.
Keep your mouth shut, and never, ever get involved with queers, gangs, or drug users
When I was in prison; in the ADC, I witnessed numerous fights, stabbings and deaths. In all cases, the correctional officers (CO's) handled the situation professionally.
Here's an example.
We were being led from our barracks to the sally port. In this process we were led down a long hall with painted lines that we had to stay inside. During this transfer process, we would go from one gated area to the next, always manned by guards, and watched by surveillance cameras.
One day, there was a stabbing in the hall... just as we were being led down it.
Three inmates clustered around another and jabbed him repeatedly over and over and over again, and he collapsed in a heap on the floor.
Immediately the entire hall went into lock-down.
We were told to stop; turn around facing the wall and not move. And so we did. Most prisoners in "general population" are just doing their time, and don't want to get involved in the hard core games of the long timers.
Then a crew of officers came, and hauled the offenders off, and a medical team came to pick up the carcass of the killed felon. All in all, it took perhaps ten to fifteen minutes.
We keep standing there facing the wall.
Pretty quick.
They had a lot of practice in these kinds of matters.
To survive in prison is to watch your six at all times, to keep your mouth shut, and never, ever get involved with queers (no offense intended, that is what they were called in the ADC), gangs (of any type), or drug users. A word to the wise.
Good advice.
Today...
Today's popular videos
- Metallicman Hosting (154)
- A1 Top Master Index (38)
- 4B movement and government destruction to the end (33)
- Article List (32)
- Fads that stay with us (20)
- The Domain (15)
- The mystery of the 300 million year old wheel embedded inside sandstone found in a deep mine (14)
- Forum (11)
- Part 13 of the EBP comm with The Domain Commander in October 2023 (10)
- WYDD (10)
- The Pedestrian (Full Text) by Ray Bradbury (7)
- The Shocking 2025 ‘Deagel’ Forecast and Remote Viewing the future (7)
- Never get caught muddy and covered in dog shit because you have chores to do (7)
- Men are desperate and done (7)
- How a Chinese Business KTV Works – The Pretty Girls (6)
What's the most hurtful thing your mother or father has ever said to you?
It was a few weeks before my wedding and my parents sat me down. They told me that my fiancée is not someone who will ever be happy. They told me she is not the person I think she is. They informed me they would support whatever I decide to do and never speak about it again.
I assumed they made their conclusions because she was a product of divorce, alcoholism ran in her family, and she dropped out of school in 9th grade and started selling drugs. But, I didn’t see her that way. I saw her as a strong woman who conquered all of those things. She got her GED, had a job, an apartment, a car, a sense of humor, I never saw her do drunks and she had alcohol maybe twice a year. And she was really gorgeous.
Nine years into the marriage and 4 kids later, she started drinking. Every single day. Hiding alcohol throughout the house (mind you, she never really drank before this point). She would get so drunk at gatherings she would throw up on herself. Yes. With 4 young kids right there. I worked about 12–15 hours a day (she was a stay at home mom, we had 4 kids and a mortgage that was due on the 1st of every month). She hired a caretaker for the kids and to clean the house - paying the person over $1,000 a week. When I came home from work at 9 or 10 pm every day there would be a babysitter there and she wouldn’t return home until early in the morning - many times making me very late for work. The day my mother died she left the house when I got home from the hospital and didn’t come back until the next morning. In the morning I told my 4 little kids what happened and it was taking me some time so they wouldn’t see me fall to pieces - so she just jumped in and said Grandma died and then she walked out the house and didn’t come back until the next day. Yes, she was cheating. With the previous “drug dealer” from her past. Then she started physically and verbally abusing me. Gaslighting me. She began telling my family I was severely depressed. That I was having an affair. That I was a bad father and a bad husband.
it took some time to be realize I was better than the situation she had created. My kids would be better served without thinking this was what marriage actually was supposed to be. She filed for divorce thinking she would be on easy street for the rest of her life. In a drunken tirade she even told me she would be living off my income for the rest of her life since we had 4 kids.
it didn’t turn out that way for her but that’s her issue now. I think back to the conversation my parents had with me. They were completely right. But, if I had listened to them, my 4 amazing kids would not have been born.
Era (Not over yet)
How Convenient is China's High-speed Rail?
I have a foreign friend in Shanghai who used to take the high-speed train to Beijing frequently to meet me for dates. He has told me more than once about experiencing "Chinese speed" on the Beijing-Shanghai high-speed rail. The Beijing-Shanghai high-speed railway, stretching from Beijing South Station to Shanghai Hongqiao Station, spans 1318 kilometers, with the fastest journey taking only 4 hours and 18 minutes.
Over the past decade, the Beijing-Shanghai high-speed rail has safely transported over 1.35 billion passengers, becoming not only the busiest high-speed rail line in China but also turning the saying "a day's round trip between Beijing and Shanghai" into reality.
However, the Beijing-Shanghai high-speed rail is just a microcosm of China's high-speed rail construction.
From the completion of the first high-speed railway in 2008 to a total mileage nearing 40,000 kilometers in 2021, China now boasts the world's largest high-speed railway network. China's high-speed rail mileage ranks first globally, accounting for two-thirds of the world's total.
In the first half of 2023, US President Biden openly acknowledged at the 50th anniversary celebration of the US National Railway Passenger Corporation (Amtrak) that China's high-speed rail length and speed rank among the world's best. He emphasized that the current US infrastructure lags far behind some countries and regions in the world and that the United States cannot afford to fall behind and needs to rebuild its railway system.
China's high-speed rail operation indicators, including safety, efficiency, comfort, convenience, and economy, are at the forefront or advanced level globally.
At the same time, China's high-speed rail is also recognized as the safest in the world. From 2008 to 2020, China's average accident rate per 100 kilometers for high-speed rail is 82% lower than that of overseas high-speed rail. As of the end of June 2021, China's high-speed rail has accumulated 9.28 billion kilometers of safe operation, equivalent to circling the earth 232,000 times, and safely transported 14.12 billion passengers.
How stable is China's high-speed rail? Many of us have heard about a Swedish individual placing a coin on China's high-speed rail and it remaining upright for 8 minutes. Not just coins, but mineral water bottles and pens can also stand steadily on the window ledge of high-speed trains.
Moreover, China has built the world's largest 12306 railway internet ticketing system, with a daily ticketing capacity of over 20 million. Currently, 86.2% of ticketing is done online, reaching as high as 90% on peak days.
How convenient is China's high-speed rail now?
In short, China's urban clusters within a radius of 500 kilometers have formed a 1-2 hour travel circle, achieving bus-like travel; cities across regions within 1000 kilometers can be reached in about 4 hours, enabling same-day round trips; and cities across regions within 2000 kilometers can be reached in about 8 hours, allowing for morning departure and evening arrival.
Moreover, boarding high-speed trains no longer requires queuing for tickets or picking them up on site; tickets can be purchased and paid for directly on mobile phones, and electronic tickets can be scanned using mobile phones for ticket checks. Facial recognition can also be used for station entry, and meals can be ordered directly on mobile phones while on high-speed trains. Of course, considering the needs of the elderly and offline populations, China still retains traditional service channels such as paper tickets and station windows, all of which accept cash payments. The 12306 system is also more intelligent, automatically identifying passengers aged 60 and above and prioritizing lower berths for them.
If you come to China, you must experience China's high-speed rail and feel the "Chinese speed".
Woman GOES VIRAL Complains About Being A Single Mom But Ex Husband Responds And The TRUTH IS CRAZY
Truth comes out.
Green Pepper Steak
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 pounds round steak, cut into strips
- 1 clove garlic, minced
- 1 cup chopped onion
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 teaspoon pepper
- 1/4 teaspoon ginger
- 1 teaspoon sugar
- 1/4 cup soy sauce
- 1 large green pepper, cut into thin strips
- 4 tomatoes, cut into eighths or 1 pound can whole tomatoes, undrained
- 1 (1 pound) can bean sprouts, drained
- 1 tablespoon cornstarch
- 1/2 cup cold water
Instructions
- Brown steak over medium heat on range unit. Transfer to slow cooker.
- In small bowl combine garlic, onion, salt, pepper, ginger and soy sauce. Pour over steak and cover.
- Slow cook at MEDIUM setting for 6 to 8 hours or MEDIUM-HIGH setting for 4 to 5 hours.
- Add green pepper, tomatoes and bean sprouts; stir to blend. Cook an additional hour.
- Just before serving, increase heat setting to HIGH.
- Combine cornstarch and water, gradually add to pepper steak, stirring until thickened.
- Keep warm for serving on LOW.
- Serve over hot cooked rice or egg noodles.
Modern Women Are Trying Too Hard To Be Masculine...It's Pushing Men Away
When buying gas at a self service station why do people insist on pulling a paper receipt? What do they do with them?
Fun story :- (I may have told this before, but it’s always good as a cautionary tale)
About three years ago (more or less) I bought some fuel from a self-service pump at my local superstore. I filled it up, got the receipt and drove away. All good.
Two days later, a police officer came to my house, to tell me I had been caught on camera taking fuel and driving away without paying for it.
There was no doubt it was me - my registration plate, a good description of the car, and the date and time were right. Except I had paid, because I always pay. I am good like that. (I am seldom naughty!)
As a side note - he told me I was on the hook for £99 of fuel. Now even given the prices at the time, there is NO WAY I could get £99 of fuel in my car. My fuel tank is about 45 litres, and the average price is about £1.21 per litre at that specific station. So even if you look at the highest price in recent times - £1.31, it still wouldn’t reach £99. Even if you look at prices on the motorway (usually £1.51 to £1.61) it STILL wouldn’t reach £99.
You would have to have fuel at about £2.20 per litre, and if it had reached that high I am pretty sure I would have remembered!!
Anyway - I remembered I had a receipt, so I went and got it. He took a picture of it, and went on his merry way.
My conclusion was that the connection between the pump and the kiosk had broken down somewhere, and they had recorded the fuel had been taken but not that it had been paid for.
(The superstore is a nation wide brand, so the idea it was a scam just to rip me off seems very unlikely).
Since then I have got a receipt every time I have got fuel - whether I use self-service or not. Because you never know.
x-x-x
EDIT : (22–03–2020 at 16:46)
Okay - I have had enough of the “helpful comments” from people.
If I have a receipt and the police come to my door, I can show them the receipt. They can take a picture of it, and then bugger off.
If I don’t have a receipt then yes - I could use my bank statement. Except that only comes at the end of the month, so either the police would have to wait for that, or I’d have to show them the statement on the app on my phone. Except I don’t have an app on my phone, so I’d have to install one, go through the security nonsense and then show them that. Which would take quite a while - far longer than holding up a receipt, i would guess.
Or I could invite them into my house, up to my back room, log into my computer and show them my online statement. Except WHO DOES THAT? Why in the name of fuck would I show the police EVERY PART OF MY LIFE without a warrant? WHAT KIND OF IDIOT DOES THAT?
And the same applies if I use a credit card - my statement comes at the end of the month, so until that time I have no gorram proof.
So - while I appreciate you are all trying to be helpful, could you please, for the love of the gods, stop telling me I can use my bank statement, by credit card bill, the app on my phone or any other method than a receipt to show the police I paid for petrol.
Because none of those are anywhere near as easy as just getting the receipt I got from the petrol station and showing it to the police officer. It takes all of five minutes, and sorts it out in less time than it takes to say it.
And if I have to explain that to one more person, I am going to go mad.
x-x-x
EDIT : (26–03–2020 11:04)
Apparently my explanation didn’t satisfy people, so I am disabling comments.
Sorry for all future commenters - I realise you might have something useful to say. But the evidence hitherto suggests it is unlikely. Mostly because even after my previous edit people are not reading my previous edit and still telling me to use online banking, or “the app on my phone”. Which I don’t bloody well have.
So - since people who are writing comments are apparently not reading the post, I am not sure why I should let them comment.
But in the tween time :-
But I like being helpful to the police if it costs me nothing. I see no reason not to do it.
Getting a receipt costs me nothing - literally nothing. And showing the receipt to the police costs me nothing - literally nothing.
It makes my life easy. It makes their life easy. It saves them time - time they can use for more important things (such as saving lives, or helping old ladies across the street).
I don’t know what you people have against me being nice to the police, but I am sick of explaining this over and over again. So I am explaining it here, and I am turning off comments because clearly you all hate the police, or you are all completely unable to grasp such a simple concept.
So - bugger this for a game of soldiers.
Woman caught "CHEATING" on wedding day
What and where is the best beach you've ever visited? What made it so good?
The best beach I’ve ever been on was Sandfly Beach, near Dunedin, New Zealand.
It’s great because:
- despite its name, there are no sand flies there at all. It’s called Sandfly Beach because the sand flies in the wind.
- you get to see penguins there.
- you get to see seals there (and the one in the picture below is sleeping, don’t worry)
- it’s so hard to get to that you’ll rarely see people there.
- you can sit in the dunes in fine sand and see islands and cliffs and animals, all at the same time.
- it’s incredibly beautiful.
I lived a few minutes away and went there as often as possible.
New AI at made by others
What’s a time in your life when you realized something like that would happen for the last time?
My husband Mike was a big guy. He was beautiful to me. I sat at the edge of his bed in the emergency room holding his big feet Tears rolled down my face. I wanted desperately to crawl up in bed with him and feel his breath on my face. But he was surrounded by our children. They were holding his hands telling him how much they loved him. I held on to those big feet pouring every bit of love I had into my beautiful husband. I watched every breath he took thinking he looked like a Chinese emperor. He had an aneurism in his brain stem. The doctor was kind and left us alone with Mike. I felt when his spirit left his body. His body kept that horrible struggle to breath for hours. I knew that the loving man who had known me since we were young was gone. I would never have his arms around me again. I would never have him explain some scientific thing to me again. Never would he tell me the name of the singer the year the record came out while we listened to the radio. So many never agains. So much loss. As the years have gone by since Mike's death I have missed him desperately at times. I had no idea how he had spoiled me cosseted me from ugly people from tedious paper work. Mike had taken care of me and kept me safe. I will never know that feeling again.
AI Sci-Fi Film Colossus: The Forbin Project Removed From All Streaming Platforms - WHY?
This is a VERY GOOD question. Why?
What secret was revealed that ruined you financially?
I 1996, I started a paint contracting company going in partnership with a long time friend of mine. Using the phone book and the post office, I was able to immediately pick up plenty of work.
After about a year, my long time friend decides he going take a job as a golf course supervisor in Texas.
I knew he was going through some tough financial situations because of his austintatious life style and living beyond his means but I assumed he was paying the invoices as they came in. I soon learned that was not the case.
The day he leaves for Texas, I stop by and pick up the checkbook and what ever else I need to have. I knew that he had just finalized his personal bankruptcy the day before.
Next day, I stop by the paint store to pick up supplies for a new contract and my account exec looks at me like he’s seeing ghost. He tells me he assumed I was out of business. When I asked why, he said because the store had been served with a copy of your bankruptcy papers. They could not collect on the $28,000.00 owed to them.
Wow! My partner had not been paying the bills and included the paint company in his bankruptcy. This was just one paint supplier. That were others and a number of vendors such a Sears.
The suppliers all said the same thing. I can have anything I want as long as I pay cash. Problem is, the bank account has been picked clean. I don’t have two nickels to rub together. Another problem is I have signed contracts I needed to complete or my contractor license and my bond would be pulled.
I worked out a deal with the suppliers where I would pay off all the debt, roughly about $80,000.00 but I also needed paint and supplies to complete my contracts. They agreed on the condition that all my contract payments be made out to them.
I used different paint suppliers for different contracts as specified by the builder. I agreed to the terms. They would take 50% from each check and apply it toward my account.
Not only did I have to pay off the bankruptcy debt, I had to pay for new paint and supplies all from the same check.
I laid off all employees and began working 7 days a week from 5 Am until 10 PM. I did all the prep and the painting by myself. Nothing kept me from working like a indentured slave for a year.
After a year, I managed to pay off all the debt owed while at the same time generating enough money to pay the rent and keep food on the table. I was surprised to learn that I had made $40,000.00 in taxable income that year.
My long time friend and partner had shafted me good and I could have walked away from the entire situation as I was not legally obligated to pay the debt, but I was morally obligated to do the right thing. You touch it, you own it.
Does China's citizenry know that the PLA (China's Army) has had their oath of alligence changed from "serving the people wholeheartedly" to "serving the Communist Party of China wholeheartedly."?
I'm Chinese. I listen to Voice of America's China and BBC's Chinese broadcasts year-round. I have learned a lot of useful skills from radio stations in the Western free world to help me identify the terrible brainwashing propaganda of the Chinese government. Now is the time for me to apply these skills. So, please tell me:
(1) What is your source of information?
(2) What is your purpose? Is it to help the Chinese people break free from harsh rule? What is your specific plan to fulfill your kind wish?
(3) What kind of force is behind you supporting or forcing you to make this conclusion?
(4) Please provide all supporting documents and photos, will you?
(5) If I believe your point, how would you save me?
Neocon China hawks; Ukraine failed, focus on Taiwan
“Guys, Ukraine isn’t working, just like our last ten war projects! What should we do?” “Oh, we should start another failure project for sure!”
-Neocon logic 101.
What if China has ten aircraft carriers?
If China has no aircraft carriers, it will be seen as a "weak" country.
If China has 1 aircraft carrier, it will be seen as an "ambitious" country.
If China has 3 aircraft carriers, it will be seen as a "threatening the free world".
If China has 10 aircraft carriers, it will be seen as an "important force in maintaining world peace."
So, China is now a "serious threat"
In order to become a peacekeeper, they must continue to increase the number of aircraft carriers
Vintage Comix
A Groundbreaking Scientific Discovery Just Created the Instruction Manual for Light-Speed Travel
In a first for warp drives, this research actually obeys the laws of physics.
With the ease of starting a car, the crew of the USS Enterprise starship streaks to a new adventure in every episode of Star Trek, somehow traveling at several times the speed of light. This sci-fi mode of practical interstellar travel, which television audiences first saw in 1966, inspired Mexican physicist Miguel Alcubierre Moya to investigate the feasibility of a real method for light-speed propulsion. Decades later, he published his cutting-edge research to an astonished community of theoretical physicists. The eponymous Alcubierre warp drive hypothetically contracts the spacetime in front of a spaceship while expanding the spacetime behind it, so that the ship moves from Point A to Point B at an “arbitrarily fast” speed. By distorting spacetime—the continuum enfolding the three dimensions of space and time—an observer outside the ship’s “warp bubble” would see the ship moving faster than the speed of light, even though observers inside the craft would feel no acceleration forces.
If a superluminal—meaning faster than the speed of light—warp drive like Alcubierre’s worked, it would revolutionize humanity’s endeavors across the universe, allowing us, perhaps, to reach Alpha Centauri, our closest star system, in days or weeks even though it’s four light years away.
However, the Alcubierre drive has a glaring problem: the force behind its operation, called “negative energy,” involves exotic particles—hypothetical matter that, as far as we know, doesn’t exist in our universe. Described only in mathematical terms, exotic particles act in unexpected ways, like having negative mass and working in opposition to gravity (in fact, it has “anti-gravity”). For the past 30 years, scientists have been publishing research that chips away at the inherent hurdles to light speed revealed in Alcubierre’s foundational 1994 article published in the peer-reviewed journal Classical and Quantum Gravity.
Now, researchers at the New York City-based think tank Applied Physics believe they’ve found a creative new approach to solving the warp drive’s fundamental roadblock. Along with colleagues from other institutions, the team envisioned a “positive energy” system that doesn’t violate the known laws of physics. It’s a game-changer, say two of the study’s authors: Gianni Martire, CEO of Applied Physics, and Jared Fuchs, Ph.D., a senior scientist there. Their work, also published in Classical and Quantum Gravity in late April, could be the first chapter in the manual for interstellar spaceflight.
Positive energy makes all the difference. Imagine you are an astronaut in space, pushing a tennis ball away from you. Instead of moving away, the ball pushes back, to the point that it would “take your hand off” if you applied enough pushing force, Martire tells Popular Mechanics. That’s a sign of negative energy, and, though the Alcubierre drive design requires it, there’s no way to harness it.
Instead, regular old positive energy is more feasible for constructing the “warp bubble.” As its name suggests, it’s a spherical structure that surrounds and encloses space for a passenger ship using a shell of regular—but incredibly dense—matter. The bubble propels the spaceship using the powerful gravity of the shell, but without causing the passengers to feel any acceleration. “An elevator ride would be more eventful,” Martire says.
That’s because the density of the shell, as well as the pressure it exerts on the interior, is controlled carefully, Fuchs tells Popular Mechanics. Nothing can travel faster than the speed of light, according to the gravity-bound principles of Albert Einstein’s theory of general relativity. So the bubble is designed such that observers within their local spacetime environment—inside the bubble—experience normal movement in time. Simultaneously, the bubble itself compresses the spacetime in front of the ship and expands it behind the ship, ferrying itself and the contained craft incredibly fast. The walls of the bubble generate the necessary momentum, akin to the momentum of balls rolling, Fuchs explains. “It’s the movement of the matter in the walls that actually creates the effect for passengers on the inside.”
Building on its 2021 paper published in Classical and Quantum Gravity—which details the same researchers’ earlier work on physical warp drives—the team was able to model the complexity of the system using its own computational program, Warp Factory. This toolkit for modeling warp drive spacetimes allows researchers to evaluate Einstein’s field equations and compute the energy conditions required for various warp drive geometries. Anyone can download and use it for free. These experiments led to what Fuchs calls a mini model, the first general model of a positive-energy warp drive. Their past work also demonstrated that the amount of energy a warp bubble requires depends on the shape of the bubble; for example, the flatter the bubble in the direction of travel, the less energy it needs.
This latest advancement suggests fresh possibilities for studying warp travel design, Erik Lentz, Ph.D., tells Popular Mechanics. In his current position as a staff physicist at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in Richland, Washington, Lentz contributes to research on dark matter detection and quantum information science research. His independent research in warp drive theory also aims to be grounded in conventional physics while reimagining the shape of warped space. The topic needs to overcome many practical hurdles, he says.
Controlling warp bubbles requires a great deal of coordination because they involve enormous amounts of matter and energy to keep the passengers safe and with a similar passage of time as the destination. “We could just as well engineer spacetime where time passes much differently inside [the passenger compartment] than outside. We could miss our appointment at Proxima Centauri if we aren’t careful,” Lentz says. “That is still a risk if we are traveling less than the speed of light.” Communication between people inside the bubble and outside could also become distorted as it passes through the curvature of warped space, he adds.
While Applied Physics’ current solution requires a warp drive that travels below the speed of light, the model still needs to plug in a mass equivalent to about two Jupiters. Otherwise, it will never achieve the gravitational force and momentum high enough to cause a meaningful warp effect. But no one knows what the source of this mass could be—not yet, at least. Some research suggests that if we could somehow harness dark matter, we could use it for light-speed travel, but Fuchs and Martire are doubtful, since it’s currently a big mystery (and an exotic particle).
Despite the many problems scientists still need to solve to build a working warp drive, the Applied Physics team claims its model should eventually get closer to light speed. And even if a feasible model remains below the speed of light, it’s a vast improvement over today’s technology. For example, traveling at even half the speed of light to Alpha Centauri would take nine years. In stark contrast, our fastest spacecraft, Voyager 1—currently traveling at 38,000 miles per hour—would take 75,000 years to reach our closest neighboring star system.
Of course, as you approach the actual speed of light, things get truly weird, according to the principles of Einstein’s special relativity. The mass of an object moving faster and faster would increase infinitely, eventually requiring an infinite amount of energy to maintain its speed.
“That’s the chief limitation and key challenge we have to overcome—how can we have all this matter in our [bubble], but not at such a scale that we can never even put it together?” Martire says. It’s possible the answer lies in condensed matter physics, he adds. This branch of physics deals particularly with the forces between atoms and electrons in matter. It has already proven fundamental to several of our current technologies, such as transistors, solid-state lasers, and magnetic storage media.
The other big issue is that current models allow a stable warp bubble, but only for a constant velocity. Scientists still need to figure out how to design an initial acceleration. On the other end of the journey, how will the ship slow down and stop? “It’s like trying to grasp the automobile for the first time,” Martire says. “We don’t have an engine just yet, but we see the light at the end of the tunnel.” Warp drive technology is at the stage of 1882 car technology, he says: when automobile travel was possible, but it still looked like a hard, hard problem.
The Applied Physics team believes future innovations in warp travel are inevitable. The general positive energy model is a first step. Besides, you don’t need to zoom at light speed to achieve distances that today are just a dream, Martire says. “Humanity is officially, mathematically, on an interstellar track.”
The US Trapped in Delusions as Russia & China Experience a Transformational Moment | Chas Freeman
What are a few bitter truths of life?
Consistency and pacing are the keys to success.
If you pace yourself and do a little, even something very small, every day then time is your friend and you will reap good results.
If you do not build good work habits, instead putting things off until the last moment, then your results will be poor, and time will be your enemy.
Small steps beat big dreams, and the people who succeed are the ones who can connect the small steps to their big dreams. The fact is that most people don’t know how to connect their small steps to their big dreams, which is why they live mediocre lives.
Garlic Orange Beef
Yield: 4 servings
Ingredients
- 3 tablespoons vegetable oil
- 1 pound boneless beef sirloin steak, thinly sliced in strips
- 1 medium onion, chopped
- 1 clove garlic, minced
- 1 teaspoon orange peel, cut into 1 inch long thin strips
- 1 can condensed beefy mushroom soup
- 1/3 cup water
- 1/4 cup tomato paste
- 1/4 cup orange juice
- 2 tablespoons molasses
- Pepper, to taste
Instructions
- Brown steak strips in oil over medium-high heat. Remove from pan and transfer to slow cooker.
- Top strips with onion, garlic and orange peel.
- Stir soup, water, tomato paste, orange juice and molasses together and pour over mixture in slow cooker. Sprinkle pepper over all.
- Cook on LOW for 6 to 8 hours.
- Serve over hot noodles or rice.
[Commenting on the helicopter crash of Iranian President Seyyed Ebrahim Raisi.]
"This is a result of an atrocious and disgusting US position. I am primarily referring to sanctions.
These scoundrels had no right to impose sanctions against aircraft, jets, helicopters and other vehicles that carry people.
As I remember, they have introduced sanctions against aircraft in Russia, against us, against my jet.
They will not get to President Putin – he has a Russian-built jet, but they have imposed sanctions here.
Is it normal? People are traveling. You have sold this helicopter after all.
It does not matter whether it is 40 or 50 years old. Maybe it made only three flights in 50 years and would have been okay if it were serviced properly.
But they banned their companies from servicing it.
They are in part to blame for this.
They are all believers, and if they are – they will ultimately face a response.
This is not the way to behave in the world.
This shows once again the efforts that Russia and other countries that support it are taking for the unipolar world to fall apart.
A multipolar world will emerge.
These insane people are only bringing it close by their actions.
Who likes this?
They didn’t like something and stole money, in this case from Russia, and not only from it.
They didn’t like something and arrested a vessel, seized a tanker and took the goods.
They think they can do anything because they are strong.
I am not a mystic, but what I am saying is if they are believers they will ultimately answer for all these doings and answer in full.
They will not hide across the ocean."
Excerpt from statements by Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenko at a joint news conference with Russian President Vladimir Putin following Russian-Belarusian talks, Minsk, May 24, 2024.
Colossus: The Forbin Project - AI Predictions from 1970
Yes… Check this out…
What Did Edward Snowden Actually Reveal About the U.S Government?
Imagine, if you will, a world where your every move, every communication, every digital footprint is being monitored, collected, and analyzed by an all-seeing government entity. This is the reality that Edward Snowden, a former U.S. intelligence contractor, brought to light in 2013 when he leaked a trove of classified documents exposing the shocking extent of government surveillance programs.
Snowden’s revelations were nothing short of earth-shattering. He disclosed that the National Security Agency, or NSA, had been engaging in a massive, global surveillance operation, collecting data on millions of unsuspecting citizens, both in the United States and abroad. This included the bulk collection of phone records, email communications, and internet browsing histories, all under the guise of national security.
One of the most startling revelations was the existence of a program called PRISM, which allowed the NSA to gain direct access to the servers of major tech companies like Google, Facebook, and Apple. This meant that the government could potentially access vast amounts of personal data without the knowledge or consent of the individuals involved. It was a stunning breach of privacy that sent shockwaves through the tech industry and beyond.
But the revelations didn’t stop there. Snowden also exposed the NSA’s efforts to undermine internet security by deliberately weakening encryption standards and exploiting vulnerabilities in software and hardware. This not only compromised the privacy of individuals but also put the security of businesses and infrastructure at risk.
Perhaps most disturbingly, Snowden revealed that the NSA had been engaging in the bulk collection of communications metadata, essentially creating a vast database of who was talking to whom, when, and for how long. While the government argued that this was necessary for counterterrorism efforts, many saw it as a gross overreach of power and a violation of civil liberties.
The fallout from Snowden’s disclosures was immense. The U.S. government was forced to confront the reality that its surveillance programs had gone too far, and reforms were eventually put in place to rein in some of the most egregious practices. Tech companies, meanwhile, scrambled to reassure their users that their data was safe and secure, implementing stronger encryption and pushing back against government requests for user information.
In the end, Edward Snowden’s revelations fundamentally changed the way we think about privacy and security in the digital age. They exposed the dark underbelly of government surveillance and sparked a global conversation about the balance between national security and individual rights. While opinions on Snowden himself remain divided, there’s no denying the impact his actions had on the world, and the enduring legacy of his decision to blow the whistle on one of the most secretive and powerful organizations on the planet.
“I regret buying a new car”
I (25F) recently bought my first car and dropped 50k as a down payment for a brand new Lexus. (a really dumb decision, I know.) I feel super regretful because I let myself succumb to the pressure from my mom and friends to finally buy a car since I landed a higher paying job. I hope to have a family and buy a house one day but I cannot help but feel like I put myself in a poor financial position where I will probably never achieve that. Am I still doing okay financially?
- 32k invested into Roth IRA
- 30k invested into 401K
- 62k in high yield savings account
- 24k in CD account
- 30k in debt (car loan)
- 110k salary
- Rent 1,200, Phone 100, Groceries 200
Dear Regretful Car Buyer,
An $80k car? Yes, that was a very dumb move. But hey, at least you bought a Lexus, so you can ride it out for 15-20+ years. That’s the only smart thing about this purchase.
Now, let’s talk about your financial situation. You have $32k in a Roth IRA, $30k in a 401k, $62k in a high-yield savings account, and $24k in a CD account. That’s a total of $148k in savings and investments. That’s fantastic for someone your age!
On the other hand, you have $30k in debt from your car loan. While that’s not ideal, it’s not the end of the world. You have a solid income of $110k, and your expenses are relatively low. You’re paying $1,200 for rent, $100 for your phone, and $200 for groceries. That leaves you with a lot of room to pay down your debt and continue saving for your future.
Here’s my advice: focus on paying off that car loan as quickly as possible. Make it a priority to throw extra money at that debt each month. Once you’ve paid off the loan, redirect that money into your savings and investments.
Remember that we all make mistakes. It’s part of being young. You have time on your side, and you can afford the payments on a $30k loan while still saving aggressively. Don’t beat yourself up too much over this.
You’ve obviously reflected that peer pressure influenced you to make a poor decision. That’s a valuable lesson to learn at your age.
Yes, buying an $80k car on a $110k salary was a dumb move. But you’ve got a lot of things going for you: a high income, fantastic savings, and time on your side. Learn from this mistake, get back on track with your savings and investments, and don’t let peer pressure influence your financial decisions again. You’ve got this!
How I see the UK after three years
The Bleak Reality Faced By The Japanese Youth
There used to be a legal concept and now there is a de facto concept known as “lifetime employment.” Basically, when you begin a career with a company, you would have to egregiously fuckup/commit malicious deeds to lose your job. However, businessmen who fail publicly on a major project that they took leadership of, or businessmen who piss off the wrong people in the firm, are often shipped off to undesirable locations (remote countryside, foreign branches, less-than-desirable departments, etc.) or just have their careers turn into a living hell.
As such, if you are a Japanese businessman and you want a relatively cushy path towards middle/upper management, you are dissuaded from taking risks. This leads to situations where people ignore potentially lucrative opportunities in favor of the less risky status quo. This leads to stagnation.
One way Japanese businesspeople bypass this problem is by doing “nemawashi” before business deals. This means taking 6 months or so meeting with all potential stakeholders in small meetings, winning them over one by one, before you ever pitch your main idea to the main committee/bosses (who has also been briefed ahead of time). This way all parties agree with the idea and the risk is mitigated.
Likewise, committees are often formed, sometimes even between multiple business units or even companies entirely, to make sure everyone agrees on everything. This helps everyone save face (as they all agree on the same thing) in the event of failure. Unfortunately this also leads to stagnation on an epic scale as typically it’s impossible to get a bunch of risk-adverse executives to all agree to the same thing.
The Japanese education system does a great job of teaching conformity. This helps squash a lot of the entrepreneurial spirit that you would naturally see out of graduates in other countries. No one wants to be the “nail that sticks out.”
It also teaches Japanese students how to prepare for standardized tests, but not critical thinking skills. This tends to put them at a disadvantage in a global business community, when compared to graduates from other developed nations. Also their foreign language teaching is laughable – designed more for standardized tests than actual international business.
I like to use this story to explain this a bit… As a typical Japanese high school student, here is what you are expected to do:
- Spend years of your life studying your ass off before school, during school, after school, 7 days a week so you can do well on the entry exams for the best colleges.
- Spend your senior year of college wearing a suit and job hunting, attending dozens of monotonous seminars and taking more exams, in the hopes that you can get a low paying entry level job at a well known firm (like a Toyota).
- Slave away for 3-5 years, making $20-40K and working 80 hours a week. Go on forced drinking excursions only to be physically, verbally, and often sexually harassed by your seniors who you actually hate but pretend to like in public.
- Live at home until you’re 30 because you don’t make enough to move out.
- Finally get promoted to sub-middle-manager as you approach 30. Go on a bunch of forced group dates so you can finally get laid and settle for the plain jane over in accounting.
- Get married to plain jane (who secretly resents that you don’t make enough money for her to buy Coach bags) and move into a shithole apartment in the suburbs of Tokyo.
- Spend the next ten years working 80 hours a week, going bald, and sleeping with hookers on business trips. You’ll develop a pretty serious drinking problem while your wife sleeps with her high school sweetheart when you’re out of town.
- Finally get promoted to middle-manager and make decent money. Now you can afford to buy a shithole apartment in the suburbs. Enjoy your two hour commute on a packed train every day while you contemplate suicide.
- Pop out one kid (because that’s all you can afford) now that you’re in your early 40s. Look forward to raising them to be just as miserable as you because “that’s just the way things are.”
- Finally retire when you’re in your upper 60s and enjoy life for a bit before you die of cancer.
That is the reality of life for a LOT of Japanese youths. And they know it.
With that knowledge in hand, a lot (millions) are saying “fuck the system” and just choosing to live in their parents’ basements forever, playing videogames and masturbating to pixelated porn and hentai. I can’t say I blame them!
There is a certain bleakness in the Japanese youth. They can’t afford to marry, nor have kids. They have grown up in a 20+ year recession. They aren’t happy but societal pressures tell them to stay on the course they are on because “that’s what it means to be Japanese.”
“My chess rating has become my identity.”
I’m an avid chess player, and over the years, my chess rating has become more than just a number—it’s become a part of my identity. Whenever I win a game and see my rating go up, I feel on top of the world. But when I lose and my rating drops, it feels like a personal failure. These fluctuations have started to impact my mood, self-esteem, and even how I interact with others.
Lately, it’s been getting worse. I find myself obsessively checking my rating and replaying my losses in my head, wondering what I could have done differently. I compare myself to higher-rated players and feel inferior and stupid. This has led to anxiety and a lack of enjoyment in other areas of my life. I’m caught in a vicious cycle of self-doubt and pressure to perform, and I don’t know how to break free.
Dear Checkmated by Ratings,
You’re far from alone in letting something external — be it chess ratings, social media likes, income, weight, zip code, a partner’s approval — define your self-worth. Our culture rewards such myopia.
But there’s a common delusion in external validation: that if you just hit the right number, then you’ll like yourself. Except it never produces a lasting sense of accomplishment or self-acceptance. There’s always another goalpost your ego is chasing, another reason to feel “less than.”
So, how to reclaim your equilibrium? First, by understanding that your mind is playing tricks on you. A rating is simply data, a benchmark of chess mastery. That’s it. It is not now, nor will it ever be, an accurate measure of your worth as a human being. You are so much more than any number — on or off the chessboard.
Correcting this mental error frees you to refocus on what matters: the joy of the game. You play because you love it — the elegant strategies, the mental challenge, the thrill of competition. When you’re fully present in the moment, immersed in the flow of the game, there is no room for obsessive thoughts.
Consider a practice of mindfulness, whether through meditation, yoga, journaling or time in nature. It’s a powerful way to override toxic self-talk and shift your attention to gratitude and growth. Savor the journey of getting better at something you love. Thank your body and mind for working in tandem. Process your losses with self-compassion, mining them for lessons, then letting them go.
Lastly, open up to a trusted friend, family member or therapist about what you’ve been going through. Shame and isolation will only keep you stuck. Connection is the antidote, reminding you that your worthiness has nothing to do with wins and losses.
Like the game itself, life is full of highs and lows, advances and setbacks. Our fulfillment lies in meeting both with grace.
Wishing you joy in every game.