He had everything and wanted nothing. He learned that he had nothing and wanted everything. He saved the world and then it shattered. The path to enlightenment is as sharp and narrow as a razor’s CONTINUE READING... The post 84 From ’84: The Razor’s Edge appeared first on The Retro Network.

I have been thinking deeply about how everything has unfolded to produce such an outcome. It is not like it was unexpected that things would hit bottom before starting to improve slowly. And I can´t help but give thanks for having the mindset to be as prepared as one can be, even within our limited means and our meager resources. Regarding such an outcome, it’s not like it is a bad one; on the contrary. A liberation movement has begun, only seen in countries of the former (and thankfully extinct) Soviet Union sphere. This should lead to a real era of freedom that we never experienced before. Even though when we were known as the United States of Venezuela back in the 40s – a country that not too many people still alive remember. However, the consequences of an agonizing system are fearful. The organization behind the power grab is anything but democratic. Under the excuse of the “Revolution,” they violated every article of our Constitution and laws for years. They are already doing whatever they can to keep control, even if that means derivating to a Pol Pot-like regime. They follow the Cuban model, but the difference is huge…because Venezuelans know what democracy and freedom feel like. This preamble was only to explain the consequences of the political struggle we’re going through, and how we have been dealing with them. Here are the consequences of the situation right now. I don’t even dare to walk with my kid in the streets, even though there is very little (known) news of kids being kidnapped in this area, and I have been monitoring the media extensively every day. It’s not worth the risk, though. In other parts of the country, the number of minors in jail is supposedly over one hundred. The food supply is unstable regarding some products, like beef. I could get some ground meat because I was there just in time after the arrival of a delivery truck. Very freshly ground beef meat, although not my favorite, but still good protein. We have switched to consuming more Buffalo cheese, which is great, and cheaper than beef cheese. I buy it from a seller with a kiosk on the street, so it’s fresh and abundant. That guy sells butter and cream, also. Good product and fair price make it a good choice, within walking distance. Why is it dangerous to be outside? The reason is simple. Armed groups are roaming in unidentified pickup trucks with masked guys toting guns. Even the regular armed bodies feel entitled to do a body search, will take your phone, will ask you badly to unlock it, and if you have compromising conversations or pictures you will be screwed. Nothing new: this official terrorist policy has been used for quite some time already but it is now much more common. “Rights”? this has been suspended for years now. There is no chance that a General Attorney will receive a complaint and make it to the Court. They will politely receive it if you are someone with some “weight,” but the next step will be throwing it in a drawer and forgetting it. I leave my phone at home because of this. I do have in my memory five important telephone numbers, including a couple of friends, my kid’s phone, and a couple of human rights organizations to immediately inform any event or deviation of the standard interaction with uniformed people. This is why they are looking to force the NGOs to work within their totalitarian approach with express “laws” like this one. Mind you, there was some time back in recent history when it was “legal” to beat people and burn down their shops because of their religion in Germany…and we all know how that ended. How this oppressive status quo is going to work with a rejection (in real terms) over the 90%, is going to be “interesting” to see. Things are already so tense that any sudden move could bring unexpected consequences in the right places. Social pressure is building up, and unless it is properly channeled to the right sectors (the stormtroopers you have seen shooting unarmed civilians in the videos, for instance) it’s going to be a huge mess once it’s relief. Advice You need a vehicle. Even though we can find most of whatever we need within a 30-minute walk, not having a good reliable vehicle is out of the question. This should be:  Fuel Efficient Easy to maintain for yourself Reliable and sturdy. With the storms we have in the rainy season, you can’t allow yourself to be dragged by a furious torrent. This is one of the best places to live in Venezuela: the mountains surrounding Caracas. This area is blessed with wonderful weather always in the range of 20°-25°C, with lots of vegetation and mostly sunny. However, this is what happens in the storm season. Inconspicuous and with a couple of safe boxes oblivious to the naked eye. You need a place in a safe location. This place has to be:  Far away from the most frequented roads. Well stocked up (too obvious, but I think on the new readers that joined the crowd after the 2020 wake-up call). Must have some good quality permanent water source or a reservoir at least.  Make sure to have some means of cleaning and purifying water for safe drinking. Wastewater management means so it can be safely disposed of. Albeit being in a gated subdivision, the volatility of the situation and the neighbors snitching just out of hatred for having lost so massively a process that should be democratic makes some neighbors feel very unsafe. These are people with severe emotional and perhaps even mental issues, and they will throw the wolf pack just out of hate towards anyone they feel like. Just because their utopia never existed. Yes, this is happening.  They used to be the food rationing scheme “chiefs,” which conceded them some degree of “authority” – which is now non-existent. That’s why they are spreading terror. The same KGB “system” was used in the infamous Cold War era in Stalin’s Soviet Union. The status quo in Venezuela Grim awful times apart, let’s describe objectively the current status quo down here. You need some extra income to pay for basic needs. Achievement of full self-sufficiency is a myth. Unless you can perform surgery on yourself without anesthesia. Providing for your most basic needs will mean working your backside off. The human body has limits. Community and wise resource management is the key here, and considering that good people around you are important. As an example: my AC stopped working. It leaked and suddenly needed a gas refilling. My former boss works on that as a side business: his salary as a middle-level manager in the crippled oil&gas industry is not enough. So, we agreed and will pay him with products to avoid the fee losses upon exchanging from my main income source to our local currency. It works for both of us. The economy is so stagnant that the only thing holding us afloat is the meager income from those with independent businesses (also struggling) or those with salaries (a depressing minority). Hardly anybody is buying anything different from basic foods. If you have valuables to transport to your BOL, get a security chest in your car or one of your cars that won’t be seen at first glance. An electronic lock or a similar setup is a good idea. If it has a key lock, it should not be seen even if the carpet or seats are removed. A battered wooden tools box with a fake bottom and a magnetic sliding lock maybe? The more time you are in a city, your exposure level to some aggression increases. The larger the city, the more exposed you will be. This is regardless of how “civil” your city, town or location is. As I write this, you perfectly know (or should know) there are guys marching aggressively in London armed with sticks and machetes. A building where you could fortify every single entrance seems to be a good choice, if you don’t want to live in the sticks for some reason and you have the means. You can then select the space to make it your living headquarters, and a huge rooftop to collect rainwater and have some greenies, a chicken coop and stuff. If some readers have this experience it would be great to know what they think. I know that hardly anybody would be kicking down doors in an industrial area, where the “enemies of the State” are not supposed to live in. The best advice? Try to keep a “countryside house” or a similar place where you can stay once things get uncomfortable.  Keep it stocked, well-guarded, and secure some means to arrive there. Eventually, things will likely settle down. I never could re-stock my pantry again, after I left in 2017 with only the clothes in my suitcase, and my laptop to keep writing and try to make a living out of that. Not that I regret it, but staying put could have been a better idea. I guess that we would never know. We are deeply grateful for your generous sponsorship, which has enabled us to put food on our table. May a thousand blessings be upon you. Stay safe and keep tuned! J. About Jose Jose is an upper middle class professional. He is a former worker of the oil state company with a Bachelor’s degree from one of the best national Universities. He has an old but in good shape SUV, a good 150 square meters house in a nice neighborhood, in a small but (formerly) prosperous city with two middle size malls. Jose is a prepper and shares his eyewitness accounts and survival stories from the collapse of his beloved Venezuela. Jose and his younger kid are currently back in Venezuela, after the intention of setting up a new life in another country didn’t  go well. The SARSCOV2 re-shaped the labor market and South American economy so he decided to give it a try to homestead in the mountains, and make a living as best as possible. But this time in his own land, and surrounded by family, friends and acquaintances, with all the gear and equipment collected, as the initial plan was.  Follow Jose on YouTube and gain access to his exclusive content on Patreon. Donations: paypal.me/JoseM151 The post The Dangerous Reality of a Crumbling Society appeared first on The Organic Prepper.

THE CENTER SQUARE—Republicans are calling on the Biden administration to increase security at the northern border after the Canadian government began issuing visas to Gazans who may be connected to the terrorist organization Hamas. The Canadian government’s program includes giving Gazans a “Refugee Travel Document,” which replaces their passport and is accepted by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, enabling them to enter the U.S. “However, with little to no reliable records or background checks of these individuals from the Palestinian Territories, these policies unlock opportunities for individuals with ties to terrorist groups to enter Canada, receive new forms of identification, and then try to enter the U.S. along the porous north border,” the Republican senators said. “Irrespective of Canada’s immigration policies, the U.S. should not waive common-sense terrorist screening and vetting for any individual entering the U.S. through other countries.” While Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas has claimed everyone entering the country, legally or illegally, is vetted, DHS Office of Inspector General reports have found the opposite to be true, The Center Square reported. Because of the record number of known or suspected terrorists who’ve been apprehended at the U.S.-Canada border, over 1,000 since fiscal year 2021, “the possibility of terrorists crossing the U.S.-Canada border is deeply concerning given the deep penetration of Gazan society by Hamas,” the senators said. “It would be irresponsible for the U.S. to not take necessary heightened precautions when foreigners attempt to enter the United States.” They also requested Mayorkas provide them with information about Palestinians entering the country. Under President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, the greatest number of terrorists have been apprehended in U.S. history, the majority of them at the northern border, The Center Square first reported. In late May, the Canadian government announced it was increasing the number of temporary resident visas to Palestinians living in the Gaza strip who claim to be related to citizens or permanent residents of Canada. The majority of Gazans voted for Hamas in 2006, which holds a majority in the Palestinian Legislative Council, the legislature of the Palestinian National Authority. Hamas was designated by the U.S. State Department as a foreign terrorist organization in 1997. “It is the largest and most capable militant group in the Palestinian territories and one of the territories’ two major political parties,” according to the National Counterterrorism Center. Hamas took credit for the Oct. 7 terrorist attack against Israel that killed more than 1,100 mostly civilians. The group kidnapped and held hostage over 200 people, including Americans. Hamas is still holding hostage roughly half of them. Since the terrorist attack, antisemitism and violence escalated against Jews in America by nearly 400%. Multiple pro-Hamas groups organized riots and shut down college campuses throughout America. In response, several Jewish groups sued Palestinian groups in the U.S., arguing they are “collaborators and propagandists for Hamas” and attacking Jews and calling for their death isn’t protected speech. Twenty-seven Republican senators, led by Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., called on the Biden-Harris administration to respond to the “outbreak of anti-Semitic, pro-terrorist mobs on college campuses.” Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., also called on the president to cancel visas and immediately remove foreign nationals from the U.S. who support Hamas. Biden instead issued a memo to expand measures to prevent “certain Palestinians” from being deported. Democrats also blocked any measure to deport pro-Hamas supporters. Twenty-three attorneys general called on Congress to defund a U.N. agency reportedly funding and harboring Hamas terrorists. Rubio and several of his colleagues called on the administration to “heighten precautions along the U.S.-Canada border.” Several House leaders, led by Rep. Mark Green, R-Tenn., requested Mayorkas provide information about “illegal aliens with terrorist ties illegally crossing the U.S. border,” including Palestinians with ties to Hamas. Green, who chairs the U.S. House Homeland Security Committee, requested the information after subpoenaing Mayorkas for Customs and Border Protection terrorist data in July. He sent the subpoena after he and the Republican chairs of the House Oversight and Judiciary committees sent several requests for terrorist related data and received no response. A group of 21 Republican senators also demanded answers from Mayorkas on why illegal border crossers were being released into the U.S. who weren’t properly vetted and were later discovered to have alleged terrorist connections. The House Judiciary Committee earlier this month issued a report detailing how Border Patrol agents were releasing known or suspected terrorists into the U.S., creating a national security crisis. Originally published by The Center Square The post Republicans Call for Enhanced Northern Border Security as Gazans Flock to Canada appeared first on The Daily Signal.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Ancient Greek philosophers used paradoxes for all sorts of reasons, from sharpening their dialectical skills and showing philosophical opponents were talking nonsense to serious philosophical inquiry – but also for fun. Some paradoxes were lethal. Philetas of Cos’s epitaph tells us he died tormented by the “liar paradox”. And according to one biographer, Diodorus Cronus killed himself in 284 BC after failing to solve a paradox put to him by fellow philosopher Stilpo of Megara. These stories are fanciful, but they point to something maddeningly true about paradoxes: there cannot be a single, obvious solution. Sometimes there is no good solution. Sometimes there are too many good solutions. Paradoxes point to conceptual glitches or bugs. How to fix these bugs, or whether they can be fixed, is rarely obvious. The three paradoxes that follow are some of the best-known examples from Ancient Greece. 1. The liar paradox “This sentence is false.” Philosophers call that the “liar sentence”. Is it true? If you say “yes, the liar sentence is true”, then things are as it says – yet the liar sentence says it is false. On the other hand, suppose you say “no, the liar sentence is false”. This means things are not as the liar sentence says. But this is exactly what it says, so in this sense the liar sentence is true. In short, there are good reasons to say both that the sentence is true and that it is false. Yet no sentence can be both true and false. This paradox was invented by the philosopher Eubulides of Miletus, who was famous for his paradoxes, in the 4th century BC. His own formulation has been lost, and what I give here is my reconstruction. The liar paradox alienates us from everyday notions like truth, falsehood and self-referential language. But it also calls into question the idea, presupposed by question-and-answer dialectic (dialogue between people holding different points of view about a subject), that every question can be answered “yes” or “no”. It seems there are good reasons to answer both “yes” and “no” to some questions. Some philosophers have concluded this means that both “yes” and “no” are good answers to the question “is the liar sentence true?”. They call this a “glut” of good answers. To apply the liar paradox to your life, when you ask or are asked questions, ask yourself: is there more than one right answer? 2. The horns paradox Have you lost your horns? If you answer “yes”, you must have had horns that you have now lost. If you say “no”, then you have horns that you have not lost. Either way you answer, you suggest you had horns – but that is clearly false. Questions are a key part of philosophy. But they’re also key to how we get information from other people. The liar paradox highlights that some questions have a more than one good answer. The horns paradox highlights another problem – questions have presuppositions. If I ask “have you stopped eating meat?”, then I presuppose you no longer eat meat, but that you used to. These questions look like they should have a “yes” or “no” answer, but in fact there is a gap because we could deny the presupposition. When you ask questions, or are asked questions, first ask yourself: what is being presupposed? 3. The sorites paradox Here are 10,000 grains of sand. Do I have a heap? Yes, of course. I remove a grain, so now I have 9,999 grains. Do I have a heap? Yes. I remove another grain so I have 9,998. Do I have a heap? Yes. Losing a single grain does not affect whether I have a heap. But reiterating this 9,997 more times, I have one grain. That should be a heap, but of course it is not. You could argue both that one grain is a heap, and that it is not. But nothing can be both a heap and not a heap. Another of Eubulides’ greatest hits, the sorites (the “heaper”), uses a heap as an example. But it also heaps question upon question. This paradox challenges us because some concepts have fuzzy edges. When we plug these fuzzy concepts into a question-and-answer dialectic, there are clear yes-or-no answers at the start and end of the sequence. Ten thousand grains is clearly a heap and one grain clearly is not. But there are no clear yes or no answers for some region in the middle. The liar paradox suggests there might be gluts of good answers to yes or no questions; the horns that there might be gaps, where neither “yes” nor “no” is the correct answer. But the sorites shows that there may be gaps that come and go, with fuzzy-edged concepts. But how many of our concepts have fuzzy edges? And do fuzzy concepts track a fuzzy world? Paradoxes highlight glitches in commonplace, everyday activities: asserting truths, asking questions, and describing objects. Thinking carefully about this is fun, certainly. But paradoxes should also make us sensitive to whether every apparently good question has exactly one good answer: some questions have more, some have none. Matthew Duncombe is Associate Professor in Philosophy at the University of Nottingham.

A mountain lion attacked a leashed PitBull, named "Gigi", in the Los Angeles suburb of Sylmar, resulting in the pet dog's immediate death.

Russia Summons US Envoy Over Presence Of American Mercenaries, CNN Crew In Kursk Region

Homeland Security Has Lost HOW Many Unaccompanied Minors?!

Biden Secretly Orders Preparations for Nuclear War

To hear older generations tell it, everything was better in the past. Gas cost a few cents a gallon; children respected their elders; toilet paper came with 650 sheets to a roll, and the only thing you had to worry about was the constant existential threat of nuclear apocalypse looming over your head.Now, chances are at least one of those things was news to you, and we’re betting it’s not the gas or the nuclear war. So, to answer your question: yeah, toilet paper used to come in 650-sheet packages. If that’s not hitting you as remarkable, though, here’s the context: today, a regular roll of Charmin sold in the US has just 56 sheets per roll.The incredible disappearing toilet paperThanks to Mark Dent over at The Hustle, we actually have quite a detailed picture of the decades-long toilet paper shrinkflation process. In the 1970s, he writes, “Charmin’s regular roll had 650 sheets of single ply toilet paper […] By 1975, the roll shrunk to 500 and then to 400 in 1979.”But “Charmin was far from done,” he continues. “By 1986, the sheet count had dropped to 380. On eBay, I found nearly identical 1988 Charmin packages – one contained 300 single ply sheets per roll and the other had 280.”Not only are toilet paper manufacturers offering fewer sheets per roll, he points out, but those sheets are also smaller than they used to be. A Charmin regular roll in 1966 used to be made up of square sheets of side length 4.5 inches (11.43 centimeters), he reports – measure one yourself today, and you’ll find it a paltry 3.92-by-4 inch rectangle (9.96 by 10.16 centimeters).Even adjusted for inflation, that results in a price increase of 700 percent per square foot since the 1960s.And, lest you think we’re picking on Charmin in particular, other manufacturers have been just as sneaky. You might think a brand like Scott 1000 would be immune from this kind of shrinkflation – after all, its very name is a promise that each roll comes with that many sheets. And yet long-term analysis by Edgar Dworsky, founder of ConsumerWorld.org, has found that even they have shrunk, with the weight of a standard four-pack going from 32.2 ounces (913 grams) in the past to 23.6 ounces (669 grams) today.Why are toilet paper rolls so much smaller than they used to be?So, what’s behind this egregious shrinkage? In an effort to figure out the root causes, Dent spoke to TTO-BMA, two affiliated companies that track, forecast, and analyze the wood pulp market. As the “single most important ingredient for toilet paper,” Dent explained, there’s no greater driver of the intrinsic cost of a roll than the price of wood pulp.Unfortunately, that price is notoriously volatile, it turns out. That wasn’t always the case – before the 1980s, it was pretty stable – but these days, thanks partly to the emergence of China as a global poopin’ superpower (pooperpower?) and partly to our old friend climate change, the price of toilet paper wood pulp can rocket from just over $600 per metric tonne to more than $900, down to around $750, up to $1,000, and all the way back to $600 again, all in the course of just three years – specifically, 2021-2024, in case you thought those numbers were for illustrative purposes only.For major brands who want consistent quality, there’s no way around this kind of volatility – or at least, that’s what the companies say. Of course, it doesn’t really explain why toilet roll brands in other countries have been less affected by this specific type of shrinkflation: in the UK, for example, the equivalent of Charmin, Cushelle, is still sold with 270 sheets per roll, while other brands boast anywhere from 170 sheets per roll to 380 depending on the brand.The trouble is, US brands are designed to account for a level of snobbery around what Americans use to wipe their poopy holes. The ratios of hard- to soft-wood pulp are slightly different in the US than elsewhere, with around 30 percent comprising the more expensive softwood pulp, TTO-BMA’s D'arcy Schnekenburger told Dent – that’s three times as much as other markets’ standard 10 percent. The reason for that, is to meet a “higher expectation for strength,” he explained – though he adds that “consistency both in their operations and consistency of product are more important than anything else.”“They won’t even change the supplier of their softwood if they can help it,” he said.A Tissue IssueAnd, you might think, so what? So toilet paper is getting smaller and more expensive; that’s the price of a comfy butthole baby! But all this devotion to “consistency” has a much more troubling consequence: it’s destroying some of the most ecologically important areas in not just North America, but the entire world. “Now, more than ever, it is clear that the impacts of manufacturing single-use tissue products from forest fiber are not only severe but also avoidable,” argues the Natural Resources Defense Council’s 2023 Issue With Tissue Fifth Edition report. “Companies know that there are more responsible ways to create tissue products than using forest fiber – namely, using recycled materials and responsibly sourced alternative fibers – and many have already embraced these solutions in their product lines,” it says. “Yet the largest, most powerful tissue companies have failed to adopt these more sustainable sourcing practices. Instead they remain entrenched in a destructive ‘tree-to-toilet pipeline’ model that continues to come at an extreme cost to Indigenous communities, the climate, threatened species, and forests like the boreal in Canada.”Luckily, this latest in the series of reports has found that consumer behavior is shifting, with more people prioritizing sustainability in their buying habits – and, in turn, more brands offering sustainable toilet tissue products. But if you’re hoping to match brand loyalty with environmental mindfulness, you may be out of luck: “Of the toilet paper brands surveyed in the tissue scorecard’s fifth edition, half of the brands that received A and B grades were launched within only the past five years,” the report notes – while “the ‘Big Three’ U.S. tissue producers – Procter & Gamble, Kimberly-Clark, and Georgia-Pacific – make their flagship household tissue brands almost exclusively from forest fiber, consistently earning them failing scores.”What can we do about it?While the report has much to say about what policymakers and corporations should be doing to mitigate the damage, it can often be hard to see what difference we can make as individuals. But in fact, the authors write, “consumers have enormous power in helping steer the market toward greater sustainability.” So, you could, as 500,000 people recently did to Proctor & Gamble (the company behind brands such as Charmin, Bounty, and Puffs), petition corporations to add sustainable options to their lineups, the report suggests – or, failing that, ask local store managers to stock more of those options. There are also more everyday changes you could make: actually buying more sustainable options, including tissue made with recycled content, and simply using less where you can.The best part: not only will it help the environment, but it will also save you money. After all, with the way this shrinkflation is going, if we don’t start changing our tissue habits, then we’re literally just throwing money down the toilet.

Read more about mine spiders here.