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Your logic is sound and as a firm believer in individual freedom your life is to do yours with as you wish.
Consider however, that this is still a veryyyyy long way off and as your physical body begins to fail you (short of chronic disease like cancer or such), perhaps you will find less physical activities that add value to your life such that you don't want to stop the clock prematurely. Teaching, mentoring, star gazing, etc.
Who knows what the future may bring.
Perhaps I will find the inspiration to do something else in my 60s or 70s, after my knees finally betray me. Or perhaps I'll die tomorrow, or the very next day after I retire. One cannot predict the future, one must merely play the odds.
The key idea that I wished to convey is simply that I'm a selfish pragmatist. I wish to live life to the very fullest, but not hang around needlessly once there is no more joy and purpose in life.
That idea seems to be foreign to a lot of people. For years, the medical community in particular has focused on preservation and extension of life, largely without regard for quality of life. Over the past decade or two, we've begun to see a shift in this mindset.
In the US, we first saw this in the form of hospice care, with an emphasis on palliative medicine. Increasingly, there is a trend towards "discharge to home" for those near end of life who have a family environment which is able to receive them.
The trend in Canada seems to recognize that there are some people, both the elderly and those with terminal diseases, who do not have a "family at home" environment to return to.
Not sure why she's wearing a mask, but I had an identical incident on American Airlines. It's the Flight Attendants that have **** attitudes. They write checks they can't cash. Not that I believe terrorists used razor blades to take over jets before flying them into buildings, but I 100% understand now how 99ppl on a flight will shut up and act like sheep while 1 person gets treated like this - OR - the sheep will take the side of the flight attendants. In my case, the flight attendants thought they could A) force me to wear my mask the entire flight B) then tell me that my mask was offensive and I was REQUIRED to wear a different one because another passenger complained (in fairness I wrote AMERICAN AIRLINES SUCKS on my mask). Threatened me with air marshals and all that bullshit. but the entire time, it was them coming back to continue to antagonize me. They even tried that "I need your phone, you cannot take a video of me" bullshit.
As a guy formerly in the biz, and currently peripherally in the biz... that article is pretty accurate. Ever heard of Open Skies Treaty for instance (Joe, didn't you put that in your "interesting stuff" thread)? We let our enemies fly their spy aircraft over our country occasionally and there is no end to the "******* with them" when we do... drawing giant dicks on the roofs of buildings they want to look for example. Nobody spies better than we do when it comes to space and the Chinese aren't very far behind us. Something like this is textbook instability ops... get the other country to eat itself from the inside out politically... its not anything we need the Chinese to help with, but standard death by 1000 cuts stuff.
As a guy formerly in the biz, and currently peripherally in the biz... that article is pretty accurate. Ever heard of Open Skies Treaty for instance (Joe, didn't you put that in your "interesting stuff" thread)? We let our enemies fly their spy aircraft over our country occasionally and there is no end to the "******* with them" when we do... drawing giant dicks on the roofs of buildings they want to look for example. Nobody spies better than we do when it comes to space and the Chinese aren't very far behind us. Something like this is textbook instability ops... get the other country to eat itself from the inside out politically... its not anything we need the Chinese to help with, but standard death by 1000 cuts stuff.
as someone still in the biz, im not even the slightest concerned.
2 fires in less than a week. In USA and NZ largest egg producing farms. During an egg shortage. 150,000 dead hens. Total mystery on how either fire started. Must be climate change
The SARS-CoV-2 virus is still spreading worldwide, and there is an urgent need to effectively prevent and control this pandemic. This study evaluated the potential efficacy of Egg Yolk Antibodies (IgY) as a neutralizing agent against the SARS-CoV-2. We investigated the neutralizing effect of anti-spike-S1 IgYs on the SARS-CoV-2 pseudovirus, as well as its inhibitory effect on the binding of the coronavirus spike protein mutants to human ACE2. Our results show that the anti-Spike-S1 IgYs showed significant neutralizing potency against SARS-CoV-2 pseudovirus, various spike protein mutants, and even SARS-CoV in vitro. It might be a feasible tool for the prevention and control of ongoing COVID-19.
Aims: COVID-19 pandemic caused by SARS-CoV-2 has become a public health crisis worldwide. In this study, we aimed at demonstrating the neutralizing potential of the IgY produced after immunizing chicken with a recombinant SARS-CoV-2 spike protein S1 subunit.
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Conclusions: We demonstrated here that after immunization of chickens with our recombinant S1 protein, IgY neutralizing antibodies were generated against the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein S1 subunit; therefore, showing the potential use of IgY to block the entry of this virus.
The Taliban may have won the war in Afghanistan, but the jihadists who once spent their days riding horses in the countryside are now stuck behind a desk, lamenting their boring computer jobs, spending all their time on Twitter, high rent, and commutes to work.
It’s been almost two years since the U.S. withdrew from Afghanistan and the Taliban took over. In that time, the country’s new leaders have had time to take over its industries, occupy its buildings, and get very bored of the day-to-day drudgery of running the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan.
In a series of interviews with five former mujahideen turned government functionaries and police officers, the Afghanistan Analytics Network shed light on the inner lives of the men who spent a lifetime fighting an empire only to win and have to run a country.
The Afghanistan Analytics Network is a non-profit research agency. Researcher Sabawoon Samin conducted the interviews in person, primarily in Kabul. He interviewed five members of the Taliban to see how they’re adjusting to victory. “They ranged in age from 24 to 32 and had spent between six and 11 years in the Taliban, at different ranks: a Taliban commander, a sniper, a deputy commander and two fighters,” Samin said in his piece. After the fall of the Islamic Republic, the men secured jobs for the new government in Kabul. Two got civilian jobs and the other three got security positions.
Huzaifa, a former sniper, said life was simple and free during jihad. “All we had to deal with was making plans for ta’aruz [attacks] against the enemy and for retreating,” he said. “People didn’t expect much from us, and we had little responsibility towards them, whereas now if someone is hungry, he deems us directly responsible for that…the Taliban used to be free of restrictions, but now we sit in one place, behind a desk and a computer 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Life’s become so wearisome; you do the same things every day. Being away from the family has only doubled the problem.”
“I sometimes miss the jihad life for all the good things it had,” said 25-year-old Abdul Nafi. “In our ministry, there’s little work for me to do. Therefore, I spend most of my time on Twitter. We’re connected to speedy Wi-Fi and internet. Many mujahedin, including me, are addicted to the internet, especially Twitter.”
None of the interviewed men are native to Kabul, they’re all men from the provinces who moved into the city after the U.S. left. “I haven’t brought my family to Kabul, Omar Mansur told Samin. “The rent of houses is very high for us since our salary is no more than 15,000 afghanis [roughly 180 USD]. It is fully sufficient for Yahyakhel but not for Kabul. As soon as, God willing, I have a good salary, I will bring my family here.”
Mansu also complained about the traffic. “Last year, it was tolerable but in the last few months, it’s become more and more congested,” he said. Then he lamented the freedom he lost when the Taliban won the war.
“In the group, we had a great degree of freedom about where to go, where to stay, and whether to participate in the war,” he said “However, these days, you have to go to the office before 8 AM and stay there till 4 PM. If you don’t go, you’re considered absent, and [the wage for] that day is cut from your salary. We’re now used to that, but it was especially difficult in the first two or three months.”
A man named Kamran also lamented office life. “I’m sort of happy with my job but often miss the time of jihad. During that time, every minute of our life was counted as worship,” he said. “We used to live among the people. Many of us have now caged ourselves in our offices and palaces, abandoning that simple life. I’m very concerned about our mujahedin. The real test and challenge was not during the jihad. Rather, it’s now. At that time, it was simple, but now things are much more complicated. We are tested by cars, positions, wealth and women. Many of our mujahedin, God forbid, have fallen into these seemingly sweet, but actually bitter traps.”
Peace and civilization has its drawbacks, and the warriors of the Taliban have spent more than a generation fighting. It’s hard to flip the switch and make the transition. It’s still difficult not to miss the days of the jihad,” Abdul Nafi, a farmer, said, lamenting the pursuit of money that’s coming to dominate life in Afghanistan.
Nafi has also realized how replaceable he is.“There is a proverb in our area that money is like a shackle,” he said. “Now, if we complain, or don’t come to work, or disobey the rules, they cut our salary. Unlike jihad, now particularly, when the battles are long gone and the risk is zero, the Emirate could find countless people to work with them in return for a salary.”
02-02-2023, 12:38 PM
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