PeterRS

Televangelism was, i believe, born in the USA and it is in that country where it is most commonly practised. In the USA, Christ and Christianity is thrust down the throats of most citizens, even those who are immigrants, from the moment they get anywhere near school. SInce 1957 the words "In God We Trust" have been written on US currency. I recall one of the better US golf players telling the world in a TV interview after he'd won a tournament that his wife read part of the bible each day to their unborn child! I've heard of mothers playing recordings of Mozart, but never before actually reading from the scriptures! Even the national Anthem has these words - Blest with victory and peace, may the heav'n-rescued land Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation! Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just, And this be our motto: "In God is our trust": Not many remember that the British National Anthem, now usually sung in just two verses used to have six, the words to the last of which are - Lord, grant that Marshal Wade May by thy mighty aid Victory bring; May he sedition hush, and like a torrent rush Rebellious Scots to crush! God save the King! This was written and being sung long after the union of the Scottish and English crowns in 1603 (when in the absence of any children by Elizabeth I, Mary Queen of Scots son James VI also became James 1 of England) and the union of the two parliaments in 1707. But the British do not have the same almost universal attraction to Christianity and certainly it is much more in the background. In the USA I am sure many who go to church and many who believe the televangelist con men do so out of genuine belief in the hereafter and that this will result in a better life after death. Decades ago I dispensed with the idea of heaven, hell and purgatory. I believe these were concepts to keep the masses in check. But a gazillion Americans still fervently believe at least in the existence of a "heaven" where they will once again meet up with their deceeased loved ones.

1. The root of the problem, surely, is that the democracy practised in many parts of the world is totally f--ked. Democracy hardly exists. Leaders are not elected on the basis of a majority vote or even on platforms which they then put into practice. Everyone lies! For some decades we have been in a period of change. I do not believe politics was really a major concern of the average citizen even after two World Wars. The system ran in its own way as it had almost always done. Whether a result of the long Cold War, of better education, or whatever, many more individuals now feel a right to be involved in the political process. But they have little clue what that process actually involves other then going into a booth to vote. They don't do their research. I think it was Thomas Jefferson who talked about the requirement for a knowledgeable electorate. He certainly did say, "To preserve our independence, we must not let our rulers load us with perpertual debt." I wonder how many Americans in the last few decades are even aware of that particular quote. 2. On which topic, in the USA but less in some other countries where there are quite strict spending limits in elections, as @stevenkesslar notes it doesn't matter which party you belong to the rich essentially control everything. Thanks to its politically biased Supreme Court, the rich can put in any amount of cash they want into elections of the candidates who will look after theit interests. And as also pointed out, fear means that neither party will piss them off by doing what almost everyone wants by raising their taxes. In an interview with the UK's Guardian newspaper about 15 or so years ago Warren Buffet stated he paid 17.7% compared to the 32.9% average paid by his office staff.

I don't see Epstein's murder - if such it was - as a warning. Who would it have warned? It was a massive relief. Epstein held in his mind, and perhaps even in a document somewhere not yet found, a very long list of names of prominent people for whom he had been a pimp. He had brought them underage girls. Some of these names we believe to have been leaked. But that list must include hundreds of the rich, famous and powerful. They are now breathing more easily due to his death.

Time on my hands! Ha! I work. The time I spend here is a very small part of my long days. And I have as much right to downvote any post as @Department_Of_Agriculture.

I suspect we will never know. When committed to jail, he was in a cell for two people. On the night of his death, his cellmate had been moved out for some inexplicable reason. Guards had been instructed to check Epstein's cell every 30 minutes. That was not done at all on the night he died. For 8 hours no guard checked his cell. Allegedly the two guards fell asleep and then forged documents. The two cameras in front of Epstein's cell both malfunctioned that night. Epstein's body was discovered at around 6.30 am. Again breaking protocol, no photo was taken of the body or the possibiity that it might be a crime scene. At 1.8m tall and weighing 85 kgs, the likelihood that Epstein could successfully commit suicide tied to the lower part of the bunk using part of a sheet has always been the subject of controversy. There were longer and stronger materials available in that cell. Epstein's was the first suicide in the Manhattan Correctional Centre since 1998. After a four-hour autopsy, the Medical Examiner ruled suicide by hanging as the cause of death. Yet Epstein's lawyers sent a pathologist to attend the autopsy. He did not agree with the findings, citing the breakage of some bones in the neck. Although this can sometimes happen in suicide, it is assumed far more likely to be a result of homicide by strangulation. After the death was confirmed, Trump made a speech basically blaming the Clintons and that he wanted a full investigation. Attorney General William Barr said he was "appalled" by Epstein's death while in custody. Yet the guards who totally failed in their duty were given a deferred prosecution deal. They should have gone to jail. They did not. Epstein's lawyers and his brother Mark reject the possiblity of suicide. When his lawyers met him on the day of his death, he was still relatively upbeat. He still had a bail appeal hearing coming up and then perhaps a lengthy delay prior to a trial. There was no reason for him to take his own life at that particular time in the justice process. Investigations were not just confined to New York. In France, one of Epstein's associates Jean-Luc Brunuel was arrested and charged with the rape of minors. He too allegedly committed suicide under circumstances that remain unclear. My money is on murder!

If there is one thing I recall from my early years in Hong Kong it is the tensions between North and South Korea. Having to visit Seoul many times in the 1980s meant coping with martial law, the worst effect of which was the midnight curfew. Be on the streets thereafter could - and for some did - mean being shot. Martial Law had been declared in 1960 by President Syngman Rhee, the strongman hated anti-nationalist imposed on South Korea by the United States. Since the end of the Korean War, the North had constantly taunted South Korea with endless illegal provocations. One of the most aggressive was the downing of a South Korean airliner en route from Baghdad with an intermediate stop in Bangkok in 1987. A bomb placed in the luggage racks caused the 707 to crash into the Andaman sea with the loss of 125 lives. But the most shattering event for South Koreans had nothing to do with North Korea. It occurred on 29 November 1979, my first year in Asia. At a cabinet meeting, Rhee's successor, the equally strong-man repressive dictator Park Chung-hee who had been in power for 18 years was holding a cabinet meeting. During the meeting, the Chief of his Presidential Security Guard shot and killed him. The assassin, Kim Jae-gyu, had grown up with Park in the same town and was a long time friend. He had even helped Park seize the Presidency in a coup and supported measures to enable him to abolish elections and tighten his grip on power. The reasons for the murder have never been entirely clear. Along with some others, Kim was quickly found guilty and hanged. Even though South Koreans are split on Park's legacy - the dictator who jailed, murdered and tortured to stay in power or the initiator of South Korea's economic miracle - the man who assassinated him is still regarded as a traitor. Now 46 years later Kim's family wants a retrial. Like Park, he is a polarising figure. Some see him as a ruthless killer blinded by power and ambition; others as a patriot who sacrificed himself to get rid of a dictator. Ironically, his retrial started yesterday, the same day as recently impeached President Yoon Suk-yeol went on trial on the same charge that sent Kim to the gallows. Much longer story here - https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cr5vp4q59lgo

It would seem from his downvote that @Department_Of_Agriculture is either disappointed no underage guys were discovered and/or he is happy with drugs and AYOR cruising. To each his own.

Oh dear! I wrote too soon. CNN reports today of a Norwegian Olympic ski medallist who died two days ago after being struck by lightning! But if statistics are anything to go by, that probably means there should be no more plane crashes for a long time to come- hopefully! https://edition.cnn.com/2025/07/16/sport/norwegian-olympian-audun-groenvold-dies-spt

Having read about the CIA's adventures from the receiving end of those countries and individuals it sought to influence, I have little admiration for it. Formed out of the OSS after WWII, it became almost an out-of-control body of US influence - some might add a stronger word, "madness". From the moment it went into bed with the British to overthrow Iran's democratically elected Prime Minister in 1953 and give power back to the shy, timid and, it was assumed malleable, Shah, despite billions in weaoponry and aid, it stood back as it oversaw the country'sin descent into a political and religious morass which remains to this day. Its incursions into Laos, Vietnam and Cambodia did nothing but make the resultant war even more bloody - and probably prolonged it. Indeed war and conflict were its primary weapons. Fortunately for it, it had a strong backer in Washington in Henry Kissinger, a man whom many now consider should have been charged with war crimes. Apart from Indo-China (where in the illegal incursion into Cambodia he selected the bombing targets and had given instructions to "bomb anything that moves" - a result of which drove masses of Cambodians into the arms of the Khmer Rouge), his deliberate interference allied with turning a blind eye also resulted in wars in Indonesia/East Timor, Pakistan/East Pakistan now Bangladesh, Chile, Argentina and goodness knows where else. Without his blessing and thus the blessing of whichever US administration was in power, it is quite likely that some of the resultant bloodshed would not have happened, or would have been signifcantly reduced. He had the blood of maybe more than 10 million on his shoulders, and yet he was lauded within the US as a great statesman. Kissinger was a criminal! His instument of war and terror was of course the CIA. And both were perfectly well aware of what they were doing. As the Ambassadors of both Pakistan and India informed Kissinger, the US was participating in "genocide" in East Pakistan. Kissinger called the Indian Ambassador "a traitor" and fired his counterpart in East Pakistan. Genocide was a word the US used for other countries. It was never one to start a genocide, was the belief. The Internatioal Criminal Court was not established until 1998. Kissinger was then 85 and could have been hauled before it. But it was George Bush II who proclaimed that no American would ever attend proceedings of the court for whatever reason. He was perfectly well aware that the CIA, Kissinger, quite a few of his administration members, especially those involved in the invasion of Iraq, and individual US soldiers would be in danger of facing justice. All escaped.

Did you ever watch any of the series Air Accident Investigation? I think it has been running for about 20 years and investigates crash scenarios mostly involving passenger jets, small and large. I know it can be streamed on some services. On the other hand, with your apprehension about flying, maybe best not to watch!! Yet flying is still the safest form of transport. I subscribe to the app Flightradar. During daytime hours you can hardly see the United States due to so many flights. As I write it is 14:45 here in Bangkok and so I took a screenshot of flights in the Asia Pacific region. As you can see there is a vast number. The chance of any one of these being involved in a fatal crash is infinitessimal - estimated at 1 in 11 million and based on between 0.1 and 0.2 fatal accidents per million flights per year. That compares to the odds of dying an a car crash of just 1 in 5,000. Both are vastly less than being struck by lightning. That series you quote seems to focus on pilots. And this is particularly pertinent today in the light of speculation over the Air India crash. It is certainly fact that around 66% of fatal crashes are due to pilot error. Yet I believe increasing automation will gradually take much of the work out of the pilot's hands so he is more in a supervisory capacity. Thereafer I suspect maintenance of aircraft will become the no. 1 accident factor.

In line with many other airlines, Cathay Pacific will change its mileage and status points requirement on August 20. As the email blurb says "we're enhancing your membership experience." Well, that's what they all say! It also points out there will be "some increases and some decreases". There is nothing (yet) about increased number of miles for redemption tickets. No doubt that will come later It has also redefined some of its distance zones. The chart it provides is too complicated for me to analyse quickly. It does seem that more miles/points will be gained from flex bookings in premium, business and first classes (understandable) whereas at the back end of the aircraft less are awarded in the 9 different fixed cost types of economy class tickets it lists (again understandable). If you booked a ticket prior to August 20, you will gain either the original points/status or higher if the new ones are indeed higher. Details are on this link https://www.cathaypacific.com/cx/en_US/membership/news-and-updates/Changes-to-your-Status-Points-and-Asia-Miles-earnings-on-flights.html?utm_medium=EDM-LRP&utm_source=LRP-ESOL&utm_campaign=20250715-WW-FLIGHT_ACCRUAL_GRID_CHANGE_JULY_2025&utm_content=V6_PROMO_WW#tab-item_1752478284354

So another batch of Trump picks are virual idiots! That's the view of long-time chronicler of the spy agency the CIA, Tim Weiner. His latest book "The Mission" is due out next week. As he states in an interview in today's Guardian - imagine spending years as an intelligence officer, working diligently to subvert the Kremlin, only to watch the US stand with Russia, Iran and North Korea, as it did in February when it voted against a UN resolution condemning the invasion of Ukraine. In that moment, Weiner said: “You come to the realization, if you hadn’t already: ‘My God, the president of the United States has gone over to the other side. He has joined the authoritarian axis.’” Wener has followed the CIA for some 40 years as a former national security correspondent for The New York Times. With his rolodex filled with insiders prepared to leak out little bits and pieces, he knows a great deal of what he writes. Not all is about Trump. In fact he spends a good deal of the book examining the CIA's many failures. Although he does not go back as far as the first overseas foray when it overthrew the legitimately elected Prime Minister of Iran and what all that was eventually to lead with the Isalmic Revoution, it failed to spot the rise of Al-Qaida, it had incorrect intel about Iraq's weapons of mass destruction, it knew little about what became the Arab Spring and "other screw ups". "But it’s the book’s final chapters, which find the organization blindsided by Russia’s influence operation on behalf of Trump’s 2016 campaign for the presidency, that readers may find most striking. Weeks before the election, Russia’s intelligence services, with an assist from WikiLeaks, began releasing a trove of hacked Democratic National Committee emails, dealing a devastating blow to Hillary Clinton’s campaign. It was, as Weiner puts it in The Mission, “an audacious act of political warfare [that] helped elect a demagogue president of the United States”. Weiner dismisses the theory that Trump is a Russian asset, but says it’s beside the point. “He’s Russia’s ally.” Another little gem from the book - “Donald Trump hates the CIA,” Weiner said, noting that Trump considers the agency the beating heart of a “deep state” that he believes is working to undermine him. Consequently, the president has appointed “a coterie of dangerously incompetent and servile acolytes to the highest positions of national security”. Weiner describes the new CIA director, John Ratcliffe – a former personal injury attorney, Maga congressman and, briefly, director of national intelligence in Trump’s first term – as “a spineless person who will do whatever Trump tells him to do . . . He’s attempting to rid the CIA of its most experienced officers,” Weiner said, “and to impose ideological purity tests. Ratcliffe said explicitly from the get-go that he aimed to align the leadership of the CIA with the president’s view of the world. Since the president’s view of the world is largely based on falsehoods and imaginary enemies, I think this will be an extremely difficult task.” He concludes the interview - “What keeps me up at night,” he [Weiner] continued, “is the fact that Trump has put the instruments of American national security in the hands of crackpots and fools, and that their incompetence and ideological blinkers will blind them to a coming attack. If the United States gets hit again under Trump, he will destroy what is left of our democracy.” https://www.theguardian.com/books/2025/jul/15/tim-weiner-cia-trump

It was my first meeting with the famous @vinapu and it was indeed extremely pleasant. He is a fascinating guy. Discussion of debaucheries will no doubt come when we next meet 🤣 🤣

The animals behaved better LOL

That has always been the PR about the treatment. Yet in my case, in spite of the men in generations of my family being bald, the effect of Minoxodil did not wane - more than tiny fraction. Maybe because i had been using it for about 10 years?

Just on a brief side note, I referred in a separate thread to my first job as a trainee with the BBC in London. On our first morning we were told that if you asked anyone in the Corporation the time and they said 11:15, that did not mean the 15th minute after the 11th hour. It meant the 15th second after the 11th minute. It was always assumed that everyone would know at least what the hour was! The reasoning was that many programmes in those days were beamed 'live' and when fitting into tight programme schedules from a variety of studios, seconds were vital. I believe the same would have been true in that horrendous crash.

1. You state ten seconds included the time the pilot asked the question. I accept I may be wrong on the timing of the question but the fact is it took TEN full seconds to reactivate the switches. The pilot in the vdo goes through all manner of issues that will have been going through the mind of this other plot but he still waited - "Ten seonds AFTER the fuel control switches were cut off, I'm assuming the other pilot placed them to run . . ." Even if he asked the question prior to reactivating the fuel control switches, why the long ten second time lag prior to reactivation? Given his knowledge of the aircraft and the disastrous effect of switching off fuel supply, why this full ten second wait. THAT I fail to understand. As I stated earlier, such an action would be hard-wired into his brain that he had immediately to correct such a potentially disastrous act. 2. Absoutaly agree.

I realise the question is not to me, but I would definitely have loved to visit. The problem is that on a 3 night stopover, you have to make choices. Petra is 233 kms to the south of Amman and Wadi Rum (which I did not visit) even further. If you are also taking in the Dead Sea, Mt. Nebo and Amman itself, you have virtually no time left. Although Jerash is only about 30 kms north of Amman, to do it justice you would need at least a full half day if not longer. That's the only reason I omitted it. Next time I'll definitely add it.

1. Not sure if you are referring to subtitles. If so, then they would definitely not be Taiwanese. On the other hand, any local Chinese could surely add subtitles to non-subtitled vdos of which Taiwan produces many. If they were exterior shots that included the names of buildings or streets, for example, either these could have been filmed with the porn part then filmed later outside China. If they are an integral part of the movie, I cannot help. 2. Telegram is banned in China. So I am not sure where these vdos originate. 3. I am pretty certain it was Blued but I also had several other apps on my phone. So I'm sorry I canot be certain.

I tried to edit the above 58 minutes after it was posted but was not allowed to do so. The only point i wanted to add is that the report states the fuel cut-off switches were activated only 3 seconds after the plane left the ground. It is in my view extremely unlikely that pilot flying - the co-pilot - could have done that as his attention would have been fully focussed on getting the plane into the air. Not impossible, but I think very unlikely.

China is pretty much a closed market for western social media. It has its own platforms. Unlike some countries, homosexuality is not a crime (other than certain usual exceptions like minors) and there are pretty active gay communities in the major cities. Chengdu may not seem a major city but it does have a population of around 21 million and boasts nearly 20 universities. As I have written before, when I visited the apps there were absolutely buzzing with students keen to hook up with an older westerner. Although an internet check will provide differing results on population numbers, this is largely because some are based on a 2010 census and others on much more recent local data. In 2020 it is generally agreed there were 113 cities with populations of more than 1 million. Several have grown even larger since then. In 2024 the country had 18 mega cities with populations of more than 10 million. That means a lot of gay guys. Overall, the general lack of gay bars and clubs means gay guys depend a great deal on hook ups using apps and meeting up for small parties in one of their apartments. But contrary to the OP good friends in Shanghai tell me there is not a lot of Chinese-related porn circulated. And one of these friends should know as he produced China's first gay movie with full frontal nudity. Chinese government censors do take an active role in keeping Chinese porn to an absolute minimum, if only because porn is officially banned. Some Chinese access porn via VPN's which they subscribe to on visits outside China. But these are only allowed to access overseas content. It may be that some porn being circulated originates in Taiwan which has its own very active porn vdo business. But Taiwan porn is generally vanilla. Japanese porn on the other hand is a huge business with a far wider variety of subect matter, some pretty grotesque. Most is obvious from its use of pixilation which is law in Japan, although non-pixilated vdos for circulation outside the country are increasing in number.

Come on guys. I did say "perhaps!"

Speculation remains inevitable and I have spent much of yesterday thinking about the timeline and the two elements of the conversation between the pilots that are in the report which I have now read in detail. That video posted by @unicorn is again extremely useful but with respect I do not think it fully explains the ten second delay. Let's suppose, as we know it was the copilot who was flying the plane, that he activated the cut off switches. As an earlier video explained, the captain would have seen this at least out of the corner of his eye. When you think about it, although other systems have to be monitored on take-off, there is generally no panic situation. It should be relatively routine. Besides, the captain had 8,596 hours experience on the 787 whereas the much younger copilot had 1,128 hours. It would therefore be usual that the captain would have at least part of his attention focussed on the pilot flying. That is clearly what the pilot in the video above states as far as his airline is concerned. Do we have any reason to expect that AI is any different? So you are the captain. Suddenly, with all seemingly going well, out of the side of your eye you see the fuel switches being repositioned by the pilot flying. You KNOW the effect this will have on an aircraft packed with fuel and near its maximum take-off weight. Nobody needs to tell you that. That is wired into your brain. So my question would remain: why did the captain wait a full TEN seconds before asking the question "Why did you do that?" all the while himself doing absolutely nothing to correct the situation? Check on your watch. Ten seconds is actually quite a long time. GIven the depth of your knowledge and in the case of the AI captain all your very considerable flying experience on 787s, surely your first action will immediately and very quickly be to reach over to put the swtches back to normal in order to ensure the plane could continue take-off successfully? Only THEN will you ask why the copilot had cut the fuel. The pilot in the video does not agree and states ten seconds is pretty quick. In many situations I'd agree. But when you see your co-pilot taking such a deliberate action that you know could have catastrophic consequences for your aircraft, I do not agree in this instance. I believe you'd spring into action all but immediately. Granted, if it had been the captain who actived the switches, the co-pilot's full attention would have been on the take-off. He might not have been immediately aware of any of the captain's actions. But his left hand would either have been on the throttle levers or have just left them. I do not know how he could not have been aware of the captain's hand being close to his left hand. I assume that he might suddenly have become aware of engine power being reduced. But I do not know how a change in the flow of fuel to the engines will result in a change in the sound of the engines. Maybe ten seconds. On the other hand, does he not have an instrument gauge on the control panel in front of him informing him of the rate of fuel flow? That I just don't know.

Sorry for misreading that point. Frankly I am not a pilot and know little about actual flying. I was once a passenger on a small microlite plane in Thailand where we took off and landed from a field with some cows! But I loved that little flight. The only time my travels have been affected by a small plane was at the small airport on the Argentine side of the Igazu Falls. I was boarding an Aerolineas Argentinas 737 to Buenos Aireas domestic airport before transerring to the international airport for a LAN Chile flight to Santiago. Fortunately I had allowed lots of time for the transfer. Before boarding was complete, we were asked to deplane and wait in the small departure lounge. We had no idea why and it took about 10 minutes for one of the airline staff to explain. A small single seater aircraft had crash landed on the single runway. No flights could get in or out until the wreckage had been cleared. My ticket to Santiago was part of an 8-sector air miles ticket. So I had to make it or the computer would kill all my remaining bookings. I called the nearest air miles HQ which happened to be in Miami. If I missed the Santiago flight, the next flights I could get on would be about 3 weeks later! Had that not been possible I would have had to fork out thousands of $$. I started to panic! Needlessly as it turned out.

Not sure about memory but perhaps there is some truth that jellyfish can extend life. The Japanese eat it with lots of dishes and sometimes on its own (mixed with mustard it is delicious) - as do the Chinese with some. Recent life expectancy tables show that Hong Kong people lived longer than anyone closely followed by Japan with women in both outliving men by over 5 years. The USA comes in at #48 and an average of 79.61. Thailand at #78 and an avaerage of 76.83. African countries make up most of the last 25. https://www.worldometers.info/demographics/life-expectancy/