That was the secret of the Nazi war machine … they had German u-boats in the Atlantic … and manned icebergs! ready to do damage to unsuspecting ships

I had to call you using my elbows because I don’t have fingers or thumbs any more

Yes there were … we just didn’t call them billionaires … we called them Kings, Queens, Supreme Rulers, Emperors, God Kings

The world looks exactly the same now as it did 2,000 years ago politically because the idea of supreme and infinite wealth never went away. We’ve always had men who believed they could rule or own the entire world … and we still do.

I always say and think about all this from the perspective of billionaires … all they ever care about is money and the free flow of money everywhere. As long as money is moving and people believe in it, praise it and worship it, everything else can be tolerated and controlled.

The internet and free flowing communication allows for money to flow a lot … without it money would quickly become segmented into tight regions and countries and everything becomes closed … which makes it harder for money to flow, which makes it harder for a billionaire to make more money.

Same with World War or even nuclear war … I don’t think it will ever happen on purpose because once that first bomb goes off, billionaires will cease to be billionaires as the world financial system collapses. The billionaires won’t care how many millions die, they’ll be more upset that their imaginary digitally managed wealth will either decrease a lot or even completely. They know that in a post apocalyptic world, no one will care if you claim to be a billionaire if banks no longer exist. You might say that billionaires will have gold stashes around to fund their own personal army … but that won’t work either because their army will just kill them to take the wealth.

All of it is possible because of human greed … all of it is under threat because of human greed … and all of it is held in balance because of human greed.

I was going to make fun of this thread by saying some dumb thing but then I noticed your comment … this is your thread now … my condolences to you and your family … and you should clear coat that section of the wall to preserve it forever … and if you ever renovate or change your house … carefully carve out that section of wall, frame it and display it as a family heirloom.

Sounds more like a new line up of pharmaceuticals for the treatment of those suffering from delusions of grandeur and acute narcissism

Because your dishwasher knows how drunk you are and is trying to tell you those aren’t fries and they’re not the microwave

Repetition … and repetition in multiple formats

Repeat what you want to remember
Repeat inside your thoughts
Repeat it out loud (either to no one or to someone nearby)
Repeat it with action … point, touch, move or just handle the thing or object related to what you want to remember
Repeat it by writing … write it down and note it

Then do the same things again and again … eventually over time, these things will get ingrained in your thoughts and actions.

Some processes take time to remember (like playing an instrument) but others take less time (like where are my damned keys!)

I guess this is the model that governments are using these days to try to figure out how to save democracy

Figure out first how to destroy it … then you can know how to save it

But I think they’re going a little overboard in the first half of that process

I just ignore the call

If it was important, they’ll call again

If it was an emergency, they’ll call non-stop and text a bunch of times

Otherwise, most times, when it’s not important, the person calls once, realizes it wasn’t important and doesn’t call again

We were helping to move a friend from one house to another years ago. It was all rushed with little time to do or plan anything … we had to move truckloads towing trailers full of all their things and drive 400km to make a deadline. And we had to start by driving to them 500km away first! And it all had to happen within 20 hours … it was complete insanity. I ended up driving, packing, working, then driving again non-stop for about 30 hours to everything to the new house. And midway through the trip of hauling everything, we drove through the biggest lightning rain storm I’ve seen in years. The only way to keep things from getting totally soaked was to keep moving.

I remembering driving past the rain and weather and it was 4am and we were dead tired and couldn’t stay awake. We parked on the side of the road and I sat in my driver seat and finally fell asleep. Unfortunately, I was so full of coffee, sugar and food that I couldn’t really sleep … my body went offline and my brain kept racing. I started dreaming that I was still driving and in my driving dream, I kept pushing myself to stay awake and not drift off the road. In my dream, I kept dozing off and wandering on the road. In the dream, I kept scaring myself, held on to the steering wheel and bolted awake again … and again … and again. Finally, still in the dream, I fell asleep and as I dozed off I knew I was drifting off the highway at speed and I could see and feel the truck crashing into the bushes, the trees and into the forest …

I bolted wide awake back into reality, gripped the steering wheel like a madman and slammed on the horn and the brakes as hard as I could … I was still sitting quietly on the highway shoulder. My cousin in the other truck walked over and asked if I was OK and asked why I just sounded my horn.

I was so freaked out by the experience that I stayed awake for the rest of the drive.

It makes you realize why we want to destroy the world so easily when we only ever see the world as being convenient for us only and not for all life no matter what shape or form it comes in.

Little Fly,
Thy summer’s play
My thoughtless hand
Has brushed away.

Am not I
A fly like thee?
Or art not thou
A man like me?

For I dance
And drink, and sing,
Till some blind hand
Shall brush my wing.

If thought is life
And strength and breath
And the want
Of thought is death;

Then am I
A happy fly,
If I live,
Or if I die.

• poem by William Blake

I remember reading a long time ago that most insects are a very protein dense food source … beef when looking at the whole cow is about 50%-60% protein overall … while an insect is about 90% protein.

… or a Norwegian

always nice to include an anatomically correct butthole for the cat

… when you realize it wasn’t a mirror

I think I’ll use it as a ringtone or alarm for my phone … no better way to wake in the morning than to be terrified