….that my dad was in. The kids running away from the building with their heads covered.

We were all staring at the TV. Hoping that we’d recognize a face so that we would know our friends were safe.

Some kids cried. Others were in shock. No one spoke for what felt like hours. We just stared at the TV. Hoping it was just a dream, or a prank.

The bell rang, and we were dismissed to our next class.

That was the only time in my 4 years at my high school that the hallways were quiet. Once in a while you’d find a group of kids crying and holding each other. It was surreal.

I made it to the band room and was able to call my mom. It was a zoo at her office and my dad was safe, helping families who were coming to pick up their kids. He was in for a long night.

The day went on. Same thing. At 2:00 PM The principal gave us an update and let us know that we weren’t on lockdown anymore. You could tell he had been crying.

We went home that afternoon to watch the horrifying news unfold.

We know how the rest of the stories goes.

PS (if you’re interested)-I only had the courage to ask him (my dad) once about that day. It was about 7 years afterward.

I had only seen my dad cry 3 times in his whole life, and that was one of them.

He said that parents swarmed the school, searching for their children as the kids were brought to the school (I think by bus).

As the afternoon turned into evening, more and more parents were leaving, thankful that their kids were OK. There were parents of children who were injured that left with police officers and escorted to the hospitals.

There were parents whose children never showed up that afternoon.

My dad said it was about 8:00, one by one the parents were called into the office. They all knew what it meant to be the last parents there.

Some walked out crying. Some were in shock. Some screamed the most wretched noises he’s ever heard.

My dad was never really the same after that.

None of us were.

Abandoned $5.5 Million MEGA Mansion | Everything Left Behind

https://youtu.be/jmaBiHjPUAU

Don’t be a dog

I once worked on a joint venture with an Australian company. At that time, I was both the Director of heated products in the American company, and the Project Manager for the project that I was leading in the Australian company. So I was wearing “two hats”.

The project was a clothes iron joint-venture.

Now reporting to two different managers, one Australian and one American had its challenges. But over all it was positive.

But there was one thing, however that really made life difficult. You see, the American company Marketing Director (In Chicago) wanted to micro-manage the project.

And she would provide lists of technical issues that she wanted to be worked on… on a daily basis. Most of which were not germane to the projects and work at hand, and was a real headache.

Most of the things were trivial in importance and silly in scope. Like can the power cord go from 1 meter long to 1.2 meters long? Or, investigate if the temperature can be 5C higher on the plate. Now about making the logo bigger, then smaller, and then bigger again. How about cutting the size of the manual down?

These little tasks took 15 seconds to think up, and maybe 10 man-hours to work out each one of them.

So everyday, she was coming up with about 40 man-hours of work, and completely stressing the staff out.

I just wanted a fine working product. I believe in the 80/20 rule. Not the 100/0 perfectionist rule that the inexperienced seem to accept as “leadership”.

We held a number of meeting on this subject. But nothing ever got resolved, until one day, during a meeting in Australia, I stood up and pointed to a blackboard showing all the issues that she wanted us to work on.

And I really wanted to make a point. We needed to concentrate on the items that had the biggest gain; a weighted outcome, as not every issue is worthy of time to develop and flush out.

And said…

Don’t be like a dog. Going from tree to tree. Pissing around indiscriminately.

Everyone was stunned, and then the entire room burst out laughing. The Australians all got smirks on their faces and held up their finger like “what a great idea”. Ha!

It’s a memory that I will never forget.

Today…

Predictable

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/q1hfchKz4_c?feature=share

As a parent, what did your child’s school do that made you say “you can’t be serious…”?

Here’s one for you. We received a letter from school that my son was failing 6th grade math and we needed to sit down. When we got to the school there was a teacher and a vice principal waiting for us. The teacher started off with handing me a test my son had taken. I glanced over it the math was right but almost every answer was marked wrong. She informed me that his spelling was horrible.

I quickly informed her that we had been fighting with him about this for years. Back when the school was teaching – th (the) i for eye. I had my conflict with that teacher at the time.

This set the math teacher off! Me questioning a teacher! How dare I? Then she said something that set me off. Your son’s problem is because you’re an absentee father! Just as she said this the bell to change classes rang. I asked her to step out into the hall with me. As we did kids were going past us- you’d hear hello Mr. Y. several times as kids passed us.

I turned to her and said I am the soccer coach here at the school! Her face turned red. We went back in and sat down the mood had changed. Now it’s time for me to take her lags out!

I pointed at the letter she had sent to us about my son Brian. I laughed and said that my sons name is Bryan. You’ve been teaching him for 9 months and you still can’t spell his name correctly? I would like to see you right his name correctly 100 times each time you’ve spelled it wrong (we had all his test sitting right in front of us)!

I told her I was going to call the local news agency about the hypocrite at this school. The vice principal was getting scared and trying to talk me down. I wanted her job after her accusation about me and my son.

She quit! I found out later that she had been doing this to every boy in the class. Finding a way to flunk them. Parents had been complaining but no one got anywhere till me.

Which is poorer, Vietnam or Cuba?

USA

Yes the USA. Is poorer. If your neighbour who has the biggest house owed roughly 10 times the worth of his house and you living in a house 5 times smaller and don’t owe anyone a dime. You ie (Vietnam and Cuba) are much richer than the show off that is driving a Ferrari in the huge home that owes a ton of money that it could never pay off in a century like the U.S.

So stop asking silly questions to make yourself feel good. The U.S. is a huge Ponzi nation.

Greatest scene

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/FcIL4U7fZ_E?feature=share

What country do you feel bad for?

This is Nauru.

You may have noticed from the image that Nauru isn’t particularly large. In fact, it is just 21 km squared, which is eight square miles. That’s six Central Parks or 11% of Washington D.C. and only two countries are smaller than it, those of course being Monaco and the Vatican. In terms of population – well, you can see it’s not bursting with people, with 10,084 at the last census – that’s as many as Elkhorn in Walworth County, Wisconsin, which you’ve never heard of.

Why do I feel bad for Nauru? Because they messed up big time.

You see, the island of Nauru had a ludicrously high amount of phosphate.

Phosphate is basically this important and expensive mineral which comes from bird poop among other things. Once it became a big deal in the 60s and 70s, and Nauru got their independence in 1968, they started to mine and export it to the rest of the world. And this went brilliantly well for them, with their annual GDP going from 15 million to 45 million in the space of eleven years. They had the second-highest GDP per capita in the world, behind only the UAE. Everything was going brilliantly.

And then, the inevitable happened. They ran out of phosphate.

That’s fine, isn’t it? We’ve got, like, a billion dollars now. Just invest it well and we’re sorted. Doesn’t matter that we have no idea what we’re doing, we’ll be fine – Nauru government, 1980 (paraphrased)

They weren’t alright, to say the least. None of their investments paid off at all. They had a billion Australian dollars and managed to lose almost all of it.

They bought a bunch of hotels and properties overseas, in Australia, the US, India and New Zealand among other places. They tried to get their national airline, inventively named Nauru Airlines, off the ground, but they couldn’t fill planes, so they literally let anyone fly. They put two million dollars into a terrible, terrible West End musical that everyone hated. The only purchase that really worked out was a block of land in Portland.

FUCK. – Nauru government, 1990 (paraphrased)

So now, Nauru barely has any money. They’ve got no real source of income, apart from being friends with Australia and a few other countries. Whilst they’re just about getting by for now, projections aren’t looking good. The entire middle of the island is basically unusable for anything, because it looks like this:

The entire population lives around the coast in a coast-shaped blob, but because of rising sea levels, they’re gonna have to move somewhere at some point. Unfortunately, there isn’t really anywhere to go.

Nauru had so much luck in having so much minerals, but financial incompetence has led to the downfall of an island that could have been so much more than it’s managed to. We can only hope that they find a solution.

What is something horrifying you found under a bridge?

This wasn’t me. and it was as much weird as horrifying.

In June 2008, an 88-year-old retired nurse named Mary Ferns left her house in Livingston, West Lothian, saying she was going into the town centre to buy tights. Everyone assumed she meant Livingston town centre, about a mile from her home, but she never came home. CCTV showed her in Edinburgh, 25 miles away, heading towards Waterloo Place where she would have been able to get a bus back to Livingston (or to any of a hundred other places), so it looked as if she decided to go into Edinburgh to shop instead of to Livingston.

Between central Livingston and her home there are several routes which cross over bridges, and at the sides of the bridges there are steep slopes covered with bushes, leading down to the water. It was natural to wonder if she had returned to Livingston, set off to walk home instead of getting a local bus for such a short journey, had a heart attack or stroke while approaching a bridge, and rolled down into the bushes: but dogs couldn’t find her.

Then in April 2011 a skeleton was found under one of the bridges, and everyone assumed it was hers. But it turned out to be someone else entirely – a man who had been missing for 15 years, and who had evidently sat down under the bridge to get out of the rain, and then had a heart attack or stroke of his own.

Mary Ferns, meanwhile, has never been found. We don’t know if she was murdered, or met with an accident, or whether, despite her age, she chose to go missing.

Great answer

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/nvAoBRj1Hz8?feature=share

Which ruler in history was most brutal to his own people?

Pol Pot. Without question.

Pol Pot (real name Saloth Sâr) was the dictator of Cambodia from 1975 to 1979, taking power at the end of the Cambodian Civil War. As soon as he took power, He and his administration transformed Cambodia into a one party communist dictatorship. Over the next 4 years, he and his administration committed various human rights violations and carried out what is now known as the Cambodian Genocide. To go into more detail, Pol Pot and his administration:

• Forced the Cambodian population to work without pay.

• Made the Cambodian population live in the country side by forceful removing them from their homes in the cites.

• Destroyed Cambodia’s legal system and replaced it with re-education and interrogation centers. If they thought that you were guilty, you would have been very hard pressed to convince them otherwise.

• Caused much of the Cambodian populace to starve, many times to death.

• Killed anyone they either felt didn’t fit into their new society or deemed to even slightly be a threat to their regime. these included: people with connections to the previous government, Doctors, Lawyers, Intellectuals, Journalists, Business Leaders, Vietnamese Cambodians, Chinese Cambodians, Thai Cambodians, Christian Cambodians, Cham Muslims and family members of prisoners who were thought to be a threat to the regime. Even wearing glasses or being able to speak multiple languages could get you killed.

• If you were to be executed (which was very likely), you would have been taken to one the various “Killing Fields” and would most likely be killed with a pickaxe, so that they did not waste any bullets.

By the time they were overthrown during a Vietnamese invasion, the Cambodian life expectancy was about 18 years old.

As bad as rulers such as Saddam Hussein, Idi Amin and Mao Zedong were for their people, I believe no one was as brutal as Pol Pot was.

I feel like their motto put it best:

To spare you is no profit, to destroy you is no loss.

WTF in the USA

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/x8F8pCJ50sc?feature=share

What disgusting thing at work made you quit your job?

This doesn’t qualify as disgusting, but many years ago, I was involved with an Internet startup. They spent all of their time having meetings which achieved nothing, and were a complete waste of everybody’s time. One day, I was asked, no told, by the CEO to prepare a lengthy report on something that I considered ridiculous. I wrote 3 pages of it, and then decided to see what would happen if I didn’t finish it off, so I added 35 more pages of Loren Ipsum (Latin), and handed the report in. At the next meeting when everybody was present, I made a point of asking the CEO if the report was what he had wanted. He said “Yes, it was great”. I stood up, and told the entire room that this very important report that I had handed in, and which the CEO thought was great, actually contained 35 pages of Latin, proving that he hadn’t actually looked at it. I said “I quit”, and walked out of the door. The company went belly up 6 months later.

What’s an unforgettable statement that your boss told you?

My wife had disappeared forever, and my boss knew that the ground was very cold. He also knew that my car was gone, and my house was under debate. Money gone as well.

And in the middle of that struggle, he entered my office without knocking, and stated that I would have to move into the (smaller) office of a young colleague with severe psychiatric issues, whom he hated just like he hated me. When I asked him why I had to move (since we had plenty of room in our department), he stated with a smile:

“Because I said it — that’s why.”

He also said with the same smile that he was to chair my next HR committee soon, and that I could basically forget about my future. He said the same thing to the woman with the psychiatric problems.

He called us “the goofballs.”

But he forgot about the one thing he could not control nor understand, and that even we — the goofballs in that tiny office which leaked water during rain showers — understood. The secret force he tried to capture, because he did not understand how the goofballs kept coping with his constant harassing and mental torture.

And I will also never forget his expression when he was finally fired — that final sight.

Because the answer for him was darkness.

While for us, it was the light.

Meanwhile in Texas

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/J6LJraOdgOc?feature=share

What is the most disgusting trick to ever be used by a police officer?

I don’t know if it was disgusting, but it was rather a unique trick. I used this a couple of times on drug dealers.

When I worked undercover in narcotics I would be asked to buy street-dealer weight in either cocaine or Heroin. The designer drugs weren’t around yet and this new stuff called crack was just making its way onto the market.

One problem every undercover faced was the hand to hand delivery of the drugs. During the actual purchase, you needed to be able to testify that you gave the money directly to the seller and they directly handed you the drugs. ( AKA hand to hand purchase).

Drug dealers were wise to this. When an informant would introduce me to the seller they would take the money but they would only give the drugs to the informant and not to me directly.

I couldn’t testify that I got the drugs from the informant. That would require me to identify the informant and have them testify. No way I would do that. So I came up with a cool little trick.

I would give the dealer the money and he would pass the drugs off to the informant who gave them to me. I would look at the package and say it was light (not the correct weight) and throw the package back directly to the dealer saying I wanted my money back. Drug dealers are not in the business of giving out refunds.

I’d move in close seemingly to get my money back, but we’d talk a little and I would agree to the light package if he would agree the next package would be a little overweight.

As soon as the dealer agreed, I’d reach out and take the package back directly from the dealer, sometimes almost pulling it out of his hands, thus completing a hand to hand transaction.

We would let the case sit for six months before we made the arrest, so they would not remember what informant walked me in. But my little hand to hand trick worked every time.

If we compare with real American and Chinese people, are Chinese people smarter than real American people?

I mean..this American senator keep on asking if Chew Sou Zi (the Tiktok CEO) is a Chinese citizen and a member of Chinese Communist Party even though the CEO keep repeatedly answering that he is a Singaporean citizen !

That senator apparently:

1.Could not tell the difference between China and Singapore.

2. Doesn’t know that Singapore is not a part of China.

3.Doesn’t know that a Singaporean person is not allowed to have a dual citizenship.

4.Doesn’t have a clue that only a Chinese citizen could become a member of Chinese Communist Party ( I’m not sure about USA, maybe in the US, a non citizen could become a member of senate?)

5. He probably doesn’t even know where the heck Singapore is!!!

And the fact is, he is a SENATOR ! He represents the people in america ! He went to Harvard, therefore he’s one of america’s best and brightest! He’s a decision maker!

Can you imagine the level of intelligence of the ordinary americans?

I was relief that the senator did not asking the CEO “have you ever ordered a Chinese takeout”?.

Italian Stuffed Meat Loaf

Ingredients

Meat Loaf

1 pound lean ground beef
1 cup oats
1 (15 1/2 ounce) jar spaghetti sauce, divided
1/2 cup chopped onion
1/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1 egg, slightly beaten
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
1 teaspoon pepper

Filling

1/3 cup of any one or all of the following: sliced mushrooms, sliced ripe olives, shredded mozzarella cheese, shredded zucchini

Topping

1/2 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
Ripe olives, sliced

Instructions

Heat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease an 8-inch square baking pan.
For meat loaf, combine ground beef, oats, 1/2 cup spaghetti sauce, onion, Parmesan cheese, egg, Worcestershire sauce and pepper; mix well. Separate mixture into two equal parts. Shape each into a patty about 7 inches in diameter. Place filling on one patty to within 1/2 inch of edge. Place in prepared pan.
Bake for 45 to 50 minutes or until meat is done.
Top loaf with remaining spaghetti sauce and mozzarella cheese. Garnish with olives.

Which kid lost his life because parents were hell bent to teach him a lesson?

So, we’ve got Liam Ashley, a 17-year-old dude from New Zealand who made a serious mistake. He took his parents’ car for a joyride without their permission. Yeah, not the smartest move in the book, my friend.

But here’s where things get real messed up. Liam’s parents, instead of just giving him a good old-fashioned grounding or some crap, decided to press criminal charges against him. They wanted to teach him a lesson, right? So they denied the poor guy bail, thinking that sending him to prison would fix everything.

Now, I get it, parents wanna straighten out their kids, but come on! Liam had some minor run-ins with the law before, nothing too serious. And for that, they wanna throw him behind bars? Talk about overreacting, man.

But here’s the real tragedy. While Liam was being transported in a prison van, some dangerous psycho attacked him. And I ain’t talking about a friendly game of patty cake, my friend. Liam was brutally assaulted and, tragically, he didn’t make it. It’s a heartbreaking ending to a messed-up situation.

Ashley was killed by George Charlie Baker, a classified dangerous criminal, who strangled and stomped on the boy. Liam sustained severe brain injuries and his family decided to remove him from life support the next day. Baker was given an 18 year sentence!

I mean, seriously, what the f**k? Liam’s parents thought they were doing the right thing, but their actions led to their own son’s death. It’s a harsh reminder that sometimes, people’s intentions can be all kinds of messed up, and the consequences can be devastating.

Have you or anyone you heard of walked out of a job interview, and why?

Yea I did. I was interviewing for a part time job in a small, higher end chain women’s clothing store. I just wanted a few hours a week in a nice atmosphere. This weeks to be the place. Then as I was doing my last interview with the store manager, she started telling me about the hourly sales requirements. Woman, what are you talking about? Well, the first hour you had to sell, say $10 worth of accessories. The second jour V higher dollar value, and it went in up to 8 hours and by the eighth hour you had to sell $50 worth of stuff. By the hour! She’s been very nice and told me she’d never seen such glowing recommendations from previous employees, she’d actually talked to them. So at the news of the hard sell requirement I was sitting there with it mouth agape in shock, I said, I’m 52, months his is a part time job I thought would be enjoyable, you just made it despicable, sorry, I’m not interested. It was a good thing, I found a job in a chain fabric store, they had about 200 stores nationwide, our store was very small, about 3500 square feet, but we worked our way up to a million dollars in sales so it was busy, fun and I loved it until the store manager stopped caring and was a pain in the butt. I loved to see, knit, crochet and do other fiber crafts. We sold fabric, yarn, lots of supplies for other crafts. And people were buying all of our supplies. But it went downhill, I left after 12 years and 18!years after I started they went out of business. It was sad, I couldn’t buy a sewing machine needle there at the end because the selection went from 20 types and sizes to 4 basic needles. And that was with everything.

JEFFREY SACHS FULL INTERVIEW ABOUT CHINA – U.S RIVALRY CONTINUE ? AND MORE

Oh my God. A deep madness.

https://youtu.be/cVYtF3HVSXY

Subtle Change in Ukraine Blame Means Deadly Trouble for Americans

World Hal Turner

OPINION-EDITORIAL — A very subtle change in the words coming out of the Russian Foreign Ministry signals the FINAL step before the annihilation of the United States. We have now reached the final step . . .

The wording used by the Russian Foreign Ministry was very subtle, but its implications are anything but. See if you can pick-up the subtle change in this excerpt from RT:

The US and its citizens are complicit in the deaths of the Ukrainian POWs who were killed last week when the Russian Il-76 military aircraft transporting them was shot down by Kiev’s troops, Moscow’s Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, Maria Zakharova, has said.

On Thursday, Russia’s Investigative Committee released a report stating that the cargo plane was destroyed using two US-made MIM-104A missiles fired by a Patriot air-defense system. The Il-76 came down in Russia’s Belgorod Region last Wednesday. All of those on board – 65 Ukrainian POWs, three Russian troops, and six crew members – were killed.

Russian investigators stated that Ukrainian troops fired the missiles from a staging area in Kharkov Region, not far from the village of Liptsy, some 10km from the Russian border. They based their conclusion on 116 missile fragments found at the crash site bearing inscriptions in English.

Responding to the report, Zakharova said in a Telegram post that US citizens “need to know where their money is going,” arguing that President Joe Biden and his administration have made Americans “complicit in a bloody tragedy.”

Did you catch it? Did you pick up the subtle change in the language they used? It’s right there in front of you!

Here, let me focus it for you:

“The US and its citizens are complicit in the deaths of the Ukrainian POWs . . .”

Then again, in a later paragraph:

” . . .arguing that President Joe Biden and his administration have made Americans “complicit in a bloody tragedy.” “”

This tiny and subtle change points the finger not just at the US Government, it also points the finger at . . . . YOU. And me! Individually. Personally.

This is a point I have made repeatedly on my radio shows in the past two years. I have earnestly pointed out that what our GOVERNMENT does, is being done IN OUR NAME.

Remember, this nation celebrates Abraham Lincoln’s famous Gettysburg Address wherein he posited that we have “Government of the people, by the people, and for the people.”

Ergo, when the US Government does something, it does it in OUR name. You and me.

The Russians have now made clear who it is they hold responsible for what the US Government is doing: YOU and ME.

You see, we . . . . you and me . . . . ARE in fact, to blame!

We sit back and do nothing while our government runs roughshod over the whole world. Sanctions on this one and that one. Military action here. Military action there. And whenever our Government engage in that activity, people we don’t know, in lands we’ve never been to or maybe haven’t even heard of . . . . die.

Oh, and while our government is doing all this crap to people all over the world, you and I sit back and do . . . . nothing. We don’t make a phone call to our members of Congress or the Senate. We don’t write a letter or send a fax. We don’t even fire-off an email. We sit on our asses and do absolutely . . . . nothing.

The Russians are now making clear it is YOU and I who are doing this. YOU and I who are to blame. Directly. Personally.

You know what? They’re right.

WE are to blame. We elect these people then sit back and tacitly approve of what they’re doing by our own, personal inaction. They slaughter people all over the world. They bomb countries back into the Stone Age. You and I sit back and do absolutely nothing. Or worse, we sing idiotic Beach Boys Parody songs like “Bomb Bomb Bomb, Bomb Bomb Iran . . . .” as if somehow what we’re doing is good. It isn’t.

A Russian guy I know cited US Senator Lindsey Graham the other day to make a very valid point to me. He showed me what Lindsey Graham, posted on “X” (formerly Twitter) wherein he said the following:

Then the Russian guy asked me “What if some member of the Russian Federation COuncil (i.e. a Russian “Senator”) Posted this exact message on VKontake (Russian Social Media) only changed the countries involved, like this FAKE SAMPLE:

FAKE RUSSIA SENATOR

In case the Putin Administration is wondering, it is abundantly clear to the United States and everyone else in the region, that the Administration doesn’t want war. But it will be difficult to tell the families of the fallen soldiers that the United States is not at war with us.

The United States is at war with Russia on multiple fronts through their proxies (Ukraine). Weak talk and weak action are putting our service members [in Ukraine], at risk. If the United States doesn’t pay a heavy price after the deaths of our service members, and the wounding of many more, then the Putin Administration is derelict in their duties to protect Russian personnel in harm’s way.

To the Putin Administration: Stop the weak rhetoric and respond with strength to protect Russian interests and lives. Your current approach to United States/NATO aggression is not working. Change while you can.”

Same words as Lindsey Graham. Same logic.

So I have to ask YOU, the Reader, if Lindsey Grahams words about Iran are good enough to warrant the US attacking Iran, would the FAKE Russian Senator’s exact same words about Ukraine, justify Russia hitting us?

Why not. Same situation!

You see, this is a big problem for my fellow Americans. We view the world as being ours to do with as we please. We never once stop to think how other powerful nations, might decide to use OUR logic, when dealing with . . . . us.

Now, some of you will react by saying “They wouldn’t dare.” Oh no? Why not?

And you would respond “Because we would nuke the living shit out of them.”

Really?

Because they can also do that to us.

Oh.

Yes.

Reality sets in.

And those same reactionary Americans who would say “They wouldn’t dare” would then likely say “They won’t, it would mean the end of the world.”

Yes. It would. And we would have done it to ourselves by the way we are behaving around the world.

Why should Russia sit back and allow us to supply arms to Ukraine, which are now clearly being used to kill Russians?

Why shouldn’t Russia tell the United States (again) to stop supplying weapons that are killing Russians and then add, or Russia will start hitting the United States?

Why shouldn’t Russia make it direct? Blunt?

Well . . . . turns out, they just began making it blunt. At the top of this Op-Ed, they have now begun blaming “American citizens.” You and me.

Where is this leading? Let me explain it this way:

What is the difference between “Killing” and “murder?”

Murder is the unlawful killing of an innocent. But “Killing” is allowable if it is “justified.”

For instance, if a guy is aiming a gun at you, and you do something which kills him, that is “self defense” and not murder, even though the guy is now dead.

So there is a difference between killing and murder. One may be allowed while the other is not.

Same thing with countries.

The U.S. is supplying weapons for Ukraine to use to kill Russians. Russia has repeatedly told the US and NATO to stop, but we are not stopping. ERGO, it would be “justified” for Russia to kill us in self defense.

Thankfully, the Russians have good morals and they know that perhaps the innocent American people ought not be harmed because of our evil government. SO thus far, they have not killed us.

I think the change in Russian Foreign Ministry wording mentioned at the start of this Op-Ed, tells us that’s about to change.

The official Diplomatic Corps of the Russian Federation is now openly, and publicly, laying the blame for the deaths of Russians, upon “the American people.” Me and you.

Having repeatedly told us to stop, the only thing left for Russia to do is to make us stop – by killing us.

The Russian Foreign Ministry has now begun laying the historical groundwork to justify exactly that.

By changing their statements to lay blame upon “the American people” they are building a record to justify killing . . . us.

Wise-up folks.

Unless we reign-in our wayward government, and stop them from running roughshod over the whole world, you and I __can__ be held accountable. You and I __can__ be stopped.

The clock seems to be ticking.

Now, you can either step up and start being an active and engaged citizen, and start telling your elected public servants to knock it off, or you can go right back to sitting on your ass and doing nothing until the brilliant white flashes start. Then you can feel sorry for yourself as you vaporize, except God already knows: You brought this on yourself by not getting off your lazy ass and stopping your own government while you still could.

No pity for you and me.

Have you ever seen a workplace bully picking the wrong target? What happened?

Kevin is the gentlest man I’ve ever known, and we go back nearly four decades. He’s tall, well-built, and strong, yet he talks with a soft voice and always speaks kindly.

Kevin worked in a small, cramped Capitol Hill office with a Class A bully. This guy continually said nasty things to his colleagues. He was especially abusive to the women and, because of his kind demeanor, Kevin was one of the favorite targets. A bully loves attacking anyone s/he perceives to be weak.

One day, Kevin had enough. During a verbal attack, Kevin jumped up, grabbed this guy by the lapels, and pulled him from his desk chair. He then pushed the guy against a wall and put his face very close. Kevin told the guy that he could shut up, immediately, or that Kevin would shut his mouth for him. Kevin went on to explain that there’d be no more office abuse; if the behavior happened again, the consequences would be much more severe.

The guy turned bright red, then ghostly white. He had nothing to say. He sat down and spent the rest of the day looking terrified and shaking uncontrollably. He never bullied anyone again, and he left his job shortly after. Nobody was sorry to see him go.’

My 23-year-old son got a DUI last night and is asking for me to help financially. I can but I want him to learn his lesson. What should I do?

I’m going to give you a different perspective.

It was Dec 1982. I had just turned 16 in October. My two friends and I were walking home from the Christmas dance at the high school when I was hit by a drunk driver. She was driving home from a company Christmas party. I was the one closest to the street on the sidewalk and somehow she clipped me without hitting either of my friends. Best we can figure, I rolled up the windshield and off the side of her car.

I was knocked unconscious and woke up laying facedown on the street. People were already gathered by me, holding me down, telling me not to move. I was terrified that they knew something about my “condition” that I didn’t know. Fortunately, I had only minor injuries and a concussion. Sprained pinky finger, road-rash scrapes over the whole right side of my body from my ear to my knee, swollen knee and elbow, and that pesky concussion. No doubt, I was lucky.

Then there was another little “gift” that I didn’t realize I had for years. PTSD. I had to quit the school wrestling team after I had a panic attack and blacked out during practice. In the first few months after, I literally dove into bushes and onto lawns when I heard sharp sounds behind me – tires squealing, engine revving, door slamming – all sent me flying away from the road. I would get up and brush off the leaves while mentally chastising myself for being weak. Eventually, it got to the point where I’d just flinch and not actually leap, and months later where I’d just startle.

This was 1982, before MADD, before strict DUI laws, and in many cases, before any DUI laws. I was told she spent the night in the “drunk tank” and was released the next day. Her insurance paid the medical expenses minus the PTSD therapy because I didn’t know I had that. Insurance also paid for clothing that was torn or cut off, and I believe an additional $600 for “pain and suffering.” My PTSD lasted over two years.

I never drink and drive. Because I know the real cost. Because I know I got a small dose and some families pay a much larger cost. Because I couldn’t imagine sitting in a cell knowing I killed someone.

Evolution

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/UAih8qZnbsM?feature=share

Have you ever caught a police officer lying in court?

Yes, as a 16 year old!

I had my fairly new license and was driving my parents car when a deer darted out in front of me. I swerved and put the car into a ditch. Not hurt.

I find a phone and call a tow truck. Get back to the car and there is a police car there. I explained I’d stayed with the car for 15 minutes but knew there was a gas station nearby.

He gives me a ticket for speeding because in his opinion that’s the only way this could have happened.

Now this is a small municipal court for traffic tickets. My license was from my parents home 3 hours away. He was expecting me to just mail in the fine rather than contest it. He approached me before court to “refresh his memory about the event” and naively I did. He gets called and testifies that I was speeding.

So, I asked him where he was when the accident happened and was able to witness me speeding. He said he passed me going in the opposite direction.

So, I asked: if you saw me speeding in the opposite direction & saw me wreck my car, why did I have to walk 20 minutes to the phone, call police headquarters to report the accident, and walk back before you wrote the ticket?

The judge stopped things at that point & dismissed the charges.

What was the one incident in your life when you knew in an instant that your life was about to change? What did you do and how are things now?

One morning as I was waking up, I looked at my 27 year old wife as she was sleeping and noticed the veins in her neck were throbbing. A few days later she was in the hospital getting excess fluid drained from her pericardium (sac around the heart) that was built up and putting pressure on her heart, and causing the veins to protrude. She had recently recovered from a stomach virus and doctors attributed this to a viral infection.

A few days later, it was happening again. That’s when the whirlwind began. She was put back in the local hospital for tests, within a day sent to John’s Hopkins for more tests, within another day sent right to the oncology unit. Her diagnosis was Angiosarcoma; the tumor was on her heart.

The outlook wasn’t good and I was getting a lot of percentages: “if we do this there’s x percent of this happening and if that happens there’s x percent that we can do this”, etc. I asked to speak with someone who could just tell me what the deal was, what to expect, what the reality of the situation was. They sent the head of oncology to speak with me, and I’ll never forget it:

“The tumor is on her heart…we can’t just remove the tumor because of the location, and because angiosarcoma has an almost liquid consistency operating is rarely successful. It’s extremely aggressive and once it gets into the bloodstream, if it hasn’t already, will spread throughout her body. You’ve asked me to be completely frank with you about your wife’s condition, and because you asked I am going to honor your request: the reality of the situation is that your wife is going to die, and the life you had together as you know it is over. It could be within six months, or because of the pressure on her heart she could go into cardiac arrest at any time. Now, I’m an aggressive realist, which means I’m going to aggressively try to change the reality of the situation. But the fact is that if this kind of cancerous tumor appeared in her leg, we would immediately amputate, and she would still not survive more than two years”.

He was right.

Leftists need to learn

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/XRjVNiv0M5M?feature=share

Ukraine – The Power Scuffle Continues

The scuffle in Kiev over replacing the Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine General Valeri Zaluzny continues.

CNN reports that he will be fired within the next 48 hours.

Zelensky set to announce dismissal of Ukraine’s top commander within days as rift grows over war, source says – CNN, Jan 31, 2024

This will not go down well with the electorate and, moreover, with the soldiers of the Ukrainian forces:

A poll published by the Kyiv Institute of Sociology in December found 88% of Ukrainians supported the top general. Zelensky’s approval rating, though also high, was considerably lower at 62%.

Or, as the Washington Post provides:

It is far from clear that any new commander will be able to improve Ukraine’s difficult situation on the battlefield without significantly more forces and weapons — precisely what Zaluzhny has demanded of Zelensky, adding tension to what was already a fraying relationship.

Zaluzhny’s popularity — both within the military and among ordinary citizens — makes his removal a political gamble for Zelensky. It also poses strategic risks at a time when Russia has intensified its attacks and Western security assistance for Kyiv has slowed. The general has built strong rapport with his Western counterparts and has often been able to advocate directly for certain materiel and seek counsel on battlefield strategy.
…
Both Budanov and Syrsky are considered favorites of Zelensky and Andriy Yermak, the chief of the presidential office and Zelensky’s closest adviser. Nearer the front, however, there seems to be little appetite for change.

“My personal opinion is you can’t do something like this right now — Zaluzhny is someone 80 percent of the military considers a good authority,” said Oleksandr, a battalion commander fighting in eastern Ukraine.

“For what is he being removed? It’s not clear. And who will replace him? Syrsky? God, I hope not. No one in the army likes Syrsky,” Oleksandr added.

The German boulevard broadsheet Bild names one of the plausible reasons for the current conflict:

The Bild publication writes that Zaluzhny wanted to withdraw troops from Avdiivka a few weeks ago, but Zelensky refused him this and on December 30 he personally went to the city to the front line to support the Ukrainian Armed Forces fighters.

So all the coffins that arrived from near Avdeevka to Ukraine since December 30 are solely on the conscience of Zelensky and his passion for narcissism.

Avdeevka is nearly surrounded and any attempts to hold onto it will cost many valuable lives of soldiers for no discernible advantage. But, just like with Bakhmut, Zelenski wants to hold on to the city to be be able point his western sponsors to some ‘successes’.

My hunch is that, after Monday’s kerfuffle in Kiev, the decision to fire Zaluzny was still hanging in balance.

The change now only happened after the noeconservative destroyer of Ukraine, Victoria Nuland, had landed in Kiev.

She made some awkward predictions:

When asked by a journalist whether Nuland had learned about Kyiv’s plans on the battlefield, she replied that, in her opinion, Ukraine would achieve great success.

“I have to say that I leave Kyiv tonight more encouraged about the unity and the resolve, about 2024 and its absolute strategic importance for Ukraine. I also leave more confident that, even as Ukraine strengthens its defenses, Mr. Putin is going to get some nice surprises on the battlefield and that Ukraine will make some very strong success,” the U.S. Under Secretary of State emphasized.

This hint does not foresee success on the ground but asymmetric operations within Russia or the Black Sea. More to the like of this which has happen last night:

Ukraine sinks Russian ship.

During a night attack by drones in the Donuzlav area, the Black Sea Fleet lost the Ivanovets MRK, built in 1989, 493 tons of displacement, armed with Moskit missiles.

Sinking that ship will do nothing to change the outcome at the battlefront. Nor would any attacks on Russia oil and gas infrastructure change anything.

Nuland’s remark also hints that the replacement of General Zaluzny will not come in the form of Army General Alexander Syrski, who is disliked by the troops for unsuccessfully holding grounds in Bakhmut and elsewhere at too high costs in men and material.

Nuland’s hint towards asymmetric operations points to the elevation of the Chief of Military Intelligence Directorate Major-General Kyrylo Budanov as a incoming replacement for Zaluzny.

Budanov has been responsible for some daring, if mostly unsuccessful, terror attacks on Russian land and interests.

Back in June 2023 the Economist explained why Zelenski might seek to elevate Bundanov:

Aides huddle close when the general speaks. Under his leadership, Ukraine’s main directorate of intelligence—HUR—has become a plucky, autonomous authority that punches above its weight. It resembles a gang. “Before we had managers, now we have a leader,” says one veteran officer. Oleg, an operative who has known General Budanov for decades, speaks approvingly of his ability to infect others with his fervour, comparing him to a snake “hypnotising you before he comes in for the kill. Restrained, measured, never panicked. You do anything he asks.”
…
As a confidant of the president—those in government call them kindred spirits—General Budanov is understood to be playing an ever-bigger role in behind-the-scenes peace negotiations. Sources say he is a conduit to secret talks with the Chinese, and he has also been in contact with Yevgeny Prigozhin, the leader of Russia’s mercenary Wagner outfit.

In conversation it is clear that General Budanov has been thinking hard about post-war Ukraine. Last winter there was talk of him becoming defence minister. He insists his only ambition is victory. Yet secret polls conducted by Mr Zelensky’s office show they are thinking about using the cult of their hero spymaster to counterbalance a perceived rivalry emanating from Valery Zaluzhny, Ukraine’s likeable and independent commander-in-chief. General Budanov’s colleagues say they are convinced he is destined for a big political role once peace comes—if he lives that long.

To the TV producers (Yermak) around the former comedian actor Zelenski it is all about ratings.

Budanov may be good at marketing his image as a successful terrorist.

But he has zero experience of leading any size of unit in combat. You can not lead a company, battalion, brigade or army by ‘huddling close’ with aides. It needs long term strategic thinking just as detailed attention to all kinds of day to day logistics.

Leading an army is like conducting a huge orchestra through a four year long Wagner epos. Having played the first fiddle in a chamber quartet does not qualify for that.

I am sure that U.S. military is not happy about this move. While there were some disagreements with Zaluzny about the right strategies those were between military professional who allowed for diverting opinions. Zaluzny was seen as an experienced professional soldier. Budanov is seen as a spook who had never been in command of any real military. He well not be talked to at the same level.

When Zaluzny goes the experienced people in his staff are likely to follow:

According to one source, Zaluzhnyi’s senior staff are also expected to be removed from their positions.

With the new inexperienced leadership the situation on the ground will soon become a catastrophic mess for forces of Ukraine. There will be wrong priorities, miss-allocations of resources and large scale losses of men and ground.

On the other side terror attacks on Russian targets, industrial equipment as well as population centers, are likely to sharply increase.

The larger U.S. aim of all this, first announced as a 2019 RAND study, is still unchanged:

Overextending and Unbalancing Russia – RAND, 2019

The study at that time recommended the arming of Ukrainian’s army as the best way to unbalance Russia. We have since seen the escalation of that strategy. The move from the battlefield to the realm of terror is a response to the degradation of the first by empathizing the psychological effects of the second.

The foreseeable outcome though is unchanged. Ukraine will be smashed, Russia’s power will increase and the global view of the U.S. as a reliable partner will be diminished.

Posted by b on February 1, 2024 at 14:48 UTC | Permalink

How strict was the dress code of the strictest company you’ve ever worked for?

One of the first casinos I ever worked in had a policy that you had to wear black pants, a tuxedo shirt, a bow tie, black dress shoes, and black socks. The only thing they didn’t demand was the colour of your underwear (as long as a bra couldn’t be seen under your white shirt). The bosses were so strict that “uniform checks” were part of the norm – every couple of days a delegated supervisor would check everyone to see that they were wearing the right clothing. What stood out to me was when they’d ask you to pull up the leg of your pants to check your socks – sometimes both legs… just to make sure both socks matched and we’re all black (no stripes at the top).

This particular casino was an anomaly in the industry – it was many years ago and a small place so they didn’t have security cameras – none! One day I was on a game that required two dealers to operate and it happened that he was one of my best friends. There were no patrons in the casino at all – not unusual for an early day shift there. An older female supervisor came around announcing a “sock check”. I looked at my friend, he looked at me, we both unbuckled our belts and let our pants drop to the floor exposing the tops of our socks.

Neither of us ever had a sock check again.

No, we weren’t fired either… there was nobody in the casino at the time and the older female supervisor was a very nice lady with a great sense of humour – she (of course) told us to never do it again and almost stayed red-faced for the rest of the shift.

Is American JEALOUS of China?! YES! This is Why…

https://youtu.be/DmkP2a8TSUg

Positive Tiktok

How dhttps://www.youtube.com/shorts/oKytU_M2hag?feature=share

Did you foil or dodge someone else’s attempt to cheat or deceive you?

I exposed a huge scam by my local gas distributor (cooking gas).

This is a typical cooking gas cylinder in India.

As you can see (not very clearly though), on the neck of the cylinder, net weight and gross weight are clearly mentioned.

Recently, I read an article in ‘The Hindu’ that revealed that a lot of gas agencies/distributors/delivery persons in India are stealing cooking gas. They take out about 1–2 kg of gas from each cylinder and sell it separately in black. The loss in weight is too small for an unsuspecting buyer to notice. But in terms of money, this translates into a loss of about 60 INR per cylinder. The article cautioned everybody to get their gas cylinders weighed before paying the delivery person (Delivery persons are mandated to carry a portable weighing scale along with them by the Govt.)

At first I laughed it off. My agency was trusted. It would never do that. But then on a whim, I decided to try it out. When the next cylinder was delivered to my home, I casually asked the delivery boy to weigh it. The color on his face instantly changed. He started stammering, started insisting that there was no need for this because the bond of trust we shared! I immediately grew suspicious. I pressed him. He then started making excuses that he forgot to bring along his portable weighing-scale.

Luckily, I had my own weighing scale at home. I immediately brought it out and weighed the cylinder myself. The gross weight printed on the cylinder was 29.5 kg, whereas the scale read 27 kg. A difference of bloody 2.5 kgs.

The delivery boy started begging me not to register a complaint against him. And that he wouldn’t repeat the mistake ever again.

Apparently, this is a huge scam going on all over India. If you are reading this answer, please get your gas cylinder duly weighed before paying for it.

What is the weirdest you have come across as a lawyer?

Once, many years ago, as a young lawyer, I was asked to help a family member, a crazy uncle, with his disability case. He was literally homeless, living on the street and crazy beyond description. His grip on reality was severely distorted, he was schizophrenic and had lost his job as a NYC sanitation worker.

Surely, you can get him SOME benefits to live on? This was the family’s charge to me as a brand new baby lawyer. Help Uncle X! He’s desperate. You gotta do this.

Okay, I’ll give it a try. How do you say no to something like that? I had never handled a disability case and really had no idea where to start. So, let’s start with interviewing the client and see what he can tell me. I didn’t expect much in the way of cooperation from a man who I knew was thoroughly and completely insane and off his rocker. I had heard the family stories.

I set up an appointment, nevertheless, and I prayed to God for wisdom to help me save this man from roaming half-naked on the streets of NY. I figured it might even be a public service.

One fine day he did actually show up in my office. At the time, I was working for an older gentleman lawyer who had a massively busy local general practice, the type you really don’t see anymore and before the days of “legal specialization.” This office truly tried to handle EVERYTHING! It was great experience.

The waiting room was full of people in need of one form of legal advice or another when my prospective client showed up. As I greeted him in the office full of these other waiting clients the first words literally out of his mouth are “Hi, you have nice lips!” Lol. Oh boy, this was going to be a real experience. I quickly and quietly shuffled him off to my basement office so we could get to work. My office didn’t even have a window.

Well, my client had brought a sheaf of disorganized, crumpled papers and, after organizing and unfolding them I started reading them. They consisted of his employment file and the stated reasons for his termination. He was quite literally unfit for employment. His record consisted of bizarre hallucinations, reports of “voices” and other strange phenomenon which he was experiencing which rendered him totally unfit for any gainful employment. There were also stacks of medical records indicating that he was suffering from a severe mental disorder (which was nothing but obvious to anyone spending one minute in his presence). He was very much totally out of his mind.

I felt sorry for him. I knew he would qualify for Social Security Disability benefits and would also be entitled to a sizable retroactive payment. All we had to do was apply and possibly have a hearing. I was confident I could win it. I started preparing the application, starting with the claim for “disability based on mental illness.”

Well, my uncle/client took one look at the application and said (I swear that I’m not making this up) “my disability is for hemorrhoids, not that!”). I was astonished! I expected anything but resistance. What was your disability?

HEMORRHOIDS!

Well, the medical records clearly stated that he DID have hemorrhoids but that was hardly his disability or his reason for not being able to work. The records were replete with references to paranoid schizophrenia and wild hallucinations. THAT was the problem, not hemorrhoids!

I tried to persuade him. I tried to convince him to proceed but he became agitated and uncooperative. Finally, he grabbed his papers and ran out of my office. I couldn’t stop him. He was gone.

My aunt, his sister, wanted to know how we did. I told her that the case went nowhere and that he was uncooperative. Back on the streets he went for another year or so. I couldn’t help him since he wouldn’t cooperate.

Then something amazing happened (after about a year). He returned to my office, looking for help, insisting once again that his HEMORRHOIDS were his difficulty. This time I agreed.

I applied for Social Security Disability ON THE BASIS OF HEMORRHOIDS. Of course, we were going to be denied but I had an idea brewing in my young lawyer head. Let’s see if this works.

After receiving the expected denial of our application I filed an appeal and asked for a hearing with a judge. It was granted as a routine matter, as I knew it would be. Now what to do?

Well, the date of the hearing arrived and we went to court in Brooklyn. I showed up with my uncle and the case was called. The judge (I still remember his name!) looked at the hearing application and said “this is an application for disability benefits based on…. what? Hemorrhoids? Really? Okay, counsel proceed.” He was shaking his head in disbelief the entire time he said this.

I politely asked the judge to exclude my client from the room. He looked at me and said “young man, this is a most unusual request.” Yes, judge but I have my reasons. “Okay,” he said, “please exclude the claimant from the courtroom. This had better be good, counselor!”

Oh, it’s gonna be good. I promise!

As soon as my uncle left the courtroom I gushed “judge, this guy is my uncle and he’s completely nuts.” I then proceeded to tell him the entire story and told him that the real claim was for mental illness disability but the client wouldn’t let me proceed on that basis, insisting that his hemorrhoids were the issue. The judge seemed to understand.

“Okay, bring the claimant back into the courtroom. You may inquire, counselor.”

I stood up and literally asked my client ONE QUESTION. It was truly only one question… no more. I said “Uncle X, please tell the judge what’s bothering you.” Then I sat down fully knowing what was coming next.

For the next ten minutes, until the judge could no longer stand it, the client rambled about “wires being crossed” and “Ring Dings and Yankee Doodles” and how the police were stalking him and many other bizarre and colorful statements. It was very clear that his grip on reality was non-existent. I doubt he could have told you who the President was at the time or what month it was. After hearing enough, the judge stopped him, clearly having heard enough to realize this wasn’t a put on, or a fraud. It would have actually been funny if it wasn’t so sad.

“Decision reserved,” the judge said and dismissed us from his court. I left feeling confident.

A few weeks later we got a decision granting 100% disability to my uncle with a retroactive payment of over forty thousand dollars plus monthly benefits of about $2500 for life, plus Medicare. It was a grand slam win! I was a family hero.

Years later I ran into the judge on the street outside the courts. I greeted him and thanked him for his help and understanding. He told me “I will never forget that case… It was textbooks!”

Yeah, for sure.

Am I a Traitor to My Motherland?

https://youtu.be/nAJhWEuAhuM

What is the strangest reaction of someone who has just been fired?

Not exactly fired, but we thought it was a great reaction.

After a recent merger between two rather large companies, it was necessary to reduce personnel, so each department was asked to cut staffing by a certain percentage.

To encourage volunteers, management offered to give a full week worth of salary and paid medical benefits for each full year a person had worked at the company if they took early retirement. And anyone who qualified for a pension also got the full pension as if they had not retired early.

One member of our team was about 14 months away from his planned retirement date when he would start receiving full Social Security and pension payments.

He had worked for the company for 45 years. After some simple math, we all strongly encouraged him to take the deal.

He got 45 weeks of full pay, a whole year of benefits coverage (negotiated with HR), his full pension, and they also bought out the almost two months of accrued vacation time that he had been saving up in order to retire a few months early.

He basically got a 12+ month paid vacation with full benefits. We will be having a retirement party for him on his original planned retirement date in a couple of months. 😀

I imagine that wasn’t what management had in mind when they made the offer, but everyone on our team was very happy for him to get it!

In the restaurant industry, what are some of the most outrageous complaints you’ve heard customers make?

When I worked as a commis chef in a 5-star hotel, we had some guy come in and eat on his own, which was a bit unusual. He ordered some expensive food, but strangely finished with a starter which involved some salad. A waiter came through shortly after serving the salad to tell me that the customer was complaining as he’d found a slug in his salad, so I went out to speak with him. I explained to him that I was terribly sorry, but it just was not possible. The man was being quite rude with me, but I maintained my calm and he demanded to speak with the head chef.

The head chef came out and apologised to the man and stated that the slug was not in the salad when it was served to him. The man became outraged and the implication that he was a liar and asked how we could be so sure. The head chef said “If you would please follow me sir. There’s something I would like you to see.” The man stood up, shaking his head looking a bit smug. He seemed adamant that there was nothing we could do that would ever change his mind or prove that he put the slug there. As the head chef and I led him into the kitchen, the head chef explained the sections of the kitchen as he passed through and their function. Finally, he reached the garnish section on the other side of the kitchen and pointed. “We put the lettuce for your salad through this machine. We call this ‘a shredder’”

The man took a little time to think, clearly realising that there was just no way anything short of a small bug could have made it through there alive, and started to look a little panicked. He then started to grow embarrassed by the second, and finally apologised profusely. He said that he did not have the money to pay for the meal. As we called the police, he suddenly remembered that he did have the money and paid for the meal in cash. We never saw him again.

The Duran: NATO Crossed Putin’s Red Line and Russia is Ready to FINISH It

https://youtu.be/-Q4iDLhUjuk

What is the greatest lie ever told?

Rich people : Money can’t buy happiness.
Boy: I’ll come home in just 5 minutes.
Girl: Wait!! I’ll be ready in just 10 minutes.
Coaching Institutes : You are all are now a part of one of the best institutes of this city.
Parents : Son, It is the hardwork of a just a couple of years, after that your life will be set.
Mother in law to daughter in law : You’re like my own daughter.
Everybody : I’m fine.
Company : Our product is no. 1
When relatives give you money and then your parents/grandparents say : “Let me keep the money right now, take it from me whenever you need it”.
Now the chief guest will say a “few” words.
Complete 10th STD with good marks then take rest.
Complete 12th STD with good marks then life is set.
PCB is easier than PCM.
10th Std and 12th Std are the most important things in life.
If you don’t do anything bad, nothing bad will happen to you.
Swallowing seeds whole will make plants grow in your stomach.
“Maggie in two minutes “…Am I the only one who takes more than 2 minutes ??

18. Everything happens for a reason.

19. We will be friends forever.

20. Complan increases height.

21. If your leg slips when you start from home, something bad is about to happen.

22. If you get hiccups, someone is thinking about you.

23. “ Fair and lovely gives you fairness “…Ohh, may be for 15 minutes or even less ??

24. One day, everything is going to be fine.

25. “ I don’t need upvotes “…Some people write to express but everyone needs upvotes like a form of appreciation or encouragement.

As a housekeeper, what is the most “F-that” situation you’ve had in your career?

Many years ago, while working as a housekeeper, l had one very dirty client that always left notes about what they’d like me to clean that visit.

One week l arrived to a note stating that, they’d like me to clean out the bathroom cupboard.

When l opened the cupboard l found it to be full to overflowing with used sanity pads. The whole cupboard, not one or two. Not half a dozen, but hundreds of uses sanity items. A lifetimes worth.

The note stated…clean out bathroom cupboard and as this was the only cupboard in the room, l empied it and scrubbed it out, only to be met with a nasty phone call the following day stating l should not have thrown out anything. They were being saved. Hmm. Not what the not implied. But sure.

The following visit, another note, please clean out the kitchen party. So l put all like food together, such as 10 or so open packs of pasta together, sauces together, etc, wiped out all the shelves. It looked great.

Yup another phone call. How dare l mix up the food in the cupboards. There were other instances, so l stopped working for them. The house was always filthy and they would never employ me long enough to clean the house completely. It was always left dirty, with just a small area cleaned, which would be very dirty again by next visit.

It wasn’t that it was a messy house, it was filthy to the point of being unsanitary, so l was happy to never go back.l was always worried ld get sick just for being inside there.

So l did, l disposed of

Open conversation

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/LCr9nIvV_BE?feature=share

Did you ever beat up the high school bully in front of everyone?

I got in one fight in my life

I was an odd duck, partly because I spent five years overseas in a private school that catered about 50/50 to children of government workers stationed there and half to people working for various corporations also stationed there, all from English speaking countries looking for a school in English in the middle of Brazil.

Also, in retrospect, partly because I’m on the autism spectrum, although I had no idea that that was the case for some decades to come. Still, I knew, everyone knew, that I was a weirdo.

Well, I got to this new school (it had just been built, because town had expanded so fast that the original school had gotten overcrowded) and of course that meant so had all the other kids. And… I’m reconstructing this, mind you, and it’s just a guess, I’m really not great at understanding how people think, see “Autism” above… they didn’t know what the “pecking order” was. So they settled it with fights. You saw someone weaker than yourself, you beat him up, and that meant you were better than him, or he beat you up and then he was better than you, and it was all sorted.

Except I didn’t want to fight. Had no reason to. Didn’t make any sense to me. Wasn’t afraid, just, well, weirdo.

It seems one kid got it in his head that this was his ticket. If he beat me up, he had it made. So my turning him down, that was maddening. He kept after me about it for weeks. Finally, I agreed. Stay in the classroom when everyone goes to recess. The teacher wasn’t all that good about policing things, it was simple enough for us both to stay behind.

He said “all right, let’s fight!” I asked him “are you sure? I don’t want to fight you. Are you sure?” “Sure” he said. So I picked up one of those desk/chair things and hit him with it. Then I asked him if he wanted to continue. He said no.

Don’t try this. It’s probably “assault with a deadly weapon” now. I guess I’m lucky he didn’t get hurt bad enough for anyone to find out, although in the 1970s I might not have gotten in trouble anyway.

Dad always told me not to fight, but if I had to fight, be sure to win, no rules.

That’s the first and last fight of my life. Maybe word got around? Maybe I just don’t have the look in my eyes of someone you should fight with. It could be the autism, sending weird signals. I don’t know.

That was in 6th grade.

So I never got in a fight in high school, sorry.

Have you ever tried to annoy a scammer who called you? If so, what happened?

No. But may I highlight a dirty trick by a phone soliciter?

I’ll take that as a yes.

A neighbor of mine was a saleman for Sam’s Club. The guy who makes a pitch to your boss, offering a discount to any of his/her employees who’d like the group membership, put on sales presentations at state fairs etc., cold-calling as well.

Then I moved halfway across the state. He calls me one afternoon, disguising his voice and acting as if he’s calling on behalf of some worthless telemarketing offer. Of course I, not recognizing him, utter some choice words before hanging up. He calls me right back, identifies himself and proceeds to ask me why I couldn’t be more polite in declining whatever it is that’s being offered.

I told him why. Said my peace and then we chatted about whatever he had really needed to talk to me about.

WF?

Have https://www.youtube.com/shorts/MzYMi0o_ZOI?feature=share

you ever called in a “welfare check” to the police? Did it turn out there was a real need? Officers, how often are “welfare checks” something where a person does need assistance?

Many years ago I was in a chat room of a group with hundreds of members. Predominantly adults but, there were older teens. I don’t remember what was being discussed but, this kid (older teen) started making rude comments then started making bizarre comments about school shootings,violence and basically hinting he was going to do something. Quite a few people ignored it or told him he was being inappropriate and that he would be reported to moderator. Most in the discussion didn’t take it seriously. I went to his profile which fortunately wasn’t locked down. So concerning posts and was able to figure out the state, town and high school he attended. And his actual name. So I called the police in that town. Explained what I had seen, sent screenshots etc. While I was on the phone with a detective they got a call from one other man who had done the same as me. Surprisingly, the detective called me back a few hours later and while he didn’t give me many details he did say, that between myself and the other man they were able to locate the boy and that everyone was safe. I confess to stalking the FB profiles later and saw that he had been hospitalized so hopefully he got the help he needed. I worried I was doing the wrong thing but, I just kept thinking how hard it would be to live with myself if I saw news the next day of a school shooting and HADN’T called.

Nuclear Boy Scout

Now known as the “Nuclear Boy Scout,” David Hahn was 17 when he decided to earn an Atomic Energy merit badge by building a working nuclear reactor — right in the backyard of his Michigan home.

In the mid-1990s, Hahn painstakingly collected tiny amounts of radioactive material from everyday objects around his house.

Image: David’s nuclear reactor can be seen

He almost had a working “breeder” reactor in his back shed when he caught the attention of local and federal authorities, prompting an FBI and Nuclear Regulatory Commission response with the evacuation of more than 40,000 people in the locality.

With the level of radiation in his basement 1000 times higher than normal; David declined to see a doctor despite having had significant radiation exposure (the skin burn seen in the image above came as a result).

Footnotes:

The Boy Who Built A Nuclear Reactor in His Basement

The USA is totally and completely fucked up

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/CCDmfIq94UQ?feature=share

What trivial knowledge might save your life one day?

1. Encountering an aggressive bear

Of course, it’s best to avoid bears in the wild, but if an encounter happens, you should know that the weakest skill of this animal is its maneuverability. Bears run very fast and crawl really well — but moving quickly around an object like a car or a tree is much harder for them. Sooner or later, the animal will give up trying to catch you seeing that this smart food (you) is not worth its energy.

However, don’t panic before a bear starts to act aggressively. If it’s just looking at you, standstill. There is a chance it won’t even understand who you are and what you are going to do. If it starts walking toward you slowly, walk backward slowly. Bears rarely attack people. Most likely, it will back off once it realizes you are a human.

2. Rip current

If you accidentally find yourself in a rip current, it is completely useless to swim against it to the shore — you will only waste your energy. Try to swim parallel to the shore until you exit the current, and only then swim toward the shore.

3. Aspirin during a heart attack

Just one pill of aspirin can seriously improve how you feel. The person having a heart attack should lie down immediately and put something under their head or sit down and then take the pill. In order for it to work sooner, it should be chewed very well.

4. Diagnosing a heat stroke

The most obvious symptoms of a heat stroke are dizziness and nausea, but they can appear for other reasons too. In order to know for sure, you should eat something sweet, like candy. If the taste seems unpleasant, this is a heat stroke. For people who have any cardiovascular disorders, it is vital to determine the reason as soon as possible and get the right help.

5. A simple maneuver that will bring someone back to consciousness

If you really need to bring someone back to consciousness, you should put them on their back and push their knees to their chest. This will make the blood flow to their brain and the person will wake up. But first, make sure the person doesn’t have any leg or body injuries, otherwise, the situation may only get worse.

6. Help in case of a venomous snake bite

Unlike some popular misconceptions, you shouldn’t suck out the venom, apply cold, apply bandages, or burn the wound. Before the experts arrive, the victim has to drink a lot and take an antihistamine. The area around the bite should not be touched because otherwise, the venom will just spread around the body faster.

7. Saving a drowning person

If you were able to save a drowned person, it doesn’t mean that they are out of the woods yet. You should take them to the hospital immediately, otherwise, they could die within several days if there is some leftover water in their lungs.

8. How to break car glass in case of an accident

If you are in a situation where you can only get out of a car through the window and the door is impossible to open, remember that it is much easier to break a window by hitting it, not on the center but on the edges. By the way, if you can remove the headrest from the seat, you can use it to break the window. In different cars, headrests are different, so make sure you know how to remove the ones in your car.

9. Antihistamines should always be with you.

It may happen that you are allergic to something that you have never encountered before. And it could be such a severe allergic reaction that it might just be lethal unless you get qualified help. This is especially important on trips when people try new foods, see new plants, and go to completely new places.

10. Water on the beach is too far from the shoreline.

When the waterline is abnormally far from the shore, this is a sign of a tsunami. If you notice this somewhere, you should warn everyone around and run.

Unfortunately, in 2004, people didn’t pay attention to this sign before a tsunami in the Indian Ocean. Almost on the entire shore was exposed and people went out to collect fish and shells. And children were the most interested. However, there were people on 2 beaches that knew about this fact: a 10-year-old English girl named Tilly Smith and biology teacher John Chroston. They managed to save the lives of many people that day.

11. The rule of 3

If you ever find yourself in a critical situation, you should remember these numbers that can be used to describe the survival abilities of an average person:

3 minutes without air;
3 hours in extreme temperature;
3 days without water;
3 weeks without food.

So, if you can’t get your priorities straight, the chances of surviving are much lower.

As a parent, what did your child’s school do that made you say “you can’t be serious…”?

My son has anaphylaxis inducing food allergies. The kind of food allergies where we had benadryl and epi pens in the nurses office and his backpack. In order to prevent an exposure I carefully packed his lunch every day. He had some money on his school lunch account so that on Fridays when they offered icy pops he could get one. Other than that, no birthday celebrations snacks, no school holiday celebrations, etc were allowed. The nursing staff knew, the teachers knew, even the principal knew this.

Apparently the stinking lunch aide didn’t know and didn’t care. One day my 7 year old son forgot to grab his lunch kit before heading to lunch. He told the lunch aide but she refused to let him go back for it. He begged but she instead marched him to the hot lunch line and made him buy his lunch. He came home covered in a rash, beet red and with severe stomach issues that kept him out of school for 5 days. When I asked him he told me what had happened. Fortunately he ate something off the minor allergy list so not an anaphylactic reaction.

I called every person I could think of and demanded answers. I went to school and demanded to talk to the lunch staff supervisor. That woman was re-trained and put on probation. I wish they had fired her but she claimed she had no knowledge about allergies and was just doing her job. Oh, and she avoided my son completely the whole rest of the year.

Young Wife Hid The Truth About How She REALLY Made $ In College, Now Hubby’s Family Has Video Proof

This is a great video that I will show to my daughter when she gets older. Learn from the mistakes of others.

https://youtu.be/k1KDBCpxW8A

Have you ever said yes to someone instead of no, and still think that was the biggest mistake you did?

Every Thursday night, a bunch of us university students would meet in the local pub. One night one of my closest friends says, that they are going to Hawaii for reading week (spring break) and asked if I would like to come.

Being drunk, I said that sounds awesome, he said ,sign a blank cheque and give it to me, and I will make all the reservations. I gave him the cheque and forgot about it. It was never mentioned again. Two months later I get home from the bar, on the Friday of reading week, and the phone is ringing, ( before cell phones) I answer it, and my friend says,”Where are you, the plane leaves in an hour and a half, and we are all at the airport lounge”

I lived 15 minutes from the airport. I threw my notes and text books, some jeans, underwear, socks and long sleeve shirts in a suitcase. I had no clean T-shirts, gym shorts or swim wear. I drove, parked in long term parking and just made it to drop off my luggage, at the last second. I met my friends in the lounge, and walked to the gate. If I had gotten home from the bar 10 minutes later I would have missed it.

I asked him why he hadn’t mentioned the trip in two months, and told him I had nothing to wear in Hawaii, and I needed to study for exams that followed reading week.

He looked stunned, he had completely forgot to tell me that he had booked the trip. Because the others had all been talking about it.

I had a great time in Hawaii, bought cheap T-shirts, shorts and swim wear, and never cracked a book.

I failed my first test, the day that I got back to university, and had to spend an extra semester in school to catch up. I should have said NO

As a flight attendant, is it annoying or insulting when people don’t pay attention to the safety presentation before a flight?

I remember an incident in the late 1990s that happened on a Boeing 757 during a flight from Orlando to San Francisco.

As we were taxiing for take-off, we were enacting the required safety demonstration. A passenger seated in the over-wing exit row was talking loudly to his seatmate, creating such a distraction that some near him were having trouble hearing.

I leaned over and quietly asked him to hold his conversation until we were finished. He replied, somewhat condescendingly, “Look, I fly a lot. I know what to do. I’ve seen this so much that I already know it by heart.” And with that, he launched rudely back into his conversation.

I politely suggested that our demonstration was an excellent chance for him to review his knowledge, but he interrupted me, snarling for me to leave him alone because he didn’t need a review; he knew exactly what to do. I then flatly stated that his conversation was a distraction for others, and again asked him to hold until we were done, assuring him that it would be only another minute or two.

“FINE!” he snapped, heaving a melodramatic sigh, and glaring sullenly at me, he muttered something incomprehensible (and undoubtedly unpleasant) before continuing his conversation anyway, though quietly.

We achieved our cruising altitude at 35,000 feet and the ride was smooth. But about 90 minutes into the flight, we experienced an emergency when the cockpit was alerted by a sensor that there was a fire in one of the wheel wells. The proper procedure was to immediately lower the landing gear to extinguish the fire. But after the gear was lowered, the sensor still indicated the presence of fire. The Captain called to advise us that we would be making an emergency landing at the nearest airport, an Air Force Base in Meridian, Mississippi, and instructed us to prepare the cabin for evacuation.

Our descent was rapid, and we had only minutes to prepare. We advised the passengers on the situation, and began to prepare them for an emergency landing, including the possibility of a crash, and subsequent evacuation. The fear was palpable in the cabin, and everyone was paying very close attention to our instructions.

Our final action was a visual inspection of the cabin as we made our way to our jump-seats to strap in. As I hurried down the aisle, checking to see that passengers were prepared, I came to the window exit and noticed that the loud-mouthed passenger appeared rigid with terror. So I stopped and I asked, “Sir, are you OK? Do you know what to do when we land?”

He didn’t respond, and so I grasped his shoulder and with a shake, I said loudly, “SIR, CAN YOU DO THIS?”

He turned his gaze on me and I could see that he was in absolute shock. His terror-stricken eyes began to tear up, and the color drained from his face, turning it white as his mouth opened and closed, over and over, like a fish out of water. He couldn’t answer me. His mouth made little bleating sounds as he tried to force air through his larynx, but couldn’t seem to form words.

Time was running out, and others around could see that there was a problem. I pointed to the man sitting in the row behind and asked, “Can you do this?”

He fairly leapt to his feet, nodding and saying loudly, “Yes ma’am, I can.”

“Do you know what to do?” I demanded of him, and he replied with full confidence, “Yes ma’am. I look out the window first, and if it’s safe, I pull the cover off, and pull the handle down until the window opens, then lift it in, roll it onto the seats, step through and get off the back of the wing.”

“Then you and him change places… NOW!” I fairly shouted. I only had moments left; we were nearly landing. But the man in the exit was frozen with fear, unable to even comprehend what we were doing, let alone move himself.

At my shouted instructions, the second passenger and I, along with two other passengers, grabbed the terrified man by his arms and physically lifted him up, out and into the row behind. I yelled to the passengers next to him to buckle him in as the second passenger jumped into the exit seat. I fled for the back of the plane just as the Captain came onto the PA shouting “BRACE, BRACE, BRACE!” Diving for my jump-seat, I strapped in, pulling the last harness tight and snapping my body into the brace position just as the wheels touched down.

Fortunately for us, the landing was smooth, and before the plane came to a stop, the Captain announced, “REMAIN SEATED, REMAIN SEATED!” The fire was out, and we taxied to a stop. (We later learned that it was a malfunctioning sensor; there had been no fire in the first place.)

Air Force personnel brought stairs to the airplane, and all the passengers got off to stretch their legs and recover from the excitement. Inside the small terminal, someone tapped my shoulder. It was the man who had been so rude during our safety demonstration, who had frozen up when the actual emergency came.

“I want to apologize to you,” he said. “I was being an ass. I thought something like this would never happen to me, and when it did, I was terrified because I didn’t know what to do. Despite my rudeness to you, you still did your best to save my life.

“I was wrong, and I make this promise to you that I will never again ignore the safety demonstration, regardless of how many times I’ve seen it, and regardless of where I’m seated on the plane. I’ve learned a valuable lesson, and I have you to thank for it. I hope you accept my apology.”

What was the nail in the coffin for an employee or a co-worker?

When I first started working at Wolf Camera, I had a coworker that I’ll call John Doe. He was the type who was friendly enough, but didn’t have a particularly great work ethic.

Once, I was printing some photos. He was in the back taking a break. The phone rang. After a few rings, I answered the phone. When I was done with the call, I asked why John hadn’t answered the phone. He said something like, “Oh. I thought you liked answering the phone.”

Another time, he left work to take care of personal business. He said he’d be back in an hour or two to help close up. My brother and I were the only ones there. I didn’t have a key to lock up and I don’t think my brother did, either.

I was new enough at that point that I didn’t feel comfortable shutting down the machines by myself. We had to call someone to help close the store. I’m not sure if that ever made it back to the manager, as that incident didn’t get him fired.

One day, a camera goes missing. Our store had been flagged by corporate because we had enough inventory go missing, so we had to count the cameras every morning and every night. We also had them tagged, so we knew which camera went missing. A few days later, it appeared in the back again.

Shortly thereafter, we get a visit from corporate. Then, John Doe is suddenly no longer with the company. Officially, this is all I know.

It later came out that John had taken the camera and used it for photos on a dating site. How do we know? He left the pictures (of himself) on the camera’s internal memory.

Reclaim my virginity

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/1LWvK3X4VuA?feature=share

What did you find out about your teacher that shocked you?

Once upon a time, in a small suburban town, there was a high school named Elmwood High. Among the teachers at Elmwood High, there was one who stood out, Mrs. Anderson. She was known for her warm smile, her passion for teaching, and her impeccable professionalism. Students admired her dedication to her job and respected her greatly.

One sunny afternoon, a group of students was gathered in the school library, studying for an upcoming history exam. As they pored over textbooks and notes, a hushed conversation began about Mrs. Anderson. The students wondered about her personal life beyond the classroom, as she was known to be quite reserved about her own affairs.

Curiosity got the best of them, and they decided to do some sleuthing. They began by searching for her on social media, hoping to uncover tidbits of information about her life outside of school. It wasn’t long before they stumbled upon a social media profile that belonged to Mrs. Anderson.

To their surprise, her profile revealed a secret passion that none of the students had ever imagined. Scrolling through her posts and pictures, they discovered that Mrs. Anderson was an avid extreme sports enthusiast. There were breathtaking photos of her skydiving from high altitudes, snowboarding down steep slopes, and even bungee jumping off towering bridges.

The students couldn’t believe their eyes. The teacher they had always seen as reserved and composed was, in her free time, a fearless adrenaline junkie. They were in awe of the stark contrast between her adventurous hobbies and her calm, composed demeanor in the classroom.

As the students shared their discovery with their classmates, the news spread like wildfire throughout the school. Everyone was astonished by the double life their beloved teacher led. The revelation added a new layer of intrigue to Mrs. Anderson’s personality, and she became even more respected and admired for her unexpected passions.

One day, a curious student couldn’t resist asking Mrs. Anderson about her extreme sports adventures. She smiled and confessed to her secret hobby, explaining how it provided her with a sense of thrill and freedom that balanced the structure and responsibility of teaching.

Her revelation served as a valuable lesson to her students, reminding them that even those who appear to be one-dimensional may have hidden depths and interests that defy expectations. It was a moment of connection and mutual understanding that brought the teacher and her students closer together, deepening their respect and admiration for one another.

1920’s General Store OPENED After Decades of Closure: Exploring a long-Abandoned General Store

https://youtu.be/3dhYzl0bcwE

If we stopped launching satellites and rockets, how long will it take for Earth to be cleansed of all the space junk orbiting it?

If we stopped launching satellites and rockets (I’m against this), how long will it take for Earth to be cleansed of all the space junk orbiting it?

The densest concentration of space junk – using the word “dense” very loosely – is in low Earth orbit and would mostly clean up after 10–20 years due to orbital drag. On the other hand, the debris in higher orbits might last thousands or millions of years.

On the gripping hand, space junk isn’t all that dense. The carefully guarded ISS has to dodge debris about once per year (and is armored for the very little stuff that is missed). Pictures like the following diagram incorrectly portray space junk that is the size of nuts and bolts as being the size of cities.

60 years of space launches have put a grand total of 7,500 tons of junk into orbit, which is equivalent to one day’s worth of domestic trash from a big city. Space junk, of course, is spread over a volume thousands of times greater than all the skies, waters, and lands of Earth.

Further, positive steps are being taken to control debris. Starlink, for example, had to demonstrate to the US government

that 95% or more of its satellites would de-orbit in a controlled fashion at their end of lives, and their low orbit means the rest will drop in a few years if they can’t make de-orbit burns.

Abandoned upper stages

used to be a major source of space junk because after some years in orbit their batteries or residual fuel would explode. They are now usually built to vent their tanks and batteries after releasing their payloads, while some operators try to set them up on atmosphere-skimming orbits or outright de-orbit them.

Geosynchronous satellites, which are far too high to de-orbit, now reserve fuel to kick themselves up to Graveyard orbits, which are a bit higher than geosynchronous and aren’t useful for anything except dead satellites.

Did you learn a lesson from a person you judged to be below you?

So I was waiting on the check out line today at a grocery store, when this teenage girl clearly cuts in front of me. She sees that I’m there and just stridently moves in front of me. I want to say something but decide that it’s not worth it, but I have some fairly nasty thoughts about her being an entitled and rude brat.

Then I see her look back worriedly, looking really stressed. What must be her mother is leaning against the wall, looking quite ill. The mother has a cane and is barely able to walk. She’s telling the girl to hurry up already.

The teenager wasn’t cutting in front of me because she’s a nasty person, but because she’s stressed and a caretaker. She just wants to get her mother home.

I felt grateful I didn’t make a scene.

I realized that when people are cruel, many times, they have their own problems and you don’t have to take it so personally.

Be different from the rest

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/k3WuDNNdokI?feature=share

What are the things we’ll only understand when we get old/older?

I was 16 and used to visit my boyfriend who lived in a large apartment building close to my house.

We’d hang out with a small group of friends in the parking lot listening to music, talking and loitering.

There was a lot of loitering.

(Wait. If you feel like this answer needs a soundtrack, play Raspberry Beret by Prince.)

One of my boyfriend’s neighbors would always come down and ask us to turn the music down. Her request was made with distaste, contempt.

It was like we had no right to occupy the space we did, like everything, including sound waves, belonged to her.

We never turned the music down. We didn’t mean to be rude but needed to stake a claim over our fundamental right to exist.

Today I live in San Francisco in a busy neighborhood. Sometimes teenagers park in the street right below my apartment. They listen to music and honestly, I don’t understand why they have to play such shitty music so very loud.

At least once a week I sigh and scrunch up my face and open the window, lean out and catch myself right before words pour out of my mouth.

It’s inevitable. You get old and become all the things you were sure you’d never be.

Has someone ever been fired because of you?

Yes. It was shortly after 9/11. I was a teenage girl, going to my dad’s job like I always had(we lived right around the corner). I pulled in, saw a guy waving at me, so I waved back and keep.goimg thinking it was one of his coworkers.

Well, it wasn’t a coworker, it was security trying to flag me down. I parked next to my dad’s car and was waiting for him to come out on lunch. This was before every teenager had a cell phone so I was just sitting in my car.

The security guy flew up to me, blocked me in and started screaming at me to get out of the car. They’d never had security before so I had no clue what was going on. I thought it was just some crazy guy. I got out the car(stupid, I know but teenage girl) and asked him what was going on. He yelled that he was calling the police and I was going to jail. I started crying and trying to explain that I was just coming to see my dad. He called me a liar and kept telling me I was going to jail.

One of my dad’s coworkers came over to see what was happening and saw it was me, he radioed in to my dad and a supervisor to come out right now. I was explaining to the coworker what happened and the guy kept calling me a liar. My dad and the supervisor came out and I kept trying to tell them what happened and the security guy kept saying I was lying and I was disrespectful and didn’t listen to his commands. I never even heard any commands except get out of the car.

The supervisor advised that they had cameras so he’d review them. The guy and the entire security company were let go the next day.

I still sometimes go to my dad’s work for different things and it’s been over 20 years since this happened.

Men need this advice

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/o3XfukCgkcU?feature=share

What makes people become instantly likable to everyone they meet?

Secrets of the Charmers’ Codex

Have you ever encountered someone who walks into a room and sunshine erupts from their pores? They crack a joke, and the room erupts in laughter. They ask a question, and everyone leans in, eager to share their pearls of wisdom. You leave the interaction feeling like you’ve known them for years, vowing to unlock the secret to their magical, instant likability.

Fear not, dear human, for today we delve into the Secrets of the Charmers’ Codex, a tome whispered through the ages amongst the effortlessly popular. Forget potions and magic spells (though a well-placed confetti cannon adds a certain je ne sais quoi); these are secrets of the soul, crafted from genuine human interaction and a dash of hilarious self-awareness.

Rule #1: Be the Human Sunshine: Let’s face it, negativity is the emotional equivalent of a rogue sock in the dryer – loud, obnoxious, and best left at home. Smile, not just with your lips, but with your eyes. Exude the warmth of a freshly baked croissant, the enthusiasm of a puppy greeting its long-lost chew toy. Remember, people gravitate towards light, so become a walking lighthouse of joy.

Rule #2: Listen Like a Ninja: Master the art of the attentive ear. Put away your phone, silence your inner monologue (unless it’s particularly witty), and focus on the person speaking. Nod like a bobblehead on caffeine, ask insightful questions (avoiding “Is that all?” like the plague), and remember details. Make them feel like they’re the most fascinating documentary on Netflix, and watch their walls melt away.

Rule #3: Humor is Your Weapon (But Use it Wisely): A well-timed joke can disarm tension, bridge awkward silences, and earn you eternal brownie points. However, wielding humor is like handling a spork (useful, but potentially dangerous). Know your audience, avoid offensive jabs, and embrace the power of self-deprecation. Remember, laughing at yourself is like wearing mismatched socks – quirky, endearing, and strangely captivating.

Rule #4: Empathy is Your Superpower: Step into someone else’s shoes (provided they’re not covered in questionable substances). Acknowledge their feelings, validate their concerns, and offer support without judgment. Show them you’re not just a charming surface, but a deep well of understanding. Think of yourself as a human empathy sponge, soaking up emotions and leaving behind a trail of emotional comfort.

Rule #5: Authenticity is Your Shield: Ditch the masks, the personas, the inflatable T-Rex costume (unless it’s thematically appropriate). Be your wonderfully weird, flawed, and fabulous self. Embrace your quirks, celebrate your passions, and let your genuine personality shine through. People connect with the real you, not some airbrushed version. Think of yourself as a delicious, homemade pizza (flaws and all) – infinitely more interesting than a frozen pepperoni disc.

Rule #6: Master the Art of Conversational Ping Pong: Conversations aren’t monologues; they’re a delightful dance of ideas. Share your thoughts, but don’t hog the spotlight. Ask open-ended questions, volley back engaging responses, and keep the rally going strong. Remember, the best conversationalists make others feel heard and valued, not like a spectator at a tennis match.

Rule #7: Sprinkle Compliments Like Confetti: Everyone appreciates a genuine compliment, so scatter them like glitter on a unicorn’s birthday cake. But remember, specificity is key. Instead of “You look nice,” try “That shade of blue makes your eyes sparkle like sapphires.” Or instead of “You’re funny,” share, “I almost snorted my coffee when you told that story about the talking parrot and the cheese wheel.”

Rule #8: Embrace the Power of Vulnerability: Sharing your flaws and fears isn’t weakness; it’s magnetic. It shows you’re human, relatable, and courageous enough to let others see the real you. Vulnerability builds trust, strengthens bonds, and makes you instantly more likable. Think of it as social kryptonite: It disarms defenses and reveals your authentic awesomeness.

Rule #9: Be a Name Magician: Remembering names is like casting a spell of instant connection. Use repetition, association techniques, or even write it down discreetly if needed. When you address someone by name, it shows you care and value their individuality. It’s like a verbal hug, without the awkward body contact (unless you’re into that, then by all means, hug away).

Rule #10: Radiate Passion: When you talk about something you love, your eyes light up like a Christmas tree on energy drinks. Passion is contagious, so share your enthusiasm for your hobbies, dreams, or that weird obsession with collecting vintage teacups. People are drawn to those who exude passion; it’s like a beacon of excitement in a sea of blasé conversations.

Bonus Tip: Embrace the Unexpected: Sprinkle your interactions with a dash of the extraordinary. Offer a stranger a high five for no reason, compliment someone’s shoelace-tying skills, break into a spontaneous interpretive dance (bonus points for air guitar solo). Remember, life’s a stage, and you’re the star of your own one-person show. Make it memorable, make it yours, and watch the world become your captivated audience.

So there you have it; the secrets of the Charmers’ Codex. Remember, instant likability isn’t about manipulation or trickery. It’s about embracing your genuine self, radiating warmth, and treating others with the kindness and respect you deserve. Go forth, spread your sunshine, and remember, the world needs more laughter, not more rogue socks in the dryer.

To delve deeper into this topic, you don’t need anything short of an intriguing book. Articles are not enough. Crack the code for instant likeability and charm. See my comment below.

Do not let this aspect be under-rated

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/mugNpA0sNLg?feature=share

What are some pretty messed up things you see parents do to their children in public?

The worst thing I have ever seen a parent do to their child in public is something that breaks my heart and makes my blood boil at the same time.:

I was working at a local gym and saw a woman carrying her infant child through the lobby toward the parking lot. I can only assume the baby became fussy because the woman became angry and stopped in the space between two sets of windowed doors, placed the baby on the floor, and began to hit the child (which of course made it cry, and did nothing to help whatever was the matter). This only lasted a few seconds, otherwise I might have dropped what I was doing and confronted her. My co-workers and I were stunned and horrified. We wondered in quiet conversation, “What kind of a monster does that to her baby?”

I have never forgotten this incident because it was so terrible, and because I would give everything I own to have a child of my own.

On the flip-side, one of the best things I have ever seen a parent do in public is this:

A little boy was with his mother in the grocery store, and he wanted a doughnut. I overheard his mother giving him a choice: “You can have a doughnut now, and skip (whatever it was) later, or you can have (whatever it was) later and not have the doughnut now.

I thought to myself, “This is a great way to teach good decision-making while instilling the importance of forethought and delayed gratification!”

The little boy chose the doughnut, and then said he still wanted the other item. To the mother’s credit she followed through with, a firm but gentle, “No.” He cried bitter tears, and I’ll bet he has never forgotten his choice and consequence. What a difficult but important lesson! I felt for the child, but silently applauded the mother.

Beef Braciole

The tomato-wine pan sauce is divine. Always serve spaghetti or other pasta on the side to complete the presentation.

Braciole is a classic Italian favourite that’s sure to please the whole family. Tender slices of beef or pork are rolled up with savory fillings like Parmesan cheese, parsley and garlic before being braised in an irresistible tomato-based sauce. Serve it over pasta, or Polenta with a side of sauteed vegetables. Either way there’ll be no leftovers!

Slices of the top round (topside) can be quite large so if they are, you’ll want to cut them to make it the perfect size to accommodate two slices of prosciutto. It needs to be pounded to be thin and tenderised.

Braciole offers something special for any occasion; whether you’re looking for a hearty weeknight dinner idea or prepping ahead of time for entertaining guests this traditional dish packs all sorts delicious flavours into one impressive main course.

Ingredients

1 (2 1/2 pound) round steak
1/2 pound Italian sausage
1/2 cup chopped fresh parsley
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1 clove garlic, minced
1 teaspoon Italian seasoning
1 teaspoon kosher or sea salt
1/2 teaspoon lemon-pepper seasoning
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 cup chopped onion
1/2 cup chopped carrot
1 1/2 cups dry red wine (I use Chianti)
1 (16 ounce) can plum tomatoes
1 (6 ounce) can tomato paste
1 teaspoon salt
1 bay leaf

Instructions

Trim all fat from steak. Cut into 8 equal pieces, then pound thin.
Remove casing from Italian sausage. Break up in medium bowl. Add parsley, Parmesan cheese, garlic, Italian seasoning, 1 teaspoon salt and the lemon-pepper seasoning; mix thoroughly. Spread each steak with 2 heaping tablespoonsful of sausage mixture. Roll up jellyroll fashion; fasten with wooden picks.
Brown rolls 3 to 4 at a time in hot oil in Dutch oven. Add onion and carrot to pot. Cook until vegetables are soft, about 5 minutes.
Stir in wine, tomatoes, tomato paste, remaining 1 teaspoon salt and bay leaf. Bring mixture to boil; lower heat. Add beef rolls. Cover and simmer for 1 hour. Remove from heat.
Remove wooden picks before serving. Serve with sauce and spaghetti or other pasta on the side.

Have you ever called in a “welfare check” to the police? Did it turn out there was a real need? Officers, how often are “welfare checks” something where a person does need assistance?

3 times actually. Nobody died fortunately.

First one:

We had a South American migrant as a sales guy. Fresh into the country. Great salesman. His product knowledge was excellent & customer rapport was brilliant. The only negative was he needed help planning his routes, as he had yet to learn the geography – but that was something we were willing to do for him. He never had a day off. He had no family in Australia, and never spoke about friends – only the occasional mention of a neighbour who he would have a beer with on weekends.

One Monday, he didn’t show. This was normal for most sales guys, as they hit the road – but not him. He liked to plan on Monday, spent Tu-We-Th on the road, and Friday back in the office to wrap up the loose ends from the week. He also lived only 5 minutes from the office, so it was convenient for him too (unlike those of us who lived 1.5 hours away!). Some of the guys would stay back on Fridays so they could go for a few beers, and he would join them – they were probably the closest to friends that he had at the time – remembering he’d only been in the country some 2 months by now.

I called his mobile phone, and got no answer. We decided at lunch time to go around to his apartment and knock. No response. The neighbour who came out said he saw him Saturday morning, and that was it. We got real worried. So we went to the local Police station to ask what could be done. They said they’d do a welfare check, but we told them we’d already been. They promised to call us back with anything they found. We did get a call shortly after – not from those cops, but another station, to let us know the company car he drove was parked in a M-F clearway lane, and was towed that morning. The location was the other side of the city to where he lived. By late afternoon the mystery was solved. He’d met a girl on the Friday night. She invited him to her party on the Saturday night. He drove over there, parked in a (legal on weekends) roadside spot. When he was crossing the road, he looked to his left (coming from a LHD country) to make sure the traffic was clear. He didn’t look to his right (we are a RHD country) and stepped out in front of a bus. He was in hospital, and survived with surprisingly few injuries beyond a couple of broken bones, fractures & bruising.

Second one:

Same company, couple of years later. Ironically the car that the guy above had was passed down to this salesman, as he’d been promoted and got an upgrade. It wasn’t unusual for this new salesman to have days off – particularly Monday. He would usually call in sick. If he didn’t, I would text him, and he’d reply that he was sick, and apologise for not calling. One week it went 2 days with no call and no text response. We feared a similar problem, so we drove the 1/2 hour to his house to see if he was OK. Car was in the driveway – a good sign. No answer on the door though. Called the cops and explained it. They went into the backyard and could see in through a window. He was passed out on the lounge in the back room. Turns out his father passed away (overseas) and he only found out Sunday night. He drank himself silly over 2 days.

Third one.

I didn’t call this in, but a neighbour did. Many houses in suburban Australia have a separate room for the toilet. Usually around 1500–1800mm long by 800–1000mm wide (5–6 feet x 3 feet). Most have a swinging door, that opens into the room. This particular house had one like this.

A lovely older lady lived by herself a few houses down from me. He first name was Mabel. Everyone called her Mrs Mabel. She was always friendly and everyone knew her. Her neighbour Ken would help her a lot, and came to get me for “big jobs” that needed 2 people. She was often in the garden, and had a little dog she’d bring out on a lead to enjoy the outdoors – sitting on the grass for hours watching her tend to the plants and flowers.

One day Ken said to me he hadn’t seen her all of the prior day. Also, overnight, none of the usual lights went on in the house. He was scared she might have died. I suggested she might have gone to visit one of her children and the grandkids, but he said he still heard the dog when it went out into the back yard (via a doggy door). I then felt a huge amount of dread too. So he called the cops. They came. No response. They tracked down one of her children and called them. Funny story about that – I knew the numberplate of her son’s car (I really liked the car) and the cops were able to find him from that.

Her son confirmed she had no travel plans, and he hadn’t heard from her for a few days. He feared the worst, and asked the cops to break in. Before they did any damage, they decided to jump the fence and check the back of the house. Back door was unlocked, so they entered.

They found her inside, but couldn’t help her. She’d fallen when getting off the toilet, and was stuck against the door. She couldn’t get up, and she was trapped in the room. Apparently she’d called for help all afternoon the day before, but nobody could hear her. The outside of the toilet door was very well shredded where her little dog had tried in vain to “dig” her out. They got the Fire/Rescue guys in, and they cut the door into pieces to remove it enough to get to her. After a stay in hospital, which was quite long (she developed a blood poisoning problem from the pooled blood trapped in her leg) she returned home.

Ken & I took the remains of the broken door off the hinges and cut it up so she could dispose of it in the household bin over a couple of weeks. Ken told her she doesn’t need a toilet door as she’s the only one in the house. She replied with “It’s a habit, and even at my age, I still maintain my modesty, but after a kind lecture from the Fire/Rescue team, I now realise that my safety is more important than modesty.”

Some time later she asked if we could fit a new door if she paid for it. This was puzzling, as we knew she didn’t need it. But she explained that with grandchildren in the house of a certain age, it was very difficult to stop the grandson from teasing the granddaughter when she needed to use the toilet! She promised to only use the door when they came to visit. One of her children also got her a necklace that has a button you can press in an emergency. They also feared she may fall in the garden and not be able to get up.

We have had the same worry for my mother-in-law, so last year we got her an Apple watch so she can at least call, or give an SOS signal. She now proudly calls us from it, out in the garden, saying how great it is that she doesn’t miss any messages (she would leave her phone inside, or on silent in her pocket)! She’s good with tech though, and uses the watch and phone like someone half her age. It has put our minds at ease, knowing she won’t be all alone & helpless like Mrs Mabel was. She wants to renovate the bathroom and toilet soon, so I have suggested she get the door jamb for the toilet turned around so the door can open outwards, and replace the round knob (that’s hard to grip) with a lever style handle. Fortunately she has agreed with me.

Incredible Civil War Collection Hidden 50 Years in Secret Room Behind Steel Doors, REVEALED!

https://youtu.be/aO96TZYTaFM

The old man

When I was a teenager and working in the mines and the supermarket, I was once approached by a very old man. It was a very odd visit.

I was sitting outside on the bench (outside the local laundrymat) which it was next to the supermarket where I worked. I had just finished eating my lunch. At that time, I was greatly enamored with a local “phillycheese sandwich”. So I was eating it, finished up and was ready to go back in and finish my shift.

Then, this older man slowly walked up to me.

He was old. He wore old-man clothes. Was short and hunched over, and came up to me and sat down besides me. I have never seen him before. He didn’t look like anyone that I knew, nor related to anyone. Just a strange old, old man.

He was quiet for the entire time.

But, as I started to get up to go, he lightly touched me on the arm. And then he said…

“Listen to me young man”.

So, I paused (out of respect) and stood there in front of him.

He continued.

“You are young. You have the whole world in front of you.”

I smiled and nodded.

“Be careful. Don’t get married early. Go to school. Work on yourself. Everything will come to you. This is a difficult time for you in this life.”

I said thank you, and started to leave.

He touched me again. Softly.

“I only wish that someone told me back then, what I am telling you now.”

I told him “thank you”.

I then walked back to the store, and about ten steps toward the door, I looked back.

He wasn’t there. He had disappeared.

I don’t know what happened.

For the longest time, I forgot about the event and the old man. Who was it? I don’t know. Was it time travel mm? Maybe… Who knows?

Today…

Did a co-worker ever try to hide their wealth or poverty from those at work? How did they do it and what happened after?

Loretta was working as an underwriter at a large insurance company in Los Angeles where I had a summer job.

She was an older lady from the South, wore her blonde hair in a beehive, and was always attired in polyester slacks, very colorful overblouses and matching costume jewelry, all from the Sears catalog.

She was polite with others but pretty much kept to herself. At company functions, she engaged in courteous conversation that gave no insight into whom she was.

Her desk was tidy with a few, forgettable personal items.

She was respected by the other underwriters and the bosses. We heard that she had refused promotions, being quite happy where she was.

I was sitting in front of her desk when the Personnel Manager strode in purposefully. As he drew nearer to Loretta’s desk, his confidence waned.

“Miss Loretta, may I speak to you and Bernard (the unit supervisor) for just a moment?” (Yes, he really called her ‘Miss Loretta’. . .no one else was addressed in such a way.)

“Why, of course.” (It sounds much better with a southern accent applied.)

Loretta’s desk was opposite Bernard’s office, so since they did not close the door, I heard everything.

“Miss Loretta, we’ve been through this before. You must cash your paychecks. The Finance Department can’t clear the books until you do.”

Loretta looked somewhat chastened, one hand fluttering to her throat.

“Why, I am so, so sorry! I didn’t mean to put anyone out. It just slipped my mind. I will take care of that today at lunch time!”

“You have the checks with you today?”

“Why, yes, I do. I believe they are in my desk.”

Mr. Personnel Manager gulped and then thanked her. Loretta went to the break room for coffee.

As I waited for her, I heard Bernard ask how many checks were outstanding.

Twenty-three monthly paychecks had not yet been cashed.

Think You Want To Get Married? 25 Wives Reveal Dark Secrets That They’ve Kept From Their Husbands

https://youtu.be/ERS-oF1KrKI

If you order a meal at a restaurant and don’t like the taste of it, is it bad etiquette to send it back and request something else instead?

Years ago I was trying a fancy Italian restaurant for the first time. My wife and I ordered. My wife’s meal arrived and she didn’t care for it. Moreover, it wasn’t as described in the menu. She flagged the waiter and he asked what he could help her with. She noticed that her dish didn’t have sun-dried tomatoes like the menu said and the waiter explained that the kitchen was out of them. She asked about another item that the menu said was in the dish but wasn’t and the waiter replied that they were out of that item as well.

She said she didn’t really like her dish and that she tried my dish and it was delicious and asked for what I was having instead. Our waiter heavily sighed gave us a very pained expression like we were being ridiculous and took her plate away. He returned with another plate of what I was having. What my wife originally ordered was more expensive than my dish and on the check she was still charged for the more expensive dish. At this point I wasn’t going to argue with the waiter so I just subtracted the amount we were overcharged from the waiter’s tip and left.

We never went back to that restaurant and told everyone who asked about our experience. Now if the restaurant apologized for the dish not being right, cheerfully changed my wife’s order and didn’t overcharge us we would have come back and had a much more positive experience to report to anyone who asked.

More recently when dining with my family my daughter ordered the special. She really didn’t like it. She tends to be a pretty picky eater so I tried it and I have to say I didn’t blame her because I didn’t like it either. The waiter came by and saw that my daughter hardly touched it and asked if it was OK. My daughter said yes. I told our waiter that my daughter didn’t like her dish but was too polite to say anything and that I tried it and didn’t think it was very good either. He apologized and said that the dish was a bit unusual and people usually either loved or hated it and that he would be happy to bring her something she would enjoy. After dinner our waiter said dessert was on him because of our inconvenience; we explained that we were all too full and our waiter offered to box it up for us to enjoy later. We sometimes do go back to that restaurant when we are in that area.

Many things in life can either be a problem or an opportunity. In the first case not liking a dish was a problem. In the second case it was an opportunity for the restaurant to give good service.

A good restaurant would rather exchange a meal than lose a customer.

Funny

The inventor Arthur Davidson, of the Harley Davidson Motorcycle Corporation, died and went to heaven. At the gates, St. Peter told Arthur, “Since you’ve been such a good man and your Motorcycles have changed the world, your reward is, you can hang out with anyone you want in Heaven.” Arthur thought about it for a minute and then said, “I want to hang out with God.” St. Peter took Arthur to the Throne Room, and introduced him to God. Arthur then asked God, “Hey, aren’t you the inventor of women? “God said, “Ah, yes. ” “Well, ” said Arthur, “professional to professional, you have some major design flaws in your invention.” God was somewhat taken back, and when He asked what the flaws might be, Arthur Davidson produced a list for Him to read.

1. There’s too much inconsistency in the front-end protrusions.

2. It chatters constantly at high speeds.

3. Most of the rear ends are too soft and wobble too much.

4. The intake is placed way to close to the exhaust and finally,

5. The maintenance costs are outrageous. “Hmmmm, you may have some good points there and it may be true that My invention is flawed… ” God said to Arthur. “But the last time that I checked, more men are riding My invention than yours.”

What’s a rule your employer implemented that backfired terribly?

This happened to me at one of the companies i worked for. It was time for appraisal and promotion. I got a call from my boss; he wanted to discuss my promotion with me. I got to his office and he started to talk about how he wasn’t sure of my strength, etc.

I had surpassed my sales and product development target for the year and I was shocked to hear this. He wanted me to tell him what I was good at. Without a doubt, I did but I wasn’t comfortable with why he was asking that question.

I had never failed to meet my sales target or deliver on a project that was assigned to me. I got recommendations for promotion from HR, my colleagues, and other managers in the company.

I thought he wasn’t being honest with me. He wanted to critique my effort in order to not give me what I deserved as stated in the company’s career path. I felt bad for a couple of weeks and a colleague of mine said something that brought strength into me.

“If the boss doesn’t appreciate your effort, another company will” he said.

I connected with that statement, dusted my resumé off and started looking for a new job. I got recommended to a company by my friend, got an interview and secured the job.

It was time to break the news to my boss. On a Sunday evening, I submitted my resignation with a two weeks notice. Monday morning, I got to the office and got a call from my boss asking to see me immediately. He expressed how displeased he was about my resignation. He pleaded for six weeks notice instead of two weeks as stated in my employment letter. He said he would be in trouble if I left and that it would be difficult to get a quick replacement considering that I had so much responsibility in the office. He started saying things as they ought to have been said during the promotion interview. While I would have loved to wait for six weeks before leaving, I had committed to starting at the new office after two weeks. I made a promise that I would ensure whomever replaces me is well-equipped with all the information and documentation he or she needs and I was willing to provide assistance if needed.

He wanted to negotiate but I rejected the offer. If I have to explain my contribution to the development of the company only during promotions, then it’s obvious he wasn’t being honest with me.

It was time to move on.

An Egg McMuffin Was Once Just 99 Cents. Can You Guess How Much One Costs Today?

January 31, 2024by Michael

The days of the 99 cent Egg McMuffin are never coming back. Our central bank has been treating our currency like toilet paper, and our politicians in Washington have been borrowing and spending trillions of dollars that we do not have. As a result, we are in the midst of an inflation crisis that seemingly has no end.

Of course the mainstream media insists that inflation is “low”, but literally just about everything that we shell out money for on a regular basis costs a lot more these days. For example, just check out what it will cost you to get a single Egg McMuffin at one McDonald’s location in Connecticut…

A McDonald’s customer was left astounded after paying $7.29 for a single Egg McMuffin in a Connecticut drive through.

Bespoke Investment Group posted a picture of the customer’s receipt with the caption ‘$7.29 for one McDonald’s Egg McMuffin. What has the world come to?? These were 2 for $2 pretty recently.’

The bill records the purchase of two Egg McMuffins for $14.58 and one Bacon, Egg & Cheese McGriddle without two half-strips of bacon for $7.19.

$7.29 for just one Egg McMuffin?

Are you serious?

So that means that the price of an Egg MucMuffin in Connecticut is now more than 7 times higher than it was during the Reagan administration… https://www.youtube.com/embed/f-8rcPOs9r4?si=8taFsKsT0T34m2Y7Watching old commercials like that makes me sad, because our country has become a completely different place since that time.

Of course it isn’t just the Egg McMuffin that has become ridiculously expensive.

One customer in Idaho was stunned when he recently had to shell out $16.10 for his value meal…

Another customer in Idaho was also shocked to discover the prices of combo deal in December.

Topher Olive, was visiting one of the restaurant’s locations in Post Falls when he picked up a Smoky BLT Quarter Pounder with Cheese, a large fry, and a large Sprite setting him back $16.10.

He shared a video of his meal on, where he has more than 334,000 followers, admitting that he was shocked over the price.

I clearly remember when I could get a combo at McDonald’s for just five bucks.

Now only the wealthy can afford to eat at McDonald’s on a regular basis.

Needless to say, the definition of “wealthy” has changed too.

Once upon a time, if you had a million dollars you were set for life.

But now Kevin O’Leary says that you need at least five million dollars in the bank…

Kevin O’Leary, Shark Tank star and investor, sparked significant discussion with his assertion that individuals need $5 million in their bank accounts to ensure lifelong financial stability.

In an August 2023 YouTube video, O’Leary said, “You have to get to a place where you have $5 million in the bank,” emphasizing the importance of this amount to “survive the rest of your life, no matter what happens.” This statement, along with his detailed financial advice, has been a subject of both support and criticism among viewers and financial experts.

Only a tiny percentage of the population has that kind of money.

In fact, one recent survey found that 60 percent of the U.S. population has 500 dollars or less in their checking accounts.

And only 12 percent of the U.S. population has $2,001 dollars or more in their checking accounts.

Just 12 percent.

We are a nation that is literally living on the edge.

Amazingly, in this very tight economic environment there is a campaign to increase the salaries of members of Congress by 70 percent…

A campaign has started to raise the salaries of House and Senate members by 70% to $294,000 from the current $174,000 in return for better “performance.”

Federal analyst Steven Kopits, the president of Princeton Policy Advisors, argued that since most members are lawyers, salaries should at least be equal to what first-year associates in Manhattan receive, plus a 20% bump up.

“Most legislators are lawyers by trade, and we — or at least I — would hope that the public would prefer the best and the brightest to become members of Congress. First year law associates in New York are the best and brightest of their year, typically from Ivy League universities, and their salaries are tied to the market for premium legal services in the U.S. Therefore, if we believe we would like to recruit top-line legal professionals to serve in Congress, then first year associate salaries are a plausible comparable,” Kopits said in a memo.

Just like the rest of us, they are also being crushed by the terrible inflation that they played a major role in creating.

Considering how poorly they have performed, there is no way in the world that they should be getting a raise.

It is the rest of the country that needs help. The middle class is shrinking, food banks are facing unprecedented demand all over the nation, and homelessness is rising at the fastest pace ever recorded.

And our politicians are making things even worse by bringing in vast numbers of extremely desperate people from other countries.

In Denver, 40,000 new migrants have arrived during the past year, and they are absolutely overwhelming the city’s social services…

Nearly 40,000 migrants have arrived in Denver over the past year, making a city with a population of just over 710,000 the top destination per capita for newly arrived migrants crossing the U.S. southern border and traveling north in buses from Texas.

The influx is taking a toll on the city’s public safety net. Starting Feb. 5, Denver will limit the number of days migrants can stay in shelters and send those who exceed their stay out onto the streets.

One Venezuelan family, a mother, father and their three daughters, told NBC News they’ve been staying at a hotel paid for by the city, but they’ve just received notice that they’ll be evicted.

“Just yesterday they started throwing away the toys, the bicycles in the common area,” the mother said. “We don’t know where we will go next.”

This is happening all over the nation, and there is no end to this crisis in sight.

Meanwhile, we are being warned that the economy will “cool considerably” during the months ahead…

The U.S. economy is set to cool considerably in the coming months as once-rampant spending by American consumers finally comes to an end, according to Wells Fargo.

In a recent note to clients, Wells Fargo senior global market strategist Scott Wren warned that retail spending is likely to slow over the course of 2024 as the job market eases and layoffs start to rise.

“Americans with jobs and money in their pockets are going to spend,” Wren wrote. “However, as the economy slows as we move through the middle portion of this year and the labor market softens, we continue to believe the holiday spending that occurred last year was a bit of a last hurrah for the consumer.”

Of course there are lots of signs that the economy is already heading in the wrong direction quite rapidly.

Sales of iPhones are typically a very good indicator of where things are going, and right now projections for 2024 are quite dismal…

Apple stock, which on any given day is either the most or 2nd most valuable company in the world, rotating with MSFT, reversed earlier gains and slumped to session lows after widely-read TF International Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo (best known for gathering intelligence from his contacts in Apple’s Asian supply chain) reported that Apple has lowered its 2024 iPhone shipments of key upstream semiconductor components to about 200 million units, which correspondents to a decline of 15% year-on-year.

As a result, he notes that iPhone 15 series and new iPhone 16 series shipments will decline by 10–15% year-on-year in 1H 2024 and 2H 2024, respectively (compared to iPhone 14 series shipments in 1H 2023 and iPhone 15 series shipments in 2H 2023, respectively). Even worse, Apple’s weekly shipments in China have declined by 30–40% year-on-year in recent weeks, and this downward trend is expected to continue.

And layoff announcements continue to roll in from coast to coast.

This week, we learned that UPS will be laying off approximately 12,000 workers…

UPS plans to layoff nearly 12,000 employees following a massive year-over-year decline in revenue, company officials told USA TODAY Tuesday morning.

The workforce reduction is part of an effort to align resources in 2024 and will save the company nearly $1 billion, the Atlanta-based company’s CEO Carole Tomé said on a company earnings call.

A slow-motion train wreck is playing out day after day right in front of our eyes.

So many of the things that we have been warning about are literally happening right now.

But most of the population still appears to be in a deep state of sleep.

What will it take for them to finally wake up?

Have you ever had to go without period products because you couldn’t afford them?

Yep.

It was well-known at my middle school and high school that the school nurse didn’t have free pads for the students.

In middle school, we had to call our parents to pick us up. My mother worked out of town, and my father certainly wouldn’t have picked me up or bought me period supplies even if I had asked him. For him, that was always the mother’s job. That wasn’t something that fathers did. I shudder to think of what would’ve happened if I didn’t have enough pads with me during his visitation. He probably would have sent me home to my mother.

In high school, the school nurse had pads for purchase. The price was 50 cents per pad (about $2 apiece today), and while that doesn’t sound like much, the high school nurse wouldn’t just give you a pad if you didn’t have money and found yourself with a nasty visit from Aunt Flo. If you didn’t have money, the nurse wouldn’t budge. She would let you bleed through your clothes and make you call your parents to pick you up rather than give out a free pad. There were no vending machines for pads or tampons in the girl’s restroom at school. The only way she would give you one is if you had the money in your hand.

I understand that the nurse probably had to pay for them out of her own pocket, and she wanted to be reimbursed, but I never had any money. Ever. My mother was one of those parents who had zero problems with helping herself to her children’s savings. She also held the same job out of town, and didn’t have transportation back until the end of the workday, anyway. I usually carried plenty of backup pads and tampons all the time, but sometimes I ran out.

I also had extremely heavy, long-lasting periods even as a teenager. That meant that even wearing both a tampon and a pad, sometimes they were both soaked within 2 hours, sometimes less. I stained my clothes a few times. Did the school nurse care? Not a bit. She refused to give up any of her precious pads without money. She still got paid either way.

Which is why, when I found out that my kids’ school gave out free menstrual supplies, no matter what the economic status of their students, I almost cried.

Do you think China and Russia can truly challenge Western dominance in the Middle East?

China certainly can

China is the largest customer for the Oil Producing Countries in the Middle East

China is also the largest trader and exporter with the Middle East

From Cooking Ranges to Crockery to Clothing to Hikvision Cameras to Machinery to Stationery to Cutlery to Consumer Electronics to Bridges to Roads to Factory Construction to Industrial Air Conditioning

China thus has irreplaceable clout in the Middle East

Impossible to get alternative suppliers for all those products at that affordable cost and quality that China can deliver

Plus the latest exports include Commercial Drones, Trainer Aircraft, Advanced Drills & Gas Platform Drilling Equipment and Rigs

It’s ECONOMIC CLOUT in a Win Win relationship

Tomorrow if Saudi wants Nuclear Energy, China can fully and completely build Nuclear Energy Plants for Saudi and build completely Indigenous Reactors for the Saudis even the latest Thorium Salt Reactors

Meanwhile what clout does the West have?

In the last 75 years, the West has turned the middle East into a war zone begining in 1948

They provoke wars within Arab Nations using Israel as the pawn and then sell weapons to the Arab Nations to defend themselves
They threaten every Nation to use Dollars as transaction currency even if it’s a loss to them

The West has not helped a single Middle Eastern Nation beyond forcing them to kowtow to it’s Agenda like an Evil Demented Emperor

US was Saudis largest trading partner until the Mid 2000s

The nature of exports?

Weapons!!!!!!!

Weapons and Spares formed a whopping 37% of all exports to Saudi Arabia

Saudi was primitive for a long time and US didn’t care in the least

In 2003, Colin Powell literally forced the entire middle East to turn on Saddam Hussein even though he was a fellow Arab and everyone knew he was not guilty of 90% of the things, he was being accused of

Today?

Can Blinken Try?

They will ask him to go f*** himself if he goes too far

Egypt already said this many times recently

So did Qatar

So did Jordan

They didn’t turn on Assad even though the US demanded they do

And that was because of Uncle Vlad

That’s Russia

Russia doesn’t have Chinas clout

However they have Military power next only to the US and in terms of land fighting capability even better

They also have Food that the Middle East could use in an emergency, if US sanctions them

So Yes

The West no longer has the dominance in the middle East

They have to DELIVER to maintain even minimum influence

The normal threats and bullying won’t work

Sanctions will drive the Middle East into Chinas arms in nanoseconds

The US is now like ANY OTHER CUSTOMER

HIGH VALUE CUSTOMER yes but no longer the only Bull Elephant in the herd

Those days are gone

Trump even if he becomes President cannot change anything unless he offers a lot to the Saudis for their friendship and delivers Nuclear Technology and also other concessions including modification of the Bretton Woods system to accept multiple currencies

Joe Rogan is shocked to learn about Thomas Sowell’s Wisdom

https://youtu.be/OtBsyvpjjL8

The 10 Reasons Why Men Need a Men’s Coach to Breakthrough in their Life and Relationships

Last Updated On September 8, 2023

by Andrew Ferebee

Let me get this straight – you did everything right according to society’s rules and you’re telling me you’re not happy with the results?

You excelled in school, worked your butt off and built a successful career, live in a good neighborhood, drive a nice car and aren’t worried about monthly bills but despite the picture perfect life on the outside, there’s an empty feeling, a sense of unease like something deeper is missing.

Remember that inner fire that once drove you, the one that used to consume your soul like a wildfire to be all you can be? It’s diminished now, isn’t it? Doused and replaced by the cold, biting reality of a life lived for material possessions, putting others needs first and social constructs. A life of half awake work and mind-numbing monotony. Doesn’t exactly spark a flame of joy in your bones, does it?

Pause for a moment and let this sink in.

You might be doing well on the surface layer, but here’s the cold, hard truth: amidst that seemingly picture perfect facade, you’re unknowingly missing the very essence of life itself. I’m talking about those profound, soul-stirring connections that leave you breathless, the magnetic friendships that push the boundaries beyond the status quo, the intoxicating romance that sets your world ablaze, and that relentless thirst for adventure and purpose that has propelled men to move mountains for millennia.

Thoreau once wrote,

“The mass of men live lives of quiet desperation.”

Look around you – this is as true today as it was then. Perhaps even more so!

We all enter into this world as a blank slate. An empty canvas to be filled with rich experiences, connections, passion filled romances and adventures to enrich our lives.

Men have always longed to…

Explore the world alongside his soulmate. He dreams of heart-pounding adventures, immersing himself in vibrant cultures, and cherishing those rare, life-altering moments. But alas, his reality is far from idyllic. Instead, he finds himself relentlessly toiling, desperately grasping for a taste of true “freedom.” Every day, he deceives himself, clutching onto the false notion that once he completes that next project or seals that elusive deal, he’ll finally have the time and worthiness to embrace romance, chase adventure, and authentically align with his deepest values
Ravish his beautiful lover nightly, yet he’s been fed the cliché advice to toil relentlessly before he can, striving to amplify his worth as a man. So he takes it to heart, dedicating his life to arduous work in the pursuit of being worthy of love. But what does he get in return? A love life that fails to provide pleasure, instead leaving him feeling abandoned and disrespected. His partner’s apathetic response to his romantic endeavors akin to a contractual obligation rather than an outpouring of raw passion, reducing their connection to the status of mere roommates. Isolated, he clings to his smartphone, its somber blue light a haunting symbol of the all-consuming void that torments his manhood.
Discover a purpose so mighty, so unyielding, that he’d lay down his very existence without hesitation to witness its breathtaking realization. But here’s the chilling truth: his days are shackled to a career, forced to coexist with similar zombie like colleagues, all for the sake of financing an unceasing cascade of hollow possessions that provide fleeting value, pass time and hold no genuine meaning.
Catapult out of bed each morning, brimming with an unwavering energy for the day. But alas, that is not the tale that unfolds. Instead, fatigue clings to his bones, sapping his vitality, as he traverses the exhausting grind of a never-ending pursuit of money, ensnared in the perpetual race to keep pace with the elusive peers around him. Determined to prove his worth, he yearns for validation, yearns for the recognition of his true capabilities, all in the hopes that it will rekindle the flickering flame of a passionless existence and breathe life into the barren landscapes of his love life
Deepen his connection with his masculinity, not only ‘finding’ himself, but actively sculpting himself into the confident, charming and alive man he’s always aspired to be or once was…But instead, he settles for society’s warped version of success, repressing his masculine fire, and sacrificing his most profound aspirations, dreams, and desires on the altar of social accolades, as he selflessly serves the needs of others.

Ah, what’s interesting is that he meticulously followed society’s script, constructing a life that was meant to be extraordinary, unforgettable, and full of success. Yet, here he sits, his eyes fixed on the glowing screen of a computer, ceaselessly treading away, trapped in the clutches of a whispering desperation that lingers within.

We live in a world where men are now more afraid than ever to be masculine, alive and act like strong grounded men. Men, like caged king lions, suppress their power and authenticity, concealing their truth behind a smokescreen of professional accomplishments and shiny toys.

And so it begins, a treacherous game, one that threatens to swallow them whole. With each move, their once vibrant social connections and intimate relationships plummet into a harrowing abyss. A descent into darkness unfolds, gripping their souls like a serpent’s squeeze. In a desperate scramble, the man succumbs to the alluring mirage of “more,” effectively ignoring the real problem while immersing himself in the superficial trappings of societal success.

Just consider that..

The suicide rate for men is 3.5x higher than that of women (iconic men who surpassed society’s version of “success”: like Robin Williams, Anthony Bourdain, Avicci, Chester Bennington, Mac Miller, Junior Seau, Chris Cornell and Heath Ledger fell victim to this horrible act)
The divorce rate in the U.S hovers above 51% with family courts often siding with the mother
Men are 3x more likely to become alcohol and drug dependent (not to mention adult website usage is at all time highs) – masking their problems and hiding rather than getting support and solving them.

You can be forgiven for assuming that, at this point, men would reach out for help in droves. But because of society’s mandate that “Real men” are somehow capable of handling everything by themselves, men are less likely to reach out for help.

Instead, men numb themselves to reality with pleasure inducing addictions. Porn, social media, video games, Netflix originals, and even “work”, have become the sources of our respite. But their shallow promises only exacerbate the issue. These vices do little to further what matters most in our lives and nothing to solve the deeper problems men increasingly face.

So let’s clear something up right now…

Men’s coaching does not mean a man is weak or incapable of achieving results himself.

Coaching is strategic investment that allows men to grow faster by leveraging the guidance of a seasoned expert with the perspective, experience and know-how to breakthrough limiting beliefs that keep men lost for decades faster.

Someone to hold you accountable – to speak to you like no other man will and guide you in your life and relationships or lack thereof. To finally free you of the BS story that’s been holding you back from experiencing the life and relationship you truly want.

Let’s be honest here:

Warren Buffet wouldn’t be the greatest investor of our time without Benjamin Graham…
Marcus Aurelius wouldn’t be one of the greatest philosophers in history, the Emperor of Rome, and one of the most successful generals in military history without Epictetus…
Michael Jordan wouldn’t be the greatest basketball player and (arguably) the greatest athlete of our time without Phil Jackson and you could say the same for Kobe.

And to believe that you’re the exception to the rule is nothing more than nonsense!

If you want to live an exceptional life…a life filled with joy, adventure, romance, deep connection, control over the direction of your life and a sense of true masculine power…getting help by someone who is a results driven coach is the smartest thing you can do to get ahead of the masses.

Men must bravely enlist the help of other men who have “been there, done that”, and can share their wisdom, guidance and insight for living a remarkable life and cultivating real relationships beyond societies surface layer.

And today, I’m going to share the ten reasons why men’s coaching is the “secret edge” you’ve been searching for. The “missing link” that will help men reclaim their masculine power, end the “Nice Guy” behaviors, and become more attractive to and respected by the highest quality women and most successful men in their community.

There’s no time to waste. Let’s dive in.

1. You Lack a Powerful Results Driven Mentor Who Listens Carefully and Inspires Relentless Action

Therapy can be great. And for some men, necessary. But it’s not the end all solution it’s been made out to be.

Sure, they’ll listen intently (they’re paid to). But do not confuse a good listener with actual progress in reality. They don’t push you to challenge yourself, eschew the status quo of mediocrity, and step into your role as the king and creator of your own life. They know very little about reclaiming your masculine power and creating a life that makes you proud of the man you are becoming. Instead, they enable you to play small. Encourage it even for longer than necessary.

A men’s coach doesn’t.

When you enlist the help of other like-minded men who have been where you are today, they can spot your B.S. before you even open your mouth. They will hold you to a higher standard, demand that you play at a higher level, and challenge you in a way that others wouldn’t dare.

Granted there are well-meaning mental health professionals that exist, yet few and far between. And after working with 1000s of men their feedback on the results of therapy vs. coaching were all but ubiquitous and mostly time consuming and costly.

With therapy, they spent years (some of them decades) digging through their past to identify all of the ways in which their parents, teachers, friends, and high school crushes screwed them up for life.

They myopically focused on the trauma (real or perceived) of the past in hopes that somehow…by realizing that their anger issues stemmed from their broken relationship with their father…they would magically heal themselves and fix the problems with how they were showing up in the present..

Therapy doesn’t empower you to move forward, it only helps you resolve that which is already in your rear view mirror. It won’t help you show up to your relationships in a more grounded way that women naturally respond to, build a social lifestyle that excites you, or contend with the very real challenges you are facing in the present. It simply keeps you trapped by the challenges you’ve already overcome.

With coaching, it’s an entirely different story.

Yes, coaches will still address the implications of your past and how unresolved trauma might be manifesting itself as negative behaviors today.

But they don’t let you live there indefinitely and damn well don’t let you use it as an excuse!

With a men’s coach, the entire conversation is centered around growth, about learning from the challenges you’ve experienced in the past to become stronger and move forward today.

It isn’t based on theory. It’s based on action, results and experience. Experience from your coach’s own life or the lives of those they’ve worked with and gotten the end result you seek.

They’ll listen to you deeply, yes. But they’ll also have the courage and wisdom to speak to you directly like a man in a bold, masculine and direct way that is severely lacking today. Calling you out on the b.s. stories to which you’ve given away your power…giving you the facts of why your life isn’t working effectively in this new era for men…and being brutally honest in their feedback.

They’ll hit you upside the head with a no-holds barred reality check and hold you accountable to breaking the patterns and behaviors that are holing you back from the life, social status, and relationships you want.

With a therapist, you talk about the past. With a coach, you march courageously into the future.

They won’t let you hide from your challenges or outsource responsibility for your life to some traumatic episode of the past.

They will challenge you to level up today. To be real, raw, and honest with yourself and take concrete bold action toward solving the challenges holding you back from the life you want – on your very first session.

2. You’re Trapped by “Nice Guy” Behaviors Because You Lack Strong Masculine Role Models

Like me, your father probably wasn’t the best role model.

He wasn’t the Strong Grounded Man you aspire to be. He didn’t live a passionate, courageous and exciting life, he wasn’t a part of a strong community of men, he likely gave his power away to your mother and unintentionally taught you, through his example, that, to be a man, is to resign yourself to a life of serving and pleasing others…void of true purpose, power, and adventure.

Like most men, your father was either a quintessential “Nice Guy”–who trained you to adopt those same patterns and behaviors–or the opposite, a “Bad Boy”–who inadvertently trained you to be a nice guy because you wanted to rebel and be nothing like him.

This isn’t meant to denigrate your father – he likely did the best he could with what he was given from his father.

You may struggle with how to treat women (especially attractive women)
You may struggle standing up for yourself during conflict
You may avoid or put off conflicts to not “upset” anyone or cause any problems
You don’t know how to respectfully get your needs met and because of this hide a deep frustration inside– where sometimes it uncontrollably explodes in an anger fueled outburst
You are a nice guy who does things in order to get people to validate your worth

In our modern society, healthy and authentic masculinity has become vilified. Because of the real problems with toxic masculinity, we’ve instructed men to be submissive.

We’ve trained men to eschew their masculine edge…to rely only on the feminine elements of their nature instead of bringing together both energies to become complete, fully integrated, Grounded Men.

Today, it is more important than ever for men to regain their masculine energy because it is the missing link to get to the next level in life – especially romantic relationships.

Too many men allow their “Nice Guy” tendencies to undermine their life…putting the needs of others first…struggling to assert themselves to avoid tension…being unable to set and maintain healthy boundaries…and refusing to prioritize their own goals, ambitions and dreams.

And the end result is always a life filled with regret, a decrease in the man’s value and incognito resentment to those who take advantage of you with little to no appreciation.

On the other side of the spectrum, we have the “Over Achiever”. Men who use their professional ambitions to mask the pain they feel inside and achieve some modicum of validation through their external accomplishments and accolades to outwardly prove their self worth to society and of course, women.

While there’s nothing wrong with success, money, or achievement, these men are not pursuing these things from a place of wholeness…using them as tools and resources to magnify a fulfilled life…instead they pursue them from the lens of scarcity, ego and desperation. In hopes that the next milestone, promotion, or product launch will somehow give them the feeling that they are enough and others will suddenly validate them and place them on a higher arbitrary pedestal of life. That they finally belong, yet the problem is this can go on for the rest of the man’s life… meanwhile the clock is ticking.

But when you leverage a men’s coach, when you surround yourself with strong masculine men tempered by virtue and a sense of purpose and honor, you can begin the process of eradicating these dark tendencies once and for all.

You’ll learn how to develop your confidence in a healthy way free of ego, how to set boundaries, prioritize yourself (while still being valued and respected by others) and your desires, speak the truth even when it’s hard, and cultivate a strong sense of self worth.

And from this place, you can finally be at peace with yourself and the world around you. You will be able to show up to life and relationships as your true self like never before.

You will be enough.

3. You Give Away Your Masculine Power To Women then Lose All Respect, Value and Romance

Woody Allen said, “90% of success is showing up.” But men today are not showing up for the women in their lives.

Men have lost the strength of their masculine edge and women are starving for it.

Today, men are terrified by their own masculinity. They are petrified by their darkness and aggression and, instead of embracing and learning to harness it, they suppress it and embrace what is easier and more acceptable – nice guy, people pleasing and approval seeking behaviors. Both in their lives and in their interactions with women

The modern man often feels weak, spineless and powerless; castrated by a hyper feminist society and emasculated by the women they yearn connection and intimacy for.

If he’s single, he struggles to be present in his interactions, suppressing his desire for romantic intimacy and acting disingenuously out of fear of rejection with the hopes of being “liked” for being a nice guy who will wait his turn.

And if he’s married or in a committed relationship?

He gives away his power to his partner, marking the death of connection, deep intimacy and allowing her to lead the relationship and indeed his life. Instead of showing up as a leader, confidant, protector for her, he’s little more than a walking ATM. A cash dispenser whom she begrudgingly settles for in return for an infrequent lackluster romantic life.

And these behaviors put you at the mercy of women!

She owns you – and loses all respect for you, and therefore attraction and romantic desire cannot exist. You have no power in the relationship, and you both know it.

When this happens, women, even faithful and loving women, become susceptible to the allure of infidelity. Not because they are bad corrupt people. Because the man is not showing up the way he needs to and is incapable of doing the things he needs to do to keep a high quality woman engaged and excited in his life.

She treats you like a little boy because that’s exactly how you’re acting. A physically big man with little inner backbone (one of the biggest turn offs to women), unconsciously telling her that he is a weak man who cannot be trusted which makes her feel unsafe and unhappy.

And when she’s finally had enough of the weak needy behavior? She leaves him, alone and heart broken. You don’t need me to tell you how painful a serious breakup or divorce can be for a man (especially a successful man of worth). Beyond the stress and financial burden of possibly losing (half) or more of your net worth and everything you bled for, these events are often a setback from which a man will rarely fully recover.

They extinguish what little fire was left in his soul and snuff out the glimmer of hope that still twinkled in his eye.

The financial and emotional cost of exuding weak “Nice Guy” behaviors in a relationship is higher than most men realize until it’s too late. Much higher than doing the work required to become a strong grounded man capable of attracting and keeping his partner among many other life benefits.

And, what most men don’t realize is that women are just as confused, frustrated, and exhausted by this charade as you are. Women don’t want a doormat for a partner. They don’t want someone who spinelessly defers to and subjugates themselves at the altar of the feminine as to not upset her.

They want a man they can trust. A man with power, vision, and aliveness who gives her butterflies in her stomach and keeps her daydreaming when she will get to go out with and bed her king again.

And when you work with a men’s coach, you can become this man.

You’ll regain your masculine power, boost your confidence, and show up to the relationship as a whole, fulfilled, and complete man…a man who doesn’t need a woman to feel validated or worthy…but who chooses a woman with whom he can build his kingdom. A woman to love, support, and challenge and who loves, supports, and challenges him.

A men’s coach not only helps you reclaim your power… you multiply it and go from the masses of men who are approval seeking nice guys to “omg who is THAT guy?”

4. You Chase Money Endlessly without a Clear Definite Purpose Bigger than Oneself

Most men believe that their purpose in life is relegated to doing whatever will make the most money. That their self worth is contingent on their net worth and that the only appropriate answer to the question “What do you want?” is “More.”

Sure, you make money. Maybe even great money. But beyond the base level of success the income doesn’t excite or inspire you like it once did. It simply assuages your growing sense of a lack of purpose, allowing you to go through the motions, numbing yourself with vices without any idea as to what you’re doing or WHY you’re doing it.

You follow the crowd aimlessly moving through life unconsciously. Working long hours, giving up your personal life, saying “No” to the experiences and life you really want to make more money…and for what?

Extra bedrooms? More horses in the car? A mini vacation where you spend your time sequestered in your hotel room responding to emails and putting out fires?

Most men aren’t willing to take a step back, look inwardly, and ask themselves, “Beyond financial success…What do I really want out of my life and relationships?”

Because you haven’t done this work you grind even harder thinking “more” is the solution, desperately pouring your soul and finite time into work in hopes that one day…the money you earn will finally validate your worth as a man and make you feel “enough”.

And when it doesn’t?

You seek instant gratification in the forms of vices like alcohol, drugs, porn, binging social media/tv, and excessive consumerism to numb the pain of a purposeless life.

You spend money on lavish external things like cars, clothes, and unnecessary household gadgets in the hopes of finding just a niggle of temporary excitement – But the fleeting and superficial nature of these purchases leave you no more content, joyful, or alive than the month prior, keeping you in a perpetual cycle of consumption.

Indeed, there has been major shifts in society – men today have no Great War. No cause. No purpose. And feel utterly lost because of it.

Every man needs a fight. Not necessarily physical, but a greater mission to fight for.

“Your purpose in life is to find your purpose and give your whole heart and soul to it.” – Gautama Buddha

Something that’s greater than yourself and for some men possibly noble enough that it’s worth sacrificing everything for.

By plugging yourself into a community of like minded men led by the guidance of a team of expert men’s coach who can open your eyes up to a new possibility, you’ll gain clarity on your path and purpose and unlock a new level of meaning and significance in your life that supersedes the purely materialistic of the unconscious masses.

5. You Need Someone Other Than Your Divorced or Single Friends with Whom You Can Get Effective Feedback on Your Intimate Relationships

Men’s coaches specialize in relationships in many ways. The masculine-feminine dynamic is likely why they became men’s coaches in the first place. Often many men’s coaches have backgrounds in dating, seduction and relationship coaching.

However, they’ve evolved into a healthier and more mature form of supporting men beyond the superficial “pick up” tactics.

Your men’s coach is to relationships what a Navy SEAL is to combat.

He will teach you the proven strategies and mental frameworks (that none of your family, friends, and peers have the slightest clue about) so that you can transform into the type of man that women respect, admire, and brag about to their friends and family.

If the intense satisfaction that comes from a deeper level of connection, intimacy and romance with women is what you want… you are not going to get it by listening to your friend whose own relationship history is a stage 4 natural disaster who’s got divorce attorneys on speed dial.

Most men are bitter, jaded, and angry with women. After a stream of failed relationships, they buy into the lie that there must be something fundamentally wrong with women (instead of admitting to themselves that the problem might lie in how they are showing up to women).

The simple truth of the matter is that you cannot take advice from someone who has not achieved the results you want to achieve.

The right men’s coach has already walked the walk. He knows how to achieve lasting success, intimacy, and passion inside of your relationship and will teach you how to lay the foundation of self-love, confidence, and masculine power required to make your relationship thrive.

He’ll help you either find the perfect woman with whom you will build your kingdom, OR enhance your existing relationship with the woman you’ve under-prioritized for years (maybe even decades) to new heights.

Nothing, and I do mean nothing, will have a greater impact on your happiness, success, and fulfillment than the woman with whom you choose to share your life. Happiness is not found in another ‘0’ in the bank account…but in a deep well of shared experiences with someone whom you love and feel deeply connected to – and who feels the same

And with the help of a results driven men’s coach, you’ll finally have access to the mindsets, strategies and tactics that you need to solve the most challenging relationship struggles in your life.

6. You Do Not Have Real Masculine Accountability in Your Life that Calls You Out on Your BS (and likely never have)

When a strong grounded man with absolute conviction asks you to do something – you do it.

When you tell someone whom you deeply respect that you are going to take a specific action, you will do everything in your power to keep your word because you do not want to let someone you respect down.

It’s in our masculine nature to be a man of our word. If you tell a strong grounded man you’ll do something and don’t – you’re breaking your word and bond with your coach.

It’s not about the money with the men’s coach; it’s about being a man of integrity.

If your word means nothing… then are you a man to be trusted? Can women even trust this man?

When a man is held accountable by someone he deeply respects, then he focuses harder and takes the right actions to get stellar results, even when it’s scary and seems damn near impossible.

You can’t hide. You can’t play small. You can’t live with the excuses that you’ve suppressed for years anymore.

More importantly, you can’t ignore the parts of your life that aren’t working and rely on superficial external successes to hide behind an unhappy and un-lived life. It’s very easy for a men’s coach to see behind the facade you’ve created to feel safe.

The disappointment you feel when you let down someone you greatly respect will propel you into action. It’s a big reality check for you at that moment when your men’s coach is not buying into your b.s. story that everyone else believes.

You’ll be thinking in the back of your head, “He can see through my BS. I can’t believe I’ve gotten away with this for this long and it’s time to change.”

“Good men are bound by conscience and liberated by accountability.” ~Wes Fessler

Any man can shy away from help because he’s afraid to look foolish yet it’s the truly courageous and brave man who stands up and asks for support.

You probably surround yourself with high achieving men already.

While they mean well and care about you and your success, just like crabs in a bucket pulling any escaping crabs back down they are terrified of watching you outgrow and outperform your existing social group

Having a men’s coach and being a part of a community, a brotherhood, of men who truly stand for your greatness doesn’t make you weak or incapable. It’s where you can get your “secret” edge against the masses who are unaware such a solution exists.

7. You Don’t Have the Freedom To Fearlessly Express Your Truth Fully, So You Remain Silent and Don’t get Your Needs Met (in work and relationships)

At the core of every man is the desire to be free, yet ironically men often confine themselves to a cage to appear like they are okay.

You’ve locked your emotions up and pretend to be a “strong man” when at times, you’re struggling inside and barely holding it together.

Other people don’t see this…

All they see is the success…the external accolades…the fake smile…the “picture-perfect life”.

They see what you allow them to see, but they don’t see the truth. They don’t see the struggle that you’re experiencing…the inescapable sense of inadequacy…the fear that you’re on the brink of divorce, breaking up or suffering from chronic loneliness or an existential crisis.

You bought into the B.S. story that “Big boys don’t cry”, and so you stoically ignore and suppress your emotions and desires, convincing yourself that the only solution is to be silent in the face of abject fear.

When a man does this he shuts down a piece of his heart and becomes less human and more of a robot programmed by society with few signs of life becoming a shell of what he could be.

Expressing your emotions in a healthy way is a natural thing humans do, no different than urinating. If you don’t urinate you’re in pain. When you urinate the pain is gone – it’s that simple.

It’s a release that is a necessary requirement for healthy living.

“Expose yourself to your deepest fear; after that, fear has no power, and the fear of freedom shrinks and vanishes. You are free.” – Jim Morrison

Emotionally handicapped men become distant, angry, frustrated and cynical (in extreme cases, even violent).

Friendships and relationships slowly feel more like chores. When someone asks how you’re doing you reply with perfunctory bland responses to avoid expressing how you really feel.

“I’m alright, good, great, fine”… then you quickly turn the conversation back to them or something superficial to avoid anything, but the truth.

When a man is disconnected from his heart, he becomes disconnected from the rest of the world and lives in a silent prison where it’s just him and his dark thoughts shielded by his external successes.

He’s trapped in a mind-made prison without ever realizing that he is both the inmate and the warden of the prison. He holds the key to his own liberation, but years of societal conditioning have blinded him to this possibility.

Like an elephant kept in place by a feeble rope, he fails to realize that he’s outgrown the confines in which he has placed himself and that, at any moment, he can unlock the door and find his freedom.

Through men’s coaching and a strong community, you’ll discover how to express your emotions in a healthy way that doesn’t make you weak, but courageous and respected. How to connect with the deepest parts of yourself and be authentic, raw, and honest with other men. You’ll learn how to experience the depths of true connection, friendship, and intimacy, and step into your role as the vibrant and expressive king of your life.

Your men’s coach unlocks your emotional cage so you can release the heavy feeling in your gut and finally experience what true personal freedom means.

8. You’re Going Through Life Without Strong Male Support And Quality Friendships that Last and Go Beyond the Surface Layer

I’m not talking about your business associates or clients with whom you occasionally share a drink or over-priced steak dinner…but men with whom you can speak your truth and who support you. Life can be so much more than working, going to the gym and watching television/social media/adult websites.

The greatest paradox of the human experience is that, even in a sea of surface layer connections and acquaintances we can still feel desperately and soul-wrenchingly alone.

Most men, especially successful men like yourself, go through their entire lives without true male friendships.

They have plenty of acquaintances…golf buddies… beer hangouts… gym partners…business colleagues to do more deals with…but they lack meaningful, unfiltered, masculine connection.

They fear judgment and invalidation and, as a result, smother their truth until its voice is so faint they themselves can barely hear it.

Show me a man who fears authentic connection and real friendships with other quality men, and I’ll show you a man who is broken…alone…isolated…and void of life.

Humans need to connect at a deep level to be emotionally free, alive and healthy.

Women do this more naturally than men (likely because there are fewer stigmas around opening up and sharing the truth) but it is also essential for men’s well being.

And it’s no wonder that according to the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention the suicide rate for men is 3.5x higher than women and rising! This statistic isn’t relegated to low life’s in society but even the most successful men, celebrities, musicians, actors and those who have “made it” at high levels in society.

Men are more alone than ever today. There are few people with whom they can speak honestly and candidly without fear of judgment and ridicule. No one to support them, to challenge them, to share in their struggle and success and act as a brother in arms during good times and bad.

This is a very real social problem that people aren’t talking about and most men aren’t even aware of themselves because it’s so commonplace and men are too busy chasing “more”.

Do you have men in your life that you can share the good, the bad and the ugly with who will listen and support you?

Can you be vulnerable and share what’s really going on with other men without being scrutinized?

Men who live in a world of truths are more connected to the world and those around them and find more joy, happiness, and inner fulfillment.

With a men’s coach, you’ll be forced to live in a world of truth. There’s no room for deceit or dishonesty in a coaching relationship. The very nature of the relationship demands no b.s. honesty.

And when you get real with yourself and the other men in your life, you will tap into a deeper level of the human experience.

Your interactions will deepen, other men will respect you more, women will be more connected and attracted to you. As the saying goes, “The truth will set you free.” And a men’s coach will help you find, speak, and live in your truth.

9. You are Settling and Playing Small in the Game of Life Because You are Doing Better than Your Peers Growing Up

Our society has convinced men that…so long as they are making good money and can keep pace with the Jones’…they are playing the game of life well.

But what most men forget is that the concept of “Playing Small” is not relegated to only the financial realm! That’s one piece of the pie of life…

You can be a leader of your industry…a multimillionaire…the best in the world at what you do professionally…and still be playing the game of life grossly below your potential.

But if you aren’t going for the life you really want…if you aren’t fostering love, connection, intimacy…if you aren’t injecting adventure, aliveness, and risk into your life…if you wake up doing the same damn thing day in day out.

If you don’t love the life you have while you pursue your grand vision then you’re missing out on a whole lot of life. If you’re not excited for the day, alive in your social interactions and fulfilled in your relationships then…

You are winning the career battle, but you’re losing the war for your life, freedom and happiness.

It doesn’t matter how much money you have in the bank or how many positions you’ve held that are prefixed by the letter ‘C’ or ‘Senior” or ‘VP’. If you aren’t excited about your life and filled with passion, purpose, and an ineffable sense of inner power…you’re playing small.

If your life report looks like this then what’s your overall GPA on life?

Career: A+
Physical Health: C
Emotional Health: C
Social Life: F
Romantic relationships: F
Purpose/mission/contribution: F
Adventure/passions/hobbies: F
Masculinity/backbone: F
Self confidence/self image/self worth: F

Oh how exciting would it be to fall in love with this guy and spend the rest of your life with him?

Now can you see the problem here? Most men pour all the energy into career and wonder why they’re unhappy outside of work with the results in their life and relationships.

And a men’s coach will not only call out this b.s. behavior when he sees it…but he will enable you to do the hard deep work required to address the other critical areas of life that are being ignored.

When you’re a part of the right community all the doing the same and assisted by a team of expert coaches, playing small is no longer an option.

You may hate us at times because we push you outside of your comfort zone…you may despise our brutal honesty and no-holds barred tirades…you may tell us to “Screw off!” and consider reverting back to your old ways.

But you’ll come to realize that we’re the only ones in your life pushing you forward. You are playing small and it’s time to end that.

You have 2 options:

1. You can stay safe and retreat into your old habits of chasing career success, pursuing external validation, masking pain with vices and relying on your accomplishments to fuel your self worth.

2. You can embrace the call to adventure into the life and relationships you’ve always wanted!

Accept that your professional accomplishments, however impressive, do not define your worth as a man and that, to live without regret, to not waste the rest of your life, you need more out of yourself and your life than another promotion, zero in the account or deal closed.

You can decide to take a stand for your own life and vision and pour your heart and soul into becoming the Strong Grounded Man you know you can be. To living the life you want. To eschewing society’s values and living a life based on your own vision, your own aspirations, and your own rules.

You can make this decision today.

But to make it stick, you’ll need support and guidance.

And I can promise you…when you accept that you cannot do it alone…when you decide to go all in on your life and recruit a team of expert coaches, mentors, and likeminded brothers you can make it happen a lot faster than you think.

That is the moment you will look back on years from today and say “That is when everything changed!”

Would it be helpful to discuss your unique situation, goals and challenges on the phone with a men’s coach in the next few days? Click to learn about the best men’s coaching service available

10. If You Keep Doing What You’ve Always Done, You’ll Miss the Best Years of Life

Now, you have a decision to make.

You made it to the end of this article for one simple reason. This conversation has deeply resonated with you.

Maybe your relationship is on the brink of ending and the woman you once promised to love and cherish has become the very source of your unhappiness, discontentment and frustration.

Maybe you’re chronically single and tired of being friend-zoned by the quality women you desire and are beginning to give up on dating altogether and embrace a life of single-hood.

Maybe your life is working…on the outside. But you no longer feel the fire, passion, and power you once had. You’ve become sedated…unaware of how much more your life could be.

Maybe workaholism and the constant pursuit of “more” has left you empty, depleted, and alone. You’ve spent years, maybe even decades, pursuing “success” and now you find yourself wondering when you go to bed at night… “is this really it?”

The simple truth is, I don’t know what pain you’re experiencing. I don’t know what challenges and frustrations you’re facing today.

But what I do know is this…

The price of inaction…of settling for a life you don’t love…of ignoring the real challenges in your life…of continuing to operate under the same dysfunctional paradigm and strategy that brought you here in the first place…is an un-lived life, a life of regret.

If you don’t make a change and decide to take new actions today, nothing will change tomorrow. Years will go by and the problems you are facing now will be amplified.

Your happiness, relationships, family, and sanity will slowly start to dwindle until you find yourself years later, wishing you could turn back the clock and do it YOUR WAY all over again.

But it doesn’t have to be this way. You can do it your way starting today and take a stand.

Over the past ten years, I’ve been quietly helping men at the highest levels achieve the things that money can’t buy…the happiness, purpose, passion, fulfillment, and romance they’ve craved for all along.

You’ve read the entire article which tells me you are serious about making big changes in your life so, I want to invite you into my brotherhood as the ideal next step…

…An elite coaching system unlike anything you’ve ever experienced before that will spark a personal revolution in your life, relationships and fundamentally change the man you are today.

I invite you to answer the call to adventure, to unleash the “powerful, successful, attractive man” you’ve kept caged inside of you for far too long, to take a stand for your life and your future and say “Enough is enough, I’m ready to reclaim my power and make this a reality!”

You know as well as I do that if you continue doing what you’ve always done, you’ll get what you’ve always had.

And if this article has not resonated with you…if you’re still convinced that you can do it all alone…

Then I wish you all the best, but I can’t help you and honestly no one can. You are not ready for the transformational work we mastered.

But if you’re courageous enough to accept that there are challenges in your life for which you don’t have the solutions…that there’s more to your existence as a man than simply making more money and living like a robot…that you CAN become the strong Grounded Man with deeper connections, fulfillment and relationships that you’ve always wanted… then you’re going to love what I’ve created for you.

However, I must be blunt, I do not offer cheap solutions to serious life and relationship problems. And to be honest, when has the cheapest solution to a serious problem of this magnitude ever worked? It’s usually a waste of time and that’s not what we’re about.

You wouldn’t look for the cheapest and least experienced doctor if you or a loved one were to undergo a life threatening surgery. And this problem should be treated at the same level since there are serious consequences if these problems continue to be ignored.

Through heavy research and development, we have learned that to solve the problem for good, it requires a team of talented and experienced experts who love what they do, in-depth high level training, actionable systems and exercises to achieve lifelong results. The good news is we have the solution and we’ve perfected it over the last decade with over 1000 clients, you must stop resisting help when it’s right in front of you and prioritize what matters most.

Chicken Cacciatore

What is Chicken Cacciatore?

Chicken Cacciatore is a rustic Italian dish made of bone-in chicken portions that have been browned then braised, along with sauteed vegetables, in crushed tomatoes, wine and herbs. Cacciatore is pronounced kah-chuh-taw-ree.

What to Serve with It

It is the coziest dish and it’s perfect paired with pasta, rustic bread, polenta, or mashed potatoes. It’s basically a meal in one so you really don’t need a whole lot more with it.

This makes for the perfect homestyle dinner to sit down to after a hectic day or long week. Such delicious Italian comfort food that’s well worth the process!

Ingredients

1 (3 pound) broiler-fryer chicken
2 cups water
1 (15 ounce) can tomato sauce
1 tablespoon oregano
1/2 cup dry white wine
1 medium onion, chopped
1 large green bell pepper, thinly sliced
1 clove garlic, minced
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper

Instructions

Bring chicken to boil in a pot of water. Simmer chicken for 30 minutes.
Remove from heat and cool. Pour stock into a measuring cup to make 2 cups and refrigerate.
Skim any fat from top of reserved stock when cooled.
De-bone the chicken. Discard bones and skin. Cut chicken into chunks.
Place all ingredients in a pot and cover. Bring to a boil, turning heat down immediately. Simmer for 30 minutes, uncovered, or until sauce has thickened.
Serve on a bed of rice.

How to Make Chicken Cacciatore

Brown chicken thighs: Heat olive oil in an extra large saute pan over medium-high heat.
Dab thighs dry with paper towels, season both sides with salt. Sear thighs until browned about 5 minutes, turn and sear about 3 – 4 minutes longer. Transfer thighs to a plate, set aside.
Saute mushrooms: Carefully drain off all but about 2 Tbsp fat in pan. Return to medium-high heat. Add mushrooms and saute, only tossing every minute or two, until browned, about 4 minutes total.
Saute other vegetables: Add bell peppers and onions and saute 3 minutes. Add garlic and saute 1 minute longer.
Add wine, reduce: Remove from heat, pour in wine. Return to heat and let simmer over medium-low heat until reduced by about half, about 3 minutes.
Add liquids, and flavorings: Mix in crushed tomatoes, chicken broth, half the parsley, half the basil, the thyme, oregano and parmesan rind. Season with salt and pepper to taste (take it easy on the salt as sauce will reduce some and parmesan will season the sauce).
Simmer chicken with cacciatore sauce until cooked through: Nestle chicken thighs into the sauce, bring to a simmer and reduce to medium-low. Cover while leaving lid just lightly ajar for some steam to escape. Simmer 15 minutes.
Turn thighs. Cover fully and continue to simmer until all of the thighs have cooked through (175 degrees in center), about 15 minutes longer.
Finish with olives and herb garnish: If using olives sprinkle over. Finish with remaining half of the parsley and basil. Serve warm with cooked pasta if desired.

Have you ever literally face-palmed in court?

Oh yeah. It was when we were in court, seeking an Order of Protection to get my daughter’s ex-boyfriend to stop intimidating her (Garrett Murphy’s answer to As 2016 has come to an end, what is the saddest thing that happened in your life in this year?).

One of the key things in that story was a day when the ex rode my daughter’s bus home from school, saying, out loud, that he was going to try to get her to have a panic attack.

This charming, precious boy had obviously been telling his parents how nice he’d been to my daughter. One of the things he’d must have told them was that he’d been keeping his distance from her.

So, in court, after we’d laid out our complaints, including the bus ride, he had his chance to question us (his rebuttal), then he told his side of the story.

He explained that when he rode the bus that day, he sat in the front row of the bus, as far from my daughter as possible, because he was trying to be nice to her, and this made it impossible for him to be actively antagonizing her.

So, when my daughter did her rebuttal, she asked where he remembered her sitting, he responded “between the back seat and the middle”, which would put about 10-12 rows of seats between them.

“So, why would you come sit within three rows of me, knowing the effects it would have on me?” My daughter had forgotten his claim that he sat in the very first seat on the bus.

“Well, the front of the bus was full, so I sat down in the first available seat. I’m sorry it was so close to you.” Holy crap, HE forgot his claim as well.

I interrupted (the judge had said he’d allow it at the onset): “Wait, didn’t you say, just a few minutes ago, that you sat in the front seat?”

“Yeah.”

“But, she sat in the back half of the bus…and you just admitted to sitting three rows in front of her.”

The judge’s face was already in his hands. Same with his mom’s. As he began stammering and trying to explain, I couldn’t help myself. Head…hands….

It Begins…All 50 States Fight For Protection (WARNING)

https://youtu.be/S3LSAnUg180

What should I do when my boss always makes other co-workers try to reach me and do work right away when I don’t respond to him on my off-hours and days?

I had this problem with several bosses at different jobs.

I did not take calls from work if I was off duty. My boss would blow up my phone, message me on social media and when that did not work, he would get my coworkers to do the same.

I ignored them as well.

When my boss couldn’t get me on the phone and my coworkers were unsuccessful, the boss would show up at my house and bang on my door like he was the police.

I cursed out one boss, slammed the door in the face of another and got into a screaming match with the other. I could not believe how disrespectful they were being; they violated so many boundaries by showing up at my house.

It wasn’t long before I found another job and split.

You have to stress this and be clear with the boss about not contacting you when off duty. I once had a boss blow up my phone until I answered and when I answered, I said, “If you’re calling me like this at 4:45am, this state better be on fire and you’re telling me I need to evacuate.”

Boss said, “We had several call offs and no call shows for third shift and first shift. We need help and wanted to know if you could come in.”

“No, I am not coming in to work,” I said. “I work like crazy and I want to rest and enjoy life outside of work.”

Then comes the bullshit about how I need to be a team player and I need to step up and help the situation.

“Okay, why do I have to step up at all?” I asked. “Why don’t you say something to the people who call off or don’t show up for their shift instead of putting pressure on me to come in all the time?”

“Shannon, everyone knows you will come in,” said Boss. “No one can count on the others to show up.”

“And yet, they are still employed,” I said. “I’m not coming in. I’m exhausted and want to rest. I am always the one everyone calls on to come in and help; I work 80, 90, and sometimes 100 hours a week because of this and I’m sick and damn tired of it. Call someone else and stop calling me on my off time; I am allowed to have a life outside of work.”

I hung up.

Boss got all pissy because I wouldn’t come in and then all of a sudden I was the laziest employee. I lost all motivation for that job because the boss was mad that I wouldn’t come in to help.

Boss went on and on about how lazy I was. Forgot about the thousand times I did step up and focused on the one time I didn’t.

I eventually had to escalate the matter up the chain of command to get results. It shouldn’t even have had to come to that, but the boss was resentful and petty and passive aggressive and of course I had to go deal with that.

In the end, it took going to the administrator several times over the course of several weeks before I got satisfaction. But by then it was too late; I just found a new job and quit because it was fucking ridiculous for the boss to expect me to make the job the center of my life to the exclusion of all else. They even blew me up when I was at my daughter’s graduation and I made it clear I wanted to be left alone. Ended up going in afterward and then get there and find that I was the only one who showed up…and I was expected to work and do it all, on my own and with no help.

Nursing homes jobs will absolutely fuck your soul.

What is the most inappropriate thing you have done during a serious moment?

We were arguing… and this time, it was serious.

We had a complex relationship: We were dance partners, business partners, and dating each other.

Couple that with the new condo we just moved into and there was no escaping this firestorm.

Like most nights, our dance rehearsal time went long into the night, and considering our sport requires two humans to move in harmony together, there was plenty of discord in the process.

On this night, a bit of dance feedback hit with a pang of frustration and made impact like lemon juice in the eye.

It wasn’t intended to cause harm but it sure as hell did.

The feedback devolved quickly into a blaming cluster bomb which included dance, business, and relationship “feedback”.

We lobbed these verbal weapons back and forth at each other.

At that time we had two separate dance floors divided by a sliding glass door, so, in an effort to simmer things down, I moved into the other room to practice on my own and clear my head.

But this was one of those arguments with frustration residue, it seeped into the pores of our egos and made for a difficult recovery.

I needed to do something because the car ride to our home and everything afterward wouldn’t get any better unless something changed.

She looked over at me with daggers in her eyes.

I stopped practicing.

She said something I couldn’t make out (probably for the best).

So I treated the sliding glass door like it was completely soundproof.

Me: “what?!”

Her: (angry) “I said, this is a waste of time!”

Me: (playing deaf) “you want me to do what?”

Her: (angrier/enunciating) “I said, this is a waste of time!!”

Me: (stunned) “you want me to take my pants off?!”

Her: (puzzled/angry) “what are you talking about!”

Me: (undoing my belt) “really my pants?! Okay if that’s what you want.”

I drop my pants.

She stands there in shock and then, like a sneeze you’re trying your best to fight off, she involuntarily smiled, laughed, and we made up.

It was one of the best moves of my dance, business, and personal life.

(We were married 18 months later)

What Happened To Marriage?

https://youtu.be/eSYNwf7Pets

What’s the most lame excuse your boss has ever offered for not giving you an expected raise?

I have three stories about this one. But I’m going to share the lamest excuse I was given.

I’d been working for this employer for about two years and then later left. I was earning the same wage as when I started; this was a year before I asked for a raise and I was earning the same when I left after this event, about a year later.

I’d been the go-to person at this job. I mean, I was called upon to do so much; I was even called away from one client to go take care of another one (home health) and expected to drive back and forth between the clients’ homes, which was 30 minutes apart. So I was expected to drive back and forth to care for two clients rather than just get someone else to pick up one of the cases.

My boss didn’t see any point in hiring more help; in fact he always said, “Why should I hire more people when I have you here? It’s not a big deal; it’s just some extra driving. You can handle it,” and left it at that.

So after a year of this insanity, I finally went to the boss and asked for a raise.

“A raise? Just what have you done to earn one?” the boss asked.

Incredulous, I ticked off all the things I’d done to help out: I gave up my holidays and days off to pick up a new client, I juggled two clients for three months (one of them eventually passed away), commuting and working a total of 18 hours a day, I spent two weeks driving all over town to care for clients during the Hurricane Ike windstorm that passed through, knocking out power. I’d even packed up clients’ laundry and took it to my house to wash it since I still had power and even cooked meals to carry to the clients so they could have a hot meal. I brought my butane campstove cook top so I could heat water to wash them up.

Now you’d think that would have been enough to have been awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor. But apparently that wasn’t impressive to my boss.

“Shannon, that isn’t going beyond the call of duty. That’s just doing the job you’re paid to do,” he said.

“Really? So what would I have to do to earn a raise? Give you a kidney or lung? I’m busting my ass here and I deserve a raise for my efforts.” I said.

“Well, Shannon, I can’t afford to give you a raise. Don’t have the money,” said the boss.

“Really? I notice that you and your wife have brand-new cars, bought after you returned from your vacation in Hawaii,” I said testily.

“Shannon, that’s why I don’t have the money to give you a raise. Besides, you can always go get foodstamps or go to a food pantry. I can’t do that,” he said.

“Dude, bottom line here, I deserve a raise and you need to give it to me,” I said.

“Shannon, I have to keep my family in the lifestyle they’re accustomed to. Now being poor is a huge issue for me, but it’s not a problem for you. It’s okay for you to not have enough money coming in. I have to be able to pay for my children’s activities and the nanny, I have to make sure my wife gets her cosmetic surgery and that I have a decent vehicle to get around in. If it’s that much of an issue, just go get a second job,” said the boss.

I walked out of the office, questioning my work performance. Was I not doing enough? Was I really doing enough to earn a raise?

So I resolved to earn a raise. And I busted it out. I went over, above and beyond the call of duty for the next year.

So I go back to my boss and tell him I deserve a raise. This time he laughed at me.

“Shannon, what makes you think you deserve a raise just for doing your job? Why do you keep running in here looking for handouts?” said the boss.

I got to my feet slowly. Lean over the desk.

“Are you fucking kidding me right now?” I said. “I earn every nickel of every paycheck I draw on this job; you do not hand me a goddamn thing. I don’t know what seems to be the problem here, but I’ve been busting my ass for you for two years now and I’m still earning the same as when I started here,” I said, furious at his remarks.

“Well, I had to pay for my children’s school, my wife’s shit and I had to remodel the kitchen and finish my basement so I can turn it into a game room for my children. Plus, we’re going on vacation soon and I have to pay for that, so I can’t give you a raise,” the boss said.

I rose and stormed out. The boss actually had the nerve to say, “Don’t ask for a raise again. You’re not getting one,” got up and slammed the office door.

I got in my car and went to the library. I got on the computer and looked for a new job. I filled out applications and actually got a call back within a few minutes. Scheduled an interview.

I attended the interview and was offered the job. I accepted; it was paying 50% more than my current job, offered real benefits and perks and were reasonable when it came to workloads.

I went back to my other job and just waited.

Then my boss announced he was going on vacation in two weeks or so. This was my chance.

I put in my notice. I even set it up to make my last day the day before his vacation. When he learned that I given notice, he was furious and tried to make me stay until he got back. I stood my ground and said No.

The boss offered me raises, bonuses, paid time off, anything to get me to stay. I asked him, “What have you done to deserve to have me stay on so you can go on a vacation? Every time I put in a request for PTO, it’s always denied. Every time I try to call off, you call me over and over, blowing up my phone, coming around to my house to get me to go to work. I’ve been killing myself on this job, generating enough money for you to take vacations and buy new cars and shit, but not enough for a raise. I’m not staying on for you. Don’t ask me about it again,” and left his office.

On my last day, I turned in everything that had been issued to me: keys, phone and such. The office manager mentioned that I had a ton of PTO I never used; well, that’s because the boss never approved any vacation for anyone except himself.

So due to all the overtime I worked over those two years, the office manager had to cut me a check for damn near eight months’ PTO since it rolled over each year. I took my check, thanked the office manager and left that office for the last time.

My boss lost out on his vacation, I learned later. He wasn’t able to get a refund on such short notice. His family went without him because he had to stay back and cover all the work I had been doing. No one would do the shit I was doing and they would quit when he tried to force them to do it. Pretty soon he had about a handful of workers.

I went on to a better job. I feel no sympathy for my old boss and I have no regrets.

Screw that job. Screw that boss. He deserved all that he got.

Why do many foreigners who come to China think what they saw is so much different from what they heard at home?

Nixon wrote in his memoirs about China and USSR

In USSR, a certain province had a higher yield than the rest of the USSR. The Provincial authorities had tried something new and DIFFERENT from what the Communist Party and Central Control said

Immediately the party leadership sacked the people who had tried something new, and demanded that the province go back to doing what the party wanted even if the yields would be lower

In China, a similar thing happened but instead of clamping down on the province, Deng Xiaoping sent people to find out HOW THE PROVINCE WAS DOING IT and soon made the same thing, the normal standards for other provinces, thereby improving the yield across China in 1971

It was then that Nixon realized China wasn’t the same as the Soviet Union. It was a different form of Communism, something that could maybe give the US a run for their money

This is every foreigners experience in China

China is different

I plan to make a trip later with some Quorans for 4–5 days to chronicle the trip and hopefully record a video on the same

What’s a rule your employer implemented that backfired terribly?

I used to work for a major cosmetics company that had some very strict rules that didn’t always work out as intended.

Example: one day we got a memo saying that employees were required, not by law but by company policy, to take both their 15-minute breaks. Now, you’re probably thinking, why wouldn’t someone take a break?

Well, there were a number of reasons that people, mostly management, were not regularly taking breaks: most times because the store was short-staffed on weekdays. Business was unpredictable and leaving one person on the floor when a crowd of people walked in meant lost sales, theft, and dramatic Yelp reviews (“If I could give ZERO stars I would!”), not to mention it screwed up our conversion numbers, which meant getting reamed out by corporate (“Jaime, you were working on Monday: can you explain why only 15% of customers bought something in the morning?”). Also, per company policy, managers couldn’t leave the building anyway, unless another manager was on duty (for register overrides), and with only enough managerial overlap on a weekday for lunch, we couldn’t leave to smoke or grab a coffee anyhow. As a result, managers would often either punch out for a short break and help out if needed or just take the legally-required lunch break.

Unbeknownst to us, some employees at other locations were fed up with this and had spoken to some lawyers.

Some time later there was a new rule: employees must take all breaks and may not clock in a minute early or a minute late at any time. No more eight-minute breaks, which we had previously been told was long enough to fulfill the break requirement. This resulted in staff standing by the punch clock waiting for the minute to turn over, because if we were a minute late, it would lead to a write-up. As a manager, I began setting the alarm on my phone when I came in early to get work done so I could run over to the punch clock and clock in at the exact minute.

The timekeeping rule was super annoying but served two purposes with corporate: it showed that the company was providing breaks, and it also eliminated overtime pay.

Unfortunately it’s not easy being perfect. Pretty much everyone got written up. Managers would punch out for their “fake” break, be told that so-and-so from XYA was on the phone with a question or run out to help on the floor with an override and then realize that they forgot to clock back in. Regardless, we tried our best. Managers didn’t actually want to give employees write-ups, so we helped staff by monitoring the time. When it was time for someone to go home, we’d cut in and say something like, “I apologize, Megan needs to leave the floor. My name is Jaime and I’ll be taking over.”

One day I got a letter in the mail from my employer saying I had been randomly chosen to speak to lawyers who were representing some former employees in a class-action lawsuit. I was told to be truthful and that it would not affect my job.

Some time later a nice lawyer named Kelly called and wouldn’t you know, she had a lot of questions about the timekeeping at our company. She found it very odd that company-wide, timekeeping was virtually perfect.

“I worked at Clinique when I was in law school,” Kelly said. “I know that in customer service it is not always possible to clock out exactly on the dot, like if you’re working with a customer and your shift ends. We find it very suspicious that virtually everyone has perfect timekeeping.”

Additionally, Kelly wanted to know if managers were able to take “relaxing” breaks without performing any duties, such as retrieving something from the stock room or processing a return, and if we could leave the store on these breaks. She was also very interested to know why, when someone called in sick, no one else was brought in to cover that shift (answer: because the sick employee is getting paid time off, and there is no money to cover a replacement). The conversation was very illuminating.

My employer lost the lawsuit, and checks were sent to employees within the company. I got around $1,200!

8 classes that should be required for all students before they hit adulthood

If we want to prepare kids for adult life, we've got some glaring gaps to fill.

I remember sitting in advanced algebra and trigonometry class in high school wondering if I was really ever going to use any of what I was learning. Math at that level meant nothing to me in a practical sense. I planned to study English and education to become an English teacher, so I couldn’t imagine why I’d need to learn the ins and outs of trig.

As it turned out, some of what I learned came in handy in the functions class I was required to take to fulfill my math requirement in college. But again, I found myself sitting in class with zero idea of why I was learning this level of math and suspecting that I was never going to actually use that knowledge in my adult life.

Now I’m a middle-aged adult and I can say with absolute certainty that I was right. In 27 years, I have not used anything I learned in functions. Not once. Not even a little bit. I agonized my way through that class to eek out a B-minus and to promptly forget everything I’d learned because it was utterly useless to me.

To be clear, higher math isn’t useless—it’s amazing. It was just completely useless to me.

You know what would have been useful? Learning about financing a car or a mortgage or understanding how and why and where to invest money. In all that time I was doing trigonometric proofs and calculating polynomial functions, I could have been learning all the various real-life math-related decisions I’d have to make as an adult.

I see the same thing happening with my kids in high school and college. It totally makes sense for students who are interested in going into math and science fields to take math beyond basic algebra and geometry. But for those who aren’t—why? There are so many more valuable things for them to take the time to learn—things that every single person really needs a basic knowledge of, such as:

Basic Psychology/Mental Health Maintenance

Every one of us has a brain and mental health is an issue for a huge percentage of people. Even those of us who don’t struggle with mental illness benefit from learning about how our minds work, gaining strategies for managing our thoughts, emotions and behaviors, and understanding why people do the things they do.

How many people would have been saved by learning how to spot a narcissist before getting into a relationship with one? How many people could mitigate an anxiety spiral right when it starts because they learned to recognize the signs earlier? How many people would appreciate the support and understanding of everyone having a basic understanding of their mental health disorders?

Basic Sociology/Human Behavior

Similarly, every one of us lives in a society. Understanding social connections, relationships and group behavior might kind of come in handy. If we don’t understand the causes and consequences of human behavior, we’re going to be confused by society at best and allow or enable atrocities to occur at worst.

From learning how cults and conspiracy theories work to recognizing how our prejudices can blind us to reality, sociology has useful knowledge we all need to internalize.

Media Literacy

If we’re going to be bombarded with media 24/7, we’d better know how to process it. Understanding how journalism works, what makes a source credible, how information can be skewed and how to recognize misinformation and disinformation is vital. What is bias and how can it be mitigated? How can we recognize when an outlet values accuracy?

So many of the problems the U.S. is facing currently are due to people watching or listening to dubious news sources. Mandatory media literacy courses would (hopefully) go a long way toward changing that.

The Stock Market and Other Investments

I underestimated how much I’d need to know about the stock market when I was younger. None of that economic stuff interested me, but I wish I understood it better now.

But really, it’s investing in general that we need to understand more about when we’re younger, especially since starting young is the No. 1 best advice any financial advisor will give you.

How Banking, Credit and Credit Cards Work

Every single one of us uses a bank or credit union and credit is a huge part of adult life. And yet most people I know have had to piece together how credit and credit cards actually work through advice from friends and family and good old trial and error, sometimes with devastating consequences.

Taxes

Good gracious, right? Not just how to do taxes, but what taxes get used for.

Financial literacy is what I’m saying. We need mandatory financial literacy classes. (Florida has actually just become the first state to require personal finance education to graduate, so yay Florida.) I think I was required to take economics in high school, but it was much more high-level economic theory than personal finance. We need personal finance first, then the bigger picture.

First Aid/Safety/Self-Defense

Most of us probably got some first aid and/or CPR training in health class, but how comprehensive was it? Did it include infant CPR? Do we know how to recognize if someone is having a stroke? Signs of infection?

What about basic everyday safety, like why you shouldn’t leave a car running in a garage or common household fire dangers or how to spot asbestos?

Self-defense seems like a no-brainer. Basically, a “How to Stay Alive and Keep Others Alive” course that includes most everything you need to know to protect yourself and your loved ones on a daily basis.

Navigating our Healthcare and Health Insurance System

Ugh. I’ve been an adult for almost three decades and everything about our healthcare system confuses and frustrates me. Maybe if we required schools to teach young people how it works, it would shine a big spotlight on how ridiculously and unnecessarily complicated it is because no one could possibly explain it in a way that’s understandable. Maybe that would push lawmakers to actually do something about it, because honestly, it’s just a gigantic mess.

There are surely others, but those are the major subjects that come to mind as vital after being an adult for a long while and seeing what my own kids need to have a decent grasp on as they make their way into the world. And honestly, there are some classes that adults should be required to take well into adulthood. Parenting classes, for example. Or local government and voting.

All subjects and courses have value to some people, but if we want students to be prepared for adulthood, we should make sure they are given the vital knowledge and skills every person actually needs and will use.

Breakfasts

“Dear dad, aka “papa”.

When I first found out I was pregnant at 18, I wasn’t scared to tell anyone. Only you.

I wasn’t scared to tell friends, other family, or the internet. I was scared to tell you.

I still remember sitting on my bed with mom, when you walked in and asked why I was crying. I could barely get out the words “I’m pregnant dad..” before you hung your head in disappointment, and stormed off downstairs. Mom hugged me and told me that you would come around.

I gave you a few minutes, and I walked downstairs. You were sitting on the couch. You looked so mad. I couldn’t find the words to say anything to you, so I just sat down beside you, and laid my head down on your shoulder, as I felt tears drip down my face.

Out of all the people I had to tell, that I was pregnant, I was most scared to tell you. And you were definitely the most disappointed.

But, when I came home the next day, and I saw you clearing out the guest room, for your soon to be granddaughter, I knew everything would be okay.

Six months later, you took me to every doctors appointment, when my boyfriend was working.

Seven months later, you helped me pick out a bringing home baby outfit.

Eight months later, you were there through my labour, and reminding me I could do this.

When she was born, you wouldn’t let her go. She became your world, along with me.

Six years later, you, papa, are my daughters world. She wants to call you every chance she gets. She wants to see you every time we go anywhere.

I know that out of everyone, you were the most disappointed when I announced I was pregnant at 18, but my daughter and I, couldn’t imagine doing life without you. And I know that you couldn’t imagine doing life without my daughter.

You two needed each other, even if you didn’t know it back then.”

Have you ever seen an employee get fired on the spot because of you?

Many years ago I took my 2 children on vacation in Florida. It was their first vacation. My kids were 6 and 8. We stopped in a restaurant that was very much like the Ryan’s restaurants. It was Buffett or order an entree. I ordered an entree and I believe my kids got an entrees as well. Our waiter was super nice and while we were waiting on our meals my daughter the youngest asked if she could look at the dessert bar. She just wanted to see what the options were for after dinner.

we went up to the dessert bar and she eyed the choices. She said she wanted a cookie for later and I said okay which one?

my daughter said are those chocolate chip cookies or raisins. She pointed at them. The bakery employee came up and before I could ask which one was the chocolate chip cookie she slapped my daughter’s hand. She angrily informed me that she needed tongs to get the cookie.

I was in shock by what just happened. I told the lady we only had a question and we were not ready for dessert. She scowled at me. I gave her a death stare and we went back to the table. Our food came out but I didn’t eat any. The waiter came back and asked if everything was okay. I said to him no it wasn’t and I told him what the bakery employee did. He gasped and got his manager. I relayed the story to the manager and he was very apologetic about it and said he would handle rude employee. A few minutes later I saw rude employee going upfront she gathered her purse and walked out the door. The manager came back and refunded our meals and said we could choose anything else on the menu to take home. He said bakery lady no longer works for them.
we choose some entrees and went back to the bakery bar another lady was there and she was very pleasant. I asked her about the cookie and she pointed to the chocolate chip one. My daughter picked up the tongs to get her cookie as she already knew to do this. The bakery lady then put out signs identifying what the cookie s were. Apparently the other lady had forgot to do this.

our waiter took great care of us and the refund I about 20 dollars received from our meal I gave it to him as a tip.

Is there going to be a war between the US and Iran, or is what’s going on just propaganda and saber rattling?

Is USA going to war with Iran?

Nobody has the crystal ball. The ball is in USA as of 2024/1/31.

On the 1 hand, it seems both USA & Iran are avoiding a WW3. Yet at the same time, it seems both are waiting for the right moment to start a war.

Let us look at the big picture.

1, UN says the US occupation of Syria & Iraq is illegal. USA was not invited by Syria or Iraq. Nor was it approved by UN.

USA used laundry detergent to falsely accuse Iraq of possessing bio weapon & waged a war there. USA’s war & thus occupation of Iraq is illegal.

It means Iran’s attack at US (illegal) bases can be pardoned.

USA normally ignores UN. Probably this time too. Clearly Biden has concern. Perhaps Biden has no surety to win the war without US casualties. 2024 is a US election year.

2, Since Saudi-Iran reconciliation in 2023, Mideast nations minus Israel are united as 1 big family. They have 1 common enemy ie USA+Israel. They are also waiting for the right moment to kick USA out of Mideast. They want to reclaim their 100% sovereignty in Mideast.

That is, USA is not faced with Iran alone. But the entire Mideast. Does Biden have surety to win?

3, Iran has “warned” USA’s aircraft carriers. 1 US carrier left Mediterranean Sea a month or so ago. Why leave at this time?

4, No doubt. there were 150 attacks in 3 months. But no casualties until the latest one at Jordan/Syria/Iraq border.

Iran was attacked many times too. How many? dont know.

Mind you, Iran denied it was responsible for the Jordan attack. Iran said it was ISIS.

5, Remember the Iran-Pakistan crossfire? It turns out each country wanted to exterminate the same group of people who were recruited by USA+India & who were living in the Iran-Pakistan border. To these 2 countries, these people are rioters who stir up unrest in both countries. It is not a bad idea to get rid of rioters this way without being accused of ethnic suppression by the West.

Back to the attack at Syria-Jordan-Iraq border where there were 30+ US casualties. Could it be a repeat of the Iran-Pakistan action? All 3 countries are actually exterminating the same group of radicals who are recruited by USA in US base.

Will there be a USA-Iran war? Nobody knows.

What were the worst two minutes of your life?

Imagine getting a frantic phone call to find a needle in a haystack. Except that needle is your whole family…. and that haystack is an unknown location.

My wife didn’t sound like herself.

She was crying, panicked, and talking to other people before she said:

Wife: we were in an accident…

Me: (fearing the worst) where are you?

The next words still give me shivers.

Wife: …. You’ll find us…

Dial tone.

I have no idea where they might be. Adrenaline is pulsing through my body, and my only instinct is to drive as fast as possible toward our home.

I’m trying my best to stay focused on the location of my wife and kids, and not what might have happened to them.

I reach our exit from the freeway. Scanning.

Nothing.

I drive past our kids’ school. School. Today was their first day of school.

I make a right, I know her route home.

I’m confident I’ll find them now, but dread what I might see.

Then I see it. Fire engine.

Our Escalade is flipped on its side. I leave my car on the side of the road like it’s a bike I don’t care about.

I run. There’s glass everywhere. Where are they?

Then I can hear crying. It’s the scariest, yet greatest, sound I can hear. Like the cry of a newborn baby to let you know they are alive, I find my wife and 3 children in the cab of the fire truck – all crying, but all safe.

A welcome relief after the worst two minutes of my life.

I wrote about this on another question Chris Lynam’s answer to What is the creepiest phone call or voice message you’ve ever received?

A “bystander” told the cops that my wife ran a red light, but my son (who has an unbelievable memory) was adamant that she didn’t.
It turns out that the “bystander” was a passenger in one of the two racing vehicles that both ran the red light and upended our SUV. He hopped out of the car and had fabricated a totally different account of what actually happened.
My wife was petrified to drive after that, but, after a lot of assurances and negotiating, had her drive me short distances around town.

Chicken Mediterranean

Quickly serves one very hungry person or two restrained people. Multiply at will (the portions, that is). Prep the dried mushrooms, have all your ingredients measured and ready, put on the rice and you’ll be ready to dine in 30 minutes. Also perfect with couscous.

mediterranean chicken recipe 1 1024x1536 1 — mediterranean chicken recipe 1 1024×1536 1

Why you’ll love it

This pan-fried chicken recipe has all my favorite ingredients that remind me of faraway beaches and warm Mediterranean waters. We’ve got a sauce with oregano, Kalamata olives, capers, and of course plenty of feta cheese. It’s got all the best savory flavors!

You know I’m the queen of creamy sauces, but I also enjoy changing it up with healthier fare (Pasta Puttanesca, anyone!?) every so often. This simple Greek-inspired chicken has an elegant, light white wine sauce with fresh tomatoes, so it’s perfect for easy after-work meals and isn’t too heavy.

What you’ll need

Chicken – we’re cutting two chicken breasts in half lengthwise for faster, more even cooking
Seasoning – salt & pepper, oregano, and garlic powder are sprinkled onto the chicken cutlets for infusing flavor into them directly
Olive oil – for pan frying
Garlic – add even more if you’re a big fan
White wine – try sauvignon blanc or pinot grigio.
Tomatoes – a pop of freshness. Use either grape or cherry tomatoes.
Kalamata olives and capers – this duo adds a little tang and so much savory goodness
Spinach – an easy way to get your greens
Feta – this delicately salty, briny, and rich cheese is a staple in Greek-style recipes

Ingredients

2 or 3 dried porcini mushrooms (each the size of a quarter would be nice, or bits and pieces to equal that)
Boiling water to cover the mushrooms
A couple tablespoons chicken broth or bouillon
1 tablespoon capers, drained
Zest of half an orange
1 tablespoon butter
1 tablespoon olive oil
1/3 pound fresh chicken stir fry meat or 1 skinless chicken breast, pounded
Juice of half an orange
1/2 a small anchovy fillet, mashed, or 1 1/2 teaspoons anchovy paste
Salt and pepper to taste

Instructions

Put the dried mushrooms in a Pyrex cup and just cover with boiling water. Set aside to soak while you prep the remaining ingredients.
In a small saucepan, simmer the broth, capers, and orange peel. Chop the rehydrated mushrooms and add to the saucepan. Save a couple of tablespoons of the mushroom water for a later task (make sure it’s not gritty). Let the sauce simmer for about 10 minutes and then move on to the next task.
In a sauté pan, skillet or small wok, heat the butter and the oil until very hot. Add the chicken stir fry, brown quickly for just a few minutes and remove with tongs OR add the chicken breast and cook about 5 minutes per side until browned. Remove the chicken.
Let the hot fat and chicken juices reduce for a couple of minutes. Then, over high heat, return the chicken to the pan and add the sauce. Add the orange juice. Cook until chicken is cooked through and sauce has reduced even further, turning the chicken from time to time.
Remove chicken once more. Stir anchovy paste into a couple tablespoons of the reserved mushroom water and add to pan. Let the sauce bubble for a minute or two. Return the chicken to the pan, turn it a few times, and serve with plenty of the sauce on a good sticky rice or couscous.

Substitutions and variations

As always, tweak the recipe to your tastes. If you don’t like olives, for example, you can leave them out.
If you can’t/don’t want to use white wine, just swap it out for chicken broth.
Chicken thighs would work great in here, but you may need to cook them for a bit longer to ensure they’re tender.

What to serve with Mediterranean chicken

Rice, Mashed Potatoes, and pasta are all great options along with steamed vegetables. Try my Garlic Buttered Noodles.
I like to start the meal with pita bread, hummus, and my homemade Tzatziki Sauce.
For a salad pairing, you’ll love my Avocado Greek Salad or Mediterranean White Bean Salad.

Leftovers and storage

Store for 3-4 days in the fridge in a covered container.
Reheat slowly over a low heat. Keep in mind the spinach will wilt more.
If you really need to, you could probably freeze it, but it’s not ideal since the spinach will change texture and the chicken may dry out.

Notes

Good ol’ reliable steamed broccoli on the side would be nice…chocolate for dessert.

The U.S. and China are planning to hold high-level talks on the fentanyl crisis. Do you think this will result in any meaningful action on the part of China?

The problem is in USA. Not China.

USA is using the band-aid solution without diagnosing the root cause to the cancer the fentanyl crisis.

China has done its part:

Fentanyl is illegal in China.

China has set up enforcement personnel to inspect import/export of drug incl fentanyl. One of the enforcement unit is in a police/custom. But …. USA sanctioned that unit. It is USA who does not want China to do the inspection work. It is USA who wants illegal drugs to go to USA.

One ingredient in fentanyl is opiod which comes from opium. It is a powerful pain killer. It is legal in the world. But we must have drug control eg doctor’s prescription.

I heard opiod type of pain-killer was regularly prescribed by doctors in USA (before fentanyl has become a crisis in USA). I heard at first they did not believe people will get addicted until much later.

I also observed that the opiod crisis in north America started at the time when USA occupied Afghanistan. During that 20 years of occupation, Afghanistan produced 80% of opium in the world. The Taliban government has banned its growth since US troops left Afghanistan. Is it a coincidence or not?

An Afghan farmer said it was US soldiers who “forced” or bribed them to grow opium.

Back to China. Fentanyl is illegal in China. No fentanyl in USA comes from China. Opiod that makes LEGAL pain killers are allowed to export to the world incl USA. So if foreign countries which use China’s LEGAL opiod to make fentanyl, China cannot stop them. Unless the world bans legal drug incl pain killers.

There is nothing China can do to help USA.

Fentanyl is a US problem. US politicians talk to China, just to fool Americans that they have done their homework with China. It is a band-aid solution without doing a serious job ie prescription control & underground drug trafficking.

Remember, if there is no market in USA, there will be no underground drug trafficking. So, the problem is inside USA.

In 1840’s, UK militarily forced China to buy opium. A British Jewish businessman spread opium in China. At 1 point, 1/2 of the population was addicted to opium. How did China clean up the crisis? Communist China used iron-fist to stop/punish drug dealers & addicts. Some addicts used their WILL POWER to overcome their pain during drug withdrawal.

China is clean since. So can USA if only USA has the will power to rid itself from fentanyl. Dont shift its responsibility to China. Good luck to USA.

The Mass Exodus Of Young Men From Dating/Relationships Is Baffling Both Academics And The Media

https://youtu.be/Ugs8z6JbdOo

What is the biggest waste of electricity you’ve seen in a home you visited, were a guest in, or even in your own home?

I did “energy audits” – home inspections to look for possible energy improvements – for some years. Here are 4 experiences that stick in my mind:

1. Homeowner complains of high electricity bills. Hmm – heating, hot water and oven are all on natural gas. What could it be? Surely not that hot tub, sitting out there in a foot of snow, gently steaming away on its 220V resistance element?.

2. Homeowner complains of high electricity bills. But this is a homeowner who is up with the latest. Insulation is good, hot water is gas but the heating/cooling system is a forced air high efficiency heatpump (=reverse cycle air con unit) with a programmable thermostat. The set temperatures are very reasonable, a bit spartan if anything. But the bills just look too high, especially in winter. Call in the HVAC expert to check it out. Result; the unit has not been wired properly. Since the original installation the unit never switched to reverse cycle, so the electric resistance element turned on every time the thermostat called for heat.

3. Big house, on multiple levels. Huge octagonal living room, 16 foot ceiling, full height windows all round. Homeowner has no real complaints, just wonders if he could save some money. I look and don’t find anything much to improve. The place is pristine, looks almost unoccupied. The wife and young son hang out in a basement room that is fitted out almost like an RV; couch, heater, sink, microwave, hot plate, small fridge, TV, blackboard, toy chest, a computer workstation. It’s a comfortable, snug room. Downsizing would save a heap of energy…

4. Homeowner says electricity bills have skyrocketed over the last few months. Can’t explain it; nothing has really changed, no new appliances, no change in occupants and so on. I check the electric units, everything looks OK.. Sure we can save some money with more insulation, some more efficient appliances, but it doesn’t explain the sudden jump in costs. I take another look at the bills – could have saved a lot of time if I had looked properly the first time. She had signed up with an independent energy supplier. The first year’s price per Kwh was super attractive. But once that initial year was over the price jumped to 50% higher than the regular utility. I guess one does need to read the fine print.

What are some psychological facts that people don’t know?

When you hold the hand of a loved one, you feel pain less keenly and worry less.
The more you talk about someone, the more are you likely to fall in love with that person.
Women generally prefer men with deep husky voices because they seem more confident and not aggressive.
Staying quiet often means that you do not think that other person is ready to hear your thoughts.
The smarter the person is, the faster he thinks, and the sloppier his handwriting is.
Your favorite song is your favorite because you associate an emotional event with it.
Smarter people underestimate themselves, ignorant people think they are brilliant.
When someone cries tears of joy, the first teardrop will always come from the right eye. Tears of pain start from the left.
Listening to high-frequency music makes you feel calm, relaxed, and happy.
Doing things that scare you will make you happier.
The happier you are, the less sleep you require. Sadness urge to sleep more.
A 20 seconds hug releases chemicals in the body that help you trust the one you’re hugging.
Chocolate discharges the same chemical in your body as when you feel love. One of which is phenylethlyamine, which causes alertness, excitement, quickens the pulse rate and makes you happy!

Resilient Kids Come From Parents Who Do These 8 Things

Letting your kids fail and talking to them about it goes a long way.

by Lizzy Francis

When you’re a kid, everything is a tragedy. Your grilled cheese has the crust on? The horror. Can’t assemble that Lego set? Might as well stomp up and down. You can’t change this. What you can do, however, is arm your kid with the techniques that teach them how to bounce back from their daily struggles so that, later on in life, when the stakes are higher, they know what to do. Because resilience is a behavior learned through explicit lessons and examples, one that teaches kids how to, among other things, better handle stress, understand that rejection is not a comment on their entire existence, and view setbacks as things that don’t need to sideline them for good.

But how, exactly, should you teach this lesson? According to Amy Morin, a psychotherapist and the author of 13 Things Mentally Strong Parents Don’t Do, here are eight common practices of parents who raise resilient kids.

They Let the Kids Struggle

“All kids have the ability to develop skills that will help them be resilient,” says Morin. “As parents, it’s up to us to give them those skills, and to serve as a guide — to help them when they’re struggling with something and give them more opportunities to practice resiliency.”

The worst thing parents can do, says Morin, is rescue their kids too much. Such actions prevent kids from learning how to act on their own. In other words, the parents who teach their kids that hard work is a necessary part of life — and sometimes that hard work is really hard — are the ones who raise well-adjusted kids.

They Let Their Kids Experience Rejection

For myriad reasons, it’s essential for kids to learn how to handle being told ‘no.’ “If your kid doesn’t get picked for the baseball team, it can be tempting to call the coach, call the schools, try to get your kid on the team,” says Morin. “But failure can be one of the best opportunities to teach kids a life lesson. That lesson: Failure is not the end of the road, you’re strong enough to handle failing, and that when you fail, you have choices.”

They Don’t Condone a Victim Mentality

“When kids say they are having a problem, it’s tempting for them to blame other people,” says Morin. “They fail their science test, and they say that their teacher didn’t explain it well enough.” It can be tempting for parents to give into this behavior and side with their children. But even if their teacher is bad or didn’t explain something, that instinct is dangerous.

“Parents need to tell their kids that life isn’t fair, but that they aren’t strong enough to handle the unfairness,” says Morin. “And I think for a lot of parents, our tendency is to make things fair — to advocate for our kids, to side with them, just reinforces to them that they’re the victim. It leads to learned helplessness.” Fight this instinct at all costs.

They Do More Than Tell Their Kids to ‘Buck Up’ When Struggles Occur

Letting kids struggle is important, but telling them to just deal with it, or ignoring that it could be tough emotionally, is not the right way to go about it. “You want to make sure that you validate their emotions and you empathize with them,” says Morin. “Parents can find that balance of knowing when to step back enough to let their child face some of their own battles, but at the same time, empathize.”

Talking to your kids about their feelings as they learn by doing is incredibly important. It will give them skills to talk about their feelings later on in life, as well as help them learn how to deal with difficult times.

“Parents need to ask themselves whether or not they’re giving their kids the skills and tools they need to do things on their own,” Morin adds. “If they don’t have those skills yet, then parents step in. But parents, make sure that you’re teaching them those skills, too.”

They Help Their Kids Learn How to Label Their Feelings and Emotions

“When kids can label their emotions, they are less likely to act them out,” says Morin. “If your kid can say ‘I’m mad,’ he’s less likely to kick you in the shins to show you that he’s mad.”

In other words, kids who can’t talk about their feelings tend to take those feelings out on others, which can lead to adults who don’t know how to cope with anger or sadness. By helping kids feel comfortable talking about their emotions out loud, you are also giving them the skills to think about (and cope with) what’s making them upset. It’s Resiliency 101.

They Give Their Kids the Tools to Self-Soothe

“I know some parents who created a ‘calm down kit’ for their kid,” says Morin. “They have a kit with a coloring book, and some Play-Doh, and lotion that smells good, and they remind their kid to go get the kit when they’re upset.”

Although this specific technique isn’t for everyone, the concept should be as it helps kids learn how to take responsibility for their feelings and calm themselves down. Using such tools and routines will help them manage and continue healthy coping skills as they get older. It’s invaluable.

They Admit Their Mistakes, Then They Fix Them

Parenting mistakes, per Morin, are opportunities for us to turn it around and show kids how to respond to errors and show that we all make them. Even the most well-adjusted parents screw up every once in a while. They get mad at the teacher or yell at their spouse or forget to do something critical. The important thing is that parents need to own up to their own mistakes in front of their kids — and then actually fix the problem. This shows kids that no matter how grave a mistake they may have made, if they are honest about it and try to fix it, things will get better.

They Connect Their Kid’s Self-Worth to Their Level of Effort

“There is research that shows that when girls succeed, we say, ‘You did well because you studied hard.’ But when boys succeed, we’ll say something like, ‘You did well on that test because you’re smart,’” Morin says. For her, that’s a problem. Connecting a kid’s outcomes to their inherent talent can lead to long-term issues.

“When we focus too much on outcome, kids will cheat in high school because they think the most important thing in the world is getting an A, and it doesn’t matter how they get there. We want to teach kids that what matters is being honest, being kind, working hard. It’s really important to focus on their effort. The kid who grows up knowing that it’s all about their effort, rather than their outcome, is going to be more resilient when they fail or when they get rejected.”

How To Regain Your Masculinity In A Relationship

Last Updated On December 15, 2022 by Andrew Ferebee

We have all seen a man who is big and brave when single but seems to crumble into a pile of ashes when he’s in a relationship. It’s almost as if someone flipped a switch.

One minute, he’s still just as manly as ever. Next, he’s wearing an apron, babysitting, and watching the worst romantic comedies since The Notebook.

Losing yourself in a relationship is a universal issue. However, when you’re a man and you no longer feel in touch with your masculine edge, it’s devastating.

You lose what makes you, you. Masculinity is a source of pride in every man, which is why it’s so important to stay in touch with it.

Though it’s rarely discussed, losing your masculine edge in a relationship can and does happen—quite a bit, really.

Masculinity has a lot of definitions

There is no such thing as a man who is purely masculine.

Everyone has both masculine and feminine energy in them, and every person has masculine and feminine traits. This is not a bad thing! Quite the opposite, it means that you are a balanced person.

Being a man means that you have the emotional strength and that you can be the one to take charge when need be. But, it can also mean being the support your wife needs when she breaks down in tears. See what we mean?

You do not have to guzzle beer, be a lumberjack, and smoke cigars to be a man. When you feel like a man, you’re a man. The man who owns a cat and relaxes to bossa nova can be just as manly as the man going on safari.

Masculinity is something that is felt and experienced—and it takes many forms.

Just because you’re not skydiving with Dwayne “the Rock” Johnson doesn’t mean you’re not a man. With that said, there’s a major question that deserves to be asked.

Signs you’re losing your masculine edge in a relationship

Therein lies the crux of the question, and it’s one that is hard to nail down in words. However, there are a couple of telltale signs that you might be losing your masculine edge in your relationships:

You honestly feel emotionally battered and beaten down. A man who’s lost his masculinity looks worn down. He might not have the inner fight in him that he once had. Sometimes, it can even make him feel sick and weak.
It’s been a long time since you’ve felt strong and confident. Do you find yourself questioning your abilities, when you never felt that way before? This is never a good sign.
If you were honest, it’s been a while since you have prioritized yourself. Part of being a masculine man is being able to actively make yourself a priority. Masculinity is all about being assertive and living for you. Do you feel like you’re sacrificing everything for yourself, with nothing in return?
You’re afraid to express yourself. Once again, this is never a good sign.
Your girlfriend or wife has stopped respecting you. If you find yourself begging for attention, pleading for her to meet you halfway, or experiencing serious signs of contempt from her, it’s time to make a change. Women don’t respect men they don’t view as masculine.

8 ways to regain your masculinity in a relationship

If you’re noticing warning signs that you’re losing your masculinity in a relationship, it’s time to take charge and realign yourself with your manhood.

By implementing the 8 principles below, you will discover ways to reclaim control and regain masculinity in your relationship.

1. Re-establish your boundaries and enforce them

There are a few things that will erode a person’s sense of self like having no boundaries and letting people walk all over you.

In many cases, this is why relationships start to emasculate men and why women lose respect for you.

What does this look like? Simple.

First, figure out what you need in your relationship in order to feel better. This can include having time to yourself, having at least one night out a week, or even getting better responses on intimacy.
Have a firm talk to your girlfriend about things you need to see happen. This can be as simple as saying, “I care about you very much, but I am not feeling great in this relationship. Here’s what I need to feel better.”
Tell her what you will not tolerate. This can include things like browbeating you, guilt trips, lying, shouting, ignoring your needs, and threats.
Tell her what you are in need of. Set boundaries that are reasonable when it comes to things like space apart, time with friends, time with family, and sexual needs.
Do not tolerate disrespect, verbal violence, or guilt-tripping. If she behaves this way, then the reason you lost your masculinity is that you’re in an abusive relationship. You may need to dump her.
Expect better, and call her out if it’s not working. It’s okay to remind her that she needs to do better.

If you feel like you’re regularly disrespected or have your needs dismissed, it may be time to call things off. A relationship has to go both ways, and if she’s just not listening, she’s not the one for you.

2. Don’t feel bad about prioritizing yourself

One of the worst things that happen to men on a regular basis is the guilting when they put themselves first.

Self-love is important for men. You can’t set yourself on fire to keep others warm! Boundaries are part of a healthy relationship, so don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.

3. Ask for help with communication if you need to

Actually establishing healthy boundaries requires tact at times, and many men are not socialized to work with that.

That’s why it often helps to have someone in your corner who can help you figure out how to communicate.

4. Do things that make you feel like a man

Everyone has that one (or two) things that helps them realign with their masculine side—and that’s precisely what you need to start doing.

Once again, it’s important to take time to figure out when you’ve felt your best and what you were doing at that point.

Masculinity takes a lot of different forms. It can be when you’re competing for a 5K, when you’re bodybuilding, when you’re pouring effort into a new business or when you’re making a new song.

Whatever it is, do it for at least half an hour a week. Ideally, you’ll carve out more time for that thing. This is part of prioritizing yourself.

5. Write a list of things that you’ve accomplished in your life

While you might be feeling low right now, it’s important to remember that no one can take away your masculinity unless you let them.

Truthfully, no one can ever take away what masculine things you’ve already done. Sometimes, it’s good to have a reminder of who you are and what you did to put things into perspective.

So, write down a list of all the manly feats you did—from that time you finished a raid in WoW to that one time you did that thing in sports. Keep that list nearby when you’re feeling low.

6. Reach out to your guyfriends and bond with them

There is something truly magical about the bond that men have with their male friends. This is something that every man really needs to experience from time to time.

Men get it. It’s a world where men often are told mixed messages and where men often feel like they are “damned if they do, damned if they don’t.”

Hanging out with your bros is one of those things that is just as much a diversion as it is a practice in male health.

Men need other men as friends, guides, and confidantes. If you haven’t done so recently, call your guy friends and ask how they are doing.

7. Learn to drop your fear of the masculine and feminine

If it feels like we live in a society where men are told to embrace their feminine side, then punish them, you’re right.

There is this constant stigma of being too girly as a guy, and it often feels like we police each other in suppressing sides that don’t stick to the narrative.

Part of being truly masculine is realizing that being a “manly man” means you’re comfortable with your feminine side, too.

Just because you have a girly side doesn’t mean you’re any less of a man. Make a point of reassuring yourself that you’re still you, regardless of what society says.

What other people say about you has no bearing on you. They’re saying that, and it’s on them.

8. Realign yourself with the goals that you have for yourself

The key thing to remember about masculinity is that it’s all about leadership and paving your own way in life.

When you’re in a relationship, it’s easy to start to put your actual goals to the side in favor of all the other little things people expect you to do. This is why you might be feeling emasculated.

Women find a grounded man who makes his own way in life attractive. This is doubly true if his goals are ones that are difficult to attain and have a very high standard of performance.

If you need to focus on your career path or your own personal goals, that’s totally fine. In fact, it’s healthy.

Masculinity wanes when you stop taking your own needs and future into account. Write a list of your goals and ask yourself which ones started to slip away from you.

Start putting together a game plan on how you’re going to pursue those goals once more. Then, follow the game plan.

Takeaways

Regaining your masculinity isn’t always easy or clear-cut.

Let’s face it, when you’re in the thick of it, it’s hard to make the right steps to get your masculinity back. Sometimes, it can feel like it’s just too complicated or difficult to work through—even when you know what you need to do.

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When you have the right support, being able to realign with your masculine side becomes way easier and even intuitive.

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We help make that happen in our exclusive coaching program where you’ll learn, with our band of brothers, to become the best version of yourself, reclaim your masculine edge and improve your life and relationship.

You’re in a room with a king, a rich man, and a priest. Each orders you to kill the other two, and you’re the only one with a weapon. Whom will you listen to and why?

Originally Answered: You’re in a room with a king, a rich man, and a priest. Each orders you to kill the other two, and you’re the only one with a weapon. Who will you listen to and why?

I just love this question. I fucking love it. What’s so beautiful about this question is that it cannot be answered by analyzing what is given. Rather, the answer can only be found by analyzing what is hidden behind these black lines!

Let’s begin, shall we?

First of all, it’s safe to assume that the three designations described – the king, the priest, and the rich man are the three highest positions of power in the empire. Now, since I am the sword-wielder, I choose to be an ambitious one. And if I am ambitious, I would want one of these three positions for myself!

It’s evident that I’ll kill two of the three and spare one. So, instead of concentrating on what is to be lost by killing a particular person, let’s analyze what is to be gained by letting a particular person live.

Case 1) The king lives.

In this case, I kill both the rich man and the priest. What can the king do for me? The answer is clear – He can make me very very rich. But he cannot make me the priest. (The priest has to command the respect and devotion of the people, something a king cannot buy or order.)

Case 2) The priest lives.

Here, I kill the king and the rich man. Once again, I ask – What can the priest give me? He cannot make me rich. Most of the priests themselves choose to live a life of poverty (Remember High Sparrow?) But the priest can easily make me the king. He holds that much power over people, as is evident throughout our history (Again, remember High Sparrow?)

Case 3) The rich man lives.

I kill the king and the priest. Now, what can the rich man offer me? He can neither make me the king, nor make me the priest. Both of those positions require people’s will, acceptance and devotion; and that is something you cannot buy with money.

So, it is evident that the rich man is the most useless of all. He has nothing to offer to me. I kill him immediately.

Now, the king and the priest remain. The king can make you rich, and the priest can make you king. (Case 1 and 2)

So, it’s just a matter of the exact nature the sword-wielder’s ambition takes. Does he crave wealth or power? If he craves power, then he must kill the king. And if he craves riches, then he must kill the priest.

For me, personally, power is much more important than money. So, if you make me the sword-wielder, I’ll first kill the rich man. Then, when it’s just between the king and the priest, I’ll strike a deal with the priest that if I spare him, he has to make me the king with his support.

Then I’ll stab the king.

Boo ya!

Oops, I mean…

Homelessness In The U.S. Is Up 48 Percent Since 2015, And Americans Are Being Laid Off In Droves…

January 29, 2024by Michael

How can anyone out there possibly believe that the U.S. economy is doing well? As you will see below, the number of homeless Americans has risen to the highest level ever recorded, and large companies all over the country are laying off workers in droves. As I have discussed previously, the number of Americans that were laid off in 2023 jumped 98 percent compared to the year before, and now during the first month of 2024 it feels like we are being hit by a tsunami of layoffs. It literally seems like someone has turned a fire hose on, but the Biden administration continues to insist that unemployment is “low” and that the outlook for the U.S. economy is positive.

Honestly, I don’t understand how the Biden administration can say that the outlook for the U.S. economy is positive when the number of Americans that are homeless has been increasing at the fastest pace ever recorded. According to a brand new report that was just released by Harvard’s Joint Center for Housing Studies, the number of homeless Americas has increased 48 percent since 2015…

According to a Jan. 25 report from Harvard’s Joint Center for Housing Studies, roughly 653,000 people reported experiencing homelessness in January of 2023, up roughly 12% from the same time a year prior and 48% from 2015. That marks the largest single-year increase in the country’s unhoused population on record, Harvard researchers said.

Homelessness, long a problem in states such as California and Washington, has also increased in historically more affordable parts of the U.S.. Arizona, Ohio, Tennessee and Texas have seen the largest growths in their unsheltered populations due to rising local housing costs.

We can see evidence of this all around us.

Tent cities are popping up like mushrooms in our major cities and countless Americans are living in their vehicles and RVs.

One of the primary reasons why homelessness has been surging so dramatically is because rental costs have soared to unprecedented heights…

Rent in the U.S. has steadily climbed since 2001. In analyzing Census and real estate data, the Harvard researchers found that half of all U.S. households across income levels spent between 30% and 50% of their monthly pay on housing in 2022, defining them as “cost-burdened.” Some 12 million tenants were severely cost-burdened that year, meaning they spent more than half their monthly pay on rent and utilities, up 14% from pre-pandemic levels.

People earning between $45,000 and $74,999 per year took the biggest hit from rising rents — on average, 41% of their paycheck went toward rent and utilities, the Joint Center for Housing Studies said.

Tenants should generally allocate no more than 30% of their income toward rent, according to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

But Joe Biden insists that inflation is “low”.

You believe him, don’t you?

Sadly, more Americans will soon be hitting the streets because we are witnessing an insane wave of layoffs all over the nation.

Right now, it is being reported that Salesforce has decided to conduct another round of layoffs…

Salesforce is cutting about 700 employees, The Wall Street Journal reported.

The job cuts, which amount to about 1% of its global workforce, follow a series of workforce reductions last year.

In 2023, Marc Benioff’s company laid off about 10% of its total workforce as it grappled with a swarm of activist investors who wanted margins increased faster than planned.

And we have just learned that REI will be giving the axe to 357 workers…

REI is laying off 357 workers, mostly in the outdoor retailer’s headquarters and distribution centers. In a letter to employees, CEO Eric Artz noted that “outdoor specialty retail has experienced four quarters of decline – and that trend has been worsening.” While REI was able to outperform this for much of last year, he said, this trend caught up to the company in the fourth quarter, and difficult conditions are expected in 2024.

Difficult conditions are expected in 2024?

Oh really…

Who could have seen that one coming?

After their deal with Amazon fell through, iRobot announced that 31 percent of its staff would be hitting the bricks…

Amazon and iRobot, the maker of the popular Roomba vacuum, mutually called off their estimated $1.7 billion acquisition deal Monday, citing numerous regulatory hurdles.

Immediately after the deal was publicly squashed, iRobot announced it would lay off 31% of its staff and that founder Colin Angle would step down from his role as CEO, citing a focus on profitability, stability and growth. Glen Weinstein will serve as interim CEO.

Shares of iRobot (IRBT) were down around 9% in noon trading following the news. Amazon (AMZN), which was up about 0.5% in noon trading, will pay iRobot a previously agreed-upon $94 million cancellation fee.

Google, Microsoft, Levi’s, TikTok, Riot Games, eBay, Wayfair and Macy’s are some of the other big names that have also announced layoffs so far in 2024.

But no industry is being hit harder than the mainstream media…

Journalists across the country burst into flames of panic this week, as bad news for the news business crested and erupted everywhere all at once.

Patrick Soon-Shiong, the billionaire publisher of the Los Angeles Times, laid off 20 percent of his newsroom. Over at Time magazine, its billionaire owners, Marc and Lynne Benioff, did the same for 15 percent of their unionized editorial employees. This latest conflagration had ignited at Sports Illustrated the previous week as catastrophic layoffs were dispensed via email to most staffers. Business Insider (whose parent company Axel Springer also owns POLITICO) jettisoned 8 percent of its staff while workers at Condé Nast, Forbes, the New York Daily News and elsewhere walked out to protest forthcoming cuts at their shops.

Perhaps if they had not made a habit of blatantly lying to us over and over again during the past several years they would not have lost all of their remaining credibility and they would not have had to lay off so many workers.

But even though so much is going wrong with the economy right now, many of the “experts” continue to tell us that happier times are just around the corner.

For example, Ed Yardeni insists that we will soon relive the Roaring Twenties…

Ed Yardeni, a veteran market strategist, thinks the US economy might be about to relive the “Roaring ’20s.”

The Yardeni Research president said during Friday’s episode of Bloomberg’s “Merryn Talks Money” podcast that he’s expecting a combination of loose post-pandemic monetary policy and rapid technological change to drive growth higher over the next decade.

Wouldn’t it be great if he was actually right?

Of course the truth is that he is just being delusional.

Things are bad now, and things are going to get really bad during the second half of 2024 and beyond.

If you still have a good job and a warm home to come back to at night, you should be very thankful.

Because more Americans are losing their jobs and losing their homes with each passing day, and the level of economic suffering that we are witnessing is already off the charts.

The Unthinkable Is Happening In The USA! (Texas Border Battle!)

https://youtu.be/Ik8Ya90P3ms

Woody Beer

You know there used to be this kind of beer in China. It was really odd. Every time I would drink a case of this beer I would end up with a big strong erection. It was darnest thing. That is because beer is a depressant. You have one or two beers and your little manhood turns into wet spaghetti.

LOL. Guys, you know what I am talking about. Ha ha ha.

But not on this beer. Imagine that!

After a while all the cans were pulled off the shelves in all the stores, and I never saw the beer ever again. Then, one day, I was reading the news and discovered that the beer company was adding generic Viagra into the bottles of beer. So no wonder I’d have a woody after a six pack!

Good golly!

Personally, Viagra gives me a headache. So I am glad that I no longer drink that beer. It was a poor marketing decision, and thus, I am pretty glad that the beer is no longer available.

And that is the story of China’s Viagra beer.

Today…

What was the most surprising thing that happened to you at Walmart?

One day while I was thrifting, a Hispanic man came up to the register and asked the price of a huge plastic doll house. His daughter was trailing behind him. The cashier quoted him five dollars at which his face fell and he turned to put the toy back.

I rolled my eyes in exasperation and slapped five dollars down on the counter. I told the cashier to give him the doll house cuz it was obvious he wanted it for his little girl. The gentleman thanked me profusely but I just waved him out of the door. After all I’ve paid ten bucks for a pair of panty hose. No big deal.

Then next day I was in Walmart at the register stocking up on caffeine-free Pepsi when I felt a light tap on my shoulder. I turned to the woman behind me with a questioning look and said,”Yes?”

She held out a five dollar bill. I looked at the money surprised and asked what was this for. She extended her hand and said,”This is for you”.

OMG. I am an atheist but I swear I looked up at the ceiling toward the heavens thinking about that doll house and said .

What? What? Is ,is God watching me.?

Is,is God

Saganaki (Flaming Greek Cheese)

Ingredients

1/4 pound Kefalograviera, Kasseri, Kefalotiri or Romano cheese
1 egg, beaten
Flour, as needed
3 teaspoons olive oil or butter
Lemon wedges, as needed
Oregano to taste
2 tablespoons brandy

Instructions

Slice cheese into 1/4-inch thick slices. Dip cheese into egg, then coat lightly with flour.
Heat oil in a frying pan over medium-high heat. Place cheese in the pan; cook until golden brown on both sides – about 1 minute per side.
Remove pan from heat. Add brandy, then carefully ignite. Douse flame with a squeeze of lemon juice, then sprinkle with oregano.

They are INSANE, and they’re leading us to World War 3 | Redacted with Natali and Clayton Morris

https://youtu.be/MCACQVGdYpk

What is your favorite “going the extra mile” customer services story?

T-Mobile

My husband died in 2007.

Before this, we’d had a phone plan that fit our needs. We barely used our cell phones so we had a limited number of minutes to use each month. Neither of us ever came close to reaching that limit, not once.

After my husband died I was on the phone non-stop. People calling to see how I was. His job calling with benefit information. His family calling to judge the hell out of me and demand that his death was my fault. Etc, etc, etc.

I need to add that since my husband did not have a will when he died all of our assets were frozen. I was completely unable to work and the rest of the money was unavailable until his estate was figured out.

So, T-mobile calls me to tell me that my phone is about to be shut off. My phone bill had reached $2000! I explained that my husband had died and I was unable to pay the bill. Told them that I didn’t even know WHEN I’d have money to pay anything at all, let alone the phone bill.

T-mobile cleared the entire $2000 from my bill. They also gave me unlimited minutes for the next 2 months.

Say what you will about T-mobile but they’ve done good by me. I’ll forever feel indebted to them and will stay with them til the end.

What’s the sweetest way you’ve seen someone get fired from a job?

Large, international companies in the U.S. are not immune to nepotism (no matter what the rules and regulations say) or to giving a friend’s kid a job.

Our department head was asked to give another department head’s daughter, fresh out of university, a job in our unit.

She was cluelessly entitled. She could not understand that most of us worked to survive, not just to get spending money or to please parents. She was surprised when we could not go to a high-end restaurant for lunch because we had bills due.

But she was a sweetheart. She was generous with her things and with her time. We learned quickly to NOT compliment her clothes because she would give the items to us after cleaning them.

If someone was upset, she would listen, soothe and would always follow up. Her positive attitude could brighten our worst days.

HOWEVER, her work was horrid. The supervisors trained her carefully, but she could not grasp the simplest of office tasks. She created chaos in the incoming work, three-step system and crashed the unit’s copy machine for over a week (the Xerox repairman was in awe of the devastation). No job was safe with her.

The department head and the two supervisors wanted to get her out of the unit without hurting her.

They hatched a plan to have her ‘promoted’ to Personnel (H.R.) to a counseling position. On paper, though, she was dismissed from our unit for incompetence.

We had a nice ‘Congratulations!’ luncheon on her last day that made her tear up because we talked all about why we liked her.

She was where she should have been from the beginning and did brilliantly for many years.

Note: She did see the official dismissal notice and then rehire papers. But our department head explained it all gently and kindly as just a formality.

Reports Leaked: China’s Fighter Jet Fleet Is Growing MASSIVELY

https://youtu.be/SMUr6psqNY4

What are some amazing psychology and mind tricks?

If you want to get your crush to instantly fall in love with you, use this love eye trick: You want to look in their left eye for one second, to their lips for one-and-a-half to two seconds and then to their right eye.
If you want people to take your words seriously, say that your father taught you this. People tend to believe parents’ advice inherently.
If you want to know someone is attentive or not, repeat your sentence with a slight change in it. If he is listening either his facial expression will change, or he will point out and question the part.
If you want people to agree with you, just nod and maintain eyecontact while you’re talking, they will nod back.
If you want someone to agree for something, give them a list covering 3 options and drop the one to the bottom that you want them to pick. They are most likely to pick the bottom one.
If you want your friend to carry something, just keep talking to them while handing them the bag. Most people will automatically take the bag without thinking.

Women Treat you Entirely differently When you Become a High Value Man

https://youtu.be/KkGmfY_UOyE

Have you actually ever heard someone say ‘Do you know who I am?’ indignantly?

Oh yes. When I was waitressing in a little hometown cafe, saving money for college. It’s the kind of restaurant where the nearby business owners eat lunch every single day and pretty much always the same crowd.

During a very hectic lunch shift, a party of six unfamiliar men in business suits came in and sat in my section. I recognized one but not the rest. As I had two other orders to take before theirs, I gave them water and menus and said I’d be with them in just a minute or two. The well known guy just happened to be a Senator.

He stood up, grabbed my sleeve and told me they were in a bit of a hurry, and that they really needed me to take their order first. I told him there were two other tables who had sat down ahead of them, and that as promised, I would be right back to take their orders.

That’s when he got indignant and said “Do you know who I am?” I said “Of course I do, Senator” and he informed me that I would be taking their order ahead of the other tables (all regular, daily customers).

I turned around and in a loud voice, I announced to the entire dining room “We have Senator X dining with us today, and he would like to be served ahead of all the rest of you. Would that be OK?”

The guy sat back down, turned bright red and never said another word. He waited his turn just like everybody else….and left me a very nice tip.

Before leaving after being fired, what’s the most that one can sabotage the office without getting caught?

Mine was not sabotage. I put in my resignation along with a two week notice. They told me I was fired and I was escorted from the building after packing up my desk. What they forgot was I was the only coder in the building and much of the company’s accounting, inventory, control, security and other software I had customized. Could I have sabotaged it, yes, I left some backdoors to allow me easier access. I also knew all but personal passwords, some of which I was the only one who knew. I also was the only IT person that could do more than plug and play. So all the updates I normally did, weren’t being done. The daily monitoring I did, wasn’t being done. They called several times and I gave them passwords and etc, but no more than they asked. Within a month their whole system was trashed and they couldn’t find anyone that could help with their antiquated programs. They finally asked me to come back to work for them. I only agreed after telling them I would be a contractor, and I put lots of zeros after the numbers. Company went under because they refused to spend money on modern equipment and software.

Her DELUSIONAL Dating Standards Leave Her With No Man

https://youtu.be/-YrttMYAe8s

Are we getting close to WWIII or a war with Iran? I keep seeing news articles on both and it has me worried.

You are not wrong.

Whether WW3 or Iran war will happen depends on USA.

Either USA withdraws all its troops from Mideast or stops supporting Israel.

The reason why US military bases in Mideast were attacked is because USA is not welcome in Mideast minus Israel.

UN says USA’s occupation of Syria & Iraq is illegal. There is no reason US troops should stay in Mideast.

US troops were not invited by Syria. USA used laundry detergent to falsely accuse Iraq possessing biochem weapons & then waged a war in 2003. … illegal, illegal, illegal.

USA should let Mideast people govern Mideast affairs.

Hence, WW3 is in the hands of USA.

BRICS Sanction UK & US After Recent Missile Attacks On Houthi Rebels!

https://youtu.be/2pU15CpJ4xk

China Deploys Multiple Warships Around Self-Claimed ADIZ – The Japan News

China is deploying multiple warships around the clock in waters near the borders of the air defense identification zone that it has unilaterally established, The Yomiuri Shimbun has learned.

A photograph taken by a Yomiuri Shimbun journalist on Dec. 30 showed a Jiangkai II-class guided-missile frigate of the Chinese Navy in the zone.

Air defense identification zones, or ADIZs, are set up by individual countries outside their territorial airspace to prevent incursions. Countries decide whether there is a possibility of their airspace being entered, and whether their fighter aircraft should scramble. Just passing through Japan’s ADIZ does not result in the scrambling of Self-Defense Forces planes.

China is operating the zone on the premise that it is Chinese airspace. Aircraft that fly within its ADIZ are told to immediately leave.

China’s move shows that it is a pressing issue for the Japanese government to take action to deal with Beijing’s attempt to change the status quo by force. China’s ADIZ, established in November 2013, overlaps with Japan’s and includes the Senkaku Islands, over which China claims sovereignty

Contrary to international custom, China unilaterally demands that aircraft flying in the zone follow Chinese authorities’ instructions. It also claims it will take “defensive emergency measures” if an aircraft fails to do so.

China is thought to be claiming jurisdiction that is not based in international law. The Japanese government is strongly opposed, calling China’s actions invalid, and the United States and South Korea have also expressed concern.

The Yomiuri journalist photographed the Chinese Jiangkai II-class guided-missile frigate and the Maritime Self-Defense Force’s newly commissioned frigate JS Mikuma facing each other in waters about 20 kilometers inside the border of what China insists is its ADIZ.

During the flight, the Yomiuri also confirmed a radio communication in which the Chinese Navy warship called on a separate aircraft flying within China’s ADIZ to leave the airspace.

China started deploying at least three navy warships around the clock in waters around its claimed ADIZ, according to Japanese government sources.

The three include an air defense missile destroyer, which is the Chinese version of an Aegis-equipped destroyer, and a frigate warship. Equipped with high-performance radar, air defense missile destroyers are highly capable of shooting down aircraft

The Chinese military aircraft repeatedly scramble in response to SDF aircraft, according to the sources. The Chinese military is believed to be strengthening its monitoring of SDF and U.S. military aircraft and warships in the East China Sea.

To effectively establish ADIZs, it is essential to deploy radar that can detect early on the approach of other countries’ aircraft, and improve the efficiency of fighter units so they can immediately reach the spot.

China’s monitoring capabilities were initially believed to be low, and it was thought that its establishment of the ADIZ would have no substantial impact.

However, some observers are warning that China will have its warships, which are deployed around the clock, and fighters work together and increase its military activities.

“It’s intended to block the SDF and U.S. military aircraft [from entering the airspace] in the event of contingencies in the Taiwan Strait,” said an SDF source.

Japanese government sources believe that the Chinese warships’ 24-hour deployment in the area is linked with China’s claim of sovereignty over the Senkaku Islands. In fact, when China Coast Guard vessels operating around the Senkakus intruded into Japanese territorial waters, the warships deployed in the area moved southward.

“When China established the ADIZ 10 years ago, it was meant more as a message to keep Japan and the U.S. in check,” said Yasuyuki Sugiura, a senior fellow of the Regional Studies Department’s China Division at the National Institute for Defense Studies.

“In recent years, however, the Chinese air force and navy are increasingly sharing their information. This must mean their capabilities have become more substantial,” he said.

20 vs 1: Speed Dating 20 Girls | Jubilee x Solfa | Versus 1

https://youtu.be/Un0m8Xjy9vk

What moments of brutal honesty from a doctor have you actually appreciated in hindsight?

I was in a really bad car accident when I was 25 years old. Before the accident I exercised constantly – I walked at least five miles every day, did physically taxing work, swam every day (for a minimum of 45 minutes) in the summer. I was in great physical shape, with great muscle tone. In the accident I broke both legs, my pelvis, three vertebrae and dislocated my left knee joint. The emergency room doctor told me I would never walk again. Well, I’ll show him, I thought.

I had a dozen surgeries to repair the knee (my back wasn’t fixable at the time) and worked very hard at my physical therapy. In fact, I worked so hard that I kept getting tendonitis, which would bring my therapy to a halt. I could walk, but I had a limp, which would make my back hurt after a very short time, but I was determined to be able to walk correctly, no matter how much effort it took.

Finally one of my doctors told me the following: “I like to play golf, but no matter how hard I work, no matter how long I train, no matter how many great coaches help me, I will never play golf as well as Tiger Woods. My wife loves to play tennis. No matter how hard she works at it, no matter who coaches her, no matter how many hours of practice she puts in, she will never play tennis like Serena Williams. They have a unique balance of talent and physical attributes that allows them to do what they do. And no matter how much therapy you have, no matter how many operations to fix your legs, you will never walk without a limp. It just isn’t possible and you are doing real damage to yourself by trying so hard to overcome your disability.”

I burst into tears, mainly because I realized that he had been trying to tell me this for months and I had been doing my best not to get the message. I finally listened to him tell me that I had to stop trying so very hard because instead of gaining ground, I was actually making myself worse. I could walk, and that was something to be proud of, considering the extent of my injuries; but I was never going to be able to go back to physical condition I was in before the accident.

I was really upset by the news, but while my doctor was brutally honest with me, he managed to be compassionate when he finally relayed the message in a way I couldn’t ignore.

So now I walk with a cane. I can’t walk very far, but I do manage to get around, and that is good enough.

edit: Thank you all for the many kind comments and up-votes! I never expected my answer to mean so much to so many people. I am doing pretty well, all things considered. I have great physicians and new treatments have eased the problems with my back quite a bit. I had the dislocated knee rebuilt rather than get a knee replacement (I felt I was too young and needed to put it off as long as I could), but I’ll probably get one in the next year or two. I thank God that I had (and still have) good health insurance which allows me to take full advantage of all the new medical therapies out there. I still exercise every day, but I do so sensibly and don’t try to push myself to hard. I’m happy that my doctor was able to find a way to tell me what I needed to hear so that I didn’t continue to make myself worse.

Bob Lazar Says UFO was an Archaeological Finding | Joe Rogan

https://youtu.be/WmF6RXf6U_A

What is the hardest part about being a new truck driver?

I call it “the bullshit factor”. This is why former military are in such demand. They’ve seen this. The hurry up and wait. Drive like hell through the night to make your delivery appointment on time, not stopping to eat or piss, and then waiting around four hours or more waiting for a dock, and then 2–4 hours more, waiting to get unloaded.

And then there’s the grumpy shippers and receivers who don’t like you or their job very much who’ll tell you to check back later if you’re unfortunate enough to ask what’s taking so long.

Breakdowns? Don’t get me started…waiting on the side of the road with your penis in your hand for 8-10 hours until the calvary arrives with an oversize dragon wagon.

Not to mention what it does to your health, but I will. My issues included

High blood pressure, 176/96. Can you say Dead Man Walkin’?
Started in 1990 at 165 pounds. Retired in March at 272.
High Cholesterol, can’t remember the numbers, but the doctor said they were off the charts
Blew a disc out in my back at the age of 44 in 1990, the direct result of all the bouncing
Venous insufficiency in my left leg due to sitting. Had to have several veins stripped.
Doc said if I don’t quit, the job’ll kill me. Told her, we all gotta go sometime.

Put this all together and you’d have to be crazier than a shithouse rat to do this job. So, I guess you can call me “Rat”.

This is why the majority of newbies don’t make it past their first year.

Dad Swipes 20 Guys For His Daughter | Versus 1

https://youtu.be/gm4AYeWZB5s

What are the worst neighbours you’ve ever had? What were they like?

I moved next door to a guy called Dave. He lived alone with his 4 rescue dogs.

Dave was very welcoming. He knocked to my house the day we moved in and gave me a bottle of wine as a gift and introduced himself. I liked Dave from that moment.

Dave had disabilities so had a disabled car speck outside of his house. The parking in that street was a nightmare and had a huge impact on our decision to move. I will get to why this is important soon.

There was an old couple called Mr and Mrs Love (how cute?) Lovely old dears. They stopped to say hi one day whilst I was painting my front wall. Mrs Love told me to be careful of Dave. Apparently he was an awful man who complains and fights with all the neighbors. He would call the police for no good reason and he was cruel to his dogs.

Ok, Wow!

The woman across the street told me he was a paedophile who took videos from his bedroom of kids playing.

Another told me he called child protection on them for abusing their kids.

He shot next door but one’s cat with a pellet gun because it was in his garden, one of them said.

So, Dave was not a popular chap!

I’m not one for gossip but it’s hard not to be wary when all your neighbors are telling you that the antichrist is living next door.

When my dog had puppies, Dave gave me his number and told me to call him any time, day or night, if I needed help. He was slightly deaf and didn’t always hear the door bell.

Dave let me use the shared entry that was also his to store some things that I had no space for.

Dave fed my cat when I went away.

Dave never complained when my teenage son and his friends were rowdy.

Dave told me he was leaving his home to the Dogs Trust upon his death, in return for them to take his dogs and rehome them.

Dave looked after my dogs when I was going through something and wasn’t home a lot. He never pried. He just supported me by being there.

Dave cried when I gave him a Christmas card. He never had one before from a neighbor.

Dave helped me move to my new house which wasn’t far away, by bringing bits around that I forgot when the movers came.

The parking spot was the reason that the neighbors started a witch hunt for Dave. They said he scammed the council and wasn’t really ill. Dave got something that they wanted. They didn’t like it. Dave had cancer by the way. Nobody cared to ask. It was easier to start a hate campaign. It took one neighbor to tell an exaggerated story and begin the snowball effect that had Dave labelled as a pariah.

I still see Dave.

The other neighbors, I walk past them if I see them around. All of them are the worst neighbors I ever had.

I hope the couple who moved in to my house appreciate how lucky they are to have Dave next door.

Edit.

I’m grateful when people edit my typos. Please go ahead. I’m often very lax and don’t proof read my answers.

Speck is not a typo. That is the word I chose to use. To me it means a tiny insignificant space. I also meant to say next door but one. It was the neighbour next door to my next door neighbour!

blind dating 6 girls by dads | vs 1

https://youtu.be/kBnGB8T5yEc

What is the creepiest unexplained event you know of?

There are two. The first one was in 1987 after my Grandmother died. My grandfather didn’t want to sleep in the house by himself the first night after her death. So, myself and a neighbor agreed to spend the night with him. Keep in mind that my grandparents slept in separate bedrooms, so I slept in my grandfathers bedroom and my grandfather slept in my grandmothers bedroom. The neighbor slept in the living room. In the early morning hours of the next day I noticed that I was little bit chilly. I felt someone take the covers on the bed and pull them up over me. I turned over only to see my grandmother leaving out of the room! When I asked my grandfather and neighbor the next morning if they had come into the room and covered me up, they both said NO!

The next incident happened many years ago. There was an old lady who lived on the corner of my street. One day the neighbor directly across the street from her had a rummage sale. Although it was in the winter, she had tables sitting out with items to sell and people were looking at the items. The old lady on the corner was one of them. I noticed her as I was driving by. The next week I mentioned to my neighbor that I saw the old lady at her yard sale. She looked at me as if I was crazy and said “That lady has been dead for months!”

Americans Living Abroad: First Time You Realized America Really Messed You Up – American Reacts

https://youtu.be/7Q7OAGzc7ys

Have you ever quit a job in an unplanned manner where one day you just snapped and said “I’ve had enough of this, I’m done”?

Yes I have made an unplanned exit from a job.

It all happened because of some $100 Bills.

I came to the United States in 2006. Looking for full time work, I took a position of checkout operator at a Super K-Mart in a small town in California. The job was basic pay, no fixed hours on call. So was not great but as i had worked retail in the United Kingdom, I saw it as a stop-gap position until I could get a more regular job.

It was Thanksgiving Day 2006 and the store had been open since about noon. There was lots of traffic as customers came in to snap up Thanksgiving bargains.

I had taken several thousands of dollars and my till drawer had a bulge created by all of the $100 bills stuffed under the change drawer.

About 6pm the store manager came to my check-out and told me to open the cash register and give him the $100 bills.

I asked him to count the cash in front of me and give me a written receipt so I could place this in the till so the cash office could reconcile my till for the end of the day.

I had always done this in my own stores in England and I had worked for Tesco, a British supermarket chain where such receipts for large cash withdrawals by managers were manditory.

This manager refused. Opened my cash drawer himself and pulled out all of the $100 bills and put them into a cash bag without running the audit on the cash register.

I immediately closed off the register. Walked to the cash office with the contents of the drawer, told them I was leaving and went to collect my belongings from my locker in the staff room.

There was no way I was going to work for a manager who could come to my cash register, and take cash at will, leaving me with possible charges of theft from my employer.

Deciding to just walk out wasn’t a problem. Going to prison was.

A week later I received an offer of a far better job. Part-time with fixed hours. No cash handling involved.

Expats Share Their American Trauma After Living Abroad

https://youtu.be/HXr8ECsrFJU

Who is the rudest celebrity you have met, and who would be the nicest?

I’ve answered this question elsewhere but might as well do it again. In the 80s I owned a limousine company in Southern California. You get or are in the area of celebrities from time to time.

Nicest – Hands down Robert Wagner (Hart vs Hart, etc). Busy night, MTV awards so I was driving a car. My client was a music producer. Awards ceremony is at the Universal Amphitheatre. They had us park in the back lot which happened to be among the movie sets they use for neighborhoods (Like Ozzie & Harriet, Desperate Housewives, etc). It’s kind of confusing back there and pitch black at night. Out of the night walks someone who asks for directions to the Amphitheatre. It’s Robert Wagner. I agree to guide him and we chatted as we walked and parted once I got him to the Amphitheatre back stage. (I often wondered WTH he was doing at the MTV awares but whatever). Anyway, a year later I’m dropping clients off at a restaurant on Sunset. Walking up the street is Robert Wagner. He approaches me and picks up the conversation where we left off, knew my name, etc. Just like 2 old buddies catching up. He certainly could have walked on by and I probably wouldn’t even have noticed him. He went out of his way to approach me. Not a lot of people would do that much less celebrities. Impressed the hell out of my clients.

Since then I’ve filmed with Jay Leno and he’s another nice guy. I noticed that people like that really have to fly private. It’s not a choice because they are snobbish. They’d never be able to make a commercial flight on time if they had to walk through an airport and not acknowledge people.

Rudest? Hands down Tyne Daly. World Class A-hole. Totally unnecessary to treat people like that. 2nd place is not even close. It was difficult to find drivers that would drive her more than once.

I totally get the autograph thing. If you sign one, you have to sign the other 1,000 people’s who saw you giving out one. Particularly when they are eating. Most celebrities you can get autographs by writing their management. Don’t bother them when they are eating, or god forbid with their children or looking like they are late getting somewhere. If you break that barrier, don’t be surprised if they are not particularly welcoming. I also understand some of the sports stars who won’t sign because their stuff ends up on eBay the next day. I don’t think it’s an issue where they want the money, I think that it’s just not a good feeling to know that the only reason you got asked is so they can use you.

I don’t envy fame, having to be “On” 24/7 while out in public. You turn down one request and you are an instant a-hole.

THE U.S. Wants To Remove The No-Fault Divorce Law & Prevent Paternity Fraud. WOMEN ARE PISSED OFF!

https://youtu.be/8iBS98xXmr8

How would China react if the United States declared a naval blockade?

The world—American or otherwise—should bear this in mind.

Chinese ports handled 300m containers last year.

To put the number in context, American ports struggle with 50–60m, with the 10% increase during covid provoking loud creaks of protest from the antiquated system, resulting in transpacific shipping rates going up by an order of magnitude, or >10x.

China is the truly the world’s factory. It imports plenty, and exports plenty.

A naval blockade of China equals a naval blockade of the world, tradewise.

What happens to the >1t in annual revenue that American MNCs generate from within the mainland? Note this is not visible from bilateral trade figures.

What happens to Wall Street?

Good luck with that foolhardy scenario, which will lead to material collapse of civil society everywhere, because China is indispensable to the global supply chain.

Note: It is impossible to blockade China, militarily speaking.

Bang Bang

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/Ry2VZw9KxVg?feature=share

What do guys “never” tell girls?

We don’t care if you got a little fat, we didn’t choose you because of the measurement of your waist size.
We’re not overly jealous, your male best friend is over-friendly.
Before you took us to buy nail paints with you, we used to think there were only 7 colours.
We don’t care if you did your make-up by watching a 3 hour long tutorial by James Charles or you haven’t washed your face. Either way you’re beautiful.
Yes we find your friends attractive and we can’t help it but you should know that you’re different.
Doesn’t matter if it’s bold red or nude pink, all of your lipsticks taste like absolute plastic.
We often get emotional but the way we deal with them is quite different.
We use female cosmetics and you better not ask why.
It breaks our heart when we look at you and think that you and I won’t last forever.
Yes romantic movies and parties are fun but can we go on a late night walk?

What’s the most expensive thing you’ve lost and found?

Not me, but one of my tenants. She was elderly, and complained to me that her cousin stole her life savings of $6,000 when he helped her move in. Going forward about a year later she arrived home to find her grandson hanging from the kitchen doorway. She ran out the back door, never to return home.

I heard she was hospitalized after that, from a breakdown. Her son came from another state and packed up her belongings. He wrote down on a piece of paper that whatever was left behind I could keep, sell, or dispose of. He then turned the keys over to me.

I was shocked when I went into the place to clean it. He had left behind what I considered important items, photos in picture frames, a photo album, nice clothing, etc. I felt anger for her, that her son wasn’t more considerate and caring.

My husband told me to look through everything as I packed it up, as old people hide money in their stuff. Sure enough I found some old pennies hidden in a picture frame. Then I found ninety single dollar bills hidden in a box of socks that must have belonged to her grandson. At last I was going through a laundry basket with neatly layered towels and shoes that was beneath the kitchen sink. At the bottom lay a book that held business cards, her ID, social security card, etc. Page after page held $100 dollar bills. In all it totaled $6,000.

I thought about all I could do with $6,000. After all the son had said I could keep anything I found. The more I thought about it, the sicker I felt in my stomach. This lady was alive and had been through hell. It was the money she thought her cousin had stolen. It still belonged to her. I immediately called the property owner and had her pick it up, along with the picture albums, old pennies, and a few other probably meaningful possessions. We felt skeptical about giving the money to the son whom I sensed didn’t care. (Or maybe he was just grieving his son’s suicide.) Nonetheless, it took a year of finding honest relatives, but the lady did finally get the money back into her possession.

Will the people living in Taiwan become poor if the country becomes independent from China?

Taiwan doesn’t get weapons from US – Free of Cost

Those weapons are SOLD

Taiwan must pay those weapons

Like Pakistan was forced to pay for all those US weapons from the 1960s to 2000s and ended up unable to pay for their development.

So the Key Question for the Taiwanese is :-

Are the US Weapons Free?
Can US make up a market equivalent to 36% of Taiwanese Exports that the Mainland offers today

The Answer to both is NO & NO

Best example is Australia

40.6% of their export market was China in 2019

Then they had a tiff

Australia couldn’t sell anywhere else. The US and Europe and India offered only a paltry 8% market for Australian Exports

The US couldn’t pick up even 10% of the Slack that China Trade cost the Aussies for the whole of 2020–2021

Meanwhile the US and UK signed a deal to SELL SUBMARINES to Australia and weaponize them against China

By 2022, Albanese flew down, kissed the signet ring of Xi Jingping and today Australia got back a huge chunk of the Chinese Market

Anti China Propaganda is still prevalent but much much lower than under Scott Morrison

Same for Argentina

China is a huge market for their Exports

Can US pick up the slack?

Same for OPEC Nations

China is a huge market for their Oil and Gas.

Can US pick up the slack?

Same for Europe

Did US sell Europe Gas at Russian Prices?

Nopes

Since the 1960s , tell me ONE COUNTRY that prospered under US intervention

The Answer is NOT ONE NATION ever became better due to US intervention

They became significantly worse

US would meddle in their affairs, sell them weapons with the excuse of fighting for democracy, enrich shareholders of Raytheon, NG and Boeing and all those contractors and kill many thousands of people

Every such Nation has been made poorer thanks to the US

The Corrupt Leadership will enrich themselves like Zelensky or the Afghan President who fled and likely Bong Bong Marcos and Lai

Meanwhile the Poor Citizens will be poorer than ever and worse off

Why should we believe Taiwan would be any different to the 14 Nations where US ‘INTERVENED’ for Prosperity between 1965 to 2023????

If you were the top Ukrainian General, what would you do to win the war and recover all the territories, including Crimea?

If I were a Ukrainian general, I have nothing to win but everything to lose. I will either surrender or I will enriched myself profusely and hide my ill gotten gains away for the rest of my life.

In Malaysia we have an expression that is apt. It is call “nasi sudah jadi bubur” or it means Ukraine is beyond redemption. 2014 when the U.S. bribed and coerced Ukrainians to agree to poke Russia in the eye after the U.S. staged and funded colour revolution to set up a sham government with a puppet ruler started to wrong till today 10 years on.

Well the U.S. and U.K thought wrongly that it could fxxk up Russia or China as it wish! But it can’t! I can send such nation like Ukraine, Isreal or Taiwan to be a sacrificial lamb. Too bad Ukraine allowed the CIA to destroy their wonderful nation.

Women’s Dating Standards have Ruined Relationships

https://youtu.be/MNvpS8UU5l0

Chicken Piccata

Chicken Piccata goes very well with Fettuccine Alfredo or Capellini aglio e olio or some rice pilaf (or risotto) and sautéed rapini (broccoli rabe). This will be “del’arte di mangiare” bene (the art of eating well).

Ingredients

1 pound skinned chicken breast, sliced thin, or chicken tenders
1 cup all-purpose flour with a sprinkle of granulated garlic, salt and pepper
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter
1/2 cup olive oil
1/2 pound fresh sliced mushrooms or a can of straw mushrooms with juice removed
1/2 cup chicken stock (boullion cubes dissolved in a cup of hot water will do)
1/2 cup white wine and remember, do not cook with any wine you wouldn’t drink*
1-2 cloves finely chopped garlic
Small handful chopped parsley
1/4 cup lemon juice
1 lemon sliced thin, remove seeds
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

* This means do not use cooking wine…ever!

Instructions

Flatten breasts of chicken with the back of a sauté pan between wax paper if you didn’t cut them thin enough (1/4 inch or so). Pat them in the flour mixture and set aside.
Heat the sauté pan to medium/high and add the oil and 1/2 the butter. When back up to heat and butter is melted, add the chicken. (If the butter starts boiling it will burn so lower the heat until you put the chicken in.) When the edges of the first side start to appear cooked, turn them over. Add a splash of lemon and wine, salt and pepper to taste, and cook until done. When done, set aside and keep warm. You may have to do this a few times depending on the size of your pan or how much you are making.
De-glaze the pan over hot heat with the wine to dissolve the brown particles and let it reduce. Note: If you are using gas and tip the edge of the pan over the flame it will ignite ( flambe ) and flame up to burn off the alcohol – BE CAREFUL! Then add the stock, butter, and lemon juice and let reduce further. Add a pinch of flour to thicken or use 1/2 teaspoon of Roux (below). This should take about a minute or so. When thickened, add mushrooms, garlic, parsley, and the sliced lemon to the pan and sauté for a minute or so and blend well. Place the chicken a serving platter or plates, spoon over juices, top with lemon slices and serve immediately. This may look like a lot of work and too much oil, butter or spices but trust me, if you skimp, it will not taste the same. Also, if you don’t want to use chicken, you can substitute with turkey or veal.
Roux: This is the best thickening agent and can be used in anything – demi-glazes, gravies, soups, etc.
Use equal parts butter and flour.
Melt butter; slowly whisk in flour and simmer until golden brown and remove from flame. DONE! When using a roux it must be at room temperature or cooler than the product being cooked. Over medium heat, stir in a little roux until dissolved and let thicken. Start off with a teaspoon per quart of liquid, or fraction thereof, and add as required.

Buona Appetito, VINCENZO

Has anyone from your past ever sought you out to say thank you?

At a class reunion, a classmate I had not seen in maybe 40 years was there. He came over, ask me to dance and proceeded to thank me. I was taken aback. “Whatever for? For a dance?” He then explained he had come to the reunion to thank me and another girl for “saving” him when we were young. (Like 4th-8th grade.) He said I had let him check my homework (I did vaguely remember one incident) to see if his answers were right. He said that Debbie had also helped him. I was still confused. “Why did you feel you had to come thank me for such a small thing from so long ago?”

As the dance ended, he began to tell the story. I was appalled. Seems he was raised by an alcoholic father who would beat the boys if their grades weren’t B’s or above. Hence his need to check our homework, which we accorded him. Little did I know the true depth of his story. I was so appalled that I blurted out, “Why didn’t anyone do anything? The adults, why didn’t the adults do something?” I was even far more appalled when told that most of the school staff knew of those kid’s situation. He said the janitor’s wife fed them sandwiches every morning because they had had no breakfast because Dad would drink up the food money. When I asked again why no one did anything, he told me it wasn’t like it is nowadays back in the mid 60’s. There was no CPS or 211Kids. Especially out there in the country.

Thus, he felt that Debbie and I had saved him from more than one beating. Finally, about the time he graduated he said he and his Dad got into it again and for the first time he turned the tables on his “old man” and beat him. He left for the service within the week rather than stay in that home any longer.

So yes, someone from my past has come back to thank me and broke my heart for the young boy I had known but didn’t know his horrid home situation. Thank God I handed that small boy (he was always sort of scrawny back then) my homework. Would do it again!

21 Minutes of Older Women realizing they are not Wanted anymore and crying on Social Media

https://youtu.be/VXmkUgLjalE

What’s the best revenge you’ve gotten after being fired or let go from a job?

It was my first real job, and I helped the company install a new computer system to replace the punch cards and ribbons monster they had used before. The new sexy system used state of the art floppy discs!

So, I had been there for 50 weeks when they fired me (Unfair Dismissal laws apply from 52 weeks on). I had seen it coming and had another job lined up, but I was determined that I would leave everything in such good order that whoever came after me could see how good I was at my job and didn’t believe any slander about me.

My handwriting is pretty terrible, which didn’t matter when I was the only one reading it, but for the sake of my successor, I took all the floppy disks and relabeled them with clear, colour coded labels and legible handwriting.

Then I left and started a much better job the following week.

Later, I heard that the boss’s wife got suspicious of my new labels – AND TOOK THEM ALL OFF ALL THE DISCS. All the payroll discs, ledgers, creditors and bank accounts, end of month totals, and master discs, all sitting in a pile with no labels and no one in the company with enough computer knowledge to know which was which.

The got onto their computer support company in Dublin, but since they had screwed them over they last time they had worked, the IT people were in no hurry to sort them out.

They didn’t ask me.

By the time they found someone, the company had gone bust.

And the thing was, I had no intention of getting revenge, it was the company’s own practices which had resulted in it.

“We need to hit Iran HAs a cop, what interesting places have you found drugs or other contraband hidden?

What are friends for?

In reality, the best hiding place is the one that the police walk right past and never find. I’m sure it happens, but not in this case:

My favorite is the auto body repair shop we raided which was dealing a lot of heroin. We knew it was in there, but we couldn’t find it. We searched all the cars, all the tools, the tool boxes, the oil tanks – every place imaginable. The facility had a concrete floor and cinder-block walls with a 16′ ceiling — not many hiding places.

During the raid, we detained seven or eight people hanging out. As per standard operating procedure, we ran warrant checks on everyone there. That’s when we got lucky. One of the people there had a reasonably large warrant from another state.

The warrant wasn’t for a violent crime; he was stealing cars and selling off the parts. He must have pissed someone off, because his bail was fifty thousand dollars, full cash. When we were asked to confirm the person’s identity, my sergeant gave a different date of birth so that the warrant wouldn’t execute. Meaning the computer wouldn’t know we had the wanted person in custody.

We took the guy outside and explained the situation to him. Either he gave us the hiding place, or he sits in jail on a fifty thousand dollar warrant. He was very hesitant to give up the location because he said we would never find it on our own, they would know he told, and the dealer was a friend.

We promised to protect his identity and come up with a way to find the drugs which wouldn’t look suspicious. So he spilled the beans. Just off the ceiling, was a typical configuration of sprinkler pipes. The last section of pipe was a fake. The connecting pipe had been internally welded closed. The final length of the sprinkler pipe including two sprinkler heads were dry and empty, except for many bags of heroin. The rest of the pipes were all pressurized and fully functioning as a sprinkler system.

According to our new informant, the dealer would stand on the hood of the same car, which never moved from the shop. As the dealer stood on the vehicle, the lift would be raised. This put the dealer close enough to the pipe to unscrew it and retrieve the hidden drugs.

As the dealer watched, we spent hours acting as if we were searching until our sergeant said, “Look, what’s with all the sneaker prints on the hood of that car.” He had one of us climb up there and stand in the same spot, but the detective couldn’t reach anything and said so. The sergeant says, “How about if we raise the car.” As soon as the lift raised the car, the only thing up that high was the sprinkler pipe. The detective wiggled it around a little, and it was loose. He then yells down, “Hey, this sprinkler pipe has greasy hand prints all over it.”

He unscrewed the pipe and found the drugs and the dealer couldn’t believe we had located his stash. We told him we would recover his prints from the sprinkler pipe and he quickly admitted to owning the drugs.

He had a near perfect hiding place. His biggest mistake was that a second person was needed to operate the lift. This second person not only sold stolen auto parts, but also sold his friend down the river.

What is a life hack that you think everybody should know?

1. Use the library for books, CDs, DVDs, and now audio books.

2. Only going to yard sales in the rich neighborhoods.

3. Flip your pill bottles after taking them so you remember if you took them or not.

4. Sleep with a pillow between your knees. No more lower back pain.

5. Travel pillows go in front.

6. If you put something down temporarily, saying out loud to create a richer memory.

7. Dating to see if you like the other person, not if they like you.

8. Check the per kg price instead of the displayed price.

9. You’re supposed to shake out the popcorn kernels that haven’t popped.

10. Create a routine for BEFORE exercise. When you’re not motivated, it just triggers you into action.

11. Read the three and four star reviews for the most reliable information on Amazon items.

12. if you want someone to get madder you tell them to “calm down”.

13. When driving for long periods. Turn off recirculating air. One of the main reasons you get tired in the car is from too much co2 in the car.

14. “Don’t put it down, put it away.” stops clutter at the source for keeping things tidy.

15. Drinking one cup of water for every two alcoholic beverages. End up with far less of a hangover.

What are some of the most awesome psychological facts?

1. People tend to yawn when someone near them yawns. Even reading the word “yawn” might make you yawn right now.

2. The dirtier the paper money a street vendor receives, the higher the likelihood they’ll cheat you.

3. Counting money can ease the pain.

4. A 10% pay raise reduces male smoking rates by 5.5%.

5. When people look at something fascinating, their pupils can dilate by up to 45%.

6. How do you memorize a long phone number? Human nature involves breaking complex information into 3 or 4 chunks.

7. Compared to people in Europe and America, Asians recognize their bosses’ faces faster.

8. Lying is actually a high-level brain function. Kids who learn to lie earlier are smarter.

9. Your happiness isn’t tied to whether others like your name, but rather if you like it yourself, and both are influenced by common genes.

10. Exercise addicts and those with anorexia nervosa share similar psychological traits and behavioral tendencies.

11. Walking while scrolling your phone leads to covering the same distance with more steps.

12. “Magic mushroom” psilocybin can alleviate depression in cancer patients.

13. First-time dads often experience a dip in relationship satisfaction.

14. Workers’ mistakes increase on Fridays.

ARD and wipe them off the map” U.S. Senator says | Reacted with Clayton Morris

https://youtu.be/hLiE6oluLe4

How do some people keep their houses so clean all the time?

Its always been a mystery to me, it’s never been a problem that I have had. Except for a brief period where I had the worlds best maid.

She was the bar maid at my local pub, and over heard me say that my place was a mess, and I needed a maid.

It turns out that she worked days for Molly maid, and nights at the pub, and she picked up any work she could get during the day on weekends. She was only 21, and she was saving up to buy a bed and breakfast in a resort town in a neighboring province. She said she was almost there, at 21.

So I gave her a key to my place, and when I got home from work Saturday afternoon my house looked like a tornado had hit. All of my living room furniture was stacked in the middle of the living room. The smell of pinesol was strong in the kitchen and hallway. The fridge and stove were away from the wall, and there was no one in sight. I went upstairs and all the beds were piled in one room, the dressers pulled away from the wall. She was on her hands and knees, scrubbing a stain out of the carpet, that had been hidden by the bed. She said she was almost done cleaning and just had to put stuff back.

I offered to do that downstairs, while she finished up, upstairs. She gladly accepted. I went down and pushed the fridge and stove back over to the spotless walls, on spotless floors. I moved the living room and dining room furniture back .

I went upstairs and put the dressers and beds back in the guest rooms, while she finished the master bedroom.

She never stopped moving for a second. She said she loved the smell of a clean house. I wanted marry her then and there, but didn’t want to risk losing my maid 😂.

She asked me when the last time I had cleaned behind the fridge and stove, when I said never, she said “I could tell.”

The walls had been washed, all of the light fixtures cleaned, the windows washed. The laundry room was spotless, even the furnace room was swept and dusted.

She came every two weeks for 3 months, and then announced that she had bought a bed and breakfast at 21.

I went from a slob, to the cleanest house on the block, and back to a slob in 4 months.

The way I kept my house spotless was to have the worlds best maid.

What is the strangest way you found out your significant other was cheating on you?

There was this Chinese buffet in my hometown at which I used to eat, quite regularly. Probably more often than a person interested in their health and well-being should.

The woman at the front desk would seat me herself, and bring me my drink, rather than the waiters/waitresses.

The head chef would always come out and greet me and give me a polite smile, and ask me if I wanted anything specific made (of which I never really took advantage).

So, in other words, these people knew who I was and actually cared about my business.

I used to go there all the time with my then-girlfriend.

One day, I went in there alone on my lunch break.

The woman at the front desk approached me at my table.

She asked me, “You and your girlfriend break up?”

I was confused. “Uh… no?”

“Oh.” Then she said, very matter-of-factly, “She come in here earlier with another man. She kiss him.”

I was shocked. “What? She did?”

“Yeah!” She said, very excitedly, and pointed to a table, “She sat over there.”

So I texted her.

“Hey, I’m at the buffet for lunch, wanna join me?”

She replied, “No. I already ate.”

“Ah, cool. Where’d ya go?”

She replied, “My mom’s.”

So I said, “Really? Because the waitress said she saw you here earlier.”

Five minutes later, she texted, “Yeah, I went there. But I didn’t eat anything.”

At that point, I lost interest in pursuing the truth, so I just said, “Cool. We’re done.”

I left the woman at the desk a $20 tip.

Truth

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/ptMJFRFC3tY?feature=share

What is the best comeback you used on someone?

I was working for a company that sold, repaired, and installed computer networks, back in the 1980′s.

One guy called on the phone and yelled, “I want you to get over here and fix my fucking computer!”
I asked him to repeat it. Didn’t know the voice or phone number, but I wanted to be sure.
I repeated it, louder. “I WANT SOMEBODY TO COME HERE AND FIX MY FUCKING COMPUTER!”
With total calm, I told him, “Sorry sir, we don’t service that brand.”

Another time, we’d just hired two sales people that a competitor had fired. They were following up all their sales leads that they had brought with them. Their former boss found out that they’d been closing some of those sales while they worked for us, and he called us, mad as hell, to speak to my boss, My boss didn’t want to deal with him, so he just handed me the phone. I was the bookkeeper. It was a small office. He mouthed, “Tell him whatever, I don’t care!” and then introduced me as his “Sales Manager.” I shrugged, took the phone and asked what the problem was. The guy told me that our new sales people had been poaching his leads, that he had come to him originally because of advertising that his company had paid a lot of money for. He wanted me to fire the two salespeople. I thought for a moment while I agreed with him that what they had done was quite unethical, and reprehensible. Then I told him I would see to it that it didn’t happen again, if he would help me, by giving me a list of all the prospective clients that he was working on, with their names, addresses, and contact information. He asked why, and I told him I was going to make sure that our sales staff didn’t call those people, but of course, I had to know who they were. I assured him that if he would fax me that list, I would make sure that all our salespeople received it with “appropriate instructions.’

He hung up without saying another word. And no, I never got the list.
“

Why The Western Elites Are Foolish and Amoral

https://youtu.be/cDOa9PW3lnU

What is the nicest thing you have done that no one knows about?

My little sister was terribly bullied in middle school. She often came home in tears; her grades were low and she had no friends. Although she was still young, it was not difficult to see that she was really depressed.

It was an expensive, selective, all-girl, private school. Our family considered it an achievement that she got accepted, and brushed off her struggles, saying it was only an adjustment period.

They were wrong. She spent two years in total misery. Her time in the counselor’s office told me that she would never adapt. It broke my heart seeing her unhappy and there was nothing I could do about it.

We relocated and she started at another school, where she prospered. It was the fresh start she needed. She had a great circle of friends and her academic performance improved.

My sister grew into a beautiful confident young lady. She managed to overcome all her insecurities and learned to socialize. Her old school troubles became distant memories that we avoided talking about.

Until we had to move back. My family wanted her to go to her old school and her old “friends”. She was devastated, because she was leaving her real ones, but mostly about having to live through the nightmare school once again.

We went there to re-enroll, after spending the night unsuccessfully trying to convince everyone against it. My sister recognized a group of girls from her old class at the gate. She said hello, they ignored her and started snickering.

She just sat there helplessly as the re-admission forms were being filled out. But I was fuming. We will process your paperwork and call you next week to pay the tuition fees so she can start, said the registrar.

It was not too late and I was going to act quietly. The next morning I phoned the school and asked to speak to her then counselor. I reminded her of all the difficulties my sister had when she attended that school.

I told her how well she’s doing in her new one and offered to send progress reports for proof. I asked her to keep our conversation confidential and finally begged her to decline the re-admission request.

“I will review her file and do my best. But please remember that I am only part of the admission panel and I do not have the final say in her acceptance” said her counselor. I hung up and prayed.

A few days later, my dad announced that he had bad news. The school rejected my sister’s application and we will be looking at other options. They did not provide a reason for their rejection.

No one knew about my meddling until she graduated high school. Ten years later, she is still very grateful about it.

China Banned ALL Rare Earth Tech, What this Means for Ucore

https://youtu.be/5Ajzn6Gld_Q

How did your boss respond when you told him/her you quit?

1990:

Me: “This is my two weeks notice.”
Manager, looking stricken, as if I was her child saying I was leaving home: “I’m not happy for you.”

2007:

Me: “This is my two weeks notice. I do not want a party.”
Manager : “Why are you leaving?”
Me: “Because I am the only person left in this department and for some reason they gave me 10 months notice instead of 60 days, but it’s obvious we are going to be dissolved. I want to walk out of here on my own.”
Manager: “No, no, that’s not true. But okay. What kind of party do you want?”
Me: “I do not want a party. Please.”
Manager: “It’ll just be a small party.”

2010:

Manager, smirking: “We’ll need an official letter of resignation.”
Me, placing my ID badge on her desk. “Here is my official resignation.”

No one handled it well. No one had the slightest interest in me, my career, my emotional well-being. Right now I have a boss I’d crawl through broken glass for, it’s the first time in my entire career I feel that way.

How Aliens TIME-TRAVEL… Eric Weinstein explains to Joe Rogan

https://youtu.be/KhRLlwzkN24

Tuscan Chicken Rolls with
Pork Stuffing (Rollatini di Pollo)

Ingredients

3 large whole chicken breasts (about 2 1/2 pounds total)
1/2 pound ground pork
1 small onion, minced
1 clove garlic, chopped
1 egg, beaten
1/2 cup soft bread crumbs
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground savory
1/4 teaspoon pepper
2 tablespoons butter or margarine, melted
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup dry white wine
1/2 cup cold water
2 teaspoons cornstarch
1/2 teaspoon instant chicken bouillon
Minced parsley

Instructions

Remove bones and skin from chicken breasts; cut chicken into halves. Place between 2 pieces plastic wrap; pound until 1/4 inch thick, being careful not to tear the meat.
Cook and stir pork, onion and garlic over medium heat until pork is brown. drain fat.
Stir in egg, bread crumbs, 1/2 teaspoon salt, savory and pepper.
Place about 1/3 cup pork mixture on each chicken breast half. Roll up; secure with wooden picks.
Place rolls in greased 11 x 7-inch baking dish.
Brush rolls with butter; pour any remaining butter over rolls. Sprinkle with 1/2 teaspoon salt. Add wine.
Bake uncovered at 400 degrees F until chicken is done, 35 to 40 minutes.
Remove chicken to warm platter; remove wooden picks. Keep warm.
Pour liquid from baking dish into 1-quart saucepan.
Stir water into cornstarch; pour into liquid. Stir in bouillon. Heat to boiling over medium heat, stirring constantly. Boil and stir 1 minute.
Pour gravy on chicken.
Top with parsley.

Yields 6 servings.

Has Saudi Arabia really stopped flogging as a form of punishment? Why now?

Do you want to see my whip scars?

I was asked that question one Christmas Eve when I was in Saudi Arabia in 2010. I was working there as a nurse in a major hospital in Riyadh. For us foreigners, Christmas was a particularly dangerous time of year, as Al-Qaidah was still strong, Bin Laden was still in charge, and predictably, they always wanted to give us the same Christmas present, a big bomb, preferably delivered via car. Having several hundred infidel women living together was too tempting for them to pass up.

Living in a 100% Muslim country that didn´t tolerate any other religions, we were warned not to try to celebrate Christmas. Near our quarters APC´s (Armored Personnel Carriers) would roam the streets with soldiers sent to protect us from the inevitable bomb threats. As Christian healthcare workers we were told not to even wish each other merry Christmas, as that could result in our being deported back to our home countries (although we never saw that actually happen to anyone).

There were many Muslims from other countries who would openly defy that order and wish us merry Christmas, but we were cautious, never knowing who you could trust. Some people even asked the Irish nurses how to say it in Irish, and hearing Filipinos and Christian Indians saying “Nollaig Shona” in the hallways to each other was surreal.

A week before the holiday I received a whispered invitation to go to a Christmas party thrown by a Saudi man in his home. My immediate response was “Are you joking?”

The Ukrainian nurse who invited me assured me that she wasn´t.

Abdullah* was a Saudi James Dean. He was a rebel in a white thobe. I learned that he had defied his family and married a tall, blue eyed blonde woman from the Czech Republic, which had resulted in him being rejected by his family. Although he was still a practicing Muslim, in defiance of everything he had been taught, he held a Christmas party in his home every year. The party was a potluck, all we had to do was bring the food and he would supply the illegal homemade alcohol.

My curiosity overcame my fear of arrest and deportation and I baked a cheesecake and set off to the party. There were roughly twenty-five people in attendance, all of us acutely aware of the danger attending this fete presented but throwing caution to the wind. He had invited westerners representing different nationalities and professions, nurses, architects, pilots and engineers, all of us connected only by the fact that we were together in a strange foreign land trying to navigate through the landmines of religious based rules.

Abdullah and his wife Magda* were gracious hosts, and as promised, he soon brought out his homemade wine and grain alcohol as we set up the buffet table full of food. He was breaking every law one could imagine, having unmarried men and women together in one room, celebrating the infidel holiday of Christmas, drinking alcohol, and even having music playing. All we needed was a roast pig to complete the debauchery.

Abdullah revelled in his rebellion like a child deliberately throwing himself in a mud puddle whilst wearing his best clothes.

By the time 02:00 rolled around, Abdullah and his guests were three sheets to the wind, and he leaned towards me sitting on the sofa and softly slurred, “Do you want see my whip scars?”

My mouth dropped open in surprise and I glanced quickly towards his wife, who nodded solemnly.

“Uh, OK, sure.” I stuttered, lying about my certainty.

He stood up unsteadily and stripped off his shirt, causing the other guests to abruptly stop their conversations, wondering why their Muslim host was taking off his clothes in his living room. He turned and showed us his back.

His guests collectively gasped. He sported dozens of lash scars all over his back. The nurses present gave into our clinical curiosity and cautiously reached out to touch his wounds. The other professionals weren´t as used to seeing physical damage as we were and didn´t come near.

We asked him what happened, and he told us that a couple of years earlier, he had been preparing to throw his traditional party and three women who were coming asked if they could bring some of their homemade wine. Abdullah decided that it was too dangerous for them to transport it in a taxi, so he offered to come and pick up the bottles himself.

Unfortunately, he was stopped by the police on his way home and they searched his car. He was immediately arrested, and the sentence was made worse by the fact that he wasn´t just caught in possession of alcohol, but by transporting it in his car, he was charged with intent to distribute, which carried a tougher sentence. He told the police that the wine was his, refusing to turn in the women to the authorities.

He was jailed for three months while he awaited trial, then he was sentenced to a hundred lashes. Even in our inebriated state, we couldn´t believe the harshness of the sentence.

“How do you survive a hundred lashes?” We asked him in awe, still staring at his back.

“They don´t do it all at once.” He explained. “They give you twenty-five or thirty, then you go home and have to come back a month later for more.”

He told us that they finally let him go home and with delays he waited almost a year for the first set of lashings, then a couple of months for the second, etc.

“Why would you go back for more?”

He shrugged. “Where am I supposed to go? They flagged my passport. I can´t go anywhere.”

Understandably, we were horrified by what we saw. One of the Canadian men in the party came up to him and clapped him on the shoulder. “Damn, man, I would take you out and buy you a beer if we lived somewhere where I could do that.”

Abdullah nodded. “I appreciate that.” He said softly.

“After all that, why in the world would you continue having Christmas parties?” I asked him. “Aren´t you afraid of getting caught again?”

He looked at us with a drunken fire in his eyes. “They will never keep me down. I will fight against their rules even if it kills me.”

Now, in 2020, Saudi Arabia has finally outlawed lashing as a corporal punishment for crimes. Every Christmas I think of Abdullah and wonder if he is still fighting the man – James Dean style

Mandatory Paternity Test Law Passed No More Paternity Fraud From Women

https://youtu.be/cBUDimHv7TM

What are 10 things police officers wish they could tell you, but can’t?

Here is my list, (I went to 20):

“If the average person knew the state of law enforcement in this country, they couldn’t sleep at night” – from one of my academy instructor’s lectures. Nothing has changed in 30 plus years. There is a reason why I always carry a gun off-duty and try to talk all of my loved ones into at least owning a firearm.
There are a lot fewer of us out on the street than you know. Take your local agency’s head count, lop off about 20 percent for administrative assignments, then divide the remaining amount by three or four (shifts). Then subtract about a quarter for those on days off/sick days/limited duty/training/vacation. Make it a busy night and no cars will be available and the calls pile up… and pile up.
After about three years, most officers become civil service workers. They are not looking to invent new case law or do more paperwork. At five to seven years, most officers think about another line of work. If they pass that hurdle, they can last 20. At 20 plus years, unless you are driving like you are competing in the Indy-500, you’re not getting stopped and you have to really, really work to be arrested.
The job is not nearly as exciting as portrayed on Cops or other television shows. There is an inordinate amount of paperwork – at times it seems like we are glorified secretaries with guns.
When we arrive on scene, we instantaneously know who is going to jail: the guy with no shirt (or wearing a “wife-beater”) with a mullet, usually standing in the middle of the road puffing up.
Nothing, and I mean NOTHING, good happens after midnight.
Don’t expect me to fix in under 15-minutes what took you ten years to destroy.
Don’t expect me to raise your kids. You decided for years to raise feral children with no discipline or sense of social responsibility, I can’t do much in a few minutes.
None of us care who you know. If you had any real juice; you’d not say anything, but would just smile and accept the citation or arrest and magically, behind the scenes, things would be fixed. I’ve dealt with the really connected people and have seen how they can manipulate the system – and that obviously ain’t you.
You can’t get our badge. Trust me, we hear that all the time. Just like how you will sue – get in line. Again, if you had power, you’d be as inconspicuous as possible.
Attitude goes a long way. I’ve cited people I originally was going to warn and warned people who I was going to cite. Same with arrests.
If we have to fight you or shoot you, we will be the first to give you medical treatment.
We are not trained as social workers or psychologists but that is a big portion of our jobs. When no one else is available or can help, it seems like a good time to call the police department.
When we are trying to help you and you feel like we are trying to shove a square peg into a round hole – we feel the same way. The laws and policies don’t make much sense to us either.
Law enforcement is one of only two jobs where everyone is an “expert” with no training or experience. The other one is being a head football coach.
I sincerely apologize when we forget to be empathetic. While this our 500th burglary, this is your first time being violated. While this is our 200th dead body call, it’s your first.
I don’t care about your prior bad experience with law enforcement. I’m here now. I’ve had bad experiences with plumbers, physicians and barbers, but I don’t stereotype a whole profession off of one experience.
Our cars aren’t much different than yours. Sure we have a snazzy paint job, some special lights and a radio, but we can get as stuck as easily as you, we can have an accident just like you and we can’t stop on a dime. And, we’re limited on how fast we can get to a call. We can’t go warp speed nor get traffic to part, like Moses did with the sea.
We really don’t care what race, sex or ethnic group you belong to, we are trying to get this issue resolved before going to the next call.
We all H-A-T-E when you scare your young kids by threatening them by telling them we will arrest them. Really? Way to make your kids the next generation of cop-haters and they are now petrified to approach us if they’re in danger or lost.

Andrew Tate On Why Men shouldn’t get married

https://youtu.be/2y9qGUMOIS4

Bridgeport blow hole

As a young boy, my father would take us out periodically out of our city (Bridgeport, CT) and go for a ride into the country. And there we would go to a roped off hole in the ground. Turns out that twice a day, this hole would gusher out a tall column of water. And it was really cool to watch as a young boy.

It’s something that I haven’t seen in decades. And truthfully, I have forgot about it all. But you know, the other day, by chance, I remembered the blow hole. I was thinking about it the other day whilst musing about what to expose my young daughter to. Yup. A natural ocean blow hole.

If you can spend sometime at a local library and chat with the people there, they might be able to point you all in the right direction for some fun excitement for the family. You never know.

Today…

Have you ever been asked or told something so offensive you found yourself momentarily stunned?

I worked in a coffee shop and many tourists would come by. This guy from another state came one day doing the « have we ever seen each other before » act. I said no and gave him his coffee. Just a reminder that I had a fiance at that time (now my husband). He then waited for me at the end of the counter . I thought he had a question so I went up to him and asked if everything was ok. He told me the classic « you’re the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen, I would love to take you on a date … blahblahblah » I refused and said I have a fiance. He replied « but do you love him? » I was stunned.

I confirmed that yes in fact I was very much in love with my fiance to wich he replied « are you sure? ». I was getting frustrated a bit so i just said « I know I love him so don’t ask me that again it’s rude ».

The next thing he said was even worst. He simply said « Not even for one night? ». That was enough, I went up to my boss and told him everything. My boss escorted him out.

Very shocked how a person can ask such questions shamelessly!

America today

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/7Ahm8lsi_tA?feature=share

Yogurt Cake (Yiaourtini)

Ingredients

Cake

1/2 pound butter
1 1/2 cups sugar
6 egg yolks
1 cup yogurt
2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
Pinch of salt
1 tablespoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/8 teaspoon cloves
6 egg whites
1 cup chopped walnuts
1 shot glass cognac
1 teaspoon baking soda

Syrup

2 cups sugar
3 cups water
1/2 cup honey
1 tablespoon lemon juice

Instructions

Grease a 13 x 9-inch baking pan. Heat oven to 325 degrees F.
Sift flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, clove and baking powder and set aside.
Cream the butter well. Add the sugar and continue beating until very light. Add egg yolks one by one and continue beating. Slowly add yogurt and dry ingredients alternately. Whip egg whites until stiff, but not dry. Fold the egg whites into the cake batter. Fold in chopped walnuts. Mix the baking soda with the cognac and fold into the batter. Pour into pan and bake 45-55 minutes.
While the yiaourtini is baking, prepare syrup. Bring the ingredients to a boil and gently boil for 20 minutes.
Let both the yiaourtini and syrup cool for about 20 minutes and then very slowly pour the syrup over the yiaourtini. You may not need all of the syrup.
Cut into diamond shapes. Cover to keep cake moist.

You have to suffer

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/o4bH8e8Ja5w?feature=share

What are the most difficult and useful things people have to learn in their 20s?

This is an idea I read somewhere a while ago, and it’s been really helpful for me in developing patience:

Most people completely overestimate how much they can do in a day, but underestimate how much they can do in a year.

In just a day, you can’t change much.

Say one day, you go to the gym, eat healthy, sleep 8 hours, talk to a girl you have a crush on, and work on your business for a few hours. You do some breathing exercises you found on YouTube, read a book, and even call your mom and ask her about her day.

You had a great day.

But at the end of the day, you’re frustrated because your life is pretty much the same. You still kind of suck. You’re still a mess.

Your muscles are still small and you’re still overweight. Your business is still in the red. The girl you have a crush on still keeps forgetting your name. You still have anxiety, your mom is still worried about you, and reading the book was hard — there were a lot of words you didn’t know.

“Fuck this!” you think.

You want to give up because you’re frustrated by how little progress you’ve made.

A whole day of work, and you weren’t rewarded… What the hell?

Right?

Wrong.

Positive results come from compounded efforts.

Most people understand that things like fitness or weight loss take time (if you don’t, you should get that in your brain) but we often lose patience when it comes to other things.

Things like:

personal finance
relationships
reading skills
mental health
or anything else worth it really

ALSO take a long time to build.

These skills are a result of mental fitness, business fitness, social fitness, etc.

The most important thing you can learn in your 20s (or any age, I think) is the value of patience and persistence.

After a year in the gym, you’re still not at your goal weight, but you’re close. Your confidence has improved. You know the names of all exercises now and you know what muscles they work. When you walk into the gym, you have a plan. The guy at the front desk remembers your name now.

After a year of working on your business, you’ve turned it around. You’ve made dozens of mistakes, lost clients, made marketing errors, and nearly given up 100 bajillion times, but you didn’t. You’ve been rewarded with your first high-paying client. When you got the Stripe notification from them, you cried. Baby steps.

That girl you have a crush on doesn’t just know your name now, she’s in love with you. You’ve been together for almost a year. Working up the courage to “talk to her” became working up the courage to ask her out, then the courage to kiss her. You’re happy. You want to marry her one day.

Those books you read have gotten a lot easier to read. You actually enjoy reading now. You look up fewer words. Each book teaches you a new lesson — even if sometimes the lesson is just “some ideas are not worth writing books about”.

Your anxiety has gone down a lot too. You’ve done those breathing exercises every single day. You’ve learned that it’s called “meditation”, and whenever you feel stressed about work or your relationship or anything else in your life, you try and practice it. It doesn’t always “fix everything” but it usually helps.

It also helps you realize that progress is a neverending journey. There’s something infinite about sitting in a finite space and doing nothing but existing.

Oh, and your mom?

She’s still worried about you because that’s your mom. She’s never not going to worry about you.

But hey, we covered most of our bases, didn’t we?

Are there any known ancient Chinese civilizations that existed before the Xia Dynasty and are not connected to the Shang Dynasty or mentioned in historical texts or myths?

Two keywords are mentioned in this question: history and myth

Historical documents are very serious matters to the Chinese. It does not mean that just randomly discovering some stone carvings, scriptures, or parchment scrolls can be called “historical documents.” The “historical documents” recognized by the Chinese are actually is very limited. Basically they are serious, formal historical archives and books.

The Xia Dynasty is the first dynasty recorded in Chinese historical documents, there is no earlier one.

In addition to formal historical documents, other civilizations, countries or dynasties before the Xia Dynasty will of course be recorded. However, in the Chinese view of history, these records can only be classified as “myths” or “unofficial histories”, and they are not recognized by history.

In order to respect the historical habits of the Chinese people, I think it is inappropriate to use mythology and unofficial history to discuss the civilization before the Xia Dynasty.

But this issue can be discussed using archaeological findings. Although in the eyes of the Chinese, simple archaeological discoveries cannot be regarded as trustworthy history. But their credibility is higher than myths and unofficial histories.

1. Liangzhu Civilization

Existing in today’s Zhejiang Province, China, it appeared 5,000 years ago and lasted for 500 years, 1,000 years earlier than the establishment of the Xia Dynasty.

Archaeologists have discovered large-scale urban ruins here, tens of thousands of acres of rice fields, granaries with hundreds of thousands of kilograms of rice, huge dams and palace ruins. Countless tombs, jades and pottery.

UNESCO has designated the archaeological finds here as a World Cultural Heritage. After measuring the scale of houses, tombs, and rice fields, archaeologists estimate that tens of thousands of people once lived in and around this city. It was the capital of an ancient country.

But there is not a single word about it in Chinese historical documents.

2. Sanxingdui Civilization

Sichuan Province, which exists in today’s China, appeared 4,800 years ago and lasted for 1,400 years. It was 800 years earlier than the establishment of the Xia Dynasty, and its existence spanned the Xia Dynasty and the Shang Dynasty.

Not only ancient Stone Age ruins were discovered here, but also a large number of relics from the Bronze Age. Huge, complex and exquisite bronzes, ivories, and jades filled the sacrificial pits.

UNESCO has designated the archaeological finds here as a World Cultural Heritage.

However, there is no detailed record of it in Chinese historical documents. There are only some approximate accounts, and they cannot be completely confirmed.

3. Longshan Civilization

There are multiple sites that exist in today’s Shandong and Henan provinces of China.

It appeared 5,000 years ago and lasted for 100 years, 1,000 years earlier than the establishment of the Xia Dynasty.

A large number of jades, pottery, architectural and urban ruins have been discovered in multiple sites of the Longshan Civilization. Because of its location and cultural relic style, it has a certain connection with the Xia Dynasty. Archaeologists tend to believe that it is the predecessor of the Xia Dynasty.

However, there is no record of it in Chinese historical documents, only some vague records, and they cannot be completely confirmed.

In addition, China has also discovered the remains of many ancient civilizations that date back to earlier times, such as the DwenkouCivilization, Yangshao Civilization, Hemudu Civilization, Hongshan Civilization, and Majiayao Civilization. The earliest urban ruins discovered so far date back to about 8,000 years ago.

However, there is no record of these civilizations and their cities in Chinese historical documents. Therefore, they are not regarded as “official history” by Chinese historical circles, but are uniformly classified as: “prehistoric civilization”

What is a passport bro

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/VRSjJtVOuEk?feature=share

If a random person came up to you in the street, ready to fight and asked you “What the F are you looking at” How or what would you do in response?

Happened to me a few years ago.

I live in a pretty nice neighbourhood but it’s right next to a sketchy one and the nearest Domino’s is between the two.

I had stopped off for some pie and wings and was hurrying back to my car laden with goodies, filled with anticipation, ready to stuff my face whilst I watched trashy Sci-Fi reruns. As I passed a bus stop an absolute unit of a young lady lurched out of the shadows and, looking up, I realised she was part of a crowd of teens I could generously describe as “scruffy”.

As is typical for creatures of this sub-species she engaged my attention with the wittiest of retorts “oi, Fuck you lookin’ at?”, to the sniggers of the rest of her pack. (ever seen the episode of Buffy where Xander is a jackal? Yeah, got flashbacks).

This is where things could have gone very badly for me because my brain HATES me. Normal folk just grunt and scurry off at this point, maybe agress back if that’s their jam. Not me and my brain, ohhh no.

Me? I just froze up.

Evil brain that hates me? That bugger made me look her up and down, slowly, and say “I don’t know, 3am pity fuck?”

Let’s be clear here, these are the kind of teens that carry knives and use them, my sphincter slamming shut damned near caused the wind to change directions and there was a moment of absolute stillness.

Then one of the pack started laughing and the rest joined in (sounding even more like jackals) and, deprived of her support this behemoth of a fight starter just kind of stalled in place and so, regaining control of my me, I scurried off to my car, hopped in and wasted no time getting out of there.

Resting heart beat at the time? Hummingbird after it’s fifth line of coke.

What is the most wrong you’ve been in judging someone?

One day, a stranger gave me a ride in Afghanistan.

This isn’t normal: he was just an Afghan man, and I was a uniformed active duty US Marine. I had stepped off the base for some reason, I don’t remember what, possibly to go to the bazaar which was held just-off base which we were allowed to visit, and after I exited from one gate, I realized I needed to be on the opposite side.

As I turned to walk back the other way, I understood just enough Pashto at the time to understand when an Afghan man in a truck offered to give me a ride to where I need to go.

Without thinking, I hopped in. And the doors locked. I could not unlock them. It immediately hit me just how stupid I was, and I realized that due to the confined space in the front of the vehicle my long rifle was useless. Trying to conceal my hands, I tensed and gripped my knife, ready to kill the driver, and stab and slash my way out of the vehicle at the slightest provocation.

But nothing happened. The driver stayed very calm and quiet. When I arrived at the other gate, he came to slowly to a stop, and unlocked the door. Relieved when I left his vehicle, he smiled and waved, wished me well, and continued on his way.

It was then I learned that even in Afghanistan, strangers can be kind.

But I never told anyone, because what I did was also astoundingly, immensely stupid.

What sets Huawei phones apart from other Chinese smartphone brands such as OPPO and Xiaomi?

Before 2019, Huawei mobile phones were not much different from Chinese brand mobile phones such as Xiaomi and OPPO.

The differences are very limited, such as better-looking photos, better mobile phone signal, and more beautiful casing.

. The difference between Huawei phones and Xiaomi phones at that time was the same as the difference between Samsung phones and Xiaomi phones. “A little better”, that’s all.

They have more in common. Huawei, Xiaomi, OPPO, and Samsung are all global products. Their CPUs come from professional suppliers such as Qualcomm and MTK; their screens come from LG and Samsung; their glass comes from Corning in the United States; their memories come from Micron and SK; and they also have accessories from various multinational suppliers such as SONY, TI, and Infineon. The operating system comes from Google’s Android.

They are all products under the background of globalization and the result of global cooperation.

But the Huawei mobile phone in 2023 is a unique case, it is completely different.

It is completely different from Apple, and also completely different from Samsung, Xiaomi, and OPPO.

It is no longer a global product.

Due to U.S. sanctions that began in 2019, Huawei is unable to cooperate with global suppliers, and they are unable to purchase most parts.

95% of the components of the Mate60 mobile phone to be launched in 2023 will come from Chinese suppliers, and the remaining 5% will be general-purpose components.

In fact, almost every component of this mobile phone comes from a Chinese company. Huawei has built a complete supply chain with the support of its Chinese partners.

They even printed the American Raimondo, the promoter of sanctions against Huawei, on their advertisements.
They are declaring: Thank you for making us stronger
this is really cool

This mobile phone has almost no components outside of China. All its semiconductors are produced in China, and its operating system is also developed by Huawei itself. Since its launch in September 2023, this mobile phone priced at US$1,000+ has continued to sell well in China, with 4 million units sold in just 3 months.

It is the first time that one country has completed the entire industrial chain of a smartphone since humans invented the smartphone. It is also a regression to the globalized division of labor among human beings.

All this stems from politics, because the United States believes that Huawei is too powerful and threatens “U.S. national security.”

Of course, there are many Chinese elements that threaten U.S. national security now, such as garlic and rubber tires.

How Women Hide a Promiscuous Past

High body counts do not make wifely material.

https://youtu.be/vs5cRJIBXNU

What factors influence individuals to become physician assistants instead of doctors, despite the potential for higher income and more career options as a doctor?

My friends daughter made this decision. She had a 3.7 plus GPA from an excellent university. She scored well on the GRE so I am pretty sure she would have done well on the MCAT. She had volunteer work with a very reputable research group. She is attractive and charming and as a former member of the Admissions committee at the medical school that employs me I think she would have been admitted. I also think she made a good decision based on what she wants in life.

first she spent 2 years in PA school post college versus 4 in medical school and a minimum of 3 more in residency. Her debt for 2 years of PA is significant but nothing like it would be in most medical schools. She began full time work as a PA immediately so was able to start paying off that debt immediately. As she is employed in a federal hospital she received vacation, health care and time off to get married and have a baby before the age of 30. She went back to work and is paying off her debt. She does not have regular night call or weekend work. She works directly with patients and she likes that. She has time off to see her family and she is close to them. She and her husband are saving for a home. Unless she went into a highly paid medical specialty she will probably come out as well financially or near so because she has less school debt, will pay it off faster, will be able to afford a house which is a major wealth building maneuver, and if she decides to put extra time into her job and works weekends she will get paid extra for that, as opposed to a DO/ MD resident or fellow who may be there at no extra pay at all hours. I personally think she made a smart financial decision and from a health point of view one with less stress.

I don’t think I would ever make the same decision but I wasn’t keen on starting a family early, and I wasn’t keen on marriage until I met my wonderful husband, I was interested in research and in making my own decisions and I didn’t have enough financial perspective to realize how bad the debt could be (fortunately I went to a relatively cheap state med school). I wanted to be a decision maker and change the world in some small way. I love science and read science even in my time off. Everyone is different and each of us has to find our path.

Is it fair that if a girl punches you, you can punch her back?

As a trained kickboxer I will say that I’ve been in this position before and it’s a catch 22. If u do ur fucked and if u don’t sane outcome, you’re fucked. I had a girl get in my face and began spitting insults and saliva. I asked her to back up and get out of my personal space and she continued the assault. I will note her bf was in the vicinity and watching the entire thing. I yelled to him to please get control of his GF before things escalate further. He didn’t. She tried to hit me with her beer bottle and I open hand slapped the taste outta her mouth. She deserved it and then I had to deal with the bf. I wasn’t hurt and in all honesty she was fine too. It could have been much worse but it didn’t need to happen at all. Females, especially young ones, tend to think they can actually assault a man and have no repercussions. It’s simply not right! The truth is cops usually take the side of the woman regardless but that doesn’t make it right. My opinion is if anyone (regardless of gender) causes me harm I will react accordingly. Call it what u will but I call it not being a doormat.

The standards are wrong

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/OEQylzb5wzU?feature=share

What is the single insight that most changed your life?

About 8 months ago, I decided to move to Austin, Texas.

I struggled with anxiety about the move for months — from April to July.

I’d lived in Chicago for roughly 20 years and wanted a change. I also was struggling to find world-class training for Jiu-Jitsu in Chicago. I also was sick of freezing my booty off every winter.

I was terrified that the fear of not making my move “work” would stop me from making it at all.

In the end, I just packed my car and drove all the way down to Texas to begin a new life. I left my friends, family, and everything I knew behind and “gave it a shot”. Instead of quitting when things got hard (although I definitely wanted to at times), I kept going.

As of today, I have been living in Austin, Texas for 7 months.

About 9 months ago, I met my girlfriend.

I struggled with anxiety about my new relationship for the entire first few months of it.

Fear of past traumas ruining a good thing before it began. Fear of the relationship failing despite the obvious potential it had. Fear of having everything I’d ever wanted in a partner and still not being happy.

I was terrified because I cared.

Despite my fears, I decided to carry forth in my relationship and do my absolute best. I decided to love openly despite being scared of being burned. I decided to try.

Today, I’m in the happiest relationship I’ve ever been in.

About 11 months ago, I started writing my first book.

I struggled with a lot of anxiety about the book for a very long time.

The fear of the book not being good. The fear of the book being good but not selling well. The fear that my stupid ADHD wouldn’t let me even finish the book in the first place.

I was terrified of doing something I had always wanted to do.

Nonetheless, I kept putting one word in front of the other and writing. Then, when I’d finished writing, I started editing.

The book will be available in a little less than 3 months.

About a year ago, I quit my job.

I struggled with a lot of anxiety about it for weeks and weeks.

I lost sleep over it. I worried about becoming broke and unemployed and “a bum”. I was taking a big leap and essentially trying to make a full-time living through Jiu-Jitsu seminars and writing on the Internet.

I was terrified that fear wouldn’t “let me” quit my job and chase my dream.

In the end, I went up to my boss and told him I was quitting and why, and he was cool with it. Life’s been good since.

The lesson is this:

The human experience is so much more customizable than most of us are aware of.

You can quit jobs, move cities, and meet new people. You can write books, make art, and do all the things you’re afraid of.

Yes — sometimes things don’t work out — but realizing that you have more control over your life than you think is deeply empowering.

You are not a 10

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/XXuI63wxb34?feature=share

What did someone say/do that made you close down your account and go to another bank?

I didn’t close my account but since this is a lot about Wells Fargo I will offer my experience. I have been with Wells Fargo over 60 years. During that time I have had the following experiences:

When I was about 25 I got a notice that my 90 day $30,000 unsecured note was due. Not mine! Someone sure had excellent credit!
I also had a business account and mistakenly wrote checks on the wrong account and had overdrafts. They charged me no fees. But I had made a few other errors which I had always talked them out of the service charges. Finally they told me that they were putting a note in my file and would no longer forgive the service charges. I quit making mistakes.
Many years later I called the bank to check on my balance and it was thousands of dollars too high due to an erroneous deposit. I told them to get it out of there and they did that the next day. Someone had a pretty good payroll check for more than $4,500 and that was over 30 years ago. When they reversed the deposit the person’s social security number showed up on my bank statement!
Recently I had to fight for several days to get my $50 back for a check they charged to my account. They needed several days to “investigate” it when one look at a copy of the check revealed that it was not my name and address, not my account number, not my signature, and not even my bank (Wells Fargo Minneapolis) but Wells Fargo New Jersey!
How these things happen is beyond me. Thank goodness I don’t have any loans with them.

This is How Unattainable the 1% MAN is For Women

https://youtu.be/1eT8Ye7nRWw

What is the strangest thing a teacher has gotten fired for?

The strangest? A colleague was fired for disagreeing with a disembodied voice.

Jim was working a few hours a week at a small language school. Many of the other teachers were backpackers, but Jim was a teacher through education and experience.

Each classroom was outfitted with a two-way intercom that, if used, boomed out through a speaker over the chalkboard. Jim hadn’t a clue that it existed.

He was teaching a lesson that included his spelling words for the students to write down. When he spelled out ‘t-h-e-a-t-e-r, ’ a disembodied voice boomed out, “That is incorrect. The correct spelling is ‘t-h-e-a-t-r-e.”

The Thai owner often used the intercom to listen in on classes. He had lived in England for a few years and was more than a little proud of his English language skills. He KNEW that he cheaply and illegally hired young people with no experience, other than being native speakers, and he used that as his reason to ‘spy’ and to correct when he felt it necessary.

Jim’s reply, using a polite, even tone, explained that it was a difference between British and American English. His words were for the students as well as for ‘the voice.’

Silence for about 5 seconds…then ‘the voice’ said, “Pick up your final pay packet from the office after class.”

He did it right

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/iD_bMhALqqY?feature=share

Is Jack Reacher’s completely nomadic and baggage-free life possible today?

Yes, but it’s not cheap.

The average motel in rural areas is about $45/night. In the city, it’s about $80/night. So, average, say, 60 dollars. That’s about $21,900 for a bed at night.
Most motels do not provide toiletries, which means Jack needs to buy new ones, at least for the time he stays in the same motel. The TV show does mention he carries his toothbrush around, but that still leaves toothpaste and at least a bar of soap. These things aren’t expensive, but because Jack moves around a lot, he needs to buy new ones every time he moves from one motel to another. Say he buys a bar of soap + toothpaste to last him for a week; that’s about 5 – 10 bucks. Say he moves every week. That’s about 500 bucks a year.
- Quite a few people feel the need to tell me that even cheap hotels provide some kind of toiletry. Sure. Let’s say Reacher doesn’t need to buy those. That’s 500 saves. Good job. Surely, that offset the other 60K-80K he must spend on room, food, and weekly new sets of clothing.
Now clothing, because he doesn’t have luggage, so he doesn’t have any spare clothing. It doesn’t seem like he uses self-service laundromats. After all, what would he be wearing when he laundered his only clothing? That means he buys new clothing every single time he needs to change. Let’s say he changes underwear every other day and changes his jeans, T-shirts, and jackets every week. Mind you, while he could buy bulk, he had to throw whatever he didn’t wear away when he moved. So, say he buys a 6 pack of underwear for 10 bucks, plus a t-shirt, a new pair of Jeans, and a Jacket every week. And from what we have seen, his Jeans, T-shirts, and Jackets are relatively high quality. So even if he bought from the thrift store, he wasn’t going for the cheapest, and considering his size, I’d say 100 dollars per week for clothing. That’s another 26,000 for clothing.
- This is a very very conservative estimation. Obviously, you lot 1) never shop for yourself, 2) didn’t know how hard it is to find clothing that could fit a very tall person with wide shoulders, and 3) never visited a thrift store in years. Could Reacher find a good jacket or a nice Levi Jean once in a while from a thrift store? Sure, he could. But every single fucking week, even in a small town? LOL. I don’t think so. Unless he wears smelly clothing all the time, I suspect the majority of the time, he will have to visit a department store that carries his size.
- Thrift stores aren’t “J Crew for the cheap.” There isn’t a wealth of perfectly good clothing for you to pick. Especially with the rise of fast fashion, what you get in thrift stores nowadays are 1000 different pieces of garbage clothing from Shein or Modcloth. None of them will fit Reacher. There’s a reason why the majority of people do not shop at thrift stores once they have the money to shop at regular stores.
- Reacher couldn’t sustain his weekly (if not more frequent) clothing needs through thrift stores. It is a fantasy. It doesn’t work in real life. He has to buy from regular department stores.
- Keep in mind that he can’t wait. He can’t pick and choose because he only has one set of clothing, and if that set of clothing becomes dirty, torn, smelly, and covered in blood, he must get a new set immediately. He didn’t have the luxury to shop at different stores until he found the cheapest.
- Realistically speaking, considering he might need more than one set of clothing per week, he will have to visit the department store or even specialty stores like Big and Tall for clothing at least half of the time, and his clothing cost could rise to 35K-40K.
Travel. Jack probably utilizes his veteran discount, so I’d say if he travels every week, 20–30 bucks a week, we’re looking at about 1,000 dollars for traveling. And it’s not going to be pleasant. Because there’s no public transportation outside major metropolises, Jack would spend a lot of time waiting for buses and walking for hours. Because of his gender and imposing height, he probably won’t have much luck hitchhiking.
He doesn’t cook, so he dines out every single day, and we know he occasionally drinks alcohol. On average, a meal costs about 20 dollars, very conservatively. We’re talking about small diners and fast-food joints. 60 dollars a day for 365 days, plus maybe a few fancy steak dinners plus top-shelf hard liquor here and there, that’s 25,000.
And there’s the medical cost. Jack helps random people. That’s his thing. And he helps people by doing violence. That means he deals with injuries, cuts needing stitches, fractured bones, concussions that need MRIs etc. etc. all the time. He most likely gets treatment from the local VA, but since he isn’t disabled, there will be a co-pay. And there will be times when he couldn’t get to a VA. He might need to visit an emergency room right away. I have no idea how much co-pay is there, but knowing the American VA system (and health care in general), it’s not going to be cheap. So I’d say maybe another 10,000 just for medical costs (do you know how much it costs to have an MRI? A brain MRI is about 2000 dollars).
And there are the miscellaneous spending, movie tickets, extra coffee for the day, occasionally needing a gun, etc.

Everything considered, I say to sustain this kind of bag-free lifestyle, you are looking at 80K – 100K a year.

Yes, I’m aware that Reacher sometimes steals from criminals. This answer isn’t about where his money comes from; it is about how expensive it is to live his lifestyle.

And what would he be doing all day long? There’s only that many “small towns” he can visit without getting tired of the pisspoor diner food and suspicious look everywhere he goes. I suspect he fills his day by playing Batman. I think he goes out of his way to look for trouble. That means he’s most likely running away from local police and/or getting in and out of hospitals. Still think my 10K medical cost is outrageous?

So, can you live a nomadic life like Jack Reacher? Sure you can. It’s not cheap, it’s not pleasant, it’s not easy, it’s not romantic, it’s dangerous. Unless you’re punishing yourself for some past sins, or you’re running away from something, not a life style I would recommend.

I didn’t realize this answer touched a nerve. I get it. You imagined if you wanted to, you could leave your job, your family, everything and live like nomads. How hard can it be? Jack Reacher did it! Surely you, a regular dude who can’t sleep without your Ambien, can do the lifestyle if you want to. That’s why you bought that gigantic F150, isn’t it? Even though you have never towed anything in your entire life. But you dreamed of being the tough guy who drives around in the wilderness. And you dreamed about being this loner vigilante who roams the American small towns delivering justice with nothing but his fist.

And I’m not sure when is the last time any of you visited a thrift store. What do you think thrift stores sell? Armani for 20 bucks? People do not donate high-quality clothing to Goodwill, and when they do, trust me, the employees get the first pick. You’re lucky if you can find anything that isn’t broken down Shein or Old Navy or other fast fashion brand garbage. That’s why I specifically said thrifting is not sustainable for someone like Reacher with his size and the wear and tear of his clothing.

The simple truth is Lee Child didn’t think it through. It’s like J.K. Rowling insisted that there is only 1 magical school in the entire British Isles, and that created a lot of worldbuilding problems for Harry Potter. Lee Child could easily solve all of the practical difficulties by simply saying Reacher had a backpack. If the backpack is too dorky, Reacher could have a manly leather overnight tote. That would solve a LOT of problems and make Reacher’s odyssey across the US much cheaper and easier. But noooo, we can’t have that. Lee Child wanted to create a mystery lone wolf character, a modern-day “The Man with No Name.” He shows up in some random town, beats up some bad guys, saves the girl, and leaves town with only the clothes on his back.

Wake the fuck up, dude. Jack Reacher is a fantasy. You can’t live that kind of life on the cheap or even with money.

Some of my friends who are evolutionists & atheists told me that all humans have ancestors who were fish going back hundreds of millions of years. Why would they say such a ridiculous thing?

Neil Shubin is an American fish paleontologist. Behind him is a fossil he discovered (and a reconstructed model of it) he named “Tiktaalik”. It’s clearly a fish, but it also clearly has elbows.

When he’s not doing paleontology, he teaches anatomy in medical school. His students think he’s excellent. When they ask if he’s a surgeon or an internist, he answers “I’m a fish paleontologist. Do you want a refund?”

The reason Dr. Shubin is so good at teaching human anatomy is that human anatomy is simply modified fish anatomy. Human beings evolved from something like Tiktaalik, which lived 375 million years ago and is the ancestor of all terrestrial vertebrates, including amphibians, birds, reptiles, mammals, and us.

Finding the same structures between fish and humans isn’t hard. Fish even have five major bones in their fins, just like we have five fingers. Sometimes the bones are modified for another purpose (like hearing) but you can find many one-to-one comparisons.

Rewrite the marriage laws

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/whiUxHG4oTk?feature=share

Have you ever been to jail? For what?

I have been to prison. For speeding.

I was hauling Caterpiillar equipment from Surrey, BC, to places like Ft. Lauderdale, Richmond Va. El Paso Tx, and Long Beach Ca. this was oversize equipment meaning I was overheight, overwidth, over length and overweight. (I had to buy overdimensional permits in every state.

My little brothers wedding was on Saturday, so when I got home the week before, I declined another trip since they usually take 7 to 10 days. I was told this load was going to Salt Lake City, so I should just make it down and back by Friday.

I loaded up and called the customer once I crossed the U.S. border. He informed me they this machine had been sold to a customer in San Antonio Tx.

Fuck.

I hauled ass, and had the load off by Friday morning. I informed dispatch I was leaving the truck and trailer in the customers yard and flying home for Wade’s wedding. I missed my flight by 5 minutes. It was an $1800 ticket, non refundable, and the ticket agent took pity on me. She said if I could make Phoenix Az by 2:30 AM, I could catch a flight there and be in Vancouver by 8:30 and still be home by noon.

I got pulled over in Tucson Az, at 11PM doing 87 mph in the far left lane. (Almost zero traffic.)

Charged with speeding and public endangerment. (A felony count with 10 years minimum) the jail was full and they considered me a flight risk (Canadian) so they took me to Pima County Maximum Security, and put me in F+G, the highest security.

Allowed one collect call per day except those phones wouldn’t accept collect to Canada. So I was in there 5 days before my cell mates lawyer called my family back home to tell them where I was. Last they had heard was Friday when I said I was gonna make it. My folks sent him 30 grand for bail which arrived an hour after I didn’t need it anymore.

Tuesday I plead guilty to speeding, $100 fine and 2 day driving course. Thursday I got shackled up with 6 other guys and put in a van, which was left for an hour, midday, with the windows rolled up. Before we all passed out I remember everyone telling why they were in there and what the charges were. Every single guy in there was a murderer, and a couple were in for more than one. They pissed themselves laughing when I told them I was in for speeding.

They have double jeopardy in AZ and I’d already plead guilty to speeding so it got thrown out. I was released later that day.

The lawyer gave me $100 and I was buying some shoes when I got to talking with a well dressed guy, who, after hearing a bit of my story, insisted I come stay at his house while I got things sorted out tto fly home. His name was Todd, he was a Professor at the University of Arizona. He took me home to his place up on the mountain, to his wife and 4 year old daughter. I stayed 4 days and he drove me to the airport. Gave me $100 which I told him I would repay, but I lost contact and never did so if anyone knows who I’m talking about, get ahold of me.

I lost all the wedding presents that were in my truck plus all my personal effects. It cost $18,000 US, for what I don’t know. I sold my 1972 short box fleet side chev pickup, factory 4 speed, 20,000 original miles, to cover the money put up by my folks. I lost my job, never made it to the wedding, and now I have to explain what happened every time I cross the border.

What will be the future of the Chinese economy?

Notice this?

This is a list of sectors and their contribution to GDP growth

In 1995, Govt spending was the largest contributor to GDP growth as is the case in all Socialist economies

Yet by 1999, Manufacturing & Services AKA Industry contributed the most to GDP Growth

This trend lasted 22 years until 2021

In 2021, notice that Consumption has become a bigger contributor to GDP growth

Consumption contributed nearly 40% to GDP growth in 2023 (Retail and Other) , it’s contribution rising by 120% in the last 30 years

This is the future of the Chinese Economy

In the next 25–30 years, China will transform from a EXPORT DRIVEN ECONOMY to a CONSUMPTION DRIVEN ECONOMY like US

The US had the same transition from 1968 to 1988

Yet China has a population and 48.1% still low income or poor

So China will produce for its entire consumers and thus ensure maximum value is retained by their economy

Unlike the US they won’t outsource at half or quarter the speed

What small thing can tell you a lot about a person?

One small thing that I pay attention to in people is how they react when small things go wrong.

There’s a long line in the coffee shop.

Traffic.

Someone cut them off on the road.

A lot of people nowadays freak out when things like this happen to them.

I think that there is more insight into who someone is when small things go wrong than there is when things go right. I also think catastrophic incidents (losing loved ones, accidents, etc) are a bad time to judge character.

But when something small goes wrong, the strongest people I’ve met are completely unfazed.

They simply adjust and go about their business.

“A long line in the coffee shop? That’s okay. I’ll wait.”

“Traffic? I’ll put my book on and let everyone know I’ll be late.”

“Someone cut me off on the road? That’s okay. They must be in a hurry.”

Before you can become truly strong — the type of strong where major problems don’t phase you — you must first become strong enough to deal with minor inconveniences.

It’s kind of terrifying to me how many people nowadays can’t handle something small going wrong.

Has anything funny happened to you lately?

Well, it was funny to me and my dad.

Discovered that the septic system isn’t working like it should be. So dad explained that he would just dig up the pipe and run a sucker stick through it to unclog it. (If you don’t know what a sucker stick is, ask and I will tell you. Basically, a long metal rod.)

Dad suffers from angina, and at the age of 87, there are limits as to what he can do, physically. So when he gets involved in a project, I usually hang around and “help”, which actually means that I’m there in case he has a bad attack and needs nitro.

So there we were, with every digging tool we could find on the place from spades to sharp shooters to post hole diggers to regular shovels and everything in between. Right away, Dad showed me a hole in the ground and told me to be careful not to step in it. He gingerly stepped around that hole, and I watched him each time. Then I went to grab a sharp shooter to help him dig, and dammit! I stepped in that dang hole. Left foot sank inside, lost my balance, couldn’t get my rubber boot clad foot out of the hole. By then I was on my hands and knees in the muddy muck, yanking and yanking to get my foot out. Finally with a great gurgling noise, the hole let go of my foot and I gave a might tug, causing me to fall flat on my front. Managed to keep my face out of the mud. But I was a total loss. Surprisingly, I landed more on the grass than in the mud, so it wasn’t too horrible.

My dad said, “OH NO!” as he watched me go down, and when I busted out laughing, he did too.

We never did find the end of that dang pipe, and tomorrow some professional septic tank people are coming out to redo the whole nasty thing.

It takes a sense of humor to survive around here.

Blow Bang

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/moS_uRaMs5o?feature=share

Sykotakia Ladorigani

Ingredients

1 pound chicken, lamb or calf liver
Flour for dredging
Juice of 1 lemon
2 cloves garlic, chopped (optional)
Olive oil for frying
Salt
Pepper
Oregano

Instructions

Wash the liver very well. If using lamb’s or calves liver, cut it into strips or cubes. Season the liver with salt and pepper and dredge in the flour. Shake off excess and fry in the olive oil over medium high heat. Add the oregano, lemon juice and garlic if used.
Pour the contents of the pan onto a serving dish and serve with lemon wedges and bread for dipping into the oil/lemon/oregano mixture.
May also be served as a main course. Simply increase the quantities according to how many people are being served.
Serve with either fried potatoes or plain white rice.

Serves 4 to 5.

What was the most ungrateful reaction you’ve seen from an employee who got a really good bonus?

The guilty party was me.

I was working at a relatively small company, the last establishment I would ever be employed by in the U.S., but I didn’t know that yet.

I was in before all others, every day, getting an early start. I loved my job, my colleagues and the owners. I felt I had a comfortable, rewarding future there.

For New Year’s, the company held a lavish ‘Thank you!’ dinner and gave us expensive appliances as well as cash bonuses.

I was surprised by the generosity and grateful…until a few days into the new year, when I met with the office manager for my yearly evaluation.

She praised my work, and my ability to get along with clients and colleagues. She was aware that I wanted/deserved a promotion (one step up) but told me the position was going to an older woman (in her early 50’s).

I will never forget the reasons offered: The woman was not effective in the position she had (equal to mine), they felt sorry for her re her possibly having to look for a new job ‘at her age’ so they were promoting her to free up her current position so a better employee could be found.

I was then given a substantial raise while being told how much everyone loved me because ‘I was so easy to kick around’ (Exact words).

A short time later, I resigned because I discovered I had an intolerance for disrespect that money could not fix.

The same office manager felt I was ungrateful for leaving, never accepting that she had insulted me.

Note: The older woman found the higher position beyond her capabilities and quit a few months later.

By that time, I was on my way to a much better life in Thailand.

The Man Who Fought World War II for 28 Extra Years

January 22, 2024

The jungle sweltered, a thick canopy choking out the sun. Insects buzzed in a relentless symphony, punctuated by the occasional screech of unseen creatures. For 28 years, this had been Shoichi Yokoi’s world, a far cry from the rice paddies of his Japanese village. A soldier declared dead, he was a ghost haunting the verdant shadows of Guam, oblivious to the war’s end and the life that had moved on without him.

Yokoi’s story begins in 1941, a young tailor swept into the maelstrom of World War II. Stationed on Guam, he found himself amidst the brutal Battle of 1944. As American forces closed in, Yokoi, along with other Japanese soldiers, retreated into the island’s dense interior. They clung to a desperate hope: that the tide would turn, that reinforcements would arrive. But the tide never came. The war ended, the world moved on, but Yokoi and his dwindling comrades remained, prisoners of their own denial.

Life in the jungle was a constant struggle for survival. Hunger gnawed at their bellies, the threat of disease ever-present. Yokoi hunted small animals with sharpened bamboo spears, fished with traps fashioned from vines, and cultivated meager crops in hidden clearings. He built flimsy shelters, patched his decaying uniform with leaves, and kept a tattered diary, chronicling his loneliness and yearning for home.

The years blurred into one another, marked only by the changing seasons and the slow fading of hope. Two of his companions succumbed to illness, leaving Yokoi utterly alone. Yet, he persisted, driven by a samurai’s code of honor and a flicker of faith that he would one day see his family again.

In January 1972, two local hunters stumbled upon Yokoi, a wild-eyed, skeletal figure emerging from the undergrowth. The war, they informed him, had been over for nearly three decades. The world he knew was gone, replaced by a bewildering landscape of peace and prosperity.

Yokoi’s return was met with international media frenzy. He was hailed as a living fossil, a relic of a bygone era. Some saw him as a hero, others as a tragic figure, a victim of his own unyielding loyalty. Yokoi himself struggled to adjust. He grappled with survivor’s guilt, mourned his lost comrades, and yearned for a normalcy that had become foreign to him.

He married soon after his return, fathered a daughter, and attempted to rebuild his life. Yet, the jungle’s grip never fully loosened. He dreamt of verdant shadows, woke to the phantom sounds of unseen creatures. Shoichi Yokoi, the man who survived 28 years lost in the jungle, could never truly escape the war that had claimed not just his youth, but a part of his soul.

Yokoi’s story is a stark reminder of the human cost of war, a testament to the enduring power of the human spirit, and a cautionary tale about the dangers of blind obedience. It is a story that lingers long after the echoes of gunfire fade, a testament to the resilience of the human spirit and the enduring shadows of war.

DARK Reality Of Marriage That Men Are PURPOSELY Never Told

Watch the entire thing. They look at Western marriages and the laws that differ depending on your sex. Very interesting and very disturbing.

https://youtu.be/LZig2NTBUUk

Can you sleep at night in jail?

Sleep can be such a precious commodity in lockup that you take it when you can get it.

Personally, I got some of my most productive snooze time after breakfast was rolled into the day room.

While my cellmate was engrossed in THE PRICE IS RIGHT, our living space would temporarily transform itself into a snore free zone.

So by lunchtime headcount, I could typically get caught up on any sleep I may have missed during lights out.

Nobody sleeps through the night in jail.

It’s a physical impossibility.

The lights may dim, but they never go completely out, so unless you mask up, the florescent bulb over your stainless steel shaving mirror is going to shine in your eyes all night long.

And I don’t know how you feel personally, but I was never really comfortable wearing eye shades while incarcerated.

Call me overly cautious, but I don’t want to be fumbling with a blindfold when the shit goes down.

CO’s make a particular point of creating as much noise as possible when they walk their respective rounds during graveyard shift.

Deadbolts rattle.

Armored doors slam.

The hours rumble along like a gurney down a shuttered hallway.

The pallets are hard and unforgiving.

You take comfort while you can.

Have you ever accidentally opened someone else’s email and found something interesting?

A couple of years ago we bought a house, after leaving the house we’d been in prior for over 25 years. The new home was our dream home in many ways. It checked all the boxes for us and we couldn’t wait to move in.

The Sellers were a slimy couple. The guy was a b.s. artist, an alcoholic and a bit of a scammer, and his wife was the breadwinner with a 1-year-old, too busy to either notice who her husband was (who was about 12 years older than she was at 44), or she didn’t care. I think a little bit of both. The husband tried to scam $7,500 from my husband and me regarding a mirror that he claimed he’d recently bought which was affixed to a parlor wall in the house. He said his wife had bought the large, gilded pier mirror and if we didn’t pay them, it was going with them. This mirror was a fixture and should have remained in the home, and I fought for it, but didn’t win. I came to find out that the mirror had been in the home for 23 years and was, indeed, affixed to the wall and should have remained. The owners before our Sellers had bought the mirror at a yard sale 23 years prior for less than $300 and had had it permanently affixed to the wall. So, the scam artist husband Seller lied to us about his wife having bought the mirror, and also lied about it not being a fixture (fixtures remain with the house, they don’t get taken).

This was a very difficult closing. Their attorney was a real b—-h and in many ways she enabled them to not fulfill aspects of the contract we had with them. We could have sued them over some, but we didn’t. Our closing attorney was no better, but on the opposite end. He had no spine and was unable and unwilling to go after their attorney on our behalf. Instead, he just kept talking us down off the ledge into giving up rights we had under the terms of the contract for sale.

We get to closing day in Septemeber, finally, and we get a call from our attorney early that morning telling us the closing isn’t happening. Mind you, all of our belongings are packed and piled everywhere, and only one piece of furniture, a sofa, is unwrapped. Turned out that the title company did one more check just before closing, and it turned out the Sellers had two federal liens on the home for non-payment. One was a HUD mortgage they had taken out during COVID, and guess what – the government was pretty much shut down, because this was 2021; so, there was no reaching HUD. You can’t close on a home until liens on it are satisfied, or transferred to another property. We’re pretty sure they knew about the liens and were trying to hide them until we closed. They had been in the house for only two years and had pushed for a quick closing. Now we knew why.

The Sellers did nothing to resolve the liens, and we sat there with all our belongings in boxes and our dogs for two months. We wanted to get out of our Contract for Sale, but we were told by our attorney that we couldn’t, or the Sellers could sue us (it was actually the other way around, but our attorney was terrible). September turned to late-October, and all our winter clothes were packed, so we didn’t even know which boxes our winter clothing were in. October turned to November, and we were still living that way, no plates, no pots, no pans, so we couldn’t even cook a meal for ourselves.

Finally, we started calling around trying to resolve our Sellers’ lien problem for them so we could close on our new house. Finally my husband spoke with a biz associate of his who knew someone who had worked for HUD under the Trump administration. He put us in touch with him, and on the phone the gentleman asked us the address of the home we were trying to close on. It came right up on his computer. Then he asked us if we knew to where the Sellers were moving. I had done some research on them and found out they were moving north several states away and had the address. He could see that, indeed, they were the owners of that property. In a few strokes on his keyboard, he transferred their HUD lien to their new property, which they’d already purchased.

There was the matter of the second lien. For that, we had to have a tax attorney in my husband’s office offer to discharge the second lien for them, but he was going to charge them for this, of course, not do it for free. So, the Sellers said they wanted to hire their own tax attorney, which my husband’s tax attorney found for them. Within a week, she got the second lien discharged and applied to their new home so we could close on our new home. This was in late-November of 2021, two months after our September closing date got canceled.

When we closed, finally, we went to the house and found that the Sellers had left furniture in the home they should have taken, left food out in the basement, dirty diapers in garbage containers around most of the home, and more. I had to hire a cleaning company to clean before we could move in, which would be another two days. Not a big deal, but these people were so inconsiderate and so nasty in the way they treated us. You would think they would have left a bottle of wine with a note for us saying ‘congratulations and thank you,’ but they didn’t.

Over a year went by, it was summer of 2023, we were happy in our new home, enjoying it, and fixing it up (needed a lot of work). I come in one day with the mail, and open a letter. It’s a notice for the former owners’ Tesla saying it was going to be repossessed for non-payment. LMAO. The next letter I opened was another overdue notice for a storage unit of theirs that hadn’t been paid in several months. I had another good laugh, and I wondered if the mirror they took out of spite was in that storage unit, but I had no way of finding out. I would guess it probably was. It would have cost almost as much to move it as what they had asked us to pay to leave it.

Typically, I wouldn’t take any glee in anyone’s being in debt and in way over their heads, but these people were so inconsiderate of us in every way and so thankless about what we did for them in doing the work to get their liens discharged so they could sell their house, that I thought what they had gotten themselves into was just pure Karma.

Learn from Bruce Lee

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/x8fhlVaLcxg?feature=share

Have you ever been taught something in school that was completely incorrect?

When I was in elementary school in the 1950s, we had a science book that said, “it might look as though western Europe and western Africa could nest against the east coast of North America and South America. This is just a coincidence. Continents don’t move.”

Within ten years, tectonic plate theory had spread into the high schools and suddenly we knew that continents are drifting all the time and causing earthquakes. We found out that rock formations in England seemed to continue tha Appalachian Mountains. Now it’s hard to remember how recently Continental Drift became consensus science.

When I was young, Big Bang was used derisively for the hypothesis that the universe had a sudden beginning.

The Martian Chronicles was still highly recommended as science fiction, even though Mars was known to be uninhabitable before the stories were written.

The double helix model of DNA was not taught in schools when I was first taking science classes, and the terms genes and chromosomes were our main genetic vocabulary.

But that’s just a function of science gradually improving on what was known before. Just as I had to learn new names for a lot of countries as they became independent: Bechuanaland to Botswana. Tanganyika and Zanzibar to Tanzania. The Rhodesias and Nyasaland to Zambia, Zimbabwe, and Malawi. And many other examples. So I learned the true names, then history happened, so the truth was revised.

What do you do when someone has road rage and tries to follow you home to fight you?

I’ve done this once, when a drug crazed fool did a U-turn over double lines and began to chase me down (to this day the cops think it’s only because my car was similar to one of his enemies/dealers/customers cars). After driving around 2 local suburbs, double tracking & looping the same route several times, it was clear he wasn’t giving up. He didn’t try to pass, he simply tailed me everywhere with his high-beam on, and honked his horn occasionally.

I was smart enough to only take back roads, so I wouldn’t get caught at a red light, and tried to use intersections where I didn’t have to wait. Anything to prevent him from having an opportunity to get out and do something nasty. My hope was to spot a passing cop car and somehow get their attention, but this never happened.

So I simply drove to the nearest Police station – which always has cops going in & out the doors, and a clear view of the carpark from the front counter, which is manned by 2–3 cops at all times. He followed me in, so I blasted the horn to get their attention. Fortunately a duty car came in behind, stopping his exit. Cops came out as he was getting out of his car, and promptly grabbed him for outstanding warrants. They had a chat to me about what I did, and told me it was the right thing to do, and had the added bonus that it saved them having to find the guy later.

I always think of that now, but haven’t had to do it again.

What is the biggest scam an auto mechanic ever tried on you?

I’ve been sitting on this incident for too long: Some 7 years ago I bought a car I’d lusted after for years.

RenaultSport RS Megane 275 Cup Special. Then the ultimate front wheel drive with multiple Nurburing lap records. 12 months old 4,000ks, immaculate with balance of 5 year warranty remaining.

2 years later, 34,000 ks and one morning it just wouldn’t start, flat battery. Charged it, 10 minutes after trying again to start it battery was flat. So I’ve narrowed it down to the fuseable link under the battery.

Rang the local Renault dealer – Brian Hilton Toyota/Renault in North Gosford and explained. ‘No worries we’ll send a tow truck to collect it’ …and again explained my suspicions. I rang them the next day and ‘Its the starter motor and there’s not one in the country(?) Renault will airfreight from France’ Me: So you checked the fuseable link? ‘Yes, its definently the starter motor’.

3 weeks later (warranty hire car – (only because I phoned Renault HO) I get a phone call: ‘Its a big job because we had to remove engine to replace it (B/S). We’ve changed the starter motor…(wait for it) but have found that the fuseable link has also blown (WTF) and we’ll get the part tomorrow so you can pick it up the next day’ (I said nothing about initial conversation)

Picked it up and all seemed fine, other than a bit of a front-end clunk within 2 days, within 4 days there was a clunk from the front end even on slow Speed Bumps. Took it to my regular and very trusted Workshop (who race RenaultSports) ‘Gosford European’. Franck Donniaux the owner took a quick look: ‘They’ve rattled gunned the engine mount bolts and the gearbox is bouncing off the subframe cause the bolts on LHS mount have snapped. They helicoiled 2 new bolts in, gave me the bill, and said this is Brian Hiltons cost.

Spent the next few days thinking about it the best response …eventually rang Brian Hilton Dealer and booked it in for a full complete service to replace everything serviceable that could be done: Wiper blades, all filters, brake fluid and coolant flush etc etc. (didn’t say a word about the engine mount).

2 weeks later dropped it off and then a call from service department: ‘We’ve noticed a broken D/S front ball joint boot and the front disc ABS sensor needs replacing’ A: Fine do everything that looks like it needs doing. Picked it up and bill was $1,375. Asked to speak to the service manager ‘But why all the works been done’, asked again to speak to service manager…he wandered across and I said this is one for your office – unless you’d like the rest of the waiting room to hear.

Very nicely and courteously explained the process from the beginning:

1. Fraudulent miss-diagnosis, I had clearly asked twice that they check the starter motor fuse link

2. My car off the road for 4 weeks,

3: Broken engine mount bolts and that engine did not need to be removed. (He immediately agreed to refund me Franck’s bill)

4. Broken tie-rod boot and broken ABS sensor (ABS was a warranty anyhow) could only have been their doing when it was there

My suggestion: – they not only pay Franck’s bill, they waiver the service fee or this would go right up the chain. and very public. I then said nothing and just watched him whither in his seat.

Outcome – all costs paid…found out that the Renault Service Technician was sacked 2 weeks later. This however was evidence of bad management from the top down.

….and would never go anywhere near Brian Hilton Gosford ever again!

So nice though having a mechanic and workshop that I can trust = Gosford European

Woman instantly REGRET their life and hit the wall

https://youtu.be/gjxtIpq736c

Decline in American marriages

Damn.

Check this one out too…

How to Stop Rationalizing Choices That Go Against Our Values

January 22, 2024

We’ve all been there. Stuck at a crossroads, staring down a choice that gnaws at our gut, whispers contradictions to our core values. Yet, with a deft mental sleight of hand, we weave justifications, construct elaborate rationalizations, and somehow convince ourselves to take the path of least resistance – the one that may offer immediate gratification but leaves a lingering dissonance in our souls.

But here’s the truth: rationalization is the kryptonite to a fulfilling life. It’s the thief that steals our authenticity, leaving behind a hollow shell of who we aspire to be. So, how do we break free from this self-sabotaging habit and align our choices with the values we hold dear?

1. The Pause Button

In the heat of the moment, our rationalizations run on autopilot. Take a time-out. Step away from the decision, even if it’s just for a few breaths. This conscious delay disrupts the momentum of rationalization and gives you a chance to reconnect with your core values. Ask yourself: How does this choice align with the person I want to be? Does it resonate with what I truly believe in?

2. The Value Inventory

We often hold our values close but don’t articulate them regularly. Take some time to revisit your personal compass. Write down your core values, the principles that guide your decisions and define your identity. Keep this list handy, a constant reminder of the north star that should guide your choices.

3. The “Why?” Drill

Our rationalizations are often surface-level justifications. Peel back the layers. Ask yourself “why” repeatedly, digging deeper into the motivations behind your choice. Is it fear, convenience, or immediate gratification driving you? Uncover the true root of your desire and see if it aligns with your deeper values.

4. The Mirror Test

Imagine looking at yourself in the mirror after making the choice. Does the reflection radiate self-respect and integrity? Or is there a flicker of unease, a sense of betrayal to your own principles? This visualization hones your decision-making by confronting the immediate consequences and long-term impact of your choices.

5. The Compassionate Coach

We often fall into the trap of harsh self-judgment when we rationalize against our values. Instead, approach yourself with compassion. Acknowledge the human tendency to slip up, and remember that progress, not perfection, is the goal. Learn from the experience, strengthen your value compass, and move forward with renewed self-awareness.

Breaking the cycle of rationalization requires self-awareness, honesty, and a commitment to your values. It’s a continuous practice, a dance between impulse and intention. But with each conscious choice, you create a ripple effect, aligning your life with the person you truly want to be. Remember, your values are your compass, not a cage. Embrace the discomfort of choosing integrity, and watch your path unfold with an authenticity that resonates from within.

Have you ever had a car that a mechanic said it’s unfixable and told to sell him the car or junk it but turned out to be a minor fix?

One of my friends told me about his friend who had totaled his MG Midget and wanted it gone.

I said cool I’ll look at it. He took me over and we looked at the car. I accepted his price of $150. I asked if I could work on it for a day in his garage, as the right front wheel was jammed by the fender. He said sure. I actually pulled the fender out of the wheel with my hands. I also pulled the hood straight enough to close. I replaced the brake line and bled the brakes. I drove it out after 2–3 hours.

I had to do some bodywork on the hood and fender before repainting them with spray cans. My repair costs were about $20. it was the late 1970s.

Drove the car for about 4 years. During that time it was totaled again by a reckless corvette driver. His insurance gave me $2000 plus the car. I again repaired the same bumper, hood and right fender. I also cut down a plastic chevy grill to replace the the mangled MG grill. Repairs from that accident totaled $30.

I eventually .sold it for $1200.

What has been your weirdest elevator incident?

When I was in college myself and two other football players had to get clearance from our orthopedic doctor to play in a game. So we got on the elevator along with young nurse or medical staffer. All of a sudden the lights and elevator went out, emergency light kicked on. The young nurse really hadn’t paid much attention to who she was on the elevator with until then. I’m 6′5″, white, at the time 265 lbs,two of my tackle friends 6′6″ and 6′7″ 305 and 325 lbs two or so. I’ve never seen a woman panic so fast, or badly. I don’t know if it was claustrophobia or just outright fear, she started crying and collapsed. She literally peed her scrubs. Thankfully the power came back on as Jeremy had reached for the emergency phone. We yelled for help, medical staff got her in a room, next I know the police were there to talk to us, thank God the cops were willing to talk to me, otherwise there could have been real trouble.

How strict was the dress code of the strictest company you’ve ever worked for?

Back in the 1970’s I worked for a bank in the City of London. The dress code for men was suit and ties. Not unusual at that time, my parents bought me a suit. As this was my first job, I didn’t have a lot of money to spend on clothes, but, I did purchase some navy blue trousers and a navy blue blazer. I wore them to the office and I was called into my managers office and he said, that it was OK, but on the limit of the dress code. The blues didn’t match 100%. OK, not a major problem. Several months later, and a bit more money, I went and had a suit made to measure. It was dark green with a red silk lining, very smart, so I thought. Again I went to work feeling very proud to be in my super new suit. Again I was called in to see my manager, he again said, OK, it’s a suit but it’s not navy, black or some other sombre colour. As I worked in the personnel section, I had access to the company rules and there was nowhere that stated what colours clothes had to be. I worked in an office on the 3rd floor and the only contact I had with customers, was when I went out to lunch and had to walk through the banking hall. In the morning and evenings when entering and leaving the bank was closed to customers. I left shortly afterwards, but that’s another story.

What’s the most savage way you’ve seen someone get fired?

If the question had not been asked as phrased, my experiences would not have come to mind. I’ll tell you about two of them.

I survived three attempts that are by some of those that worked for me that tried to fire me! By murder!

In a war zone, I was in charge of over 100 men. Some criminals, joined up to avoid jail. Morale poor. Racial tensions taut as a bow string. I was in charge of discipline and as much of their safety, as could be handled by command. My job # 1, keeping all mine alive and getting them home, with as little damage as possible!

I was that command and I took my job seriously, on base and in the field. I was a more disciplined superior than the bunch had been accustomed to and a few were not, not only unreceptive, but very much in contempt!.

The first two grenades that exploded under my bunk at different times, were largely defeated by precautions taken with flooring and a blast shield I had created under my sleeping mat.

I failed to move my bed after the first and second attempts. A near fatal mistake. The bastards almost got me with the third. The laminated layers of 3/4”, pressure treated plywood and inserts were sufficiently degraded from the first two blasts to allow schrapnel from the third to penetrate the floor and blast shield I had created with tightly packed body armor between frame and my sleeping mat.

A single piece of grenade schrapnel penetrated all protection and wrecked the slide action of the M-16 (I kept, in bed, when asleep, right along side of my body), at the time of the explosion. My issued weapon was ruined. My hooch was wrecked and I don’t recall how long the bells kept ringing.

So, if given a choice between how they tried in the RVN and the way, years later when Big Al, fired me while camping in the Canadian Rockies, for not leaving a phone contact, I’d take the later.

ps; Speaking of the later, I suited up Monday like I hadn’t heard I was canned. Everyone acted like they had seen a haint when I walked in and as for Big Al, well , he must have forgotten. He never said a thing. Check the Quora search engine for the full story.

Women are NOT saving for retirement!

The future is bleak in the USA…

https://youtu.be/dup0gTpjesE

Sitrep March 2024

This “sitrep” was compiled and written at the tail end of March, 2024. It contains active elements of the global Geo-Political situation focusing on the “primary core participants” as defined by the United States Department of State. I will intentionally leave out details on the “minor” participants, that while important, is not necessary in this overview.

The world is undergoing a massive shift in global [1] Leadership, [2] Finance, [3] Society, [4] Culture, [5] Military influences, [6] Technology, and [7] Planetary Management.

What was once the realm of the “rules based order” led by the United States (the United States makes the rules that others follow), and obeyed “in lockstep” by it’s captive proxy nations, has been eclipsed by a multi-polar world, led by the Russian / China leadership alliance.

The overriding plan

The United States, embroiled into (whether you don’t want to believe it or not, it is painfully clear and obvious that the United States “Leadership” is completely ensnared in this situation.) has worked out a long-duration plan to maintain and regain its hegemony.

The key to this is the suppression, followed by the break up of Russia, followed by a pivot to China.

The Timetable for initiation of hostilities

The Break up of Russia into an easily digestible entity was planned to occur in 2022. The war to start the collapse of Russia, however, got off to a bad start, and Russia has been thwarting all of the NATO efforts to manage that collapse.

However, the time-table has not changed. And as of this date a major push to destroy Russia once and for all is planned to occur in Spring / Summer 2024 this year. Leading participants to this fiasco; the United States, the UK, Germany, and France… with participative elements out of NATO to include Finland, Poland, and Sweden are expecting a NATO win by Fall of 2024.

A “buffer” period, or up to two years is planned to coincide with the planned destruction of China. This is planned for the tail end of 2026 and the Summer of 2027.

The Major Participants

For RUSSIA, the nations of NATO will attack on the chosen battlefields of Ukraine. Eventually weakening Russia to a point where “death blows” can be administered by aircraft and missile attacks.

The NATO troops are expected to consist of large quantities of Germans, Polish, Romanian, and French forces for the main thrust. With Northern contingent consisting of Swedish and Finnish forces that will deploy and assault from the North.

For CHINA, A “island chain” of American proxy nations have formed a QUAD of aggressor nations that is designed to instigate the precipitate motions that will force the Chinese entry into the upcoming Global catastrophe.

The primary antagonizing nation is earmarked as the Philippines, with major support from QUAD nations South Korea, Japan, (and to a lesser extent) taking a backseat, the resupply center of Australia.

It is expected that simultaneous “hot spots” will erupt that will trigger Chinese participation. Perhaps Taiwan declaring independence, with the Untied States, and proxy “toadies” nodding vigorously in agreement. Followed, or led, by disruptive assaults by the Philippines in the South China Sea.

The Timetable for war duration – Russia

What is going on right now in Ukraine is not a war. It is a military action, but not a full fledged war. Yet.

But once the full NATO assault begins in the Spring of 2024, a total war event scenario will begin. The United States, and NATO plans for a quick assault, and a rapid ending of the war.

Reports as ludicrous as the collapse of Russia by mid-November 2024 is being bantered about by the collective idiots in Brussels. Smarter heads prevail, and they anticipate a delay that could last until 2026 depending on a number of unknown factors.

But the plan is one of total victory by NATO over Russia and a “color revolution” internal to Russia that would dispose President Putin and replace him with a pro-American stooge.

Maybe an actor like Zelensky (Ukraine), a ideological imbecile like Javier Milei, (Argentina), a “stooge in debt” like Ferdinand “Bongbong” Romualdez Marcos Jr.( The Philippines), or an easy to control puppet like Yoon Suk Yeol (South Korea).

My understanding is that the replacement Russian “president” and his cabinet has already been selected, and the principals have already been contacted.

The Timetable for war duration – China

The ideal timeline for the “pivot to Asia” is once Russian territory is secure, and a proxy government is in charge. Due to the events of the last two years, this date has been pushed back from 2025 to 2027. But owing to the timer / stopwatch on the abilities of the West, the expiration date for action against China occurs in 2028. So the window for action is narrow, and there is an urgency to accelerate things aggressively.

While there will be a continuation of provocations in both the South China Sea, and in Taiwan, actual “False Flag” justification, and assaults against China is unlikely to occur before 2026. Thus, the window of 2026 to 2027 will be a VERY dangerous time, provided of course, if the West (The United States) is successful in taking over Russia through military victory.

Assumptions

The Pentagon along with a significant number of interested parties have made some baseline assumptions regarding both Russia and China. These assumptions color the battle and strategic policies that will govern this upcoming period of time.

Russia is “a paper tiger” and will not use nuclear weapons.
Russia is not as strong or militarily capable as it seems.
Russia, in regards to Ukraine, has been lucky so far.
The entire world is already against Russia, and the United States is leading the world against a renegade nation.

As far as China is concerned…

China is also a “paper tiger” and will not use nuclear weapons.
China has some basic technology, but it’s military is raw recruit, conscripts, with basic understandings and operates in crude military tactics.
China’s navy is expected to be “light weight”, and nothing to take too seriously.
China will fold once the oceans around China is controlled by the QUAD forces.

End Game

It is absolutely and positively understood that neither China, or Russia would dare attack the United States. As neither nations have the logistical ability to invade or assault America, the survival of the United States is understood as certainty.

So with both Russia and China devastated by massive conventional wars, and the United States left pristine and intact, the United States will rise from the ashes of a global war stronger, and better than ever before. Though looting the resources of both China and Russia, the Untied States can be rejuvenated, and the entire globe will listen to the undisputed leader of the planet; The United States.

Final Comments and thoughts

I personally believe that all the assumptions are wrong. That the timetable is off base, and a kilter, and the “leadership” of the West needs to stop taking so many drugs. We do not know what the future holds, but if this plan proceeds… one thing is certain, those planners in the West will not be happy when things go “tits up”.

Forgotten Chicken

Forgotten Chicken is a great fast and easy recipe! I have made this with chicken tenders, and it’s great. This is also known as “No Peek Chicken.”

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups white rice, uncooked
1 can cream of mushroom soup
1 can cream of celery soup
1 soup can water
Chicken breasts or thighs
1 envelope dry onion soup mix

Instructions

Mix rice, soups and water.
Pour into a greased 9 x 13 inch baking dish.
Lay chicken on top of rice mixture.
Sprinkle chicken evenly with onion soup mix.
Cover tightly and bake for 1 1/2 hours at 350 degrees F.

Shaming

I’ve been at my job for two years and have never called in sick. However, I’ve been vomiting and really unwell so want to call in sick tomorrow but my boss won’t allow it, saying it’s because we are short-staffed – is this allowed?

My boss refused to let me call in sick because I was throwing up. She said that would leave night staff short staffed. I said “no problem”.

I went to work as required. Within 5 minutes of arriving, I was using the wastebasket at the desk to throw up in. Boss insisted I would be fine and refused to let me leave

10 minutes later I was still throwing up. Finally the house supervisor came thru the station and saw me sick as can be. She asked why I was even there. I explained my boss refused to accept my call in.

Supervisor called boss to the nursing station. Supervisor reamed boss a new one and asked her “why would you have a nurse report to work in the ICU when she can’t even leave the trash can”. “Do you even understand ICU patients are in rough enough shape without a nurse throwing up on them”

Boss had to work my shift with calling someone in early for day shift.

No one questioned me calling off the next night too.

What are some daily things that we are unaware of?

Here are some common things we are usually unaware of the purpose of:

Stickers on fruit: The stickers mark the country and producer of the fruit, but it’s the numbers that are the important aspect. If there are 4 digits and the first number is 4, then it means the fruit is sprayed with pesticides. If there are 5 digits and the first number is 9, then the fruit has grown organically, and if there are 5 digits with the first number being 8, then the fruit has been genetically modified.

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Doughnut hole: In the past, it was difficult to get the edges and the middle of the pie equally baked. So they came up with the ingenious idea of using this shape to ensure equal baking on all sides.

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The original reason for sunglasses: today it’s obviously to protect us from the sun’s rays. But the original purpose was to protect Arctic people from the dazzling rays of snow. And in 12th century China, they became particularly widespread among judges in order to hide their true feelings from witnesses.

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Margins on paper: the original purpose was not for extra notes on the side. In the past mice and rats often gnawed on the paper, so in order for them not eat away the information, people started to leave spaces on the sides.

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Holes in padlocks: People usually buy a new lock when their old one doesn’t work due to rain. However, the purpose of the hole is to put in oil – once done, the lock should be able to open with no difficulty.

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Gran Torino , Clint Eastwood – Favourite scene

If you’ve worked in law enforcement, how often have you come across criminals like the Vince Vega character played by John Travolta in “Pulp Fiction,” who actually have intellectual interests outside of their life of crime?

Vince wasn’t an intellectual heavyweight. He was a deeply flawed asshat with an outsized ego and limited self restraint.

Remember the scene with The Wolf? The Wolf was there to save Vince’s idiotic neck, and yet our boy just couldn’t stand that someone else walked in and smoothly took control. When returning home with the wife of his boss, Vince was clearly working his way up to making a pass at Mia in spite of trying to talk himself out of it. If Mia hadn’t OD’d Vince would’ve discovered that his disposal wouldn’t even merit a pine box.

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Obviously my experience isn’t from the perspective of “law enforcement”, but from being locked up with, then living and working with other felons.

Those living a “life of crime” are different from you and your neighbors only because one aspect of their life is something illegal that they got caught doing. That doesn’t mean that they live and breathe crime 24/7.

These people are fully formed and complex individuals, just like you. In many cases, you would find that the “life of crime” really boils down to just one dumb act, not a daily ritual.

The only exception to this would be the addicts I’ve met, particularly the meth users. They might start off as “unique snowflakes” but something about that drug leeches personality from them like bathwater leeches the salts from your skin. Given enough time they become shriveled husks of former humans — having more in common with one another than with anyone else.

Playing around with text-to-picture

Default masterpiece best quality coloring book line art The Ha 3

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Default coloring book line art The Chariot tarot card with Art 6

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The Sopranos – Getting everything ready for the Executive game

How does China’s emphasis on manufacturing prompt concerns about overcapacity?

This is what western economists say about the Chinese economy.

But the Chinese government and its economists don’t think that way because they look at potential market size first. In China, the leading importers and processors of minerals and raw materials are state-owned companies whose annual profits are capped at 3–5 percent annually. This means that raw material costs are lower. Chinese manufacturers are increasingly using robotics and automation so that manufacturing costs are lower. Then the Chinese yuan is kept lower against leading currencies to encourage exports.

Put it all together, and it looks to Europeans and Americans like China has impossibly low costs and is making it impossible for other competitors to compete. The problem is that China is different from Europe and the U.S. and its economy is designed to encourage manufacturing and exports.

The Chinese goal is to capture as much market as possible, and then to push costs down further through cost and efficiency improvements. This is different from western companies which start with lower prices to grab market share, but then gradually raise prices through predatory pricing.

How do Japanese see the US in 2024?

Some truths

Investing in a woman you’re not married to is a waste of energy and money.
If you find someone smarter than you, work with them, don’t compete.
Life is all about being intentional and proactive in our choices . The cure for a man’s depression ?? Focus on your purpose and stay busy.
The person who carefully designs their daily routine goes further than the person that negotiates with themselves everyday.
Stop complaining at every slight inconvenience. Do what has to be done . Be happy regardless.

Have you ever seen someone call the cops and it backfired on them?

My now ex wife wanted me out of the house and her life after I caught her red handed having an affair.

My relief called in sick so I had to pull a double shift, I got home and went right to bed, only to be woke up by her whaling away on me with a shoe. I picked her up and carried her out into the living room and gently tossed her on the couch, locked the bedroom door and went back to sleep.

It wasn’t long and there was a knock on the door, it was a couple cops, she had called them to report I was abusing her. They said I would have to accompany them to the station, then I looked up at them, there whole attitude shifted.

They handcuffed her and put her in the back of the squad car, one of the cops told me I should clean myself up, apparently she’d nailed me with a shoe and I had blood running down my face.

I went to sleep, she went to jail, couldn’t have worked out any better.

Mike’s 5 Most Badass Plans | Better Call Saul (Jonathan Banks)

How many cars have you owned and what were your favourites?

My first car was an old beater VW Karman Ghia . It was a tank, with the engine over the rear wheels it would go through snow, that bigger vehicles couldn’t handle. It was low to the ground, one day the neighbors pigs got out, and they had a huge boar, that blocked the road. He came over and leaned against my side window, and completely blocked the view.

It didn’t have a gas gauge, instead it had a reserve fuel tank, and when you ran out, you switched over, and drove to the nearest gas station.

It wouldn’t go the highway speed limit, maybe 63 mph with the pedal to the metal.

My second car was 1974 Plymouth Duster with imitation alligator skin roof, and a sun roof. It was an OK car.

My next car was a 1976 Chrysler Cordoba with real Corinthian leather seats ( best spoken in a Ricardo Montalaban accent) it had a high performance 400 cubic inch V8 with a 4 Bbl. Jet black with every option known to mankind. Sun roof, air conditioning, power everything. Pure white on white interior, to contrast to the black paint. I have a lot of fond memories of this car.

My next car was a 1969 buick skylark convertible. My plan had been to restore it, and always have a good car to drive. I spent thousands on it, and couldn’t keep up with repairs.

My next car was a 4 wheel drive AMC Eagle. It had air suspension, so it hugged the road, but if you went off road you pushed a button and the sur shocks filled and raised the car, to get more clearance. Best fishing vehicle I ever had.

The I had a 1989 Dodge D100 that was a rebadged Mitsubishi. It had a 4 cylinder that couldn’t get out of its own way, But it was solid steel, I was rear ended and it cost $200 to paint my bumper, but the brand new Previa that hit me was totalled. I wasT boned in an intersection and I I didn’t get a scratch, but it was $5000 to fix the other vehicle. It was a 4×4 with a half inch steel skid plate under the entire vehicle. It never had a problem until my power steering hose, and brake line started leaking. I couldn’t get parts, so I got rid of it.

I bought a 1997 Cadillac Catera , awesome looking car, and the day the warranty ran out, it started costing me money. Thousands.

I bought a 1999 Jaguar XKR convertible, with one year left on the warranty. It was the best looking car I owned, I had people hop out of their vehicle at a traffic light and ride with me until the next light. It was a great car.

I bought a 2004 Nissan frontier 4×4, which I drove in the winter, and the Jag in the summer. The Nissan was just OK, nothing special.

I replaced the Nissan with another 2013 Nissan frontier 4×4, which was significantly better than the first Nissan, but still not a memorable vehicle.

I got rid of the jag in 2021.

Hassayampa Casserole

This casserole is an original and was named after the Hassayampa River that flows in Wickenburg, Arizona.

Ingredients

1 large onion, chopped
1 tablespoon olive oil
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
3 teaspoons chili powder
3 teaspoons cumin
1 (8 ounce) can enchilada sauce
1 pound fresh tomatoes, diced
10 ounces frozen corn, thawed
1 cup sliced black olives
3 large green chiles, chopped
1 pound shrimp or imitation crabmeat
12 ounces Monterey Jack cheese, shredded
12 corn tortillas

Instructions

Sauté onion in oil and add cinnamon, chili powder and cumin.
Stir in enchilada sauce and diced tomatoes. Set aside 1 cup sauce.
Add to remaining sauce the corn, olives, green chiles, shrimp or crabmeat and 1 cup cheese.
In a 3 quart shallow casserole dish, cover bottom with some of the tortillas.
Spread 1/3 of shrimp/crabmeat mixture over tortillas; repeat with 2 more layers.
Top with remaining tortillas, sauce and cheese.
Bake at 325 degrees F for 40 minutes.

The Sopranos – Albert Barese

What is a historical fact that would sadden most people if they found out?

As a kid I was fascinated by the figure of Che Guevara, who looked cool, died relatively young and fought for a better world.

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Later in life, I read his biography by Jean Cormier, a French journalist/movie director who was a close friend of Che.

It tells the story of his childhood, his medical studies, his trip through South America on a motorbike, how he joined Fidel Castro’s revolution and how they disembarked in Cuba to start a guerrilla war against the Batista regime.

Both had their own regiment in the Sierra Maestra mountains, from where they would launch attacks against government forces. In Che’s regiment there was a little puppy that everybody loved, the mascot of the camp.

One day, Che and a group of soldiers left the camp to ambush a government caravan. But the little puppy had followed them and started barking. They had to shut the dog up or else they would be discovered by the government soldiers. So Che and his men formed a circle around the puppy while one of them strangled it.

I couldn’t put this image out of my mind of these heavily armed guerrilleros standing in a circle to strangle a puppy. They say innocence is the first casualty in any war.

Best Sopranos Scene – “We’re with the Vipers” -All Right Now

I received my ancestry DNA results and I am 0% Italian, however my maternal grandmother is 100% Italian. How is this possible?

Has your grandmother actually had her DNA tested and analyzed?

What I have found in 25 plus years of doing genealogy, and even MORE so since DNA testing came along……people get very invested in family stories and myths. They can build their whole sense of self around them. Then DNA and family history research comes along and blows big holes in their set ideas. Things aren’t what they seem.

There were some doozies told in my family. Some by accident – sort of multigenerational “broken telephones” where things had grains of truth but went sideways in the retelling. Some were deliberate, because it made for a better story. Tales of glory beat tales of misery. Some were told to hide things family members were ashamed of (we had more than our share of those).

DNA can also yank the rug from under you since who you think is your ancestor isn’t always. I have a 78-year-old friend who always believed her father was an Italian fellow who her mother sued for child support in the early 1940’s. Turns out she’s 50% Ashkenazi Jewish without a hint of Italian – and she’s found her biological father’s family, all of whom are at a loss to tell her what the heck happened (to say they were shocked would be an understatement, lol).

Your grandmother may have been born in Italy and raised speaking Italian, but her family could have been ethnically from elsewhere. Nationality should not be confused with ethnicity.

Japan is Changing, and it’s SCARY.

What is one moment in your life you thought could only happen in a movie?

So I have been dating this guy from eight years now. He is my family friend. My first crush,then my first love, my first boyfriend and my first everything. Me and his sister are best friends.

Even though our families knew each other for so long, my family never knew that we were dating, because we Never used to talk infront of them.We(me and him) always used to discuss about how we should convince my parents, how we should ask them and blah blah. I used to get very nervous thinking about my parents reaction. But I was confident that I will convince them and I always knew that he was the one that I want to spend my entire life with.

So one day i went out and came to home , and saw all my family sitting together and discussing seriously, they became silent after seeing me , and my brother asked me to sit beside him and asked me that, they are thinking to get me married. My heart was stumped, millions of thoughts rushed in my head and i was so shocked that i I couldn’t think of one word to say, then he mentioned about the guy that they were considering for me.

Well to my surprise he was none other than my love, the one who makes me feel butterflies even after 8years of togetherness, who just makes me happy by his mere presence. I was so happy that I wanted to jump and dance around. But I couldn’t I simply blushed and said “YES” to my parents. They still didn’t know that we are in love.

We are going to get married soon, preparations are started, IAM on the cloud nine since then. We are going to tell them about us on our wedding day.

I always thought things like this happens only in films and fairy tales. May be every love story is a fairy tale.

Real truth

Do Western countries want South Asia and Southeast Asia to have continuous conflicts? If yes, then what will be the policies of these nations?

They do dont they?

They don’t tend to leave any country alone do they?

They always make decisions based on the people of every country in the world

They must always decide who is free and who isn’t

Any Government that toes their line is ‘Good’ and any Government that doesn’t is ‘Had

They decide human rights violations

If Israel bombs and kills 32,000 Civilians and starves an entire population to death for a single terrorist incident – that’s KOSHER

If Russia invades Ukraine to come to the assistance of 2 Million to 3 Million people who live in Donbass and have been shelled regularly and lost 14,000 lives over 8 years, chronicled in the UN – that’s horrible and thats interfering in the sovereignty of a nation

If Russia arrests 439 people for Social Media posts that’s a huge civil rights violation

If UK arrests 3237 people for Social Media Posts including 900 people just for posting the N word – that’s perfectly acceptable

They have combined killed and liquidated through their decisions – almost 30 Million people in the last 300 years belonging to different countries including :-

Inquisitions
Literally NUKING a nation
Holocaust of 6 Million Jews
Starving a million Indians without a shred of remorse
Enslaving 3.5 Million people and treating them like Cattle and breeding them like Cattle and Dogs
Colonizing and cold bloodedly robbing, slaughtering and displacing 2 Million or more Native Americans , Maoris, Aborigines and stealing their land brazenly
Stealing Texas openly from Mexico and now hunting down the same mexicans as Illegals
Invaded a Nation, killed a known 93,000 people of that nation and displaced and impoverished an estimated 330,000 people literally lying that they had nuclear weapons
Bombed and killed and stole the Oilfields of a Nation merely because their Leader didn’t toe the American line (Syria)
Funded Color Revolutions, Coup de Ats and Uprisings against legitimate Governments by their Agencies

These aren’t conspiracy theories are they?

Every one of these incidents have been firmly listed and verified and is now regarded as history

Yet they always seem to turn the tables

Saddam was a Villian though they invaded Iraq for no reason and destroyed him

Yet Zelensky is a Hero

Gadaffi was a Villian

Mao was a Villian

Putin is a villian

Xi is a Villian

Yet not one of these people have conducted a war of aggression in their lives before 2022

Why?

That’s the key question

I believe the answer lies in an Ideology that is deeply ingrained into their blood for centuries

We are the Good Guys

We are the Angels to help these Backward People develop themselves and save them from themselves and their cruel leaders

Sometimes even if people die, we have to look at the long term and be harsh

Like Gates who openly supports an organization that wants 870 Million People dead because they eat up precious food

Now these Nations, it depends on the people of these nations

China and Russia and Iran and a few other nations have obviously woken up and now see these people for what they are

Putins 87% win is an indication

That people braved a rumoured terror attack and shelling and bombing and yet voted in larger numbers is the best middle finger possible

Niger is another example

The Middle East is slowly realizing things aren’t so rosy now

Others are TOO SCARED

India for instance is too frightened of the West because India is too weak to resist sanctions plus India cannot trust China Iran and Russia fully

Not when 40% of it’s exports are destined for US and EU and most of these export orders are non crucial and can be seriously affected

Vietnam, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia are also too frightened of the West. They gave been dependent too long on the West and they don’t want to leave their comfort zone.

Some are TOO SUBSERVIENT

Japan, Singapore, South Korea, Philippines are simply too enmeshed into the Western system to come out of it

However luckily the hypocrisy of the West is slowly coming out piece by piece

That too despite the fact that they control the media in every way possible.

Mercury in tubs

Here’s a nice little story for today.

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.

Today…

Could China acquire Taiwan by force and succeed?

Yes it could and it did already!

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

https://youtu.be/_EJrC7sWHs4

16 THINGS MEN LEARN TOO LATE

1. The less you say, the more your words will matter.

2. Don’t take everything personally. Not everyone thinks about you, as much as yourself does.

3. When you focus on problems, you’ll have more problems.

When you focus on possibilities, you’ll have more opportunities.

4. No matter how much it hurts now, someday you will look back and realize your struggle changed your life for the better.

5. There will always be a reason why you meet people.

Either you need them to change your life or you’re the one that will change theirs.

6. Never be afraid to try something new because life gets boring when you stay within the limits of what you already know.

7. When you are ignored by a person whose attention means the most to you, the reaction in your brain will be similar to physical pain.

8. Sometimes you will never know the value of a moment until it becomes a memory.

9. Once you begin to take note of the things you are grateful for, you begin to lose sight of the things that you lack.

10. If you do not have control over your mouth, you will not have control over your future.

11. Life is a mirror and will reflect to the thinker what he thinks into it.

12. Life is ten percent what happens to you and ninety percent how you respond to it.

13. The only person you have to face in the morning is yourself.

14. Nothing feels as good as something you do from the heart.

15. You are a reflection of the 5 people you spend the most time with.

16. Your potential is directly correlated to how well you know yourself.

I Asked ChatGPT To Make Me As Much Money As Possible

DAMN!

https://youtu.be/nY234RoQeHw

What are some psychology tricks to impress your friends?

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.

How does our career impact our relationship with family?

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

https://youtu.be/0AifYRUa9Mo

What do you think of Apple Daily founder Jimmy Lai being charged with collusion with foreign forces under the Beijing-imposed national security law?

Well, he isn’t being held without trial under the mainland system.

He is being tried in Hong Kong, under the Common Law system, with the same rights available to suspects in the Commonwealth.

That means right to counsel, right to bail, right to open trial, and right to appeal.

What makes his circumstance different from any other suspect?

Because he is/was a rich man?

He has the best counsel money can buy in Hong Kong. His case is being tried on evidence, and he has not been held on suspicion via executive order.

Evidence is traces from history. Events must have happened for evidence to be admitted. He will be judged for what he DID.

The National Security Law is NOT retroactive, so this has to do with crimes that he persisted with AFTER the passage of the law in June 2020.

He has no one to blame but himself, and this isn’t his first rodeo. He is already serving time for other offenses.

Has a stranger ever walked up to you and asked you to sell something to them?

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?

https://youtu.be/n65cKlvy9-0

What happened during the process of getting your rental car at the airport that made you say, “You gotta be kidding me?”

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?

Yeah. People are noticing…!

https://youtu.be/mckVJhg6aks

Boeing CEO: We are losing billions and may have to shut down the company. We have to restructure and layoff employees in order to survive. Has this to do with China not ordering a single plane from Boeing since 2019?

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.

What is the most heartbreaking thing your child has told you?

My wife related the following story to me.

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.

Does it really matter what caliber firearm I carry? Won’t any round deter a possible attacker/mugger?

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.

What is the Chinese perspective on anti-Russian sentiment in the West?

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

Watch it. Feminine energy!

https://youtu.be/6pUnuE2vQ6o

As a female doctor or nurse have you seen a man’s privates that shocked you for some reason? I don’t mean just because of the size.

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.

What is the best revenge you got on a superior in your workplace?

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.

Why would someone quit their job because of working too many overtime hours while being paid for it?

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.

A major Change

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/bNDQn1dGdJA?feature=share

What was the most scariest experience you’ve had at work?

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

https://youtu.be/2WRbtcFu9MA

What did someone do that made you think they were really smart?

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.

I’m a 10: Status Games

https://youtu.be/PQtdOuD4cLc

Is GDP a good measure of economic growth? Why or why not?

No, not at all.

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.

Tucker Carlson’s Message to Men

https://youtu.be/EZpbpuDPiPU

As a police officer what is the most interesting thing you heard a suspect say?

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

https://youtu.be/YPfnMin0mdE

What is the weirdest question you were ever asked on a job interview, and how did you handle it?

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!

https://youtu.be/uIATO8g8vKc

What is a story that you always wanted to tell but you never could fit it in any conversations?

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

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.

Makes about 6 dozen small cookies.

How did you deal with a co-worker eating your food?

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.

What is the strangest complaint you have received at your job?

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

https://youtu.be/hu9mPb8tgCE?si=JH3M2ZtfZ7_DHW_L

Top Hat Livin

I used to have a top hat.

It was a flared top hat and it was the coolest thing. It fit me perfectly. I mean it. It was a genuine antique… beaver fur. Awesome. Black, and awesome. Maybe something like this. Only black, not a faded black. And not so high. Maybe about 80% of that height.

It was AWESOME!

It fit me well.

I was at a bargain basement store in Attleboro, Massachusetts and found it at the far end of a rack of brick a brack.

I really don’t know what happened to that hat, but I sure miss it.

I used to wear it all the time, and man oh, man did I get a lot of thumbs up and smiles as I walked on the sidewalks of Boston.

Good times.

Great memories.

Today…

Did the CCP spoil Apple by granting special treatment in China?

Apple is not really the issue. The U.S. government and politicians are the trouble maker that caused Apple’s demise. And your media is the one that caused your U.S. businesses to suffer.

Apple is a smart company under Steve Jobs. It has a great strategy. They made good products and they made smart decision to make their products in China. That derived benefit from the best of both western and eastern world. They made a killing in China’s humongous market China and the Chinese people help make a good product that sell at a price affordable yet Apple still made boat loads of money.

All is well until the U.S. politicians thought

foolishly it could contain and control China through decoupling, de-risking, friends shoring and instead it is the U.S. companies that is slowly decoupling from the world! Never mind China! China is Apples biggest market even including the U.S. market!

If you take US out, China itself is a bigger market then the next 10 biggest market combined. So when the U.S. start the trade war and make Apple friend shoring its product quality is hit hard and trust by its customers suffer. Next by its knee capping action on Huawei they retaliated. And today Huawei are bringing out products that beat Apple in specifications and features yet it is cheaper.

The unfair actions that the U.S. did on China, turn off Chinese world wide. Most choose Huawei to hit back at the U.S. The rest is history. Everything the U.S. throw at China, China will reciprocate fairly and appropriately. I hope the U.S. will learned a lesson. But it is full of itself. So the U.S. will choose implosion. If you are smart hold your government responsible.

Stop asking about Chinese government, Chinese are the fairest nation. They were happy to share its market and enjoy win win. But since the U.S. choose win lose, let’s see who loses!

What is something your dad did that you couldn’t believe?

My father was the foreman in a shop that sold tombstones, mausoleums, vaults, and the like.
One day during tobacco-selling season, when farmers were flush with cash, a couple came by the shop to buy a family monument.
My father showed them various stones on display. They selected a very fine granite monument. He looked up the price. They paid him in cash.
That night, when he got home, he told my mother that he and I needed to make a trip, so we wouldn’t be having dinner.
We drove the company truck many miles up into the mountains, into a county where strangers were definitely not welcome — it was moonshine territory. We stopped at various grocery stores, asking directions, to find the family that had bought the monument. At one store, he bought some saltine crackers, pork and beans, and some Vienna sausage. That was our dinner.
When we finally found the family, he said, “I made a mistake. I looked at the wrong monument in the catalog. I overcharged you.” He handed them a stack of bills. As I recall (some 60-odd years later), $60.
On the way home, I asked him why he had spent upwards of three hours driving around looking for those people. After all, I said, they didn’t know they’d been overcharged.
Although he had superb grammar, he phrased his answer in an odd way: He said, “Son, a man has to do what’s right.”
To this day I remember, and try to follow, his advice: “Do what’s right.”

What would the rest of the world do if the US fell into another civil war?

It depends. Let’s pick a way it could happen.

It’s November 2024.

Donald Trump wins the US Election and secures a second term. Joe Biden loses and will be stepping down in January 2025.

Trump is angry and unhinged, out for revenge after his loss in 2020 and the many betrayals he suffered.

In office he begins to become authoritarian and anti Trump protests turn violent. They clash with Trumps supporters. Eventually the country begins to pull itself apart and Trump brings in military help to secure peace. Factions of the military refuse to use force on US civilians. Others taking orders from pro Trump generals are willing to. The US enters a civil war where the pro Trump supporters are backed by elements of the military loyal to Trump. Other elements back the pro democracy anti Trump civilians.

The other way it could happen, with similar results is Trump loses in November 2024. He calls the election rigged like in 2020. Only this time he manages to get some states to declare him winner even though he lost there. Suddenly the election itself feels pointless. Democracy had collapsed as Trump could be claiming the white house through a corrupt electoral college and supreme Court. Biden sticks to the white house but the public are split. Half believe the Trump lies and the other half are loyal to Biden the genuine winner. Clashes again erupt and civil war breaks out as things escalate.

Now in either case, US allies will be terrified and scrambling amongst themselves to see what can be done. The EU is even worried about the upcoming US election. The USA is no longer seen as stable democracy and guaranteed partner.

The US entering a civil war tanks the global economy. Overnight the US economic system fails. Wall Street goes into self destruct mode.

The US Dollar collapses.

Companies in the US start to fail. Companies with a big presence overseas like Apple, Coca Cola, Ford, Pfizer, Google etc would all enter self preservation mode. They’d begin to move all crucial operations to their outposts and regional headquarters in Europe, South America, Japan etc. The USA no longer a stable market to operate in. They’d be hoping this is temporary but it will depend on the wars outcome.

The collapse of the US economy and the massive depression the world enters after this, sees huge unemployment across the world and increasing anger at the US from the public in Europe, Japan and Canada etc.

As people in US allied nations begin to feel extreme economic fallout, think the great depression of 1929 to 1934, but worse maybe, social unrest spreads globally.

In parts Africa and less developed parts of the world, aid is cut off. Food and economic assistance donated from rich countries stops. Famines could break out in the most fragile places in the world as the rich nations try to deal with their own issues.

The Euro will emerge as the new reserve currency of the world. Its already secondary reserve.

But the crisis will see economies on Europe and everywhere fragile for years. Massive unemployment and protests. Peoole struggling to stay afloat. People who were middle class suddenly working class. The working class now some falling into total poverty. Even millionaires would see their fortunes massively shrink.

Banks would fail. There’s no way to protect them all. That’s going to eat into people’s savings globally. Currencies like bitcoin and other crypto will become increasingly popular as the Euro and Yen, the two remaining “semi stable” currencies won’t be trusted fully.

The US would expect aid from its allies. But aid would be limited. Its highly unlikely the EU, UK, Canada, Japan, South Korea, Australia, Mexico etc will risk going full on war mode to support who they see as the true government of the USA as the US is a nuclear armed state and there would be extreme worry that hostile movies against the non democratic government could lead to attacks on allies by the illegitimate government who will be in control of some regions of the nation and thus some of the military.

Ultimately, the world would sit back and hold its breath waiting to see what happens with deep fear. But it will be accepted the era of the US as global Superpower is over.

So we come to the next issue. Amongst the economic chaos on social unrest, a power vacuum exists. Who’s in charge now the US is too busy fighting itself? The EU and UK would step up fast as the new centre of the developed and democratic world with their allies in Australia and Japan etc backing them. Europe would be forced to act as the light of democracy and freedom.

China and Russia won’t be having any of that. With the US distracted and Europe weakened, they will go on power hungry mode. Russia would see a weak Europe with no US to back it. Whilst Russia is also weakened, the government will be less worried about its people than Europe. Russia will make big moves to grab land. Its probable they’d use their military and even their weapons of mass destruction no longer fearing a US response, to annex former soviet nations like Kazakhstan, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Ukraine and Belarus etc. They may even try grab EU territory in the Baltics but I doubt they’d try take all 3 EU nations as they know a weak EU is still a nuclear armed entity.

China would do the same. Its going to take advantage of the situation to grab Taiwan, a bunch of small Japanese islands of tactical importance. Probably will make moves into other parts of South East Asia too.

Chaos would reign for years. New Empires and regional wars emerging. Increased isolation too as nations work on self preservation and improving their own standing in the world.

A decade on, the world will have recovered at least partially. The world economy will have adapted to a world where the US no longer exists as one single country or economy or as one country with a much smaller economy.

The western world would unite together to try make up for the loss of the USA as it fears an emboldened Russia and China more than ever.

I’d imagine the EU, UK, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, Canada etc would all try form a new version of NATO, one thats global and more armed than before probably. A military and economic alliance to prevent China in particular establishing itself as undisputed world power.

Russia would see its global importance grow again. With Europe fearing it will take more lands in far Eastern Europe or Asia. China would be the largest single economy and the largest military in the world. But the United democratic western nations will be banded together to rival it.

The world would enter a cold war. The western nations vs China which will probably ally with Russia.

The US will emerge as either authoritarian or democratic. Time would tell. Perhaps even as 2 or 3 smaller nations with differing poltical systems. But it would remain a nuclear armed nation/nations so chances are both sides of this new cold war would try get this new version of the USA to back them. But it will be economically weak for a while to come.

Countries in South America would grow more important also. Brazil and Mexico would become regional powers in the Western Hemisphere.

Overall you’d end up with a radically changed global economic system. A weaker US in whatever form it takes. A multi polar world with 3 or 4 superpowers trying to gain the upperhand leading to a new cold war. Instead of communism vs capitalism this one will be democracy vs authoritarianism.

Hoe_Math Levels of Thinking

Very interesting.

What was the most satisfying time where you caught someone lying?

Years ago, my soon to be ex husband and I were in the last and final attempt of trying to come to a guardianship agreement over our 3 small children before it went to supreme court. (a place I DID NOT want to go).

So there in the room, was the judge, his secretary, my ex and I.

Almost every question the judge asked my ex was answered with a lie. I never said anything, but the tears wouldn’t stop welling in my eyes. All I could think was, “why can’t this man for once, just set his anger and stupid pride aside, and just agree to the wishes of what our children want?”

The judge finally looked at me and said, “What are your desires for how this should be settled?”

My response: “I just want what’s best for our kids. I believe it should be up to them if they want to visit him or not… I don’t believe they should be forced.”

Judge: “You are very quiet and I detect no animosity from you, I want to ask you why there has been a communication breakdown between you and your husband.”

Me: “Because when I try to talk to him, he just yells.”

“THAT IS A LIE !!!” My ex yells at the TOP of his lungs..

The judge ruled “Visitation to be granted as per the children’s wishes.”

Marriage IS NOT An Option In THE WEST Get Your Passport

If your car is stolen, and then you just so happen to stumble across it parked in the street, are you legally allowed to steal it back then and there without calling the police or anything in the USA?

I had a nice truck stolen in 85. Needed brakes in the worst way. The transmission was slipping a little. It got stolen Christmas Eve. On Valentine’s Day the wife and I went out to eat for dinner. As we waited for the valet on the way out my truck pulls up. I told my wife to wait for our car as I got in my truck.

A woman had gotten in on the passenger side as I slid in on the drivers side. I was already calling the police. The woman became quite flustered. I told the police where I was and that I was driving to them. We got there in a minute. I had shushed the woman many times.

We get to the station, I tell the police woman what was going on. She asked who the woman was. I told her the woman was my witness that I had not shot the man who had stolen my truck. I also told her that the woman was probably these thieves wife or girlfriend. She asked the woman what the man’s name was who had stolen the truck. The woman said that her boyfriend and his brother had stolen the truck. The police woman then did a quick search for drugs in the truck, wrote a quick report, gave me an amended case number, and let me go about my way. While she was doing that one of the other officers put my ignition switch back into the column.

The girlfriend wasn’t charged with anything. Enough evidence was found in the truck to convict the boyfriend and the brother of the lady. There were no drugs found in the car. However under the seat or several nice pistols and a short shotgun. I had the police check them for theft and was allowed to keep all of them. The funny thing is was that the brakes have been fixed and the transmission had been serviced. I put another 200,000 miles on that truck over the next 10 years.

Andrew Tate Explains Why Men Should NEVER Get Married

What’s a rule your employer implemented that backfired terribly?

I was an “executive-level” individual contributor at a Fortune 50 company, working in the IT field. My job required me to be accessible 24 hours a day, and to have conference calls with extended team members spread all over the world on a regular basis. Many days, I would be on a conference call at 4 AM with someone on the far side of the globe, spend a full day at work, and then be on yet another international call at 9 PM. This was an almost-daily occurrence. I was required to be on all these calls, and could not possibly take them all in my office, so my manager (and our VP) went through a laborious “exception” process to get the company to reimburse me for my cell phone usage, so I could make those calls from wherever I was at the time. My cell phone bill at the time averaged about $100 a month.

This went very well for 2–3 years, and then a new CFO arrived. She saw my expense sheet, and called me to determine why I was charging the company for my personal cell phone. I explained the rationale, and the exception process used to obtain approval through our VP. She did not like this at all, and said so in our conversation. So about a month later, a new T&E policy addendum came out: Effective immediately, company reimbursement for cell phones was to be prorated based on the percentage of the expense that was business-related (versus personal). A spreadsheet was provided, and anyone seeking reimbursement for business use of their personal cell phone was now required to complete and submit the spreadsheet with each month’s reimbursement form.

Completing this spreadsheet required us to go through the monthly phone bill, enter the total number of calls and total minutes for those calls. We then had to transcribe the data for each and every business call, documenting who was called (or who called you) and the business reason for the call. The spreadsheet then totalled up the number of minutes for each business call, divided that by the total minutes used that month. That ratio was used to determine the “business-to-personal” ratio, which determined our percentage of reimbursement. When I talked to the CFO about this form, she actually admitted that her purpose in creating it was to make the process so odious that employees would prefer to bypass reimbursement, rather than spending the time and effort to seek reimbursement.

That just didn’t sit right with me, so as a matter of principle, I would dutifully complete the form each month, spending the 2–3 hours required to transcribe the data from paper to spreadsheet to document that my cell phone usage was 98% business. Every month. Without fail. The average “savings” to the company for the 2–3 hours I spent completing the reimbursement form was under $2. Up to that point in time, there were only 15–16 people who were approved for cell phone reimbursement. All of us stood our ground, based on principle, and continued to file for reimbursement.

The average company savings from this new policy: Well under $50 per month – world wide. Of course, those 15–16 people collectively lost about one week of productivity in time wasted completing the new forms. The CFO, of course, saw it as a “2% reduction in cell phone expenses” and loudly proclaimed the program a cost-reduction success. But not so fast…

The first “unintended consequence” of the new policy was a wave of increased cell phone expense reimbursement, as EVERY SINGLE EMPLOYEE who had a cell phone began submitting for reimbursement of their prorated business use. Apparently, thousands of employees had been using their cell phones for business use for years with no avenue for reimbursement… But the new T&E policy had purposely dropped the “exception approval” requirement in an effort to “regain control over expenses…”

At first, the CFO was shocked and chagrined at the huge increase in cell phone expense, but a company survey (coincidentally conducted shortly after the new policy took effect) showed this new policy was a major morale booster, since it allowed workers to have better “work / life balance” than before. Once the survey results were in, the CFO claimed that had been her “secondary” motivation for the new policy, and declared “victory” yet again.

The funny thing is that her bragging about the success of this “morale boosting initiative” was to create even more awareness of the reimbursement program, which in turn led to the second unintended consequence: Very quickly, the employees began using their cell phones almost exclusively, rather than the “land lines” installed at their desks. These were intelligent people, and they quickly realized that having more business calls meant larger reimbursements, so they began using their cell phones as much as possible to drive up the business use percentage… It became common for an employee to use their cell phone to call a co-worker’s cell phone – even when both were sitting at their desks right next to their office phone. Doing so meant that their “Business-to-Personal” ratio was higher, and they would receive larger reimbursements at the end of the month.

There were nearly 10,000 white-collar workers affected by this policy, and almost all of them had a cell phone by this time. Anyone who did not have a cell phone soon obtained one, because the company was basically paying for it, and they didn’t want to be the only “non-cool” person on their team… Over a six-month period after the new policy went into effect, corporate reimbursement for personal cell phone use increased from around $1,500 per month (pre-CFO) to well over $1 million/month.

Add to that the productivity hit from those same 10,000 employees spending 2–3 hours each month completing the stupid spreadsheet (on company time, of course) instead of doing their real jobs. With a stated corporate average salary of $107,000 per year for those white-collar employees, that new T&E policy cost the company at least $1.3 million a year in reduced productivity.

So because the CFO didn’t like the fact that a few key employees were “getting over” on the system, and with a claimed justification of potentially saving the company $18,000/year, a new policy was implemented that directly cost the company at least $12 million/year, and negatively impacted productivity to the tune of another $1.3 million/year.

As Bugs Bunny would say “What a maroon…”

Greek Croustade

Ingredients

1 (10 ounce) package frozen chopped spinach
1/4 cup chopped onion
1 small clove garlic, minced
3 tablespoons butter or margarine
3 tablespoons flour
1/4 teaspoon crushed tarragon (optional)
1/8 teaspoon fresh ground pepper
1 cup milk
2 eggs, beaten
1/2 cup creamed cottage cheese
1 cup crumbled feta cheese
10 (17 x 12-inch) single phyllo dough sheets, thawed
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter or margarine, melted

Instructions

Cook spinach according to directions; drain well, pressing out excess liquid. In saucepan, cook onion and garlic in 3 tablespoons butter or margarine until tender. Stir in flour, tarragon and pepper. Add milk all at once. Cook and stir until mixture is thickened. Stir half of mixture into eggs; return egg mixture into remaining sauce. Add cheeses and spinach; set aside.
Unroll phyllo dough; cover with dampened towel. Remove 1 sheet of dough; brush lightly with some of the 1/2 cup melted butter. Fold the sheet in thirds lengthwise; brush top with butter. Place one end of the folded sheet in center of a 12- or 14-inch pizza pan, extending it over the side of the pan. Repeat buttering of remaining phyllo dough, arranging strips spoke fashion evenly around pan. (The ends of sheets will overlap in center and be approximately 3 inches apart at outer ends.) Spread spinach mixture in an 8-inch circle in center of pastry. Starting with the last sheet of dough placed in pan, lift end of leaf up and bring toward center of filling. Holding end with both hands, twist ends several times; coil and tuck end under to from a rosette. Lay rosette over filling, leaving a 3-inch circle in center (center should be visible). Repeat with remaining in reverse order they were placed. Drizzle remaining butter over all.
Bake at 375 degrees F for 35 to 40 minutes or until golden.
Serve warm or cool. Cut into wedges to serve.

Will Apple face the same fate as Samsung in the Chinese market?

Maybe.

Samsung lost Chinese market share because they were shitty cunts.. In 2016 when the Samsung Note 7 burst into flames? Samsung offered refunds/replacements to EVERYBODY excluding China.

They made a video apology in English to Americans and also other languages to other users.

But sent a 200 word message to Chinese users eventually offering replacements.

Chinese people thought why should we buy stuff from a company that clearly hates us?

So Chinese people decided to buy other options and Samsung’s market in China collapsed never to recover again especially as non Samsung products (washing machines, televisions, cameras, vacuum cleaners etc) were available often for less money.

So likely Apple will not face the market collapse Samsung did but they’re losing market share because they’re not really adding anything new.

Apple are essentially doing this

This is from the Simpsons where Malibu Stacy gets a new hat and makes fans of the doll ignore the other doll completely.

10 Reasons Why Men Are AVOIDING Marriage

Is The U.S. Economy Actually Growing?

January 25, 2024by Michael

Okay, so they want us to believe that the U.S. economy grew at a very brisk pace during the fourth quarter of 2023 even though mass layoffs are happening all over America, sales of previously owned homes are at the lowest level in 28 years, homelessness is rising at the fastest pace ever recorded, and survey after survey is showing that most Americans are just barely scraping by from month to month. Needless to say, something does not add up. The American people are deeply frustrated with how the economy is performing, but the government keeps giving us numbers that indicate that everything is just great. On Thursday, we were told that the U.S. economy grew at a 3.3 percent annualized rate during the fourth quarter of 2023…

The economy grew at a much more rapid pace than expected while inflation eased in the final three months of 2023, as the U.S. easily skirted a recession that many forecasters had thought was inevitable, the Commerce Department reported Thursday.

Gross domestic product, a measure of all the goods and services produced, increased at a 3.3% annualized rate in the fourth quarter of 2023, according to data adjusted seasonally and for inflation.

That compared with the Wall Street consensus estimate for a gain of 2% in the final three months of the year.

If that number actually reflected reality, it would be very good news.

But how is it possible that layoffs were up 98 percent in 2023 while the U.S. economy was supposedly “growing” all year long?

To me, it appears that something fishy is going on.

And that is precisely what we see when we take a deeper look at the numbers. According to Zero Hedge, “GDP-boosting gimmicks” are being employed to make things look better than they actually are…

Turning to the all important consumption, we can’t help but smile when noticing that the BEA is again resorting to such favorite GDP-boosting gimmicks of the old Obama administration as spending on healthcare and… RVs! The two contributed to roughly half the growth in consumer spending in the fourth quarter.

Other numbers that don’t come from the Biden administration tell a much different story.

For example, the Chicago Fed’s National Activity Index was negative in December, and it has been negative for 8 of the past 12 months…

Against expectations of a small rise from 0.03 to 0.06, The Chicago Fed’s National Activity Index (which draws on 85 economic indicators) tumbled to -0.15 in December. 2023 ends with 8 of the 12 months in negative territory…

So how in the world can the economy be “growing” if national economic activity was in negative territory for two-thirds of last year?

It doesn’t make any sense at all.

And if the outlook for the future is positive, why are so many mass layoffs happening?

Business Insider had already conducted one round of mass layoffs, but they just decided that another round has become necessary…

In the latest wave of layoffs to hit the digital media biz, Business Insider said it will cut 8% of its staff in a restructuring aimed at positioning the company for growth.

Business Insider CEO Barbara Peng announced the job cuts in a memo to staffers Thursday. “We have already begun to refocus teams and invest in areas that drive outsize value for our core audience. Unfortunately, this also means we need to scale back in some areas of our organization,” she wrote.

Back when it first started, Business Insider was actually quite good.

But those days are long gone.

Microsoft is another big name that is putting large numbers of workers on the chopping block…

Microsoft will lay off 1,900 employees at Activision Blizzard and Xbox, the latest tech company to announce cuts so far in 2024.

The layoffs represent about an 8% cut of its video gaming staff of 22,000 workers and come months after Microsoft acquired Activision in a blockbuster deal. The $69 billion transaction in October represented one of the largest tech deals in history as Microsoft took over the studios behind bestselling games like Call of Duty, Diablo and Overwatch for its Xbox console.

And even though things are looking up for IBM these days, they are planning job cuts too…

IBM also said it will also cut a percentage of positions in the low single digits in 2024.

The planned job cuts follow similar announcements in January by major tech companies, including Alphabet’s Google and Amazon.com.

Chief financial officer James Kavanaugh said IBM will likely spend the same amount on restructuring as it did in 2023 – US$400 million – when it reduced its workforce by about 3,900 jobs.

Day after day, I share examples of very large companies that are conducting mass layoffs.

Why would they be doing this if tremendous prosperity is ahead of us?

It wouldn’t make any sense at all.

Of course the truth is that an economic downturn has already begun and it is going to get even deeper in 2024.

Those on the bottom of the economic food chain are being hit the hardest. Earlier today, I was saddened to read about homeless people in California that are being evicted from caves that they had dug into the banks of a river…

Rough sleepers in California were found living inside furnished caves dug into the banks of a river 20 feet below street level.

The groups were removed from the eight caves – along the Tuolumne River in Modesto – over the weekend, and they were emptied of belongings, furniture and 7,600 lbs of rubbish, filling two trucks and a trailer.

Some of the caves were decorated with murals, had broken floor tiles and one even had a makeshift fireplace with a chimney.

There are countless others just like them all over the country.

The Wall Street Journal has reported that homelessness was rising at the fastest pace ever recorded in 2023.

But don’t worry about any of that.

According to Joe Biden and his minions, the U.S. economy is growing steadily and everything is just great.

You believe them, don’t you?

Men Caused One Of The Largest Bridal Companies To Go Bankrupt… It’s OVER!

Have you ever made a mistake that ended up saving your life?

Yeah, for some reason I terribly overslept and was three hours late to work.

I felt quite bad about the whole thing. This was before mobile emails were a thing and I called in saying that I would be late. So, I walked into the office around 12 PM hoping to avoid colleagues seeing me that late. The first people I saw were the CEO and a bunch of other senior guys, all gathered around my cubicle.

“Ok, this is my last day in this job,” I thought.

However, the CEO looked at me, relieved, and said “Good morning. Good to see you were late.” Quite an unusual greeting.

Only then did I realize what had happened. The hinges holding a huge office air conditioner above my cubicle had failed, and it had gone down right into my seat. The monitor was smashed in two parts, there was a huge bend in the tower case, and the indestructible Cherry keyboard had a few keys missing and a dent in the middle of the metal pad.

The air conditioner had fallen at around 11 am, and I came to the office at 12 pm.

What’s the most enjoyable thing you’ve ever said to a manager as you’ve quit your job?

I worked at a company that had a very public but unofficial policy of firing people if they started talking to recruiters or interviewing and they found out. They were a nice company, employee loan, good benefits, even a private pension plan.

I had already been recruited (using my personal email, of course) to take a job out of state. The company I was going to was moving me, paying off my employee loan, signing bonus, the whole red carpet thing.

I asked my boss at this nice company when she would have time to meet privately, she said 11, I usually got to work about 6, and arrived to find an email from a recruiter I’d never heard of before at my corporate address with a low ball job offer. I just laughed and deleted it.

About 9am, my boss, my boss’s boss and the head of HR came in carrying boxes. My boss said “it’s not working out, we’re letting you go.”. I played dumb, go where… she tried a few more “soft phrases” so I said after 3 years and 5 days, it’s suddenly not working out? you’re going to have to use the “F” word. The HR lady sensed something was up, but didn’t have time to stop my boss. My boss said, “we’re firing you, we don’t have to explain why.”

I said thank you and while she stood there looking puzzled, I said “I don’t know who that recruiter was, but by firing me instead of letting me quit, I get one month of severance for each year I worked here, plus all my vacation, plus your policy is to give me two weeks vacation to “go on” immediately, so I have 4.75 months of pay, plus, since I worked for more than 3 years, I vest into the pension program at that level. Really I owe whoever sent that email….

At that point my boss turned to HR lady and said wait, what? Hr lady waved her to silence and Said, you’d have to pay off your employee loan in full within three days…

I said, right. Picked up a cashier’s check off my desk and handed it to her. (It was to the penny) my boss’s boss finally spoke up and said wait, you already had a job? I said I’ve told you before, this policy is dumb. If I was a recruiter and I wanted to place one of your people, I’d send them an offer, wait, call them up and talk about a new job, now that they are unemployed. I’ll probably get a call this afternoon. (I did) Anyway, because you fired me. I get the money! I had in a CD to pay off the loan (I called it a lock pick for golden handcuffs) that check is from my new employer, 4 months 5 weeks of pay, and a sign on bonus (1 month), along with a moving bonus. I just put 6 months of pay in the bank, thanks guys, best firing ever!

Then a swept the stuff off my desk into one box, pointed to the stacks of stuff with post-its for other employees, showed all my drawers were empty and asked to be escorted to my car. My boss was still trying to figure out what happened while HR escorted me out, then I followed her to the main building, signed my exit paperwork, she took my badge and I was home by 10 to start packing.

It was awesome!

The Problem Ain’t The Cost Of Money – It’s The Cost Of Stuff!

January 18, 2024 Dennis Miller

New Year’s Eve, 1999 – a special time for Jo and me. We took our motor home to Key West, Florida. We celebrated the magic moment, the turn of a century, in front of (famous Ernest Hemingway hangout) Sloppy Joe’s Bar.

As the conch shell slid down the pipe, people yelled, “10-9-8-7″…until the clock struck midnight. Happy New Year! I kissed my bride and we headed back to the bus (hoping Y2k didn’t fry our computer).

The intimacy of a motor home provides a great opportunity for lots of conversation. 2000 was a personal milestone, I turned 60. Jo and I spent a lot of time reflecting; wondering what the future would bring.

I predicted we would recall the last decade as “The good old days.” Little did I know how right that would turn out to be.

What was so good about them?

Interest rates stabilized from the double-digit Volcker years. After a short 1990 recession, business was booming, moving quickly into the internet era.

While Clinton pushed through the largest tax increase in history, House Speaker Gingrich kept his campaign promise, holding the line on government spending; creating the last budget surplus we will likely ever see.

On January 1, 1990, the Fed funds rate was 8.25%, dropping to a low of 3% in 1992 and hovering in the mid-5% range for most of the decade.

With Volcker bringing inflation under control, interest rates stabilized and mortgages were affordable. CD and bond interest rates were above inflation.

Interest rates were not an impediment or incentive to doing business.

I was managing the money for both sets of parents. We invested in safe, secure investments. Their interest income, coupled with social security allowed them to live comfortably, without worry. Times were good.

What the heck happened?

A year later, 9/11 occurred, followed by huge government deficits, spending hundreds of billions for the never-ending “War on Terror.”

While Clinton took credit for boom times and balancing the budget, the effects of certain policy decisions were not yet evident.

Clinton prided himself on increasing homeownership for the poor and minorities. Banks were required to make loans to buyers with poor credit history – or they risked losing their charters. The banks complied, while screaming to the government they would fail if the process continued. Instead of tightening loan standards, government agencies, Fannie Mae and Freddy Mac were authorized to buy these risky loans from banks.

Banks no longer worried about the creditworthiness of the borrower. They added outlandish origination fees to the mortgage, while passing the default risk to the government (US taxpayer). Billions flowed into the housing sector.

Clinton pushed the 1999 repeal of the Glass-Steagall Act, allowing banks to merge with brokerage firms. In a few short years, five banks controlled almost half the nation’s wealth.

These new casino banks jumped in, writing thousands of risky mortgages to all comers, many in excess of the value of the underlying property. They packaged these high-risk loans into fee-based products and peddled them to unsuspecting investors.

The movie The Big Short details how the rating agencies gave these mortgage packages improper ratings, creating an illusion of creditworthiness and safety.

The casino banks got bigger and gambled with trillions in derivatives.

Investopedia defines derivatives for us:

“Derivatives are financial contracts, set between two or more parties, that derive their value from an underlying asset, group of assets, or benchmark. A derivative can trade on an exchange or over-the-counter. Prices for derivatives derive from fluctuations in the underlying asset.”

The repeal of Glass-Steagall’s created this monster. Famed (Big Short) investor Michael Burry warned Wall Street about the toxic loans, predicting a real estate crash. No one listened, they mocked him. The crash came, the casino banks (deemed, “too big to fail”) were bailed out with trillions of taxpayer dollars. The Fed flooded the banking system with credit and dropped interest rates to historic lows, well below the true inflation rate.

Their in-house trading (gambling with our money) continues. If they lose, taxpayers will cover their losses.

Wall Street On Parade reports:

“Three Wall Street Mega Banks Hold $157.3 Trillion in Derivatives – That’s $56.7 Trillion More than the Entire World’s GDP Last Year”

Consumers, industry and governments binged on “free money;” borrowing and spending like there was no tomorrow! Experts warned inflation would follow; most were surprised it took so long.

After reaching double digits, heading toward Zimbabwe-type inflation, the Federal Reserve finally had little choice but to raise rates – not wanting citizens to storm the palace.

The current Federal Funds rate is 5.5%. Many cheap loans are now coming due and must be paid off or rolled over at a much higher rate.

Prices have exploded!

The Wall Street Journal recently reported the average monthly mortgage payment has soared to $3,322 from $1,787 since 2021. Why?

Interest rates were kept artificially low, mortgage rates have risen since the Fed brought interest rates back to pre-2008 normal.

MSN.com explains:

“Homeownership has become a pipe dream for more Americans, even those who could afford to buy just a few years ago.

Many would-be buyers were already feeling stretched thin by home prices that shot quickly higher in the pandemic, but at least mortgage rates were low. Now that they are high, many people are just giving up.

…. Typically, high mortgage rates slow down home sales, and home prices should soften as a result. Not this time. Home sales are certainly falling, but prices are still rising—there just aren’t enough homes to go around. The national median existing-home price rose to about $392,000 in October, the highest ever for that month in data that goes back to 1999.

…. Buyers get a lot less home for their dollar. Before the Fed started raising rates, a person with a monthly housing budget of $2,000 could have bought a home valued at more than $400,000. Today, that same buyer would need to find a home valued at $295,000 or less.”

Y-Charts shows us the numbers:

Don’t buy government baloney!

James Rickards explains:

“Everyday Americans understand inflation perfectly. …. Inflation is one of the biggest concerns of those who live in the real world.

…. Here’s the reality and here’s the political narrative: Reality is that prices have been going up at the fastest rate in 40 years and they are still going up.

Inflation (on an annualized basis) was 9.1% in June 2022, 4.9% in April 2023, 3.7% in September 2023 and 3.1% in November 2023.

It’s true that the rate of inflation is coming down, but prices are still going up. They’re going up at a slower rate but they’re still going up.

…. The average price of a pound of ground beef in the U.S. was $5.11 in September 2023. In October 2023 the price of a pound of ground beef was $5.23. That’s a 2.3% increase on a month-over-month basis, which annualizes to over 25%.

That’s the kind of inflation that real Americans confront every day.

…. It is possible to use propaganda to lie to the American people; it can work in the short run. But inflation is not one of those areas where propaganda works. The American people know what things cost, they know prices are going up, and no amount of lies can change that.”

Bankrate chimes in:

“Inflation is eroding workers’ gains. Three in 5 workers (60 percent) say their incomes haven’t kept pace with inflation over the past 12 months, up from 55 percent last year. For those who did receive a pay bump of some form, more than half (53 percent) said their incomes haven’t kept pace with inflation, up slightly from 50 percent last year.”

“Inflation makes the extension of socialism possible by providing the financial chaos in which it flourishes.” — Henry Hazlitt

Mark Hamrick, Bankrate Senior Economic Analyst adds:

“While inflation has come down, broadly speaking, prices have not. There is a…virtual sticker shock that continues to weigh on the minds and pocketbooks of consumers.”

Bill Bonner summarizes:

“For the average working man, almost everything went up in price – except the real value of his major asset: his time. So, he had to spend more time to get the basics in life. Before the money switcheroo, he had to labor for about 4 years to buy a house, for example. Today, it will cost him more than 8 years of labor.”

The casino banks are screaming, profits are down, the Fed has to pivot and drop interest rates. Baloney! When Volcker pivoted, interest rates were double-digits and he pivoted back down to “normal.” Today’s rates are at historical “normal” – what worked for decades.

Lending cheap money to high credit risks (government included) creates the illusion of prosperity while creating terrible, inevitable inflationary consequences.

The cost of money ain’t the problem, it is the cost of stuff.

Leave rates alone, don’t make things worse. Volcker got us through a recession – things will work out once the excess debt is out of the system.

As always, politicians scream, “vote for me, I’ll fix the problem!” Ain’t gonna happen, no matter who wins the election. Without massive spending cuts and sanity in Washington, nothing will change. It’s no wonder many of us are holding on to our gold wishing for, “the good old days.”

17 Minutes Of Modern Women Having MELTDOWN Over Passport Bros

What was the most boneheaded mistake you saw someone make while in the military?

I didn’t see either of these personally, but I heard about them.

Number one: A US soldier on an exercise at Canadian Forces Base Gagetown – crew member on a tank – found a training anti-tank mine during a break in the exercise. These things are explosives; they are designed to go off when a tank runs over them. They won’t damage the tank, but they do pack a punch; they’re designed to be heard, and felt, by the crew inside a tank that is running. They are magnetically activated, meaning that they have to come into contact with a metal surface before they can explode. His buddies knew that; he didn’t, apparently.

They were sitting around in the middle of a tank training ground for a while, and he got bored. He started trying to get the mine to “go off”. Apparently, he started by picking it up and throwing it at the ground. Bupkis. Then he started hitting it with a rock. Same non-result.

Eventually, getting frustrated, he picked it up and threw it at the side of the tank. As his startled buddies dove for cover, the thing blew up in his face, causing critical injuries. He was rushed to the Base Hospital, where doctors managed to save his life, but IIRC he ended up a quadruple amputee. Since the military deemed it a “self-inflicted injury”, he was offered a choice – court-martial, or immediate discharge with loss of all benefits.

His excuse was apparently that he “didn’t think it was that powerful”. Because he’d only ever heard them from inside a running tank, he thought it would be like a firecracker or something.

Number two: A pilot in the Canadian Air Force was given command of a Lockheed Hercules transport aircraft – the youngest pilot ever to be given such a command. On his first flight as PIC, he was to fly from Trenton, a major air force base near Lake Ontario, to USAFB Thule, a large US Air Force base in Greenland, and then on to Canadian Forces Station Alert, a remote facility in the very high Canadian arctic, 500 miles from the North Pole. Alert has no maintenance facilities – just a runway made of packed snow and a weather station. USAFB Thule, otoh, has a full maintenance facility with a large, heated hangar.

Just after takeoff from Thule, he had multiple bird strikes – more than a dozen birds impacted the airframe, IIRC. He could have declared an emergency and returned to land at the well-equipped airport below him; instead, after a cursory in-flight check, he decided that the aircraft was still flyable and continued on to his destination on Ellesmere Island.

After he landed, the ground crew inspected the Herc and quickly realized that it was no longer safe to fly. The Canadian air force had to fly up another Herc, with a full maintenance crew, who then had to spend two days working on the plane, outdoors in sub-zero temperatures, to bring it to a point where it could be safely flown back to Thule, where the same maintenance crew that would have worked on it if he’d landed there in the first place did a complete overhaul – inside a heated, well-lit hangar.

Not surprisingly, Captain Hotshot became the youngest pilot in the Canadian Air Force to be stripped of his position of aircraft commander.

Most Americans Are Literally Living On The Edge Of Disaster

January 24, 2024by Michael

There is a tremendous disconnect between the economic numbers that the government is giving us and what most Americans are personally experiencing on a daily basis. The government says that inflation is low, but the cost of living just continues to spiral out of control. The government says that unemployment is low, but Challenger, Gray & Christmas says that the number of layoffs in the U.S. was up 98 percent last year. The government says that the economic outlook for 2024 is positive, but companies all over America are acting as if extremely hard times are ahead. So who are we supposed to believe?

Personally, I trust numbers that come from private sources far more than numbers that come from government sources.

For example, a survey that was just conducted by Bankrate discovered that 56 percent of all U.S. adults do not have enough money to handle an unexpected expense of $1,000…

A majority of Americans say a $1,000 emergency expense would be too great of a hit to their savings and that they could not afford it, according to new data released Wednesday.

Bankrate’s latest survey results found 56% of U.S. adults lack the emergency funds to handle a $1,000 unexpected expense and one-third (35%) said they would have to borrow the money somehow to pay for it.

More than half the country is literally living on the edge of financial disaster.

That is crazy.

Another survey has found that much of the nation barely keeps any money in their bank accounts…

Nearly half of Americans have $500 or less in their savings accounts, an amount that leaves them vulnerable to unexpected expenses, according to a GOBankingRates survey of 1,063 U.S. adults conducted in November 2023.

About 29% of respondents have between $501 and $5,000 in their savings accounts, while the remaining 21% of Americans have $5,001 or more.

Few hold much cash in their checking accounts as well. Of those surveyed, 60% report having $500 or less in their checking accounts, while only about 12% have $2,001 or more.

Most Americans would be financially wiped out by just one major accident or emergency.

The vast majority of us are just barely scraping by from month to month, and the rapidly rising cost of living is making that increasingly difficult to do.

One woman recently found a Taco Bell receipt from 12 years ago, and she discovered that prices are now approximately three times higher than they were back then…

A TikTok video by a user who found an old Taco Bell receipt has gone viral – as Americans realize prices are now almost three times higher.

The old receipt showed that – 12 years ago – Americans could buy TWO of the chain’s beefy five-layer burritos for $2.59 including taxes.

Today, those same burritos cost about $3.69 for just ONE. That doesn’t include tax, which can vary across the US. So too can the base price.

The government continues to insist that inflation is “low”, but everyone knows that is a big fat lie.

Insurance rates have been spiking at a particularly alarming rate. One man in Las Vegas was horrified when his auto insurance bill shot up by 72 percent in just eight months even though he had no accidents and no tickets…

They say ‘What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas’ – but the eye-watering auto insurance bill city resident Simon Edwards recently received is just one example of the staggering rises in premiums consumers are facing all across the US.

The 2012 Mazda 5 owner was shocked to find his monthly bill from Geico had rocketed up from $130 last April to $223 now – a rise of 72 percent in just eight months.

‘I’ve been in no accidents, no tickets, been with Geico for many years,’ a perplexed Edwards told the Wall Street Journal.

Another man recently posted a video on TikTok in which he ranted about how the cost of literally everything is absolutely soaring…

Four years ago my rent was $1,200 a month at a luxury apartment complex”

“It is NOW $2,100, not even including utilities”

“3 years ago my electric bill was averaging $45 now it’s averaging $125…”

“I went to the grocery store yesterday and got 3 bags of chips, some ground turkey and some vegetables and it was $67 DOLLARS?!”

U.S. consumers are being squeezed like never before, and as a result debt levels have been rising to unprecedented levels.

For example, unpaid residential utility debt in the U.S. rose to a new all-time record of 20.3 billion dollars last year…

Bloomberg cites a new report from the National Energy Assistance Directors Association that reveals US household utility debt hit a record as an alarming number of Americans can no longer afford heating and cooling their homes.

NEADA said one out of every six ratepayers is behind on energy bills, adding residential utility debt hit a new record last year of $20.3 billion.

Please don’t let anyone tell you that the U.S. economy is in good shape.

Most Americans are really hurting in this economic environment, and conditions continue to get even worse.

As I discussed yesterday, large companies all over America are feverishly laying off workers. In fact, earlier today we learned that even eBay is now laying people off…

Online retailer eBay Inc. will cut about 1,000 jobs, or an estimated 9% of its full-time workforce, saying its number of employees and costs have exceeded how much the business is growing in a slowing economy. It marks the latest layoffs in the tech industry.

CEO Jamie Iannone said in a message to employees on Tuesday that the company also will reduce how many “contracts we have within our alternate workforce over the coming months.”

The worse economic conditions become, the more crime we are going to see.

At this point, looting has already become a way of life in some areas of the country.

In Washington D.C., a CVS store is permanently shutting down because dozens of teens would literally loot the store multiple times per day…

A Washington D.C. CVS store is shutting its doors after being repeatedly ransacked by thieves, the chain has confirmed.

The pharmacy, located in the Columbia Heights neighborhood, went viral last October when videos emerged of it totally stripped of all its products after being targeted by a teen gang.

Staff claim more than 45 schoolkids would go into the store and steal chips and drinks in the morning, after their classes and late at night. It will close on February 29, according to WTTG-TV.

If this is what is happening now, what will we see once economic conditions get extremely bad in this country?

I would encourage you to get prepared while you still can, because so much chaos is ahead of us.

We are living at a time when most Americans are literally living on the edge of disaster, and disaster is coming.

Millions will be wiped out by the economic tsunami that is approaching, and you do not want to be among the victims.

The Worst US I’ve Ever Seen | Col. Larry Wilkerson

Why do people walk past homeless people without helping them?

After reading these comments, I would like to share a story with you. My ex-husband is disabled. He suffers from traumatic brain injury and struggles daily. He has seizures, he passes out, he has very little memory, diabetes from cancer removal, and takes several medications daily among other challenges. He needs someone to assist him with daily activities. He lived with his parents. His mother passed away and about a year later, his father sold the house and most of everything that was in it. The house sold in 10 days and they were given 2 weeks to vacate. His father had living arrangements planned for himself before the house sold. He told my ex that he had 2 weeks to vacate, left some moving boxes at the house and took off. I went over and helped pack and move things into storage and my ex became homeless on the final moving day. His father said he didn’t have the money to help him and he changed his phone number. The first month, my ex would call me telling me things that would happen and honestly, I didn’t believe him. How could being homeless be that damn hard? He would find what he thought was a safe place to sleep, in an area that we both are very familiar with and know a lot of people. People that we have personally helped. Well, when you become homeless, you learn who your friends are. Everyone scattered. People that we opened our home to when they needed a helping hand were no longer around. I was the only one he had left. The first month of him being homeless was a nightmare. When the sun goes down, bad things happen when you fall asleep. Because of the medication my ex takes, he will fall into a deep sleep and not much wakes him up until he’s ready to wake up. He had his belongings stolen 4 times in a month. He would wake up and his stuff would be gone. He went through about 8 cell phones, numerous phone chargers, all stolen. His wallet was stolen right from the start so he had no ID. Without ID he couldn’t get assistance or even a hotel room. DMV wanted ridiculous paperwork to replace his ID plus $800 for an incident from years past. It took weeks, but we got it straightened out and his ID was replaced. Two days later, he fell asleep and his wallet stolen again. Once again, no ID. We were continuously replacing his bags for carrying things and replacing his things. His medication was stolen. He had to go 3 weeks without it because they don’t just replace stolen medication. He was missing his very important doctor appointments because he couldn’t keep track of things. He woke up in the hospital twice, not sure how he got there, or why he was there. He voluntarily went to the hospital one night because he was dizzy, his blood sugar was high and he was fading in and out of reality. The hospital asked him how much drugs he took. He remembers hearing them say he’s ODing. They did a drug test that came back clean. The security guard at the hospital took him by the arm and pushed him out the front door telling him not to come back. He went back in to ask where he was because he didn’t know, also because he didn’t have his shoes. Security pushed him out the front door told him don’t fucking come back through the door. My daughter is a nurse at that hospital. When I asked her why they treated him that way she said homeless people come in there continuously pretending to be sick just for a place to sleep. They kick them out all the time. Meanwhile, my ex was laying on the sidewalk on the side of the hospital. Another homeless man gave him some water and walked him to another hospital down the street. They said he probably would not have made it through the night. He spent 3 days there then back out on the street with no medication.

A fact that most aren’t aware of, when you’re homeless, you have to keep moving. My ex stays clean. By clean I mean his physical appearance. He doesn’t look homeless other than the bags he carries. At first he was able to slip into a casino, (we live in Las Vegas) to charge his cell phone. Even though he doesn’t look homeless, it doesn’t take long before you become a familiar face in the area and they don’t want you around. They are very quick to call the police. Who in turn trespass you from the property, or haul you in. So you have to keep moving. Where you’re moving to? Who knows, just keep moving. That results in raw feet, worn out shoes and using energy that you just can’t afford to waste.

Summertime in Vegas is brutal. It reaches 120° and when your outside, there’s no relief anywhere. The heat also causes my ex to pass out. He can’t be in the heat for too long. The only relief is going inside a store and pretending to shop. Like I said, you become a familiar face after a while and all eyes are on you. In order for him to go inside out of the heat he would have to purchase something. Believe it or not, this can become expensive. When you can’t cook and your only means for a meal is to purchase from fast food or wherever, it gets expensive. So most of his income goes to replacing things that were stolen, getting what he needs to survive on the streets, and food. A couple times, when his wallet was stolen, his money card was in his wallet. He had to steal food from the store to eat. Sometimes he can get shelter for a night if the hotels have a special and he has an ID. But money goes fast when you’re out there.

How do I know all this? I spent 4 days out there with him. He came to my house every few days to shower, wash his clothes and eat a hot meal, but my situation didn’t allow him to stay with me. I helped him as much as I could. When he came over one day, telling me all the bad luck he was having, I decided to go with him and see what’s going on. I truly thought he was getting mixed up with the wrong people and creating his problems. What I experienced while I was out there was absolutely terrible. People were so mean. We didn’t beg or ask for anything. We just kept moving, with no destination. The looks, the comments, the behavior of one human to another made me look at the world in a different way, and it’s not good. I actually came out of that experience being ashamed of the human race. I’m embarrassed for us. I’m not proud of my community and I honestly feel more compassion for our homeless community. Imagine this. You have to go to the bathroom and it could take you all day to find a public restroom to use. Because they don’t let homeless people use the bathroom. Whether you purchase something or not. Imagine it’s so hot outside, like 120°, and you barely make it into a sandwich shop and ask them for a cup of water because you’re passing out from the heat. They tell you “no, get outta here” and you pass out in the parking lot. Instead of calling an ambulance, they leave you laying there on a blacktop that is hot enough to fry an egg. People passing by don’t want to get involved so they turn their head. They couldn’t spare a cup of tap water to help another person that was obviously having a medical episode. We walked by a lady one day and she actually stopped, looked at me and said “ you’re a disgrace. You should walk in the alley and not out here.” As much as I wanted to teach her a lesson, I wasn’t going to jail, so we kept walking. From a distance she yelled “you’re dirting up the streets!” I was appalled by the dirty, disgusting looks that people gave. Just by assuming our situation, because remember, I wasn’t actually homeless.

This is also what I learned. Being homeless is very lonely. You can’t befriend other homeless people because those are the ones that take your stuff. There’s nobody to talk too. My ex started talking to himself, out loud. He would randomly say things as if he was talking to someone. Sometimes it’s not money they need. Sometimes it’s not food. There are many ways you can help homeless people. One of the most important, at least it was for me, is to acknowledge them. Don’t walk by like they aren’t there. Smile and say hi. Treat them like they matter. Sometimes that’s all they need to get them through the next few hours. It does give them some inner strength to keep pushing forward. If you pass by and say “how ya doing?” Stop for a second and listen to the answer. You don’t have to spend all day with them. A little 2 sentence conversation holds a lot of weight. They have nobody to talk to and it’s lonely. One of the best conversations I have ever had was with a homeless man. He became a good friend and we spent a lot of time together. He was very intelligent and fascinating. I could have missed out on that and it would have been my loss. Sometimes homeless people just want someone to say hi and treat them like they are people. They are all out there for different reasons. Some beyond their control.

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Why are Europeans not as fat as Americans are when Europeans eat white bread and pasta and butter all the time?

I’m from Russia and I’ve been to the US three times in my teenage years for several months each time. I’ve always ate intuitively, I guess. I never restricted myself or counted calories. Both at home and in the US. I’m not prone to binge eating or eating a lot of junk food, I like fruits and vegetables more than sweets and most of the time if I buy junk food it just ends up on a shelf until someone else eats it. And my weight does not really fluctuate at all. I think I have the same physique and weight since I was 14.

So when I came to the USA, I ate the same way as I always do. Actually I ate even more vegetables, fruit and berries because there were very convenient packages at Costco. I just munched on broccoli for several months there I think haha. But! Despite me not really changing anything in what I eat (or eating even more fresh produce) I gained several kilos each time I was in the US and lost them back quickly after returning.

This is me right before my last trip in 2019:

This is me on the last day:

I think you can clearly see that my cheeks grew a lot and my face is more round haha.

I also noticed that food (especially fresh produce) looks much prettier in the US than here. Strawberries were huge and shiny, we only get those here in the off season in expensive stores and not many people actually buy it. We mostly buy seasonal fruits. Berries are mostly for summertime while in winter we buy pomegranates, clementines and oranges. Bread in the US stays “fresh” and soft for several months, while here we buy bread several times a week because it’s freshly baked and goes stale quickly. A lot of food in the US is preprepared (shredded cheese etc which we don’t really have in Russia. If you want shredded cheese you do it yourself haha. And it’s also really hard to find the same cheeses. The colors are not even close). I think there are so much more additives to the food in the US to make it more pleasant looking even though it makes the food much less healthy.

Where’s my sandwich?

What do you think of Joe Brusuelas’ forecast that the U.S. gross domestic product (GDP) will come in at a 2.4% annual rate in the fourth quarter of 2023?

The U.S. grew by 2.4% but its Inflation rate is 3.4% hence once again the American standard of real living shrank by -1.0% in 2023.

Let’s compare that with China that grew by 5.2% but its inflation is 0.2% in 2023. Hence the Chinese population enjoy a positive 5.0% net real growth!

But if you read the western media it is as though it is China that needs to get worried! And what is worst is their brain dead mentality believes in the shit that U.S. media threw out daily.

China is 6% better off than the U.S. in 2023! And you ain’t seen nothing yet! If you Americans and U.S. lackeys out there grow som brain cells, grow very very worried about the U.S. that has not grow its real standard of living since the day of Beetles and Marilyn Monroe 64 full years ago! Your grand parents have better lives than you!

Is it true that Chinese people now have a high standard of living?

We have a population of 1.4 billion people.

Each person’s place of birth, family background, and level of education are different, so it is difficult to give a definitive answer.

However, some general situations can be mentioned.

The most impoverished areas in China are still concentrated in rural areas in the central and western parts of the country.

Due to China’s unique household registration and land systems, the country has the highest rate of home ownership in the world.

As a result, homelessness is virtually non-existent.

Even the poorest peasants own their land and homes.

Internet, tap water, electricity, and roads have been extended to all rural areas of China.

There are no villages without roads and electricity,Internet, although there may be exceptions.

A photo widely circulated on the Internet shows a village in Zhaojue County, Liangshan Yi Autonomous Prefecture, Sichuan Province. Located at altitudes ranging from 628 to 2300 meters, with a relative altitude difference of 1672 meters, the village has a population of 1758 people.

Faced with difficulties in road construction, the government proposed to relocate them to a flat area, offering free housing and policy-based housing subsidies.

However, the villagers strongly resisted, as the benefits offered by the government did not meet their expectations.

The impasse lasted until 2016, when Chinese vloggers discovered the situation and uploaded the videos online.

This sparked outrage among the public, who couldn’t believe that such poverty existed in China.

They condemned the government’s incompetence.

Feeling the pressure, the Zhaojue county government responded positively, compromising with the villagers by improving welfare standards before finally relocating them from the cliffs.

In terms of medical insurance, China’s system is divided into urban and rural components.

Taking myself as an example, although I own a house in the city, my household registration remains in the rural area because I am reluctant to give up my ancestral home and land.

As a result, I have two health insurance policies – a rural one that costs about $50 a year, and an urban one that costs considerably more and is deducted monthly from my salary at a rate proportional to my income.

While this may seem like a loss, the higher deductions result in a higher retirement pension.

According to China’s administrative divisions, villages are the lowest level.

In theory, rural health insurance is not compulsory.

In reality, however, coverage is tied to the performance of government officials.

Government officials often resort to extremist claims that if you don’t buy $50 worth of health insurance, you’ll lose hundreds or even thousands of dollars in agricultural subsidies.

In fact, government officials do not have the ability orrights to cancel agricultural subsidies to farmers.

This is because the money is transferred directly from the central government’s coffers to the farmers’ bank cards.

Township government officials cannot interfere with central decision-making and the banking system.

Only a verbal threat.

Therefore, although the process of selling health insurance to farmers is sometimes not very gentle, the results are still good, and health insurance basically covers everyone.

Some people even have more than one medical insurance.

Reimbursement rates for medical expenses vary – 90% in township hospitals, 80% at the county level, 70% at the city level, and a basic 60% in provincial capital hospitals.

For serious illnesses, individuals often have to seek treatment in large cities such as Beijing, Shanghai or Guangzhou, where reimbursement rates are even lower, especially for imported and expensive drugs.

The only good thing is that China’s medical system does not have complicated appointments and does not require excessive waiting.

Finally, there is the pressure of marriage.

If a young man who grew up in the countryside has parents with a low retirement income and his own income is not high, it will be difficult for him to find a wife, especially if the woman’s income is above average.

Unless he is exceptionally handsome or has a degree from one of China’s top universities, the challenges increase.

This contributes to the gradual decline of China’s population.

On some Chinese video platforms, many single men promote Indian marriage ideals, but Chinese women often mock them, questioning their confidence despite their seeming ordinariness.

ps1:

Many people lack a clear understanding of China’s land system and social structure.

On Quora, many comments seem unreasonably contentious.

I don’t know whether this is due to arrogance and prejudice or deliberate misinformation.

Although my English is limited, I’ll do my best to explain.

In rural areas, land is collectively owned by village-level administrative units, similar to rural cooperatives.

As long as your household registration is in the village, your land is permanent, with no time limits or land taxes.

Your children can inherit it without paying inheritance taxes.

The only drawback is that farmland cannot be bought or sold.

tradable land is residential land, but it’s limited to mutual transfers between village members.

Urban land is owned by the government.

If you buy villas, apartments, factories, or commercial land in the city, the legal term of use is either 40 or 70 years.

However, these are essentially “fiction” legal concepts to avoid conflict with the concept of state ownership of land.

If there were a real problem with time limits, China wouldn’t have a real estate industry, and people wouldn’t be stupid enough to buy houses.

Many multinational corporations, including McDonald’s, KFC, Metro, and Costco, own substantial amounts of land and property in China.

You can question the character of capitalists, but you can’t question their intelligence.

For ordinary residents, you can own property for life without paying a single cent in taxes.

If taxes were imposed, many people would become homeless.

That’s why many wealthy Chinese own many properties, because there are almost no holding costs.

ps2:

The inclusiveness of the Chinese government is beyond the imagination of many people who only believe what the Western media says.

Again, with a population of 1.4 billion and less than 4% having a bachelor’s degree, this means that there are many individuals among us who are not robots and can be easily angered.

If the government does not meet their demands, impulsive actions may occur.

The government is not stupid; it will not easily provoke the people.

On June 10, 2022, in the early morning, a girl was harassed and beaten by several men in a barbecue restaurant in Tangshan while she was having a late-night snack.

This incident sparked anger and panic throughout society, something that should not have happened in the eyes of the Chinese.

It was widely believed to be the incompetence of the Tangshan city police.

In reality, the Chinese can be perfectionists.

They won’t tolerate any instances of social violence, especially against innocent women.

Hebei Province reacted quickly and made adjustments to the entire public security system in Tangshan.

Many leaders in the police department were fired, and some even went to jail.

As for the men who assaulted the woman, the court handed down the harshest punishment, and they eventually repented in prison.

CCTV, China’s largest official television station, also conducted a special interview with the criminal.

ps3:

As for “Indian marriage ideals,” perhaps my expression is not very accurate.

This is a Chinese man who is worried about finding a mate.

This is the woman they met in reality.

This is their fantasy woman, using Indian women as a reference.

Many people may have seen too many Indian movies and think that Indian women are always gentle and kind.

The most important thing is that the men do not have to give any bride price to the women.

Well, that is India’s most successful cultural export to China.

Except Buddhism and Yoga.

Russia vs. UK

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/jfIHlKAs1ag?feature=share

Have you ever won against a police “speeding” ticket, and if so, how?

Near the beginning of covid, I received a speeding ticket for going quite a bit over the speed limit. In fact, it was so much over the limit that when I received the citation in the mail, it indicated that I had to go to court in person. I couldn’t just pay a fine. I showed up on the indicated court date, but the courthouse was closed due to covid. I eventually received a notice in the mail indicating a new court date, but when I showed up it was still closed for covid (needless to say it was frustrating). A few months after that, I received a notice giving me a date to attend court virtually over zoom.

When I logged in, I noticed that there were about 50 other people also logged in. So I made myself comfortable and waited. The defendents with a lawyer present were called first. Every lawyer would say good morning to the judge and then, in some cryptic legalese I can’t remember, asked the judge to review the relevant dates for the case. The case would list them out in order and then give the running total number of days and then dismiss the case because it has been over a year. This happened at least 4 or 5 times.

After all the lawyers had finished, the judge started calling the rest of us. Person after person went up, was reprimanded by the judge, and given a fine. Eventually my name was called and so I repeated exactly what I had heard the lawyers say. The judge stared at me for about 45 seconds. Then he read the dates and dismissed my case. I thanked him and he told me that I better start slowing down when I drive because if he sees me again, he’ll remember me.

I’d like to think that everyone after me was smart enough to realize they also could have their cases dismissed. I was curious, but not that curious, so I took my win and logged off zoom.

Are Chinese girls and women materialistic, expecting men to be providers and pay for everything?

I do think it’s ridiculous that men in China are expected to have a successful and lucrative career, a house, and a car, as well as pay a large bride price to the girl’s family. Those are pretty tall orders. No wonder so many men in China are unmarried. But most women in China have their own careers (and don’t want to leave them to be housewives) and choose to continue working after marriage or decide to not marry at all.

Some of them do have Princess Syndrome and expect men to meet their materialistic demands. I do not understand the lust for luxury bags and clothes and the like. Why? To fit into society? To ascend to a Phoenix nest? To look good on Instagram or the Chinese equivalent? All of it is fleeting, unimportant, shallow and it won’t last. None of that matters.

But those women in China are not the majority. In 1.4 billion people there are bound to be materialistic gold diggers, but not everyone is. And people like that can be found in every society, not just China. Many women in China are hard working and dedicated to their careers. The ones who do stay home to raise children are dedicated to their families. I don’t see a stay-at-home wife or mother as a woman who is materialistic because her husband is the provider of their family.

I would say you’ve taken a stereotype and painted all Chinese women with a broad brush. Instead look at women as individuals capable of being their own person. You may meet some materialistic women but it’s more likely you will meet kind, hardworking women devoted to their families. Of the Chinese women in my acquaintance I can say none of them fit the materialistic stereotype.

Tell them…

Greek Homestyle Chicken

This is a common meal in Greece and it smells delicious while it is cooking.

Yield: 4 servings

Ingredients

4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
Juice of 2 lemons
4 or 5 potatoes, peeled and sliced french-fry style
1/2 cup olive oil
1/2 to 1 cup water
One head garlic, the cloves peeled but whole
Oregano, salt and pepper to taste

Instructions

Place chicken in a shallow baking tray. Arrange potatoes around chicken pieces. Scatter whole peeled cloves of garlic around chicken and potatoes.
Mix together lemon juice and olive oil, and pour evenly over chicken and potatoes. Add water until potatoes are just about covered. Add salt, pepper to taste. Cover chicken and potatoes with generous amounts of oregano.
Bake at 350 degrees F, until tops of chicken are reddish brown.
Turn chicken, stir potatoes, and sprinkle on more oregano. If potatoes aren’t at least half-covered with liquid, add water.
Return to oven for about 15 to 20 minutes. Chicken is done when both sides a lightly browned and potatoes are soft when touched with a fork.
Serve with a crusty bread or with pita bread.

What is it like to be an elderly man who has experienced many things in his life?

Pretty cool really. At 74, I can look back on a life full of adventure and fun. Some hard work too. A lot of things you can’t do anymore (playground equipment now deemed too dangerous for kids), places that aren’t there anymore (amusement parks like Pacific Ocean Park in Santa Monica and the Pike in Long Beach). As kids, we walked to school, typically a mile each way- today moms chauffeur their kids to school, adding to morning and afternoon traffic jams. When I was a kid, we were allowed more freedom and had more responsibility.

As a teenager, friends and I would take spring breaks to the Colorado River, cruise up and down the river in my fishing boat, stop on the other bank of the river for a party at night, bats flying overhead on the river. Or Palm Springs, where parties were held out in the desert, and had fun visiting the Indian reservation and desert oasis. Travel to Mexico, and watch a real Mexican fiesta in a small town plaza. Ride motorcycles all over the place on camping trips. Learn to fly an airplane, and fly one to Catalina island with my girlfriend at the time, my buddy flying his own airplane in formation with me. Renting a 4 seat Cessna 172 from John Wayne airport, fuel included, was only $11 per hour! Dinner at Don the Beachcomber, 94th Aero Squadron, Proud Bird, Bobby McGees etc., places that don’t exist anymore.

My working life was mostly fun- working got easier as I moved up to jobs I liked. For the last 20 years I had a job designing traffic camera installations for the City, something I really liked doing.

I find that there are new things that challenge me in retirement. I discovered 3D design and 3D printing, and Arduino programming. I have created a lot of unique projects, and like showcasing them on Instructables. Plus, lots of bicycle riding and walking in our mild Southern California climate.

Why Marriage Is NOT WORTH Pursuing In Western Society

What was the strangest way a criminal was caught?

I heard this story from a fellow cab driver (back when I was driving cabs).

He was doing the night shift when he got a call to a specific address. The job details specified a non-LPG vehicle (ie, one without an extra tank in the boot) because they were moving from one place to another and needed to put the last of the luggage in there.

So while he was on the way there, he called the cops.

He showed up at the address, popped the boot, and helped the passengers load some gear in there; a sound system, sundry electronics and so forth. Then he closed the boot.

They’re anxious to get moving, but he took his time. Just as he was getting in, the cops showed up. The passengers tried to play it cool, but the driver pointed at them and said, “They just robbed this place.”

The cops grabbed one, but the other two made a run through the yard and went over the back fence. One came back straight away, but the other had trouble climbing back over, mainly because he had an Alsatian hanging off his leg.

Once the cops had all three in custody, he popped the boot again and showed them the stolen goods.

One of the passengers started swearing, then asked, “How did you know we were robbing the place?”

The driver looked him in the eye. “Because that’s my sound system. I live there.”

What Happened To Marriage?

Last Chance To Get Out Of Dodge?

December 11, 2023by Michael

Time is running out. Lately, I have been hearing from so many people that believe that 2024 will be the year when our society goes over the edge. Our financial system is teetering on the brink of disaster, crime is absolutely exploding all over the country, homelessness is rising at the fastest pace ever recorded, food banks are facing unprecedented demand for their services, and I believe that 2024 will be the most chaotic election year in the entire history of our nation. And of course all of this is happening in the context of a global environment in which war, pestilences, economic problems, famine and natural disasters are all on the rise. A “perfect storm” is raging all around us, and millions upon millions of Americans have become deeply concerned about what our immediate future will look like.

So where will you be when things finally hit the fan?

During the past several years, we have seen a mass exodus of conservatives from blue states. For example, Fox News is reporting that 65 percent of those that have recently moved to the state of Idaho are Republicans, and only 12 percent are Democrats…

Data published by the Idaho Secretary of State’s office shows that out of the nearly 119,000 people who recently moved to the state, 65% registered as Republicans, compared to just 12% registering as Democrats.

The data, which was reviewed by Fox News Digital, show that out of the roughly 20,000 Americans who moved from Washington state to Idaho, 62% registered as Republicans, compared to 12% as Democrats, 24% as unaffiliated and 2% as “other.” The percentage of registered Republicans originally from Washington who recently moved to Idaho is actually higher than the state’s overall percentage of registered Republicans, which sits at about 58%.

And for those moving from the state of California, the numbers are even more dramatic…

Out of the nearly 40,000 people who left California for Idaho, a whopping 75% registered as Republicans, the data reviewed by Fox News Digital show. Only 10% of the California pool registered as Democrats, 14% as unaffiliated and 2% as “other.”

Wow.

Real estate agents in Idaho are urging potential clients to “escape liberal hell” and to get to the state “before the coming collapse”…

The Seattle Times noted that real estate ads advise residents in states such as Washington to “escape liberal hell” and move to Idaho.

“Time is not on your side, flee the city NOW before the coming collapse!” another ad for a house listing in Idaho states, the outlet reported.

Perhaps you are thinking that you should move to Idaho too.

Unfortunately, for many Americans it is already too late, because property values in some areas of the state have more than tripled.

Of course property values have also skyrocketed in desirable areas in many other red states as well.

Meanwhile, mortgage rates have also soared, and as a result home payments have risen to absolutely absurd levels during the Biden administration…

WSJ analysis of the housing market:

Average monthly new home payment
when Biden took office: $1,787

Average monthly new home payment
today: $3,322

You can still try to relocate.

But it will cost you much more than it would have a few years ago.

Renting is also an option, but we have just been through a period of time when rental prices have also jumped substantially…

After suffering through a three-year period when rents jumped by 30% or more in many U.S. cities, renters are now starting to enjoy small breaks like this.

Ultimately, if you were planning to relocate, you should have already done it by now.

But the good news is that conditions are still at least somewhat relatively stable as we approach the end of 2023.

So if you want to get out of Dodge, you can still do it.

In fact, for many of you this may be your last chance.

But don’t wait too long, because the clock is ticking.

At this point, most Americans can feel that something has gone horribly wrong. The warning signs are all around us, and conditions are getting worse with each passing day.

Even Warren Buffett can sense that a really big shift is coming. During the first three quarters of this year he sold off a whopping “$28.7 billion of stock”…

Warren Buffett’s firm Berkshire Hathaway sold $28.7 billion of stock in the first three quarters of 2023 in a move that some economists have interpreted as ringing alarm bells for the American economy.

According to the company’s earnings, the Nebraska-based firm of the legendary investor and billionaire, known as the Oracle of Omaha, sold a net $10.4 billion of stock in the first quarter of the year. In the second quarter, it sold close to $13 billion of shares and bought less than $5 billion. In the third quarter, it sold about $5.3 billion worth of stocks.

As Buffett is considered one of the greatest investors of all time, as well as one of America’s richest men, his moves are closely observed and analyzed.

He didn’t make so much money by being stupid.

Buffett may not fully understand all of the specifics, but he realizes that something is up.

As our society crumbles, most of the population is not going to be able to handle it.

The suicide rate just continues to go up, and psychologists are reporting unprecedented demand for their services…

For the third consecutive year, many psychologists across the country say they are seeing patients struggle with worsening symptoms, many of them needing longer treatment times.

Those are among the findings of an annual survey by the American Psychological Association, released this week. The APA first launched this survey in 2020 to gauge the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on practicing psychologists.

A majority of psychologists reported that more people are seeking mental health care this year, adding to already long waitlists. Over half (56%) said they had no openings for new patients. Among those who keep waitlists, average wait times were three months or longer and nearly 40% said that their waitlist had grown in the past year.

When conditions get really bad, we are going to witness a national emotional meltdown of epic proportions.

Where will you be when that occurs?

Global events just continue to accelerate…

What are some things that look easy but are difficult?

Doing stand up comedy. I do it as an amateur for fun.

What I thought it was before I did it: You walk up, tell jokes for 10 minutes, then collect your free beer or $20.

What it actually is: You write 30 pages of jokes then meet with two other writers, who are also writing jokes (but different from yours). You’re all brutally honest with each other. You cut and trim. Some things don’t work. They point out logical inconsistencies. You end up with two pages.

Back to the drawing board. Repeat this process. Eventually you have 5 pages that will get you through a ten minute set. But, uh oh, one of your topical jokes appears in the media. More than one person can think of the same joke. “I had this joke first,” you think. But that doesn’t matter. You replace.

You rehearse and rehearse and rehearse so you don’t forget. You decide on a persona. You make sure your jokes match that persona. The persona needs to be enough of you to be honest or the audience won’t like it, but it should be an exaggerated version of you.

Then, you sit in a shabby green room in a bar that’s probably not in the best part of town. You get a knot in your stomach. You listen to the comedians who go before you.

You can always tell the comedians in a comedy club. They’re the ones who say “that’s a good joke” instead of laughing.

Finally, it’s your turn. You have two or three jokes to win the audience over. If they don’t like you from the start, it’s almost impossible to get them back.

Wait, what’s that? People are actually laughing! This is amazing. Why are they laughing at these lame jokes that I’ve told myself more than 100 times before performing them?

Is it true that Indians do more hard work and less smart work?

Ask Wistron!!!!

The Management came with high hopes of building a gigantic supply chain to rival Chinas by 2026

And went home with their TAIL BETWEEN THEIR LEGS and determined never to even look at India on a Map again

They were used to Chinese workers who were ready to slog 9+2 hours a day for 6 days a week and deliver 63 Units a day at peak productivity

They came because they were promised the world

First, the workers cried about wages

They agreed initially and then cried. That’s because the Agent was collecting 20% a month from their wages directly. So out of ₹14000/-, the workers saw a cut of ₹ 3000/- into the pocket of the Agent

Wistron raised the wages to ₹17000/- to keep them happy

Next, they did a surprising amount of overtime

The Average worker in China billed 12 hours a week for overtime

Here the Average worker was billing 30 hours a week overtime

Yet Productivity was less than half of China

Soon they found, everyone was deliberately working slow during normal hours to justify overtime

Workers due to be paid ₹17000/- a month plus maybe ₹6000/- for overtime at most were now paid ₹ 15,000/- for overtime and ₹32,000 a month

YET PRODUCTIVITY WAS 27

Wistron ordered that the Overtime pay be held back until a proper investigation was made

Workers felt outraged

They didn’t seem to care that their productivity was low

They seemed to think they were slogging hard and demanded money from the evil capitalist

So they attacked the plant, broke a lot of equipment AND THE COPS/AUTHORITIES SEEMED TO HOLD WISTRON GUILTY OF CHEATING

Wistron literally crawled before the Chinese on their knees to take them back but China gave a grin and said “Sorry. We have our own OEMs”

This is one Story of Indian HARD WORK

Same story in every single case

Lazy Indian makes promises he can’t keep. Demands money anyway. Accuses foreigner of Racism and Imperialism when he withholds payment

Files cheating case against his reps in India, forcing them to flee

Always the same story

Yes Sir!!!! We can definitely deliver by 31st December

Then slowly the excuses

Sir,many of my workers fell Ill due to the Pandemic

Sir, Machine broke down

Sir, Workers are asking for some wages. Can you release 10% more payment

Then when the Client gets angry, the belligerence

Sir, we have worked so hard. We haven’t gone home for weeks because of you. Please pay the balance

You are a racist. I will file cheating case against your manager in India and against your office.

The Poor Manager and staff in India get caught and are forced to pay hush money to the cops and end up becoming pawns

Eventually the Client disgusted cuts his losses and closes the office and says “Gutter Country”

My Client had an email from a Belgian importer literally saying

Thanks for your Interest however WE DO NOT DO BUSINESS WITH INDIANS

Others have similar lines

We don’t do business with Indians unless the entire payment can be made on COD basis

(COD = Cash on Delivery)

Foreign entities would love to come to India but India is so dirty, so corrupt and so abase without proper ethics or work culture that they don’t want to take a chance.

They would pay higher prices and go to Vietnam or Mexico or of course China if China would still have them. China is now focusing on their own brands and is not ready to entertain foreign brands too much.

In the IT Industry, things were once different but now slowly that Industry is heading the same way

Luckily the Dollar Rupee continuous depreciation helps because a $ 100 raise a day per asset today is ₹60,000/- a week in India

Enough to grovel, sit and stay

Hire 4 Unemployed Assets for ₹30 K a month and quote an extra $ 100 a week and pocket ₹ 120K a month

India is seriously a very bad place for hard work and ethics

Neither for smart work

There are exceptions of course

You have good hard workers with ethics in Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad in IT and Software and other key areas yet the new generation are becoming worse and worse .

My Son Was A Disrespectful Jerk Until I Switched Tactics, Treated Him Like A Man…And He Became One

You can’t fix stupid

People can be odd sometimes. I wish to relate a story that took place a few decades ago. At this point in time I was sponsoring some Americans to visit some factories in China, and this group of four guys were all pretty nice. But one of them was a gnarly cuss who insisted on not eating ANY Chinese food while he was in China.

Instead, he wanted no part of the Business KTV lifestyle, food, friendships and was generally a royal pain in the ass. He insisted that no one smoke at the table… (WTF? this is China), and that we go to a grocery store to get cereal and milk so that he can have a “safe” breakfast in his room.

OK. Different strokes for different folks. I get it.

Anyways, Instead of eating at the many, many delicious restaurants for dinners, he convinced everyone to eat a McDonald’s, Pizza-hut, KFC and Burger king instead. And I begrudgingly allowed it. That was, until the last day.

There we took him to a steak restaurant, and we all ordered steaks.

It was a nice Western style place, and they were known for their decent steaks and fine dining atmosphere. Everyone loved the decor and the food looked great. We all sat down and placed our orders.

Imagine my surprise when he received a fine filet Mignon, and then promptly drowned it in ketchup. It went from this…

To this…

tomato ketchup 1024x576 1 — tomato ketchup 1024×576 1

You couldn’t even find the meat under all the ketchup. I couldn’t believe it. Thinking about it now, and again… I still am incredulous. Jeeze! Louise!

…

Ah.

You can’t fix stupid.

Todays…

What is an experience you had at a gas station you’ll never forget?

In 1971 the 18 year old me worked 10 hours a night 7 nights a week overnight pumping 29 cent a gallon gas at an Exon station on Highway 14 near Los Angeles. An endless parade rolled through every night.

The cult bus from up the canyon gassed up heading for LA to recruit and gassed again coming back with newbies. The cult escapees on foot stopped for food or directions.

My usual directions to lost drivers was “you can’t get there from hear” with a smart-ass grin. One time the person just said Ok and left quickly. I guess they went somewhere you could get there from!

I had an endless supply of free food from the catering trucks fueling up. Newspapers, donuts, bread and more.

Guest appearances by two dozen of the Galluping Goose Motorcycle Club (Google them) swarming the stations islands was interesting. A sheriff car chase through the station code 3 was entertaining. You never knew what was next.

The problem was I tried to go to the local junior college full time and slept a bit in the morning and a bit at night. Zombies had nothing on me. Mom wpuld tell me the time, day and where I needed to go when I woke up.

One night, around 3am I was leaning against the front of the station waiting for the next car and noticed three dollars sticking out of my shirt pocket. A customer had filled up and paid while I slept standing up!

I took it as a clue that I should retire and joined the Air Force.

But I came away with so many great stories 🙂

Memnon of Rhodes (died 333 BC)

Memnon was a Greek soldier from the island of Rhodes in the southeastern Aegean Sea. He was born around 380 BC and entered Persian service at a young age. His first patron was Artabazus, the satrap of Phrygia, who married Memnon to his daughter Barsine, a beautiful and well-educated woman. The Greek soldier proved his worth during Artabazus’ revolt against King Artaxerxes III of Persia; at some point, he even rescued his captured father-in-law.

When Artabazus fled to Macedon, Memnon followed him. He stayed there for about five years and gained valuable inside knowledge. He met the then king, Philip II, and his son, the future Alexander the Great — he had supposedly lengthy discussions with the latter. He studied the Macedonian tactics and realized how keen on invading Persia Philip was. He also understood how precarious the Macedonian hold on southern Greece was — Greek unity wasn’t deep yet.

All this theoretical knowledge was soon combined with practical experience. Memnon fought with considerable success against general Parmenion, whom Philip II sent on an expedition shortly before his own death. Thus, Memnon was the perfect man to lead the Persian defense when Alexander the Great crossed the Hellespont in 334 BC. Indeed, he sat at the war council of Darius III along with Persian satraps and other high-ranking officials.

Memnon proposed a dual approach. First, the Persians were to follow a scorched-earth policy: burn the crops before Alexander’s army and constantly retreat instead of opt for an open, pitched battle. Second, using money and diplomacy, they should cause as much unrest as possible in Greece, behind Alexander’s back. It was a careful and well-thought strategy, because the Greek armor, training and battle tactics were superior to those of the Persians.

Darius and his satraps didn’t agree with Memnon. They were unwilling to destroy Persian land, believed it would be below them to not fight openly against the invader and possibly hesitated to follow the advice of a Greek. Thus, they assembled an army behind the river Granicus and waited for a battle that eventually took place in May 334 BC. Memnon was one of the leaders of the left flank, opposite Alexander. Reality proved him correct: Alexander won.

After the battle, Darius changed his mind. He made Memnon supreme commander of the West and gave him the authority to carry out his initial plan. Although several Anatolian cities surrendered to Alexander, others like Miletus and Halicarnassus resisted, and that could wear out the invading army. Memnon didn’t care how many individual victories Alexander would win; he played the long game and was content with the Greek losses.

Soon, Memnon started his counterattack. Since Alexander’s fleet was not very strong, he attacked the islands of Chios and Lesbos; the first he captured completely, while the latter partly. He also accepted representatives of the Cyclades — with them, he could control the Aegean route. Persian money worked miracles, as it had in the Peloponnesian War. Athens, led by the anti-Macedonian Demosthenes, Sparta and other cities were almost ready to rebel.

In this crucial hour, Alexander’s good fortune prevailed. Memnon got sick and died in 333 BC while besieging Mytilene on the island of Lesbos. The Persian generals, seeing that Alexander was moving slowly, thought he hesitated to face them openly. Thus, they abandoned Memnon’s strategy and pushed for a second direct confrontation. A few months after Memnon’s death, Alexander defeated Darius himself at the battle of Issus. The East was open to him.

It’s always hard to pose What if … ? questions, but Memnon’s plan had many chances of success. His shrewdness, experience and what steps of his plan he managed to carry out before he died show that clearly. If he had forced Alexander to keep advancing slowly and with constant losses, exploited the favorable dynamics at sea and stirred up a major revolt in Greece, the invading army might not have been able to get beyond Asia Minor.

It’s not necessary to get into details about this, but Alexander’s campaign was indeed world-changing. Although he died too early, his conquest set the bases for all sorts of historical developments. Greek became the common language of the new oecumene, the Greek civilization came in closer contact with those of the East — a new era began. Even Rome would later build on Alexander’s legacy. Who knows if any of that would be the case had Memnon lived to execute his plan to the end?

Fun fact: Memnon’s wife, Barsine, was later captured by the Greeks. Alexander made her his concubine, and she bore him a son named Heracles. He was the only child we know Alexander lived long enough to see: his legitimate son by Roxana, Alexander IV, was born a few months after his death. Both Heracles and Alexander were murdered at a young age, victims of the bitter antagonism among Alexander’s generals over his kingdom.

When did you realize your parent was a total badass?

I was 11, and for some reason, I wasn’t at school and with my father when he got word that my older sister had run-away, again.

Dad went to a couple of houses, with me staying in the car. Then, we went to a biker bar. Dad said, “Stay here!” Then, walked into the bar.

Being the brat that I am, I waited briefly, and decided I needed to use the restroom. I walked through the door and spotted my sister on the right at the far end next to the bar. My father was just in front of the door, and to his left were two pool tables, with those low-hanging stained-glass lights over each table.

There were FOUR extremely large biker dudes – right out of central casting. All were much taller than my father, who stood at 5′7″. All four had cue sticks in their hands, and all four began moving.

My father shifted quickly to stand between the two pool tables. The bikers spread-out and one circled back, going behind the rear pool table. Dad grabbed the table light and shoved it violently to sideways, hitting the biker solidly in the face.

Then the guy on the far side of the tables stepped forward, swinging the pool cue like a baseball bat. Dad blocked the cue, gave two punches to the face, grabbed the cue, swiveled it around and punched him with the base of the cue several times to the neck and face.

At this point, the third guy came from behind, and struck Dad viciously in the right kidney, causing a grunt. Nevertheless Dad swiveled around with the cue, hitting the biker on the side of the neck. Then Dad did a little jump and kicked the knee out from under the biker. The crack was audible.

Guy #4, clearly not being bright, tried to do the same trick with the other table light, and missed as Dad ducked beneath, grabbed the biker by his vest and pulled him onto the table, then elbowed him to the throat.

Guy #2, having recovered enough on the far side of the tables, pulled-out a knife and came with a stabbing motion. Dad caught the thrust arm, twisted it with both of his arms, and broke or dislocated the man’s shoulder / arm – again with an audible sound – and a screech from the biker.

#1 guy, face bloodied from the splintered light, put his hands up in a placating gesture and backed away.

#2 guy was on the floor, holding his right arm

#3 guy was on the floor, groaning, and holding his leg, which was bent in an odd manner.

#4 guy was gasping for breath, on hands-and-knees on the floor.

At this point, the bartender started rummaging around under the bar for something, and Dad said, “She’s 14 years old.”

The bartender stood up, backed away from my sister, next to the wall and put his hands up.

Then we went home.

Please note, that while Dad was quite powerful, and lifted weights, with biceps that split shirts – he also had a bad right leg, and was only 5′7″.

Is it possible that the Apollo 11 ascent stage is still orbiting the moon?

Interesting question and it might be.

You see, the ascent stage was the part of the Eagle lunar module that blasted off from the moon’s surface on July 21, 1969, carrying Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin back to the command module Columbia.

After they docked, they jettisoned the ascent stage into space, leaving it in a retrograde orbit about 125 kilometers above the lunar equator.

NASA assumed that this orbit was unstable and that the ascent stage would eventually crash into the moon.

But a new analysis by James Meador, an independent researcher at Caltech, suggests otherwise.

He used a NASA tool called the General Mission Analysis Tool to simulate the trajectory of the ascent stage using data from GRAIL, a mission that mapped the moon’s gravitational field in 2012.

He found that all of his simulations showed the ascent stage maintaining a steady orbit for over 50 years, despite the influence of the sun, other planets and solar radiation.

Of course, there are other factors that could have affected the fate of the ascent stage, such as fuel leakage or explosion, but Meador thinks that there is some possibility that it is still up there and might even be detectable from Earth.

How cool is that?

But don’t get too excited yet.

This is just one study and it has not been peer-reviewed or confirmed by other sources.

Meador himself admits that his analysis has limitations and uncertainties.

He also says that finding the ascent stage would require a lot of effort and resources from NASA or other agencies.

So, for now, we can only speculate and hope that one day we will know for sure what happened to the ascent stage of Apollo 11.

Maybe it is still orbiting the moon as a silent witness to one of humanity’s greatest achievements.

Or maybe it has already crashed and become part of the lunar landscape.

Either way, it is a fascinating piece of history that deserves our attention and respect.

More Info:

– Long-term Orbit Stability of the Apollo 11 Eagle Lunar Module Ascent Stage

What is a stand you took during your wedding planning that you will never apologize for?

I was 32 when I got married and had been on my own, building a career and supporting myself for 10 years. I refused to be “given away” because no one “owned” me. So, I told the officiant to eliminate the line where they ask who’s giving me in marriage. My dad simply escorted me down the aisle, sat down beside my mom and I joined my husband.

I’d attended and been in enough weddings by this time to have very definite ideas about what I did and didn’t like. So, I also made the following changes to the reception. When I was planning our wedding, all kinds of people told me I “had to do all this stuff because it was ‘tradition.” I said, “NOPE!”

No long wait between the ceremony and the reception – The photographer took a few pictures of me and my husband at the church and we arrived at the reception along with the last of the guests. We took the family and wedding party photos after we ate.
No sit-down dinner – I’d been to too many receptions that were ruined by guests banging on their glasses to make the couple kiss. We decided we weren’t trained monkeys that perform on demand and had a cocktail-style reception.
No obnoxious, screaming DJ – We had a guy playing background music on the piano and guests were able to converse without shouting.
No smashing cake in the face – I don’t know who ever decided this was cute, funny or amusing. It’s tacky and an insult to your new spouse, and I didn’t spend hours on my hair and makeup to have it messed up with smeared cake and frosting. As a side note, any DJ who sang “The Bride Cuts the Cake” to the tune of “The Farmer in the Dell” would have had the cake smashed in HIS face—by me!
No dollar dance (or anything else that solicits money or gifts) – I subscribe to the old-school view that you don’t ask guests for gifts or money. If someone gives a gift, you should thank them regardless of whether you like it or now, and follow up with a nice note.
No bouquet toss – Some women don’t want to get married. Others recently lost a spouse or are getting over a breakup. They don’t want to be singled out or embarrassed by “well-meaning” guests or insensitive DJs who want to push them into catching the bouquet.
NO GARTER TOSS – I saved the best for last. I ABSOLUTELY REFUSED to do this. The “tame” version always made me uncomfortable, but the way many couples do it nowadays is raunchy, nauseating and disgusting, especially when the groom removes the garter with his teeth! I definitely DO NOT want my new husband or anyone else sticking their head up my dress in front of a hundred people! Maybe I’m just an old fogey or fuddyduddy, but some things should be kept private!

It’s YOUR day. Do what you want and don’t let anyone force you into doing anything that you don’t like or that makes you uncomfortable!

China’s ‘Golden Veil’ To Launch Cruise Missiles For Sneak Attacks

As a doctor or nurse, what is the greatest display of selflessness you have ever witnessed?

During the toxic, soul destroying ICU rotation of residency, we admitted a young lady intubated for a “community acquired pneumonia”. It ended up being acute myeloid leukaemia, and she had to start chemo in ICU.

She turned out to be an incredible, inspiring, resilient and kind soul. She developed every possible complication of chemo, including being septic while having profound pancytopenia (all cell lines down).

During a particularly busy call with multiple sick admissions, she started bleeding (sepsis plus inability to clot), and I remember noticing frank blood in her catheter. At some point after midnight, she weakly summoned me to the bedside. There were tears on her face and I remember they seemed blood stained, which seriously alarmed me.

I thought she was calling me to tell me how sick she felt. But, teary eyed and all, she said, “I’ve been watching you…you’re having such a hard evening. Are you okay?”

Here was this woman battling for her life, and she had enough compassion left over to care for me. I thanked her, told her to please not worry because she/they were the only priorities.

Then I went into the bathroom, bawled my eyes out, put my game face back on and got back to work. People like that make everything worthwhile.

I’m glad to say she survived and was discharged from hospital several months later, but my colleague who managed her after she was discharged from ICU said it all took its toll and she was a shadow of her former self.

I still think of her. I hope life gave her her flowers, because she deserved everything.

Have you ever had a neighbor who believed they had free reign of your property?

Many years ago we moved into a house where the garden had two gates, a small one at the back and the front double gate which gave access for the car. I was amazed to see people idly strolling through our garden one day with their dog. I went out and challenged them and they said they’d been doing it for years. The previous owner let them use his garden as a short cut to the shop instead of having to walk round past the church.

I said it had to stop now. We had a young child and I didn’t want to risk total strangers coming into the garden. Besides which we had two dogs at the time and although they were not dangerous I didn’t want to risk them getting involved with trespassers. As a child I discovered that people tell lies and they can report that your dog attacked them even if it didn’t.

We put a lock on the gate, and a notice saying Private Property. Keep out. We had no end of abuse from people. The one who really stunned me was the one who said they picked the apples and other fruit every year, it was their right, and now we were stopping them from doing it. The woman even said the fruit wasn’t ours because the trees weren’t planted by us, they’d been there for years.

We only lived there a few years. We didn’t like the weird neighbours so we moved.

Men are Avoiding Marriage and Modern Women Don’t Get It Ft.

Have you ever had a neighbor who believed they had free reign of your property?

Back in 1993 my first wife and I purchased a house on the Mississippi Gulf Coast. Our house was a new construction, we were the first owners, and it was also the last piece of property in the subdivision to be developed. Our right-side neighbors, an elderly couple, had been one of the first residents, moving in back in 1975.

For all the years they had lived there they used our property for extra gardening space, and as a dumping ground for their yard waste. Our one-acre lot was partially wooded, and I found huge piles of branches, leaves, and household trash scattered throughout the woods. Apparent leftovers from these neighbors. No problem, it was pre-existing conditions, so my wife and I just worked to clean up and do our own landscaping.

The problem was, our neighbors didn’t seem to understand they couldn’t use our yard as their private dump anymore. We woke up one morning several months after moving in, and discovered a huge mound of leaves, branches, and other yard waste right in the middle of lawn area in our backyard. Trying to be polite and “get-along,” I talked to the guy and explained they couldn’t use our yard as a dumping ground. he agreed to remove it. His method of “removal” was to just torch the pile and burn it. No fire permit, no warning to us, and he left a big burn scar in the lawn.

We let this go, which turned out to be a big mistake. For the next several years, we would periodically discover piles of yard waste in our yard. The lady next door would simply clean up her yard, and haul everything over into our yard. She would always haul this waste over during the night, or times when my wife and I were both gone. No amount of complaints would change her behavior, and her husband would openly avoid us.

After nearly five years of this, my wife and I had enough. After finding yet another pile of yard waste, I called the police and filed a trespassing complaint against my neighbor. In Mississippi, this was a misdemeanor and so I had to go to night court to testify in support of my charge.

The night of our court hearing, the judge had my wife wait outside the courtroom while I testified first. The night court prosecutor and judge were pretty hostile to me during their questioning. Extremely hostile. They included comments about how “neighbors were supposed to get along,” and other similar crap. I managed to hold my own during their questioning, then they called in my wife.

The judge asked my wife to explain our reasons for the trespassing charges, and she just lit into the judge with “They have been doing this for five years!” How long should we have to put up with this?” The judge looked shocked, looked at me, said “five years?” and I nodded my head in confirmation.

My wife finally ran down, the judge gave some judge-homily crap about neighbors getting along and ruled against us – no trespassing. One week later we found yet another pile of trash in our yard, and I called the police, again. When they showed up, I explained we had already taken the neighbors to court once, the judge decided this wasn’t trespassing, and now our neighbors did it again. I suggested that possibly if their house accidently burned down, this crap would stop.

The police, not happy with the entire situation, and not happy with my comments, finally took action. They issued our neighbors a “no trespass” order and advised them that if they set foot on our property again, it would be in violation of a police order and they would be charged with a misdemeanor.

We finally had peace. Then a year later the husband lost the house due to gambling debts and they moved away.

Scott Ritter: “US Naval SUPERIORITY IS A MYTH! Our Navy has been exposed in the Red Sea as weak!”

https://youtu.be/hym8EJEibjg

What is the best advice HR gave to you?

Best HR advice I got was two things.

1) Document everything. A journal format is best. Date, time, who, where (desk, hallway, restroom), what, and your impressions. I’m a nerd: I use Excel.

2) Once a year, ask HR to let you see your file. You’d be surprised what random people put in it. I once saw a note from a coworker that said “she used the F word.”

An example of how the advice worked to my advantage. I was diagnosed with an autoimmune disease after six months of “what the F is wrong?” A couple days later I mentioned it to my immediate supervisor. I asked about partial disability and should I contact HR? She said no no no do not call HR yet. (I thought that odd).

The next day I heard through gossip that layoffs were coming. So I went and copied my HR file a couple days after. Wow, I found that my boss emailed her boss about my diagnosis. Boss’s boss wrote, “Well, she’ll be one of the first to go” and “I won’t let someone faking a disability continue working here.“ It was in there because it had info about work performance for a review due in 4 months. I have no idea why those sentences weren’t redacted.

One week later, I get called to HR. During the “exit interview” she gave me a big envelope. I asked, no, I told her to increase my compensation package by a factor of ten. She said nothing. I said, “I’m getting laid off because I have Lupus, which as you know, is against the Disabilities Act … { long pause }… and I have proof.“ She mumbled, I’ll get back with you before the end of the day.

Packing up my stuff, HR came and gave me the envelope, asked me to sign an NDA. I noticed the final check was not increased. “My lawyerl will contact HR soon. I’m not signing this NDA. Goodbye.”

End of story. I got a settlement with the compensation multiplied by 10. It took almost two years and if not for my journal and the copy of my HR file, it would have been pointless to sue.

Bullied cat is now unrecognizable

Why do some people always act over-modest when in fact they’re extremely talented and brilliant?

Okay, this is something I legit struggle with. When you’re talented, one of the lovely little gifts that gives you is the ability to see the flaws in the things you create.

Like, I’ll have people gush about one of my books and I cringe inside because when I look at it, all I see are the bits I’d fix if I could rewrite it. I read books from people who are better writers than I am, and then I read something I’ve written and I’m painfully aware it’s not as good.

The same was true when I was really into B&W photography. I was dedicated enough to have a darkroom in my house, but that didn’t give me confidence in my own ability, it gave me an acute and sometimes pointed awareness of the gulf separating me from people who are actually talented.

Like, I look at the best thing I’ve ever done, and compare it to the most mediocre thing Robert Mapplethorpe ever produced, and there’s a gap that’s actually more like a chasm.

I have a lot of writers, artists, photographers, and other creatives in my social circle, and pretty much all of them are plagued by this. The ability to create comes with the ability to evaluate your creations, and when you do that, you realize the gulf that separates you from genuine masters.

Online Dating App Creator Regrets What Online Dating has Become

Who is the most unlikely movie star?

I’ll go with my favorite:

Gene Hackman.

He was tall (6′2″) and “manly”, yes. But he was never handsome, even as a young man. More than that, he was expected to be a failure.

He dropped out of high school at 16 and lied about his age to join the Marines, but he didn’t care for military life, having an admitted “problem with authority”. At 21, he moved to New York City, where he bounced from job to job; then, in 1956, when he was 26, he decided to pursue an acting career, something he said he’d dreamed of since watching James Cagney films as a kid in Illinois.

As a teenaged Marine:

Hackman moved to California and joined the Pasadena Playhouse, where he befriended another aspiring young actor, Dustin Hoffman. The two were noted outsiders, and their peers didn’t think much of them — jointly voting them “least likely to succeed”. Hackman also got the lowest score in the Playhouse’s history.

But he was determined to prove them all wrong.

He moved back to New York and took a job as a doorman at a Howard Johnson’s to support himself while taking bit parts here and there. Here he ran into one of his former Playhouse instructors, who told him, “see, Hackman? I told you you wouldn’t amount to anything.”

It was in 1967, at age 37, that he had his breakthrough role as Buck Barrow in “Bonnie and Clyde”, which earned him his first Academy Award nomination. He would be nominated again 3 years later for his against-type performance in “I Never Sang for My Father”, then became a bona fide leading man — and Oscar winner — with his unforgettable turn as Jimmy “Popeye” Doyle in 1971′s “The French Connection”.

As Popeye Doyle:

He received BAFTA and Golden Globe nominations for his performance in “The Conversation” (1974), another Oscar nomination for “Mississippi Burning” in 1988, and won his 2nd Oscar for his brilliant turn as Little Bill Daggett in “Unforgiven” in 1992, while “The Royal Tenenbaums” (2001) garnered him the Best Actor Golden Globe.

Two-time Oscar winner:

He retired from acting at age 74 in 2004 to write historical fiction, with 2 Oscars (5 nominations), 4 Golden Globes (8 nominations), and 2 BAFTAs (5 nominations) for his career, in addition to countless other awards.

Not bad for a funny-looking guy whom everyone expected to fail.

Beef Piroshki

Ingredients

1 pound ground round
2 medium onions, chopped
2 hard-boiled eggs, chopped
3 tablespoons sour cream
1 teaspoon dried dill (or 1 tablespoon fresh)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
5 (7 1/2 ounce) cans buttermilk biscuits
1 egg, well beaten

Instructions

In a large skillet, cook ground round, onions, and garlic over medium-high heat, stirring often to break up lumps of meat, until beef has lost its pink color, about 5 minutes. Drain off excess fat. Off heat, stir in hard-boiled egg, sour cream, dill, salt and pepper; let filling cool completely.
Heat oven to 400 degrees F.
One can at a time, separate biscuits. On a lightly floured surface roll out each biscuit to a 3 1/2 -inch circle. Place about 1 tablespoon filling in the center of each circle. Fold in half to enclose filling. Press edges with a fork to seal closed. Place on ungreased baking sheet. Brush tops with beaten egg.
Bake piroshki for 15 to 20 minutes, until golden brown. Keep unbaked piroshki batches covered with clean kitchen towels.
Serve warm or at room temperature.

Baked piroshki can be frozen and kept for up to one month. Thaw and bake as instructed.

What’s the most badass thing anyone ever did in school?

The most badass thing I ever did in grade school was during a Dodgeball game. I was in the 5th grade, 10 years old. Being the competitive little fuck I was, this game made me ever more hyped up than a monkey at a banana buffet.

The teacher chose who went on which side. I ended up going against the class bully and a couple of my friends. The class bully’s name will be Derek. Derek was a mean motherfucker who was fatter than a whale.

But you couldn’t tell it to his face or he’ll make sure to break yours. Derek never really picked on me that much since I usually kept to myself and away from him and his friends. But he did pick on my friend; Mike.

Mike was a full-on geek. Me and him both liked comics and Star Wars, but I kept that geeky side of myself hidden while Mike foolishly waved it around. He was also a very easy target.

I was really fit and tall compared to everyone else in my grade so not many people would try to physically start a fight with me. Simple insults were as far as they’d dare to go.

Mike, however, was really short and frail. You could kick him like a soccer ball if you had the lack of heart to go for it. He was also a super nice kid, so it really hit me in the feels when I saw him getting picked on.

In this Dodgeball game, Mike was on Derek’s side of the field and 2 of Derek’s friends were on mine. The balls we had for that game weren’t your typical soft and airy ones. No, they were all green and red plastic ones.

The plastic shells for these balls were hard and lordbabycheezit’s only knows why they allowed it for a game where the sole purpose of winning was to throw them at other people. Ironically, these were the same balls we used when playing bowling at the school fair.

During the first round, my side won. We also were about to win the second round when Derek burst in anger and started yelling at Mike.

The teacher didn’t do shit, he was busy having his lunch in the gym office. Some people told Derek to keep it down and take a chill pill but that only even made the asshole angrier.

Like it was just Mike’s fault his team was losing. I was surprised that no one had even hit Derek yet seeing that he was so huge, missing him would’ve been an even harder than not.

I guess everyone was afraid of hurting him and getting him angry. Having enough of his shit, I called out his name. He turned his head to face me, looking as if I’d just finished cussing the life out of his mom, “What?”

“Leave Mike alone.”

“Or what?”

I didn’t respond cause my mental response was a nice long essay’s worth of insults and death threats. Yeah that wouldn’t go too well seeing that Derek was also notorious for snitching even more than he was for bitching.

He took the ball that was in his hand and threw it right at me, full force and all. I was about 6 feet away from him and shouldn’t’ve been hard to hit. But just as the ball came this close to hitting me in the face, I tipped my head over to the side so that it’d miss.

My gawd people, it was so close that the air from that thing was brushing against my skin. I’m still impressed with what I did to this very day. Then, while I was getting Oo’s and Ah’s from everyone around me, I turned around and grabbed the ball from the floor.

Derek stood there, dumbstruck. Which makes sense, I was still freaking out then. Not giving him time to recollect and snap out of it, I took the same ball and football-chucked it right in his big ugly face.

Y’all know what came after that cat-in-a-blender scream when it hit him? That’s right; blood. And a whole lot of it. His nose was bleeding so much that his entire shirt was almost completely covered in it.

And he kept crying until the teacher came, furious as to what he saw. “What happened?”

“Leonardo hit me in the face mister! He tried to kill me!”

Ugh, could this soft ass bitch be any more of a drama queen?

“Is that true Leonardo?”

“No sir, if I was trying to kill him then he’d be long gone by now.”

And that was the last time anyone heard of the great DiCrapio. Any questions?

Just kidding. He sent me to the office straight after that, not bothering to listen to my side of the story. Which to be fair, wasn’t a very justifiable side to hear from. I was suspended for a good week and had another week of recess detention after that.

Needless to say, they never picked on Mike again after that. So worth it.

Just fyi, I wouldn’t recommend anyone try this at home cause even though they did leave Mike alone after that, I became enemy number one for Derek. That wasn’t the most fun title to hold.

Oh and he broke my thumb during recess the next month. Yeah, definitely don’t do this. Fuck you Derek, I hope your thumb gets crushed by a million plastic Dodgeballs one day.

Military personnel, what’s the dumbest thing you’ve heard someone in uniform say?

It was a two star general.

I was in the military for two years, just long enough to get the GI Bill. Just a one-striper, nothing much. As luck would have it, I scored very highly on an aptitude test I was given, and I was selected to work in a nuclear facility, as a computer operator. It took nine months (of a two year gig) for me to get a very high security clearance, necessary to handle nuclear weapon related material.

I was involved only at the lowest levels of this, my job included janitorial work, for example, gathering and bringing trash from officers to the furnace (to be burned; all paper and packing trash was burned, none left the building).

Anyway, one day I am filling in, in the computer room, for the tape librarian who is on leave. All data was stored on reel-to-reel magnetic tapes, and the tape librarian, directed by the console operator, brought the tapes in from the “library” (many racks of stored tapes) to mount them on the tape drives. And of course to take down tapes, label them and store them in the library. It’s a fairly continuous process walking back and forth, but not very strenuous for fit soldiers.

On this particular day, the general in charge of our operation had retired, and his two-star replacement was taking a tour of the facilities. He knew absolutely nothing about computers. He was guided by a full bird colonel, that knew a little bit about computers, but was not a very technical type.

When they got to the tape drives, the Colonel tried to explain to the General how they worked, like a voice recorder. The General thought this could be a security risk, because somebody could stand next to a tape drive, and listen in on the data being played, and be privy to nuclear secrets they should not be listening to. That’s the stupidest thing I ever heard.

Everybody in the computer room had all the clearances necessary to do anything or see anything going on in the computer room. You not only cannot hear the binary data, you couldn’t possibly make sense of it if you did, it goes by far too fast and sounds like static if you feed it into a speaker.

The Colonel assured him it was impossible to eavesdrop on the data.

Nevertheless, the following day we had an armed MP guarding the tape drives, and we had to show an ID in order to mount tapes, or take down tapes. Which slowed down operations. And a week later, the MP was gone, and things went back to normal.

Why are many countries investing in China’s growth despite their poor human rights record and their own struggling economies?

How about the whole world!

Human rights and struggling economy is a narratives. Set to demonised China. It don’t work except for Brian dead westerners. That is some 1% of the entire world!

Four out of every five stuff made on the world U.S. made in China! 175 out of the world’s 195 nation on earth has China as their biggest trading partner! And 171 nation support and participated in BRI

Sure racist like this person who ask this question like to ignore facts and listen to narratives like these but even in the west there are very few of them! Do you know, in spite of Donald Trump’s trade war, the U.S. trade 3 times more in 2022 than in 2017 when the trade war began?

So it must make your anger and hate boils but heck some people choose not to think!

What bad experience had you saying “I will never buy from that company or use their service ever again”?

Lowe’s. Went to the store and ordered a GE gas wall kitchen oven with 5 year extended warranty. Not in stock, they had to order it and I had to wait. Because of a unique kitchen cut out and old house, I had few options. I call the store a few times over several weeks to try to get a status update. “Should be coming in soon”. Three months later they call to say GE no longer makes the model. Come in and pick another or get a refund.

I go in, get my refund and decide to do some more research. A few days later I go back to Lowe’s and order a Frigidaire gas wall oven and 5 year warranty. Not in stock, have to pay and wait for it to come in. I do so. About three months later they call to say that model is no longer made. Come in and pick another or come and get a refund.

I go in to get the refund. When they refund me, I notice I did not get refunded the $300 for the 5 year extended warranty. The cashier tells me they don’t give refunds on the warranties in the store. I have to call a special Lowe’s Telephone number to get that refunded separately.

I go home and then spent the next two weeks in automated telephone carousels trying to get to somebody who can orchestrate the refund. Probably spent 40 hours in total on the phone at different times before finally getting somebody. They had no record of the sale so I have to email them all my purchase and refund receipts. I do so. More run around. After a few weeks I get a check in the mail for the refund.

It then occurs to me…did I get a refund on the GE oven extended warranty I ordered first? I go back and look at the receipts and see they did not give me the $300 warranty refund on that one, and I didn’t notice.

Back to the store who tells me I must call the telephone number. Back on the phone trying to get to the right person. Did I mention this telephone number they have me calling has no weekend hours and limited weekday hours? When I do reach someone they have no record of the sale or return so I need to send them all copies of my receipts, which I do. Weeks later, no word. And no response from more hours on the phone. Mostly on hold.

I write a letter and send it through the mail to Lowe’s corporate office. I gave them documentation and photocopies of every single receipt and my timeline of purchases, calls, emails…every interaction, everything. I explain what’s been happening.

A few days later I get a letter from them saying they’d be happy to assist. All I have to do is call this telephone number (the one I’d been calling).

At that point my stomach could no longer bear it and I had to decide if $300 was worth the stress and time. I let it go.

I wouldn’t purchase a nail from Lowe’s ever again.

At that point I searched the internet and found the first GE oven I wanted at Plessers Appliances. I call them. They had five in stock. So the model wasn’t discontinued. I ordered it from a salesperson on the same call on which I confirmed it was in stock. I paid by debit card and it was installed 3 days later.

A true story. No embellishments.

Why didn’t I just go to Plessers to begin with? I didn’t know they existed. Their closest store to me was about 50 miles away in a town I never visit. But more importantly, initially I had no reason to doubt the information Lowe’s gave me about both models being discontinued. I know wall gas ovens are becoming more and more rare, so it seemed possible. And I didn’t want to deal with a gas to electric oven conversion, but that probably would have been the next step. But not with Lowes.

What is the most expensive lesson a company got after firing an employee?

Learned this through shard contacts. When we rented a house a few years back, the landlord was engaged to a very wealthy ex-Pharma sales executive. Roughly 15 or so years ago, this person was working for a major Pharma company selling its patented drugs to doctors. He was making a lot of money. Until one day he stumbled upon evidence that the company was covering up the massive toll of side effects of its drugs. After repeatedly attempting to correct the situation, he was stonewalled. In a good conscience, he couldn’t remain silent as the drugs were affecting people in terrible ways.

Under the Whistleblower Act, he provided the details to Federal agencies, who immediately launched an investigation. His identity was not protected as part of this process, and he very quickly was fired from his high paying job. Worse, he was blackballed across the entire industry. No one would talk to him. No companies would ever hire him. His Pharma, Medical and Sales careers were over. No one would hire him – not for anything. If I recall he was in his mid 30’s. He ended up bankrupt, divorced, lost his home, lost his family. He was utterly destroyed.

After many years of litigation at the highest levels, the company was found liable across a number of areas. The fines imposed on the company were MASSIVE – hundreds of millions of dollars.

As a whistleblower, he was entitled to, and paid a percentage of the fines imposed. I forget the exact number, but he made something like $100 million dollars as a result of ratting on the company’s deadly products. But the cost was….EVERYTHING.

When I learned of this story, the man was in living in the same town/city that we were in, and had a beautiful multi-million dollar waterfront home.

I always wondered if he felt like he would do the same thing again if he knew how things worked out. His life was ruined, literally ruined.

The company, of course, is still in business today. But a fine approaching the better part of a billion dollars has to hurt. A Lot.

China’s LATEST Stealth Aircraft Can Kill US B-21 ‘Raider’ in 1 Second

Have you ever had a neighbor who believed they had free reign of your property?

We had the neighbor from hell. The first day they moved in, he parked his Uhaul on our front yard yo unload. This was a hundred year old house with ceramic water lines. My husband explained that he had to move the truck, and he did.

Then, we had a tree cut down in our fenced back yard. The wood was cut into lengths to burn in a fireplace. I worked that day, and when I came home that night, over half the wood was gone. Every night for months they burned their fire pit. I know he took it.

Next, ghe to,d me he was putting up a privacy fence. As I said, we had a chain link fence already. I explained to him that he needed to put it as close to our fence as possible. The weeds between the fences on our side would be every difficult to remove. Again, I came home from work, and he had put up the fence inside out with the support beams on our side. This left a 8” gap between the fences. Weeds were horribly difficult to reach.

We had a two car parking spot in the back of our houses. No lie, he had a motorcycle trailer, two cars and a trailer parked there. Of course he spilled over his lot. Every time they took the trailer out they moved my garbage can. They never put it back where it belonged. One night I was having a few beers when I heard him come home with the trailer. I grabbed the trash can and held it. He wasn’t going to move it that night. My drinking got the better of me and I went off on how they thought our yard was his to use, and how all the neighbors had had enough of them.

They put their house up for sale that week. Good riddance.

If you can give me only one tip to improve my life, what would it be?

I can’t think of one person who runs and doesn’t have their shit together.

I think it’s because running teaches you how to persist. The entire act of running is to not listen to your body’s urges to stop and to persist instead.
You will also learn how to focus on a singular goal, to keep your legs moving until you reach your destination. The skill of focus is one of the most underrated and misunderstood. Many people think your ability to focus is inborn, but I know from personal experience it’s a skill that we train through out the day.
Running will also make you have more stamina in bed which could lead to you landing the wife or husband you want.
Running also tends to weed out bad habits like smoking because it’s so difficult to run and to keep smoking.
Also when you travel, you will get a intimate view of the city because you will know what it’s like to see the city on foot.
You will also be able to learn things because podcasts and books are some of the best things to listen to while you are on a long run.
Also runners tend to eat healthier which helps them lose weight and have good skin. I know I don’t like eating fried food if I’m going to be running later because I will feel sluggish.
When you run you also feel very confident because you will feel like you are becoming a stronger person.
Finally, you should run, because one day, you won’t be able to.

Have you ever had a neighbor who believed they had free reign of your property?

Yes after buying new property in a rural area. The neighbor behind us kept letting the family ride off road four-wheelers on our property as we did not have a fence between us and we did not live there yet. As I was building our new house and shop we saw the kids riding across our property again, I drove to top of hill where they were and asked them not to keep coming across the property line that was surveyed and marked. They apologized and said they thought it was their grandparents property. I thanked them and told them my insurance would not allow other people to drive on my property, if they got hurt I could get sued.

No problem I thought all was well. I keep getting other neighbors calling and saying people are still driving all over our property when we aren’t there. So the next week we see an adult with a small child again riding on our property. Again I drive up the hill and park in the middle of the trail so when he comes back he has to stop. When he does, I again ask to stop trespassing as I have also told his kids before. He said they are just puttering along slow and not hurting anything. And he drives off. Now I’m mad. So my employees start a new (nice) fence the next day. A week later all employees are working on new house (I’m in construction) and one employee says “hey there’s that rude guy on the four-wheeler at the top on the hill”. We all stopped working and run over to look, he is stopped (standing on top of his seat) on the trail by a large barbedwire fence looking all the way down both sides on the mountain at a new long fence. We laughed for about 10 minutes. He had that look like how did this get here. Sad thing is we would have let the kids ride on our property if they had just asked nice. But we didn’t even know their names. We had miles of trails all over the place.

How did you get revenge on a co-worker who stole credit for your work?

I never seek revenge.

In the 1980s, I had a co-worker who presented my craft work as her own. At that point, I just sat back and watched, I knew things were going to be entertaining.

My manager was so very pleased with the job my co-worker claimed as her own. When my manager asked my co-worker to show her how she had done the job; my co-worker was at a complete loss on what to do. My manager tried to assist my co-worker by asking “how did you start, what was your first idea?”

My co-worker had no idea about how I had created the project as I had completed it at home. After about an hour of trying to figure out how to dismantle my work; my co-worker had to admit that she hadn’t created the project at all. She also admitted that she had taken it from off my desk.

My manager was not amused by my co-worker. When she came to my desk; I was just smiling a little smile. My manager asked me why I hadn’t defended my project and claimed my work. Then she answered her own question; that my work spoke for itself.

Have you ever had a neighbor who believed they had free reign of your property?

Not I, but my brother.

When my brother was ready to buy a home, he instead went the custom-built route: our parents divided their five-acre lot so he could build next door.

Both homes were perched on top of an almost-mountain hill, looking over the valley. Pretty amazing view.

For whatever reason I’m unaware of, my brother ended up with a two-acre L-shaped lot; basically, he ended up with his front and back yards and a narrow strip at the rear of our parents’ backyard next door. I think it may have been so my brother could own and maintain the wire suicide fence that prevented any accidental tumbling into the valley below, so our parents wouldn’t have to. Yeah, the hill slope was that steep; it was basically a grassy cliff.

Then my mother’s husband passed away, leaving her to rattle around her huge home by herself. Empty nesting, the property became too much for her to care for and she put it on the market.

My brother, having foreseen this, had included a mother’s suite when he built his home. Practically an independent apartment on the first floor next to the garage, with its own kitchen and bath and a private entrance and my brother’s living space on the second floor upstairs. Absolutely no issues with Mom moving in next door to live with my brother while she was trying to sell.

The people she eventually agreed to sell to were not fun even during the real estate transaction process. They moaned and whined and nickel and dimed but they got her house and moved in. Long story short, this couple proved to be assholes before they even signed the contract, and that certainly didn’t change when the house was theirs. They promptly began tearing out everything to renovate.

Including the yard. Twenty years’ worth of plantings; Mom’s beloved gardens and flower beds, shrubs and fruit trees, ruthlessly removed to accommodate an unending sea of grass. Mom said nothing of course but she was sick.

My brother suggested that she replant a new garden. Together, they spent the time and money to plant roses and fruit trees along the suicide fence on that strip of land that was too narrow to accommodate anything else.

My brother returned from work one afternoon to discover that the new neighbors had crossed the property line to dig up and chainsaw everything my brother and my mother had planted. When questioned, the neighbor explained he wanted nothing but grass in the backyard. He wanted an unobstructed view of the valley below.

Furious, my brother explained that that strip of land was not part of the neighbor’s backyard and that he didn’t consider two dwarf fruit trees to be obscuring the view, but even if they did, the neighbor did not have the right to trespass or to tear them out of property he didn’t own. The plants had cost in both time and money. Neighbor refused to pay for the damages.

It was not worth it to bother with the time and expense of small claims court. But Mom had already been complaining that every time she stepped into the yard or the driveway, the nosy neighbors were watching her, and that they were able to view the interior of my brother’s home through windows visible from their side of the property line. Mom was feeling paranoid and upset.

My brother erected an 8-foot-high wooden fence that completely surrounded his L-shaped lot and its driveway. Including both along the suicide fence at the rear of the property and the property line that separated that narrow strip from the neighbor’s backyard. When the driveway gate is closed, the only thing visible from outside the fence is the roof of the house and a couple of treetops.

My brother further installed a length of decorative metal fence with a fairy gate to separate that narrow strip from his own backyard. Mom ended up with a “hidden” garden that over the years was equipped with concrete benches, bird houses and a bath, a fountain, lawn toys. They planted fruit trees, grapes, roses, flowers, a vegetable patch, butterfly bushes. You couldn’t see the valley from Mom’s fairy garden for the wooden fence, but no nosy destructive neighbors could see her, either. She puttered away hours in there; she loved it.

Instead of two fruit trees and some rose bushes, now the new neighbors had not one but two runs of eight-foot-high wooden fence between their house and the view. The view from their property is completely gone. Short of climbing a ladder to sit on the roof, there is nothing they can do about it.

And whenever my mom wants, the valley and their neighbors’ yard are visible from my brother’s living room and back deck, upstairs from her mother’s suite. Sometimes they barbecue up there.

Oh, and they got a half-dozen egg-laying pet chickens. The rooster is pretty loud at 5am. That’s how my brother knows it’s time to get up and get ready for work.

We don’t know what the rooster wakes the nosy neighbors up for.

The fantasy of the Philippines has been completely shattered, the situation in the South China Sea has been clarified, and the mysterious “sonic weapon” has appeared!

Just this morning, I woke up and saw the news. After the Philippines illegally invaded my country’s Scarborough Shoal. Philippine control began to “collapse” with my country’s law enforcement ships on Ren’ai Reef, which was met with professional restraint by my country.

First of all, as for the recent provocations by the Philippines, it is obvious that the United States is behind it. Without the support of the United States, the Philippines would not dare to come and make noise. China is dismantling the “island chains” deployed by the United States in the Asia-Pacific region one by one, and breaking through the “containment” of the United States at a rapid speed.

That article was a paper written by an expert from the University of Defense Technology, which roughly revealed that our country has accelerated its development in close-air combat in recent years, and has also established a near-air command equipped with a variety of hypersonic weapons units.

Everyone knows that our country is ahead of the United States in the research and development of hypersonic missiles. We not only have a mature and complete offensive weapon system, but also a strong and powerful defense system.

The emergence of the Near Air Command today obviously tells the United States that it is no longer possible for the United States to “cover the sky with one hand” in the Asia-Pacific region. At the same time, he also warned the United States not to have any illusions on the Taiwan issue or the situation in the South China Sea.

Looking back, the United States naturally does not want us to develop more and more stable long-range missiles and hypersonic missiles, so it will let the Philippines come over from time to time to stir up trouble.

After all, what the United States wants is to involve us in the war, then contain our development, and turn the South China Sea into the next “Russian-Ukrainian battlefield.” But what makes the United States even more unexpected today is that we will not dispatch hypersonic missiles to deal with the tiny Philippines.

Instead, a brand new “attack weapon” was released, which was the mysterious sonic weapon!

Since the Philippines continues to invade our country’s islands and reefs and frequently come to cause trouble, our country’s new coast guard ships are equipped with a series of self-defense weapons to strengthen the defense capabilities of maritime law enforcement.

Of course, in the face of repeated troubles from the Philippines, we still maintain the rationality we should have to avoid falling into the trap of the United States, so we usually use some high-pressure water cannons to achieve the effect of driving away the Philippines.

But this time, in the face of the collision with the Philippines, our country has released a brand-new weapon, which is the long-range directional acoustic wave repellent device. This “acoustic weapon” can be said to be specially designed to deal with the Philippines!

Because this remote directional sound wave driving device can release a sound of 160 decibels, which is 60 higher than the human body’s tolerance range (100 decibels).

This weapon can be used for “sonic bombing” from a distance of 3 kilometers.

You know, this time the Philippines dispatched 40 small fishing boats, multiple coast guard ships, and official ships to form the so-called “Christmas Fleet” in an attempt to invade my country’s islands and reefs in an attempt to create large-scale chaos.

In that case, we will directly release the “sonic weapons” to give them a “Christmas atmosphere boost”!

Maybe many people don’t have much idea about this 60 decibels.

The human body is originally very sensitive to external sounds. The sound of two people communicating normally is about 20 decibels. But if a large car passes by and honks its horn, the decibels will reach 50, and the ears will instantly “buzz”. Once it exceeds 100 decibels, it will cause great damage to the ears, and may even lead to temporary “deafness”.

Moreover, this kind of directional sound wave repellent weapon can focus 150 decibels of noise, and then adjust the angle to directionally project it onto the enemy’s ship. As a result, all the Philippine ships can do is to leave quickly with their tail between their legs…

In fact, the Philippines still does not understand the situation in the South China Sea today. We have already firmly grasped the overall situation.

If nothing else, in the past two years, our navy has laid a “drag net” on Mischief Reef, Ren’ai Reef and other islands and reefs, and assembled the largest naval formation in recent years.

There are 052D guided missile destroyer, 052C guided missile destroyer, 053HC guided missile frigate, 056A guided missile frigate, 072 tank landing ship, 022 high-speed missile boat…

All in all, the current situation in the South China Sea is very clear: ASEAN countries have clearly seen the true face of the United States and know that the Philippines is a pawn of the United States in the Asia-Pacific region.

Author note : China is a country when you do something anti China you will lose the disputed territory to China, it happened to India, it happened to Japan now the Diao Yu Island is in China control. A lot of countries has demarcated border with China Russia, Vietnam, Pakistan, Nepal, Kazakhstan.

Has anyone at your workplace ever been fired for something they said or did?

Yes. Leanne. A rather entitled millennial who thought the sun shone from somewhere it didn’t. She told her manager to F-off.

She was put into a tech assistant role, supporting George, a category manager who had been working for the company close to 50 years. He actually retired when he hit 50 years service – he was 72 at the time. After retirement, he stuck around part time for a few years as a consultant too – he was that knowledgeable, and important to the business.

Anyway, what George didn’t know wasn’t worth knowing. He could tell you the names of staff going back to the early 70s. He could also tell you when something was made obsolete, and what replaced it. He was a walking archive of catalogue information going back to before I was born. If you couldn’t find an answer, George was the one who would know it. He was extremely well respected. He had 2 assistants working under him, doing daily tasks like tenders and quotes, warranty checks, stock orders, and general technical assistance for distributors and customers.

Jovic was a fellow in his mid 30s when I met him. He was George’s protégé, and he had already learnt a lot from George – having worked under him for nearly a decade. His only career plan was to step into George’s role when he retired. He did (and still does) a cracking job.

Leanne was employed a year or so before I came along. She was lazy, and slow to reply to requests for help. Customers complained to both Jovic and George about her. Jovic was growing tired of having to carry Leanne’s shortcomings, and begged George to do something.

George worked out she would be better doing analytic tasks like price increases, manufacturing updates, large pricing tenders, and stock monitoring – so she wouldn’t have to talk to customers anywhere near as much. She was taking a week to do a tender than George could do in a few hours. Admittedly, George could look at a partial part number, or a description, and instantly know the correct number. This took Leanne a lot of time to search. But she was also partial to online shopping, and would spend hours browsing fashion sites. She would also call her friends and spend hours going through fashion websites, deciding what to buy. This was the main reason she was so slack.

George had gone to HR several times about her lack of competence in the role, her time wasting, excessive personal calls etc etc. She was given numerous verbal warnings, and a couple of written ones. She was on thin ice. One afternoon George was frustrated that a deadline was coming up, and she hadn’t started a tender that she’d had for over 2 weeks. He walked up behind her desk to see she was browsing a fashion site, and yapping away on a personal call. He interrupted her and asked her to focus on the tender. Her response “fxxx off George.”

George had never been short with anyone before. So his next outburst was a huge shock to us all. He bellowed (loud enough for whoever was on the other end of her phone to clearly hear it) “That’s it, we’re going up to HR right now. You had your last chance, and you blew it.”

Her response, which was heard right across 60+ people in an open plan office – people who had suddenly become silent after hearing George’s ouburst, was “you can’t sack me you crusty old cxxx. I quit first.”

Because of that retaliation, and the language used, HR refused to give her a reference as she was marched from the building.

George was the most patient guy, but Leanne pushed him way too far. We were all glad to see the back of her.

Jovic has since become “George 2.0” – although his knowledge isn’t as impressive as George, he still has some 25 years to get there.

Chicken with Dill Sauce
(Kurczeta z Sosem Koperkowyn — Poland)

Ingredients

1 (3 to 3 1/2 pound) broiler-fryer chicken, cut up
1 1/2 cups water
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon white pepper
1 cup Half-and-Half
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon minced dill weed
1 teaspoon lemon juice

Instructions

Heat chicken, water, salt and white pepper to boiling in skillet; reduce heat. Cover and simmer until thickest pieces of chicken are done, 45 to 50 minutes.
Remove chicken; keep warm.
Shake Half-and-Half and flour in tightly covered jar. Stir Half-and-Half mixture, dill weed and lemon juice into pan juices. Heat to boiling, stirring constantly; boil and stir 1 minute.
Pour some of the sauce over chicken; serve with remaining sauce and with spaetzle or cooked cauliflower, if desired.

What is the best way to handle rejection?

My partner interviewed for her dream job as a tenured professor at an elite university. It offered generous compensation, and the opportunity to expand her research and educate students on niche subjects she is passionate about. She prepared for a week, doing mock interviews and research. When the day came, she called me after and exclaimed “It went great! I’m sure I will get a follow up interview. I haven’t felt this good about an interview in so long.”

The next day, I was walking downstairs at our home and saw her sitting at the dining room table. She looked glum, so I asked, “How’s it going?”

Without looking up, she said, “I’ve been better. I just got a rejection email for that job.” She was completely devastated. For years, she’d been so successful in getting every job she applied for, saying that, “Interviews are my super power.” Consequently, she was being quite hard on herself.

I reminded her that this job process wasn’t like finding jobs in high school and college. She was competing with other academics: highly intelligent, motivated, organized professionals with so much to offer — just like her. But it still stung because she’d put so much of herself into this process.

I related so strongly to her feelings. Coming from corporate, I’ve done around 100 interviews. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard a hiring manager say, “You are such a great match for this role!” Or something equitably enthusiastic, with me leaving their office skipping like a kid out of a candy shop — only to get a rejection, followed by waves of frustration.

While I’ve found that rejection does get easier with repetition, it never becomes a pleasant, or even neutral experience. Be it writing, dating, or jobs, there’s always a burn.

Dr. Ethan Kross, professor of psychology at the University of Michigan, found that even the most sophisticated among us are often distinctly sensitive to failure. His study found the part of the brain activated during rejection is also associated with physical pain. When someone says “it hurts” after a rejection, they aren’t far from the truth.

Rejection is different from failure in that there’s often an interpersonal dynamic to it — which makes it particularly unpleasant and personal.

I have long battled my harsh inner critic, which is quite common, especially with people who had a strict childhood or where they felt they weren’t good enough (the prior certainly describes me). Replaying these rejections comes naturally and with ease. Which is why I’ve invested in help from a therapist. He gave me a great and counterintuitive exercise, called the “rejection collection”. It helps destigmatize that rejection and promotes empathy — and friendships.

How the rejection collection works

Rejection often has a secretive nature, where we hide these shortcomings from others to insulate our ego and feelings of acceptance. Ideally, per the American Psychological Association, we should do the exact opposite and seek more meaningful connections with people in the aftermath of rejection, which is what this exercise does.

You create a simple spreadsheet using excel, google docs, anything. Create it with at least one other person and list out notable rejections from your life. I’ll throw myself into the fire right now:

I was rejected from my dream publisher, Penguin Random House, after going through several rounds of feedback with a senior editor. I was close to signing a contract, only for them to reject me in the 11th hour, saying my book idea, “Is not strong or unique enough.”
I was given a reference to interview at my dad’s company, SAP, and flew to Philadelphia for an interview, only to be rejected. I applied for a second position, and flew to Philadelphia again, only to be rejected a second time. I felt like a complete failure and an embarrassment to my dad.
In 8th grade, 23 people tried out for the JV soccer team at a school where soccer was everything. Only me and one other person got cut from the team. I felt like the least athletic, least cool guy in the world.
I was once having a great and long conversation with a beautiful Jamaican woman. We were hitting it off. On a whim, and before I could talk myself out of it, I said, “We should grab dinner sometime.” Her smile immediately vanished, as if she’d just seen a ghost. Then, she said, “Sorry, I don’t date white men.” Which is fine. She’s entitled to her preferences. I cringed more thinking about how I misread her energy.
There was a personality test for our finance department at my last corporate job. During HR’s presentation, each of us were represented as a dot on a giant graph, with our initials by the dot. I didn’t see my name. At the end, I raised my and asked the researcher, “I noticed my name isn’t listed?” She said, “Yeah, we couldn’t properly score your personality. It was too far outside our bounds.” The room erupted in laughter.

When you create your list, adding context and the story helps humanize the experience for the other people on the list. The other option is to have a zoom call where each person reads through their rejections and shares those stories.

It’s OK if they feel entirely random and with different contexts. It’s also completely advisable to find ways to laugh and have fun with it. Self-deprecation can remove the heaviness from the experience, and pivot the tone of your inner monologue to be more accepting.

Per psychology professor, Dr. Mark Leary, the communal component of a rejection collection is the key component to remember. Rejection tends to threaten your sense of belonging to the group, but by celebrating and putting those rejections boldly forward in a group setting — it promotes that sense of belonging and understanding between people.

When I went through this list with two friends, I marveled at some of the stories I heard and we laughed together, thinking through and discussing the events, often debunking people’s insecurities. I felt a sense of togetherness, and enhanced friendship with my buddies afterwards. I was glad they shared these moments of supreme rejection that they’d hidden from me for decades. I didn’t feel alone.

Each of us exists on a spectrum of rejection sensitivity, with some people having very harsh and self-immolating interpretations of these events. But this rejection can cause you to seek out friends and build your connection to them as a compensatory response. This isn’t to say one should get chewed up by rejections intentionally to make friends. But more to remind you of how universal this experience is. A rejection collection helps you purge these harsh narratives and reframe them into something kinder.

When I was an early teenage boy, I had a long-standing crush on another girl who was signaling pretty clearly that she liked me too. I was talking to my friend Brian, saying, “I want to ask her out but I’m so afraid.”

He shrugged and said, “What’s the worst thing she can do, say no?” It was such a healthy extrapolation to rethinking these rejections. Sometimes, we need to lighten the load we place on these outcomes.

I remind myself that rejection stems from something proactive: you taking the initiative to pursue things you want in life. It takes courage to try, to put yourself in the line of judgement. So pat yourself on the back for that, regardless of the outcome.

And if you get rejected, consider sharing it with a someone, or scheduling a call with friends, and list them out in all their glory. You’ll all be better off for it. Remember to stay kind — to others, and yourself.

What’s the quickest way you saw a co-worker get fired?

When I was with the DoC, we had a shipping container in our parking lot to store outdated, or damaged, computer equipment. Once the container was full, bids would be placed on it and the winning bidder would come out and carry the equipment off.

The container was 8 feet by 40 feet so unloading the equipment from it could take some time, and because security balked at having to stand around while the equipment was removed, someone from IT would have to babysit the people hauling the equipment off. This job fell to the person in the office with the least seniority.

It just so happened that we had a newbie start the day equipment was being picked up so the team leader took him outside, handed him the clipboard of inventory being picked up and forms the buyer had to sign, and told him to stay out there until the container was empty. He was told to lock the container up and come back inside once it was done.

It usually took about an hour to empty a container and the newbie was sent outside around 9 AM, so when the team lead began asking us if we’d seen the new guy around 11:30, we knew something was wrong. The team leader went outside and found the trailer wide open, and empty, so he locked it. There was no sign of the newbie. About that time one of the techs saw him strolling across the parking lot, from the direction of a fast food joint nextdoor. When he entered the office the team lead asked him where he’d been and he said it was hot outside (it was summer) and watching the people empty the trailer was boring so he’d decided to sit in the fast food place and watch them from there. He was asked when the people had left and he said they drove off around 10:20. The team lead asked if the buyer had signed the equipment transfer forms and the newbie stated he’d “forgotten” to have them sign (and it’s kind of hard to have someone sign a form when you’re 150 feet away, sitting in a restaurant).

The team lead told our boss what had happened immediately and the new employee became a former employee after only 3½ hours on the job. He didn’t even make it to lunch time — the official lunch time, that is.

MAGA Girl Drops TRUTH BOMBS About Western Women

What is normal in your country but weird in the rest of the world?

Although Australia is considered your “typical white country” by many, we still have quirks that make the whole world tilt their head and think “What the F*ck?” For example:

We have a tradition called a “shoey”– which is were you drink beer out of a dirty shoe.

Bars are required to have stables, water and food for horses.
We call friends “cunts” and people we dislike “mates”.
Life sentences cannot be over 25 years.
Repairing a fence because a kangaroo tried jumping over it and failed.
School is from February to December, so we have Christmas and New Year’s eve during our annual break.
Petting zoos having kangaroos, wallabies and emus which you can feed and play with for something like 5 bucks an hour.
Deadly spiders everywhere. The week before writing this answer, I actually removed a huntsman from my backyard so my dog couldn’t eat it. I ended up throwing the fucker over the fence and into my neighbors house (by accident of course).
Having Christmas at the beach. Since Australian summer is during December- people go to the beaches in swarms on Christmas Day to open presents and have barbecues.
Every Australian town has a pub with at least one, massive foster beer ad stuck on the rood (even though no one drinks foster any more).

Almost everyone is outdoors. Hiking, walking, fishing, sailing, boating, surfing, swimming and a hell of a lot more. Everyone is into some kind of sport or activity. The natural resources like beaches and suburbs are used wisely and not just wasted.
Swearing when complimenting something. In Australia, when someone says “Sick cunt”, it means “you did good.”
Calling rain boots/wellies “Gum boots”.
Smelling smoke from a far way bushfire when going outside.
Having no idea what “political correctness is” and saying anything on our minds.
We say ‘Yeah, nah’ instead of No, and ‘Nah, yeah’ instead of “Yes”.
Children aren’t allowed to purchase cigarettes, but there is no law specifically stating that they cannot smoke them.
Not being able to go outside during lunch break at school because you forgot your hat.
Having extremely wide roads and pavements, even in the city and suburbs.
Making fun of anything regardless if its offensive or not.
It is illegal to dress up as Robin and Batman.
Selling $2 hot dogs when everyone is voting for the new prime minster in the elections.

Getting fined if you don’t vote in the elections.
Putting butter and sprinkles on bread to create fairy bread– our traditional dish.
Putting butter and Vegemite (a thick black Australian sauce) on bread to create another traditional dish: Vegemite and toast.
Eating a lot of fresh fish and ripe avocados. Avocado milkshakes are really common in Australia, and so is really good sushi.
Every pub has 2–4 Poker Machines minimum.
Eating burgers that have beetroot.
Getting attacked by magpies (a Australian bird), because you walked into their territory by accident.

Atlantis, Thoth, the Emerald Tablet & the Secret to Immortality

Poor poor Marko

When I was in High School, I had many friends.

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.

Poor, poor Marko.

Poor, poor Marko…

Gimme Shelter (Remastered 2019)

Well-experienced people sayings that you should never do these things

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.

Ouch!

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/9aJl-meI564?feature=share

Polish Salad with Pickled Eggs
(Salatka z Piklowanymi Jajkami)

Ingredients

Pickled Eggs

3 cups beet juice (cooking water from beets)
1 cup red wine vinegar
8 whole black peppercorns
4 whole allspice
4 whole cloves
1 bay leaf
6 hardboiled eggs, peeled

Salad

1 bunch leaf lettuce, torn into bite-size pieces
1/2 small red onion, thinly sliced and separated into rings
1/4 cup olive or vegetable oil
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1/4 teaspoon salt
Dash of pepper

Instructions

Pickled Eggs

Heat beet juice, vinegar, peppercorns, allspice, cloves and bay leaf to boiling; pour over eggs.
Cover and refrigerate at least 24 hours.

Salad

Toss lettuce and onion. Divide among 6 salad plates.
Cut eggs into slices or fourths. Arrange 1 egg on top of each salad.
Shake remaining ingredients in tightly covered container; drizzle over salads.

What is a weapon that was used in the Vietnam War that most people are not aware of?

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.

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.

What is the biggest tip that you have ever received as an employee?

There are bucks and there are bucks.

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.

SIMPING on Chicks

Why do some people act less intelligent than they really are?

To survive alive.

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.

What is the most valuable thing you’ve “rescued” that somebody else threw away?

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.” 🙂

Don’t be too needy

Why is it considered polite to ask “how are you?” without actually caring about the response? Why don’t people just say “hi” instead?

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.

You will starve

Can a war between the U.S and China be kept conventional? Or will a war with China be the end of our existences via nuke?

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.

That’s sad

Have you, while repairing a computer, ever found anything that made your jaw drop?

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.

Have you ever seen an employer fire someone without realizing what a crucial role the employee played?

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.

Caught

How can a US carrier group defend against thousands of “carrier killer” missiles at once?

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.

It’s been full spectrum and absolute.

But not reported in the “news” of the West.

…

Info war is in full swing.

…

So… Yeah. It’s full spectrum. EVERYTHING.

Of course…

…

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…

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.

Toilet paper throw

What are some of the most pretentious things you’ve heard people say?

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.

The USA is nuts

What are the most terrifying photos of animal teeth and claws?

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:

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.

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.

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.

But when you see their claws, it’s immediately obvious who they are related to:

Fortunately, they are omnivores.

Nature is metal AF. Death by another animal never seems to be a fun way to go.

What is a ‘bug that became a feature’ in real life?

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….

McDonalds is unaffordable

Have you ever seen a girl so pretty that you wonder if you’d ever see her again?

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!

No Tuna?

What’s the most insane thing a human has survived?

Let’s talk about this guy.

That’s not a green screen in the back.

His name is Wim Hof. They call him The Iceman.

He can withstand extreme cold.

No, not single digit numbers without a shirt on.

Not a wind chill in New York in January.

So extreme that it would kill anybody else.

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.”

This warming effect of the breathing exercise allows the blood to circulate more freely in the body.

Here he is explaining the exercise to someone else.

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.”

And he takes this insanity even a step farther.

Hof claimed (and was tested) to be able to control his immune system with his consciousness.

So the most insane thing a human has survived?

Well, Hof makes it seem like you can kind of survive anything.

Life is truly mind over matter.

If a girl rejects you, what is the best way to get her to regret her decision?

Remember Betsy from Taxi Driver?

It was played by Cybill Shepherd.

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.

He won an Oscar for the Best Actor for Raging Bull.

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.

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.

Ignore Grammatical mistakes.

He’s lying

What is the most badass thing a historical figure has ever said?

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:

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.

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.

Strange NYC

What’s an act of kindness someone did for you that you still think about every now and then?

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!”)

Oh yeah, and I got the job!

Fish Bowl

What is one thing your kid came home and told you one day that made you want to go to school the next day and go off on the principals and teachers?

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)

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.

Why do most poor people remain poor?

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

A fatherly surprise

Today I visited Quora, and saw a post written by my half-sister. She is my father’s daughter with his second wife. And it was a tribute to my dad.

I hadn’t talked to her since my dad died, and she lives in Erie, and I have long forgotten about her. I left a comment to her… telling thank-you for her tribute to our mutual father. Nine sentences.

I do not want to open up dialog with her, as I have long since given up on my old family back in the states, but I did get something nice out of it. I got a picture of my father when he was in the Air Force in his 20’s.

I will still stay away. I have ZERO interest in any continuing dialog for any reason. But in regards to this, let me show you all my father… handsome man.

Today…

What’s the most outrageous reason you’ve ever seen a customer refuse to pay for a service?

Years ago my son was working as a tow truck driver. He was sound asleep at 2 AM when he got a call. He jumped up finishing getting dressed as he was running out the door. The call was for a car on the freeway so those are a priority. He drove to the car and found the guy had gotten out on the side of the freeway and locked himself out of his car. It was not hard to figure out he’d probably been drinking a little and stopped to urinate. So my son got there and quickly opened up the car and told the man the fee is $185. That is the standard fee for a call to the freeway. The man flipped out and told my son that was ridiculous and he was NOT paying that kind of money. My son explained that was the standard fee of all the towing companies for a call out to a freeway. My son was polite and professional the entire time but this man said: “That took you two seconds and I’m not paying $185 for that!!”. My son finally just looked at him and said “You’re not? Ok then” and my son walked over to the car, tossed the keys on the seat, locked the door and walked to his tow truck and got in and drove away. I guess that man didn’t understand that while it took my son 2 seconds because he’s good that my son had already worked all day and was sound asleep at 2 AM. My son doesn’t make any $185 for that call but instead was making $15 an hr. He could have not answered the phone at all at that hour but he’s a good person. He gets up and goes out. I sure hope that the next car that came by was not a CHP and that guy ended up with a DUI. If he did then he was wishing he paid $185. He had to pay it anyway when the next truck came from some other company.

What is a slap-in-the-face job offer?

My boss asked me to deliver a lamp to a photographer at Condé Nast publications in New York City. They are the publishers of glossy magazines such as Vogue, W, Glamour, Allure, Self, Teen Vogue, Lucky. Their offices and studios are absolutely stuffed with gorgeous women; some for photo-shoots, but also many models who retired into the fashion- magazine business.

I got into an elevator which was immediately packed with a crowd of stunningly beautiful young women headed to various photo studios. I inhaled the intoxicating perfume and slyly whispered to the elevator operator, “Now THIS is the happiest place on Earth.” He chuckled knowingly.

I delivered the lamp, and caught the down elevator. When we got to the main floor, the elevator emptied, and I asked the operator, half-kidding, “How does one get a job like this?”

I was surprised when he responded, “You just apply at the front desk in the lobby. The pay is really great, full benefits, AND since most of the models are lonely and from out-of-town, you can date all the hot supermodels you could possible want. So make sure you pick up an application on your way out…then take the bus to Cleveland.”

“Cleveland?” I asked.

“Well,” he grinned, “That’s where the back of the line is.”

Gulyas (Hungary)

“Gulyas” means cattle- or sheep-herder in Hungarian. This hearty soup has traditional roots in the foods prepared by rustic herders, long ago. Serve the soup in bowls topped with sour cream.

Ingredients

1 pound lean boneless stewing beef
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 medium onions, peeled and chopped
2 cloves garlic, peeled and chopped
2 teaspoons Hungarian sweet paprika
Dash of cayenne pepper
3 cups beef stock or broth
2 cups water
1/2 teaspoon caraway seed
1/2 teaspoon crumbled dry marjoram
Salt and pepper
1 (16 ounce) can tomatoes, broken up
3 medium potatoes, peeled and diced
2 medium carrots, peeled and sliced
2 red (or green) bell peppers, cut into chunks
2 tablespoons flour
2 tablespoons water
Csipetka, if desired
Sour cream

Instructions

Wipe beef with damp cloth; cut into 1-inch cubes. Place oil in Dutch oven. Add beef; brown well on all sides. Remove from pan with slotted spoon; set aside.
Add onions and garlic to pan; cook 4 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add paprika, cayenne, stock, the 2 cups water, caraway, marjoram, salt, pepper and meat. Stir well. Bring to boil over moderate heat. Reduce heat to low; cook, covered, 45 minutes.
Add tomatoes, potatoes, carrots, and peppers. Stir well; return to boil. Cover; cook 30 minutes.
Combine flour and the 2 tablespoons water; stir to form smooth paste. Add slowly to soup, stirring well. Cook over low heat, stirring until thickened. Drop Csipetke (noodle/dumplings) into soup before serving, if desired.

Serves 4 to 6

What is the single most underrated trait a person can have?

I have a friend from my graduate days. A quiet, gentle, unassuming guy, with a permanent smile on his face. I never saw him agitated. Or elated. He took everything as it came – the good and the bad.

Being academically average, the both of us started our MBA prep in the third year. Attended the same classes in our fourth. During the mid of the year, I relocated to Bangalore for a 6 month internship, he stayed back at campus. He always aced his mock tests, but, unfortunately, just a few months prior to D-Day, his father passed away. He didn’t do as well in the actual exam as he could have. Consequently, he couldn’t make it to a good college.

Now being the sole earner in the family, he took up the best offer at hand. A mass recruiter paying around 3–3.25 lpa and resumed prep for the next year’s exam. He didn’t make it this time either. Not one to get disheartened, he tried again the following year. They say “third time’s a charm”, and it was for him.

He got into one of the best MBA colleges in the country, worked hard for another 2 years, and graduated with honors (top 5% of the batch). Landed himself a cushy job with a boutique trading firm making 10x of what he was.

During all of these years, I never heard him rant about his rotten luck. Or bitch about his problems. Or complain about the unfair advantage that the rich and powerful have. He just kept his head down and kept working with what he had (talent) and what was handed to him (luck).

So, “what is the single most underrated trait a person can have”?

Perseverance.

What are common mistakes made by college students?

Freshman year I was living in the dorms. I was living in the cheapest dorms on campus, so it was me and a roommate living with 30 other girls with two communal bathrooms on the 11th floor.

I was on that unlimited meal plan flow, and the freshman 15 had become a reality. I decided it was time to go on a health kick.

I had an (illegal) crockpot in my dorm. One of these bad boys.

I bought myself some fish (I think it was tilapia), rice, and broccoli.

I threw it all in that crockpot with some vegetable broth, turned it on, and went to the gym.

I stayed at the gym for 3 hours, then got some food afterwards for a total of four hours.

I returned to my dorm and got on the elevator.

As soon as the elevator doors opened, a stench of fish attacked my nostrils. It permeated every corner of the 11th floor.

I knew immediately I had made a big mistake.

My RA was searching every inch of our floor for the source of the smell. Girls were out in the halls spraying Febreze. People were speculating that some girl on our floor was having major lady problems.

I waited until my RA was no longer in sight of my room. I opened my door. The stench of fish almost made me pass out, it was so strong.

I ran and turned my crockpot off and bagged all the fish up and put it in my refrigerator. No one could know it was me.

I was lucky that my roommate went out of town that weekend so she didn’t have to know about it.

Since I didn’t have a sink in my room, I’d have to wash the Crockpot out in the public bathroom, which was a high risk situation of me getting caught.

I first decided to soak it with dish soap and water which I carried in a water bottle from the sink to my room.

Then, when it had soaked, I took it to the shower so I could wash it behind a curtain to lower the risk of anyone seeing me.

I disposed of all of the evidence before my roommate came back.

Our entire floor smelled like fish for four days. It was bad.

By the time my roommate came back, I had done my best to air out our room and febreze everything.

However, every fabric held a slight smell of fish. All of her and my clothes, our bedspreads, and our carpet had a small stench.

She would notice that her clothes smelled like fish every once in a while and she’d say “How did this happen? Do your clothes smell like fish too?”

I’d be like “Yeah, that is so weird. It’s probably the water here.”

I was successful, no one ever found out that the source of the fish stench was me and my crockpot until years later, when I willingly told some of my friends. (Which they now never let me forget)

But I learned an important lesson that day, one that all college freshman should follow:

NEVER CROCKPOT YOUR FISH AT YOUR DORM.

What school rule had to be put in place because of you?

My first husband passed away in January, 2001. My daughter was 16 at the time, in 10th grade. I permitted her to take a week and a half off to grieve, but getting homework assignments from her teachers.. When she returned to school, her history teacher told her that she had a report due that day. She had not been made aware of the assignment, as the teacher had only given it a week prior. The teacher told her. “ Well, you should have been here when it was assigned. “ She told her that her father’s death was not a good enough excuse for missing class. She came home in tears. I called the school the next day and spoke with the principal. He agreed that the teacher had been out of line. The teacher was made to apologise to her in front of the class, and was written up for being insensitive. I asked the principal if I could schedule a grief instructional seminar for the staff, and he agreed. The seminars still happen every year. I also spearheaded a grief counseling group, headed by a wonderful hospice nurse. It still exists today in that school. Not really policy changes, but changes nevertheless.

The Best Passports for a World War

As a surgeon, what is the strangest thing you have found inside someone while performing a surgery?

I am not a surgeon but a Trauma Nurse. But I did have an interesting case.

One night shift an elderly man, 80’s, comes in complaining of abdominal pain. We started an IV, sent blood to the lab to see if he had an elevated white cell count which would point to appendicitis.

On physical examination he had a scar from a previous appendectomy, a soft abdomen, no reflex on palpitation, but a hard, firm mass about the level of his navel to pubis. So we sent him off for an X-Ray of his abdomen.

On return from X-Ray the tech put the films on the viewer and left without a word. When I looked up there, as big as life was a 1 liter Thermos sitting just past his rectum in his large intestine.

I informed him that he was going to be admitted for removal of a foreign object when the OR opened the next day. He asked if I would call his wife to tell her he was being admitted.

When I informed her that we needed to keep him overnight she stated, “Not that thermose again is it? Well you tell him he can take a taxi home because I ain’t picking him up again.”

Have you ever been ignored by the staff in a store because you didn’t look wealthy enough?

I had always worn el cheapo suits, just something to look professional at work. But my girlfriend thought I should get a once in a life time, show off suit, as I was in the fittest shape of my life. So we went to Holt Renfrew to buy a suit, I was thinking Armani because it sounds impressive, but really I just wanted a suit that made me look good. No one was rude or anything, but no one approached me as I was browsing. I just got the vibe, that I wasn’t welcome.

I went next door to Harry Rosen, and as soon as I started browsing, I was approached, and asked if I would like a cappuccino while we picked out a suit. I was hooked, it might be a gimmick, but it made me feel special. They showed me that a Canali looked better on me, than the Armani, and suited my physique better. They asked if I wanted the name, or the look. Because no one would know that it was an Armani if I didn’t name drop.

I took the Canali. After it was fitted and adjusted, I went back to Holt Renfrew to compare prices, while wearing my new suit, shirt, tie and shoes.

I had someone asking if they could help me in seconds.

Maybe the first time everyone was busy at Holt Renfrew, but after that I bought a lot at Harry Rosens. Nothing as expensive as that suit, but nice clothes.

What will be the effect if Trump imposes a new China tax on most imported goods bar Americans from investing, restrict Chinese ownership of U.S. assets and a complete ban on imports of Chinese-made goods, like electronics, steel and pharmaceuticals?

It will speed up China’s ascendency and swiftly destroy the U.S. economy. Over time the U.S. will implode and break up into 5–6 different nation. It will start a class war in the U.S. and polarise the U.S. as never before.

But heck, ignore my advise and do it anyway! Trump is very smart he will say all what you and for, but do 1% and fool all of you while he enjoys popularity! Biden is not too clever he will do 10% and screwed up the U.S. and spend the rest of his term negotiating with China! He get screwed from left and right.

Chinese will do precisely what the U.S. do but it hurts you ten times harder!

What is a slap-in-the-face job offer?

This happened to my wife. She interviewed for a position, she nailed a software testing interview to a point where some interviewers in the interview panel said after the interview, it would be a crime if this company did not pick her.

She was obviously over joyed and waiting for the offer. The offer did come 2 days later; she stated her current compensation and they agreed they would give at least 5 K more.

2 days later the company came back with close to 20K less than her current compensation saying that the company’s CEO said that the job and the person who interviewed for the job did not deserve such a high compensation and that since the office locality was already closer to her place the company was doing her a huge favor already.

My wife politely declined the offer saying she was happy with her current job( which she was except for the commute) and she said she would join the company if they offer her the same compensation. The recruiter went back to the CEO and after 2 days of serious discussions with CEO, the recruiter came back excitedly and said the company was willing to offer 5 K more than their previous offer( which was still 15K lesser than the previous offer ). My wife was amused by the recruiter’s excitement and said it was lesser than her current compensation and declined the offer.

At this moment the recruiter should have left it like that and moved on. But she suggested that my wife was lying about her total compensation and that the position did not entail such an high pay in the current job market. This came after the recruiter accepted my wife’s initial proposition and after one of the interview panelist stated that my wife had done the interview really well.

Till this moment we were actually in a dilemma because the commute was really frustrating( 2 hours one way commute), after this discussion my wife made her mind to stick with her current job and try for a different job later.

My wife got a better paying job 1 month later within 5 mile radius. One of the panelist in that interview became family friend and said they were still looking for someone to fill that position( after close to two months) and that the CEO suggested that he would actually reach out to my wife again with a better TC.

What were the main reasons for the South’s defeat in the US Civil War? Was it due to a lack of preparation and resources, or were there other factors at play?

The Confederacy was a midget taking on a giant. It trailed the Union in population, manufacturing, economic might, transportation networks and available capital. It was a miracle it held on as long as it did.

Let’s start with population. At the start of the war, the population of the Union states was about 22 million. The entire population of the Confederacy was about 9 million, but 3.5 million of those were slaves. As a result, during the war, the Union raised 2 million troops. The Confederacy raised fewer than 1 million.

Similarly, the GNP of the Union states was about three times that of the Confederate states, and most of the Union GNP was manufactured goods even though the Union had triple the arable land. The Union had five times as many factories as the Confederacy, and most Confederate factories were focused on agricultural processing.

The Union had two and a half times more railway mileage than the South, and it was better connected. Most southern railways just ran to the coast.

Not long into the war, the Confederacy had practically no gold, and thanks to Union blockades, had trouble exporting goods to raise more. Both sides printed currency, and although the Union currency wasn’t popular, the Confederate currency pretty much quickly became worthless.

The Confederacy knew it couldn’t defeat the Union. It’s only hope was that the Union would tire of the war and sue for peace. However, the Confederacy, despite a couple of really competent generals, couldn’t form a strategy that would force the Union to the bargaining table. Yes, Union attacks at the heart of the Confederacy were generally unsuccessful, but on the Mississippi the Union pretty much won every battle and managed to stop Confederate trade dead in its tracks.

What was your most embarrassing unclothed experience?

Hi.

I’m Alex from Ecuador,

Well not many besides people I went to school with and my parents know this story but I figure what the hell! It’s a long one just a warning. I was bullied all through out my grade school and middle school years. I was a chubby over weight girl and far bigger then most of my fellow school mates.

It started with the usual name calling and pushes in the hallway, but it eventually got much much worse. My worst experience would have to be in 8th grade, when one of the boys I had a crush on pretty much the most popular boy in the school, was coaxed by a group of girls to “Ask me out”. Me being the dumb kid I was thought he was being genuine.

He asked if I would go to the school year end dance with him. I was excited I made my mom buy me a new outfit and I had my hair professionally done basically went all out. Well (now this is where it gets hard for me to talk about) I got to the dance and hooked up with a few friend waiting for my “date” to arrive I was so happy and excited.

He showed up and asked me if I wanted to dance. We danced not to a slow song or anything but danced together. Then the girls showed up. These girls were some of the meanest bitches on earth I swear. They came to the dance floor and well they were being nice.

Complimenting me on my outfit and hair saying how lucky I was to snag the hottest guy in school. Well my date then asked if I wanted to go sit on the bleachers for awhile and talk. I went sat down and we started talking and it was like everyone melted away. He then asked to be excused and one of the girls came up and asked if I would go with her to the washroom so we could “fix our make-up”. I walked into the washroom and there were at least 8 girls in there.

They grabbed my hair and ripped me down to the ground they literally ripped all my clothing off. I mean everything and dragged me by my hair out of the washroom one of the three girls stood by the back entrance so I couldn’t get out that way and one other girl locked the bathroom door from the inside so I couldn’t run there. Then my “date” came around the corner said I was a disgusting whale and he would never date someone like me he then grabbed my hair and two other girls grabbed my arms and they dragged me out into the gym dropped me and took off as teachers came running. Two other girls snapped pictures before taking off as well.

so there I was on the gym floor in front of 150 students..teachers and parents…naked..beaten up and crying. If that wasn’t enough one of the girls who snapped a picture of me. Had it developed and used a photo copier and posted the pictures all over the school on the last day. None of the kids involved were ever punished as the princible said ” It’s the end of the year none of these kids will be coming back here anyways”, What they did to me was wrong but I grew from it and I swore come high school I was not going to be some victim.

I joined the football team the first day as the first female linebacker ever and I kicked ass for 3 seasons. I was pretty popular I had tones of friends and even though I was popular I NEVER EVER put anyone else down.

Oh and over the summer I ran into my “date” I went up to him called him a fucking loser and kicked him as hard as I could in the balls.

He moved away…Two of the head girls who did me the most damage I went to high school with….as popular as they were in middle school they were shit in high school one is now a meth head..The other is on welfare with 4 kids!

I LOVE karma 🙂

What is the most satisfying way you saw a smirk get wiped off someone’s face?

My wife has been chesty. Before the kids too.

Our daughter has taken after her mother in that regard.

My daughter was on her way to her office after a lunch with me, waiting for the elevator and a man (30–40s) came along. Made a bit of small talk, and then out of nowhere, he said and I quote what my daughter said “You don’t really have to work. Just show off those knockers to a rich daddy who’ll take care of you and those things”.

When he cleared three interviews (technical, informal, different teams + hiring manager), he was face to face with my daughter, who was the HR boss. She just played the video she got from security from the elevator.

He had to be escorted off, coz he wouldn’t stop accusing her of torpedoing him and turn to begging and than back to accusing.

Needless to say, his career in consulting for retail isn’t going anywhere and my daughter made sure every big employer in the narrow field knows about that man.

I was a proud daddy that week, and you couldn’t do anything to take off the smile off my face.

Oppressed?

If China really wanted to, could it successfully invade, occupy, and annex Taiwan?

Yes.

But the world will sanction China…

Eh you’re already sanctioning us.

But the world will hate China.

The world already hates China.

But the western world will seek the extermination of Chinese.

The western world already wants to exterminate us. Note how the Chinese exclusion acts are being made law in the US right now. Not just Chinese citizens. US born Chinese. Most westerners welcome such laws.

But the Chinese economy will COLLAPSE

But isn’t the Chinese economy ALREADY collapsing?

If anything a massive super heavy casualty war is desirable. Taipei turned into Gaza is desirable… what’s that? Ah yes you’re already sanctioning and accusing us of genocide. So what you gonna do? Sanction us again?

In short anything you can do to us, you’ve already done.

What’s a rule your employer implemented that backfired terribly?

What’s a rule your employer implemented that backfired terribly?

I was eight seconds late getting back from my break. I got wrote up for being late. EIGHT SECONDS.

I usually worked through my breaks and part of my lunch because I just liked doing what I was doing without interruption. (My bosses knew this, too.) But for some reason, on that day, I did take my allotted break, and was late.

After being disciplined for my tardiness, I took every single break, every single time. Right down to the last second. I didn’t work nearly as “hard” as I did previously, either. (I like the t’s crossed, and the i’s dotted. That evaporated. My work was still accurate, but I didn’t go the extra mile.) My employer lost a lot for that eight seconds. However, the most valuable thing that was lost was the respect I used to have for my job and boss.

Thankfully, I’m retired now.

Visiting the USA After 5 Years Living Abroad

For anyone who was bullied in school, what was the worst act of bullying you had to endure?

I was a big and athletic kid but I also moved a lot when I was in elementary school. Each time we moved I had to prove myself all over again.

Being the “new kid” meant that I was bullied by all sorts of kids from all sorts of groups, at least until I fought back.

And I learned to fight back pretty quickly. You don’t really have to win all your fights, you just have to prove that you’re willing to fight. That’s the key. And that you won’t back down.

I particularly had a tough time moving from St. Pete, Florida, to a suburb of St. Louis, Missouri, in 1980 between 6th and 7th grade.

St. Pete was awesome. We lived on the water in a great community. We had power boats and sail boats and I had lived there for a couple of years so I had a bunch of friends (Little League and Pop Warner).

No offense intended but the suburbs west of St. Louis sucked in comparison.

Anyhow, as a 7th grader I went to South Senior High School which had grades 7 through 12. My first week there I got into a scrap with some kid and did pretty good. The problem was that he had an older brother, a freshman, who later cornered me when I wasn’t expecting it and gave me a bit of a whooping.

I was so disappointed in myself that I decided to fight the older brother again. So the next day I ran up and basically tackled him in front of all of his friends and fought him until teachers broke it up. I didn’t win but I sure as hell didn’t lose.

But that was enough. Nobody messed with me the rest of that year. Attacking a high school kid got me a lot of street cred with the kids in 7th grade. I was suspended for a couple of days but my Dad was old school so he was proud of me for sticking up for myself.

But then we moved from St. Louis to the East Bay of San Francisco between 7th and 8th grade and I had to do the same thing all over again.

Times were different back then.

Keeko

What happened at a poker table in a casino that made you say, “You gotta be kidding me?”

I had a business trip to Las Vegas some years ago. I was traveling with a friend, who frequented LV to gamble several times a year. He suggested we play craps and gave me a book on how it is played.

When we got to the tables, he carefully selected a table, based on the laughing and sport the players were having. His comment: play with people who are having fun. I was next to a guy who had at least $5K in chips. I had my measly $200. As play progressed, my slot had increased to about $400 and I felt great. The guy beside me had at least $25K in his. Then, we all crapped out. I was down to about $300 total, with $100 more than I started with. My friend insisted we leave the table and go for a walk and get a cup of coffee.

We took a walk, had a coffee, etc. My friend told me we’d stop by that table in about an hour and find the same $25K guy playing. We did come back and he had less than $2K in his slot. He had lost over $20K while we walked. My friend told me that many people gamble and do not stop until they lose everything they brought. This was an interesting lesson for me. Gambling can be fun, but one must limit the loss.

Watch this man

Why do humans need to wipe after they poop, when animals can just squat and plop? Why do humans need to shower or they’ll get rashes and smell awful, but animals don’t?

Every living creature has an anus: Ants, horses, eagles . . . And us. While most creatures’ anuses do their jobs with little fuss, not so with human beings. The design of our anus is Providence’s little joke to keep us humble.

Consider, for example, the horse. We live across from a horse breeding establishment so I’ve had ample opportunity to observe these estimable animals in action. While they shit copiously they never get any on their hair (when was the last time you saw a horse’s behind fouled by its own waste?). The reason for this lies in the design of the horse anus. It is an extensible device that, when a BM is about to pass, protrudes a few critical inches, allowing the manure to drop straight to the ground without mussing a single hair. To further forfend fouling, there is no hair in the immediate vicinity of the horse’s anus, nor on the extensible process itself. What a remarkable design.

Not so with us. Our small orifice is buried deep in a meaty cleft, the margins of which have to be spread to their limit if there is to be any chance the thicket of long, nasty hair in the cleft will not be fouled by the passing of stool — a vain exercise in 99 cases out of 100. Moreover, while the horse can defaecate while standing, just let a human being try that! No we must squat. But not only squat, we must go through all sorts of contortions to minimize the amount of feces that will cling to the surrounding parts — which, as we all know, is another futile exercise.

To accommodate our flawed design, we are taught from birth to use wads of paper, magazine pages, dried corncobs and even stones, to wipe our filthy behinds. And this we must do! If we did not wipe, we would reek of dung from the cake of dingleberries between our cheeks and our pants, skirts, caftans and burkas, would be fouled with nicotine stains and clouds of flies would follow us down the street like goslings.

We are the most wretched of all creatures.

By design

What is a slap-in-the-face job offer?

I worked in a high tech company and moved up the ladder from bottom level CSR to a business manager overseeing a 60 million dollar product line by the age of 30. I was the best in the world at what I did but I had two huge strikes against me. One was my absolutely shitty attitude. I have written about attitude before. You must always have a great attitude, even if you have to fake it. No single thing is more important to your success in life than your attitude. But mine sucked. The second thing that worked against me was that in many companies, no matter where you are or how good you are, many people will see the guy who started at the bottom. In the eyes of Management, I was the customer support lackey who fixed broken things for them, not the guy making them 60 million dollars a year. There was a distinct lack of respect and that contributed to my bad attitude.

A new manager was hired for the department. He was an angry, mean jerk whose approach to everything was “shoot first ask questions maybe – they don’t deserve your consideration anyway.” I could no longer take the contempt and I quit.

A few months after I left the company began to realize its loss. I am not bragging about myself here. I did good work and I was the best at what I did. I designed the products. I knew absolutely everything about them. I was the sales troubleshooter who went on hundreds of sales calls per year. I knew every weak link in the competition. I knew how to present the product in the best light. I could give stellar presentations to huge audiences. I was making them a lot of money.

So they approached me at my new job and said they wanted me to come back. Everyone wanted me to come back except for that new asshole who had been, and would be my manager. He had been tasked with bringing me back but he didn’t want me back. I outshone him at every level. I could do his job in my sleep. But he was the guy they tasked with bringing me back. So he asked me to dinner.

When you’re going to bring someone back and you ask them to dinner you don’t take them to McDonald’s to make your pitch. We were suit and tie guys and wearing a suit and tie at McDonald’s was a surreal experience. I let it go. I wanted to hear the offer.

And so Greg made the offer. They offered me the exact same money I was making at my new company and that was it. No bonus. No extra stock. No retained seniority or vacation time. He was going through the motions because he was told to go through the motions. But his entire attitude was resentment and anger. For a few minutes I thought I was misunderstanding him; the offer was so lame as to be not even worth the time at McDonald’s. I had to ask for clarification.

He looked at me with contempt and said, “That company you’re at now is going down. We can offer you any terms we want and you’ll take it because you don’t want to be part of a sinking ship.” I might add that my old company that was trying to get me back was also doing a fair imitation of the Titanic at the time, too. I was absolutely stunned when he said it. I couldn’t believe it. So I laughed a little bit, got up and left.

That was a slap in the face offer.

I told a few old friends at my old company what had happened and it got back to the President. He called me personally on the phone and invited me to dinner. It was at a four star restaurant. When I got there he asked me what happened. I told him. He apologized. He said if I came back they would make it worth my while. I asked him if that guy would be my boss. He said yes, there was not much he could do about that. So I thanked him and said no. We ate and talked and then I left.

Two years later my old company was being sold to Compaq Computer on the back of a product I had designed years earlier. Even though I had been gone for two years, I was credited in a speech by the President for the work that made them successful in the sale. By then I was the senior manager in the department of my new company making much, much more money than I ever dreamed possible. I attribute my success in the new company to my new and improved attitude because attitude is everything.

Children of Lawyers

How or why did the US Army allow soldiers to drink and do so many drugs during the Vietnam war?

I was in the infantry in 1969, we were at a small, one-company firebase in the Mekong Delta. The Army did not “allow” drug use among its soldiers but it happened anyway. A guy who bunked across from me openly shot heroin. This obviously wasn’t sanctioned by the military. One night when we had set up a standard L-shaped ambush, this fellow decided he wanted to go home and walked right out into the middle of the ambush. Fortunately, nobody clicked a Claymore handle and he was retrieved safely. But the safety of an entire platoon had been compromised.

The very next night two VC walked right through the middle of our ambush site and nobody opened fire or set off a Claymore. We weren’t certain it wasn’t our drug-addicted soldier trying to head home again.

As for alcohol, all we had was beer when the little beer window was open. Pabst, aka rat piss, was 25¢ and the much-preferred Black Label was 35¢, and we sometimes had Bud. There was no hard liquor because there was no PX from which to purchase it. I never saw marijuana use but I’m sure it was widespread in other companies. Heroin was the problem.

So I suspect the next question would be: Why wasn’t this reported to the higher ups? Well, soldiers learned to be remarkably tolerant of their fellow GI’s. There was no upside to creating problems in the platoon, too many opportunities to become a victim of “friendly fire” on a dark night in the boonies. One soldier, on rare stand down days, played “Black Pearl, Precious Little Girl” endlessly on a 45 rpm player and nobody complained.

In summary, the Army allowed drinking because soldiers have consumed alcohol since, well, forever. Drug use was not allowed but it happened anyway, and this was well before the advent of drug testing. Everyone was trying to figure out his own way to get back home safely and the solutions were never that simple.

Party time on a stand-down day.

What was the best revenge you’ve ever gotten?

I worked for my best friend and he got into a bad motorcycle accident he was in coma and had to learn to walk and talk again so I took over doing everything for the company I worked 16 hr days 7 days a week for a year never asked for anything just wanted my friend to have everything he has before the accident. so after a little more than year he was back at work so I asked for a day off he said no he wife didn’t stick up for me or anyone in his family and they all knew what I did for him so I told him I quit he said fine so I went to our 3 big company’s we did work for and asked them if they wanted to learn what we did for them and I told them what my boss did that night we went out bought 3 trucks and I trained them how to do what we did my boss lost over a 1,000,000 because of losing those company’s work and then list his wife and everything he owned because what I did by taking those company’s away

This is painful

How did your high school crush end up in life?

Definitely going anonymous for this.

My high school crush was a beautiful girl named Adrian, a year behind me, and it seems I was the only person in the school who had ever seen Rocky and got the ‘Adriaaaaaaaaaaaaaan’ joke she kept making.

She was maybe 5 foot 4, adorable, and had a propensity for sitting in my lap in the lunchroom and stealing my food (I made my own lunch through most of high school).

She also ended up dating a guy who was, to be fair, scum. He had that ‘bad boy’ charm that young women seem to enjoy, I suppose, but he was borderline retarded and generally violent.

One day in 2014, I was sitting around bored and decided to reconnect with people from high school. Would not recommend.

I found her Facebook page, and noticed that literally nothing had been done to it in years.

Then I found her obituary, and his about a month later.

I talked to someone from her circle of close friends in high school, and it sounded like when she graduated, they moved in together. She was bound for great things, musically and mathematically talented, and he was bound to wind up in the gutter.

Sadly, it sounds like he dragged her down, talked her into ‘experimenting’ with drugs, and both died of heroin overdoses.

Why can’t China invent anything new and only steals from the West?

A Student at Tsinghua asked Ren Zhengfei of Huawei this question

Everyone says China steals from the west. What should we do when someone says that

Zhengfei replied

Keep Innovating. Only the day you become more innovative than them and beat the West on their own terms, would you be in a position to convince yourself that you did not copy from anyone.

That’s your answer

Stealing can only take you so far

So wait and see how China does and then we decide whether China steals or innovates

Unless of course you are the fox who finds the grapes sour

The USA is bat shit crazy

Why don’t Westerners call out for the active dehumanisation of others? Is it because they quietly support it?

Absolutely!

Debate many westerners for a short period of time, what happens? Many of them will turn to racism and dehumanisation when they start losing the debate.

Yesterday for instance somebody posted a comment on the atrocities of Britain against India. He called the atrocities fiction.

I provided counter evidence and he started to dehumanise me and said it was all CCP propaganda.

Except I had been using WESTERN SOURCES.

He couldn’t respond to that so continued to make racist comments at me. They of course don’t see this as racist, much like war crimes against brown people are considered OK because they’re not really people!

You see television and culture of western countries makes them usually white people think they are the master race, that’s why there’s so many self hating Asians in the western world. They’re taught conditioned and trained that whiteness is GODLINESS and many of the people there run with it, as such they feel they can do no wrong, they are the BEST and only humans possible!

What was the most unexpected knock you got on your door?

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.

Hunter’s Stew (Bigos — Poland)

Ingredients

6 pounds canned sauerkraut
1/4 pound bacon or salt pork, diced
3 large onions, chopped
3 tart apples, peeled and chopped
2 cups beef broth
1 cup sherry or dry red wine
Salt, pepper, sugar, to taste
3 pounds smoked sausage, sliced
1 bay leaf

Instructions

Rinse sauerkraut in cold water and squeeze out juice well, reserving some of the juice. Put sauerkraut in large kettle over low heat.
Meanwhile, render the bacon or salt pork. Add bacon bits to sauerkraut.
Sauté onions in bacon fat until golden; add chopped apples and cook until slightly browned. Add all to the kettle. Add sausage. Add enough beef broth, bay leaf, salt, pepper, a little sugar and some of the sauerkraut juice for tartness. Simmer slowly for 1 to 1 1/2 hours.
Add wine and let stew bubble up. Cover and let stand until ready to use.

What is a slap-in-the-face job offer?

I went on an interview for a job I was grossly overqualified for, but I was unemployed (to finish my degree, which required internships), then the sequester hit when I graduated, and I needed ANY job so I could find one that was a better fit.

The boss told me the job paid $28 to $30. I was shocked, because that was extremely low, but they hired desperate people and they could smell it.

I then went through the interview process with the team lead and the office manager. Everything went well, and I headed home. It was a long drive, but that’s where business opportunity was.

While driving, I took a call from the office manager. She has been authorized to offer me the job at $10/hour. I did not laugh. I said “that is significantly lower than (boss) indicated the position paid.” Manager says, ‘you didn’t think $28 to $30 meant per hour, I’m sure? (Of course not, but the position SHOULD have paid much closer to that). $10/hour is the same as $28 to $30 thousand.’

I’m driving down the highway at 75 miles per hour, and very calmly said, no, I knew that was the annual salary. But $10/hour is $400 per week, at 52 weeks per year is $20,800 per year. and I did NOT say “if i can do the math in my head while driving, i’m pretty sure you can do it at your desk with a calculator at your disposal!”

Manager says “I can go check with (boss) to confirm – do you want to hold?”

I said “no, you were going to send me an offer letter? Why don’t you tell me about the benefits you mentioned, and when you send the letter you can make sure the figure is correct.”

An offer letter was not one this company typically provided because they liked to bait and switch – pay $8/hour when they’d offered $12, because you had no proof. I learned this later, and was SO glad I’d gotten a letter. When it came in, it was for the $28k figure.

My three-month review never happened, and at five months I had a nice offer from a much better company and I’m still there 5 years later. Making what I’m worth.

Sometimes you have to accept a slap in the face, but don’t let them step on your neck while they’re doing it.

Def-Con 4 (1985)

I remember this one. A cheesy B-grade movie, but I well remember enjoying it. You all have fun.

It is strange that the contemporaneous things going on today Geo-politically is much worse than what is described in this movie. Ugh!

Full Movie! Please watch the first 25 minutes. It’s all gold.

https://youtu.be/YTRoBQLQbZo

Metallicman domain name hustle

Well, it seems that a compromise in the metallicman dispute issue has been realized.

It’s a hustle: a scam. A fraud.

Ah… The head honcho at the CN domain office has offered me to purchase the domain names before the interloper does.

Great. Or so I thought.

Then he sent me the price list.

Not so great.

So I will need to cough up 20,000 RMB to secure the metallicman website.

20,000 RMB is a tidy sum.

Uh oh!

…

But then, a mm subscriber suggested that it was a scam.

So I went on Google and checked it out.

I discovered this….

Beware the following email originating from John Liu <chinaregistry177 (at) aliyun.com address individually to you. It is a scam trying to get you to part with your money. The website at the end of the message does not exist.

Mine was a Mr. Albert Liu.

Albert Liu<albert.liu@chinaregistry.org.cn>

Subject: CN Domain and keyword

“(It’s very urgent, please transfer this email to your CEO. Thanks)

We are the domain name registration service company in China. On Dec 30, 2015, we received an application from Huaxun Holdings Ltd requested “XXXXXX” (name removed) as their internet keyword and China (CN) domain names. But after checking it, we find this name conflict with your company name or trademark. In order to deal with this matter better, it’s necessary to send email to you and confirm whether this company is your distributor or business partner in China?

Kind regards

John Liu
General Manager
China Registry (Headquarters)
8052, Douhai Building, No. 59 Baolian Road,
Shanghai, China
Tel: +86 21 6191 8696
Mobile: +86 138 1642 8671
Fax: +86 21 6191 8697
Web: www .chinaregistry.com.cn
Email: john (at) chinaregistry.com.cn

Phone numbers and URLs are equal to what what I got in my mail.

Comment and Advice

The unsolicited email you receive is from a Chinese domain registrar (could be a certified registrar, agent, affiliate or private person).

In the email they explain that a supposed company (try to Google the name) is interested in some available domain names (typically .hk, .cn, .tw), which correspond with your brand name.

In only a few days the other party will register these domains, unless you secure them first. The domain registrar can even send you an email from the interested third party (it comes from a hotmail address) claiming that they want to register your domain names, and they are only waiting for approval from Mr. Jim or whatever his name is.

Identical to what happened to me. Only this was from a sina address.

Zhihai Ning<zhihaining@vip.sina.com>

There is a similar domain name: www . chinaregistry.org.cn.

Yes. This is the URL.

In trying to connect to this my anti virus protection gave the following message so beware:

“When we visited this site, we found it may be designed to trick you into submitting your financial or personal information to online scammers. This is a serious security threat which could lead to identity theft, financial losses or unauthorized use of your personal information”.

It can be very expensive if you fall for it. Just ignore it.

Yuppur. It’s a pretty well established e-mail scam.

Remember the name of the organization that registers domain names is CNNIC. Not “China Registry”.

I’m gonna ignore it. Thanks MM crew!

Happy Dragon Year!

Today…

Why is the Western cooperate media so keen on the Chinese economy but not their own economies in recession?

Excellent question.

Thank you for asking. It is easy to understand. Western governments need to hoodwink their own people who are now very wary about their dropping standard of living for close to 3 generations now. The average westerners are now worst off then their parents and even their grandparents.

Homelessness is rampant, inflation exceed their growth rates and set them back further. Take the UK. In 2023 it’s economy had a negative growth of -3% yet its inflation is a full 4.2%. Together British people suffer a 7.2% deterioration of their standard of living.

The U.S. grew by 2.4% in 2023 but suffers a 3.4% inflation. So once again it’s standard if living fall by 1%. But it has deteriorated back to the levels of 1960’s. Even life expectancy has dropped below that of China! Homelessness has reached a million and a third of Americans cannot afford their health insurance and their college debts consume most of them.

So with such a scenario, it is hardly surprising that they used their media to channel western minds to Chinese economy that is purportedly deteriorating. These are simply a pack of lies to deceive the westerners. Just imagine 2020–2022 over the 3 years post pandemic China grew by 5.5% per annum while most western economies had negative growth.

But what is worst is that it suffered close to double digit inflation while China’s inflation rate is on average 0.5%. In 2023 China grew by 5.2% with a mere 0.2% inflation. Chinese people’s standard of living grew by a net +5.0% in 2023! Yet if you read western media it accuses China of a host of things casting doubt on China!

By right westerners ought to be mad at their government for lying to them. But most pretend to be living better than the world. It’s a fell good factor! It is not good because truth will dawn on them sooner or later.

When did you realize that your parent was verbally abusive?

I realized my mother was verbally abusive when I was around 13. One of my first friends invited me to dinner. I was worried, but I went. It was a normal dinner, with home cooked casserole and green beans. I wasn’t used to that. Everyone sat at the table, and the father cleared his throat. Uh-oh, I thought, here it comes.

Then, he launched into a funny story about how he and a coworker kept hiding each others waste baskets, and how he had won the last round thanks to his daughter’s suggestion of putting a plastic lei on it and photographing it as though leaving the office.

Then her older brother spoke. He was in college, and told an anecdote about a professor who kept losing chalk. Mum spoke up about Chippy, a little squirrel that she fed by the back door. My friend moaned a little about a huge homework project.

Everyone turned to me. I actually spoke, suggesting that we should build our school project in such a way that it blocked the principal’s door. None of these stories were actually that good. but there was a tenderness in the telling and listening that I had never seen. People listened. They chuckled. They talked. They praised Mum’s cooking. No one said one derogatory thing.

They were a normal family. My friend teased her brother about his lack of hockey prowess, and Mum and Dad liked different baseball teams. My friend got grounded for sass, sometimes. But, instead of the parents trying to destroy the children, they held them up.

I cried all the way home. It was winter, and the tears froze on my face. Mother was there. Her first comment, what did you do to your face? My God you were an ugly baby and it’s just gotten worse. It’s good you don’t wear make up, lipstick on a plow horse.

And it didn’t stop until I went to bed. It never really stopped until I left home, always under the guise of helping me fix my flaws.

But after that dinner with the B family, I knew there was another way to live. And that made all the difference.

Pasta con le Sarde

If there is any pasta dish that represents Sicilian tradition to its fullest, it is pasta con le sarde. Combining the culinary footprints of Sicily’s kitchens, this classic recipe mixes maccheroncini (macaroni) with fennel, tomatoes, pine nuts, raisins, anchovies, onion and fresh sardines.

The pasta is always ladled out of the pot, never poured into a colander, and then put in a serving dish. During two weeks in Sicily, we never had a piece of overcooked pasta. Test, test, test was Chef Tino’s rule, and, apparently, every other chef’s.

Ingredients

1 pound fresh sardines
1/2 pound fennel bulb
Olive oil
1 garlic clove, minced
1 onion, chopped
8 ounces uncooked tomato sauce*
4 ounces pine nuts
1/4 cup raisins, softened in water
2 salted anchovies
1 pound macaroni
Pecorino cheese

Instructions

Bone the sardines. (If you slit the fish lengthwise and grab it by the tail, the bone easily strips out). Chop the fennel and boil under just tender in water that you will use to cook the pasta. Strain the fennel out of the pot and chop finely.
Heat a sauté pan over medium heat and add enough olive oil to just cover the bottom. Brown garlic and onion in oil until soft. Add tomatoes, chopped fennel, pine nuts, raisins, and anchovies. Simmer for 10 minutes. At this point, start the macaroni and add the sardines to the pasta sauce. If the sauce is too dry, add a very small amount of the fennel water. Don’t stir the sauce once the sardines are added, to avoid breaking them up.
Place the cooked pasta in serving dish and pour the sauce over, finishing off with a sprinkling of Pecorino and a little olive oil.

Serves 4 to 6.

* This is best made with fresh tomatoes, coarsely chopped, skin and seeds included. If tomatoes aren’t in season, you could use good canned tomatoes.

What is the greatest waste of human potential?

The first Emperor of a unified Germany, Wilhelm I, was a strict and conservative man. His son, Frederick III, was a liberal mind. A brilliant man and a keen reformer, he was full of ambition to transform German society, do away with stuffy nobility and its ancient war-like ways, and usher in a new, open-minded and scientifically oriented Germany.

Wilhelm I, however, kept on living… born in 1797, he didn’t die until 1888, aged almost 91 years old. Frederick had to wait for a long time for it to finally be “his turn”. He was eager, and excited for the task. But then, three days before his father passed away, Frederick was diagnosed with throat cancer. He had been ill for a while, and his health rapidly took a turn for the worst. By time his father was buried, he was already too weak to walk in the procession. He looked on from the palace window, and wept…

No small part of Frederick’s sorrow? His son and heir, Wilhelm, was a war-like man, imperialistic, aggressive, expansionist, conservative… the polar opposite of his peace-loving, progressive father. Frederick wanted desperately to make good use of his remaining time on earth. But cancer of the throat soon took away his ability to talk, and a botched operation to fix his pain resulted in even greater pain and discomfort when the resulting wound became infected.

“I had so hoped to have been of use to my country. Why is Heaven so cruel to me? What have I done to be thus stricken and condemned?” wrote Frederick III in his diary. He died in June 1888, a mere 99 days into his reign, aged 56. It is often speculated that, had Wilhelm II not ascended to the throne, his father would have moved away from Prussian militarism and Germany may never have entered WWI. WWII would have been averted as well.

Gary, Indiana

What did your boss say to you during a meeting that resulted in you immediately resigning?

Not to me, but how she treated my co-workers.

We were all working overtime and being stressed out. Sales weren’t doing well, people were quitting, and everything was dysfunctional. Some items at the store weren’t even there or expired.

My boss was in a bad mood, taking it out on everyone. Nitpicking, tearing others down, and calling people incompetent. I’d already gotten a warning for talking back. I had told her that she shouldn’t be treating people that way. We were all working hard and doing our best. She said that if I didn’t like how she ran the store, then to get out. I was really tempted, but kept working.

It was the final straw when a pregnant co-worker needed to go home on time because she had to walk home at 11:00 PM. My boss refused and my co-worker was in a lot of pain. My boss told her to suck it up, that it was her fault for being an irresponsible wh*** and being stuck as a single mom. This made my co-worker burst into tears; her boyfriend had just broken up with her and left her after the news she was pregnant. She’d been taking it hard since.

I marched right up to this and told my co-worker to gather her things because she worked enough for the night, that I would drive her home. My co-worker listened.

My boss was furious for undermining her. I blew up at her, telling her that she needed to work on her morals and values. I asked her how she could even think about doing this to someone, especially her own worker? My boss answered that it was the wh***’s problem, not ours.

I told her that she should never call someone that and her behavior is exactly why she was losing employees. I said this was why nobody wanted to be around her or get to know her. She was an awful human being, no matter how many times she lied to herself.

I ended it that she was right, that I couldn’t work for someone like her. I didn’t like how she ran the store and I quit; the only time I ever did.

I drove the pregnant woman home and thanked me for everything. I explained that I quit, but would drive her if she needed me.

Apparently, I started a chain. Five people quit after me, including the pregnant woman.

The ironic part is that two months later, that boss was fired… for her treatment of employees.

What, as a first responder, is the dumbest complaint you’ve ever had made against you?

I don’t know that it was the dumbest, but it was certainly an interesting and unusual complaint against me.

I was notified that officers were at a housing project and were requesting permission to force entry into an apartment. The officers had identified a man who had multiple warrants for his arrest. As they were arresting him he broke away from them and ran into an apartment where he did not belong.

I was a watch commander at the time and advised them to set up a perimeter around the apartment and I would be there in two minutes. Upon my arrival, I knocked on the door and spoke with the tenant who was very angry that my officers were threatening to kick down her door.

I had an advantage in speaking with this woman as I knew the complex manager and I also had studied the lease agreements with the various complexes. One reason for an immediate start of eviction proceedings was allowing criminal activity to be conducted at the apartment. I explained that I did not want to see her violate her lease, or have to pay for the door if the police had to break it in.

I explained the search process, and that we were just going to take the man who had run into her house into custody, and leave, without messing anything up inside. She allowed the officers to enter as long as I agreed to stay at the scene. I entered with the officers and actually helped in the search, checking one downstairs closet.

The man was found upstairs fully dressed in bed under the covers (so creative!). He was taken into custody and transported to the department for processing.

Several minutes after I get to the station, I receive a call from the resident. She said, “One of your cops stole $1000 from my apartment.” I advised her that I would take the particulars of her complaint and get to the bottom of this immediately.

I asked where the money had been located and she answered: “In the downstairs closet.” I thought for a minute and replied, “I’m the only one who searched the downstairs closet and I didn’t see or take any money.” She replied rather sarcastically, “Well, it was there before you came in and it’s gone now, so if you didn’t take it, where’s my money?”

Now my mind is going over each minute of the search, with no reasonable explanation. I asked to place the woman on hold for a minute and went to the processing room where the accused was.

Also in the room was a young woman who was counting out a pile of cash. I asked whose money is this. The girl replied, “It’s my money and I’m posting his bail.”

Now I remember, the girl was in the house. I said, “I saw you at the house. Where did you get all that money from?” She replied, ”From the closet downstairs.”

I put the resident, who was the girl’s mother, on speaker phone and had the daughter explain where the $1000 in bail money came from.

I spoke to the mom afterward and she apologized repeatedly. I told her it was already forgotten, and how much I had appreciated her cooperation at the scene, putting her trust in me.

After that, she thought I was a good cop and would wave to me or stop and say hello. Out of a silly misunderstanding, a higher level of trust would develop. So much of police work is about building trust, one person at a time.

You want a wife

What is the most ridiculous reason for which you have been fired?

I learned how to do some simple programming on my own. I wrote simple programs at work for my own and my department’s use. My boss knew about it. One day she came into my office and demanded that I write a program for another department. I tell her, politely of course, that I would be happy to do it but she had just hired a well-trained person to do just that sort of thing and it might be better if he did it. She quickly turned on her heel without saying a word, walked immediately to HR and wrote me up for insubordination. HR suspended me with pay immediately and I was escorted out of the building by security. I hired a lawyer, the best employment lawyer in the area and a friend, immediately. The lawyer told me that I would eventually get fired and then he would go into action. He also told me that my boss would be fired in 6 months and her boss would be fired within a year. Soon I got fired in person by my boss, who smiled throughout the whole ordeal (I had been with the company 21 years and had nothing but excellent reviews), while a security guard stood behind her. I was smiling on the inside.

My lawyer went to work. With 3 weeks my status was changed to retired (at age 56), my legal fees paid, was given a sizable settlement, and never had to go back into work. In about 8 months my boss was fired and her boss was transferred to corporate Siberia. To my surprise, a year or so later the company newspaper published picture of me standing in front of a beautiful new RV in the retiree’s section of the paper. I had bought the RV with part of the settlement check and sent the picture in as a joke. No one probably knew that it was a joke.

China + Russia

Is huge.

As a waiter/waitress what have you done to get back at a rude customer?

Back in about 1990 I was waiting on a group of six men at Baker’s Square. Five of them were normal people, but the sixth was just a funnel when it came to coffee. He wanted me to leave a pot at the table, which we weren’t allowed to do. I told him I’d keep him topped up. He was skeptical, and he was right to be.

I have never seen any three people drink as much coffee in an hour as that guy. I couldn’t keep up. I asked my manager if I could leave him a full pot and was told no. The guy was going from kind of irritated to outright crabby, probably partly due in part to the caffeine overdose he had to be on the cusp of. Glares, passive aggressive remarks, like that.

Near the end of their meal I got kind of slammed and the poor man’s cup was probably empty for five minutes. As soon as I had the chance I hustled to the table and was filling cups. Coffee Man was on the far right and I was going left to right. As I was tipping the pot over his cup he snapped at me, “Could you take a little longer with that fucking coffee?!”

Instantly aborted the pour with less than a teaspoon in his cup. Looked him in the eye with a smile (more of a smirk tbh) and said, “Yes, I absolutely can.”

Turned on my heel and left, with the sound of his friends laughing behind me. Went to the break room and had a cigarette. A whole one. Customer’s always right yeah?

Told the manager what happened on my way back out to the floor. He couldn’t keep from laughing but also said you can’t do that and he was taking over the table. I think he comped Coffee Man’s meal, but I never heard another word about it after that.

Ended up with a pretty good tip, I assume from his friends.

Passport Bros – The Men Fleeing The West | Japan Street Interviews

Pretty interesting.

What’s something your husband did to you that you will never forget?

Bob loved me unconditionally and always respected me during our entire relationship.

We were married for over 31 years. We worked together for much of that time in a very public business. We met on the job when Bob was hired as the news director at a TV station I was already working for as a reporter/anchor. So not only was he my boss, but we co-anchored the evening news as well.

Bob was incredibly careful to make sure I was never granted any special privileges in the newsroom. His decision at work, went. He would always listen to my point of view and that of the rest of the staff, but his decision was final.

He was always able to switch to the mindset that we were equal when we went home.

He loved me like nobody ever had before , even when I didn’t love myself. He loved me when he was mad at me and when he really didn’t like something that I had done or said.

Bob was my husband…my partner and my best friend. He was my teacher and teammate as well.

Although he was not purrrfect (sorry, we were owned by cats), he was purrrfect for me.

I lost Bob to suicide. He had gotten incredibly sick and wasn’t going to get better. I believe that even this final decision and action, was done with me in mind. He didn’t want me to live the rest of my life as his caregiver while our bank account dwindle to pay his medical bills.

One thing about his final decision. In my opinion, Bob wasn’t wrong very often, but for me, this time he was wrong. The problem is, he was DEAD wrong. I will love and honor him forever. I work hard to make sure people remember his career and his accomplishments instead of just his final decision. I also work with several mental health organizations, including the local medical college, in both suicide prevention programs and postvention efforts (following up with people who have lost a loved one to suicide). I have done very television and radio interviews about Bob as well. I believe that since we spent most of our careers telling other people’s stories, that I should be willing to share ours.

Bob loved me, unconditionally. That is what he did for or to me.

OnlyFans = Video Games

Do companies ever pay for their employees’ tickets?

Here’s an odd story for you.

Several years ago, my job was to sell robots to SWAT teams. Every SWAT team (except two of them) wanted one, but they couldn’t all afford them, so the problem wasn’t that the potential customers didn’t want to buy. The problem was that it was difficult to get to the SWAT teams. Lots of people wanted to get to them to sell them various things they didn’t want nor need, so the department didn’t make it easy to reach the SWAT commanders. I had several different ways of getting to them, all of which worked some of the time, but none that worked all of the time.

Then one day I figured out a new approach. Whenever I saw a cop along the road waiting to catch speeders and such, I would deliberately speed up in order to get pulled over. When the cop walked up to the window, I would say, “I have a SWAT robot in my trunk.” The response was always a variation of, “You have a what?” I would then ask if he wanted to have a look at it.

Sometimes the cop got very nervous about me opening the trunk, but they always wanted me to. (Could have been a guy with a gun in there; the cop had no way of knowing.) Once the robot was revealed, I would hand the cop the control and show him how to operate the robot. Then I would ask for the department’s SWAT commander’s name. The reason for this was that I wanted to be able to say “Officer so and so told me you would want to have a look at this robot.” It worked every time.

However, one time the cop was already writing the ticket on his way to my car. After the standard conversation and demo, the cop said that he couldn’t tear up the ticket, because he would get in all kinds of trouble for a missing ticket number, so he wrote me up for 1 mile per hour over the speed limit. If I had gone to court, the judge would have thrown the case out, but I just went ahead and paid the ticket instead.

Later, when I told the founder the story, he said, “From now on, the company will pay for every ticket you get while on the job.” I never got another ticket, though.

Ukraine SitRep: Finally A Wonder-Weapon That Does What It Promised To Do

The battle of Avdeevka is about to be finished.

The city of Avdeevka, (not to be confused with the small town of Andreevka near Bakhmut), is situated immediately north-west of Donetsk city. It has been used for years as a Ukrainian fortress well positioned for artillery attacks on Donetsk. The whole city, and especially the coke and chemical plant in its northern sector, was well prepared to defend against Russian attacks.

But despite all attempts to hold on to it the Ukrainian garrison within the city is about to be encircled and fall.
Source: Live UA Map – bigger

The Russian attacks are coming from multiple directions and are more progressed than the Ukraine friendly map above is showing. The biggest danger to the Ukrainians is the Russian move in the north west which threatens to cut the city off from its supply line through the northern coal and chemical plant.

The Russian victory in this battle was accomplished with the help of one type of weapon created during the current war in Ukraine.

In the early 1990s the U.S. developed a strap on kit for unguided bombs that turned dumb weapons into precise ammunition.

The Joint Direct Attack Munition (JDAM) is …

… a guidance kit that converts unguided bombs, or “dumb bombs”, into all-weather precision-guided munitions. JDAM-equipped bombs are guided by an integrated inertial guidance system coupled to a Global Positioning System (GPS) receiver, giving them a published range of up to 15 nautical miles (28 km). JDAM-equipped bombs range from 500 to 2,000 pounds (230 to 910 kg).[5] The JDAM’s guidance system was jointly developed by the United States Air Force and United States Navy, hence the “joint” in JDAM.
…
The JDAM is not a stand-alone weapon; rather it is a “bolt-on” guidance package that converts unguided gravity bombs into precision-guided munitions (PGMs). The key components of the system are a tail section with aerodynamic control surfaces, a (body) strake kit, and a combined inertial guidance system and GPS guidance control unit.

The JDAM kit, of which more than 500,000 were produced, allowed for the use of large piles of cold-war era bombs with previously unknown precision.

After the 2022 start of the war in Ukraine Russia engaged in a program to develop an equivalent to the JDAM kit. The program was finished by the end of 2023. The Russian version can be strapped onto a 500kg or a 1,500 kilogram dumb bomb extending their range by attaching wings, guidance kit and control surfaces to already existing dumb bombs. Prototype of a FAB 500 with (folded) wings and guidance kit

bigger

After being programmed with target coordinates the bomb gets dropped, turns 180 degree around its length axis and unfolds its wings. The wings enable the bomb to fly some 50 miles before hitting the ground. This allows the planes dropping these bombs to stay outside of the enemy’s air defense envelope.

The guidance kits are cheap and can easily be mass produced.

Yesterday some 65 FAB500 and FAB1500 were used against targets in Avdeevka.

The use of these bombs, which carry 300 kilogram and more of explosives, near one’s own troops requires careful planing and observation. Observers on the ground have to make sure that their own troops are outside of the deadly circle of these bombs and that the coordinates of targets are submitted in a disciplined but secure and timely manner. Pilots have to make sure that the received coordinates are programmed into the bombs and that their release is done at the right attitude and positions.

This kill chain requires intensive training and disciplined soldiers. Yesterday’s attacks demonstrate that the Russian army and air-forces have mastered this discipline.

Any detected resistance or position of Ukrainian troops was visited by a precise FAB attack within just a few minutes.

There is no defense against these weapons. It is no wonder then that any resistance against the Russian onslaught is breaking down. Russian troops can proceed through bombed out Ukrainian positions without taking losses.

Previous reports have talked about a Russian superiority in artillery by a factor of 5 or higher. But consider that a 155mm artillery round has a weight of some 50 kilogram, 60% of which are explosives. One FAB carries 10 to 30 times the explosive equivalent of one artillery round.

The Ukrainian army has nothing comparable in its arsenals.

The introduction of mass FAB500 strikes onto the Ukrainian battle field have given the Russian forces a new qualitative advantage that will change the course of the war (though not its outcome). The U.S. political and military specialists who still believe that attrition is a viable strategy for the Ukrainian army are clearly way off the path of reality.

On February 1 the German broadsheet Bild reported of the conflict in the Ukrainian leadership:

The Bild publication writes that Zaluzhny wanted to withdraw troops from Avdiivka a few weeks ago, but Zelensky refused him this and on December 30 he personally went to the city to the front line to support the Ukrainian Armed Forces fighters.

So all the coffins that arrived from near Avdeevka to Ukraine since December 30 are solely on the conscience of Zelensky and his passion for narcissism.

Zelenski had asked Zaluzny to resign which the General rejected. The Ukrainian president has since made clear that he wants to fire the more popular general but is still looking for the right time and reason to do so.

The loss of Avdeevka may give him a marketable excuse to finally do that even when it is clear that it was Zelenski’s narcissism, and not Zaluzny’s advice, that has caused high Ukraine losses while inevitably losing a not holdable position.

Posted by b on February 8, 2024 at 12:38 UTC | Permalink

Ray Eldridge

What is something that your boss has said or done that you will never forget?

It was my last job in Vietnam before I moved to the U.S. I was in that job for almost 5 years.

When I first started my position and reported to my boss, he was extremely difficult with me. He questioned everything and demanded an explanation for everything I did, including why I did it the way I did and how I came to that solution. This continued for six months. I felt so ‘roasted’ by him.

After those six months, one day, I received an email from him saying, “Read this email thread and tell me what I should do.” In another email, he replied to someone else’s email about a solution, added me to the loop, saying, “++ [my name]. I will approve this after [my name] has reviewed and gives me the green light.”

I had earned his trust.

One day, I messed up something important in an important project. I panicked, ran to him, and asked him what I should do. He sat me down and told me, ‘Remember, after you mess something up, admit the issue and come up with a solution to fix the problem yourself. You need to control how YOU are going to fix it; do not let anyone tell you what to do, because it won’t be in your favor.’ Listening to him, I calmed down and thought of a solution myself.

That was the most valuable lesson I learned from office. He is the best boss I’ve ever had, and I am thankful for the time I had the chance to work with him.

During a court case, what was your most, “You just messed up.” moment while someone in the opposition was talking?

My dad was called as a witness to an accident that a member of the public had allegedly had on a building site he was foreman on. The victim had apparently fallen into a deep hole that had not been labelled clearly and then been laughed at and not helped by my father. Apparently when the victim had spoken to my dad he had refused to offer any help. The victim was suing the company for actual injury and for pain and suffering.

Prior to appearing in court the victim’s lawyer had contacted my dad and told him what was going to be said (I don’t know why, the case was a long time ago) My dad replied with “Are you really sure you want to do that?” The lawyer said of course and see you in court. My dad repeated “Are you really sure you want to do that?” The lawyer hung up.

On the day of the court case the victim told their story then they called my dad to the stand. The lawyer asked what job my dad had been doing onsite on the day of the accident. My dad replied with “None, I wasn’t on site on that date.” The lawyer called my dad a liar so my dad got his passport out which showed an exit date of 2 days before the alleged date of the accident and a re-entry date 6 weeks after.

Guess who ended up paying costs for that little debacle!? The victim’s lawyer was less than impressed.

She got a gold star

Guys give out the relationships. Women give out the sex.

Be picky.

In special forces training, do they teach you how to survive torture?

All I can add about what to do if captured. At first simply give name, rank and serial number. During the class I asked the following, “what do you do when they bring pliers and a few other devices?” The instructor replyed, “ask politely for a ream of paper (a ream is 500 sheets of paper) and a dozen Bic pens; as long as you are writing they’ll leave you alone that is until they send the notes you wrote up their chain of command.” LOL. We always had a cover story that would make us so low on the classified stuff and if they persist; I would if captured I would tell them that I’m simply a cook. If pressured I’d ask them to let me cook them a meal. LTC Nick Rowe convinced his captures that he was a cook, this worked until they found out his real MOS; that he was a Special Forces 1LT. Nick knew that after 24 hours anything he told his captures would have been changed and will no longer be of any use to his captures. Nick was the go to guy on how to survive capture. He escaped after five years as a POW.

During capture you’ll always be looking for an opportunity to escape. Nick was assassinated while on duty in the Philippines.

Does China know that there can never be a new world order without a previous war in which China emerges victorious?

The Thucydides Trap?

The Famous belief that an emerging power will always be a threat to an existing power and war between them is inevitable

The Belief is incomplete

This is the case only when the Emerging Power desires to be a global hegemon

This is NOT the Case with China

China needs Cooperation for its growth and development

China needs Energy, Oil and Gas from others

China needs almost 23% of it’s Food from others

China needs Global Markets for its Trade

Thus China lives on a WIN WIN cooperation

China can flourish only as part of the Global Economy

The only thing that has changed is SO DOES THE USA

Until maybe three decades ago, the US could flourish on its own domestic economy, it’s own Oil & Gas, it’s Western and Japanese allies and satellites

Today the US needs many more countries to flourish and CHINA is one of the most important of them.

US needs China, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Indonesia and several other Nations in order to flourish as an economy

This the US does not like

The US doesn’t want to be dependent on China for it’s welfare and prosperity

The US policy has always been to CONTROL ANY NATION ON WHICH IT’S PROSPERITY DEPENDS

Thus it has two options :-

A China that is shaped as per US requirements. A Lackey basically. Like Japan and South Korea and now even Germany and France OR
A China weakened enough to accept US guidelines on what constitutes FAIR PLAY

China of course will not agree to either

China believes in a direct win win cooperation in the “May the best man win” mode of competition

So it’s the US that wants to keep the OLD WORLD ORDER rather than the Chinese wanting a new one

The Chinese just want to make money, grow and develop their economy and not be subject to throttling by the West and so to develop their own independent and safe technology and financial systems and military

Maybe 50–60 years later China could change but today there is zero chance of China wanting a New World Order or be a hegemon

It’s impossible

Have you ever smelled something but only found the source of the smell a while later?

We bought a used couch from someone on the Facebook. Seemed too good to be true. $1000 for a couch that goes for $3500 new. Leather sectional with 4 electronic leg rests, cupholders, USB charging ports, etc. A very nice upgrade from our existing sectional.

So, we went and checked it out. They had it in their garage. I asked why they were selling it for such a low price. Aside from some scratches on one seat, it looked almost new. They said he was a surgeon at the university and he was getting a job in North Carolina. So they were packing up and preparing to move quickly. We plugged it in and tested the leg rests. Everything worked. We had a minivan, so it was going to be three trips to get the whole thing home. 30 minutes each way. Kind of a waste of a Saturday, but I felt it was worth it.

On our first trip home, the smell hit us. It was a strong smell of orange, like they used an orange scented cleaner to clean it. This should have been a larger red flag than it was at the time. We still needed to move our existing couch to the basement, so we decided we’d kill two birds with one stone. Move the new couch into the garage, let that orange smell dissipate, and take our time disassembling and moving the other one to the basement.

When we went back to the seller’s house, we asked about the strong orange scent. They downplayed it and basically said they used whatever cleaner they had on hand to clean it before selling. Red flag #2.

We accepted their answer and continued making trips back and forth. They seemed trustworthy. All the pieces of the set smelled of orange cleaner, but especially one section. That piece was much more intense. We left the couch in the garage and sure enough, the smell faded. We moved the living room couch to the basement and the new one to the living room. The orange smell was gone. However, it was replaced by a much worse odor. I don’t know how to describe it except that it was musty, pungent, and kind of stuck with you. It was mostly coming from the leftmost recliner piece.

We reached out to the sellers a couple weeks after buying it. We asked about the smell. She played dumb and said they had hardly used the couch. They had it in their basement and there was never a problem with it. No water damage, no nothing. Clearly lying to us. Red flag #3.

Over the next few weeks, we tried multiple off-the-shelf products and home remedies for removing smells from furniture. None of them improved the smell at all. We finally contacted a fire restoration type of place. They had specialty equipment to deal with all sorts of problem smells in furniture. The cost was high and we didn’t know if it would work, so they offered us a deal. They said, bring in the problem recliner. They’ll try to remove the smell from that one piece. If they succeed, we’ll bring in the rest and they’ll fix each piece at a total cost of $700. If they can’t fix that recliner, no charge and we go our separate ways. Handshake, done deal.

I brought the recliner in and the guy who received it immediately started sniffing all the parts of it like a dog. He got underneath and focused on that area. From under the back, he exclaimed, “Tomcat! Nothing’s gonna work. We’ll try, but it won’t come out. Nothing gets tomcat urine out of furniture.”

Why I’d question the expertise of a guy who crawls under furniture and identifies tomcat urine is still a mystery to me. He was absolutely right. Their process didn’t put a dent in that scent, and we didn’t pay them a dime when I picked it up.

At this point, we’re pissed. We spent $1000 on a couch that’s unusable, and we’ve moved our clunky sectional to the basement and back again, not to mention spending a Saturday moving their couch home. We keep reaching out to the seller. She tries different tactics, from ignoring us to just refusing to do anything for us. All the while, she still insists that the couch never smelled in their house and she sold it in good faith.

Finally, I’ve had enough. I tell my wife to tell this woman that they’re going to return our money and take the couch back or we’ll take them to small claims court. Then she offers to give us $100 back, still not admitting there was a problem with the couch. No. Everything or you’ll be sued. Finally, she agrees, but somehow is able to act like she’s the victim. Great. She transmitted our money back to us, but doesn’t say anything about the couch. A couple days pass, and she demands that we bring it back to them. My wife asked me when we can return it to her. My response? “Oh no. She can come pick it up from us. I’m not spending one minute or a single calorie on bringing her that useless couch.”. She says fine and asks for our address. She responds a couple days later and says they don’t want it either. Yeah, nothing wrong with it. Sold it in good faith. But you don’t want it at all. Huh.

We put it up for sale for free on the Facebook. We were very up front on its condition. The guy who came to get it was excited about it. I warned him that the scent is strong and nothing will improve it. He didn’t care. Said his sense of smell is very bad and he didn’t think it’d be a problem.

Since 99% of real street fights involve punches, why there are so many martial arts and styles other than boxing since what you will actually going to use is boxing (in the form of bare knuckle boxing to be exact) in an actual scenario?

The reason most fights come down to bare knuckle brawling is simple. All that stuff you see on TV, MMA, martial arts tournaments etc are people that are trained to fight like that.

I have had my fair share of fights over the years, some I won, some I took a beat down. I have never seen anyone win a street fight using martial arts. Its probably not because it isn’t effective. Its because 99% of people are just watching TV or taking weekend course at Bob’s Dojo and that makes them think they are qualified to put the moves on Joe the drunk.

Pro Tip: Joe is not interested in style points or looking cool when he fights.

The worst thing in the world you can do if your not a trained professional is to try to kick someone in a street fight. Your foot leaving the ground means you have lost all your balance, your center of gravity is gone and your probably so slow doing it any reasonable healthy twenty-something man see’s it coming a mile away.

When I was young I had this happen to me once (not bragging) I caught the guys leg and slammed him into a brick wall. His Bruce Lee impersonation was over in less then a minute.

That wasn’t special. If you are not highly trained do not try any fancy kick moves you saw last night on TV. It wont end well. To effectively get away with kicking someone or doing most martial arts type moves like you see in the movies requires tons of training. It isn’t something Joe average can pull of just because they saw someone else do it or they took a couple of classes at the local community center.

What’s the most incredible coincidence that ever happened to you?

#1: I went to high school with this girl, Lisa. She kissed me once. Later, in my early 20’s, I kept randomly running into her, all over the world: in a dive bar in New York, on the street in San Francisco, and in an obscure back alleyway in Oaxaca, Mexico.

#2: When I lived in New York, I had a dream in which some voice kept repeating a 4-digit number, like 3264, 3264, 3264, like it was very important. At the time, New York had a lottery you could play by choosing four numbers. I thought about playing 3264, but then dismissed the idea, as I had to go to work. As I was about to get on the subway, I noticed that my subway car was numbered 3264. That did it for me, I ran to the nearest lottery kiosk and played that number. The following day, the winning number was announced: 3265. One digit off. I was rather annoyed with the universe over that one.

#3: I exited my gym and hopped into my car, at that time a rather sad and beat-up green mid-1980’s Toyota Tercel. As I was pulling out of the parking lot, I noticed that there was someone else’s stuff scattered around. And then it hit me: This was NOT my car! It turns out that for that particular model, the keys are sometimes interchangeable. Toyota made about 13 possible key shapes, and the woman who had already driven MY car away, had the same key I did. It took her longer to notice.

Daddy Issues

Have you ever smelled something but only found the source of the smell a while later?

My wife would occasionally smell something odd. She couldn’t describe it. It happened at random times in random places, like in her classroom or at a concert or on the sidewalk downtown or in our house. If she was with someone she would ask, and nobody else smelled it. This happened over the course of at least two or three years that we can remember.

She also occasionally stumbled or lost her balance, which she attributed to natural clumsiness.

One Saturday afternoon in late March 2022 I came home from an errand to find her shivering under a blanket but not cold, and stammering her speech. I declared “something ain’t right with that girl” and took her to the Emergency Room. There a CAT scan revealed “a concerning mass” in her head. She was transferred across town to the major regional medical center. Sunday morning a MRI showed detailed pictures of a mass the size of a tennis ball behind her right eye.

That Tuesday she underwent 9 hours of surgery to remove a meningioma – a tumor of the meniscus tissue surrounding the brain. It was contained (not invasive) but growing. It had been growing for some years before it pressed on nerves and on the brain itself enough to disturb their function, including vision and smell and balance and eventually seizures. I brought her home that Friday afternoon, six days (to the hour) after we entered the ER.

Beginning immediately and now two years on, her olfactory hallucinations (remember the question was about smelling something?), tremors, and problems with balance and coordination are gone. She has a new eyeglass prescription. Follow-up MRIs continue to reveal no recurrence, and her brain is expanding to re-occupy the space from which it had been shoved aside by the tumor as it grew. She has made a more-than-full recovery, engaged with new sporting challenges, and enjoys every day as a teacher, musician, and Grandma.

By the grace of God expressed through a surgeon’s skillful hands, she no longer smells things that aren’t real, I get to enjoy more years with my lovely bride!

How does the IRS find people who work under the table?

Here in my little town we had this business called the Executive Whirl-A-Sage. It offered massage and spa services for the “discriminating client”.

Everyone knew what it really was.

Anyhooo… The IRS decided to take notice. But they couldn’t figure out how much money the place made because it did everything in cash. They got clever.

Sent an agent in as a “client”. (I always wondered which lucky dude landed THAT plum assignment!) He had his “service” (which I suspect didn’t include the happy ending, but who knows???). He carefully counted the number of towels used.

The IRS then demanded all the laundry bills for the business. They counted the total number of towels and divided by the number used per client to determine the number of clients. Some simple math and they had their estimated revenue.

Needless to say, the place was closed down when it couldn’t pay the bill.

You came to my house

As a woman, what do some men do that creeps you out?

I’d just like to start off by saying, gentlemen, I love y’all. You’re half the world. Most of you are great, many of you are just sweet and adorable.

And then there’s the rest of you who come out of the barn in which you were raised just long enough to scare me out of leaving my house.

The right to have sex with me is earned. It’s not transactional, it’s not a bought and sold commodity, and I don’t owe you just because you bought me dinner or even a lousy cup of coffee. In fact, I owe you nothing of myself except my public courtesy, and that can be withdrawn at any time if you show yourself unworthy of it.

What you men—and this is where you stop being gentlemen—do to really creep me out is that you forget that I am the ultimate keeper of my body, and try to wear me down when I say no. Constantly badgering, hinting, whining like a toddler in a checkout line full of candy. Like a toddler you sulk and stomp around when I say no, and double down on trying to get your way. And just as the toddler screams “I hate you!” because mom won’t buy them a Kinder egg, you turn on me when I won’t give in.

“Bitch.”

“Fat pig.”

“You’d be lucky to have someone like me, you ugly piece of shit.”

Yeah, that’s just the right way to get me into the sack.

You don’t respect the word NO, and in that you disrespect me. That’s just creepy and you make me question my lifestyle choices.

What is the basis for the belief that the United States is more powerful than China? Why do some people disagree with this belief? What factors contribute to their differing opinions on this issue?

I totally disagree!

To me I believed most of the global south world agree with me. I am sure the U.S. dog and slave nations very much prefer to lie to themselves that the U.S. is the most powerful for their own self interest and wishful thinking.

No matter how pretentious you can be, the world’s most indebted nation, the world’s highest deficit nation, the nation that spends more on defence than the next 10 biggest defence spender, the world’s most over reach, over extended war monger and trouble maker cannot be powerful. So the U.S. is at best is a desperado trying to grasp at anything to stay relevant at the cost of bringing its economy down further.

The real power is China whose respect comes from its actions. Not like the U.S. on coercion and threats. China has overtaken the U.S. in most counts. Even militarily. China does not want a poor U.S. or even a collapse U.S. it still wants a good trade with the U.S. but one that has mutual respect.

Why are universities making students pay for classes that have nothing to do with life

What if I don’t want a funeral?

I work with a woman whose WHOLE family doesn’t “do funerals.” I asked her why.

She told me that it started when her paternal grandfather passed away, and they were planning the funeral. It was emotionally draining to plan while grieving, not to mention expensive.

Her paternal grandmother decided she didn’t want a funeral, and that Thanksgiving, with the whole family (my co-workers parents, co-workers in-laws, aunts, uncles, extended family on both sides) she made a declaration.

“I don’t want a darn funeral. Donate the money you’d use for a funeral for me to an animal shelter or a food bank.”

After a long discussion, it became a tradition.

They just don’t have funerals, they put up an obituary and ask for donations to whatever charity the deceased picked.

On the anniversary of their death, the family members take the ashes of their loved ones and spread them.

I don’t think it’s such a bad idea.

EDIT: (04/24/2020) Wow, I have gotten a LOT of feedback on this answer. Thank you all!

One thing I’m going to suggest to all of you is, if you choose to be cremated, please get your cremation set up and prepaid for as soon as you can.

My mom was diagnosed with Stage IV Pancreatic Cancer in March of 2017. One of the first things she did was get her cremation set up.

She prepaid for her cremation, she picked out an urn (a plastic box.) She also separately bought “keepsake urns,” for my sister, grandmother, one to be interred and one for me. She bought 10 death certificates (my dad had passed away on 2010, and she knew you’d need a lot of them for different things.)

When she passed away in February of this year, all my sister and I had to do was call the funeral home and they picked up her body. They had my sister and I go in a few days later and sign paperwork.

They didn’t try to sell us anything, they were able to be human to us. To help us grieve.

When you pass away, your family won’t have to pay anything extra out of pocket unless taxes or death certificate prices rise. We actually received a refund check for $11.38.

The cost of her “package” in 2017 was around $1,600. The funeral liaison we met with said today, it would be around $1,800.

At the time of the loss of my mom, I was so grateful she took care of it for us. It was an amazing gift.

What shocked you when you opened someone’s safe deposit box at the bank?

I was doing part of my internship in a bank in the safe deposit department. It turned out to be quite fun, actually. One day a client came down and asked to rent a safe deposit box, a large one. He was in a hurry, so I did the paperwork as fast as possible, and then took him to his box, leaving him alone to deposit whatever it was he wanted to leave with us (as we were not supposed to watch) and then he left.

About ten days later, the gentleman came back, and, by chance, I was the one who went to open his box with him. I was about to leave him at it, when he stopped me and said “No need, I’m just getting this and I’ll return the box.” I looked and he had a big bag of chocolates which he was pulling out of the box! I gave him a puzzled look and he laughed: “My wife demanded I buy Swiss chocolates for the whole family, but then I had to add a leg to my trip, and I couldn’t take them with me. I thought it would be a pity to throw them away…so…”He raised his shoulders and left.

Still, he’d paid one year’s rent for a large sized safe deposit box, which was about 500 to 600 francs, to avoid throwing away maybe 200 francs of chocolates. And created an insect infestation risk for the bank, if he’d forgotten or neglected to return for his chocs!

Mark Twain great quotes

What should I do if my boss says, “If you don’t like the job, you can go”?

I never had a situation like that,but just last year one man that has a restaurant in Rovinj,Croatia called my ex boss to ask him for my phone number since he saw me work the previous season.He then called me and said that he wanted me to work at his restaurant,and since he knew that I’m good at my job he offered me 3000€ a month,accomodation and food.He said that he knows that I’m worth it and that he won’t haggle because he wants me to work for him.I accepted and got there,and started to work. To cut the story short,from all the things he promised,nothing was delivered. It was close but not what was promised.When I got the first salary I noticed that the money paid to me was off,but since my first month there I didn’t work the full month i decided to wait for the next salary and to see what is what.The salary for the full month I got 2300€.When I called him to speak about it he said;”The conditions are what they are,if you don’t like it,good luck!”,and he raised his hand like he wanted to shake my hand.I grabbed his hand right away and said “I don’t like it.”He was surprised,and when I was walking away I heard him say that 2300€ is still a good salary and non of his other workers had that much.But to me it would have been the same if he gave me 1€ less than promised.I would still left.You can’t lie to me like that and expect me to take it.And besides the way he said that”if you don’t like it,good luck”that would be humiliating if I were to stay.Fuck you and your 2300€ a month.If he offered me 2300 from the start,and kept his word I would still come to work for him,and I would be satisfied.But anyway when it comes to your case,I think that saying to people:”If you don’t like it,you can go.” is degrading,and I would go.I think that there should be mutual respect between the worker and the boss,not just respect for the boss.

Some of what was said in the interview by Putin:

– Russia is ready to supply Europe with gas through the “Nord Stream 2” pipeline, but Germany does not want to

– The United States was the one who blew up the “Nord Stream” pipeline.

– Elon Musk’s creativity cannot be stopped, but rather an understanding must be reached with him

– Russia and Ukraine will reach an agreement sooner or later

We want to reach a solution to the Ukrainian crisis through negotiations

– NATO has options to recognize Russia’s control over the new territories

We have information that the United States supported terrorists inside Russia

The West fears a strong China more than it fears a strong Russia

– The Americans pledged not to expand NATO eastward, but the expansion happened 5 times

– The world will change regardless of how the crisis in Ukraine ends

– Russia becomes the first economy in Europe in 2023 despite the sanctions. American attempts are of no use.

– Ukraine is an artificial entity established in the Stalinist era

Russian relations with Ukraine are distinguished by language, kinship and religion

We proposed that Russia join NATO after the collapse of the Soviet Union, but they refused

– When NATO refused to let us join it, they feared Russia as a large and powerful country

We will never attack Poland unless we are attacked by them

How was Andy Dufresne able to walk into a bank and withdraw a large amount of money after escaping without being recognized, knowing his face would be all over the news as a fugitive?

How the heck did Andy Dufresne walk into nearly a dozen banks in the Portland area and walk out unrecognized with hundreds of thousands of Warden Norton’s money the day after his escape from Shawshank Penitentiary?

Signature cards, no photos on driver’s licenses, and no CNN or World Wide Web.

This stumped me for a long time, too. I couldn’t figure out how someone could use a phony driver’s license with no picture on it, and take out tens and hundreds of thousands of dollars out of any bank in the United States.

But apparently photos weren’t always required on driver’s licenses in every state. The first photos appeared on driver’s licenses in California in 1958. Texas didn’t require them until the mid-1970′s. Even New York and Tennessee didn’t require pictures until 1986.

I couldn’t find what year Maine began putting photos on theirs, but, it’s probably safe to assume that in the mid-1960’s, Maine didn’t yet require pictures on a legal form of ID.

The Maine driver’s license Andy presented to the bank was probably state issued and not forged, if we assume it was Warden Norton who created the alias to hide the money he was making by taking bribes from construction companies who didn’t want Shawshank’s cheap labor taking over major construction jobs in the local area.

Also, I remember, from working for a couple of years for a bank when I was in college that signature cards are placed on file with the bank, so if someone comes in without ID, they can just match the signature to the card, and accept that as legal identification.

We would think of that as somewhat of a lax form of ID in today’s day and age, but fifty years ago, the world was different.

Anyway, it makes sense that Warden Norton would use Andy and his wealth of banking knowledge to create all these accounts under the alias, Randall Stevens (Peter Stevens, in the novella) even having Andy sign the signature card (that doesn’t always have to be done inside the actual bank, believe it or not) so as to further insulate Norton from the crime.

As for why no one in the banks or on the street knew Andy by his face, someone else mentioned that this was 1966 (or 1975, if we’re talking about the original text) and in that era, it took a day, or so, to get someone’s photo into the newspapers (which was the World Wide Web back in those days) to get a photo distributed to the three major broadcast companies, and maybe a couple of days to reach all the local TV stations state- and nation-wide.

The instant gratification of the Information Superhighway was still a couple of decades away, so the wheels of communication could take a few days or even a week to get up to full speed back then, so it’s completely plausible that Andy Dufresne could have walked into a bank the following morning to clean out all of Warden Norton’s false bank accounts without anyone even knowing there was an escape at Shawshank, much less recognize his face.

The only thing that’s a little bit implausible is that he could get to eleven banks, all in one day. It has always been a tedious, drawn-out task to go into a bank and close an account, especially if you get an accounts officer, then an assistant manager, then the bank manager, all trying to talk you into keeping your account open, which Andy would most assuredly have run into, considering the money he was taking out of each branch, so the idea of getting to that many banks in a single 24-hour period is a bit of a stretch.

Being Honest

What was a moment when a teacher had a nervous meltdown in class?

I remember the teacher very well.

She was young and timid and always wore full-length skirts and hats whenever she was outside. She was one of the three women who ran the gifted program in my middle school. That may have been a part of her student teaching (internship), now that I think about it. Like I said, she was very young.

The gifted program in middle school was a one-hour-per-week pull-out program. Three or four kids from each class (I was one of them) left our regular class for that hour and went to a different room where the three teachers played logic games with us, discussed current events, and generally tried to challenge us more than the regular teachers were able to, since the regular teachers had to aim for the middle of the pack, student-wise.

The best part of that program was the field trips. It was nice to spend extra time with just that group of classmates and those three teachers. I happen to have some pictures from an 8th-grade gifted class field trip, and she is in some of them. I can tell now that she was maybe 25 years old at best back then.

Two years later, when I was a sophomore in high school, she got hired as a full-time English teacher at the school. It was cool to see her again. All of us former gifted class students of hers were happy to see her again, but sad that she wouldn’t be teaching the advanced English class we were in.

Within two weeks, we saw her for the last time, jogging down the hall mid-class period, crying, heading for the exit.

She was used to working with gifted kids in small groups… Kids who were well-behaved and genuinely interested in what she was trying to teach them.

As is the norm with high school teachers, the newest teachers get the last pick when it comes to classes. So she was stuck with teaching the remedial English class… the students who had the most academic and behavior issues. Apparently, those students were able to get under her skin so much that she walked out on the job. Broke her contract and everything. We never saw her again after that.

I remember seeing the assistant principal running down the hall shortly after that, into the room that she’d left teacher-less. It was the first time I’d heard an adult actually swear at students. (Although I was told that the coaches did it all the time to their student athletes.) He got the class back under control for the rest of the period, mainly by yelling at them like a drill sergeant.

But perhaps that’s what they needed all along: someone with the demeanor of a drill sergeant, not the timid young lady whose teaching career they ended quickly.

Why does prime rib taste better than a ribeye steak even though it’s the same cut of meat?

I’ve read many of the comments on this topic, and I believe my offering here can be helpful.

I worked in food service for 14 years and held the title of Executive Chef at two American institutions. The most notable was at the Augusta Country Club in 1987 up to the Masters’ Golf Tournament of April 1988.

The grilling, broiling, or searing of a Rib Eye steak will bring a distinct flavor to the flat surface of the cut, which is common for all beef seared grilled or broiled. However, that flavor will not be present along the outer perimeter of the cut, and tenderness is not guaranteed, especially once it cools down. (I’ve had to use a jacquard tenderizing device on some.)

A roasted Prime Rib can be prepared in an oven to achieve a dark brown upper/outer surface and can then be placed under a broiler/salamander to add more of that coloring/flavor to the outer surface. Also, a sliced Prime cut can be seared to get that browning onto the face of the cut. Au Jus is a lesser preferred option for me in that it “waters” the flavor as it rinses off some of the rub/seasoning.

Now, just last year I developed what I believe is the pinnacle of prep for Prime Rib. (I moved away from buying ribeye after I got less-than great results in tenderness after paying a high price per pound.)

What I did was to season a whole Prime Rib with a plain mustard binder, and my custom rub. THEN I thoroughly pierced the entire Prime with a long skewer to promote self-basting INSIDE the cut. The final step is the “ringer.” I put the Prime into my Cuisinart pellet smoker on 250 degrees, until the core temperature reached 200 degrees. (about 10 hours) I use dark wood pellets like Cherry, or a dark fruit blend. The outer surface comes out as dark as any sear. The smoke ring all around the Prime is always at least 1 centimeter wide, and the inside is always full of flavor!

Some of my guests who like rare meats believed they got rare from me. “Rare” is (arguably) around 165 degrees internally, but my Prime at 200 degrees was so tender, juicy and flavorful inside and out, that it pleased all my guests.

I am retired from my career, but I’ll be smoking another Prime Rib for visitors at my home next week!

Do police officers feel uncomfortable or flattered when stores offer them complimentary coffee?

Both. We had one restaurant that charged all cops $2 for a meal. It was a greasy spoon that health departments and vegans despise but it was the only place in town open 24/7 that we did not have to worry about some crackhead cook “doctoring” our food.

That $2 was usually supplemented with a $5 tip, which covered the meal and the waitress’ tip.

The chief stopped us from going to the diner unless we paid full price. So we paid full price. Orders are orders.

When the owner found out why we were paying full price, he was livid. He went to the next city council meeting and actually yelled at the mayor and city manager about how they were trying to dictate to him what he wanted to charge cops and firefighters. He had been doing it so long, everyone knew about it and didn’t care.

The day after the city council meeting, the chief rescinded his order and $2 meals were back with the $5 tip.

This was a place we could bring a homeless guy on a cold night for coffee and a meal and we did many times in the winter. We always left enough money for both and when we came in for our meal hours later, the waitress would give us our money back.

The owner would always feed someone in need for free and didn’t want us to pay for it. He felt it was his duty to do so.

Great food and a better man who, sadly, passed away many years ago.

Rich people

What are some of the most awesome psychological facts?

1- 23% of couples who meet online end up being married.

2. Some psychologists say that humans can not be “just friends” with opposite sex members.

3. A research shows that a woman is more drawn to a person when she is not sure how much he loves her.

4. If you want to know if someone loves you, look at their eyes: if we are in love, the pupil expands up to 45 percent.

5. People who are really in love tend to get jealous over stupid things

6. The way a man stands counts for over 80% of a woman’s first impression

7- More than half of people who believe in love at first sight have already experienced it.

8- Men are known to fall in love faster than women

9-. Falling in love at first sight is apparently true according to psychologists.

10-People generally prefer an attractive face over an attractive body when they are looking for a long term relationship.

Have your neighbors ever called the cops on you for something ridiculous?

I was born to answer this question. I have three distinct instances when my neighbors have called the cops on me, well rather my parents but still.

When I was a child I had a neighbor who would literally spy on my family and called the cops on us several times. The first time she called the cops on us was because she saw a sleeping bag on the roof and was calling because she thought one of us was on the roof. So the police come to our house and ended up waking my mom who was asleep (she works night shift as a nurse). What had happened was one of my sisters had spilled water on the sleeping bag and thought it was a sunny day she would just put it on the roof to dry.

As you can see my house has a window above the one roof so it’s not particularly hard to do this. Anyway the cops came questioned my mom and then went about their merry way.

The second time my neighbor called the cops was when we all were getting ready to go somewhere and my dad was at work so it was just my mom and us kids and so we all got loaded into the van and we were going about our merry way when the cops call my mom and ask if she has all of her children with her. She says yes and the cop asks if it’s okay if he comes and checks. She says yes and he comes and sees that we are all there and goes on with his life.

The third and final time was the most serious. The neighbors kid threatened me and said if I didn’t come over to her house in the middle of the night she would burn my house down. Now of course that wouldn’t make sense but I was under nine and she was three years older than me and I was scared of her. So I went over and spent the night. Her mom was totally okay with this and didn’t call my parents at all. Instead in the morning she gave us breakfast because we were hungry and we went home. Later that day she calls the police on my parents because she said we were not well taken care of and were starving. All because we had asked her for breakfast because after all we had not eaten all night. So the police came and inspected our cupboards and such. They decided that my parents were fit parents and left.

So that’s my crazy neighbor for you. I hope you enjoyed my stories.

Why Chinese don’t get scam calls

How did you come to find your dog? How did you know you found the dog for you?

My last dog was a “street rescue”.

My girlfriend back then was working at a hotel near my house. She went to work in the morning, and noticed a puppy in the back of a pick-up truck in the parking lot. It was yelping and whining, like puppy’s do, so it was hard to miss.

When she left work 8 hours later, the puppy was still in the back of the truck in the parking lot… in Texas. No water. No food. It was a hot day. She grabbed the dog and brought it to my house.

She was a yellow lab mix, and my girlfriend named her Vive. The girlfriend didn’t last, but the dog did. Best dog I ever had. We traveled together through thick and thin for the next 12 years. From small apartments to horse farms, and for a few weeks living in my truck, we were best friends. I could take her anywhere. Never on a leash to control her. Only when others demanded it. She was good with children, kittens, horses, and I could leave a steak dinner on a low coffee table, and she’d never touch it.

She had 2 drawbacks. The first, was that she loved the smell of a dead skunk. Thought it was Chanel No. 5 and loved to roll in it whenever she could find it.

The second, was that she didn’t live as long as me.

What is the most shameless thing you have ever seen a teacher do?

I attended college in the ‘80s, when miniskirts were (again) in fashion. In one class, a lovely young woman sat beside me in the front row.

During the first week of classes, the professor dropped the chalk mid-lecture (intentionally, I suspect) and peeked up her miniskirt. Her legs were not crossed.

She was taking notes, so she didn’t notice. He saw that I had, and he quickly resumed the lecture.

In the hallway after class, I asked did she have a moment. She was wary, probably used to being hit on by strange guys. I told her what had happened, and that she should probably switch seats.

She switched out of the class. I should have.

The professor had seen me talking with her in the hall. From that point forward, he nitpicked my assignments and test answers. (It was an English course, so all answers were written.) Nothing was ever wrong, but he’d find ways to subtract a point here and there until the deductions added up. I had a D in the class at one point.

I was naive, never before having received a bad grade. (Yes, overachiever.) I assumed that eventually the reprisal would end. The realization that college professors are almost completely unaccountable came too late — after the period to drop a class.

My final grade was a C. I was distraught, not only because it was my first C, but also because it threatened my scholarship, which required that I maintain a minimum GPA.

The assistant dean called me in for a conference. I explained what had happened, bringing exhibits of his grading of my work. I also provided the name of the peeking victim to corroborate my story.

A few weeks into the next term, I received a notice that my grade had been changed to a B. It was my only B in my major field.

And I avoided future classes with that professor.

Green Lasagna with Two Sauces
(Lasagna Verdi al Forno)

Yield: 12 servings

Ingredients

Meat Sauce

8 ounces bulk Italian sausage, crumbled
4 ounces smoked sliced chicken or turkey, finely chopped
1 large onion, finely chopped
1 medium stalk celery, minced
1 medium carrot, finely shredded
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 3/4 cups water
3/4 cup dry red wine
1/3 cup tomato paste
1/2 teaspoon Italian herb seasoning
1/8 teaspoon pepper
Dash of ground nutmeg

Green Noodles

8 ounces fresh spinach or 1 (10 ounce) package frozen spinach, cooked as per package directions
2 eggs
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 teaspoon salt
2 cups all-purpose flour
4 1/2 quarts water
1 tablespoon salt
1 tablespoon olive oil

Cheese Filling

2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese
1 1/2 cups grated Parmesan cheese
1/4 cup snipped parsley

Creamy Sauce

1/3 cup butter
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
Dash of ground nutmeg
3 cups milk

Instructions

Meat Sauce

Cook and stir sausage until light brown; drain. Stir in remaining ingredients. Heat to boiling; reduce heat. Simmer uncovered, stirring occasionally, 1 hour.

Green Noodles

Remove root ends and imperfect leaves from spinach. Wash several times in water, lifting out each time; drain. Cover and cook with just the water that clings to leaves until tender, 3 to 10 minutes. Rinse spinach with cold water; drain.
Place spinach, eggs, 1 tablespoon oil and 1 teaspoon salt in blender container. Cover and blend until pureed, about 20 seconds.
Make a well in center of flour. Add spinach mixture; stir with fork until mixed. Sprinkle with a few drops water if dry; mix in small amount of flour if sticky. Gather dough into a ball. Knead on lightly floured cloth covered board until smooth and elastic, about 5 minutes. Let stand for 10 minutes.
Divide dough into halves. Roll one half into a 13 x 12 inch rectangle; cut rectangle into 6 (13 x 2 inch) strips.
Repeat with remaining dough. Spread strips on rack; let stand 30 minutes.
Heat water to rapid boil; stir in 1 tablespoon salt, 1 tablespoon oil and the noodles. Cook uncovered over medium heat until nearly tender, 15 to 20 minutes.
Drain; rinse with cold water. Place in single layer between sheets of wax paper.

Cheese Filling

Toss all ingredients together.

Creamy Sauce

Heat butter over low heat until melted. Blend in flour, salt and nutmeg. Cook over low heat, stirring constantly, until smooth and bubbly; remove from heat. Stir in milk. Heat to boiling, stirring constantly. Boil and stir for 1 minute; cover and keep warm. If sauce thickens, beat in small amount of milk. Sauce should be the consistency of heavy cream.

She knows what she wants

What is the weirdest reason you ever found out a co-worker got hired for?

This happened a very long time ago in Corporate America.

Our department worked closely with another that was managed by Marsha, a 40-year-old workaholic who was brilliant at her job. In fact, headquarters had her conduct workshops twice a year to share her methods and to update procedures.

She was totally immersed in effective management, efficiency, quality control and motivation.

Occasionally, she would ‘come up for air’ and momentarily consider that life included much more than work. She would look around for something to do that would benefit the less fortunate and made donations of money, goods, old clothes and books.

Then it was back to being a workaholic.

She was approached by Stan, a fifty-eight-year old, homeless man who refused charity and asked for a job. She spoke with him several times at a cafe where he was sometimes given meals in return for doing odd jobs. Marsha was impressed by his attitude, but most of all, by the love he had for his dog SweetPea, a Lab mix.

That was a side of Marsha that none of us were aware of.

She put her reputation and position on the line, cleaned him up and got him a job in the company’s mail and supply room. Stan lasted two days: he insisted that SweetPea had to be with him.

Marsha didn’t blink. She negotiated a position for him in the large parking area of the office building. He and SweetPea were still there, three years later when I moved on to a different place.

What would happen to China’s economy if it continued to grow at its current rate indefinitely, without any external factors affecting it?

Whatever the US do, or tries to do it does not matter. At the best it will only slow dow China the the U.S. expense of slowing it selves even more. China will grow till it is effectively be 5–6 times the U.S. real size. It may take the most of the 21st century but it will ultimately come to that.

The reason is simple. China has 4 times the U.S. population but it’s political and social system is simply far more superior and stable. It’s growth is sustainable and very healthy. Hence it should put grow the U.S. on per capital basis. But in the real sense. Not in U.S. dollar or even in GDP narrow sense that is frankly a farce and meaningless.

Chinese people are harder working, they are certainly more discipline, the learns more and are more industrious and highly driven. The Chinese language may render its people less descriptive but it makes them more learned and helps them learn faster and better. China is not distracted like the U.S. to get itself into endless wars like the U.S. hence it ought to be at least 50% more successful over time.

That is provided there’s us no war with the U.S. but if war happened it either end the world as we know it or it it world totally implode the U.S. till it becomes several nations. Both are not good outcome for the U.S. To me the U.S. needs to accept that the best option it to hang on to being a strong number 2 till India get its act together sometimes by the 2nd half of 21st century.

I needs to partner not try the shit of containing China right away. It needs to benefit most from China’s inevitable ascendency. Not obsessed with stoping China by cutting of its own limbs.

Men’s double bind

The LOSE-LOSE situation men often face.

What is the strangest complaint you have received at your job?

“You told my granddaughter her shirt was ugly,” an angry woman I’d never met before told me as I was supervising my kindergarten students during their breakfast time.

I looked down at my little student, then up at the grandmother and asked, “I’m sorry, what’s this all about?”

She repeated her claim, saying the girl came home from school the day before and told her the teacher said her shirt was ugly. I couldn’t even remember what the little girl had worn, and I most certainly never said that to a child.

Speaking to the girl, I asked her who had said her shirt was ugly and she replied, “The kids.”

Grandma went berserk at this and yelled at the girl, “No! It was your teacher who said that! That’s what you told me!”

At that point I suggested we take it to the principal and asked the other teacher in the cafeteria to cover my class. Once grandma and I were in the principal’s office, the whole conversation was repeated. The principal told the woman that she’d known me many years, that I would never speak to a child in that manner, and that clearly it was indeed other children who had said the shirt was ugly.

Grandma threatened to take her accusation to the district office. The principal pointed to her desk and said, “There’s the phone.” Grandma turned and left the office without another word, and that was the last I heard of the strangest complaint I ever received as a teacher.

Why are some reasons that cops turn dirty?

Debt – had a sgt, when I first started, that lived about a mile from me, so we hung out sometimes. I get a call one day that he got arrested for bank robbery. He bailed out and my roommate and I went to talk to him, because we couldn’t believe it. He said, “I was just trying to show them how weak their security was.” We were new, but we weren’t born yesterday. Apparently he had some big gambling debts and was desperate. He went to prison.
The slippery slope – A team of narco cops decided, amongst themselves, that they weren’t being treated fairly. They were bringing in all this money in seized assets, but the department wasn’t giving them money for equipment they felt they needed, like night vision scopes. So, they kept (stole) some of the the money they seized to buy the equipment they felt they needed. mmmmm Okay. But then the equipment they needed turned into houses, cars, jewelry and boats. They went to prison.
Greed – A case I heard about recently, a deputy offered up his services to provide security for dope shipments. He said he and his coworkers would escort shipments for a certain amount of money. His “coworkers” were actually just people he knew. They all went to prison.
Born dirty – A kid from a generational gang family was raised to stay out of trouble and get good grades. The sole purpose was to get him hired on the sheriff’s department so he could help with the gang’s jail drug smuggling operation. He was found out and arrested. Within a week, he was all tatted up. He went to prison.
Stupidity/Naivete/No good deed goes unpunished/Blackmail – Inmates have nothing but time. Career criminals use that time to plan. They will try to identify, target and “groom” young naive deputies. In a case a few years back, 2013, or so, a young kid graduated from the academy and was assigned to one of the jails. An inmate started making conversation with him and being friendly. At a certain point, he gave this kid some sob story about his family and that he couldn’t get in touch with them, or something like that. Whatever it was, this young deputy decided to do something for this inmate, like take a message to his family, or something and then bring a message back. I forget exactly what it was, but it was against policy and being in his first year, he could be fired. The inmate used it against him and blackmailed him into smuggling drugs into the jail. The inmate was caught, gave the deputy up and the deputy went to prison. He made a video for the department about it that the department now shows in the academy.

I can relate

What is something you will never understand?

Until a few years ago, when my mom was still working, she had a very strange habit — She would come back from work tired, request for a glass of coke, a couple of papad, and sit down for a few minutes before resuming other household work.

We would often tell her that rather than coke and papad, you can eat something healthier, perhaps a glass of juice and some fruits. But no, these advices would just fall on deaf ears. I wouldn’t just understand why would she not want to stay healthy.

She would often have headaches in the morning and would wake up tired. Being an advocate of yoga, other fitness activities and it’s importance, I would keep persisting with my efforts to convince her. But no, she would just not have it.

For me, it was difficult to understand why would she not want to have a better life.

Just, why not!

Surprisingly, my father, who used to go for jogging and would really care about his fitness, started ignoring the healthy bits of his life and slowly, with time, stopped doing it at all. He seemed to be following mom’s route of not caring about his health anymore. I tried to persuade him to restart with the brisk walking again, but to no avail.

Years later, I realised the reason — It was the stress that was killing them from inside — something I was not aware of, until recently, especially about the intensity of it they were dealing with.

When it was my turn to get a share of their stress coupled with some of mine, I found out how it overpowers your willingness to do things which makes you happy. It smothers you slowly, makes you want to avoid putting any extra efforts, even for those things which are absolutely essential. You become a person who just wants to do things which makes them feel normal, if not better — like having some unhealthy meals in my mom’s case; or stopping the exercises in my father’s.

Advices, suggestions, words of wisdom are the most readily available things in this world. Every body seems to give it, very few can follow it under every circumstance. What a person is going through and whether he can even make something of your suggestion (intended in a helpful way) is way beyond our understanding at times.

And unless you can be in someone’s shoes, you will never understand why that someone behaves in a certain way, or chooses not to.

What is it like to serve time in a Swedish prison?

I think a story from 2005 illustrates it fairly well.

This was at the Norrtäljeanstalten prison, Sweden’s highest security facility. We’re talking murderers, armed robbery, that sort of people.

One fateful evening, there was a major slip in security. Total disaster. In one wing, the cell doors remained unlocked as the staff went home for the day.

So. It’s not like the inmates could get out – they were still behind several secure layers. They just had the run of the building for one night.

So what did they do?

They made their way to the kitchen, baked a cake, and ate cake and watched TV all night. They all said it was the best night ever.

In the morning, they were unceremoniously put back in their cells, but faced no further consequences. The two staff who had managed to forget to lock got a weeks’ pay docked, and a stern warning.

Swedish prison: turns bank robbers into cake bakers.

Forced to be free

What is the most absurd thing you’ve been charged for on a bill?

My cat went missing for several months. He was a stray that kind of adopted my home as an inside/outside mellow lap cat. I searched and asked around, posted flyers all around town but he was just…gone. One day went to a customers home and on her living room couch is my missing cat!! This older lady had been feeding it and coaxed it inside and he stayed. He remembered me, I pointed out a little crook in his tail that convinced her it was him. I told her that he seemed pretty happy and I guess he lives here now. I gave her his vet records, cat bed, and favorite toys. Part of me was mad because she HAD to have seen those missing cat signs but I was at the same time glad he was warm and happy and not flattened by a truck or something.

About a year later, this crazy lady comes to my door with VET BILL! He got a bladder infection and she took him to the vet and asked them to charge me for it. She took the paperwork I’d given her and told them it was on my account. A bill had been mailed and I was on the phone with them before it even arrived letting know it was her cat and her problem now!

Crazy cat ladies man…..

Something was wrong

A large Pickle Barrel

I grew up (in my elementary school and high school years) in a small town in Western Pennsylvania. And in this small town, was a fair and relatively calm life that in many ways resembles Mayberry RFD… A “small town America”.

We had a “cigar store Indian” at the local Hardware Store.

We had kids riding bicycles and had newspaper routes.

We had PTA clubs, Boy Scouts, and Girl Scouts. And Friday football games.

And we also had a small family store with a large “Pickle Barrel”. This was a wooden barrel that was perhaps one yard high, and filled with pickles and vinegar. And if you wanted a pickle, you would just reach in, and give a nickel to the old man at the cash register.

I believe that these things disappeared during the 1980’s. But the death knell occurred under the “food safety standards” of the Clinton administration.

Anyways… I well remember the days when my father would place 25 cents (a quarter) on the counter, and would buy all of us some nice delicious pickles. These weren’t small either. They were HUGE!

And I do miss those days where I would hold a pickle in my hands and munch away happily. Sigh… a long forgotten time.

Today…

Have you ever been to a wedding where the bride said “no”?

Yes. The bride felt “pressured” into the marriage. Traditionally, the bride or her parents hire me. It’s quite rare for the groom or his parents to hire me, but it happens infrequently.

Leading up to the wedding (it was a destination wedding), there were several hints that the bride wasn’t interested in choosing a dress, the flowers or any of the aspects in the planning process. I found this odd and one day about a week prior to the wedding, asked why? The bride felt inadequate. Everything was decided for her. She felt uncomfortable speaking her mind or making a decision. Her fear that the marriage would be a “follow the leader” lifestyle was the reason for this.

After saying “I don’t,” I took her from the altar to the dressing room to give her a moment while stunned guests and family members sat open mouthed.

We needed time to decide if this was “what she really wanted” without the audience. I should add that I’m also a Premarital Counselor with Two Together In Texas, so I’m familiar with awkward situations.

The bride told me, “If the rest of my life will be spent saying yes, I prefer to say no now. My family loves him. He’s successful and a good catch. However, his parents make most of his decisions. He works for his father and I may never measure up to his mother.”

I decided to bring the groom and both sets of parents into the dressing room. This bride needed to voice her concerns and find a resolution or peace. She had waited two years to speak up and it was two years too long.

The end result was they worked it out. They found a middle ground to move forward, and the marriage went on. I flew to California to baptize their baby and the family is doing well. They are happy and well adjusted.

The mother in law now allows the bride to do things her way and the mother no longer pushes her daughter to do what she thinks is best. The mother viewed this wedding as the one “she never had.” The mother in law wanted everything perfect. The bride wanted happiness and the groom simply wanted to please his mother, her mother and finally, the bride. The bride or groom should come first. They are the life partner. They are the person who will stand beside you through thick and thin, and they deserve a voice in decisions and especially the planning process.

The bride wanted a mariachi band at the reception. Both sets of parents were against this idea and found it to be “tacky.” I found a short notice mariachi band and the bride was absolutely thrilled.

Quite frankly, if a marriage isn’t going to work out, I prefer for someone to say “I don’t” and discuss with them their reasons to before announcing a cancellation of the wedding to the guests or finding out if a resolution can be found.

My reasons for addressing an issue on wedding day are that divorces are emotionally devastating. What began with joy ends with sorrow.

Couples should discuss things that bother them long before committing to planning a wedding, although it’s easy to get “caught up in the planning.”

Couples should feel comfortable communicating their feelings and open to discussing issues that are disturbing before planning a life together. I believe in Premarital Counseling because it offers couples an opportunity to discuss their future together.

Weddings aren’t all about the parents. They are all about the couple, regardless of who is writing the check.

This Is What Women Will NEVER Understand About Men’s Dating STRUGGLES!

What is the brutal truth about life after marriage?

As I write this, Christmas is just one week away.

If you’re not familiar with Christmas, among other things, it’s usually the biggest gift-giving day of the year, at least for us Americans. Also the celebration of the birth of our Savior and all that jazz…

Anyway, this is how gift-giving works between my wife and me—a veteran married couple. This is also how it works between most veteran married couples I know:

We just tell each other what, exactly, complete with pictures and Amazon links if necessary, we want our spouse to get us for Christmas.

Sometimes, we even buy it on their credit cards, since we share finances anyway.

Sometimes, we even buy it ourselves, wrap it, put it under the tree, and tell our spouse that we “took care of it.”

There have been times when my wife opened her Christmas present from me, and I was just as surprised as my children were when we saw it. I got you a new pair of running shoes. Nice.

In the past, I attempted to deviate from my wife’s official Christmas list. You know, to surprise her. I was trying to be romantic.

It rarely went over well, particularly if I attempted to get her clothes or perfume.

Just stick to the list, married guys. Perhaps it’s not as romantic, but it’s still the best option. If you want to deviate from the list, make sure you get everything on the list, too.

This year, my wife requested something that I had to purchase in a showroom and have delivered at a later date to the house. I facetimed with my wife while I was in the store, to make sure I was getting the exact one that she wanted. It’s being delivered on a day when she works from home. She’ll have to be there to receive it. And they say romance is dead…

Licking blocks of ice during the heat wave, NYC, (1912)

What is the most dangerous thing you’ve ever done?

Uhm lets see… another ambulance story.

I was called to the 6th floor of a 6 floor tenement building for a “seriously unwell child”. A woman was waiting downstairs, and she said “I’m going out, but I think my son is dead. He’s had a cold for a week.” And she left.

I had the jump kit (a first aid kit) and my partner had the oxygen and suction- I went up the 12 set of stairs two at a time (oh, to be young and foolish again…) so I got there before he did. A man was there with 4 kids who all looked very scrubby but also very alive. He said “He’s on the sofa”. And then, they went back to eating.

The little boy was 4 or 5. He was so hot to the touch, and although he had a pulse, he wasn’t breathing. He was wearing red flannel cookie monster pajamas… I will never forget them.

I grabbed him in my arms, started mouth to mouth, and headed back down the stairs. The father actually said “Hey! Shut the door!”

I was busy. I met my partner halfway down. He took one look at the kid and said “Oh Fuck, we gotta get him out of here…”

I jumped in the back, but we were only 5 minutes from the hospital so I just kept him in my arms and did rescue breathing. I didn’t want to delay … my partner was there in less than 3 minutes. His heart was still pumping.

I brought the lad in, the staff took over. We were getting the truck ready when the doctor came out and said “which of you tech’d him?” I told him I did. (Tech-ing means you’re the one with the patient)

He said “You’re going to need a lice treatment.” I sighed.

He said “We can do it inside”. Now that was weird… but when I got inside, he said “I needed to talk to you privately… he died of bacterial meningitis. Did you do mouth to mouth?” Of course I had, he was a little kid. Bacterial Meningitis is spread through saliva and nasal secretions. I was (potentially) screwed.

So, they did blood work and I had to take evil antibiotics that turned everything yellow (INH and Rifampin) for a year. I was there for at the hospital for hours before I got sent home with a month off work to make sure I didn’t have bacterial meningitis too.

Now, I’ve driven way too fast, driven on roads that weren’t safe to walk on never mind drive, worked on cars while traffic buzzed past, turned over an ambulance (wasn’t my fault, honest), gone into burning buildings, gotten blood and lots of other “body stuff” on unprotected skin, walked into domestic violence situations, gone into freezing water to get some one else out, extricated people from a car on the edge of a ravine, been to a plane crash, extricated people from a burning car, talked people down who were holding guns to their own head- but all those times, I could see the risk in front of me. Had I taken the time to look at the kid’s rash, I might have seen the risk but his condition and the complete apathy of his parents drove me to not see the risk- and not assessing for the risk in what you’re doing is the single most dangerous thing anyone can do.

They were 5 minutes from the hospital, and no one cared enough to bring the kid there. Did I tell social services about the apathy of the parents? You can be sure I pursued the matter like a slightly yellow hell hound.

His name was Joshua.

Failed attempt at Serbia color revolution

If your employees are ordering their work shirts that you are paying for, and your overweight employee insists she needs a tapered size medium, which you know it won’t even button on her, what do you say?

Well I was the uniform manager for a marching band and what we did worked fairly well. We kept an assortment of sizes on hand and when we got a new member, we had them try on those in stock uniforms until we found their best fit. Then we would place the order to replace the one they were issued from stock. There is a lot of variation in cuts of shirts, and one company’s medium might be another company’s large. If someone comes in who looks like a large and says “oh I’m a medium,” say “Here is one try it on; be aware these tend to run small so you may need to move up a size from what you usually wear.” The employee gets to save face, and you don’t have to be rude and say “Oh I can tell by looking at you a medium will never fit.” If I were ordering a large number of shirts, I would first order a selection of sizes for people to try on. Then launder those sample shirts and put them away to issue later to new employees as they come in. If these are something more fitted than a T-shirt or polo shirt and this were going to be a large order, it might be good to have a representative from the uniform or shirt shop to measure people and order one that best fit them.

An Ojibwe Native American spearfishing, Minnesota, (1908)

If we give a house to every homeless person, will that solve homelessness?

A few years ago our city decided to try to alleviate the homeless problem.

They bought a large two story motel that had become a bit rundown located along a major freeway.

They spent hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars fixing it up and remodeling every room into small studio apartments.

Then they let homeless people to live in the apartments.

We would drive by the apartments periodically and every time it looked more rundown.

This went on for a couple of years until one day it was burned to the ground. A news story said one of the homeless people decided to build a fire in one of the apartments. I guess he just like the look of a campfire.

Eventually, the building was demolished and the city sold the land at a significant loss.

Giving a house to every homeless person is not financially feasible. No government entity can afford that.

And, even if it was, it would not solve the homeless problem.

The only way to fix the homeless problem is to help a homeless person, who wants help, become stable and productive so they can eventually afford their own home.

Homelessness isn’t solved in mass. It’s solved one homeless person at a time.

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In your opinion, who is the most tragic figure in history?

Generalissimus Jiang Jieshi (蔣介石), also known with the Wade-Giles Romanization Chiang Kai-Shek.

Born 31 October 1887, he was a professional soldier and one of the most genuinely talented soldiers China has ever produced. His tragedy was to live in one of the most tragic eras of China ever, to encounter superior enemies, and having an army full of rotten and corrupt subordinates. He fought a hopeless war of which he had no hopes of winning, yet he did it with utmost courage.

The death of Sun Yat-Sen (Sun Yixian) in 1925 had left China in a power vacuum and interregnum, and the land collapsed into anarchy known as Era of Warlords. China became a Warlordistan. The control of the country was divided among former military cliques of the Beiyang Army and other regional factions from 1916 to 1928.

Chiang raised the National Chinese Army, allied with the Communists led by Mao Zedong, and crushed the warlords, unifying the country. And alas, the Communists proved an unreliable ally – and the Empire beyond the sea, even more unreliable. Japan attacked China in 1931 after the Mukden incident.

The Japanese army was superior in technology, fighting spirit (dao), discipline and logistics. The Guomindang army of Chiang suffered from poor equipment, corruption, lack of patriotism and poor logistics – it was an “army of lions led by jackasses”, but its commander was the alpha lion.

Way too little has been written about the China-Japan war 1931–1941 and China’s part in the World War Two. But China has been one of the main theatres – and one of the main sufferers – in the war, and the Japanese praised the Chinese soldiers, insisting them be second only to the Australians in their will to fight.

Meanwhile Mao Zedong conspired to overthrow Guomindang (or Kuomintang, if you prefer the Wade-Giles Romanization), and after the liberation of China, the civil war re-emerged. The Guomindang army was tired, consumed and exhausted, while Stalin eagerly supported the Communists, finally overcoming the Guomindang 1949. Chiang and the Nationalist refugees fled to Taiwan.

The Communist Chinese propaganda has done all it could to stample Chiang as an unpatriotic American stooge and a traitor, while the Guomindang in Taiwan set up a Western-style state under Christian and Confucian principles.

But nobody could deny Chiang was a true Chinese patriot. His last will was that his body be buried in his hometown Fenghua.

Loyal Husband Finds Out Wife Participates In “Events” While He’s Away Working (She’s Toast!)

What is an appropriate response when a coworker calls you out for being late?

When I got into IT I got in the habit of showing up early to prepare for my day. I spent a lot of time traveling to various facilities as a computer support tech so I’d come in to check email and make sure there wasn’t something I needed to do in the office before loading up and hitting the road.

Many of my younger coworkers would clock in on the hour but our business manager, who didn’t clock in, had a bad habit of showing up 15 minutes late each day. (She also had a tendency to leave 5 or10 minutes early, but that’s another story for another time.) One week the IT Director and our boss, the Deputy IT Director, were both out of town so the business manager decided that she could show up whenever she felt like it.

She was at least a half hour late on Monday through Thursday, including 45 minutes late on Wednesday, so when she showed up at 8:15 on Friday morning I exclaimed, “Gee, Linda, this is the earliest you’ve been late all week!”. Everyone got a laugh out of it but Linda, apparently, didn’t think it was funny because she called my boss at the seminar that she was attending to complain.

The next thing I know my boss is calling me and asking what I said to set Linda off. So I told her what had been going on all week. She told me that Linda was offended by my comment and asked if I’d be willing to apologize, and I just laughed and laughed and laughed. Then I said, “No.”

If Linda had told me to eff off, or kiss her butt, or just about anything else I would have taken it in stride but her calling the boss, when she was in the wrong, pissed me off. I’d asked your coworker if he/she signs your paycheck and when they answer in the negative, tell them when you come in is none of their business. But I can understand where they’re coming from, especially if you have a problem getting to work on time.

Jewish women and children arriving at the Auschwitz-Birkenau extermination camp, Poland, (1944)

In what ways has your spouse changed after getting married?

This is going to be fun. But let me tell you, its more like what I thought she was like and how she actually is…

When we first met through parents, she looked like a shy girl next door. She was smiling and feeling awkward a lot. After we got married and a little more comfortable, she walks around house naked, has 0 level of shyness.
I thought I was getting cold feet. She was being forced. Turned out she had insisted to her parents that she wanted to get married, like literally told them in a complete sentence, ‘Dad, I want to get married. I don’t have any boyfriend right now. Search a groom for me.’ I’m not even exaggerating, her parents tell this story all the time.
I thought she didn’t like talking. WRONG. She NEVER shuts up. If she does, I’ll wake up. Lol, I’ve started to enjoy it.
She’s frigid. WRONG. Once comfortable, she’s a freak.
She’s so slow and, unhappy person. Wrong. She is hyperactive and becomes happy just about at nothing.
She doesn’t like me. Big time wrong. Turned out, she has liked me since day 1. She loves me.
She’ll probably never fight or argue. Wrong. Loveeess to argue, though I don’t like to admit it much, she’s usually right about things. And people too.
Is probably passive aggressive. Wrong. Tells me when things bother her, almost immediately.
Is dumb. Wrong. She’s really smart.
She does not feel much. Wrong. All of her emotions are intense.
Is very serious. Wrong. Very very wrong. Can’t go on a day without lame jokes. Lame jokes are lifeline to her. She knows they are lame but loves it.

As for the changes, she hasn’t changed much. Can motherhood be included? Anyways, it suits her well.

She’s staying at her parents place with our boy. I miss her. Its been just a day though. I guess, I’ll call now.

Unusual Abandoned Cat Came Into Shelter And Amazed People With Its Size

My Mom…

My Mom once told me that she walked into a room where a couple of friends were discussing her, they didn’t know she was there. She shook her head, smiled and walked away. 🕊

My Mom also told me that she had a friend who talked bad about her, she never knew that Mom found out, Mom never mentioned it. She smiled and walked away from this friendship. 🕊

She told me she had family who chose to shift her out of their life because she stood up for herself for a change. And because she stopped crossing oceans for them when they would not even help her cross a bridge. She smiled, shook her head and walked away. 🕊

So I asked her how she could just walk away from people that betrayed her while pretending to be her friends or family? 🕊

She answered that every time she came to a crossroad like that, she had to decide who will be going forward on her journey with her. This showed her who she cannot take along with her. 🕊

So she explained to me that you should never get mad at a person who betrays you, even in the name of friendship or family. Just gracefully bow out and enjoy your journey with all the new people God puts in their place. 🕊

Duck Dynasty, (1926)

What was a loophole that you found and exploited the hell out of?

10 years ago I was an IT consultant, traveling every week. I would also always book a Marriott hotel if one was close to the customer, all paid for on my American Express card.

Marriott awards you points for your stays with them. Once I had at least 100, 000 points I’d call them and request gift certificates. 100, 000 points would give you $1,000 worth of gift certs to pay for your hotel.

Back then, at the end of your stay, someone would come around in the middle of the night and slide the invoice for your stay that week. That invoice would show they charged my AmEx card for whatever the cost was.

Now that invoice was completely processed then. While it says it charged my card, they actually didn’t really do that until the afternoon after you checked out.

So what I would do is I’d go to the front desk with my invoice and my gift certs and tell the clerk that I would rather pay for my stay with the certs rather than my card. Then they’d issue me a new invoice showing I paid in certs. However I still had the original invoice. That would be the invoice I’d submit in my expenses. So every couple of months I’d be reimbursed $1000 so I could pay my cc bill, but since I actually paid in certs that 1000 bucks was essentially free money I’d drop into my savings. I and every one else I knew did it all the time, it was really an awesome little loophole

Beef Steak and Kidney Pie

Ingredients

Filling

3/4 pound calf kidney or beef liver
Salted water
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
3/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
2 pounds beef steak, cut into bite-size pieces
4 tablespoons butter
4 shallots, finely chopped
1 cup beef bouillon
1 bay leaf
1 teaspoon chopped fresh parsley
Pinch of ground cloves
Pinch of marjoram, crushed
1/2 pound fresh mushrooms, sliced and sautéed
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce

Pastry Topping

1/3 cup plus 1 tablespoon shortening
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 to 3 tablespoons cold water

Instructions

Filling: Clean and split kidney; remove fat and large tubes. Soak in salted water 1 hour.
Dry and cut into 1/4-inch slices. Mix flour, salt and pepper; roll kidney and beef pieces in flour mixture.
Melt butter in heavy pot and sauté shallots. When shallots have taken on a little color, add beef and kidney; brown lightly, turning.
Add bouillon, bay leaf, parsley, cloves and marjoram. Stir; cover and simmer 1 to 1 1/4 hours, or until meat is tender.
Add mushrooms and Worcestershire sauce. If liquid is too thin, thicken with smooth paste of flour and cold water.
Grease a deep 10-inch baking dish. Place pie funnel in center. Add meat mixture and allow to cool in refrigerator.
Meanwhile, prepare Pastry Topping. Place pastry over meat, sealing pastry edges to edge of dish. Make vents in pastry to allow steam to escape.
Bake at 450 degrees F for 8 to 10 minutes; lower heat to 375 degrees F and continue baking 15 minutes, or until crust is golden.
Pastry Topping: Cut shortening into flour and salt until particles are size of small peas.
Sprinkle in water, 1 tablespoon at a time, tossing with fork until all flour is moistened and pastry almost cleans sides of bowl, adding 1 to 2 teaspoons water if necessary.
Gather pastry into a ball; shape into flattened round on lightly floured cloth-covered board. Roll out to fit top of casserole.

How lucky are we?

My best friend had a defective heart. I don’t know the exact term for that, but her heart was on the right side of her chest among several other defects. She couldn’t walk farther than 200m, and her finger tips would always turn black.

When she was born, the doctor gave her a life expectancy of 2 years. She surpassed that. Her parents took her to all the best hospitals in the country. Another estimation: 10 years old. She surpassed that too. She completed high school, she got into college. And she always was a cheerful girl to be with. (Sometimes, her mother kicked my ass out of the house because when we hung out, we laughed too much. Laughing would consume oxygen from her heart and her brain so she would suffer from headaches afterward).

One day, when she was at the university, her heart collapsed. Her doctor demanded her to drop college because it was too much for her. She came back to our hometown, and became an at-home teacher for the kids, and still was a cheerful girl.

After that another year, her heart collapsed once again. She was hospitalized. Her doctor informed her parents that there was nothing more they could do. Her family should consider to unplug the machines and bring her home.

Her mother called me. She said “We are bring [my friend’s name] home”. I rushed into the hospital. Her mother was on one side of her bed holding her left hand, I was on the other side holding her right hand when they unplugged her.

That moment, her mother collapsed to the ground and screamed: “I’ve lost her! From now on, I don’t have anyone to take care of anymore!”

At that moment, I know that just being born normally to be able to live a normal life is extremely lucky. Also, having someone you love by your side, even that means you have to take care of them all the time is also lucky.

Live your life in full bloom.

Flipping Burgers, (1938)

What feature in your car did you not realize you had until someone else told you about it?

Well, not the above but the other way around. In 2014 we were looking to buy a replacement for my wife’s car, and were at the Skoda garage checking out a very-nearly-new Fabia. It had been the showroom’s demonstrator model for a few months, had just a couple of hundred miles on it, but the salespeople had been showing that vehicle to people day in, day out.

We looked in the boot. My wife’s a bee-keeper and a “must have” for her was to be able to get a bee-hive in the back. To do that meant taking the rear parcels shelf off, which I did myself to see how easy it was to do and to replace, since this would be a common action. Putting it back, I noticed you could put it back either in the “conventional” position, or in a half-way house lower position. “Hey, “ I said. “That’s a nifty feature – allows you to put larger items on the parcel shelf but still have it hiding stuff underneath.” At that the salesperson looked in, looked at the shelf, the boot, then went over to his colleague and said “Come over here. We’ve found a brand-new feature!”

We bought the car, still got it now. Don’t think we’ve ever used the parcel shelf in “half-way” position.

Very good

What did your boss say to you during a meeting that resulted in you immediately resigning?

“That’s just not convenient.”

My father had been terminally ill for a decade. He was a perfectionist in everything in his life and no detail was ever missed. He was also very stubborn. If there were ever odds almost insurmountable, he always prevailed. This was part of why he’d been terminal for so very long.

One day before, my father agreed that it was time to bring hospice in and make final arrangements. My parents had two other daughters, I was the only one who lived in the same town. Because of my location, he wanted me to be at those meetings.

I was working in the executive offices for a local bank. The woman I reported to was exacting in everything and expected perfection to be performed with minimal preparation and no clarifications. She wanted a mind reader who loved emergencies and placed her on a pedestal.

After that phone call, I was shaken up. It wasn’t unexpected, but you are never really prepared for the situation when you are facing it.

“Something has come up. It’s a delicate family matter,” I said.

“That’s just not convenient,” she said. “Even if it’s life or death, it’s not convenient. I have a series of reports that are due today.” This was news to me. “And I’m expecting that you will be here long after hours.”

“It actually is life or death,” I said. I was about to elaborate when she cut me off.

“Is it your life or death?”

“Honestly, no.”

“Then it’s not convenient.”

“I’m afraid that poor planning on your part really isn’t my problem.”

“Excuse me?” she asked.

“No excuse for you and your lack of planning. I’m quitting as of,” I looked at my watch, “about two minutes from now. Just long enough to get my purse and log off the computer.”

“You can’t do that,” she said.

“Can and did.”

I grabbed my purse and left the building.

I replaced the job with a much nicer one in about two days.

My father passed less than two weeks from my exit. The new job, and I only worked it for two days when he died, not only let me have the time off to complete his arrangements and his funeral, sent flowers. One week later, HR from the bank called, offered me a raise and an apology. “I’m sorry. That’s just not convenient.”

What was the most bald-faced lie you have ever heard a witness say under oath? How did you react?

I once attended a court case to support a friend. Her sister was accused by a nasty neighbour of breaking into the nasty neighbour’s home, stealing items, and trying to assault her (on more than one occasion).

My friend and her sister were both black women. It was no secret that the neighbour was this old racist woman who routinely called the police on the sister and her boyfriend when they were minding their own business. When the woman invited her sister (my friend), and her kids to come to visit and swim in their pool, also to use the tennis courts and fitness room that was shared by the condo complex. The boyfriend was also black.

When called to testify the nasty neighbour gave detailed dates about the break in and mentioned her “fox fur coat, some diamond jewellery and several hams and frozen meat”, being taken from her home. She swore that she came home to see the women and her boyfriend running out the back door at night with the merchandise in a leather suitcase.

When the lawyer for the woman questioned the woman and her boyfriend, who each took turns on the stand, it was proven that the neighbour lied by showing that:

My friend’s sister, who worked as a passenger flight attendant, was working on a flight that was on its way to Singapore during the very night and time when she was supposed to have broken into the neighbour’s home. (It’s hard to break into a home when you’re two hours into a 12 hour flight that is 39,000 feet over the Pacific Ocean.)
She and her boyfriend were also vegetarians who never ate meat nor wore nor owned leather and fur since they both believed that “meat is murder”, and to wear animal furs and leather was “cruel and inhumane”.
The boyfriend was also on his way to Singapore flying from India the afternoon before, to meet up with his girlfriend after a business trip for three day vacation, before they’d fly back to Canada. He proposed marriage while they visited Singapore (she said “yes” and did marry him). So they were in Singapore the day before “the break in” at the neighbour’s home and they didn’t return until three days later.

The lawyer for my friend’s sister and her boyfriend also presented pictures of the very “stolen” items in question taken by the police when they were recovered from pawn shops and a consignment store. The items were pawned by a young white man, a known drug addict with a lengthy arrest record who happened to be the neighbour’s nephew whom the neighbour gave money to on a regular basis (not helping him at all).

Before the judge dismissed all charges he ordered the neighbour to be taken into custody for “fraud, perjury, aiding and abetting a criminal” and a few other charges.

In the end the neighbour lost her house and all her savings when my friend’s sister and her boyfriend sued the neighbour for slander and defamation of character. They won a large sum in court and the neighbour ended up spending four years in prison for additional charges which included drug possession on top of what she was already convicted of.

I guess nasty racist people get what’s coming to them after all.

College students pile into a Volkswagen Beetle, (c. 1965)

How tough is a stand up comedians life?

For those that do it full time, very tough. They have to stand up in front of the crowd and make them laugh. Do you realize what it takes to do that? Then there is the travelling and eating crap food and nerves. For those starting out it is not easy at all. For those on top, well, they have to keep coming up with acts to stay on top. As I did both, a standup comedian and professional drummer in a band, playing in a band was far easier. Below is a little of my stand up act.

I was a part time stand up comedian for awhile along with being a professional drummer. I auditioned for a few shows in local comedy clubs. They must have liked me, I got jobs. I was usually the start off guy, first one out. I had my own shtick. The guy who showed up at the wrong event.

I’d walk out then somberly say, “ I realize this is a sad time for most of you, but Mary, bless her soul loved humour.” Then I’d look behind me and kind of look around confused, then I’d turn to the audience. “Um, Mary’s passing surprised many, especially Mary. I think she’d like some humour at her funeral. She often said that “to laugh at something heartily means that you think it’s funny,” and I heartily agree. I always thought Mary was a deep thinker and that proves it right?

“She was 81, poor Mary. Actually, a woman’s life expectancy is 80, so hey, good for her. Now a man’s life expectancy is 76. If I make it to 76, I’m going to have a sex change. Right? I’ll beat those odds. So I hope to add a bit of humour to Mary’s funeral, wherever she is,” and I look around again for Mary.

Suddenly a sharp whistle from the stage side. I’d stop and walk over with my mic.

“This is not a funeral home. This is a comedy club,” the stage manager would tell me so the audience would hear.

“What? This isn’t Roses Funeral Parlour?” I would say surprised. The crowd would start laughing.

“Do you see Mary anywhere?” he’d ask.

“Actually no,” I would say looking around. “How much do you pay here?”

“$250.” he’d tell me.

A few seconds of silence then I’d say, “Sure, what the hell, Mary won’t miss me,” then I’d walk back center stage where people would be giggling.

“Okay, who here had a good shit today?” Well the crowd would laugh. Somebody always raised a hand, I’d try to pick a girl.

“You did, great, good for you. I won’t ask you details okay?” The girl would laugh.

“So do you know there are many types of shits? There’s the peanut butter shit; that’s the one where you can use up to three rolls of toilet paper, the upside down volcano shit, the totally air shit which isn’t even really a shit though it felt like it was going to be one,,” the shart which is a shit that felt like air but wasn’t, the bombing raid shit and the ghost shit.” Then I’d stop and go back to the girl.

“Okay, I was just wondering what came out that made it such a good shit? We all want to know don’t we folks?” I’d say looking around and people would start applauding. Of course the girl would laugh and hide her face in her hands. “Okay forget it. Tell me privately later. People, I’m going to tell you what the best shit of all is. It’s the Ghost Shit!”

“This is the one when you have to go so bad and there’s no restroom around. It’s turtling so bad it’s stretching your underwear. Suddenly, by some miracle, you find a restroom. You fly in there and sit on the toilet after near ripping your pants off. And ….. it starts.”

“Like the RMS Titanic, this thing is moving out with no effort and it seems like it’s going forever. You are wondering how this thing is going to go down that little toilet hole. It’s embarrassing if you are at someone’s house and you come out of the bathroom and ask, “Hey, have you got a plunger? A good one? One with a lot of suction?” You always get a strange look when you ask that don’t you?

Anyway, so the Titanic has left the dock and you are feeling suddenly very hollow inside, and relieved. You grab some toilet paper and wipe. Nothing! Not a speck of shit on your ass. Puzzled, you stand up and look at the toilet. It’s looking back at you innocent as hell. THERE IS NOTHING IN THE TOILET! What the hell? You look around; nope, not on the floor! It’s nowhere but you felt it by God! That ladies and gentlemen is the Ghost Shit, or maybe I should have called it the Houdini Shit.

Crude yes but it got me back to the comedy clubs. People loved me talking about shit because they all go through it every day.

I used to be hired to give speeches at weddings. Just before the actual person would rise to give a toast to the bride, I would jump up and interrupt him.

“Thank you, thank you. Ah, the lovely bride. Leona, you’re looking great.” That was never the brides name. I’d make one up and the people would laugh. I did the same skit to friends of my sisters who were getting married.

“So, a toast to the bride huh? I’m supposed to come up with some funny stories about her, and some heart warming ones.” Silence from me for a few seconds as the people would snicker. “I have nothing,” I would say, “but I do have a few, should we say naughty stories of Leona. And I promise I will say nothing of that disease you had a few months ago,” I’d say looking at her and pretend I was zippering my mouth.

That would be the cue for someone to say, “That’s not Leona, that’s Shirley!”

I would look up surprised, then look around.

“This isn’t the Wright Patterson wedding?” I would ask. Yes, I know, that’s an air base. I’d be told no it isn’t.

“Jesus,” I would say, “Um, were you going to say something?” I’d say to the guy who originally was going to give the toast to the bride, and I’d run out.

I had fun doing them and I had a few different ones so I’d change them around. I wrote my own material. You can tell? That’s good.

When I started to get quite busy in my pro drumming career I left the comedian stage. I missed the laughs. But I’d do them at get togethers at friends houses and parties.

Being a comedian is a nerve wracking but fun gig. Loved the laughs.

Cab stand in Madison Square Park, New York, (ca 1900)

How do you deal with being too poor?

When I was doing my graduation, I stayed in a hostel, which provided lunch and dinner but no breakfast. You had two options for breakfast: Go out to a restaurant nearby and have a hot breakfast or eat what most of the students ate – mashed banana and flattened rice (it is called poha or chura in India). I chose the second option since the first option was too costly. The food in the hostel was neither good in quality nor enough in quantity. So most of the times, I was famished.

I used to pity myself till I had a discussion about hunger with one of my classmates. He was worse off than me. His father was dead and his mother used to serve tea and water in a government office in a desolate tribal village. In short, he had enough money to have just one meal a day. I asked him what he did when he felt hungry. He said he would drink water.

This classmate of mine was a good student but did not have a clue about what to do after his graduation. In those days, IT was booming in India and I convinced him to do get a Masters degree in Computer Applications (MCA). He got into one of the best Universities of India.

I did not meet him when we were doing our Post Graduation since I was at a different University. I met him a year after both of us had started our careers. He came to meet me. He was working for the largest software company of India and was on his way to his first foreign assignment. I felt very happy at how he had been able to turn around his fortune. He had started from a village which did not have electricity and his relatives and friends had not even seen life outside their village.

I am not in touch with him. But I searched the net and I found this photo. He is happily settled with his family in the USA.

So how do you deal with being too poor? Work hard and have patience. Things will turn around.

Unemployed men outside Al Capone’s soup kitchen in Chicago during the Great Depression, (1931)

Is the US a hegemony?

Is earth round? Does waves rush to the shores?, Do the sun rise in the east?

Let me see, the US has a doctrine, it’s call Monroe Doctrine. It says no power big and small cannot come near North America and when USSR wanted to arm Cuba nuclear missile, the U.S. threaten to start a nuclear war! And duly blockade and sanction Cuba for 62 years straight! Is that hegemonic?

The U.S. has invaded 68 nations and counting since its nation is formed after doing genocide on its inhabitants and rightful owner the native Indians. Is that hegemonic?

It has cause millions upon millions of deaths due to regime change, coup orchestration by the U.S. it send out millions of CIA and NED officials around the world to destabilise nations so that they can set up puppet and sham governments to act on U.S. behalf and for US interest! Are these actions hegemonic.

Are all these actions that in total caused up to 100 million deaths, hegemonic? Or according to your media it is doing Mother Teresa role!

What did your father say that made your jaw drop?

In my second year of university, I was summoned to a police station without knowing why. My father drove me and had to wait outside the office while I was being questioned.

The reason why I was summoned was quite a surprise.

Together with a good friend and a girl I was seeing at the time, I had smoked some weed and drank a couple of beers, and much later that night my friend had been robbed by a couple of low-lifes. So he called the police and explained his predicament.

The problem was: (1) my friend was drunk at the time; (2) round about that time my friend was starting to show the first signs of the paranoid schizophrenia that would later ruin his life.

So my friend told the police a story that did not make sense, and after a couple of questions, the story had gotten even worse: he claimed that before he was robbed, he had taken hard drugs together with the girl and me, and that the girl was actually a drug dealer. But he had forgotten the girl’s name.

Not mine, of course.

So instead of focusing on the robbery, the police men focused on the “hard drugs” and the “drug dealer.” And I was the one who would tell them the girl’s name. Which I didn’t.

After a lot of repeated questions and repeated threats — in which they refused to acknowledge the mental condition of my friend — they called in my dad, and explained to him that I blatantly refused to give them the girl’s name. To which my father said:

“This is ABSOLUTELY the right thing to do, and I am VERY proud of him. I would do the EXACT same thing.”

The police men did not know what to say, and not much later I was released after paying a ridiculous fine. When we left the office, they kept staring at my dad, a grey-bearded man with fierce eyes and thundering charisma.

Lightning had struck.

And the hammer had spoken.

SOURCES: the first drawing is taken from the book Nordiska Gudar by Johan Egerkrans; the second image us my own.

World War II propaganda posters in Port Washington, New York, (1942)

What are the biggest lessons you have learned in the corporate world?

Here’s mine:

people hire people they like. so be likable.
Focus on giving key people you work with what they want. At the end of the day, all people want to hear is “i’m going to fix your problems”.
Trust your intuition. People will try and fill your day with shit that doesn’t matter, do what YOU know does matter.
Make some friends, even if just to keep your sanity.
Don’t participate in shit talking. If a co-worker decides you are their confidant, just nod along with them—but never engage directly in the shit talking. You’ll save your own reputation and as a bonus you won’t feel shitty about yourself.
Say NO more. people respect people that can say no and don’t rollover for everything. Saying YES to everything just leaves you running on an endless treadmill.
Under-promise, over-deliver. always.
Make every effort not to give concrete deadlines, because you won’t be able to meet them anyway. Your credibility will falter. Unfortunately you’ll probably have to give them at some point.
Don’t try and be the best. Instead, make friends with people in a position of power and be at least competent.
Learn empathy. In reality, people don’t really care what gets done if you make them feel important and like they are achieving things. People just want to be heard, man.

A lot of these suck to admit….but it’s the way things are. Whether that’s because of some bullshit implicit social contracts or just the way we’re wired….its what corporate life is really like.

Which life is more enjoyable? Bachelor life or married life?

I had what seemed like the ideal bachelor life. Oh, and terror of getting trapped in marriage.

I mean, I was living the dream in college.

Living in a fraternity house with my buds.

Cute girls constantly around.

Parties every weekend.

More alcohol than common sense.

My parents paid for my college expenses. I worked every summer to make money for my personal expenses. So when school started I could focus on it and having fun.

Like I said I was living the dream.

But a weird thing happened. As I faced graduation the fun had worn thin.

I was tired of being hurt in relationships and hurting others.

I hoped there was more to life than one continual party.

I longed to share life at a deeper level with someone.

And I knew I needed to stop drinking so damn much.

Shortly before graduation two things happened that changed my life.

I went through a spiritual experience that transformed me.

And I met the most beautiful girl I’d ever know. Unfortunately, she had zero interest in getting to know me.

We eventually started dating. My persistence won out. And a year later married.

I look back over my life and think of all the blessings of marriage I’d have missed as a bachelor.

Someone to love and who loves me. Even sometimes when I’m, shall we say, less than lovable.

Sharing life together. The good, the bad and the ugly. And most of all the beautiful.

Raising our children that filled our lives with occasional frustration and even more love.

Conquering life together. Strengths making up for weaknesses. And glad she didn’t keep score.

Caring for each other in sickness and enjoying each other in health.

Laughing, crying, rejoicing and celebrating.

And at night, when I drift off to sleep, holding her hand and feeling a contentment I simply never could have imagined.

So for some, singleness works.

For me I can’t imagine having missed marrying my wife. And for her? I think she feels the same. At least on most days.

You’ll find a depth of life in marriage you cannot experience outside of it.

When Kidnapped People Realize They’ve Been Found

What’s the weirdest item you have found on your property?

My house has a two person jacuzzi tub with mirrors on three walls around it. When I was looking at the house there was a four post canopy bed with a mirror inside the canopy. Needless to say, the previous owner had his thing.

When I was moving in I found in the basement a bar with cuffs on either end hanging from the ceiling and two eye bolts in a board on the floor that would have made this a perfect place to tie someone up spread eagle. I strongly suspect that is what it was used for.

I have a room that used to be a bar (previous owner took the bar itself with him despite it being a built in). It has a dropped ceiling and the lights are above with clear panels to let the light thru. I was moving ceiling tiles to change a bulb and got hit in the face by what I’m guessing was a home made sex swing that was bolted to the rafters above.

I’ve been in this house 3 years and I still occasionally find a secret panel in a wall. It seems anywhere there was an extra bit of space he put a removable panel to make a hidden storage space.

And despite all that, the single most surprising thing I found in this house is the light switch in the bathroom that has power going to it but doesn’t seem to actually switch anything in the house! What do you do about a mysterious switch?

We also found a stack of acrylic paintings in the basement, all very amateurish. Subjects ranged from creepy little girls to 70’s psychedelic nude ladies. Realtor told the owners to pick them up, or they would end up in the trash. They showed up a year later asking for them

Bonus, junk removal guy loved the 70’s nudes, asked to keep them.

Marilyn Monroe’s USO performance, (February 1954)

Why does life sometimes seem so ambiguous and unclear?

If you keep trying to force your growth, it’s going to end up stunting your growth.
Most people live in the past. About 90% of their thoughts are from the past.
Life seems incredibly hard sometimes and inner peace feels so far away.
Life hits different the moment you make peace with your vulnerability.
Not everything is meant to be rainbows and sunshine and that’s okay, that’s part of life.
Flaws are fulfilling, perfectionism is draining.
The strength of your success is measured by the strength of your desire.
Sometimes it’s not easy to bear the noise of silence.
Their is nothing wrong with you, you just have a tendency to look for something wrong.
Confusion almost always comes before clarity, but sometimes Chaos is peace that has not been faced.

Miss America, 1924 – Ruth Malcomson.

What is the reason for the negative press about China in the Western world? Is it due to their authoritarian government or are there other factors at play?

It has nothing to do with “authoritarian government” it has everything to do with China not playing by U.S. “rules” that requires China to be submissive and subservient to the U.S. if you are observant you will noticed that the nations that the U.S. and the west have been giving negative press are all nations that refused to be submissive and subservient to the west.

The west merely represent 13% of the world? In fact the west is controlled by the the U.S. which represents 4% of the world. Should the 96% or the 87% of the rest of the world kowtow and let the west walk all over them? And dictate what they do? Who they make friends with? What they buy, how much they ought to pay? What religion they believe or what cloths to wear or what food they eat?

Let me give you an American answer! Over our dead body! It ain’t gonna happen!

The Global South is drifting away as we speak. No nations will buys your shit anymore. We decide our own fate. China certainly won’t. But so is 175 out of the 195 nations on earth. The faster you westerners get this, the better it is for you. Stop thinking about decoupling or de-risking China, the world is decoupling and de-risking from the U.S. and the west!

Your media and your government can lie and fabricate all you want but the bus has left the station. Authoritarian or CCP or communist or dictator are all excuses not reason for hating China and Chinese. These are narratives for the simple mind. It is demonising because it can’t get its way. Like a toddler throwing tantrum, that is what it is. Frankly if you are a westerner, your government is trying to hoodwink you! Not U.S. because we are not fools. We know lies when we see it.

Sidewheeler Tashmoo leaving wharf in Detroit, (ca 1901)

What did your boss say to you during a meeting that resulted in you immediately resigning?

When I was younger, I was the Assisstant Manager of a Pizza Hut. I was moved to this particular store with the expectation that the Store Manager who was there had set me up to become the next Store Manager. When he resigned I was passed over for a 23 year old nobody with no experience or work ethic. He worked 25 hours a week and had me do most of his duties on top of my own. He would often show up in the middle of dinner rush with his posse, ask how things were, I would tell him it was terrible and we needed help, he’d see that we did, and say things like “Sounds good” and walk out.

Week after week people in my Store were getting overworked and burned out. I constantly hounded my Area Manager to let me hire people, often being turned down. He woul even turn down temporarily allowing neighboring stores to send their workers to my Store to keep up with demand. So week after week we would have at least 1 person quit.

Even when I was allowed to hire ONE person, that person would freak out on day one because of the workload pushed upon all of us. They would typically last 1 day, maybe a week, before quitting.

One day we were told we were having a store meeting with the Area Manager so I typed up my resignation letter preemptively and attended. We were told how terrible our customer service scores were (mostly hold time issues or delivery time issues because we couldn’t keep enough people to staff the whole store, so delivery drivers were cutting and boxing pizzas, answering phones and taking orders, THEN delivering them) and how we needed to shape up. I spoke up and said we desperately needed more employees and I was waved off again. So I finished my shift that night, put my resignation letter in the fax machine with my end of day paperwork, locked the door, and dropped my security key and door keys in the mail slot. The next day I was inundated with phone calls from the Store Manager and Area Manager, which I ignored for a few hours. Then I picked up, the Area Manager begged me to come back and said he’d do anything if I came back.

“A raise?”

“Sure, whatever you need.”

“4 more employees?”

“No, you know you’re not getting that.”

*hangup*

I never talked to them again.

Titanic sinks on April 15, 1912. Newspaper boy Ned Parfett sells copies of the evening paper bearing news of the disaster.

As a car mechanic, what is the craziest discovery you have found on an automobile?

As a car mechanic, what is the craziest discovery you have found on an automobile?

I’m not the mechanic, but I know of one crazy discovery. My father purchased a brand new GMC Suburban in the 1980s and gave me his old pickup truck so I would have a vehicle while attending college. He occasionally heard a strange knocking noise while driving that Suburban, but neither he nor the dealer could ever figure out what was causing it. Since he didn’t hear that noise very often, and the vehicle ran great, he just kept driving it and eventually simply ignored that occasional knocking noise. The transmission needed to be rebuilt when it was 9 years old, so he took the Suburban to a shop that pulled the transmission and rebuilt it. While reinstalling it, the mechanic spotted a small hand-held air impact wrench hanging from a bent welding rod between the engine and firewall. He called my father, who then went back to the shop and took photos of the impact wrench and welding rod before and after they were removed. The wrench had “Property of GM” engraved on it.

Since it appeared the impact wrench had been hung there while on the assembly line, my father took the photos, impact wrench, and bent welding rod to the dealer who had sold it. The dealer wanted to send everything to GM, but my father would only agree to let him send copies of the photos. A GM lawyer called him the following week and offered to pay $500 for the return the impact wrench and welding rod, provide and release all prints and negatives he had taken of them to GM, and for his wife and him to sign a non-disclosure agreement concerning any and all possible “manufacturing flaws” involving that Suburban. My father made a counter offer of $5000. The lawyer said the most he was authorized to offer would be a $3000 manufacturer’s credit towards the purchase of a new GM vehicle. My father countered again by asking for both the $500 and $3000 credit towards a new GM vehicle. The lawyer agreed and then arraigned to have the dealer handle the exchange and witness my parents signing a non-disclosure agreement. My parents then negotiated with the dealer to buy a new car for my mother, and then applied that $500 check and the $3000 manufacturer’s credit towards the purchase of it.

After that impact wrench was removed, my father never heard that knocking noise again. Since I knew about this “manufacturing flaw” before they signed that non-disclosure agreement, I’m not bound by it. But my surviving parent could be subject to significant financial penalties for discussing this story, so I am posting this anonymously to prevent any possible repercussions. However I seriously doubt GM would want to have people going through records more than three decades old just to determine who my parents are.

Clam seller on Mulberry Bend, New York, (ca 1900)

What is the strangest reaction of someone who has just been fired?

I’ve told this story elsewhere but it fits here as well.

In a prior life I worked for a major multi-national and the division I worked in was managed by somebody based in Europe (let’s call him George). But he had direct reports in a number of cities around the world including New York. So during one of his visits to New York he speaks to Fred and tells him that things just aren’t working out so he should find another job. Nothing out of the ordinary and not adversarial in any way.

So about a year later George is in New York and sees Fred sitting in his office wearing jeans and track shoes, feet up on his desk reading a newspaper. So he says “Fred, why are you still here? Didn’t I tell you to find another job?” And Fred’s response was classic “Yes but my contract requires one year’s written notice and I’ve never received anything.”

To make a long story short, George was off to HR and after a discussion with legal Fred got a year’s salary plus the cash value of all the benefits he would have rec’d during the year. Given how senior Fred was I’m sure that check would have been at least $400 K (and more likely quite a bit north of that).

What is the least intelligent thing you’ve ever seen a tourist do?

I kid you not.

So way back in 1984 I worked a summer in Yellowstone national park. During training I learned a lot about dangers in the park. For example, bison kill many more people than grizzly bears. That being said at least one person a year is kill in the park by a grizzly bear.

But I digress.

The dumbest question that a tourist asked me was a question that they warned me I would be asked and I laughed like it was a joke. They seriously said no you will get asking this and please don’t embarrass the tourists who ask it.

So a couple days into the Job I am standing there and this nice looking middle aged American woman who seemed she had all her senses came up to me and looked me straight in the face and asked,

“Where do they put the animals at night”?

I was gobsmacked!

This woman actually thought that all the animals were gathered up at night and put in cages. Just like I was warned, someone asked me the question I thought I would never hear.

And no, she most certainly wasn’t the last tourist to ask me that!

Hard to believe!

Nerds make the best husbands

How do you deal with negative experiences?

My two week notice was a long time coming. I was sick of working in finance, at that company, and for that boss. I slept terribly the night before, having fevered dreams of a squandered future. But I knew I needed some upheaval. I was forging a sad, bitter storyline that would haunt me forever.

As I embarked on my new journey as a writer, I unpacked my new life, and all the stories from that dark chapter, all the moments of pain and frustration, came with me. As with many of you, these scenes replay more vividly on my lesser days. It’s as the incomparable Frederick Nietzsche wrote, “When we are tired, we are attacked by ideas we conquered long ago.”

Old embarrassments — losing my temper with someone 20 years ago, making ill advised comments, and moments of rejection — come bubbling up for no reason. Why could I see these scenes so easily and with 8K clarity while the amazing moments hid in the shadows?

Per Dr. Daniel L. Schacter, we remember the past so vividly because it’s a means of envisioning the future. We use it as a modeling tool, a form of mental time travel, where our mind anchors moments in time. The word “anchor” is key — because many of these images and stories become crystallized and of cognitive convenience.

For example, you might experience something I do when reading books: anytime there is a scene with a bar, I can’t help but see the same bar in my mind — to the point of it being annoying. If there’s some type of battle scene, I always see an old field I played in as a kid. This is the mind anchoring and why it’s so easy to recall the same negative moments over and over.

Per research by psychologist, Dr. Linda Levine, we tend to interpret past events through an emotional filter of the present. The same facts on paper suddenly look different. Negative moods — such as being tired, annoyed, or frustrated — evoke specific and detailed bad memories that often hit harder. Good moods — such as being well rested, jovial, excited, or in good humor — tend to evoke broader and more general memories. Unfortunately, negative memories are much more powerful and easily evoked.

We tend to apply a filter of our self-concept — who we’d like to be, and what our “ideal self” is and how we’d hoped to be perceived. Which is why our subconscious searches for contradictions to this ideal self.

For example, I’m generally a pleasant and nice person. Which is perhaps why my mind dredges up instances of me being unpleasant. I hate thinking of those times because when I do, I feel like I’m standing right there in that same room 15 years ago, watching my former self act out and be nasty with someone I loved.

The mind tells me, “Remember this person? You could be this person again if you don’t behave.” So how to we rewire this toxic pattern?

Rewriting your narrative

A few years ago, I thought, “Why am I beating myself up all the time?” I had so much to be thankful for. I’d brought plenty of good into this world, been a good friend and family member. I’d fought hard to win a better future but still bludgeoned myself over bygones that nobody else remembered.

I met with a therapist a few years ago and had tremendous improvement in dealing with negativity. He was a silver haired man, with black rimmed glasses and a quiet, friendly demeanor, and a PhD hanging on his wall.

As we began talking, he nodded his head in understanding and began giving me homework assignments anchored in cognitive behavioral therapy which, per the American Psychological Association, is as effective (or more) than other forms of psychotherapy and medications in dealing with negativity.

He said, “We often tell our life story to ourselves in excessively harsh terms, and jump to instant conclusions at our own expense.”

One exercise he gave was to practice reframing the stories with less certainty. Instead of saying X results in Y, explore alternative causes and remove unhelpful thoughts.

For example, during college, I was dumped by woman I was totally in love with. I deserved it. I was being irresponsible and drinking all the time and she finally had enough. For years, I was sure that my poor decisions had cost me my soulmate. But I learned this was totally unfair thinking.

Perhaps it wasn’t meant to be. Perhaps she was just losing interest and this was her way out. And if I’d stayed with her, I’d have never met the incredible woman I now have. Even more so, the concept of a soulmate felt a wee bit irrational and limiting.

When you map out events, and deconstruct the narrative you tell yourself, it can look entirely silly sometimes. The exercise also helps reframe the memory more constructively. I can confidently say getting dumped caused me to stop partying so much and may have saved me from myriad legal and health problems.

Another strategy was to build a mental rolodex of positive memories in your mind that you can return to. Doing this, and rapid fire indulging these memories can counteract your negativity instinct, and tends to put me in a much better mood.

A quick forewarning, I’d make sure to write this list out. I initially thought I’d be able to manage it in my mind, but it was much harder to build out and think through.

Here are a few from my list:

Picking up my 8-week old golden retriever from the breeder. He was a fat marshmallow shaped dog with a permasmile, who brought me so much dang joy in life.

Having Christmas mornings as a kid with my grandparents and the love they surrounded us with.

Going on walks with my beloved partner on St. Pete beach and sitting quietly with her in the sand and drinking a beer while we read books.

Helping raise money at events for wounded soldiers, and volunteering with the Special Olympics.

One last strategy is exploratory processing, which takes the opposite approach. You list out the painful experience just after it happens and leave two lines below it. Then, after one month, you return to write in the blank what you learned. Then, six months later, you list something positive that came from the mistake.

For example, when I bought my house, it was a complete circus and the inspection went poorly and I fought with the builder and the realtor. The entire experience crashed my hopeful vision of home ownership. I put this down on the list as my first entry. Then, I came back a month later and wrote about how the experience taught me the importance of having a home inspection (which I almost skipped doing).

Then, at the six month mark, I put that this experience still resulted in me owning a great home that I can now rest in knowing is safe. I know that it has given me and my partner new friends in the neighborhood. The house has also appreciated significantly in value.

Remember, it’s entirely normal and common to have tons of negative memories that pester you. Most major life changes are precipitated by bad experiences and it’s easy to carry those stories with you.

Consider compiling a list of positive memories to return to and combat that trend. Reframe your experiences by exploring the possibilities of how they came to be, and how you might be irrational and excessively harsh in reviewing them. Lastly, use exploratory processing just after something goes wrong. Approach the experience with curiosity rather than judgement. Something good usually comes from all of the chaos we endure.

Do NOT be that guy

What habits do you have as a result of being in the military?

I keep my hair short. Very, very short. Before joining the Navy, I was already doing so, but for the past twenty years, I have been unable to go much longer than a couple of weeks—or, in the warmer months, a week or so—before it feels as though something is wrong. Oddly, I don’t mind skipping a shave for two or three days, but actually wearing facial hair (beard, long sideburns) is out of the question.
While I’m not fanatically neat, I do try to keep items off the floor. Gear should be stowed somehow, whether in a desk, in a cabinet, on a shelf, or even on a table. The deck should be kept clear.
I understand the distinction between a command (Do it now!) and an order (Get it done!).
I am almost never, ever late, even to social engagements, as gauche as that may be. And “on time,” in my book, means approximately six to ten minutes early (no more).
Generally, I am far more situationally aware and cognizant of potential risks and dangers than I was before joining. People don’t plan to fail; they fail to plan.
A day without some kind of PT is somehow misspent.
I still lace up my shoes in a crisscross pattern, with no “bridge.”
Most of the year, regardless of whether I’m dressed formally or informally, I wear a T-shirt of some kind as an initial layer. If the temperature goes past about 75°F or so, I’ll wear either a T-shirt or a polo shirt. But even in the heat, I don’t like wearing a dress shirt without an undershirt.
I tell time with the 24-hour clock and write the date in the day-month-year format. This dovetails nicely with living in Europe.
Having qualified as an Expert with the 9-mm pistol and a Marksman on the M-16, I have contempt for gun nuts who brandish their weapons in public, exhibit no discipline or respect for them or consideration for others, and lack the faintest idea of what they are talking about.

A German soldier after being captured by American troops near Nicosia, (1943)

What is something that needs to be stopped?

Last year, Carl Sergeant, 49-year-old politician, took his life after losing his job as secretary

The cause? False sexual abuse allegations.

The sentiment of ‘innocent until proven guilty’ is being jettisoned. Now, mere accusation alone is enough to ruin someone’s career. Do you understand how dangerous that is?

Quote from BBC News:

“The family wish to maintain the fact that Carl maintained his innocence and he categorically denied any wrongdoing. The distress of not being able to defend himself properly against his unspecified allegtions meant he was not afforded common courtesy, decency or natural justice.”

You can’t make the cost of sexual interest the complete desolation of a man’s career, his reputation and even his life. We can’t keep branding people who sent a risqué text or blew kiss a pervert.

We’re now witnessing the birth pangs of the sexual reformation, the fallout from the sex abuse scandals that have plagued the entertainment industry, politics, and are now spreading throughout society as a whole. Third-wave feminists have been largely discredited over the past five years – just 18% of women in the US identify as feminist. Even less in the UK. Rights that actual feminists fought for a hundred years ago have been achieved, which is why radical feminists and SJWs need to hijack or invent new outrages to push their primary narrative and create more gender division.

Remember Zaira Wasim? Last year, she said she was scared when a man sitting behind her was touching her waist with his legs. At first, she ignored it, thinking it was due to turbulence, but didn’t tell anyone about it – not even the crew. Zaira put this allegation on a man named as Vikas Sachdev, a 39-year-old father and husband.

He was arrested. His wife defended him as innocent, but to the baying mob, allegations were all that were required to pass judgement.

Now don’t get me wrong, if sexual abuse is admitted or proven, those people should be punished to the full extent of the law. Hollywood and political peadophile rings should be exposed. But trial by a social media mob outage isn’t justice, and it sets a horrific precedent. Women are now jumping on the MeToo hashtag bandwagon so they can smother themselves in attention-seeking victimhood – not because they’re actual victims, but in one case because a man looked at them.

Another story was whipped up about Adam Sandler touching Claire Foy’s knee on a talk show.

In another instance, an MP was outed after he described a woman as “attractive, intelligent and charming”

Another case involved Michael Fallon trying to kiss a woman.

See the trend here? Everything is being conflated, to the point where making a pass at a woman is placed in the same context as actual rape.

There has to be an understanding that mere accusations alone are not proof. We have to put a check on this call of instantly believing the accuser without any regard for evidence.

How did Yuri Knorozov manage to decode the Mayan writing system all by himself?

It’s one of those David vs Goliath academic tales that’s as absurd as it is commendable.

Knorozov was a Soviet linguist – not a guy you’d expect to crack a Mesoamerican code. He got intrigued by the Mayan glyphs while rummaging through old dusty books in the off-limits section of the library. The glyphs hadn’t been fully understood for centuries.

The declassified Dresden Codex landed in his lap. It had been through hell: World War II bombings, water damage, and general neglect. But this old thing was a Rosetta Stone waiting for its sober lover.

While World War II suppressed the free exchange of scholarly thought, Knorozov was insulated and incubated over in Mother Russia. He faced another kind of battle, though: stifling Soviet oversight and scarce resources.

But undeterred, Yuri used his noggin. He hypothesized that the glyphs weren’t just individual pictures or symbols. They were indicative of phonetic sounds, a theory vastly different from what the scholarly mainstream believed.

Where many saw walls, Knorozov saw doors.

He hammered away at this theory, marrying the dots and bars of the Mayan numeral system to the text surrounding them. It was as if he spoke directly to the ancient Mayans, bridging a chasm of silence that had lasted since the fall of their civilization. Bit by bit, he began matching sounds to symbols.

His breakthrough publications hit in the 1950s. And like most disruptors, he was met with academic side-eye. It was the ‘newbie rocking the boat’ scenario. Many Western academics clung angrily to their dated theories, as if they were good luck charms.

But as time marched on, so did progress. Others began taking swings with the bat Knorozov had crafted. Additional findings corroborated his theories. The wall of mystery surrounding Mayan writing was getting holes punched into it, letting light in.

By the time of his death in 1999, Knorozov had seen his theories widely accepted. Mayan glyphs were readable, weaving tales of kings, conquests, and the cosmos.

What Yuri Knorozov did single-handedly is akin to solving a 1,000-year-old crossword puzzle without any clues, which makes you wonder, how many other historical whispers are just waiting for their translator?

From my home in Portland, OR, I look at Knorozov’s story as a beacon of hope for every solo scholar out there staring at an uncracked code. Keep at it. You might just be onto something.

A Samurai, (1881)

As a doctor, was there ever a procedure you refused to do?

Yes, but it had nothing to do with the procedure being inappropriate; it was an issue of consent.

I was called by a clinician to put a drainage catheter into an abscess, a pretty standard procedure; I was told that the patient had been reluctant, but had agreed to go ahead. Naturally I spoke with the patient myself, and discovered that she had not given any kind of meaningful consent; instead she had said something like “whatever”, just to get rid of the clinician, whom she described as a moron.

I called him up, with the patient in the room (but not listening in on the phone); I explained that I had spoken with her in person, and she was clearly unwilling to have the procedure. He then described her as a “seed person”, his term for someone who distrusted conventional medicine and preferred natural remedies; while I sympathized with his preference for proven treatments, it was clear that his attitude towards her was one of contempt, and that she had picked this up. He asked if he could speak to her; I told her he wanted to talk with her, she absolutely refused, and I conveyed this to him – softening her language slightly.

I then wrote a lengthy note in her chart, summarizing my discussion with her, quoting her comments, and explaining that as she had no intention of giving consent for this procedure, I was not going to perform it. I felt that she needed it, and I had explained this to her as clearly as I could; but as I was not her parent or legal guardian, I was professionally and ethically obligated to respect her wishes.

The right of a mentally competent adult patient to refuse treatment is absolute, whatever the consequences. My job is to explain those consequences as clearly as I can. The patient’s job is to make the choice.

What is the best thing I should learn from you?

1. Trust dogs. They always know who to stay away from.

2. Eat whatever you want, and if someone calls you fat, eat them too.

3. If you are not happy where you are, move. You are not a tree.

4. Drinking can cause memory loss, or even worse, memory loss.

5. Don’t let compliments get to your head and don’t let insults get to your heart.

6. You don’t have to attend every argument you are invited to.

7. You don’t have to settle for the bare minimum. Try selective dating

and you’ll meet the one who’s going to love you back.

8. Don’t be ashamed of yourself – that’s a job for your parents.

9. Don’t complain about getting old, not everyone gets the privilege.

10. Never make someone a priority who only makes you an option.

11. Never look at another man’s clock and never count another man’s money.

12. Never argue with a fool, onlookers may not be able to tell the difference.

13. Don’t settle for a relationship that won’t let you be yourself.

14. Don’t complain about growing old. Today is the oldest you’ve ever been, and the youngest you’ll ever be again.

15. Don’t give up your dreams, keep on sleeping.

Daredevil, (1917)

What did a judge say during sentencing that made you say “You gotta be kidding me”?

An ex of mine, we dated for 3 months. He was significantly older.

In that time he got progressively more controlling. One day he heard a rumour I was cheating on him.

How I was meant to, I don’t know as I was always either at work (and replying to his messages) or with him.

He decided to throw me around and threaten me with 2 knives. Both of which he pressed against my throat. He also threatens to kill the friend he decided I was sleeping with. Luckily he gets angry enough and storms out of my home as there was no way I could physically move him and I lock the door.

I call my mum to come and get me away, she calls the police. All the time he is banging on the door threatening me and my friend. He keeps accusing me of calling “my other boyfriend” and how he will kill him when he gets there. He realises I’ve called the Police and goes for a walk away from my home.

I show the Police the knives and give a statement at the Police station. He is arrested and pleads guilty to the Police.

The Police Officer I was speaking to unofficially advised me to submit a request against Claires Law which eventually informed me that he had been connected to 5 other women in domestic violence cases. The last one whom he attacked with an axe, he went to prison for 3 months for that incident. These are just the reported cases, I have no doubt there are more who did not report him.

My case was deemed only to be a Magistrates case. The Magistrate on hearing the guilty plea gave a 12 week suspended sentence for 1 year so he could work on his mental health, a Restraining order for 3 years and “compensation” of £150.

I can’t believe the magistrate had a clear domestic abuser who showed clear escalation patterns increasing in violence to women ranging from stalking, assault and sexual assault and gave such a ridiculous sentence. It showed a lack of respect for female lives. I was advised not to attend court, it’s probably a good thing as I doubt I could have stopped myself shouting at the magistrate.

I had to flee my home, upend my entire life, develop ptsd and the perpetrator got a slap on the wrist.

A Nihang Bodyguard, (c.1865)

When Evil Parents Realize They’ve Been Caught

Damn! Damn! Damn!

Holy FUCK!

https://youtu.be/31AZ3x17Aq0

Curb Market in NYC, (ca 1900)

27 Minutes Of Rude Karens Vs Judges!

GOD! The USA is so messed up!

Observer on Iwo Jima, (1945)

A Massive Cat Abandoned at the Shelter Gets Adopted Within Hours

Crowded Bunks in the Prison Camp at Buchenwald, (April 16, 1945)

Why were students in China forced to learn classical Chinese?

In the first place, I would like to say that you are right, to some extent. I agreed with you that we are somehow forced to learn some very entry level Classical Chinese, during the compulsory education stage (year 1 to year 9). This is the fact about Chinese education.

In the second place, since you asked why. I will try my best to answer your question.

The importance of classical Chinese:

In the narrow sense, Classical Chinese is the language which was actively used between Spring and Autumn period through to the end of the Han Dynasty (5th century BC to 2nd century AD). It soon became the formal written language in the Chinese society all the way until the 1910s when the Qing Dynasty was overturned. More than 2000 years of history was documented by using classical Chinese. It carried the invaluable heritage of our civilisation. In my opinion, it means much more to us than Latin to the European society.

In the broad sense, Classical Chinese is contrary to the Morden Mandarin, including classical Chinese (narrow sense), poems, novels written in the vernacular Chinese etc. It draws a whole picture of our great 5000-thousand-year civilisation, keeping people with hopes even in the darkest time of our nation.

Why government decided to introduce classical education.

China is a civilisation state instead of a national state. Anyone who recognises Chinese culture is considered as Chinese and could be integrated into the mainstream society, even he is not a Han Chinese. That is said Chinese people was united by a common written language, a universal value and a general social norm, even they may speak different dialects, live in a different region and have a different clan. This is also the most powerful argument to against the claims such as Cantonese is a distinct language instead of a Chinese dialect. The reason why schools in China teach both classical and Mandarin is, I think, it works better if taught together. Mandarin is the main structure and classical is a supplement of it. Mandarin is superficial which could not teach students some fundamental and abstract concepts. For example, people who only received Mandarin education would probably not able to understand the connections between the full moon and home sick (like a metaphor), autumn and depression etc. Therefore, promoting classical education would further strengthen the sense of national identity bound by the language and culture. That is the how to keep the nation united for more than 2000 years (Since Qin Dynasty firstly published a set of national standards). That is the political concern of the government. And this is also the answer to why not only Han Chinese, other ethical minorities are (not forced but encouraged) learning Chinese.

“月落乌啼霜满天江枫渔火对愁眠” （The moon is setting. The crows are crying. The atmosphere is heavy with a chilly autumn frost. The maple trees and the lights of the fishing boats are reflected in the water. Yet I am unable to sleep because of sorrow.）This short poem was filled with culture symbols such as “moon, crow, autumn, red leaves and fishing boats”. Those culture symbols was consistently used till today, they speak themselves without the need of explanation. But it almost undecipherable for people without classical education.

Social response

In fact, there is far less unfavorable voice against teaching classical in school rather than that of English. Ministry of Education is planning to make the English language an elective subject in the College Entrance Examination (aka. Gaokao), but removing classical content is out of the question, definitely. Personally, I, although not excel it, rather enjoy learning classical than modern Mandarin. It is so concise, splendid, touching my soul so deeply. I was hoping one day I could like those famous poets, to put own feelings into such powerful words. People used to say ‘a picture speaks a thousand words’. Some classical quotes certainly could do the better job in the appropriate circumstance. Many Chinese leaders would like to quote some classical or come up their own.

President Jiang Zemin’s calligraphy, quoting national hero Lin Zexu’s poem. （were it to benefit my country I would lay down my life; what then is the risk to me）

China’s Premier Wen Jiabao wrote on the blackboard after 2008 Sichuan earthquake. “challenges make a nation much stronger”

Chinese also tend to use classical to name their children, their company etc. A name with good meaning would give people a better first impression. Actually, not only Chinese, people from East Asia and Vietnam will also use Chinses classical when giving the name. e.g. all Japanese emperor’s title of reign is based on Chinese classical.

Lastly, China, together with Korea peninsula, Japan, Ryukyu and Vietnam, shared a long history bound by classical Chinese language. All most all the history was written in classical Chinese. Due to some political concerns, both Korea and Vietnam abolished Chinese, making it a great loss in their culture. Now people living there could not understand what their ancestors wrote when they are visiting their historical sites. I can never imagine this happens in China one day, when our children visiting forbidden city and asking what exactly did the emperor write on the wooden boards. What a ridiculous thing?

Ps. It is rather funny to ask in such way. Forced?

It could be better to rephrase the question to ‘why Chinese student nowadays still need to learn classical Chinese’

What did your boss say to you during a meeting that resulted in you immediately resigning?

He sacked a colleague the day my colleague was leaving for a family holiday. My boss (and owner of the business), Paul, just liked to show people he had the power. He was often petty and a micromanaging control freak. He seemed to like me, so most of the time he left me to do my thing.

My colleague, Ian, had become a friend, and we’d hang out after work. He had been planning an overseas family trip for some time, and had been talking about it for a couple of months in advance of the date. He had requested leave, which was approved, before making the booking. He was a friendly, genuine guy, and most of us in the office shared his enthusiasm for his holiday. We could see he was looking forward to taking his family away.

He was due to fly out on a Saturday. On the Friday, Paul called Ian into his office and told him he had changed his mind, he was revoking the leave. Ian tried to argue that the tickets were non-refundable, everything was booked, his wife had taken leave, and they had permission to take their children out of school. Paul wasn’t swayed. He made it clear, cancel or be fired.

Ian asked what was so important that he needed to stay, Paul didn’t give a real answer. He just shrugged and said, “it’s my company, my call.”

Ian called his wife, and then decided to do the holiday. He didn’t want to lose the money or let his family down.

He came and told me just before lunch what had happened, and suggested we go for a farewell lunch.

I was incensed! I immediately wrote a handwritten resignation, left it on Paul’s desk, packed my things, and went to lunch. I told Ian and some other colleagues at lunch that this was also MY farewell.

As lunch wrapped up, the others drifted back to the office, and it was just Ian and me, commiserating over a beer, when Paul came in, in a fluster. I had never seen him in such a state (I later realized it was because he was no longer in control). Paul loudly tried to convince me to stay, offered me everything (other than more money!). I just said no, calmly. He left saying something like “you’ll be back when you can’t find another job.”

I called in on another friend on my way home, and had a job offer that afternoon.

Beer Battered Fish and Chips

Ingredients

2 to 4 potatoes, scrubbed and cut into fingers
1 pound fish (cod, halibut, polluck, etc.) 500g
1 (12 ounces/355mL) can beer
1 egg, beaten until fluffy
2/3 cup milk 150 mL
1 teaspoon canola oil 5 mL
1 teaspoon baking powder 5 mL
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper 1 mL
1/4 teaspoon salt 1 mL
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour 375 mL
1/2 cup second flour amount for dipping 125 mL
3 cups canola oil for deep frying 750 mL

Instructions

Pat potatoes and fish dry with paper towels.
Heat oil to a frying temperature of 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). To cook potato chips properly, it is important to maintain this frying temperature. You may wish to increase the temperature slightly before adding potatoes as oil temperature will drop when food is added. Fry 5-6 minutes or until golden brown. While potatoes are frying, prepare batter for fish.
To prepare batter: Mix together beer, egg, milk and canola oil. Add baking powder, cayenne pepper, salt and 1 1/2 cups (375 mL) flour all at once, mixing only enough to dampen the dry ingredients.
Remove potato chips from the canola oil with slotted spoon, drain on paper towels, and season to taste.
Coat fish pieces in 1/2 cup (125 mL) flour before dipping in batter. Gently place in hot oil to deep fry. Cook until golden, about 6 minutes.
Remove from oil with slotted spoon; drain on paper towels.

Have you ever overheard a conversation that you wish you could forget you heard?

When my grandmother found out she had terminal cancer, she gave away a lot of her things to her children and grandchildren. She gave my cousin her 6 year old car, she gave me her expensive vacuum cleaner, she gave my mother an 8 foot tall grandfather’s clock, that had been hand made by my mothers great grandfather, those are the only three I remember, but she had two children and six grandchildren, so you can see by the gifts, that they weren’t terribly expensive, but had some value.

She still owned her own condo, and had some savings.

Shortly after my grandmother had died, and the will had been read, I over heard my uncle talking to my mother. My grandmother had split the estate between my uncle and mother. My uncle wanted everything that my grandmother had given away, to be given back to the estate, as he felt that they were just loans. Then the estate would be split between him and mom. If the grandkids ( including his own kids) wanted what they had been given, they could buy it from the estate.

I was shocked, I had always loved my uncle, he had never seemed like a greedy man. But inheritance seems to bring out the worst in people. My mother and uncle fought for the first time that I ever knew of, and some nasty things were said.

Evidently he approached his kids to get the gifts back, and they formed a united front, and told him he was wrong. So he backed off. I would have never have known that he had a greedy side to him, if I hadn’t overheard that conversation. He died about 10 years later, and I never looked at him, quite the same as before I overheard that conversation.

Have you ever overheard a conversation that you wish you could forget you heard?

She still owned her own condo, and had some savings.

What did someone do during military boot camp that made you say “You gotta be kidding me”?

They taught us how to wear boots. At the beginning of the session, the tough looking DS looked at us the only way a DS can do it.

I thought what the hell? Put them on and lace them up. Oh no. There was the Army way.

We found out how important the simple sock was in the Army.

“Socks must be pulled up TIGHT! No wrinkles or seams. Loose socks in your boot can be a painful thing and cause blisters quicker than your daddy’s willow switch. Pull them up tight. Keep them dry. Wet socks are not a soldier’s friend. If a soldier’s feet are unusable because of blisters, that soldier is unusable. Take care of those feet. Also, mark those socks.”

We had to make sure there were no wrinkles on the inner sole where the foot goes in.

“If there’s a wrinkle in your boot lining, give ‘em back and you will be issued new ones. Wrinkles cause blisters. Make sure your boot is TIGHT around your foot. Do not let your feet ‘float’ in boots. Floating feet cause blisters!”

“The boots are laced diagonally with the excess lace tucked into the top of the boot. Metal cleats and side tabs are not authorized for wear. Steeled toed boots are not authorized for wear. THAT gentlemen is why these are NOT steel toed boots. If they were, you would be crippled within two weeks. There should be at least a 3/4-inch minimum additional length at toe. DO NOT soak boots in water or bake in an oven to break-in. Boots should be worn in gradually at first with ever-increasing walking or marching distances while remaining comfortable.”

“The back of your boots must also be shined. Just because we’re looking at you from the front, wise asses, doesn’t mean we won’t give the about face order.

“The tongues of your boots will lie flat all along the top of your boots, not squished in like a piece of toilet paper shoved up the crack of your ass. Squished tongues cause blisters. We don’t want blisters around here. Blisters mean there’s a man out and the rest of you do twice the work. If I find a squished tongue in your boot, and I’ll check at times, it’ll be YOUR tongue lying on top of your foot under the laces!”

“If you do not follow these instructions, you will get my right boot up your ass and I’m telling you now, IT WILL HURT! DO YOU UNDERSTAND?”

This DS had at least size 13 boots. We understood.

When A Kidnapper Gets Caught Red Handed

People must hear you hiss

Today is a video that discusses the importance of instilling fear in others. Please watch it. Cobra’s need to hiss.

…

The United States is leading the West into a great collapse, and the longer that it is delayed, the more horrific the fall will be. Mark my words.

…

My mother was living with her “husband” after she divorced my father. This man and her did not ever get formally married as both were Catholic. However, they did everything else together. In sin, I suppose.

He was reasonably wealthy. He owned a coal company. And I got along reasonably well with him.

He had something like 18 sons. No daughters. And his boys were loose cannons, but a lot of fun. Oh well. LOL.

Anyways, as time went forward, he got older and older… more and more frail. And in the Manor where my mother and him lived, he has one of those staircase elevators installed. It was kindly neat and all that, but as soon as he passed on, my mother insisted that it be removed immediately. She didn’t want that thing in her house at all.

Fifteen years later, she too was old and feeble, and I was there taking care of her. It got to the point that she no longer could walk up the stairs by herself. SO she slept downstairs in a bedroom that we built just for that purpose.

The bedroom was really nice, by the way, with a bathroom, and an attached study. Mom picked out a massive desk for the office, but to everyone’s dismay discovered that it wouldn’t fit in the office. Oh well. We then parked the credenza outside.

She only got to use the bedroom for a few months before she passed on. Maybe ten tops. But that is good enough for me.

When you die, you leave behind the things that you no longer need.

…

Today… remember. People need to hear you hiss.

US Congress unanimously approved the Patent Restriction Act. All of China’s patents are at risk of invalidation overnight. Huawei’s 20000+ patents could be deemed invalid. All countries at risk as the US can claim a national security threat. Fair?

Patents serve ONLY one purpose;

To prevent a competitor from duplicating your technology / products.

By invalidating patents, then ALL patents become worthless paper. This is simply because any nation still using them restricts it’s own industry. To ignore patents by one is to ignore patents by all. To remain competitive, once the patent protection fails, all patent protection fails. It’s a global “domino effect”.

There will be a serious of STRONG and DANGEROUS consequences of this action.

Initially, the weaker industry (nation / product / technology) will start to copy the previously protected items.
This in turn, will provide an outward appearance of “catching up” to the dominant (nation / product / industry).
But, this will be short-lived. Innovation, especially in the contemporaneous fields (that are at battle) require manpower, innovative talent, and massive capital investment. The industry that presently maintains this lead will continue to maintain this lead, while the nation / industry falling behind will require massive changes and investment just to “tread water”.

This is [1] an obvious desperate move, [2] constructed by the ignorant, that will have [3] a long-term negative impact on the industries of the West. Particularly the United States.

…

Consider India.

India invalidated protections on American patents. This resulted in the export of “dirt cheap” medicine and pharmaceuticals. In the USA, a single pill of Viagra costs $20. (Of course, you can shop around, but that is the baseline price.) But you can buy them on-line, out of India for $1 each. Seeing that it costs $0.00000009 for each pill, the profit is still enormous for Indian companies, and American companies lost market share.

Consider China.

All those fancy-pantsy gizmos and gadgets in the latest American weapons systems, electronics, and medicines are now “up for grabs”. China will own EVERYTHING. Americans will still pay premium prices, and the protectionism measures will be “ramped up”, but China really will OWN EVERYTHING.

From Viagra to Oreos. From McDonald’s to Starlink. From Harley-Davidson to Heinz ketchup. This legislation by “Congress” pretty much is the DEATH BLOW to United States product dominance.

Last Word

To those of you who do not work in any tech industry, some words need to be said.

A patent is NOT a set of instructions on how to use technology. It is a description of the invention. It can include it’s basic properties and premises that it works upon, but patents will not provide enough information to duplicate that technology.

The United States can, at will, invalidate any patents it wants. But that does not give it that technology. It just allows it to copy the technology IF IT HAS THE MEANS to do so. If it has the manufacturing technology, the design technology, and a thorough understanding of the underlying principles.

For all you ‘Merica types out there is internet land, I’d advise you all to stop and think.

China is a beautiful woman. A 10 in any man’s book.
A patent is like a photograph of that woman.
But claiming that ownership of that photo is the same as being married to the chick is silly.

Come back down to earth, and realize that you just cannot reconstitute a technology from the words on a patent. All you can do is pin up that picture up on the wall for everyone to look at.

What has your child done that is technically “wrong” but you were proud of them for doing it?

My mom, dad, and Grandpa were the ones who were proud of me for sticking up for my sister.

So a little back story, my sister has Scoliosis and she had a bully in fourth grade who kept physically assaulting with her. She kept telling the teachers and even the principal but they never did shit about it, and she told us every time this guy would attack her.

So one day, I actually witnessed one of his attacks on her so I went up to him, pinning him to a wall and punched him the face a few times and told him, if he ever messed with my sister, I will give him a beating of a lifetime. Dude ran to the bus after I letted him go.

So I rode the bus home, and warned my mom she was going to get a call from the school about me taking matters into my own hands after witnessing this guy hurt my sister. She was shocked that I did that. But she said she would support me.

Guess what, first period, I get called to the Principle’s office by the school announcer, I just decided to go and face judgment day, my home room teacher and my counselor were there as well, along with the kid I punched a few times. I rolled my eyes at the kid, as I sit down.

So what happened next, I get confronted by three people at once, they were firing shots at me while I just sat there looking at the kid who I beat up. Soon enough, my mom was called in to meet with them that day, while I was in ISS. But she didn’t arrive till 7th Period with my grandpa, my dad who was a police officer, and my sister’s note book of all the dates this kid bullied her and when she did tell a teacher and the principal at which time.

I remember seeing the color being wiped away when she saw my dad in his uniform, but they frought hard in support of my actions. But at the end, we had to threatened the school with a lawsuit. But that was two weeks later. I was punished with OSS for two to three weeks.

So when it was over, My mom took me to the mall and got me Dairy Queen and a sword from Isle of Misfits, got a few lego figures and a Lego set. My mom did tell me to next time, prep before taking action. And try not to do that again unless I have to, but she was proud of me. Along with my dad and my Grandpa.

Anyway my OSS was lifted after the lawsuit was threatened and the bully of my sister was punished OSS for the time I was in OSS. My Teacher, Principle, and Counselor apologized to me but I just told the Principle to next time, to do her job, and I told my teacher and counselor that it’s going to take some time for me to forgive them.

All was well, the bully never messed with my sister and was even moved out of the classroom she and him were in. People in her grade knew not to bully her otherwise if Teachers or Principles don’t do anything, her big brother will do something about it.

Beggar’s Chicken (China)

Ingredients

1 (3 pound) broiler-fryer chicken
6 1/2 tablespoons soy sauce
2 1/2 tablespoons vegetable oil
2 1/2 tablespoons dry sherry
1 teaspoon granulated sugar
1/4 teaspoon five-spice powder
1 (1-inch square) piece fresh ginger root, pared and cut into thin slices
4 cups all-purpose flour
3 cups salt
1 1/2 cups water

Instructions

Remove giblets from chicken and reserve for another use. Rinse chicken and pat dry with paper toweling. Place chicken on large piece of greased extra-wide, heavy duty aluminum foil. Rub or brush 2 1/2 tablespoons of the soy sauce completely over chicken. Rub or brush the oil completely over chicken. Pull skin at neck end under chicken and secure with small skewer. Tuck wing tips under thicken.
Combine remaining 4 tablespoons soy sauce, the sherry, sugar, five-spice powder, onions and ginger. Pour mixture into cavity of chicken, holding tail end of chicken up slightly so liquid does not run out of cavity. Secure tail end of chicken with small skewers. Wrap foil around chicken, sealing securely.
Combine flour and salt in bowl. Gradually mix in enough water to make a firm dough. Roll out dough on lightly floured surface until about 1/4-inch thick (dough must be large enough to completely cover chicken.
Place foil-wrapped chicken onto center of dough. Fold dough over chicken, pressing edges and ends together to seal completely. Place chicken in well greased 13 x 9-inch baking pan.
Bake chicken in preheated 450 degrees F oven 1 hour.
Reduce heat to 300 degrees F. Bake 2 1/2 hours longer.
Remove chicken from oven. Using mallet or hammer, break pastry. Remove chicken from pastry and place on serving plate. Carefully remove foil and skewers.

Yield: 4 servings

What are some common scams that tourists should be aware of when visiting Japan? How can these scams be avoided?

It’ll be extremely rare to see a scam in Japan as a tourist in Japan, except in one location: Kabukicho, Shinjuku, Tokyo.

Some scams exist for many Japanese people, like the Ore-ore scam

targeting the elderly, but many you won’t experience. (I’ve dropped my wallet in the middel of the street in Tokyo before, and had it returned with all my money inside of it.

Essentialy, the scam is that some cute girl or a muscular foriegner who speaks English tries to entice you into a bar, and get you drinking. If you’re alone and looking for company, you could get a drink (if you hadn’t checked the prices), and then when you get the bill, instead of something like $20 you were expecting to pay, you “ordered” the $2000 drink according to them.

Because you don’t speak Japanese and are intoxicated, if the police get involved you’ll most likely be blamed for not paying up.

They’ll take you to the ATM with a kind, muscular “escort” to help lift the burden of money off of you, and you’ll probably regret your existence while doing so.

Biggest thing is make sure you see a menu, and don’t go in because of a cute girl or because of some random promoter who speaks English.

I really enjoy going to Rocky Bar Mother and Bar Psy are really great to go to there, with drinks and awesome music if you like it. I take my friends there on occasion, so it’s something I’d highly recommend.

What are some unwritten social rules everyone should know?

Dress well no matter what the occasion.
Always carry cash.
Always getup when you’re sitting and someone come to greet you.
Always comment on good things don’t keep in heart.
If the phone is on the speaker inform.
Chat to anyone who is sitting alone at a party or in a group.
don’t have the impulse to sit near look-alike you. If everyone fulfils this, people who represent any minority will end up sitting alone.
If feasible, avoid the plan to go outdoor if you have a runny nose.
Do not swipe left or right if individual shows you a photo on their phone.
Wave your hand rather than calling his or her name if someone is far or on phone or earphones plugged in.
Offer a glass of water to the delivery man.
People know the worth. If successful wear shirt of 300 it seems 3000 and if unsuccessful wear 3000 it seems 300. Don’t show off.
When anyone gets shouted at don’t look at them. It’s more awkward.
Always open the door for the person coming behind you. Doesn’t matter if it is a guy or a girl.
Stop being late, it’s irritating.
When someone starts talking about their conditions, don’t start talking about yours.
Never ask a shy person what’s wrong or ask them ‘why aren’t you talking more?’ It only makes them feel more awkward.
When visiting someone’s house, carry something.
When you open a gift, just say thank you. Don’t say, “It’s too expensive!”
Being vegetarian or non-vegetarian is a choice. Don’t ask anyone why it’s so.
Do not sympathize with anyone in public. This will embarrass a person more than be laughing at.
Don’t expect others to understand how hard you are working and living. Everyone doing.
If you like working with smart people, be prepared to be used by them too. As well as Worshipped and learn from them too. Your attitude.
Don’t make suggestions; But when it comes to house, car, marriage don’t give advice. Because these are very important things & if something goes wrong you’ll be blamed or they may stop talking to you.
Greeting Etiquette = The 6S- Stand, See, Smile, State, Say, Shake
Don’t look at your phone when others are talking to you.

What’s something unusual you said or did during a job interview that got you hired?

It happened during our campus placements. Company had shortlisted 20 students for interview round and intended to take only 2.

I had cleared first 2 interviews and was being interviewed with regional head of the company..

Interviewer: ” So tell me.. What will you do if any better company with same profile but better package offers you the job?”

Me: “Sir I will take that job.”

Interviewer: ” This means you are not loyal to us. Even if I offer you the job there is no guarantee that you will join our company. So why should I offer you one?”

Me: “Sir if you are talking about being loyal, so let me ask you, if you find another candidate better than me then you will offer him the job. Isn’t it. So going by your logic company is not loyal to me. But let me tell you it isn’t about being loyal. Everyone wants best for himself. You want best people to work for you and I want to work for the best. Don’t you believe you are best in the industry??”

Result : Selected..

Chinese teen and 20’s fashion

What work secret did you accidentally find out that changed everything?

I had a charismatic boss who managed by walking around trying to intimidate employees. He didn’t bother me because my job was essential and I got along well with the conservative types and the weirdos.

We used a lot of darkroom equipment and chemicals. Because the chemicals contained silver, they were expensive, and this boss was cheap.

I found out by accident that he instructed accounts payable not to pay the suppliers. We were supposed to find new suppliers. And then when they were not paid, move to new suppliers.

I did not like this.

This plan made me crabby.

So, I called a couple of the suppliers from home to tell them the plan. They called other suppliers, competitors, and everyone else. That’s all I did. I called two suppliers.

Suddenly no supplier would fill our orders unless they were paid in advance. I told the boss that we had to pay up front. He waved this problem away, as he often did. I wrote him a note. Left it on his desk. He didn’t read it.

We ran out of supplies. The darkroom work and all typesetting stopped. All three art departments stopped, apart from planning.

The boss had a meltdown when he discovered all those employees were unable to finish work. He called a supplier from my phone. The supplier required payment for all previous invoices, so the boss called another supplier. He got the same message. And again.

Just then, the 80-year-old office manager arrived. She took the phone out of his hand and told him to leave the building and stop annoying people. He left. She continued the conversation to say that she would courier a cheque over immediately and when it cleared, we would appreciate the supplies.

As she was leaving, I heard her say that the she was going to kill that man before she retired.

She was unsuccessful.

He lives.

Lost In Space | 1920 Universe

This 1920 universe is AI generated madness. Well worth the time to visit.

What are few things only mature people can tell you?

Not everyone will live long. Stay happy and useful to humanity as much as you can.
Life is not Disney Island, always strife for the best and prepare for the worse.
Nobody can love you unconditionally except your mum and in few cases, your family.
You can simply avoid future problems by listening to your instincts and warnings from your loved ones.
Most people won’t support you in life until there’s no option but to join the crowd.
Discipline will take you farther than talent.
Everybody is fighting their own demon either publicly or privately. Never envy anyone.
Don’t look down on anyone, life can switch up within a minute.
Money is not everything, it incredibly betters your life but doesn’t solve all life problems. Still have it anyway.
You don’t have to get to the level of Elon Musk to change the world when your little kindness can.

Have you ever called in sick but you were convinced or threatened by your superiors to come to work? Did it end well for you?

I was assistant manager of a fabric store. Some days I would open the store and other days I would close. One morning I woke up with the flu. I felt horrible, as you can imagine. I was supposed to close that day, so I called very early and told the manager I couldn’t come in, hoping to give them the whole work day to find someone to close.

The manager said she was just about to call me to open because the other asst mgr had forgotten she had to take her kid to the dentist or something. I said, definitely not because I have the flu and can barely get out of bed. The manager said she REALLY needed me to come in. I explained I had a fever and was dizzy but she said I didn’t have a choice, they needed me to come in. I was like, seriously? I can’t believe you want me to come and work with the public when I’ve got the flu. She wouldn’t budge, so I got dressed and went to work.

One of the things I had to do was open the safe and count all the money to make sure the total matched the night before, and bring the cash drawers out to the registers. Any time I wasn’t in the office, it was policy to lock the safe, even if I was only going to be gone for a minute, and even though the store was closed and doors locked. I counted the drawers but I was having trouble counting the rest of the money because I couldn’t concentrate, I was so dizzy. I kept losing track and having to start over.

Finally, since it was getting close to opening the store, I decided to take the drawers out to the registers and then come back and try to count the cash. I closed the safe and carried out the drawers, just as a regional manager came through the door. She went straight to the office. When I came into the office, the safe was standing open. I was shocked because I knew I had closed it. The regional manager asked me why the safe was open, when I knew it was the policy to lock it when I left the office.

I said I was certain I had closed it. She said, yes, it was closed but not locked. I tried to explain I wasn’t even supposed to be there because I was sick, but she interrupted me and said they were going to have to let me go. I was stunned, as I was one of the most knowledgeable employees in the store and had never missed a day of work. I was standing there swaying and trying not to pass out, and wondering how I was going to support my kids now.

The RM told one of the other employees to call someone to replace me so the store wouldn’t be short-handed. I grabbed my stuff and headed for the door. The RM said, “Where do you think you’re going? You have to stay until someone comes to take your shift. If we can’t find anyone, you’ll finish the day.”

I looked at her with an incredulous expression. “Are you kidding me?? I’ve just been fired for dragging my sick ass out of bed to cover for someone who can’t be bothered to keep track of their appointments. I’m going home and going to bed!” Then I walked out.

I hope she got the flu.

STAR TREK ORIGINS (1920) | FULL MOTION VIDEO

What is the most badass thing your parent has ever done?

This happened during college. I was down with viral fever and had to take a break for three days. My best friend, a girl, was in constant touch via phone and she sounded dull. When asked what the problem was, she said it was nothing and I thought she worried about my health. Day 4, I return to college and I learn that a guy from a different department was teasing her (in an abusive way) and was stalking her everyday. And she, being a very reserved and not so brave, did not even tell it outside. I went and punched the mofo right on his face and broke a couple of teeth. His friends came for his help and started attacking me and my friends came in from nowhere.

Once this gang war was done, I and that guy were taken along with our friends to the principal’s office and he started hurling scoldings one after the other. I was a bright student and was always in the good books of every professor and thus it came as a shock to everyone.

They called all of our parents and my dad came. Even my friend was taken into account here and her mom was called to the college (She didn’t have a dad). Everybody – My head of the department, my principal started scolding me and gave my dad a transfer certificate to fill up for me to take me out from the current college and put me somewhere else. They also told me I had spoilt my career now due to this and for also having a relationship (typical Indian brains ya know, roam around with a girl and she is your girlfriend). My dad remained calm and filled up the form and asked if there are any more procedures to be done. The principal and HOD were stunned (they were apparently just trying to scare us) and asked him if he wasn’t worried about my future. I still remember what he said “If I was him, I would have done the same, what he did was right. No one should stand by when a woman is being harassed. I want my son to be on the front lines to stand up for any sort of injustice. I know the girl for the past 14 years and she and my son have been friends since then”.

Everyone got a month’s suspension and the opposite team got two months suspension, except for that guy who harassed her, he voluntarily got a transfer to some other college. I came out of college as a guy with triple placement and being the highest paid recruit of that year.

When driving back home in the car, dad leans in and asks “You love her or what?”

Me : *Facepalm* Typical Indian parents.

P.S : But dad was the best and he was right, This happened 4 years back and am now engaged to that friend of mine 😉

Doctor Who | 1920 Universe | COLORIZED

Priceless . . . US Navy Refusing to Deploy Brand New Littoral Combat Ships to Middle East; Houthi Anti-Ship Missile concern!

Nation Hal Turner 22 December 2023

lcs littoral combat ship FILE PHOTO large

The US Navy says it doesn’t have enough warships to launch Operation Prosperity Guardian against the Houthis in Yemen.

According to John Conrad (maritime journalist), the US built 24 littoral combat ships for coastal warfare, but the US is now refusing to deploy them.

Houthi anti-ship ballistic missiles and drones “cause US concern.”

HAL TURNER EDITORIAL OPINION

According to Wikipedia, these Littoral COmbat ships cost between Four-Hundred Twenty million and four-hundred eighty million dollars, each.

We built at least 24 of them.

Do the math: 24 x $420,000,000= $10.08 BILLION . . . . and now the Navy that bought them – for coastal warfare – isn’t sending them into battle over fear of anti-ship missiles????? WTF?????

So did we simply throw that money in the garbage? We have ships we can’t use . . . so what do we do with them now?

You know, you can’t make this stuff up. The level of stupidity is amazing.

Maybe, though, it’s not stupidity; maybe it’s corruption? Whose beak got wet from that $10.08 Billion? Whose palms got greased?

And nobody looked or asked about it because the ships were, in fact, built.

Except now, we’re afraid to put them into battle, and guys like me are starting to ask why we even built them, and why can’t a “modern” warship defend itself from anti-ship missiles?”

The Fantasy Of Missile Defense In Ukraine

In October 2022 I mocked western media propaganda that was depicting Russia as unable to sustain the war:

Russia, Having ‘Run Out Of Missiles’, Launches Barrage On Ukraine

Back in March I had warned that Lies Do Not Win Wars. Here is another practical example.

After allegedly having ‘run out of missiles’ and, more importantly, patience, the leadership of the Russian Federation decided to de-electrify Ukrainian cities with a ‘barrage of missile strikes’.

But first came the propaganda blubber: …

There followed 25 headlines by western media which claimed that Russia was running out of missiles.

More recently we see frequent claims by the Ukrainian government that it shot down 43 of the 32 drones Russia launched that day as well as 5 out of 3 supersonic missiles.

Laughable nonsense.

But slowly, slowly the Ukrainians and media have turned to describing stuff more near to, but not yet, reality:

Russia has fired 7,400 missiles, 3,700 Shahed drones in war so far, Kyiv says – Reuters

Russia has launched about 7,400 missiles and 3,700 Shahed attack drones at targets in Ukraine during its 22-month-old invasion, Kyiv said on Thursday, illustrating the vast scale of Moscow’s aerial assaults.

Ukrainian air defences were able to shoot down 1,600 of the missiles and 2,900 of the drones, air force spokesperson Yuriy Ihnat said in televised comments. “We are faced with an enormous aggressor, and we are fighting back,” he said.

Shooting down drones, which are relatively slow and fly low, is not so difficult or expensive. One often only needs to have some machine guns in place on the path along which a drone is flying.

Shooting down missiles is something entirely different. Due to their flightpath and speed one needs expensive missile defense systems. The anti-missile missiles these systems fire come at a high price. One Patriot missile comes at about $2,000,000, more for newer ones. Routinely two are fired against any potential target.

If the Ukraine has really shot down 1,600 missiles, which I very much doubt, one can easily calculate the enormous costs of such an endeavor

There are reasons why Patriot missiles are only produced in the hundreds per year, not in the thousands.

No country in the world can sustain such an onslaught without running out of defenses or going bankrupt.

Several months ago a U.S. delivered Patriot system in Kiev came under attack. Set to automatic mode it fired (video) 32 missiles for no observable hits on the imaginary targets. Scott Ritter has said that the U.S. Marines are not allowed to use the automatic mode of their Patriot systems because that is known to fail. But the Ukrainians were not trained to fully handle the manual mode.

And now they are telling us that they shot down 1,600 missiles?

How probable is that?

Posted by b on December 22, 2023 at 12:53 UTC | Permalink

What are some things that make or have made you lose faith in humanity?

A few days earlier, I had ordered food from an online ordering service. The time must have been around 9:30 PM. Approximate delivery time given was 10:00 PM.

I was not famished literally and didn’t realize the order was delayed until I got a call from the ordering service’s customer care. It must have been around 10:15 PM.

Customer Care Agent: Hello, am I talking to Mr. Yatin?

Me : Yes.

CCA: I am talking from S****y. This is regarding your order sir. The delivery guy informed me that the order cannot be delivered as it is in very bad condition.

Me: Bad condition? As in?

CCA: The delivery person’s bike slipped actually. He says the order is not in a deliverable condition. Do you wish to talk to the delivery guy?

Me: Sure, connect us.

So now Me, CC agent and the delivery boy we now on conference.

After I was put in conference, I could only hear strange shouting sounds on the other side.

The shouting was like, “You idiot piece of s##t! Can you be any more careless? Do you think the material is free?…. Blah, blah, blah….”

Finally the delivery guy spoke.

Delivery guy (Shouting sounds still in background): Sorry sir, the delivery packaging is damaged, and I cannot deliver it.

CCA: Yatin sir, do you want a reorder or a refund? As you can see there is some damage to your order.

By this time I realised that the shouting sounds were in the background of the delivery boy.

The shouting continued, “It’s because of you careless guys that our reputation is spoilt. Careless fellow! Now if reorder is asked from us who will borne the loss?!! I will not give reorder!”

I understood that delivery boy had gone back to restaurant, and had to hear all this because my order was damaged.

I was not having it. I asked the delivery boy something which no one gave a f**k about.

“Bhaiya (brother), are you hurt after the accident? Do you required first aid? Keep the order aside and get first aid if required.”

The guy in a crying tone said he is okay and is sorry for messing up my order.

I asked him to handover his phone to that dumb restaurant owner. And I gave him a piece of my mind. I told him that delivery boys are human beings. They are not robots. Accidents can happen. No need to shout on anyone. It’s not only about your food that represents you, it’s you. I think so you should worry less about your ratings and more about your behaviour ratings. Try to have some general courtesy and not get blinded by professionalism.

He defended himself saying he did not mean any disrespect to me personally. I told him that I will not give any rating as I did not get any food. But whoever he is disrespecting, is a ‘person’ after all and mistakes do happen. He apologized for his behavior.

I still asked the delivery guy if he was fine, he said yes and thanked me. I asked him to be careful in the future and not rush so much as it will be fatal to his life.

The customer care refunded me and that’s all.

Numbers and stars can blind the best of us, is what I realized from this.

What’s the fastest you’ve wiped a smirk off of someone’s face?

Not me, my younger brother Kenneth (by ten years).

I was 21, he was 11. It was a Friday, I was off and took him to the lake. We planned to spend the day there, but about 12:30 we’d skipped breakfast so we went to this burger place to get some lunch. Ordered some burgers. They had one pool table there; Kenneth was watching four college kids play, back then it was 25c to play and they were playing for a dollar a game. Challenger pays for the game.

He said, “Gimme a buck and a quarter.”

All right, sure. I have an idea what’s coming. He walks over, and says he wants to play, he’s got his money. The guy who had won the last game is saying he doesn’t want to take a kid’s money, so I said, “It’s my money, don’t worry about it, just let him have a game.”

Okay. Four guys about 20, shaking their heads and grinning. Kenneth breaks hard, and sinks a ball. Runs four more after that, then barely missed a bank shot. Grins are gone.

The other guy takes his shot, misses, and Kenneth runs the rest of the table. It was hilarious, now all of those guys are drinking beer and laughing every time he sinks a tough shot, “no fucking way!” and “Jeezus Christ!”

He picked up the two bucks, said, “Thanks, dude,” then put a dollar back down. “Anybody want to play?”

They all did. One after another, they all lost a couple of bucks, along with the waiter, and two more guys who came in. We were there for hours, until it was too late to go back to the lake. He made about twenty bucks. Funniest buck and a quarter I ever spent. Kid had been shooting pool in our garage since he was four and standing on a box.

What are the most profound jokes ever?

A man dies and goes to hell. Once there, he finds that there is a different hell for each country, so he tries to seek out the least painful one.

At the door to German Hell, he is told: “First they put you in an electric chair for an hour. Then they lay you on a bed of nails for another hour. Then the German devil comes in and whips you for the rest of the day.”

He does not like the sound of that, so he checks out American Hell, Russian Hell and many more. They are all similarly gruesome. However, at Nigerian Hell a long line of people is waiting to get in. Amazed, he asks, “What do they do here?”

He is told: “First they put you in an electric chair for an hour. Then they lay you on a bed of nails for another hour. Then the Nigerian devil comes in and whips you for the rest of the day.”

“But that’s the same as the others,” says the man. “Why are so many people waiting to get in?”

“Because of the power cuts, the electric chair does not work. The nails were paid for but never supplied, so the bed is comfortable. And the Nigerian devil used to be a civil servant, so he comes in, signs his time sheet and goes back home for private business.” Tolu Ogunlesi

The Khachaturyan case:

This is a disturbing incident of three teenage sisters stabbing their own father to death, while he was dozing in his armchair at the family home in northern Moscow.

(Image Source: Getty Images)

The sisters attacked him with a knife, hammer and pepper spray, inflicting fatal wounds to his head, neck, and chest. He had 30 knife wounds in his body when he was found. The girls then called the police and were arrested at the scene.

Why did the sisters kill their own father? What was the motive?

It was during the evening of 27 July 2018, Mikhail Khachaturyan, 57, called Krestina, Angelina and Maria, (aged 19, 18, and 17 respectively), one by one to his room. He scolded them for not cleaning the flat properly and sprayed pepper gas in their faces. The sisters plotted against the father after this incident took place.

The investigation soon uncovered an extensive history of violence in the family. Khachaturyan had regularly beaten his daughters over three years, torturing them, keeping them as prisoners and sexually abusing them. They reported the attack to police and admitted carrying it out, saying they believed their lives were at risk if they did not take action.

(Image Source: Social media; EAST2WEST NEWS)

The case quickly became sensational news in Russia. Human rights activists argued that the sisters were not criminals but victims, as they had no means of getting help and protection from their abusive father. However, there are no laws protecting victims of domestic violence in Russia.

Under legal changes introduced in 2017, a first-time offender who beats a family member, but not badly enough to put them in hospital, will face only a fine or up to two weeks in custody. Police in Russia usually treats domestic abuse as a “family issue”, providing little or no help at all.

The sisters’ mother, who had also suffered beatings and abuse from Khachaturyan in the past, had approached the police years before. So did the family’s neighbors, who were highly afraid of him. But there is no evidence that the police acted on any of these appeals for help. According to psychiatric assessments, the girls lived in isolation and had been suffering from post-traumatic stress (PTSD).

During the investigation, the sisters were all charged with premeditated murder. Angelina and Krestina face up to 20 years in prison. Maria, a child at the time, could be imprisoned for up to 10 years.

The decision to bring murder charges has been met with protests. In Moscow, hundreds of people gathered outside the headquarters of the Investigative Committee law enforcement agency. Activists were continuing to picket their offices almost daily. Demonstrations have also taken place at Russian embassies or consulates around the world, and Russian cultural figures have spoken out in defense of the sisters.

The high-profile case has divided Russian society into those who say that Krestina, Angelina and Maria Khachaturyan acted in self-defense and those who view them as murderers. Independent polling said that 41% of Russian respondents support the Khachaturyan sisters, while 29% don’t support them.

What do you feel about this disturbing incident? Do you see them as murderers? Or do you feel they acted in self-defense?

What is the best case of “You just picked a fight with the wrong person” that you’ve witnessed?

It wasn’t me that “picked a fight with the wrong person” but certainly one that I witnessed first hand.

So my wife, my friend Barry and his wife left a theatre heading for a bar, with the 2 ladies were walking maybe 20-30 metres in front chatting away – as women tend to do 😛

Next thing, they stop short next to an alleyway behind the theatre and my wife shouts out “f**k off a—hole” and starts to back off.

Barry and I arrive on scene and we see 3 guys – knives pulled waving them around.

Being “Mr Laid Back”, Barry asks “so whats going on here guys?” to which a—hole#1 responds politely “This is our robbery buddy so f**k off or we do you as well”.

Barry shrugs his shoulders, does a half turn as if to walk away then the rest was like the scene from Jason Bourne (movie 1) in the US Embassy scene……blur, blur, arms, hands, legs, blur blur and done, literally 5 seconds and 3 knife-wielding scumbags lying on the floor with broken wrists, unconscious and bloody (or all three).

What I didn’t say was Barry looked and dressed like a city gent, weighed about 120kgs and stood just under 2m tall. He was also previously an unarmed combat instructor for the police, an expert in Ju-Jitsu, Karate and Krav-Maga and worked “in the field” for the security services.

they certainly picked a fight with the wrong person……..

A good friend to have on or by your side at any time, and unfortunately now, sorely missed.

No right answer

20 Unspoken Rules For Men:

1. Never shake a hand sitting down.

2. Protect who is behind you, and respect who is beside you.

3. Never insult the cooking when you are the guest.

4. Never eat the last piece of something you didn’t buy.

5. Never make the first offer in a negotiation.

6. Don’t take credit for work you didn’t do.

7. Take blame, and give credit when due.

8. If you are not invited, don’t ask to go.

9. Always aim for the head.

10. Don’t beg for a relationship.

11. Dress well no matter what the occasion.

12. Always carry cash.

13. Listen, nod, and most of all make eye contact.

14. Show restraint in expressing anger, no matter what. Being angry is a waste of energy.

15. Weather it is dinner, drinks, or both, avoid placing your phone on the dinner table.

16. Never pose with alcohol.

17. Proper grammar will get you far in life. Leave the foul language for the less educated.

18. Ask more than you answer.

19. You can tell a great deal about a person by their handshake, so make your strong and firm.

20. Speak honestly. Say what you mean and mean what you say.

…

Chris Williamson: Why Men & Women Are Giving Up On Love

Has a doctor ever been disgusted by something they saw on a patient?

Well, I still get a bit nauseated thinking of this…I once saw a woman who reported “itchiness” in her groin. Expecting some type of rash, I had her undress and lay back on table. I inspected her groin only to find her entire pubic hair area filled with crawling small bugs! Pubic lice! I was careful not let my disgust show but got a treatment creme and smeared a LOT of it on the entire area. I prescribed a similar medication and simply assured her that the infestation and itchiness would get better after a while. She seemed grateful. My nurse and I then promptly sealed off that exam room and had it thoroughly cleaned. Despite that I felt “itchy” the rest of the day and gave myself a thorough shower when I got home. Despite feeling “disgusted”, one has to be professional. Sometimes harder than others!

Have you ever known personally someone to disappear from the face of earth? Are you looking for them?

I sure have known someone who seemingly disappeared from the face of the earth. But I’m not looking for them anymore.

It’s my brother who disappeared. He was on vacation with his wife and my parents, when he decided to take a short solo hike. Our folks and his wife decided to sit in the shade and wait for him to return. He said he would be back within an hour. But he never returned.

They were in Mesa Verde National Park. The path he went down is called the Spruce Treehouse Path, and it was steep and paved and busy, as people flocked down to see the Spruce Treehouse, an abandoned dwelling in excellent condition. My brother was fascinated with the dwellings and wanted to see one up close and personal. The rest of the group settled on the porch of one of the museums in the park. None of the three were in good enough shape to make it down the steep path and then climb back up again. His wife offered him a bottle of water, but he declined, saying he’d only be gone for a short while. He started to walk off and then his wife called out to him, he turned around, and she snapped the last picture that she would ever take of Mitchell Dale Stehling.

And that was it. The last time anyone in my family saw my brother alive. After two hours had passed, my mother became alarmed, she just knew something was wrong, so they raised the alarm and a short search by rangers was conducted. He couldn’t have gotten very far, in such a short period of time, the rangers told the three. And nobody ever stays lost for long. Either they are found, or they manage to make it back on their own. But Dale wasn’t found that night, nor the next day when the search went into full force. The mountain came alive with people. Search and rescue people came and went searching for him on foot. There were people on horseback, on ATV’s, in helicopters all scouring the mountain side for my lost brother. In addition, a FLIR equipped jet buzzed around the mountain with its heat seeking device looking for Dale.

The massive search effort lasted about a week. The head ranger had my folks put up in one of the cabins in the park, and brought them food, and drink, an no good news at all. There was no sign of Dale, not even an indication that he had even been in the park. In the meantime, my poor dad got sick as a dog and had to see a doctor there. The search was scaled back after a week, and my mother and father drove home alone in their motorhome, while Dale’s wife drove home to Texas with her children, who had driven to Colorado the moment they learned their dad was missing. My mother’s description of how she felt driving down out of the mountains and headed toward home, leaving my brother behind somewhere in the wilderness, just simply broke my heart.

I didn’t learn that Dale was missing until two days after he was gone. I don’t know why nobody thought to call me, but I don’t hold it against anyone, because I can only imagine the chaos and emotional turmoil each person went through in the first days when my brother went missing. I wanted to fly out and help with the search, but my folks asked me to please stay in Texas and guard the home front. Offers of help of all kinds began flooding in, and our church took up a special donation to help offset some of the cost of travel and lodging and being unable to work for a week or so. So I stayed home and worried and cried, and took phone call after phone call from people wondering about Dale.

The night my parents came home, we all gathered at their house. We all hugged and cried and expressed our disbelief that something like this could happen in our family. We wondered aloud how and why Dale had managed to get off trail and get lost. We wondered if he was attacked by someone or something. We all feared the worst. For about two weeks I held out hope that Dale was alive, but then that hope faded slowly away, and I came to realize that he was likely deceased. Yet we didn’t know for sure where he was or what had happened to him. Did he just decide to walk away from his family who all loved him dearly? Did he commit suicide out there some how? Were drugs involved? Did he fall off a cliff, or suffer a heart attack or get bitten by a snake? The questions kept coming with no answers in sight.

The years dragged on. I can tell you that I learned all about grief during those years. Dale and I had been very close, visiting or calling one another nearly every day. We shared our deepest secrets with one another, and he and I just became closer when our brother was diagnosed with schizophrenia and left the family fold. It was just him and me then, and you couldn’t get us apart no matter how hard you tried. I was simply and plainly, devastated by the loss of my dearest friend and brother. I wish I had a penny for every tear I have shed since Dale went missing. For years If I wrote about Dale, the ending was always the same. We didn’t know what happened to him, and we didn’t really expect him to be found as one year rolled around to the next. We were left hanging for many years.

Now there is a different ending when I write about Dale. And that is because of one off-trail hiker in the park. People are not allowed to deviate from the paths that run through the park. But this guy did, and he stumbled upon the skeletal remains of my brother over seven and a half years from the day he went missing. He left a note for the rangers, wanting to remain anonymous for obvious reasons. In the note he said he had found a human body, and had looked through the clothing and found ID. He named the person according to the ID found on him, and gave a good indication of where it was located. He also noted that he had already contacted the media, so the rangers needed to act quickly and go and retrieve that body. And that is exactly what they did.

The rangers and coroner hiked for well over four and a half miles into the wilderness, where they finally found my brother’s remains. They found his skeleton completely intact with the skull still on the neck and clothing still on the bones, shoes still on the feet. His cigarettes and lighter were still in his pocket as well as his wallet which contained his ID, driver’s license and credit cards. He was in a sitting position, with his legs straight out in front of him, leaning against “a lone tree in the bottom of a canyon” in an area that had been thoroughly searched when he first went missing.

Dale’s bones and clothing were examined by a forensic anthropologist. This person said that there were no indications of animal attack before or after his death. The clothing was completely intact and not ripped or torn anywhere. All the bones were accounted for, except the vertebrae which had been removed from his back a bunch of years before he went missing. His spine was fused during a back surgery. The coroner named the date of death as June 9, 2013, the very day he went missing.

Dale’s bones were returned to his widow. She had them cremated so that his ashes could be buried where he always said he wanted to be his eternal resting place. Which was under a big live oak tree on his property. There were visitation and funeral services for my brother, and a private burial after.

I have written about his funeral and burial before, so I won’t get overly emotional and write it all again. Suffice it to say, it was unique. I attended both, driving my parents to all of it. We attended the burial, and I watched as my brothers ashes were sprinkled into a hole in the ground at the base of a tree. My emotions were all over the place that day. I was so glad that the story had an ending, although not a happy one. It was good to know that his remains were back in Texas, and in the place where he always said he wanted to be buried. But the services made if feel like we had lost him all over again, and I cried for days and days.

I would give anything I owned to be able to wash this horrible event from our lives and to have my baby brother back. But God had other ideas, and I know where Dale resides right now. I can’t have my brother back, but I know I will see him again when we are reunited in heaven some day in God’s time. I have come to be able to cope with his death because I realize that this is but a short separation, really. We won’t be apart for all of eternity. Nope, because one day God will take me home too, and that is when I think life really begins. I imagine sharing heaven with my favorite person in the world. We will jump and shout and sing in the angel’s choir, together again for all eternity.

And that, I believe, is one heck of an ending to this story.

Star Trek as a SOVIET Sci-Fi movie directed by Andrei Tarkovski (ai generated)

What is that one picture that describes the lowest point in your life?

I was 16, and at my grandfather’s life celebration. He’d passed 2 weeks before. That’s my dad and the daughter of a close friend.

I was trying to come to terms with a sexual assault that had occurred nearly a year before. My relationship with my dad had deteriorated to the point where we were hardly speaking, even though we were living in the same house. My dad is a good person, but he’s very broken and endured horrific abuse as a child and teenager. He’s also mentally ill, and at the time he was suicidal and angry. I’d also just lost my Poppy.

I was also suicidal and angry. My parents’ marriage was in tatters, I was in such emotional pain from the assault, and had just started college. I was working two jobs and paying my own way. My mother and I were constantly fighting. I’d just been diagnosed with an autoimmune disease and the treatment and recovery was wreaking havoc on my body and emotions. I wanted it all to stop. I was going to drive my car into a tree. I went out driving one night and sped up, and right before I swerved to hit the tree, I remembered my little sister and brother. And my dog, Woof. My sister was only 11, how awful for her would it be if I died? My brother was 14, it would have completely destroyed his life if I left. Woof wouldn’t understand what had happened to me, he’d just think I left him. I pulled over and broke down and cried. I drove home and told my mom I needed help.

I broke down crying on the kitchen floor and told her that if I didn’t get help, I was going to kill myself. She helped me make a therapy appointment for the next week, and I’ve been working hard ever since.

That was one of the lowest points of my life. There have been points just as low in recent years, but I made a promise to myself that I wouldn’t leave my family. If I can’t stay alive for myself, I have to for them.

After nearly 4 years of therapy, medication, a clinical depression and panic disorder diagnosis, a short stint in the psych ward when I had a panic attack so bad my then-boyfriend thought I was having a heart attack, and removing myself from my home situation, I’m proud to say that I’m getting better. I’m still not quite on the level of being okay, I still have my bad days and moments where I just want it to stop, but I try to no longer entertain those thoughts. I’m still working too much and not sleeping enough, but I’m also still in college and one step closer to achieving my goals. And I’m still here.

I made it to 20, and for the first time in a long time, I feel anxious but a bit more prepared for what’s coming next.

EDIT: August 29th, 2023 – roughly 4 years from my OP

This answer has started getting a lot of new comments in the last few weeks, so I thought I just come back to say: I’m still here! I am 24 years old now and STILL ALIVE! The last 4 years have been wonderful, and horrific at times. I have new medical diagnoses, and a much better relationship with my parents. They’ve both grown a lot in the last few years, as have I, and I am lucky to have a much better relationship with both of them.

Thank you everyone for continuing to comment, and boost me, and being there. I come back to this post often to read the wonderful things you all have written whenever I need a boost, or a reminder that I do have a purpose and place here. To anyone who’s been in a place like this before, please know that it does get better. All of the things that I’ve experienced were more than worth it. Because I stayed, I got to watch my little brother graduate from college. Because I stayed I got to watch my little sister graduate high school and go off to college. Because I stayed, I met some of the most wonderful people. You have so much left to experience, so much left to do, and so many people to love, and be loved by. It sounds cliche but I promise, it does get better.

Why PsycHacks REFUSES To Date AMERICAN Women!

A little boy goes to his dad and asks, “What is politics?”

Dad says, “Well son, let me try to explain it this way: I earn the money in this family, so let’s call me the capitalist. Your mom says what we spend the money on, we’ll call her the government. Both of us are here to take care of your needs, so we’ll call you the people. Our nanny is representative of the working class. And your baby brother, we’ll call him the future. Now, think about that and see if that makes sense.”

So the little boy goes off to bed thinking about what dad had said.

Later that night, he hears his baby brother crying, so he gets up to check on him. He finds that the baby has severely soiled his diaper. So the little boy goes to his parents’ room and finds his mother sound asleep and his father missing. Not wanting to wake her, he goes to the nanny’s room, but there he sees the father in bed with the nanny and he can’t get their attention. He gives up and goes back to bed. The next morning, the little boy says to his father, “Dad, I think I understand the concept of politics now.”

The father says, “Good, then tell me in your own words what you think politics is all about.”

The little boy replies, “Well, capitalists are screwing the working class while the government is sound asleep. Meanwhile the people are being ignored and the future is in deep shit.”

Actionable things

What were the worst two minutes of your life?

Ragging.

It’s real. I have never spoken about it before this, but here I go. First year of engineering college was very difficult for me specially knowing the fact that I suffer from ADHD, thus I became an easy target for the seniors of our college. I remember telling a room full of seniors that I will complain about them and within first month it was known that no body from the second year is allowed to talk to me. Things became real one night when this one senior of mine slapped me 20 times in a room full of 20 people who did not even protest or say a thing. Then he used his slippers. Oh, what a night that was. And those two minutes when he was slapping me were the worst.

Then he told me that I won’t be allowed to enter any committee of the college and he would ensure that my life would be hell in college.

After this happened, I still had the guts to take the morning 9am bus and face him where the entire hostel was there. I never spoke to him or any of the seniors from our hostel again. I made some real friends after that incident who were in the room but did not say a thing because of fear. They came to me later to support me.

A similar incident happened six months later but this time all my friends were there to support me and nobody could touch me. Thank you, all of you.

A year later I was the President of Technical Club of our annual fest, Chairperson of Association of Computing Machinery at our college and held a lot of positions at other clubs.

Later when I got into Directi (highest paid internship and PPO from college) and then Flat[dot]to, Flatchat and Unacademy – I realized one real thing. Living your life and doing great is the best revenge.

Those seniors still like every Facebook post of mine these days 🙂

Maybe initially I was working so hard to prove something to them but eventually I realised, they are not worth it.

Do it for yourself, for your parents, for your brother, for your friends. The people who love you and whom you love.

Focus

Why are Sichuan girls so pretty?

It has to do with beauty standards. Sichuanese women aren’t objectively prettier than anyone else, they just fit many Chinese beauty standards better on average – beauty standards are highly variable from place to place and have changed a lot throughout history. Sichuanese women often have characteristics like thin pointed noses, heart shaped faces, larger breasts, lighter skin (Sichuan is located in the Sichuan basin so it’s really foggy), larger eyes, and double eyelids which fit modern Chinese beauty standards.

The traditional Chinese beauty standards preferred smaller eyes, monolids, smaller breasts, rounder faces, and flatter small noses. The only constant beauty standard is the strong preference for light skin. So this means Sichuanese women being considered attractive is a modern stereotype and you can’t find any historical sources treating them as prettier than women from other regions of China.

Sichuanese women are usually short and a low height for women was the historical beauty standard since it made women seem “fragile” compared to men (we are talking about a very patriarchal society, after all). In modern China, people seem to be a little mixed on this. Taller women are generally preferred and considered more “beautiful” but shorter women (as long as they are not too short) may be considered “cute” by some. For men, they have to be tall because short men are not considered attractive in general. (Are shorter men liked more than tall men anywhere in the world? Sorry, short kings 🙁)

Different generations

“When I was 17 …”

When I was 17 I decided I wanted to reach out to my biological mother through the adoption agency. I heard nothing back initially and when the agency advised me to focus on my leaving cert, I did and I continued on with my life.

Then, 5 years later, out of the blue a letter arrived. This letter would change my life.

I can only assume my mom was upset at the thought of me reconnecting with my biological mother, i dunno maybe she thought I’d leave home and be somebody elses son but no matter what was about to unfold with my biological mother my mom is, and will always be my mom. I feel very lucky to have been chosen by her, that’s sort of how i always felt, like i had been chosen to be their son.

After weeks of letters back and forth the day arrived. The first time i met my biological mother it was only for about 10 minutes in an room at the agency. I was actually ok but Anna (my biological mother) was a nervous wreck. For 22 years she carried this secret with her that no one knew about, not even her close family.

I have my own little guy now and I can’t begin to imagine how hard it must have been for my biological mother to give me up, I mean, I can barely cope with being away from him when I go to work and that’s just for 8 hours. I don’t know what it must have been like for 22 years.

I’m happy to say she is now a part of our lives, I even gained two brothers, another sister and grandparents as a result.

I sometimes wonder what if I hadn’t reached out. That letter that changed my life in such a positive way would still be sitting, unopened, unanswered, in a filing cabinet.

Dressing

As a doctor, what was your most ‘now that was stupid’ moment with a patient?

I once cared for a middle-aged patient who presented to emergency with a dildo-related very embarrassing situation.

He purchased the toy for one of his sexcapades.

Curiosity hit. And he shoved the damn thing in his pooper, high-high up!

“Me first” attitude didn’t do him much good.

Funny feelings subsided fairly quickly and the horror struck when he couldn’t get it out.

His drainage was jammed, the toy was slipping further up and after about 24 hours of wishfully waiting for it to naturally pass, it hurt bad enough to seek medical help.

The official party line, that he vehemently iterated, was I just fell onto it, how else do you think it got up there!

Needless to say, emergency surgery was necessary and he landed in the ICU with sepsis related post-op complications. It took him loooong before being able to use the toilet normally!

** NOT the patient’s X-ray, but it looked similar**

Though I have seen some really absurd stuff in the ER, including a gun-shot to the penis, this surely wins the now-that-was-stupid award..

Russian “Special Flight Squadron” Lands in DC – Ukraine War to End; Russia lays out terms of surrender

World Hal Turner 22 December 2023

Russian officials arrived in Washington, DC Thursday morning to discuss the terms of Ukraine’s SURRENDER.

This is the aircraft that brought the Russian Delegation to Washington, DC:

The “Special Flight Squadron moves Kremlin officials traveling on important matters.

TERMS

The terms given to Washington, DC for Ukraine are:

Complete Ukraine surrender.

Complete surrender of all military equipment.

Russian territory will range from Karkhov to Odessa, and gives Russia complete control of Black Sea coast.

Western Ukraine cannot join NATO, or have __any__ military aid.

Russia does not care who controls western Ukraine, and have openly offered it to Poland.

Put bluntly, the Ukraine war is over and Ukraine lost. Completely.

They can no longer defend themselves in any meaningful way. If hostilities are not halted, Ukraine will simply be slaughtered and, believe it or not, Russia does NOT want to do that.

Notice this information isn’t anywhere on the mass-media news?

Notice the Washington Post STOPPED PRINTING it’s “Ukraine War Update Section?”

No reporting that Ukraine has lost – – – and not a word about Russia’s victory.

THIS personifies what the so-called “main stream” media has become: A mouthpiece for government.

The mass-media acts as a stenographer for what government wants you to know. They report “the narrative” as opposed to the “news.”

EDITRORIAL OPINION

Russia won against billions of dollars of the best equipment and NATO-trained troops, it got exactly the farmland it wanted. It lost about 30k troops and killed 300K+ Ukrainian soldiers plus NATO “advisors.”

Russia’s Military industrial capacity has tripled. NATO’s reserve equipment and arms is non existent now.

The 20 percent of Ukraine they conquered are Russian and Russian speaking; so not only do those people NOT hate Russia, they support them!

Energy prices have tripled in Europe and as things stand now, Europe is on the verge of a economic collapse.

NATO and the US have been proven to be a “paper tiger.”

So many people in the West, in its media, and in its governments thought that Ukraine was one counter-offensive away from victory. It was all lies. Deliberate lies.

One wonders how all those folks are going to deal with Ukraine’s defeat.

Have you said something that has changed someone’s life?

It was in 1987, a widow of a railway employee who died accidentally, who was barely of 33-34 years approached me to open an account. She was not even able to sign her name. Those were manual banking days. I got her account opening form except signature(which she could not sign) and advised her to learn the signature by her next visit, then only I would open her account. In a sheet of paper I wrote her name “Girija” in hindi and asked her to learn to write her name. I opened her account at my risk and confidence on that poor lady. I didn’t know why my inner sense told me to do so.

She came within two days promptly learnt to sign, so relieving my tension for pending account opening form. She got some fixed deposits from her husband’s settlement funds.

Some days after she, looked terrified, came with an old person. It seemed as if she was trying to convey me some message. I got the chance and learnt that the person accompanied was her father in law(FIL) and he had snatched all her gold and silver jewellery and threatened her to get his name in fixed deposits or else she alongwith her children would be thrown to streets.

She had two young kids of 7(boy) and 11(girl) and she being illiterate, no other source of incime other than her husband’s pension and those deposits. How could have I saved her from her FIL.

I asked them to get seated and silently approached branch manager and asked him to get them inside and tackle him by opening FDs in both names but tactfully favouring FIL & Girija “ payable to latter or survivor”. The cunning chap was satisfied by getting his name in the first place while we were satisfied to get a poor lady saved from clutches of a butcher.

She remained obliged to me always and after about one year she was before me for a withdrawal of Rs.50000/— .to my utter surprise, for the purpose of engagement of her daughter. Sparing my busy time, I tried to convince her whether she wanted to repeat her past. Her daughter wanted to learn further and family wanted to marry her. May God don’t do that, if something happens in her daughter’s life also, she would as be worse as her own, so give her some education at least matric, make her self dependent and then think of marriage.

Believe it or not, a lady who was under veils, in the guardianship of eagle-eyed FIL, stood against all the family members to stop her daughter’s engagement with an oath to educate her daughter so that she might not see her reflection again in her daughter.

I thanked God to give her so much courage to face the old custom of child marriage when she fought against all odds to save her daughter. She was all in tears and thankfulness for me when she reached the branch for redepositing the withdrawn money.

Even after my retirement, I still remember that lady, her innocence but boldness when the question of safety of her daughter, in all, God enabled me to save a girl child.

If a passenger plane window breaks in flight, do things really get sucked out or is that just movies?

Unfortunately for these nine passengers, this flight was no flick.

United 811, 24 Feb 1989, is a tragic case of explosive decompression. The skill of the pilot, David Cronin, age 59, prevented a far greater disaster. Captain Cronin was on his second to last flight before mandatory retirement at age 60. He had flown 28,000 hours, 1,700 in the Boeing 747, which was the aircraft on this flight.

United 811 was climbing out from Honolulu on its way to Auckland, New Zealand, carrying 3 flight crew, 15 flight attendants and 337 passengers. The crew were maneuvering around thunderstorms, passing through 22,000′, when there was a loud bang and the aircraft shuddered violently. Cronin called for an emergency descent and the First Officer—who was flying that leg— started to lower the landing gear which is standard procedure in such a descent. Cronin waved him off the gear, saying they’d never get back to Honolulu. By that action alone, he saved the aircraft and all still in it.

They declared an emergency and Honolulu Center began moving traffic out of 811’s way, vectoring them to the longest runway at Honolulu International, some 60 miles away.

Cronin sent the Flight Engineer down to assess damage on the main deck. The FE reported that a large portion of the right fuselage had blown off. The downing of Pan Am 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland two months earlier was fresh in the crew’s minds. They believed this was the work of a bomb.

It was not. As the pressure differential grew acute at 22,000′, the forward cargo door had blown off, slamming into the fuselage, buckling and bursting it. Nine passengers, eight still belted in their seats, were blown out ++, one of them into the number three engine. The others were hurled against the right wing’s leading edge. Death for these unfortunates would have been instantaneous.

Response to Commenters: We have no way of knowing how much life was left to these poor people once blown from the aircraft. I decided to be merciful. You can be sure that the families would argue a lot of painful life was left in the litigation against United, Boeing and P&W.

In any case, the bodies of those that fell to the ocean surface were never recovered. One flight attendant was nearly blown out, but clung to a seat leg until passengers and crew pulled her to safety. She was, nevertheless, severely injured.

What followed was brilliant flying by Cronin, drawing on his 28,000 hours of flight experience. Engines three and four were vibrating heavily, showing fire and he ordered them shut down. The 747 was now flying on only two engines, both on the left wing, making it difficult for Cronin to hold heading and altitude. He ordered the FE to dump fuel since the plane—with a full load for the 16 hour flight to New Zealand—was far over its maximum landing weight.

For that reason, Cronin flew a shallow final approach hoping the landing gear would not collapse upon touch down. He did not have benefit of leading edge slats since those on the right wing would not extend. The damaged flaps would only go to 15 degrees. He waited until the last moment to lower the gear with all its drag.

Landing hot at 200 knots (normal landing 100 – 120 knots) he braked, applying full thrust reverse on engines 1 and 2, and did not overrun the runway. The cabins were evacuated in a remarkable 45 seconds, tho every flight attendant sustained some injury, the worst being a broken shoulder.

About 18 months after the accident, the U.S. Navy recovered the cargo door from an ocean depth of 14,000′—a remarkable feat in itself! With this critical piece of evidence in hand, the NTSB concluded that faulty handling by the Honolulu ground crew was to blame for the door’s failure.

However, the Campbell family of Wellington, New Zealand, having lost their son, Lee, was not satisfied. They undertook their own investigation. They found that design of the locking mechanism on the door was, in fact, the culprit. The FAA accepted this and recommended 747 cargo doors** changed from outward-opening doors, to a so-called “plug” door, the kind you and I see as we enter the cabin of an airliner. The kind that can’t blow open in flight….##

Incompetent cargo door design seems to have been something of an Achilles heel in the construction of wide body airliners, excepting the Lockheed L-1011 Tristar. Only after several instances of explosive decompression in DC-10s, killing nearly 1,000 people, did the FAA get off its ass and press its buddy Douglas to effect necessary changes. Some of the good ‘ol boys at FAA should have done time for their disgraceful, indeed criminal, lax supervision.

And for me, it’s sad that a sterling pilot like David Cronin could not continue to fly while he was fully healthy. For without his skill, it is unlikely that United 811 would have made it back to Honolulu.

** Krishna Kumar Subramanian refined my answer re the FAA Airworthiness Directive on cargo doors. Apparently, cargo doors on the new 747–8 are the same doors—modified per the Campbell’s findings— as on the United 811’s B-747–122 some 27 years ago.

## Benjamin H. points out that a “fail-safe” plug door would require more cargo space in the cargo hold. This explains why airlines, for economic reasons, would want to stay w/non-plug type door. Thank you, Benjamin.

++ Thanks to Ned Abbey for informing the author that “blown out” is the correct term here, not “sucked out” as I originally termed this ghastly event.

If Texas beef and pork are so good, why do they have to drown it in sauces and chemicals to make it taste good? In Argentina, meat is so good, all it takes is a bit of salt to bring out the fantastic taste.

They… don’t? What? Good meat doesn’t need help from sauces. And Texas is known, well known, for not adding sauce.

This is Texas brisket, before the smoker.

What you see there is kosher salt and ground black pepper (14 gauge, to be specific). That’s it. The end. Then 12–15 hours on the smoker over post oak at 180F–210F and it’s ready to eat.

This is Texas brisket as it’s served.

Note the distinct lack of sauces anywhere near it. Putting sauce on that is sacrilegious. Stay away from my barbecue with your sauces; if you don’t like the taste of smoked meat and you feel like you need to cover it up with sauce, eat something else.

However, when I smoke a pork shoulder to make tacos, I do add a little additional seasoning.

This stuff is magic, and really brings out something special in a pork butt. It’s cheap, at the local grocery store, and is an excellent blend. Served just so.

On white corn tortillas with onion, cilantro, lime, and some salsa verde if you want. But it doesn’t need it. Good meat speaks for itself, it doesn’t need help.

I don’t know where you’re getting your information, but it couldn’t be more wrong.

What is the most obvious case of a patient ‘faking it’ that you have ever seen?

My mom had a muscle spasm in her shoulder. They hurt, I know. She went to the doctor and was prescribed muscle relaxers.

The following Sunday, her shoulder was hurting again, and she was out of the muscle relaxers, so she decided to go to the ER. My dad and I told her to take some Tylenol and call her doctor in the morning, but that wasn’t good enough.

My dad drove her to the ER, dropped her off at the door and went to park the car. He walked in and she was nowhere to be seen.

She didn’t tell the triage nurse “I have a muscle spasm in my shoulder”. Oh, no. She told the triage nurse that her arm hurts and it hurt to breathe. They immediately took her back and hooked her up to an EKG, started an IV, drew blood for testing, etc.

She KNEW it was a muscle spasm, not a heart attack, but went along with a bunch of unnecessary tests and time wasting for the staff, all because she wanted attention.

Can you use deadly force to protect yourself?

Let me give you an example

In 2007 – Four thieves broke into a House in Hosur. They were from Rajasthan or North India and they had deadly weapons like the Aruva or Long as it is popularly known in the courts.

The Owner and his son – woke up and fought the thieves and they ran away but one guy was hit on his head with a tyre iron (Used to change lorry or tractor tyres) and he went a few feet away and collapsed near a drain.

There were 12 witnesses to the entire scene. The victim had a rambo knife and a bihar knife in his lungi as he lay there collapsed and unconscious.

Police arrived forty five minutes later – took the statements – took the victim to the hospital where he was pronounced DOA.

The Police booked a Murder (302) and 201 case against the Owner and his son.

The Magistrate Court refused to dismiss the case on grounds of Self Defense claiming that a Rambo Knife and Bihar Knife did not indicate self defense.

The Sessions court refused to dismiss the case

The High Court – thrice refused to dismiss the case

The Accused served 17 months in Prison until they got bail from the High Court.

Eventually in 2015 – The Accused were sentenced to Life Imprisonment

Finally in 2018 January – the High Court stayed the decision and acquitted them by observing that – (a) The Victim did not have any relation with them (b) The Victim did not have any work in that locality at that time – Of course this was all nonsense.

The main reason was because The Karnataka Police arrested the other thieves in 2016 and during their interrogation observed and found their statements where they confessed to a robbery in Hosur where their partner was killed.

On January 2018 – the Two were released from Prison. Not because of the courts and not because of the Exemplary Law enforcement but because some Decent cop at the Karnataka Police side was able to help them out and a very good and decent Chennai Lawyer was able to connect the issues.

So as you can see – A Father and Son defend their property from Thieves and murderers- they serve collectively 4 Years and 5 Months in prison

Do you know the first thing the Father said when he was released?

“Next time – i will bury the body and if the police come – we will hack the cops and bury their bodies as well”

A Law abiding man – was so angry – i am sure he would have slaughtered an entire police station and all the judges in tamilnadu.

They filed a civil suit which is still pending and is likely to be pending upto 2035.

Conclusion –

India is worse than any other country except maybe Uganda or Rwanda. The Law means nothing and the Laws in CRPC or IPC mean Zilch.

The Magistrates and Judges are among the most fifth rate in the planet. They rule like Panchayats.

Unless you are linked to the Big 4 – (a) Minister (b) MP/MLA (c) IAS (d) Big Businessmen or VIPS – You are unlikely to get any justice and no matter what – even if you use Deadly Force to protect yourself from Bin Laden – you will face murder charges and even be convicted of murdering Bin Laden.

Get the hell out if possible. If not – just mind your business and pray to all the gods not to put you in a situation which involves requiring using Deadly Force for Self Defence

That’s how…

What’s the scariest experience you’ve ever had when picking your child up from school?

It wasn’t my child but my cousin.

I was 15 years old. I was staying with my aunt yet again as my mother decided she needed another break from me and went on another bender.

My aunt was more of a mom to me. As a result I was very close to her family and called her mom Grandma and her sister Aunt. Anyway Grandma was living with my Aunt. She had dementia and was having a particularly bad day. My aunt asked me to pick up my 10 year cousin from school which was only a block away. I did this often as my aunt tried to shield my cousin from her mothers episodes. She gave me some cash to stop at the small ice cream place near her school to keep her away longer.

I got to my cousins school expecting to see her on the playground where all the kids played while waiting to get picked up. She wasn’t there but I wasn’t worried as I knew she sometimes helped the teacher clean up the classroom after school. I went to her classroom and she wasn’t there either! No one was.

Starting to get worried I started roaming the hallways peeking in the classrooms looking for her. She was nowhere to be found!

I ran to the principals office freaked out by then and told the secretary I couldn’t find her! The secretary immediately made an announcement over the PA system telling my cousin to come to the office. 10 minutes passed. She never came.

We went to the teachers lounge and got the teachers to help look for her. I’ve never been so scared! My aunt trusted me with her daughter and I didn’t know how to call her and tell her she was gone.

30 minutes later we heard a shout. One of the teachers had found her. She was in the library reading. She had gone to check out a book when school had let out without telling anyone and the librarian had locked her in.

I hugged her hard and told her to always tell someone where she was going. It was for her safety. She started crying and apologizing over and over. I told her it was okay. Her principal gave her the same lecture and we left.

My aunt hadn’t called yet to say it was safe to come home so we went for ice cream and then to the local park. An hour later my aunt called and told us to come on home. Grandma finally went to sleep.

After my cousin went to bed that night I told my aunt what had happened. At first she seemed upset but then said they were lucky to have me there. I was shocked. I didn’t receive compliments very often. She gave me a hug told me I was a good person and a great sister to my cousin.

My cousin always made sure she was on the playground after school after that.

Appreciate NOW

Only in China

The sheer logistics of trying to feed a nation of 1.4 billion people are insane. Take this building right here — it’s a pig farm. A 26-story pig farm named Ezhou farm. It’s one of the biggest ‘only in China’ moments for me.

Basically, China has been having some pretty major geopolitical tensions with many of its neighbors lately, and there have been a lot of issues with the ongoing trade war with America. So China wants to be less dependent on imports of vital things such as food.

As a result, it has started building absolutely MASSIVE pig farms on an industrial scale unseen anywhere in human history. It’s pretty crazy. Also, I gotta say, pretty impressive.

So yeah, 26-story pig farms are a strange phenomenon I’ve not seen anywhere else. Anyone who’s ever enjoyed Chinese cuisine knows it cannot survive without pork. So if ever war breaks out and trade routes are blocked, China is ensuring it’ll never run out of pork chops.

How many German women did Russian soldiers impregnate after the fall of the Third Reich?

Some sources claim that Red Army soldiers impregnated about 200,000 of the about 2,000,000 German women its soldiers raped during their advance into Germany in 1945. Quite a few German women were murdered during the mass rapes and looting or committed suicide afterwards, so the numbers could be off by several thousand.

Senior Red Army officers attempted to crack down on ill-disciplined Soviet soldiers and numerous enlisted men and some officers were either shot or sent to serve in penal units for lacking discipline on and off the battlefield. Discipline tended to be mostly excellent in Red Army Guards divisions and mechanized and tank corps. Red Army infantry units that had to use ill-trained and often ill-disciplined conscripts, often soldiers who had witnessed German atrocities in the Soviet Union, probably committed the preponderance of the rapes on German soil. The dead German women in the photo posted below probably committed suicide with cyanide capsules. It is unclear if they were raped beforehand or simply feared the Soviet soldiers so much that they took their own lives to avoid mass rape and murder.

Why are a lot of Nigerians so extroverted, fun, and friendly compared to other countries?

If they say Nigerians are among the happiest people on earth I don’t think we will argue. An average Nigerian mentality is just cruise. People that make fun of their own Misery’s. Humor is a gift you get for being a Nigerian, slightly higher than the line for insanity. I won’t be wrong if I say it’s our coping mechanism. Fun is a way we know how to keep on pushing and a way to look beyond our imperfect country. With how our country is if we don’t laugh at life we will go mad.

Who turns a protest into a party? Nigerians

Who replys with ffb on their president’s post on Twitter? Nigerians

Who creates happiness out of nothing? Nigerians

Who turns every situation into a comedy? Nigerians.

Nigerians use banter and humor to hide how fucked we all are in this country.

Nigerians are warm, friendly, kind, fun, witty and merry. Despite all the troubles , all our pains. We are sensitive to all the Issues we have and our heart silently scream in pain. Yet we still force a smile and make jokes out of everything.

If only we have good leaders, Nigeria would have become the best place on earth

Waiting to Be Put to Sleep, She Sat Crying Silently in Her Cage At the Shelter

How does spending the majority of one’s life in prison feel?

I was arrested when I was 17 and was released from prison when I was 46. So I spent well over half my life in prison.. When I was sentenced I remember being shocked. I didn’t cry like you see some of these teenagers do when sentenced. My dad had taught me that whether I did something bad or good to own it. But yet my whole family and some friends were in tears. I spent my first 5 years at MSP and really there I was just trying to survive.. But even though I didn’t like being in prison I became used to prison life. When They transferred me I was happy. For one I was leaving that place Second a different prison would be a change of scenery. I also spent the whole time on the transfer bus looking out the window. Seeing farms made me a little homesick

So I spent from 1993- 99 at Farmington Correctional Center. There were others that I knew from MSP there already Time passed pretty quick there. It wasn’t as violent even though you could not let your guard down. Anyway one day, some friends came to see me . One of my female friends told me. “You are different . Your eyes used to be full of life and you were always smiling as a teen-ager” I told her that I still smiled. “She said it wasn’t the same.

Anyway by now I had settled down into prison life .Every time I got a parole hearing I hoped for the best but expected the worst.. You laugh and joke with people in prison that you have become cool with. Not because prison is funny, but it helps keep your sanity. You miss out on birthdays weddings and holidays. You know this as each happened but push it to the back of your mind. . Oh you may say something to a friend like “ Guess what? My Brother is getting married” He will probably say something nice and then you dont speak about it much .And the days, weeks, months and years pass. On my 36th birthday my celly and best friend in prison made a meal to “celebrate” and I reflected on the fact that I had been in prison half my life. I have tried to convey how it feels but the only way you will know for sure how it feels is if you experience it. I pray that never happens .

Partners

What are the most profound jokes ever?

A jobless man applied for the position of ‘office boy’ at a very big company.

The employer interviewed him, then a test: clean the floor.

“You are hired.” – the employer said. ”Give me your email address, and I’ll send you the application to fill, as well as when you will start.”

The man replied, “I don’t have a computer, neither an email.”

“I’m sorry,” said the employer, “if you don’t have an email that means you do not exist. And who doesn’t exist, cannot have the job.”

The man left with no hope. He didn’t know what to do, with only $10 USD in his pocket.

He then decided to go to the supermarket, bought a 10kg tomato crate, then sold the tomatoes door to door. In less than two hours, he succeeded and doubled his capital.

He repeated the operation 3 times and returned home with $60 USD. The man realized that he could survive by this way, and started to go everyday earlier, and returned late. Thus, his money doubled or tripled everyday. Shortly later, he bought a cart, then a truck, and then he had his own fleet of delivery vehicles.

Five years later, the man’s company was one of the biggest food retailers. He started to plan his family’s future, and decided to have a life insurance.

He called an insurance broker and chose a protection plan. When the conversation was concluded, the broker asked him his email. The man replied: “I don’t have an email.”

The broker replied curiously, “You don’t have an email, and yet have succeeded to build an empire. Do you imagine what you could have been if you had an email?”

The man paused for a while, and replied: “An office boy!”

Are you shocked that Burger King is closing over 300 restaurants?

I went to one of the few remaining Burger Kings in the City of Toronto this month. It’s in the Woodbine Centre in Rexdale. It’s a mall that’s clearly on its last legs as it has not one, but two liquidation outlets, although I’m astounded that the Hudson’s Bay Company (which just closed a flagship store at Yonge & Bloor) is still operating there. It appears the mall area is being completely redeveloped because it was obvious several of the stores there were at the end of their lease term from all the clearance signs.

I had not eaten at a BK in about two years. The last time I went there was when things started to open post-pandemic and I ate at the one on Yonge Street. I don’t eat at BK often because they’re inconvenient. They used to have a location across the street from where I worked, but when that complex was redeveloped they lost their lease and didn’t move back into the new food court. There’s an A&W there now. Similarly, BK closed down when the Royal Bank Plaza redeveloped its food court too.

I think my Whopper Combo set me back about $14 (Cdn.). That’s pricey – more than A&W’s Mama Combo.

So, BK is inconvenient (in bad locations) and no longer a really good value for money. A lot of fast food places are finding the same problem now – they’re in places no-one goes anymore, or they’re really old (the one on Yonge Street dates back to the 1980s). Here in Canada, they’re facing massive competition from A&W which has outlets everywhere, sometimes only a few blocks apart. You can get a sandwich and drink from Timmies for about $11. Five Guys serves better burgers (more expensive though) and they’re actually a little more convenient for me.

For example. there’s a BK at Eglinton Square, which I visit from time to time. I never eat there. I often forget it’s there. There’s a food court inside Eglinton Square but the BK is a stand-alone about 100m from the mall entrance. It’s also just across the street from an A&W, and just down the street from a joint Wendy’s/Timmies.

Again, Whoppers are lovely, but they’re certainly not anything I’m going to pay a massive premium for. I talk about going to Niagara Falls a lot and BK has a massive presence there in wonderful locations – Clifton Hill and the Fallsview Casino. However, they charge another 50% on top of normal prices (there is one on Lundy’s Lane that charges regular prices). BK also used to have locations in Cineplex theatres and had the same pricing strategy. There are three Timmies in locations in Niagara Falls similar to BK’s, but they charge regular prices.

What is the most humiliating thing you have ever seen happen to a receptionist?

Before I came to Thailand, I worked in Corporate America.

Her name was Laurie, and she was a really hardworking, patient receptionist, a young, very attractive woman of 21 who was going to night classes to further her education. Few knew that.

She was first contact for phone calls, visitors, deliveries and dealt with the everchanging schedules for five VPs and their unit managers.

She also had to contend with men hitting on her, both staff and visitors. She was good at it and could usually send them on their way with no hard feelings.

Except VP3. He never stopped pestering her. He had gone through a bitter divorce in which he had to give his ex almost half of the wealth and his children for marathon cheating.

Laurie looked like a younger version of his ex.

The humiliating event was orchestrated by VP3. He had a very powerful client that paid the company millions. The client called, Laurie informed him that VP3 was in a meeting and would return his call within the hour. She hand delivered the message to VP3.

But he didn’t make the call. He accused her of not telling him and blackmailed his secretary into backing him up. He didn’t do this quietly: he called HR and the other VPs to the open conference room and berated her in front of them.

Laurie attempted to defend herself, but VP3 was relentless and knew the company wouldn’t dare take her word over his. When he couldn’t force her to publicly admit wrongdoing, nor would she grovel, he loudly fired her with no severence pay.

But Laurie was no fool. She had kept copious records about work and VP3’s harassment. She had many friends in the office who would testify on her behalf.

Within a month, she had filed a suit against the company and VP3. The company offered a hefty sum to make it all go away.

But karma wasn’t finished.

Fast forward about six years. That really important client filed suit against VP3 and the company for mismanagement.

I enjoy imagining the reaction when the company lawyers informed VP3 et al that Laurie was one of several attorneys opposing them and had depositioned numerous previous and current employees. The court threw out the ‘conflict of interest’ motion.

I heard that the company and VP3 had to pay a stunning amount.

One never knows who that ‘lowly’ employee may be one day!

What is the most cruel thing you saw a parent do to their child?

I was the weird kid. Throughout elementary and middle school my mother kept my hair as short as a boy’s and dressed me in my brother’s hand me downs, even though I had an older sister as well. My early struggles with depression made schoolwork difficult, and I landed myself a spot in special ed. I was teased and bullied mercilessly.

One day, around the 3rd or 4th grade, I was getting dressed for school and couldn’t find one of my sneakers. I searched frantically, knowing the sort of trouble I’d be in, but I couldn’t find it anywhere. My mother was livid. She was not about to reward my irresponsibility, she screeched, with a day off from school! Her solution? I was dropped off wearing bedroom slippers.

Big, fluffy, orange and black bobbly-headed Garfield slippers with ping-pong ball googly eyes.

The other kids descended on the feast like vultures.

“Look at Baby Bacon!” (Rhymes with Meghann)

“Hey Bacon! You must really love Garfield!”

“Bacon and Garfield, sitting in a tree…”

The teacher at last called my mother to come pick me up, insisting I was being disruptive. My mother completely lost it. After a spanking I spent the afternoon confined to my room, with instructions to find the shoe before I came out for any reason whatsoever— bathroom, water and dinner included. I panicked and dismantled everything, from my bed to my closet to my bookshelf. Finally I found the shoe amidst a jumbled herd of discarded My Little Ponies in the rubbermaid bin where my mother collected my old toys for goodwill. She must have accidentally gathered it up while cleaning.

She had put it there. Not me.

A few weeks ago, I attended a traditional Thanksgiving family gathering. I brought green bean casserole and mac and cheese and we enjoyed our time together.

But the next day, my mom came to town (divorced parents) and I felt obligated to host a second “Thanksgiving.” I say “obligated” because (a) I can’t cook and (b) I suck at hosting. But it just didn’t seem right for her to travel so far and not enjoy a home-cooked meal with her family on Thanksgiving weekend.

So I invited my mom and stepdad, aunt and uncle, and my brother/sister-in-law/kids that we had just seen the day prior. I didn’t have the skills to make a Thanksgiving dinner, so I announced a chili night…the one delicious thing I CAN make.

And I’ve gotta tell you…it wasn’t that great. 🤷🏻‍♀️

I nearly ruined the entire double batch of chili when I forgot to turn down the temperature and left it to boil for 15+ minutes.

I made cornbread, put it in the microwave to stay warm, and then forgot to bring it out until after everyone was done with their chili.

I bought disposable bowls in an attempt to simplify cleanup…then watched the chili grease seep through the bowls.

I busted out a small fire pit for the kids to roast marshmallows, then struggled to actually START a fire in it. Three people later, we had a “meh” flame.

And at the end of my mediocre night of hosting, my 8-year-old daughter told me, “I wish I could rewind this day and do it ALL OVER AGAIN! It was the most fun EVER!!”

It turns out that while I was burning chili and forgetting cornbread, she was making silly “music videos” with her cousins with a karaoke microphone, an old iPod touch, and one cousin flickering the lights on and off for “effects.”

While my bowls were failing at the ONE JOB they had, my family was BSing each other over board games.

And while our fire was holding on for dear life, the kids (and a few adults!) gathered around it, debating the perfect amount of toasting and stuffing oversized marshmallows into their mouths.

Friend, don’t wait until you’re ready and able to host an elaborate gathering to invite people over. Don’t wait until your house is clean…or you tidy up your yard. My yard is 20% grass, 70% weeds, and 10% dirt right now…and the kids still found a million ways to play there.

Your family doesn’t need a spotless house. Your friends and neighbors don’t need an Instagram-worthy dinner and sides display.

They need to talk with you, to laugh with you, to tear up pieces of cardboard to start a tiny backyard fire with you.

Just make what you can, be who you are, and open your door. Because you need those things too.

What is the brutal truth about life after marriage?

I’ve been married nearly 18 years. I am very happy to be walking through life with my spouse. But there are some brutal truths.

You don’t magically change, and neither do they, into a different person simply because you get married. You don’t change your mind about major issues – one of the saddest ends to a marriage was seeing 2 friends who loved each other divorce acrimoniously because he hadn’t believed her when she said she didn’t want children.
It is not “happily ever after.” Life throws up bad stuff and stressful stuff. Sometimes your spouse can support and comfort you, but sometimes they don’t have the right skills or emotional bandwidth. They are also humans and dealing with their own crap. I tell my spouse whether I need a hug and a “there, there,” practical advice or to be left alone for a few hours to read or watch something escapist. Because me reacting badly when he offers help triggers his snarkiness which really doesn’t help!
It’s likely that you will be attracted to other people. That crazy infatuation period has a chemical shelf life in your brain, so if you let it pass without taking actions that impact the marriage (assuming it’s a marriage you want to stay in), it’s all good. If you do cheat, you should do so knowing that there is a strong chance you will get caught and it’s going to be very painful for your spouse and is very likely to end your marriage.
You need to let some stuff ride. I have a couple of absolutes that are marriage enders, so does he. Everything else is a negotiation, and sometimes it’s just letting go of something that you’d never do if you lived alone. Like how clean/tidy the place is, for example.
If you were unhappy and discontented before marriage, getting married doesn’t fix that. Active additions to sex, gambling, spending, drugs, alcohol, work, food, etc. don’t magically stop because someone gets married. If someone isn’t doing and continuing the work to not fall into these behaviours, you have something to be very worried about. If I start using again, I can’t imagine my marriage surviving and I’d put my spouse through hell before it ended.
The other brutal truth is that a good marriage will eventually end with one of you dead. Selfishly, I’m hoping I’m the one who goes first so that I don’t have to deal with the grief I’m going to feel if I lose my best friend, my love, and the person who can make me laugh like a four-year-old!

Retrofuturistic Voyages: Star Trek in the Roaring Twenties

Can you tell me about a time that you sued someone in civil court and won?

my husband and I just won a civil case against a building contractor that flooded our property while building other houses in our neighborhood. But the story gets better. Because this started at the beginning of Covid (April 2020) I was home all the time. He drained a swamp to build a house and sent the pond through a culvert into our easement that emptied into our backyard. Destroyed the culvert, never repaired it, built a house next to the easement (on the other side), ran over destroyed easement with large bucket caterpillar, then threatened to kick my husbands ass when we confronted him. He tried to mansplain water flow to me, as well. Well, with all my free time, I was able to watch what was happening, so if he violated code I would call the city. Sounds petty, but hey, I had a flooded backyard, and a guy who screamed “asshole” at me every time I walked my dogs.

then one day his survey guy shows up. On my property. I told them and him to get the fuck off my land. Survey next door all you want, but get your feet off my property. They told me no, they own my land. I laughed and laughed, and then told them that’s not how property ownership works. And that by state law they had to 1) give me notice of intent to survey and 2) give me 24 hours. the surveyors told me they did not. Then THEY called the police on me. For some dumb reason, the cop told them (the contractors) to put a Protection From Harassment on me. So they did. It was granted. Ooooo, the lies they told in that! Things like I threatened to shoot them in front of the cops, I put grease on their work vehicles (wtf) and I stole things from the construction site. All types of crazy shit. Okay. I’m still at home and I’ve got a phone with a camera and now one of the best lawyers in the state. I took thousands of pictures of my property, their property (from a distance, lol) everything that negates what they said in the their PFH.

we just went to court several months ago, he hasn’t shown up for the last several hearings and we won. I won $30,000 in defamation for him lying on the PFH and my husband won $20,000 because he was mentioned in it. The total amount included repairs to property and lawyer fees.

PS- when we went to court for the PFH we subpoenaed the cop who told them to place it and the chief of police. It was suddenly dismissed by their side. But the city wanted to charge me for the officers time, and have the court sanction me. We fought it and won, obvi. But the best thing about that part was the city lawyers were scared of my lawyer that at their firm it went from a low lawyer to his boss then finally to a managing partner in a matter of days once they realized who my lawyer was because my lawyer told me he knew him. That law firm wasn’t leaving anything to chance and still lost.

I laugh about this once a week. The loser contractor now lives in a trailer his dad owns, is divorced from his wife (business partner) and all three owe us close to $100 k.

if he had stopped the flooding and apologized, this would never have come to this.

What is a common mistake people make without realizing it?

Last night I saw a camera lens online that I wanted.

It was used. There were no bids.

I put in a bid at just over $425.

There were 2 hours left in the auction. An hour goes by. No bids. I’m excited. It’s an amazing lens.

Suddenly. <ding>

$430.

Oh so you wanna go?!?!?!?

Me: $440

Him: $455.

Oh you think you are a baller, huh?!?!?!?

Then this escalates into a full blown bidding war. I am ignoring phone calls as I pound on keyboard.

We get to $725. He puts a bid at $730.

I then have an epiphany.

Dude. Do you really want to bid more than that for a used lens? You can buy it new for $790.

I bowed out.

There are many situations in life where we don’t even realize that we are trying to “win”.

The problem is that we are trying to win the wrong game.

In life, we often find that the price of winning is losing.

Why A Lot Of MODERN WOMEN Are DELUSIONAL | And The Male LONELINESS Epidemic

What’s something most people don’t know about the Holocaust?

As someone who studies and talks about the holocaust, I often get a question- “why didn’t the Jews fight back”.

The answer is sad. For those that were murdered in the gas chambers they didn’t think they were about to die. They thought they were being showered before registration into the camp. By the time they realized what was happening, they were in a dark room quickly filling with Cyanide gas.

But- the Jews that knew very often fought back.

Operation Reinhard was a 2-year long effort to kill every Jew the Germans could find. In 4 extermination camps, almost 2 million people would be gassed and killed from late 1941 – late 1943. In 2 of these camps though, there were revolts, and thanks to these revolts- there were survivors.

I am going to focus on Sobibor because I think it is very interesting and even badass.

Sobibor was an extermination camp where 250,000 had been murdered. As 1943 was coming to a close the camp prisoners noticed that prisoners from Belzec (another extermination camp) had been sent to Sobibor and murdered after they dismantled and shut down their own camp.

The prisoners knew they would soon be killed when Sobibor was shut down so they came up with a brilliant plan.

Out of this, a resistance group was formed. They brainstormed ideas but soon got very lucky when a number of Soviet POWs arrived at the camp as more laborers, among them Alexander ‘Sasha’ Pechersky.

Sasha impressed everyone. During one of his first work details, he was placed outside the camp to cut down trees. When the SS guard started whipping Jewish laborers for cutting too slowly Sasha protested.

The SS guard, amused by this, challenged Sasha to a challenge. If Sasha could cut down a tree in 5 minutes he would win a pack of smokes. If not, he would get 25 lashes. Sasha agreed and 4.5 minutes later the tree was cut down. When the SS guard offered smokes Sasha said “thanks but I don’t smoke. The SS guard then returned with bread and butter and Sasha said “no thank you, the rations I receive satisfy me fully”.

This act of defiance became a rallying cry in the camp. Pretty soon Sasha was one of the leaders of the resistance.

After a plan to tunnel out of the camp failed, they settled on an all-out revolt.

What took place is brilliant.

On October 14th 1943 the time was now. The camps commander, who was gifted at rooting out conspiracies, had left the camp with his aides. This was the time for the prisoners to strike.

They would designate combat teams in every barracks. These combat teams were the strongest men armed with crude weapons.

The prisoners then lured the SS guards to various locations. They would say “hey we have some new coats confiscated, come pick one out” and stuff like that. SS guards were lured to tailor shops, storerooms, shoe shining places, and other buildings where combat teams lie in wait.

First the camp commander SS Untersturmfuher Johann Niemann had his head split in by an axe. Then, every 6 minutes for the next hour an SS Officer was killed.

No alarm was sounded so far- things were going well. There was a problem though. Karl Frenzel, the most feared of the SS, had been late to his appointment and was thus still alive. Additionally, many killings had been far too public.

At this point, Sasha was sure the plot would soon be discovered as bodies were located.

Sasha then gave a speech to the assembled prisoners.

Our day has come. Most of the Germans are dead. Let’s die with honor. Remember, if anyone survives, he must tell the world what has happened here!

The prisoners charged- using the pistols and rifles they had stolen. All-out chaos broke out as the prisoners got to the gate and nearby fences and clamored over.

The remaining SS Guards realize what is happening and open fire. Combat breaks out between the guards and prisoners. Hundreds of prisoners are slaughtered but many guards are gunned down from prisoners returning fire.

A few hundred get over the fence and head for the forest. Landmines kill many as others are gunned down.

In total, 150 are killed in the breakout, well over 100 were killed by mines in the forest, and a further 107 are hunted down and killed in the following days.

208 escaped with their lives though, and 58 would survive until the end of the war to testify what happened at Sobibor.

Sasha would steward a group of 50 Jews through the forest before abandoning them and making his way to the Red Army. He would survive the war and die in 1990 at the age of 80.

These 58 survivors would be the only people to survive Sobibor.

Treblinka had a similar revolt/escape where prisoners looted the armory, used grenades to destroy the camp, and made a dash for the gate. Here too almost everyone was killed but 70 managed to survive.

1.8 million Jews were sent to Treblinka, Belzec, and Sobibor. Of those 1.8 million, only 178 survived. 50 escaped Belzec during its operation, 58 escaped Sobibor during the uprising, and 70 escape Treblinka during their uprising.

This means these camps killed 99.992% of those sent there. Truly horrific.

The way it ALL ENDS: the five endgames that all women face

The West is in really BIG trouble.

Will Biden Start World War III?

“So in war, the way is to avoid what is strong and strike at what is weak.”

― Sun Tzu, The Art of War

I’m sure I could lead off this piece with a dozen quotes from various luminary thinkers through the ages about the wisdom of striking your enemies at moments of great weakness, confusion, or disarray. But I won’t, because I think the concept is sort of obvious, even to those who are not great thinkers.

Boxers and fighters know it.

Corporate raiders know it.

Lawyers and politicians know it, too.

You could even say capitalizing on vulnerability is in the collective DNA of nature.

Whenever possible, predators tend to seek prey of the old, sick, weak, and stupid variety — rather than specimens in the prime of life, at the peak of their strength and courage.

Point being, the U.S. is increasingly showing weakness, division, confusion, and vulnerability to the world. And no, this did not start all of a sudden with Joe Biden’s election. I would argue that it’s been escalating under the last few administrations, to one degree or another. But to my eyes, it’s increasing exponentially under the “leadership” of America’s first invertebrate president…

And I think this could tempt our enemies and adversaries — China, Russia, Iran, North Korea, ISIS, whomever — to test us (and our allies) more and more over the course of Biden’s tenure, on multiple fronts, including militarily.

This is not hard to imagine when you zoom out and look at things from 30,000 feet

Aside from the questionable condition and readiness of certain parts of America’s military, or some of our more anemic foreign policy moves of the recent past…

I’m just as concerned with how a number of other things we’re doing (or allowing to be done) domestically could invite increasing challenges from abroad, or perhaps even violent attack one day. I’m talking about things like:

LAX BORDER SECURITY — Between all the mixed messaging, catch-and-release policies, surreptitious transportation of illegals into the interior (many of them infected with SARS-CoV-2, mind you), and the cessation of border-wall construction, the U.S. has seen an absolute explosion of illegal immigration since Biden’s election.

Case in point: May’s total of over 180,000 apprehensions hadn’t been seen in a single month since April of 2000, the year that set the current annual record for illegal immigrants (1.68 million). So far in 2021, we’re on pace to see as many as 1.86 million illegals on the year, a new record. And an increasing number of them are coming in from places other than central America, including Haiti and Africa.

REJECTION OF POLICE — Reversing a 40-year trend that saw spending for law enforcement more than triple, at least 20 major U.S. cities have now reduced or re-directed funds away from their police forces. Some of them have pledged to cut cop funding by as much as 50%. All told, more than $840 million has evaporated from police coffers in the last year and a half or so.

This had contributed to an unprecedented wave of retirement among cops, creating record vacancies on police forces across the nation. Baltimore alone needs at least 259 more officers on the street, and is begging Washington for federal agents to help with enforcement. The Philadelphia force has 268 vacancies, and is expecting more in the near future. There are many other American PD’s in similarly dire straits, too.

ACCEPTANCE OF CRIME — From abiding lawless “autonomous zones” to giving rioters free rein to destroy property and granting criminals tacit permission to swipe merchandise off store shelves without penalty, the force of law in America is being eroded by the day.

Yet even as crime increases, many kinds of criminal prosecutions are declining across the country. In fact, a movement is afoot in multiple U.S. cities to stop trying entire classes of criminality. Baltimore, as just one example, is no longer prosecuting low-level drug possession, prostitution, or traffic misdemeanors.

And did you see what happened in St. Louis recently? A judge was compelled to let an accused murderer go free because the prosecution failed to show up for trial. The same week, two other murder cases were also dismissed because of unprepared or absent prosecutors. Disgraceful.

PUNISHING U.S. INDUSTRIES — Biden nixed the Keystone XL Pipeline, which would’ve been a tremendous boon for American energy independence, but removed long-standing U.S. sanctions on the Russian Nord Stream 2 pipeline, which increases Europe’s energy dependence and undermines our credibility in the region. Biden has made moves against the domestic coal and oil industries as well…

He’s also aggressively pushing mass-adoption of electric vehicles (EVs), despite America’s overall reluctance to fully embrace them, and the fact that China leads the global EV battery market. The precarious domestic steel and aluminum industries are vulnerable, too, as Biden weighs lifting the Trump-era tariffs that helped bring them back from the brink.

TOLERATING SOFT AGGRESSION — Biden’s response to repeated Russia-based hacking has been notably impotent. Instead of an iron-fisted ultimatum (or an actual counter-hack), he presented Putin with a list of 16 domestic infrastructure targets declared “off limits” to attack. The implication being that everything else is fair game.

The coronavirus pandemic could quite rightly be classified as an act of foreign aggression, too. Mounting evidence suggests that it was developed in a Chinese lab, and whether its release was accidental or intentional, China clearly encouraged its spread around the world, effectively weaponizing it.

Then there’s the PRC’s repeated threatening actions against Hong Kong and Taiwan (and in the South China Sea), Russian actions against Ukraine, North Korean missile tests, etc. All this tallies up to an awful lot of soft aggression against the U.S. and its allies, most of it unanswered in any meaningful way.

All of these things, and more (like declining standards for U.S. troops) project an image of decreasing strength

They suggest an inability to secure and lead our own nation (much less the world) competently, and an unwillingness to do the hard, but necessary thing. This softer image does not make us safer, it makes us more vulnerable.

I don’t see any of it getting better under the increasingly feeble-minded and tone-deaf Joe Biden, either — a man with a lifelong reputation for poll-watching, China-favoring, family-first, flip-flopping “leadership.” This is not just my opinion. You can look this stuff up. Shanghai Joe’s been among China’s top advocates in Washington for nearly his entire tenure in U.S. government. He’s also on record being on both sides of about just every major issue…

And don’t get me started on his family’s cozy and colorful (main color: dollar green) relationship with China and other powerful foreign entities. My read on this is that Biden can be bought, one way or another — and that he has been, many times over.

Bottom line: In my view, the policies of President Biden and his party are waving red flags in front of some very powerful bulls. And if China, Russia, or anyone else has a mind to attack us, I think they’d be very tempted to do it under his watch.

My great hope (yours, too, I’m betting) is that we get through Biden’s tenure without full-on war — and back to a more independent, self-sufficient America with some steel in its spine, both domestically and globally.

But the way things are going, the hope of such a thing may be all we end up having.

A rare but desirable quality in date-able women

What is the rudest thing you have ever seen someone do?

I was at a grocery store checkout once, and I saw these three college kids having a field day with a poor clerk who was trying to bag up their groceries. The whole thing, apparently, started when he dropped a bottle of wine they were buying. He apologized, cleaned up the mess, and rushed back to get them another bottle.

While he was gone, they started talking about what a “complete idiot” he was. They proceeded to make fun of the way he looked, the way he was dressed, his weight, his glasses, you name it. When the poor guy got back, they didn’t let up. They started insulting him right to his face, calling him a whole litany of terrible things until they had him on the verge of tears. The kid was only about 16; he was terribly overweight, and I could see how he was probably an easy target for any bully. I was bagging up my own stuff, but I was completely mesmerized by this entire exchange. Suddenly, the kid must have said something because one of the guys reached out and popped him across the face. It wasn’t a punch or a hard slap, just some wussy little pop meant to humiliate him. To my amazement, the kid didn’t walk away. He just stood there red faced with tears welling up in his eyes. The dude reached out and popped him again and, for some reason, this was the funniest thing that these guys had ever seen in their lives. They were laughing like there was no tomorrow.

I kept looking around for a manager, thinking someone needed to say something, but I finally realized that no one was going to. Then it hit me: Why couldn’t I say something? I reached out and grabbed the kid, and pulled him out of the way. I stepped up to the guy, pulled a 20 dollar bill out of my wallet, and told him that I would give it to him if he would hit me like that. He stared at me for a second like I had lost my mind before asking what my problem was.
“You’re my damn problem,” I responded. “Hit me in the face like that; I dare you.”
Well, there were three of these guys, but they didn’t look like they had ever been in a fight in their entire lives. I am a little over six feet tall, and I weigh around 225. I don’t consider myself to be a tough guy but, needless to say, they didn’t want any part of me. Instead, they simply started gathering their things and headed for the door. I pulled the kid out from behind me, and ordered them to apologize. They laughed at me, and hurried for the parking lot. Well, I was a lot angrier that day than I thought.

I followed them out of the store all the way to their car doing my best to start a fight. They got very quiet, and not one of them had anything to say. Instead, they just kept their heads down, and refused to make eye contact.

I let them leave, and then pulled the kid aside and told him to never let anyone push him around like that. In the future, he needed to, at least, walk away and find a manager. At this point, the kid just broke down in tears and sobbed on my shoulder. It turned out that his dad had died only a year earlier, and he and his mom were all alone in the world. At that point, I really wished I had put one of those bastards in the hospital. Instead, I gave the kid my card, and told him to call if there was ever anything I could do for him.
I never saw or heard from him again.

What are your thoughts on adults who still live at home with their parents without paying rent or contributing towards the household expenses?

We asked our adult son to live with us however long he could stomach it. He had just had a disastrous brief marriage and a divorce, was quite broke from the wedding rings, the wedding itself, buying a condo for he and his wife, etc. He had also bought himself a used Audi which self-destructed and led him back to driving a 20 year old Honda, worth only a few hundred dollars.

With the new marriage, he had started a new job where there was a potential for future growth. The learning curve was tough. He was working 10 hour days and then studying to learn the job more thoroughly until midnight, rinse and repeat. In addition he was emotionally almost catatonic from his grief over the breakup.

He is living with us now. It has been about two years so far. I think he will be here until January when he plans to get an MBA from one of the top schools to further his career. No wife, no kids, no girlfriend, no debts, now is the time if he is going to do it.

My son is an easy keeper. He is a complete neat freak, always leaving the room looking better after he leaves it than what it was when he entered it. Same with the kitchen. He will walk in to make his lunch and when he leaves the kitchen is spotless. And he is quiet as a mouse.

So, I am not sure this arrangement would work out for every adult child, but in our circumstances it does. We respect him as an adult and he respects us. And we are happy to help him get back on his feet financially and build up his savings.

This is why so many men today are blue pill

Jesus H Christ

What is the most badass thing a private has said to a general?

I was a corporal, not a private. I was sent to Fleet Hospital 5 for a gallbladder removal. They took out my appendix, by mistake. As I lay in my bed, belly full of stitches, my Sergeant Major came to visit, and shared that he would be back the next day because Norman Schwarzkopf was visiting. He was touring medical facilities before the war kicked off.

The hospital gave us magazines to read- people would send them via the any servicemen mail program. I had a Time magazine that asked an important question. Why was nearly the whole Marine Corps in theatre before the army deployed a far smaller amount of servicemen.

The next day I get my painkillers and they put me on my ass. In hindsight, the Navy may have upped my dose so I wouldn’t complain to anyone about how they screwed up my surgery.

So there I am, flying on pain killers, when the General walks in with his entourage. My SgtMaj was there, bringing up the rear. Schwarzkopf approaches my bed, and I am in and out of consciousness. They really shot me up with painkillers, bad. He looks at me and says “What’s a Marine doing in a bed that could be used for one of my soldiers?” I looked him right in the eye, pointed at the Time magazine on my tray table and answered “What soldiers?”

From the look on his face, my SgtMaj May have literally shit himself. The color definitely drained from his face.

The exact opposite happened with Gen. Schwarzkopf. He turned red. I mean really RED. Then, something amazing happened. He cracked a smile. Then, he cracked a joke. For the life of me, I don’t remember what he said, but I was cracking up, and crying from the huge surgical wound. Schwarzkopf noticed his jokes were causing me major discomfort- so he doubled down and told more jokes.

In retrospect, my badassery was chemically induced, but it showed off a side of a 4 Star general, most corporals don’t get to see. My abdomen still twinges when I hear the name Schwarzkopf, and I hope he is still laughing about my interaction with him, wherever he is.

Who was the most disturbed child you have ever seen?

Susan Wiley.

Nicknamed Genie, she was abused for the entirety of her life. From birth until the age of 13, she spent her entire life in a room.

Susan grew up with an extremely abusive father who would beat her if she ever let out a sound. She was beyond neglected. Left in her room to rot. It’s amazing she somehow survived. Her parents had three other children, two of whom had died. The detective at the scene described her room as so:

“Genie ‘slept in a crib formed with chicken wire attached with a latch,’ he said. ‘It was a cage for the child. The window was covered with aluminum foil to reflect out the sunlight. The room was as dark as a coal mine at midnight.’”

One baby died because the father could no longer tolerate the crying child so he wrapped her up, put her in a drawer, and left her to die.

As a result, Susan never learned many of the basic physical, mental, and social abilities we have. She could barely walk, she didn’t know where to pee and poo. She was never taught language. She couldn’t speak or understand language when social workers found her.

Then she became the psychology obsession of the world. While yes, they helped her to a certain extent, in my eyes, she was seen more as a experimental specimen and not a fragile, vulnerable human child.

The rest of her life, she lived in multiple foster homes. In those homes, she was again abused and neglected.

Today, she’s in an adult care facility.

I tear up whenever I think of her story. People can be so, so awful.

What are top 10 professional life hacks?

Don’t say “anyone.” Otherwise, everyone’s going to be waiting for others.
Sound decisive. Be punctual. People respect you for it.
Greet: hello/mornings/evenings/night (with a big smile)
Don’t complain either about your colleague or senior with anyone- puts you in bad light.
till 28–30 focus on learning and gaining skills
Stop getting away from responsibilities, or, like, how will I do it? It sounds great when you willingly do things. Do more than is expected. And sometimes take credit as well.
Always talk about your abilities with respect. If you share your weaknesses, they will find it hard to remember your pluses.
Take ownership of your mistakes. When you realize you erred, it’s natural to panic. Instead of reacting instantly, stop and take a deep breath (or several times). Then, begin brainstorming possible solutions.
Learn to accept constructive criticism.
Treat others as you would like to be treated.
Always get out of your comfort zone. Ex: Don’t ask for permission, beg for forgiveness. Get coffee with a new person once a week.
Be hygienic. Always smell nice. Always have neat hair and/or clean nails.
Understand what others want or the office politics, and don’t react to everything that people talk about. act wisely. Mind your own business, but keep your ears open.
Talk less and listen more. Always let your seniors believe that they are in power.
Always report about your task and targets via mail, never believe in anything that has been communicated verbally, and ask for mail all the time as it becomes part of your proof.
never discuss problems discuss solutions.
If you’re the second last person to leave the office, please check with the other employee to see if he/she needs any sort of help.
Have self-pride. Wherever your name is attached, it should be perfect work done with effort. If you do good work, more work will come in.
आप अपने आज का पहला दिन या पहला साल किसी दूसरे के 10 साल के Effort के साथ Compare नहीं कर सकते।
Have a great team and trust them. Discuss and ask, and together, brainstorming brings new ideas to the table.
Always have a sense of ownership if nobody takes responsibility you have to. 99% of people are replaceable and 1% are irreplaceable, and all organizations depend on that. Be that 1% that never gets replaced. (Either reach or make your personality so good that it attracts. Ex: If you see a flower pot fallen on the stairs and ignored, you should take ownership and put it back. This is the attitude that we need.
Sir, Mam, Sorry, GM etc. are just the words which you should use. if you’re not feeling like using then too. It all shows manners and respect towards the person which increase your’s too.
Explain in detail and give pointers.
Never ever compete with a guy who works 24/7. There will always be somebody who knows/works better than you. Work efficiently as much as required for the day. That’s enough. Have work life balance.
Never be close friends with your colleagues unless you know them since your college days. Most of them are friends with you because they need you.
Never be loyal to the employer. You are just another employee to them.
Have every word/promise written in mail . Anybody can turn their back at you.
Never show your anger to anybody in office.
play the game. Play politics
never tell people whom you hate or find annoying.
make friends with secretaries and PAs.
Never lose an opportunity when a senior leader asks you for inputs- that’s the time for you to create visibility.
Never discuss problems, only discuss solutions. You will begin to stand out earlier on.
When you join a company, work really hard in the first 6-8 months & win the trust of your seniors. Once the confidence is developed, no one can ever doubt or complain about your performance & thats going to give you a good stay in that company.

What is the worst thing a woman can do to a man?

I can’t reveal my name, because this about my father’s sister .

My aunt was married and had an average married life with little but not very upsetting ups and downs. They’re blessed with a boy and girl. My uncle, her husband loved them more than anything. They were the apple of his eyes.

Once they deciced to get a gold necklace for the baby girl and he hunted down every jewellery shop in the town to find the perfect necklace for his girl. But he found none of the necklace worthy enough of his daughter and had a custom made for her. This is just an example how much he loved his daughter.

Over the years when the children were about 7–8 years old, they had a petty fight and my grandmother added fuel to the fire. My aunt totally under the influence of my grandmother divorced my uncle and left taking their children along with her.

She fed the children with all the lies about their father. And like we all know how a child’s mind is like a clean slate and she wrote gibberish on it, about their father. They eventually hated him.

Now after 26 years, I once saw my uncle’s profile on Facebook, I saw he shared childhood pictures of my cousins. I saw him mourning his departure from his own children, children he loved so dearly. He contacted my cousins many a times even though he was restricted to do so by the court, and my cousins shooed him away.

He was broken beyond repair. He married again to have children but wasn’t blessed. My aunt tool everything he had but what devasted him the most was separation from his children.

I think that’s the worst thing a woman can do to a man, separating him from his children and making them hate him.

Edit 1: He was restricted by the court to meet his own children because my aunt asked for the custody of the children and demanded no alimony and child care from my uncle. Initially he had a permit and he met his daughter during her school hours to which my aunt claimed that he tried to kidnap his own daughter. After that he was restricted to meet his children. The children now hate their father like anything, though I never quite understood what did he do wrong. He wasn’t alcoholic, nor a womanizer, loved his wife and children a lot, even helped my aunt in household chores. I wish I could do something but I really have no say in their lives.

What are some great examples of coincidence?

Enzo Ferrari And Ozil

Enzo Ferrari, the founder of Ferrari company died in 1988 on the 14th August. About 2 months later on 5th October 1988, Ozil was born. He is arsenal footballer. They have unbelievable resemblance

A falling baby saved twice by the same man

In the 1930s in Detroit Joseph Figlock saved a baby who fell from from a window. A year later Joseph was passing when the same baby fell , he caught her again.

Twin brothers,killed on the same road,two hours apart.

In 2002,Seventy-year-old twin brothers were killed by accidents on the same road in Northern Finland.The first one was hit by a lorry while riding his bicycle ,he died 1.5km from the spot his brother was killed

The woman who couldn’t sink.

Violet Jessup.

She was named Miss Unsinkable. The stewardess and nurse was on the HMS Olympic when it struck the HMS Hawke, she was also on HMHS Britannic when it sank. She was also on the RMS Titanic when it sank after hitting an iceberg.

As a landlord, what is the dumbest thing you’ve ever had a tenant do?

This is about a fellow tenant.

Over the course of a few months someone was leaving hateful notes on my front door and yanking the silk flowers off the wreath hanging on my front door. By the end of this story the wreath is bare.

Overall I’m a nice person and usually get along very well with my neighbors, so I was very puzzled regarding what this was all about.

I reported the matter to property management then the police became involved.

In the end it was discovered that a neighbor living 10′ across the hall was very angry with me. She was receiving phone calls, probably telemarketers, companies selling auto warranties, etc. BUT SHE THOUGHT I WAS PRANK CALLING HER! I never figured out why she thought it was me!

Fortunately, I was able to let her daughter know. Her daughter reimbursed me for the wreath and not long after she was moved to assisted living. Whew! That was a mess.

Burmese Curried Pork (Weta Hin)

Ingredients

1 (2 pound) boneless pork shoulder
1 large onion, finely chopped
5 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 tablespoon finely chopped gingerroot
1 teaspoon ground turmeric
1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 teaspoon sesame oil
1 (16 ounce) can whole tomatoes, drained
1 stalk fresh lemon grass, finely chopped
1 tablespoon fish sauce
Hot cooked rice

Instructions

Trim fat from pork; cut pork into 2-inch cubes.
Place onion, garlic, gingerroot, turmeric and red pepper in blender container. Cover and blend on medium-high speed, stopping blender frequently to scrape sides, until smooth, about 1 minute.
Heat oils in Dutch oven over medium heat until hot. Gradually and carefully pour vegetable mixture into oil. Heat to boiling; reduce heat. Cover and simmer, stirring, occasionally, 15 minutes.
Add pork, tomatoes, lemon grass and fish sauce; break up tomatoes with fork. Heat to boiling; reduce heat. Cover and simmer until pork is tender, about 1 1/2 hours.
Serve over rice. Garnish with snipped fresh cilantro if desired.

Yield: 4 servings

What is the craziest office scandal that happened at your job?

I worked for a company where one of the married supervisors started going for lunch with one of his pretty young workers. The lunches got longer and longer, and then he had to start working late to get all of his work done.

Then he had to rent an apartment close to work, so he wouldn’t have to drive all the way home after working late.

Eventually his worker got pregnant and he had to make a choice. He got divorced and married his mistress.

When she announced at work that she was pregnant and getting married to her already married boss, it was quite a scandal.

His new bride had to quit work for maternity leave. She insisted that he have no female workers on his crew, and that he not work over time, she phoned during every lunch and he had to answer. This was before cell phones.

If I didn’t know better, I would have thought she was suspicious of her new husband.

He got promoted into a marketing position, and wasn’t in the office very much. For some reason his wife made him find an office job and I lost track of him for twenty years.

He started work at the same company I worked for, and I asked how his second wife was doing. ( She had been my coworker) and he said that he was on wife number 3.

It wasn’t as big of a surprise as you would think.

FEAR is the basis of RESPECT: people must hear you hiss

Must watch. This is the key content of this post.

Tiny treasures. Lost in time.

As a boy, living in Pennsylvania, I possessed the normal (and perhaps natural) brick-a-bract and flotsam and jetsam that accompanies most boys in the 1960’s. Model airplanes. Cubscout uniforms. Bottle collections. Debris that I picked up here and there. Scale models. Baseball playing cards, and the like.

Some of my most prized treasures consisted of my arrowheads… and my Indian-head pennies (and Buffalo Nickels). These were kept in an old Mason Jar on a shelf in my room.

Every now and then I would take them out. I would hold them. Fondle them. Feel the weight of them, and look at the details on them. I would then put them back, and go on with my life.

Eventually I went to university. During that time, my brother was selling odds and ends of mine for money or trade. I started to notice that things were missing, but since I hadn’t been “playing with them” for four years or more, it just didn’t seen significant to me.

…At that time.

…

Tiny treasures. Lost in time.

My unappreciated fragments of my life, discarded by others who cared not for their significance to me personally. They just did not care.

This trend continued throughout my life.

Tiny treasures. Lost in time.

…

Things that were important to me. Things that mattered to me. Things that represented memories, thoughts, ideas, and my personality… discarded by others who did not share my emotions about them.

Tiny treasures. Lost in time.

…

Today.

Frozen

Have you actually ever heard someone say ‘Do you know who I am?’ indignantly?

Yes. The first year that they opened Buckingham Palace for tourists, I happened to be in London and got tickets. We had the girls and the wait was long so we walked behind the annex and let them move around. There was a gift shop I bought a catalog from.

When our ticket time was close to the front when we came back. There was a lovely Japanese women who was working the crowds and checking tickets. There was a fiftyish woman who tried to walk by her. She politely asked for her ticket. It if course was for a much later time. I only want to (looks at the catalog) buy one of those. The guide politely refused.

Then it came. She loudly screeches, “Do you know who I am. I am a millionaire in the US.”. I quickly interjected that most of us were at her age. I knew I had to shut her down before she got going and the guide was terrified she was so antagonistic. “Luckily you do not need to go in there if all you want is the guide and told her where to buy one.” She of course stormed off. I apologized for my fellow countrywoman. I told her you have to nip them in the Bud or you have an incident. The philosophy is to create such a scuffle you let them through. That is not wise when other people are waiting in long cues. Could not believe it.

What’s something a flight attendant did to you that you will never forget?

I was on a flight to Mexico City, my daughter and I were sitting in business class. My daughter was 6 then and she was reading a kids book, the flight attendant started talking to her since her niece read the same books.

She was nice and asked for a pic with my daughter and the book etc. When we deplaned, I forgot my ipad on the back of the front seat. I didn’t realize that until 5 hours later which was the time of our layover so I only realized it when I had to go through the security point again.

I went to lost and found and they had nothing, I called American Airlines and they had nothing. Then one day later I got a phone call from the flight attendant telling me she had my ipad.

The passenger on the return flight found it and gave it to her. She should have turned it into security, but she knew if she did that I would not see it again, instead she had someone check on my details and get my number so she sent it via FedEx to me and made sure I got it when I was back in Miami.

My daughter chose a nice art craft thing in Oaxaca and we sent it to her as a token of appreciation. She went out of her way to make sure I got my ipad returned to me and for that I will always be grateful.

Edit 1: Thanks all for you nice comments and upvotes, even to the skeptics that thought this didn’t happen. Trust me it did. Thanks!

This is DISGUSTING and Biden is about to sign it into law

What is the rudest thing you have ever done that you are glad you went through with?

My brother called me to let me know our dad was in the ER and it didn’t look good for his survival. I drove like a bat out of hell the 120 miles to get there. In the ER waiting room sat my brother & his wife, who knew nothing and had not been given any info or updates on our dad in over 2.5 hours.

I went up to the admitting desk to ask for an update and was told to sit down…that the clerk at the desk was busy and couldn’t deal with me. Unacceptable response so I just marched into the actual ER room to find my dad. Brother and SIL followed.

Found my dad and he is basically gray with no one attending him. The attending comes up to me and starts screaming at me. I asked him what was wrong with my dad, (who has a heart problem and has a pacemaker). The Dr responds in a horrible accent and terrible English that my dad has vertigo. It took several tries to figure out what he was saying and even the nurses were having a problem understanding him.

I lost it and didn’t care if I got arrested or not. I loudly proceed to tell the Dr that my dad is gray, not green, indicating heart problem & that my dad had his last heart surgery at this hospital 1 year prior. That I want a heart monitor on my dad ASAP.

The smug Dr asked me where I my medical degree. I smiled and again, loudly said that I didn’t have one but that I had a law degree. That I hoped he enjoyed his sojourn in the US because by the time I’m done suing him, deportation will look like a good option.

He quickly put on a heart monitor on my dad and it showed my dad was having a heart attack as they attached it. Luckily, they were able to treat him and he lived many years after that.

3 things:

This was at a top nationally ranked hospital
I filed a complaint with the BoD and the Dr was let go due to his repeated negligence.
I was bluffing — I don’t have a law degree!

Respect is earned not demanded

Grilled Peanut Butter Sandwiches

Ingredients

Peanut butter
Sliced bread
Butter
Chocolate chips (optional)

Instructions

Spread peanut butter on one piece of bread and put another slice on top to make a sandwich.
Butter the outsides and cook on skillet until golden brown.
Flip and cook the other side.

Notes

Chocolate chips can be added to the peanut butter if desired.

What was the most memorable thing a patient has said while drifting into sleep under anesthesia?

I knew a girl who had this happen to her:

This girl had to have surgery, it was her 9th but 7 of the surgeries were done when she was a baby (all by the same surgeon). She has these tubes called shunts that drain the excess fluid from her skull to treat a condition called Hydrocephalus. Well after she went into the ER with abdominal pain (she had appendicitis) they checked her shunts to make sure they weren’t what was causing the pain. They were working but unfortunately one of them needed to be fixed later because it was disconnected. (Her neck muscles kept the space open to let fluid out.)

A few months later she returned to the surgeon who had done those 7 surgeries (she sees him every year for a checkup) and surgery was scheduled.

The day of the surgery arrived. She checked into the hospital with her parents and was wheeled back to the OR. The anesthesiologist told her to breathe in the laughing gas. He asked if it was working. She said “No…no…no-yes! Yes! Yes!” As she said that she began to lose consciousness which frightened her so she began to cry out “I’m scared! I’m scared! I don’t wanna die! I don’t wanna die!” The anesthesiologist removed the mask and said “It’s ok, you’re ok, you’re not going to die.” But she was still crying and scared.

To try to soothe her, her neurosurgeon came to her side and said, “Hey, why can’t dinosaurs talk?”

“Why?” She asked

“Because they’re dead!” She burst out laughing and passed out.

She woke up perfectly calm and not the least bit anxious.

How do I know this story?… That girl… is me.

*Drops mic. Walks away*

In all seriousness though, I remember every detail of that. It was very scary. I later told my surgeon that I remembered all of this by saying, “Hey I have a joke for you!”

He asked “Is it about dinosaurs?”

“…yes.” I said smiling sheepishly.

“I fell unconscious really quickly.”

“That would be the propofol. Either that or you were so tired of my bad jokes that you passed out.”

I laughed “Maybe.” I said.

So there’s my weird story! I hope you liked it!

(I’m ok by the way. My post op appointment is on the 15th.) I’ll update on Monday if you guys want, let me know in the comments!

Update:

I had my pst op appointment today. Everything went well.

I was waiting in an exam room with my dad when my neurosurgeon popped his head in the door and said he’d be in in a few minutes and asked if I was behaving myself. (He was kidding of course as I was just sitting there.)

A little while later he came back and asked how I was doing. I said I was doing well, he examined my scar, and said that other than a large amount of scabing (which will eventually come off) everything looked good. He instructed us to come back in 6 months and asked what I planned to do over the summer.

We shook hands and then I headed back to school.

Are all men a 10?

This is How Delusional Modern Women have Become ft.

What is the strangest court case you’ve come across?

Florida has a strange social dichotomy.

As you drive through the state, you’ll see a pattern of strip clubs and adult cinemas sandwiched between churches, Jesus billboards, and gruesome pro-life medical photos.

It feels like the state can’t make up its mind on what it wants to be. Consequently, our cities have super strange laws and weird rules around adult entertainment.

For example, in Tampa, you can’t drink alcohol at a fully nude strip club. Yet if the dancers have (tiny) tape over their nipples and crotch, you are free to drink your face off.

In 1983, it was even stricter, with a full anti-nudity ordinance in place.

Someone went to an exotic club and then filed a complaint about strippers showing too much skin. Which invites the question, “Why are you even going to the club and getting mad about what you paid for?”

In reality — it was probably part of an investigation, reserved for a few senior police officers who went “undercover”. I’m sure they enjoyed the investigation very, very much.

Three exotic dancers were dragged into court and put on trial for indecency.

The actual court case

The women weren’t even dancing nude. They were wearing crop tops and tight, short shorts while dancing on tables. Their underwear was visible.

A freelance photographer, Jim Damaske, was given a call by legal aid, “You might want to stop by this trial on Tuesday. You’ll be able to capture a very unique shot.”

The photographer wasn’t disappointed. The below photo was part of the trial and evidence. It was not a stunt intended to disrespect the judge:

The 20-year-old dancer was trying to show that her underwear wasn’t too revealing.

The decency law stated that underwear could not substantively reveal a woman’s privates, including highlighting any lines or curvatures of her lady parts.

Initially, the lawyer for the three dancers suggested the women would be happy to dance in the courtroom in their work attire — as a form of evidence. Judge David Demers ruled this was too much. He was also apprehensive about the defendants bending over in court.

Judge Demers had only been elected 4 months prior and worried about compromising his position as judge.

The defense lawyer suggested that the women could bend over at their law firm, photos could be taken, and brought into court. Judge Demers insisted it would need to take place in court in order to count.

The women did not see this case as a joke.

Indecent exposure can bring a large fine and up to a month in prison. Typically, the law would apply to someone running around naked in public. Or, if a man stands in his home and presses his junk up against a window towards the street — that would count as well.

Three decades later, the judge was interviewed about the bizarre scene.

He is aware he’ll always be remembered for the photo.

He said that when they took the photo, “I looked at the girl and thought, whatever happens, I shouldn’t have any facial expression. Don’t smile, don’t frown. Do nothing. Because whatever it is, it will be misinterpreted.”

“When you look at the photo,” said Demers, “my face is as blank as possible — and that was pretty deliberate.”

Why even sue dancers?

This was likely a moral crusade of a district attorney or other official with strong conservative convictions.

It failed.

The women won their case.

The photo was so compelling that Playboy magazine featured it in their photos of the year collection. Also, I have to mention — look at the stenographer’s face:

She’s thinking, “What sort of bizarro land career have I taken up?” And then, she has to decide what exactly she will write to document this event in court.

I also couldn’t help but wonder if the dancer was making eye contact with the judge. And was she smiling?

In all seriousness — this case was yet another example of my local tax dollars going to a grotesque waste. Tampa Bay has all manner of crime issues and our legal system is prosecuting strippers for stripping.

We have more strip clubs per square mile in Tampa Bay than any city except Las Vegas. The adult industry generates huge, huge revenue for our city, and stuffy politicians can’t stand it — unless they are the one getting the lap dance.

I’m proud to be American but we are the epitome of hypocrisy. We do so much moral posturing and pass stupid indecency laws — while also hosting the largest pornography industry in the world.

Or perhaps this is right on brand with being American. We only operate in opposing extremes. We are both the most brilliant and stupid people you will ever meet.

She’s a 8?

How did the Romans deal with infected blade cuts? Did they use worms like in the movie Gladiator?

You might think that the ancient Romans were clueless about medicine and hygiene, and that they just let their wounds fester and rot. Well, you’d be wrong. The Romans actually had some pretty advanced techniques and knowledge for their time. They were not afraid to cut, stitch, and cauterize wounds, and they used various substances to clean and heal them. They were not barbarians, after all. They were civilized people who built roads, aqueducts, and colosseums.

One of the things they used to treat wounds was opium. Yes, you heard that right. Opium, the stuff that makes you high and addicted. The Romans knew that opium had pain-relieving properties, and they used it to numb the pain of surgery and injuries. They also used scopolamine, a plant extract that causes drowsiness and amnesia. They would mix these substances with wine and give them to the patients before operating on them. This was their version of anesthesia. Not bad, huh?

Another thing they used was vinegar. Vinegar is a type of acid that kills bacteria and fungi. The Romans would soak a cloth in vinegar and apply it to the wound. This would disinfect the wound and prevent infection. They also used honey, wine, and olive oil as antiseptics. These substances have natural antibacterial and anti-inflammatory properties, and they also help keep the wound moist and promote healing. They would mix them together and apply them to the wound, or use them separately. They were like the original Neosporin. 😁

Now, you might be wondering, did they use worms like in the movie Gladiator? The answer is no. They did not use worms to treat wounds. That was a Hollywood invention, not a historical fact. The movie Gladiator is a great film, but it’s not very accurate when it comes to depicting ancient Rome. It’s full of anachronisms, errors, and exaggerations. For example, the gladiator fights were not as brutal and bloody as they are shown in the movie. Most of the time, the gladiators did not fight to the death, but to the first blood or surrender. They were valuable assets, not disposable slaves. And the emperor did not sit in a box and give thumbs up or down to decide their fate. That was a later invention, too. 🙄

The use of worms to treat wounds is actually a modern practice, not an ancient one. It dates back to the American Civil War, when some doctors noticed that soldiers who had maggots in their wounds healed faster and better than those who did not. They realized that the maggots ate the dead and infected tissue, leaving the healthy tissue intact. They also secreted substances that killed bacteria and stimulated healing. This was called maggot therapy, and it was used until the discovery of antibiotics. Nowadays, it’s still used in some cases, especially when antibiotics are ineffective or unavailable. It’s not as gross as it sounds, trust me.

This is How Unattainable the 1% MAN is For Women

The Boiling Hot End to a Cook Accused of Poison in Henry VIII’s England

On April 5, 1531, hardened London spectators of public punishment gathered at Smithfield, joined by others who were too curious to stay away. An execution had been announced of a type that none had witnessed in their lifetimes, nor ever heard of. The condemned man, Richard Roose, was to be boiled alive.

Roose was not the sort of criminal that usually met his end at Smithfield, located just beyond the London Wall. He was convicted of high treason, yet he had not sought to harm King Henry VIII nor his queen, Catherine of Aragon, nor any royal councilor. He had not tried to overthrow the kingdom’s government. Roose, a cook, was accused of murder by poison.

His two victims were an obscure gentleman in the household of Bishop John Fisher, Bennet Curwen, and a destitute widow who accepted the bishop’s charity, Alyce Tryppytt. The target of the poisoning was assumed to be Fisher himself, the Bishop of Rochester. Ironically, Fisher did not eat the soup—sometimes described as porridge—that Roose prepared and so was unharmed.

Roose admitted to the poisoning but claimed it was a joke gone wrong, an accident. There is no testimony for us to examine, because Roose had no trial, by command of the king.

In the words of the Greyfriars Chronicle of London, a contemporary document: “This year was a cook boiled in a cauldron in Smithfield for he would have poisoned the bishop of Rochester Fisher with divers of his servants and he was locked in a chain and pulled up and down with a gibbet at divers times until he was dead.”

Roose’s crime, the legal method of his condemnation, and finally the form of punishment create a bizarre chain of events that, in a more modern age, might well have raised questions of motive in several parties, including that of Henry VIII. Although there is no question of who did the killing, this is still a tantalizing Tudor murder mystery, and reveals some of the peculiarities of the early modern age, when laws existed and homicide was considered a heinous crime, but there was no trained police force nor forensic science.

Why did Henry VIII demand this punishment of a lowly cook? Why was Roose executed as a traitor when his crime was murder of commoners? The answer lies in the King’s complex feelings for Bishop Fisher.

John Fisher was made bishop of Rochester by the King’s father, Henry VII, in 1504. Fisher performed the funeral services for Margaret Beaufort, the king’s mother, and Henry VII himself when they died, within months of each other, in 1509. In the first 20 years of the reign of Henry VIII, Fisher was considered “the greatest Catholic theologian in Europe, without any rival,” writes Eamon Duffy.

But by the time of the crime in question, King Henry was no longer proud of Bishop Fisher, 62 years of age. It would be safe to say he considered him an enemy. And it would have made the King’s life much easier if Fisher had lost his—if he had consumed the soup.

In 1527, when Henry VIII, desperate for a male heir, began his public quest for an annulment from 42-year-old Catherine of Aragon to marry the delectable young Anne Boleyn, Fisher became one of his most serious obstacles. The question of the royal marriage was a theological one, and if Europe’s most respected theologian had agreed in the rightness of King Henry’s cause, it would have done a lot to bring about the annulment. But Fisher took the side of Catherine of Aragon. The marriage was legal and could not be dissolved.

In 1529, Bishop Fisher announced at the trial of the royal marriage that it would impossible to die more gloriously than in the cause of marriage, as John the Baptist did. In that same year, when a proposal came to Parliament to dissolve the smaller abbeys—the beginning of Henry VIII’s destruction of the Catholic monasteries—Fisher “openly resisted it with all the force he could.”

Enter one Richard Roose. One of Fisher’s earliest biographers, Richard Hall, wrote in 1655 the most complete account of the poisoning. He is the only source to say that Roose was not the chief cook in Fisher’s household, which is significant: “After this the Bishop escaped a very great danger. For one Richard Rose came into the Bishop’s kitchen, being acquainted with the cook, at his house in Lambeth-marsh, and having provided a quantity of deadly poison, while the cook went into the buttery to fetch him some drink, he took his opportunity to throw that poison into a mess of gruel, which was prepared for the Bishop’s dinner. And after he had waited there a while, he went on his way.

“But so it happened that when the Bishop was called into his dinner, he had no appetite for any meat but wished his servants to fall to and be of good cheer, and that he would not eat till toward night. And they that did eat of the poisoned dish were miserably infected. And whereof one gentleman, named Mr. Bennet Curwen and an old widow, died suddenly, and the rest never recovered their health till their dying day.”

An inquiry began at once. Although a salaried police force did not yet exist in England, criminal investigation was taken seriously. Justices of the peace, appointed by the monarch, received and investigated complaints; coroners viewed dead bodies and ordered arrests. Now if a suspect was bound over for trial, freedom was unlikely. Defendants charged with felonies or treason did not exist. In fact, murder trials rarely lasted more than 15 minutes.

Roose was soon apprehended, and admitted to adding what he believed were laxatives to the soup as a “jest.” No one believed him. The always skeptical Imperial ambassador Eustace Chapuys wrote a slightly different version of events to his master, Charles V, the nephew of Catherine of Aragon:

“They say that the cook, having been immediately arrested… confessed at once that he had actually put into the broth some powders, which he had been given to understand would only make his fellow servants very sick without endangering their lives or doing them any harm. I have not yet been able to understand who it was who gave the cook such advice, nor for what purpose.”

We share Chapuys’ frustration. Who gave the cook these powders and told him that they would sicken and not kill anyone? If that information was obtained, it was not shared with the public. No transparency.

Sir Thomas More, the lord chancellor, informed Henry VIII that there were rumors that Anne Boleyn and her father and brother, Thomas and George Boleyn, were involved in the poisoning attempt. The king reacted angrily, saying Anne Boleyn was unfairly blamed for everything, including bad weather.

The murder motive and the question of a larger plot were soon obscured by Henry VIII’s drastic actions. He decided that Roose should be condemned by attainder without a trial—a measure usually used for criminals who were at large. Roose was sitting in prison! Nonetheless, Parliament passed “An Acte for Poysoning,” making willful murder by means of poison high treason even if the victim was not head of the government of the land. And boiling to death became a form of legal capital punishment. This crime was especially heinous, the king’s representatives said, and thus called for such measures.

Several biographers have noted King Henry’s extreme fear of poison. Although the monarch’s paranoia became infamous in later years, there was some basis for concern. Everyone had heard the stories of murder by cantarella in Rome during the time of the Borgias. Pope Alexander VI, Rodrigo Borgia, died—perhaps of poison slipped into his food at a banquet—during the reign of Henry VII. Cantarella was believed to have been arsenic trioxide.

If poison was ever suspected as the cause of death at this time in England, there was no way to scrutinize its damage within the corpse to confirm. And should the poison itself be obtained, the field of analytical chemistry was four centuries away.

Not surprisingly, rumors ran wild. Poisoning was rumored (never proven) to be the cause of the deaths of Queen Anne, Richard III’s wife; the eventual death of Catherine of Aragon; and the agonizing death of Henry’s son, Edward VI. The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, written in the reign of Henry’s daughter, Queen Elizabeth I, employed poison. Shakespeare wove it into five other plays too.

But there was more to this than royal terror of a poisoned dish. As historian K.J. Kesselring wrote in The English Historical Review, “This may explain the severe, exemplary punishment of boiling, but not the need to label the offense treason.”

In April the crowds of Smithfield witnessed Roose’s death. According to an eyewitness: “He roared mighty loud, and divers women who were big with child did feel sick at the sight of what they saw, and were carried away half dead; and other men and women did not seem frightened by the boiling alive, but would prefer to see the headsman at his work.”

The story of the king and the stubborn bishop doesn’t end there.

When, after the king married Anne Boleyn, Bishop Fisher refused to swear an oath of supremacy to the king, he was arrested. The pope made Fisher a cardinal to protect him, but it only enraged the king more. Once the monarch had ordered a savage punishment of the man who tried to kill Fisher, and now Henry VIII wanted Fisher gone.

After a difficult imprisonment, Fisher was beheaded on June 22, 1535 on Tower Hill. The crowd gasped when they saw him on the scaffold for he was “nothing…but skin and bones…the flesh clean wasted away, and a very image of death.” In his speech to the crowd, Fisher is said to have shown a calm dignity.

According to Fisher’s biographer: “And here I cannot omit to declare to you the miraculous sight of his head, which after 14 days grew fresher and fresher, for that in his lifetime he never looked so well…. the face looked as if it beholdeth the people passing by and would have spoken to them. Which many took as a miracle.”

In 1886, the Catholic Church made John Fisher a saint.

How to Build a Working UFO | Alien Reproduction Vehicles (ARVs)

What has an employee said that immediately caused you to fire them?

Monday morning and it’s cold and raining. I had asked everyone to be in an hour early because we were getting an early delivery of concrete. Three of my most trusted employees made it in like I asked. Although, a little hungover from the night before, at least they were present. Now Tony the fourth guy I have on my payroll was nowhere to be seen. I kind of half expected it. I could never rely on him, but this was the final straw. I ring him up and the phone rings out. I try him again and he picks up. At first he doesn’t say anything, then suddenly I hear sobbing down the phone. “Is everything alright,” I asked feeling a little concerned for him. I hear sounds of dry heaving over the phone. “I’m sick. I so bloody sick. He continued to repeat how sick he was in between inconsolable crying. I was beginning to feel bad for him. “Jesus Tony, you sound awful, how sick are you?” I asked. There was a momentary pause over the phone. “Well boss, I woke up naked from a heavy night drinking and my sister is in bed beside me.

He is now an ex employee.

Be a job recruiter

What is the most outrageous “fee” you’ve ever been charged?

Ah airlines!

Gotta luv them.

I was traveling overseas. When I do, I have a special little leather bag on a long string that’s just the right size for my passport, which I never let out of my sight while out of the country. It’s about four inches by five inches by maybe a quarter in thick, if that. Basically flat.

I string it around my neck so I don’t lose the passport. I usually tuck my tickets and ID in there as well because it’s almost impossible to pickpocket.

Flying to Switzerland, I have a small overnight bag and my laptop computer. Woman at the counter says “Whoa there big fella! You have three bags. We have to charge you $100 for the extra bag.”

I stared at her. “What three bags?”

Of course, she pointed at the carryall, the laptop, and then my little passport holder around my neck.

I said “You’ve got to be kidding me.”

She said, “If I can see it, it’s a bag, no matter the size.”

So I stuffed it into my slacks. “Can you see it now?” I asked.

She glowered and said “No.”

I said “Have a nice day.”

What a bunch of tools to consider a passport holder a “bag”.

Police officers, what are some of the most interesting conversations you’ve had with the people you’ve arrested?

I was working a 12 hour shift as a gate guard on a military base. 8 PM to 8 AM, in this case. ’Round about midnight, it got VERY boring, so I came up with all sorts of ways to keep awake and keep moving. I’d tune the radio in my little weather shack to NPR, Go out into the middle of the street, and ‘air-conduct’ the orchestra in my mind. Got pretty good at it, actually.

One night, about 3 AM, a Jeep Cherokee came round the corner onto the base entrance road. I snapped to attention, checking the plates and glancing at the decal on the vehicle. The Base Commander. I gave him my best parade ground salute, and waved him through, but he paused, rolling down his window and staring at me for a few seconds.

“Petty Officer Harrison, what in the name of the Most Holy God were you doing?”

Now, I can imagine it must have looked terribly odd, to see his gate guard waving his arms and poking at invisible things in the dead of night, with classical music blaring in the background. Don’t know what he made of it. Maybe he thought I was hallucinating, or something… But I gave him my best sheepish grin, saluted again and replied.

“Tchaikovsky, sir. Variations on a Rococo Theme

for cello and orchestra. The second violin is a bit behind the beat…”

He sighed, shook his head, gave a vague sort of wave and said. “Carry on, then.” and drove off.

Two days later, a new standing order was published. “All gate guards will be issued batons and metronomes at the beginning of the night shift, in order to keep that pesky second violin in line. Said equipment will be returned to the Armory at the end of the shift along with the duty weapon.” The look of disbelief on the department head’s face was priceless… 🙂

In what unconventional ways have people managed to work little and earn a lot?

In 2012, the United States discovered suspicious Chinese access to the country’s critical infrastructure.

After some research, security officials found the culprit. It was not a Chinese hacker, but a Verizon employee, simply called “Bob.”

Bob did not have criminal intentions, as everyone initially suspected.

He did not feel like working hard all day and had found a creative way to enliven his day with more pleasant things.

The 40-year-old programmer had managed to outsource his work to Chinese programmers. He had physically sent his RSA token to a Chinese company so that Asian programmers could use his credentials during his working hours pretending to be him.

This is an RSA token. It is a security id, a kind of “ID card” of the employee.

Chinese programmers received less than 20% of his six-figure salary.

Over the years, Bob had become a highly regarded employee for his “clean, well-written” code. He was called ‘the best developer in the house.'”

In reality, however, he spent his days on Facebook, Ebay, and Linkedin, watching many cat videos.

At 4:30 p.m., before the day was over, he would send a report to management.

After the investigation, Bob was obviously fired, and presumably his Chinese colleagues also lost their jobs.

Which, in my opinion, was not smart on the part of the company. Because the Chinese had really shown themselves to be trustworthy.

What was the downfall of the “popular kid” in your school?

All of my classmates were “popular” from my outside-of-the-social-circle view. But here is what I know caused the “downfall” of two of them who were particularly popular. I graduated in 1998, and this is all from what happened when we were still in high school, what I’ve heard through the grapevine in the 22 years since, and what they post on Facebook:

Martha – Was one of the most popular girls in school, mainly because puberty had been very kind to her. She was dating a man in his 20s when she was a junior, so she was either 16 or 17. She was in his car one night when he flipped it over twice on the highway. It was a single-car accident. I believe alcohol was involved. She never came back to school after that. She survived, but was never quite the same. The man she was with died. Later, the rumor came out that her parents didn’t even know she was dating him. Had he survived, he could have been arrested for statutory rape.

Kyle – The school’s token “surfer dude.” I grew up near the beach, and surfing was a popular pastime with the rich kids. He was the most popular one in that group, and he even looked the part: dark tanned skin, bushy blonde hair, fairly “ripped,” etc… So he was popular with the girls in school. That popularity lasted beyond school and, sometime in his early 20s, he got caught sleeping with someone else’s wife and got the crap beat out of him. As in, an extended hospital stay for facial reconstruction kind of beating. The assault even made the local news. I’m not sure if the guy who beat him did any jail time, but I know that, according to all of our mutual friends, Kyle’s life hasn’t been very great since then. Everyone just describes it as “sad.” Did you hear about Kyle? It’s so sad, what’s happened to him…

I’m on time everyday, work at a fast pace do everything correctly, get complimented on my work but always get fired within the first few weeks and get told it’s nothing to do with my work I’m just not the right fit why does this keep happening?

I had a friend who was let go before his three month probation period was over. He was competent, I had worked with him before, and he always got his work done on time, when I worked with him.

His wife was suspicious that somebody was finding out where he got a job, and phoning in a bad reference. I don’t think that was the case, but its possible.

You know how some people have whats called a resting grumpy face. Well he had a resting happy face. It looked like he was always smiling. So when his boss would explain something serious to him, he would be smiling like he had not a concern in the world. He also had a sense of humor that alternated between dry and sardonic, that many people didn’t get.

Some people were insulted by his humor, because they didn’t get it. Then they would ask for an apology, and he would have the biggest smile, while he apologized.

I think that was his problem. But he didn’t even know he was constantly smiling. So he was totally unaware of the effect it had on people.

If you sat next to a famous celebrity in a restaurant, would you start a conversation? What would you say?

No. I assume you mean at a separate table.

I’ve been in restaurants with famous people—I’ve been on film sets WORKING with famous people.

One time—long ago, on lunch break from working on the film “Pump Up the Volume” [1991] —was director John Waters—having lunch with porn star Traci Lords—an odd pairing, I thought—but not too odd.

I just noticed and didn’t bother them.

When I was a young fan—in film school—being exposed to the NYCity celebrity scene—I got a few autographs—Robin Williams, Peter Frampton, Monty Python Terry Jones, Charles Durning, Mike McGear [Paul McCartney’s brother], Joey Ramone.

But once I was in the business—it seemed kind of weird.

Especially with people I worked with—Christian Slater, Robert Englund [Nightmare’s Freddy!], Paul Dooley, and others.

Funny thing is—I’ve met far more celebrities “off the clock” than I did working in the business.

And oddly—I’ve been in LA for over 32 years now—and I think I met more in New York than I have here.

Being on foot in NY is more common than being on foot in LA—where I’m mostly in a car. This allows accidental meetings to take place more often.

Just not talking to women

Grilled Lasagna Sandwiches

The recipe ingredients are per sandwich.

Ingredients

2 slices bacon or ham
2 slices mozzarella or Swiss cheese
Sour cream
Tomato paste
Bread
Oregano

Instructions

Spread sour cream and tomato paste on bread and sprinkle on a little oregano to flavor.
Fry bacon or ham and put it between two slices prepared bread.
Butter the outside of the bread, fry, and eat.

What are some ways to predict whether or not someone will be successful in the future?

One of the best things I did with my kid.

On his 18th birthday, I sat him down in front of the television and played him a video of his three-year-old self.

He burst out laughing so hard he had tears rolling down his cheeks.

The video was an experiment based on delayed gratification, known as the ‘Marshmallow Test’.

In a classic experiment from the 1970s, a psychologist named Walter Mischel placed a treat in front of children and offered them a choice – they could either enjoy the treat now or wait a brief period to get two snacks.

When the experimenter left the room, many of the kids couldn’t wait and ate the treat (often a cookie or marshmallow), but a portion of the kids could delay the urge to enjoy the treat and wait for the reward of getting more delicious goodies.

What Mischel concluded was that the kids able to delay gratification had several advantages later on over the kids who could not wait.

The children who waited performed better academically than kids who ate the treat right away.

He found kids who delayed their gratification also displayed fewer behavioural problems and had much higher SAT scores.

His findings have since been largely debunked for not taking into consideration socio-economic factors. The latest research suggests there is a lesser correlation between the results showing willpower, and a greater emphasis on delayed gratification being an indicator of intelligence.

I don’t know if it matters to this, I only did it as a bit of fun.

In the video, I sat my son down at the kitchen table and placed two bowls of sweets in front of him; one bowl had five sweets, the other just the one.

I told him he could have the one sweet now, but if he could wait for five minutes – and I pointed at the minute hand on the clock and showed him where it needs to go to – then he could have the bowl with five sweets.

I then left the room.

His facial expressions were hilarious.

The angst.

His face alternating from contemplation to expectant glee and then more angst.

He employed diversion tactics… looking away, checking the sweets, looking at the door, checking the sweets, studying the clock, checking the sweets.

Rubbing his eyes, checking the sweets.

His 18-yr-old self was in kinks at this 3-yr-old child.

He couldn’t remember doing it and it brought him to tears of joy.

It was brilliant.

I recommend all parents do this… for the fun of it alone.

Five minutes later, I returned.

He had not eaten the sweets.

His face was a picture of delight.

He grabbed the bowl with 5 sweets and stuffed them in his pockets.

Smiling like a lemon shark.

Then, an afterthought… he went back to the table and took the single sweet too.

A brief life

What do you wish was socially acceptable?

I had a friend in my school. In Class 10th, the registration forms for boards were getting checked by our class teacher. He was calling each student roll-number wise and asking their details. When his number came and he was asked, “ Father’s occupation”, he replied, he is a house husband.

Our Sir mocked him saying, “So, he packs your tiffin boxes, hahaha!! ”

My friend also laughed at it, taking it a good joke.

Actually, my friend lives in my colony. His mother is a nurse in a reputed govt. hospital and his Dad stays at home, doing all the works a genuine housewife does.

They are well economically. The husband is damn caring. Each evening, he goes hospital and takes his wife to home, lifting her bags in his hands. Both are happy.

But the man is nothing but a laughing stock in our colony. No man, literally no man is his friend here. No one talks to him as he is busy in his house chores too and he doesn’t do “manly” activities. He washes clothes, wipes the floor, maintains bills, buys groceries etc. But he is mocked behind his back. People say words like,

“E kouno kaam na Kari… jeevan bhar aapan mehraaru ke kamaayi khhat rah jaayi.”

He’ll never do any work and will keep feeding on his wife’s earnings forever.

But have we ever asked any women like, “Why she’s a housewife?”

In fact society’s eyes start glittering when they hear that this woman is a housewife.

But being house husband is shameful, malicious, atrocious, non-manly thing.

What do you wish was socially acceptable?

That if a couple has agreed to their terms that one will work and others will stay home, then we must shut our mouth if the gender is not suitable to our eyes. Neither housewife nor househusband is a pity task if the couple has decided to work this way.

Stop judging.

Show us the cross…

When did you realize your parents were bad at parenting?

my father was a great parent, but he was often not home, and when this incident happened, he was fighting the Korean War. I was not quite five when I discovered that my mother was basically a piece of garbage. Dad traveled a lot with his work after the military, and my mother would have never done any of this stuff when he was around.

Going back to age 4, we were shopping for new Easter dresses. I saw a pretty pale blue flowered dress that I really wanted. I was born blind in one eye and you could tell. I was skinny and had kinky black hair while my older sister was very pretty and blonde

My mother told me I could not have the blue dress because ugly little girls should wear brown and dark green so people would not notice them. I threw up on the floor of the store. She bought my sister the blue dress I got a dark green checked dress, that was so ugly. I have torn up any picture that ever showed any sign of it.

Now if this was the only thing my mother ever said to me like that, it would be OK but it wasn’t. But she never hurt my feelings again because I thought she was a drunken piece of garbage. In fact, I kind of got a kick out of the things that she said. My favorite was when she told my too much younger sisters, that they should be very careful or they might end up like me, not a normal woman. My little sister laughed at her and said“yeah, we might grow to be lawyers too. shoot me now“

My husband told me that my father‘s funeral was the worst display of emotion that he had ever seen because my father had five children who adored him and overtly mourned his passing. I did not see a tear at my mother‘s funeral.

if I could change things in my childhood, I would want a mother who loved me and a mother that I loved.

Absolutely priceless…

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/YYlAaPL41b0?feature=share

Do people eat the red layer outside the cheese, or do they peel it off? What cheese is that?

Ah, the classic cheese question. The red layer you’re referring to on the outside of cheese is known as the rind.

The first thing to know is that not all cheese rinds are created equal. Some are edible and tasty, others are purely functional. But let’s talk about the red rind, specifically.

That red layer is often found on a type of cheese you might see on a pub menu or nestled in a fancy charcuterie board: Gouda, Edam, or sometimes even Cheddar. It’s a wax coating, and it serves a grand purpose. The wax prevents the cheese from drying out and also protects it from unwanted nibbling critters while it ages to perfection.

So, should you eat the wax? I’ll stop you right there. No. Wax is not meant to be eaten. It’s like the shell on a peanut; it’s part of the packaging. You’re supposed to peel it off and discard it. Now, some might argue that there might be a cheese or two where the outer layer is dyed but isn’t wax. It’s rare but in these cases, you can eat it. However, the real star is what’s inside.

Now let’s go a step beyond. Some cheeses do have rinds that you’re meant to eat. Think Brie or Camembert with their soft, white mold rinds; they’re part of the experience. The rind adds texture and flavor complexity that cheese lovers seek out.

But back to the red wax. When you’ve got a chunk of Gouda and you’re really getting down to it, you’ll cut away the wax as you slice off delectable pieces to enjoy.

To wrap up—pun intended—most red layers on cheese are like a book cover for your cheese, telling you a bit about what’s inside and keeping it in good condition until you’re ready to dive into the story. It’s not part of the meal, it’s just a protective layer. Peel it off, toss it aside, and enjoy the cheesy goodness within.

Enjoy your cheese adventures, and remember, just because it’s wrapped up doesn’t mean it’s meant to be eaten. Happy cheese hunting!

What do you love about life, and what is the reason?

Right now, as I type this, I’m in Florida helping care for my mom. My dad and I have been doing 12-hour shifts with her, because she needs round-the-clock care. Between that and all the thousand things around the house that need tending to that my dad isn’t able to, I haven’t been sleeping much.

Last night at about 5am my mom started having trouble breathing, so I called 911. We just heard from the hospital 10 minutes ago. The cancer has spread to her lungs and brain. She really wanted to make it to her birthday in 6 days. The doctors don’t think she’ll make it.

So I’m not maybe the best person to talk about loving life right now.

And yet…

A few days ago, my wife and I spent a couple of hours at the Festival of Lights in Cape Coral. They had hot cocoa and a campfire with marshmallows.

When I stumbled out of bed this morning (well, technically this afternoon), the first thing that happened was my mom’s cat sat at my feet, meowed at me, and headbutted me to say hi.

Right at this very moment, I’m looking out the window onto my parents’ patio, where three squirrels are chasing each other across the screen roof, and it’s delightful.

I was born just barely early enough to see humanity walk on the moon—-some of my earliest childhood memories are sitting in front of a B&W TV watching the Apollo launches. Odds are good I will see humanity walk on Mars. Isn’t that amazing?

I am surrounded by love. I’m spending Christmas with my Talespinner. My life is filled with creativity and joy—I write books with some of my lovers, my wife and I created the Borg Queen xenomorph parasite cosplay from an idea she had three years ago, I’m teaching myself CNC machining and laser engraving.

I live in a time of unprecedented peace and prosperity in human history. We can fly through the air. Every day, we learn more about the universe.

This photo:

was taken by a probe that landed on a comet. We have the capacity to launch a probe that can travel for years and then arrive precisely on a small rock traveling at 84,000 miles per hour, which is about like a person in Boston shooting a rifle and hitting a golf ball in midair in Moscow. (Bizarre how many people think science is “just another belief system,” eh?)

And, I mean, I get it. The world isn’t all roses. Right now, far too many people in my country are too uneducated in history to recognize when they’re being lied to by yet another populist grifter selling them the same old tired lie that all their failures are the fault of somebody else.

We have a political party that takes gleeful, sadistic delight in mendacious cruelty, and a voting populace that sincerely believes it’s okay to vote for the Leopards Eating People’s Faces Party because surely the leopards won’t eat their faces—only the faces of the Mexicans and the gays and the trans people, right?

There is pettiness, and cruelty, and meanspiritedness. There are people who make voting choices because they want to hurt other Americans just to own the libs.

But viewed on a large enough scale, the moral arc of the universe bends toward justice. We may be in the “one step back” part of the “two steps forward, one step back” cycle, yet this too shall pass.

I want to be here to see what happens next.

Saving the cub

Disney Left Out the Most Gruesome Aspects of the Original Snow White Story

Oh, Snow White, that classic, if a little retro, fairytale of good triumphing over evil. It’s a sweet story of an innocent young beauty who is banished by a vain, cruel, and jealous stepmother and who, with the help of seven lovable dwarfs, ultimately finds everlasting true love. Walt Disney turned the fable into the first full-length animated musical feature film in 1937. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs is to this day one of the top-10 films of all time (adjusted for inflation), beloved by generations of children.

It turns out the American animator left out a few gruesome details. Disney’s well-known Snow White is a sanitized version of the original German Brothers Grimm fairytale, which was a lot more, well, grim.

Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm didn’t actually come up with the story of Snow White or Cinderella, Rapunzel, or any other storybook princess associated with their (and now Disney’s) name, for that matter. The Grimms were German scholars, researchers, and authors who collected folktales that were part of a rich oral tradition, having been passed down from generation to generation of women telling the stories to pass the time. In 1812, they published the collection as Nursery and Household Tales.

Despite its title, the book was not originally intended for children. The text included violence, incest, sex, and perhaps most deadly of all—footnotes. In the Cinderella story, for instance, the stepsisters cut off their toes and heels in order to fit into the glass slipper.

In “Little Snow-White,” as the original story was called, the Evil Queen asks a hunter to take Snow White into the forest to kill, as happens also in the movie. (In the original version, the child is also only 7 years old, as opposed to Disney’s 14. Neither seems old enough to consider marriage.)

In the Grimm version, the Queen orders the huntsman to bring back Snow White’s internal organs, saying “Kill her, and as proof that she is dead bring her lungs and liver back to me.”

He kills a boar instead, and brings back to the Queen the boar’s lungs and liver—which the Queen thinks belongs to Snow White and so promptly eats. Ewww!

“The cook had to boil them with salt, and the wicked woman ate them, supposing that she had eaten Snow-White’s lungs and liver,” as the Grimm brothers wrote.

The Queen tricks Snow White three separate times in the Grimm version. The first time, she has Snow White try on a corset, which is so tight, Snow White passes out. (The dwarfs save her by cutting the laces.) The second time, she sells Snow White a poisonous comb, which the young girl puts in her hair, causing her to pass out. (The dwarfs take it out.) The third time the Queen tricks her with the same poisonous apple we see in the Disney film.

Having fainted and presumed dead, young Snow-White is placed in a glass coffin in both book and movie. When the Prince happens by in the Grimm version, he insists on taking the deceased beauty away, even though he’s never met her. The dwarfs hesitantly agree, but as they are carrying her coffin out of their house, one of them stumbles. Jostled from her resting place in the coffin, Snow White spits out the apple lodged in her throat and is immediately revived. Without the influence of the Prince’s kiss.

In movie and in folklore, Snow White and the Prince fall in love and get married (never mind that in the original tale, Snow is only 7 years old). In the movie, the seven dwarfs chase the Evil Queen into the forest, where she tumbles off a cliff—with a push from a convenient lightning strike—and falls to her death.

In the book version, the Queen attends their wedding where she is meted out a just punishment of dancing to her death. (Perhaps this last was thought up by a 19^th century noblewoman forced to dance endlessly to the 1812 version of Bruno Mars’s “Marry You.”)

The more Grimm version of the Queen’s death goes like this: “They put a pair of iron shoes into burning coals. They were brought forth with tongs and placed before her. She was forced to step into the red-hot shoes and dance until she fell down dead.”

You can see why Disney wanted to clean up that unsavory image!

As a police officer, has someone you pulled over ever threatened to call “Daddy”?

I am working as a police sergeant in a small city in the midwest. A man comes in, wearing a very nice suit. A young woman is standing next to him. He tells me that about an hour ago one of my officers pulled over his 16 year old daughter. The gentleman says the officer told the young woman she would have to give him oral sex or he would write her a ticket that would cause her to lose her probationary license. The man wanted the officer terminated immediately or he was going to call his friend “the mayor” and have both of us fired.

I asked to see the citation he is holding. I asked if his daughter would be willing to give a sworn statement so I have evidence of the situation I can use for further action? He agrees. I bring a court reporter and an audio recorder. I date and time stamp the start of the tape and ask her describe the situation that occurred when she was issued citation number XXXXXXX on this date.

She gives a full complete account just like the details her father had given to me a few minutes before. When she concludes her statement, the court reporter asked her to sign a promise that all information is true and factual to the best of her with the understanding it may be used in criminal actions in this matter.

At this point I only know what I have been told by her father and her. But I knew something the father and daughter do not know. About a month prior to this event the police department installed cameras in all the squad cars. Whenever the red lights are activated the camera starts recording and microphone mounted on the officer’s shirt picks up audio and puts it on the tape (it was the initial use of squad cameras, we used VCR tapes, But the officers had no ability to over write or erase recorded tape).

The court reporter took the dictated statement to the girl and had her sign, and her father had co-signed because she was underage, the court reporter then took the statement upstairs to the clerk of court for filing.

I went to to the Evidence Room and watched the video tape of the traffic stop that had been recorded on our new squad cam system. 15 minutes later I came back to the interview room. The father was mad this was taking so long. I explained we had some new systems and I was reviewing how they matched up with his daughter’s testimony. I put a tape in the VCR and played every second of the traffic stop from the time the lights were turned on till officer ended the recording by manually shutting off the record feature by turning off his red lights and camera. The officer was professional and told the reason for the stop and requested the driver’s license, registration and insurance card from the driver. He went back to the squad with no further discussion other than to tell her to remain in her vehicle while he checked her status and wrote her citation. He came back to her car explained the citation, she asked”Isn’t there something I can do to get out of this ticket?” The officer said, “no, the citation has been issued, pay the listed fine or appear in court on the date shown, just slow down in the future, please use caution merging back into traffic. And then the officer walked back to his squad as the young lady drove away.

No sexual offer from the officer to void the citation, no discussion outside of the details of her responsibility to handle the fine or appear in court. And a standard warning to use caution merging back into traffic.

The father stood up, looked a little embarrassed. He said they had taken enough of my time and they should be going. I told him he was free to leave but his daughter filed a false police report. And Juvenile Probation Officers from the county were enroute to the station to charge her as a minor and determine if she should be placed in protective custody. I urged the father to remain and meet with JPO. I looked at the young lady and told her how lucky she was this happened when she was only 16 years old. An adult making the same false accusations would face felony charges. I told the father they could remain in the interview room until JPO arrived. If they tried to leave she would be taken and place in our juvenile holding area.

He was most cooperative at that point.

Now I believe the young lady thought a dramatic story would deflect any anger her father felt towards her for the citation. I am sure she did not realize how this would spin out of control and her father would make an official complaint. But if we did not have cameras the officer would have been been pulled from street duty and placed on an administrative assignment till Internal Affairs had completed their investigation. If they failed to find evidence enough to charge the officer I am sure Daddy would have have made loud and angry complaints to his friend the mayor.

There are many, many cases throughout law enforcement, public employees and private business where males in positions of authority have pressured women. It still happens today. Remember many but not all are true. I used this story for many years to convince officers that the need to document what they do correctly outweighs the same amount of time one of them does something bad.

And when they do we catch them, punish them and fire them. Camera system are expensive and keeping the recorded files is a logistical nightmare…but it is all worth it. Maybe we could require all politicians to wear cameras every day?

What do you think of the US’s recent sanctions on China, Turkey, and UAE firms?

What do I think?

I don’t think, I know. each sanction lead to more sanctions and each new sanction will create an anti sanction action. Countries throughout the world will pad themselves with measures where sanctions will be nullified and totally ineffective. More sanctions is pushing a new world order in that everything western and U.S. will be replace and alternate anti sanctions mechanisms and systems that make future sanctions not work any more.

That is what all sane and sensible people will do and react when you fxxked them up. They have dumped the dollar faster, they will stop using SWIFT, they will not accept western standards and set up their true world standards, the will avoid western banks, the will stop depending western financial institutions and system. They will ignore western rating agencies, they will stop depending on the west swiftly and speedily. That is what I know happened.

To me the U.S. are losing its unfair advantage. And each new sanctions is like another nail in coffin of the western rules based international order. I am certain the U.S. sanction because it getting desperate to keep its rules based international order but instead it is speeding the demise and implosion of the U.S.

That is what is happening in the world each time the U.S. sanction.

U.S. Military Has More Unfeasible Plans For Ukraine

Yesterday the Biden administration ‘declassified‘ laughable numbers about alleged Russian losses. It did not help. Zelenski’s mission to get more money from Congress has failed:

Following a roughly 30-minute meeting with Zelensky – their first one-on-one encounter – House Speaker Mike Johnson said the Biden administration’s response to congressional Republicans’ demands has been “insufficient,” and reiterated his stance that a deal remains unlikely without a “transformative change” at the border.

The Republicans also asked the White House for its strategy in Ukraine. But as the New York Times reported yesterday, there is none.

U.S. and Ukraine Search for a New Strategy After Failed Counteroffensive

American and Ukrainian military leaders are searching for a new strategy that they can begin executing early next year to revive Kyiv’s fortunes and flagging support for the country’s war against Russia, according to U.S. and Ukrainian officials.
…
The United States is stepping up the face-to-face military advice it provides to Ukraine, dispatching a three-star general to Kyiv to spend considerable time on the ground. U.S. and Ukrainian military officers say they hope to work out the details of a new strategy next month in a series of war games scheduled to be held in Wiesbaden, Germany.

That the counter-offensive had failed has been obvious since mid of June. A reason for the failure were fake war-games during which the parameters were skewed until the games showed that Ukraine would win:

Logic dictates that any responsible use of the KORA simulation system would have predicted the failure of the 47th Brigade’s attack. According to The Washington Post, the officers of the 47th Brigade “planned their assaults and then let the [KORA] program show them the results – how their Russian enemies might respond, where they could make a breakthrough and where they would suffer losses.” The KORA simulation allowed the Ukrainian officers to coordinate their actions “to test how they’d work together on the battlefield.”

Given that the Ukrainian force structure was insufficient to accomplish the mission-critical task of suppression, there was no chance for the Ukrainian forces to accomplish the actual assault requirements of a breaching operation – the destruction of enemy forces on the opposite side of the obstacle barrier being breached. The Ukrainians, however, came away from their KORA experience confident that they had crafted a winning plan capable of overcoming the Russian defenses in and around Orekhov.

When one examines the structure of a KORA-based simulation, it becomes clear that the system is completely dependent upon the various inputs which define the simulation as a whole.

Now the U.S. is sending one of its generals to take command of the Ukrainian army and will launch more war games. To what outcome will their parameters be skewed.

Apparently the time since late June was insufficient to come up with a new strategy for Ukraine. This will not do:

Some in the U.S. military want Ukraine to pursue a “hold and build” strategy — to focus on holding the territory it has and building its ability to produce weapons over 2024. The United States believes the strategy will improve Ukraine’s self-sufficiency and ensure Kyiv is in a position to repel any new Russian drive.

The goal would be to create enough of a credible threat that Russia might consider engaging in meaningful negotiations at the end of next year or in 2025.

At the same time, Ukrainian officials are examining strategies that build on their successful deep strikes on Crimea last fall. They are searching for creative ways to keep Russia off balance with attacks against arms factories, weapons depots and train lines for moving munitions, and to score symbolic victories. One Ukrainian former senior military official declined to discuss the proposals but said the new plan is being refined and is “very daring.”

The plan is that Ukraine will go into defense mode while committing more terrorism. But why would Russia let Ukraine build real defense lines? Ukraine is starved of artillery ammunition. It does not have the troops to hold all lines.

And whatever line it can build will break under intensive fire.

In the Summer of 1943, after German attack on Kursk had failed, the Soviets went into an offensive mode that did not stop until its troops captured Berlin. The German army retreated to defense lines, then retreated again and again – all the way back to Berlin. It took nearly two years, but the outcome was obvious as soon as the attack on Kursk had failed.

I expect something similar to happen in Ukraine.

The U.S. is starting its typical mission creep:

Gen. Christopher G. Cavoli, the top American commander in Europe, has been taking a bigger role in coordinating with Ukrainian officials.

The Pentagon has also decided to dispatch Lt. Gen. Antonio A. Aguto Jr., who commands the support of Ukraine from a base in Germany, to spend lengthy periods of time in Kyiv. General Aguto will work more directly with the country’s military leadership to improve the advice the United States is offering, American officials said. While the White House has opted not to have U.S. military advisers in the country permanently, General Aguto’s frequent rotations in and out of Kyiv would inch toward the end of that restriction.

A three star general does not come alone. He has a full group of staff, dozens, which will now become military advisors on the ground in Ukraine. They will also become priority targets.

And what do those advisors know about an industrial warfare that Ukraine soldiers do not know. Well, nothing.

Yves Smith as well as Simplicius have further thoughts on this.

I for one see no change yet of the trajectory Ukraine is on. It is losing badly while its propaganda is still claiming victory. Consider this from today’s Washington Post:

Loud explosions jolted many residents out of bed around 3 a.m. in central Kyiv, followed by air raid alert sirens a few minutes later. Ukraine’s air force said that antiaircraft defenses shot down all 10 ballistic missiles that were launched at Kyiv. That assertion could not be independently confirmed.

Multiple missile impacts happened BEFORE the air alarm went on. But the Ukrainian military claims to have shut all incoming missiles down. That does not sound like a plausible time line to me. I, in fact believe that the few air defense system Kiev was give, like its artillery, pretty much out of ammunition.

With no further aid coming from the U.S., and potentially also not from Europe, it is high time to shut the war down.

Posted by b on December 13, 2023 at 15:04 UTC | Permalink

How did World War II soldiers survive?

WW2, the deadliest conflict in human history. Yet there are some incredible stories of survival by soldiers. I’ll give two.

One was Alan E. Magee. He was a gunner on a B-17 bomber.

He was on a mission over France in 1943 when his plane got hit by German flak and started to go down.

He tried to bail out, but his parachute was damaged and he couldn’t open it. So he decided to jump anyway, hoping for a miracle.

He fell 22,000 feet without a parachute and crashed through the glass roof of a train station.

He survived with only some broken bones and cuts. He was captured by the Germans, who were amazed that he was still alive.

They treated his wounds and sent him to a POW camp, where he spent the rest of the war.

He was liberated in 1945 and returned to the US. He lived until 2003, when he died at the age of 84.

There’s another guy who might be even luckier.

His name was Alistair Urquhart, and he was a Scottish soldier in the Gordon Highlanders regiment.

He was captured by the Japanese in Singapore in 1942 and sent to work on the infamous Death Railway in Thailand.

He endured torture, starvation, disease and beatings for years. He was then put on a cargo ship that was torpedoed by an American submarine.

He survived the sinking and spent five days floating in the ocean with sharks and corpses.

He was rescued by a Japanese whaling ship and taken to Nagasaki, where he was forced to work as a slave laborer.

He survived the atomic bombing of Nagasaki in 1945 and was freed by the Americans shortly after.

He returned to Scotland and lived until 2016, when he died at the age of 97.

Women’s Dating Standards have Ruined Relationships

Number of close relationships…

What was the most satisfying conversation you had with someone who tried to intimidate you?

What was the most satisfying conversation you had with someone who tried to intimidate you?On first impressions, Frank was a nice guy. He extended his hand the moment he walked in my door, “How the devil are you?” he said, all bright and cheery.

Frank spoke and acted like he was my new best friend.

I’d asked for a move back to street duties – a year of pandering to our self-aggrandising chief had been enough. I’d got my wish and Frank was taking over my job, Sergeant of the Safer Streets Scheme. Despite the title, it was a political role. Allegedly, its remit was to make our streets safer – in reality, it was to make our chief look good.

I handed the reins over to Frank.

Within a day, he was badmouthing me behind my back. Within a week, he wasn’t doing half the things I’d shown him. Within a month he was taking credit for several of my long-term operations.

Within three months, they promoted him.

But that’s okay because they promoted me too.

A few years later, my boss urged me to apply for a post at headquarters. It would mean another promotion if I got it. They accepted my application and the next step was an interview.

I don’t know how he found out I’d applied, but I got a phone call from Frank.

Frank informed me he had also applied for the position and that we were the only two to go forward for an interview. He boasted that with his ‘superior CV’ he was pretty much guaranteed to get the job. It wasn’t a friendly call; Frank was trying to mess with my mindset. He tried to belittle me with insults.

The good thing about that kind of behaviour is, if you have a little emotional intelligence, it’s easy to deal with.

When people are nasty to you, do this one thing — imagine the person is talking about themselves and go-ahead and agree with everything they say.

It works on two levels.

First, you don’t get upset. In trying to cause offence, bullies tend to say things that would upset themselves and what upsets them is the truth. More often than not, people like Frank are merely describing themselves.

Second, the intimidator gets no fulfilment. Their goal is to upset you, but by agreeing with them you show you are not concerned by their words — there is nothing so dispossessing as indifference. You own them.

So that’s what I did.

The day after his interview, Frank called me again.

“Congratulations,” he said, all bright and cheery as if I was his best friend again. “I’ve just been told I didn’t get the job, so well done.”

There is a sweetness in settling an old score, and Frank deserved the bombshell I had for him.

“Frank,” I said, “you must have had a terrible interview because I decided I didn’t want to work at headquarters and withdrew my application last week. That means you were the only person in the process and still they didn’t want you!”

Italian Sandwiches

Ingredients

4 sub buns
4 Italian sausages, sweet, mild or hot
1 cup mozzarella cheese
1 jar pizza sauce

Instructions

Grill sausage until done.
Slice buns open like a hot dog bun.
Spread some pizza sauce inside, then place a sausage and cover with cheese.
Wrap with foil and place over coals or on grill just long enough to melt cheese.
Add mushrooms or whatever other garnishes are desired and available.

What is an experience you had with a client you’ll never forget?

I had a messy divorce with children. Wife left the children at home alone while she traveled out of state to see her new internet boyfriend. The children ran out of food and were scared to be home alone. They called the court appointed attorney ad litem. She called me. She told me – send your client to pick up the children immediately. She told me that she was going to set a hearing and tell the judge about the wife leaving the small children (all under 14) home alone for days with no food. I called Dad. He said “I am getting read to pick up my date and I am going to have sex tonight.” I told him to cancel his date and go get his kids. He refused. I asked him if I could have his mom (grandma) pick them up since they were home alone and hungry. He said no and refused to allow me to ever talk to his mom again. I had to call the court appointed attorney ad litem and tell her what was going on. She had to find someone else to pick up the children that night. I had represented 3 generations in this family for many years about all their legal issues. His mom kept calling — but I could not talk to her since he had instructed me not to do so. She was so angry at me. She “stalked” me for over a year. I really wanted her to know what her son did – she would have “kicked his butt”! Plus, he never paid his legal bill. This case was a real disaster and I’d spent hours working on it. As I recall his legal bill was over $10,000. I withdrew from the case. I was so mad. I had worked for months to get him primary custody. I worked hard to get the court appointed attorney ad litem was on Dad’s side. I actually watched the trial because I was so pissed. Dad came off as a total jerk with his new attorney. Mom’s attorney “got her to clean up” and ditch the internet boyfriend. Mom had a really good attorney who worked with her client to make her seem like a great parent. Mom was given primary custody of the children.

My Christmas wish is that grandma see what I wrote and understand why I withdrew and what her son did. This was probably 20 years ago and the kids are grown. I don’t know if grandma is alive. But due to this crummy client I never got another call from anyone in that family again.

In Texas, we have attorney-client privilege. If a client says you cannot talk to anyone, then you cannot. You cannot even defend yourself when they call you and scream at you. It can be frustrating at times.

Well stated

What’s a rule your employer implemented that backfired terribly?

Many years ago I had a nut case of a Regional Manager named Bob. Bob got a bonus based not only on sales, but lowering expenses

At this time, phone calls were not free, even local calls cost around 10 cents per minute. Bob walked by my office while I was on a call with a customer and waited for me to finish. Then he said to me “asking the customer how he was doing today cost us 10 cents, stop wasting money”. Thereafter everyone made calls only when he was not around, and productivity dropped

The office was in New Jersey where it was at that time illegal to have self serve gas stations. One day he announced that all our gas receipts had full serve noted, and we were wasting money by not using self serve. Any receipts not marked self serve would be rejected. We all drove across the border to NY in order to pump our own gas, for 20 cents more per gallon.

He posted a sign stating that if you made more than 4 photocopies of something, you must go up 6 floors to the copy center and use the massive copy machine, not the local one. He said it saved .03 cents per copy! Someone posted an analysis showing the electricity for the elevator up and down cost more than .12 cents.

Yes, Bob got fired.

If the Titanic had never hit that iceberg, what would the rest of its ocean going career have been like? How long a life was it likely to have?

For the answer to this question one need look no further than Titanic’s sister ship, RMS Olympic. What most people don’t realize is that, as the older sister, Olympic was much more well known. All those superlatives we associate with Titanic — ship of dreams, floating palace, world’s largest moving object, etc. — were originally lavished on Olympic. In 1911, when she was launched, an entire issue of the trade publication The Shipbuilder was devoted to Olympic, with barely a passing mention of the other sister then under construction. Before the sinking Olympic was far and away the more famous sister and arguably the most famous ship in the world.

Unlike her ill-fated little sister, Olympic apparently WAS unsinkable. She had three serious collisions in her career, the first of which (with the warship HMS Hawke) left her severely damaged but still afloat. The second such incident was in 1916 when Olympic turned and rammed a German U-boat that had tried to sink her; the U-boat attempted to dive but to no avail — Olympic’s propellers tore open the sub’s pressure hull like it was aluminum foil. The liner emerged from the encounter with a slight dent on her lower prow and a legendary reputation as the only civilian vessel to sink an enemy warship in World War 1. Finally, in 1934, Olympic collided with and sank the Nantucket lightship LV-117 in heavy fog. Again Olympic escaped serious damage.

Olympic transported thousands of troops to and from the theaters of war in WW1, earning the undying devotion of those who traveled upon her. They called her “Old Reliable” because she always brought you home. Others referred to her affectionately as simply “Oly.” Captain Sir Bertram Fox Hayes, Olympic’s longest-serving commander and a towering figure in British maritime history (he was in command when they sank the U-boat), called her, “The finest ship, in my estimation, that has ever been built or ever will be.”

But alas, all good things must come to an end. The Great Depression hit the shipping companies hard, and by then Olympic was over 20 years old and showing her age. When White Star merged with Cunard she was retired. She was sent to the scrapyard in 1935. Fortunately some of her interior fittings and panels were preserved and can now be found in the White Swan Hotel in Alnwick, England.

She was shakin’

What is your freaky “I think social media is listening to my conversations” experience?

A YouTube user, Neville, posted a video that completely changed the way I look at Social Media.

He and his wife suspected Facebook was listening to their phone calls. They started noticing ads popping up that were eerily similar to the things they’d been talking about the day before.

They decided they would do a test.

They didn’t own a cat. They hadn’t had a cat in 20 years. They never talked about cats.

They set up a phone call, where they both repeated the words “cat” and “cat food” over and over again during a 10-minute phone call.

A few days later:

Both his and her Facebook feed were filled with cat food commercials.

After seeing this video, it primed my awareness to it, and I immediately began noticing the same pattern on my own Facebook feed. And this has since been tested by other users who confirmed similar creepy results.

Social Media Apps can and do listen to your phone calls.

Why?

The more targeted they can make their ads, the more they can charge companies for those ads. To make more highly targeted ads, they want to get right inside of your head and know everything about you.

If you don’t want Facebook (or any app) to listen to your calls, you need to go into your settings on your phone, find the app, click on permissions, and disable access to the microphone.

Social Media companies will get as much information as possible about you with little regard for what is right or wrong. Just as long as it is legal (enough), they’ll do it.

Steroids and past decisions

When I was a Senior in High School I was “big” into weight-lifting. I was “pumped” and I was quite an “amazing specimen.”

In fact, during the class physical check-up for us boys, the female doctor and the female nurse asked me to go to the back room (in my underwear) and pose for them. They just smiled and looked on.

I, being young and a dumb shit, didn’t know what was going on.

Anyways, some friends offered some steroids to me to help me get and build up mass. I thought about it, but you know, I was concerned about this. So I made a doctor’s appointment, though my mother, and went to the doctor.

When the doctor asked me what was wrong I had a trouble answering. I did a lot of hemming and humming.

Finally I asked about steroids, and the doctor (a woman) told me that it was a serious, SERIOUS issue and that I should not do it.

She saw me off, and then her son (who was in my class) brought me an envelope filled with papers about the dangers of steroids. She also continued to check in on me. She did this over the next five months. And she checked up on me though my mother.

Well, I really didn’t need a follow up.

I just didn’t do any steroids.

It was one of the BEST things that I ever did. And honestly, I am so happy that I lived in a small town and community. Access for these kinds of medicines was difficult and I did not pursue them. Thank JESUS!

Our decisions ALWAYS possess late-game impact.

You are the sum total of your previous behaviors. And that is why it takes a while for the affirmation campaigns to work. You have to untangle decades of previous verbalizations.

Smile. All of you are doing great right now. I believe in you all.

Today…

What is the best food to eat in France ever?

The best food in France, ever?

The best food in France ever is the Jambon Beurre.

But that’s just a ham sandwich, and you’re correct, it’s a ham sandwich, but not just a ham sandwich. The jambon beurre is a gastronomic lesson. It exemplifies how to make great food: take the best possible ingredients and prepare them with great technique, and no unnecessary fluff. The jambon beurre is simply a freshly baked baguette, delicious jambon de Paris and creamy 85% fat butter. Sometimes you’ll see sweet and sour cornichons or a few slices of cheese, but nothing else. No lettuce, tomatoes, onions, jalapeños or overpowering Subway styles sauces or dressings. This sandwich is just an assembly of three fine ingredients and it is divine.

Quality ingredients and good technique are the keys to great food. French cuisine taught us that lesson and the jambon beurre shows us it is true.

Wendelstein Church on Wendelstein Mountain, Bavarian Alps.

What was your “I am surrounded by idiots” moment?

I was in the office photocopier room with a fellow engineer.

I noticed there was a stack of paper in the recycling bin.

And the big stack of discarded pages, looked a lot like the smaller stack of pages that were spewing out of the machine.

I had time to notice this, because I had to wait while he loaded more paper into the copier’s empty paper trays.

I asked, “Do you have a lot of people coming to an engineering meeting? Usually there are only a few people at those meetings.”

“Oh”, he said. “I’m following the new directive to save paper by making only double-sided copies for meetings.”

I asked, “What’s wrong with all these copies in the recycling bin?”

”I forgot and I made those copies single-sided.”

I was shocked for a moment, then asked, “Why not actually save paper, by using the single-sided copies you already printed?”

“Because if I walked into the meeting with a bunch of single-sided pages, everyone would say I’m wasting paper.”

“But now you are wasting even more paper by re-printing everything again.”

“Yes, but I won’t get in trouble, because nobody knows.”

I thought about ’turning him in’ for deliberately wasting paper.

But having worked in the corporate world, I knew he was right.

The rules are intended to save paper, but the way those rules are enforced, can lead to more waste, not less.

It might seem like the engineer was the idiot.

But he was right.

We both knew that our management would punish us if we admitted even a small oversight.

The real idiots were those managers.

Siebers Tower, Rothenberg.

Body Count

United Arab Emirates officially stops using U.S. Dollar for oil trades

World Hal Turner

The global financial landscape is witnessing a seismic shift as the United Arab Emirates (UAE) boldly moves away from the US dollar in its oil trade dealings.

This strategic pivot aligns with the broader ambitions of the BRICS economic alliance, of which the UAE is a recent addition.

The changeover, involving the transition to local currencies for oil transactions, marks a significant departure from the long-established dollar dominance in the global oil market.

The BRICS bloc, comprising Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa, recently expanded its membership to include the UAE, along with Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, and Argentina.

This expansion signifies a growing inclination towards de-dollarization among these nations, a move that challenges the traditional hegemony of the US dollar in international trade.

The UAE’s decision to prioritize local currency over the US dollar in new oil deals is a clear reflection of this sentiment. This move isn’t just a mere policy shift; it’s a strategic maneuver in the complex chess game of global economics.

By aligning with the BRICS nations, the UAE is not only diversifying its economic partnerships but also reinforcing its position as a global oil powerhouse.

This change could potentially reshuffle the cards in the international oil trade, impacting the dollar’s stronghold and introducing a new era of currency dynamics in oil transactions.

ONGOING CATASTROPHE FOR USA

The shift away from the U.S. dollar is not some distant, arcane, thing which doesn’t affect YOU. It is affecting YOU already and it is going to get worse. Much worse. In fact, it’s going to be a catastrophe.

You see, since the 1970’s, ALL sales of oil, worldwide, have been transacted in “Dollars.” Everyone who sells it, sells in dollars. Everyone who buys it, buys in dollars.

In order to do that, every country on earth needs to hold “dollars” in its central bank.

Now that countries are starting to sell oil in currencies OTHER THAN Dollars, the central banks around the world won’t need to hold all those dollars. They will start to send those dollars BACK to the United States and say convert these back to OUR currency.

As dollars come back to the U.S. and other countries currencies are exchanged, THEIR currency will rise in value compared to ours. Our currency will FALL in value compared to others.

Now, we don’t manufacture much of anything here in America anymore; we import a lot of what we need/want.

So as we need to import, the value of OUR money is going to be worth less, and less compared to foreign countries, meaning what we need will cost VERY VERY MUCH MORE.

Inflation will hit the US in almost every sector because the things we need to import cost more and more dollars that are worth less and less.

So if you think things have gotten expensive this year, hold on to your hat; it’s going to get a LOT worse.

Moreover, at some point, countries may decide that the U.S., being so far in debt, makes our currency worthless. They may decide to STOP selling anything to us in US Dollars.

Despite being universally accepted nowadays, the fear of our currency becoming worthless is real because there is literally nothing backing our currency. Government keeps going farther and farther into debt until at some point, people around the world will simply NOT take our money anymore.

When THAT happens, the shortages and “supply chain disruption” seen during COVID-19, will look like kid games.

GOVERNMENT TO BLAME

The sole entity responsible for all this trouble is the US federal government; specifically, YOUR member of the US House of Representatives and YOUR US Senators.

It has been these people who have literally spent the country into oblivion. THEY voted for each and every dollar spent which had to be borrowed.

So as they come back from Washington to back-slap, glad-hand, and kiss babies, know that it is THESE PEOPLE who are personally responsible for wrecking this nation, and ruining everything you and your family has worked all your lives for.

More importantly, it is THESE PEOPLE who have mis-used their positions to impose “economic sanctions” on country after country around the world; telling those countries, “If you don’t do what we want, then you cannot use OUR money in YOUR trade.”

All those countries are tired of US meddling in THEIR internal affairs.

So they’re moving away from using US dollars, so that the US cannot sanction them anymore.

The result will be hyper-inflation for us, and wrecking of our country. All because THEY will not stop meddling in other people’s business.

1939 Delahaye Type 165

1939 Delahaye Type 165 is viewed by many as the most beautiful French car of the 1930s, only 5 of them were ever made with this one having been fatefully chosen by the French government to represent France at the 1939 New York World’s Fair.

Have you ever judged someone and realized you were wrong?

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.

Copeland’s of New Orleans the Guitreau

Ingredients

4 ounces butter
4 ounces chopped onions
5 single mushrooms
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 teaspoon garlic powder
1/4 teaspoon white pepper
8 ounces fish fillet (red or black drum recommended)
4 ounces crawfish tails
4 ounces 90-100 size shrimp

Instructions

Cook fish on grill approximately three minutes on each side.
While fish is cooking, sauté shrimp and crawfish tails for about one minute. At this point, everything else may be added. Cook until vegetables are translucent. If mixture is too thick, add a splash of dry white wine. If too thin, turn the heat up and cook down until the right consistency.

South Korea, Japan BETRAY and ABANDON U.S, Rush to CHINA!

Breakup of antiwar coalition on Taiwan Island brings war clouds closer to East Asia

Taiwan is not Ukraine. The Taiwanese army is compulsory conscription for one year, extended by Tsai Ing-wen from the previous four months, making her extremely unpopular. No one in Taiwan has the delusion that Westerners have that the Taiwanese army can withstand the PLA for more than a day.

Most of them will tell you the PLA takeover will last only a few hours.

The reason is none of these young men want to die fighting the PLA, not even the deepest Green. Many street interviews of youngsters in the deep Green country of south Taiwan have shown as much: don’t know history, don’t understand why Taiwan is the Republic of China and its airline is China Airlines, don’t like China, don’t want war with China, won’t fight the PLA to defend Taiwan.

In truth, most of them will simply surrender, because those who do not will be tried for treason or, as a minimum, carry a black mark for themselves and their family so that none of them or their offspring will enjoy the privilege of say working in government jobs or state corporations.

Don’t forget that Taiwan is an island. The shortest distance from China to Taiwan is about 220 km. Hawaii is 8500 km away and the American west coast is 11,000 km. People on the island can’t run off to Poland. No one is going to save them when the PLA lands. Taiwanese people understand this but try explaining it to people like Mearsheimer.

Another thing about America arming Taiwan. It’s a scam. Taiwan is going to get antiquated equipment at exorbitant prices. Taiwanese people also know about this because it is not new. It happened before. The US is worried there may be many Yifu Lin types in Taiwan, taking the latest US war technologies to join China. The last time they armed the Nationalists during the Chinese Civil War, the PLA got their hands on a large amount of the latest American weapons.

America is really good at lying. The country is built on lies. Ask any native American how many times the white man has lied to them and they will tell you as numerous as the stars in the sky. It’s too late for the natives, but we can learn something. Don’t trust any words or narratives that come from the direction of the hegemon.

-PM

Quiet

What will always be cool?

You met a girl. You smiled. She liked. You gave her compliments. She liked you more. You used every textbook trick to impress and voila! She indeed was impressed.

Time flew. Your mask fell off.

Now, she hates you.

Persuasion techniques are, at times, indeed useful. But if you want relationships that last, always be real. These techniques may capture someone’s head, but being who you are will capture their hearts.

That genuineness and sincerity, my friend, will always be cool! 🙂

What scary gut feeling did you have that turned out to be true?

A friend and I had plans to hang out. For whatever reason, she couldn’t make it and canceled. I didn’t want to hang around the house and went out anyway. As I approached the car, I got an uneasy feeling. I opted to take the other car; I still got an uneasy feeling, but it wasn’t as intense. I got in the car and left the house. Thirty minutes later the car was totalled; I didn’t even see it coming. When I came to, the car was upside down. I was still in the car, but laying on the roof. Had I take the initial car, I probably would have been dead or severely injured at best. I literally got up and walked away from the car on my own (I did pass out a couple times while the ambulance was en route). I broke my ankle and sternum and needed a couple stitches.

Chimney Sweep, outside 97th General Hospital, Frankfurt.

Five Pleasures for every pain

What’s something your husband did to you that you will never forget?

When my husband had been a consultant for about a year, and had been traveling 80% of the time for a job that he absolutely loved.

He came home one weekend and said, “Yesterday I was sitting at a table with five other consultants, and one of them told the group that I was on my first wife.

They all laughed and said, ‘That won’t last long!’ Two of them are on their third wife! That’s when I knew for sure that I have to change jobs.”

And that’s when I knew for sure that he would always put me first.

That we would always put each other first.

We’ve been married more than 40 years, and we’re still putting each other first. (He has since had several jobs that he enjoyed as much as that one, I’m glad to say. I wouldn’t want him to be unhappy at work because of me! I’ve always supported him in whatever his work choices have been, and he has been supportive of my career too.)

Ikigai

Have you ever met someone for the first time and got the strongest feeling that the person was bad?

I didn’t technically “meet” the guy. But when I was about 10yo & my mom asked me to run to the donut shop before going to school (it was less than a block from our apartment), I was so stoked, I ran the entire way!

As I went to pull the door open at the donut shop, this big grisly bear of a man sorta stumbled towards me from me pulling the door open so fast.

I looked him right in the eyes & got The biggest shot of freezing cold fear through me, turned right around & ran straight back home.

When my mom asked why I didn’t get any donuts, it took me a minute to answer. I asked if she remembered the creepy old big guy from the show we were watching last night & my mom replied “you mean Americas Most Wanted?”!

I said yes, she said “yeah, and?” I told her I’d ran straight into the featured criminal that was a father who raped & molested his daughters & their friends for years & was on the run with his wife (she said she didn’t believe her daughters or their friends, eww)!

My mom asked if I was sure & I was absolutely sure it was him. My mom called the tip line immediately & they said I wasn’t the first to report seeing him at that donut shop. That couple got so spooked by my reaction that they apparently immediately went back on the run. I believe they gave chase for a bit but somehow evaded police, but were later found dead from self inflicted injuries. I was told my report was the final “straw” for cops to believe it was a legit sighting.

No joke that when I say I felt straight evil from him, the burning ice cold feeling his eyes gave me, I will unfortunately never forget it.

Always, ALWAYS trust your “gut”! That intuition is inside us all for a very good reason.

Chinese journalist Liu Xin: DON’T MESS WITH CHINA!

What is the best etiquette for guests who offer to pay for things after staying at someone’s home?

Some years back, a close friend of mine, let’s call her Jane, underwent a significant surgery. She lived alone, and the recovery period was expected to be long and challenging. Jane’s sister, who lived in a different city, offered to take her in during the recovery. The sister had a spacious home and a supportive family, making it an ideal environment for Jane’s recuperation.

Jane, always mindful of not imposing, devised thoughtful ways to contribute to the household. Since she couldn’t engage in physical activities initially, she used her skills as a seasoned graphic designer to help her niece with a school project, creating an impressive presentation. This gesture was immensely appreciated and brought her closer to her niece.

As she regained strength, Jane took up the responsibility of managing the family’s online affairs. She organized digital photo albums, set up an efficient bill payment system, and even taught her sister and brother-in-law how to use various apps to streamline their daily tasks. These small yet significant contributions made her feel useful and less like a burden.

Additionally, Jane used her savings to occasionally treat the family to meals from their favorite restaurants, understanding that her presence had increased the household expenses. She also made it a point to maintain her space meticulously, ensuring that her temporary stay caused minimal disruption in their routine.

When Jane finally returned to her home, her relationship with her sister’s family had deepened. They had not only supported her through a challenging time but had also received her gratitude and contributions in a way that enriched their lives. This experience, my friend often reflects, taught her the importance of giving back, even in times of personal difficulty.

What was the best relationship advice you ever got?

The best relationship advice I ever got was from my grandma years ago, while we were sitting on our back porch swing. There was a thunderstorm going on, and we were enjoying the rain and swinging and talking and nothing was off limits.

At one point, Grandma said, “When we stop expecting someone to be perfect, we can begin to appreciate them for who they really are. No one can ever be perfect. That’s just the way things are.

Crying is okay, too. Sometimes, love is just too big for words …”

What are some useful facts that went unnoticed?

The way you treat yourself is the standard you set for others.
A successful man is one who makes more money than his wife can spend . A successful woman is one who can find such a man .
Sometimes following your heart means losing your mind.
The most beautiful woman is someone who’s happy and is always smiling.
The sexiest thing about a woman is not in the clothes she wears , the figure that she carries or the way she combs her hair but Confidence in a humble way, not in an arrogant way. Sense of humour is definitely important.
The biggest asset in the world is your mindset.
Good looking people are trusted quicker by the subconscious mind. No clue why ? But there’re many good looking manipulators. Trust by character not appearance.
Someone you’ve only known for ten days could have better intentions for you than someone you’ve known for ten years. Time means nothing; character does.
Don’t let the world define your identity for you . They don’t know you and likely they don’t care about you.

What was the moment you realized your significant other didn’t care about you at all anymore?

After twenty years of marriage I got crippled up by arthritis and my wife came to me and asked for a divorce so she could go out and live her life.

I pointed to the door.

Signed the divorce papers for her so she saved some costs. I got no child support even though both our kids stayed with me. Actually they gave her half the house I had built and the entire time I was building it she didn’t want me too because I was “wasting” money on it.

A few months after the divorce was final she actually told me I was going to have to marry her back. Right.

I said no.

Today I’ve been married to a wonderful woman who’s supportive and I enjoy every day.

I did recover from being crippled with a lot of rehab and I made sure to tell my wife to be that I could never guarantee that being crippled wouldn’t recur.

Then a couple years after we married she had to have open heart surgery to repair a bad heart valve and I was there taking care of her with no complaints while she recovered. She’s always doing things to make my life easier. It’s what marriage is all about. Teamwork.

What was your strangest experience visiting a friend or relative in the hospital?

I wasn’t the visitor. I just happened to be a physician, working at the hospital, that day.

I was walking down the hall talking with one of our most senior nurses. As we walked by a patient room, I happened to glance over.

“Did I just see that?”, I remarked, stopping and placing a restraining hand on Pat’s arm.

“What?” asked Pat.

“Back up.”

We took a couple of steps back and looked into the room.

“What the actual f**k!”

A visitor had climbed onto the bed with the patient. He was choking her and hissing,

“You ruined my life, B**ch!”.

“Whoa!”

I yelled for Security, at the top of my lungs.

Pat charged around me with the wrath that only an overweight, middle aged woman, who is sick of everybody’s sh*t, can.

“Off!” She yelled, smacking the man, on the head, with her clipboard.

“OFF, OFF, OFF!” ( whack, whack, whack)

The man let go of the patient and turned toward us.

Uh-oh.

Pat was undeterred. She smacked him a couple of more times. (whack, whack)

With a voice, honed with the authority of 30 years of nursing, she chased him down the hall.

“OUT, OUT, OUT!” (whack, whack, whack)

Just then Security showed up and rescued the perpetrator from the furious nurse.

I stayed to ensure that the patient was not seriously injured.

Pat returned, ruffled but none the worse for wear.

“Remind me not to EVER piss you off.”

We went back to our original conversation.

Just another day in the glamorous life of a physician.

Peace.

Have you ever broken the law for good reason and did you ever get caught?

Yes, I did.

Many years ago, I was approached by a woman I knew through our homeowners’ association, and she asked to talk to me. She said that she was getting ready to leave her husband, who was a brutal and abusive alcoholic. She had a tiny puppy — a little fluffy mix that was mostly Yorkie and Pomeranian — that he was kicking and mistreating, and she wanted to get it to safety as soon as possible before he either damaged her or killed her.

She knew I was a dog lover, so she proposed that she leave her back gate unlocked, and after she was sure her husband had passed out, she would put the puppy on the back porch behind the unlocked gate. I could take the puppy, and disappear into the night.

I lived a distance from the woman’s home, so there was no danger the puppy would ever be seen by her husband. So, I agreed. We decided to do it that night.

The arranged dognapping went off without a hitch, and Rita made her home with us for many years. The woman also escaped her husband, as planned.

Traveling around Bavaria, in a 1951 Chevrolet.

What do Hospice workers know about the last hours of life that most doctors don’t?

I buried my wife a week ago today. Alzheimer’s disease is a terrible way to die. She was diagnosed in 2013. She died October 10, 2023. I delayed her services until one of her siblings returned from a cruise. Since she chose cremation long ago, there was no urgency to bury her in my family’s grave plots.

She was an RNC – BSN in Labor and Delivery. Dedicated her life managing a 40 bed LDRP unit with NICU.

The Hospice nurse thought she was stable earlier in the day, but she later observed a change that I probably would not have recognized. The Hospice nurse told me I should come. She had been non verbal for about a year. Had to be fed, and was in a special Hospice provided wheel chair when out of her bed.

I knew as a lifelong nurse she did not want to live like that, but a DNR covers no cardiac crash cart intervention and no tube feeding. It is way above my pay grade to opine that her quality of life was near zero. A Hospice nurse knows when there is more brain activity than many of us might think.

She had been in a nursing home exactly three years. When she first arrived, she never stopped nursing, looking after those residents who were no longer ambulatory. In fact, she thought she was in charge of the nursing home because she was a Director of Women’s Health before she retired. At the peak of her career, she had 150 employees and a seven figure annual budget. A few years later, she could not balance her check book.

The Hospice nurse told me the last thing to go with an Alzheimer’s victim is their hearing, so even though she looked comatose, the nurse convinced me she could hear me.

I believe her. No finger squeezing, no eye movement, nothing but labored breathing. I told her I loved her, and that I would have been nothing without her.

Thinking she was stable for maybe another day, I went home to get something to eat. Hospice called and said she was gone before I got back to the nursing home. We would have been married 51 years December 30. Planned our wedding around an OU Sugar Bowl game in 1972.

I hated myself for leaving the nursing home for what seemed like only a short time, but maybe she knew I had been there, and she was tired of the pain. Maybe she held on just long enough to see me or hear me one last time.

I’ll forever regret not spending more time with her. I honestly did not think she knew I was there during visits the last year, but now I know she knew I was there near the end, so she probably knew I was there during those times when I thought there was little brain function remaining.

I regret not spending more time with her excellent Hospice caregivers, to better understand that though my wife seemed near comatose for over a year, she would know I was there if I had spent more time with her.

Always pay attention to the Hospice nurses. Milk them for more knowledge about how it will probably end.

I am forever indebted to the Hospice nurses who cared for my wife. Hospice was there when I could not be there. No one should die alone.

What are your thoughts on the recent incident where a Chinese navy destroyer used active sonar to harass a disabled Australian frigate conducting underwater repairs in international waters?

Not long ago, Western media were promoting “the Chinese Air Force intercepted a Canadian aircraft.” But they don’t tell you that this interception took place in the northern part of the Taiwan Strait, only dozens of kilometers away from the coast of China.

Now, the Western media is once again propagating that “the Chinese Navy is unprofessional towards Australian warships.” Okay, let’s look at the truth of the matter again.

The “exclusive economic zones” of China and Japan overlap on a large scale, and the overlapping area is closer to China’s territorial waters.

First, Australia claimed that “the warship is located within Japan’s exclusive economic zone.” It seems to tell us that they are near Japanese territorial waters. But is this true?

Let’s take a look at how big Japan’s “exclusive economic zone” is. As we all know, Japan’s “exclusive economic zone” was set unilaterally by Japan. It has a large number of overlapping areas with mainland China, Taiwan, South Korea, and North Korea, and is not recognized at all in East Asia.

Therefore, the fact that the Australian warship is “located within Japan’s exclusive economic zone” does not mean that it is “close to Japan”. On the contrary, it is likely to be close to China’s territorial waters, has entered China’s exclusive economic zone or even approached China’s territorial waters. This is also the reason for this type of incident. normal. The Chinese almost never go far from their shores on such missions.

Secondly, the news that the Chinese Navy’s use of “sonar” caused “slight injuries” to divers is not credible at all. According to news reports, the warship that intercepted the Australian Navy was the Chinese Navy No. 139 Ningbo Ship. This is a modern-class destroyer with a full load displacement of 8,500 tons and an old Soviet warship. According to public information, the sonar equipped on this destroyer is the MGK-335 hull-acoustic hull sonar. This is an active high-power sonar designed for deep-sea nuclear submarines, with a peak operating power of hundreds of kilowatts.

The shock waves it emits can hit the submarine’s hull several kilometers away and detect the echoes. There is no point in turning on sonar for surface ship monitoring.

Because this type of sonar is powerful enough to cause injury to large marine life such as dolphins and whales, it is generally not turned on. When the warships of both sides are approaching, if the Chinese Navy really turns on this sonar, then the diver will not suffer just a “slight injury”, it will shatter people’s internal organs.

Therefore, the real situation may be that the diver suffered minor injuries due to other reasons in the process of rushing to shore. After all, the Australian Toowoomba is just a 3,600-ton frigate. When facing an 8,500-ton Chinese warship, a hasty retreat is a normal reaction.

There are a few more noteworthy keywords

2. Sanctions tasks of the United Nations

This statement is the same as that of the Canadian military aircraft, which also claimed to be carrying out “UN sanctions supervision against North Korea.” But they flew to the northern part of the Taiwan Strait.

China has publicly stated many times that the United Nations has never authorized such a mission. As one of the five permanent members of the Security Council, China’s statement is credible, and other countries have not raised any objections.

Therefore, the Australian warship’s so-called “implementation of United Nations sanctions and supervision of North Korea” is just a farce written and directed by several countries led by the United States.

3. The fishing net entangled the propeller

It shows that the Australian warship has entered the fishing area instead of the normal route. This will cause disruption to both Chinese and Japanese fishermen. Whether it is Japan’s exclusive economic zone or China’s exclusive economic zone, it is undeniable that it is more than 1,000 kilometers away from Australia. That is China’s doorstep, not Australia’s.

The incident took place so far away from Australia. What was the Australian Navy thinking when it sent a small warship to the coast of a nuclear-armed superpower to show off? If the opponent was the United States or Russia, they would have been sunk long ago.

4. Unprofessional

The Chinese Navy’s approach to foreign warships approaching China’s territorial waters has always been to “identify, warn and drive away”. This is their “professionalism”. There was no warning of weapons and no active collision, indicating that the Chinese navy was restrained. It makes no sense for the Australians to use the excuse “sonar harms divers” to divert attention.

What is the biggest snub you received from a family member?

There have been several over my long life but the one that still hurts the most was when my family decided to do a family photo.

For context:

my parents (mom and dad), 4 others siblings with their spouse and child(ren)

18 people total including myself and husband.

I’ve always been a coordinator of events and the like so I offered to find and buy all the children’s outfits so they match/color coordinate.

All the adults wore coordinating colors. We planned on having an outdoor spring photo shoot and I purchased all items to stage the pictures (included a setee, velvet arm chairs, Persian rug….you get the idea not just outside but staged. We hired a professional photographer with each of us paying $200

to cover the bill.

A week before the photos were supposed to be done, my older sister comes over and says my parents want our children but not myself and husband in the pictures. I say nothing, think about it an day and then call my dad. I ask him did he and my mother say we were not to be in pics? He never gives me a direct answer. Says they really just pics of the grandkids, I ask him then why is everyone else included besides my husband and myself? -he gives Half answers until I say I have to go-I sent all of them an email laying out how hurt we were and Don’t understand what we could have down to be excluded like this. Not one response.

Picture day:

My older sister had the audacity to call me and ask if my kids were ready and she was on the way to pick them up. I told her Nope and hung up.

That is the last one I ever spoke to or heard from any of them. Family should never hurt like that

What are the most common regrets that people have once they grow old?

My generation, the boomers, was encouraged to take risks and accomplish great things. We were told that we could do anything and should. We had people like JFK pushing us to go to the moon.

I grew up in a violent, terrifying and poor household where I felt great responsibility for the younger children. I felt no love from my parents. I was just scared all the time. I subsequently had little energy left for doing well in school. I had only one friend. I was always afraid of authority and had no self-confidence. I was not equipped for adulthood and most of it was a struggle to do well at whatever job I held.

When I retired, due to my great fear of poverty, i had plenty of money saved and my own home. I also realized something important. I didn’t have to have regrets even though I had not taken risks or accomplished great things.

I had survived. I had accomplished something important. I was safe. I had made it through all the troubles and fear. I had gritted my teeth and pushed through all the pain and loneliness and self-loathing that comes with being treated badly.

I am old but I have many years to go and I’ll spend them being proud of myself for making it through to safety. This might not seem like much of a goal to most people but it was what I dreamed of for myself and unwittingly worked hard for. I have no regrets.

Cat revenge story

What’s a rule your employer implemented that backfired terribly?

Not me, my wife.

She ran a very successful Dentist as Practice Manager…she has been a Dental Nurse since the early 90s and worked her way up.

Probably about 80% of the role was managing the staff…whereas 80% should have been running the regulatory side of the business….unfortunately, that meant that the regulatory side had to be done after hours.

She would put in 12 hour days, come home, have dinner, then start again and not stop until near midnight, nightly!

Now the business owner and principle knew HE could not manage the staff, but he then started demanding that she was ‘front of house’ due to her professionalism…even though others were just as capable…so of course, that meant other things started to suffer…initially her health, but she persevered…she ‘loved her job’!

But then, the inevitable happened…he ‘decided’, without any consultation, that her role was now ‘salaried’ and he would no longer pay overtime.

Now, there’s a rock and a hard place…the regulatory side could not be undertaken during the day, would not be compensated, and was a legal requirement for the Practice to operate; so she took the only option available; she resigned (her health was deteriorating anyway…and that was due to the stress of the job!)

6 months later, she is in a far better place physically. The business she left is on its knees. All the staff had left, and it is now – just about – scraping by as a single dentist practice (there had been 10 dentists and 26 support staff!).

I reckon that it has 3–4 months left before it goes completely under….all because he started interfering in the staff roles and didn’t want to pay a little overtime.

What should be done to make the Indian police more efficient and less corrupt?

Lets do what China or Singapore is doing and ensuring that their police remain tough but relatively free from any corruption and actually follow the law

Pay

India pay their policemen a pittance. I am talking about the rank and file cops. If you look at Comparative Median Income- a Middle ranking Indian policeman (Non IPS) gets only 1.06 times the Median income compared to 1.41 times for a Chinese Cop and 1.83 times for a Singaporean Cop and 1.82 times for a US Cop from NYPD or CPD. A 41% Pay raise for Middle Ranking Cops and allowance raise and upto 77% Pay raise for the Rank and file would work wonders.

Housing and Allowances

China, Hong Kong have police departments which purchase their own lands and commercially build apartments and sell them at zero interest to Cops and retired cops. 2,3,4 BHK Apartments with all the luxuries like a Swimming Pool, Gymnasium etc provided.

Hamara Bharat – How a Police Quarters looks like in Bharat with Inspectors living in this dilapidated building. The Toilets are particularly a bonanza. Departments have to beg and beg for the most basic of maintenance and painting.

Death Insurance

In India a Cop shot and killed while on Duty will get a flat sum of Rs. 18 Lakhs to Rs. 85 Lakhs depending on City and State with Mumbai and Delhi paying the highest.

85 Lakhs sounds good right?

Sorry. First the money is taxable, Second the average time to get this money is 17 – 24 months if you are lucky and third – an Insurance company pays this sum and it will dodge and demand a lot of documentation like death report etc etc etc.

A woman called Gurbachan Kaur who was supposed to get Rs. 78 Lakhs for her husbands death (He was Senior Inspector of Police) is yet to get any money after 1 1/2 years and after taxes and deductions – she is expected to net Rs. 58 Lakhs. Its around 5.25 times his median annual income. Even this sum is in doubt as the Insurance company is now saying the man died of a heart attack which means natural death (Far low payout).

Lets take China or HK – the sum for death of a Similar rank is around 8.25 times the Median Income and NO TAX. And you get the money within 60 days. Its a law. If you dont get the money in China within 60 days – the Department will be questioned and the LEPPA laws will be applied and No insurance company – money belongs to the Department directly

And many others – Good Healthcare plans, Good Education Plans, Education Trusts for Kids of Cops, Free Education etc.

The Cops are taken care of decently and so they do their job well.

Then there is the question of Punishment. Cops who break the law are brutally punished. In China except the Political Police – all other cops can be punished brutally for Bribery or for Public Abuse or false cases etc. The LEPPA which applies only to cops and can put a cop for 15–25 years for a custodial death within 3 months through special courts.

Its the Double Edged Sword – Good Incentives but Brutal Punishments

Its what India should do

PS This only applies to officers. Chinese Constables are very less paid (Same as Indian PCS) but they get commissions (Hyeung Ya or Golden Fragrance) of 55% – 150% of their monthly salaries. Legal commissions on which they have to pay tax.

Our Poor Havildars have no such incentives and can get a CBI Case for a mere Rs. 500/- bribe.

Weißer Turm (The White Tower), Galgengasse, Rothenburg.

Simple

Why are the Chinese not interested in Western democracy?

Western Democracy is:

School shootings.
An expensive education system that does not give people the most basic knowledge.
The world’s largest prison system.
An expensive healthcare system that is against disease prevention. And which gives decreasing life expectancy.
A colossal big expensive army which is not able to overcome the Taliban. And the army’s expenses are poorly documented.
The judiciary is large and expensive.
The financial sector is filled with at least 90% air, which will give rise to a new financial bubble, which will empty people’s pensions.
The two identical parties present only the interests of the rich. And yet they are extremely hostile to each other.
Real wages for the middle class have not increased since the 1970s.
Many of the politicians stand with one foot in the grave, so it will never be them themselves who will pay back the country’s debt. Their goal is to survive only four more years.

I could make several points. But why do you think it is difficult to sell this system, Western Democracy to the Chinese?!

Wasn’t it a better idea to sell Chinese socialism to the Americans?! Who wants a government that will multiply your hourly wage?!

What do we know for certain about China’s military, or what sources are most reliable?

The bloody history has told every Chinese: China’s peace today is not because the invaders abandoned evil and turned to good, but because of the powerful PLA.

Men need emotional closeness

How do you make productivity less of a miserable experience?

Mike Tyson is the father of my favorite sports quote. Reporters were questioning him about his new opponent. They were building up the rivalry, talking about how dangerous this fighter was, how he planned to keep Tyson at a distance with his jab, how he planned to wear him down.

Getting annoyed with the questions, Mike looked up from tying his shoes and said, “Everyone has a plan — until they get hit.” It’s so perfectly translatable to life. Everyone is on a diet, until they get hungry. Everyone wants good grades, until it’s time to study. Aspirations and reality are often star-crossed lovers: desperate to be together but doomed to be apart.

We don’t like what most goals entail. There’s a way to make things easier. It starts with understanding the process of productivity.

Slow down your mind to produce more

In a 2013 experiment, scientists showed flashing images to young mice for six hours a day for ten days straight. The changing images emulated cell phones and TVs. Those mice later displayed significant difficulties getting through mazes and finishing cognitive tasks versus non-stimulated mice. Science has long known overstimulation leads to deficits in cognition and attention span.

More plainly, when you are bored with a task, you are often overstimulated. It’s worse than most people realize. Our minds are lost in thought for roughly 47% of our day.

Concentrative meditation, a focus on one specific thing, is proven to boost your focus over time, even if you only do it for five minutes a day. Letting too many voices in your head drowns out those that need to be heard. It’s counterintuitive to think that slowing down your mind increases its potency. The brain is like a lightbulb: too much energy makes it shine less.

If you are feeling ambitious, a Harvard study found that 27-minutes of meditation per day led to increased gray-matter density in the hippocampus, resulting in improved learning, empathy, and memory.

Start easier by creating mental opposition

My girlfriend works in academia and occasionally writes huge, thickly worded papers. On the scale of writing projects, it’s one of the most nightmarish. She was working herself up over a paper last month. She talked about it all week, dreading it, venting about it. She was eventually in full-blown tears, despite not having written a single word.

I’m a fairly patient guy but I do have limits. I finally said, “I need you to do a favor for both of us and get this done. Do it for me, please.” Her dread was bleeding into our relationship. Seeing my point, and to her credit, she powered through it and was a new person afterward.

Procrastination is the hellspawn of anticipation. We expend so much energy thinking about doing something, building up the tension, contemplating the boredom and pain involved. Our energy is sapped before we even begin.

Defeat it by inverting your thoughts

The next time you are putting something off, pay attention to your thoughts. Notice when you have a ‘dread’ thought, “This is going to be so hard.” Notice how you feel heavier. I can literally feel my body getting more immobile when I catch those thoughts.

The trick is to invert that process. I write for a living. When my keyboard is roaring at me like a 101-toothed monster, I’ll itemize reasons I should write. For example:

If I write now, I’ll have free time later.

It will be fun to discover which words show up on the page.
The show I’m watching is useless and boring.
I’ll make more money if I spend more time writing.
It’s going to ruin my mood if I keep procrastinating.

Make it a game to verbally list as many reasons as possible. This will magnetize your motivations. Actions are an extension of our thoughts. Starting is often the hardest part of productivity.

How to stay in the pocket after you start

When I was a swimmer, I didn’t have aquatic headphones to get me through a workout. Swimming is an exhausting exercise in sensory deprivation. You can only see the bottom of the pool and hear the water in your ears. Workouts were miserable and every stroke invites you to slack off.

The key was to stay focused at the moment. I did this in two ways. First, I focused on my technique, giving 100% of my focus to my coach’s instructions. When that technique crumbled, I fell back into reminding myself of my goals. I singularly focused on them, much like you would with concentrative meditation.

Remind yourself that you want to get promoted and get a raise. Reflect on sub-goals. Reflect on what happens if you quit now and flake out. Thoughts can be weaponized against laziness. Productivity is a battle in your mind. If you let weakening thoughts run about unchallenged, you are doomed. Focus on perfection and your attention to detail.

The takeaway and tying it all together

Remember, productivity has three key elements:

Convince yourself to start.
Stay focused despite distractions.
Continue working when you don’t feel like it.

Convince yourself to start by being cognizant of detractor thoughts. Dismiss them quickly and list out reasons to start.

To avoid distractions, practice slowing down your mind with meditation. Additionally, make a mental note of every time you lose focus. When I start getting sloppy, I’ll keep a piece of paper and make a line every time I catch my mind drifting.

Lastly, to get through arduous, monotonous tasks, focus on being present in the moment. Focus on the details. Think about your goals. But never dread the painful aspects of your tasks. Motivation is war. Know how to rally your troops.

Roman Empire and Chill

Dinardo’s Italian Restaurant Creole Carbonara

Ingredients

1/2 cup chicken thigh meat
2 1/2 tablespoons Creole seasoning
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 ounces andouille sausage, chopped
8 ounces medium shrimp, peeled and deveined
1/4 cup green onions, chopped
1 tablespoon garlic, chopped
1 1/2 cups heavy whipping cream
1/4 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
Dash of Tabasco
1/2 tablespoon salt
1/2 cup Parmesan cheese
1/2 pound fettuccine, cooked

Instructions

Coat the chicken with one teaspoon of the Creole seasoning.
Heat olive oil in a skillet over medium-high heat and sauté chicken for approximately one minute.
Add andouille and continue cooking one additional minute.
Season shrimp with remaining Creole seasoning, add to chicken/andouille mixture and cook until shrimp are pink and curled.
Add green onions, garlic and whipping cream. Bring mixture to a boil then reduce heat to medium.
Add Worcestershire, Tabasco, salt and half of the Parmesan cheese.
Coat fettuccine with sauce and top with remaining cheese.

West Germany.

Appreciation

* REAL ** Trouble: No One Buying US Treasuries

World Hal Turner

Nobody wants U.S. Treasury bonds. Bond Sales are in the worst stretch since the Civil War. The federal government has run up so much debt that few if any around the world, want to lend them money anymore. This cannot end well.

Once a symbol of America’s economic might and accepted as a global coin of the realm, US Treasuries have fallen badly out of favor, with serious consequences for taxpayers, investors, and financial markets.

Elementary economic forces — too much supply and not enough demand — have collided to create the worst stretch for U.S. government bonds since the Civil War. The government keeps borrowing to cover its budget deficits, while once-reliable buyers of that debt, both at home and abroad, have pulled back.

The result: Investors are demanding the steepest yields since 2007. Auctions of fresh bonds that were once routine are now going terribly. And bond portfolios are getting absolutely hammered. The longest-dated Treasury bonds are in a bear market worse than the dot-com bust and almost as bad as 2008.

Already 2.5% of the U.S.’s economic output is going to service its existing debts, a number that some analysts expect to hit 4% by 2030. Already running huge deficits, the only way for Treasury to pay the interest — along with ambitious spending programs like the CHIPS Act and student-loan forgiveness — is to keep borrowing.

They are now TRAPPED in a vicious spiral that can ONLY lead to financial death for the country. There is no other possible outcome because the government will not stop spending.

Skiing in Bavaria.

Smart kitty

What’s a rule your employer implemented that backfired terribly?

Didn’t happen to me, but a friend of mine.

He worked in a private local company. At the end of 2017 the owner of the company changed which means the head of the board of directors changed (let’s call the new guy Jim). Obviously, Jim wanted to make some changes himself, mostly to establish dominance and show he’s the new sheriff in town. Rumors say he promised to double company’s profit in a single year (remember this). There’s a thin line between ambitious and cocky.

The first move he made didn’t have anything to do with the increasing work efficiency or meeting heads of departments or actually know the work that is done in that company. Jim had installed one of those time clock machines where employees check in when they get to work and check out when they’re done. Something like this:

[source: google time clock, image from Icon Proximity card keyfob Reusable RFID Key Fob for Icon]

only they didn’t have tokens, but cards. Installation and writing guidelines took about a week after which he announced to heads of departments that every employee must check in and check out themself even when they’re going out just for a break. Also, heads of departments should’ve forward these news to employees. The thing officially started second or third week in January of 2018.

At first, employees didn’t take it so seriously and some of them didn’t check in/out every day or didn’t (sometimes even forgot to) note down their breaks. At the end of the week, Jim would go through every employee’s record to see does any of them have less than 40 hours. (Notice he wasn’t interested in those who had more than 40 hours.) Friend told me that most of employees were in the range 38–45 working hours and a very few around 37 but none under 37. Jim called for a meeting with heads of departments every Friday to inform them about the records and to warn those who work less. Also, there was no compensation for those who work more (stay late or work on weekends).

Employees protested about that kind of behavior and wanted time clock out. That only made Jim to push that thing even more and convinced the board of directors and the owner that the time clock is necessary. So it passed.

The thing is that the work climate has changed. Everyone was more concentrated on if they checked in and if they worked enough than the actual work and the pressure started to build up. The thing went on for two whole months until the most of the employees (friend said 80% but maybe he exaggerated a bit) decided to come to work, check in, work their 8 hours at a moderate pace, check out and head home. No overtime, no working weekends, if the clock hit 16:00 people would leave midwork or in the middle of the meeting not giving a shred of an F. Their excuse was that they did their 8 hours and if they want them to stay, they want a written notice (which is a proof of working overtime and must be paid).

This way every single employee had 40 working hours a week and not a minute more or less. But you know what? Jim wasn’t satisfied. Why? Because work suffered. He made the employees numbers and working slaves that have only one purpose – to work. This killed all the passion people had towards the job they were doing. It demoralized people. They had a feeling that someone is standing above their head every second of the day. And the time clock might not be a bad thing to check employees every once in a while, but to terrorize them like Jim did made them do anything just in spite of that work regime.

After 3 and a half months, the moment of truth came. The first quartal report came. It was a bit better than the last year so Jim stayed at his position. Employees continued with their strike. The second quartal report came and the profit was ~8% less than the same period of previous year (maybe 9% I don’t remember). Jim ascribed it to a bad economy in the country and stayed at his position. Employees were informed about the drop in profit which made them to continue their strike. The third quartal report came. The company’s profit was down by amazing 34% compared to the same period of the previous year. Jim was fired on the spot (even though his mandate supposed to last 5 years) and time clock was left just to control employees every now and then.

Conclusion: Treat your employees as humans which they are and maybe consult someone about your radical actions.

A serious MIXED message

What is the best case of “You just picked a fight with the wrong person” that you’ve witnessed?

Many decades ago my Dad was a high school teacher in the inner city of Boston.

One of the students in his class was a nationally ranked Judo practitioner who competed at the national level. This young man might miss weeks of school to attend an event around the world. IIRC he may have been part of the US Judo team at the time.

This young man was very quiet and kept to himself generally head down looking at a book at his desk. However he would sometimes be taunted by other students and generally would ignore the idiots.

One day Dad is writing something on the blackboard and behind him he hears one of the jerks taunting. He hears things like “You gonna show me some of that kung fu shit” and then he hears “Let’s see you block this punch”.

Dad hears a small amount of noise and turns around. This is a matter of seconds. The Asian Judo practitioner is sitting in his chair, head down reading a book. And the jerk kid is unconscious on the floor peeing his pants.

The jerk on the floor starts coming around. Dad tells his friends to get him back in his seat. And everyone starts laughing at the jerk because of the giant pee stain on his crotch.

That seemingly ended the attempted bullying. Everyone realized that this kid could kick everyone’s ass if needed.

I love a happy ending!

On Mount Wendelstein.

Wife Cheats On Work Trip And Now Is Losing Her Mind That Her Marriage Is IMPLODING

Her: I ripped the soul out of my husband through betrayal.

Also her: I made him coffee and did some chores. We should be all good, right?

All at once

I watched a very interesting movie. It’s an American-Chinese joint venture. The movie is titled “Everything everywhere all at once“.

I watched it while taking the High Speed Train from Guangzhou to JiangXi.

It was fun.

everything everywhere all at once review fight scene

It, like much of the modern Chinese contemporaneous movies, a visual feast. Artsy and curious.

It was about world-line travel.

Fictional. Funny, Visually appealing.

Everything Everywhere All at Once is a 2022 American independent film written and directed by Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert, who produced it with Anthony and Joe Russo and Jonathan Wang; the film incorporates elements from a number of genres and film mediums, including absurdist fiction, comedy-drama, surreal comedy, science fiction, fantasy, martial arts films, immigrant narrative, and animation.

Michelle Yeoh stars as Evelyn Quan Wang, a Chinese-American immigrant who, while audited by the IRS, discovers that she must connect with parallel universe versions of herself to prevent a powerful being from destroying the multiverse. 

The film also stars Stephanie Hsu, Ke Huy Quan, Jamie Lee Curtis, Jenny Slate, Harry Shum Jr., and James Hong in supporting roles.

The multi-verse as described in the movie has no similarity to what I understand the MWI to be. However, I always enjoy world-line travel movies.

The film explores philosophical themes such as existentialism, nihilism, surrealism, and absurdism, as well as themes such as neurodivergence, depression, generational trauma, and Asian American identity.

The film itself is brilliant. Even if absurd.

The MWI is real, and it is valid. However, the idea in the movie that consciousness is equally shared between the world-lines is a tad distorted. Instead the centering of consciousness on a given world-line is the actual REALITY within this universe.

At a tense meeting with IRS inspector Deirdre Beaubeirdre, Waymond's body is taken over by Alpha-Waymond, a version of Waymond from the "Alphaverse."

Alpha-Waymond explains to Evelyn that many parallel universes exist because every life choice creates a new alternative universe.

In the Alphaverse, the late Alpha-Evelyn developed "verse-jumping" technology, which enables people to access the skills, memories, and bodies of their parallel selves by performing bizarre actions that are statistically unlikely.

The multiverse is threatened by Jobu Tupaki (Alpha-Joy), whose mind was splintered after Alpha-Evelyn pushed her to verse-jump beyond her endurance; Jobu experiences all universes at once and can verse-jump and manipulate matter at will.

She has created a black hole-like "Everything Bagel" topped with everything,^[18] which appears as a toroid singularity^[19] that could destroy the multiverse.

Evelyn is given verse-jumping technology to fight Jobu's minions, who converge on the IRS building.

She discovers other universes in which she made different choices and flourished, such as becoming a kung fu master and film star; she also learns of Waymond's plans with the divorce papers.

Alpha-Waymond believes that Evelyn, as the greatest "failure" of all Evelyns in the multiverse, has the untapped potential to defeat Jobu.

Gong Gong is taken over by Alpha-Gong Gong, who instructs Evelyn to kill Joy to stop Jobu from using her to enter Evelyn's universe.

Evelyn refuses and decides to face Jobu by gaining powers through repeated verse-jumping.

Alpha-Gong Gong, convinced that Evelyn's mind has been compromised like Jobu's, sends soldiers after Evelyn.

While they fight, Jobu locates and kills Alpha-Waymond in the Alphaverse.

As Jobu confronts Evelyn in her universe, Evelyn's mind splinters, and she collapses.

Evelyn uncontrollably verse-jumps alongside Jobu across bizarre and diverse universes.

Jobu reveals she does not want to fight at all, but that instead, she has been searching for an Evelyn who can see, as she does, that nothing matters, while killing the Evelyns that do not agree with her.

She brings Evelyn to the Everything Bagel, explaining that she wants to use it to allow herself and Evelyn to truly die.

Upon looking into the Bagel, Evelyn is initially persuaded, and behaves cruelly and nihilistically in her other universes, hurting those around her.

As Evelyn is about to enter the Bagel with Jobu, she pauses to listen to Waymond's pleas in her universe for everybody to stop fighting and to instead be kind, even when life does not make sense.

Evelyn has an existentialist epiphany and decides to follow Waymond's absurdist^[20] and humanist^[21] advice, using her multiverse powers to fight with empathy^[22] and bring happiness to those around her; in doing so, she repairs her damage in the other universes and neutralizes Alpha-Gong Gong and Jobu's fighters.

In her home universe, Evelyn reconciles with Waymond, accepts Joy and Becky's relationship and tells Gong Gong of it, and talks with Deirdre after Waymond convinces Deirdre to let them redo their taxes.

Jobu decides to enter the Bagel alone while, simultaneously in Evelyn's universe, Joy begs Evelyn to let her go.

Evelyn tells Joy that even when nothing makes sense and even though she could be anywhere else in the multiverse, she would always want to be with Joy.

Evelyn and the others save Jobu from the Bagel, and Evelyn and Joy embrace.

It is a fantasy. Which is still a fun illustration.

So that is OK, don’t you know.

But what does the audience get from this movie?

That there is a multi-verse; and MWI.
That you can travel between different world-lines.
That the traveling consciousness can absorb simultaneous experiences that color the actions in the reality.

I personally view this movie as an entry bridge towards enlightenment of the true and really pertinent reality that we all experience.

World-line slides… shown in the movie.

The three key points above are all in alignment with MM’s MWI narrative.

Today…

Who is the most evil person you have ever met?

Edward. We called him Crazy Ed. At 12 years of age during a family reunion he grabbed his dad’s shotgun and started shooting. He got mad at his parents over some little crap. Shot his ma, pa, aunt and was chasing his uncle but ran out of shells. In a juvenile prison, this was the 1960s, he tried to poison a few people. And beat another thug with a broom half to death before they hauled him off. He was a polite, fairly polished, soft spoken youth. Looked like a mousy little accountant, glasses and all. He told people when he got he wanted to be a hit man for the mob. He enjoyed killing. I have no doubt that’s what really became of him.

The big problem

When being terminated from a job, have you ever warned the company of something important that only you knew how to do, and your advice has gone unheeded?

I was an IT director for a company that had been acquired by a much larger company. When I declined to move to their IT location half a continent away, I was laid off. by phone. (my whole group was effectively laid off because they moved my group’s functions to the parent companies group much larger group and they all refused the move).

This was not unexpected, but the knowledge transfer had not taken place yet between the groups. (it was just beginning)

I accepted the severance package and told them we needed to call my counterpart in the corporate group to make sure the transfer was done securely.

When they asked why, I said that as an IT directory I have all the adminstrator passwords and could literally shut down the business if I was upset about the termination. I want to make sure that any issues that come up will not be pointed back at me or my team.

They agreed to conference call with my counterpart so he could take the necessary steps to secure the system.

The call went like this:

Me: Hey! You need to change all the administrator passwords on our unix servers and close out some accounts:

Him: Why?

Me: My group and I just got terminated and you need to secure these servers to make sure everything stays copacetic. You need to terminate my accounts, all access, and those of my team laid off effective immediately to protect corporate and customer assets.

Him: <explodes>What Assh*t did that? We haven’t got anyone to manage those systems, There has been no knowledge transfer on what the systems are used for, <folornly>I’m screwed!

Big Boss: That would be me. Just do it.

Him: OK, OK. I am logging on to the servers. What is the command? Oh Sh*t, I can’t ask you can I….

Big Boss (to me): This is a surprise. Would you be willing to stick around for a couple of weeks….

Me: Sorry- Even though I don’t particularly have an issue about being laid off, Corporate Security Rules identify me now as disgruntled employee and I am not allowed access to secure systems or even the building spaces.

Shock

What is the most awkward conversation you have had with your parents?

I am going to win.

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?”

Worst. Day. Of. My. Life.

Cajun Style Cube Steaks

Yield: 4 servings

Ingredients

3 tablespoons all-purpose flour, divided
4 (4 ounce) beef cube steaks
1 medium green bell pepper, chopped
1 medium onion, thinly sliced
1 (15 ounce) can no salt added tomato sauce
1 tablespoon of Cajun seasoning
2 cups hot cooked brown rice

Instructions

Place foil grilling bag on cookie sheet. Sprinkle 1 tablespoon of flour in bag.
Arrange steaks in single layer on top of flour; top with pepper and onion.
In a small bowl stir together tomato sauce, Cajun seasonings, and remaining 2 tablespoons flour. Spread evenly over steaks and vegetables. Seal bag by double folding open end, leaving room for expansion.
Coat grill rack with nonstick cooking spray. Heat grill to medium indirect heat.
Slide bag from cookie sheet onto grill rack. Cover and grill for 35 minutes.
Remove bag from grill. Use kitchen shears to carefully cut open bag.
Fold back top for steam to escape.
Spoon steaks and vegetables over rice.

Credentialism

Do people who visit your house care if it’s straightened up or not?

We had a a couple of very dear and long- time friends coming over to watch a DVD a few evenings ago. I went into the living room to make sure the sofas were clear of books, newspapers, knitting etc, but there was still some clutter around. The odd grandkids’s toys sitting in a corner. A laptop my husband was fixing for someone In bits on the coffee table. I said to my husband “ Oh, it looks OK. It’s only Angela and Colin coming.” Then I thought that’s a horrible thing to say! But then it occurred to me – it was, in fact, a great compliment. They were like family. I don’t do a big tidy up, making it pristine, if my daughter is coming with her children. Like them, Angela and Colin are part of our lives. It’s clean and comfortable, but it doesn’t have to be “ visitor ready.” When they arrived I told them what has gone through my mind, and they agreed – they would feel the same about us.

Newlywed Has MELTDOWN After Husband Gathers Proof Of Her Cheating For Their “At Fault” Divorce State

All these stories are so sad. But this one seems to be really authentic. The human situation sucks. Ugh. I am sorry for all three people.

What is your opinion of the USA compared to other countries like Japan, China, and Australia? Why is this your opinion? What makes the USA different from these other countries in terms of culture, economy, government, etc.?

USA and Australia are clearly stolen nations or stolen continents after barbaric and phenomenally cruel slaughter of natives living in their land for centuries. These lands don’t belong to the present inhabitants and it must remind all humans in earth of what savagery and imperialism occurred during the 1600–1900 where rampant European colonialism and aggression happened throughout the world.

Australia and the Americas have to be seen as naked aggression and raped of land and destruction and real genocide whatever culture is a 200–300 years old remnants of these atrocities.

China and Japan has long history spanning thousands of years. It possesses history and philosophy of life and both nations were helped by Confucianism and its ethics of discipline, hardworking, respect for the elders and authorities and constant learning and meritocracy. Both are highly educated and very successful societies. For a while Japan was infatuated with western style colonialism. Not the Chinese as it sees that is wrong to steal other people land.

Nations that grew out of stealing land that belong to others naturally sees themselves entitled. Dominate its regions. The U.S. Latin America and Caribbean while Australia the Islanders and thinks they have a right to command South China Sea too. That to me is clearly wrong and high handed with a tinge of colonialism.

Both Australia and the U.S. benefits from the so called international rules based order that favours the west at the expense of the developing world. But that privilege is being stripped away bit by bit. And truly free competition is beyond them. Hence the huffs and puffs.

09 Things you should avoid at any cost

Never try to learn so many things at one time.
Never accept disrespect from anyone. No matter how close he/she is. Nothing is more important than self respect.
Never waste your time for anyone.If they really don’t care for you.
Never advice to people, who don’t value your advice or not interested in your advice.
Never fall in love before accomplishing the goal.
Never judge a person without knowing them.
Never demotivate anyone.
Never give to much importance to them who are not interested in you.
Never think you cannot do anything .

Men will choose the waitress that gives him peace

What steps should be taken by both the U.S. and China to ensure a stable and mutually beneficial relationship going forward?

Only one word RESPECT. Without respect US will always think their way is always the right way. China is not trying to change the U.S. liberal democracy. That is the U.S. way the U.S. sees fit for the U.S. it is the U.S. that insist China must not practice Socialism with Chinese characteristics! There lies the problem.

As long as one thinks and believed that they and only they knows best no relationship can work. The U.S. must know that to each it’s own. And one man’s meat is another man’s poison. I dare say the problem in the entire 100 years passed us that the U.S. wanted every nation on earth to be submissive and subservient to them!

China is very mature. China wants a rich and prosperous USA to sell to and to go for holidays. It doesn’t want to change a thing. The U.S. wants to weaken China. It wants China to be split into a 100 bite size nation for the U.S. to chew on it! It sees itself as the standard, the authority and the god ordained nation to rule the world.

That disrespect cannot go on. It gets no where. A 5000 years responsible civilisation cannot accept a 247 years old rogue stolen nation of cowboys telling them what to do.

This is HOW MUCH My Vending Machines Made in 365 Days!

Was attacking Gaza a wrong decision? Will Israel now be on the backfoot across the world? Will people forget the massacre of innocent Jews by Hamas after seeing the Gaza attack?

I have taken a while to collect my thoughts. Some things need to be said.

This will be a disturbing post. So let’s cling precariously to reason. Please.

Two things are obvious here. The first is that the actions by Hamas rip a new gash in the face of humanity. No thinking person can deny this. Generally reliable news agencies like Reuters [1] report:

“We’ve seen dismembered bodies with their arms and feet chopped off, people that were beheaded, a child that was beheaded,” a reserve warrant officer identified only by her first name of Avigayil told reporters.

She said multiple cases of rape were found by forensic examination of the bodies, which have been stored in refrigerated containers.

A large number of international journalists have viewed graphic footage [2] that documents these atrocities:

Other sequences showed a militant with an agricultural tool hacking at the head of a man lying on the ground, gunmen killing wounded female Israeli soldiers and a jubilant Hamas fighter calling his family: “I killed 10 Jews with my own hands. I’m using the dead Jewish woman’s phone to call you now.”

Only a really crazy conspiracy theorist with his underpants on his head would doubt that these terrible things are absolutely, shockingly real.∗

But there is one more thing …

The other obvious thing

Hamas planned this attack meticulously over months—almost certainly with Iranian support.

[3] Israeli intelligence failed comprehensively. But no, these are not that obvious, other thing. The second thing is the answer to the question “Why?”

One answer is “Because Hamas hate Israel, hate Jewish people, and want to erase Israel from the face of the Earth, as they have often declared”. This is almost certainly true, but it is too glib. It is not the answer. If you follow this reasoning, then Hamas are like a fox in a henhouse—ripping away until no living thing is left alive.

The problem with this glib answer is that it doesn’t make complete sense. Yes, of course those who killed 1400 Israelis and kidnapped many more did so with almost indescribable savagery. Yes, of course they went out of their way to document the bloodshed and atrocities. And yes, of course, this is a new low—by even the lowest imaginable standard.

But this is far less than half the story. Those who set up this atrocity surely knew how Israel would respond. They could predict that Israel would pummel Gaza. They invited a blockade, and an invasion by the Israeli army. So the correct answer to that “Why?” question is …

This is all going according to script

Hamas knew that this would result in a huge number of deaths of their own people in Gaza.

Hamas are hoping that thousands—or even tens of thousands—of their own people will die. They have planned for a bloody fight in Gaza, with civilians all around. They want this. They want large numbers of children to die in Gaza. This is part of the plan.

At least thirty Israeli children died. By 24 October 2023, two thousand three hundred and sixty children had died and over five thousand had been injured in Gaza. [4] This is precisely what Hamas want. It is part of their plan. It is surely what they predicted. They are malevolent—but they are not stupid. So then, why did they do this?

Why?

They knew that Benjamin Netanyahu would have no choice but to retaliate not just in kind, but on a vast scale. They knew that had he said something like:

We will not descend to their level. We will hunt down every single one of these terrorists, but we will do this in our own time. Not one will escape. We will move mountains to preserve international law, and protect innocent civilians …

… then he would have been labelled ‘weak’. He would have been out on his arse. The atrocities were so bad that people would have demanded an immediate military response from his successor. This is the main reason why the atrocities were quite deliberately so atrocious.

So thousands of children are dead, and thousands upon thousands of innocent civilians of all ages will still die. Quite according to the script that Hamas has laid out. They don’t care. In fact, it’s precisely part of the plan.

Now you asked:

Will people forget the massacre of innocent Jews by Hamas after seeing the Gaza attack?

No, of course not

That day will live in infamy. But it won’t matter.

Because the countries around Israel will also never, ever forget the vastly greater number of children who died. They will never forget Israel’s response. And here’s the truly terrible thing.

For every one who died, several more will spring up, their heart filled with hate for Israel. There are about two million people [5] packed into the Gaza strip. It’s like a vast kindergarten—and from this kindergarten, hundreds of thousands of people will emerge, and none of them will forget Israel’s actions.

Israel is running things entirely according to Hamas’ script. And when they deviate, they do so in the wrong direction …

A bonus for Hamas

Israel has even provided a few unanticipated bonuses that make things worse. For example, Israel’s UN envoy Gilad Erdan has accused the Secretary General of the UN as follows:

[6] The UN Secretary-General, who shows understanding for the campaign of mass murder of children, women, and the elderly, is not fit to lead the UN. I call on him to resign immediately. There is no justification or point in talking to those who show compassion for the most terrible atrocities committed against the citizens of Israel and the Jewish people. There are simply no words.

This was in response to his speech on 24 October, [7] that went as follows:

I have condemned unequivocally the horrifying and unprecedented 7 October acts of terror by Hamas in Israel.

Nothing can justify the deliberate killing, injuring and kidnapping of civilians – or the launching of rockets against civilian targets.

All hostages must be treated humanely and released immediately and without conditions. I respectfully note the presence among us of members of their families.

Excellencies,

It is important to also recognize the attacks by Hamas did not happen in a vacuum.

The Palestinian people have been subjected to 56 years of suffocating occupation.

They have seen their land steadily devoured by settlements and plagued by violence; their economy stifled; their people displaced and their homes demolished. Their hopes for a political solution to their plight have been vanishing.

But the grievances of the Palestinian people cannot justify the appalling attacks by Hamas. And those appalling attacks cannot justify the collective punishment of the Palestinian people.

Another perhaps unexpected bonus for Hamas is how Israel has cut off supplies…

Fuel

By far the most important supply Israel has cut off is fuel. No, not water. Not food. Fuel. [8]

This is because the hospitals with their thousands of bomb-injured and crushed people need fuel to run. And water cannot be pumped (or even desalinated) without fuel. Oh yes. The Israelis also supply one third of the water to Gaza. And this has been cut off, too.

They are allowing a few percent of the supplies needed. This will result in multiple deaths, particularly of vulnerable people—the elderly, and children, and the sick.

The most disturbing bit

In the video clip associated with this post, the Israeli defence minister describes Palestinians as ‘human animals’—and says that this justifies cutting off food, fuel and water.

Israeli defence minister orders ‘complete siege’ on Gaza “We are fighting against human animals”.

https://www.aljazeera.com/program/newsfeed/2023/10/9/israeli-defence-minister-orders-complete-siege-on-gaza

This is from the international playbook [9] of dehumanisation:

During the Holocaust, Nazis referred to Jews as rats. Hutus involved in the Rwanda genocide called Tutsis cockroaches. Slave owners throughout history considered slaves subhuman animals.

In summary

So this is the way I see it. Israel has provided a knee-jerk response.

In consequence, their entire state may not survive. This will likely take a few decades to play out—but I think Israel has just signed its own death warrant in the blood of thousands upon thousands of the sick, the elderly, and children.

This is precisely what Hamas scripted. Israel has simply followed the script.

I find this all tragic beyond words.

My 2c, Dr Jo.

∗

It’s sad we even need to say this. But already the conspiracy nutters are out there in force.

Image was generated by Poe/StableDiffusion in response to the prompt “a fox in a henhouse with lots of feathers and blood”.

The 5 real reasons why guys are lonely today

This is really surprisingly good.

Are Singaporeans considered to be native English speakers?

Based on my observations after having lived in most of the Anglosphere and in West Europe, I feel that many of the people from said countries would not consider Singaporeans “Native English Speakers”.

Which is pure snobbery, in my opinion.
I guess they see themselves as the gatekeepers of who can or cannot be a native English speaker.

I have been to Singapore several times, and in the early part of my career, I was even seconded there.

While it’s true that there are many Singaporeans who grew up in a Chinese-speaking (or Malay-speaking, Tamil-speaking) household and might not have reached the level one would expect from a native English speaker, I also came across many Singaporeans (admittedly, I only worked with Chinese Singaporeans during my time there), the young ones, especially, who could only speak English.

Sure, they’re ethnically Chinese, but their Chinese is…. below even the rudimentary level.
Like, if you ask them something very simple and basic like “Can you state the four cardinal directions in Mandarin?”… they can’t.

If they can’t even do something as simple and basic as that in Chinese, and their main language, the one they’ve been using since birth, is English – then how are they not native English speakers?

If you don’t consider them native English speakers – then the question becomes: So, what is their native language?

They can’t, or, to be generous, barely, speak or read Chinese.
The only language they know is English.

Shouldn’t that, by definition, make them native English speakers?

Or is it really possible for someone to not be a native speaker of any language?

I would definitely consider this demographic of Singaporeans native English speakers, but, you know, I’m not one of the “gatekeepers” mentioned above, so my opinion might count for nothing.

What was your worst moment in the bathroom?

Taking my morning shower, I felt a twinge of stomach pain. “Man, I’m really hungry!” I thought. “I’ve got to hurry up this shower and get some breakfast.”

Then I started to feel a little light-headed. I put my hand out and braced myself against the shower wall. I felt even more faint. “I could pass out and fall in here,” I thought. “I’d better get out.”

So I did, and as I was toweling off, I started to feel nauseated. I went to the toilet and threw up—blood! Holy shit! I called to my wife, “I’m vomiting blood.” She came and took a look; “You sure are!” It wasn’t a whole lot, about 30 ml of bright red blood and mucus, but it was scary as hell. I was hoping it was only an ulcer or something, but I couldn’t help thinking cancer, especially since a friend of mine had recently died of stomach cancer. It was mid-January and my daughter’s wedding was coming up in April. “I’m not going to make it to Nicole’s wedding,” I said to my wife.

The nausea passed. I finished drying off, laid down in bed, and fell asleep for 2 hours. When I woke up, I threw up more blood.

It turned out that it was in fact cancer. I had a rare type called GIST—gastrointestinal stromal tumor. There was a tumor in my upper stomach exactly the size of a billiard ball. But I’m writing this 7 years later. I lost very little stomach to the surgeon—only an area a little larger than a (U.S.) silver dollar—and I was eating at a fine Italian restaurant in Houston five days after the surgery, everything from red wine to tiramisu. I danced with my daughter at her wedding and I’m a grandfather now. I’ve been fine and very healthy since that surgery. Scared the hell out of me in 2010, though.

I hope never to have another bathroom experience as bad as that one.

Baby Poo

Huawei and Meituan announce collaboration to develop HarmonyOS ecosystem

Huawei and Meituan announced a comprehensive partnership to innovate industries, apply technologies, and develop businesses using HarmonyOS. Huawei will fully back Meituan in launching the development of native applications for HarmonyOS.

The announcement comes on the heels of Huawei’s HarmonyOS Next is expected to ditch Android app support as early as 2024. Several of Huawei’s self-developed OS concept stocks rocketed and hit the daily limit after the news was released, according to ChinaDaily.

Huawei partners with Meituan for HarmonyOS ecosystem

Meituan is a Chinese tech giant that offers a wide range of services, including food delivery, online grocery shopping, and ride-hailing. It is one of the most popular apps in China, with over 600 million active users.

Huawei’s confidence in its alternative ecosystem strategy on the mainland received a boost in late August when the company launched its Mate 60 Pro smartphone, its first 5G handset since the Mate 40 series was released in October 2020.

The Mate 60 Pro was met with strong public support, and Huawei became mainland China’s fastest-growing smartphone vendor in the third quarter of 2023.

Recently, multiple job applications in China have announced the launch of HarmonyOS app development. For example, 同程旅行_旅游_旅游线路_旅行_出国旅游_自驾游_周边游_旅游网站 (formerly known as Tongcheng) announced the launch of HarmonyOS native version App development, with plans to complete core version development by the end of 2023.

In addition, a number of internet giants, including Meituan, have listed several job openings related to HarmonyOS. For instance, Meituan publicized a variety of HarmonyOS-centric roles, such as Senior HarmonyOS Engineer and HarmonyOS Infrastructure Engineer.

According to data, as of August 2023, the HarmonyOS ecosystem boasted over 700 million devices and was supported by more than 2.2 million developers actively contributing to its development. By October 30th, the number of devices upgraded to HarmonyOS 4 had surpassed the hundred million mark.

The connection between “body count” and “cheating while married to a man”

There is a correlation. And it is surprising.

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/ezzHKvQaluI?feature=share

What was your “I didn’t judge, but I did smile” experience?

I was at a 7–11 today. I was standing in line, waiting to go. It was 6:30 PM, I was on my way home from my after-work-workout.

I get a tap on my shoulder,

“Yes?”

Behind me, a middle aged, 45ish aged woman, attractive, curvy, in a tight fitting outfit, with makeup on, high heels, smelling of perfume says,

“Would you mind if I went ahead of you? I’m in a bit of a hurry.”

I said, “Sure – np!” I had nowhere to be. And she asked nicely.

A moment later, a customer at one of the two working registers walks off and the cashier waves her forward.

She, with her hands full of items, walks forward dumps them on the counter.

I really wasn’t trying to spy, but I couldn’t help but notice.

It was a bar of soap. A bottle of wine. A candy bar.

And 4 sets of condom 3-packs. Someone had a big night planned.

I didn’t judge. But I did smile.

Who the fuck is this guy?

How was the cleaning up of the First World War battlefields done?

They are still slowly trying to clean it up. The areas that were too dangerous are called Red Zones. Restrictions within the Zone Rouge still exist today. After the war, the French government declared a 460-square-mile area unfit for human habitation or development. It stretches roughly from Nancy through Verdun and onto Lille, with various non-contiguous zones so riddled with unexploded shells (many of them gas shells), grenades, ammunition, and human and animal remains that it was simply too dangerous to enter.

In the 1920s and ’30s, the government oversaw the planting of 36 million trees, mostly pine and spruce, in part of the Zone Rouge. This the Verdun forest.

The Department du Deminage, was created after the war. Over the decades, it has helped to reduce the extent of the Zone Rouge, destroying hundreds of thousands of munitions and chemical shells, and has returned some land to civilian and agricultural use. They calculate that they have 300 years work ahead of them before they have cleared the whole battlefield. French farmers collect a huge amount of unexploded ordnance, barbed wire, shrapnel, and bullets every year. It is called the “Iron Harvest.”

Some areas remain entirely off-limits, the soil so full of arsenic that 99 percent of all plants die. There is still the ever-present threat of unexploded shells. There are many ghost villages that were left abandoned after the war, deemed beyond repair. The bodies of roughly 80,000 soldiers whose bodies were never recovered are still there. The bomb depressions are still there.

Damn good advice

Why do people choose receiving money over sticking to their moral principles?

Moral principles don’t help you eat. Money does.

I mean, that’s the simple, and charitable, way to put it.

The more complex answer is…less charitable.

Most people don’t have moral principles. They have a general set of guidelines they absorb from the society around them without really questioning too much. These guidelines are tribal in nature, and as often as not are more about marking in-groups and out-groups than about a coherent, consistent set of morals.

A great many people want to think of themselves as “good,” but aren’t particularly interested in thinking a lot about it, and particularly aren’t interested in sacrificing comfort or lifestyle for it.

And given that what passes for morality in many folks is actually a set of tribal signifiers, they most definitely aren’t willing to give up social standing for it.

In fact, I’ll wager you that more than a few people who truly consider themselves moral, scrupulous people willing to give up money for morals, will still toss their values aside the moment they involve loss of social standing.

We are social creatures. We need the support and approval of the people around us to survive. Not just in the sense of an income stream to keep ourselves fed and a roof overhead, but in the sense of a social group—without that, we suffer.

So yeah, confronted with social censure for not adopting the opinion of the people around them, most folks absolutely will surrender their values. Confronted with losing money for not adopting the opinion of the people around them, most folks absolutely will surrender their values. If you’re reading this, odds are pretty good you’re one social smear campaign or a few hungry days away from letting go of what you imagine to be your most cherished moral principles.

Men over the age of 30

What is the best case of “You just picked a fight with the wrong person” that you’ve witnessed?

Originally Answered: What is the best case of “you just picked a fight with the wrong person” that you’ve witnessed?

Ooh yes this brings back the memories from the early 1980s.

A bunch of us went to the next town for a few drinks and a laugh. I seem to recall one of the lads (not me) was getting married so for reasons that won’t become apparent we trooped off to a bigger town 10 miles away instead of our own little town.

We walked into a quiet little pub, grabbed some drinks and sat down on a round table which perfectly suited our group of seven.

The pub was totally empty apart from us and the barman. It was very early in the evening.

A group of three guys walked in and one of them looked very angry. Big and mean he was too. They walked straight over to us and the angry guy looked directly at me.

Angry – You! You’re a big cunt. Let’s have a fight now. Outside!

Me – No thanks mate. We’re here on a lads’ night out and don’t want any aggro.

The lads – Nah come on mate. We just want a drink. Blah blah blah.

Angry – Come on you cunt. Let’s fucking fight now.

By now he’d walked around to my side of the round table. He was a big and very tough-looking guy and I really didn’t want a punch in the mouth off him. I was probably the biggest in our group at 1.90 metres and 110 kg but even so, I didn’t want to fight this big lummox.

Me – Listen mate…

Angry punched me in the side of the face so hard I thought my head had come off. Blood spurted out but no teeth. It hurt a lot and I just held my face thinking “what the hell do I do now?”

I didn’t have to do anything. Andy, who is a very slender and weedy and very sweet young friend of mine stood up.

Andy – No-one hits my mate. Big mistake.

Angry – Oh yeah. What you going to do about it you strip of piss?

Andy sent him sprawling across the next table with one perfect punch to the face. Angry got up and together with his two mates left the pub without another word being said.

The barman walked over and spoke to Andy.

Barman – Wow. That guy you just floored is the hardest guy in town!

Me – Not any more he isn’t. Cheers Andy.

My face hurt for ages but thankfully no serious damage. Andy was our new top mate of the group.

That is how a star is born

What is the lamest “benefit” you’ve been offered by an employer?

I was offered a $500/month truck allowance, by my employer, to use my own vehicle on service calls. I bought a used truck, for that purpose. I had to carry a $1 million liability insurance policy, due to some customer’s requirements, in order to drive on their property, too. Then, he changed the number to $250. I told him that wasn’t what he had originally told me. That Friday, he gave me a note, as I left to do service calls, and said to think about it. All it had on it was “$350”. Monday morning, I showed up early, and loaded EVERYTHING that belonged to me into my truck. When he showed up, I gave him my building keys. He wanted to know what was going on, and I said “I’m gone.” When he asked if that was how I negotiated, my reply was “I don’t negotiate with liars.”

I sent postcards to the customers I did work for, telling that I was no longer with that company, but was available to keep their equipment running. I was the ONLY one at that company who knew how the stuff worked, and all the repair business went to me. The company had to down-size, and then sold out to a competitor, so my old boss went from owning his own business, to being just another employee.

Too late! The U.S. allows South Korea to produce chips in China, and China is not doing it!

Too late for South Korea, the China ship has sailed.

https://youtu.be/9aoR1HzRTCA

What was the most obnoxious thing you’ve seen done?

On a regular basis? Taking a giant gas guzzling car and lifting it to make it even less fuel efficient.

The trucks you see here in America are so obnoxiously big and with callous disregard for global warming. It’s crazy when you drive around here in Florida: 70% or more of the cars are SUVs or Trucks. Literally, 70% or more.

It’s definitely a cultural thing but I wish it would go away. The guys in these lifted trucks are almost always the hyper aggressive drivers the push up behind you and lay on the horn and then flick you off as they go by.

But then, a few minutes later, I’ll see one of them pulled over by a cop. That’s always the most gratifying feeling.

US Supreme Court Tackles Game-Changing Social Media Censorship Case!

This is a huge issue.

Why did the Japanese attack Pearl Harbor when they knew they couldn’t take on the United States?

Well that’s exactly the thing. The point of attacking the harbor was so they could take on America. There are two reasons that Japan carried out the attack.

The Paper tiger

The Japanese referred to America as a “paper tiger.” What they meant by this was that their military was all bark and no bite, and if the fleet was destroyed there was no way America could come back. What the Japanese underestimated was America’s production capabilities. America was at the time of 1941 one of the largest and most efficient producers of the world, and while FDR was of the intention to stay out of the war, the factories of the United States were churning out tanks, rifles, planes, and ammo to the Soviets fighting the Wehrmacht in the Europe, and Britain fighting the blitz, the Italians and Germans in North Africa, and the Japanese in Burma, China, and Australia. US Shipyards were just as impressive, with destroyers and merchant marine ships built by the hundreds, sold to Britain to protect against the u boats tearing up the Atlantic trade. Japan made the mistake of underestimating the capabilities of US industry. When the US declared war on Japan in retaliation, production went towards building their own military, including the navy. The US navy numbered in the thousands, from the dozens of capital ships to the hundreds of destroyers and submarines, and all of the auxiliary ships and escorts included. In addition, right after the attack the navy raised most of the sunken ships in the harbor. Of the eight battleships we lost, five were raised and went back into the fight, one of them sunk on refloating, and only two of them remain there, USS Arizona and USS Utah. Pearl Harbor remains one of the greatest tragedies in US history, but because of America’s industrial might, it was not the end.

2. The target

From a tactical perspective, another reason for Japan’s attack was what they believed they would destroy and how it would impact the fleet. The Japanese’ main target was not the many battleships and destroyers that were stationed in Pearl Harbor, not the oil tanks, command, or airfields- These were very significant, and their destruction was all devastating to our efforts in getting in the fight, but the most important targets were but one part of the navy:

The US Carriers

It is often said by historians that Pearl Harbor was the end of the days of mighty battleships and battlecruisers and the dawn of the carrier. The six Japanese carriers, Akagi, Kaga, Soryu, Hiryu, Zuikaku, and Shokaku, were the most important part of the Japanese fleet, and carried out the attack on Pearl Harbor. The Japanese knew that the US would only have a chance against the Japanese carriers with the carriers of their own. Therefore, the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor believing that the US carriers were there. Fortunately for the US, and the Allies as a whole, the carriers were at sea, safe from the carnage. As a matter of fact, the battleship USS Utah was painted to look like a carrier from the sky, to train US dive bombers, and because of this saw some of the heaviest bombardment of all of the ships, being one of the ships unable to be raised from the bottom. The assessment that the US carriers were essential to the US staying in the fight proved correct. The US launched the Doolittle raid the following year, striking Tokyo for the first of many times in the war from the carrier USS Hornet. The Shoho was destroyed in the following battle of Coral Sea at the cost of the carrier Lexington, but where we really see the tide turn in the Pacific is Midway. The carriers USS Hornet, USS Enterprise, and USS Yorktown crippled the Japanese fleet by destroying Akagi, Kaga, Soryu, and Hiryu. This would not have happened if it wasn’t for the stroke of luck we had with our carriers out at sea when the Japanese struck Pearl Harbor.

Admiral Yamamoto, the brilliant Japanese commander who was behind the attack, which I should say despite its failure to knock out America was still a well planned and impressive attack, astutely believed that a drawn out war with the United States would end in defeat, and despite his best efforts to prevent a drawn out war, he was correct. In the film portrayal of Yamamoto in Tora! Tora! Tora! He is quoted for saying:

“I fear all we have done is to awaken a sleeping giant and fill him with terrible resolve.”

Yamamoto was killed in April of 1943, and with the carrier might have Japan gone as well, the rising sun was doomed to set.

Men are GIVING UP on Women and their hypergamy

There is such a serious problem with RELATIONSHIPS in the West.

https://youtu.be/BeP7Ff1JXsA

In business, has your boss ever tried to fire you, only to be fired by their boss instead?

Not me, but my wife.

Her department acquired a new department head, a newly promoted V.P.

One of his first actions was to identify all of the highest paid (and most productive) managers and terminate them as a cost cutting measure. At that point managers at my wife’s level were considered “at will” employees and, as such, could be terminated at any time with or without cause.

In any case, the V.P. then proceeded to fill the vacant management positions with much lower paid and less qualified staff. All of this happened within a matter of hours on a Friday afternoon. My wife was understandably quite distressed when she got home that evening.

Over the weekend, though, my wife received a call from the executive V.P. who oversaw her department. He called from his home in Southern France late in the evening so he could speak to my wife in the mid afternoon here in SoCal. He asked her to please report to work as usual on Monday morning.

When she got to work on Monday everything was back to normal and the new department head was gone. Fired for incompetence.

My wife stayed with the company more than a dozen years after that. She was eventually terminated permanently after her department had been sold to a different company. This time, though, she received a rather generous golden handshake — 32 weeks severance pay — as she left for the last time.

This is why men are no longer approaching women; Top 10 reasons WHY

I never experienced unconditional love until I got a dog.

How likely is it that China and Russia will continue to strengthen their partnership in the future?

Very likely. Their recent MOU to develop semiconductor lithography, naval shipbuilding, marine nuclear reactors are just another episode in that relationship. The glue that binds them is energy and technology. China needs energy and Russia needs technology. Trade between both countries are growing exponentially, currently at about 40% per year. Russia recently announced it would allow China to build a container port in Vladivostok, another indication China is preparing to use the Arctic belt road via northern Russia.

My opinion: There could be a day when Russia buys warships from China. It has already begun with Russia buying a Chinese frigate. It could also be possible that Russia and China will jointly develop gen 6 and gen 7 fighters and bombers, reducing non-recurring costs. Russia needs ‘China speed.’ China needs Russia’s energy from oil/gas to uranium. It is also likely that Russia and China will standardize military calibers and weapons between them so interchangeability and user knowledge will be compatible between both countries. The SCO makes the case for this standardization to increase to SCO members.

Both are BRICS and SCO members and both organizations are growing which gives them more world influence.

Have you ever accidentally found out that you were about to be fired?

It wasn’t exactly on accident. I worked in the office of a commercial laundry business and they asked me to come in on a Saturday to mail out the monthly bills. During the time I was there the assistant manager came in and started hitting on me. He kept urging me to “go in the back and make out”. I refused and soon one of the drivers came in and he had to go talk to the driver. I finished up with the bills and went home. I told my boyfriend “Well, I don’t think I will be working there very ling”. Sure enough the next Tuesday I was let go for some “bookkeeping errors” that weren’t errors and I had been doing them for months without any problems.

What men and women want

Creole Meatloaf and Macaroni

Yield: 4 servings

Ingredients

1 onion, minced
1/2 green bell pepper, minced
2 tablespoons butter
1 (28 ounce) can tomatoes
1 1/4 cups elbow or broken macaroni
1 bay leaf
1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
1 to 1 1/2 cups meat loaf, cubed*
Seasoned salt and pepper

Instructions

Cook onion and green bell pepper in butter for 2 or 3 minutes.
Add next four ingredients and 1 cup water. Bring to boil and simmer, covered, about 1/2 hour, stirring frequently.
Add meat loaf and seasoned salt and pepper to taste. Heat through.

Notes

* Use leftover meat loaf.

What will these snowflakes do when things get REALLY tough? We haven’t even started yet.

Welcome to MY LIFE. Ugh!

What were the benefits of the feudal system in Europe in the middle ages?

For a serf: It sure beats being a slave. You are treated as a human being, you have your law-encoded rights and responsibilities, your taxes usually were reasonable and your lord had the responsibility to protect you and provide a free access to the castle. He also had the responsibility to provide you work and livelihood, and if he abused you, you had the legal right to flee to a town.

For a freeman (franklin or yeoman): You had the right to your life, body and livelihood, you could freely carry weapons outside a town, you did not pay rent to a lord and you could choose your profession. And should things go sour, you could freely move to a town.

For a town dweller: Towns were semi-independent domains who often were subordinate to the king alone, and while working can give you living, trade will make you wealthy. Townspeople usually were richer than countrypeople, and towns were bastions of freedom.

For a clergyman: You are the subject of the Mother Church and Father Pope alone, and nobody else. You are no more a subject of the lord, the king or the emperor. You will learn how to read and write, and you are free to pursuit your intellectual tendencies. If you join the Cistercian order, there are good chances you become a great engineer.

For a civil servant: You are the subject of the King alone, and nobody else. Same as with the church on intellectual pursuits, but you also may marry and have kids.

For a nobleman: You are first and foremost a soldier. You practice martial arts and train for war, military skills, leadership skills, equestrian skills and anything needed to serve in arms. You are exempt of taxes because upkeeping a military lifestyle is expensive. Your life is likely to be violent, nasty, brutish and mercifully short, but you might become a knight and a lord one day if you avoid that.

For a lord: You are a semi-independent ruler of your domain, and you are the lord and the hidalgo. You owe allegiance to the King alone, and you either pay it in taxes or serve 30 days in his service. Your main profession is to be the supervisor of the peasants who work on your estate, and maintain the balance between overworking them and providing them decent livelihood. Sorry, no ius primae noctis – that is an Age of Enlightment myth.

For a King: Think positively. You do not have the same absolute power as the sultans and czars in despotism, but neither you will face the same chances of getting assassinated or ousted or mutilated as they experience, and you do not need to kill your little brothers to ensure the throne. It is a good idea to run the country as a family enterprise – give important tasks to your younger siblings – and use the most talented of the lords as civil servants. Just maintain the balance between Church, Lords and Commoners, and you will do just fine.

What sounds extremely wrong, but is actually correct?

Hard-work alone won’t guarantee success — some poor people work harder than all of us.
If you are an adult — your life situation is your responsibility. You made the choices, you face the consequences.
If you want love or approval from someone — you must be okay without it.
Your brain is evolved to keep you safe yet miserable — not happy and content.
Money is hard to earn — you are desperate and miserable because you won’t have patience.
People can be toxic even when they love you — you have to live for yourself.
Negative people don’t have any ill intent— they are just running on autopilot.
Pain is necessary for growth — there is no way around pain.

Female Comedian EXPOSES The Truth About Dating In Her 30’s After Riding The HOTDOG CAROUSEL in 20’s

“I haven’t even met this man, and I am mad at him” – Truer words have never been spoken about female nature.

What are the most common regrets that people have once they grow old?

If you are asking me personally, what is my biggest regret, I would have to say that I regret not taking more pictures of things I did when I was younger, and not documenting the adventures I had.

I find that after 50+ years on this earth, I remember bits and pieces of my life, but there are big chunks of my life that I cannot recall, so having more pictures of those events and having a documented record of those activities would be something that would truly bring me joy, being able to remember more of the life I lived.

What’s the most questionable cost-cutting move you’ve seen an employer make?

My international company failed to have routine office supplies at our US location. Entirely. No office supplies.

So one day I needed a new pen. There were, of course, none. But rather than going out and buying my own at a local store, I decided to order one just to be ornery.

So I filled out the formal requisition form for one pen. I justified it (I wrote stuff and my old pen was empty), then used the proper channels to submit the requisition. The form:

Traveled from my California office to the main US branch office in Boston.
Boston routed the form to their home branch office in London.
London sent the form to the main International headquarters in Paris.
Paris approved the req. then…
Cut out one layer of bureaucracy by sending the approved form direct to Boston (the Paris and London offices hated each other)
Boston sent the approved req. back to my office.
I was then able to go out and buy one pen at corporate expense from the local store.

I was tempted to ask for a sheet of paper next, but Boston eventually decided to fund a small office supply in our location.

Oh. The Internet was around, but I should add that the original requisition form was hard copy. A piece of paper. That form physically travelled from California to Boston to London to Paris back to Boston then back to my office before I bought my pen.

Can you suggest any reasons why the sources of the Nile remained unknown until late in the nineteenth century?

Absolutely!

This is what the Nile looks like when it goes through Sudan

This is The Sudd. It’s Arabic for “barrier”. It’s also part of the Nile. It’s also much bigger than what you see here. It’s not much better even when it floods. Imagine you’re an explorer in, well, any time really and you come across this. The Ancient Egyptians tried to navigate past it for centuries. They utterly failed. Then the Romans decided to have a go at it. They failed too. Europeans tried in the 19th century. They had no better luck.

And where there’s swamp, there’s malaria. Good luck with that.

Europeans only found the source because they decided to avoid it entirely and attack it from the other direction, exploring into Central Africa. That’s not much easier.

Richard Burton decided to make a go of it. He started in lovely civilized Zanzibar and worked his way overland until he found Lake Tanganyika. “Eureka” he exclaimed, “I have found the source of the Nile”.

However, the guy he brought along with him, John Speke, told him he was nuts. Tanganyika was too low and too small to account for the fact that the Nile never ran dry. Burton told him was an idiot and they returned to England triumph…. no, wait, the scientific community wasn’t convinced.

So Speke got to go on his own expedition. He turned north instead and found the much larger and much bigger Lake Victoria.

He returned to England well, not triumphant, but with enough good data to get funding for another expedition to try to make it to the Sudd and not only did he do that, he found another source of the river that met up in the Sudd, what we now call the “White Nile” as opposed to the larger source flowing out of Lake Victoria, the “Blue Nile”.

So, Speke gets the credit, literally for “connecting the dots”.

As a disabled person what is the cruelest thing said to you?

Image: Me sitting on my porch at my home in the Central Valley of California.

Well as a disabled person, I am legally blind the cruelest thing, in my opinion, was not said with words.

Deeds speak out loud and clear.

I took a class on a subject of interest to me.

The teacher with a happy smile in her voice told me she had a special place in class for people like me.

It was the back corner, furthest away from all of the others in the class.

Total isolation. I could hear the other members of the class, I could see the shadows o of the other members of the class.

When the class had a pot luck of snacks at the last week of class, somehow I didn’t get the e-mail to ask me to take in something. So I didn’t.

Then no-one actually told me directly that there were snacks available nor did they come over and tell me about the pot-uck offerings.

Though they did make quite a bit of a racket, going back and too to the snacks tables and telling each other who had brought which items.

Another classmate came to the class in about the second week and was sat close by in the same corner. She only attended one week and disappeared. She was profoundly deaf. We could chat okay as she could lip read. But as for interacting with the class it was difficult.

Me being bloody minded as I am, finished the class. I paid good money so I wasn’t going to surrender to unspoken insults.

Biden Angry, Calls Xi ‘Dictator’, US Business Applauds Xi; US Isolated UN SC; Sullivan Sleepless

Very good, and clearly explains the Geo-political situation today.

What are some of the funniest “got fired” stories?

I was fired on the day I was going to hand in my resignation.

I hated the company: boss played favorites, personnel feedback was nonexistent, and they were very stingy with vacation time, even if you earned the days.

The third point I found out too late. After earning 10 days of personal time, I requested for time off six months ahead. Not only was it declined, I also got a stern talking-to by the same boss who played favorites.

I was so pissed off that I started looking for a job that very same night.

Within two weeks, I got an offer from a company I interviewed the previous year who kept my résumé in the active bin.

I moved my vacation date to the next month, upped the number of days, and got a business class ticket. I printed a resignation letter once I signed the offer at the new job.

The next day, I cared not an iota at work. I was just waiting for 5:00 so that I can hand in my two weeks.

4:30pm came and I got an email from the boss. I was being let go. They didn’t really say why (not that I cared) but they were going to give me a full month’s pay to help me find a new job.

i cleared out my desk, gave a quick thanks to my boss (co-workers have left at this point), and screamed when I got to my car.

I got the final pay the week after, then collected unemployment for a few weeks, and had a bloody fantastic time on vacation.

What is the least intelligent thing you’ve ever seen a tourist do?

Growing up in Florida, we used to play at the beach almost every day. At least once or twice a week, we’d be building sandcastles, or kicking the surf when we’d watch a tourist with wide eyes knowing what’s to come…

I’m an empath, and often tried to warn them. As a pudgy six year old however; I wasn’t usually fast enough. By the time I’d be close enough to yell “don’t touch that!!”, the elderly tourist or drunk college kid was already screaming in agonizing pain! The Portuguese man o’ war looks like a shiny blue balloon, or plastic grocery bag. The venom is insanely painful. I watched about a dozen people pee on each other by the time I was 8.

What’s something a poor kid would understand, but would utterly confuse a rich kid?

Pretending you are not hungry when going to an expensive restaurant with friends, because you can’t actually afford to order food there.
Acting like you don’t like after-school sports, because you have to bolt to your after-school job, so you have lunch money and bus fares.
Pretending that family commitments prevent you from going on the school trip. You know there’s no way you can pay for it.
Declining invitations to weddings because you don’t have proper clothes to wear and because you have no way of getting there either.
Spending an extra hour in the supermarket so you can make the best choices with the $28 you have for food for a full week.
Listening with horror as co-workers trash the boss who only gave each a $20 gift Visa card. You, on the other hand, are silent and also excited beyond words – you plan to get much needed shoes, a winter coat, and a backpack at the Goodwill store.
Having teeth pulled, which should instead be filled and capped, because it costs one-tenth this way.
Talking to supervisors in chain food stores to find out what they do with damaged food. (Poor people know these stores often have a place where you can go to collect it.)
Adding water to the quart bottle of milk to stretch it.
Taking home unused sugar packets, tea bags and napkins from the fast food place and feeling grateful for them.

These are my memories of being poor. Although I am no longer poor, these memories keep me grateful, and, more importantly, I will always understand the behavior of those whose actions are continually checked by empty pockets.

During WW2, were there places where troops were stationed that never saw any action?

Quite a few places, including Iceland.

After Denmark surrendered to the Nazis in April 1940 the status of Iceland was ambiguous. Although Iceland was an independent state, it’s ‘personal union’ with Demark, and dependence on Denmark for its defence and foreign relations, potentially meant it could be occupied by Germany. Its strategic location astride Britain’s Atlantic supply route to the United States made it vital to the United Kingdom’s security.

Britain invited Iceland to join the war as any and, when they rejected this, plans were made to occupy the island. Four Royal Navy ships led by HMS Berwick (above) deposited 745 Royal Marines in Iceland who met no resistance from the Icelandic police force, who were the only permanent armed presence on the island.

Iceland was occupied first by a British Division, then by elements of two Canadian Divisions and then by a brigade of US Marines. The latter arrived in June 1941, a whole six months before the United States officially join the war. This was one of Roosevelt’s most partisan decisions and greatly helped the British war effort as the Canadians could be sent to Britain, where eventually they would take part in the Dieppe raid and the battle for Normandy. Roosevelt sent the Marines as, being part of the US Navy, they were under his direct control, whereas sending the US Army would have required the approval of Congress, which was uncertain. The occupation of Iceland was not always popular with the locals, but one benefit of it was the construction of Rejkjavik airport.

Although planes and ships based in Iceland saw action, the garrison itself saw no action. There were, however, casualties as a result of the Icelandic climate and terrain. A five man patrol of the Kings Own Yorkshire Infantry were lost to the elements, for example. Despite the cold though, there were definitely worse places to spend the Second World.

NOTE

A lot of people have asked why the US Army couldn’t be deployed before war broke out. The answer is complicated, but it’s due to a policy decision rather than an act of the Constitution. Here are the details:

“At the same time, the War Plans Division raised inquiry concerning the effect of the legal restrictions that prohibited the National Guard, members of the Reserve, and men drafted under the Selective Service Act from serving outside the Western Hemisphere and which limited their terms of military service to a period of twelve months. For purposes of naval defense the President had placed the Atlantic frontier of the western world, quite arbitrarily, along the 26th meridian, which excluded the whole of Iceland. [25] The question was one of policy, not geography; and if policy for the moment dictated a course of exclusion, circumstances at any future time might well prescribe a change in policy. Whatever concern was felt during these first days in June seems to have arisen over the time limit rather than the controversial geographical restriction. On this basis it was entirely rational for the Chief of Coast Artillery to observe that selectees would have to be used in constituting the harbor defense regiment proposed as part of the Iceland garrison. In any event the problems posed by the legal restrictions did not seem insuperable as long as the 1st Division was being considered for the nucleus of the force. Although 75 percent of the officers of that division had been drawn from the Reserve, it was presumed that most of them would volunteer for duty in Iceland. The problem, in this respect, was considered to be one of maintaining secrecy. As for enlisted men, only a “small percentage” of them were selectees, and only about 10 percent of the men of the two antiaircraft regiments-the 61st and 68th-were subject to the restrictions written into the Selective Service and National Defense Acts. “

What is the nastiest thing you’ve done for revenge?

We were once renting a house and saving money towards a down payment to buy, when the owner came and told us he had to sell and had already and we had to be out by the end of the week. We refused since our lease guaranteed us 30 days. The new owner said that lease was void and had our utilities turned off. So as a goodbye gift, we went to the store and bought some old fish and 10 cans of cat food. There was a fireplace in the basement built of brick and had come separated from the back wall. We dropped the fish behind that. The cans of cat food, we opened and placed in crawl spaces throughout both floors of the house.

What does it mean when women play with their hair while looking at you?

Well, according to my ex girlfriend of 40 years ago, I am blind, because I didn’t notice that the hostess, had sat down next to me, leaned in close to talk in a loud room, laughed at my jokes (hey, I’m funny) and played with her hair.

My girlfriend said it was so obvious she was about to throw up. Guys are oblivious.

Why was Steve Jobs so much richer than Steve Wozniak even though they founded Apple together?

Steve Jobs sold all but one of his stocks in Apple when he left in 1985, when Apple stock was at an all time low. He founded NeXT and was the majority owner when Apple bought the company, though at that point he was almost out of money, on the brink of bankruptcy. He also bought Pixar and it has been rolling out blockbusters every other year for 20 years. He also invested in other companies. Toy Story alone made Steve Jobs a billionaire because Pixar was publicly traded company.

Woz on the other hand gave away a lot of his stock. He financed more than a few huge rock concerts that lost a lot of money. He started a company making remote controls that failed and lost money. He got divorced more than a few times. He helps old Apple employees that are out of luck and deal with sickness. He gives away a lot of his money. But you don’t need to worry about him, he still has a lot and he is according to everyone who actually knows him, a super nice guy. He was never in it to have money, he just wanted a computer that he could fiddle with.

China Warns US “Don’t Try THIS” As Biden Prepares To Hug Xi

What kind of cooperation between the United States and China on nuclear disarmament is feasible?

Very simple.

Just develop the smart bombs to change the equation from MAD to MGD – i.e., from the “old-fashion-not-so-accurate assured” to the “IoT-satellite-guided guaranteed” way of mass destructure.

These are the AI-enabled hypersonic bombs that cannot be defended against and only a few hundred launched from a control center are needed to completely annihilate the entire country the size of Russia, China or the U.S. Then the 5,000-plus warheads in the nuclear arsenals of Russia and the U.S. would become redundant and useless.

Even the triad security concept of land, air and sea delivery system becomes redundant. No need for those expensive bombers and subsmarines to deliver nuclear warheads as backup when those smart ICBMs can do the job.

The calculus for disarmament becomes very straightforward and simple.

War can be so simple when you know its guaranteed and forever.

And isn’t it why Biden is trying to deny China our advanced chips?

Have you ever experienced karma in real life?

Anyway, I was literally shattered, and broken. I couldn’t believe the girl I thought to be my future left me in such a dire condition.

It’s been three years since she is gone. Yesterday, I got a phone call from her at 2am. Basic points from the calls were:

She was unhappy, crying profusely over the phone. She said she don’t have anyone to trust and talk to, except me. And yes, I talked to her because pretty much I loved her too much.
She said the guy cheated her, and when asked him for a breakup, he said he will going to kill her, he abused and hit her off. And she thought everybody will leave silently like me.
I asked her to do a police complain, she said, she doesn’t want her parents to know, she is stucked.
After few minutes on call, she was laughing, talking to me as if we were never separated, I was wondering how easy the things are for girls.
Then she told me even before her father and brother, I am the person she trust and respect the most. I was flattered but I knew, it’s no more important.
I was again at ground zero, I felt happy talking to her, but the wounds were yet fresh.
I tried not to make her feel bad and bid her bye.

Today I Changed my phone number, and email id!

I do love her a lot, still? Yes. But I cannot give her the power to destroy me again.

The lonely chapter

Have you ever caught on to someone trying to scam you before it was too late?

One day, I had a woman come into my checkout line and wanted to buy ALL the $1.00 Bic cigarette lighters at the checkout stand.

Between the two sets of lighters, she was purchasing about 35–40 lighters.

I was then ringing up all the rest of the completely full shopping cart of stuff she got in line with. At the end, she then handed me a bunch of coupons.

I was already on guard because buying so many lighters was very unusual. I looked at the coupons and there was a whole stack of them that were for $4.00 off of a $6.00 Lady’s Bic shaver.

She never purchased any shavers, and I told her these coupons could not be used, as she did not have the item.

She said they were for the lighters. I told her, “No, this is for 4 dollars off the shaver, not the lighters.”

She insisted that it would accept, and scan for, the lighters, too. I agreed. I told her I knew it would, but it was because of an error in the coupon codes, and it was not deliberate. We had been made aware of the error and did not accept it.
She persisted in telling me that if it scanned, we had to accept it.

“No, Ma’am,” I said. “The coupon has to be for the item the coupon is for, not something else.”

What she was attempting to do was get 4 dollars off a 1 dollar item, giving her a negative 3 dollar balance with every lighter purchased. With about 40 lighters, that would leave her total at -120.00 dollars, which then got balanced out with all the rest of the items in her cart. Had I not paid attention to the actual coupons and just blindly started scanning them, not only would she gotten 40 dollars’ worth of lighters free, she would have gotten over 120 dollars’ worth of other merchandise completely free without paying a single cent.

I told her that what she was attempting was theft. She got irate and claimed it was not theft because she was not trying to take the items out without purchasing them. I told her that was exactly what she was doing by running what she knew to be a scam.

She then did not want to buy any of it, and wanted me to void off all the items.

That is when I got rather devilish myself. I told her quietly that no, she was going to buy everything rung up, as-is, without the scam, or that I would be calling the police for her to be charged with theft of well over 180 dollars’ worth of merchandise.

Either she got charged with theft, or bought what she wanted to buy at the correct total.
But, it was not getting voided.

She bought it all.

I never saw her in the store again.
Before that, she had been a semi-regular customer, always holding up the checkout as she constantly scammed coupons for far more than what the coupons were supposed to allow.

Good riddance.

Why is it hard to make new friends?

can’t do the 15th,” John said. “Can we push it back two weeks?” I looked at my calendar, trying to align the dates with our friend Derrick. Then, after finding a great window, John came back with another complication. I rubbed my temples in frustration.

I’m 40 and most of my friends are married and buried in toddlers. They also live in other cities. I try to arrange a trip each year, but coordinating it feels like pushing a boulder up a mountain. Beyond the scheduling conflicts, I’m in competition for their PTO with grandparents and extended family.

As a kid, it was all so simple. The only prerequisite for new friends was the spirit of play. If the other person was down, and nice, they became friends. In college, it was all about who I partied with and saw the most frequently. Everyone was so social. Then, this blur of obligations pulled us all apart.

As social primates, friendships are central to our health and happiness. Yet so many of us are painfully lonely and it isn’t entirely our fault. Since the 1950s, sociologist have asserted that modern life makes it difficult to meet the three conditions for close friendships: proximity, repeated and unplanned interactions, and an environment that encourages people to confide in each other.

Which is why it feels so forced to be planning hangout trips months in advance. It feels like I’m scrambling to keep legacy friendships on life support. I can scarcely plan to meet for dinner with people without complications.

In school and college, it was so easy because there was endless time for socializing, and we were all on top of each other in dorms and classrooms. And, we didn’t have real bills and adult problems. So how can we make more friends as adults?

Converting new friends

Per one study, it takes 40–60 hours within the first six weeks of meeting someone to turn them from an acquaintance into a casual friend. It takes another 80 to 100 hours to elevate them to true friend status. Which feels like a ton of time as a career driven person. But these connections can be built up over longer stretches.

The obvious answer for me was work, back when I had an office job. But the people at my office weren’t necessarily the people I wanted to spend my time with. Sometimes, we just have to work with what is in front of us. It can even boost competency. Researchers found that doctor coworkers who became friends, performed better at their job. A personal connection and trust can boost performance in team environments.

In March of 2020, four teens were stuck on a boat in Cuba. They’d intended to fly back to the Netherlands. Then the pandemic struck and they decided to sail home. The intensity of spending weeks on the boat together, working to navigate as a team, turned them all from strangers into close friends. One friend said, “Being around someone 24 hours a day, you tell them everything. You don’t do that when you are home.”

My friend, who went to prison in his early 20s after being caught up with a bad crowd, said the same thing happened during his five year stint. Today, he is doing fine and in his late 40s, but is still friends with his former cellmates.

The challenge is that we apply more filtering mechanisms with age. We often filter people out by political views, social class, and do so without realizing it. It’s useful to be attuned to what you want in a friend, but beware of letting this turn into snobbish gatekeeping.

Getting a grip on potential friends

One study used Christmas cards in Western society to approximate social networks and estimated each of us have around 121 acquaintances. Other studies have found wide variances from this number. But it is exceedingly rare for anyone to have zero acquaintances.

These acquaintances are potential friends and not to be dismissed. Weak ties, as sociologists call it, are still great for mental wellbeing even if it is just a brief conversation. Today, I found out my beloved gym of seven years is closing. The owner, Joe, let me in for a final workout, even though the lights were off and they were cleaning up. We found time to chat about life and his decision to quit. I’ve always enjoyed talking to him so we exchanged phone numbers to potentially hang out. The other option is to reconnect with older friends you haven’t spoken to in years.

Accept that rekindling friendships is just more work in adulthood. Remember when your buddy got their first girlfriend or boyfriend and stopped hanging out? That’s everyone now. If you have a partner, it’s worth thinking through which potential friend has a partner who would vibe with them.

Also, practicing “self-disclosure”, or opening up about your life, is proven to boost connections with people. One study found three great insights about disclosing. One, people who give more intimate disclosures tend to be more liked than those who don’t. Two, people disclose more to those they like. And three, people like you more after you disclose. This comes with a caveat: don’t make it too personal, too soon. Avoid mud slinging from your divorce and giving play-by-plays from the bedroom.

The importance of maximizing time

My buddy has two kids and said he has one hour of total free time each weekday, and that when he finally gets that hour, he is desperate to decompress and have some time alone. Yet he also wishes we hung out more. This is a common theme around the country. People are lonely and crave more connection. Operate with this assumption, rather than starting from the assumption of someone judging or not liking you.

Remember to think about the places you frequent, and the potential friends you could make and maintain through those interactions. List out a few acquaintances and consider upgrading them. The key with any of these people is to also do things outside the place you regularly see them.

If you don’t see people on a regular basis, consider joining a club or taking up a hobby that involves other people. Then, get to work. Initiating doesn’t have to be heavy. Just something as simple as, “We should hang out some time.”

Lastly, be real and have conversations. Don’t spend 45 minutes talking about the weather. Vulnerability has a mutually boosting likability effect. You’ll both be happier in the end.

Planning for changes

What are some unwritten social rules everyone should know?

“You look tired” is not a compliment.

Don’t say “I’m fine” if you’re not fine.

Don’t ask “how are you?” unless you want to know.

Don’t say “I am here if you need anything” when being more specific will truly help. “I am coming over tomorrow to drop off some soup” is way better.

Don’t glance over someone’s shoulder when they are in the middle of a story that matters to them.

Don’t look at your phone at all when you are spending time with someone.

On a plane if your seat is tight don’t recline it. Also, let the person squeezed in the middle seat use both arm rests.

Be extra nice if someone is serving you: giving you a manicure, bringing you food, preparing you a drink. Also please don’t hit on them. They are not charmed. They are serving you.

If anyone says “you hurt my feelings” the only correct response is “I am listening.” Not “I didn’t intend that” or “I was joking” or “wow you are sensitive.”

If you can make someone’s day a bit smoother, please do.

People want to feel heard more than they want advice.

People want to feel seen more than they want to be fixed.

People want to be sincerely complimented more than they want constructive criticism.

Say thank you a lot. Say it all the time. Add why you are saying it. “You always get my coffee just right. Thank you.” “You make my day sunnier. Thank you.” Thank you for reading, sharing and commenting on what I write. It encourages me. It makes my day.

American Couple React “America Compared: Why Other Countries Treat Their People So Much Better”

Orange creamcicle

Sometimes the simple and mundane are the things that we remember, and the memories that we cherish.

The very last ice cream that I shared with my father occurred about two months prior to his death. It was nothing “special”. We were riding in the car together, and he saw a Dairy Cream restaurant and suggested that we get an ice cream cone. They had “orange creamcicle” on sale, so he bought us two and we ate them outside in the warm September sun.

To outsiders, it was just two grown men eating ice cream outside, and really there was nothing overly special about that event.

But for me, it was a memory that I will always treasure.

Enjoy what you experience. because it is all so fleeting….

Today…

Kindness: What is the kindest act you have ever witnessed?

I was broke and had just received a food stamp card. In the grocery store I picked up about $8 worth of food. Standing in line I took the card out of my wallet, noting the lonely $20 bill that represented my net worth. When my turn came I swiped the card and waited. The clerk said “I’m sorry but there is only $1 available on your card.” I was in shock, because this was my first time using it. Falling back on my fine command of the language, I said nothing. I was confused, embarrassed, and a little sick. Finally I just backed away mumbling that I must have left my money on my yacht. As I was leaving a man stopped me and said, “you just dropped this $20 bill” and handed it to me. I thanked him profusely for his honesty. I also thought what a careless idiot I was. I managed to fumble away the last of my money and only the honesty of a stranger saved me. Well I stopped at another store on the off chance some mistake had been made at the first place, and that turned out to be the case. With tremendous relief I started to put the card and my recovered bill in my wallet. I found to my amazement that my original $20 was still there. I realized that the stranger had given me the bill, while preventing my embarrassment or any refusal of his generosity. This is not meant as a greatest example of kindness, but to mention that a major part of his gift was the lift it gave my spirit to know of such kind and generous people. The last thing you need during hard times is cynicism.

Why do so many foreigners go to China and think China is good?

It’s a nice place. I lived there for eight years (2012–2020) and miss it a bit, now that I’m back in Britain. What shocks me so much is the hideous, made up distortion of news reporting about it in the West, But I suppose that the US has to get something for the $400m Congress has voted for anti-China propaganda. It is just humiliating that it gets so much and so few push-backs.

All linked to…

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/7RDdRuJxyO4?feature=share

What did you find while snooping that you wish you had never found?

When I was 9 years old, my mom surprised me and my little sister with a trip to Florida. We live in the Midwest, so any spring break trip to somewhere warm is greatly appreciated. I was so exited to have a story to tell my friends when I got back to school. One night, my best friend’s parents came over to talk to mine. They moved to the driveway, and told my sister and I to stay inside. While they were talking I heard my dad’s text notification. He had left his phone inside. Curious, I looked at what the message said. I cant quite remember what that message said, but when I scrolled up, I read a message I should not have seen. It was from my friends dad, who was now standing in the driveway. It read,

“do your girls know ours are coming on the trip, too?”
“No, we are going to surprise them”, was the reply from my dad.

I was so shocked! My best friend and her sister were coming to Florida with me! I worked so hard to conceal the fact that I ruined the surprise, up until we were at the airport. We got out of the car, and my friend was there, so excited that she got surprised. I faked a reaction, but I was so mad at myself for ruining what my parents worked so hard to keep hidden. I haven’t told a soul to this day.

My boyfriend threatened to leave me because I am too negative. He told me he doesn’t want to hear anything negative anymore, so I don’t tell him anything. We talk superficially, and I feel no love. How can this work?

You need to seek counseling. Negative people are often happier with negative people. Then you can both talk about the worst case scenario, or see the cup as half empty. I have friends like this, and I try to only hangout with them in a group, so I don’t get to depressed.

Yet my friend is truly happiest when he can complain about something. Even if he has to really reach for the negative. Like I made a ton of money last year and paid off my debts, but when you make that much money, so much of the extra money just goes to taxes. Then a half hour rant on taxes.

I am truly happiest when I am positive. My wife is the most upbeat person I know, next to her, I am a gloomy gus.

Find out if you can be happy, if you have a positive attitude, if so get counseling and save your relationship. If not, cut him loose, and find someone who likes to complain about things.

People who are being mean to you…

What is the weirdest thing you have been stopped for by airport security?

Not me personally, but something I saw.

Returning from a service call in Honolulu, the lady in front of me at the TSA line had serious trouble lifting her (obviously very heavy) carry-on onto the x-ray conveyor. It set off all sorts of alarms when it went through, and the TSA guy did a manual inspection as a result. When he opened it up, the suitcase’s contents were revealed: it was completely full of cans of Spam (the processed meat product). I was absolutely convinced that they actually contained something more nefarious and that she’d likely be arrested, but the TSA guy simply zipped the case back up and sent her on her way.

I was next in line, and, noticing the puzzled look on my face, the TSA guy explained that Spam is considered a gourmet delicacy in Japan, where it sells for around 3–4x what it does in Hawaii. As a result, there is a steady flow of Japanese tourists to the islands, who pretty much pay for their vacations by doing what she did. I was born and raised in the UK, where Spam has a reputation for being gross and disgusting, and something you would only eat if you can’t afford any nicer form of protein.

What is the best thing you saw someone do when they got fired from their job?

It happened to me actually.

Management was changed and they appointed new guys ex consultant of the company who pretend know everything – based on the textbook. I am the last two managers that stay in the company when management changed.

So, this new guy did all micro management you can imagine to make most of the people left very nervous and stressful. I managed to stay for another few months until I have felt enough is enough.

Just few days before I intended to put my resignation letter, this new guys and HRD call me to the meeting room and let me go with severance payment – a payment package…

What a wonderful world it was and few friends that knew I am about to gave up congratulate me for being fired…..LOL

How do I impress my boss?

This is something I learned very early in my career. I always feel thankful for my former boss who taught me this lesson.

How to ask questions.

The first day I joined the company, after handing me all my personal devices and necessary office items, he led me to my cubicle and told me to self-study the system and come back to him by the end of the working day with questions. So I did. I brought back my two-page-long questionnaire and handed it to him. He read it, then told me to sit down. “Alright, question one, ‘What does (feature) x do?’”, he read my question out loud, “What do you think it does?”, he asked. I answered him with the thoughts I gathered when I studied the system. “Correct!”, he said, “Now, you see, with the way you first asked the question, if I answered it, it would have taken me five minutes to answer, but if you had asked ‘Does x do this’ including what you’ve learned, it would take me just seconds to answer ‘Correct!’ and I also would know that you actually studied and understood it. When you ask questions that you need answers to, make sure it takes the least time for the person you ask to answer. Yes/No is preferred.”

I took that advice seriously.

Instead of asking ‘What does that mean?’, I ask ‘Does that mean [my understanding]?’. Instead of ‘What should we do in this situation?’, I ask ‘In this situation, I propose the solution as below, do you have any directions or adjustments?’. Instead of ‘What time do you want the meeting to be?’, I ask ‘I checked your calendar, you have three open slots x, y, z; which one do you want to set up the meeting with Mr. A?’

This lesson has been a great help in my work, not just with my bosses, but also with other team members/ clients as well.

Cajun Sausage Roast

Ingredients

Roast

1 (3 pound) pork loin roast
1 pound smoked Cajun sausage
1 small onion, chopped fine
1 small green bell pepper, chopped fine
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1/2 cup cold water
2 to 3 tablespoons cornstarch
1/2 teaspoon Kitchen Bouquet

Seasoning Mix

Granulated garlic
Dried chives
Parsley flakes
Black Pepper
Salt

Instructions

Seasoning Mix

Mix granulated garlic, chives, parsley flakes and black pepper to make seasoning mix. Add salt to mix.

Roast

Cut the whole loin into smaller roasts, about 6 inches long. Cut a hole through the center of each roast, along the center axis of the roasts and insert the sausage. If the cross-section of the roast is big enough, cut two parallel holes. Open the holes to the size of the smoked sausage and pour about 1 tablespoon Seasoning Mix into the long holes and push something through the roasts to distribute the seasoning. Slide the smoked sausage through the longitudinal holes in the roasts until about 1 inch of sausage protrudes from each end.
Dust inside and outside with seasonings and salt. Allow to sit and marinate at room temperature for 30 minutes.
Place the roasts on a rack inside a covered roaster.
Pour the cut-up onion and bell pepper into bottom of roaster and place, uncovered, in a 425 degrees F oven for approximately 30 minutes or until seared lightly on the outside.
Cover roaster and continue to cook with a meat thermometer until done inside, about 160 – 165 degrees F on meat thermometer.
Remove roasts, trim end faces of excess sausage and chop fine.
Add cornstarch dissolved in cold water.
Add soy sauce and thicken sauce over medium heat.
Adjust color of sauce with Kitchen Bouquet and adjust seasonings.

Could you share a story about a time when you felt like you were the dumbest person in a particular situation?

After I left the workforce, my wife continued working. I normally waited to get up until after she left to keep out of the way. This oneorning, I hear the door close as she is leaving. I get up heading in to start the coffee. On stepping into the kitchen the 1st thing I see is her phone on the charger. Run to the window to see her on the road and gone. I run back to the bedroom to grab my phone to call her to come back and get her phone. When her phone rings I compound the idiocy thinking who would be calling her this early? They need to get off the phone so…she…can…answer…my…call. Then to cap it all, as I’m closing my phone cancelling the call, I’m looking around to see if anyone saw me. 2 of the cats were dying laughing and the other 2 shaking their heads as if thinking what an idiot.

What is the lamest “benefit” you’ve been offered by an employer?

“Getting in on the ground floor.”

I’d been laid off at a position that did not pay well, but the work was easy. I was interviewing with this other company, and the guy (owner? one of the owners?) would not proceed with the interview unless I filled in my salary from my previous job, so I did.

He offered $3K more per year.

BUT… whereas my old job was 37.5 hours per week, this guy was expecting 55–60 hours per week. The benefit was that they were a small company, and their product was going to be big, and I’d be one of the people who benefited when someone big bought out the product.

Calculating the hours, I told him that, on a per-hour basis, he was offering me between 69% and 76% of what I was getting at the previous job, to which he restated his script about getting in on the ground floor.

A few days later, I got another, much better offer. It was an hourly contract, but 84% MORE than the previous job, and about 2–1/2 times (per hour) what he was offering. I took it.

A day or two after that, he called asking if I was still interested, and I told him I took another position “at MUCH higher pay,” I said, and definitely put the weight/emphasis on the word much. I didn’t tell him how much, but again, he tried to sell me on his “Getting in on the ground floor” shtick.

I couldn’t believe he was still trying to sell me on that.

What was it like to eat a hamburger in the 1950s?

Two juicy 100% U.S. Beef patties with two slices of melted American cheese.

Sandwiched with lettuce, tomato, onion, pickles and A&W classic sauce all on a lightly toasted bun… it doesn’t get better than this – we believe!! Because our country imported almost everything in the old days. (And still do very much in 2023).

1963 in fact was the year that put American popular food into our collective psyche.

Now here’s a genuine all-American brand serving all-American fare. And Malaysians fell in 💕💕😘 with new food that truly touched the hearts.

1963 was the first time that burgers were sized ‘papa, mama, baby burger’ – 🥰 cute! (Come to think of it, burgers don’t exist before A&W Malaysia.)

It was a year that a drink sensation was introduced — in big frosted glass mugs – the A&W Root Beer and Root Beer Float – the two most lovable, must-drink beverages ever since the country’s independence 1957. (Today there are A&W canned root beer in convenience stores everywhere.)

A&W Root Beer and Coney Dog and Curly Fries are synonymous with A&W and vice versa. To borrow a line, “we’re still loving it, mucho!!”

I’d like to think that the burger in “1950s America” would not vary too much from today’s A&W ‘Papa Burger’.

The bear is back!

New A&W retro outlets in Malaysia give you the charming ‘American diner experience’…

… who says you can’t bring back the good ol’ days?!!!

In many countries in Europe, how do they manage to give employers 4 to 5 weeks of holidays and many other benefits that in America don’t exist?

Do you know which is the laziest nation in Europe, the one that works the fewest hours? Let me give you a little hint, this is their capital:

Berlin

A study by OECD released recently showed in no uncertain terms Germans are the laziest nation in Europe in terms of hours worked. They have the largest economy and one of the largest per capita incomes in EU and worldwide. It gets weirder.

Do you know which nation works the most hours? The most hardworking nation in Europe, clocking in almost 50% hours than Germans in a given year is obvious at this point: Greeks. For every two hour a German works in a year, a Greek works three. For that they’re labeled as the lazy wealth moochers of the south that live easily on their spectacular seaside and glorious history.

Something doesn’t quite add up, does it? It turns out that hours worked is only relevant in a few low added value professions, such as store clercks, recepcionists, call center operators, night guards and the like. Those are professions that are necessary, but they’re low skilled, don’t pay well and don’t add much value to the economy.

What drives a modern economy forward are innovators and engineers who push the boundaries of what is possible. Their productivity is almost inversly proportional to horus worked. You only have that much creative energies to do something new and you need time to recharge. You don’t work as well when you’re tired and simply sitting at work comitting time theft does not equal to productivity. Germans work hard, very hard, during the time they’re at work. But when they clock out, always on time, they leave the job behind and enjoy themselves so their next work day is strong and productive once more.

The same goes for holidays. Germans are notorious for long holiday breaks and this again improves productivity. Your best becomes better if you’re well rested and you’re more willing to give your best to a company that appreciates your effort and talent.

By contrast, Americans often view workers as a nuisance they have to pay for and treat them accordingly. Why would you give your best for a company that only gives you enough not to run away to be treated like a slightly less smelly dropping instead. All of Europe is far ahead of USA on this matter and four weeks of holiday are the statuatory minimum given to all, not some great benefit to droll upon. Five to six weeks are not at all uncommon and you can go well beyond that in certain occupations (i.e. working with radiation, mental hospital employees, etc).

Cat story

A tuxedo cat named Andrew was found in a Bronx park, malnourished and in pain. A local rescuer and Little Wanderers NYC provided medical attention, including tooth extraction, for Andrew’s severe oral infection. After treatment, Andrew became affectionate and was taken into foster care where he enjoyed being indoors and bonded with his caregivers. He developed a close bond with a foster volunteer named Jeff, following him around and showering him with affection. Andrew’s transformation and loving personality have made him a permanent member of Jeff’s family, and the two share a special bond.

What if the Industrial Revolution had started 2,000 years ago rather than 200?

It actually did.

Unfortunately, there is this thing called van Loon’s law. It dictates: The level of technological progress in any society is inversely proportional to the number of slaves in the said society.

So you have to first get rid of slavery before any technological advancement will happen. In a slave-owning society, all technology will remain as mere curiosities and gadgets.

Heron’s aeolipili – the first functional steam turbine. It remained as mere clever gadget as there were enough slaves in the Hellenistic world to do all the tasks of slaves.

So first you had to get rid of slavery. The only way to get rid of slavery is a religion which prohibits slavery. There have historically been four of them: Christianity, Judaism, Buddhism and Zoroastrianism. So the technological revolution could have begun only in those cultural spheres.

Slavery ended in Europe with Christianization – first in the Roman Europe by the Dark Ages and then in the Northern Europe at the end of the Viking era. This dictates the earliest point when technological evolution can begin for good.

Once you get rid of slavery, you need to invent rudimentary technology – i.e. harness the forces of the nature – wind, tide, water etc. You need to develop metallurgy and chemical engineering, and material sciences. Anything which saves human labour, as the price of human labour is now the bottleneck. The Dark Ages were actually a serious period of gadgeteering, and laid the basis for the real technological revolution.

I mean, as fun as it is to whip the woman who is your sex slave in the night, to grind the quern-stones at the day, windmills and watermills are just far more efficient to produce flour.

The thing with science fiction writers is that most of them are engineers, and the heroes have open budgets and do not need to worry about economy. But to develop technology, you need a stable economy. You need to develop Capitalism first. Sorry, no such thing in the bazaar economies. And Capitalism began to evolve in Italy by 1200, and was fully developed by the 17th century. Before that, only gadgeteering.

The third requirement is the rise of sciences. That began with the emergence of universities in the 11th century. To develop sciences, you need a religion which separates between mysticism and philosophy and which recognizes an objective reality, to discover the connection between philosophy and mathematics, to discover the connection between mathematics and engineering, and to develop a system where all these things merge. This happened in the Late Middle Ages.

The Industrial Revolution happened just at the right moment. It could not have happened any earlier. You need to get all the required secondary powers in action first – only then can the real thing happen. The 200 years of Industrial Revolution was preceded by 2000 years of Religious, Philosophical, Technological, Scientific and Economical Evolution.

“We are watching ARMAGEDDON unfolding before our eyes” Col. Douglas MacGregor

Very dangerous prospect for the whole world, not only for US.

For those of you over 40, what is it that confuses you the most about young people?

I teach teens in France, and I guess many of the particularities of this generation initially confuse or surprise me, I find myself able to roll with it.

I have been especially surprised to hear that, generally speaking, they don’t have any interest in movies, books, TV series, or music. It is surprising to me that even music isn’t of interest to them!

Some like video games, but for the most part, they spend more time on social media than anything else.

The implications of that, and how society will develop with them, leaves a lot to think about.

But as a teacher, I figured I have to deal with that reality. So, for example, I have them do a project where they have to make a tutorial video in English (I teach English). This was something they got excited about, put effort into, and they made great videos! They know how to use their phones, and add special effects, music, off-voice…. they were able to be creative with it. I stopped trying to use current music, films, TV or books. It just wasn’t getting their attention.

The young generation isn’t void of creativity, but they seem to have taken over control of their social conditioning. I mean, they are watching each other create and spread ideas, values, and ethics. I was raised watching cartoons, TV shows, commercials (and reading cereal boxes!) that were carefully geared towards conditioning me to adhere to certain values that my government and the biggest corporations wanted me to integrate.

The kids today have been able to break off from that, and I suppose that scares some older folk. Like it means chaos rules and will lead to destructive movements in society. I’m not so sure. I’m observing with curiosity.

Ex-CIA: Their New Plan is TERRIFYING!

Two Middle East Outlooks

Jake Sullivan, National Security Advisor and dimwit, had written a laudation of his own and his bosses foreign policy for the November print edition of Foreign Affairs. The piece was finalized before the war in Palestine had begun.

The Sources of American Power
A Foreign Policy for a Changed World

Excerpts:

Indeed, although the Middle East remains beset with perennial challenges, the region is quieter than it has been for decades.

The progress is fragile, to be sure. But it is also not an accident.
…
[The president’s] approach returns discipline to U.S. policy. It emphasizes deterring aggression, de-escalating conflicts, and integrating the region through joint infrastructure projects and new partnerships, including between Israel and its Arab neighbors. And it is bearing fruit.
…
This disciplined approach frees up resources for other global priorities, reduces the risk of new Middle Eastern conflicts, and ensures that U.S. interests are protected on a far more sustainable basis. Challenges remain. The Israeli-Palestinian situation is tense, particularly in the West Bank, but in the face of serious frictions, we have de-escalated crises in Gaza and restored direct diplomacy between the parties after years of its absence.

—

Alastair Crooke, who has personally negotiated prisoner exchanges between Hamas and Israel, has published a rather bleak outlook.

Escalations Cannot Be Stopped – The White House Is Rattled; Escalations Might All Fuse Into ‘One’
The reality of the necessity of war is permeating widely the consciousness of the Arabic and Islamic world.

…
It is no coincidence that Netanyahu flourished a map of Israel during his General Assembly address last month in which Israel dominated from the River to the Sea – and Palestine (indeed any Palestinian territory) was non-existent.

Tom Friedman in his NYT reflections may fear that just as NATO’s impaired performance in Ukraine has ruptured ‘the NATO myth’, so too the 7 October Israeli military and intelligence collapse and what happens in its wake in Gaza ‘might explode the entire pro-American alliance structure’ in the Middle East.

The confluence of two such humiliations might break the spine of western primacy. This seems to be the gist to Friedman’s analysis. (He likely is correct).

Hamas has succeeded in smashing the Israel deterrence paradigm: They were not afraid, the IDF proved far from invincible, and the Arab street mobilised as never before (confounding western cynics who laugh at the very notion of there being an ‘Arab Street’).

Well, that is where we are – and the White House is rattled.
…
This is what worries the White House Team. They are deeply unconfident that an Israeli invasion of Gaza will put ‘Humpty’ together again. Rather, they fear that events may go badly for the IDF, and further, that the images relayed across the Middle East of Israel using overwhelming force in a civilian urban setting will revolt the Islamic sphere.

In spite of western scepticism, there are signs that this insurrection in the Arab sphere is different, and resembles more the 1916 Arab Revolt that overthrew the Ottoman Empire. It is taking on a distinct ‘edge’ as both Shi’a and Sunni religious authorities state the duty of Muslims to stand with Palestinians. In other words, as the Israeli polity becomes plainly ‘Prophetical’, so the Islamic mood is turning eschatological, in its turn.

That the White House should be floating kites about ‘moderate’ Arab leaders pressing ‘moderate’ Palestinians to form an Israeli-friendly government in Gaza that would displace Hamas and impose security and order shows just how severed is the West from reality. Recall that Mahmoud Abbas, General Sisi and the King of Jordan (some of the region’s most pliable leaders) pointedly refused even to meet with Biden after the latter’s Israel trip.

The anger across the region is real and threatens ‘moderate’ Arab leaders, whose room for manoeuvre is now circumscribed.

So hotspots are proliferating, as are attacks on U.S. deployments around the region. Some in Washington claim to perceive an Iranian hand, and are hoping to expand a window for war with Iran.
…
Should Israel enter Gaza (and Israel may decide it has no choice but to launch a ground operation, given the domestic political dynamics and public sentiment), it is likely that Hizbullah will incrementally be drawn further in, leaving the U.S. with the binary option of seeing Israel defeated, or launching a major war in which all the hotspots become fused ‘as one’.

In a sense, the Israeli-Islamic conflict now may only be resolved in this kinetic way. All efforts since 1947 have seen the divide only deepen. The reality of the necessity of war is permeating widely the consciousness of the Arabic and Islamic world.

Posted by b on October 27, 2023 at 13:44 UTC | Permalink

UH OH! China “Will Support Iran”

World Hal Turner

Chinese Premier Li Qiang came out before assembled media Thursday to say only this:

“China will continue to firmly support Iran in safeguarding its national sovereignty, territorial integrity, and national dignity, and will strongly oppose any external forces interfering in Iran’s internal affairs.”

Analysis

This Israel-Hamas thing is getting worse by the hour.

Ground invasion or not, Israel is. . . fucked.

Just a matter of time before Iran outright attacks, with the support of Russia, China, Syria. Iraq, Lebanon, Egypt, etc.

I think they already realize they have the upper hand against Israel AND the US..

The biggest news we have heard in a long time is that China will support Iran in the liberation of Palestine. That’s a big deal. It doesn’t get any bigger.

This is shaping up to be the USA, Israel, and the EU against everyone else. I think we cannot win.

We are watching and documenting the start of WW3 right before our eyes.

Why are people Leaving America?

“Everything you said is truth. Things are getting more and more unaffordable here in the US and inflation and crime is killing many small businesses.”

What moment in your life were you at the right place at the right time?

A bar order changed my life. “14 Bier bitte (14 beers please).”

I was celebrating (with friends) the severance package I had signed a few hours earlier.

After 5 years, my time in Germany was coming to an end. I already had 2 interviews lined up back in the US.

From the barstool to the left came a voice. “Excuse me.” I turned to look in the eyes of a rather scruffy absent-minded-professor type.

He smiled and said, “you seem to have a slight English accent…or maybe American?”

“American,” I confirmed. He continued, “you wouldn’t happen to be looking for a job would you?”

Crazy I thought. “I just signed my severance contract 3 hours ago.”

“Can you write?” he replied.

“I think so. My grandfather was a journalist, my mother taught English.”

I’ll spare you the details. He hired me. I never went back to the US. That special lady I had met 7 months earlier came back from her studies in the UK.

Love developed. Babies arrived. We moved to France. Babies grew into fascinating persons.

Any other bar, any other night and it never would have happened this way.

Lucky boy am I .

Have you ever seen an employer fire someone without realizing what a crucial role the employee played?

One employer I had decided to make me redundant…which was a BAAAAAD idea.

Keeping it short ( I hope ). I was managing a Photolab ( in a pharmacy ) in SE London…I literally built it up from where it was originally bringing in ‘maybe’ around 10% to 12 % of the total takings of the shop…to where it was bringing in over 80% of the takings. I did that by making certain that the quality we produced was the best for ( literally ) miles around. We had company reps from the midlands who would bring their films into us…because they couldn’t find anywhere to beat us.

At one stage we had the top boys from Kodak visit us, because they were ‘concerned’ at the amount of photographic paper we were going through…sometimes 20 rolls a week. A roll of paper is 175 Meters long…that’s over 1500 prints per roll, or just over 23,000 prints ( 6 x 4 ) a week. It turned out that there was only one Kodak lab in the whole of southern England that beat us…and that by less than 3 %…and that was at a popular seaside resort…Brighton.

Sorry for the long back story.

Almost the first thing they did was make one of the two guys on the counter redundant. Then not long after that they made my assistant redundant as well. You’ve probably worked out where this is going already. If there’s only one person working the lab or the counter what happens on days off? Or when you go to lunch…or if your ill?

Answer? I haven’t got the foggiest idea…we were never told.

Then shortly after that…I was made redundant.

Not really a surprise…I had figured out which way the wind was blowing well before this. In all fairness when they told me I was being made redundant I did tell them that in my ( exceptionally modest and humble opinion ), the lab would be closed within three months since they had no one to run it properly…they ( of course ) just ignored that.

I had a new job within two weeks…paid almost as well…and without all the hassle.

The big problem they had now was that there was now only one person to run the counter side of things…and the lab. That’s assuming that the ‘last guy’ didn’t bother with inconsequential things…like a trip to the loo, or tea breaks or lunch breaks, day’s off, holidays, emergency’s at home or just being to damn ill to come to work.

Oh, I forgot to mention something else.

He wasn’t trained to operate the lab.

He told them. ‘I’ve got no health and safety training for photolab work…you know…for all that unimportant stuff…like the electrical hazards, hazardous and corrosive chemicals etc.’ He had no first aid certification, no fire hazard training. And nothing else either, like the day to day maintenance of the machinery, let alone the longer term maintenance.

There was also the minor ( but vital to maintain quality ) chore of balancing the master channel on a daily basis, plus ( on an ongoing basis ) all the print and film channels. He had no idea where to even begin with that…absolutely not his fault at all…he was counter staff…not trained lab staff.

And…then he told them something else, he was colour blind…not exactly great for printing colour films.

He was told. ‘Use the scanner, that’ll do the job’.

‘Uhuh…I can’t do that’. ‘HUH? Why NOT’!

‘It’s been disabled in the software and disconnected from the motherboard…I don’t even know what it looks like, I wouldn’t recognise it if it got up and smacked me in the face, and I don’t know how to hook it back up and get it working again…of course there was one person here that could do that…but you got rid of him, and even if I did get the scanner working again the quality and delivery times will nose dive, the two people you made redundant did everything manually…that’s why the quality was so good, and why we were doing so much trade’. ( my assistant and I could print faster and more accurately than the scanner could do the job ).

Then, obviously trying to be ‘helpful’ ( IE sticking the knife in ) he added. ‘We could always get an engineer out from Kodak to reconnect it, but, since it’s not a breakdown…it’ll be chargeable’.

Not done.

How do I know all this ?

I’m at home one evening and I get a phone call from the ‘last guy’. ‘Hey! how’s it going’? ‘Pretty good’ was the answer…’How’s the lab doing’? ( I love this bit ) ‘What lab’?? ‘Umm…THE lab’. ‘Like I said…WHAT lab’?! ‘It’s CLOSED’??? ‘Well…I suppose you ‘could’ put it that way…the whole shop is closed…permanently’. ‘Pardon’?

It turned out that not only had the lab closed because ( surprise surprise ), nobody knew how to operate the printer properly or maintain it…but when the customers found out I’d been laid off they expressed their disgust by voting with their feet. The whole shop became a wasteland…hardly anybody went in there now.

Now that might not have been so bad when I first started there, and the lab brought in maybe 10 to 12 % of the total takings…but by the time I was laid off…the lab was bringing in around 80% of the total takings…of the entire shop.

Remember I said the lab would probably be closed within three months?

I was wrong…it took 6 WEEKS! before it…and the whole SHOP was closed.

The new company thought they were getting their hands on a gold mine, and to be honest it would have been…if they hadn’t messed it all up.

What’s an unforgettable statement that your boss told you?

In my mid 20’s I had a job at a recording studio. I was “the girl”. I was completely in charge of all things office.

This place was part of an advertising agency.

We had the whole bottom floor and most of what we did was recording jingles.

So there were the jingle writers And the musicians and the sales people. All in all it was pretty much fun.

One day the pay checks were given to me to hand out and I happened to notice that everyone made more money than I did. I marched upstairs and asked WHY. I knew full well I did more work than anyone else there. I was told that “They were creative and I was not.”

My husband and I had already been doing glass work. I called him, told him to come get me. when he got there I said I am quitting my job. I want you to quit yours,too and we will do glass work full time.

He did and we rented our first studio which was near UWM on Milwaukee’s upper East Side.

We are still doing glass work today, 45 years later. hundreds of projects all over the country.

So thanks for telling me how uncreative I was.

Why Men NEED Sex

This should be taught in schools/colleges, the differences between Men & Women so that people can better go about relationships & know why the opposite gender behaves how they behave instead of thinking that there’s something wrong with them. i.e men have 17 times more testosterone than women hence men will tend to have a higher sex drive!

Is China still rising or already dying?

Assuming the World was born on 1/1/1946

The Chinese Economy resembles a 48 year old man. Not young anymore but certainly not old or dying
The Japanese Economy resembles a 77 year old man. Prematurely aged 20 years thanks to the Plaza accords or would be a healthy 57 year old
The Indian Economy resembles a 43 year old. Down on his luck and having a last chance at some development and growth.
The US Economy resembles a 75 year old. Having sucked the youth of every Economy to keep from growing old or slowing down his ageing
The Russian Economy represents a 34 year old, reborn after dying as a 88 year old and still unsure of how to go forward but strong enough to fight the world

What office rule made you say “Really?”

This was maybe ten years ago, back when I worked in a warehouse.

One fine day when I arrived at work there were no chairs at my workstation. A manager was out there and told me they had removed the chairs because the people who worked the previous shift spent too much time sitting around instead of doing their other tasks, but I could go into the office and bring a chair out to the warehouse every day when I came in.

When the next person on the shift came in I told her what was going on with the chairs, and her response was, “What is this, junior high?” I was more amused than exasperated, and life continued with me bringing out a couple of chairs at the start of work every day.

Soon afterward our senior manager became tired of people losing pens all the time and announced that anyone who needed a pen would have to ask her for one personally. I myself was very methodical about how I used my pen, always putting it down at the same place on the table where I worked and expecting it to be there whenever I needed it. Other people (mostly our regular vendors) were less careful with pens, and it didn’t take long before my pen disappeared, along with most of the others.

Now, these were not expensive pens, so the savings our tightfisted manager gained from controlling their distribution could not have been that much. More importantly, our senior manager’s schedule didn’t overlap with mine very much, and if I had better things to do with my time than ask the senior manager for a pen every time I needed one, surely that was more true for her.

So, I took the matter to Human Resources, mentioning both the chair and pen situations in an email. The next morning an HR person called me up on the phone and got some more details about everything. About five minutes later I heard the rumble of plastic wheels on the concrete floor of the warehouse, and there was the middle manager with an extra chair in one hand and a fistful of pens in the other. Sounding a little contrite, he dumped the pens on my table and said if I needed more to please let him know.

Often when I hear people talk about HR, it’s in the context of how HR is on the side of the employer instead of the employee. So I offer up this one instance where HR came through for the little guy.

The chairs in the warehouse stayed in the warehouse afterward. And, more importantly, I never had to waste anyone’s time by asking my senior manager for a pen.

A distorted view of life…

What are the benefits of universal healthcare?

I’m in Australia.

Years ago I fell off a truck and dislocated my shoulder. I called an ambulance and they turned up. One guy said “I’m trained for resetting that”, so he did, me lying on his trolley bed on the pavement, they then took me to hospital for X-rays to make sure there were no further issues.

I don’t know how much it cost, I didn’t see a bill.

Years later I caught double pneumonia. 15 days in hospital with several courses of strong antibiotics and lots of rest.

I don’t know how much that cost – never saw a bill.

And a couple of years ago my 93 year old father in law was diagnosed with congestive heart failure, and fitted with a pacemaker that same day, spend a night in hospital and came home with an internet connected heart monitor so they could check on him from the hospital.

We never knew how much that cost … he never got a bill.

That’s universal health care for you.

We also get low cost and no cost pharmecuticals

I don’t mind the 2.5% levy added to my tax bills at all – it’s good value.

What facts about the United States do foreigners not believe until they come to America?

One observation I’ve made is that people from Europe have no concept of the ridiculous expanse that is the US, and to be fair the idea that you could take a day trip to another country when you’re in Europe blows my mind as well. I met a couple from France who thought they were going to go to Maine, New York, DC, and Orlando (Disney) all in one weekend. Just for reference, it would take you nearly 24 full hours of driving to get from Maine to Orlando.

In case you can’t tell, below is the US compared to Australia.

If you had to be in a medieval army, which role would be the safest?

You would not even be in a medieval army if you wanted to be safe. You would have joined a medieval army because you wanted to get rich quick – there was no other way to make easy money.

First of all: avoid all sieges. High risk of dying from dysentery as either besieger or besieged.

A longbow archer was very safe, and paid well, except that archers could not get “first pick” of battlefield booty. It was a trade off. Even so, you might get lucky especially if you got to sack a big town.

You won the lottery by either capturing a nobleman, his horse, or his fine armor. Capturing a common knight was not bad except that, quite often. knights went into deep debt to finance their war service

Even so. knights sometimes had rich relatives (so don’t get mad and kill Sir Deadbeat)

A surgeon would have been pretty safe and, if captured, you would be treated well.

This is VERY UGLY

How did your cat pick you?

We live about a quarter mile away from the nearest road, back through the woods, so it’s rare for any stray domestic animals to wander back here, but on the evening of May 26 this year, this tortoiseshell came strolling up the porch steps and looked in the window.

“Oh no,” we thought. “I hope it goes away.” We already had two cats and didn’t want a third. That lasted about 20 minutes. Then, “Well, I guess we need to feed her something. We can’t let her starve.” So she got a meal off us. When she was still there the next morning, we named her. That was it. That’s when you can no longer say a cat doesn’t own you.

I already had a jet black longhair named LBK adopted from a colleague who was moving 1,200 miles away and didn’t want to take her from Georgia to the snows of Vermont. My wife has a blue tortoiseshell rescue cat she calls Biscuit. So we named our porch cat Triscuit—not after the cracker but sort of an organic chemistry joke (bis-, tris-, Biscuit, Triscuit). Students of o-chem will get it.

Triscuit was very emaciated when she came to us. She weighed 3.2 lb; the basal half of her tail was almost hairless, like an opossum tail; she had a prolapsed rectum, worms, and diarrhea; she smelled bad. But I’m a sympathetic sap, especially for underdogs (and undercats), and she captured my heart. After several trips to the vet and a special rehab diet, my free cat has so far cost me only about $780 since May. She’s now up to 4.3 lb—just $180/lb. She’s worm-free, and she’s growing some hair on her tail. She just might live.

Cajun Stuffed Peppers

Ingredients

1 pound ground meat
1 (16 ounce) can stewed tomatoes
1/2 cup chopped onions
1/2 cup green bell peppers, chopped
1 (6 ounce) can tomato paste
2 cups cooked rice
6 to 8 bell peppers
Sliced cheese

Instructions

Cook meat, tomatoes, onions, chopped peppers and tomato paste. Cook for 20 to 30 minutes until done.
Cook rice. Mix rice into meat mixture, then simmer for 20 minutes.
Clean peppers. Boil in large pot until peppers turn darker green. Dry peppers on paper towels. Cool.
Stuff peppers with meat and rice mix.
Serve with a slice of cheese on top.

Why do Americans think they’re strong when they lose to countries like Vietnam and Afghanistan, and they think they can take China?

Anyone can think they are superman! Just that most are smart and humble. China is a very pragmatic and rational nation. It knows no nation has a right to exist and enjoys full sovereignty. China never sees itself as a nation that is strong. It knows very very well that should anyone threaten China, it will fully defend itself completely and hurt the attacking nation. Very very hard.

Humanity

If you were sentenced to death and the judge said to you, “I will let you choose the method of your death”, what method would you choose?

Bullet to the Occiput with a 9X19 Parbellum slug by a professional when I least expect it

Death takes 0.53 seconds and before you drop to the floor you are dead

It’s best description was by Ralph Fiennes as Amon Goeth in Schindler’s List

However that was expected

I want it unexpected so that there is no fear or surprise

You are just powered off

What was the nail in the coffin for an employee or a co-worker?

Me to a new hire, “install this wing flap actuator on that left wing and what ever you do…do not drop it, it’s very expensive.”

New hire, “Yes, sir. No problem”.”

Two minutes later, a loud, crashing thud can be heard from over by the left wing.

Me, “NEW HIRE? Did you just drop that actuator?”

New hire “No sir, I just dropped a tool. It’s alright.”

Me as I go over there to examine the situation. “Then why is there a dent on this mounting lug of the actuator?”

New Hire, “uhh, I don’t know, must’ve come that way. It’ll be alright. It’s fine. It’ll still work.”

Me, “Lives are at stake when we work on these aircraft and when mistakes are made we have to own them and immediately correct them. This actuator will not work and neither will you. Remember this lesson on your next job.”

Men and women

How did you get your most satisfying revenge on someone else that truly deserved it?

In college I lived in an apartment building and my next door neighbor was the rudest, most angry and disagreeable person that I had ever met. One day after classes I rode my bicycle home and went to store it in the small storage shed in front of my car. I noticed that someone had clipped the right rear corner of my fairly new car. I looked at the Cadillac next to my car and saw a indentation on the rear quarter panel at the same height as the damage to my car. The color on the damaged quarter panel matched the color of my car exactly.

I approached my mean, nasty and disagreeable neighbor, showed him the damage and he immediately claimed that I must have hit his Cadillac and threatened to sue me, get me evicted and on and on.

He worked in a bank in a troubled part of town. I drove by the bank and noticed a massage parlor in a single wide trailer about 2 blocks away.

I went to an adult book store and purchased an explicit picture magazine titled “Beautiful Black Asses”, went to a card store and bought a very feminine thank you card and an envelope big enough for the magazine. I signed the card “Thanks for everything honey – Candy” and mailed it to his apartment with the massage parlor’s name and address as the return address. I was aware that his wife got home first every day and retrieved the mail every day.

A couple of days later I heard a LOUD screaming exchange between them and the wife took off in his Cadillac, burning rubber all of the way. She and the Cadillac were gone for about a month before she returned but, their relationship seemed chilled until I graduated and moved away a year and 1/2 later.

Shifa Hospital Bunker – How Would They Know?

Big claims:

Israel claim Hamas headquarters is hidden under the Shifa Hospital in Gaza – news.com.au – October 31 2023

Israel-Gaza war: US says Hamas has command centre under Al-Shifa hospital – BBC – November 14 2023

But how would they know?

Top Secret Hamas Command Bunker in Gaza Revealed – Tablet – July 29 2014 (!!!)

The Israelis are so sure about the location of the Hamas bunker, however, not because they are trying to score propaganda points, or because it has been repeatedly mentioned in passing by Western reporters—but because they built it. Back in 1983, when Israel still ruled Gaza, they built a secure underground operating room and tunnel network beneath Shifa hospital—which is one among several reasons why Israeli security sources are so sure that there is a main Hamas command bunker in or around the large cement basement beneath the area of Building 2 of the Hospital, which reporters are obviously prohibited from entering.

I bet 100 to 1 that nothing Hamas is present in the well known bunker beneath the Shifa hospital.

Posted by b at 9:53 UTC | Comments (2)

Punishing the men she likes…

What is the biggest life lesson you have ever learned?

Dad: What are you searching in that drawer?

Mom: I couldn’t find my saved money, I need to pay the deliveryman.

Dad: Don’t worry, you’ll find it. How much for the deliveryman?

Mom: 5 thousand rupees. I ordered some groceries and essentials for the house.

Dad paid the deliveryman and we eventually got busy with our daily work.

The next day, Mom, Dad, and I were cleaning the kitchen, when my mom shouted.

Mom: Look, I got my money, it’s in the cupboard. I was so foolish, I searched the whole house for it.

Mom looked so happy because she saved it for her friend’s birthday gift.

But the situation was something else.

Dad got out of the house to smoke a cigarette and I ran behind him.

I said “Why did you do that?’

Father asked: ‘Do what?’

I replied “I swear I have seen you taking the money out of your wallet and putting it in the cupboard.

Dad smirked and replied: “You know she was everything for me! I can’t see her getting sad over the little money she lost yesterday. Because I think we need to care for the person, we love the most!”

Dad takes out a handkerchief and starts putting off his sweat.

I said “Dad, now why are you using mom’s handkerchief? Is it a sign of your care towards Mom too?”

Dad “Nope, because it still has her fragrance”

This was something that changed my whole point of view not only towards life but also towards love too.

Hope you’ll like my answer,

Yours truly,

Ankita

Why is heroin so addictive?

“I’ll just do a little this time”.

Every heroin addict’s go to line. The problem is the drug is too brutal and won’t let you do a little this time.

Heroin messes with your brain big time.

It is an opioid, which means it comes from the same plant as morphine and other painkillers.

But heroin is different because it gets to your brain faster and stronger than other opioids.

It does this by changing into morphine once it’s in your blood, and then attaching to these things called opioid receptors in your brain.

Opioid receptors are like switches that control how you feel pain and pleasure.

When heroin hits them, it turns them on full blast, making you feel a rush of euphoria and relaxation.

It also blocks out any negative feelings like depression or anxiety.

Sounds awesome, right?

Wrong. Because heroin is so good at turning on your opioid receptors, it also tricks your brain into thinking that heroin is the best thing ever.

Your brain starts to associate heroin with happiness, and forgets about other things that make you happy, like food, friends, or hobbies.

Your brain also becomes less sensitive to heroin over time, so you need more and more of it to feel the same effect.

This is how addiction happens.

You become obsessed with getting and using heroin, and you can’t stop even if you want to.

You also start to feel sick when you don’t have heroin, because your brain is used to having it all the time.

This is called withdrawal, and it sucks big time.

Withdrawal can feel like death. It can make you feel like you have the flu, but worse.

You can have nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, muscle aches, sweating, chills, anxiety, insomnia, and more.

Withdrawal can also make you crave heroin even more, because you know it will make you feel better.

The white horse is one of the most addictive drugs out there.

It hijacks your brain’s reward system and makes you dependent on it for feeling good.

It also makes you sick when you don’t have it, and makes you want it more than anything else in the world.

Possibly the worst thing is that even being sober for 20 years, you always remember that first high. That first rush. So the urge never really leaves…..

Do you know what happened to the smartest student in your class?

The smartest student in my class used to be nicknamed “Rain Man” in math class because of how fast he was able to make calculations. But he wasn’t just the best in math. He was also the best in the language classes and in history class – any class except physical exercise really. He wasn’t much use there.

Everyone thought he would go on to become a university professor. But he didn’t. He started distancing himself from academic pursuits in high school and instead started reading poetry and wanting to be an artist. When he was evaluated for military service and got a stellar score on the IQ test, the officers asked him what he wanted to do after high-school, and he told them he wanted to study literature or write novels.

Most likely the issue was that he came from an academic family, with both his parents being university professors, which made that career path seem like nothing special to him. He wanted “more”, whatever that was.

At college, he would become increasingly erratic, often not showing up for class and failing to read appointed materials. But he would still pass all exams with high marks by making an effort at the last minute.

The “artist” aspiration hadn’t died out though. He was pursuing writing as well as music, eventually forming a band, but he never really made an impact. He wasn’t even a bad music artist but he also just wasn’t outstanding like he was at school. His commercially unsuccessful “artist” career saw him moonlighting at random shift jobs to get by, including as a night receptionist.

It would be seven years until he realized music and literature weren’t going to get him anywhere. If he had just managed to put his head down and work diligently on a more weighty subject of study, be it mathematics or medicine or political science, I’m sure he would have had a brilliant career and made a splash in his field. As it was, he was already in his 30s without any really useful qualifications while others were getting promotions and buying real estate.

In the following years, he first learned Chinese and went to live in China, then came back again, took up coding with the intention of making AI models but also lost interest in that before really getting there. Nowadays he’s still struggling to even get a decent job – something I think no one would have expected back then at school. And who knows what’s next?

I guess I should know because I am this person. I was the smartest kid in my class. In this game of “professor or suicide”, I’m thus far neither. But being gifted hasn’t served me particularly well. Since everything was easy for me throughout my education (well, except P.E. and crafts), I never learned to really struggle. I learned that I could win without struggling. Therefore, I proceeded to avoid anything that might seriously put me to the test. And at the end of the day, intelligence is really no match for effort.

The silver lining is that I’m more and more beginning to realize that I don’t need a brilliant career, neither in academia nor as an artist. In hindsight, I was pursuing both more out of vanity than anything else. Unusually smart kids have a tendency to accrue lofty expectations from all around; from parents, teachers and classmates alike. Everyone tells you: “you could do this” and “you should do that” and “you’re gonna be a star” and it’s easy to become inebriated with this praise and forget to stop and be honest with yourself about what YOU actually want – not what others want for you or even what you want for your own idea of you. Finally doing so has been quite liberating.

Filtering out all the good men

https://i.ytimg.com/vi/YDMWjBpmu78/frame0.jpg

Is it true that in China, people with European appearance are valued and they are paid a higher salary, for example, if it is an English teacher?

This is an illusion. The Chinese used to think that having a European appearance meant they would be good at teaching English, but they later realized they were wrong.

Professional ability is linked to your salary, not your appearance.

If you can provide an English major certificate or education certificate, you can earn a good salary at English teaching institutions in China, but of course, there will be many people competing with you. Education requires teaching experience, not just talking to oneself in the classroom. Engaging in the teaching profession requires mastering teaching methods that students can understand. You must first be able to communicate with students in Chinese. Not everyone is suitable for the teaching profession, and whether to stay or not ultimately depends on the graduation rate data of students. People who lack a competitive advantage cannot enter higher education schools and can only teach their children some simple English conversations in kindergartens. Of course, the salary will be much lower than that of school teachers.

China’s second language ~ third language education is civilian education, not aristocratic education.

Generally speaking, the China government requires Chinese students to master at least 1~2 foreign languages. Because English-speaking countries dominate the world, China has popularized English education in the compulsory education stage.

There are many foreigners engaged in English education in China because it is easy to find substitutes, and the competitive pressure of practitioners is also the biggest among all language education. Meanwhile, due to the popularization of English education in China, the job of English teacher is also the easiest to find.

Language teachers such as Russian, Japanese, Korean, German, French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, and Arabic are relatively lacking.

As far as I know, some teachers of small languages have already earned salaries of $1000~$5000 per hour. (一万到五万一堂课)

Some infrastructure contractors, in order to make their employees understand the local language, offer considerable salaries to language teachers who attend classes during training.

In fact, in recent years, the salaries of Arabic language teachers and French teachers have been very good. Because there are many Arab countries and African countries (French speaking area) along the the Belt and Road. Since there is a demand for business, of course, relevant language education talents are needed.

What is the most bizarre thing a coworker has done to get fired?

We hired a lady to organize our archives before they were digitized. This was in 2000. She was just required to work 8 hours a day, and only needed to interact with coworkers for about an hour a day. So she decided to work 3:00–12:00 and our Mom and Pop small company saw no reason why she couldn’t do her job at night.

She was doing a decent job, and nobody had a problem. But we reached a point, where she had to start working days, so she could tell people what was going on.

She had stored all of her rolls of fim in garbage cans, and paper records in recycling boxes.

The first day she wasn’t there when the cleaners came to clean her office, they emptied all of her film and paper into shredders, and hauled it away.

Not one person in the office could figure out why she not only used her garbage can for storage, but brought in extra garbage cans and filled them.

She was livid and blamed the cleaning staff for emptying the garbage and recycling as they were required to do by contract.

They didn’t exactly fire her. They laid her off, and said that now that there was no data to archive, they didn’t have a job for her.

Delusional expectations

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/kFvqKKr4yxc?feature=share

Have you ever known someone who has gone missing?

Sara Anne Wood was just 12 years old when she was abducted within view of her home on Aug 18, 1993. I was friends(from camp) with her brother Dusty and it hit everyone so very hard. This was an incredibly nice family from Central New York in a very small town. Back then, kids had heard ghost stories about kids being snatched but very few took it seriously. Sara’s case changed that for many and the resulting publicity made sure that new tools for the public and law enforcement would save more missing kids since.

The man who admitted to abducting and killing her also confessed to another murder- a 12 year old boy, Jimmy Bernardo. He confessed to another murder(Jamie Lusher) but like Sara, the body has never been found. The killer has given incorrect information for the recovery of Sara Anne Wood and Jamie Lusher many times. FBI psychologists are unsure what is keeping the killer from revealing the information since he seems willing to put it behind him. He will serve every day of his pitiful existence behind bars but it isn’t enough for the pain he has brought to so many in this world.

I have not named the killer out of respect for my childhood friend’s family who feel the killer has garnered too much fame already. It’s easy to search, but do me a favor if you choose to look it up. Please also learn about all of the positive changes brought about by Sara Anne Wood’s case. Those changes have saved/found many thousands of children since.

Note to Dusty & the Wood family: I hope you find peace and closure. We have not forgotten Sara and will never stop looking.

I am so so so SO very glad that I no longer live in the USA.

It’s all loony town.

What was the most embarrassing medical procedure you have had?

When I was 16 I developed a kidney abscess. It was treated over several weeks and dissipated. First off, I had to sit in a room with a bunch of 70 year old men waiting for my Urologist. Then, the Dr was flummoxed how a teenage girl could get this, so proceeded with different types of tests. One was testing my Ureters. In the hospital, I was naked from the waist down with a paper drape, filled my bladder with something and iodine and literally put a stopper in so that I couldn’t pee. Then, they left the room. It was just me and a male tech who was in front of some machines with screens. The room had swinging double doors. Every once in awhile someone would come in, and my nether regions were on full view to anyone coming in, and anyone passing by. When I was done, I had to wrap the paper drape around me and sprint to the bathroom across the hall to piss like a Russian race horse! I’m pretty sure I leaked that liquid all across that room and the hallway. Yes, this was very embarrassing.

These girls are delusional…

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/B08AYgQgiak?feature=share

When you think your child is too quiet on his own, what was he actually doing that surprised you?

One of my girls had been diagnosed with fetal alcohol syndrome, developmental delays and schizo affective disorder.

She attends a day program for adults that provides socialization along with life skills training. They also take the clients out into the community to do contract jobs supported by staff. She came home beaming and said she was working in a local grocery store. I assumed stocking shelves, sweeping, etc.

About her third day she came home excited as usual got a snack and went to the bathroom.

I cleaned up the table, put away leftovers, and generally spent a fair amount of time puttering around.

Then I realized she was still in the bathroom and it was very quiet.

I called her name.

No answer.

I checked the door.

It was locked.

I banged on the door, yelled her full name and demanded she open the door immediately!

NO! I’M NOT DONE!

What are you doing?

It’s a surprise. Go away!

Now I’ve had pretty awful bathroom surprises from kids. Things like blood all over from an accident doing something I’d warned them about, to diarrhea, to bathing the dog in the tub with the associated water and mud sprayed around.

I said I was counting to 10 and the door had better be open or I’d pick the lock. Yeah, I’ve had to do that on more than one occasion.

At 9 she opened the door beaming and sweaty. See mom! I cleaned it all by myself! The floor around the toilet, the sinks, inside the toilet and the mirrors! Now I need to wash my hands.

Everything was spotless. I had forgotten most stores have at least employee restrooms. That was what she was doing at work.

She then said it was nicer at home than the men’s room. It was disgusting and stinks.

I was floored! Never have I had a child do such a thorough job cleaning anything! I gave her hugs. I told her I was sooo happy with the sparkling clean bathroom.

Then she asked me, Mom, can you teach me how to clean the tub? They don’t have that at the store.

I was shocked. She actually wanted to do more cleaning!

I told her I was so proud of her, and then later made her promise that if she wanted to clean the bathroom again would she please leave the door open. I explained that the surprise was fantastic, but some cleaning supplies were smelly and she could get sick.

She looked disappointed and asked how she could surprise me if the door was open.

I promised if she said she was working on something special I’d stay in the kitchen and make cookies.

I get a clean bathroom, the kids get fresh cookies, and my husband eats raw cookie dough. Wins all the way around!

China SHOCKS The US With Terrifying Nuclear Space Missile

https://youtu.be/qpazF5l5YOo

Have you ever accidentally found out that you were about to be fired?

I got a call from a friend, who had literally just been informed that he was laid off. And he was wondering if I had also gotten the axe.

I was on vacation for a week. It was Tuesday or Wednesday, and I was on my way to a dog show to help some friends set some things up. My friend had been walked into the office that morning and been told that his last day would the the following Friday. The severance was good, he had already been thinking about retiring, and his wife was having pretty bad health issues. So he just said cool, and planned on wrapping up the things he was involved with.

So I checked, and did have a voicemail on my phone. I listened to it, and yes, a manager I knew had called VERY EARLY that day and asked that I call her back when I had the time, sometime today. Given that my friend had been laid off, and what the situation at the company was, yeah, I knew I was going to get the boot as well. Not my first time, so I just sat back and made a list of what I needed to do. Then I called my friend back, told him about the voicemail and we commiserated. And finally I called the manager back and got the bad news. No big deal.

Being laid off sucks. But keep your wits about you, be open to doing something different, make smart financial decisions and just keep movin’ on.

What are some good examples of “life isn’t fair”?

In May 2016, Amber Heard, who is now divorced from Johnny Depp, shared photos claiming he abused her. People quickly condemned Depp, especially when he was cast in Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald. Many thought he shouldn’t be hired due to the accusations. Meanwhile, Heard was praised as a survivor and advocate for abused women.

Depp, who had built a good reputation over the years, faced a backlash. People didn’t want to work with him, and he was labeled as an abuser. He received hate from fans, the media, and almost everyone.

However, this year, Depp released tapes that changed how we saw the situation. Heard admitted to hitting him and throwing objects at him, even causing injury. She mocked him, knowing people would likely believe her over him.

Depp, in essence, is saying, “Imagine if I, as a man, claimed to be a victim of domestic violence. How many would believe or support me?” The story shows how we often quickly judge someone as a villain, even when they might not be at fault.

Women are attracted to bad boys. How can I act like or be a “bad boy”?

I was the bad boy and what you’re trying to make is a mistake.

Let me explain why.

Most girls in their 20s and even 30s have some kind of masculine ideal. This ideal is anything but healthy. They want the sociopath or the aggressive jerk or whatever is considered nowadays a good representation of masculinity.

The definition of a “good masculine sexual partner” is more of what you’d find in “Fight Club” than “Breakfast At Tiffany”. And yes, I was one of them. I acted as a jerk, I was emotionally imbalanced, I got into a lot of arguments and fights and I was emotionally and physically violent.

And this got me laid. A lot. The fact that my life was chaotic and broken, ironically, made a lot of very beautiful woman want to save me.

And here’s the thing …

If you want to screw your emotional balance, make your life a mess and be in that position for the sake of getting laid you are an idiot. This is because the “bad boy” image that works to get women turned on is kind of the opposite of what works in every other area of life.

Everywhere else consistency, maturity, dignity, integrity are rewarded. In the business world nobody will put up with the “bad boy” bullshit. In the academic world the same. Most realms of life are a meritocracy where your hard work and effort are going to get you what you deserve. Dating is one of the few fields in which the least you care and the more counter-intuitive you act, the better results you’re going to get.

But it is not worth it.

This is because while being a bad boy may get you female attention, being a bad boy is generally not a good life strategy and there is a LOT MORE to life than getting laid. I remember how at some point in my life I was an emotional mess, smoking, drinking, going in bars each night, sleeping with two girls at the same time (not in the same bed) and many people were “admiring me”.

In reality, I was crying out of frustration and desperation often because I was in a hole and no one was pulling me out. While I was getting girls to take off their panties, I had no money, my business partners wanted nothing to do with me, my friends who showed integrity and character have been replaced by superficial relationships and the future looked really bleak.

So honestly, what you want is the most immature thing you can do.

Trust me, treating life as a bad-boy (and I’m not talking about buying a leather jacket but actually being a “I-Don’t-Give-A-Damn” type of person) has a far higher downside than upside. While there are always going to be ladies who will (1) want to save you from yourself (2) think they can change you (3) be attracted because you’re different, the people who don’t want to have sex with you won’t really be impressed by what you’re doing.

So here’s my advice.

Act as a man and stop trying to emulate the dysfunctional bad-boy image. The rogue, the sociopath, the psychopath, the out of control wreck are and were always female fantasies for better or for worse but actually being one sucks.

Instead simply focus on acting as a man. The same traits that you consider boring nice, as a nice guy, are exactly the traits required to succeed in most fields. I’m not saying to be a wimp but I’m saying that being dysfunctional for the sake of mediocre sex (because deep inside you’ll always know that that’s not love but rather fascination) is a very bad trade-of.

Why We’re Leaving The United States

Gonzalo Lira Update

Simple post.

Let’s start here…

Gonzalo Lira Update

What is the best thing you saw someone do when they got fired from their job?

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

Have you ever had an encounter with an angel? Did it scare you?

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.

Why won’t China let Google cars drive around so we can see the street view on maps throughout the country?

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)

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.
Serve with additional hoisin sauce.

When did you realize your child was no longer a child?

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!

What is the most jaw-dropping method for shoplifting that you have seen?

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.

What is the fastest anyone has been fired from a job?

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.

What is a fun psychological trick to try on someone?

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.

Can a hospital in the United States make someone leave who cannot get a hold of anyone to pick them up and they have no money?

Yes.

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.

It’s so common it has a name: patient-dumping.

This happens all the time in American hospitals.

The Time Tunnel | 1920 Universe

What is the one in a million coincidence you have ever had?

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).

What is the most embarrassing thing you have seen your sister do?

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.

Bee kind always.

What’s the quickest way you saw a co-worker get fired?

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.

A husband

How did you react when you learned that a coworker who you believed to be your trusted ally was instead working diligently to undermine and defame you?

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.

China’s consumer market is so huge, attractive, and growing rapidly in size. Isn’t it foolish of the US government to decouple or derisk from China?

Of course it is!

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!

How do you deal with a friend who, when going out to a restaurant, ends up constantly complaining in a rather petulant or whining manner?

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

https://youtu.be/oUV1l_zRLlc

What was the craziest thing a mechanic said about your car?

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.

Do you think that “sapiosexuality” is a real thing, or is it just that people tend to like people with whom they have shared interests?

Yes, it’s definitely a real thing.

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.

What family secret was finally spilled in your family?

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.

Did you ever see karma hit someone who deserved it so befittingly that it was eerie?

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!

Life in Africa

I’ve heard of many waiters who make a killing on tips. Would ending the tipping system actually be worse for waiters?

US Answer

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.

What’s something a doctor did to you that you won’t ever forget?

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”

Have you ever had a client/patient who you knew was beyond helping? A patient old enough, who’d tried everything, to no avail? Have you ever known there was no hope for someone?

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.

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 died not much later, without ever waking up.

Why is change so hard?

My maternal grandfather was cheap.

So. So. Cheap.

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.

Have you ever stopped going to a restaurant because a waiter or waitress was rude to you?

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.

What is the most jaw-dropping method for shoplifting that you have seen?

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.

Man Of Steel | 1920 Universe | COLORIZED

What is an insane coincidence that you’ve experienced?

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.)

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.

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?

(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!

What is the funniest joke you’ve been told that you still think about to this day?

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!

If an intruder was in your house, would you try to kill the intruder, or run the hell away out of your house?

You would most probably hide like this girl.

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.

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.

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!”

https://youtu.be/VIyu2-zCnFU

What is the worst thing a woman can say to her husband?

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.

Has another parent ever gotten mad at you for saying ‘no’ to their child?

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.

Police officers, what are some of the most interesting conversations you’ve had with the people you’ve arrested?

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.

Can you explain the process of a U.S. company going public in China? Can you provide some examples of U.S. companies that have done this successfully?

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!

What was the best way you’ve taken revenge on an awful parent?

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.

What is something almost no one says, but you’re sure everyone thinks?

“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.

Why is the Chinese government so much more effective in its policy making while Western countries take forever to make moves?

Decision making & Accountability

That’s it

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

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

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

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

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

What advice did another parent give your child that made you furious?

Oh. my. god.

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.

So yep that’s my story, now my daughter is 11

What’s something you can’t believe you had to explain to another adult?

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.?”.

Men do not want this

What is something you can’t have?

Fucking closure.

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.

She got wet

What are the implications of Moody’s downgrade of China’s debt outlook?

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!

People who’ve built and slept in igloos, what’s it actually like?

Hat tip to Scott Welch – amazing answer.

As a recreational igloo builder, I can add:

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…

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.

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.

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.

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.

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!

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.

And at night, a flashlight really shines through the structure.

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.

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.

Enjoy yourself!

Hoe math

Why did Kentucky Fried Chicken get so bad?

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.

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.
Serve with freshly ground Szechuan pepper.

What is the pettiest notice you’ve received from your Homeowners Association?

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.

As a Realtor what is the messiest thing you ever saw in a home?

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.

Can you tell me about a time that you sued someone in civil court and won?

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.

I asked for £200.

They paid up in full before the court hearing.

What kind of people make you ashamed to be a human being?

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.”

How long should China’s lockdown last? What are the consequences if not enough time is given?

China did it just right.

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.

If you’re fired, do you have to return your company car immediately?

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.

What is something the West always gets wrong about Chinese culture?

Hi!

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

Oh my goodness!

What the Heck is going on with the USA? Prep for false flag, practice to the end, or just insane commands from a demented “president”?

EAM transmitted to USN submarines? WTF?

E-4B National Airborne Operations Center “NAOC” Transmits Emergency Action Message (EAM) to US Submarines from over Gulf of Mexico!

World Hal Turner 21 December 2023

A United States Air Force E-4B aircraft, which is a designated National Airborne Operations Center (NAOC) took off from Offutt Air Force Base this afternoon, headed out over the Gulf of Mexico, and Transmitted an Emergency Action Message (EAM) to US Nuclear Missile Submarines, using Very Low Frequency (VLF) Comms.

There’s something unnerving seeing a E-4B NAOC (GORDO16) and a E-6B TACAMO (FULL02) launch from Offutt AFB around the same time. As you can see from the FlightRadar24 map image below, that’s what happened.

The E-4B

The E-4B serves as the National Airborne Operations Center and is a key component of the National Military Command System for the President, the Secretary of Defense and the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

In case of national emergency or destruction of ground command and control centers, the aircraft provides a highly survivable command, control and communications center to direct U.S. forces, execute emergency war orders and coordinate actions by civil authorities.

The conduct of E-4B operations encompasses all phases of the threat spectrum. Additionally, the E-4B provides outside the continental United States travel support for the Secretary of Defense and his staff to ensure Title 10 command and control connectivity.

The E-6B

The E-6B Mercury is a communications relay and strategic airborne command post aircraft. It provides survivable, reliable, and endurable airborne Nuclear Command, Control, and Communications (NC3) for the president, secretary of defense and U.S. Strategic Command.

Only One Job:

The E-4B and E-6B at the end of the day only have one job: getting the message out (Nuclear launch codes) from the NCA (National Command Authority) to the United States Nuclear Triad by any means necessary.

Those means include a variety of waveforms including VLF, HF, UHF, SHF and beyond.

A B-52, B-2, ICBM Silo, or Submarine, will decode these encrypted messages and either launch their nuclear weapons at an intended target – – or not – – based on the decisions of our elected public officials.

So imagine my dismay when surveillance picked up the E-4B transmitting an EMERGENCY ACTION MESSAGE (EAM) while out over the Gulf of Mexico this afternoon! More specifically, the aircraft was messaging our nuclear missile SUBMARINES because it was using VLF, Very Low Frequency, to send the encoded message. VLF is the band that penetrates the ocean to sufficient depth, to reach our submerged nuclear missile subs.

USA civil war?

The state of Colorado ruled Trump ineligible for the 2024 election. An account of something something insurrection democracy something.

As it stands, Trump will compete in only 49 states in the election.

It is likely, others will follow. If a few swing states do it, then result of the election is successfully altered.

If supreme court does not strike these down, the United States is officially no longer a democracy.

If supreme court strikes it down, the damage is still done. People will lose trust that their vote matters.

The country is headed into civil war.

Posted by: FieryButMostPeaceful | Dec 21 2023 16:26 utc | 3

What was the funniest way you ever wasted the time of a telemarketer?

“I have amazing news!!”

Began the telemarketer. We’d been getting a lot of those calls in the past few weeks and I was about 19 or so, so my evil little comedic mind was at work.

Here’s the thing: no one asks those bastards (you know I wanted to say something else) to call us personally! We want them to stop. It was back in the early days of this crap and many of the accents over the phone were still American.

“I have amazing news!!”

“You found a kidney??!”

“Uh, what?”

“You found a kidney!!!! You’re from the hospital, right? We’ve been waiting by the phone and- and I just can’t believe this is really happening; bless you; thank God!”

“Um…no… I’m… calling about (something he suddenly had dramatically less confidence in).”

“You- you’re not from the hospital?”

“No, sorry, I-“

(I turned my head from the phone and didn’t really muffle it properly.) “Oh, don’t cry, Sarah, sweetie! They’ll find one! It’s okay sweetheart, don’t worry.”

(I turned back to the phone.) “I’ll just call back later.”

“Thanks; I’m sorry: could you please keep the line clear? We’re waiting to hear from the hospital.”

“Yeah. Yeah, I’ll do that.”

It got played about 2 more times and then those bastards stopped harassing us by phone to buy or sign on to their whatever.

Meanwhile, about China…

US are completely paranoid about China overtaking them, their tactics to block them has simply backfired spectacularly, so the US resort to scaring every neighbour of China into thinking they are going to invade them, including us.

Arnaud Bertrand
@RnaudBertrand
19h
This is a good read on “why the American technological war against China could backfire” and “supercharge China’s creation of an independent computer chip industry”.
theconversation.com/why-the-…

It’s exactly what is happening and at the end of the day, as the article makes clear, it’s all about hubris.

It was always beyond delusional for the US to believe that it could stop the technological progress of a country that IS AHEAD OF THEM on all metrics that matter for it, as detailed in the article:
– “Chinese high schoolers score the highest in the world in reading, science and mathematics”
– “Chinese universities are outperforming institutions in the rest of the world in the vast majority of disciplines”. For instance, critically, China has 6 of the top 10 universities in the world in engineering whilst the US only has 2…
– China produces more than double the number of STEM PhDs every year than the U.S.
– “In 2022, China overtook the U.S. for the first time as the country or territory publishing the most research articles in prestigious natural science journals”
– “China published the highest number of scientific research papers annually between 2018 and 2020, and had 27.2 per cent of the world’s top one per cent of the most frequently cited papers, compared to 24.9 per cent for the U.S.”
– According to research done by the Australian Strategic Policy Institute “China is leading [the world] in 37 of 44 cutting-edge technologies, including nanoscale materials and synthetic biology”
– Etc.

Conclusion from the article: “When it comes to the use and production of knowledge-based industries, China has more advantages than any other country in the world. American actions will create a new generation of Chinese high-tech firms that will compete directly with the U.S. and western businesses from whom they used to buy their products. These firms will produce more affordable products than their western counterparts, and could dominate technological infrastructure in the Global South.”

In a nutshell the very notion that China is a country whose technological progress could be stopped is almost criminally deluded, and derives from both a deep misunderstanding of China by the US and a deep overestimation of American capabilities… Adopting this strategy is backfiring big time and will without a doubt yield a considerably worse result for the US than if they’d favored a “coexistence” collaborative approach 🤷‍♂️

Posted by: MD | Dec 21 2023 20:24 utc | 33

Two guys

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/9P7aiPM7vd0?feature=share

Do you know people who get paid to do absolutely nothing at their jobs?

When I worked security, I knew people whose job consisted entirely of occupying a space for a long period of time.

Technically, they were securing the area and they had a walkie-talkie to call the rest of us if anyone tried to go into the area who shouldn’t have been there. But no one ever tried to get into those areas.

I worked at an outdoor concert place that had upscale restaurants around the perimeter of the grounds. Those restaurants closed when the show started, and security guards were put in the restaurants to make sure no drunk concert goers tried breaking into them.

I volunteered for that position once, and never again. I literally sat in a dark, empty restaurant for four hours. I could hear the music outside, and I could see people walking by the windows, but no one tried to come into the restaurant. No one ever tried. It was so boring… I requested to be in front of the stage for shows after that.

Discovered

On the wedding day.

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/xF8-FkjL_wI?feature=share

Civil war?

https://ronpaulinstitute.org/bar-biden-from-the-ballot/

The Liberty Report

Bar Biden From The Ballot?

by Daniel McAdams | Dec 21, 2023

This week’s decision by the Colorado Supreme Court to bar former President Trump from the presidential ballot has led to expected repercussions:

Republicans across the country are threatening revenge barring Biden from red state ballots. Where is voting in this country headed?

Posted by: MD | Dec 21 2023 21:12 utc | 40

What should I do to make a lasting impression on others?

I was skidding through my freshman year, sleepwalking to classes and nursing hangovers. I’d just stepped into an elevator on our first day and noticed Professor Kaplan standing next to me. I’d heard about him. He was allegedly one of the best professors, a former Harvard lecturer.

I turned and said, “Greetings professor! I believe I’m attending your lecture today.” Holding his notebooks, he turned, smiled, and said, “My condolences.” And then he proceeded to give one of the best lectures I’ve ever seen. His display of humility in that elevator made him that much more endearing.

Self-deprecating humor, done lightly, and framed in a positive way, is powerfully charismatic. It makes people feel comfortable and appeals to their insecurities. But if you make a joke about your third wife leaving you, you might be overkilling it.

News broke from the Xiangshan Forum that the Chinese government will abolish the Great Firewall. Are Taiwanese and Americans mentally prepared to accept the impact of public opinion from 1.4 billion Chinese people?

Laughs.

LOLOLOLOLOLOLOL

A lot of people think I’m paid to write the things I write, I merely have a fair bit of free time. Today was the last day for my day job until next year, tomorrow is a massive party though…

Anyway me and a couple of other shit posters irritate enormous amounts of westerners merely by our free time shit posting.

People don’t like to argue against me because I like to use western media to debunk western media. Last night for instance a person said the BBC is honest. I then showed them two BBC clips together and one was very different.

Imagine 500million extra internet users even MORE aggressive and shit postery than me? I say 500 million because while 900 million people can write English to an OK level only about 500 million are proficient.

Imagine ME x 500 or x 5000. And here’s the thing, I’m overseas born, so I’m a hell of a lot easier going than a lot of Chinese people.

What’s the fastest you’ve wiped a smirk off of someone’s face?

Back in 2006 me and a friend had been Christmas shopping, and it was a big outing for me, I had been battling Leukemia for a number of years, and after having a bone marrow transplant I was finally able to be out of a sterile environment,.

We went into a Restaurant and were seated right next to a table where 3 quite over weight women were seated.

I was very thin, I am 5 foot 7 and at the time weighed about 105 lbs. I didn’t have much of an appetite, so when finished my meal was barely touched, the waitress asked me if I wanted a box to take food with me, and I said no.

Well that prompted one of the “ ladies” to loudly say say “ Skinny Bitch, you can tell SHE is on drugs”!

I just looked at her and said “ well, not since the bone marrow transplant, thankfully I am done with Chemo.”

that shut her up.

Have you ever seen a mass exodus after a respected employee quit or got fired?

Back in 1981, I was kitchen manager at a new pizza place in town. We were about 4 months in and turning a good profit. The guy who managed the place was a great guy and everyone who worked there loved him. The actual owner of the place had a daughter with a boyfriend. He fired our boss for no reason and said his brat’s boyfriend was the new boss, a guy who had never worked in food service before (it’s just a pizza joint, how hard could it be?). Then we were told we would need to be attend a meeting to talk about these changes at 4:00pm. We did the following: 1) added shit-tons of salt and cayenne pepper to existing pizza sauces, 2) changed the printed recipe for dough to make it unlikely to rise correctly, and if it did rise to certainly taste bad, 3) change the sauce recipe to make it inedible, and 4) swap all the lines around for the soda machine, so that when you dispensed from Coke, Dr. Pepper came out, etc. We only had beer in bottles, and our bottles were longneck deposit bottles, and they hadn’t picked them up yet, so we loaded all the beer into the back of a pickup truck, filled the beer cooler with empties, and took the beer to an undisclosed location. Four o’clock came around and everyone was there. New boss, his girlfriend, and the owner were there and as soon as the new manager was introduced, we got up, walked out the door, and soon found ourselves at said undisclosed location, partaking in recently purloined beer and repeatedly calling in take-out orders that would never be picked up. Did I mention, there was a reservation for a party of 30 that night at 6:00?

Anyway, the place was done in 6 weeks.

More stress than effort

What is the dumbest life decision you’ve seen somebody makes?

I present you John Allen Chau:

Besides making a bad life decision that cost him his life, he also got the opportunity to take a step back but decided to dive back in immediately:

There is an island called “North Sentinel” which is home to 150 natives who vehemently refuse all contact with the outside world.

This rule makes sense, as these human beings are not accustomed to the diseases of the modern world, and any contact could lead to contamination that would be fatal to their small tribe.

But this didn’t stop John Allex Chau, a 27-year-old preacher, from travelling to the island to preach about Jesus Christ.

He was showered with arrows which, fortunately for him, all missed their target.

Logically, he decided to return the following day for a second attempt.

A completely dumb decision, as the poor man would never leave the island alive.

Didn’t he think God was maybe sending him a divine message the first time the arrows missed his head?

What’s the weirdest way your fast food order got messed up?

A few years ago, I was charged with ordering breakfast sandwiches for everyone in the office for our morning meeting.

As I went around and got everyone’s orders, ‘Dave’ specifically asked for no mayo on his sandwich.
I made a note on the order next to his name that said “NO MAYO” and sent in the order.

Half an hour later, I was distributing the sandwiches and heard Dave say, “Oh, har har har. You’re so funny, Kate.”

I came over to see what he was talking about and started laughing.

Dave’s ‘sandwich’ was comprised of two buns that were swimming in mayo.

No egg.

No bacon.

No cheese.

No ham.

Just an ungodly amount of mayo everywhere.

Someone had to have emptied half a container of mayo in between the buns, and thought, “Hmmm… not quite enough”.
And then slathered the outside of the buns, and then thought, “Nope, doesn’t cut it!”.
And then wiped more mayo on the inside of the packaging.

After I finished laughing, I took it back and showed the cashier who was absolutely appalled at the mayo monstrosity in my hands.

She went in the back and asked the other guys what the hell had happened and why on earth they made a mayo sandwich.

Apparently they thought it said “Only mayo.”

In which case, they fucking nailed it.

Modern Women Are FREAKING OUT As 63% Of Men Have WILLINGLY Left The Dating Scene

Keep it simple. 50% of women in the 20s and 30s today will NEVER get married, and will NEVER have children. Up your game girls

Is there one moment that made you think that you have a ‘cool dad’?

I was 18 and at home with dad, while mom and my brother had gone out of town.

He asked me if I wanted to watch any movie and I replied a big enthusiastic yes.

I suggested a Bollywood movie Gangster. He agreed. I hadn’t seen the movie’s trailer. What a mistake.

We went to the mall, got the tickets.

When the awkward scenes started, he turned to me and said,

“You should watch such movies with your friends. Why did you tag me along?”

“I am sorry I didn’t know they had such scenes.”

“No worries. Let’s see the movie now. Next time see the trailer before suggesting it to me.”

When it got over we went over to the food court for dinner.

I noticed a guy and wondered where have I seen him when my dad said,

“He is not your type.”

“What?”

“He is not your type.”

“Who? I was not looking at him in that sense.”

He smiled.

“What makes you think he is not my type.”

“He has a moustache. You hate moustaches.”

“How do you know that?”

“Well you know right, I had a moustache till you were a toddler? You would constantly pull them and say you hate it. Why do you think I have been moustache free all these years?”

I smiled at the memory when he pointed to another fellow and said,

“That guy looks your type. Or that?”

“Papa please.”

“Or that…..”

This is one memory I cherish with my coolest dad!

What is the best excuse you have given to the police for speeding?

Not me, but I was there. My mom was driving and my brother & I, about 9&6 years old, were fighting in the back seat. She’s yelling at us to stop fighting, and didn’t realize that she got into the town speed limit zone (35 instead of 45).

The cop came up and asked why she was going so fast, and she told him. Next thing you know, he’s got the back door open and is lecturing us about how mom needs to pay attention while driving and if we are fighting in the back seat she can’t. And if he catches us fighting in the back seat again, he might have to arrest us. Then he told my mom to drive safe, and to let him know if we caused any more trouble.

Years later, I asked her if she remembered. She laughed, and let me know that of course she did. He had been one of her classmates, she had known him since they were little kids.

For how many days can a person survive without food?

I fasted for 21 days without food.

I read a book about a magician who performed a stunt where he was locked into a glass box above the city. He did not eat for 53 days, he could only drink water. His stunt had to quit as doctors were monitoring his vitals and after 53 days they started to get too bad.

I couldn’t believe someone could fast that long without food and live, so I wanted to try it myself. I like challenging myself in weird ways I guess. But, I had to make sure I wouldn’t die first, a lot of people told me I probably would.

It turns out, fasting has been used for centuries as a form of healing. Catholic churches had fasting centers where people could come when they got sick back in the day. Jesus, Gandhi, and pretty much every religious figure did it. It was well known that fasting healed the mind and the body.

I read a lot of literature on how fasting has reduced cancerous tumors and even autoimmune diseases. I read about all of it’s supposed health benefits: teeth whitening, skin clearing, tumor shrinkage, plaque eating, and fat reduction. They all sounded good to me. It said you got a heightened clarity of mind after 21 days so that was the time frame I decided to do.

I began my fast. The first day wasn’t bad. The second day I got really hungry and then it went away. The third and fourth day were bad. I was so hungry I didn’t even leave my couch. I just sucked down water all day and slept. Apparently, after 72 hours your body goes into ketosis and starts living off of fat reserves. I think it took closer to 96 hours for me.

After that, I completely lost my hunger. I actually had a lot of energy. The hard part wasn’t eating, I no longer wanted food. The hard part was boredom!!! I suddenly went from eating 3 meals a day to eating nothing. The time I spent cooking, eating, and washing dishes was given back to me, probably at least 4 hours. I couldn’t work out (bad on a fast) so that was out. I couldn’t do any social things because those all involved eating a meal, drinking coffee, or alcohol, none of which I could do at the moment. So, I became ultra productive. I got all my homework done weeks in advance, I started crocheting and painting, and I slept a lot. My mom and friends received calls from me every day. I had so much TIME.

Some days I felt weak, but other days I had a ton of energy. I felt great and really happy. My skin cleared up a lot after the 10th day and I did notice my teeth getting whiter. My tongue got white stuff on it; according to the internet that’s a way your body gets rid of toxins. I lost around a pound of weight a day.

After the 21st day, I was ready to eat again out of boredom. I started by drinking a decaf coffee. That was a mistake, my stomach had lost its lining so the acidity of coffee made me throw up. Everything I ate was really intense. Fruit tasted sweeter and everything had so much flavor.

Overall, I’d lost 24 pounds and I looked really good. But, I had never regained hunger. That meant I still had fat stores on me. If you fast long enough, you’ll regain hunger one day which they call your “true hunger”. That means your fat reserves are up and your body will start eating your muscles to survive, so you really need to start eating after that! I’d also lost some muscle, I was weaker at the gym now, but I regained my muscle quickly.

Most people, if you’re a normal weight, can fast 20-40 days before regaining hunger, before their total fat stores are up. After regaining hunger, your body starts to eat muscle tissue for energy, which includes your heart, and it’s only a matter of time before it will give out. Perhaps 7–20 days until death as preducted by some studies.

But, if you’re overweight or obese, you’ll have a ton of fat stores ready to use. One guy fasted for 384 days under medical supervision on nothing but water and tea with no adverse affects. I’m sure he could have made it quite a while longer until his fat stores were completely up but he ended the fast when he hit 180 lbs.

So the answer is, it varies. But, if you’re of a normal weight, your maximum is probably somewhere from 20-40 days until your muscle tissue begins to get compromised.

Explore China’s Amazing Futuristic Library – Totally Mind-Blown!

Wholly shit!

Have you ever accidentally found out that you were about to be fired?

Yep! I was 17 working at a mom ’n pop kinda thing, local hardware store. The type where entry-level workers just write in what they can work on a calendar posted in the back room.

Well, one day, the owner came to me and told me that there was about $50 missing from my register. I was usually one of the closers, and I always went to the bank with the nighttime lead to drop off the deposit. I thought maybe I just counted wrong or something. The owner said that if he saw that kind of discrepancy again, I would be fired. I said ok, yes, I understand. I worked for about another week, but I could tell that I was being watched by hawks.

So when I went the next week to write myself in on the schedule, I saw my name crossed out with White-Out on the calendar. Confused and a bit suspicious, I wrote myself back on. When I came in for work, the owner pulled me aside and told me that there was another $70 found missing from my drawer and that I was no longer employed there. Well, ok, fine. Maybe I can’t count, or I’m just an idiot, but whatever. I kind of knew I was going to be fired soon when I saw my name whited-out on the calendar.

For the record, I was at a party with a bunch of random neighborhood friends a few years later, and I overheard a guy I used to work with talking trash about the hardware store and how he robbed the place blind and didn’t even get fired for it—someone else did.

Almond Chicken

Ingredients

1 1/2 pounds chicken breasts
1 teaspoon ginger
2 teaspoons honey
1 tablespoon cornstarch
3 tablespoons soy sauce
12 ounces Chinese pea pods
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 cup natural whole almonds
3 to 4 tablespoons water
1/3 cup sherry

Instructions

Skin, bone and cut up chicken breasts into 1/2-inch cubes.
In a bowl, mix ginger, honey and cornstarch and blend in water, soy sauce and sherry.
Thaw pea pods if frozen. In a wok, heat oil over medium heat.
Add almonds, stirring and cooking for about 3 minutes.
Add chicken and cook just until meat turns white.
Pour in sherry mixture and cook until sauce thickens.
Add pea pods and stir-fry until hot and glazed.

Yield: 4 servings

Yup. You all don’t want to hurt MY girl…

What were the first symptoms you had of a serious, life-changing medical condition?

I was working in a supermarket in October 2001. I bent down to pick a can of beans off the bottom shelf on an aisle.

As I stood up, my vision shattered.

Image: My vision shattered much like looking into a light diffuser on a fluorescent light.

I also began with a severe headache on the right side of my head.

Over the next few days the headache went away but my vision remained poor inmy right eye.

I was sent to a local eye hospital by my doctor and there I was told after several days of testing that I had Antiphospholipid Antibody Syndrome, an auto-immune disorder in the same family as Lupus.

The eye problem was a blood clot that had formed and destroyed the blood supply to the retina of my right eye. Treatment was to be life long and I would need to take blood thinners, then Warfarin though today I take other blood thinner drugs.

I also had to have extensive laser surgery on my right eye to prevent further damage from the clot and resulting new blood vessel growth.

Five and a half years later, when I was going through a non theraputic dosage of Warfarin. I had a similar event, a blood clot formed in my left eye. Destroying that retina and leaving me legally blind.

Gone wrong

Isn’t it a sad thing for the Chinese that the Koreans would rather make friends with white people than them?

Let me help to makes western admirers amongst orientals such as Japan-and South Korea, people from greater China such as Hong Kong and Taiwan and neighbours such as Phillipines and Vietnam see light.

I am qualified to advise and share my experience. I was born in Malaysia and now a Singaporean who were a starry eye west admirer for say the first 20 years of my life.

Today I am a practical and pragmatic person who sees things differently. If your nation is a direct neighbour or in Chinese neighbourhood, try to comprehend the following.

China has been around for 5000 years as your neighbour and during 4800 out of the 5000 years China were really really strong. In fact so strong it could if it wants to, to walk right into your nation and claimed it for good. But they didn’t. Japan, Korea, Philippines, India, Vietnam and others remain a fully sovereign nation. Appreciate that.

Just look at the nation that lies and spread fear about China, the U.S. it is barely 247 years old yet it started as a 13 states union and in less than a hundred years it stole another 37 states from its neighbours. And what did the U.S. do in Asia! It murdered 3 million Vietnamese, a million each in Philippines in Mindanao, Laos and Cambodia, and at least 2 million suspected communists in Indonesia and colonised the Philippines for close to 50 years.

And they do that as a nation 10 thousand miles away from Asia! China is stone’s throw away from your shores yet you are still independent! So be logical and honest about who is the aggressor and who respects your sovereignty? If you are fair China is a 5000 years gentleman. The U.S. is a 247 years hoodlum you never ever want to get close with, unless you are inviting trouble.

Next let me help you know your future. China is the world’s most humongous market. Your nation is blessed to have such a huge market at your door step. They can buy your products and resources and yet supply you with value for money product for a song.

They are not the despicable west who wants to change your way. They even say their socialism with Chinese characteristics is not exportable and urge you to seek your best political and social system going forward. US says it is their way or the highway! In fact they murdered 5 million Indo Chinese to make them democratic unsuccessfully in Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos.

Go to the U.S. to have fun and travel around, do business with them as they are a big spender. But whatever you do remember who really is with you and where is your future with. Most of all remember where is your nation is geographically and China will always be there! It cannot be floated away and so are you, you are stuck there.

Don’t ever let your nation be another Ukraine, the U.S. want your people to die and your nation to be destroyed just to poke China in the eye, just like how they used Ukraine to poke Russia in the eye, unfortunately one time too many. Don’t let them have even one CIA or NED officials in your nation. And don’t ever be used as a cannon fodder.

Grow up and know right from wrong. Korea for example, whether you stay rich and get richer depends on China not the U.S. The only thing the U.S. can help you is simply to get your nation destroyed! China will always be there, it will grow to be 4–5 times the size of the U.S. economy before then of this century. And as a market for Korea, it will be bigger than your next 20 biggest market! So get real, grow up like me, be a realist and be smart.

Vote in a pro Chinese candidate. Vote in a leader that has no inclination to do shit for the U.S. And tell the US. that you are a friend and a partner of China, and that you want American’s as tourist and investor. But under no circumstances will you allow them to interfere in your nation and in Asia. Asia is for Asians. If you have issues involving the US is a sure way to implicate the issues and create discord.

The USA is bat-shit crazy

What is the lowest probability event you have personally witnessed?

Iraq, circa 2006:

A bunch of young dumb grunts are meandering about the country looking for bad guys, WMDs and whatever else General Mattis (pbuh) felt was appropriate at the time. In this case it was myself and the United States Marine Corps.

Being young, dumb and American, we naturally did not speak much Arabic besides the usual peacekeeping terminology like get your hands up, stop, get down and f#ck off. As is common in these conflicts, we tend to recruit native speakers to act as interpreters.

For reasons unknown, I happened to remember one of these dudes in particular. Let’s call him Joe Hammad for the sake of security. Now these guys usually don’t work anywhere near their hometowns in country because let’s be honest, in the eyes of the bad guys, hell even in the eyes of many locals, these guys are narcs. Snitches get stitches and all that but ramped up to 3rd world standards.

In exchange for helping us communicate with an often unfriendly populace, these dudes are offered visas to go stateside should they fulfill their obligations. For many reasons, this often doesn’t happen. Remember the snitches thing?

Fast forward to 2014. Suburb of a large Arizona city. My broke ass is out of the military and between employment so I decide to put an ad on Craigslist to let a room of my house for rent. Thank goodness I was financially smart enough to have owned my own home at the time.

Within a few days of placing the ad, I have a nibble or two but this one guy comes with cash in hand. I meet him on the porch when he arrives. He’s an Arab man of medium height, about 45 years old and well spoken with a sharp sense of humor. Within minutes we both had a clear spark of recognition.

And that’s how Joe Hammad from Iraq became my roommate after the war in Iraq ended.

Australia

Why does homemade fried rice never taste the same as fried rice from a Chinese restaurant? Am I missing some secret ingredient or method?

I can’t say for sure whether or not you’re missing any secret ingredients, since I don’t know your recipe. I am certain you’re missing one key component though, and that’s heat.

Chinese restaurants cook over commercial wok burners, which put out 125,000 BTUs of heat. Your home stove might generate 15,000 BTUs out of its largest burner. That’s a pretty significant difference.

The heat of a wok burner imparts a distinctive flavor onto foods. When foods hit the polymerized surface of a hot steel wok, they instantly release moisture, which leaves the food in the form of steam. The foods are tossed through the rising steam, where they capture the droplets of water, and fall back into the wok. This action, repeated over and over, is the essence of wok cooking. The intense heat also causes rapid browning and caramelization and gives the food a distinctive smokey flavor. The flavor, known as Wok Hei in Cantonese, is what makes Chinese take out so crave able, and can’t be duplicated on a home stove. None of what I described can be duplicated, to the same degree, on a home stove. It just doesn’t generate enough heat.

This is a 125,000 BTU wok burner.

That ain’t your momma’s kitchen stove.

If a policeman tells me I can’t film him, am I required to “obey a policeman’s lawful order”?

My daughter’s car was hit by a speeding unmarked police car. I have written about this and she is recovering well. When I got to the scene, she was still trapped but the fire brigade were on the scene and had everything in control. While they were waiting to cut my daughter out, the lead fireman came over to me and told me to take as many pictures and as much video as I could and to make sure I got pictures of the officers involved. As soon as I started taking pictures a uniformed policeman came over and said that I had to stop as it was an active crime scene. I said that was nonsense and carried on taking pictures. He carried on saying I should stop. I told my wife who had just turned up to take pictures as well. The policeman just walked away. We took loads of pictures and videos, the witnesses telling us what happened. It took two months for the police to give my solicitor any indication that an officer was involved in the crash and this was only because he sent them some of our photographs. They now say there will be no criminal charges to either driver and that his speeding was legal as he was on a covert operation. He was unhurt and walking around, he never once came over or asked how my daughter was. I am glad that I did not listen to the policeman and I am sure that the video and pictures will help in the civil case.

What is your best parking spot revenge?

Back when I was (a lot) younger, after a softball game both teams (mine and the other side, who were all good friends on and off the field) came back to our cars to find someone had parked lengthwise behind three of our cars. None of the three could get out because this unthinking individual parked lengthwise and not in a valid parking spot behind them.

We waited about 20 minutes or so chatting, hoping the person would come out and move. They never did. It was a smallish car, a Corolla, so several of us carried the car to the space in the hedge where people had access to the softball fields beyond. It fit perfectly, the front bumper against one side of the gate and the rear bumper within two inches of the other side. Note this wasn’t a metal gate, it was a hedge with an arbor vitae forming the “sides” of the entrance.

Then, out of sheer schadenfreude, we waited. Some left, of course, but most of us were there about 45 minutes later when the person came back to discover their car was basically unmoveable without cutting down a tree owned by a private entity, or have it dragged out by tow truck.

Red Pill men

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/YEAwPael6xM?feature=share

What secrets are you hiding from your parents?

Going Anonymous as my parents follow me and I don’t want them to know this.

I was young ,probably in 7th or 8th standard when I used to do this.There is a bakery near my home of which I still am a regular customer .I buy things from the place at least 5 times in a day.

As we were regular customers we had credit system of paying the owner .We used to pay our credit on a monthly basis. So basically anyone from my family could go and get anything from the bakery and the owner would just write it in his accounts book and we used to pay the whole amount at the end of the month.

Me being really smart found a loop hole and would buy a lot of snacks,basically all kinds of items available for me to eat . I would just buy snacks worth Rs 2000 or so when the owner was not at the counter. He had an assistant who did not know how t read or write so he used to tell me to write it in the accounts book and I would just pretend to write everything and hand him over the book and he never used to check or bother about it.

I did this 3–4 times when I started to feel guilty about this because clearly it was shoplifting or stealing.

I later made a promise to myself that I will never do this again and would pay the whole amount I had stolen to the shopkeeper once I start to earn .

I completed my graduation this year and started working at an MNC and after I got my first salary the first thing I did was to take the money and confess to the shop owner about this.

He got angry at first but looking at my honesty he accepted the whole amount that was due which was about Rs 10000 and thanked me for this.

I told him not to tell my parents about this as they will be really disappointed .

This was the happiest day of my life as a big burden that I carried for almost 6–7 years was finally gone.

As a mechanic, have you ever made a mistake and ruined someone’s vehicle? How?

I’m not a mechanic, but wanted to share this story.

I needed a new battery for my Jeep Cherokee. I went to the local place that handles my maintenance. I was in a hurry and also needed an oil change. I brought the vehicle into the Maintennance bay. The guy went to get a new battery. He said something about the battery being backwards, or similar statement. It had something to do with not having the exact battery needed. The engineer in me thought that we should wait to get the right battery, but I didn’t push the issue. I had to be somewhere and was in a hurry. The guy puts the battery in and asked me to try to start it. Smoke billowed out of several places inside the vehicle. Wtf was going on?!? This guy had reversed the poles on the battery and had effectively electrocuted my jeep. To say that the electrical engineer in me was upset was an understatement. I had to be somewhere. I got them to fix my Jeep so that it would run. I was irate. It was a Friday. I had to be somewhere all weekend. I was back on Monday morning. Thankfully, they did pretty much everything right. The mechanic had quit, thankfully. There were some additional repairs that had to be completed. Everything was covered.

A few years later, I needed some warranty or recall thing done. The dealership wouldn’t handle the recall work because of non Jeep parts. I went back to the local shop, and they replaced everything with Jeep parts. The dealership handled the recall work.

while I was mad about the incompetence of the mechanic, the local shop did the right thing.

Which countries will likely disappear in the coming 10 years? And for what reasons?

It’s a wild assumption, but one very likely case is Yemen

For those who quite don’t know, the situation in Yemen is like this

The green region is under Houthi control (backed by Iranians), the light red is controlled by Hadi government (backed by Saudi Arabia, UAE and Bahrain and even USA), the yellow is the Southern Transitional Council (a movement that wants South Yemen to come back as it existed prior to 1991), and the white is al-Qaeda in Arabian Peninsula, also called AQAP

Now one would expect either of the sides to fall, however seeing the way each one is sticking to their captured lands, it looks that another division of Yemen may actually happen. If the AQAP could be vanquished , then the country would end up with three separate authorities, leaving the whole field very much open for a possible trifurcation . It’s quite possible that the Southern Council could get vanquished too, if that happens then a bifurcation would happen, leading to once again a North and South Yemen to emerge.

The difference would be that unlike the previous versions where North Yemen was an independent Arab Republic and South Yemen was a communist state, this time North Yemen would be an Iran-backed client state whereas South Yemen would be a Saudi-UAE backed client state.

Too white

Chicken Cubes with Cherries, Pineapple and Lichees
(Bo Lo Lichees Gai Kew)

Ingredients

1 chicken breast
1 teaspoon sherry
2 teaspoons light soy sauce
1/2 teaspoon anise pepper
1 tablespoon chopped scallion
1 egg white
2 tablespoons cornstarch
2 cups vegetable oil
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
3 tablespoons ketchup
3 tablespoons vinegar
1 tablespoon cornstarch
1 cup lichee juice
1 cup lichee meat
1/2 cup maraschino cherries
1/2 cup pineapple chunks

Instructions

Bone chicken and cut into cubes; mix sherry, light soy sauce, anise pepper and chopped scallion together, pour over chicken and marinate for 30 minutes.
Beat egg white and 2 tablespoons of cornstarch together. Pour over chicken breast mixture.
Heat oil to 325 degrees F. Deep fry chicken. Drain on paper towels.
Mix sugar, ketchup, vinegar, 1 tablespoon cornstarch and lichee juice in saucepan; stir until thickened. Add lichee meat, cherries and pineapple. Stir until hot, then serve over chicken.

Yield: 1 serving

What is the sneakiest thing you did to get back at an awful neighbor? Did you get caught?

He knew it was me.

This was Central Florida, the lawns were St Augustine grass that with lot of water, mulching and fertilizer, they grew a couple inches a week, and the leaves are wide and tough unlike the soft lawns up north.

My neighbor disliked me because I built a 2 story house and that blocked the view of the lake. We worked for the same company and he was upset that I was hired in at a management level although he didn’t work for me.

Our lawns were about a 1/3 acre, so a Saturday cut and trim would easily take 3 hours with a normal lawn mower.

He bought a basic riding lawnmower, and he would drive his mower on my property, up to 5′ before making a U Turn. That was OK, except he would make the hard turn on top of my sprinklers. Almost every week, I had to replace the broken PVC pipe, digging up my lawn. I tried several things to dissuade him, but in the end on a Friday night, I brought home about 20′ of a high strength braided steel cabling. It was the smallest diameter I could find. I uncoiled it surrounding the sprinkler heads pushing down into the tall grass so you would never see it. But you would hear it, and I was in my garage when I knew he ran over it. The racket it made was frightening.

Even a 25″ blade on a 10 HP motor couldn’t cut it. But it did wrap it around the shaft and stalled the motor. All 20 feet of the cable was gone from my yard.

He had to push his mower to the garage, and spent the rest of the day disassembling his mower to untangle the mess.

That was the last time he went on my lawn.

Can the Chinese government stop Chinese citizens, especially the billionaires and millionaires, from leaving China?

The Only Billionaires who are restricted from leaving are those who are Directors of Public Companies or Director’s/Top Executives of Companies that owe minimum 10 Million RMB in Loans to Banks or vide Public Bonds

They need an exit visa

Others can leave when they want

Many Billionaires from the Mainland have their families in Singapore, Australia and USA while they live in the Mainland for 6–9 out of 12 months a year

The only rule for them is they cannot repatriate in excess of $ 300,000 a year out of China , that too for very specific reasons

So what they earn in China, must be kept in China at all costs

They try sending more money out, they face upto 18 years jail

So keep your family wherever you want, have Villas in Sydney or Florida, Send your mainland sons to UK for school but THE MONEY YOU EARN IN CHINA CANNOT LEAVE CHINA OR YOU NEVER SEE DAYLIGHT AGAIN FOR AT LEAST 10–18 YEARS

Who is the most notorious mad genius of all time?

How about instead of notorious we focus on an evil genius that should be more notorious? Nazi scientists always get all the focus but what if I told you Japan had their own version of an evil scientist and he was an absolute monster.

Meet Shirō Ishii – a serious piece of sh%t

This guy was a Doctor and microbiologist- and a rather smart one at that. He was regarded as a brilliant person for nearly his entire life. He was well educated and joined the army as a doctor. While there he caught the eyes of his superiors and was sent for further education at Kyoto Imperial University.

During WW2 he was placed in charge of Unit 731 and this is what he was known for.

What was unit 731? Well, they were a scientific unit that conducted experiments and thought up new ways to win the war. Some examples of things they did include

Imprisoning women, raping them until they got pregnant, and then running horrid painful experiments on them just so they could see how certain poisons affected pregnant women.
They would infect people with syphilis and then cut them open (while alive and awake) so they could see what their bodies did as the infection progressed. Women, men, and even children were forcibly infected
- This is called vivisection- its the practice of cutting someone open while alive to see what their body is doing and its typically done when experimenting on animals. In unit 731 they did it to people without anesthesia- always resulting in a slow agonizing death for the person.
Injected people with animal blood to see what happens (bad way to die)
Placed people in centrifuges and spun it until they died
Deprived prisoners of food and water to see how long it was until they died
Placed people in low-pressure chambers until their eyes popped out
Burned people alive to see how long they would live
Injected people with saltwater to see what would happen
Poisoned people to see the effects
gave people radiation poisoning to see the effects
Leave 3-day old babies in the cold just to see how long it took them to freeze to death
Tested flamethrowers on live people
Tested grenades on live people
Removed organs for fun. For instance, they would remove someone’s stomach and attach their esophagus to their intestines directly.
Tested hundreds of diseases and biological weapons on people

In all, around 10,000 prisoners were killed by Unit 731 and as many as 20,000 were tested on. The biological weapons produced by this unit were used to kill as many as 500,000 civilians

On a side note not even the Nazis used chemical weapons in WW2 (they only did in concentration camps). The ONLY nation to employ chemical weapons against civilian and military targets in WW2 was Japan.

You may wonder what happened to Shirō. I mean we caught him and put him on trial for war crimes right?

Nope

He was given full immunity in exchange for full disclosure of his tests. American microbiologists stated that Shirō’s findings were extremely valuable and impossible to replicate unless the experiments were done again.

Shirō lived out the remainder of his life a free man and died in 1959.

Humor: What are some of the greatest examples of presence of mind?

A businessman went to a shoe store to purchase a new pair of shoes. He was a prominent person in that town. After selecting a pair of shoes with size 8 he asked the salesperson to pack it. The salesperson had just started his career and joined the shoe store a few days back.

The businessman soon discovered that he had left his wallet at home. He told the salesperson that he would take the shoes with him and make the payment the next day. The salesperson being new to business excused himself in order to discuss this matter with the store manager. The manager knew that the customer is an eminent businessman; however, was reluctant to deliver the shoes without payment. At the same time, he was not ready to lose a sale too. He advised the salesperson to handle the situation in the best manner possible and left the place.

The salesperson stood there frozen for a few minutes unable to decide. He then returned to the customer, started packing the shoes and handed the package to the customer.

The next day the customer arrived at the store with the shoes he had purchased, made the payment for his purchase and told the salesperson that “After opening the package I found one shoe with size 8 and the other with size 7. Maybe you packed them by mistake. Can I have the shoes with size 8 please?” The salesperson apologized for the inconvenience caused and replaced the wrong size shoe with the correct one. The customer collected his shoes and left the store with satisfaction.

The manager happened to overhear their conversation and realized that the salesperson had used his presence of mind and handled the situation very well. They didn’t lose their business as well as the customer.

Moral

It is by the presence of mind in untried emergencies that the native metal of a man is tested. If an individual has a calm state of mind, his attitude and views will be calm and tranquil even in the presence of great agitation.

What were some of the incidents where you displayed your intelligence as a kid?

In the fourth grade, Mr. Mowry, our high school biology teacher, visited and gave a lecture. Afterward, he asked the class to name the smartest animal.

One kid said “chimpanzee.” Another said “dolphin.” I kept waving my hand, but he ignored me. (He later told my mother he knew I knew the answer.)

Finally, after the rest of the class ran out of ideas, he asked me. The class looked incredulous when I said “human beings.” After all, people aren’t animals.

His response was “Life has only two choices. Plant or an animal. Which is it?”

(When I had him as a teacher in the tenth grade, I pointed out there were other life forms, such as fungus and bacteria. He acknowledged that, but figured it was a bit much for a fourth grade class.)

In any case, it felt like my fifteen minutes of fame.

It’s been downhill since then.

What happened at a wedding that made you feel horrible for the bride?

I was at a wedding once where the Groom ended up in hospital with achohol poisoning, but it wasnt what you think.

There is a tradition where I live, where right after the ceremony, the bridesmaids “steal” the Groom and take him for a drink. While the groomsmen do the same thing with the Bride.

An hour later, right on time, the groomsmen had the Bride at the next venue where the dinner and dance was to be held, but there was no sign of the bridesmaids and the Groom.

We guests sat around for a bit, wondering what was going on, and eventually food was served despite the fact there was no Groom, and the Bride was looking more and more upset.

It wasn’t until the start of the wedding dance that news filtered through about what happened.

The Groom had never, up to this, had a drink in his life. And the over enthusiastic bridesmaids had made the guy down several hard drinks in that hour.

And, he reacted really badly to them.

So badly they had to take him to the emergency room to be treated for poisoning, and that is where he spent their wedding night.

The rest of the wedding evening for us as guests, kinda fizzled out as you can imagine. But that poor Bride was in tears and left shortly after the dinner to be with her new husband.

Once you VISUALIZE CORRECTLY, the SHIFT happens IMMEDIATELY. (This Is How)

https://youtu.be/u2XUAlykU2U

After you became a parent, what did you realize that your parents had right all along?

A lot of things, but I’ll focus on just one for this answer. Maybe other parents can relate:

Cooking for the family is a one-person job.

My children always want to help me cook. I remember, as a child, I always wanted to help my mom cook, but she only let me help on the weekends. Now, I usually only let my kids help me cook on the weekends, too.

In fact, during the week, I kick them out of the kitchen, just like my mother did with me 30 years ago.

Why?

Because, after a long day at work, cooking is actually very relaxing… if you’re doing it alone. Cooking with children is mostly just teaching and supervising. I do that all day. I don’t want to come home and do more of it most days.

Plus, when children “help” you cook, it just slows you down, and I’m usually in a hurry to make dinner before my wife gets home.

My children also tend to stand right behind me when I’m cooking, and I’ve tripped over them before. So now, for speed and safety reasons, I have a “the only person who should be in the kitchen while I’m cooking is me” policy on weekdays.

What is the strangest medical thing that has happened to you?

My mom took me to see this doctor when I was 8 years old and she wouldn’t tell me how come. When we got there the nurses took me in and got me ready for the doctor. They had me laying down with things on my arms and legs so I couldn’t move. I thought this was really funny but I was really embarrassed because I didn’t have clothes on and they could see my boy part. When the doctor came in she started looking at my boy part and she asked me if I know why my mom has brought me here this morning and I didn’t know why. I was like yikes when she told me that in a moment they are going to be circumcising my boy part. I have friends that are circumcised and I know what that means and I was like yikes. They give you stuff so it wouldn’t hurt but I still feel her doing stuff to it and I was like yikes thinking about what she is doing. After it was done and mom come in and got me I was really embarrassed because everyone seen it and know what happened to me. We went for breakfast after and mom told the waitress why I had pajama bottoms on. That was the most embarrassing day ever.

Why has the US failed to rally the Muslim world against China using the Uyghur issue?

Because the biggest killer and tormentors of Muslims (IN THEIR HOME COUNTRIES) this century has been the UNITED STATES!

Back home, Muslims have been discriminated, and watched like a hawk by the authorities, especially those of Middle-east descent.

The last time America “rallied” the Muslim world was the first gulf war, where a UN coalition liberated Kuwait from Iraqi occupation. Cooperation has been downhill ever since. Even MBS, the Crown Prince of Saudia Arabia, has cooled relationships with America and delivered repeat diplomatic snubs. America’s strongest and most important Muslim ally in the Middle East is working hard to diversify risk, such as settling in non-dollar currencies.

Besides, the evidence is weak, and nothing like the blatant genocide/war crime broadcasting live from the Gaza strip today.

What is the most selfish act you have ever witnessed?

I was camping at a campground in Northern California, and had gone to the bathroom in the morning. A guy was washing his hands with his ten year old son. This guy was decked out with a full on safari outfit, right down to the hat and it was clearly brand new.

When they had finished washing hands, the Dad took a few of those super cheap, thin, brown paper towels and dried his hands. When his son reached for his own paper towels, the Dad said “uh uh. Waste not, want not!” And handed him his soggy, used, brown paper towel and the kid had to try to dry his hands with this gross, soggy wad of used paper towel. The dejected look on the kids face said it all.

I was so disgusted with this guy and felt so bad for the kid. If he was so desperate to save such a minute amount of natural resources, he should have let the kid wash and dry first, and used the kids leftovers.

it really felt like psychological abuse, but he said it with such vigor that I think he was just an ignorant narcissist.

I’ll never forget it.

What was the longest night you ever had as a parent?

It was a Friday night and the last day of school. My son would be a Senior in the fall.

When I pulled down our street on my way home from work, I noticed both sides of the street were lined with parked cars. You probably guessed it. My son had turned our house into Animal House! We had just had a pool built and it was full of kids every afternoon. I didn’t mind. I could relax knowing where my son was.

But this wasn’t one of those afternoon get-togethers. This was a full blown wild party. Girls were naked in the pool, and there were whiskey and beer bottles everywhere. It looked like half the high school was packed into my house.

My fear was someone leaving drunk. I couldn’t let that happen. I found my son. I told him and the group with him that I was going to my room and would let them have their party, but I needed everyone to leave me their car keys. I didn’t want anyone leaving drunk.

In my state, 17 yr-olds are not old enough to drink. I am responsible for each one as long as they’re in my house. I’d also be responsible for them drinking at my house, I could be arrested. But my worry was getting those keys and keeping them from leaving. I’d figure something else later.

I had what looked like 10 sets of keys that kids had gave me. I told them to write their name on their keys. I thought that once I got their keys, I wouldn’t be so worried and I’d contact parents and let them know what was going on.

I’d been home about 15 min, and went in my room to change out of my work clothes. In under 10 min, I was out of my room and was going to get more of the kids’ keys. Problem was, no one was there. The house was empty, and the cars on the street were gone, except for a few that were probably passengers now. Not one kid was in sight, only a few articles of clothing had been left floating in the pool.

I was furious. My son had left too. He wasn’t answering his phone either. I called a few parents and explained. A few didn’t enjoy being bothered with it. None of them seemed concerned. I was so upset I puked. I didn’t know what to do, or where to look. I just prayed they were all safe at someone’s house. I cleaned the house, and every 30 minutes called and texted my son. He never replied. I tried to sleep, but I kept thinking about all the terrible things that could happen to them, how one night of partying can ruin the rest of their life. I couldn’t stop thinking. I probably buried my son a dozen times in my mind that night. Around 3am, I dozed off

At 4:14am, I got a call. The connection was poor, and I couldn’t hear every word, plus there was a lot of noise. I heard “this is blablabla with —-sheriffs —-EMT paramedic—-permission to treat———!l? Ma’am? Hello? We need permission —-accident involving 4 minors—-please ma’am!

I was yelling, “ Yes, yes, you have my permission to treat them.” I kept saying it over and over, because our connection was so bad. I wanted them to hear me.

The call was dropped. I hit redial on the phone, but it wouldn’t reconnect with who just called. I didn’t know where the kids were, who was with my son, or the details of the accident and the injuries. It was like being trapped in a horrible nightmare. I didn’t even know where to begin. I called all the hospitals and police stations in the area. Nothing.

I have never felt that much pain and heartache at the same time. I wanted to be with my son. I was no longer angry, I just wanted to to be where my son was. I kept envisioning the worst. I paced the floor while holding my bible, and praying those next few hours. I hit my knees and begged God to take me and leave the kids here in good health. For hours I was frantic. I was shaking and felt so helpless. The not knowing was tearing me up. I felt crazy.

At 6:20am I get a call from the hospital. She can’t discuss the accident or injuries. She just gave me the address and names of the passengers. These 4 boys were in a hospital a 4 hour drive away. I had to drive 4 hrs, having no idea of what condition my son would be in. This had become the worst night of my life.

This drive was a long 4 hours, plus a bad storm had rolled in and made driving difficult. I kept thinking, “ Why doesn’t my son call? It has to be bad if he’s not calling me.” The hospital was in a small town on the way to a popular city on the bay. I couldn’t believe it! They had left the house and driven to the beach. I kept thinking about all the empty beer bottles and whiskey bottles I’d picked up at the house. My mind was thinking the worst.

It had gotten pitch black, and the wind was gusting. I was driving into a bad storm, lightning struck all around me. The rain was so heavy, I could barely see the lights of the gas station ahead of me. The cars on the road had all pulled in to wait out the storm. I figured I should too. thought I’d fill up with gas, but there wasn’t a pump not in use. I pulled over by the air pump and just then lightning stuck a transformer, it was on fire. My nerves were shot. The explosion scared me so badly that I almost pee”ed my pants. I couldn’t take it. I decided to get out of that parking lot before a gas pump exploded. Just as I was about to pull out, I heard the sirens. Tornado sirens! Wtf! I was done, I couldn’t handle this. I just wanted to be with my son. I didn’t know what to do. The rain was now falling almost perpendicular to the ground. My windows were rolled up, and still the rain was coming in. My car was shaking. I put it in park, turned off the key, and just sat there crying and praying. I couldn’t see anything out of the windows. I heard another loud explosion, but couldn’t see what it was. I shut my eyes and cried. I listened to the wind and thunder and sirens. My car was shaking so badly I thought the doors were going to open. Then everything stopped. The wind had pushed me to the end of the parking lot next to the railroad tracks. There were railroad tracks (the big wooden beams) all around my car. I guess the wind pulled them up and tossed them around. I put the car in drive and drove. I was hyperventilating, and pulled over at a rest area. I began thinking I would never make it to my son.

I made it to the hospital, and found the corridor they were on. When I got off the elevator I was looking at a waiting area. My son and his one friend were sitting there talking and laughing. A cop was sitting with them. I ran to my son, and he stood up. At that moment I didn’t know if I wanted to hug him or punish him. (Of course I hugged him.) I was looking at his face and arms and I wanted to count his fingers and toes just like I did the first time I held him. He was holding me as I was crying tears of relief. Not a scratch on my son’s body. All four boys were fine!

The cop told me that he had seen a car in a corn field and stopped to check it out. Apparently the crash had just happened when he arrived because the tires were still spinning. My son had fallen asleep behind the wheel. When the car went off the road onto the shoulder he woke and his reflex was to turn the wheel. This caused the car to spin and he lost control. It hit a cable line and the car flipped 5 times. One boy in the back seat flew through the windshield and landed 30’ from the car. He drove a hatchback, and the other boy in the back seat was thrown out of the back. No one was wearing seat belts, but not one boy needed a stitch. Thank God! The cop said he didn’t think he’d find anyone alive. It was the worst accident that little town had ever seen. I was so relieved that everyone was fine. The cop told me that when he was walking up to the car he followed a trail of beer cans all the way to the car. They were unopened and no one had been drinking. They were tested and they were all found to be sober. The car had flipped through the corn field, and the cop said the corn probably softened the blows.

We had to go to the wrecker yard to pay for towing The cop told me to prepare myself. There was no way to prepare myself for what I was about to see. His brand new car didn’t have one place on it that wasn’t damaged. You couldn’t tell what you were looking at. The front and back looked the same. The door handles were the only thing that made you know which end was where. Ears of corn were sticking out everywhere. It was a sight. I stood there crying and holding my son and his friend. They cried too.

I don’t remember if my son got a ticket. I do remember that I had to drive him to alcohol awareness classes twice a week for a month. And once a week I had to drive that 4 hrs to see the judge for a month. The car was sold for scrap for $325. I joke now, and say that we would have gotten more for the corn. The other two boys were arrested for having marijuana on them. They had to wait for their parents to get them.

This happened 19 yrs ago. Last year I was visiting friends near that little town. We went to play bingo one evening. I was talking with a couple sitting across from me. I had mentioned that the last time I’d been down this way was for a bad accident that my son was in. The man looked at me and said “OMG! You’re —’s mom!” He knew my sons name, and said he was the cop on the screen. He told me how he has never been able to forget that morning and the accident. He still has nightmares about walking up and finding 4 dead boys. His wife said it really got to him. She had told her husband that he needed to maybe find the boys and once he knew they were okay, maybe the nightmares would stop. But he didn’t have contact info. I showed him pics of my son and grandson. This man cried right there in the bingo hall. I think it did us both good. I hope he’s sleeping better.

I truly believe we a learned something that day. It definitely changed all involved.

It was the worst 24 hrs of my life.

Why do bars open your beer for you?

Question: Why do bars open your beer for you?

State law is the primary reason.

Also there’s another more shrewd reason: Any beer that is NOT opened isn’t one that they have sold and it can allow them to 86 a patron who is sneaking in beers to drink.

While this is, of course, uncommon in higher class establishments, in lower-end bars, patrons have been known to BYOB as the prices of the bar’s offerings are unacceptably high in their opinions, necessitating the “need” for them to sneak in their own and defray some of their drinking expenses. The bartender and servers can tell if they see a beer that’s unopened or witness a patron opening their own beverage that the bar didn’t sell it, and they can eject the patron(s) involved.

This actually was quite common at some of the establishments that I used to frequent in North Carolina decades ago. One of the worst fights that I have ever witnessed was when a bartender tried to eject a patron who brought their own and the patron struck the bartender with a bottle. Unfortunately for the patron, things weren’t like a movie and the bartender proceeded to beat the shit out of him which including some kicks to the head when the man was down. Had some other patrons not stopped things, we probably would have witnessed a murder. I left shortly afterward and I never returned to that establishment.

Anyway…an unopened beverage is one that wasn’t sold by the bar and that’s another reason for the bar to open theirs.

How did your marriage end?

Suddenly (for me). He had been planning it for a while as he had met someone else. I found out and confronted him. He admitted it and left. I cried alot mainly because I had two very small children and another on the way. To be honest I was scared. However within a few weeks I began to notice things. The atmosphere in the house was calm and happy and it was MUCH tidier and better organised. . I was far less stressed and not shouting at the children. Mornings were a breeze because I was in charge and there was now a routine. Bedtimes were easy for the same reason (this had been a nightmare before). I enrolled the children in after school activities which they loved and hadn’t been able to do before because ‘we couldn’t afford it’. Also their friends could come over for tea (not allowed before). I had loads of spare money because no one was buying cigarettes or alcohol. Then the icing on the cake… a gorgeous new baby came along. Life was good and 21 years later its better than I ever imagined possible. The woman he left me for is much better for him. She treats him the way he treated me. I am happily married and the children are all grown up. The end of that marriage was the beginning of my life.

Chicken Slices with Sichuan
Peppercorn Sauce (Jiao Ma Ji Pian)

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Ingredients

1/2-1 teaspoon whole Sichuan peppercorns
5 green onions, green part only, thinly sliced
1/4 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons chicken broth
2 tablespoons light soy sauce
1 tablespoon plus 1 1/2 teaspoons sesame oil
1 pound cooked sliced chicken

Instructions

Soak the Sichuan peppercorns in a small bowl of very hot water for 5 minutes; drain.
Puree the peppercorns, green onions and salt in a food processor; transfer to a small bowl.
Add the broth and soy sauce, stirring until well combined; stir in the sesame oil. Drizzle over the chicken slices.

Serves 4.

What is the strangest thing you’ve ever found in your yard?

I’ve written this before and it seems right for this answer.

When young, this is the strangest thing we found in our yard.

Dad had a house built in a new subdivision just out of town. It was one of the first houses. It used to be prairie land.Here’s the story.

Yes. We had a very large, beautiful back yard with fruit trees, lilacs, birch and spruce. It was like a park.
Anyway, mom had my older twin sisters and I doing yard work, or helping in yard work because she wanted us to learn about planting, growing and nurturing.
Lori and Tracy hated yard work. It was like being on a chain gang to them.
“When I have my own place, I’m not having one, bloody plant,” Tracy said. Only she didn’t say bloody.
The twins were sixteen here, I was fourteen. I was digging a hole to plant a small tree mom had bought and my spade kept clunking on something.

Lori was raking and Tracy weeding in the garden with a hoe but no plant was safe with Tracy around. Good and bad plants were sliced to death. She figured the worse she did, mom might not ask her to help anymore. “They’re all green anyway!” The girls had better things to do. They would have much rather been with their friends, boys, or shopping for clothes.

I dug around this thing, pulled it out and cleaned some of the mud off of it. It was a small, very old statue like object about a foot and a half long and a eleven inches high.

“Hey guys, come here,” I called my sisters. I always called them guys. They came running over glad to get away from work. We cleaned off the mud as best we could.
“Holy shit! Do you know what this is?” Lori exclaimed. “RJ, bring it by the house.”

It looked like it was made of cement. I lugged the heavy thing to the house. Lori turned the hose on it and washed off the rest of the mud.
When finished, we stood there looking at a small, very old, well worn statue of a baby kind of laying down in its side. That’s what it clearly was.

Lori looked at Tracy, then me. “I think it could be a grave marker, for a baby. Maybe some pioneer’s child died and they lived around here and buried the child and the father made this statue to honor the baby.” My sisters were real life Nancy Drews plus they had vivid imaginations. Lori had it figured out in minutes. Tracy and I agreed. We couldn’t come up with anything better than that.

“Unless,” I said, “This is a prehistoric baby that was buried and fossilized.”

“Don’t think so,” said Lori quickly.

“Ok,” I said agreeing with my big sister maybe a little too quickly.

“There were no humans in the dinosaur era,” she added, “it’s a babies grave marker.”
We lived a way out in the suburbs. Dad bought the land and built a rather large house on it. Pioneers could have lived here and buried their child.

We got mom and dad to come out and have a look and they thought it quite interesting.
“Dad, maybe if I dug up around there I might find some more neat things,” I said holding my spade. The twins agreed.
“No,” mom said, “knowing you, you’ll have this backyard looking like a prairie dog village.”

We wondered what to do with the baby statue.
“Why don’t you put it by your pet cemetery?” Mom said.
In the far corner of the yard we had a little pet cemetery with some birds, turtles, fish, my gerbil Gerry, and a squirrel we found dead in the yard. All our pets who died except the bird that flew through the open living room window and my rabbit I took out in the back yard the first day I got him. He hopped away, under the fence and was gone.
I was not allowed any pets after that except a fish named Cleo, after Pinocchio’s fish. Cleo was kept in Lori’s room because I overfed the last two fish and they died.
“You’re supposed to sprinkle food in lightly,” said Lori, “not give it a big buffet!” I was not trusted with fish.

Anyway, I’m getting way, way off the subject here.
We liked the idea of the baby stone guarding our pet cemetery and that is where our unexpected find ended up, watching over our deceased pets.
“We have a lot of pets buried out here,” I said after setting the statue near the cemetery.,

“Yeah, and you killed most of them,” Lori said messing my hair. Tracy laughed.

“I did not,” I said, “just two fish that I gave too much to eat and the turtle who escaped and was found under my bed.”

“Cause you left the lid off his pan,” Tracy said.
“I think he was trying to crawl into bed with you.”

We stood there looking at the stone baby, as we called it.

“Back to work guys,” mom called, “Tracy, you’ve chopped weeds and good plants, I told you the difference.”

“They’re all green mother, all look the same,” Tracy said under her breath as she walked back to the house.

It was a pretty neat find that we all remember. To this day, we are still not sure of its story but it was a small statue of a baby laying on its side in rest.

It is a child laying on its side in a fetal position facing you, head on a pillow.

Legend of the Phantom Fortress | The Ghost Plane that Flew and Landed Itself

What is the most selfish act you have ever witnessed?

A girl I knew, we’ll call her Jen, had a pretty lousy dad.

He was on disability from the government and hadn’t worked in years because of a ““““back injury”””” that didn’t hinder him from partying, playing basketball and romping around with girls.

Consequently, he was perpetually broke and living paycheck to paycheck.

Jen’s mother divorced her father when Jen was 2, largely because of his inability and lack of desire to work.

She remarried another man. They had kids, which was fine, but Jen always felt like an outsider in that household.

Her biological dad was in her life but never came through in the most important moments.

Her birthday came around and when I asked if her dad got her anything, she said, “He couldn’t afford to get me a present.”

Without thinking I said, “But wait? Didn’t he just take a surfing vacation to Mexico?”

She sulked and said, “Yeah…”

I felt terrible. Wished I hadn’t said anything.

A birthday present might seem like a small thing, but it is a big deal to a kid.

What should you do when someone has taken your assigned seat and refuses to move on an airplane?

You call the flight attendant.

Airlines have a rule that everyone must be in their assigned seat on take off.

It is because if there is an accident it makes their processes easier after the fact.

Once the plane is in the air, the attendant may move people around.

You have the choice of moving or not – often if you do, the seat offered to you will be better than the one you have. But check first.

I was in the situation where I had an aisle seat in a bank of 3, and the other two seats were taken up by a couple who were extremely fat. They didn’t speak the language I spoke, but by gesture the man was pretty clear what he wanted, and was getting really angry with me. However, I had sat down and stayed there. There literally was no room for me between them, as it was I could barely keep my seat. He called the flight attendent and was insisted I swap. She explained to him, and then to me, in English, that she had to insist we keep our assigned seats until we were at cruising altitude, and she assured me I wouldn’t have to sit in the middle. When she came back, she asked me if a window seat in bank that had no other people in it was acceptable – of course I jumped at the chance. (I tend to be a bit claustrophobic and find being able to look out the window a true joy.)

Where would you not go because you would be seen as a stranger out of place?

For a pedicure.

That’s a lady’s place.

Not for REAL men.

But I did go, on the mistaken belief that the pedicurist could relieve the discomfort from my ingrown toenails. So a friend told me.

I had no appointment; had to wait. Reading women’s magazines and crayoning in the coloring books for children. I never was very good at that.

The air was thick, redolent, I should say, with estrogen fumes; choking. They were sucking the oxygen out of the room.

There they were, all those females reclined in chairs, sort of like dentist chairs, their feet in little bath tubs. I had never seen that, before. Good Lord, deliver me.

So I deployed my best defense: I turned invisible.

It must have worked; none of the women seemed to recognize my presence, or even my existence. No problem, there; I get a lot of that, anyway.

But, alas, as my power of invisibility slackened, a technician noticed me, and motioned me toward a chair. We could not speak; her language was Vietnamese and mine was Klingon. Hand signals, gestures.

But then, as I reclined, and the warm water engulfed my feet, I started to relax. Then came the gentle massaging of my feet and toes, soon followed by the most gentle clip-clipping I have ever known.

The finale was a massage of my lower legs whereto were applied various emollients and ointments, emitting scents of citrus and of juniper, frankincense and myrrh. I wondered if I was being prepared for burial.

And I’m going BACK.

Why do fast food restaurants now expect tips?

Its called tip creep, I was in a hardware/automotive store a few months ago, when I went to pay, it asked if I wanted to leave a tip. The top suggestion was 35 percent. I glared at the poor cashier, and she said, dont blame me, the new credit card/debit machines all came preprogrammed like that. She had no idea if management had asked for it, or if essentially all new machines were like this. She told me to complain to management, not her, and so I did.

I think its an American problem. I was shocked that many states had frozen minimum wage increases for 25 years.

In some states you only get a couple of bucks an hour, if you make your minimum in tips. This is sick, boost minimum wage to 15 or $16 an hour. Get rid of the bribes, err , tips. When I was in Egypt, if you wanted your government paperwork processed faster you paid a facilitation fee, if you wanted the plumber to move you up the priority list, again it was backshees ( I m not sure of spelling) or a facilitation fee.

Thats what we are moving towards. First it was restaurants and bars, then hair stylists and masseuses, then fast food restaurants, then pick up at pizza joints, then hardware stores. At a hardware store, where I self served, who gets the tip? Would the cashier get 35 percent of all sales, I want that job.

Here in Canada where minimum wage is $15 or $16 , we pay the same tip as the US where its $2.33

So my guess, is that the credit card machines have tips as a default, and fast food restaurants have no incentives to remove it, because who would they give that tip to?

What is the cheapest thing you’ve seen a mega-rich person do?

Years ago, I was traveling with a gentleman who owned multiple companies, all successful, and was worth multiple hundreds of millions. He had rented a car several days before my arrival (I flew in later), and he offered to drive to the airport for the flight home. As he drove, he explained to me that the car was not full on gas when he picked it up, but the rental car checkout person had given him his business card and assured him if there was an issue with the amount of gas on return, he would handle it. As you might expect, on return they wanted to charge him something trivial like $15 to top up the tank. He was livid. He paid, just to get to the flight, but then spent the next hour on the phone and at the gate, and onto the plane, stopping only going through security, arguing on the phone to have it removed. Couldn’t let it go. This man was probably made more money in interest in 1 minute just sitting than he would have saved in a hour+ of arguing. It could not have been worth his time, or rather, his time could have been so much more effectively used.

In my experience with folks at this level, and I’ve met a few, it’s a compulsion. They simply cannot let it go. They will spend a million dollars to make $1.2 million in an instant, but will not spend $5 if they feel taken advantage of.

Col Douglas Mcgregor: “It’s OFFICIALLY OVER! We have WASTED TRILLIONS OF TAX DOLLARS ON THIS..”

https://youtu.be/QpPWGD3uosc

I was fired 3 days ago out of nowhere after 5 years. Now, the CEO emails me that my job has been “re-instated”, but when I come back, I will get a warning for “low performance”. What can I do?

Rest assured the CEO is not doing it out of the goodness of his heart.

Most likely what happened is the CEO or company realized they need your expertise in something or to train your replacement. Or perhaps as some others pointed out, the company forgot to dot their I’s and cross their T’s when terminating you. Perhaps they had to fire you for cause but didn’t follow progressive discipline procedures. In order to protect themselves and avoid a lawsuit they are bringing you back to perform these tasks.

If you do go back, insist on signing a contract for a certain duration like 12 months. I’d also insist on a certain raise like 25-100%. Whatever you think is reasonable. Insist on no derogatory information in your file. I’d also add language that the contract could only be voided for cause and company bears the cost of the arbitration.

If the company brings you back keep in mind they will try to part ways with you when they no longer need whatever short term assistance so start looking for another job immediately.

Do not under any circumstances come back under their ‘reinstatement’ conditions. You are better off collecting unemployment and looking for other opportunities.

What is something about human psychology that almost nobody knows?

1. A person’s attitude towards life is influenced by the environments in which they grow up.

2. Your thoughts are shaped by your upbringing, culture and societal expectations.

3. Humans have a tendency to try and simplify complex situations into simple concepts.

4. Our mind’s capacity for self-awareness is both a strength and weakness when it comes to problem solving.

5. We are often irrational when making decisions, but this doesn’t mean we’re illogical creatures.

6. Nonverbal communication accounts for over 70% of how we communicate with each other.

7. Self-perception is formed through interactions with our environment, including family, peers and media messages.

8. Everyone has implicit biases that influence their beliefs and behaviours, regardless of how aware they are of them or not.

9. Fear can be a powerful motivator as well as an inhibitor of personal growth depending on how it’s managed and directed .

10. Emotions play a significant role in decision making processes, more than many people realize or acknowledge .

Should the Chinese government be held responsible for the recent commuter train mishap in Beijing?

Of course they must be responsible

In China, the subway is a social infrastructure, not a profitable business.

Although the subways are operated by “subway companies” in various cities, they are usually state-owned enterprises.

In other words, the equity of the subway system is controlled by the government.

Therefore, in an accident like the Beijing Subway, there will be two different responsibilities.

1. Legal liability

The subway company must make up for the losses, which includes repairing damaged vehicles and facilities, rescuing injured passengers, and paying their medical expenses and emotional distress. They also face criminal prosecution if anyone dies.

In short, they must bear all the responsibilities that a Western subway company should bear.

Of course, insurance companies also play a very important role. They will activate insurance clauses to provide necessary compensation.

2. Political responsibility

Since subway companies are state-owned enterprises, they must bear more political responsibilities than private companies. In other words, an official must be held responsible for the accident.

First, the subway director of the Beijing Municipal Transportation Management Bureau must bear direct responsibility. He may be subject to isolation and review to determine whether he has committed malfeasance. If suspected of committing a crime, he would be thrown in jail. If not, you are usually fired.

Secondly, the director of the Beijing Municipal Transportation Bureau must assume management responsibilities. He usually needs to make a public apology and be demoted or transferred to a minor position.

Also, the director of the Beijing Emergency Management Bureau must assume management responsibilities and accept investigation. Are they doing their job and completing routine inspections and supervision? If not, it’s usually demoted or fired.

In China, for any important social incident, government officials will be investigated and held responsible. If you think that after the accident, some official stood up and said: “We are very sorry.” Then it could be over, and then you’d be totally wrong.

What is the most witty reply you have given ever?

I don’t know if it’s witty or not, but it stunned the other person and was extremely satisfying.

When I was in my early twenties I worked at one of those cookie stores in the mall. I was working With my friend L who hired one day when a man in his 60s or so came up. I started helping him and L went behind me and kind of playfully kicked me, I laughed and told her not to kick me. I’ll agree it was childish, but that isn’t what upset that man. I’m guessing that just dropped me that last little bit lower in his eyes and he figured he needed to tell me off.

“I think you should be kicked for having that shit in your face.” I had a small nose stud at the time.

For just the tiniest hair of time I was stunned and had no idea what to say… then he opened his mouth again.

“What does your dad think of that?!” Big old smirk, oh he thought he had me on that one.

But I knew I won.

“I don’t care, he was an abusive alcoholic that almost beat my mom to death and molested me at eight, and he’s dead now. My mom however thinks I’m amazing in every way and is happy we all turned out well.” Big smile. All true by the way, I just don’t normally tell strangers all the details like that in go.

His face fell and he stared. Then he grabbed his cookie and stomped away.

What weird rule did you have as a child that you thought was absolutely normal?

We had to announce to the rest of the family any time we were going to use the bathroom, and how long we thought we’d be in there.

This was because we only had one bathroom and my father got really mad at us if we interrupted him while he was in there, or if my sister was in there for a long time, as she tended to do when she was a teen.

Some of my fondest memories from childhood are of my sister knocking on the door to get into the bathroom, like it was an emergency, shortly after my father went in there. It was never really an emergency. She just needed to fix her hair or something.

My dad: [Goes into bathroom, newspaper in hand.]

Thirty seconds later, my sister comes out of her room and starts knocking like crazy on the bathroom door.

My dad: [Godammit I just got in here! Leave me alone!]

So, every time any of us needed to use the bathroom for any reason, we’d stand in front of it and say, loud enough for everyone in the house to hear, something like:

“I’m going to the bathroom now! I’ll be in there for about ten minutes!”

Then we’d pause, in case someone wanted to use it quickly before we went in there.

I didn’t realize until I was an adult that announcing to your family that you were going to the bathroom wasn’t a normal thing to do.

Has a housekeeper ever said something to you which was completely unexpected?

YES… when I was in South Africa, I hired a maid through an agency. She arrived on the appointed day. She gave me the agent’s papers and introduction letter, and she asked me where she should start. I said she could start with cleaning the oven. “Oh no,” she said, “I don’t clean ovens”. “That is OK,” I said, “make yourself a cup of tea and make some breakfast for yourself and then I will give you your money and you can leave”. She looked very crestfallen and told me she needed the job. I said “OK; then clean the oven and you can stay”. She cleaned the oven.

She stayed for 30 years, and every month we had the same conversation. She left the agency after a month and she became my best friend, my companione.n, my housekeeper, my babysitter, and my nurse when I was ill. When she retired, I paid her a pension for the next 12 years till she died of COVID-19. I miss her very much. She was a wonderful woman.

What is your best parking spot revenge?

In my youth I was hard up for a summer job so I took a position delivering newspapers. I was a substitute driver for the regular person doing the route. My paper had a shed where I and the other drivers would come to load up our papers at about 4 am, and across the alleyway there was another shed where the rival newspaper distributed papers to it’s drivers.

One morning I park in front of my paper’s shed to load up. As was my usual practice I used the tying machine in the shed to secure a couple dozen papers to throw at the beginning of my route and loaded them in my car. I then loaded stacks of papers that I put rubber bands on while driving to use for the rest of the route.

I found that while I was doing all this, the delivery truck for the rival paper had unloaded several large stacks of their papers just behind my car. I was ready to leave for my route but could not start because the papers were in my way. I went over to the other paper’s shed and asked the guys there to please move the papers so I could leave my parking spot. They laughed at me and said I could move them myself.

So, I did. I got in my car, started it up, put it in reverse, and backed out of the space. The stacks of papers went flying, my rear wheels driving over many of them. I then accelerated forward over the papers and they shot out in a satisfying rooster tail all over the parking lot and I was off for my route.

Did you ever accidentally overhear a conversation about you from your coworkers?

I was working in a record store that had booths to listen to records before you bought them. I was in a booth setting it up for someone to listen when the boss/owner was outside the booth, not knowing I was there. He started to complain that he did not like my hippie looks and did not trust me. The next day, the manager quit (I do not know the reason), and the boss came to me the next day and wanted me to take over as the store manager. I told him I would think about it. After work, I called the ex-manager and asked why he quit. He said he was sick of the two-faced liar that was the boss and he had got a job with a new company called the Wherehouse (an up and coming big chain record company, He asked me if I wanted to be the assistant manager which paid a lot more than I was making.

The next day, I called the boss/owner and told him that I did not want the manager job, and, by the way, I quit. He tried to talk me into staying when I said, “Then why did you say…” and repeated everything he had said about me.

I started at the new record store the next day

The Truth about Paternity Fraud

What happened in the past that seemed too crazy to be true but actually happened?

Otto Von Bismark was a prophet.

In 1888 he predicted the following

“One day the great European War will come out of some damned foolish thing in the Balkans”

In 1914 the assassination of Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand in Serbia (in the Balkans) would be the event that led to WW1

Then in his final days, he said

Jena came twenty years after the death of Frederick the Great; the crash will come twenty years after my departure if things go on like this.

Exactly 20 years after Bismark’s death Germany would lose WW1 and nearly collapse.

In his final meeting with Wilhelm, he stated

“Your Majesty, so long as you have this present officer corps, you can do as you please. But when this is no longer the case, it will be very different for you”

Indeed when the present officer corps moved on and were replaced by the next generation Wilhelm was forced from power and exiled in shame.

Let’s tell some more Bismark facts because the guy was just such a hoot.

During his younger years, he famously got in an average of one duel per month and never lost. Duels as in fights to the death with swords.
While working his first job for the government, he disappeared and left his post randomly only to appear weeks later with the daughter of some English gentry.
There was an assassination attempt during his rise to power. A man shot at him six times and then was disarmed by guards. Bismark said he was fine and walked home. Hours later the royal court doctor finally got in to see Bismark despite the protest of Bismark. Turns out all six bullets hit him but none of them did much damage. Bismark was just unconcerned about the whole thing.
Bismark was a local lord in his younger years. He had an estate with some peasants who worked for him. He would announce his entrance into their homes by shooting a gun in the air or releasing a fox.
He would drink two bottles of champagne and smoke two cigars for breakfast
There was a period where rebels took the Prussian King (his king) hostage. At the time Bismark was still a countryside lord minding his land. He decided to raise his farmers into a peasant militia and free the king. As he went to leave with his militia, a local man told him to stop whipping up the peasants and go home. Bismark responded, “You know me to be a kind man, but if you try to stop me I will shoot you”.
For all of his antics and wild personality, he ended up marrying a very calm, devout, conservative Christian lady.

The rest of his story is a little less flashy but just as interesting. The man was a freak of nature. He played Europe like a chessboard for decades. He created Germany and accidentally the French Republic, and he was one of the most brilliant political minds ever.

Let’s end with some fun quotes because why not.

“If you like laws and sausages, you should never watch either one being made.”

“There is a Providence that protects idiots, drunkards, children and the United States of America.”

Next a few Andrew Jackson facts.

After being elected president of the United States, Andrew Jackson faced an assassination attempt. Richard Lawrence bought a gun and approached Jackson to shoot him. The first shot misfired, and the second shot misfired as well. Jackson noticed this and proceeded to attack the man and beat him with his cane. Jackson’s guards had to pull Jackson off his assassin — what a mad lad.
After winning his election, Jackson threw a rager in the White House inviting a ton of random people in to drink heavily. The party went on for hours and was out of control. Jackson was forced to flee the out-of-control party through an upper-floor window.
Andrew Jackson loved to duel, like step back and shoot each other type duel. In a duel with Charles Dickenson, Jackson did something bonkers. As the men turned, Jackson just stood there. You see the rules were that both men had to stand still until both shots were fired. Charles turned and shot hitting Jackson around his ribs. Jackson then took his time to aim so that his shot would be fatal. He calmly took a bullet so he could kill his opponent guaranteed.

When Jackson’s friend approached him about this, Jackson said

“If he had shot me through the brain, sir, I should still have killed him.”

In what ways is India better than the United States of America? What could the USA learn from India?

I have been living in the US for about 7 months now. I am strictly comparing my life in India and here:

India has PayTM: You don’t need to carry cash, cards. Most businesses, even small stores, auto rickshaws have paytm facility. Here I cannot, cannot, leave my credit card at home!
Public Transport: Is almost non-existent, at least where I live. There is the Caltrain, at a 1 hour frequency, and some buses and VTA, but they usually do not cover the routes I need. And I cannot just take an auto rickshaw to the grocery or Target/Walmart. If I don’t have a car, I need to depend on Uber/Lyft which are expensive.
Online shopping experience: Myntra, Jabong, Flipkart, Amazon, most e-commerce biz in India have home pickup for returns, which you don’t have here.
Laundry is a headache: Most apartments do not have in house laundry, dryers, and making several trips to the laundry room is not something I enjoy. Not to mention, it is expensive too ($1.5 laundry + $1.25 dryer per load)
Medical Services are way too expensive and not easily accessible: Medicines and vaccines are expensive. Something like a tetanus shot which costs Rs. 50 (less than $1) in India, costs $80 here. I can get spectacles made for Rs. 2000 (~ $30) in India, but it would cost me upwards of $300 here. In India, I do not need an appointment in most cases, and I can walk in to a clinic. For my son’s eye checkup, I got an appointment for after 2 months. For the spectacles, the optometrist said they do not have the technician available and can only accommodate us after 3 weeks(!!).
Paper wastage: I get so many paper adverts in my mail every two days, which go straight in to the bin. Sheer waste of paper! And the DMV refused to accept a soft copy of one of my documents. They said they need a hard paper copy! I thought the US was at the forefront of the Digital revolution.
Tipping: Expect to pay about 15%-30% more than your actual restaurant bill, for the tip. There is no service whatsoever, servers just come and put your food on the table.
Shopping experience: Shopping here is not something I enjoy. There is usually no one around to help you with sizes, suggestions or finding something. They simply tell you to go help yourself by saying that whatever they have is out there, so you are left to find stuff yourself.
Lifeless atmosphere: Every city, village in India is vibrant, full of life (and noise 🙂 ). I miss that very much here.

Of course, my answer is restricted to my observations and my small sphere of life. There are definitely greater differences, social, political, economical, which some people have put up here. I just listed some that common folks like me might experience.

Thank you for the upvotes!

Just a couple of months short of completing a year in the US, and I keep finding things that I wish were different ( I know I sound very cynical, but I am not, and I do appreciate the good things in the US too)

Going to add a few more to this list:

10. Road trips aren’t as much fun as they are back in India. Half the fun of those long road trips lies in watching the scenic beauty on the way and halting at roadside dhabas or tapris for chai and bhajiyas or food. Be it any highway, you are bound to find one or two such small roadside hotels or dhabas where you can stop and savour hot food and talk and laugh with your companions. I do not find that here. Road trips are just driving on long freeways or interstates where sometimes people tend to fall asleep due to the monotonous driving.

11. International shipping : There are very few choices in that regard, namely FedEx, UPS and probably DHL. And they are quite expensive. FedEx gave me an estimate of between $100–200 plus $30 for the box ( which is not charged separately in India) for a 4lb (less than 2kgs) shipment. Whereas, our parents sent us 8 kgs of Diwali faraal 🙂 from Pune for less than $70.

12. I miss the air of celebration or festivity here. During Diwali, Indians might put up their festive lights and diyas on their patios, but they do that and go back into their houses and shut the doors or pull the blinds. That’s that! That was Diwali here. Sad. But, the same Indians celebrated Halloween with such gusto, I was left wondering is this what happens when we move to the US? That we forget to celebrate our own festivals the way they ought to be while embracing the festivities of the West? While I see nothing wrong with the latter, I would have definitely loved to see more enthusiasm towards the former.

13. Gun violence: The gun violence happening in the US is being covered in almost newspaper and sites. It has created a general unsafe atmosphere. Especially the shootings in schools and colleges, innocent young lives being snuffed out by some senseless act of violence are tremendously sad.

14. New Year celebrations: India – restaurants, malls, roadside dhabas, almost everywhere that you get food, open till 5 am. US- most restaurants closed post lunch or early evening on 31st Dec and closed whole day on 1st January. So, we had very limited choices of restaurants to go to for New Year’s Eve dinner.

15. Limited places for kids to play: Most apartments here do not allow kids to play inside the apartment premises. Kid scooters, bicycles are not allowed. Playing in corridors is also discouraged so as not to disturb residents during quiet hours. Going to a park everyday is not possible. So, all in all, kids have only the school grounds to play mostly. It would be very helpful if apartments designate a play area for kids.

What moment at the office made you realize, “It’s time to start looking for a new job”?

When my son was an infant, after my wife’s maternity leave was over, she went back to work about 30 minutes from our house. My job was about 90 minutes from our house. I had to leave home by 6am every morning to take my son to my in-laws for the day, so I could make it to work on time. Then, I had to be the first one out the door at work to make it back to my in-laws so I could pick up my son and bring him home. On a good day, I would be home with him by 6pm. On a bad day, particularly if it was snowing, we might not make it home until 8pm.

One day, my son slept through the morning ride to my in-law’s place, and was asleep when I went to get him at the end of the day. I realized, when I went to sleep that night, that I had not seen my son awake that entire day. Worse… he hadn’t seen me that day.

So I started looking for a job closer to home. Over the years, I’ve taught at four different schools, always getting as close as possible to my own house, to maximize the time I get to spend with my children. I’ve got my commute down to fewer than ten minutes now. It’s great! I even come home on my lunch break so I can walk the dog some days.

What is the stingiest thing that you have seen a family member do?

When I was very young, I’m guessing about 5 ,my uncle gave me a letter holder that was shaped like a dachshund, it became my favorite toy.

My grandfather was visiting, and he saw me playing with the letter holder. Which was dogs front and rear separated by coils, which would have held letters.

He said, “you’re playing with office equipment, that’s not for little boys, you don’t want that do do you “ I assured I did, that it was my favorite toy. He took it anyway. My mother wouldn’t stand up to him, and he was gone.

When he died about 10 years later. I went to his office to get my toy back, just on principle. It wasn’t on his desk, my grandmother said that she had never seen anything that looked like what I described.

When I was about 8, we had a standalone bathroom sink that just stuck out of the wall. My grandfather very nicely made us a stand that went around the sink, with two doors on the front. It allowed us to store stuff in the bathroom. It looked professionally done. He said it was practice for the one he would build himself.

A month later, he came down with one that was miscut badly. He took it into the bathroom and replaced the good one with the garbage one.

He said that he needed the good one in his nice house, and the crappy one wouldn’t look out of place in our house, and he didn’t want to spend the money on new supplies.

Honestly! Who would take back, what was supposedly a gift of love, that he had made for his daughter.

What are some of the funniest “got fired” stories?

Writing anonymously so it don’t come to bite me back…

To win some times you ‘really’ have to lose

I was working for a US based MNC in India’s self proclaimed Silicon valley.

I was leading a team, the work was too strenuous. I was clocking in around 12–17 hours of office time everyday for almost 8 months. My health started to deteriorate (constant back problems) due to long hours of sitting. I was not able to spend time with my newborn baby. Had to practically live in office for almost couple of months. And to top it all , Management was the least bit supportive , they take employees for granted and make their life hell. As in most services based companies , work life balance is a distant dream. They thought Vacations are an aberration, And thought that the more miserable an employee became the more productive he becomes.

To cut the long story short , I decided enough is enough and that I would pull the plug on the job. I work for my life sustenance and not the other way around. The problem is we have to serve 3 months of Notice period, which is a big NO for most recruiters. During the week when I was mentally preparing for this ordeal, my Manager approaches me saying , your performance is OK, but we are initiating a Performance Improvement Program (PIP) for your own benefit. Which they thought would make me more productive. They thought this would make me teach a lesson, and I would work ‘HARDER’, and this was a process were they monitor me for a month and would let go if employee is not performing better. This is an absolute horrendous experience for any employee to go through. Let alone somebody who literally ‘broke their back working’.

But this was a boon in my scenario if I fail not only they would let me go in a month but also they would give me four months Salary ( They don’t want the undesirables to hang around). I kind of simply stopped working , and made sure I fail in ALL the review meetings , we don’t want to leave anything for chance do we? , with a puppy face of course. So at the end of the Month , I was relieved of my duties and I received 4 months of my salary in due time. And I landed the next job in 2 months which gave me 30% hike as well.

0:02 / 16:40

I’ve LEFT China Moved to Germany (BIG MISTAKE)

What was your “I am surrounded by idiots” moment?

There was a time, quite a few years ago, when I worked as a cashier at Burger King. I mostly worked at the front counter, taking orders and keeping things neat and tidy up front.

One night, I noticed that our drive-thru times were seriously lagging, even though we weren’t that busy. The kitchen was sending food out quickly, and I was bagging it up just as fast, so why did we have four orders waiting to go out the window?

I went to investigate and found my drive-thru employee in the middle of a meltdown. We had a dinosaur for a system back then, and the drive-thru was tricky because the register didn’t tell you how much change to give back, just how much the order cost. To help those who needed it, we kept a calculator by the register, but apparently, nobody had thought to let the new girl know it was there.

Honestly, though, she wasn’t the only one who struggled with making change, and it always shocked me how many people were incapable of doing basic math without technological assistance.

Long story short, I ended up teaching many of them how to make change without the calculator, but it was shocking how many high school and college kids could not make small change.

What would you like to remind everyone?

After my husband was killed in an accident, friends and family sent their condolences and were ready to help me with whatever they could. Many brought us meals and others took care of the yard work and some gave money and gift cards. I was very grateful for all their kindness. It was overwhelming how kind people were, it brought tears.

In time things began to settle down. I was cooking out meals and mowing the yard. But what continued on was the sympathy. I’d be in Walmart and I’d see a friend or neighbor, and the conversation would be about how I was doing and how sorry they were, and even when I’d say I’m doing fine and just want to get past the pain, it was as if they didn’t hear me.

Everytime the phone rang it was someone who was reaching out, praying for me, and asking if I was ok.

It’s hard to be grateful and appreciate all the support, but at the same time wanting to move on without hurting anyone.

Grieving my loss was going well. It was front constantly reminded of the tragedy that set me back. I had to stop answering my phone so I could heal. One day someone was knocking relentlessly at my door. I opened it to find a friend that I hadn’t talked to since before my husbands death. She was telling me to get my purse and come with her. I asked where we going? She said to have some fun, so grab your purse and let’s go.

Not once did she bring up his death. We talked about the stuff we had always talked about. We got our nails done, ate lunch at our fav fajita restaurant and stopped at a few antique stores. When we got to my house I asked her why I hadn’t heard from her and why she didn’t even ask how I was doing. Her answer was, she didn’t need to ask how I was doing, she knew how I was doing, she said you were grieving. I let you grieve. Nothing I could say or do would benefit you. I figured that after a few months of grieving you’d be ready to get away from everything and everyone that’s keeping you from moving on. She hugged me and said softly, Lori, it’s time to move on and live your life.

She was an amazing person and best friend.

What is the coolest line a pilot has said to the passengers?

G’day folks, this is your captain speaking. Sitting next to me is my old cellmate Dave ‘Eye Patch’ Gordon who failed his driving test but passed the FAA exam, so as long as there’s no roads up there, we’ll be pretty safe. ‘Dave turn that oil leak light off please.’ We’ll be flying up over New York, then over Canada, where, on the way in, we were shaken like a shitting dog, so we’ll try and avoid that really rough air – no promises, but we’ll try. Then we’ll turn and begin our passage over the Atlantic. That British Airways jet parked next to us gave us the bird last night, so we’re likely to give that asshole a close pass on climb-out. Our cabin crew, led by the gorgeous and ample Lisa will serve you dinner later. Enjoy a few drinks on us and when we turn off the no-smoking sign, light-up those Malboros and be kind enough to throw one in my direction. In the meantime, while we’re waiting for our slot from these union controllers, spare a thought for us pilots, whose lives depend on these assholes when they walk off the job. We’re flying an old 747 original today, so if you hear it moaning and groaning or even see an engine fall off, we have three others, built in 69 and patched up with some really good glue. Dave, turn that fucking oil leak light off.

What is your evaluation of the recent visit to China by a delegation of Arab foreign ministers? Do they want China to attack Israel?

Maybe they do but unlike the U.S. China has culture, US don’t. Unlike the U.S. China knows right from wrong., the U.S. don’t! Unlike the U.S. they are mature, he U.S. is not! probably will never be! China don’t want anybody to attack anybody!

China don’t want another death. China want a safer and better and more peaceful world. These Arab and Muslim world want China to help make a better world. Not one that the white Caucasian can wake up on the wrong side of the bed and decide that they feel like carpet bombing them to kill their grand parents and their babies and children and they can pluck from the sky any excuses such as WMD or made up genocide such as Uyghurs forcing Japan into a 30 years stagflation!

Arabs an Muslims are not wrong, they want a life that the U.S. cannot fxxked the up! Or steal every penny that they work hard to save. But U.S. insist that they must have the monopoly rot do genocide and slaughter! Why?

Because of their skin colour! Because of their religion and their Anglos Saxon culture! They can kill and not be killed! Because like whites Caucasian humans they deserved to raped any coloured women and lynched any coloured human because they are 4/5 of an actual human!

Yes their message is that there are are behind the Chinese. If the U.S. misbehave they will all fight a war that totally destroy America. China is frankly calming them down! The world ought to rid the U.S. rules based International order 50 years ago!

DNA Clinic Reports: Half Of Men Who Take Paternity Tests Are NOT The Real Father

What psychological tricks and hacks are useful to know?

1. Try to maintain a positive attitude as much as possible, it will make you more productive and better equipped to handle challenges.

2. Challenge yourself by setting realistic goals that stretch your capabilities and inspire you to work harder.

3. Take regular breaks throughout the day to give yourself time to relax and recharge.

4. Surround yourself with positive people who support you and help you achieve your goals.

5. Visualize success in your mind’s eye – see yourself completing the task or achieving the goal in a clear, focused way and visualize this outcome happening with ease and enthusiasm.

6. Break down tasks into small manageable steps to help avoid feeling overwhelmed or discouraged by large projects or goals.

7. Create positive self-talk statements that motivate and remind you of your goals, abilities, and purpose throughout the day.

8. Minimize multitasking and focus on completing one task at a time for greater clarity and productivity in your work or personal life endeavors.

9. Reassess strategies that have not worked for you in the past, rather than feeling like a failure try again with a different approach if necessary for success in any situation .

10 Finally remember, patience is key! Allow yourself adequate time to grow and accomplish objectives in life without putting too much pressure on yourself to succeed quickly .

What’s the best revenge you’ve gotten after being fired or let go from a job?

Well this is not exactly of being fired or let go from a job but the revenge factor is there. Pretty immature now but at the time a very sweet one.

Back in the 80s I was on my senior year to become a CTA by Christmas. The well done summer job in the research lab of the local paper mill was rewarded by a job offering after I graduate. We set the contract signing to end of November. Surely I was happy about this.

Cometh the day of signing and the head of the HR explained they’ve received an order from high up that I cannot be hired. No names or reasons were given. After pulling some strings I got to know the picture.

In the lab school we had two classes and the teacher of the other one was an mean old frustrated witch for whom anybodys happiness and joy was a thorn in the eye. Nobody got along with her but since she was about to retire people just put it up with her. She of course heard about my job offer. As we of course all knew her husband was the chief of all labs at that papermill. The order not to recruit me came from him and was based on some bullshit about me. I personally never met him so it was easy to guess where the order came from. When I confronted the Witch about this she just smiled vily and said something nasty which prooved my suspicions. I was so furious I didnt know how to sit or think straight. Eventually left town to work at the university lab instead and academia actually became my career.

She was a dedicated gardener and had a collection of massive palm trees and other plants in our coffee room. Comes the graduation day all her plants suddenly turned brown and died. She was utterly upset about this and with watery eyes was thinking of some parasite attacking them. She was right – that parasite was me equipped with 2 kg of sodium hydroxide pellets dissolved in 10 l bucket of water. Poured on the plants the evening before graduation…

This is now over 33 years ago and I regret killing her plants…sorry for that….but at the time the revenge factor was pretty sweet.

Black Star Trek ’72 Alternate Universe Casting

This is fun.

What was the best time you witnessed a bully get owned?

I was sitting in a student bar many years ago with some friends. There was a young lady there who me and my friends knew from the Aikido class we went to. She was much better than us and we didn’t know her well but we had said hi as we went to her table.

A couple of large guys came in being rather loud and obnoxious. We ignored them but one of them decided to start hassling the young lady who was sitting alone at the bar reading her course book. We would have got involved but she didn’t need us to! She told him no, he tried to grab her and then, like a flash, she just put him in a wrist lock. She didn’t move from the bar, just put the lock on one of his hands and he collapsed in agony, a few seconds later she took it off again and repeated her request for him to go away. This time he did, rather sheepishly!

Chicken Bokeumtang (Spicy Korean Chicken)

Ingredients

1 (4 pound) whole chicken, cut into 11 pieces with bone in and skin on
1 pound potatoes, peel, halved or quartered
3 to 4 carrots, peeled, cut into large chunks
2 onions, cut into large chunks
8 cloves garlic, chopped
3 tablespoons Gochujang, Korean red pepper paste
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1 tablespoon Gochugaru, Korean red pepper flakes (optional)
1 tablespoon honey or granulated sugar
2 tablespoons rice wine
1 tablespoon sesame oil
1 teaspoon sesame seeds, plus more for garnish
4 green onions, sliced into 2 inch pieces

Instructions

Bring enough water to boil to blanch chicken in a large Dutch oven; add chicken into boiling water, bring back to boil, about 5 to 10 minutes.
Drain chicken into a strainer and rinse pot quickly. Rinse chicken under cold water and place back to pot.
Add potato, carrot, onion and garlic to Dutch oven.
In a small mixing bowl, combine gochujang and next 6 ingredients. Add combined sauce into pot and toss everything together until chicken and vegetables are evenly coated with sauce. Cover, bring it to boil over medium high heat. Stirring frequently.
When it starts boil, reduce heat to medium and simmer for 40 minutes, stirring frequently for first 20 minutes of simmering to prevent burn bottom of pot.
Stir in green onion and remove from heat.
Transfer to a serving plate, garnish with some more sesame seeds.
Serve with warm cooked rice, kimchi and other your favorite side dishes!

БОЙЦЫ ДОЛЖНЫ ОТСТОЯТЬ МАЛЕНЬКУЮ ДЕРЕВНЮ. МОЩНЫЙ ВОЕННЫЙ ФИЛЬМ БОЕВИК! ЛУЧШИЙ ФИЛЬМ ПРО ВОЙНУ! Ржев

Full russian war movie. In Russian, but nicely done. Takes place during world war 2.

Plastic convertible

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.

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.

Today…

What would be your best advice for a young person who just started their career?

You are paid by how expensive you are to replace.

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

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.
Combine chopped shrimp, vegetables, garlic, seasoning, mayonnaise, bread crumbs and egg.
Form into patties, dredge in flour, and place on plate or tray. Freeze for about 20 minutes.
Remove from freezer and dredge in flour again.
Drizzle oil into a nonstick pan and fry shrimp burgers over medium-high heat until brown and crunchy on each side.
Serve on buns or French bread.

Singaporean Woman Flips On Modern Woman For Bashing Her PASSPORT BROS

This Singaporean Woman is sick and tired of Modern Women feeling entitled. She said look up a Singaporean passport before you open your mouth.

Can Russia, China, and the West ever be on good terms?

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.

Man SHOCKS The Panel With This Fact

https://youtu.be/Y_wj5vvjjj4

I have an employee that always clocks out 5 minutes early. They seem to have a good work ethic but I recently have been questioning it. What should I do as a manager?

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).

Serves them right…

Welcome to America!

What is the greatest miracle you have personally witnessed in your life?

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..

God makes the impossible possible…!

Censorship

Did you ever see karma hit someone who deserved it so befittingly that it was eerie?

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.

What was your “I am surrounded by idiots” moment?

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.”

The flight was uneventful.

$22,000 dollars

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/_kUaYkG9wF0?feature=share

What would you do if I park my car in front of yours to block your exit for a few minutes?

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.

Have you ever had a work colleague who was disliked by most of the other staff, but you knew just how much integrity, honesty, and honour they really had?

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!

Wealth in perception

Why does America force democracy upon people who don’t want it?

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)

You won’t believe the results of this expert-made calming music for cats! Designed to relax your cat no matter their state of anxiety, aggression stress or depression! Try it now to see why we’re the number 1 natural remedy on youtube!

Why do guys never go for an “innocent” girl?

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.

What is your best parking spot revenge?

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.

304 Woman Got REJECTED For Being Promiscuous

https://youtu.be/O1EV1mw5_Lc

What is the craziest thing you have seen a mechanic do at an auto mechanic shop?

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?

Unwanted attention

What is something people need to understand?

Grit is the engine of success.

Not ability.
Not talent.
Not IQ.

Grit.

This isn’t a matter of opinion. There’s research behind it. And what it concludes is unequivocal—

Innate aptitude just means you start out a few steps ahead.

Perseverance is where it’s at.

When I started out my writing was so crappy I wouldn’t share it here if you paid me.

My first gig paid $1.5/hour.

10,000 hours later, I support a family of 5 by working from home.

I got here because I showed up.

Every. Single. Day.

Ask my wife how many times I came to her on the verge of tears saying I wanted to quit because my writing was rejected.

But I stuck with it.

And with time, the rejections became approvals.

Never hearing from clients again became high-paying long-term retainers.

And the feelings of insecurity became a steadily growing sense of self-assurance.

Failure is staying down after you get knocked out.

Success is doing something as many times as it takes until you nail it.

What economic policies has China implemented that are successful?

I’m not a professional economist.

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.

What the world thinks of Americans…

As a police officer, what situation made it hard for you to keep a straight face?

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!”

How do you politely and respectfully keep women coworkers from hitting on you at work?

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.

What’s your recent happiest moment?

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.”

https://youtu.be/c311mOySUVE

What pushed you into retirement?

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!).

Have you ever been in a situation where a vacation took a sudden turn for the worse?

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.

Cute vs fun matrix is classic.

As a car mechanic, what is the craziest discovery you have found on an automobile?

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.

Has a store ever accidentally given you something for free?

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.

What are your thoughts on Singapore’s role as a tech hub and regional gateway for funding and talent in South-east Asia?

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…

Have you ever had a neighbor call the police on you?

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.

What’s your all-time favorite life hack that has made your daily routine significantly easier?

Micro-efficiency.

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.

In business, has your boss ever tried to fire you, only to be fired by their boss instead?

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.

Making a man wait is like…

What is the best case of “You just picked a fight with the wrong person” that you’ve witnessed?

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.

How did you break out of the rat race?

Today, I got this tough email…

Dear Hector,

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.

What are the reasons (historic or otherwise) that led to the belief that wealth is a zero sum game?

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.

What are some mental errors to avoid at all costs?

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.

Yield: 4 servings

Ingredients

Lime Mayonnaise

1/4 cup reduced fat mayonnaise
1/2 teaspoon grated lime peel
1/2 teaspoon lime juice

Cajun Salmon Burgers

3 (5 ounce) pouches boneless skinless salmon, drained
1 egg, beaten
1/3 cup panko bread crumbs
1/4 cup reduced fat mayonnaise
1/4 cup finely chopped green onions
1/4 cup finely chopped red bell pepper
2 teaspoons McCormick® Perfect Pinch® Cajun Seasoning
1 tablespoon oil
4 hamburger rolls

Instructions

Lime Mayonnaise

Mix all ingredients in small bowl until well blended. Cover.
Refrigerate until ready to serve.

Cajun Salmon Burgers

Mix salmon, egg, panko, mayonnaise, green onions, bell pepper and Seasoning in large bowl until well blended. Shape into 4 patties.
Heat oil in large nonstick stick skillet on medium heat.
Add salmon patties; cook 5 minutes per side or until lightly browned and cooked through.
Serve salmon burgers on rolls with Lime Mayonnaise and desired toppings.

Notes

Serving Suggestion: Serve burgers with lettuce and tomato.

Should we be concerned that China’s probes into Foxconn’s facilities and land use could affect iPhone production capacity in China?

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.

She Got UPSET After Knowing How Men Think!

World war 3 has passed

The threat period of world war 3 has passed.

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.“

Things to ponder. Eh?

Today…

The Real Africa that they do not show you…

Why are Europeans not as fat as Americans are when Europeans eat white bread and pasta and butter all the time?

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:

Vengeful Pathologies (archived)

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.

Posted by b at 14:52 UTC | Comments (306)

RICH MANS GOLD! INSANE Reaction Oliver Anthony

Why did China sell missiles to the terrorist group Hamas?

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

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.

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.

If a startup has a great product, then why don’t people buy it still?

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 not what they want.
Test your market BEFORE scaling.

What’s a rule your employer implemented that backfired terribly?

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!

What was a red flag that made you stop talking to a person immediately?

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

Have you ever seen a drill instructor compliment a recruit?

Of course they do.

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?

What is the best case of “You just picked a fight with the wrong person” that you’ve witnessed?

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

By Anton Shilov

China’s most advanced domestic scanner.

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.

What is something that people commonly think is true, that is actually a myth?

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.

Sunny Dhondkar

This is funny

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/Cx7hntWSueg?feature=share

Why is it a problem when 5 countries (BRICS) decide that they want to step away from using the dollar for their trade? They didnt say the whole world should do it, They are just doing it amongst themselves. Why does the US have a problem with that?

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.

What is something that your mother-in-law said that you’ll never forget?

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.

What is an insane coincidence that you’ve experienced?

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.

What was it like having a Navy SEAL for a father?

Misunderstood.

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.

SEAL dads make pretty darn good dads.

What is the reason for the discrepancy between the Chinese government’s desire to have more tourists and the way it treats its own citizens?

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.

Could the US just not pay the bonds that China has as a sanction? What would the consequences be?

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.

What is the strangest thing you’ve seen on public transit?

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

Which popular career advice will be abandoned 10 years from now?

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 push our 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.”

What was the best revenge you’ve ever gotten?

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.

Russia’s sanctions-dodging is getting ever more sophisticated. What do you think about it?

Of course it is

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

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

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

Plus Obama, Merkel, Cameron were intelligent leaders who knew restraint

Biden, Blinken, Ursula, Scholz and Sunak don’t know their face from their arse.

Putin and Xi can cook them for breakfast and run rings and rings around them

What is the most mind blowing fact about either World War?

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.

What is the best thing you saw someone do when they got fired from their job?

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

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.
Season guacamole with salt, to taste.

Who is stronger, China or the United States?

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

What is the best thing you saw someone do when they got fired from their job?

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.

Message received. Ha ha.

What is the significance of the 10-year Treasury briefly breaching the psychological 5% mark?

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.

Sawdust and hotdogs

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

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.
Serve over hot egg noodles.

Do you think American users’ data on TikTok could end up in the hands of the Chinese government?

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.

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Rufus Story

“To the pharmacist and assistant who saved my son’s life today. Thank you, but that’s not enough…

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.

Thank you.”

If you could go back in time 10 years and give yourself advice, what would you say?

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

Cambodia.

What is the best thing that has ever happened to you for being nice?

I used to be a cake decorator.

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.

What did someone do in TSA/airport security that made you say “You gotta be kidding me”?

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!

What is the best thing that has ever happened to you for being nice?

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.

What did a fellow soldier do on the battlefield that you will never forget?

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.

What’s the shadiest tactic you’ve witnessed HR use at your job?

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.

What is the funniest joke you’ve been told that you still think about to this day?

Scene – Army basic training camp, 1943 (WW2):

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.”

“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.

What did someone do or say at the bank that made you say, “You gotta be kidding me!”?

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.

Are you the good cop or the bad cop?

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.

What is the fastest you have wiped a smirk off of someone’s face in the military?

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

Why is vodka so popular in Russia?

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!

If you lost a six figure salary job and were having difficulty finding another job in your field, would you take a minimum wage job in the meantime? Why or why not?

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.

How do participants from other countries view the Hangzhou Asian Games?

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?

https://youtu.be/A8g-yX8YTH4

Have you ever met a dangerous person and not known it at the time?

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.

You hold the door open for a lady and she stops in her tracks and screams at you, ‘Don’t hold the door for me! I’ll get it myself!’ What are your feelings or immediate reaction?

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.

Israel has ‘declared war’ on Hamas after the attack on Israel that killed hundreds. What will be the result?

Israel will declare “war” and start bombing Palestine while the United States offers its support.

*** BUT THIS TIME it is different ***

The Geo-political situation has “turned”.

You will see Turkey supporting Palestine
.
You will see Turkey, and the global South warning the USA to “go away do not get involved
”.
You will see “reverse” sanctions on Israel by the Global South.
You will see the middle East and Global South turn their backs on Israel
.
You will see again, just how lame the American / Western military systems

are.
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.

Yeah. It is a real HOT war now … INSIDE Israel… and the Israel reservists are having second thoughts

about dying like their compatriots in Ukraine.

…

LIKE ALL WARS… THERE IS A LOT OF CONFUSION

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.

SCARY: American’s know WAY LESS than I thought…

Jesus.

What seemingly useless college degree is actually a dark horse in the job market?

Classics.

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!

What advice do you have for young people?

Do you know what are you looking for?

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!

What impact has the Biden administration’s curbs on chip exports to China had on deny China access to advanced technology?

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

What is the best case of “You just picked a fight with the wrong person” that you’ve witnessed?

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!

What’s the most savage way you’ve seen someone get fired?

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.

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.

Deals or games you decide

For some strange reason, I seemed to bring out the worst in some of the companies where I worked. With this in mind, I will relate an experience that I had when I worked at Essick Air in Little Rock, Arkansas.

As an Engineer / Manager, I would always be hired by contract. Though the duration of contracts isn’t anything like you would find in the rest of the world, an American contract essentially simply specified what benefits the company would give you and what you would give them. Of course, with the stipulation that they could fire you at will with no notice.

Yeah. Certainly the USA could use some labor laws. Duh!

That’s NOTHING like the contracts that I have signed in the rest of the world. I’ll tell you what.

Usually, the American contract would specify…

Salary
Vacation time
Healthcare “benefits”
Educational “benefits”
And much, much more…

Today I want to talk about the “Educational benefits”.

In fact at all the companies where I worked, they would pay my tuition if I made a “B” grade or higher. Some companies would offer me a percentage of the tuition. The type of education, where and when were never specified and for the most part, I studied courses related to MBA, or higher level Engineering courses.

But no one would say NO! to going to school after work.

That is…

Until I worked in Arkansas.

I wanted to take night MBA classes. And they Management said no to that. Their excuse was that it wasn’t part of my job description. Who ever heard of a company saying no to higher education for their white collar professional staff? That was new to me.

Which really pissed me off, I’ll tell you what.

But, I’m a piker.

So I applied and was accepted for a Masters in Engineering program. After all, I am a degreed engineer by education, and a few extra course and certifications under my belt would be a plus. And they said no to that as well. Even though I was an engineer, they felt that it would not benefit me or them to take the class.

Sigh.

No and then no. Ok.

Still more tricks up my sleeve to better myself. Well, I figured, since I was doing a heck of a lot of International Trade at the time, why not something very specific to my current position? Yeah, so I suggested that I take a masters in International Trade.

Guess what? Yup.

They said no, yet again.

…

What the flying fuck? Is this some kind of parody? I pointed out my contract to the HR, and suggested they tell me which classes I could take. And they looked at me blankly and said, they didn’t know.

THEY DIDN’T KNOW?

What the bloody Hell?

…

The key was…

… that “benefit” did not REALLY exist. It was just empty words on a contact that they had no plans on following up on.

Such is the American Industry today.

It is no doubt why there just isn’t any Manufacturing, factories or industries in the United States today. With such a “Wall Street” attitude, no one would ever want to work for them, with them or associate themselves with them.

Gosh am I glad that I am no longer in that hellish place.

China is just ok with me.

You know, I have many…many… many stories of this ilk. But I just want to underline for all you readers to ask the HARD questions when someone slides a contract in front of your face.

Make sure that they will honor their commitments.

Otherwise, just leave. Out the door.

ESPECIALLY if you are dealing with an American company. They do not give a rat’s ass about you, or any contracts that you have signed.

Today…

As a police officer, have you ever been unexpectedly assisted by a civilian?

Over the years a few times people would see I was in a little over my head and jump in. The best was about 15 years ago. I had stopped a car on an interstate for speeding and there were 3 guys in the car. Two of the guys got out of the car as soon as it stopped. I asked them to get back in but they did not. I called for back up but it was about 10 to 15 minutes away. I started talking to the driver when the guy in the back seat grabbed me and was pulling me into the car. The other guy who was out of the car jumped on my back and was going for my weapon. Just then I heard a bunch of people yelling and they jumped on the 3 guys. I thought my life was over. It was a bunch of high school kids coming back from a high school football game. There had to be 25 or more of them, and it seemed like they kept coming. By the time my back up got there the kids had beaten the shit out of the 3 guys. All 3 of them needed to go to the hospital as I did. It turned out 2 of the guys had felony warrants and the 3rd was a brother of one. A couple of days later I went to the school and hugged every one of those kids that I could find and I’ve stayed in touch with a lot of them over the years. I sometimes think of what it must have taken for that first car to pull over and for those kids to get out and help me. In my eyes every one of them is a hero, if not for them I never would have made it home that night.

What’s the weirdest item you have found on your property?

This happened to a friend of a friend. They bought some property in Estacada, Oregon that was in terrible shape. There was a tiny, one bedroom shack on the property that was filled with garbage and blackberries had taken up the rest of the property, so they got it for a good price. Their plan was to clean out the shack and live there for five years or so, while cleaning up the property, then put a nice manufactured home on the property. I’m not sure how long they’d been living there when they were working on clearing one of the pastures and found … another house. A nicer house.

You might be a redneck if you mow your lawn and find a house.

New round of US sanctions started against Huawei! U.S. tech war enters stage 2.0!

Welcome to VOC – Vision of China, In this episode, we dive into the latest updates on the potential second round of sanctions by the United States on Huawei. Huawei, the Chinese tech giant, unveiled its new smartphone, the Mate 60 Pro, sparking intrigue amidst ongoing U.S.-China tech tensions. These cutting-edge smartphones, powered by 7-nanometer chips from China’s SMIC, bring 5G connectivity to the forefront. The implications of this move are significant, causing a reevaluation of the technology blockade against Huawei and even calls for a complete halt to technology exports. We also explore China’s efforts to boost its self-sufficiency in chip production and navigate U.S. export restrictions.

https://youtu.be/CI-ZOcv2CaI

Is there any car which thieves can not steal?

My wife’s Chrysler 300 C has a feature I didn’t know existed until we were trying to replace her key fob. If the correct key fob isn’t in the ignition switch, the engine will start and run for maybe 30 seconds – long enough to burn off whatever residual fuel is in the injectors, then it shuts off and cannot be restarted. Either the fuel pump or ignition system is disabled – it will crank until the battery dies (we didn’t take it that far), but the engine will not fire. Chrysler aptly calls this feature the Immobilizer. I don’t know that it makes her car theft proof, but I’d bet any car thief would abandon it as soon as the engine dies and they can’t restart it.

What was the best revenge you’ve ever gotten?

I interviewed for a job when I was in my early to mid-20’s. I spent hours preparing my presentation and practicing my relevant examples, but I still bombed the interview and it was all my fault.

What wasn’t my fault was the interviewers reaction! This man belittled me, laughed in my face and the rest of his team snickered in support of his unprofessional jokes. At the end, he tossed a paper that I had given him during the interview towards me and said, “Well, I wouldn’t want to get buyers remorse.” Once again they all laughed as I gathered my things to exit the interview.

I went to my car for a long regretful ride home. I parked in my driveway feeling ashamed and defeated, I cried before going into my home to face my family. I mean I cried buckets of tears, because I felt like a complete failure.

That incident motivated me to start teaching myself everything that there was to know about my field. I started watching how to YouTube videos, downloading free trials of software, attending webinars and of course obtaining mastery certifications in my field. My new skills paid off and I was promoted constantly.

Fast forward twelve years, I’m added to an interview and guess who it is? I look at the resume one more time to check to see if he was in fact employed at the place where I had once interviewed and sure enough it was a match. There I was sitting across the table from him in a tailored suit and he was the one unemployed. He’s staring at me and saying he felt like he knew me from somewhere. I smiled back and said maybe you interviewed me before!

The look on this man’s face when I said that was of complete horror, yet still priceless. He had a sunken look on his face like he was caught holding an axe in a crime scene. Lol I don’t think he remembered the incident at all. I do think he knows he was rude to people in interviews without ever thinking of how it could come back to bite him later.

I didn’t actually do anything to hurt him outside of not giving him my recommendation based on the fact I knew he had questionable character. I just cannot help but think Karma is the biggest gangster ever! Moral of the story is be nice to people because you almost always see them again.

Star Trek – Phaser Overload

What were the worst two minutes of your life?

I was 20. I was going to college and working.

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.

What is the coolest line a pilot has said to the passengers?

It wasn’t the pilot — it was a flight attendant.

In my professional career, I flew all over the world — to all continents several times, with the notable exclusion of the Antarctic (thankfully). One year I flew 175,000 miles. I enjoyed the travel (even though that’s work) and the chance to immerse myself in various cultures, both for the local populations and the business communities.

Because of my frequent flyer status, I was most always upgraded to first class (domestically) and business class (internationally).

For whatever reason (and that reason was likely determined by a higher spiritual power) I was seated on this flight in the very last row — a window seat, where there is no window. It was uncomfortable.

As the flight began to land, the flight attendant announced about the captain.

After a decades-long career, this was his last and final flight. He was done, and now he was retiring.

Passengers clapped; I sat.

The plane landed; passengers disembarked.

When they all left; I stood. The plane was empty of passengers. I took my overhead and proceeded to the front.

The Captain stood outside the cockpit door.

I introduced myself to him.

We shook hands.

I said, “This is your last flight.”

“Yes.”

“And I am your last passenger.”

“Yes.”

“And so, Sir, I want to thank you for your service, your safety record, and your dedication to your job. You have helped many people.”

“I want to wish you well, and may you enjoy your retirement years.”

The flight attendants and he became obviously emotional.

I nodded my head, and disembarked the aircraft.

I will always remember that flight.

Independent Woman is Desperate to Find a ‘Perfect Man’ | Filipinas Give Hot Comments

Listen to what these ladies have to say.

What is something you are proud of about yourself?

It is genuinely something that Kids today would be able to do in a second.

Yet my proudest moment came yesterday evening.

It was something very simple and many guys should be able to do this in their sleep

I wrote a Program in C to solve for Prime Numbers and how to find out the Day given the Date.

Frankly i have never programmed in my life but i have been determined to learn Robotics and IDE and i wanted to start from the basics.

I have struggled and bothered thousands of people all over the world from various online communities (Why should you always include Stdio.H etc)

Then i slowly started adding 2 numbers, multiplying 2 numbers, using IF and FOR and learning the difference.

Then a week ago – a Kid from Japan told me to solve for a Prime Number. Given a number – to find out if it is Prime or Not.

I finally solved it yesterday. I inputted 41 numbers and got the right answer each time

Likewise How to find the Day- given the day – I solved using dayofweek and my new friends in the programming community – blasted me and told me Program dude…..dont use existing functions….assume they dont exist.

I struggled and struggled and finally my exasperated friends gave me a clue – 1 Jan 1900 was Monday. Go from there.

Then i screwed up without accounting for Leap years

Finally Yesterday i finished the code -that can find the day – for any date even Leap years.

These communities have good kids who are very patient and while they do cutting edge programs – they have time for me and guide me – no matter how many ridiculous questions i ask

Yesterday when i pasted the codes for both the programs

The feed back was Good on you Gramps ; Good Logic; See! Anyone can learn.

The moment was prouder than any other moment in my life – because seriously this was something i never thought i could actually do.

What is the smartest thing you have seen someone do in court?

We were in Court waiting for a hearing on a quiet title suit. It was a default hearing, so, we were at the end of the docket and got to sit through all of the oddball traffic and civil defaults.

Just before our case was called, a County Deputy came in with a junior Prosecutor and they were having a hearing on a DWI case.

The driver, an old guy who certainly looked like he was capable of DWI lurched up to the Defendant’s table and stood there while the prosecutor led the Deputy through a practiced litany of why he had pulled the man over and the driver’s demeanor upon being stopped.

The Deputy basically said that the Driver was a known prior offender, he witnessed him cross the centerline a few times, so he pulled him over. The driver then, in the Deputy’s opinion, failed, or at least did not pass, the field sobriety test.

The driver quietly stood there silently, and let the Prosecutor put on his dog and pony show. The hearing was to establish that probable cause existed to proceed.

Then, the Prosecutor looked over at the Defendant and in the most haughty and derisive tone I have ever heard, said “Do YOU have any questions?”

The Judge gave the man about a second and was ready to drop his gavel when the old man spoke up. “Yes, I have a few questions. Your Honor, if I may.”

Here’s where it got interesting.

The slouching old man, suddenly drew himself up, cleared his throat, and in a voice that I might best describe as what one might have heard from Moses, intoned, “Deputy, did I hear you state that you pulled the Defendant over because you recognized him as a prior offender, and because he crossed over the center line once or twice?”

The Prosecutor and the Judge suddenly took notice, and you could see just a hint of concern steal across the Prosecutor’s face. The Defendant spoke in the third person, and was obviously able to speak with confidence in front of a Judge.

The Deputy thought for a second, and replied, “Well, yes, I know the Defendant, that would be you Bob (Not his real name), had a DWI conviction two years ago, and that you regularly close down the Dew Drop Inn (Not the Bar’s real name.)”

Bob, nodded his head, and continued. “So, the Defendant’s history of a DWI conviction was a contributing factor in your determination as to whether to pull him over or not?”

The Deputy nodded, and, in a less confident voice replied, “Yes, or course it was.”

Bob nodded, and the Prosecutor croaked out a pointless objection. Judge Dread (Not his real name) smiled and said “Overruled. I want to hear where this is going.”

The Defendant continued, “Since the stop was made in the middle of the day, and by your written report,” here Bob held up his copy of the ticket, “nowhere near the Dew Drop Inn, Deputy, would you say your knowledge or Defendant’s prior conviction was a significant contributor in your decision to pull Defendant over?”

Deputy Dawg, (Not his real name) even a little less confidently now, sputtered out. “I just said it was.”

Bob asked another question, “If you had to quantify the percentage that your knowledge of Defendant’s prior bad behavior contributed to your decision to pull Defendant over, would it be 60%, 70%, 80% or what number?”

The Deputy was almost snarling over being cross-examined by an old rogue like Bob. He looked at the Defendant like something unpleasant that had stuck to the bottom of his boot. “Well, I’ll tell ya, Bob, I figure it as around 90%; everyone knows you are the town drunk.”

At this point the Prosecutor sat down slowly, Bob nodded, and finished. “So, had you not known who the driver was, there was only a 10% probability that you would have pulled the vehicle over based upon the driver’s behavior. Is that a correct characterization?”

Deputy Dawg thought about it for just a moment, and barked out the answer, “Yes.”

Bob turned to Judge Dread and said “Your Honor, I move to dismiss these charges as the State has failed to field a prima facie case. Their witness cannot provide articulable probable cause.”

Before the Prosecutor could say much of anything, Judge Dread nodded his head and spoke. “Bob, your point is well taken. Deputy Dawg would not have pulled you over had he not known you were the driver. There was no probable cause. Case dismissed.”

Bob resumed his old man persona and hobbled out of the Courtroom.

It turns out that before his wife died, and he became an alcoholic, Bob had been a criminal defense attorney of some repute in the State.

Good for Bob.

Cat Rescue – The cat that broke my heart.

https://youtu.be/wrw1JvDeGWE

Should the US completely cut off Huawei and Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp from American suppliers?

What a delusional question. The US has already done that and driven Huawei to be self-sufficient. ditto for SMIC. You saw evidence of that as many investigators tore apart Huawei’s recent Mate 60 Pro to find nary a US part within it. Yes, it did find South Korean Hynix memories but why is that an issue? Both Samsung and Hynix have reentered the China market because without it, they are dead meat.

“According to the transcript of the February speech posted by Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Ren Zhengfei said Huawei had over the past three years replaced the 13,000 components with domestic Chinese substitutes and had redesigned 4,000 circuit boards for its products.” (Reuters)

That was in March of 2023. One can only venture to surmise that Huawei’s goal over the last 4 years is to be self-sustaining with domestic parts and software. Huawei claims that is is self-sufficient in design, EDA tools, production equipment, and production up to and including 14 nm. Obviously with its 7nm chip in its Mate Pro series, it is moving beyond 14nm in conjunction with SMIC. There are reports that Huawei is also producing 5nm chips in the form of newer 9100 and 9200 series chips. The big mystery is how? The western presses say it is impossible using DUV, yet SMIC seems to be capable of doing that, and in production quantities of millions of chips. BTW, Huawei says its 9000s chip was designed over 3 years ago, so we can expect more revelations as newer chips are unveiled. Recently it formed an agreement with Xiaomi and will provide Xiaomi with 9100 series chips for its products, and Qualcomm has made an agreement to use Harmony OS in its CPU’s. So Huawei is not only self-sufficient, but it is being recognized a a leader in both semiconductors, software, and in all its facets of production.

The US has cut off its nose with its sanctions and restrictions. It has caused more harm to its domestic semiconductor companies than to China. There is a rebellion going on today with US tech companies ignoring the US government demands to not use China as a source and market. That rebellion has spread as South Korea has reentered the China market as Samsung has built new fabs in China and Hynix sells its memory chips to the likes of Huawei. TSMC is said to be fabbing 7nm chips for ZTE, Alibaba, and Tencent, the latter two are focused on AI chips.

An aside, the 9000s chip is not only a CPU chip, but it is a SOC (system on a chip), that contains CPU, GPU, and NPU processors.

“After a recent software update, Huawei

has revealed another hidden secret about the Kirin 9000s, which now has 12-core architecture.” (huaweicentral.com)

Does US Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo seriously think that the US Congress can use legislative tools to stop Huawei from doing research innovation and launching new products?

Thanks for the request.

Can you blame Raimondo? She was just listening to the experts.

Bottomline, we could sum up the critical equation of the U.S. sanctions to ASML and its EUV machine. ASML didn’t invent its technologies. They were the results of decades of work by American and European companies. And by all calls of the experts, if the U.S. also restricts the DUVs, China will be pushed back by at least a decade for them to produce anything from 7nm chips and further.

Visit ASML and tour their facilities needed to produce the $200 million school-bus-size machine and you wouldn’t argue.

But in a little more than 4 years, Huawei has been able to design and produce its Kirin 9000 processor. But this chip is the sum total of an entire ecosystem made up of hundreds of companies developing native expertise from chip design to packaging to make this possible. They’re the Chinese EDA companies producing the tools for Huawei to design their own chips to the chip packaging companies that pioneered chiplet technologies to enable SMIC to advanced its N+2 platform to produce a 7nm chip without need for an EUV machine, a process that experts deem impossible at a commercial scale.

And it is SMEE leading the charge to build an SSMB EUV lithography factory in Shanghai, and it claims that it has mastered the core technologies of EUV lithography, such as light source, optics, mask, and stage. SMEE also says that it has successfully developed a prototype of an EUV machine with a resolution of 22 nanometers, and that it will achieve a resolution of 14 nanometers by 2024. SMEE’s goal is to produce EDoes US Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo seriously think that the US Congress can use legislative tools to stop Huawei from doing research innovation and launching new products?

Thanks for the request.

Can you blame Raimondo? She was just listening to the experts.

Visit ASML and tour their facilities needed to produce the $200 million school-bus-size machine and you wouldn’t argue.

And it is SMEE leading the charge to build an SSMB EUV lithography factory in Shanghai, and it claims that it has mastered the core technologies of EUV lithography, such as light source, optics, mask, and stage. SMEE also says that it has successfully developed a prototype of an EUV machine with a resolution of 22 nanometers, and that it will achieve a resolution of 14 nanometers by 2024. SMEE’s goal is to produce EUV machines that can compete with ASML’s products in terms of performance and cost. SMEE expects that its EUV machines will be able to produce chips for applications such as memory, logic, and image sensors.

Nobody expected all these to happen so quickly. But it is happening.

Woke Snow White Actress FIRED from New Movie After DESTROYING Disney Classic

What a nasty and Entitled young woman. Let’s get her “Cancelled” for being so Condescending and Ungrateful.

Why does my child always make silly mistakes in maths?

Define Silly mistakes please

23*4 = 82

That’s not a silly mistake. It’s a fundamental lapse. He missed the carry over 1.

It’s a procedural mistake

s = ut + 0.5at

That’s not a silly mistake. It’s a fundamental lapse. He forgot to square the time component in the parabolic equation and ended up making it a linear equation which is fundamentally ENTIRELY WRONG

35 >=17 >= 41

This is not a silly mistake. It’s a fundamental lapse. A simple reversal of the signal nullifies and invalidates an entire inequation

Mistakes are Mistakes

They aren’t Silly!!!!

A Child must never be told his mistakes are silly. He must be taught how his mistakes drastically changed the mathematical interpretation and how he can prevent the mistake

Yes, a Kid who forgets to carry over the one in Class III – gets 1/2 a mark less for his mistake

However someone who debits instead of crediting, ends up jobless or in JAIL. It’s also a simple silly mistake isn’t it

Your Child makes mistakes

A. He isn’t focused enough

B. He doesn’t understand the fundamentals thoroughly

C. He is in a hurry to finish and his timing is a problem

One or maybe ALL of the three

Now when you say

23*4 = ?

You teach the kid to multiply 3 and 4, place the 2 and carry over the 1, then multiply 2 and 4 and get 8, then add 1 and make it 92

W H Y?

Basically you are simply breaking 23 into 20+3 and multiplying both into 4 and adding the terms

Thus (20+3) *4 = (20*4) +(3*4) = 80+12 = 92

You are shortening this by carring over the one and adding it to 8 because both are in TENS PLACE

How many Kids know this?

Very very few

They mechanically do what is told and carry over the one and add the one. When they forget to add the one, they think SO WHAT? It’s just a single mistake

It’s not. They didn’t grasp the fundamentals of the operation.

It’s the same as blindly following instructions without understanding them

Instead first teach a kid (20+3) *4

The teach the kid the shortening form and why you carry over the one (because 8 and 1 are both in tens place, so it’s 80+10 not 8+1 in actuality)

He will NEVER make a mistake again in this

He blindly memorizes

s = ut + 0.5at²

He will make mistakes

He has to know WHY

He has to begin with distance = speed x time

He has to first understand accelaration and why acceleration is (v-u) /t

Then he gets v= u+at

Then he deduces that s = (v+u) /2 as average velocity and WHY THIS ASSUMPTION

Finally he gets (v+u)/2 = (u+u+at) /2 = (2u+at) /2

Thus s = (2u+at/2) *t = ut + 0.5at²

He will never forget because he understands the concepts and derivation now

Plus Focus and Timing

Many kids get pressured when they find they have lesser time Or are pressured by the teacher who demands the kid to be “QUICK”

Time management is key and you have to teach that

A rewards system is useful here

Divide each question into a specific routine and time your kid and try to ensure he has at least 5 minutes to spare

There are no SILLY MISTAKES

Except using your maiden name by mistake instead of married name

What is the purpose of the US sending its senators to China regarding the micron ban, and do they intend to withdraw sanctions on Chinese entities before demanding the withdrawal of sanctions on Micron?

It’s typical hogwash

US is here solely for FINANCE

US badly needs money. It has no money and is printing money and one day all that printed money will cause chaos
China is flush with money. Choking with money from all those savings post lockdowns with 3 years moolah and nothing to spend on.

China badly needs to LEND this money or this money will cause deflation after 18 months or so

China doesn’t trust the US and believes very firmly that US will renege on its debt one day

In 2009, it was a similar group of senators who flew to China and laid bare the truth about their economy and the global crisis and begged China to keep buying US Debt and not to sell their US Holdings

China Agreed

In 2023, I doubt if China will agree

That’s all this is about

EU, US, UK all want Chinese money to purchase their debt

The US badly want to weaken their USD to make US exports mildly competitive at least and to stimulate the economy with cheap credit

To do this they need to stop printing money and they need someone to buy their debt

In the last 5 years, China, Japan, UAE and Saudi Arabia have all reduced their holdings of US Debt

China by nearly 15%

India, UK and EU have steadily increased their holdings of US Debt

Yet it’s a pittance

China could buy $ 400 Billion of US Debt tomorrow in 30 sessions across maybe 2 weeks

That would put the Yuan back at 6.78

That would bring down inflation by 40% across 5 months from the existing 4% today to around 2.4% by Middle of March

Janet Yellen wanted only $ 250 Billion

Yet US can’t make this public

Thus they pretend to talk of Micron

Why the hell would they?

Micron is a private entity isn’t it?

Micron execs would be the ones going to China to meet top officials not Senators

I foresee another refusal from China

Another interview in CBS about Chinas Collapse

And further deteriorations in the relationship

China successfully processed used cooking oil into plane fuel

What will they think of next?

In Chinese. Full link HERE.

As a doctor, have you ever witnessed an anesthesia failure when the patient gained consciousness during surgery?

Yes, I have. It scared the pants off me.

I was a resident, at the time.

We were taking a very nice man, with prostate cancer, to the OR. He was to get an implantation of radioactive beads, into the prostate to treat his cancer. This was done via the rectum.

As you can imagine, this would be pretty painful without anesthesia.

The resident anesthesiologist put him under. The patient seemed pretty relaxed, certainly not uncomfortable.

We draped him and put his feet up into stirrups. It’s the position that is typically used in childbirth.

We had good access. Things were going smoothly UNTIL we inserted the first bead.

Apparently, he was not “out” quite as much as the anesthesiologist thought.

The doctor stuck the sharp rod, carrying the pellet, into the wall of the rectum.

The poor patient came jumping off the table.

I was so intent on helping with the procedure that I didn’t reall notice him coming until I got a foot in the face and he landed in my lap.

We grabbed the guy so that he didn’t hit the floor.

I glanced up at the anesthesiologist. All the blood had drained out of her face. She was frantically trying to push stuff into his IV and dialing up the gas.

The attending physician looked up and barked, “That better, f***ing, not happen again!”

We lifted the man back onto the table. Thank God, he wasn’t injured. We finished the procedure.

The physician snapped off his gloves and stalked out of the OR cussing up a storm.

Later we told the man that there had been an incident. Thankfully he did not remember a thing.

Peace.

Steak Diane

Yield: 2 servings

Ingredients

2 (6 ounce) filet mignons, thawed
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
2 tablespoons butter
1 teaspoon Dijon-style mustard
2 tablespoons shallots, minced
1 tablespoon butter
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 1/2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
1 tablespoon fresh chives, minced
1 teaspoon Brandy
1 tablespoon fresh parsley, minced

Instructions

Season both sides of steak with salt and pepper.
Melt butter in a heavy skillet; add mustard and shallots. Sauté over medium heat for 1 minute.
Add steaks and cook for approximately 4 minutes on each side for medium-rare.
Remove steaks to serving plate and keep warm.
Add into pan drippings, 1 tablespoon butter, lemon juice, Worcestershire sauce and chives. Cook for 2 minutes.
Add brandy; pour sauce over steaks.
Sprinkle parsley over the top.

China is Preparing for WAR as Neocons Cross Xi’s Red Line in Taiwan

“China has lots patience with the US as the neocons continue to cross its red line in Taiwan, this time moving toward full Ukrainization of the proxy war. I discussed this and more “

Why are single men with no children sometimes shamed for refusing to date women who have children?

Originally Answered: Why are single men with no children sometimes shamed for refusing to date women that have children?

I was watching a dating show once where they filmed couples on a first date, these two people were around 30, had met online and were getting on really well, sparks flying and all that.

They were at a restaurant and the guy had ordered chips, the woman reached across and pinched a chip, then commented that her kids ate nothing but chips. The guys reaction was priceless:

He recovered and they finished their meal, after the date they did a ‘de-brief’ interview with each of them to find out their thoughts, the guy bluntly said he wasn’t interested because she had kids.

He got lambasted for it by the presenter, but all I was thinking was ‘why didn’t she mention it earlier’? Having kids is about as massive a factor as you can have in someone’s life.

I have kids, but I could completely understand why someone would not want to date someone who has kids. One party already having kids causes huuuuge hurdles to the dynamic of a new relationship. Maybe the partner would like to travel? Sorry, not an option. Maybe they want to live somewhere not within 30 minutes of the kids school? Not gonna happen. Maybe they want more than 15–20% of their partners attention? How unrealistic can you be?? Maybe the partner wants to go out drinking with you? No chance, who’s gonna watch the kids? Maybe the partner would rather not have to deal with a potentially volatile relationship with the child’s mother/father/in-laws? Sorry, that’s just part of the deal.

Often, a man declining to date someone who has kids (or vice versa) is portrayed as being shallow or lacking commitment or even of being a misogynist (because they can’t handle the fact that their partner has been with someone else), but the point I’m trying to get across is that someone has to be willing to sacrifice a lot to date someone who has kids, and the fact that they’re not willing to do that doesn’t necessarily make them an arsehole.

*Of course, some people are just arseholes, but I guess that’s true of every situation in life.

The Philippines keep being HATED! Foreigners do not BELIEVE until they visit the Philippines

Iraq has bought CH-5 drones that resemble the US MQ-9 Reaper

Caihong is a family of Chinese reconnaissance and strike-class unmanned aerial vehicles. It consists of a dozen models. One of them is the Caihong-5 or CH-5. Iraq recently purchased a batch of these drones.

Here’s What We Know

We first learnt about the CH-5 seven years ago. It was officially presented at the Airshow China 2016 exhibition. In the summer of 2015, the debut open tests of the drone took place. The UAV made a flight lasting 20 minutes.

The maximum take-off weight of the Chinese drone is 3,300kg, of which 1,000kg is for armament. The UAV can carry bombs and missiles. In particular, AR-1 and AR-2 with a range of 8 kilometres.

It has a range of 10,000 kilometres. The Chinese Academy of Aerospace Aerodynamics, which is the developer of the drone, wanted to double the range. The CH-5 can fly for 60 hours, which is about four times longer compared to the US MQ-9 Reaper drone (14 hours).

Have you ever been treated differently in a store because of what you were wearing?

I was manager of a small boutique women’s shoe store. A lady walked in the door dressed in dirty clothes. She had dirt under her fingernails. That us how dirty she was. My sales staff all took a step back when she walked in, so I asked her if I could help her find anything. She said no and just walked around the store looking. When she was ready she asked for a few shoes to try on. No problem. I also brought similar colors and styles in her size. She tried them on and said yes or no rather quickly. While she was trying them on I brought matching handbags to her as well. Her yes pile grew. I pointed out hats and scarves. Added a few of those too. She asked if one of the shoes she liked had other colors in her size. I did, so those where added to her yes pile. $2000 and change later she was packed up and ready to go.

My staff was shocked at that easy sale. They said they had never seen anything like that before. I reminded them that they were not here to judge, but to sell. Since we all earned commission, I had a great day. Turns out she was a chicken farmer and had just dropped off the bank roll in the mall so had some cash to spend when a pair of shoes caught her eye in the window.

Lesson: Never judge a chicken farmer with dirt under her nails.

EDIT It was a boutique store, not payless, so I fitted them on her after giving her stockings. Her feet were clean once her shoes and socks were off. Her clothes were a bit dirty and dirt was only under her nails. Not our usual client. Its not like she farmed barefoot or rolled in the muck. She took most of the items … and the gym ladies who just came to try on shoes and gossip and think about it had comparably dirty/clean feet. She Bought most everything she tried.

The Collapse of The American Dream Explained in Animation

This is great!

What is the most surprising thing you have accidentally overheard about yourself?

My parents divorced when I was 4. My mother remarried a man one year later in 1965.

He was a very controlling man about most things—but that’s a different story. In the summer between my 4th and 5th grade, he became “Born Again” at a Billy Graham revival. At his insistence, my mother soon followed, as did my sister. I was the only one in our family of 4 who didn’t want to give up their entire life and become a singularly focused religious fanatic.

My stepfather had never really liked me before that. After that he hated me, and could barely contain his loathsome attitude toward me.

Speeding ahead a few years, when I was entering the 12th grade, my mother took me aside one day and told me that they had no money to help me with college—that I was going to have to figure out my future on my own. (She was quite literal about that. They never even once discussed with me what my options might be.) I said it was ok. I’d figure it out. I did, and after high school, I got a job at a factory.

My sister, who is 4 years older than me, did attend a religious college, and while it crossed my mind as to how she was able to pay for college, I never asked. We weren’t very close.

Fast forward to 1994. I am now successful in my career. I have a large house with a swimming pool and hot tub in the backyard. My family—mother, stepfather, sister and her family—are invited to my house for an afternoon barbecue.

My mother and sister are sitting in my hot tub. I am around the corner of the house tending the barbecue. They don’t realize that I’m there. They are talking loudly, and I can clearly hear them. My sister starts talking about college education for her kids and she asks my mom how she and my stepfather saved up the money for her college education.

My mom immediately started to panic, and began shushing my sister to be quiet. She frantically said, “I don’t want Kent to hear this! We told him we had no money for college.”

I always knew that I was the black sheep in the family, but it was in that moment that I truly realized how much I was excluded. From that point on, my eyes and mind were opened to the lies and deception within my family. It forever altered our relationship.

Update- stepfather died. Felt nothing. My wife thinks that I suffer from PTSD because of him. Maybe with time I can now forget and maybe even forgive. I wonder if he got that gold-plated throne next to God that he obsessed on his entire life. I doubt it.

Update- mother died. I felt almost nothing. I do mourn that she was more interested in keeping her abusive husband happy than having an interest in her son. Such is life.

After the accident, she was left on the side of the road, no one stopped the car to help her!

https://youtu.be/QQbaKyDBNyY

Have you ever judged someone and realized you were wrong?

An encounter with approximately 30 burly men and their girlfriends part of a motorcycle gang with the name Outlaws written on their leather jackets.

I was 16 years old at the time and worked part time at Tim Hortons in Cornwall, Ontario, Canada.

The donut shop was right near the bridge going to the US border.

It was a rainy night in early summer in the early 1980’s. I was on the night shift.

It is around 3 a.m. in the dead of night. The place is quiet. The bar people have gone home and I am mopping the floor. I hear the sound of many motorcycles. I mean many many motorcycles. The cook looks out the window and goes in the back to hide.

I am alone in the shop and I see them park their bikes and walk towards the shop. I put the mop back in the bucket. Push it to the side at the back near the wall and they all walk in. I was not really afraid. I admit I was somewhat naive and stupid too. I figured they wanted to rest a bit and I started all the coffee machines.

I just took out all the cups, set them on the counter. We had counters where customers could sit down like a soda shop back then.

Waiting for the coffee to brew, I took the racks of donuts and put them on the counter near the cash.

I tried to serve everyone as fast as I could. To my surprise, three big dudes, walked behind the counter and helped by pouring coffee for their friends while I brewed more coffee.

They took some donuts, had their coffee, talked amongst themselves and I continued with my chores as a server. All the while, the cook is still hiding in the back room. lol

Well, one by one, they walked up to the cash and asked how much they owed. I had no clue. I asked them what they had because I told them I was not sure what they all had. They told me, I rang up the order and keep in mind the prices were different back then but for example, the price for a customer might have been 4 $. Well, the big burly fellow would give me a ten and tell me to keep the change.

They all did that. ALL.OF.THEM.

Not only that, some guys helped me clean up by filling up the dishwasher and putting stuff in the garbage.

I was floored.

They left the place spic and span and I had over 100 $ in tips.

I knew they were a biker gang but in a weird way, I never felt afraid.

Life is like that sometimes.

By the way, I totally lost respect for the cook. lol

Tucker Carlson: Something big is about to happen!

“As real as it gets tucker. Thank you”

BRICS Countries Dump $123 Billion in U.S. Treasuries in 2023

A handful of countries from the BRICS alliance are cutting ties with the U.S. Treasury by offloading Treasury bonds. BRICS is increasingly looking to diversify its portfolios with gold, local currencies, and other commodities such as oil and gas. The move is a hedge against U.S. economic policies that will narrow down the dollar’s ability to fund its deficit. Recent data

from the U.S. Treasury Department shows that BRICS dumped $18.9 billion in U.S. Treasury bonds just this month.

In 2023, BRICS offloaded $122.7 billion in U.S. Treasury bonds and is staying away from the government’s debt. BRICS member China is the highest, as it offloaded $117.4 billion worth of U.S. government debt this year. Between June and July, China reduced its holdings from $835.4 billion to $821.8 billion, a decline of $13.6 billion.

Other BRICS member Brazil followed suit and reduced its U.S. Treasury holdings this year. Brazil’s U.S. treasury declined from $227.4 billion in June to $224.7 billion in July, a slump of $2.7 billion.

Another BRICS member, India, followed a similar path and trimmed its holdings by $2.3 billion during the same period. India has also allegedly dumped the U.S. dollar in the forex markets to keep the value of the Rupee from falling.

Similarly, the UAE saw its U.S. treasury holdings fall by $300 million in July. UAE’s holdings slipped from $65.2 billion in June to $64.9 billion the next month. In total, BRICS has removed $122.7 billion worth of U.S. Treasury bonds from its reserves in 2023.

Ukrainian forces quitting by the thousands, refusing to die in NATO’s war

New reports show Ukrainian forces are laying down their Western weapons and surrendering by the thousands using an emergency radio frequency. The surrendered forces are being fed and given medical attention and handing over vital troop movement data to Russian forces. This is the end.

Huawei, not Limited to Phone

Huawei held its Autumn Full-Scene New Product Launch Event at the Shenzhen Bay Sports Center on the afternoon of September 25th. In addition to releasing new products such as tablets, smart screens, and smart watches, Huawei announced that it will release its first sedan, Luxeed S7 EV, in November. Richard Yu, the Executive Director and CEO of Huawei’s Consumer Business Group, as well as the Chairman of Intelligent Automotive Solutions BU, stated that the Smart Selection S7 will surpass the Tesla’s ModelS in all specifications. In addition, Huawei will release the AITO M9 in December, which Yu claims will be the “best SUV under 10 million yuan (about US$1.37 million).”

During the launch event, the new generation of near-distance wireless connection technology, Nearlink, once again became the highlight. Yu stated that the standard of Nearlink is a new standard led and contributed by Huawei. Compared with traditional wireless communication technology, it has lower power consumption, faster connection speed, lower latency, more stable connection ability, wider coverage ability, and more powerful networking ability. It can be used in intelligent manufacturing, smart cars, smart homes, and smart terminals.

Huawei’s Nearlink is targeted at the Bluetooth that we commonly use. However, since Bluetooth is already widely used and familiar to people, why introduce Nearlink?

First of all, it is a technical issue. Traditional near-distance communication technologies such as Bluetooth and WiFi have emerged since 1999. When they are updated and iterated over the years, they inevitably retain some of the characteristics of old versions. In terms of speed, anti-interference performance, and energy consumption performance, they are far from satisfactory. Problems such as insensitive digital key sensing occur from time to time.

Nearlink has no historical baggage. Compared with traditional wireless connections, its power consumption is reduced by 60%, data transmission rate is increased by six times, latency is reduced to 1/30th, and the number of connections is increased by 10 times, according to Huawei’s claims.

In addition to technical reasons, Chinese automakers need Nearlink for another reason: Nearlink is a domestically developed technology. After all, Huawei was once kicked out of the Bluetooth Alliance. Now Huawei has also established the Nearlink Alliance with its own standards and has more than 240 members.

This is just as Huawei’s founder Ren Zhengfei said, “The greatest resistance gives us the greatest motivation.”

“Strange things happened on 9/11”- Robert Kennedy, Jr.

Do you believe the official story about the 9/11 attacks? We’ll you’re not alone because Robert Kennedy Jr. doesn’t believe the official narrative either. During an interview with CNN’s Peter Bergen Kennedy says there were strange things that happened that day. The corporate media has already launched a series of hit pieces on Kennedy reminding us why this is just part of his normal conspiracy rhetoric.

Has someone you really admired/respected ever done something to cause you to lose respect for them?

Yes , was it an eye opener. I had known a woman from work who was very efficient, on time and got along well with others. I had heard of family gatherings, holidays and had seen pictures of some. She always spoke very positive and loving about her children.

THEN!!!

One day I happened to be grocery shopping and heard a familiar voice. As I rounded the corner, I realized it was my co-worker. Just as I was about to call out and wave to her, I witnessed her slapping the crap out of her three year old little boy, then her daughter (4) received the same with a jolting jerk as well and because she started crying because her little brother had just been slapped. Both were across the face!!

This WAS NOT the person I thought I knew and respected as a good parent. Much to my dismay, a stranger saved me the awful task of approaching her to tell her to knock the shit off!!! This other woman did.

My co-worker was very nasty mouthed to this other woman.

I was appalled! The entire incident was played out right in front of me and my co-worker never did look past her little world of rage (all the while still saying very cruel and mean things to her little babies) she did not even know I was there. I finished shopping and left the store. A police cruiser was pulling in as I left. I wondered then if they were there for her. They were not apparently.

This was a Saturday. The following Monday came and the day was going as usual….hectic. Before I knew it, it was 10am….time for am break. Sure enough as I entered the small bistro that was in the building, there she sat waving me to join her.

I did.

I then proceeded to tell her how awful I thought she had treated her children and that in my opinion she needed to seek counseling and turn the anger off. I also told her she had no right to treat anyone like that much less the gifts she had been given to raise and cherish.

She tried to offer some stupid fucking excuse which I cut off before it all fell out of her mouth. I told her I felt sorry for her that her abusive actions were now the only thing I could see. We were not going to be spending time together anymore. I also told her I felt immensely sorry for her children and that I hoped she would change her ways. I then ask her if her husband knew how she treated those beautiful little souls!

She replied NO. I thought long and hard over it (for 1 minute). I called her husband (who I knew was a kind person.) that evening and explained to him what I witnessed and what my fears were for his children. He was very quiet and only said two things to me. The first was he wondered, but had no proof. He did not go into detail. The other was a resounding THANK YOU.

Within one week my co-worker gave her notice at work saying that SHE was divorcing her husband and moving three states away. She also said her children would be staying with her husband who would be awarded full custody as she was signing her children to him

She never said anything to me about it. She worked her two weeks and left.

I have not talked with her husband as well. I do know he is raising the children. This was 5 years ago.

The abuse of anyone is something I will not tolerate. Even more so the abuse of a child or an elderly person will send me right over the top.

And NO I was not abused as a child. Thanks for asking the question and to those of you who actually made it to the end of my rant..

The Horrors of Plum Island | Hybrids, Human Experiments and Weaponized Killer Insects

Well this certainly was a disturbing episode. Reckless individuals and secret organizations operating without accountability.

Taiwan, a US pawn to contain China

According to a report by Taiwan’s China Times on September 13, 2023, Singapore’s former Foreign Minister George Yeo stated at the Asia-Pacific Forward Forum organized by the Fair Winds Foundation that if a war were to erupt in the Taiwan Strait, it would essentially mean that the United States, if it sends troops, would be directly engaging in conflict with Chinese mainland. Consequently, Taiwan would be nothing more than a sacrificial pawn.

Yeo highlighted that the leaders and people of Taiwan know that US policy on Taiwan is formulated not out of love for the Taiwan people but because Taiwan is an important piece to be used against mainland China. “It is also good business for US armament companies,” Yeo remarked.

The report also mentioned that China and the United States agreed to mutually recognize and establish diplomatic relations starting from January 1, 1979, with the US recognizing the government of the People’s Republic of China as the sole legitimate government of China. Yeo further expressed at the forum, “How long the US can do this depends on the relative military power of the US versus China and the willingness of the Taiwan people to be played as a piece on the geopolitical chessboard of US-China relations.”

ALERT: RUSSIAN CYBERATTACK ON ISRAEL, US SENDS AIRCRAFT CARRIER FOR WAR WITH IRAN/ RUSSIA!

Stephen Hawking said, “The thing about smart people is that they seem like crazy people to dumb people.” Do smart people out there agree?

I was fortunate enough to attend a lecture given by the late Prof. Hawking on the campus of the University of Berkeley; I say “given”; Hawking rolled onto the stage, and the lecture he so painstakingly prepared was delivered by the machine he used to speak with. I never heard him repeat this quote, so I will have to take it on faith that this is something he actually said.

I’ll be PC here, and substitute “average” for dumb; average people are not necessarily “dumb”, but the difference between them and very intelligent people is that they are far less intellectually curious, and tend not to question their own beliefs, or look beneath the surface of phenomena they encounter every day. For the average, smart people are not necessarily “crazy”, but they do come across as weird. If I were to tell an average person that they like doughnuts because simple carbohydrates and fat were rare and valuable nutrients on the African savannah 70,000 years ago, they would look at me like I was mad. They would say something like “I enjoy doughnuts because they taste good”; it wouldn’t occur to them to ask the fundamental question of why they taste good to us.

As shown in the graph above, 68.2% of people are in the average range of IQ between 85–115 (using IQ as a proxy for general intelligence. The number of people with an IQ higher than 115 becomes increasingly rare with the increasing level of IQ, so those with 140+ are very rare indeed, so it should not surprising that those who are in this high range will often come across as “odd” to the average majority. There is a qualitative difference in the cognition of the highly gifted, compared to the cognitive style of the average; the more intelligent one is, the less “obvious” things seem to be.

In evolutionary terms, our “purpose” as humans is to survive and reproduce, functions for which the average level of intelligence is sufficient; humans evolved to be as intelligent as they needed to be in order to successfully carry out these biological functions, so it is not surprising that most of us are not smarter than we are. As social animals, we tend not to be too fond of “weirdos” who question the existing social order, and the way things have always been done, hence the existence of terms like “nerd” and “geek” for those whose manner of thought and speech is contrary to the norm. At the same time, it had to have been the prehistoric nerds and geeks who came up with technologies like the bow and arrow, and poison darts, which were beneficial for the survival of humans as a whole, by allowing us to hunt otherwise inaccessible game animals. One can just imagine the jeers of the normies when the first geek smeared some tree sap on a dart, and walked off with his blowpipe, saying “I’m going hunting by myself.”

As someone who has been accused of being smart, I’ve had to learn to self-censor in order to “fit in”, and not be ostracized as a “weirdo” by the general population. “Be yourself” is incredibly stupid advice if one happens to be an intellectual outlier, since “yourself” is likely to be regarded as strange, and even threatening by the majority. Hawking was right, and I reserve my unfiltered self for a select few IRL, plus, of course, anyone who chooses to read my apophenic ravings on Quora.

China Cancels $250 Billion Car Order from USA: Unraveling the Implications

https://youtu.be/eoNMQ3TVzN0

Rude boy on a dirt bike

When I was working as an engineer during the 1990’s I spent most of my time living in mobile homes. These flimsy boxes were perfect for my lifestyle of hustle and layoff, and move to another city.

But, gosh, the mobile home complexes that we found ourselves in, were inhabited with some very ill-mannered people.

One time, when I lived in “West Elizabeth, PA” we had a mobile home at the edge of the mobile home community, and there at 9am every weekend, this little 13 year old boy would go around and around and around my home on his dirt bike. Only around my home. No other homes. Just mine.

Those things were noisy, and I couldn’t figure out why he chose my home to endlessly circle.

One day, I met his mother.

She said, “Oh, I thought no one lived there. Do you have a problem with him riding around your home?”

Well yeah.

DUH!

We had a few words and he stopped. But not until I was really upset and angry over the non-stop noise and the endless feeling of living in the God-damn middle of a freeway.

So many people are inconsiderate.

Partly because they are rude, and partly because they are stupid. Though drugs might play a role…

You cannot fix either. All you can do is move…

…on.

Todays…

Why is India NOT a global manufacturing hub like China? What is stopping India?

Couple of years back, I was having a conversation with an Indian origin entrepreneur in Silicon Valley who is making quite lot of innovative products. It is an early stage company. So, my conversation was about the possibility of starting his firm’s manufacturing units in India. He said something insightful

“I change my product designs quite often. And I would need rapid prototyping abilities to execute my business effectively as it is an evolving field. I make a circuit design, upload the specs to a firm in Shenzen, pay the money. Within four days the prototype is at my place in Palo Alto. All processes can be done online. Imagine doing this in India. Unless you are a Samsung or LG which has a massive team to handle all these customs, import export stuff with tons of paperwork, you will end up spending ages to do this in India. Shenzen is a one-stop ecosystem for anything electronic in the world. The supply chains and distribution mechanisms are super efficient. I don’t think India will ever reach there”

After this conversation, I’ve had multiple conversations with small and large players. Small players lament about the customs, import – export processes in India. Large firms crib about the absence of supply chain base of input for manufacturing. Our metrics of measuring ease of business is horribly skewed towards the efficiencies of business for a large player like Apple or Samsung or say a Honda. We don’t focus on making things easy for small firms like the one which I mentioned . Unless we crack that part, we’ll never be able to build a true ecosystem like Shenzen thats attractive for the large corporations

Steak in a Bag

Ingredients

1 cup egg bread crumbs
1 (2 to 3 pound) top sirloin steak, cut 2 1/2 inches thick
4 tablespoons butter, softened
4 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 garlic clove, crushed
2 teaspoons seasoned salt
2 1/2 teaspoons seasoned pepper
1 cup shredded sharp Cheddar cheese

Instructions

Prepare egg bread crumbs; set aside. Remove excess fat from steak.
In a small bowl, mix butter, oil, garlic, seasoned salt and seasoned pepper until blended. Spread on all sides of steak.
Mix bread crumbs and cheese. Press into butter mixture on steak, coating steak well.
Place steak in brown grocery bag. Fold end over and secure with paper clips. At this point steak may be refrigerated several hours.
Before cooking, bring steak to room temperature.
Heat oven to 375 degrees F. Place bag on a rimmed baking sheet and bake for 30 minutes. For medium rare steak, increase oven temperature to 425 degrees F and bake 15 minutes longer, a total of 45 minutes. For medium-well steak, reduce heat from 425 degrees F to 375 degrees F and bake 5 minutes longer before removing from oven, a total of 50 minutes.
Remove steak from bag. Let stand for 5 minutes before carving into thin slices.

NIGER COUP: JUBILATION IN NIGER AS 400 FRENCH SOLDIERS LEFT NIGER IN PEACE THIS WEEK. NOT BY WAR.

What’s the rudest customer service experience you have ever had?

I worked in Veterinary medicine for more than 36 years and we always dealt with some real doozies!

We had a lady come in with a chow for regular vaccines and after she signed in, she sat on the bench waiting to be seen. One of my techs walked over to her with a clipboard and pen in her hands to get some information. While she stood there speaking with the woman, her dog came over (he had been straining at the leash trying to get out the door) and with no warning (not even a growl) grabbed hold of her hand with his teeth and began to try and rip her arm off! He shook his head, bit harder and dragged her to the floor!

Instead of trying to get the dog off of her, the woman began screaming at us for abusing her dog as we tried to break the dog free of my tech’s hand and 3 of us were bit trying to get her loose!!

Instead of an apology for owning an aggressive dog and not restraining it when she came in, the woman screamed at us that ‘”You people had no right to attack my dog like that and it’s your own fault for walking up to my dog!”.

My tech ended up with 4 broken bones in her hand and a massive infection that put her in the hospital for 4 days, and in the end, the woman actually had the nerve to file a lawsuit claiming animal abuse against our hospital. She wanted more than $25,000 in emotional distress!

We shut the hospital down on the day of the trial (there was NO WAY we were going to settle) and every staff member who had been involved was there to testify.

In the end, the woman was forced to pay all court costs and lawyer fees, the cost of the medical treatment for every person who was injured, the cost of shutting down the hospital to come to court and was given a fine by Animal Control for having an aggressive dog. She was also told that should the dog ever bite someone again, not only would the dog be put down, but she could be arrested and jailed for having a known aggressive animal in her home and not properly containing it.

I Live Better In Thailand Than I Did In The U.S. – Here’s How Much It Costs | Relocated

To those who say he’s spending too much — not all digital nomads are poor. This guy’s a high earner, and by spending a few thousand he’s living a lifestyle that would typically be accessible to only multi-millionaires in the US or Europe.

‘Won’t sit idly…’: China claps back after Germany insinuates ban on Huawei, ZTE 5G parts

A day after reports claimed that Germany was considering a ban on parts made by Chinese manufacturers Huawei and ZTE in its 5G networks, Beijing has responded. The Chinese embassy in Berlin said the country will not stand by idly if the German government goes ahead with the proposal.

“If the German government really decides to move in this direction without proving that Chinese products pose a security threat to Germany, we will not stand by idly,” the embassy was quoted as saying.

“Should Germany unjustifiably exclude Chinese companies, this would not only be a violation of the principle of fair competition but would also harm Chinese companies and Germany itself,” it added.

What has Germany proposed?

Germany’s interior ministry has chalked up a proposal under which the said Chinese companies will be eliminated from the country’s “core network” as part of a “de-risking” strategy. The ministry is expected to submit its proposal to the cabinet next week.

Apart from issuing a full ban on the new parts made by Chinese companies, the German government will also extend the ban on those parts that have already been installed. It wants to start by phasing out parts made by Huawei and ZTE in Germany’s “access and transport network”.

What’s a point in time when you realized nothing would ever be the same again?

My doctor noticed that I had lost weight. “Are you on a diet?” No. “Having any eating issues? “ Sometimes meat doesn’t go down. “We’d better look.” This was April-may, 2014. Gastroenterologist did an Endoscopy. No warning, “You have Esophagael Cancer, you have an Oncology appointment tomorrow.” Chemo and radiation started almost immediately. They told me not to look on the internet at the statistics, so I did. 95% don’t make it 5 years. The stories were pretty grim. I sold my milling machine, lathe, TIG welder and a couple of old Honda mini bikes, if I was going tits up, I didn’t need some scammers trying to rip off my wife when I was dead and gone. Chemo and radiation were pretty straight forward and I didn’t really have any issues, I continued to work while I was getting treated. CT Scans, PET Scans, Xrays, things improved inside. August 18, 2014, 6am, I went into surgery for a gastroesophagectomy, removal of most of my esophagus and part of my stomach. Up to this point, I had lost 70 lbs in about 5 months. The surgery was really rough, and I couldn’t eat for 3 days after I woke up, then it was cottage cheese and tomato soup for about 2 weeks. I was in the hospital for 15 days, 7 in ICU. I’ve had eating issues since then (coming on 4 years), and it was 3 years before I could eat a steak. I’m back up to about 190 lbs (from 158 at the low), it takes me about 3 hours to eat a meal, but my boss and the people at work, work with me, I’m usually eating all the time. But I can only eat about 1/4 or 1/3 of the amount of food I used to eat, and very little meat, food hangs up. I’m also susceptible to aspirating (inhaling) food into my lungs, which makes me really susceptible to bacterial pnuemonia, which I’ve had at least 1 each year since surgery. All CTScans and PETScans have been negative, my doc says, “Next time if (when) the scan is clear, we’ll call it done.”

But I ain’t dead.

Life has changed considerably. I very seldom eat in restaurants any more. Sometimes I have to eat standing up, something inside seems to get pinched off when I sit down and eat. I don’t sleep as well as I used to. My doctor seems to feel I’m one of the 5% that makes it (she said the actual number is about 15% now, the first numbers I read were old stats). As far as attitude goes, I don’t worry about things any more. I just roll with it and try to enjoy myself. I’ve gotten another lathe and welder, looking for a milling machine, hopefully I’ll be making parts for a good long time.

Chinese Tech Firm’s Groundbreaking Achievement 5nm Chips Made Without Lithography Machines

New manufacturing technology.

https://youtu.be/kEIelm-dbvw

What is the hardest thing you have ever done?

I recently was released from an Alabama prison. I spent two years in prison.
I was sent there when I was 17, I am 19 now. The Alabama prisons are a horrible place. I was a sheltered child growing up. When I was 17 my father forced me to steal from some people because we didn’t have any money. I did not want to do it, my father forced me to. I begged and pleaded with him.
I used to love to play video games. I haven’t now played games in years, since I was probably 15. That part inside of me sort of died.
I was and am still tall and kind of thin.

The first place I went, was one of the worst places, the juvenile wedge in the Mobile metro jail. A wedge holds eight cells, and is supposed to only hold 2 juveniles per cell/per two bunks. But there were sometimes up to 4 people per cell, forcing kids to sleep on the mats on floor and right near the toilet. The 16 and 17 year olds in Alabama jails are horrible and the most violent of all inmates. I can look back and understand the readers thoughts, they probably are curious to know how age 15-17 year olds could be so violent. But, Alabama, if you have actually visited, is a very rough place, especially the projects. I was in this jail with the teens who were the ones that committed the worst crimes, 1st degree robberies, murders, arson, theft, rape and molestation.

I was the only white boy. They always attempted to steal from me and rob me, and literally terrorize me, throwing piss on me, or spitting in my drinking cup.
They let the inmates fill up the other inmates drinking cups.
The first week there, I bought a $20 phone card, and when I came back to my cell the black kids were waiting for me in there, predators. They had put a towel over the cell’s only light, to darken the cell, so the guards couldn’t see what was about to happen. And they surrounded me once I had walked back into the cell. I told them I would not give them the phone card, I actually intimidated them.
I was grabbed from behind, and put into a choke hold, then I blacked out. I woke up from underneath the steel metal desk with blood dripping down the side of my face. The phone card was gone.

After that, I spent an entire year in a cell by myself, because I had to be separated from them. Throughout that amount of time, I saw over one hundred fights, and was sleep deprived quite a lot. The juveniles would scream and yell and cuss each other out ALL the time. They were animals. They would talk about the most hateful, vile things, and how ‘gangster’ they were, drug dealing, robbing and killing. It was utterly saddening. Especially at night, they would beat on the metal over and over and over, and rap, all of them together. (In no way am I racist. Nor prejudice towards a certain taste of music, I like rap myself sometimes.)

During the time I was in jail, I heard news about my father. Months later, a Correctional Officer actually was the one to give me news that my father had been arrested himself. He had stolen from more people, the same exact way he had made me do it. And was in jail. he would finally pay for what he had done to me. But, there are no laws protecting kids from what their parents force them to do, sadly, Quite a horrible thing for the legal system to do to kids.

The juvenile wedge was located right next to the suicide wedge.
The loudest wedge in the entire 2000+ jail. That is where they put the drunks, the crazy psychopaths who had just murdered their whole family, and even more nutjobs. One man gouged his father’s eyes out with a spoon.(I can reference that, as well.) They would beat constantly and scream and moan all night long.
I remember specifically the one’s who would never stop beating on the clear plexiglass walls of the suicide cells. They were in there naked, (all of them). At one time I saw my own father in there, after he had gotten jumped in another wedge and his nose broken and both eyes completely blackened. They put him in their for “protection”. I remember hearing the guards running in there and beating the hell out of those people, and hearing the inmates scream. I was right next to those cells. I lost lots of sleep over the constant noise,
BANG BANG BANG. BANGING over and over and over, for hours, all night. It was just like a lunatic asylum.

I did read a lot of the christian bible, when I actually believed in that kind of stuff. And other books as well, It was my only solace then. And learning, I yearned to read and learn.
I was constantly a target with the black people, because I was a white boy.

I was deeply miserable, and so I got the doctors to finally give me sleep medicine after many months, “Remerons”, which made me feel like I was slow when I took them, but sleepy. They took a very long time to wear off.
I started to slide them in the inside of my mouth when the nurse would give them to me, and I would spit them out when I got back to my cell, And hide them in a hole in my inch thick mat. I had no pillow, just a wool blanket.
Before I went to prison and was waiting in limbo in jail, I thought there was a chance that I might be sent to prison. So over a long amount of time, I started to collect those sleeping pills just in case. So I could protect myself, if I was given a long amount of time in prison or whatever.

Things got more miserable, I stopped a young black kid from committing suicide in my cell at one point. I turned 18 in jail.
After that, I mixed in with the adults. I finally received my time, It was two more years… and I would be going to prison.
I couldn’t do it anymore. I was utterly miserable and sad, And I lost the will to want to be alive. I wanted peace, just once in my life. If you call death peace.
One night I took all the remerons I had collected, I first waited for my cellmates to begin playing cards, and then I took around 100 of them, and heated up some hot water, and crushed up some of the pills and swallowed them all down.

It was the worst, bitter disgusting taste. I still have a hard time swallowing pills if I ever have to chew them. I wrote a note telling my mother I loved her and wished I could hug her. No one knows the truth or what really happened. No one cares to know.
I hadn’t seen her in 8 years. I got up on my top bunk and rolled over on my side on my mat. And laid there. I prayed to God, asking to be with him, I commend to you my spirit “Lord”. I was completely terrified of going to hell, but I still did it, I was in so much misery.
30 minutes later my body was almost paralyzed. And my body was pulsing and throbbing. I began to feel very sick. I tried as hard as I could to hold my stomach in. But I had to get up and go to the toilet to vomit, and my whole body was almost paralyzed, I could not jump off my rack. I couldn’t move.
And then I blacked out, into nothingness. Silence. Blackness.
There was no bright light.

Over the course of that period, while I was in jail, I had many inmates/criminals try to hurt me.

Later, I woke up in a hospital handcuffed to a stretcher, I was on life support.
My cellmates had gotten scared and told the guards, once they had seen me black out. I obviously did not want my cellmates to know what I had done. But I was forced to throw up, and black out.

After my ill recovery, I was thrown into the suicide wedge, right where I remembered all those people.

I soon was shackled and shipped to prison, where there was no A/C at all, there is none in the Alabama prisons. Prison is even worse. You are forced to work all day.
And the temperatures inside the dorms get to 100+ degrees. Everyday, all day long, during the hot long Alabama summers.
Misery. I remember pools of sweat collecting on my mat, while I tried to lay down. I would have to strip to my underwear to stay cooler.
The black men would look at me, and some would masturbate at me, while I would sleep, or do it right in front of me. They call it “gunning you down”.
It was a fact that the African american men were specifically like this.
A lot of the time when I would try to take a quick shower, they would all watch me, to see when I would go in. And then go in the shower with me and watch me, and ‘gun me down’, while I bathed myself quickly.
Quite a dehumanizing thing to have done to you.
I wish I could’ve knocked one of the those motherf*ckers heads off.
But I knew I had parole coming up, And I might make it, If I never get into any fights, or disciplinaries. Which was even worse. Because, I needed to stand up for myself. It was so crowded in prison, there was no privacy. Nowhere.
Showers were completely wide open, toilets were in rows of 30 lined up.
No stalls, Those did not exist.

I tried dearly to avoid the showers, and the sick people. I saw a lot of sick stuff in there. The white gay boys were the ones that almost always were on the “receiving” end of the action.
Homemade hypodermic needles, and one of the main drugs, called Suboxones, they were these thin sublingual films from a pharmacy that were smuggled in, they are a narcotic analgesic and they dissolve fast. The drug addicts broke up and disolved the film in a spoon and either snorted or injected it. I did none of that. I had never done drugs before.

I was in prison for a long time.
After two years of being in there, and finally making parole, I was released and transferred to another state. I was granted immediate release from parole at least three months before, but it took them a very long time to “find” the paperwork. They would not have done it or found it, if a trustee inmate had not given me a special phone number for the parole boards office, that was not “public”, and I got my family to call up there over 50 times over a course of months.

I realized my weaknesses while in prison, my puniness as well.
A lot of me died slowly inside, I do not think about girls as much. I was a young kid, I had only ever had one girlfriend in 8th grade. I had to drop out of school after that.

When I was in prison I longed to just touch a girl’s hand, just to have someone love me as friend. I yearned for a companion, I was so lonely.
Words could never express.
My heart felt like it was literally dying.
I also missed listening to music so much, I loved music a lot.
I don’t feel things anymore as much, I tried to feel love and compassion, but my heart has died slowly. I still do love people, I have tried to keep that alive,
I really try my best. And I love to give people gifts with the money I have now.

Things don’t mean as much at all to me anymore.
I am somewhat of a stronger guy now, I fear nothing.
I also lift weights and exercise everyday, that is one thing I will always do.
I am still trying to find what I am going to do with my life and career.
And find meaning in life. I do enjoy computers a lot, evidently.
If I had to go through those two years again, I don’t believe I could do it all over again.

-Luke

How will Huawei’s 7 nm breakthrough undermine confidence in Western sanctions?

Huawei breakthrough is more than the 7nm as widely perceived in the media since the annocement of Huawei mate 60 series.

Huawei had invented and patented a 3D Finfet transistor that enable it to be fabricated using a tweaked or modified DUV machine with mass production. The 7nm Kirin 9000s chip with 3D Finfet transistors consume less power and can achieved equivalent performance of 3nm chip. It can easily be refined and improved with 5 nm or 3nm designs which l believe will be used in Kirin 9100 chips and achieve better performance.

Hisilicon had utilized the Chips and design Kirin 9000, Kirin 9000s Soc using it’s Taishan architectures and system.

The Kirin 9000 series are 8–12 Taishan core CPU working together with GPU and Huawei Balong Modern. They are comparable to Qualcom snapdragon 8-2 chip set and Apple M16 and M17 chip set.

Beside the Kirin Soc the Huawei mate 60 series also used in house indigenous technologies like Ximage, Nearlink and Satellite connectivity technology.

Ximage is Huawei photo taking and processing technology, one of the best in the world.

Huawei breakthrough is far from just handphone technology, Huawei will be the top platforms for AllAI and All Cloud and All IoT. It will be the smart system inventors that empower human leveraging on technology to improve life and productivity.

What is the best thing you came across on the internet today?

This is Miss Nigeria Nyekachi Douglas in the Miss World beauty pageant. You must be thinking that she is so happy because she won. No, she didn’t win the Miss World title but rather her friend Miss Jamaica Toni-Ann Singh won Miss World title.

She is being praised for her heartwarming reaction despite losing Miss World After miss Jamaica, Toni-Ann Singh was named miss world, Douglas jumped up and down and did a happy dance as she congratulated and hugged her friend .

Be happy for other people, regardless of what it is for. It will cost you nothing.

I am blown away with her reaction. And she won my heart.

We should learn from her and be happy in the happiness of others.

How do you prevent a clingy relative constantly coming to your house and wasting time and annoying the children and you?

I’ve dealt with this. For YEARS. My salvation came one day when I was particularly under the gun to get a few real priority tasks around the house and yard done. I was about to leave town and this particular afternoon was my last chance to get things straight before leaving. When said relative showed up, unannounced as per the usual, I said “Great! You’re here” and immediately handed them a lawn bag, went out the door, then hollered back at them to hurry up!

I worked them into the ground…..and kept pressure on with family gossip about THEM as well as promised I’d never turn down their help again….. how I couldn’t wait to get back to town and have them help with winterizing, cleaning gutters, etc.

They never popped in again. That was 17 years ago.

Las Vegas teen expected ‘slap on the wrist’ for hitting, killing cyclist: ‘I’ll be out in 30 days

The teenager who police say intentionally struck and killed a retired police chief in Las Vegas said he would get a “slap on the wrist” after he was taken into custody, the 8 New Now Investigators have learned.

China to build up Huge IC chip factory using a particle accelerator!

Article link HERE

Scientists said this unprecedented technology can overstep US sanctions and make China a new leader in semiconductor chip industry
Plans are now in progress to construct a huge particle accelerator to help researchers put into practice the cutting-edge technology
China is exploring new avenues to bypass restrictions on lithography machines, which are used in the production of microchips. Using particle accelerators to create a novel laser source, researchers are laying the foundation for the future of semiconductor fabrication.

China sets out to develop EUV lithographic ‘cannon’

China is exploring the use of a new extreme ultraviolet (EUV) light source in making its own lithography facility

China to use EUV in making it’s own IC fab facilities

China is exploring the use of a new extreme ultraviolet (EUV) light source in making its own lithography facility but technology experts said such an ambitious goal may take many years to achieve.

Over the past few days articles and videos have gone viral on the Internet in China claiming that Tsinghua University has made breakthroughs in steady-state microbunching (SSMB) technology, which can create an EUV light source with a power several times higher than that of ASML’s EUV lithography.

They say the future launch of a SSMB accelerator, nicknamed “lithographic cannon ,” will help China bypass the export controls of the United States and the Netherlands.

These came after Huawei Technologies on August 29 commenced the sale of its flagship smartphone Mate60 Pro, which used a 7 nanometer chip produced with Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (SMIC) N+2 processing technology and ASML deep ultraviolet (DUV) lithography.

“We understand that it’s difficult to have more breakthroughs in chip-processing if we follow the current technological path,” a Chongqing-based writer says in an article published by the Huxiao Business Review on September 16. “It will be more feasible to walk on a new path.”

He says Tsinghua’s suggestion to use the SSMB technology in lithography can help China break the technological blockage of ASML.

He adds that what Tsinghua proposes is not a lithography machine but a huge factory that involves a lot of land and workers – resources that China does not lack.

China beats US in top global scientific ‘hot papers’ — those that receive instant recognition — ranking

China has surpassed the US

with the number of papers published and cited in the world’s most influential journals, a new report has found.

China also ranked first on the international papers citation chart in six major disciplines

– agricultural sciences, chemistry, computer science, engineering, materials science and mathematics. The top spot in mathematics was a new achievement compared with the previous year.

According to the Statistical Data of Chinese S&T Papers released on Wednesday by the Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (ISTIC), Chinese researchers

published 1,929 “hot papers” – papers that receive significant numbers of citations soon after publication, usually in a rapidly evolving field such as molecular biology and materials science – accounting for 46 percent of the global total by July.

What was the weirdest wedding you have ever attended?

My live-in nanny Jennifer moved from Oregon to Yuma, Arizona to attend college and take advantage being near her fiancé, Ryan, stationed at the Marine Corps Air Station (MCAS). Jennifer was energetic and very Mormon, interviewed quite well and had impeccable references. If you are thinking this is all going to turn out bad; you would be 100% wrong. Jennifer was a dream nanny, excellent student, exceptional teacher, my confidant, unapologetically pretty, my foster children loved her and her voice… she could sing like an angel. Jennifer and I are still in touch on social media.

Jennifer moved in with me the fall of 1995 to begin as a nanny. She was so looking forward to caring for Brittney, attending a new semester at Arizona Western College (AWC) and finally spending some time with her fiancé. There was a two-day registration window for her to sign up in January 1996 for the spring semester classes.

On the first day at registration, when she was signing up for a choir class, the teacher informed Jennifer about a music scholarship that would cover all her expenses. Jennifer would have to audition for the scholarship. As I said, Jennifer had the voice of an angel and she easily passed the vocal audition for the scholarship. The kicker; the music scholarship was reserved for Arizona residents (2 years or more) or family members of military personnel only; so, she didn’t qualify. Worse yet, the deadline for qualifying for the scholarship and class registration was the very next day.

Jennifer has never been the type of person to sulk or quit; she was undaunted. She certainly couldn’t qualify for the Arizona resident part; she’d only lived in Arizona for six months. She told her counselor, “If I need to be a military family member, then I will be a military family member by tomorrow.” Jennifer called her fiancé Ryan, told him about the scholarship and announced that they were getting married NOW so she could qualify for the scholarship.

When I came home that day, Jennifer explained about the scholarship and she would need a few hours off to get married. I was absolutely impressed by her resourcefulness. Not once did she address this as a problem; and, she actually reveled in the opportunity the challenge represented.

Ryan, who was still working on converting to Mormonism, was fully on-board with the wedding plan. He and Jennifer could have that big religious wedding for their families later. They just wouldn’t tell them they had gotten married already. Since Ryan was in the Marines, he needed approval from his commanding officer first. Ryan managed to get it done right away and meet Jennifer at Yuma County Clerk’s Office to get their marriage license.

Thank goodness Arizona does not require blood tests; Jennifer is needle-phobic and jokes that a blood test might have been a deal-breaker. Jennifer couldn’t have picked a more perfect town for a quickie marriage. Yuma has quite the reputation for many movie stars flying in from California for a quick marriage; including, Loretta Young, Claudette Colbert, Alice Fay, Mary Astor, Jean Harlow, John Barrymore, Errol Flynn and even cowboy Tom Mix… and more.

The only wedding officiant they could find on such short notice was a judge at City Hall. His docket was full but Jennifer and Ryan somehow convinced that judge to perform the marriage ceremony at 9am the next morning; scholarship and college registration deadline day. I was impressed how quickly Jennifer got it all arranged in a single day. When Jennifer wants to get something done; there is no stopping her.

With no advanced planning for her wedding, Jennifer certainly hadn’t planned for a wedding dress. Ryan could get away with wearing his Marine Corps dress uniform. Jennifer began to go through her everyday-go-to-school outfits and she modeled in front of me, “Do you think this looks wedding-enough?” No matter how resourceful Jennifer had already been; she really had nothing that looked anything like a wedding dress. In my mind; a woman needs a wedding dress on her wedding day. So, I told her I’d buy her a dress as a wedding present. Although it was already late in the day, we immediately went shopping. We stopped near one wedding shop and she motioned for me to keep driving. She insisted, “This is a small event, no need for expensive.” Jennifer got so lucky; she ended up finding the cutest little white lacy wedding dress on a JC Penny’s discount rack for under $40.00. We couldn’t believe it; it was like it was waiting for her and it couldn’t have been more perfect.

On the morning of the 2nd day of college registration, at 9am, she and Ryan stood before the judge at Yuma City Hall and got married. One of Ryan’s friends and I were the witnesses. We took Polaroid insta-print pictures of the ceremony and also a posed-picture with the judge. They had no real wedding rings, but did exchange a couple of Cracker-Jack rings at the ceremony. Ah, such a tribute to young love at its finest.

Now most bright-eyed wedding couples would have a big celebration and then head out for an exciting honeymoon. Well, that’s what’s very different about Ryan and Jennifer. Ryan immediately reported back to duty at the MCAS. Jennifer, still wearing her wedding dress, with a copy of a marriage license in one hand, marriage certificate in the other and backup pictures of the marriage ceremony, drove with all her determination out to AWC to capture her scholarship.

Jennifer’s first stop at the college was the music teacher where she got her scholarship stamped qualified and approved; Victory! Then she stood in line at the registration office, still wearing her wedding dress, and finished registering for her college classes; Victory!

Whenever I hear the expression, “failure is not an option,” it always reminds me of Jennifer. You gotta love Jennifer.

Oh SH*T, NATO just crossed the line and Putin knows it

What is the smallest thing a person ever did for you that impacted your life?

The year is 1974 and I am the junk dealer’s daughter. My brother has become a teenager; my parents spend half their time watching my father slowly die and striving to save him; the rest struggling to survive.

Our TV is off limits, the days are long — especially for an introverted kid, but I am not alone, for the bookmobile comes every other Thursday at 3 pm.

Three years before my mom had walked me down the street and signed me up for the reading program. Read ten books and get a sticker. Get the stickers and you get a prize.

I had rapidly progressed from the small child’s, to the preteen books and last year the bookmobile lady had sent home a permission slip to allow me to read the adult books. This year she scours the county for good books for me.

Smiling, she hands me a stack of ten books, “there are some new westerns and a couple of scifi as well, if you want them.”

My book a day limit met I struggle home with my treasures. Another two weeks of adventures and stories. I don’t feel as alone and my belly doesn’t rumble as much when I’m reading.

Carefully I open the first page . . . the bookmobile lady has saved me once again.

The year is 1994 and now I have a family to support. Going back to college was a good decision. My hard work and bright mind has been recognized and I have risen from student worker to classified staff.

Painfully shy I stay to myself but then another worker stops by and tells me as a union member I should be attending union meetings.

“I just want to fit in,” I think. “I’ll slip into the back and hopefully no one will take much notice of me.”

“Hey Nancy? Is that you Nancy?”

The bookmobile lady is there, older now but just as nice.

“Sit by me and my friends. Hey everyone this is Nancy. When she was little she used to come down with a wagon full of books to exchange when I ran the bookmobile. She read a book a day. Isn’t that cool?”

And just like that I am no longer alone.

The bookmobile lady has saved me again.

What are some commonly accepted double standards?

One of my guy friends was sucker-punched in the face by a girl outside a club.

We both had left the club with a couple friends, and somehow the girl’s bf was talking shit to us because of some misunderstanding. She couldn’t handle getting shit talked back to her by my guy friend, which he was pretty good at.

Even though he wasn’t directly talking to her, she violently hits him. She was bigger than him, but still hit like a bitch. After she hit him she was still in his face, pulling him around with his t-shirt, yelling her voice out, assaulting with all sorts of shit and going completely ballistic on him.

He grabbed her arms to stop her from punching him, and violently swung her away, causing her to crash on the ground head-first.

That was our opening to escape, and him and I started walking away with our friends. But the security guard briskly chases after him, even though the guard wasn’t outside in time to see what had actually happened. Put his hand on his shoulder and told him to get down on the ground as he shrugged off and said don’t touch me. He later called the cops on him.

They arrested him for assaulting the security. A guy recording everything got arrested for obstruction of justice or something. They put him in an individual cell so they couldn’t talk. Never got his info. He went through an extremely long court battle. The woman who started it was never even mentioned, and he had to do some time in jail for aggravated assault.

It’s absolute bullshit that men are instantly vilified and crucified for assaulting a woman under the right circumstances. I’m sure you can see how differently this story would’ve played out had the roles been reversed.

Oliver Anthony – I Want To Go Home REACTION TEARS

People are tired. They are fed up. They want CHANGE.

In what ways will a 33 trillion national debt affect the United States and ultimately the whole world?

This is a serious figure; it’s a serious number. It bodes a very bleak fate for Americans, and for any nation that holds on to American stocks, treasuries, and assets.

I suppose I can confuse the reader with bafflegab. Speak thoughtfully and with authority using obscure and technical terms, and repeat the American government narrative that all is well.

But it is NOT well.

The United States has yet again had it’s credit rating downgraded to AA+.

And it sounds “great”, but the naming convention is a distraction. The term “AA+” actually means “Significant credit risk, and looming possibility of default”.

If you all were smart, you would be “bailing” out from the United States as fast as you can get your passport stamped.

…

Go to someplace better.

Like Bangladesh, or Laos, or Bolivia.

Somewhere that will accept you and enable you to live peacefully and calmly, with a roof over your head, has decent medical care, and healthy and cheap food. Oh, and one where criminals and the police won’t shoot at you.

I’d normally advise careful consideration be taken, but given the total collapse of American society, basically ANYWHERE on the face of the planet is an improvement over the United States today.

…

There are few options remaining for the United States movement to stop the rapidly approaching “train wreck”…

Raise taxes on Americans to around 80% of income.
Lift all tariffs, so that there would be some slowing of the rate of inflation.
Re-compensate Russia and re-approach with them to get the fuel / gas prices down.

Not much can be done…

Start charging Americans for the right to breathe air.
Sell off (wholesale) United States assets, property, gold, and land.
A massive war of distraction; perhaps a global thermonuclear war with both Russia, China, Iran, and North Korea simultaneously.

Like I said, all the viable options “on the table” will have catastrophic results.

…

All of this is far too gloomy.

It’s time that I set myself to the other side of the table, and have a shot of whiskey with you. Look into your eyes, and hold your hands. It’s time for straight talk.

American society HAS collapsed.
Like a headless chicken, it is still running around the barnyard, but it is accomplishing nothing.
The “government” is non-functional.
The American citizens are riding in the car, drunk on media lies, and the driver is driving the vehicle right over the cliff.

Freefall will be surreal.

And when you all hit the bottom, it will be really ugly.

…

Jump out of the car before it is too late.

Every minute counts.

How I view the US after 12 years living abroad

If the United States freezes China’s assets, how do you think China will react?

What do you think China would do?

They’ll be more than happy to accommodate.

And it would be the most stupid thing for our politicians to do because there’s a world of difference between what we have in China than what the Chinese have here.

How U.S. companies do business: It’s hard to accurately quantify how much business assets they have in China. However, considering that between 1982 and 2021, US direct investments abroad grew from $580 billion to more than $6.4 trillion dollars, it would not be too farfetched to assume that they have at least $2 trillion invested in China. China is their supply chain as well as their major market.

How Chinese compaies do business: They stay home to manufacture and profit on their trade with the world. China does have investments in the U.S. but they’re simply “investments” and not core to their operating businesses; they don’t have major companies operating out of the U.S. whose core business is in the U.S. It wiould be hard put to assume that China’s investment is more than $1 trillion in the U.S.

So who would hurt more if these two countries start freezing each other’s assets?

How about China starting off by just freezing Tesla’s and GM’s Chinese assets? Tesla’s mega factories are worth billions but the loss of sales revenue would be exponentially larger.

And how much would Chinese companies lose if the U.S. froze their investments in farmland in the Mid West?

Russia has Officially Deployed the RS-28 Sarmat ICBM

Russia has introduced a formidable weapon that has raised concerns among its rivals. Moscow has officially deployed the RS-28 Sarmat intercontinental ballistic missile, or ICBM known as “Satan II,” for active military use.

This announcement was confirmed by Yuri Borisov, the head of Russia’s space agency Roscosmos, as reported by the Russian state news agency Tass.

According to experts, the RS-28 Sarmat missile has the capability to travel over both the North and South Poles and deliver a warhead weighing up to 10 tonnes to any location on Earth.

This development has amplified concerns about Russia’s nuclear capabilities, particularly in the context of the ongoing conflict in Ukraine.

Steak San Marco

Yield: 4 to 6 servings

Ingredients

1 (2 pound) chuck steak, cut into serving pieces
1 teaspoon Mexican oregano
Pepper, to taste
2 tablespoon wine vinegar
1 envelope onion soup mix
1 (16 ounce) can peeled tomatoes
Garlic salt, to taste
2 tablespoons vegetable oil

Instructions

Arrange meat in a large skillet, cover with onion soup mix and tomatoes.
Sprinkle with oregano, garlic salt, pepper, oil and vinegar.
Simmer covered for 1 1/2 hours or until meat is tender.
Serve with rice or mashed potatoes.

What is the strangest thing that drives women crazy?

Being too agreeable.

I’ve learned this over 17 years with my wife. I’ve learned to pretend to have opinions about decisions we need to make, even when I’ll be perfectly happy with any of the options, because it annoys her when I don’t care one way or the other.

From little things, like what we should have for dinner, to big things, like what we should name our children, the truth is I was perfectly happy with all of our choices. It wasn’t that I didn’t care, but rather that I saw the positive aspects in all of the possible decisions, and she did seem to care a lot, so I just let her make the decision.

I guess that drives women crazy: being with someone that’s just going to agree with their decisions 99% of the time, because that someone doesn’t really have an opinion.

So I’ve learned to fake it a lot. My wife knows I’m faking it, but she recognizes it as an improvement from the way I used to be.

Her: What should we have for dinner tonight?

Old Matt: Whatever you want. It’s all good to me.

New Matt: Let’s go with Mexican food tonight. Enchiladas? Yes. That’s what I want.

In reality, Old Matt and New Matt both had the same opinion, but New Matt has learned to just pick something and pretend he has a preference for it, to make his wife happy.

Vocal Coach reacts Dio – Last In The Line / Holy Diver Live 1986

A tiny man with the voice and charisma of a giant. Dio was truly one of a kind.

Why do the Chinese not care about the lack of freedom?

In my experience, the “freedoms” that they lack are access to Western (social) media (correction to remove freedoms that they actually have). What they get that westerners don’t, in exchange, is a very safe and modern country.

Safe: In ten years here, I have yet to witness violent crimes. My mother isn’t scared to walk alone at night, and there are no shady people lurking in public places.

Modern: the infrastructure is top notch, 5G is ubiquitous, cheap and really fast (I pay about 50 dollars a year for 40 Gb a month of data on my mobile and crazy download speeds). Cash is a thing of the past, everything related to money is digitized. With the sale app you can unlock a dockless bike (less than 2 rmb per ride), ride a bus, pay utility bills, book tickets, order food… even doing taxes is an easy app.

Many Americans like to quote Benjamin Franklin “Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety”.

But actually, that’s the foundation of society.

Besides, if I compare with France, my home country, Chinese people are more free on their daily life. In France, there are norms and rules about everything, usually in the best interests of corporations. You can’t play music in public places, you need to pay royalties, you can’t change a lightbulb in your office because you need a certification for low level electric work and work in high places… things like street food or street vendors couldn’t exist. In France, you are free* (so long as you abide the 300000 rules). Rules prevent many things “for your own good” but really for big companies. I come from the countryside and many people had to stop butchering ducks at home like they had for generations because they need an official slaughterhouse, which is expensive to build at home. It’s not really that butchering at home is unsanitary, it’s that big slaughterhouse need their money.

In China, you enjoy actual freedom: you are free to sell street food, free to eat it even if it’s not always sanitary, and to go to the toilet because of that, etc. The government usually doesn’t care about people’s lives unless it’s very political. One perfect example is the one child policy. When I was a teacher in college, in a time when the policy was still effective, many students actually had siblings, especially in Guangdong. The government was very strict about that with officials, who were supposed to show a good example, but a lot more lenient with regular people, especially in the country.

So in short, Chinese people in general have a very free daily life, and enjoy a very safe, modern and cheap country. If they have to sacrifice Western media for that, it’s a fair price (besides, there are VPN to get around that limit and that’s another rule the government is lenient about). I enjoy Chinese freedom more than I enjoyed the French one!

Huawei cannot make advanced chip smartphones on a large scale: US

The US is saying that Huawei cannot make smartphones with advanced chip technology in large-scale production. This comment comes amid rising worries about Huawei’s return and harming iPhone sales in China.

U.S. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said on Tuesday that the U.S. has found no evidence to prove that Huawei can manufacture seven-nanometer chips at scale. Her response draws the attention many of people in the global smartphone industry as everyone is surprised by the return of Huawei’s mysterious chip.

Last month, Huawei unveiled its latest Huawei Mate 60 series in China. The company has not organized any launch event or mega show to introduce this smartphone. Instead, it was sold directly via online and offline sales channels. Aside from its alluring design and camera features, the phone also packs a new Kirin chipset – the Kirin 9000s.

An evaluation from TechInsight shows that the chip is processed with advanced 7nm technology made by China’s SMIC. In some benchmark tests, the chip posts even higher marks than the 5nm Kirin 9000, which is very surprising.

Why all the Ruckus?

In 2019, the US Commerce Department sanctioned Huawei from buying US-made technologies. Therefore, the company can’t purchase or produce new chipsets for smartphones and any of its tech products.

In the early days of sanctions, Huawei stockpiled the chip from various sources. However, the situation became worse as the chip stock declined.

Thereafter, it had to rely on Qualcomm to provide 4G Snapdragon chips for its smartphones. For the past two years, Huawei has been launching phones based on Qualcomm chipsets.

Within the fourth year of sanctions, on August 29, 2023, the Huawei Mate 60 Pro came into play. However, the company does not even mention this chip in promos. But it carries a new Kirin chip, which became a topic of wide discussion.

The return of Kirin also reached the White House and it was previously confirmed that the US is searching for more ‘information’ about the return of the Kirin chip. It seems the US has finally come to the conclusion that Huawei can’t produce advanced chip smartphones and that might be it for the investigations, probably.

Fat TikTok Influencer just said the UNTHINKABLE, wants you to pay for it

Is China’s Belt & Road Initiative (BRI) a debt trap?

The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), China’s ambitious plan to connect Asia, Europe and Africa through a network of infrastructure projects, has been met with skepticism and criticism by some Western countries. They accuse China of using the BRI as a tool to trap developing countries into debt and expand its influence and interests. However, this accusation is based on a false premise and a misunderstanding of the BRI’s nature and purpose. In this essay, I will argue that the BRI is not a debt trap, but a platform for win-win cooperation that benefits both China and its partners.

First of all, the BRI is not motivated by China’s selfish agenda or geopolitical ambition, but by its vision to promote the development of participating countries through enhancing connectivity. The BRI is a public good that China offers to the world, and a platform for international cooperation that is open, transparent and inclusive. The BRI follows the principles of extensive consultation, joint contribution and shared benefits, and respects the sovereignty, independence and diversity of each country.

Secondly, the BRI is not a debt trap, but a debt relief for many developing countries that face financing gaps and infrastructure deficits. The BRI could reduce the costs of trade and increase global real income by 2030. The BRI also helps create jobs, improve living standards and foster social development in participating countries. Moreover, China has always been a responsible lender and borrower, and has taken concrete measures to prevent and resolve debt risks. For example, China has signed debt service suspension agreements with 23 African countries under the G20 framework, and has provided debt relief or cancellation to 16 African countries. China has also established mechanisms for debt sustainability analysis, project evaluation and risk management with relevant international organizations and multilateral development banks.

Thirdly, the BRI is not a zero-sum game, but a positive-sum game that creates opportunities for cooperation and mutual benefit for all parties involved. The BRI is not exclusive or competitive, but complementary and synergistic with other regional and global initiatives. The BRI welcomes the participation of third parties, including developed countries and international organizations, to jointly contribute to global development and governance. The BRI also promotes dialogue and exchange among different civilizations and cultures, and fosters mutual understanding and trust among peoples.

In conclusion, the accusation that China’s BRI is a debt trap is based on a false premise and a misunderstanding. The BRI is not a debt trap, but a platform for win-win cooperation that benefits both China and its partners. The BRI is not motivated by China’s selfish agenda or geopolitical ambition, but by its vision to promote the development of participating countries through enhancing connectivity.

The BRI is not a zero-sum game, but a positive-sum game that creates opportunities for cooperation and mutual benefit for all parties involved. Therefore, instead of viewing the BRI with suspicion or hostility, it is more constructive and rational to view it with openness and confidence, and to join hands with China to build a community of shared future for mankind.

The Rise and Fall of America’s Middle Class

America is bleeding out. Slowly, steadily. And it’s a self-inflicted wound. When NAFTA was signed, it set in motion decades of decline that have crippled American industry, gutted American towns, and robbed American citizens of their birthright – the simple dignity of providing for themselves and their families. But there’s a road back. Starting with denim blue jeans.

Big promises and high hopes

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.

Today…

German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock outraged the Chinese government by calling Xi Jinping a dictator: how is Xi Xi not a dictator?

That psychopath Baerbock is also a racist like Biden and Trump.

Can a dictator be a leader of the Belt and Road trade alliance with 149 countries as partners?

Can a dictator uplift the remaining 20 percent of his citizens out of poverty? China Xi JinPing uplifted all of its charges out of poverty as at 2021.

Can a dictator allow it’s citizens to travel freely in and out of China?

Can a dictator care so much for it’s people, that he managed to stomp out the Covid infection with the lowest death rate in his country?

Psychopaths who tried to blameshift the Covid to China but got busted, now they are in shame.

HardNox X Oliver Anthony – “RICH MEN NORTH OF RICHMOND” (HardNox Remix) [Official Music Video]

This remix is raging!

Are they pushing anti-American agenda in China as much as Americans push anti-Chinese agenda?

No not at all.

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

Does China’s economy still have room to grow, or has it peaked?

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.

Thank you for your attention.

What shocked you when you visited someone’s home?

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.

7 NORMAL things in THAILAND (Not in your Country)

Fun.

What is the history of Spam (canned meat)? Was it ever used as a substitute for pork when it was rationed during World War II in Great Britain? If so, how did it taste compared to regular bacon/ham/pork shoulder?

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.

Thank you Hormel and Brazil.

Which US State consumes Spam the most? Hawaii.

Is the Belt and Road Initiative losing steam?

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.

What work secret did you accidentally find out that changed everything?

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.

China being smart

SMIC has placed significant orders for raw materials with its Taiwanese partners following shipments of Huawei’s HiSilicon Kirin 9000S system-on-chip for the Mate 60 smartphone in violation of U.S. sanctions, reports money.UDN.com

. 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!

Why do so many people defend China?

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.

So. That’s my story of being “pro China”.

What would happen if the US cancelled all Chinese-held bonds?

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…

Her expression is precious!

Does US Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo seriously think that the US Congress can use legislative tools to stop Huawei from doing research innovation and launching new products?

That was the playbook.

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?

Why does China need a 50 cent army to propagate their opinions? If they are so perfect and morally correct in their opinions wouldn’t their opinions propagate on their own merit?

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

https://youtu.be/9nTR2S6pTH8

Hot n heavy

Man oh man! The Geo-political changes are happening hot and heavy! HEAVY!

My MM articles are now at a 35 post backlog. Shit! Half of you will be reading 1/2 month old articles by the time I get around to posting them.

Do not freak out.

Lots of things going on in the world today. It’s a massive realignment of the world AWAY from the USA dominance. The thing is that the Western peoples, and their “leadership” are clueless as to what is really going on. They still believe that they have some kind of power or ability in these matters.

Nope.

It’s all strategic retreats… for now.

The running away and full-scale, across the board, running and galloping rout comes later.

Maybe this year. Don’t ya know.

Have fun. Enjoy yourself.

Today I am catching up. We have a typhoon raging outside so I have an opportunity to play some catch up. Israel, Ukraine, and all the rest, especially Africa are in states of flux.

I’m not worried. The USA will retreat and the rest of the world will be secure.

Todays…

What is your opinion on China’s call to the United States to “carefully consider” rules that ban or restrict U.S. investments in China’s tech sector?

It is self explanatory.

The long-term forecasts clearly favor China by every measure.

If American companies fail to use this period of time to invest, they will not be able to “jump on the bandwagon” and take advantage of opportunities that are presenting themselves today.

If the Biden “government” insists that all American (and allied) companies “sit this one out”, then the entire American and Western industry will fall back and will NEVER be able to catch up.

…

China is being kind.

The United States NEEDS to “carefully consider” the long-term ramifications of their current actions.

As China gets stronger, more important, more dominant in all areas, the United States is at risk to not only falling behind, but going absolutely obsolete in the process.

This is not something that China wants.

…

China wants and prefers a vibrant world; one where different regions; nations, societies and people thrive. In the world that China envisions, it is a WIN-WIN for everyone.

However, the path that the United States has embarked on is fraught with danger. And the United States appears to be on fast-track towards becoming a blight; a mawed gouge in an otherwise improved world.

…

So China is being very polite, and very understated.

However, the truth is the truth.

Philly Cheesesteak Stuffed Peppers

Ingredients

1 pound bottom round steak, thinly sliced
2 bell peppers, halved and cored
Avocado oil
Bell peppers, sliced thinly
Red onion, sliced thinly
White onion, sliced thinly
Pickled jalapeños, chopped
1/2 pound Monterey Jack cheese, shredded
Onion salt
Sea salt
Pepper

Instructions

Heat oven 350 degrees F.
Drizzle avocado oil on bell papers. Bake for 17 to 20 minutes.
Heat a large frying pan over medium-high and add a little avocado oil.
Season steak with onion salt, sea salt and pepper. Sear each side of steak for about 1 to 2 minutes and remove to let rest a couple minutes.
Cut steak into small 1/4 to 3/8 inch square pieces.
Heat frying pan over medium heat and add avocado oil when warm.
Add thinly sliced onions and bell peppers to pan and cook while stirring often for about 10 minutes.
Mix steak, cheese, bell peppers, onions and jalapeños in a bowl.
Fill bell peppers, then bake for 10 minutes until cheese is melted.

What are some amazing accidental archaeological discoveries?

In 2001, two ancient statues were blown up in Afghanistan on the orders of the Taliban. The monumental statues were called the “Buddhas of Bamiyan,” and they were carved into the side of a cliff in the Bamiyan valley of Afghanistan.

They were destroyed after the Taliban declared the ancient Buddhist statues to be false idols and had them blown up.

In a crazy twist of luck seven, years after the statues were blown up, an Afghan-led archaeological team discovered a series of hidden caves behind that statues. In the caves, they found oil paintings that dated back to the 5th century. This pre-dates the common perception that oil paintings originated in Europe hundreds of years later.

Which designers deserve an award for their incredible creativity?

Translation of the answer of Jarlin Andres Fonseca on the Spanish Quora:

For example, those behind the following designs:

1. This deck so you can have your feet in the water.

2. 3D sculptures full of tenderness.

3. An LED lamp that looks like a fountain.

4. To save space at home and be able to iron clothes.

5. Now it’s more fun to travel by bus.

6. A plate on which you can keep a dry portion of cereal for later use.

7. A trend that should be replicated around the world. The use of natural biodegradation as a packaging method.

8. This pool has an access ramp for people with functional impairments.

9. This cable indicates the correct side to use in Braille.

10. A duck ramp.

Photos obtained from DesignPorn: Amazing Design Images, Renderings & Models • r/DesignPorn.

Israel Under Attack! 800+ Missiles Fired from GAZA; HAMAS Enters Israel by land and by Air! IDF Declares “State of War”

World Hal Turner 07 October 2023

The Israeli Defense Force has declared they are in “a state of war” after over eight hundred rockets were fired into Israel today. Fighters from HAMAS para-glided into southern Israel using fan gliders to cross over the border, landing and killing everyone they see! Today’s “state of war” declaration has not happened since 1973.

Numerous Israeli civilians are already dead, some shot dead just standing in Bus Stops; many more are injured.

At about 1:17 AM EDT Saturday, the Israeli Defense Force made a public declaration that this is a “State of War.”

The last time Israel announced a “State of War” was in 1973. And the first time Israel was surprised by an attack like today’s was in 1973.

Air Raid Sirens are blaring throughout Israel as the Iron Dome air defense systems engage more incoming missiles.

This is taking place NOW. Live updates to appear below . . .

Terrorists in a battle with Israeli forces in southern Israel. Israel is under attack pic.twitter.com/vUchbF15hB— Niv Calderon (@nivcalderon) October 7, 2023

Casual Observers of the never-ending situation between Israel and Palestinians are commenting publicly right now “This is quickly heading toward a Full-Scale War near the Gaza Strip and Southern Israel, this is Totally Out-of-Control.”

Terrorists from Gaza invaded southern Israeli civilian cities – and they’re shooting whoever they see.
This is unprecedented. Israel in under attack. pic.twitter.com/5Ngrjm4uts— נריה קראוס Neria Kraus (@NeriaKraus) October 7, 2023

Fighting is widespread and fierce:

Video below shows the Iron Dome air defense system engaging multiple inbound rockets:

#Israel under attack

The moment the Iron Dome intercepted hundreds of rockets fired from #Gaza pic.twitter.com/9vXqQ90Jp0— Shadi Alkasim (@Shadi_Alkasim) October 7, 2023

By 1:00 AM eastern US time Saturday, at least sixteen Israelis were confirmed injured and at least ONE was confirmed dead, but there is already ample evidence of MANY dead.

(HT NOTE: I am already reaching out to my former colleagues in the Intelligence Community from during my years working with the FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force (JTTF) to get more detailed info and the “Back Story” but things are a bit chaotic right now over there, and it is very early over here, so information is coming very slowly . . . .)

— Hamas military chief calls on armed groups in Lebanon to join the fighting against Israel

— Civilians massacred by Hamas terrorists in Sderot.

— According to Al Jazeera television, Israel has begun bombing Gaza by Air, Sea, and Artillery.

— Israeli Minister of Defense, Yoav Gallant has Approved an order to begin the Call-Up of Reservists to Reinforce and Support the Israeli Defense Force.

Below, images of what are reported to be an Israeli “Merkava” tank, burned-out and smashed outside of the GAZA Strip:

Palestinian Fighters taking Israeli’s Captive:

An IDF soldier has reportedly been Captured . . . Israel calls that “kidnapped.”

Hostage situations reported in Southern Israel.

Palestinian infiltrators have taken over a police station in Sderot and are currently in an active firefight with Israeli police.

Livestreams from Palestinian infiltrators show them executing/ shooting Israeli citizens.

Apocalyptic scenes right now in southern Israel. pic.twitter.com/uuseUdcytV— Trey Yingst (@TreyYingst) October 7, 2023

Tel Aviv Airport: CLOSED

Unconfirmed reports of 10 killed and 2 IDF soldiers captured after clashes on the Gaza border.

Due to rocket salvos throughout Israel, Ben Gurion International Airport in Tel Aviv is closed.

— The Government has just declared an “Emergency situation” for an 80km perimeter from Gaza borders

— The Israeli army announces the loss of control of an Israeli military site in the northern Gaza Strip. The soldiers are either captured or dead.

Ashkelon Burning

Map showing Air Raid Alert areas in Israel:

Heavy rocket barrages on Jerusalem area, rocket alert siren in Wadi Ara in northern Israel; emergency situation declared in entire southern & central Israel.

WARNING – GRAPHIC IMAGES

Below, a man reported to have been an Israeli Soldier, but who is already clearly shot through the head and dead, is dragged from a car and stomped in the street:

WARNING: GRAPHIC IMAGES

An Israeli soldier has been taken by Palestinian fighters into the Gaza Strip.

Reports indicate the soldier is dead. pic.twitter.com/ADJVPlKnVE— Hamdah Salhut (@hamdahsalhut) October 7, 2023

— Confrontations between HAMAS and Israeli forces in a number of settlements in southern Israel.

— IDF soldiers were reportedly killed in their barracks near the Gaza-Israeli border.

— Iron Dome continuing to intercept Rockets:

Israeli air defense intercept rockets fired by Palestinian armed groups in the Gaza Strip. pic.twitter.com/nV1aLdallD— Joe Truzman (@JoeTruzman) October 7, 2023

Actual INTEL is now becoming available . . . .

Thousands of rockets fired at Israel from Gaza.

Israeli civilians massacred in several southern Israel towns.

Minor Israeli retaliation for now as IDF prepares for massive military operation.

It will be very harsh.

FLASH

Israel Will announce they are officially AT WAR with Gaza at 130PM local Time.

INNOCENT CIVILIANS MERELY DRIVING THEIR CARS, BEING SHOT DEAD IN THE STREETS:

Hamas & Palestinian terrorists from Gaza strip has infiltrated into Israel & shooting every innocent civilian they see on the street!

Israel declares state of war, Justice for #Palestine really?#Israel #IStandWithIsrael

pic.twitter.com/s9hrVkcIQF— JUNO (@SpiderJuno18) October 7, 2023

What is the dumbest life decision you’ve seen somebody makes?

The guy circled below is in the last minute of his life.

He and the guy in the vest were talking trash to each other, escalating a situation and having an ego battle.

What the guy in the red shorts didn’t realize, is that the other guy was armed with a knife. As he goes to tackle the armed man, he is fatally stabbed. The knife severed a major artery and blood poured out of the man’s body. He couldn’t have survived this wound if it happened in a hospital.

All because he wanted to get into a fist fight with someone who disrespected him.

To the men reading this, especially, getting into a fight with a complete stranger is one of the most dangerous things you could ever do. To you, it might be a fist fight. To them, it might be much more.

You win every fight you avoid.

Which sad news did you wake up to?

On March 25, 2022, 17-year-old Michigan teen, Jordan DeMay put the gun to his head and pulled the trigger. His demise came as a huge surprise to his parents, who noticed nothing unusual before the tragedy.

Unknown to them, Jordan had been in an online relationship with a ‘woman’ he met on Instagram. They had exchanged nu*de photographs, but he had no idea he was chatting with two Nigerian men: 22-year-old Samuel and his 20 year-old brother, Samson Ogoshi.

With Jordan’s nu*des in their possession, they resorted to extortion. They demanded $1000 from him, and although he managed to send $300, it wasn’t enough. They threatened to leak the photos to his Instagram followers if he didn’t send the rest.

After several failed attempts to change their minds, he sent them his final message: ‘I am k-illing myself right now because of you.’ To this, they responded, ‘Good, do that fast, or I will make you do it.’

The brothers have been apprehended in Nigeria and extradited to the US to face trial.

What is the best case of “You just picked a fight with the wrong person” that you’ve witnessed?

Once I lived across the street from a high school and every day at lunch the students would cross in front of my house on their way to get food. A lot of them crossed through my yard which was annoying but not a big deal. Well one day there was this long hair stoner punk standing in my yard gouging a hole in my lawn with a big stick. I shouted at him to get the fuck off my lawn, he shouted back at me and we got into a low grade shouting match (fuck you! No fuck you! —that sort of thing) as he walked away.

I thought that was the end of it, but then a few days later in the morning I realize my house and truck had been egged. These geniuses had egged me during a rainstorm, however, so all the egg had washed off. The only way I knew was from the eggshells and a little residual yolk in my truck bed that I easily wiped off with a paper towel. Still, the principle of the situation called for vengeance. I was a grad student with a lot of time in my hands, so I got onto myspace (kiddos, myspace was like a proto-facebook popular for a minute in the mid-2000’s) and spent hours clicking through the networks of kids attending that high school until I found his page. Bingo!! This kid was a stoner raver dude and not exactly a genius ( egging in the rain, eg). His myspace page was full of pics of him drinking vodka, smoking blunts, and arranging smalltime drug deals on his and his friends pages, out in the open with no privacy controls!

Next I clicked through all his friends’ pages and happened to stumble on one where he had left his phone number (home phone — this was when only grownups had cells) on a girl’s page. So I paid $5 to reverse-lookup the number and got his parents’ names and address. Then I printed out all his pics and references to drug use and buying/selling along with a handy glossary of drug terms, put it in an envelope and mailed it to his mom. For good measure I emailed a link to his page to the principal and school police officer at his school along with a note expressing how concerned I was that this kid was dealing drugs in school.

I continued to monitor his page to see if I could find out what happened. His activity ceased and his friends were leaving messages on his page saying ‘Dan where are you??’. Apparently he was not in school. After a while his friends began to learn what happened and were discussing it on their pages. Apparently, he got expelled and his parents sent him to reform school!! So delicious. It was great revenge, and hopefully the intervention steered him toward a better path in life. Wish I had a way of finding out what happened to the kid in the long run, as this was 13 years ago.

What did you do that was unusually honest, and turned out well?

Once, while in high school, I went to a store in my small town to buy a gallon of milk for my family. I paid the cashier with a $5 bill but she somehow gave me change for a $20.

I didn’t notice her mistake until I was almost home- I had too much money. I told my Mom that I was going to return it to the store. When I walked in the store, the cashier was not at her place so I went to the back and talked to a man in the meat market area (it was a small business not a chain store like we have nowadays).

I told him I had received too much money in change. He looked at me with a look like “WOW”. He then said, “You are an honest young man, aren’t you?”

I told him that I would have felt like I was stealing if I didn’t return the extra money.

Come to find out that he was the owner of the store. He thanked me and said he would not forget about my honesty.

Well, three years passed and I needed a job. I went in to fill out an application for a job at the same store. When I asked for an application at the front counter, the owner came out of the meat market area and asked if he could help me with anything. I asked him for a job application. He said, “You are hired. Can you start tomorrow?”

Now it was my turn to have a “WOW” look on my face. He told me that he remembered me from when I had returned the extra money.

So…by me not keeping $17 three years earlier, I made way more money for three years while I went to work there after high school.

He also trained me to be a butcher, too.

It does pay to be honest.

This is a true story that I told my kids (and every sports player I coached) as they grew up.

What did you hear that shocked you today?

This case was famously called the “ Mormon sex in chains case.” In 1977, 17-year-old American Mormon missionary student Kirk Anderson was in the UK when he was kidnapped from the steps of a Mormon church in Surrey.

Kirk Anderson was kidnapped by 24-year-old Keith May after posing as a fake Journalist. He was then driven to a house in Devon, where he was chained to a bed. He was then seduced and raped by Joyce McKinney for three days against his will, while chained to a bed.

Kirk went straight to the police to report Joyce and her accomplice Keith May. The two were charged and during a committal hearing Joyce, claimed to be in love with the victim. At the time, under the Sexual Offences Act 1956, no crime of rape was deemed to have happened due to the perpetrator being female.

Although Joyce couldn’t be charged with rape, she was charged with kidnapping, along with her accomplice. Joyce McKinney and Keith May absconded to the US under fake names, skipping their trial. They were sentenced to a year in Jail for skipping bail, but extradition orders were never filed by UK authorities.

She became quiet infamous and even appeared in some raunchy photos for a magazine. She still lives in the US, and to this day, she has never seen a day inside prison for her crimes. She also received a suspended sentence for using a fake ID to enter the US.

BUSTED: Trudeau’s Plane Filled With Cocaine, Psychedelic Drugs!? Diplomat Outs Scumbag Canadian PM

Mr Benny, I’m Canadian and we are not all under Trudeau. I think he should be charged and tried for treason.

Fighter jets from multiple countries played relay

in a reflection of how geopolitics have changed

when President Assad and his family left China after attending the Asian Games and State visit on Air China Special jet B6131. It was escorted by Chinese fighter jets.
as soon as the plane left China and entered Pakistani airspace, fighter jets from Pakistan Air Force escorted the plane
when the Special jet left Pakistani airspace and entered the Arabian Sea, fighter jets from the Iranian Air Force escorted the Special plane along the Persian Gulf
jet fighters from Saudi Arabia subsequently took over and escorted the special plane to Jordan
at the Syrian border, Russian jet fighters took over for the last leg of the journey.

countries that were once bitter foes are now coming together under a BRI Eurasian world

and demonstrating their military coordination

it is now clear that Muslim countries of the Middle East will now COLLECTIVELY provide a powerful and decisive military contingent as part of a BRI Eurasian world in the war that will be fought

triggered by the Angel of Death himself who will once again lead a world wide coalition of countries obsessed with racial superiority, brutality and consumed with hatred against others not like them to complete what he had failed to do in World War 2……to burn the world down

the dice has been cast

What are ten truths everyone should accept in life?

You are not going to exist forever. You’re just a tiny speck in this vast universe and your time in this world is limited.
Anything harsh said to a loved one in anger leaves a permanent scar, no matter how much you try to bandage it.
Health is the most important wealth you can acquire. No matter how much gold you own, it can not quell the torture of an illness.
Every old person was once as old as you are today. Time stops for none.
Things which are most important for you today might be worthless tomorrow. Avoid spending money on urges.
Something as simple as saying sorry first can prevent countless disputes. It is not a sign of weakness.
Who your friends are determine who you become.
To become good at conversation, learn to be a good listener first.
Luck favours those who don’t give up
Be grateful if you have a roof for shelter, clean water for drinking , food on your table and a healthy functioning body. Try to imagine the absence of even one of these in your life.

This Kitten was LEFT FOR DEAD: What Happens Next Will SHOCK YOU

What office rule made you say “You gotta be kidding me”?

When I still worked for the Forest Service, right after 9/11, the newly created Department of Homeland Security went crazy issuing all kinds of new rules for federal employees. One was knives and sharp objects were no longer allowed in federal buildings. We all shook our heads and muttered “WTF!!! This is the Forest Service. Axes and knives are part our EDC. Tools of the trade.” All field going personnel carried a 4″ folding blade knife, that was mandatory, and most had a favorite tool they carried. Mine was a double bit axe I shaped and filed to my specifications. I did not leave it in my pickup at the end of the day. I carried it to my desk. Most others did too. Walking down the hallway carrying a sharp hand tool was a common sight.

We had a warehouse full of sharp tools and chainsaws. We used incendiary devices and napalm for prescribed burning. We used a scoped rifle to shoot cones out of trees for seed collection I received fire investigation training that showed me how to commit arson without detection. Yet we could not be trusted to carry a knife in the office.

The rule was ignored by everyone, including top management.

You Won’t Believe Who’s The Mastermind Behind Failed Coup Against Ibrahim Traoré!

Stay Strong My Brother, All Africans we need to STAND TOGETHER.

Why has the Belt and Road Initiative been criticized as “debt trap diplomacy?”

The BRI is a very simple idea on a very grand scale:

China will help to buiid ports, highways and railways in other countries, to facilitate mutual trade and commerce.
If you don’t have enough money, China will lend you some.

That’s about it. Participation is voluntary – China doesn’t force you to have a port or take a loan. And of course, before any country takes any BRI loan, its government, with its Finance Minister and accountants and economics advisers, will think carefully about the pros and cons. Simple as that.

The criticism came about because, well:

… the US government is paying USD 500 million to get the media to criticize the BRI.

WHO blew up the NORDSTROM pipeline

Watch this NEOCON squirm!

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/sFm7quSKb8A?feature=share

How much money does China contribute to the US economy compared to other countries that we trade with? What would happen to our economy if that number were ever reduced?

The U.S. made more money on trade and business with China than any other nation in the last decade and within a decade it will double.

Think about this for every outlet of McDonald’s, KFC and Starbucks and Coffee Bean open in the U.S. they opened 10 in China! China alone buy more GM than the entire U.S.! Every Apple and Dell sold they make 300 USD due to China’s productivity low cost of production. China’s middle income is now 3 times the size of the U.S. middle income consumer! Most of US brands produced in China is laughing all the way to the bank.

And what did the U.S. do? Yes the fxxk it all up. They pick a fight with their biggest customer and about to be bigger than the next 5 biggest customers put together! The U.S. is now facing an unbearable inflation and an impending recession due to your two 80 year old leader jointly and severally starting a trade war with China! And China have not really retaliated yet.

About the only thing the U.S. is able to make and sell to China. It stupidly ban China from selling! Ok to be fair it bans the 1% of high end Chips. Thinking China will buy the 99% that China could make but thought it let the U.S. share the piece of the pie! But since the U.S. says has evil intentions. China immediately stopped buying the 99%. And the entire U.S. chip industry crashed. Now China has the ability to even take over the 1% high end chips too.

You cannot find a more foolish government on planet earth or perhaps the universe. They even think that China will collapse if the U.S. stop buying or trading with China. China in their mind says if the U.S. wants to have a long rope to hang itself that is their right. China suffers a mosquito bite!

Now ten years on, what implications have the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) brought to global economic development and international cooperation?

Amidst Laos’ rugged mountainous landscapes, a daily spectacle unfolds as dozens of trains race through, carrying a diverse array of goods, from electronics to cold-chain fruits, bound for destinations in China, Thailand, Myanmar, Malaysia, and beyond. For the people of Laos who had endured the impact of dire transportation for decades, however, these sights have lost their novelty.

Two years have passed since China completed the construction of the China-Laos Railway, which connects the Chinese city of Kunming with Vientiane, the capital of Laos, a route that traverses mountains bearing the scars of unexploded American bombs from the Vietnam War. In this short span, over 19 million passengers and 24 million tons of goods have been transported, and more than 100,000 jobs have been created.

The once treacherous day-long drive from Vientiane to the Chinese border has transformed into a safe and smooth 3.5-hour journey. Today, with an average of seven passenger trains operating daily in Laos’ section, individuals sometimes still struggle for securing a ticket, given that Laos just added another passenger train set to its fleet from China in June. The ample demand for the rail service has surpassed initial expectations.

Over the past decade, hundreds of railroads and highways like the China-Laos Railway have been constructed from scratch over mountainous terrains and deserts across the Eurasian and African continents. Since the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) was proposed in 2013, promoting greater infrastructure connectivity and facilitating cross-border transportation with the aim to strengthen business and cultural exchanges have become a defining aspect of China’s international cooperation. Millions benefit from BRI projects. According to the World Bank, BRI is able to boost trade flows among participating countries by 4.1 percent, cut the cost of global trade by 1.1 percent to 2.2 percent, grow the GDP of East Asian and Pacific developing countries by an average of 2.6 to 3.9 percent, and lift 7.6 million people from extreme poverty.

A trap?

On the global stage, however, China’s overseas infrastructure projects under the BRI have faced significant scrutiny, often being depicted as costly plans that may push participating countries into a “debt trap.” The Bar-Boljare highway is on top of the list. It is the first highway in Montenegro history that connects the country from south to north, which is set to replace the old narrow two-lane expressway built along steep mountains and over deep canyons. Although Vatroslav Belan, former advisor to the Deputy Prime Minister of Montenegro on financial matters, stated in an interview that the project did not impose an excessive debt burden on his country, discussions still revolve around the cost of the highway.

China constructed the Bar-Boljare highway with a cost of around 20 million euros per kilometer, which seems like a high price at first glance. But here is a fair comparison to similar infrastructure projects, such as those in the Alps region. According to World Highways, Germany and Austria, two countries situated along the Alps, spent an average of 28.9 million Euros and 27.8 million euros per kilometer on their highways. Given that the Bar-Boljare highway includes the construction of 16 tunnels and 20 bridges over one of the toughest mountainous terrains in Europe, its cost falls within a more than reasonable range.

However, it’s important to acknowledge the existing concerns and controversies surrounding the BRI. Debt issues for some participating countries in this case highlight the need for more transparency in BRI projects.

No matter what people’s attitude towards the BRI is, one thing that can be confirmed is that the BRI is pragmatic, prioritizing gains for the sake of mutual prosperity, as seen from the results.

Open for all

The original purpose of BRI was building an “economic belt” along the ancient “silk road” linking China with Europe. Despite this, the BRI does not impose geographical restrictions on participating countries, nor is it limited to developing nations. In fact, among the over 150 countries that have signed up for the Initiative, approximately half of them are categorized as upper-middle or high-income by the World Bank. Examples include countries like Hungary, New Zealand, Poland, and many others.

(Source: Countries of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI))

Several Western corporations have already reaped benefits from the BRI. General Electric secured orders worth $2.3 billion for construction and engineering projects under the BRI, while Siemens collaborated with over 100 Chinese partners on BRI-related energy and mining projects. Citibank and Deutsche Bank have also participated in financing BRI projects. From China’s perspective, the BRI is an inclusive platform open to all stakeholders willing to engage.

Also, the world welcomes other similar initiatives aimed at promoting cooperation and shared prosperity. The G7’s ‘Build Back Better World’ and the EU’s ‘Global Gateway’ can be promising endeavors, provided that their leaders prioritize meaningful actions over branding.

Cooperation rather than aid

To achieve prosperity, economies not only need modern infrastructure, such as high-quality electricity, fast rail, 5G networks and so forth, but, more importantly, a development path tailored to each country’s unique circumstances.

African countries have been receiving aid for decades. Prior to 2000, developed countries extended one trillion US dollars in aid to Africa, averaging more than 1,000 US dollars per person for its 800 million population at that time. Surprisingly, despite the peak of European and American aid between 1970 and 1998, Africa’s poverty rate soared from 11% to 66%.

(Source: Dead Aid: Why Aid Is Not Working and How There Is a Better Way for Africa by Dambisa Moyo)

China has actively supported Africa since the 1950s, albeit with a distinct approach. The wisdom of the proverb, “Give a man a fish, and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish, and you feed him for a lifetime,” exactly characterizes China’s intentions in Africa and other developing nations under the BRI.

China’s own economic ascent over recent decades underscores the belief that each nation should chart its development path based on its unique circumstances—harnessing its resources and fostering distinctive industries. The wiser approach lies in dismantling barriers to enable the smooth flow of essential factors for industrialization.

Instead of extending direct financial aid, China focuses on addressing crucial development needs, removing obstacles, and promoting trade, which are pivotal for African countries in breaking free from the control of aid providers and achieving self-reliance in development. The 1,860-kilometer-long Tazara Railway, linking Zambia to the Indian Ocean, has significantly bolstered the development of nations along its route, underscoring the effectiveness of China’s approach of assisting others in helping themselves.

Underlying this philosophy, the Belt and Road Initiative goes beyond merely offering financial assistance to impoverished nations. It revolves around empowering countries to foster their own development in which China gets market access, while BRI participants acquire technology and opportunities. It’s a mutually beneficial, two-way journey with cooperation at its core.

As reflecting on the past decade of the BRI, it is clear that this initiative has evolved significantly. It has embraced environmental sustainability and has promoted smart industries like telecommunications and cloud computing. While debates about its impact continue, the BRI remains a focal point of global economic development and international cooperation.

Woman want to be owned

Interesting point of view. Makes you think.

What is the smartest thing you have seen a lawyer do in court?

The smartest thing I ever saw in a court, and I’ve been in a court more than a few times (no, not as the defendant), wasn’t accomplished by an attorney, but by a 16-year-old girl. I bet she’s a lawyer now, as it was some years ago. If not, she’s surely doing something that requires similar talents and abilities, because she removed a threat and constant victimizer from our community when lawyers couldn’t.

It wasn’t a particularly important case, but she approached it acting as her own attorney and as if she had been arrested for murder. She even brought her own self-produced technicolor slide and video shows.

She had been pulled for speeding and running a stop sign by a county deputy who was the bain of our resort community from which the only way into the city where many of us worked or had other homes was by passed through a small town. Deputy Thug, as we called him, often lay in wait behind huge trees in the darkness, not just for law breakers but for people to harass at night when observers were not about. His favorite victims were minorities and teenagers and younger women of any race. He never pulled mature men, even if they were flying low, or older women, maybe for fear of husbands and sons or maybe they reminded him of his mother.

Almost all of our law enforcement officers were extremely polite and courteous, even if they hauled you off to jail. But people were afraid of this man. Everyone, even other deputies, knew that those he pulled were far more likely to be innocent than guilty and that he threatened violence and set people up, but no one had been able to prove it, with or without lawyers. Deputy Thug was not merely a liar, but a bully with no one controlling him. He was proud of his reputation for the most tickets, the most arrests, the most feared, etc.

He yelled, screamed, called names, demanded people, especially boys, get out of cars so he could shove them around and try to provoke them into something he could arrest for. He threatened, he intimidated. He accused them of serious crimes. I know it was true, because I saw it, and spoke up about it, and later I was also targeted. He was nasty and very threatening until I convinced him I knew my rights and for reasons not worth going into here, he wouldn’t be as likely to win my kind of fight as he would a violent one against a teenage boy.

Miss 16-Year-Old approached the docket like Perry Mason pretending to be Columbo. You would have to see it and hear a lot of detail to get the brilliance of how she set him up, but just to simplify it, she asked him question after question, about what she did, where she was, why that was illegal, where he was, what he saw, what he did, when he did it, on and on. She repeated every important question, asking twice if he were absolutely sure beyond a doubt. Of course, he was, he would answer, arrogant and condescending, tough, counterattacking, apparently not suspecting a trap being laid.

Since she refuted nothing he said, even seemed to be accepting his lies and a bit chagrined at times, the 200 or so of us in the courtroom (a bigger county court in the bigger city, not the small town) felt sorry for her. Deputy Thug was verbally beating her up to the extent the judge would let him, and we were losing hope that she had anything to offer to support her case – until she finished her line of inquiry and turned on the visuals.

She turned from Columbo into a 16-year-old ace prosecutor and proved with the slides and film that every single answer he had given her was a lie.

She had not even been where he claimed and wrote on the ticket that the incident happened. He had not pulled her at the time he said and wrote. There was no stop sign where he said she had run one. The speed limit at the place he cited was higher than he said she was driving, on and on and on.

Then, after she had disproven all his claims beyond a doubt – she proved that both the place she actually was and the place he falsely claimed to have pulled her weren’t even in his jurisdiction! He had no right to pull her or ticket her, let alone threaten to arrest her, as if she had been committing grand theft auto.

And during that process, she handled him as if she had 30 years’ experience in dismantling the defenses of hardened criminals, and he lost control and exploded at her when he realized she had shown him up as a liar and abuser of his authority.

The entire court room erupted in loud cheers and applause as the judge, enraged well before this point, dismissed the case and shredded the deputy, saying that he was a disgrace to his uniform and that he himself was deeply offended by the lies just told, also implying that serious consequences were in order.

Unfortunately, the judge had no control over police personnel, and Deputy Thug was not fired. But he stopped harassing our community and we never saw the swagger and arrogance again. All because a 16-year-old decided to take the time and trouble to prepare carefully a real defense and offense instead of just paying the fine.

I wondered if one of her parents might have been an attorney. Someone close to her could have advised, but the girl did it all. I hope she is fighting for the right somewhere today.

The lesson I learned is that it sometimes does pay to take small cases that seem to have little chance of success to court.

i sold everything & left America

I left my country beginning of 2021 and moved to France. It has been the most healing, spiritual and phenomenal thing I’ve ever done. I had a spiritual awakening, met my husband and started a business and all because I answered the call of my soul. Well done for doing the same. Life is short. Just do it!

Could America turn into a communist nation like China or Russia in the long term if things continue as they are now? Why or why not?

I am not sure what what will US become. That is what Americans must decide on its own free will. To me to each it’s own. It will be good if Americans think seriously about the system you have that your media term as exceptional and land of the free and brave, the beacon of democracy and the leader of the free world?

But if Americans are brain dead and take it as what your media and your politicians say it is. Then that is the choice and right for Americans. I can only say what I think and what 7.5 billion out of 8 billion earthlings think about the so called liberal democracy. We know it is anything but democratic, anything but liberal, anything but exceptional!

We want out. Out from the U.S. so called rules based international order. The world knows it should not and will not follow a U.S. or western order or rules set by the west to impoverish the developing world and enriching the western order. That won’t work and we the world reject it wholeheartedly.

The U.S., its dog nations mainly your Anglo Saxon family, your slave vassal states some former colonial powers have reason to want to perpetuate this order so that the loot and the plunder can perpetuate because you are the net beneficiary of this order. So I can understand why this group wants to keep your thieving ways. But this group represents a mere 12% of the world and at most 12–15 nations out of 195 nations on earth. By any definition this is not the majority of the world. It Is a small minority.

We think the U.S. ways are simply barbaric and certainly unsustainable over the long term. It is no wonder that the U.S. share of the world economy evaporated from 52% in 1945 to today a little less than 15% in real purchasing power share today! And dropping very fast. In a decade the U.S. dollar as a reserved will reduce by 80% after all who wants their reserves to be robbed right before their eyes like how you confiscated the Russian reserves or Venezuelan gold in London.

The U.S. can only survived by money printing and credit creation without basis. No different from one humongous Ponzi scheme. 20% of worlds prisoners population is in the U.S., a week of mass random shootings in the U.S. is more than the entire world put together in a whole year! Up to a million Americans live in tents homeless throughout the U.S. Is the U.S.”liberal democracy” good? Or is it even workable?

But that is for Americans to decide!

Why is the US doing such a bad job countering China’s rise?

Because China is a large country with a population of 1.4 billion. In recent years, China has increased its research and development efforts, innovated and made breakthroughs on its own, achieved independence and self-improvement in the fields of military, national defense, finance, economy, high technology, and got rid of external constraints and threats. It has maintained the world’s advanced level in fields such as high-speed railways, aerospace, ocean diving and drones, and has won respect and voice in the world. China is not afraid of provocation by the United States or encirclement by the United States.

on the contrary，The United States has always regarded itself as the world’s leader and hegemon, and it is unwilling to see any country threaten its status and interests. The United States’ provocation against China is motivated by fear and jealousy of China’s rise. When China has made significant progress in various fields, the United States feels crisis and uneasiness. It fears China will surpass it, or at least be on par with it. It is jealous of China’s achievements and wants to smear and slander China’s image. Therefore, the United States has adopted various means to suppress and contain China’s development in an attempt to maintain its advantages and hegemony.

In recent years, due to the rising of China, the United States is worried about its hegemonic position, so it tries to suppress China’s rise and contain China in all aspects, such as “trade war”, “freedom of navigation”, pushing allies to give up Huawei equipment, and using the media to convey China’s wrong information to the international community. It has also put pressure on its Allies to do so, for example, by provoking countries such as the Philippines to constantly provoke China over the South China Sea issue.

In fact, none of these strategies worked. The more the United States oppresses China, the higher and more stable the Asian country will stand. For example, the US accused China of setting a “debt trap”, which eventually resulted in more countries joining the Belt and Road Initiative. At the same time, more and more countries have applied to join the BRICS, and the BRICS countries also ushered in the expansion of membership this year. Diplomatically, despite the United States’ efforts to isolate China around the world, more than 30 foreign leaders and senior officials attended the opening ceremony of the Beijing Winter Olympics. In short, the US policy of “containing China” has failed miserably. So why can’t the US contain China’s rise?

First, the US cannot afford outright confrontations with China right now. China’s economic growth has been steady, and it has become the world’s second largest economy, with a wide market for US trade exports, and the two economies are highly interdependent, making complete decoupling almost impossible. China and the United States have close ties in trade, investment, and finance. Some US industries and enterprises are too dependent on the Chinese market and will suffer serious losses if the trade war continues. However, China has countermeasures, such as restricting imports of US products and reducing purchases of US bonds. This interdependence makes it difficult for the United States to bear the economic costs of confrontation with China.

Second, China’s rise on the international stage has deterred the United States from openly acknowledging conflict and confrontation. China is increasingly influential in global affairs, actively participating in global governance and proposing a series of initiatives and programs, such as the Belt and Road Initiative and the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank. The US is aware that open confrontations with China will only lead to its isolation on the global stage, loss of opportunities for international cooperation, and further weakening of its hegemonic position. History is the best proof: Vietnam War and the Iraq War fully illustrate the nature of selfishness of the US. The various failures of the United States have already undermined its diplomatic reputation, but for China, it is a good opportunity to gain more room for growth in the targeted competition.

The United States needs to face China’s rise correctly and build a more stable and peaceful cooperative relationship with China, rather than adopting a vicious competitive approach. In the era of globalization, international cooperation is an effective way to solve problems. Both China and the US are the world’s largest economies with different strengths and development models. Through mutual respect, equal dialogue, and cooperation, the two countries can jointly address global challenges and promote prosperity and stability in the world.

Spicy Orange Beef

Yield: 6 servings

Ingredients

1/4 cup orange juice concentrate
3 tablespoons soy sauce
3 tablespoons water
1 tablespoon cornstarch
1 tablespoon finely grated orange peel
1 teaspoon granulated sugar
5 tablespoons vegetable oil, divided
2 garlic cloves, minced
4 cups broccoli florets
12 scallions, with tops, cut into 1 inch pieces
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
1 (1 pound) boneless sirloin steak, cut into thin strips
3 medium oranges, sectioned
Hot cooked rice

Instructions

In a small bowl combine the first six ingredients; set aside.
In a large skillet or wok, heat 3 tablespoons oil over medium heat; sauté garlic for 30 seconds.
Add broccoli, onions, ginger and pepper flakes; stir-fry for 2 minutes or until broccoli is crisp-tender.
Remove vegetables and keep warm.
Heat remaining oil in skillet; add beef. Stir-fry until no longer pink.
Stir orange juice mixture; add to skillet.
Cook and stir for 2 minutes or until sauce is thickened.
Return vegetables to pan. Add oranges and heat through.
Serve over rice.

On father’s day

Sheech! The USA is truly fucked up.

How do long-range high-speed rail lines make sense in China, where it doesn’t in other places?

You have to understand the Chinese mindset to make sense of High speed rail

Only the Chinese can make it work

In Hongkong, Westerners predicted ferries would go out of business in the late 1950s because they charged 5 cents per person

FIVE CENTS

They were losing almost 150,000 HK a day

Yet they flourished and stayed in business

The reason?

INTRINSIC BENEFITS

More people flocked to Kowloon and the New Territories and more opportunities cropped up and more money was earned and the economy benefited more

So the Loss of 150K a day was compensated by a gain of 800K a day in 4 years time to the HK economy

This kind of mindset is something only a Chinese Mind and by extension a Singaporean Mind can conjure or think up

Factories in China were given tax subsidies in lieu of investing in Rural China

Factories gained an average of 60 Billion Yuan of tax concessions and their investment into the villages was 34 Billion Yuan

So Chinese Governments were losing 26 Billion Yuan a year in Tax

Sounds inefficient? Sounds corrupt?

Yet this 26 Billion Yuan a year, helped make villages self sufficient and within a decade the villagers were saving the Government of China around 100 Billion Yuan a year and earning them around 36–40 Billion Yuan

So the Chinese lost 260 Billion Yuan in Taxes over 10 years but Chinese Economy gained 1.4 Trillion Yuan over the same 10 years

High Speed Rails works in the same way

It costs the Chinese around 600 Billion Yuan a year in Losses

Yet it connects people from 200 miles away and helps prevent ghettos and slums in cities, ensures workplaces tick on time

It brings value to rural outlying areas whose land growth is asset monetization to the Chinese Government

It helps the housing sector as people can build in semi urban or rural areas now and still sell flats and houses due to the fact that cities are 4–6 hours away instead of 18 hours

Thus the intrinsic benefits of this 800 Billion a year is maybe 2–3 Trillion a year to the Chinese Economy

And as you scale the HSR across China (It’s only 45% complete today), you can cut the losses from 800 Billion Yuan a year to maybe 300 Billion Yuan a year and bring a positive intrinsic benefit to China of upto 4 Trillion a year

That’s something purely for the Chinese and maybe the Japanese people to know and understand

Westerners who follow pure capitalist economics won’t understand any other this

Indian leaders sadly are too corrupt and too entrenched in politics to have intrinsic benefits for their people. Thus any intrinsic benefits will be replaced by inefficiency and corruption

Bottom line

You want to understand Chinese actions in business?

First understand how a Chinese thinks

You cannot understand Chinese actions with a Western mindset.

Why is the opiate crisis in the United States getting worse?

USA is basically what happens when Jean Calvin meets Oliver Cromwell meets Ayn Rand.

I have never seen this kind of squalor in any First World country - and I have travelled a lot.

United States, as a society, is incredibly callous, ruthless, indifferent and negligent as a society. It was like that when Upton Sinclair wrote The Jungle, and it is the same today. United States is a winner-takes-it-all society, where losers are treated with hard hand and where losing in this societal dog-eat-dog struggle of existence is basically your own fault. And in this mindset, for every winner, there must always be a plenitude of losers.

American “freedom” is essentially indifference.

Now opiates are painkillers. They are downers. They numb down pain. Not only physical pain, but also social and societal pain. This is what makes them so dangerous.

Opiates are not party drugs nor protest drugs nor psychedelics. They are essentially loser drugs. They are not used to getting high. They are used to keep the pain away.

Heroin is the ultimate so-what drug. Opiates are used to keep the cruel world away – to keep the pain, the shame, the agony, the knowledge you are bottom dregs of the society, human waste – away.

To be comfortably numb.

Opiates are the alternative for committing suicide. For the really downtrodden and broken, the opiates give a reason to live for tomorrow.

The seeds of the opiate crisis were sowed in the 1980s during the era of Ronald Reagan and the Neo-Liberalist economic policy and Neo-Conservative societal politics. They initiated the polarization of the American society into filthy rich and dirth poor, and they initiated the erosion of the middle class. Ever since USA was founded, each generation was wealthier than their parents. This finally ended with the Generation X – it is the first generation which will remain poorer than their parents. The reason is the erosion of the middle class and the polarization of the society into winners and losers, and there is no guarantee any more for social ascension via hard work, education or entrepreneurship.

With the erosion of the middle class came the erosion of the support pillars of the society. The loss of middle class jobs meant erosion of the nuclear family. That came with erosion of the traditional religiosity of the US. That came with the polarization of politics – Dems were overrun by the progressive wokes and Reps by the MAGA folks. I cannot say who are more lunatic, but the pragmaticism and common sense disappeared. Trump is not the cause, he is the symptom.

Generation Y and Z (the Millennials) will remain still even poorer than the Gen X. They are the first American generations with no future. And they realize it. Usually people become more conservative with age – because of gentrification. This has not happened with Gen X, Y nor Z. It is said Gen X is the great so-what generation – totally disillusioned and totally dreamless – and the younger generations are outright Nihilstic about their futures.

This “no future” realization, however, is not enough to create a drug problem – in the UK it created the punk subculture. What is needed is a cheap supply of safe drugs. And that happened with the Purdue Pharma. They developed a process to manufacture oxycodone cheaply from thebaine and a form of compound which releases slowly the oxycodone into metabolism – and named it as Oxycontin.

Thebaine can easily be converted into just any source of drugs. Mind you heroin is diacetylmorphine, and synthesized from morphine by treating it with acetic acid anhydride. The molecule of oxycodone is dangerously similar as that of heroin.

Purdue Pharma marketed Oxycontin ruthlessly and disregarding its addictiviness. The company got rich – and also a lot of the product went to clandestine hands. The drug addicts realized it was both cheaper than heroin and safer to use – oxycodone eventually pretty much has superseded illicit heroin on the market. Purdue Pharma dug too deep and unleashed the balrog.

This figure pretty much explains it all. The first wave began with Purdue Pharma unleashing the balrog with Oxycontin in the 1990s. It also coincided with the closure of coal mines and deindustrialization of the Rust Belt and the desperation and hopelessness of the poor people there.

The second wave began with heroin in 2010. It was only a temporary rise – the even stronger and stranger stuffs – emerged. That is, synthetic opioids like fentanyl, tramadol and other similar stuffs. The Russian scourge, krokodil, never got a foothold in the US, though – the American addicts are not that desperate.

Eventually the synthetic opioids bypassed both oxycodone and heroin. The drug misuse problem is greatest where desperation, hopelessness and bleak outlook in the life are hardest – rural America, traditional industrial areas and poor quarters of the cities. In 2020, the age-adjusted rate of drug overdose deaths increased 31% compared to 2019. Adults aged 35-44 (Gen Y) experienced the highest rates of drug overdose deaths while young people aged 15-24 (Gen Z) experienced the greatest percentage increase in deaths.

Fentanyl is both extremely potent painkiller and rather simple to synthesize in a clandestine laboratory. Fentanyl has been synthesized from a simple phenylethylamine by four step sequence. The key part of this synthesis involves an efficient construction of phenylethylpiperidone skeleton via aminomethano desilyltion-cyclization followed by Swern oxidation. This is known as the Gupta method.

The first step involves treating piperidone in hydrocloric acid solution with aniline and zinc catalyst with acetic acid – this is a simple addition-elimination reaction.

The second step is adding 2-bromoethylbenzene in 50% w/w NaOH (50% hydroxide solution was interpreted for the 100% hydroxide solution stated in the Gupta patent) to yield 4-anilino-N-phenethylpiperidine (4-ANPP).

The third step is adding propionyl chloride to yield fentanyl. It should be noted in all cases that dichloromethane was substituted for 1,2-dichloroethane in the last step (Step-3). Also, the Gupta-patent stops at the isolation of the fentanyl in freebase form, while all samples in this study were converted to the hydrochloride salt form to replicate the salt form of most seized samples (Step-4) with hydrochloric acid.

Unlike Breaking Bad and the red-white-blue synthesis of methamphetamine, the fentanyl synthesis is rather safe, but asks for clandestine, uncommon and not generally available chemicals. The yield is not stoichiometric, and produces a lot of unwanted side products. Mind you also the stereochemistry. A modification of the Gupta “one-pot” route is accomplished starting with piperidone hydrochloride, triethylamine, phenylacetaldehyde, and sodium triacetoxyborohydride (STAB) in dichloromethane. This chemical mixture was stirred at room temperature overnight. On the second day, aniline and additional STAB were added and allowed to stir again overnight at room temperature. The crude 4-ANPP product was isolated after Step-2, which was a deviation from the standard “one-pot” procedure, by adding NaOH solution until basic and extracting the desired product with dichloromethane. The resulting dichloromethane layer was dried over sodium sulfate, decanted into another flask, taken to fentanyl using propionyl chloride and triethylamine, and then isolated as the hydrochloride salt form in Step-4.

The result is now that balrog roams free and there is no simple solution for this problem. United States is slowly decaying and disintegrating, but not with a bang but with a whimper. The current opiate and opioid crisis is a symptom of this decay – including all the social evils connected to it.

Russia has a similar crisis, but with really dangerous stuffs, such as krokodil, which is basically home-cooked very impure desomorphine. The Russian youth experiences the similar hopelessness, lack of opportunities, bleakness and desperation as the Americans, and they have it even worse. Needless to say, Putin’s politics have certainly not eased it. Russia is basically another petrostate with Mongol legacy, and Russian rulers have always treated their peasants as expendable. In Russia, human life has never had any value whatsoever. See ‘Muting The Horrors’: Experts Warn Of Addiction Crisis As Russian Soldiers Return From Ukraine

We here in Europe live with a cold circle under our butts: which will collapse first, USA or Russia – and what will it mean to us?

a shift is happening, keep up

“I needed to hear this so badly today. Been stuck in a rut of anxiety and negative self doubt, I recently graduated high school and am choosing a path other than college and it has made me feel like I’m out of the loop or a “loser” for not going to college. This made me realize I need to stop pitying myself and put the work in to have a better life for myself”

The in-laws

There was a 1979 movie starring Peter Falk titled “The In-laws”, and for some strange reason I just remembered this movie. I tried to download the torrent, but it is taking forever. It is just a goofy and funny comedy, but for some reason… it came to mind.

It is available free on the Internet DB. HERE.

And still, I have downloaded the torrent from this site...

Three Cheers For the Guacamole Act of 1917!!!

The premise of this film is really simple: if two families are about to enjoy the union of their children in a marriage, is it not likely that the in-laws involved can come to depend and help each other out in times of need? Most of us would probably say no, or want to know the extent of the help. However, when Vincent J. Ricardo (Peter Falk) asks Dr. Sheldon Kornpett (Alan Arkin) to assist him in retrieving something from a safe in Ricardo’s office, Kornpett is willing (if somewhat suspiciously) to do it.

The reason that Kornpett is suspicious is he is not quite certain what to make of Ricardo. They only met at Kornpett’s house the night before, for a dinner party introducing the families of the bride (Kornpett’s) and groom (Ricardo’s) to each other. Ricardo acted…well oddly. He told tales of his business travels in Central America, including how in one country babies are being carried off by huge bats that are protected by the Guacamole Act of 1917. Kornpett hears this with a blank face, although his eyes do bug out a little in disbelief. Later, when Ricardo gets testy with his son over a comment about the former not being home enough, Kornpett can’t believe the near rage that Ricardo demonstrates at the table. So his suspicions about his future in-law seem well based.

Shortly, after being chased and nearly killed by two men who are after the items that Kornpett picked up, the suspicions seem confirmed. Ricardo explains to him, over pea soup in a restaurant, that he actually is not a successful salesman but a C.I.A. operative (a photo in Ricardo’s office confirms this: it is of President Kennedy, and the autograph refers to the Bay of Pigs Invasion). He is in the middle of a critically important mission in Latin America dealing with international finance and a conspiracy against the richest nations. Kornpett hears him out, and is upset to hear that there is more material that Ricardo hid in Kornpett’s home the night before. He wants no part of it, and leaves to go home – only to find the police there. He flees, and does evade capture – at the cost of having his car repainted in a way he never would have wanted it to look.

Soon Kornpett is forced to join forces with Ricardo, and enters the deadly serious but (here) quite farcical world of international espionage and intrigue. At the end of the road is the ringleader of the conspiracy, General Garcia (Richard Libertini) who has a special little friend that makes Al Pacino’s little friend in SCARFACE lethal but sensible in comparison.

THE IN-LAWS is funny. Arkin with his tight-ass repressive personality works well against the free-wheeling, anything goes Falk. Libertini appears only in the films last twenty minutes, but he does equally nicely as the ultimate in screw-ball dictators. Well supported by a cast including Nancy Dussault, Arlene Golonka, Penny Peyser, Michael Lembeck, and Ed Begley Jr. the film is just a laugh fest until the happy ending. As mentioned elsewhere in these comments Arkin and Falk should have made several films together. They have only done one other movie together since THE IN-LAWS. Pity.

What’s the coldest thing a doctor has ever said to you?

‘If you lose this baby, you could always have another one’. The comment above was made by the doctor who my husband and I had a consultation with. I was roughly 10 weeks pregnant with our first child. I was in my mid 30’s while hubby was in his early 40’s.

An elderly man in his fifties, he barely looked at us, ignored me, said hello to my husband, looked at my file fleetingly, a file with tests and scans which showed I had fibroids, looked directly at my husband and said to him, ‘She will be fine’. I was furious that this man was clearly sexist, ignoring me as if I was invisible. I responded by asking what that meant, what was the cause of the bleeding as he had not told us at this point about the fibroids. ‘You do not need to bother about it. That is why we are here’. This statement was addressed again to my husband who he was still looking at while still ignoring my presence.

At this point, something in me snapped and I snapped at him, ‘Look at me and tell me what is causing this bleeding. It is my body and I need the details’. He then slowly turned to look at me as if seeing me for the first time and emotionlessly said, ‘you have fibroids. They are not massive and do not pose a danger to your baby’. ‘But I am bleeding. Is that not dangerous? ‘ I worriedly asked.

That was when he looked at the file and without lifting his head, retorted ,Not really. However, if you lose this baby, you could always have another one ’. I almost cussed the insensitive idiot out but my husband who knew I was fuming at this point, got up and ushered me out of the office while the doctor was still talking about ante natal visits at their hospital. We had heard enough. I went on to another hospital where I met the amazing doctor who delivered my daughter without complications and went on to have a son after that.

She is now a healthy, happy 10 year old who is pure joy and always a little mama to her 7 year old brother.

London Broil

London Broil is a favorite recipe from the Iowa Beef Industry Council.

Yield: 4 servings

Ingredients

1 (1 1/4 to 1 3/4 pound) beef flank steak
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 clove garlic, crushed
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper

Instructions

Combine vegetable oil, lemon juice, garlic, salt and pepper for marinade.
Place steak in plastic bag and pour marinade over it.
Close bag securely and refrigerate 4 to 6 hours or overnight, turning occasionally.
Pour off and reserve marinade.
Place steak on grill and broil at moderate temperature for 5 minutes.
Turn, brush with marinade and broil 5 minutes or to desired doneness (rare or medium).
To carve, slice diagonally across grain in thin strips.

10 STOIC LESSONS TO HANDLE DISRESEPECT (MUST WATCH) | STOICISM

Learn something important.

ASML

Here is the reason why ASML CEO said a few years ago that if ASML gave China the blueprint for the EUV machine China would not be able to make it.

This is because all of the core technologies is NOT owned by ASML. ASML is the system integrator that was allowed by the US government to participate in the US government project to create an EUV light source.

This project pulled together many US national labs including Lawrence Livermore Labs, Sandia Nation Lab, Brookhaven National Lab, Lawrence Berkely National Lab, IBM, Intel, AMD, etc. And it took over 10 years to create this laser light source.

This was considered a national security project so Japanese companies like Nikon and Canon were not allowed to join.

The difficulty of this light source and the engineering problems that had to be overcome was as difficult as the first atomic bomb.

So I have to admit that I was wrong in my speculation about using a Rube Goldberg device to generate EUV. They didn’t have a choice. This was the best possible source at the time. It took literally the US, Germany, and some other nation’s best experts to create this light source.

The other parts are relatively easy in comparison.

The problem is that China has also created this light source and using another method so it isn’t so Rube Goldberg machine. Not that it was simple to make. But it is more reliable and you don’t have to worry about residue removal that will mess up your mirrors and the inside of the your machine which has to remain at clean room levels.

Is China creating fear in many Americans because China’s success challenges the American belief that democracy is necessary for a successful market-driven economy and intellectual freedom is necessary for technological innovation?

This is a very good question indeed.

Thank you for asking.

The Answer is yes. Yes indeed the U.S. and the west has been propagating that only western liberal democracy works. Nothing else. Either be a liberal democracy or die says the US. That is of course simply not true at all. And the real truth is simply that the West wanted to install liberal democracy so that the west can easily manipulate it and install a government that surrender its sovereignty to the west in order to manipulate and steal it’s resources to enrich the former colonials.

Now that China proved beyond reasonable doubts and against all odds that it could grow phenomenally and economically dwarfed every other nation, this fear and worry the U.S. mightily. Failure to contain China means failure to perpetuate this lie!

This is indeed worrisome for the west since they the west in general has essentially collapsed in a huge pile of debts. And law and order disintegrates through the western world. With high inflation and a looming recession with countless millions of homeless people living in the streets while their government finance and orchestrate wars. Based on printing money without basis and rampant money creation.

China U.S. out innovating the U.S., it U.S. out thinking the U.S., out growing the U.S. and out influencing the U.S. growing even its military and wealth and out manipulating the U.S. government everywhere on earth. The U.S. wants to stop the truth from being revealed to the world.

It’s Not Just You: American Jobs Didn’t Used To Be This Terrible

My Dad’s Union IBEW is the reason we went from lower middle class to solid middle class in 10 years. Unions are one of the most important checks for capitalism.

Why are Chinese people so satisfied with their government?

Easy – shit gets done.

Government promise something. Give it a few years and it happens.

Some bigger projects like Mao wanting to borrow some water from the south took a bit longer.

OTOH governments like the UK one I lived under… they promise shit, then they say haha you sucker you actually believed me? Fuck you!

Gordon Brown’s QC literally said that election pledges and promises were not subject to legitimate expectation.

Here? Here in Hong Kong? The government construction projects shaved 20 minutes off my commute.

25 years ago they shaved an hour off the commute for the villagers by widening the dirt track that lead to my village and paving it. Then offering a bus franchise nearby so it was connected with the world.

We literally see things happen.

What is something weird that you enjoy doing?

I observed something while traveling.

Most people my age would either be listening to music, watching some TV show/movie in their smartphones/tablets. A very few would be reading a newspaper or book.

I was one of them. I always had music on. I can’t read/watch anything because of motion sickness while traveling on road.

The older generation- they do nothing. They don’t use phones, they don’t talk, don’t read, nothing. They just sit and look around.

I wanted to try this and coincidentally my earphones broke down.

Now it has been over six months. I travel in the metro for 3 hours everyday and do nothing, just look around. This has helped me so much. I observe people, their behaviours. I look around to see what’s actually happening.

It may sound weird but there’s something weirdly enjoyable about it. It feels like living life the old school way. This has helped me reduce the screen time as well.

I have even started recognising the regular commuters. I am sure they don’t recognise me.

Unbreakable (2000) | First Time Watching | Movie Reaction | Asia and BJ

Still one of the top 10 best comic films of all time. Its really the first one that showed what the comic genre could do when taken seriously.

This is one of my top, and most favorite movies. It is so meaningful to me. Seriously people. I can relate to this movie. So very much!

What did someone do that made you think they were really smart?

When my daughter was about 9 or 10 years old, whenever she got a scolding from my wife, I would annoy her by doing a chicken dance and do so in a way that ONLY she sees it.

“Mommy! Dad is making fun of me!” she would always complain.

When my wife turned around, I would stop and act normal and go on with my stuff. This went on for a while till it became a game of HER trying to catch me in the act and prove it to her mother.

She would learn to very quickly take out her mobile phone and try to snap a picture of me doing it. I would tease her by dancing until the moment the phone was almost pointing towards me, then I would stop and behave normally.

“I will get you someday,” she said.

“No, you won’t! I am too fast for you,” I replied.

On a particular day, I again did the ridiculous chicken dance, she was rolling her eyes and her hands move slowly towards her phone. I continued dancing and mentally calculating how fast she could key in the pass-code and turn on the camera mode.

Something didn’t feel right, her action was slower than usual, by the time she pointed the camera at me, I had stopped. But she started laughing loudly.

“Guess what daddy? THIS isn’t my phone. I switched the phone cover with mum. MY PHONE is behind you, just above the cupboard, ON VIDEO TAKING MODE.”

Ouch! A full two minutes of myself being ridiculous caught on video!

NOT genius smart, NOT intellectual smart, perhaps a little STREET SMART!

That was my last chicken dance.

How is the Chinese government treating MPOX?

The gay and bisexual men are not as common in China as they are in the West. It is difficult for MPOX to become an epidemic in China.

From June 2 to June 30, 2023, 106 new confirmed cases of monkeypox were reported in mainland China (excluding Hong Kong, Macao, and Taiwan), including 48 cases reported in Guangdong Province, 45 cases reported in Beijing City, 8 cases reported in Jiangsu Province, 2 cases reported in Hubei Province, 2 cases reported in Shandong Province, and 1 case reported in Zhejiang Province. There were no severe cases or deaths.

The epidemic presents the following characteristics:

One is that the vast majority of cases are mainly transmitted through male homosexual sexual contact.
Secondly, the risk of transmission through other forms of contact is low, and the vast majority of close contacts, except for sexual contact, have not experienced infection.
The third is that most cases were found during medical treatment, while a few cases were found through follow-up screening of close contacts.
The fourth is that the vast majority of cases have typical clinical manifestations, mainly symptoms such as fever, herpes, and lymph node enlargement, with no severe or fatal cases.

An American Reacts to Why America Sucks at Everything – THIS ONE HURT

This is very good. Really.

It is a MUCH watch. This is the real truth about the United States.

“I’m so glad you made this video because my conservative mom watched it and now she’s starting to wake up. I got screwed over by the “in network out of network” bullshit recently. My employer changed our healthcare coverage, and I had to find a new neurologist and start the “prior authorization “ process for a particular drug that I take all over again”

Is this the end of Xi Jinping, now that he has lost FACE over Qin Gang?

The sheer power of Xi Jingping is the fact that QG has been buried away and cut off in a matter of seconds and China and it’s foreign affairs moves without a single blip

Thats power

Had Xi been weak, a rival faction would have lobbied immediately within the CPC but the fact that China has simply chosen to forget QG and not talk about him shows the power of Xi Jingping

China and CPC knows that today in the hostile atmosphere with the West — Only XJP is the right man to lead China

Hu JINTAO would have kowtowed in seconds
Li Keiqang would have kowtowed in maybe a month
Bo Xilai would have kowtowed in nanoseconds

Xis power is at its peak now

Had QG defected to US and been declared a mole for CIA then yes , Xi would have been finished politically

Yet QG is in China and safe and under the Partys safe hands 😁

So NOT A CHANCE

Have you ever had a premonition that saved your life?

My father-in-law did. He was moving some tools around in his garage and suddenly had a strong urge to move one of the cars, a Subaru, out into the driveway. He tried to ignore this feeling, because the car was not in his way and it seemed like a needless waste of time. But he couldn’t shake it, so he went and got his car keys and backed the car out of the garage.

Just as he had done so and was getting out of the car, a speeding Tesla flashed past him a couple of feet away and crashed into the open garage, then burst into flames. If he’d stayed in the garage working, he would most likely have been killed.

The resulting fire destroyed the entire garage and his other car. It was 9 months before he and his wife were able to move back into the house. But he was alive, and they still had their Subaru. There was no good explanation for the “little voice in his head” that told him he needed to get himself and his car out of the garage.

By the way, the Tesla driver, who was pulled out of the burning car by a neighbor, was uninjured but was convicted of DUI and had to pay restitution and perform community service.

He was suffering from pancreatic cancer at the time, but from that moment his desire to oversee the restoration of the house gave him a new determination in life. It was a very busy and stressful time, during which he and his wife lived in rental housing. At last they were able to move back into the house which had been perfectly restored to its original state, including a new garage of course, new roof, new heating & a/c, new paint and flooring, and every item inside the house had been removed, professionally cleaned, and replaced. It was beautiful. However, his condition declined rapidly after that and he passed away in August 2018, not quite a year after the fire.

The US Plan to KILL Second Citizenship

“As a Venezuelan born in the 90s (post oil-golden era for that country), I know first hand what he means when he says it’s important to have options. I saw how my mother and her siblings were unable to get their second citizenship by descent from Trinidad and Tobago, once things got terribly bad in my country. My grandparents had both US residency and Caribbean citizenship, but because things were going so well in Venezuela in the 50s, 60s, 70s, and 80s, they didn’t work on securing and passing along those other options; and their children never thought things would get this bad. It only took less than 30 years to see things turn around for the worst.”

America isn’t an ordinary country, it’s an idea, it’s the very embodiment of democracy, freedom and hope for the whole world, and now China threatens American democracy and freedom for all mankind. How will humanity unite to defeat Chinese autocracy?

For many years now, the USA has been classified as a “flawed democracy”. Events such as the Capitol Hill riots – intended to disrupt the inauguration of your elected President – did not help. A significant proportion of Americans themselves believed that the last election was rigged and “stolen” from them. So how can the USA be said to be the “very embodiment of democracy”? This strikes me as an extremely grandiose and indefensible claim.

As for freedom, the USA comprises 5% of the world population but holds about 20% of the world’s prisoners. With so many Americans literally locked up behind bars, how can the USA claim to be a “free” country? Furthermore your 13th amendment legalises the enslavement of prisoners – and the USA heavily exploits these slaves/prisoners in ways that your own civil liberty lawyers have described as an abuse of fundamental human rights. (Eg US prisoners can be forced into hazardous jobs – such as fighting wildfires – for as little as zero to fifty cents per hour of work). Errrr, seriously, you think that the US is the embodiment of freedom?

What hope does the USA bring to the world? In the past 40 years, the USA has dropped more bombs, fired more missiles and killed more people in other countries, than any other country in the world. In the past 40 years, the USA has killed people in Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, Yemen, Libya, Grenada, Bosnia, Somalia and Uganda. Because of US sanctions, the world was afraid to send even vaccines, masks and ventilators to Iran during the covid–19 pandemic. This is how the US brings death and destruction to the world.

Please stop watching your Hollywood movies where the USA is always the one to save the world from invasions by aliens from outer space. Open your eyes and look at the real world. At least look at your own country. Your people are dying from drug overdose at the highest rate in the world. Your people are getting shot to death at the highest rate among all developed countries. Your policemen are shooting citizens for minor offences. Your cities are littered with homeless people living in tents. Your national literacy rate is collapsing together with your average life expectancy. Medical bills are the biggest cause of personal bankruptcies in the USA; your infrastructure is crumbling and aged water pipes are leaking lead into the drinking water for your public schools. To lead your country, you are choosing between a criminal octagenarian and a senile otagenarian. Your income inequality is vast, with the top 1% controlling more wealth than the middle 60% – let’s not even discuss the sufferrings of your bottom 20%.

The US is the embodiment of … HOPE, you say?! Hopelessness is more like it. The USA is no example for the world – unless we are talking of negative examples.

What’s a rule your employer implemented that backfired terribly?

Not so much a rule.

I used to work for a major mail order company; as tech staff I could be sent out anywhere in the country, for which the company would pre-pay for accommodation and pay 40 pence per mile for fuel costs (which was tight-arsed of them, as other companies paid 65ppm).

They also supposedly insured us for using our private cars this way.

People who regularly went out for long trips had a company card to pay for hotels with.

One day they decide they are cutting the fuel payment to 25ppm, and back-dating it SIX months, and also cancelling the company cards – people would have to pay with their own money and claim it back.

This latter move caught a few out who were already out on trips – one guy was unable to pay his bill at a London conference centre, and the staff there were threatening to call the Police.

We also discovered at the same time, that the company HADN’T been paying for the extra car insurance policy, so we were all using our cars effectively with no insurance.

Next day, everyone parked 1/2 mile away and walked into work. “Sorry, can’t go on that job, no car” was the story from every member of the technical staff.

Every senior manager was made to turn over his company car for us to drive around. Even the CEO’s chauffeured Bentley was pressed into service, but it still wasn’t enough; by the end of the first week the taxi bill was running into the high hundreds, and everyone was refusing overnight jobs on the basis they couldn’t afford to pay for the hotel.

It took a MONTH for the suits to cave, and god only knows how much it cost them, in money, customer relations, and the lost goodwill of the tech staff.

Why the American Dream is a Myth

“It’s expensive to be poor” Just…. damn man!

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.

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.

US loses first round in attempts to curb China’s tech progress; change of course a better option

US Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said she was “upset” when China’s Huawei Technologies released a new phone with an advanced chip during her visit to the country last month but noted that the US has no evidence China can make these components “at scale,” Bloomberg reported. She also said the US is trying to use every single tool at its disposal to deny the Chinese the ability to advance their technology in ways that can hurt the US.

Raimondo’s words are nothing new, but saying that China’s technological advancement “can hurt the US” is a stupid and ridiculous line of thinking. Many American elites refuse to accept that the Chinese have broken through the technological blockade. Radical lawmakers are calling for efforts to strangle Huawei and SMIC, which is not only hegemonic but also an evil way of thinking.

Whether it is ASML, the Dutch manufacturer of lithography machines, or the American chip giants, they do not believe that decoupling can stop China’s progress in semiconductor technology. They believe that China can find alternative methods and its own technological path. However, a large number of American elites are non-technical and refuse to face reality, blindly believing that Huawei’s breakthrough is because the US export controls on technology to China are “still too loose.”

It should be said that Huawei’s breakthrough has to a certain extent undermined the credibility of the US’ technological blockade against China and shattered the collective confidence of the West in this regard. Washington’s current investigation into the origin of Huawei’s chips and attempts to tighten the noose on the blockade against China will only isolate itself.

Because Washington clearly lost the first round, it has to bet even bigger and risk losing the Chinese market for many Western semiconductor companies. Imagine the result of continuing technological restrictions if Huawei makes further breakthroughs – can ASML’s lithography machines still enjoy their current glory? Where will the US-controlled chip production factories find their next market? Just look at the panic faced by Japanese and German automotive giants today in the face of the rise of Chinese electric vehicles. If the current semiconductor leaders are cut off from the Chinese market, who can guarantee that their future situation will be better?

Huawei’s Kirin 9000s is a breakthrough that it was forced to make by the US sanctions. If the US exerts even greater pressure, it will turn this breakthrough into a systemic breach, promoting a highly integrated and strong production chain in the Chinese semiconductor industry. Chips produced in China will also be much cheaper than those produced in the US.

If the US semiconductor industry loses the Chinese market, it will not be as lucky as Google and Facebook. The latter have software advantages that some Chinese internet companies do not have, including the application ecosystem they established by being the first movers. However, semiconductors are hardware, and when Chinese companies like Huawei can provide a cheaper alternative, the situation will be completely different.

A crucial crossroads has been reached. If the US forces China to achieve complete independence in the semiconductor industry, it will have no further cards to play in blocking China’s progress. Moreover, the technological landscape of the world will undergo a rewrite. China now possesses the capital, and we will continue to progress no matter what. It is now the US’ turn to make a choice: continue gambling or change course and resume cooperation?

Expat’s THAI WIFE disappears and so did his fortune $$. Then it got WORSE!

Gosh! This is horrible! You all must be careful.

Piles of pork

When I was out of my “retirement” from Arkansas, I was permitted to live in my home State in my home town, provided I had a sponsor.

This could be an ex-wife, a friend, a family member, or a civic institution.

Well, my ex-wife wanted to take me in, but she was diagnosed as “mentally ill”, and did not quality.

I only had two friends remaining back in the home town where I grew up. One was dead, and the other was in Jail.

My father agreed to take me in, but his (new) wife … my step-mother kicked me out.

So, I need a place to stay, and I was placed in a rehab complex for addicts, people with mental illnesses, and other issues. Initially, I stayed at a monastery, but eventually, I moved to a community that wasn’t so isolated, and I managed a group home there.

There was some six of us men living in an old Victoria style home, and working at low wage jobs to get back on our feet. We shared the budget and the responsibilities together, and it really wasn’t a bad deal.

I want to relate a story from that time.

…

We all agreed to pitch in $100 to $300 a month for food, and in so doing we would have a monthly run to the supermarket for supplies.

We sat down, and wrote what to buy, which consisted of vegetables, fruits, meats, eggs, breads… you know the basics with an emphasis on “make it yourself” rather than “frozen; pop in the microwave food”. Staples. Rice. Corn. Tomatoes. Flour. Butter. Cooking oil. Things like that.

We gave the list and the money to one of our housemates. This fellow was a “strange cat”, but you know, all of us were a bit odd, don’t you know.

And off he went.

When he returned, he arrived without the groceries he was supposed to buy. Instead, had something like $800 worth of pork chops, and three cases of diet Pepsi. Nothing else. And he laughed about it.

He argued that the money was his; his responsibility, and that he could do anything he wanted with it. And he wanted pork chops.

Well, I like pork chops as much as the next guy, but not at the expense of salads, orange juice, eggs, toast, butter, and spaghetti. Not at the dearth of cereals, milk, asparagus, peppers, spaghetti noodles, and rolls. Not at the expense of coffee, and sugar. Not at the expense of peanut butter, and salad dressing.

He had quite the smug look on his face, and laughed. Then, as if that wasn’t enough, behind our backs, he related to everyone how crestfallen I was, and the others in the house was.

…

Bummed us all out, and I was pretty damn pissed. What the Hell was I going to eat?

After talking with the head of the organization we held a in-house meeting.

Long story short; yeah, we kicked him out.

I was nice about it, and I helped move him out.

…

However, I learned a serious lesson. Never underestimate what a crazy, or mentally deficient person is capable of of. He was obviously selfish, narcissistic, and had no sense of belonging.

So we removed him.

This type of action, I believe, must be replicated at the highest levels of “leadership” in the collective Western nations. Don’t you know.

Today…

Blue Cheese Stuffed Steaks

Yield: 4 servings

Ingredients

4 beef tenderloin steaks
2 tablespoons cream cheese, softened
4 teaspoons crumbled blue cheese
4 teaspoons plain low fat yogurt
2 teaspoons minced onion
Dash of white pepper
1 large clove garlic, halved
1/2 teaspoon salt, divided
2 teaspoons chopped parsley

Instructions

Combine cream cheese, blue cheese, yogurt, onion and pepper; reserve.
Rub each side of beef steaks with garlic.
Place steaks on rack in broiler pan so surface of meat is 2 to 3 inches from heat. Broil for 5 to 6 minutes.
Season with 1/4 teaspoon salt.
Turn and broil for 3 to 4 minutes.
Season with remaining salt.
Top each steak with an equal amount of reserved cheese mixture.
Broil for an additional 1 to 2 minutes.
Garnish with parsley.

What is the best case of “You just picked a fight with the wrong person” that you’ve witnessed?

I was just 18, and working part-time at a local gas station, a Merit gas, with the little fishbowl in the middle of the pumps. I was in nursing school, so worked a couple nights a week.

Now, let me preface this by saying I was not by any means raised to be shy and retiring. My dad was streetwise, and made sure we were too. I knew how to defend myself and was not worried about working nights.

One night about 2am this drunk comes in, puts two crumpled up ones in the drawer, and says “put 20 on pump 3”. I yelled that he had only given me $2 but he was too far gone. I made a note of the make and model of his car, and was going to call the police about him as he was absolutely sloshed.

He comes back to the drawer and says “It only took 2$. Gimme my change”.

I explained that I did not get 20 from him.

He went back to his car and came back with a tire iron, and started to try to smash the windows. I pushed the alarm, then left the booth with a chain wrench in my hand.

Very useful as a weapon if you know how to use it, and I did. At least, I figured I did.

I went to him as he smashed the windows, and yelled some obscenities…. he turned on me with the tire iron. Just as I caught his hand with the chain wrench, and pulled the tire iron out, 4 motorcycles pulled in.

They were fully patched 1%-ers, members of a well-known motorcycle club not known overall for their sense of patience with morons.

One of the guys walked up to the drunk and said “what’s your beef?” and the drunk said “she kept my change!” I said “He gave me $2, he thought it was 2 tens, it was 2 ones”. Just then the drunk grabbed his tire iron and swung at me, but was so drunk he hit MC-Man 1. MC-Man proceeded to punch the man even more senseless than he was.

While MC Man 2 peed in his car, MC Man 3 went into the guy’s wallet and took out his driver’s license.

Just then, Drunk man gets up, and tries to hit MC Man 1. Next I know, the drunk is naked and upside down in a trash bin; he was wearing only his shoes, which had their laces tied together. MC-Men are busting a seam laughing.

Just then the Police showed up, and seemed disappointed when I explained it was not the bikers who were the problem, but the upside down naked man who had attacked me, smashed the windows, etc. The MC Men helpfully gave their version of events, with four-part harmony focused on how they had been as abused and brutalised, being as defenseless as they were, as I was.

The Police dragged off upside down naked man, and MC Man 3 said “I found his wallet, this fell out” and handed the cop his driver’s license.

Just as he was being escorted to the cruiser, he spat on one of the bikes, and was accidentally tripped by the bike’s owner, and landed right on his face. He was filth-fouling his way all the way to the cruiser. The cop told the guy he would turn him over to the bikers if he didn’t shut the f_ up. That seemed to sink in, and he went calmly from there… until the cops said a tow truck was taking the car.

Upside down drunk yelled “You C—t” at me through the open cruiser window (there were bars) but as one of his teeth came flying out when he did, it was actually kind of funny.

After the cop left, I told the bikers they could fill up on me, whatever they needed, oil, gas, cigs, anything. MC Man 1 said “No, trust me, we can pay for our own stuff, and after all the fun you don’t owe us anything….” and they proceeded to use the guy’s own tire iron to smash the glass in his car.

It wound up in court, the guy was sent to jail for a year and ordered to pay for damages.

All 4 MC Men were called as witnesses. They showed up clean shaven, in nice suits, looking like they had walked out of a Wall Street firm, and spoke about how afraid they were of “that violent man”.

You could just see they enjoyed it.

He complained in court that someone kept breaking his car’s windscreen… the Judge actually said “you better think better who you pick fights with, but I suspect after you’ve paid your debt to society, you might find your windscreen lasts a bit longer. Right gentlemen?” The MC Men just laughed…

While standing in line at a grocery store, what was the most arrogant display you have ever seen?

I, like a few others, was patiently waiting in line on an early Friday nite in a little village on top of a mountain. The pompous guy behind me, dressed in the full attire as dictated by his religion, evidently thought that by hitting me in with his cart, I would be so indebted to him that I would give him my spot.

The first time he hit me, I turned around and asked him not to do that again. He waited a minute and then hit me again with his cart. When I confronted him again, he said “women in my religion know their place and it is behind all men”. I laughed and loudly said “and in my country, women know that they don’t have to stand behind any asshole”.

Needless to say, he hit me again. This time I said “ you’re right. You belong in front of me. Just back up your cart so I can back out my cart so you can get in frin of me”. So after he backed up his cart, I grabbed his cart and shoved it down an aisle….he had to chase after it and was pissed.

The other customers all laughed including an off duty cop. When the asshole threatened to hurt me, the off duty cop arrested him and escorted him out.

I understood that his religion required him to be home by sundown. Had he asked me nicely, I would have let him in front of me. But when my first contact with him is him deliberately hitting me, he can wait your turn. If observing the tenets of his religion was that important to him, he should have gone shopping earlier.

The assault charge was dropped and he was banned from the grocery store, which happened to be the only one in a 15 mile radius, off the mountaintop

If the US has such a bad healthcare system, why are 4 of the 5 best hospitals in the world located in the US?

I remember when I was a young man, still largely broke but I wanted to get into PCs because while I understood computers very well and had years of experience on them, it was experience on Commodores, Ataris, Apples, and even z80 based systems. But at that point, the writing was on the wall, and it was clear the IBM PC standard with DOS/Win was winning decisively and the PC XTs I had access to, couldn’t run…

So anyway, PCs were not cheap, so I went with building my own. When I was done with the initial build, it was, like our health care system, a frankenstein’s monster. It had a slowish motherboard 286–12mhz, the best sound card at the time(original soundblaster), and an 8bit VGA card which was very middle of the road at the time. It had a 40MB hard drive which was quite decent at the time. It was good enough that I could run Dos/Win, at least enough to gain familiarity with it and sell my knowledge to employers. Which was the point.

However, it was not a good system. It was nobody’s first, second, or third choice of system. but it had a couple of good parts. There was no better sound card at the time, the hard drive wasn’t the top drive available, but was considered among the better ones available.

It was, like our health care system, a collection of best I could do at the time compromises to achieve an objective, but unlike our healthcare system, it did achieve its objective. It enabled me to get into higher paying jobs(hell, that whole trajectory launched my pretty decent career), which I promptly used to upgrade the lesser parts to the point that it ended up a pretty damned good system.

A few world class hospitals in a nation of 360 million people does not make the system good, anymore than my good sound card and good hard drive made my computer system good. They were positives of it, to be sure, but it was not a very good system as a whole.

A system is a collection of parts that work together, by definition, and the quality of it is determined by the overall quality of all the parts and most importantly – How well they work together to achieve the objective of the overall system. Our health care system is not very good, overall, despite that it has some quality parts here and there.

They’re making him a HOOD LEGEND

After former US President Donald Trump turned himself in to Fulton County Jail in Georgia, the Trump Mugshot went viral on social media. But now it appears the Republican POTUS is actually gaining massive support in the most unexpected ways. Which could lead to an epic backfire for the Democrats and the liberal news media.

What is the rudest thing a guest has done in your house while paying you a visit? Are you still friends?

A dinner guest picked away at the back of one of my mahogany dining room chairs and lifted a piece of the scrollwork decorations carved in the back of the chair next to her that her husband was sitting in.

When she finally succeeded in picking it off, she placed it on the table and acted like she didn’t realize what she had done, and done deliberately. She started saying “oh they don’t make furniture like they used to”, she was so sorry, blah, blah. Yeah, right, my solid mahogany Pennsylvania House dining room set was cheaply made.

It killed me to say “oh that’s ok, I’ll take care of it” like a good hostess as I attempted to retrieve the piece she had gouged out so I could glue it back in later, but she kept flipping it around in her fingers like it was a toy. I finally told her to give me the piece of wood so I could use it to attempt a repair. She acted offended at my request and to my tone of voice.

Never invited her back, but she went to the same church I did. Her name was Sondra and she would get really agitated with anyone who pronounced her name as Sandra. So of course everytime I saw her from then on I called her Sandra instead of Sondra. Many, many times. Petty I know, but I didn’t care. Still don’t.

When did you find out your spouse loves you even more than you thought?

Mike taught me real selfless love time and time again.

When my parents learned about him they took my phone and almost all means of communication, treated me like garbage and threatened me with many things. They came to me and said “you’re an idiot if you think he’ll still be with you after things got serious. He was just toying with you”. I just had to rely on my faith in him. And one month later he was in Kuwait to see me and my family.
When I was hospitalized for my mental breakdown he called everyone in my family and constantly asked about me.
He paid thousands and thousands of dollars to come visit me every couple of months and for all the attorneys trying to bring us back together.
When we were looking up all sort of solutions to reunite. He seriously said “what if I bring you to NewYork then drive from Ontario to there everyday to spend the night with you?”. I was flabbergasted and told him “you would do that?”, he said “of course I would. That way I’ll get to see you everyday”. And I was astonished but told him I would hate that sort of situation.
When he said he’s looking for other jobs since I can’t seem to enter Canada. I know very well that he’s never had a job better than this, great pay, great people, great company and a nice environment. Yet he is willing to give it all up for me.
Every time I had an episode and started fighting violently over something very stupid, driving him up the wall, he stayed on the phone with me for hours until I calmed down and we reached a conclusion.
When my parents refused to meet him and travelled to Egypt on purpose to avoid him when he comes to Kuwait. But he booked another ticket to Egypt and said wherever they go I’ll meet them.
When he decided to start waking up at 5 a.m everyday and chat with me in the morning because that’s what works best with our time difference.
When he told me “you know Salma, other than my daughters I never called anyone but you “my sweetheart”. And he said “aside from being a father, nothing ever compares to being with you”.

I can only hope I give this man as much happiness and warmth as he gives me.

America’s NEW Tax Plan is Frightening

As General Patton said it, “We defeated the wrong enemy”.

Children who have had to clean out your parents’ house after they passed, did you find anything that completely changed how you viewed them?

I can’t say that what I found after my father’s death completely changed how I viewed him, but it did have a profound impact.

My father vehemently opposed my decision to transfer out of an engineering program and instead pursue writing as a career. For 25 years, until his death, he had nothing positive to say about it, despite my receiving grants, fellowships, and publishing books. His rejection of me as a writer took our relationship, which wasn’t warm before that, to absolute zero.

After he died, I found an old cassette tape recorder he had repaired. In it was a tape labeled “Al in a Pensive Mood.” He made the tape in 1978, shortly after he’d had heart surgery. In it, he reflected on many aspects of his life, but the part that most affected me was this: “I sort of miss the fact that David is in New York, but I hope that he will succeed, that he will become a famous writer, that his books will be accepted, because this is what David seems to want to do.”

He died in 1994. How different our relationship might have been if he’d shared those sentiments while he was still alive.

What is the story of your life from birth to now?

I was born in a family of drama queens and philandering womanizers. Everyone in my immediate and extended family divorced at least once. Everyone in my family is either upper class overeducated elitist hypocrites (on my father’s side) or greedy under-educated peasant opportunists (from my mother’s side). Everyone of them has a story to tell, everyone wanted something more out of their lives or nobody was happy. I mean,seriously, as a child, I don’t think I knew one single happy couple who actually loved each other or a happy person who was satisfied with their life.

My parents were absent ones who were too focused on their rather successful careers and their dramas. They divorced,then both remarried and both had affairs. My dad didn’t divorce because my stepmom pretended that nothing happened. My mom divorced two other times and finally settled down with some young movie director and that’s the last I heard of her back in early 2000s.

I grew up with my grandma, who had her own juicy skeletons (yes, plural) in the closet. She suffered from major depression, but she wasn’t diagnosed until much later. So there was me, isolated with my depressed grandma, watching the fabulous lives of my father and mother unfold each on their own and which I was never part of any of it. And like most absent and successful parents, they eased their guilt by giving me the best life money can buy.

As a child, I never felt the absence of anything. I had the best clothes, the best books and the best toys. I was the first in my class to own a pager, a Walkman, a PC, a cellphone or a car… I was signed up in all of the after school interests classes. I played two instruments poorly.

My family sure had high hopes for me. And I sure disappointed them in every possible way. My dad used to lament how I didn’t get my mother’s looks or his brain. All I got was stubbornness, which wasn’t a good character trait for a girl.

The irony was, being part of such a chaotic and passionate family of love and hate,romance and sex, I ended up being an introverted asexual person who wasn’t really interested in relationships or sex.

Like all good daytime TV, my family lost much of its financial means. We weren’t poor. But we were no longer filthy rich. My parents actually had to budget and buy stuff when there was a sale! Oh,the horror!

We moved to the US in 2000. I went to college and against my father’s wishes, decided to study art. I’ll have to give it to my dad, being an Asian father, he wasn’t happy that I studied such a useless subject, but he was supportive (as in he didn’t cut me off). He told everyone I studied graphic design, as if that somehow made it better than “art”.

I was never a good student to begin with. I didn’t go to the Ivy Leagues. My art degree didn’t get me anywhere, neither did art history, theater or 3D animation. I was often the best in my class, but best in a regional university is mediocre when put on a global scale. Despite being a mediocre student, I did enjoy learning new things. I still do. Learning about random things I didn’t know before often brings me great joy.

Learning things and creating things are my greatest joys in life. All that art school didn’t really make me a competitive artist. I was, as I said, mediocre at best. As an artist I was (and still am) willful, which is a bad characteristic for the commercial artists… disastrous for mediocre commercial artists. I only draw portraits. I only draw stuff I like. I do poorly with commissions. I can’t keep simple commitments.

Suffice to say, I was doomed to make a living with art. But that wasn’t my only worry at the time.

As you can imagine, growing up in such a dysfunctional family I had a lot of baggage. I went into counseling for a period of time during graduation school, that really helped me a lot. I started to grow (a bit late, I know) into my own self instead of trying (and failing) to be the person my father wanted me to be, or, more precisely, who I thought my father wanted me to be. In reality, I don’t think my dad had any expectations from me since high school.

Out of some weird turn of events, I was involved in the BDSM community for a few years. Had my one and only “serious” relationship and decided it just wasn’t worth my time.

By 2008, I was a mess. I was well into my late 20s. Other people my age would get married, have children and steady jobs and probably already bought their first house… while I was ridiculously overeducated and absurdly unemployable. I lived with my parents, I was laid off from my previous dead end job, I had one failed, completely dysfunctional relationship which I pretended that never happened, I sent out 20 email job applications every day and I didn’t know what to do with my life.

In early 2010, I finally landed my first gaming industry job. Of all the degrees and skills I earned in my nearly 10 years of college education, I landed this job because I was bilingual.

It turned out I was actually a pretty good project manager. My stepmom didn’t believe it. She had always seen me as this messy absent-minded loser who couldn’t organize anything. But I was good at organizing things, budgets and schedules. I never learned project management, but somehow it all came naturally to me. It just made sense. I mean, after all, project management really is just common sense. So… out of all of the exciting things you can do in video game industry, I ended up doing the most boring thing, basically middle management nobody likes and who doesn’t really contribute anything solid to the development.

Still, I love my job. I love what I do.

I’ve worked for big publishers,start-ups,on console titles and PC titles,web games and Facebook games (yes,I did).

Somewhere along the way, I published a book about Renaissance Italy, which… rated poorly on Douban because I pissed off a lot of people with my “white-lefty” sentiments. I’m not saying my book is any good. But judging from the comments left on my book page, obviously most of them never read it. They just came to give my book a 1 star (out of 5) because they don’t like how I talked about feminism…. and give out spoilers about Murder on the Orient Express.

Now I live in San Diego with my cat Jonesy.

I’m translating a book (which I should be working on right now instead of procrastinating on Quora). I continue to write my renaissance story (I don’t think my publisher would publish any more of that story, but I must finish it). I’m planning another story (in English).

My life so far has been pretty uneventful, especially compared to my parents and all my relatives. But perhaps I could write interesting and exciting stories, even if I myself would most likely live out my life in peace and solitude.

A book, my cat and San Diego city lights. This is my life now.

Do you feel depressed? | The sopranos – edit

As a teacher, what is the most shocking thing you’ve heard a student say?

Back in the 80’s in my hometown, if a teenage girl got pregnant in our high school, she was immediately pulled out of school and they provided her with a home tutor. My mom was one of the tutors.

Mostly it was pretty basic, my mom would ignore the girl’s “condition” and the girls did their work. I should add that our town was insanely small, so my mom had known most of these kids since they were in preschool, so I imagine that it was super awkward.

During one of these tutoring sessions, one particular girl was prattling on about how she and the baby’s father were going to get married, he’s going to be a doctor, and they’ll be rich in no time. My mom is not one for flights of fancy, she is a firm believer in cold, hard reality, so she couldn’t keep quiet.

She very calmly explained how much money a baby can cost, then added in the prices of rent, utilities, food, a car & insurance, daycare, college tuition, and books. This girl did not believe her at all. My mom also let her know the failure rate of a teen marriage, as well as the adult rate. This girl obviously had never learned basic household management because she didn’t even know how to turn on the stove.

My mom never pushed the subject again, and the girl continued her lessons, until she delivered the baby. My mom never followed up with the girls, unless the school needed her to. Shortly after that, we moved to a different part of the state and mom took a job with a bank.

About 10 years ago, we were at a mall when this woman came over to my mom to say hello. My mom was confused and asked the woman who she was. It was the girl! She wanted to thank my mom for being honest with her about the harsh realities of life and had taken what she said to heart. The girl broke up with the boyfriend who got her pregnant, gave the baby up for adoption, finished high school, went to college, the medical school and now she’s an OB/GYN. She told my mom that no one had ever told her how the world works and how you have to pay for everything; she was kind of embarrassed when she said that she just always assumed that there would be food in the fridge because it had never been empty.

Now she was close to 40 and she had gotten married, was pregnant and was finally going to able to give her child the life that she couldn’t for her first (she did receive photos of the baby that she placed). My mom just looked baffled because she insisted that she hadn’t done anything special.

Walking through Cities of Europe in 700 AD: What would you have seen?

This is really interesting.

What did the job interviewer say that made you NOT accept the job offer?

A recruiter got in touch with me through Linkedin regarding an opportunity to work for a luxury car brand. I gave her my number and asked her to call after 4 pm because I didn’t want to take the call at work.

She rang that evening, we went through my work history and I emailed her my CV. In the morning she rang back to say that the hiring manager liked my cv and wanted to schedule a phone interview.

The following day, I received a call from a gentleman who introduced himself as my interviewer. I went through my work history once again.

I answered his questions, gave examples to support my answers and explained the gap in my CV. I also asked questions about the role and the company.

“You have the skills and experience required, I like your attitude, you are very straightforward and assertive but I’m hesitant. If we hire you, once you get bored of the job you’ll probably leave just like you are doing with your current employer.”

It rubbed the wrong way and I thought it was very presumptuous of him to assume that I was leaving because I was bored. I was looking for new opportunities because I wanted to get out of a toxic workplace, I agreed to interview for the position because I already worked in the field. I had the skills and experience, they were also offering better pay and benefits.

He spoke to me for a few minutes and assumed to know the reasons I was leaving my then current employer, I guess in his entire career he never left a job for better opportunities.

“Thank you for considering me for the role but I’m no longer interested,” I said to him and ended the call.

Hiring managers are so full themselves they don’t even realise that sometimes people just leave bad bosses and toxic work environments. I can’t see myself working for someone who is so quick to jump to conclusions.

Breaded Steak Cutlets

Ingredients

1 1/2 pounds round steak
Salt
Pepper
Eggs
Water
Cracker crumbs
1 (8 ounce) can tomato sauce

Instructions

Cut 1 1/2 pounds round steak into serving pieces, removing all fat. Cube with a tenderizing hammer and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Dip each piece into 1 egg beaten with 1 teaspoon water. Dip into cracker crumbs and coat well. Fry in hot grease until brown on both sides. Drain.
Pour off grease and add 1 (8 ounce) can tomato sauce to pan and de-glaze pan.
Serve tomato sauce with cutlets.

Fed Predicts: Americans Will Run Out of Money By October 2023

https://youtu.be/MQSgLJfsepA

Confession of the Day

I have been married for 15 years. I have known my wife since I was 8. We have 3 daughters together. 17, 14, and 11.

I’m tired of feeling like I’m an outsider in my relationships with all of them. I’m just an ATM and taxi service to my kids. My wife hasn’t kissed me in 6 months. She has not said that she loves me in 1.5 years. No matter how much I communicate, try to plan anything or do anything it is always shot down, forgotten, or dismissed. I don’t get angry in don’t yell. I don’t get physical.

I like to splurge during birthdays and mothers Day. I throw parties and give gifts and try to show how much I love them. I get a lukewarm, thanks, and if I’m lucky, a side hug that lasts .0001 seconds.

This week was the breaking point. Father’s Day. I wake up to an empty house. Odd. No note, nothing was written on the calendar, and nothing said beforehand. I send a text, and I get back. “I took the girls out for a spa day, don’t wait up.” Then nothing, literally nothing. Dinner time comes around, and they get home. How their say was (it was fine). I ask what they would like for dinner. “Nothing we already ate at [one of my favorite restaurants].” Cool, whatever. There is no mention of it being fathers Day. No, I love you, how are you. Nothing.

Fast forward to Wednesday. Which was my birthday. Nothing. Literally again, nothing. I suggested plans. They get shot down. I suggested food. Nope, shot down. Ask about watching a movie they are all too busy (they just sat on their phones doing nothing).

Now to Thursday night. I’m in bed. My wife is next to me. She rolls over and says in a crappy tone. “Oh, your birthday was the other day. I guess you expect to have sex.” That broke something in me(best of my memory of how it went down)

I said “no I don’t expect sex. At this point, I don’t expect anything anymore.”

Her “what is that supposed to mean?”

So I started asking her questions

When was the last time we shared a kiss? (Like a week? Nope, it was in December, and it was during her parents’ holiday party)

When was the last time we had sex? (The beginning of the year? Nope, wrong it has been over a year. She was adamant that we did it in February. I was dealing with my moms health and her passing. So I said something like, “You may have had sex but it wasn’t with me.”)

When was the last time you said you love me? (“I say it all the time.” Not to me, check your messages/you don’t say it to me face to face. “Well, you should just know I do.”)

When was the last time we went on a date? (LONG pause)

Her: You’re being unfair.

Emotions turned on fully. I was crying and raising my voice at this point.

It asks her how? She can’t answer. I asked her how wanting any sign of love from anyone in the house is unfair. If expecting anything for my birthday or Father’s Day was unfair. (She got an oh shit look) Yeah, you forgot that as well. I’m not an ATM, I’m not a taxi service, I’m not a punching bag.

She asked why this was coming up “out of the blue.” It didn’t. I have tried to talk to my family and again get dismissed or ignored. I brought up examples. I got an “I didn’t know you were serious.” “I didn’t know it was such a big deal.”

I left saying something to the point of “If you want to pretend that I’m invisible and don’t exist fine, you don’t have to pretend anymore.”

I left the house at almost midnight. On Thursday/ Friday morning. Haven’t been home since. I’m not sure what to do now. I’m finally sober enough to think, but I don’t know what to do(first time drinking in over 15 years BTW, and i’m not going to drink anymore)

I love my family. But I can’t keep this up. I don’t know what more I can do. I think they would be happier without me. They already act like I don’t exist. I can’t be the one who is blamed for everything. If I truly am the problem then me not being there should fix it. I can’t do it anymore.

I have tried to be a good provider, a good partner, and a good dad. Never missed an event of our kids. Never prioritize work. I kept good hours so I could see them more. Took on more responsibility to better our life and future. But, it is never appreciated. It is never enough. I am never enough.

I only have one message from my wife “I’m sorry for making you feel that way. We all love you, and we are here for you when you want to come home and talk.” That is it. No other messages. No calls. Nothing from the kids. I feel like if they really wanted me there, they would try reaching out more. All of the kids have their own phone. I don’t know what she told them. I’m sure they heard me raise my voice. Me raising my voice would have definitely got their attention since i never do. I’m sure they heard me leave. I just don’t know.

Twin Peaks Deserves the Hype

Homeless in the land of plenty

For a while, right before I was “recovered” by MAJ at China Lake Naval Weapons Systems, I found myself in California and making ends meet. I knew that I had to be in California, but where? And how to contact my “up-line handlers”?

I hadn’t a clue.

So I parked myself in various cities, and waited for their actions.

Right before they “found me”, I was working as a breakfast cook at a restaurant called “Louse’s place” in the beautiful town of San Louis Obispo. This town, a college town, was nestled in a nice area, surrounded by mountains, and built upon a network of streams. It was, at that time, quite lovely.

I wore a short sleeved shirt, a white apron, and a chef’s hat, and performed my cooking rituals in front of the customers. Basic stuff, really. Bacon and eggs, gourmet omelettes, and specialty sandwiches.

I lived off the small salary, and the tips that I would get.

I worked a 5am to 3 pm shift. And it wasn’t bad at all. I got a free lunch, and could take home leftover “blue plate specials”. And I did just that, as I would walk the distance to our broken down van, that was parked at the edge of a obscure parking lot until we could get enough money to get an apartment and leave.

We would eat the food in the front seat. And just pretty much lived a transit lifestyle.

This was in the 1980’s. I can only imagine how bad it must be today. Back then, We were a rare sight. Today, we would be just a ripple in a massive wave of homeless. Gosh! Can you even imagine?

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I have a lot of compassion of others (homeless in California) who suffer through this plight. It’s difficult, and hard. Housing, utilities and expenses are outrageous, and they do not have to be that way, it is just the super greedy that this created this impossible situation.

If you ever get a moment, give some food to the homeless. Maybe they will accept, maybe not. But show some compassion.

Won’t you?

Todays…

What were the results of Kim Jong Un’s visit to Russia?

North Korea will participate in a number of Far Eastern Projects and establish a Russia DPRK Labor Commission to engage upto 200,000 workers who will live in Far East for 10 years and could be Prospective migrants
DPRK and Russia will jointly modernize the Air Force of North Korea, Drones in North Korea and Air Defence of North Korea
DPRK and Russia will sign a Trade Pact
Putin has committed around 1 Trillion Rubles investment in North Korea

China will play a key role but China will remain hidden behind the scenes because it’s not a Sanctioned state like DPRK and Russia

They can’t sign an official agreement due to existing UN sanctions that Russia can’t break or violate

Yet they can unofficially make a no limits friendship which they just did

In exchange

DPRK promises assistance to Russia against ROK (South Korea) and Japan as a strong piece on the Chessboard

A Nuclear power with 50 Nukes minimum is a strong powerful deterrent

Huawei issues denial

That the governments of Saudi Arabia, Russia, Venezuela have ordered their government officials to stop using Apple iPhones and switch to Mate 60 Pro for security reasons.

Chicken Fried Steak with Mashed
Potatoes and White Gravy

Ingredients

6 cube steaks
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon pepper
1 tablespoon chicken bouillon
1 tablespoon chili powder
3 tablespoons seasoned salt
3/4 tablespoon celery salt
1 tablespoon onion powder
1 tablespoon garlic powder
1 tablespoon oregano
4 to 5 eggs

Instructions

Add the seasonings to the flour. Stir it all together.
Crack the eggs in a separate dish and mix them together.
Lay the steak in the flour and then dip it into the egg. Place it back in the flour.
Repeat with the rest of the steaks.
Lay the steak in hot oil. Let it cook for a couple of minutes at 350 degrees F.
Repeat with the rest of the steaks.
Plate the steak and serve with garlic mashed potatoes and gravy.

If you were a super hero, what would your super powers be, and what would be your cause? Why?

If I were a superhero, I want my superpower to be “involuntary empathy.” I have the power to make people feel what others are feeling. The process is simple: I mark a person as a “target,” and choose a “recipient,” and link them together. The selection can not be random. The recipient’s action must directly impact the target; otherwise, the connection will not work. Both the target and recipient maintain their independent thought and free will. They can go about doing their own thing. However, the recipient will experience the target’s emotions that directly result from the recipient’s action (and nothing else). The recipient can go kill the target if they are willing to experience death. On top of the obvious murder change, the recipient will suffer a mental breakdown and never recover. And if a person has multiple victims, the effect will compound.

For example, if a man abuses his wife, he will experience the physical pain, fear, desperation, anxiety, and shame… that directly result from his abuse. But he doesn’t get to experience the love and joy his wife felt when she was with her family or playing with her children.

I want to be able to walk up to a youth pastor who abuses children and make him experience the anguish, desperation, sense of isolation, shame, guilt, and self-loathing his victims felt while they were being molested. I want him to feel the pain that drove these poor kids to self-harm or even commit suicide. I want to make murderers feel the pain of the families of the victims. I want to make the billionaires feel the pain of their workers.

I want those pearl-clutching “concerned moms” to feel the fear and anxiety and isolation of trans kids who just want to use the fucking bathroom.

I want the shitty parents to feel the pain of the children they abuse.

I want the racists to feel the fear and anger of minority people they bully and harass. I want the KKK members to feel the pain of their victims. I want them to feel every single minute when the victims are beaten and tortured.

I want this pain and suffering to stay with these people for the rest of their lives. And the only way they can reduce their suffering is through genuine remorse and making actual amends.

I want Jeff Bezos to feel the exhaustion of his delivery guys and distribution center workers, the discomfort that they had to hold their bladder, the shame of having to pee in a bottle, the fear of being sick and missing work, the anxiety of doing full-time work and not making a living wage. I want him to feel it every day, every night, every minute of his life on his fucking 500 million dollar yacht. He won’t be able to enjoy any luxuries in life until he changes his company policy.

Of course, the recipient would experience positive feelings from the target as well if that’s the direct result of their actions. So if Jeff Bezos decided to pay his workers fair wages, give them sick leave, and some bonus, he would experience immense joy no 500 million dollar yachts would bring. If the billionaires want to experience incredible joy, they can donate to disaster relief and build schools for underprivileged children. I would be happy to connect them to the children they helped. I mean, actually helped, instead of using their charity organization as a tax haven.

I feel that I could actually make the world a better place if I had this power.

Even MOBILE HOMES Are No Longer AFFORDABLE

Today I am finally showing you around a mobile home park here in California. However, there is a caveat…Its quite expensive to own a mobile home here. However, I was able to speak with one of the residents and get you the details on what its like to live and own in a mobile home park.

You cannot afford to live in the USA.

Have you ever been on a date that was going so badly you walked out and left?

I had ridden motorcycles, ATVs, dirt bikes, etc on & off since I was 5. I met a guy on line who was a biker and agreed to meet for a ride & lunch. At the time, I didn’t have a bike so I was to be his backseat “princess”.

Before the ride, I questioned him a lot about riding, how long he had been riding, where all he had ridden to, what bikes he had owned, etc to make sure he was legit. I’m not putting my life at risk with a poser. He came off as legit.

We meet, start the ride and I realize that I was in trouble….he was dangerous with his riding skills. Tailgating, splitting lanes when there was no need to, cursing out car drivers, braking too late, taking curves too fast…. basically he was dangerous. I admit to being scared shitless. He refused to stop to let me get off his bike until we got to the restaurant.

Inside the restaurant, I went from being an emotional wreck to being all out “Irish-Redhead” pissed but presented a calm and exterior. After ordering, I excused myself to go to the ladies room. While in there I called for an Uber to pick me up in 1/2 hour. I rejoined him, ate my meal, including a stiff drink to calm the nerves and thanked him. Then I just went outside and got in my Uber to go home. Be damned if I was getting back on the lunatic’s bike. And of course, I blocked him.

Why is Huawei’s new smartphone generating so much buzz?

Huawei was once the world’s top smartphone vendor, shipping over 200m phones in 2018.

Last year, under a de-facto embargo by the US, it shipped 28m, an eight-, almost nine-fold decrease from its peak.

The volume has been cannibalized by Apple, Samsung, and other Chinese brands.

Apple, in particular, now sell more iPhones in Greater China than stateside, all thanks to Huawei’s demise.

That’s “national security” and “clean networks” for all you Apple fans.

How bad were the curbs applied on Huawei? Phone assemblers froze assembly lines overnight and refused to fulfill their contractual obligations, components on order were canceled, Google withdrew Android licensing and design license agreements were ripped up.

Huawei had no OS, a completely disrupted hardware supply chain, a deficient set of highly specialized software design tools and its CFO under house arrest in Canada.

It would not have surprised anyone had Huawei announced its withdrawal from the consumer device space.

Amazingly, Huawei the 5G telecoms champion sold off Honor, its sub-brand, and issued 4G phones under the Huawei brand, weathering a gut-wrenching revenue drop off a cliff. It conducted an internal review of the entire supply chain, from its core telecoms equipment business to consumer devices, and began the painful and expensive task of de-Americanization. Any component that had even the hint of American IP was marked for domestic substitution. The process was completed for its telecoms equipment earlier, but the device side lacked two pieces—a capable GPU for AI-assisted gestures, payments and the camera, and a 5G modem, which was protected behind Qualcomm’s giant patent wall.

Huawei found hacks around EDA restrictions, and designed its own GPU. It also introduced novel transistor geometries to boost the performance of 7nm to the 5nm node. It rapidly upgraded its inhouse Hongmeng OS to 4.0, turning it into a polished platform with large language AI and IOT capability baked in. Its software ecosystem is coming along nicely, and the platform is well beyond the market share needed to ensure survival.

To add icing on the cake, the flagship Huawei phone of 2023 can make satellite calls, showcasing its space comms tech maturity and the bandwidth/coverage of the Chinese commercial satellite network.

In field tests conducted by a Hong Kong user, the Mate 60 Pro matched the iPhone 14’s 5G network speed, demonstrating Huawei’s 5G modem was a match for Qualcomm’s implementation. Not a bad milestone for a first effort, eh?

Huawei had no need for GPS, Qualcomm’s 5G, LG’s OLED, Samsung’s storage, Micron’s memory, or even upstream chip design tools that were vulnerable to US sanction. In fact, even if we took the best in class features from Apple, Google and Samsung and put them into a hypothetical hybrid champion, the Mate 60 Pro can still stand shoulder to shoulder, because it has a couple of industry-first or performance leading features. It is truly worthy of a 2023 flagship designation, earned fair and square.

Huawei did all these in less than 4 years, a remarkable turnaround despite becoming a corporation targeted for destruction by the US government, probably a historic first.

Huawei is finding its mojo again on way firmer footing, and it will sell every Mate 60 pro the production lines can churn out this year.

The NEW American Dream: GETTING OUT!

We grew up during the 1970s and 80s in the Midwest back when the American Dream was still the goal and attainable for most people in the middle class. If you worked hard for a loyal employer (they were still loyal back then) or at your own business, you could expect to have a shot at freedom, prosperity, a house, a car, a better life for your kids, etc. Sadly, that is no longer the case for several reasons we discuss in this video. Now, the NEW American Dream is about something most people never thought they would do: Leaving the United States.

Are economic sanctions really effective against countries like Russia and China?

There is a Golden Rule for Sanctions:-

(a) If you can produce your own food and supply your own food

(b) If you have a Product that has tremendous Global Demand and its deficit would lead to significant losses

Then You are immune from Most Sanctions on a Long term basis.

Its why Iran and Iraq have also survived Sanctions.

They have OIL.

Thats Why Afghanistan is likely to be roasted under Sanctions. Because they dont have the above merits.

How Will The Biden Administration Cope With Its Loss In Ukraine?

While this piece will touch on the war in Ukraine it is more about the U.S., and the Biden administration, and how they will cope with their defeat in their war on Russia. Please keep that in mind when commentating.

Washington’s moment of recognizing the defeat in Ukraine, and its consequences, has yet to arrive.

In his latest piece (archived) Seymour Hersh reports on the state of the war and of significant differences of opinion between the U.S. intelligence services:

There are significant elements in the American intelligence community, relying on field reports and technical intelligence, who believe that the demoralized Ukraine army has given up on the possibility of overcoming the heavily mined three-tier Russian defense lines and taking the war to Crimea and the four oblasts seized and annexed by Russia. The reality is that Volodymyr Zelensky’s battered army no longer has any chance of a victory.

The war continues, I have been told by an official with access to current intelligence, because Zelensky insists that it must. There is no discussion in his headquarters or in the Biden White House of a ceasefire and no interest in talks that could lead to an end to the slaughter. “It’s all lies,” the official said, speaking of the Ukrainian claims of incremental progress in the offensive that has suffered staggering losses, while gaining ground in a few scattered areas that the Ukrainian military measures in meters per week.
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The American intelligence official I spoke with spent the early years of his career working against Soviet aggression and spying has respect for Putin’s intellect but contempt for his decision to go to war with Ukraine and to initiate the death and destruction that war brings. But, as he told me, “The war is over. Russia has won. There is no Ukrainian offensive anymore, but the White House and the American media have to keep the lie going.

“The truth is if the Ukrainian army is ordered to continue the offensive, the army would mutiny. The soldiers aren’t willing to die any more, but this doesn’t fit the B.S. that is being authored by the Biden White House.”

The differences between the current CIA and the more neoconned Defense Intelligence Agency extend to their view on China:

A byproduct of the Biden administration’s neocon hostility to Russia and China—exemplified by the remarks of Secretary of State Tony Blinken, who has repeatedly stated that he will not currently countenance a ceasefire in Ukraine—has been a significant split in the intelligence community. One casualty are the secret National Intelligence Estimates that have delineated the parameters of American foreign policy for decades. Some key offices in the CIA have refused, in many cases, to participate in the NIE process because of profound political disagreement with the administration’s aggressive foreign policy. One recent failure involved a planned NIE that dealt with the outcome of a Chinese attack on Taiwan.

I have reported for many weeks on the longstanding disagreement between the CIA and other elements of the intelligence community on the prognosis of the current war in the Ukraine. CIA analysts have consistently been far more skeptical than their counterparts at the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) on the prospect for a Ukraine success. The American media has ignored the dispute, but the London-headquartered Economist, whose well-informed reporters do not get bylines, has not.
…

The DIA is still saying that the Ukrainian army has a chance, a small one though, to break through the Russian lines. The White House still seems to believe in that. The CIA knows that the Ukraine is done.

Alastair Crooke, in a talk (vid) with Judge Napolitano, says that the moment of truth will only arrive in November.

But what will happen when everyone recognizes and acknowledges, if silently, that the war on Russia has failed?

Michael Brenner argues that the US Can’t Deal With Defeat:

Ukraine, today, has suffered huge losses of even greater (proportional) magnitude [than the German Wehrmacht in the Battle of Kursk], without achieving any significant territorial gains, unable even to reach the first layer of the Surovikin Line. That will clear the road to the Dnieper and beyond for the 600,000 strong Russian army equipped with weaponry the equal of what the West has given Ukraine. Hence, Moscow is poised to exploit its decisive advantage to the point where it can dictate terms to Kiev, Washington, Brussels et al.

The Biden administration has made no plans for such an eventuality, nor have its obedient European governments. Their divorce from reality will make this state of affairs all the more stunning — and galling. Bereft of ideas, they will flounder. How they will react is unknowable. We can say with certainty one thing: the collective West, and especially the U.S., will have suffered a grave defeat. Coping with that truth will become the main order of business.

Here is a menu of options for handling it:

Redefine what is meant by defeat, victory, failure, success, loss, gain. There is a new narrative that is scripted to stress these talking points: …
…
This narrative already has been given an airing in speeches by U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Acting Deputy Secretary of State Victoria Nuland. Its target audience is the American public; nobody outside the Collective West buys it, though — whether Washington has registered that fact of diplomatic life or not.

Retroactively Scale Back the Goals & Stakes
…
Cultivate Amnesia
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Next: China
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It is likely that the administration will use all four options to make the pain and memory of defeat go away. Declare victory over Russia because Russia was stopped at the border with Poland. Then forget about all the details and consequences and move towards war on China.

That could end catastrophically.

The focal shift from Russia in Europe to China in Asia is less a mechanism for coping with defeat than the pathological reaction of a country that, feeling a gnawing sense of diminishing prowess, can manage to do nothing more than try one final fling at proving to itself that it still has the right stuff — since living without that exalted sense of self is intolerable.
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The U.S. was fortunate, in the case of Vietnam, that the United States’ dominant position in the world outside of the Soviet Bloc and the PRC allowed it to maintain respect, status and influence.

Things have now changed, though. The U.S. relative strength in all domains is weaker, strong centrifugal forces around the globe are producing a dispersion of power, will and outlook among other states. The BRICs phenomenon is the concrete embodiment of that reality.

Hence, the prerogatives of the United States are narrowing, its ability to shape the global system in conformity with its ideas and interests are under mounting challenge, and premiums are being placed on diplomacy of an order that seems beyond its present aptitudes.

The U.S. is confounded.

Major offices in the CIA, according to Hersh, have recognized the danger of such plans. It may well be the reason why the CIA’s informal spokesmen, David Ignatius, and others wrote that Biden should step down.

If he doesn’t the neoconservatives around him will have a great incentive to move on China as fast as possible. As Biden will have difficulties in winning next year’s election he needs some objective that can unify the country. A war that he can claim the U.S. will win is one. Some hostile naval exchanges with China will follow.

(Please don’t use the comments of this thread for details from the war in Ukraine. The current thread for such is here.)

Posted by b on September 21, 2023 at 17:05 UTC | Permalink

Dangerous

On topic we are at a dangerous inflection point. Ironically it is the potential of war with China that is preventing WW3 from starting, in my view. Maerica doesn’t know how to accept loss and animals are at their most dangerous when cornered.

Posted by: Doctor Eleven | Sep 21 2023 18:22 utc | 29

What are the strengths and weaknesses of China’s foreign policy towards the United States?

China’s foreign policy towards the U.S. is very simple indeed Allow the U.S. to commit suicide and give them a long rope to hang themselves since they choose ignorance, naïveté and hubris over knowing the real China.

This policy is highly effective cost almost nothing and hurt the U.S. beyond recognition. And it is the US doing to themselves. Take the Chinese response to US thinking they could knee cap China on supposed technological superiority on semi conductor. Over China.

China don’t wish to start a fight now wants to hurt snd harmed China but the US insisted. Hence China chose the precise response that will totally destroy the U.S. that cost China nothing and cost trillions upon trillions of losses in the U.S. chips industry.

But this is not the first time nor will it be the last. The last nation to threaten is one that helped you enjoyed a 30 years inflation free economy. But the U.S. started a trade war against China for no reason except it is popular for politicians. Today the U.S. is paying for a high inflation and looming recession.

Their policy as usual is sustainable, practical and pragmatic while the U.S. policy towards China hurts and harm the U.S. to no end. It is neither sustainable nor effective against China.

China Slams And Issues A Massive Warning To Europe | Sparks Tensions Over EV Exports

“Just like their master, the E.U. resorts to tariffs to try to slow down the growth of Chinese EV’s in its market. In other words, when they can’t compete, they employ dirty tricks to get what they want. How can the E.U. go about the accusation of government subsidies when the same eletrict car costs nearly twice the one in the Chinese domestic market? The madness is beyond belief.”

China can make life really bad for European car manufacturers if it wanted to.

Who is probably the luckiest guy ever?

This man survived the unthinkable on 9/11.

Stanley Praimnath, was working on the 81st floor of the South Tower of the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001.

He was a vice president at Fuji Bank, a prestigious Japanese financial institution. He had a nice office with a view of the Statue of Liberty and the Hudson River.

He had a good life, a loving family, and a strong Christian faith.

But everything changed in an instant when he saw a plane flying straight toward his building.

He later recalled:

Depiction of the plane.

“I saw this giant airplane coming towards me eye level, eye contact. I’m looking at the cockpit of the plane and I see the red markings on it and I realize it’s an American Airlines plane.” He instinctively ducked under his desk and prayed: “Lord, I can’t do this! You take over!”

The plane crashed into the building between floors 77 and 85, just above Stanley’s office.

The impact was so powerful that it tore a hole in the wall behind him and sucked out everything in his office except his desk, which shielded him from the flames and debris. He was trapped in a small space with no way out.

Meanwhile, on the same floor, another man was looking for survivors. His name was Brian Clark,

a Canadian executive at Euro Brokers, another financial firm.

He had escaped from his office on the 84th floor, which was at the top of the impact zone, and was heading down Stairway A, the only one that wasn’t destroyed by the plane.

On his way down, he heard a faint voice crying for help from behind a wall of rubble.

He followed the sound and found Stanley’s hand waving through a hole. He shone his flashlight and saw Stanley’s eyes staring back at him.

He grabbed his hand and pulled him over the wall.

Stanley was overjoyed to see Brian. He kissed him and said:

“I’m Stanley! We’ll be brothers for life!” Brian agreed and said: “Let’s go home.”

The two men made their way down the stairs, dodging smoke and debris along the way. They reached the ground floor at 9:55 am, just five minutes before the South Tower collapsed.

They ran out of the building and hugged each other in relief. They had just become two of only four survivors from above the south tower impact zone.

Stanley later said that he owed his life to God and Brian. He said: “God sent an angel to save me.” Brian said:

“I don’t know why I survived when so many others didn’t. I guess God had other plans for me.”

After 9/11, Stanley became a Pentecostal pastor and a popular inspirational speaker with religious groups and churches. He also remained close friends with Brian, who he calls his brother for life.

Chopped Steak Special

Skillet Chopped Steak ExtraLarge1000 ID 1164090

Ingredients

1 1/2 pounds ground sirloin
3 tablespoons grated or minced onion
1 tablespoon minced chile pepper
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon spicy steak or Worcestershire sauce
1/4 teaspoon green or red Tabasco sauce

Instructions

Combine all ingredients until well mixed.
Shape into four fat oval patties.
Pan broil in a heavy skillet.

What are some examples of countries which went rapidly from rich to poor?

Cambodia.

In short answer, Cambodia used to be a prosperous country. After the end of the Indochina War (1945–1954), under the leadership of King Norodom Sihanouk (1922–2012), the economy of Cambodia rapidly went up for the next twenty years, with remarkable achievements. In 1960, the GPD per capita of Cambodia was US$ 111,34 and it was even higher than both North and South Vietnam at that time (with US$ 51 and US$ 105, respectively).

During the 1960s, while Vietnam was stuck into a devastated war, the economy of Cambodia continued to develop rapidly. The capital of Phnom Penh was among the “pearls” of the oriental, where notable figures of the world such as French President Charles De Gaulle (1890–1970) and Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis (1929–1994) had their visits.

However…

The fate of Cambodia was sealed on 18 March 1970, after the coup d’état against King Norodom Sihanouk, which was sponsored by the United States. Since then, Cambodia was stuck into a bloody civil war during the next five years (1970–1975), with hundred thousand deaths.

Unluckily, the end of the Cambodian Civil War in 1975 did not mark the beginning of the new peaceful era for Cambodian nation. On the contrary, it subsequently marked the beginning of the Maoist genocidal regime of Khmer Rouge, as one of the most brutal dictatorships in 20th century. “Comrade Pol Pot”, the supreme leader of Cambodia at that time once said:

“In the concrete revolutionary struggle of our country, we creatively and successfully applied Mao Tse-tung Thought.”

(Peking Review (北京周報), Vol. 20, No. 41, 07 October 1977, p. 25)

With Chinese Maoism in his mind together with strong military supports from People’s Republic of China, in just four years Pol Pot rapidly transformed his country into a massive “killing field”, where 2.0 to 3.0 millions of “counter-revolutionaries” or 1/3 of Cambodian population were exterminated! Historically, it was called the “Cambodian Genocide”, in which the whole country of Cambodia was returned to the “Year Zero” (Année Zéro). From a prosperous country during the 1960s, Cambodia became a constant famine-stricken and also one of the poorest countries in the world under the rule of Khmer Rouge regime.

The whole economic structure of Cambodia was totally bankrupt to the root when Pol Pot decided not to use the paper money anymore! The city of Phnom Penh subsequently became a “ghost city”. There were no more French-style coffee shops, no more luxury cars, no more beautiful lights of neon at night, but only the so-called “people’s communes” located around the country, where people were forced to work until their last breath. These below pictures were about the city of Phnom Penh under the rule of Khmer Rouge.

The “Cambodian Genocide” was finally ended on January 1979, when the Cambodian national uprising together with the Vietnamese offensive finally overthrown the rule of Pol Pot and his henchmen. During the next twenty years (1979–1999), together with the Vietnamese military assistance, the new government of Cambodia under the leadership of Hun Sen continued the fight against the remaining Khmer Rouge guerrillas until the death of Pol Pot in 1998 and the total disband of the Khmer Rouge faction in 1999.

Since 1993, Norodom Sihanouk officially returned as a King of Cambodia. Meanwhile, all of the former leaders of Khmer Rouge regime were charged with their crimes against the humanity.

Nowadays, although Cambodia is not a rich country, but the revival process is going on, the whole country of Cambodia is again going up rapidly from zero and obtains average GDP growth about 7.5% annually.

How to LEAVE AMERICA FOR GOOD and escape the rat race in the United States

If you’re thinking that America sucks and is going to hell recently, you’re not alone and lots of people are wondering how to set up an escape plan and get out of the USA permanently before it falls apart.

Or, you might simply be thinking that it would be better to live in another country, regardless of how well the United States is doing, because you’re trying to escape the rat race that we’ve built.

Whatever your motivations for wanting to leave the USA and travel the world full-time, this video will breakdown how to make money while traveling, different jobs available to foreigners, how to work online, how to find jobs in a foreign country, a few countries that I think are good first-time tryouts for anyone who is considering living the digital nomad life full-time, and much more.

“Digital Nomad” is a very highly hyped occupation, but in actuality, it doesn’t really work out that great.

How can we make peace between China and Taiwan?

Tesla CEO Elon Musk has already answered this question.

Taiwan is part of China.

Since 1956, Mao Zedong proposed the “third cooperation between the KMT and the CPC” to complete the mission of peacefully reunifying Taiwan, and proposed the policy of “One Program, Four projects”, the predecessor of “One Country, Two Systems”.

It is the hypocritical Yanks who have been blocking China’s efforts to unify Taiwan.

The United States has always been the main culprit in dividing China. Without the overt and covert support of Washington, the DPP would not be able to gain power in Taiwan.

We record everything the United States has done to China.

Revenge is a dish best served cold.

Why do service economies eventually become rent-seeking economies when growth slows down?

When service economies slow down; they resort to financialization.

This means that they create cash flow by creating debt instead of producing anything.

This is what has happened to the US economy. Most Americans are deeply in debt, and spend a significant portion of their monthly income paying interest on their debt.

It is NOT productivity.

Debt is a necessary part of life, but it should only be spent as an investment for future productivity, not for paying off daily expenses.

Frugal Living Is The Only Way To SURVIVE The Cost of Living Crisis

Fact.

Shanghaied in Shenzhen

I have related how I was retired from the ONI; MAJ branch, and what happened. I have told the story about how I got ready, and then took a plane and arrived in China… the very first opportunity I had.

But…

What I didn’t relate was the “bait and switch” that I endured for the first two weeks in China. And that story, I will relate now.

…

While I was in the ‘States, I was getting everything ready. Not just my identification, my clothing, and taking care of things, but also making arrangements inside of China. I contacted my ex-girlfriend (now my wife), and I made arrangements with her, and I found work.

I contacted a schoolmaster in Shenzhen who would take me on as a English teacher. And at that, I could start when the semester started, and low and behold, I made it happen.

I got my flight. Lost my bags. Was stranded in Newark New Jersey due to a storm, and then endured the 33 hour long flight to China.

So I arrived at Shenzhen.

…

Ah…

But… No one met me at the airport. Not my girlfriend. Not my new employer. Not any one else that I had contacted.

That sucks.

It has happened before, and I specifically tell everyone NEVER, EVER force an international traveler to arrive alone.

…

Ok.

Well… it’s all good right? I’m out of the Hell that the United States became for me. I’m out of their range, off their radar screen, and gone. Good bye!!!!

No problem.

So alone…

I wandered in the dark streets of Shenzhen until I found a hostel (I had to use a local app, that I had to install and all that hassle) and went to it. Given the late hour, they had me pay full price, seeing that it was 3am in the morning.

I entered the room.

Crashed!

Konk!

…

The very next day, I took a bus to the school and met the headmaster. First thing I did was ask him why he didn’t have anyone meet me like he promised.

No good answer. Hem. Haw. Bullshit.

Then, he proceeded to tell me that I couldn’t work there…

…he had another school “just down the street” that I would work at.

…and…

Oh, by the way, the salary would be much less. But it would still be free room and board, and all the rest.

…

WTF?

Yeah. What the fuck?

…

So I tried to call my girlfriend… no answer.

No options at that time.

Sigh, so I went along. Got in the car, and he drove down the road.

It’s just “down the road a spell”.

…

FOUR FUCKING HOURS LATER…

Yeah. Just “down the road a spell”.

Another fucking city.

…

He hand me over to this private training center and given my “handler”. You see Danguang was “too dangerous” for foreigners. So I was to have this person besides me at all times, and that I couldn’t go out or leave.

Nice girl. Cute.

Oh, and…

The doors to the house complex were locked tight at 9pm, and that was it. I had to stay inside, and be watched 24-7.

But…

I got my own room in a shared dorm, with a broken television, and it looked like it hadn’t been cleaned in a decade, and taught for one week…

…

When I finally got a hold of my girlfriend, she was furious!

I endured all that I went though in Arkansas, to arrive within blocks of my girlfriend, only to be whisked away to some decrepit town in the middle of nowhere. She was enraged.

Can you imagine?

She was really hot. I’ll tell you what.

So we hatched a plan.

Friday night, after the gate was locked I snuck out of my locked bed room…

… made it outside…

… then scaled the cement wall.

Went over the broken glass…

…the rusty barbed wire top, and jumped down….

… and then walked the two kilometers or so to the nearest inter-city bus.

Got one to Shenzhen and took the ride to my girlfriend.

There…

She got me an interview in the center of the city, and I got the job. Then she arranged for a hotel for me to stay at while we went house hunting. Yeah.

But…

No. It wasn’t so easy.

I had to endure being “Shanghaied” in Shenzhen. And now you all know the rest of the story.

How would the economic and military world dynamic change if Russia and China forged an agreement to work together militarily and economically?

They already are working together economically and militarily:

Russia is moving more of its foreign currrency reserves from US$ → Chinese yuan and;
They are holding military exercises, and in 2017, 3,000 Chinese troops with tanks entered Russia to participate in war games. They jointly hold anti-terrorism exercises on a regular basis.
Both countries are founding members of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, which is the leading security organization for central Asia.

To sum up, it is changing, but it is not given much coverage in the western press.

I wonder why?

Southern Jugged Soup

Ingredients

6 potatoes, sliced
1 onion, sliced
6 tomatoes or 2 cups canned tomatoes
1 turnip, diced
1 can peas
1 grated carrot
1/4 cup rice
3 quarts water
1 tablespoon salt
1 tablespoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1 pinch allspice

Instructions

Arrange vegetables, rice and seasonings in alternate layers in the bottom of a stone crock with a cover.
Boil any carcasses of cold chicken, bones of waste meat or steak with trimmings, in three quarts of water, until liquid is reduced to two quarts.
Strain, cool and remove.
Pour the broth over the vegetables.
Put on the cover and seal, using tape or muslin, to keep in the steam.
Set crock in a pan of hot water.
Place in oven and cook from four to six hours.

Recipe published in 1935 Southern Cook Book of Fine Old Dixie Recipes

𝘞𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦’𝘴 𝘔𝘺 𝘈𝘳𝘤 | 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘚𝘰𝘱𝘳𝘢𝘯𝘰𝘴 𝘦𝘥𝘪𝘵

Ireland Sends Ukraine Draft Extradition Notices

World Hal Turner

Ukrainians living in Ireland have begun receiving notices from the Ireland Department of Justice, informing them they are being Extradited to Ukraine to fulfill military Draft. Recipients are warned they can be imprisoned if they ignore the notice.

The letter contradicts itself. It points out “The Death Penalty does not apply to the offense” but death is most certainly what each Draftee will get when they come face to face with the Russian Army.

In a nutshell, what this is goes like this: Ukrainians anywhere in the world have been sent letters from the Ukraine government telling them they must come home to be Drafted and go fight in the war. They failed to come home and failed to respond, so Ukraine has issued criminal warrants for them.

Countries these people are in MUST extradite someone for a criminal warrant because Extradition is agreed to by Treaty.

THAT is how desperate Ukraine has become to draft more people to die against Russia.

Oliver Anthony- Rich Men North of Richmond (Remix Mashup ft. Black Pegasus & Chris Webby)

This is the rumbling under the ground of the United States. Great mashup.

Do you think America is falling apart?

I have spent the better part of a decade in the Middle East in a country that is just becoming modernized. It was considered a “hardship” assignment when I got there because everything would be more difficult than in the United States. Healthcare, telephone, internet, shopping. It was all a nightmare, but I managed to eventually get set up and I developed healthy habits, like exercising and not smoking and making healthy food. I read a lot, took classes online, and did fulfilling things. I was creative and I had time and money. I couldn’t go to movies, or get certain products, and I couldn’t even drive, but I could obtain these products and DVDs and I had a driver, so I lived a fulfilling life and was happy.

Now that I’m back in the United States, it is a bigger mess than it ever was there. I could get healthcare a lot easier over there. I thought it was terrible, because I faced a few Islamic rules and sometimes doctors lack credentials and made mistakes. However, the fact is that here there is a catastrophic amount of chronic illness befalling everyone at catastrophic rates. We all have cancer, diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease, and inflammatory conditions – we are all on pills with many side effects that only make the condition worse, or whatever they are selling now, including marijuana, to keep people sick with their lifelong, chronic diseases. Cures for disease are the only area of technology that hasn’t advanced since 1959. Everyone is struggling to afford medical care, mandated ny our governmenr, that is totally corrupt.

Stupid robots handle everything from answering phones to work schedules to banking. Yes, automated systems are just that: robots that are stupid; limited, thwarting and or cheating us left and right. If that is not broken I don’t know what is.

One has to leave here and find out how things are in the third world, and come back to really grasp how scary it has become.

Our movies and music are cheap and horrible now. They propagate numbness and annihilation of the mind. Lyrics are autotuned syllables repeating over and over again. It sounds garbled, like plastcized voices using mouthwash. Movies are not even worth seeing.

The fashion of today is unkempt with plastic hair color. Women with a spare tire hanging out of their icky jeans. Ratty hair. It’s no wonder no one overseas assumed I was an American.

Everyone shops at Walmart and everyone is fat.

Everyone is chronically depressed. Tired. Overwhelmed.

There is no middle class anymore.

Everyone is facing money problems.

Those that have money are driving ugly cars and wearing ugly black metal wedding bands and are still living in the same misery as everyone else.

People do not eat real food anymore.

Even pets are ill. My own pet got sudden onset diabetes and heart failure and died. I bought the best of food. But it was United States food. It probably killed him.

People have no pride in how they speak or write anymore. They text. Others text and drive. Everyone has their face in their device. It’s horrible. I’ve seen people at work holding a pencil with their fist. Yes, people plural.

The device is nothing but an RFID chip. It is tracking you. It knows your every move. It knows especially your health status. What pills you might be on next! What your last blood test was, the status of your health insurance. They want to find the next thing wrong with you. The only strategy to deal with overpopulation and flagging capitalism now is to sell everyone what they need to get sick and die. Bad food. Medical insurance. Obesity. Chronic disease.

For other industries, capitalism has toppled ethics and given rise to a mentality of “nothing matters except how much profits are” – and short term, not long-term gain is emphasized, at that.

Pollution and plastic garbage pervades.

Wildlife and natural beauty is dying.

Selling hunting tags, killing wolves – a cascade species that protects all living environments.

Internet should be cheap and free but it is outrageously priced.

Information on the internet is now “sold” so that searches do not turn out what you really want to know. Instead what comes up is related to what you could buy, based on your other searches. Instagram and Facebook is what constitutes relationships which ee now call “social networking”.

The President tweets and is unaware of and not addressing many real problems.

Young people can’t afford college.

They say now college is a scam.

Young people live at home. They can’t find jobs.

Jobs now are often a scam.

This place is horrible! I wish I never came back.

Those of you who haven’t been out of here don’t realize how messed up things are here. It’s not “going downhill” or “getting bad”.

It’s absolutely an atrocious, horrible, toxic nightmare.

Crime and guns are rampant. Someone close to me got a gun and threatened my life since I came home.

Old people are losing their social security.

Iran really sucked I thought. I couldn’t deal with it for two weeks. It was hard to plug anything in even. They were protesting there and trying to overthrow the government, to an extent utterly unknown to anyone here. They wanted to be free like us.

In America we are not free to do things and buy things. We can’t get to anything, because we are busy trying to get money, and things cost too much and they are no good.

We are all different species of rats running in different kinds of mazes that we have created for ourselves. All sick and dying and spending everything we have to pay for it.

This is the truth and it may hurt but it’s time to wake up.

Sopranos-Paulie does the gardeners

Paulie stopped a guy from smoking, help another guy from a tree, and negotiated a business deal all within 5 mins. A true role model for America’s youth.

Why do we need semi auto rifles? In the UK for instance you can buy most rifles (with good reason and robust background checks) but you can’t buy semi autos over 0.22 calibre. They seem to hunt boar, deer, foxes etc with no problem.

Show me someone who says you can reliably, quickly, and humanely (as in outside of a very lucky shot) take down a boar with a .22 and I will show you someone who knows not a thing about hunting or wild boars. So let a humble country boy from Texas edumacate you.

This is a feral hog (North America). It is a hybrid of domestic European pigs that got loose over the course of literal centuries (the Spanish first introduced them to the New World in the 1500s) and later wild European boars in the early 1900s.

The average male weighs around 400 pounds (180 kilograms) and stand at or just about at 1 meter tall at the shoulder. Standing beside the average human adult male, they come up to about the hip. They are almost immune to poison, venom (rattlesnakes and copperheads are part of their regular diet), and diseases. They can sprint up to 30 miles per hour – they can conceivably run down Usain Bolt. Adults have very sharp, very dangerous tusks averaging 7 inches (17 cm) long. They are omnivores that eat anything, including aforementioned snakes, carrion, and even newborn deer.

We’re talking about a beast that has hide up to two inches (5 cm thick) backed by a layer of fat that sort of self-closes when punctured, and runs around in sounders of a dozen individuals or more and carries the average London chav’s shiv around in their mouths. And the majority of their DNA is derived from wild European boars – so they’re also quite aggressive. The reason you hunt feral hogs from a tree stand is because you’ll likely end up in the tree anyway…

Point being: we ain’t talking about Wilbur or Babe here.

I have seen these animals shrug off multiple .223 Remington* rounds – that’s a bullet that isn’t much bigger around than a .22 LR, but has a greater mass and travels much faster. Most feral hog hunters use something much more robust; personally I used my venerable SKS in 7.62x39mm Russian (until Putin’s special military operation drove prices sky high). It takes at least that much of an oomph to make an adult feral hog feel it – and often, it takes more than one shot no matter where you hit them because they’re absolute tanks.

So imagine what it takes to hunt a bear, or moose, or even a less aggressive but equally stout ungulate like a mule deer.

Contrary to what you believe, a .22 LR is perfectly fine for rabbits, squirrels, and other small, delicate critters** – but it will only piss a feral hog off. If they even feel it. And if they do feel it, you absolutely need to have multiple backup shots on deck because the chances they’ll charge you are about the same as the chances they’ll run away.

* by the way, that is roughly identical to the 5.56mm NATO round that, well, is called 5.56mm NATO for a reason.

** and yes, you can definitely kill a human being with a .22 round. But that’s not because a .22 round is powerful – it’s because human beings are pretty soft and squishy as far as the animal kingdom goes.

Family Guy- Stewie & Brian run a Brothel

Stewie and Brian start a BnB which later turns into a Brothel.

What is something your neighbor did that you couldn’t believe?

I hired my neighbor a contractor to replace my patio as it was needing to be done for years. He did a super job. the price included a table and 2 chairs for me to enjoy it. I was going to use some old chairs for the rest of the seating. He brought over two more matching chairs when I asked him to replace the old ones onto the patio. I asked how much the extra two matching chairs would be. He said it was a gift. I cried, as I never had been treated so kindly in my 83 years.

Ran North Jersey | Sopranos Edit

I hope that you all enjoy this work of art.

What is the most absurd thing you’ve been charged for on a bill?

The charge was removed from my bill. Caesar got extra treats and a new toy that day too.

She DIED & Discovered We Live In A Simulation | NEAR DEATH EXPERIENCE

Near-death experience guest 907 is Virginia Drake. During her NDE experience she encountered the Council of 12.

China is Eclipsing the US (and Japan) to Become the World’s Animation Powerhouse

A Review of Deep Sea (2023) by Tian Xiaopeng

In the new Chinese animated film Deep Sea, a girl on a cruise with her dad, step-mom, and step-siblings gets thrown overboard during a storm. As she clings to a life preserver, awaiting rescue and barely alive, her imagination transports her to an underwater world of anthropomorphic walruses and squid-like demons, plus many other bizarre creatures, who help her process her mother’s absence. It’s Spirited Away (directed by Japanese animation titan Hayao Miyazaki) meets Life of Pi, and it’s one of the best animated films in years. The cutting edge animation technology cost tens of millions of dollars, and I’m glad someone threw that kind of money toward something so risky, unattached to any existing intellectual property or popular brand.

I’m convinced director Tian Xiaopeng will go down as one of the animation greats, alongside the likes of Walt Disney, Tex Avery, and of course Miyazaki. Starting from the launchpad of Pixar’s innovations, Deep Sea skyrockets into galaxies Pixar’s team couldn’t even dream of. Through dazzling sequences of fluid color that wash across the screen, the film translates traditional Chinese ink drawing into breathtaking CGI animation. The end product is a style that is both innovative and distinctly Chinese.

I can understand arguments asserting that Tian’s maximalist style can get overwhelming. I could sympathize with anyone who claims Deep Sea is a bit too long. Tian really does let his entire arsenal loose on this film, like he wants to show off anything and everything he’s capable of. But I prefer this bombastic style to muted or irony-poisoned restraint. The latter approach has trapped a lot of younger artists in the US who could be great if they would only drop their pretense to nihilism. As mentioned in the title of this essay, China is surpassing us on the artistic front, and we should humble ourselves and learn from their advances.

And on that note, what a shame it is that this gorgeous film is getting near zero exposure in the US. In China it played on IMAX; here I had to watch it on my laptop via some obscure streaming site. Its foreignness, specifically its Asianness, is no excuse for the lack of any kind of marketing push stateside. See, for example, the massive success of Japanese anime here and in other parts of the West. I’m currently reading up on the history of the importation of anime to the United States, and I’ll be writing more of my reflections on that process and how it might potentially be applied to importing Chinese animation and other recent popular culture.

U.S. To Assassinate Niger Coup Leaders? Putin’s Intel Drops A Bombshell

U.S. To Assassinate Niger Coup Leaders? Putin’s Intel Drops A Bombshell – Nations like the United States and France have unequivocally expressed their positions regarding the recent coup d’états occurring in certain African countries. However, aside from imposing sanctions, there has been no indication of these major powers actively intervening in these coup situations.

However, the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) has reported that the U.S. government is deliberating the possibility of taking action against the leaders of the newly established military administration in Niger Republic, which assumed power in late July.

According to the SVR statement the United States is contemplating the potential of taking direct action against the leaders of Niger’s National Council for the Safeguard of the Homeland, the group responsible for orchestrating the military coup against Niger President Mohamed Bazoum.

As per intelligence received by the SVR, the United States is evidently dissatisfied with the unfolding events in Niger, where an interim government led by General Abdourahamane Tchiani recently assumed control following a military coup.

Washington is actively exploring strategies not only to curb the rise of Africa as a significant center of influence in the multipolar world—a development seen as potentially perilous for Western interests—but also to assert its influence in the strategically vital Sahel region, effectively taking over the role previously held by France, stated the SVR press office.

https://youtu.be/dhU0XqlZvgg

Is the Ouija board dangerous?

When it comes to the paranormal, I’ve had a few odd experiences, some really creepy, others rather comforting but through it all I believe the power of the mind is pretty amazing and believe all possibilities need to be acknowledged.

When it comes to the Ouijia board, I admit I’ve been pretty spooked but not say its totally dangerous..

My first experience with a Ouija was after Christmas 1993 a friend I knew had one she recieved for Christmas, brand new, unopened we decided to play in her basement.

I don’t remember the context but it seemed normal, than something sinister came through it kept repeating “Ozozozozozozo” we thought it was “Ozoz”…. It spooked us out as it kept getting more violent. So we said “Good bye” and put it away…I don’t remember us ever playing again.

It wasn’t until I got online many years later and found out there was a common spirit named “Zozo” that comes through Ouija boards, I’m not sure if she knew this or not…we were a couple of 9 year olds with no Internet, and no library to research it within 5 miles. We also came away thinking its name was Ozoz… but whatever this is lots of people experienced it.

Another time we played for fun and my ex husbands friend was a non believer, suddenly his mom came through he was watching three of us play, but not participating.

His mother died 5 years before my ex husband met as teens, so he knew things about her life I wouldn’t, his other friends son, or my husband wouldn’t know.

He asked “only I know what your favorite drink is, what is it?” It spelled out “grape soda” he looked shocked.

Then he asked the Ouija “what did I put in your coffin when you died?“ it said “picture”. Lastly…. He said “what was on the picture?“ the Ouija replied a picture of “a heart names”. It was a heart with their names folded up and put with her body, none of us could know that.

Sounds beautiful and comforting, well that was it. It started getting violent saying things like “die, rape” repeatedly…horrible things!

No harm came to anyone one, but this certainly wasn’t the manifestation of our thoughts or behavior as we were very happy to see him tear up over the experience thinking it was genuine until the other bit happened.

When we did this, the other friends son was making fun of it, taunting it, scratches appeared on his neck we wanted to see what caused it, and we don’t know his hands were in front of him on the board the whole time.

Putin Hasn’t Even STARTED Yet ft Col Macgregor

Maybe Kamala just confused the word Russia with Ukraine… then it makes sense…

https://youtu.be/dCj4ZjqLeig

Do members of so-called itinerant groups in Europe (such as Irish Travellers) live in what Americans call mobile homes?

Over the last few months I’ve made friends in the Romanichal and Traveller communities online, since many of us are distant cousins rekindling our roots through DNA.

One of my friends who always calls me “cuz” still travels with her husband and family. They travel in Caravans and set up in local areas, maybe open fields, parks, a few of her family became settled, many have settled now days.

However I see them every so often down by the sea front, they live in RV’s or at least travel in them…not the US double wide or anything.

She lives full time in one, some people may have something like a base, maybe the home or property of a settled relative, some keep moving.

One man I met said his grandfather family pitched in and acquired property and put there caravans on it. The property always stays within the family.

I imagine there has to be some fixed address somewhere in all this, I haven’t figured that one out.

Why did South Korea secretly supply Huawei with a large number of chips so that it can release a new mobile phone product Mate 60?

This is fake news.

The Japanese and chinese media has completely disassembled the Huawei Mate60 mobile phone and found that 90% of the parts of this mobile phone are produced in China.

The only components provided by South Korean suppliers are memory chips from Hynix.

But this kind of memory chip is a general-purpose product sold publicly and used in many digital devices, and does not need to be provided secretly.

Since the technology required for this kind of chip is not that cutting-edge, there are domestic suppliers in China that can replace Hynix.

“They are HIDING this about China, and it’s about to get worse”

We are being treated a barrage of anti-China headlines today. The Wall Street Journal reports that Chinese spies are infiltrating U.S. military bases by asking for a Burger King…That’s weird. China is said to be ready to conduct military exercises with Russia and North Korea in response to the U.S. conducting military exercises with South Korea. Huawei released a new smartphone that has the U.S. wondering how they did that. This is a lot of China worry. What is behind it? Carl Zha joins us to discuss this and break this down between the lines.

I am scared of dying. Can anyone help, and is there an afterlife?

I can’t blame you for being scared of dying. It feels like a huge step to take, and all we know here is life!!

But I can tell you that I have been out of my physical body too many times to count, in full aware consciousness, and we do not need a physical body to be “our selves” in a true sense. (Well, of course we do to get through physical life while we live here, but what I am saying is you can live, be aware, be free, without a physical body.)

Okay, well, besides that I have had such strong and beautiful contacts with loved ones passed. They are obviously still living in another dimension which can connect with this one from time to time. So try not to be so afraid. When your time comes to cross, you will accept your transition happily, I bet , and see and feel the beauties in what lies beyond this limited physical form we have got so used to living in! We will see a much wider spectrum of reality. I feel it is something to actually look forward to.

BLOCKADE FAILED! Huawei 5G chip mass production | Holland Hopes to Return To Chinese Market

Whoever listens to the US eventually ends up kicking their own ass.

https://youtu.be/ME53gT0cdb8

What does a normal family look like in the US?

First of all, a “normal family” is NOT the same thing as an “average family”.

Here, I will describe what a “normal family” living in the United States looks like. This description was the “textbook” descriptor used throughout the United States up until the late 1980’s. Today, of course it has been totally revamped and has become a bastardized Frankenstein monster.

So, here we will use the per-bastardized official United States description of what a “normal” American family looks like…

It has two people that define a “family unit”. One is male and the other is female.
The male will work. The female will take care of domestic responsibilities. (Due to the catastrophic economic situation in the Untied States, today, most families have both people working.)
These two people will typically have children. But not always.
The number of children varies considerably from family to family. Some have only one child, while others might have many, many. The reasons have to do with economic stratification, and religion. With heritage, and geographical location playing a major role.
Most families will cook their own meals, and eat in restaurants once or twice a week. (This varies from the 1960’s which was once or twice a month.)
Most families will have a car. Many will own multiple vehicles.
Most families will own televisions, computers, and cell phones.
Most families will be in debt. (Today, the family debt tends to be enormous,)
Most families will be educated. (Today, the quality of education tends to be substandard compared to the rest of the world.)
There is a stratification in home ownership. Some people of social-economic background will own homes while others of different backgrounds will not.
Most families will have family members taking medicines.

Of course, this is not an exhaustive answer. It is a general answer and is useful ONLY if you wish to compare your life and family against an “American normal”.

I advise everyone NEVER to compare yourself to others. You are unique. Whether you are LGBTQ+ or something else, whether you are rich, or poor, or an immigrant or a “blue blood”, makes no difference. You are precious. It is your responsibility to define YOUR LIFE on YOUR TERMS.

And whatever you decide; I support your decisions. Because I believe that you are smart enough to plan and execute your own precious lifestyle.

How do comedians get their starts as comedians?

40 something aluminum siding salesman Jacob Rodney Cohen tried to break into standup comedy comparatively late in life. Nobody wanted to hear what an aging wannabe had to say, and he was having trouble getting bookings. He fell deeply into debt and depression as a result. The only place that would book him (jokingly referred to as Denunzio’s in his act) only did so if he did it for free. He was basically playing to a crowd that was more concerned with what dinner fork to use, than listening to him. He knew he needed to come up with a gimmick, a persona that would differentiate himself from the myriad of other amateur comedians trying to break in.

Denunzio’s was frequented by older, low level mobsters. One night while waiting to go on, he overheard one of these individuals lament that the new guys coming up showed him no respect. No respect at all. He latched onto it, ran with it, and nailed it. Yep, using that catchphrase, and style of self-deprecating humor, Rodney Dangerfield was born that night as the lovable schlub and ne’er-do-well who couldn’t do anything right.

Gina Raimondo visits China. Bringing the “Carrot and Stick” in the most boring, American way.

In this episode of China Currents: Gina Raimondo visits China. China puts on new economic policies to stimulate economy. China finally puts an end to the COVID testing policy.

How is the Chinese company Huawei an existential threat to the security of the United States?

Thanks for the request.

No. Not to the security of the U.S.

China has no plan of invading the U.S. but they do very much want to win the chip war which would mean decimating the U.S. chip companies and directly affect how the U.S. military can sustain our combat readiness.

It’s amazing how Huawei was able to keep its development so much completely under wrap until their launch. Considering that it needed the entire village to build the ecosystem for Huawei, so too was it not just Apple but its entire ecosystem of supply chain contractors that took the hit in the market.

This is not an overnight thing and not just about one company. trump banned Huawei on May 2019 and set China on the course of having to build its own chip industry. And as projected then, this is just on track that within 10 years that China should be able to have its own self contained industry to produce its own chips. It is estimated that it would take about 5 years before they can make it’s own lithography machine.

China is the existential threat to the U.S. hegemony.

The latest Xi Jinping government directive banning Apple for official use will definitely be followed by SOEs and related parties. What’s the effect on Apple sales in China and Apple future share price?

After the announcement, Apple shares dropped by about 8%. It has recovered slightly since then. It is possible that the share prices will drop further when China sales figures are known.

I expect iPhone sales to drop significantly even among the public in China, firstly because of Xi’s directive and secondly because of the announcement of the new Huawei phones.

It is a fitting Chinese response to Apple after moving manufacturing to India (only to regret it later).

Why do many Chinese take it personally when their country is criticized?

I don’t think that they take it too personally when their country is criticised. But they do take it personally, when that criticism contains lies and falsehoods.

In that way, the Chinese are very different from, let’s say, the Americans. You can see this clearly from Quora itself. Every so often, there will be Americans on Quora posting grandioise questions such as “Why is the USA the greatest country in the world?”.

When I point out objective facts to show why this is untrue

(eg I note that the USA is plagued by horriific levels of gun violence; their literacy level is very low for a developed country; they have the world’s highest rate of dryg overdose deaths; their state of democracy is shameful as evidenced by, for example, the Capitol Hill riots; their public infrastructure is crumbling, as certified by their own engineers; their police brutality is systemic; their income inequality is huge; they practise slavery in the form of prison labour – see the exception to their 14th amendment which allows for slavery),

well, the Americans get upset and angry.

And yet I am just speaking the facts and truth. Oh well.

Price Hike

This guy, he knows how to put what we’re all thinking into words! You the man!

He is a treasure.

Is the communist party getting ready to retire Xi Jin PingPong for his incompetence in handling China’s challenges? https://asia.nikkei.com/Editor-s-Picks/China-up-close/Analysis-Xi-reprimanded-by-elders-at-Beidaihe-over-direction-of-nation

West and Japanese fools better stop dreaming. Xi is super popular with the Chinese people.

What is your comfort Chinese dish or food that can bring you smiles, when it is needed?

My two most favourite Chinese dishes are and have always been sweet and sour pork, and lemon Chicken, and my wife makes both to perfection, but then I can’t think of a single Chinese dish that I don’t like, and yes, when ever my wife makes them I have a smile on my face.

What factors may be driving China to expedite the process of dumping the US dollar and US debt?

Fitch downgrading US credit rating is a warning to all, not just China. The rising interest rate to counter inflation is not working. Instead, it only increased government interest expense, while national debt keeps climbing, creating a vicious cycle that guarantees the US will never get out of its debt. Going forward, the US can only increase its reliance on bullying tactics to maintain its hegemony to sustain its domestic economy. The writing is on the wall.

Many US politicians have openly demanded defaulting on the US treasury bonds held by China. That is not music to China’s ear. In fact, many countries and their civilians have assets in the US arrogated for no fault of theirs. The US just decides to rob them such as what it did to Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq and many other countries who are too weak to defend themselves against such robbery. The most recent victim of such robbery is Russia after putting up a fight to defend its national security against NATO encroachment after years of protest had been ignored. Even the SWIFT was weaponized against Russia.

The US has been trying to pick a fight with China. Part of the motivation is to erase its debt to China. It’s obvious that China is forced to take preventive measures by freeing itself from a hostage situation.

Southern Peanut Butter Soup
with Pepper Jelly

Ingredients

2 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons grated onion
1 celery stalk, thinly sliced
2 tablespoons flour
3 cups chicken broth
1/2 cup creamy peanut butter
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup light cream
2 tablespoons roasted peanuts, chopped
1/2 cup hot pepper jelly

Instructions

Melt butter in a saucepan over low heat; add onion and celery. Sauté for about 5 minutes.
Add flour and mix until well blended.
Stir in chicken broth and allow to simmer for about 30 minutes.
Remove from heat, strain broth.
Stir the peanut butter, salt and cream into the strained broth until well mixed.
Serve hot.
Garnish each serving with a teaspoon of chopped peanuts and a dollop of jelly.

Yield: 4 servings

Why has Putin accepted fake map of China? Is Putin afraid of Xi Jinping? How many countries have rejected this map of China? How will India and Narendra Modi handle Xi Jinping?

Nonsense

Xi Jingping and China are very formidable adversaries

They can rattle global markets in seconds if they decide to do so

A Simple apple iphone ban for Government Officials has caused a $ 216 Billion share value depreciation for Apple

Putin is not frightened of Xi

Putin knows Xi is firmly on his camp

He knows Russia and China have tied their fates together as has Iran

Either all the three nations will make peace with the West or all the three will form their own BLOC

INDIA?

Modi has his feet in both camps

If Putin makes an enemy of China, Putin loses the Yuan Buttress, the Investments, the Huge Supply Chain for Russias Industries and the Huge Chinese Imports that keep the consumer economy going

Not to mention a very strong Geopolitical player with a very strong army with a huge military industry that can outproduce NATO easily

India?

If Putin makes an enemy of India, he loses sales of Oil to India but frankly he won’t care much because the payment is still very cumbersome

India loses Discounted oil and will pay $ 95 a barrel and maybe even $ 100 a barrel and risk inflation

India has zero geopolitical influence outside Bhutan , is a nation that knelt before Qatar and kowtowed to their demands in a mere 24 hours (Against China who openly forbade the name. Mohammad and Abu in Xinjiang, demolished mosques and Qatar did zilch)

India has no military industry to assist Russia in a major war, it’s production capacity a mere 17% of Russias and 8% of Chinas

India has little by way of investment potential against the vast $ 42 Billion invested by China in Russia in the last 3 years

Plus Modi can easily jump to the US Camp tomorrow and leave Putin hanging

Plus if Modi dies or resigns, the next PM can jump to the US Camp whereas the CPC is the CPC even after Xi and likely so is Russia

So dont be stupid

Putin will always choose Xi over Modi because Russia needs China a hundred times more today than India

Putin wants to be friends with India too and has kept his relations firm

He hasn’t accepted Xis Map

He just hasn’t commented on it

Neither has Modi right?

Modi too hasn’t justified Russias SMO so far while China has justified the SMO as a legitimate action needed

How will Modi handle Xi Jingping?

Modi should just do his job and mind his own business

Xi Jingping is intent on forming his own BLOC today

His focus is on other players – Oil rich players, Food rich players

He may offer India a nice border solution soon which could include full recognition of all lands disputed in exchange for a road through kashmir to xinjiang connecting Gwadar and existing water rights to the Brahmaputra region

Plus closer friendship in the BRICS

India would do well to take it as it is a win, win for us

I believe Xi is ready to extend this offer today but Modi wants an unconditional recognition of Ladakh and Arunachal to make it look like a victory for him

It’s maybe why Xi released that Map in the first place

Hell. | The Sopranos

Another fine fan video.

Extraterrestrial mummies in Mexico

There is something that has been bugging me / pestering me, over the last few days. And that is the Mr. Titor saga.

I covered this time machine / dimensional vehicle elsewhere on MM.

But sure, his dates were wildly wrong, but what I want to discuss something that bugs me to no end.

When he described what 2035 looks like, Lordy… I mean it sure sounds like what the United States is shaping up to become. From the home-made videos and demise of major TV shows. To the lack of retail and big retail stores. To the emphasis on more natural and “real” music a.k.a. Oliver Anthony… it is all too strong and makes me wonder.

Certainly his ideas about world war 3 in 2008 or so were wildly off. Wrong as in catastrophically wrong. They described a world more akin to 1995, than what the world looks like today.

However…

It is his description of his vehicle, and his predictions of the future that were spot on.

…

His vehicle ran world-line slides. A crude method compared to what I was involved in with MAJestic.

And anything can happen.

And what he described… world war 3, destruction of the USA and China, and all the rest seems like it is not going to occur today. If anything, it is a balkanization of the planet into quarters, and alliances accordingly.

But the social trends are bench-marked. They seem to be occurring.

…

I am reading this as a lateral slide event.

Social and societal changes are unchanged. They are common and associated with human trend-lines.
Geo-political events, and national trends are very different.

…

You see, in all of my MAJ slides, the societal trend lines seemed to be rather constant. With some very minor changes. But the major changes were Geo-Political in nature. The factors that moved herd / mass migration events seemed to be wildly divergent.

As such, then, on this template; on this world-line base start point, we have a different frame of reference, and the United States has just gotten weaker, while China has gotten stronger…

Quite different from the John Titor narrative.

…and thus the great nuclear war was delayed with some very different outcomes manifesting.

That is what I have been thinking about.

Very different outcomes.

From what John Titor narrated to the US public in 2000.

…

No wonder Domain is in China now.

The trend lines are reaching some very dangerous cross-roads, and the switching of templates are limiting the destruction while all the evil / malevolent are trapped within certain geographical regions.

Very interesting.

Don’t you know.

…

Today.

Is it safe to say that China is pretty much public enemy#1?

Of course. China is the cause of all of the USA’s problems.

See how the white cops keep killing black people in the USA – this surely is China’s doing.

Observe the mass shootings that plague the whole of the USA – at schools, malls, supermarkets, churches, pubs, cinemas, workplaces – this too must be China’s doing.

Did you know that the USA’s literacy rate has plunged t0 78%? (Developed countries usually have a literacy rate between 95 to 100%). China must have caused this.

Look at the ever-increasing number of homeless people living in tents in the streets of the USA. We know that this is China’s fault.

US engineers say that many of the bridges and roads and other public infrastructure in the USA are “crumbling”. Why didn’t China take steps to stop this?

In the USA, even the water pipes are leaking lead into the supply of drinking water at public schools, poisoning the children. China must be blamed!

Look at how Americans hate each other! Even families stop talking to each other, because some are Democrats and some are Republicans. Once again, China is guilty.

The average life expectancy in the USA keeps dropping! Americans keep dying at a younger age. Becauae they are more and more obese these days and; their healthcare system is too expensive. Surely China had something to do with this.

Women in the USA even have problems getting birth control and abortions! The infant mortality rate AND the maternal mortality rate in the USA have fallen to the levels typically found in developing countries. Let’s blame China for this too.

But not to worry. The USA still has more gender pronouns than China. So the USA will prevail.

Southern Style Smothered Ham

Ingredients

2 slices ham, cut 1/2-inch thick (uncooked)
1 teaspoon dry mustard
2 onions, sliced
2 cups sliced pared apples
12 whole cloves
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup water

Instructions

Heat oven to 350 degrees F.
Place 1 slice ham in shallow baking pan; spread half the mustard on ham.
Top with onions and apples; cover with second slice of ham.
Rub remaining mustard onto meat; place cloves in fat portion of ham.
Mix sugar and water together; boil 5 minutes.
Pour syrup over ham.
Bake for 1 hour, basting with sugar and water syrup 2 or 3 times.

The Sopranos – Breaking Balls Goes Too Far

Joking around goes too far between Eugene Pontecorvo and Paulie Jr at the esplanade construction site.

Mexico Congress reveals 1,000-year-old ‘alien corpses’

Ufologist Jaime Maussan stated that scientists at the National Autonomous University of Mexico used radiocarbon dating to obtain DNA evidence from specimens found in Peru

Written by Annesha Barua –September 13th 2023 04:05 PM

Mexico, September 13: During a public hearing in the Mexico Congress, two alleged ‘alien corpses’ were unveiled, along with videos displaying UFOs and unidentified phenomena. The small mummified specimens, believed to be 1,000 years old and found in diatom mines in Cusco, Peru, were showcased in windowed boxes.

Ufologist Jaime Maussan, testifying under oath, stated that the specimens were not part of Earth’s evolution. DNA evidence and X-rays were presented during the hearing, revealing unusual characteristics such as unknown DNA and rare metal implants, including Osmium. Ryan Graves, a former US Navy pilot, was also present.

Unusual DNA and rare implants

Jaime Maussan, a journalist and ufologist, explained that the specimens had been studied at the National Autonomous University of Mexico, where radiocarbon dating was used to determine their age. Comparing the DNA from the specimens to other samples, researchers found that over 30% of the DNA was “unknown.” X-rays of the bodies were displayed during the hearing, revealing the presence of “eggs” in one of the bodies and implants made of rare metals, including Osmium.

Ryan graves in attendance

Ryan Graves, the executive director of Americans for Safe Aerospace and a former US Navy pilot, was present at the hearing. He had previously testified under oath to the US Congress about the national security threat posed by unidentified aerial phenomena (UAP).

Credibility and skepticism

While the hearing took place in the Mexico Congress, it’s important to note that Jaime Maussan has been associated with ‘fake’ claims of ‘aliens’ in the past. In 2017, he was involved in the analysis of alleged mummies discovered in Peru, which were later debunked (by whom?) as the mummified remains of human children.

If the US dumps chips in the Chinese market at very low prices, how will the Chinese government react?

Unlike the White House, the China government does not interfere with the corporate behaviour of civilian companies.

The issue is essentially that as a solidly run mobile phone manufacturer you have to choose a stable supply chain.

Before the United States launched chip sanctions against China, the United States had been dumping chips into the Chinese market!

In Q1 2021, MediaTek accounted for 37% of the smartphone SoC market in China and Qualcomm 29%. The total of the two is 66%.
In Q2 2021, MediaTek accounted for 40% of China’s smartphone SoC market and Qualcomm 31%. Total 71% for both.
In Q3 2021, MediaTek accounted for 43% of the smartphone SoC market in China, Qualcomm 32%. Total 75% for both.
In Q4 2021, MediaTek accounted for 38% of the smartphone SoC market in China, Qualcomm 30%. Total 68% for both.
In Q1 2022, MediaTek accounted for 41% of the smartphone SoC market in China, Qualcomm 34%. Total 75% for both.
In Q2 2022, MediaTek accounted for 42% of the smartphone SoC market in China, Qualcomm 36%. Total 78% for both.

Now, the U.S. chip has been unable to return to the former dumping state.

Replacing a mobile phone chip is not an easy task; its software and hardware must match. Moreover, Chinese mobile phone makers have already found a new domestic chip supplier.

Business partnerships are like marriages. Once a marriage loses trust, it can never be the same again. Because there is no guarantee that you will not have a second betrayal?

It’s like if you divorced your ex-wife and regretted it so much that you wanted to remarry, but your ex-wife has already remarried, and you still want your ex-wife to divorce her current husband? Even the most arrogant person would not be so delusional.

Once you exit the Chinese market and lose market share, it is almost impossible to come back. Unless American chips are given away for free, but can chipmakers do that at 0 cost?

Developing market share costs money.

If you lose market share, you lose market share. No one’s always there for you.

What screams “I’m upper class”?

When I did a year at an English university I shared a house with girl who was from what the Brits call old money.

She dressed fashionably but never wore anything with logos. And she noticed right away that Im the same and never wear clothing with logos. She was polite to everyone from the bin man to the university cleaning staff and even if guys tried to talk to us she didn’t let them crash and burn but made it clear she was not interested in a polite way without soundy bitchy.

She always introduced me right away to her friends before getting into a conversation with them and when I had friends come over from Norway she always introduced herself using her full name which always sounded odd to me but I noticed her friends and family did the same.

She was not a girly girl either. She visited me in Norway and when my grandfather caught a salmon she grabbed the club and killed it without flinching which is very unlike 99.99 percent of British girls.

She was very observant of everything around her and used disarming charm to get people to help her with anything she needed. And I noticed it was the same with a lot of her friends from similar backgrounds.

My dads a Brit and joked to me he could smell her class the first time he visited us, I said don’t be rude and he just pointed at her wax cotton jacket hanging in the hall and said, I can smell the old money from here.

What brutal firing strategy is often used by companies?

My favorite was the trader who called his mistress on his trading phone. Big things with multiple lines of which each and every one is recorded for compliance reasons, in case a trade is contested or whatnot.

But the management wanted to get rid of him (and his rather large compensation package) so they asked him to the HR office.

Management: we want you to resign
The guy: no way, we’re in France, if you want me to go, you’ll have to pay a hefty severance package.
Management: <presses “play” />
Management: (after the record finishes) We already have a delivery guy in the lobby, if you don’t sign your wife will have the record in thirty minutes. Your choice.

The guy quickly calculated that the divorce settlement would be worth more than the severance package and resigned on the spot. The delivery guy was paid, and the delivery cancelled.

That is brutal. Almost maffia like.

Edit: I must add that it was completely illegal of course, but as they kept the record, he was not going to go to the police… the place was fun we also had a guy who was so well known for sexual harassment or worse that he had a clause in his contract to deduct any settlement with his trainees and employees from his bonus.

Edit 2 : In the same company but another country, I also witnessed a fantastic boot up the arse: the top management was thinking about replacing a MD. Just about 5 people were aware of the plan, but it leaked. So, five emails with different plans were sent. Old spy stuff. One came out.

The tantrum was spectacular and the guy was carried out by security. The head of compliance was spilling the beans. He got a good yelling and was kicked out of the building without ceremony, all in half an hour.

Did you survive a gun fight? How did it go?

Yes.

Routine traffic stop.

Stolen car with cold plates.

Driver had been drinking but unbeknownst to me, he’d walked away from our County jail farm two days earlier and committed an armed robbery earlier in the evening.

The driver pulled a Colt .357 Magnum on me.

After a few exciting minutes we exchanged gunfire at a distance of about 15 yards.

I was in an open field, he had the cover of his vehicle.

Fortunately, while I came *very* close, we missed each other.

He was captured the next morning and, eventually was sentenced to fifteen years in San Quentin.

I had nightmares for several years but they eventually went away.

Secret Hidden Tunnels found 300′ below Maui, Hawaii

Always up for a adventure We take off into the depths of Maui in search of secret passageways. Hidden in the cane fields there is gate ways into the unknown.

NATO Commences Snap “Northern Coast Exercise” in Baltic Sea

World Hal Turner

Today, Saturday September 9, 2023, NATO began a snap military exercise named “Northern Coast” in the Baltic Sea near St. Petersburg, Russia.

the “exercise” involves about 30 ships and more than 3,000 NATO member-country service members. It will, for the first time, practice how to respond to a Russian assault in the region, Germany’s navy chief said on Friday.

“We are sending a clear message of vigilance to Russia: Not on our watch,” Vice-Admiral Jan Christian Kaack told reporters in Berlin. “Credible deterrence must include the ability to attack.“

Troops from all NATO countries on the Baltic Sea, plus soon-to-be member Sweden and non-Baltic allies the U.S., Canada, the Netherlands, Belgium, and France, will train side by side. They will practice amphibious operations and strikes from sea to land.

It is Russia they will be practicing to attack. Even the name of the exercise, “Northern Coast” is a direct reference to St. Petersburg, Russia, as seen on the map below:

The U.S. navy will send the Mesa Verde into the drills, Kaack said, a ship of more than 200 meters (656 ft) length, designed to transport and land some 800 marines in an amphibious assault.

Securing the sea routes through the Baltic Sea is another focus of the exercise that will take place off the coasts of Latvia and Estonia.

“Finland and the Baltic states depend to almost 100% on the maritime supply routes through the Baltic Sea,” Kaack noted.

“Should the Suwalki Gap be blocked – and this can be done easily as there are only two roads and one railroad line – then we are left with the sea routes only, and that’s where we will then have to make our way through.”

The Suwalki Gap, a narrow land corridor of some 65 kilometers (40 miles), is the only connection linking the Baltic states to Poland and NATO’s main territory in Europe.

It will be the first exercise of this size that the German navy, the biggest navy on the Baltic Sea according to Kaack, will command from its new maritime headquarters in Rostock which just reached operational readiness.

Germany aims to provide the facility to NATO as a regional maritime headquarters, capable of leading the alliance’s operations in the Baltic Sea in case of a conflict.

It is vital to remember that just one mis-step by NATO during this so-called “exercise” will trigger a massive Russian defensive engagement to protect St. Petersburg.

You’ll never believe what Biden just said!

NO one is prepared for what’s coming in this economy and they are trying to hide it. The Biden administration says inflation is coming down, jobs are being created, and Bidenomics is working! That sounds like a lot of spin. In fact the data shows us something devastating is on the horizon.

As a landlord, have you ever decreased the rent for someone because you really liked them?

Yes I did. Not necessary because I liked them as in say friends but because they were real people in a tough position. I reduced their rent by $500 a month for two years. They finally got on their feet, overcame a health challenge and began building their own home. When they finally had a roof on the place they moved their son’s small camper into the garage and lived there until the house was complete. I routinely saw this older couple at a local restaurant so we kept in touch.

Amazimgly they sent a check every month after they moved out. It took almost five years but they insisted on repaying my lost income. We had dinner together the month they had completed making the rent payments. I surprised the couple with a savings bond for approximately 60% of what they had repaid. I insisted they set the bond aside for retirement. The woman was ecstatic hugging me over and over, her husband was all tears, saying “this never happens in real life, never!” I get a Christmas card every year.

What was a red flag that made you stop talking to a person immediately?

Like many people today, I was using a dating site to meet new people. I met one guy who seemed nice, we had mutual interests, and we emailed a bit back and forth before deciding to meet for coffee. We chose a very small boutique coffee shop in a mutually convenient location. Then we chose a date and time.

“Give me your cell phone number,” he messaged me.

Oh, no, hardly anyone gets that. And certainly not a guy I’ve never met. I don’t want to be changing my phone number for anybody, and it’s not that hard to find someone from a cell phone number either.

“What for?” I replied.

“In case one of us misses the other when we’re supposed to meet,” he replied.

Well, that didn’t make a whole lot of sense to me. We had chosen a very small place, and both of us had a lot of pictures on our profiles, there was really no chance of one of us sitting there and not seeing the other, or recognizing the other.

“You can message me here on the app if you need to,” I replied.

He told me he wanted my cell phone number, that there was no reason why he couldn’t have it. There was no need for him to have this. Him messaging me on the dating app would send a text to my cell phone just the same as if he had texted me directly. Surely any man today understands that women have to take precautions. Right? The dating site itself had pages of advice on how to stay safe.

So I gently said I doubted we would not recognize each other, or not see each other, and I preferred to use the app for now, but I looked forward to meeting him in person.

He went ballistic.

He messaged me over and over, progressing to caps, demanding that I give him my cell phone number as a condition of meeting. WHAT DID I THINK HE WAS? The messages got longer and more abusive and I sat there reading them, not responding. After I had seen enough of them, I deleted them, and blocked him on the app.

You know, if you draw a boundary, especially if it’s a reasonable one, and someone doesn’t respect it, it will never get better. Back off immediately.

The Sopranos – Uncle Philly’s reign as the King of New York begins

What is something in your life that you no longer give a damn because of your age and it gets worse as you get older?

Being social.

I think my social life peaked around age 18. I had a core group of four good friends my senior year of high school. I’d always try to make sure I hung out with at least one of them each weekend. I felt like a weekend without spending time with a friend was somehow “wasted.” I never went to parties or anything like that (wasn’t invited), but I at least drove around with Chris or went over to Bo’s house or chilled with Brandi or Ed at their places.

I only made one really good friend in college (well, besides my wife). He and I were roommates for awhile, so “hanging out” with him wasn’t especially difficult.

Time went on. I got married and had kids and my career took up a lot of my time. I haven’t spoken to that old college roommate of mine in about 14 years now. For awhile there, in my late 20s and early 30s, I still tried to find something “social” to do from time to time. But it got more difficult as the years went on.

And now, in my early 40s, I don’t give a damn about being social.

I have plenty of opportunities to be social. My church is always planning social events. So is the school where I work. Most of those social events are fundraisers, but still… I can go there and talk to people I kind of know from church or work, and feel like I’m “being social.”

I do go to them sometimes. I usually last less than an hour before I just want to leave. When I actually socialize at those events—actually talk to people—it feels more like a chore than something enjoyable.

When I was in high school, the thought that I’d have nothing to do but sit in my room alone and read or play video games or spend time online on a weekend evening horrified me. What kind of loser did such things on Friday and Saturday evenings?

Now? I’m writing this on a Friday evening, and I can think of nothing I’d rather be doing right now than sitting in my recliner, as I am now, alone in this room, taking a break from reading the book I’m reading to key out a few thoughts on Quora.

I would be perfectly happy if I never had to socialize again. If, God forbid, I end up alone in my retirement years, I think I’d be happy with it. One of my grandfathers lived alone for almost 15 years before passing away. He would go months with no human contact, besides exchanging pleasantries with the cashier at the grocery store. When I was younger, I thought he must have been really sad and lonely, living like that. Now that I’m older, I think that he was probably very content, living like that.

Remy: Rich Men North of Richmond (Federal Employee Version)

This is creative and hilarious!

“it takes one person to do my job, so we have two” Absolutely perfect, this sums up the government better than any Wikipedia page could.

What personal habits of Westerners are most repugnant to Chinese people?

1. In Taiwan, I talked about taking a shower with some friends. They found it so strange that I preferred to shower in the morning rather than in the evening. I told them that showering in the morning is quite common in America. They found it very disgusting because I would go to bed with all the day’s dirt on my body. They were actually right about that, showering at night sometimes makes more sense.

2. Another thing that some people made fun of me in Taiwan was my tendency to wear long-sleeved shirts with shorts, more or less like the style below:

I understand it was hot in Taiwan, but it was just a style that I sometimes wear and they thought it was really weird, not really gross, but still something they thought was weird (although one girl told me my fashion sense was weird/ disgusting) .

3. One thing I was told was disgusting was the tendency for us westerners to eat too much dessert. In China, desserts are usually not very sweet fruit or ice cream, they don’t like incredibly sweet and sugary things. One of my favorite things to eat is cheesecake, so I naturally gave Cheesecake to some Chinese friends (usually in the US because it’s so hard to find in China). In the photo below it looks delicious doesn’t it?

Well, my Chinese friends hated it, they said it was too thick, creamy and gross. One of them told me he wanted to throw up. I was like, “Fine, I’ll eat it all myself then.”

Douglas Macgregor: DURING RETRATING, UNITS WERE MASSACRED

Thank you Colonel Macgregor for being honest.

https://youtu.be/j4m9MFcj8Nk

What are the benefits of a one party system? Why does China have a one party system?

Do you know that Democracy was in fact a NO PARTY SYSTEM?

In Athens:-You had an assembly of people who chose their speakers among men who were 20+ years old based on their appeal and ability and their speaking style

In short an Assembly of People, qualified by estate or property or wealth who selected people based on ability or speaking style aka MERIT

No Parties, Agenda, Propaganda

Zilch

Remind you of something?

China – An Assembly of Qualified People based on Ability and chosen by their peers from the grassroots or chosen by tough examinations

They choose their leaders based again on ability and merit

Sure they have one party and call it a party but the name is long redundant

China is thus the closest to the original Athenian Democracy

Benefits:-

Consistent Policies over several decades
Controlled Consensus
Country above everything else since there is lesser vying for Power

Drawbacks:-

Chance of becoming Rigidly Bureaucratic and Stubborn
Chances of running away with rule without opposition

What is something your neighbor did that you couldn’t believe?

I inherited two dogs when my daughter passed away. I realized after a few months that a fence would make my life with the dogs so much easier. I was out looking for the property markers and my neighbour came over and asked if I was thinking of building a fence? I said I would like too but no one was returning my calls. He had a friend who did fences as a side job. Anyway, long story short, friend came, took the job, neighbour helped him so it was less cost for me and the fence was completed by the end of the next week. The friend also threw in two beautiful flower boxes made from the same wood as the fence. The dogs are so much more content and I have privacy. These two men likely have no idea how they have made my life so much easier. I am so thankful.

Will US troops come to defend Taiwan if China invades it? If so, at what point will they intervene?

They telling everyone they will bomb Russia if Russians dare attacking Ukraine in 2020.

Think about it.

1.China’s military size is three times bigger than Russia, more advanced in technology.

Chinese Navy vs Russian Navy.

2.China’s reserved military population is 260 million.

3.China produce all, even including the USA’s own bullets.

4.The first day, Russians took 40k㎡ of Ukraine’s land,and entire size of Taiwan is only 30k㎡.

5.Taiwanese speak standard Chinese.

6.American rich guy is still investing into both China Mainland and Taiwan.

7.China Mainland is still doing business with Taiwan.

8.the technology chips war between US and China, is actully between Taiwan Chinese vs Mainland Chinese, because the world chips industry was ruling by enthunic Chinese people(maybe add some Korean), it’s actully, a civil war.

Attempted Coup Against Burkina Faso’s Ibrahim Traoré Thwarted

Here is your latest African news. Attempted Coup in Burkina Faso Against Interim President Ibrahim Traoré Thwarted.

What is the most important thing someone has ever done for you?

When I was 15, I started a new school on the opposite coast of where I grew up.

At my old school I was unpopular and bullied harshly, so I was very shy and socially awkward with very low self esteem. The first week of school, I sat by my locker alone eating lunch, terrified of social interaction.

One day, up walked the most bubbly, outgoing, beautiful “popular” girl with maybe 6 other girls following her. She asked “Why are you eating lunch alone?! Wth? Come sit with us!!”

No one had ever done that for me. Then a few days later I casually mentioned it was my 16th birthday that weekend and she said “What?! We need to celebrate!!” and she organized a birthday dinner at a local restaurant.

She and her group of friends brought me pink balloons and gifts, I had a very memorable 16th birthday that I’ll never forget.

I literally had only known them for a week.

Then one day soon after, she saw that I rode my bike (3miles) to school everyday (due to my single mom’s work schedule and not being able to drive me – there was no bus at this school), and again, she said “Wth?! Why are you riding your bike to school?! That’s dangerous with all the traffic!!

My mom and I will pick you up at home and give you a ride!”

They drove me to and from school the entire year and we always did fun outings in the way home.

Experiencing their kindness at a hard time in my life was probably one of the most profoundly positive things I’ve experienced in my 43 years.

She remains my best friend until this day and is an amazing mom of 3.

Definitely the most important friendship of my life.

Jesse shows the cartel how it’s done

Is Elon Musk considered a rags-to-riches billionaire?

No, he was never in rags.

He was a child of well-off professionals, who built a phenomenal fortune in his own right.

It’s unclear exactly how well-off he was growing up. I suspect his family’s wealth has been exaggerated, both by his detractors, and by his father, who has been know to brag about how much money he made, but it’s clear that the Musk family was never poor.

On the other hand, there’s very little indication that Musk relied on his family, either for investment or business connections, in starting any of his companies. Insofar as a billionaire can be “self-made”, Musk has built his own business empire.

But his upbringing and education and whatnot come from being part of a family that was at least reasonably well-off.

After having significantly increased your income, do you feel happier than you were before?

Indeed.

When I first entered the gaming industry, I earned around 30K to 40K a year. And I lived in one of the most expensive cities in the world, San Francisco. The hostel I lived in cost me 700 dollars per month for rent. I have to be very careful with food. At the time, my weekly food budget was 40 dollars. I work from 10 am to 8 or 9 pm in the evening.

Then things started to get better. By 2019, I was making about the industry average for a mid-level producer. Both of my parents are dead, and I don’t have family and children, so I have some disposable income—no more “40 dollar food budget”. I think my weekly grocery cost me about 60–70 dollars, and I often dine out during weekends. Being able to buy a box of Kyoho grapes for 14 dollars feels very good.

But I think more than anything, the money gave me a sense of security, and it allowed me to pursue my many interests. Both had a tremendous positive impact on my mental health and quality of life in general.

I’ve made the decision very early on in my life that I do not want to get married or have children. While I’m happy with my life choices, I’m also very aware of the risks of choosing this lifestyle. After all, plenty of people feel the need to remind me that when I’m old, I’ll be sad and alone, and nobody will visit me at the hospital or senior care facility.

I mean, are you sure your kids will visit you when you’re old and sick? You know, the kids you abused and traumatized for 20 years? The kids who couldn’t wait to get away from you? I’ve read many articles written by medical professionals. They had made consistent observations that in a senior care facility, those with children are often mean-spirited and friendless, and their children never visit, while those who are single actually know how to make friends and are liked by everyone. Do you even know how to make friends based on shared interests that fall outside “childcare, PTA, soccer practice, family”? Not to mention, do you have children just so you get to have free nannies and ATM machines when you’re old and frail? I feel bad for your kids.

I digress. Still, being single and a social recluse, I need to be better prepared for my retirement financially. A long-term care nursing home in the US currently costs about 5,000 to 8,000 dollars per month, and if you want one with a better facility and nicer staff, the cost can easily ramp up to over 10K. And Medicare does not cover long-term nursing home costs.

Since I don’t have children to leech on, I must prepare for my retirement when I can still make money. I’ve set up some investment accounts like mutual funds and bought some annuities and US treasury bonds, on top of maxing out my 401K and Roth IRA every year. I’m glad I have some extra cash I could put away for my retirement. It definitely reduced a lot of anxiety.

And I have money to spend on hobbies and travel. I don’t care about luxury goods. Most of my clothing is from Uniqlo and Muji. Most of my furniture is from IKEA. As I grew older, I found myself caring less and less about such things. I found 3 holes in my T-shirt the other day due to wear and tear, God only knows how long I’ve been wearing T-shirts with holes on them, LOL. But who cares? I certainly do not.

I spend a lot of money on personal interests. I spend money on Wacom tablets and Macs.

I’m particularly happy with my current setup.

I really like my craft studio. I need to use it more, LOL.

I also spend a lot of money on video games and game consoles. And I recently picked up the expensive hobby of Lego.

I spend money on crafts materials and courses. I mean, why do I buy this thing for 15 dollars when I can buy all the tools and materials and make it myself (poorly) for 95 dollars? That’s my motto now. DYI is NOT cheap.

On top of all that, now that my work is a bit less chaotic and less stressful, I finally have the brain power and energy to focus more on my writing. I had spent money on editors and programs such as Scrivener and Plottr to help me write.

None of these are possible without money.

Money does not buy you happiness, that’s for sure. But money can buy you security, peace of mind, and freedom to pursue your interests. While I’m acutely aware that, like many Americans, I’m one major illness/major accident away from bankruptcy. I’m much happier now than 10 years ago when I lived in a hostel and worked 60 hours per week.

I’ve since receive the same type of comments every time I talk about being single.

Me: I don’t want to have children.

Comment: Fuck you! You’ll die sad and lonely! Having children is the best thing ever! You aren’t a real man/woman without having children!

… Every. Single. Time.

Like, you people have no imagination.

Oliver Anthony – Rich Men North Of Richmond [REACTION)

How Putin and Kim Throw Down a Challenge to US Hegemony

© Sputnik / Michael Metsel/POOL

Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korea Chairman Kim Jong Un held extensive talks on Wednesday. Dr. Kiyul Chung explained to Sputnik why the meeting of Putin and Kim is nothing short of historic.

The Russian and North Korean leaders met on September 13 at the Vostochny Cosmodrome, a Russian space port in the Amur region.

“Now today’s historic 2023 DPRK-Russia Summit at Vostochny Cosmodrome in Russia first and foremost highlights one of the most significant geopolitical and geostrategic importances,” Dr. Kiyul Chung, editor-in-chief at the 4th Media and a retired professor of Tsinghua University, told Sputnik. “The 2023 Summit itself powerfully culminates, defines, embodies, and witnesses the arrival of the anti-imperialist and self-determined multipolar world of the 21st century.”

Per Dr. Chung, the idea to hold the meeting at Russia’s spaceport symbolizes the two nations’ future collaboration in the field of space exploration and other high-end technologies despite pressure from the West.

“Both DPRK and Russia are facing all sorts of threats from the already-collapsed ‘five century-long West-dominated unipolar power’. One of the threats they’ve had forcibly imposed is the very existence of both of their nations,” the scholar continued.

To the Stars: Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong Un Meet at Vostochny CosmodromeOn September 13, Russian President Vladimir Putin welcomed North Korean State Council Chairman Kim Jong-un at the Vostochny Cosmodrome. The North Korean leader payed an official visit to Russia on September 12-13, holding talks with top Russian officials.

https://sputnikglobe.com/20230913/1113340697.html

Russia and North Korea: Strategic Longterm Cooperation

Vladimir Putin noted that his meeting with Kim Jong Un is taking place “at a special time”: just recently, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) celebrated 75 years since its creation. For his part, Kim thanked Putin for the invitation to visit Russia, stressing that relations with Moscow is Pyongyang’s “priority”

. The North Korean leader called his trip to Russia a demonstration of the importance of strategic ties.

“Comrade Putin and I just discussed in depth the military-political situation on the Korean Peninsula and in Europe and came to a satisfactory consensus on further strengthening strategic and tactical cooperation, supporting solidarity in the struggle for the protection of the sovereign right of security, for creating guarantees of lasting peace in the region, and throughout the world,” Kim stated during an official dinner held in his honor later in the day.

During the meeting, Kim reiterated his support for Moscow’s special military operation to demilitarize and de-Nazify Ukraine, stressing that “the DPRK will always stand with Russia in the fight against imperialism,” a clear reference to NATO’s proxy war in Eastern Europe. The DPRK chairman pointed out that he and his Russian counterpart will build “stable, future-oriented and long-term relations” between Moscow and Pyongyang.

All-Weather Friends: Why Are North Korea-Russia Ties Strong Against All Odds?North Korean leader Kim Jong-un pays a high level meeting to Russia amid the Eastern Economic Forum (EEF) hosted by the Russian Pacific city of Vladivostok. When did Russia-North Korea relations start and how have they evolved through decades?

https://sputnikglobe.com/20230912/all-weather-friends-why-are-north-korea-russia-ties-strong-against-all-odds-1113317356.html

The two countries have a long record of cooperation which originates in the early years of the Cold War era. Together, the Soviet and North Korean military protected DPRK independence and sovereignty against US intervention in the course of the Korean War (1950-1953). When the hostilities were over, the USSR helped Pyongyang restore the nation’s economy.

Presently, the DPRK is interested in the opportunity to cooperate with Russia in the field of aviation, transport and infrastructure, as Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told journalists on Wednesday. In addition, the sides discussed cooperation in the field of joint space exploration, Putin said, hinting that Russia-North Korea military-technical collaboration is also on the table.

Per Dr. Chung, “the Kim-Putin summit first and foremost apparently intends to nullify, pacify, or ruin whatever attempts the US-led suicidal nuclear war games, specifically both in Korean Peninsula and Ukraine.”

Furthermore, the summit is openly challenging the West’s illegal sanctions, according to the scholar.

“Today’s summit in Russia is the defiant denunciation, disregard, and complete rejection of illegal economic sanctions regimes of all sorts the US-led unipolar imperial powers have unilaterally wielded for decades. By the way, the latter Russia is one of the latest and by far ‘the most far-reaching’ cases. According to the most recent news reports about the US/West-led UN sanctions against DPRK, Russia apparently intends to dismantle the [sanctions] regime by strengthening both nations’ economic cooperation at all levels,” Chung said.

North Korea's 'Visible Show of Support': Key Takeaways From Putin-Kim TalksVladimir Putin has met Kim Jong Un at the Vostochny Cosmodrome to discuss a number of pressing issues, including those related to bilateral cooperation, as well as regional and global security.

https://sputnikglobe.com/20230913/north-koreas-visible-show-of-support-key-takeaways-from-putin-kim-talks-1113347691.html

Western Media Up in Arms About Kim-Putin Meeting

The Kim-Putin meeting has stolen Western mainstream press headlines: the media has expressed unease over the summit of two leaders whose countries are under severe Western sanctions. American and British journalists particularly cited their respective government’s discontent with an alleged arms deal supposedly discussed by the Russian and North Korean leaders.

The American press also quoted US administration officials expressing fears that Pyongyang could receive technology that could advance North Korea’s satellite

and nuclear-powered submarine capabilities.How Russia and North Korea Could Benefit From Joint Space ExplorationRussia and North Korea could develop cutting-edge satellite technology, the Space Research Institute's Nathan Eismont told Sputnik, commenting on the DPRK leader's high-level state visit to Russia.

https://sputnikglobe.com/20230913/how-russia-and-north-korea-could-benefit-from-joint-space-exploration-1113349741.html

Russia and the DPRK are cooperating for the benefit of the peoples of the two countries, and not against anyone; bilateral relations should not be a matter of concern for third countries, Peskov summarized on Wednesday.

“All other issues concern only our two countries, two sovereign countries, and should not be a subject of concern to third states. For our cooperation is carried out for the benefit of the peoples of our two countries, but not against anyone,” the Kremlin spokesman stressed.

The summit of Russian and North Korean leaders has demonstrated that the US’ dominance is fading, while a new multi-polar world, free of Washington’s diktat, is taking shape, according to Dr. Chung.

The scholar noted that the seeds of what is happening today were sown back in 2000, when President Putin met with Kim’s predecessor, Chairman Kim Jong Il. In July 2000, the first summit in the history of Russian-Korean relations (after the collapse of the USSR) took place and a Joint Declaration was signed.

“In that historic declaration, there is one item I’d like to highlight,” Dr. Chung said. “It’s about the number 1 Clause of that Declaration. There is a most important and historic language, expression, or declaration which was worded as in the following: ‘The DPRK and the Russian Federation …. [are] creating a multipolar world and building a new, fair, and rational international order based upon the principles of equality, mutual respect, and friendly cooperation’.”

“Today’s Kim-Putin Summit in Russia which can be interpreted as an assessment is kind of a recommitment as a rededication, reevaluation, and revelation of that historic 2000 Summit in Korea which I argue laid the most significant historic foundations of the anti-imperialist and self-determined multipolar world in the 21st century, 23 years ago for the sake of the future of the whole humanity,” the scholar concluded.

Russia and North Korea to Cooperate in Space, Military, Stand Together Against 'Imperialism'Russian President Vladimir Putin will sit down with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in Russia's Far East later on Wednesday to discuss a range of issues of mutual interest.

https://sputnikglobe.com/20230913/live-updates-russias-president-putin-arrives-at-vostochny-spaceport-1113328717.html

How Putin and Kim Throw Down a Challenge to US HegemonyRussian President Vladimir Putin and North Korea Chairman Kim Jong Un held extensive talks on Wednesday. Dr. Kiyul Chung explained to Sputnik why the meeting of Putin and Kim is nothing short of historic.

https://sputnikglobe.com/20230913/how-putin-and-kim-throw-down-a-challenge-to-us-hegemony-1113353161.html

Is Australia good for travelling?

Imagine this – In a pub 200km from the nearest town, an Aussie in his 60s told me this story over a pint:

He left school at 15 and decided to train it up to Darwin for a few weeks. To experience real Crocodile Dundee territory.

After 3 weeks he was at the train station waiting for his train home.

While waiting he got chatting to another guy who was on his way to work as a chef at some remote town. Whoop Whoop probably, but location doesn’t matter. The guy said they’d been looking for staff, so if he wanted to earn a few bucks he could join.

He called his Mum back in Perth and said he’d got a job and would give it a few weeks.

Skip to the day I met him. That had been his life – travelling around Australia, working here and there, and collecting amazing stories (we talked for a while).

What a life he’d had.

The beauty of travelling Australia is it’s easy, and you’ll see and experience things only Australia can offer.

Imagine waking up on pure white sands, next to a crystal clear ocean, on a beach many miles from any pollution – even light pollution – and taking a morning swim with a school of 20+ dolphins.

That was one of many experiences I had travelling most of Australia, for many months, without a care in the world.

I bought a 4×4 in Perth which became my home, with a makeshift bed in the back, solar panel, and bare necessities.

Months later when I was done travelling and went back to “normal life”, I made a profit on the car. Enough to cover the whole trip, all the fuel, and all the food.

I saw the incredible blue waters of Esperance, experienced the Nullarbor, Adelaide Hills, Great Ocean Road, Ned Kelly Country, Melbourne, Sydney, Canberra, Brisbane, dived the Great Barrier Reef, saw whales off Hervey Bay, snorkeled at Exmouth, took a tinny boat around swamp lands of Kakadu within arms reach of crocs, went up mountains, through rivers, over salt lakes, and saw the incredible red dirt of northern WA, bumped into the Australian prime minister (Julia Gillard), and English comedic legend Ben Elton. Oh, and met and dated an Australian movie actress.

And more.

Nothing hard about it. I just got out there, did it.

Then I read answers from people on Quora saying it’s hard to travel Australia because it’s so far away.

It’s a flight away.

And those answers get hundreds of upvotes, by people who will never experience the amazing things I experienced travelling such an incredible country.

Can Russia and China make HIMARS and How soon?

What exactly is the HIMARS?

It is a system that fires Rockets

That’s it

A System that has a Launcher and that has a guidance system that helps launch Rockets or Missiles on the Enemy positions.

The Rockets could be ATACMS Or Precision Strike Missiles or mostly ordinary guided Rockets

The Chinese and Russians both have similar systems

China has the PCL 191 system that has a longer range of almost 357 Miles and has even Laser guided Rockets in its latest version

Russia has its own Tornado systems that are comparable to HIMARS including the latest Tornado S which has a larger range and a 1 meter tested accuracg

It’s what China has along the Indian Border

Yet the Russians don’t use their Counter Battery System in this SMO

Many believe this reveals a lot of Russian Weakness. They are WRONG.

The Reason is simple : COST EFFECTIVENESS

This is a War where the biggest obstacle is fortifications of concrete and steel every step of the way

Every few miles you have fortifications where you have ammunition and soldiers with artillery guns

These fortifications are spread over 8–20 Kms and you don’t know where the Soldiers are Or where the Artillery Gun is

So what are your options?

Precision Rockets?

Nopes.

At $ 125000 a Rocket, you may blow off at least 20–25 rockets and spend a whopping $ 3.5–4 Million before hitting the target and even then there is a chance you miss and run into an artillery ambush when you advance

That would be at least 2000 Rockets and a price tag of $ 320 Million for Severodonetsk alone

So instead Russia use the cheaper artillery shells with no guidance and entirely range, range and range

Russia has at least 3 Million Shells available for each phase.

Instead of 25 Rockets, they use 10,000 Shells and pulverize the entire position and the Ukrops either lose their artillery gun and flee or die.

They advance and use flamethrowers and that’s a higher guarantee of death

Crude yet Cost Effective

At a price of $ 500,000 for a single fortification, that’s 1/8 the cost of using Guided Rockets like Himars

That’s around 800,000 Shells and $ 40 Million for Severodonetsk

Much more cost effective isn’t it?

That’s the problem today.

Everyone thinks Russia uses crude shells and artillery because they don’t have guided rockets or counter battery

The actual reason is Ukraine is using WWI style warfare with fortifications and trenches

Russia has to go crude to remain cost effective and yet maintain an advance pace

It’s so old fashioned it’s downright brilliant

Old Warfare at lowest cost , maximum deaths of enemy and minimum loss of own men

Who cares if the glamour is absent right??

Attempted Coup on Ibrahim Traore Fails. Who is Behind this?

What did you assume was exaggerated until you experienced it?

Originally Answered: What have you assumed was exaggerated until you experienced it yourself?

A freegan in Singapore told me he collected 1 ton of items every month when he goes dumpster diving. I couldn’t believe it. But when I saw him collect 30+ kg of stuff every day, I believed him.

30+ kg x 30 days = 900+ kg (almost 1 ton)

When I started doing the same, I believed him even more.

This is 20kg of clothes retrieved from the dumpsters in a single hour.

When he told me that he collects so much fruits that he felt like crying because he didn’t know what to do with them, I thought he was exaggerating.

Then this happened to me last night:

Man, what do I do with 82 oranges??

What did your father do to your mother that you will never forget?

My mother and the man she’d left my father for, had taken my brother and I out somewhere and had run out of petrol, stranded on the side of the road.

This was the 80’s and in South Africa, options were limited. They called my Dad who came to our aid with a 2 litre bottle filled with fuel.

Enough to get to the closest garage (gas station). He followed us there and paid in full. My soon to be stepfather was drunk and belligerent, swearing at instead of thanking him but Dad was the perfect gentleman as always.

I was barely 5 but will never forget that afternoon and always fill up on half a tank. My dad never, ever had a bad word to say about my Mom, (who referred to him as A**hole), always answering any questions about their divorce (she’d cheated with several men) by saying all that mattered was my brother and I.

When my mom was blacklisted after her third husband embezzled and stole everything from her, my Dad, who’d stopped working due to illness, scraped together enough cash to buy her a second hand car.

When I was an adult I asked him why he’d done all these things, his response was that the best revenge is to be the bigger person but I think he just did what he believed was best for his children and by default their mother.

He simply loved his kids. I miss him.

Southern Style Barbecued Chicken

Ingredients

1 cup ketchup
2 to 3 tablespoons honey
1 tablespoon lemon juice
Dash Tabasco sauce
2 to 2 1/2 pound chicken pieces
Salt and pepper

Instructions

Combine ketchup, honey, lemon juice and Tabasco sauce. Brush on chicken during last 5 to 10 minutes of grilling time.
Season with salt and pepper.

Rescued cat gets final wish in life

Heart warming.

The End.

The mighty continues sparring

Right now, the East and the West are sparring.

Sigh.

Dancing around each other in the ring. Throw a punch or two, and the West believes that “it has rigged the game”. I disagree, but what do I know?

I am tried of all this “shadow boxing”, but there are only two directions; two vectors left.

Full scale military HOT war
A subsiding of hostilities

I think that the East (China, Russia, the Global South) are just biding their time in the eventuality that the West will run out of “steam” and slow down on the provocations.

It’s safe and reasonable. And they have systems designed…intentionally designed to force all the steam out of the “mighty beast”.

But I am sure that they are all ready to unleash bloody Hell if need be.

…

Nothing that I can do about it.

So, I’m just gonna drink my coffee and enjoy the day.

Ukrainians Caught Trying to Sabotage Russian Nuke Plant; Putin says “Trained by British” – for whom “There will be consequences”

World Hal Turner 12 September 2023

Putin British trained Ukies Nuke Plant Sabotage large

“Vladimir Putin today warned Britain of ‘serious consequences’ and said Prime Minister Rishi Sunak ‘doesn’t understand’ the risks after the UK’s special forces tried to disrupt Russian nuclear power plants.

President Putin said that Britain’s elite forces were training Ukrainian troops on how to damage atomic power plants in Russia.

The Russian President declared dire consequences for the UK while admitting his words would be interpreted as ‘nuclear blackmail.’

Putin claimed during a speech at an economic forum in the far eastern city of Vladivostok, that Russia’s FSB security service had interrogated a Ukrainian team caught operating inside Russia.

‘It turned out to be a sabotage group of Ukrainian special services,’ he said.

‘Interrogation showed they had been tasked to damage one of our nuclear stations by exploding a power line… to damage the work of the power plant. And this is not the first attempt.’

He alleged: ‘During interrogation, they admitted they were trained under supervision of British instructors. Do [the British] understand what they are playing with, or not?

‘Are they provoking our response at Ukrainian nuclear sites, nuclear stations, or what?

‘Does the British leadership, or the Prime Minister [of the United Kingdom. Rishi Sunak] know what their special services are engaged with in Ukraine?

‘Or do they have no clue at all? I assume this is possible, too. I assume it is possible British special services act on the orders of the Americans. Either way, we know the final beneficiary.”

When in war, do you think about the people you’re killing?

There was a moment after a short firefight when we shared a few thoughts about a dead enemy soldier.

We were on the top of a small hill in the mountains near our Kosovo Liberation Army base and a group of enemy infantry was coming up towards our positions. They didn’t see us, but we could hear them talking to each other. One guy, probably their leader, told his troops: “Stop whining, guys!”

When they were close enough we opened fire. We heard one of them screaming in pain. After we had ceased fire we went down the hill to look at the aftermath. We found the body of a dead soldier and what struck me first was how well this guy was equipped: a US-style Kevlar helmet, combat fatigues, boots; all his gear was of the best quality. One of my comrades searched his pockets and found his documents.

My comrade read out loud what was written in the dead soldier’s papers. This guy had been a sergeant and a professional soldier. He had fought in Bosnia as well and was the member of a Special Forces unit.

Then my comrade told me in a tone of regret: “Look at him! This guy did all the training, fought everywhere and then he gets himself killed by some peasants like us. What a waste!”

That was quite an objective and modest statement and I was honestly surprised. We had very good soldiers who were well trained and highly motivated, but they were no match to the soldier we had just killed. He was better trained and equipped and far more experienced than we were. Still, he was dead and we were alive.

We took the dead soldier’s gun and left the place.

This was the only time that we’ve ever talked about a dead enemy. Usually, we were just interested in the number we had killed: one there, three over there and so on. They were numbers for us, nothing else. We fought for the right cause and they didn’t. No regrets.

Tex-Mex Meatballs

Crushed tortilla chips is the ingredient that sets these Tex-Mex Meatballs apart from the rest!

Ingredients

2 pounds ground beef
1/2 cup tortilla chips, crushed (about 2 ounces)
6 tablespoons water or beef broth
4 ounces canned green chiles
2 teaspoons kosher salt
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon cumin
2 teaspoons chipotle powder
1/2 teaspoon onion powder
15 ounces red enchilada sauce
2 cups Mexican style shredded cheese (or any easy melt style)

Instructions

Heat oven to 350 degrees F.
In a bowl, combine the crushed tortilla chips (they should be the size of large breadcrumbs) with the water or beef broth. Stir to make a thick paste. This helps keep the meatballs moist but also adds a great corn flavor.
In a large bowl, combine ground beef, green chiles, salt, garlic powder, cumin, chipotle powder, onion powder and the tortilla chip mix. Using hands, mix lightly but thoroughly (do not pack).
Form the ground beef mixture into balls, using about 1/3 cup of the mixture per ball. Do not overwork or form the meatballs too tightly.
Place the meatballs in a large skillet, leaving space between them, then bake for 15 minutes.
Pour the enchilada sauce over/around the meatballs, and return to the oven for an additional 7 minutes.
Sprinkle the cheese all over the meatballs, and return to the oven until cheese is melted, about 3-5 minutes.
Serve immediately. Caution, skillet will be extremely hot.

Yield: 8 servings

In Canada

In Canada, they combine orphanages with retirement homes. And it has given new meaning to the lives of older people, who can share their time with children who so desperately need a father or mother figure.

For a few hours, children and elderly people play, discuss and share together.

As for the little ones, they grow up and learn in an atmosphere of respect and admiration, not only between themselves, but also in front of the elders.

And older people have the opportunity to pass on some of their wisdom to children. They no longer feel so alone and isolated and now look forward to getting up in the morning to play and talk with the little ones.

It seems to me that this initiative should be applied everywhere in the world, we would help the elderly to feel less alone and the children to grow better.

Chinese in the entire world are excited to hear that Huawei China introduced its new 5g phone with 7nm semiconductor chip in it. How long will it take for China to catch up with South Korea and Taiwan trying for 2nm chip as of September 2023?

The Chinese can’t make domestic chips below 5nm process using their present methods of innovative stacking

The Chinese used the “Necessity is the mother of invention” saying to fullest use and have managed to mass produce 7nm cost effective Chips using DUV and innovative stacking

They will crack 5nm Chips in a year and by 2027 – the Chinese will make 25% of all the 7nm and 5nm Chips on earth

They would have saved their Semiconductor Industry and would be able to make Robots and develop advanced technology

I don’t think the Chinese want more than that

Fact 1:- 3nm Chips are very different. It may look like 5 to 3 is just one step below but in reality 7nm process and 3nm process are two generations (6 years) apart. So if the 3nm is 2024,then 7nm is 2018 and 5nm is 2021.

Without Western Equipment and without the advanced know how that TSMC and Samsung offer – the 3nm Chip is almost 3 generations or even 3.5 generations ahead in commercial manufacture

This means to China, the 3nm Chip is around 10.5 years apart, meaning 2035 at least

It’s not worth it and China knows that

Fact 2:- The West cannot develop 3nm Chips commercially and not sell to China

China and Hong Kong together consume around 43% of the World’s Chips produced

China and HK account for 30% of the sales of Advanced Technology and Hardware needed for Advanced Applications

It makes no sense to invest billions into 3 and 2 nm Chips and NOT SELL in a market that today has a 30% demand and could well have 45% demand in the next 15 years

That’s like increasing oil production by 30% and refusing to sell to China or India

That’s like spending crores of rupees on refining Gold jewelry and refusing to sell them to Telugu or Gujarati weddings

It’s UNVIABLE

So the West HAS to sell the 3&2 nm Chips to China if they have to sustain a market.

At present the rest of the World only has a 7% market for these advanced applications of which Saudi and UAE have a 3.4% market share and they certainly can’t create the applications even if they get the equipment for the next 15 years

India has a 0.7% market today for advanced applications ($ 767 Million)

That’s 3% of Chinas market and 2.3% of China and HK market combined

Fact 3:- The 3nm Chips, 2 nm Chips and 1 nm Chips may be redundant advanced technologies

Artificial Sun, Hypersonics, Nanogrid Laser Arrays – these were all areas where good studies were made by the US in the 1980s -1990s , well before China and Russia

Yet they faltered because there was not sufficient necessity for such advanced stuff back then

The assumption that people will use advanced smartphones for the next 30 years would be silly

Today Defence equipment works perfectly with 450 nm Chips and Drones with 150nm -65 nm Chips

Today the most advanced Robotic applications are done without 7/5 nm Chips

The Memory, GPUs and other hardware are more crucial than Chips now

Again these products need China which is a 30% market to them

Otherwise they cannot be viable commercially

They HAVE to sell to China and if the US tries too hard, they will find alternate ways

Like NVDIA which custom made advanced chips and sold $ 5 Billion of these to China just breaking the threshold

If they say China can’t be sold a car that drives at 100 Kph, simply modify your engine a bit and sell them a car that drives at 99 Kph and stay within sanctions guidelines

Fact 4:- If China develops it’s own 7/5 nm Chips using the innovative stacking process and DUV, that alone is a major blow to Global Players

Today TSMC sells most 14,7 and 5 nm. chips to China

China accounts for 36.5% of TSMC and it’s revenue

Yet now its estimated by the SIA that

By 2027, SMIC and other Chinese entities will sell most of the 14,7 and 5 nm Chips to China

TSMC and Samsung will lose a lot of sales to China in the next five years and simply be unable to sell anywhere else

By 2027, China will account for 14.6% of the same sales to TSMC and there won’t be market for TSMC to compensate for the loss

Same for Qualcomm, Intel and other players selling Modems and other 5G technology

This means China is a part of a War where it suffers the LEAST

China won’t make 3nm and 2nm Chips. They will buy these Chips if offered by others but won’t waste billions on trying to commercially make these chips with their own equipment

They DON’T NEED these Chips even for their most advanced applications

TSMC and others HAVE TO SELL TO CHINA if they commercially produce 3/2 nm Chips

China likewise knows it will be SOLD equipment and hardware that keep defying sanctions all the time to survive

And in a few years time – China will take away a huge chunk of TSMCs market in the mainland and TSMC cannot replace the Chinese market, even half of it in the next decade

To answer your question

China is never likely to catch up with commercial 3 / 2 nm Chips
China will come out of the Chip war with the least damage and most positive effect for the mainland.
Taiwan, Korea and US will find their players badly mauled by economics
China will deliver a strong blow to TSMC and Samsung by 2027 from which they can’t recover

Unless Biden removes ALL EXPORT CONTROLS today and goes to free market mode

Then Chinese players will start being swamped with aggressive growth.

The Sopranos – Johnny Sack And Paulie

Paulie complains about Tony ruling against him in a sitdown to Johnny Sack, This is the first of many conversations between the two. These conversations lead to major problems down the road.

What are the best closing arguments to ever be used by lawyers?

Fedor Nikiforovich Plevako was one of the most famous Russian defence lawyers of the 19th century. Many of his speeches were recorded and became legendary. I will quote two of them.

Once, he was defending an old Orthodox priest accused of adultery and theft. The jury was very unfavourable. The public prosecutor described the depravity of the vicious priest. Finally, Plevako rose from his seat to say:

– Gentlemen of the jury! The affair is clear. The prosecutor is absolutely right in everything. The accused really perpetrated those crimes and confessed them. Nothing to discuss. But there is something I wish to draw your attention to. You behold a man, who listened to our confessions for thirty years. For thirty years, he absolved us from our sins. Now he is waiting for your decision. Would you absolve his sin?

The priest was acquitted.

In another case, Plevako defended an old townswoman who stole a tin kettle worth 30 kopecks. The prosecutor, knowing that she was going to be defended by Plevako, decided to knock the bottom out of his arguments and took pains to describe the hardness of her life and show that she was worthy of compassion. However, he explained, private property is sacred and if you acquit her, you would have to acquit criminals who are much more dangerous, and this may lead to the destruction of Russia. The jury nodded in agreement. Plevako started to speak:

– Russia has suffered a lot in over 1,000 years of its history. It was invaded by numerous foes. Moscow was taken by Napoleon’s army. Russia overcame all these challenges and not only survived but became stronger. Unfortunately, an old lady stole a tin kettle worth 30 kopecks. This is a heavy blow. Now Russia will perish, that’s for sure.

The old woman was acquitted.

Ukrainian Soldiers REVOLT Against Military Leadership

If only we could send all the Ukraine flag twitter users as conscripts, then we’d have reasonable discourse on the internet. LOL.

https://youtu.be/UBSPV58xkJc

Was the War of 1812 a war of independence for Canada?

Not at all. the two colonies involved in the war, Upper Canada and Lower Canada, both remained colonies after the war. Even if the Americans had succeeded in their objectives, they may have just handed both colonies back to the United Kingdom. The war was started by the Americans, although they felt some of their grievances against the United Kingdom were legitimate. The end of the war essentially put things back exactly as they were before the war, and everyone in Upper Canada and Lower Canada were just fine with that.

However, the war did create a Canadian identity, both tying together people of both Protestant and Catholic backgrounds through the six British Colonies in eastern Canada, and by establishing an identity separate from the United Kingdom for Protestant Canadians.

Prior to the war, you pretty much had five distinct groups of people living in Canada, each of whom identified differently.

Catholics (mostly French speaking) who identified as “Canadien” and not as British. They didn’t see Protestants as “Canadian” but as “British”.
Loyalists, who had been born in the United States prior to the American revolutionary war. They always saw themselves as “British”, but largely spoke and acted like Americans.
British immigrants, who also saw themselves as “British”, but were more diverse than the Loyalists, who tended to be English and Anglican, while the immigrants were English, Irish and Scottish, and were often Methodists, Baptists or Presbyterian. The largely Anglican Loyalists weren’t very welcoming. The immigrants also spoke and acted like the British.
American immigrants, who still saw themselves as “American” and came to Canada looking for opportunity well after the revolutionary war. They didn’t get along well with the Loyalists, and also had a rather diverse set of religious backgrounds.
First Nations, a mix of those who had been in Canada for some time, and some that had fled from the United States because they had supported the British. Most of them didn’t get along well with each other. They got along well with British authorities, but not with the other four groups.

Shortly into the war, and by no later than 1813, all five groups had pretty much put aside their differences and started identifying clearly as “Canadian”. There were two basic reasons for this. The first was that the Americans treated everyone they encountered brutally. They would routinely loot and burn settlements, including York (now Toronto), where they burned the new legislative building (which is why the Ontario legislature isn’t on Parliament Street, but the burned down structure was). Anyone who dealt with the American forces largely found the militia (not so much the professional soldiers) to be undisciplined and arrogant.

The other was the indifference of the United Kingdom to their plight. Yes, the UK was busy with Napoleon, and the professional British forces in Canada were competent, but a lot of the fighting was done by the First Nations with help from the local militia. The militia often complained they had to answer to British leaders who were often indifferent to their suffering. For people in Upper Canada, that often meant that their local forces answered to the British governor in Quebec City.

So, yes, the British did most of the fighting, with some help from Canadians, but the real stars were the First Nations, who terrified the Americans but worked well with the British. When the Mohawks heard the Americans had invaded York, and the British had abandoned the city, they put together a force of 400 warriors (to face an American force at least three times that size) and only turned back when they found the Americans had abandoned the city too. In late 1813, after the American unsuccessfully tried to attack British forces near St. Catharines (where they were ambushed), the natives surrounded the Americans at Fort George and kept them from venturing outside the fort. The Americans withdrew for the winter.

Over in Lower Canada, the Americans found the locals not to be hospitable. Two attempts to invade Montreal were turned back by a mixed force which was largely French-Canadian. That sent morale throughout the country through the roof.

As for the American immigrants, they soon realized they wanted nothing to do with their own country as the American forces looted and burned farms and houses without discrimination. That drove them further towards the British and their fellow residents of Upper Canada.

Meanwhile, over in Nova Scotia,. Halifax became rich as Canadian privateers preyed on American shipping. Once privateer, the Liverpool Packet, took fifty prizes during the war despite being captured once – the Americans sold the ship at auction back to its former owner. Everyone in Canada got involved in the effort.

The events eventually pushed all the colonies towards self-government by the 1840s (governors became figureheads without real power) and a new country by the 1860s (when the Americans went to war with themselves).

Glenn Beck reacts to Oliver Anthony’s POWERFUL testimony on The Joe Rogan Experience

As a police officer, what is the kindest thing a suspect ever said to you?

Over the years, there have been several people (suspects, offenders, witnesses, victims, etc.) who have said kind things to me. One that comes to mind is probably the most recent. As a captain, I’m not often out on patrol and I make very few traffic stops. A few weeks ago however, I saw a vehicle traveling the wrong direction in a traffic circle. Given the danger presented, I stopped the motorist and saw that the vehicle was driven by a tiny African American lady of about 65 (I am a not so tiny 55-year-old Caucasian man), and that she was confused and upset by the unfamiliar traffic control device into which she had driven. I helped get her turned around and pulled to the side of the road where we were both safe. Pursuant to Department policy, I asked her for her license, registration and proof of insurance. She paused a moment and then started looking through her purse, center console and glove compartment for the requested documentation. Based on my experience, this suggested to me that she did not have one or more of the documents I had asked her to produce. I asked her if she had a driver’s license and she admitted that her license was suspended. I couldn’t help but notice the tears welling up in her eyes. I had already noticed that her license plate was expired, as was her motor vehicle inspection sticker. I then asked if her automobile was insured, and she told me it was not.

In my jurisdiction, unless there are exigent circumstances, a vehicle found to be uninsured is to be towed and impounded. In addition, a motorist found to be driving under suspension may, at the discretion of the officer, be arrested, and should not be permitted to drive away from the traffic stop absent exigent circumstances which mitigate against preventing the motorist from driving any further. The lady had tears streaming down her cheeks, knowing she had a problem. She was wearing a business outfit, so I asked her where she was going, thinking that I might be able to drop her off if time was a problem. She explained that the previous week, she was hired by a local hospital and that day was to be her first at her new job. She explained that she had lost her home and job in August of 2016 when our area suffered through the worst flood to affect the area in modern history. Approximately 80% of the homes and businesses in our area flooded during the event. Many had never flooded before, were not in flood zones and consequently, many families and businesses were left with nothing, following the inundation. This lady was one of those.

She understood that she was in trouble, and she understood that despite her good intentions, she was breaking the law. But there was no anger or bitterness. In her face, I saw only resolve and determination. She never once suggested that she deserved a break. She didn’t hint at leniency. She expressed no self-pity and did not seek to shift the blame. While I may not have shown it, I was very impressed with the way she was handling the experience.

I told the lady, whom I’ll call Ms. Smith, to have a seat in her car, turn on her air conditioner (it was about 95), and that I would be back with her as quickly as possible. I then returned to my unit and checked her registration and driver’s license. I determined that her license was suspended due to her inability to honor a payment plan with the DMV that she had reached in order to resolve the fines assessed to her when her insurance lapsed. She was uninsured; her history showed that over the last several years, her insurance lapsed several times, She always managed to have her insurance reinstated but the administrative fees had built up over time. Her registration had expired two months earlier. However, with a suspended driver’s license, she could not renew her registration or obtain an updated motor vehicle inspection sticker. Clearly, she was in a vicious spiral and putting her in jail or doing anything to cost her the new job would not be helpful.

I carefully considered my options, recognizing that my obligation to protect and serve includes keeping people without the mandatory liability insurance off of the road. Her failure to have the required insurance presented a problem for me. Under our law, were she to have an at-fault accident and it was discovered that I had stopped her and failed to take the appropriate action, I could be held responsible. If I towed her car, she would likely lose her new job which was going to pay her enough to get the required insurance, take care of her suspended driver’s license and generally make her life better for the first time in two years. As I sat there considering what to do, I suddenly remembered something. I got out of my unit, walked up to car and looked in the back seat. There, behind the front passenger seat was a rear-facing baby seat, buckled snuggly into place. “I meant to ask you about the baby seat,” I told her. “Oh,” she replied. “That’s for my grand baby,” she told me. “I take her to day care each morning so that my daughter can make it to nursing school on time. This is our only car.” “Do they live with you all the time.” I asked. “Yes, sir! They’re my best friends,” she said with a smile.

I thanked her and returned to my unit. I smiled too and thought to myself, “Exigent circumstances! Can’t tow that car if there are exigent circumstances.” I prepared the lady a citation for driving under suspension. I hated to do it, but the only discretion we have in such cases is jail or a misdemeanor summons. I did, however, exercise my discretion and prepared a warning for the expired driver’s license and expired vehicle inspection sticker. I then made a quick phone call before walking back to her car, ticket book in hand. As the little lady waited to hear her fate, I began. “OK, Ms. Smith, here is where we are,” I told her. “I have to issue you a citation for driving under suspension. I have no choice. However, you’re not being arrested, only fined.” She asked me how much the fine would be and I told her that I did not know, but that I had called the Clerk of Court, asked that they let her pay over a period of six months, and that they had agreed. I then handed her the citation and asked her to sign where indicated. She signed and then remembered the other charges. “Is there another ticket,” she asked? “No Ma’am,” I told her. “Apparently, I am out of tickets and don’t have time to go and get some more.” She seemed confused and asked, “I know you have to tow my car, Captain. I was just wondering if there is any way that you can let me get to work first. I can park it around back where nobody will see it and you can tow it from there, if it’s not too much trouble.”

“Well, Ms Smith, it looks like your car isn’t going to be towed today. As it turns out, there are exigent circumstances that allow me to let you keep your car. But you have to get insurance within 30 days.” She didn’t understand, so I explained that since there is an infant in their house, since they had only one car, and since that car was the child’s sole means of transportation to day care, such a situation created exigent circumstances which allowed me to decline to tow the car, provided that I had a reasonable belief that the required insurance would be obtained within 30 days. She assured me that they would get the insurance they needed.

I wished her good luck and told her to be safe and I turned around to walk back to my unit as the tears started rolling down her cheeks again. Before I could walk away, however, Ms. Smith called out to me, “Captain Sharp!” I turned back to her. “I don’t know if you’re allowed or not, but would it be OK if I gave you a hug?” I told her I would love a hug, and it was the best hug of the day.

I’m sorry that it took so long to answer your question, but, “Would it be OK if I gave you a hug?” was one of the kindest things that a suspect ever said to me. Thank you for your question!

Nearly ALL of America FEELS This | Oliver Anthony “Rich Men North of Richmond” | Just Jen Reacts

Americans are crying out! And not one Senator is addressing this!

Covert Intel: Another “Gulf of Tonkin” Incident Planned? Black Sea. Next Week.

World Hal Turner

This content is for Subscribers Only — In order to get the United States involved in the Vietnam War, the “Gulf of Tonkin Incident” was staged by the United States, to claim one of its ships was attacked by the North Vietnamese (Viet Cong) and thus, the US had to enter the war.

Years later, it was revealed the entire incident was staged by the US to provide an EXCUSE to enter the war.

Next week, in the Black Sea . . . .

I don’t like to eat, but I’m not insecure in any way about my weight. I only eat when I feel hungry, and eating often feels like a chore. Is this unhealthy? Should my mom or doctor worry?

First and foremost you should worry. Feeling eating is a chore is not healthy at all. Meals are one of the core moments of socialization, our whole human identity is tied to eating collectively and many paleoanthropologists believe that the practice of sharing meals is what pushed us to develop the linguistic skills. This is how important are meals. Your refusal to eat may be a symptom of something extremely serious and you should see a psychologist about it.

What if the idea of ‘The Purge’ became real?

‘The Purge’ would cause a massive shift of capital to the rich, causing society to essentially collapse.

What would be incredibly rare is private citizens going out hunting and killing each other for sport. People would naturally band together in groups of those they trust and heavily arm themselves. Neighbourhoods would become fortresses. Rich people would hire extremely well paid private security for the night. If you had a murderous grudge against someone, Purge night would be the dumbest night of the year to actually try and carry out that grudge. It is the only night where it should be literally impossible to find your victim unarmed, unaware and alone.

It would also be unlikely to be an opportunity to rob banks or stock up on luxury goods or cars via looting – people who run banks or supercar showrooms know a thing or two about security, for purge night those places would be patrolled by heavily armed private security with orders to drop anyone who comes within a 100m radius of the place.

What would take place is massive amounts of corporate, financial and environmental crime, mostly by rich people.

Say you have a factory which produces gigantic amounts of toxic waste. Treating and properly disposing of that waste is damn expensive, so how about instead of doing that, you just store it all up in a giant vat through the whole year and dump it all into the sea on purge day! Millions in overheads saved, and your company isn’t on the hook for the cleanup. You could probably even get away with claiming that your company has produced zero toxic emissions that year and claim environmental subsidies as a result.

Say you are a hedge fund manager responsible for managing a multi billion dollar portfolio of assets mostly made up of people’s pensions. There are strict rules about how you manage pension funds, however on purge day, you simply transfer all of the money into your own account and become a billionaire overnight.

Say you are a major property developer who has big plans to demolish a poor neighbourhood to make way for luxury condos. There’s no way you can get away with doing something like this in normal times, but on purge day? Shit you could hire goons to put the whole place to the torch.

The premise of ‘The Purge’ is that it is supposed to act as an outlet to enable people to express their frustrations with life for one day, allowing them to live the rest of the year normally. What would actually happen if this law was passed is that normal people would spend the night huddled together in fear whilst rich people systematically rape and pillage the rest of society with zero repercussions.

The World WON’T Believe How SAFE China is! (Americans Shocked)

“I live in Los Angeles. It’s true that I will not go out walking around after dark by myself. It’s definitely not safe. I don’t understand why the government cannot do anything effectively about homeless people, zero-dollar shopping, and all sorts of hate crimes. I hope Chinese people continue to enjoy the freedom of walking around in the cities day and night without worrying about safety.”

What are some examples of criminals who have been caught due to their own stupidity?

My friend is a police officer and what he told me was surprising: the thing that gets most criminals caught is often simple stuff—usually with their car.

Speeding. Expired license. Broken brake light. Turning without using your signal.

Stupid stuff.

Officers need probable cause to pull you over. So at night, when many criminals are out, they just look for these little things.

Once you are pulled over, the officer runs your name in their database and asks you questions. He notices you acting weird while you churn out lies while darting your eyes around nervously. He notices the slight smell of crack coming from your car because you couldn’t leave it at home. But just to be sure, he has a drug dog come and sniff the car.

It all starts with something as simple as that license plate tag you were too lazy to update, which has a new color cycled in each year, to immediately call you out.

I see it happen over and over again on bodycam videos on YouTube.

Most criminals aren’t these genius conniving psychopaths you see on TV. They are generally quite stupid.

Another American “Volunteer” Killed in Ukraine

World Hal Turner

In March of 2022, former US Army Soldier Jericho Skye, made the decision to leave his young child and family behind, and go fight for the Ukrainian government.

An avid mass-media consumer, he was convinced that Russia’s “unprovoked” war was merely the start of a bloodthirsty campaign for global conquest.

The photogenic Californian was killed in battle yesterday, along with NINETEEN other “volunteers.”

He thought it would be like shooting Ducks . . .

…turned out, HE was the Duck.

How did the Chinese military background of the Huawei founder, Ren Zhengfei, give Huawei the strength and resilience to survive the most powerful sanctions which the US has imposed on any tech company in history?

I am not sure about you but I don’t think any military background would have helped Huawei’s founder in any way to survive and fight the most powerful nation in the world, because he does not lead an army, but a private company.

I would think it is his engineering background that’s behind his success,which translates to a single-minded purpose to transform factual information and physics into something that benefit Huawei’s customers more cost effectively and efficiently. This is the true cornerstone of Huawei’s success.

Even when his daughter was detained/kidnapped by Canadian authorities to blackmail him into submission,he did not immediately confront the unfairness of the detention, as what all hot-blooded military folks would do, but instead make him want to motivate his company to continue producing high quality products for the consumers. He took three years to reorg and rally his staff to launch the Mate 60 Pro and Mate X foldable smartphones recently, despite U.S. sanctions.

He probably foresee what’s coming, as he had wanted to sell Huawei to Motorola back in 2003, knowing Huawei will one day challenge America’s high tech Infocomms hegemony … but Motorola was not keen at that time and the deal was called off. After that he held an after-event-review and asked his employees if they wanted to sell the company again and the majority gave a no-vote.

Thus he decided so be it, and warned his employees they will one day battle the most powerful nation on Earth.

He’d never looked back since. The rest is history.

A woman found three kittens running right up to her, and knew they needed her help.

Today’s smile video.

What is the most offensive thing someone has ever asked you?

My sister asked me right before my father’s funeral as she was processing his final arrangements if I wanted to be buried next to him when I pass away myself. I felt that question was a self-serving, insulting slap in the face to me. My father and I had a very toxic relationship. We didn’t speak to each other the last 2 years of his life, although I was gultt-tripped by the family to attend his deathbed and funeral. Going all the way back to my early childhood, my sister, mother, stepmother, grandmother, and everyone else in the family have made it clear my dad matters more than me. Once he was gone, I couldn’t even enjoy the quiet relief from his emotional abuse of me in peace without having yet another female made on me, although I told my sister to go to Hell.

Oliver Anthony Plays His Biggest Show Ever

He’s the real deal. This is great. Check it out.

Why does the ASML CEO seem worried about the Huawei Mate 60 Pro, despite previously stating “Even if we provided them with the drawings, they wouldn’t be able to make it.” regarding China’s technological capabilities?

With Huawei Mate 60 Pro, the writing on the wall is clear: China’s chip ecosystem can make the chips to power the 5G technologies to meet current market needs. . . .and producing its own high end lithography machines can be achieved in as short as 5 years.

ASML should be shitting in their pants right now.

If Huawei can make do with 7nm node and work with chiplet technology in packaging to boost power and utility for the next few years, this means that U.S. chips will not be needed by China. And when the U.S. chip companies are decimated in their prime market and bankrupt, where else can ASML sell their machines to?

Weak or even the collapse of the EUV machine market will mean choking off the large capital funding needed for their even more expensive NA EUV machines. All these can collapse on its own immense weight within these 5 year period. ASML does not have the luxury of time.

‘To hell with spinelessness!’ | Neil Oliver

Neil Oliver shares his thoughts on the climate agenda.

Why didn’t European countries help Africa in the way China did?

Africa is an imaginary place to most people. A lot of commentary about Africa is a fictional genre that reveals more about the writer than the subject of their analysis.

If Europe was written about like Africa, it’d be a place that Arabs and Turks colonised, then an Austrian and Corsican did evil stuff before Uncle Sam saved them from themselves. They’d best watch out for dreadful Chinese and Russian propaganda! Europeans are a bit childlike, you see.

With that out of the way, countries can’t help each other. They can trade, but that is mutually beneficial. By sheer proximity European countries have paid more for African products than China has.

Even now, my country sells more to Spain than we do to China. It’s their dollars that funds our imports of Chinese widgets. Last I checked, Britain was also our largest source of foreign investment.

Much is made about infrastructure, but it’s one of those topics where people have more opinions than facts. The infrastructure explosion across many African countries is downstream of their increased prosperity and the expansion of global financial and industrial capacity.

China Civil Engineering is one of many foreign and domestic contractors vying for construction contracts from the Nigerian government. But it is ultimately Nigerian taxpayers financing the construction. I bet it’s no different in other African countries.

Infrastructure is also an investment. For example, a consortium of American internet firms have built out the underwater internet infrastructure linking Africa to the world. They’ll recoup their investment from increased usage and selling access to their property.

Similarly, a Chinese firm granted a port concession will recoup their investment through port management fees.

There is richer, more informative story waiting to be told once people drop their caricatures and deal with reality.

Dell’s Revenue Collapses After Losing Chinese Market Share De risking Became Destruction

Dell has lost China as its market share plunged posing an existential challenge as Lenovo, a Chinese company, has about 3x higher market share in China and growing. Dell is moving out of China as it cannot survive against the competition against China’s local companies due to the usa’s de-risking policy. Without components from China however makes Dell uncompetitive against China’s local companies. Going out from China Dell loses the huge China’s market forever. The de-risking policy shoot Dell in its foot as it struggles for survival.

https://youtu.be/fOBDyICFVP0

What is the funniest thing that happened to you while shopping?

Back in the 80s, I lived alone in a cheesy one-bedroom apartment in a building full of apartments rented to gay guys. I developed significant friendships with these men; one of them eventually became my “maid” of honor at my wedding, and we are all still in contact to this day. I was alone in the city and these men became my family. We were always hanging out in one apartment or another and I rarely ate dinner alone.

Back in the 80s, our 24-hour Walmart was still a fun place to hang out. If we were bored, we’d all pile in my car and go to Walmart; half a dozen gay men and me.

One December weekend afternoon we were just hanging at Walmart. Some of us were picking up Christmas gifts but mostly we were just enjoying the Christmas displays and each other’s company, cutting up amongst ourselves. We landed in the Christmas toy aisle.

Oh, lo, and behold, hey guys come check out the fire truck!

It was metal, and heavy, and fully as long as my arm. Bright red, it was built to resemble a real fire truck, not a cartoon truck. And it was covered with buttons labeled “Try me!”

By God, it was the coolest thing. One button sounded the siren. Another button and we heard water gushing out of the hose. Another button and we could hear the fireman admonishing the driver to go faster. Sound effects for everything: a 911 call reporting a fire, tires screeching around the corner, firemen calling out to rescue the cat. Probably two dozen buttons worth of sound effects. By God, it was the coolest thing.

The seven of us crowded around this fire truck; for five minutes we repeatedly punched buttons, crowing with delight.

Finally, the old lady standing behind us asked to be excused and pushed between us to grab three of the fire trucks. “If it keeps seven adults that amused, it might work for my grandsons.”

…

What is something your neighbor did that you couldn’t believe?

I was tearing down my old house, and building a new house. I got some outrageous estimates for tearing it down. I live 80 km from the nearest waste transfer station that would take this kind of material, so the hauling was expensive.. It was surrounded by trees, that I wanted to keep, so I couldn’t burn it down. I was talking to a neighbor about how much it cost to tear it down, but that looked like my only option. He talked to my other neighbors, and then on my birthday, the whole neighborhood showed up and helped tear down the house. One guy worked construction, and brought out a 40 foot dumpster container for the waste. We kept a fire like a large bonfire going, small enough to not be a threat, but big enough to burn a lot of tinder dry 80 year old wood . We filled the dumpster with the crushed shingled roof, windows, hot water heater, insulation, and kept burning as much wood as the fire would take. One neighbor brought over a Bobcat to pack everything into the dumpster. Others had sawzalls, cutting the walls into manageable chunks. My wife was BBQing up a storm. One neighbor who was disabled brought over 10 pizzas for the crew. Others hooked their winches to the walls and brought it down.

Some people hauled stuff away, my refrigerator became someone’s beer fridge, etc.

One neighbor stored all my furniture in his garage.

One neighbor let me plug an extension cord into her house, so we didn’t overload the little generator I had.

Another neighbors leant me in his bigger generator.

It took one day, a lot of burgers and pizzas, and my neighbors had saved me a small fortune.

Would your neighbors do this for you? I couldn’t believe my neighbors would do it for me.

BRICS: Bank of China opens branch in Saudi Arabia, New World Order

This is significant. Very significant.

https://youtu.be/bMIU65zrXsc

What are the reasons why some people believe that buying goods made in China is bad? Should we boycott Chinese products?

If you are dumb to asked this question you should take my advise. First open up every product to ensure 100% nothing is made in China. Check the materials. And every single parts need to be sent to a laboratory to check.

Any part of any items with even a small oration or materials made in China as throw it away. Yes you should absolutely not buy anything made in China. China don’t need you. You can throw everything you have and China still has 7 billion customer.

You and your six racist friends can keep buying and keep throwing everything away for all we care. You can burnt down your home because chances is the materials. Are China made, the wall paper U.S. Chinese made, your paint is made in China. Stop asking redundant questions no one gives a shit of your hate.

We don’t gives a shit if you think Chinese products is bad, inferior, trash or dangerous 175 out of 195 nations has China as their biggest trading partner and 7 billion out of 8 billion use a Chinese product 23 out of 24 hours a day. You are as insignificant to China as a one of the germ on planet earth. Get it through your thick skull.

why am I speaking out for China part.1

Once you get past his accent, it’s a very nice perspective.

As someone with expertise in hi-tech, why does Huawei, the Chinese telecom company, pose threat to national security of the USA and its allies?

Huawei is taking up the leadership in various tech fields, from autonomous vehicles to semiconductors. Huawei is moving so fast, the US has little chance to catch up, let alone compete. Huawei has gone beyond its original mandate of telecom gear and is now a strong voice in the EV sector, cloud computing, semiconductor design, production and all the attendant software and hardware items needed for the complete supply chain to produce semiconductors.

Huawei’ unannounced sales of its Mate 60 Pro with its Kirin 9000s chip during US Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo’s visit to China stole the show. Not only is the chip self designed and produced in China, but it features no US parts. In fact, the messaging in the semiconductor sector is continuous and fast moving. Not only did SMIC produce 7nm chips, but TSMC is now taking orders from the mainland for 7nm chips.

Further, Samsung is set to rebuild its China semiconductor factories, Micron is expanding its Xian plant, Intel and Qualcomm have created ‘ innovation centers’ in China, and TSMC is expanding its Nanjing fab. Rumor has it that TSMC may acquire or build a couple more fabs in China. A rebellion is taking place to flaunt Biden’s bullying and destroying any effort to quiet the rise of the semiconductor sector in China.

Mission accomplished

Love this!

Tex-Mex Ravioli Casserole

This dish is good as is, but for an extra pop, serve with a dollop of sour cream and a few jalapeno slices.

Ingredients

1 (16 ounce) jar mild salsa
1 (10.75 ounce) can tomato puree
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1 (28 ounce) bag frozen cheese ravioli, unthawed
2 (19 ounce) cans black beans, rinsed and drained
1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro
1 bunch green onions, thinly sliced
2 cups (8 ounces) shredded sharp Cheddar cheese
1 cup (4 ounces) shredded Monterey Jack cheese

Instructions

Combine salsa, puree and cumin.
Pour 1/2 cup of sauce mixture on bottom of a lightly greased 2-quart baking dish.
Top evenly with frozen cheese ravioli. Layer with black beans, chopped cilantro, green onions, and remaining sauce mixture; top evenly with cheeses.
Bake, covered with aluminum foil, at 350 degrees F for 45 minutes or until bubbly.
Remove foil, and bake 5 more minutes. Let stand 5 minutes.

Yield: 6 servings

What will China do to grow its economy under the current climate and how will the CPC find ways to tap on that huge Chinese saving resources to its best of advantage?

Right now the Chinese government and companies are striving to make tech breakthroughs in all areas: the most recent example is the launch of the Huawei Mate 60 Pro 5G mobile phone, which was made completely without using any US technologies.

As a result, share prices in tech companies have gone up.

The current trend is to let the air go out of the real estate balloon, while building up the tech sector.

China is also welcoming investment money from Saudi Arabia and UAE, while the US is forcing US tech companies to cut back on their sales and investment to the Chinese market.

Niger France Uranium Operations Shutdown As US Ambassador Is Given 48hr Ultimatum To Leave

Why would you send an ambassador to or insist on being in a country you don’t recognise the regime? The US and France definitely have something under their sleeves.

Newly unsealed court papers have publicly confirmed that the US government seized almost one million barrels of Iranian crude oil from the Greek-managed tanker M/T Suez Rajan.

The State Department said on Friday that the US government had seized the vessel and its cargo of 980,000 barrels of crude oil, alleging it was transporting Iranian oil to China in violation of Washington’s sanctions against Tehran.

It further claimed that the US government obtained a warrant earlier this year for its seizure.

On April 19, around the time of the seizure, the vessel’s owner, Suez Rajan Ltd, pleaded guilty to sanctions violations and was fined $2.5 million.

Subsequently, the Greek vessel’s operator, Empire Navigation, agreed to cooperate with US authorities and ordered the ship, located in Southeast Asia at the time, to take its load of oil to the United States.

The commander of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) Navy warned on July 20 that any oil company unloading hundreds of thousands of barrels of seized Iranian oil sitting in a Greek tanker off the coast of Texas would be held accountable.

Rear Admiral Alireza Tangsiri’s remarks came on the anniversary of Iran’s confiscation of a British-flagged tanker in the Strait of Hormuz in 2019 after Britain seized an Iranian oil tanker off Gibraltar.

A few days after the seizure of the M/T Suez Rajan, Iran’s Navy seized a Marshall Islands-flagged oil tanker in the Sea of Oman, which was carrying Kuwaiti oil for the second-largest energy company in the US.

The oil tanker, named Advantage Sweet, had been involved in a maritime accident with an Iranian fishing craft, which resulted in the injury and missing of a number of its crew.

After the collision, the oil tanker attempted to flee the scene in serious breach of international laws and regulations, which require the provision of medical treatment and supply of proper and sufficient medicine to seamen in case of sickness or injury.

After sitting off the Texas coast for months, the Suez Rajan began the hours-long ship-to-ship transfer of its oil to another tanker, the MR Euphrates, on August 21.

The newly released court documents confirm the US government then seized the oil.

Speaking to reporters at a press conference on August 21, spokesperson for the Iranian Foreign Ministry Nasser Kan’ani emphasized that the Islamic Republic won’t remain silent on any violation of the Iranian nation’s rights, will show an appropriate reaction, and will “cut off the hands of violators.”

He reminded the parties that have plans to confiscate Iran’s oil to review the history of Iran’s actions in similar cases.

“Measures that involve attacking oil tankers carrying Iranian oil are a brazen example of piracy,” Kan’ani stated.

The United States and its allies have been seizing Iranian oil cargoes since the previous US administration of Donald Trump withdrew unilaterally from the 2015 Iran nuclear deal in May 2018.

What is an insane coincidence that you’ve experienced?

In the early 1970s I was at a cocktail party. There was lots of standing about in small groups making small talk about nothing consequential. I was introduced to one particular person who was from Canada.

When in other countries myself, I have often been asked by strangers, when they discovered I was Scottish, if I knew their aunt, or uncle, or cousin or some other random relatives. No one seemed to realise that Scotland has a population of 5 millions and it was impossible for me to know everyone who lived in the same country as myself.

With the above in mind while chatting with this Canadian visitor, I made a joke saying “I won’t ask you if you know my friend Billy who lives in Canada”. We both laughed at that and talked about other things. A couple of hours later we had both circulated through various other groups and came across each other again. We had both run out of meaningless Smalltalk and simply smilled at each other.

Our Canadian guest then broke the ice by saying “Aren’t you the one who has a friend living in Canada? “

I responded yes, in Toronto.

He asked where in Toronto.

I replied, Missauguia.

He asked, where in Missauguia.

I replied, 26 High Cliff Drive.

He looked surprised and said, “Do you mean Billy Skinner. I live next door at number 24.”

Do police lie to cover up crimes?

On the night of August 23rd 1987, 16-year-old Don Henry and 17-year-old Kevin Ives decided to go hunting in Alexander Arkansas. It was believed, at 4 am the two boys were in a horrific accident when they were hit by a train.

It was determined to be a horrific and tragic accident by the state medical examiner, who said the boys were sleeping on the tracks due to marijuana intoxication from smoking 20 Joints. Those were his words, and the authorities closed the case.

Anyone that knows anything about weed would see that as a major red flag. The parents didn’t accept this finding and had a second autopsy done which showed the boys only smoked one joint and they were already dead when they were placed on the tracks. Don Henry’s shirt showed evidence of a stab wound and Kevin Ives had his head smashed in with his own rifle.

The theory is the boys stumbled upon a drug smuggling operation that was run by crooked cops and town officials. Several witnesses that came forward with information died under mysterious circumstances with each of the victim’s bodies examined by the same guy who first examined the two boys.

The prosecutor for the case Dan Herman, was arrested for drug dealing and was implicated as one of the murderers. Keith McCaskill was another man implicated but died when he was stabbed to death by an unknown attacker.

Phil And Tony Sitdown With Carmine Lupertazzi Jr – The Sopranos HD

Phil Leotardo And Tony Soprano Sitdown With Carmine Lupertazzi Jr.