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The first Ishara open House Challenge .Book 3 in 18 parts, By FinalStand. Listen to the ► Podcast at Explicit Novels.Odd Happenings{8:58 am, Wednesday, Sept. 3rd ~ 5 Days to go; the Final Salvo ~ at this time}I had deposited my Mother in the place I felt was safest for her with OT (Oyuun T m rbaatar) at the Kazakhstan's UN mission. Her being my family was what mattered to them most. I picked her up on my way to work, which made my entrance into the lobby all that much more cataclysmic.I was traveling light with only Wiesława Živa providing me with security. Chaz, Pamela and Juanita were catching up with their sleep, with a promise of taking me out for a late lunch. That was really them telling me to not leave JIKIT until they came for me around 2:00 pm.So anyway, me, Mom and Wiesława walked into the ground floor of the Mil Ma Towers to find eleven people waiting on us. We were in downtown Manhattan in a part of town the NYPD paid particular attention to. What could go wrong, right? Two of the people were Amazons from Havenstone. With them were two fine young men from the US 'don't make me kill you' Department. By this time in my life I was sure they had one which no one talked about.Five of my expectant visitors were of the same mold as those who protected Hana for me. Not the Ghost Tigers that would have put me at ease. Sure, they were a gang of assassin and in this circumstance; I would have preferred them. As it was, ten sets of highly-trained Illuminati operative eyes kept me, my party and the four guardians of JIKIT in their overlapping fields of vision.The last two, were doing an impromptu family reunion. They were Aunts 'X' and 'Y', and neither of them smelled like fish, or crab."Aunt Deidre," I tossed out there. "What brings you here today?"It looked like clobbering time! No. Wait. Neither Mom, nor my aunts, were saying anything and they were normally so verbose."Sibeal.""Imogen.""Sibeal, you are looking surprisingly well for a dead woman," the other one said."Deidre, you are looking surprisingly alive for someone who deserves to be dead," Mom bantered back."How long have you known about this?" Imogen's eyes flickered my way."Not long, a while, more than a day, ah, take your pick," I mumbled. I decided to turn that frown aka 'my gut wrenching terror that my Mother was about to die' upside down aka ramped up my sexy, 'glad to see you in a totally incestuous way'."So, what brings you here today and why aren't you waiting upstairs with the rest of my band of cutthroats, malcontents and ne'er do-wells? Oh, and I'm happy to see both of you." Karma was about to bitch-slap the shit out of me and it was so well deserved."I'm pregnant," Imogen studied my reaction. Yeah, I had banged her after Deidre, but before Baibre because I am a fucking reprehensible human being and sometimes, I feel I am utterly irredeemable."Great news," I exhaled. I so wanted to ask 'so, who is the father?' except that was too cruel, even for an O'Shea.No one stopped me from stepping up and hugging her. Everyone in the lobby had heard her loud and clear. Anyone who knew me, or even about me, knew she wasn't passing on the information because Imogen liked sharing good news. I kept my hands on her hips while I leaned my torso back until we could make eye contact."Does Granddad know?" It occurred to me in that second that Pamela was going to kick herself for missing this and the opportunity to kick me as well."I told him over the phone. His reaction was neutral," she responded."Whoa, girl? Boy? How are you doing? When are we going to sit down and figure out a name? Is there anything I can do for you?""Come home with me," she suggested."No," Mom snapped. "Next time he steps into your custody, we all know you won't let him get away." She meant the plane trip to Ireland."No, Mom," I countered. "I'm a grown man now and I make my own decisions. That being said no, I'm not going home with you.""Not only am I still in love with the concept of my personal freedom, I have important work to do. People are counting on me.""We are counting on you too," Deidre stated. "In fact, that is the other reason we came here. We need you.""Why do I feel that has to do with something besides sex?""Can we talk to you in private?" Imogen requested. There were a thousand and one reasons to say 'no'. Things like 'common sense', bad behavior they had murdered my homicidal uncle and the fact they were as morally twisted as their creator. Oh and they were hot and I hadn't been laid in forever."Sure. Let's go upstairs. You can have your people sweep the room to ensure our privacy then the four of us can sit down and have a family chat," I offered."We don't want her in the room," Deidre indicated Mom."We are a package deal," I denied her. "Like her, or not, she is as much family to me as you both are."They consented far too fast. Either I was falling into their masterful trap, or something horrible had happened. Neither options was palatable to me. The bodyguards departed, Wiesława last of all."What's gone wrong?" Mom preempted me. Her sisters glared."Father's body is not his own," Imogen told us. I was trying to figure out the relevance of that when Mom gasped."Oh fuck," she said in a small voice. "No serum?" Oh yeah, the refinement of those addictive pheromones Grandpa Cáel had gifted me with. Whatever flesh-form he currently inhabited wasn't one containing his genetic make-up meaning,"Oh shit," I mumbled. "What can I do?""Yes," Deidre replied to Mom."Let them die," Mom insisted (to me). Less I forget, she was raised by Grandpa Cáel too. Her being a loving mother to me didn't translate over to her being a humanitarian of any kind."The Hell you say," I jumped up and stared down at Mom. "You hate them. I don't. Letting them die makes me worse than him." Grandpa."So you will help us?" Deidre moved to the edge of her seat."Okay. This is the point where I threaten you into making some concessions, we argue then you eventually cave in because no matter how terrible your futures look, you aren't willing to give up on living. None of that is going to happen. What do you need from me?""Come back with us to Ireland so we can finish our experiments," Imogen joined me in standing. Unwilling to give her sister any physical advantage, Mom stood as well."No. That isn't even a believable lie," I scolded her. "You don't need to blackmail me into helping you. I'll do it gladly. That doesn't mean I'll let you trick me into doing something stupid. I do 'stupid' all the time. I'm accustomed to it and I know it when its ugly head rises up before me. Try again.""We could pick a neutral location," Deidre suggested."How about Havenstone?" They didn't look like that plan was even worthy of their consideration. "Imogen, inside you is growing a possible heir to House Ishara. An attack on you would be an attack on Ishara. Barring you betraying the Amazons, you would be perfectly safe.""Wonderful," Mom's sarcasm dripped off every word. "I'm going to be a grandmother to my nephew while my son is bringing a child into the world that can double as his cousin.""That sound pretty horrible, Mom. It is the truth, but it still sounds pretty terrible."While those words tumbled out of my mouth, I did a little soul back-searching. How in the fuck was outside of the actual fucking was Imogen pregnant? My existence was a freaking fluke of nature. A few words were bandied about the room while I was lost in deductive reasoning and turning hunches into assumptions and turning those into reasonable mystic hypotheses.I created the Mojo-Little Engine that thought it could. Specifically, the legacy of Vranus. Legions of little Vranusian sperm had been jumping hurdle after hurdle to keep the faith alive that Vranus would meet his Ancestors with his mission accomplished. I was already half way there.Still, the legacy of Vranus and the hopes of Dot Ishara hadn't stopped in their struggle just because I had been born. They were still trying to restore the mortal descendants of a Dead House. They were also still spiritually pushing me on to fulfill his last command to save the Arinniti sons.I was halfway there by returning the offspring of Bolu, Vranus' fellow guardian, back to the fold. It remained for me to round up the purpose of the whole mission in the first place. My semen weren't taking a chance that I could get gakked before that was accomplished. Having knocked up an augur despite the toxic soup she called blood should have been a dire warning to me, I'm an idiot.When the curse of Sarrat Irkalli clashed with the actions of Dot Ishara, Ishara had won. Sarrat Irkalli sought to deny Alal any children of his own. Dot was insisting the male line of Vranus Ishara continue on. The end result was Alal received his long-denied grandson, who just happened to also want him dead because of a feud that stretched back over two millennia.As an added insult, his grandson then knocked up one of Alal's genetically manipulated daughters, again giving him something he couldn't accomplish on his own heirs grand-sons and daughters, most who would also want to kill him, being Amazons and members of the 9 Clans after all. Why? Cause Goddesses are bitches, that's why.That got me to wondering when would be the next time I was going to meet Ishara. I hadn't suffered severe head trauma in while and she was overdue for some snuggle time, witty banter and a fortune cookie. I'd try to be careful. It wouldn't do any good, but I had to try."Why are you crying?" Mom touched my arm."No reason," I lied."Why don't we make plans for tonight?" Deidre insinuated herself next to me. "We'd like to meet Hana. From what I understand, Father likes her.""No can-do," I sniffled. "I've got an orgy with 159 women at 8 o'clock, except there won't be any sex, or fun of any kind. Basically, I have to convince a roomful of women to not beat me up and take my stuff.""You don't have to go," Imogen had finished boxing me in I had a chair behind me and Momma-clones all around."For the same reason I'm going to take care of our child, Imogen, I have to go to this meeting. People are counting on me to do the right thing without telling me what the right thing to do is.""That's unfair," Deidre empathized by stroking my chest."Not so. This is just another day in the life of a new hire at Havenstone Commercial Investments. Every day is like this and in five more days, the real fun beings." That wasn't entirely accurate. I had one good, stress-free week. It was when Carrig put me in a coma. That week I had done pretty well for myself.{9:28 am, Wednesday, Sept. 3rd ~ 5 Days to go}I trundled my latest 'Assistant-in-Charge of keeping the hopes of future Isharans alive' (I didn't want to call Aunt Imogen, or any other woman, my 'Baby-Mamma'), along with Mom and Deidre, for a meet-and-greet with Buffy. I had spelled out in no uncertain terms that Buffy was the power behind the Ishara Throne and thus making 'her' believe they were playing on the up-and-up was their best hope for easing relations between the O'Shea and the Amazon Host.After they left me (with the assurance we'd be getting back together for lunch, with Hana), I made three calls. I needed to make a formal request to Katrina (any Illuminati member(s) entering any Amazon facility was her purview) and another to Elsa (as a sign of respect) that Aunt Imogen and two unarmed bodyguards, max, needed to see our medicos about a delicate issue.The third call was to Buffy to enlighten her as to both the arrival of another one of my aunts (so we needed to get along peacefully with her) and that Aunt Imogen was carrying yet another potential heir to House Ishara. I suggested it would be a symbolic gesture if a member of House Ishara could hang around for the visit, as it might impress upon Imogen our House had a vested interest in keeping her alive."Another one?" Buffy sizzled. "And this one is your aunt?""It is a date then," I stumped her."You are going to take your pregnant aunt out on a date?" Buffy's sizzle meter was rapidly climbing to Krakatoa proportions."Nope. I'm setting up a date for us. You, me and a quiet location at 12:01 am Tuesday morning, my First. Later in the morning, I'll be heading out to wherever they have stored Felix so we can work on some cooperative strategy.""And if I say 'no'?" She was terribly grumpy."Ugh, I guess I'll go bar-crawling with Odette and Timothy, Gay and Lesbian bars only. That way I know I'll behave.""And if they say 'no'?" she was slightly less hostile."I'll know you threatened their lives, and then you and I will finally find out who is better on the mats. Trust me, it will not be an experience you will enjoy.""I don't know. I think I'd like that.""No. You start threatening the other people I love and you will not be happy; I guarantee that, Buffy."She realized I was both serious and angry. She had stepped out of bounds, the 'bounds' I had set up two hours earlier during our elevator ride."Is the meeting still on for the night?" she evaded my disappointment."Yes. Will you be there?""Of course," she grumped."Buffy, don't bother showing up if you can't separate 'us' as friends, 'us' as Wakko Ishara and my First, and you as my apprentice."Making me miserable in the first relationship doesn't help the latter two one bit. I try not to be an irresponsible asshole as House Head. More than anyone else, you know what I will sacrifice to be Ishara and one with my Isharans. I'll also step out and be plain ole 'Cáel Nyilas' when events permit.""But I am sick and tired of people not taking my desire to be foolish and care-free seriously. Being a dogmatic ass-hat isn't in me, but if you can't work with that, from here on out we are Wakko Ishara and Buffy Ishara and nothing more. I will still trust you as an Isharan, but not as a friend. Your choice.""Don't be such an asshole!" she snapped."Screw you!" I fired back. "I made a fucking effort to plan out some personal time with you, disguised as a joke; you knew it and you still decided to be a ball-buster. Like I need another fucking ball-buster right now, with all the other shit on my plate. You know better!" I was screaming. The people in JIKIT were working overtime at not staring at me."I'm under a ton of stress here too," she snarled. "I have to deal with the Council, keep our House growing and fulfill my obligations with Executive Services.""Do you want to quit? No longer by my 'apprentice'? Go back to working for Katrina full time?""Really?" she whispered."Of course the fuck not!" I shouted. "I didn't pick you for the job because of your sterling personality, or your bedroom excellence. I picked you because I had, and still have, utter faith in your ability to do whatever is necessary to overcome the landfill-sized colossal ill-fortune the Ancestors have dumped in our lap.""I'm just asking you to stop being a whiny, over-sensitive cunt and remember: it was the psychotic bitch who I chose for the top spot," I rumbled."I'm going to kick your ass," she seethed."Nice to know. We on for Monday night?"Pause."Yes," and she hung up. Two seconds later my phone rang again. "Buffy?" I answered. "And don't be late!" she menaced, then hung up again."So," Addison turned my way, "are you praying for World Peace to break out, or Nuclear War?""Hardy-har-har," I griped."Now that your personal drama is temporarily derailed, we have something for you to look at," Mehmet motioned for my attention. "Ever heard of Kōfuku no Kagaku?" I shook my head. "It translates over as 'Happy Science' and it is a cult-like organization in Japan.""Cool beans. Why do I have a sinking impression it is not a front for the Ninja?""That is what we want you to find out," Addison took over. "Of critical importance is the news conference their leader, Ryuho Okawa, gave earlier this afternoon/morning (~ 3:17 pm Tokyo time = 2:17 am East Coast time ~), especially a very relevant part of his interesting public announcement."He claims to be the Earthly manifestation of the Supreme Being. That is old news. Today he claimed that Temujin of the Khanate was the reincarnation of the original Genghis Khan and, with him, Ryuho, as the unifier of theological forces and therefore serving as spiritual advisor to Temujin, they would usher in a new period of Peace throughout Asia.""I'm waiting for the other shoe to drop," I exhaled."He also claims that Japan is in the midst of an epic struggle, both spiritually and in the physical sense. The 'ancient guardians' of Japanese purity, the 6 Ninja Families, are at war with the depth of all Evil, the Chinese Seven Pillars of Heaven by name, who are determined to drag all of Asia away from the Light and into the Darkness of pain, degradation and slavery."In fact I quote: 'Alone among the nations of the Earth, only the Japanese cultural identity can stand firm against this global menace. Only the Japanese can keep the torch of true Enlightenment aloft. Only the Japanese can guide the development of the Khanate into the Supreme Empire it is meant to be'.""I'm going to go out on a limb here and say this guy is pseudo-religious, a Japanese ultra-nationalist as well as anti 'all things Sino'," came out of my mouth."Correct.""None of the Secret Societies would do something so public. Temujin's background is a mystery, but no one in the Khanate is calling him a reincarnated spirit, and they know the truth," I continued."This guy is pretty nutty," Mehmet confirmed. "He also claims to channel Buddha, Mohammed, Christ and Confucius. His followers worship him as the Earthly manifestation of the 'Supreme Being' named El Cantare, which is yet another name for any number of ancient supreme deities. And he claims to consult with the 'spirit guardians' of national leaders and aids in their mystic defense, with the aid of the Five Sacred Sisters' Spirits."Clearly this man was insane. Unfortunately, insane didn't make someone wrong,"Ah Hell," I muttered.Mehmet and Addison perked up; after all, figuring out the bizarre was my position on the team."He probably is insane, and I can't blame him," I sighed. "He isn't El Cantare; he is in touch with the Weave.""I have a feeling this is 'not good'," Addison murmured. "How bad is it?""The Five Sacred Spirit Sisters are most likely the five augurs who died in order to save Temujin, which, in turn, allies the 9 Clans with the E&S and Amazons to 'save' Japan, though it is not 'saved' yet.""Technically, the Weave IS the Supreme Being. It's largely indifferent, yet capable of doing both good and ill in response to outside (aka mortal) stimuli. If you can observe the Weave, you might be able to see the most likely path destiny is taking as well as the key players screwing with that destiny."That would include the Gong Tau sorcerers and the ninjas use of their own brand of magic; and God only knows what other mystic tricks the others have been attempting.""How do we get them to stop?" Captain Delilah Faircloth muttered."Not that easy Delilah. Everyone in this room has intersected because of a magic experiment that happened before any of us were born (Mom).""The fight at Summer Camp was flipped on its head because I saw the ghost the 7 Pillars sent to scout the area. My freeing of one of those trapped and tortured souls led to the calamity at the Barbeque Pit. I didn't use magic. I countered it. Still, my actions were interfering with the Weave."All four people the augurs, those Five Sisters, told me about had been dead at some point in time, some for thousands of years. Ajax didn't kill anyone using magic. Neither has Saku, yet both of them are products of disruptions in the Weave. 'Me' being alive and breathing is yet another disruption, since I shouldn't exist because of another mystic curse from five thousand years ago."Being alive and killing people means I've killed people who shouldn't be dead. Do we need to go into all the millions that have died in the Khanate war? Which was a combination of a resurrected Temujin and the 7 Pillars hunger for World Domination, if we do nothing, the rippled of those other disruption will still carry on."Except for me, no one on this taskforce has used an iota of magic, yet we are all dedicated to combatting mystical forces," I related to the group. I wondered where Rikki (Martin) and Beatrice (Ya Konan) had gotten off to. Lady Yum-Yum being absent only made my 'Scooby' senses tingle more."You use magic?" Agent-86 tilted his head in curiosity."I talk to a Goddess on a semi-regular business. I see ghosts. I've been the conveyer of messages from dead people and I've killed an un-killable man. Do we need to go back over my kidnapping by the 7 Pillars? The memories of my undead Grandfather floating around in my head?""I'm not calling thunderbolts out of the sky and shooting fireballs out my ass, but what I am doing is magical, nonetheless.""So, what do we recommend to our allies and benefactors (i.e., our sovereign governments)?" Mehmet inquired."Hmm, we tell our governments this crackpot is a Prophet of Doom who could be turned into an asset," I rubbed my brow with all four fingers and a thumb. Rikki, Beatrice and Lady Worthington-Burke quietly entered the room. They were all highly pleased in a 'I just won the lottery' kind of way. I was curious, but had to carry on with my train of thought."Quietly start seeking out other mystic societies, preferably low-key, quiet types who avoid the limelight, and start looking into other forms of magical insight and, quite frankly, protection. If the Weave has let this happen, we can expect worse. Lastly, I'll ask my 'Brother' to meet with this guy and get a feel for his personality.""That will only increase the believability of his ramblings," Addison protested."The boat called 'Denial' has already sailed. The World is in crisis. People are going to look for non-conventional answers. It is better to get ahead of this and bring Ryuho Okawa on board as a 'consultant'. Don't give him the whole picture by any means. The guy is definitely a loose cannon. Even worse, he is also a loose cannon the Weave has touched.""Besides, the Seven Pillars are going to figure this out pretty quick, their Weave sensitivity, ya know, and either kidnap him to be their own spiritual seismic sensor, or kill him for being both a loose cannon and yet another person screwing with their 'best laid plans'. Keeping him alive has the added benefit of making the Seven Pillars expend resources trying to get at him. Japan needs every bit diversion they can get."Let's not forget to tell our Secret Society allies of our plans, lest they kill him too. His babblings aren't going to make the 9 Clans or the E&S happy with him. They both have an established habit of making perceived enemies dead. Let's keep him alive and utilize this opportunity.""I like this plan," Addison nodded. Mehmet was clearly on board as well. Agent-86 clearly was playing the best on-line mystic MMORPG ever! (And with the added bonus that his team's action had real-world consequences.) The three 'ladies' new to the room received an abbreviated version of our discussion and my 'suggestions'. They weren't really suggestions. Barring a few insanely criminal endeavors, JIKIT treated me like a true asset."Something else big?" Addison looked to her British counterpart (Yum-Yum)."The Japanese Diet has voted for a public referendum on a Constitutional Amendment to repeal/revise Article 96 of the Japanese Constitution.""Oh fuck," was echoed, either verbally or subliminally, by everyone in the room except for me, Delilah and Agent-86.'Cáel' knew Jack and Shit about the Japanese Constitution. Hell, I barely knew about the US one and I was a native. However, Alal did know it, and knew both what Article 96 was and what its amendment really meant. Good-old 96 was the rolling dark cloud across the political Great Plains that heralded a swarm of tornados. Clouds were clouds and their arrival could mean anything.Article 96 dictated how the Japanese Constitution could be amended. The current process was a 2/3rd vote in both the House of Councilors (the 'Upper House', roughly equivalent to our Senate) and the House of Representatives (the 'Lower' House) followed by a public referendum. The proposed amendment to Article 96 would transform the process to a mere majority vote in both Houses.Imagine the shit-storm which would be unleashed if the US Congress tried to pull that shit. The biggest political issue was that the Japanese Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) held 294 of the 475 seats in the lower house (a clear majority) and 115 of the 242 in the Upper House (7 seats short of a majority). If the amendment passed next month (October 14th to be precise), the LDP could pretty much do as they pleased.And what was the first thing they were going to do? They were going to put to rest another part of the Constitution, namely the far more globally important Article 9. And what was that?Real World Stuff: WarningsArticle 9:(1)Aspiring sincerely to an international peace based on justice and order, the Japanese people forever renounce war as a sovereign right of the nation and the threat or use of force as means of settling international disputes.(2)To accomplish the aim of the preceding paragraph, land, sea, and air forces, as well as other war potential, will never be maintained. The right of belligerency of the state will not be recognized.If Article 9 was repealed, the Japanese nation could exercise diplomacy by military means, aka declaring an offensive war against a foreign power. Currently Japan had a modest budget military budget of $48 Billion a year (Earth's 10th largest). It was modest when you considered it was a mere 1% of the Japanese GDP. Great Britain, France and South Korea's smaller economies all functioned nicely with double that percentage for their military budget.Regionally, every other nation was increasing their military expenditures, except Japan's protector, the US and (perhaps) North Korea, who's spending on anything was a closely guarded state secret. Right now, China and the Khanate's military expenditures were running roughly even at $180 billion each, but this was an arm's race the PRC would eventually win, they had too great an advantage in the size of their workforce and a far larger industrial base.The truth was, if the PRC couldn't win this race fast, she was facing a long, grinding war reminiscent of the Communists' Long Rise to Power that wrecked their country a century ago. The monetary dynamic was shifting badly against them because the Khanate wasn't alone.India, Taiwan and Vietnam were also ramping up their war spending to a combined tune of $34 billion and now allied with the Khanate, equating to an additional $90 billion the PRC had to overcome. South Korea was already adding $8 billion to their military and Russia was taxing the fuck out of Manchuria to both pay for their 'Peaceful Intervention' and to increase the 'Readiness' of their other forces.All of this military spending was bad for both the regional and global economies (unless you were Israel who was turning out hardware 24/7/365 for the Khanate and Indian war machines). So at this point, Japan doing 'nothing' was possibly more disastrous than doing 'something' else.They were already spending $50 fucking billion on glorified policemen while the future of East Asia was being decided without them. Doubling the military budget would place a huge burden on the largely pacifistic population. It would also put Japan in the position of deciding the Fate of Nations.With the repeal of Article 9, Japan could utilize 'proactive means' to keep the naval supply routes to China open, not even the Indian's had the naval presence to confront the Japanese. Such a policy was a nice, friendly gesture to the Asian Colossus, who wasn't likely to show a shred of appreciation for their efforts.No, China had spent the last 60 years stoking the hatred of the Land of the Rising Sun among their people. (Many Japanese forgot current Chinese hatred was based on the Japanese butchering their way across China for nearly a decade between 1937 to 1945).(The Cornerstone) There was a truism which had guided American, Chinese, Japanese and Russian political thought for 150 years: 'There could only be one supreme power in East Asia and the Eastern Pacific'. Japan had followed the logical expression of that paradigm by invading Taiwan (1895), Korea (1910), beating up on Imperial Russia (1904), taking Manchuria (1931) and going to war with China (1937) while that country was trapped in a bloody civil war.To stop the Empire of Japan's rise, the US had attempted to cripple the Japanese economy before the Empire could harvest their just-acquired Asian natural resources. In response, Japan had thrown its soldiers and sailors into a futile effort against the British Empire, the United States and China and lost.With Imperial Japan crushed and the Soviet Union preoccupied in Europe, China had risen. The irresistible force of China's rapidly increasing population, natural resources exploitation and extensive land mass took hold. Japan couldn't compete in a 'fair' fight. Since 1945, the Japanese government had lived with the fear of aggression from Russia and/or China aimed their way.The US felt the same way, or they had. The fear produced by the broad acceptance of 'Only-One-Shall-Rule-Asia' had led to the Korean War, the half-century cease-fire along the Demilitarized Zone in Korea and the Vietnamese Civil War. The Communists in China and Russia had feuded until the Soviet Union collapsed under its own economic inadequacies.A reborn Russia, even with the ultra-nationalist Putin at the helm, couldn't stop China's growing domination. Asia was China's for the taking, until the Khanate rose up like some desert mirage in the Western Steppe, one that turned into the Mother of All Storms. So now, miraculously, the dominion of Asia was up for grabs once more.Japan could not overcome China; that was a given. The Dragon had more people, more resources and an almost three-fold larger economy. Given a decade, the PRC would grind the Khanate down. Once more it was the tyranny of numbers. Even India, Taiwan and Vietnam could only slow down the inevitable.India's subpar economic output marginalized the power of their citizenry. Taiwan had the proportional economy, but not nearly enough people. Vietnam had neither and had always had a rough time defending themselves, much less been successful confronting powers beyond her homeland. Putin's Mother Russia had a host of other problems, internal and external, so she had already contributed as much as Putin dared.Until Thursday morning, Tokyo Time, the undeniable Destiny of Asia remained in the hands of those men in Beijing. The dominoes were falling in a way those rulers had not foreseen and now fumed over. But on Wednesday night, there was no industrial power (with the population to back it up) which could threaten the People's Republic of China.Europe and the US wouldn't intervene. Much like the leadership in Japan, the Communist Chinese Politburo believed Putin had wagered as much as dared. No other nation on Earth mattered. Japan? That was laughable. Their Constitution bound the hands off their military behind their backs with a pledge of eternal pacifism.The Chinese weren't blind to the 250,000 men and women of the Japanese Self Defense Force. Without the political will, those troops might have well have been in Brazil. A hostile Brazil was actually a greater worry because Brazil was the powerhouse of South America, a G-8 economy and hungered for a Permanent Seat on the UN Security Council. The PRC was dedicated to denying their desire as it would have diluted the PRC's burgeoning diplomatic power.Japan? Ha.Thursday morning, in what was essentially an undetected (by anyone except the Ninja and JIKIT) coup d' tat, pacifism was sacrificed on the Altar of Nationalism. Article 96's demise was pre-ordained. A poll taken on July 1st, 42% of Japanese felt positively about the repeal of Article 96 while 46% opposed it.The same agency took a new poll on August 28th. The economic-political situation of Japan was going through a titanic tidal shift. If Buddhism moved you toward devout pacifist, the Khanate had liberated Tibet and was clearly withdrawing as the UN troops' boots hit the ground.If you were a Nationalist of any kind, you were seeing a whole lot more people at your rallies, accessing your websites and signing up to join your formerly fringe parties. If you were a Socialist, you were scared. Why? The PRC was in the process of nationalizing all of Japan's (and South Korea's and Taiwan's) business interests in China, for the 'Duration of the Emergency', or so they said.That meant plenty of Japanese workers were losing their jobs and looking to blame someone. You couldn't blame the centrist LDP. The LDP had been working alongside the Japanese Communist Party for months. They had done nothing wrong and had worked tirelessly for a peaceful diplomatic solution. It was their 'comrades' in China, their Marxist confederates, who were costing the hard-working Japanese workers their jobs.If you were in the Establishment, all of the above worried the crap out of you. Japan's economy had been limping along at barely-positive growth for a decade. Your aging population needed more and more from their public services and, worst of all, you had nothing in your political and economic tool box to escape the obvious oncoming national catastrophe.The possibility of a Global Recession loomed on the horizon, if they were lucky. Highly respected economists in Japan and elsewhere were examining all the key indicators over the past three months and were suggesting hording as a viable policy for middle class households to consider. If you were in the Developing World, worse was heading your way.The word being bandied about on those esteemed academic internet websites wasn't 'recession', it was depression. Global prosperity thrived on nations investing in both their own economy and the economies of other nations. The governments representing a third of the World's population were not investing in their economies.Unless you were a war profiteer, you could expect fewer consumer goods on the shelves; and what was there would cost more. Your income wasn't going up; your expenses were. If you were an Atheistic homeowner in the Western World with a secured 3.25% fixed rate home loan, you took up religion. The prime interest rate would be racing for the 20% mark and that was only if your economy was stable.If you lived in a country in the Developing World, your trade goods didn't compete with those created in the G-20. Your competition was with other Developing World businesses and the prize was the pocketbooks of those consumers in the G-20, which was a shrinking purse.It wasn't like you were being paid all that much to begin with; and now those once poor-paying, but at least plentiful, jobs were drying up. You needed your government to help you out. It wasn't like those governments could raise money by taxing the unemployed and under-employed. They didn't have money. And the rich in most of those same nations had a long and successful legacy of avoiding paying.Those growing economies had a few tried and tested 'solutions' for getting their countries through these rough stretches.The IMF? 'We are out to make 'positive' capital investments and your economic outlook doesn't look promising. We suggest 'austerity'.'The BRICS? Since India and China were basically in an undeclared state of war: 'we won't be loaning anyone anything for a while.'The BIS? 'As soon as the People' Bank of China, the Reserve Bank of India, the Central Bank of Ireland, the Bank of Israel and the Central Bank of the Republic of Turkey get back to us about their sudden, serious lack of transparency, we'll call you back.'World Bank? Holy Shit! 'The world's going down the toilet, we will do what we can.'F Y I, I (as in Cáel) had been wrong. The 6 Elders of the Ninja families didn't talk to Japanese Prime Minister, Shinzō Awbee. They talked with another, far more immediately important man. So sue me (Cáel) for not knowing the inner workings of various world governments, and creatively interpreting events surrounding all those people I (Cáel) didn't. I'm a freaking Liberal Arts major with a fertile imagination, not a superspy, or even a competent Intelligence Analyst!}The Japanese government had appealed to the U.S., U.N., P.R.C., A.S.E.A.N., India; and (through back channels aka JIKIT) the Khanate for an end to this madness; all with typical results:The U.S.A: We are working on it (without letting them know what precisely they were working on)Japan: Well, do something fast. Our Government Bonds are about to be more useful as wallpaper.The U.N.: We are working on it (with their long-established tradition of not doing anything until the crisis had passed)Japan: You are preparing to pass a Resolution to move this matter from the First Committee to the Fourth Committee, gee, thanks guys. Will they be meeting sometime before Christmas?The PRC: We are too busy right now, so shut up, keep the trade lanes open, and was that your submarine we detected sneaking into our territorial waters?Japan: What? What do you mean you are 'too busy?' You are one of our biggest trading partners, your economy is going down the toilet, and, No! That was not our submarine in your territorial waters. That accusation is absurd.(Note from Japanese Prime Minister, Shinzō Awbee, to Admiral Katsutoshi Kawano, head of the JMSDF {the de facto Japanese Navy}), The PRC has made this outrageous claim that one of our submarines has been sneaking around their territorial waters. There is no truth to that rumor, right?Kawano: Which time?Prime Minister: Oh My God! What have you people been doing and why is this the first time I'm hearing about it?Kawano: Sir, if you are just now getting around to asking us, you don't want to know.Prime Minister: What do you mean 'I don't want to know?' I'm the head of the damn government and, you are right. Fine. There is no way I'm going back to the Chinese Ambassador and apologizing for any this. Is there any way this can come back to screw us over?Kawano: With all these US and British submarines helping us out, not very likely, Prime Minister.Prime Minister: Oh, very good. You are correct, I don't want to know what you 'haven't' been doing. I am ordering you to destroy all transcripts and recordings of this conversation.Kawano: It has been my distinct honor not having this conversation with you, Prime Minister. Sayōnara.ASEAN, What do you expect us to do about this? Have you seen the unimpressive combined sizes of our members' air forces and navies? Did you see the smack-down the Khanate has inflicted on the PLAN's South China Sea Fleet?Besides, the PRC is claiming that the Khanate launched covert attacks against the Parcels and Spratly islands which originated from Indonesian and Filipino waters. We are investigating the issue. If you are asking us for help, you are truly screwed. Don't call us. We will call you.Japan, {muttering} Investigating the attacks that came from your territory, bullshit! You are covering your own asses, damn it!(Note from Prime Minister, Shinzō Awbee, to Shotaro Yachi, Japanese National Security Advisor), I've heard an ugly rumor that the Khanate has forces secreted in the Philippines and Indonesia. Do you happen to know anything about it?Yachi: Yes Sir. We had advance notice of the organization, composition and destination of those forces.Awbee (while muttering 'no one tells me anything anymore'): What the! Would you please tell me what is going on.Yachi: We have made critical steps toward future alliances which will guarantee Japanese security for decades to come.Awbee What does that mean, and since when have you been creating and implementing foreign policy? We have a Minister for that, in case you somehow over-looked him at the last cabinet meeting. Wait! Does he know about this too?Yachi: No Sir, Foreign Minister Kishida is currently unaware of the Kinkyū tokushu sakusen tasukufōsu (Emergency Special Operations Task Force). Admiral Katsutoshi knows the basics of our operational policy, since we need to borrow some of his assets from time to time. Director-General Kitada (of the Public Security Intelligence Agency) and key personnel from the Foreign Ministry's Intelligence & Analysis Service and Security Bureau make up the majority of the task force's operatives.Awbee: What have you been doing?Yachi: You don't want to know, Mr. Prime Minister. It would make things, awkward.Awbee: 'You don't want to know', of course, I don't. I'm only the elected head of this government. Why would I possibly want to know what acts of espionage and war my deputies are executing?Yachi: I am glad we are on the same page, Sir. Will there be anything else?Awbee: No, wait. Do you have any intelligence on what the Khanate is up to?Yachi: Yes Sir. Is there anything in particular you want to know?Analysis Services: Can you contact someone in their leadership willing to discuss regional affairs?Yachi: I can put you in touch with the Great Khan himself if necessary.AS: What!Yachi: Sir, I would hardly be acting in our nation's best interests if I couldn't divine the intentions of the key players on the stage. Shall I initiate the necessary communications to facilitate that level of clandestine diplomatic contact?AS: No. Yes. No, I need to think about this. Hmm, have you been conducting any domestic espionage missions?Yachi: You don't want me to answer that, Sir.Awbee: of course I don't, I'm only the damn Prime Minister. Shotaro, I'm still Prime Minister, aren't I?Yachi: Yes Sir. We have been working overtime to ensure that. We've foiled two enemy assassination attempts and one attempted kidnapping so far. We remain vigilant.AS: How come this is the first I'm hearing about it? Is the head of my security in on this conspiracy of yours too?Yachi: No Sir. These particular guardians wish to avoid notoriety at all costs.Awbee: Okay. Good to know. Ah, keep up the good work and destroy any trace of this conversation.Yachi: Way ahead of you, Sir. Have a good night.India, Yes, we are more than willing to work with you toward regional stability. Care to acknowledge the Khanate's legitimacy first? We'd really appreciate it. Sure, get back to us when you've done that. Until then, the South China Sea Awaits! Yes, we plan to keep what we've earned. Later now. We think there is going to be further instability in Southeast Asia.Japan, Ya think? It is your damn warships sailing around the freaking South China Sea enforcing your utterly un-secret alliance with the Khanate. Why are you doing this to us? What have we ever done to you?The Khanate, We are not out to damage your national interests. We apologize, but there is now way we will call off this war with the Communist Chinese. It is them, or us, to the death. We have already received and agreed to your request to allow all Japanese flagged ships safe transit through the South China Sea. We really wish to be your friends this time, to make up for those two invasion attempts seven hundred years ago.(Note from Prime Minister to Self) Great. The only reasonable people who aren't out to kick me in the nuts are also the ones I can't acknowledge talking to. I've got to do something a
Author of six Science Fiction action adventure novels, Marc Neuffer, an avid reader of this genre since the early 1960s, uses his extensive science and engineering background to pen novels of future time and space with plausible science as a backdrop for his imaginative stories built around normal characters. Before becoming an author, Marc spent 20 years roaming the world with the U.S. Navy as a nuclear propulsion engineer visiting sixteen countries in Europe, Down Under, Asia, Eastern Pacific, Indian Ocean, and the Mediterranean. After retiring a second time, he started writing fun-read science fiction novels. In retirement, with nothing else left on his bucket list, he dreams of future things to come. Music by Gioele Fazzeri from Pixabay --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/untold-tales/support
Rushan Abbas is a Uyghur American activist and advocate from the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region in China. She is the founder and executive director of the nonprofit Campaign for Uyghurs. Abbas became one of the most prominent Uyghur voices in international activism following her sister's detainment by the Chinese government in 2018. She testified in 2019 before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in regard to the emergence of concentration camps in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, and the threat of Chinese power in the Eastern Pacific. She has also testified before the House of Representatives on international religious persecution, forced labor, and human rights abuses as they relate to Uyghurs.
Litton House - Sequestering himself to finish his latest novel, Thomas Becket learns what the mind can conceive leads to limits unfathomable. In his search for certainty, he encounters a kaleidoscope of people and places. Another great story by Marc Neuffer! Author of six Science Fiction action adventure novels, Marc Neuffer, an avid reader of this genre since the early 1960s, uses his extensive science and engineering background to pen novels of future time and space with plausible science as a backdrop for his imaginative stories built around normal characters. Before becoming an author, Marc spent 20 years roaming the world with the U.S. Navy as a nuclear propulsion engineer visiting sixteen countries in Europe, Down Under, Asia, Eastern Pacific, Indian Ocean, and the Mediterranean. After retiring a second time, he started writing fun-read science fiction novels. In retirement, with nothing else left on his bucket list, he dreams of future things to come. Amazon Author Page: https://www.amazon.com/Marc-Neuffer/e/B07S7M48J4 We hope you enjoy this story by our own Dr. Jeffrey A. Robinson. We love our listeners, fans and patrons! If you loved what you heard, please consider leaving us a 5-star review and and subscribe to our audio anthology on Apple Podcasts at https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/untold-tales/id1515168571 ! You can also peruse our website at untold-tales.com for LOTS of cool stuff, including our blog, merch, and more! Music by Gioele Fazzeri from Pixabay --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/untold-tales/support
Chance Choices - When humans realize they may go extinct, one choice is to create a new version not affected by the Primate Reproduction Virus, an artificial species that is better in all respects but one. Enjoy our newest story by Marc Neuffer! Author of six Science Fiction action adventure novels, Marc Neuffer, an avid reader of this genre since the early 1960s, uses his extensive science and engineering background to pen novels of future time and space with plausible science as a backdrop for his imaginative stories built around normal characters. Before becoming an author, Marc spent 20 years roaming the world with the U.S. Navy as a nuclear propulsion engineer visiting sixteen countries in Europe, Down Under, Asia, Eastern Pacific, Indian Ocean, and the Mediterranean. After retiring a second time, he started writing fun-read science fiction novels. In retirement, with nothing else left on his bucket list, he dreams of future things to come. Amazon Author Page: https://www.amazon.com/Marc-Neuffer/e/B07S7M48J4 We hope you enjoy this story by our own Dr. Jeffrey A. Robinson. We love our listeners, fans and patrons! If you loved what you heard, please consider leaving us a 5-star review and and subscribe to our audio anthology on Apple Podcasts at https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/untold-tales/id1515168571 ! You can also peruse our website at untold-tales.com for LOTS of cool stuff, including our blog, merch, and more! Music by HookSounds https://www.hooksounds.com --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/untold-tales/support
Did you know that farmed fish is healthier than wild-caught? In this episode, we explore the complex world of seafood, beginning with the challenges facing our current supply within the industry, we discuss why wild-caught seafood isn't always the healthiest option and highlight the innovative approaches taken by extensive farmers in fish farming and aquaculture. Learn more as we are guided by guest, James Arthur Smith in today's episode on Seatopia. Meet our guest James Arthur Smith is a dedicated surfer, yachtsman, and the founder of Seatopia. He has spent the last eight years immersing himself in the aquaculture industry by personally visiting farms, eating the feed the fish eat, diving under the grow-out pens, and testing the harvested products in the lab. His passion for the ocean led him to live aboard a sailboat for ten years, sailing the Eastern Pacific coastline from San Francisco, California, to Ecuador and the Galapagos Islands. James is on a mission to deliver the best certified clean seafood to you which will grow a sustainable aquaculture seafood supply chain and help heal the blue planet. Thank you to our partners Outliyr Biohacker's Peak Performance Shop: get exclusive discounts on cutting-edge health, wellness, & performance gear Ultimate Health Optimization Deals: a roundup article of all the best current deals on technology, supplements, systems and more Gain mental clarity, energy, motivation, and focus with the FREE Outliyr Nootropics Mini-Course The simple, guided, and actionable Outliyr Longevity Challenge helps you unlock your longevity potential, slow biological aging, and maximize your healthspan Key takeaways What you eat changes your biological makeup & how your body works. But it's not just what you eat; it's what your food eats as well Mercury in the oceans is up over 300% Unless you're raising fish in a controlled environment & controlling the feed, it's very difficult to have a predictable outcome that doesn't involve bioaccumulation There are outliers in terrestrial farming, in both cattle & chicken farming Data is empowering us to make better decisions Episode Highlights 06:12 The reason you're not getting the same seafood anymore 8:59 Why wild-caught seafood isn't always healthier 22:18 The reality of the fishing industry 29:10 How farms are transitioning traditional practices to extensive farming 50:02 Easy action steps to take when buying seafood to get the best quality Links Watch it on YouTube: https://youtu.be/fIBFqAkKud4 Full episode show notes: mindbodypeak.com/165 Connect with Nick on social media Instagram Twitter YouTube LinkedIn Easy ways to support Subscribe Leave an Apple Podcast review Suggest a guest Do you have questions, thoughts, or feedback for us? Let me know in the show notes above and one of us will get back to you! Be an Outliyr, Nick
Old Friends - Wednesday means coffee and crullers for retired writers and old friends Reynolds and Peters. They'd been fierce competitors for decades before yielding the game to younger talents. Now they want to go out with a journalistic bang. They don't know it yet, but all they need is a special computer. That and Holiday, an attractive, vivacious young blonde, to move into the building. By the Untold Tales Author of Episode 46 - Night Cap, Episode 50 - Gorlak, and Episode 107 - Blue Sky, enjoy our newest story by Marc Neuffer! Author of six Science Fiction action adventure novels, Marc Neuffer, an avid reader of this genre since the early 1960s, uses his extensive science and engineering background to pen novels of future time and space with plausible science as a backdrop for his imaginative stories built around normal characters. Before becoming an author, Marc spent 20 years roaming the world with the U.S. Navy as a nuclear propulsion engineer visiting sixteen countries in Europe, Down Under, Asia, Eastern Pacific, Indian Ocean, and the Mediterranean. After retiring a second time, he started writing fun-read science fiction novels. In retirement, with nothing else left on his bucket list, he dreams of future things to come. Amazon Author Page: https://www.amazon.com/Marc-Neuffer/e/B07S7M48J4 We hope you enjoy this story by our own Dr. Jeffrey A. Robinson. We love our listeners, fans and patrons! If you loved what you heard, please consider leaving us a 5-star review and and subscribe to our audio anthology on Apple Podcasts at https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/untold-tales/id1515168571 ! You can also peruse our website at untold-tales.com for LOTS of cool stuff, including our blog, merch, and more! Music by HookSounds https://www.hooksounds.com --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/untold-tales/support
Guest: Dr. Falko Judt, Research Meteorologist at NCARIn tropical meteorology, the term ‘rapid intensification' describes a tropical cyclone that does just that: it rapidly intensifies. The official definition is a tropical system whose maximum sustained winds increase by at least 35 mph in a 24-hour period. Sometimes though, it's much more intense. In 2023, Hurricane Otis in the Eastern Pacific saw its winds increase by 115 mph in less than 24 hours before slamming into Mexico as a rare Category 5 storm, while Hurricane Idalia intensified by 55 mph from a tropical storm to a Category 5 hurricane in the day before making landfall in Florida's Big Bend. The ‘how' and ‘why' some storms rapidly intensify is still shrouded in a bit of mystery. Here today to help us unveil a bit of that, we welcome Falko Judt, a research meteorologist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Heavy rain and heavy mountain snow in California continue throughtomorrow before subsiding.Warming trend expected to expand from the Great Plains into the Midwestthrough midweek.Critical Fire Weather day over portions of the Southern Plains onWednesday.The main area of unsettled weather through the next 24 hours remains overCalifornia as showers and thunderstorms stream inland associated with adeep upper-trough and atmospheric river. Southern California is once again"under the gun" for numerous instances of flash flooding as the main bandof atmospheric river rainfall focuses through the overnight hours there.Given the combination of saturated soils from previous rainfall andperiods of high rainfall rates approaching 1"/hour, a Moderate Risk ofExcessive Rainfall is in effect for Los Angeles and northern San Diegocounties through tomorrow morning. Outside of these areas, a broaderSlight Risk area (level 2/4) extends from Humboldt County down to SanDiego, as well as the Sacramento Valley and adjacent upslope areas of theSierra where scattered flash flooding is possible. In the mountains, anadditional 6-12 inches of snowfall are expected for the Sierra, while12-18 inches are likely over the Shasta Siskiyous today. East of theSierra, the influx of Eastern Pacific moisture combined with falling snowlevels will support moderate to heavy snow over the Intermountain Westwhere generally between 6-12 inches of snow can be expected. This snowfallis likely to continue into Wednesday and expand in coverage into theCentral Rockies.East of the Continental Divide, widespread unseasonable warmth willprevail through the work week as all of the cold Polar air remainsconfined over Canada. This warm weather combined with dry, windyconditions behind a cold front and dryline supports a Critical (level 2/3)fire weather threat over portions of the Southern Plains tomorrowaccording to the Storm Prediction Center. By Thursday, a developing waveof low-pressure along a cold front will yield widespread showers andthunderstorms over the Ohio Valley, which could lead to isolated instancesof flash flooding.
Blue Sky: Casey, a harvester of the dead zones, has never seen the blue sky or ventured from the underground core. Few had, and even fewer returned in the nine generations since the crush, the crunch, the collapse. She returns, carrying older tech to help keep a diminishing population alive and to earn her place in the food lines. Can she survive the zone's suddenly more active automated mechanical hunter-killers? Can she survive her boss, Mitch? By the Untold Tales Author of Episode 46 - Night Cap and Episode 50 - Gorlak, enjoy our newest story by Marc Neuffer! Author of six Science Fiction action adventure novels, Marc Neuffer, an avid reader of this genre since the early 1960s, uses his extensive science and engineering background to pen novels of future time and space with plausible science as a backdrop for his imaginative stories built around normal characters. Before becoming an author, Marc spent 20 years roaming the world with the U.S. Navy as a nuclear propulsion engineer visiting sixteen countries in Europe, Down Under, Asia, Eastern Pacific, Indian Ocean, and the Mediterranean. After retiring a second time, he started writing fun-read science fiction novels. In retirement, with nothing else left on his bucket list, he dreams of future things to come. Amazon Author Page: https://www.amazon.com/Marc-Neuffer/e/B07S7M48J4 We hope you enjoy this story by our own Dr. Jeffrey A. Robinson. We love our listeners, fans and patrons! If you loved what you heard, please consider leaving us a 5-star review and and subscribe to our audio anthology on Apple Podcasts at https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/untold-tales/id1515168571 ! You can also peruse our website at untold-tales.com for LOTS of cool stuff, including our blog, merch, and more! Music by HookSounds https://www.hooksounds.com --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/untold-tales/support
Host Jen Carfagno with Guest Dr. Greg PostelWith a raging El Nino in effect, the Eastern Pacific hurricane season was bound to be above average. However, the number of storms that have impacted land has been surprising! From October 9th to October 25th, western Mexico has been hit by FOUR consecutive tropical cyclones. Three were hurricanes at landfall, and the one we want to focus on today is Hurricane Otis. First thought to make landfall as either a strong tropical storm or a weak hurricane ended up becoming the strongest landfalling hurricane in the Eastern Pacific in under 24 hours! How did this happen and what can we as an industry learn about this storm to help improve forecasting and communications in the future…?See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Guest: Dr. Greg Postel & Jen Carfagno, The Weather ChannelIntroduction: With a raging El Nino in effect, the Eastern Pacific hurricane season was bound to be above average. However, the number of storms that have impacted land has been surprising! From October 9th to October 25th, western Mexico has been hit by FOUR consecutive tropical cyclones. Three were hurricanes at landfall, and the one we want to focus on today is Hurricane Otis. First thought to make landfall as either a strong tropical storm or a weak hurricane ended up becoming the strongest landfalling hurricane in the Eastern Pacific in under 24 hours! How did this happen and what can we as an industry learn about this storm to help improve forecasting and communications in the future…?See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
We are proud to welcome as our guest, Commodore David Mazur, the Commander of Canadian Fleet Pacific.Commodore Mazur is responsible for the combat readiness of the Pacific Fleet, and he has over 10 deployers and numerous auxiliary support vessels under his command.For this episode, we were on board His Majesty's Canadian Ship (HMCS) Winnipeg, a Halifax class surface combatant while it was underway in the Eastern Pacific as the command ship for Exercise Trident Fury 2023, which is the Pacific's Fleet's premier combined and joint exercise. Exercises like Trident Fury are critical to maintaining the operational readiness of Canadian Armed Forces and allies as it presents demanding maritime conditions in a simulated hostile environment which is shaped by escalating tensions. Commodore Mazur was on board HMCS Winnipeg as the Task Group Commander during Exercise Trident Fury.The exercise had six Canadian Navy ships participating (HMCS' Winnipeg, Vancouver, Ottawa, Edmonton, Yellowknife, Nanaimo), alongside U.S. assets, NATO partners, and some ships of the Japanese Maritime Self Defence Force (JMSDF) -- JS Kashima and JS Hatakaze.A key participant in the exercise was the Combat Support Ship Asterix, a platform owned and operated by Federal Fleet Services, and is leased to the Royal Canadian Navy to provide multi-mission support, primarily with its ability to provide Replenishment-at-Sea (RAS).Asterix joined into Exercise Trident Fury while it was already underway, and that's because the ship arrived into the Eastern Pacific (on schedule) after it circumnavigated the world while supporting deployed operations of the Royal Canadian Navy.Over 1,000 military personnel took part across all units and platforms, including Royal Canadian Navy ships, numerous Royal Canadian Air Force aircraft (CF-18, CC-130H(T), CP-140), Canadian Army personnel, and units from the United States (EA-18G Growler, P-8 Poseidon, A-10 Warthog), as well as NATO partners, and Japan.Exercise Trident Fury 2023 had a number of other exercises within its overarching umbrella, including:Exercise Unified Vision, the premier NATO event for Joint Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (JISR) activities.Exercise Vital Archer, a bilateral US-Canada exercise focused on counter-terrorism, and counter weapons of mass destruction.Exercise Fox Frenzy, a missile exercise which had CF-18 Hornets engage Vindicator aerial target drones that were launched from HMCS Winnipeg.One of Exercise Trident Fury's primary objectives was pre-deployment training for HMCS Ottawa and HMCS Vancouver's deployment to the Indo-Pacific region. Known as Intermediate Multi-Ship Readiness Training (IMSRT), the training involved a full spectrum of sea and air tactical warfare training, including live-fire exercises, seamanship, maritime interdiction operations, anti-submarine warfare, surface warfare, air defense, mine counter-measures, and small boat defense.The exercise also served as an opportunity to experiment with ship crewing models for the Royal Canadian Navy, and that's to facilitate the training backlog for sailors in the wake of the training slow-down that happened as a result of the pandemic. Our conversation focused a lot on training because as the Commodore said, it's all about "saving the Navy."As an update to this episode, HMCS Ottawa and HMCS Vancouver achieved their high readiness certifications after Exercise Trident Fury, so these ships and their helicopter air detachments are now in the Indo-Pacific region as part of Operation Horizon.We wish to thank the men and women of HMCS Winnipeg for their hospitality, and we thank Commodore Mazur for the time he spent with us.Go Bold!
You've heard of global warming but what do you know about Pacific cooling, Dr. Ruth Freeman Director of Science for Society at Science Foundation Ireland explained this phenomenon.
Hurricane Calvin has strengthened slightly in the Eastern Pacific but is still forecast to weaken before it comes close to the islands.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Hurricane Calvin is now a category 3 storm as it strengthens in the Eastern Pacific. This could be its peak intensity as it's expected to weaken in cooler waters on its way west. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Matthew Bannister on Baroness McDonagh Margaret McDonagh was the youngest person and the first woman to become General Secretary of the Labour Party. She was a key player in the New Labour project that helped the party win a landslide in 1997 and two subsequent terms in office. Margaret McDonagh was born in Mitcham in South London where her mother worked as a psychiatric nurse and her father was a building worker. Born: 26 June 1961. Died: 24 June 2023. Age: 61 Craig Brown Scotland's longest serving football manager – taking the national team to the Euro 96 finals and the World Cup in 1998. He started his career as a player for Dunkirk and Falkirk before turning to coaching in 1977. Born: 1 July 1940. Died: 26 June 2023. Age: 82 Godfrey Merlen Conservationist and author who devoted much of his life to studying the Galapagos Islands. He lived on the archipelago in the Eastern Pacific for fifty years. The area is noted for its large numbers of unique species which were studied by Chares Darwin and gave rise to his theory of evolution by natural selection. Godfrey Merlen was born in the Cotswolds. After leaving university he worked in the fishing industry and first became concerned about the damage humans were doing to nature. Died: May 10th, 2022 Winnie Ewing One of most high-profile pioneers of the Scottish Independence movement. In the 1960s, the Glasgow criminal lawyer won an unexpected by-election victory which made her the first Scottish National Party MP at Westminster. Born: 10 July 1929 Aged: 21 June 2023. Age 93 Producer: Ed Prendeville Interviewee: Sir Tony Blair Interviewee: Pat Nevin Interviewee: Noemi d'Ozouville Interviewee: Christine Grahame Archive used: Kinnock takes on Militant - Labour Conference speech 1985 – YouTube 30 October 2020; Winnie Ewing reconvenes Scottish Parliament in 1999, YouTube 12 May 2019. Winnie Ewing interview after winning the Hamilton By-Election 1967 THE HAMILTON BY-ELECTION 1967, TRIUMPHS AND DISASTERS, Radio 4 05 June 2002. World at One, Radio 4 03 November 1967. Winnie Ewing didn't think they'd win, Before you go 19 December 2001. Madame Ecosse, Scottish Digital Library First Broadcast Mon 13 April 2009; Craig Brown talking about the kilts worn by the Scottish Tartans in 1998, Mr Brown's Boys, BBC Scotland, First Broadcast Sat 11 Feb 2023. Brown talking about the team, Craig Brown's 1998 World Cup Diary | Full Behind The Scenes Documentary Film Posted on YouTube 16 March 2020. Brown on his football career, published 2 Sept 2019, YouTube Channel Open Goal; Margaret on Clause 4, Tx 19.09.2014 ; Radio 4. Margaret on hearing Kinnock's speech, Tx 19 September 2014, Radio 4. Margaret on New Labour's achievement, Tx 19.09.2014 ; Radio 4; Dr. Godfrey Merlen on Scientific Whaling Versus Cultural Whaling. YouTube published: 9 Aug 2013. Galapagos Islands of Change, Natural World, BBC 2 NI, first Broadcast Sun 21 May 2017. In memory of Godfrey Merlen, YouTube, published: 26 May 2023 ; Galapagos Conservation Trust, Galapagos Islands of Change, Natural World, BBC 2 NI, First Broadcast Sun 21 May 2017
June 13, 2023--Hosts Tim Bray and Bob Spies discuss marine mammal disease, with Dr. Padrick Duignan, Director of Pathology, Marine Mammal Center, Sausalito. Dr. Duignan talks about Leptospirosis in California Sea Lions, the recent gray whale mortality event in the Eastern Pacific, killer whale predation, Narwhal population decline in the Arctic Ocean, and the widespread DDT contamination of the Southern California Bight. Woven throughout is the effects of climate change on these processes.
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There are a number of climate models that could predict the intensity of the upcoming El Nino this year (2023). Some articles are predicting that we are going to have a Super El Nino, which could have devastating effects to many vulnerable areas around the world and the clean up from the damage could be in the billions of dollars. The last El Nino event was in 2015-2016 and it was considered a super El Nino, where the surface temperatures in the Eastern Pacific exceeded 2C. There were 15 major weather events that year that exceeded $46 billion in damages. Of course, the models could be wrong as the results ranged from catastrophic to "wimpy." Link to article: https://bit.ly/41ueefw Fill out our listener survey: https://www.speakupforblue.com/survey Join the audio program - Build Your Marine Science and Conservation Career: https://www.speakupforblue.com/career Facebook Group: https://bit.ly/3NmYvsI Connect with Speak Up For Blue: Website: https://bit.ly/3fOF3Wf Instagram: https://bit.ly/3rIaJSG Twitter: https://bit.ly/3rHZxpc
Fabio Favoretto is a postdoc at Scripps Institute of Oceanography and the chief scientist responsible for monitoring and tracking illegal fishing and other activity within the remote Revillagigedo Archipelago.This archipelago is a group of four volcanic islands in the Pacific Ocean, known for their unique ecosystem. They lie approximately 458 kilometers (285 mi) from Socorro Island south and southwest of Cabo San Lucas, the southern tip of the Baja California Peninsula, and boast some of the highest rates of species diversity in the Eastern Pacific. In this episode, Fabio and I talk about the tropicalization of the eastern pacific waters, species migration, and I get to learn about Fabio's UN-backed initiative called Atlas Aquatica, a program to establish safe diving areas within protected waters. Fabio is Italian and against his wishes, I get him on the record regarding his true hot-button issue, pineapple on pizza. Support the show
We are back on San Juan Island after our winter offseason. People often ask us what we do during our offseason. We go whale watching in other parts of the world! Daven joins us on this episode as we share stories of our offseason whale adventures. Between the three of us we traveled to the Canadian Arctic, Eastern Pacific off Mexico and the Sea of Cortez, the Southern Ocean off Australia, the Sliver Bank off the Dominican Republic, and Antarctica. Daven starts off the by sharing stories from his experiences in Greenland and the Canadian Arctic, highlighted by encounters with Northern bottlenose whales, Belugas, and a fleeting view of Narwhals. He also talks about spending two months in Antarctica seeing multiple species of baleen whales as well as different types of Antarctic killer whales. Our stories continue with Sara's adventures to Bremer Bay, Australia with Naturaliste Charters to see the killer whales of Bremer Canyon. These are a recently discovered population of approximately 300 orcas that are thought to be related to Antarctic type A killer whales. They primarily prey on beaked whales but also eat a varied diet that includes squid and tuna. Sara shares her stories from spending a month on the water with these whales while she collected data for the Orca Behavior Institute. Next, Jeff talks a bit about his last minute travels around the Baja Peninsula to sail one of the breeding areas for North Pacific Humpback whales. He also talks about a friendly Gray whale encounter in Magdalena Bay and a visit to the Museo de la Ballena in La Paz. Finally, Jeff and Sara discuss their return to the Sliver Bank, the largest breeding area for North Atlantic Humpback whales, 75 miles offshore of the Dominican Republic. They share highlights from snorkeling with Humpback whales while out with Conscious Breath Adventures. For even more information on what it's like to experience the Silver Bank, you can listen to Episode 7. There are several common themes throughout our discussions, including the remote locations of many of these special, wild places and the sometimes uncomfortable conditions that you have to endure to get there. But the payoff is life changing as evidenced by us choosing activities like this every offseason in the San Juan Islands. Speaking of the San Juan Islands, our season has started and we are seeing amazing wildlife and whales. If you would like to join us on a tour you can get details and book your trip with Maya's Legacy Whale Watching. If you are enjoying listening to our podcast, please follow/subscribe, leave us feedback/reviews and share with your friends! You can also find us on Instagram, Facebook and Youtube. Please send us feedback or questions at afterthebreachpodcast@gmail.com. For complete show notes, links and photos, please visit our website: https://www.afterthebreachpodcast.com/e/our-offseason-whales-around-the-world/ Photos mentioned in this episode: Photo by Daven Hafey Photo by Daven Hafey Photo by Sara Hysong-Shimazu Photo by Sara Hysong-Shimazu Photo by Sara Hysong-Shimazu Photo by Sara Hysong-Shimazu Photo by Jeff Friedman
The International Seabed Authority has granted permission for Canadian corporation The Metals Company to mine the sea floor in the Eastern Pacific, a move which Greenpeace sez signals the beginning of a new and destructive extractive industry that will place profit before people and biodiversity, threatening ocean health and people's way of life. To chat about the ISA's decision, as well as what impacts deep sea mining could have on surrounding communities, Emilia spoke to Greenpeace Aotearoa's seabed mining campaigner James Hita.
The International Seabed Authority has granted permission for Canadian corporation The Metals Company to mine the sea floor in the Eastern Pacific, a move which Greenpeace sez signals the beginning of a new and destructive extractive industry that will place profit before people and biodiversity, threatening ocean health and people's way of life. To chat about the ISA's decision, as well as what impacts deep sea mining could have on surrounding communities, Emilia spoke to Greenpeace Aotearoa's seabed mining campaigner James Hita.
Slight Improvement In Cruise Ship Weather is the top story on today's Travel and Cruise Industry News Podcast, September 5, 2022 with Chillie Falls and special guest Bethany Bartley. Since the last weather update on Saturday, conditions in the cruise ship lanes in both the Atlantic Basin and the Eastern Pacific have shown some improvement. The are still some possibility of delays and itinerary changes. Chillie and Bethany will chat about Azamara Cruise Line, covid changes and her upcoming South America Cruise. Also today, Major Port Development for Portland, UK; Global Dream II Faces Scrap Yard; 3 Arrested For Scamming Casino; And Much More, LIVE At 11 AM EDT. CLICK HERE to access video feed Thanks for visiting my channel. NYTimes The Daily, the flagship NYT podcast with a massive audience. "Vacationing In The Time Of Covid" https://nyti.ms/3QuRwOS NYTimes First Person Podcast " His Ship Finally Came In, but Should He Be on It? " https://nyti.ms/3zRJo4j To access the Travel and Cruise Industry News podcast; https://cms.megaphone.fm/channel/travelcruisenews or go to https://accessadventure.net/ Save On Airfare https://bit.ly/3h6lXLf To subscribe: http://bit.ly/chi-fal As always, I appreciate super chats or any other donation to support my channel. For your convenience, please visit: https://paypal.me/chillie9264?locale.x=en_US Chillie's Cruise Schedule: https://accessadventure.net/chillies-trip-calendar/ For your special needs, contact me or Scootaround, https://www.scootaround.com/mobility-rentals, 1.888.441.7575. Use SRN 11137. Special Needs Cruising: https://youtu.be/DWR5kNM2x_g Check out my streaming partner: https://streamyard.com?pal=4889083533852672 YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/ChilliesCruises Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/chillie.falls Twitter: https://twitter.com/ChillieFalls Business Email: chilliefalls@gmail.com Accessible Travel Blog: https://accessadventure.net/ Chillie Chats With Sue Bryant, London Times Cruise Editor About Emerald Azzurra https://youtu.be/_bnrkqPf2gE Chillie Chats with Mark Chilutti on Accessibility of Oasis of the Seas https://youtu.be/ibuJe7sfvrA Chillie Chats With Kelly Narowski, Disability Rights Advocate and Avid Traveler https://youtu.be/NFB7LhkJ7go and https://youtu.be/LxbC5UW-Lsk Casino Loyalty Programs with Sue Sherer https://youtu.be/p0SsewJC_cE Chillie Chats with Camille Segobia on Solo Cruising https://youtu.be/PsoTywFMuSo Chillie Chats with Author Ivan Cox a/k/a Dr. Gerald Yukevich, The Cruise Ship Doctor, https://youtu.be/juZmIuYv-IU Chillie Chats With Speaker, Writer and Wheelchair Traveler Lilly Longshore https://youtu.be/tyrV6KZE-9Q Cruise Amigos with Jeannine Williamson https://youtu.be/_s9L_cV72fk Chillie Chats With Jordan Taylor, of JJ Cruise https://youtu.be/O5Khw0avcTQ Chillie Chats With Coleen McDaniel, Cruise Critic's Editor-In-Chief https://youtu.be/5mbjRqNcRXk Chillie Chats With Cruise Critic's Adam Coulter from Norwegian jade https://youtu.be/NVEPLIQ-tH0 Cruise Amigos with Jeannine Williamson https://youtu.be/_s9L_cV72fk Chillie Chats With Captain Mick, Active Disabled Americans https://youtu.be/B3g17D8Tv6Y Chillie Chats With Ashley Lyn Olson, WheelchairTraveling.com https://youtu.be/N4kCil4xT3M Chillie Chats with Allison More about Norwegian Fjords https://youtu.be/Y2V4c6TVauY Chillie Chats With Shelby Frenette about TA Training https://youtu.be/OhBRwS5Hp1M Chillie Chats With Bubba Shumard On Europe, TA and Tahiti https://youtu.be/sVvg5DKeqQs Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Oral Arguments for the Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit
Ganpat v. Eastern Pacific Shipping
Royal Caribbean Is Back In Malaysia is one of several major stories this morning on Travel and Cruise Industry News, August 10, 2022. After months of cruises to nowhere from Singapore, Malaysia's travel and tourism industry is back in business with twice weekly sailings of Spectrum of the Seas from Singapore. 4 night cruises stop in both Kuala Lumpur and Penang , 3 nights in Penang only. Also today, Weather from both the Atlantic Basin and Eastern Pacific; Jewel of the Seas Alters Cruises; Viking's Newest Ship Inaugural Cruise In Asia; Crew Member Overboard In Alaska; And Much More, LIVE At 11 AM EDT. CLICK HERE for video feed Thanks for visiting my channel. NYTimes The Daily, the flagship NYT podcast with a massive audience. "Vacationing In The Time Of Covid" https://nyti.ms/3QuRwOS NYTimes New First Person Podcast episode " When What Matters Most Is Going On A Cruise " , featuring me, is now LIVE. https://www.nytimes.com/2022/07/14/opinion/cruises-covid-first-person.html To access the Travel and Cruise Industry News podcast; https://cms.megaphone.fm/channel/travelcruisenews or go to https://accessadventure.net/ Save On Airfare https://bit.ly/3h6lXLf To subscribe: http://bit.ly/chi-fal As always, I appreciate super chats or any other donation to support my channel. For your convenience, please visit: https://paypal.me/chillie9264?locale.x=en_US Chillie's Cruise Schedule: https://accessadventure.net/chillies-trip-calendar/ For your special needs, contact me or Scootaround, https://www.scootaround.com/mobility-rentals, 1.888.441.7575. Use SRN 11137. Special Needs Cruising: https://youtu.be/DWR5kNM2x_g Check out my streaming partner: https://streamyard.com?pal=4889083533852672 YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/ChilliesCruises Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/chillie.falls Twitter: https://twitter.com/ChillieFalls Business Email: chilliefalls@gmail.com Accessible Travel Blog: https://accessadventure.net/ Chillie Chats With Sue Bryant, London Times Cruise Editor About Emerald Azzurra https://youtu.be/_bnrkqPf2gE Chillie Chats with Mark Chilutti on Accessibility of Oasis of the Seas https://youtu.be/ibuJe7sfvrA Chillie Chats With Kelly Narowski, Disability Rights Advocate and Avid Traveler https://youtu.be/NFB7LhkJ7go and https://youtu.be/LxbC5UW-Lsk Casino Loyalty Programs with Sue Sherer https://youtu.be/p0SsewJC_cE Chillie Chats with Camille Segobia on Solo Cruising https://youtu.be/PsoTywFMuSo Chillie Chats with Author Ivan Cox a/k/a Dr. Gerald Yukevich, The Cruise Ship Doctor, https://youtu.be/juZmIuYv-IU Chillie Chats With Speaker, Writer and Wheelchair Traveler Lilly Longshore https://youtu.be/tyrV6KZE-9Q Cruise Amigos with Jeannine Williamson https://youtu.be/_s9L_cV72fk Chillie Chats With Jordan Taylor, of JJ Cruise https://youtu.be/O5Khw0avcTQ Chillie Chats With Coleen McDaniel, Cruise Critic's Editor-In-Chief https://youtu.be/5mbjRqNcRXk Chillie Chats With Cruise Critic's Adam Coulter from Norwegian jade https://youtu.be/NVEPLIQ-tH0 Cruise Amigos with Jeannine Williamson https://youtu.be/_s9L_cV72fk Chillie Chats With Captain Mick, Active Disabled Americans https://youtu.be/B3g17D8Tv6Y Chillie Chats With Ashley Lyn Olson, WheelchairTraveling.com https://youtu.be/N4kCil4xT3M Chillie Chats with Allison More about Norwegian Fjords https://youtu.be/Y2V4c6TVauY Chillie Chats With Shelby Frenette about TA Training https://youtu.be/OhBRwS5Hp1M Chillie Chats With Bubba Shumard On CDC, RCCL and HAL https://youtu.be/UtFrYjOVkXk Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
June 14, 2022--Tim and Bob talk all about Grey Whales with Dr. James Harvey, Professor Emeritus and former Director of the Moss Landing Marine Laboratory. They explore the life history, migratory patterns, feeding and reproduction of these wonderful Eastern Pacific whales. Join hosts Tim Bray and Robert Spies for this informative exploration of some of the most enigmatic Mendocino County tourists.
This week Corey is in the cave so Rando and Shera do the hosting honors. This is our Memorial Day pod and the weather is going to be fantastic for the outdoor festivities. The pollen report is showing a new player in the allergen mix, and we officially have a hurricane in the Eastern Pacific. June 1st is a busy day with the start of Meteorological Summer plus the start of the Atlantic hurricane season. This week's Weather School is explains the difference between Meteorological and Astronomical seasons. Rando and Shera both have some cool "in other news" tidbits, and Shera's got a few Memorial Day fun facts. In fact, she also gives us the Weather Word of the Week! ~~~~~~~~~~ Check out our website at: stormdarweather.com Support us on Patreon at: patreon.com/stormdarweather Follow us on Instagram at: instagram.com/stormdarweathermedia
Music courtesy of "Irregular BlueGrass trio", used with permission, recorded live via iPhone at 1st Presbyterian Church Nashville, Tennessee. See today's avatar.I discovered something interesting on Sunday morning viewing desert. A weather program on FNB — that's Fox News Business Problema/Sp it's only one hour and it's early to boot 7 AM CDT but it's worth setting your recorder to watch later instead of those endless Sunday talking heads. Back in “the day” one wag asserted the only thing which changed was the host & the backdrop and the movable desk with a new avatar. Instead of an endless recycle of him-a-canes & her-a-canes I propose something more catchy. For our western shore EPAC - 05 / 14 — 01 for our eastern shore, it would be WATLA 05/14 – 01-22
Celebrity couple Styles P. & Adjua Styles Chat re: "VH-1 Couples Retreat" show, which premieres May 16, 2022 9pm (Eastern/Pacific) on VH-1. On VH1 Couples Retreat, celebrity cast members take a week-long vacation for an honest, uncensored conversation about the challenges and triumphs of their relationships, the complexities of love, heartache and communication – as well as mental health, overcoming infidelity, navigating grief and loss, spirituality and more. Among the celebrity couples is Styles P. and Adjua Styles who maintain a strong bond after 25+ years of marriage after facing hardships such as infidelity and the loss of their daughter to suicide. Styles P is a member of the legendary hip hop group The LOX (alongside Jadakiss and Sheek Louch). The LOX reunited in 2014 and Styles P. continues to tour, both with The LOX and as a solo artist. Adjua Styles is an entrepreneur, author, mother and wife. She's been featured in Oprah's “Black Love” documentary, Madame Noire, Revolt, Vibe, Rolling Out and BET among others. After the passing of their daughter, Tai, Adjua has allowed spirituality to guide her on her path to healing. As the author of The Ethereal Hike: How to Discern the Privilege of Loss Through the Power of Love, she hopes to help others move through their own trauma and go from surviving to thriving.
Gorlak: In the year 2203, Riley lives a life of chosen seclusion in the Yukon Territory. She alone has access to alien ships and technology billions of year old, from a race long receded. Her only wish is to be left alone. Now, two federal agents are looking for her. Should she run from the home she loves or face possible capture? Author of six Science Fiction action adventure novels, Marc Neuffer, an avid reader of this genre since the early 1960s, uses his extensive science and engineering background to pen novels of future time and space with plausible science as a backdrop for his imaginative stories built around normal characters. Before becoming an author, Marc spent 20 years roaming the world with the U.S. Navy as a nuclear propulsion engineer visiting sixteen countries in Europe, Down Under, Asia, Eastern Pacific, Indian Ocean, and the Mediterranean. After retiring a second time, he started writing fun-read science fiction novels. In retirement, with nothing else left on his bucket list, he dreams of future things to come. Website: www.m-c-neuffer.com Amazon Author Page: https://www.amazon.com/Marc-Neuffer/e/B07S7M48J4 We love our listeners, fans and patrons! If you loved what you heard, please like and subscribe to our audio anthology and consider visiting our patreon site at www.patreon.com/melissadeltorovoiceover Music by HookSounds https://www.hooksounds.com --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/untold-tales/support
Night Cap: Steven went to bed on a night similar to thousands before. He was awakened by an ominous feeling and a tap, tap, tapping near his head. He was no longer in his bed, no longer on earth. Steven has some choices to make. Meet our newest Untold Tales Writer, the incredibly talented Marc Neuffer! Author of six Science Fiction action adventure novels, Marc Neuffer, an avid reader of this genre since the early 1960s, uses his extensive science and engineering background to pen novels of future time and space with plausible science as a backdrop for his imaginative stories built around normal characters. Before becoming an author, Marc spent 20 years roaming the world with the U.S. Navy as a nuclear propulsion engineer visiting sixteen countries in Europe, Down Under, Asia, Eastern Pacific, Indian Ocean, and the Mediterranean. After retiring a second time, he started writing fun-read science fiction novels. In retirement, with nothing else left on his bucket list, he dreams of future things to come. Website: www.m-c-neuffer.com Amazon Author Page: https://www.amazon.com/Marc-Neuffer/e/B07S7M48J4 We love our listeners, fans and patrons! If you loved what you heard, please like and subscribe to our audio anthology and consider visiting our patreon site at www.patreon.com/melissadeltorovoiceover Music: Chance, Luck, Errors in Nature, Fate, Destruction As a Finale by Chris Zabriskie is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Source: http://chriszabriskie.com/reappear/ Artist: http://chriszabriskie.com/ --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/untold-tales/support
The Atlantic Hurricane season is currently going slow. Only one area of interest while the Eastern Pacific is busy with two named storms and a possible third on the way. We share some exciting news as the hosts of B Squared are headed back to school.
School's out for summer, which will be the season of Peyton Manning. First, the two-time Super Bowl champion will host the 10-episode Capitol One College Bowl, beginning Tuesday, June 22 at 10 p.m. Eastern/Pacific on NBC. His “Peyton's Places” history project will expand, starting July 7 on ESPN+, and soccer star Abby Wambach's “Abby's Places” … Continued
School's out for summer, which will be the season of Peyton Manning. First, the two-time Super Bowl champion will host the 10-episode Capitol One College Bowl, beginning Tuesday, June 22 at 10 p.m. Eastern/Pacific on NBC. His “Peyton's Places” history project will expand, starting July 7 on ESPN+, and soccer star Abby Wambach's “Abby's Places” will kick off an evolution of the Places series with... Source
We look back eight years ago at the El Reno tornado that changed how storms are researched, chased, and analyzed. The storm claimed the lives of three very well chasers, men who had made their careers out of keeping others safe. The El Reno tornado was a record setting storm in terms of wind speeds, width, and structure. The 2021 Atlantic Hurricane season has started and all is quiet (for now) while TS Blanca is churning away in the Eastern Pacific.
It's been a semi active week on the plains and up the east coast for severe weather but some are beginning to question if the Central United States will have a decent "chase season" or an active severe spring season. In the Eastern Pacific ocean, we have our first named tropical system that is coming a few days before that season officially kicks off. Tropical Storm Andres is moving the NW and will begin to die off as it makes its way west. The Atlantic season starts June 1st. NOAA released its updated climate snapshots for the last 30 years. Most of the US saw an increase in temperature and the average decade over decade total increased .13 degrees Fahrenheit, while the century average was up around 1 degree Fahrenheit. We celebrate Bonnie's 30 and 1 birthday and wish a Happy Mothers Day to all Mom's out there!
In this latest episode of the Maritime Podcast Seatrade Maritime News Editor Marcus Hand is in conversation with Claus Nehmzow, Chief Innovation Officer of Singapore-headquartered Eastern Pacific Shipping. Marcus and Claus have a discussion about innovation, technology and the Eastern Pacific Accelerator by Techstars, a global maritime tech accelerator.
A leadership showdown is looming in Papua New Guinea with the opposition calling for the PM's resignation;Fiji opposition still reeling from Rabuka's sudden exit from parliament;Tonga is also experiencing some political strife with a no confidence motion in the offing;Australia's high court overules the government's attempt to limit refugees access to the court system;West Papua independence movement is being tested from within;Tuna stocks in the Eastern Pacific are facing an unprecedented threat from unregulated fishing;The black sand beaches of PNG's Madang province are being eyed by a foreign mining company and locals are not happy;The first group of repatriated Tokelauns are looking forward to being released from quarantine on Xmas Day.
Tuna stocks in the eastern Pacific are facing an unprecedented threat from January 1st after the agency that regulates the fish catch failed to reach agreement at its annual meeting.
The Realmatic Crew goes live on Twitch on Thursday night at 10pm Eastern Pacific! This time we started off Season 3 with our takes on Nate Robinson's fight, Baby Pluto, and much more. We even discussed the infamous clip of the restaurant owner so sit back and enjoy! Thank you all for sticking with us, and we hope you continue to spread the word. --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app
Steeped in mist and mythology, the islands of Haida Gwaii abound in local lore that surrounds their beginnings. Today, the Hecate Strait is a tempestuous 40-mile wide channel that separates the mist-shrouded archipelago of Haida Gwaii from the BC mainland. Haida First Nation oral tradition tells of a time when the strait was mostly dry, dotted here and there with lakes. During the last ice age, glaciers locked up so much water that the sea level was hundreds of feet lower than it is today. Soil samples from the seafloor contain wood, pollen, and other terrestrial plant materials that tell of a tundra-like environment. The islands of Haida Gwaii are at the western edge of the continental shelf and form part of Wrangellia, an exotic terrane of former island arcs, which also includes Vancouver Island, parts of western mainland British Columbia and southern Alaska. They had a long, arduous journey, first being pushed by advancing plates, then being uplifted, intruded, folded, and finally thrust up again. It's reminiscent of how pastry is balled up, kneaded over and over, finally rolled out, then the process is repeated again. This violent history applies to most of the rock that makes up the Insular Belt, the outermost edge of the Cordillera. Once in their present location, the rocks that make up the mountains and valleys of this island group were glaciated and eroded to their present form. Despite this tumultuous past, the islands have arguably the best-preserved and most fossil-rich rocks in the Canadian Cordillera, dating from very recent to more than 200 million years old. The fossils found in the Triassic rock of Wrangellia are equatorial or low latitude life forms quite different from those found today on the Continent at the latitude of Haida Gwaii. This suggests those rocks were in the equatorial region during the Late Triassic, just over 200 million years ago. The Lower Jurassic ammonite faunas found at Haida Gwaii are very similar to those found in the Eastern Pacific around South America and in the Mediterranean. The strata exposed at Maple Island, Haida Gwaii are stratigraphically higher than the majority of Albian localities in Skidegate Inlet. The macrofossil fauna belonged to the Upper part of the Sandstone Member of the Haida formation. The western end of the island contains numerous well-preserved inoceramids such as Birostrina concentrica and a few rare ammonites of Desmoceras bearskinese. The eastern shores are home to unusual ammonite fauna in the finer-grained sandstones. Here we find the fossils as extremely hard concretions while others were loose in the shale. Species include Anagaudryceras sacya and Tetragonites subtimotheanus. A large whorl section of the rare Ammonoceratites crenucostatus has also been found here. The ammonites, Desmoceras; Brewericeras hulenense; Cleoniceras perezianum, Douvelliceras spiniferum are all found in Lower Cretaceous, Middle Albian, Haida Formation deposits.
As little as 15 years ago, many experts thought hawksbill turtles along the Pacific coast of the America’s was too far gone to recover. Now an inspiring group of people are helping bring this turtle back.Guests: Dr. Alex Gaos (NOAA), Ingrid Yanez (ICAPO), Mike Liles (ProCosta), Jose Urteaga (Stanford University), and Katie Frohardt (Wild Earth Allies).Links: Too Rare To WearWild Earth Allies: Website & Uncle Elephant VideoEastern Pacific Hawksbill InitiativeFauna & Flora NicaraguaProCosta (Facebook page)Episode Date: July 29, 2020 Eastern Pacific hawksbill. Photo by Allison Shelley for Wild Earth Allies
AccuWeather meteorologist Bernie Rayno (@AccuRayno on Twitter) takes you through your Tuesday with an update on the powerful Genevieve as it strengthens in the Eastern Pacific, a look at the searing and record-breaking heat in the west, and keeping an eye on activity in the Atlantic that could become tropical trouble. It's all in the Tuesday edition of "Weather Insider" Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Subscribe to Patreon to support this channel and get in depth weather coverage every day! https://patreon.com/meteorologistjoecioffi Joe & Joe Weather Show in the throws of the August dog days of very warm and humid weather and the chance for a thunderstorm here and there. The tropics are quiet in the Atlantic but have picked up a bit in the Eastern Pacific. You can support this channel by doing your Amazon shopping from this link. https://www.amazon.com/shop/meteorologistjoecioffi We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/joe-cioffi/support
Three Stories: NASA launches their 9th rover to Mars to collect soil and rock samples in search of fossils or signs of past life. The ultimate goal is to bring these samples back to Earth analyze them. This is the third launch for Mars this month, with China and United Arab Emirates also launching missions to Mars as well. Eastern Tropical Pacific reefs demonstrate resiliency to warming temperatures. A 44-year long study showcases no change in coral reef abundance between Baja California and the Galapagos Islands. The reason why? These corals grow quickly and are symbiotic with heat tolerant algae. The findings on these Eastern Pacific reefs may help inform the future for coral reef survival in other parts of the world. A huge breakthrough in the fight against “Citrus Greening,” a disease that is wiping out citrus trees all around the world, has just occurred. California researchers have identified a gene in an exotic Australian citrus fruit, called a fingerlime, that produces a peptide that acts like a natural antibiotic in the tree that makes it resistant to citrus greening. This natural antibiotic is now being synthesized in the lab to be sprayed on the citrus trees to help stop the negative impacts of this devastating disease. https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-020-02257-w?utm_source=Nature+Briefing&utm_campaign=2a2293db4f-briefing-dy-20200730&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_c9dfd39373-2a2293db4f-44498949 https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/07/200723143637.htm https://www.npr.org/2020/07/27/895775625/exotic-australian-fruit-may-help-save-floridas-citrus-industry
Commander Kate Higgins-Bloom is currently assigned to the Coast Guard Office of Emerging Policy (CG-DCO-X), where she works as a strategist and the Director of Project Evergreen, the U.S. Coast Guard’s strategic foresight initiative. Kate’s previous staff tours include White House Fellow and Acting Chief of Staff DHS Office of Legislative Affairs. As a White House fellow, Kate worked for First Lady Michelle Obama developing public-private partnerships in support of veteran employment, mental health, and entrepreneurship. She has held a variety of operational leadership roles, including Command Center Chief and SAR Mission Coordinator for Sector Hampton Roads, Incident Management Chief for Sector Boston, and Commanding Officer of USCGC BARANOF. Over the course of those tours, Kate specialized in leading complex security, inter-agency crisis response, and search and rescue operations. She has deployed throughout the Caribbean, Eastern Pacific, NS the Arabian Gulf; and to numerous domestic responses, including Hurricane Katrina. Kate was also a member of the Atlantic Incident Management Assist Team, and supported events ranging from large scale oil spill response to the 2009 Presidential Inauguration. Kate holds a Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering from the U.S. Coast Guard Academy and a Master of Public Administration from the Harvard Kennedy School of Government. She also served as a Federal Executive Fellow at the Brookings Institution and is a member of the 2020-2021 cohort of MIT Seminar XXI. Kate lives in Washington D.C. with her husband and their two children. *** Correction at minute (07:15) - CDR Higgins-Bloom assisted with the White House's goal of adding 250,000 jobs for veterans, not 250 *** -------------------------- Fellowship Opportunities CNAS NextGen National Security Leaders Fellowship - https://www.cnas.org/next-generation-programs/nextgeneration White House Fellowship - https://whff.org/ SAIS Phillip Merrill National Security Scholars and Practitioners Seminar https://www.merrillcenter.sais-jhu.edu/nsspp MIT Seminar XXI - https://semxxi.mit.edu/ Council on Foreign Relations Term Fellowship - https://www.cfr.org/ German Marshall Fund Transatlantic Fellowship - https://www.gmfus.org/transatlantic-leadership-initiatives/marshall-memorial-fellowship German Marshall Fund Young Strategists Forum - https://www.gmfus.org/forum/young-strategists-forum
In 1929 a German couple fled civilization to live on an uninhabited island in the Eastern Pacific. But other settlers soon followed, leading to strife, suspicion, and possibly murder. In this week's episode of the Futility Closet podcast we'll tell the story of the Galápagos affair, a bizarre mystery that remains unsolved. We'll also meet another deadly doctor and puzzle over a posthumous marriage. Intro: Damon Knight invented a way to compose stories without having to write them. If beauty is in the eye of the beholder, why do we regard some tastes as bad? Photo: Captain Allan G. Hancock, Dore Strauch, and Friedrich Ritter at Floreana. Smithsonian Institution Archives, Record Unit 7231, Waldo L. Schmitt Papers, Box 90, Folder 4, Image No. SIA2011-1149. Sources for our feature on Floreana: Dore Strauch, Satan Came to Eden: A Survivor's Account of the "Galápagos Affair," 1936. Margret Wittmer, Floreana: A Woman's Pilgrimage to the Galápagos, 1989. John E. Treherne, The Galápagos Affair, 2011. Elizabeth Hennessy, On the Backs of Tortoises: Darwin, the Galapagos, and the Fate of an Evolutionary Eden, 2019. Alexander Mann, Yachting on the Pacific: Together With Notes on Travel in Peru, and an Account of the Peoples and Products of Ecuador, 1909. K. Thalia Grant and Gregory B. Estes, "Alf Wollebæk and the Galápagos Archipelago's First Biological Station," Galápagos Research 68 (2016), 33-42. Hans-Rudolf Bork and Andreas Mieth, "Catastrophe on an Enchanted Island: Floreana, Galapagos, Ecuador," Rapa Nui Journal: Journal of the Easter Island Foundation 19:1 (2005), 5. David Cameron Duffy, "Galapagos Literature -- Fact and Fantasy," Noticias de Galápagos 44 (1986), 18-20. Gavin Haines, "Cannibalism, Nude Germans and a Murder Mystery: The Secret History of the Galapagos," Telegraph, Feb. 12, 2018. Oliver Smith, "Cannibalism, Murder and Chronic Obesity: 10 Island Paradises With Dark and Deadly Secrets," Telegraph.co.uk, Aug. 9, 2017. Allison Amend, "In the Footsteps of Charles Darwin," New York Times (Online), June 20, 2017. Trevor Seymour, "Murder on Seduction Island," [Surry Hills, New South Wales] Daily Telegraph, June 25, 2002, 26. Shiela Waddell, "At the Ends of the Earth," Glasgow Herald, Nov. 20, 1999, 12. Mitchell Smyth, "Satan in Paradise -- Lust and Murder on a Desert Isle," Toronto Star, Oct. 22, 1994, L2. Katherine Woods, "From Utopian Dream to Nightmare," New York Times, May 24, 1936. "Woman Is Leaving Galapagos 'Eden,'" New York Times, Dec. 9, 1934. "Desert Isles' 'Ruler' Escapes Eviction," New York Times, Jan. 23, 1934. Stephanie Merry, "'The Galapagos Affair: When Satan Came to Eden' Movie Review," Washington Post, May 8, 2014. Stephen Holden, "Seeking Eden, They Fled to Far Isle; Hell Followed," New York Times, April 3, 2014. Andrea Crossan, "A New Film Unearths the True Story of a 1930s Murder Mystery in the Galapagos," The World, PRI, April 4, 2014. Moira Macdonald, "'The Galapagos Affair': A Murder Mystery in Paradise," Seattle Times, April 17, 2014. Alan Scherstuhl, "Murder in Paradise in The Galapagos Affair," Village Voice, April 2, 2014. Ryan Gilbey, "Death in Paradise: Ryan Gilbey on The Galapagos Affair," New Statesman, July 28, 2014. Listener mail: "Cremation Medical Certificate," gov.uk, Jan. 2, 2009. "Doctors’ Fees, Cremation Forms & Certificates," beyond.life (accessed June 22, 2020). Trevor Jackson and Richard Smith, "Harold Shipman," BMJ 328:7433 (Jan. 24, 2004), 231. "Harold Shipman (1946–2004)," Biography, April 27, 2017. John Philip Jenkins, "Harold Shipman," Encyclopaedia Britannica (accessed June 22, 2020). This week's lateral thinking puzzle was contributed by listener Alon Eitan. You can listen using the player above, download this episode directly, or subscribe on Google Podcasts, on Apple Podcasts, or via the RSS feed at https://futilitycloset.libsyn.com/rss. Please consider becoming a patron of Futility Closet -- you can choose the amount you want to pledge, and we've set up some rewards to help thank you for your support. You can also make a one-time donation on the Support Us page of the Futility Closet website. Many thanks to Doug Ross for the music in this episode. If you have any questions or comments you can reach us at podcast@futilitycloset.com. Thanks for listening!
The tropics have been fairly quiet the last week or so, but with two areas of interest in the Eastern Pacific and one in the Atlantic, the tropics are back on the radar. While all three areas are unlikely to really effect anything, its still something to note. Bonnie just returned from a float trip along the Illinois River in Oklahoma. You won't want to miss her hard seltzer review and frankly its not what you would expect. We also take the NWS "Haz Simp" survey and break down what the changes to the current WWA model could mean.
Hurricane Season 2020 is upon us! In this episode of the Managing Uncertainty Podcast, Bryghtpath Principal and Chief Executive Bryan Strawser talks through personal, family, and business preparedness for this year's hurricane season. Topics discussed include personal & family preparedness, DHS's Ready Campaign, and actions that businesses should take to ensure they and their teams are prepared for the season ahead of us. Episode Resources Episode #6 - Personal Preparedness Episode #7 - After the Storm Episode #15 - Here comes Irma Episode #17 - Lessons Learned from the 2017 Hurricane Season Episode #67 - Here comes Hurricane Dorian Bryghtpath's Hurricane Services //static.leadpages.net/leadboxes/current/embed.js Episode Transcript Hello and welcome to the Managing Uncertainty podcast. This is Bryan Strawser, principal and chief executive here at Bryghtpath and we are in week one of hurricane season 2020 for the Atlantic Ocean. This hurricane season runs June 1st to November 30th. I want to take some time here on this podcast episode to talk about hurricane season, how you can make sure that your employees are personally prepared, and what some things that you can do to prepare your business as well. You may not know this. I had forgotten this when I was looking at this morning, but there are actually three hurricane seasons. The Eastern Pacific hurricane season started May 15th runs through November 30th. The Atlantic hurricane season starts June 1st and runs through November 30th, and the Central Pacific hurricane season, here. We're talking about like Hawaii for example, that season runs June 1st to November 30th. Of course, most hurricanes that we're typically worried about, the strongest hurricanes in history have been in the Atlantic and then impacting the east coast of the United States from Maine all the way down to the Southernmost tip of Florida. Of course, the US Virgin Islands and other territories in the Caribbean, as we saw with hurricane season just three years ago. I want to divide this conversation into two parts. The part that we want to make sure that individuals are preparing for, and then the things we want to make sure that businesses are preparing for as a part of that. As a business leader that works in business continuity and crisis management and resiliency or related fields, you want to make sure you're doing both because if your team is prepared and their families are safe, then it's easier for you to work with your team to recover your business operations. If they're not prepared personal, family, local, community, then you're going to have challenges getting those folks to come in and help you recover your business operations. In my mind, the best place to send employees to learn about hurricanes is the US Department of Homeland Security's ready campaign website. This is developed with FEMA, which is part of DHS of course. You can find great information on a number of different emergency situations, including hurricanes at ready.gov. I'm going to kind of recap for you some of the personal and family preparedness steps that are on this website at ready.gov/hurricanes. The first is to make sure that your team understands the hurricane risk. That they understand how rain, wind, water could impact them. It's important to point out that this isn't just what we think of as traditional hurricane zones. I'm recording this episode on the 9th of June 2020. I live in Minnesota, just near the twin cities in Minneapolis and St. Paul. We are going to be impacted by tropical storm Cristobal which is currently moving through the Southern United States. So even way up here by Canada where we're at, you can have impact from tropical storms and hurricanes depending upon how they move through the country as they impact the US. So first is to make sure folks understand rain, wind, water. What that impact could look like. The second is to make sure that your employees have an emergency plan. That everyone in their household understands their emergency plan and how that would impact their family, their extended family, their children, their pets. That they have a plan on how they would evacuate and where they would go. The next part of that is to make sure that they have supplies for their household. Medication, cleaning supplies, because we're still in the COVID-19 pandemic, face coverings, masks, pet supplies, food and water for three days. These supplies that might be necessary to sustain yourselves at home until life saving assistance can arrive, or because they need to get somewhere. Maybe the home could be damaged and they need to go live with a relative or get to a relative in another state. The fourth is to make is to think about people with disabilities if there's anyone in their household that has a disability. What other help they may need, and to make sure that they've documented that and made an arrangement for that in their plan. The next is to know their evacuation zone. In a hurricane, you may have to evacuate very quickly. It's important to know what those zones look like. They're all planned in advance and to know the routes. How can they get there? And it's not a bad idea to practice. Can we be ready to go in two hours? Are our supplies bagged and packaged so that we can do it? Next is to make sure that your employees know how to get warnings and alerts. FEMA helps make this easy by using the FEMA app, which will let them get real-time alerts from the National Weather Service for up to five different places in the United States. Then they can also sign up for community alerts and get information from local emergency management and public health and government authorities when things happen. You want your employees to prepare their documentation. That they have insurance documents and personal documents like IDs and they have copies of these and they keep them in a secure, password-protected digital space, but also keep hard copies of this documentation as well. They can strengthen their homes by looking at their drains and gutters and bringing in any outside furniture. In some areas, even hurricane shutters may be appropriate. My parents lived for a long time in Jacksonville, Florida, and had hurricane shutters when they built their home and used them on more than one occasion as hurricanes came through. Employees should make sure they're tech ready by keeping their cell phone charged and perhaps having backup charging devices. There are solar chargers now. There are extra batteries that you can purchase. Even if your cell phone doesn't let you swap batteries, like I'm an Apple user, but I can buy a battery pack and plug that baby in and be able to keep my cell phone charged where I need to. Your employee should also look at how they can help their neighbors. Check-in with their neighbors and senior adults and others who might need additional help. Then lastly for small businesses, which we kind of put in with the family and personal preparedness, to make sure that businesses have a continuity plan that allows them to continue operating when disaster strikes. So again, you can find all this on ready.gov/hurricanes. The most important thing about all of this is when the hurricane begins to approach that folks are listening to emergency information and alerts. That when they are told to evacuate, that they do so immediately. That they evacuate on the timeline provided by local authorities and that they stay informed. They keep an eye on what's going on and make sure they make the right decisions to protect their family, their neighborhood, their local community, and their pets. Certainly, make sure you take your pets with you when you leave. So for personal preparedness, those are some great steps. Again, you can find those at ready.gov/hurricanes. Now I want to shift gears and talk a little bit about business preparedness with hurricane season coming on. I think the most important thing here is to make sure that you're thinking about your preparedness steps now before we have a major hurricane or tropical storm really impact where you're operating. Now is the time to prepare. Not five days out from landfall of the first-named storm of the year, but now is the time to make sure that you have your ducks in a row. That you've got the plans and documentation and exercises, your practice, your drills, that all of that is knocked out in this left of boom stage and our preparedness stage so that when something happens, we're able to respond like clockwork as we go through that. So, there's a lot of things you have to think about planning for when it comes to business as we think about hurricane season. One is to make sure that we have a good understanding of the kind of impacts that your team and your local communities will see from hurricanes. We expect even when areas are not directly impacted, that employees and their families and extended families and even their neighbors can be in harm's way to some extent. Their properties certainly will be. A lot of employees will have questions about as the storm approaches, what our evacuation process will look like. When are we closing the business in time, want to make sure we do that in time for them to evacuate, but they also start thinking about when we can return home and when can I return to work and how much time will I be given to be able to deal with damage or issues with my home or with my extended family's home? How do they keep in touch with you and your business to make sure that they understand what's going on in terms of returning to work? Another challenge through all of this is the lack of available communications. I mean, we can expect because of wind and power problems that cell phones may not be as workable or reliable as they typically are. We can see the normal phone system be flooded or damaged in a way that simply doesn't work. So we're not able to rely upon it. We'll also find our employees have to deal with post-storm or really complex state and federal assistance process in order to get access to emergency funds from both the state and the federal government. So these are all challenges that you may have to work through in the course of responding to a hurricane. Then of course as I said at the start of the podcast, our experience has taught us that personal and family preparedness effort by your employees and supported by you and your efforts really make a huge difference in the individual resiliency of employees. After all, if they're resilient as a family, then they're more likely to return to work quickly and help you get your business back up and running quickly. One of the main things as an employer is to really make sure that you're closing your facilities in time, in advance of the storm in a way that both let you protect your assets, but also let your team protect themselves. That they're able to evacuate and get up the evacuation routes in time. You'll also want to think about your disaster pay and assistance programs with your human resources team. What do you do if your facility has got to be closed and folks who are scheduled to work can't work because you've shut it down? They're depending upon that income. How will you handle that kind of emergency situation there? Will you compensate them? Will you have an emergency fund they can draw from? Will you let them use their sick leave? These are all possibilities and actions that you can do. When it comes to information in terms of free information, there's no better place than the National Hurricane Center, which is part of the National Weather Service and NOAA. You can find that online Just Google National Hurricane Center and that'll take you there. You also want to make sure you're plugged into your state and local emergency management. There's probably some way almost, every state has a way, state and city have ways for you to connect in terms of a public-private partnership program and get access to information. I would look for that within your state. For example, Florida has a very highly active public-private partnership program. They do a great job of coordinating and communicating with the private sector, with businesses large and small across the state. Find ways to plugin. You can also plug into FEMA's National Business Emergency Operations Center. I believe that's fema.gov/NBEOC or just Google FEMA National Business Emergency Operations Center. They're holding calls all the time. They're sharing information. They ask questions. They want to make sure that you as a business leader have the information that you need in order to prepare for a storm and then make plans to respond and recover the business. They're one of the best sources of information and one of the best places to get your questions answered. These are all good examples of strategies that are used by successful companies that are resilient, that work through hurricanes and storms and let them be able to respond and recover and then get right back to business as usual, get their business back up and running very quickly, and get right back into the mix of normal business operations, which is our goal is as we go through hurricane season. So these are some of the factors we see with successful companies as hurricane season comes in. For individuals again, the most important thing is to make sure your vehicle's fueled. You've got things in your vehicle. You got your emergency supplies ready to go like food and water. Whether you've got bottled water or containers for water, along with your luggage and other things. Keep your vehicle fueled, pay close attention to communication from your local emergency management emergency services personnel such as police and fire, emergency management, and others. When they tell you to evacuate, if they tell you to evacuate, don't hesitate. Load and go and make sure that you move on from there. Here at Bryghtpath we have very extensive experience in managing large scale hurricanes, such as the 2017 hurricane season. We do provide a number of services you might find useful. Those include custom monitoring and weather reporting. We use a lot of open source and proprietary resources to give you a full picture of the current threat and impact to your organization. We build specific branded situational updates and executive briefings on the hurricane. These are written situational updates on a regular cadence that you set that consolidate hundreds of pages of information into a tightly written summary of the current on the ground situation that you're facing. We can do these in a way where they're branded for your organization, have custom content. We can integrate your internal data and other updates. We really think of these as the best way to know what's happening in that threatened and impacted area. We also do executive and crisis team briefings that can be delivered via video conference or through online video formats, where you can see us providing an update on the situation, and then it has targeted information for your organization. That can be one way, or it can be a two-way conversation. Lastly, we're just a great trusted crisis management advisor. We perform that role for a number of Fortune 500 organizations lending our decades of crisis management experience and communications during their critical moment. During a hurricane like we've seen in the last few years, we're really customizing our advice to the specific needs of your company. The service commonly includes 24/7 access to our team, participation in your internal calls and meetings, connectivity to key internal and external partners, and most importantly problem solving with your team because we've been through this situation, the hurricane situation, many times. If you're interested in learning more about our hurricane crisis management services as the season continues, you can learn more at bryghtpath.com/hurricanes, or just give us a call at (612) 235-6435. That's it for this edition of the Managing Uncertainty podcast. We'll be back next week with another new episode. Be well.
I bet you love penguins, right? The same goes for koalas, or puppies! But what about sharks? Well, my next guest loves sharks — she loves them so much that she works a lot with marine biologists, even though she’s a statistician! Vianey Leos Barajas is indeed a statistician primarily working in the areas of statistical ecology, time series modeling, Bayesian inference and spatial modeling of environmental data. Vianey did her PhD in statistics at Iowa State University and is now a postdoctoral researcher at North Carolina State University. In this episode, she’ll tell us what she’s working on that involves sharks, sheep and other animals! Trying to model animal movements, Vianey often encounters the dreaded multimodal posteriors. She’ll explain why these can be very tricky to estimate, and why ecological data are particularly suited for hidden Markov models and spatio-temporal models — don’t worry, Vianey will explain what these models are in the episode! Our theme music is « Good Bayesian », by Baba Brinkman (feat MC Lars and Mega Ran). Check out his awesome work at https://bababrinkman.com/ ! Links from the show: Vianey on Twitter: https://twitter.com/vianey_lb Hidden Markov Models in the Stan User's Guide: https://mc-stan.org/docs/2_18/stan-users-guide/hmms-section.html Tagging Basketball Events with HMM in Stan: https://mc-stan.org/users/documentation/case-studies/bball-hmm.html HMMs with Python and PyMC3: https://ericmjl.github.io/bayesian-analysis-recipes/notebooks/markov-models/ The Discrete Adjoint Method -- Efficient Derivatives for Functions of Discrete Sequences (Betancourt, Margossian, Leos-Barajas): https://arxiv.org/abs/2002.00326 Vianey will be doing an HMM 90-minute introduction at the International Statistical Ecology Conference in June 2020: http://www.isec2020.org/ Stan for Ecology -- a website for the ecology community in Stan: https://stanecology.github.io/ LatinR 2020 -- 7th to 9th October 2020: https://latin-r.com/ Migramar -- Science for the Conservation of Marine Migratory Species in the Eastern Pacific: http://migramar.org/hi/en/ Pelagios Kakunja -- Know, educate and conserve for a sustainable sea: https://www.pelagioskakunja.org/ Book recommendations: Hidden Markov Models for Time Series: https://www.routledge.com/Hidden-Markov-Models-for-Time-Series-An-Introduction-Using-R-Second-Edition/Zucchini-MacDonald-Langrock/p/book/9781482253832 Handbook of Mixture Analysis: https://www.routledge.com/Handbook-of-Mixture-Analysis-1st-Edition/Fruhwirth-Schnatter-Celeux-Robert/p/book/9781498763813 Pattern Recognition and Machine Learning: http://users.isr.ist.utl.pt/~wurmd/Livros/school/Bishop%20-%20Pattern%20Recognition%20And%20Machine%20Learning%20-%20Springer%20%202006.pdf --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/learn-bayes-stats/message
Surfline Lead Forecasters Kurt Korte and Mike Watson tackle a variety of topics related to the tropics. Tropical Cyclone Harold kicks things off but they quickly get into the impacts of El Niño and La Niña on tropical development in the Atlantic and Eastern Pacific. Next up, the guys discuss Colorado State University's early seasonal prediction of Atlantic tropical activity that dropped last week. They follow that with some memorable hurricanes from the past from their perspectives as both surfers and forecasters. The pod wraps up with a few things that the forecast team are working on related to the tropics that will be dropping on Surfline in the coming weeks.
Total Soccer Show: USMNT, EPL, MLS, Champions League and more ...
We review Man City's win over Real Madrid at the Bernabeu, Lyon's win over Juventus, and the bold claims that were circulated at the MLS 25th season kickoff event in New York.To see our appearance on The Cooligans TV show, go to https://www.fubosportsnetwork.com/ at 8pm Eastern/Pacific on Thursday.To get 40% off an annual subscription to The Athletic, visit http://theathletic.com/totalsoccerToday's show is sponsored by HelloFresh. Go to http://hellofresh.com/tss10 and use code tss10 to get 10 meals free.
The tropics remain very active as Tropical Storm and soon to be Hurricane Humberto churn away in the Atlantic. Humberto has pelted the always fragile islands of the Bahamas, but with just tropical storm force winds and rain, and thankfully won't affect them as a hurricane. We break down the size of Bermuda where Humberto is headed and we talk about major Hurricane Kiko in the Eastern Pacific.
We celebrate the 1st year of B Squared, Your Weekly Weather Podcast! Bobby got a rare opportunity to storm chase this week and got to see some awesome storms. The tropics remain really quiet except for Tropical Storm Barbara in the Eastern Pacific. We look at our 4th of July forecasts and look forward to year 2 of B Squared!
Fauna and Flora International has reported that zero leatherback sea turtles nested along the beaches in the Rio Escalente Chacocente Wildlife Reserve this past season. A result that has the scientists at FFI worried about the future of Leatherback Sea Turtles in the Eastern Pacific that once had 30-40 female individuals nest on the same beaches in the 1980s. The rapid decline has been attributed to a boom in turtle and egg poaching during the 80s and 90s as well as adults getting killed in legal and illegal fishing nets. 5-10 individual female turtles nested on the same beaches in 2018. Researches are puzzled as to why the turtles did not return and hope to find ways to get sea turtles back to the beach. Listen to the episode to find out we the female to male sea turtle ration is also worrying marine scientists in this region. Share your thoughts on Sea Turtle Conservation in the Speak Up For The Ocean Blue Podcast: http://www.speakupforblue.com/group. Want to get started on living for a better Ocean? Sign up for the Grove Collaborative and get a free gift: http://www.speakupforblue.com/goocean. Check out the new Speak Up For The Ocean Blue Podcast App: http://www.speakupforblue.com/app.
Mike Buresh goes into detail on today's forecast, looking at where we can expect rain and why there's a disparity between how much has actually been measured in particular areas. It's not just rainy in Florida, though, as Hurricane Bud is drawing attention in the Eastern Pacific.
Andrew Watts graduated from the US Naval Academy in 2003 and served as a naval officer and helicopter pilot until 2013. During that time, he flew counter-narcotic missions in the Eastern Pacific and counter-piracy missions off the Horn of Africa. He was a flight instructor in Pensacola, FL, and helped to run ship and flight operations while embarked on a nuclear aircraft carrier deployed in the Middle East. Today, he lives with his family in Ohio. CONNECT ONLINE: Website(s): andrewwattsauthor.com Twitter handle(s): @wattsandrew Facebook: www.facebook.com/AndrewWattsAuthor Amazon Author page (if applicable): https://www.amazon.com/Andrew-Watts/e/B00RD3E4JA MENTIONS: Wordslinger Podcast on YouTube: http://bit.ly/WordslingerPodcast ___ GOT A QUESTION FOR KEVIN AND HIS GUESTS? CALL 281-809-WORD (9673)
175: Self Publishing with Point Whiskey Publishing Andrew Watts On today’s episode, Joe Crane talks to US Navy veteran Andrew Watts about publishing your own book. Self Publishing with Point Whiskey Publishing Andrew Watts. Career in the Military Andrew served in the US Navy for a total of ten years. He served as a naval officer and helicopter pilot until 2013. During the course of his career, he flew counter-narcotic missions in the Eastern Pacific and counter-privacy missions off the Horn of Africa. He also served as a flight instructor in Florida, and helped to run ship and flight operations while on a nuclear aircraft carrier in the Middle East. US Navy Helicopter Pilot Transitions to Civilian Life Andrew decided to transition out of the military just before he went on his final deployment. It was rather challenging for him to find a job outside because of the limits he still had. Nonetheless, he had some interviews with different companies. He landed a job with Procter and Gamble through a Search Academy Career Conference. Stepping Stones to Success During his time as a flight instructor, Andrew decided to get an MBA. He found it a good choice whether he stays in the military or not. He took some classes on entrepreneurship and marketing. They sparked his way to his present career. To hear the rest of Chris’ lessons learned and how he can help you, download and listen to the entire episode Chris Hoffmann VET Training and Coaching. Leave us a rating and review if you enjoyed the show. We love hearing from you! If you are short on time, here are the highlights of Chris Hoffmann VET Training and Coaching: Who is Chris Hoffmann? ([1:30]) Baseball in the Marines? ([3:28]) Afghanistan lessons? ([7:00]) Issues after discharge? ([13:14]) What motivated Chris? ([17:52]) What is personal branding? ([22:28]) The Community ([27:15]) Episode Links: Chris on LinkedIn VET Training and Coaching on LinkedIn VET website Facebook Community Group Download Joe Crane’s Top 7 Paths to Freedom or get it on your mobile device. Text VETERAN to 38470. Join the Veteran on the Move on Facebook! Check out Veteran on the Move on Facebook to connect with our guests! It’s also a great place where you can stay in touch with other veterans who are transitioning to entrepreneurship, and get updates and free gouge on the people programs and resources to help you in your transition to entrepreneurship. The Veteran On the Move podcast has published over 150 episodes giving listeners the opportunity to hear in-depth interviews conducted by host Joe Crane featuring the people, programs and resources to assist veterans in their transition to entrepreneurship: Marine Corps, Army, Navy, Air Force and Coast Guard veterans, DOD, entrepreneurship, business, success, military spouse, transition, education, programs and resources. Veteran On the Move has garnered over 500,000 listens verified through Stitcher Radio, Sound Cloud, Itunes and RSS Feed Syndication making it one of the most popular Military Entrepreneur Shows on the Internet Today.
Today we discuss pre-season storms in the Atlantic and Eastern Pacific, an active Southern Pacific cyclone season, and predictions for the 2017 Atlantic hurricane season.
A timely double feature, as Jeff Lemire talks about his DC flashpoint mini series featuring Frankenstein and The Creature Commandos, which spins off into one of the new 52 DC Reboot titles, plus his coming take on Animal Man. We also talk about his continuing Vertigo saga Sweet Tooth, and wrapping up his run on Superboy. Jeff tells us about learning that his take on Connor was coming to a close, and the excitement of pitching the new take on The Creature Commandos . We aslo talk about his great new origin of Ultra The Mutil Alien, in the recent Strange Adventures anthology.Plus interviews with the stars and producers of TNT's new Sci-Fi summer series Falling Skies, featuring actors Noah Wiley and Moon Bloodgood, plus Co-Executive Producer Mark Verheiden, and Director Greg Beeman. You'll hear about the sow, and the comic book prequel currently online and coming in print from Dark Horse Comics . The show debuts this Sunday at 9pm Eastern/Pacific on TNT.