Pre-divorce posturing

You know what?

I have (as of late) been drawn to the horrible stories about infidelity between married couples. Just terrible stuff really. And then one of my followers asked for help on this matter and I responded in a post.

When I get these urges, there are always deeper meanings underlying their intrusion into my consciousness. And it just occurred to me what is going on.

The “marriage” is the United States and China.

The United States is “having sex and fooling round”, and China knows all about it, but wants to keep the relationship stable.

So the United States denies, and denies, and then denies…

What are you talking about?
Nothing is going on?
You worry too much?
You are reading too much into the picture of me and a coworker…

…but the texting behind the back keeps on occurring, and the sex orgies still occur in (apparent) secret.

But China has a PI investigating everything and knows everything. China has transcripts of all the text message. China has videos of the sexual events taken from the phones, and the sexy pictures sent back and forth between them. China knows when, where, how and how often these events occurred.

But hasn’t shown its hand yet.

What will China do?

The normal thing (the most common event) is confrontation; a “lot of fireworks” and screaming and yelling, and then a hostile divorce.

But I really don’t think that China wants, or has any plans, to do that.

China does not want a divorce (a war; in any shape or form.)

However, if push comes to shove, China (as a partner) will make life a living Hell for the United States….

…if push comes to shove.

If all these non-stop provocations keep on occurring while the USA puts on the face that “all is just fine, nothing is going on. You are the one with the issue.“

And were a hard and harsh divorce were to manifest, it would be China who would hold all the cards. It won’t go in any way that the USA thinks.

…

All these are ugly thoughts.

The USA and China are (at least on the surface) making amends. Dating again, things are getting back to normal. Plane Flights are opening up. Businessmen are cutting deals and all the rest.

But the USA is still up to it’s old bag of tricks.

A “color revolution” in Burma by the CIA was just squelched. Lots of dead (CIA trained) insurgents.

“President” Biden got up and made a public warning to China to stop provoking The Philippines…

My gut feeling is that the Chinese know everything, and are just “waiting out” the United States. It will run out of money, resources, banking, finance, and cred sooner than later.

Ai! Hopefully the hidden texts, the late-night “meetings”, and all the rest will come to a quick and decisive end.

Hopefully.

One more year of Joe Biden. Sheech!

I don’t know if I can handle that. Oh Lordy!

I swear that he has his foot on the gas petal towards war and is FLOORING IT.

Yikes!

…

Today…

What is your opinion on the statement “China will never be as good as western civilization”?

Well China gave the west a 2 century head start and caught it up in less than 50 years! Go figure. The west don’t have civilisation it has a war mongering barbaric mind set that thinks they are ordained by god to loot and plunder. Colonialism U.S. not civilised it is a cruel, despicable act of stealing land and carrying out genocides to slaughter most of the natives.

Civilisation is like the Chinese and Confucianism edicts on discipline, respect, compassion, hard work, eagerness to learn, winning without fighting. Murder, slaughter, genocide done by the west to steal land and resources is barbaric not civilised.

Star Trek: The Silent Skies | 1920 Universe

This is AMAZING!

Zero-sum mentality in US won’t halt China’s tech rise — Global Times

American automaker Ford said on Monday it’s pausing construction of a $3.5 billion electric vehicle (EV) battery plant in the US state of Michigan until it is confident it can run the factory competitively, the Associated Press (AP) reported. Although the US government is flexing all of its policy muscles available to suppress China’s high-tech industry, US competitiveness in cutting-edge technologies has continued to decline as a result of multiple factors.

Ford’s decision comes as the company is in the midst of national contract talks with the United Auto Workers union, which wants to represent workers at battery factories and win them top wages, according to the AP report. Intense competition among global EV manufacturers has unsettled the US automotive industry, which had been a pillar of the US economy, as US automakers are under pressure both at home and abroad.

On the one hand, competition from international competitors, including Chinese EV makers, poses a challenge to American firms, especially as Chinese companies have accumulated technological and price advantages against the backdrop of fierce competition in the Chinese domestic market.

On the other hand, deep-seated problems in the US economy, including insufficient labor protection and the widening wealth gap, have erupted in a concentrated manner. The car industry, like other manufacturing industries in the US, is facing increased pressure due to rising production costs.

As reported by the AP in March, Ford’s EV business has lost $3 billion before taxes during the past two years. If the US automaker wants to catch up with rivals amid intense international competition, one option for Ford is to collaborate with top Chinese companies.

Ford in February announced plans to build the plant in Michigan, betting that making the batteries in the US would help it and Chinese partner CATL attract US customers to embrace a lower-cost technology pioneered in China, according to Reuters. Honestly speaking, Ford’s cooperation with CATL benefits the development of the US EV industry. However, the sector’s survival opportunities are being stifled by politicians in Washington. Republicans in Congress have been probing Ford’s battery plant plan over concerns it could leave Ford dependent on Chinese technology.

As reported by Reuters, Rep. Mike Gallagher said lawmakers were “encouraged to see Ford take a crucial first step to reevaluate its deal” with CATL. “Now, Ford needs to call off this deal for good,” he added.

Not only in the EV industry, but also in most high-tech and cutting-edge industries, some people in the US possess an extremely unhealthy and unfair zero-sum competition mentality toward China. However, it is evident that this thinking is counterproductive in promoting the development of domestic US industries.

Apart from Tesla, other American vehicle companies still have a relatively low share in the domestic and international EV markets. Although the US government has devised protectionist measures such as the Inflation Reduction Act, it is still moving slowly in terms of addressing domestic supply chain issues, particularly in the production of batteries.

Washington is working toward a zero-sum competition with China, with American firms serving as victims. What Chinese enterprises need to do is to confront external challenges, continuously enhance their competitiveness, strengthen technological innovation, seize the opportunities created by Washington’s zero-sum competition mentality – which has caused difficulties for American enterprises – and continuously strengthen themselves.

China is becoming increasingly competitive in EV manufacturing capacity and technology innovation. Chinese EV brands, such as BYD and NIO, have made significant strides in developing advanced EV technologies, including battery technology and autonomous driving features.

China holds a superior position in the EV supply chain, with about three-quarters of the world’s battery production capacity. Moreover, China houses more than half of the world’s processing and refining capacity for lithium, cobalt and graphite, which are essential materials for making EV batteries.

The West’s narrow-minded, zero-sum game mentality has indeed put some pressure on China in the short term, but it cannot fundamentally hinder technological progress. If the US always opts for dirty tricks against China instead of learning how to conduct healthy competition with Chinese enterprises and develop its own economic competitiveness, this will just lead to a larger gap between China and the US.

What is the reason for the opposition to Huawei? What is the US’s motivation for wanting to ban the company?

Huawei has grown into a technological monster.

If you don’t understand why I use the word “monster” to describe Huawei, please look at this picture. Here is a summary of the business Huawei is doing.

It is different from traditional foreign technology companies, such as Samsung, SONY, Nokia, and Alibaba, which only challenge advanced American companies in a certain field.

It has launched a comprehensive challenge to its American counterparts in almost the entire information technology industry.

It not only challenges, but has already achieved success in many areas, and this trend is getting faster and faster.

If the US doesn’t stop it, it will slap American companies on the butt in global markets. Just like Toyota and Honda slapped Ford’s ass back in the day.

Currently, high-tech companies are a key means for the United States to gain wealth from around the world. Once these high-tech companies are stepped on by Huawei, how can the United States maintain its status as a developed country and maintain Americans’ living standards?

Therefore, when American companies have no choice but to rely on the U.S. government to take action. Kill the monster before it grows up.
As for the reason: threatening national security

Senior shelter cat desperately hugs woman for adoption

“I adopted the oldest cat my shelter had. She was owner surrendered at the age 15 which I just thought was wrong. I named her Hope and she gave me 4 of the best years of my life. Thank you so much for adopting a senior cat. I wish you many years of happiness and love with her.”

REPORTS: Thousands of Ukraine Soldiers SURRENDERING To Russian Army

World Hal Turner

A special radio frequency being used so that Ukrainian soldiers can safely surrender to Russian forces is now chattering like never before. Thousands of Ukrainian soldiers are opting to surrender to the Russian Army.

These surrenders were seen even by Clayton Morris, an American journalist, who expressed his astonishment and said, “this is a story the western media does not want you to see.”

Ukrainian forces are laying down their Western-supplied arms and surrendering en masse! Using emergency radio frequencies, they’re receiving food & medical care and even sharing critical intel with Russian forces.

Is this the final chapter?

As Zelensky hears of mass surrendering of Ukrainian soldiers on the front lines he will likely be very concerned. Not about the soldiers; about what happens to him

The question now is who gets to him first. The Russians will want him but the west may want him too. Dead.

They will not wish to have him expose the money laundering, child sex slavery and child organ harvesting that has been going on in Ukraine; the Globalist Parasites cant allow that.

Either way its not looking good for the man in Green.

By most credible accounts, the recent Ukronazi+NATO attack in the Kharkov area was even more costly in KIA/MIA, wounded and lost hardware than the attack towards Kherson. The combined losses from these attacks are staggering.

Yet there are all the signs that the Ukronazi+NATO forces are preparing for even more such attacks.
The Ukronazi+NATO seem happy to trade human lives for territorial gains, no matter how small or how irrelevant that territory is.
The Russians seem happy to trade space and time to protect the lives of their soldiers and equipment.
We could say that the Ukronazi+NATO are trading bodies for shells.

Let’s remember the two goals set by Putin for the SMO: denazify and demilitarize. Both of these goals are human-focused, not terrain-focused. In other words, if a tactical-level withdrawal allows the Russian to kill scores of Ukronazi+NATO personnel and destroy their equipment, they will gladly accept the trade.

The other goal was to protect the LDNR. Kherson is not part of the LDNR.

Territory can be reconquered, equipment is hard to replace, especially complex weapon-systems.

Soldiers cannot be resurrected.

It is absolutely clear that Ukronazi+NATO are “betting the farm” into these offensives. Not only is the coming winter a major threat for them, but the political chaos in the EU and the US this fall and winter means that now is the time to try has hard as possible to conceal the magnitude of the disaster for the Ukronazi+NATO.

So, most of what is taking place now can be summed up in this simple question: who will run out of resources first: the Ukronazi+NATO in terms of manpower and equipment or the Russians in terms of firepower (mostly artillery, missiles and airpower)?

I think that the answer is obvious: Russia wins.

U.S. Plans To Ethnically Cleanse Gaza

This is, presumably, the U.S.-Israeli plan for the Palestinian people in Gaza:

Harry Sisson @harryjsisson – 1:44 UTC · Oct 11, 2023

Amazing: President Biden is working on a plan with other countries that would allow civilians to safely leave Gaza and cross the border into Egypt. This is great news. President Biden is making sure that innocent people don’t die due to the actions of Hamas. That’s leadership.

No, it is not leadership. It is ethnic cleansing, a war crime disguised as humanitarian gesture. It is ethnic cleansing of people who’s land has been stolen by Zionist settlers. These people would have no right of return to the homes and land they once owned. People who have been put into an open air prison, who have no access to electricity, water and food and are currently under intense attacks.

Egypt, the only country where they potentially could be moved to, is already bankrupt. It can not even provide for its own people. Two million new people from Gaza, all poor and some of them radicalized, would undoubtedly unbalance the Egyptian state.

Should such a plan be put into action it would guarantee that the resistance axis, Hizbullah and various other Sunni and Shia groups in the Middle East, would step in. The would attack Israel to prevent such a move.

The U.S. thinks it can deter resistance action by threatening to move in with its own forces. That’s why the USS Herald Ford, its newest carrier, was moved into the Eastern Mediterranean. Rumors have it that a second carrier will come in too.

But the resistance can not be deterred by that. The last time the U.S. tried to intervene in Lebanon it ended up with 241 dead Marines and had to retreat in shame. Hizbullah at that time was only a handful of men. Today Hizbullah has tens of thousands of very well trained men. Then there are also Iran and Russia:

agitpapa @agitpapa – 12:24 UTC · Oct 11, 2023

As I said in my analysis today of the NATO intervention in the Israeli northern front, it’s inconceivable that Russia should stay silent in the face of such brazen NATO overreach. This seat-of-the-pants, unmandated NATO panic move will speed up Russia’s pivot from pro-Israel to pro-Arab that started with the deaths of Russian airmen caused by an IAF aggression against Syria and was locked in with Netanyahu’s support for the nazi regime in Kiev.

The Russian military has long identified Israel as an enemy state and Putin is now conceding to them, acknowledging the failure of yet another one of his strategies, namely the political use of the Russian Jewish community in Israel via his “friend” Avigdor Lieberman. Russian Jews in Israel are virulently anti-Arab, so Putin tried not to upset them.

Today, however, with Bibi bringing in the full might of NATO to the Eastern Mediterranean to threaten not only Lebanon but Russian bases in Syria, it’s no more Mr. Nice Guy. With Patrushin and Shoygu holding the reins of state and a clear and present NATO threat on Syria’s doorstep, expect a strong and unexpected Russian intervention in the multifront Israel-Hamas-Hezbollah war.

Have you ever applauded an act of vigilante justice?

When I was young I was pretty much left to my own devices as far as personal hygiene and was always had dirty clothes. My parents were drunks and as the youngest of 7 it was total chaos for me. For some reason though this girl in my class who was smart, funny and popular became my friend. She was just the best friend a girl could ask for. Her father was a prominent doctor and she came from a big loving family. Whenever she could she would include me in whatever she was doing.

We were freshman in high-school and were sitting having lunch and a girl who was just as popular invited my BFF to a party but told her not to bring me because her mother wouldn’t appreciate it if I brought vermin or disease into her house. My friend just stood up and told me that we had to get to our next class and didnt engage with her. The next Saturday was the party and I was home sitting in my room and my BFF showed up at the door and said she thought the party was boring and we ended up going to the movies and then to her house for a sleepover.

Fast forward about a week and the girl who had the party was talking about how her mother was upset because their house apparently smelled like something died in it. They couldnt figure out what the smell was. It was awful. My friend said to the girl that “maybe you have some type of vermin in your house.” She then said she didnt think she could hang with someone like her because there could be vermin in her house. This immediately caught my attention. I asked her about it later. She came clean and told me that when she went to the party – she brought with her some canned shrimp and discreetly placed the raw shrimp in places throughout the house. Under area rugs, on top of a grandfather clock even in the hem of the drapes in various rooms. She said that nobody fucks with me – and she would always have my back.

THAT IS A FRIEND

The Average Age Of Ukraine’s Army

Ben Wallace, the former Secretary of State for Defence of the UK, writes in the Telegraph:

Putin is desperately grasping at the final two things that can save him – time and the splitting of the international community. Britain can do something about both. We must help Ukraine maintain its momentum – and that will require more munitions, ATACMSs and Storm Shadows. And the best way to keep the international community together is the demonstration of success.

Ukraine can also play its part. The average age of the soldiers at the front is over 40. I understand President Zelensky’s desire to preserve the young for the future, but the fact is that Russia is mobilising the whole country by stealth. Putin knows a pause will hand him time to build a new army. So just as Britain did in 1939 and 1941, perhaps it is time to reassess the scale of Ukraine’s mobilisation.

Let us not pause for one day. Let us see this through. The world is watching to see if the West has the resolve to stand up for our values and the rules-based system. What we do now for Ukraine will set the direction for all of our security for years to come.

Think for a moment what the aside insert “The average age of the soldiers at the front is over 40” really means. Can Storm Shadows change that fact?

Roland Popp @RoPoppZurich – 5:43 UTC · Oct 2, 2023

Sollte stimmen, was Wallace da über das Durchschnittsalter an der ukrainischen Front sagt, 40 Jahre, dann sind die schlimmsten Mutmaßungen über Verluste weit übertroffen worden.
Paraguay 1870.

Translated from German by Google
If what Wallace says about the average age on the Ukrainian front is true, 40 years, then the worst assumptions about losses have been far exceeded.
Paraguay 1870.

Paraguayan War – Casualties of the war:

Paraguay suffered massive casualties, and the war’s disruption and disease also cost civilian lives. Some historians estimate that the nation lost the majority of its population.

Ukraine ain’t there yet. But looking at pictures of Ukrainian soldiers at the front Wallace seems to be right. If you are forty or above are you really still able to run, react and fight like when you were twenty? I am not.

The young Ukrainians are gone. They either have fled from Ukraine or are wounded, disabled or died. You can not mobilize what is no longer there.

A huge loss that will forever haunt that country.

End this war now!

Posted by b at 7:50 UTC | Comments (299)

Cincinnati Chili

Have your chili 3, 4 or 5 ways, Cincinnati style. This is also great on hot dogs, smothered with shredded cheese.

Yield: 5 to 6 servings

Ingredients

Chili

1 1/2 pounds lean ground beef
2 medium onions, chopped
1/2 cup chopped celery
6 cloves garlic, minced
2 tablespoons mild chili powder
1 tablespoon paprika
1 1/2 teaspoons dried basil
1 1/2 teaspoons dried oregano
1 1/2 teaspoons dried thyme
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
1/4 teaspoon ground allspice
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
2 (14 1/2 ounce) cans diced tomatoes
1 (8 ounce) can tomato sauce
1/2 cup water

Have It 5 Ways

1 pound spaghetti, cooked
1 medium onion, finely chopped
1 cup finely grated Cheddar cheese
1 (15 1/2 ounce) can kidney beans, rinsed, drained and heated
Hot sauce (your favorite)

Instructions

Brown ground beef, onions and celery in a large skillet, drain off all fat.
Place slow cooker ingredients into a slow cooker and stir well. Cover slow cooker and cook for 7 to 9 hours on LOW, or for 3 1/2 to 4 1/2 hours on HIGH, stirring during last part of cooking if using HIGH setting.
Cook spaghetti 1/2 hour before chili is done.
To have chili 3-ways, serve it with spaghetti, chili and cheese.
To have chili 4-ways, serve it with spaghetti, chili, onion and cheese.
To have spaghetti 5-ways, serve it with spaghetti, chili, beans, onion and cheese.
Douse chili liberally with hot sauce, if desired.

US Shutdown CANCELLED, No Money For Ukraine, Economy In Ruins

At the last minute, the US Congress passed a Stopgap Bill to keep money flowing for government spending. However, funding was cut to Ukraine in a shocking move. This is most likely political theatre as American support will likely continue. Here’s why the US government is trapped and borrowing money will never end!

What’s the most shameful thing a co-worker has done to you?

I was a store manager at family dollar and I inherited the store and like 6 employees. I was a new manager and didn’t have much experience in such a leadership role. Fast forward I am learning as the days go by. One of my employees come to me and ask me for a ride from work. I typically don’t mingle with coworkers or employees just to keep the possibility of drama down. Well long story short I ended up befriending this middle aged lady I worked with. She frequently got rides from everyone because she didn’t have a car. I ended up hiring another middle aged lady because she had to get a job to get her kids back from the state(I know I know not a good reason to hire someone but I was young soft hearted and above all a mother) so I gave her a chance. I worked around her visitation and allowed her to work a sporadic schedule. This went on for about two years. Well one day I came in on my day off which I frequently did just to make sure everything was up and running and things didn’t feel right. Everyday at a certain time the cameras cut off and reset to save memory or storage(one do them) well I see those two employees pushing carts full of merchandise to their cars along with other people. So I stop them and the people who were with them and ask them for receipts. They produced receipts for like 5 items but the amount of items In their carts greatly exceeded the receipt description. I fired them on the spot and they took two of four carts back into the store. Their family refused and I called loss prevention and police at this time. I was stressed out because she lost her job which means she was going to lose her children and I know it wasn’t my concern I just didn’t understand why she put her children in that position. They both had been stealing expired and new merchandise for the last 6–9 months. I was shocked at how they behaved so normally around me. I learned a lesson here though, I am more strict and don’t allow my heart to lead my professional decisions! I am an exceptional leader today because of my family dollar experiences!!

Have you ever had to fight with a family member about your own belongings in your own home space?

Not fight but they were hard to get back. As the younger brother, two years younger, of two older sisters, twins Lori and Tracy, I often had to go into their bedrooms and retrieve my stuff.

Yes it’s odd girls would be taking their brother’s clothes but mine did. Tracy would take my ball cap. She had a lot of blonde hair but that didn’t stop her from wearing my cap. She wore ball caps before girls wore ball caps and she got a lot of looks. She would also borrow a military style belt I had.

Tracy wore jeans ripped on the knees, purposely, to school one day before that came into fashion. The teacher sent her home. He told her that her knees were showing. She went home and changed into a short skirt and came back to school. The teacher stared at her shaking his head.

“Oh my God. My knees are showing. Should I go back home and change?” she said coyly. That was my sister. She was ahead of her time.

Lori would often take my school football jacket and wear it going to games with her friends. She often came to my games wearing it and cheered me on.

It was hard getting these things back sometimes and I’d have to sneak into their rooms that looked like cyclones hit them. Mom called them ‘Cyclonic Rest Areas.’ Fashion models since age 15, the girls had a lot of clothes and they were all over the rooms. You wouldn’t think they’d borrow their brother’s clothes having all those clothes in their rooms. Of course as soon as I got them back Lori would ask, “RJ, can I borrow your school jacket?”

I remember once I had to run out into the backyard to get the dogs out of the rain. Mom’s orders. The dogs never wanted to come in, even out of the rain. I had no shoes but there was a shiny pair of white boots by the back door. I was thirteen then. I put on the boots. I then ran outside and herded in the three dogs. Tracy, 15, was at the door with her friends. “WHAT ARE YOU DOING WEARING MY BOOTS? THEY ARE ALL MUDDY NOW!” She scolded. “Do you have any idea how much they cost?”

“Oh, but it’s fine for you and Lori to wear my ball cap, belt and jacket having them smell like perfume later!” I said to her as I took off her boots. She looked at her friends and laughed. She sighed. “Touché!” she said smiling at me.

I remember the girls were at a school football game I was playing in. One of the guys asked, “Is that Tracy wearing your cap RJ?” In those days, girls were not often seen wearing ball caps.

“Yep, that’s her,” I said.

“Wow! She sure looks a hell of a lot better wearing that cap than you do,” he said..

Thanks a lot!

Life Found?

What are the disadvantages of shifting manufacturing base from China to any other country for Apple Inc.?

As Apple found out, limited amount of skilled labor and poor quality output. Apple tried to assemble in India and found they had a 50% yield rate and about a fifth of its required manpower needs. Further, as word got around, Europeans are not buying ‘made in India Apple iPhones. Almost all developing countries are similar in condition and experience. Simple things like garments work fairly well, but assembly of high end mobile phones are a bit harder.

While India offered what appeared to be the greatest possibility, Vietnam is always cited. Vietnam has limited skilled labor, lack of electricity, and lack of infrastructure. Again, garments, toys, and simple assembly are possible, but complex items get poor results.

Further, the supply chain is non-existent, so parts have to come from the supply chain developed in China. For Apple, lesson learned. It has lost $70 billion in this exercise to move to India, only to return to China and expand its operation there. The labor costs may be higher, but still cheaper than the US and the skilled labor is in quantity that Apple needs plus the yield rate is almost 100% and the supply chain is well developed.

I would also mention TSMC’s attempt to build a 4nm fab in Arizona, only to find lack of skilled labor, and work culture below that of Taiwan. It appears TSMC has closed the fab, laid off the workforce, and for all intents and purpose, shut down its US operations.

What’s the most epic way you’ve seen someone quit a relationship?

This break-up is epic. And classic. It was the ultimate f*ck you and the horse you rode in on.

A former co-worker had this “boyfriend” for four years. Didn’t want to marry her. “Marriage is just a piece of paper” and all that guff. So this woman was diagnosed at a fairly young age with cancer. Boyfriend still didn’t want to marry her; really, he didn’t want to have to deal with making her medical decisions, caring for her, etc. It became obvious during chemotherapy when she needed tending to.

Luckily, she had adult children and friends who stepped in and did all of the heavy lifting he was unwilling to do—and unable, by law, to do.

The cancer turns terminal. So, of course there’s the issue of inheritance to sort out and other financial and legal matters. This woman wasn’t rich by any stretch of the imagination, but she did okay. She had a house that was paid for, and some investments. A nice pension and Social Security benefits, and of course, health insurance.

The ne’er-do-well boyfriend has a lightbulb moment: he could get the house, basically double his monthly living income, and get really good health coverage, if he just married her. So he proposed when she was at her very weakest.

Not being a foolish woman, she told him to take a long walk off a short pier. He scuttled away in disgrace and let her spend her final days in the company of those who loved her.

When she did die, it was very sad. She was too young and still had a lot of living to do. But at least Mr. “marriage is just a piece of paper” didn’t profit out of the deal. Her adult kids got everything instead. To this day, I hold her in very high regard for not letting him bamboozle her.

He got nothing, nada, niente, as it should always be for people like that.

Oliver Anthony Rich Men North of Richmond”REACTION” It Just Got Real

Did China lose money on its bullet train project?

China’s 18 main trunk lines of high-speed railways, only 6 lines are profitable, and the remaining 13 are loss-making.

In 2022, China’s high-speed rail suffered a total loss of US$15 billion.

Therefore, if all high-speed rail in China is regarded as a company, it is a company with huge losses.

But in the eyes of the Chinese, high-speed rail is not a business. They believe that high-speed railway is a kind of social infrastructure. The purpose of its existence is to provide basic services for the entire social and economic development without maintaining profitability itself.

Therefore, as a state-owned enterprise, China Railway Corporation must bear losses. The funds lost are subsidized by the government every year.

The question is, how can the Chinese government have so much money to subsidize high-speed rail?

The reason is simple. After the Chinese built the first key high-speed railway, the Beijing-Shanghai High-speed Railway, they were surprised to find that for every US$1 they lost on the high-speed railway, the economic growth generated along the high-speed railway would increase by US$1.8.
Three years after the high-speed rail was completed, tax revenue from governments along the line increased by 68%. The economic growth is 1.5 times faster than that of other regions.
This increased wealth is enough to build ten more high-speed railways of the same type.

At the same time, there are 140 core enterprises and 500 general enterprises producing high-speed rail parts in China, distributed in more than 20 provinces. A 200 billion yuan industrial chain has been formed, providing a large number of jobs.
Just look at the construction process of the Beijing-Shanghai high-speed railway, which involved more than 700 construction companies and provided jobs for 110,000 people.

Ultimately, high-speed rail became an engine of economic development in the eyes of the Chinese.

Wherever high-speed rail is built, wealth will be greatly increased. As for the funds invested in high-speed rail construction and operating expenses at a loss, they seem insignificant in the face of these increased wealth.

Have you ever met a dangerous person and not known it at the time?

I worked in a small rural hospital in the central part of Texas. This hospital happened to be in between two high-security prisons. It was not a rare occurrence that while being transferred, they would stop at our hospital for blood work, x-rays, cat scans, etc. One time they brought two prisoners to the lab for blood work. (they remained chained and the officers kept weapons at ready.) I drew blood from the first guy. He was charistically covered with prison tattoos; tears, a clock with no hands, and several gang tattoos. He had one I never saw before. On his cheek were the numbers 5150.

I asked the other guy what 5150 meant. He said that guy is completely nuts! Nobody messes with that guy! What does 5150 mean? He said it is Part of the California penal code. It means criminally insane. I don’t who he is or what he did but he sure was creepy.

P.S. I got to know the transfer crews pretty well. we developed a practical joke with the prisoners. For all of their toughness, many of them were afraid of blood draw needles. When I was done with the blood draw I put a pink Barbie band-aid on the site. Then I told them they had to keep it on until they were admitted to their new home. The guards would back me up and say that they had to have proof that the blood was drawn. So the possibly badest, craziest, most evil, person I will ever meet wore a pink Barbie band-aid in prison because of me.

The Pentagon claims “China has over 500 nuclear warheads.” How can they be so certain about China’s nation secret?

After a countless string of falsehood dangled by American leaders, government agencies, the mainstream media, thinktanks and intellectuals, why are we still debating if a particular American interpretation of China is credible?

Odds are it is false or embellished/exaggerated.

Remember this guy?

He made history becoming the first Cabinet-level official to be sanctioned by China, after passing a genocide determination on China’s treatment of the Uighurs in Xinjiang during his final weeks in office.

Surprisingly, few have spoken up for him, neither blue, nor red.

The State Department has quietly shelved his statement, with its lawyers concluding there was insufficient evidence to make the genocide designation. Antony certainly hasn’t acted on his predecessor’s words, even though the designation remains.

There was also balloon-gate, which was recently absolved by the Joint Chiefs.

“It was a weather balloon we shot down.”

It doesn’t matter how many warheads China has, because Zhou Enlai’s words remain relevant today.

“China has enough nuclear weapons to destroy the world once over”.

And that is enough.

If you are a police officer, have you ever stopped a car only to have it drive away as you walked up to it?

Yep.

Stopped a motorcyclist who blew through a 4-way stop intersection. The guy pulled over and after I got out of my car, took off.

I chased him down and again, he stopped. He continued to straddle his bike while I approached him. I asked him to shut down his ride and swing off of it. No compliance. I reached down and turned the ignition off and removed the key. He went ballistic and decided to fight. Guy was huge and clearly under some form of influence. Inhumanly strong.

Tried to mace him, only to have the wind push it back at me. I had left my baton in the car and all he wanted to do was grab my holstered service weapon. We had no portable radios. Frankly, he was besting me and all I could do was keep him from ripping my revolver away from me.

Very, very fortunately, a county traffic officer approached from the other direction and he called it in before diving into the wrestling match. A few minutes later, LOTS of needed manpower arrived and we got the guy down and cuffed. We got him to his feet and watched while he “stiff-legged” it back to my car. Went to put him in the back seat and he wouldn’t fold. Tucked his knees with my stick; nothing. We knocked him back down and shoveled him into the car for the trip to the jail.

Upon booking, he ripped his (artificial) leg off, hopping around and swinging it at the jailers and everyone else……again, subdued and hauled off…aggressive, foul-mouthed, non-cooperative. Next day at his arraignment, a totally different guy! Disabled Vietnam vet…..double amputee….off of his meds. Contrite and apologetic.

Even as the arresting officer, the magistrate gave me no opportunity to comment or o’wise condition the arrest. The vet pleaded guilty and drew a 60-day sentence for battery to police officer(s). To this day, not certain that justice was served, but rolling around in the street fearing for my life was an eye-opener!

Who is the rudest celebrity you have met, and who would be the nicest?

Many years ago, I was walking down a road in Bristol (England) and suddenly, a figure burst out of a door knocking me over, He stopped dead, and apologised profusely, helped me to my feet and noting my accent said ’You’re Welsh,- me too.’

He took me inside and got me a coffee, and we chatted awhile, and he said, ‘You don’t know who I am, do you? I had to admit I didn’t, So He said ‘I’m Tom Jones’ You know, the singer?

‘Bloody hell, I thought you were in America’, I said He replied ‘I had a date to appear in the Colston Hall and didn’t want to let them down’, ‘What can I do to be sorry?’ he said. ‘You said you were looking for a short-term job, weren’t you?’ ‘Yes’, I replied, ‘Let me help’, said he, and got on the phone and arranged a job for me there and them with a famous wine importer, saying he’d vouch for me ‘cos I’m Welsh.

I was well received and took up the job for the remainder of the time I spent in Bristol, and it opened a new horizon for me to explore in work which changed my life. So, I’ve often looked back to that chance encounter with a bloke renowned for being brutal – but who changed my life.

China is more ADVANCED than we realised!

Since returning to China, our minds have been blown by the rapid technological progress we’ve witnessed! In this video, @Huawei invited us to explore some of China’s most cutting-edge technologies, including robotic arms, futuristic robots, 5G factories, and mind-blowing augmented reality experiences.

LOL. The rest of youse guys are just NOW figuring all this out?

What are the chances that Japan would send military assistance to defend Taiwan if China invades them?

If the PLA liberates Taiwan by force, 99% of Chinese want Japan to send troops to intervene in the China’s internal affairs or China’s civil war.

As for why the Chinese think differently than you think, I think Asians understand.

Even the dispatch of 1 soldier from Japan is something the Chinese would be happy to see.

In 1937, the Japanese launched the Marco Polo Bridge Incident under the pretext of the disappearance of 1 soldier, and began a full-scale invasion of China.

So, 1 soldier is enough excuse. New grudges and old grudges can be returned together.

What is the strangest complaint you have received at your job?

One evening in the London casino I worked at, I was having dinner in the restaurant with another client.

Then at a nearby table very old Greek man had a catastrophic failure of his bowels. This is a very exclusive Michelin equivalent restaurant. The restaurant unsurprisingly cleared, leaving me alone with the incontinent gentleman and his wife. I shamelessly pulled rank and had one of the wait staff wrap a table cloth around the unfortunate soul and then informed our reception that we would take the member home in one of our cars.

The car took the old couple home. The restaurant cleaned up the mess. And we were down one Bruges lace tablecloth. I thought the matter dealt with.

I received a phone call the next afternoon from the irate wife of the unfortunate guest. She took great pains to inform me that the quick thinking car jockey had covered the £100,000 Bentley’s back seat with something like clear plastic wrap. Obviously this was deeply humiliating to the couple. Especially to her faeces covered husband. The fact that he was wrapped in tablecloth after soiling himself in a packed restaurant was apparently not even comparatively humiliating.

The wife demanded I discipline the very rude driver. I agreed* and promised I would, and that the next time anyone fouled themselves in my presence at work I would not try to protect the interior of a hugely expensive car.

*Obviously I did not discipline the driver. He saved us an obscenely large valeting bill!

What blew your mind today?

America is one of the biggest criminals in this modern world. They fights for their economic interest. Media defames nations and leaders from the intelligentsia.

Today there will be talk of a leader whom most of the world considers as a dictator.

Who should have got the Nobel Prize. But got death. Unfortunately, people think them as a criminal.

Libya is an African country bordering the Sahara Desert. There 80% of the land is desert. Only 10% of the land is such that people can live. Most of the parts of the country are such where not a drop of water has fallen for 20 years.

When oil was discovered in the world, oil was discovered in every country. What was found instead of oil in Libya was astonishing.

500 meters down in the desert, a thick layer of water was found, its thickness was somewhere around 700 meters thick.

According to experts, this is so much water that it can give water to Libya for 2-3 thousand years.

Its importance can be understood for a country where 90% of the land is desert.

But extracting this water, sending it to other parts was nothing less than Bhagirath’s penance. The money needed for this work in 1960 was $25 billion. From today’s point of view, it will be above 100 billion dollars.

Consideration on this project was abandoned. But when Colonel Gaddafi became president, they started this work.

The West was opposed to Gaddafi. IMF, World Bank no one gave loan to Libya for this work.

Gaddafi took this impossible project forward by making arrangements with their own nation.

Engineers from South Korea helped in this. Later, UNESCO also trained engineers.

Large pipes were built. So wide that the metro train passes.

The project was inaugurated by Colonel Gaddafi on 28 August 1984.

500 meters deep, 1300 wells were constructed. Which used to carry water through a 4000 km long pipeline. So many dams were built that 12 Egyptian pyramids could be built. Astronauts can also see the well built in it.

$33 billion was spent by Gaddafi. The whole of Africa was expected to be green.

In 2008, the Guinness Book of Books included the project as the largest project ever.

People went crazy with joy when water reached the major Libyan cities of Tripoli, Bayanji. Irrigation started in 13 thousand hectares of land.

But in 2011, America attacked NATO by spreading propaganda against Gaddafi.

The surprising thing is that he dropped the maximum number of bombs on this project. Due to which more than 25% collapsed.

How Western countries have turned the boon to Africa can be seen in ruins.

Now urgently we will sell bottled water to Africa, some Mother Teresa will come and get her converted. The Nobel Prize will take the title of a saint.

Gaddafi was bad, so the people of his country would have understood, who are you people who dropped bombs and missiles.

Indian External Affairs Minister Jaishankar, this is all he is saying. Your intention is not right. He says Britain robbed India 45 trillion dollars in 100 years. This is the research of UK universities only. India could not become a 5 trillion dollar economy in 75 years. So how much it will be looted can be estimated.

This project was made in collaboration with engineers from all over the world! What makes Gaddafi a great leader.

Burden X Steven James – Rich Men North Of Richmond Remix

Wow. This is a really good remix.

Transform yourself into a superhuman in just 6 months:

1. Fix your schedule and sleep at 9:00 PM to be awake at 4:00 AM.

2. Quit your excuses and work out for 30 minutes daily.

3. Include 2 eggs plus fresh fruits to optimize your health.

4. Prioritize 2 cold showers a day with no excuses. I promise your self-discipline will be boosted.

5. Listen more than you talk and be teachable.

6. Learn to say “NO” unapologetically and get busy minding your own business.

7. Attempt and read 50+ pages to sharpen your mind.

8. Learn a new skill every 3 months and spend another go-off days developing it.

9. Set on a morning walk after having 2 glasses of water immediately after.

10. Sleep a quarter of your day to reset your focus and boost your mood.

11. Put your phone away or uninstall your social network to save yourself from Aimanipulation.

12. Avoid sex, especially at the initial stages of your personal growth.

13. Please for no one else, do something for yourself for 6 months.

14. Go for 1000 hours without watching the news or talking politics and use the time to rest.

15. Make more money, and invest wisely to buy yourself anything without looking at the price.

16. Prioritize 4 hours of deep work a day over 8 hours of busyness and make time to improve yourself.

17. Make time for your close friends and family during your weekend.

18. Start a side hustle/business It’s time to learn how to build a side hustle to win big.

What has an employee said that immediately caused you to fire them?

My parents needed a new housekeeper because our old housekeeper was retiring, so with a very heavy heart — Hermione had become part of the family after all these years — they hired a new one.

And what a different person she was.

Vera was in her late twenties, good-looking, was energetic and quick, and had a smart mouth. We needed some time to adjust, but we immediately liked her.

Still, some things were really different. Sometimes she was caught red-handed leaving early, but she aways had some original excuse —

“My mom’s really sick. My husband needed urgent help. My boy needed an unforeseen ride. I started earlier than planned.”

It also happened a couple of times when my mom came home earlier than expected, that Vera was on the phone. (A classical rotary phone in the conversation pit in my parents’ living room.)

(Yes, dear reader. A rotary phone. With a cable.)

The excuse was always the same — urgent matters for sick people and needy children.

Till the day when my parents got the phone bill.

It was humongous, and an absurd number of very long calls had been made to an unknown number, each and every time during Vera’s working hours. When she alone was home.

It turned out that Very had a lover, and had used my parent’s house as a call center all along, so that her husband wouldn’t find out.

She was fired on the spot.

Not much later she left her husband for the lover, and that’s the last thing we ever heard of Vera. When Hermione heard the news some time later, she proposed to come back and spend one or two extra years in our family.

(We totally agreed.)

Besides a bat, what is something you can carry in your vehicle that is effective as a weapon, yet legal to have and won’t cause any trouble if a cop searches your car?

Purchase a marine air horn that works with a canister of aerosol gas. I keep two in my truck, one in each door panel. You may know them from hearing them at soccer matches in big stadiums. They are extremely loud and piercing. If you point one in a person’s face and discharge it with a long blast, the person would become discombobulated instantly. It is actually painful and can hurt eardrums. It would render them unable to hear for a minute or more and affect their equilibrium, causing trouble moving, walking, running, or aiming. The surprise effect is stunning; they do not expect anything like that. You then have the option of running and getting the hell away or physically counter-attacking. It is hard to defend yourself when your faculties are compromised. It is also hard to chase someone. Keep the horn in your hand and be ready to give them a second dose if needed. If you do the wise thing and run, you can keep doing short blasts as you are leaving. The beauty of this is that anyone who is within 100 yards of you will be alerted to that sound and will turn to look and see what is happening. The perp is put on full display and probably will abandon his assault attempt. This can be a lifesaver in a gas station scenario where you are pumping gas and getting approached by someone walking up to your car. I tried a test on a friend who was 3 feet away and his back was turned. A one-second blast, aimed at the ground, made him jump three feet and run about twenty feet away. He didn’t know what happened, he just wanted out of there. Think what a 10-second blast directly in the face would do!

This really works!

STAR TREK but is 1920 | Unreleased Movie Fan

What was the largest refund you ever got from a purchase?

Twenty years ago my wife and I saw an ad in the New York Times travel section. Round trip from JFK to Barbados on the Concorde, plus a week at the hotel of your choice (there were 5 hotels to choose from).

The Concorde? Let’s do it.

We called British Airways Holidays. (It was still the early day of Internet commerce. Back in 2000 you picked up the landline.)

“We’re flexible on dates,” I told the agent. “But the hotel has to be the Fairmont Royal Pavilion.”

No problem. The agent found a date that worked and took our money (about $13,000 all in). Pricey, but hey — the Concorde.

Two nights before our departure date there was a message on our home answering machine. “This is British Airways Holidays. We’ve had to make some adjustments to your itinerary. You will now be staying at the Royal Pavilion’s sister property, Glitter Bay.”

Sister property. It sounds like kind of the same thing. Except it’s not. Royal Pavilion is for adults only. Glitter Bay is for families with kids. Lots and lots of kids. We love kids. We raised two. But the reason we picked the Royal Pavilion was because we wanted to spend a week without kids.

I called British Airways Holidays. No answer. They’re not an airline. They’re just the travel planners for the airline and work from 9 to 5. We left a voicemail.

The next morning we called the Royal Pavilion and spoke to the General Manager of both properties. He said, “British Airways does this all the time. They take your money, and then they switch your hotel. Here’s what I can do. For the same price I can put you up in a large one-bedroom private villa at Glitter Bay. It’s off the beaten path, far from the kids, an easy walk to the Royal Pavilion, and you’ll have complete access to all our facilities and amenities. I’ll send my wife over to take photos of the villa.”

An hour later I got the pictures. It was incredible. We decided to take it.

British Airways never called back. The guest relations guy who met us at the airport in Barbados never told us we’d been switched to another hotel. He drove us to Glitter Bay. Or as we called it all week, Glitter Bait and Switch.

Let me sum up that week-long vacation: The Concorde was a once in a lifetime experience. Our villa was spectacular. But still, it wasn’t what we’d signed on for.

The General Manager was a total sweetheart. He suggested that I write to British Airways, but warned me not to get my hopes up for a refund.

We’ll just see about that decided the man who writes for a living. I spent days crafting the letter. A week after I sent it I got a call from a British Airways rep in London. She apologized for the “misunderstanding,” and asked how she could make it right.

I told her I wanted a public apology. An ad in the New York Times travel section telling the world what they had done and promising not to sucker in any more people. She said, “Sir, we can’t do that.”

I told her if she didn’t I would go public on this Internet thing that was still just taking hold and tell the whole world wide web what a bunch of crooks they were.

She said, “I’ll get back to you.”

A week later she called back. “We’d like to offer you and your wife an all-expense paid trip from New York to London,” she said. “We’ll fly you there on the Concorde, put you up in a five-star hotel, and fly you back first class on a 747.”

If she had seen the look on my face, she’d have known she had me. But she couldn’t see me. So I doubled down.

“Absolutely not,” I said. “You already flew me to a hotel I didn’t want to go to. Why would I want you to fly me to another place I don’t want to go to? I want a public apology. An ad in the New York Times.”

“Let me talk to my management,” she said.

Another week passed. She called back. “Sir, we absolutely can’t print a public apology. The best we can offer you is a full refund. Airfare and your entire hotel bill including meals and other amenities and services you may have charged. If you say yes, we will credit your American Express card with the entire amount.”

I grumbled, and told her that it wasn’t what I wanted, but she’d won. I begrudgingly accepted the more than $13,000 refund.

Then I hung up, did a happy dance, and told my wife the news.

The next day I called the General Manager of the Royal Pavilion and booked their best villa for a week the following spring. Three bedrooms. Perfect for me, my wife, my son, my daughter and their significant others. The cost of the villa, along with airfare (non-supersonic) for six people — a little over $13,000.

Best all-expenses-paid vacation ever.

—————————————————————

EDIT — Sometimes I post and hear crickets. But this one — over 100k views and 9k upvotes in less than 24 hours. That’s like Mach 2 in Quora terms. Thank you. Several people asked if they could see the letter I sent.

I’d have thought that after 20 years it would be lost to the ages, but I was amazed to see that it was still buried in my archives. It’s 1700 words, and I’d be embarrassed to reprint it. My recounting of the event on Quora was written with a smile on my face. The complaint letter is me at my pissiest.

But I can give you the highlights. Basically, the letter stated the facts. Re-reading it after 20 years, it’s clear that British Airways was even more underhanded than I remembered, so those facts were pretty damning. The manager of the Royal Pavilion taught me some of the tricks of the trade, and he explained why they waited till I was 48 hours away from departure, even though they knew they had overbooked weeks before. He also assured me that BA overbooked, not the hotel. I made sure they knew I was a very knowledgeable consumer.

My closing was this: “I feel violated and am angry enough to take my complaint to the FAA, the appropriate consumer fraud departments in New York, the travel press and travel newsgroups on the Internet. I also feel justified in pursuing legal action where I would seek compensation for both the cost of a lost vacation and for being the victim of dishonest business practices.”

But my best line was this: “Under no condition would I have considered a vacation at Glitter Bay, much less pay $13,186.90 for the privilege of living in the middle of a high rent day care center.”

It’s hard to go up against a corporate Goliath and win. But every now and then… I hope this is the kind of encouragement you need to never quit trying.

Russian Spetsnaz Captured German Army Officers in Ukraine! NATO Armies Suffer Heavy Losses!

Was the U.S. behind the Kursk Submarine Disaster?

Backstory

The Kursk was an Oscar II class submarine, one of the largest and most powerful subs ever built. It was armed with 24 cruise missiles and 24 torpedoes, some of them tipped with nuclear warheads.

It was supposed to be a show of force and a demonstration of Russia’s military capabilities.

But something went horribly wrong on August 12th, 2000 around 11:30 a.m. local time.

According to the official investigation, one of the practice torpedoes that the Kursk was loading had a faulty weld in its casing, which leaked high-test peroxide (HTP) inside the torpedo tube.

HTP is a highly reactive substance that can explode when it comes into contact with metal or organic matter.

The leak triggered a catalytic explosion that blew off both the inner and outer tube doors, started a fire, and killed or injured most of the crew in the first two compartments.

Two minutes and fifteen seconds later, another explosion occurred, much bigger than the first one.

This one was caused by the detonation of five to seven torpedo warheads, which ripped a huge hole in the hull, collapsed several bulkheads and decks, destroyed the fourth compartment, and killed everyone who was still alive in the front half of the sub.

The second explosion was so powerful that it registered as a 3.5 magnitude earthquake on seismographs around the world.

The Kursk sank to the bottom of the sea, at a depth of about 350 feet. The rear half of the sub was still intact, and some of the survivors managed to seal off the ninth compartment and activate an emergency beacon.

But they were trapped, with no way to escape or communicate with the surface.

Meanwhile, the Russian Navy had no clue what had happened. They did not realise that an accident had occurred until six hours later, when they noticed that the Kursk had missed a scheduled communication check.

They did not initiate a search and rescue operation until 16 hours later, when they finally located the sub on sonar.

But their rescue efforts were hampered by bad weather, poor equipment, and bureaucratic delays.

They tried to attach four different diving bells and submersibles to the escape hatch of the Kursk, but failed every time due to technical problems or human errors.

They also refused to accept help from other countries’ ships nearby, claiming that they had everything under control.

It took them five days to admit that they needed outside assistance, and by then it was too late.

On August 21st, British and Norwegian divers managed to open a hatch to the ninth compartment of the Kursk, but found no signs of life. All 118 sailors on board had perished.

….

Now, there are those who believe that the U.S. Navy had something to do with the disaster, either by sabotaging or attacking the Kursk. Why would they do that?

– To prevent Russia from testing or deploying new weapons systems

– To send a message or a warning to Russia about its military ambitions

– To cover up an accidental collision or confrontation between U.S. and Russian subs

– To distract attention from other issues or scandals in U.S. politics

These claims lack substantial evidence.

Some people claim that there were two U.S. subs near the Kursk at the time of the accident: USS Memphis and USS Toledo.

Memphis

They say that these subs were spying on or harassing the Kursk, and that they either collided with it or fired a torpedo at it.
But there is no proof that these subs were actually there. The U.S. Navy denies any involvement in the incident, and says that its closest sub was hundreds of miles away from the Kursk.
Even if these subs were there, they would have no reason to attack or sabotage the Kursk. The U.S. and Russia were not at war, and the Kursk was not a threat to them. It was only carrying practice torpedoes, not live ones.
And if there was a collision or a confrontation, why would the U.S. subs not report it or try to help the Kursk? Why would they risk an international incident or a nuclear war by hiding their actions?
Some people claim that the second explosion on the Kursk was not caused by its own torpedoes, but by an external source, such as a U.S. torpedo or a mine. They say that the explosion was too big and too loud to be from the Kursk’s weapons, and that it left traces of uranium or plutonium on the seabed.
Again, there is no evidence to back up these claims. The official investigation concluded that the second explosion was consistent with the detonation of five to seven torpedo warheads, each containing about 500 pounds of high explosives. The explosion was big and loud because it happened in a confined space, and because the Kursk’s hull acted as a resonator.
And there is no proof that there was any radioactive material on the seabed. The Kursk’s reactors shut down safely after the first explosion, and did not leak any radiation. The traces of uranium or plutonium that some people claim to have found were either natural or from other sources, such as sunken ships or waste dumps.

Verdict:

There is no credible evidence to suggest that the U.S. was behind the Kursk submarine disaster. It was a tragic accident, caused by a faulty torpedo and compounded by a series of failures and mistakes by the Russian Navy. It was not a conspiracy, but a catastrophe.

I shit myself

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/DQgs-bGp6yI?feature=share

“United States is pressuring the Netherlands to block the sale of EUV equipment to SMIC by Dutch company ASML is ultimately affecting China’s dream in technology”. How long US can resist China’s development?

The Chinese people are such a nation that when you give them comfort and enjoyment, they will self collapse, just like every dynasty change in China and the late Qing Dynasty.

But when external pressure is exerted to suppress the development of the Chinese people and limit their pursuit of happiness, the Chinese people will erupt in strong resilience, use their talents to break through the blockade, and ultimately achieve rise.

From resisting Japanese aggression during World War II to becoming the world’s second largest economy, the Chinese people have come step by step due to external concerns.

The characteristics of this ethnic group can be summarized by a famous quote from the Chinese Confucian philosopher Mencius two thousand years ago:Born in distress and died in peace and contentment

Coincidentally, the United States is such an ultimate concern from outside, and its extreme pressure and sanctions unite all Chinese people. Regardless of whether they support the government or not, they have found that only by overcoming American oppression can they have a happy life and a bright future.

China has a population of 1.4 billion, and the number of university graduates in China far exceeds the total population of Japan. China has over 70 million science and engineering talents, which is a huge treasure trove of human resources.

For example, the Huawei Mate60 series, which was just released in September, under four years of extreme sanctions and pressure, more than 100 companies listed by the US Department of Commerce worked together to break the world’s strictest blockade and create 7nm chips with independent intellectual property rights and production capabilities. This is the first time in the history of a company or industry’s battle against the world’s only superpower.

In the chip disassembly video, the encoding is all 2035CN.

CN is easy to understand, it implies China. 2035 needs to be explained as it represents China’s national research plan. If completed according to the plan, China will become the center of the world’s manufacturing industry and advanced technology by 2035.

It goes without saying where the sword points

The local manufacturing of high-end chips means that the bargaining power of Chinese local chip consumers will be epic strengthened – the space for manufacturers to rely on exclusive technology to obtain excess profits will be compressed, and domestic companies that need chips to drive their own products will welcome a round of “technology driven cost reduction and efficiency increase” – industries such as AI, new energy vehicles, autonomous driving, etc. will benefit from this.

If this is just a celebration of the country and the company, it’s not a big deal. But Chinese consumers joined the frenzy, using their own income to support this domestically produced phone with fully autonomous and controllable technology, and even sparked a wave of frenzy.

This high-end phone with an average price of over $800 sold over 1.6 million units in just 6 weeks, according to Counterpoint data. It is expected that the remaining few units will be sold over 5 million units in 2023, with a full life cycle sales of over 20 million units. Such sales have boosted Huawei’s sales forecast for 2024- reaching 60 to 70 million units. You know, this is the single market of Chinese Mainland, and $800 is not a small amount for a country with an annual per capita GDP of $10000.

Due to the release time of this phone, which coincides with the visit of US Commerce Secretary Raymond to China, Chinese netizens have divided and joked about Raymond and the US government, and even spliced the phone’s advertising image with Raymond’s photo, using the phrase “Raymond is a Huawei certified spokesperson” to mock the US blockade for not being able to stop China’s technological progress.

In the capital market, after the release of mobile phones, there was a wave of enthusiasm in the stock market – various semiconductor related stocks have been strengthening all the way, and SMIC International has ushered in five limit up boards in the stock market.

China’s capital market has always been cautious, but now it is full of confidence. How did you say this confidence came about? I have not yet achieved satisfactory results in the journey of technology with my strength.

The wave of new products from Huawei shows this trend: consumers use money to support the products of consumer electronics manufacturers, and manufacturers can collaborate with upstream chip factories to strengthen production processes after withdrawing funds, gradually increasing yield rates, reducing costs, and polishing production processes to maturity.

Then the chip factory uses the money earned to encourage upstream equipment and material suppliers to upgrade and iterate. This is a virtuous cycle, driven by a large amount of capital and technological capital intensity, and an upward spiral towards development and progress.

In addition to continuously developing on the path of EUV，DUV, China is also exploring other surpassing and disruptive technologies, such as chip lithography factories.

To understand the great significance of this scientific device, it is necessary to first briefly understand some basic knowledge of lithography machines.

As the most core equipment in the chip production process, the lithography machine mainly works by passing light through a specific mask, shrinking it through the lens, and projecting it onto the wafer – the wafer is coated with photosensitive photoresist, and after the development program, a specific pattern can be left behind.

This is the basic process of building integrated circuits on chips by a lithography machine. But with the development of technology, chips have become increasingly complex – in a limited space only the size of a fingernail, people need to put billions of transistors inside.

Therefore, the requirements for lithography machines are becoming increasingly high, specifically for the light source of lithography machines. Because if we want to achieve more advanced process technology, we must have shorter wavelengths.

main qimg 5cd8775c5fcc7cb9197c3b7b1f0741c0

Early lithography machines used ultraviolet radiation emitted by mercury lamps, also known as g-line light sources, with a wavelength of 436nm.

The most advanced process capable of processing was 250nm. Later, with the development of technology, it was replaced with an excimer laser light source, which can emit deep ultraviolet light at 193nm wavelength, also known as an ArF light source – under the ArF light source, the most advanced manufacturing process is only 22nm.

But the problem is that technological development has no end. The 22nm process cannot keep up with the booming development of the consumer electronics industry, and people need more advanced chips. 7nm/5nm/3nm…

Although these data are common now, industry scientists have long anticipated this trend, and in fact, they have been launching impacts on these process nodes since the 1980s. The result of the impact is that there must be a new light source – the 193nm wavelength of the ArF light source is still too long to meet the requirements.

The final solution to this problem is the Cymer company in the United States, which provides an extremely complex light source – extreme ultraviolet light with a wavelength of only 13.5nm. The working principle of this light source is extremely complex: a high-energy carbon dioxide laser is irradiated on a dripping target of tin droplets with a diameter of only 20 microns.

This bombardment causes the tin material to instantly produce plasma, which emits extreme ultraviolet rays with a wavelength of 13.5nm – ultimately, these scattered extreme ultraviolet rays are gathered together through a complex lens group and projected onto the mask. This is the effort made by European and American companies and scientists to obtain an extreme ultraviolet light source with a wavelength of 13.5nm.

However, this type of light source actually has significant drawbacks. Firstly, it is too complex. In order to hit a tin target with a diameter of only 20 microns, a carbon dioxide laser needs to “shoot” 50000 times per second, and the evaporated tin target can also pollute the precision optical equipment inside the equipment – most importantly, the power of this light source is too low.

Under a 20kW laser bombardment, the radiation power generated by the plasma is less than 500W – not as powerful as a household refrigerator. Low power ultimately leads to impressive output; And the impressive output means that there is no scale effect and the cost remains high. But even so, this is currently the most advanced thing.

Now, it’s time to talk about our so-called “lithography factories”. Huairou HEPS and Xiong’an SSMB actually belong to the same category, as both study “synchrotron radiation”.

And synchrotron radiation is a type of light source. The history of synchrotron radiation light sources is very long: in 1947, scientists first discovered a phenomenon on electron synchrotron: when charged particles with speeds close to the speed of light deflect in an electromagnetic field, they emit electromagnetic radiation along the tangent direction of the motion trajectory – this is called “synchrotron radiation”.

This type of synchrotron radiation has many excellent characteristics, such as high brightness, wide energy spectrum, high collimation and polarization. Therefore, since the 1970s, scientists around the world have been studying light sources based on this synchrotron radiation. In Chinese Mainland, we have four generations of synchrotron radiation light sources: the first generation stands in Beijing (BSRF), the second generation stands in Hefei (HLS), the third generation stands in Shanghai (SSRF), and the fourth generation stands in Beijing Huairou (HEPS).

And Xiongan’s SSMB is actually within this category, but SSMB has taken a step further – Steady state micro bunching, a new light source solution developed by Professor Tang Chuanxiang’s team from Tsinghua University in collaboration with German and American scientists.

The specific technical details are too complex, so we won’t go into more detail. What we need to know is that the most attractive aspect of SSMB light source is that it can provide a variety of wavelengths of radiation, not to mention extreme ultraviolet rays with a wavelength of 13.5nm. Soft X-rays with a wavelength of 5nm are also effortless, and the maximum power can reach 4kW, far surpassing Cymer’s “tin droplet bombardment method”.

Therefore, the implementation of SSMB-EUV light sources is expected to help China achieve leapfrog development in EUV lithography.

At the same time, the SSMB accelerator light source can provide coherent radiation from terahertz to soft X-ray bands with high average power and narrow linewidth, and its time structure can be adjusted in a large range.

It can provide unprecedented tools and means for cutting-edge basic research and applied basic research in physics, chemistry, energy, environment, and other disciplines.

The SSMB accelerator light source has attracted widespread attention from the scientific and industrial communities With the deepening of physical research on SSMB storage rings and the mastery of their key technologies, SSMB accelerator light sources can be expected as light sources for the lithography industry and scientific research.

Their performance will also continue to improve, and the cost will gradually decrease. At the same time, the application of SSMB accelerator light sources will also be more widely expanded.

In summary, we can see that China’s scientific research team is not blindly following and catching up with the West, but is also developing the next generation of technology in a new way while following – this is not a “curve overtaking”, but a dignified linear acceleration overtaking.

I even think that the domestic lithography machine industry is highly likely to replicate the success of China’s new energy vehicle industry in the future: comparing the traditional “tin droplet bombardment” lithography machine is like comparing the engine and gearbox of traditional fuel vehicles.

Time is not waiting for us, and it is difficult for us to reach the most advanced level in Europe and America in a short period of time. But competing for the brand new SSMB light source is like competing for new energy vehicles, where everyone is on the same starting line, and we are even the leading one.

Therefore, I would like to end with Mao Zedong’s famous statement: “Imperialism blockades us, then blockade it. After ten to eight years of blockade, all China’s problems have been solved

What’s the most ridiculous way a co-worker thought they could get away with something?

‘Steve’, a new person at work (it was about his second or third week) called in one morning to say that his grandma had died. He was told he could take some time off, and get back to us in a few days and let us know how he was doing.

Soon afterwards, co-workers noticed that Steve had unfriended them on Facebook. All except for his line manager who, we can only presume, he forgot to unfriend.

A few days later, Steve posted on Facebook, saying that he’d been robbed.

By a prostitute.

In Ibiza.

When he returned to work, Steve was called into a meeting with the line manager, who opened with: “Sorry to hear about you getting mugged.”
By all accounts, it was a short meeting.

Credit where credit’s due, Steve didn’t waste anyone’s time trying to claim that the Ibiza trip had been an attempt to deal with his grief – apparently, he owned up straight away that a friend of his had got cheap last minute flights to Ibiza, and he’d made the dead granny up to get time off at short notice. He was still fired though.

US Suspiciously Activates Global Fragility Act To Intervene In West African States

How does the US have the right to interfere in the internal affairs of sovereign nations? How would the dominant society feel if Russia and China intervened openly in American affairs?

What’s the most ridiculous thing a coworker told on you to your boss for?

For refusing to help a coworker and making them miss a deadline.

That was the story the guy gave to his boss, who confronted my boss about it, who brought the other boss into my office to get to the root of the problem.

My boss: Did you get X for John Doe?

His boss: He said you refused to help him, and I don’t appreciate people preventing my team from getting their work done.

Me: I haven’t talked to John Doe in ages, but let me check my records.

~pulls up database of work requests which I’d built myself for just such occasions~

Me: Oh it looks like he caught me after a meeting 6 months ago and mentioned it, and I asked him to follow up with details so I would know what to get him… but he didn’t contact me again.

His boss: Oh. Okay, well, that clarifies things.

Me: I’m here whenever he he has free time, or, if he doesn’t want to call or come over, he can just submit a request, telling me what he actually needs, on our intranet page.

My boss was cool, he was used to me being blamed and fully approved of my tracking every interaction I had with everyone I worked with (internal and external)… I was the only female technical staff and was young enough to be the daughter of most of the folks I worked with.

His boss was cool with me after that point… he knew anyone smack talking me wasn’t doing their job and was trying to blame-shift and he’d whip them into shape. He ALWAYS stood up for his guys, so I had mad respect for that.

What was the worst infestation you’ve ever had in your house?

I set up a worm composter inside my home and ended up with a fruit fly infestation.

It was over a decade ago and I was really into gardening and soil biology.

I had a regular compost bin in my backyard, but it was taking almost a year for my kitchen scraps to turn into finished compost.

I wanted a way to make compost faster and worm composting seemed like the best solution.

From my research, it was supposed to be really easy. You set up a tray with moist bedding and kitchen scraps, and you let the worms go to town. What could go wrong?

Apparently, a lot.

Take one:

When my worm composter and red wrigglers arrived, it was fairly easy to set up.

I placed the worm bin in my back patio, and I checked on them every day for the next few days. The worms seemed really happy.

On the fifth or sixth night, we had a heavy rain. When I went to check on my worms the next morning, I discovered a bunch of worms outside the bin.

When I looked inside, the tray was waterlogged and the few worms left inside had drowned.

Apparently, the heavy rain had caused a bunch of rain to leak into the composter, causing the mass worm exodus of 2008.

Take two:

I ordered more earthworms, and my husband fashioned a rain cover for the composter from a trash can lid.

After I set up the worms, things were going really well for several weeks.

One morning, when I went to add food to the trays, there was a bunch of dried worms outside the bin and a horrible stench coming from the composter.

When I looked inside, all the worms were dead and had already started to decompose.

I had started the worm bin in early spring when the weather was still mild. But as the weather warmed up, the bin apparently heated up too much and literally cooked all my worms, causing the great worm extinction of 2008.

Take three:

There wasn’t any part of my patio that was completely shaded, and even though I had placed the bin in the shadiest part of my patio, it still got too hot.

So I came up with the bright idea that I would set up the composter in my basement. It was climate controlled, and I would never have to worry about rain.

I ordered more red wrigglers and after I set them up, things were great for several months. The worms were munching through the trays, and I was getting rich, finished compost that I added to my garden.

One day, we noticed we were getting a lot of fruit flies in the house. The next week, they grew into a few dozen. Before we knew it, they turned into a full blown infestation.

As I walked through the house, the little pests would fly into my face and get lodged in my hair.

We had fruit flies peppering all the windows, trying to get outside.

At night, we itched and scratched as fruit flies wandered around in the air and crawled on our bodies.

There were so many swarming around our ceilings, that they would trigger our fire alarms, setting them off at odd times of the day and wee hours of the morning.

We tried everything to get rid of them.

We set up vinegar fruit fly traps.

We strung sticky fly strips from the ceilings and pinned fly paper everywhere.

We withheld water from our plants, letting them dry out completely between waterings to kill off eggs.

But still, the population kept growing.

For the life of us, we didn’t know where they were coming from, or why they were multiplying so quickly. That is, until one day, when I went down to add food to the worm trays.

I was pulling a finished compost tray out when it suddenly clicked. I knew that fruit flies laid eggs in moist soil. But it wasn’t until that moment when it occurred to me that I had been making moist soil right in my basement.

Trays and trays of dark, rich soil, teeming with nutrients. What fruit fly mama wouldn’t want to lay eggs in that?

At that moment, I knew that I had to give up my worms.

I took the trays of worms out back, to the grassy community area behind my house. And I said goodbye to my earthworms, as I carried out the great worm liberation of 2008.

Wisconsin Chicken Booyah
(Belgian Beef, Pork, Chicken Stew)

Wisconsin Chicken Booyah is famous in the Fox River Valley region — Green Bay, Wisconsin. Booyah and beer go great together. Booyah King, Bob Baye, of Green Bay, Wisconsin, has been making Booyah since about 1946 in 100-gallon cookers.

Ingredients

1 roasting or stewing chicken (about 4 pounds)
1 pound beef stew meat, with bones
1 pound pork stew meat, with bones
1/2 cup minced parsley
1 tablespoon salt
1 tablespoon rosemary
1 tablespoon thyme
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1/2 teaspoon sage
4 cups quartered potatoes
2 cups chopped onions
2 cups chopped celery
1 cup carrots, cut up
1 cup green beans, cut up
1 cup fresh peas
1 cup skinned, seeded, chopped tomatoes
2 lemons

Instructions

Put chicken into a deep kettle with the beef and pork. Cover with boiling water. Bring slowly to a simmer, remove scum from the top, and add herbs and seasonings. Simmer very gently, covered, about 1 hour.
Remove chicken and, when cooled, take meat form the bones and cut into pieces. Let beef and pork continue to cook until tender, 45 minutes to an hour more.
Remove and let cool enough to remove meat from bones. Add vegetables to the broth and simmer 5 to 10 minutes.
Grate lemon rind and set aside; remove white pith and seeds from the lemons, chop the pulp, and add to the broth. Taste for seasoning.
While vegetables are still crisp, return the meat pieces to the broth to heat through. Serve in large soup bowls and sprinkle with the lemon rind.

Servings: 12 to 16

What office rule made you say “Really?”

Oh, this is a fun one…

The Committee on Office Ambiance.

I kid you not.

This particular company had a major office building with hundreds of employees. All the offices were decorated in shades of burgundy and green. It was quite pretty actually.

Anyhoo… due to changing departments, I was moved from 3d floor NE to 3rd floor SW. As I’m settling into my new space (which was identical to the old space except I looked south instead of north out the window), the head of the Committee On Office Ambiance appears.

“Oh no no no!” says she. “You aren’t allowed to have original artwork in your office because you are not a manager.”

I glance at the generic painting on the wall, one like every office had. It was ugly as sin. But apparently it was an original rather than a print. Miss Committee snatches that piece of original art and returns with a print, which I liked better anyway.

But it gets better.

So years go by and eventually the hydraulics on my chair gave out. The chair would periodically drop me to the floor without warning. Rather annoying as you can imagine.

I ask my boss for a new chair but he says he doesn’t have the budget for it. I ask to fix the chair but he says he doesn’t have the budget for that either.

This is ridiculous, I think.

So one night I stay late. In the dark of night, I hasten my broken chair down to another office and steal one from an empty. But I get caught! Manager sees me switching chairs. Yells at me because he doesn’t have the budget to fix a chair either, even if that chair is in an empty office. Foiled!

I wait. I plot.

Another night comes and again I wait until not a soul is in the building. I make my switch and I’m not caught! Victory!

Next morning, I’m all happy in my new chair until Miss Committee stops by.

“Oh no no no!” says she. “That’s a burgundy chair! You must have a green chair to match your office.”

Out goes my nice chair and back comes my broken one. Foiled again.!

Once again, I wait. I plot.

Darkness of night. I steal through the building with my broken chair seeking one of identical color. Find it. Make the switch. Life is good.

Until Miss Committee stops by again.

“Oh no no no!” says she. “That’s a manager’s chair. You are only allowed a peon’s chair.” Back comes my broken chair. Foiled yet again!

I’m bemoaning my fate to sit on the floor for the rest of eternity when the maintenance dude happens by. He tells me he has a fix for chairs like mine. He takes it away and comes back in a few with a fixed chair. He’d put a pipe in the stem. The chair can never be lowered again, but what do I care?

I’m finally happy. Miss Committee is finally happy.

I tell this to some folks in the plant. One day, mysteriously, a Dilbert cartoon appears on my desk. Poor Dilbert’s chair is broken and he tries to steal one, only the accounting troll catches him and sentences him to prison at the bottom of the elevator shaft.

I laughed so hard I nearly fell off my (fixed) chair.

I dare anyone to come up with something stupider than this tale.

My employer asked me to sign a resignation letter. I refused. They cleaned out my office, but they didn’t fire me. What do I do?

I had this experience. My boss had already let me know they were eliminating my position due to budget constraints. I wasn’t upset; I had seen the writing on the wall, and I had included a 90 day severance notice in my contract, since the company was known for poor budgeting and finances. In addition to my being let go, I was going to have to let go of several members of the office staff as well. That was fine, but I asked for some time to put everything in order for doing so, at least a week. We didn’t have an HR dept, and being in California, there are certain steps that need to be taken when letting someone go.

The owners didn’t want to wait and insisted I inform people immediately, giving them a two week notice of their termination. Obviously, there were a lot of questions from the employees being let go about benefits and unemployment, which the owners were unprepared to answer. One of the employees complained to me in an email about how vague the owners were being in their answers.

Well, a couple of hours later, I received an angry phone call from the owner’s wife, because this employee had spoken ill of her, and I hadn’t defended her. She and her husband were reading everyone’s emails and were unhappy to learn the people they were firing had little good to say about them. The next call I got was from the owner, demanding I resign immediately in writing for not defending his wife. Of course, I laughed and refused.

His next tactic was to demand I leave home for an unspecified amount of time to work with him on the east coast on new projects. This was the week of Thanksgiving. I had one more card to play: the owner of the company thought it was hilarious to send explicit photos to upper management. I had asked him in front of witnesses to stop; it was a whole other level of weird. I refused to go to the East Coast or resign on advice of attorney based on the hostile sexua environment at the company.

The moment I mentioned sexual harassment and attorneys, the owners went on radio silence. They wouldn’t fire me, and I received zero emails from them for the rest of my 90 day term. I still had to come in to work, but I just sat in my office. I did start taking my private laptop and a hotspot, though, and completed my masters thesis on their dime. I think they thought they were punishing me by making me come in to work for the remainder of my time, but in reality, they gave me an air conditioned, private office to complete a major project. So, thank you?

US Forever War vs Russia and China

In 2014 there was a coup. Soon after, there was a massacre in Odessa (dozens of people were burned alive). Ethnic Russians living in Ukraine were treated as subhuman. Their language and culture was being oppressed. A civil war broke out due to the rise in ethnic tensions.

For 8 years the Ukrainian military was indiscriminately shelling civilians living in Donbas.

If Zelensky honored the Minsk agreement and pledged neutrality, none of this would have happened. The 8 year civil war would have ended and Donbas would have remained part of Ukraine. War is the ultimate failure of diplomacy.

Banks are closing, and the United States is grasping at straws, with the population absolutely clueless

In the 5 steps of the collapse of an empire, financial collapse is the first and most sudden to occur.

Next is commercial collapse. The physical flows of consumer products and services were disrupted because of the widespread bank failures. Trading partners become skeptical of the ability to make payments.

Political collapse comes as people progressively lose faith in their own government. Country begin to see signs of splitting with different ideas of how to move forward. Local forms of government spontaneously sprang up, to fill the void, often in partnership with organized crime for enforcement.

That's just the first three steps that we will likely see in our lifetime.

So there is a bank in the USA that failed.

That is all over the “news”.

What is also being reported is that this bank is where all the high-tech start-ups are funded. And because of this failure, of the bank, many start-up with more than $250,000 in deposit will lose it all.

What is not as widely known, is that many Chinese high-tech start-ups have also used this bank.

Screenshot 20230314 203728 com.tencent.mm

But WHY isn’t China reeling from this bank collapse?

Why is only the United States suffering from the collapse?

Perhaps…

That is because it was the Chinese start-ups, and depositors that decided to make a simultaneous bank run that shut down the entire kit and caboodle…

I have the e-mails / chats on WeChat and other platforms that alerted all Chinese in the United States to start pulling out of United States banks and close their assets. 

This flood of alerts occurred throughout China, after the American Congressional team returned from Taiwan...

I wonder…

Is it a coincidence?

Well, you all know what I think. Right?

Do not fuck with China, they will fuck you RIGHT BACK.

It's just another "1 + 1 = 2" moment.

Some curious facts…

We start off with this.

The B-52’s – Rock Lobster (Countdown 1980)

Let’s set up today’s theme…

“Sink China Warships,”: US General On Breaking Blockade Of Taiwan- Report

GeneralWilsbach said, "We've got to sink the ships," and recommended the US "amass firepower" in the region with the use of armed drones and added the Northrop Grumman B-21 Raider could be "helpful in our mission."

Taipei: Commander of US Pacific Air Forces (PACAF), General Kenneth Wilsbach said that the US must sink Chinese warships to break a blockade of Taiwan, reported Taiwan News.

While speaking to reporters at the Air and Space Forces Association Warfare Symposium in Aurora, Colorado on Wednesday, General Wilsbach said, “We’ve got to sink the ships,” and recommended the U.S. “amass firepower” in the region with the use of armed drones and added the Northrop Grumman B-21 Raider could be “helpful in our mission.”

General Wilsbach recalled that in response to former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s trip to Taiwan, China deployed ships off the east coast of Taiwan to act “as a sort of blockade,” reported Military.com.

Tensions started between China and Taiwan after the US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi travelled to Taiwan in August.

China raised objections to Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan, which China claims as part of its territory. China announced military drills around Taiwan over Pelosi’s visit to the island.

General Wilsbach said the surface-to-air missiles mounted on the ships created an “anti-access/area denial engagement zone” that discouraged warplanes from other countries from entering for fear of being shot down.

Although Washington’s priority is to deter Beijing from invading, General Wilsbach said the military needs to have contingencies in the event China does attack Taiwan. He argued that if hostilities do break out, the first order of business is that, “We’ve got to sink the ships,” reported Taiwan News.

The commander said that sinking Chinese warships should not only be the main objective of the PACAF “but really anyone that’s going to be involved in a conflict like this.”

He stressed the need for the US and the militaries of friendly nations to plan and train together a great deal more, reported Taiwan News.

General Wilsbach said that many wings under his command are rehearsing the US Air Force’s tactic of spreading crews and aircraft across “many, many islands.”

China has enacted a long-term and flexible strategy for the self-governing island. This strategy involves periodic military exercises that amount to blockades, with a tighter military noose increasing the threat level.

Moreover, it sends the message that any large military exercise could quickly be the real thing – an indefinite blockade of Taiwan to starve it into submission.

Crossing Over Lost In Space with Star Trek.

Crossing Lost In Space with Star Trek. Blends well… with …coffee. Original Date of Posting: August 12,2018. From Facebook. Brilliant editing by Doug Fuchs.

https://youtu.be/m85TCDypp50

Roast Beef Pita Sandwiches

Yield: 4 servings

Ingredients

1 cup plain nonfat yogurt
1 1/2 teaspoons snipped fresh dill or 1/2 teaspoon dried dill weed
1 teaspoon mustard
1 cup chopped bell pepper (about 1 medium)
2 (6-inch) pita breads, cut into halves
1/3 pound thinly sliced lean roast beef
1 cup alfalfa sprouts

Instructions

Mix yogurt, dill weed and mustard; stir in bell pepper.
Fill each pita bread half with 1/3 cup yogurt mixture and 1/4 of the beef and alfalfa sprouts.

STARGATE (1994) | Going Through The Stargate

Hollywood. LOL!

Not really like this. It’s actually instantaneous.

Fantastic Illustrations By Waldemar von Kozak

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Check out these fantastic illustrations from Russian artist Waldemar von Kozak. We love the surrealism at play here which seems to hint at dark, broad social commentary all through a pulp and noir or sci-fi lens. If anything, Kozak’s striking use of color and distortion of everyday objects and places are worth a look.

Follow Waldemar von Kozak on DeviantArt and website.

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How the U.S. Spent $1.4 Trillion in Debt Last Year

Expectations vs. reality in Japan

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10 lies women tell their boyfriends

by Rosemary Ribner

1. Go ahead, I already came.

Yeah, um, if she already came you wouldn’t need to ask – you would have heard it. Some women can climax without making noise but that takes a lot of practice. It’s like silent laughing – possible but unlikely. If you are banging your girlfriend and she’s made not a peep – she didn’t orgasm. Wanna test it? Go down on her and work her clitoris over with your tongue for 10 or so minutes, if she’s not bucking, moaning or screaming then you have a unicorn who can silently orgasm. Otherwise, she’s lying.

2. I’m fine or It’s fine.

I don’t know what you did but I can tell you something definitively it is so NOT fine. She is NOT in the least bit fine. I’d runaway if I were you because that is a ticking time bomb you are prodding for an answer and it will blow…just not you.

3. I’ll be ready in a few minutes.

Unless you’re dating a dude in disguise, she will not be ready in a few minutes. We say a few minutes when we mean an hour because it sounds better. We need to do hair, make up and multiple outfit try-ons. It feels like a few minutes to us because we are hauling ass, but the clock and your patience say otherwise.

4. Tell me I promise I won’t be mad or upset

Hahahahahahahahaha…don’t fall for that one. We are already gearing up to be upset. We’re trying to coax you into telling us something we know we don’t want to hear and we are ticked off that you just made us lie to you and promise to not get mad when you know we will.

5. Age/weight

We wear Spanx, corsets, tummy panels, control top everything and push-up bras and make up which includes concealer. Everything in our arsenal is geared towards lying about our weight and age. We use poses to make our social media pictures look 10 years younger and 20-50 lbs. thinner. If you marry us, you will know our age, maybe but you will never, ever know how much we weigh. Even at our thinnest we take 10-15 lbs. off the truth because those Spanx say we can.

6. I have no idea where I want to eat.

We have an idea, but we don’t want to say. We do know what we don’t want to eat, and we are happy to have you narrow it down for us by naming 35 places you could eat. While we just say no to every suggestion until you sigh and say the one place we both knew I wanted.

7. Do whatever you want.

Yeah, so this means we have no opinion and no woman on the planet has no opinion. Do not do whatever you want, it won’t end well.

8. Sure, you can go with your friends.

Nope, you cannot go with your friends. If you go with your friends it will be World War 3, do you want that? Better yet, if you do go with your friends, we will go with our friends – you know those chicks who hate your guts and want us to dump you. This is one of those lies that is a precursor towards vengeance.

9. I didn’t finish but that’s okay.

Dude, it’s not okay. The whole point of sex is the orgasm and not having an orgasm sucks. We don’t want you to feel bad or inadequate because we love you. That doesn’t mean you should just roll over and go to sleep. Just because you finished doesn’t mean you can’t finish us, you have a hand and a mouth – get in there and finish is off. Otherwise, the resentment will add up.

10. You are the best I have ever had.

We care about you and we don’t want to make you feel insecure or lacking in any way, so we will tell you that you’re the best even if you’re not. Plus, positive reinforcement works much better than shaming. We tell you that you’re the best and it will make you want to work even harder and get even better. You don’t need to be shamed about a lackluster performance any more than I need to be shamed for having a big rear end. If we shame your performance it will kill your self-esteem, if you shame my big butt I may lose it, but I’ll dump you when I do.

ODDBALL THE GREATEST AMERICAN HERO

Do those foreigners who have lived in China find life in their home countries not as convenient when coming back home?

Absolutely yes.

I travel to my home country every two years and often to a lot of other western countries, it has become a recurring epiphany for me the feeling of how fast is China evolving.

In China, I access my home and even pick up my son from kindergarten using “facial recognition”, no keys or pass are needed … I just need to remember to wear my face.

While In China (if you can afford it) you will never cook again!… The array of food choices and products you can try is overwhelming. Everything can be delivered to your doorstep or even at your GPS location in no more than 15 minutes*. (*Depending on where you live/are)

In China you don’t need to bother about your ¨safety¨ or having your stuff stolen in the streets, any dark alley is just a dark alley… no dangers inside. Even if a theft ever happens to you, the bad guys can be tracked down through CCTV in a matter of hours and justice works. That’s very convenient and gives you peace of mind.

In China, bureaucracy is by default… but it works!. A lot of old school paperwork is being digitalized and most of the things can be done in seconds to minutes using an app, website or WeChat mini-programs. Everything is becoming paperless. I changed between 3 internet providers at no cost in the same week because as a consumer I have the right to choose the fastest service, right?.

Paying in China is beyond cashless. We all know how it works. Now we use our phones but in no time those will be all replaced by our own face print.

In China, moving around is absolutely convenient. Who needs to drive a car In big cities like Shanghai? The Metro System reaches practically everywhere in minutes, the service is clean, safe, frequent, punctual and cheap. Most of the lines are not crowded outside of peak time. High-speed trains rival airplanes as a ¨better choice¨ because they have a more comfortable and convenient process to board. There are multiple brands of bike-sharing systems in every city. There are also systems for sharing-umbrellas, sharing-battery chargers, sharing-EVCars, and sharing-everything-you-can–imagine for cents an hour… everywhere you go.

When you go to a restaurant in China, you can scan the QRCode pasted in your table, make the order in your phone and the food will come to your table in minutes (literally minutes… no 30 to 40 minutes like in any western country). In some places you rarely need to wait for the bill, you just walk out to the door and scan the WeChat or AliPay QRCode to pay… all done!.
China has a No-Tipping culture… which is very convenient, you pay the price you see in your bill.

In China, you can carry your half-drank smoothie or shopping bags from another shop in your hands when entering any business, a bank, a convenience store or a shop and nobody will push you out, give you a bad look or force you to drop it in a locker. You can even enter those places with your hat on (in many countries they won’t allow it because they doubt everyone!). I find the issue of ¨untrustiness¨ to be very disgusting and is a standard in many western countries (In Latin America, and some European countries especially). China is very convenient and relaxed in this matter.

In China, every new product you see as a novelty on the internet is available right away in the local market, something you can do in very few other markets around the world. Very convenient!

I could go on and on with the items. I’m not exaggerating or being paid to say this.

If you want to try the lifestyle just come to spend some time, it will be difficult to go back anywhere else… this is China in 2020.

China: It’s Life Or Death With U.S As An “Attacking Wolf”

She’s not a China lover. But it’s a pretty good video.

Bacon and Onion Bratwursts

Ingredients

2 slices bacon
2 medium onions, sliced and separated into rings
1 medium green bell pepper, cut into strips
1 tablespoon Dijon-style mustard
4 links fully cooked bratwurst or knockwurst, or 4 frankfurters
4 hot dog buns, split and toasted
Dijon-style mustard

Instructions

In a large skillet cook bacon till crisp.
Drain bacon, reserving 2 tablespoons drippings.
Crumble bacon and set aside.
Cook onions and green bell pepper in reserved drippings, covered, over medium heat about 5 minutes or till tender, stirring occasionally.
Stir in the 1 tablespoon mustard.
Score bratwurst 1/4 inch deep at 1 inch intervals; add to onion mixture.
Cover and cook for 10 to 12 minutes or until heated through.
Spread buns with additional mustard.
Place bratwurst in buns.
Top with onions and green pepper.
Sprinkle with bacon.

Soul Train Shake Your Booty KC & Sunshine Band

15 People Facing Imminent Death Reveal Their Thoughts And Feelings As They Were About To Die

March 7, 2023

1. Disgustingly: that I didn’t care if those around me were killed just as long as I got out alive. The knowledge of that being my thought process at the time has haunted me my entire life.

I was in a national safari park at night in Zimbabwe with some friends on a school trip (aged around 15/16). We were told not to walk around at night because of honey badgers and other dangerous animals, but we wanted to go and see the watering hole at night so decided to ignore that advice.

So we start walking towards the watering hole in almost pitch black save a few lamps here and there. Halfway to the watering hole we heard a bush rustle around 5 meters from the path we were walking on, followed by an unmistakable lion’s roar. None of us either bother to look and all ran madly towards the watering hole where we know there’s a fence. I’ve never run so fast in my life. All I remember is being terrified I’d trip over my flip flops and wishing that the lion would go for one of the people behind me and not for me. It’s that final thought that fucks with me.

The next morning we went and saw that 2-3 meters from the path there was a fence that in the darkness we couldn’t see. Obviously the lion was directly behind the fence.

2. I’m a sex worker. Met the wrong kind of client. He raped me and beat the fuck out of me while telling me about the different places he was considering dumping my body. I was more resigned than I expected. For one I just wanted the pain to stop and I also thought how I’d just be another dead black hooker and no one would notice and it was as good an end to a shitty life as any.

Then he let me go. I’m glad not to have died by someone else’s hand, it is terrifying and lonely and thinking about it makes me want to puke, but it didn’t like, renew my love of life or anything. Sometimes I wish he’d just finished the job and be done with it. I know, I’m very ungrateful.

3. I fell down a rock face some years ago. It probably only took a few seconds tops but it felt like ages. My mind was racing, thinking what to do while simultaneously panicing so hard that I couldn’t do even the most basic thing..

That day I learned that when in mortal peril, I won’t have any bright ideas to save my life. I also won’t have any cool last words but I will let out a rather unmanly whimper.

4. Panic. Helplessness. The sense of doom was so great, there was no way the paramedics would get to me in time, it was a major heart attack. I just remember feeling like someone was sitting on my chest, I couldn’t breathe, and there was a sharp pain, but also a numbness. I couldn’t feel my left side so I wasn’t sure if it was a heart attack or a stroke, either way it was serious. I told my brother to make sure he’d take care of my kids.

Paramedics arrived, start taking vitals, everything’s elevated, but fairly normal. Not a heart attack or a stroke. I don’t see how that’s possible. Then they ask if I’ve ever had an anxiety or panic attack. I think they’re fucking with me, not taking me seriously, I mean…I’m dying and they’re telling me it’s just in my head.

Aaand that’s what my panic attacks feel like.

5. I fainted.

Flying off the highway after we hit a patch of ice. After we spun a few times and were heading for the edge of the highway and I knew that we were going off and that I was about to die, out I went.

Rolled a few times and landed in a snow bank. I came to hanging upside down, banged up a bit but still alive, much to my surprise.

6. I actually fell 20 feet at one point through a shoddy football stadium onto concrete. I basically slipped on nachos and went through an opening. Nowadays I know that people can survive that, but in my head as I was falling, everything was in slow motion and I thought “Man… This is a really stupid way to die”

7. I was about 10 years old and down at the beach with my brothers. The waves coming in were pretty decent, 2 foot at shore, 3 or 4 foot further out. My brothers were good swimmers so they headed straight out to the back with their surfboards. I was stuck on the 2 footers with a scrappy foam rectangle board.

I decided to try a bigger wave and instant regret set in. The board flipped forward knocking me off and the water was no longer shallow enough for my feet to touch the bottom. I tried making my way to shore but the water was pulling me back. Every time I surfaced I was met with a wave to the face and a mouthful of seawater. Every time I went under all I could hear was the peaceful blooblybloop sound you hear when cameras go under water with microphones. I was in full panic mode and was sure I would drown until I felt something under me pushing me to the surface. I couldn’t think and was still in survival mode clawing upwards to keep my head above water. As this thing under me kept pushing, I realized I was moving closer to the shore and suddenly the giant waves were now 2 footers again. That’s when I planted my feet into the sand and bolted to the shore crying my eyes out.

Turns out the thing under me was my brothers friend who had been at the beach. He told me he was under me trying to put me on his shoulders and my kicking made it much harder for him. He was only 2 years older than me but God damn of he hadn’t been there, I wouldn’t be here today probably.

8. Had a really shitty boyfriend in college start hitting me around the neck and head with a cat scratching post, the kind that’s just a pole on a heavy base. I remember hoping that he would at least call the police so that my mom would know what happened to me, and being scared that he would bury somewhere and lie about it so they would never find me. Then I blacked out and woke up in the shower. He tried to convince me that I had slipped and fallen.

9. I was ten minutes into a three-hour flight and seated in the back row next to the toilet. There was a huge bang, the lights in the cabin flickered and dimmed, the plane wobbled hard in the air, I could smell smoke instantly, and a near-deafening bad engine sound started up. I looked over at the flight attendant who was still strapped to the fold-down seat right next to me. She has a look of pure terror on her face. That’s when I knew I was going to die.

I was profoundly pissed off. I thought ‘Fuck – this is how I go – now?!’ I thought about all of the crap I made it through in life and really regretted that I wouldn’t get to continue that progress. I was mad that I was going to die when travelling for work. I thought about trying to text the people I love, but didn’t want to mess with the navigation systems of the plane in case there was some way we could survive.

We had lost an engine because we struck a goose. The plane turned around and returned to the airport easily and safely, as we still had three of four engines.

10. In January of 2015, I got caught on a burning public transit train. The fuse on the track had burnt out and we were waiting for the train to get power again so we could get moving. Then the whole thing suddenly went up in flames.

Everyone was panicking, but I remember sitting there thinking “I guess this is how I go.” Totally calm, absolute peace. It was in that moment that 18-year-old me was 100% okay with dying.

Someone managed to pry open an emergency exit and then the adrenaline kicked in, so I got out without any injuries, but looking back, I’m still a bit shaken by my response to the whole thing.

11. Thanksgiving dinner about 3 years ago I didn’t chew my food thoroughly enough from the excitement. Swallowed too big of a piece of meat and it got stuck. You don’t know its really stuck at first. I tried drinking water and the water was also stuck in my throat. Big “OH SHIT” moment. I get up while no one noticed and the water sorta spilled out of my throat on the way to the bathroom. Why I didn’t tell anyone or went somewhere by myself was beyond me as I wasn’t thinking straight. I tried sticking my fingers down my throat, hitting my chest, etc. and people started noticing. At this point, I’m like shit I can’t breathe, wtf, I’m going to die like this? Panic mode from everyone and I started losing my vision. Miraculously my girls uncle knew the Heimlich maneuver somehow and saved me. All the blood vessels around my eyes bursted, I looked like an owl. Good times at thanksgivings.

12. I was taken to hospital for extremely low blood pressure. The only thing I could think of was “wow, this is peaceful”. Had no idea how close to death I was at the time – ER doc later told me that if I had waited 20 minutes to come to the ER I would not have survived.

13. Relief. Comfort. I was happy. I tried to kill myself. I knew I was going to die. I knew it was over. What I didn’t know is that someone would find me soon enough that the doctors were able to bring me back after my heart and breathing stopped. I’m glad they found me. I’m glad I’m alive. Over 4 years suicide attempt free.

14. This is really going to hurt.

Nearly got burnt over when fighting a wild land fire back in 2012.

What happened was a flame front a few miles wide and a few draws away had enough wind and speed behind it that it closed that distance faster than we had anticipated. Essentially we got smoked out, had spot fires blowing up all around us, and hundred foot flame lengths coming out of the timber. Luckily we were able to find defensible spot to hold out on and wait a few hours for our exit route to stop being on fire.

Probably my closest call with burning to death.

15. I wanted my gilfriend at the time to know that I loved her so I kept asking for a piece of paper and a pen. I Was lying in the street with broken bones everywhere in complete agony, and all I Wanted to do was write down that I loved my girlfriend so she would know she was the last thing I was thinking of before i died. I was also thinking about how little I had done with my life.

16. “Man I’m so stupid”

Trying to save a drowning woman. She was big and panicking so she was pushing me down trying to keep herself above water. After struggling for quite a while I started to go under the water. All I thought about was my three young kids at home aren’t going to have a dad and I feel so foolish trying to save this lady. Weirdest feeling. I swam to the surface and we made one last push for the shore. Someone caught us halfway back, we both made it and I laid on the shore and vomited.

Chicago-Style Sausage and Peppers

Yield: 8 servings

Ingredients

2 tablespoons corn oil
1 large red onion, thinly sliced
2 large yellow bell peppers, cored, seeded and thinly sliced
2 large red bell peppers, cored, seeded and thinly sliced
1/4 cup Jack Daniels Sour Mash Whiskey
1/4 cup dark brown sugar, packed
1 tablespoon chopped fresh thyme
Salt and pepper to taste
8 spicy Italian sausages (4 ounces each), not hot dogs!
8 good quality hot dog buns
2 tablespoons reserved sausage grease or soft butter

Instructions

Heat corn oil in large skillet and sauté the onions and peppers until tender and beginning to brown, about 10 minutes over medium heat.
Add the bourbon and stir quickly until absorbed.
Add the brown sugar and stir until the sugar melts.
Season with thyme, salt and pepper. (Can be refrigerated for one week. Let come to room temperature before serving.)
Char-grill the sausages until slightly blackened and cooked through.
Brush the hot dog buns with a little sausage grease or butter and toast on the grill or under the broiler.
Nestle a sausage in a bun and top with about 2 tablespoons of peppers and onions.

Expectations vs reality in the USA

The B 52’s – Private Idaho (HQ)

I recently rediscovered this gem. My kid just loves it.

She grabs her bling bling and starts a dancin’.

Biggest changes but we are denied the view

We are over the transitional period. Over the next year or two, the dawning of understanding will creep into the collective minds of those that “lead” the West. How this will manifest can be anything, but I remain hopeful…

A scaling back of many policies.
Changes in the way that many things are done.
Some attempts (which will be failures) that will try to prevent the hemorrhaging of the Untied States.

However, I am often wrong, and I fail at least 50% of the time in my predictions. Though, I’m often quite correct on trend-lines. Outcomes. Not so well.

What outcomes?

Flipping the tables with global nuclear war.
Invasion of Mexico, Iran, or Taiwan.
Civil war in the United States

Who know what will happen. I don’t.

Have a great day.

Posted for the record.

Self explanatory.

Those of us who consume western msm are not delusional when we state there is an anti-China editorial policy in western newsrooms.

Jason And The Argonauts (1963)

I always find with these stop-motion animation films that the wonderful Harryhausen creations always far out-act the human talent! Sadly, here is no different – Todd Armstrong in the title role and Nancy Novak as ” Medea” are as wooden as the Argo in this retelling of the ancient Greek myth.

It is still, however, an exciting action adventure though, with plenty of episodes to keep it moving along as Jason fights monsters and treachery to seek out the legendary Golden Fleece from the distant land of Colchis.

It’s got a decent enough, largely British, supporting cast with Honor Blackman standing out as his patron “Hera” and Nigel Green making for a wonderfully over-the-top “Hercules”, but the spoils definitely go to Talos, the Harpies and the skeleton battle is fabulous.

https://youtu.be/1c8NvctkSzs

What is the Chinese opinion of the United States of America? Do they hate us as much as we hate them? Is their dislike towards USA justified? If yes, why and if no, why not?

Not even half as much!

Chinese people thinks the U.S. system and policies are daft and don’t work. They don’t hate the country and certainly don’t hate the people. There is very few who are racist like some Americans.

The Chinese people sees Americans as good customer and America as huge market. The treat customers well. They will never be submissive and subservient to you as to them they are a far more mature and intelligent person. You can think what you want but that what they think about themselves.

They saw through the manipulation and cheating of the so call international rules based international order and so does most others. And they will certainly not allow it to perpetuate. Quite rightly so. They still hope you guys comes to your senses soon before you implode.

The Chinese are at least 3 full steps ahead of Americans in thinking and response. You can rant and rave if you want but frankly it is not beneficial to hate the Chinese or China or CCP. The U.S. will lose more. If China maybe they can it means 100% it can be done. China will be either your biggest customer or your biggest competitor that U.S. your choice.

Vietnam War: Racquel Welch 1967

Why doesn’t milk taste like real milk anymore? I just want milk that tastes like real milk.

Milk in America and Canada underwent a major deterioration in taste in the early 1970’s. In the UK and Europe it happened in about 1980.

Milk undergoes significant and irreversible biochemical changes once it is heated above 64.5˚C. And these changes are readily detected as a deterioration in the taste.

Prior to 1980 in the UK, and roughly the early 1970’s in North America, milk was commonly pasteurised by heating it to between 63˚C and 64˚C and holding it in that temperature bracket for 30 minutes. It was a protocol developed in 1906 by Public Health officials in Massachusetts, who were desperate to persuade people to drink pasteurised milk instead of raw milk. But bringing milk close to boiling meant the wonderful rich taste of the milk when raw was lost. So the public bought raw milk by choice.

With what must have been a considerable amount of research, they found that by heating milk above 63˚C but below 64˚C, and maintaining the temperature for 30 minutes, the pathogens were killed, but the rich taste of the milk was not damaged. After WWII it became the widespread approach to pasteurising milk.

But in the 1970’s a far faster method was developed, which was to heat the milk to 73˚C and run it through pipework for just 15 seconds. The pathogens they were concerned about were effectively killed off by this method. And though the wonderful rich taste of the milk was damaged, the industry was persuaded to switch over to the new approach by the great cost savings it brought.

And since that switch in the mid 1970’s the per capita consumption of milk in the USA has declined by over 40%.

In movies from the 1950’s and 1960’s you often see a glass of milk at the dinner table. Look at movies made since 1980 and a glass of milk is a very rare sight. If you have never tasted milk produced using the old protocol, then you do not know what you are missing.

My wife is a dairy farmer, and we pasteurise and bottle our milk for sale through shops across Scotland. (In Scotland milk sold to the public has to be pasteurised.) Ours is one of the very few dairy farms in Scotland using the old approach. We tried (once) heating the milk to 73˚C but hated the way the taste was dramatically altered, in our view, damaged. And so we stick to the slower, older method. But we have noticed that, should someone forget to turn off the heating elements at the wrong point, and the temperature of the milk in the big pasteurising vessel goes above 64.5˚C, it then develops a “sticky” quality. We studiously avoid this happening, as that stickiness means the vessel is suddenly a nightmare to clean.

As milk goes above 64.5˚C the proteins are increasingly denatured. And the denatured proteins then coagulate with the butterfat. And this seems to be what causes the stickiness. I presume it is also involved directly in the alteration of the flavour of the milk.

And so the vast majority of the population on both sides of the Atlantic have no experience these days of good old-fashioned drinking milk. And that’s a big pity.

Addendum: there’s an important topic that is related to all the above.

Crohn’s Disease has surged in the years since the HTST process was adopted, and it appears there is a direct link between the two topics. There is a very widespread disease amongst cows & cattle called Johnes Disease, and it is caused by the Mycobacterium avium subsp. tuberculosis, commonly referred to as MAP.

The bacteria, once introduced to a herd, is nearly impossible to get rid of, as it can survive in the cow pats in fields for years.

There is currently no treatment for Johnes Disease, which is a wasting illness of the digestive tract. The symptoms of Johnes Disease and Crohn’s Disease are identical. While it is a simple matter to demonstrate that Johnes Disease is caused by MAP, there are ethical barriers which make a similar determination of MAP and Crohn’s Disease impossible.

We can’t have two groups of healthy people, and expose the folk in one group to viable MAP, and see what happens. But there is an enormous body of circumstantial evidence pointing to Crohn’s Disease being caused by MAP. Some 10% of supermarket milk sold in the UK (for example) has been found to contain viable MAP, i.e., 10% of milk on those shelves just might cause Crohn’s Disease in people who consume it on a regular basis.

The older process of 63˚C for 30 minutes is actually 10 times more effective at killing off MAP than the typical HTST process. Longer exposure to high temperatures are needed it seems, and this is why the HTST approach is a poor process for milk pasteurisation.

China’s Fujian air wing is slowly taking shape

China’s Fujian air wing is slowly taking shape, possibly making it the first carrier worldwide capable of launching 5th-generation stealth fighters from its decks.

main qimg cc98cafb28d7059bbbf172286bcfd664

Few days ago it was reported that China might be preparing to deploy a new stealth fighter or perhaps a stealth drone from its Fujian aircraft carrier, incrementally building the combat capabilities of its third carrier and flagship naval vessel.

It is noted that the J-31/ FC-31 will complement the J-15, China’s only carrier-based fighter. It also mentions that the J-31 will be used for air supremacy missions due to its stealth characteristics, while the J-15 will be limited to ground and sea attacks.

However, the report notes that both the J-31/FC-31 and the Fujian are still not combat-ready, with the J-31/FC-31 still undergoing ground tests and the Fujian expected to perform sea trials later this year.

China’s J-31/FC-31 has a 2,000-kilometer estimated range, maximum takeoff weight of 28 tons, an operational ceiling of 15 kilometers and a top speed of Mach 1.8 or 2,205 kilometers per hour.

FH-97A Loyal Wingman drone is an AI-powered unmanned stealth aircraft designed to complement the J-20 stealth fighter. Unlike other loyal wingman drones, the stealthy FH-97A has a 1,000-kilometer range with a six-hour maximum flight time.

The FH-97A is designed for air-to-air operations, noting that it has a front-mounted EOTS and internal weapons bay for six infrared air-to-air missiles. Apart from air-to-air roles, the report mentions that it can perform secondary missions such as surveillance, suppression of enemy air defenses (SEAD) and electronic warfare. Considerations are being made to develop a carrier-based FH-97A variant featuring in-flight refueling capability.

Foreign agents and protests in Georgia

A classic color revolution to disrupt the southern border of Russia.

Burial Bundles with Painted Bodies in Fabric Found in Peru Pyramid

Archaeologists in Peru have uncovered a monumental temple site where they discovered unique human burials wrapped in fabrics printed with bizarre zoomorphic designs. These bundles contain the remains of deceased individuals, as well as various offerings and personal belongings wrapped in multiple layers of textiles, often with intricate designs and patterns. Found in tombs and caves, many burial bundles have been preserved for hundreds, or even thousands of years.

High Status Ancient Burials

PAP reports that within one burial mounds, archaeologists identified the wrapped remains of a young boy whose skull was “ intentionally deformed .” Wrapped in a three meters (9.84 ft) long cloth which was decorated with “totally unique zoomorphic representations,” the researchers reported that the boy was born into a “high-status family.”

Cranial deformation was a common practice in Peru. The process involved binding the heads of infants to create a flattened or elongated skull , often with the intention of denoting social status or cultural affiliation.

Łukasz Majchrzak is a bioarchaeologist focused on pre-Columbian cultures in Peru, specializing in health, diet, and lifestyle. Majchrzak, said the boy’s wraps were covered with “unique” zoomorphic representations, and similar fabrics have never been found anywhere in the Andes mountains to date.

Dyed fabric found in a tomb at the top of the site, dated 772 -989 AD Photo: Łukasz Majchrzak

Painted And Wrapped for The Afterlife

The team of archaeologists were excavating what they describe as “a monumental temple” on the Cerro Colorado hill located near the city of Barranca in Peru, when they found the series of “unique tombs.” These were not ordinary burials because the people within the graves were painted and wrapped in high-quality fabrics.

Located near the coastal city of Barranca in Peru, Cerro Colorado is a famously red hill which is caused by high levels of iron oxide in the soil. With expansive panoramic views of the surrounding landscape, including the Pacific Ocean and the Andes Mountains, this important archaeological site features a sunken plaza and an amphitheatre, which were utilized in the pre-Columbian era.

The recent excavations were conducted by a team of archaeologists from the Jagiellonian University and St Mark’s University, in the “Los valles de Barranca ” project. According to a report on Nauka W Polsce , four earthen mounds were excavated in 2022 and, amidst a monumental temple structure, four tombs were discovered containing painted human remains wrapped in high-quality fabrics that dated to 772 AD – 989 AD.

Cross-section of a Peruvian mummy bundle. Source: Juulijs / Adobe Stock

Unwrapping Ancient Burial Bundles

The above dating determined that the graves belonged to the Wari culture , whose legacy can be found at Castillo de Huarmey, located only 70 kilometres (43.5 miles) north of Barranca in the Huarmey district of Peru. Castillo de Huarmey is a 16th-century coastal fortress built by Spanish conquistador Francisco Pizarro’s brother-in-law, Jerónimo de Aliaga. The castle is known for its unique blend of Spanish, Inca, and Chimú architectural styles and contains numerous well-preserved murals depicting daily life in the region, and a Wari mausoleum.

On two of the newly excavated pyramidal mounds, the monumental temple was found to have been constructed using dried red clay bricks and stone blocks. This discovery inspired a large-scale excavation of the site which revealed the burial bundles, also known as “fardos funerarios”.

An example of a Wari burial bundle (Public Domain)

Revitalizing Ancient Holy Sites

Research revealed that while the burials dated to between 772 AD and 989 AD, the temple complex itself was built between 2500 and 2200 BC. This dating is derived from two of the four structures, with the remaining two not yet excavated, so the site might prove to be even older.

Majchrzak explained that such settlements, with “imposing architecture,” were built in the Andes during the third millennium BC. As agriculture spread, as a result of increasing interactions with communities residing in the Amazon, later Andean cultures established burial necropolises in abandoned deeply-ancient places of worship, believing their ancestors were buried within the timeworn pyramids.

Top image: Peruvian mummy bundles, representational. Source: Bayamin / Adobe Stock.

By Ashley Cowie

China and Saudi Arabia just dealt a CRUSHING blow to the U.S. Dollar

Buffalo Chicken & Pepper Grilled Cheese Sandwich

BuffaloGrilledChickenPic 570x766 1 — BuffaloGrilledChickenPic 570×766 1

Ingredients

2 tablespoons hot sauce
1 tablespoon Cabot Salted Butter, melted
1 cooked chicken breast, shredded (about 1 cup)
4 tablespoons Cabot Salted Butter, softened
8 (1/2 inch thick) slices LaBrea Bakery Take & Bake Garlic Loaf Bread or any garlic flavored bread
4 roasted red bell pepper quarters (about 1 cup drained, jarred or 1 fresh roasted red bell pepper)
4 ounces Cabot Pepper Jack, thinly sliced

Instructions

Heat Breville sandwich maker until green light switches on, or two sided electric grill.
In medium bowl, combine hot sauce and melted butter; add chicken and toss until well combined.
Working in batches, butter one side of each bread slice and place bread on sandwich maker, or electric grill, buttered side down.
Layer evenly with chicken, bell pepper and cheese.
Cover with remaining bread slice, buttered side up.
Close lid and cook for 3 minutes or until bread is golden crisp and cheese is melted. Alternatively, cook sandwiches in heavy skillet over medium-low heat for about 3 minutes per side.)

Fighting Off The Children Of The Hydra’s Teeth | Jason and the Argonauts

This reminds me of a scene from the 1960s movie “The Ugly American”.

It says in Chinese: emergency relief, 1 set.

The photo is from Türkiye, and relevant information has been censored on the US platform.

Look at how it was “reported”…

Then here comes the question: did the US military buy these materials or just “borrow” them from Syria? Shouldn’t there be a comprehensive public verification of the executors?

LOL.

Alastair Crooke

March 13, 2023

The West is too dysfunctional and weak now to fight on all fronts. Yet there can be no retreat without some de-legitimising humiliation of the West.

Just occasionally, a window is opened onto the truth of how the ‘system’ works. Momentarily, it stands naked in its degeneracy. We avert our eyes, yet, it is a revelation (though it shouldn’t be). For, we see clearly how tawdry has been the attire which clothed it. ‘Liberalism’s’ seeming success – almost wholly an ephemeral PR production – serves only to make its underlying internal contradictions more obvious; more ‘in your face’ – much less credible.

This unravelling speaks to a failure to satisfactorily resolve liberal modernity’s inherent contradictions. Or, rather its unravelling derives from the choice to resolve a waning legitimacy, through an ever more totalistic and ideological reaching for hegemony.

One such window has been the sordid affair of the UK pandemic lockdowns – as revealed by a paper trail leak of 100,000 ministerial WhatsApp messages, managing the lockdown project.

What did they show (in the words here of pro-government leading political commentators)? An ugly picture of how a western Establishment interacts in adolescent sniping at each other, and in its utter disdain for the populace.

Janet Daley writing in The Telegraph:

“It [lockdown] wasn’t about science, it was about politics. That was obvious as soon as the government began talking about following The Science – as if it were a fixed body of revealed truth … they were engaged in a deliberately misleading campaign of public coercion. The programme was designed to frighten – not inform – and to make doubt or scepticism appear morally irresponsible – which is precisely the opposite of what science does”.

“The model for the monumental government programme in which sitting on a park bench, or meeting with extended family, became a criminal offence – was the nation at war. Horrifying levels of social isolation were deliberately designed to present the country as mobilised in a collective effort against a malign enemy. Much of this went way beyond what we generally regard as authoritarianism: even the East German Stasi did not forbid children from hugging their grandparents, or outlaw sexual relations between people who lived in different households. Every other consideration had to be relegated in a heroic national struggle against an invading army whose objective was to kill as many of us as possible. And this enemy was particularly insidious because it was invisible”.

Sherelle Jacobs:

“We have been granted a rare glimpse of Power’s true nature away from the media gaze: how, in private, it schemes, swears, sulks and derides. On full display are all its dismal paradoxes: its fierce megalomania and constant seeking of reassurance from political aides; its tendency to groupthink and relentless sniping.

“One feels a new cold solidarity with 1970s [Watergate] America in its horror at the “low-grade quality of mind” that characterised their political class. But perhaps the strongest parallel with Watergate is that … the state’s operations seem suffused with humdrum nihilism. It is there in the amused crusades to “scare the pants” off people. It is in the deadpan mocking of holidaymakers locked up in quarantine [hotels] (“hilarious”). It is in the remorseless dedication to “the narrative”.

“How zealously the state threw themselves into implementing draconian measures, once it had decided at HQ that lockdowns were the correct populist call. We have come to learn how Hancock (Health Minister) conspired to “sit on” scientists, who he denounced as “wacky” or “loudmouth” for defying the official lines. We must digest the knowledge that civil servants insisted the “fear/guilt factor” was “vital” in “ramping up the messaging” during the dubious third lockdown. Just as unedifying is the revelation that, in the run up to this lockdown, politicians seized on a new variant as a tool to “roll the pitch with”. Perhaps most galling is Patrick Vallance’s (Scientific Adviser) advice that the Government should “suck up the media’s miserable interpretation of scientific data” to then “overdeliver” in an atmosphere of cranked up fear”.

Fraser Nelson:

“We see the PM appallingly served and briefed. Almost suspiciously so. At one stage, he is so in the dark about Covid’s fatality rate that he misinterprets a figure by a factor of one hundred. [Yet] the most revealing moment came in June 2020, when the mild-mannered Business Secretary, argued for certain rules to be advisory rather than compulsory. At this stage, Covid circulation had plummeted – deaths had fallen by 93 per cent from the peak: “Why is she against controlling the virus”, the minister complains. She is motivated by pure Conservative ideology! The Cabinet Secretary retorts [i.e., she is libertarian].

“The Lockdown Files include thousands of attachments sent between ministers. When I first came across them, I hoped to find high-quality top-level secret briefings. Instead, ministers were sharing newspaper articles and graphs found on social media. The quality of this information was often poor, sometimes abysmal”.

The ‘Lockdown Files’ – as published in the UK by The Telegraph – expose a toxic culture where any minister or civil servant asking “awkward” questions knew they were liable to be briefed against, sidelined or ostracised. ‘Off the boil’ Members of Parliament thought to oppose lockdowns were placed on a secret Red List, and the then Health Secretary’s aide wrote, “these guys’ re-election hinges on us: We know what they want”.

But the Files reveal something even more chilling. What was the overall public response to the publication of the files? Plainly said: It is that a majority of the people are so numbed and passive – and so in lockstep – as the state inches them through a series of repeating emergencies towards a new kind of authoritarianism, that they don’t fuss greatly, or even notice much.

To be clear, the Lockdown episode is iconic of this new schema of control effected through hegemony, ideology and tech. Autonomy for the individual – and his or her search for a life, lived with meaning – now is displaced by its opposite: The instinct to subjugate and dominate, and to impose order on an inchoate and seemingly threatening world.

The surveillance-based liberal managerial state has, as Arta Moeini has written, ballooned into “a totalistic and aspiring globe-spanning Leviathan”, fraudulently disguised in the feel-good casing of liberal democracy – the key liberational elements of which, having been long replaced by their antonyms, in an Orwellian inversion.

To be clear: All the excesses of state power that occurred in the UK during the pandemic were permitted within the realms of the Western political system. The state may at any time suspend the rule of law for what it deems the greater good. The pandemic merely exposed the workings in extremis of liberal democracy – channelling Carl Schmitt’s notion of a “state of exception” being the source-code to state ‘sovereignty’ over the populace.

In this ethical vacuum, and with the capsize of societal meaning, western politicians can only snipe coarsely at one-another, Lord of the Rings-style, whilst hoping to surf whatever ‘the narrative’ and the media ‘play’ of the day can ‘up their level’ in the power matrix. To be blunt, in its lack of any deeper guiding principle, it is purely sociopathic.

However, in pushing the pendulum of the liberal schema so hard over towards the hegemony extremity, it has caused the other end to the spectrum of the overall liberal schema to catch fire: The demand to respect individual autonomy and freedom of expression. This antithesis is particularly apparent in the U.S.

Liberalism was conceived during the early French Revolution as a project of systemic liberation from oppressive social hierarchies, religion and cultural norms of the past, so that a new order of liberated individualism could come into being. Rousseau saw it as a radical clean break from the past – a disembedding of the individual from family, church and cultural norms, so that he or she could better evolve as a unitary component to a redeemed universal governance.

This was the meaning to liberalism in its early phase. However, the subsequent Reign of Terror and mass executions under the Jacobins signaled the schizophrenic connection between ‘liberation’ and the desire to force compliance on society. The persistent appeal of violent revolution versus imposed (Utopian) ‘redemption of humanity marks the two oppositional poles to the western psyche which today is being ‘resolved’ through the tilt to ‘hegemony’.

This inherent tension between the radical liberation of the individual and a conformist ‘world order’ was to be resolved via ‘new universal values’: Diversity, gender and equity – plus restitution awarded to the victims for earlier discrimination suffered. This ‘liquid modernity’ was thought to be ‘globally neutral’ (in a way that Enlightenment values were not), and therefore could underpin the western-led World Order.

The contradiction inherent to this was too evident: The Rest of World sees the ‘liberal’ order as an-all-too obvious device to prolong western power. They refuse its ‘missionary’ underside (this aspect was never present outside the Judeo-Christian Sphere), and the claim that the West should determine what values (whether Enlightenment or Woke) by which we all must live.

The non-West observes rather, a weakened West and no longer feels the need to offer fealty to a global ‘overlord’. The meta cycle of enforced westification (from Petrine Russia, Turkey, Egypt – and Iran) is over.

Its mystique, its thrall is gone, and though lockdown compliance in the UK (and Europe) was indeed achieved through ‘project fear’, the success came at the expense of public trust. To be plain: the authority of Authority in the West increasingly is distrusted – at home, as overseas.

The crisis of liberalism’ contradictions and waning authority deepens.

Carl Schmitt’s other two mantras were firstly, to keep power: ‘Use it’ (or lose it); and secondly, configure an ‘enemy’ as polarising and as ‘dark’ as possible in order to keep power – and to keep the masses fearful and compliant.

Hence, we have seen Biden – lacking an alternative – resorting to radical Manichaeism to bolster Authority against his domestic opponents in the U.S. (ironically casting them as enemies of ‘democracy’), whilst using the Ukraine war as the tool by which to cast the West’s war on Russia too, as an epic struggle between the Light and Dark. These Manichean ideological source-codes for now, dominate western liberalism.

But the West has put itself into a trap: ‘Going Manichean’ puts the West into an ideological straight-jacket. It is a crisis of the West’s own making. Put bluntly, Manichaeism is the antithesis to any negotiated solution, or off-ramp. Carl Schmitt was clear on this point: the intent of conjuring up the blackest of enmities, precisely was to preclude (liberal) negotiation: How could ‘virtue’ strike a bargain with ‘evil’?

The West is too dysfunctional and weak now to fight on all fronts. Yet there can be no retreat (without some de-legitimising humiliation of the West).

The West has gambled all on its fear-led, ‘emergency-crisis’ managed ‘control’ system to save itself. It’s hopes now are pinned on its ‘Beware! The big boss has gone angry-mad’ act; he might do anything’, which it hopes will cause the world to back-off.

But the Rest of World is not backing off – it is becoming more assertive.

Fewer believe what the western Élites say; fewer still trust their competence. The West has recklessly ‘placed its bet’; it may lose all.

Or, more dangerously, in a fit of anger, it may kick over others’ gaming tables.

Raquel Welch distracts soldiers in 1969’s 100 Rifles

https://youtu.be/tcyVLMfsZ_4

“Memes of the Floating World”: Artist Recreates Favorite Memes In Japanese Print Styles

According to an artist: “It started as a Christmas gift to my wife, who loves the “Woman Yelling at Cat” meme, and has unfolded into an art project called “Memes of the Floating World.” In this strange dream world, classic Japanese woodblock print art and legends mash up with memes, dead and living, and internet lore from the past and present.

I don’t know where this project will take us next, but it’s sure to be at least a little bit dank. Official art prints are available only at Society6, so make sure you can bring the weirdness into your home. Thank you for taking a look!”

More: Memes of the Floating World, Instagram, Society6 h/t: boredpanda

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Avocado, Bacon and Ranch
Grilled Cheese Sandwiches

Ingredients

8 bacon slices
1/4 cup Ranch dressing
8 slices white or wheat bread
4 (1 ounce) slices Cheddar cheese
4 (1 ounce) slices Provolone cheese
1 large avocado, peeled, pitted and cut into 8 slices

Instructions

Prepare bacon according to package directions then drain and set aside.
Spread each slice of bread with 1/2 tablespoon of dressing. Top 4 of the bread slices with 1 slice of Cheddar cheese and 4 of the bread slices with 1 slice of Provolone. Top each Cheddar slice with 2 bacon slices and 2 avocado slices.
In a hot nonstick skillet coated with cooking spray, cook the bread slices cheese side-up, over medium heat, until browned, about 4 to 7 minutes.
Press Provolone-topped bread slices and Cheddar-topped slices together.
Cut in half on the diagonal.
Serve immediately.

Do you think China will be thrown out into the cold by all Western countries?

China thrown out into the cold? I think the risk is more serious that the Western countries will be thrown out into the cold by the rest of the world, if things continue developing in the way as they do today. China is bigger than the whole west put together. And the forming camp that includes pretty much everyone else outside North America, Western and Central Europe, ANZ, Japan and S. Korea who aren’t interested at all in taking part in US-led sanctions, ideological, moral and cultural crusades is actually 80% of the world. The world is a very different place than a couple of decades ago…

The below graphic shows the most important trading partners by country in 2000 and in 2020…

main qimg 93810b9e0f3e81bc76d0a18241290881

The US and the Western Allies would do much better if they wouldn’t push the rest of the world together into an anti-western coalition

EDIT: Following up on the comments about China being only a wobbly economy that is merely based on low cost manufacturing of poor quality “stuff”, and that is supposedly still very far behind the US and the west. I thought I would share a couple of interesting articles from the London-based The Guardian newspaper that will help to bust a few of these myths. I think it’s important that we don’t put our heads in the sand and have a clear picture about the reality

Statue of Kali

Why do people in the US see people who don’t own cars and use public transit as poor and low class?

I’m from the US. I live in a part of the country that does not have public transit. We don’t even have Uber yet if that tells you anything. To live in my town you need a car. Plain and simple. You can’t even get a job here unless you have a car or someone with a car who will bring you to work. It’s literally a question on applications: do you have reliable transportation? If your answer is no, forget working there. We don’t have grocery delivery unless you use Amazon. (Well, my grocery store will deliver to me, but it’s not something they advertise to the general public.) And the way that the town is laid out, you can not just walk to the store, the doctors office, your job, or anywhere really.

That being said, some parts of the US like New York City, do have public transit. It’s in need of updating and some pictures of it make me seriously question the cleanliness of it, but it exists. And I’ve never assumed that only poor or low class people use it!

I went to Singapore last year. In Singapore it is painfully expensive to put a car on the road. It’s not like paying US $20 here for a drivers license. No, you won’t put a car on the road in Singapore without a significant expense. But fret not, because Singapore has an extensive, modern, clean, and efficient public transit system. Bus lines and MRT will take you most anywhere you want to go, and you can easily find a taxi or a Grab driver.

I certainly don’t think people in Singapore using public transit are poor or low class! Far from it, even actor Chow Yun Fat who married a Singaporean woman, uses it. It’s convenient and affordable.

China is another country with efficient public transit in many locations. They have high speed trains and were one of the first in the world to use them. I don’t think people in China are poor or low class for using public transport.

What we should remember is that many countries have the infrastructure to support public transit, making car ownership an option rather than a necessity. Perhaps one day the U.S. will realize that they should invest in better infrastructure, making car ownership unnecessary for us as well.

Harryhausen100 tribute H264

The Mad Scientists of Mammoth Falls

I am more than a bit “burnt out” on all the Geo-political bullshit. When I read an article about “containing China”, and how “America is roaring back” I just exit the browser tab. I’ve have enough. I am “toast”.

America is so full-on crazy right now, and they treat us “citizens” as slaves, and dumbed down nincompoops. It’s just an insult to see what constitutes “news” these days.

Instead, what I want to do do is relive a simpler time when I was a boy. And for me, that meant chilling out with my dog, and my cat in my tree house. It meant riding all over town and going on “hikes” and all-day-long “bike rides” and exploring old abandoned bridges, trestles, tunnels, and long abandoned rural homes. It meant lazying around eating home-made sandwiches, and sprawling out upon the couch as I read one of my hundreds of boyhood paperback books.

And one of the books that I loved then, and still love today, is the “Mad Scientist’s Club” series of short stories.

I still remember the book fair as one of the highlights of my elementary school year. For a half hour or so the teacher would take us down the long hall to the multipurpose room. I lived in rural Western Pennsylvania, and my school was too small to have a separate gym. Though it did have a basement cafeteria and a library on the nearby High School. There, in the gym where table after table had been set up with stacks of books arranged by interest and age level.

I loved books as a kid and I always looked forward to the event.

As a boy, I used to hang out in the tree house with my cat and read. But other times my friends would come up and we would read comic books together, and do other things that kids are forbidden to do.

Some of the books I purchased there would shape my reading habits for the rest of my life. I still remember taking the two dollars my mom gave me for the fair and investing it in Chariots of the Gods. It was astounding to me, and I found it impossible to put down.

Since then I have collected a small mountain of paperbacks. With science fiction and history being my favorites. I also had some war literature, some “how to” books, and Marmaduke comics paperbacks.

Another book fair introduced me to yet another author: Bertrand R. Brinley.

Few of you will recognize his name, though some will fondly remember series he authored: The Mad Scientists’ Club (referred to as MSC among fans).

His initial work consisted of two volumes of short stories and a novel. A second novel written by Brinley but not really published until after his death completes the set. In my opinion his stories rank as one of the best young people’s reading series ever created.

I mean…

…the BEST.

Dinky Poore didn't really mean to start the story about the huge sea monster in Strawberry Lake. He was only telling a fib because he had to have an excuse for getting home late for supper. So he told his folks he'd been running around the lake trying to get a closer look at a huge, snakelike thing he'd seen in the water, and the first thing he knew he was too far from home to get back in time.

His mother and father greeted the tale with some skepticism. But Dinky's two sisters were more impressionable, and that's how the story really got out. They kept pestering him for so many details about the monster that he had to invent a fantastic tale to satisfy them.

That's one of the troubles with a lie. You've got to keep adding to it to make it believable to people.

It didn't take long for the story to get around town, and pretty soon Dinky Poore was a celebrity in Mammoth Falls. He even had his picture in the paper, together with an "artists conception" of the thing he'd seen. It was gruesome-looking -- something like a dinosaur, but with a scaly, saw-toothed back like a dragon. Dinky was never short on imagination, and he was able to give the artist plenty of details.

It was the artists' sketch in the newspaper that got Henry Mulligan all excited. Henry is First Vice President and also Chief of Research for the Mad Scientists' Club and is noted for his brainstorms. Neither Henry nor anyone else in the club actually believed Dinky had seen a real monster, but we were all willing to play along with the gag -- especially when Henry suggested that we could build a monster just like the one shown in the newspaper ...

Bertrand R. Brinley

Bertrand Brinley was born in Hudson, New York, in 1917. As a child he moved with his family from place to place, eventually living in West Newbury, Massachusetts as a teenager where he graduated from the local high school.

West Newbury, Massachusetts. Small town America.

He worked at Lockheed Aircraft Corporation in California as a systems analyst during the early years of World War II and joined the army in 1944. His tour with the army allowed him to see much of the world.

He left the army for a short time, then reentered it during the Korean War.

Much of his work with the army involved public relations and in the late 50’s, right after the Sputnik launch, he was put in charge of a program to instruct amateur rocketeers in safety.

This lead to his first book published in 1960, Rocket Manual for Amateurs.

This book taught young boys, and maybe High School teenagers, how to make their own rockets from scratch. Not just the shape; nose cones, and fins, but also how to make solid rocket propellant motors, firing systems, and parachute escape and retrieval devices.

Sigh.

You would never see that today.

This is ancient history – even to me – but the launch of Sputnik by the Soviet Union in 1957 sent the United States into a crisis.

The successful orbiting of a satellite by America’s rival after the failure of several of our own rockets created the impression of a scientific gap between the two countries.

In 1958 the U.S. would orbit its own satellite, Vanguard, but by then the idea that America was behind the USSR in science and technology was firmly planted in the public’s mind.

To close this supposed “gap,” money was poured into education for the next decade or so. Not just funding for schools, and extra courses, but real STEM courses for everyone.

Everyone, all over America, were training to be engineers, designers, and scientists.

The introduction of new curriculum – such as the so-called New Math designed to promote engineering and science-was common. While it is doubtful that New Math really turned ten-year-olds into rocket engineers, it is indisputable that these events had Americans thinking about science and technology.

Elementary textbooks for fourth through six grade doesn’t resemble anything being taught in America today.

It was in this atmosphere that Brinley conceived his stories.

In 1961 the first of Brinley’s tales was published in Boy’s Life. Boy’s Life was, and remains, the official magazine of the Boy Scouts.

The story, The Strange Sea Monster of Strawberry Lake, told of a group of small-town teenagers whose genius for technology gets them both into and out of trouble when they build a fake sea serpent.

The story of the club was continued in two more stories that year in Boy’s Life. In 1965 the first seven of the short stories were gathered into book form and published under the title The Mad Scientists Club. It was a paperback copy of this I came across and purchased at a book fair several years later.

The crew in their tree-house. Plotting and scheming.

To say that I liked this book would be quite an understatement.

I read the seven tales contained in it over and over again.

Each, while involving the same characters and setting, were very different and engaging.

My personal favorite is The Secret of the Old Cannon, where the club probes the mystery of what is in the breech of a giant civil war cannon in the local park.

Mammoth Falls

A strange sea monster appears on the lake...a fortune is unearthed from an old cannon ...a valuable dinosaur egg is stolen. 

Watch out as the Mad Scientists turn Mammoth Falls upside down! 

Take seven, lively, "normal" boys -- one an inventive genius -- give them a clubhouse for cooking up ideas, an electronics lab above the town hardware store, and a good supply of Army surplus equipment, and you, dear reader, have a boyhood dream come true and a situation that bears watching. 

In the hands of an author whose own work involved technological pioneering, the proceedings are well worth undivided attention, as the boys explore every conceivable possibility for high and happy adventure in the neighborhood of Mammoth Falls. 

To the unutterable confusion of the local dignitaries -- and the unalloyed delight of Bertrand Brinley's fans -- the young heroes not only outwit their insidious rival, Harmon Muldoon, but emerge as town heroes.

The stories were told in first person by character Charlie Finckledinck (who didn’t have a last name until the first novel came out) but clearly the club’s most prominent member was the bespeckled teenager Henry Mulligan.

Henry, the group’s resident science genius, was just as likely to come up with some outlandish prank as a legitimate experiment or invention.

Other MSC members included Jeff Crocker, the president (by virtue of the club meeting in his father’s barn), Homer Snodgrass and Mortimer Dalrymple (experts in electronics and radio).

The club membership was rounded out by Freddy Mulldoon and Dinky Poore, the group’s Mutt and Jeff pair.

A couple of points about the characters: Freddy Muldoon was originally called Fatso Brown, and his cousin, the notorious Harmon Muldoon, Skinny Brown, in The Strange Sea Monster of Strawberry Lake. My father changed the names in the version that was published in Boys' Life and subsequently in The Mad Scientists' Club. Charlie Finckledinck, the narrator, did not have a last name until The Big Kerplop!

-The Mad Scientists Club

The adults of the mythical town of Mammoth Falls where the stories were set found themselves forever involved in some scheme or prank the club had thought up.

These, for example, took the forms of a fake monster in the local lake, an electronically-haunted house at the city limits and a mad balloonist in the town square.

When the boys weren’t giving Mayor Scragg, Police Chief Putney or Constable Billy Dahr problems, they often found themselves at odds with a rival gang formed by Harmon Mulldoon who had been a MSC member but had been thrown out for activity unbecoming of a scientist.

It always amazed me how the characters in the books were so clearly and finely drawn. Unfortunately Bertrand Brinley is no longer with us, but his son, Sheridan Brinley, explained how his father had come up with the characters.

Like many authors, Bertrand Brinley’s own personality found its ways into the people he created. “Henry is my father through and through,” said Sheridan. “A guy who thinks before he speaks, has an unusual perspective on things, has a vivid imagination, secretly feeds the dog at the table, is late to dinner because he is thinking about something, etc., etc.”

“Dinky Poore, I have always thought, was in part me, as I was small and skinny as a child and a bit of a whiner,” said Sheridan. “The Poore name is a family name in Westbury, Massachusetts, which is the source of a number of the names and places in the stories. For example, Billy Dahr is based on the constable in West Newbury in the ’30s. He was a bumbling sort of cop, as is Dahr.”

At least some of the events in the stories were inspired by real incidents that would have appeared in the news at the time. The accidental loss of a nuclear device off the coast of Spain in 1966 surely provided inspiration for the first novel, The Big Kerplop!, where an atomic bomb splashes into Mammoth Fall’s Strawberry Lake.

The Air Force’s Project Blue Book, which investigated UFO sightings, may have also been material for Brinley’s imagination to chew on. “The Unidentified Flying Man of Mammoth Falls was, I think, a parody of the Air Force program spending taxpayers’ dollars to trace down UFO sightings,” muses Sheridan.

“What a great joke: create a flying mannequin that makes fools of the town elders and police and scrambles the planes from the nearby Air Force base. Some of the same stuff is in The Flying Sorcerer.“

Engineers and Scientists

I’ve heard a lot of stories over the years about how the original Star Trek TV show in the 60’s influenced people to become scientists and engineers, and as a longtime Treker myself, I believe it is true.

However, I think there may quite a few people who made their career choices based on Brinley’s work. A gentleman named Mark Maxham runs a MSC tribute site and has collected some quotes from anonymous fans including this one:

I have had at least 5 copies of the Mad Scientist's Club over the years. I just gave away my only duplicate set. [...] They too were my favorites when I was younger. I am now a spacecraft flight engineer (worked with NASA controlling the Magellan Spacecraft to Venus) thanks in part to those books.

I suspect that this sentiment is widespread. There aren’t as many MSC fans around as Trekers, but those that exist seem to cherish their memories of the stories just as much as episodes of that seminal TV series.

I even suspect that my own choice of career as an Aerospace engineer hearkens back to Brinley’s tales of crazed boys tinkering around with electronics, rockets, and machinery. Sure there were many other influences. But only Brinley translated that love for gadgetry and messing around with machines that I so very love today.

Like all my books, I eventually lost my old tattered book. My best guess is that it lies at the bottom of some landfill in San Luis Obispo California.

By the way, do you know what I could use right now?

I could use a thin-crust cheese pizza with a goodly amount of salt on it. Maybe with a icy Coke. Not a beer. My doctor is telling me that my beer-drinking days are over. Beer is a “cold” food. I can only drink “warm” foods; like red wine and 53% alcohol. Sigh.

Anyways. For some reason, when I would plop myself and read these books, it was always with either sandwiches or pizza. I guess that I am just that kind of a silly guy. Eh?

What I liked about the thin crust pizza was that you could fold it up, and eat it like a gooey taco. I would plop myself down on this big sprawling 1940’s chair inherited from my grandparents, or our La-Z-boy and chill out. Smunching on a pizza, book about other kids like you, a nice breeze though the window, and a television or radio playing softly in the other room was what my boyhood was like.

Anyways, I had two books. They actually had a second volume that I had bought. It was titled The New Adventures of the Mad Scientists’ Club. I thought that it was even better than the first!

Unfortunately a novel entitled The Big Kerplop! Came out that I was unaware of, and so I never had the opportunity to read it.

Trying to get all these books has been a herculean task over the years. Not only due to the lack of availability, but also to the fact that I am in China. And obscure books in English are not readily available.

Unfortunately all of them had been out of print for many years and were almost impossible to find. This was bad news as I desperately wanted to get a hold of them for both myself and all the kids.

Purple House Press Reprints

Sheridan Brinley had been trying to get his father’s works republished for a number of years without success.

No publisher wanted to risk the money necessary to run off several thousand copies of the books no matter how ardent the small fan base might be.

Fortunately, Brinley came in contact with Purple House Press (PHP), a new publisher formed by a woman named Jill Morgan. Morgan had been locating and collecting out-of-print children books and had come to realize the cost of these original volumes were being driven through the roof.

Parents who wanted to share their favorite children’s books with their own kids were priced out of the market.This is that profit-greed based society that I always lament about. People in America do not care about society. They care about themselves; as a nation driven by psychopathic personalities, those of us with a different value system are often left out in the cold.

Morgan started contacting authors and their heirs and arranging for these works to be reprinted in small volumes. The company now has thirty-two books in its catalog including the original Mad Scientists’ Club, The New Adventures of the Mad Scientists’ Club and The Big Kerplop!

In fact for MSC fans there was perhaps an unexpected bonus from this alliance with PHP. Bertrand Brinley had written a second MSC novel, but it had never been published in the United States. After some editing, The Big Chunk of Ice – the story of the Mad Scientists entangled in a mystery in Austria – became available for readers for what was probably the first time.

I truly believe that one of the secrets of getting your kids to be great readers is not just to read to them, but to read to them stories you yourself are in love with.

The kind of excitement you radiate can’t be faked and kids pick up on it. That is one of the reasons why I am so happy to see efforts like Purple House Press succeed.

As a Rufus I’ve had the opportunity to not only share MSC stories with my kids, but my nieces and nephews as well.

From a technical point of view the stories show some signs of age – the radios, model rockets and remote controls the MSC kids used aren’t exactly cutting edge technology anymore (one can only wonder what trouble Henry and friends could get into using computers, the Internet and various wireless devices), but the stories are still great and worth sharing with a new generation.

Author’s Legacy

Bertrand Brinley died in 1994, but not without having left a significant mark in a lot of people’s lives.

I still can’t see more than two hot air balloons together without thinking of The Great Gas Bag Race.

I was ecstatic a few decades ago when I visited Fort McHenry in Baltimore and found they had a 15-inch Rodman cannon (the same one featured in The Secret of the Old Cannon).

I stood there pondering, could Homer Snodgrass really have wiggled his way down that barrel to find out what was inside?

In a way I like to think of this website, The Museum of UnNatural Mystery, as partly a tribute to Brinley’s work. I’m sure his stories inspired my interest in weird science.

I’d like to think that the halls of the museum are a place where the spirits of Henry Mulligan and Jeff Crocker, embodied into the children of today, can still find some adventure, or at least some mischief, to get into that would vex Mayor Scragg and the citizens of Mammoth Falls.

The Mad Scientist’s Club Series

The Mad Scientists’ Club – Seven Short Stories

– The Strange Sea Monster of Strawberry Lake – The club decides to shake up the town with a fake lake monster, but things go frather than they ever envisioned.

– The Big Egg – The kids find a dinosaur egg and it hatches, or does it?

– The Secret of the Old Cannon – What is hidden in an old civil war cannon up on Memorial Point?

-The Unidentified Flying Man of Mammoth Falls – A mad ballooner upsets the town’s Founder’s Day celebration.

– The Great Gas Bag Race – The club enters a balloon in the annual race and find themselves up against their old rival, Harmon Mulldoon.

– The Voice in the Chimney – The old house on Blueberry Hill is haunted, or is it just peoples’ imagination?

– Night Rescue – The club tries to rescue a downed jet pilot.

The New Adventures of the Mad Scientists’ Club – Five Short Stories

– The Telltale Transmitter – The club goes up against bank robbers.

– The Cool Cavern – The kids try to rescue Harmon’s gang from a cave in.

– Big Chief Rainmaker – The club tries to bring an end to a devastating drought.

– The Flying Sorcerer – A UFO seems to be visiting Mammoth Falls.

– The Great Confrontation – Harmon Mulldoon’s rival gang goes too far.

The Big Kerplop! – A full length novel that tells the story of the formation of the club during a scare when an atomic bomb is lost in Strawberry Lake.

The Big Chunk of Ice – A full length novel that tells the story of the club as it goes on a scientific expedition to Austria and gets entangled in the mystery of a lost diamond.

Do you want more?

You can go through the index page and explore. A lot of gems there. Have fun.

Master Index

You can start reading the articles by going HERE.
You can visit the Index Page HERE to explore by article subject.
You can also ask the author some questions. You can go HERE to find out how to go about this.
You can find out more about the author HERE.
If you have concerns or complaints, you can go HERE.
If you want to make a donation, you can go HERE.

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Posted for the record.

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Buffalo Chicken & Pepper Grilled Cheese Sandwich

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Instructions

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This reminds me of a scene from the 1960s movie “The Ugly American”.

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Statue of Kali

Why do people in the US see people who don’t own cars and use public transit as poor and low class?

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Mammoth Falls

Engineers and Scientists

Purple House Press Reprints

Author’s Legacy

The Mad Scientist’s Club Series

Do you want more?

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(Belgian Beef, Pork, Chicken Stew)

Avocado, Bacon and Ranch
Grilled Cheese Sandwiches