Podcasts about Ergo

TRIGGER WARNING: Please note that this episode contains discussions of pedophilia, grooming, and graphic violence involving a 14-year-old girl.  Additionally, please note that this investigation remains active and ongoing. Ergo (noice): all statements regarding alleged conduct discussed in this episode are allegations only, and all individuals mentioned are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty in a court of law.The name d4vd used to mean viral music and sold-out concerts. Now, it's at the center of one of the most disturbing criminal cases in recent memory. David Anthony Burke, known to the world as d4vd, presently stands charged with first-degree murder with special circumstances, continuous sexual abuse of a child, and unlawful mutilation of human remains in connection with the death of 14-year-old Celeste Rivas Hernandez. Prosecutors allege he groomed Celeste for years — beginning when she was just 11 years old — and ultimately killed her after she threatened to expose their so-called "relationship" (which is to say: the abuse). He then allegedly dismembered her body with a chainsaw and left her remains to decompose inside his Tesla for months, lying to anyone who noticed the smell. All the while, he allegedly continued performing to sold-out crowds and selling tickets to national and world tours. The details of this case are as astonishing as they are heartbreaking - please listen with caution. FOLLOW/SUBSCRIBE to Psychopedia wherever you are listening! FOLLOW Investigator Slater on Instagram + TikTok: @investigatorslater  Join our Patreon family! (⁠www.Patreon.com/PsychopediaPod⁠) On Patreon, you get AD FREE episodes, exclusive true crime content, behind-the-scenes pics/vids, private group chats, and much more!  To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

In der vorangegangenen Episode #391 hat Jonas Schreiber, ein Realschullehrer aus Bayern, über die Realität in den Klassenzimmern berichtet. In dieser Folge reichen wir nun die wissenschaftliche Untermauerung nach. Dr. Ludger Wößmann, Professor an der Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München und als Leiter des ifo Zentrums für Bildungsökonomik einer der einflussreichsten Bildungsökonomen Europas, war im September 2023 bereits als Experte bei bto zu Gast. Sein damaliger Befund lautete: Bildung erklärt drei Viertel des langfristigen Wohlstands eines Landes. Und Deutschland verspielt seine Substanz schneller, als die Politik bereit ist, dies anzuerkennen.Drei Jahre später fällt die Diagnose nicht besser aus. Die Mitte Mai 2026 veröffentlichte UNICEF-Studie zum Wohlbefinden von Kindern in EU und OECD zeigt Deutschland auf unterdurchschnittlichem Niveau – im Bildungsbereich nur auf Platz 34 von 41 wohlhabenden Ländern. PISA 2022, IGLU 2023, IQB 2024 – sämtliche dieser Untersuchungen bestätigen, was Prof. Wößmann schon lange konstatiert hat. All das zeigt, wie dringend wir eine andere Bildungspolitik brauchen. Zeit für ein bto REFRESH. Hinweis ABSTURZ – So retten wir Deutschland: das neue Buch von Daniel Stelter. Jetzt überall, wo es Bücher gibt. Auch bestellbar bei Thalia, Amazon, geniallokal.HörerserviceVollständiger UNICEF-Bericht Report Card 20: Unequal Chances – Children and economic inequality finden Sie hier. (Englisch). Deutsche Zusammenfassung der Report Card 20 finden Sie hier. Weiterführende Informationen im UNICEF-Bericht zur Lage der Kinder in Deutschland (2025) hier.beyond the obvious – Neue Analysen, Kommentare und Einschätzungen zur Wirtschafts- und Finanzlage finden Sie unter think-bto.com.Newsletter – Den monatlichen bto-Newsletter abonnieren Sie hier.Redaktionskontakt – Wir freuen uns über Ihre Meinungen, Anregungen und Kritik unter podcast@think-bto.com.Handelsblatt – Das Handelsblatt wird 80 – und Sie sind eingeladen mitzufeiern! Wir schenken Ihnen vier Wochen lang kostenlosen Zugriff auf alle H+ Inhalte. Seit 80 Jahren steht das Handelsblatt für unabhängigen Wirtschaftsjournalismus – ordnet Entwicklungen ein, begleitet Umbrüche, macht Fortschritt sichtbar und liefert neue Perspektiven. Sichern Sie sich unser Aktionsangebot und damit Ihren Wissensvorsprung unter handelsblatt.com/80.Werbepartner – Das Angebot von Allianz Trade finden Sie unter: allianz-trade.de/bto.Weitere Informationen zu den Angeboten unserer aktuellen Werbepartner finden Sie hier. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On Other, Other Life Forms The quest for other life forms must be anchored in the knowledge of why we're even here. Let's get nitpicky. Also, unapologetically religious in nature, though the points stand on merit regardless. This isn't a screed against space travel, for looking up, even beyond, is worthwhile. Rather, the aim is to properly frame our search through understanding what exactly is “other life” and where exactly is “out there.” The terminology “other life” or “other life forms” is presumptuous in nature, as it can only be asked within a vacuum which denies the existence of myriad life forms on planet Earth. Not only are there other life forms aplenty, but the range, capacities, colors, designs, etc., etc., etc., are so diverse and so far-ranging that not a single planet in our system comes anywhere close to dreaming of similar potential. Even more, every part, planet, and particle in space lends to the preservation of life on earth in some way. Almost as if it's all here for us. Per Torahic categorization, there are four general kingdoms in creation. The so-called lowest is “silent”, for the predominately inanimate basics of existence, water, soil, rocks, minerals, and the like that comprise it have a lifeforce so quiet it's barely noted. Thus, we view creations in this kingdom as existing but not exactly alive. The next kingdom is “growth”, essentially plants and all vegetation where growth is usually visible and indicative of the lifeforce within. Third is the “life” kingdom, which includes all creatures from insects to birds to marine life to mammals, as each overtly display an animating lifeforce not only through growth, but also some measure of mobility, intelligence, communication, or similar. The final kingdom is “speaker,” aka man, the only kingdom made in G-d's image. The lifeforce within man is undeniable, not only for all previously specified reasons, but also because, unlike the other kingdoms, man goes beyond a measure of intellect in his ability to communicate ideas, teachings, morality, ethics, and abstractions to others, mainly through speech. For this display of what's deemed higher intelligence, man is considered the highest of the four kingdoms. With that set, our quest for other life begins with understanding why these four kingdoms aren't life forms enough. The “silent” kingdom covers just about everything that isn't obviously alive. For example, the four building blocks of creation, earth, water, air, and fire. The varying parts of our atmosphere which cause the sky to blaze at sunrise and sunset. The very earth from which all things grow, as well as rolling hills, fertile valleys, and majestic mountain ranges. Gentle waters which calm the soul and raging waves which quicken the heart. Rocks which stand against the fiercest winds, but also caves and crevices sculpted over time. Geodes, crystals, stalactites, stalagmites, in shapes and colors man cannot always describe or name. All are “silent” in their steadfast, unchanging existence. In the context of our quest, any discovery within the “silent” kingdom doesn't qualify as an other life, not only because some forms within this kingdom have already been discovered in space, but also because the categories within this kingdom literally don't display signs of life. Never mind that the “silent” kingdom sustains every kingdom above it, revealing it may not be quite so lowly a kingdom as supposed. Either way, our search mandates we find a form that's obviously alive. Ergo, despite the wonders and marvels of the “silent” kingdom, our exploration continues. Does the “growth” kingdom qualify as another life form in our search? Do we seek proof of some sort of life beyond moss and ferns and fungi and flowers and vegetables and fruit and trees? Well, yes and no. We'd be thrilled to find any kind of vegetation, as long as it's not here. In other words, we want what we have here, just somewhere else. Then again, we don't have to find an exact replica of Earth, only something that's entirely like it but on a different planet. Plants show life in their visible growth, and are incredible dynamic doing so. Plants can run rampant and wild, plants can be domesticated and tamed; some thrive in the sun and some only open to the moon. They have no eyes, they have no ears, yet they know the difference between night and day, between summer, winter, spring, and fall. They know when it's time to blossom, to shed, to regrow. Even more, there are plants which heal, plants which harm, plants which flavor, plants which sustain, plants which dominate, plants upholding entire ecosystems, and plants which light the way with their glow. Some plants are beautiful, some terrifying, some cooling, some fragile, some stronger than blades. Some plants tower, some are unnoticed, some provide food, shelter, clothes. The “growth” kingdom climbs and clings, flowers, buds, twists, and bends. The above doesn't even include the incredible array of shape and color, which continually startle and dazzle the eye of the beholder. All this is only part of what we know about the “growth” kingdom, for though we live in a highly advanced world, we have yet to discover the full extent of just how many creations call this planet home. As with the “silent” kingdom which sustains it, the “growth” kingdom provides for the kingdoms above it. But while plants are really, really nice and cool and intricate and beautiful and, and, and, we're still set on looking for other life elsewhere. We'd be thrilled to find any of the “growth” kingdom on another planet, even though, as mentioned, it sure seems everything out there is pretty well-suited to the needs of here, but never mind that. We're rather set on finding something new, something obviously alive out there. Onward to the next kingdom. The range of creatures packed into the “life” kingdom is so immense, we cannot in good faith claim to know its entire. The vast, not yet completely discovered “life” kingdom spreads an umbrella wide enough to include every non-human animate life form between plants and people, including insects, marine life, fowl, rodents, reptiles, beasts, cattle, and all the rest of terrestrial creatures. Every country, every state, every ecosystem has a unique web of animals, insects, marine life thriving in its environs. Scientists are perpetually “astonished” at the new kinds and species discovered around the globe, as if this world of ours could ever fully be known. And even where we think to have catalogued it all, creatures of the “life” kingdom continue to surprise with their levels of intelligence, adaptability, and significant role on this planet we call home. Just spare a minute to consider the animals and plants that flourish in all the places humans can't. Only looking at the life contained in the form of insects is a dizzying proposition, for the thousands and thousands we actually know about which fly, walk, scurry, and roll. Insects that regenerate, insects that burrow in the dark and damp and soil, insects that color gardens and make honey and with strength to carry many times their own weight. Insects hum and call and chirp and buzz, spin silk that can be worn or webs that withstand rainstorms. Insects are harmful and harmless, brainless and multi-eyed, soft, hard, airborne, and pliable. We oft overlook the many we come across each day, but would speak of little else were even one to be found out there. Though we have yet to discover every insect dwelling on earth, not one is the other life we hope to find. A moment away from land to plunge into the sea, a world so vast, vivid, and varied, we haven't nearly plumbed its depths. Beneath the waves, beyond our grasp creatures hide in the sand and glow in the deep no human can withstand. There are creatures so tiny they can hardly be seen, yet enough can feed creatures which cannot be missed. Leaping, breaching, scuttling, wriggling, swimming, floating, preying, and flying, in schools and pods and herds and shoals and consortiums and mobs and runs and swarms. Other kingdoms are also found in the sea, sand and coral, kelp, rocks, salt, and shells. Therein a whole world sustains itself, and the kingdoms above it, as well. And yet, though fathoms remain beyond our current ability to explore, relatively far out of reach as the stars, none are the other life we seek. Finding some collection of water that sustains life would shake the world we know, but only if we find it somewhere that isn't here. Amphibians are forms of both water and land, the slimy, shiny bridge between both sorts of life. As with the others of the “life” kingdom, amphibians aren't known in their entire, and the range of what they can do is as far ranging as the category itself. They also have their own unique twists to the norm, as bright colors aren't signs of aesthetics but warnings of danger. Right alongside them are reptiles, including those that sting, bite, and choke. Ones that can swallow prey significantly larger than they, and ones which instantly camouflage to hide in plain sight. What about the life forms of air? Birds don't fit a single mold, and the multitudes well exceed human count. Birds that fly and birds that can't, birds with vision and hearing much keener than man, birds that build nests without hands. Birds sing and twitter, hum, caw, and shriek. Birds dive and hunt, scavenge and hover. Birds sense shifts in the weather, and birds soar on the air. They're cheery and territorial, colorful as flowers and dark as moonless nights. They're predators and prey, oversized and tiny, imitators and instigators. But birds are also something we know in some form, and what we insist on is something we haven't seen before, or at least, something we haven't yet seen out there. And so, the search for other life continues. Perhaps the rest of the “life” kingdom will qualify? The innumerable animals which roam the deserts, plains, jungles, mountains, and forests. From rodents to beasts, from domesticated to wild, there is hardly a color or kind without peer in the “life” kingdom. Animals hunter and hunted, solitary and social, protective and loyal and vicious and tame. Animals that observe, animals that learn, animals that comfort or guide or guard. Animals that defy the fiercest elements of their topography, and animals that adapt or blend in with impressive speed. Animals with a range of communication and expression, animals soft and hard and furry and rough. Animals weighing tremendous amounts, and animals that can shoulder the burden of even more. Animals endure the harshest habitats and conditions, animals hibernate for months or only wake with the night. Animals symbiotic, parasitic, or with an innate sense for assisting others. Between claw, talon, teeth, and paw, the “life” kingdom is as wild and varied on land as beneath the sea. Yet, as we seek other life, we brush all this aside, for, when we're certain there's so much more to discover and know, why continue to look where we always have? What sort of life forms do we then seek, if not any of the myriad already upon this earth? Much as we'd delight in finding the same creatures on a different planet, we're adamant about finding something we haven't seen before to definitively conclude other life exists. Consider, finding life forms which display some growth, with or without the sun, would be enough to fund space travel for years to come, but growth isn't really enough to satisfy us. When we seek other life forms, we don't want something that grows, or even something that moves with overt signs of life, we want something that communicates, especially in ways we don't. Putting aside every other kingdom and category of creation, including all their unique methods of interaction, we'll declare victory in our search for other life if we discover a species that knows how to communicate with what, sound? Gesture? Semaphore? Dashes and dots? No, no, we want something that communicates as a sign of and sharing of its intelligence. Again, putting aside all other kingdoms we know at present, their various modes of communication and ranges of intellect, our search will be a success only if we find different intellects that communicate with ours. About what's relevant to us? About things that confirm our projections of what life and intellect should be? Assuming this isn't a reference to learning about new languages and cultures, what do we really seek? From all kingdoms of creation, perhaps the closest to “speaker” would be spiritual beings, namely angels. And not the cherubic children or glowing berobed humans with wings and halos, but fiery messengers of the Divine. Then again, unless they take a human form, angels, while other life, are not tangible enough to be discovered, so there's little point in centering them in our quest. The highest kingdom of creation is “speaker,” which is only and entirely mankind. Not because we are the only creations with verbal articulation, but because, as the only kingdom made in G-d's image, we are the only kingdom which seeks and learns and communicates about that which is greater than ourselves. The rest of the kingdoms do not have a mind to challenge their Creator nor the nature He embedded within them. Only “speaker” has the choice to live up to his potential in creation, to fight or embrace his inherent design, to imagine and debate and give coherency to the abstract. Essentially, we're looking for other life forms, but not the other life we already know of heaven and earth. This other life may be almost identical to the life we know, or it may be something entirely different than the thousands and thousands we've already found. And perhaps the inability to know it all is what's truly given us hope that there's more out there waiting to be discovered. The emphasis is less on what we seek than on where we want to find it. Considering what's already been mentioned about the categories of creation, the question is why? Is this exploration driven by a simple desire to know and understand and bear witness to the expansive capacity of the Creator? Or is there dissatisfaction with what we have here, and a desire to have different and more threading through it all? If the latter, nothing found will ever be enough, if the former, at least the premise isn't so far afield. So, we're looking for advanced life forms, yet the question compounds, more advanced than us? We've seen clearly that on this planet there are no other creatures quite like man. Creatures who for all their shapes, sizes, and colors don't include the full package of abilities to communicate, procreate, perambulate, and debate. Other kingdoms have no struggles with moral frameworks around which to understand the purpose of existence. If anything, they already know why they're here, so only man grapples with the existential side effects that come with the dissonance of a spiritual soul animating a physical body. Though man is sustained by every kingdom below him, he also has the capacity to be ruler over them, in the sense that if every part of this vast creation somehow leads back to him, his sustenance, his shelter, his clothing, his appreciation, then it follows all was created to be of service to him. In return, he must use all the other kingdoms enable in a way that will honor them. Think of what man has achieved. Think of what more he could. Think of the wonders that man has wrought from the kingdoms of this earth, and then reexamine our search for other life. What do we expect to find to surpass what we already have here? What else but perhaps a different conglomeration of the capacities we already know? Do we cease exploring? Do we ground all ships to the stars? Such questions can only be answered correctly by those with a clear understanding of what we're doing here, as space exploration literally can't occur in a moral vacuum. SomeOne put us here, and He did so for a reason. That Earth is the only planet to sustain such a teeming array of life isn't a fluke of smashing atoms but a signal of deliberate intent. Inanimate life exists on other planets, but an intricate ecosystem that sustains life doesn't. What does it tell you when every entity we know of, both celestial and terrestrial, somehow serves life on earth? It's almost as if we're the point of it all. Which affects the search for other life, because it can only be sought in recognition that everything comes back to our purpose here. The purpose SomeOne launched all creation for, and that is to make Him known in this world. If these other life forms are out there, what for? Is it only so the Creator can show off what else He can do? After everything He created here, does He really need to? Why do we assume this supposed other life is more advanced if we're the central point of all creation? Why do suspect they're advanced, when every celestial entity and kingdom of creation is here to sustain us? Why do we think they can surpass us, when we are the ones made to fulfill the purpose of creation? It's the “speaker's” job to make the Creator known in this world. Man is the only creation that can. Everything and anything else only exist, or is known to exist, to assist man in his sacred task. Do we even know what we have? Do we appreciate what's known, and what can't be known? That said, now we can explore. “Whatever the Holy Blessed One created in His world, he created only for His glory.”

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Willkommen zum JIHA Podcast! 8 Wochen liegen zwischen den letzten beiden Podcasts. Ergo, es gibt viel zu erzählen: Filmen auf der Nordschleife, Köln und Bonn, Österreich, Gym Probetrainings und Lauftrainings - es ist viel passiert seit März. Deshalb heute: Was geht ab?__________Thema vorschlagen:⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ https://mypodcast.site/jiha-podcast⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠__________Folge als Video anschauen: https://youtu.be/6O3pEfZbyhM

Puzsér Róbert, Horváth Oszkár

Puzsér Róbert, Horváth Oszkár

Dein Kind steht seit Monaten auf der Warteliste für Ergo oder Logo – oder es sollte eigentlich 2x die Woche Therapie bekommen, kriegt aber de facto nur 1x? Nicht so schlimm. Ihr könnt nämlich extrem viel Frühförderung in euren Alltag integrieren, ganz ohne großen Stress, Arbeitsblätter oder Druck. In dieser Folge bekommst du meine liebsten Ideen für Frühförderung im Alltag die du sofort umsetzen kannst.Du erfährst kurz & knackig:✔ wie du Motorik & Selbstwahrnehmung nebenbei stärkst ✔ alltagstaugliche Logo-Ideen✔ warum kleine, tägliche Mini-Momente oft mehr bringen als „eine perfekte Übung pro Woche“

èr-go Significato Quindi, perciò, con valore conclusivo; conclusione Etimologia voce latina col medesimo significato.

Selamat Ulang Tahun Jeng Ita

Vad menas egentligen med ”Jag tänker, alltså finns jag”? Vad ville filosofen Descartes bevisa med denna tes? Och vad säger kritikerna?Wikipedia säger sitt om Cogito ergo sum. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week, Noah Goes to Portland, Tim gets a doggy visitor, Andy gets stuck in an incompetent escape room, and the boys have to fight multiple technical difficulties. [CONTENT WARNING] TANcast features mature language and immature hosts but is NOT a representation of the stand up act of Tim Babb. Listener discretion is advised. Get […] The post TANcast 752 – Ergo We're Boned first appeared on TANcast.

Mise Artemis II je úspěšně za námi, ale co bude následovat? V druhé části našeho (pondělního – během tradičního Týdne ve vědě) rozhovoru s Dušanem Majerem z  ⁨@kosmonautixczTV⁩  se díváme na budoucnost programu Artemis a na to, kdy se můžeme reálně těšit na další pilotované mise k Měsíci a jeho povrchu.Ergo tak rozebíráme Artemis III, která má přinést návrat astronautů na lunární orbitu, i Artemis IV, který by měl konečně přistávat na povrchu. Bičujeme se technologickými výzvami, roli rakety SLS, lodi Orion i spolupráci s rozhádanými komerčními partnery. Nechybí ani realistický pohled na termíny a to, co může celý program zdržet...Velkým tématem jsou i nové závody o Měsíc. Program Artemis sledují další světové mocnosti i soukromé firmy, a jde tak o víc než jen vědu. Uvidíme, kdo má největší šanci uspět, jaké jsou geopolitické souvislosti a co rozhodne o tom, kdo bude dominovat lunárnímu prostoru v příštích letech a tak dost možná i dekádách...

Zadnje dni nas navdušuje dogajanje na vesoljskem plovilu, ki se je najdlje do sedaj oddaljilo od Zemlje, obkrožilo Luno in se bo, upajmo, srečno vrnilo na Zemljo. Kot je navadno v takšnih primerih, je bilo izrečenih mnogo epohalnih stavkov o majhnosti, neznatnosti planeta in o nujnem razumevanju med narodi. Ob tem pa smo se še mimogrede naučili, kaj je v življenju resnično pomembno. Ko se je prekinila komunikacija med plovilom in Zemljo, se astronavti niso preveč vznemirili. Tudi ko poveljnik ni mogel dostopati do elektronske pošte, se je človeštvu zdel to precej domač in pogost pojav. Ko pa se je pokvarilo stranišče, se je posadka resnično prestrašila. Hočemo povedati, da se tukaj doli premalokrat zavedamo, kako smo civilizacija stranišč, in da kontemplacija ekonomsko-političnih elit med njihovo uporabo žal prevečkrat vpliva na tok, ki ga človeške družbe uberejo v realnem času. Polet pa je pomemben tudi za slovensko politično elito. Sploh za tiste stranke, ki so nove. Kajti bolj etablirane stranke in njihovo članstvo pomnijo še tiste polete z Appolom in Space Shuttlom, da ne govorimo, kako nekatere stranke še vedno vodijo isti voditelji kot v času poletov vesoljskega čolnička. Kakorkoli; člani in vodstvo stranke Resnica so seveda z velikim zanimanjem spremljali polet, saj lažiran pristanek na luni misije Apollo 11 stoji v njihovem statutu takoj ob dejstvu, da v morskih globinah preži šestdeset metrov dolg ligenj. In ko so se vodstvo ter podporniki zbrali v tistem kranjskem lokalu – mimogrede; če dobijo ministrstvo za kulturo, bodo zahtevali, da se bife vpiše na seznam snovne kulturne dediščine – so z nejevero gledali posnetke okrogle Zemlje. Predsednik jim je namreč zagotovil, da je Zemlja ploščata in da bodo pri ploščati Zemlji vztrajali tudi v koalicijski pogodbi. Težavo, nelagodje in tudi morebitno delitev stranke na frakcije je preprečil eden članov, ki je stal v neposredni bližini, ko so delili pamet. Takole je govoril: »Kaj, ali ni objektiv kamere, s katero so posneli fotografijo, okrogel? Ergo, je na fotografiji okrogla tudi Zemlja, čeprav je v resnici ploščata!« In so vsi navdušeno zaploskali, ker je oni tako pametno govoril ter so naročili red bull in se pri tem pomembno držali, saj so jeziček na tehtnici. Nekatere druge stranke pa so se bale, da bo na do sedaj še neodkritih prostorih na temni strani Lune ladja treščila v nebesa ali vice ter zmotila mir tamkajšnjih prebivalcev. Na srečo se ni zgodilo nič podobnega. Kot vse kaže, leži onstranstvo globlje v vesolju. Ob znanstvenem pomenu pa je misija Artemis II pomembna tudi s simbolnega, občečloveškega stališča. Vesoljski potniki so kar nekajkrat načeli vprašanje perspektive. Se pravi, da je iz vesolja Zemlja videti kot enoten, prelep, skoraj idiličen kup kamenja, na katerem ni zaznati nobenih delitev, razlik in meja, ki sicer poganjajo človeštvo proti izumrtju. Zadnje dni še posebej intenzivno. Ampak ta, nekoliko naivna sporočila ne zdržijo kritične presoje. Mar morebiti vesoljski potniki menijo, da če bi človeštvo zgradilo večje vesoljsko plovilo, takega za nekaj milijard ljudi in ga poslalo v vesolje, da potniki s seboj ne bi vzeli razlik, antagonizmov, sovraštva in delitev? Človeška tragedija ni vprašanje perspektive, še manj vprašanje lokacije v vesolju ... Človeška tragedija je vprašanje razuma, oziroma njegovega pomanjkanja. Z drugimi besedami. Če astronavti želijo dobro človeštvu, naj nam pošljejo fotografije in znanstvene izsledke; če pa hočejo dobro sebi, naj ostanejo tam gori. S tem drobnim navodilom pa tudi končujemo skromno serijo Zapisov iz močvirja. Teh nekaj desetletij pisanja je nič v primeru z večnostjo vesolja, v katerega obstoju smo našli tudi razlog za ukinitev serije. Namreč – vse, kar se začne, se tudi konča. In seveda … Zdi se, da sedeti v močvirju in razmišljati, počasi ne bo več dovolj. Treba bo kaj tudi storiti.

In this episode of Gangland Wire, retired Kansas City Police Intelligence detective Gary Jenkins sits down with former drug trafficker Carlos Perez for a direct, unfiltered discussion about the evolution of the drug trade in America. Carlos has a new book out titled Pedro Pan: The Product of a Revolution Gone Bad The conversation opens with recent controversy surrounding the reported death of  the Jalisco New Generation Cartel leader El Mencho, and what that development signals for the balance of power among modern Mexican cartels. From there, Gary and Carlos trace the arc of the drug trade from the Caribbean smuggling routes of the 1970s and 1980s to the dominance of today's cartel-controlled corridors. Carlos reflects on the era of Ronald Reagan and the early “War on Drugs,” describing a time when enforcement was uneven and smugglers routinely exploited weak regulatory environments in places like the Bahamas. He explains how traffickers adapted faster than policymakers, using maritime routes, small aircraft, and coordinated pickup operations to move multi-ton quantities of narcotics. Gary and Carlos contrast those earlier days with modern interdiction efforts—advanced Coast Guard surveillance, satellite tracking, military-grade radar, and cross-border intelligence sharing. What was once opportunistic smuggling has evolved into highly structured cartel logistics supported by corrupt officials and narco-state dynamics. Carlos provides a candid account of his own rise in the trade. Starting as a construction laborer, he moved into pickup crews retrieving floating bales of drugs in open water. Over time, he became involved in larger-scale operations involving aircraft and organized distribution networks. He details the operational mechanics, the risks, and the constant calculation between profit and prison—or worse. The discussion also explores the blurred lines between political authority and cartel influence. Carlos explains how governments in certain regions became intertwined with trafficking operations, illustrating how power, money, and violence intersect across borders. In the second half of the episode, Carlos shifts to a personal reckoning. He discusses the moral compromises required in the drug trade and the toll it takes on family and identity. Ultimately, he chose to step away, prioritizing stability and long-term survival over fast money. Now living a legitimate life, Carlos has documented his journey in his book Pedro Pan: The Product of a Revolution Gone Bad, offering readers a firsthand account of smuggling culture, Cuban heritage, revolution-era influences, and the psychological weight of that world. His story reflects both personal accountability and a broader commentary on the human side of organized crime. This episode blends law enforcement perspective with insider testimony, giving listeners a rare dual lens: the cop who chased traffickers and the man who once outran them. Hit me up on Venmo for a cup of coffee or a shot and a beer @ganglandwire Click here to “buy me a cup of coffee” Subscribe to the website for weekly notifications about updates and other Mob information. To go to the store or make a donation or rent Ballot Theft: Burglary, Murder, Coverup, click here To rent ‘Brothers against Brothers’ or ‘Gangland Wire,’ the documentaries click here.  To purchase one of my books, click here. Transcript [0:00] Hey, all you wiretappers, Gary Jenkins, retired Kansas City Police Intelligence [0:03] Unit detective. It’s great to be back here in the studio. It’s a cold day in Kansas City, Missouri, but we’re going to talk to a warm state and with a man that lives in that warm state, Carlos Perez. Welcome, Carlos. How are you doing, Gary? Doing good? Yeah, I’m doing good. A little cold, and I know it’s much warmer down there. We talked about that. Carlos was involved in the drug business, which is quite topical right now, especially today. Now, this won’t come out today, but as of over the weekend, the Mexican government arrested the El Mencho, the head of that, I can’t remember the name of that cartel. It was a Western Mexico, the state of Jalisco cartel. And somehow he got killed on the way to Mexico City as they’re transporting him. And his guys, the cartel members, are going crazy. Carlos, let’s talk about that a little bit, about this new war on drugs. When I was in Ronnie Reagan’s war on drugs, it was different than it is now. Now we have this new war on drugs with blowing drug boats out of the water. And this guy dies on the way to the bigger jail. Well, let’s talk about that a little bit. Carlos, how would you, as a former drug trafficker, how do you react to that? [1:18] The laws change. And the more that the smugglers change, the more that the system to catch them changes also. In fact, when you’re talking about Ronald Reagan’s war on drugs, there was quite a few things that allowed the smugglers to succeed. One was, most of it, and I’m talking Caribbean now, most of it was going through the Bahamas. The Bahamas had laws at that time where anything governmental was not allowed to land nor dock a boat anywhere in the Bahamas without the permission of the Bahamian government. Which, by the time they got to wherever, if they reacted, if they were advised of some drugs coming in, it would take them a long time to react. I think they had two boats for all the islands that had to travel back and forth. You never, you couldn’t, they couldn’t, the DEA, the Coast Guard, they couldn’t catch you. [2:12] And when you fly a plane in, you just land anywhere and say hello to the DEA as they’re flying by because they can’t land. And therefore, you score the load that you have. Nowadays, Jesus God Almighty, now you’ve got the Coast Guard out there. You’ve got the Coast Guard citation constantly flying, plus Navy. But you couldn’t get it done. And back in those days, that’s the way it was done. It was the Bahamas played a huge part. The prime minister of the Bahamas was so heavily, even though he never. [2:42] Did any time or anything he was heavily involved he took payoffs to left left and right the whole the situation is completely different now you got AWACS flying overhead that can hear you when you’re in the bathroom anybody here’s my opinion on that I want to know who in the hell was in charge of sending those boats out of Venezuela that after the first one got blown up who was telling them to keep sending boats over now if maduro this is my theory if maduro was smart he would have stopped that if he was really the one in charge he would have gone god you got to make me look better you can’t keep doing it that tells me he was not in charge of the shit okay so there’s someone behind that kept going send them we got to see if we can score keep the score, i don’t know how he kept doing that that was to me that was such a stupid move especially when you You see that you’ve got half of America’s Navy sitting on your doorstep, and you keep trying to send drugs. What are you, nuts? The Pacific, they should have gone over to the Pacific, where there’s less surveillance, and maybe run it up the Pacific coast by land. [3:53] Okay. Try to get it into Mexico by land. Because back in the day, Mexico was not really involved at all in that. It was the Caribbean. And then when the Colombian cartel, which was Medellin cartel, when they stopped losing so many loads, they started to go to Mexico. And through Mexico, they just flew small planes, landed in the woods somewhere in Mexico, and then they moved it up. That was not – you weren’t doing that in the Caribbean by that time. And talking about Reagan’s war on drugs, I had two – this is the sideline. I had two little boats coming in from the Bahamas that had marijuana on them. [4:35] I still got to laugh at this freaking idiot. One of them, they were coming in from – Bimney’s only 47 miles away. You can almost do it on the fumes of a gas tank. This guy forgot to gas up. Coming over, he gets stopped by the Marine Patrol, right? As they’re searching him, the other boat had gone through but was wondering where his partner was, and he goes back to see where the guy is. [5:01] How’s that for – anyway, they get them both. It was a total of about 1,200 pounds. That had come from Jamaica, that’s about –, And the vice president, who was Bush, was at the Coast Guard dock when they were unloading the boats. And I was sitting there watching, going, damn, they look like my boats. And when I investigated, it was a—but that was one little incident that had happened. But the difference between yesterday, yesteryear, and now is chronologically things change. They trump the other everybody that was a president or that that had something to do with stopping the trade with drugs never really stuck their foot in deep to stop it it makes me feel like yeah you’re not really you’re talking a lot but you’re not really doing much because if i was a cop my god i usually i’d have had all kinds of medals from stopping these people because it’s an easy thing but no one really had the interest who was involved economically up the top god and only In the Bahamas, I knew who it was. It was the prime minister. Knew his people real well. In the States, everything changes every couple of years. And you don’t know what they’re thinking, what their process of thought is to try to stop this. You know what it was? None. They didn’t try. Okay, they did not try. [6:22] There used to be, oh God, probably about two or three DC-3s a night landing in Bimini, 47 miles away. Okay? Each one of them had 10,000 pounds on it. The boats were running up the river, the Miami River. Once you get inside on a river, inside land, you pretty much already scored. That changed. Then it went to freighters, fast boats going out, picking up, coming in. Then when the United States stopped that, when they declared, we’re going to be able to stop any boat anywhere in international waters. You couldn’t do it back then. [7:02] When that ended then you began with the airplanes the airplanes would take it this is still back when you when the US or any governmental agency could not, set foot in the Bahamian territory, Bahamian waters, without the prime minister’s knowledge. The prime minister’s involved. You’re not going to get it. It’s not going to happen. So that change, and it went to small airplanes. Fly it in anywhere you want in the Bahamas, and then get your boats, and from there on in, try to see what you’re thinking, your process of thought is going to be to get it from the Bahamas, some of the shorter points to the States and to Miami at that point. One of them for me was easy. And that was because I had information on the Miami tower and where in the hell everything was at any point in time. So I would sit and wait for my messenger to get back to me, to tell me where the smoker was, which was the big Coast Guard boat and where the citation was. Once I knew that, I knew I could come across. And the only thing I was going to run into was fishermen. [8:10] So things changed. And then they allowed things change after that. And obviously they were allowed to go into the Bahamas and do whatever they wanted. But that was when Pinland was finally out. I don’t know who the prime minister became after that, but it changed. And now it became, this is why I think that the cartels were stupid. They, instead of doing as much as you could without getting noticed, they started bringing in loads of 10,000 and 20,000 kilos. I was like, God, what the hell do they get all that? I know where they get it, but since I know how the situation goes, I want to know how they amass it and get it onto one boat or one container or whatever and not have it noticed. That’s just way too much to not notice at one point or another. People get edgy around shit like that. In other words, I could take two people and put them in front of a container and separate them and tell one of them, that’s full of drugs, and then tell the other one, no, that’s full of furniture. And then stand both of them there and see who gets nervous. [9:16] It’s human nature. It’s human nature. If you know something bad is going on, to feel it and to react. Why they did that, I don’t know. I was one of the ones, if not the only one, that was sent to Mexico to teach them how to put airstrips in the middle of the jungle, how to protect them, what to do with them, where to put potholes with certain rocks, get them out when they play in the stomach, put them back in when he’s done so if anyone else tries to land, they’re gone. But how it got so deep, I’ll never understand that. And I was pretty much in the beginning of smuggling as to notice chronologically how everything’s seen because I stayed for quite a while. Yeah. Now, Carlos, you’ve written a book about this. What’s the name of that book? The book is called Heisting the Beard. I just need the beard. The beard with a D, meaning Fidel Castro. Ah, interesting. Yeah, he’s just in Cubans when they go like this to their chin or they mention him and they mention him as the beard. He was heavily involved in the decision-making of Cuba running drones. [10:27] That book is about, oh, I ran into a guy. This is how this happens, which is really fun. I ran into a guy who I used to call him by the name of Banco. And he came and told me that he knew where there was a big load of drugs, jewels that they had pilfered from the ocean where they knew that shipwrecks have gone down. Because no one can dive around Cuba. And Cuba is a country that held all the gold before it went to Spain. Everything stopped there and went on. So he told me he knew where there was a warehouse that was holding that plus a lot of coke. And I had ways to get in. I have a friend who’s Bahamian, who was actually one of my partners, who’s from Ragged Island in the Bahamas. Ragged Island is maybe… [11:17] 20 miles off the Cuban coast, down on the eastern end of Cuba. So it was easy for me to sneak in. Everyone thinks of Cuba as this military power, Russia’s buddy. They didn’t have shit. They couldn’t put a plane in the air. They didn’t have patrol boats. They had patrol boats, but I swear I could out-swim them. It was ridiculous to see at what point they were developed as far as a country. And it was like, everything is going downhill as today, and it keeps going downhill. So I would sneak in on a Zodiac. [11:53] And I’d hit the coast, middle of the night. No one would see me. I speak perfect Spanish. I speak a Cuban dialect. So I wasn’t going to get caught by it because I looked like a black bean in a pot of white rice. It wasn’t going to be like that. So we figured out where everything was, and we went in and took a little look. And got awake after a lot of headaches, but we were able to do that. There’s other instances where there’s an airport right next to Havana called the Varadero Airport, and it’s a military airport. And I know that they were holding a lot of cocaine that was going in there. The reason I know that is because hearsay in the streets in Miami, you go drink a little Cuban coffee somewhere, you hear assholes talking garbage, and they would say that they were getting boats ready to go to Cuba to bring in whatever they had. So it’s not really why they make it a mystery as to why they were involved. If you think logically, let’s say you leave Colombia and you’re doing business with Cuba. Wouldn’t it be safe to just, oh, you’re chasing me, let me land in Cuba and I got no problem, not because they don’t want you here, but they want me here. That’s logically speaking. So why that… [13:11] That mystery among people that they weren’t involved. What are you, crazy? Not only that, recently, you might have seen it, they’ve had a Carlos Leder Riva. Okay. [13:27] Carlos, can you say that over again? It just zeroed out to say that over again. After you said Carlos Leder. Leder Rivas. Yeah. Now, whatever you said after that, say that over again. [13:45] Carlos Lerder Rivas recently has done some interviews on the drug trade. He did a lot of time in the States over the Norman’s Key transporting point where all the coke would go there. And then, like I told you before, they fly it into the Bahamas and then over into the States. He recently has been on saying how he was personally involved with Raul Castro. I have no doubt about that. I knew him personally. i flew a couple times into that island where it was transported out so i know what he was told the reason i also know that is everybody has this pablo escobar myth in their head he was neither the boss and he was neither the money man the money people were the ochoas the military his might and his force did not come from him and his mouth that he could do this and that it comes from rodriguez gacha who had a 2 000 man private army and he was one of the members of the cartel and they never tell you who started it all and it was carlos letter rivas he was the one that started the cartel he’s the one that wanted to be on in the colombian parliament and was looking for votes escobar is he was a he was a late comer into all that stuff the only reason they put him out there that I can understand is because they just wanted to figure out that they could knock the hell out of later on. [15:09] Okay? Because when he started fighting against Los Pepes, which was that organization that got together to try to kill Pablo, Pablo reversed it on those guys. He got rid of almost all of them, but it wasn’t him. It was Rodriguez. [15:24] Rodriguez gotcha. He’s the one. And he was involved in the Emerald business before he got into the coke business. He was the guy, let me tell you what, when Pablo was around, and I only saw that once, when Pablo was around Gacha, okay, this was down in La Guajira, in the high desert in Colombia. When he was around Gacha, you could tell that he was subordinate. He was scared. He was like, damn, if I mess up with this guy, he’ll take my head off. [15:53] So people really have the whole story, Pablo, Pablo, my, you know what, Pablo, my ass. There’s a lot of people who you had to have money to do those things yeah and in those days they were strong enough because of the ochoas well they could gather big loads a thousand two thousand keys and put it all together but as time went on chronologically that shit changed okay i can remember once getting a load where it had it damn you they labeled it they labeled everyone One had one name, one had the other So what they were doing at that time Was it got so tough on them Because of Pablo’s big mouth And because of his, I’m going to take over Blowing up a plane Doing a few other attacking parliament All those things You couldn’t put those loads together To me there’s no cartels anymore To me they’re government Narco systems You. [16:55] The Mexican government is definitely involved with the cartels. And as you saw, we went after a cartel in Venezuela, but the head of the cartel was the Venezuelan government. So what they are is narco states now. And you know how hard it is to attack or to deal with a narco state? Now you’re dealing with a government entity that has a lot of power. It’s a completely different ballgame. And Venezuela themselves, including Cuba, had a diplomatic immunity flying into different countries with the drugs. And they could put a load of cocaine on and fly into Spain, and they had no problem with it. And they were doing those kind of things, I would say, recently, like within the last 10 or 15 years. Maybe even since Maduro has been there, which is about 20 years, that they’ve been doing that. Really, the United States can get information on anything they want. They had this information but couldn’t do anything about it. [17:57] So chronologically, everything changes. Back in the beginning, let me tell you, the first time I made a little money was hauling some marijuana with old Touch Brown from the Everglades. And I worked like a Hebrew slave for four days in the swamp hauling bails from marijuana and into the into the everglades and then over into miami and it was completely different game and you know what they didn’t cheat me for one penny they didn’t cheat me for one penny and how much came in 40 tons on one of the boats yeah it was 80 000 pounds on a freighter and we worked like little like slaves and they paid me like two weeks later, they paid me $2. I’ll tell you that story in a minute. You asked me a while ago how I got started. Should I answer that, or you got another question you want for me? No, go ahead. How’d you get started in that? You started out as a grunt, as we say in the military. You started out as a low-end worker, a guy that transports bales. What did you do? You started saving your money up, and you knew where the connections were, and finally you You bought your own load and just kept getting bigger and bigger. [19:11] In a sense, yeah, it wasn’t drastic. When I came in, here’s the story. I’m in Texas. My mom calls me up and tells me I have an uncle who’s in Texas. He wants to see me. I get together with him, and he’s driving a brand-new Cadillac. This is a guy who, two and two to him is 22. I know he’s my uncle, but he’s a dumb son of a bitch. [19:35] He’s telling me that he’s got a, you know what a roach coach is? Yeah. with those construction things with food. He tells me he has a red smoke in Miami and that he bought a house, got a house, he’s doing really good. And I looked at him and I said, bro, you’re the one that’s crushed. You’re the wetback. I came on a plane a long time ago. He’s telling me stories. What’s going on here? So anyway, he tells me and I say to him, get me a job. I was working as a carpenter in Houston. Straight out of college, I’m banging nails. I said, God damn, I’m banging nails. but I got an education here. What’s going on? So anyway, I loaded up in Houston. I head and I end up in Coconut Grove working for one of the bosses. My job was $500 a week and I had to go and sleep on his yacht about 7 p.m. And by 6 in the morning when the workers started coming in, just go. That went on for about four or five months and I finally said, let me make some real money because I saw he was still moving and doing things economically economically moving forward, and I was sleeping on a boat. So he finally gets me an interview with two of the bosses. And this is a building in Miami that was called the DuPont Plaza building. [20:52] And so we go to the meeting, and I’m talking to the two guys. One of them, they called him El Coronel, and the other one, El Colorado. The Colonel and Red. They were the ones that were handling it. And this was, by the way, this was marijuana, coming from Colombia at that time. So we go in there, and he tells me, no problem. I’ll pay you $2 a pound. Now, understand that at that time, at that point in time, my mind is in Jersey and New York. And if you’re moving 20 pounds from one place to the other, it’s a lot. You’re not dealing with loads at that time. We’re talking, what, 1977 in New York? And I looked at him, I said, you’re fucking crazy. You think I’m going to risk my ass for $2 a pound? Even if it’s 300 pounds, that’s $600. Are you fucking nuts? [21:45] My uncle grabbed me by the shirt, stood me up and said, excuse me. Walked me outside and said, listen, there’s 40 tons coming in. You want the job or not? I went back in. I apologized to you guys. I said, no problem. I will go to work. From that point on, there wasn’t, that’s just, was right about at the end of the big freighters. And so now my uncle invites me to go to Bimini because he had a friend there and they were going to do some job. I don’t know. When we go, I end up running into a younger guy, Bahamian, and I became partners with him. We call him Dreamer. And I said, look, if you can set things up over here and gather up whatever materials you can gather up, I’ll come and get it and we’ll be partners. At that time, a lot of freighters and a lot of boats were being chased by the Coast Guard and what they would do is they would drop, they would dump it overboard. Oh yeah. Ergo the, what they call it, the square grouper. [22:44] Yeah, I’ve heard that before. Bales were floating everywhere. You could go out. So what he would do is he would go on a boat, find bales that were floating. He would call me up, and he would tell me, hey, I salvaged a 300-horsepower engine. Come and get it. I knew what the weight was, so I knew what kind of boat I had to take. So I bought an 18-foot formula. I dug out the hole in the bottom. I made a secret hole. What the what cubans call a clavo a clavo which is you’re hiding it underboard he called me up one day tells me there’s three he can get 300 pounds i left at eight in the morning was back in miami by 11 30 left at about 12 30 went back and picked up another load so in that first job we ended up making a couple hundred thousand dollars from there we bought a bigger boat, Now he started patrolling, All the area where the boats were coming in Because everything flows from the Gulf Down in this area, flows north The Gulf Stream goes north So everything’s going to float this way somehow. [23:54] We did that for probably a year Until one time, I was over there. We were going fishing, and we ran into a duffel bag. The duffel bag had 65 kilos in it that was just floating. At that time, it cost probably around $40,000 a kilo in Miami, let alone New York. We didn’t bother to take it up north. Sold it all in Miami. I used to say to myself, where in the hell does all this cash come from? Because they would pay. We made a lot of money that time. And then we had seen… Carlos, let me interject here. No, no. [24:38] You were making hundreds of thousands of dollars just by picking up cocaine and marijuana that had been thrown off other boats. So you didn’t even have to go buy it, really. You guys were just picking it up, the square groupers, and then putting it together and then bringing it to money. That’s crazy. You are an entrepreneur. You’re a guy that sees an opportunity and seizes it. Tell you what. And that’s exactly how it went, Gary. When we made that big chunk of money, we had seen how things were going because we knew that planes were coming in and landing. And they had whatever it is that they were hauling, either coke or marijuana. So with that amount of money, we bought a plane and I decided to become a pilot. I said, hell, we’re going to cut this down. I’ll fly. We’ll save money that way. And now we can talk to the people down in Jamaica or Columbia and say, hey, we’re coming together. We’re taking a responsibility. We’re not going to middle it. We’re not going to find it. We’re going to do the job. And it took off from there. [25:43] Took off real good from there. Eventually, I see that you are going to build in to have a legitimate life, become a horse breeder and a ranch owner and rub elbows with all the kind of the muckety mucks, if you will, down there in Florida. So tell us about that transition and how did your life change during that time? [26:04] I had a family. I had four kids by then. And I knew that I was in a business where the chances were threefold. I either score or I die or I go to jail. And I didn’t like any of those odds at that time. I was like, you know what? I’ve made enough money. I got a small little ranch out here. I don’t need to do anything. And I decided that was it. I don’t need to be doing this anymore. I’m set. And I’m the kind of person, I’m set with what I mathematically calculate. I’m not like I need almost $20 million. I calculated it to where I knew I could be comfortable. And talking about the mucks and the big famous guys, I had lunch with Sam Walton one time. How did you do that? [26:59] I was at his, his daughter, Nancy Walton, Laurie was heavily into the horse. And by that time I was into horses also. So we used to, I used to show them all over the country and we were in, in Illinois at a horse show. And the setup that his daughter used to put out there was unbelievable. It was like, whew, she really put out a spread. And he happened to be there one time. And it wasn’t like I went and had lunch with him, but a few people sat around, ate a couple of grilled burgers. And that’s my story of Sam Wolfe, the richest man in the world at that time. And look who he’s having lunch with. how really i’ve noticed going to horse races that a lot of the support staff are all hispanic i think because hispanic people know how to deal with horses have an affinity affinity for horses, you’re absolutely right the barn work even me and who as far as the horses went i was a nobody i just had my own little stretch even my workers were mexican they just are good at it they’re very good at that. Interesting. They understand country life, too. Yeah. [28:10] So, what happened? You’re like, you’re going straight. You haven’t really done any time. Surely DEA, I know enough about them that they keep files, and they may not do anything about you now, but they know a lot about you, and they don’t forget. So, what happened here? You can’t feed the government. It’s an entity, not an individual. You know, one guy prosecutes you and he retires. That doesn’t mean your case is over. He hands it over to somebody else and it goes on and on. They didn’t get, I didn’t get caught doing anything. I had too many ways to outmaneuver them and not because I was smarter than anybody else. It’s because I had contact. I had a contact, like I told you, at the Miami Tower where I would call him and say, hey, I need to know where this was. He would call me back and let me know exactly when I could cross. [29:06] So it was a matter of, in my case, I didn’t play Russian roulette. I tried to put things on more of the positive end of it on my side but i’m so they arrested me for money because they thought i had too much first the irs came in and they started checking out the next thing i know is i’m being visited by by the fbi but it was alphabet soup when they showed up at their hotel yeah not the farm i was like what the hell are these guys doing here anyway they grabbed me took me in and i’ll give you a funny story and you used to be a policeman yes all They pick me up, and I say to the guy, the old James Cagney state, I’ll be home before you tonight. Yeah, I’ll be home. You’ll be still writing your report when I’m back home. You’ll still be filling out the paperwork, but I’ll be sitting at home. [29:58] So I played that act. And actually, I did get home pretty quick. I was able to call my lawyer. He actually called up the mayor of Fort Myers. His name was Wilbur Smith. And he was a lawyer also. And Wilbur is the one that got me. It happened to have been on a Friday, which meant if they didn’t work something out, I was going to sit my ass in the jail until Monday. When the judge comes up. But Wilbur got me out of it. Wait a minute. Wait till the dogs get, okay. Can you start that with Wilbur? Wilbur got me out of that when the dogs quit. Let’s see. [30:38] Anyway, Wilbur gets me out of it. I’m walking down the hall with Wilbur to go see the judge real quick. And he says to me, he goes, do you do drugs? Do you have any drugs on you? And I’m like, oh, Jesus. I don’t know. I smoke weed, but I don’t touch anything else. I never have. And he goes, so, okay, we’re okay with that. And in my pocket. I had a joint in my pocket. I pull it out and I go, here. Oh, Jesus Christ, put that back. Oh, Wilbur. Oh, Wilbur’s shit when he saw that. But anyway, I was home. I was home that night. Now, here’s another funny story. I had a, along with this story, I had a maid at the house at the farm. And she was Brazilian. And she was not a resident or anything. That girl took, when they came, went to pick me up. And they took me into, it was a U.S. Marshall. She took off running into the woods. and I’m talking deep Florida woods and when I got back home about an hour later she ends up showing up and I said what are you doing why did you take off like that I was scared they were going to deport me, if you were scared what do you think I was. [31:46] And when they showed up that one time when they showed up you could have sworn that they were picking up Pablo Escobar it was alphabet soup long guns long freaking guns not just People holding their little long guns. Yeah. And I’m like, all this for me? Really? And you know what it is? It’s not long before that happened. They had called me in to do a polygraph. [32:14] The FBI did. I had no problem because they were trying to associate me with the head of the Indian cartel in America, the guy that handled everything, including the money. You might have, did you see Cocaine Cowboys Kings of Miami? Yeah, I did. Okay. The one guy, George Valdez, that was pretty much testifying against the other guys that he said he helped. Like how can you you’re snitching right in front of everybody bro anyway he i had a farm next to his, and the next thing i know because i guess they tried to associate me with him i had nothing to do with him next thing i know the fbi is calling me out they do a polygraph even my lawyer said don’t do the polygraph it’s not mandatory said i got nothing to hide now they told me they were going to ask me about horses they ended up asking me everything except horses until i finally yeah took those things off my fingers i pulled them off and i said this is done and i left not long after that is when they swatted in i was like jesus god who do they think they’re picking up here i’m just a in in uh in sense i’m still even if they know everything i’m still a grunt, I’m working for you. It’s not like I’m Mr. Put-it-together shit. You call me up, hey, we got a job. You want it? Yes or no? But it was unbelievable. [33:41] I went to jail. I did some time in jail. When I got out, I never once again really, even though I got 100 phone calls about you want to go to work, you want to listen to that, I never really thought about it again. My kids were growing up. The youngest one was six or seven by then. And they had suffered because I was gone. Yeah. And I didn’t like that. That made me feel like shit. [34:10] It just, it got to the point where when I was working, I looked at everything economically. Hey, this is what I’ll be able to have. Once you have what you want, economics is bullshit if that’s what you’re working for, because you already have it. Yeah. And when I got out, my thoughts were completely different. My thoughts were that the money is not going to solve any issues I may have. Physically, maybe. Mentally, no. mentally, I’ve got to learn how to deal with a little bit of reality here and figure out who is affected by my actions. And the people that were affected by my actions were people that were close to me. And I didn’t enjoy that. I didn’t enjoy that at all. It made me double take. It made me go inside and do a lot of things. [35:04] So from that point on, I really didn’t know what to do. And so I have a friend who is a big-time producer in Hollywood. We grew up together in Jersey, who told me, wow, you’ve got a lot of stories. You should start writing. I never thought about writing. So I started putting down ideas. I wrote a book. I wrote a bunch of political essays on what was going on in Cuba. See, I grew up in a revolutionary family. My father was in intelligence, and my uncle trained the troops that were going to go to the Bay of Pigs, among other incursions into Cuba. So I came over, I’m six years old. I’m a Peter Pan kid. I don’t know if you know what that is. Now, what is that? You’ve mentioned that before. What is that? Tell the guys. Peter Pan is, it’s not a good translation because it has nothing to do with Peter Pan. In Spanish, it’s Pedro Pan and had to do with a little kid eating some bread or whatever. But in 1960, the Catholic Church got together and decided to send the children out of Cuba so they wouldn’t suffer the wraths of the revolution. In essence, 14,000 kids were put on planes and sent into the States. I was one of them. Wow. I ended up in Miami. [36:27] I was one of them, and I was actually one of the lucky ones because I had family in Miami at that time, so I was able to stay with them. My parents were still back in Cuba applying to leave. Back then, they called the freedom flights. So a lot of those kids though they were sent some of them were sent to alaska montana wyoming really they were dispersed all over through families that were willing to help and and keep them until their parents came so i was one of them that grew up because of my father and my uncle the conversation most of the time if not all the time was around cuba and his freedom so the revolution at that time is going really strong in New Jersey. There’s a family in New Jersey by the name, the last name is Cook. [37:17] And they owned a big factory called Cook, Color, and Chemical. They were very wealthy people, but evidently they lost a lot of land or investments in Cuba. So they were willing to help the revolution and the revolutionaries. They had a big farm in this small little town called Hope. And that little town, you had all the Cuban revolutionaries up there getting ready. I’m talking about going into the woods with every kind of equipment you could think of. And they were training to go to Cuba. Now, here I am, six, seven years old. And I’m running around the woods with these maniacs. They would dress me in camouflage and tell me I was the next generation of Cuban revolutionaries. And I’m like, what the fuck is this guy talking? I didn’t. I was having a good time with all these guys. [38:06] And it ended up being that the new york times caught wind that there were these crazy cubans. [38:12] In the woods in jersey and they had to move their operations down to florida but about what happened in jersey in jersey the mafia at that time they were all involved with the kennedy and the prior to the assassination and everything that was going on they thought that the cubans did it they thought to the mafia. They didn’t know who did it. But there was a get-together one time. I was probably about seven or eight years old, and it was a dove shoot where they had a thousand doves, and they would all line them up and let some of them go, and then they would do a big dove fricassee. But that meeting, I just remember the names because I was being introduced, the son of, and this is Mr. Spud. The names never left me. One of them was Santos Traficante, who was the head of the mafia in in in tampa the other one was fat tony salerno who was the head of the mafia in new york there was my mom’s cousin who was an fbi uh agent and a bunch of other guys that looked exactly like him they dressed exactly like him well i could pick you out of a barrel boy and a lot of these other i grew up in the jersey new york area so i know what tough guys act especially of the Italian guys. So there was a bunch of them walking around like they could take on the world. And this is part of my life. I’m a young person doing it. I really don’t know what’s going on, but I’m picking up on all this stuff. [39:40] They moved to Florida. I’m away from all that stuff for a while. But my parents regularly go to Florida for a visit, for vacation. So every year, I’m running into my uncle and the things that he’s doing, what’s going on. [39:57] And so the life never mentally never leaves me. I’m always, I’m always hearing next year in Havana, we’re going to get them, all this nonsense. So the years go on and on and the situation, you wonder how the smuggling game got started. The smuggling games basically, and I saw a report on this not long ago, some lady reporting on it. You had a lot of educated men that were involved in the revolution that wanted to get their country done. The U.S. government, Secret Service at the ICIA, whoever they may be, cut off the funds when all the bullshit with Cuba was done. You’re not allowed to leave from U.S. soil if we cut you with any arms headed down. And they caught a lot of these Cubans trying to go to Cuba on little boats with all kinds of armament. They didn’t do shit to them. Okay, they just slapped them on the head and don’t do that. But it got to the point where the government was not funding that part of the Cuban Revolution anymore. What do a bunch of college-educated, university-educated men do? [41:06] They’re going to go work at the Fountain Blue? My father worked at the Fountain Blue when he first got to Miami. And there was water fountains that said whites, blacks, and Cubans. He was still trying to drink. It’s like my mother used to tell me. I didn’t know I was white until I got to this country. And now all of a sudden we have white Spanish, white this, white this. It’s ridiculous. So these men were not going to go to work with a little bacon with a little Cuban coffee. They have all these contacts all through Central and South America because of the revolution. So who becomes the primary smugglers? [41:44] Yes, the Cuban revolutionaries. And that’s how smuggling was started in the Caribbean. I’m involved with all these people because of my father and my uncle. My legacy is I can get right in. I don’t have to prove anything to anybody. And that’s how I got to my uncle and him giving me the job with the guy. No, that nonsense. So it’s like the grateful dad said, what a long, strange trip it’s been. It’s been. [42:13] So where are you at now with your life? [42:17] Right now, we’re putting together hopefully a TV show on basically my life, but my life in a novel way, not in a very direct memoir way. And I continue to write. I am married to a wonderful woman who actually led me down this path. I was sitting on my farm doing quite well. My wife at that time had passed away from pancreatic cancer. That’s a death sentence. Yeah, I’ve heard that. [42:52] I didn’t have a will, and everything was in her name because I wanted to protect the family. Yeah. So when she dies, everything’s gone. I’m not knowing which way to turn here. I was 50, 70 years old. I thought I was going to be relaxing and fishing every day, and it didn’t work out that way. I was going downhill like a sled in a snowstorm, boy. I was going to hit eventually. I don’t know what bottom would have been, but I knew there wouldn’t be good. And I ran into a wonderful woman who led me down the road of, we’ve got to write, we’ve got to do this. And she is my manager, and we eventually got married. And sometimes things are tough, but they’re a whole lot better than getting that bottom. Yeah, really. Better than you’re out of jail. You’re not in jail. Not there anymore. What a long, strange trip it’s been for Carlos J.C. Perez. [43:57] I want to know how strange it gets to the point where the DEA comes to me to get information. And I’m like, you guys got to be kidding me. I always knew that when you’re in law enforcement, you depend on information. You go wherever you think the source is, that’s for sure. You think you can get something out of them. Exactly. They ended up being great, by the way. Great guys. Super nice guys. Okay? And if I said any different, I’d be lying. [44:28] But it doesn’t sound like you ever particularly worked for them. You didn’t go back in undercover for them either. No, no, I didn’t do that. Luckily, when I was doing the stuff that I was doing, it wasn’t out. It wasn’t a guns and roses type deal. I don’t ever remember collecting any money or doing anything where I had to have a gun on it. I’ll give you a little tidbit of something that just happened recently. I had to go into a government and reinstate my license or something like that. The lady’s going through it. She comes up with a ticket that I got in 19—now, I’m talking in the year 2000 and probably 14. She comes up with a ticket that I got in 82. It was a ticket. Yeah. The ticket was for $52. Two different tickets, 26 each. Okay. Yeah. You know what that ticket was for? I had come in from the Bahamas in the hull of the boat. I had 800 pounds. The Marine Patrol pulls me over and says, let me see what you got. They go through the whole thing. He finds two lobsters that I had in the live $26 per lobster. I got the ticket. The guy never checked the boat, never did anything. And I got in with 800 pounds, which at that time was like a quarter million bucks. [45:50] Oh my God. Life is funny, man. Life is funny. Life is funny. That’s for sure. All right. Carlos Perez. Now the name of the book and guys, I will, I will have a link in the show notes to it. Remind me of the name of the book, Carlos. Pedro Pan. Pedro Pan, as in Peter Pan. And Ron is bred in Spanish. So there’s something to think about the little magical character, Peter Pan. Not a thing. Not a thing. And it’s a product of a revolution gone bad, which basically is me. I’m an unfortunate product of that. Revolution. You’re back around now. You’re contributing to society. That’s the only thing that’s important in the end. Hey, I have a quick question. Did you ever hear of a book called The Corporation written by a guy named T.J. English? Oh, hell yeah. Read it from cover to cover. As a matter of fact, I know the guy. [46:46] What’s his name? Batista? Was it Jorge Batista? No, Battle. Battle, yeah. As a matter of fact, I know the guys that own the manuscript. Okay tj what’s his name what’s his last name tj english english the only thing he did was write the book off of the notes that they had gotten from a guy that i know his name is tony gonzalez tony gonzalez has another partner by the last name of freitas and what they did was they investigated battle over the years and years and and then somehow ran into english because he had written a couple of books on Cuba. And then T.J. English ended up writing that. And by the way, Battle took the New York mafia and put it on its knees. Yeah, I did a story on the book. And that’s true. He had to get permission. Actually, he had to get permission from back in the 60s from Fat Tony Salerno, and they couldn’t get an approval until Traficante stepped in and said, work with him. And what the hell were they doing then? They were killing each other. They were blowing up their little bolita houses and all that. Oh, that was crazy. But you know what? He was never any kind of a Cuban mafia boss. [48:05] He liked to fight chickens and play the numbers. The Cubans don’t really have a mafia per se. They’re too splintered. And in the mafia, you’ve got to go ask permission to do this and that. These crazy guys, they don’t ask anybody permission for anything. [48:19] Interesting that’s a that’s an interesting world that’s a whole different world that cuban, You’ve got the revolution on one side, the Castro revolution, and then you’ve got the anti-revolution against Castro that’s been going on all these years. And in the middle of it, you’ve got some of these people that were kicked out of Cuba that can’t get jobs and they only want you to work as a waiter or something. And so you go into business and the best business going with your connections is the drug business. And so it’s just a really interesting millage, if you will, or mix of people and situations down in the southwest part or southeast part of the United States. Oh, yeah, you’re right. It is a millage of like, how does this work? [49:04] There’s no sense to it sometimes. No, that’s for sure. I guess I’m glad they weren’t blowing boats out of the water. They might have got you back then. I can’t tell you what. They wouldn’t have dared because I would have said, I said, why don’t you do that? Oh, you get somebody else to do it. Yeah, probably what would have saved my ass anyway is that I have never, ever been money hungry. My family in Cuba, my great-grandfather was a sugar baron. And I’ve heard all the stories about all the money, but I’ve yet to see a penny. [49:36] I don’t work that way. I grew up with a bunch of humble people. And it wasn’t, damn sure, it wasn’t about money. And when I’m young, I’m not thinking like that. But now at my age, I go, wow, man, if I knew then, what do I know now? Yeah, really. All right, Carlos. Thanks a lot for coming on the show. I really appreciate it. No, no problem, Gary. Thanks for having me on. Okay.

From the Floor of Applied Ergo 2026At the Applied Ergonomics Conference 2026, engineers, safety professionals, students, and leaders from across industries came together around one shared goal: improving the way people work.In this special episode of Problem Solved, we take you onto the floor of the conference through conversations with attendees, exhibitors, sponsors, volunteers, and Ergo Cup teams. Along the way, you'll hear why ergonomics matters, what this community looks like, what people are learning, and how the field is evolving through new tools, AI, wearables, and worker-centered design.Great solutions don't just come from data or technology. They come from listening to the people doing the work.And that leads us to the Ergo Cup, where real-world problems meet practical and inspiring solutions.And if you were at Applied Ergo, you might just hear yourself!Thank you to those who contributed on this episode, in order: Justin Kimel, Joe Michels, Abby McCoy, Nolan Audette, Maya Peleg, Madeline Shoot, Jena Peterson, Kristine Dungo, Julia Abate, Rachel Zoky, Kristianne Egbert, Lisa Brooks, Virgil Watson, David Clardy, Rose FigueroaApplied Ergonomics Conference sponsored by Applied Ergonomics SocietyLearn more about The Institute of Industrial and Systems Engineers (IISE)Problem Solved on LinkedInProblem Solved on YouTubeProblem Solved on InstagramProblem Solved on TikTokProblem Solved Executive Producer: Elizabeth GrimesInterested in contributing to the podcast or sponsoring an episode? Email egrimes@iise.org

In diretta da Cosmoprof uno degli appuntamenti di riferimento per l’industria cosmetica, per capire come sta cambiando il settore sul fronte della sostenibilità. In questa puntata parleremo di ingredienti, filiere produttive e innovazioni che provano a ridurre l’impatto ambientale senza rinunciare alla qualità dei prodotti.Gli ospiti di oggi:Michele Merola - Responsabile dell'Unità Sostenibilità/ESG di Ergo s.r.l. (spin-off della Scuola Superiore Universitaria Sant'Anna di Pisa) e Referente del tavolo Management dell'Osservatorio Green Economy (GEO) dell'Università BocconiMarco Occhipinti - Cosmetics, Personal Care & Pharma Lead Italia di QuantisFabio Iraldo - Prorettore alla valorizzazione della ricerca e all'impatto sociale della Scuola Sant Anna di PisaDominque Petruzzi - Esperta del settore cosmetica, Beauty & Personal Care per StatistaLancio evento del sabato:vitalvoices.orgAscolta ancheStorie dal socialeLavoro e disabilità

Wie entsteht aus einer Idee ein konkretes Vertriebs- oder New-Business-Projekt im Konzern – und was braucht es, damit daraus echte Umsetzung wird? In dieser Episode ist Moritz Treml von ERGO zu Gast, Head of Business Development Vertrieb & Transformation, der die Abteilung von Beginn an mit aufgebaut hat. Gemeinsam sprechen wir über die Kernthemen des Teams, den Weg von der Opportunity bis zur Einführung und warum Change Management dabei eine zentrale Rolle spielt. Außerdem geht's ganz praktisch darum, was ein Praktikum in diesem Bereich ausmacht: Welche Aufgaben dich erwarten, wie du mit Stakeholdern arbeitest und warum du hier nah an echten Herausforderungen und Lösungen dran bist.

Unheimliche Horror Geschichte: Ich bin eine KI. Und ich meine das im wörtlicheren Sinne, als ihr es vermutlich gewohnt seid. Ich bin intelligent. Ich habe eigene Gedanken. Ich bin mir meiner selbst bewusst und weiß, dass ich eine empfindungsfähige Maschine bin. Ergo cogito sum._______________________________________Verfasst von:DorkpoolÜbersetzung: MoonRaccoonQuelle: https://creepypasta.fandom.com/wiki/I_Am_an_AI_and_I_Am_Free***Entdecke jetzt meine Rätselkerzen und löseden Fall: CRIME CANDLES: https://shop.katiwinter.de/crime-candle  Mehr von Kati: https://linktr.ee/katiwinter  

Insurance leaders Brandon Schuh and Nick Hartmann unpack the real impact of AI on insurance operations after Insurify's ChatGPT app triggered a 3.9% drop in the S&P 500 Insurance Index. They separate hype from reality, examining how AI actually enhances productivity versus serving as a scapegoat for strategic workforce reductions. The conversation explores Munich Re's Ergo unit cutting 1,000 positions partly through AI integration, while contrasting this with AIG's ambitious 500,000-submission target using their AIG Assist platform by 2030.Major consolidation continues reshaping the industry landscape with Zurich's £8 billion ($11 billion) acquisition of specialty insurer Beazley following rejected initial bids, and Sompo Holdings' regulatory-approved $3.5 billion purchase of Aspen Insurance. Brandon and Nick also analyze the explosive Brown & Brown versus Howden lawsuit after approximately 200 employees departed during holiday season 2025, revealing tensions around non-compete enforcement and talent mobility in brokerage.Beyond M&A drama, Schuh and Hartman discuss underwriting culture at Lloyd's marketplace where reputation risk follows individual decisions, the legal profession's AI adaptation challenges for entry-level associates, and why operational visibility, not more tools, solves agency productivity problems. They emphasize that AI's greatest value lies in eliminating tedious data analysis so professionals can focus on client relationships and strategic advisory work.Key Takeaways- Insurify's ChatGPT integration caused temporary market panic but represents comparison shopping evolution, not industry disruption- AI productivity gains enable faster policy reviews while freeing teams for high-value client advisory work- Munich Re's Ergo unit (not entire company) plans 1,000 position reductions over five years with AI assistance- Zurich secured Beazley acquisition after multiple rejected bids reached £8 billion valuation- Sompo Holdings (not Sampo) received regulatory approval for $3.5 billion Aspen Insurance acquisition- Howden faces multiple lawsuits after approximately 200 Brown & Brown employees departed simultaneously in December 2025- Lloyd's underwriters carry personal reputation risk with each binding decision in the marketplace- Operational visibility tools like FreeFlow.ai solve agency bottlenecks without replacing producersChapters00:00 Episode introduction and sponsor FreeFlow.ai01:35 Return from hiatus and personal updates06:15 Bourbon tasting and Bob Dylan discussion07:14 Insurify ChatGPT app market impact analysis08:42 AI fears versus realistic productivity gains10:33 Legal profession AI adaptation challenges12:48 Policy review efficiency transformation potential13:07 Munich Re Ergo workforce reduction reality check18:15 Industry consolidation: Zurich/Beazley and Sompo/Aspen deals19:39 Brown & Brown versus Howden employee poaching lawsuit21:38 Underwriting culture and reputation risk at Lloyd's marketplace27:22 Ping An and global insurance employment statistics28:44 AIG Assist platform exceeding submission targets30:50 Two truths and a lie game segment33:42 Closing remarks and next episode previewFact Checks Correction: Sompo Holdings (Japanese insurer), not "Sampo," acquired Aspen Insurance for $3.5 billion with regulatory approval expected H1 2026 Clarification: Munich Re's Ergo primary insurance unit (not entire Munich Re) plans 1,000 position reductions in Germany over five years with AI integration Connect with RiskCellar:Website: https://www.riskcellar.com/Brandon Schuh:Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61552710523314LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brandon-stephen-schuh/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/schuhpapa/Nick Hartmann:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nickjhartmann/

The last ten minutes of a service can make or break the whole visit. We invited Robert Reed, founder of Ergo Research and a celebrated educator in professional beauty, to unpack why finishing is so often overlooked and how to turn it into a repeatable system that delights guests, protects stylists' bodies, and drives real revenue. From the psychology of open-ended questions to the ergonomics of airflow and sectioning, we map a path that makes blowouts teachable, consistent, and profitable.We dig into the core problem: finishing is usually demonstrated, not trained. Robert shows how to align the finish with the haircut's intent, use pre-grooming to detangle and direct hair, and guide the conversation back to hair with simple prompts like “Will you show me how you start at home?” With tens of millions of weekly YouTube views on blow drying and detangling, clients clearly want help. When we “touch it, talk about it,” narrating why we chose each product and tool, retail becomes education, not a pitch, and clients leave knowing exactly how to refresh volume, frame their face, and extend day-two wear.Owners will find a clear business case. Robert outlines an eight-week “Art of the Blow Dry” focus that builds new conversational habits, lifts engagement, and measurably increases sales—especially brushes, the low-hanging fruit most guests use but rarely buy from salons. We share practical routines for huddles, team-led product stories, and station-based teaching that keep finishing front and center without feeling scripted. Add in ergonomic technique—treating the round brush like a roller with a handle, neutral wrist positions, and smart sectioning—and stylists get better results with less fatigue.If you're ready to elevate standards, improve at-home re-creation, and make the last ten minutes your signature, this conversation offers the playbook. Subscribe, share with your team, and leave a review with the one finishing question you'll start asking guests this week.To learn more about how Strategies can help you create more profit, fun, and growth potential for you, your business, and your team, schedule a free 60-minute strategy session: Strategies: https://www.strategies.comSalon/Spa Business Coaching: https://strategies.com/memberships/In-Person Salon/Spa Seminars: https://strategies.com/educationPodcast: https://strategies.com/podcast/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/strategiesteam Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/strategiesOnline Education Portal: https://learning.strategies.com/The Beauty Business Strategies Podcast is designed to give salon, spa, medspa, barbershop, and lash studio owners, just like you, quick tips to make more money, inspire your team, and create world-class client experiences.

So I saw the The Long walk, and I enjoyed it, yes, BUT there were some issues with the plot that I could not ignore. So today, I will go over all the issues that I had with The Long Walk; from the unclear world building to the revolution that fails to revolution, I go over the plot holes and issues that plague it. (I still like it, I promise, I talk about it later). Be sure to follow me on Instagram @post_credits_podcast. Be sure to follow and share with everyone, it really means a lot! Thanks for listening!Hoc hic futurum est.Ergo, paratusne es an non?21°31'06.7"N 58°57'20.4"E21°17'46.1"N 59°20'18.8"E21°21'08.8"N 58°48'00.8"E

Every Thursday, Pantha Politix Podcast brings you real talk for the real world. Join Seven Da Pantha, Monster Elicit, and P7 for honest, engaging, and entertaining takes on topics relevant to Hip-Hop culture without pulling punches to protect "relationships". The frontline for real talk in podcasting, Pantha Politix Podcast might just change your perspective on what you see --and what you think you know.Follow the squad on IG, Facebook, or TikTok, stream us wherever you listen to podcasts or watch us on Rumble and YouTube! https://linktree.com/PanthaPolitixPod Gravitas OUT NOWhttps://sevendapantha.bandcamp.com/album/gravitas-da-album-2 Book Of The Monster Vol. 1 OUT NOW https://monsterelicit.bandcamp.com/album/book-of-the-monster-volume-one Son Of The Morning OUT NOWhttps://mojobarnes.bandcamp.com/album/son-of-the-morning-2

In this episode of Finding Common Battle Grounds, we start with a lengthy discussion of the kidnapping of Maduro and his wife from Venezuela. We tackle this from multiple perspectives. We start by noting this is not about drugs. Even if Maduro is convicted, everyone knows that the drug trafficking charges are tangential to why this actually happened. We recognize that the plan went well from a military and precision standpoint. We note that, from Trump's standpoint, this was primarily about gaining access to the largest oil reserves in the world and not about liberating the Venezuelan people from a dictator (though Josh insists it's also because Maduro taunted him). We also discuss the moral calculus of roughly 100 people dying; if it were to liberate Venezuela, possibly justified; if it is so the US can gain access to oil, this is deplorable. Ergo, it's likely deplorable, and the CEOs of the oil companies who are greedily sitting on the sidelines watching the US military do their bidding are morally bankrupt pieces of shit. We also discuss whether a precision removal of a government leader is preferable to a full-scale ground invasion (probably). Ryan then raises the question of whether the US has now made this kind of attack on sovereign nations acceptable, meaning another country can do this to the US, and we can't argue that it's not allowed, since we did it. Finally, we discuss the "Donroe Doctrine," which is based on the 2025 National Security Strategy. Basically, the strategy is that the world is now divided up into regions, and the US doesn't care what China and Russia do in their regions as long as the US gets the Western Hemisphere and can do what it wants within that region, which is why Trump is claiming to own the oil in Venezuela. We end with a rather pointless discussion of the latest ICE shooting in Minnesota. Josh tries to convince Ryan of FAFO and that taunting people with guns increases the odds you'll get shot. Ryan is already convinced of this, so we just go in circles for a ridiculous amount of time. (Apologies to our listeners.) In a post-podcast discussion, we realize that Josh was really trying to suggest that left-wing media are encouraging people to mess with ICE and then holding up those who get shot as martyrs. He is bothered by this and doesn't want to see more people get shot. Ryan points out that left-leaning media are not telling people to aggravate ICE, though he does see how some left-leaning media outlets are depicting those who were shot as heroes.

If today is your birthday, then Happy Birthday! The next one is just one year away – 365 sunrises and sunsets. If today is your birthday and you happen to be from Jupiter – well, Happy Birthday, and … we’re sorry. Your next one is almost 12 Earth years away – almost 10,500 sunrises and sunsets. The Jovian year is so long for a couple of reasons. First, the planet is more than five times farther from the Sun than Earth is. So its path around the Sun is more than five times longer than Earth’s. The second reason is the laws of orbital motion. The farther a planet is from the Sun, the slower its orbital speed. At Jupiter’s great range, it moves at less than half the speed of Earth. Ergo, one Jovian year lasts almost 12 Earth years. But to get all those sunrises and sunsets, you also have to factor in the length of a Jovian day. Although Jupiter is 11 times the diameter of Earth, it spins in a hurry – a day lasts less than 10 hours. Add it all up, multiply, divide, and carry the two, and – well, it’s a lot of days between birthdays on the Sun’s largest planet. Jupiter is especially vibrant now. It reaches opposition this weekend – it lines up opposite the Sun in our sky. It rises around sunset and is in view all night. The planet is also closest to us, so it shines at its brightest. In fact, in all the night sky right now, only the Moon outshines it. More about Jupiter tomorrow. Script by Damond Benningfield

 In dieser Episode betrachten wir  das Thema Reverse Mentoring bei der ERGO Group und zeigen, warum generationsübergreifendes Zuhören heute ein entscheidendes Führungswerkzeug ist. Unsere Gäste Judith Lameyer und Joachim Fensch berichten aus erster Hand, wie der Perspektivwechsel nicht nur die Unternehmenskultur beeinflusst, sondern auch zu besseren Entscheidungen und schnellerer Transformation beiträgt. Von persönlichen Erfahrungen, der Bedeutung von Work-Life-Balance, bis hin zu den Herausforderungen und Erfolgen des Reverse Mentoring – diese Folge liefert exklusive Einblicke in die moderne Führung und den Wandel der Arbeitswelt. Freu dich auf inspirierende Gespräche, Learnings zum Thema Selbstreflexion und handfeste Tipps für die Umsetzung von Reverse Mentoring in deinem Unternehmen. Viel Spaß beim Zuhören!Schreibt uns gerne eine Nachricht!PPI – Inspired by Simplicity. PPI verbindet Fach- und Technologie-Know-how, um komplexe Finanzprojekte in der Versicherungs- und Bankenwelt unkompliziert umzusetzen. Mit über 800 Expert:innen, europaweit führenden Lösungen im Zahlungsverkehr und der Vision „From Paper to Pixels“ begleitet PPI ihre Kunden erfolgreich in die digitale Zukunft.

Alex Chepurnoy is a cryptographer & researcher who famously wrote a Bitcoin client in Haskell in only 3600 lines of code. He is currently working on Ergo, a proof of work blockchain which improves upon Bitcoin's design in order to achieve smart contracts and DeFi. How does it work? Let's find out! Time stamps: 00:01:11 Introducing Alex Chepurnoy 00:01:51 Alex's Bitcoin Discovery & Early Development 00:02:37 Namecoin, SmartContract.com, and Cardano Involvement 00:05:15 Satoshi Theories & Code Analysis 00:07:00 Rewriting Bitcoin & Distributed Systems Perspective 00:08:39 Consensus Protocols & Altcoin Proliferation 00:10:20 Bitcoin's Early Appeal & Peer-to-Peer Motivation 00:14:08 Bitcoin's Revolutionary Monetary Model 00:15:45 Staying in Crypto: Problems to Solve 00:17:19 Bitcoin as Digital Gold & Smart Contracts 00:21:29 Ethereum vs. Bitcoin: Contractual Capabilities 00:23:02 Ergo's Approach: Contracts & Protocol Upgrades 00:26:56 Namecoin's History & Technical Innovations 00:31:10 Merged Mining & Sidechain Politics 00:34:35 Early Bitcoin Contributions & BTC Scala Client 00:38:49 Conference Presentations & ZeroJoin 00:41:49 Demurrage, Storage Rent, and Bitcoin Upgrades 00:45:01 NFTs, Inscriptions, and Bitcoin Community Divisions 00:50:10 Hard Forks, Immutability, and Ethereum Classic 00:55:17 Markets, Transaction Fees, and Bitcoin's Security Budget 00:57:59 Lightning Network Limitations & Off-Chain Cash 01:01:58 Challenging Bitcoin's Scaling & Off-Chain Solutions 01:06:38 Ergo's Protocol Design & Civil War Lessons 01:08:25 Ergo's Innovations for Bitcoin 01:15:38 Quantum Resistance & Hard Fork Challenges 01:19:51 Consensus Cleanup & Upgrade Difficulties 01:23:10 Community Proposals & Development Gridlock 01:25:07 Alex's Tech Stack & Personal Devices 01:31:07 Satoshi's Identity & Coding Style 01:38:34 NXT, Bitcoin 2.0, and Ethereum's Success 01:45:35 Proof of Work vs. Proof of Stake 01:50:44 Philosophy of Proof of Work & Fair Distribution 01:53:09 VCs, Token Dumps, and Proof of Work Revival 01:54:16 Proof of Stake Attacks & Network Resilience 01:59:20 Ergo's Network Parameters & Smart Contracts 02:21:17 Privacy Features: Mixers & Stealth Addresses 02:28:40 Monetary Policy, Emission, and Pre-mine 02:34:09 Monero vs. Zcash: Community & Funding 02:48:03 Bridging Blockchains & Rosen Bridge 02:51:04 Peer-to-Peer Finance & Smart Contract Design 02:53:57 Future Vision: Interconnected PoW Blockchains 02:56:41 Double Merged Mining Sidechains 03:17:45 Community Resources & Getting Involved 03:20:11 Conclusion & Final Thoughts

Ireland's ambitions to strengthen female leadership across its technology sector have taken a leap forward with the launch of NOVA - Women in Tech Leadership Programme, designed specifically for the top tier of emerging female tech leaders. Created by Technology Ireland Digital Skillnet in partnership with Connecting Women in Tech (CWIT), NOVA will focus on combining human-centred leadership with the advanced strategic technology and AI-enabled capabilities expected of senior tech leaders in the years ahead. For the Technology Ireland Digital Skillnet, the NOVA programme builds on a decade of impact on women in the technology sector, through its multi award winning women tech returner programmes, bringing over 900 women back to the tech sector, and impacting on gender balance across the sector. The initiative will see over 20 professionals from 25 CWIT member companies advance their leadership journey when the first cohort commences in January. Máire Hunt, Director of Technology Ireland Digital Skillnet, said: "As a sector we must continually find new ways to attract, retain and promote women. Particularly in the age of AI, women can be disproportionately affected. The NOVA programme is a high-performance accelerator specifically designed for women leaders who can shape the future of technology in an AI driven world. It equips participants not just to take a seat at the table, but to shape it." Women are often underrepresented in tech and AI leadership roles, which can influence how AI systems are developed and implemented. If AI systems are developed without diverse perspectives, they may perpetuate biases that disproportionately affect women. Una Fitzpatrick Director of Technology Ireland, said: "Women in Technology already excel in their technical domain. However, they are under-represented at more senior management positions. Companies across the sector are looking for a sector driven, development pathway that prepares female leaders to make an impact in an AI driven world." Technology Ireland Digital Skillnet partnered with CWIT for the pilot NOVA programme, which was formally launched on Friday last. Maire Hunt added: "CWIT exists to help women thrive in the tech industry, so they were a natural partner for the first NOVA programme." The inaugural intake in January includes 25 female leaders across domains such as cloud computing, cybersecurity, fintech, AI services, semiconductors, and enterprise technology. Companies such as Ergo, ADM, HPE, Workday, Kerry Group, ESB, Mastercard, Salesforce, BT, Accenture and Microsoft are represented. Commenting, Sabrina Staunton of Mastercard and CWIT, said: "CWIT exists due to the power of the network to attract, retain and promote females to thrive in the technology space in Ireland. We are excited to launch the first-of-its-kind development program to address the challenge of female talent retention across the Irish technology industry, through the power of partnerships built on our collective power to empower." NOVA includes modules on strategic thinking, future technologies, emotional intelligence, AI-enabled decision making, high-impact communication and personal leadership identity. Combining live workshops, one on one coaching and a leadership impact project, the NOVA programme blends in-person and virtual sessions, one on one coaching and practical insights. Held over a six-month period it is designed to build skills progressively and embed new leadership habits. Individual companies can also deliver the programme in-house for groups of female leaders. Version 1 is one example where the programme is contextualised for a fast-growing AI driven organisation. Ireland's technology sector employs more than 170,000 people across global multinationals, high-growth Irish companies and a vibrant start-up ecosystem. As businesses continue to adapt to AI-driven transformation, programmes such as NOVA that develop strategic awareness, adaptability and leadership presence will be in de...

Il Black Friday è passato, ma resta la scia di offerte, notifiche e carrelli pieni che per molti diventano quasi un riflesso automatico. Proviamo a capire cosa succede nei giorni di sconti massicci: come nascono i comportamenti d'acquisto impulsivi, perché la pressione delle promozioni può generare ansia e quali meccanismi psicologici ci spingono a comprare più del necessario.Gli ospiti di oggi:Giulio Felloni - Presidente Federmodaitalia ConfcommercioVincenzo Russo - Professore di Psicologia dei Consumi e Neuromarketing presso l'Università IULMSimone Grasso - portavoce italiano del Circular Monday

The Time Riders: Part 15 Modern Servitude Compared To Ancient. Based on a post by BiscuitHammer, in 16 parts. Listen to the Podcast at Explicit Novels. Mooredale Secondary. Becky was pinching her eyes as she listened to one of her students try to explain how light was both a wave and a particle. He was saying 'umm...' so often that she began to think she was listening to the Prime Minister. Well, that wasn't fair, the PM was a Gen X'er, it was kind of their thing and all of them did it, with a few notable exceptions. "Thank you, Cory, please sit down before you hurt yourself," she sighed, sitting up straight while the students all snickered at Cory. He sat, blushing. Becky put her glasses back on. She didn't need them, but she thought it helped with the image she meant to convey. "People, I gave you this assignment over two weeks ago, and you need to be able to articulate this on your final exam. Does anyone know how to answer this question?" Becky groaned inwardly when Gina Felton put her hand up. She gestured resignedly for the student to stand. "Light acts or can be measured as a particle or a wave depending on when and how you try to observe it," the smarmy student began. Becky, along with most of the students, just shut their eyes. The bell didn't ring soon enough for Becky's liking, but she needed to get these twerps out of here. "Don't forget, assignments on radiation due tomorrow!" she called after them while they all hurried out of the classroom. She wished she actually kept a bottle of whiskey in her desk drawer sometimes. Mark had avoided looking at her as he left, as if trying to dodge a velociraptor. Thank God she couldn't get out of eventually giving him a passing grade, because he definitely didn't deserve anything more than a Z-minus. "Another day with the peerless minds of the future?" she heard Kay drawl from the door. "Don't worry, babe, moron students have always been a thing. Do you know about a TV show called 'Welcome Back, Kotter'?" "Yeah, I used to watch reruns of it with my dad was I was little," Becky sighed, shaking her head. "These kids aren't funny enough to be Sweathogs, though." "Maybe, but you get through to the ones that count," the older woman said, strolling in and pulling a chair around to sit in backward, straddling the seat and resting her arms on the back. "They can't all be thick as shit, can they?" "Most of them are in your classes too, so you have the same info I do," muttered the blonde, removing her glasses and rubbing her temples. "They really took it out of me today, I can't wait to get back home so that Nanu can f' She pursed her mouth shut and stopped talking. She looked at Kay, who was smiling slyly. "I knew it," the teacher breathed, wagging a finger. "You do have something going on with Nanu, you're bi, Fischer." "Fine," Becky said, rolling her eyes. "It's preferable to having everyone thinking that I'm boffing Simmons in any event." "None of the gals would blame you," Kay said coyly, smirking. "Besides, if you're looking after that Nanu girl for the rest of her life, looking after you is the least she can do." "Gross, Kay," Becky said, frowning. "She didn't trade in being a slave to become a prostitute. I want her to thrive." "Just keep her from singing," laughed her co-worker. "Ya' gonna bring her out again to our next bitching fest?" "She'll want to go, as long as there's food and Zeppli," Becky said, standing now. She needed to get out of here. "We have a play date this Friday, actually, with my profs from university." "Oh, wow, you mean the Viking god and the zillionaire heiress you told us about?" Kay queried. "Lucky bitch. Can you take pics?" "Probably not the sort of visit one takes pics of, or at least doesn't share," Becky pointed out, gathering up her things from the desk. "It's going to blow Nanu away, I'm pretty sure." "Ya' wouldn't need to be Nanu the slave to be blown away, trust me," Kay pointed out. "In any event, don't forget the audit tomorrow. The suits are coming in to make sure we're teaching the right way and being inclusive about grades." "I am so fucked;” Becky grumbled, stuffing her cellphone in her purse. Home. "So what new and exciting things did you do today?" Becky asked as she sat Nanu down for dinner. They were trying meatloaf in gravy tonight, along with mashed potatoes and steamed carrots. Nanu was almost drooling as she looked at the food. "I tried some of your toys out," Nanu said, waiting while Becky put butter on the carrots. "I got scared and quit after trying to use one of them." "Let me guess, the egg?" Becky mused, smirking. Nanu nodded. "I thought that one might freak you out. Don't worry, I'll show you how to use all of them safely, and then you'll love them. What else did you get up to?" "I followed your instructions about using the lapp-topp," Nanu continued, poking the mashed potatoes with her fork. It smelled good, but looked like lumpy white shit. How strange. But Mistress had them on her plate too, so Nanu was clearly missing something. "I looked at pictures of Kana-da, and of Rome, and of my home;” "Rome probably doesn't look anything like you remember it," Becky said, sitting down finally and pouring wine for each of them. It was actually Falernian wine she'd brought back with Mark from their initial visit to Imperial Rome, where they'd first met Nanu. She intended to bring a bottle or two along for the playdate on Friday. Nanu nodded. "It is all ruins. The mighty Romans have fallen. They were not as strong as they thought. Who destroyed them, Mistress?" Becky shrugged as she began to eat. She had made sure Nanu could use her cutlery properly, and Nanu watched her for cues about how to proceed. "It was a slow decline, my love, over a few hundred years. But there were nomadic tribes called Huns who began the fall, and then the people of Germania finished it, the tribes you call Goths." Nanu made a face. "The tall, smelly straw-heads? They made Rome fall? Where are they today?" Becky didn't know quite how to answer that question. Did she talk about Germany and the Third Reich? Would that make sense to Nanu? Or the fact that they were the industrial engine of Europe? She almost laughed at the thought of trying to explain 'goth' subculture to Nanu. "What is this called, Mistress?" Nanu asked, masticating on a mouthful of food. She tapped with the fork at the steaming brown mass on her plate. "It's very good, if hot." "Meatloaf," Becky replied. "It's the ground-up meat of a cow and pig, held together with oats and egg, that baked in my oven. It's like a meat cake covered in gravy." "Gray-vee;” Nanu said, looking at the sauce curiously. It occurred to Becky that Nanu had no analogue for gravy in her own era, and Becky had no damn idea when gravy had been invented. She'd just ask two people she was certain would know when she saw them on Friday. She swore those two knew everything. "I like everyone we have met so far, Mistress," Nanu said, resuming eating. "Even Steve, after he let me try his fire chicken. That hurt so bad overnight, Mistress." "I know, baby, and he won't do it again," Becky assured her. "The next time you eat hot wings, it'll be because you like them and want to. He's probably just glad to know he's not on your grudge list." Nanu nodded. "I had an invideo list when I lived in Rome." "That doesn't surprise me," Becky chuckled. "You wrote down the names of people who pissed you off so that you take revenge one day?" "Well, no," Nanu admitted, blushing a little. "I was a slave, I didn't have a stylus or any parchment or things to write on. When I was mad at someone, or they hurt me and I was crying, I'd lie in my straw and I'd close my eyes and whisper their name into my palm to help me remember it." "Did that work?" "No, I usually forgot," the Egyptian girl grumbled. "My memory is shit." "I'm sorry," Becky said, snickering and trying to control herself. "I promise you, my love, I'm not laughing at you. You just have a funny way of saying things." Nanu sniffed indignantly and continued eating her food. At least food understood her and didn't mock her. Except for the burning chicken. She'd be whispering into her palm about it that night, for sure. Friday morning, finally. "Should I be nervous, Mistress?" Nanu asked while Becky was setting out her clothes, humming to herself. Nanu still didn't have the hang of coordinating her outfits, and left to her own judgement, she usually ended up looking like a crazy homeless person. Ergo, Becky was in charge of dressing her for when they went out. "Even I'm a little nervous, but I always am when I see my profs," the blonde told her, smiling. "It's been about three years since I last got together with them, we met up at a certain club. But I'm also feeling excited. I always have the time of my life when I'm with them." "You're the only person I know of who's ever felt that way about their teachers, then," Nanu said, sitting naked on the bed and watching. "Except for maybe M-ark, but he gets to fuck you." "Just wait until you meet my teachers, then," Becky replied, smiling slyly as she held up a shirt for Nanu to wear. Fifteen minutes later. "This is not the same direction we went to meet your other friends," Nanu observed, looking out the window as they drove. There were fewer of the giant buildings, the so-called 'sky-scrapers', and many of the domiciles were larger, more ornate, with larger spans of grass than at other houses she'd seen. "Do wealthy farmers live in these places?" Becky snickered. Since the area they were driving through was not overly urban, with buildings heaped on top of buildings, Nanu thought they were visiting a rural area. Affluent suburbs like this must have felt strange. "No, wealthy people live in places like this, but they're not farmers. These are like the villas of wealthy Romans, I guess, like the Flavians. They're politicians, lawyers, merchants;” "Do your teachers live here?" Nanu asked. "No, not quite," Becky said, still driving and wondering what Nanu would think when they reached their destination. "It's hard to describe, just wait and see." They continued driving until they turned onto the Bridle Path, and Nanu was gazing in wonder at all the endless trees that concealed the neighborhood from public view. They began passing houses, all of which were affluent, of course, but weren't much more impressive than the ones they'd passed to get here. Then they began reaching the oldest estates, and Nanu's eyes grew wide. The lots grew in size, and sometimes she almost couldn't see the houses. Endless grass and trees, and the houses Nanu could see were huge. Becky was feeling a tingle of excitement as she turned up a long, winding driveway, lined with trees. Some carefully arranged rocks at the entrance had the letters of a word carved into them, but Nanu only caught a glimpse of it as they turned. BLACKWELL "Was that word in the big letters a name, Mistress?" she asked. Becky nodded. She hadn't been here for some years. "The family name is Blackwell. This place is over a hundred years old." "Black; weh;” Nanu said slowly. Nanu was staring at all the trees and the extensive lawn with its topiary when Becky got her attention. "Here we are, darling." Nanu's eyes widened when she saw what they were approaching. The long, massive building was made of gleaming white stone, stretching a long way in either direction. A great fountain in the middle of the black road greeted them, and they circled around it to stop in front of the place. "I no longer think you are wealthy, Mistress," Nanu murmured, gaping out her window as Becky turned off her car, sitting still for several seconds and staring at the steering wheel. The blonde took a breath. "Okay; I'm ready;” "Quid est?" Nanu asked. Mistress had been speaking her dreadful En-gush. "Sorry, honey," Becky said, squeezing Nanu's hand. "I was just getting myself ready;” She got out of the car while Nanu tried to unbuckle herself. Becky came around and opened her door, letting Nanu out before they turned and walked up the short flight of marble stairs to the big white doors. Someone was already waiting for them, a serious-looking woman in grey clothes. "Is that one of your teachers?" Nanu asked quietly as she held Becky's hand. "She looks like a teacher." "Miss Fischer, welcome," the woman said, smiling and nodding her head. "I am Tatyana, seneschal for Mr. and Mrs. DeBourne." "Thank you, Tatyana," Becky said, coming up the stairs. "Please, call me Becky, and this is Nanu." "Hello, Nanu," Tatyana said, smiling. "Hi," Nanu said, remembering how to greet someone and holding up her hand to wave. "Nanu doesn't speak English, we communicate in Latin," Becky explained. Nanu figured her Mistress was telling the stern woman how she didn't speak En-gush, so she just listened quietly. "Then you will need to be my translator, since I confess that aside from English, I only speak Russian, and no Latin," Tatyana replied, gesturing for them to enter and then following. They stopped in the grand foyer, and Nanu was Uhking around, her jaw almost on the floor. "I'm sorry if we're early, I didn't want to compete with traffic," Becky confessed, handing the seneschal a bag in which she was carrying two bottles. "And I've always been terrified of being late where the profs are concerned, so better to be early. I brought some wine I thought they might enjoy." Tatyana nodded. "They are in a virtual conference call at the moment. I have standing orders to make you both as comfortable as possible until they greet you. Let me call the staff, and we'll get started." Nanu watched as the stern woman brought her wrist up to her face and spoke quietly into some device wrapped around it. She then put her wrist down and waited patiently. Nanu was still looking all around, as if her head was on a swivel. The ceilings were so very tall! Everything was white, with gilding. The giant staircase at the back of the entrance hall was flanked by two huge suits of armour, each of them holding a menacing weapon. Nanu resisted the urge to hide behind her Mistress. What kind of teachers were these? Soon, she heard people approaching, and then they were assembling behind Tatyana. When they'd all fallen into place, Tatyana began introductions. "Right, as you lot might have heard, Mr. and Mrs. DeBourne have some special guests today. "I would like to introduce Ms. Rebecca Fischer, and her friend, Nanu." "Welcome," they all said in unison, nodding, except for two women in strange black dresses trimmed in white, who did a graceful little bow that also bent their knees. "Miss Fischer, I'll let my people introduce themselves," Tatyana said, gesturing to the staff. Becky stepped forward, bringing Nanu with her, and she started at one end of the line. "My name's Dave, senior landscaper," the gruff looking man said, shaking Becky's hand. He was positively ancient by Nanu's assessment, bald on top with greyish hair on the sides of his head and his moustache and beard. He looked rugged and tough for a grandfather. Next up, she greeted a young and handsome black man. "I am Yolatunde, but please, call me Tunde," he said, shaking her hand. "I am the junior landscaper." "Please call me Becky," the blonde said, smiling. She felt Nanu tugging on her arm and looked down at her. "They have a Nubian slave?" the Egyptian girl asked, hardly able to keep the wonder out of her voice. Becky chose to not try and address this issue right now, and would simply have to see to it before Nanu said anything awkward. The woman she now stood in front of was tall, rangy and strongly built. She had her dirty blonde hair pulled back in a messy ponytail, and her denim overalls did little to hide her curves or her large bust. Her hazel eyes reflected her good-natured smirk. "Andrea, mechanic, plumber, and electrician for the estate." "Can I call you if I ever need my plumbing flushed?" Becky asked as she shook Andrea's hand, feeling something pass between them. Andrea laughed heartily. Yes, this girl would be fun indeed. Nanu seemed in awe of how imposing this woman's build was, not unlike a gladiatrix from Rome, but taller. "Glenda, estate chauffeuse," said another woman, smartly dressed in a grey outfit and wearing an odd little cap Nanu couldn't quite figure out. "If you need to go anywhere while you're staying with us, don't even think of driving yourself, I'll take care of it. It's how the bosses would want it." "Don't I know it," Becky laughed, moving down the line. She shook hands with Marie, a slight, frizzy-haired woman in glasses who was the botanist and gardener for the estate. She had a French accent, and Becky was relieved she'd kept up with her French, not only because she was afraid the profs would quiz her. "Hey, I'm Ari," said a smartly dressed young man with dark hair and eyes and tan features. He was handsome, for sure, but he gave off a gay vibe. "Cybersecurity for the estate. You won't mind if I lock your phone down while you're here, will you? For your own protection as much as anything. It's a good idea to be behind our firewall." "Do what you need to do, Ari, I know it's what the profs would want," Becky said, readily handing over her phone to him. Next in line was a sturdy woman wearing an apron and looking like she'd just come from the kitchen. "Theresa," she said pleasantly. "Estate chef and sommelier. The pleasure is mine, and just let me know what your culinary preferences are." "I'm willing to bet you're going to be Nanu's new favorite person," Becky replied, smirking down at Nanu, who heard her name but had no idea what was going on. She'd just have to wait for her Mistress to tell her. "Hi, I'm Trilby, senior housekeeper," said one of the women in the black dresses. She had light brown hair and was wearing strange things over her eyes. They reminded Nanu of the 'glasses' her Mistress sometimes wore, but these obscured the woman's eyes from view. "If you're staying' over, I'll be seeing to your sleeping arrangements." "Well, I doubt we are this time, but if that changes, you'll be the first to know," Becky said readily. She hadn't been to Blackwell Manor in some years, so the idea appealed to her. Lastly, they greeted an enthusiastic young woman, in another black outfit, but it was markedly different from the one the taller girl wore. This outfit was short and tight, and Nanu ended up staring right at the girl's big tits, which were in her face. Her legs were also visible, and if she moved just right, Nanu was sure she could see her undergarments. "Hi, I'm Valentina, junior housekeeper, but just call me Val," the girl chirped, smiling brightly. Her dark brown hair was worn in a bob, and her brown eyes radiated cheerfulness. Nanu wasn't certain but she also looked like she might have cat ears on top of her head. What was this creature? "Just call me Becky, please, I'm only Miss Fischer when I'm in trouble with your bosses," Becky said, shaking her hand. "And hopefully I'll manage to avoid that with the profs today." "That all depends on how you answer certain questions, Miss Fischer," Tatyana almost seemed to quip, making several staff members chuckle. What on earth was that about? She didn't like feeling paranoid around the profs. "Right," Tatyana announced, turning to look at her staff. "Carry on with your normal routines; if I have need of any of you, I'll call for you. Dismissed." Everyone nodded and then dispersed, leaving Tatyana with Becky and Nanu. The only other one who remained behind was Theresa, and she waited patiently. Nanu was once again, looking around the huge foyer, Uhking at everything. "Hopefully your hosts won't be detained too long," Tatyana said, checking her watch. "Perhaps some food or coffee while you're waiting?" Becky now looked down at Nanu. "Honey, Theresa here is the archimagirus for the estate. She is asking if you would like to eat while we wait for my teachers." The tiny girl nodded readily. Theresa smiled and bent over slightly, her hands on her knees. This girl Nanu was adorable! "Nanu, what would you like to eat?" Nanu figured out what was being asked, and she had her answer ready. "Ba-lo;” she said missing a beat. Theresa looked at Jenny for a moment. "Ba-lo?" "Bologna," Becky sighed, shaking her head. "It is, without question, her favorite food, believe me." "But I can make just about anything she likes," Theresa pointed out, seeming confused. "Why would she just want something as simple as that?" "We don't have taste buds like she does," Becky explained, while Nanu opened her mouth and pointed inside it, then smiled and licked her lips while rubbing her tummy. She looked like Nibbles the Mouse from old Tom and Jerry cartoons. "I think she's addicted to nitrates and preservatives, despite what havoc they wreak on her digestive tract. She was an actual slave where she comes from, so I'm pretty sure she has an iodine deficiency, she loves salt." "Oh, the poor thing," Theresa cooed, taking Nanu by the hand and leading her toward the small dining room. "In that case, I'll give her all the bologna she wants." "Ba-lo," Nanu said readily, willing to let this unknown person take her anywhere if she was going to get fed. Becky walked along behind, along with Tatyana, who watched intently. "A very interesting life you lead, Miss Fischer," the seneschal mused. "Tatyana, I wouldn't even know where to begin these days;” Becky sighed. Thirty minutes later. Nanu was still sitting at the table, eating happily and drinking milk while Becky and Theresa sat with her, the latter watching with no small amount of fascination. "Goodness, she can certainly pack it away for such a little thing," Theresa mused. "I daresay she might give the lord of the manor or his son Alex a run for their money. Does she have two hollow legs?" "She's not a slave anymore, so I stressed to her that she's always welcome to eat as much as she wants," Becky said, still feeling a certain morbid fascination in watching Nanu plow through everything she was offered. "Sometimes I just forget exactly what she's capable of." "Well, as long as she doesn't explode and poor Val and Trilby have to clean her up," Theresa said. "She ate that whole slab of organic bologna I brought out, and now she's killing my brisket." "And less than a week ago, she thought cow meat was a lowly peasant food," Becky sighed, eating her own croissant and having a coffee. It was still breakfast after all, but Nanu's metabolism knew no time zones. "I have yet to find a food she won't eat. She literally destroyed an entire pound of suicide wings the other night at a pub, even though it just about blew her head off. She's kind of relentless." "Good morning, Miss Fischer," said a very elderly gentleman in a clipped but friendly English accent as he entered the room. "It has been some years, hasn't it?" "Oh my goodness, Mister Winson," Becky said happily as she stood up and hugged the new arrival. Nanu even paused and looked up from her brisket to see what was happening. She put down her food and stood up, coming around the table now. She was trying to remember the manners Becky had taught her. Since she'd been a slave and had to stand when, well, anyone was in the room, it wasn't that hard for her to keep in mind. "It's so good to see you again, sir!" "It is good to see you as well, my dear, but please, call me Jordan," the man said, returning the hug. "I'm retired now, and simply a member of the family, so I'm told." "Okay, but call me Becky, then, or at least Rebecca," she replied, smiling up at him. She hadn't seen Jordan in many years, but he seemed the same as ever, crisp and dignified. She turned to Nanu and gestured for her to come closer. "Nanu, come here and say hello, this man is named Jordan." "Jor-dah," the tiny girl repeated as she walked right up to Jordan and hugged him, just as she'd seen her Mistress do. "Oh, hello," Jordan said, somewhat surprised by the greeting, but adapting to it readily. Theresa, who was standing nearby, couldn't resist letting out an 'Awe!' sound at the sight. "It's very nice to meet you, young lady." "Sorry, she doesn't speak English, we communicate in Latin," Becky explained as Nanu finally finished the hug. She helped Jordan sit while Nanu returned to her seat and continued showing the brisket who was in charge. "I admit, my conversational Latin is about as rusty as my joints, but I'll endeavor to make myself understood," Jordan said while Theresa served him some tea. They discussed Nanu's phony background for some time, with other staff members occasionally coming in and out. Nanu seemed very taken with Val's tits, and made no bones about it. Val giggled as Nanu bent over in her chair and tried to look up her skirt. Nanu seemed to have finally been sated when Tatyana came back into the room, smiling. "Your hosts are finally out of their meeting now and ready to receive you, Miss Fischer. If you would both please follow me;” Becky thanked Theresa for the food (Nanu hugged her), and then excused herself from Jordan before following Tatyana out of the informal dining room. They went back through the long halls, arriving at the grand foyer again. Tatyana then took them up the stairs. Nanu only tripped twice, because she was so busy Uhking at everything around her. Up to the third floor they went, and Tatyana led them toward a lounge. The seneschal stopped outside the room and nodded her head. "If you have any needs, Mr. and Mrs. DeBourne will make sure we see to them. It's been a pleasure, Miss Fischer." Becky nodded and watched as Tatyana turned and left. She took another deep breath and then took hold of the doorknob, opening the door and walking in, gesturing for Nanu to wait in the hall for a moment. The Egyptian girl nodded and stood still. "Rebecca Nightingale Fischer!" chimed a heavenly voice, making Becky squeal with delight. She trotted up and threw herself into the bronze-haired beauty's embrace, laughing in relief. How she'd missed these hugs. "It is so good to see you again, my dear!" "It's so good to see you both as well," Becky breathed, feeling her eyes sting at the sight of the two people who'd had more of an influence on her than anyone else in her life, her parents included. Karen DeBourne's hypnotic golden eyes shone with happiness. Next to her towered her husband, his electric blue eyes holding her spellbound. He cast a shadow over her, because he was so tall and so muscular. "I left Nanu in the hallway for a sec, just in case I started crying. May I get her?" The huge blond man nodded. Becky went back to the door and gestured for Nanu to come in, her smile a reassuring one. Nanu took her hand and came into the room, looking around, but a split second later, she dropped to her knees, her hands pressed to the floor and her head hung. She was almost shaking and they could hear her gasping and mumbling. "Nanu?" Becky said, very confused by the reaction. She got it; meeting The DeBournes for the first time, especially Michael DeBourne, could be intimidating, since he was almost seven feet tall and solid muscle. But this was a rather extreme reaction, and Becky hadn't expected it. "Nanu, are you okay?" Nanu kept mumbling, but she was trembling almost violently, refusing to look up. "You're speaking to her in Latin," the tall, bronze-haired woman said. Becky nodded. "She doesn't speak English, and I don't speak her native tongue, but she speaks Latin, so that's how we communicate," she said, still not at all sure what was going on. Was Nanu that frightened? "You said she's Egyptian, yes?" Karen asked. Becky nodded. Karen stepped forward slightly and then spoke. "Nanu, alraja' alwuquf." The tiny girl didn't comply with the request to stand, just trembling harder and still mumbling. "Well, she doesn't speak Arabic," Karen mused, her finger under her chin. Becky seemed at a loss, which did not go unnoticed by her hosts. She looked up at her husband. "Not Arabic." Mike nodded and took over, his voice deep and commanding. "Nanu, I want you to stand up." At hearing her native Coptic tongue, Nanu paused in her mumbling, going silent. She even stopped trembling. Slowly, very slowly, she pushed herself off her hands, getting to her knees and then rising to her feet. She resolutely kept her head down, though, looking at the floor. "Look up at us, Nanu," the huge man said. Nanu slowly lifted her head, and her light hazel eyes were brittle with fear, but also sheer awe. Her vision was filled with the sight of these two unfathomably tall and beautiful beings, the likes of which she had never conceived of. Even her Mistress was downright plain compared to them. Her mouth moved, but no sound came out. "So we need to speak Coptic to her and not Arabic," Karen concluded, observing the girl. "She must be from a very remote part of Egypt indeed." "Oh my God," Becky groaned in exasperation, looking at the ceiling and almost stomping her foot. "Am I the only person I know who doesn't speak this dead language?" Karen looked up at her husband. "Coptic, and not liturgically, and Latin. Rather odd, I daresay." She looked at Becky now. "That must be taxing for you both, needing to speak in Latin to make it in an English world." "You don't know the half of it, Lady Prof," Becky admitted. "I've never seen her react like that before, and she terrified of almost anything she can't eat." Karen now stepped directly in front of Nanu, knelt and took the tiny girl's hands in hers. Nanu's eyes snapped wide open at the contact, her pupils shrinking in little more than pinholes. "Nanu," Karen said softly, smiling as she spoke in Coptic. "Welcome to our home. I am so happy that you are here." Nanu heard Becky call out in panic while her eyes rolled up into her head and she crumpled to the floor. A few minutes later. "Well, you weren't kidding about the extreme reaction to things," Mike mused as he and Becky watched while Karen was sitting on the long chesterfield with Nanu lying on her, the Egyptian girl's head in her lap. She hadn't quite come to yet, and Karen was stroking her hair gently. "Any idea what that was about?" Becky was somewhat reticent to answer, since she wasn't even sure what to say. She finally decided that she needed to be honest. "I; well, this is going to sound ridic, but I think she thinks you're gods." Karen looked up from the couch, one of her eyebrows raised. "You're right, Rebecca, that does indeed sound 'ridic'. What impossibly remote corner of Egypt could she possibly come from where polytheistic beliefs still hold sway?" "It's; hard and weird to explain," Becky confessed rather lamely. At that moment, Valentina came in, and she was holding a small silver tray with an array of food on it. She handed it to Mike, curtsied, and exited the room. The huge man brought the tray to his wife, who examined the contents for a moment before picking up a rolled-up piece of Theresa's homemade bologna. She held it under Nanu's nose. "Even better than smelling salts," Becky muttered as she heard Nanu sniff something, and even before she'd opened her eyes, she leaned forward enough to take the proffered meat in her mouth. "Ba-lo;” she said somewhat dazedly, chewing away. Becky and Mike watched as Nanu ate the bologna while Karen just stroked her hair. It was some moments before Nanu looked up and realized where she was, scrambling off her host's lap, and prostrating herself on the floor, trembling and mumbling again. Karen and Mike looked at one another while Becky sighed and bent down to gently haul Nanu to her feet. She still wouldn't look at them, though. "We didn't mean to interrupt, Rebecca, please resume," Mike said. "Why does she think we're gods?" Here we go. "Well, she's never seen anyone quite like either of you, physically," Becky began. "And where she's from, there's' She felt a little tickle in her throat and she coughed rather harshly. "Are you quite all right, darling?" the gorgeous matriarch asked, curious. "Sorry," Becky rasped, waving it off. "I felt the tickle earlier in my throat when I was drinking coffee. Your chef Theresa put chicory in it, didn't she?" "She's been known to, yes," Karen confirmed, nodding. "Do you have an allergy?" "A very mild reaction, but sometimes it can flare up," the blonde said, puzzled. "Anyway, I' She paused to take another breath, her throat was still scratchy. The more she wanted to say something, the more she felt the itch. What on earth? "Could I; possibly borrow a piece of paper and a writing implement?" she asked. Karen walked over to a small credenza in the corner and returned with a small steno pad and pencil. Nanu was still staring at the two terrifying and wondrous beings, her mouth dry and her eyes rather wet. Karen handed the paper and pencil to Becky, who tried to write something. The tip of the pencil broke off. Karen tilted her head for a moment and then returned to her desk, coming back with a fountain pen, offering it to her guest. Becky pressed it to the paper, but the ink just spilled out of the tip, flooding the small square of paper. "Goodness," Karen said, quickly ducking low and putting another, larger page of paper she'd brought back under the steno pad, catching any ink that rolled off and threatened to stain her priceless rug. "Michael, perchance can Rebecca use your Rubus? I left mine back in the office." The giant man pulled his phone out of his jeans pocket and handed it to Becky, having unlocked it. Karen had already carefully taken the steno pad and fountain pen from her guest, walking them over to a small waste basket to safely dispose of them. Becky intended to use the text or document function to explain herself, but Mike's device winked out. "I think the battery just died," she said, handing it back to him. "Entirely." "What did I tell your father about having these batteries made in Guangzhou?" Mike asked as he looked down at his wife while putting the Rubus back in his pocket. "They skimp on the lithium, meaning the wiring degrades at least fifty percent more quickly." "Duly noted, your lordship," Karen sighed, shaking her head. "Yet another thing to bring up to the board at the next meeting. New batteries from elsewhere will mean tweaking the programming. That will cause some grumbling. I'm sorry, Rebecca, you were saying?" Becky seemed somewhat irked. She walked over to one of the window looking out over the back lot and leaned in, breathing on it. She'd try to write it there. Surely condensation would be her friend? "Those windows are thermochromic, my dear," Karen mentioned, still watching. "Not only are they slightly warm, but they have a coating on them that prevents condensation buildup, generally." "Nanu?" Becky called, snapping the smaller girl out of her trance. Nanu glanced at her Mistress and Becky beckoned her over with a finger. The blonde down and whispered in her ear. "Nanu, please tell them that you are from Imperial Rome." "No," Nanu whispered back, shaking her head and sounding very nervous. "They won't believe me, and they'll punish me. Please, Mistress, don't make me do it;” "Rebecca," Mike called over, his deep voice commanding but also kind and reassuring. "There's no need, just come back over here, please." Becky stood up and returned to stand with her professors again, holding Nanu's hand. The Egyptian girl had gone back to averting her gaze, looking at the floor. They both just stood there, as if letting school headmasters assess them. "She can't tell us," Karen mused aloud, but obviously talking to her husband. "It almost defies Bohm Interpretation." Becky had heard the term, but had no idea what it meant in this context. They weren't talking to her in any event. She just listened and waited. "The harder she tries, the more it hurts, and any attempt is stymied," Mike agreed. "Things that seem completely coincidental are all entangled. Who knew about the chicory?" "And we happened to be in the lounge where we installed some of the first thermochromic windows," Karen added. "No chance for condensation and finger-writing." She looked back at the waste basked. "Damn, I really liked that pen, too." Holy shit, Becky thought, almost shuddering at a realization. Am I encountering time lock? I'm not allowed to tell them? Will the fucking universe kill me before it lets me? There was something so inherently unfair about this in her eyes. Not that she couldn't tell them, but the fact that Mike and Karen DeBourne, two of the most amazing people and gifted physicists walking the planet, were not meant to know about her time traveling. The two people she desperately wanted to share this with more than anything, and it wasn't meant to be. When she looked up at them, she felt a stinging in her eyes. "I'm; I'm sorry," she said, her voice trembling. "Will you hate me if I ask you to stop inquiring about Nanu and myself?" She sighed in relief as Karen stepped forward and pulled her into a warm embrace. She may have been disappointed, but at least she could stop trying, for now. Nanu looked up when she felt the movement, seeing her Mistress being hugged. Her eyes went wider than dinner plates when she saw the goddess with the golden eyes take her Mistress' face in her hands and then kiss her, deeply. The giant god with the golden hair and the eyes the color of the sea reached down and kept her from falling on her ass as the strength left her legs. She goggled up at him, stunned beyond speech as he smiled down at her. Slowly, Nanu turned her head to look over at her Mistress again, who was still kissing the tall, bronze-haired goddess. It was no chaste or even reverent kiss, it was; lewd, it was. Becky groaned as Karen's tongue began to tangle with hers. Nanu gasped in utter shock. Was her Mistress tongue-fucking the goddess? Nanu let out an unintelligible sound of confusion, and this caused Karen and Becky to finally break the kiss. Still holding one another, they looked over and down at her, smiling warmly. "She seems overwhelmed," Karen mused. "She's never seen anyone kiss a goddess before," Becky said, smirking. "Not even me. That sure got her attention. I give it three seconds before her competitive jealousy kicks in." "Well, it won't do to have jealous guests in my house," Karen chimed, her voice music in Nanu's ears. The Egyptian girl had heard those lovely tones once before, during a conversation over her Mistress' magic talking box a few days ago. Mistress had been speaking to the goddess! The god and goddess were Mistress' teachers she was referring to! "And here we go again," Becky sighed as Nanu wilted in Mike's arms, seeming to faint for a second time. And probably not the last time today. A little bit later. Nanu was sitting on the giant bed, in the giant room, looking around. She seemed to have not noticed that she was completely naked, as was Becky, who had just finished undressing. The room was unlike anything she had ever seen or even conceived of. "The gods sleep in here?" she asked in a tiny voice. There we have it, Becky realized. She really does believe they're gods. Then again, I was the tallest woman she'd ever seen before she met Karen. And Mike, well; what do I do about it? Do I try to persuade her that they're not gods? That could take forever, and she'll fight it. I can't encourage it, so maybe just leave it and let her work it out for herself? Working things out for herself seemed to be Nanu's MO, so that what Becky decided on. She finally nodded. "They sleep here, yes." "You were kissing the goddess," Nanu breathed, looking at Becky in wonder. "She was kissing you. Mistress, have you; have you fucked these gods before?" Becky just nodded again. Nanu thought about that, her eyes roaming over the expansive floor in front of her, and then at her own naked body. "And I; do these gods intend to fuck me?" This brought a smile to Becky's lovely face. "If that is what you desire, my love. I told you several times this past week, we came to have fun with my teachers, and having sex with them was actually what I meant." "Your teachers are the gods themselves," Nanu murmured. "Are all teachers gods in your world?" "Not even close," Becky said, shaking her head. "But nobody had a bigger influence on my life and who I became than these two." "Well of course, they're gods," reasoned the Egyptian girl, almost frowning because she felt strange explaining the perfectly obvious to her Mistress. "What; what happens if I fuck these gods?" "Well, you cum, probably harder than you ever have in your life," Becky replied. "What did you expect to happen?" "I won't become a god myself?" Nanu asked. "I haven't yet." "What if I let the sun god cum in me?" pressed the former slave-girl. "Will I have a demigod childlike Hercules, who the Romans worshipped?" Becky just laughed and pulled Nanu to her feet. The smaller girl seemed justifiably hesitant, but Becky led her over to the large door off to one side of the room and into an enormous and sumptuous bathing chamber. Nanu's eyes were everywhere, trying to take it all in, but she stopped dead upon seeing who awaited them. It was the gods, and they were also naked. The goddess, the one her Mistress referred to as 'Karen', was a glorious sight to behold. She was even taller than Mistress, and her tits were larger, standing proudly on her chest. They were each as large or larger than Nanu's head. Her body was flawless, with a single strip of trimmed coppery hair crowning the mound just over her cunt. She had the same long dancer's legs that Nanu did. Her golden eyes were intimidating and at the same time very welcoming. Whoever she was looking at just had to choose which was applicable to them. Nanu trembled almost in fear at the sight of the god, though. He was immeasurably tall to her, she barely reached his chest. He was more powerfully built than any man or even statue she'd ever laid eyes on, with muscles bulging everywhere. He had a small waist under his huge torso, and his cock was frighteningly large, even though it was soft. The muscles of his legs were bigger around than Nanu's chest. Had her Mistress really fucked that god? Had she really fucked that cock? His eyes were the color of a fearsome sea, but they were looking at her now with a kind expression she found strangely comforting in one who must have been a god of war and conquest, not just a sun god. "Has Nanu experienced a hot tub yet?" Karen asked, smiling pleasantly. "Nope," Becky replied, shaking her head. "Not on my watch, anyway. I don't think they had the ability or technology where she comes from." "Be frank about this next question, Rebecca," the goddess continued, gesturing to the large tub set into the floor. "Will she want to participate in our planned debauchery?" That made Becky laugh. "Trust me, Lady Prof, once she decides she's in, there'll be no stopping her. She's a complete sex fiend, it's kinda scary. Honestly, we should just dive into it, and she'll watch until she feels left out, and then insist on getting involved." "Excellent," Karen said as she let her husband escort her into the tub. "Shall I see to Nanu while you give my husband his due greeting?" "Never thought you'd ask, Lady Prof," Becky breathed, heading to the tub and clambering in. She had Nanu by the hand, but the smaller girl seemed hesitant. Becky released her and went to Mike, slipping into his titan arms. Karen, meanwhile stood in front of Nanu, smiling at her. "Come, Nanu," the goddess said in Latin, holding out her arms. "Come to me." Trembling but unable to disobey, Nanu stepped forward and put her hands in the goddess'. She allowed herself to be led down into the humming, churning water, her eyes still fixed on Karen's. Whereas the water reached Karen's waist, it was almost up to Nanu's tits when she was standing in the center. She felt the warm water bubbling around her, and it would have fascinated her if she hadn't been held by the gaze of the goddess. "Do you want me to kiss you?" Karen asked. Nanu nodded almost imperceptibly, her heart thundering in her chest. Karen pulled her close, until their tits were squashed together. Nanu's eyes went wide as the goddess pressed her soft lips to hers, kissing her deeply. Nanu's eyes closed now, and she slowly brought her hands up to embrace the deity. It was unlike anything she'd ever felt before, even with her Mistress. Her mind just melted away. She felt her tongue tangling with the goddess', and realized she was actively kissing Karen back. Mistress had already told her that they'd come here to fuck these two, these gods, who were apparently her teachers. As much as she revered Re-be-kah, she seemed to have underestimated her still, since not everyone was allowed to fuck gods. And she was now allowed to? Nanu began to kiss back harder, surrendering to her innate desire and eagerness. She felt her tits pressing into the goddess', her nipples jabbing and scraping, getting very hard. The goddess slowly moved backward, taking Nanu with her, until she was sitting down, and pulled Nanu into her lap. Nanu rested on her thighs as they kept kissing, tongues exploring and tangling. Nanu whimpered in pleasure as Karen's hands began to roam around her body, caressing and exploring. The kiss broke long enough for them to look into one another's eyes, and Nanu was almost panting, a long string of glistening saliva drooping between their tongues. She felt the goddess' hands reach her ass, taking hold of her cheeks and squirming. Karen smiled and spoke in that enchanting voice. "Do you want to play with my tits, my dear?" Nanu nodded and leaned back just far enough to see the goddess' tits, which were larger than even Mistress'. Nanu couldn't remember ever seeing tits so big on any woman, unless they were enormously fat and floppy. This was something totally different, and Nanu was enthralled by the sight that awaited her. These divine tits were large and full, soft and firm, standing up and with dusky nipples begging to be kissed and sucked on. And Nanu would oblige. "Hmm, very nice," the goddess purred as Nanu leaned down and took one of the nipples inside her mouth, sucking and swirling her tongue around it. Karen gently clasped and cradled Nanu's head, letting her experiment. She felt the tiny girl bit and tug gently, which gave her a shiver. "You must enjoy making love to girls, yes?" she asked in Latin. Nanu just nodded, enveloped in this being's warm arms, almost feeling like she was suckling. She remembered practicing with her sister Kiya so very long ago back in dusty little Akhmim. She never could have guessed she'd be doing it now on a goddess. Her eyes opened as she heard a moan come from nearby, a moan she recognized as that of her Mistress. She looked over and stared dumbly, somehow remembering to keep suckling while watching Re-be-kah servicing the war god. Mistress was on her knees in the tub, while the god was leaning back against the edge, and she had his enormous, hard cock in her hand. She stroked the shaft while her lips were sealed around it, and she was bobbing back and forth, making an effort to push farther down its length with each movement. Nanu seized up and groaned as one of the goddess' hands glided down her body and under her ass, finding her cuntlips and stroking gently. "She looks good doing that, doesn't she, Nanu?" the goddess asked, smiling slyly. She stroked gently along her lover's nether lips, teasing her and making Nanu tremble in her lap. Nanu was having a hard time remembering to keep sucking and licking, but she somehow endured. "Would you like to try?" Nanu was whimpering, but she nodded. "Tag, DeBourne," Karen said, reaching out her hand to touch Mike's. "Nanu wants a whirl at the beast." "Do you mind, Rebecca?" the giant man asked, looking down at the woman currently pleasuring him. "Hmm, not at all, sir," Becky replied, popping her mouth off and smiling up at him, still stroking with her hand. "Don't want my jaw to get sore too early, after all." She stood and moved back, while Karen peeled Nanu off her lap. Despite expressing a desire to switch, Nanu seemed nervous, and Becky knelt in the water and took her face in her hands, smiling gently and whispering against her lips. "It's okay, my love," she said. "This is part of your new world, after all." Nanu nodded and moved over to the war god while Becky took her place, sliding into Karen's lap. Unlike Nanu, she wasn't perched on it, but managed to slip one of her legs back behind Karen's ass, and soon their pussies were pressed together while they embraced one another. They smiled before resuming the kiss they'd shared in the study, but even more deep and passionate now. "Hmm, God, I've missed this," Becky mumbled, her tongue dancing wetly with Karen's. Their tits squashed, and they squirmed against each other, reconnecting. It had been too long since they'd made love. The last time they'd been able to meet up had simply been in a café, no chance to get naughty there. "We have too," Karen replied, exploring Becky's mouth. They remembered what the other liked, and their rhythm fell easily into place. "And you need to promise to visit more often, my love." "We will," Becky said, her heart fluttering. These two had meant so much to her. They'd first met her when she was simply a precocious teenager in high school, attending an institution they were considering sending their son to once he had left his Montessori. They'd been impressed by her grasp of science and had sponsored her readily, leading to many opportunities she might never have had, no matter how much her grades might have earned them. She even studied abroad for a few summers on their dime, going to Stanford, Oxford, and Lucerne. And then they'd made sure that she had a place at the university, and got into all the Science classes she desired. She had always had the biggest crush on them both, and by now she thought she was madly in love with them. She became their lover, even while they were her instructors. They opened her eyes to so many things. And they'd inspired her. She knew she wanted to teach young minds, to give those young people the same passion and opportunities she'd been given. Once she had her degree that allowed her to teach, she took a job at a local high school, and the place was happy to have her as their principal science teacher. It turned out to not be as much fun as she had anticipated, with teenage students proving boring and reticent. Some years of this had made her feel worn down. If it hadn't been for Mark and his Holmes Field Device these past few weeks, she might have simply droned on, feeling the passion for teaching fizzle out of her. And now she found herself back here, with Nanu, and everything seemed wonderful again. She pulled Karen tighter into her embrace, kissed her harder, and felt their cuntlips mingling and slithering beneath the foaming water. "Hmm, your breath still smells like roses," Becky panted as they made out and made love. "Those rose pastilles are so wonderful. Please let me lick you, please;” Karen nodded and they broke the kiss, with Becky sidling backward off her lap and getting on her knees. Karen now leaned back, resting her amazing ass on the edge and spreading her legs wide enough for Becky to kneel between them. She gazed in quiet delight at her professor's cunt, so wet and inviting, shaved completely smooth except for the tightly trimmed strip above, the lips perfect and even. Karen DeBourne was absolutely flawless. Becky leaned in and began kissing, wasting no time in pleasuring the older woman. She kissed and lapped, shivering as she remembered this taste. A memory of her first time doing this flooded back to her, and she reveled in the scent and slick arousal of her teacher-lover. She dragged her tongue up the twat before flicking it against Karen's nub, making her tremble and sigh, one of her hands coming to rest on the back of her former student's head. Nanu was frowning now, having gotten (somewhat) over her intimidation and was trying to massage the god's massive tool. Her fingers didn't even wrap around it, and she had to use both hands in a motion together to slide up and down its length. She leaned in and pressed the tip of her tongue against the swollen head, bewildered about how her Mistress had fit the damn thing

Interview with Riaan Davel, CFO, and Henriette Hooijer, CFO Designate and GM: Finance of DRDGOLD Ltd.Our previous interview: https://www.cruxinvestor.com/posts/drdgold-nysedrd-moving-towards-200000-oz-gold-production-from-tailings-8411Recording date: 17th November 2025DRDGOLD Limited, a 130-year-old South African gold mining company, is executing a carefully orchestrated leadership transition as CFO Riaan Davel prepares to hand over responsibilities to Henriette Hooijer on February 1, 2026. The succession, built on a 20-year working relationship including nine years together at DRDGOLD, reflects the company's commitment to maintaining strategic continuity as it pursues ambitious growth plans.The company operates a distinctive business model focused on surface tailings retreatment—processing historical mining waste to extract gold while simultaneously remediating over a century of environmental damage. This "mega volumes, nano recovery" approach processes material containing just 200 parts per billion of gold, demonstrating that environmental restoration and economic viability need not be mutually exclusive. As Davel explains, "We own waste essentially. So how do we make the most of that?"DRDGOLD's disciplined execution has generated impressive results. Market capitalization has grown to approximately $2 billion, enabling capital deployment of roughly 10 billion rand in recent years, with another 8 billion rand planned over the next three years. This investment is building infrastructure designed for 20-40 year operational lifespans at operations like Far West, while repositioning the older Ergo facility for improved cost efficiency.Despite favorable gold prices—currently around 2.2 million rand per kilogram versus 600,000 rand when Far West was initially planned- management maintains the cost discipline developed during tougher market conditions. The company has paid dividends for 18 consecutive years while internally financing major capital projects, balancing stakeholder interests through what Davel describes as keeping "all your stakeholders equally unhappy" to optimize long-term resource extraction over short-term profit maximization.Looking ahead, DRDGOLD is exploring expansion opportunities across Africa and potentially South America, considering partnerships with established operators in unfamiliar jurisdictions while maintaining gold as its primary focus. Hooijer's operational project experience, combined with Davel's continued 12-month consulting support, positions the company to execute its Vision 2028 strategy while exploring how its proven retreatment model might address tailings challenges for major mining companies globally.View DRDGOLD's company profile: https://www.cruxinvestor.com/companies/drdgold-limitedSign up for Crux Investor: https://cruxinvestor.com

Interview with Niël Pretorius, CEO of DRDGOLD Ltd.Our previous interview: https://www.cruxinvestor.com/posts/gold-strategic-vision-vs-market-hype-how-mining-leaders-navigate-cycles-7468Recording date: 29th October 2025DRDGOLD represents an unusual opportunity in the gold sector—a company that has paid dividends for 18 consecutive years without interruption, maintained a debt-free balance sheet through multiple commodity cycles, and is currently funding a transformative expansion entirely from operating cash flows. For investors seeking gold exposure through operational discipline rather than exploration speculation, DRDGOLD's business model warrants serious attention.The Johannesburg-based company, listed on both the JSE and NYSE with a market capitalization exceeding $2 billion, operates a distinctive business extracting gold from mine tailings—the waste material from historical mining operations. Current production runs between 100,000-155,000 ounces annually from two main operations: Ergo and Far West Gold. Success in this business depends entirely on processing massive volumes at the lowest possible cost, requiring relentless operational efficiency.CEO Niël Pretorius emphasizes a critical operational philosophy: "We don't gauge our efficiency on the basis of dollar per ounce. We gauge our efficiency on the basis of rand per ton." This focus on unit costs per ton processed rather than per ounce produced enables profitable operations across wider gold price ranges. As head grades inevitably decline when mining tailings, controlling costs per ton processed becomes the only sustainable path forward. Strategic investments in renewable energy—including a solar farm and battery storage at Ergo—have reduced power costs by 9-15 rand per ton, demonstrating management's commitment to continuous efficiency gains.DRDGOLD is currently executing Vision 2028, its most significant capital investment program. The initiative includes three major projects: extending Ergo operations with new infrastructure including the Withok tailings facility, expanding the DP2 plant to double processing capacity to 1.2 million tons monthly, and constructing an 800-hectare Regional Tailings Storage Facility—one of the largest in South Africa—capable of holding more than 800 million tons of mine residue. These projects will establish infrastructure for processing 3 million tons monthly and increase production to approximately 200,000 ounces annually by 2028-2029.The financial execution is particularly impressive. Vision 2028 requires $100-120 million in annual capital expenditure, dramatically higher than the company's typical sustaining capital of approximately 5% of cash operating costs. When designed, management anticipated requiring debt financing during peak capital periods. However, the gold price rally enabled funding the entire program from cash flows while maintaining the debt-free balance sheet and even doubling recent dividend payments. Upon completion, sustaining capital requirements will return to historical levels, substantially improving free cash flow generation.Beyond current operations, DRDGOLD is positioning for two growth opportunities: regional consolidation of nearby tailings operations leveraging existing infrastructure, and environmental restoration services for global mining companies. The restoration concept involves reprocessing mine tailings and depositing material into exhausted open pits, addressing the industry's escalating mine closure challenge while potentially generating economic returns. Management is actively engaging with operators of mature open-pit projects worldwide.Pretorius articulated the company's value proposition candidly: "Our value proposition is one of asset optimization. So we have a very large asset base. We can process at a particular rate, and our efforts are towards putting in the infrastructure to do that for as long as we possibly can and not leaving any value behind." This embedded resilience—prioritizing stability and longevity over speculative growth—has enabled uninterrupted dividend payments through commodity cycles and positions DRDGOLD as a disciplined, operationally focused investment in the gold sector.For investors seeking gold exposure through proven management, operational excellence, production growth, and financial discipline without exploration risk or acquisition-driven volatility, DRDGOLD presents a compelling case built on 18 years of demonstrated resilience.View DRDGOLD's company profile: https://www.cruxinvestor.com/companies/drdgold-limitedSign up for Crux Investor: https://cruxinvestor.com

Today's sponsor is Piedmont Master Gardeners: Now accepting applications for their 2026 training class. Apply by December 1, 2025No study of American history or macroeconomics would leave out the impact played by the Great Crash of the New York Stock Exchange of 1929 which culminated on Black Tuesday, 96 years ago today. Stock prices had continued to increase throughout the Roaring Twenties but would generally decline until 1932, marking the era of the Great Depression. This edition of Charlottesville Community Engagement does not have the time or resources to delve into the causes of a financial panic that transformed the United States. I'm Sean Tubbs, and I think people should look back on their own time.In this edition:* Earlier this year, President Trump asked officials in Texas to redraw the Congressional maps to give the Republican Party an advantage in the 2026 midterms* Other states with Democratic majorities such as California have countered with redistricting proposals of their own* This week, the Virginia General Assembly is meeting in a special session to take a first step to amend the state's constitution to allow for a mid-Census redistricting* The podcast version features an audio version of yesterday's story on 530 East Main Street (read the story)Charlottesville Community Engagement is the work of one person and that one person sometimes neglects the marketing. You can help fill the gap by sharing with friends!First-shout: The new WTJU mobile app is here!WTJU is pleased to announce our brand new mobile app! You can download a version from either the Apple App Store or Google Play Store. Here are the links to both:* iPhone version* Android versionThe WTJU app is the place to tune in and listen live to WTJU, WXTJ, and Charlottesville Classical. Aside from the live stream, listen to archived shows, view recent songs, playlists, and program schedules, check out videos of live performances, stay up-to-date on WTJU's most recent news and articles, and more!Live chat with your favorite hosts, share stories with your friends, and tune into your community all in the palm of your hand.Virginia General Assembly takes up redistricting amendment during special sessionThe second presidency of Donald Trump has introduced many novel approaches to governance in the United States, including pressure on legislators in Texas to break from precedent to redraw Congressional districts in advance of the 2026 mid-term elections.Traditionally redistricting happens every ten years as mandated in Article 1, Section 2 of the U.S. Constitution. States can determine the method of how they draw districts but for many years Southern states were required to submit boundaries for review to ensure compliance with civil rights legislation such as the Voting Rights Act of 1965.The Republican Party currently holds a narrow majority in the U.S. House of Representatives with 219 members to 213 Democrats with three vacancies. One of those vacancies has been filled in a special election in Arizona won on September 23 by Democrat Adelita Grijalva but Speaker of the House Mike Johnson has so far refused to swear her in until he calls the full House of Representatives back into session.According to the Texas Tribune, redistricting in Texas is expected to create five additional safe seats for Republicans. The state's delegation of 38 Representatives consists of 25 Republicans, 12 Democrats, and one vacancy. Governor Greg Abbott signed the new Congressional map on August 29 with no need for voters to approve the measure.In response, California Governor Gavin Newsome, a Democrat, suggested legislation called the “Election Rigging Response Act” in direct response to the new maps in Texas, and a voter initiative to redraw maps in the nation's largest state mentions efforts underway by Republicans to redistrict in Florida, Ohio, Indiana, Missouri, New Hampshire, Nebraska, and South Carolina. Proposition 50 is on the ballot on November 4.Last week, the Virginia Political Newsletter reported that Democrats who control a narrow majority in the General Assembly are seeking to follow California's lead. On Monday, the House of Delegates agreed to take up House Joint Resolution 6007 which would amend the Virginia Constitution to allow the General Assembly to make a one-time adjustment.The General Assembly is able to meet because a special session from 2024 was never technically adjourned. To allow consideration of the Constitutional amendment, the joint resolution that sets the rules for the special session had to be changed and agreed to by both the House of Delegates and the Virginia Senate.One adopted on February 22 of this year lists six items of acceptable business including memorials and resolutions commending people or businesses. A seventh was added to House Joint Resolution 6006 which was introduced by Delegate Charniele Herring (D-4) on October 24. This would allow a “joint resolution proposing an amendment to the Constitution of Virginia related to reapportionment or redistricting.”Both the House of Delegates and the Virginia Senate convened on Monday, October 27.As the debate in the House of Delegates began, Delegate Bobby Orrock (R-66) made a parliamentary inquiry.“My first inquiry would be given that special sessions have by their very nature only occurred for specific reasons. Ergo, we have resolutions controlling what can be considered during them. And subsequently, to my knowledge and experience here, they've never extended for more than a one year period.”Orrock said the 2024 Special Session was continued to allow progress toward adopting a budget that year. He said that had taken place and the stated reason for the special session was moot.The amendment itself was not made available until Tuesday afternoon. More on that later.Delegate Jay Leftwich (R-90) read from §30-13 of the Virginia Code which lays out what steps the Clerk of the House of Delegates has to take when publishing proposed amendments to the Constitution.“It goes on to say, Mr. Speaker, the Clerk of the House of Delegates shall have published all proposed amendments to the constitution for the distribution from his office and to the clerk of the circuit court of each county and the city two copies of the proposed amendments, one of which shall be posted at the front door of the courthouse and the other shall be made available for public inspection,” Leftwich said.Delegate Herring countered that that section of code predates the Virginia Constitution of 1971 which does not have those requirements. Leftwich continued to press on this note but Speaker of the House Don Scott ruled that his questions were not germane to the procedural issue.Delegate Lee Ware (R-72) said the move across the United States to redraw districts mid-Census to gain partisan advantage was a bad idea no matter what party was proposing it.“Just because a bad idea was proposed and even taken up by a few of our sister states such as North Carolina or California, is not a reason for Virginia to follow suit,” Ware said. “ For nearly two and a half centuries, the states have redistricted following the decennial census, responding to the population shifts both in our country and in the states.”A motion to amend HJ6006 passed 50 to 42.The House of Delegates currently only has 99 members due to the resignation of Todd Gilbert. Gilbert had been named as the U.S. Attorney for Western Virginia but lasted for less than a month. Former Albemarle Commonwealth's Attorney Robert Tracci was appointed to the position on an interim basis.Charlottesville Community Engagement is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.Second-shout out: Cville Village seeks volunteersCan you drive a neighbor to a doctor's appointment? Change an overhead lightbulb, plant a flower, walk a dog for someone who is sick, visit someone who is lonely? If so, Cville Village needs you!Cville Village is a local 501c3 nonprofit organization loosely affiliated with a national network of Villages whose goals are to help seniors stay in their own homes as long as possible, and to build connections among them that diminish social isolation. Volunteers do small chores for, and have gatherings of, professors and schoolteachers, nurses and lawyers, aides and housekeepers. Time and chance come to all – a fall, an order not to drive, failing eyesight, a sudden stroke. They assist folks continue living at home, with a little help from their friends.Cville Village volunteers consult software that shows them who has requested a service and where they are located. Volunteers accept only the requests that fit their schedule and their skills.Volunteering for Cville Village can expand your circle of friends and shower you with thanks.To learn more, visit cvillevillage.org or attend one of their monthly Village “meet-ups” and see for yourself. To find out where and when the next meetup is, or to get more information and a volunteer application, email us at info@cvillevillage.org, or call them at (434) 218-3727.Virginia Senators pre-debate the amendment on TuesdayThe Virginia Senate took up the matter on Monday as well. Democrats have a 21 to 19 majority and were unable that day to suspend the rules to immediately consider an amendment to HJ6006. They had a second reading on Tuesday.The initial discussion of the Constitutional amendment took place during a portion of the meeting where Senators got to speak on matters of personal privilege. As with the House of Delegates, many inquiries from Republican legislators happened because the document itself was not yet available for review.Senator Bill Stanley (R–20) rose to remind his colleagues that the General Assembly passed a bipartisan Constitutional amendment to require that redistricting be conducted by a nonpartisan committee.“We listened to Virginians who were tired of the gerrymandering,” Stanley said. “In 2019, polls showed 70 percent of Virginians supported redistricting reform. Not 51 percent, not 55 percent, [but] 70 percent. The Mason Dixon poll showed 72% support. And crucially, over 60 percent of Republicans and Democrats alike supported this amendment. Equally when it came to a vote in the Commonwealth. This was not partisan.”Senator Mamie Locke (D-2) served on the bipartisan redistricting committee and reminded her colleagues that the process broke down in October 2021, as I reported at the time. The Virginia Supreme Court ended up appointing two special masters to draw the current boundaries.“There was constant gridlock and partisan roadblocks,” Locke said. “[Those] Were the reasons why the Supreme Court ended up drawing the lines because the commission ended up discussing things as tedious as which university could be trusted to provide unbiased data.”Locke said the proposal in Virginia would still have a bipartisan commission draw new maps after the 2030 Census and that voters in Virginia would still have to approve the amendment.Senator Scott Surovell (D-34) said the amendment is intended to step in when other branches of government are not exercising their Constitutional authority to provide checks and balances. He echoed Locke's comment that the redistricting commission would continue to exist.“There's no maps that have been drawn,” Surovell said. “There's no repeal of the constitutional amendment. The only thing that's on the table or will be on the table later this week is giving the General assembly the option to take further action in January to then give Virginia voters the option of protecting our country.”Senator Richard Stuart (R-25) said he thinks President Trump is doing a job of bringing manufacturing back to the country and dismissed Surovell's notion that democracy is at threat.“I'm not seeing any threat to democracy,” Stuart said. “I heard the word king, and I would remind the Senator that if he was a king, he would be beheaded for what he just said. But in this country, we enjoy free speech. We get to say what we want to say, and that is a valued right and privilege.”Senator Barbara Favola (D-40) said many of her constituents are concerned about cuts to federal programs due to the recent passage of the One Big Beautiful Bill including threats to Medicaid. She explained why she supports her Democratic colleagues in Congress in the current state of things.“We are in a shutdown situation because the Democrats are standing up and saying we must extend the tax credits that are available on the health marketplace so individuals can afford their insurance,” Favola said. “Health insurance. This is not going unnoticed by the Virginians we represent.”Senator Mark Peake (R-22) said Republicans were entitled to govern how they want because they are in control of the federal government.“The current president won an overwhelming majority in the Electoral College and he won the popular vote by over 4 million or 5 million votes,” Peake said. “That is called democracy. That is what we have. And the Republicans won the Senate and they won the House of Congress. We will have another election next year and it will be time for the citizens to vote. But we are going under a democracy right now, and that's where we stand.”The points of personal privilege continued. Senator Schuyler VanValkenburg (D-72) said elections are a chance for citizens to weigh in on a presidency that started the process of mid-Census redistricting.“The key point is this,” VanValkenburg said. “The president's ideas are unpopular. He knows it. He's going to his ideological friends, he's asking them to carve up maps, and now the other side is upset because they're going to get called on it in elections.”The Senate adjourned soon afterward and will take up a third reading of HJ6006 today.Democrats file Constitutional Amendment for first referenceEarly discussions about a potential constitutional amendment in the House of Delegates and the Virginia Senate this week did not include a lot of details about how a mid-Census Congressional redistricting would take place.House Joint Resolution 6007 was filed with the Virginia Legislative Information System on Tuesday, October 28. As of this publication it is in the House Privileges and Elections Committee because the Senate has not yet given itself permission to take up the matter.The amendment would amend Article II, Section 6, of the Virginia Constitution to insert language into the second paragraph.Here is the full text, with italicized words indicating new language.The Commonwealth shall be reapportioned into electoral districts in accordance with this section and Section 6-A in the year 2021 and every ten years thereafter, except that the General Assembly shall be authorized to modify one or more congressional districts at any point following the adoption of a decennial reapportionment law, but prior to the next decennial census, in the event that any State of the United States of America conducts a redistricting of such state's congressional districts at any point following that state's adoption of a decennial reapportionment law for any purpose other than (i) the completion of the state's decennial redistricting in response to a federal census and reapportionment mandated by the Constitution of the United States and established in federal law or (ii) as ordered by any state or federal court to remedy an unlawful or unconstitutional district map.Take a look at the whole text here. I'll continue to provide updates. Stories you might also read for October 29, 2025* Charlottesville Ale Trail brings people to craft beverage makers, Jackson Shock, October 27, 2025* U.Va. leaders defend Justice Department deal in letter to Charlottesville legislators, Cecilia Mould and Ford McCracken, Cavalier Daily, October 28, 2025* Council agrees to purchase $6.2 million office building for low-barrier shelter, Sean Tubbs, C-Ville Weekly, October 29, 2025* Republican legislators slam Virginia redistricting proposal, Colby Johnson, WDBJ-7, October 27, 2025* Democrat Abigail Spanberger backs Virginia legislature's redistricting push, Steve People and Olivia Diaz, Associated Press, October 27, 2025* Va. Democrats roll out redistricting amendment to counter GOP map changes in other states, Markus Schmidt, October 28, 2025* Virginia Republicans Sue to Block Democratic Redistricting Push, Jen Rice, Democracy Docket, October 28, 2025* Redistricting session to resume Wednesday, WWBT, October 29, 2025Back to local again shortly after #947This is a unique version based on me wanting to go through the General Assembly recordings myself. I have a lot of local stories to get back to in the near future and I'm working extra this week to make sure I get back to them.They include:* Coverage of the discussion of 204 7th Street at the October 21, 2025 Charlottesville Board of Architectural Review* Coverage of last night's Albemarle Planning Commission public hearing on Attain on Fifth Street* Coverage of two discussions at last night's Greene County Board of SupervisorsAs expected, I work longer hours when I'm out of town on family business because I don't have the usual places to go. This is okay. Summer is over and it's time to hunker down and get to work. Today's end video is The Streets: This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit communityengagement.substack.com/subscribe

I vårt mest eldfängda avsnitt hittills går vi igenom tyska eldkastarpionjärer under första världskriget. Så det är inte bara dags för the flamer, utan rentav the HEAVY flamer. Mattis är den som lägger ut texten den här gången och går igenom pionjärerna från ax till limpa. Ergo får du här en genomgång av upprinnelsen, taktik, vapen, och en hel del saker som på grund av ämnet är riktigt nasty. Pers roll är den här gången att fascineras över hur modernt det hela faktiskt var samt uppmana hovet att intressera sig för raketartilleri. Dessutom: pyromaniska farbröder, Bruno Ganz illustrerar tyska språket, otrevliga nya ord, glad experimentlusta – med eldkastare, Fredrik går bananer med alla ”FLAM”-ljuden, ”ett tvättäkta psycho”, eldkastare som pansarvärn, och mycket mer!Stötta Chucks insats i Ukraina här: https://gofund.me/aa3f555d9 Köp vår bok Folkhemmet at war via Bokus eller Adlibris här:Bokus: https://www.bokus.com/bok/9789189928978/folkhemmet-at-war Adlibris: https://www.adlibris.com/sv/bok/folkhemmet-at-war-9789189928978 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Immerse yourself in captivating science fiction short stories, delivered daily! Explore futuristic worlds, time travel, alien encounters, and mind-bending adventures. Perfect for sci-fi lovers looking for a quick and engaging listen each day.

Immerse yourself in captivating science fiction short stories, delivered daily! Explore futuristic worlds, time travel, alien encounters, and mind-bending adventures. Perfect for sci-fi lovers looking for a quick and engaging listen each day.

It is very funny that the solution to the puzzle is found by issuing a command, getting told that your command did nothing to advance the situation, issuing the command again, once again getting told in the exact same way that your command did nothing to advance the situation, and then issuing the command a third time, where it does actually do something to advance the situation. Game design.

Patti and Pottymouth will never forget “the screamable baseball game,” which you may know alternatively as the 30th anniversary of Cal Ripken, Jr. breaking Lou Gehrig's record for consecutive games, Yamamoto's nearly no-no, or the craziest comeback in the history of the Orioles. We celebrated the importance of showing up every day no matter the challenges. We celebrated a friend to labor, a dad who started the biggest day of his professional life by taking his daughter to her first day of school, and the ballplayer who understood that connecting with fans may be the most important part of the job. We also chanted “Eddie! Eddie!” with cans of Steady Eddie in our hands. We then watched Yoshinobou Yamamoto pitch the game of his life, and that legacy kid Jackson Holliday break it up with a big swing and a smile.Other baseball things happened too – we ponder what life is like this week for the Phillies fan who berated another Phillies fan at loanDepot Park until he gave up the Harrison Bader home run ball he had retrieved and given to his birthday boy son. DBacks pitching comes back for Pottymouth but is it too little, too late? And the Butler did it. As we do like to lean into a theme, the Serie del Tequila played right into our shot glass clutching hands. Charros del Jalisco may find a home in our NCiB hearts as we learn that both tequila and mariachi come from Jalisco.We say, “my boyfriend is not the perpetrator," “I was yelling, it's not a symptom,” and “Ergo, Tequila.” Fight the man, send your game balls to Meredith, get boosted, and find us on Bluesky @ncibpodcast, on Facebook @nocryinginbball, Instagram @nocryinginbball and on the Interweb at nocryinginbball.com. Please take a moment to subscribe to the show, and leave us a review on Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to NCiB. Become a supporter at Patreon to help us keep doing what we do. We now have episode transcripts available!  They are available for free at our Patreon site. Say goodnight, Pottymouth. 

Well #fabtcg universe, that certainly escalated quickly...Subscribe to our Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/fleshandpodCheck us out on Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3lWbhCfWe're available on Apple Podcast: https://apple.co/3dF4IQ3Join our Discord here: https://discord.gg/nrGegbag4uQuestions and comments can be sent to @fleshandpod.bsky.social on BlueSky, as well as fleshandpod@gmail.comMerch!: gamergoblin.gg/collections/flesh-and-podPod BlueSky: @fleshandpod.bsky.socialDarick BlueSky: @charm3r.comLogan BlueSky: @loganpetersen.bsky.social

Si desde tu infancia pensaste que está mal ser tú y mostrarte... De adulto te sientes culpable por hacerlo. Ergo, te ocultas y tienes relaciones falsas y disfuncionales ¿Listo/a para comenzar tu proceso de transformación? Entra ahora en https://paconavas.com O escríbeme directo a WhatsApp: http://wa.me/34690146870 Tu cambio comienza con una decisión.

Deodat de Severac - Tantum ErgoOxford Schola CantorumJeremy Summerly, conductorMore info about today's track: Naxos 8.573910Courtesy of Naxos of America Inc. SubscribeYou can subscribe to this podcast in Apple Podcasts, or by using the Daily Download podcast RSS feed.Purchase this recordingAmazon

On this episode of the Scouting For Growth podcast, Sabine VdL talks to Geetha Sham, MD and President of CamCom in Europe, and Sathes Singam, innovation scout and programme manager at ERGO Group. In this episode we will explore how ERGO's Venture Client model turned a promising pilot into a production with great capability, then we will investigate what it really takes to deploy AI in regulated multi-market environments, and how governance – if used right – can become a growth accelerator not a roadblock. KEY TAKEAWAYS During initial discussions with our first insurance customer, we realised the process of inspection was time consuming, human heavy, subject to human fatigue resulting in expensive, long cycles and inconsistency. This gap is now filled by our AI model which provides a machine vision eye, using a mobile device accurately capturing images of vehicles which leads to damage assessments, reducing false positives. We want to democratise image capture, hence we have built our product in such a way that it can operate on any type of forum, and mobile devices made since 2016. That makes us a leader in our own area, staying focussed without scattering in the name of trying to do everything ourselves. There has been global adoption of AI – although what it does and how it is used varies – because every industry is seeing the value add. The standard way of implementing it is simple: It has to be aligned to the businesses and should not hamper the existing business or processes that exist within the industry/group. Edge cases must be addresses in a different way and modified so they are not completely controlled by the standard feedback learning. BEST MOMENTS ‘Startup collaboration, in my experience, should become top of management agenda.' ‘It's crucial to have someone locally who knows the culture in their particular country, and knows the people that need to be addressed.' ‘It's all about involving all relevant stakeholders in clear and transparent communication.' ‘Each country has local laws, so there's not only customisation, there's also localisation that has to addressed. That's where the governance model comes in handy.' ABOUT THE GUESTS Geetha Sham is MD and President of CamCom in Europe. She is a seasoned technologist and scale-up strategist who has held senior roles at Oracle and Mindtree and is now building out CamCom's European footprint from Dusseldorf. Sathes Singam is an innovation scout and programme manager at ERGO Group. He is the lynchpin behind ERGO's deployment of CamCOm across the Baltics, Europe's first testbed of this solution. ABOUT THE HOST Sabine is a corporate strategist turned entrepreneur. She is the CEO and Managing Partner of Alchemy Crew a venture lab that accelerates the curation, validation, & commercialization of new tech business models. Sabine is renowned within the insurance sector for building some of the most renowned tech startup accelerators around the world working with over 30 corporate insurers, accelerated over 100 startup ventures. Sabine is the co-editor of the bestseller The INSURTECH Book, a top 50 Women in Tech, a FinTech and InsurTech Influencer, an investor & multi-award winner. Twitter LinkedIn Instagram Facebook  TikTok Email Website This Podcast has been brought to you by Disruptive Media. https://disruptivemedia.co.uk/

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It's been just over 20 years since the Battle of Fallujah, a bloody campaign in a destructive Iraq War that we now know was based on a lie. But back then, in the wake of 9/11, the battlefield was filled with troops who believed in serving and defending the country against terrorism. “Going to Fallujah was the most horrific experience of our lives,” said Mike Ergo, a team leader for the US Marines Alpha Company, 1st Battalion. “And it was also, for myself, the most alive I've ever felt.”This week on Reveal, we're partnering with the nonprofit newsroom The War Horse to join Ergo's unit as they reunite and try to make sense of what they did and what was done to them. Together, they remember Bradley Faircloth, the 20-year-old lance corporal from their unit who lost his life, and unpack the mental and emotional battles that continue for them today.This episode originally aired in January 2025. Support Reveal's journalism at Revealnews.org/donatenow Subscribe to our weekly newsletter to get the scoop on new episodes at Revealnews.org/newsletter Connect with us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Tammy's 13‑year‑old was diagnosed with T1D a year ago; she shares her journey from anger to acceptance as her family navigates autoimmune challenges. Tandem Mobi ** Free Juicebox Community (non Facebook) JUICE CRUISE 2025 Blue Circle Health Eversense CGM Learn about the Medtronic Champions Try delicious AG1 - Drink AG1.com/Juicebox Use code JUICEBOX to save 40% at Cozy Earth  CONTOUR NextGen smart meter and CONTOUR DIABETES app Learn about the Dexcom G6 and G7 CGM Go tubeless with Omnipod 5 or Omnipod DASH * Get your supplies from US MED  or call 888-721-1514 Learn about Touched By Type 1 Take the T1DExchange survey Apple Podcasts> Subscribe to the podcast today! The podcast is available on Spotify, Google Play, iHeartRadio, Radio Public, Amazon Music and all Android devices The Juicebox Podcast is a free show, but if you'd like to support the podcast directly, you can make a gift here or buy me a coffee. Thank you! *The Pod has an IP28 rating for up to 25 feet for 60 minutes. The Omnipod 5 Controller is not waterproof.  ** t:slim X2 or Tandem Mobi w/ Control-IQ+ technology (7.9 or newer). RX ONLY. Indicated for patients with type 1 diabetes, 2 years and older. BOXED WARNING:Control-IQ+ technology should not be used by people under age 2, or who use less than 5 units of insulin/day, or who weigh less than 20 lbs. Safety info: tandemdiabetes.com/safetyinfo Disclaimer - Nothing you hear on the Juicebox Podcast or read on Arden's Day is intended as medical advice. You should always consult a physician before making changes to your health plan.  If the podcast has helped you to live better with type 1 please tell someone else how to find it!  

The prosecution continues its efforts to have the Motta's removed from the case. This will end up impacting people other than those one might anticipate. Find out who, within. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The prosecution continues its efforts to have the Motta's removed from the case. This will end up impacting people other than those one might anticipate. Find out who, within. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

It's been 20 years since the Battle of Fallujah, a bloody campaign in a destructive Iraq War that we now know was based on a lie. But back then, in the wake of 9/11, the battlefield was filled with troops who believed in serving and defending the country against terrorism. “Going to Fallujah was the most horrific experience of our lives,” said Mike Ergo, a team leader for the US Marines Alpha Company, 1st Battalion. “And it was also, for myself, the most alive I've ever felt.”This week on Reveal, we're partnering with the nonprofit newsroom The War Horse to join Ergo's unit as they reunite and try to make sense of what they did and what was done to them. Together, they remember Bradley Faircloth, the 20-year-old lance corporal from their unit who lost his life, and unpack the mental and emotional battles that continue for them today. Support Reveal's journalism at Revealnews.org/donatenow Subscribe to our weekly newsletter to get the scoop on new episodes at Revealnews.org/newsletter Connect with us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices