It’s getting surreal. Ukraine is in flux. America continues to die. Pro-Russian bloggers are freaking out and pointing fingers every which way and starting to eat each other. American PSYOPS is in gleeful overdrive. China is grim, serious, and making sure that the dragon doesn’t have any chinks in it’s armor.
I just want to smunch. I just cannot take everything so serious for such a long extended period of time.
Encino Man – Dinner Scene
Why are the US and other western nations suddenly copying the Chinese Belt and Road initiative?
The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) is the most ambitious infrastructure project in human history. It aims to help Global South countries, as well as some European countries, build their infrastructure. Over 149 countries have signed up. They include countries from Africa, Middle East, Central Asia, Southeast Asia, and Latin America.
BRI reveals that China is a peaceful and benevolent world power, in stark contrast to the United States. Instead of waging wars, China builds infrastructure.
This makes USA look very bad. Desperate to prevent this global perception, USA is doing everything it can to diminish BRI and contain China. This includes creating competitive alternatives to BRI.
In recent years, we’ve seen a number of failed attempts…Blue Dot Network, Build Back Better World, Global Gateway, and now Partnership for Global Infrastructure and Investment (PGII) is yet another try. I guarantee you that PGII will also flop.
Western nations are unable to get their act together. They are economically and politically inept.
Modern PSYOPs are more powerful than ever
You cannot believe ANYTHING and EVERYTHING said in the Western “news” media. It’s all “War Propaganda”.
From The Saker. Andrei makes great points.
Cowboy Junkies – SWEET JANE (LIVE).
For anyone who’s ever had a heart.
NASA accuses China of intent to take over the moon, China rejects
"In April, he accused China of continuing to display a lack of transparency and willingness to cooperate with the US and other countries in space. Earlier he said in a press conference at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida that "we want cooperation that has not been forthcoming from the Chinese government [but] it takes two to tango."
However, the absence of cooperation between China and the US is not a result of unwillingness of the Chinese side, but an act that the US enforced on itself - the Wolf Amendment passed in 2011, which essentially prohibits any direct cooperation between NASA and its Chinese counterparts. “
Russian Gazprom Doubles Export Revenue Despite Delivering 43% Less Gas To Europe
ZeroHedge - Sep 13, 2022, 10:00 AM CDT This year, Gazprom supplied 43 percent less gas to Europe than last year, but raised prices by three times on average. This translated to the company’s European export revenue increasing from $53 billion to $100 billion, wrote Olivér Hortay, head of the energy and climate policy research at Hungarian think tank Századvég Konjunktúrakutató, in his Facebook post in response to an article published in the Financial Times.
Mazzy Star – Fade Into You – 10/2/1994 – Shoreline Amphitheatre
Russia has found a simple and economical solution to launch satellites
Translated.
…that China continues to troll the US that no one supports hegemonic initiatives! This time, an official representative of the Chinese Foreign Ministry noted that 85% of the world's population did not impose anti-Russian sanctions, and he did not limit himself to facts, but decided to draw another conclusion, saying that "only the majority represent the international community." Now this is a serious statement. In fact, China in a diplomatic form, avoiding harsh language, but stated two fundamental theses at once: First, the countries of the West are not the majority, but the minority of the world. The statement is very far reaching! A minority can be treated with respect, its rights can be respected, but a minority cannot claim power - it must obey the will of the majority. Moreover, if earlier the West could still say that we may have fewer people, but the world economy is almost entirely the countries of Europe, the USA + Canada, Australia and Japan. Yes, and the military force is also mainly the West, and therefore - there are many of you there, in Asia, Africa and other continents, or few - but you are freeloaders, so sit quietly on our necks. Now the Western world cannot say that: it is enough to sum up the economies of two countries, India and China, in order to put the entire West in its place! .. Secondly, the phrase that "only the majority can represent the world community" suggests that the West has lost its right to leadership. That is, to come out and speak on behalf of all countries: that they condemn something, that they need something, that they are dissatisfied with something, or vice versa - they are very happy from some decision - the West cannot do all this anymore. His role is to be among the ordinary members of the community, but not to lead it.
Continues…
In fact, it is cruel: to tell the West directly that it no longer has the right to speak “on behalf of and on behalf of”, as they used to say in Soviet times, that now completely different people will speak on behalf of the world community, and America and Europe can only to express the opinion of their small sect, which is rapidly falling not only in economic and military, but also in technological, and most importantly, in human potential. In these countries, not only is there a powerful surge of depopulation, and most likely intentional and conscious, but at the same time there is also a monstrous degradation in education. In general, for many years there has been a joke that American universities are a place where Russian professors give lectures in mathematics to Chinese students. But if earlier it was possible for the United States to lure and bribe the best students, students and teachers, An example of the scientific and technological backwardness of the West was demonstrated at the recent Army-2022 forum, but oddly enough, not at all in connection with the achievements of our weapons, but on the contrary, the achievements were in a purely peaceful sphere, moreover, in the field of space and its exploration , what they like to talk about in America now, and what they have made a fashionable topic. As you know, Elon Musk has been appointed their official rock star, designed to convince the whole world that the United States in the field of space is ahead of the rest. But Elon Musk's methods are reminiscent of the technologies of the Soviet Union of the 80s: he still continues to struggle with the idea of a partially returned in the form of separate stages of a launch vehicle in order to reduce the cost of space launches. At the same time, of course, even he cannot return the entire rocket anyway. Elon Musk's business project is associated with the mass launch of small satellites into low orbits, and since the project promises to be very massive both due to the number of satellites and the fact that they will quickly fall into the atmosphere from low orbits in a year or two, and the satellite constellation will have to be regularly renewed. That is, technically, Elon Musk's project is a mass launch of inexpensive and fairly small satellites, and the payback is due to cheaper launches with the help of a partial return and the subsequent use of launch vehicle stages. And then the unexpected happened: journalists from the American edition of Military Watch Magazine looked at the Army-2022 forum and found that these “crazy Russians” had found a much simpler, high-tech, and most importantly, cheaper and more economical solution to the same problem that Elon Musk, let's call a spade a spade, was just going to pour money on the principle of "there is power - no mind is needed." At the Army-2022 forum, the Americans discovered that Russia had once again upgraded the MiG-31K fighter. Here is what they write about this car, we quote verbatim: “The MiG-31 is the heaviest class of tactical combat aircraft in the world, and its long range, high payload, unrivaled speed and altitude have long made it the ideal launch platform for both satellites and anti-satellite weapons.”
Rocket Gibraltar 1988 Movie
Check out this preview. When present meets the past, and the future.
What, You Want To See My Shocked Face?
No Way!
So now you think I have Gomer Pyle running in a loop inside my head or something?
‘Fraid Not.
That whole Conspiracy Theorist thing?
Yeah, it’s more like a Coming Attractions kind of thing ya know?
There were literally people trying to warn us about these Mrna Vaccines and the intention to use them for population reduction clear back in the 1990’s bub.
Thirty years ago.
Just because the government and some private companies have unlimited budgets to spend on just about any diabolical idea they can come up with doesn’t mean that those diabolical plans don’t get leaked to someone.
And eventually to someone else who knows who else to tell so that it gets out.
These so called Conspiracy Theories are more than usually well grounded in Truths That Weren’t Supposed To Be Leaked plus research, educated guesses and evidence.
What was it I saw a while back, that at least 25 “Conspiracy Theories” had been proven to be true?
Bet me there are way the hell more than that.
More than likely twice that.
Sure there are plenty of Whack Jobs out there with their Tinfoil Hats screwed on a little too tight,
But you have to be WILLFULLY IGNORANT these days to dismiss some things you hear out of hand without doing at least a little checking.
Personally, I figure you have to have an above average level of intelligence and a great deal of patience just to be able to weed through all the BULLSHIT the damn Media and the Government puke out every damn day anyway, might as well open your mind a little and , at least briefly, entertain that because you know the Bullshit is being peddled at maximum velocity on purpose, that it might be because they don’t want you to even think about looking into WHAT THEY AREN’T talking about.
They work very hard at keeping everyone’s attention diverted, that is the Media’s entire purpose now.
I would much rather be challenged to find the things they don’t want talked about and hang out with people of like mind.
The alternative IS NOT AN OPTION for me.
China pumps another billion dollars into Australian iron ore
China’s biggest state-owned steelmaker will invest more than a billion dollars in a new Australian iron ore mine in the “spirit of sincere cooperation” in a sign that diplomatic tensions between Beijing and Canberra are not a complete barrier to commerce. Baowu’s decision to invest in Rio Tinto’s $US2 billion ($2.96 billion) Western Range iron ore mine comes barely two weeks after the steel giant backed Chris Ellison’s plan to build a new iron ore province in the West Pilbara region of Western Australia...
Dido – White Flag (Live at Brixton Academy)
China’s life expectancy is now higher than that of the US
The US’s life expectancy continued its decline from 2020 to 2021, dropping sharply to 76.1 years.
With the latest decline, US life expectancy is now at its lowest since 1996, according to new data (pdf) from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC’s) National Center for Health Statistics. It also means that the gap in longevity at birth between people in the US and China has now widened to a full year.
From HERE
What is the best screenwriting tip ever among wannabe screenwriters?
Great question. This is one Quentin Tarantino often talks about. While he focuses on genre movies, this tip works in drama as well. The tip: don’t have the characters constantly talking about “the plot”. It becomes too much “hitting it on the nose”. Let the circumstances develop where the main characters speak more naturally or at least seem to.
If you watch the second scene of “Pulp Fiction” where the two hit men, Vincent and Jules, played by John Travolta and Samuel Jackson are bantering, they never talk about what they’re about do to. They discuss the names of McDonald’s hamburgers sold in Paris. Which completely makes sense. By not having the characters talk about their hits. When they engage in the hit, we realize they’ve been doing this a long time.
People who are engaged in the same kind of business for a long time don’t necessarily talk constantly about it. What’s the point? They’ve done it before. And by keeping the dialogue away from the “plot” it makes it seem more realistic.
Is the War in Ukraine Part of a U.S. Strategy to Weaken Germany? RAND Says, “YES”!
War is a guilty, vicarious pleasure as long as you are not hunkered in a basement or trench praying that an artillery shell does not score a direct hit on your position. Rumbling tanks, screeching rockets and missiles and troops firing automatic weapons are the stuff that Hollywood trots out to entertain the masses that tune in to watch a war flick or, even better, live feeds from the front lines courtesy of intrepid reporters.
But the real damage from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is economic and will determine the outcome of this war. It is not only wreaking havoc in Ukraine, it is causing real damage around the world. Some believe that the United States and NATO are using Ukraine as a lever to weaken Russia and get rid of Putin. Putin’s crime? He refused to be the prison bitch of the west. But there is a RAND report from January 2022 that suggests something darker, even diabolical. More about that later. (NOTE–This may not be a genuine RAND report. Take it with a grain of salt. Regardless of its veracity, the sanctions on Russian are having a devastating effect on the German economy.)
The economic sanctions were designed to hurt all Russians–not just Putin and his key leaders. You remember the heady days early in the war when Russian assets outside of Russia were being seized, Russian oligarchs, including those who opposed Putin, had their property confiscated, and artists and athletes were treated like lepers with active Ebola. The west effectively declared a non-shooting war on Russia and sat back waiting for the Russian economy to collapse.
But that backfired and did so in a big, unexpected way. Rather than fold like a cheap tent in a hurricane, the Russian economy continued to chug along with minimal inflation because the smart guys and gals in Washington, London and Berlin failed to do their homework. They did not realize that Russia’s position as a major exporter of oil, gas, fertilizer and other critical metals and rare earth minerals insulated Russia from the pain the west wanted so desperately to inflict. And Russia pivoted to forging stronger ties with China, whose economy was in trouble, and accelerated the development of an alternative international reserve currency that would enable Russia to trade with other nations outside the NATO club.
Now the chickens are coming home to roost and it is bad news, not for Russia, but for Europe. Maybe you missed these recent reports:
The energy in crisis in Germany is turning into a manufacturing crisis, with an executive at the ArcelorMittal steel company saying that the German wing of the company can no longer compete due to soaring energy coasts. “Production in Germany is currently no longer competitive,” said Reiner Blaschek, the CEO of ArcelorMittal Germany, which recently shut down two plants in the country. He is calling for quick political intervention, saying, “We need competitive energy prices for industry.” Gas and electricity prices, which have soared in recent months due to sanctions and Russia’s decision to cut gas flows, have left many industrial companies with input costs too high to remain profitable, and many economic experts are forecasting further pain for Germany’s core industrial sector, which would have knock-on effects for the rest of the German economy.
From HERE
Did you catch that? ArcelorMittal already has closed two plants in Germany. That means unemployed, skilled workers. And that unemployment reverberates to other parts of the German economy. Those workers no longer have extra cash to spend in restaurants and bars. They don’t have the dough to buy new homes or remodel their kitchens or bathrooms. All of this a result of “soaring energy prices” that is a direct consequence of idiotic green policies and German hostility towards Russia manifested via sanctions. The surge in the price of gas and oil is not going to abate in the near term and Russia has tightened the screws on Europe by cutting off the gas supply from Nordstream.
Sweden, who recently joined NATO, is getting an economic punch in the nose as well:
Swedish appliance maker Electrolux AB announced a cost reduction program after reporting a plunge in demand for its home appliances across Europe and the US. The world’s second-largest home appliances manufacturer after Whirlpool said, “market demand for core appliances in Europe and the US so far in the third quarter is estimated to have decreased at a significantly accelerated pace compared with the second quarter, driven by the impact of high inflation on consumer durables purchases and low consumer confidence.”
From HERE
The European Union also is struggling to deal with strong economic headwinds unleashed by the sanctions on Russia:
Friday’s meeting in Brussels capped a frenzied week of government activity across the 27-nation bloc in which it became clear just how complex it is to forge a common response to the energy crisis given the breadth of challenges. . . . Russia upped the ante just over a week ago, when Gazprom PJSC cut off gas deliveries to Europe via the Nord Stream pipeline indefinitely. That sparked another round of budget-straining measures as governments announced additional aid to help people pay their bills. They were also forced to deal with a new financial threat from the crisis. As soaring energy prices leave some businesses struggling to find enough cash to meet margin calls, countries announced billions of euros in liquidity funding.
From HERE
Lurking behind the economic chaos in Europe is the unfolding economic disaster in Ukraine.
Ukraine’s economy is not producing enough cash flow to sustain its military effort.
It is now totally dependent on the largess of the United States and Europe.
So here is the critical question–how long will the governments of Europe, facing growing domestic unrest, continue to write blank checks to Volodomyr Zelensky and deplete their own military stockpiles?
One more trip back to World War II. The Soviet Union suffered catastrophic losses during the first year of the war with Germany. As the Nazi armies flooded east, the Soviets hurriedly packed up factories and manufacturing plants and shipped them to the east of the Ural mountains. Do you think the United States, if it had been invaded, could disassemble their automobile and aircraft factories in Illinois and ship those plants to Alaska, reassemble them and have them back on line producing within a year? Because that is what the Soviets did. While they suffered unimaginable losses in men on the frontlines and had villages and cities razed to the ground, the Soviet Union continued to operate a manufacturing capability and rebuilt their armies with new recruits.
Ukraine is not doing any of that. Ukraine cannot safely bring recruits to camps in western Ukraine for basic training without risk of being hit my Russian precision missiles. A large portion of Ukraine’s manufacturing centers are now in the hands of Russia. Remember Mariupol? Without secure military training centers and active factories, Ukraine cannot pull off the economic miracle that the Soviets did in World War II.
As long as Russia’s economy remains intact and it can sell its essential products to other countries not on board with backing Ukraine, Russia will prevail. Let me conclude by giving analysts at Rand some kudos. Rand issued a prescient report in January that provides some alarming insight into a nefarious motive that explains why Washington is goading Berlin into backing Ukraine and cutting ties to Russia:
The present state of the U.S. economy does not suggest that it can function without the financial and material support from external sources. The quantitive easing policy, which the Fed has resorted to regularly in recent years, as well as the uncontrolled issue of cash during the 2020 and 2021 Covid lockdowns, have led to a sharp increase in the external debt and an increase in the dollar supply. The continuing deterioration of the economic situation is highly likely to lead to a loss in the position of the Democratic Party in Congress and the Senate in the forthcoming elections to be held in November 2022. The impeachment of the President cannot be ruled out under these circumstances, which must be avoided at all costs. . . . The current German economic model is based on two pillars. These are unlimited access to cheap Russian energy resources and to cheap French electric power, thanks to the operation of nuclear plants. The importance of the first factor is considerably higher. Halting Russian supplies can well create a systemic crisis that would be devastating for the German economy and, indirectly, for the entire European Union.
APOCALYPSE NOW Clip – Ride of the Valkyries (1979) Francis Ford Coppola
Is the Australian Outback really that desolate?
G’day,
Yes, it is. I once drove from Coober Pedy to Laverton (828 miles) on the Anne Beadell ‘highway’ (Google it)
on my way to the Western Australian coast. It took me 8 days. I didn’t see another vehicle, a person, or a building until the afternoon of the 8th day when a Range Rover passed going the other way. I averaged only 100 miles per day partly because I was there to enjoy the trip and partly because the ‘highway’ doesn’t support going very fast. And, as you will see from the map, this is a journey over less than half the width of Australia.
Clothing prices will be going up fast now
You may consider stocking up at the goodwill and St Vinnies now. Cotton prices are going to the moon because global crop failures and fertilizer shortage. Which explains the high scrap PET soda bottle prices I am seeing over here on the tropical island. It is now 67 cents USD per kilo at the processors north of Manila. This is because PET soda bottles are ground up, washed, and then the flake is fed into extrusion machines with a spinner that makes fiber. You ever seen a cotton candy machine? Well that is exactly how it works except the machine is upside down so the fiber falls out of the machine continously, not gathered with a stick like at the carnival. Temps are higher with plastic than sugar but not a lot. Ht Michael Yon, with the info that allowed me to put the two seemingly unrelated things together.
How China Has Added to Its Influence Over the iPhone
Apple is taking small steps toward India. But the production of its latest phone, introduced on Wednesday, shows how difficult it will be to make big changes. This fall, Apple will make some of its flagship iPhones outside China for the first time, a small but significant change for a company that has built one of the most sophisticated supply chains in the world with the help of the Chinese authorities. But the development of the iPhone 14, which was unveiled on Wednesday, shows how complicated it will be for Apple to truly untangle itself from China. More than ever, Apple’s Chinese employees and suppliers contributed complex work and sophisticated components for the 15th year of its marquee device, including aspects of manufacturing design, speakers and batteries, according to four people familiar with the new operations and analysts. As a result, the iPhone has gone from being a product that is designed in California and made in China to one that is a creation of both countries. The critical work provided by China reflects the country’s advancements over the past decade and a new level of involvement for Chinese engineers in the development of iPhones. After the country lured companies to its factories with legions of low-priced workers and unrivaled production capacity, its engineers and suppliers have moved up the supply chain to claim a bigger slice of the money that U.S. companies spend to create high-tech gadgets. The increased responsibilities that China has assumed for the iPhone could challenge Apple’s efforts to decrease its dependency on the country, a goal that has taken on increased urgency amid rising geopolitical tensions over Taiwan and simmering concerns in Washington about China’s ascent as a technology competitor. Chinese companies with operations in India will still play a key role in Apple’s plan to make some iPhones in the country. In Chennai, India, the Taiwanese supplier Foxconn, which already manufactures iPhones in factories throughout China, will lead Indian workers’ assembly of the device with support from nearby Chinese suppliers including Lingyi iTech, which has subsidiaries to supply chargers and other components for iPhones, according to two people familiar with the plans. China’s BYD is setting operations to cut glass for displays, as well, these people said...
Evanescence – Bring Me To Life
Why did Domino’s Pizza not break through in Italy while other chains such as KFC or McDonald’s did?
Domino’s trouble started when they tried to sell pizza to Italians.
Food is serious business in Italy. Meals are taken differently there than in America, foods are typically lighter, served in smaller portions and their preparations follow old traditions. Pizza is no exception.
This is an example of Margherita pizza in Italy:
What you’re looking at is a thin crust pizza, baked in a super heated wood fired oven and topped with pureed tomato, fresh mozzarella and fresh basil leaves. It’s simple, delicious and relies on high quality ingredients and technique for its wonderful flavor and texture.
This is the Margherita pizza Domino’s was peddling in Italy:
That’s an American style cheese pizza, baked in a conveyor belt oven, and insultingly topped with a single basil leaf. On a Friday night, in America, that’s a fun dinner for the kids, but that’s not what pizza is about in Italy. Domino’s was peddling the wrong product in the wrong market and they failed. I read they were hoping to attract tourists, but I think they had to be hoping for more. You have to sell a lot of pizza to make money and if you aren’t getting local business, you aren’t get regular business, in any town.
The problem here is obvious to me. KFC and McDonald’s went to Italy and offered a foreign product, meaning they had little local competition and few had preconceived notions about how that product should look or taste. Domino’s had the opposite experience. They went to Italy, tried to sell an Americanized version of a local specialty, and hoped that people with strong preconceived notions about that product would accept it. Not surprisingly, Italy laughed at Domino’s, so they packed it up and they left.
A kitten story
I used to have a kitten. At the time I had a flatmate. One day, I had taken out some chicken to defrost for dinner, but when I went to check, it was gone. I asked my mate, and she said she hadn’t seen it, and perhaps I hadn’t taken it out. A few days later, same thing. Again, mate said I must not have taken anything out. But by now i was missing all the chicken I had bought. We ordered in that night, and the next day my leftover food was gone (don’t worry, I’m coming to the kitten). Flatmate was as perplexed as I was. While we were sitting at the table discussing it, my kitten saunters into the kitchen and jumps onto the counter (where she is not allowed). She then hops up to the top of the fridge, PUSHES OPEN THE FREEZER DOOR, and before it shuts, lands firmly on the floor with a bag of chicken that I had just bought. The bag is bigger than she is, but with insouciance and determination she drags the bag out of the kitchen. Dumbstruck, flatmate and I follow her to the couch, where she disappears. We pull out the couch and find two take away containers, piles of chicken bones (and the plastic bag they were in), a half loaf of mouldy bread and a chewed into, empty crisps bag. Flatmate had two cats as well, so we think they were all back there having secret midnight raids, with my kitten as the mastermind. We never found anything back there again after that.
Is there any reason why a variety of egg preparations, e.g., fried, scrambled, poached, did not emerge in Asian cooking as in the West? Are fried and scrambled eggs common in Asia?
I find a lot of food-related questions – and answers – on Quora to be very Euro-centric. For me, the premise of this question – that a variety of egg preparations (fried, scrambled, poached) did not emerge in “Asian” cooking, as opposed to in “the West” – borders on the ridiculous.
The level of silliness found in this premise reminds me of an answer I read last year, where a European woman on here (I’ve since forgotten where specifically in Europe) wrote a well-written answer about how octopus is consumed in her country but then marred her answer by stating, in an almost boastful way, that only the people from her country, and a few others in Europe, enjoy eating octopus. Which I found amusing seeing as how octopus is a common street-food back in my hometown of HK.
Then there was the chap who wrote that all chefs – at least those that are worth their salt – learn French cooking techniques because these techniques are the foundation for all cooking.
Ai yai yai!
”Are fried and scrambled egg common in Asia?”
Ai yai yai!
Just so I can have a bit of fun, I’m going to restrict myself and cite examples from only ONE region of Asia, specifically East Asia.
Asia is a huge place, and if one region of this huge place already makes use of all those “egg preparation” techniques listed in the question – and more – what more the whole of Asia?
And all the examples are just the ones off the top of my head.
If I actually had more time on my hands, I could probably list more.
But it’s my bedtime soon and I’m knackered, so off the top of my head it will be.
I’m pretty sure I’ll miss some obvious ones, but I’m sure some helpful soul will chime in with those that I’ve missed.
Panzerlied – [Battle of the Bulge 1965 Ver.] Thai Subtitle
In honor of the Ukraine offensive against Russia. The Nazi’s seemingly set the Russians on the run.
What was worth a lot in the 50s and almost nothing now?
Oh, so sad. So many things.
China/Crystal/Silver. Apparently, at some point in time, and for some segment of the population, there were frequent sit-down dinners with full court press where children learned how to eat, how to pass, how to serve. We never had them, but we did have an occasional holiday meal with the china, silver, and crystal. You had to have a big, imposing hutch in which to store and display it all. I was so happy to have my first home and throw parties with china, but I haven’t had one of those in decades. China can’t go in the microwave due to the gold/silver and they can’t go in the dishwasher, nor can crystal or silver. My first home had no dishwasher, so that was okay, but I’m not handwashing ten sets of anything anymore.
Antique linens! My grandmothers had wonderful, thick, sumptuous linens and matching napkins. They got stained and frayed and now remain out of sight, provoking happy memories for me when I see them but useless and will no doubt be thrown away when I am gone. I have new, no-iron tablecloths in multiple colors that I use. I am going to have some of the napkins made into angel Christmas ornaments.
Heavy furniture. It’s so sad, my grandparents were so proud to pass on their things to my parents to save them money. My parents still have the wonderful antique furniture, but I and my brother (and nieces and nephews and children) have our/their own furniture and we will have to discard those pieces when they are gone. In these days of Ikea and other planned-obsolescence furniture, people like to update furniture like curtains.
Same with the piano! My grandmother told me she would play the piano and the children would march around the house. Holidays and weekends were spent around the piano. Many a difficult day ended with the piano. There are many players in our family, and one cousin in particular would announce at seemingly every get-together that she would get the piano when Grandma passed because she deserved it the most: she played the best, she loved Grandma more than anyone. But when Grandma died, it cost more to move it than it was worth. No church or music school wanted it. We tried to sell it to no avail, then listed it for free. Finally, we had to pay to have it disposed. She would have cried to see it.
Books. My parents purchased a set of the Encyclopedia Britannica for us. I loved them. I loved reading about anything I wanted to. We had a dictionary that was eight inches thick. Decades later, I donated them to a homeless shelter. I bought a Grolier’s Encyclopedia on CD for the cost of a single book. Now, the Internet and Kindle have changed everything. When I downsized recently to move, I packed up masses of old books to donate to the library sale. Cookbooks, old mysteries I’ll never re-read, craft books filled with things I’ll never make, home-repair books that are obsolete. Many I just recycled.
Remember those old commercials where you could buy sets of books by various authors bound in leather, one book at a time? Yeah, I have a set of those classics collecting dust in a bookcase.
Commemorative plates. Enough said.
Crocheted anything. My Nana (great-grandma) crocheted giant bedspreads, doilies, and matching bureau scarves out of cotton thread. They are gorgeous. I marvel at the tiny stitches. No one wants them. No one puts bureau scarves or doilies on furniture anymore. I display the bedspreads on a rack with one of her handmade quilts. I know they’ll wind up in a thrift shop when I go. I only have one memory of my Nana, and only my father remembers her anymore. I wish I had a daughter to pass them on to, but even if I did, who knows if she would like them or want them?
China gave tens of billions in secretive ‘emergency loans’ to vulnerable nations, emerging as world’s major creditor and IMF competitor
In recent years, China has shelled out tens of billions in opaque “emergency loans” for at-risk nations, indicating a shift to providing short-term emergency lending rather than longer-term infrastructure loans.
It’s a (largely) unforeseen development from Beijing’s $900 billion Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), launched in 2013.
Since 2017, Beijing has given a collective $32.8 billion in emergency loans to Sri Lanka, Pakistan, and Argentina, according to AidData, a research lab at William & Mary University that focuses on China’s global financing activities.
China has also offered emergency loans to Eastern European nations Ukraine and Belarus; South American countries Venezuela and Ecuador; African nations Kenya and Angola; alongside Laos, Egypt, and Mongolia. Chinese overseas lending and credit relationships remain “exceptionally opaque,” according to World Bank researchers. “Chinese lenders require strict confidentiality from their debtors and do not release a granular breakdown of their lending,” they wrote.
What is the nastiest thing you’ve done for revenge?
I owned a home that had a pretty little meadow (about 1–1/2 acres). The front portion was planted in native grasses that grew to about 1 ft tall. Then there was a bigger section of native wild flowers. Then there was our garden (surrounded by a deer fence). The upper portion of the meadow was lined with poplar trees.
One night one of our local yahoo teenagers decided it would be fun to do donuts in our meadow.
The next day I dropped a poplar tree (about 10 inch diameter) across the upper part of the meadow and carefully limbed it. I hid it in the grass as well as I could. We worked our tails off to recover as much of the garden as we could.
Sure enough a couple of weeks later, they were back. Except their pickup hit an unexpected obstacle that ruined the front end and it got stuck when it bounced over the tree trunk. When I woke up and saw what I had caught, I got a logging chain and padlocks and locked my “catch” to the tree trunk. Soon there were irate teenager that wanted their pickup back. My shotgun, German Shepherd and I disagreed with that idea. An irate father showed up and demanded I release my catch. I will be glad to release it when the upper and middle parts of the meadow are restored and I am compensated for all the vegetables that were ruined. That didn’t seem fair to him, so he left and came back with a sheriff’s deputy. The deputy listened to both sides of the story, told dad and son that what I wanted sounded reasonable. He then proceeded to inform me (in front of them) the process for claiming my catch and obtaining a clear title. He also told me what the impound fee was at the local impound lot, reminding me that the fee should be declared as income on my taxes. I was warned that if I dropped another tree across the truck, I was responsible for cleaning up any soil contamination. If that was what I chose to do, I should properly drain all the fluids from my “yard art.”
The kids started work the next day. When everything was repaired and they agreed to pay $200 per month until the next planting season, I released my catch.
Apple uses more suppliers from China than Taiwan for first time, data shows
Junior
My cat (Junior) cried and cried at the window, He wanted to go outside so much I finally said, “You are not a prisoner here.” So I let him go outside. I whistled when I put food in his dish and he learned that the whistle meant, “Hey, there’s food here.” He didn’t always show up right away, but he always came back eventually.
A couple of weeks after I started letting him go outside, I heard him yowling from the living room. When I got there, he had both front paws wrapped around the doorknob. He knew that going out had something to do with that knob, he just couldn’t figure out how to work it.
Junior Cat/. (There’s nothing wrong with his ears, he’s a Scottish Fold born to a Fold farm cat I got from an acquaintance outside of town.)
What was the most satisfying conversation you had with someone who tried to intimidate you?
I was involved in a road rage incident many years ago. An impatient driver had been aggressively overtaking people prior to getting to me and as he got to me the two lanes ended, merging into one.
This also coincided with a school zone and a significant reduction in the speed limit. He sat right on my tail, flashing his lights at me, trying to get me to go faster. This was distracting me and so I brake checked him.
That worked and got him off my tail, however at the next set of lights he got out of his car, came over to my car and punched me.
I reported this to the police as did the driver behind him and eventually we both ended up in court to testify against him.
On the courthouse steps, prior to going inside, his $1000 per day barrister came over to me and said, “I think you would be well advised to change your story and drop this whole thing. You do realise that you have broken the law by trying to cause an accident when you brake checked my client. I will make sure you are charged for that offence if you continue.”
I am not one to have a good come back straight away, normally I am brilliant half an hour later with what I wish I’d said. Today was different though and I replied, “Mate. You may have a more expensive suit than me but you don’t intimidate me. I’m sticking with what I did and why I did it.”
Sure enough this barrister managed to turn the tables and before it went in to court the prosecutor interviewed the witness and me. The interview was not going well for me until I said this, “I am driving through the school zone, doing the speed limit when a young child suddenly runs out in front of my car. I stop in time, however the guy behind me is driving so close that he can’t stop in time and he runs into the back of me pushing me into the young child. Who are you going to come look at first and how am I going to feel about having hit a child with my car? I did what I did for safety reasons and I would do it again.”
With that his whole demeanour changed and the tables turned back on to the guy who punched me. He lost big time. Huge fine and loss of licence.
I found out later the reason why he hired an expensive barrister. Actually his father paid for the barrister. He already had priors for assault, the worst being him throwing someone out of a hotel, through a window! I was lucky in comparison.
The other thing that I was told helped me that day was my good driving record.
Blind Melon – No Rain
What is the coolest line a pilot has said to the passengers?
I was on a crowded flight to Texas. A woman boarded with a very upset 3 year old who was crying and carrying on. You could tell she was already at her wits end. A flight attendant walked over and asked the baby’s name, which turned out to be Elias. A few moments later, a voice came out from the cockpit on the PA system.
“Elias? This is Santa.”
The little boy sat up, focused on the disembodied voice.
“Elias, I want you to be a good boy so I can bring you something really good at Christmas, so no crying or fussing, ok?”
The little boy was wide-eyed as he nodded. He was quiet the whole flight.
What message does China send to the world by having an Uyghur in the Winter Olympics opening ceremony?
Message
Dear Sleepy Joe:
Can genius be created?
Once upon a time, I was mattress shopping with my roommate, Erin (yes there were two of us).
While we were walking around the very empty store, we were greeted by this guy:
This is Jason. He was the salesman.
We talked about mattresses, and engaged in small talk for a bit. He was incredibly kind and sooo easy to talk to.
At one point, he says, “hey, can I show you guys something?”
Realizing we’re completely alone in a huge store with this guy, I turned to Erin, who was already sauntering gleefully two steps behind him.
I love her, but if a bar had 1,000 awesome people in it and one serial killer, he’d be the one she’d be attracted to.
I followed her so she didn’t end up in some remote fortress behind his house in the middle of nowhere (or whatever serial killers are doing these days).
He went behind his sales counter and pulled out… a portfolio.
This was his first picture:
He said it was a visual representation of a mathematical equation, drawn with a ruler and a pencil.
This was the next picture:
And this was the third:
There were several more, but I’ll continue with the story.
So, for the next hour, Jason talks about physics. He says everything he sees is a mathematical equation and every mathematical equation has a visual form, which I didn’t know. This man was absolutely fascinating (and luckily not a serial killer).
This guy could get anyone excited about physics. His passion was electric. He also said his dream was to teach Physics. I sincerely hope he got there.
I assumed he was highly educated and had just been brilliant his whole life, like people tend to be.
“Not at all. I was a C student in high school, kind of a slacker. Never been to college.”
How the hell…
Turns out, Jason was born completely normal. Average.
When he was in his early 20s, he was in a bar fight that left him with a brain injury.
This brain injury turned Jason into a savant.
So, while most geniuses are born, Jason was absolutely made.
I saw him on the news a year later and learned he was corresponding with MIT about some theory he came up with. He was also due to give a conference in Norway. It seemed his dreams were coming true, and I was really happy to see that.
You can read more of Jason’s story here:
India stays out of USA’s ‘trade pillar’ at Indo-Pacific meet
India stayed out of the joint declaration on the trade pillar of the U.S.-led Indo-Pacific Economic Framework ministerial meet in Los Angeles, with Union Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal citing concerns over possible discrimination against developing economies
What was the most unusual ending that a criminal took?
He became a pair of men’s shoes.
So this story would really be worth a western movie.
The train robber Big Nose George Parrott is the only man in American history who was turned into a fancy pair of shoes made of human skin after his death.
The details were discovered when the outlaw’s remains were dug up in a barrel by construction workers on May 11, 1950.
Big Nose George was an outlaw and member of a gang of thieves who robbed train cars and stole horses in Wyoming.
On August 16, 1878, the gang planned to rob a Union Pacific train by derailing it beforehand.
However, as seven members of the gang hid in the bushes waiting for the train to arrive, a section crew passed by, discovered the tampered rails, and called the police.
The gang was soon tracked down by two law enforcement officers.
The gang shot and dismembered them.
As a result, the Union Pacific Railroad redoubled its efforts to track down the killers, and county authorities offered a $10,000 reward for their capture.
Several members of the gang were caught and sentenced to death. Dutch Charlie was the first to be apprehended, in 1879. On the way to his trial, however, he was dragged off the train by an angry mob in Carbon and hanged from a telegraph pole.
Big Nose George was arrested in Miles City, Montana, in July 1880.
He had foolishly bragged about the attempted train robbery while drunk.
He was found guilty and sentenced to hang at Rawlins, Wyoming, on April 2, 1881. An escape attempt on March 22, however, hastened the whole thing.
A mob of over two hundred angry townspeople hanged George Parrott. They succeeded only after two futile attempts.
Several hours passed before the mortician cut George down and placed him in a pine box and nailed him shut.
Since there was no family to claim the body, it was taken possession of by doctors Thomas Maghee and John Osborn to examine his brain.
Osborn’s wife was mentally ill.
He hoped to find a cure for his wife by examining the brain of a criminal.
With their fifteen-year-old assistant, Lillian Heath, at their side, the doctors cut open George’s head. After roughly removing the top of the skull, they examined the brain and found no significant differences between George’s brain and a “normal” brain. At that moment, things took a bizarre turn.
Osborn began making a death mask of George’s face out of plaster. The mask has no ears because George’s ears had been lost when they struggled with the rope on him.
Osborn then removed the skin from George’s chest and thighs, including his nipples.
He sent those to a tannery to be made into a medicine bag and a pair of shoes. Although disappointed that George’s nipples had not been used, Osborn still wore his new shoes with pride.
The doctor continued his experiments and dissections for a year, keeping George in a whiskey barrel with a salt solution. When he was finished, Parrot’s remains were buried in the yard behind the practice.
The skullcap was given to Miss Heath, who later became the first woman doctor in the state of Wyoming.
Over the years, she used it as an ashtray and doorstop in her office.
This piece was used to identify the remains in 1950, followed by DNA testing.
Although she was over 80 years old, Lillian Heath was still alive and still in possession of George’s skullcap .
Osborn became the first Democratic governor of Wyoming. He is said to have worn his special shoes at his inaugural ball in 1893.
He later became deputy secretary of state under President Wilson.
Osborn
Big Nose George’s death mask, skull, and shoes made from his skin, along with the shoes he wore when he was “executed,” are now the main attraction at the Carbon County Museum in Rawlins, Wyoming.
The skullcap is in the Union Pacific Museum in Council Bluffs, Iowa.
The rest of Parrott’s remains were secretly buried in an unknown location.
The medicine bag was never found.
This is a story as wild, wilder than the wildest West.
Weird Science (1985) – Making a Girl with a Computer?
What about the man who turned his car into a motorbike?
It has always been said that necessity is the mother of inventions.
In 1993, Emile Leray was on a journey , enjoying his cruise across the Moroccan desert when he crashed his car in the middle of the desert.
He was stranded and had to save himself or he would die in the desert. This was when his intelligence came to rescue him.
Emile Leray, a 43-year-old former electrician, had to rebuild his car, a Citroen 2CV into a motorbike using no special tools.
He built his motor bike in ten days using materials from his crashed car. He had no drills, no power tools or welding equipment, he screwed all the parts together.
He converted this:
Into ;
Using very basic tools.
He escaped the desert on his motor bike. When he was pushed to the wall, his creativity came to rescue him.
US Lawmakers Concerned About Apple’s Decision to Use YMTC’s 3D NAND
Adding another 3D NAND maker to its supply chain is certainly something that is good for Apple, but U.S. legislators are not particularly happy that one of the world's largest consumer electronics companies will use memory from YMTC and thereby essentially help China's semiconductor industry to develop. Apple argues that it plans to use chips from Yangtze Memory only for iPhones to be sold in China.
Portishead – Roads
A clip from the Roseland New York live DVD. One of the finest moment from the show, heartbreaking.
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Viking Funeral from movie ( excerpt) Rocket Gibraltar
A little known movie, but it is wonderful. This is the ending.
Andrei at the Saker suggests…
…The first phase was almost over in a few weeks, but then NATO began to print billions of dollars to inject into the war (reminder: the US alone is spending 228 million dollars PER DAY on the Ukrainians!). Hence the “resurrecting” aircraft (rotary and fixed wing), artillery batteries, air defense systems, supplies, etc.
In terms of manpower, the Nazis can count on almost limitless “meat” to throw at the Russians, and they have successfully kept at least some well trained forces. The most dangerous development, however, is that it appears that NATO countries have run out of properly trained “Ukrainians” (many of them are not), and that they have now decided to operate a lot NATO hardware by sending PCMs (not really new) and even NATO forces disguised as PMCs and “advisors”!
Oh I can hear the choice of sweet voices singing to me “but Kiev threw all they had at these suicidal counter-attacks, the entire NATO military (because that is what this is now) will crumble in days or weeks!!!“. Hey, I SURE hope so. But can we or, for that matter, the RGS “to bet the farm” on that?
I don’t think so.
Not only that, be all the evidence shows that the US and NATO are, indeed, “betting the farm” right now, and God only knows what these shaitans (literally) are capable of next!
There is no limit to their hate. And they know they are betting the farm.
Now is the time to be more cautious than ever and not make rosy assumptions.
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