Once in China, I visited one of my students. he was a factory owner and we got along well. I was teaching him some English. And since my background is Engineering, we hit it off. So he came and picked my wife and I up and we spent the afternoon at his factory, had tea, and a good time.

He manufactured buttons. Particularly buttons for bluejeans.

Then came dinner, and it was nice… but… his wife really treated myself and my wife very poorly. In her mind I was “only” a teacher. Someone who you give a face-saving level of respect but who you consider to be beneath you… as they are unable to get “real work”.

She made many, perhaps ten “veiled” cut-downs, and almost-insults. Every word out of her mouth dripped with disdain. He made a big point of pointing out her nice bag, and their car, and the nice expensive restaurant. Very pretentious.

In her eyes… I was “only” a teacher.

My wife, who came from Wenzhou and who’s father was at one time a billionaire, was incensed, and vowed never to visit them again.

I mean it. NEVER. EVER.

I had a few classes with him and then cut it short, and I never saw him again. He was a good guy, and I liked him a lot. But the way his wife treated us was unforgivable.

…

People treat everyone as some one worthy. Take you time with them. Appreciate them exactly as they are.

Like in this first article…

Do you have a specific person in mind you dated who you ‘missed out’ on?

Oh, yes. I adored that man. Still do.

He didn’t have much money, but he was such a trier. He didn’t just have a good work ethic; he wanted to give something back to the world and make a difference.

I loved spending time with him doing things that cost very little or nothing—walking around the city eating street food, reading to each other, wandering into art galleries, admiring the architecture. But mostly, I liked just being with him, talking. I enjoyed being with him in silence as well. What touched me the most is how courteously he treated those with less than him. He always had change for the homeless and never treated anyone as though they meant less than he did. he had genuine class, the kind of class that you’re just born with.

I never told him any of this, and that’s how I missed out, because that’s the type of woman he was looking for.

Years later, he told me that I came across as sweet, but ultimately shallow and absurdly spoiled. A debutante with a smashing wardrobe. I really blew it when I suggested that we take a trip to Belize together—he politely declined but again, much later, told me that he found that particularly audacious. It had never occurred to me that he didn’t have the money to take a vacation abroad, because actually, I was really spoiled. It had never occurred to me that most people couldn’t afford to take international vacations.

I probably overlooked a lot of men with his qualities. They wouldn’t have been him, though. He was unique. Unforgettable.

I would do everything over differently, given the chance. But missing out on the best thing ever is the big price you pay for being young and dumb.

Who is the most feared person in New York?

This man was the most feared, and desired once upon a time

He was an airline steward who had lovers in cities all over the world. Whenever he had a layover he spent it in a bathhouse. Over 50% of the first HIV positive men either had sex with him, or someone he was intimate with. He was known as patient zero. He knew he was infected, and had the kaposi sarcoma lesions all over his taut tan body. He had unprotected sex anyway. I knew him from Christopher street in the early 80s. He left a trail of destruction across the decade

Why is it that when China finishes a new type of aircraft carrier, they immediately move on into another type of an aircraft carrier? Can the US do this? If so, why aren’t they doing it?

Because of this:

The most important plane on the Ford or Nimitz class carriers isn’t the F18 or F35.

It is this:

The E-2 Hawkeye.

There is no way to launch a 20–30-ton 10,000 HP turboprop off a carrier without catapults. And without the eye in the sky, there is no way to achieve operational parity with an American CBG.

The AEW system allows the admiral to detect threats at least 1,000 km away, and it is a prerequisite to establish air and sea superiority, if not dominance, within the sphere of sensor coverage.

And catobar was the original pursuit of the PLAN, except the program was staged, from a retrofitted foreign ski-jump cruiser, to an evolved indigenous ski-jump carrier, to a conventionally powered emals catobar flattop. The next two carriers will be a sister ship of the Fujian, conventionally powered, and China’s first nuclear powered flattop.

Welcome to parity.

What’s a rule your employer implemented that backfired terribly?

When I was in High School, I worked for my dad fixing computers. It was a great job for me as a teenager because I was making good money on commission.

When I was a senior in High School, right before I turned 18, he merged his company with one that my brother and another guy( Dave) started. My dad included me as an employee.

My dad and brother were both cool with me working service calls but Dave was a prick. Some rules that he came up with for me?

• I wanted to take some time off for a school trip. My dad said yes. During the trip I ignored pages and phone calls from Dave during that time. New rule, I had to ask Dave for permission to take time off. Went over really well when I ignored him and went on a family cruise a few months later and didn’t clear it with him.
• My niece was a baby. Dave’s sister was the receptionist/ babysitter. There was a day where I had no school and she had some place to be. My brother asked me to stay and watch my niece and answer phone calls. I decided to repair a couple of computers in the shop while babysitting my niece. I gave the invoices to my brother, who signed off on them with no issue. New Rule, If I was answering phone’s/babysitting my niece, I could not perform billable work AT ALL. Went out the window again.
• When I was employed by my dad only, we used to tag faulty parts by placing them in the box the new part came in and taping it closed with masking tape. We would the write BAD (PART NAME) (WHY PART WAS BAD) on the tape. I changed out a bad power supply and did followed the procedure. He grabbed the power supply and tried using it. New Rule, We had to use tags instead of tape because he was too dumb to realize that there was a piece of tape closing the box stating what was wrong with the part.
• Last, and for me the dumbest. I had to submit my resignation to him only. My dad and brother understood why I was resigning. I was shipping out for boot camp and I wanted to take a few weeks to pack and just relax before leaving. Just to spite him I typed up a nice resignation letter to my dad and my brother. I handed them each a copy then I looked at Dave. I told him I had two letters for him. I flipped him the bird and said “FU” My dad told me it was the funniest resignation he ever saw.

Circles

What doesn’t impress you?

I don’t care whether you come into the office at 7AM.
I don’t care what your background is.
I don’t care how hard you work.

What I care about is results, and I will do everything in my power to help you accomplish them.

When I make a new hire, we negotiate. I say, “What can you get done in the span of a year?”

Then I argue against my best interests, whether it be code or sales. “That’s a lot, are you sure?”

But in my mind, I already know what numbers I need to justify your proposed salary package.

Once we agree, you tell me what you need to be successful, and I show up for you.

9 out of 10 cases, I’ll pay for training, tools, and resources.

Then you can go meditate in the caves of the Himalayas.
Treat yourself to squid ink paellas in Barcelona.
Circle volcano rims in Costa Rica.

Or just come into the office—

As long as you meet your goals.

I won’t be looking over your shoulder. But I will expect you to come see me if you need more support. And I will make myself available to you.

The days of running adult daycare centers are over.

Here’s my advice to anyone hiring:

Agree with crystal clarity on the deliverables—

Empower your employees—

And get out of their way.

What did you assume was exaggerated until you experienced it?

The addictive abilities of prescription painkillers.

My sister was addicted to prescription painkillers. (And meth and probably other things as well.) She was so addicted that she was arrested for writing fake prescriptions and couldn’t attend my wedding because it was out of state and she was under house arrest. I figured that she and people like her were just weak-willed or depressed and looking for an escape.

I had little sympathy for people who were addicted to things that were legal. If it was really that addictive, it wouldn’t be legal, right? It’s not like it’s cocaine. They’re just painkillers.

I was wrong.

When I was 27, I pulled a muscle in my back. It was so painful that I couldn’t walk straight. I’m not entirely sure how I even made it to the doctor’s office, but as soon as I hobbled in, they said: “Pulled muscle, huh?” I suppose I had the tell-tale walk of a man who tried to lift too much without bending his knees.

Anyway, the doctor prescribed me two prescription drugs. I believe one was a muscle relaxer, and one was a painkiller.

I recognized the names as soon as he said them. I knew these were some of the things my sister was addicted to.

And within 30 minutes of getting home and taking the first pills, I could see why she was addicted to them. I didn’t judge her and anyone else who was addicted to them as “weak-willed” anymore.

I remember lying on my bed, after being in intense pain for a day, suddenly feeling great! Not just the muscle pain, but every physical and emotional pain I had seemed to disappear. The stress of work and bills and being a husband and father just went away. The bed felt like a cloud, and I felt like I was floating. I was so happy.

When the first round of pills started to wear off after a few hours, I started to get depressed. Not just because the physical pain was coming back, but because some of my emotional worries and stress started to creep back in to my mind. I started to think about how much income I would lose from taking a few days off for my back pain. I started to think about the cost of the pills. I started to think about the domestic chores I’d been neglecting during my prescription painkiller trip.

But mostly I was thinking about if it was safe to take the next round of pills yet. The doctor said every six hours, and it had only been four hours. Could my liver handle it? Did I care if it could or not?

Then it hit me: I need to stop this before it gets worse. I didn’t want to end up like my sister. I liked my stressful life just fine. I didn’t need to escape from it.

So I quit taking the prescription pills, and decided to go with over-the-counter painkillers, stretching, and patience instead.

When I got back to work after a few days, a coworker offered to buy the leftover pills from me. But I didn’t want to be “that guy.” I didn’t want ANYTHING to do with those things anymore. So I flushed them down the toilet.

But I had newfound sympathy for people who can’t quit them. I understand the attraction they have.

My sister ended up overdosing on morphine a few years later. When we cleaned out her house after her death, she had over 300 empty prescription pill bottles in her room. The worst part was that those were just the empty ones. Some of her addicted “friends” had already come into her room and got the full bottles before we got there.

The USA is nuts

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/MCXYTGu3Mp4?feature=share

Why do ALDI checkout staff always scan items at top speed with no regard for your ability to match their pace loading items into your bag or cart?

I’m a current employee of my local ALDI in America and have been there for two months. Knowing that, let me tell you this: ALDI would give big-brother a run for their money.

I work part-time on weekends and so as a result, I am almost always the primary or backup cashier because so much foot traffic is going on in the store and let me tell you; everything you do at the register is timed. They want “efficiency” and if you do not meet the standards, you will be held accountable for it.

For example, ALDI wants at the most only two seconds between transactions. When I say between transactions, I mean the time when you end one transaction and begin another. They’ll let you get away with three seconds at the store I work for but if you hit four seconds, you are failing the standards.

Every item has multiple bar codes on it so you can ring it up from almost any angle, but this also means stuff can get scanned by accident very easily. Yet they do not want any void items on the ticket. Ten voids is not acceptable in a normal day of work (eight hours, expected foot traffic on the weekend) they want to them to be around zero to three.

And lastly, the ringing speed. For a minimum standard the company demands that the cashier be able to ring 1,200 items per hour. If you can be faster, they’ll push you for it. For my part, being that I’m a part-timer, I’ve managed to ring only 1,000 items per hour. My boss tells me that I’m too slow and “will have to be held accountable for my efficiency” as per the rules of ALDI.

So if it seems like the employees are rushing, trust me, they are. But it’s literally not their fault. It’s ALDI that has the crazy expectations that they are required to meet for fear of losing their job. You wonder why they pay so well? Because the physical demands of the job are insane. If you’re not ringing things up at the 1.2k speed, you’re on the floor, pulling items, stocking shelves or crushing boxes into bales. Injury risk is high as well, hence the benefits offered. So please, speaking as a customer service worker for this business, try not to be upset at the employees for the standards the higher up sets. It’s not their fault that they have to act like that, it’s ALDI’S.

Responsibility but NO Authority

Have you ever been asked for help while off-duty as a police officer? What was the situation and what did they ask for?

Back in the early 90s, I was in a parking lot walking to a store. A woman was alone and walking about 15 yards ahead of me. Suddenly, a car pulls up next to her and a guy jumps out and grabs her by the hair to his car. She’s screaming for help as he’s yelling “Get in the car, bitch!”. She’s screaming for help as he’s spewing insults at her. She had her hands on the car pushing away as he’s trying to cram her through the driver’s door. I run up to the car yelling “police officer! STOP!” ALL of had was my wallet badge. I wasn’t carrying a gun at the time but I couldn’t let him try to abduct her. He hears me and turns around to see me holding my badge. He let’s go of her and jumps back in his car and takes off. Someone in one of the stores comes out saying they’ve called the police. I stay with the woman until the local police arrive.

The guy was the woman’s ex-boyfriend. I give the police my information and leave. I never heard anything about the situation again. That was also the day I started carrying off duty.

The purpose of life

What is the craziest arrest you have ever seen?

I was at Kohl’s with my sons and a stroller. I had my keys in the cup holder. This guy walked up and started talking to us. I thought he possibly worked there but then I realized he was just chatty. I then went to help my kids try clothes on, some of which they kept on, so I took the tags and we waited in line. Suddenly, the police stormed in and handcuffed me. My kids started crying and I was confused. I stated to them that I have the tags to all my items in my hands and I’d told the attendant lady I was doing it. I had assumed they thought I was trying to shoplift.

The police then said they didn’t care about that, they wanted to know who the man was. I was totally lost, not remembering the brief conversation with the strange man. They were very aggressively asking me questions and finally loss prevention came out with a picture and asked me “Who is this?”

I looked at the picture and told them I have no idea, he just was hitting on me or something, but I didn’t want to be outright rude, so I was polite and spoke with him a couple minutes before making it clear I wasn’t interested. The cop totally didn’t believe me and asked…

“Well then, if you don’t know him, why did he drive away in your car?”

I thought, “WHAT?!”

The cop looked a little puzzled, then said that after the man had spoken to me, I said goodbye and that he’d taken the keys from my stroller and when he went to leave, he’d shoplifted something. So when store clerks went to stop him, he assaulted loss prevention, an innocent bystander and a cop, before leading the police on a car chase where they lost him, but were currently searching for him.

After interviewing me and my kids, and then seeing that we didn’t actually arrive together, loss prevention and the police realized I wasn’t an accomplice, but actually another victim.

They gave us a ride home and then contacted me later to let me know they’d caught him but he wouldn’t tell them where my car was.

So I went to the jail and visited him hoping he’d tell me where my car was. He told me the street he’d left it on and where to find the keys- I had to go to a nearby restaurant, go to the women’s handicap stall, take the seat liners out, and I’d find the keys underneath them. This was a week later so I wasn’t sure they’d still be there, but sure enough, that’s where they were hidden. My car was just parked on a street, chillin’. The license plates had been changed with some rental car plates, but besides that, it was OK.

Kohl’s let me keep all of the items I was going to buy my kids for free, since I was humiliated and my kids were traumatized. The police were really nice after they saw that I wasn’t the guy’s friend.

Men learn

What has been your best career decision(s)?

“Sir. I’m not cut out for this. Thank you”
I stood up and walked out of the interview hall and never looked back.

“Dad I don’t want to work a job right now. I just realized that once I start working, I’ll be doing this for the next 30+ years of my life and never get the opportunity to take a break like this. I’d like to take a year off and camp and travel and bird my way across India. Once I leave for my MS, we both know I’m never coming back. This is my last chance to do this.”

Dad looked at me for a whole minute before saying “Go for it. I’ve got your back”.

Convincing mom was a whole other ball game but she eventually came around. I spent the next year of my life in National parks and sanctuaries; sometimes alone, other times with friends but most of the times leading groups of students as an instructor. After 15 years of hard slogging as a student, I finally had a break.

Taking a year off after undergrad gave me the opportunity to recuperate. It kept me away from a job which a lot of my friends described as a horrendous experience and helped me turbo-charge for what was ahead. It gave me a chance to spend time with the people I loved. It was not an easy decision. A lot of people doubted me. Most people called me crazy and arrogant. A non-trivial number of people assumed that I was lying and I had basically failed my BE and didn’t get a job. After all, which sane person passes on a job to watch birds? My dad, being the devilish prankster that he is, fueled these rumors even more to mom’s annoyance. He would go around telling people “What can I say. Nobody wants to hire him. If you have a job in your company can I send him to you?” This was the quickest way to get rid of all the concerned “well wishers”.

By the end of the year, I was mentally recharged and ready to take on whatever life had to throw at me. When I got to grad school, I was willing to push myself harder than I ever thought possible. When I started at Amazon a week after I graduated, I was completely pumped and ready to go rock this whole “job” thing because I had never actually had one before so I had a clean slate to start with.

Taking a year off gave me a chance to put things into perspective. It gave me a chance to believe in myself more than the established system. It re-affirmed my belief that you can walk the path less trodden and still make it to the other end. It will always be the best decision I will ever have made; because without it I would not have a career, merely a job.

Sometimes, the most important roads in life, are the ones you don’t take.

This is fun

What are some hacks that everyone should know?

• About 90% of heart attack occur early in the morning and it can be reduced if one takes a glass or two of water before going to bed at night. We know water is important but never knew about the special times one has to drink it.
• Put a sticker with a fake pin on your debit card. If someone tries to use it 3+ times, the atm will eat the card.
• To remove chewing gum from clothes keep the cloth in the freezer for one hour.
• Need to test a printer? A print the google homepage, it has all the colors and uses almost no ink.
• To whiten white clothes soak white clothes in hot water with a slice of lemon for 10 minutes.
• Confusing wikipedia article? Click “simple o english” on the left list of languages and it’ll whisk you to a simplified version.
• Ants problem: ants hate cucumbers. Keep the skin of cucumbers near the place where they are or at ant hole.
• If you drop an earring, ring or small screw, simply turn off the lights and look with a flashlight. They’ll light right away.
• To get pure & clean ice boil water first before placing in the freezer.
• You can clear a room full of cigarette smoke in about a minute simply by spinning a wet towel o around.
• To give a shine to your hair vinegar add one teaspoon of vinegar to hair, then wash hair.
• When you go to a zoo wear the same colors as the employees do. The animals will come right up to you.
• To make the mirror shine clean with sprite.
• You can predict your future adult height with almost 100% accuracy by doubling your height at age of two.
• To get maximum juice out of lemons soak lemons in hot water for one hour, and then juice them.
• Want to meet girls? Go outside when it’s raining with a huge umbrella and take your pick.
• To avoid smell of cabbage while cooking keep a piece of bread on the cabbage in the vessel while cooking.
• Want to know if someone has romantic feelings for you? Look at their eyes! People’s pupils expand by 45% when looking at a love interest.
• To avoid tears while cutting onions use “chew gum”
• Remove unpleasant odor in smelly shoes or gym bags by placing dry teac bags in them.
• To boil potatoes quickly skin one potato from one side only before boiling.
• To remove ink from clothes put toothpaste on the ink spots generously and let it dry completely, then wash.
• To get rid of mice or rats sprinkle black pepper in places where you find mice & rats. They will run away.
• Your personality has its own smell. People can guess characteristics of personality just by your smell, because the body emits hormones and pheromones that we can detect in sweat.

Gaps…

Why was that teacher fired during your schoolyear?

This was back in the 90s. This was in 7th grade. I had history directly after lunch, and the whole class would be waiting outside the locked classroom door by the time the teacher would show up. This guy was speed walking and sweating his ass off while apologizing. Then we get into class and take our seats. Every day he had an “educational video tape” and it was recorded on vhs from the history channel. He would put it on and then fall asleep at his desk. While sleeping one of us would go up to his desk and steal all the answers to his tests. Everybody in this class was passing with straight A’s, and we all heard he was being looked at for it, but that wasn’t the kicker. One day we were fucking around as usual and a kid decided to throw a book out the window. This teacher told him he better go outside and get the book and come right back in. We’re on the second floor and the exit is right below us, so we’re watching out the window for him to grab the book while the teacher is back at his desk not paying attention to a damn thing. The kid comes out the exit door, walks right past the book on the sidewalk, and just continues down the street until he is out of sight. Everybody is laughing but nobody wants to say why. All the tardiness with the straight A’s, even from the ones failing every other class, on top of a kid easily walking out of school and going who knows where, ended up with him being fired

The truth about life

As an older man, I tell you… this is the TRUTH.

What made you know you wanted to be a surgeon? Was it a certain moment, or a lifelong fascination?

A2A

I was NOT going to be a surgeon.

The 3rd year of medical school in the US is traditionally when students finally break out of the classroom and into the clinical arena of “rotations.” You spend a month or two on each of the mandatory specialties, learning the basics and just soaking up the experience. Everyone HAS to do internal medicine, pediatrics, psychiatry, ob-gyn and general surgery, among others.

You do have some limited say over the order of your rotations, however, so I decided to do internal medicine (what I thought I was going into) first, and surgery (which I absolutely dreaded) dead last.

One of my first patients on the internal medicine service was Mr. A, a man in his 40s with advanced liver cirrhosis. He lived in a nursing home and was readmitted to the hospital like clockwork every 2–3 weeks for worsening confusion and somnolence, termed “hepatic encephalopathy.” The liver is a “super-organ,” regulating to some degree pretty much every other organ system in the body. When the liver fails, everybody fails. Fix one thing, something else goes to shit. In Mr. A’s case, the toxic byproducts of protein digestion weren’t cleared by his liver, causing his coma. The medication to help clear the toxins from his bowel gave him spectacular diarrhea, and his blood pressure plummeted, causing his kidneys to fail. Kidneys didn’t clear the toxins they were supposed to, platelets no longer worked, and combined with the absence of clotting factors made by the liver, engorged veins backing up into the stomach ruptured and bled. The blood pressure dropped further. What’s worse— all that blood digesting in the gut, well, that was just another source of protein to fuel the hepatic encephalopathy.

I grew to dread seeing him every morning. The best I could hope to obtain was the status quo, which hardly seemed an acceptable quality of life. Still, I could make him comfortable for the most part. On the other hand, there was very little I could do for his fiancee. She was there every morning, 6 am, when I rounded, for the latest update. There were no updates. There were never any updates. I could offer little more than a hand to hold.

It was frustrating. As I progressed through my subsequent rotations, and tried to consider each as a career option with an open mind, I found myself ruminating obsessively over Mr. A and his fiancee. They needed doctors to care for them. But could I be that doctor? How long before I couldn’t take it anymore? I considered the words of a good mentor: “Being miserable doesn’t make you a better doctor.”

And then my surgery rotation rolled around. General surgery is PUNISHING. I mean, like, holy crap, man. Rounds at 4 am. Line up, present, know your facts, yes ma’am, no sir, run to the OR, operate for 12 hours. In-house call every 2–3 nights, just powering through. Eat when you can, sleep when you can. And we were still expected to pass our final at the end of the rotation. Really??? When exactly was I supposed to study?

The night before, apparently. 10 pm, nothing like the last minute, pounding Starbucks, staining entire textbooks highlighter yellow, and my pager goes off. I wasn’t on call, but it was my attending. Do I want to come in and do a case? Honestly, no, no I don’t, I want to learn this stuff and take that test and be done. But I knew better than to say that. “Yes, sir, I would love to.”

I don’t know to this day why that attending called a green 3rd year med student who wasn’t even going into surgery, to “help” him with a case. Because here’s the thing: when I got to the hospital, he had no residents waiting, no other attendings, just him and I. Oh, and a helicopter.

Yeah, so I pretty much lost my shit. I jumped in, blades whirling, and felt my head explode. Luckily, he couldn’t hear it over the motor. “Where are we going, sir?”

He smiled, and gestured for me to put on my headphones. “We’re gonna go get a liver.”

And that’s what we did. A 19 year old shooting victim donated his perfect, soft pink liver. I cradled it, let it slide into the cooler. You know, those red coolers that say “HUMAN ORGAN,” you see people grabbing and hauling ass into helicopters in the movies? Yup, that was me. I felt like sort of a badass.

And then we took it back to my home hospital.

And we put it in Mr A.

True story. 9 months after caring for him on my internal medicine rotation, I saw him next, on my surgery rotation, draped, beneath the OR lights. I didn’t even realize it was him until we finished the operation, and I went with my attending to talk with his family. His fiancee was there.

I gave her the update.

4 days later I talked to Mr A for the first time ever. His new liver let him wake-up. He left the hospital and married his fiancee. They had been engaged for 6 years.

Now, don’t get me wrong. There is no such thing as a quick fix. He still required a lot of help from my internist colleagues to keep that liver working. But he got BETTER. Like, astronomically better. Literally overnight. Surgery was a big part of that. I was a big part of that surgery.

And that’s why I’m a surgeon.

(Also, because I passed that final with honors. That helped.)

Athenian Salad (Salata Athenas)

Ingredients

• 1 medium head lettuce
• 1 bunch romaine
• 10 radishes, sliced
• 1 medium cucumber, sliced
• 6 scallions (with tops), cut into 1/2-inch pieces
• 1/2 cup olive or vegetable oil
• 1/3 cup wine vinegar
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano leaves
• 24 Greek or ripe green olives
• 1/4 cup crumbled feta cheese
• 1 (2 ounce) can rolled anchovies with capers, drained

Instructions

1. Tear lettuce and romaine into bite-size pieces. Place lettuce, romaine, radishes, cucumber and scallions in large plastic bag. Close bag tightly and refrigerate. Shake oil, vinegar, salt and oregano in tightly covered jar; refrigerate.
2. Just before serving, shake dressing. Add dressing and olives to vegetables in bag. Close bag tightly and shake until ingredients are well coated. Pour salad into large bowl; top with cheese and anchovies.

Yields 8 servings.

Side gigs

Braised Chicken in Aromatic Tomato
Sauce (Pastitsatha)

This dish is one that evolved from Corfu to stretch scant supplies of meat. Consisting of chicken, turkey, beef or veal braised in tomato sauce fragrant with spices, it is served over thick tubular pasta from Corfu called “perciatellli” (if you can’t find it, use spaghetti). Kefalotyri is a nutty tasting hard cheese similar to Parmesan. It is available at Greek markets.

Ingredients

• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 1 (3 pound) chicken, cut into 8 pieces
• 3 cups chopped red onions
• 6 whole allspice
• 1 cinnamon stick
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1 teaspoon paprika
• 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
• Pinch cayenne pepper
• 1 (28 ounce) can whole Italian-style tomatoes, drained, juices reserved, tomatoes chopped
• 1 cup water
• 2 tablespoon (or more) red wine vinegar
• 2 tablespoon tomato paste
• Pinch of granulated sugar
• 12 ounces perciatelli pasta or spaghetti
• Freshly grated kefalotyri cheese or Parmesan cheese

Instructions

1. Heat oil in heavy large Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Add chicken in batches and cook until brown on all sides, about 8 minutes per batch.
2. Place chicken on platter. Add onions to Dutch oven; sauté until tender, about 5 minutes. Add spices; stir until fragrant, about 1 minute. Stir in tomatoes and their juices and water. Return chicken to Dutch oven. Cover; simmer over medium-low heat until chicken is very tender, about 35 minutes.
3. Transfer chicken to platter. Tent with foil. Add 2 tablespoons vinegar, tomato paste and sugar to Dutch oven. Simmer until thickened to sauce consistency, stirring occasionally, about 10 minutes. Season with salt, pepper and more vinegar, if desired. Remove from heat. Cover to keep warm.
4. Cook pasta in large pot of boiling salted water until tender but still firm to bite. Drain. Transfer pasta to platter. Top with chicken, sauce and cheese.

DO NOT Pay On The FIRST DATE! (300 IQ STRATEGY)

China and Russia test ‘hack-proof’ quantum communication link for Brics countries

• •Scientists in Russia and China establish quantum communication encrypted with the help of secure keys transmitted by Mozi satellite
• •‘All countries that are interested in technological leadership know that without quantum technology they won’t succeed’: quantum researcher

Scientists in Russia and China have established quantum communication encrypted with the help of secure keys transmitted by China’s quantum satellite, showing that a Brics quantum communication network may be technically feasible.

The scientists were able to span 3,800km (2,360 miles) between a ground station close to Moscow and another near Urumqi in China’s western Xinjiang region to send two encoded images secured by quantum keys.

The first “full cycle” quantum communication test between the two countries was successfully conducted last year, said Alexey Fedorov, of Russia’s National University of Science and Technology (MISIS) and the Russian Quantum Centre (RQC), Russia’s leading institution in charge of creating a quantum computer, on December 14.

Bridging the vast distance is possible with the help of China’s quantum satellite Mozi, which has opened pathways to develop national and international quantum communication networks.

With the advent of advanced supercomputers and quantum computing, there were now more avenues for information systems to be attacked, the researchers at RQC, Moscow-based QSpace Technologies and MISIS University wrote in a paper published on the open-access online archive arxiv.org in October.

Quantum communication – a form of quantum physics-based information transfer that uses cryptography to encode data in single photons – offers a way to transfer information that hackers cannot eavesdrop on, according to the paper.

Encrypted data is transferred in the form of ones and zeros along with a quantum key that is used to decrypt the data.

Quantum keys, or strings of random bits, “are secret parameters that we use to encode useful information”, making it inaccessible to unauthorised individuals, Fedorov said.

Using quantum key distribution can allow for security that was “guaranteed by the law of physics”, the researchers wrote in their paper.

While there has been major progress in the development of quantum key distribution, ground-based transfer at reasonable speeds using optical fibre cables is limited to around 1,000km because of a loss of photons over long distances, according to the paper.

With this limitation, researchers in different countries and continents, or even on opposite sides of Russia, could not effectively transfer quantum keys, Fedorov said.

To overcome this hurdle, China launched Mozi, the world’s first quantum communication satellite in 2016, to begin long-distance quantum transmission.

Using the satellite, China has been able to develop a national quantum network of ground stations spanning thousands of kilometres.

In 2020, the Russian team began working with the Mozi team, who helped them set up systems to begin conducting experiments with the satellite, Fedorov said.

A ground station was set up at the Zvenigorod observatory just outside Moscow, equipped with telescopes and cameras to track the satellite. Various experiments were conducted between the Zvenigorod ground station and China’s Nanshan ground station near Urumqi, the paper said.

On March 1 last year, a full quantum communication experiment was conducted between the two stations.

A secret key was distributed between Zvenigorod and Mozi, which orbited between 600km and 1,100km above the ground station. Once the Chinese side received the shared key from the satellite, a secret key was established between two stations nearly 4,000km apart, the paper said.

Two coded messages were transferred between the teams that were decrypted with the help of two keys – a quote from Chinese philosopher Mozi and an equation from the late Soviet physicist Lev Landau – according to the team.

It was the first successful full-cycle quantum communication experiment between China and Russia. Fedorov said a secure quantum call had been established in 2017 between Austria and China using Mozi.

The paper released by the Russian team in October highlighted a major aspect of their research with Mozi and quantum key distribution.

To transfer quantum keys between long-distance ground stations, both stations must have detectors that pick up signals from a satellite. These devices “are not always working ideally”, Fedorov said.

Slight differences in the detectors could leave the system open to potential security attacks, he said.

The researchers said this detection efficiency mismatch was not taken into account in the decoy state quantum protocol – which is the most widely used quantum key distribution protocol. To further improve the security of the system, the team modified the security analysis protocol to take the mismatch into account.

“Our results pave the way to the considerations of realistic imperfection of the QKD [quantum key distribution] systems, which are important in the context of their practical security,” the paper said.

We live in an information age, where a lot of what we do “is tied to protected information”, making quantum keys a “useful tool” to protect strategic and sensitive information, Fedorov said.

While quantum communications networks could have many uses, Fedorov said that for now quantum systems would ideally be suited to scientific research, with more research needed before the technology could be commercialised.

He said the finance sector was interested in quantum technology, with banks storing “a massive amount of critical, important information”.

In July, Russian President Vladimir Putin told the Future Technologies Forum in Moscow he planned to develop Russia into an economy where quantum technology had an important role in digital infrastructure.

Russia has also proposed a joint effort to advance future technologies with fellow Brics nations Brazil, India, China and South Africa that would include quantum-based efforts.

“Technically, it’s absolutely possible” to build a quantum communication network between the Brics nations, Fedorov said.

But while there was “scientific, technical and commercial potential for these kinds of systems”, a unifying project was needed to push development forward, he said.

There would also need to be shared standards between nations regarding the exchange of data and safety measures.

Fedorov said that to commercialise quantum networks, development was heading towards expanding infrastructure through launching mini quantum satellites and building ground stations, along with forging protocols to exchange information.

In June, Russia released its own quantum microsatellite prototype, and had begun experimenting with the aim of launching its own quantum satellite, according to Fedorov.

The team hoped to develop its own quantum technology to become a resource to help other nations conduct quantum experiments as China had helped the Russians, he said.

Beyond quantum communication, countries across the world are researching various technologies, including quantum computing, which the Russian team would soon use to solve minor tasks.

“All countries that are interested in technological leadership know that without quantum technology they won’t succeed,” Fedorov said.

Sandlerverse

“A man and a woman had been married for more than 60 years.

They had shared everything. They had kept no secrets from each other except that the little old woman had a shoe box in the top of her closet that she had cautioned her husband never to open or ask her about.

For all of these years, he had never thought about the box, but one day the little old woman got very sick and the doctor said she would not recover. In trying to sort out their affairs, the little old man took down the shoe box and took it to his wife’s bedside.

She agreed that it was time that he should know what was in the box. When he opened it, he found two crocheted dolls and a stack of money totaling $95,000. He asked her about the contents.

“When we were to be married,” she said, “my grandmother told me the secret of a happy marriage was to never argue. She told me that if I ever got angry with you, I should just keep quiet and crochet a doll.”

The little old man was so moved; he had to fight back tears. Only two precious dolls were in the box. She had only been angry with him two times in all those years of living and loving. He almost burst with happiness.

“Honey,” he said “that explains the doll, but what about all of this money? Where did it come from?”

“Oh, that?” she said. “That’s the money I made from selling the dolls.””

Caught

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/MmHyYG0eZuk?feature=share

I purchased a house 2 years ago, but now I cannot afford my house due to an income drop. Should I sell?

Do not sell. You have already paid for two years. First contact your lender and ask for them to pause your loan for 3 months. Then for three months you will have no payment (time to save as much money as possible). Use that time to get your income level back up to where you need it to make the house payment. Look for a new job or another part time job. If you have a good car, do a delivery job like Uber or Door Dash. Eliminate any monthly paid services like movie channels, even internet. Just keep the electric, water, gas, and trash. NEVER eat any place that is NOT your house – unless it’s like free food at work. Fast food, Starbucks, restaurants, and eating outside the house is what breaks people. If you go to Costco you can get a whole chicken for $5 and you can get 12 croissants for $6. You can also get 50 little bags of chips for $13. You can get a case of 35 cans of Coke for $25 (one can a day for a month). A chicken sandwich on a croissant with a bag of chips and a Coke sounds like a good lunch. You spent $50 but you got 12 lunches and maybe more lunches and you still have lots of chips and cans of Coke for the rest of the month. Fast food restaurants will cost you about $15 for one lunch (sometimes more). So you decide 3 lunches at fast food or 12–15 lunches at home for the same price. Stay hungry, only eat when you must and drink a big glass of water before you eat. Potatoes are only $1 per pound and they are the most filling food you can eat. I remember in college, I always bought a big jar of peanut butter and jelly. A PB&J sandwich will really save you from throwing your money away on fast food and the PB&J goes great with the chips. Eating at home costs 1/10th the price of eating outside the home. If you cut down all your outgoing money and get more incoming money, you should have the ability to save your house. Renting might just be more than your house payment. Consider renting out one of the bedrooms. If you rent out the master bedroom you’ll get more money than one of the other bedrooms. Maybe a neighbor will want to rent a parking space at your house or rent your garage for storing their stuff. If your house has a lot of land, maybe someone will want to rent some space to park their RV until they need to travel. Look at the items you own, that item that you have not used for over a year – sell it on eBay. Have a garage sale to get rid of old clothing you no longer wear, old shoes, old dishes, old knifes and forks. Sell those collections and sell anything you can to keep your house. Your house is the most important investment most people make during their entire life. Don’t let this house slip out of your hands because when this happens most people never get another house. Use the least amount of heat and lighting as you can. More blankets. But no space or plug in heaters and NO CANDLES (they cause house fires and insurance doesn’t cover that). If you are not in the room turn off the LED lights, television, radio, etc. I didn’t own a television until I was in my 30’s. If you are spending all you free time trying to make money and spending almost nothing to live, you can save your house. You will be successful, you can do it. Stay hungry get out there and make some money however you can. You can do it! I believe in you! If you found my post interesting or helpful, please upvote, share, and follow. Thank you!

I lived in all these places

What is it like to grow up in a criminal family? How does it shape someone and their future?

I hated it. It’s an awful way for a child to grow up. I know that my brothers hated it too, but eventually my oldest brother went into “the business,” went to jail a couple times, got out, now he’s currently in jail again. My other brother and I both ran away from home once we were old enough and we don’t talk to the rest of our family much now.

First, some background: most “criminal families” aren’t like the mafia. It’s not a glamorous life. It is not like the Sopranos or the Godfather. It is not dark wood paneling and fine liquor. Every time I hear one of my sheltered school friends talk about organized crime or something it makes me want to puke. People go into crime because they are poor and they don’t know any better. They are not good people and they often don’t have a good sense of basic right and wrong. This means they are unlikely to be good parents. You know those pictures you see every so often on the internet with some woman turning a trick and her baby is in the background? That was how I grew up, but with drugs and guns and stabbing instruments lying around like toys. When my brothers and I were growing up, we constantly had strange people coming and going from our house at all hours, often engaging in loud altercations with both my mom and dad (I suppose I should give thanks that my parents were “together?”) inside the house or outside on the front lawn. Drugs and paraphernalia and firearms were pretty much everywhere. It’s fortunate that the trigger pull needed to set off a handgun is more than a small child can muster, at least until he or she is old enough to understand that guns kill people for real, and that yes, once when one of daddy’s friends was carried back to the house screaming and bleeding and couldn’t be taken to the hospital that that was because someone shot a gun at him! That’s how I learned about firearms safety – my mom just matter-of-factly said to my brothers and me, “That’s what happens when you point a gun at someone and pull the trigger” while stubbing out her cigarette watching my father and his gang try to staunch the bleeding and perform first aid. We did not play with the guns on the table after that. By the way, first aid is something you learn pretty early on, by the way, because there are a lot of ways to get injured in a “criminal family.” My parents were not (too) abusive, they loved us in a strange sort of way. But there were always weapons (of the sharp variety) or a lot of times broken bottles and other broken shit left lying around that my brothers and I got good at avoiding or when we were playing, we’d use them as fake weapons which, of course, since they were real and we were stupid, typically resulted in us getting to practice the first aid techniques my dad’s friend (“Doctor” Terry) had helpfully taught us. This was entirely normal to us – loud nightly commotion, a general tenseness around the house at all times, mostly sleeping during the day unless we bothered to get up to attend school, and a lot of injuries. I know now that regular childhood is full of little injuries, but we were always around blood and getting scratched up and scraped and gouged and bruised, just because the environment was dangerous. To this day I don’t know how we survived except that we picked up the instincts that people who live with weapons and sharp objects lying casually anywhere just happen to develop. No, we did not have shoes. At least not for the kids.

Once I was old enough to understand what was going on I learned that my family – not just my mom and dad but several “uncles” and their girlfriends were a minor part of a drug distribution network. Oddly enough we kids were not conscripted to be a part of it, not until my oldest brother decided on his own he wanted into the lifestyle. It seemed like my parents were doing it mostly because it was all they knew and after we were born they tried to protect us and provide for us in the only way they knew how. Strangely we never had any police trouble (at least at the house) because I think we were pretty far from the front lines and were considered a safe house of sorts where money was counted, weapons were traded and stored (for those who don’t know, guns are considered more secure currency because they can both be traded and used for intimidation), and “product” was moved back and forth. Maybe they were doing this to keep us safe(r), I don’t know. But I do know it was still a chaotic and very scary environment to grow up in as a child.

You probably want to know how I got out of it. Unfortunately that end of the story isn’t too interesting. We had television in the house, my brother and I would watch it, and sort of see (or at least get the idea) that not everyone lived like this. Television is full of happy middle-class families. And we wanted to get out of there. So one day (daytime! when everyone is sleeping!) we grabbed one of the bundles of cash lying around, stuck it in a bag with a change of clothes and took a bus out of town. 800 miles out of town. For awhile we were worried someone would come looking for us but it didn’t happen. Eventually I did call my mom and she was angry but it was clear she was worried and just happy we were alive. We didn’t talk much more than that, she just said, “Well take care of your brother.” My brother and I live in another city now and I have completed a GED and now I go to a state school. Hope that helps clear up some misconceptions.

Manners makith man

What are the biggest lessons you have learned in the corporate world?

1. Nobody is your friend, not even the guys you eat lunch with every day
2. Nobody is indispensable. Anybody can be laid off any day.
3. Never waste time listening to management podcasts, attending town-halls or post work self-funded drink parties as they dont have any impact on your salary, promotion or job security.
4. Try to attend as many technical trainings as you can which are paid for by your employer.
5. Never send emails late night or over the weekends thinking that people will get impressed. There are already people in your team who have seen it and done it all and only fools work overtime.
6. Become awesome at the work you do. Focus on learning the latest skills applicable to your field. That will save your life when you are laid off or want to change employer.
7. Dont waste time on feedbacks or year end assessments and dont take them seriously. No matter how hard you work or the value you add, you will always be made to feel below average.
8. Fight hard to get a raise by constantly raising your compensation issue with senior managers in private meetings. No company wants to pay more and one needs to snatch his share of goodies.
9. Never share your family or any other problem/weakness with anybody at work.
10. Make a genuine effort to help others who need some help from you specific to your knowledge or skill. The cycle of Karma will enable you to get the same help when you need the same.
11. Never use capital case or offensive words in any written communication that can be used as an evidence of your unprofessional behavior and be used against you.

Their feelings

What is the fastest you wiped that smirk off your manager’s face?

I am a remote employee and I keep a company inventory, recently I completed an inventory of my stock. I received word when the higher-ups were reconciling my count that I was missing 5 high dollar items and was questioned, did I “loose” them or did I not count them, it was a significant sum, and I could have lost my job or been held financially responsible for these items. without a reasonable explanation, the boss was pissed as hell at me.

The thing was that just a few months ago, I was requested by the asset manager to send these 5 items across the country to another remote employee and I had an email with the item numbers and serial numbers along with the FedEx tracking numbers to prove they were sent and delivered. The asset manager was responsible for transferring these items into that other inventory.

I found the email and it only took me a few minutes to find it. I was off the hook and the asset manager or more likely one of his staff was in hot water now!

Hoe Phases

What did you notice during an interview that made you not want the job?

I had been job searching for quite some time at this point. I had gotten a job to come in for an interview. For this job, I had interviewed 2 other times for it, so, I was going to be interviewing for a 3rd time. In my mind, I thought, “Maybe they really liked me each time (as I qualified for the job) but they just kept getting really good candidates with more experience then me and so they would just go for the other person” Alas, I went into the interview hopeful and feeling very prepared.

I had arrived promptly for the interview, but the interviewer was extremely late. The interview was for 9am, but they didn’t call me until about 9:40am. I thought, “Maybe they just got really busy?” But, when the interviewer came out to greet me, they offered no sort of apology for being almost an hour late.

Alas, I greeted the interviewer with a smile and a firm handshake. When it was time to interview, they asked me to introduce myself and tell them a little about myself. The interviewer just looked like she was trying not to laugh for some reason. I continued the interview, and for one question, I think it was like “Tell me why we should hire you” and then she literally laughed. She busted out laughing and then tried to compose herself. I have honestly no idea why she did that. There were other interviewers in the room as well, but only she was acting like that. Weirdly enough, I ended up being offered the job, but I declined. Between the interviewer being late, laughing at my answers, and being sarcastic, it just left an “unprofessional” taste in my mouth. I really wanted the job (hence why I interviewed 3 times for it). But if that person was going to be one of my supervisors/ higher ups, I didn’t want to be apart of that company.

Illogical thought

Japan is planning to spend over $2 billion to help its country’s firms move production out of China, and 71% of Americans say US companies should pull out of China. How much does China stand to lose as they lose favor in the manufacturing sector?

China will say thank you very much for vacating valuable (and often choice) factory premises. Local companies will jump at the chance to acquire the sites, because these are often prime land with the best infrastructure and utilities.

China rolled out the red carpet for MNCs and the local government often offered the best preferentially to foreigners.

The problem with the de-shoring narrative is the utter impracticality, because it is nigh impossible to find another country with the set of conditions the mainland offers. China is no longer cheap, and competition is incredible. Factories that remain and prosper are ENABLED by the set of advantages the mainland provides.

The companies that find it attractive to relocate are chasing lower wages, and mostly unaffected by poorer skill, infrastructure and the lack of symbiotic ecosystems.

Scam alert

Jesus H. Christ

What screams “I’m upper class”?

When someone doesn’t understand how everyday mainstream culture works.

I went to college in a town with extreme wealth, but was relatively poor myself so worked at the nearby Burger King for, you know — money.

Occasionally, a wealthy type person would come in and seem totally clueless as to how a Burger King worked. The menu board was overwhelming to them. They’d order their burger “medium rare” or “well-done,” not realizing the burgers simply ran through a machine and they all came out the same.

They usually had unbranded shirts and pants that looked as if they had never been worn before.

Everything was a curiosity to them. I remember one was staring at the straw dispenser, wondering how the straw comes out. I leaned over and pressed the button and out rolled a straw. He seemed giddy about how this invention worked.

Essentially, they are space aliens on Earth for the first time.

Setting up for a crash…

We all need to be objective.

What makes you sad about people living in India?

Yesterday, I saw a young 20 year old married girl in my clinic, who was brought in by her mother in law for surgery for ‘ hole in the heart’

She was suffering from atrial septal defect (ASD) wherin you are born with a hole between two chambers of the heart. The surgical correction when done early on ( before 20–25 years) is very simply and almost risk free. But unfortunately this girl had a large hole and became very very sick. She also developed certain complications making her ASD inoperable.

She was found to have ASD at around 10 years of age but her parents did not get her treated as the stigma of heart surgery will make her ineligible for marriage. So they hid her disease and married her off. Her in laws who discovered her problem about one year back ignored it and now that she is sick, brought her for treatment. They are more concerned that she will be unable to bear children.

The poor young girl is screwed both by her parents and her husband for no fault of hers. Her parents only wanted to get rid of her while her inlaws / husband only want her as child bearing machine.Sad.

Edit: The surgery here in Hyderabad is free for poor patients in the best of private hospitals also ( Govt Aarogyasree scheme). The sad part is due to this delay the heart is irreparably damaged and it is now inoperable .

Bros… Men’s friends

What was a Christmas bonus you got from your company that made you speechless?

I still remember my first year at Campbell Soup Company in 1985. I started on Jan 2 as Assistant Manager of Accounts Payable. I was a glorified clerk who should have been eligible for overtime, but Manager in my title made me exempt.

We were not required to turn in time cards unless we missed work which I didn’t do as I was the new kid. At my six months review I received all high marks except that my boss marked me down for never working overtime. I averaged 10 to 20 hours of overtime a week.

To clue my boss in, I started turning in my time cards every week. A couple of months later the payroll clerk called me to the side and asked me if I wanted my meal money. There were several envelopes for me in the safe.

“What meal money?” I asked. She explained that anyone exempt who worked two hours past quitting time received $2 meal money. I laughed and asked her how long it had been since they had raised the amount. She said it had been that way as long as she had been there, or over 25 years.

At the end of the year, I received my first Christmas bonus, a $5 check. I had worked the year before as a part-time bookkeeper for my parents’ little dress shop and received a $50 bonus check. They paid their sales clerks a $250 bonus.

I framed my $5 check as a reminder that policies should always be reviewed and scrapped or updated as the case may be. It cost more for the company to process those tiny payments than it was worth to the recipients. If you are going to do something do it right or don’t do it at all.

Men are leaving… checking out

Have you ever met someone for the first time and got the strongest feeling that the person was bad?

When I was in college I moved into an old house that had been converted into apartments. Perfect location for me and within the first couple days I had met all the neighbors around me. All seemed normal, until the next door neighbors kid stopped by with the kid who lived across the street from us. The kid may have been 13 or 14 at the time, but he made the hair on my neck stand up. He looked like Malachi, from Children of the Corn, and that was his nick name. He never said anything to me or did anything crazy around me but I always had that spooked feeling around him. I moved a couple years later. One evening I was checking out the news and the headline that day was a body was found in a crawl space. When they showed the house and then the picture came up on the screen I was shocked to see it was the kid across the street from me. He admitted to another killing out of state a few days later. As time went on he confessed to a few more that he had killed. Before any future investigation was done, he took the easy way out via suicide in jail. He was a confirmed serial killer.

Argentina JUST *Flipped* to the US Dollar | -54% CRASH [President Milei FIRST Move!]

What is oddest crime you’ve ever heard or seen?

Back in 2011, the State of California reported that over 8.3 billion recyclable cans had been recycled that year.

This meant that California’s recycling rate was just under 100 percent; implying that nearly every single can in the state had been recycled.

Now, in an ideal world, such high recycling would be a good thing, and reflect incredible levels of environmental responsibility in California.

But unfortunately, this statistic was too good to be true.

Recycling Fraud…Surprisingly, It’s A Crime

As it turned out, California’s astonishing recycling rates were not the result of widespread environmental awareness. The real reason for this statistic was much more sinister…fraud.

Apart from Oregon, California is the only state with a container return program on the west coast. Due to financial incentive and a lack of regulation, several ‘recycling fraud rings’ popped up, defrauding the program by redeeming millions of ineligible cans.

In 2012, government officials reported that the State of California lost over $40 million every year to fraud. To combat these losses, the Justice Department created “recycling fraud units” to stop “recycling fraud rings”.

This initiative proved to be quite effective in stopping fraud. In late 2018, two Arizona men were arrested for over $16 million worth of recycling fraud. Under the guise of a trucking company, a man named Miguel Bustillos smuggled millions of cans into California for the purpose of defrauding the state government.

[1] If convicted of ‘felony recycling fraud’, Bustillos and his associated could face up to three years behind bars.

“So what are you in for?”

“Recycling fraud…”

I can’t imagine that would net you much respect in a prison setting. This whole thing just seems so surreal to me.

Footnotes

[1] 2 AZ men arrested in $16 million recycling fraud

Fucking awesome

What are three things you should cut out of your life if you are depressed?

When most people get depressed, they tend to start adding things to their life thinking that something will “make them happy”.

This isn’t how it works.

Here are 3 things you should cut out of your life when you’re depressed — based on personal experience.

1. Alcohol. Nowadays, I enjoy a beer or a glass of wine on the weekend. Maybe 2 if I’m feeling frisky. It’s become a sort of hobby — I like trying a new beer or wine to celebrate getting through a tough week of work or training. However, when I was severely depressed, I cut the stuff out completely. Alcohol tended to amplify whatever I was already feeling, meaning when I was sad, it made me really fucking sad.
2. Most romantic partners. I’ve dealt with depression on many occasions in my life. I’ve been in relationships during my depression at times, and I’ve been single during my depression at times as well. I’ve only had one partner ever who has been truly supportive during my periods of intense depression and anxiety — the one I’m with now. If a partner isn’t helpful for your mental health, it’s not that they’re bad, but the relationship will struggle.
3. Crappy diet/exercise habits. For a lot of people, there’s a dietary component to depression. For myself, I know that fried foods, too much food, and too much inactivity can set me off and send me spiraling. Unfortunately, there’s a bit of trial and error in this, but it’s relatively easy to learn to eat better. If something makes you feel bad, stop eating it.

Bad pasts

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/rkGdhaJAIL8?feature=share

Tomorrow I start school and the teachers are going to ask the good old traditional question, “Tell me your name and a fun fact about you.” What should I say?

Be careful what you say. My first day of teaching at one district was almost my last.

We were told to have the students put their name, etc on a 3 by 5 card with something about themself. One boy said he was in a gang.

Later that week we had a big meeting about Gangs. Out of thousands and thousands of students 250 were identified as Gang members. Based on my location, the kiddie candy gang.

I had taught in another district where real gang activity existed. Before that I practiced law for 30 years. I had represented one gang in court as a lawyer. I quit criminal law when I got a gang member off and two days later he murdered an 8 year old. I knew Gangs well. I said to the teacher next to me, “ Two hundred and fifty. I got one of them. At my last district there were less than 250 non gang members”. The teacher asked how I knew. I said he wrote it on his card.

The next day the admin appeared and wanted the card. I refused ( although I knew I had no legal ground) and they told me I was fired and searched my room and found it. They then told me I was not really fired.

The boy was expelled. A week later, during school hours, he drove his car into a brick wall and died. 15 years later I still mourn. I never had the chance to find out if his life could be turned around.

Anything you say or write to a teacher is subject to the admin. You have No Privacy. Say your name. Tell them you like sunshine and lollipops.

Some might say this is bad advice. I think kids are lulled into thinking they have a private relationship with a teacher. You don’t.

Really unfortunate for Argentina

What is the most outrageous thing you’ve witnessed in a plane?

Late 70s on an early Sunday afternoon flight from LAX to Toronto on a wide body. I was sitting in the middle row which had 5 across, and a hippie couple sat in front of me with only one other passenger in their row. As soon as the fasten seatbelt light went off they started to get it off, laying across the 4 seats with just a blanket over them. The flight attendant came by and looked at them and did nothing. Shortly after she came back with the pilot and another flight attendant they conferenced then left without doing anything. So I just sat there and watched them go at it for three hours, they would take a short break then go at it again in different positions. I felt sorry for the poor guy in the end seat as their legs would sometimes end up in his lap. I really think they did it for the shock value. To top it all off some guy in a robe was sitting cross legged in the middle of the aisle burning incense. The flight attendants stopped that real fast. I used to fly 200k miles a year and this by far was the most entertaining one I was ever on.

Have you ever taken the law into your own hands?

I once had my apartment broken into while I was gone. The thief harmed my dog, and they stole about $12,000 dollars worth of a certain green substance that people enjoy setting on fire for recreational purposes. I had a pretty good idea who did it, and later I was able to confirm my suspicions.

Keep in mind that I am not some big bad criminal type, but I was counting on the money from the items stolen to pay my rent, utilities, college tuition, and books. So, I made one of the worst decisions of my life, and I went over to this person’s apartment which was in the same complex as mine.

I knocked on the door. He answered.

I walked past him without saying a word, and I turned around and shut the door. I then produced a handgun that had been covered by my shirt. I looked at him, and I very calmly but sternly told him that I knew he was the one who broke into my apartment and that he had about 30 seconds to produce every last bit of what he stole.

He complied, and I placed the items into a gym bag I brought with me.

I told him that he was dead to me, and that I didn’t ever want to see him again. That I was aware that his lease was up at the end of the following month, and that I strongly suggested he not renew it. I then told him that this was for my dog, and I punched him in the nose.

I re-holstered my weapon, and I walked back to my apartment. I was incredibly calm the entire time I was there, but now I was a bit worried that he might be dumb enough to call the cops despite the fact that he had committed multiple serious felonies himself.

I decided to bring the bag and the weapon over to a friend’s apartment that was just next door, and I left it there for the rest of the day. I went back home, and just went about my day. I cooked dinner for myself and my girlfriend, and fortunately the police never showed up.

I never saw the guy again, and he apparently moved out the following month. It wasn’t the brightest thing I’ve ever done, but without the money from the items he stole I wouldn’t have been able to pay my bills or my tuition.

Now, I’m an attorney with an MBA in Finance. I wouldn’t recommend anyone else do what I did. I could have gone to prison for 10 years or more. At the time I was desperate though, and I couldn’t exactly call the cops to have them retrieve my stolen property in this case.

Desperation will make people do desperate things. Fortunately for me things worked out well. They could have easily gone badly.

Tax break

What is the oddest conversation you’ve had with a telephone scammer?

I once convinced one scammer that I was the curator of a major museum in Fort Worth and if he wanted for me to give him money so he could start a similar museum that he would have to send me a birthday present. He asked me what I wanted and told him two billfolds would do. Several weeks later the wallets, very nice ones. arrived from London. The Nigerian scanner was calling long distance. Naturally he did not know that I knew that he was trying to scam our museum. I finally told him to take a hike or I was going to call in federal law enforcement. Textless to say he was madder than hell that I scammed him. After 20 years I still use both of those expensive walkers As far as J know Jam the only potential victim that has ever scanned the scammer

Why older men want to be with younger women

What is an ethical thing that you have done that cost you little or nothing?

A few years ago I was coming out of my local bank when I saw a couple standing near their car looking a bit distressed. I approached them and asked what was wrong. The guy said his battery had died and he couldn’t get the car started. He asked if I would help to push start it.

So I got behind the car with his girlfriend and we started pushing. He popped the clutch and the engine turned over a few times but didn’t start. I told the guy this wasn’t going to work, he needed jumpercables. I only lived 5 min from the bank so I told him I would drive home to get the cables and be right back. The look on his face was a “sure buddy, never going to see you again” expression. I didn’t mind. Got into my car, drove home, got the cables from the garage and drove back.

Whem they saw me arrive they had a surprised look on their faces. I pulled my car up to his and popped the bonnet. Less then a minute later his car was running again. They were both thanking me profusely and wanted to offer me money for the help.

I told him to keep the money and “next time you see somebody needing help, spend a few minutes and help them”.

I hope they did and asked the same of the person they helped.

Didn’t you get the memo?

Why are there no stupid people in Chinese politics?

Very simple, because the stupid people in power were forcibly removed and filtered from the system continuously. Don’t get me wrong, China has statistically some of the most comedic and stupid people in the world because of its large population, they are just kept down and not allowed to harm the country.

Back then during the warlord era (軍閥時代), there was this absolute menace who shared my surname and was called Zhang Zong Chang (張宗昌) who governed the province of Shandong (山東省). He was a massive hedonist who gambled excessively and married 21 women from different countries.

During his rule, he brutally repressed workers rights (see 青島慘案), conscripted an unsustainable large military, wrote some of the most vulgar pseudo-tang poetry (despite being almost illiterate) and basically caused enormous suffering.

He was so intellectually stunted that he not only didnt know how many wives he had, but he also didnt know his own military power or finances (三不知將軍).

Zhang Zongchang once said to his subordinates: “Communism means sharing wives. Sharing wives is of course good, but communism is wrong. Things that can be taken are yours, and things that cannot be taken are not yours! Sharing wives is different. It’s okay to sleep with someone else if you can’t sleep with a woman.”

張宗昌曾對手下人說：「共產主義共產共妻，共妻當然是好的，共產就不對，東西能拿來的才是你的，不能拿來的就不是你的！共妻不一樣，你睡不到的女人和別人睡就沒錯。」

This is why the elite hate communism, and to some extent all result oriented systems. It removes their ability to loot and plunder to maintain their privileges because the playing field has been leveled.

On September 3, 1932, Zhang zongchang was assassinated on a train station using a pistol. No one picked up his body and left it to rot for three whole days. After hearing the news, all the people of Shandong province celebrated and welcomed troops from the Republic of China with open arms.

___

Modern China’s success is because “Communist” China is a meritocracy. This means that those who are given authority are those with skill and experience (or in other words, merit) and not their wealth, smooth talking skills, paramilitary criminal force or dick size. Doctors are qualified only because they pass 6 years of medical school with good grades before they can cure humans, because it involves life and death. Why shouldnt a similar filtering mechanism be installed for political leaders, who control the life and death of many?

This is reflected not only among politburo or chairman poliics, but daily life of people like me. The national pre university exam – 高考 – is based on pure grades, not race or extracurriculars or reference letters.

You gotta do what you gotta do

What’s a red flag that you ignored in a significant other, only to realize it was a big deal later?

My husband was the perfect boyfriend. Once we were married, things drastically changed. I realized it about 5 minutes we were pronounced ““husband and wife.” We got in the limo to be taken to the reception site, and 100% of his attention was on the driver. I couldn’t believe it, but let it go. I knew, however that I had just made a huge mistake. About 2 months into the marriage, when there was no more dating, dancing or flowers, I brought it up to him, and his answer was ““That part of our relationship is over.” What? Really? He then went on to tell me that he “married me,” so he “didn’t have to court” me anymore. Wow! I tried to talk to him, and explained that I fell in love with him because of the way he treated me and that I really wanted “that man back.” He looked at me and told me that that man never existed. He was right. For many years, I sought therapy, thinking there was something wrong with me because this marriage wasn’t working. My history and life made me believe that it must be my fault. I changed who I was way too many times, to the point that I don’t know who I am. The dude’s a freaking narcissist. My idea of what made a narcissist was way off point. Yeah, I’m still married to him, but I protect my heart from him. He’s caused a lot of pain, so we live as roommates, and it works.

Please don’t ask why I stayed, only people that have endured abuse would understand, and I’ve written enough already.

I just wish I wasn’t so weak and vulnerable when I met him. He knew I was the perfect mark. So if you can, and have friends and family to support you, run if you see this kind of behavior. Me? My mother and father were abusive and I had just got out of a 15 year extremely abusive relationship 5 months before I met him. So yeah, I was truly alone.

Go do something

Is currywurst considered a traditional German dish or an Americanized version of it?

Interesting story. The Currywurst was invented by Hertha Heuwer who operated a bratwurst and fast food stand in Berlin-Charlottenburg in September 1949. Hertha’s husband worked with American officers and noticed that they put huge amounts of ketchup on their steaks and told his wife.

Once, on a rainy day, when she had no custumors, Hertha cut a bratwurst in slices and played around with sauces and spices, however without much success. But the butcher Frank Friedrich who delivered bratwursts without casings to Hertha helped her to improve the sauce which finally was made up from tomato paste, bell pepper, paprika powder, spices and especially curry powder. Hence, the wurst was named Currywurst.

In the post-war era, this “exotic” version of traditional bratwurst was a huge success. Hertha’s recipe was immediately imitated by other operators of bratwurst stands and quickly Currywurst was sold all over Germany.

There are variations how to make the sauce. The simplest version is to take just commercial ketchup and curry powder. More elaborate versions use onions, fresh tomatoes and fruit to make the sauce.

The typical Berlin-style Currywurst uses a bratwurst without casing. After the war, casings were in short supply, and Frank Friedrich’s partner had developed a procedure to make sausages without casings. In other parts of Germany, however, ordinary bratwursts with casings are used for Currywurst.

The recipe is simple: Just take a bratwurst, sear or grill it, cut it into pieces and put the sauce on it. Sprinkle with curry powder. Recently, some wurst stand operators have started to add ultra-hot chili sauces. One operator in my hometown boasts that he makes “the world’s hottest Currywurst” because, for his number ten, he uses pure capsaicin. But this is a different story.

So, Currywurst is a kind of fusion. The sausage is traditional German. The curry powder came from England, with roots in Indian masala. The tomato-based sauce was inspired by American ketchup.

Doesn’t it help?

To what extent does the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) control the lives of its citizens? Is the level of control as severe as it is portrayed on paper, or is it less severe?

Well, this few information should put that matter to rest.

Birth control

Gibanica

Ingredients

Dough

• 8 cups flour
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 pint sour cream
• 2 cups milk (about), scalded
• 2 ounces yeast
• 3 egg yolks, beaten
• 1/4 pound sweet butter

Filling

• 1 1/2 pounds ground nuts
• 1 tablespoon honey
• 3 egg whites
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 cup heavy milk or cream
• 1/3 cup sweet butter

Instructions

1. Dough: Dissolve yeast in about 2 teaspoons sugar and 1/2 cup warm water; let stand until it bubbles.
2. Sift flour in large bowl and add salt and 1/2 cup sugar.
3. In another bowl beat 3 egg yolks, 1 teaspoon vanilla extract and sour cream; add yeast; add scalded milk and sweet butter which was added to the milk and cooled. Add this to the flour bowl and knead to a soft silky dough, not sticky. Let rise in a greased bowl until double in bulk. Make sure the dough is soft as it has to stretch.
4. On floured cloth roll dough to about 1/4 to 1/2 inch in thickness; stretch gently so it won’t break. Stretch oblong about 30 x 20 inches (use rolling pin if necessary) and fill with following filling.
5. Filling: Scald milk with butter.
6. In bowl add ground nuts, honey, vanilla extract, sugar and pinch of salt, then add scalded milk with butter. Mix, then add stiffly beaten egg whites. If thick, add a little more milk. Spread on dough like you would for nut roll and roll like a jellyroll (make as sweet as desired).
7. Grease roasting pan 4 to 6 inches in depth and fill pan; start at one edge of pan; make a “U” shape. Do not cut if roll is longer; turn again. Brush with milk. Prick with knife on top for air bubbles. Let stand 1 hour.
8. Bake at 350 degrees F for 1 hour.
9. Remove from oven and brush with butter. Let cool, then flop it on a cloth and place it on a rack to cool.

Source: Anne Price – Our Favorite Recipes – St. Anthony Croatian Catholic Church

What are some things that people who live in places with brutally low temperatures know, that the rest of us don’t?

Air heat pumps barely function below minus 20 C, propane gels at minus 40, that most electric cars can not be charged below minus 40. Below minus 40, you can throw water in the air, and it won’t be liquid when it hits the ground. Depending on the metal, but metals get brittle at low temperatures, and below minus 40 they can snap at a much lower pressure than normal. If you are running heavy equipment, don’t even bother to try and use it below minus 30, because something will break., and starting a cold engine is very hard, and the oil is so thick, it will take time to flow through the transmission and engine. Most likely hydraulic lines will burst, but you can snap a thick piece of steel.

Flesh freezes in minutes. A friend was working outside in minus 50, and he had to remove a mitten to adjust a crescent wrench, and he didn’t put the mitten back on while he tightened the bolt. The bolt or nut snapped, and his hand hit the aluminum tower, it split wide open, in the fleshy part between the thumb and index finger. It didn’t bleed. He had to go the hospital. He could have lost his hand if he kept working in that cold.

You always wear mitts, not gloves, gloves don’t provide enough protection.

Wolverine guard hairs dont frost up, so are used on parka fringes.

Hard liquor, vodka, rum, rye, gin freezes at about minus 34.

Delusional

What is the most condescending advice you received from someone who assumed you were poorer or less educated than them?

I’m constantly considered to be an uncouth, unwashed plebeian. Particularly at restaurants. I guess I give off that ‘air’. Wait-staff constantly try to help me with my “mistakes”.

Examples:

I order seared ahi tuna. Waiter: “Sir, I just wanted to make sure you understand that the fish is mostly raw”.

Different restaurant, I order a calamari appetizer. Waitress: “You understand those aren’t onion rings sir, right?”

Even my wife calls me “peasant” sometimes (but I admit — I married above my station — she’s awesome and a hell of a sense of humor).

It’s become the family joke. My kids make bets to see how unsophisticated some new place is going to assume I am.

It must be the way I talk. I work in IT and while I have some very high-level responsibilities (a few applications I’ve written and maintain for my corporates overlords and maintain a few server farms in two states) I’m located smack-dab in the middle of Los Angeles — and I’m the only IT guy within 100 miles. We have way too many locations in LA for *just* me. Hope that changes soon. Anyway, sometimes I need to crawl under desks and field some “try turning it off and back on” type stuff that our help desk failed to filter properly.

My boss is constantly getting feed back about me from our non-IT remote staff on how I’m a “breath of fresh air” and that I don’t make them feel like they are dumb. I use simple language to describe what I’m doing, not techno-jargon. I’m not a fan of silence, so while I’m fixing something remotely, I explain what I’m doing or I explain why I’m asking them to do something. Again, in plain English. No alphabet acronyms.

Maybe when it’s time to retire, I’ll transfer to the helpdesk…

What is it called when a boss tries to make someone’s job hard so they will quit?

It is often termed “constructive dismissal” or “creating a hostile work environment.” Legally, such behavior can be categorized as workplace harassment or bullying, involving deliberate actions with the intention of making an employee’s job challenging in the hope that they will voluntarily resign. I strongly recommend discussing the issue with your manager to understand the reasons behind their actions. Alternatively, you can reach out to the HR department, if available in your company, to address and resolve the situation. You may also suggest implementing productivity tools such as Connecteam or Trello to streamline work tasks and proactively prevent similar issues in the future.

Money on solar panels

What is the most humiliating thing that happened to you at a McDonald’s?

More horrifying than humiliating. I lost track of my 3 year old grand daughter. She was playing on the playscape. I wrongfully answered a call on my phone.

After the call, my girl was gone. I climbed. through the playscape. I checked the bathrooms. I was nuts. I started screaming. The manager came and locked the doors except the emergency exit and he had a worker standing there. I was running around screaming her name. I told them to call the police.

Everyone was looking at me like I was the worst person alive. I was. Suddenly I heard a little voice say “ Nama” I looked around and did not see her. But I heard “Nama” again and caught some movement at a table.

At the table were the two most grotesque “women” I have ever seen. I don’t think they were female nor were they trans or cross dressers. They were in horrid disguise. They had a little girl with black hair, my grand was a red head. I got closer and could tell the child had black eyebrow pencil on and dark make up smeared on.

I got closer to the table. The child said “Nama, I pay make up” The two grotesque things said nothing but were looking at the door.

I reached over and pulled the black wig off the child… and grabbed my grand daughter and ran. I ran out the emergency door setting off an alarm. I threw her in the car, seat belt be damned and took off

As I turned out of the McDs I saw a car sitting there with the engine running with only one man in it. I screeched back and saw the license plate was mudded over. So I drove. I drove for 30 minutes making sure no one was following.

Then I cried for another 30.

McDs was very cooperative but the way their cameras were set, that was the only table not seen. Evidently the two grotesque things ran out the emergency door after me.

They were clearly in disguise.

They were never identified.

Of course I was humiliated. I neglected my duty as my grand’s care giver. But humiliation was deserved and I was horrified.

I still have nightmares.

Watch the kids The call will wait!!!

Ok folks. I don’t want one more virtue mongerer to chastise me that I should have waited for the police.

Exactly who do you think was going to hold them there until the police arrived?

You think they were going to sit and have a coke until the police got there to arrest them? Do you think the McDonalds manager was going to jump in and hold them down and end up potentially liable, after they beat the crap out of the manager getting out?

Maybe I should have made a citizen’s arrest and ordered them to wait while I cuffed them with straws or ketchup packets?

What makes you think they would not have just decked me and took her back and out the door.

I was almost 70 and on chemo. I wasn’t a 30 year old cop. Such virtue mongering by people who think kidnappers just hang around to be arrested and who have clearly never been in such a situation. But they sure think they would save the day. Pathetic.

Artichoke-Parmesan Phyllo Bites

Ingredients

• 3 (6 ounce) jars marinated artichoke hearts, undrained
• 3/4 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese, divided
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 10 sheets frozen phyllo pastry, thawed

Instructions

1. Drain artichoke hearts, reserving marinade; set marinade aside.
2. Position knife blade in food processor bowl; add artichoke hearts, 1/2 cup cheese and garlic. Pulse 4 times or until artichoke hearts are finely chopped. Set aside.
3. Place 1 phyllo sheet on wax paper (keep remaining phyllo covered). Lightly brush phyllo sheet with oil portion of reserved marinade; sprinkle with 2 teaspoons of remaining cheese. Top with another phyllo sheet; brush lightly with oil portion of reserved marinade. Cut phyllo sheet in half lengthwise. Cut each half crosswise into thirds, making 6 sections, each measuring approximately 6 x 5 inches. Place a heaping teaspoon of artichoke mixture in center of each phyllo section. Gather corners of phyllo over filling, and gently twist to close. Place on a lightly greased baking sheet. Repeat procedure with remaining phyllo sheets, marinade, cheese and artichoke mixture.
4. Bake at 350 degrees F for 14 minutes or until golden.
5. Serve immediately.

Makes 30.

You don’t seem to understand

How much time does the USA need to take over China?

US failed to take over Afghanistan, failed to take over Iraq, failed to take over Vietnam. Each time the US tried with small weak countries it found that the people kept fighting them and so basically the US never controlled the population. Really expect that if the US could not take over those small countries it could succeed in a country that is almost as large as the United States in area and four times the population. It cost $7 trillion for the wars in the Middle East. Extrapolation says that it will cost 10 times as much to attempt the same with China. However, the US has a huge roadblock to overcome to invade Russia and that is that its ships cannot close on the Chinese coast without being sunk it could not land or supply units on the coast of China

US military leaders have admitted that China controls the seas within something like a 1000 kilometers of China, and every simulation of of conflict between China and the US in the region ends up with the US losing badly. Let us assume that the US can land on the coast of China, it will need a lot more men than it currently has in the military, like a factor of 40. China has 1.4 billion people while Afghanistan and Iraq had something like 40 million, and China is massive compared to those countries. Keep having your wet dreams because that is all they are.

Relaxing To Purring Cats And Cozy Fireplace for Peaceful Night 🔥 Deep Sleep, Relax, Study

This is a new one.