The only good thing about this world is that’s it’s a kitty world.
How do you bring a nervous cat into a new home?
Patience, grasshopper.
Tess, pictured below, was put outside by the meth heads next door when she was just a few months old and no longer a cute kitten. Her ‘owners’ would put a handful of Kit and Kaboodle on their porch twice a day (please NEVER buy that food, the first three ingredients are corn, it’s disgusting) , and that was it. No food bowl, no water, no love.
Tess (they called her Princess, and I said fuck that) was an extremely shy cat who was easily frightened and spent most of her time hiding under a nearby house. I regularly put food out for local strays as there are so many of them, and she soon realized she could come to my front steps for better food.
When Tess was 8 or so, the meth heads moved out and left her behind. It took months of feeding her and talking to her to finally get close enough to pet her, and one day I had a cat carrier with me and I scooped her up, kept her isolated in her own room until I my vet could test her for kitty aids and leukemia (so there was no risk to my other cats), and then began the slow integration into my home.
This was Tess in May of 2015. I could finally get close enough to pet her and take her picture, but you can see the wariness and sadness in her eyes. At this point the House next door was empty.
Shortly after that I grabbed her and brought her inside. She was filthy and covered in fleas.
And this was Tess just two months later in July 2015. Amazing what a little love, good food and a safe place to sleep can do.
It took me 2 or 3 months to go from being a face behind a screen door to actually touching her, and about as long again for her to realize my home was now her home too.
And now I’m going through that all over again with a skinny, battle scarred little cat who comes to me for food but still won’t let me pet him, even after 6 months. I haven’t named it and don’t know if it’s a boy or a girl, but I’m hoping I can help make its life better some day soon.
The above photo was taken a month ago and I still can’t get any closer. I think this little one has been through rough times.
Be patient. It can be frustrating at times, but the reward of knowing you helped save a life, even a small and insignificant one, is priceless.
Now about the Chinese “one child policy”…
Yeah. The policy ended ten years ago, but suddenly my Quora feed is all about a million questions about this 12-year old policy. Then when I initially complained questioned repeated themselves, but changed to the “new two-child” policy. Eh?
What the Hell?
If you look at the date when the questions were asked, it seems that there’s some jackass, just pumping out these questions over a period of every five minutes for the last four days.
Or, perhaps a ‘Bot was set on “auto harass”.
Western social media is a real mess. I don’t even know where to begin.
Lets’ continue on…
Tears of the Sun: Killing the rebels responsible for the massacre
I can’t believe this movie has negative reviews. Seen this so many times and I’m never bored, and god did I cry at this scene, not ashamed to admit it.
Cats are in control
The Numbers Are Screaming That A Giant Tsunami Of U.S. Layoffs Has Now Begun
We knew that economic conditions were deteriorating, but this is getting ridiculous. According to Challenger, Gray & Christmas, the number of layoffs in November was 127 percent higher than it was in October. That isn’t just a trend, that is an avalanche. And compared to the same month in 2021, the number of layoffs in November was 417 percent higher. Please take a moment and let that figure sink in. A 417 percent increase is a colossal shift. Essentially, these numbers are telling us that a giant tsunami of U.S. layoffs has now begun, and I believe that things will get even worse in 2023 and beyond. Our leaders have pursued policies that have been extremely destructive to the U.S. economy, and many of us have been warning that a day of reckoning would arrive. Well, it appears that a day of reckoning for America’s workers is now here, and the months ahead are not going to be pretty.
There is no way to spin these numbers to make them look good. Major layoff announcements are popping up in the news every single day, and what we have witnessed over the past several weeks is nothing short of staggering…
The pace of job cuts by U.S. employers accelerated in November, with the number of layoffs climbing 127% from just one month ago, according to a report published on Thursday by Challenger, Gray & Christmas.
Companies announced 76,835 job cuts in November, led by the technology sector, the analysis showed. That is 417% higher than the same time one year ago.
And these numbers don’t even include the latest layoffs that have just happened.
As our new housing crash continues to accelerate, Wells Fargo has decided that now is the time to lay off “hundreds more mortgage employees”…
Wells Fargo & Co. cut hundreds more mortgage employees Thursday, the latest in a series of reductions across the industry after higher interest rates brought the pandemic-era home-lending boom to halt.
The reductions took place across the country, according to people familiar with the plans, who asked not to be identified discussing private information. The latest wave comes amid ongoing Federal Reserve rate hikes to tame persistent inflation, pushing mortgage rates toward their highest levels in two decades. Refinancings have dried up and some potential homebuyers have been sidelined in the process.
Normally, big companies would be compassionate enough to at least wait until after the holiday season to let people go.
But now times have changed and a lot of these large firms are really feeling a sense of urgency to reduce payrolls.
Shockingly, that even includes FedEx…
FedEx Freight, the nation’s largest less-than-truckload carrier, will begin furloughing an undetermined number of drivers on Sunday, the FedEx Corp. unit confirmed Wednesday.
The voluntary furloughs will run until March 6, with drivers getting a guarantee to return to work, the unit confirmed.
FedEx Freight is offering drivers a $300 weekly incentive to accept a furlough. The total payments will be made when the drivers return to work, according to the FedEx unit.
Have you ever heard of FedEx getting rid of workers prior to the holidays before?
I haven’t either.
This is nuts.
If we are seeing this many layoffs now, what will things look like once the holidays are over?
At this point, even the Federal Reserve is admitting that more layoffs are coming. In fact, Fed officials are now estimating that about a million Americans will lose their jobs by the end of 2023…
Updated projections from the Fed’s meeting showed unemployment rising to 4.4% by the end of next year, up from the current rate of 3.5%. That is significantly higher than in June when policymakers saw the jobless rate inching up to 3.7%. That could mean roughly 1 million Americans lose their jobs between now and the end of 2023.
Of course Fed projections are almost always way too optimistic.
If Fed projections were accurate, we would still be in a low inflation environment right now.
Let’s be honest. If we get to next December and only a million Americans have lost their jobs, we should have a massive national celebration because that would definitely represent the sort of “soft landing” that Jerome Powell has been hoping for.
Needless to say, that sort of wildly optimistic scenario is not likely to play out.
As I discussed a few days ago, 41 percent of all small business owners in America could not pay rent in the month of November.
When more than four out of every 10 small businesses cannot even pay rent, your economy is in serious trouble.
I warned that we would soon be facing a severe downturn if the Fed kept aggressively hiking interest rates, and many others issued similar warnings.
But the Fed didn’t listen to any of us.
In fact, Fed officials keep telling us that rates are going to go even higher.
So what will their excuse be when the economy completely crashes?
Just like SBF, perhaps they will tell us that they are “deeply sorry about what happened”.
But will the millions of Americans that will soon lose their jobs be in any mood to accept such apologies?
Losing a good paying job that you absolutely love can be absolutely devastating.
Sadly, countless Americans are going to have to endure the sudden loss of a job in the months ahead, and no amount of babbling from our leaders will make the pain go away.
What is the best toy you have ever gotten for your cats?
Cardboard boxes . . .
Cats love them . . .
They hide in them . . scratch at them . . . listen to you scratch at them from inside the box with your fingernails while they’re outside . . . then leap inside to see what all the noise was about.
And they’ll do it all over again the next day . . .
If you have a new kitten, as I’ve had often, save the cardboard boxes that accumulate in your daily life and leave them around on the floor about the house.
Cut a few cat-sized holes in them with a pocket knife, a cat window or two, at cat eye level, or leave them as is . . .
You, and they, have never had such low cost fun . . .
As reported in Reuters in Nov 2022, people in Shanghai, China chant “Down with the Communist Party and Xi Jinping”. Why do they do that?
Most of them, the so called protesters, speak with very strong HK accent.
The US sent CIA agents and Ukrainian Nazis to HK to teach locals how to riot.
It’s just the 1989 once again.
The US has been trying what they had been doing during the cold war, because they believe that’s how they won it.
“It feels like that CIA is just pretenting to work hard in order to spend its budget at the end of year. The localization work is really bad by sending a bunch of HK accent people to fool the locals. It just doesn’t work in such localized city like Chengdu.
It’s time to develop some local rogues. It would solve job positions for some young people. @US embassy in China, thumb up to you.”
Chengdu Branch:
- They yelled “(we) want freedom” in mandarin. Local people yelled back with Sichuan accent saying “(you) want your mothers ass freedom”.
- Leader of the protest has very strong HK accent. A aunt said while recording: “why HK again? Can’t they be from somewhere else?”
- Locals surrounded the protesters and began to sing Unity Is Power. Protesters couldn’t follow up.
- Rioters went to a community and yelled “(we) want lifting lockdown!”, residents in the buildings yelled back saying “lifting your mothers’s ass lockdown! It’s none of your fucking business!”
- Rioters yelled “freedom!”. Locals yelled back “viva la commnuist party of China!”
- Chengdu netizens speeches: 1) John Smith, “Asking me to cooperate? How? Even my wife won’t give me freedom. Why would I ask for it from the country? You think too much.” 2) Jane Smith, “They fucking write “women lives matter” in Chengdu. Do some background check, in Chengdu it’s “henpecked husband lives matter”.
It’s a show for the westerners.
SOME people in the west would be like “OH! IT’S THE END OF CCP’S EVIL REGIME!”
Just to be clear about 1 thing: We do have many complains against the Communist Party of China, but that doesn’t mean most of us wanting a regime change.
What we want is the CPC to revolute itself, and do better.
Putin just scored a KNOCKOUT blow to Europe and the WEF
"The economy of imaginary wealth is being inevitably replaced by the economy of real and hard assets." - Vladimir Putin
The U.S. Economy Just Took A Very Dark Turn
The road ahead certainly does not look promising. For much of 2022, there has been a lot of debate about whether or not the U.S. economy is in a recession, is headed for a recession, or is about to turn in a positive direction. Unfortunately, virtually all of the numbers are now telling us that economic conditions are starting to deteriorate quite rapidly as we approach the beginning of 2023, and even rabidly optimistic business leaders such as Jeff Bezos are warning us to prepare for harder times. So now the framework for the debate over our economic future has shifted. At this point, there are some that expect a relatively minor recession and then a recovery, and there are those such as myself that expect immense pain in the years ahead. There are so many warning signs that indicate that the entire system is starting to crack and crumble, but a lot of the “experts” are still hoping that our leaders will find a way to turn things around somehow.
On Wednesday, those of us that closely watch the economic numbers received quite a shock.
The latest figure for the Chicago Purchasing Managers’ Index came in way, way below expectations, and that is really bad news.
If you are not familiar with the Chicago PMI, here is a pretty good definition…
The Chicago Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) determines the economic health of the manufacturing sector in Chicago region. A reading above 50 indicates expansion of the manufacturing sector; a reading below indicates contraction. The Chicago PMI can be of some help in forecasting the ISM manufacturing PMI.
Economists were expecting the survey to come in at around 47, but instead the final number came in at just 37.2…
In a massive downside surprise, the Chicago PMI survey just printed 37.2 (vs 47.0 expectations), plunging to its lowest level since the peak of the COVID lockdowns in 2020. This was below the lowest estimate of 25 economists surveyed.
In the entire history of the survey, the Chicago PMI has only plunged below 40 during times when the U.S. economy has been in a recession.
Other data points are also telling us that the U.S. economy is clearly trending in the wrong direction…
-Consumer confidence has declined for two months in a row.
-U.S. home prices have now fallen for three months in a row.
-Existing home sales have now dropped for nine months in a row.
The housing industry has not been in this much of a mess since the last housing crash.
According to the NAR, home sales were way down all over the nation last month…
“From a year ago, all four regions had double-digit declines in sales in October. The West had the most significant dip at 37.5%, followed by the South, which fell 27.2%. The Midwest decreased by 25.5%, followed by the Northeast, down 23.0%.”
And if the Federal Reserve continues to hike interest rates, things are only going to get worse.
Even now, we are beginning to see layoffs in the industry that once would have been unimaginable. For example, Reverse Mortgage Funding “laid off 80% of its staff on Tuesday”…
One week after deciding to “pause” all of its mortgage originations, Reverse Mortgage Funding LLC (RMF) laid off 80% of its staff on Tuesday.
Various social media posts by former employees maintained that the company, based in Bloomfield, N.J., had closed, but that is not the case, according to someone familiar with Tuesday’s events who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matter.
Countless others will be laid off in the months ahead.
Of course other industries are starting to feel quite a bit of pain as well. Earlier today, I was surprised to learn that CNN has decided that a large wave of layoffs has become necessary…
Cable news giant CNN will be hit by layoffs Wednesday and Thursday, part of continued cost-cutting by parent company Warner Bros. Discovery, which is trying to integrate the legacy WarnerMedia businesses (like CNN) and the Discovery businesses.
In a memo Wednesday morning, CNN CEO Chris Licht wrote that the channel will inform paid contributors Wednesday as part of a new reporting strategy, with full-time employees being informed of their status on Thursday.
I don’t wish ill on anyone, but the truth is that CNN brought this on themselves.
CNN has lied over and over again in recent years, and those lies have deeply hurt millions upon millions of people.
Elsewhere, the stunning layoffs in the tech industry just continue to accelerate. On Wednesday, DoorDash announced that it would be eliminating approximately 1,250 corporate jobs…
DoorDash on Wednesday said it will lay off about 1,250 corporate employees after growing its team too quickly during the pandemic, making it the latest tech company to cut staff in recent weeks.
The cuts represent about 6% of DoorDash’s staff, according to a company spokesperson.
Just within the past few weeks, we have seen so many prominent tech companies lay off workers.
In fact, CNBC is reporting that over 50,000 tech workers lost their jobs during the month of November alone…
Within weeks, mass layoffs primarily in tech, including at Twitter, Meta, Amazon, Salesforce, HP, Lyft, Doordash and more, have flooded headlines. More than 50,000 workers in tech lost their jobs in November, up from 12,600 in October, according to Layoffs.fyi.
Sadly, most American workers are not in a position to handle a job loss.
As the Republicans in the House of Representatives recently noted, more than 60 percent of the country is currently living paycheck to paycheck…
Over 60% of Americans are living paycheck to paycheck in Joe Biden’s economy.
Nearly 40% of workers are considering a second job to stay afloat.
When you are living paycheck to paycheck, it can be extremely difficult to keep paying the bills once you lose a job.
And in the months ahead, we are going to see many more people suddenly get the axe.
Our leaders have pursued policies that have made the coming economic nightmare inevitable, and now we are all going to pay a very great price for their foolishness.
Prince & The New Power Generation – Cream (Extended Version)
Hey today's kids, This is what we call a MASTERPIECE !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
How will the 50 Cent Army explain away the protests in China?
Both my brother and my brother-in-law died of Covid this year. I spent three months in the hospital on a ventilator and in a coma because of Covid. I recently started a new nursing job and toured the Covid ward last week. It broke my heart. So quite honestly, people who protest China’s zero Covid policies anger me. China was right to have a zero Covid policy, but some cities didn’t handle it as well as they could’ve. That doesn’t mean zero Covid should end. I’d rather see them just improve their ability to implement it.
I’ve made people in the US angry because of how strongly I feel about it. I think it’s utterly irresponsible to leave your home if you have Covid. And don’t bother trying to change my mind in the comments. You literally won’t. Because your opinions on freedom and democracy won’t bring my younger brother back or my brother-in-law. Or the millions of others who died so needlessly.
That being said, people in China have the right to protest according to their constitution. And their government listened. Which is more than I can say for government in my country. In fact, as Khengchat Ng pointed out the other day, the fact that the Chinese people protest at all is proof that they aren’t oppressed automatons with no voice. Clearly they don’t fear their government like the West always makes out that they do.
If they are indeed rioting as seen on social media, then it is an indication that the Chinese are free to voice their views, as opposed to being automatons blindly following the government.—Khengchat Ng
I do, however, believe their legitimate protests were hijacked by non-mainlanders. Reports surfaced instructing people to contact their embassy in the event of an arrest—Chinese citizens wouldn’t need to do that. Chinese citizens also don’t say “CCP” or “CPC”. It’s “the Party” or “the grand Party” in Chinese. Chinese citizens also don’t use traditional Chinese characters, but simplified instead. So while some protesting may have been legitimate, much of what was shown on international news were some puppets shilling for the West. Whether you think I’m a wumao or not, I wish we would learn to stay out of the affairs of sovereign nations.
Is Media Lying About China COVID Protests?
“Is the media lying about…” – Yes
Gloomy December: Manufacturing Orders From China Are Down 40 Percent As Companies Brace For A Brutal Holiday Season
We continue to get more evidence that the U.S. economy is really slowing down. As you will see below, the amount of stuff that we are ordering from manufacturers in China is plunging dramatically. I have never seen a dip of this magnitude before, and I think that it is a really bad sign for 2023. Based on all of the economic numbers that have been released in recent weeks, I anticipate that economic conditions in 2023 and beyond will be worse than anything that we have experienced since the Great Recession. So I would encourage you to enjoy the next few weeks while you still can, because once 2023 arrives we will want to brace ourselves for an extremely harsh economic environment.
Normally, U.S. consumers have an insatiable appetite for cheap plastic goods from China.
But now something has changed.
According to CNBC, manufacturing orders from China have fallen by a whopping 40 percent, and as a result many Chinese factories will be closing much earlier in January than usual…
U.S. manufacturing orders in China are down 40 percent, according to the latest CNBC Supply Chain Heat Map data. As a result of the decrease in orders, Worldwide Logistics tells CNBC it is expecting Chinese factories to shut down two weeks earlier than usual for the Chinese Lunar New Year — Chinese New Year’s Eve falls on Jan. 21 next year. The seven days after the holiday are considered a national holiday.
“Many of the manufacturers will be closed in early January for the holiday, which is much earlier than last year,” Monaghan said.
As with so many other numbers that we have been getting lately, there is no way to possibly spin this to make it look good.
What we are facing is truly “a collapse in demand”, and as a result container freight rates are absolutely plummeting…
Carriers have been executing on an active capacity management strategy by announcing more blank sailings and suspending services to balance supply with demand. “The unrelenting decline in container freight rates from Asia, caused by a collapse in demand, is compelling ocean carriers to blank more sailings than ever before as vessel utilization hits new lows,” said Joe Monaghan, CEO of Worldwide Logistics Group.
The bottom line is that U.S. consumers are simply not buying as much stuff as retailers originally anticipated.
And survey after survey has shown that Americans plan to spend less during the holiday season this year. Here is just one recent example…
Inflation is weighing heavily on the holidays this year.
Roughly half of shoppers will buy fewer things due to higher prices, and more than one-third said they will rely on coupons to cut down on the cost, according to a recent survey of more than 1,000 adults by RetailMeNot.
Of course consumers over in western Europe are suffering right now as well.
In fact, economic conditions are deteriorating even faster over there.
If you can believe it, one recent survey found that approximately two-thirds of all adults in the UK “are worried that they will not be able to afford Christmas dinner”…
Two-thirds of adults are worried that they will not be able to afford Christmas dinner, according to a survey.
The survey, commissioned by the Salvation Army, calculated the cost of Christmas dinner at £7.50 per head but – as the price of food is continuing to rise – the cost has increased since the survey was carried out on 22 October.
All over the western world, we are facing an unprecedented cost of living crisis.
Inflation has been rising much faster than our paychecks have, and that is causing a tremendous amount of financial pain.
Meanwhile, a lot of people have seen the value of their investments go down substantially over the past 12 months.
I really feel badly for those that were heavily invested in crypto. There are many tokens that have “lost more than 70% of their value”, and the collapse of FTX has raised questions “about whether crypto has a future”…
Already reeling from the so-called crypto winter, investors were dealt a major blow with the high-profile collapse of Sam Bankman-Fried’s FTX exchange in early November, which sent Bitcoin tumbling. To top it off, BlackRock Chief Executive Larry Fink said this week that he expects most crypto companies will fold after FTX’s demise. A Schwab index tracking crypto-linked stocks is coming off its worst month since June, and is down 63% this year.
“Questions about whether crypto has a future have become prevalent after a year during which many tokens lost more than 70% of their value and the collapse of FTX has exacerbated a crisis of confidence that had started in the spring,” said Mark Palmer, an analyst at BTIG LLC.
At the same time, home values have been falling and falling.
As I have covered in previous articles, U.S. homeowners lost a record high 1.3 trillion dollars in home equity during the third quarter alone.
But at least the latest employment number that the government gave us was good, right?
Actually, it wasn’t so good. It turns out that the Household and Establishment surveys are telling two completely different stories. Zero Hedge has posted an absolutely outstanding article that breaks this down in great detail…
Recall that back in August, September, and October we showed that a stark divergence had opened between the Household and Establishment surveys that comprise the monthly jobs report, and since March the former has been stagnant while the latter has been rising every single month. In addition to that, full-time jobs were plunging while part-time jobs were surging and the number of multiple-jobholders soared.
Fast forward to today when the inconsistencies not only continue to grow, but have become downright grotesque.
I would encourage you to read the entire article. Since March, the gap between the Household and Establishment surveys has ballooned to nearly 2.7 million workers, and some are suggesting that this is being done for political purposes…
What is even more perplexing, is that despite the continued rise in nonfarm payrolls, the Household survey continues to telegraph growing weakness, and as of Nov 30, the gap that opened in March has since grown to a whopping 2.7 million “workers” which may or may not exist anywhere besides the spreadsheet model of some BLS (or is that BLM) political activist.
Of course the truth is that the employment market is not in good shape.
According to Challenger, Gray & Christmas, the number of layoffs in November 2022 was 417 percent higher than it was in November 2021.
A tsunami of layoffs has begun, and I expect to see a whole lot more in the months ahead.
So it is quite likely that this will be a really gloomy month, but I expect that 2023 will be even gloomier.
Elon Drops BOMBSHELL about secret government Twitter partnership program
I am amazed how few people know about the Twitter Files. I was looking forward to conversing with people about them and was surprised how many I had to educate about what is going on before being able to celebrate their release.
If you adopted your cat from a shelter, how did your cat signal you that he/she was the right cat for you?
I adopted Sheneneh from a house full of college students that had taken in the cats from the next-door-neighbor-cat-lady retired to Greece. She took every cat that could be herded into carriers home with her. (she had like 70 cats).
Sheneneh’s mama had run and eluded capture. She gave birth next door in the college kids’ backyard. They took her in. They took in her, her litter and a son from the previous litter who stayed with his mama and tended to the litter he just adored.
Every cat was calico except one.
Sheneneh stuck out like a sore thumb being a black tuxie. Of all the cats Sheneneh came right over to my chair and immediately did her little squirm around on the floor dance at my feet. It’s her expression of uncontainable joy – a feeling she gave me every day for 19 years.❤
Who Is Killing The Crypto Millionaires?
Are some of the cryptocurrency industry’s most important pioneers being targeted by someone? We just learned that a 53-year-old cryptocurrency billionaire named Vyacheslav Taran has died, and he is the third big name to suddenly meet his maker in recent weeks. So is this just one giant coincidence, or is there some common denominator that links all three of them? There is so much that we don’t know right now, but it is interesting to note that all three of these deaths have happened at a time when the cryptocurrency community is going through an unprecedented amount of turmoil. The collapse of FTX is threatening the legitimacy of the entire industry, and many that were once crypto millionaires on paper have had their fortunes completely wiped out.
Vyacheslav Taran died when the helicopter that he was riding in suddenly slammed into a hillside. He was the co-founder of a trading platform known as Libertex, and his involvement in the cryptocurrency industry had made him a very wealthy man.
Unfortunately for Taran, he won’t be able to spend any more of that wealth because his life is now over…
A Russian billionaire has become the third top cryptocurrency trader to die suddenly in recent weeks.
Vyacheslav Taran, 53, the co-founder of trading and investing platform Libertex, died after his helicopter mysteriously crashed in a resort town near Monaco.
The vehicle plummeted on November 25 afternoon, killing Mr Taran, who had lived in Monaco for a decade, as well as a veteran pilot.
As we have seen so many times over the years, riding in helicopters can be extremely dangerous.
And it is interesting to note that “another passenger allegedly cancelled last minute”…
The finance titan was flying with an experienced pilot, 35, from the city on the shores of Lake Geneva after another passenger allegedly cancelled last minute.
The single-engine light helicopter Eurocopter EC130 operated by Monacair collided with a hillside near Eze village at around 2pm, Monaco Life reported
Hopefully we will find out the identity of the “other passenger” that decided not to go at the last minute .
That may give us a clue about what really happened.
In the end, this may have just been a tragic accident, or Taran may have been targeted for a reason that does not involve cryptocurrency.
A lot of prominent Russians have been dying lately, and so this could just be another instance where wealthy Russians are being targeted.
We just don’t know.
But what we do know is that another co-founder of a prominent cryptocurrency company was suddenly found dead last week.
It is being reported that 30-year-old Tiantian Kullander died unexpectedly while he was sleeping…
Tiantian Kullander, co-founder of Hong Kong-based digital asset company Amber Group, died unexpectedly last week in his sleep. He was 30 years old.
The company confirmed the news in a statement, saying that Tiantian, also known as “TT,” had “passed away unexpectedly in his sleep on November 23, 2022.”
Once again, it is certainly possible that this death could have absolutely nothing to do with the cryptocurrency industry.
Throughout 2022, lots of seemingly healthy young people have been dropping dead, and Kullander may just be another to add to the list.
But just like Taran, Kullander was one of the cryptocurrency industry’s most important pioneers…
“Besides co-founding Amber and building it into a multi-billion fintech unicorn, TT sat on the Board of Fnatic (one of the world’s most successful e-sports organizations) and founded KeeperDAO (the first on-chain liquidity underwriter) before giving it back to its community,” the company’s statement continued. “TT was a devoted husband, a loving father and a fierce friend. His passing is a tragedy and our thoughts and prayers are with his family. He is survived by his wife and their beloved son. We kindly request that you respect their privacy during this difficult time.”
It is often said that two is a coincidence, but three is a trend.
Well, there is one more mysterious cryptocurrency industry death that I would like to discuss in this article.
On October 28th, 29-year-old Nikolai Mushegian was found dead on a Puerto Rico beach.
In this particular case, Mushegian actually predicted ahead of time that he would soon be killed…
A brilliant young cryptocurrency pioneer named Nikolai Mushegian tweeted on Oct. 28 that intelligence agencies were going to murder him — and was found dead on a Puerto Rico beach hours later.
“CIA and Mossad and pedo elite are running some kind of sex trafficking entrapment blackmail ring out of Puerto Rico and Caribbean islands,” Mushegian, a developer of blockchain-based decentralized finance platforms who wanted to end global banking corruption, tweeted at 4:57 a.m. “They are going to frame me with a laptop planted by my ex [girlfriend] who was a spy. They will torture me to death.”
Of course we can’t actually prove that shadowy forces killed him.
All we know is that just hours after his ominous tweet his body was found in the waves on Ashford Beach. Interestingly, he still “had his wallet on him”…
The 29-year-old then left his $6 million beach house in the luxe Condado area of San Juan, Puerto Rico, for a walk. A little after 9 a.m., a surfer off Ashford Beach, a spot considered so rife with riptides that local hotels warn against ocean swimming, discovered Mushegian’s body in the waves. He was wearing his clothes and had his wallet on him, sources told The Post.
If some criminals jumped him on the beach, they would have certainly taken his wallet.
But that doesn’t necessarily mean that he was murdered.
He could have simply drowned after going for a swim, and there is also the possibility that he could have killed himself.
According to those that knew him, he had very serious mental health issues that he was dealing with, and it appears that he was also a heavy drug user…
A person who knew Mushegian very well for years until they had a falling-out two years ago said that the developer was “very very smart” but also suffered from extreme bouts of paranoia.
“He had mental problems,” said the source, who spoke on condition of anonymity. “He saw a psychiatrist at times. He smoked a lot of pot. A tremendous amount.”
Ultimately, we may never know if all three of these deaths are connected somehow.
But I find it very interesting that all three of these men were key pioneers in the industry.
And now they are all gone.
Life is so short, and for some it ends far sooner than they were anticipating.
What A Feeling | The Final Audition | Flashdance
I had tears in my eyes watching this. What a fantastic performance. R.I.P Irene Cara.
Relic Hunting – Discover a Piece of History
By Candy L Lindsey
Besides coin shooting, gold detecting, or the many other things you can do with your metal detector, there is a large group of people who take their metal detector out looking for old stuff. Not just any old stuff, but memorabilia from the past. This is called relic hunting.
If you’re thinking about doing some relic hunting, be careful. Relic Hunting can become addictive. Finding items from long ago, like a button from a confederate soldier’s jacket or a belt buckle from the Union army’s General is so rewarding. There is such a thrill that you feel when finding these items. It can be absolutely mind-blowing.
If you’re a romantic like me you imagine images of the men and women who fought on this land; the horses and oxen and cattle that came along with the settlers. The farmers that tilled the ground and the merchants that sold the goods. It takes you back to a historical time. It brings back long-forgotten relics from a time of conflict or a time of hope. Recalling a time when settlers struggled to make a life on the new frontier. It’s not just an old button or hat pin, or a piece of metal used or worn; sewn or hammered by our ancestors and the people who settled and built our country. It’s a piece of history, and you found it.
In every country in this beautiful world, items have been left behind, lost or forgotten only to be found again and remembered. To me, it’s finding a bit of history and holding it in your hand. I dream up stories of where a particular button came from. What really happened is probably not as dramatic nor as romantic as I can conjure up, but, it’s a fun thing to do.
Relic hunters are enthusiasts who hunt for artifacts and memorabilia from past events, primarily battles and wars through the years. They spend a lot of time researching and finding out the history of a given area. Then they go hunting.
The great thing about relic hunting is there is a vast amount of areas you can go hunting. Old road or paths. Many paths in wooded areas have been there for centuries. Take the long way home and discover Rural America. Old home foundations, old schoolhouses, abandoned stores are great places to take your detector. Look for indentations where there may have been an old cellar. Old cellars can be a wealth of artifacts. Look along river banks or dried-up creek beds. Long ago people followed the river to get from one place to another. Ever notice how many small towns are along the rivers of the United States? The river was the source of travel and commerce. The rivers were the lifeline of the people.
Old railroad tracks can be a great source of artifacts. Look around your area. I’m sure you can come up with a wealth of ideas on where to go. Look on the internet or go to your local library. There is information that can help you find where to go.
As always, don’t forget to get permission from the landowner and leave any area as you found it. Don’t dig up holes and leave them gaping. Always fill your digs in when you’re done. Be careful, be courteous and have fun!
@Candy Lindsey, Ezine, added October 2012, updated June 2021.
Xi Jinping Is Going to Saudi Arabia…What’s Next for the US Dollar?
The trading in a basket of currencies or creating a new trade dollars apart from the US dollar is also a response to the draconian sanctions to so many nations. So many people have died in countries that have been sanctioned by the USA so it makes sense to get out of being obliged to use USD for trade to other countries other than the hegemon.
What are some unwritten social rules everyone should know?
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 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.
Kick-Ass and Hit-Girl save the day
We can watch a little girl get shot at and nearly blown up by a SMAW. We can watch a guy on a jet pack with miniguns shred three men. We can watch a grown man kick the shit out of a little girl. But God FORBID we hear some swearing.
https://youtu.be/PMKRlWf4JJg
Panera’s Cream Cheese Potato Soup
“This is my favorite recipe for potato soup. It’s a copycat of the one they use to serve at the St. Louis Bread Company (Panera). The recipe originally called for shredding your potatoes, but I never could get them to cook that way. I know they should cook faster, but I never could get it to work.”
Ingredients
- 4 cups chicken broth
- 4 cups peeled and cubed potatoes
- 1⁄2 teaspoon seasoning salt
- 1⁄4 teaspoon white pepper
- 1⁄4 teaspoon ground red pepper
- 1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese, cut into chunks
Directions
- Combine broth, potatoes, and spices.
- Boil on medium heat until potatoes are tender.
- Smash a few of the potatoes to release their starch for thickening.
- Reduce to low heat.
- Add cream cheese.
- Heat, stirring frequently, until cheese melts.
About the Spam questions…
I complained about them, and reported every single one that I took a screen capture of here. For the most part, they are now off my feed…
The only good thing about this world is that’s it’s a kitty world.
Another good thing about this world is YOU mate and what you give.
IBiY man
Thank you man. Much love back. -MM
A kitty world! That reminds me of “A hitchhikers guide through the galaxy” of Adam Douglas, where the mice are an advanced race who set up the Earth as a computer to answer the question about the meaning of life (not just 42 lol) and who are monitoring the progress. Maybe it are not the mice but the kitties!
I can relate to the militaria relic digging. I have possibly one of the largest if not the largest private militaria collection in Tasmania and have been collecting since childhood. I display it at the George Town RSL and it is an award winning small museum. A lifetime of labor love. I will post up some images tonight after work if anyone is interested. Our cat walked over to the front of the cage at the shelter and ‘asked’ to come home with us. She vocalised whilst the others just sat and looked. Ask and you will receive…
I find military history very interesting as well, Tas, ol’ buddy. It’s even more interesting how much you and I have in common. AND, it seems, we’re mostly all cat people. Our friend Feal has a beautiful picture of his old furry friend.
Another example of CIA. They ask the government to import Pfizer vax.
https://twitter.com/i6henl/status/1600747190284009477
From the economy point of view, Chinese government should start Three-child policy in 2015, since in 2021 some new couples don’t even bear a single child. They under-estimated how urbanization affects birth rate. Local governments relies heavily on Land Finance.
In 2010s, many families with a son decided to buy a second house, while those with a daughter didn’t. That’s how China’s real-estate market works.
would you please tell me how to find you on quora
thanks
Error 500 (Internal Server Error)