One day everything is fine. I shut off my computer, and go to sleep.
Next morning I wake up, grab a cup of coffee and sit at my computer, and it is “locked”. And, you know, I didn’t lock it.
Computers have different modes aside from “on” and “off”.
…
There’s “suspend“.
There’s “sleep“.
Somehow, my computer went into “Rip Van Wrinkle” mode.
…
No matter what I would do, It just wouldn’t wake up.
Speech!
Stressed me out to no end.
So…
I used another computer to download the latest version of Lunix Mint. It’s called “Virginia”. And then booted up with that ISO.
Works great.
But, when installing, I lost all of my files, and other stuff.
It took me the next two days to recover all my passwords and links and stuff. But somehow, I did manage, and now I am back up and running. Though…
- I lost all my gaming history… back to the beginning for me. Ugh.
- I lost all my pending articles, not yet uploaded. Oh well.
- I lost all my family videos and such… Sigh.
But the bulk of my system is saved and secure.
The reason… Well let me tell you…
…
Firstly, I have backups on all meetings. If my computer goes down, I have my Chief Engineer and we use his systems, and phones. So I do not rely on one meeting operating system.
Secondly, I connect my phone to my computer browser. If my computer goes down, I can sync with my phone and vice versa.
And, most importantly, thirdly… I wrote all my passwords and criticals in a book. If my electronics are locked, stolen, compromised, or whatever, I still can access the internet data.
Phew!
For once, the thing that everyone made fun of me for doing, worked out and saved me in the end!
Today…
What are the best examples of working smart versus working hard?
1. Eat the frog and start with the things that are most important.
“Crush” time is from 9 to 10 a.m.
We finish our trickiest assignments during this period and avoid bothering one other with inquiries. First thing in the morning, you should probably finish the task that you are most afraid of.
2. Make plans for tonight and tomorrow.
Making a brief list of easy tasks to complete at night will enable you to get started quickly in the morning and create a constructive momentum that will last the remainder of the day.
3. Enumerate your day’s “crucial results.”
Make a spreadsheet with your top three priorities listed for each day. This will assist you in organizing your days and ensuring that you stay focused on the most crucial things each day.
4. Modify your inner monologue.
Your drive and energy levels can be greatly enhanced by making a small change in viewpoint. Say “These are the two things I need to focus on today” rather than “I have too much to do today!”
5. Complete administrative activities during downtime.
standing in line for example at the bank, the grocery store, the elevator, etc. Bring along a book you’ve been wanting to read, some emails to get through, or some status updates to catch up on. Alternatively, just wander your thoughts and take in your surroundings.
6. 70% of the wealth is generated online, so you should too start an online business. Here join this challenge to learn how to start an online business
7. Make time for “me” at the beginning of the day:
Sort through and prioritize the accumulation of accumulated emails and social media posts from the previous night. Eliminate prompt comments and
recommendations so that others can get to work on their duties. Plan out the larger jobs. And remove the informational or unimportant content.
9. Get rid of private distractions:
Workplace productivity can also be severely hindered by personal diversions. You would quickly lose focus and waste hours doing nothing if you allowed personal distractions to interfere with your work.
10. Take a bigger stance:
Around 3 p.m., do you start to feel a bit sleepy? Get up!
Is there a decline in your posture? Get up!
It’s straightforward but efficient.
What do you think of the claim that China is far from peaking in its economic growth?
China will peak after it is 5–6 times the U.S. real GDP size of the U.S. which I suspect will be around 2075–2100 period. Why do I say 5–6 times that of the U.S. China will in real terms match China i.e. 4X USA economy around 2050–2075 period because China has 4 TIMES the population of the US.
But China won’t stop there because Chinese are generally smarter recieved better education, willing to work harder, are more industrious and learn more than US citizens hence it will not stop growing till it hit 5–6 times the US size at the minimum. So stop hallucinating China wants to catch up to the U.S. it wants to lapped the U.S. many folds.
Chinese political system is more sustainable and its infrastructure is presently miles ahead of the U.S. now. And while the Chinese are focus the U.S. will always be embroiled in conflicts after conflicts till it implodes in a mess of debts and deficits wasting resources that it barely has. I ammmetely pointing out facts that scare the shit out of you guys especially US lackeys or U.S. dogs and slaves or simply ignorant and naive brain dead Americans here in QUORA. You hate me for saying this and will prefer to be in denial. But lying to yourself is what you did for the longest time.
What will you say if an interviewer says “You have 10 minutes to impress me”?
Interviewer : You have 10 minutes to impress me. Go.
Me: If I do that, if I dazzle you within ten minutes, would I get this job?
Interviewer : Young man, I must warn you, I’m extremely hard to impress. But if you’re able to pull that off, I shall hire you on the spot.
Me: You see, that’s the problem. I’ve been working in this field for a long time. I’ve done a lot of projects with a lot of programmers. Most of these guys started out as mere acquaintances. I had no idea how good or bad at coding they were. It was only after working with them for a while that I got to know their true calibre. And one strange pattern I noticed was that the guys who I didn’t think much of in the first meeting, later proved to be some of the best collaborators. While the ones who completely floored me with their dazzling first impressions, later turned out to be complete assholes and a total pain in the ass to work with. Right now, I could throw in a bunch of complex projects I’ve done in the past, or I could tell you about the research I’ve been doing, or competitions I’ve won. Any of those would be sufficient to impress you. And as you promised, you would give me this job. But if you do that — give me this job going by whether I’m able to impress you within the first ten minutes or not, then I’m not so sure I’d still want it.
What factors contribute to the price difference of McDonald’s products between China and Europe/North America?
Your workers expect 5 times Chinese workers salary and 10 times more benefits and your rental and utilities are 5 times more expensive in the U.S. than in China. Hence a dollar in the U.S. buys you a big mac and the same dollar translated into RMB allows you to get 3 similar Big Macs. That is why your nominal GDP means shit! Everything that you pay 3 bucks in New York you pay merely a buck in Shanghai! Simply speaking your purchasing parity is a mere pittance of China.
So who do you blame? Your big mouth. You told the world you have a great Union who protects your workers income! Great your worker get paid more but your product can’t sell ! Without sales you cannot pay your staff all together.
Eggs with Peppers and Sausage
Yield: 6 servings
Ingredients
- 1 large onion, sliced
- 1 pound Italian sweet peppers or banana peppers, seeded and cut into strips
- 1/4 cup vegetable oil
- 2 large tomatoes, seeded and cut into wedges
- 1 tablespoon paprika
- 1 teaspoon sugar
- 1/2 pound fully cooked smoked sausage links, cut into thin slices
- 6 fried eggs
Instructions
- Cook onion and peppers in oil in a skillet, stirring occasionally, until tender, about 15 minutes.
- Stir in tomatoes, paprika and sugar. Cover and cook over low heat 15 minutes.
- Stir in sausage; cook uncovered until sausage is hot, about 5 minutes.
- Top with fried egg.
Women Self-Sabotage Their Dating Prospects
What smell will you never forget?
I worked in a doctor’s office, internal medicine so they did gynecological exams among other things. We used metal speculums and after each patient, the speculums would be dropped into a solution to soak. Near the end of the day, they’d all be put in the autoclave machine to sterilize them. One Friday, the nurse forgot. The speculums remained in the soaking solution all weekend and you’d think maybe it wouldn’t be that big of a deal but BOY OH BOY let me tell you….when I got to work Monday morning I saw the exterior doors were open with box fans in them, trying to help remove the most hideous and sickening odor you could imagine. It was like somebody had taken a dead body, stuffed it with expired tuna, and hid it behind the magazine rack. How ANY patients consented to be treated in there that day, I do not know.
What is the most amazing thing you overheard because people didn’t think you understood their language?
In the summer of 2015, my two sisters and I set out on a backpacking journey across Europe. We were all quite athletic: I was devoted to the gym and cycling, Mary worked hard as a waitress, and Joanne excelled in high school sports.
Despite only having basic German skills, I was somewhat fluent, thanks to my mother’s influence. Along the way, we encountered many German tourists, providing ample opportunities for interesting eavesdropping.
One particularly memorable moment took place during our first visit to a topless beach. While relaxing in our bikinis, my sisters Mary and Joanne decided to go for a swim. Nearby, two German men, whom I’ll refer to as Hans and Klaus, began discussing us.
Hans: Look at those girls. They’re cute, but…
Klaus: …they have big muscles.
Hans: Yes, they would be very pretty if it weren’t for the muscles. What’s the deal, I wonder?
Klaus: They’re American. Americans like girls with muscles.
Hans: What makes you think they’re American?
Klaus: They’re covering their breasts.
I stayed silent, but when it was my turn to enter the water, I couldn’t resist a playful gesture. I waited for them to look, then flexed my muscles, Popeye-style, and gave them a wink.
What is the pettiest thing you’ve seen a cheap person do at a restaurant?
When I was in graduate school working on my doctorate, I had a “friend” who was as cheap and as greedy as a person could be. She was one of those people who always begged for a bite, a piece, or a sip. Even if I had eaten half of my food, played around in it with my fork, or sat talking over it, she would tell the server clearing the table to leave my plate so she could eat the rest. She did this in an Indian restaurant once, and the server literally blanched and looked at me incredulously. I just shrugged as this woman proceeded to scarf down my half-eaten cucumber salad. Any time I didn’t eat everything on my plate, she’d ask if she could have it. Well, the last time we ever went out to eat was when we went to a Chinese restaurant and she decided that she wasn’t really “in the mood” for the teriyaki beef dish she had ordered and was really hankering for the shrimp fried rice I had ordered that came on a large platter with a serving spoon. Her eyes got really wide when our server brought out our food, and she saw all of that rice. She never offered to pay for half my meal even though she readily helped herself. Because I was taught that it is rude and petty to deny someone food who asks, I silently watched her heap her plate with fried rice and eat it. When the check came, she paid for her untouched meal and asked the server to wrap it up so that she could take it home and eat it at another time. There were other incidents. There was the time she went into an ice cream shop to get us ice cream while I waited outside with my dog who could not go in for obvious reasons. Moments later she came running back out with only her cone because my cone cost 30 cents more than I had given her. But eating half of my dinner and never offering to pay was the last straw and the last time I ever went anywhere with this woman.
Has Russia become the world’s most powerful country?
Let’s see
Russia is one of the most resource rich land masses in the planet
They have enough oil based on current reserves and current increase in consumption to last for 63.6 years
They have enough Gas based on current reserves and current increase in consumption to last for 118 years
They have enough of the Top 6 Industrial Raw Materials in Ore Form to last for 70.1 years
They have enough Fertile Wheat production to feed 15.6% of the World’s Population outside their own country
They have access to nearly 137 Million Metric Tonnes of Seafood which is enough to feed and export for the next 56 years.
And that’s not counting unexplored reserves
If they peg the Ruble to the value of Oil, Gas Gold and Wheat and price the same independently – their GDP would be close to $ 4.73 Billion nominal
Next the Russian Army
Russia has :-
- 548,000 Professional Soldiers
- 784,000 Active Personnel serving on Contracts
- 1.903 Million Reservists between 18–44 years old
The Russians are among the toughest hardest soldiers in the planet and among the most patriotic
Any other Nation in 1942 would have broken to the Nazis but the Russians died and died and died, hated Stalin but for Mother Russia, they found and kept dying
The Brits broke under far less stringent conditions in Singapore in 1942
Their Production Capacity is very high
Only Next to China who is an Ally
Today Russia can outproduce the ENTIRE NATO at 3:1 to 7:1 for Artillery Ammunition, Tanks, BMPs, Armored Vehicles, Drones etc
Except Fighter Aircraft
Economically Russia is one of the MOST UNDERUTILIZED NATIONS on earth
First the Tsars
Next the Early Commies Lenin and that Moron Trotsky
Then Brezhnev
Then Gorbachev
Then Yeltsin
For 150–200 years, barring a brief period when Josef Stalin and Nikita Khrushchev where in charge (1929–1966) , Russia was always suffering under Moron Leaders or Oligarchs or Indifferent people
The Russian people may love Russia but they rarely respected their Leaders
Very few people Earned the Respect of the Russian People
Stalin for one
After Stalin, only Putin has managed to earn the same level of respect
Yet Russias development has been uneven, slow because of these reasons
Plus the fact that Russia has a mere 150 Million people and couldn’t attract migrants due to harsh communism for almost a century and due to the freezing weather
So I can say Russia can NEVER be defeated in Battle and War
I can say Russia can always ensure its Economy doesn’t collapse
Russia can always survive due to so many Natural Resources
However because Russia has only 150 Million people, it cannot be the most powerful country of all time
Because Russia only grew and surged for 54 years in the last 200 years, Russia isn’t the most powerful country of all time
Still thinking it’s a Gas Station is why 450,000 People are dead and Europe is in bankrupt chaos
Family Guy as an ’80s live action family sitcom
AI is amazing.
What has being a doctor taught you about life?
When I was a paramedic I was called to a home for an unresponsive person.
As we made our way into the house a woman greeted us and she was extremely upset. She hurried us into the kitchen where we found her husband on the floor. He was in full cardiac arrest.
As we started to attempt resuscitation, we went through our normal steps. My partner would place an advanced airway while I readied the cardiac monitor and defibrillator. There would need to be an IV and medications given and we would have to breathe for him. Of course we were doing all this while maintaining CPR.
As we moved him to the cot and prepared to move to the ambulance and go to the hospital, I noticed more details about the room we were in.
It was Valentine’s Day. This husband had gotten up early and lovingly prepared breakfast for his wife. He had a vase full of roses on the kitchen table and a card with her name written on the envelope. The food was still warm on their plates. It was untouched. Everything was perfect, except this kind and considerate man was dead. Sadly, his lack of response to our efforts to restart his heart told me he was very likely to remain that way.
I’ve had to relive this particular scenario dozens of times on birthdays, Christmas and pretty much any other holiday. I have performed CPR in restaurants and at birthday parties. I guess what all this taught me about life is that, more often than not, it ends right in the middle of your plans. Large plans, life plans or, sometimes, breakfast plans.
Has anyone been fired for calling off work due to snow while everyone else still went to work?
In the annals of Western New York history, one particular individual found themselves on the receiving end of a cautionary tale during the winter of 1987. The National Weather Service had issued a dire prediction: a major storm was poised to sweep over Lake Ontario in the early hours of the morning, heralding an onslaught of snowfall that threatened to disrupt the region’s daily routines.
For those acquainted with the capricious nature of Lake Effect snow, the forecast served as a somber warning. Yet, as dawn approached, the storm’s arrival remained a matter of speculation. In Western New York, where the resilience of residents was matched only by the reluctance of employers to cancel a day’s work, the impending snowfall was met with a mixture of apprehension and resignation.
In this climate of uncertainty, our protagonist made a fateful decision. Rising at the early hour of 5:30 or 6:00, they peered outside to find a light dusting of snow. Without a second thought, they returned to the warmth of their bed, lulled into a false sense of security by the meager accumulation outside their window.
Meanwhile, the rest of the region braced themselves for the impending storm, diligently monitoring their radios and televisions for updates on the weather front. As the morning progressed, it became increasingly apparent that the storm had veered off course, sparing much of the area from its wrath.
Yet, despite the absence of significant snowfall, our protagonist found themselves facing the consequences of their premature retreat to bed. Upon arriving at work, they were met with skepticism from their employer, who, in a display of fairness, sought confirmation of the purported inclement weather.
Contacting local authorities for verification, the boss received confirmation that no road closures or emergencies had been reported due to the light dusting of snow. Faced with the ultimatum of providing evidence of a two-foot snowdrift at their doorstep or collecting their paycheck and departing, our protagonist wisely chose the latter.
In the end, the moral of the story was clear: in the unpredictable realm of Western New York weather, it pays to stay vigilant, lest one find themselves left out in the cold.
Modern Women’s DILEMMA
What is the craziest thing you’ve found in an old coat pocket?
My brother passed away unexpectedly in April of this year. He was 9 years younger than me, and we were extremely close. We grew up in an extremely dysfunctional family, and were always there for each other in ways that the rest of our family was not. In a lot of ways, especially when he was little, I was as much a mom figure to him as his big sister, our relationship was one of the greatest sources of comfort and joy in both our lives. l was, and still am, devastated by the loss of him in my life.
I work in the town where he lived a few days each week, and had my own room in the house where he lived with his husband, “J”, who is like another brother to me. My brother loved vintage fashion, and was always bringing home his latest “amazing finds” from local thrift stores. He definitely had hoarding tendencies. His plan was to resell most of what he bought at the flea market for a profit in the summer, which never happened.
In the immediate weeks after his death, J and I started sorting through his things, including the bags and bags and bags and racks and racks and racks of thrift store “scores” that were all over the house, often mixed with his personal clothing. We kept some, and gave away or donated the rest. We always made sure to check any pockets; since he often stashed money and other valuables in random places, which he sometimes forgot about.
I was going through the pockets of a heavy pea coat, which neither of us had ever seen him wear, and felt what I thought might be a credit card. I pulled it out, and saw that it was actually a card key from a hotel that the previous owner presumably had forgotten. I turned it over, and was stunned. What are the odds of finding a random hotel key card in the pocket of a random thrift store coat, less than 2 weeks after my brother died, printed with an image of puffy clouds in a blue sky, and a single sentence that read “It’s time to let me go”. There have been other inexplicable moments in the weeks and months since he passed, that I believe are signs from him, to reassure and comfort us that in some way, he’s still with us. I am so grateful for those moments.
Walking away from marriage, children, and other stuff we’re supposed to have
What is the weirdest reason teachers have heard for a student being absent?
A snake held my student hostage.
Everyone – including me – thought that this was a ridiculous excuse. A girl showed up late, out of breath and red in the face. She was the kind of student who was usually very conscientious, so I expected a common and reasonable explanation like car trouble. Instead she stood right inside the door, panting, and explained that a snake had been holding her hostage.
I knew that this fifteen year-old girl was responsible for getting herself up and getting ready for school because her single mom worked the early morning shift at the hospital, so I was already inclined to go easy on her. That snake story just didn’t sound right, so I asked her to explain.
The girl lived in a small apartment on the first floor, and it was a small town so I knew that these apartments only had one entry. She had woken up and gotten ready as usual, but when she opened the door, she found a big rattlesnake sunning itself on the mat. She had called several people until her uncle finally answered and came over to kill the snake – with a pistol! He did manage to kill the snake, but he also brought all the neighbors outside. The girl and her uncle had to wait until everyone had finished telling him off for being stupid enough to fire a gun right in front of their homes before he could drive her to school.
I accepted her excuse but I remained skeptical until I got off work that afternoon and stopped at the store, where everyone was talking about the moron who shot a snake in the town’s one and only apartment complex. I still suspected that she could have just walked around the snake or something, but two years later a watermoccasin decided to take me hostage. I mentally apologized to my former student, because there was no way in hell that I was gonna just step around that thing.
My boss called me on a Saturday to let me know he that due to financial reasons, I was no longer needed effective immediatley. 3 days later, he sends me a text asking about work issues. How do I respond?
The question is do you need his recommendation? The urge to tell him to get lost is strong but if you do you could wind up screwing yourself later on. After all, if somebody calls up for a reference and they ask him… it’s not going to be good.
So you ask yourself would it benefit you to be polite or not?
Let me tell you a story of when I was younger. It was my first real IT job for the summer. Small company needed to upgrade everything and needed a jack of all trades type to do it and I got it. So I spent months crawling under desks, running cable, setting up the servers and backups and during all this the owner’s girlfriend would be looking over my shoulder and asking what I was doing. I’d show her because why not? She was nice. A bit of a ditz but she had… assets if you get me.
So the end of the project comes. I’ve done all the testing, present him with the documentation and ask what’s next. He says nothing because his girlfriend was taking over and she could do my job. I laughed, he was serious. Gave me my severance and I was out the door.
About a month or two later I get a call from him and he’s frantic. Seems they had a problem, they lost all their data and when they went to restore from backup found out his girlfriend wasn’t doing the backups like she said she would do. He promised me the world at this point, back pay, bonuses and all that. I told him to go screw himself as he got what he deserved. I think he went out of business in a month or so later. I didn’t need him. I was in school and that was just a way to make some money while gaining experience. But you might need him later.
So I’d ask yourself if it’s worth it to tell him to get lost or whether it’s in your best interest to at least not be as dismissive. Don’t just give it to him but make him understand you’re doing this for the good of the company, not him. And you could just as easily have told him to get lost.
When your finally in a healthy relationship
Have you ever caught a nurse doing something they should not have?
I was born with fatal Asthma. My lungs have collapsed three times, and every year I’d spend approximately 3–4 weeks in the ICU under an oxygen tent. When I was big enough, I got to use the regular mask and/or tubes in my nose. I’d have severe asthma attacks every night, but it was just my way of life (I still played sports, etc.).
I got to know who some of the regular nurses were- especially because, though they’d let my parents stay after visiting hours, I’d get really sad when they had to leave. The nurses were always so great about making me comfortable. This was in the 1980’s. I’ll never forget the head nurse, Norma. She always made me feel less alone.
In those days, there were TV’s in the room- attached to a big arm on the wall, but you had to order it- and a cable guy would come in and set it up. You had to pay per day. My parents always got it for me.
I always knew how hard nurses worked and I never understood how come they had to be there for so long. At night, when the ward was dark- I’d leave my TV on so the nurses could watch “Dallas”. I’d make it so the face of the TV pointed toward the hall. It’s not like they could sit there for the hour, chillin’ in my room. But I liked to keep a chair by my bed for them. I’d fall asleep, and in the morning the TV was off. I guess I didn’t “catch” a nurse- it’s more like I encouraged them. I was just little. I always knew how much they wanted me to get better, and I always knew they really liked Dallas.
Norma never watched it, but she never seemed to be mad about it.
What makes people ruin their lives?
1. Waiting for someone to save them. You can’t wait for some hero to come and snatch you from the claws of life’s difficulties. You can seek advice and get support from those closest to you, but even they can’t bear the weight of being your hero because the only one who is capable of fulfilling that role is none other than yourself.
2. Victim mentality. You will never be able to change your life for the better if you believe that everyone and everything is out there to sabotage you. It will only make you feel more powerless and helpless, robbing you of willpower and motivation to change anything.
3. Extreme poverty. With extreme poverty, there comes extreme desperation, which often pushes people into doing things they’d have never imagined they were capable of.
4. Constantly lying to themselves. When you can’t be honest with yourself, you are unable to face all the fears, weaknesses, and problems holding you back. And the more lies you tell yourself, the tighter their grip will get on you until your life is left in shambles.
5. Being in a toxic relationship with a master manipulator/narcissist. Not only will they destroy your self-esteem and your sense of self, but they’ll try to make you stay with them and even guilt-trip you into it when you say you want to leave them.
6. Having enemies disguised as friends. A friend is supposed to have your back, not stab you in it, which is exactly what these people do. They try to discourage you from pursuing your goals because they don’t want to see you succeed, they always find a way to criticize you under the guise of “friendly feedback” and are never there to support you when you need them.
7. Growing up in a dysfunctional family. If one or both of your parents were abusive, toxic, etc., you will start noticing the consequences of it after stepping into adulthood. Once you do, you’ll have to unlearn some things you subconsciously picked up during childhood and completely destroy the rest. Otherwise, you’ll risk repeating the vicious cycle by turning into your parent(s) or living with the damaging consequences for the rest of your life.
Paluski (Polish Potato Fingers)
Do these bring back memories. Paluski! We always had them with homemade kapusta and kielbasi. I make these all of the time. My family loves them with a nice mushroom gravy. They taste delicious fried in some bacon fat with onions and crisp bacon. I sometimes cut them up into small pieces and add them to my homemade chicken soup. I have even gone so far as to fry them up and serve them with sunny side eggs, scrambled and poached.
Ingredients
- 4 cups all-purpose flour + extra if needed to make a pliable dough
- 4 cups mashed potatoes, cold
- 1 tablespoon salt
- 4 eggs
Instructions
- Cook potatoes and drain well. Press through a ricer and place in a large bowl. Cool.
- Combine flour and salt in a large bowl, mixing well. Make a well in the center of flour and add eggs, one at a time, mixing well until all the eggs are mixed well.
- Add the riced potatoes and mix until all ingredients are blended real well. If necessary add some water to make the dough pliable if too stiff, this will depend on how much flour you add. (I have found that 4 cups will make a very wet dough, so I add 1/4 cups of flour at a time until the dough feels just right. This is done by feel. Do not make the dough too stiff.
- Roll out dough in portions at a time onto floured surface, rolling out into a long log about 1-inch thick.
- Cut logs into 3/4-inch pieces, rolling slightly to even out.
- Drop into rolling salted boiling water and cook until paluski float to the top, allowing them to simmer a few minutes. Remove with a slotted spoon and place in a large bowl.
- Have some melted butter ready to drizzle over the paluski to coat them.
- You can sauté some onions in butter and toss in with them.
Notes
Either way you doctor them up, they taste wonderful.
Woman says she’s breaking up with boyfriend over this…
Are there employees who later employed their boss?
I bought the security guard company I worked for when the owner decided to retire and move to Las Vegas. He wanted 3 months billing for the whole tamale; office equipment, gear, patrol car, and clients. He was billing around $237,000 annually so the asking price was just over $59,000.
I got a business loan for $30,000 and agreed to pay him $1,700 a month over 18 months for the balance owed. The extra money was for interest.
A couple of years later he showed up in my office. The $30K was gone and the monthly payments had ended, and he needed money. So he asked me for a job selling for my company.
I’d quadrupled his annual billing — from $237K to $980K — so I told him I’d pay him a $1,500 monthly draw against commission.
After 6 months he’d sold 3 patrol accounts, for a grand total of $1,100 a month, so I cut my losses and let him go.
Has a cop ever said something to you which was completely unexpected?
While at university my roommate and I lived a couple blocks in from the beach. He walked up to the beach to check the surf late one evening. A cop pulled up along side him and said “Hey, are you [my name]?” My roommate said “no” and the cop drove away without another word.
A few days later at about 8:00 PM I left our apartment and started to drive to our university. My small truck had an automatic transmission and the parking break was broken. So I kept a large rock by my feet that I would wedge behind a tire when I parked. As I drove away from our apartment a cop pulled me over. I asked what the problem was and he didn’t answer. He shined his flashlight inside my truck. He saw the rock and asked in a very serious tone why it was there. I explained. He then told me to get out of the car. I complied. He didn’t go inside, but looked inside the door. He saw my backpack on the passenger seat. He said he wanted to search it and asked if I had a problem with that. Knowing I had done nothing wrong, I was getting annoyed. There was nothing but textbooks and notebooks in my backpack, but I didn’t like his attitude. And I was upset about the cops asking my roommate if he was me for some reason a few nights earlier. So I said I did have a problem with it and I would not be allowing him to search it. He said he had the right to search for probable cause. I asked what he was defining as probable cause. He replied that the rock on my floor was a weapon. I told him I thought that was a pretty weak position after the explanation I gave him and I objected to his search. He said if he called a judge he could provide me a warrant to fully legalize any search he wished to perform. I then told him I would wait calmly while he radioed the station (before mobile phones), they called a judge, and a search warrant was issued. I also asked how he thought a judge would react to being annoyed at home to get a warrant to search a [local university] student’s backpack after being pulled over for not committing any traffic violations. He looked at me, said “you better pray I never catch you doing anything wrong” and turned away. He got in his cruiser and drove off. It was all very strange, but I never had another incident after that.
How can middle class people become rich?
I came from a very ordinary background, and I have advised countless people who are very wealthy and grew up poor or middle-class.
Even if we look at larger studies, we find that most of the richest people in the world came from working and middle-class backgrounds.
Only in some places where inherited wealth dominated, like some parts of Europe, is it 50%-50%.
If you mean is it possible to get rich, or wealthy, on a middle-class income, then the simple answer is yes.
This man was a UPS driver for years. He made a maximum of $14,000-$15,000 a year:
Theodore Johnson died with $70million after a friend told him about investing, which is why he got into it.
Yes, you read that right. $70million. Now sure, when he started investing, 14k-15k a year was worth 50k-75k in today’s money.
Yet it still wasn’t a huge salary. So, how did he manage it? Well, he invested very smart, long-term.
He wanted to make a difference when he died, so he gave it to charity.
He isn’t alone. This man was a janitor called Ronald Read who accumulated $8million:
This lady was a secretary and accumulated $9m:
You might think these are one-offs. However, stats show that 14% of the world’s millionaires are teachers, and about 50% are middle-income professionals.
The reason is simple. Income doesn’t always rise exponentially with time. Wealth can.
What is more, there are always investment opportunities out there, as I mentioned on a recent CNBC interview:
As a final comment, I will speak about risk, as it is the most misunderstood subject.
Do you assume that you are playing it safe with money in the bank?
You are fooling yourself 👉🏼 and here is exactly why:
1. If you save money in the bank you’re buying into the sure risk of inflation.
2. If you only rely on your savings for retirement, you’re risking everything on the assumption that things will go to plan.
But life doesn’t always go to plan. Some sort of risk is inevitable, it’s everywhere.
It is far better to:
- Put your eggs in numerous baskets and not just the bank or property
- Pick the risks you will take. It gives you more control.
- Take action, rather than setting New Year’s resolutions to save/invest more money + lose weight and forget about it!
Grocery prices in Russia will SHOCK YOU
Radicalized.
What are some scary psychological facts about human beings?
- When a tattoo is removed, the ink particles are eventually broken down and excreted through the urine.
- Our own immune system, meant to protect us, can kill us faster than the fastest-killing virus, Ebola (4 days)
- Your brain can play tricks on you, making you feel referred pain from your organs in unexpected places! For example, a painful pancreas can present as pain in your flank or back; a heart attack can feel like jaw or shoulder pain; a kidney stone can feel like testicle pain;
- The cause of period cramps is the uterus suffocating itself. During a period, the uterus contracts to shed its lining, and sometimes the contractions are so strong that they squeeze the blood vessels, cutting off the supply of oxygen and causing pain.
- The front of your tongue has a mind of its own and is always on the move, secretly exploring your mouth. Dentists are well aware of this behavior during impression taking, when the tongue can be seen chasing the dental tool or licking their fingers around the mouth.
- Your eyes are “immune privileged,” meaning the rest of the body’s immune system has no knowledge of their existence. If this immune system were to suddenly become aware of the eyes, it may treat them as a threat and try to neutralize them, potentially leading to blindness.
700 people needed paramedics as they queued to see the Queen’s coffin because of the 20 hour wait and the cold weather. Why are so many people so blindly adoring and loyal to the royals when they get treated like sh*t?
Through various work events, I’ve met the late Queen Elizabeth, Prince Philip, Prince William, Prince Edward, Sophie (Countess of Wessex), Princess Anne, James (Viscount Severn), and Lady Amelia Windsor. Though James was only a toddler at the time. Regardless, none of them ever treated me with anything but respect and cordiality (when time allowed more than a passing handshake). And I’m about as lowborn as it gets. The bastard scion of an unwed mother, who was herself the daughter of a gangland enforcer and the 2nd cousin of the man who *ahem* allegedly disposed of the evidence of murders conducted by one of the UK’s most notorious gangs. My more distant ancestors on my mother’s side were Irish loyalists, and on my father’s side were Welsh coal miners. Sailors, miners, and criminals were what went into making me. And yet still, never have I ever been treated poorly by any member of the Royal Family I’ve ever had any interaction with.
As to loyalty… Dolce et decorum est pro patria mori. I’m from a family with a long military tradition. Loyalty to my nation and sovereign go without question. It’s Parliament, not the Royals, who inevitably fuck over me and mine. I’ve no reason to be disloyal. Furthermore, Queen Elizabeth is one of the most dedicated monarchs we’ve ever had. She gave her all to her country and her people. It is only proper that loyalty and service be returned.
The U.S. Has Made Taiwan a Trigger for War. Can China Disarm It?
Taiwan is a useful pawn in the U.S. strategy of confronting China as a “great power competitor”, Finian Cunningham writes.
Ever since China’s civil war ended in 1949 with victory for the Communist side, the island of Taiwan off China’s southern coast has been a U.S. pawn as a haven for anti-Communist forces. The United States has sponsored the Taiwanese separatists first under the dictatorship of Chiang Kai-shek and up to the present administration in Taipei. Ironically, Washington portrays Taiwan as “democratic and free”.
Washington’s support for Taiwan waned in 1979 when the U.S. endeavored to normalize relations with Beijing under the so-called One China Policy which defines Taiwan as under the sovereign control of the People’s Republic of China. The U.S. position conforms to the international norm of recognizing China as one sovereign nation in which Taiwan is but an island province.
The U.S.’s so-called normalization of relations with China was not genuine. It was a geopolitical move to wedge relations between Beijing and Moscow. Now that China and Russia have reestablished strategic connections under Presidents Xi and Putin, the U.S. has reverted to overt hostility towards China and its policy of using Taiwan as a cat’s paw to destabilize the mainland.
After the Obama administration embarked on its Pivot for Asia strategy in 2011, Washington earnestly reinstated relations with Taiwan in such a way as to deliberately provoke Beijing and undermine its sovereignty.
Tensions over Taiwan have become increasingly fraught as the United States steps up military supplies to the island territory. The weapons systems have become increasingly offensive in their capability of attacking China’s mainland. This development not only undermines China’s sovereign authority. It also poses an overt national security threat to Beijing. Taiwan is a mere 130 kilometers (80 miles) from the Chinese mainland across a narrow sea called Taiwan Strait.
This places China in an acute dilemma. Should it take preemptive military action or wait it out until politics takes its course?
A recent election in Taiwan was won by a pro-independence party. But there was a greater combined vote for parties that want more friendly relations with mainland China. That strongly suggests that Taiwanese people are against a military confrontation and are amenable to political reconciliation as proposed by Beijing. Perhaps over time, the Taiwanese population may develop a decisive majority that desires peaceful reunification.
The problem is the United States has control of the initiative to inflame tensions with China. In that case, Beijing might eventually be drawn into a military confrontation despite its aspirations.
The Return of Great Power Competition
Since the supposed end of the Cold War in 1991 following the collapse of the Soviet Union, for most of the ensuing three-decade period, the United States declared its main national security concerns to revolve around international terrorism. In recent years, however, the U.S. has relegated the perceived threat of terrorism and officially prioritized its strategic concerns about “great power competition”.
Russia and China have been labeled the top geopolitical rivals for U.S. global power. In this way, there has been a return in Washington to the Cold War geopolitics and rhetoric that dominated international relations during the five decades after World War Two. While Moscow and Beijing have both repudiated adversarial relations and have repeatedly urged peaceful coexistence in a multipolar world, the United States has relentlessly sought to depict the so-called “global rules-based order” as being threatened by Russia and China.
The current U.S. administration under President Joe Biden has contrived to portray international relations as an existential contest between “Western democracy versus autocracies”. This zero-sum terminology is typical of Cold War ideology which aims to polarize international relations into geopolitical camps of “us and them”. Such polarization is an essential function of U.S. and Western power politics and the promotion of U.S. hegemonic ambitions.
By dividing the world into “blocs”, the resulting conflictual relations and tensions are amenable to American militarism. In other words, cooperative peaceful international relations as advocated by Russia and China in their multipolar visions are anathema to the pursuit of U.S. hegemony based on unilateral domination.
China is Enemy No. 1 for the United States
Several U.S. strategic planning documents indicate explicitly the emphasis on “great power competition”. The 2022 National Security Strategy defines the U.S.’s priority concerns. The document states:
“We are now in the early years of a decisive decade for America and the world. The terms of geopolitical competition between the major powers will be set… the post-Cold War era is definitively over, and a competition is underway between the major powers to shape what comes next.”
The strategic outlook clearly determines China as the bigger threat to U.S. power. The document states:
“Russia and the PRC [People’s Republic of China] pose different challenges. Russia poses an immediate threat to the free and open international system, recklessly flouting the basic laws of the international order today, as its brutal war of aggression against Ukraine has shown. The PRC, by contrast, is the only competitor with both the intent to reshape the international order and, increasingly, the economic, diplomatic, military, and technological power to advance that objective.”
Another major U.S. planning document, the 2022 National Defense Strategy, also defined China as the “pacing challenge” to American global power. It was stated that China is “the only competitor to the United States with the intent and increasing capability to reshape the international order.”
The term “pacing challenge” is a euphemism for Enemy Number One. The prioritizing of China over Russia as the designated top threat to U.S. national security was reiterated in the National Defense Authorization Acts in 2023 and 2024. The NDAAs govern annual U.S. military spending of over $850 billion – about four times the military budget of China and more than eight times that of Russia.
The war in Ukraine which erupted in February 2022, has certainly accentuated tensions and hostilities between the United States and Russia. This may give the impression that Russia is deemed by Washington as a greater threat than China. Nevertheless, despite the heated rhetoric and war in Ukraine, the strategic outlook according to the U.S.’s own planners is that China is perceived as the long-term principal adversary.
Even Russian President Vladimir Putin in a recent interview with American journalist Tucker Carlson acknowledged that China was seen in Washington as a bigger threat than Russia. “The West is afraid of a strong China more than it fears a strong Russia,” said Putin.
U.S. is Planning on War with China
The United Air Force announced on February 12, 2024, a major overhaul and expansion of force structure in the Asia-Pacific. Its commanders specifically cited China as the motivating threat and reason for renewed military build-up for “high-end conflict”. When the civilian head of the U.S. Air Force, Frank Kendall, was appointed to the post in 2022, he told the U.S. Congress that his three priorities were: “China, China, and China.”
Several senior American commanders have publicly warned that the U.S. could be at war with China in the next five years. And they mention Taiwan as the flashpoint.
This war planning accounts for an overall U.S. military build-up in Asia-Pacific involving air, navy, and land weapons. Washington has been expanding military bases and missile systems in Australia, Japan, South Korea, the Philippines, Guam, and most provocatively on China’s territory of Taiwan.
On January 16, 2024, it was reported by Taiwanese news media that the island territory was building two new missile bases on its east coast facing the Taiwan Strait and China’s mainland. The new construction stemmed from the expected arrival of more U.S. anti-ship missiles. The reports also indicated that five more bases were under planning.
These developments point to long-term planning by the United States for a military confrontation with China in the coming years.
Taiwan is the Primary Cat’s Paw for U.S. Hostility
Following elections in Taiwan on January 13, 2024, U.S. President Joe Biden stated that the U.S. did not support “independence” for the island territory.
Biden was thus publicly affirming Washington’s adherence to the One China Policy (OCP).
However, Biden’s public position on Taiwan and China can be better understood as part of the United States’ other policy of “strategic ambiguity”. Officially, Washington claims to recognize China as the sole sovereign power concerning Taiwan. Whereas in practice, U.S. actions point to another, treacherous agenda.
When Chinese President Xi Jinping met Biden in November 2023 at the APEC summit in San Francisco, the American side reiterated its obligations under the One China Policy. At that summit, President Xi called on the United States to stop arming Taiwan. He said Taiwan was the “most dangerous” issue and warned that China would use force if the matter is not resolved diplomatically for reunification.
Under Biden and his predecessor, Republican President Donald Trump, the United States has ramped up weapons supplies to Taiwan.
Provocatively, it seems, the U.S. has chosen to ignore President Xi’s admonitions about desisting from arming Taiwan.
The reported expansion of missile bases and supply of U.S. missiles to Taiwan indicates that Washington has set a course for antagonizing China by undermining its sovereignty over Taiwan.
On February 8, 2024, it was reported for the first time by U.S. and Taiwanese media that American special forces were being permanently stationed in Taiwan and the neighboring Kinmen islands near the Chinese mainland. This development is a major violation of the One China Policy by the United States. It puts into perspective the purported pledges made by Biden in person to Xi during the APEC summit.
Furthermore, the purpose of the U.S. forces in Taiwan has offensive connotations. The American personnel are reportedly engaged in training Taiwanese military units for conflict and monitoring China’s mainland forces.
It should be noted that these U.S. military developments in Taiwan followed a high-level meeting between America’s National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan and senior Chinese diplomat Wang Yi which took place on January 26 in Thailand. Earlier that month, Chinese and U.S. officials also held “high-level discussions” at the Pentagon after a two-year suspension. The series of talks was reported in Western media as an effort by the American side to reduce tensions and improve communications.
Again, rather than such contacts being a genuine effort at improving relations, they seem to be more illustration of the U.S. policy of “strategic ambiguity”. More accurately, that policy should be called “strategic duplicity”.
It seems plausible that Washington is trying to mislead China over what its real intentions are regarding Taiwan and the wider issue of strategic confrontation. The Biden administration may state adherence to the One China Policy and call for better military-to-military communications to avoid conflict.
Yet, in practice, the United States is pushing ahead to supply Taiwan with more missiles. This unprecedented build-up of offensive U.S. capability is replicated in other territories across the Asia-Pacific.
The election in January of Lai Ching-te as the Taiwanese president provides Washington with a strident “pro-American” voice in Taipei for the next four years. Lai has previously called for Taiwan’s independence from China. Indeed, during the election campaign, Lai said there was no need to make such a declaration because Taiwan was “already independent”. Beijing has repeatedly declared its desire and sovereign right for full reunification of the island territory with the Chinese mainland. However, President Xi has warned that if Taiwan were to formally announce independence, China reserves the right to use military force to assert its legal sovereign control over the territory.
Taiwan is a useful pawn in the U.S. strategy of confronting China as a “great power competitor”.
By giving tacit support to pro-independence politicians in Taiwan, Washington is inciting separatist sentiments. Supplying the territory with U.S. weapons and military personnel also foments Taiwanese notions that Washington is a military patron who will come to Taiwan’s defense if a conflict were to erupt with mainland China.
Significantly, the incoming Taiwanese president is the third administration of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP). The DPP first came to power in 2016 under President Tsai Ing-wen. She was re-elected in 2020. Her vice president Lai Ching-te is taking over in May when he is inaugurated as president. The DPP has inflamed pro-independence politics over the past eight years with the full encouragement of Washington under both the current Biden administration and his predecessor Donald Trump. This political saber-rattling will likely continue over the next four years of Lai’s presidency.
It is also significant that the last eight years have seen a build-up of missiles in Taiwan’s arsenal. Before 2016, the island’s military capabilities were limited. Under the DPP, and with supplies from the U.S., Taiwan’s forces have acquired ballistic missile capabilities, especially anti-ship missiles. The target range of these weapons is short-range up to 500 kilometers which could reach China’s southern coastal provinces.
What needs to be monitored is the supply of longer-range U.S. missiles which would indicate greater strategic ambitions in a conflict with China. The American-sponsored militarization of Taiwan is correlated with the incitement of separatist politics on the island, which in turn foments tensions with Beijing.
On February 13, the U.S. Senate approved a $95 billion military aid package for foreign allies, including $60 bn for Ukraine, $14 bn for Israel and $8 bn for Asia-Pacific. The latter portion will allocate nearly $5 bn to Taiwan. The Asia-Pacific funding will cover the U.S. build-up of missiles in the region.
This is another indicator of U.S. hostile intentions towards China. It belies the seeming diplomatic engagement and renewed military-to-military communication exchange. The litmus test for rhetoric concerning the One China Policy is the facts on the ground of military offensive capability toward China.
The facts testify that Taiwan is being honed as a cat’s paw to antagonize and provoke China.
The Ukraine-Russia Analogy
There is a vivid analogy with how the U.S. has cynically used Ukraine as a provocation toward Russia. Ukraine has deep cultural ties with Russia and a long history of disputed territorial control. Over the past decade, the United States has ramped up military support for Ukraine and incited animosity with Russia. The tensions erupted in February 2022 with Russia ordering a military invasion of Ukraine to halt mounting provocations. A two-year war ensued and is continuing. It is the biggest war in Europe since the Second World War. An estimated 500,000 Ukrainian soldiers have been killed. The conflict has had a devastating impact on Europe’s economy. It brings nuclear powers perilously close to catastrophic all-out war.
China’s former ambassador to the United States, Cui Tankai, recently stated that China would not be drawn into a military trap in Taiwan. The seasoned diplomat alluded to the U.S.-instigated scenario of Ukraine and Russia. On the matter of increasing American arms supplies to Taiwan, Cui was quoted as saying: “Someone may be preparing a proxy war but we will not fall into that trap. We don’t want to see a situation where Chinese are killing Chinese.”
Such aspirations are laudable. Nonetheless, such a view is a hostage to fortune. The Chinese authorities may not want a war over Taiwan and may try their utmost to avoid a war. Beijing’s aspiration for peaceful reunification with Taiwan is no doubt genuine.
Still, unfortunately, the United States has the sinister power to turn Taiwan into a trigger. Washington is ramping up offensive military capability and fomenting incendiary pro-independence politics. Beijing does not control that hostile process. There may come a point when Taiwan becomes what Ukraine is to Russia – a site of proxy war by the United States.
In that case, there is a stern prognosis: China should act militarily sooner rather than later to assert its control over Taiwan. A war seems inevitable given the U.S.’s reckless and incorrigible provocations. The belligerence in Washington is constant regardless of who sits in the White House. The U.S. presidential election in November this year will make no difference to the strategic course. The longer China leaves its response, the bigger will be the military confrontation as a result of the increasing U.S.-supplied offensive capability of Taiwan.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said in an interview on February 14, 2024, that a major regret he has about the current two-year-old war in Ukraine is that Russia did not act sooner to intervene against U.S.-led provocations. Putin ordered Russian military intervention in Ukraine on February 24, 2022, to defend the ethnic Russian population of former east Ukraine and to preempt the growing threat from NATO to Russia’s national security.
This author wrote an article 10 years ago regarding sinister developments under the NATO-backed regime in Kiev which came to power in February 2014 in a CIA-backed coup d’état. The article made the argument that Putin should have sent troops into Ukraine in mid-2014 to preempt what was a looming U.S.-led proxy war. Subsequent events in Ukraine – the horrendous scale of death and destruction – and Putin’s own recent admission of regret would suggest the author’s prognosis in 2014 was correct.
On the matter of Taiwan, there is a real risk of China repeating Russia’s problematic delay in acting decisively. By not acting decisively to preempt, China’s President Xi Jinping might also share the same regret about Taiwan as Putin does over Ukraine.
Can you describe the creepiest person you have ever met?
When I was about 20 years old and at that time I lived with my parents. They had a plastering company in after being rewired. One was an elderly man, due to retire the next year. The other was younger, tall, quite good looking, but there was something about him I couldn’t fathom. Every time he came into the room, the hairs on the back of my neck prickled, and the dog would whimper and go into the other room. I’d catch him watching me as I went about my business. I was crocheting to pass the time while they were there and he kept asking me about it and coming over to see how it was going. He’d put his hand on my shoulder as he leaned over to look. It freaked me out.
My parents went to walk the dog and left me to hold the fort. The older man randomly started talking about personalities and first impressions of people. He kept looking from his colleague and back at me. He said do you find you get a gut feeling when you don’t like somebody? I said that yes, I do. He still kept looking at his colleague, then he said that when we have a gut feeling it’s important to act on it, and that 9 times out of 10 it’s correct, even if the person seems to be okay. He looked at me, raised his eyebrows, smiled slightly, nodded slowly, and carried on with his work.
I swear to this day that he was warning me not to trust his work colleague.
Why are Singaporeans more likely to dislike America 🇺🇸?
I won’t speak for my countrymen.
Personally, I wish America well, because it is vital to the global economy.
But I choose to make a stand when it comes to war in East Asia, which America is hell-bent on provoking for selfish national interest—preserving American primacy.
I cannot, and will not accept that, and my efforts here on Quora is a mere token, informing and explaining developments to fellow East Asians.
For example, how the demonization and dehumanization of mainland China will inevitably lead to the victimization of Chinese diaspora, repeating the age-old pogroms and witch hunts suffered by Chinese diaspora over the last 4-500 years.
For example, how a weaponized dollar will bring ruinous harm to the financial health of East Asia, and options being developed against the certainty.
For example, the many hotspots around the region through which conflict with China may arise.
For example, the multi-dimensional economic war being waged on the mainland economy, and its fallout, rules-based order be damned.
America is not my home. I maintain an interest because what happens stateside directly affects my family’s future.
A strong, well-run America is good for the world. Unfortunately, both conditions are ebbing today.
And that spells danger for the rest of humanity.
I am merely curating and explaining developments, as America loses its primacy.
It is up to American society to recognize, accept and change course.
But that appears a faraway daydream today.
Elon Musk Think’s OpenAI Discovered Something
He is probably correct.