Podcasts about as thomas

Joining me this week on the podcast is Thomas Jonsson with Scandinavian Spaces. The Jonsson family has been the last decade helping Swedish manufacturers market their products in the U.S. and he's here to share more about the journey and their business.The sustainable mentality and the beautiful and functional designs is what Thomas's family is so passionate about bringing to the U.S. They help to curate products and connect manufacturers to dealer partners here in order to connect with buyers. As Thomas stated, one of the most minute things that they do is convert centimeters into inches.  Listen as Thomas shares their journey and why they are so passionate about connecting Nordic design to the U.S. market. He's also providing insights into their booth for NeoCon this year and why they focus on creating a carefully designed space. In this episode: [02:12] Welcome Thomas Jonsson to the show to chat about Nordic design. [02:39] Thomas shares more about his story. [04:32] What is Scandinavian Spaces and what do they do? [07:36] On the simplest level, they help to convert from the metric system to standard. [08:40] Is it by accident or design that most of their products come from one area of Sweden? [11:32] Sweden is great for natural resources and domestic supply. [13:05] Function first is the overall motto for Swedish manufacturing. [14:33] Why was it so important to him and his family to bring Nordic design to the U.S.? [18:29] How have they grown their business and gotten to where they are today? [20:23] What was the catalyst for them to get a permanent showroom at the Mart? [24:45] They also won an award that first year. [25:57] The one thing they've done really well as their company has grown. [28:13] What have they done to make their marketing so strong? [30:47] How often do they go back to Sweden? [32:52] Thomas shares what we can expect to see at NeoCon this year. [35:50] Connect with Thomas and Scandinavian Spaces.  Links & Resources: INDEALNeoCon 2021Episode 41: Rethink, Redesign, Repurpose with Brandi SusewitzConnect with Thomas:Scandinavian SpacesScandinavian Spaces on InstagramThomas on LinkedInConnect with Sid:www.sidmeadows.comEmbark CCT on FacebookSid on LinkedInSid on InstagramSid on YouTubeSid on Clubhouse - @sidmeadowsThe Trend Report is proudly sponsored by INDEAL. Partners in progress in the commercial interiors industry. To learn more about INDEAL, please visit their website at https://www.indeal.org/The Trend Report introduction music is provided by Werq by Kevin MacLeod Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/4616-werq License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

As Thomas is making his usual round of introductions for this, the forty-ninth episode of the Small Data Forum podcast, he comments on Sam's status as a published author. “Published author you too!” booms Sam, celebrating Thomas' first-ever, peer-reviewed, academic article, written with his doctoral supervisor – and recent SDF interview guest – Darren Lilleker. For at the very start of this month, the esteemed Journal of Public Affairs saw fit to publish “The challenges of providing certainty in the face of wicked problems: Analysing the UK government's handling of the COVID-19 pandemic”, a very on-message, on-podcast, rather-more-academic-than-we-usually-are critical analysis of how the Johnson Junta has managed with the ‘wicked problem' (technical term) of Covid. Thomas summarises the arguments in the paper, of how Her Majesty's Government's response to the threat of the pandemic “has not been all that pretty”. After all the puffed-up, Cummings-laden rhetoric of the December 2019 election campaign which was supposed to be all about ‘getting Brexit done' (“campaigning in poetry” to purloin Mario Cuomo's phrase), Johnson's cabinet of political pygmies has struggled to live up to the challenge of “governing in prose”. Continue reading -> https://www.smalldataforum.com/

In the aftermath of a car accident at 19 years old, Thomas Leeds was left with no memories of his childhood, of his family and friends, even cultural references were all wiped away. As Thomas began to rebuild his life he struggled with thoughts about his future because, he says, he didn't know where he'd come from. He became obsessed with the popular culture of the 80s and 90s — the era of his childhood — hoping something would trigger his memory. Then, aged 30 while planning the perfect playlist for his 80s-themed birthday party, a song suddenly unlocked memories that had been lost for 10 years. You can follow Thomas' story on twitter @thomasleeds Presenter: Emily Webb Producer: Mariana Des Forges Picture: collage of pictures of Thomas Leeds' brain scans, as a child and recently in hospital getting tests Credit: all photos courtesy of Thomas Leeds Get in touch: outlook@bbc.com

Kim Thomas: The Escape and Beyond A prolific borosilicate flameworker producing highly recognizable works in functional and sculptural glass, Kim Thomas aka Zii is changing the face of flameworking. From detailed and realistic human teeth and severed finger pipes to her latest kinetic sculpture, the artist is redefining what is possible at the torch. From January – April, 2021, recent works The Cloud Capturing Apparatus and The Cloud Riding Contraption were exhibited in Glass in The Expanded Field at the Hunterdon Art Museum, Clinton, New Jersey.  Thomas also participated in Hunterdon's companion symposium, Pipe Art: Understudied Glass, which considered the glass pipe as a fluid work of art fundamental to the art history of glass. Celebrated artists Dan Coyle and Luken Sheafe, whose artist name is SALT, presented their intensely wrought, figural, and in the case of Thomas, sometimes kinetic, pipes. Joined by Susie J. Silbert, Curator at the Corning Museum of Glass, these artists further contextualized their work within the burgeoning field of pipe-making.  Following graduation from the Rhode Island School of Design with a BFA in ceramics, Thomas attended The Make Up Designory and later worked as an assistant to award-winning special effects make-up artist Kevin Haney. In 2009, when she answered an advertisement for a studio apprentice in North Hollywood, California, Thomas discovered her passion for flameworking. With lessons from her studio mates and observation she quickly learned the medium and turned her practice into a career. Now making work from the Urban Pheasant Glass Studio, Detroit, Michigan, Thomas is a former professor of glass at Salem Community College in New Jersey, and guest instructor at various schools and studios including Penland School of Craft, Snow Farm, and the Pilchuck School of Glass. She has demonstrated her techniques at The International Flameworking Conference and The Glass Art Society Conference, and exhibits her work in museums and galleries across the United States. Her attention to detail and regard for realism have resulted in a highly recognizable aesthetic signature. In a world where the inherent beauty of glass is regularly exploited, Thomas relies on a gritty realism to set her work apart. Few, if any, artists create similar work.  As Thomas continues to work on The Escape series –  she prepares to teach classes at Penland School of Craft, July 18 – August 2 and Snow Farm from August 8 – 13. Both classes are full with waiting lists. She will also participate in an emerging artist residency at Pilchuck Glass School, October 6 – November 22, 2021.  Nicknamed after her classic 1978 Camaro Z28, Zii believes the most creative and engaging work is influenced by the things that find their way into your dreams. She says: “It's easy with pipemaking to get pigeonholed into making one type of piece –- if you're doing it as a living, you have to please your fans and make things they will buy. As an artist, if you want to grow and develop, and have some sort of message, you can't just make one thing over and over.”   

In this message Pastor Andrew talks about the importance of asking good honest questions about Jesus and Faith. As Thomas was known to be a "doubter," we also see that his doubt made his faith stronger and He did great & courageous things in sharing the gospel in the Far East.

Sick Folks of Cinema Ep. 17 Apostle (2018), In this week's episode, we venture into 1905 London. A brother seeks to find his missing sister who's been taken by a religious cult. Seriously folks what's the worst that could happen on an island in the middle of butt-fuck nowhere? Let's discuss and review the Apostle (2018) directed by Gareth Evans. Synopsis: London, 1905. Prodigal son Thomas Richardson has returned home, only to learn that his sister is being held for ransom by a religious cult. Determined to get her back at any cost, Thomas travels to the idyllic island where the cult lives. As Thomas infiltrates the island's community, he learns that the corruption of mainland society that they claim to reject has infested the cult's ranks nonetheless - and uncovers a secret more evil than he could have imagined. Keith Graber: IG @keithdgraber, Stephen Bowman: IG @stephenbowmancomedy, Heather Rogue: IG @reallifepretendpsychic, Christina C: IG @ghoulishstina Apostle Fun Film Facts: 1.Director Gareth Evans also made the cult smash martial arts masterpieces "The Raid & The Raid 2". 2. On 2 November 2016, it was announced that Gareth Evans was working on a new project that he would write and direct. Dan Stevens was confirmed to be cast in the lead role. Later that month, it was announced that Michael Sheen, Lucy Boynton, Bill Milner, and Kristine Froseth had joined the cast. 3.Filming started in April 2017. 4.The film was largely shot on a set built at Margam Park in Neath Port Talbot, Wales. 5. In March 2017, the film was picked up by Netflix.

It's special episode time everyone!! For this special interview episode, we are speaking with Cybil Lake!! Cybil is director and actor! For this very special episode, we were able to speak with Cybil about her movie, Central Park Dark! This movie stars Cybil herself, as well as Tom Sizemore. "Central Park Dark is a feature length horror/thriller film starring Tom Sizemore and Cybil Lake. It’s about a one night stand that turns into a never ending nightmare. Thomas, an alcoholic, married doctor has a one-night stand with Anna, an unstable woman, who jumps out of his window, then begins to torment him, though it's unclear if she’s alive or not. Appearing in his dreams, Anna lets him in on a secret about the long history of dark forces in Central Park. Working with these dark forces, Anna takes revenge on Thomas through a series of ancient rituals. As Thomas struggles to return to his normal life, a descent into darkness ensues. " You can watch the movie on Amazon HERE! SUBSCRIBE: Apple Podcasts | Android |  Spotify | Pandora | RSS Tell us what you think!Leave us a voicemail at 970-573-6148Send us feedback and/or MP3's to outsidethelongbox@gmail.comFollow us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Youtube!Support the podcast on Patreon!Credit - Doyle Daniels, Juan Muro, Gabe Llanas, Tim Huskey

"Marxism:  the methamphetamine of the masses."  -Jordan Peterson Clarence Thomas is, as always, brilliant in his most recent dissent.  And never at a more consequential time.  If, as the SCOTUS has said previously, "[c]onfidence in the integrity of our electoral process is essential to the functioning of our participatory democracy," why does the Court repeatedly give us no reason to believe in the integrity of our elections by not hearing case after case, no matter how compelling? As Thomas put it, "One wonders what this Court waits for." I do not, however, wonder what the Court waits for.  I believe I know:  The left never understands the injustice of what it does until it is done to them. "In such a strait the wisest may well be perplexed, and the boldest staggered. The circumstances are in a great measure new. We have hardly any land-marks from the wisdom of our ancestors, to guide us. At best we can only follow the spirit of their proceeding in other cases."  -Edmund Burke

Thomas Moore is a best selling author, international speaker and esteemed psychotherapist. He has written 25 books about the soul, finding meaningful work and doing religion in a fresh way. In this episode we discuss: - The idea of having a calling, when this is naive and when it isn't - How Thomas has written 25 books in his career without retiring to a cabin in the woods - The distinction between soul and spirit and why it matters for everyone As Thomas himself puts it, so many of the problems we experience are not ones of knowledge but of imagination. I hope this conversation will be as much of a perspective shifter for you as it was for me.

The boys are back for the first Wine & Wisdom of the year! In this part, Thomas, Cam and Chris discuss the extraordinary story of businessman Chris Gardner, as depicted by Will Smith in the film “The Pursuit of Happyness”. This story of a determined father who was forced to live out in the streets with his son holds many valuable lessons for all. As Thomas puts it, “We all have a song; we have to be preparing ourselves forever for that song, because we're not here to live the same life as everybody else.” To kick off 2021, Cam brings 2016 Chardonnay “Luck of the Devil” from Devil's Lair, Western Australia.

In the second part of this episode of Wine & Wisdom, Thomas, Cam and Stephen discuss the topic that is currently taking the world by storm; The US Election. As Thomas puts it, this is an election of passion, not of policies. Most people vote for the party they have voted for their whole life, while only a small percentage of people truly look at the policies. Join the boys for some humour as they offer an “outside looking in” perspective on the election from the land Down Under, where voting is accompanied by a sausage sizzle. In this part, Cam brings a 2016 Bin 28 Kalimna Shiraz from Penfolds, South Australia.

In this podcast, Thomas Domville demonstrates how to force quit an app on Apple Watch. Reasons you might want to do this include the app becoming unresponsive, frequently crashing, or you simply having a suspicion that the app might be the cause of a more general and system-wide issue. As Thomas demonstrates, the process is simple - with the app open, press and hold the side button to show the power options. Then press and hold the Digital Crown to quit the app. 2 of 3

In the first part of this Feature, Thomas Lotrecchiano, Co-Founder at Omigo, talks about the many ways in which Omigo is here to break tradition. The father and son bidet company revolutionizes the way in which you handle your business by offering you a cleaner more sustainable solution. Co-Founders, Thomas, and his father started the bidet company at what seemed just the right moment. At the start of the pandemic, the impulsive buying of toilet paper left a lot of shoppers thinking "there must be a better way".  With that, Omigo found themselves in a virtual avalanche with what felt like “20x”  the number of orders. As Thomas recalls, during the first wave on March 13th they knew “something was changing.” The pandemic may have finally brought more acceptance of the Bidet in American culture but there's still a long way to go.  And Omigo is ready to keep the conversation going in order to give consumers the clean experience that they deserve. Here's their story.    In the first part, Thomas discusses Omigo and what it is; The origins of the father & son company; The importance of the Bidet; Building, promoting the concept; Creating the conversation and changing the American culture; COVID Impacts; Talking about the Bidet and why it just makes sense; And so much more.    Join us while Ramon Vela interviews Thomas in Part 1 of this episode and listen to him share the inside story of a brand. For more on Omigo visit: https://myomigo.com/ Retention Science - RetentionScience.com

Looking for a creative way to rapidly grow your agency? Wondering how to structure an agency acquisition without getting screwed on the other side? Whether you want to grow your agency through acquisition or are considering selling to lessen your risk liability, acquisition is one of the best strategies. And that’s exactly how one agency soared to $15 Million in under one year. In this episode, we’ll cover: 3 myths about agency acquisition. What motivates an agency owner to sell? 7 criteria of a good agency acquisition. How to avoid getting burned on an earnout. How to structure the best agency acquisition. On today’s show, you’ll get to hear from one of my business partners, Thomas LeMaguer CEO of Republics which is the agency we started about 10 months ago. The goal of the agency is to be the leading platform for growth as a service. In that short time, we’ve worked to rapidly grow the agency to $15 million through acquisition. He’s here to talk about how you can grow your agency through acquisitions, or set yourself up for a fair and profitable sale of your own agency. 3 Myths About Agency Acquisitions 1. You Need a Ton of Cash to Buy Another Agency Nope! Thomas says you don’t need money in order to buy another business, you just need some creativity. Also, banks are more willing to loan money to agencies that are in the $1 Million to $5 Million EBITDA range. Bigger agencies with higher EBITDA are a riskier investment for them because often those businesses are too reliant on their owner. 2. Small Agencies Cannot Afford to Buy a Bigger Agency Not true! As Thomas put it, a minnow can swallow the whale. The whale is easier because it’s stronger. Again, this is where creativity comes into play. The smaller agency is actually more nimble and can adapt to the processes and systems of the bigger one. 3. The Best Acquisition is a Failing Agency That You Can Turn Around Wrong again! You don’t need (nor should you want) to buy a failing business and try to fix it. That usually turns into way more work and headaches. The way we grew our agency was by acquiring profitable agencies with monthly recurring revenue, solid profit, and strong leadership. What Motivates an Agency Owner to Sell? Usually, the owners of solid, profitable agencies want to sell for one of two reasons. Either they no longer enjoy what they’re doing and feel like their only way to eliminate what they hate is by getting out of the business entirely. Or, they want to reduce their personal risk and feel like a more secure, stable “job” is better than the liability of ownership. Thomas says in either case, true wealth is built by a series of transactions. An acquisition can alleviate agency owner risk and help them get back to just doing what they love. 7 Criteria of a Good Agency Acquisition First and foremost, the only way for an acquisition to work is if both agencies are aligned core values. If the foundation is there, then we look at 7 specific criteria: Does the agency offer complementary services that we can scale? Are they at $1 Million+ in EBITDA? Is there a strong leadership team that will remain in place? Are they physically located in an area we would like to be? Does the agency have good financial controls? Is there 60% in monthly recurring revenue? Are they motivated and ready to sell? How to Avoid Getting Burned on an Earnout I used to advise agencies to avoid an earnout as part of their acquisition structure. But, I’ve learned an earnout isn't bad as long as it’s structured in a way benefits both buyer and seller. Thomas and I agree the best agency acquisition is one where everybody wins. A fair and honest deal beneficial to both parties is the best way to work an acquisition. And, it’s the way we’ve structured five acquisitions in ten months in order to grow from $0 to $15 Million. Learn from my mistake. When I sold my agency, I got burned on my earnout. It was tied to profitability within a specific time period. When time ran out (and the agency sold a second time) I got screwed out of the earnout. That’s why we don’t like to structure earnouts the same way. Instead, the earnout is theirs to gain at their own pace. When the agency hits its goals, we both win. The seller with their earnout and us with a more profitable agency. Of course, they’re motivated to earn it sooner rather than later which is great. Win-win! How to Structure the Best Agency Acquisition Deal If you’re considering selling -- or considering buying one -- but you feel the agency’s value is going to be greater in the future, you can still sell now without screwing your future self. There’s a smart way to structure your acquisition -- here’s how we’ve been doing it: The initial payout is half cash upfront and the owner stays on with us. They hold 20-30% of their own stock for future payout. Over the course of time, we grow the business together and they cash out their stock in the future at a 10X return. For example, if you have a $2 Million agency, you’re getting $1 Million in cash in the present and pull $10 Million in the future. We help each other grow and fulfill the agency’s full potential. As Thomas quoted an old proverb: “If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.” Are You Considering Selling Your Agency? If you’re interested in learning more about the acquisition process and/or interested in possibly selling your agency check out: JasonSwenk.com/sellagency

LegalMation Co-Founder Thomas Suh is our guest in Episode 33. LegalMation is a suite of artificial intelligence tools that helps attorneys and legal professionals automate routine litigation tasks like drafting pleadings and written discovery responses. Thomas and his Co-Founder James Lee came up with the idea for LegalMation while working at a litigation boutique. The firm handled high profile cases and, to even the playing field with larger law firms, they leveraged automation to save time and conserve resources. Taking automation a step further, the two attorneys realized artificial intelligence could be used to tackle routine (and sometime mundane) tasks that every litigator has to deal with–like responding to complaints and written discovery. Fast forward a few years, LegalMation is live and used by corporate legal departments for some of the biggest companies in the world. As Thomas explains, Walmart uses LegalMation’s AI in slip and fall cases to give their lawyers a head start and let them focus on “higher touch” legal tasks. Using LegalMation’s assistance in drafting pleadings also promotes consistency throughout the company’s large litigation portfolio. Similarly, LegalMation is also used by law firms to automate litigation tasks, such as Ogletree Deakins whose employment lawyers use it in certain employment cases. Thomas points out that the use of AI in legal is not a replacement for attorneys, but a “lawyer’s technician.” He also says that lawyers implementing tech and AI should start slowly because if you take on too big of a project, you might be setting up yourself for failure. Things We Talk About in This  Episode LTL Lawyers Legal Project Management Software IBM’s Watson   Technically Legal is hosted by Chad Main, an attorney and the founder of Percipient, a tech-enabled alternative legal services provider.

There's no way around it: First dates are always a little bit awkward. But if you finally meet someone you've been dating online after social distancing ends, you may realize you've forgotten how to be an actual human who goes on actual dates. Instead of hiding behind a screen and thinking up witty remarks, you'll be face-to-face and chatting in real-time. How will you be your charming self without the ability to turn off your camera? And what if the chemistry just isn't there? The transition can definitely be a bit harsh. "The nature of video calls lend themselves to partial anonymity," Dr. Josh Klapow, a clinical psychologist, tells Bustle. While you may have had engaging conversations online, you can't say you truly know someone until you've assessed their vibe. It may feel like you're back at square one, as you relearn each other's rhythms, and figure out how to talk and be together physically. "There is also the potential for a false sense of security," Klapow says. "The sense that you know the person so well because of all the video interactions and then when you see them — and can’t control the environment — all of this can come rushing in quickly." It can make for an awkward situation, he says, even though you've already "seen" each other 100 times on Zoom. But there are ways to adapt and adjust. When you take the loneliness of self-isolation and mix it with the fear and uncertainty we've all been experiencing during the pandemic, it can mean forming fast and intense relationships online, Elisa Robyn, Ph.D., a relationship expert with a background in psychology, tells Bustle. "We might feel that we are falling in love with the person," she says, "when, in fact, we are just so happy to have a connection." It's possible you'll realize, once you're face-to-face, that things feel flat or less exciting, Robyn says. You never know how you'll react to someone physically, so be willing to let go of the romantic image in your head, and instead, go with the flow. "The distance can create a sense of romance, [or an overly romantic] interpretation of the person," Robyn says, which could dissipate once you're together. So, treat your first date as you would any other, and be realistic. Take the pressure off yourselves by keeping the date fun and casual, and focus on getting to know each other even more. Meet up for coffee, go for a walk in the park, and be honest with yourself about how it all feels. If it doesn't work out, that's OK. It's not easy to predict what dating will be like after quarantine. It's possible some people will feel uneasy about meeting up in person, while others will want to dive back into the physical side of things, so don't be afraid to discuss your boundaries before meeting up. "Your needs and limits for the kind of social activities you feel up for may be different than that of your date," Dr. Kate Balestrieri, a licensed psychologist and sex therapist, tells Bustle. "It is OK if you do not yet feel comfortable with physical or sexual intimacy, or if you are." Be clear and honest with each other from the start, Balestrieri says, because even though many people will be looking to make up for lost time in the bedroom, discussing consent, boundaries, and intentions are always key to a healthy, satisfying sexual encounter. Talking online is often easier than talking in real life because you have time to get creative, all while being in the comfort of your own home. But rest assured, "if you've been maintaining good spontaneous conversation over video chat, you're probably going to do just fine once you do meet in person," Kristen Thomas, a certified sex coach and clinical sexologist, tells Bustle. If things do go awry, however, and you find yourselves sitting silently on a park bench, call it out. Say something like, "Wow, I'm so glad we are meeting in person. I didn't expect to be this nervous after all our video chats, but I'm happy to be here right now with you." As Thomas says, this will allow you to both take a deep breath, laugh it off, and move past any initial awkwardness. While it may be tempting to talk exclusively about COVID-19 — and you can certainly share your experiences thus far — try not to let it dominate the conversation. "Talking about this virus is about all people seem to talk about these days," Lauren Cook, MMFT, a clinician practicing emotionally-focused therapy, tells Bustle. "While you still want to acknowledge this, use the time together to talk about your interests, hobbies, and values so that it's more than just a COVID-19 briefing." Chances are you've already talked online about your likes and dislikes, but this is your chance to go deeper. And, as the world starts opening back up, you can even make good on all the plans you daydreamed about while isolating at home. If you can, take your date to your favorite restaurant or start the initial phase of planning your first trip together, even if it's just a quick weekend "getaway" in your own town. "See if your interests line up," she says, and have fun with the process. If you really and truly hit it off on Zoom, but feel a bit unsure about each other in person, consider giving it one or two more dates before calling the relationship quits, Klapow says. "The transition from video to in-person will take some time," he says. "The adjustment period may be less than ideal." But the right relationship will continue to feel right, whether you're talking on Zoom or face-to-face.

In John 20:26-29 we see Jesus once again appearing to his disciples huddled behind locked doors. As Thomas enters the story, he confronts the disciples with doubt of the resurrected Christ. We are immediately invited to witness Jesus engage Thomas' unbelief with the scars of his suffering. What if we trusted our community of faith with our doubt more than the locked rooms of isolation and fear? What if our skepticism was met with the grace of examine over debate? Jesus' encounter with Thomas' unbelief shows how resurrection responds to doubt in community. For sermon slides, visit realityboston.com/teachings.

In John 20:26-29 we see Jesus once again appearing to his disciples huddled behind locked doors. As Thomas enters the story, he confronts the disciples with doubt of the resurrected Christ. We are immediately invited to witness Jesus engage Thomas' unbelief with the scars of his suffering. What if we trusted our community of faith with our doubt more than the locked rooms of isolation and fear? What if our skepticism was met with the grace of examine over debate? Jesus' encounter with Thomas' unbelief shows how resurrection responds to doubt in community. For sermon slides, visit realityboston.com/teachings.

In John 20: 19-3, Pastor Kris and Shelley find resonance in our sequestering with the story of Thomas and the disciples: even when we lock ourselves inside, Jesus finds us. As Thomas sought reassurance, the resurrection reveals a God that is still creating and re-creating. Sheltering at home has brought us new understandings even as it has separated us physically. As for Thomas, a loving Christ breathes the Holy Spirit into us, wherever we are.

A modern-day thriller centered on authentic historical letters encoded with Templar and Rosicrucian secretsCentered on recently discovered, authenticated correspondence between two famous 19th-century Masonic leaders, Confederate General Albert Pike and British Colonel James Wilson Bury MacLeod Moore, this modern-day thriller follows Thomas, a direct descendant of Col. Moore, and Janet Rose, a direct descendant of the Merovingian Kings and House of David, as they risk their lives to protect the letters and the Templar and Rosicrucian secrets encoded within them. As Thomas and Janet discover, everyone--from the Church to the White House to Confederate sympathizers and the KKK--seeks the ancient knowledge contained within the letters, knowledge that would allow a singular entity to control the world and bring all of the great religions to their knees.Part fact, part fiction, the novel, with its 33 initiatory chapters, provides a rare glimpse into the inner circles of modern-day Freemasonry, along with revelations of ancient alliances between Native Americans and the Templars. Set in Georgetown, in the heart of Washington, D.C., the story ends with a dramatic unveiling of the ultimate New World secret sought by so many factions: the location of the last Knights Templar refuge in the New World, where the lost treasure of the Templars, including sacred knowledge of the Holy Family--the descendants of Jesus and Mary Magdalene--remains to this day.William F. Mann is an officer of the Knights Templar of Canada’s Grand Executive Committee, a member of its Grand Council, and serves as the Sovereign Great Priory’s Grand Archivist. The author of The Knights Templar in the New World and The Templar Meridians

A modern-day thriller centered on authentic historical letters encoded with Templar and Rosicrucian secrets Centered on recently discovered, authenticated correspondence between two famous 19th-century Masonic leaders, Confederate General Albert Pike and British Colonel James Wilson Bury MacLeod Moore, this modern-day thriller follows Thomas, a direct descendant of Col. Moore, and Janet Rose, a direct descendant of the Merovingian Kings and House of David, as they risk their lives to protect the letters and the Templar and Rosicrucian secrets encoded within them. As Thomas and Janet discover, everyone--from the Church to the White House to Confederate sympathizers and the KKK--seeks the ancient knowledge contained within the letters, knowledge that would allow a singular entity to control the world and bring all of the great religions to their knees. Part fact, part fiction, the novel, with its 33 initiatory chapters, provides a rare glimpse into the inner circles of modern-day Freemasonry, along with revelations of ancient alliances between Native Americans and the Templars. Set in Georgetown, in the heart of Washington, D.C., the story ends with a dramatic unveiling of the ultimate New World secret sought by so many factions: the location of the last Knights Templar refuge in the New World, where the lost treasure of the Templars, including sacred knowledge of the Holy Family--the descendants of Jesus and Mary Magdalene--remains to this day. William F. Mann is an officer of the Knights Templar of Canada’s Grand Executive Committee, a member of its Grand Council, and serves as the Sovereign Great Priory’s Grand Archivist. The author of The Knights Templar in the New World and The Templar Meridians

Orthorexia is a new health dilema sweeping across the nation. As people begin to recognize this ‘obsession with health’ as actually unhealthy, change is being made. Today’s guest, Dani Breiner, has struggled with orthorexia in the past and now works to help other women fight through the obsessive habits and create a well balanced approach to health. After a toxic relationship left Dani with low self esteem, she found herself deep in disordered eating as she restricted, purged, and did anything possible to change her body. When she finally left the toxic relationship ruining her life, Dani found herself falling hard for a then stranger, now love of her life, named Thomas. The addition of Thomas into her life helped Dani leave the disordered eating but it wouldn’t be much longer before a new struggle arose. As Thomas was diagnosed with an extremely rare form of cancer, Dani’s life took a drastic turn as she became fully immersed in the world of cancer and treatments. Desperate to save Thomas, Dani fell back into disordered eating but in a new way, in a disguised way, as orthorexia. What seemed like a desire to ‘save Thomas’ was actually an obsessive relationship to health, clean eating, and fear foods that ruled Dani’s life. In today’s episode Dani shares how she fell into both types of disordered eating; the struggles she faced while recovering; and practical tips to conquer food fears, eat out again, and reclaim your relationship to health. In this we discuss what it was like to support a partner going through intensive chemo; the struggles they faced as a couple; how to remain hopeful; and why Cancer changed her entire viewpoint on life. We also delve into what it means to learn from your pain and how to not dwell on the past. It’s an emotionally raw episode with much inspiration! To connect with Dani find her at @danishealthyeats and I'm at @emilyfeikls

Dr Carolyn Lam:                Welcome to Circulation On The Run, your weekly podcast summary and backstage pass to the journal and it's editors. I'm Dr Carolyn Lam, associate editor from the National Heart Center and Duke National University of Singapore. Dr Greg Hundley:             And I'm Greg Hundley, associate editor from the Pauley Heart Center in Richmond, Virginia at VCU Health.                                                 Well, Carolyn, we've got a great feature article to discuss later in our interview today. We're going to compare surgical versus percutaneous aortic valve replacement, but now with coronary artery revascularization. So, very exciting results from the SURTAVI trial.                                                 So, Carolyn, do you have a couple papers to discuss? Dr Carolyn Lam:                For sure. Actually, it's exactly a couple, and it's a couple of GWAS papers. The first is a GWAS of the cardiac magnetic resonance imaging derived left ventricular phenotypes of the UK bio bank. It comprises almost 17,000 European-UK bio bank participants without prevalent myocardial infarction or heart failure. So this was led by professors Petersen and Monroe from Queen Mary University of London, and colleagues who found that prognostically important left ventricular imaging phenotypes were highly heritable, with a heritability of 22 to 39%. A total of 14 genetic susceptibility low PSI, eight of which were unique, enriched in the cardiac developmental pathways and regulation of contractile mechanisms were discovered, and the polygenic risk scores of left ventricular phenotypes were predictive of heart failure events independently of clinical risk. Dr Greg Hundley:             Well, Carolyn, knowing me and MRI, something I really am interested in. So tell us a little about what are the clinical implications? Dr Carolyn Lam:                Well, the findings not only enhance our understanding of the genetic basis of prognostically important left ventricular phenotypes in the general population, but they also underscore the intricate genetic relationship between these endo phenotypes and the pathogenesis of heart failure. The prioritized genes in the genome whites significant load size should be followed up in the functional studies to aid the development of potential novel therapies in future. The polygenic risk scores of left ventricular phenotypes may have a role in personalized risk stratification. But this, of course, is dependent on further validation of the clinical robustness in future studies.                                                 I want to skip onto my second GWAS paper, and this time dealing with bicuspid aortic valve. So, first a little reminder that bicuspid aortic valve disease is a congenital defect that affects 0.5 to 1.2% of the population, and is associated with comorbidities including ascending aortic dilatation and calcific aortic stenosis. To date, while a few causal genes have been identified, the genetic basis for the vast majority of bicuspid aortic valve cases remains unknown. Today's paper from Dr Lipschultz from Medical University of South Carolina reports novel human genetic based models, which developed bicuspid aortic valve and aortic stenosis with high penetrance. Dr Greg Hundley:             Very interesting. So, how did the authors do this, Carolyn? Dr Carolyn Lam:                Yeah, it is interesting. What they did is they performed a GWAS and replication study using cohorts of more than 2,000 patients with bicuspid aortic valve and more than 2,700 controls, which identified the primary Celia genes as associated with the bicuspid aortic valve phenotype. Specifically the most associated snips were identified in or near genes that are important in regulating Ciliogenesis through the exocyst, which is a shuttling complex that chaperone Celia cargo to the membrane. Genetic dismantling of this exocyst resulted in impaired Ciliogenesis through the XO CIS, disrupted Ciliogenic signaling, and resulted in a spectrum of cardiac defects in zebra fish and aortic valve defects including bicuspid aortic valve, valve stenosis, and Velveeta calcification in murine models as well. So this data really supports that the exocyst is required for normal Ciliogenesis during aortic valve morphogenesis and really implicates the disruption of Ciliogenesis, and its downstream pathways may contribute to bicuspid aortic valve and its associated comorbidities. Dr Greg Hundley:             Wow. Very interesting. Learning more and more about bicuspid valves through our journal. I'm going to shift Carolyn and talk about an article from Dr Marc Sabatine from the TIMI study group at Brigham and Women's hospital. This study performed a systematic review and a trial level meta regression analysis of three classes of lipid lowering therapies that reduce triglycerides to a greater extent than they do LDLC. Fibrates, Niacin, and Marine derived Omega-three fatty acids and key inclusion criteria were a randomized, controlled trial that reported on major vascular events. The study also incorporated data from a previous Meta-regression of 25 Statin trials, and the main outcome measure was the risk ratio for major, vascular events associated with absolute reductions in lipid parameters. Dr Carolyn Lam:                Oh, very interesting. So did the study show that it was beneficial to lower triglycerides or not? Dr Greg Hundley:             Let me tell you a little more about it. The study encompass 374,358 patients that sustained 46,180 major cardiovascular events, and in their multi-variable Meta-regression model, that included terms for both LDLC and triglyceride surrogates for LDL and VLDL. The risk ratio was 0.8 per one millimole per liter reduction in LDLC, and 0.84 per one millimole liter reduction in triglycerides. Therefore, a reduction in non-HDLC, a measure of atherogenic LDL and VLDL particles, is strongly associated with lower risk of major vascular events regardless of the lipid lowering drug class, and triglyceride lowering is associated with a lower risk of cardiovascular events, but to a lesser extent per absolute amount of reduction then with LDLC. Interesting, Carolyn one study reduce it and impacted the study results, and nearly all non-statin trials did not achieve significant non-HDLC lowering to detect a clinical difference in major vascular events. Now how about in regards to Omega- three dose?                                                 Well, each one gram per day of EPA administered was associated with a 7% relative risk reduction in major vascular events, whereas there was no significant reduction in major vascular events with DHA. So the benefits of Marine-derived Omega-three fatty acids, particularly high dose EPA, appear to exceed their lipid lowering effects. Dr Carolyn Lam:                Wow. Interesting. So Greg, take it home for us. What should we do clinically about this information? Dr Greg Hundley:             Carolyn, developing drugs that achieve large reductions in VLDL and triglycerides and are targeting patients with high baseline levels of triglycerides would likely increase the probability of showing a meaningful clinical benefit, and fibrates could be considered in patients needing further non-HDLC lowering, being mindful of side effects, as they should offer clinical benefit proportional to the degree of non-HDLC lowering, and if a disproportionate relationship between lipid lowering and cardiovascular risk reduction is validated in ongoing high dose Omega-three fatty acid trials, it will support the hypothesis that confers a unique benefit of this class of agents beyond simply their lipid lowering.                                                 How about that? Dr Carolyn Lam:                Very nice Greg and I think very balanced and good clinical take home messages. Tell us what else is in the mailbag. Dr Greg Hundley:             We have so many interesting articles in Circulation and let me just run through a quick list of those that are also in this issue. First, Dr Jere Mitchell, from UT Southwestern, reviews the 50th anniversary of the Dallas Bedrest Study that involve five 20-year-olds that underwent several weeks of bedrest, and he discusses how this informs many of our thoughts regarding the benefits of activity today, and one of his major coauthors is Dr Ben Levine. Our own Josh Beckman reviews the ongoing efforts of physicians to understand the role of paclitaxel coated stents for those undergoing peripheral arterial interventions. Dr Berlinde von Kemp, in our case series, identifies that not all cardiomyopathy, after delivery, is simply postpartum cardiomyopathy. In another article, Dr Anurag Agrawal discusses what's on their mind regarding the use of spirometry as a cardiovascular disease risk assessment tool, should it be incorporated into existing cardiovascular disease risk models.                                                 Then, we have a great letter back and forth discussion from Dr Junfeng Wang, Dr Daxin Wang, and our own Naveed Sattar in three separate letters that discussed the relevance of age of onset for type two diabetes relative to cardiovascular risk. Then, finally our own Carolyn Lam reviews the role of biomarkers in heart failure and preserved ejection fraction. Dr Carolyn Lam:                Let's hop on to our feature discussion, shall we? Dr Greg Hundley:             Absolutely. Dr Greg Hundley:             Welcome everyone to the discussion of our featured article today where we're going to review an excellent study comparing TAVR versus SAVR in patients with aortic stenosis, but also now considering simultaneous coronary artery revascularization. Discussing our article today we have Dr Thomas Engstrøm and then our own associate editor, Dharam Kumbhani. Well Thomas, welcome to our podcast featured article discussion. I wonder if you could start us off with a little background regarding your study. What were your hypotheses, and then tell us a little about your study population and your methods. Dr Thomas Engstrøm:     Now, as you know, up to 50% of patients that are treated for aortic stenosis have coronary artery disease, and this may be considered as a bystander disease to develop disease, but definitely also adds to the prognosis for the patients. A priority guideline recommends that if you do SAVR, you'll also have significant coronary artery disease. What we don't know is if the complete percutaneous approach is as good as a surgical approach. Maybe do TAVR plus PCI comply with fiber plus CABG. That's the background for the study.                                                 Now, the population involved in this study is the population from the search TAVR trial, which as you know compared TAVR to SAVR in patients that were clinically at intermediate risk and in patients that had severe aortic stenosis. If patient had additional coronary artery disease with a syntax called Bob 22, they were excluded from the trial. We are talking about intermediate risk patients with low syntax score. Of the patients in the TAVR trial, 20% had additional coronary artery disease and were resterilized. In the paper, we compare TAVR plus PCI versus SAVR plus CABG in those patients with significant coronary artery disease. Dr Greg Hundley:             How did you define the presence or absence of coronary disease? Just real quickly before we get to your results. Dr Thomas Engstrøm:     This was at the discretion of your operator to define where the patients had coronary artery disease or not. In the paper, patients were defined as having significant diseases. More than 70% of stenotic lesions were present in one or more coronary arteries. Dr Greg Hundley:             And so can you tell us, Thomas a little about the results of your study? Dr Thomas Engstrøm:     First of all, the patients that had additional coronary artery disease had a poor prognosis than those that only had valve substitution, which is probably not a surprise. Within those that also had coronary artery disease, TAVR plus PCI appeared to be as good as CABG plus SAVR in terms of the primary endpoint, which was all because mortality or disabling stroke after two years. Then, if you dive more deeply into the endpoint and the number of secondary endpoints were pre-specified, there were no differences regarding any stroke myocardial infraction and in total no differences between what you could call major heart end points. If you look more into detail of the secondary endpoint, there are subtle differences. Patients that were in the SAVR plus CABG had more atrial fibrillation as they also had more acute kidney injury following that treatment. Whereas, in the TAVR plus PCR, more patients had vascular complications and of course had the need for pacemaker implantation. There are differences between the outcome in the two groups, but not in regard of pre-specified primary and more important secondary endpoints. Dr Greg Hundley:             Dharam, I was wondering if you could help us think about what this means for the field in terms of both from aortic valve replacement, and then also the concomitant management of coronary disease in patients that require aortic valve replacement. Dr Dharam Kumbhani:   As Thomas just pointed out, I think this is a very important question. This comes up all the time in patients with severe aortic stenosis, being evaluated for best options, and the guidelines have stayed true to this that if somebody has concomitant coronary artery disease, then the guidelines typically would recommend SAVR as the first option because then they can have CABG at the same time. This study really seeks to address a very important knowledge gap in the field, and as he very well pointed out, this does restrict itself a little in terms of the population, because they couldn't have a high syntax score, actually an intermediate or high syntax score, and they need in the trial...I think the main syntax score was eight or nine. I think that is important, but having said that, more than 50% of the patients had multi-vessel disease, and it was really impressive that nearly 15 or 17% still had three vessel PCI even in this arm.                                                 I think it's important for people to recognize that although this was the lowest syntax score, multivessel PCI was still pursued. I think that's definitely an important takeaway from the strike. It's a really important trial. It's one of the very few pieces of information that we have that is prospectively done under the auspices of a big trial like SURTAVI, and with low risk approval in and what this means for patients going forward I think will be very exciting to see how this few devolves.                                                 Thomas, as this field matures, could you walk us through, in terms of did you do the valve first and then the coronaries, or where the coronaries worked on first and then the valve? That's sort of the first question. Can you walk us through how you make those decisions? Dr Thomas Engstrøm:     It was up to the discretion of the operator whether to do a concomitant procedure, both PCI and TAVR, or to state the procedures in that way that PCI was done first, and this could be done up to seven days before the TAVR. If you compare those two groups, and now numbers become a little bit few, so we can't be conclusive here. It appears that patients that had stage procedures did poorer than those that had concomitant procedures done. Of course, it raises some questions. The prioritization as to do it in one way or the other was that through concomitant procedure, you may introduce too much of stress to the patient. Otherwise, if you do a stage procedure, it's best to do the PCI first, because the actual appearance of the valve may make it more difficult and cumbersome to address the coronary arteries. To sum this up, in the patients that we have, it appeared that a concomitant procedure is safe. Dr Greg Hundley:             Dharam, tell us, what do you think is the next step forward for this field? What do see as the next study moving forward here? Dr Dharam Kumbhani:   I think this study really sets the stage for, I think future trials where perhaps we would have... So I'm doing this in this trial. The stratification was done based on whether or not they need to revascularization. I think going forward, again with LOTUS approval here and proliferation of the number of TAVR procedures that are being offered everywhere, I think it will be helpful. This study would set the stage for future studies, where I think you would prospectively have patients with needing an aortic valve replacement and perhaps even complex revascularization, and how that was kind of actually the randomization, which is the stratification strategy, which again was very helpful. These are really among the first few data that we have of this, but I think this kind of sets the stage for future investigations in this space. And then as I briefly alluded to, I think this may help evolve or this may help in the evolution on the guidelines as well.                                                 Thomas, would you like to add anything to that? Dr Thomas Engstrøm:     Yeah, I completely echo that. Going back to the old syntax trial, it would be very interesting to see if PCI holds through, even in high tunes, syntax scores with newer drug eluting stents, and also of course the question of the diabetics is totally unsolved in this cohort. CABG plus SAVR may turn out to be the best solution, but we still are waiting to see data that can support any of the two strategies in those patient cohorts. Dr Greg Hundley:             We want to thank Thomas Engstrøm and also our own Dharam Kumbhani. We look forward to seeing you next week. Dr Carolyn Lam:                This program is copyright American Heart Association, 2019.  

As Thomas and Colin explore the Hundred-Acre Wood, Colin podcasts in concussed delirium, but will anyone be able to tell? Thomas has an existential crisis over one of his jingles, and the whole sorry mess is not made the slightest more bearable because Colin has not the energy to trim the enormous amounts of detritus and dead space, due to his head-bulge! Join in the fun by joining the Facebook Group Still Under Wraps ; a search on Facebook should find it, or you can grab this cumbersome link: https://www.facebook.com/groups/372745439978124/ Find our current Leader Board and guesses so far for "What's on the Shelf?" at https://stillunderwraps.blogspot.com/ And if you want to listen to Thomas do his own unauthorised spin-off Podcast discussing (maybe) the exact same viewing of this film, sign up to Uninhibited Meat Noises (if only to find out why it's called that!) at https://anchor.fm/meatnoises/ Colin uses the My Movies app to keep track of his DVDs and Blu-rays, and to filter and select those that are "Still Under Wraps". Check it out here: https://www.mymovies.dk/home.aspx Podcast recommended this week: Dear Hank and John! Find them here, https://www.wnycstudios.org/podcasts/dear-hank-john

Stories provide portals into other worlds, both real and imagined. The promise of escape draws people from all backgrounds to speculative fiction, but when people of color seek passageways into the fantastic, the doors are often barred. This problem lies not only with children's publishing, but also with the television and film executives tasked with adapting these stories into a visual world. When characters of color do appear, they are often marginalized or subjected to violence, reinforcing for audiences that not all lives matter. Dr. Ebony Elizabeth Thomas's book The Dark Fantastic: Race and the Imagination from Harry Potter to the Hunger Games (NYU Press, 2019) is an engaging and provocative exploration of race in popular youth and young adult speculative fiction. Grounded in her experiences as YA novelist, fanfiction writer, and scholar of education, Thomas considers four black girl protagonists from some of the most popular stories of the early 21st century: Bonnie Bennett from the CW's The Vampire Diaries, Rue from Suzanne Collins's The Hunger Games, Gwen from the BBC's Merlin, and Angelina Johnson from J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter. Analyzing their narratives and audience reactions to them reveals how these characters mirror the violence against black and brown people in our own world. In response, Thomas uncovers and builds upon a tradition of fantasy and radical imagination in Black feminism and Afrofuturism to reveal new possibilities. Through fanfiction and other modes of counter-storytelling, young people of color have reinvisioned fantastic worlds that reflect their own experiences, their own lives. As Thomas powerfully asserts, “we dark girls deserve more, because we are more.” Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/african-american-studies

Stories provide portals into other worlds, both real and imagined. The promise of escape draws people from all backgrounds to speculative fiction, but when people of color seek passageways into the fantastic, the doors are often barred. This problem lies not only with children’s publishing, but also with the television and film executives tasked with adapting these stories into a visual world. When characters of color do appear, they are often marginalized or subjected to violence, reinforcing for audiences that not all lives matter. Dr. Ebony Elizabeth Thomas's book The Dark Fantastic: Race and the Imagination from Harry Potter to the Hunger Games (NYU Press, 2019) is an engaging and provocative exploration of race in popular youth and young adult speculative fiction. Grounded in her experiences as YA novelist, fanfiction writer, and scholar of education, Thomas considers four black girl protagonists from some of the most popular stories of the early 21st century: Bonnie Bennett from the CW’s The Vampire Diaries, Rue from Suzanne Collins’s The Hunger Games, Gwen from the BBC’s Merlin, and Angelina Johnson from J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter. Analyzing their narratives and audience reactions to them reveals how these characters mirror the violence against black and brown people in our own world. In response, Thomas uncovers and builds upon a tradition of fantasy and radical imagination in Black feminism and Afrofuturism to reveal new possibilities. Through fanfiction and other modes of counter-storytelling, young people of color have reinvisioned fantastic worlds that reflect their own experiences, their own lives. As Thomas powerfully asserts, “we dark girls deserve more, because we are more.” Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Stories provide portals into other worlds, both real and imagined. The promise of escape draws people from all backgrounds to speculative fiction, but when people of color seek passageways into the fantastic, the doors are often barred. This problem lies not only with children’s publishing, but also with the television and film executives tasked with adapting these stories into a visual world. When characters of color do appear, they are often marginalized or subjected to violence, reinforcing for audiences that not all lives matter. Dr. Ebony Elizabeth Thomas's book The Dark Fantastic: Race and the Imagination from Harry Potter to the Hunger Games (NYU Press, 2019) is an engaging and provocative exploration of race in popular youth and young adult speculative fiction. Grounded in her experiences as YA novelist, fanfiction writer, and scholar of education, Thomas considers four black girl protagonists from some of the most popular stories of the early 21st century: Bonnie Bennett from the CW’s The Vampire Diaries, Rue from Suzanne Collins’s The Hunger Games, Gwen from the BBC’s Merlin, and Angelina Johnson from J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter. Analyzing their narratives and audience reactions to them reveals how these characters mirror the violence against black and brown people in our own world. In response, Thomas uncovers and builds upon a tradition of fantasy and radical imagination in Black feminism and Afrofuturism to reveal new possibilities. Through fanfiction and other modes of counter-storytelling, young people of color have reinvisioned fantastic worlds that reflect their own experiences, their own lives. As Thomas powerfully asserts, “we dark girls deserve more, because we are more.” Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

As Thomas the Rhymer regales the gathered throng at the feast in his Tower at Ercildoune, the eyes of the hidden folk are watching… Seb and Rick close the series by discussing the fate of Thomas the Rhymer, the landscape and geopolitics of Elf-Land, and what they've learned from the experience of creating Lore & Legend season one. Stay tuned for our next Lore Talk, our monthly guest episodes, our holiday specials, and Season 2, out in 2020. || Keep up to date with the podcast by visiting www.loreandlegend.co.uk and following us on Facebook and Twitter and YouTube. Full audio credits available here: https://theartfulstorytell.wixsite.com/loreandlegend/strangebritannia --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/loreandlegend/message

Stories provide portals into other worlds, both real and imagined. The promise of escape draws people from all backgrounds to speculative fiction, but when people of color seek passageways into the fantastic, the doors are often barred. This problem lies not only with children’s publishing, but also with the television and film executives tasked with adapting these stories into a visual world. When characters of color do appear, they are often marginalized or subjected to violence, reinforcing for audiences that not all lives matter. Dr. Ebony Elizabeth Thomas's book The Dark Fantastic: Race and the Imagination from Harry Potter to the Hunger Games (NYU Press, 2019) is an engaging and provocative exploration of race in popular youth and young adult speculative fiction. Grounded in her experiences as YA novelist, fanfiction writer, and scholar of education, Thomas considers four black girl protagonists from some of the most popular stories of the early 21st century: Bonnie Bennett from the CW’s The Vampire Diaries, Rue from Suzanne Collins’s The Hunger Games, Gwen from the BBC’s Merlin, and Angelina Johnson from J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter. Analyzing their narratives and audience reactions to them reveals how these characters mirror the violence against black and brown people in our own world. In response, Thomas uncovers and builds upon a tradition of fantasy and radical imagination in Black feminism and Afrofuturism to reveal new possibilities. Through fanfiction and other modes of counter-storytelling, young people of color have reinvisioned fantastic worlds that reflect their own experiences, their own lives. As Thomas powerfully asserts, “we dark girls deserve more, because we are more.” Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Stories provide portals into other worlds, both real and imagined. The promise of escape draws people from all backgrounds to speculative fiction, but when people of color seek passageways into the fantastic, the doors are often barred. This problem lies not only with children’s publishing, but also with the television and film executives tasked with adapting these stories into a visual world. When characters of color do appear, they are often marginalized or subjected to violence, reinforcing for audiences that not all lives matter. Dr. Ebony Elizabeth Thomas's book The Dark Fantastic: Race and the Imagination from Harry Potter to the Hunger Games (NYU Press, 2019) is an engaging and provocative exploration of race in popular youth and young adult speculative fiction. Grounded in her experiences as YA novelist, fanfiction writer, and scholar of education, Thomas considers four black girl protagonists from some of the most popular stories of the early 21st century: Bonnie Bennett from the CW’s The Vampire Diaries, Rue from Suzanne Collins’s The Hunger Games, Gwen from the BBC’s Merlin, and Angelina Johnson from J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter. Analyzing their narratives and audience reactions to them reveals how these characters mirror the violence against black and brown people in our own world. In response, Thomas uncovers and builds upon a tradition of fantasy and radical imagination in Black feminism and Afrofuturism to reveal new possibilities. Through fanfiction and other modes of counter-storytelling, young people of color have reinvisioned fantastic worlds that reflect their own experiences, their own lives. As Thomas powerfully asserts, “we dark girls deserve more, because we are more.” Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Stories provide portals into other worlds, both real and imagined. The promise of escape draws people from all backgrounds to speculative fiction, but when people of color seek passageways into the fantastic, the doors are often barred. This problem lies not only with children’s publishing, but also with the television and film executives tasked with adapting these stories into a visual world. When characters of color do appear, they are often marginalized or subjected to violence, reinforcing for audiences that not all lives matter. Dr. Ebony Elizabeth Thomas's book The Dark Fantastic: Race and the Imagination from Harry Potter to the Hunger Games (NYU Press, 2019) is an engaging and provocative exploration of race in popular youth and young adult speculative fiction. Grounded in her experiences as YA novelist, fanfiction writer, and scholar of education, Thomas considers four black girl protagonists from some of the most popular stories of the early 21st century: Bonnie Bennett from the CW’s The Vampire Diaries, Rue from Suzanne Collins’s The Hunger Games, Gwen from the BBC’s Merlin, and Angelina Johnson from J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter. Analyzing their narratives and audience reactions to them reveals how these characters mirror the violence against black and brown people in our own world. In response, Thomas uncovers and builds upon a tradition of fantasy and radical imagination in Black feminism and Afrofuturism to reveal new possibilities. Through fanfiction and other modes of counter-storytelling, young people of color have reinvisioned fantastic worlds that reflect their own experiences, their own lives. As Thomas powerfully asserts, “we dark girls deserve more, because we are more.” Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Props as always to the fine folks at thesmokinggun.com who bring the heat week after week and year after year watching the world devolve only Florida based human being at a time. Handcuffed, post-sex and fighting cops, this story sounds more like an Ed Buck letter to Hustler than two humans experiencing the simulation through stimulation.SEPTEMBER 16--While under arrest in the rear of a police car, a handcuffed Florida couple removed their clothes and began having sex, an encounter that eventually was interrupted when a sheriff’s deputy “opened the door to stop them,” according to an arrest report.Around 11:40 PM Friday, a cop stopped a man and woman who were riding bicycles with no lights on a street in Fernandina Beach, a city outside Jacksonville. “As the two bikes cut across the road, they were almost hit by another vehicle...due to them not having any lights on,” a Nassau County Sheriff’s Office deputy noted.While questioning the suspects--Megan Mondanaro, 35, and Aaron Thomas, 31--a patrolman noted that they each smelled of booze, had bloodshot eyes, and slurred speech.Mondanaro, who declined to perform field sobriety tests, was busted after the deputy concluded she was cycling while impaired. “Megan was arrested and placed in the backseat of my patrol vehicle,” Officer Mark Hunter reported.The cop then turned his attention to Thomas, who was subsequently arrested after he performed poorly on some sobriety tests and showed “signs of impairment.” A search of Thomas’s backpack turned up seven full cans of Four Loko and one empty. Thomas said that the couple was coming from the Hammerhead Beach Bar when stopped by police.“Aaron was arrested and placed in the backseat of my patrol vehicle with Megan, who was already arrested,” Hunter noted. Both suspects were handcuffed before being placed in the cop car.While Hunter was outside his squad car waiting for a vehicle to transport Mondanaro and Thomas to jail, “Megan and Aaron took their clothes off and started to have sex,” according to arrest reports.Upon spotting the pair trysting, Hunter “opened up the door to stop them.” By then, “Aaron was naked and Megan had her pants down where her vaginal area was visible. I also observed her bra was half way off and her breasts were fully visible,” Hunter noted.As Thomas was being removed from the cruiser, he pulled away from a second deputy who was knocked to the ground. The naked Thomas--who had moved his handcuffed hands to the front of his body--then fled through a parking lot. He was eventually corralled behind a nearby Cold Stone Creamery.When being transferred to another car, Mondanaro--who has "Miss Thirsty"tattooed on her left arm--allegedly “became violent and starting kicking at” a deputy. As a result of being forced to the ground, Mondanaro suffered abrasions on her face (as seen in the above mug shot).Mondanaro, who is locked up in lieu of $12,508 bond, has been charged with DUI, resisting officers, exposure of sexual organs, and engaging in lascivious acts. Thomas, who is being held without bond, faces similar charges, as well as escape and making threats against public officials counts. (2 pages)

Props as always to the fine folks at thesmokinggun.com who bring the heat week after week and year after year watching the world devolve only Florida based human being at a time. Handcuffed, post-sex and fighting cops, this story sounds more like an Ed Buck letter to Hustler than two humans experiencing the simulation through stimulation. SEPTEMBER 16--While under arrest in the rear of a police car, a handcuffed Florida couple removed their clothes and began having sex, an encounter that eventually was interrupted when a sheriff’s deputy “opened the door to stop them,” according to an arrest report. Around 11:40 PM Friday, a cop stopped a man and woman who were riding bicycles with no lights on a street in Fernandina Beach, a city outside Jacksonville. “As the two bikes cut across the road, they were almost hit by another vehicle...due to them not having any lights on,” a Nassau County Sheriff’s Office deputy noted. While questioning the suspects--Megan Mondanaro, 35, and Aaron Thomas, 31--a patrolman noted that they each smelled of booze, had bloodshot eyes, and slurred speech. Mondanaro, who declined to perform field sobriety tests, was busted after the deputy concluded she was cycling while impaired. “Megan was arrested and placed in the backseat of my patrol vehicle,” Officer Mark Hunter reported. The cop then turned his attention to Thomas, who was subsequently arrested after he performed poorly on some sobriety tests and showed “signs of impairment.” A search of Thomas’s backpack turned up seven full cans of Four Loko and one empty. Thomas said that the couple was coming from the Hammerhead Beach Bar when stopped by police. “Aaron was arrested and placed in the backseat of my patrol vehicle with Megan, who was already arrested,” Hunter noted. Both suspects were handcuffed before being placed in the cop car. While Hunter was outside his squad car waiting for a vehicle to transport Mondanaro and Thomas to jail, “Megan and Aaron took their clothes off and started to have sex,” according to arrest reports. Upon spotting the pair trysting, Hunter “opened up the door to stop them.” By then, “Aaron was naked and Megan had her pants down where her vaginal area was visible. I also observed her bra was half way off and her breasts were fully visible,” Hunter noted. As Thomas was being removed from the cruiser, he pulled away from a second deputy who was knocked to the ground. The naked Thomas--who had moved his handcuffed hands to the front of his body--then fled through a parking lot. He was eventually corralled behind a nearby Cold Stone Creamery. When being transferred to another car, Mondanaro--who has "Miss Thirsty"tattooed on her left arm--allegedly “became violent and starting kicking at” a deputy. As a result of being forced to the ground, Mondanaro suffered abrasions on her face (as seen in the above mug shot). Mondanaro, who is locked up in lieu of $12,508 bond, has been charged with DUI, resisting officers, exposure of sexual organs, and engaging in lascivious acts. Thomas, who is being held without bond, faces similar charges, as well as escape and making threats against public officials counts. (2 pages) --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/4256/support

We often hear phrases like, “the customer is always right.” But do our actions prove that we believe that is true? Thomas Iseler is EVP/Managing Director Americas for DataVard Inc, an SAP Partner, and he is a huge advocate for listening to what your customer really wants. As Thomas likes to say, DataVard is one of the many (many) smaller SAP partners.  They have traditionally been well established in Europe (primarily Germany), but they are now moving to other areas of the globe as well.  They opened operations in the United States and Canada a few years ago and have seen a tremendous amount of growth in a short period of time.   DataVard, as their name implies, is all about SAP data.  They don’t get too involved with the transactional side of data, but instead they are mostly involved in moving, archiving, and handling data.  Some of their most prominent examples of projects include mergers and acquisitions that are under the SAP system, or assisting companies who are making the move to HANA.   Their role has become more and more significant in recent years by providing services like ensuring data is still available for audits and the like.  For Datavard, it doesn’t matter where the data lives (if it is in the cloud or not) as long as they have the proper access they need to the data. We spoke with Thomas live from #SAPTechEd about his partnership with SAP, working together with joint customers, and keeping customers the center focus.

Mark Thomas, co-founder and CEO of ZenSports (zensports.com), provides a detailed overview of their groundbreaking new sports betting platform. Thomas is a savvy technology entrepreneur and the enthusiastic CEO of ZenSports, an exciting new peer-to-peer, decentralized sports betting marketplace that utilizes modern cryptocurrencies and blockchain. Thomas has extensive experience in the tech space, notably as an original co-founder and CEO of Reesio, a top venture-backed startup in real estate technology that was successfully launched then subsequently acquired by News Corp's Realtor.com. Additionally, Thomas founded Thomas Executive Resources, a recruiting agency that flourished, which he later sold in 2008. Thomas currently owns and operates a diverse real estate investment company as well: Mark Thomas Realty Holdings. Self described as a serial entrepreneur, Thomas is passionate about startups, tech, investing, and real estate. He brings many skills to the table as CEO of ZenSports, including executive leadership and business development, marketing, product management, recruiting, and finance. He has successfully worked with many venture capitalists and angel investors and is well versed in strategic planning.  Thomas discusses his background and motivation for entering the blockchain and cryptocurrency arena. His interest in advancing tech, and sports, pushed him to launch ZenSports, which as he describes was a meetup recreational sports app in which users could meet and play sports for money. As Thomas became more interested in the expanding cryptocurrency market, and he began investing, he was intrigued and wanted to dive deeper into the emerging digital financial and blockchain space. He saw a way to weed out the middlemen through decentralization in the sports industry. Thomas decided to utilize blockchain to create a better world within the sports industry, one that was more open to everyone. They set out to develop a better sports betting product utilizing blockchain and cryptocurrency to weed out the middlemen and bookmakers and keep it focused on users and the action. The platform puts betters in control of their action, in control of the bets they want to place, directly and immediately. ZenSports offers peer-to-peer sports betting in an active marketplace in which anyone can create and accept sports bets with anyone else in the entire world, with bookmakers no longer needed or necessary. The technology guru details the workings of their platform—how the system functions and operates. As he explains, users of the platform can input the kind of bet they want to place and the platform will match them up with those in the network who are willing to take that bet. When a match is made, the platform will lock them into a contract so the bet is secured and official, so neither side can back out of the bet, etc. Additionally, makers of the bets are responsible for submitting the results of the bets. Their system involves a created token economy that can sit a small escrow fee aside, and in case the results submitted are incorrect, the taker of the bet can dispute those results. Disputes are settled in the marketplace as all other betters vote on what the actual outcome was. Thus the majority of the marketplace votes on the correct result, keeping the bets accurate and efficiently managing the system.  Thomas talks about the other betting platforms in the market. He states that what sets ZenSports apart from the pack is that they are truly focused on traditional sports betting, their platform is 100% peer-to-peer, and their system is completely decentralized via the use of cryptocurrency and blockchain. While other competitors are doing some of these things, no one else is really mastering all three the way ZenSports has, which gives them a competitive edge and opens their platform up to more action in the biggest market of all.  The sports betting aficionado gets specific about their platform's details and the minutiae of how users can configure it to really work for them in an exciting way. He states that in the truest sense, ZenSports is really a matchmaker, matching people who have similar interests in sports betting who want to bet and enjoy the process. Thomas talks about some of the new developments that are on the horizon for ZenSports. He says they are working on their cryptocurrency token, to streamline transactions and keep it simple to use. Additionally, they are adding more and more sports and leagues to their app, as well as new features nearly weekly. Thomas states that they are constantly doing user testing so the product they deliver is not only thoroughly enjoyable but also top of the line and tested for success and precision. Easy and fun is what it is all about, and Thomas is pleased to bring the ZenSports platform to sports lovers everywhere. 

Join me and Leighton as we talk with Apostle Director Gareth Evans about his latest film, the video shop generation and plenty more. Apostle (2018) London, 1905. Prodigal son Thomas Richardson has returned home, only to learn that his sister is being held for ransom by a religious cult. Determined to get her back at any cost, Thomas travels to the idyllic island where the cult lives. As Thomas infiltrates the island's community, he learns that the corruption of mainland society that they claim to reject has infested the cult's ranks nonetheless - and uncovers a secret more evil than he could have imagined. Initial release: 12 October 2018 (USA) Director: Gareth Evans Screenplay: Gareth Evans Producer: Gareth Evans Music composed by: Aria Prayogi, Fajar Yuskemal

Something kinky has been taking place lately in the world of mainstream entertainment. Sadism and masochism are now to romantic comedy what romance and comedy use to be to romantic comedy. From the 2002 movie Secretary to 2011’s three-novel series 50 Shades of Grey (released as a movie earlier this year), many of our favorite new “love stories” are disturbingly, conspicuously twisted. Standing somewhere between those two examples is David Ives’ Tony-winning 2010 stage play "Venus in Fur," now running at Main Stage West in Sebastopol. Winner of the Tony for Best Play and Best Actress, Venus in Fur stands as a career high-water-mark for Ives, who’s best known for work like All in the Timing and Lives of the Saints, both collections of short one-acts. Ives’ work, by and large, has tended to sacrifice plot in the service of playing with language. Few playwrights are as masterful and entertaining with words and sentences as is Ives. But as an inventor of compelling stories, he’s always been a little lacking. Perhaps that’s the reason he’s chosen to adapt so many classic tales by other people when tackling full-length plays, works like Piere Corneille’s "The Liar" and Moliere’s "The Misanthrope." With "Venus in Fur," Ives fuses his best instincts into one show, fashioning a language-rich play about a playwright-director who’s just completed an adaption of the 1870 novel Venus in Furs, by Austrian writer Leopold von Sacher-Masoch. And here’s where it gets kinky. Sacher-Masoch is the gentlemen for whom the term “masochism” was named, and Venus in Furs is the novel that brought the concept of sadomasochism into public awareness. At Main Stage West, Anthony Abate plays Thomas the playwright, who has been auditioning actresses for the part of Vanda, an aristocratic woman who spontaneously takes a sex-slave and learns to mistreat him in degrading ways. As Thomas is about to leave his New York office, with the role of Vanda still uncast, in walks an actress whose name is also Vanda (mysterious!), played by Rose Roberts, who’s pretty much astonishing from start to finish. Vanda is a hot mess of an actress, dropping F-bombs left and right, desperate to audition though she’s three hours late, clutching a bag of props and costumes and a copy of the script she’s somehow gotten her hands on - despite the fact that almost no one has read it but Thomas and his producers. It is difficult to describe what happens next without spoiling the delicate series of revelations and red-herrings Ives incorporates into his gradually intensifying - and frequently hilarious - if not exactly plot-heavy story. The audition quickly turns into a battle of wits, sexuality, and gender assumptions. Thomas is surprised when that Vanda seems to have memorized the entire script, and as the audition commences, he reluctantly reads the role of the sex-slave to Vanda’s dominatrix. Sacher-Masoch’s soft-porn story-within-the-story - which Vanda eventually eviscerates with her dead-on critical analysis - eventually overlaps onto the intensifying power-play taking place between director and actress. There’s a bit of smoke-and-mirrors going on in Ives’ script, which would have little story at all were it not for the story within the story, but Ives’ work the smoke and mirrors well enough that few will notice that not much actually happens. But then, what does happen is extremely entertaining and even a little thought-provoking, thanks largely to director David Lear, who adds a few bold additions to Ives’ original vision. Ultimately, this uneven but highly intelligent play has lots to say about what men and women think about men and women. Funny, thoughtful, and painfully to-the-point, Venus in Fur is so good it hurts. "Venus in Fur" runs Thursday–Sunday through April 25 at Main Stage West. Mainstagewest.org. I’m David Templeton, Second Row Center, for KRCB.

Ruby has been getting more and more attention by the developer community over the last couple of years. Nevertheless Ruby as language and as a plattform is not too widespread. Most developers don't know people who have actually done commercial Ruby projects. Therefore it is sometimes hard to judge if Ruby is just a hype topic or if Ruby can be used for serious projects today. In this episode Alexander speaks with Thomas Quas about a commercial Ruby project Thomas finished a while ago. Thomas shares his insights and practical experiences with Ruby doing a project under strong time pressure. As Thomas has many years experience doing Java projects we also do some high level comparisons between both platforms.

Ruby has been getting more and more attention by the developer community over the last couple of years. Nevertheless Ruby as language and as a plattform is not too widespread. Most developers don't know people who have actually done commercial Ruby projects. Therefore it is sometimes hard to judge if Ruby is just a hype topic or if Ruby can be used for serious projects today. In this episode Alexander speaks with Thomas Quas about a commercial Ruby project Thomas finished a while ago. Thomas shares his insights and practical experiences with Ruby doing a project under strong time pressure. As Thomas has many years experience doing Java projects we also do some high level comparisons between both platforms.

Ruby has been getting more and more attention by the developer community over the last couple of years. Nevertheless Ruby as language and as a plattform is not too widespread. Most developers don't know people who have actually done commercial Ruby projects. Therefore it is sometimes hard to judge if Ruby is just a hype topic or if Ruby can be used for serious projects today. In this episode Alexander speaks with Thomas Quas about a commercial Ruby project Thomas finished a while ago. Thomas shares his insights and practical experiences with Ruby doing a project under strong time pressure. As Thomas has many years experience doing Java projects we also do some high level comparisons between both platforms.