.
The pizzas that were never eaten
Perhaps one of the toughest times in my life was a trifecta of events that blindsided me.
- My mother died.
- I got fired from my work abruptly and harshly.
- My wife divorced me.
- She also accused me of molesting her daughter.
- I was arrested under the accusation, and spent a night in jail.
- All my bank accounts were emptied.
- My car was vandalized.
- My credit cards were suddenly are maxed out.
- And I ended up having to be the executor of my mother's will...
- With my sister and her sociopath husband trying to seal everything not nailed down.
During this period in my life, I was alone.
No friends, and I had moved to my mother's house to take care of the estate, and get away from all the vandals that seemed to want to attack me in Little Rock Arkansas as some kind of "sex fiend". Oh, yeah I was dealing with that nonsense.
During this time, I took stock at what I had, and I did have money stashed away out of reach from anyone in the USA. I had bank accounts in both The Philippines and in China. As well as relationships there.
And some time in the future, I will go though all that. But, for now, just know that it was a Hellish time for me.
My doctor prescribed me some medicine to "take the edge off", and it helped, but what I really needed was more in terms of male counseling. But in the USA, at that time, the idea of "Bros" wasn't that well established and the idea of "Rambo and Clint Eastwood like men" prevailed. Which sucked.
Every man for himself.
If you are broken... too bad.
Suck it up, bub.
...
I was living off of whisky, stress pills, and frozen pizza.
I spent the time planning and communicating with my attorneys that managed to throw out the accusations of me assaulting a girl... as there was no physical evidence of that ever happening.
But, the mere accusation got me framed up as a sex pervert, and I had a second series of charges to deal associated with that fiasco. In this grouping of lawfare, I had to defend my personality, and endure the charges that I had an interest in sexual activity with children.
So, I had to fly down to Arkansas to deal with that.
...
And as I left the house, I made sure that I had enough pizzas in the fridge to smunch on when I returned.
I well remember opening up the refrigerator and checking on the stack.
But...
Other things were going on.
Little did I know that my sister and her sociopath husband wrote a letter to the Judge and the prosecuting attorney telling them that I was dangerous and needed to be locked up.
They included a letter that I had written to my father expressing my worries and concerns about these accusations.
And so my father gave a copy of the letter to my sister... to help "explain" my worries to her so that she would show some concern for me. You see, he believed that as family that she would understand and stop saying such bad and harsh things about me.
Didn't happen.
She didn't care. She wanted all the money, property and furnishings on my mothers estate.
And so she saw an opportunity. And so she took that letter and mailed it to the prosecuting attorney and the judge.
You see, they wanted to loot the estate, and me being locked up would facilitate that.
$4.6 million dollars (in then prices)
...
So when I attended my court date, I met my attorney.
He was late for the hearing, and surprisingly beaten up. His face was all puffy, black and blue and it looked like his nose and jaw were broken. No idea why he was so beaten up.
My psychologist who evaluated me was absent as well. She was key to the determination of my mental and emotional health.
It turned out that her visa was reascended and she had 72 hours to leave the United States or suffer arrest!
...
So,...
- My attorney was beaten up.
- My supporting witnesses were all missing and were deported.
- My sister wrote a letter that told the Judge that I was dangerous.
- A private letter to my father was presented as evidence that I was a flight risk.
As the hearing began, and only seconds after he arrived he told me about the damning letter.
Fuck.
I should of left right then and there.
But, I was a good boy. I stayed.
And was promptly arrested and held in protective custody as a "close family member" confirmed that I was a dangerous villain and needed to be incarcerated. Hopefully, said the letter, for the rest of my life.
So I never returned home.
And the pizzas were never eaten.
...
I often think about those pizzas and what might have been. But now, youse guys know what happened.
Its so easy to accuse someone. Especially a man.
Its so easy to worsen the charges against that person as well.
Guard yourself and NEVER, EVER allow these people who will use a system against you to hurt and harm you. And be very careful who you confide in. In hindsight, my blue-pilled father was my worst enemy.
Hard times loomed ahead of me.
I endured them.
But not without scars.
Today...
What should I do if my child won't stop screaming because I don't buy him some toys in the store?
My oldest son threw a tantrum like that when he was three or four years old.
I took him out of the store and got down so that we were eye to eye.
I calmly told him,
"We are not going back in the store. You need to understand this. Now, the way you are acting is not okay. It seems like you might be tired. If you are tired, we can go home and you can take a nap.
I have other things I need to do. If you aren't tired, we can go do them.
It is up to you, now. Are you going to be okay to go and do other things, or do we need to go home so you can take a nap? It is your choice, so choose carefully."
He told me that he was okay, and that he could handle doing other things. We finished our shopping (at a different shop) and then went home. He never had another problem like that. Whenever he started to get whiny, I would ask him if he was tired. Sometimes, he would say yes, and I would finish up and go home. The other times, he would take the cue and adjust his behavior.
Whenever he would ask me for a toy (outside of birthdays, etc.), we would discuss the item. I might say, "this looks like fun, it isn't expensive, and it won't be the right season when your birthday comes, so I think it would be best to get it now."
I also said things like, "I would have to work for two hours to pay for this. Would you be willing to do two hours of work for it?" He would generally say, "No, I don't want it that much." I would reply, "Well, that answers your question, then, doesn't it?"
An 20 Year Old Cat was Taken to the Shelter, and a Man Decided to Help and Take Him Home
What is it that nobody tells you about having children?
Having children is awful. There are benefits that we all know about. But let’s stick with awful for a second.
A) A 1 foot tall US citizen suddenly moves into your house and you are FORCED to deal with it. It’s like an invading army taking over your home.
B) This 1 foot tall US citizen doesn’t speak English and yet demands you understand it 24 hours a day.
C) This new roommate you are forced to tolerate cries all the time. Deal with it.
D) This new roommate that you are basically required to love shits on the floor or shits in their pants and expects you to clean it.
E) You are expected to feed your new roommate and they have less motor control than someone with no arms and no legs.
F) 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, you are required to make sure this 1 foot tall human doesn’t kill themselves by mistake. If they do, then you might go to jail.
G) You have to touch their dirty genitals when you clean them. Oh yeah, you have to clean them. A lot.
H) At night (if you are a man), they climb in bed with the love of your life and suck on their breasts. If they were a normal roommate you might kick them out of your house at that point. But now it’s against the law to do that.
I) You and your spouse have gone from being lovers to being “parents”. It’s the funnest thing in the world to be a lover. It’s so much fun that we spend almost every moment thinking and dreaming about loving. It’s not as fun to be a parent.
J) You have no idea if this 1 foot tall person will turn into someone you like or hate when they are five feet tall. It’s sort of random although you hope for the best.
I have two daughters. They are the loves of my life.
This will make a man call her a UNICORN
Have you ever been treated differently at an airport because of your passport?
Oh how vividly I remember this experience. The experience I am about to tell you all about was the day I decided that I will do everything in my power to change my passport to a Canadian passport as soon as possible.
This story takes place back in 2009/2010 new years period. I was a PR in Canada, having immigrated in 2007 to Canada alongside my entire family. Due to some family reasons and situations, after landing in Canada, my dad, mom and little brother went back to Dubai for a year and I was in university in Ontario. I would visit them in Dubai during the winter breaks and summer vacations. This story is about the nightmare that I faced while on my way back to Toronto from Dubai.
Back then, we would take connecting flights, usually through British airways. As many would know, connecting flights from BA are routed through London Heathrow airport, for the most part. This story begins from the time I landed in Heathrow, after completing the first leg of my journey back to Pearson airport in Toronto. As we landed, I remember the captain coming over the intercom and advising us that, apparently due to “adverse” weather, the Heathrow airport had seized all their operations, which included my flight onward to YYZ. As I sat there, my mind racing, the next announcement made informed us that they are trying to arrange for hotel accommodations for the stranded passengers, and to contact BA customer service if we needed further inspection. I remember as we were allowed inside the terminal, there must have been hundreds, if not a thousand, people all in the terminal at the same time. As I walked forward, there were signs and people all around that were directing passengers around. As I approached, they asked me which passport I hold. At that time, I was an Indian passport holder, so I told them that. The expression on the person I was speaking to was eye opening. He sniggers and says, “oh ok, go to that line there, big fella”, pointing to a line of at least 400 people and filling in fast. As I stood in this line, I noticed that most of the people who had been on my flight, who were either EU or US or Canadian citizens, were being directed to a much smaller line, and were dealt with swiftly. As I watched, another 747 unloaded its passengers, and everyone of the EU or US or Canadian passport were pushed again to the front of the que. Seeing this, I was livid. I asked one of the guys working there, and all he asked me was, “what’s your passport or nationality”. Once I said Indian, he says, stay in that line.
I now realize that this disparity in processing immigration/passengers is due to the challenges of making sure that illegals don’t enter into the country, and each country has their own relationship with other countries, but as a 19 years old kid, I was mad. I was pissed that I was in a line going back atleast half a km, while people were allowed to jump ahead. Plus, when I finally got to the front of the line, I was informed that I would be getting a hotel about an hour away from Heathrow airport, and I would have to figure out the way to get there myself. All because, to my teen mind, the people who jumped ahead got all the hotels near the airport. This was the moment I decided that I will do everything in my power to get a Canadian citizenship and get my Canadian passport.
JD Vance Did WHAT to a Couch?
God. This stuff...
What's the most ridiculous thing someone has done to get out of work?
This idiot, Aaron O’Neill worked at the Intel plant in Kildare, Ireland. After a night of drinking and taking drugs he didn’t want to go to work so paid his friend to ring in a bomb threat, on behalf of ISIS.
Source: The Irish Times
Aaron O’Neill (20) had been out drinking and taking tablets with his friend Colin Hammond (21) when he decided he did not want to go in the next day.
He paid his friend to make the call from a payphone outside Hammond’s home.
The resulting 999 calls shut down a motorway, disrupted air traffic control and prevented 4,000 Intel staff from going to work. Garda Eamonn McFadden said that at a “conservative estimate” the incident lost Intel 6,000 hours of production.
Mr O’Neill of Chieftains Drive, Balbriggan and Hammond of Bath Road, also in Balbriggan, pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to making a false report on the Bath Road on January 13th 2015. Neither man has previous convictions.
Mr Hammond told the operator there were bombs located at Intel which would go off in 12 hours.
“You will not find them. This is a warning, we’re everywhere now,” Hammond told emergency services. When asked who was making the call, he replied: “Islamic State.”
Described by Judge Martin Nolan as “profoundly stupid”, Hammond claimed he had been paid to make the call. He was ordered to carry out 200 hours community service in lieu of a two year prison sentence when his case was dealt with in October.
He said, “to put it politely” it had been a misconceived plan and accepted that the men hadn’t envisaged the calls to have the effect they did.
“It is a very, very strange way to avoid going to work,” Judge Nolan said .
And the best part is how they got caught -
Gda McFadden said that a month after the hoax, a taxi man arrived at Balbriggan Garda station with a passenger who wouldn’t pay his fare. The passenger was Hammond and a garda at the station recognised his voice from the hoax call.
That is one very observant Garda Officer.
Man paid friend to make hoax bomb call to Intel to avoid work
Edit : I've included The Irish Times article at the end but I see I have been negligent in explaining actual events, mea culpa, I certainly could have explained this better - the person in question wasn't directly employed by Intel, he was a subcontractor and directly employed by his father, so he simply couldn't ring in sick, as I strongly suspect/believe that at the time he lived at home. He couldn't pretend to be sick when he worked for his Dad.
Vintage art
She Doesn't Know Why She Can't Find A Job
I Went To China And Drove A Dozen Electric Cars. Western Automakers Are Cooked
A trip to the Beijing Auto Show reveals just how advanced China's EVs are. So what are the so-called "foreign" automakers doing about it?
May 9, 2024 at 1:16pm ET
By: Kevin Williams
In just the past few months, the rift between the U.S. and China has expanded at an astounding rate. TikTok is set to be banned if it does not divest from its U.S operations. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said that “nothing is off the table” when it comes to battling a surge of cheap Chinese clean energy exports. The Commerce Department is cracking down on chips sent to Huawei.
And yet plenty of critics still insist China's advancements in its manufacturing abilities—especially in developing and selling electrified vehicles—somehow aren't legitimate. Or that they're just the byproducts of a government with too much cash that wants to elbow its way into the rest of the world.
I’ve personally been privy to conversations with auto industry insiders, engineers and pundits alike. Many of them believe China’s industries are not sustainable, and the cars it wants to foist on the public are cut-rate spyware machines designed to murder American citizens whenever the Chinese Communist Party flips the kill switch.
To these critics, if China had a truly open market, Chinese buyers would continue to purchase Western cars en masse, and sales of their models wouldn’t be falling off so dramatically.
It would be naive to assume that China doesn’t have its finger on the scale for EV production. But believing that the success of China's electrified vehicle industry is all the sole result of a brutish government forcing its citizens to buy its domestic products rings false in an almost childlike, sour-grapes way.
I spent a week in China for the Beijing Auto Show, the country’s biggest car industry event. As a guest of the Geely Group along with a few other international journalists, I drove more than a dozen vehicles, sat in many more, and had a lot of important conversations. The real story is far more nuanced than a simplistic “Us vs. Them”; a story of a China that has fraudulently over-invested in electric cars and is desperately seeking a space to dump their inferior products.
That narrative is false. Western automakers are cooked. And a lot of this is probably their damn fault.
Shanghai Is Hot, Yet Quiet
I knew Shanghai was hot, but I don’t think I quite understood the scope of the Bund’s hotness until I stepped out of the terminal of the Shanghai Pudong International Airport.
Shanghai shares nearly the same latitude as New Orleans, and like its geographical American counterpart, much of the city is next to water, making it just as humid and swampy. I was jumpy and jetlagged, dripping with sweat, my shirt already sticking to my back but relieved that I had made it through customs and passport control.
I was in a new place that was as foreign as it was familiar. Western brands like Peet’s Coffee and KFC littered the terminal, with queues of Chinese folks and international tourists alike sucking down localized versions of iced coffee and tea lattes or chomping down on chicken sandwiches that were significantly more flavorful than what I could get at home.
The very first car I saw in the arrivals and pickup lane of the airport was a white Ford Explorer parked in the middle of a pedestrian crossing; it was almost like I hadn’t left Ohio. It was so familiar, this car was identical to the one back home, save for the Chinese characters on the rear hatch that designate the JMC-Ford joint venture that made the crossover.
The second I looked away from the Explorer, I realized just how different everything was. The arrivals area was just as busy as any airport in any cosmopolitan world city, but the engine and exhaust noises I’d typically hear back home, or even in Europe, just weren’t there.
Most cars in the pickup area were green-plated “new energy vehicles,” made by brands of all sorts, from BYD or Geely, and even Western brands like Buick and Chevrolet. It’s quite a sight: a nation swept up in an electric car mania, as evidenced by the near-silent crossovers, vans, and sedans aggressively flying over speed bumps while dodging pedestrians headed to rideshare, taxis, or public transportation.
Some of the China-only cars I had read about and reported on before, I was finally seeing in person. “Oh wow, that’s a Buick Velite 6; I’ve been reading about those online, they’re everywhere, here in China. Or at least, everywhere in the passenger pickup area,” I said out loud, to no one in particular. For a split second, I wondered: were the reports overblown? Was China’s love affair with Western cars still strong?
Of course, it would be silly to jump to that conclusion within the first five minutes of being in China, but the presence of so many Buicks felt antithetical to the idea that I’ve been told that no one wanted Western brands, including its EVs.
Right?
My time in China would revolve around a tour of Geely’s world headquarters in Hangzhou and several roundtables with executives from Geely’s brands. Then, we’d fly to Beijing for a day at the auto show and experience a full day at a racetrack to sample more than a dozen vehicles, including the latest models of all brands that Geely Holding Group controls, except Volvo and Polestar.
We’d drive from Shanghai to Hangzhou via the iconic Hangzhou Bay Bridge, a ride that was more than two hours long. I’d spend it in the back of a Zeekr 009, a van I’ve driven on a track in the U.S. I knew it was a fast van that cornered surprisingly flat, but that’s not really the use case of that vehicle.
The 009 is part of a luxury MPV (minivan) segment that essentially only exists in Asia, and arguably has been perfected by China. Instead of Cadillac Escalades or Lincoln Navigators, black car operators use vehicles like the Buick GL8, Toyota Alphard, Denza D9, Voyah Dreamer, or the Zeekr 009.
And in context, the Zeekr 009 felt so at home. It’s not a cheap van. I’d reckon that the one I was in was well north of $80,000, but the 009 felt so much more mature than the last Escalade or Navigator for-hire car that would have been roughly the same price. It was more than just the ambiance of the 009’s interior, with its tiger wood trim, full Alcantara headliner, real metal finishes brightwork and finishes in the interior, or first-class airline-style middle captain’s chairs that both cooled and massaged me, lulling me to sleep before I knew what happened next. The 009 felt like a low-slung Rolls-Royce with sliding doors, so I understood why it was such a popular option for Chinese businessmen.
The visitors' center at its headquarters had examples of its latest models. Some of them were premium models from Zeekr and Lynk & Co, meant to battle brands like Acura or Audi.
Others were more mainstream, like Geely’s Galaxy subbrand, meant for middle-income value-conscious Chinese buyers, or potentially to be rebadged as Protons in places like Malaysia.
No matter the price point, they all felt incredibly convincing. They’re high-tech, well-executed machines in ways I hadn’t experienced from European or American manufacturers.
For example, take the Honda Accord-sized (and similarly priced) Geely Galaxy E8. Fully electric and on the same SEA (Sustainable Experience Architecture) platform as some Polestar models, the E8’s interior comes standard with a full-width 4K OLED display that serves as a central hub for all of the car’s functions. True, there are plenty of concerns that could be leveled at the E8 for its screen-only interface, but that does this screen a disservice.
Using it is akin to staring at a TV screen or a high-quality gaming monitor. The interface feels like it’s done with intentionality and care; important details like speed gear position are easily seen, whereas the HVAC and stereo controls are easily at hand and not buried in acres of menus. The screen itself is incredibly responsive, matching the inputs with as little latency as a high-end smartphone.
On the screen, an animation of the car sits in the midst of an ocean, overlooking a mountain range; It’s bright, it’s pretty, and it feels as if Galaxy E8’s interior is more like a remodeled living room, rather than the front seat of a car.
I was impressed. But when I got to the auto show, I realized I hadn’t seen anything yet.
The Beijing Auto Show is A Tour De Force
Thankfully, Beijing’s more than 700 miles from the balmy Shangai-Hangzhou area, and further inland location made for a comparatively cooler time. Unfortunately, Beijing's traffic was infinitely worse than Shanghai’s. Despite leaving the hotel at 8:30 a.m., it took us more than an hour and a half to drive just nine miles to the New China International Expo Center.
The show itself was packed, incomparable to the ghost-town auto shows back home during their press preview days. Everywhere I looked, there were people: influencers, Chinese media, international media. Clearly, China missed the memo that these events are dead.
I’d later learn that the auto show had more than 100 new model debuts and concepts. That’s a far cry from the Detroit Auto Show last September, which only featured one fully new model. Two other models were refreshed versions of current cars already on sale. None were electric.
In China, the showroom floor was filled to the gills with new electrified models from every single domestic automaker. They all had something to prove, and by god, they were trying. There were hundreds of models on the floor from dozens of brands, most of them just as compelling as what I had seen the day before from Geely.
Most brands had doors that closed with a solid thunk, with soft-touch materials in the correct places, when appropriate to the vehicle’s price point. And no matter the price point, they all had responsive, integrated vehicle interfaces that were quick, pretty, and ubiquitous.
A basic infotainment system in any given moderately priced Chinese EV beats the brakes off some systems in cars that cost six figures.
There are reasons for that, but namely, Chinese EVs are so good now—as is much of its urban infrastructure—that concerns about range or charging just aren’t as pertinent to the average consumer as they once were.
Zeekr representatives said that now, the brand must figure out ways to attract consumers that don’t involve range or charging speed. Hell, the whole Chinese car industry has the same conundrum. Thus, all of its domestic brands (and some foreign ones) have ingratiated themselves with Chinese tech companies, and the two have moved in lockstep to figure out just what that means.
Of course, China has a lot of EV brands. Probably too many EV brands. But some of those brands are entanglements between China’s automakers and its tech companies.
Take JiYue, a combination of Geely and Baidu, a company often dubbed China’s Google. Its connected services and vision-only self-driving has a Full Self-Driving style car on the road, while Tesla waits to jump in. Or IM Motors, a premium brand that’s a result of a tie-up with SAIC and e-commerce giant Alibaba.
Then there’s the Harmony Intelligent Mobility Alliance, a collaboration between BAIC, Chery (aka Luxeed), Aito, and Changan, and smartphone and tech giant Huawei. The latter can either help design and market the cars themselves or add full-stack in-car solutions for a vehicle’s infotainment car architecture, all using the same Harmony OS that Huawei uses on its smartphones.
And of course, there’s Xiaomi, a phone manufacturer that decided to design and manufacture its own car. Unlike Apple, Xiaomi actually pulled this off, and the end product is so advanced it’s made headlines all over the world.
Whatever the flavor, these models are superconnected, full of high-end processors and tech meant to woo discerning Chinese buyers.
Just from what I saw, I understood why there were so many people at the Chinese domestic brands. Li Auto’s booth had a consistent queue to view L6 compact PHEV crossover, released at the show.
Even its current production models, like the L9 and Mega MPV, had lines of Chinese and International Media poking and prodding the cars. Changan’s Ford Maverick-sized convertible coupe SUV with a bed stayed swarmed the entire show. Xiaomi’s SU7 had a two-hour wait. Some international journalists gave up and stopped trying to see the car.
Western brands didn’t enjoy that fervor, though.
Nobody Cares About Western Brands in China
All of the press conferences for the model debuts were in Chinese, and I didn’t always have a translator or interpreter at hand. When I could, I wandered around, looking to see what else I could learn while in China.
The first stand I stumbled upon was Buick’s. It unveiled two GM Ultium-based concepts, the Electra L and Electra LT. It had also unveiled a PHEV version of its popular GL8 van. But where the hell was everyone? It was barely 10 a.m., on the first day of the Beijing Auto show; two concepts were just revealed sometime earlier that morning, yet there were only a handful of spectators at the Buick stand. There was no information on either concept. No one seemed to care.
Same story with the other Asian brands. Mazda's latest model, EZ-6 (which isn’t really even a Mazda, but a restyled Changan Deepal SL03), had some of the usual influencers and journalists shooting quick walkaround content for their channels, but after that died down, most moved on to something else. Ditto for Toyota’s bZ3x and bZ3c near-production models.
“Chinese people don’t really care about concepts here,” Will Sundin of the China Driven internet show told me. “They want something they can buy and drive right away.” As we walked around, he elaborated on why Western manufacturers were losing so much ground in China. Sundin blamed it partially on Western brands' inability to electrify quickly while offering low-quality software and mediocre value in their products.
Chevrolet showed off the same Equinox EV preproduction prototypes it had at the LA Auto Show in 2022. Both were locked and unavailable for in-depth viewing by the general public until a third unit showed up the next day of the show.
Also, the Equinox EV is still not on sale. By comparison, Li Auto’s L6 was available for viewing and purchase at Li Auto storefronts before the car’s official reveal at the Beijing Auto Show. Li Auto says it has 40,000 orders for the PHEV.
Why isn’t the Equinox EV on sale?
We explored the expo center more, but eventually made our way back to the Buick stand. I plopped down in the front seat of the Buick Velite 6, the electric wagon I had seen everywhere in Shanghai. I’d find out later from four different on-the-ground sources, including Sundin, that the Velite 6 is highly discounted and sold en masse to Chinese rideshare drivers.
It is a car that sells in numbers heavily to fleets because it is cheap and available, and less because it is desirable—not great for a brand that wants to retain its market share and raise its transaction prices.
Within five seconds of sitting behind the wheel of the Velite 6, I understood why. Sundin picked up on my disappointment.
“It’s a bit shit, innit?” he said. He was right. I couldn’t ignore what I was seeing. The Velite 6 felt like an electric version of a generation-old Chevy Malibu.
The delta of quality, connectedness, and value between the Velite 6 and any of the equivalent of the mid-tier Chinese EV vehicles I had experienced that day, was startling. By comparison, the Velite 6’s small screens and grey plastic interior were downright depressing to the full-width, super brilliant screens in any given Chinese EV.
The GM Ultium-based Buick Electra E4 was a slight step in the right direction, but generally nowhere near as nice as the Chinese premium brands it meant to go head to head with. It seems like GM understands this since it cut the Chinese pricing of the Electra E4 twice, well before any price war kicked off.
“Well, at least you guys in the States will get some new PHEV stuff, like the new Buick GL8 van, right?” Sundin said.
“No, actually we don’t get any GM PHEV models in the United States," I told him. "Only a few GM Ultium-based EVs and they’re not doing all that well."
I was embarrassed. Here I was in China, trying to empathize with Western brands, thinking they were being pushed out of China due to politics and things that were no fault of their own.
In reality, it felt like it was the late 1980s again, when American manufacturers felt like they could sell whatever underdeveloped models its accounting department had cooked up to the public, and we’d just have to deal with it. Now that I’ve seen a glimpse of what’s going on in China, the Western manufacturers, particularly the American ones, don’t seem like they’re trying at all.
Writer and podcaster Ed Zitron said something interesting during an episode of his podcast, Better Offline. Americans are almost made to apologize for their preferences when it comes to Big Tech. Some bigwig or boisterous startup guy had a big idea for a widget that no one wanted, and decided to half-ass a product that doesn’t work all that well.
When the public rightfully ignores a bad or unwanted product, there’s a new trend in tech to blame the clientele for not being smart enough, rather than facing the music that what was created just wasn’t all that good. I mean, just look at all the terrible AI-based pins that don’t do anything.
The auto industry feels the same way. Instead of automakers attempting to understand and meet the needs of the Chinese market, they’d rather just sell the cars they wanted to make. By comparison, Chinese automakers seemed to have tried harder to understand the desires of Chinese people.
Chinese buyers wanted connected cars with big screens, and by god, the automakers figured out a way to get that in there, and how to do it well.
All We Do Is Complain While China Advances
America’s looming TikTok ban feels like a direct allegory for China’s relationship with its electric car exports. I use TikTok; I understand how it works, and I agree that there are plenty of valid critiques to be leveled at the platform’s ability to spread misinformation, or how its endless scroll probably isn’t great for anyone’s mental health, especially that of the teens and tweens who love the platform so much.
Yet, so much of the coverage of TikTok’s ban refuses to acknowledge one fact: The platform is really, really well executed. TikTok’s algorithm is fantastic; it can compile a near-endless scroll of content that feels fresh, positive, fun and eerily, directly targeted to you. I’ve watched the viral power of TikTok straight up create music artists like PinkPantheress, or revive the career and launch classic artists like Sophie Ellis-Bextor or Kate Bush back onto the charts.
TikTok’s culture isn’t perfect, but it’s a hell of a lot healthier than whatever Meta, Google, and Twitter have created, where death by a thousand cuts of “enshittification” have made their services hostile and less useful to the end user. On Instagram Reels, the content moderation is so poor, that it’s not uncommon to see someone literally die on screen.
So, when automakers, tech companies and regulators push back on China, the sentiments that they’re just protecting our market from unsafe or security-challenged products feel hollow. Instead, it feels like grandstanding, and a tacit admission that they have no intention of trying to do better.
Instead of competing, they’d rather just shut out competition entirely. The concerns about cybersecurity don’t address the elephant in the room here: Your product sucks, compared to what China is putting out now. It doesn’t go as far. It’s not as well-made. It’s not as nice. It’s not as connected.
Western automakers aren’t entangled deeply with tech companies in ways that would serve the end user, Chinese or otherwise. They didn’t get way ahead of the curve to establish a battery supply chain in the ways China did. And they don’t seem to want to cater to the Chinese market (or any market, rather) through continuous updates and agility with their product line.
Even Tesla in China can’t be bothered to update one of its most important products, the Model Y, in this hyper-competitive market. Instead, it relies on margin-hurting gimmicks to move units, like constant price cuts, subsidized trade-in incentives, and 0% financing to get customers to buy a car that is aged and now uncompetitive.
Tesla didn’t even have a presence at the Beijing Auto Show. Elon Musk came and went to Beijing during the show, only to make a case for his robotaxi pivot with government officials. It’s like he’s already given up on cars here.
Volkswagen placed its ID cars on the market, then acted surprised when journalists and buyers alike rightfully criticized its poor software interface. Nissan at one point sold nearly as many gas-powered Sylphy (Sentra) sedans in China as Tesla did Model Y crossovers. Yet when it came time to electrify, it stuck a Sylphy body on top of the already outmoded 38 kWh Nissan Leaf running gear. It wasn’t great at charging, had limited range, and was pricey.
GM blew it here too. Up until the Beijing Auto Show's debut of a PHEV version, the GL8 was one of the few vans in the segment without any plug-in capabilities. Green-plated New Energy vehicles are an important market in China, as are luxury vans. Why weren’t Western automakers paying attention? Why didn’t GM get an electrified vehicle on sale faster?
So at what point does blame shift from Chinese economic policy to the actions of the automakers themselves? How relevant, truly, are claims that China is “unfairly” subsidizing its EV industry to Western automakers completely misjudging the Chinese market, and low-key failing to craft products that Chinese buyers actually wanted? Why did they get so arrogant that they assumed China would buy their budget Peugeots, Citroens, Chevrolets, and rewarmed Volkswagens and Buicks forever and ever? Why the hell didn’t we subsidize our EV-building and clean energy industries like China did?
I’m not going to lie and say that the Chinese underutilization of its EV factories isn’t a problem, or that this isn’t an oversaturated car market that not all of these brands will survive. Of course, there are plenty of concerns around China’s poor human rights track record and the dubious sourcing of some of its raw materials; both Chinese domestic and foreign brands are criticized for this.
Also, as impressive as the Beijing Auto Show was, there was a slight air of desperation. Some of the smaller, more desperate brands I visited didn’t initially realize I was part of international media; looking for a win, they thought I was a potential distributor seeking to set up a contract to export vehicles to a country that wasn’t the U.S.
Some influencers that were not even remotely connected to the automotive industry were livestreaming and posting on Chinese social media about new car debuts, trying to bring a non-car-interested audience into the automotive realm. The once-banned “car babes” at Chinese auto shows have kind of crept back to the showroom floor, signaling a desire for attention and sales that they might not be getting.
And yet, those issues feel secondary. If China were to somehow rectify its production overcapacity issues, and acquiesce to every demand that Europe and the U.S. have of its EV sector, China would still have technologically advanced, well-made, interesting EVs. Arguably, it would still come out leaner and stronger.
If the U.S. and Europe get what they want—a crackdown on Chinese imports—it doesn’t feel like it would result in better cars. It feels like it would keep buyers of those markets locked to cars that aren’t executed as well. It’s nakedly protectionist because deep down, all of the Western auto executives and some hawkish China pundits understand that Chinese EV and PHEV models are more compelling than what European, other Asian, and American brands have come up with.
I’ve seen it with my own two eyes. We’re cooked.
People Have STOPPED PAYING THEIR BILLS!
MM is hungry
This squatter is fucked
Blue Bayou Chicken Florentine
Yield:4 servings; 2 cups sauce
Ingredients
Chicken
- 4 (7 ounce) chicken breasts (with skin)
- 1 cup Florentine sauce (see below)
- 3 ounces chopped fresh or frozen spinach*
- 3 ounces grated Cheddar cheese
- 2 ounces cooked and chopped bacon
- Seasoned salt to taste
- 2 tablespoons melted butter
Florentine Sauce
- 2 teaspoons unsalted butter
- 2 teaspoons all-purpose flour
- 3 teaspoons unsalted butter (room temp)
- 1 1/2 cups finely chopped onions
- 3 sliced medium mushrooms
- 2/3 cup white wine
- 1/4 cup chicken broth
- 2 chicken bouillon cubes
- 1 cup heavy cream
- 1 tablespoon diced pimentos
- 1 teaspoon chopped fresh parsley
- 1 teaspoon chopped fresh chives
- 1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
- Salt and pepper, to taste
Instructions
Chicken
- Heat oven to 375 degrees F.
- In mixing, combine spinach, bacon and cheese; set aside.
- Open chicken breast and sprinkle with seasoned salt. Stuff with spinach mixture. Fold and place seam side down in baking dish. Brush with melted butter and sprinkle outside with seasoned salt.
- Bake for 20 to 25 minutes.
- Top with Florentine sauce and serve over rice.
Florentine Sauce
- Blend together flour and 2 teaspoons of the butter; set aside.
- Sauté onions and mushrooms in 1 teaspoon butter (do not allow onions to brown).
- Add white wine and reduce completely.
- Add remaining ingredients. Bring to a simmer and slowly add the flour/butter mixture a little at a time until desired thickness is achieved. Continue cooking at a simmer for 8 to 10 minutes.
Notes
* If fresh spinach is used, it must be blanched.
CHEATING Girlfriend Gets HUMILIATED During Wedding Proposal
What is the most brilliant example of taking advantage of a loophole you have ever witnessed?
I do not tell this story to brag. It is just so different.
My parents sold their small farm and moved to El Paso with my husband when we moved there. They would have had to pay a lot of tax. We found a house with room for inlaw quarters.
I hope l get this straight. It was quite awhile ago. They had one year to reinvest to avoid taxes.
I found out about once in a lifetime non taxable gifts. So l worked a way for us to give the down payment. Using a four way split where l would give my mother x amount of money and my father x amount. They used it for their half of the down-payment. My husband would do the same. We used the same four way split to cover their half of the house payments which was jointly owned. At the end of the one year they gave us their half as a once in a lifetime gift. They used the same four way which kept it non taxable.
We were not sure of the legality of this so we went to a lawer, he read it all over and said “l used to work for the IRS, if l had audited this l could not find a problem with it. Who figured this out for you?” When told him l did he said “Lady, you found one hell of a loop hole.”
Tate On Why Life For The Average Man Will Become Impossible
He has a great point.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5X9qUtBX5Uc
Shorpy
On a scale of 1-10, how socially awkward are you?
So one of my seniors recently got to know that I won the QPCA and she decided to congratulate me. Her bad, and I'll tell you why.
Now, when it comes to keeping the interaction alive, I'm pretty good at it.
But sometimes, ( sometimes = always ) I miserably fail in the more important thing, that's keeping the interaction interesting ( interesting = continuable, without occasional cringing ).
So this is what happened,
She: It's great that you won.
Me: Thanks.
She: But you don't seem as sassy in real life.
Me: Umm, ya.
I don't know why and I kid you not, but this time, I decided that I'll keep the conversation going on. So I came up with this revolutionary compliment. Compliments that can change the world.
Me: You've got asymmetrical eyebrows.
She: °_° Wh.. What?
Me: Yeah, I never noticed. Maybe no one ever did, but your eyebrows don't have symmetry.
She: Uh…. Ok?
Me (By now I realized that I fucked up, but never quit is a good motto and when to never quit is never taught ): And uh… if, if you notice closely, the left eyebrow is more bent than the… the ri…
She ( By now, she is regretful that she congratulated me in the first place ): Hey, you can go, seeya!
Me: ..ght eyebrow.
Now what's important here, is that I tried.
( And Sarhad, what's even more important here, is that you failed )
Only if I had known that asymmetrical eyebrows are not something great to talk about, I would've picked up something more intriguing.
Like I always have my moo point ( cows and magnets ) to talk about.
But I'll admit, though social interaction is not really my prowess, I'm learning and I do want to get better.
It's a skill which is not really optional, and which everyone should possess, to a certain level.
At times, people have talked themselves out of perils ( like when Sir James Donovan negotiated the release of 10,000 prisoners in Cuba
) and then at other times I've been talked into paying ₹900 for something worth ₹50. Almost every business and trade is based on your ability to fool your client better.
And then, we have stockbrokers.
|SaCh|
Oh, the rating you ask?
Yeah, on a scale of 1 to 10, I think I'm a pair of ever frowning eyebrows with rainbow eyelashes. Everything symmetrical.
Half a million likes!
She is right.
How should I deal with a coworker who never wants to pay when we eat out?
I often went out with two friends, who were also my colleagues, to a pizza house. We'd order two large pizzas and split the bill. The leftover would be packed, and one friend would always take it home. We lived in the same apartment building.
The problem is, when I eat I always take my time and I like to talk. At the end of the meal, I would always have eaten only two slices and yet I had to pay an equal share of the bill. I never got to take the leftover home.
One time I mentioned this problem to the friend who also never got to take the leftover home. I told her that I had a problem with us always splitting the bill because I always eat only two slices and never got to take home the leftover. The other friend would automatically take the leftover for herself and never once offered us if we'd also like to take it home.
My friend was surprised because she thought that the other friend and I took turns to take the leftover because we lived in the same building. Then she said that she also had a problem because she never got to order the pizza that she likes.
The thing is, I don't eat pork so I get to order my favorite chicken bbq pizza. The two friends eat pork but it's always the other friend who got to order her favorite pork pizza, and also the one to take all the leftover.
So we came up with a solution.
The next time we went again for pizza, I told the waiter that I was ordering a small chicken bbq pizza with a glass of coke, and that I'd pay my bill separately. The friend that I've spoken with also ordered her favorite Hawaiian pizza, small size, with drinks and asked the water to separate her bills too. Thus, the other friend also had to order her favorite pork pizza in small size.
I enjoyed my pizza, took my time eating it, enjoyed telling stories, and at the end of the meal told the waiter that I'd like to take home my leftover.
Needless to say, the friend who always took the leftover went home that night without any bring home because she finished her small size pizza. And the friend who I had spoken with was satisfied to have finally eaten her favorite Hawaiian pizza.
What is the biggest "I'm definitely fired" thing you've done at work, but nobody ever found out?
Many years ago I was working as a developer on one of the largest derivatives markets in the world. Part of our teams remit was supporting the live environment and as such I had on my sun workstation a 9 window virtual desktop one for each environment. we often jumped on each other's workstations to do things, start/stop uat processes or get prod logs.. One day unknowingly to me, my boss was using my workstation and accidentally moved our futures trading market console onto my UAT desktop and later that day asked me to recycle UAT to pick up changes he pushed. I did it without though and within 30 seconds the Head of development (CTO) comes running across the floor screaming the futures production environment had just crashed. I looked at my screen and to my horror the console I just typed my command into had a prod$ console. My boss looked and me, I looked at him and we both thought the same and it wasn't good! Immediately a witch hunt started and it was assumed the support guys had messed up (They forgot we had access). My boss quickly told me close all the consoles and go take a really long lunch so when they get to us, you're not here to lie!
I got back an hour latter and my boss quickly announced “They found the problem, a bug in one of the support scrips means if someone cont-c it run kill -9 -1 to clean up, no one knows who IN SUPPORT did it but it wasn't their fault”
It made the main 6pm news business section that day although I didn't speak a word about it to anyone until a I left a years later. We also changed the background color of all prod consoles to red after that
How to get the pill
Do you think Ford and GM will see a significant boost in their stock prices following the implementation of higher tariffs on Chinese imports?
Quora Prompt Generator, this must be your way of trying to make a joke of Biden’s tariff on Chinese EVs? Or are you just totally clueless coming up with your usual silly questions?
First, there’s Ford. They’ve stopped all their EV productions and going hydrogen.
Let’s just say this is tantamount to Ford declaring that they’re jumping from the pot right into the fire.
And then there’s GM. Their QTR1 sales for 2024 was a paltry 16,425 . . .and Barra just announced cutting sales target from 400,000 to 200,000 for 2024, and even this is delusional. And when you hear Barra reassuring everybody that GM is still committed to stay in China, you can be sure GM’s days in China are numbered.. . .and management there has their bags already packed. With this, goes any hope of GM being able to come up with any competitive EV product.
So how is Biden’s tariffs going to protect a U.S. market where there’s nobody to protect? Their stock prices? Both are going back to their reliables - good ole American SUV and pickup gas guzzlers.
Ahh, but you say there’s still Tesla. So, why do you think Musk is now spending so much time in China? To be sure, he doesn’t really care about the U.S. market. He owns it already. He’s really worried that his existential market in China isn’t lost. He’d already fired all of his people handling their recharging network and revamping others. As the price competition gets more heated, the more threat there is to his position there. And that’s where Biden’s tariffs mean diddly squat..
What are some mind-blowing facts that sound unreal but are actually true?
1. People don’t have as strong intuitive sense of how much bigger 1 billion is than 1 million.
- A million seconds is about 11 days.
- A billion seconds is about 32 years.
2. Only 2% of people can hear their eyes move and blink.
3. The Facebook logo is blue because founder Mark Zuckerberg is red-green color blind, making blue the “richest color ” for him.
4. If you hold in your farts long enough, the gas can be re-absorbed and come out of your mouth.
5. Over 50% of pilots have admitted to falling asleep mid-flight. And of these pilots, 29% said that they had woken up to find their co-pilot asleep as well.
6. Most toilet paper sold for home use in France is pink.
7. There are more fake flamingos in the world than real flamingos.
8. Bananas are berries, but strawberries are not.
9. Giraffes and humans have the same number of necklines. Actually, all mammals do.
10. Sometimes, hiding your thumb behind all your fingers is a sign of panic.
11. Broccoli is a man-made vegetable and was created by breeding different types of cabbages.
12. Try to breathe and swallow at the same time. You can’t.
While conducting a surgery, have you ever found something unexpected?
A female marathoner was referred to me because her running times were increasing and she was progressively short of breath. She was also coughing up blood occasionally.
Ten years earlier she had removal of the upper 1/3 of her right lung(right upper lobe) for a benign tumor that bled often and obstructed that lobe of the lung.
To do this the surgeon must pull the remaining lower lung bronchus (intermediate) up and connect it to the trachea (wind pipe). This puts the sutured connection ring of tissues under considerable tension, tending to rip out the sutures leading to a catastrophic leak.
So the surgeon buttressed the suture line with several cotton pledgets. The surgeon obviously did a great job, she had been doing well for ten years.
When I looked into the lung (bronchoscopy) I saw a large mass of tissue I assumed was recurrent tumor completely blocking the right lung. But the pathologist found the biopsy tissue samples to be benign!
To clear the path into the lung I used laser through the bronchoscope to ablate the tissue. As I steadily removed tissue I found the suture line and then saw the many pledgets (small cotton pieces) the surgeon had used to support the suture line. I realized that obstructing tissue was a granulomatous mass the lung had generated because of the foreign body irritation from the pledgets. I steadily burned away the pledgets along with the old sutures until the area was completely clear and the airway to the lower lung was reopened.
This relieved her shortness of breath and she resumed running. A recheck 1 and 2 years later showed no recurrence of the tumor; she remained asymptomatic.
I expected to find malignancy but instead found a treatable benign condition.
20 MINUTES Of Modern Women BEGGING For A Good Man To Save Them
What is the craziest thing your best friend has ever done?
Guys, I'd love your feedback on this. I can't believe my friend did this.
Last summer, my best friend was housesitting for about a week for her another friend and that friend's wealthy family. They had a massive aquarium tank, eight feet tall with thick glass, almost as big as a room. It was only fish inside and nothing else. One night while storming, she wanted to go and swim in the tank. She absolutely loves fish and aquatic life. She got changed into some elastic shorts and a tank, turned off all the lights in the house, and with a towel walked barefoot up the small staircase that led to the top of the tank -- her heart beating really fast with excitement. The top of the tank was already open, wide enough for her to easily fit through.
After she raised her arms over her head, she plunged into the water. The water was deep enough that she didn't hit the bottom but her body went horizontal upon landing in the water. She said doing so was such a rush and that it was so warm and relaxing. While she swam underwater in the tank, lightning flashes lit up the inside. She said it was the most romantic thing she ever did, it was so quiet and peaceful underwater with the fish, and that she could feel the thunder vibrations from outside.
Woman gets reality check by dating a man that KNOWS his value…
You Stand up and fight
Last year my son was suspended. 3 boys corned him and were bullying him he kept is cool and attempted to walk away. One blocked his path.
At that point one shit stain said 2 sentences that changed my son's life. "I'm glad your mom's in a wheelchair. And I hope one of her seizures kills her." See our families already known loss.
April will be 11yrs since my daughter and his sister passed away. She was 14m old.
So hearing this boy say he hoped I died was too much for my son. He turned to the leader and punched him right in the nose. To the school it didn't matter what they had said.
The school district suspended my son cause he made it physically. So I took him out for ice cream. There comes a time when words do count and do cross the line. I support my son's decision to finally say enough.
He knows he can't hit someone and not have consequences.
But he also knows that there are going to be times in his life that he's going to have to stand up for what is right. And I'll support him when he does.
I was born to the wrong family
Have you ever lost respect for your parents because of one thing they said or did?
I was kicked out on Christmas eve by my mother when I was 17. That’s not even the subject of this story so you can imagine I didn’t have a good life growing up. She kicked me and my 15 year old brother out because (and this is a direct quote) “I have a life to live, and you and your brother have held me down long enough. I deserve to be happy.” She left the state with her internet boyfriend, that she knew for 3 weeks, a week later. We moved in with our aunt and her boyfriend. My aunt was like a mother to us, she helped raise us since our mother didn’t have the best taste in men. My brother and I got full time jobs and each of us gave our aunt’s boyfriend $50 a week (for rent and bills) and an extra $50 a week because all of us were saving to go to Florida to visit our grandparents and he was putting it into a savings account because my brother and I didn’t have one. My grandfather had health problems, he had heart attacks before and we all knew he didn’t have much longer to live. He was the best man I’ve ever known and he was the only male figure in my life that I could count on. My brother and I had been living at my aunt’s and her boyfriends house for about 6 months when my aunt’s boyfriend didn’t come home for 4 days. When he did finally come home, he was beyond messed up, he was slurring his words, he was falling asleep standing up, it was clear he was on something. My aunt told me and my brother later that he went on a bender with his boss. They spent 4 days smoking crack and snorting cocaine. She then told us that he spent all of the money that me and my brother had been saving to go to Florida to see our grandparents. $2400 we saved, gone in 4 days. But she said “don’t worry, we won’t charge you rent for 6 months and it will all equal out.” I heard my aunt on the phone with my grandma a week later. She told my grandma that we couldn’t come to Florida because “Stacey and her brother didn’t save any money”. My grandfather died 3 months later. It kills me that he thought my brother and I were too immature, selfish or had better things to do than to save money to see him. I wanted to tell my grandparents the truth but with my grandfathers health being what it was I didn’t want to upset him and tell him “hey your daughter lied to you, my brother and I did save the money but her drug addict boyfriend spent it all in 4 days during a bender.” This is literally one thing that my family has done to me or put me through in the 35 years I allowed them in my life. It has been 2 years since I cut the last toxic person in my family from my life and I feel so much better. The fact that I am a positive, healthy, loving wife and mother is a gift from a deity.
Black Tuesday 1954 Edward G. Robinson, Jean Parker & Peter Graves
Black Tuesday is a 1954 American crime drama film noir directed by Hugo Fregonese and starring Edward G. Robinson, Peter Graves and Jean Parker. The supporting cast features Milburn Stone, Warren Stevens, Jack Kelly and Russell Johnson.
Full movie.
Film Noir.
A violent con, Vincent Canelli, escapes prison on the night of his execution. With the help of a phony newspaper reporter and Canelli's girlfriend, Hatti, who has planned the escape, the con takes along five hostages: the prison priest, the prison doctor, one of the guards, the young reporter whose place has been taken by one of the gang, and the daughter of another guard. This young woman is kidnapped to force her father - who, unlike the guard who is taken hostage, always treats the death row inmates well - to facilitate the escape.
Pretty well done. I think you all will enjoy this one.