Word from the Dark Side – pilots sleep, Unabomber freaks, army weeps and whales napping in the deep

^{I Feel Love by Donna Summer, 1977}

Ethiopian Airlines flight misses Addis Ababa Airport because both pilots were asleep:

Instead of starting the descent, the aircraft continued its flight plan on autopilot until it flew over 37,000 feet altitude to its final destination, when the autonomous system was turned off and the warning signals would have roused the pilots.

Eat Pray Love Is Now… Colonial Oppression?

“A tourism director of The Gambia has told British women to stop visiting the country to have boink with younger men.

“The African country has become a popular destination for Brits ever since offering cheap package holidays in the 90s.

“But the destination has also developed a seedy reputation.”

The Eat Pray Love trend has had that effects on several equatorial nations. Gambia might just be the low-rent destination.

Thread:

On this day in 1998, Bill Clinton ordered a cruise missile attack on Sudan’s Al Shifa factory, which produced 90% of the country’s pharmaceuticals. The loss of the factory resulted in the deaths of tens of thousands from treatable diseases. pic.twitter.com/gypfiiqXia

— Friendly Neighborhood Comrade (@SpiritofLenin) August 20, 2022

Blood Gold: In Africa’s gold country an Australian mining firm is embroiled in a bitter and deadly $395 million dispute:

Outside the crawl pit, the stench of chlorine filled the air. The victims’ mouths frothed with poison.

“It was no accident,” says Head. “Blasting is done by procedure. You do it on a prescribed day and time each week. You have so many safety protocols around it. This was done on a completely different day and time of the week to the prescribed blast.

“We smelled explosives when we arrived but we suspected very strongly that the Chinese had used chlorine in their blasting. It’s not always the explosion that will kill you. It’s the gas from the explosion. When it is mixed with chlorine that becomes a toxic poison. It stays around longer and kills people.

“They were going out of their way to hurt, maim and kill people to stop them from stealing the gold that they were actually stealing from the Australian mine.

I’m noticing a lot of propaganda about China at the moment throughout the extended GAE universe so I take this with a grain of salt. Strongly doubt that Aussie mining companies are always the epitome of ethical conduct themselves. But for what it’s worth, there it is.

Our favourite little Aussie battler, Yassmin Abdel-Magied, speaks more about how she hates Australia, fantasizes about giving up her passport, but won’t do it.

But she admits her current life is only possible because Australia welcomed her family when they escaped the civil war-torn Sudanese capital of Khartoum in 1992.

‘I am grateful, sure. But to my parents, not to the system,’ she writes.

‘And that gratitude exists alongside an understanding that my privilege sprouts from blood-drenched soil in so-called Australia.’

Hmm, just stumbled upon this: she was once deported from the US.

^Source

Among many other reforms, immigrant countries should offer dissatisfied migrants down to the third generation (or longer) a flat, no-questions-asked, $20,000 and free ticket home if they agree to renounce their citizenship.

Did you know: if foreign residents talk shit about the Philippines, they get kicked out for six months or so. Seems fair.

Harvard did weird psychological experiments on the Unabomber before he started sending bombs:

Through research at the Murray Center and in the Harvard archives I found that, among its other purposes, Henry Murray’s experiment was intended to measure how people react under stress. Murray subjected his unwitting students, including Kaczynski, to intensive interrogation—what Murray himself called “vehement, sweeping, and personally abusive” attacks, assaulting his subjects’ egos and most-cherished ideals and beliefs.

Japanese scientists succeed at causing depression in monkeys using magnetic stimulation:

Canadian soldier suffering with PTSD offered euthanasia by Veterans Affairs:

Global News is not identifying the veteran who was seeking treatment due to privacy concerns but has spoken directly with the individual, who says the service agent brought up MAiD repeatedly and even after the veteran asked the service agent to stop.

The veteran said he felt pressured as a result.

He also said that the service agent told him in the call about having helped another veteran access resources for medical assistance in dying through Veterans Affairs Canada, including support for that person’s children who were struggling with the impending death.

^Source

Meanwhile in US military news:

Student loan forgiveness undermines one of our military’s greatest recruitment tools at a time of dangerously low enlistments.

— Jim Banks (@RepJimBanks) August 25, 2022

What happens when regime functionaries slip the leash?

A small but highly committed and totally ideologized faction developed inside the Kwantung Army [in Manchuria]. Several, in fact, and one of them (the Imperial Way faction) attempted an actual coup d’etat in 1936. It was put down, and the Imperial Way faction dissolved (in theory), but the problem of an intensely ideologized officer corps remained. Long story short, you had a small group of highly ideologized officers garrisoning a remote province pulling the entire Empire into big, unwinnable wars.

One could make the case that World War II in the Pacific was ultimately caused by about fifteen or twenty guys in the Kwantung Army.

This thread is interesting:

Has anyone else noticed search engines are “off”?

Dead Internet Theory is a theory that the internet as it exists now is empty, devoid of real people, and that the government is using the power of Al to gaslight the entire world
population.

Let’s investigate, time for a 🧵 👇

— Callan Goldeneye 👑 (@callangoldeneye) August 23, 2022

Nine hundred teachers in Queensland (not Victoria this time), Australia will have their pay cut as punishment for not getting the cardie and slacks:

Education Queensland is finalising disciplinary action against about 900 of 54,000 public schoolteachers, aides, administration staff and cleaners who were non-compliant with the state’s directive to get vaccinated.

“School staff were given ample opportunity to follow the lawful direction or provide evidence as to why they should be exempt from the direction since the vaccination requirements were announced in November 2021,” the department said in a statement on Wednesday.

The penalty imposed is specific to individual circumstances, but equates to a cut of of between $25 and $90 a week over 18 weeks, proportionate to normal pay.

‘We need to fix this’: Australian education ministers to address nationwide teacher shortages.

I went to a restaurant last week, 1st time since the before times. I scouted it first armed with a CO2 measurement device. Large place, only 2 or 3 tables occupied at a time, less than 500 ppm CO2 the whole time and they agreed to let me run a couple of HEPA filters beside table

— Aline Gomez (@AlineAGomez) August 20, 2022

Strange tale of a murder in 1960s rural America.

The Last Village:

There was an old man walking on the street. He was closely shadowed by an adolescent goose. The goose was large enough but still possessed its grey covering of down. It was anxious to remain as close as possible to its fatherly benefactor. I asked the man if the lane would take me to where I wanted to go, and he gave me some small directions to ensure that all would proceed as to my expectations. The goose stood nervously beside us as we spoke and then I bid the both of them farewell and proceeded on my way.

The Future and Its Citizens:

The 21st century is a very different case; birth rates have collapsed across the West, and states are wholly reliant on mass immigration to maintain population and access to workers in these aging societies. This is a fix with all sorts of problems attached to it, from higher competition for employment, to wage suppression, cultural non-affinities, ethnic and racial conflict, and so on. Despite all of these issues, the present cohort of western elites sees no other way to overcome the demographic challenges brought on by the collapse in birth rates. Others welcome this development for their own personal (and often financial) interests.

A discussion of various demographic issues that may be of interest to those who read my post about the global challenge of dealing with aging populations.

When sperm whales need a nap, they take a deep breath, dive down about 45 feet and arrange themselves into perfectly-level, vertical patterns. They sleep sound and still for up to two hours at a time between breaths, in pods of five or six whales, presumably for protection. 1/2 pic.twitter.com/yfFCff8Rrz

— Dr. Clayton Forrester (@DrClaytonForre1) August 23, 2022

That’s it from me. Next week I’m planning an effort post about a white monkey in China.

^HT

^{Source. HT}