Word of the day: Death. La mort. La Muerta Der Tod. смерть 死亡 Sǐwáng
How to get recruited by the British intelligence services
Which “in law”?
Free eBook Learn Chinese
SATURATION IN LANGUAGE: AKA IMMERSION
At first when learning any language we must actively apply ourselves, pro-actively seeking to understand what words sound like, mean, and how they are connected to form comprehensible sentences. This takes great effort. It is not easy. That is because the sounds are unfamiliar, the rhythms different, the words unknown. This is the level of foreign learning most students ever reach, which is unfortunate. Because:
In any language you learn if you work at learning it sufficiently you will eventually have saturated your brain with that language’s sounds, words, grammar structure, alphabet that you will be able to passively and effortlessly recognize words, sentences, and in the case of Chinese: characters.
Example: I heard French all my life. Blame Canada. When I was in the French army all that passive experience & many cognates meant it took me just three weeks to reach a2 or even b1. Later, at university in France, one day I could simply understand, passively, with no effort EVERYTHING on the television. The day before I could not. What happened? My brain had been saturated with enough French language and I had enough experiences that there I was, actually fluent. The language was no longer a tough task, in fact it was fun and easy. I could relax and was no longer tense trying to learn all the basics.
In Chinese, similarly, characters increasingly become immediately recognized, whereas at first they are terribly difficult.
My favorite French word? Bachotage. You simply need to bash the words into your brain often enough and long enough. Eventually they sink in!
My favorite language learning tactic? Sound-alikes and cognates. “Bash it in your brain” though a bit violent, sounds close enough to bachotage and basically means the same thing.
Always look for words and phrases in the new language which sound like words or phrases in some language you know and mean something similar. Cognates. Mots apparentes, Verwandte Woerter.
OPEN SORCERER
No one is flawless, which is why crowdsourced open source intelligence properly applied can be used to more easily outmaneuver strict hierarchical authoritarianism and better informed stove-piped closed-source intelligence. Put another way: None of us is as strong as all of us.
state-department-aims-to-build-on-open-source-effort-to-track-war-crimes-in-ukraine
BLOOD PURGES CONTINUE IN RUSSIA…
Russian-general-found-dead-weeks-after-being-fired-Putin
russian-general-poison-letter-ukraine-toxin-putin-ramzan-kadyrov-2023-2
Another Russian accidentally suicidally falls from an open window. Marina Yankina russian defense official window death
Wagner in Ukraine runs out of supplies begs Moscow for more!
Plan for Putin’s death. My best guess? Someone hit Putin with a nerve agent like VX, Sarin, he survived, but was clearly gravely injured video-vladimir-putin-constant-leg-movement It explains in part his catastrophic misjudgments and “now or never” attitude.
Analysis: Putin is doing exactly what Hitler did. Providing too little supply to keep a given unit motivated to fight, then when the unit proves by fighting well give it more supplies but still not quite enough, to keep the unit barely supplied or even under-supplied. Putin is also likely doing just as Hitler did, playing off the various branches of his armies against each other to favor the ones which prove loyalty to him. This can backfire, namely if his units start fighting against each other for what supplies are available. With Wagner, Patriot, Racoon PMCs, Chechen and Syrian mercenaries too as well as Russian regular army, mobilized mobiki, DNR and LNR, GRU Spetznaz and maybe even OMON; there are enough competing units that some will inevitably be disfavored and one will inevitably eventually start shooting at another to get the few supplies Moscow provides. Foster conflict among the various Russian military formation to foment civil war and make a Moscow coup likelier.
MORE SABOTAGE IN RUSSIA
russian-soldiers-learning-to-wreck-own-equipment
russ-doubled-its-army-in-2022-but-its-casualties-doubled-too
Seize Enemy Weapons! US military-weighs-sending-ukraine-weapons-and-ammo-seized-gunrunners
Defect! russian-military-bomber-engineer-seeks-asylum-at-us-border-offers-military-secrets
Or else russia-spy-putin-killed
Russia-is-losing-on-so-many-fronts-that-its-hard-to-keep-count
after-losing-an-eighth-of-their-helicopters-russians-switch-tactics
Russia-using-spy-balloons to make-ukraine-use-missiles
BAKHMUT
In war what matters is compelling the enemy to surrender or die; to do this we are best to create opportunities for them to surrender while destroying their supplies. Territory may be temporarily important as tending to contribute or hinder either of those goals but battles and wars are won or lost by armies, not by the hills they fight on. Ukraine's counterattacks on the two "points" the two "spearheads" of Russia's attempt to encircle Ukraine from two directions appear to have been comparatively successful. Bakhmut itself is unimportant: it is "merely" a place where the Ukrainins can defend, a point where each army knows where it is, more or less, and can fight, and are. In "find, fix, destroy" they have found each other. Maybe the Ukrainian forces in Bakhmut at this point are "fixed", and can't withdraw, certainly not easily? Withdrawl under fire is one of the most difficult military maneuvers. Each side is gambling it can destroy the other at Bakhmut. Since Ukraine very likely lacks the air assets for aerial resupply I advise an orderly withdrawl. It really depends on how much or how few Ukrainian supplies are already in Bakhmut and whether Ukraine can keep the sole road into Bakhmut under their control AND out of enemy artillery range. It's already likely within Russian artillery range so unles a great amount of materiel and supplies are already in Bakhmut it's probably time for an orderly withdrawl. I don't know enough of the "facts on the ground" to be 100% certain, but Bakhmut itself is unimportant, Killing or compelling the Russians attacking Bakhmut is. Preserving the Ukrainian forces defending Bakhmut also matters.
LEARN TO CODE.
No, I do not mean programming computers.
KEY: 攻车!
A B C D E F G
上 shàng up
尺 chě measure
工 gōng tool
凡 fán ordinary
六 liù six
五 wǔ five
乙 yǐ 1.
“All is Number!” - Pythagoras
BREAKTHROUGH TECHNOLOGIES:
Anti-gravity, light distortion (invisibility, whether through reflection or absorption), weather control, diseases and cures thereto, life extension (longevity), alternative energy, temporal distortion (note: gravity, light, time are definitely related but haven’t been demonstrated as related to electricity/magnetism even though there are clear analogies).
How would you invent a way to use the internet to send messages to the future and, more importantly, receive messages from the future?
How would you send objects backward or forward in time?
CHINA AND FOOD SECURITY
From the following video we can see the Chinese are aware that some might want to destroy the Chinese economy to hinder China’s capacity to wage war. Cambodia is one of or perhaps the closest countries to China. This is because back when Maoist genocidaire Pol Pot was intentionally killing off millions of his own people in Cambodia Mao and thus China doubled down in supporting him and the Khmer Rouge. Ideology matters.
Somebody’s lying and it’s not me. ny times china-covid-death-estimates
As I indicated last week we saw from cultural production that indeed China is concerned about food security, reiterated here:
齐民要术 Essential Techniques for the Welfare of the People Agricultural advice took root in society
What will they say about You 1000 years from now?
Modern English:
Analysis: Because China is less productive in agriculture their effort to self-sufficiency in food will drag down their economic growth. Although the USA does not starve out even its enemies and would not starve out China, nonetheless the efforts of China toward agricultural self-sufficiency ought not be discouraged: first, it allows them to channel their fears productively. Second, their own security in food will reduce their fears making wars less likely. Third, even if a country or countries attempted China’s efforts to self-sufficiency in agriculture that would provoke backlash and might well be ineffective. What would they do, sabotage seed grains? Finally, Chinese agriculture would be less productive to China’s economy than free-trade with more productive agricultural countries so if one saw China as an opponent their reduced economic performance as a result of moving to agricultural self-sufficiency would be beneficial. Economic competitors are competitors, even if the competition is friendly.
what-china-has-learned-ukraine-war
According to the Chinese calendar it isn’t 2023.
It’s 4721.
中共中央政治局常务委员会召开会议 听取近期新冠疫情防控工作情况汇报 中共中央总书记习近平主持会议 | CCTV「新闻联播」
The following one is rather ominous: it recalls the historic resettlement of North-East China but really foreshadows the resettlement by Chinese people of those parts of Russia which were formerly Chinese prior to their conquest by Russia.
Meanwhile:
Desperate Theocratic State Terrorist Begs Atheist Dictatorship for Help
See also: “Biting the hand that feeds you”…
I haven’t reviewed this yet but most Westerners misapprehend Chinese “political warfare”.
btw. people playing long game will know exactly what the following is really talking about:
“If you can hear this, don’t worry about me”
The Last one left standing: Wins.
CONTRACTS AND COMMAS
PROPER COMMATIZATION IS VITALLY IMPORTANT IN CONTRACT LAW
English unlike all the other languages I know uses commas
to mark a pause for breathing. Read it aloud. If you want to stop and breathe you can and maybe should put in a comma!
to mark parenthetical statements. “I love all languages, even Russian, because people are beautiful”.
Always before the word “which”
Optional before the word “that”
English — again, unlike ALL the other languages! — does not use commas to marke causal clauses “I went there because I wanted to”. No comma before “because”. You MIGHT put one there but ONLY if because is after a parenthetical phrase as above.
List commas: English can and does use commas to make lists. “I will explain: first, we do not need to capitalize after a colon. Second, we may use commas after numbered items to make clear this is the next in the series. Third, after the colon above we may or even must separate each listed item with a full-stop (UK), which is also called a period (US). Here is a better example of a list commas series.
“I am going to the store to buy butter, eggs, milk, and meat.” No comma before butter but a comma after each item in the list.
The Oxford comma is simply the idea that you use one comma for each item in comma separated list, and it is MUCH better writing style. Usually, this turns out to result in a comma appearing before “and”.
The use of “and” as well as “or” in all languages is conflicted. In contemporary English we correctly allow the use of the term “and/or” in cases where it is uncertain whether each, both, or all are intended. Chinese gets around this with "statement or” (或者)as opposed “question or” (还是)。 Unfortunately European languages so far as I see do not distinguish “or” in questions from “or” in statements. Another way to disambiguate “or” is to expressly say “A or B and possibly both”. “A or B but not both”. Chinese also as inclusive “we” (我们)(=we including you) and exclusive “we” (咱们) (we as opposed to others, you’re excluded)。 咱们国家 ;我们的国家.
Examples “you and I are going, but not Mary”. “You, I, and Mary are going”. Note: English admits nominative OR accusative/dative, though nominative is more correct since I is a subject here. “You and me, along with Mary, we are all going!” good rule is that comma may or may not precede “and”, as well as “or” and so reread very carefully any sentence in a contract wherever the terms “and”, “or” appear, always double check your commas, and if necessary include a contractual term like “In cases of doubt as to interpretation of any clause of this contract the Germn version is authentic and controls the interpretation”. This is lawful and smart since German commatization is strict and regular, unlike English commatization. A preamble in the contract which states the purpose of the contract is also good draftsmanship since such preamble has interpretive value for understanding the sense and meaning of the terms of the contract (sinn und Zweck).
Careless draftsmanship, sloppy commatization, can ruin your contract. Where a contract’s terms are ambiguous the court can and does intervene to interpret the contract consistent with its purpose! But you or your client may not like that result, so draft your contract properly with good commatization, spell-check, run it through grammerly, and even give it to a native speaker for a quick review.
In principle commas in English mark pauses for breathing and only secondarily indicate logical intention. This is unlike other languages and why reading your writing aloud is always a good idea. It forces different parts of your brain to work on your writing.
Some of my former French students will recognize this one:
And now in Russian!
BELOW ARE SOME OF MY ROLE MODELS.
“The price of freedom is eternal vigilance.”
When the U.S. Secretary of State feels compelled to inform China it ought not arm Russia I feel compelled to reiterate certain points: 1. People love to be asked but hate to be told. Suffice it to say, were China to break its own policy of neutrality and non-intervention that would reflect badly on Beijing’s credibility. Like Alinsky says: make the other guy keep his promises. It would very likely also have the consequence of various forms of legal but unfriendly U.S. countermeasures. As one who admires Chinese culture and successes I wish China great prosperity, and war is the destroyer of prosperity. To put it in hard line Marxist terms: proletarian internationalism and solidarity among peoples are why China cannot choose to arm either side of a war between proletarian countries. China could perhaps mediate, or even install (at great risk to their own lives!) Chinese peace keeping forces. In fact the wisest move for China is to do nothing differently. Sometimes when two people are fighting all one can do is step back and hope they stop. Sad, but true: China’s pre-war commitments, history, and ideology are why it is unlikely to “flip” and support Ukraine.
Unlikely is not impossible.
Now you fine gentlemen making bank wearing suits play nicely, lest more like me come out of the wouldwork.
CLICK HERE AND SEE WHERE IT LEADS.
Go on, do it…