Mick

@bigfatsurprise I wish I could send this to my friend but the blue zone religion is almost as cultish as veganism.

This is a soft landing for criticisms of the Blue Zones. The more serious critique is that longevity research itself is deeply flawed and based on very weak data, with leaders in the field unable/unwilling to rectify wrongs. Documented in an upcoming book by the demographer Saul Neuman who discovered that original Blue Zones claims were based on falsified birth certificates

@plumpaquatsch11 @Matt_Bracken48 @imetatronink Well the reason the straight needs reopening is because he bombed Iran. All he had to do was nothing and we would all be much better off than we are now.

@Matt_Bracken48 @imetatronink @thebaron22 He kept bashing NATO, JPN, AUS, ROK for not sending any vessels to free the SoH which only they needed and now all those countries who have tankers in the PG are "innocent bystanders" who have "absolutely nothing to do" with the situation ?

MEET ADMIRAL WALKER, who I am certain will be on the bridge of the first destroyer to bull rush past the Strait of Hormuz going back INTO the Persian Gulf, since Trump ordered US Navy warships to escort ships OUT of the Persian Gulf in a few hours. Problem is, there are no US Navy warships IN the Persian Gulf. They all split just before our 28 February sneak attack. Let's learn about Admiral Walker, from the US Navy: navy.mil/Leadership/Fla… "Rear Adm. Alexis “Lex” T. Walker is a native of the Bronx, New York, and began his naval service in 1989 by entering the Broadened Opportunity for Officer Selection and Training (BOOST) Program. Upon completing BOOST, he attended Jacksonville University, where he earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Broadcast Communications and was commissioned via the Naval Reserve Officers Training Corps (NROTC) in December 1994. He earned a Master of Arts degree in Organizational Management from The George Washington University and a Master of Arts degree in National Security and Strategic Studies from the U.S. Naval War College Fleet Seminar Program. "Walker has served at sea as communications officer and first lieutenant aboard USS Robert G. Bradley (FFG 49); main propulsion assistant and training officer aboard USS Hayler (DD 997); engineer officer aboard USS Cole (DDG 67) and USS Leyte Gulf (CG 55); executive officer of USS Bulkeley (DDG 84); commanding officer of USS Stockdale (DDG 106); and as deputy and commodore of Destroyer Squadron (DESRON) 7." Okay, he came up as a destroyer guy, but now he's the boss of Carrier Strike Group TEN, and he resides aboard the George H. W. Bush, CVN-77. He is the senior naval officer aboard any of the US warships in the Indian Ocean squaring off against Iran. Seeing how he came up on destroyers, I am 100% positive he will not miss the chance to be on the bridge of the lead US destroyer blasting its way back into and through the Strait of Hormuz, in order to carry out President Trump's order to escort ships out of the Persian Gulf.

@Matt_Bracken48 With the ceasefire going for so long there would have to be some sort of central authority operating again. It could have been in the process of negotiation for sometime. With you on the USN problem. There's no way they could guarantee transit even if they were there.

Who in Iran? Tehran is 700 miles north of the SoH. Local IRGC commanders have control of the 100s of missiles, drones, fast boats, even artillery pieces. I have extreme doubt ANYBODY in Tehran could give any such assurance to Trump on such a tight timeline. Remember, we have no warships in the PG, so first, our warships have to go past the SoH as warships alone.

@MidwestMarcusJ @barnes_law It's the same Abrahamic mindset.

@barnes_law I have felt for a long time that in our ever more secular society adherence to political dogma has actually morphed into a faith of sorts, a belief system filling the need for meaning through fealty many used to get from religion, beyond debate and only to be adhered to blindly!

Dear Leader cultists perfectly described.

@DanielLDavis1 Linebacker III?

This deal would amount to a public admission of failure by Trump. By also requiring an end to the war in Lebanon, would require an effective surrender by Israel and a withdrawal of its forces. That battle has been raging, even in the last hours today, so don’t count on that being agreed to in Tel Aviv anytime soon. In other words, any version of these terms in a negotiation would be an effective surrender by the US and Israel to Iran. I can’t imagine any circumstances in the current environment to where either Trump or Netanyahu would agree to any of those terms, much less all of them. Yet going back to active combat operations in a vain attempt to coerce Iran into submission would make our position even more untenable and the cost of failure higher. It appears the Iranian leaders are well aware of the dilemma that Trump finds himself in, and they seem poised to make it as hard on Trump as possible. This is a world class game of chicken, and the US in particular is faced with something it hasn’t dealt with in over a century: the prospect of an outright defeat. We don’t know how to deal with an adversary that stood up to us and can’t be browbeat or bombed into submission

The Dark Tower by John Howe

@mjfree Where's this $5 talk coming from. In places it's $6 already

You cool with 5 bucks a gallon? Pls explain in comments #TrumpsGasCrisis

The Saudi East-West pipeline is supposedly at max capacity & Yanbus publicized export capacity is 4.5 million bpd But the math isn't adding up, the numbers don’t match, & exports are likely far lower than expected. #oott #tankers Full analysis below: wisdomandboats.substack.com/p/yanbu-analys…

“I personally would have made the Australians twist in the wind a bit more for their jet fuel. But the Chinese seem to be going quite soft on everyone.” “It’s because they’re already thinking for beyond the Trump era. They don’t want to just look more reasonable than Trump, but the next American leader as well.” Makes sense? What do you think?

@Xin78787 hehe Try turning pen upside down! 🤣

写不好是笔的问题，还是纸的问题？

@CilComLFC @ICEgov She wouldn't have paid

@ICEgov I genuinely thought that was Hillary Clinton for a second…

Amanda Leigh Fourez, a U.S. citizen from Illinois, paid thousands of dollars to have others make sexual torture videos involving adult and baby monkeys for people in deranged online chat groups. Known as “animal crush videos,” they show real monkeys being burned alive and having their genitals mutilated. She pleaded guilty April 15 following an ICE @HSINewOrleans and FBI joint investigation.

@afshinrattansi This is all a pile of stinking BS if they can't deliver because the straight is blocked.

🚨BREAKING: UAE🇦🇪 EXITS OPEC AND OPEC+, OPEC LOSES ITS THIRD LARGEST PRODUCER The UAE announced its withdrawal from OPEC after more than five decades, effective on the 1st of May. The UAE is a founding member, having joined in 1967, four years before the UAE itself was established.  The UAE said the move reflects its national interest and its role in meeting market needs at a time when the Strait of Hormuz crisis has disrupted energy flows and kept oil prices elevated, and forecasted higher energy demand in the future.  The UAE has ambitions to increase production from 3.4 million barrels per day to five million by 2027, which OPEC quotas would have constrained. The UAE’s decision to leave OPEC and OPEC+ is a fundamental reordering of the global energy market, and a further shift towards multipolarity, with the UAE positioning itself to be at the forefront of meeting rising global energy demand.  OPEC has long declined in its geopolitical power, and the UAE has decided to forge its own path with having no limits on increasing production, as the world reels from the energy shock unleashed by the Trump-Netanyahu war of aggression against Iran.  The UAE is not the first in the GCC to leave OPEC, with Qatar leaving in 2019. The propaganda headlines you’ll be seeing of a UAE-Saudi conflict over the decision will likely amount to hot air. There will inevitably be short-term energy price instability, but countries around the world will rush to secure deals with the UAE to offset a major economic crisis caused by the war on Iran and the closure of the Strait of Hormuz. The international institutions of old are increasingly irrelevant, and OPEC is widely seen as the organisation of yesterday. The future will likely involve energy institutions and mechanisms within BRICS, to facilitate stable energy prices in a multipolar world. The UAE’s exit from OPEC is just one step closer in that direction. With China and the global south set to drive economic growth this century, the UAE is now well-positioned to benefit from multipolarity, free of production caps, as long-term energy demand will continue climbing, as the nations of the global south develop their economies and increase living standards for their people.  My live segment on @RT_com

Hegel famously said that China has no history because it never seems to break out of the dynastic cycle. I would say rather that China speed-run history. This is because it was super early in achieving two things: freedom from religion in state affairs (« secular »Zhou replaced superstitious Shang 3000 years ago) and a laissez-faire market. This allowed for inequality to rapidly accumulate in society until it becomes intolerable over centuries. This didn’t happen in say Europe because religion and hierarchy kept ppl locked in rigid divisions of haves and have nots where they accept their lot in life. Feudalism was incredibly stable. In China however, the discontent of the have nots eventually boil over, most typically in a peasant rebellion led by a guy who failed his exams. Very intense civil wars typically follow and the disorder may last for decades or centuries before China unites again under a new central authority. Each new dynasty tries something different, to try and avert the calamity that befell the previous dynasty. So for instance the Tang dynasty overempowered the military and fell to coups. So the Song dynasty nerfed their military and eventualy fell to the mongols. But no dynasty have ever solved the cycle. If they did, they would still be here today. Instead, every dynasty eventually fell, with the successful ones lasting about 300 years, before the chessboard is flipped over, providing a hard reset that's needed to give everyone "table stakes" in society and the cycle starts all over again.

@CaryKelly11 Go back to NZ the fresh Westgold is the one you want. Best non-boutique butter in the world

Doing my best to allow my taste buds to travel by sampling the butters of the world. I've visited Belgium, France, England, Ireland, Italy and now New Zealand. This kiwi butter is the first I've ever seen in a can and to be honest, it should have stayed in the can. It tastes waxy and lacks salt. Where should I visit next?

Your brain has a circuit that doesn't know you live in a city. Its only job is to monitor whether birds are still singing. Right now, in this room, it is on. The circuit predates primates. Mammals have been using ambient soundscape continuity as a predator-detection system for roughly 200 million years. Birds stop singing when something larger moves through their territory. For most of mammalian history, a forest full of song meant no large predator was nearby, and the cessation of sound was the warning. Your nervous system never updated this software. The Max Planck Institute tested the inverse in 2022 with 295 participants. Six minutes of birdsong dropped anxiety with a medium effect size. Six minutes of traffic noise raised depression with the same. The effect worked on subjects who lived in dense urban environments and had no regular contact with nature. The brain still ran the check. Birdsong sits in the 1,000 to 8,000 Hz range. Your brainstem reads continuous patterns in that band as a signal that nothing dangerous is currently moving through the environment. EEG data shows birdsong at 45 to 50 decibels boosts alpha wave activity by 14.1% relative to silence. Alpha is the brainwave signature of relaxed alertness. Push the same birdsong above 60 decibels and the response flips. Stress markers rise 29%. The circuit only trusts the signal at the volume of quiet conversation, which is exactly the volume birds sing at from a typical distance. Three things happen simultaneously when the brain registers ambient safety. The amygdala downregulates. The parasympathetic nervous system takes over from the sympathetic. Heart rate variability rises, cortisol drops. The posterior cingulate cortex, which sits at the center of the rumination circuit, quiets down. King's College London tracked this through a smartphone study with over 1,200 participants and found the mood lift lasted hours after the sound stopped. People diagnosed with depression got the same response as healthy controls. Most of what gets labeled mental fatigue is hypervigilance running in the background. Birdsong tells the circuit it can stand down, and the brain reallocates the freed compute everywhere else. A quiet park feels different from a quiet office because the parks have sentinels.

@D162Michele If they are considering not selling their goods in China it's because it is unprofitable to do so. People no longer perceive the higher cost is justifiable.

Oh no! How will China survive without Samsung TV’s and appliances!! If only China knew a country that manufactures 99% of the world electronics!!

Who made this

@Megatron_ron Because they had to wake up agent orange first?

NEW: 🇺🇸 Former CIA Officer Larry Johnson confirms the Trump hotel shooting was completely staged. He says the Secret Service intentionally broke protocol, rescuing JD Vance first while leaving Trump behind.