Life gettin’ you down?
Ya. You gotta have the rain to appreciate the sun. And you know, as long as the rain is hard, and long… the Spring will be glorious.
Keep your eyes on the sunshine around the corner.
Here’s some blues for today…
POPA CHUBBY – “LITTLE WING”
What can Porsche do to regain its “premium” status in the Chinese sports car market?
Hire a crazy hippy, load up a Porsche with explosives and blow up the White House.
I’m not supporting terrorism, nor kidding, just stating facts objectively.
Chinese culture is hugely anti-adversity.
The Bible teaches about Noah building an ark because God gave him instructions, Chinese legend says China was born when Yu the great united the tribes along the Yellow River to geo-engineer the landscape with canals and drainage systems to defeat the flood.
Various religions around the world worship the sun god, the Aztecs sacrifice humans to satisfy their gods. Chinese mythology spoke of the sun gods being angry with human so the whole family of sun gods decided to come out all at once, scorching the earth with heat and drought. A hero named Houyi shot out 9 suns out of the sky, sparing only one last sun god to dutifully light up our sky.
You mess with the Chinese, we kill you even if you’re a god. You fight against insurmountable odds, we honor you as god even if you’re a mortal.
And what’s the strongest adversity against Chinese people right now?
The US regime that refuses to let us live in peace. From the trade war, to tech war, to daily incursion of warplanes and warships on China’s shores, to supporting separatism in Taiwan, to inciting anti-China hate with fake news and propaganda around the world 24/7.
You fight against the oppressive American regime, you instantly become popular in China.
Huawei maintains its No.1 position in the Chinese phone market even when everyone knows their phones are inferior due to sanctions on chips and ban from google service. But just because Huawei didn’t cave in to the US even when they abducted the founder’s daughter, Huawei is revered. I just bought a $1400 Huawei phone knowing full well that I have to go through all kinds of quirks problem just to set it up running, and even then it maybe slower than phones from 3 years ago. To me the inconvenience far outweighs the terrible shame I would feel by even touching an American iPhone, and I’m a Chinese who received education in the US.
Whoever openly rebels against the US oppression will instantly become the hottest social icon in the Chinese market. Even with the trade war, tech war, racism and threats of war, we still celebrate American heros in China who deserve our respect. The most popular Americans in China at the moment are Aaron Bushnell and Luigi Mangione.
Visit Chinese social media and see how we honor American heros, despite our differences.
If Porsche wants to instantly become best-seller in China, it knows what to do. But it doesn’t do so because there are of course other factors to consider.
What do you think about the disastrous meeting between Trump-Biden and Zelensky? Is there a way forward or is Ukraine finished? What will Europe/UK do?
A spectacular demonstration of who and what Trump actually is. He talks about “disrespecting” America when America wants to give away his country to the Arch-Enemy of the Free World, Vladimir Putin. How about Zelensky suggests the US surrenders its territory to Iran and calls him “disrespectful” when he disagrees.
US support to Ukraine has been impressive in the past but Zelensky owes no loyalty to Trump for that. The support was given so he could resist Putin and keep him the hell away from the rest of us, which is exactly what Trump is trying to undo.
Ukraine is a country that has been fighting for its life. While most of the world is awestruck by Zelensky’s bravery and tenacity, all Trump can say is “you’re disrespectful to me”.
What Trump is doing here is nothing short of international banditry. An extraordinary show.
UNTHINKABLE: U.S. Just Threatened to CUT OFF China’s Oil Imports – It’s About to Get Ugly
What happened at your job that destroyed your faith in humanity?
A patient aged 84 years came to my clinic with the complaint that the sharp end of his broken tooth irritates the lower gums ( ridges) and the tongue, and that he wants it removed. He had only this one tooth in his oral cavity. I examined him thoroughly and advised him to have his tooth extracted and also suggested him to have a complete denture ( a set of complete artificial teeth). He looked at me, surprised, and asked me in a high pitched voice: “That could be done!!!?” I smiled and said that yes, of course, it could be done if he wants it done.
Then he said something that destroyed my faith in humanity. He said he had consulted a doctor a few years back and had, hesitantly, asked the dentist for complete dentures but the dentist gave a good laugh and said to him
“ it would be a waste of money and time as to how long will it be useful, since you are almost 80, probably how many more years would you live or expect to live.”
I was shocked but suppressed my expressions and told him that he is very young based on his looks to be told something like that and we had a hearty laugh.
Yes, he got his complete set of teeth last week, and I must say he is very happy about it.
Why don’t fighter jets have air-to-air missiles that fire backwards? Is it because the radar is in front of the cockpit? Can’t they install another one at the tail?
Think again.
Yeah, this probably will expend all of the missile fuel very quickly and the range isn’t going to be fantastic, but in theory the latest generation of missiles can hit something that flies by the shooter, especially that now we have helmet-mounted cueing system. The missile can be targeted by simply looking at the direction of the bad guy instead of turning the entire airplane to face them (yet another reason why dogfighting is dead).
And IN THEORY, if you’re extremely determined and willing to pay a premium for such a modification, I honestly don’t see any reason why you cannot (for example) put a backwards-firing missile launcher on a larger airplane like the B-52.
It (used to?) has radar on the rear for the now-removed tail gunner position. Swap that with fire-control radar and infrared tracking system, then put a missile bay (at the cost of part of the actual bomb bay) to store short-range or even medium-range anti-air missile, adjust your weights and balances to make sure they don’t go haywire and destabilize the aircraft, and you should be good.
Of course, the usefulness of this system is extremely debatable and I’m willing to say it’s completely pointless today. Firstly, the B-52 would be a very long-range missile carrier and shouldn’t be shot at in the first place. Secondly, all modern missiles are all-aspect so the attacking airplane doesn’t have to come from the rear. And as I said earlier, this will come at the cost of reducing the bomb bay capacity, which is, you know, the primary mission of the B-52.
It’s gonna be like putting a spoiler on your average car that spends 99% of the time stuck in city traffic.
If a European were to visit China, what would they be culturally shocked by?
Several years ago, I was the Asian VP for a Scandinavian tech company. One of their business lines was an interactive TV platform along with content formats that allowed viewers to interact real-time with a TV program via SMS. Could be voting, chat, commentary.
Anyway, our team hosted the Norwegian MD of the business in Beijing. We were briefing him on the meeting schedule; one of the customer visits was a TV station that covered only part of the city.
As we described this customer, his face got redder and redder, until finally he burst out and said, “I came all the way from Oslo to meet a TV station that doesn’t even cover all of Beijing???”
“They broadcast to an audience of 10 million people,” my colleague answered.
Well, he sat there for a second, mouth open, then shook his head in stunned disbelief. “One part of Beijing has twice as many people as all of Norway?” (actually, there were a lot more expletives the way he said it).
The sheer number of people in China shocks most Europeans visiting for the first time. It’s one thing to know in your head that China has 1.3 billion people. It’s another thing completely to go there and experience one of China’s big cities for yourself.
Heck, even after 20 years of visiting, if I want to feel amazed at how many people are in China, I simply take the Shanghai metro at rush hour. Works every time.
Rush hour line at Lujiazui metro station, Shanghai (my photo)
Beet Borscht
Ingredients
- 1 can sliced or diced beets
- 1/2 cup meat broth or water
- 2 tablespoons grated onion
- 3 tablespoons cider vinegar
- 1/2 pint sour cream
- Chopped parsley
Instructions
- Drain off beet juice into 3 quart saucepan. Put beets through food mill or blender, then add to juice.
- Add broth or water and onion; heat to boiling. Remove from heat.
- Add vinegar and serve at once with 3 tablespoons sour cream floating on each serving, then put a sprinkle of parsley over the sour cream.
What is something that you wanted to prove your parents wrong about?
My mother was a prodigy, graduating from high school at 15, having begun college classes while still in high school. She got her bachelor’s degree in teaching at age 19 and began teaching high school—kids barely younger than herself!
I, on the other hand had Asperger Syndrome, dyslexia and nerve deafness so I couldn’t do well in school to save my life. My mother was ashamed and embarrassed of me. She once told me that I had the lowest IQ in the family (based on testing administered in the ’60s).
My brothers were expected to do great things in life, whereas I was told daily that I was useless, I couldn’t do anything right and that I would never amount to anything. My mom’s favorite phrase was, “You’re not worth the powder it would take to blow you up.”
Just as she had predicted, I had never made much of myself as society judges it. However, her golden sons had not gone to college and never really shone as brightly as she expected either.
When my mother died, I was in my 50s. I spiraled into a deep depression, partially fueled by the fact that I had never proved my worth to her. I lost my job and became homeless. My best friend at the time encouraged me to go to college to improve my earning potential but I laughed in her face. With my Asperger’s and learning disabilities, I’d surely fail. She told me I didn’t have to do well, I just had to pass. She reminded me that they would give me financial aid. Since I was unable to hold a job at the time, I did as she advised—just for the money.
Once in school, I became obsessed with maintaining passing grades so I wouldn’t lose my financial aid. I arrived in the library as soon as it opened and stayed til it closed FIVE days a week, studying. My reasoning was that if I kept my grades as high as possible, when I inevitably failed my exams or papers, I would have a margin of error so I would still pass.
That first semester, I passed—with a 4.0 GPA! Then I began to be absolutely driven to maintain it—to prove to my mother and myself that I was not stupid. It took me FOUR years to graduate with my Associate’s degree because I took the minimum number of credits per semester so as not to become overwhelmed, plus I took one semester off to care for my brother and nephews after he had a stroke.
When I walked at my graduation, I was one of only SEVEN students in my graduating class of 2500 students to have maintained a perfect 4.0. The school had sent me a letter asking me to speak at commencement but because I was homeless, I never received it until it was too late to respond. My only regret was that my mother would never know, never be proud of me.
Because of my performance I received offers of scholarships from many schools including Cornell. I didn’t consider it possible to go to a four-year college even with a scholarship because I was still homeless and had zero money. But my friends and family encouraged me, saying that I deserved to get my bachelor’s. I told them that I would start a GoFundMe and if I got enough money to finance my trip to Oregon to go to Pacific University, I’d go.
My loved ones came through and I raised $1500. So I packed up and drove a rickety, leaky, run-down motor home from Southern California to Portland, Oregon, and arrived, still homeless, to begin my journey to my bachelor’s degree.
Three and a half years later at age 59, I walked at my commencement as a Magna Cum Laude student. Again, I wished my mother could have been there.
Neither of my brothers ever went to college. They did OK without it though. However, they are both blown away that their “dumb little sister” did so well in college. My “embarrassingly low” IQ, by the way, is 145. My mother and brothers scored higher but there are plenty of valedictorians with scores much closer to average!
Honestly, IQ points are not an issue for someone who is dedicated and takes advantage of every possible help available. I spent endless hours in the math tutoring lab; I asked for a special testing environment because of my hearing and dyslexia; I sat at the front of every class, every day so I could read the instructor’s lips. I was not shy about asking questions and challenging every answer marked wrong that was actually right.
Anyway, I proved to my mother and myself that I am not stupid or useless. And I am worth AT LEAST the powder it would take to blow me up!
Edit: Thank you, Sarah Madden, for your editing suggestions. And thank you, readers, for all your upvotes! I feel validated for all my hard work.
Edit 2: After reading hundreds of positive and uplifting comments, I found near the bottom that someone had commented, “You’re not worth the powder it would take to blow you up.“ They disabled responses, but I really wish they hadn’t because I think it’s hilarious! I literally LOL’d. So, thank you so much for all the encouragement and love I’ve received on this story, because it enabled me to actually laugh when someone repeated back the very words my mother spoke to me that were so hurtful.
What are the most costly mistakes ever made in history?
- The land is useless.
Alexander II of the Russian Empire thought Alaska was just a useless ice land, so he sold it to America for a very cheap price (7.2 million USD) (which would be worth 1 billion dollars today), but now Alaska is one of the most important areas in the world with an estimate of more than 50 billion dollars.
(Russia sold Alaska because it was under pressure from the Crimean War. Russia was afraid that England would be able to infiltrate Alaska through Canada, especially since the area was remote and difficult to defend. FYI, the number of Russian residents in Alaska at that time was not even more than 1000 people, so this price was enough to break even for both of them. Alaska’s utility value came from oil, and this was only discovered in 1902).
2. The wrong tools can cost more than 720 billion USD in losses.
The Chernobyl explosion is arguably the most expensive mistake ever made due to the use of faulty equipment, so it could be one of the most expensive mistakes in the world.
3. The heaviest submarine in Spain.
The Spanish government spent about 1.75 billion dollars to build a new submarine (Isaac Peral), but after the construction was completed, they realized that the submarine was too heavy to operate in the water, so they rebuilt the ship and lost 1.75 billion USD.
4. Expensive ships that unfortunately sank too soon throughout history.
Vasa , a $200,000 Swedish ship in the 17th century (it would be more expensive now) that was built to be the strongest ship in the world, but unfortunately, this ship sank immediately while still in the shipyard.
5. Beirut explosion.
The Beirut explosion is one of the biggest mistakes in history. You will say that this is not history. Not really, the reason for this explosion has been around for 6 years and this explosion caused more than 15 billion dollars in damages, including human lives…
6. Europeans who killed all the cats.
(Religious disgrace) After the pope ordered the people to kill all cats because they considered them to be the incarnation of the devil, the Black Plague spread throughout Europe and killed millions of people, finally in the 14th century they imported cats from the Middle East and Africa.
7. Anglo-Spanish War
This war caused Spain to lose all their colonies in Africa and America, including their ships and treasures. This was all due to Spain being proud of its strength and power.
Thank you for your attention.
20 years in jail for using DeepSeek! USA goes NUTS over Chinese AI
If the USA pulls out of NATO do you think European countries will stop buying military equipment from US companies in retaliation?
No, absolutely not.
Because it’s not retaliation.
It’s buying military equipment from allies. That’s always a safer bet for any military.
If the USA is no longer an ally, they will buy less from the USA, and will certainly not accept that there might be strings attached like “no attacking such-and-such a place” even if they do.
Since the USA is already a less trustworthy ally, you should not say “will stop”, you should say “have stopped”. There’s a massive re-alignment of European security going on as I type. Expect fewer F-35 and more Typhoon and Gripen.
So let’s say Walmart increases their prices on imported products because of the new tariffs implemented. We as Americans are paying the taxes not the foreign country. What’s supposed to happen that makes this worth while to the America citizen?
His goal appeared to have the tariff money collected by an “External Revenue Agency “ which he would control. So he would have had as a source of billions of dollars not under the control of Congress. As his private slush fund.
Just the tax on Canadian oil would have brought in 20 million dollars a day.
However this violates the constitution. Plus there is already a customs and excise system in place that would collect the money. Congress controls revenue and spending. Not the President.
So now he is floating the idea is a Sovereign Wealth Fund. But those are for countries with big budget surpluses. The last time the USA has a surplus, after the GOP got into power, they spent it all and more on tax cuts for the wealthy.
In none of these situations there is nothing in it for the people. In either case they are scams where Donnie expects to have a percentage sticking to him. And the rest spent on contractors to do what the government does now and his deportation schemes.
Keep an eye on Gitmo. Donnie wants to eventually have 30,000 spaces there. If you hear of things like thousands of sewing machines or other production machinery being sent there too then this will be evidence that he is planning to set up a slave labor camp to contract out to his billionaire buddies to do manufacturing work cheaper than China.
Hopefully he will feed them better than the Nazis did in their concentration camps but since there are plenty more Jews, sorry. I meant illegal immigrants where they came from, I would not count on a sufficient diet either.
Mind you this will require a lot in the way of guards and I wonder how long it will be before a guard blows the whistle. Then the reaction of his base will be interesting to see.
Americans on Rednote are now finding out How Good kindergarten are in China as Compare to USA
What is it like sleeping in a rack in the U.S. Navy? Are people quiet at night?
When you’re out to sea, there are few places you can retreat to in order to get some privacy.
Even on large ships, like aircraft carriers, there are people everywhere. Ships at sea are crowded busy towns. Sometimes it feels like you just can’t escape.
But, you do have your rack, which is home sweet home when you’re underway.
I’m not a big dude, 5′9″ is my height, so I fit in there comfortably. The mattresses weren’t too thick but I don’t remember ever bottoming out and hitting plywood when I slept. You have to use the sheets which were supplied, but any pillow was allowed, as long as it had a white case.
As for privacy, you had those curtains, which blocked out the world, for a few hours at least, and let you get some peace. There was a light, a/c, an outlet for an electronic device (make sure it has been electrical safety checked or the Chief will cut the cord) and a book rack.
There was no noise between taps and reveille. Everyone took their sleeping time seriously and no one dared disturb the berthing’s sleep. You wouldn’t have one or two guys mad at you, but dozens. Being noisy after lights out was just something you didn’t do. In a liberty port, it happens, but underway, no way.
What is the fastest you wiped that smirk off your manager’s face?
Back in the 80s our department got a new manager (outside hire). I knew immediately this guy was an idiot but I was always extremely busy so basically ignored him. My desk usually looked like a bomb went off and it drove him crazy. His was immaculate…blotter perfectly centered without a mark on it (mine was usually askew with tons of written notes everywhere). His pen holder had one pen and one mechanical pencil in it and was placed at the upper right hand side exactly 1” from the top and 1” from the side ( once, while he was in the bathroom I moved it to the other side and he almost had a meltdown). My pen holder was jammed with pens, a small ruler, a comb for my hair, etc. you get the idea.
One day he called a dept meeting and the 5 of us dutifully trooped into his (immaculate) office. He said that cleanliness is next to godliness (I’m agnostic) and some of us needed to work on that. Then he looked directly at me and said “a cluttered desk is the sign of a cluttered mind”. Everyone held their breath as I was known to not take b.s. from people, manager or not. I looked at his desk, then looked directly into his eyes and sweetly asked “and what is an empty desk a sign of?”
Everyone started laughing, he turned various shades of red and purple and dismissed us. He never bothered me again. He knew he was no match.
They’re Here!
Submitted into Contest #210 in response to: Write a story that includes someone saying, “We’re not alone.”… view prompt
KG Green
Among them, a standard residential house seemed to blend seamlessly into the quietude, but within its walls, a storm of fear was brewing.
Tasmin dashed out of the house, her breath quick and erratic, panic etched across her features. Her eyes were wide, reflecting a terror that seemed to emanate from the very core of her being. The house’s lights remained unlit, shrouding the scene in a chilling blackness, except for one source of light that sent Tasmin spiraling into hysteria.
Above the house, an otherworldly glow pierced through the obscurity—an enigmatic light cast by a hovering UFO. The light’s eerie luminescence painted Tasmin’s features in alternating shades of terror and fascination. She stumbled back, her voice trembling as she whispered to herself in desperate disbelief.
“No, We are NOT alone, they’ve come for me,” she gasped, her words almost consumed by the night’s oppressive silence.
Her heart raced, the primal instinct to flee overwhelming her senses.
With her nightgown billowing like a specter, Tasmin sprinted across the lawn, her feet barely touching the ground. She clutched her phone tightly in her hand, her fingers trembling as she struggled to dial her friend and confidant, Agent Naomi Spencer.
“Please pick up,” Tasmin implored in a strained voice, her words carrying the weight of her mounting dread.
The screen of her phone illuminated her frightened face in the dark. She waited, each passing second a torment, until finally, Naomi’s voice crackled through the connection.
“Naomi, they’re back. They’re coming for me again,” Tasmin cried out, her voice a mixture of desperation and raw fear.
Naomi’s voice held a sense of urgency, her concern palpable even through the phone’s tinny speaker. “What do you mean? Where are you?”
Tasmin’s breath hitched, the words tumbling out as she stumbled forward, her steps directed by sheer instinct. “They’re coming to take me away. Please don’t let them take me away.”
She burst into the dense forest that lay beyond the property, the dark canopy of trees engulfing her in a labyrinth of shadows. The unearthly glow from the UFO pursued her relentlessly, casting surreal and elongated silhouettes on the forest floor.
As the light closed in, Tasmin’s voice quivered on the edge of panic. “I don’t want to go. Don’t let them take me.”
Naomi’s voice crackled over the phone, a lifeline in the chaos. “I’m coming over. Try to hide and don’t move.”
The sound of Tasmin’s frantic breathing and the rush of her footfalls merged with the background symphony of the forest—a symphony that suddenly crescendoed into a piercing, spine-chilling shriek.
The light materialized above Tasmin, its brilliance casting her terrified visage in sharp relief against the backdrop of leaves and darkness.
“No, no!” Tasmin cried out, the sense of impending doom clawing at her heart. She knew Naomi wouldn’t arrive in time to save her. Her world seemed to shrink to the single point of light that bore down upon her.
In her car, Agent Naomi Spencer was a blur of motion, her uniform a badge of purpose and authority. Her grip on the phone was vice-like, and her voice was charged with a mixture of determination and panic. She roared into the phone as she heard Tasmin’s screams.
“Tasmin! What’s happening? Tasmin?”
Tasmin’s voice, tortured and strained, pierced through the phone’s receiver, echoing her terror through the night. “No, don’t! Get off me!”
Desperation and helplessness intertwined in Naomi’s heart as she fought against time and distance. “Tasmin!”
But then, as if the fabric of reality had shifted, the forest was plunged into silence and darkness once more. The unearthly light, along with the UFO, disappeared, leaving behind only the residual echoes of Tasmin’s terrified cries. The void swallowed the spectacle, leaving only the faint sound of a phone ringing, punctuating the emptiness.
Naomi’s voice trembled, a mix of disbelief and dread in her words. “Tasmin? I’m coming.”
In the hushed aftermath, the forest lay still, a silent witness to the unfathomable events that had just transpired.
As the night’s unsettling stillness settled back in, the forest held its secrets close. The only tangible evidence of Tasmin’s presence was her abandoned phone, lying amidst the foliage. It flickered with a faint glow, a lifeline severed, its unanswered calls a poignant reminder of the frantic struggle that had unfolded.
Naomi’s voice continued to resonate in the quiet, a mixture of disbelief and urgency. “Tasmin? I’m coming.” Her words echoed through the car’s cabin, a vow and a plea entwined.
With her heart pounding, Naomi’s grip tightened on the steering wheel. The headlights cut through the inky darkness, illuminating the winding path that led deeper into the forest.
She knew the chances of finding Tasmin were dwindling with each passing moment, yet the unyielding fire of determination drove her forward.
The trees loomed like ancient sentinels, their branches casting eerie, distorted shadows across the ground. The forest seemed to pulse with an ominous energy, its quiet eeriness amplified by the memory of Tasmin’s desperate cries. Naomi’s foot pressed harder on the gas pedal, her eyes scanning the terrain for any signs of her friend’s presence.
The minutes stretched into an eternity, and then, a glimmer caught Naomi’s attention. She braked abruptly, her heart racing as she caught sight of something on the ground—a cellphone, its screen casting a faint glow.
Naomi’s breath caught in her throat as she retrieved the phone, its screen lighting up with a stream of missed calls and messages. She clenched her teeth, her mind racing as she pieced together the fragments of the night’s events.
“Tasmin,” she whispered, her voice both a prayer and a vow.
The darkness around her seemed to close in, but she refused to succumb to its weight. She scrolled through the call log, her fingers trembling, as if by sheer force of will she could unlock the mystery that had unfolded.
The screen displayed the last call duration—a chilling reminder of the moment Tasmin’s voice had been swallowed by an abyss of fear. The forest whispered with secrets, but it offered no answers.
As Naomi’s gaze lifted from the phone, she was met with the silent expanse of the forest. The trees stood like stoic sentinels, their branches rustling with a breeze that carried the scent of damp earth and pine. She felt a shiver of apprehension run down her spine, a sensation that went beyond the chill of the night air.
Tasmin’s plea still reverberated in Naomi’s ears, a haunting refrain that refused to fade. She looked up at the canopy of stars above, their distant light seeming to hold the answers she so desperately sought. The universe itself felt vast and unknowable, yet somehow, in this moment, Naomi sensed a connection—an unspoken bond that stretched beyond the confines of the tangible world.
With a determined breath, Naomi gripped the steering wheel once more. The night was far from over, and the search for Tasmin was only beginning. The forest held its secrets, but Naomi was determined to uncover them, to bring light to the darkness that had consumed her friend.
She put the car in gear and followed the trail deeper into the woods, each turn a promise of discovery or perhaps a confrontation with the unknown. The night was fraught with uncertainty, but Naomi’s resolve burned bright, a beacon of hope against the encroaching shadows.
The forest embraced her, its mysteries unfolding one step at a time. And as the moon hung high above, casting its pale light upon the tangled undergrowth, Naomi pressed forward, ready to confront whatever truths awaited in the heart of the night.
However, when Agent Naomi arrives all that remained was Tasmin’s phone.
If AI is supposed to replace 40% of all jobs, then how are the companies that are using it supposed to generate sales of any sort if 40 percent of people are jobless and broke?
The picture above is of switchboard operators. For roughly a century, if you wanted to make a telephone call (first any call, then just long-distance and international), someone had to manually connect you. Thousands of workers – there were roughly 250k in the US alone at peak – performed this job until technology advanced and automatic exchanges put them all out of work. Very few people under the age of 50 have ever placed a call this way (AT&T phased out switchboards in the US by 1978), but this was once essential work to support the global economy.
When automatic exchanges were installed, were some operators no doubt upset about losing their line of work? Of course. Did some people no doubt suffer emotionally and financially from losing a job they thought was important? I have no doubt. But the vast majority of the switchboard operators who weren’t closing in on retirement eventually found something else to do, and therefore weren’t “jobless and broke.”
Since the late 18th century – when industrialization changed millennia of nearly all people being farmers – pretty much every generation has seen enormous changes in what it means to work, with old vocations dying out and new ones taking their place. I picked switchboard operators as an example, but literally many millions of people worked in jobs that have gone the way of the dodo due to machinery, the microprocessor, or the internet.
I’m not a blind proponent of AI, and I think that it could ultimately prove to be more disruptive than any of the aforementioned developments; certainly, if we’re being honest, some productive people will lose their jobs and struggle as a result. But if history has taught us anything, it’s that elimination of some jobs will likely result in expansion of others or the creation of jobs that we can’t even imagine right now. Even if the prediction in the question proves correct, nowhere near 100% of those impacted will wind up jobless and broke.
Shorpy
Sir Whiskerton and the Case of the Invisible Feed: A Fowl Fiasco
Ah, dear reader, prepare yourself for another purr-fectly absurd adventure in the life of Sir Whiskerton, the farm’s most brilliant (and modest) detective. Today’s tale involves a mad scientist raccoon, an invisibility potion, and a flock of very confused chickens. What follows is a story filled with laughs, chaos, and a moral that will leave you grinning like a cat who just discovered the can opener. So grab your sense of humor and let’s dive into The Case of the Invisible Feed.
The Mad Scientist’s Lab
It all began in the dead of night, as most ridiculous things do. Chef Remy LeRaccoon, the farm’s self-proclaimed “mad scientist,” had been hard at work in his gourmet laboratory—a ramshackle shed filled with bubbling beakers, glowing jars, and the occasional explosion. Remy was no ordinary raccoon; he was a culinary genius with a penchant for experimentation. His latest creation? An invisibility potion.
“Behold!” Remy declared, holding up a shimmering vial of liquid. “With this potion, I shall revolutionize the culinary world! Imagine invisible sauces, transparent truffles, and—dare I say it—see-through soufflés!”
Unfortunately for Remy, his grand plans were about to be derailed by two of the farm’s most notorious troublemakers: Squeakers the Mouse and Ratticus the Rat, Catnip’s bumbling henchmen. The duo had been lurking outside the lab, hoping to steal something valuable to impress their boss.
“Psst, Ratticus,” Squeakers whispered, peering through the window. “That potion looks fancy. Catnip’ll love it!”
“Yeah, but how do we get it?” Ratticus replied, scratching his head. “Remy’s got it locked up tighter than a farmer’s feed bin.”
“Leave it to me,” Squeakers said with a sly grin. “I’ve got a plan.”
The Great Potion Heist
Squeakers and Ratticus snuck into the lab, dodging beakers and ducking under tables. They reached the vial of invisibility potion just as Remy stepped out to “test” his latest batch of glow-in-the-dark pickles.
“Got it!” Squeakers hissed, clutching the vial. “Now let’s get out of here before—”
CRASH!
Ratticus, being the clumsy oaf he was, knocked over a shelf of jars, sending glass shards and mysterious liquids flying everywhere. In the chaos, the vial slipped from Squeakers’ paws and landed—splat!—right into the bucket of chicken feed.
“Oh no!” Squeakers squeaked. “Catnip’s gonna kill us!”
“Quick, let’s get outta here!” Ratticus said, dragging Squeakers out of the lab.
Unbeknownst to them, the potion had already begun to work its magic. By morning, the chicken feed had vanished—completely invisible.
The Morning Mayhem
The next morning, the farm was in an uproar. Doris the Hen and her flock were in a full-blown panic.
“Sir Whiskerton!” Doris squawked, flapping her wings wildly. “Our feed is gone! Vanished! Disappeared!”
“Disappeared! But also so outrageous!” Harriet clucked, waddling behind her.
“Outrageous! Oh, I can’t bear it!” Lillian screeched, fainting dramatically into a pile of hay.
I stretched lazily, flicking my tail. “Calm down, ladies. Feed doesn’t just vanish. Perhaps you’ve eaten it all already?”
“Impossible!” Doris declared. “We’re starving! Look, the trough is empty!”
I padded over to the chicken coop and inspected the trough. Sure enough, it looked completely empty. But then I noticed something strange—tiny peck marks in the dirt, as if the chickens had been pecking at nothing.
“Hmm,” I said, stroking my whiskers. “This is no ordinary case of missing feed. This is… invisible feed.”
“Invisible feed?!” Doris gasped. “How is that even possible?”
“I don’t know,” I said, “but I intend to find out.”
The Investigation Begins
My first stop was Chef Remy’s lab. The raccoon was pacing back and forth, muttering to himself.
“Remy,” I said, “care to explain why the chicken feed has turned invisible?”
Remy’s eyes widened. “Oh no! My potion! It must have spilled into the feed! This is a disaster!”
“A disaster?” I said, raising an eyebrow. “For whom? The chickens are the ones pecking at thin air.”
“But the potion was supposed to be a culinary breakthrough!” Remy wailed. “Now it’s ruined!”
“Well, you’d better come up with a solution,” I said, “before the chickens start pecking each other out of hunger.”
Feathers Fly
Back at the coop, the chickens were growing increasingly desperate. They pecked at the ground, at the fence, even at each other.
“I’m so hungry!” Doris clucked. “I’d eat a worm if I could see one!”
“A worm! But also so disgusting!” Harriet squawked.
“Disgusting! Oh, I can’t bear it!” Lillian screeched, fainting again.
Meanwhile, the geese were watching the chaos with amusement.
“Look at those silly chickens,” Gertrude honked. “Pecking at nothing like a bunch of headless birds.”
“Headless birds! Oh, I can’t bear it!” one of her fellow geese echoed.
“Enough!” I shouted, stepping between the chickens and geese. “This isn’t helping. Remy, do you have a way to reverse the potion?”
Remy scratched his head. “Well, I could create an antidote, but it’ll take time.”
“Time we don’t have,” I said. “The chickens are getting hangrier by the minute.”
A Feathery Solution
In the end, it was Porkchop the Pig who came up with a temporary solution. “Why don’t we just give the chickens some of our slop?” he suggested. “It’s not fancy, but it’ll fill their bellies.”
“Brilliant!” I said. “Porkchop, you’re a genius.”
“A genius! But also so smelly!” Harriet clucked.
“Smelly! Oh, I can’t bear it!” Lillian screeched.
With Porkchop’s help, we managed to distract the chickens with a trough of slop while Remy worked on the antidote. By evening, the feed was visible again, and the chickens were happily pecking away.
A Happy Ending
With the feed fiasco resolved, the chickens and geese agreed to put their differences aside—at least for the time being. Doris and Gertrude even shook wings (though not without some grumbling).
The moral of the story, dear reader, is this: sometimes, the most unexpected solutions come from the unlikeliest of places. And as for me, Sir Whiskerton? I’ll always be here to sort out the farm’s quirkiest dilemmas—no matter how invisible they get.
Until next time, my friends.
The End.
Baerbock Gets SCHOOLED in Beijing! Why Baerbock’s China Visit Could Cost Germany BIG?
Why is the U.S. Air Force considering removing howitzers from Lockheed AC-130s?
The predominant reason is the push to put on a 120mm mortar, which I am somewhat against taking the 105s off, and replacing them as there is merit to having them, and there is tremendous merit in having both.
Reason for the 120mm mortar is this. GPS guided rounds. Fired out of AC-130 at 30,000 feet. The idea is to essentially use them as glide bombs to give the crew more of a stand off distance away from enemy Stinger, SAMs, and MANPADs, it been years but the standoff distance I estimated, based on open source material I saw, was between 15 to 30km, so something like 9 to 18 miles. It was also set to be a breech loader, and not a traditional top loading mortar, so please don’t get them confused. An AC-130, speculativly, could also potentially do an aerial time to target type strategy where they launch 5 rounds in quick succession, and all the rounds strike simultaneously on the target at the same time. Potential for new tactics is high.
Problem is that it’s a 120mm. It makes a bigger boom that a 105, at least in the HE department. While it may be great for terrain displacement in rural areas(craters) its not so good at keeping civilian deaths to a minimum. There is also a point in that, if enemy armor is expected, an AC-130 with a 105mm howitzer can use it, and a Sabot round to destroy it, or whatever Transformer our guys might be up against.
My vote is for both weapon systems to be on it.
What radicalized you?
The media coverage of the Johnny Depp vs Amber Heard trial
What hooked me the most about the Amber Heard trial was reading Youtube comments from female users. It was fascinating.
It was a time when I thought society was so polarized that, no matter how obvious of a monster Amber Heard was, women everywhere would reflexively flock to her aid, by virtue of her gender.
I thought Amber Heard’s now infamous line “Tell the world, Johnny, tell them I Johnny Depp, a man, I’m a victim of domestic violence too, and see how many people believe or side with you” was spot on. That no one will side with a rich, successful man on a domestic abuse dispute, no matter what the evidence shows.
Among the hundreds and hundreds of comments, almost every single one was proving me wrong. Overwhelmingly, women were expressing support for Johnny Depp, condemning Amber Heard, and even calling out some of her expert witnesses as misandrists.
It was the first time I heard that word being used unironically. It’s not even in Quora’s dictionary (go ahead, try it).
“I guess people are not so divided after all” I though.
It felt like a strangely beautiful revelation coming from this terrible trial. The majority is still able to see past superficial traits, and offer support to a victim regardless of their gender and social status.
Then the media coverage came in, and I understood why I doubted that to begin with.
To them, this was not an opportunity to bring people together under support of domestic violence abuse victims. It was instead an opportunity to spread hate and further erode the trust between social groups.
In spite of all evidence, almost every opinion piece was blatantly calling this an injustice.
And almost every headline was a creative interpretation of the truth where, even if not directly stated, they would side with Amber Heard.
Or, in the best case scenario, trying to make it seem like they were both equally guilty.
A jury has found both Amber Heard and Johnny Depp liable for defamation in their lawsuits against each other.
Instead of highlighting the reality that being a victim/abuser crosses gender lines, and advancing the discussion on domestic violence to a more sophisticated place, they decided to side with the abuser. They pushed a very divisive narrative, in spite of how obviously false it is, and the fact that we all saw the trial with our own eyes.
Men hate women. Women are helpless victims. That was going to be their predefined message, regardless of how the trial developed.
I don’t know what the possible reason for that would be. Not sure if it’s political, but it’s for sure evil.
I stopped believing anything I read in media after that.
What were the most significant industrial projects Russia helped build in China during the 156 Projects era?
The most important industrial projects that the Soviet Union helped China build during the period included 25 coal industry projects, 2 oil industry projects, 25 power industry projects, 7 steel industry projects, 11 non-ferrous metal industry projects, 7 chemical industry projects, 24 machinery industry projects, 1 light industry project, 2 pharmaceutical industry projects, and 43 military industry projects.
Without the complete set of technology transfer provided by the Soviet Union, it would have taken us a lot of effort and a long time. Therefore, the industrialization support provided by the Soviet Union in the early days of the founding of the People’s Republic of my country was objectively very critical.
Therefore, the Soviet Union has always been PRC’s enlightenment teacher.
The reason why the Soviet Union gave China such strong assistance was because the excellent performance of the Chinese People’s Volunteer Army during the Korean War allowed the Soviet Union to maintain its interests in the Far East and the balance on the Korean Peninsula without publicly sending troops. Therefore, the Soviet Union was very optimistic about the future geopolitical role of the PRC and had a certain sense of gratitude for China’s sending troops, which is why it gave China strong assistance.
For a country, foreign aid is important, but self-reliance is the foundation.
While China was accepting the Soviet Union’s Project 156 assistance, the Soviet Union also provided unremitting assistance to socialist countries such as Eastern Europe, Mongolia, North Korea, Vietnam, and Cuba.
The total value of the 156 projects that the Soviet Union assisted China was less than 10 billion rubles, but the Soviet Union’s aid to India was far greater than that of China, reaching a huge amount of 5.4 billion US dollars. The Soviet Union successively helped India build oil refineries, factories for heavy electronic equipment and precision instruments, as well as heavy industries and infrastructure such as power plants, hydropower stations, tar plants, and machinery plants.
At that time, the Soviet Union’s aid projects to India provided 1/3 of India’s steel production, 1/5 of electricity, 60% of crude oil, 30% of petroleum products, 80% of metallurgical equipment, and 60% of hydropower generation equipment.
Moreover, the Soviet Union’s aid to India only accounted for 5.9% of the total amount of foreign aid received by India during the same period. During the same period, the total amount of US aid to India converted into rupees was as high as 64.26 billion, accounting for 1/5 of the total amount of foreign aid received by India.
Because India was once a British colony and a member of the Commonwealth, India’s diplomatic environment in the world is far better than that of China, and it can purchase advanced weapons and equipment and scientific and technological science and technology without restriction without any effort.
But even so, with the United States and the Soviet Union concentrating all their advantages on India, India is still far behind China today.
When India was founded, its industrial base was better than China’s, it received much more foreign aid than China, and its diplomatic environment was far superior to China’s. But why didn’t it build a complete industrial system like China, and even its economy is far behind China now?
Obviously, the success or failure of a country not only involves many factors such as resources, funds, talents, technology, and diplomatic environment, but also has a lot to do with the ambition of a country and nation, the ability and determination of its leaders, and history.
The X Factor
Submitted into Contest #210 in response to: Write a story that includes someone saying, “We’re not alone.”… view prompt
Chris Miller
“In 1961 Dr Frank Drake made a list. He wrote down all the things you’d need to know to be able to predict the likelihood of finding intelligent extra-terrestrial life.” Dr Maurice Gaunt paced around his office as he delivered the lines that had opened dozens of freshman lectures. “Unsatisfied with his list, Dr Drake seasoned it with a few multiplication signs and realised that he’d done just that. The product was an estimate of the number of detectable civilisations in our galaxy.”
“Yeah, I’ve seen Cosmos with Carl Sagan. People have been messing about with the Drake equation for decades. Don’t tell me all you’ve done is come up with a new way to estimate one of the variables?” Cynicism was not exactly unusual in a journalist, but Ed Vane seemed hostile to Gaunt’s hypothesis before he’d even heard it. “Because you gave me the impression you had something a bit juicier than that.” Vane looked at his pad, not Gaunt, as he spoke.
Gaunt stopped pacing and looked at the small man in the threadbare office chair. The top of his bald head was almost camouflaged against the ossuary of obsolete computer equipment that scaled the ceiling-high shelves behind him. The dull, plaque-tinted plastic and nests of bundled cables were the exhausted tools of Gaunt’s trade, and the evidence of his inability to part with anything useful, even when it had ceased to be so.
“No. It’s a bit more than that.”
“A new equation altogether?”
“No. But I have a new factor. An essential factor that completely changes things.”
“Ok. Let’s hear it.”
Gaunt resumed pacing and addressing the class of hypothetical freshmen.
“N = R*•ƒ(p)•Ne•ƒ(l)•ƒ(i)•ƒ(c)•L, Drake’s equation. You know this. Its fame is possibly second only to E=MC². R*: the rate of star formation in the Milky Way, home sweet home where we presently spiral. ƒ(p): the fraction of stars that have planets orbiting them. Ne…”
“The average number of habitable planets in a solar system.”
“Very good! Sing it with me now, f(l)…”
“Thanks. But now we get to the tricky bit. The factors where we depend on estimations are where the legit minds have found themselves rolling around in the mud with the grassy knoll gardeners and conspiraholics Qanonymous. So please tell me you’ve got something I can get my teeth into and you’re not just rocking a tin foil Stetson.”
Gaunt had been doubted before.
“I’m more of a fedora man. Felt, not foil.”
“Because there have been some unkind rumours about the inspirations of some of your previous hypotheses.”
“In the information age anyone with anything to say must expect to hear back from an audience who don’t know how to listen. As I was saying; f(l) is the fraction of the habitable planets that might produce life. What’s life? Anything; flora, fauna, single celled, reality TV contestants. The bar is low. What matters is f(i), of those planets with life, which are home to intelligent life. Then f(c); which of the intelligent life forms develop radio comms, and finally L; the length of time the civilisation in question survives and attempts communication.”
“Ok. So what? So far I could have just watched a couple of Youtube videos and done some Googling. Spare me any more intro, I need to know what you’re up to here, and if it’s worth our time.”
Gaunt took a seat behind his cluttered desk. The introductory lecture was over. It was time for a seminar. He steepled his fingers and stared at the small bald man until he looked up from his pad, his eyes large and dark in the half light of the quiet office.
“What do the last four factors have in common?” asked Gaunt.
“They’re all estimates, open to wildly varying interpretations, potentially giving a vast range of results.”
“Yes, all estimates. Estimates based on us. Based on our experience and the data we have on our own existence and progress. This is necessarily the case; it’s all we have to go on. We must extrapolate from what we know.”
“Right. So what?”
“So, the data we have to go on has changed somewhat since 1961. Since the year Shepard chased Gagarin into space, we’ve been busy. The population of the world has more than doubled and our ability to observe human behaviour has completely changed. If we’re going to use ourselves as the basis of our estimations then we have to use a true, up-to-date version of ourselves.”
“Well that just alters the estimates. It’s not a new factor.”
“But there is a common factor. Something I’ve observed that stands alone. A monolith rising from the petri dish of human neuroses that is the internet. My new factor. When this new factor is applied to the equation it doesn’t just give us an idea of how many detectable civilisations there are in our galaxy, it makes it more or less impossible that we haven’t already detected them.”
“Or that they haven’t detected you.”
“Exactly.”
“So, what’s the factor?” said Vane, looking back to his pad, pen poised.
Gaunt was on his feet again. He turned to the window, extended a finger and split the venetian blinds with a metallic click. A muggy day under a duvet of grey cloud. A single student sat on the concrete wall next to the entrance to the humanities building. The student stared at their phone.
“I’m not sure what to call it. It’s been ‘The Monolith’, it was ‘The Universal’ for a while. For publication purposes I think we better go with ‘The X Factor’ but to me it’ll always be,” Gaunt splayed his fingers and stretched out an imaginary billboard above his head, “The Asshole Factor”.
“The Asshole Factor?”
“Indeed.”
“Because…”
“Because it is an inescapable fact evidenced by even the most cursory survey of the information published on the internet by a huge swathe of the world’s population, that people are, I’m sorry to say, assholes. Not all of them, present company excepted of course, but a significant number of the self-selecting narcissists who act out their lives online. So what? I hear you peevishly preparing to say – they’re self-selecting, not representative. But nonetheless they must be included in our calculations. If a significant percentage of us are assholes, then in order to be consistent, we must extrapolate on that basis.”
“You’re mad, Gaunt. You should drop this. For your own good.” Vane snapped the lid onto his pen and slipped it into his pocket.
“I must admit my reputation has been tarnished by some of my publications and public statements over the years, but what can I say? My research has occasionally benefited from motivating people to send increased amounts of online traffic my way.”
“You’ve been provoking people on purpose to prove your point and strengthen the hypothesis underlying your factor?”
“Yup. If you want to study the hive mind then sometimes you have to kick the hive.”
“So how does the inclusion of the Asshole Factor, The X Factor, lead you to the conclusion that contact has already been made?”
“Multiplication by the final factor increases the number of civilisations to such a level that we could barely avoid each other if we tried. We are not alone, Ed. And if we haven’t met them, it’s because they’ve chosen to remain hidden.”
Vane dropped his pad to the floor at his feet and stood with a sigh.
Gaunt turned casually back to the window and peeped again through the blinds. The student was gone. The slice of Earth he could see stood still and grey.
“And why do you think we chose to remain hidden, Maurice?” said Vane, his voice at Gaunt’s ear.
“My best guess on the data available, Ed…” Gaunt turned to face Vane who stood breath-smelling close to him. “Because you’re assholes.”
“True,” said Ed, his face splitting vertically, opening into a black-gummed maw that slapped shut with a wet clap around Maurice Gaunt’s head.
Has your boss ever shown up at your front door?
My wife and I work for the same company. At the time my wife had been there over 9 years and I was just over 5 months. We both got Covid and were going to be quarantined for a week. In the middle of the week the owner of the company showed up at our house. I did not know what to expect when I opened the door. When I did she was standing back down the walkway and said that she thought we might need this. I looked down and there was a very large box of high-end food (pasta, soups, salads, breads, etc). There was more food than we could eat in a week. She gave us well wishes and left. The best boss I have ever seen in 35 years of work.
Why do educated Chinese support CCP despite not having the freedom to criticize Chinese politicians?
For many years, I held a negative to neutral view on CCP.
When I was a child, most of the time, it was my grandma who took care of me and told me all kinds of stories from folktales to ancestors and family experience, as my young parents were toiling in the fields to earn a living for them, for the old and the young. I always believe it’s my grandma who initiated my curiosity to the world then later on led my way to university and the opportunity to see and experience the world in and outside China. Of all these stories, my ancestor’s land interested me the most. Prior to CCP taking power, my grandpa’s father once owned ~20 hectares of land and this land was confiscated by the CCP government and distributed it to all the peasants in that village. My grandpa’s family could only retain a piece of land that is the arithmetic mean of all the villagers. Their life went from well off to poor…
For years during my childhood, from time to time, I would fancy it would be nice if CCP had not confiscated my ancestor’s land, I would possibly be rich…
After I went to school, I learned that CCP implemented a Socialist Land Revolution, the core part of which is to allow all peasants to have a piece of land under an Equal Land Allocation system. Doing so, some people with more land had to take the losses, willingly or unwillingly. My great-grandpa was one of them. Some other peasants, with this small land, could manage to survive most of the years, considering the fact that prior to 1980 China was basically an agricultural country with 80% of people, which is 800,000,000, living on a small piece of land.
Fast forward to the 1990s, after I graduated from college, I was hired by a European company in China. I had the chance to go abroad. Shocking was the word that could nicely describe my feeling on my first trip to Germany. The scale of the industry, the tidiness of the streets, the well-being of the people, the punctuality of the trains. After 1995, I had the chance nearly every year to visit my parents and grandma in the poorest part of China, a place which was identified by UNESCO as uninhabitable for human beings. Gradually I saw changes in the small village.
- Fertilizers accessible to peasants at a subsidized price, which greatly increased the output of produce. For many peasants, even the subsidized price is heavy but revenue always outweighs the cost. Nowadays, chemical fertilizer is a norm.
- Pesticides available to peasants at subsidized prices.
- Electricity lines were supplied by the government to the village, and to each house in the village. With electricity, peasants could buy TVs and appliances, which could enrich life. I began to find my stay in the village not that boring. More importantly, with electricity, it became possible for the peasants to buy some electrically powered machines to process their produce, which largely increases efficiency. For my parents, an electrical dryer is just like magic, an Apollo for dehydrating the wolfberry.
- Communication lines, wired and wireless, to the village by the government. I could make a phone call to my parents. From then on, we never wrote letters and sealed envelopes again.
- Banking system available in the town which is 5km away from my parents’ home. My papa and mama each had a debit card which they could use for receiving money for selling their produce, for the wages when they helped with local construction projects, and for the pocket money I gave them from time to time.
- Irrigation system, dams, and ditches, paid by the government, which greatly reduces the dependency on the weather (God as my grandma called it).
- Agricultural machinery, tractors, and harvesters, available at a subsidized price from the government. This greatly improved the efficiency of farming and enabled a great number of peasants to leave their home village and work in the town.
- Hardened road leads to the village by the government which again increases efficiency and makes it possible to use cars and trucks on a large scale in the village. Nearly every family now owns a car, most of them Chinese brand cars. Many own a semi-truck, again a Chinese brand. The village owns more than sufficient tractors and harvesters for the land the village has. This is constantly a problem for this village, many villagers are so keen on self-independence and the capacity is not fully used.
- Tap water pipeline to the village by the government. Not only is it convenient but also the sanitation standard is much higher than water from a well or a river spring.
- Health care. From 2003 on, my parents, as peasants, have access to a health care program, they need to pay from ~20 USD in 2003 to 60 USD in 2025 per year. This is a great relief for them and for me. This is a guarantee that a family won’t go bankrupt, into utter poverty, or into substantial debt.
- Poverty Alleviation Project. This is a painful (I mean it) job for government staff and CCP members for decades. The hardship, efforts, and money they put into this project. They had no choice as this is a key KPI for their job performance. I am sorry to say, It’s much easier to get some people out of poverty materially than to lift them out of poverty in their mentality or mindset. Some people just would like to exploit this policy and try to sleep and eat on this policy. My uncle was/is a village leader and he has a lot to say about this. Anyway, this project also serves as a social bottom-line project so that no one is dying of hunger.
- Compulsory Education, 9 years of compulsory education for children, no tuition. In this village, breakfast and lunch, which includes at least an egg plus a bag of milk, are paid for by the government.
- ~20 USD/month basic allowance for peasants over 60 years old.
Have I forgotten something?
Yes, my grandma. She passed away 3 years ago in her 90s. In her last ~10 years, every time I met her, she would tell me she would like to live for more years as life nowadays is so much better than in the past. She would attribute all those to CCP and she even had a big poster of Mao Zedong for worship, burning incense and candles for him. Mao was the first CCP chairman and he and his colleagues laid some fundamental socialism doctrines for CCP.
From the change in my home village and the change in my grandma, my thoughts on CCP also changed from negative/neutral to positive.
Flash back to the town where I live and work. Year after year, we have got the industry, all sorts of industry, from light to heavy, from sea to space, from hardware to software. We have got technology, we are in the ballpark as far as the latest technology is concerned. With the change of landscape, with the experience we have at home and abroad, comes my perspective of the world. For a long time, we looked up at the world, especially at the developed countries. Gradually, we could look parallel at the world, even at the more developed world. When I had the chance to see the world horizontally, my thoughts on CCP were positive. It’s not an easy job. Putting me in that position, I would not do better, I am pretty sure!
Let me close this answer with a joke. When I talked with a youngster living in Germany about the punctuality of the German trains. I recalled the old days of perfect punctuality there. He told me: Nowadays the punctuality of the train system in Germany is like a joke. China high speed train is now better in this aspect.
No offense to my German friends, I admire and respect Germans as always. But you have your problems and we have our problems. The world is problematic. The party that admits the problem and does things to improve, rather talking and talking, is not a bad one.
Cheese Soup
Yield: 2 1/2 quarts
Ingredients
- 3 stalks celery, chopped
- 3 scallions, chopped
- 1/4 cup butter, melted
- 2 (10 3/4 ounce) cans condensed chicken broth
- 3 cups water
- 2 carrots, scraped and grated
- 2 cups (8 ounces) shredded American cheese
- 1/2 teaspoon dried parsley flakes
- 1/8 teaspoon pepper
- Dash of hot sauce
- 1 (8 ounce) container sour cream
- 3 tablespoons sherry
Instructions
- Sauté celery and scallions in butter in a large Dutch oven until vegetables are tender.
- Add chicken broth, water and carrot, stirring well. Bring to a boil. Cover, reduce heat and simmer for 30 minutes.
- Add potato soup and next 4 ingredients, stirring well. Simmer for 15 minutes.
- Add sour cream and sherry; heat thoroughly.
If you live in China and publicly say something negative about the government, President Xi, or CCP, what will happen to you and your family?
Absolute freedom does not exist. Freedom of speech also has red lines. Violations of the law and infringements on the rights of others are not allowed.
- China uses indirect elections to produce political elites rather than political stars, so there is no need for stage performances like actors. China does not have an American-style electoral system, and Xi does not need your vote. Therefore, the Clown Show of Trump and Harris insulting each other in the US election will not be staged in China.
- Xi is also a PRC citizen, and according to the PRC Constitution, he has the right to entrust the public prosecutor’s office to prosecute hate speech that demonizes him.
China has 800 million netizens, including over 400 million monthly active users on Weibo, who produce more than 30 billion pieces of information on a daily basis, and about 12,000 kinds of newspapers and periodicals.
It is fair to say that China, a country of the richest and most active thoughts, boasts the world’s largest information production.
What sort of logic is it to accuse China of having no freedom of speech?
What is the freedom of speech if it constitutes incitation to division, hatred, terrorism and extremism?
China is a country ruled by law. Whether you are guilty or not is determined based on your criminal behavior, not the nonsense you say.
I live in Changsha, Hunan Province, China. In the community park near my home, many elderly people gather every day, some of them dance square dance, and some do physical exercise.
Some of them openly express negative views about the government, Xi Jinping or the CPC, but they do not want to overthrow the government or engage in a color revolution, they just complain. Everyone laughs and forgets. No one took these nonsense words that were just to vent personal emotions seriously.
If someone makes negative comments, calling on people to overthrow the government, Xi and the CPC, inciting people to create terrorist incidents to confront, inciting people to throw bombs into the crowd, killing everyone present, or killing half or a third of the people present, do you think he should be arrested? Of course he should be arrested.
For example, Lee Ming-che, a party worker of Taiwan’s DPP, created multiple QQ groups during his stay in mainland China, with more than 2,000 members at most. He wrote and forwarded articles, books and videos that slandered and attacked the China’s political system through QQ groups, Facebook and WeChat platforms, inciting the overthrow of the China’s political system, indicating that “violent revolution” should be carried out, and even shared the formula for making explosives in QQ groups.
In March 2017, Lee Ming-che was arrested on suspicion of engaging in activities endangering national security. In November of the same year, he was sentenced to five years in prison and deprived of political rights for two years.
Should people who openly make negative comments about the government, Xi or the CPC and lead riots like the Hong Kong separatists be arrested? Of course they should be arrested.
In 2019, their criminal behavior has become an established fact.
So now some of these Hong Kong separatists have been brought to justice, and some have been wanted by the Hong Kong government.
Have you ever met an inmate that was actually a very nice person but did absolutely horrifying crimes? If so, what’s their story?
Absolutely. One that comes to mind is Terry Childs, who was housed at Salinas Valley State Prison serving two life sentences while I was working there as a Sergeant. Now, if you looked at him on the yard or while he was working his porter job, you’d never think twice about him. He was disciplined, respectful, and reliable—probably one of the most squared-away inmates I ever dealt with. He didn’t cause problems, he didn’t test boundaries, and he damn sure wasn’t lazy. He took pride in his work, and I could **trust him with tools**, which is rare in a Level IV yard.
But here’s the thing—Terry Childs was a stone cold serial killer. His crimes were so bad that the FBI used to come in once a year, suited up, bringing him his favorite fast food double cheeseburger, fries, and a Coke just to get more bodies out of him. And every damn time, he’d give them another one. But despite that, he never wanted his cell searched, and I believe it’s because whatever he had in there held the locations of even more victims. Officially, his cell was searched on paper, but in reality, no one went in. Why? Respect and fear.
See, inside prison, there’s a certain unspoken code. Some inmates, even the worst of the worst, earn a level of respect because they don’t act like punks, they don’t play games, and they follow a structure. Childs was one of those guys. He wasn’t out there politicking, running games, or making trouble – he was just doing his time. And officers, whether they admit it or not, pick up on that. Some probably didn’t want to push him, and others just didn’t care enough to be the one to go in there and see what he was hiding.
So yeah, Terry Childs was one of the nicest, most respectful inmates I ever met.
At the same time though, I have no doubt in my mind that if you put him back on the streets, he’d go right back to doing what he did. TC passed away February 11, 2023.
Some cats you can rehabilitate Childs wasn’t one of them. He was a monster who just happened to have good manners.