Vision Times Newspaper VOL.35 SEP 3,2021 by Vision Times -Bringing you Truth, Inspiration, Hope

VOL.035 SEP 3 - SEP 9 , 2021

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By Kalina Valqurey Vision Times

IDA AFTERMATH:

n the aftermath of Hurricane Ida, New Orleans metro residents were left on what local electric supplier Entergy calls an ‘island’ without power following “catastrophic transmission failure” at all eight grid access points. In assessing the impact of the electrical outage the governor of Louisiana John Bel Edwards estimated conservatively that two million people could be without electricity. Speaking Monday morning, CEO of Entergy New Orleans, Deanna Rodriguez, said there was no ETA for power restoration because comprehensive damage assessment had not occurred. In a separate Monday press event, Governor Edwards provided more granular details. He said the power companies are assessing the situation and “The bad news is there are eight main transmission lines going into the New Orleans area, all of which failed. The good news is there are eight lines and they’re not all going to be damaged the same, and so we believe that there should be an opportunity to power up New Orleans relatively soon through one of those lines…and while we’re talking about New Orleans, I want you to know, this is the issue for all of southeast Louisiana.”

2 Million Without Power, Mississippi Highway Collapse (Image:Getty Images)

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Edwards explained that the impact of the electrical outage may be more than the reports are detailing because “…it really isn’t a million people without power, it’s a million accounts. So, those are homes or businesses.” He estimated it could be very safely said that there were two million without power. The governor said well over 20,000 linemen, the largest deployment in the history of the state, were coming to restore power. One of the eight transmission points that the governor mentioned was found to be beyond repair, as the 400-foot tower had been twisted by Ida’s winds and toppled, leaving electric lines from a 3800-foot span dunked into the Mississippi River.

The National Weather Service reported that 13 inches fell in the state and another source reported that 8 fell locally, but it was not detailed how rapidly this occurred.

Highway roadbed saturated, killing two

A deadly void appeared on a dark busy highway awash with torrential rains from Hurricane Ida, when a 60 foot wide, 30 foot deep hole suddenly opened up in front of drivers. According to Mississippi Highway Patrol Cp. (Image:Getty Images)

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Leaked Pfizer Doc Shows Employees Can Remain Unvaccinated Government push

By Arvind Datta Vision Times

ecently leaked internal documents from Pfizer reveal that the company has not insisted that its employees must have COVID-19 vaccines. The leak comes at a time when some businesses have fired employees for refusing vaccinations and the Biden administration is looking at options to empower companies to order vaccinations. Images of a Pfizer booklet written by Executive Vice President and Chief Human Resources Officer Payal Betcher are circulating online which shows that the company is only mandating coronavirus testing for its unvaccinated employees rather than demanding that they be given the jab. The company hopes that unvaccinated American employees get their COVID-19 shots “as soon as possible.” However, Pfizer does not insist on it nor mention any specific reprisal for refusing inoculation. Pfizer’s decision to not mandate vaccination among employees comes in stark contrast to some establishments that have made inoculations a necessity. Big names like Microsoft, Tyson Foods, and United Airlines have mandated COVID-19 vaccinations. A July 19 survey conducted by Mercer found that 14 percent of businesses now require employees to be inoculated to work at a company site. The survey covered over 200 American employers. Since the beginning of the pandemic, roughly 2,950 COVID-19 related employment lawsuits have been filed in the country.

We are looking at that just to see how far employers can go when it comes to vaccines and asking their employees to be vaccinated… It’s on the radar. U.S. Labor Secretary Marty Walsh told Reuters.

Washington is looking for ways to support American businesses that mandate COVID-19 vaccines. “We are looking at that just to see how far employers can go when it comes to vaccines and asking their employees to be vaccinated… It’s on the radar,” U.S. Labor Secretary Marty Walsh told Reuters. Some companies are concerned that they might be exposed to discrimination lawsuits if they make vaccines mandatory for employees. However, President Joe Biden has stated that he will “have their backs and the backs of other private and public sector leaders” should such a situation emerge. Interestingly, the federal government, the biggest employer in America, has still not mandated COVID-19 vaccines. White House press secretary Jen Psaki revealed that the Biden administration is exploring a “range of options” to continue mounting a “wartime response” against the coronavirus.

Some local governments have already begun requiring vaccinations. States like Denver and Massachusetts have announced mandatory vaccines. California, the most populated state in America, is requiring all state employees to prove that they have been vaccinated, failing which they have to wear a mask at the office and get tested once every week. In New York City, Mayor Bill de Blasio has asked private companies to require vaccines for their employees. The city’s 300,000 municipal workforce face dismissal without pay if they refuse to get vaccinated.

Booster shots, Billions in revenue

Meanwhile, the U.S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has given the green signal to administer the third dose of COVID-19 vaccines for immunocompromised individuals, a decision that will inevitably benefit Pfizer that has been pushing to get booster shots approved. Pfizer and Moderna, manufacturers of the two most popular coronavirus vaccines in the United States, have made billions from the sale of COVID-19 vaccines, locking in more than $60 billion in sales for 2021 and 2022. Booster shots will add to their revenues. Israel was the first country to begin administering a third dose of Pfizer vaccine to its citizens. A survey of 4,500 people who received booster shots showed that most of the recipients experienced fewer or similar side effects as compared to the second dose. One percent of the survey participants sought medical treatment due to a side effect while 0.4 percent suffered from difficulty in breathing.

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California Teacher Admits Using His Classroom to Turn Students Into ‘Revolutionaries’ By Neil Campbell Vision Times

teacher at a public high school in California was recently caught on hidden camera admitting he uses his classroom to indoctrinate his students for the purpose of turning them into communist “revolutionaries.” In an Aug. 31 expose posted by investigative journalist team Project Veritas, Gabriel Gipe, an Advanced Placement teacher at Inderkum High School in Sacramento, California, was recorded as bragging that his political views are “probably as far left as you can go.” “I have 180 days to turn them [students] into revolutionaries,” he said. When asked how he does that, Gipe’s reply was, “Scare the f*ck out of them.” It was also revealed in the segwww.visiontimes.com

ment that Gipe hangs an Antifa flag and a poster of Mao Zedong, chairman of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and a mass murderer responsible for more deaths than Hitler and Stalin combined, in his classroom. In the video, Gipe said one of his students complained about the flag in an anonymous survey distributed by the school at the end of a semester. Gipe confronted his class after receiving the critical feedback and used it as a way to intimidate his pupils, “Well, this [Antifa flag] is meant to make fascists feel uncomfortable, so if you feel uncomfortable, I don’t really know what to tell you. Maybe you shouldn’t be aligning with the values that this [Antifa flag] is antithetical to.”

‘Extra credit’

The teacher told the undercover

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Gipe was recorded in this hidden camera interview published by the Project Veritas investigative journalist team admitting that he is a member of Sacramento Antifa. (Image: YouTube)

reporter he and his wife are “political organizers,” with Gipe saying he’s been involved in community organization since he was 13. He said, “I’ve been in a ton of different organizations and I’ve been on the front lines and I’ve taken a step back.” Later in the segment, Gipe identified himself as a member of the Sacramento chapter of Antifa, which he said has “no official, like, member list, right?” Gipe declared this as the reason

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he participates in what he calls “political efficacy events” and why he wants to ”get them [students] out in the community.” He explained, “I post a calendar every week…I’ve had students show up for protests, community events, tabling, food distribution, all sorts of things.” Gipe also revealed that his students are incentivized or disincentivized to participate in farleft activities through their grades, “When they go, they take pictures, write up a reflection — that’s their extra credit.” And he may be right. A July study from the Institute of Economic Affairs, a UK-based think tank, found that 67 percent of Millennial and Gen Z respondents said they wanted to live under socialism, “Young people associate ‘socialism’ predominantly with positive terms, such as ‘workers’, ‘public’, ‘equal’ and ‘fair’. Very few associate it with ‘failure’ and virtually nobody associates it with Venezuela, the erstwhile showcase of ‘21st Century Socialism’,” said author Dr. Kristian Niemietz in the report. 212-730-696

US Oklahoma Congressman Markwayne Mullins ‘Completely Safe’ After Reported Lost on a ‘Rogue Mission’ in Afghanistan

Oklahoma Congressman Markwayne Mullin. (Image: Greg Nash-Pool/Getty Images)

By Kalina Valqurey Vision Times

klahoma Congressman Markwayne Mullins has resurfaced, albeit via social media. The last sighting of the Oklahoma Republican congressman was at the US embassy in Tajikistan, where an embassy employee said Mullins argued with him regarding the rules applied to how much cash could be brought into Afghanistan. Mullins was planning to enter Afghanistan with cash to charter a helicopter to rescue a woman and her four children, American citizens left behind when the United States military ended its presence in the conflict-torn country. However, the US embassy was blocking Mullins’ transport of the amount of cash that he felt was needed for the rescue. The embassy employee said the Congressman threatened the employee. The US State Department commented on Tuesday that this was very dangerous and that the Congressman’s whereabouts were unknown. US embassies are under the jurisdiction of the US State Department. As of late Tuesday, US officials were unsure of Congressman Markwayne Mullin’s location. He was widely framed in the media to be “lost” in Afghanistan on a “rogue mission.” However, an update from his own spokesperson that hit press Wednesday morning said the Congressman was “completely safe.” Mullins himself posted on Instagram later in the day on Wednesday: “Have we been helping get Americans out of Afghanistan, yes. Is the mission continuing, yes. Am I missing, no. Did I go dark for a little, yes because it wasn’t safe to be communicating.” The Congressman’s appearance was wearied and serious. His post continued with a portion not widely quoted in the press: “Am I extremely disappointed in how we (United States) left Americans behind… that would be an understatement. President Biden and his administration are absolutely lying to the American people about Americans and our friends being left behind. So many great Americans, many who are Veterans and many who are not, are stepping up to keep our promise… We will never leave an American behind.” This incident is occurring on the heels of Nancy Pelosi’s censure of two democratic congressional members who journeyed to Afghanistan on their own last week on a fact-finding mission.

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Relatives of Slain US Soldiers Criticize Biden’s Conduct at Dignified Transfer Ceremony By Neil Campbell Vision Times

ultiple families of the 13 U.S. soldiers who were killed in the Aug. 26 suicide bombing at Kabul Airport have publicly voiced criticism of President Joe Biden’s conduct during the dignified transfer of remains ceremony conducted at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware on Aug. 29 when the fallen service members returned to America for their funerals. The most contentiously outspoken is Shana Chappell, the mother of 20-yearold Marine Corps Lance Cpl. Kareem M. Nikoui, who blasted Biden in an Aug. 30 Facebook post, where she said, “Remember i am the one who stood 5 inches from your face and was letting you know i would never get to hug my son again, hear his laugh and then you tried to interrupt me and give me your own sob story,” referring to President Biden speaking to several families about his own son, Beau Biden, who served in the military and died of cancer. According to Wikipedia, Joseph Robinette “Beau” Biden III was born in 1969. Beau joined the National Guard in 2003, became a Major in the Judge Advocate General’s Corps of the 261st Signal Brigade, and was deployed to Iraq in 2008 where he served for a year while simultaneously acting as Delaware’s Attorney General, a term which spanned from 2007 to January of 2015. Beau was diagnosed with a brain tumor in 2010 and diagnosed with a severe brain cancer in 2013. He passed away from the disorder on May 30, 2015. Chappell said rather bluntly that she told President Biden after he turned the topic towards Beau “that this isn’t about you so don’t make it about you!!!” Afterwards, she says Biden told her he was only trying to say he understood her feelings, an argument which Chappell rejected. In other Instagram posts reported by the New York Post, Chappell revealed herself as a supporter of former President Donald Trump who regards Biden as an illegitimate President. The same day, Instagram disabled the mother’s account. Parent company Facebook reinstated the account on Aug. 31. In a statement, the company expressed their condolences to Chappell, stating the posts did not violate any policies and claimed that her account was disabled in error. The family of another 20-year-old fallen soldier, Lance Corporal Rylee McCollum, told Fox on Aug. 31 that they rejected the invitation to meet with President Biden, saying they had “no desire.” However, Rylee’s sister, Cheyenne, decided to meet with the President alongside McCollum’s widow. Cheyenne said, “I was able to stand about 15 seconds of his fake, scripted apology and I had to walk away.” When asked why, Cheyenne was paraphrased as saying, “That the president would not look at the family in the eye and spent the three-minute conversation talking about www.visiontimes.com

his late son, Beau Biden, rather than Rylee or the other 12 service members who perished last week in the ISIS-K attack near Kabul airport.” Afghanistan’s former Vice President, Amrullah Saleh, said on Aug. 26 that ISISK is actually just an arm of the Taliban. “There was not an ounce of sympathy looking at his face,” added Cheyenne.

SEP 3 - SEP 9, 2021 |

Ida Aftermath: 2 Million Without Power Mississippi Highway Collapse

Watching the clock

Some other family members that met with the President were critical of what was construed as an apparent expression of boredom. In some photos and videos taken during the dignified transfer ceremony, Biden is clearly seen looking at his wristwatch. In an Aug. 30 report by Breitbart, CSPAN video is shown of the President, reportedly about 40 minutes into the ceremony, standing in the wind wearing a black mask while holding his hand on his chest to pay respects. Biden appears to close his eyes, yawn for several seconds, and then checks his wristwatch on his left hand before quickly putting his hands behind his back. Mark Schmitz, father of slain 20-year-old Marine Lance Cpl. Jared Schmitz, shared a story similar to Shana Chappell’s with The Washington Post on Aug. 30 where he recounted President Biden talking about Beau Biden before Schmitz interrupted him with a photo of his dead son and said, “Don’t you ever forget that name. Don’t you ever forget that face. Don’t you ever forget the names of the other 12…And take some time to learn their stories.” In an Aug. 31 interview with Fox News, Schmitz also complained about the President’s conduct during the ceremony as he told the outlet he saw Biden check his watch at least four times, “I leaned into my son’s mother’s ear and I said ‘I swear to God if he checks his watch one more time’…I couldn’t look at him anymore after that.” “Considering the time and why we were there, I found it to be the most disrespectful thing I’d ever seen,” Schmitz added. The Post also noted Schmitz claimed an unidentified female family member of an additional service member screamed in grief across the tarmac at Joe Biden, “I hope you burn in hell! That was my brother!” Schmitz said in response, “I can’t fault her for it. We all lost somebody.” In an Aug. 30 interview, also with Fox News, Darin Hoover, father of 31-year-old slain Marine Staff Sgt. Taylor Hoover Jr., said he made the decision not to meet with Biden precisely because of the President’s conduct during the dignified transfer ceremony. Hoover’s rationale was that he claimed to have witnessed Joe Biden check his watch 13 times, each time a slain soldier’s body was removed from the airplane, “That didn’t happen just once. It happened on every single one that came out of that airplane. It happened on every single one of them. They would release the salute, and he would look down at his watch on every last one, all 13, he looked down at his watch.” “As a father, seeing that and the disrespect, and hearing from his former leaders, one of [Taylor’s] master sergeants said … that this was avoidable — that they left them over there: They had them over there and let them down, and we can’t have that. It can’t happen ever again.” “We said absolutely not. We didn’t want to deal with him, we didn’t want him anywhere near us. We as a family decided that that was the way it was going to be,” said Hoover. According to Daily Mail UK, Press Secretary Jen Psaki was asked by Fox News reporter Jacqui Heinrich during an Aug. 31 press conference about both the wristwatch debacle and families feeling Biden’s apology was scripted. Psaki only replied, “Well I would say his message to all of the family members, who were there, those who were not even in attendance, is that he is grateful to their sons and daughters, the sacrifice that they made to the country…That he knows firsthand what it’s like to lose a child and the fact no one can tell you anything, or say anything, that there’s no words that are going to fill that hole that is left by that.”

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Rescuers on Monday combed through the "catastrophic" damage Hurricane Ida did to Louisiana. (Image:Getty Images)

Continued from FRONT

Cal Robertson, drivers may not have seen the hole and cars were left “stacked on top of each other,” on both east and westbound lanes. Two people were killed and ten injured in the incident, which took place shortly before 10:30 p.m. Monday on Highway 26 west of Lucedale, Mississippi, about 60 miles northeast of Biloxi. Robertson said that many people drove their cars into the hole, with their vision obscured by the pouring rain. One high school senior is in critical condition after the car he was driving dropped into the hole. Kelly Castleberry, district engineer for the Mississippi Department of Transportation, said “It is a slide, which means the ground under the roadway and embankment was super-saturated and we can tell right now that’s what caused the slide.” A berm was washed away beneath the road, leaving a swath of newly exposed red clay and creating a hole 20 – 30 feet deep that spanned both east and west-bound lanes when the highway above it collapsed. Mississippi southern district Transportation Commissioner Tom King said he knew of nothing unusual regarding the soil composition at the point of the slide,

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but said “we just got bombarded” with an overwhelming downpour. The National Weather Service reported that 13 inches fell in the state and another source reported that 8 fell locally, but it was not detailed how rapidly this occurred.

How red clay contributed to the collapse

Research by Vision Times staff reveals that conditions may be ripe for additional infrastructure instability in the area. Footage from a Biloxi Sun Herald drone video shows that local soil — red clay — comprised the subsoil beneath the highway embankment; whether it had been reinforced with basalt is unclear. As southern builders all know, red clay is a highly plastic soil that, like most heavy clay content soils, is prone to instability when saturated. According to engineering experts, the subsequent drying of the soil in late summer; following the swelling that occurs in plastic clay soils during a wet year, brings excessive shrinkage. The sudden saturation of August’s dry and brittle soil with 8 to 13 inches of heavy rain seems to have had a disastrous effect upon Mississippi’s busy Highway 26.

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A4 | SEP 3 - SEP 9, 2021

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TO BLACKLISTED HUAWEI

(Images: BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/Getty Images)

Biden Allows Sale of American Auto Chips

Joe Biden’s administration recently approved the sale of hundreds of millions of dollars worth of auto chips to Huawei despite it being listed on a trade blacklist. The CCPbacked Global Times claimed in an article that American companies forced Washington to make this decision.

By Arvind Datta Vision Times

The licenses will allow American firms to sell vehicle components like sensors and video screens to the Chinese company. The article states that Huawei used to be one of the biggest customers of the American chip industry prior to being blacklisted for trade by the Trump administration. Huawei spent $12 billion annually buying chips from the United States, contributing to 40,000 American jobs, says the report. The article concluded that the ban on the sale of components to Huawei negatively affected American companies. Ma Jihua, a close Huawei follower and veteran industry analyst, stated that Washington will get more lenient on chip sales. “The U.S. will relax chip bans on Huawei in the future; since it has already realized that its sanctions could be less threatening to the Chinese firm’s overall business than previously thought, and U.S. firms’ businesses also hinge on the company,” Ma told the Global Times. Republican Senator Marco Rubio

Biden administration continues to jeopardize Americans’ safety and security while handing strategic advantages to our adversaries… He must immediately reverse this decision. --Wenstrup said in a statement.

challenged the Biden administration’s decision to approve the sale of auto chips to Huawei. Rubio said it’s an example of the government failing to protect America’s national and economic security. In a statement, the senator said that Huawei is an “arm of the Chinese Communist Party.” The company has a “long history” of

stealing intellectual property and exporting Beijing’s digital authoritarianism. He asked the Biden administration to increase restrictions and penalties on Huawei and other Chinese tech firms rather than granting waivers. Republican Representative Brad Wenstrup is the GOP leader of the House Defense Intelligence subcommittee. Wenstrup declared the decision to be another one of Biden’s foreign policy failures. “Whether it be through approving the Nord Stream 2 pipeline in Russia, the disastrous mishandling of the Afghanistan withdrawal, or now reports of allowing the sale of microchips to a [Chinese Communist Party]-backed telecom giant, the Biden administration continues to jeopardize Americans’ safety and security while handing strategic advantages to our adversaries… He must immediately reverse this decision,” Wenstrup said in a statement.

Auto chip shortage

Biden’s decision comes as the world is facing chip shortages triggered by a year of COVID-19 pandemic restrictions and lockdowns. The production of semiconductor

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chips declined with factory shutdowns. The hardest-hit sector has been the auto industry. Many automakers canceled their chip orders due to the ongoing pandemic. However, the restrictions also meant that demand for computers, 5G equipment, and gaming systems skyrocketed. By the time automakers realized that people still wanted to buy vehicles, they were pushed back in the queue for chips. As a result, experts predict manufacturing activity in the auto sector to decline this year. According to a report by IHS Markit, the chip crisis will not be over before Q2, 2022. It predicted the global auto industry to manufacture up to 7.1 million fewer vehicles this year. Additionally, Malaysia’s COVID-19 lockdown will also affect supply chains in the near term. The country is an important destination for the assembly and testing of devices that control car engines. There is an increased push to expand chip production capacities worldwide as countries realize the importance of the sector. The U.S. is pushing forward legislation worth $52 billion to develop the industry. South Korea announced

an investment of $450 billion while the EU wants to invest $160 billion in semiconductors. “The push for building IC capacity around the world will certainly drive fab investment of the current decade to a new high… We expect to see record spending and more new fab announcements in the next few years,” Christian Gregor Dieseldorff, senior principal for semiconductors at SEMI, told IEEE Spectrum. In an interview with CBS News, Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger said that the United States accounted for 37 percent of global semiconductor manufacturing 25 years ago. Now, it accounts for just 12 percent. He said that the situation “doesn’t sound good” and wants Washington to partner with the private sector to invest in the country’s chip manufacturing capabilities. “Relying on one region, especially one as unpredictable as Asia, is highly risky. Intel has been lobbying the U.S. government to help revive chip manufacturing at home – with incentives, subsidies, and-or tax breaks, the way the governments of Taiwan, Singapore, and Israel have done,” Gelsinger said.

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SEP 3 - SEP 9, 2021 |

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China’s Marriage Rates

PLUMMET

In China, ‘Xi Jinping Thought’ Now Compulsory Learning for Students

for Seventh Year in a Row

as Divorce Rates

By Todd Crawford Vision Times

PEAK

s part of the Chinese Communist Party’s sweeping education reforms “Xi Jinping Thought” has been incorporated into curriculums for grade school students to graduate students. The intent is to extend the indoctrination to children as young as seven and to grow a new generation of patriots loyal to the Party and Xi. China’s education ministry has said it will incorporate Xi’s loosely defined ideology into the national curriculum at the start of the new school year on Wednesday, Sept. 1.

By Todd Crawford Vision Times

In primary schools to graduate programs

hinese officials have stated that the majority of young people in the “post-90s” generations are reluctant to get married amidst a high cost of living and skyrocketing divorce rates which is further exacerbating China’s looming population crisis. According to data recently released by China’s civil affairs department there are currently approximately 170 million “post-90s” people in China but no more than 10 million of them have registered for marriage. Experts believe this number should be upwards of 70 to 80 million. Data, released by China’s National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) indicates that the number of Chinese people, getting married for the first time, has plummeted 41 percent from 23.8 million in 2013 to 13.9 million in 2019. Compounding the issue is a divorce rate which is being reported to be as high as 35 percent. Xinhua, a state-run media outlet, published figures last month showing that only 8.131 million marriages were registered across China last year, representing the seventh year in a row that marriage rates have declined. Bi Xin, a sociologist in China who studies youth issues told Radio Free Asia, that “the concept of marriage among young people has fundamentally changed under the current situation, with young people treating marriage as a form of bondage in the first place.” Bi cited the high cost of getting married and having children and unstable incomes as making it difficult for young Chinese people to take the plunge.

“Officials acknowledge that ‘more and more young people of marriageable age do not want to get married,’ leading to an increasingly serious problem of an aging population,” Radio Free Asia reported. Currently, China’s working-age population — people between the ages of 15 and 59 — is in free fall. This age group has dropped from 70.1 percent of the population a decade ago to 63.3 percent today, according to AP. The Chinese Labor Ministry, under previous policies, feared that the number of working-age people could fall to half the population by 2050. This would be disastrous for China’s economy. While this coveted age group shrinks, the percentage of the population 65 years old and older is ballooning from 8.9 percent of the population a decade ago to 13.5 percent today, representing a direct threat to the ruling party’s economic and political ambitions. Recently, Chinese authorities have attempted to manufacture a baby boom with sweeping new policies that include the provision for families to have upwards of three children. A policy that stands in stark contrast to its previously held policy of only one child. It will be increasingly difficult for China to address it’s population crisis without addressing declining marriage rates amongst it’s populace.

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Younger Generations Balk at Marriage

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According to a government notice concerning the new curriculum primary school teachers must now, “plant the seeds of loving the party, the country and socialism in young hearts.” New school books now brandish quotes by the president along with images of his smiling face with chapters detailing the achievements of China’s civilization and the Communist Party’s role in addressing the COVID-19 pandemic and poverty alleviation among other things. One text book reads, “Grandpa Xi Jinping is very busy with work, but no matter how busy he is, he still joins our activities and cares about our growth.” Another reads, “The relationship between the party and the law is a fundamental issue. If it is handled well, the rule of law will prosper, the party will prosper, the country will prosper; if it is not handled well, the rule of law will fail, the party will fail, the country will fail.” “Patriotism, the deepest and most enduring emotion in the human world, is the source of a person’s virtue and merit.” reads another. “Xi’s Thought” includes 14 principles that were enshrined in the Chinese constitution during the 2018 legislative meeting that also abolished term limits and established a way for Xi to rule indefinitely. The 14 principles include ensuring CCP leadership over all forms of work in China as well as the continuation of “comprehensive deepening of reforms.” Principle 12 promotes the one country, two systems for Hong Kong and Macau but also aims for “complete national reunification” and to follow the OneChina policy. The principles also include a provision to establish “a common destiny between Chinese people and other people around the world with a ‘peaceful international environment.’” The reforms come as part of a wider campaign to fight what the Party considers corrupting influences on its youth, from video games to foreign education resources. Xi also is currently gunning for a norm-breaking third term in office, a move that faces strong resistance from political rivals despite his having consolidated a great deal of authority since coming to power in 2012. P.O. Box 3962, Merrifield, VA 22116

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A6 | SEP 3 - SEP 9, 2021

Israel Vaccine Passport

Now EXPIRES After SIX MONTHS By Neil Campbell Vision Times

srael’s vaccine passport QR-code system, Green Pass, will now expire six months after the second injection is received, making a third, and possibly fourth, booster shot effectively mandatory to continue participation in Israel’s mainstream society. On Aug. 29, Israeli health officials announced at a press conference that effective Oct. 1, fully vaccinated Green Pass validation status would expire six months after the second dose is received, according to news website Arutz Sheva. Nachman Ash, Director General of Israel’s Health Ministry, also announced the age limit to receive the third injection had been reduced to 12. When Israel’s booster distribution was announced on Aug. 1, the age minimum was 60 and halved to 30 during the week of Aug. 23. On Aug. 24, Haaretz reported Health Minister Nitan Horowitz as saying in comments given on Channel 13 Television, “This is simply because, in terms of its effectiveness, the vaccine is valid only for a period of five or six months.”

Boosters Required

“After about half a year, you have to get a third dose. Otherwise, the vaccine loses its power.” Horowitz continued, “The Green Pass testifies that a person is safe in a certain way… So the moment we know that the vaccine loses its effectiveness after a certain period,

"Green Passport" in Israel. (Image: Ilia Yefimovich/picture alliance via Getty Images)

there’s no justification for giving a green pass to someone who hasn’t gotten another dose.” The Minister was paraphrased as saying “the booster will become a requirement for a Green Pass only when the shot is available to everyone aged 12 and older.” At the time of his comments, the age limit was still 30. According to Times of Israel, when Horowitz was questioned at the Aug. 29 press conference about whether a fourth dose would be required in the future to maintain vaccine passport status, he simply replied, “It is too early to speak about the end of the fourth wave.” Yet in early August, Dr. Kobi Haviv, Medical Director of Herzog Hospital in Jerusalem, the Capital’s third largest hospital, selfdescribed as “Israel’s foremost center for geriatric, respiratory, mental health and psychotrauma care, treatment and research,” told Channel 13 that 95 percent of severely ill Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) patients were vaccinated individuals. In July, the Israeli Minister of Health had to concede the Pfizer-BioNTech injection’s efficacy had plummeted to a meager 39 percent when facing the Delta Variant.

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Taliban Forces Overrun US Military Assets, But Can They Use the High-Tech Equipment? By Prakash Gogoi Vision Times

s the United States nears the end of its military presence in Afghanistan, the Biden administration is being criticized for leaving hightech military equipment behind, besides the American citizens and Afghan allies. These military assets have now been taken over by the Taliban who have, in turn, been flaunting the spoils on social media. While some are worried that Washington might have indirectly militarily boosted the terror group’s strike and defensive capabilities, many others are questioning whether the Taliban has the expertise to actually use some of the higher-end military techs. Between 2003 and 2016, Washington gifted Kabul with 599,690 weapons, 75,898 vehicles, 208 aircraft, 162,643 communication equipment, as well as 16,191 pieces of equipment used for intelligence, reconnaissance, and surveillance. Between 2017 and 2019, the United States transferred 7,035 machine guns, 20,040 hand grenades, 1,394 grenade launchers, 4,702 Humvees, 2,520 bombs, and other equipment. As of June 30, 2021, America had given 211 aircraft to Afghanistan. Images from Afghanistan show the Taliban driving Humvees and carrying U.S. weapons like M4 rifles. Four Black Hawk helicopters, each costing $10 million, are also now in the possession of the insurgent group. How much of the looted American equipment the Taliban will be able to use, might depend on the

level of technology. In an interview with NPR, Jonathan Schroden, director of the Countering Threats and Challenges Program at the Center for Naval Analyses, said that the Taliban could easily put into using small arms and tools like night-vision equipment since such items “don’t need a lot of skill or training to use.” However, high-end equipment, like a Black Hawk helicopter and advanced weaponry might be challenging. Bradley Bowman, a former Black Hawk pilot, told the media outlet that flying the helicopter is “not something” anyone can do in a short period of time.

“Difficult to operate most U.S. aircraft”

In an interview with The Washington Post, Joseph Dempsey, a research analyst at the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London, stated that the Taliban would find it difficult to operate most U.S. aircraft due to the complexity involved in the technology. Another issue the Taliban will face when trying to use high-end U.S. military equipment would be regarding its maintenance and securing of spare parts. According to Schroden, the Taliban is likely to break such tools and would not be able to fix them. Black Hawk helicopters have “fairly sophisticated maintenance requirements.” The Taliban might also decide to sell off the equipment they are unable to use. For example, the avionics and communication equipment on the Black Hawks would be saleable. Bowman believes that countries like Iran, Russia, and China might show interest in such a trade.

ArmyAmber via Pixabay

North Korean Nuclear Reactor

Shows ‘Deeply Troubling’ Signs of Renewed Activity ED JONES/AFP via Getty Images

By Todd Crawford Vision Times

atellite imagery has revealed that a nuclear reactor located in North Korea — widely believed to be capable of producing weapons-grade plutonium for nuclear weapons — is showing “deeply troubling” signs of renewed activity. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said in a recent report that it had first

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spotted activity at the 5-megawatt (MW) reactor just north of the North Korean capital of Pyongyang in late 2018 and that recently it was showing signs of increased activity. “Since the beginning of July 2021, there have been signs, including drainage of cooling water, consistent with the operation of the reactor,” the report said. The reactor, known as the Yongbyon nuclear facility, is believed to be capable of producing multiple kilograms of weapons-grade

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Spectators listen to a television news brodcast of a statment by North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un, before a public television screen outside the central railway station in Pyongyang on September 22, 2017.

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plutonium every year. The Trump administration had previously attempted to negotiate the demolition of the facility with the North Korean dictator Kim Jong-Un. At a 2019 summit in Vietnam with the then-U.S. President, Donald Trump, Kim offered to shut down and dismantle the Yongbyon nuclear site in exchange for relief from international sanctions over nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programs. Trump ultimately rejected the deal stating that the Yongbyon site was only a small part of North Korea’s nuclear program and was not enough of a concession. Kim Jong-Un has long touted

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his nuclear ambitions saying in January this year that he would seek “completely new nuclear capabilities aimed at attaining the goal of modernization of the nuclear force.” Since 2006 there have been five North Korean nuclear tests detected with the most recent test occurring in 2017 which led the U.N. Security Council to demand that the country immediately abandon its nuclear program in a “complete, verifiable and irreversible manner.” IAEA inspectors have not had access to the country since 2009 and have had to rely on commercial satellite imagery to conduct their assessments.

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WORLD

VISION TIMES

SEP 3 - SEP 9, 2021 |

Japan’s Defense Ministry Seeks an Additional A Japan Ground Self-Defense Force (JGSDF) soldier uses a binocular during a live fire exercise in the Hataoka district of the East Fuji Maneuver Area in 2019.

BILLION

By Todd Crawford Vision Times

A new interpretation of the war-renouncing

Since former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe rose to power in December 2012 Japan’s military spending has increased by 17 percent due to a new interpretation of the warrenouncing Article 9. Article 9 of the Japanese Constitution outlaws war as a means to settle international disputes. It came into effect on May 3, 1947 following World War II. The article also states that armed forces with war potential will not be maintained. The budget request includes 130 billion yen (US$1.81 billion) for the acquisition of a dozen U.S. manufactured F-35 stealth fighters from Lockheed Martin and four F-35Bs that are capable of short takeoff and vertical landings. The fighter jets are intended to operate on two Japanese helicopter carriers that are currently being converted.

Toru Hanai/Bloomberg via Getty Images

in Spending to Counter China n Tuesday, August 31, Japan’s Defense Ministry asked for a 2.6% increase in its defense budget citing a need to counter China’s assertiveness in the region. The increase sought amounts to approximately 5.48 trillion yen or US$49.86 billion for the country’s fiscal year beginning April 1, 2022 and is a record high if approved by the Finance Ministry and parliament later this year. If approved, this would be the ninth consecutive year that Japan has increased its defense spending. In a defense report, which was adopted in July of this year by the Japanese parliament, China’s increasingly aggressive pos-

The increase sought amounts to approximately

5.48 trillion yen or $49.86 billion

for the country’s fiscal year beginning April 1, 2022 and is a record high if approved by the Finance Ministry and parliament later this year.

Members of Japan's Ground Self-Defense Force descend from a helicopter during its annual artillery live-fire drill at the East Fuji training area in Shizuoka Prefecture on May 22, 2021.

turing in the region, Beijing’s growing tensions with Taiwan and the rivalry between the United States and China were specifically referenced as reasons for the increased budget. Japan considers China’s expanding military capabilities and a lack of knowledge regarding Chinese military spending “a matter of grave concern” and attacked China’s maritime activity in the South China Sea as well as around Japanese-claimed waters. Japan has been focusing on shoring up defenses in the country’s southwestern regions and islands. A military base is being constructed on Ishigaki Island where it is expected a new land-to-sea missile defense system will be deployed. The island is located just north of the uninhabited Senkaku Islands which are claimed by both Japan and China. China refers to the island cluster as Diaoyu.

Kyodo News via Getty Images

105 billion yen (US$2.96 billion) has also been earmarked for home-developed fighter jets that will be manufactured by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries. The jets are part of a multi-billion dollar initiative that is expected to run until 2035. Japan is also investing in space technology by investing 84 billion yen ($765 million) to purchase lasers and satellites to track targets in space as well as to increase the number of space force personnel serving in the Japanese military.

Da Vinci’s Grand Bridge Reborn

Engineers Replicate Renaissance Man’s Marvellous Design bridge, making it sturdy enough to withstand side-to-side motions associated with the region’s frequent earthquakes. In the end, however, Bayezid rejected da Vinci’s pitch, and his idea of a grand bridge would go unworked on, seemingly, for good. Five centuries after his death, however, a group of engineers at MIT took interest in da Vinci’s work.

By Darren Maung Vision Times

ade famous by his historical paintings such as “The Last Supper” and the “Mona Lisa,” Leonardo da Vinci was a man of idealistic genius. His incredible, unusual designs and creations earned him the moniker of “The Renaissance Man.”

Leonardo’s grand bridge

In 1502 AD, Bayezid II, Sultan of the Ottoman Empire at the time, put out a request for proposals regarding a bridge design that would connect the capital of Istanbul with its neighbouring city of Galata. The Italian artist, motivated by the challenge, began sketching blueprints for the

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Dom

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Caption:Recent graduate student Karly Bast shows off the scale model of a bridge designed by Leonardo da Vinci that she and her coworkers used to prove the design’s feasibility. (Image: Gretchen Ertl/MIT News Office)

weight. In his blueprints, however, da Vinci presented a rather revolutionary design. The bridge would be ten times longer than most normal bridges at the time, spanning 919

Leonardo’s bridge would be ten times longer than most normal bridges at the time, spanning 919 feet from one end to the other, according to an old measurement system.

grand bridge and sent his proposal to the Sultan. Typical contemporary bridge supports were built with semi-circular arches that required ten or more piers between the two points of the bridge to support its massive www.visiontimes.com

feet from one end to the other, according to an old measurement system. The bridge would have been built as a single flattened arch tall enough to allow large sailboats to pass through. It also included splayed abutments on either side of the

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Modern-day replication

MIT engineer John Ochsendorf, together with graduate student Karly Bast and undergraduate student Michelle Xie, came forward to see if Leonardo da Vinci’s bridge design would work. This was not the first attempt to replicate da Vinci’s design, as a pedestrian overpass in Norway was closely based on the same sketches, but it was built with modern-day materials like steel and concrete that did not accurately reflect available materials at the time. Though da Vinci never specified the materials proposed to build the bridge, the team looked into materials that were available at the time, deducing that stone would have been used to support the titanic structure. To start, the team built a 1/500th model of the bridge design that was 32 inches long and built with 126 3-D printed blocks, each taking six hours to create.

Putting the bridge to the test

Putting the blocks together, the team

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used scaffolding to keep the bridge up until they could place the final keystone. “[The model’s] all held together by compression only,” Bast says. “We wanted to really show that the forces are all being transferred within the structure.” Finally, the time came for the final piece, the keystone at the top of the arch, to be placed. “When I put the keystone in, I thought, ‘This is going to work.’ And after that, we took the scaffolding out, and it stood up.” “It’s the power of geometry,” that makes it work, Bast adds about her triumphant success. “This is a strong concept. It was well thought out.” The team then conducted a series of tests and discovered that the bridge could indeed withstand the force of earthquakes.

New answers, new questions

After replicating da Vinci’s bridge design, more questions arose. The design, rediscovered in 1952, begged the question of whether da Vinci sketched it in less than a minute, or was it something he thought about for a significant amount of time. In any case, considering the MIT team’s success, the man clearly knew what he was doing. The revered genius that was Leonardo da Vinci, a man born to revolutionize the world, continues to inspire creative hopefuls one generation after another. For those who dare to dream, dream big. The creativity of an artist knows no bounds.

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CULTURE

A8 | SEP 3 - SEP 9, 2021

VISION TIMES

The Legend of Chinese

Steamed Buns By Armin Auctor

he history of mántou, or Chinese steamed buns, in China goes back to the Eastern Zhou Dynasty (771 B.C.). At that time, people were already steaming and eating fermented flour dough, and called it Yi food. Do you know who invented the steamed bun? According to Ming Dynasty scholar Lang Ying, the original name for mantou was barbarian’s head. During the Three Kingdom Period, barbarians used human heads to worship gods. Chancellor Zhuge Liang waged a battle to suppress the Southern barbarians and won. On his way back, he and his army had to cross the Lu River, which had big, stormy waves. The locals told them that using human heads as a sacrifice was the only way to cross the river. Zhuge Liang couldn’t bear to kill innocent people, so instead, he ordered his soldiers to kill some of their animals and put beef and lamb into flour dough in the shape of a head and steam them, and then throw them into the river as fake heads. Since they were fake heads to fool the river god, they got the name Cheat Heads. Others say they represented barbarian’s heads, so they were called Barbarian’s Heads. Thus, mantou were born from the good thoughts of Zhuge Liang. The mantou he made at that time were in fact modern-day meat buns.

Flour popularity

After the Han Dynasty, with the popularization of stone mills, people started grinding wheat flour. Steamed flour-based food also became popular among people of the Yellow River basin. In the book Shiwu Ganzhu, it is recorded that King Zhaoxiang of Qin made baked flatbread. Xiao Zixian wrote in the Book of Southern Qi that the imperial court required the use of Mianqi bread during worshipping ceremonies, that is “to put yeast into the dough to make it become light and fluffy.” It is said that Mianqi bread is the earliest known form of Chinese steamed buns in Chinese history. Thus, these fluffy steamed buns were used during worshipping ceremonies.

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NATURE

VISION TIMES

The murder hornet

However, the murder

posing a threat to humans, attacking people with a

shark fin-shaped stinger that can even penetrate a beekeeper’s suit.

etty via G

FP L/A OO

/P SO N

Washington State Department of Agriculture workers disconnect hoses from a cannister of Asian giant hornets vacuumed from a tree on October 24, 2020.

Invasive species An invasive species is an organism introduced to a new environment, which can then cause immense damage to the surrounding ecosystem. Certain invasive species have been known to upset the food chain in their new homes, tipping other native species near extinction. Prominent examples of invasive species include Burmese pythons threatening many animal populations in Florida, Asian carp overwhelming fish populations and aquatic plants in the Great Lakes, and South-American cane toads causing the decline and extinction of predator species in Australia with their toxic skins.

Hornets’

hornet is still notorious for

Bees under fire

The venom released is powerful enough to kill a medium-sized rodent; for humans, the venom causes extraordinary pain, with one entomologist in Canada likening the stings to “having hot tacks pushed into my flesh.”The Asian giant hornet

is also called the murder hornet for claiming the lives of up to 50 people each year in Japan. At one point, there was even an event warning people to watch out for wandering hornets and to avoid being stung.

While dangerous to humans, hornets are a greater danger to bee populations across the United States, and thus pose a threat to beekeepers. When hunting, a swarm of hornets can wipe out an entire bee colony in hours, ripping the heads off adult bees and taking the young ones away to be fed to young hornets. In one case, veteran beekeeper Ted McFall went to check on a few hives, when he spotted what looked like a massacre with decapitated carcasses of bees outside and inside their hive. “I couldn’t wrap my head around what could have done that,” said Mr. McFall, later suspecting that his bees were slaughtered by murder hornets.

Make Reappearance

The hornet also has a dire need for protein, hunting down other insects like beetles. A nest of hornets contains as many as one thousand individuals and their offspring, found in decomposing trees and underground.

i n Wa s h i n g t o n S t a t e By Darren Maung

The coming swarms

n the state of Washington, the first

Asian giant hornet nest in 2021 was found close to where a hornet was spotted in midAugust. The craze about “murder hornets” swarming the United States in recent years has grabbed the attention of millions across the world. However, this insect should not be overlooked as just another crazy Internal trend, for scientists believe that murder hornets may cause more damage than we initially thought. . U.S

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nt of A gri cul ture

The first known discovery of the murder hornet in North America was in California in 2016, where entomologist Allan Smith-Pardo identified a hornet’s nest with no adults in a cargo container, believed to be smuggled abroad for “hornet liquor.” However, the hornets attained greater prominence in Aug. 2019, when sightings were made in British Columbia, Canada, followed by reports of the hornet in the United States in December of the same year. In Oct. 2020, the first hornet nest was found and destroyed in the United States. “They are pretty intimidating, even for an inch-and-a-half insect. They are big and loud and I know it would hurt very badly if I get stung,” said entomologist Chris Looney, who was tasked to vacuum the hornets up. “They give me the willies.”

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A EL

H ET

When hunting, a swarm of hornets can wipe out an entire bee colony in hours, ripping the heads off adult bees and taking the young ones away to be fed to young hornets.

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Adobe Stock

IN EL A

‘Murder ‘Murder

Wash/P ingOO L /A ton State FP via G etty Images Department of Agriculture entomologist Chris Looney looks at two of the dozens of Asian giant hornets he vacuumed from a nest in a nearby tree on October 24, 2020, in Blaine, Washington.

Ima ge s

Notorious

Before they started settling in North America, the Asian giant hornet was already a threat in the mountains of Japan. Though aggressive to hikers and farmers, the hornets are actually served as a delicacy in the central Chubu region, where they are kept in jars and used as ingredients for a dish called hebo-gohan. The adult hornets become both a fried meal on skewers and an extra punch for liquor drinkers.

SEP 3 - SEP 9, 2021 |

With the hornet’s murderous hunting spree on bees, the bee population in the United States, already declining from climate change, could be threatened further. As a result, the country’s agriculture and apiary industry, which relies on these pollinators, could also suffer. The potential risks of a hornet invasion may not truly be something out of an old horror movie, but their invasive reign could wipe out the bee population and impact agriculture as a whole. By dedicating our efforts to finding and preventing the migration of these invasive species, the delicate balance of our environment may be restored and preserved.

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MYSTERIES

A10 | SEP 3 - SEP 9, 2021

VISION TIMES

1 RT PA

By Vision Times Staff

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In 1972 Astronomers had speculated that the back of the moon would be similar to the front, with many craters and seas of lava, but the photos returned from spacecraft are very different. The back of the moon is surprisingly cratered and rugged, with mostly small craters and mountains and only a few lava seas. The differences between the two sides of the moon are something scientists have been unable to come up with an answer to. If the moon is a natural body in space, as scientists know it is, and both sides of it should have the same chance of being hit by a meteor in space over a long period of time, then how can there be such a great difference between its front and back? What is even more surprising is that thousands of years ago, the Mayans, despite not being able to see the back of the moon, were somehow able to carve the back of the moon on the door of the moon temple where they worshiped their gods. Could it be that the Mayans once flew into space and saw the back of the moon?

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NASA terminated the moon landing program after the completion of the sixth manned mission, but the official reasons provided for terminating the program were not convincing, as there were many mysteries that were uncovered during the three years of exploration. It is strange because no satellite in known astronomical knowledge is as large as the Moon in proportion to its host star, and no satellite has a round orbit, except for artificial satellites. Many of the Moon's data are unusually coincidental, as if they have been precisely designed. For example, the distance between the sun and the earth is 395 times that between the earth and the moon, and the diameter of the sun is exactly 395 times that of the moon, so that the moon and the sun seen by people on

earth appear to be the same size, thus giving rise to such an astronomical sight as a total solar eclipse. The moon is between the sun and the earth at just the right angle of inclination to reflect the sun's rays back to the earth at night, illuminating the night sky for earthlings. Moreover, the moon rotates at a speed of 16.56 kilometers per hour while it is also rotating around the Earth. It rotates for exactly the same amount of time as it rotates around Earth, so the Moon is always facing the Earth on one side. These perfectly coincidental characteristics have not been able to be explained by scientists, especially following astronaut visits to try and unravel the mystery. Unexpectedly, the astronauts discovered more mysteries that were really shocking.

Research has found lava within lunar craters, which is not surprising. What is surprising however is that the lava contains large amounts of extremely rare Earth metals such as iron and titanium both of which are highly resistant to corrosion, very hard and highly heat resistant. Scientists estimate that to melt these metallic elements, it requires temperatures of around 2300° Celsius. But the moon is a dead cold body in space. Scientists estimate that the moon has had no volcanic activity for at least three bil-

lion years, so how could the moon produce such a large amount of metal elements that require high temperatures? Moreover, scientists analyzed 382 kilograms of lunar soil samples brought back by the astronauts and found that they contained pure iron and titanium, which are pure metal ores that are not found in nature. Is it possible there is life on the moon smelting metals?

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To be continued

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WISDOM

VISION TIMES

SEP 3 - SEP 9, 2021 |

lon Musk is arguably the busiest person in the universe, not only the founder of SpaceX, but also the cofounder of Tesla and PayPal. In order to manage different businesses at the same time, Musk must be very efficient and make the most of every minute. So, how does he manage his time?

A11

By Cally

Elon Musk's

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Always ask yourself how to improve

Keep learning

Musk often asks himself how to improve his productivity. He has never read a book about "productivity", but he is able to check his personal habits and see where he wastes time so that he can change his bad habits. Although this is a "cliche" statement, it is actually a challenge to be accustomed to and maintain self-discipline over time. can you do it?

VI Embrace your weaknesses Even if everyone says they want to change themselves, not everyone puts in a lot of effort. Musk is always eager to change and keep moving forward. You should always consider whether you have done something wrong so that you can have a corrective goal! He is good at overcoming his weaknesses and then pursuing perfect abilities, which helped him develop a more effective way of doing things.

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Don't worry too much about what others think of you Musk believes that the biggest impact on productivity is worrying about what others think of you. Many people spend time catering to other people's ideas, and he only cares about the task at hand, focusing his time and energy on what needs to be done to improve efficiency.

VII Appropriate "do two things at once" Musk not only knows how to stay focused, he can also "do two things at once." When eating, he often answers e-mails and conducts business meetings. He can even use the computer to perform simple tasks while taking care of the children.

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III Maintain a high degree of concentration Musk often has to deal with various tasks at the same time, but there is no time to "sit down" to work, so he requires himself to maintain a high degree of concentration and efficient ability to complete the task at hand.

VIII Save email time Like us, Musk spends a lot of time on emails, but he tries to reduce time by not pursuing perfect sentences or lengthy time when composing emails, but instead speaks accurately and expresses his opinions.

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Set optimistic goals Similar to Steve Jobs, Musk is good at creating "reality distortion fields", he can convince employees that they can accomplish seemingly impossible tasks, and eventually they can do it. For Musk and his employees, these goals can push everyone forward even in adversity and maintain high productivity.

IX Schedule management Musk's schedule is not in hours, but in minutes. He will complete a task every five minutes to ensure that no time is wasted. For him, an hour-long meeting is very timeconsuming. Therefore, he tried not to participate in long meetings, and instead spent time on improving productivity.

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Musk is a very intelligent person and possesses a wealth of knowledge. When he was a child, he insisted on reading two books a day. To this day, Musk continues to learn, and even his employees have heard many fascinating stories from him. Because of his good reading habits, he is able to understand and respond to concepts quickly.

X Delegating power to others Except for the "reality distortion field," Musk's management style distinguishes him from other leaders in the ability to delegate power to employees. He enjoys a high reputation in the industry because he has never fired employees or angered them for small mistakes, so many people are eager to work with him. Although Musk does not handle work directly, he can play a leading role in the team and often make the right decisions.

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HEALTH

A12 | SEP 3 - SEP 9, 2021

VISION TIMES

Adobe Stock

Meditation A PA INK IL L ER MOR E EF F E C T I V E T H A N MOR PHINE

By Lucy Crawford

Do you know anyone who suffers from chronic pain? How many people take a cocktail of painkillers just to get by? If there were an inexpensive, effective alternative, wouldn’t that be wonderful?

editation, in fact, is not only effective in relieving pain, one study found it to be more effective than morphine. On top of that, one can meditate as often and as long as one wants, with no negative side effects, and at little or no cost. An article published in The Journal of Neuroscience demonstrates that 80 minutes of meditation training can dramatically reduce pain, suggesting that meditation is more effective in relieving pain than medication, including the powerful and addictive morphine.

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The research was conducted with 15 volunteers; six male and nine female participants who were exposed to heat stimulus before and after they were given meditation training. A heating probe was gradually warmed to 120° Fahrenheit, a temperature which most people find painful, over a 5-minute period, while their response was monitored through a brain scan. The test subjects received four 20-minute meditation training sessions after the first exposure. A second exposure to the heating probe was conducted while the subjects meditated, to measure the change in the sensation of pain. According to the findings, the pain felt was, on average, reduced by 57%, and the pain intensity reduced by 40%.

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Brain scans found that the pain-sensitive area in the brain became calmer after meditation.

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In comparison, the rate of pain reduction with morphine was only 25%. Brain scans found that the pain-sensitive area in the brain became calmer after meditation. The researcher said that this was the first time it was demonstrated that an hour of meditation could dramatically reduce pain and painrelated brain activities. That is to say, meditation can be truly effective, and help reduce pain without medication. All drugs have some side effects, and painkillers such as morphine can cause addiction. Meditation, on the other hand, has no negative side effects and can be done at no cost in your own home. Research partner F. Zeidan said, “This study shows that meditation produces real effects in the brain and can provide an effective way for people to substantially reduce their pain without medications.” Given how little training is needed to produce such dramatic effects, meditation is a must-try for people who suffer physical pain.

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