Today is a video that discusses the importance of instilling fear in others. Please watch it. Cobra’s need to hiss.

…

The United States is leading the West into a great collapse, and the longer that it is delayed, the more horrific the fall will be. Mark my words.

…

My mother was living with her “husband” after she divorced my father. This man and her did not ever get formally married as both were Catholic. However, they did everything else together. In sin, I suppose.

He was reasonably wealthy. He owned a coal company. And I got along reasonably well with him.

He had something like 18 sons. No daughters. And his boys were loose cannons, but a lot of fun. Oh well. LOL.

Anyways, as time went forward, he got older and older… more and more frail. And in the Manor where my mother and him lived, he has one of those staircase elevators installed. It was kindly neat and all that, but as soon as he passed on, my mother insisted that it be removed immediately. She didn’t want that thing in her house at all.

Fifteen years later, she too was old and feeble, and I was there taking care of her. It got to the point that she no longer could walk up the stairs by herself. SO she slept downstairs in a bedroom that we built just for that purpose.

The bedroom was really nice, by the way, with a bathroom, and an attached study. Mom picked out a massive desk for the office, but to everyone’s dismay discovered that it wouldn’t fit in the office. Oh well. We then parked the credenza outside.

She only got to use the bedroom for a few months before she passed on. Maybe ten tops. But that is good enough for me.

When you die, you leave behind the things that you no longer need.

…

Today… remember. People need to hear you hiss.

US Congress unanimously approved the Patent Restriction Act. All of China’s patents are at risk of invalidation overnight. Huawei’s 20000+ patents could be deemed invalid. All countries at risk as the US can claim a national security threat. Fair?

Patents serve ONLY one purpose;

To prevent a competitor from duplicating your technology / products.

By invalidating patents, then ALL patents become worthless paper. This is simply because any nation still using them restricts it’s own industry. To ignore patents by one is to ignore patents by all. To remain competitive, once the patent protection fails, all patent protection fails. It’s a global “domino effect”.

There will be a serious of STRONG and DANGEROUS consequences of this action.

• Initially, the weaker industry (nation / product / technology) will start to copy the previously protected items.
• This in turn, will provide an outward appearance of “catching up” to the dominant (nation / product / industry).
• But, this will be short-lived. Innovation, especially in the contemporaneous fields (that are at battle) require manpower, innovative talent, and massive capital investment. The industry that presently maintains this lead will continue to maintain this lead, while the nation / industry falling behind will require massive changes and investment just to “tread water”.

This is [1] an obvious desperate move, [2] constructed by the ignorant, that will have [3] a long-term negative impact on the industries of the West. Particularly the United States.

…

Consider India.

India invalidated protections on American patents. This resulted in the export of “dirt cheap” medicine and pharmaceuticals. In the USA, a single pill of Viagra costs $20. (Of course, you can shop around, but that is the baseline price.) But you can buy them on-line, out of India for $1 each. Seeing that it costs $0.00000009 for each pill, the profit is still enormous for Indian companies, and American companies lost market share.

Consider China.

All those fancy-pantsy gizmos and gadgets in the latest American weapons systems, electronics, and medicines are now “up for grabs”. China will own EVERYTHING. Americans will still pay premium prices, and the protectionism measures will be “ramped up”, but China really will OWN EVERYTHING.

From Viagra to Oreos. From McDonald’s to Starlink. From Harley-Davidson to Heinz ketchup. This legislation by “Congress” pretty much is the DEATH BLOW to United States product dominance.

Last Word

To those of you who do not work in any tech industry, some words need to be said.

A patent is NOT a set of instructions on how to use technology. It is a description of the invention. It can include it’s basic properties and premises that it works upon, but patents will not provide enough information to duplicate that technology.

The United States can, at will, invalidate any patents it wants. But that does not give it that technology. It just allows it to copy the technology IF IT HAS THE MEANS to do so. If it has the manufacturing technology, the design technology, and a thorough understanding of the underlying principles.

For all you ‘Merica types out there is internet land, I’d advise you all to stop and think.

• China is a beautiful woman. A 10 in any man’s book.
• A patent is like a photograph of that woman.
• But claiming that ownership of that photo is the same as being married to the chick is silly.

Come back down to earth, and realize that you just cannot reconstitute a technology from the words on a patent. All you can do is pin up that picture up on the wall for everyone to look at.

What has your child done that is technically “wrong” but you were proud of them for doing it?

My mom, dad, and Grandpa were the ones who were proud of me for sticking up for my sister.

So a little back story, my sister has Scoliosis and she had a bully in fourth grade who kept physically assaulting with her. She kept telling the teachers and even the principal but they never did shit about it, and she told us every time this guy would attack her.

So one day, I actually witnessed one of his attacks on her so I went up to him, pinning him to a wall and punched him the face a few times and told him, if he ever messed with my sister, I will give him a beating of a lifetime. Dude ran to the bus after I letted him go.

So I rode the bus home, and warned my mom she was going to get a call from the school about me taking matters into my own hands after witnessing this guy hurt my sister. She was shocked that I did that. But she said she would support me.

Guess what, first period, I get called to the Principle’s office by the school announcer, I just decided to go and face judgment day, my home room teacher and my counselor were there as well, along with the kid I punched a few times. I rolled my eyes at the kid, as I sit down.

So what happened next, I get confronted by three people at once, they were firing shots at me while I just sat there looking at the kid who I beat up. Soon enough, my mom was called in to meet with them that day, while I was in ISS. But she didn’t arrive till 7th Period with my grandpa, my dad who was a police officer, and my sister’s note book of all the dates this kid bullied her and when she did tell a teacher and the principal at which time.

I remember seeing the color being wiped away when she saw my dad in his uniform, but they frought hard in support of my actions. But at the end, we had to threatened the school with a lawsuit. But that was two weeks later. I was punished with OSS for two to three weeks.

So when it was over, My mom took me to the mall and got me Dairy Queen and a sword from Isle of Misfits, got a few lego figures and a Lego set. My mom did tell me to next time, prep before taking action. And try not to do that again unless I have to, but she was proud of me. Along with my dad and my Grandpa.

Anyway my OSS was lifted after the lawsuit was threatened and the bully of my sister was punished OSS for the time I was in OSS. My Teacher, Principle, and Counselor apologized to me but I just told the Principle to next time, to do her job, and I told my teacher and counselor that it’s going to take some time for me to forgive them.

All was well, the bully never messed with my sister and was even moved out of the classroom she and him were in. People in her grade knew not to bully her otherwise if Teachers or Principles don’t do anything, her big brother will do something about it.

Beggar’s Chicken (China)

Ingredients

• 1 (3 pound) broiler-fryer chicken
• 6 1/2 tablespoons soy sauce
• 2 1/2 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 2 1/2 tablespoons dry sherry
• 1 teaspoon granulated sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon five-spice powder
• 1 (1-inch square) piece fresh ginger root, pared and cut into thin slices
• 4 cups all-purpose flour
• 3 cups salt
• 1 1/2 cups water

Instructions

1. Remove giblets from chicken and reserve for another use. Rinse chicken and pat dry with paper toweling. Place chicken on large piece of greased extra-wide, heavy duty aluminum foil. Rub or brush 2 1/2 tablespoons of the soy sauce completely over chicken. Rub or brush the oil completely over chicken. Pull skin at neck end under chicken and secure with small skewer. Tuck wing tips under thicken.
2. Combine remaining 4 tablespoons soy sauce, the sherry, sugar, five-spice powder, onions and ginger. Pour mixture into cavity of chicken, holding tail end of chicken up slightly so liquid does not run out of cavity. Secure tail end of chicken with small skewers. Wrap foil around chicken, sealing securely.
3. Combine flour and salt in bowl. Gradually mix in enough water to make a firm dough. Roll out dough on lightly floured surface until about 1/4-inch thick (dough must be large enough to completely cover chicken.
4. Place foil-wrapped chicken onto center of dough. Fold dough over chicken, pressing edges and ends together to seal completely. Place chicken in well greased 13 x 9-inch baking pan.
5. Bake chicken in preheated 450 degrees F oven 1 hour.
6. Reduce heat to 300 degrees F. Bake 2 1/2 hours longer.
7. Remove chicken from oven. Using mallet or hammer, break pastry. Remove chicken from pastry and place on serving plate. Carefully remove foil and skewers.

Yield: 4 servings

What are some common scams that tourists should be aware of when visiting Japan? How can these scams be avoided?

It’ll be extremely rare to see a scam in Japan as a tourist in Japan, except in one location: Kabukicho, Shinjuku, Tokyo.

Some scams exist for many Japanese people, like the Ore-ore scam

targeting the elderly, but many you won’t experience. (I’ve dropped my wallet in the middel of the street in Tokyo before, and had it returned with all my money inside of it.

Essentialy, the scam is that some cute girl or a muscular foriegner who speaks English tries to entice you into a bar, and get you drinking. If you’re alone and looking for company, you could get a drink (if you hadn’t checked the prices), and then when you get the bill, instead of something like $20 you were expecting to pay, you “ordered” the $2000 drink according to them.

Because you don’t speak Japanese and are intoxicated, if the police get involved you’ll most likely be blamed for not paying up.

They’ll take you to the ATM with a kind, muscular “escort” to help lift the burden of money off of you, and you’ll probably regret your existence while doing so.

Biggest thing is make sure you see a menu, and don’t go in because of a cute girl or because of some random promoter who speaks English.

I really enjoy going to Rocky Bar Mother and Bar Psy are really great to go to there, with drinks and awesome music if you like it. I take my friends there on occasion, so it’s something I’d highly recommend.

What are some unwritten social rules everyone should know?

• Dress well no matter what the occasion.
• Always carry cash.
• Always getup when you’re sitting and someone come to greet you.
• Always comment on good things don’t keep in heart.
• If the phone is on the speaker inform.
• Chat to anyone who is sitting alone at a party or in a group.
• don’t have the impulse to sit near look-alike you. If everyone fulfils this, people who represent any minority will end up sitting alone.
• If feasible, avoid the plan to go outdoor if you have a runny nose.
• Do not swipe left or right if individual shows you a photo on their phone.
• Wave your hand rather than calling his or her name if someone is far or on phone or earphones plugged in.
• Offer a glass of water to the delivery man.
• People know the worth. If successful wear shirt of 300 it seems 3000 and if unsuccessful wear 3000 it seems 300. Don’t show off.
• When anyone gets shouted at don’t look at them. It’s more awkward.
• Always open the door for the person coming behind you. Doesn’t matter if it is a guy or a girl.
• Stop being late, it’s irritating.
• When someone starts talking about their conditions, don’t start talking about yours.
• Never ask a shy person what’s wrong or ask them ‘why aren’t you talking more?’ It only makes them feel more awkward.
• When visiting someone’s house, carry something.
• When you open a gift, just say thank you. Don’t say, “It’s too expensive!”
• Being vegetarian or non-vegetarian is a choice. Don’t ask anyone why it’s so.
• Do not sympathize with anyone in public. This will embarrass a person more than be laughing at.
• Don’t expect others to understand how hard you are working and living. Everyone doing.
• If you like working with smart people, be prepared to be used by them too. As well as Worshipped and learn from them too. Your attitude.
• Don’t make suggestions; But when it comes to house, car, marriage don’t give advice. Because these are very important things & if something goes wrong you’ll be blamed or they may stop talking to you.
• Greeting Etiquette = The 6S- Stand, See, Smile, State, Say, Shake
• Don’t look at your phone when others are talking to you.

What’s something unusual you said or did during a job interview that got you hired?

It happened during our campus placements. Company had shortlisted 20 students for interview round and intended to take only 2.

I had cleared first 2 interviews and was being interviewed with regional head of the company..

Interviewer: ” So tell me.. What will you do if any better company with same profile but better package offers you the job?”

Me: “Sir I will take that job.”

Interviewer: ” This means you are not loyal to us. Even if I offer you the job there is no guarantee that you will join our company. So why should I offer you one?”

Me: “Sir if you are talking about being loyal, so let me ask you, if you find another candidate better than me then you will offer him the job. Isn’t it. So going by your logic company is not loyal to me. But let me tell you it isn’t about being loyal. Everyone wants best for himself. You want best people to work for you and I want to work for the best. Don’t you believe you are best in the industry??”

Result : Selected..

Chinese teen and 20’s fashion

What work secret did you accidentally find out that changed everything?

I had a charismatic boss who managed by walking around trying to intimidate employees. He didn’t bother me because my job was essential and I got along well with the conservative types and the weirdos.

We used a lot of darkroom equipment and chemicals. Because the chemicals contained silver, they were expensive, and this boss was cheap.

I found out by accident that he instructed accounts payable not to pay the suppliers. We were supposed to find new suppliers. And then when they were not paid, move to new suppliers.

I did not like this.

This plan made me crabby.

So, I called a couple of the suppliers from home to tell them the plan. They called other suppliers, competitors, and everyone else. That’s all I did. I called two suppliers.

Suddenly no supplier would fill our orders unless they were paid in advance. I told the boss that we had to pay up front. He waved this problem away, as he often did. I wrote him a note. Left it on his desk. He didn’t read it.

We ran out of supplies. The darkroom work and all typesetting stopped. All three art departments stopped, apart from planning.

The boss had a meltdown when he discovered all those employees were unable to finish work. He called a supplier from my phone. The supplier required payment for all previous invoices, so the boss called another supplier. He got the same message. And again.

Just then, the 80-year-old office manager arrived. She took the phone out of his hand and told him to leave the building and stop annoying people. He left. She continued the conversation to say that she would courier a cheque over immediately and when it cleared, we would appreciate the supplies.

As she was leaving, I heard her say that the she was going to kill that man before she retired.

She was unsuccessful.

He lives.

Lost In Space | 1920 Universe

This 1920 universe is AI generated madness. Well worth the time to visit.

What are few things only mature people can tell you?

1. Not everyone will live long. Stay happy and useful to humanity as much as you can.
2. Life is not Disney Island, always strife for the best and prepare for the worse.
3. Nobody can love you unconditionally except your mum and in few cases, your family.
4. You can simply avoid future problems by listening to your instincts and warnings from your loved ones.
5. Most people won’t support you in life until there’s no option but to join the crowd.
6. Discipline will take you farther than talent.
7. Everybody is fighting their own demon either publicly or privately. Never envy anyone.
8. Don’t look down on anyone, life can switch up within a minute.
9. Money is not everything, it incredibly betters your life but doesn’t solve all life problems. Still have it anyway.
10. You don’t have to get to the level of Elon Musk to change the world when your little kindness can.

Have you ever called in sick but you were convinced or threatened by your superiors to come to work? Did it end well for you?

I was assistant manager of a fabric store. Some days I would open the store and other days I would close. One morning I woke up with the flu. I felt horrible, as you can imagine. I was supposed to close that day, so I called very early and told the manager I couldn’t come in, hoping to give them the whole work day to find someone to close.

The manager said she was just about to call me to open because the other asst mgr had forgotten she had to take her kid to the dentist or something. I said, definitely not because I have the flu and can barely get out of bed. The manager said she REALLY needed me to come in. I explained I had a fever and was dizzy but she said I didn’t have a choice, they needed me to come in. I was like, seriously? I can’t believe you want me to come and work with the public when I’ve got the flu. She wouldn’t budge, so I got dressed and went to work.

One of the things I had to do was open the safe and count all the money to make sure the total matched the night before, and bring the cash drawers out to the registers. Any time I wasn’t in the office, it was policy to lock the safe, even if I was only going to be gone for a minute, and even though the store was closed and doors locked. I counted the drawers but I was having trouble counting the rest of the money because I couldn’t concentrate, I was so dizzy. I kept losing track and having to start over.

Finally, since it was getting close to opening the store, I decided to take the drawers out to the registers and then come back and try to count the cash. I closed the safe and carried out the drawers, just as a regional manager came through the door. She went straight to the office. When I came into the office, the safe was standing open. I was shocked because I knew I had closed it. The regional manager asked me why the safe was open, when I knew it was the policy to lock it when I left the office.

I said I was certain I had closed it. She said, yes, it was closed but not locked. I tried to explain I wasn’t even supposed to be there because I was sick, but she interrupted me and said they were going to have to let me go. I was stunned, as I was one of the most knowledgeable employees in the store and had never missed a day of work. I was standing there swaying and trying not to pass out, and wondering how I was going to support my kids now.

The RM told one of the other employees to call someone to replace me so the store wouldn’t be short-handed. I grabbed my stuff and headed for the door. The RM said, “Where do you think you’re going? You have to stay until someone comes to take your shift. If we can’t find anyone, you’ll finish the day.”

I looked at her with an incredulous expression. “Are you kidding me?? I’ve just been fired for dragging my sick ass out of bed to cover for someone who can’t be bothered to keep track of their appointments. I’m going home and going to bed!” Then I walked out.

I hope she got the flu.

STAR TREK ORIGINS (1920) | FULL MOTION VIDEO

What is the most badass thing your parent has ever done?

This happened during college. I was down with viral fever and had to take a break for three days. My best friend, a girl, was in constant touch via phone and she sounded dull. When asked what the problem was, she said it was nothing and I thought she worried about my health. Day 4, I return to college and I learn that a guy from a different department was teasing her (in an abusive way) and was stalking her everyday. And she, being a very reserved and not so brave, did not even tell it outside. I went and punched the mofo right on his face and broke a couple of teeth. His friends came for his help and started attacking me and my friends came in from nowhere.

Once this gang war was done, I and that guy were taken along with our friends to the principal’s office and he started hurling scoldings one after the other. I was a bright student and was always in the good books of every professor and thus it came as a shock to everyone.

They called all of our parents and my dad came. Even my friend was taken into account here and her mom was called to the college (She didn’t have a dad). Everybody – My head of the department, my principal started scolding me and gave my dad a transfer certificate to fill up for me to take me out from the current college and put me somewhere else. They also told me I had spoilt my career now due to this and for also having a relationship (typical Indian brains ya know, roam around with a girl and she is your girlfriend). My dad remained calm and filled up the form and asked if there are any more procedures to be done. The principal and HOD were stunned (they were apparently just trying to scare us) and asked him if he wasn’t worried about my future. I still remember what he said “If I was him, I would have done the same, what he did was right. No one should stand by when a woman is being harassed. I want my son to be on the front lines to stand up for any sort of injustice. I know the girl for the past 14 years and she and my son have been friends since then”.

Everyone got a month’s suspension and the opposite team got two months suspension, except for that guy who harassed her, he voluntarily got a transfer to some other college. I came out of college as a guy with triple placement and being the highest paid recruit of that year.

When driving back home in the car, dad leans in and asks “You love her or what?”

Me : *Facepalm* Typical Indian parents.

P.S : But dad was the best and he was right, This happened 4 years back and am now engaged to that friend of mine 😉

Doctor Who | 1920 Universe | COLORIZED

Priceless . . . US Navy Refusing to Deploy Brand New Littoral Combat Ships to Middle East; Houthi Anti-Ship Missile concern!

Nation Hal Turner 22 December 2023

The US Navy says it doesn’t have enough warships to launch Operation Prosperity Guardian against the Houthis in Yemen.

According to John Conrad (maritime journalist), the US built 24 littoral combat ships for coastal warfare, but the US is now refusing to deploy them.

Houthi anti-ship ballistic missiles and drones “cause US concern.”

HAL TURNER EDITORIAL OPINION

According to Wikipedia, these Littoral COmbat ships cost between Four-Hundred Twenty million and four-hundred eighty million dollars, each.

We built at least 24 of them. 

Do the math:  24 x $420,000,000= $10.08 BILLION . . . .  and now the Navy that bought them – for coastal warfare – isn’t sending them into battle over fear of anti-ship missiles?????   WTF?????

So did we simply throw that money in the garbage?  We have ships we can’t use . . .  so what do we do with them now?

You know, you can’t make this stuff up.   The level of stupidity is amazing. 

Maybe, though, it’s not stupidity; maybe it’s corruption?  Whose beak got wet from that $10.08 Billion?  Whose palms got greased?

And nobody looked or asked about it because the ships were, in fact, built.

Except now, we’re afraid to put them into battle, and guys like me are starting to ask why we even built them, and why can’t a “modern” warship defend itself from anti-ship missiles?”

The Fantasy Of Missile Defense In Ukraine

In October 2022 I mocked western media propaganda that was depicting Russia as unable to sustain the war:

Russia, Having ‘Run Out Of Missiles’, Launches Barrage On Ukraine

Back in March I had warned that Lies Do Not Win Wars. Here is another practical example.

After allegedly having ‘run out of missiles’ and, more importantly, patience, the leadership of the Russian Federation decided to de-electrify Ukrainian cities with a ‘barrage of missile strikes’.

But first came the propaganda blubber: …

There followed 25 headlines by western media which claimed that Russia was running out of missiles.

More recently we see frequent claims by the Ukrainian government that it shot down 43 of the 32 drones Russia launched that day as well as 5 out of 3 supersonic missiles.

Laughable nonsense.

But slowly, slowly the Ukrainians and media have turned to describing stuff more near to, but not yet, reality:

Russia has fired 7,400 missiles, 3,700 Shahed drones in war so far, Kyiv says – Reuters

Russia has launched about 7,400 missiles and 3,700 Shahed attack drones at targets in Ukraine during its 22-month-old invasion, Kyiv said on Thursday, illustrating the vast scale of Moscow’s aerial assaults.

Ukrainian air defences were able to shoot down 1,600 of the missiles and 2,900 of the drones, air force spokesperson Yuriy Ihnat said in televised comments. “We are faced with an enormous aggressor, and we are fighting back,” he said.

Shooting down drones, which are relatively slow and fly low, is not so difficult or expensive. One often only needs to have some machine guns in place on the path along which a drone is flying.

Shooting down missiles is something entirely different. Due to their flightpath and speed one needs expensive missile defense systems. The anti-missile missiles these systems fire come at a high price. One Patriot missile comes at about $2,000,000, more for newer ones. Routinely two are fired against any potential target.

If the Ukraine has really shot down 1,600 missiles, which I very much doubt, one can easily calculate the enormous costs of such an endeavor

There are reasons why Patriot missiles are only produced in the hundreds per year, not in the thousands.

No country in the world can sustain such an onslaught without running out of defenses or going bankrupt.

Several months ago a U.S. delivered Patriot system in Kiev came under attack. Set to automatic mode it fired (video) 32 missiles for no observable hits on the imaginary targets. Scott Ritter has said that the U.S. Marines are not allowed to use the automatic mode of their Patriot systems because that is known to fail. But the Ukrainians were not trained to fully handle the manual mode.

And now they are telling us that they shot down 1,600 missiles?

How probable is that?

Posted by b on December 22, 2023 at 12:53 UTC | Permalink

What are some things that make or have made you lose faith in humanity?

A few days earlier, I had ordered food from an online ordering service. The time must have been around 9:30 PM. Approximate delivery time given was 10:00 PM.

I was not famished literally and didn’t realize the order was delayed until I got a call from the ordering service’s customer care. It must have been around 10:15 PM.

Customer Care Agent: Hello, am I talking to Mr. Yatin?

Me : Yes.

CCA: I am talking from S****y. This is regarding your order sir. The delivery guy informed me that the order cannot be delivered as it is in very bad condition.

Me: Bad condition? As in?

CCA: The delivery person’s bike slipped actually. He says the order is not in a deliverable condition. Do you wish to talk to the delivery guy?

Me: Sure, connect us.

So now Me, CC agent and the delivery boy we now on conference.

After I was put in conference, I could only hear strange shouting sounds on the other side.

The shouting was like, “You idiot piece of s##t! Can you be any more careless? Do you think the material is free?…. Blah, blah, blah….”

Finally the delivery guy spoke.

Delivery guy (Shouting sounds still in background): Sorry sir, the delivery packaging is damaged, and I cannot deliver it.

CCA: Yatin sir, do you want a reorder or a refund? As you can see there is some damage to your order.

By this time I realised that the shouting sounds were in the background of the delivery boy.

The shouting continued, “It’s because of you careless guys that our reputation is spoilt. Careless fellow! Now if reorder is asked from us who will borne the loss?!! I will not give reorder!”

I understood that delivery boy had gone back to restaurant, and had to hear all this because my order was damaged.

I was not having it. I asked the delivery boy something which no one gave a f**k about.

“Bhaiya (brother), are you hurt after the accident? Do you required first aid? Keep the order aside and get first aid if required.”

The guy in a crying tone said he is okay and is sorry for messing up my order.

I asked him to handover his phone to that dumb restaurant owner. And I gave him a piece of my mind. I told him that delivery boys are human beings. They are not robots. Accidents can happen. No need to shout on anyone. It’s not only about your food that represents you, it’s you. I think so you should worry less about your ratings and more about your behaviour ratings. Try to have some general courtesy and not get blinded by professionalism.

He defended himself saying he did not mean any disrespect to me personally. I told him that I will not give any rating as I did not get any food. But whoever he is disrespecting, is a ‘person’ after all and mistakes do happen. He apologized for his behavior.

I still asked the delivery guy if he was fine, he said yes and thanked me. I asked him to be careful in the future and not rush so much as it will be fatal to his life.

The customer care refunded me and that’s all.

Numbers and stars can blind the best of us, is what I realized from this.

What’s the fastest you’ve wiped a smirk off of someone’s face?

Not me, my younger brother Kenneth (by ten years).

I was 21, he was 11. It was a Friday, I was off and took him to the lake. We planned to spend the day there, but about 12:30 we’d skipped breakfast so we went to this burger place to get some lunch. Ordered some burgers. They had one pool table there; Kenneth was watching four college kids play, back then it was 25c to play and they were playing for a dollar a game. Challenger pays for the game.

He said, “Gimme a buck and a quarter.”

All right, sure. I have an idea what’s coming. He walks over, and says he wants to play, he’s got his money. The guy who had won the last game is saying he doesn’t want to take a kid’s money, so I said, “It’s my money, don’t worry about it, just let him have a game.”

Okay. Four guys about 20, shaking their heads and grinning. Kenneth breaks hard, and sinks a ball. Runs four more after that, then barely missed a bank shot. Grins are gone.

The other guy takes his shot, misses, and Kenneth runs the rest of the table. It was hilarious, now all of those guys are drinking beer and laughing every time he sinks a tough shot, “no fucking way!” and “Jeezus Christ!”

He picked up the two bucks, said, “Thanks, dude,” then put a dollar back down. “Anybody want to play?”

They all did. One after another, they all lost a couple of bucks, along with the waiter, and two more guys who came in. We were there for hours, until it was too late to go back to the lake. He made about twenty bucks. Funniest buck and a quarter I ever spent. Kid had been shooting pool in our garage since he was four and standing on a box.

What are the most profound jokes ever?

A man dies and goes to hell. Once there, he finds that there is a different hell for each country, so he tries to seek out the least painful one.

At the door to German Hell, he is told: “First they put you in an electric chair for an hour. Then they lay you on a bed of nails for another hour. Then the German devil comes in and whips you for the rest of the day.”

He does not like the sound of that, so he checks out American Hell, Russian Hell and many more. They are all similarly gruesome. However, at Nigerian Hell a long line of people is waiting to get in. Amazed, he asks, “What do they do here?”

He is told: “First they put you in an electric chair for an hour. Then they lay you on a bed of nails for another hour. Then the Nigerian devil comes in and whips you for the rest of the day.”

“But that’s the same as the others,” says the man. “Why are so many people waiting to get in?”

“Because of the power cuts, the electric chair does not work. The nails were paid for but never supplied, so the bed is comfortable. And the Nigerian devil used to be a civil servant, so he comes in, signs his time sheet and goes back home for private business.” Tolu Ogunlesi

The Khachaturyan case:

This is a disturbing incident of three teenage sisters stabbing their own father to death, while he was dozing in his armchair at the family home in northern Moscow.

(Image Source: Getty Images)

The sisters attacked him with a knife, hammer and pepper spray, inflicting fatal wounds to his head, neck, and chest. He had 30 knife wounds in his body when he was found. The girls then called the police and were arrested at the scene.

Why did the sisters kill their own father? What was the motive?

It was during the evening of 27 July 2018, Mikhail Khachaturyan, 57, called Krestina, Angelina and Maria, (aged 19, 18, and 17 respectively), one by one to his room. He scolded them for not cleaning the flat properly and sprayed pepper gas in their faces. The sisters plotted against the father after this incident took place.

The investigation soon uncovered an extensive history of violence in the family. Khachaturyan had regularly beaten his daughters over three years, torturing them, keeping them as prisoners and sexually abusing them. They reported the attack to police and admitted carrying it out, saying they believed their lives were at risk if they did not take action.

(Image Source: Social media; EAST2WEST NEWS)

The case quickly became sensational news in Russia. Human rights activists argued that the sisters were not criminals but victims, as they had no means of getting help and protection from their abusive father. However, there are no laws protecting victims of domestic violence in Russia.

Under legal changes introduced in 2017, a first-time offender who beats a family member, but not badly enough to put them in hospital, will face only a fine or up to two weeks in custody. Police in Russia usually treats domestic abuse as a “family issue”, providing little or no help at all.

The sisters’ mother, who had also suffered beatings and abuse from Khachaturyan in the past, had approached the police years before. So did the family’s neighbors, who were highly afraid of him. But there is no evidence that the police acted on any of these appeals for help. According to psychiatric assessments, the girls lived in isolation and had been suffering from post-traumatic stress (PTSD).

During the investigation, the sisters were all charged with premeditated murder. Angelina and Krestina face up to 20 years in prison. Maria, a child at the time, could be imprisoned for up to 10 years.

The decision to bring murder charges has been met with protests. In Moscow, hundreds of people gathered outside the headquarters of the Investigative Committee law enforcement agency. Activists were continuing to picket their offices almost daily. Demonstrations have also taken place at Russian embassies or consulates around the world, and Russian cultural figures have spoken out in defense of the sisters.

The high-profile case has divided Russian society into those who say that Krestina, Angelina and Maria Khachaturyan acted in self-defense and those who view them as murderers. Independent polling said that 41% of Russian respondents support the Khachaturyan sisters, while 29% don’t support them.

What do you feel about this disturbing incident? Do you see them as murderers? Or do you feel they acted in self-defense?

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

It wasn’t me that “picked a fight with the wrong person” but certainly one that I witnessed first hand.

So my wife, my friend Barry and his wife left a theatre heading for a bar, with the 2 ladies were walking maybe 20-30 metres in front chatting away – as women tend to do 😛

Next thing, they stop short next to an alleyway behind the theatre and my wife shouts out “f**k off a—hole” and starts to back off.

Barry and I arrive on scene and we see 3 guys – knives pulled waving them around.

Being “Mr Laid Back”, Barry asks “so whats going on here guys?” to which a—hole#1 responds politely “This is our robbery buddy so f**k off or we do you as well”.

Barry shrugs his shoulders, does a half turn as if to walk away then the rest was like the scene from Jason Bourne (movie 1) in the US Embassy scene……blur, blur, arms, hands, legs, blur blur and done, literally 5 seconds and 3 knife-wielding scumbags lying on the floor with broken wrists, unconscious and bloody (or all three).

What I didn’t say was Barry looked and dressed like a city gent, weighed about 120kgs and stood just under 2m tall. He was also previously an unarmed combat instructor for the police, an expert in Ju-Jitsu, Karate and Krav-Maga and worked “in the field” for the security services.

they certainly picked a fight with the wrong person……..

A good friend to have on or by your side at any time, and unfortunately now, sorely missed.

<RIP big man>

No right answer

20 Unspoken Rules For Men:

1. Never shake a hand sitting down.

2. Protect who is behind you, and respect who is beside you.

3. Never insult the cooking when you are the guest.

4. Never eat the last piece of something you didn’t buy.

5. Never make the first offer in a negotiation.

6. Don’t take credit for work you didn’t do.

7. Take blame, and give credit when due.

8. If you are not invited, don’t ask to go.

9. Always aim for the head.

10. Don’t beg for a relationship.

11. Dress well no matter what the occasion.

12. Always carry cash.

13. Listen, nod, and most of all make eye contact.

14. Show restraint in expressing anger, no matter what. Being angry is a waste of energy.

15. Weather it is dinner, drinks, or both, avoid placing your phone on the dinner table.

16. Never pose with alcohol.

17. Proper grammar will get you far in life. Leave the foul language for the less educated.

18. Ask more than you answer.

19. You can tell a great deal about a person by their handshake, so make your strong and firm.

20. Speak honestly. Say what you mean and mean what you say.

…

Chris Williamson: Why Men & Women Are Giving Up On Love

Has a doctor ever been disgusted by something they saw on a patient?

Well, I still get a bit nauseated thinking of this…I once saw a woman who reported “itchiness” in her groin. Expecting some type of rash, I had her undress and lay back on table. I inspected her groin only to find her entire pubic hair area filled with crawling small bugs! Pubic lice! I was careful not let my disgust show but got a treatment creme and smeared a LOT of it on the entire area. I prescribed a similar medication and simply assured her that the infestation and itchiness would get better after a while. She seemed grateful. My nurse and I then promptly sealed off that exam room and had it thoroughly cleaned. Despite that I felt “itchy” the rest of the day and gave myself a thorough shower when I got home. Despite feeling “disgusted”, one has to be professional. Sometimes harder than others!

Have you ever known personally someone to disappear from the face of earth? Are you looking for them?

I sure have known someone who seemingly disappeared from the face of the earth. But I’m not looking for them anymore.

It’s my brother who disappeared. He was on vacation with his wife and my parents, when he decided to take a short solo hike. Our folks and his wife decided to sit in the shade and wait for him to return. He said he would be back within an hour. But he never returned.

They were in Mesa Verde National Park. The path he went down is called the Spruce Treehouse Path, and it was steep and paved and busy, as people flocked down to see the Spruce Treehouse, an abandoned dwelling in excellent condition. My brother was fascinated with the dwellings and wanted to see one up close and personal. The rest of the group settled on the porch of one of the museums in the park. None of the three were in good enough shape to make it down the steep path and then climb back up again. His wife offered him a bottle of water, but he declined, saying he’d only be gone for a short while. He started to walk off and then his wife called out to him, he turned around, and she snapped the last picture that she would ever take of Mitchell Dale Stehling.

And that was it. The last time anyone in my family saw my brother alive. After two hours had passed, my mother became alarmed, she just knew something was wrong, so they raised the alarm and a short search by rangers was conducted. He couldn’t have gotten very far, in such a short period of time, the rangers told the three. And nobody ever stays lost for long. Either they are found, or they manage to make it back on their own. But Dale wasn’t found that night, nor the next day when the search went into full force. The mountain came alive with people. Search and rescue people came and went searching for him on foot. There were people on horseback, on ATV’s, in helicopters all scouring the mountain side for my lost brother. In addition, a FLIR equipped jet buzzed around the mountain with its heat seeking device looking for Dale.

The massive search effort lasted about a week. The head ranger had my folks put up in one of the cabins in the park, and brought them food, and drink, an no good news at all. There was no sign of Dale, not even an indication that he had even been in the park. In the meantime, my poor dad got sick as a dog and had to see a doctor there. The search was scaled back after a week, and my mother and father drove home alone in their motorhome, while Dale’s wife drove home to Texas with her children, who had driven to Colorado the moment they learned their dad was missing. My mother’s description of how she felt driving down out of the mountains and headed toward home, leaving my brother behind somewhere in the wilderness, just simply broke my heart.

I didn’t learn that Dale was missing until two days after he was gone. I don’t know why nobody thought to call me, but I don’t hold it against anyone, because I can only imagine the chaos and emotional turmoil each person went through in the first days when my brother went missing. I wanted to fly out and help with the search, but my folks asked me to please stay in Texas and guard the home front. Offers of help of all kinds began flooding in, and our church took up a special donation to help offset some of the cost of travel and lodging and being unable to work for a week or so. So I stayed home and worried and cried, and took phone call after phone call from people wondering about Dale.

The night my parents came home, we all gathered at their house. We all hugged and cried and expressed our disbelief that something like this could happen in our family. We wondered aloud how and why Dale had managed to get off trail and get lost. We wondered if he was attacked by someone or something. We all feared the worst. For about two weeks I held out hope that Dale was alive, but then that hope faded slowly away, and I came to realize that he was likely deceased. Yet we didn’t know for sure where he was or what had happened to him. Did he just decide to walk away from his family who all loved him dearly? Did he commit suicide out there some how? Were drugs involved? Did he fall off a cliff, or suffer a heart attack or get bitten by a snake? The questions kept coming with no answers in sight.

The years dragged on. I can tell you that I learned all about grief during those years. Dale and I had been very close, visiting or calling one another nearly every day. We shared our deepest secrets with one another, and he and I just became closer when our brother was diagnosed with schizophrenia and left the family fold. It was just him and me then, and you couldn’t get us apart no matter how hard you tried. I was simply and plainly, devastated by the loss of my dearest friend and brother. I wish I had a penny for every tear I have shed since Dale went missing. For years If I wrote about Dale, the ending was always the same. We didn’t know what happened to him, and we didn’t really expect him to be found as one year rolled around to the next. We were left hanging for many years.

Now there is a different ending when I write about Dale. And that is because of one off-trail hiker in the park. People are not allowed to deviate from the paths that run through the park. But this guy did, and he stumbled upon the skeletal remains of my brother over seven and a half years from the day he went missing. He left a note for the rangers, wanting to remain anonymous for obvious reasons. In the note he said he had found a human body, and had looked through the clothing and found ID. He named the person according to the ID found on him, and gave a good indication of where it was located. He also noted that he had already contacted the media, so the rangers needed to act quickly and go and retrieve that body. And that is exactly what they did.

The rangers and coroner hiked for well over four and a half miles into the wilderness, where they finally found my brother’s remains. They found his skeleton completely intact with the skull still on the neck and clothing still on the bones, shoes still on the feet. His cigarettes and lighter were still in his pocket as well as his wallet which contained his ID, driver’s license and credit cards. He was in a sitting position, with his legs straight out in front of him, leaning against “a lone tree in the bottom of a canyon” in an area that had been thoroughly searched when he first went missing.

Dale’s bones and clothing were examined by a forensic anthropologist. This person said that there were no indications of animal attack before or after his death. The clothing was completely intact and not ripped or torn anywhere. All the bones were accounted for, except the vertebrae which had been removed from his back a bunch of years before he went missing. His spine was fused during a back surgery. The coroner named the date of death as June 9, 2013, the very day he went missing.

Dale’s bones were returned to his widow. She had them cremated so that his ashes could be buried where he always said he wanted to be his eternal resting place. Which was under a big live oak tree on his property. There were visitation and funeral services for my brother, and a private burial after.

I have written about his funeral and burial before, so I won’t get overly emotional and write it all again. Suffice it to say, it was unique. I attended both, driving my parents to all of it. We attended the burial, and I watched as my brothers ashes were sprinkled into a hole in the ground at the base of a tree. My emotions were all over the place that day. I was so glad that the story had an ending, although not a happy one. It was good to know that his remains were back in Texas, and in the place where he always said he wanted to be buried. But the services made if feel like we had lost him all over again, and I cried for days and days.

I would give anything I owned to be able to wash this horrible event from our lives and to have my baby brother back. But God had other ideas, and I know where Dale resides right now. I can’t have my brother back, but I know I will see him again when we are reunited in heaven some day in God’s time. I have come to be able to cope with his death because I realize that this is but a short separation, really. We won’t be apart for all of eternity. Nope, because one day God will take me home too, and that is when I think life really begins. I imagine sharing heaven with my favorite person in the world. We will jump and shout and sing in the angel’s choir, together again for all eternity.

And that, I believe, is one heck of an ending to this story.

Star Trek as a SOVIET Sci-Fi movie directed by Andrei Tarkovski (ai generated)

What is that one picture that describes the lowest point in your life?

I was 16, and at my grandfather’s life celebration. He’d passed 2 weeks before. That’s my dad and the daughter of a close friend.

I was trying to come to terms with a sexual assault that had occurred nearly a year before. My relationship with my dad had deteriorated to the point where we were hardly speaking, even though we were living in the same house. My dad is a good person, but he’s very broken and endured horrific abuse as a child and teenager. He’s also mentally ill, and at the time he was suicidal and angry. I’d also just lost my Poppy.

I was also suicidal and angry. My parents’ marriage was in tatters, I was in such emotional pain from the assault, and had just started college. I was working two jobs and paying my own way. My mother and I were constantly fighting. I’d just been diagnosed with an autoimmune disease and the treatment and recovery was wreaking havoc on my body and emotions. I wanted it all to stop. I was going to drive my car into a tree. I went out driving one night and sped up, and right before I swerved to hit the tree, I remembered my little sister and brother. And my dog, Woof. My sister was only 11, how awful for her would it be if I died? My brother was 14, it would have completely destroyed his life if I left. Woof wouldn’t understand what had happened to me, he’d just think I left him. I pulled over and broke down and cried. I drove home and told my mom I needed help.

I broke down crying on the kitchen floor and told her that if I didn’t get help, I was going to kill myself. She helped me make a therapy appointment for the next week, and I’ve been working hard ever since.

That was one of the lowest points of my life. There have been points just as low in recent years, but I made a promise to myself that I wouldn’t leave my family. If I can’t stay alive for myself, I have to for them.

After nearly 4 years of therapy, medication, a clinical depression and panic disorder diagnosis, a short stint in the psych ward when I had a panic attack so bad my then-boyfriend thought I was having a heart attack, and removing myself from my home situation, I’m proud to say that I’m getting better. I’m still not quite on the level of being okay, I still have my bad days and moments where I just want it to stop, but I try to no longer entertain those thoughts. I’m still working too much and not sleeping enough, but I’m also still in college and one step closer to achieving my goals. And I’m still here.

I made it to 20, and for the first time in a long time, I feel anxious but a bit more prepared for what’s coming next.

EDIT: August 29th, 2023 – roughly 4 years from my OP

This answer has started getting a lot of new comments in the last few weeks, so I thought I just come back to say: I’m still here! I am 24 years old now and STILL ALIVE! The last 4 years have been wonderful, and horrific at times. I have new medical diagnoses, and a much better relationship with my parents. They’ve both grown a lot in the last few years, as have I, and I am lucky to have a much better relationship with both of them.

Thank you everyone for continuing to comment, and boost me, and being there. I come back to this post often to read the wonderful things you all have written whenever I need a boost, or a reminder that I do have a purpose and place here. To anyone who’s been in a place like this before, please know that it does get better. All of the things that I’ve experienced were more than worth it. Because I stayed, I got to watch my little brother graduate from college. Because I stayed I got to watch my little sister graduate high school and go off to college. Because I stayed, I met some of the most wonderful people. You have so much left to experience, so much left to do, and so many people to love, and be loved by. It sounds cliche but I promise, it does get better.

Why PsycHacks REFUSES To Date AMERICAN Women!

A little boy goes to his dad and asks, “What is politics?”

Dad says, “Well son, let me try to explain it this way: I earn the money in this family, so let’s call me the capitalist. Your mom says what we spend the money on, we’ll call her the government. Both of us are here to take care of your needs, so we’ll call you the people. Our nanny is representative of the working class. And your baby brother, we’ll call him the future. Now, think about that and see if that makes sense.”

So the little boy goes off to bed thinking about what dad had said.

Later that night, he hears his baby brother crying, so he gets up to check on him. He finds that the baby has severely soiled his diaper. So the little boy goes to his parents’ room and finds his mother sound asleep and his father missing. Not wanting to wake her, he goes to the nanny’s room, but there he sees the father in bed with the nanny and he can’t get their attention. He gives up and goes back to bed. The next morning, the little boy says to his father, “Dad, I think I understand the concept of politics now.”

The father says, “Good, then tell me in your own words what you think politics is all about.”

The little boy replies, “Well, capitalists are screwing the working class while the government is sound asleep. Meanwhile the people are being ignored and the future is in deep shit.”

Actionable things

What were the worst two minutes of your life?

Ragging.

It’s real. I have never spoken about it before this, but here I go. First year of engineering college was very difficult for me specially knowing the fact that I suffer from ADHD, thus I became an easy target for the seniors of our college. I remember telling a room full of seniors that I will complain about them and within first month it was known that no body from the second year is allowed to talk to me. Things became real one night when this one senior of mine slapped me 20 times in a room full of 20 people who did not even protest or say a thing. Then he used his slippers. Oh, what a night that was. And those two minutes when he was slapping me were the worst.

Then he told me that I won’t be allowed to enter any committee of the college and he would ensure that my life would be hell in college.

After this happened, I still had the guts to take the morning 9am bus and face him where the entire hostel was there. I never spoke to him or any of the seniors from our hostel again. I made some real friends after that incident who were in the room but did not say a thing because of fear. They came to me later to support me.

A similar incident happened six months later but this time all my friends were there to support me and nobody could touch me. Thank you, all of you.

A year later I was the President of Technical Club of our annual fest, Chairperson of Association of Computing Machinery at our college and held a lot of positions at other clubs.

Later when I got into Directi (highest paid internship and PPO from college) and then Flat[dot]to, Flatchat and Unacademy – I realized one real thing. Living your life and doing great is the best revenge.

Those seniors still like every Facebook post of mine these days 🙂

Maybe initially I was working so hard to prove something to them but eventually I realised, they are not worth it.

Do it for yourself, for your parents, for your brother, for your friends. The people who love you and whom you love.

Focus

Why are Sichuan girls so pretty?

It has to do with beauty standards. Sichuanese women aren’t objectively prettier than anyone else, they just fit many Chinese beauty standards better on average – beauty standards are highly variable from place to place and have changed a lot throughout history. Sichuanese women often have characteristics like thin pointed noses, heart shaped faces, larger breasts, lighter skin (Sichuan is located in the Sichuan basin so it’s really foggy), larger eyes, and double eyelids which fit modern Chinese beauty standards.

The traditional Chinese beauty standards preferred smaller eyes, monolids, smaller breasts, rounder faces, and flatter small noses. The only constant beauty standard is the strong preference for light skin. So this means Sichuanese women being considered attractive is a modern stereotype and you can’t find any historical sources treating them as prettier than women from other regions of China.

Sichuanese women are usually short and a low height for women was the historical beauty standard since it made women seem “fragile” compared to men (we are talking about a very patriarchal society, after all). In modern China, people seem to be a little mixed on this. Taller women are generally preferred and considered more “beautiful” but shorter women (as long as they are not too short) may be considered “cute” by some. For men, they have to be tall because short men are not considered attractive in general. (Are shorter men liked more than tall men anywhere in the world? Sorry, short kings 🙁)

Different generations

“When I was 17 …”

When I was 17 I decided I wanted to reach out to my biological mother through the adoption agency. I heard nothing back initially and when the agency advised me to focus on my leaving cert, I did and I continued on with my life.

Then, 5 years later, out of the blue a letter arrived. This letter would change my life.

I can only assume my mom was upset at the thought of me reconnecting with my biological mother, i dunno maybe she thought I’d leave home and be somebody elses son but no matter what was about to unfold with my biological mother my mom is, and will always be my mom. I feel very lucky to have been chosen by her, that’s sort of how i always felt, like i had been chosen to be their son.

After weeks of letters back and forth the day arrived. The first time i met my biological mother it was only for about 10 minutes in an room at the agency. I was actually ok but Anna (my biological mother) was a nervous wreck. For 22 years she carried this secret with her that no one knew about, not even her close family.

I have my own little guy now and I can’t begin to imagine how hard it must have been for my biological mother to give me up, I mean, I can barely cope with being away from him when I go to work and that’s just for 8 hours. I don’t know what it must have been like for 22 years.

I’m happy to say she is now a part of our lives, I even gained two brothers, another sister and grandparents as a result.

I sometimes wonder what if I hadn’t reached out. That letter that changed my life in such a positive way would still be sitting, unopened, unanswered, in a filing cabinet.

Dressing

As a doctor, what was your most ‘now that was stupid’ moment with a patient?

I once cared for a middle-aged patient who presented to emergency with a dildo-related very embarrassing situation.

He purchased the toy for one of his sexcapades.

Curiosity hit. And he shoved the damn thing in his pooper, high-high up!

“Me first” attitude didn’t do him much good.

Funny feelings subsided fairly quickly and the horror struck when he couldn’t get it out.

His drainage was jammed, the toy was slipping further up and after about 24 hours of wishfully waiting for it to naturally pass, it hurt bad enough to seek medical help.

The official party line, that he vehemently iterated, was I just fell onto it, how else do you think it got up there!

Needless to say, emergency surgery was necessary and he landed in the ICU with sepsis related post-op complications. It took him loooong before being able to use the toilet normally!

** NOT the patient’s X-ray, but it looked similar**

• Though I have seen some really absurd stuff in the ER, including a gun-shot to the penis, this surely wins the now-that-was-stupid award..

Russian “Special Flight Squadron” Lands in DC – Ukraine War to End; Russia lays out terms of surrender

World Hal Turner 22 December 2023

Russian officials arrived in Washington, DC Thursday morning to discuss the terms of Ukraine’s SURRENDER.

This is the aircraft that brought the Russian Delegation to Washington, DC:

The “Special Flight Squadron moves Kremlin officials traveling on important matters.

TERMS

The terms given to Washington, DC for Ukraine are:

Complete Ukraine surrender.

Complete surrender of all military equipment.

Russian territory will range from Karkhov to Odessa, and gives Russia complete control of Black Sea coast.

Western Ukraine cannot join NATO, or have __any__ military aid.

Russia does not care who controls western Ukraine, and have openly offered it to Poland.

Put bluntly, the Ukraine war is over and Ukraine lost.  Completely.   

They can no longer defend themselves in any meaningful way.   If hostilities are not halted, Ukraine will simply be slaughtered and, believe it or not, Russia does NOT want to do that.

Notice this information isn’t anywhere on the mass-media news?

Notice the Washington Post STOPPED PRINTING it’s “Ukraine War Update Section?”

No reporting that Ukraine has lost – – – and not a word about Russia’s victory.

THIS personifies what the so-called “main stream” media has become: A mouthpiece for government.

The mass-media acts as a stenographer for what government wants you to know. They report “the narrative” as opposed to the “news.”

EDITRORIAL OPINION

Russia won against billions of dollars of the best equipment and NATO-trained troops, it got exactly the farmland it wanted. It lost about 30k troops and killed 300K+ Ukrainian soldiers plus NATO “advisors.”

Russia’s Military industrial capacity has tripled. NATO’s reserve equipment and arms is non existent now.

The 20 percent of Ukraine they conquered are Russian and Russian speaking; so not only do those people NOT hate Russia, they support them!

Energy prices have tripled in Europe and as things stand now, Europe is on the verge of a economic collapse.

NATO and the US have been proven to be a “paper tiger.”

So many people in the West, in its media, and in its governments thought that Ukraine was one counter-offensive away from victory.  It was all lies.  Deliberate lies.

One wonders how all those folks are going to deal with Ukraine’s defeat.

Have you said something that has changed someone’s life?

It was in 1987, a widow of a railway employee who died accidentally, who was barely of 33-34 years approached me to open an account. She was not even able to sign her name. Those were manual banking days. I got her account opening form except signature(which she could not sign) and advised her to learn the signature by her next visit, then only I would open her account. In a sheet of paper I wrote her name “Girija” in hindi and asked her to learn to write her name. I opened her account at my risk and confidence on that poor lady. I didn’t know why my inner sense told me to do so.

She came within two days promptly learnt to sign, so relieving my tension for pending account opening form. She got some fixed deposits from her husband’s settlement funds.

Some days after she, looked terrified, came with an old person. It seemed as if she was trying to convey me some message. I got the chance and learnt that the person accompanied was her father in law(FIL) and he had snatched all her gold and silver jewellery and threatened her to get his name in fixed deposits or else she alongwith her children would be thrown to streets.

She had two young kids of 7(boy) and 11(girl) and she being illiterate, no other source of incime other than her husband’s pension and those deposits. How could have I saved her from her FIL.

I asked them to get seated and silently approached branch manager and asked him to get them inside and tackle him by opening FDs in both names but tactfully favouring FIL & Girija “ payable to latter or survivor”. The cunning chap was satisfied by getting his name in the first place while we were satisfied to get a poor lady saved from clutches of a butcher.

She remained obliged to me always and after about one year she was before me for a withdrawal of Rs.50000/— .to my utter surprise, for the purpose of engagement of her daughter. Sparing my busy time, I tried to convince her whether she wanted to repeat her past. Her daughter wanted to learn further and family wanted to marry her. May God don’t do that, if something happens in her daughter’s life also, she would as be worse as her own, so give her some education at least matric, make her self dependent and then think of marriage.

Believe it or not, a lady who was under veils, in the guardianship of eagle-eyed FIL, stood against all the family members to stop her daughter’s engagement with an oath to educate her daughter so that she might not see her reflection again in her daughter.

I thanked God to give her so much courage to face the old custom of child marriage when she fought against all odds to save her daughter. She was all in tears and thankfulness for me when she reached the branch for redepositing the withdrawn money.

Even after my retirement, I still remember that lady, her innocence but boldness when the question of safety of her daughter, in all, God enabled me to save a girl child.

If a passenger plane window breaks in flight, do things really get sucked out or is that just movies?

.

Unfortunately for these nine passengers, this flight was no flick.

United 811, 24 Feb 1989, is a tragic case of explosive decompression. The skill of the pilot, David Cronin, age 59, prevented a far greater disaster. Captain Cronin was on his second to last flight before mandatory retirement at age 60. He had flown 28,000 hours, 1,700 in the Boeing 747, which was the aircraft on this flight.

United 811 was climbing out from Honolulu on its way to Auckland, New Zealand, carrying 3 flight crew, 15 flight attendants and 337 passengers. The crew were maneuvering around thunderstorms, passing through 22,000′, when there was a loud bang and the aircraft shuddered violently. Cronin called for an emergency descent and the First Officer—who was flying that leg— started to lower the landing gear which is standard procedure in such a descent. Cronin waved him off the gear, saying they’d never get back to Honolulu. By that action alone, he saved the aircraft and all still in it.

They declared an emergency and Honolulu Center began moving traffic out of 811’s way, vectoring them to the longest runway at Honolulu International, some 60 miles away.

Cronin sent the Flight Engineer down to assess damage on the main deck. The FE reported that a large portion of the right fuselage had blown off. The downing of Pan Am 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland two months earlier was fresh in the crew’s minds. They believed this was the work of a bomb.

It was not. As the pressure differential grew acute at 22,000′, the forward cargo door had blown off, slamming into the fuselage, buckling and bursting it. Nine passengers, eight still belted in their seats, were blown out ++, one of them into the number three engine. The others were hurled against the right wing’s leading edge. Death for these unfortunates would have been instantaneous.

• Response to Commenters: We have no way of knowing how much life was left to these poor people once blown from the aircraft. I decided to be merciful. You can be sure that the families would argue a lot of painful life was left in the litigation against United, Boeing and P&W.

In any case, the bodies of those that fell to the ocean surface were never recovered. One flight attendant was nearly blown out, but clung to a seat leg until passengers and crew pulled her to safety. She was, nevertheless, severely injured.

What followed was brilliant flying by Cronin, drawing on his 28,000 hours of flight experience. Engines three and four were vibrating heavily, showing fire and he ordered them shut down. The 747 was now flying on only two engines, both on the left wing, making it difficult for Cronin to hold heading and altitude. He ordered the FE to dump fuel since the plane—with a full load for the 16 hour flight to New Zealand—was far over its maximum landing weight.

For that reason, Cronin flew a shallow final approach hoping the landing gear would not collapse upon touch down. He did not have benefit of leading edge slats since those on the right wing would not extend. The damaged flaps would only go to 15 degrees. He waited until the last moment to lower the gear with all its drag.

Landing hot at 200 knots (normal landing 100 – 120 knots) he braked, applying full thrust reverse on engines 1 and 2, and did not overrun the runway. The cabins were evacuated in a remarkable 45 seconds, tho every flight attendant sustained some injury, the worst being a broken shoulder.

About 18 months after the accident, the U.S. Navy recovered the cargo door from an ocean depth of 14,000′—a remarkable feat in itself! With this critical piece of evidence in hand, the NTSB concluded that faulty handling by the Honolulu ground crew was to blame for the door’s failure.

However, the Campbell family of Wellington, New Zealand, having lost their son, Lee, was not satisfied. They undertook their own investigation. They found that design of the locking mechanism on the door was, in fact, the culprit. The FAA accepted this and recommended 747 cargo doors** changed from outward-opening doors, to a so-called “plug” door, the kind you and I see as we enter the cabin of an airliner. The kind that can’t blow open in flight….##

Incompetent cargo door design seems to have been something of an Achilles heel in the construction of wide body airliners, excepting the Lockheed L-1011 Tristar. Only after several instances of explosive decompression in DC-10s, killing nearly 1,000 people, did the FAA get off its ass and press its buddy Douglas to effect necessary changes. Some of the good ‘ol boys at FAA should have done time for their disgraceful, indeed criminal, lax supervision.

And for me, it’s sad that a sterling pilot like David Cronin could not continue to fly while he was fully healthy. For without his skill, it is unlikely that United 811 would have made it back to Honolulu.

** Krishna Kumar Subramanian refined my answer re the FAA Airworthiness Directive on cargo doors. Apparently, cargo doors on the new 747–8 are the same doors—modified per the Campbell’s findings— as on the United 811’s B-747–122 some 27 years ago.

## Benjamin H. points out that a “fail-safe” plug door would require more cargo space in the cargo hold. This explains why airlines, for economic reasons, would want to stay w/non-plug type door. Thank you, Benjamin.

++ Thanks to Ned Abbey for informing the author that “blown out” is the correct term here, not “sucked out” as I originally termed this ghastly event.

If Texas beef and pork are so good, why do they have to drown it in sauces and chemicals to make it taste good? In Argentina, meat is so good, all it takes is a bit of salt to bring out the fantastic taste.

They… don’t? What? Good meat doesn’t need help from sauces. And Texas is known, well known, for not adding sauce.

This is Texas brisket, before the smoker.

What you see there is kosher salt and ground black pepper (14 gauge, to be specific). That’s it. The end. Then 12–15 hours on the smoker over post oak at 180F–210F and it’s ready to eat.

This is Texas brisket as it’s served.

Note the distinct lack of sauces anywhere near it. Putting sauce on that is sacrilegious. Stay away from my barbecue with your sauces; if you don’t like the taste of smoked meat and you feel like you need to cover it up with sauce, eat something else.

However, when I smoke a pork shoulder to make tacos, I do add a little additional seasoning.

This stuff is magic, and really brings out something special in a pork butt. It’s cheap, at the local grocery store, and is an excellent blend. Served just so.

On white corn tortillas with onion, cilantro, lime, and some salsa verde if you want. But it doesn’t need it. Good meat speaks for itself, it doesn’t need help.

I don’t know where you’re getting your information, but it couldn’t be more wrong.

What is the most obvious case of a patient ‘faking it’ that you have ever seen?

My mom had a muscle spasm in her shoulder. They hurt, I know. She went to the doctor and was prescribed muscle relaxers.

The following Sunday, her shoulder was hurting again, and she was out of the muscle relaxers, so she decided to go to the ER. My dad and I told her to take some Tylenol and call her doctor in the morning, but that wasn’t good enough.

My dad drove her to the ER, dropped her off at the door and went to park the car. He walked in and she was nowhere to be seen.

She didn’t tell the triage nurse “I have a muscle spasm in my shoulder”. Oh, no. She told the triage nurse that her arm hurts and it hurt to breathe. They immediately took her back and hooked her up to an EKG, started an IV, drew blood for testing, etc.

She KNEW it was a muscle spasm, not a heart attack, but went along with a bunch of unnecessary tests and time wasting for the staff, all because she wanted attention.

Can you use deadly force to protect yourself?

Let me give you an example

In 2007 – Four thieves broke into a House in Hosur. They were from Rajasthan or North India and they had deadly weapons like the Aruva or Long as it is popularly known in the courts.

The Owner and his son – woke up and fought the thieves and they ran away but one guy was hit on his head with a tyre iron (Used to change lorry or tractor tyres) and he went a few feet away and collapsed near a drain.

There were 12 witnesses to the entire scene. The victim had a rambo knife and a bihar knife in his lungi as he lay there collapsed and unconscious.

Police arrived forty five minutes later – took the statements – took the victim to the hospital where he was pronounced DOA.

The Police booked a Murder (302) and 201 case against the Owner and his son.

The Magistrate Court refused to dismiss the case on grounds of Self Defense claiming that a Rambo Knife and Bihar Knife did not indicate self defense.

The Sessions court refused to dismiss the case

The High Court – thrice refused to dismiss the case

The Accused served 17 months in Prison until they got bail from the High Court.

Eventually in 2015 – The Accused were sentenced to Life Imprisonment

Finally in 2018 January – the High Court stayed the decision and acquitted them by observing that – (a) The Victim did not have any relation with them (b) The Victim did not have any work in that locality at that time – Of course this was all nonsense.

The main reason was because The Karnataka Police arrested the other thieves in 2016 and during their interrogation observed and found their statements where they confessed to a robbery in Hosur where their partner was killed.

On January 2018 – the Two were released from Prison. Not because of the courts and not because of the Exemplary Law enforcement but because some Decent cop at the Karnataka Police side was able to help them out and a very good and decent Chennai Lawyer was able to connect the issues.

So as you can see – A Father and Son defend their property from Thieves and murderers- they serve collectively 4 Years and 5 Months in prison

Do you know the first thing the Father said when he was released?

“Next time – i will bury the body and if the police come – we will hack the cops and bury their bodies as well”

A Law abiding man – was so angry – i am sure he would have slaughtered an entire police station and all the judges in tamilnadu.

They filed a civil suit which is still pending and is likely to be pending upto 2035.

Conclusion –

India is worse than any other country except maybe Uganda or Rwanda. The Law means nothing and the Laws in CRPC or IPC mean Zilch.

The Magistrates and Judges are among the most fifth rate in the planet. They rule like Panchayats.

Unless you are linked to the Big 4 – (a) Minister (b) MP/MLA (c) IAS (d) Big Businessmen or VIPS – You are unlikely to get any justice and no matter what – even if you use Deadly Force to protect yourself from Bin Laden – you will face murder charges and even be convicted of murdering Bin Laden.

Get the hell out if possible. If not – just mind your business and pray to all the gods not to put you in a situation which involves requiring using Deadly Force for Self Defence

That’s how…

What’s the scariest experience you’ve ever had when picking your child up from school?

It wasn’t my child but my cousin.

I was 15 years old. I was staying with my aunt yet again as my mother decided she needed another break from me and went on another bender.

My aunt was more of a mom to me. As a result I was very close to her family and called her mom Grandma and her sister Aunt. Anyway Grandma was living with my Aunt. She had dementia and was having a particularly bad day. My aunt asked me to pick up my 10 year cousin from school which was only a block away. I did this often as my aunt tried to shield my cousin from her mothers episodes. She gave me some cash to stop at the small ice cream place near her school to keep her away longer.

I got to my cousins school expecting to see her on the playground where all the kids played while waiting to get picked up. She wasn’t there but I wasn’t worried as I knew she sometimes helped the teacher clean up the classroom after school. I went to her classroom and she wasn’t there either! No one was.

Starting to get worried I started roaming the hallways peeking in the classrooms looking for her. She was nowhere to be found!

I ran to the principals office freaked out by then and told the secretary I couldn’t find her! The secretary immediately made an announcement over the PA system telling my cousin to come to the office. 10 minutes passed. She never came.

We went to the teachers lounge and got the teachers to help look for her. I’ve never been so scared! My aunt trusted me with her daughter and I didn’t know how to call her and tell her she was gone.

30 minutes later we heard a shout. One of the teachers had found her. She was in the library reading. She had gone to check out a book when school had let out without telling anyone and the librarian had locked her in.

I hugged her hard and told her to always tell someone where she was going. It was for her safety. She started crying and apologizing over and over. I told her it was okay. Her principal gave her the same lecture and we left.

My aunt hadn’t called yet to say it was safe to come home so we went for ice cream and then to the local park. An hour later my aunt called and told us to come on home. Grandma finally went to sleep.

After my cousin went to bed that night I told my aunt what had happened. At first she seemed upset but then said they were lucky to have me there. I was shocked. I didn’t receive compliments very often. She gave me a hug told me I was a good person and a great sister to my cousin.

My cousin always made sure she was on the playground after school after that.

Appreciate NOW

Only in China

The sheer logistics of trying to feed a nation of 1.4 billion people are insane. Take this building right here — it’s a pig farm. A 26-story pig farm named Ezhou farm. It’s one of the biggest ‘only in China’ moments for me.

Basically, China has been having some pretty major geopolitical tensions with many of its neighbors lately, and there have been a lot of issues with the ongoing trade war with America. So China wants to be less dependent on imports of vital things such as food.

As a result, it has started building absolutely MASSIVE pig farms on an industrial scale unseen anywhere in human history. It’s pretty crazy. Also, I gotta say, pretty impressive.

So yeah, 26-story pig farms are a strange phenomenon I’ve not seen anywhere else. Anyone who’s ever enjoyed Chinese cuisine knows it cannot survive without pork. So if ever war breaks out and trade routes are blocked, China is ensuring it’ll never run out of pork chops.

How many German women did Russian soldiers impregnate after the fall of the Third Reich?

Some sources claim that Red Army soldiers impregnated about 200,000 of the about 2,000,000 German women its soldiers raped during their advance into Germany in 1945. Quite a few German women were murdered during the mass rapes and looting or committed suicide afterwards, so the numbers could be off by several thousand.

Senior Red Army officers attempted to crack down on ill-disciplined Soviet soldiers and numerous enlisted men and some officers were either shot or sent to serve in penal units for lacking discipline on and off the battlefield. Discipline tended to be mostly excellent in Red Army Guards divisions and mechanized and tank corps. Red Army infantry units that had to use ill-trained and often ill-disciplined conscripts, often soldiers who had witnessed German atrocities in the Soviet Union, probably committed the preponderance of the rapes on German soil. The dead German women in the photo posted below probably committed suicide with cyanide capsules. It is unclear if they were raped beforehand or simply feared the Soviet soldiers so much that they took their own lives to avoid mass rape and murder.

Why are a lot of Nigerians so extroverted, fun, and friendly compared to other countries?

If they say Nigerians are among the happiest people on earth I don’t think we will argue. An average Nigerian mentality is just cruise. People that make fun of their own Misery’s. Humor is a gift you get for being a Nigerian, slightly higher than the line for insanity. I won’t be wrong if I say it’s our coping mechanism. Fun is a way we know how to keep on pushing and a way to look beyond our imperfect country. With how our country is if we don’t laugh at life we will go mad.

Who turns a protest into a party? Nigerians

Who replys with ffb on their president’s post on Twitter? Nigerians

Who creates happiness out of nothing? Nigerians

Who turns every situation into a comedy? Nigerians.

Nigerians use banter and humor to hide how fucked we all are in this country.

Nigerians are warm, friendly, kind, fun, witty and merry. Despite all the troubles , all our pains. We are sensitive to all the Issues we have and our heart silently scream in pain. Yet we still force a smile and make jokes out of everything.

If only we have good leaders, Nigeria would have become the best place on earth

Waiting to Be Put to Sleep, She Sat Crying Silently in Her Cage At the Shelter

How does spending the majority of one’s life in prison feel?

I was arrested when I was 17 and was released from prison when I was 46. So I spent well over half my life in prison.. When I was sentenced I remember being shocked. I didn’t cry like you see some of these teenagers do when sentenced. My dad had taught me that whether I did something bad or good to own it. But yet my whole family and some friends were in tears. I spent my first 5 years at MSP and really there I was just trying to survive.. But even though I didn’t like being in prison I became used to prison life. When They transferred me I was happy. For one I was leaving that place Second a different prison would be a change of scenery. I also spent the whole time on the transfer bus looking out the window. Seeing farms made me a little homesick

So I spent from 1993- 99 at Farmington Correctional Center. There were others that I knew from MSP there already Time passed pretty quick there. It wasn’t as violent even though you could not let your guard down. Anyway one day, some friends came to see me . One of my female friends told me. “You are different . Your eyes used to be full of life and you were always smiling as a teen-ager” I told her that I still smiled. “She said it wasn’t the same.

Anyway by now I had settled down into prison life .Every time I got a parole hearing I hoped for the best but expected the worst.. You laugh and joke with people in prison that you have become cool with. Not because prison is funny, but it helps keep your sanity. You miss out on birthdays weddings and holidays. You know this as each happened but push it to the back of your mind. . Oh you may say something to a friend like “ Guess what? My Brother is getting married” He will probably say something nice and then you dont speak about it much .And the days, weeks, months and years pass. On my 36th birthday my celly and best friend in prison made a meal to “celebrate” and I reflected on the fact that I had been in prison half my life. I have tried to convey how it feels but the only way you will know for sure how it feels is if you experience it. I pray that never happens .

Partners

What are the most profound jokes ever?

A jobless man applied for the position of ‘office boy’ at a very big company.

The employer interviewed him, then a test: clean the floor.

“You are hired.” – the employer said. ”Give me your email address, and I’ll send you the application to fill, as well as when you will start.”

The man replied, “I don’t have a computer, neither an email.”

“I’m sorry,” said the employer, “if you don’t have an email that means you do not exist. And who doesn’t exist, cannot have the job.”

The man left with no hope. He didn’t know what to do, with only $10 USD in his pocket.

He then decided to go to the supermarket, bought a 10kg tomato crate, then sold the tomatoes door to door. In less than two hours, he succeeded and doubled his capital.

He repeated the operation 3 times and returned home with $60 USD. The man realized that he could survive by this way, and started to go everyday earlier, and returned late. Thus, his money doubled or tripled everyday. Shortly later, he bought a cart, then a truck, and then he had his own fleet of delivery vehicles.

Five years later, the man’s company was one of the biggest food retailers. He started to plan his family’s future, and decided to have a life insurance.

He called an insurance broker and chose a protection plan. When the conversation was concluded, the broker asked him his email. The man replied: “I don’t have an email.”

The broker replied curiously, “You don’t have an email, and yet have succeeded to build an empire. Do you imagine what you could have been if you had an email?”

The man paused for a while, and replied: “An office boy!”

Are you shocked that Burger King is closing over 300 restaurants?

I went to one of the few remaining Burger Kings in the City of Toronto this month. It’s in the Woodbine Centre in Rexdale. It’s a mall that’s clearly on its last legs as it has not one, but two liquidation outlets, although I’m astounded that the Hudson’s Bay Company (which just closed a flagship store at Yonge & Bloor) is still operating there. It appears the mall area is being completely redeveloped because it was obvious several of the stores there were at the end of their lease term from all the clearance signs.

I had not eaten at a BK in about two years. The last time I went there was when things started to open post-pandemic and I ate at the one on Yonge Street. I don’t eat at BK often because they’re inconvenient. They used to have a location across the street from where I worked, but when that complex was redeveloped they lost their lease and didn’t move back into the new food court. There’s an A&W there now. Similarly, BK closed down when the Royal Bank Plaza redeveloped its food court too.

I think my Whopper Combo set me back about $14 (Cdn.). That’s pricey – more than A&W’s Mama Combo.

So, BK is inconvenient (in bad locations) and no longer a really good value for money. A lot of fast food places are finding the same problem now – they’re in places no-one goes anymore, or they’re really old (the one on Yonge Street dates back to the 1980s). Here in Canada, they’re facing massive competition from A&W which has outlets everywhere, sometimes only a few blocks apart. You can get a sandwich and drink from Timmies for about $11. Five Guys serves better burgers (more expensive though) and they’re actually a little more convenient for me.

For example. there’s a BK at Eglinton Square, which I visit from time to time. I never eat there. I often forget it’s there. There’s a food court inside Eglinton Square but the BK is a stand-alone about 100m from the mall entrance. It’s also just across the street from an A&W, and just down the street from a joint Wendy’s/Timmies.

Again, Whoppers are lovely, but they’re certainly not anything I’m going to pay a massive premium for. I talk about going to Niagara Falls a lot and BK has a massive presence there in wonderful locations – Clifton Hill and the Fallsview Casino. However, they charge another 50% on top of normal prices (there is one on Lundy’s Lane that charges regular prices). BK also used to have locations in Cineplex theatres and had the same pricing strategy. There are three Timmies in locations in Niagara Falls similar to BK’s, but they charge regular prices.

What is the most humiliating thing you have ever seen happen to a receptionist?

Before I came to Thailand, I worked in Corporate America.

Her name was Laurie, and she was a really hardworking, patient receptionist, a young, very attractive woman of 21 who was going to night classes to further her education. Few knew that.

She was first contact for phone calls, visitors, deliveries and dealt with the everchanging schedules for five VPs and their unit managers.

She also had to contend with men hitting on her, both staff and visitors. She was good at it and could usually send them on their way with no hard feelings.

Except VP3. He never stopped pestering her. He had gone through a bitter divorce in which he had to give his ex almost half of the wealth and his children for marathon cheating.

Laurie looked like a younger version of his ex.

The humiliating event was orchestrated by VP3. He had a very powerful client that paid the company millions. The client called, Laurie informed him that VP3 was in a meeting and would return his call within the hour. She hand delivered the message to VP3.

But he didn’t make the call. He accused her of not telling him and blackmailed his secretary into backing him up. He didn’t do this quietly: he called HR and the other VPs to the open conference room and berated her in front of them.

Laurie attempted to defend herself, but VP3 was relentless and knew the company wouldn’t dare take her word over his. When he couldn’t force her to publicly admit wrongdoing, nor would she grovel, he loudly fired her with no severence pay.

But Laurie was no fool. She had kept copious records about work and VP3’s harassment. She had many friends in the office who would testify on her behalf.

Within a month, she had filed a suit against the company and VP3. The company offered a hefty sum to make it all go away.

But karma wasn’t finished.

Fast forward about six years. That really important client filed suit against VP3 and the company for mismanagement.

I enjoy imagining the reaction when the company lawyers informed VP3 et al that Laurie was one of several attorneys opposing them and had depositioned numerous previous and current employees. The court threw out the ‘conflict of interest’ motion.

I heard that the company and VP3 had to pay a stunning amount.

One never knows who that ‘lowly’ employee may be one day!

What is the most cruel thing you saw a parent do to their child?

I was the weird kid. Throughout elementary and middle school my mother kept my hair as short as a boy’s and dressed me in my brother’s hand me downs, even though I had an older sister as well. My early struggles with depression made schoolwork difficult, and I landed myself a spot in special ed. I was teased and bullied mercilessly.

One day, around the 3rd or 4th grade, I was getting dressed for school and couldn’t find one of my sneakers. I searched frantically, knowing the sort of trouble I’d be in, but I couldn’t find it anywhere. My mother was livid. She was not about to reward my irresponsibility, she screeched, with a day off from school! Her solution? I was dropped off wearing bedroom slippers.

Big, fluffy, orange and black bobbly-headed Garfield slippers with ping-pong ball googly eyes.

The other kids descended on the feast like vultures.

“Look at Baby Bacon!” (Rhymes with Meghann)

“Hey Bacon! You must really love Garfield!”

“Bacon and Garfield, sitting in a tree…”

The teacher at last called my mother to come pick me up, insisting I was being disruptive. My mother completely lost it. After a spanking I spent the afternoon confined to my room, with instructions to find the shoe before I came out for any reason whatsoever— bathroom, water and dinner included. I panicked and dismantled everything, from my bed to my closet to my bookshelf. Finally I found the shoe amidst a jumbled herd of discarded My Little Ponies in the rubbermaid bin where my mother collected my old toys for goodwill. She must have accidentally gathered it up while cleaning.

She had put it there. Not me.

A few weeks ago, I attended a traditional Thanksgiving family gathering. I brought green bean casserole and mac and cheese and we enjoyed our time together.

But the next day, my mom came to town (divorced parents) and I felt obligated to host a second “Thanksgiving.” I say “obligated” because (a) I can’t cook and (b) I suck at hosting. But it just didn’t seem right for her to travel so far and not enjoy a home-cooked meal with her family on Thanksgiving weekend.

So I invited my mom and stepdad, aunt and uncle, and my brother/sister-in-law/kids that we had just seen the day prior. I didn’t have the skills to make a Thanksgiving dinner, so I announced a chili night…the one delicious thing I CAN make.

And I’ve gotta tell you…it wasn’t that great. 🤷🏻‍♀️

I nearly ruined the entire double batch of chili when I forgot to turn down the temperature and left it to boil for 15+ minutes.

I made cornbread, put it in the microwave to stay warm, and then forgot to bring it out until after everyone was done with their chili.

I bought disposable bowls in an attempt to simplify cleanup…then watched the chili grease seep through the bowls.

I busted out a small fire pit for the kids to roast marshmallows, then struggled to actually START a fire in it. Three people later, we had a “meh” flame.

And at the end of my mediocre night of hosting, my 8-year-old daughter told me, “I wish I could rewind this day and do it ALL OVER AGAIN! It was the most fun EVER!!”

It turns out that while I was burning chili and forgetting cornbread, she was making silly “music videos” with her cousins with a karaoke microphone, an old iPod touch, and one cousin flickering the lights on and off for “effects.”

While my bowls were failing at the ONE JOB they had, my family was BSing each other over board games.

And while our fire was holding on for dear life, the kids (and a few adults!) gathered around it, debating the perfect amount of toasting and stuffing oversized marshmallows into their mouths.

Friend, don’t wait until you’re ready and able to host an elaborate gathering to invite people over. Don’t wait until your house is clean…or you tidy up your yard. My yard is 20% grass, 70% weeds, and 10% dirt right now…and the kids still found a million ways to play there.

Your family doesn’t need a spotless house. Your friends and neighbors don’t need an Instagram-worthy dinner and sides display.

They need to talk with you, to laugh with you, to tear up pieces of cardboard to start a tiny backyard fire with you.

Just make what you can, be who you are, and open your door. Because you need those things too.

What is the brutal truth about life after marriage?

I’ve been married nearly 18 years. I am very happy to be walking through life with my spouse. But there are some brutal truths.

1. You don’t magically change, and neither do they, into a different person simply because you get married. You don’t change your mind about major issues – one of the saddest ends to a marriage was seeing 2 friends who loved each other divorce acrimoniously because he hadn’t believed her when she said she didn’t want children.
2. It is not “happily ever after.” Life throws up bad stuff and stressful stuff. Sometimes your spouse can support and comfort you, but sometimes they don’t have the right skills or emotional bandwidth. They are also humans and dealing with their own crap. I tell my spouse whether I need a hug and a “there, there,” practical advice or to be left alone for a few hours to read or watch something escapist. Because me reacting badly when he offers help triggers his snarkiness which really doesn’t help!
3. It’s likely that you will be attracted to other people. That crazy infatuation period has a chemical shelf life in your brain, so if you let it pass without taking actions that impact the marriage (assuming it’s a marriage you want to stay in), it’s all good. If you do cheat, you should do so knowing that there is a strong chance you will get caught and it’s going to be very painful for your spouse and is very likely to end your marriage.
4. You need to let some stuff ride. I have a couple of absolutes that are marriage enders, so does he. Everything else is a negotiation, and sometimes it’s just letting go of something that you’d never do if you lived alone. Like how clean/tidy the place is, for example.
5. If you were unhappy and discontented before marriage, getting married doesn’t fix that. Active additions to sex, gambling, spending, drugs, alcohol, work, food, etc. don’t magically stop because someone gets married. If someone isn’t doing and continuing the work to not fall into these behaviours, you have something to be very worried about. If I start using again, I can’t imagine my marriage surviving and I’d put my spouse through hell before it ended.
6. The other brutal truth is that a good marriage will eventually end with one of you dead. Selfishly, I’m hoping I’m the one who goes first so that I don’t have to deal with the grief I’m going to feel if I lose my best friend, my love, and the person who can make me laugh like a four-year-old!

Retrofuturistic Voyages: Star Trek in the Roaring Twenties

Can you tell me about a time that you sued someone in civil court and won?

my husband and I just won a civil case against a building contractor that flooded our property while building other houses in our neighborhood. But the story gets better. Because this started at the beginning of Covid (April 2020) I was home all the time. He drained a swamp to build a house and sent the pond through a culvert into our easement that emptied into our backyard. Destroyed the culvert, never repaired it, built a house next to the easement (on the other side), ran over destroyed easement with large bucket caterpillar, then threatened to kick my husbands ass when we confronted him. He tried to mansplain water flow to me, as well. Well, with all my free time, I was able to watch what was happening, so if he violated code I would call the city. Sounds petty, but hey, I had a flooded backyard, and a guy who screamed “asshole” at me every time I walked my dogs.

then one day his survey guy shows up. On my property. I told them and him to get the fuck off my land. Survey next door all you want, but get your feet off my property. They told me no, they own my land. I laughed and laughed, and then told them that’s not how property ownership works. And that by state law they had to 1) give me notice of intent to survey and 2) give me 24 hours. the surveyors told me they did not. Then THEY called the police on me. For some dumb reason, the cop told them (the contractors) to put a Protection From Harassment on me. So they did. It was granted. Ooooo, the lies they told in that! Things like I threatened to shoot them in front of the cops, I put grease on their work vehicles (wtf) and I stole things from the construction site. All types of crazy shit. Okay. I’m still at home and I’ve got a phone with a camera and now one of the best lawyers in the state. I took thousands of pictures of my property, their property (from a distance, lol) everything that negates what they said in the their PFH.

we just went to court several months ago, he hasn’t shown up for the last several hearings and we won. I won $30,000 in defamation for him lying on the PFH and my husband won $20,000 because he was mentioned in it. The total amount included repairs to property and lawyer fees.

PS- when we went to court for the PFH we subpoenaed the cop who told them to place it and the chief of police. It was suddenly dismissed by their side. But the city wanted to charge me for the officers time, and have the court sanction me. We fought it and won, obvi. But the best thing about that part was the city lawyers were scared of my lawyer that at their firm it went from a low lawyer to his boss then finally to a managing partner in a matter of days once they realized who my lawyer was because my lawyer told me he knew him. That law firm wasn’t leaving anything to chance and still lost.

I laugh about this once a week. The loser contractor now lives in a trailer his dad owns, is divorced from his wife (business partner) and all three owe us close to $100 k.

if he had stopped the flooding and apologized, this would never have come to this.

What is a common mistake people make without realizing it?

Last night I saw a camera lens online that I wanted.

It was used. There were no bids.

I put in a bid at just over $425.

There were 2 hours left in the auction. An hour goes by. No bids. I’m excited. It’s an amazing lens.

Suddenly. <ding>

$430.

Oh so you wanna go?!?!?!?

Me: $440

Him: $455.

Oh you think you are a baller, huh?!?!?!?

Then this escalates into a full blown bidding war. I am ignoring phone calls as I pound on keyboard.

We get to $725. He puts a bid at $730.

I then have an epiphany.

Dude. Do you really want to bid more than that for a used lens? You can buy it new for $790.

I bowed out.

There are many situations in life where we don’t even realize that we are trying to “win”.

The problem is that we are trying to win the wrong game.

In life, we often find that the price of winning is losing.

Why A Lot Of MODERN WOMEN Are DELUSIONAL | And The Male LONELINESS Epidemic

What’s something most people don’t know about the Holocaust?

As someone who studies and talks about the holocaust, I often get a question- “why didn’t the Jews fight back”.

The answer is sad. For those that were murdered in the gas chambers they didn’t think they were about to die. They thought they were being showered before registration into the camp. By the time they realized what was happening, they were in a dark room quickly filling with Cyanide gas.

But- the Jews that knew very often fought back.

---

Operation Reinhard was a 2-year long effort to kill every Jew the Germans could find. In 4 extermination camps, almost 2 million people would be gassed and killed from late 1941 – late 1943. In 2 of these camps though, there were revolts, and thanks to these revolts- there were survivors.

I am going to focus on Sobibor because I think it is very interesting and even badass.

Sobibor was an extermination camp where 250,000 had been murdered. As 1943 was coming to a close the camp prisoners noticed that prisoners from Belzec (another extermination camp) had been sent to Sobibor and murdered after they dismantled and shut down their own camp.

The prisoners knew they would soon be killed when Sobibor was shut down so they came up with a brilliant plan.

Out of this, a resistance group was formed. They brainstormed ideas but soon got very lucky when a number of Soviet POWs arrived at the camp as more laborers, among them Alexander ‘Sasha’ Pechersky.

Sasha impressed everyone. During one of his first work details, he was placed outside the camp to cut down trees. When the SS guard started whipping Jewish laborers for cutting too slowly Sasha protested.

The SS guard, amused by this, challenged Sasha to a challenge. If Sasha could cut down a tree in 5 minutes he would win a pack of smokes. If not, he would get 25 lashes. Sasha agreed and 4.5 minutes later the tree was cut down. When the SS guard offered smokes Sasha said “thanks but I don’t smoke. The SS guard then returned with bread and butter and Sasha said “no thank you, the rations I receive satisfy me fully”.

This act of defiance became a rallying cry in the camp. Pretty soon Sasha was one of the leaders of the resistance.

---

After a plan to tunnel out of the camp failed, they settled on an all-out revolt.

What took place is brilliant.

On October 14th 1943 the time was now. The camps commander, who was gifted at rooting out conspiracies, had left the camp with his aides. This was the time for the prisoners to strike.

They would designate combat teams in every barracks. These combat teams were the strongest men armed with crude weapons.

The prisoners then lured the SS guards to various locations. They would say “hey we have some new coats confiscated, come pick one out” and stuff like that. SS guards were lured to tailor shops, storerooms, shoe shining places, and other buildings where combat teams lie in wait.

First the camp commander SS Untersturmfuher Johann Niemann had his head split in by an axe. Then, every 6 minutes for the next hour an SS Officer was killed.

No alarm was sounded so far- things were going well. There was a problem though. Karl Frenzel, the most feared of the SS, had been late to his appointment and was thus still alive. Additionally, many killings had been far too public.

At this point, Sasha was sure the plot would soon be discovered as bodies were located.

Sasha then gave a speech to the assembled prisoners.

Our day has come. Most of the Germans are dead. Let’s die with honor. Remember, if anyone survives, he must tell the world what has happened here!

The prisoners charged- using the pistols and rifles they had stolen. All-out chaos broke out as the prisoners got to the gate and nearby fences and clamored over.

The remaining SS Guards realize what is happening and open fire. Combat breaks out between the guards and prisoners. Hundreds of prisoners are slaughtered but many guards are gunned down from prisoners returning fire.

A few hundred get over the fence and head for the forest. Landmines kill many as others are gunned down.

In total, 150 are killed in the breakout, well over 100 were killed by mines in the forest, and a further 107 are hunted down and killed in the following days.

208 escaped with their lives though, and 58 would survive until the end of the war to testify what happened at Sobibor.

Sasha would steward a group of 50 Jews through the forest before abandoning them and making his way to the Red Army. He would survive the war and die in 1990 at the age of 80.

These 58 survivors would be the only people to survive Sobibor.

Treblinka had a similar revolt/escape where prisoners looted the armory, used grenades to destroy the camp, and made a dash for the gate. Here too almost everyone was killed but 70 managed to survive.

1.8 million Jews were sent to Treblinka, Belzec, and Sobibor. Of those 1.8 million, only 178 survived. 50 escaped Belzec during its operation, 58 escaped Sobibor during the uprising, and 70 escape Treblinka during their uprising.

This means these camps killed 99.992% of those sent there. Truly horrific.

The way it ALL ENDS: the five endgames that all women face

The West is in really BIG trouble.

Will Biden Start World War III?

“So in war, the way is to avoid what is strong and strike at what is weak.”

― Sun Tzu, The Art of War

I’m sure I could lead off this piece with a dozen quotes from various luminary thinkers through the ages about the wisdom of striking your enemies at moments of great weakness, confusion, or disarray. But I won’t, because I think the concept is sort of obvious, even to those who are not great thinkers.

Boxers and fighters know it.

Corporate raiders know it.

Lawyers and politicians know it, too.

You could even say capitalizing on vulnerability is in the collective DNA of nature.

Whenever possible, predators tend to seek prey of the old, sick, weak, and stupid variety — rather than specimens in the prime of life, at the peak of their strength and courage.

Point being, the U.S. is increasingly showing weakness, division, confusion, and vulnerability to the world. And no, this did not start all of a sudden with Joe Biden’s election. I would argue that it’s been escalating under the last few administrations, to one degree or another. But to my eyes, it’s increasing exponentially under the “leadership” of America’s first invertebrate president…

And I think this could tempt our enemies and adversaries — China, Russia, Iran, North Korea, ISIS, whomever — to test us (and our allies) more and more over the course of Biden’s tenure, on multiple fronts, including militarily.

This is not hard to imagine when you zoom out and look at things from 30,000 feet

Aside from the questionable condition and readiness of certain parts of America’s military, or some of our more anemic foreign policy moves of the recent past…

I’m just as concerned with how a number of other things we’re doing (or allowing to be done) domestically could invite increasing challenges from abroad, or perhaps even violent attack one day. I’m talking about things like:

LAX BORDER SECURITY — Between all the mixed messaging, catch-and-release policies, surreptitious transportation of illegals into the interior (many of them infected with SARS-CoV-2, mind you), and the cessation of border-wall construction, the U.S. has seen an absolute explosion of illegal immigration since Biden’s election.

Case in point: May’s total of over 180,000 apprehensions hadn’t been seen in a single month since April of 2000, the year that set the current annual record for illegal immigrants (1.68 million). So far in 2021, we’re on pace to see as many as 1.86 million illegals on the year, a new record. And an increasing number of them are coming in from places other than central America, including Haiti and Africa.

REJECTION OF POLICE — Reversing a 40-year trend that saw spending for law enforcement more than triple, at least 20 major U.S. cities have now reduced or re-directed funds away from their police forces. Some of them have pledged to cut cop funding by as much as 50%. All told, more than $840 million has evaporated from police coffers in the last year and a half or so.

This had contributed to an unprecedented wave of retirement among cops, creating record vacancies on police forces across the nation. Baltimore alone needs at least 259 more officers on the street, and is begging Washington for federal agents to help with enforcement. The Philadelphia force has 268 vacancies, and is expecting more in the near future. There are many other American PD’s in similarly dire straits, too.

ACCEPTANCE OF CRIME — From abiding lawless “autonomous zones” to giving rioters free rein to destroy property and granting criminals tacit permission to swipe merchandise off store shelves without penalty, the force of law in America is being eroded by the day.

Yet even as crime increases, many kinds of criminal prosecutions are declining across the country. In fact, a movement is afoot in multiple U.S. cities to stop trying entire classes of criminality. Baltimore, as just one example, is no longer prosecuting low-level drug possession, prostitution, or traffic misdemeanors.

And did you see what happened in St. Louis recently? A judge was compelled to let an accused murderer go free because the prosecution failed to show up for trial. The same week, two other murder cases were also dismissed because of unprepared or absent prosecutors. Disgraceful.

PUNISHING U.S. INDUSTRIES — Biden nixed the Keystone XL Pipeline, which would’ve been a tremendous boon for American energy independence, but removed long-standing U.S. sanctions on the Russian Nord Stream 2 pipeline, which increases Europe’s energy dependence and undermines our credibility in the region. Biden has made moves against the domestic coal and oil industries as well…

He’s also aggressively pushing mass-adoption of electric vehicles (EVs), despite America’s overall reluctance to fully embrace them, and the fact that China leads the global EV battery market. The precarious domestic steel and aluminum industries are vulnerable, too, as Biden weighs lifting the Trump-era tariffs that helped bring them back from the brink.

TOLERATING SOFT AGGRESSION — Biden’s response to repeated Russia-based hacking has been notably impotent. Instead of an iron-fisted ultimatum (or an actual counter-hack), he presented Putin with a list of 16 domestic infrastructure targets declared “off limits” to attack. The implication being that everything else is fair game.

The coronavirus pandemic could quite rightly be classified as an act of foreign aggression, too. Mounting evidence suggests that it was developed in a Chinese lab, and whether its release was accidental or intentional, China clearly encouraged its spread around the world, effectively weaponizing it.

Then there’s the PRC’s repeated threatening actions against Hong Kong and Taiwan (and in the South China Sea), Russian actions against Ukraine, North Korean missile tests, etc. All this tallies up to an awful lot of soft aggression against the U.S. and its allies, most of it unanswered in any meaningful way.

All of these things, and more (like declining standards for U.S. troops) project an image of decreasing strength

They suggest an inability to secure and lead our own nation (much less the world) competently, and an unwillingness to do the hard, but necessary thing. This softer image does not make us safer, it makes us more vulnerable.

I don’t see any of it getting better under the increasingly feeble-minded and tone-deaf Joe Biden, either — a man with a lifelong reputation for poll-watching, China-favoring, family-first, flip-flopping “leadership.” This is not just my opinion. You can look this stuff up. Shanghai Joe’s been among China’s top advocates in Washington for nearly his entire tenure in U.S. government. He’s also on record being on both sides of about just every major issue…

And don’t get me started on his family’s cozy and colorful (main color: dollar green) relationship with China and other powerful foreign entities. My read on this is that Biden can be bought, one way or another — and that he has been, many times over.

Bottom line: In my view, the policies of President Biden and his party are waving red flags in front of some very powerful bulls. And if China, Russia, or anyone else has a mind to attack us, I think they’d be very tempted to do it under his watch.

My great hope (yours, too, I’m betting) is that we get through Biden’s tenure without full-on war — and back to a more independent, self-sufficient America with some steel in its spine, both domestically and globally.

But the way things are going, the hope of such a thing may be all we end up having.

A rare but desirable quality in date-able women

What is the rudest thing you have ever seen someone do?

I was at a grocery store checkout once, and I saw these three college kids having a field day with a poor clerk who was trying to bag up their groceries. The whole thing, apparently, started when he dropped a bottle of wine they were buying. He apologized, cleaned up the mess, and rushed back to get them another bottle.

While he was gone, they started talking about what a “complete idiot” he was. They proceeded to make fun of the way he looked, the way he was dressed, his weight, his glasses, you name it. When the poor guy got back, they didn’t let up. They started insulting him right to his face, calling him a whole litany of terrible things until they had him on the verge of tears. The kid was only about 16; he was terribly overweight, and I could see how he was probably an easy target for any bully. I was bagging up my own stuff, but I was completely mesmerized by this entire exchange. Suddenly, the kid must have said something because one of the guys reached out and popped him across the face. It wasn’t a punch or a hard slap, just some wussy little pop meant to humiliate him. To my amazement, the kid didn’t walk away. He just stood there red faced with tears welling up in his eyes. The dude reached out and popped him again and, for some reason, this was the funniest thing that these guys had ever seen in their lives. They were laughing like there was no tomorrow.

I kept looking around for a manager, thinking someone needed to say something, but I finally realized that no one was going to. Then it hit me: Why couldn’t I say something? I reached out and grabbed the kid, and pulled him out of the way. I stepped up to the guy, pulled a 20 dollar bill out of my wallet, and told him that I would give it to him if he would hit me like that. He stared at me for a second like I had lost my mind before asking what my problem was.
“You’re my damn problem,” I responded. “Hit me in the face like that; I dare you.”
Well, there were three of these guys, but they didn’t look like they had ever been in a fight in their entire lives. I am a little over six feet tall, and I weigh around 225. I don’t consider myself to be a tough guy but, needless to say, they didn’t want any part of me. Instead, they simply started gathering their things and headed for the door. I pulled the kid out from behind me, and ordered them to apologize. They laughed at me, and hurried for the parking lot. Well, I was a lot angrier that day than I thought.

I followed them out of the store all the way to their car doing my best to start a fight. They got very quiet, and not one of them had anything to say. Instead, they just kept their heads down, and refused to make eye contact.

I let them leave, and then pulled the kid aside and told him to never let anyone push him around like that. In the future, he needed to, at least, walk away and find a manager. At this point, the kid just broke down in tears and sobbed on my shoulder. It turned out that his dad had died only a year earlier, and he and his mom were all alone in the world. At that point, I really wished I had put one of those bastards in the hospital. Instead, I gave the kid my card, and told him to call if there was ever anything I could do for him.
I never saw or heard from him again.

What are your thoughts on adults who still live at home with their parents without paying rent or contributing towards the household expenses?

We asked our adult son to live with us however long he could stomach it. He had just had a disastrous brief marriage and a divorce, was quite broke from the wedding rings, the wedding itself, buying a condo for he and his wife, etc. He had also bought himself a used Audi which self-destructed and led him back to driving a 20 year old Honda, worth only a few hundred dollars.

With the new marriage, he had started a new job where there was a potential for future growth. The learning curve was tough. He was working 10 hour days and then studying to learn the job more thoroughly until midnight, rinse and repeat. In addition he was emotionally almost catatonic from his grief over the breakup.

He is living with us now. It has been about two years so far. I think he will be here until January when he plans to get an MBA from one of the top schools to further his career. No wife, no kids, no girlfriend, no debts, now is the time if he is going to do it.

My son is an easy keeper. He is a complete neat freak, always leaving the room looking better after he leaves it than what it was when he entered it. Same with the kitchen. He will walk in to make his lunch and when he leaves the kitchen is spotless. And he is quiet as a mouse.

So, I am not sure this arrangement would work out for every adult child, but in our circumstances it does. We respect him as an adult and he respects us. And we are happy to help him get back on his feet financially and build up his savings.

This is why so many men today are blue pill

Jesus H Christ

What is the most badass thing a private has said to a general?

I was a corporal, not a private. I was sent to Fleet Hospital 5 for a gallbladder removal. They took out my appendix, by mistake. As I lay in my bed, belly full of stitches, my Sergeant Major came to visit, and shared that he would be back the next day because Norman Schwarzkopf was visiting. He was touring medical facilities before the war kicked off.

The hospital gave us magazines to read- people would send them via the any servicemen mail program. I had a Time magazine that asked an important question. Why was nearly the whole Marine Corps in theatre before the army deployed a far smaller amount of servicemen.

The next day I get my painkillers and they put me on my ass. In hindsight, the Navy may have upped my dose so I wouldn’t complain to anyone about how they screwed up my surgery.

So there I am, flying on pain killers, when the General walks in with his entourage. My SgtMaj was there, bringing up the rear. Schwarzkopf approaches my bed, and I am in and out of consciousness. They really shot me up with painkillers, bad. He looks at me and says “What’s a Marine doing in a bed that could be used for one of my soldiers?” I looked him right in the eye, pointed at the Time magazine on my tray table and answered “What soldiers?”

From the look on his face, my SgtMaj May have literally shit himself. The color definitely drained from his face.

The exact opposite happened with Gen. Schwarzkopf. He turned red. I mean really RED. Then, something amazing happened. He cracked a smile. Then, he cracked a joke. For the life of me, I don’t remember what he said, but I was cracking up, and crying from the huge surgical wound. Schwarzkopf noticed his jokes were causing me major discomfort- so he doubled down and told more jokes.

In retrospect, my badassery was chemically induced, but it showed off a side of a 4 Star general, most corporals don’t get to see. My abdomen still twinges when I hear the name Schwarzkopf, and I hope he is still laughing about my interaction with him, wherever he is.

Who was the most disturbed child you have ever seen?

Susan Wiley.

Nicknamed Genie, she was abused for the entirety of her life. From birth until the age of 13, she spent her entire life in a room.

Susan grew up with an extremely abusive father who would beat her if she ever let out a sound. She was beyond neglected. Left in her room to rot. It’s amazing she somehow survived. Her parents had three other children, two of whom had died. The detective at the scene described her room as so:

“Genie ‘slept in a crib formed with chicken wire attached with a latch,’ he said. ‘It was a cage for the child. The window was covered with aluminum foil to reflect out the sunlight. The room was as dark as a coal mine at midnight.’”

One baby died because the father could no longer tolerate the crying child so he wrapped her up, put her in a drawer, and left her to die.

As a result, Susan never learned many of the basic physical, mental, and social abilities we have. She could barely walk, she didn’t know where to pee and poo. She was never taught language. She couldn’t speak or understand language when social workers found her.

Then she became the psychology obsession of the world. While yes, they helped her to a certain extent, in my eyes, she was seen more as a experimental specimen and not a fragile, vulnerable human child.

The rest of her life, she lived in multiple foster homes. In those homes, she was again abused and neglected.

Today, she’s in an adult care facility.

I tear up whenever I think of her story. People can be so, so awful.

What are top 10 professional life hacks?

1. Don’t say “anyone.” Otherwise, everyone’s going to be waiting for others.
2. Sound decisive. Be punctual. People respect you for it.
3. Greet: hello/mornings/evenings/night (with a big smile)
4. Don’t complain either about your colleague or senior with anyone- puts you in bad light.
5. till 28–30 focus on learning and gaining skills
6. Stop getting away from responsibilities, or, like, how will I do it? It sounds great when you willingly do things. Do more than is expected. And sometimes take credit as well.
7. Always talk about your abilities with respect. If you share your weaknesses, they will find it hard to remember your pluses.
8. Take ownership of your mistakes. When you realize you erred, it’s natural to panic. Instead of reacting instantly, stop and take a deep breath (or several times). Then, begin brainstorming possible solutions.
9. Learn to accept constructive criticism.
10. Treat others as you would like to be treated.
11. Always get out of your comfort zone. Ex: Don’t ask for permission, beg for forgiveness. Get coffee with a new person once a week.
12. Be hygienic. Always smell nice. Always have neat hair and/or clean nails.
13. Understand what others want or the office politics, and don’t react to everything that people talk about. act wisely. Mind your own business, but keep your ears open.
14. Talk less and listen more. Always let your seniors believe that they are in power.
15. Always report about your task and targets via mail, never believe in anything that has been communicated verbally, and ask for mail all the time as it becomes part of your proof.
16. never discuss problems discuss solutions.
17. If you’re the second last person to leave the office, please check with the other employee to see if he/she needs any sort of help.
18. Have self-pride. Wherever your name is attached, it should be perfect work done with effort. If you do good work, more work will come in.
19. आप अपने आज का पहला दिन या पहला साल किसी दूसरे के 10 साल के Effort के साथ Compare नहीं कर सकते।
20. Have a great team and trust them. Discuss and ask, and together, brainstorming brings new ideas to the table.
21. Always have a sense of ownership if nobody takes responsibility you have to. 99% of people are replaceable and 1% are irreplaceable, and all organizations depend on that. Be that 1% that never gets replaced. (Either reach or make your personality so good that it attracts. Ex: If you see a flower pot fallen on the stairs and ignored, you should take ownership and put it back. This is the attitude that we need.
22. Sir, Mam, Sorry, GM etc. are just the words which you should use. if you’re not feeling like using then too. It all shows manners and respect towards the person which increase your’s too.
23. Explain in detail and give pointers.
24. Never ever compete with a guy who works 24/7. There will always be somebody who knows/works better than you. Work efficiently as much as required for the day. That’s enough. Have work life balance.
25. Never be close friends with your colleagues unless you know them since your college days. Most of them are friends with you because they need you.
26. Never be loyal to the employer. You are just another employee to them.
27. Have every word/promise written in mail . Anybody can turn their back at you.
28. Never show your anger to anybody in office.
29. play the game. Play politics
30. never tell people whom you hate or find annoying.
31. make friends with secretaries and PAs.
32. Never lose an opportunity when a senior leader asks you for inputs- that’s the time for you to create visibility.
33. Never discuss problems, only discuss solutions. You will begin to stand out earlier on.
34. When you join a company, work really hard in the first 6-8 months & win the trust of your seniors. Once the confidence is developed, no one can ever doubt or complain about your performance & thats going to give you a good stay in that company.

What is the worst thing a woman can do to a man?

I can’t reveal my name, because this about my father’s sister .

My aunt was married and had an average married life with little but not very upsetting ups and downs. They’re blessed with a boy and girl. My uncle, her husband loved them more than anything. They were the apple of his eyes.

Once they deciced to get a gold necklace for the baby girl and he hunted down every jewellery shop in the town to find the perfect necklace for his girl. But he found none of the necklace worthy enough of his daughter and had a custom made for her. This is just an example how much he loved his daughter.

Over the years when the children were about 7–8 years old, they had a petty fight and my grandmother added fuel to the fire. My aunt totally under the influence of my grandmother divorced my uncle and left taking their children along with her.

She fed the children with all the lies about their father. And like we all know how a child’s mind is like a clean slate and she wrote gibberish on it, about their father. They eventually hated him.

Now after 26 years, I once saw my uncle’s profile on Facebook, I saw he shared childhood pictures of my cousins. I saw him mourning his departure from his own children, children he loved so dearly. He contacted my cousins many a times even though he was restricted to do so by the court, and my cousins shooed him away.

He was broken beyond repair. He married again to have children but wasn’t blessed. My aunt tool everything he had but what devasted him the most was separation from his children.

I think that’s the worst thing a woman can do to a man, separating him from his children and making them hate him.

Edit 1: He was restricted by the court to meet his own children because my aunt asked for the custody of the children and demanded no alimony and child care from my uncle. Initially he had a permit and he met his daughter during her school hours to which my aunt claimed that he tried to kidnap his own daughter. After that he was restricted to meet his children. The children now hate their father like anything, though I never quite understood what did he do wrong. He wasn’t alcoholic, nor a womanizer, loved his wife and children a lot, even helped my aunt in household chores. I wish I could do something but I really have no say in their lives.

What are some great examples of coincidence?

• Enzo Ferrari And Ozil

Enzo Ferrari, the founder of Ferrari company died in 1988 on the 14th August. About 2 months later on 5th October 1988, Ozil was born. He is arsenal footballer. They have unbelievable resemblance

• A falling baby saved twice by the same man

In the 1930s in Detroit Joseph Figlock saved a baby who fell from from a window. A year later Joseph was passing when the same baby fell , he caught her again.

• Twin brothers,killed on the same road,two hours apart.

In 2002,Seventy-year-old twin brothers were killed by accidents on the same road in Northern Finland.The first one was hit by a lorry while riding his bicycle ,he died 1.5km from the spot his brother was killed

• The woman who couldn’t sink.

Violet Jessup.

She was named Miss Unsinkable. The stewardess and nurse was on the HMS Olympic when it struck the HMS Hawke, she was also on HMHS Britannic when it sank. She was also on the RMS Titanic when it sank after hitting an iceberg.

As a landlord, what is the dumbest thing you’ve ever had a tenant do?

This is about a fellow tenant.

Over the course of a few months someone was leaving hateful notes on my front door and yanking the silk flowers off the wreath hanging on my front door. By the end of this story the wreath is bare.

Overall I’m a nice person and usually get along very well with my neighbors, so I was very puzzled regarding what this was all about.

I reported the matter to property management then the police became involved.

In the end it was discovered that a neighbor living 10′ across the hall was very angry with me. She was receiving phone calls, probably telemarketers, companies selling auto warranties, etc. BUT SHE THOUGHT I WAS PRANK CALLING HER! I never figured out why she thought it was me!

Fortunately, I was able to let her daughter know. Her daughter reimbursed me for the wreath and not long after she was moved to assisted living. Whew! That was a mess.

Burmese Curried Pork (Weta Hin)

Ingredients

• 1 (2 pound) boneless pork shoulder
• 1 large onion, finely chopped
• 5 cloves garlic, finely chopped
• 1 tablespoon finely chopped gingerroot
• 1 teaspoon ground turmeric
• 1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper
• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 1 teaspoon sesame oil
• 1 (16 ounce) can whole tomatoes, drained
• 1 stalk fresh lemon grass, finely chopped
• 1 tablespoon fish sauce
• Hot cooked rice

Instructions

1. Trim fat from pork; cut pork into 2-inch cubes.
2. Place onion, garlic, gingerroot, turmeric and red pepper in blender container. Cover and blend on medium-high speed, stopping blender frequently to scrape sides, until smooth, about 1 minute.
3. Heat oils in Dutch oven over medium heat until hot. Gradually and carefully pour vegetable mixture into oil. Heat to boiling; reduce heat. Cover and simmer, stirring, occasionally, 15 minutes.
4. Add pork, tomatoes, lemon grass and fish sauce; break up tomatoes with fork. Heat to boiling; reduce heat. Cover and simmer until pork is tender, about 1 1/2 hours.
5. Serve over rice. Garnish with snipped fresh cilantro if desired.

Yield: 4 servings

What is the craziest office scandal that happened at your job?

I worked for a company where one of the married supervisors started going for lunch with one of his pretty young workers. The lunches got longer and longer, and then he had to start working late to get all of his work done.

Then he had to rent an apartment close to work, so he wouldn’t have to drive all the way home after working late.

Eventually his worker got pregnant and he had to make a choice. He got divorced and married his mistress.

When she announced at work that she was pregnant and getting married to her already married boss, it was quite a scandal.

His new bride had to quit work for maternity leave. She insisted that he have no female workers on his crew, and that he not work over time, she phoned during every lunch and he had to answer. This was before cell phones.

If I didn’t know better, I would have thought she was suspicious of her new husband.

He got promoted into a marketing position, and wasn’t in the office very much. For some reason his wife made him find an office job and I lost track of him for twenty years.

He started work at the same company I worked for, and I asked how his second wife was doing. ( She had been my coworker) and he said that he was on wife number 3.

It wasn’t as big of a surprise as you would think.

FEAR is the basis of RESPECT: people must hear you hiss

Must watch. This is the key content of this post.