Out Of The Worst Grows The Best

— You can’t get there from here There’s 12 hours and 10 minutes remaining in the sale/anti-sale. That is, it’s 10 minutes before midnight as I begin this final post of my year 2022, 2565 in Thai years. I’ve given half the can of tuna I just opened to the feral cat who stops by…

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Wrecking Immune Systems For Power And Profit

— “Toto, I’ve a Feeling We’re Not in Kansas Anymore” Alright, we’re closing in on the new year and my publicly-available posting campaign together with end-of-year sale/anti-sale is running out of time with lots still in the outbox. After this, I’m shifting to a couple of Thailand-Life updates and might close it out with a……...


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SADS Amongst The Rich, Famous, and Notable

— A Mystifying Thing That Would Be All Over World News If The Cause Was Anything Else For this entry in my end-of-year barrage of public access posts and Newsletter emails, you’ve pretty much got to view it in your browser. Email doesn’t afford the ability to click and expand individual images in a gallery…

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Very Expensive Wegovy Weight Loss Drug Duplicated By a Cheap Andean Tuber

— It's Not Hype To Say Miracle Drug...Miracle Plant

If you're reading this via the Newsletter, note that the post title differs from the email subject line to [hopefully] not get caught up in filters of a certain kind. If you haven't read yesterday's post, I would encourage you to do so. It says what's in store for us this week, like all posts will be public until the new year. I did a short video trailer from the beach after a 1.2km swim, see below. Here's what's planned over the next few days on the heels of this marvelous discovery, below. First, I'm back together with Yui (the girl...and just as importantly, her two girls) and there's a whole history and story and reason behind that and lessons learned and new insights. I've got some cooking posts, including how to make wonderful 30-minute German-style fried potatoes in 6 minutes (video too). I've been swimming and snorkeling a lot and have some pretty cool underwater GoPro footage. There's new research hot off the presses this week that suggests or even confirms that the immune systems of billions worldwide may be compromised or wrecked. Does America stand a chance anymore, politically? And more...

https://youtu.be/qBj1QLTx7vw

A good place to start this unbelievable and serendipitous story is at the beginning.

Last September I moved into this new place and found myself residing between two young Thai women. Both turned out to be real sweethearts. The one to my left, Thanida, works at a French-style bakery owned by a Vietnamese guy (the one to my right, Khip, works as a secretary at a hotel and is pregnant). Thanida had a British boyfriend but he liked hitting the girl bars too much so she dumped him. They're still friends and I'm acquainted. He's older, in my age range, a bit of an asshole, but smart and competent. Good hearted fundamentally, he set her up with a real computer and still helps her in various ways.

Here's her and I on a morning walk and then breakfast. Yes, the 2.5 min video title is shameless and intentional clickbait.

https://youtu.be/Eemgtyex_HY

Enter her new boyfriend since last year, Pico, who recently arrived from Germany for a few months. Near the same age, he and I have hit it off marvelously. Super good guy.

Notice the age difference (she's about 35, he's over 55); and Thanida is neither a gold digger nor has she ever worked in a bar. She works 10 hours per day, six days per week, for incredibly low wages by our standards (less than $500 per month). He helps out, but she insists on working.

So, in reference to the foregoing pike and what's coming down it, I have a post on that general topic as well. Prepare to have assumptions, stereotypes, and projections utterly, iconoclastically dismantled (in a gentle way...especially for the ladies who, in some sense, have a perfectly natural and logical disdain for this sort of thing).

...A few weeks ago I saw Pico munching on something and I asked what it was. He had no idea, but said it's a root, like a potato, but is crunchy and a little bit sweet, like an apple. He gave me one out of the fridge, which he recommended doing.

On the outside, it looks like a typical sweet potato, or what some erroneously call yams. Thanida had acquired them from up in Chiang Mai, 1000 miles away. There's some altitude up there and it's cooler. Apparently, this Andes native—colloquially known as Peruvian apple—grows well up there and a farmer ships them for 160 baht for a 5 kilogram box (11 pounds for $4.65, including shipping).

What are they? I snapped a photo and did an image search and one of the results was a plant called "yacon." Then image searching on that specifically confirmed it because of the melon or apple-like inside. (I always have to be careful typing it, because autocorrect thinks I mean bacon.)

A weighty financial decision, but I splurged for a 5k box of my own.

So, nothing much to see yet and your first query would naturally be various cooking alternatives.

But nope, you eat them raw.

I'll get to taste and texture in a bit. They're extra delicious and could easily be my favorite "fruit." I need to buy a blender so I can make smoothies from two of them and fart up a damn storm (1st hint).

I noticed something quite radical after eating a couple of them per day for a few days in a row. My ravenous hunger subsided. Remember what motivated me to try cutting out the booze? Complete loss of appetite. The rest of that story is history.

But when I stopped boozing and in 3 days had my appetite back, it went all Yin to Yang on me and I was hungry all the [damn] time. So, what I'm saying is, that experience was serendipity number one. I was in the ideal time and place to notice a profound change and it was highly correlated with consuming these things. Add to that, I know a thing or two about gut health, and profound flatulence informed me on that score.

Touted yacon syrup results

So I started looking into it, just idle Google searches, including for those touted to produce weight-loss results with before-after pics like the one to the left. Interestingly, there are few pics and not a lot of information. Contrasted with new and hyper-expensive Wegovy—which you'll learn about below—there's tons of stuff to be "found." Thanks, Google. One hopes there'll be lot more info about cheap yacon syrup soon. I'm sure you're anxious to include it in search results, right along with patented and expensive Wegovy.

I did come up with an interesting read and it contained a study with head-shaking results.


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What’s In Store For Me And You Right Now?

— It Comes As No Surprise… First and foremost, I hope you and yours are having an unfettered and merry little Christmas time. As I begin writing this, many of you are just sitting down to dinner or you’ve just finished it over in Ameriland. Just vid-chatted with my parents on WhatsApp. Dad’ll be 85…

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THE TWITTER FILES — FTA News — Monday, Dec. 12, 2022

— Catch Up; The Twitter Files; I’m All In on Twitter and Here’s Why; Food Preparations; Hit & Run; Pet Peeve Catch Up It has been a weird week. Low productivity. Low motivation. Low energy. I dunno, happens sometimes for inexplicable reasons, I guess. The only thing I can put my finger on is the…

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I’m All In on Twitter and Here’s Why

—Should I be embarrassed over making a big deal about deleting all social media accounts? In The Definitive Case For Deleting Social Media, I argued that good reasons for getting off it were: To the second point, above, I wrote: I think where it’s not creating more and more plain crazy people, sociopaths, psychopaths, and…

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FTA News — Monday, Dec 5, 2022 — HIT BY A CAR

— Cool Motorcycle Paint Job; Making Twitter Fun Again; I Got Hit By a Car; Excess Mortality; I Asked A Pregnant Woman “Boy or Girl” and Here’s What Happened; Food Pics, Recipes, and Reviews; Hit & Run Section; and My Pet Peeve Catch Up Inconsequential, but I did a 3-minute video trailer for this newsletter…

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I Asked a Pregnant Lady “Boy or Girl?” and Here’s What Happened

— I Wasn't Shocked, For a Good Reason

  • The Cute and Pregnant Thai Girl
  • Humanity vs. Inhumanity
  • Slippery Slopes Slide
  • Where Are Lines Drawn; When is Enough, Enough?
  • Video: Moral Outrage — Calling Out Conservatives, Republicans, & 2nders

The Cute and Pregnant Thai Girl

I met Kip shortly after moving into my new place in August.

She's a typical 25 year old young Thai lady. Very demure. Cute as a 45-kilo button (100 pounds). She did get a little grouchy when I guessed her age at 29, however. It's tough. Many age very little between 20 and 40.

She's my nextdoor neighbor and goes off to work every day to her secretarial job in a nearby hotel. When she comes home, it's into her room and hibernation until the next day. That was my sole observable critique of her personality. Seemed low energy.

I suspected she had a man in her life when one day she headed off for about a week. Then, a month or so later she headed off again. All was confirmed a few weeks back when an older, mature-presenting Thai man showed up to stay for a few days.

I didn't ask any questions. I don't pry, like that.

About then, she began wearing funny clothes. By funny, I mean baggy...and of a pretty stout fabric—like something you'd make curtains with. The first time, I thought nothing of it. When after some days and and seeing that's all she wore, I got the ah-ha moment.

Jesus I'm so clueless, sometimes...

So one evening when she returned home, I asked, "Kip, do you have a baby under there?"

Humanity vs. Inhumanity

First, life vs. its negation...non-life. Inanimate, inorganic, still, dead. Lifeless.

In the universe, life reproduces itself. For it not to do so could only mean that it's immortal or it's dying for keeps. It takes life to reproduce life.

There's nothing more fundamental. The further we move from single-cell organisms to animals, to mammals, to human "mamminals," the more participatory, playful, and enjoyable are the actions that surround reproduction. The more animal and human [animal] like they become.

Humans have many billion-dollar industries that touch on one or more aspects of reproduction...from dating to courting to wooing to attracting to preening to mating rituals to olfactory factors to silk linens. From a twinkle in an eye to foreplay to intercourse to a delivery room to a pink or blue nursery.

If you stop and really think on it, deeply, and follow all the connections and nuances, it's as though all of our human activity is, in one way or another, inexorably linked to reproducing our lives...to rejuvenate and renew.

Yet in so many places we can look, this core natural fundamental isn't understood or recognized. In many cul-de-sacs and ideological waypoints, reproduction is regarded as inconvenient at best, life destroying at worst.

Imagine what sort of ironic mind one must possess to craft a worldview where the very thing that rejuvenates all—reproduced life—is seen as detrimental to other "ideals" (ideals for whom and for what?) that somehow take precedence over the very thing that makes everything else not only possible, but meaningful.

Without life and renewed, reproduced life, all becomes meaningless.

What would be the point?

Black Friday to End of Year Sale

— 2 Months Free for Monthly Subscriptions
— $10 Off for Annual Subscriptions
— $25 Off for Pay-Once Lifetime Subscriptions
… That's $6 per Month with 2 Months Free; $40 for the 1st Year; or $225 for Life
BECAUSE … on January 1, 2023 ... ALL PRICES DOUBLE FOREVER.

[The Discount Code BLACKTO2023 Is Automatically Applied to All Orders]


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Elon Musk Is Making Twitter Fun Again — MTFA

— Twitter Means Nothing; Or Right Now, It Means Everything

And "Blazing Saddles" is Trending

  • What is Twitter, Anyway?
  • What Does The Left Think Elon Musk is Trying to Accomplish?
  • What is Elon Musk Really Accomplishing?
  • The Golden Helmet
  • Making Twitter Fun Again
  • My Account is Still Permanently Suspended
  • My Video

What is Twitter, Anyway?

It's just a social media platform with very limited features by design.

In fact, when it began, the character limit was 120, same as for SMS on phones. Since 2017 it's been 280 but still, that demands quite a bit of efficiency when attempting to get a complex idea off in one tweet.

It was dismissed by many as silly...and with various derisions such as "men don't TWEET!"

In spite of that, however, it gained lots of traction as a place to exchange serious ideas and many serious people have accounts on it because it's pretty damn efficient for that in ways what other platforms like Facebook and Instagram aren't.

Its brevity or, pithiness when at its best, is likely a good reason it has persisted and at least part of why a guy who builds cars and rocketships decided it was worth paying 44 Billion for.

Amongst the things Elon Musk thought about when deciding to buy the thing or not must have been whatever his take is on Twitter's role as a public town square; and if I think about that, isn't it common that in situations where a bunch of people are arguing or discussing ideas, that everyone just gets a few words?

Black Friday to End of Year Sale

— 2 Months Free for Monthly Subscriptions
— $10 Off for Annual Subscriptions
— $25 Off for Pay-Once Lifetime Subscriptions
… That's $6 per Month with 2 Months Free; $40 for the 1st Year; or $225 for Life
BECAUSE … on January 1, 2023 ... ALL PRICES DOUBLE FOREVER.

[The Discount Code BLACKTO2023 Is Automatically Applied to All Orders]


This content is for Monthly, Annual, and Lifetime members and this is a preview. Login or Join for 1-Year Early Access at the level you choose. You can also join the Newsletter with Free Stuff to your email every Sunday and Thursday.

All Paying-Member posts become public 1 Year from date of publication.


LoginJoin NowFree Stuff
Read More