Podcasts about Congo

Full Article: https://thegrayzone.com/2021/11/30/africom-corporations-dr-congo-climate-china/. Join my newsletter: jfodnews.com. Follow me on Twitter: @TheRealJFOD.

China's role in the landmark Congo-Hold Up corruption scandal was relatively small compared to those of other actors that were found to have funneled millions of dollars to former Congolese president Joseph Kabila and his associates. Nonetheless, investigators found that Chinese entities were responsible for at least $55 million in illicit payments connected to the $6 billion Sicomines resource-for-infrastructure deal back in 2007.The Washington, D.C.-based NGO The Sentry was among the lead organizations in the Congo Hold-Up investigation that was based on an unprecedented leak of 3.5 million documents from BGFIBank in Gabon. Two of The Sentry's lead investigators involved with the project, John Dell'Osso and Douglas Gillison join Eric & Cobus to discuss how Chinese companies were implicated in the scandal and the specific role of one man in particular.SHOW NOTES:Read The Sentry's full report: State Capture and Bribery in Congo's Deal of the Century -- https://bit.ly/31W74YsPhoto of Sun Ruiwen, president of China Molybdenum, meeting together with DR Congo President Félix Tshisekedi on December 23, 2021: https://bit.ly/3GvQ9egJOIN THE DISCUSSION:CAP on Facebook: www.facebook.com/ChinaAfricaProjectTwitter: @ChinaAfrProject | @stadenesque | @douglasgillison | @j_dellossoJOIN US ON PATREON!Become a CAP Patreon member and get all sorts of cool stuff including our Week in Review report, invitation to join monthly Zoom calls with Eric & Cobus, and even an awesome new CAP Podcast mug!www.patreon.com/chinaafricaprojectSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

We're launching a new season, asking what makes you … you? And who tells which stories and why?  SAPIENS hosts Ora Marek-Martinez and Yoli Ngandali explore stories of Black and Indigenous scholars as they transform the field of archeology and the stories that make us … us.  [00:00:02] Meet Dr. Ora Marek-Martinez and Yoli Ngandali [00:00:51] How season four came to be. [00:01:53] Season four previews. SAPIENS: A Podcast for Everything Human, is produced by House of Pod and supported by the Wenner-Gren Foundation. SAPIENS is also part of the American Anthropological Association Podcast Library. This season was created in collaboration with the Indigenous Archaeology Collective and Society of Black Archeologists, with art by Carla Keaton, and music from Jobii, _91nova, and Justnormal.   For more information and transcripts, visit sapiens.org. Webinar Series: From the Margins to the Mainstream: Black and Indigenous Futures in Archaeology About The Hosts: Dr. Ora Marek-Martinez (she/her/asdzaìaì) is a citizen of the Diné Nation, she's also Nez Perce. A Director at the Native American Cultural Center, her work includes supporting & ensuring the success of Northern Arizona University Native American & Indigenous students through Indigenized programming & services. An Assistant Professor in the Northern Arizona University Anthropology Department, her research interests include Indigenous archaeology & heritage management, research and approaches that utilize ancestral knowledge, decolonizing & Indigenizing methodologies and storytelling in the creation of archaeological knowledge to reaffirm Indigenous connections to land & place. Dr. Marek-Martinez is a founding member of the Indigenous Archaeology Coalition. Yoli Ngandali (she/he/hers) is a member of the Ngbaka Tribe from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, a Ronald E. McNair Fellow, and a Ph.D. Candidate in Archaeology at the University of Washington. Her research interests span Archaeologies of colonialism, Indigenous archeology, Archaeologies of Central Africa, Trans-Indigenous traditions of culture sharing, Black & Indigenous futurity, digital conservation science, remote sensing, and multi-spectral imaging. Her doctoral dissertation develops digital and community-based participatory research approaches to Indigenous art revitalization within museum settings and highlights Indigenous carving traditions in the Pacific Northwest.

This week Randall sits down with bicycle industry pioneer, Craig Calfee. Craig has been an industry leader for decades with his work on the Calfee brand and many other collaborations throughout the industry. You cannot find someone more knowledgable about carbon (or bamboo) as a material.  Calfee Designs Website Join The Ridership Support the Podcast Automated Transcription, please excuse the typos: Craig Calfee Randall [00:00:00]  [00:00:04] Randall: Welcome to the gravel ride podcast. I'm your host Randall Jacobs and our guest today is Craig Calfee. Craig is the founder of Calfee Design, the innovator behind the first full carbon frames to race in the tour de France, the originator of numerous technologies adopted throughout the cycling industry, and on a personal note has been a generous and consistent supporter of my own entrepreneurial journey. I am grateful to have him as a friend, and I've been looking forward to this conversation for some time. So with that, Craig, Calfee welcome to the podcast. [00:00:32] Craig Calfee: Oh, thank you. Nice to be here. [00:00:34] Randall: So, let's start with, what's your background, give your own story in your own words. [00:00:40] Craig Calfee: Well, I've always written bikes. I mean, as a kid, that's how I got around. And that's, as you become an older child, you, uh, find your independence with moving about the world. And a bicycle of course, is the most efficient way to do that. And later on, I was a bike messenger in New York when I went to college and that kind of got me into bike design as much for the, uh, desire to make a bike that can withstand a lot of abuse. And later on, I used a bike for commuting to work at a job, building carbon fiber racing boats. And during that time I crashed my bike and needed a new frame. So I thought I'd make a frame at a carbon fiber, uh, tubing that I had been making at my.  [00:01:29] Randall: my job  [00:01:30] Craig Calfee: So this is back in 1987, by the way. So there wasn't a, there were no YouTube videos on how to make your own carbon bike. So I pretty much had to invent a way to build the bike out of this tubing. And at the time there were aluminum lugged bikes, and I just, I knew already aluminum and carbon fiber don't get along very well. So you have to really do a lot of things to, to accommodate that. And the existing bikes at the time were, uh, I would say experimental in the fact that they were just trying to glue aluminum to carbon and it really wasn't working. [00:02:05] So I came up with my own way and built my first bike and it turned out really well. And a lot of friends and, and bike racers who checked out the bikes that I I really should keep going with it. So I felt like I discovered carbon fiber as a, as the perfect bicycle material before anyone else. Uh, and actually, uh, right at that time, Kestrel came out with their first bike, uh, the K 1000 or something. Um, anyway that was uh, that was in 87, 88. And, uh, I felt like I should really, you know give it a go. So I moved out to California and started a bike company. [00:02:48] Randall: So just to be clear, you were actually making the tubes, you weren't buying tubes. So you're making the tubes out of the raw carbon or some pre-printed carbon. then you came up with your own way of, uh, joining those tubes. [00:03:01] Craig Calfee: Yeah. I worked on a braiding machine, so it was actually a a hundred year old, uh, shoelace braider, uh, from back in Massachusetts. There's a lot of old textile machinery braiding is, uh, you know, your braided socks and, you know, nylon rope is braided. So this is a 72 carrier braider, which means 72 spools of carbon fiber. [00:03:25] Are winding in and out braiding this tube and you just run it back and forth through this braider a few times. And now you have a thick enough wall to, uh, I developed a and tape wrapping method at that job and came up with a pretty decent way to make a bicycle tube. So that was kind of the beginning of that. [00:03:47] Uh, and since then I've explored all kinds of methods for making tubing, mainly through subcontractors who specialize in things like filament winding and roll wrapping. And, uh, pultrusion, you know, all kinds of ways to make tubing. And that does relate to kind of an inspiration for me, where I realized that, uh, carbon fiber, you know, high performance composites are relatively young and new in the world of technology where metals are, you know, the metals have been around since the bronze age. [00:04:21] I mean, literally 5,000 years of development happened with metals, carbon fiber, uh, high-performance composites have only really been around since world war two. So that's a huge gap in development that hasn't happened with composites. So that to me felt like, oh, there's some job security for a guy who likes to invent things. So that was my, a kind of full force to get me to really focus on composite materials. [00:04:51] Randall: Were you that insightful in terms of the historical context at the time, or is that kind of a retro or retrospective reflection? [00:04:58] Craig Calfee: I think, I don't know. I think I may have read about that. Um, I a friend who had a library card at MIT and I pretty much lived there for a few weeks every, uh, master's thesis and PhD thesis on bicycles that they had in their library. And I think somewhere in there was a, uh, a topic on composites and comparing the technology of composites. [00:05:23] So. I probably that from some reading I did, or maybe I did invent that out of thin air. I don't remember, uh, nonetheless, uh, the fact of it is, you know, not, not a whole lot of mental energy has been put into coming up with ways of processing fiber and resin compared to metal. So to me that just opens up a wide world of, of innovation. [00:05:49] Randall: Um, and so the first frame was that, um, you're creating essentially uniform tubes and then mitering them, joining them, wrapping them as you do with your current bamboo frames or what was happening there. [00:06:02] Craig Calfee: Uh, it's more like the, uh, our, our carbon fiber frames were laminating carbon fabric in metal dyes, and those are not mitered tubes fitting into the dyes. And that's, that's a process. I got my first patent on. And it, uh, so in the process of compressing the carbon fabric against the tubes, you're you end up with these gussets in what is traditionally the parting line of a mold and rather than trim them off completely. [00:06:31] I, I use them as reinforcing ribs. [00:06:35] Randall: Yep. Okay. So that explains the, the, that distinctive element that continues with your, um, some of your, uh, to tube, uh, currently  [00:06:48] Craig Calfee: them  [00:06:49] the hand wrapping technique from that you currently see on the bamboo bikes came from developing a tandem frame, or basically a frame whose production numbers don't justify the tooling costs. Um, so that's hand wrapped. That's just literally lashed to. Yeah. And a point of note, there is I was a boy scout growing up and, uh, there's this merit badge called pioneering merit badge. [00:07:16] And I really enjoyed pioneering merit badge because it involved lashing row, uh, poles together with rope and the pro you had to do with this one project. And I did a tower and it was this enormous structure that went just straight up like a flagpole, but it was it involved a bunch of tetrahedrons, uh, stacked on top of each other and lashed together. [00:07:41] you know, culminating in a pole that went up. I don't remember how tall it was, but it was, it was really impressive. And everybody, you know, thought, wow, this is incredible of poles and some rope. And here we have this massive tower. So anyway, I was into things together since a young age. [00:08:00] And so I immediately came up with the, uh, the last tube concept. Which is where the, now the bamboo bikes are. course there's a specific pattern to the wrapping, but, um, the concept is basically using fiber to lash stuff together, [00:08:16] Randall: When it immediately brings to mind, what's possible with current generation of additive production techniques. Uh, whereas before you could make small components and then lash them together to create structures that otherwise aren't manufacturable. [00:08:31] Now you'd be able to say, print it out though. Those, you know, those printed out materials don't have the performance characteristics of a, you know, a uni directional carbon of the sword that you're working with currently. [00:08:42] Craig Calfee: right? [00:08:43] Randall: Um, so we've gone deep nerd here. We're going to, I'm going to pull us out and say, okay, uh, lots of time for this. [00:08:49] This is going to be a double episode. Uh, so next up, let's talk about those frames, uh, saw their big debut. [00:08:59] Craig Calfee: Yeah. So, um, we started making custom geometry for a. In 1989 and selling them and so big and tall, and that the idea of custom geometry frames was, uh, you know, pretty esoteric. And the pro racers were, we're using a lot of custom frames. So Greg Lamond, uh, was in search of a carbon fiber, uh, custom frame builder in, uh, 1990. [00:09:31] And, uh, no one really was doing it. We were literally the only company making custom carbon frame bikes. So he, uh, found out about us, uh, effectively discovered us, shall we say? And, uh, it didn't take long for him to order up 18 of them for his, his, uh, team Z, uh, teammates. He was sponsoring his own team with a Lamont brand. [00:09:56] So we didn't have to sponsor him. He basically paid for the frame. Put his name on them. And, and, uh, now we're now we're on the defending champions, a tour de France team. So that was a huge break obviously. And it was really a pleasure working with Greg and getting to know the demands of the pro Peloton, uh, you know, that really launched us. [00:10:21] So that was, uh, quite a splash. And, you know, it always is a great answer to the question. Oh, so who rides your bike kind of thing. you know, you have the, the full-on best one in the world at the time. So, so that was a fun thing. [00:10:39] Randall: And the name of the company at the time was, [00:10:41] Craig Calfee: Uh, carbon frames. [00:10:42] Randall: yeah. So anyone wanting [00:10:45] dig up the historical record, [00:10:47] Craig Calfee: is this too generic? You know, the other to what you're talking about, the adventure bikes. Yeah, we had to stop. I mean, carbon frames is a terrible name because everyone started talking about all carbon fiber frames as carbon frames. So we thought that was cool, you know, like Kleenex, you know, uh, and then we came up with the adventure bike, you know, with very early, uh, adventure bike. [00:11:11] And it was just, we called it the adventure bike. And now there's a classification called adventure bikes that, you know, so, um, I think we, we, we went too generic on how we named our models. [00:11:26] Randall: I've drawn from the rich tradition, a tradition of Greek, you know, uh, philosophy for naming my own companies in the like, [00:11:35] Craig Calfee: Yeah. [00:11:36] Randall: uh, um, and then next up, uh, so you've worked with Greg Lamond on those frames. Carbon frames is up and running and you're, you're producing custom geo frames and you're starting to get at some scale at this point and some notoriety. [00:11:52] next up you were working on your bamboo bikes. When we talk about that [00:11:57] Craig Calfee: Yeah, that was say, I'm kind of at the, at the time, it was just a way to get publicity. So at the Interbike trade show, you'd have a few creative people making some wacky bikes out of beer cans or, or other just weird things just to get attention, just, just to send the media over to your booth, to take a picture of some wacky thing that you're doing. [00:12:20] yeah, we got to do something like that to get, get some attention. And the, uh, so I was looking around for some PVC pipe. Maybe I was going to do a PVC pipe bike, and I wasn't really sure, but I knew that we could just wrap any tube. Make a bike out of literally anything. So, um, my dog was playing with some bamboo behind the shop. [00:12:42] Uh, she was a stick dog, so she loved to clamp onto a stick and you could swing her around by the, by the sticks. She's a pit bull and lab mix. Anyway, we ran out of sticks. Uh, cause we only had one little tree in the back, but we did have some bamboos. So she came up with a piece of bamboo and I was her around by it, expecting it to break off in her mouth because I just wasn't aware of how strong bamboo was, but it turned out it was really quite strong. [00:13:12] And I said, oh, let's make a bike out of this stuff. And sure enough, uh, the bike was, uh, quite a attention getter. It got the quarter page and bicycling magazine so that, you know mission accomplished on that front. And, but the bike itself rode really well.  [00:13:29] Randall: well  [00:13:30] Craig Calfee: Um, when I wrote my first carbon bike, uh, the very first ride on my very first carbon bike, I was struck by how smooth it was. [00:13:38] It had this vibration damping that was, you know, just super noticeable and, and that really kind of lit a fire under my butt thinking, wow, this is really cool. When I built my first bamboo bike, I had that same feeling again, how smooth It was It was amazing for its vibration damping. So, uh, I knew I was onto something at that point. [00:14:02] Uh, that first bike was a little too flexy, but, uh, the second bike I built was significantly stiffer and was an actual, real rideable bike. So, uh, from that point, uh, we just started building a few here and there and it was still a novelty item until about, uh, 1999, 2000. When a few people who had been riding them, or like, I want another one, I I want to know mountain bike this time. [00:14:29] So as it was just starting to get known and, uh, we started selling them through dealers. And I mean there's a lot of stories I can tell on how that evolved and how people started actually believing that a bamboo bike could actually exist in the world. So it took a while though. [00:14:49] Randall: I think there's a whole thread that we could tug on maybe in a subsequent episode where we focus just on the bamboo bike revolution. [00:14:57] Craig Calfee: Yeah. Yeah. That's um, there's a lot of, lot of stuff going on there. I'm actually writing my second book on history of the bamboo bike, because there's so many interesting angles to it, particularly in the. [00:15:10] Randall: in Africa [00:15:12] I'm struck by the juxtaposition of this bleeding edge. Uh, you know, high-tech material that you pioneered and then this going back to one of the most basic building materials, uh, that we have building bikes out of that. And in fact, um, on the one hand, there's this, this extreme, know, difference in terms of the technology ization of each material. [00:15:34] But on the other hand, there's a parallel the sense that like carbon, in tubes is best, uh, you know, generally, uh, when it's you need to write. Yeah, with maybe some cross fibers in order to prevent, prevent it from separating. And bamboo also has that characteristic of having, you know, you need directional fibers that are bonded together by some, uh, you know, some other material in, in the, in the bamboo [00:15:58] Craig Calfee: Yeah. Yeah, it's very, there's a lot of similarities. I mean, bamboo is amazing just because it grows out of the ground and tubular for. And it grows a new, huge variety of diameters and wealth thicknesses. So if you're looking for tubing, I mean, you don't have to go much further. It's amazing that it literally grows out of the ground that way.  [00:16:20] Randall: paint [00:16:21] a picture for folks to, um, most of our listeners I'm guessing are in north America or, you know, other, uh, English-speaking parts of the world. I lived in China and as you've been, you see huge scaffolding, multi-story, you know, big buildings and the scaffolding isn't made out of metal. [00:16:37] It's made out of bamboo lashed together with zip ties and pieces of wire. So it really speaks to the, the structural, uh, strength of the material and reliability of the material. and you know, should instill confidence when descending down a mountain. [00:16:54] Craig Calfee: Oh yeah. No, it's, I, I remember seeing bamboo and scaffolding many, many years. And I thought, well, of course, and the other reason they use it in scaffolding is when a typhoon hits and it, it kind of messes up the scaffolding of a construction site. Um, it's, they're back to work on the bamboo construction sites, much faster than the metal scaffolding sites, they have to deal with bent and distorted metal scaffolding, um, to replace those and fix that takes a lot longer where bamboo, they just bend it back and lash it back together. [00:17:32] It's it's so much easier. [00:17:35] Randall: there's one more thing on this theme that I want to, uh, pull out before we move on, which is talk to me about the, the sustainability components of it. Um, starting with how it was done initially. [00:17:47] And then now with say like, uh, biodegradable resins or, or other materials I can, this frame can be current. [00:17:55] Craig Calfee: Uh, the short answer is yes, the frame can be composted. And the other cool thing is if you take care of it, it it'll never compost, meaning you can prevent it from being composted naturally. if you really want to, you know, uh, dispose of the frame, um, it will biodegrade much faster than any other material that bicycle frames are made of. [00:18:22] So yeah, the, the renewable aspect, the low energy content of it, it's, it's utterly the best you can imagine. And we're kind of waiting for the world to finally get serious about global warming and start to have some economic incentives for buying products that are in fact, uh, good for the environment. Uh, we haven't seen that yet, but we're kind of holding out and hoping that happens. [00:18:49] And then we'll see probably some significant growth in the bamboo adoption in the bicycling world. [00:18:57] Randall: I want to plant a seed that, that, uh, to germinate in my head, which is this idea of bamboos being the ideal material for kind of more mainstream, uh, utility bicycles and recreational bicycles. really it's a matter of the unit economics in economies of scale and consistency of material, which you could make uniform by having, uh, having controlled grow conditions and things like that. [00:19:23] Um, but it could be a very localized industry to anywhere where bamboo grows. this could be produced, which reduces transportation costs reduces, you know, issues of inventory carrying and all these things. Um, so let's, let's park that I want to ask you more about those, about the economics of bamboo in a side conversation to see if there's, you know, explore there. [00:19:45] Craig Calfee: well, there is. I mean, that's, that's what we did in Africa. Same concept is as why, why would bamboo work in Africa better than the imported bikes from China? So that was, that was the whole thing around that. [00:19:59] Randall: Ah, I love it. All right. So though, there will be a bamboo episode folks. Uh, we're going to, going to continue cause there's a lot of ground to cover here. so next steps you've done done the first carbon frame and the tour de France, uh, carbon frames is up and running. You've started getting into bamboo, what was next, [00:20:18] Craig Calfee: Um, then lots of smaller developments, which become really important to us from a business perspective, uh, fiber tandem, we built the first one of those. And then we went to a lateral list, tandem design, and it's pretty optimized at this point. So we're, I would say we are the leader in the tandem world in terms of the highest performance, tandem bikes, uh, and then re repairing of carbon frames. [00:20:47] That was a big one, uh, which we were kind of pushed into by customers. And other folks who heard that we could repair the Cathy frames and they would set a call up. And literally we had a, an in one inquiry per week, if not more, more often about like a colonoscopy that this guy wanted to repair and he heard we could do it on ours. [00:21:10] And we're like, well, by a Calfee don't, you know, I'm sorry, but we can't repair somebody else's frame. You'll have to buy one of ours. And then you'll know that you crash it, we can repair it for, he was trying to make that a, a a advantage for our brand, but we couldn't really, you know, do that. So, uh, we said, well, if we can't beat them, we'll repair them. [00:21:32] And we repaired a first and then some specialized, I think, after that. So we, we accepted repair jobs and pretty soon it became about a third of our, our business. And it's, uh, of course now lots of other people repair frames, but, uh, we started doing that in 2001 or something and, and we've been doing it ever since. [00:21:58] And it's, that part has been really interesting to see, because we get to literally see the inside of everyone else's frames and look at the weak points. You know, they often show up on, on people's frames and get asked to fix them or even redesign them at that point. So that's been really interesting to, to me as a technician, [00:22:21] Randall: and want to come back to this in a second, but before we lose it, what is a lateralis tandem design? [00:22:27] Craig Calfee: uh, that, so traditional tandems had a, a tube that went the head tube, usually straight back down towards the dropouts or or bottom bottom bracket. And it's, it's a way to stiffen up a frame. That's inherently not very stiffened torsion. But, uh, with composites, you can orient the fiber, uh, in torsion to make a tube significantly stiffer and torsion than say a metal tube of similar weight. [00:22:57] So we were able to go a little bit bigger diameter and more fiber in the helical angled orientation and make a tandem, uh, stiff enough and torsion and get rid of that tube. And for a carbon fiber frame, that it was really important because number of times you have to join the tube, the more expensive it is or the more labor content there is. So we were able to reduce our labor content, make the frame lighter and make it stiffer all at, in one design change. So that was a big, a big revelation. And now I most of them have copied that design. So it's, uh, it's, that's another time where we, we did something that, that, uh, now became the standard. [00:23:43] Randall: Yeah. One of many from what I've observed in a written the history. Uh, so around this time, or shortly after you started the repair business, you started doing some pretty, pretty wild frames in terms of pushing the limits of what was possible when we talk about that. [00:24:01] Craig Calfee: Yeah. Yeah, we did. We've done a lot of different types of frames, uh, mostly for show, but, um, like the north American handmade bike show is a great venue for just doing something way out of left field. Um, we did, uh, a bamboo bike made all out of small diameter, bamboo. Um, it's I only made one because it was a total pain in the ass to make. [00:24:26] Uh, and it was also kind of inspired by the, a request from a guy who was not only a fan of bamboo, but he was a fan of molten style bikes. Those are the trust style frames with small wheels. So we built one of those and. With the only small diameter bamboo, and we built another one that was, uh, a real art piece. [00:24:49] So just having fun with that from a, you know, completely artistic direction is a lot of fun for me because that's my formal training. I went to art school and learned about different materials and, and art and composition. Uh, and I was into the structure of materials and how they, they relate to each other. [00:25:12] And my art was more of a forum file form follows function, kind of inspiration. And, uh, so some bikes that I've made were, are not terribly practical, but just explore the, the limits of structure. So another bike I made, uh, we call it the spider web bike, which was literally a, a bike made of just carbon fiber strands. [00:25:36] No tubes. And it, it was kind of wild looking and a collector ended up buying it, which is really cool. But you look at this thing and you just couldn't imagine that it, it, you could actually ride it, but, uh, it actually does ride fairly well. It's a bit fragile if you crash it, it would be kind of dangerous, but you know, stuff like that. [00:25:55] I like to do that occasionally. [00:25:59] Randall: I think of, uh, like biomorphic design or like hyper optimized design that maybe doesn't have the resiliency, but very strict parameters will perform higher than anything else that you could, you could create. [00:26:12] Craig Calfee: absolutely. Yeah. Those are really fun. I'm really inspired by natural forms and, uh, you know, the, the, some of the new computer aided techniques we're designing are, uh, rattled in those lines. so, yeah, I follow that pretty closely. [00:26:28] Randall: a little sidebar. Um, I don't know if you've, uh, no of, uh, Nick Taylor, the guy who created the, Ibis Maximus in front of the mountain bike hall of fame. [00:26:40] Craig Calfee: Um, no, I don't think so. [00:26:43] Randall: I'll introduce you to his work at some point, but he's another one of these people who, very avid cyclist is not in the bike industry, but is. There's a lot of trail building and alike and isn't is a sculptor really focused on, the form of, uh, you know, biological shapes and materials and, and things of this sort. [00:27:02] Uh, I think that there's a lot, uh, I'm actually curious more into your, your non bike artistic work for a moment. Uh, and, and how that got infused into your work with the bike. [00:27:18] Craig Calfee: yeah, so I haven't done a lot of, you know, just pure, fine art sculpture in a long time. But when I was doing that, it was. a lot of things that would fool the eye or, um, some material and, and push it to its limit. So I was doing stuff that was, um, uh, you know, trying to create a, almost like a physical illusion, not just an optical illusion, but a, but a physical illusion or like, how could you possibly do that kind of thing? [00:27:54] And that was a theme of my sculpture shortly after Pratt. So for example, just take one example of a sculpture that I got a lot of credit for in classes at Pratt, it was a, a big block of Oak. It was a cutoff from a woodworking shop. It's about a foot in, let's say a foot cube of Oak. And I would, um, so I, I, uh, raised the grain on it with a wire brush and then I blocked printed on Oak tag page. [00:28:26] Um, some black ink on rolled onto the Oak block and made a river, basically a print off of each face of the, of the block. And then I carefully taped that paper together to simulate a paper block of the Oak chunk that I I had. now I had a super light paper version of the Oak block. And then I hung them on a balance beam, which I forged at a steel, but the hanging point was way close to the piece. [00:28:57] And if you looked at it from three feet away, just, your brain would, just hurting because you couldn't figure out how is this even possible? And because it really looked amazing, super hyper real. Anyway, it just looked amazing and it was fun to get the effect of how the hell did that. Did he do that? [00:29:18] What's what's the trick here. There's something going on. That's not real. Or it's. Uh it's not physically possible. And I kind of got that feeling with the carbon fiber bike. When we, when we built the first bike, everyone would pick it up and go, oh, that's just too light. It's not even a bike. It's a plastic bike it's going to break instantly. [00:29:39] So that was sort of a relation from, from those days to the, to the bike. [00:29:44] Randall: You ever come across Douglas Hofstadter's book, Godel, Escher Bach. [00:29:49] Craig Calfee: No, but I'd be interested to read it. [00:29:51] Randall: Definite short Lister. Um, uh, you've come across MC Escher, of Yeah. And are there any parallels or any inspiration there? [00:30:01] Craig Calfee: Um, not very direct, I'd say. Um, [00:30:08] Who  [00:30:08] Randall: your, who your inspirations or what, what would you say your creative energy is most similar to? [00:30:14] Craig Calfee: I'd probably, I'd say say Buckminster fuller. [00:30:17] Randall: Mm, [00:30:17] Craig Calfee: Yeah. I mean, I studied his work in depth, you know, not only the geodesic dome stuff, but also his vehicles, the dime on vehicle the, yeah. So there's, there's a bunch of stuff that he was involved with that I'd say, I'm parallel with as far as my interest goes, [00:30:37] Randall: what books should I read? [00:30:39] Craig Calfee: all of them. [00:30:42] Randall: Where do I start? If I have limited [00:30:44] time  [00:30:45] Craig Calfee: Yeah. It's a tough one. He's actually really difficult to read too. His writing is not that great. I pretty much look at his, uh, his design work more than His writing [00:30:56] Randall: Okay. So who's book whose book about Buckminster fuller. Should I read? [00:31:01] Craig Calfee: good question. I'll, I'll catch up with you on that later because there's few of them that they're worth. It's worth a look. [00:31:07] Randall: awesome. Awesome. Awesome. Um, let's talk about 2001. you're a dragon fly. [00:31:15] Craig Calfee: Yeah, the dragon fly was an interesting project. It was so Greg Lamanda had asked me, like, I want an even lighter bike. He was constantly pushing on the technology. And I said, well, there are some really expensive fibers that are starting to become available, but, um, you know, this would be a $10,000 bike frame and, you know, it's only going to be a half a pound lighter. [00:31:40] And he said, well, I don't care. I just, you know, I w I need it for racing. I mean, um, you know, when, when I'm climbing Alpe d'Huez with Miguel Indurain and if he's got a lighter bike than I do, then I'm just going to give up, you know, in terms of the effort. So he needs to have that technical advantage, or at least be on the same plane. [00:32:02] So the reason why he'd spend, you know, $5,000 for a half a pound, a weight savings was pretty, pretty real. So, but it took until about 2000, 2001 after he had long retired to, um, really make that happen. So the fibers I was talking about are really high modulus fiber that was very fragile, too brittle, really for any use. [00:32:29] So we came up with a way to integrate it with, um, boron fiber. Uh, it actually was a material we found, uh, special specialty composites out of, uh, out of Rhode Island. Uh, they, uh, do this co-mingled boron and carbon fiber, uh, hybrid material, which was, um, they were looking for a use cases for it and the bicycle was one of them. [00:32:58] So, uh, we built a prototype with their material and it turned out. To be not only really light and really strong, the, the boron made it really tough. So carbon fiber has, uh, the highest stiffness to weight ratio, intention of any material you can use. boron is the highest stiffness to weight ratio in compression as a, as a fibrous material that you can integrate into a composite. So when you mix them, you now have a combination of materials, that are unbeatable. [00:33:35] Randall: Like a concrete and rebar almost, or, quite. [00:33:40] Craig Calfee: I'd say that's a good, um, for composites in general, but now we're talking about the extreme edge of, of performance, where, um, looking at the, most high performance material certain conditions, versus tension. These, these are conditions that are existing in a bicycle tube all the time. [00:34:07] So one side of the tube is compressing while the other side is intention as you twist the bike, uh, and then it reverses on the, on the pedal stroke. So it has to do both now. Carbon fiber is quite good at that, but compression it suffers. And that's why you can't go very thin wall and make it, um, withstand any kind of impact because it's, it's got a weakness in it's, um, compressive. So, uh, it's, uh, it doesn't take a break very well either. So boron on, the other hand does take a break very well, and it's incredibly high compressive strength to weight ratio and compressive stiffness to weight ratio. are two different things by the way. So when you combine those into a tube, it's pretty amazing. [00:34:57] Uh, they're just really quite expensive. So we came up with the dragon fly, um, in 2001 and it was at the time the lightest production bike yet it also had the toughness of a normal frame. And that's that's right around when the Scott came out, which was a super thin wall, large diameter, uh, carbon frame that was really fragile. [00:35:23] Um, so that was sort of a similar weight, but not nearly as tough as, uh, the dragon fly. [00:35:34] Randall: For well, to go a little bit deeper on this. So what is the nature like? What is the nature of the boron? Is it a, like, is it a molecule? Is it a filament? So you have, you have carbon filaments is the boron, um, you know, is that, are you putting it into the resin? How is it? Co-mingled. [00:35:51] Craig Calfee: It's a, it's a filament, basically a super thin wire. [00:35:56] Randall: You're essentially co-mingling it in when you're creating the tubes and then using the same resin to bond the entire structure together. [00:36:04] Craig Calfee: That's right. [00:36:05] Randall: Got it. And this, so then this is, uh, if you were to add then say like to the resin separately, it would be a compounding effect. Um, I don't know if you have, uh, mean, I assume you've done some stuff with graphene. [00:36:19] Craig Calfee: Yeah. Graphing graphing is a really great material. It does improve the toughness of composites. Uh, it's again, also very expensive to use, uh, in a whole two. Usually it's used in smaller components, uh, not so much on the whole frame, uh, and it, and it's, um, it's best, uh, uses in preventing the of cracking. [00:36:46] So it stops the micro cracking that starts with a failure mode. And that that's a great, thing. But if your laminate is too thin to begin with that, all the graphing in the world, isn't going to help you. So for really minor wax it'll help, but for anything substantial, it's going to break anyway. [00:37:08] So you have to start out with a thick enough laminate get the toughness that you're looking for. Uh, graphene is really great for highly stressed areas, which might start cracking from, uh, fatigue or just the design flaw of a stress concentration. So it's got a number of purposes. Uh, it's great for, uh, like pinch clamp areas, you know, places where the mechanical, uh, stress is so high on a, on a very localized area. [00:37:37] Um, so yeah, graphene is wonderful. We didn't get into it too much because, um, it's just, it would just, wasn't practical for our applications and how we make the frames, but, uh, some companies have started using graphene and it's, it's pretty interesting stuff. [00:37:52] Randall: We did some experimentation with it early on in our looking at it for the future. my understanding is. You know, I haven't gone too deep into like the intermolecular physics, but it's essentially like you have a piece of paper and if you start tearing the paper that tear will propagate very easily. [00:38:09] then the graphene is almost like little tiny pieces of tape. Randomly distributed, evenly distributed across the material that makes it so that that fracture can no longer propagate in that direction. And it has to change direction where it bumps into another graphene molecule and the graphing, essentially when we tested it was doubling the bond strength of the resin. [00:38:30] So in terms of pulling apart different layers of laminate, then, um, increasing the toughness of say, uh, a rim made with the exact same laminate in the exact same resin with, 1% graphene per mass of resin increasing the toughness of that rim structure by 20%. [00:38:50] Which is pretty [00:38:50] Craig Calfee: That's correct. [00:38:51] Randall: The challenges that is that it lowers the temperature, uh, the, the glass suffocation points resin. so, you know, a rim is like, you know, there are, if you're gonna put it on the back of your car, you know, that's not a normal use case when you're riding, but, you know, it's, it's something that just makes it less resilient to those towards sorts of, you know, people put on the back of the car too close to the exhaust and they melt the rim. [00:39:17] So we're having to experiment with some high temperature residents that have other issues. [00:39:22] Craig Calfee: Oh, yeah. Yeah. That's rims are a great place for graphing, just cause they're in a a place where you'll have some impacts, but yeah. Temperature management is an issue. Um, yeah, that's the high temperature residents are, are another area that, that, uh, we're experimenting in, uh, wrapping electric motor, uh, rotors with, with a high temperature resonant carbon wrap. [00:39:46] that's a whole nother area, but I'm familiar with that stuff. [00:39:49] Randall: Which we'll get into in a second, park park, that one. Cause that's a fun theme. yeah. And I'm just thinking about a rim structure. It seems like boron on the inside graphing on the outside, um, deal with high compressive forces between the spokes and then the high impact forces on the external, will  [00:40:07] Craig Calfee: the material we use is called high bore. You can look that up. H Y B O R and there they're actually coming back with new marketing efforts there. They, I think the company got sold and then, um, the new buyers are, are re revisiting how to, to spread the use of it. So might be real interested in supporting a rim project. [00:40:30] Randall: mm. Uh, to be continued offline. Um, all right. So then we've got your carbon fiber repair surface. We talked about the dragon fly. Um, it's a great segue into engineering and design philosophy. let's talk about that [00:40:47] Craig Calfee: Yeah. Um, well it's, to me, it's all about form follows function and, uh, when something works so well, functionally, it's gonna look good. That's uh, that's why trees look great just by themselves, uh, that that's, you know, coming back to the natural world, you know, that's why we have a Nautilus shell for, uh, for our logo. [00:41:12] It's the form follows function. Aspect of that just makes it look beautiful. For some reason, you look at something from nature, you don't really know why is it beautiful? Well, the reason is the way it's structured, the way it's evolved over millions of years. Has resulted in the optimum structure. So for me, as a, as a human being artificially trying to recreate stuff, that's been evolved in nature. [00:41:39] Um, I look closely at how nature does it first and then I'll apply it to whatever I'm dealing with at the moment. And so that's how I, that's how I design stuff. [00:41:50] Randall: there's a, the Nautilus shell example, like, you know, the golden ratio and the way that, really complex systems tend to evolve towards very simple, fundamental, primitives of all design [00:42:04] Craig Calfee: Yeah. Yep. Yeah. There's some basic stuff that, that seemed to apply everywhere. [00:42:10] Randall: So with your carbon fiber repair service, so you started to see some of the problems with that were emerging with these, um, large tube thin wall designs that were being used to achieve a high strength or sorry, a high stiffness to weight, but then compromising in other areas. [00:42:28] So let's talk about that. [00:42:30] Craig Calfee: Yeah, it's um, you know, designing a carbon fiber bike is actually really quite difficult. There's so much going on. There's so many, uh, things you have to deal with high stress areas that you can't really get around. there's a lot of constraints to designing a good bicycle frame. Um, and then you're dealing with the tradition of, of how people clamp things on bikes, you know, stem, clamps, and seed post clamps, and, uh, you know, th that type of mentality. [00:43:04] It's still with us with the carbon, which is carbon doesn't do well with. So a lot of companies struggle with that and they'll come up with something on paper or in their CAD model. And their finite element analysis sort of works, but, and then they go into the real world and they have to deal with real situations that they couldn't predict in the, the computer. [00:43:29] And they get a problem with, uh, you know, a minor handlebar whacking, the top tube situation, which shouldn't really cause your bike to become dangerous. But in fact, that's what happens. So you've got, um, you know, uh, weak points or vulnerabilities in these really light frame. And if you're not expected to know what the vulnerability is as an end-user and you don't know that if you wack part of the bike and in a minor way that you normally wouldn't expect to cause the frame to become a weak, then the whole design is a question. So you have to consider all these things when you decide to bike. And a lot of companies have just depended on the computer and they are finite element analysis too, to come up with shapes and designs that, uh, are inherently weak. And, um, people get pretty disappointed when they're, when the minor is to of incidents causes a crack in the frame. [00:44:37] And if they keep riding the bike, the crack gets bigger. And then one day, you know, I mean, most people decide to have it fixed before it gets to be a catastrophic but, uh, you know, it gets expensive and, uh, You know, it's, sad. Actually, another motivation for getting into the repair business was to save the reputation of carbon fiber as a frame material. [00:45:03] You know, these types of things don't happen to thin wall titanium frames. You know, a thin wall titanium frame will actually withstand a whole lot more abuse than a thin wall carbon frame. So it's just hard to make diameter thin wall titanium frames that are stiff enough and not without problems of welding, you know, the heat affected zones. [00:45:26] So carbon fiber is, is a better material because it's so much easier to join and to, to mold. But if you, you have to design it properly to, to withstand normal abuse. And if you're not going to do that, then there should at least be a repair service available to keep those bikes from going to the landfill. [00:45:45] So frequent. And so that's what we do we, we offer that and we even train people how to carbon repair service. So that's, um, that's something we've done in order to keep bikes from just getting thrown away. [00:46:01] Randall: uh, I think I've shared with you, I'm in the midst of, uh, doing, uh, uh, a pretty radical ground up design, which is way off in the future. So I'll be picking your brain on that, but it immediately makes me think of the inherent. Compromises of current frame design and manufacturing techniques, including on our frame. [00:46:20] And in our case, the way we've addressed that is through not going with lower modulates carbon, you know, S T 700, maybe some T 800 in the frame, then overbuilding it order to have resiliency against impacts. But then also these sorts of, um, micro voids in other imperfections that are in inherent process of any, uh, manufacturing, uh, system that involves handling of materials in a complex, you know, eight, uh, sorry, 250 a piece, you know, layup like there's, this there's even that like human elements that you have to design a whole bunch of fudge factor into to make sure that when mistakes are made, not if, but when mistakes are made, that there's so much, uh, overbuilding that they don't end up in a catastrophic failure. [00:47:10] Craig Calfee: that's right. Yeah. Yeah. You have to have some safety margin. [00:47:15] Randall: And the Manderal spinning process that you were describing essentially eliminates a lot of that in you're starting to see, I mean, with rims, that's the direction that rims are going in, everything is going to be automated, is going to be knit like a sock and frames are a much more complex shape. Um, but you're starting to see, uh, actually probably know a lot more about the, the automation of frame design than I do. [00:47:35] Um, what do you see? Like as the, as the end point, at least with regards to the, um, like filament based carbon fiber material and frames, like where could it go with technology? [00:47:50] Craig Calfee: the, the, um, robotics are getting super advanced now and there's this technique called, um, uh, they just call it fiber placements or automated fiber placement, which is a fancy word for a robot arm, winding fiber, you know, on a mandrel or shape, uh, and then compressing that and, uh, know, molding that. [00:48:14] So it's, it's where your, a robot will orient a single filament of carbon fiber. Uh, continuously all around the, uh, the shape that you're trying to make. They do that in aerospace now for a really expensive rockets and satellite parts, but the technology is getting more accessible and, uh, so robotic trimmers are another one. [00:48:42] So we're, in fact, we're getting ready to build our own robotic arm tremor for a resin transfer, molded parts. That's where the edge of the part that you mold gets trimmed very carefully with a router. And, but imagine instead of just a router trimming an edge, you've got a robot arm with a spool of fiber on it, wrapping the fiber individually around the whole structure of the frame. [00:49:10] Uh, no, no people involved just, you know, someone to turn the machine on and then turn it off again. So that's kind of coming that that is a future. Uh, it hasn't arrived yet, certainly, maybe for simpler parts, but a frame is a very complex shape. So it'll take a while before they can get to that point. [00:49:30] Randall: It having to, yeah. Being able to Uh, spin a frame in one piece is, seems to be the ultimate end game. [00:49:43] Craig Calfee: Yeah. I think we need to, I think the, the, uh, genetically modified spiders would be a better way to [00:49:50] go  [00:49:50] Randall: Yeah, they might, they might help us the design process. [00:49:56] Craig Calfee: Yeah. Yeah. Just give them some good incentives and they'll, they'll make you set a really incredibly strong, you know, spider wound. [00:50:05] Randall: Well, it does. It speaks to the, the, the biggest challenge I see with that, which is you have to go around shape. so if you're going through a frame, like it's essentially the triangle. And so you need some way to like hand off the, the S the filament carrier from one side to the other constantly. [00:50:27] you'd just be able to spin it. You know, it would be pretty straightforward. So maybe the frame comes in a couple of different sections that get bonded, but then those don't form a ring. And so you can, you know, you can move them around instead of the machine order [00:50:41] Craig Calfee: Well, there's these things called grippers. So the robot grip sit and then another arm grip know let's go and the other arm picks it up. And then there's like in weaving, there's this thing called the flying shuttle, which invented. That's where the shuttle that, the war [00:50:59] Randall: Your ancestors were involved with flying shuttle. [00:51:02] Craig Calfee: Yeah. [00:51:02] Randall: That's one of the, uh, all right. That's, that's a whole other conversation. [00:51:07] Craig Calfee: Yeah, a really interesting, I mean, it's the Draper corporation. If you want to look it up, [00:51:13] um  [00:51:13] Randall: I  [00:51:13] Craig Calfee: know [00:51:14] they were the manufacturing made the looms back in the industrial revolution in the Northeast [00:51:21] Randall: I'm sitting currently in Waltham, which was one of the first mill cities, um, not from Lowell. [00:51:28] Craig Calfee: Yeah. So all those mills were where our customers and they would buy the Draper looms. Um, and they were automated looms with a flying shuttle was a big deal Uh back then. And so they, they made a lot of, of those looms and, and that's basically what sent me to college with a trust fund. So [00:51:49] Randall: You're a trust fund, baby. [00:51:51] Craig Calfee: Yep. [00:51:51] Yep [00:51:53] From vendors. [00:51:55] Uh [00:51:56] but that's yeah, that's the world I, I came out of. And, so the, the idea of taking a spool of material and handing it off as you wrap around something is really not that difficult. [00:52:08] Randall: Okay. So then you can do it in a way that is resilient to probably 10,000 handoffs over the course of weaving a frame and you can expect that it's not going to fail once. [00:52:19] Craig Calfee: That's right Yeah [00:52:20] It  [00:52:20] Randall: All then that, that's [00:52:22] Craig Calfee: the hard part, the hard part is dealing with the resin and the, and the, uh, forming and the getting a nice surface finish. That was where the harder. [00:52:31] Randall: Yeah. And, uh, uh, I'm thinking about, uh, space X's attempts to create a giant, uh, carbon fiber, uh, fuel tank. And they actually had to do the, um, the heating the resin at the point of, uh, depositing of the filaments. [00:52:52] And [00:52:52] you know, that's a really challenging process because you can't build an autoclave big enough to contain a fuel tank for a giant rocket bicycles don't have that issue, but [00:53:01] Craig Calfee: right. Yeah. The filament winding technique, which is how all those tanks are made is, is pretty amazing in the large scale of those, those big rockets is phenomenal. I mean, a couple of places in Utah that make those, and it's just seeing such a large things spinning and, uh, wrapping around it rapidly is quite inspiring. [00:53:26] Randall: Yeah. It's very, very cool stuff. And that's, again, a whole another thread about the, uh, the Utah based, uh, composites industry that got its start in aerospace, you know, advanced aerospace applications, which NV and others came out of. They used to be edge which you worked with. NBU designed their tubes early on. [00:53:43] Right. [00:53:44] Craig Calfee: W well, yeah, the poles history behind envy and quality composites back in late eighties, literally, uh, when I first came out to, uh, actually I was still, think I ordered them in Massachusetts and took delivery in California, but it was a quality composites and out of Utah, uh, Nancy Polish was the owner of that. [00:54:06] Also an MIT graduate who, um, who started a roll wrapping carbon fiber in tubular forum. And I'm pretty sure we were the first roll wrapped carbon tubes, uh, for bicycles that she made. And, um Uh, evolved to, uh, edge composites. So they, so quality composites became McClain quality composites, and then McLean, the guys who broke away from that went to start envy or edge, I guess, which became envy. [00:54:40] So yeah, those same guys brought that technology and we've been the customer ever since. And now there's yet another spinoff. The guys who were making the tubes at envy spun off and started their own company, uh, in a cooperative venture with envy. So let them go basically. And, uh, we're working with those guys. [00:55:01] So it's just following the, the top level of expertise. [00:55:06] Randall: very interesting stuff. Um, so, so where else do we go in terms of the, I mean, this is about as deep a composite deep nerdery, as we can get in, into composites and so on. And, uh, given that we're already here, we might as just, you know, dig ourselves deeper. [00:55:25] Craig Calfee: Yeah. Um, sir, just on the roll wrapping, the thing that, um, I remember one of the cool innovations that Nancy came up with was the double D section, um, tube where she would roll wrap two D shaped tubes, stick them together and do an outer wrap on the outside. So it was a efficient way to do a ribbed tube or a single ribs through the middle. She pretty much invented.  [00:55:53] Uh, we started doing something with that, um, change days, uh, to get more stiffness out of a change day. But, um, I just, some reason that image flashed in my mind about some of the innovative stuff that been going on that people don't really see it's. And that's what I'm saying before where the, uh, technology of composites has, um it's got a long way to go and it's, there's all kinds of stuff going on that are, are, is brand new. [00:56:23] Uh, most people people don't see it cause it's all process oriented more than product oriented. But for guys like me, it's really fast. [00:56:34] Randall: Yeah, it reminds me of, um, a technology owned by a Taiwanese carbon frame manufacturing, pretty large-scale tier one that I'd spoken to where they're doing, uh, that bracing inside of the forks. don't think they're doing anything especially advanced in terms of how it's manufactured. [00:56:54] I think they just have a, uh, the, the inner, um, you know, whether it's a bag or it's a, you know, EPS insert. And then they're just bridging, uh, between the two walls of the, uh, of the tube of the, the fork leg, uh, with another piece of carbon that gives it more lateral structure zero, uh, impact on the, um, for AFT compliance, which is a really technique. [00:57:21] Craig Calfee: that sounds like Steve Lee at [00:57:24] Randall: Uh, this was YMA. [00:57:27] Craig Calfee: Oh, okay. [00:57:28] Randall: Yeah, the gigantic folks. I haven't, I don't know if I've interacted with them yet, but, um, but yeah, well, [00:57:35] Craig Calfee: Yeah, some amazing innovation coming out of Taiwan. They're there. They're so deep into it. It's, it's a fun place to go and, and see what they're up to. [00:57:47] Randall: this actually brings me back to, um, I, I did had a conversation with over with Russ at path, less pedaled, and was asking like, you know, tell me about the quality of stuff made, made over in Asia. And I was like, well, you know, it's generally best to work with their production engineers because they're so close to the actual manufacturing techniques and they're the ones innovating on those techniques. [00:58:10] And in fact, um, you know, even specialized up until recently did not do carbon fiber in. outsource that, you know, they, they do some of the work in house, but then the actual design for manufacture and all that is being done by the factories and rightfully so the factories know it better, being close to the ground though, dealing with someone with yourself, you're someone who could go into a factory and be like, okay, let's, let's innovate on this. [00:58:35] Craig Calfee: Yeah.  [00:58:36] Yeah.  [00:58:37] Randall: so then 2011, um, first production, gravel bike. [00:58:45] Craig Calfee: Uh, yeah. Yeah. We came up with the, uh, adventure bike, we call it, um, it was also the first one that did the, uh, six 50 B uh, tire size that can be used with a 700 by 42 or So mixing, know, going bigger tire on a slightly smaller rim on the same bike as you'd run a 700 C and, uh, 35 or 40 millimeter tire. Um, yeah, so the adventure bike has been. Uh, a real fun area for us as far as, uh, just developing a, do everything. Be everything, bike [00:59:24] Randall: it's. And the geometry of that was kind of an endurance road geometry, right [00:59:28] Craig Calfee: that's [00:59:29] right. It's a road bike effectively, but with a few, a few, uh, tweaks for riding off road. [00:59:36] Randall: So then this, this word, gravel bike is kind of muddled. [00:59:39] Um, I never liked it, frankly. Uh, it's a marketing term. I remember it specialized when we were doing the, the diverse, um, you know, it was still kind of honing in on what these bikes were. Uh, but you could argue that like, you know, you know, everyone's road bike was a gravel bike. When you just put the biggest tires that would fit and write it on dirt. [00:59:57] But this concept of a one bike, it seems to be what you've planted. But you can have a single bike that will be your road, bike, perform handle, give you that, that experience when you put road wheels on, but then you can put these big six fifties on there and have a, you know, an off-road crit machine that is highly competent in, in rough terrain. [01:00:16] And so, so yeah, that, and that's very much my design philosophy as you know, as well, you know, fewer bikes that do more things. [01:00:24] Craig Calfee: Yeah. We have this. Kind of a marketing phrase for, you know, how the end plus one concept where, you know, how many bikes do you even need? Well, one more than what you've got. Well, we do the N minus one concept with our mountain bike, which can also be a gravel by ache or a bike, but it's, uh, it allows you to change the head tube angle and, and use different, uh, fork travel suspension forks on, on the same frame. [01:00:55] Uh, and of course, swapping wheels out is, is always a thing. So yeah, the end minus one concept where we just need less stuff, you know, [01:01:04] Randall: So I reinvented that when I started thesis, he used to say like, and, minus three, it replaces road, bike, your gravel bike, your road, bike, your cross bike, your, um, light duty cross country bike, uh, your adventure bike actually as well, you know, load these things up. yeah, very much a philosophy that, uh, I think it's so good that the, its efforts to come up with new, subcategories, for example, by having gravel bikes now run oversize 700 wheels and extending the geo and going with these really slack head angles in order to accommodate that wheel size. [01:01:40] I actually think that the form, the form that things want to evolve towards is actually what you created in the first place, which is the one bike that does all the things and does them well. And depending on the wheels you put on them, um, we'll do we'll, we'll transform. Uh, and you know, we've, we've talked a little bit about geo changing, um, You know, and things like this, which you have a bike that, that does that. [01:02:03] And why don't we talk a bit about that in the technology behind it? [01:02:08] Craig Calfee: The SFL, you mean we use the geometry of the head tube and the bottom bracket to, uh, to accommodate what you're using it for? Yeah, the concept there is to, if you're on a long ride to be able to change the geometry of your bike mid ride. So with an Allen wrench, you, uh, basically swap these flip plates out on your head to varia. [01:02:32] And so you climb, you can climb with one geometry with another. And to me, that's, that's really fun because the climbing, you, if you're climbing up a a long steep climb on a bike that you're going to descend back down on, uh, you really don't want the same geometry it's, you're compromising and one or the other, either climate. [01:02:55] Or it descends great. It's rarely both, or really can't possibly be both. Cause they're just doing two different things. So if you can swap out these flip plates and change the head tube angle, which is really all you need at that point, um, you have a bike that climbs great and descends. Great. So for me, that was the goal of, uh, just making a better mountain bike. Um, you know, the fact that it can be converted into other bikes for different disciplines is a whole nother angle. Uh, and you can even do that perhaps you wouldn't do it the trail, but let's say you show up, say you're on a trip, an adventure, uh, maybe out to Utah, for example, where you're riding slick rock, but you're also going to go up, you know, into the mountains. [01:03:45] Um, you'll have you, you might want to have. Different fork travels or different for, uh, options. So you can bring a couple of different forks and swap out a fork, change your flip plates and have a bike. That's awesome for slick rock. And then another one that's awesome for, for the bike parks. So, you know, to me it would, but it's only one bike and you know, you don't need, you know, three bikes. So that, that just, uh, that's the design result of a bike where you can change the head tube angle on, [01:04:21] Randall: and the, in really how much head tube angle adjustment is there on there. [01:04:25] Craig Calfee: uh, it's a or minus four degrees [01:04:28] Randall: that's, that's substantial. [01:04:30] Craig Calfee: that's a lot. [01:04:31] Randall: Yeah. [01:04:31] I mean, that's transformative really. I work in increments of, you know, half a degree.  [01:04:36] Craig Calfee: Yeah. These are half degree increments, um, right now, uh, one degree, but we can easily do half degree increments. find that one degree is, is really. Um, especially when you have the option of, of tweaking the same bike. So reason we focus on these half degree increments on a production bike is to dial in the best compromise between two, two ways that it's going to be used when you don't need to compromise, you can go a full degree in the other direction and not worry about fact that it's not going to perform as well, know, in super steep terrain because that flipped chip is not, uh, the right one for the super steep scenario. [01:05:22] Just change it out or flip it over a T when you approach the really steep stuff. So yeah. [01:05:29] Randall: applicable for mountain bikes, particularly because the, I mean, the slack, the long slack that, that have emerged in recent years make a ton of sense for mountain biking, especially descending, but when you're ascending, it ends up being so slack that you get wheel flop, you get the front end, lifting the bike naturally wants to tilt back. [01:05:49] You don't have that on a gravel bike currently. And if you don't, if you're not adding a huge suspension fork, you're never going to be descending terrain that is so technical that you need those slacked out angles. So it sounds like something that's very much could be applied to gravel bikes, but that, you know, for the mountain bike application is actually pretty game-changing. [01:06:06] Craig Calfee: Yeah, well on gravel bikes or adventure bikes, um, uh, it's actually helpful if you're, if you're, let's say you're a roadie and you're starting to go off road. And so you're driving these gravel trails and then you're starting to get into more interesting off-road excursions with that same bike, but your experience on steep terrain is limited because you're, you know, you're a roadie, you've your, all your muscle memory and all your bike handling memory comes from the road and a little bit of dirt road stuff. [01:06:39] Now you're kind of getting into serious off-road stuff and you want to try. a Uh, shortcut dissent, uh, you know, down something kind of crazy. Uh, let's say, uh, you're not very good at it in the beginning and you take your time and you, you don't have a bike that can go that fast down, such a trail, then you change it out. [01:07:00] As you get better at it, as you increase your skill level and your confidence level, might want to go a little faster. So you a bike that can go a little faster safely and go for that slack head angle, which is designed to get higher speed. So it's great for evolving skills and evolving terrain as you start exploring more radical stuff. [01:07:27] So that's the other reason to do it. [01:07:29] Randall: Yeah, that makes, that makes a lot of sense. And in fact, any, you know, what I'm working on going forward very much as a, uh, one of the core, you know, is, uh, being able to tailor the geometry, um, as close to on the fly as possible. Uh, you know, if you want it to be on the fly, you're going to add a huge amount of added structure and complexity and weight, but having it be when you swap the wheels, there's very little to do, you know, this sort of thing. [01:07:57] Craig Calfee: Yeah. So yeah, the whole idea is to, is to be able to go and have really fun adventures after all I wrote the book on adventures, see, here's, uh, this is a, this is the commercial part of our, our, uh, [01:08:10] plug [01:08:12] is, uh, this book I wrote about a trip. I took back in the, in the mid early eighties. Uh it's it's a kind of a. [01:08:20] Randall: of a  [01:08:21] Craig Calfee: It has nothing to do with bikes, except that there is a section in there where I made a canteen out of bamboo in the Congo, but it's a pretty crazy trip. And, uh, and I just called it adventures. It's on amp. anyone wants to buy it. [01:08:37] Randall: I will get a coffee. [01:08:39] Craig Calfee: Yeah. [01:08:42] Randall: Um, very, very cool. Um, we skipped over one, which is the manta, which is another interesting innovation [01:08:51] Craig Calfee: Yeah. Suspension on a road bike. I mean, that's a, I keep saying that's going to be the future and it hasn't happened yet, but I, I still believe that road bikes will be the main type of bike being written in the highest levels of racing. [01:09:08] interesting  [01:09:08] Randall: So you think suspension versus say. Um, wide tubeless, aerodynamic, the optimized rims with a 30 mil tire run at lower pressures. You think the suspension has a sufficient benefit relative to that, to offset say the structural complexity or weight? [01:09:25] Craig Calfee: Yes. So, uh, the big tire thing, trend towards bigger tires is really a trend towards suspension. It's pneumatic suspension rather than mechanical suspension. [01:09:39] Randall: Well, as our regular listeners know, this is a topic that's very much near and dear to my heart. I talk often about the benefits of pneumatic suspension, so this will be an interesting place for us to st

Want to listen to The Box Of Oddities ad-free and early? Become a patron by joining The Order of Freaks!How do we keep toxic waste from harming our descendants? And are there dinosaurs living in the Congo river basin? Warning messages for the future and Mokele-mbembe in BOX 395. It's sexual and violent. I thought you might like it.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Dit najaar laaide het geweld in Oost-Congo alweer op. De regio zit in een wurggreep. Soldaten en rebellen uit Oeganda wandelen er binnen en buiten alsof het hun eigen achtertuin is. De Congolese overheid slaagt er niet in een vuist te maken. En tot overmaat van ramp steekt er nu ook een jihadistische rebellenbeweging de neus aan het venster. Gast Katrien Vanderschoot, VRT NWS-collega en Congokenner, schreef er het boek "De kinderen van Oost-Congo" over.

In the fourth hour of the show, Larry O'Connor and Amber Athey talked to White House correspondent Charlie Spiering about Biden's January 6th plans, WJLA's Alex Liggitt about the upcoming Friday snow and Mollie Hemingway. They also explored Hunter Biden's ties to the Congo and Eric Swalwell's meeting with a queen from the Congo. For more coverage on the issues that matter to you, visit www.WMAL.com, download the WMAL app or tune in live on WMAL-FM 105.9 FM from 5-9 AM ET. To join the conversation, check us out on Twitter: @WMALDC, @LarryOConnor and @Amber_athey. Show website: https://www.wmal.com/oconnor-company/ See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In the second hour of the radio program, Larry O'Connor and Amber Athey discussed Eric Swalwell's Congo Queen, Gov. Northam's I-95 blame game, Friday morning's snow, more staffers fleeing VP Harris and the return of Beavis and Butthead. For more coverage on the issues that matter to you, visit www.WMAL.com, download the WMAL app or tune in live on WMAL-FM 105.9 FM from 5-9 AM ET. To join the conversation, check us out on Twitter: @WMALDC, @LarryOConnor and @Amber_athey. Show website: https://www.wmal.com/oconnor-company/ See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

(A loose adaptation of "The Picture in the House" by H.P. Lovecraft) Five friends get together to spook each other with stories, and Charles tells a tale of a weird encounter with a strange old man.   Cast List Charles - Michael Coleman (Tales of the Extraordinary) Warren - Glen Hallstrom Richard - Philemon Vanderbeck Herbert - Carl Cubbedge Edward - Bryan Hendrickson Creepy Old Guy - J. Hoverson Martha - Risa Torres Music by Kevin MacLeod (Incompetech.com) Editing and Sound:   Julie Hoverson Cover Design:  Brett Coulstock "What kind of a place is it? Why it's a brownstone dinner party, can't you tell?" *************************************************** THE PICTURE IN THE HOUSE (Lovecraft 5, #1) Cast: Charles, a dilettante Herbert, a scientist Richard, a painter Warren, a professor Edward, the missing member, a writer Scary old man Martha, the cook OLIVIA     [opening credits] Did you have any trouble finding it?  What do you mean, what kind of a place is it?  Why, it's a brownstone dinner party, can't you tell?  MUSIC 1_after dinnerish SOUND     RAIN.  RECORD PLAYER CLICKS AND MUSIC STARTS SOUND     FOOTSTEPS HERBERT    What's the tune? SOUND    MATCH STRIKES CHARLES    It's-- RICHARD    That's one of Eric's isn't it?  CHARLES    No-o-o.  You know he never records. WARREN    I must say that veal cutlet was excellent.  Positively delicious.  Compliments to your cook, Charles. CHARLES    Excellent woman.  Don't know what I would do without her.  Been with the family for years. HERBERT    That's the only way to get good help these days - I wish I was fortunate enough to inherit hereditary retainers. WARREN    Any chance I can get the recipe for the cooking staff at the faculty dining hall?  We don't get veal very often, but-- CHARLES    I'll ask, but I doubt it - she's very secretive about her seasonings.  Now, Herbert, see that everyone has a good stiff drink, for-- RICHARD    Aren't we waiting on Edward? CHARLES    [darkly]  He isn't able to join us tonight.  Don't worry - I'm quite sure he won't hold it against us. HERBERT    Here you go. WARREN    Cheers.  [drinks]  So, what is this story you've brought us here for, Charles? HERBERT    Anyone for a cigar? WARREN    Ah, certainly. RICHARD    I won't say no. WARREN    You promised us a tale to - I believe the phrase you used was "to make the gorge rise and the hair stand on end", wasn't it? CHARLES    Yes.  And I know you all consider me the weakest of us all for telling a coherent tale, just because I have a tendency to let myself get distracted and lose my place, but I have a real corker for tonight. HERBERT    Well, we're all uncorked ... now, so lets see what you can do to us. CHARLES    All right, I won't keep you in suspense any longer.  You recall that I was away for most of last summer, traveling around the back country roads of New England, looking up genealogical records, tracing my family? WARREN    Of course - and we all envy you, being a man of enough leisure to be able to wander off at will, instead of having to stay around for your job. RICHARD    What do you know about jobs?  You're an academic.  That's hardly a real job. HERBERT    Hah!  This from the artist.  Now, science - science is an all-consuming master. CHARLES    All right.  All right.  Come on - it's my party and my story.  Don't really matter what your jobs are - you're all idiot enough to be my friends, and that's all that matters. EVERYONE    [general laughter] CHARLES    I don't know whether you'll believe me or not - probably not, but it's all true. HERBERT    It won't be that easy - you're talking to a couple of hardened skeptics here.  I won't believe anything without empirical proof and Warren won't believe you 'til it's written in a book at least a hundred years old, with footnotes and cross-references. WARREN    [snort] RICHARD    And me? HERBERT    Oh, you artists - who knows what you'll believe. CHARLES    [chuckles] We'll see what you all think by the time I'm finshed. RICHARD    Edward'll regret having missed a good story. 2_story starts CHARLES    [darkly] We'll worry about Edward later.  [beat]  If I don't start, we'll be here til dawn, so let's have a bit of hush.  [beat]  Damn-- [forgot] WARREN    You were cycling around the countryside. CHARLES    Right.  And I was pedaling like mad, trying to keep in front of this wicked great thundershower, when I spotted a crumbling pile - an ancient cottage built right up into the side of a hill.  It had reached that stage of decrepitude where you're not sure whether it was built there, or just sprang up like a mushroom. RICHARD    Very evocative.  Rounded corners, slanting walls, you can almost smell the mildew. CHARLES    May I continue? WARREN    You didn't happen to have a camera with you on your sojourn, did you? CHARLES    I wasn't sightseeing.  Never been any good with one of them contraptions anyway.  [sigh]  RICHARD    [prompting] The house. CHARLES    Right, so since it was the only structure - and I use the term very lightly - that I'd seen in hours and hours, I decided that forbidding as it looked, the clouds rolling in were worse.  I was already feeling the rain, and the lightning kept striking closer and closer. SOUND    THUNDER EVERYONE    [gasps] WARREN    Well!  That was timely. HERBERT    Now how did you manage that? CHARLES    Sheer luck.  Although the weather report did-- RICHARD    Ah, so you haven't been looking through any of those old grimoires Warren has charge of? WARREN    Oh, stop. CHARLES    Where was I? WARREN    Perhaps you should keep some notes - I find note cards work quite adequately for me when I'm called upon to give a lecture. CHARLES    [sigh] I went into the house.  I knocked first - I certainly didn't want to meet an angry homeowner with a shotgun in my face.  But since there was no answer, I figured it might be abandoned.  And the rain was starting to come down like rods. SOUND    THUNDER EVERYONE    [mild chuckles] CHARLES    [full-on storytelling mode] Inside was a little vestibule with walls from which the plaster was falling, and through the doorway came a faint but peculiarly hateful odor.  I entered, leaned my cycle against the wall, and crossed into a small, dim chamber, furnished in the barest and most primitive possible way.  It appeared to be a kind of sitting-room, for it had a table and several chairs - and an immense fireplace above which ticked an antique clock on a mantel. Books and papers were very few, and in the prevailing gloom I could not readily discern the titles.  Now, in all the room I could not discover a single article of definitely post-revolutionary date!  Had the furnishings been less humble, the place would have been a collector's paradise. 3_music changes SOUND    THE RECORD STOPS. CLICK AS THE NEXT RECORD GOES ON WARREN    You didn't look at the books at all?  Pity. CHARLES    You enthusiasts - always gallivanting ahead.  [dry chuckle] The first object of my curiosity was a book.  It lay open upon the table, presenting such an antediluvian aspect that I marveled at beholding it outside a museum or libary.  Bound in leather with metal fittings, it was in an excellent state of preservation - altogether an unusual sort of volume to encounter in an abode so lowly. WARREN    [eager] And the title? CHARLES    Hold your damn hosses.  When I opened it to the title page my wonder grew even greater, for it proved to be nothing less rare than... [beat, dragging out the suspense] WARREN    Ye-e-e-es? CHARLES    Pigafetta's account of the Congo region, written in Latin from the notes of the sailor Lopex and printed at Frankfurt in 1598. WARREN    [awed!] There's only 12 known copies extant. RICHARD    And you know that off the top of your head?  Oh, Warren.  You need a wife... or at the very least a bad habit. WARREN    Ssh.  The book? CHARLES    The engravings were indeed interesting, drawn wholly from imagination and careless descriptions - it even represented natives with Caucasian features.  Nor would I soon have closed the book had not an exceedingly trivial circumstance upset my tired nerves and revived my sensation of disquiet. SOUND    RATTLE OF HARD RAIN AGAINST THE WINDOW HERBERT    I think I need another drink.  Anyone?  SOUND     DRINKS POUR CHARLES     Go on ahead.  WARREN    [jumping in] The book? CHARLES    [exasperated sigh] What annoyed me was merely the persistent way in which the volume tended to fall open of itself at Plate twelve, which represented in gruesome detail a butcher's shop of the cannibal Anziques. WARREN    Anziques?  They were wiped off the face of the Congo in the seventeenth century, I believe? HERBERT    Were you aware that cannibalism was nowhere near as widespread as so-called history tells us? WARREN    That is a debatable point-- HERBERT    No, no, really - One of the easiest rallying cries to convince your followers to annihilate or enslave another culture was to accuse them of anthropophagy. CHARLES    Fascinating as this is, save it for your own dinner party, Herbert.  What you find so very engaging, I found exceedingly grotesque - to my own shame.  The drawing disturbed me, especially in connection with some adjacent passages descriptive of Anzique gastronomy. HERBERT    What did it say? CHARLES    [annoyed] It's hardly important.  I've worked hard to forget it.  [calm] Anyway, I was examining the rest of the meagre libary - an eighteenth century Bible, a "Pilgrim's Progress" of like period, the rotting bulk of Cotton Mather's "Magnalia Christi Americana," and a few other books of evidently equal age - when my attention was aroused by the unmistakable sound of walking in the room overhead. 4_cook SOUND    DOOR OPENS EVERYONE    [gasps] MARTHA    I'm so sorry sir, I thought you'd all be done by now - I was gonna clean up.  I'll just - I'll just get to it in the morning. CHARLES    Yes, yes of course Martha.  Have a good night. SOUND    DOOR CLOSES RICHARD    You set her up to do that. CHARLES    [not quite convincing]  Of course not.  Heaven forbid.  [a bit smug] That'd be such an entirely transparent ruse.  RICHARD    Perhaps you should be writing these sorts of thrillers, rather than Edward. WARREN    Did he say why he missed coming out tonight? CHARLES    [exasperated sigh]  He dropped by earlier for a moment, but he didn't have much to say.  If I may continue? WARREN    I, at least, am interested. CHARLES    Thank you very much.  I concluded that the occupant had just awakened from a sound sleep, and listened with less surprise as the footsteps sounded on the creaking stairs.  Then, after a moment of silence during which the walker may have been inspecting my bicycle, I heard a fumbling at the door latch and saw the paneled portal swing open again. SOUND    PAUSE, SOME GASPS AS THEY AWAIT SOME SOUND WHICH DOESN'T COME. EVERYONE    [chuckles] CHARLES    In the doorway stood a person of such singular appearance that I might have exclaimed aloud - but for the restraints of good breeding.  Old, white-bearded, and ragged, his height could not have been less than six feet, and despite a general air of age and poverty he was stout and powerful in proportion.  His face, almost hidden by a long beard which grew high on the cheeks, seemed abnormally ruddy and less wrinkled than one might expect; while over a high forehead fell a shock of white hair little thinned by the years.  His blue eyes, though a trifle bloodshot, seemed inexplicably keen and burning.  But for his horrible unkemptness the man would have been as distinguished-looking as he was impressive. WARREN    Unkemptness? HERBERT    I expect the word he should be using - but for the restraints of good breeding - is odoriferous? RICHARD    A-yuh. - the elderly... CHARLES    Yes, yes.   WARREN    Well, Charles, you're halfway to your goal - that alone very nearly brought up my dinner.  CHARLES     It wasn't just the house that suffered from... damp and mildew.  Shall we leave it at that?    5_old man speaks SOUND    RECORD PLAYER CHANGES AGAIN - TO MUSIC FOR FLASHBACK SOUND    CLOCK GETS LOUDER CHARLES    [fading into flashback] The appearance of this man, and the instinctive fear he inspired, prepared me for something like enmity; so that I almost shuddered through surprise and a sense of uncanny incongruity when he motioned me to a chair and addressed me in a thin, weak voice full of fawning respect and ingratiating hospitality. OLD GUY    Catched in the rain, be ye?  Glad ye was nigh the house an' had the sense t' come right in.  I calculate I was asleep, else I'd a heard ye - I ain't as young as I used to be, an' I need a powerful sight o' naps nowadays. WARREN    [breaking] He truly sounded like that?  That's quite an extreme form of archaic Yankee dialect.  I'd thought anything like that dead and gone long years back. HERBERT    There are strange holdouts in little pocket communities all over the back woods. CHARLES    I apologized for my rude entry into his domicile, and-- OLD GUY    Travelling far?  I hain't seen many folks 'long this road since they took off the Arkham stage. CHARLES    I replied that I was going to Arkham, whereupon he continued. OLD GUY    Glad t' see ye, young Sir - new faces is scarce around here, an' I hain't got much t' cheer me up these days. Guess you hail from Boston, don't ye? I never been there, but I can tell a town man when I see 'im - we had one for district schoolmaster in 'eighty-four, but he quit sudden an' no one never heared on 'im since - CHARLES    Here the old man lapsed into a kind of chuckle, and made no explanation when I questioned him.  For some time he rambled on, when it struck me to ask him how he came by so rare a book as Pigafetta's "Regnum Congo." OLD GUY    Oh, that Afriky book? Cap'n Ebenezer Holt traded me that in 'sixty-eight - him as was killed in the war. CHARLES    Now, Ebenezer Holt was a name I had encountered in my genealogical work, but not in any record since the Revolution. I speculated that my host could help me in the task at which I was laboring. OLD GUY    Ebenezer was on a Salem merchantman for years, an' picked up a sight o' queer stuff in every port. He got this in London, I guess - he used to like to buy things at the shops. I was up t' his house once, on the hill, trading horses, when I see this book. I relished the pictures, so he give it in on a swap. 'Tis a queer book - here, leave me get on my spectacles- HERBERT    Spectacles.  Quite terrifying.  A smelly old man in cheaters.  Funny I somehow recall you promising a tale that would set all our hair on end. WARREN    I, for one, am fascinated.  Your recall of his accent is quite impressive.  Is he, do you know - despite being as old as you describe - is he still among the living? CHARLES    I am quite certain of the contrary. WARREN    Pity.  6_more drinks RICHARD    More drinks? CHARLES    Perhaps one more round.  And yes, I am about to get to the meat of the matter, so to speak, if you can hold on for a bit longer, Herbert. HERBERT    Very well.  Patience is a virtue more useful to scientists than many.  I'm putting on my listening face. CHARLES    Good.  The old man donned his glasses, then reached for the volume on the table and turned the pages lovingly. OLD GUY    Ebenezer could read a little o' this - 'tis Latin - but I can't.  I had two or three schoolmasters read me a bit, and Parson Clark, him they say got drownded in the pond - can you make anything out on it? CHARLES     I told him that I could, and translated for his benefit a paragraph near the beginning. If I erred, he was not scholar enough to correct me; for he seemed childishly pleased at my English version. His proximity was becoming rather obnoxious-- HERBERT    Simple hygiene was one of the most important scientific and medical discoveries of the-- CHARLES    [overriding] --yet I saw no way to escape without offending him. I was amused at the childish fondness of this ignorant old man for the pictures in a book he could not read, and wondered how much better he could read the few books in English which adorned the room. This revelation of simplicity removed much of the ill-defined apprehension I had felt, and I smiled as my host rambled on: OLD GUY    Queer how pictures kin set a body thinkin'. Take this one here near the front.  Have you ever seen trees like that, with big leaves a floppin' over an' down?  Some o' these here critters looks like monkeys, or half monkeys an' half men, but I never heared o' nothin' like this un. CHARLES    Here he pointed to a fabulous creature of the artist, which one might describe as a sort of dragon with the head of an alligator. RICHARD    I've seen things like that myself in mediaeval and renaissance art.  To my recollection Bosch painted some, and there's at least one or two in the woodcuts of Breughel. OLD GUY    But now I'll show ye the best un - over here nigh the middle - [getting excited]  What d'ye think o' this - ain't never seen the like hereabouts, eh? When I see this I telled Eb Holt, 'That's somethin' to stir ye up an' make your blood tickle.' RICHARD    Was this still the cut of the lizard man thing? CHARLES    No, [heavy import] he'd just let the book fall open where it would-- OLD GUY    When I read in Scripture about slayin' - like them Midianites was slew - I kinder think things, but I ain't got no picture of it.  Here a body can see all they is to it - I s'pose 'tis sinful, but ain't we all born an' livin' in sin? WARREN    Ahhh - the same picture that put the chills up you? CHARLES    Well, he obviously didn't feel the same way about it-- OLD GUY    That feller bein' chopped up gives me a tickle every time I look at 'im - I have to keep lookin' at 'im - see where the butcher cut off his feet?  There's his head on that bench, with one arm side of it, an' t' other arm's on the other side o' the meat block. CHARLES    As the man mumbled on in his shocking ecstasy the expression on his hairy, spectacled face became indescribable, but his voice sank rather than mounted.  He was almost whispering now, with a huskiness more terrible than a scream. OLD GUY    As I says, 'tis queer how pictures sets ye thinkin'. Do ye know, young Sir, I'm right sot on this one here. After I got the book off Eb I used to look at it a lot, especial when I'd heared Parson Clark rant o' Sundays in his big wig. WARREN    [realizing what the word is] Oh, "Parson"! RICHARD    Oh!  I thought that was his name! WARREN    No, it was the reference to the wig that-- CHARLES    Tell him later.  WARREN    I'll never remember-- CHARLES    Perhaps you should keep some note cards. OLD GUY    Once I tried somethin' funny - here, young Sir, don't get skeert [scared] - all I done was to look at the picture afore I killed the sheep for market - killin' sheep was kind of more fun after lookin' at it - CHARLES    The tone of the old man now sank very low, sometimes becoming so faint that his words were hardly audible. 7_killing sheep SOUND    THE RECORD CHANGES, BECOMES MORE SINISTER SOUNDING CHARLES    I listened to the rain, and to the rattling of the bleared, small-paned windows, and marked a rumbling of approaching thunder quite unusual for the season. OLD MAN    Killin' sheep was kind of more fun - but d'ye know, 't wasn't quite satisfyin'. Queer how a cravin' gets a hold of ye - As ye love the Almighty, young man, don't tell nobody, but I swear to God that picture begun to make me hungry for victuals I couldn't raise nor buy - here, set still, what's ailin' ye? - I didn't do nothin', only I wondered how 't would be if I did - They say meat makes blood an' flesh, an' gives ye new life, so I wondered if 't wouldn't make a man live longer an' longer if 't was more o' the same - CHARLES    But the whisperer never continued. The interruption was not produced by my fright, nor by the rapidly increasing storm. It was produced by a very simple, though somewhat unusual, happening. CHARLES    The open book lay flat between us, with the picture staring repulsively upward. As the old man whispered the words-- OLD GUY    more o' the same CHARLES     --a tiny splattering impact was heard, and something showed on the yellowed paper of the upturned volume. SOUND    THUNDER SHAKES THE HOUSE CHARLES    Oh, heavens! RICHARD    That's why Edward is absent, is it?  I know he's quite the fellow for phobias and superstitions - maybe he has to stay in to avoid the lightning? HERBERT    No - storms have never been on his list - not that he's ever told me.  Anything underground, foreigners, the fair sex, getting lost, and cold drafts - those he will go on and on about avoiding, but never storms.  WARREN    Not that I've heard, either.  But I can add illness, the clear night sky, and heredity to things which make him uneasy. CHARLES    [heavy sigh] I'm almost finished, then you three can gossip on like old biddies all you want.  [storytelling] The drip.  I thought of the rain and of a leaky roof, but rain is not red.  On the butcher's shop of the Anzique cannibals, a small red spattering glistened picturesquely, lending vividness to the horror of the engraving.   SOUND    SQUEAK OF LEATHER CHAIR, AS HE SITS FORWARD CHARLES    The old man saw it, and stopped whispering even before my expression of horror made it necessary; saw it and glanced quickly toward the floor of the room he had left an hour before. I followed his glance, and beheld just above us on the loose plaster of the ancient ceiling a large irregular spot of wet crimson which seemed to spread even as I viewed it. For a moment I couldn't even move, Then a thunderclap broke me out of my hypnotic stare and I realized just what a fix I was in. RICHARD    How did you manage to get away? CHARLES    Oh, so now I have your attention.  Well, it was simple really - I told the authorities later that lightning had struck the house, and I barely escaped with my life, but really-- HERBERT    Lightning?  Ridiculous.  Not that it wouldn't strike a house, but-- CHARLES    BUT - What happened was, I tipped over his lamp, sending burning oil everywhere.  Then I dashed past and out the building, while the old man screamed and wailed behind me. WARREN    Angry at you, was he? CHARLES    [very dry] Well he was on fire.  RICHARD    And the blood? CHARLES    For all that, I wasn't curious enough to go back and look.  Even left my bicycle behind, and had to go shanks mare [on foot] - and through the tail end of the storm, mind you. WARREN    Well, that was an interesting-- 8_windigo CHARLES     Hold on, now.  That's mostly the end of the story, but that crazy old man set me t'thinking ... [trails off] RICHARD    [mildly curious] Yes? CHARLES    Well, I recalled pretty clearly the names he'd mentioned as people he knew back in the day, and when I looked them up in historical records - a couple of them being rather famous, at least locally - and they'd all been dead for at least 50 years. WARREN    He must have been telling you something told him by his father or grandfather - older folks, particularly those in isolated country settings, are often a bit delusional. RICHARD    How old do you think he was? CHARLES    He looked to be about 70, allowing for wind and weather and poverty-- RICHARD    And unkemptness-- WARREN    Yes, yes... CHARLES    --but he was also hale and hearty and strong and .... plump. RICHARD    But you can't think that-- CHARLES    So I started to look into the whole theory.  It was really those last words-- OLD GUY    [echoey] More o'the same... CHARLES     --that made me wonder.  So I find out there's an old Indian myth from a ways up north-- WARREN    The Wendigo?  But that's strictly a cautionary tale.  Ethnologists agree on that. HERBERT    The windy-what? WARREN    May I? CHARLES    [sigh] Certainly. WARREN    [lecturing] The Wendigo, also known as the Windeego, the windikkuk, or the whittikow, is a myth from the various Ojibwa-speaking Indian nations of Canada.  We assume it is a cautionary myth about the evils and perils of resorting to cannibalism during times of famine, particularly during the frozen winter months, which is why the wendigo is inextricably linked with cold and snow. HERBERT    Lovely.  But like scholars everywhere, you left out the best part - what precisely is the myth? WARREN    Oh!  [chuckles]  True, the background is often closer to the academic's heart-- RICHARD    I know the story.  And I won't bore Herbert with the ethnological derivations. WARREN    Go on, then. RICHARD    [spooky]  It is said that the windigo is the spirit of winter, howling always just outside the camps of the people, calling to them to break the taboos and let it in.  For when a man eats the flesh of another man, the spirit of the wendigo can enter him, and turn him into a ravening monster - never satisfied with lesser flesh ever again.  For the wendigo is hunger, endless hunger, and the more it eats, the greater its hunger grows.  So if you're ever in a snowstorm and see a man-like shape, thin and gaunt, and missing the tips of its fingers and its lips - for if it can't find other prey, it will devour its own extremities - you'd best run.  Fast. SOUND    [silent moment, then] LIGHT GOLF CLAP CHARLES     Nicely told.  RICHARD    I really could have used a thunderclap there somewhere.  How do you get so lucky? HERBERT    But your old man, who seems to have indulged himself in cannibalism - or at least, that appeared to be the point of your tale, was ruddy and healthy and stout.  Hmm.  Sounds more like Stoker's description of Count Dracula after a good biting. CHARLES    Interesting point.  I must admit I hadn't made that connection.  I suppose it's not that far a leap from drinking someone's blood to eating their flesh. HERBERT    Wine and wafers. WARREN    No!  I am not going to waste time indulging you in another anti-religious diatribe, Herbert.  We all know where you stand on that. CHARLES    Let's get back to my yarn. RICHARD    There's more?  I thought you'd quite finished? CHARLES    Just a bit to go yet.  There is another myth of the windigo, by the by, though it may be merely a literary creation of Algernon Blackwood.  He wrote of a windigo unrelated to the eating of human flesh-- HERBERT    Anthropophagy. CHARLES    Eh? HERBERT    Sorry.  Anthropophagy is the eating of human flesh.  Cannibalism is the eating of human flesh by a fellow human.  There's quite a difference. 9_blackwood CHARLES    [sigh] Blackwood wrote of the windigo as a huge lonely entity living in the north woods, which calls the names of hunters in the night to lure them away from their campfires.  And one sight of it could drive a man mad. WARREN    Blackwood probably did a bit of bowdlerizing on the original myth - he heard a good story and felt that the cannibalism angle would make it less worthy of publication.  HERBERT    Yes.  Edward has often spoken of his difficulties in getting some of his more gruesome tales into print.  Surprising how old-maid-ish some of these vaunted editors can be. RICHARD    He's not the only one.  Why some of my paintings have been shunned and I've had to remove them from view for fear of having them burned! HERBERT    It makes you wonder what people fear more, the mere act of being shown the horrible, or the person who shows it to them. CHARLES    Enough digression.  As I said, the old man made me wonder.  Made me curious what other tales there were of cannibalism.  After what I discovered, about various religious and cultural activities from around the world, I felt certain the windigo tale wasn't to be taken literally, but as a cautionary tale, created to warn people off from antisocial behavior-- RICHARD    Like Struwwelpeter?  You know, the children's book that warns good little children not to suck their thumbs or the scissor man will come and lop them off? CHARLES    Essentially.  In fact that's a very good example - teaching through use of extreme grotesquerie.  You can't say to a child "leave off sucking that thumb or you'll have pruney thumb in the morning", they just won't take it very seriously, so we invent extremes.  Go off the path and grandma will get eaten by a wolf.  Eat another person and you will turn into a ravening monster. HERBERT    I seem to remember struwwelpeter - it had some horrific illustrations, didn't it?  Particularly for children. CHARLES    I realize I can't possibly hold your interest much longer, but there is a bit more, if you will pay me the courtesy--  [beat] Right.  Well I found that in most cultures - disregarding the various incidents of cannibalism for survival, such as during wars and famines-- A1_medusa WARREN    Like the sinking of the Medusa? CHARLES    What? WARREN    Sorry.  Nothing.  Pray continue. CHARLES    Disregarding eating for survival, there was a pervasive belief that eating parts of one's conquered enemies - human or otherwise - would grant the eater some of the strength of the fallen one.  Many hunters ate the hearts of their prey for this very reason.  Hearts being the seat of bravery in many ancient cultures. RICHARD    The seat of bravery or romantic attachment - how sad it is now relegated to merely the centerpiece for the circulatory system. CHARLES    So they would devour other humans for their strength. Now putting this together with the old man's tale, and his necessary age, if indeed he'd met half the people he mentioned in passing-- HERBERT    And devoured them. CHARLES    Eh? HERBERT    I was thinking back on your tale - if you repeated his words and intonations correctly, and always assuming your cannibalism slant is the true one - then he probably et most of the people he referred to - like "him as they say drowned in the pond". CHARLES    Hmm... [unconvincing] Never really thought much on it. WARREN    Of course you did.  Now you have me interested again. CHARLES    Well, assuming he must have been a couple decades past a hundred when we spoke - at least - then the eating of human flesh had to have had the restorative properties he claimed it did.  Gaining strength from the fallen.  O'course there was always still the threat of the windigo, but I had ruled that out after all the extensive tales of cannibalism due to need in other quarters of the globe, and none of those folks gone crazy, running around eating their own lips. WARREN    [Muttered] The crew of the Medusa went mad. CHARLES    You're not going to let it go, are you?  Fine.  Tell us about the Medusa, but be quick, would you? WARREN    The medusa was a sailing ship heading for the cape of good hope which through poor management was run aground on a sand bar.  Everyone abandoned ship, and the sailors were lost on a raft for weeks.  By the time they were found, they'd resorted to cannibalism and gone mad, not necessarily in that order. RICHARD    I recall the painting in the Louvre - it's massive.  The pathos.  It seemed to imply they were within sight of land the entire time. WARREN    Well, paintings.  They're really more interested in the tragic story than the facts. CHARLES    And they went mad, eh? WARREN    Yes.  You see how it is more universal than you think? CHARLES    They went mad after eating each other. WARREN    Yes. CHARLES    --and being out on the open ocean, possibly within sight of land, for weeks, with no fresh water, in the blistering heat somewhere near the cape of good hope had nothing to do with it. HERBERT    And they started out French. WARREN    Well, when you put it that way-- A2_wrap up CHARLES    [snort] Well, as a final touch to my collection of cannibalistic stories, I did find one rather interesting description of human flesh - the taste and texture of it - written by a connoisseur who had tried some, that said it was much like a good veal - not so tough as beef, nor stringy. RICHARD    I expect that if your cook got ahold of some, it would taste just as good as the veal tonight. CHARLES    Yes.  [with import]  Very likely. HERBERT    Did the description say there was any way to tell the difference? CHARLES    Not if it was cut and prepared right.  Oh, if you found a finger in your stew, you would probably suspect something, but a chop is a chop.  And a roast is a roast. WARREN    [gulp] Where did Edward say he was tonight? CHARLES    He didn't.  You going mad yet?  HERBERT    [interested, not freaked]  You mean, you tricked us into--? WARREN    [trying not to vomit]  Edward!  But he was -- your-- our friend! CHARLES    Still is.  He'll be with us always. RICHARD    [horrified and fascinated]  How did you - do it? CHARLES    Well, I wouldn't let him suffer, would I?  After all, he was a friend. WARREN    I can't -- SOUND    GETTING UP FROM CHAIR, RAPID FOOTSTEPS SOUND    DOOR OPENS. FEET STOP SHORT. EDWARD    [laughing] The look on your face!  WARREN    [long painful gasp] Edward! EDWARD    I never knew you cared. WARREN    [faints] ahh! SOUND    BODY DROP HERBERT    These academics.  Not enough exercise, too much theory. RICHARD    So the cutlet? CHARLES    Veal, o'course, you ninnies.  I only promised you a story to make your gorge rise and your hair stand on end.  Besides.  Martha'd'a never put up with me pulling a stunt like that in her kitchen. END  

Book Vs. Movie: Heart of Darkness & Apocalypse Now The Joseph Conrad Classic Novel Vs the Francis Ford Coppola Classic Film The Margos are going to talk about the multiple “horrors” of the 1899 Joseph Conrad novel Heart of Darkness and the 1979 Apocalypse Now film directed by Francis Ford Coppola which are both considered classics of their genre. They both follow the story of men who enter into dangerous situations which could either be a sly attack of European colonialism or more pandering to the white man as true leader mythos. Either way--we are a podcast that talks about the author, novel and then compares the filmed adaptation to decide which we like better. We are NOT experts on film, books, or colonialism. So if you are writing a paper about any of this, do not consider us a huge source. This is for entertainment!  Joseph Conrad is considered one of the greatest novelists of all time and was born in Poland to revolutionaries and political activists. He had a chaotic upbringing being raised by his mother's brother and being educated on and off until his 20s.  Conrad was fluent in Polish, English, and French and was conversational in Greek and German. He spent several years as a merchant marine for France and England.  He began his writing career in 1895 with Almayer's Folly and wrote in a style of literary impressionism. His Heart of Darkness was adapted to screen several times over the 20th Century with the most famous being the Francis Ford Coppola film that almost killed him and some of his actors (wait until you hear about it!)  The story is about ferry boat sailor Charles Marlow who is on a mission to find Mr. Kurtz who has disappeared somewhere along the Congo (though the site is not mentioned in the book) and has become enmeshed in the world of the “natives.” In the end, Kurtz returns to the “civilized” world telling the late Kurtz's finance he was thinking of her when he died. In reality, he said “the horror.”  The movie is set in Viet Nam late 1960s during the war with Martin Sheen as Captain Benjamin Willard who is set to look for the missing Colonel Kurtz (Marlon Brando) who has hidden in Cambodia and is considered insane and dangerous. The film was famous for being over budget, stressful, and almost killed several people attached to the project.  So, between the original story and the 1979 adaptation--which did we prefer?  In this ep the Margos discuss: Our first impressions of the novel The life of Joseph Conrad  The main differences between the book and movie The Animaniacs 1993 satire Hearts of Twilight  Starring: Marlon Brando (Colonel Kurtz,) Robert Duvall (Lt. Colonel William “Bill” Kilgore,) Martin Sheen (Capt. Ben Williard,) Frederic Forrest (Jay “Chef” Hicks,) Sam Bottoms (Lance B. Johnson,) Laurence Fishburne (Tyrone “Mr. Clean” Miller,) Dennis Hopper, Harrison Ford (Colonel Lucas,) Scott Glenn (Capt. Richard Colby,) and Ronald Lee Emery.  Clips used: Francis Ford Coppola in Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker's Apocalypse Apocalypse Now  the 1979 trailer Martin Sheen gets his assignment Duvall loves the smell of Napalm Martin Sheen comes for Marlon Brando Martin Sheen kills Marlon Brando (spoiler!) Music by Carmine Coppola  Book Vs. Movie is part of the Frolic Podcast Network. Find more podcasts you will love Frolic.Media/podcasts .  Join our Patreon page to help support the show! https://www.patreon.com/bookversusmovie    Book Vs. Movie podcast https://www.facebook.com/bookversusmovie/ Twitter @bookversusmovie www.bookversusmovie.com Email us at bookversusmoviepodcast@gmail.com     Margo D. @BrooklynFitChik www.brooklynfitchick.com brooklynfitchick@gmail.com Margo P. @ShesNachoMama https://coloniabook.weebly.com/    Our logo was designed by Madeleine Gainey/Studio 39 Marketing Follow on Instagram @Studio39Marketing & @musicalmadeleine 

Fanáticos por games - ou não - já podem diversificar a carteira de investimento com o ETF JOGO11. Samy Dana e Dony De Nuccio fazem um raio-x do ETF JOGO11. Será que vale a pena investir? Assista ao Cafeína e descubra! Fanáticos por games - ou não - já podem diversificar a carteira de investimento com o ETF JOGO11. O Fundo de Índice replica o o ETF ESPO, lastreado no VanEck Video Gaming & E-sports Index - listado na Nasdaq. O índice é composto por empresas do setor de games e e-sports divididas entre Estados Unidos, Japão, Hong Kong, Singapura, Suécia, França, Taiwan, Polônia e até mesmo o Congo.

Silverball Chronicles with Ron and David Episode 20: Pinball Is Dying - Part 2: Bally/Williams   Visit Our Silverball Swag Store https://silverballswag.com/collections/silverball-chronicles    Episode Summary  The 90s saw the biggest leap in pinball mechanics and technology that the hobby had ever seen. The Dot Matrix Display and how Bally/Williams leveraged it, made the pins from the previous decade look like a horse and buggy. The purchase of Bally by Williams created a competitive shark tank, forcing designers and engineers to continuously one-up each other.   But as the 90's marched on, the industry contracted. Designers exited or moved on to other areas, junior designers took their place and built some of the best machines Bally/Williams had produce, but sadly the sales numbers didn't reflect that.   Ron and Dave chat all about the final years of Bally/Williams including Adam Rhine's Dot Animation, Congo's amazing shot layout, J-Pop, Attack From Mars, Dave saying 'spider' correctly after listening while editing, George Gomez giving a poetic definition of ‘Flow', Chicago Gaming Company Remakes, and can the magic of Bally/Williams be replicated?      Sources:  Pinside at Pinside.com WMS- IGT Settlement Agreement. Here.   This Week In Pinball – George Gomez, Armed and Dangerous. Here.  TOPCast Pinball Show: #10 John Trudeau.  #63 Keith Johnson.  #40 George Gomez. #28 Adam Rhine   Shalhoub, Michael (2004). The Pinball Compendium: 1982 to Present. Schiffer Publishing, Lt. Here  

On COI #211, Kyle Anzalone and Connor Freeman discuss Israeli apartheid and why Tel Aviv's worries that awareness of their regime's brutality will spread this year. Kyle and Connor then update the JCPOA talks, the slight potential for peace on the Korean Peninsula, and the latest on tensions in Africa highlighting Sudan's unrest. Connor details how a prisoner's 141 day hunger strike is exposing Israel's longstanding policy of indefinitely locking up Palestinians without charges or trials. Israel is buying more U.S. arms and bombing the Gaza concentration camp. Tel Aviv's top diplomat is greatly concerned over the UN's coming investigations into Israeli war crimes.  Connor also updates the Vienna talks and Israel's latest threat to attack Iran without first warning the United States. Kyle talks South Korean President Moon Jae-in's efforts, before his term ends, to work with Pyongyang, Washington, and Beijing to bring about the Korean War's formal end. Kyle covers Sudan's ongoing turmoil since last year's military coup. The Sudanese President has stepped down and the protesters are now demanding an end to Khartoum's international military aid.  Kyle then breaks down the latest news on conflicts in various African countries including Somalia, the Congo, and Ethiopia. Odysee Rumble  Donate LBRY Credits bTTEiLoteVdMbLS7YqDVSZyjEY1eMgW7CP Donate Bitcoin 36PP4kT28jjUZcL44dXDonFwrVVDHntsrk Donate Bitcoin Cash Qp6gznu4xm97cj7j9vqepqxcfuctq2exvvqu7aamz6 Patreon Subscribe Star YouTube Facebook  Twitter  MeWe Apple Podcast  Amazon Music Google Podcasts Spotify iHeart Radio Support Our Sponsor Visit Paloma Verde and use code PEACE for 25% off our CBD  

On COI #211, Kyle Anzalone and Connor Freeman discuss Israeli apartheid and why Tel Aviv's worries that awareness of their regime's brutality will spread this year. Kyle and Connor then update the JCPOA talks, the slight potential for peace on the Korean Peninsula, and the latest on tensions in Africa highlighting Sudan's unrest. Connor details how a prisoner's 141 day hunger strike is exposing Israel's longstanding policy of indefinitely locking up Palestinians without charges or trials. Israel is buying more U.S. arms and bombing the Gaza concentration camp. Tel Aviv's top diplomat is greatly concerned over the UN's coming investigations into Israeli war crimes.  Connor also updates the Vienna talks and Israel's latest threat to attack Iran without first warning the United States. Kyle talks South Korean President Moon Jae-in's efforts, before his term ends, to work with Pyongyang, Washington, and Beijing to bring about the Korean War's formal end. Kyle covers Sudan's ongoing turmoil since last year's military coup. The Sudanese President has stepped down and the protesters are now demanding an end to Khartoum's international military aid.  Kyle then breaks down the latest news on conflicts in various African countries including Somalia, the Congo, and Ethiopia.

At every stage and turning point in her life,  Marcia Whitney-Schenck asks herself, “What could I do? How might I think about this?” Each of her undertakings is underlined by a creative spirit that, she believes, is the essence of all humanity. Witty, direct and compelling, Marcia shares stories from her youth, a 9-month stay in Northern Cameroon, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Uganda, and life as she experiences it today.Writer and multimedia artist, Marcia began her career as a journalist and worked in public relations. She founded a magazine, Christianity & The Arts and was its editor for 8 years. All of her work calls upon the spiritual, including her novel, Tryptych. Today her art centers on finding the humanity in ancient figures and reinterpreting them visually to be accessible in our modern lives. Recently, Marcia has tiptoed into the subject of dementia through her art and has also created a philosophy of life she names H.E.A.L.  "The written word and visual arts help us maintain our enthusiasm despite the pain of humanity." -  Marcia Whitney-SchenckConnect with Marcia:Email: marciawhitney-schenck@gmail.comWebsite: marciawhitney-schenck.comHer Book: Triptych - available on Amazon.

- L'artiste ivoirien Fior 2 Bior présente sa nouvelle chanson Godo godo.- L'artiste nigérien Barakina présente la chanson Sah Wongo en collaboration avec 15 artistes du pays. Barakina sera en concert au stade Général Seyni Kountche le 5 février.- Dans la séquence Génération Consciente, Jean-Luc Ramazami parle de la 3ème édition du festival Izulu Live qui s'est tenu à Bukavu, en République Démocratique du Congo, le 19 décembre. Cliquez sur le nom de l'artiste pour en savoir plus, et sur les titres des chansons pour visionner leur clip : C Kay feat Joeboy, Kwami Eugène Love Nwantiti remix Lynnsha Te désaimer Althess, Abel Zamani, Idi Sarki, Jean Ray, Elsa, Medzi, Force Moral, Akeem, Kitary, Zm, Dia One, Jojo Jordan, Aziz Tony, H Med X Soul, MDM Crew, Barakina Sah Wongo Robinio Mundibu Kulumba Gusttavo Lima Balada (Tchê Tchê Rere) Curtis Mayfield Move on up Fior 2 Bior Godo godo Awa Ly Close your eyes Marvy M'vila Ma meilleure Locko Don't call me back Tiakola La clé

Our podcast today was recorded in front of a live audience on August 24, 2021, at Bonner Park Bandshell in Missoula, MT. 7 storytellers shared their true personal story on the theme “Forward to Better”. Today we hear from 5 of those storytellers. Our first story comes to us from Sasha Vermel. When Sasha Vermel tells her husband that she isn't ready to settle down and wants to travel, he takes her up on it and they learn how difficult being gluten intolerant can be while traveling in China. Sasha calls her story “Pieces of Home in Far Off Lands”. Sasha Vermel passionately believes that we all have a basic need to hear and tell stories. By day, she is a real estate agent with a sewing and design habit. Born and raised in Missoula, MT she earned a BFA from U of M. In her former life she worked in theater costume shops across the West and frequently performed on stage at Bona Fide and Bawdy Storytelling events in San Francisco. Learn more about Sasha at her website sashavermel.com. Our next story comes to us from Sara Close. Sara Close is feeling hopeless. She picks up the phone and the woman on the other end saves her life and reminds her of the magic in life. Sensitive listeners, please be aware that Sara's story mentions suicidal thoughts. Remember, You are not alone. Reach out. | Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 1.800.273.8255 | projecttomorrowmt.org | “text MT” to 741-741 Sara calls her story “A Lesson in Magic” Sara Close is a strategist and convener of good ideas and good people. Director by day, a yoga teacher by night, but a mom all the time, she's happiest on the water, on trails, or on the trampoline… but definitely not on snow and is still trying to figure out how to do winter in Montana right. In our next story, Lauren Gonzalez navigates the complex feelings a new mother has when she brings a daughter into the world when hoping for a son. She calls her story “No Girls Allowed”. Lauren Gonzalez is a Southern-born thirty-something who writes/edits, climbs, (pretends to learn the) drums, sings, homeschools, and mothers two plucky kids (alongside her partner of 10 years) in beautiful Missoula. Our next storyteller, Paul Mwingwa, is a refugee from Congo by way of Rwanda. Paul earns that riding the bus is very different across cultures. He uses this knowledge to help other refugees as they navigate learning the bus system in Missoula, MT. We call Paul's story “Riding the Bus”. Paul Mwingwa is the Refugee Congress Delegate for Montana. He is a resettled refugee from the Democratic Republic of the Congo and came to the U.S. in November 2018. Mwingwa is studying Computer Network Design, Configuration and Administration Modules at Missoula College. Today, he works as a Swahili language instructor and private contractor at the Lifelong Learning Center and a food service worker at Providence St. Patrick Hospital. In his free time, he enjoys hiking and walking along the river. Jen Certa originally shared this story in 2020 during one of the Tell Us Something live-streamed events. It is such an important story that we thought she deserved a live in-person audience to hear it. Jen agreed. Jen Certa's journey to fix a botched tattoo helps her answer Mary Oliver's question about how to love this world. Sensitive listeners be aware that Jen's story mentions sexual assault. Jen calls her story “How to Love This World”. Jen Certa is originally from New York, but accidentally began a love affair with Montana in 2009 and is grateful to have called Missoula home since. Jen works as a mental health therapist at an elementary school, where she spends her days debating the finer points of making fart noises with your slime and playing “the floor is lava.” When not at work, Jen can most often be found hiking with her dogs and running late for something.

Welcome to Prime Time Conversations, In our very 1st episode since the rebrand we have a huge guest to kick things off as This week James is joined by Punk Rock royalty as Sum 41's Jason "CONE" McCaslin joins the show to Talk about his beginnings in music, joining sum 41, recording fat lip, Partying with Tommy Lee, magic mushrooms, filming the video's, trouble in the Congo, Stevo leaving the band, not being able to tour because of the pandemic and much more. #primetimeconversations #sum41 #punkrock __________________________________________ Please support the channel by liking and subscribing, and comment on who you would like to see on the show in the future. __________________________________________ Follow us on our social media channels Twitter - @primetimeconvos Instagram - primetimeconvos Facebook - prime time conversations __________________________________________ --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/that90swrestlingpodcast/message

With his place on the golden stool in a tenuous position, the young asantehene Osei Kwame secures his power through a series of purges of the Ashanti government. But, despite firmly entrenching his allies in power, Kwame's downfall will come not because of his governmental policy, but his personal religious views.Support the show (https://patreon.com/historyofafrica)

In 1914, at the start of the Great War, the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire called for a “Great Jihad” against France, Russia, and Great Britain. It was a logical conclusion to over fity years of conflict between European and indigenous powers in the Middle East and North Africa, a conflict that eventually became a radical Islamic insurgency supporting an ancient slave trade against Western colonialism that exploited “coolie capitalism”. This is the complex story that Neil Faulkner tells in his new book Empire and Jihad: The Anglo-Arab Wars of 1870-1920. Ranging from the Congo basin to the deserts of North Africa, he traces the complex interweaving of humanitarianism, colonialism, nationalism, and Islamism—arguing that Jihad was a reactionary response to modern imperalism. Neil Faulkner is an archaeologist and historian, who works as a lecturer, writer, excavator, and occasional broadcaster. He is editor of Military History Matters, and the author of fifteen books. For Further Investigation Neil Faulkner, Lawrence of Arabia's War: The Arabs, the British and the Remaking of the Middle East–the precursor to Empire and Jihad Neil Faulkner, A Radical History of the World–there's much of this previous book also to be found in Empire and Jihad Last year in Episode 148 we discussed the exploitation of the Congo with Robert Harms, an intimately related topic to this. Together they're really a matching set of conversations.

Un tour du monde des grands évènements qui nous attendent en 2022 sur la planète : un par mois , douze pays & douze Belges du bout du monde qui nous présentent ces évènements qu'ils vivront souvent de l'intérieur : des J.O d'hiver en Chine aux Présidentielles en France, en passant par la COP 27 en Egypte, les 70 ans de la Reine Elizabeth en Angleterre, le Tour de France au Danemark, la Route du Rhum en Guadeloupe, le Warachicuy au Pérou, la Maternitsa en Moldavie, la Saint-Patrick en Irlande, la fête des Gloires Nationales au Congo, le Royal Tatoo d'Edimbourg, le Beervana à Wellington et le Mundial au Quatar. Avec le regard tendre, drôle et féroce de Cécile Djunga, Anne Pollard, Alex Vizorek, Patrick Weber, Michel Lecomte et Mehdi Khelfat !

Un tour du monde des grands évènements qui nous attendent en 2022 sur la planète : un par mois , douze pays & douze Belges du bout du monde qui nous présentent ces évènements qu'ils vivront souvent de l'intérieur : des J.O d'hiver en Chine aux Présidentielles en France, en passant par la COP 27 en Egypte, les 70 ans de la Reine Elizabeth en Angleterre, le Tour de France au Danemark, la Route du Rhum en Guadeloupe, le Warachicuy au Pérou, la Maternitsa en Moldavie, la Saint-Patrick en Irlande, la fête des Gloires Nationales au Congo, le Royal Tatoo d'Edimbourg, le Beervana à Wellington et le Mundial au Quatar. Avec le regard tendre, drôle et féroce de Cécile Djunga, Anne Pollard, Alex Vizorek, Patrick Weber, Michel Lecomte et Mehdi Khelfat !

Hii leo jaridani ni siku ya nada kwa kina tukibisha hodi kwenye makazi ya wakimbizi ya Kyangwali huko Hoima nchini Uganda kusikia tathmini ya wakimbizi kutoka Jamhuri ya Kidemokrasia ya Congo, DRC kuhusu mwaka huu wa 2021 na matarajio yao kwa mwaka 2022. Hata hivyo kuna habari kwa ufupi ikiwa na salamu za mwaka mpya za Katibu Mkuu wa  Umoja wa Mataifa Antonio Guterres akitaka dunia iazimie kuwa mwaka 2022 ni mwaka wa kujikwamua kutoka kwenye madhila. Na mashinani tunabisha hodi Ufilipino, taifa lililopigwa na kimbunga Rai mwezi huu na sasa wananchi wanaelezea kile walichoshuhudia. Karibu na mwenyeji wako ni Assumpta Massoi.

Erin Dugan, Steven Godfrey and Braden Gall talk SEC football. Almost spring in the Congo on Finebaum Mayo baths for SEC coaches Mike Leach's press conference Cincinnati needs creative pressure Upsetting Bama: Ohio St or Ole MIss Turnovers, Desmond Ridder and Luke Fickell How Michigan changes their offense The personnel to do what Bama did Georgia's offensive evolution takes center stage TheAthletic.com David Ubben joins to talk Playoff How Covid is impacting bowl games Perception of the playoff games changing? Does Alabama's O-Line return to form? Does Georgia's defense have to be exotic? What's the right question about Georgia QBs? What happens if UGa loses to Michigan? Fringe Element is BTYB Jasper's on West End.

Quarante-sept membres du principal parti d'opposition, le Mouvement pour la Renaissance du Cameroun (MRC) ont été condamnés à des peines allant jusqu'à 7 ans de prison ferme, notamment pour rébellion et tentative d'insurrection. Le porte-parole et le trésorier du MRC figurent parmi les condamnés. Le Monde Afrique  revient sur les faits : ces militants ont été arrêtés le 22 septembre 2020, alors que leur parti et plusieurs autres projetaient des marches pacifiques contre le régime du président Paul Biya, au pouvoir depuis 1982. La police avait très violemment dispersé des centaines de manifestants notamment à Douala, la capitale économique. Des condamnations qui suscitent des réactions Notamment la colère et l'indignation du MRC nous dit le journal Le Pays.  « Tombées comme un couperet sur les têtes de partisans de Maurice Kamto, ces sanctions provoquent aussi l'incompréhension et le courroux des défenseurs des droits de l'Homme au regard de leur caractère inédit. Rarement des condamnations aussi lourdes n'avaient été prononcées contre des militants dont le seul crime est d'avoir manifesté leur ras-le-bol face à une gouvernance désastreuse. » Le Pays poursuit « Ces sanctions traduisent la volonté du président Paul Biya qui règne sans partage sur le Cameroun depuis bientôt 40 ans, d'embastiller ses opposants. C'est d'autant plus vrai que le leader du MRC, Maurice Kamto lui-même, avait été jeté en prison et y a passé 9 mois avant d'être relaxé sans procès. » En Côte d'Ivoire : des opposants toujours poursuivis pour les violences électorales de 2020 C'est ce qu'a annoncé mardi le procureur d'Abidjan, Richard Adou. « Après 6 mois d'investigations, l'Unité spéciale d'enquête sur les violences en rapport avec la présidentielle de l'an dernier a rendu publiques ses conclusions » écrit L'Observateur Paalga.  Quatre-vingt cinq personnes avaient été tuées. Plus de 230 suspects avaient été arrêtés et une quarantaine sont toujours recherchés. Mais pour l'Observateur Paalga, « Si la balle est désormais dans le camp des trois juges, de nombreux responsables politiques ont d'ores et déjà du souci à se faire. L'Unité spéciale a en effet désigné des opposants comme étant les "auteurs moraux", c'est-à-dire les commanditaires, de ces actes répréhensibles. Sont donc visés ; Simone Gbagbo, Pascal Affi N'Guessan, Maurice Kakou Guikahué, Guillaume Soro… et même d'Henri Konan Bédié, qui avait appelé à la désobéissance civile. » Le cas d'Henri Konan Bédié Jeune Afrique nous en dit davantage. Selon les enquêteurs, l'appel au boycott et à la désobéissance civile lancé quarante jours avant le scrutin par l'ancien président a été « l'un des déclencheurs » de ce nouveau cycle de violences. Début novembre 2020, au lendemain de la proclamation de la victoire d'Alassane Ouattara, Henri Konan Bédié avait même annoncé la création d'un « Conseil national de transition » avec Pascal Affi N'Guessan. Le procureur décrit « une jeunesse, bras exécuteur de la violence, instrumentalisée par les leaders politiques » et « galvanisée par des discours d'appel à la haine ». La jeunesse « a été armée pour faire échec à la tenue de l'élection et accentuer le climat de terreur » souligne le rapport, cité par Jeune Afrique. « Les investigations ont par ailleurs démontré [qu'Henri Konan Bédié] finançait plusieurs opérations subversives par l'intermédiaire notamment de son directeur de cabinet. » La mort du Général Defao « Salut l'artiste », titre Aujourd'hui au Faso, « C'est une figure de la Rumba congolaise qui vient de déposer le micro.... et c'est toute la musique africaine qui perd l'un de ses ambassadeurs. » peut-on y lire.  Le Général Defao était un excellent chanteur et danseur, doublé de talent d'auteur compositeur. De 1983 à 1991, il fait les beaux jours du groupe Choc Stars, aux côtés d'une autre vedette de la chanson congolaise, Bozi Boziana. Accro aux apparitions à la télévision, le Général Defao va réussir à asseoir sa popularité. Très bon danseur adulé du public, par son talent, Defao aura contribué à sa manière à faire danser des millions de mélomanes à travers l'Afrique et le monde. Avec sa disparition, c'est donc un condensé de talents que le Congo et l'Afrique pleurent. À lire aussi : Le Congolais Général Défao, vedette de la rumba, est mort 

El Tribunal Supremo de Rusia ha disuelto la ONG Memorial que investiga los crímenes de Estado desde la era soviética hasta la actualidad. El Partido de los Trabajadores de Corea del Norte celebra plenario para definir la política exterior y económica del régimen. Natalia Sancha y Catalina Gómez Ángel presentan su libro 'Balas para todas' sobre las experiencias de distintas mujeres periodistas que cubren la información de Oriente Medio y el Magreb. Y conversaremos con Pablo de la Chica, el director del cortometraje documental 'Mama' que opta a los Goya y que narra la experiencia de Mama Zawadi, una mujer congoleña víctima de la violencia sexual que trabaja ahora en el centro de rescate Lwiro en Congo. Escuchar audio

Nchini Cote d'Ivoire  shirika la Umoja wa Mataifa la kuhudumia wakimbizi, UNHCR limeleta tabasamu na nuru kwa wakimbizi ambao biashara zao zilivurugika kutokana na janga la ugonjwa wa Corona au COVID-19 ambalo limetikisa dunia kuanzia mwaka jana wa 2020. Kwa sasa wakimbizi hao wakiwemo wa kutoka Jamhuri ya kidemokrasia ya Congo, DRC wana imani ya kujiinua tena kiuchumi kama anavyosimulia Happiness Pallangyo wa Radio washirika Radio Uhai FM ya Tabora Tanzania katika taarifa hii iliyoandaliwa na UNHCR. “Mimi ni mtaalamu wa kusafisha Samaki,” ndivyo asemavyo Sophie Lilombi Mwika, mkimbizi kutoka DRC ambaye sasa anaishi kwenye mji mkuu wa kibiashara wa Cote d'Ivore, Abidjan.  Katika video ya UNHCR, Sophie akiwa nyumbani kwake akiandaa Samaki anaokausha kwa chumvi anasema “naipenda kazi hii kwa sababu kupitia biashara ya samaki nimeondokana na umaskini.” Sophie alikimbia DRC kutokana na ghasia na hapa Cote D'Ivoire akaanza biashara ya samaki wakavu. Akiwa anakagua vitabu vyake vya mahesabu ya biashara anasema, “COVID-19 imeniumiza sana. Ni kama vile imenichapa kiboko kama tusemavyo nchini mwetu DRC. Biashara ilipungua.” Sophie alikuwa anauza Samaki wakavu siyo tu nchini Cote D'Ivoire bali pia nchi jiran ikiwemo ya Mali. Fedha alizopata aliweza pia kutuma nyumbani DRC kwa familia yake na hata alikuwa amepanga kupanua eneo la kuhifadhi samaki. Hata hivyo ujio wa COVID-19 ukalazimu nchi kufunga mipaka ambapo mauzo yalipungua kwa theluthi tatu na hivyo akasitisha mpango wa kupanua ujenzi wa eneo la kuhifadhi samaki. Mungu si Athumani, wahenga wamenena! UNHCR ikaingilia kati na kumpatia Sophie na wakimbizi wengine 80 mafunzo ya kuinua upya biashara zao sambamba na fedha taslimu za mtaji. Leonidas Nkurunzinza ni Naibu Mwakilishi wa UNHCR nchini Côte d'Ivoire: “Idadi kubwa ya watu tunaowasaidia wameathirika zaidi kuliko wengine. Hii ni kwasababu wako kwenye sekta isiyo rasmi, wakifanya biashara ndogo za kujikimu.” Na sasa kwa Sophie mambo ni mazuri akisema “mimi ni mwanamke thabiti hii leo kwa sababu ya biashara yangu ya Samaki wakavu. Ninajivunia na ninajivunia kile nilichoanzisha. Tuko huru kufurahia maisha.“ Ama hakika furaha hadi kuimba na kucheza!  

Por primera vez en 17 años un presidente uruguayo viajó este fin de semana a la República Democrática del Congo para visitar a las tropas que están desplegadas allí en misión de Paz de la ONU. El presidente Luis Lacalle Pou estuvo viernes y sábado en ese país africano, donde compartió las fiestas navideñas con los cascos azules compatriotas apostados en las ciudades de Goma y Bukavu. Lo hizo acompañado por el ministro de Defensa Nacional, Javier García, y los comandantes en jefe de las tres fuerzas armadas. Vestido de uniforme de fajina, Lacalle Pou visitó el viernes un orfanato que cuenta con el apoyo de los soldados uruguayos. Más tarde compartió con los soldados la cena de Noche Buena sin protocolos. El sábado, día de Navidad, mantuvo una reunión con autoridades de las Naciones Unidas y visitó al contingente de la Fuerza Aérea radicado en la ciudad de Bukavu, desde donde luego emprendió el retorno a Uruguay. Esta visita volvió a poner en la agenda la participación de Uruguay en misiones de paz de la ONU, sobre la cual hay distintos puntos de vista, como quedó claro en la discusión que tuvimos ayer en La Tertulia. Esta mañana nos trasladamos hacia la República Democrática del Congo para conocer las tareas que cumplen los efectivos de nuestro país y el contexto político y social en el que se mueven: conversamos con el coronel Gerardo Dattele, jefe del contingente militar uruguayo en el Congo.

The Olympics are a unique opportunity to celebrate both individual victories and our collective unity.  And this week we went for the gold! Ali speaks with former Olympian and refugee Makorobondo “Dee” Salukombo about learning to love running and his work starting Project Kirotshe a program that pays children in Congo's school fees as they train and run races throughout Eastern Africa.   Check us out on Twitter and Facebook for more great stories from our podcast.  

[2:13] Nsimba v. Att'y Gen. U.S., No. 20-3565 (3d Cir. Dec. 22, 2021)pattern or practice of persecution; well-founded fear; similarly situated family members; Union for Democracy and Social Progress; summons vs. arrest warrant; corruption & persecution; difficulty obtaining evidence; physical harm not required; reasonable relocation; Congo  [9:13] Yasin v. Att'y Gen. U.S., No. 20-2509 (3d Cir. Dec. 20, 2021)VAWA motion to reopen; INA § 240(c)(7)(C)(iv)(III); discretion; INA § 242(a)(2)(B)(ii) [14:03] Ramirez-Medina v. Garland, No. 16-73325 (9th Cir. Dec. 22, 2021)non-LPR cancellation of removal; INA § 240A(b)(1)(C); multiple offenses; statutory interpretation; use of the singular; Dictionary Act; Pereida  [17:49] Argueta Romero v. DHS, No. 20-12487 (11th Cir. Dec. 20, 2021)jurisdiction; “in custody”; habeas; INA § 242(a)(5); INA § 101(g); self-removal; statutory interpretation & lenity; Chevron deference; 8 U.S.C. § 1326; definition of deportation  [29:39] Rodriguez-Jimenez v. Garland, No. 21-70064 (9th Cir. Dec. 21, 2021)due process; remand; prejudice; reviewing BIA decisions [33:08] Walcott v. Garland, No. 18-70393 (9th Cir. Dec. 22, 2021)CIMT; small amount of marijuana; least culpable conduct; drug trafficking; evolving definition of CIMT; societal norms; deference to CIMT definition; divisibility *Sponsors and friends of the podcast!Kurzban Kurzban Tetzeli and Pratt P.A.www.kktplaw.com/Immigration, serious injury, and business lawyers serving clients in Florida, California, and all over the world for over 40 years.Docketwisewww.docketwise.com/immigration-review"Modern immigration software & case management"*Want to become a patron of Immigration Review? Check out our Patreon page at https://www.patreon.com/immigrationreview *CONTACT INFORMATIONEmail: kgregg@kktplaw.comFacebook: "Immigration Review Podcast" or @immigrationreviewInstagram: @immigrationreviewTwitter: @immreview*About your host: https://www.kktplaw.com/attorney/gregg-kevin-a/*More episodes at: https://www.kktplaw.com/immigration-review-podcast/*Featured in the top 15 of Immigration Podcast in the U.S.! https://blog.feedspot.com/immigration_podcasts/DISCLAIMER: Immigration Review® is a podcast made available for educational purposes only. It does not provide specific legal advice. Rather, the Immigration Review® podcast offers general information and insights regarding recent immigration cases from publicly available sources. By accessing and listening to the podcast, you understand that there is no attorney-client relationship between you and the podcast host. The Immigration Review® podcast should not be used as a substitute for competent legal advice from a licensed professional attorney in your state. MUSIC CREDITS: "Loopster," "Bass Vibes," "Chill Wave," and "Funk Game Loop" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.Support the show (https://www.patreon.com/immigrationreview)

¿Qué supone el ascenso a la presidencia del socialista chileno, Gabriel Boric, para la izquierda en América Latina y, sobre todo, en Brasil? Nos lo explica la periodista, Valeria Saccone. ¿Por qué Libia no ha podido celebrar las elecciones presidenciales previstas para el 24 de diciembre? Se lo preguntamos al periodista Javier Martín. Por último, charlamos con Inmaculada González-Carbajal, presidenta y fundadora de El Pájaro Azul, sobre los proyectos de esa fundación en Congo. 

At the start of 2022, more than 50 jurisdictions are slated to raise their minimum wage rates, many to $15 an hour or more. Despite widespread support for increased minimum wages and years-long activism, efforts to boost the minimum wage at the federal level have largely stalled. But even as many employers independently raise pay amid a tight labor market, inflation continues to chip away at the gains made by many workers. Also on today’s program: A look back at the week, what consumer spending looks like amid the arrival of omicron, how the surge in electric vehicle demand impacts the Democratic Republic of the Congo and a festive take on The Numbers.

At the start of 2022, more than 50 jurisdictions are slated to raise their minimum wage rates, many to $15 an hour or more. Despite widespread support for increased minimum wages and years-long activism, efforts to boost the minimum wage at the federal level have largely stalled. But even as many employers independently raise pay amid a tight labor market, inflation continues to chip away at the gains made by many workers. Also on today’s program: A look back at the week, what consumer spending looks like amid the arrival of omicron, how the surge in electric vehicle demand impacts the Democratic Republic of the Congo and a festive take on The Numbers.

Steve introduces Izzy to the Matrix sequels for the first time, including the 2021 new release, "Matrix Resurrections"!!! What will she think? Will the sequels hold up to Steve upon watching over 15 years later? What about the new movie? Will a marriage be tested? Did Izzy actually watch the movies or just google while the movies were playing? Are there Congo tie-ins? Is this all a brain in a jar?!? Let's find out!!! So kick back, grab a few brews, take the red pill, and enjoy!!! This episode is proudly sponsored by Untidy Venus, your one-stop shop for incredible art & gift ideas at UntidyVenus.Etsy.com and be sure to follow her on Twiter, Facebook, Instagram & Patreon at @UntidyVenus for all of her awesomeness!!! Try it today!!! Twitter - www.twitter.com/eilfmovies Facebook - www.facebook.com/eilfmovies Instagram - www.instagram.com/eilfmovies Etsy - www.untidyvenus.etsy.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In an unknown country in Africa, a history teacher and a brilliant film critic become embroiled with an enigmatic podcaster, whose questionable knowledge leads to horrifying realizations about the nature of the truth. On Episode 491 of Trick or Treat Radio December Double Feature Cram Jam nears its end and so does MZ's run with us. On MZ's penultimate episode we discuss the films Antlers from director Scott Cooper, and Knocking from director Frida Kempff! There is also a shocking revelation about who was right, discussions about repressed grief, and MZ introduces everyone else to a 70s Batman porn parody?! So grab your hidden trauma, give it the double birds, and strap on for the world's most dangerous podcast!Stuff we talk about: Psycho, Buddy Cooper, The Mutilator, Double Birds, Bat Pussy, hearing your mother during the act, Dora Dildo, what to get Ravenshadow for a present, pre-planned improv, Matrix Resurrections spoiler filled live show, Book of Boba Fett, Robert Rodriguez, Cheech Marin, Rodian, A Mandalorian Standoff, Keanu Reeves, popping spice, ths source of Ravenshadow's torture, RIP Riku, Antlers, Scott Cooper, Guillermo del Toro, Peter Weller, Naked Lunch, Noxzema, methmatician, the Oregon mist, Jeremy T. Thomas, Keri Russell, the fine line between showing too much and not enough of the monster, Knocking, Frida Kempff, “it's a good length”, Cecilia Milocco, everyone needs to be heard, repressed trauma, Darren Aronofsky, Pi, Alan Thicke, Spirit of ‘76, disappointed by yourself, Knock Knock, Eli Roth, Guns N Roses, Flight of the Conchords, Gentlemen Broncos, New Zealand, pottery wheel, Ghost Birds, The Advent Calendar, The Americans, Even the Wind is Afraid, EF Contentment's Patreon Takeover, Mil Mascaras, The Silent Partner, The Rat Patrol, the difference between nazis and fascists, Congo, history, “Ravenshadow was right”, and Felicity and the Methematicians.Support us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/trickortreatradioJoin our Discord Community: discord.trickortreatradio.comSend Email/Voicemail: mailto:podcast@trickortreatradio.comVisit our website: http://trickortreatradio.comStart your own podcast: https://www.buzzsprout.com/?referrer_id=386Use our Amazon link: http://amzn.to/2CTdZzKFB Group: http://www.facebook.com/groups/trickortreatradioTwitter: http://twitter.com/TrickTreatRadioFacebook: http://facebook.com/TrickOrTreatRadioYouTube: http://youtube.com/TrickOrTreatRadioInstagram: http://instagram.com/TrickorTreatRadioSupport the show (https://www.patreon.com/trickortreatradio)

Hii leo jaridani Assumpta Massoi anaanzia nchini Burundi ambako kijana mmoja baada ya kumaliza masomo ya elimu ya juu na kuona cheti chake hakimpatii ajira aliamua kuanzisha mradi wa kuku na sasa amekuwa chachu kwa jamii yake! Huko Tanzania watoto wamuandikia barua Rais Samia Suluhu Hassan kulikoni? Na kisha ni nchini Mali ambako tofauti za tamaduni zatumika kujenga amani badala ya mvuragano. Makala tunabisha hodi nchini Uganda na mashinani tunakwenda Jamhuri ya Kidemokrasia ya Congo, kusikiliza faida za rumba!!! Karibu!

On today's edition, “Afropop Jam,” we'll groove on cool new releases by artists from Congo, Ivory Coast, Nigeria, Martinique, Cuba and more. APWW #835

It's easy to track the phases of the Moon. They're on just about every printed calendar, plus countless apps and web sites — including ours. That allows you to find the phase on any date far into the future. People have been devising ways to track the Moon for thousands of years. One of the earliest could be a bone found in Africa. Columns of notches could represent the phases of the Moon. The Ishango bone was found in present-day Congo, in the remains of a village that was buried by a volcanic eruption. The village was inhabited about 20,000 years ago. The bone is about four inches long. It's the leg bone of a baboon, topped by a crystal of quartz. The bone contains three columns of notches. The columns are divided into groups, with each group containing a different number of notches. The notches could be mathematical. They could represent a counting system, or even serve as a calculator, helping the owner do simple addition or multiplication. On the other hand, the notches could represent the phases of the Moon. The notches in each group are a different length, so they could represent the waxing and waning of the Moon, covering about six months of phases — an early “calendar” for tracking the Moon. Tonight, the Moon is about three-quarters full, so it's nice and bright. And it has a bright companion: Regulus, the heart of the lion. They climb into view in late evening, and soar high overhead later on. Script by Damond Benningfield Support McDonald Observatory

Alarm over Sudan reports of sexual violence and live rounds used against protesters  ‘Appalling' plight of migrants and refugees at Belarus-Poland border   Thousands head home voluntarily from Zambia to DR Congo  

For bonuses and to support the show, sign up at www.patreon.com/themidnighttrainpodcast   This week is our Christmas special here on the train. First, we've covered Krampus, Christmas killings, and ghost story Christmas traditions. Then, in keeping with our tradition of crazy Christmas episodes, today, we bring you some crazy Christmas disasters! Christmas isn't immune to crazy shit going on, from natural disasters to fires. Not only that, we're giving you guys a pretty good dose of history today. So with that being said, let's get into some crazy Christmas stuff!   While this first topic isn't necessarily a disaster in the usual sense, it definitely caused nothing but problems. And yes, it's a disaster. In 1865 on Christmas Eve, something happened that would change things for many people in this country and still causes grief to this day. While most people in the u.s. were settling down for the night with their families, leaving milk out for Santa, and tucking the kids in for the night, a group of men in Pulaski, Tennessee, were getting together for a very different purpose. Frank McCord, Richard Reed, John Lester, John Kennedy, J. Calvin Jones, and James Crowe were all officers with the Confederacy in the civil war. That night, they got together to form a group inspired at least in part by the then largely defunct Sons of Malta. While it started as a social club, within months, it would turn into one of the most nefarious groups around, the Ku Klux Klan. According to The Cyclopædia of Fraternities (1907), "Beginning in April, 1867, there was a gradual transformation. ...The members had conjured up a veritable Frankenstein. They had played with an engine of power and mystery, though organized on entirely innocent lines, and found themselves overcome by a belief that something must lie behind it all – that there was, after all, a serious purpose, a work for the Klan to do." It borrowed parts of the initiation ceremony from the sons of Malta with the same purpose: "ludicrous initiations, the baffling of public curiosity, and the amusement for members were the only objects of the Klan," according to Albert Stevens in 1907. In the summer of 1867, local branches of the Klan met in a general organizing convention. They established what they called an "Invisible Empire of the South." Leading Confederate general Nathan Bedford Forrest was chosen as the first leader, or "grand wizard," of the Klan; he presided over a hierarchy of grand dragons, grand titans, and grand cyclops. The organization of the Ku Klux Klan coincided with the beginning of the second phase of post-Civil War Reconstruction, put into place by the more radical members of the Republican Party in Congress. After rejecting President Andrew Johnson's relatively lenient Reconstruction policies from 1865 to 1866, Congress passed the Reconstruction Act over the presidential veto. Under its provisions, the South was divided into five military districts. Each state was required to approve the 14th Amendment, which granted "equal protection" of the Constitution to formerly enslaved people and enacted universal male suffrage. From 1867 onward, Black participation in public life in the South became one of the most radical aspects of Reconstruction. Black people won elections to southern state governments and even the U.S. Congress. For its part, the Ku Klux Klan dedicated itself to an underground campaign of violence against Republican leaders and voters (both Black and white) to reverse the policies of Radical Reconstruction and restore white supremacy in the South. They were joined in this struggle by similar organizations such as the Knights of the White Camelia (launched in Louisiana in 1867) and the White Brotherhood. At least 10 percent of the Black legislators elected during the 1867-1868 constitutional conventions became victims of violence during Reconstruction, including seven who were killed. White Republicans (derided as "carpetbaggers" and "scalawags") and Black institutions such as schools and churches—symbols of Black autonomy—were also targets for Klan attacks. By 1870, the Ku Klux Klan had branches in nearly every southern state. The Klan did not boast a well-organized structure or clear leadership even at its height. Local Klan members, often wearing masks and dressed in the organization's signature long white robes and hoods, usually carried out their attacks at night. They acted on their own but supported the common goals of defeating Radical Reconstruction and restoring white supremacy in the South. Klan activity flourished particularly in the regions of the South where Black people were a minority or a slight majority of the population and were relatively limited in others. Among the most notorious zones of Klan activity was South Carolina, where in January 1871, 500 masked men attacked the Union county jail and lynched eight Black prisoners. Though Democratic leaders would later attribute Ku Klux Klan violence to poorer southern white people, the organization's membership crossed class lines, from small farmers and laborers to planters, lawyers, merchants, physicians, and ministers. In the regions where most Klan activity took place, local law enforcement officials either belonged to the Klan or declined to act against it. Even those who arrested Klansmen found it difficult to find witnesses willing to testify against them.    Other leading white citizens in the South declined to speak out against the group's actions, giving them implicit approval. After 1870, Republican state governments in the South turned to Congress for help, resulting in three Enforcement Acts, the strongest of which was the Ku Klux Klan Act of 1871.   For the first time, the Ku Klux Klan Act designated certain crimes committed by individuals as federal offenses, including conspiracies to deprive citizens of the right to hold office, serve on juries and enjoy the equal protection of the law. In addition, the act authorized the president to suspend the habeas corpus, arrest accused individuals without charge, and send federal forces to suppress Klan violence. For those of us dummies that may not know, a "writ of habeas corpus" (which literally means to "produce the body") is a court order demanding that a public official (such as a warden) deliver an imprisoned individual to the court and show a valid reason for that person's detention. The procedure provides a means for prison inmates or others acting on their behalf to dispute the legal basis for confinement.   This expansion of federal authority–which Ulysses S. Grant promptly used in 1871 to crush Klan activity in South Carolina and other areas of the South–outraged Democrats and even alarmed many Republicans. From the early 1870s onward, white supremacy gradually reasserted its hold on the South as support for Reconstruction waned; by the end of 1876, the entire South was under Democratic control once again.   Now, this was just the first version of the Klan. A second version started up in the early 1900s and later on another revival which is the current iteration of the Klan. We're not going to go into the later versions of the Klan because well…. Fuck 'em! We've already given them too much air time! But… This most definitely qualifies as a Christmas disaster.   Next up, we have a couple natural disasters.    First up, Cyclone Tracy. Cyclone Tracy has been described as the most significant tropical cyclone in Australia's history, and it changed how we viewed the threat of tropical cyclones to northern Australia.   Five days before Christmas 1974, satellite images showed a tropical depression in the Arafura Sea, 700 kilometers (or almost 435 miles for us Americans) northeast of Darwin.   The following day the Tropical Cyclone Warning Center in Darwin warned that a cyclone had formed and gave it the name Tracy. Cyclone Tracy was moving southwest at this stage, but as it passed the northwest of Bathurst Island on December 23, it slowed down and changed course.   That night, it rounded Cape Fourcroy and began moving southeast, with Darwin directly in its path.   The first warning that Darwin was under threat came at 12:30 p.m. on Christmas Eve when a top-priority flash cyclone warning was issued advising people that Cyclone Tracy was expected to make landfall early Christmas morning.   Despite 12 hours' warning of the cyclone's impending arrival, it fell mainly on deaf ears.   Residents were complacent after a near-miss from Cyclone Selma a few weeks before and distracted by the festive season.   Indeed in the preceding decade, the Bureau of Meteorology had identified 25 cyclones in Northern Territory waters, but few had caused much damage. Severe Tropical Cyclone Tracy was a small but intense system at landfall.   The radius of the galeforce winds extended only 50 kilometers from the eye of the cyclone, making it one of the most miniature tropical cyclones on record, according to the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).   Records show that at least six tropical cyclones had severely impacted Darwin before Tracy.   The worst of these was in January 1897 when a "disastrous hurricane" nearly destroyed the settlement, and 28 people died.   However, unlike Tracy, it is thought this cyclone did not directly pass over Darwin.   And while Tracy was reported as a category four cyclone, some meteorologists today believe it may have been a category five shortly before it made landfall.   At midnight on Christmas Day, wind gusts greater than 100 kilometers or over 62 miles per hour began to be recorded.   The cyclone's center reached East Point at 3:15 a.m. and landed just north of Fannie Bay at 3:30 a.m.   Tracy was so strong it bent a railway signal tower in half.    The city was devastated by the cyclone. At least 90 percent of homes in Darwin were demolished or badly damaged. Forty-five vessels in the harbor were wrecked or damaged.   In addition to the 65 people who died, 145 were admitted to the hospital with serious injuries.   Vegetation was damaged up to 80 kilometers away from the coast, and Darwin felt eerily quiet due to the lack of insect and birdlife.   Within a week after the cyclone hit, more than 30,000 Darwin residents had been evacuated by air or road. That's more than two-thirds of the population at that time.   Cyclone Tracy remains one of Australia's most significant disasters.   As Murphy wrote 10 years after the cyclone: "The impact of Cyclone Tracy has reached far beyond the limits of Darwin itself. All along the tropical coasts of northern Australia and beyond a new cyclone awareness has emerged."   Merry fucking Christmas! Damn, that sucks. The information in this section came from an article on abc.net.au   Next up, we are going way back. The Christmas Flood of 1717 resulted from a northwesterly storm, which hit the coastal area of the Netherlands, Germany, and Scandinavia on Christmas night of 1717. During the night of Christmas, 1717, the coastal regions of the Netherlands, Germany, and Scandinavia were hit by a severe north-western storm. It is estimated that 14,000 people died. It was the worst flood for four centuries and the last significant flood to hit the north of the Netherlands.   In the countryside to the north of the Netherlands, the water level rose up to a few meters. The city of Groningen rose up to a few feet. In the province of Groningen, villages that were situated directly behind the dikes were nearly swept away. Action had to be taken against looters who robbed houses and farms under the fraudulent act of rescuing the flood victims. In total, the flood caused 2,276 casualties in Groningen. 1,455 homes were either destroyed or suffered extensive damage. Most livestock was lost.   The water also poured into Amsterdam and Haarlem and the areas around Dokkum and Stavoren. Over 150 people died in Friesland alone. In addition, large sections of Northern Holland were left underwater and the area around Zwolle and Kampen. In these areas, the flood only caused material damage. In Vlieland, however, the sea poured over the dunes, almost entirely sweeping away the already-damaged village of West-Vlieland.   We also found this report from a German website. It's been translated, so our apologies if it's wonky.    "According to tradition, several days before Christmas, it had blown strong and sustained from the southwest. Shortly after sunset on Christmas Eve, the wind suddenly turned from west to northwest and eased a little. The majority of the residents went to bed unconcerned, because currently was half moon and the next regular flood would not occur until 7 a.m. At the time when the tide was supposed to have been low for a long time, however, a drop in the water level could not be determined. Allegedly between 1 and 2 a.m. the storm began to revive violently accompanied by lightning and thunder. Between 3 and 4 o'clock in the morning the water reached the top of the dike. The current and waves caused the dike caps to break, so that the tide rolled over the dike into the flat land with a loud roar of thunder. Many only had time to save themselves in the dark on the floor under the roof. Most of the time there was not even time to take clothes, drinking water and some food with you. Numerous houses could not withstand the rising water and the current. In the higher and higher water and the increasing current, windows were Doors and entire walls dented. Allegedly the hurricane and the storm surge raged against the coast for three full days, so that it was not until December 28 that the water fell so far that one could come to the aid of one's neighbors with simply built "boats." In many places, the dykes had been razed to the ground, which meant that in lower-lying areas, every regular flood caused renewed flooding. At the places where the dykes were broken, deep valleys, some of which were large, formed. In many places where the dike is led around in a semi-arch, these walls, also known as pools or bracken, are still visible and testify to the force of the water. At that time, many people are said to have believed that the march was forever lost. In the low-lying areas, the water was later covered with ice floes, sometimes held up for months. Up until the summer months, bodies were said to have been found repeatedly during the clean-up work on the alluvial piles of straw and in the trenches. Many people who survived the flood later fell victim to so-called marching fever. New storm surges in the following years ruined the efforts for the first time to get the dike back into a defensible condition, and many houses, which were initially only damaged, have now been completely destroyed. Numerous small owners left the country so that the Hanover government even issued a ban on emigration."   Looks like the Netherlands got a proper Christmas fucking as well! Some towns were so severely destroyed that nothing was left, and they simply ceased to exist. Damn.    Cyclones and floods… What else does mother nature have for us? Well, how's about an earthquake! On Friday, December 26, 2003, at 5:26 a.m., Bam city in Southeastern Iran was jolted by an earthquake registering a 6.5 magnitude on the Richter scale. This was the result of the strike-slip motion of the Bam fault, which runs through this area. The earthquake's epicenter was determined to be approximately six miles southwest of the city. Three more significant aftershocks and many smaller aftershocks were also recorded, the last of which occurred over a month after the main earthquake. To date, official death tolls have 26,271 fatalities, 9000 injured, and 525 still missing. The city of Bam is one of Iran's most ancient cities, dating back to 224A.D. Latest reports and damage estimates are approaching the area of $1.9 billion. A United Nations report estimated that about 90% of the city's buildings were 60%-100% damaged, while the remaining buildings were between 30%-60% damaged. The crazy part about the whole thing… The quake only lasted for about 8 seconds.   Now I know what you're thinking… That's not Christmas… Well, there spanky, the night of the 25th, Christmas, people started to feel minor tremors that would preface the quake, so fuck you, it counts.   We have one more natural disaster for you guys, and this one most of you guys probably remember. And this one was another that started last Christmas night and rolled into the 26th, also known as boxing day. So we're talking about the Boxing Day Tsunami and the Indian ocean earthquake in 2004.    A 9.1-magnitude earthquake—one of the largest ever recorded—ripped through an undersea fault in the Indian Ocean, propelling a massive column of water toward unsuspecting shores. The Boxing Day tsunami would be the deadliest in recorded history, taking a staggering 230,000 lives in a matter of hours.   The city of Banda Aceh on the northern tip of Sumatra was closest to the powerful earthquake's epicenter, and the first waves arrived in just 20 minutes. It's nearly impossible to imagine the 100-foot roiling mountain of water that engulfed the coastal city of 320,000, instantly killing more than 100,000 men, women, and children. Buildings folded like houses of cards, trees, and cars were swept up in the oil-black rapids, and virtually no one caught in the deluge survived.   Thailand was next. With waves traveling 500 mph across the Indian Ocean, the tsunami hit the coastal provinces of Phang Nga and Phuket an hour and a half later. Despite the time-lapse, locals and tourists were utterly unaware of the imminent destruction. Curious beachgoers even wandered out among the oddly receding waves, only to be chased down by a churning wall of water. The death toll in Thailand was nearly 5,400, including 2,000 foreign tourists.   An hour later, on the opposite side of the Indian Ocean, the waves struck the southeastern coast of India near the city of Chennai, pushing debris-choked water kilometers inland and killing more than 10,000 people, primarily women and children, since many of the men were out fishing. But some of the worst devastations were reserved for the island nation of Sri Lanka, where more than 30,000 people were swept away by the waves and hundreds of thousands left homeless.   As proof of the record-breaking strength of the tsunami, the last victims of the Boxing Day disaster perished nearly eight hours later when swelling seas and rogue waves caught swimmers by surprise in South Africa, 5,000 miles from the quake's epicenter.   Vasily Titov is a tsunami researcher and forecaster with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Center for Tsunami Research. He credits the unsparing destructiveness of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami on the raw power of the earthquake that spawned it. The quake originated in a so-called megathrust fault, where heavy oceanic plates subduct beneath lighter continental plates.    "They are the largest faults in the world and they're all underwater," says Titov.   The 2004 quake ruptured a 900-mile stretch along the Indian and Australian plates 31 miles below the ocean floor. Rather than delivering one violent jolt, the earthquake lasted an unrelenting 10 minutes, releasing as much pent-up power as several thousand atomic bombs.   In the process, massive segments of the ocean floor were forced an estimated 30 or 40 meters (up to 130 feet) upward. The effect was like dropping the world's most giant pebble in the Indian Ocean with ripples the size of mountains extending out in all directions.   Titov emphasizes that tsunamis look nothing like the giant surfing break-style waves that many imagine.   "It's a wave, but from the observer's standpoint, you wouldn't recognize it as a wave," Titov says. "It's more like the ocean turns into a white water river and floods everything in its path."   Once caught in the raging waters, the debris will finish the job if the currents don't pull you under.   "In earthquakes, a certain number of people die but many more are injured. It's completely reversed with tsunamis," says Titov. "Almost no injuries, because it's such a difficult disaster to survive."   Holy fuck… That's insane!   Well, there are some crazy natural disasters gifted to us by mother nature. So now let's take a look at some man-made disasters… And there are some bad ones.    First up is the 1953 train wreck on Christmas Eve in New Zealand. So this is actually a mix of mother nature fucking people and a man-made structure failing. This event is also referred to as the Tangiwai disaster. The weather on Christmas Eve was fine, and with little recent rain, no one suspected flooding in the Whangaehu River. The river appeared normal when a goods train crossed the bridge around 7 p.m. What transformed the situation was the sudden release of approximately 2 million cubic meters of water from the crater lake of nearby Mt Ruapehu. A 6-meter-high wave containing water, ice, mud, and rocks surged, tsunami-like, down the Whangaehu River. Sometime between 10.10 and 10.15 p.m., this lahar struck the concrete pylons of the Tangiwai railway bridge.   Traveling at approximately 65 km per hour, locomotive Ka 949 and its train of nine carriages and two vans reached the severely weakened bridge at 10.21 p.m. As the bridge buckled beneath its weight, the engine plunged into the river, taking all five second-class carriages with it. The torrent force destroyed four of these carriages – those inside had little chance of survival.   The leading first-class carriage, Car Z, teetered on the edge of the ruined bridge for a few minutes before breaking free from the remaining three carriages and toppling into the river. It rolled downstream before coming to rest on a bank as the water level fell. Remarkably, 21 of the 22 passengers in this carriage survived. Evidence suggested that the locomotive driver, Charles Parker, had applied the emergency brakes some 200 m from the bridge, which prevented the last three carriages from ending up in the river and saved many lives. Even still, 151 of the 285 passengers and crew died that night in the crash.   This information was taken from nzhistory.gov.    Next up is the Italian Hall disaster.    Before it was called Calumet, the area was known as Red Jacket. And for many, it seemed to be ground zero for the sprawling copper mining operations that absorbed wave after wave of immigrants into the Upper Peninsula.   Red Jacket itself was a company town for the Calumet and Hecla Mining Company, a large firm that in the 1870s was known as the world's largest copper producer. For a time, C&H had the world's deepest copper mines.   But the company wasn't immune from the organized labor push that swept across the Keweenaw Peninsula and other parts of the U.P. in 1913. Miners in Montana and Colorado had unionized, and in July of that year, the Western Federation of Miners called a strike against all Copper Country mines. According to a mining journal published that year, they were pushing for a $3 daily wage, 8-hour days, safer working conditions, and representation.   "The strike took place in a very complicated time in American history," said Jo Holt, a historian with the National Park Service's Keweenaw National Historical Park. "We had all these different things coming together. An increasingly industrialized country was grappling with worker's rights, gender issues, and immigration. We were moving from a gilded age into a progressive era, and recognizing the voice of labor.   "We see this event happen in the midst of that struggle."   "The reason it resonates today is we are still having these conversations. How do we create a just economy that functions for everybody? ... We are still, almost hundred and 10 years later, in the midst of these conversations."   As the strike wore into fall and the holiday season, a women's auxiliary group to the WFM organized a Christmas Eve party for the miners' families at the Italian Benevolent Society building, better known as the Italian Hall.   It was a big, boisterous affair, researchers have said. The multi-story hall was packed, with more than 600 people inside at one point. Children were watching a play and receiving gifts. Organizers later said the crowd was so large that it was hard to track who was coming in the door.   When the false cry of "Fire!" went up, pandemonium reached the sole stairway leading down to the street.   "What happened is when people panicked, they tried to get out through the stairwell," Holt said. "Someone tripped or people started to fall, and that's what created the bottleneck. It was just people falling on top of each other."   The aftermath was horrifying. As the dead were pulled from the pile in the stairwell, the bodies were carried to the town hall, which turned into a makeshift morgue. Some families lost more than one child. Other children were orphaned when their parents died.   One black and white photo in the Michigan Technological University Archives shows rows of what looks like sleeping children lying side-by-side. Their eyes are closed. Their faces were unmarred. The caption reads: "Christmas Eve in the Morgue."   After the dead were buried, some families moved away. Others stayed and kept supporting the strike, which ended the following spring.   Rumors emerged later that the Italian Hall's doors were designed to open inward, preventing the panicked crowd from pushing them outward to the street. Those were debunked, along with the suggestion in Woody Guthrie's "1913 Massacre" song that mining company thugs were holding the doors shut from the outside that night.   Damn… Mostly kids. On Christmas. That's a tough one.   Here's another touchy one. A race riot erupted in Mayfield, Kentucky, just before Christmas 1896. Although slavery in the U.S. ended after the Civil War, the Reconstruction period and beyond was a dangerous time to be black. Things were awful for non-whites in the former Confederacy, amongst which Kentucky was especially bad for racial violence. In December 1896, white vigilantes lynched two black men within 24 hours of each other between the 21st and 22nd, one for a minor disagreement with a white man and the other, Jim Stone, for alleged rape. A note attached to Stone's swinging corpse warned black residents to get out of town.   In response to this unambiguous threat, the local African-American population armed themselves. Rumors spread amongst the town's white people that 250 men were marching on the city, and a state of emergency was called. The whites mobilized, black stores were vandalized, and fighting broke out between the two sides on December 23. In the event, three people were killed, including Will Suet, a black teenager who had just got off the train to spend Christmas with his family. It was all over on Christmas Eve, and a few days later, an uneasy truce between the races was called.   Ugh! Y'all know what time it is? That's right, it's time for some quick hitters.   Many of us enjoy the Christmas period by going to the theatre or watching a movie. In December 1903, Chicago residents were eager to do just that at the brand-new Iroquois Theatre, which had been officially opened only in October that year. 1700 people in all crammed themselves in to see the zany, family-friendly musical comedy, Mr. Bluebeard. But just as the wait was over and the show started, a single spark from a stage light lit the surrounding drapery. The show's star, Eddie Foy, tried to keep things together as Iroquois employees struggled to put the curtains out in vain.   However, even the spectacle of a Windy City-native in drag couldn't stop the terrified crowd stampeding for the few exits. These, preposterously, were concealed by curtains and utterly inadequate in number. When the actors opened their own exit door to escape, a gust of wind sent a fireball through the crowded theatre, meaning that hundreds died before the fire service was even called. 585 people died, either suffocated, burned alive, or crushed. The scene was described in a 1904 account as "worse than that pictured in the mind of Dante in his vision of the inferno". Next up, the politics behind this ghastly event are pretty complicated – one Mexican lecturer described the massacre as "the most complicated case in Mexico" – but here's an inadequate summary. The small and impoverished village of Acteal, Mexico, was home to Las Abejas (the bees'), a religious collective that sympathized with a rebel group opposing the Mexican government. Thus, on December 22, 1997, members of the then-ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party crept down the steep hill slopes above the village. They chose their moment to attack carefully as people gathered at a prayer meeting when they finally slunk into Acteal.   Over the next few hours, assassins armed with guns executed 45 innocent people in cold blood. Amongst the dead were 21 women, some of whom were pregnant, and 15 children. Worst of all, investigations into this cowardly act seem to implicate the government itself. Soldiers garrisoned nearby did not intervene, despite being within earshot of the gunfire and horrified screams. In addition, there was evidence of the crime scene being tampered with by local police and government officials. Though some people have been convicted, there are suspicions that they were framed and that the real culprits remain at large.   -Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house, not a creature was stirring… except the Soviet Union. The Marxist-Leninist Khalq and Parcham parties had ousted the Afghan president in April 1978. Still, communism was so unpopular in Afghanistan that the mujahideen succeeded in toppling them just over a year later. So Khalq and Parcham turned to the Soviet Union for help, and on Christmas Eve that year, they obliged by sending 30,000 troops across the border into Afghanistan by the cover of darkness. Bloody fighting ensued, and soon the Soviet Union had control of the major cities.   The Soviets stayed for nine years, at which time the mujahideen, backed by foreign support and weapons, waged a brutal guerrilla campaign against the invaders. In turn, captured mujahideen were executed, and entire villages and agricultural areas were razed to the ground. When the Soviets finally withdrew in February 1989, over 1 million civilians and almost 125,000 soldiers from both sides were killed. From the turmoil after the Afghan-Soviet War emerged, the Taliban, installed by neighboring Pakistan, and with them Osama bin Laden. This indeed was a black Christmas for the world.   -How about another race riot… No? Well, here you go anyway. Although, this one may be more fucked up. The Agana Race Riot saw black and white US Marines fight it out from Christmas Eve to Boxing Day, 1944. Guam was host to both black and white US Marines in 1944. But instead of fighting the enemy, the white troops elected to turn on the all-black Marine 25th Depot Company. First, the white Marines would stop their fellow soldiers from entering Agana, pelt them with rocks, and shout racist obscenities at them. Then, on Christmas Eve 1944, 9 members of the 25th on official leave were seen talking to local women, and white Marines opened fire on them. Then, on Christmas Day, 2 black soldiers were shot dead by drunken white Marines in separate incidents.   Guam's white Marines were decidedly short on festive cheer and goodwill to all men. Not content with these murders, a white mob attacked an African-American depot on Boxing Day, and a white soldier sustained an injury when the 25th returned fire. Sick of their treatment by their fellow soldiers, 40 black Marines gave chase to the retreating mob in a jeep, but further violence was prevented by a roadblock. Can you guess what happened next? Yep, the black soldiers were charged with unlawful assembly, rioting, and attempted murder, while the white soldiers were left to nurse their aching heads.   One more major one for you guys, and then we'll leave on a kind of happier note. This one's kind of rough. Be warned.    In late December 2008 and into January 2009, the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) brutally killed more than 865 civilians and abducted at least 160 children in the northern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). LRA combatants hacked their victims to death with machetes or axes or crushed their skulls with clubs and heavy sticks. In some of the places where they attacked, few were left alive.   The worst attacks happened 48 hours over Christmas in locations some 160 miles apart in the Daruma, Duru, and Faradje areas of the Haut-Uele district of northern Congo. The LRA waited until the time of Christmas festivities on December 24 and 25 to carry out their devastating attacks, apparently choosing a moment when they would find the maximum number of people altogether. The killings occurred in the Congo and parts of southern Sudan, where similar weapons and tactics were used.   The Christmas massacres in Congo are part of a longstanding practice of horrific atrocities and abuse by the LRA. Before shifting its operations to the Congo in 2006, the LRA was based in Uganda and southern Sudan, where LRA combatants also killed, raped, and abducted thousands of civilians. When the LRA moved to Congo, its combatants initially refrained from targeting Congolese people. Still, in September 2008, the LRA began its first wave of attacks, apparently to punish local communities who had helped LRA defectors to escape. The first wave of attacks in September, together with the Christmas massacres, has led to the deaths of over 1,033 civilians and the abduction of at least 476 children.   LRA killings have not stopped since the Christmas massacres. Human Rights Watch receives regular reports of murders and abductions by the LRA, keeping civilians living in terror. According to the United Nations, over 140,000 people have fled their homes since late December 2008 to seek safety elsewhere. New attacks and the flight of civilians are reported weekly. People are frightened to gather together in some areas, believing that the LRA may choose these moments to strike, as they did with such devastating efficiency over Christmas.   Even by LRA standards, the Christmas massacres in the Congo were ruthless. LRA combatants struck quickly and quietly, surrounding their victims as they ate their Christmas meal in Batande village or gathered for a Christmas day concert in Faradje. In Mabando village, the LRA sought to maximize the death toll by luring their victims to a central place, playing the radio, and forcing their victims to sing songs and call for others to come to join the party. In most attacks, they tied up their victims, stripped them of their clothes, raped the women and girls, and then killed their victims by crushing their skulls. In two cases, the attackers tried to kill three-year-old toddlers by twisting off their heads. The few villagers who survived often did so because their assailants thought they were dead.   Yeah...so there's that. We could go much deeper into this incident, but we think you get the point.    We'll leave you with a story that is pretty bizarre when you stop and think about it. But we'll leave you with this story of an unlikely Christmas get-together. This is the story of the Christmas truce.    British machine gunner Bruce Bairnsfather, later a prominent cartoonist, wrote about it in his memoirs. Like most of his fellow infantrymen of the 1st Battalion of the Royal Warwickshire Regiment, he was spending the holiday eve shivering in the muck, trying to keep warm. He had spent a good part of the past few months fighting the Germans. And now, in a part of Belgium called Bois de Ploegsteert, he was crouched in a trench that stretched just three feet deep by three feet wide, his days and nights marked by an endless cycle of sleeplessness and fear, stale biscuits and cigarettes too wet to light.   "Here I was, in this horrible clay cavity," Bairnsfather wrote, "…miles and miles from home. Cold, wet through and covered with mud." There didn't "seem the slightest chance of leaving—except in an ambulance."   At about 10 p.m., Bairnsfather noticed a noise. "I listened," he recalled. "Away across the field, among the dark shadows beyond, I could hear the murmur of voices." He turned to a fellow soldier in his trench and said, "Do you hear the Boches [Germans] kicking up that racket over there?"   Yes," came the reply. "They've been at it some time!"   The Germans were singing carols, as it was Christmas Eve. In the darkness, some of the British soldiers began to sing back. "Suddenly," Bairnsfather recalled, "we heard a confused shouting from the other side. We all stopped to listen. The shout came again." The voice was from an enemy soldier, speaking in English with a strong German accent. He was saying, "Come over here."   One of the British sergeants answered: "You come half-way. I come half-way."   In the years to come, what happened next would stun the world and make history. Enemy soldiers began to climb nervously out of their trenches and meet in the barbed-wire-filled "No Man's Land" that separated the armies. Typically, the British and Germans communicated across No Man's Land with streaking bullets, with only occasional gentlemanly allowances to collect the dead unmolested. But now, there were handshakes and words of kindness. The soldiers traded songs, tobacco, and wine, joining in a spontaneous holiday party in the cold night. Bairnsfather could not believe his eyes. "Here they were—the actual, practical soldiers of the German army. There was not an atom of hate on either side."   And it wasn't confined to that one battlefield. Starting on Christmas Eve, small pockets of French, German, Belgian, and British troops held impromptu cease-fires across the Western Front, with reports of some on the Eastern Front as well. Some accounts suggest a few of these unofficial truces remained in effect for days.   Descriptions of the Christmas Truce appear in numerous diaries and letters of the time. One British soldier, a rifleman, named J. Reading, wrote a letter home to his wife describing his holiday experience in 1914: "My company happened to be in the firing line on Christmas eve, and it was my turn…to go into a ruined house and remain there until 6:30 on Christmas morning. During the early part of the morning the Germans started singing and shouting, all in good English. They shouted out: 'Are you the Rifle Brigade; have you a spare bottle; if so we will come halfway and you come the other half.'"   "Later on in the day they came towards us," Reading described. "And our chaps went out to meet them…I shook hands with some of them, and they gave us cigarettes and cigars. We did not fire that day, and everything was so quiet it seemed like a dream."   Another British soldier, named John Ferguson, recalled it this way: "Here we were laughing and chatting to men whom only a few hours before we were trying to kill!"   Other diaries and letters describe German soldiers using candles to light Christmas trees around their trenches. One German infantryman described how a British soldier set up a makeshift barbershop, charging Germans a few cigarettes each for a haircut. Other accounts describe vivid scenes of men helping enemy soldiers collect their dead, of which there was plenty.   One British fighter named Ernie Williams later described in an interview his recollection of some makeshift soccer play on what turned out to be an icy pitch: "The ball appeared from somewhere, I don't know where... They made up some goals and one fellow went in goal and then it was just a general kick-about. I should think there were about a couple of hundred taking part."   German Lieutenant Kurt Zehmisch of the 134 Saxons Infantry, a schoolteacher who spoke both English and German, described a pick-up soccer game in his diary, which was discovered in an attic near Leipzig in 1999, written in an archaic German form of shorthand. "Eventually the English brought a soccer ball from their trenches, and pretty soon, a lively game ensued," he wrote. "How marvelously wonderful, yet how strange it was. The English officers felt the same way about it. Thus Christmas, the celebration of Love, managed to bring mortal enemies together as friends for a time."   So much more can be said about this event, but that seems like an excellent place to leave off this Christmas episode! And yes, when you really do stop and think about it… That's a pretty crazy yet fantastic thing.   Greatest disaster movies of all time   https://www.ranker.com/crowdranked-list/the-greatest-disaster-movies-of-all-time

This week Cipha and Rosenberg talk w/ Coney Island's own Nems. Nems is an Artist who has been going strong for 20 years in the Hip Hop game and recently known for his catchphrase "Bing Bong," Side Talk NYC Videos including the infamous viral "Joe Byron Clip" and his "Don't Ever Disrespect Me videos. The guys also talk about so much more on a full extra hour of Patreon! Go check out Nems new album Congo available everywhere now!!For Part II go to Patreon.com/JuanEpIsLife and follow everyone on IG/Twitter @JuanEpIsLife @CiphaSounds @RosenbergRadio @Nems_FYL and @Billyjune88 See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

2021 was a big year in science! Fossil discoveries introduced new relatives to our family tree, new findings added fascinating twists to the human story, and breakthroughs in research methods opened new worlds to explore. In this episode, five scientists discuss their favorite human origins discoveries of 2021. Click here for a transcript of this episode. Our guests: Scott A. Williams, New York UniversityJessica Thompson, Yale UniversityGiulia Gallo, University of California at DavisFernando Villanea, University of Colorado at BoulderErin Kane, Boston University Read more about their top discoveries: Dragon Man Late Middle Pleistocene Harbin cranium represents a new Homo species  Stunning ‘Dragon Man' skull may be an elusive Denisovan—or a new species of human 'Dragon man' claimed as new species of ancient human but doubts remain  SedaDNA Unearthing Neanderthal population history using nuclear and mitochondrial DNA from cave sediments Bacho Kiro Initial Upper Palaeolithic humans in Europe had recent Neanderthal ancestry Early Homo sapiens groups in Europe faced subarctic climates Like Neanderthals, Early Humans Endured a Frigid Europe White Sands footprints Evidence of humans in North America during the Last Glacial Maximum Ancient Footprints Push Back Date of Human Arrival in the Americas National Park Services White Sands Website Camera trap research on Dryas monkeys A natural history of Chlorocebus dryas from camera traps in Lomami National Park and its buffer zone, Democratic Republic of the Congo, with notes on the species status of Cercopithecus salongo  Using local knowledge and camera traps to investigate occurrence and habitat preference of an Endangered primate: the endemic dryas monkey in the Democratic Republic of the Congo- Picture Perfect: Camera Traps Find Endangered Dryas Monkeys  The Leakey Foundation Origin Stories is a project of The Leakey Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to funding human origins research and outreach. This month, thanks to Jorge and Ann Leis and the Ann and Gordon Getty Foundation, all donations will be quadruple-matched. Click here to make a donation! Credits This episode was hosted and produced by Meredith Johnson and Ray Pang. Our editor is Audrey Quinn.  Music by Henry Nagle and Lee Roservere. Additional music by Blue Dot Sessions. Please send us your questions! Have a question about human evolution? Something you've always wondered about? We will find a scientist to answer it on a special episode of Origin Stories! There are three ways to submit your question: Leave a voicemail at +1(707)788-8582 Visit speakpipe.com/originstories and leave a message Record a voice memo on your phone and email it to us at originstories@leakeyfoundation.org Lunch Break Science Lunch Break Science is The Leakey Foundation's web series featuring short talks and interviews with Leakey Foundation grantees. Episodes stream live on the first and third Thursdays of every month. Sign up for event reminders and watch past episodes at leakeyfoundation.org/live

Lisa Congo, who wrote her seminary dissertation on theomachy (wrestling with God), helps Ross and Clay wrap up Job and make sense of of suffering, theodicy and how wrestling with God can grow your faith.You can find Lisa on Twitter at @LisaCongo or at her blog theomachology.wordpress.com 

In the years following the death of the reformer king Osei Kwadwo, the Ashanti Empire once again regressed into a period of political instability. In 1777, two factions vied to place their favorite candidate on the golden stool. The two factions generally fell along lines of class and religion. On the one hand, the entrenched nobility and governmental establishment supported Konadu Yaadom, a politically ambitious woman who acted as the bridge between multiple dynastic families. On the other hand, the emerging class of non-noble bourgeoisie, less entrenched political elites, and Muslims supported the young and Muslim-sympathetic prince of Mampong, Osei Kwame.Support the show (https://patreon.com/historyofafrica)

19 media outlets together with five NGOs in the U.S. and Europe pored through 3.5 million leaked documents from a Gabonese bank to produce Congo Hold-Up, a landmark report that detailed breathtaking corruption in the DR Congo during the presidency of Joseph Kabila in the early 2000s.Chinese entities, including the joint venture mining company Sicomines, were implicated in the findings (although Sicomines denies any allegation of corruption), specifically relating to the dealings of one man, Du Wei.William Clowes and Michael Kavanagh, two senior journalists at Bloomberg News with extensive experience reporting in the DR Congo, were among the journalists who participated in the investigation. They spent six months working on the project and traced the activities of Du and the role he played as a middleman between Chinese corporate actors and power brokers in Kinshasa.William and Michael join Eric & Cobus to discuss their reporting as part of the Congo Hold-Up investigation and the small role that Chinese entities played in this multimillion-dollar corruption scandal.JOIN THE DISCUSSION:CAP on Facebook: www.facebook.com/ChinaAfricaProjectTwitter: @eolander | @stadenesque | @mjkcongo | @wtbclowesJOIN US ON PATREON!Become a CAP Patreon member and get all sorts of cool stuff including our Week in Review report, invitation to join monthly Zoom calls with Eric & Cobus, and even an awesome new CAP Podcast mug!www.patreon.com/chinaafricaprojectSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Cobalt is powering the electric vehicle revolution, but much of the world's supply is mined under deadly conditions in Congo. Journalist Nicolas Niarchos explains Congo's resource curse. Today's show was produced by Will Reid, edited by Matt Collette, engineered by Efim Shapiro, fact-checked by Laura Bullard and hosted by Sean Rameswaram. Transcript at vox.com/todayexplained Support Today, Explained by making a financial contribution to Vox! bit.ly/givepodcasts Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

(Recorded October 4, 2021) Journalist Nicolas Niarchos may be the grandson of a famous Greek shipping magnate, but he can be found covering challenging and dangerous subjects like conflicts, minerals, and migration in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. He is a reporter at large at The New Yorker and a contributor to TIME, The Guardian, The New York Times and The Nation. Niarchos speaks with Alec about his upbringing, his journalistic path and his reporting in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, which exposes exploitation in the cobalt mining industry - and the importance of this crucial element in our global supply chain.  Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.com

This week, our Yahoo News colleague Jana Winter discovered the existence of a secret investigations unit inside the Department of Homeland Security. It was snooping into the private lives of journalists as well as congressional staff members and others. They were pulling phone records, travel records, personal contacts, and much else. All of this under the guise of cultivating them to help with the legitimate government investigation into, of all things, cobalt mining in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. This secret unit launched an initiative called Operation Whistle Pig that targeted journalists. Informally, it called itself W.O.L.F. - way out there in left field. Winter joins us to discuss as well as an ACLU lawyer, Hugh Handeyside, about why this is so alarming.GUESTS:Jana Winter (@janawinter), Investigative Correspondent @YahooNewsHugh Handeyside (@hhandeyside), Senior Staff Attorney, @ACLU National Security ProjectHOSTS:Michael Isikoff (@Isikoff), Chief Investigative Correspondent, Yahoo NewsDaniel Klaidman (@dklaidman), Editor in Chief, Yahoo NewsVictoria Bassetti (@VBass), fellow, Brennan Center for Justice (contributing co-host) RESOURCES:Jana Winter's Operation Whistle Pig story - Here.Rep. Bennie Thompson, House Homeland Security Chair's reaction to story - Here. Follow us on Twitter: @SkullduggeryPodListen and subscribe to "Skullduggery" on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.Email us with feedback, questions or tips: SkullduggeryPod@yahoo.com. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Photo:  A young Ekang scholar.             The Ekang are a group of closely related Bantu ethnic groups located in rain forest regions of Cameroon, Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, and São Tomé and Príncipe.  ..  ..  ..   #AfterAfghanistan: What little we know of the drone targets from Africa to the Arabian Peninsula.   @BillRoggio @ThomasJoscelyn @LongWarJournal  @FDD

A mother struggles with her son's choice to have a religious wedding, a high schooler with a funny name becomes a pole vaulter, a social scientist commutes to war torn countries for work, and a comedian confronts a heckler. Hosted by The Moth's Producing Director, Sarah Austin Jenness. The Moth Radio Hour is produced by The Moth and Jay Allison of Atlantic Public Media. Hosted by: Sarah Austin Jenness Storytellers: Annie Korzen, Richard Matthew, Matthew Dicks, Hari Kondabolu