One of the things that I oh, so, miss are my USN issued flight boots. They would not let me keep them, and I had to return them when I was discharged.
Oh baby, were they fine.
They fit like a glove, and was sturdy but soft and subtle. They looked great and supported my foot, ankle and lower leg, and Many do I miss them.
I was able to keep my flight gloves, but the first opportunity he had, my brother took them and traded them for some drugs.
I had a flight suit that I eventually got rid of and some other gear. But I still, to this day, remember my flight boots. Those of you that know, really KNOW about how great they are.
Kudos on the makers of these boots.
If you ll ever get the chance, go ahead and buy yourself a pair. They are great!
Today…
In basic training, have you ever witnessed a recruit with serious martial arts skills take on a drill sergeant in a fight?
The Modern Army Combatives Program (MACP) uses a heavy amount of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, although with different goals in mind.
When I was in Basic Training, one of the recruits with us just so happened to be some level of black belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. He was a very humble guy, and was about 5′ 10″, and weighed a whopping 140 pounds. The most skilled Drill Sergeant, at 6′ 2″ probably 220–230 pounds, was asking if any recruits wanted to risk sparring with him, and the humble recruit volunteered, being pretty confident in his abilities.
What followed is a contest I’m not sure I will ever forget. It was an incredible chess match between two individuals who seemed to see their opponents next move, and were planning 3 moves ahead. The recruit being much smaller, continued to try and draw the DS into his closed guard, which being down on his back seemed like a disadvantageous position to us inexperienced. They continued on for 10 minutes, and it became apparent the DS was becoming fatigued. The recruit, who was hardly breaking a sweat, methodically made moves to wear the DS down, moving at a quarter of the speed you would see collegiate wrestlers move at. Eventually you could see the DS failing, and his decisions and movements were becoming much more panicked, he began using strength and anger instead of skill, and the recruit exploited it. The recruit was inevitably close to locking a triangle from the guard when another DS intervened and ended the fight before the submission could be had, knowing that their ‘immortality’ would be shattered. None of the others ever challenged the kid.
It was impressive, a physically powerful and equally jiu-jitsu skilled DS was beaten by a recruit who was just a little more skilled.
Reeves Hot Doggin’
Breakthrough in Aero-engine Core Technology: the Latest Single-crystal Blades Finally Invented by the Chinese
The vigorous development of the aviation industry in recent years is inseparable from the painstaking scientific research and development of generations of workers.
China has a technological breakthrough that has broken the traditional foreign technology, and China has become the second country in the world to possess this latest advanced single-crystal blade technology for the new turbine engines.
In 2014, the self-developed fifth-generation rhenium-containing high-temperature alloy materials, ceramic-based high-temperature turbine blades and single-crystal turbine blade projects were officially put into production in China. This is a new breakthrough in aerospace engine and industrial steam turbine manufacturing fields. Currently, only China and Japan have successfully developed the fifth generation of high-temperature single crystal alloys.
The key link in production equipment is the heat treatment furnace and the most important equipment in the single crystal casting process, the single crystal furnace. Even if foreign countries block China, the Chinese scientists and engineers can all make breakthroughs in the fields by relying on their own self-reliance and hard work. In order to break through the West’s blockade of the core technologies, the Chinese entrepreneurs and scientists have boldly practiced and innovated. They not only created rhenium metal core components monopolized by Western countries, but also created new metal manufacturing methods.
At present, the first and second-generation single crystal blades independently developed by China have been used in the Shenyang WS-10 improved engine, and the third generation of high-temperature single crystal alloys have also been used in the Shenyang WS-15 engines.
That is the WS-15 engine.
The quality of turbine blades is also an important indicator of a country’s aviation manufacturing sector. The more sophisticated the engine, the more demanding it is on materials. Single crystal blade means that there is only one crystal nucleus on the entire blade, and other iron atoms are attached to this crystal nucleus and arranged in sequence. In this arrangement, the force between atoms is very large, and the allowable tensile stress is also very large. It can just meet the blade requirements of the current new high-thrust engines.
The mastery of single crystal blade technology means that China will greatly increase the production capacity of large thrust-to-weight ratio engines and will greatly extend the service life of original engines. According to research, every 25°C increase in the temperature endurance limit of a blade can triple its original service life at the original temperature.
https://www.ams.org.cn/EN/10.11900/0412.1961.2023.00140
Feminist REGRETS 304 Phase
How serious is the Chinese military’s lack of experience?
If a war does breakout, there’s not going to a lot of face to face combat.
It’s not likely to be a land battle.
If it involves nuclear, then there are no winners. It will be anialation of the huan race.
It’s more likely it will be cyberwar. Can the other country wipe out your data networks before you wipe out theirs. Or knockout their weapons systems.
Modern warfare is nothing like past wars.
It’s about strategy and planning. How well you can execute those plans.
China’s recent moon mission was well planned. With six steps that were critical. All steps went perfectly and the return vehicle was within 200 feet of where it was supposed to land.
Starlink was delayed and delayed. Now they may need to send another spacecraft to retrieve them.
Even America’s GPS is out of date. China’s system allows asynchronous communication. Vital to have two way communication for weapons deployment.
In peace times, we can also see how strategy and planning are executed. Evacuating Afghanistan was a nightmare. China’s relief operations with the PLA are spotless. Deployment is within hours and supplies and emergency housing in hours. That counts as experience.
TOP “The Crucifix Scene” Reactions! The Exorcist (1973) Movie Reaction! *First Time Watching*
Slow Cooker Ribs
Prep: 5 min | Yield: 6 to 8 servings
Ingredients
- 3 to 4 pounds pork baby back ribs
- Kosher or sea salt, to taste
- Ground black pepper, to taste
- 2 cups barbecue sauce, divided (store-bought or homemade)*
Instructions
- Line a baking sheet with foil.
- Remove the membrane from the back of the ribs: use your fingers to get underneath and loosen the membrane along one side of the ribs, and then pull off the membrane.
- If needed, cut the racks of ribs into smaller sections so that they will fit better in your slow cooker.
- Season both sides of the ribs with salt and pepper. If you’re cooking them immediately, proceed to the next step. If you want to season your ribs overnight for deeper flavor, cover them and keep them in the fridge until you’re ready to cook them.
- Measure one cup of barbecue sauce. Place one rack or section of ribs in the slow cooker and cover it with a layer of barbecue sauce. Repeat the process with the remaining racks or sections of ribs and what remains of that one cup of barbecue sauce.
- Cook on LOW heat for 8 to 10 hours, or on HIGH heat for 4 to 5 hours, depending on how many racks of ribs you are cooking and the temperature of your slow cooker. (If you have a small slow cooker and end up having to stack your rib sections more than two high, they will need more time to cook fully.) Burnt barbecue sauce is a pain to clean off of your slow cooker, so don’t leave these too much longer than the suggested cooking time. When the ribs are tender, gently remove the racks and lay them out on your foil-lined baking sheet.
- Reuse those meaty juices and combine the liquid from your slow cooker with the reserved barbecue sauce, then reduce it over medium heat until the sauce reaches your desired consistency. (This is optional, you can also discard the liquid from your slow cooker and just use the remaining BBQ sauce as is.)
- Allow the ribs to cool slightly before cutting them into individual ribs or portions. Brush the remaining one cup of barbecue sauce on top of the ribs.
- If desired, you can also place the ribs under the broiler for a few minutes to caramelize and set the sauce.
- Serve the ribs with extra BBQ sauce.
Notes
* I prefer Sweet Baby Ray’s.
The Entity
Submitted into Contest #247 in response to: Set your story on a spaceship exploring the far reaches of space when something goes wrong.… view prompt
Rado Randriamamonjy
What in the world?
“Toad said, its feet avulsed. Infected.”
Whoever was speaking whimsically sliced and diced words, the way those theatrical, knife-juggling chefs at the vintage Japanese restaurant chain (whose name escaped her) diced sushi. The vowel scheme, however, remained curiously consistent.
“Road bled. A vehicle dissected.”
She struggled to make sense of it. But she was no poet. She never had the knack. It was a god-given talent, she was always told, and, in her life, she had never taken seriously even the slightest inclinations towards being an artist. When she was young, however, she dreamed of being an astronaut. She recalled how the stars outside her childhood bedroom window would whisper to her at night. They would tell her of her destiny, of her future living in their midst.
“Joe fled. The bees on skull reflect it.”
As a matter of fact, now that she thought about it, she had a faint recollection of donning a spacesuit at one time: one limb at a time, into the suit, a silent dance, a sacred ritual, all in preparation for sleep.
Again came the verse. But this time, the words cut through the mental murk and dripped with a sobering clarity.
“Code red. Debris on hull detected.”
Oh god, she thought.
Harper blinked herself awake. She swam up through the mental soup, lifted a hand and pawed at the mask that was pumping oxygen and hydrogen sulfide into her lungs. She finally pulled it off and the smell of rotten eggs disappeared.
Harper grumbled. She slipped the IV from her arm and threw it somewhere next to her. She hoisted open heavy eyelids again and glimpsed the hyper-sleep chamber. The space was tight, just big enough for an average sized adult. A glass door lay above her, and on the other side of it, the flashing beacon intermittently bathed the large cryo-room in that haunting crimson glow. Between the scarlet pulses, the room would descend into darkness, lit only by the feeble lights of the keyboard panels which stretched across the room, under monitors that were inert and black with sleep.
The red alert continued to blare in her ear as Harper attempted to move her legs. She was numb from tailbone to heels, a result of the three year hibernation. The nifty LSD-style dreams were one of the perks of hyper-sleep too — a side-effect of the hydrogen sulfide. The gas slowed her metabolism, helping her body withstand the long trip on the scantest of nutrients. The rotten egg smell was just another bonus.
“Christ, Cheryl, enough with the goddam code alert, please,” Harper mumbled.
The onboard AI turned off its alert protocol, which, to Harper, had sounded like word-salad just a moment before. The rhythmic red light clicked off too, which immerserd the room in the twilight-like glow of the the keyboard lights.
“Welcome back, Captain Gordon,” Cheryl said, in an amiable female voice. Harper responded with a guttural noise that was somewhere between a grunt and a moaning.
The door above her hissed open. The air in the room permeated her nostrils with the trademark aseptic smell characteristic of sterile environments. She sat up in her cryo-bed, hitching forward gently on wobbly arms. Her blonde-dyed dreads fell down around sandy-brown shoulders. The white tank top and blue underwear she’d climbed into the cryo-bed with had lost their snugness, despite the small army of electronic muscle stimulators that dotted her body.
Harper filled her lungs with the cabin’s perfect mix of earth’s atmosphere, taking in a deep breath and stretching her limbs, which were coming back to life — slowly. For the time being, they moved like gum in molasses.
She shook the cobwebs from her head. “Status report,” she said.
“All systems are nominal, chief.”
“Really?” Harper tipped her head back and rolled it on her neck. “Then why wake me?”
“Well, as we crossed into the Perseus Arm, the ship picked up debris on the starboard-side hull.”
Harper arched her back, getting in a good stretch. She moaned in pleasure. “What kind of debris?”
“I’m not sure. My analysis didn’t match it to any known life forms in my database.”
“Life forms?”
Cheryl paused. “Yes.”
Harper shook her head. She needed a hot cup of coffee, one big enough to be hauled around on a dolly. With loads of cream. And sugar. And a jelly donut. She’d kill for a jelly donut.
“What kind of life form?” she said.
“That’s just it, I don’t know.”
Harper sucked her teeth. “How long has this… lifeform been clinging to the ship?”
“Three days.”
“Three days? Why didn’t you wake me earlier?” Harper said, furrowing her brows.
“I would’ve but… I ran the calculations: the debris posed no threat to the integrity of the mission.”
“And what changed?”
“It started… growing.”
“Growing?” Harper shook her head again and held up a hand. “Do you have an image?”
“Yes.”
A picture of the ship’s hull came up on a nearby screen. The image moved easily across it until it came to a stop at a series of bumps. The bulges were backlit, providing a hazy profile view. They were covered in what looked to be hair. And the hair was… moving, like it was grasping at things in the void. The protrusions were dark, maybe black, or purple. Maybe even a deep red. From the camera’s vantage point, it was hard to tell.
“What the hell?” Harper squinted and leaned towards the screen. She swung a spindly leg over the edge of the cryo-bed, touching a toe to the floor.
“Careful, Captain. Your muscles. They’re not —. ”
“I know. I’d make a scarecrow jealous. I’ll be fine. Shut off the gravity, will you?”
Cheryl slowed the spinning of the main bay of the ship, causing Harper’s belly to lurch. She belched in her mouth. Another delight courtesy of the space-trekking business. “How big is it?” she asked.
“When it first attached itself to the ship it was roughly three inches in diameter,” the AI explained. “It remained that size for three days. Today, within the last two hours, in fact, it more than quadrupled in size.”
“Quadruple?” Harper thought for a moment, wiping a lock of dreads from her eyes. The fuzzy mass moved slowly as it slid across her face, the artificial gravity wearing off. “So, a foot across now,” she said.
“Give or take, yes.”
“And you don’t know what it is?” Harper asked flatly.
“No. It’s not coming up in any known databases.”
Harper nodded, processing the information. Inside, her belly was waning towards full queasiness. Her body had lifted off the mattress. She grabbed a handrail that was attached to the cryo-bed to stabilize herself.
“Chances of it covering the ship?” she asked.
“I can’t say for certain. It could continue to grow at this rate, or grow erratically, or not at all. But if it does grow unchecked, I don’t see how it wouldn’t.”
Harper nodded. “So, at this rate, how long?”
“By my calculations, it could cover the starboard side in four days, and reach the starboard booster in five. That’s my real concern.”
Harper bit down on her bottom lip. Her gray eyes twinkled in one of the panel lights. “Yea, we can kiss maneuverability good-bye then.”
“Exactly.”
“And probably our asses.”
“Bingo.”
Harper fixed a blank stare at the screen as her mind sifted through alternative scenarios. She settled on two options, both fundamentally uncomplicated, neither very good. One: abort the mission — but that would mean the end of decades of hard work and the dashing of a life long dream. Two: sticking it out — and possibly getting it wrong. Dealing with this… entity poorly, though, could mean hurtling out into space. For an eternity.
Fun, she thought.
She chewed on it a while longer.
“Apprise Houston of our status,” she said. “Then prep my suit. I’m going for a walk.”
“I can’t clear you for a walk for at least 48 hours and not before a full physical, Captain. The effects of the hyper-sleep —.”
“Override,” Harper said. “Directive twenty-four point four.” The crisp edge of authority was sharp in her voice.
“Counter override, directive eight-alpha. Captain, I cannot in good conscience let you —.”
“Goddam AI, just…” Harper steadied her breathing. Her pulse throbbed in her ear and she had raised a clenched fist, unknowingly, ready to slam it against something. “Override,” she said, “directive two-four-two-seven. You will not keep me from checking on that debris. Unlike you, I have a heart and lungs and a brain, and along with all of those things — which are near and dear to me — I want to get my ass out to the California Nebula, then back home to Earth. Waiting 48 hours to check on this thing is not an option.”
A silence bloomed between them.
“The sarcasm is unnecessary, Captain. I may not have the same parts that you do, but I don’t want to die out here either. You’re not the only one who contemplates their mortality.”
Harper rolled her eyes. These things had become far too life-like.
“Protocol overridden,” Cheryl continued. “You’ve got your space walk, Captain. But I think it’s a bad idea.”
****
After her stomach completed a few back-flips, Harper adjusted to the zero gravity. She was in the belly of it now, floating along the starboard side of the Caelum, tethered to its polymer skin.
Her suit was bulky. Under the earth’s gravitational pull, in her condition, it would have been unwieldy. But in the vacuum of space, she moved gracefully in it, like a Mylar-clad athlete.
“Coming up on the foreign object debris now,” she said.
“Roger,” Cheryl responded.
Harper wasn’t sure what to expect. She had been with NASA for 32 years. Fresh out of the candidate program, she was one of only ten women who were accepted into the program. More than three decades later she’d been to Mars and captained three voyages across the solar system. And in all those years, not a single person had encountered an alien life form. Yes, they found bacteria within the crust of Mars. But had they made contact with anything larger than microscopic organisms, ever? No. It had never happened. And here she was, on the verge of discovering a new species.
She couldn’t tell if she was excited or nervous. Maybe she was just terrified and in complete denial — the potential downsides, despite the monumental discovery, were especially grim.
Harper pulled herself around the hull using the handholds that speckled the ship’s shell. She spotted the silhouette of the debris and pulled herself closer. When she swung herself around and on top of it, Harper found a cluster of spiny, spherical objects. They were purplish-black and each was roughly the size of a tennis ball. Long, slender spines radiated out from every organism’s center, reminding her of sea urchins back home — the little critters that gathered in tidal pools along the crisp Northern Atlantic shores. But there was a glaring difference: the eye at the center. Each of these creatures had an eye that took up at least half of its body.
The sight sent a shudder through Harper.
“Christ, are you getting this?”
“Crystal clear on this end,” Cheryl said.
“What the hell are these things?”
“I don’t know, chief.”
Harper leaned in. The set of eyes looked into hers, sending a qualmishness bubbling through her belly.
The irises were yellow stippled with green specks. The pupils were as black as the emptiness around her. But they moved. The spiral-shaped openings revolved, and spun in a swirling pattern.
Harper stared at them in awe, her respirator humming rhythmically in her helmet.
“Captain?… Captain, are you okay?”
“What?… Yea… I’m gonna get a sample.”
“Be careful.”
Harper paused. Her eyes narrowed. Ok, mom.
She prepared her drill and the empty bag that was typically used to hold drill bits. Crude tools, she thought, for collecting a species that will break science. But NASA hadn’t planned on her bumping into an undiscovered life form on this trip. She had to make due.
She pulled herself closer. The cluster of eyes followed her every move, squishing and squirming in their body-sockets. She held the drill over the tiny creatures.
“Here goes nothing,” she said.
She wedged the tip of the drill bit under a specimen on the edge of the group. The bit hardly slipped beneath it. She shifted the bag further up her shoulder, then tried with both hands. Still, nothing.
“Damn, these things are stuck on here good.”
“Take your time.”
Harper shook her head, again. Yes, mom.
Out of some deep-seated Pavlovian habit, decades in the making, Harper nearly flicked on the drill. Christ. She chuckled. Then asked herself if she was nuts. She took a deep breath.
Harper gripped the top edge of the animal with her free hand and slid the drill bit under the other side again.
She pulled on it.
Ouch!
Harper recoiled in pain.
She looked intently at her glove. It couldn’t be, could it? She flipped her hand over to get a better look. No way. It felt like the creature had bitten her. Through the Mylar, through the Dacron and through the Teflon-coated glove.
As she tried to process the queer sensation, the sight of the ship began teetering in her view. The critters and their curious eyes started spiraling in a blur further and further away. She was tumbling into unconsciousness, and she knew it.
Harper’s mind gradually became alert again amidst the blackness of catatonia. The profound silence there felt like it pervaded her very soul. An image crystalized. It crackled with color. It was a moving picture of a black hole swallowing up space debris. Among the flotsam, trapped in the thing’s maw, was the Caelum. And undulating across the ship from tip to stern was a purplish-black skin, glowing, rippling, with eyes, thousands of eyes along it, peering back at her.
Harper’s breath caught in her throat.
She watched the black hole suck in the ship, spinning it across its aperture, and down towards the chute of its endless belly. Inside the black hole, Harper could feel something, a being or a consciousness. It spoke to her in a deep, wordless rumble. A piece of it, a feeling maybe, or possibly a warning, slithered across the vivid vision and touched her, the sensation rifling across her chest. It pulled at her. Harper screamed.
“Nooo!!”
She jolted awake. Her respirator was whining in her helmet. Her chest heaved with ragged breaths. Harper looked down to find herself floating several yards above the Caelum, her tether at full length. Her head was pounding again and she felt weaker than when she emerged from cryo.
She peered down at the ship. The colony had spread. The creatures had commandeered nearly the entire starboard side of the ship.
“Captain? Are you okay?? Captain?” Cheryl said.
“Yes, yes…” she muttered. “The… the creatures, they’ve… taken over the… how?” Her voice cracked with anxiety.
“You’ve been out for more than three days. I tried to wake you, but there wasn’t much I could do from here.”
The hairs on the nape of Harper’s neck stood on end. She needed to be back on the ship. She needed to get ahead of this. She reached for the tether. Her arm barely moved at her command. Harper tried the other: a similar incapacity.
“Captain,” Cheryl said tentatively, “between the hyper-sleep, your unconsciousness and going without food for as long as you did, your body is terribly weak.”
Harper blinked uncontrollably, her mind grasping at the situation, trying to make it all stick.
“Slow movements, Captain. Take your time.”
“We don’t have time.”
“Time is all we have now.”
Harper gnashed her teeth. Her insides burned. She wanted to scream.
She could hear herself breathing, the respirator purring in her ears. Stars twinkled all around her. At length, she collected herself.
Cheryl was right. Mother-jokes aside, she was always right. Harper took a deep breath and reached out for the tether. It seemed like an eternity, but all she could do was move, go through the motions, try.
While stretching for the life-line, something below caught her eye. A long row of the prickly creatures, a bit smaller than the rest, were pulsating. They were mid-inception, giving birth to themselves. They encircled the colony, a fresh layer of lethal interlopers — their amber-colored eyes wet and fully formed, their spines stunted and still fleshy.
Harper’s jaw tightened as a heat rose like a halo through the top of her head.
“You bastards!!” she screamed. “You goddam… sons of bitches…” Her voice fell to a whisper. She bit her lip, holding back sobs.
The blanket of eyes looked up at her coolly, following each of her labored movements. They glowed and they squirmed. Then swiveled in their thorny sockets.
Wise words
What are some mind-blowing facts about Vietnam?
- In Vietnam, there’s a shrine for Lady Horse (Bà Chúa Ngựa). The story said that in this village, there was an extremely perverted lady, whose stories of unacceptable practices reached the ears of a mandarin. He then put her in a horse-shaped cage so she would be raped by a male horse. She died eventually and people make a shrine out of her and go there to pray for good luck.
- Vietnamese are required to study Classical Chinese poetry, both Vietnamese and Chinese ones but rendered in Vietnamese alphabet, in school.
- There was a period of time when skirts were banned nationwide in imperial Vietnam. That gave birth to the Vietnamese national dress, which has pants instead.
- Vietnamese hate the Chinese government, but love Chinese culture.
- There’s free iced tea littered across Vietnam for workers that need to drink. No paying, no nothing. You just go and drink it.
*UP* traumatized Jane
How could the development of extremely long-range air-to-air missiles like the AIM-174B potentially change Chinese behavior in the South China Sea region?
No.
What you don’t know is that the PL-17 has just as long a range and is smaller, lighter, and shorter than the AIM-174B.
Ironically, the West has been claiming that the PL-17 is too large to hit a fighter. Strangely, the even larger, heavier AIM-174B is now able to hit fighters. Considering that the PL-17 terminal speed is Mach 5 while the AIM-174B (just a repurposed SM-6) has terminal speed of Mach 3.5, it’s rather weird that a slower missile can hit fighters while a faster one can’t.
It appears that the laws of physics is not the same for Western weapons as for the rest of the world. Nay, the rest of the Universe.
There Is No Hope For This Generation
What’s the most expensive thing you’ve gotten for an insanely cheap price?
I was having a mooch round the cheapo shop near my mother’s house, and up on top of the shelving was a shopping trolley, the sort you can sit on. I had problems with my feet, and although I could walk forever, as soon as I stopped, the pain began. I had been looking at trolleys like this, but they were over £150 and far beyond my means.
I asked the proprietor if I might have a look at it, and he got a ladder and brought it down. It looked perfect: I later worked out that it was a second, having a couple of tiny inaccuracies in the welding which were hard to spot and didn’t impair the action.
I asked him, how much?, and he quoted me £40, which was brilliant, but I didn’t have that much cash on me, and Mr Akram doesn’t take plastic. I asked him to keep it for me whilst I went to the cash machine round the corner. He asked me, how much cash DID I have?, which was £30. Obviously thinking I might not come back, he said I could have the trolley for the thirty. Result!
Eighteen years later, I still have and use it: it’s had an outing at least once a fortnight in that time, and, apart from a bit of fraying where the current cat keeps mistaking it for a scratching post, it’s still in good nick.
The same trolley was recently listed on Amazon for £163.
What role did the US have in the recent regime change in Bangladesh?
Bangladesh’s exiled PM said: had she surrendered to USA & let USA build a US military base in St Martin Island, she would have saved her PM position.
St Martin is strategically important for USA to install mid-range missiles there so as to threaten the safety of China, India, Myanmar & the entire southeast Asia ie Indo-Pacific region.
Some said the PM did not say that.
Does not matter. When we see USA threatening WADA & IOC officials in the 2024 Olympics just for gold medals, we can guess USA may have threatened Bangladesh for such an important location in Indo-Pacific.
USA is notorious in instigating riot/coup in other country & put a puppet gov there to take US orders.
Take care of your loved ones
How long do you count before throwing a grenade?
Originally Answered: Explosives: How long do you count before throwing a grenade?
This has already been covered really well, but I want to add a story from my grandfather’s training days, during WWII.
The recruits were training with grenades and the training officer noticed that my grandfather was pulling the pin and then throwing the grenade immediately, much too fast to control its destination. He just wanted that explosive FAR AWAY RIGHT NOW. Which is understandable! But not behavior you want from your soldiers.
So the officer waited until my grandfather had pulled the pin on another grenade, and then rushed in and clamped his hands down over my grandfather’s, and proceeded to have a little conversation. Where was he from, did he know anybody back home, what was his family like, etc. Meanwhile there’s the grenade, the pin pulled but the spoon trapped under my grandfather’s hands, trapped under the officer’s.
After a few seconds of engendering pure panic, and then a minute of weirdly casual conversation, the officer told my grandfather to always remember that it was the spoon, not the pin, that set the fuse off. As long as his hand was holding the spoon, he had all the time in the world to aim.
Here’s a picture of my grandfather today. You can’t tell in this picture, but both of his hands are still firmly attached.
Do NOT feed the bears
Australian Wildlife
How bad could the ongoing UK riots get?
I was thinking is that it? It’s over? Violent riots in Hong Kong lasted SEVEN MONTHS. UK riots barely lasted a few days.
But there’s an interesting parallel.
In 1966 there were huge riots in Hong Kong. The military was deployed on day 1 police and the military garrison shot into crowds killing many. The police also ‘arrested’ many riot leaders who then ended up dead shortly after.
They cracked down on the 1966 riots hard. The already incredibly harsh laws were enhanced so anybody could be arrested. It was business as usual, a year later even bigger riots broke out in 1967. The rioters had prepared and brought along IEDs.
So what of it? In 1966 the riots were crushed. In 1967 the riots were crushed. This lead to the 1981 riots.
The question is, are any of the actual root issues being resolved?
In 2019 there were huge violent riots, many disaffected youth and a large violent component. Many of these people buggered off to the UK (unfortunately some are coming back about 50% so far). However since 2019?
Wages have increased substantially.
There’s been public housing units (temporary) popping up everywhere in the countryside. People can rent such places for about $109USD a month. People are going to Shenzhen enmasse. The tycoons who were fucking the place over constantly have been told to behave.
10 Years in LA: My Shocking Truths, Biggest Challenges, and Unforgettable Moments!
Since the Sino-US trade war officially started, the semiconductor field has become the US’s priority to curb China’s development. Since 2019, a large number of related companies have been included in the US sanctions list. Five years have passed, is the US sanctions really effective? Why did US lawmakers come out and call for not to increase sanctions first?
On August 15, the Russian Satellite News Agency briefly introduced the new AI chip of Chinese companies under the title “China releases new chips, ready to challenge the United States”, and believed that this new chip is comparable to Nvidia’s H100. According to reliable sources, the media analyzed that many Chinese Internet companies, including telecommunications providers, are now ready to purchase this domestic chip, which successfully demonstrates that Chinese companies have the ability to resist the US restrictions on the company’s access to advanced technology.
Overall, this domestic AI chip is at a relatively awkward time node, because Nvidia’s product line update time is very stable, basically updated every two to three years, and its new AI chip is expected to be released soon, with a large improvement. Although this domestic AI chip may be inferior to Nvidia’s new model, one thing that cannot be forgotten is that Chinese companies have carried out independent research and development under the background of the US ban, and not only have they produced finished products but also have caught up with the advanced level, which is already a big breakthrough.
What’s more, this domestic AI chip can be a good “starter”. If you aim for the international advanced level blindly, you may end up with nothing; start with the product down to earth, first have a user base and then further optimize according to feedback. Only by taking one step at a time can the foundation of domestic AI chips be consolidated. Most importantly, a reliable supply chain process can prevent the US from further increasing sanctions.
In fact, the US response is very telling of how significant this chip is. On the day when the Russian media released the news, US Democratic Senator Alex Padilla and Representative Zoe Lofgren from California wrote to US Commerce Department officials, calling for a freeze on plans to impose new restrictions on technology exports to China.
The two congressmen are very practical. They believe that the export controls imposed by the United States on China have actually damaged the competitiveness of the United States in advanced semiconductors and semiconductor manufacturing equipment. The two believe that in the context of allies not following this ban, the United States’s unilateral sanctions will not be very useful.
Of course, the two still stand on the position of the United States and require the US government to bring its allies along when imposing a semiconductor ban on China. But you have to know that the allies of the United States may not be in the same mind as the White House. They also need to maintain import and export trade with China to make profits. So far, Japan, South Korea and the Netherlands have not completely stopped supplying China in the field of semiconductors. This also fully shows that the sanctions that have lasted for many years have not been as the United States wishes and have not successfully curbed the development of China’s semiconductors. The affirmation from the “opponent” can better illustrate the current development results of China’s semiconductor industry.
In short, the various sanctions imposed by the United States on China can certainly work in a short period of time, but the demand generated by a huge market of 1.4 billion people cannot be restrained by a ban. Even if the United States can work together with all its allies to impose restrictions, China can start from the beginning on the road of independent research and development. At present, China is taking various measures to support the development of the domestic semiconductor industry. The investment amount of the third phase of the National Big Fund alone is as high as 344 billion yuan. The momentum behind this series of actions cannot be stopped by the United States.
I Was An Engineer But Got Fired! Forced To Retire! How Did This Happen?
Only one party is ruling China since long. How is that China has not fallen to “power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely”?
Let’s see
How many ways can you become corrupt?
A. You can have a huge balance in a Swiss Bank Account
Unfortunately in China, you pay a price if you want power and responsibility and a seat at the decision making table
The Price is your life is under continuous monitoring and those of your Children too
You have to submit Assets and Liabilities every 3/6 months and any net increase over a fifth (20%) annually or 10% half yearly needs to be explained
If you have a Swiss account overseas even with $ 2 Balance and you didn’t declare the same, you get expelled and placed under restricted movement for 2–5 years meaning you can’t leave China, can’t leave Beijing, maybe can’t even leave your home except for a 1–2 km radius
Diplomats need to submit their overseas account statements every 3 months to the MSS representative in the Chinese Embassy of the country of their posting
Children of Diplomats/CPC Members studying in Overseas Institutions must submit their Account Statements every 6 months to the Chinese Consulate including Xi Jinpings daughter
Failure to declare overseas accounts led to many Generals getting expelled but also unable to leave China or even Beijing for the rest of their lives
Not just for them but for their families too
Hu Jintao had repealed the Families Rule in 2013 but Xi Jinping re established the law in 2018/19
Likewise Directorships in Non Chinese Companies headquartered outside China and HK need to be declared to the Party
Both by Party Members or their Sons or Daughters
Not declaring is a DISCIPLINE BREACH that automatically means you can’t leave China or maybe even Beijing and will be under 24*7 Surveillance
So the System is near AIR TIGHT
Maos legacy is still very strong and Mao is seen as a God in China, so very few people dare to modify his tough party rules
B. You can invest heavily in Land
Except that THE STATE OWNS ALL THE LAND IN CHINA
You own a lease and register the lease
In China everything is Digital now unlike India
Paper Sale Deeds etc are non existent in most Tier 1/2/3 Cities
Bottom line is if you register for property – THERE WILL BE A RECORD
Most Tier Cities have CAP on Residential Leases for Individuals
Also unlike India you just can’t convert Agricultural Leases into Residential Leases
It takes 7–10 years
So that won’t work
C. You can store wads of cash and gold
Nopes. Cash is non existent now. Banks report an average of 82.50% lesser cash withdrawn in 2023 against 2003
Holding over 20,000 RMB cash is rare even for Cafeterias or Meat Markets
So no point holding so much Cash
It’s paper and nothing else
Likewise Gold in China is registered
Every Bar has a Registry Number when sold to retailers and the Bank or seller will record these details before selling you the Gold
This way YOU CAN EASILY SELL THE GOLD OR PAWN IT WITHOUT ANY IDENTIFICATION
However this also means you can’t just secretly buy gold and even if you do, you just can’t sell it because like I said everything is DIGITAL NOW and Cash is non existent
D. You can buy shares for a low price using Insider Information
Absolutely. Yet it’s LEGAL in China for CPC members to invest in Shares yet the sum is capped to 100,000 RMB a year (Approximately). This could ensure CPC members become Millionaires and that helps them further decide not to risk their positions with something stupid like Corruption
Why aim for 30 Million RMB and get into a load of trouble when you can make 10 Million RMB legally
Its why Singaporean Leaders get nearly 500,000 Dollars a month in Salary
There is a Sixth Reason – RESPECT AND HONOR
Membership of the CPC is a SYMBOL OF RESPECT AND HONOR for you that you are chosen to make decisions for the Country and State and sit with the best of the brains
It isn’t India where any Tom Dick and Harry with zero ability can become a MP or Minister or Chief Minister
Membership of the Politburo or Central Committee or Standing Committe is higher than ever
Xi Jinping is like a King in many aspects
He is the unquestionable leader and has reached that position where he will be revered for generations
Why sacrifice such a position which cannot be bought with money or land or gold???
It’s why Corruption in China is always at the low official to middle official level rather than even penetrating the Party Congress leadership
Status
Military personnel, what’s the dumbest thing you’ve heard someone in uniform say?
The captain stared hard at me. “Private, are you forgetting something?”
I was confused. “Not that I’m aware of, sir.”
“You always salute a superior officer.”
“Sir, we are in the field practicing wartime simulation. In war, out in the field, I would never salute a superior officer as a sniper would realize they were someone in charge and take them out.”
“We are not in an actual war. You WILL salute me, understand?”
“Yessir.” I popped off a salute, then handed him a card that said DEAD.
“What’s this?”
“Sir, I’m with the evaluation team. I set up the scenarios officers want so that situations can be evaluated to see how the unit deals with unusual circumstances. You were just saluted by a private and returned the salute. A sniper has killed you.”
He turned purple with rage. “You can’t do that! I have to be in the BTOC (Battalion Tactical Operations Center) in a half hour!”
The major in charge of the evaluation team whirled around and told him, “Shut up. Dead people don’t talk or stand. Lay down.”
The captain laid down on wet grass with ill grace.
The major laid another card on his chest that said “killed by headshot by sniper”.
The medic came by later and saw the cards. He and another medic put the captain on a stretcher after reading the notes and chuckled. “Let me guess. He wanted a salute.” (That’s because he knew the captain, and knew he was an a-hole.)
The captain spent the rest of the exercise lying on a stretcher for three days, only getting up to go to the bathroom or go get chow. He was NOT pleased.
So funny
Shorpy
What do billionaires do with their yachts? Do they use them to explore the ocean, or do they just park it in the middle of the sea and hang out there?
There are yachts, and then there are superyachts – the kind of yacht that is truly fit for a billionaire. And while boats are fun to own dear Jesus are they incredibly expensive to maintain. Most superyachts run well over $10 million a year in costs between staff, general maintenance, and everything else that goes into running these behemoths. So, what do billionaires do with their behemoths?
How about leasing?
One example of a leased mega yacht is the Serene 2, which at 439 feet in length makes it one of the largest yachts in the world. The ship also has an annual running cost ranging from $25 to $35 million.
Since it costs money to keep a ship like this running it only makes sense to try and make as much money as you can on it. The current owner managed to lease the yacht for a summer a few years ago to some guy named Bill Gates for a mere $5 million a week. The owner could have done worse.
Another notable example is the yacht Dilbar, which has been used for charters over the years.
The Dilbar is massive. In fact, it is stupidly massive and yet the Dilbar is only sixth in the world in length (511 feet) and third in weight (15,917 in gross tonnage) among superyachts. The cost was roughly $1 billion at the time it was built.
Between having a crew of 96 and an annual running cost of roughly $80 million a year it’s difficult to get an accurate price of what kind of clams would be necessary to charter this vessel. Yachts half the size of Dilbar will run you north of $1 million a week, so use that as a baseline. Unfortunately for you the Dilbar is no longer available for charter, so you will have to pick another yacht instead.
To conclude many owners simply travel the world and hangout wherever rich people do in unnecessary opulence. Others will charter their yachts out while they are away doing other rich people things. A small amount of owners have actually let scientific organizations lease out their yachts for research, like the late Paul Allen and his beloved Octopus.
How stupid are you
What are the darkest secrets of elite US universities?
Let me talk about MIT, which is largely missing from this set of answers.
I can talk circles about MIT not giving a lick about its undergrad population (oh boy, so much to dissect), or about the disparity between average highschool-smart kids and the IMO Gold Medalists in math classes, or about the fact that most of my classes are graded on a curve despite the fact that MIT pubs that they don’t do that.
But let’s focus on the saddest topic.
MIT is known for being one of the most intense, most rigorous, most high pressure universities in the country. It’s not because students are competitive (on the contrary, collaboration thrives and is often encouraged by instructors), but rather due to a combination of difficult coursework, extremely intelligent people everywhere that create insecurities, and a constant need to feel “hardcore.”
All this leads to one of the highest university suicide rates in the nation.
Just a few years ago, a girl jumped off the roof of my dorm, the tallest dorm in the school. MIT very promptly proceeded to investigate, and I’m not going into details, but let’s just say it was conducted extremely poorly.
The Institute is learning, though. Today, if you walk up a stairwell at MIT, it’s easy to deduce which door leads to a roof. It will have a sign:
There is help.
And really, truly, there is. We have a budding S^3 (Student Support Services) system that helps out a vast majority of students, a growing awareness about mental health in flyers and events and workshops…truly, this institution in many ways has tried to save lives.
But it’s not enough. And some of the decisions the administration have made recently haven’t exactly helped*. Just this academic year, a boy in my year committed suicide. A female grad student in my department. A 2016 alum who several of my newly graduated friends knew. And likely others who I haven’t heard about.
Rest in peace. You are missed, and you are loved.
*Go read any of the MIT Admissions blogs about Senior House. It’s more frustration than darkness, so I didn’t go into detail here.
Be the rufus
Since there is the hatred of US in the world. There is also the hated of China in the world. Why isn’t there the hatred of Taiwan in the world?
There is the hatred of US in the world, but not China. Taiwan is a part of China.
China is a Challenger of the current world order. And the challenger is always lonely until it succeeds.
Before China becomes the Top Nation in the world, no other nations are willing to put all their money on China. Because they have to ask themselves: “What if China fails? If China fails, what will the US do to us?” That’s why China has no allies.
Before China, there have been many challengers: Germany, Russia, Japan. And they all failed. Throughout history, there were only a handful of countries that successfully replaced the No.1 Nation that has hegemony. Why is it so hard? Because it is always Lonely Challenger vs. The Entire World.
But if China does succeed, hundreds of nations will line up to be allies with China. This will happen overnight.
This is why no countries really have the balls to be real enemies with China right now. Because if China does succeed, China and its hundreds of allies will crash the crap out of these countries.
So China has no real enemies or real allies. All the countries are holding an attitude of “wait and see”.
Throughout history, the Law of Lonely Challenger never fails. Throughout history, the successful challengers always get allies overnight.And also, throughout history, the challengers who failed always ended up with piles of crap on their faces. Just take a look at Germany, Russia, Japan for examples.
China is the single country in the world whose top goal is to replace the US as the leading country. China has been talking about the Rejuvenation of China since the fall of Qing. When the US gained global hegemony, this Rejuvenation naturally became to replace the US.
In the current world, the international relations is , in its core, the relations between the US and China.
Behind every nation that has a problem with China, there is an onmipresent country called the United States of America. This includes the Taiwan question.
China has disputes with many nations around it. But these nations, like most of the nations in the world, have very strong economical ties with China. So they are not “enemies” in the traditional sense.
China historically stays out of other nations affairs. As a result there is very little outright hatred of China. Most are weary of being taken advantage of but all see China as a huge economic opportunity and trading partner.
You know, some countries are really suffering under USA rule, it would really be a huge improvement to align with China.
In other words, American allies are not actually friends, but simply because they are afraid of the United States.
They became allies of the United States not because they were attracted by the “high morality” of the United States, but because they were afraid of America’s abuse of power.
Russia Eliminated a Group of US Soldiers and Officers who Shelled KURSK with The Help of HIMARS MLRS
Would China go to war for Iran?
This question is important now more than ever.
US warships are closing in on the middle east, as a deterrence to Iran, and Iran wants to respond to Israel because Israel is committing a genocide in Gaza. The most recent provocation from Israel, which happened two weeks ago, was the attack on Iranian soil, when they were hosting a foreign leader as a state guest.
Let’s say Iran attacks Israel and manages to cause real harm. Then, Israel will declare war on Iran, and like a puppet, the US will support Israel by invading Iran.
If that happens, will China go to war for Iran?
As much as I want China to go to war for Iran, I think China will do what’s best for their citizens — they won’t go to war.
There are two things China may do:
First is supplying weapons to Iran. It will win China support from the Muslim world. It will also be a chance for China to demonstrate the superiority of Chinese technology. They could do it secretly or openly.
The second, which would be the wiser choice but harder to pull off, is to collaborate with Palestinian sympathisers all over the world to impose sanctions on the US. If a significant chunk of the world’s countries join in, the US will fall.
It won’t be wise for China to impose unilateral sanctions on the US.
Even if China doesn’t support Iran in any ways, a US involvement in an Iran-Israel war is a win for the global south and by extension, a win for China.
In a way, this conflict is a great opportunity for China to demonstrate leadership in the world and their commitment to defending the world’s nations from US oppression.
What countries will you never visit again?
Saudi Arabia.
My wife joined me on a business trip. We picked a hotel that had fantastic ammenities — only to find that virtually none were offered to my wife, simply because she was a woman.
Men only.
The pool? Men only. The spa? Men only. Restaurants? Men only.
Men only.
Yes, this means my wife couldn’t grab lunch by herself while I was working. No, this was not during Ramadan.
Men only.
My wife had to cover up and largely make sure that she did not have any sort of interaction with men, whatsoever.
We had enough after the first day, and re-booked our hotel with an American chain, where my wife was allowed to order something to eat on her own.
I want to end this on a high note. After leaving Saudi Arabia, we went on to Singapore.
Men and women are allowed in hotel pools in Singapore.
We both loved Singapore. The hospitality was fantastic. The city is amazing. Yes, Singapore is a conservative place, and I’m well aware of it’s strict laws. Still, it didn’t feel anywhere near as punitive as Saudi Arabia. We could share a spa experience. Amazing.
My wife could go sightseeing, or shopping or take herself out to lunch. She didn’t have to be sequestered in her room, simply because she is a woman.
Singapore. 10/10 would recommend.
What, if any, are potential effects on Imane Khelif’s lawsuit over alleged cyberbullying during the Paris Olympics?
Bully is WRONG. But …
Let say her gender is truly questionable. Then the question has become …
is hitting/boxing a biological female correct?
I do not know Khelif’s case. I had the following post:
In the 2024 Olympics, there were “questionable” female boxers against biological females. Intl Boxing Assoc pushes IOC to think deeper “what a true female is”. Birth certificate is not reliable. Why not? What about chromosome or gender hormone?
Let us look at 4 scenarios.
1, gender change due to accident
A person was born male. During male circumcision when he was a baby, his gender organ was accidentally cut off. His doctor then made him a female on his birth certificate. His parents raised him as a female. At puberty, he started to take female hormone.
But he was never a true female biologically. He cannot get pregnant (dont argue some females cant get pregnant either). Despite hormone, his voice still cracked. I dont know his bodily build.
If he ever competes in Olympics, he can easily get gold medal because of his (male) strength.
Worse, he can legally hit/box a female & endanger the health/brain of the female. Do we want to see this “legal” beating of females?
My point: to determine a person’s gender by BIRTH CERTIFICATE is not reliable.
2, gender change due to birth defect
Some are born with defect eg the male organ is too small. The doctor & parents thus remove it & make him a female.
Birth defects happen to some people eg limbs not same length, 2 heads, 4 legs & more. Doctors do not remove the extra head or legs. These people accept their birth defect. Why not accepting a defective gender organ (unless the defect threatens the person’s life)?
As said in (1), unless the person is proven to be female by scientific means, the person is still physically (strength) a male.
3, Some are born with both sets of gender organs.
I suggest to leave the way it is unless the defect threatens the person’s life. Leave it until the person is old enough to decide for himself/herself.
Humans always make mistakes. Let us leave it to Mother Nature/Creator. Teach the person to accept birth defects like the 2-headed person does.
What makes parents & doctor as a human think they are wiser than Nature/Creator?
What makes parents & doctor think they can decide for another human being?
Is this a form of child abuse?
By the way, circumcision (both male & female) is considered child abuse in the 21st century.
4, Are transgender female same as a non-trans?
For the SAME height, male in general has longer arms & feet than female ie trans has longer arms.
Non-trans female has a rounder/bigger bottom. Something a male can do but not a female.
Has research compare the muscle mass, strength & balancing between trans & non-trans?
Question
Chromosome XX is female & XY is male. Is this reliable?
What about deciding the gender by the amount of male & female hormone in a person?
EU confesses ‘our prosperity was based on China & Russia’: cheap energy, low-paid labor, big market
What do Japanese and Korean people think of China?
Pretty chill.
China’s a pretty big country, and most (educated) Koreans know that. They also recognise the fact that, China’s quite different from us, although we share a lot of culture and history.
First off, China in itself is, once again, EXTREMELY LARGE. China has the world’s largest population, ranging in at somewhere around 1.3~1.5 billion, compared to the 50 million of the ROK, which pales in contrast. This means that China inevitably has a lot more going on over there, and we can’t exactly categorise the entire Chinese population into one stereotype.
Take, for example, the common misconception that all Chinese people are poor people who don’t shower and eat weird food. Sure, some people may not have the privilege of daily showers, but that doesn’t mean that the entire population hates hygiene. It’s just that if, say, a tiny 10% of the population was in poverty, that’s still a whopping 15 million, 3 times the entire population of Korea. We statistically KNOW that China isn’t like that, but what we actually SEE, is rather different.
And on another point, I personally say that China has influenced a lot of NEA’s culture, including both Korea and Japan. (And Vietnam) Not to say that we outright copied China, but there’s a lot of visible evidence that we, at one time, used to view China as a father/big brother country, with the Opium wars triggering the slow collapse of that kind of viewpoint.
Back to the present though, we see China right now as a… rival? Can’t really find the right term here, but to put it in other words;
China has a lot of shared industries with us, namely the IT industry and general production. (Samsung, Hwawei and the sort)
China sided with North Korea in the Korean War, which a lot of our elders still regret.
However, we do recognise that China is an enormous powerhouse and will probably catch up enough to completely smother companies like Samsung and LG. (Within the next decade or so)
We also know that a large portion of our economy consists of trade with China. When the THAAD problem was a thing and China smacked us with the sanction hammer, our economy quite literally fell over for while.
In the end though, I’m personally more of a “Asian Union like the European Union” kind of guy, and I envision the day when we can finally overcome our differences and grow together.
(End Note: None of these apply to the uneducated racists/extreme nationalists)
妄言多謝, Jasper
Pierogi
Pierogi are dumplings that are delicious fried and served with sour cream. These are also good filled with fresh blueberries mixed with sugar for a super dessert.
Ingredients
Dough
- 5 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 3 large eggs
- 1/2 cup (1 stick) butter softened
- 3/4 to 1 1/4 cups water
Filling
- 2 to 3 medium onions, chopped
- 1/2 to 1 cup (1 to 2 sticks) butter
- 6 medium potatoes, peeled, boiled and mashed or put through a ricer
- 1 (8 ounce) package farmers cheese
- Salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
Dough
- Mix the flour and salt in a food processor. Add the eggs, butter and water (starting with 3/4 cups if the dough is dry, adding 1 tablespoon at a time until the dough is smooth and elastic, adding up to an additional 3/4 cups if needed) pulsing until kneaded by machine and a ball is formed, or you can use a mixer to do this process.
- Remove dough from bowl and let sit in a warm place for about 15 to 30 minutes.
Filling
- Melt butter in a large fry pan and add onions. Sauté until onions are lightly browned; set aside.
- Combine potatoes, cheese, salt, pepper and as much of the sautéed onions as you like, reserving the rest to toss with cooked pierogi. Taste for seasoning. Set aside.
- Divide dough into 3 to 4 equal portions. On a lightly floured surface, roll one portion of dough out to about 1/8-inch thickness. Cut a 3 inch round circle with biscuit cutter. Place one tablespoon of filling on one side of each round. Using your finger, moisten one side of dough with some water. Pick up the circle and fold dough over filling and pinch edges together to firmly seal the filling (this is critical – if you don’t pinch the dough together tightly, you will have gaps and when you boil the pierogi, the filling will come out).
- Place the filled pierogi onto a lightly floured baking pan; cover until you finish with remaining dough and filling.
- In a large wide pot, fill with water and bring to a boil over medium to high heat, when water is at a rolling boil, drop 5 to 6 pierogi and cook while stirring gently with a wooden spoon until they float to the top of pot. Cook a couple minutes longer.
- Remove with a slotted spoon, toss with reserved sautéed onions, if desired, and place in a warmed deep glass bowl.
- If desired, saute the pierogi briefly in a small amount of equal amounts of olive oil and butter (as shown in photo).
- Serve warm with some sour cream on the side.