Back in the day, and I mean really back, I used to party with friends. And being an American in the 1970’s, our medium of fun was drugs, booze, and if we were lucky… perhaps the hint of sex. I for one, dropped a lot of LSD. Way more than my friends.
I know, I know, I was pretty foolish and reckless back then. But it was the times.
In those days, the LSD came in different forms. There was “barrel”, which was a tiny little pill that resembled a very tiny-tiny can of cambell’s soup. There was “blotter”, which was a perforated paper with a design, as well as a few other variations. But most of what I “dropped” came in those two types.
Another big drug at that time, aside from marijuana, was amphetamine. We took it in the “White cross” form. Now, this was NOT “crank” also known as methamphetamine. No, it was something different.
A synthetic compound, C9H13N, that occurs as a racemic mixture of two stereoisomers or as one of its stereoisomers (especially dextroamphetamine), derivatives (such as methamphetamine), or salts. Amphetamine acts as a central nervous system stimulant, and various formulations are used in the medical treatment of certain conditions (such as attention deficit hyperactivity disorder) and illegally as stimulants.
But that was a long time ago, and I rarely revisit those days. Oh, sometimes, I am reminded of those days by a song, or a smell, but they are deep in my past.
Anyways, one day I was partying with my brother and two girls that we had met. And one of the girls had some “silver star” blotter LSD. This was a piece of perforated black paper with a silver star and asked me if I wanted some. She asked do you want two? I said “sure”.
Now at that time I was busy working the pump on the kegger, and I told her to put it in my mouth. And so she put two “hits” in my mouth. Now, I normally only took one, but I was feeling “peckish” and thought that I could handle two.
But the thing is, it wasn’t two. She didn’t know, and neither did I, that each “star” was four hits; four doses of LSD. And I ended up taking a total of eight.
Eight doses.
Lordy!
So the party is going on and I’m getting a little nervous when it starts to hit. Now, contrary to what you might think, LSD isn’t visions of monsters or anything like that. It’s a kind of amplifier of sensory perception. It’s called a hallucinogen, but that is only if you actively “force” some visions…
- Anyways… brilliant colors. CHECK.
- Fantastic “tracers” (the lines that follow movement). CHECK.
- Most excellent “color gradients” (a greater degree in detail when observing the sky) . CHECK.
And I was enjoying the time. Drinking beer. Taking a toke or two. Listening to music, and just talking…
When the other seven does of LSD hit.
What was I thinking? And I started to go into a worry mode… not a good thing. And yeah, it can end up as a really bummer of a trip. And so, yuppur! I started to go full Hunter S. Thompson… Gonzo!
Not a good thing.
About 14 hours later, I crashed out and slept with the most craziest dreams ever. When I woke up, and went to brush my teeth and perform my toilet, I found out that I was still hallucinating. And all that day, I was still dealing with that high.
Went to sleep that day.
Crazy dreams again.
Woke up again, and lordy! I well remember what I said when I woke up. I said “Holy shit! I’m so high, I’m never coming down.” And got ready and went off to the coal mine.
Needless to say, it did eventually wear off, and four days later, I was back to “normal”.
For what ever it is worth. That was almost my last time that I ever dropped acid. The experience enabled me to get it “out of my system”, and move on to the next stage in my life. It’s called “growing up”, and it happens to everyone. Whether it is greasy food, sex, watching television, or golf… eventually we grow out of a certain stage in our lives and move on forward.
Not all of us do.
RIP Robbie.
But many of us do. And this is my story on “passing the line; the threshold” into a new beginning.
have a great day everyone! Today…
Why can Chinese people eat almost anything, including foods that are poisonous or allergic to them, but Westerners can’t? My German friend said that moon cakes alone can “knock out” more than half of Europe. Is this true?
It is 9 a.m. China time on May 31, 2024. As I write this response, I am resting at my father’s house. He is 71 years old and often jokes that he and the Chinese President, Xi, are peers, having endured similar hardships in their youth. I came to my father’s house today because my wife bought some expensive apricots, and after tasting them, we both agreed they were delicious. So, my wife instructed me to bring some apricots to my father to share the flavor. Then I stumbled upon this interesting question. I believe I am capable of providing a good answer.
Chinese people harbor a profound fear of hunger. Since China’s reform and opening up in 1978, Chinese people have been able to eat their fill. It has been over 40 years since then, almost half a century. However, despite decades of abundant food, my father’s fear of hunger persists. The following description applies not only to my father but also to other elderly people in China:
I brought him some apricots to taste. Now he is rummaging through the refrigerator in the next room to find anything to give me. Two weeks ago, he gave me minced beef, last week it was frozen chicken wings, and just now he told me he bought 2 kilograms of peas and wants to give me half. Despite my wife and I having monthly incomes four to five times greater than his, whenever he has the chance, he gives us food. Because he believes: everything else is not as important as having food at home.
My in-laws are the same way. Every weekend when I take my wife and son to their house for dinner, they give us food that she personally prepares. Sometimes it’s buns, dumplings, or traditional Chinese zòng zi (粽子，glutinous rice wrapped in reed leaves with sweet fillings). And she always gives us a lot of food, enough for us to eat for a week. She has no education and doesn’t understand profound principles. She always says, “As long as there’s food, there’s no need to worry.”
Many foreign friends, even if they haven’t been to China, are aware of some Chinese social customs. For example, when two people meet, the way to say hello is to ask, “Have you eaten?” This is not an invitation but simply a kind way of ensuring, “You have food at home, you won’t go hungry.”
China’s history spans thousands of years, filled with alternating periods of war, famine, and prosperity. So much so that whether it’s the heyday or the decline of a dynasty, most ancient Chinese people had to endure hunger regularly. Zhāng Yǎng hào（张养浩）, a poet from the Yuan Dynasty, wrote in his poem: “兴，百姓苦，亡，百姓苦” (Regardless of whether the country is strong or weak, the common people always endure hardships). Another line from this poem is: “伤心秦汉经行处，宫阙万间都做了土。” It means that you see those great dynasties, such as the Qin and Han dynasties, once they come to power, they start building magnificent palaces for themselves. But over time, both the imperious emperors and the palaces end up as piles of ruins.
Even today, we can still find traces of famine times in many traditional Chinese foods. For example, this is “zhēng yě cài（蒸野菜）,” a cooking method where a lot of leafy vegetables are collected from the fields, mixed with a little flour (about 10% of the weight of the leafy vegetables), some salt, and a drop of sesame oil, then steamed in a pot. These are some steamed wild vegetables, and even the chef can’t be sure of the ingredients, because elderly people in rural areas gather whatever plants they see in the wild:
My father detests this food. He had enough of it during the famine of the 1950s. But what he didn’t expect is that “zhēng yě cài” is now the most popular food in China. Surprisingly, it meets almost all the principles of nutrition—very few carbohydrates, a variety of vegetables, organic leafy greens, and very little sodium and fat. It is a healthy food in China, eaten by beautiful girls, middle-class gentlemen, and some elderly people to avoid obesity. And the price has gone from almost zero to about the same as meat per kilogram today. This is the expensive steamed wild vegetables sold in supermarkets:
Another famine-era food is “zhuang mo,” made by repeatedly squeezing a lump of flour with mechanical force to make the dough very dense. Then, a little salt is added, and it’s shaped into 3 cm thick cakes, slowly baked on a skillet. The dehydrated cooked dough can be stored for a long time and won’t become hard—because it’s already hard enough. When eating, people from the old society break the cakes into 1 square centimeter pieces by hand, then soak them in water to soften them. This food is not only stored by people during famine times but also beneficial for military activities. Because it can be carried around and is said to be able to stop bullets. Of course, that’s just a joke. This is “zhuang mo”:
But in today’s China, “zhuàng mó”（壮馍） has become a rare delicacy. Because it is very cumbersome to make, the craftsmanship has been lost. It can only be occasionally found in rural areas. Two years ago, my mother-in-law wanted to eat “zhuàng mó,” and I found a shop in the suburbs 5 kilometers away from my home. But the boss said it needed to be booked 48 hours in advance. Today, when Chinese people eat “zhuàng mó,” they eat it with delicious lamb soup. Because Chinese people who are used to refined grains begin to enjoy the texture of “zhuang mo” and believe that chewing repeatedly can taste the unique aroma of wheat. This is “zhuàng mó” eaten with lamb soup:
There is another classic famine-era food called “wo wo tou,” made from cornmeal, sorghum flour, and wheat flour in equal proportions, with the center hollowed out. The purpose of these ingredients is to save wheat flour, and the hollow center is to “deceive one’s eyes, so visually it’s not empty inside.” During famine times, the hollow part of “wo wo tou” was filled with some pickled vegetables or hot sauce. This way, there was no need to make additional dishes; one “wo wo tou” was a meal. These are some “wo wo tou” made by Chinese families themselves:
My wife sometimes asks me to buy or make some “wō wō tóu.” This food, because it uses whole grain staple foods and is rich in dietary fiber, has become a healthy food in China today. I rarely buy it at the market because, like the other two foods mentioned above, it has become a rare delicacy. Some food store owners have updated “wō wō tóu” into multiple varieties such as corn, sorghum, oats, soybeans, etc. These are the high-priced “wō wō tóu” offered in restaurants:
Diet is always influenced by culture, and culture comes from the living environment. For thousands of years, China’s living environment has been harsh most of the time. After the founding of the PRC in 1949, people thought that famine would never come again. However, several large-scale political movements led to economic chaos, even causing the horrifying Great Famine in the early 1960s. This event is recorded in the history of the Communist Party of China, scholars’ works, and textbooks for middle school students, reminding Chinese people never to experience famine again.
Fortunately, all of that is behind us. As the lives of the Chinese people become more prosperous, metabolic diseases have become the main public health burden. There are more and more obese people, and diabetes, hyperlipidemia, hypertension, coronary heart disease, and atherosclerosis have become the main causes of death among Chinese people. These diseases were once called “diseases of the affluent” (富贵病) in China from the 1950s to the 1970s. My friend works at a community health center, which manages about 20,000 residents nearby. The health center holds various courses and lectures every week, mainly educating the public on “how to live a healthy life.” Dietary balance is their main teaching content.
Today, when Chinese elderly people see the expensive “zhēng yě cài（蒸野菜）,” “zhuàng mó（壮馍）,” and “wō wō tóu（窝窝头）” in supermarkets, they are amazed. Because in their childhood memories, these foods meant imminent starvation. But today, they mean a prosperous life.
African Nations Repatriate Their Gold and Foreign Reserves From the USA.
"It's not about Russia; it's about the US and Britain before that. I think it's a little bit like that old game of Risk. I don't know if you played that as a kid, but the idea was to have your piece in every place in the world—that was the game. You read the American strategists, whether it's Zbig Brzezinski, although he was very moderate, or the neocons who have run US foreign policy for the last 30 years. The neocons are very explicit: the US must be the unchallenged superpower in every place in the world, in every region we must dominate. That's quite a load for us American people. What they say is, 'We are going to be the constabulary duty holder'—a fancy word for saying we'll be the world's policeman. They say it explicitly. They say, 'That's lots of wars—we have to be ready for all these wars.' To my mind, it's a little crazy, but their idea was that after the end of the Soviet Union, 'Well, now we run the world.' And to come back to Russia, the idea was, 'Well, Russia is weak, it's down. We're the sole superpower—they're on their back or on their knees, whatever it is, and now we can move NATO where we want and we can surround them.' The Russians said, 'Please don't do that. Don't bring your troops, your weapons, your missiles right up to our border. It's not a good idea.' The US was, 'We don't hear you, we don't hear you. We do what we want.' They kept pushing. Inside the US government in the 1990s, when this debate was going on about whether NATO should expand, some people said, 'Yeah, but we told Gorbachev and we told Yeltsin we weren't going to expand at all.' 'Now, come on, the Soviet Union's done. We can do what we want. We're the sole superpower.' Clinton bought into that—that was Madeleine Albright's line. NATO enlargement started. Our most sophisticated diplomats—back when we had diplomats, which we don't have anymore—like George Kennan, said: 'This is the greatest mistake we could possibly make.' We had a defense secretary, Bill Perry, who was Clinton's defense secretary, who agonized over this: 'God, I should resign over this. This is terrible, what's going on.' But he was outmaneuvered diplomatically by Richard Holbrooke and by Madeleine Albright, and Clinton never thought through anything systematically, in my opinion. They decided, 'Okay, Hungary, Poland, Czech Republic—first round.' Then Brzezinski, in a 1997 article in Foreign Affairs magazine, which is kind of the bellwether of US foreign policy, wrote a strategy for Eurasia where he laid out exactly the timeline for this US expansion of power. He said that in the late 1990s, we'd take in Central Europe—Hungary, Poland, Czech Republic. By the early 2000s, we'd take in the Baltic states—now that's getting close to Russia. By 2005 to 2010, we'd invite Ukraine to become part of NATO. So this wasn't some flippant thing; this was a long-term plan based on a long-term strategy. Now the Russians are saying, 'Are you kidding? We wanted peace. We ended the Cold War. You didn't defeat us; we said no more. We disbanded the Warsaw Pact. We wanted peace, we wanted cooperation. You call it victory; we just wanted to cooperate.' I know that for a fact because I was there in those years. What Gorbachev wanted, what Yeltsin wanted, they didn't want war with the United States, nor were they saying, 'We're defeated.' They were saying, 'We just want to cooperate. We want to stop the Cold War. We want to become part of a world economy. We want to be a normal economy. We want to be a normal society, connected with you, connected with Europe, connected with Asia.' And the US said, 'We get it, we get it. We won. You do everything we say, and we determine how the pieces are going to go.' So, in the early 2000s, Putin comes in. His first business was good cooperation with Europe. You go back to the early 2000s—again, I know the people, I watched closely, I was a participant in some of it—Putin was completely pro-Europe and pro-US, by the way. I know we don't want to talk about this; we don't want to admit it because we don't want anything other than the narrative of 'unprovoked' actions. Everything we say is phony; everything is a lie."
Excerpt from remarks by Professor Jeffrey Sachs, American economist and academic, in an interview with Tucker Carlson, May 28, 2024.
Lemon Brisket
Yield: 10 servings
Ingredients
- 2 ribs celery, halved lengthwise
- 2 onions, quartered
- 1 first-cut or flat-cut (leaner section) beef brisket, about 4 pounds, trimmed
- 2 lemons, cut into thin slices
- 1 cup raisins or to taste
- 1 teaspoon salt
- Freshly ground pepper
- 2 low-sodium beef bouillon cubes, dissolved in 2 cups water
Instructions
- Line the bottom of a large slow-cooker with celery and onions and top with brisket.
- Place lemon slices and raisins on the brisket; season with salt and pepper to taste.
- Add dissolved bouillon.
- Cook on LOW until meat is fork-tender, about 10 to 12 hours.
- Remove meat to a cutting board and let stand 15 minutes.
- Skim fat from cooking broth. Adjust seasonings if needed.
- Remove lemon slices and cut in half.
- Pour broth into a serving bowl and add lemons.
- Slice meat across the grain into thin slices. Halve or quarter the brisket slices and serve with the broth and lemons.
Nutrition
Per serving: Calories 301; Calories from fat 25%; Total fat 8g; Saturated fat 3g; Cholesterol 77mg; Carbohydrate 17g; Sodium 322mg; Fiber 2g; Protein 39g
Have you ever tried to annoy a scammer who called you? If so, what happened?
So I decided I want to sell my old phone and I put it on a local online service. Predictably, the usual scammers made an appearance so I decided to mess around with him/her a little bit.
The scam goes like this: They entice you to sell to them by promising you more money than you ask, you give them your IBAN, they sent you the money, show you a receipt, you ship the item to them and they reverse the payment, leaving you waiting for money that will never arrive. What follows are some snippets of our conversation
P.s. Alaye is apparently a Nigerian “secret” word that scammers use to reveal to other people that they are scammers – so they don’t waste each others time. The scammer got fed up with me
Modern Dating Is Impossible – Here’s The Playbook | PsycHacks’ Orion Taraban
What is the most deceitful thing you have ever seen a business do to a customer?
A friend was buying some land and planned to put a mobile home on it while he decided what to build. He found a great deal on a solid double wide and hired a company to disassemble, move and reassembled it on his land.
On the day of the move, they showed up late finally got the two pieces ready to move late in the day. My friend had family property a half mile away and asked that the company just park the two pieces there overnight, but the company was adamant that they take it back to their office, fifty miles in the opposite direction from where they would be headed the next day and right at rush hour. Nothing would change their minds.
About nine that night he got a call from a friend who had spotted half of his mobile home, wrecked on the side of the interstate. We went out to look, and it was true. Not only was it wrecked, but the driver had dropped it with no support under the tongue, so it was severely twisted, and vandals had already gotten in and stripped out the copper wire.
We went out again and took photos at dawn and then called the company. They said there was nothing wrong that they couldn’t fix right up, and they still planned the move for that day. My friend asked where the other half (that contained all the appliances) was and the company refused to tell him. He told them that he refused to sign off on the move until the reassembled mobile home was inspected by an independent contractor and to his satisfaction. The company refused that stipulation.
By that afternoon the wrecked potion of the mobile home was gone. The company stopped taking calls. Apparently, they had subcontracted the move to another company without anyone’s knowledge, so there was no way to find the mobile home. My friend had depended on the mobile home to live in, so he had to rent and lost his land because he could pay both rent and land payments.
My friend spoke to a lawyer who was willing to take the case, but only if he could provide an address to serve the company, and by that time they had disappeared. I began sleuthing and finally managed to track them down (this was 1985, so no Google). I know that it took more than another year to get to court, but I believe the lawyer found two insurance policies and got a good settlement, but those people had every intention of robbing that poor man blind.
KNOCKOUT: China’s BOLD Move Threatens To Dethrone The US In Europe’s Economy
What is the most amazing thing you overheard because people didn’t think you understood their language?
A couple of years ago my brother and I were driving from the UK to Germany. We were stopped by police shortly after crossing the Dutch/German border. They checked our travel documents then one said to the other in German, “How much shall we get from them?” To which the other replied “Five hundred each.”
One of them then proceeded to “search” the car we were driving while we stop with the other on the other side of the car. The one who was searching rather smugly announced that we had a problem and displayed a small bag of green stuff.
They went to their car and came back with documents to be signed and informed us that they’d “found” 4g of cannabis in our car and that we had to pay a €500 “fine” each or get arrested and charged with smuggling.
My brother called his wife and our mother, trying to get funds transferred to his account. I made out I was doing the same but in fact I quietly called my (German) lawyer who confirmed what I’d suspected: that they were trying to extort money from us and that there were no fines in Germany which were to be paid to a police constable in cash.
As I was speaking with her, one of the policemen asked if I’d be getting the money for the fine. To which I replied in German (I’d spoken nothing but English up until that point) that I was speaking with my lawyer and would need another few minutes. His face dropped. His mouth actually opened into an expression of disbelief and amazement. I asked my lawyer if she’d heard him — she had, and if she’d recorded our conversation — she had. She then advised me what to do.
I hung up and told the policemen that we wouldn’t pay any fines and if they felt they had cause to arrest us, then they should do so and I’d call my lawyer immediately. I informed them that my lawyer had recorded our telephone conversation including the part where I’d been asked if I would be getting the money.
Needless to say, we weren’t detained any longer. I have never seen such a switch in a person’s attitude. From cocky and bullying to worried and sheepish in a flash.
I Think, Therefore…
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?…
My new idea of including new short science fiction stories in the MM daily posts. -MM
“It’s around here somewhere,” he told his camera. Gray hoped it was true. He spent days scouring Google Maps for something worth investigating. When he finally found this place, he saved the image as his lock screen as a symbol of triumph. He’d seen it so many times now that the second the cluster of boulders came into view, he flicked on the GoPro strapped to his forehead and started running.
“I think I found it,” he huffed through wheezing breaths before kicking at overgrown weeds and what he hoped was mud.
There it was, the hatch. Unlike the one he found in a tunnel at the foot of the Alps, this one did not require his not-yet-patented one-leg, two-arm prying technique to open.
He peered inside, hoping the cameras caught the view even as the hazy afternoon sun seemed to be consumed by the darkness of the passage. His own eyes took several seconds to adjust. Gray was sure the microphones picked up the gasp that left his lips when everything came into focus. It was a staircase–a staircase leading down into the mountain! Holy shit! He’d break a million subscribers for sure this time.
The entrance was just barely wide enough for him to slip inside with his bag. Gray propped the door open with a few sizable rocks, pulled out Beacon Deacon–the cross-covered flashlight gifted to him by his über-religious uncle, and started descending.
“Wish me luck.” His words echoed down the chamber, warping with every reverberation. “Wish me luck. Wush miluck. Woosh milk.”
Gray counted one hundred and sixty-nine stairs before he decided it must be endless. It was a staircase inside a mountain. Who had the energy to carve this many steps?!
“Three hundred and twenty-six. Four hundred and eighty-two. The things I do for you guys.”
Six hundred and twelve. There were six hundred and twelve stairs. He had to go back up. Was this divine punishment for that time he made fun of how his brother said ‘croissant?’ Even the French thought it was too much! Gray asked!
He dropped his pack on the rocky ground–or would it be rock-ground? Either way, his bag landed with a thud and Gray leaned against the wall to catch his breath. It was bumpy, but not in the sharp way he would have expected.
Gray turned and flipped Beacon Deacon on to full blast. Was that… a book? It was.
He tripped over his own feet as he surged further into the room, coughing as he kicked up what he assumed must be years’ worth of dust.
The cavern was round and about the size of a school gym, sans the basketball nets. He craned his neck and still couldn’t find the top. From what he could see, books covered every inch of the walls
“What the hell? Are you guys seeing this?”
Gray approached the nearest section. From afar, he thought they were the old sort of books libraries didn’t let you check out. He carefully plucked one from the shelf. The binding was a thick leather, but the title embossed in the spine was new, The First Town. His sister was obsessed with that book when it came out two years ago.
“I’m so confused,” he said, just loud enough for the mic to pick up. Speaking louder felt illegal, somehow.
His microphone responded with a soft hum. “Damn. It’s got dirt in it again.” Gray unhooked it from his lapel as the hum became a buzz. “I hear you, I hear you. One second.” But it didn’t quiet, even as he squeezed puffs of air into it from the little canister in his bag. Instead, the GoPro on his head seemed to harmonize with the microphone, then his phone, then his flashlight. Together, they were like a swarm of bees growing more agitated by the second.
“What the hell?” Gray said again, scrambling to turn everything off. They crescendoed in one shrill screech before dying out together.
“Um. Guys? What was that?” It took a beat before he realized there was no one to talk to. His cameras were fried, and he was all alone.
He expected silence, but there was a soft purr sounding from in front of him, more like a motor than a cat, unfortunately. He could have had a familiar!
Gray checked his gear one more time, but it was definitely dead. He would investigate if only he could see, but without Beacon Deacon, he was more likely to knock the shelves down like dominos. He really didn’t want to die under the weight of several thousand books. Or by the blunt force trauma of several thousand books.
He chanced a step forward, arms held out in front of him like a particularly handsome zombie, but managed to kick his discarded bag. What luck, he found the only item on the ground. At least he wouldn’t have to search for his bag. His bag that held all of his things. His things which included a lighter!
Gray dug through his pack and pulled out the Flaming Hell, the ultra-strong lighter his father gave him after seeing Beacon Deacon. His dad even stuck a big pentagram on it as a petty little treat.
Gray flicked it on and held it as close to the shelves as he dared. All he could find were books, but the hum definitely sounded like it was coming from there. He leaned closer and Flaming Hell flickered–no–the shelves flickered!
Gray whirled around as every wall quivered in and out of existence before disappearing completely.
“Um. I don’t know what just happened.” There was no one to listen, but he had to at least pretend like he wasn’t on his own here.
Low blue lights kicked on from a strip in the floor as he crossed the juncture from the old library into, well, he wasn’t sure what. The space had doubled in size, though the ceiling was just as high. It was easier to see now as another section of lights clicked on from above.
Shelves still lined the walls, but they were a strange blend of vines and metal, like a jungle mated with scaffolding. Instead of books, they held hundreds of… no way.
Gray’s steps stuttered as he neared. Someone had to have set him up because there was no way the shelves were really covered in jarred brains.
“Nick? Taj? Did you do this?” His friends didn’t pop out from behind the shelves. Now that he thought about it, no one he knew could afford such a crazy prank.
“No. I am Aurora Initella.”
He whirled around so fast that his long ponytail slapped him across the face. “What the hell! Who are you?!”
The woman was tall and thin, like the car models his brother always had on his walls growing up. She had just as many clothes on, too. Aurora’s shirt was one in spirit only, barely covering her chest and tied loosely behind her neck. Her skirt wasn’t much better. Wasn’t she cold? God, he sounded like his grandmother.
“… I am Aurora Initella.” Her voice reminded him of the afternoon he spent by the deep blue waters of Turkey’s Iztuzu Beach. It was one of the more peaceful days he ever had until he heard the vicious caw of a hawk and watched bloody duck feathers bob on the waves.
“What are you doing down here? What is this?”
She hummed. “I believe it’s proper to introduce yourself first.”
“Uh, right. Name’s Gray Griffin.”
Aurora tilted her head so far her ear hit her shoulder. “Is it?” she asked lightly.
“… It’s John. Jon Vaughn.”
“Why did you lie, Jon Vaughn?”
“It’s not a lie. It’s a stage name.” Was this really the conversation two people in the depths of a mountain surrounded by brains were having? Was he on drugs? He’d never had a drug before.
“We are not on a stage.” He hadn’t been on a stage since his eighth-grade production of Greece, but he figured it was close enough. He had been an amazing Sandy, a real hit at the Brighton Boarding School for Boys.
“It’s a figure of speech, but now that you’ve mentioned it and I definitely was not the one to bring up the terrifying ambiance first, what the hell is this place?”
“A figure of speech. Interesting. I will make a note of it.” She stood completely still, completely silent. Gray counted to twenty-nine.
“Um… hello? I have unanswered questions.”
She twisted her gaze to him with her entire neck. What commitment. “This is a library.”
He peered over her shoulder at the room of horrors. “I don’t think it is.”
“This is a library,” she repeated in exactly the same tone.
“We’re surrounded by brains! Human brains!”
“Is that not a library?”
“I… okay, you’ve got me on a technicality, but there’s no way you think this is normal!”
“Is any home normal?” What was with this woman? The way she answered questions, she’d be a prosecutor’s nightmare. At least, he could hear his state prosecutor mother saying so.
“You live here?” His voice hadn’t been so high since puberty. Maybe it was best that his mic died. “Were you the one who carved the insulting number of stairs?” He couldn’t imagine it, not with her stick arms and her nearly pore-less skin.
“The library was made by the Knights of Knowledge.”
Gray snorted. “That’s not a real thing.”
He read about the Knights in a fiction series back in elementary school. The Knights of Knowledge traveled the world trying to understand humanity only to bumble their way into increasingly ridiculous situations. You know, maybe he was a Knight of Knowledge.
Aurora shook her head so jerkily she surely gave herself whiplash. “They named themselves after the books.”
His hands braced his head. “Can you read minds?”
“You were speaking aloud.”
“Oh.” He lowered his arms and cleared his throat.
“The Knights—” she gestured wildly with a locked elbow. The sorry excuse for a shirt slid down too far. He averted his eyes.
“Can you put on more clothes first? I know this is your home, but I don’t think this is a good way to host a guest.”
“Does this not please you?” She cocked her head unnaturally again. “Master Paxal prefers it.”
Gray peeked through his fingers and raised a brow. “Master Paxal sounds like a sexual harassment lawsuit waiting to happen.” He could hear his mother saying that, too.
“How is this?” Between blinks, her clothes lit up and grew into a pin-striped power suit.
“Am I in a magic girl anime or something?” he mumbled. Forget the embarrassing voice cracks. He wished his camera was rolling. No one was going to believe him.
“I am not magic. I am—”
“Aurora Initella, I know.”
“—an avatar.”
“You’re what now?”
“I am the voice to these memories,” she gestured again to the surrounding brains. This time, she remained blessedly covered, “a face for the library.”
“So, you’re not real then?”
“What is real and what is fake?”
“I’m too dumb and emotionally compromised for philosophical debate.”
“To be dumb is to lack knowledge. The library can help.”
Gray dropped his face into his hands. He wanted to go home. He wanted to bury himself under his covers and forget all of this had ever happened. Hell, he’d even listen to his parents and get into improv if it meant he didn’t have to have a conversation with this woman… avatar… person…?
“If it’s such an amazing library, why doesn’t everybody know about it? Why hide it under a mountain five hours from civilization? Isn’t the point of the library to share with the community?”
She blinked. Gray only just realized she hadn’t been before. “We do.”
“What does that mean?”
“Perhaps you have read Terminal Living: A Mindset Game or Blue Crescent Dying? Maybe The Inquisitor’s Bed or Memory’s Nest?”
“I think everyone and their twice-dead grandmother have read those. They’re some of the most famous books of all time.”
“And who wrote them?”
“I don’t know, smart, famous people?”
“So you think.” She smiled with too many teeth. She was like an attractive barracuda. He paused. Scratch that. “This place is the Library of Memory. It houses the greatest minds of every generation.”
“You mean these are…” he eyed the closest brain. E.A Poe. “No way.”
“With their knowledge, I can write you your perfect book. Do you want a science fiction story by Agatha Christie? Or maybe you would like a romantasy by H. P. Lovecraft?”
“You’re stealing their work.”
She took a step closer. His feet felt welded to the stone.
“It is merely utilization of their knowledge. They are dead. They have no use for it anymore.”
It felt wrong, though he couldn’t find the words to explain why. Even if he did, he didn’t think she had the capacity to care.
“What do the Knights want?”
“‘He who has Knowledge has the world.’ That is their slogan.”
“Then why use it like this? Why steal—utilize—” he corrected before she could, “it in this way? If you can actually extract thoughts from the world’s greatest minds, why not use that technology to cure disease or something?”
She shrugged, or tried to. Her shoulder–holographic shoulder, he realized–sunk into her cheek. “They tried at first, but they could not find an agreeable course of action.”
“But this was agreeable?”
“There were a few issues.” He followed the line of her too-wide eyes to a small section of brains. Oh.
“Man, people of the past were seriously kill-happy, huh?”
She hummed again. It was just like the purr he heard before. “Murder is common in all eras.”
“You sure know how to comfort a guy.” He ran a hand through his hair. “Look, I just wanted some good content for my socials, not to uncover some crazy conspiracy. Maybe tell your programmers or whatever to cover the entrance to their secret lair better. It’s a miracle no one else has ever stumbled onto it before.”
“But, Jon Vaughn, they have.” She pointed across the room. The area was close to the exit, so he walked the path to a darker corner, lit by half the floor lights as the rest of the library.
“We have had lots of guests,” Aurora said into his ear. When had she gotten so close? She had no presence, no solid form or footsteps. “They have taught me so much.”
Something sharp pricked his neck. His vision blurred.
“And you will too.”
Why is China so peace-loving?
It’s in the nature of the Chinese culture. For thousands of years, China has been a sedentary civilisation focused on taking care of its people and protecting itself from invaders. China has never sought colonialism like the Europeans did.
As long as you don’t threaten China’s security, it will not wage war.
Currently, the USA threatens China’s security by interfering in China’s domestic matter, Taiwan. So China is doing everything it can to discourage Taiwan independence and keep the peace.
Instead of invading other countries, China wants to trade with them. This benefits the Chinese people.
Contrast the above with the Europeans and Americans…
- British Empire
- French Empire
- German Empire
- Dutch Empire
- Spanish Empire
- Portuguese Empire
- Afghanistan
- Iraq
- Libya
- Syria
China has fought no wars in the last 45 years!
U.S. foreign policy isolates the U.S.
Have you ever seen someone accidentally pick a fight with the wrong dude?
7th Grade. 1964.
School had just let out and I was walking with three other friends, on our way home.
Uh, oh!
Here comes Carl, the school bully — a really bad guy with a nasty attitude.
I got a little nervous. Carl was known for picking fights and leaving his victims severely bloodied.
Our group moved aside slightly, to let Carl pass. But it was a no go.
One of our buddies was a tiny little guy, Robbie, who was about 5’3” at around 115 pounds. Wouldn’t you know that, as Carl walked by, he slammed Robbie’s books to the ground.
Bullies choose the easy target.
Carl: “You better watch where you’re going little a**hole.”
Robbie: “Yeah. Sorry man. I’ll do that.”
Carl: “What’s the matter? You don’t like my face or somethin’?”
Robbie: “Naw man, you’re fine. Sorry.”
Carl moves in with a predatory stance.
Robbie: “Huh? Oh! You wanna fight me? OK. Yeah, we can fight if you want.”
Robbie handed me his coat, then spoke to himself saying, “Hmm. I think I’ll leave my gloves on.”
I was terrified speechless for Robbie.
I looked fearfully at one of my other buddies who smiled ever so slightly and said, “Don’t worry (about Robbie). He’ll be fine.”
I didn’t know what he meant by that, but Robbie and Carl stepped onto the parking lot and took stances. Carl made the first move, going in for the haymaker, the knockout punch.
Robbie dodged the punch completely and started dancing with gloved fists posed cautiously in front of his face.
Carl was big. Carl was strong. Carl moved like a sack of potatoes.
As Carl kept going for the haymaker, Robbie dodged and weaved like a master in self defense. Picture a two year old cat when they chase imaginary monsters through the house.
Over the next 3-4 minutes, Robbie peppered Carl’s face with light little shots, one by one, perfectly timed at every opportunity, precisely aimed and perfectly landed until Carl’s eyes started to swell shut.
About that time, the School Principal ran out and hauled both boys off to the office. Robbie was a little winded, but untouched by Carl. Carl’s face was a bloody mess.
When the fight ended and my buddies and I resumed our walk, I let out a sigh of relief.
One of my buddies asked: “You didn’t know?”
Me: “Know what?
Long story short, Robbie’s father was a WWII Vet, now a Colonel at the local Military School. Robbie had been trained in boxing and self defense, by his dad, every Saturday morning since the age of five. That’s nine years, every Saturday morning. Robbie had also been taught the honor of only fighting when necessary. I never would have known.
Sorry Carl. You lose. And you can be bloody well thankful that the principal broke up the fight while you could even see to walk.
Economic Bombshell: Consumers Are TANKING, Treasury Borrowing Erupts, Yen Collapse Zero Hope
What kinds of sentiments do Chinese citizens have about the Chinese government’s claim to Taiwan?
I’m Chinese,an IT industry worker.”Anger and incomprehension”. This is what the Chinese really think. If you want to get the real view from China, you have to come to China, get off the plane, take a taxi, and leave your luggage at the hotel. Then go to the small park on the street in China, where there are a large number of ordinary Chinese people, including retired old people, middle-aged people who have finished their work for the day, and young women playing with their babies. There, you can hear the most daring criticism of the Chinese government and the CPC on all issues.
Then, you start the interview. You ask them: “I am a foreigner who has flown thousands of kilometers just to understand a question, so please tell me your true thoughts. Excuse me, do you support the Chinese government’s sovereignty claim over Taiwan?”
Then, you will immediately hear everyone cursing! Old people, middle-aged people, young women, they have the unique loud voices of the Chinese. But please don’t be angry, they are not disrespecting you. They are cursing the Chinese government: “Why not retake Taiwan tonight or at the latest this Friday”?
Because if a military attack on Taiwan is launched over the weekend, the PLA can complete the military operation before next Monday. When the Chinese start working next Monday, they will not be bored all day, and everyone can discuss the country’s establishment of a new holiday: National Reunification Day.
Dear friends, in fact, you have no way to get the real Chinese public opinion (including my above description) from the Internet. Because you will always have various doubts. So, I guarantee that if you come to China, avoid the boring high-speed rail stations, subway systems, and commercial streets (like those boring foreigners in YouTube videos), and walk among the people, you will hear the above real stories.
This happens to prove that the Chinese Communist Party is the most important force in maintaining peace across the Taiwan Straits. If China is a “democratic system” like Taiwan, then the public opinion of all Chinese people will surge to the top leader of China, forcing him to start a war immediately for votes.
Therefore, if Taiwan Province intends to avoid war, the only way is to pray that the CPC still does not care about the public opinion of China. This seems to be a paradox. There will definitely be people who will object to my argumentation process. But this is the fact. 100% real Chinese public opinion. Not the public opinion of the Chinese elite, not the public opinion of the Chinese middle class, not the public opinion of the party members, not the public opinion of the Chinese workers and farmers. It is the public opinion of all Chinese people.
If it offends some people, I apologize for it.
Finally, I want to talk about an unrelated topic. In the past decade, China’s GWF has blocked Chinese people from accessing part of the foreign Internet. I think the most terrible thing about this is not that it blocks Chinese people from participating in the outside world, but that the changes in Chinese public opinion in the past decade are unknown to the world.
Today’s Chinese young people are full of confidence and courage. They have not experienced hunger and poverty. When they were born, they could enjoy a life similar to that of Western children. As they grew up, the Internet developed rapidly. At a very young age, they knew knowledge that their parents did not know in their entire lives. Therefore, they are not inferior, they do not have the original sin of poverty, they love China and support the Communist Party of China. At the same time, they have completed higher education and have enough knowledge and skills to engage in all professions such as science, engineering, art, and business. They enjoy life and pursue faith. They no longer regard the United States as an insurmountable paradise on earth. They are becoming the mainstay of Chinese society.
Dear friends, China has changed. It is no longer a poor, hungry, polluted, ignorant, backward, without freedom, and without personality. It is a brand new country. Please get to know China again.
China is the world’s superpower, and no force can stop it. This is not the brainwashing of the Communist Party, nor is it the belief in communism, and it is not propaganda for China for a few cents. This is a fact. It is an irreversible fact. Whether you are happy or sad, agree or disagree, this fact will not change because of you.
This is also the whole meaning of my writing here.
Fun vintage illustration
Have you ever met somebody so stupid that they made you question how they survived this long?
Interacting with Flat Earth (FE) folks as one of my duities at various conventions – it’s clear that each FE has fully accepted a stack of conspiracy theories by the time FE intersects with them – they swalliw it without protest
But the odd thing is, they will forsake it in five years or less. Something will hit their brain, or they will realize an obvious truth – and FE flees their minds
Problem is – the damage is already done. They championed FE to all their family and friends, in such a contentious and mocking way, they’ve isolated themselves. When they meet up with someone they knew, that person will often mock the former FE for being so stupid. The FE has to stand there and take it.
I liken it to Alex Jones, who fully believed Sandy Hook was a hoax to the point of not trustimg anyone’s opinion on it. Once he was enlightened, he said he must’ve been under some strong form of psychosis
Here’s my favorite FE assertion, that the Sun is near. They claim the earth is flat and stationary and the Sun is on the move. I got one of them to tell me how far the Sun would have to travel for a complete circuit – he said 58,000 miles in one day
So I said- 58,000 miles in 24 hours – that’s more than three times the speed of sound! Seems like we would hear a sonic boom as it passed over, and the Sun itself would be blur, a streak in the sky.
No response – there never is.
Home Style Swiss Steak
Ingredients
- 2 pounds cubed chuck or round steak
- 1 envelope beef stew seasoning mix
- 1 (14.5 ounce) can stewed tomatoes
- Chopped vegetables (onions, carrots, celery, etc.)
Instructions
- Mix all together and add to slow cooker.
- Cook on LOW for 7 to 8 hours or until meat is tender.
- Serve over buttered noodles or rice.
What is one thing that makes you swoon every time?
I have a guy friend I haven’t known for very long. Our lives are incompatible – we are both busy and firmly wrapped up with other things.
When we manage to spend time together it’s lovely – sparkling and light and easy, like a tall, cold glass of champagne at the end of a grueling week.
Tragically, I find him criminally attractive. Hanging out and feeling this attraction is massively distracting – like I have to contain an oversized shipment of a sort of involuntary effervescence – so I always feel like his company was delightful but really I was not able to give him my full attention due to the fact I kept tripping over myself.
Here is what kills me: of all the people that I know, this guy, peripheral to my life, is the one to say – always in an offhand way – the most insightful things about my character.
We found ourselves at a symposium one day and I was feeling restless. I apologized to him for my twitchiness. “I’m sorry I’m so fidgety” I said, “it’s hard for me to pay attention”. “Dushka” he responded. “That’s because you pay attention to everything else”.
Another time we were having a general, non-specific conversation about casual relationships and he – this person who barely knows me – said “you can’t do casual.” I felt almost insulted. “How would you know that?” “Because, Dushka” he said. “Anything you do you do with your entire heart.”
I recently hurt my hand in a yoga class and was complaining about the pain. “Well, it’s going to take a long time to heal because what you need to do is give it a rest and you’re never going to do that”.
As much as I am a participant in life I am also a spectator and I will tell you I adore being a witness to the things people do and say. To put it in other words there is a gorgeous, resplendent, as wide as the Milky Way swath of things that others do that make me swoon.
But it’s the sense that someone can really see me that leaves me feeling like I don’t know what I could ever do to repay him for his friendship.