Podcasts about gads

Kan public service-reportrar skriva under upprop och fortsätta rapportera som vanligt? Lyssna på alla avsnitt i Sveriges Radio Play. Över 500 personer inom media- och kulturbranschen har skrivit under ett upprop som kräver ökad pressfrihet i Gaza och att internationella journalister ska släppas in. Så långt, okontroversiellt. Men i debattartikeln som publicerades till uppropet i tidningen Expressen innehöll också formuleringar om att svenska och internationella medier varit med och legitimerat folkmord. Flera av undertecknarna är högt profilerade Mellanösternreportrar på Sveriges Radio. Går det här ihop med public service riktlinjer om opartiskhet? Reportrar: Freddi Ramel och Lasse TruedsonStrax innan uppropet lanserade en av initiativtagarna, krigskorrespondenten Magda Gad, en ny tidning, uppkallad efter sig själv: Gad. Med i redaktionen finns bland andra Edgar Mannheimer och Alexandra Urisman Otto. Medierna hörde av sig till Magda Gad för att fråga vem som betalar, vad målet är och varför tidningen Gad behövs. Reporter: Lasse TruedsonI vår serie om journalistiska metoder ska det den här veckan handla om en ganska outnyttjad metod här i Sverige; Gonzo. Den amerikanska journalisten Hunter S Thompsons ikoniska reportagestil har aldrig riktigt nått Sverige, men det finns de som har laborerat med uttrycket.Vår reporter Robin Jonsson gav sig iväg på jakt efter den svenska Gonzon, med små nedslag i den amerikanska drömmen.Reporter: Robin Jonsson

Oh what a weak it was. The tingling thrills of giving LAFC what for as the crushing disappoinment of revisiting a match at altitude. And the injuries. Gads. Now it's off to Saint's Lewis for a match against the Commanders? Questions and thoughts are all over the place.

2025. gadā Liepāja ar daudzveidīgiem pasākumiem, kas apvieno kultūru, sportu, mākslu, uzņēmējdarbību un citas nozares, svin savu 400 gadu jubileju. Svinību centrālais notikums būs koncertuzvedums “Personas kods: Liepāja” 18. martā, bet pēc tā uzmirdzēs gaismas pastaiga "Izgaismotā Liepāja". Šajā nedēļas nogalē sāksies apstādījumu akcija “Liepāja plaukst”, bet 1. martā svētku maratons iesākās Liepājas Sv. Trīsvienības katedrālē ar garīgās mūzikas "Caur gaismu nāk un sudrabs top", kas izskanēja arī LR3 "Klasika" tiešraidē.   Liepājas Svētās Trīsvienības katedrālē glabājas unikāla Liepājas kantorāta (“Libauer Cantorat”) nošu kolekcija ar 170 mūzikas rokrakstiem un iespieddarbiem, kurus apņēmies digitalizēt Latvijas Nacionālais arhīvs. Par Liepājas 400. dzimšanas dienu un svinību kulmināciju 18. martā, svētku pasākumiem visa gada garumā un Liepājas Svētās Trīsvienības draudzes arhīva digitalizāciju stāsta Liepājas valstspilsētas pašvadības un "Liepāja 2027" sabiedrisko attiecību un mārketinga vadītāja Zita Lazdāne. Kulminācijas punkts gaidāms 18. martā. Esat gatavi kārtīgi svinēt? Šis tiešām ir ļoti, ļoti svarīgs un nopietns gads - Liepājai 400 gadu ir vienreiz mūžā. Man ļoti patīk, kā Orests Silabriedis, atklājot jubilejas mēnesi 1. marta koncertā teica - mums jābūt ļoti gandarītiem un lepniem par to, ka mums ir iespēja piedzīvot šo četrsimtgadi. Mēs esam gatavi, jo esam sākuši gatavoties jau pagājušā gada sākumā. Programma ir ļoti plaša un daudzveidīga, esam iesaistījuši gan profesionāļus, gan amatierus, gan iedzīvotājus ļoti dažādās sfērās. Kulminācijas brīdis būs marta vidū, sākot no 18. marta. Vai varat teikt, ka šo svētku gaisotni jūt ikviens liepājnieks un Liepājas viesis? Jā. Liepājnieks ir īpašs ar to, ka ir ļoti liels lokālpatriots un ar ļoti lielu lepnumu nes Liepājas vārdu. To mēs novērojam ne tikai iedzīvotājos, kas šobrīd tur dzīvo, bet arī bijušajos liepājniekos, kuri šobrīd atrodas gan citās Latvijas pilsētās, gan citās valstīs. Tie ir svētki ne tikai šobrīd Liepājā dzīvojošajiem, bet ikvienam, kurš bijis saistīts ar Liepāju. To mēs ļoti izjūtam. Kas notiks 18. martā? Sākot ar 18. martu, Liepājas četrsimtgades jubilejas svinības notiks veselas nedēļas garumā. 18. marts ir īstā Liepājas dzimšanas diena. Ļoti sen mums nav bijis āra koncerts, jo 18. marts parasti ir lietains un vējiens, ļoti liels izaicinājums. Tagad tā nebūs? Varbūt, bet mēs esam gatavi. Esam sagatavojuši ļoti lielu un daudzveidīgu āra koncertu, kur iesaistīti ļoti daudzi mūziķi, zināmi un mazāk zināmi, vecāka un jaunāka paaudze. Uldis Marhilēvičs komponē jaundarbu, būs īpašs koncertuzvedums. Koncerta nosaukums ir “Personas kods - Liepāja”, kur mēģinās apvienot dažādākos Liepājas kodus un laikmetus. Pusotras stundas garumā centīsimies parādīt labāko, jaudīgāko un zīmīgāko, kas Liepāju raksturo. Par jubilejas sajūtu runājot, cik lielas iespējas katram liepājniekam ir bijušas šo sajūtu radīt, pielikt savu roku? Sabiedrības līdzdalība ir ārkārtīgi svarīga ne tikai pilsētas kontekstā kā pašvaldībai, bet arī saistībā ar "Eiropas kultūras galvaspilsētas 2027" titulu. Jau pagājušā gada vidū veicām aptauju iedzīvotājiem, pajautājām, kā viņi vēlētos svinēt šo notikumu. Interesanti, ka pirmajā vietā bija lieli bezmaksas pasākumi, bet otrajā vietā - sabiedrība izteica vēlmi pašiem līdzdarboties vides apzaļumošanā. 8. martā uzsāksim akciju “Liepāja plaukst”, kur iedzīvotājiem būs iespēja pieteikties sēklām, pašiem diedzēt, pašiem audzēt, tad kopā ar Liepājas dārzniecēm veikt apstādījumus gan publiskajā vidē, gan pie savām organizācijām, skolām, ģimenēm. Būs arī lekcijas par dārzkopību un vides tēmām, kā arī mēs ceram iestādīt jaunu un skaistu ābeļdārzu par godu četrsimtgadei. Kas Liepājā vislabāk aug? Liepas, bet ābeles arī. Liepāja ir pateicīga vieta dažādām apzaļumošanas aktivitātēm. Mums ļoti liels prieks, ka iedzīvotāji paši izrādīja vēlmi un pateica, kā gribētu iesaistīties. Bet neatkarīgi no tā, ir ļoti daudz dažādu kultūras notikumu, kur visdažādāko paaudžu un nozaru pārstāvji paši aktīvi piepilda programmu ar dažādām aktivitātēm - gan uzņēmēji, gan skolēni, gan amatierkustības. Gads mums iesākās ar uzņēmējdarbības izstādi “Ražots Liepājā”, kur parādījām labāko, ko šobrīd Liepājā ražo. Tas aizvirpinājās tālāk ar dažādiem koncertiem, izstādēm, amatierfotogrāfi ir atklājuši un plāno atklāt savas izstādes, bibliotekāri ir sarosījušies, bērni izdos savu īpašo zīmējumu, stāstu un pasaku grāmatu. Nav vairs tā, ka programmu nodrošina tikai 3 vai 4 organizatori - lielākais spēks un jauda ir pašos liepājniekos, kuri ar ļoti lielu atbildību un patiesu vēlmi grib parādīt, kas ir tas, ko viņi var parādīt, kā viņi grib iesaistīties. Šī programma ir ļoti daudzveidīga, no uzņēmējdarbības līdz mūzikai, kas ir Liepājas lielākais smagsvars, bet būs arī dažādi sporta notikumi.    

244: Amir, Casey, Marika, and Brad join Geoff for the first annual Geoscars ceremony! Featuring an opening monologue addressing last week's controversial episode, a Best Documentary Short submission, Brad's Gads, the nominees for Best Picture, and MORE!» FOLLOW Geoff on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/geoffreyjames/» FOLLOW Amir on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/amir/» FOLLOW Marika on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/marikaelon/» FOLLOW Brad on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bradthehuman/» FOLLOW Casey on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/caseydonahue/» FOLLOW Grace on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/chorlesborkley/Advertise on The Headgum Podcast via Gumball.fmRate The Headgum Podcast 5-stars on Apple PodcastsRate The Headgum Podcast 5-stars on SpotifyJoin the Headgum DiscordSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Studijā NATO Stratēģiskās komunikācijas izcilības centra direktors Jānis Sārts un NBS Zemessardzes štāba virsnieks majors Jānis Slaidiņš.

Jubilejas gads brīvprātīgajiem

Radio Marija ir klausītāju veidots radio, kas nes Dieva Vārdu pasaulē. Radio Marija balss skan 24 stundas diennaktī. Šajos raidījumos klausītājiem kā saviem draugiem neatkarīgi no viņu reliģiskās pārliecības cenšamies sniegt Kristus Labo Vēsti – Evaņģēliju, skaidru katoliskās Baznīcas mācību. Cenšamies vairot lūgšanas pieredzi un sniegt iespēju ielūkoties visas cilvēces kultūras daudzveidībā. Radio Marija visā pasaulē darbojas uz brīvprātīgo kalpošanas pamata. Labprātīga savu talantu un laika ziedošana Dieva godam un jaunās evaņģelizācijas labā ir daļa no Radio Marija harizmas. Tā ir lieliska iespēja ikvienam īstenot savus talantus Evaņģēlija pasludināšanas darbā, piedzīvojot kalpošanas prieku. Ticam, ka Dievs īpaši lietos ikvienu cilvēku, kurš atsauksies šai kalpošanai, lai ar Radio Marija starpniecību paveiktu Latvijā lielas lietas. Radio Marija ir arī ģimene, kas vieno dažādu vecumu, dažādu konfesiju, dažādu sociālo slāņu cilvēkus, ļaujot katram būt iederīgam un sniegt savu pienesumu Dieva Vārda pasludināšanā, kā arī kopīgā lūgšanas pieredzē. "Patvērums Dievā 24 stundas diennaktī", - tā ir Radio Marija Latvija devīze. RML var uztvert Rīgā 97.3, Liepājā 97.1, Krāslavā 97.0, Valkā 93.2, kā arī ar [satelītuztvērēja palīdzību un interneta aplikācijās](http://www.rml.lv/klausies/).

January 31, 1874. Jesse James and the James-Younger gang commit one of the most infamous crimes in the American Old West. This episode originally aired in 2022.Support the show! Join Into History for ad-free listening and more.History Daily is a co-production of Airship and Noiser.Go to HistoryDaily.com for more history, daily.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Frederik Liebmann gennemførte i årene 1840-1843 en botanisk ekspedition til det sydlige Mexico med det sigte at udforske den artsrige vegetation og indsamle planter til gavn for videnskaben og de nationale samlinger. Med sine omkring 90.000 hjemsendte eksemplarer – levende planter, frø og tørrede planter er det en af de mest udbytterige ekspeditioner i dansk botaniks historie. Det var på alle plan en strabadserende og farlig rejse Liebmann drog ud på. Mexico var præget af uroligheder, Liebmann frygtede overfald for banditter, og diverse sygdomme og insektangreb prægede ekspeditionen, mens hans muldyr blev angrebet af giftslanger. Hvordan klarede Liebmann sig igennem den lange rejse, og hvordan lykkedes det ham at få den sjældne koglepalme hele vejen med hjem til København?Medvirkende:Mille Gabriel, seniorforsker på Nationalmuseet med en ph.d. i antropologi fra KøbenhavnsUniversitet. Mille er museumsinspektør for de Nord- og Sydamerikanske samlinger og har væretmedlem af Den Danske UNESCO-nationalkommission og så har hun skrevet om netop FrederikLiebmann i museets værk om dansk ekspeditionshistorie, som er udkommet på GADs forlag.

Par vjetnamiešu kopienu Latvijā, tradīcijām un jaunā gada sagaidīšanu saruna ar divām māsām, kas jau 10 gadus dzīvo Latvijā

Skaidrojam zināmo un nezināmo par vētrām uz Saules, citām zvaigznēm un to planētām Visumā. Gads daudzviet pasaulē iesākās ar dabas radītu salūtu - ziemeļblāzmu, atzīmējot, ka aizvien piedzīvojam Saules aktivitātes periodu. Sarunājas Andris Vaivads, Ventspils augstskolas rektors un Karaliskās Tehniskās augstskolas Stokholmā profesors, Ints Ķešāns, IT speciālists, astronomijas entuziasts, un Raitis Misa, IT speciālists, astronomijas entuziasts.  

Radio Marija ir klausītāju veidots radio, kas nes Dieva Vārdu pasaulē. Radio Marija balss skan 24 stundas diennaktī. Šajos raidījumos klausītājiem kā saviem draugiem neatkarīgi no viņu reliģiskās pārliecības cenšamies sniegt Kristus Labo Vēsti – Evaņģēliju, skaidru katoliskās Baznīcas mācību. Cenšamies vairot lūgšanas pieredzi un sniegt iespēju ielūkoties visas cilvēces kultūras daudzveidībā. Radio Marija visā pasaulē darbojas uz brīvprātīgo kalpošanas pamata. Labprātīga savu talantu un laika ziedošana Dieva godam un jaunās evaņģelizācijas labā ir daļa no Radio Marija harizmas. Tā ir lieliska iespēja ikvienam īstenot savus talantus Evaņģēlija pasludināšanas darbā, piedzīvojot kalpošanas prieku. Ticam, ka Dievs īpaši lietos ikvienu cilvēku, kurš atsauksies šai kalpošanai, lai ar Radio Marija starpniecību paveiktu Latvijā lielas lietas. Radio Marija ir arī ģimene, kas vieno dažādu vecumu, dažādu konfesiju, dažādu sociālo slāņu cilvēkus, ļaujot katram būt iederīgam un sniegt savu pienesumu Dieva Vārda pasludināšanā, kā arī kopīgā lūgšanas pieredzē. "Patvērums Dievā 24 stundas diennaktī", - tā ir Radio Marija Latvija devīze. RML var uztvert Rīgā 97.3, Liepājā 97.1, Krāslavā 97.0, Valkā 93.2, kā arī ar [satelītuztvērēja palīdzību un interneta aplikācijās](http://www.rml.lv/klausies/).

Apvienoto Nāciju Organizācija 2025. gadu pasludinājusi par Starptautisko Kvantu zinātnes un tehnoloģiju gadu. Ne reizi vien dzirdēts, ka kvantu tehnoloģijas radīs tādu apvērsumu, kāds nav piedzīvots kopš industriālās revolūcijas laikiem. Kā kvantu atklājumi mainīs mūsu dzīvi tuvākajās desmitgadēs? Kā soli pa solim esam nonākuši pie tām zināšanām, kādas mums ir par kvantu mehāniku un kvantu fiziku šodien, un kāds tad izskatās kvantu dators? Raidījumā Zināmais nezināmajā skaidro fiziķis, Latvijas Universitātes tenūrprofesors Vjačeslavs Kaščejevs un un matemātiķis, datorzinātnieks Latvijas Universitātes profesors Andris Ambainis. Interesants atklājums matemātikā - parādījusies jauna figūra Formas, kuras  sen jau eksistē dabā, ir piesaistījušas matemātiķu interesi tādā veidā, ka vienu šādu formu, ievietojot to ģeometrisko figūru grupā, zinātnieki pagājušajā gadā tai devuši jaunu nosaukumu – mīkstā jeb noapaļotā šūna. Kāda tā izskatās un  kāpēc kādu dabā sen esošu formu eksakto zinātņu pārstāvji sāka daudzināt tikai tagad. Par to stāsta matemātiķis un datu zinātnieks Jānis Lazovskis. Ja ir viegli saprast, kāds izskatās kubs, trijstūris, aplis vai rombs, tad kāda  forma ir mīkstajai jeb noapaļotai šūnai – figūrai, par kuru apraksti parādījās 2024. gadā, kad matemātiķu grupa no Ungārijas, sadarbojoties ar Kalifornijas mākslas institūta  arhitektiem, paziņoja par šo figūru. Vienkārši sakot, tas ir kā ķieģelis ar noapaļotiem stūriem, taču figūrai ir vairākas formas. Dabā šo mīksto šūnu var ļoti labi redzēt čiekura zvīņās,  gareniskā sīpola šķērsgriezumā vai graudu formā. Matemātiķi ir arī atklājuši, ka ar šādām it kā neregulārām figūrām, var pilnībā noklāt laukumu. Tālāk matemātiķi pēta, cik lielā mērā var ņemt kādu mīkstās šūnas figūru un to stiept un liekt, lai iegūtu pēc iespējas lielāku izklātu laukumu, jeb mozaīkas režģi. Lai arī tikai nesen šāda figūra tika pie sava nosaukuma, tas nenozīmē, ka ārpus dabas formām cilvēki to nav izmantojuši. Mīkstās šūnas var sastapt austrumu tautu ornamentos, matemātiķi kā šīs figūras paraugu min irākiešu izcelsmes Lielbritānijas arhitektes Zahas Hadidas projektētās ēkas. Šīs arhitektes, kuru dēvē par līkņu karalieni, kontā ir Londonas akvacentrs ar formu kā zirga sedliem vai Riversaidas muzejs Glāzgovā, kura centrālā fasāde atgādina temperatūras līkni vai kardiogrammas pierakstu.   Raidījums skan Zvaigznes dienā, svētki nosvinēti un beidzot dienas kļūst garākas. Par cik minūtēm diena kļūst garāka, vaicājam Astronomijas biedrības pārstāvim Mārtiņam Gillam.

Apvienoto Nāciju Organizācija 2025. gadu pasludinājusi par Starptautisko Kvantu zinātnes un tehnoloģiju gadu. Ne reizi vien dzirdēts, ka kvantu tehnoloģijas radīs tādu apvērsumu, kāds nav piedzīvots kopš industriālās revolūcijas laikiem. Kā kvantu atklājumi mainīs mūsu dzīvi tuvākajās desmitgadēs? Kā soli pa solim esam nonākuši pie tām zināšanām, kādas mums ir par kvantu mehāniku un kvantu fiziku šodien, un kāds tad izskatās kvantu dators? Raidījumā Zināmais nezināmajā skaidro fiziķis, Latvijas Universitātes tenūrprofesors Vjačeslavs Kaščejevs un un matemātiķis, datorzinātnieks Latvijas Universitātes profesors Andris Ambainis. Interesants atklājums matemātikā - parādījusies jauna figūra Formas, kuras  sen jau eksistē dabā, ir piesaistījušas matemātiķu interesi tādā veidā, ka vienu šādu formu, ievietojot to ģeometrisko figūru grupā, zinātnieki pagājušajā gadā tai devuši jaunu nosaukumu – mīkstā jeb noapaļotā šūna. Kāda tā izskatās un  kāpēc kādu dabā sen esošu formu eksakto zinātņu pārstāvji sāka daudzināt tikai tagad. Par to stāsta matemātiķis un datu zinātnieks Jānis Lazovskis. Ja ir viegli saprast, kāds izskatās kubs, trijstūris, aplis vai rombs, tad kāda  forma ir mīkstajai jeb noapaļotai šūnai – figūrai, par kuru apraksti parādījās 2024. gadā, kad matemātiķu grupa no Ungārijas, sadarbojoties ar Kalifornijas mākslas institūta  arhitektiem, paziņoja par šo figūru. Vienkārši sakot, tas ir kā ķieģelis ar noapaļotiem stūriem, taču figūrai ir vairākas formas. Dabā šo mīksto šūnu var ļoti labi redzēt čiekura zvīņās,  gareniskā sīpola šķērsgriezumā vai graudu formā. Matemātiķi ir arī atklājuši, ka ar šādām it kā neregulārām figūrām, var pilnībā noklāt laukumu. Tālāk matemātiķi pēta, cik lielā mērā var ņemt kādu mīkstās šūnas figūru un to stiept un liekt, lai iegūtu pēc iespējas lielāku izklātu laukumu, jeb mozaīkas režģi. Lai arī tikai nesen šāda figūra tika pie sava nosaukuma, tas nenozīmē, ka ārpus dabas formām cilvēki to nav izmantojuši. Mīkstās šūnas var sastapt austrumu tautu ornamentos, matemātiķi kā šīs figūras paraugu min irākiešu izcelsmes Lielbritānijas arhitektes Zahas Hadidas projektētās ēkas. Šīs arhitektes, kuru dēvē par līkņu karalieni, kontā ir Londonas akvacentrs ar formu kā zirga sedliem vai Riversaidas muzejs Glāzgovā, kura centrālā fasāde atgādina temperatūras līkni vai kardiogrammas pierakstu.   Raidījums skan Zvaigznes dienā, svētki nosvinēti un beidzot dienas kļūst garākas. Par cik minūtēm diena kļūst garāka, vaicājam Astronomijas biedrības pārstāvim Mārtiņam Gillam.

2024. gads zinātnē: raidījuma komandas apskats. Kāds aizvadītais gads bijis programmā Zināmais nezināmajā? Aizraujoši fakti un atklājumi, iedvesmojošas sarunas, temati, kas liek aizdomāties un atklāj pasauli no jauna.

Gada beigās parasti atskatāmies uz to, kas ir noticis pēdējos 12 mēnešos. Tad var arī izsvērt, kuriem procesiem būs turpinājums nākotnē, bet kas tā arī paliks 2024. gada notikums. Šis gada apskats ir Latvijas Radio Ziņu dienesta un raidījuma Krustpunktā kopdarbs, pieaicinot vēl citus Latvijas Radio 1 kolēģus. Iekšpolitikas notikumi Aizvadītais gads nav bijis garlaicīgs politiskajā ziņā, krituši arī pāris ministri un nav trūcis runu par izmaiņām valdībā. Tā līdz šim iztikusi bez izmaiņām politiskajā virknējumā, bet cik ilgi? Evikas Siliņas vadītās valdības darba pirmos mēnešus pavadīja plašas runas par iepriekšējā premjera Krišjāņa Kariņa laikā vairākkārt izmantotajiem privātajiem reisiem un tam pārtērētajiem līdzekļiem. Valsts kontrole Kariņa specreisu revīzijā konstatēja vismaz 220 000 eiro nelikumīgu izmantošanu. Ģenerālprokuratūra sāka kriminālprocesu. Kariņš drīz paziņoja, ka Siliņas valdībā pamet ārlietu ministra amatu. Sporta notikumi Sportā pēc spilgtiem notikumiem pārbagāta 2023. gada, šis, nu jau aizejošais gads, bijis salīdzinoši mierīgāks – Parīzes olimpiskās spēles Latvijas delegācijai ne tās labākās, arī citos sporta pasākumos mūsu atlētiem labākas dienas mijās ar ne tik labām. 2024. gada galvenais notikums sportā neapšaubāmi bija Parīzes vasaras olimpiskās un paraolimpiskās spēles. Latvijas delegācijai olimpiskās spēles gan sanāca ne tās labākās – uz Parīzi tika vesta mazākā delegācija vasaras spēlēs kopš neatkarības atgūšanas, arī sportiskie rezultāti beigu beigās ne tie augstākie, otro reizi kopš neatkarības atgūšanas Latvijas sportistiem atgriežoties mājās bez godalgām. Pasaules aktualitātes Ukraina saskaras ar pieaugošu Krievijas spiedienu, taču joprojām dod pretspēku. Kara trešajā gadā Ukrainas karavīri turpina varonīgi cīnīties pret agresorvalsts Krievijas karaspēku. Diemžēl pretinieka pārspēks karavīru skaita ziņā, kā arī ar lielāku skaitu izmantoto ieroču un tehnikas nozīmē to, ka ļoti lēni, taču uz priekšu tas virzās Ukrainas teritorijā. Salauzt ukraiņu garu pretinieks šogad centās, cik vien nežēlīgi to var. Taču šajā gadā ukraiņi parādīja, ka var dot arī cienīgu pretsparu. Ievērojot informatīvo klusumu, augusta sākumā Ukrainas spēki šķērsoja Krievijas robežu un uzsāka militāro operāciju Kurskas apgabalā. Dažas dienas pēc operācijas sākuma Ukrainas prezidents Volodimirs Zelenskis savā ikvakara uzrunā uzsvēra šī uzbrukuma nozīmīgumu. Ekonomikas notikumi Eiropas Centrālās Bankas lēmumi pazemināt procentlikmes, „Rail Baltica” sāgas turpinājums un šogad ieviestā banku virspeļņas nodeva – tie ir tikai trīs no šā gada notikumiem ekonomikā. Ekonomisti nākamgad sagaida straujāku tautsaimniecības izaugsmi, taču tam nepieciešami arī labvēlīgāki ārējie apstākļi. Vides jomas aktualitātes Šogad netrūkst spilgtu norišu arī vides un dabas aizsardzības lauciņā – lielus zaudējumus pašvaldībām, mājsaimniecībām un lauksaimniekiem radīja postošā vasaras vētra; Satversmes tiesa pieņēma vēsturisku lēmumu, atceļot valdības iepriekš pieņemtos noteikumus par jaunāku mežu ciršanu, tikmēr Alūksnes upē nojaukts pirmais lielais upju šķērslis – Bejas dambis, lai uzlabotu zivju migrāciju. Kultūras aktualitātes Latviešu animācijas filmas “Straume” starptautiskie panākumi un Jaunā Rīgas teātra atgriešanās savās vēsturiskajās mājās ir tikai divi spilgti, tomēr nebūt ne vienīgie kultūras notikumi šajā gadā. Spilgtos pozitīvos iespaidus aizēno skandāls Mūzikas akadēmijā.

Gada beigās parasti atskatāmies uz to, kas ir noticis pēdējos 12 mēnešos. Tad var arī izsvērt, kuriem procesiem būs turpinājums nākotnē, bet kas tā arī paliks 2024. gada notikums. Šis gada apskats ir Latvijas Radio Ziņu dienesta un raidījuma Krustpunktā kopdarbs, pieaicinot vēl citus Latvijas Radio 1 kolēģus. Iekšpolitikas notikumi Aizvadītais gads nav bijis garlaicīgs politiskajā ziņā, krituši arī pāris ministri un nav trūcis runu par izmaiņām valdībā. Tā līdz šim iztikusi bez izmaiņām politiskajā virknējumā, bet cik ilgi? Evikas Siliņas vadītās valdības darba pirmos mēnešus pavadīja plašas runas par iepriekšējā premjera Krišjāņa Kariņa laikā vairākkārt izmantotajiem privātajiem reisiem un tam pārtērētajiem līdzekļiem. Valsts kontrole Kariņa specreisu revīzijā konstatēja vismaz 220 000 eiro nelikumīgu izmantošanu. Ģenerālprokuratūra sāka kriminālprocesu. Kariņš drīz paziņoja, ka Siliņas valdībā pamet ārlietu ministra amatu. Sporta notikumi Sportā pēc spilgtiem notikumiem pārbagāta 2023. gada, šis, nu jau aizejošais gads, bijis salīdzinoši mierīgāks – Parīzes olimpiskās spēles Latvijas delegācijai ne tās labākās, arī citos sporta pasākumos mūsu atlētiem labākas dienas mijās ar ne tik labām. 2024. gada galvenais notikums sportā neapšaubāmi bija Parīzes vasaras olimpiskās un paraolimpiskās spēles. Latvijas delegācijai olimpiskās spēles gan sanāca ne tās labākās – uz Parīzi tika vesta mazākā delegācija vasaras spēlēs kopš neatkarības atgūšanas, arī sportiskie rezultāti beigu beigās ne tie augstākie, otro reizi kopš neatkarības atgūšanas Latvijas sportistiem atgriežoties mājās bez godalgām. Pasaules aktualitātes Ukraina saskaras ar pieaugošu Krievijas spiedienu, taču joprojām dod pretspēku. Kara trešajā gadā Ukrainas karavīri turpina varonīgi cīnīties pret agresorvalsts Krievijas karaspēku. Diemžēl pretinieka pārspēks karavīru skaita ziņā, kā arī ar lielāku skaitu izmantoto ieroču un tehnikas nozīmē to, ka ļoti lēni, taču uz priekšu tas virzās Ukrainas teritorijā. Salauzt ukraiņu garu pretinieks šogad centās, cik vien nežēlīgi to var. Taču šajā gadā ukraiņi parādīja, ka var dot arī cienīgu pretsparu. Ievērojot informatīvo klusumu, augusta sākumā Ukrainas spēki šķērsoja Krievijas robežu un uzsāka militāro operāciju Kurskas apgabalā. Dažas dienas pēc operācijas sākuma Ukrainas prezidents Volodimirs Zelenskis savā ikvakara uzrunā uzsvēra šī uzbrukuma nozīmīgumu. Ekonomikas notikumi Eiropas Centrālās Bankas lēmumi pazemināt procentlikmes, „Rail Baltica” sāgas turpinājums un šogad ieviestā banku virspeļņas nodeva – tie ir tikai trīs no šā gada notikumiem ekonomikā. Ekonomisti nākamgad sagaida straujāku tautsaimniecības izaugsmi, taču tam nepieciešami arī labvēlīgāki ārējie apstākļi. Vides jomas aktualitātes Šogad netrūkst spilgtu norišu arī vides un dabas aizsardzības lauciņā – lielus zaudējumus pašvaldībām, mājsaimniecībām un lauksaimniekiem radīja postošā vasaras vētra; Satversmes tiesa pieņēma vēsturisku lēmumu, atceļot valdības iepriekš pieņemtos noteikumus par jaunāku mežu ciršanu, tikmēr Alūksnes upē nojaukts pirmais lielais upju šķērslis – Bejas dambis, lai uzlabotu zivju migrāciju. Kultūras aktualitātes Latviešu animācijas filmas “Straume” starptautiskie panākumi un Jaunā Rīgas teātra atgriešanās savās vēsturiskajās mājās ir tikai divi spilgti, tomēr nebūt ne vienīgie kultūras notikumi šajā gadā. Spilgtos pozitīvos iespaidus aizēno skandāls Mūzikas akadēmijā.

Lai arī kādas būtu filmas „Zeme, kas dzied” kvalitātes, tā labā nozīmē ir izprovocējusi divu grāmatu rašanos – kamēr viņu grimēja, Vilis Daudziņš telefonā zīmēja, līdz tapa grāmata „Pirmie latviešu dziedāšanas svētki bildēs”, savukārt scenārija līdzautors Dainis Īvāns kopā ar režisoru Māri Martinsonu iedziļinājās 1873. gada norisēs, kā bija iespējams nonākt līdz pirmajiem svētkiem un „Rīga dimd”. Par to lasāms vairāk nekā 600 lappušu biezā grāmatā „Zeme, kas dzied. 1873. gads”. Sarunā ar Daini Īvānu atklājas uzņēmīgo un skoloto latviešu gudrais šahs starp Vācijas un Krievijas varām. Protams, arī domstarpības pašu starpā; Rīga, kura vēl top; valodu jautājumi, arī utopiski sapņi par restorānu ar akvārijiem. Daiņa Īvāna un Māra Martinsona grāmatu „Zeme, kas dzied. 1873. gads” izdevusi biedrība „Nameyse”. Raidījumu atbalsta:

#DigitālāsBrokastis turpina tehnoloģiju pasaules aktualitāšu atskatu 2024. gadā ar mākslīgā intelekta progresa barometru. Cik vieds kļuvis mākslīgais intelekts? Kas diktējis tā attīstību? Vai tas sapratīs latvisko garu? Un kādu ietekmi tas jau ir atstājis uz sabiedrību? Pie Digitālo brokastu mielastu galda Agate Ambulte, Rīgas Stradiņa universitātes Digitālās transformācijas mākslīgā intelekta virziena vadītāja, Pēteris Paikens, Latvijas Universitātes Eksakto zinātņu un tehnoloģiju fakultāte asociētais profesors, kā arī Reinis Zitmanis, "Itero" biznesa tehnoloģiju speciālists. Plašāk par tehnoloģiju jaunumiem lasi arī LSM portālā.

#DigitālāsBrokastis turpina tehnoloģiju pasaules aktualitāšu atskatu 2024. gadā ar visaptverošu sarunu par gada aizraujošākajiem sasniegumiem auto nozarē. Kādas tendences novērotas? Kādas tehnoloģijas pārsteidza? Un ko varam gaidīt no 2025. gada? Digitālo brokastu virtuve pilna ciemiņiem! Viesos Egija Gailuma, uzņēmēja un auto entuziaste, Gusts Kikusts, "Tavs Auto TV" vadītājs un Latvijas Televīzijas žurnālists, Māris Ozoliņš, "iauto.lv" redaktors, kā arī Raimonds Zandovskis, "Delfi auto" redaktors. Plašāk par tehnoloģiju jaunumiem lasi arī LSM portālā.

Radio Marija ir klausītāju veidots radio, kas nes Dieva Vārdu pasaulē. Radio Marija balss skan 24 stundas diennaktī. Šajos raidījumos klausītājiem kā saviem draugiem neatkarīgi no viņu reliģiskās pārliecības cenšamies sniegt Kristus Labo Vēsti – Evaņģēliju, skaidru katoliskās Baznīcas mācību. Cenšamies vairot lūgšanas pieredzi un sniegt iespēju ielūkoties visas cilvēces kultūras daudzveidībā. Radio Marija visā pasaulē darbojas uz brīvprātīgo kalpošanas pamata. Labprātīga savu talantu un laika ziedošana Dieva godam un jaunās evaņģelizācijas labā ir daļa no Radio Marija harizmas. Tā ir lieliska iespēja ikvienam īstenot savus talantus Evaņģēlija pasludināšanas darbā, piedzīvojot kalpošanas prieku. Ticam, ka Dievs īpaši lietos ikvienu cilvēku, kurš atsauksies šai kalpošanai, lai ar Radio Marija starpniecību paveiktu Latvijā lielas lietas. Radio Marija ir arī ģimene, kas vieno dažādu vecumu, dažādu konfesiju, dažādu sociālo slāņu cilvēkus, ļaujot katram būt iederīgam un sniegt savu pienesumu Dieva Vārda pasludināšanā, kā arī kopīgā lūgšanas pieredzē. "Patvērums Dievā 24 stundas diennaktī", - tā ir Radio Marija Latvija devīze. RML var uztvert Rīgā 97.3, Liepājā 97.1, Krāslavā 97.0, Valkā 93.2, kā arī ar [satelītuztvērēja palīdzību un interneta aplikācijās](http://www.rml.lv/klausies/).

#DigitālāsBrokastis uzsāk atskatu uz tehnoloģiju pasaules aktualitātēm 2024. gadā. Pirmajā decembra raidījumā sākam ar plašu skatu uz tendencēm un notikumiem, kas iepriecināja vai sarūgtināja mūsu tehnoloģiju garšas kārpiņas - gan tepat Latvijā, gan pasaulē. Pie Digitālo brokastu galda Anda Asere, tehnoloģiju žurnāliste no "Labs of Latvia" portāla, Kristaps Skutelis, "kursors.lv" portāla galvenais redaktors un Ieva Treija, "Labs of Latvia" portāla galvenā redaktore. Plašāk par tehnoloģiju jaunumiem lasi arī LSM portālā.

30.novembrī Tartu ar vairākiem svētku notikumiem noslēdza Eiropas kultūras galvaspilsētas gadu, vienlaikus vairāki gada notikumi turpinās. Viens no šiem pasākumiem bija gaismu šovs „Paliec un radi”, simbolizējot izturību un nepārtrauktu radīšanas procesu ar skatu nākotnē.

Ja vēlaties redzēt pilnīgi nevadāmu un pārbijušos suni, izšaujiet viņa tuvumā pirotehniku. Bet ne tikai sprāgstošas raķetes apdraud mīļdzīvniekus. Kādi ir visbiežāk sastopamie negadījumi un kā no tiem izvairīties, interesējamies raidījumā Kā labāk dzīvot. Skaidro Veterinārārstu biedrības Mazo dzīvnieku veterinārārstu sekcijas pārstāve Lita Konopore un vetārste, vadošā ķirurģe klīnikā "24/7" Jekaterina Plaksina. "Īsti pieradināt pie salūta trokšņa dzīvnieku ir ļoti grūti. Jāpatur prātā, ja parādās kāda no trauksmes pazīmēm, vai braucot mašīnā, vai uz skaņam, vai vēl kaut ko, nevajag neko gaidīt, jo šīm uzvedības problēmām ir tieksme tikai apaugt kā sniega bumbai ar sniegu, nevis pāriet pašām par sevi. Ja ir trauksme uz petardēm, tad varētu parādīties arī atšķiršanas trauksme, kad saimnieks iet prom," norāda Lita Konopore. Risinājumi ir gan medikamentu lietošana, gan darbs ar zoopsihologiem, bet tas prasa investīcijas laika un finanšu ziņā. Tāpēc labāk izsargāties un ievērot metodes, kā dzīvnieku pieskatīt. "Dzīvnieks pats tajā [salūta] laikā meklē patvērumu. Nedrīkst vilkt laukā no tām vietām. Kāds meklē saimnieka tuvumu, tāpēc saimniekam nedalīti jāvelta dzīvniekam laiks, jāsēž ar viņu vannas istabā blakus, jāmīļo, jāmierina. Vislabāk ir savlaicīgi sagatavoties un izrunāt ar veterinārārstu medikamentu lietošanu, kā konkrētam sunim darbosies konkrēts medikaments," turpina Lita Konopore. Var censties pieradināt suni pie salūta. Var ierakstīt salūtu un laika gaitā to atskaņot, sākot no ļoti klusinātas skaņas, pakāpeniski to pieaudzējot, spēlējoties ar dzīvnieku. Labāk darīt uzvedības speciālista klātbūtnē.  Vēl tieši gada nogales svētkiem arī dzīvniekiem ir raksturīga pārēšanās un tad ir klasiskais pēcsvētku sindroms – vemšana, caureja, aizcietējumi. Pašiem doties, piemēram, uz Jaungada svinībām un mīļdzīvnieku atstāt mājās nav ieteicams. Ir jāziedojas viņam. "Dzīvnieks - tā ir atbildība," atgādina Lita Konopore. "Tāpēc viens no galvenajiem jautājumiem, pirms ņemt dzīvnieku, ir, kā tu plāno ar viņu dzīvot. Kā tu plāno braukt atvaļinājumos? Vai tu esi gatavs atteikties no saviem atvaļinājumiem, ņemot lielu dzīvnieku? Vai tev ir pietiekama finansiāla rocība vajadzības gadījumā samaksāt visus veterināros izdevumus? Vai tev ir pietiekami liela rocība samaksāt par viesnīcu vai ņemt līdzi uz savu viesnīcu, zinot, ka dažbrīd maksa par suni viesnīcā ir tikpat dārga kā par cilvēku? Dzīvnieks ierobežo. Tāpēc veterinārārsti vispirms cenšas potenciālos dzīvnieku ņēmējus atrunāt no šī soļa." Ņemot dzīvnieku, nevar tikai domāt, ka būs jāiegādājas tikai pārtika. Jārēķinās, ka būs nepieciešami veterinārsta pakalpojumi, un tie ar katru gadu kļūst arvien dārgāki. Tāpēc arvien populārāka ir apdrošināšana dzīvniekiem. 

In a Contrarians year dominated by Peter Bogdanovich and PJ Hogan, will their filmographies take over our annual awards ceremony? The only way for you to find out is to listen to The Embries 2024, as we celebrate the last twelve months of Contrarians awesomeness by giving away Embries, Hooeys, Ruffalos, Gads, and The Lancaster Dodd Grant!TIMELINE00:01:24 The Embries 202400:12:55 Supporting Actress00:23:58 Supporting Actor00:37:24 The Ruffalo00:44:34 The Lancaster Dodd Grant for the Development of White People Movies00:49:55 Lead Actor01:04:42 Lead Actress01:19:54 The Gad01:35:14 The Hooey01:41:31 The Embry01:47:11 The Future & Patreon Stuff- Interested in more Contrarians goodness? Join THE CONTRARIANS SUPPLEMENTS on our Patreon Page! Deleted clips, extended plugs, bonus episodes free from the Tomatometer shackles… It's everything a Contrarians devotee would want!- Our YouTube page is live! Get some visual Contrarians delight with our Contrarians Warm-Ups and other fun videos!- Contrarians Merch is finally here! Check out our RED BUBBLE MERCH PAGE and buy yourself something nice that's emblazoned with one of our four different designs!- THE FESTIVE YEARS have been letting us use their music for years now and they are amazing. You can check out their work on Spotify, on Facebook or on their very own website.- Our buddy Cory Ahre is being kind enough to lend a hand with the editing of some of our videos. If you like his style, wait until you see what he does over on his YouTube Channel.- THE LATE NIGHT GRIN isn't just a show about wrestling: it's a brand, a lifestyle. And they're very supportive of our Contrarian endeavors, so we'd like to return the favor. Check out their YouTube Channel! You might even spot Alex there from time to time.- Hans Rothgiesser, the man behind our logo, can be reached at @mildemonios on Twitter or you can email him at mildemonios@hotmail.com in case you ever need a logo (or comics) produced. And you can listen to him talk about economy on his new TV show, VALOR AGREGADO. Aaaaand you can also check out all the stuff he's written on his own website. He has a new book: a sort of Economics For Dummies called MARGINAL. Ask him about it!Up next, a very special episode as we celebrate ten years (TEN YEARS!) of The Contrarians being part of the podcasting world. Join us as we take a trip down memory lane and reminisce about everything that's happened on this little show since its inception! Until then, let us know what you thought of The Embries 2024: which awards did you agree with? Who got snubbed? Have we convinced to watch any of the nominees or winners? E-mail us at wearethecontrarians@gmail.com or tweet at us or facebook us and share your thoughts!

NotiMundo a la Carta - María José Pinto, Prevención de Desnutrición Infantil Con Los GADs by FM Mundo 98.1

En El Gran Musical, con Christian Del Alcázar Ponce, conversamos con Ramiro Vela, Asambleísta por ADN, sobre el proyecto de reforma al COOTAD para regular el gasto público de los GADs presentado por su parte ante el Legislativo.

Atzīmējot Latvijas basketbola izlases sākto oficiālo treniņnometni pirms olimpisko spēļu kvalifikācijas turnīra, "Ārpus kadra" studijā aicinājām Latvijas basketbolistu Klāvu Čavaru, kurš podkāstā sīkāk pastāstīja par aizvadīto sezonu Japānas basketbolā un kultūrā, kā arī ieskicēja noskaņojumu Latvijas izlasē pirms kvalifikācijas spēlēm. Podkāstu "Ārpus kadra" atbalsta Aizdevums.lv.

Apvienoto Nāciju Organizācija pasludinājusi 2024. gadu par kamieļveidīgo gadu. Tie ir dzīvnieki, kas ne tikai apdzīvo Arābijas tuksnesi, bet arī Diendivameriku, Āfrikas ziemeļus un pat Austrāliju. Kamieļveidīgie ir lielisks piemērs dabas unikālajai spējai pielāgoties dzīvei vissarežģītākajos apstākļos, kur nespētu uzturēties neviena cita lielo zīdītāju suga. Dodamies uz Rīgas Nacionālo Zooloģisko dārzu, lai par kamieļiem sarunātos ar Zzoodārza pārstāvi Māri Lielkalnu. Un, protams, tiktos arī ar kamieļiem. Mūsu saruna sākumā aizrit starp diviem aplokiem, kur vienā pusē maltīti ilgstoši ietur divkupru kamieļu tēviņš Niselinskis, un tad ik pa laikam viņš pats vai kāds cits no aploka biedriem izdomā kādu atrakciju, kas piesaista mūsu uzmanību. Bet vispirms - par kamieļa nozīmi kultūrā. Arābu valodā vārds "jamal" nozīmē gan „skaistums”, gan „kamielis”. Arābu klejotāju ciltīs tāpat kā mūsu dainās tiek apdziedāts zirgs, tik dzejas rindas te veltītas kamielim. Vairāk par kuprainajiem dzīvniekiem gan islāma, gan kristietības vēsturē un kultūrā stāsta vēsturnieks Imants Ļaviņš. „Labs padoms ir kamieļa vērts” – vēstī sena sīriešu paruna. Spēka, izturības arī pazemības simbols – tā kamielis attēlots arābu pasaulē, vietās, kur tuksnešu klajumus gadsimtiem ilgi ir šķērsojušas kamieļu karavānas.  Šie dzīvnieki minēti gan dzejā, gan reliģiskos rakstos un tiem rīko pat skaistuma konkursus. Par kamieli kā arābu kultūras sastāvdaļu  un kā transporta  līdzekli stāsta vēsturnieks Imants Ļaviņš, kurš padziļināti pētījis arābu vēsturi. Bībelē, Jaunās Derības Mateja evaņģēlijā, ir teksts, ko šodien labi zina ikviens, neatkarīgi no viņa reliģiskās izglītības, tas ir teiciens: „Vieglāk ir kamielim iziet caur adatas aci nekā bagātam ieiet Dieva valstībā.”  Bet  gan kristiešu, gan  islāma svētajos rakstos kuprainais dzīvnieks ir pieminēts jau krietni senāk un līdzību ar  kamieļa izlīšanu caur adatas aci var atrast arī Korānā. Runājot par kamieļiem arābu klejotāju tautu jeb beduīnu kultūrā, pagājušā gadā  UNESCO cilvēces nemateriālā kultūras mantojuma sarakstā tika iekļauti tā dēvētie kamieļu čuksti jeb „Alheda'a”.  Tie ir īsi dziedājumi, ko deklamē kamieļu gani, katram ganam raksturīgā melodija tiek nodota no paaudzes paaudzē un tiek atskaņota nozīmīgos saviesīgos pasākumos, tostarp dziedāta pie ugunskuriem, kāzās, kā arī cilšu un valsts svētkos, īpaši kamieļu sacīkstēs. Beduīni uzskata, ka šī dziedāšana uzmundrina gan pašus ganus, gan arī dzīvniekus garajos pārgājienos pa tuksneša smiltīm. Vēl arābu kultūrā  kamielis rodams arī debesīs, tas vis nav kāds kamieļa zvaigznājs, bet polārzvaigzne, kā mietiņš pie kura piesieta kamieļmāte. Vēsturnieks  atgādina, ka skatot  dižo maģistrāli senajos un viduslaikos, proti uz Zīda ceļu no Ķīnas uz Eiropu, tad tādas lietas, kā papīrs, pulveris, porcelāns un vēl daudz kas cits no austrumu izgudrojumiem un precēm līdz Eiropai nonāca lielā mērā patiecoties kamieļu transportam, jo šie izturīgie gargabalnieki spēj nest lielus smagumus. Tāpēc nav jābrīnās, ka kamieļi jau izsenis un arī mūsdienās ir turīguma un statusa simbols arābu valstīs  

NotiMundo Estelar - Diana Caiza, Recursos para Los GADs, ¿ahora Llegarán Puntuales? by FM Mundo 98.1

The GAds Girls are back! And they're here to share valuable tips for creating successful Google Ads lead generation campaigns. From leveraging tools like Microsoft Clarity to tracking button clicks, understanding user behavior, and optimizing forms, they cover crucial aspects of lead gen success. Mel, Carmen, and Leandra emphasize the importance of CRM utilization, providing examples and strategies to make the most of your data. With a festive touch and practical insights, this is a must-listen for anyone aiming to elevate their lead generation game.0:00 Top Tips for Running Successful Lead Generation Ads from the GAds Girls0:41 Using Microsoft Clarity2:37 Tracking button clicks7:43 Optimizing the lead forms10:08 The importance of having a good CRM12:44 Remarketing strategies for lead generationNeed help with Google Ads? Get your FREE action plan here: https://sol8.com/ap/

Piedāvājam Latvijas sporta līdzjutēja Kristapa Lešinska stāstījumu un atmiņas par notikumiem 2005. gadā (Sanktpēterburgā) spēlē starp Krievijas un Latvijas izlasēm. Politika un sports.

Aizvadītais gads medicīnā mums paliks atmiņā ar daudziem “pirmajiem”: pirmie medikamenti, kas apstādinātu agrīnu Alcheimera slimību, zaļā gaisma pirmajai CRISPR gēnu rediģēšanas terapijai, pirmie medikamenti, kas palīdzētu smagajā cīņā ar aptaukošanos un jaunas vakcīnas pret dažādām slimībām. Ko 2023. gads sniedza mums medicīnā? Apzinoties, ka visus aspektus vienā sarunā izrunāt nevaram, šajā raidījumā pievērsīsimies vēža izpētei un terapijai, kā arī jaunumiem Alcheimera ārstēšanā. Saruna ar Rīgas Stradiņa universitātes asociēto profesori, neiroloģi Zandu Priedi un Latvijas Universitātes profesoru, Latvijas Universitātes Klīniskās un profilaktiskās medicīnas institūta direktoru, gastroenterologu Mārci Leju. Alcheimers ir neirodeģeneratīva saslimšana, kuru ir neiespējami padarīt par nebijušu brīdī, kad slimības process jau ir sācies. 2023. gads nebija pirmais, kad pasaulē vispār runāja par medikamentiem pret Alcheimeru, tomēr zāļu izstrādē pagājušais gads ir bijis nozīmīgs. "Pētījumi ir ļoti ilgi, jo smadzeņu neirodeģenerācijas process tas nav viena, divu mēnešu jautājums, tas ir process vairāku gadu garumā. Pēdējos 20 gadus pētniecībā nebija nācis neviens reāls medikaments, kas varētu ietekmēt smadzeņu neirodeģenerācijas mehānismu. Šis ir sasniegums specifiskā imūnterapijas pieejā tieši Alcheimera slimības vienā no patoģenēzes mehānismiem. Imūnterapija, kas vērsta pret konkrētu proteīnu, lai šīs plāksnītes, kas smadzenēs akumulējas un ierosina šo neirodeģenerācijas procesu, tiktu izšķīdinātas un evakuētas no smadzenēm. Lai līdz šim tiktu, pētījumi norisinājās jau 30 gadus," skaidro Zanda Priede. Tas ir gana liels periods cilvēcei. Zanda Priede atzīst, ka tas, ka ASV jau ir apstiprinājušas izstrādāto zāļu izmantošanu, ir liela uzvara. "Arī lai mēs tiktu līdz šī medikamenta ieviešanas praktiskā lietošanā ir vēl garš ceļš ejams, ne tikai Eiropā un Latvijā, norāda Priede. Viņa atzīst, ka jau pētījumu gaitā veikta rūpīga cilvēku atlase un ļoti daudzi cilvēki nevarēja piedalīties, tas nozīmē, ka arī ikdienas praksē ārstiem būs grūts uzdevums noteikt, kuram pacientam, kurā brīdī un kad uzsākt medikamenta lietošanu. Tas būs nākamais svarīgais jautājums.

Aizvadītajā gadā ChatGPT sašūpoja pat tās sabiedrības grupas, kurām ikdienā nav saskares ar mākslīgā intelekta rīkiem. Sākot ar skolēnu domrakstiem, beidzot ar autortiesībām - ChatGPT tiešām lika lauzīt galvas par tā pielietojumu. Taču ne tikai satura ģenerēšana ar mākslīgā intelekta palīdzību bija spilgts notikums. Kiberdrošība, virtuālā realitāte, inovācijas zaļajā enerģijā un medicīnas tehnoloģijas - arī šīs jomas virzījās uz priekšu 2023. gadā. Par aizvadīto gadu tehnoloģijās un ko sagaidīt no 2024.gada, raidījumā Zināmais nezināmajā saruna ar biedrības “Riga TechGirls” vadītāju Annu Andersoni un raidījuma Digitālās brokastis veidotāju un tehnoloģiju apskatnieku Arti Ozoliņu. Aizvadītā gada spilgtākie notikumi kvantu mehānikā „Mēs esam nodemonstrējuši pašu mazāko iespējamo tranzistoru, kur viena elektrona klātbūtne nosaka pa kuru ceļu aizies otrs elektrons,” stāsta Latvijas Universitātes Fizikas, matemātikas un optometrijas fakultātes profesors, fiziķis Vjačeslavs Kaščejevs, runājot par sasniegumiem kvantu fizikā pagājušā gadā. Kā šis tranzistors darbojas un cik tāls ceļš ejams līdz kvantu datoram? Atskatoties uz pagājušā gada veikumu kvantu fizikas jomā, Vjačeslavs Kaščejevs stāsta par kvantu tehnoloģijām, kas tiek  lietotas visprecīzākajai mērīšanai. Latvijas zinātnieki pagājušā gadā ir praktiski izpētījuši, kā šādi mērījumi darbojas un to lietderība var tikt izmantota ne tikai teorētiskajās zinātnēs, bet arī praksē militāros konfliktos, piemēram, Ukrainas karā. Vēl jačeslavs Kaščejevs skaidro, kāpēc tik sarežģīti ir sagaidīt visdrošāko un precīzāko datoru darbībā, proti, kvantu datoru. Iedomāsimies, ka divi cilvēki dzīvo katrs savā ezera krastā un viens vēlas nodot ziņu otram: viņš iemet ezerā akmeni un tā radītā viļņošanās sasniedz otru krastu, tādejādi tas otrs cilvēks, tā teikt, nolasa šo viļņoto ziņu. Kvantu fizikā ir uzdevums, kā nodrošināt bezvēja un beztrokšņa apstākļos šo viļņošanos un tā, lai šo komunikāciju neviens cits nevar noklausīties. To garantē kvantu mehānikas likumi, tā iesākot stāstu par minēto kvantu superdatoru, stāsta profesors Vjačeslavs Kaščejevs.    

Gads nepavisam nesolās būt mierīgs. Ko mēs varam droši prognozēt nākamajos mēnešos, palūkosimies raidījuma beigās, droši vien pieminot arī notiekošo Ukrainā. Bet tādu plašāku analīzi vispirms veltīsim Tuvajiem Austrumiem.  Ir skaidrs, ka Izraēla un tās kaimiņvalstis tuvākajos mēnešos joprojām būs ziņu virsrakstos. Viens ir pašreizējais karš Gazas joslā, bet ne mazāk svarīgi notikumi blakus esošajās teritorijās, īpaši Libānā, kur bāzējas Izraēlas spēcīgākais ienaidnieks - kustība „Hezbollah”. Tikmēr Latvijā, šķiet, vairāk izjutīsim sekas notikumiem Sarkanajā jūrā. Jemenas husītu kaujinieki radījuši pamatīgas problēmas lielajām kuģniecības kompānijām, apdraudot kuģu satiksmi jūrā. Aktualitātes pasaulē analizē Ģeopolitikas pētījumu centra direktors Māris Andžāns un Latvijas Ārpolitikas institūta asociētais pētnieks un Delavēras universitātes doktorants Toms Rātfelders. Sarkano jūru iekrāso asinis Pēdējās dienās pasaules mediju virsrakstos arvien biežāk vīd jautājumi un pieņēmumi par Sarkano jūru kā „benzīna mucu”, kurā pašreizējās Gazas joslas karadarbības dzirksteles var izraisīt daudz plašāku – reģionāla mēroga uzliesmojumu. Jau drīz pēc Izraēlas militārās operācijas sākuma Jemenas husītu kaujinieki paziņoja par gatavību iesaistīties šai konfliktā palestīniešu teroristu pusē. Husītu grupējums, kas ar Irānas atbalstu kopš 2014. gada cīnās par varu Jemenā pret starptautiski atzīto valdību un tās sabiedrotajiem, pašreiz kontrolē valsts ziemeļrietumu rajonus, tai skaitā galvaspilsētu Sanu un Sarkanās jūras piekrastes rajonus. Sākotnēji husītu aktivitātes aprobežojās ar raķešu un lidrobotu triecieniem pa Izraēlas teritoriju, ar ko diezgan viegli tika galā pretgaisa aizsardzība. Taču 19. novembrī nemiernieki, izmantojot helikopteru, Sarkanajā jūrā sagrāba kādu Izraēlas pilsonim piederošu kravas kuģi un nolaupīja tā komandu. Tika paziņots, ka husīti turpmāk uzskatīs jebkuru ar Izraēlu saistītu peldlīdzekli par leģitīmu uzbrukuma mērķi. Kopš tā laika reģistrēti 17 uzbrukumi kravas kuģiem, vairumu no kuriem gan izdevies atvairīt pašu kuģu komandu spēkiem. Tomēr septiņi no desmit pasaules lielākajiem kravas kuģu operatoriem pārtraukuši pārvadājumus cauri Sarkanajai jūrai un Suecas kanālam. Līdz šim pa šo maršrutu virzījās apmēram 18% pasaules konteineru pārvadājumu, arī ievērojama daļa naftas piegāžu Eiropai no Persijas līča rajona. Alternatīvais maršruts apkārt Āfrikai pagarina ceļā pavadīto laiku par apmēram divām nedēļām un attiecīgi pamatīgi palielina izmaksas, draudot ar nopietnu Āzijā ražoto preču un degvielas cenu kāpumu Eiropā. Rietumu atbilde husītu akcijām ir 18. decembrī uzsāktā operācija „Pārticības sargs”, Savienoto Valstu un Lielbritānijas karakuģiem ar vairāku citu valstu kara jūrnieku piedalīšanos uzsākot kravas kuģu aizsardzību. Līdz nesenam laikam pretstāve Sarkanajā jūrā iztika bez upuriem, taču pagājušajā svētdienā amerikāņu helikopteri, atsitot kaujinieku uzbrukumu starptautiskās kompānijas „Maersk” konteineru pārvadātājam, aizraidīja uz viņsauli desmit uzbrucējus. Kā paziņoja Lielbritānijas aizsardzības ministrs Grants Šepss, sabiedrotie nevicināšoties arī turpmāk vajadzības gadījumā lietot spēku, kas varētu nozīmēt arī triecienus militārajiem objektiem Jemenas teritorijā. Tikām vakar Sarkanās jūra ūdeņos ieradās Irānas jūras spēku eskadras mīnu kuģis, liekot spekulēt par iespējamu tiešu militāru konfrontāciju starp Irānu un rietumu sabiedrotajiem. Šī notikumu attīstība apdraud nesen iezīmējušos attiecību normalizēšanos starp Irānu un Saūda Arābiju un ar to saistīto iespējamo Jemenas pilsoņu kara noslēgumu. Izraēlas iespējamā otrā un trešā fronte Jau kopš Izraēlas un „Hamās” kara sākuma tiek piesaukta iespēja, ka Izraēlas Aizsardzības spēkiem var nākties iesaistīties nopietnā karadarbībā arī pie citām savas valsts robežām. Pirmām kārtām šai sakarā min ziemeļu robežas ar Libānu un Sīriju, kur Izraēlas spēcīgākais pretinieks ir musulmaņu šiītu kustība „Hezbollah” jeb „Allāha partija”. Organizācijas spēki jau kopš pagājušā gadsimta 80. gadiem bāzējas Libānā un Sīrijā un saņem nopietnu atbalstu no Irānas. „Hezbollah” spēku skaitliskā lieluma aplēses svārstās visai plašā amplitūdā. Organizācijas līdera, šeiha Hasana Nasrallā apgalvojumi par 100 000 vīru gan tiek vērtēti skeptiski, tomēr apmēram 50 000 viņa rīcībā varētu būt, pie tam daudzi no tiem ir kaujinieki ar Sīrijas pilsoņkarā gūtu nopietnu pieredzi. Arī „Hezbollah” bruņojums un Libānas dienvidos izveidotās fortifikācijas būves tiek vērtētas kā krietni pārākas pār tām, kāds bija „Hamās” Gazas sektorā. Līdz nesenam laikam Izraēlas un „Hezbollah” spēki apmainījās artilērijas, raķešu un strēlnieku ieroču apšaudēm, Izraēlai arī plaši izmantojot aviāciju. Novērotāji to raksturoja kā teju ikdienišķu rutīnu, lai arī tā prasījusi vairāk nekā 120 dzīvību, no kuriem apmēram trīs ceturtdaļas ir nogalinātie „Hezbollah” kaujinieki. Tomēr, tuvojoties gada beigām, Izraēlas retorika kļuva draudīgāka, un vakar, 2. janvārī, Libānas galvaspilsētā Beirutā nogranda eksplozija, kurā dzīvību zaudēja organizācijas „Hamās” otra ietekmīgākā persona, tās militārā spārna dibinātājs un vadītājs Salehs al-Aururi. Uzbrukums, visdrīzāk, veikts, izmantojot lidrobotu, un kustības „Hezbollah” pārstāvji jau paziņojuši, ka šis Izraēlas solis nepalikšot nesodīts. Vēl viens potenciālais militāro spēku piesaistes virziens Izraēlai varētu būt Jordānas upes rietumkrasts. Pēc palestīniešu pašpārvaldes sniegtajām ziņām, 2023. bijis asiņainākais gads Rietumkrastā pēdējo divu desmitgažu laikā, kas jau pirms „Hamās” teroristiskā uzbrukuma bija prasījis apmēram 200 palestīniešu dzīvības, kurām pēc tam pievienojušies vēl apmēram trīs simti. Pēc kara sākuma Izraēlas aizsardzības spēki īstenojuši intensīvus reidus Rietumkrasta palestīniešu teritorijās, arestējot apmēram 4800 cilvēkus. Apmēram 70% no bojāgājušajiem palestīniešiem nogalināti tieši šo reidu laikā, apmēram pusē gadījumu – palestīniešu kaujiniekiem izrādot bruņotu pretestību. Tiek ziņots, ka vismaz astoņi palestīnieši nogalināti Rietumkrasta izraēliešu kolonistu uzbrukumos. Savukārt palestīniešu uzbrukumos nogalināti četri izraēliešu civiliedzīvotāji un trīs militārpersonas. Sevišķi plašs bijis reids 28. decembrī, kad Izraēlas spēki konfiscējuši apmēram divus ar pusi miljonus ASV dolāru no valūtas maiņas punktiem, apgalvojot, ka šī nauda tiekot izlietota teroristiskās darbības finansēšanai. Sagatavoja Eduards Liniņš.   

Karš un nedrošība arvien valda pasaule: turpinās karš Ukrainā, pirms dažiem mēnešiem sācies Izraēlas un Hamās karš, kopumā pasaulē šobrīd ir vairāk militāru konfliktu, nekā jebkad kopš Otrā pasaules kara beigām. Diskusijās pieskarsimies arī jautājumam par Krieviju, vai un kādas izmaiņas notikušas šajā valstī gada laikā. Migrācija – arī šis ir arvien aktuāls jautājums, kas ietekmē gan politiku Eiropā, gan ASV. Aizvadīto gadu ārpolitikas un drošības jomā vērtē Rīgas Stradiņa Universitātes lektore, Latvijas Ārpolitikas institūta pētniece Elīna Vrobļevska un Latvijas nacionālās aizsardzības akadēmijas Drošības un stratēģiskās pētniecības centra pētnieks Toms Rostoks. Asinslaiks Jau pagājušajā gadā, neilgi pēc Krievijas plaša mēroga iebrukuma Ukrainā sākuma, Apvienoto Nāciju ģenerālsekretārs Antoniu Guterrešs nāca klajā ar konstatāciju, ka vardarbīgu konfliktu skaits šobrīd pasaulē ir lielākais kopš Otrā pasaules kara. Aizejošais gads šo tendenci tikai pastiprinājis. Nav piepildījušās cerības uz kara beigām Ukrainā, kuras pagājušā gada nogalē tika saistītas ar Ukrainas bruņoto spēku iespējām gūt izšķirošos panākumus. Rietumu bruņojuma piegādes Ukrainai bija pārāk gausas un novēlotas, Krievijai izdevās izveidot nopietnas aizsardzības pozīcijas, kuras pārvarēt ukraiņiem nebija pa spēkam. No otras puses, arī Krievijas ieguvumi šī gada kaujās ir niecīgi, maksājot par tiem ar daudziem tūkstošiem savu karavīru dzīvību. Ukrainas puses nesen publiskotie dati vēsta, ka Krievijas bruņoto spēku zaudējumi nesen pārsnieguši 350 000 cilvēku, no tiem vairāk nekā 150 000 nogalināti. Nedaudz pieticīgāk šo nāves pļauju vērtē rietumvalstu eksperti, gan arī runājot par vairāk nekā 300 000 lieliem krievu puses zaudējumiem, bet, savukārt, lēšot, ka Ukrainas pusē kritušo varētu būt ap 70 000, ievainoto – vairāk nekā 100 000. Novembra pirmajā pusē publicētās Apvienoto Nāciju aplēses min vairāk nekā 10 000 nogalinātu Ukrainas civiliedzīvotāju. Vēl viena asinspirts nu jau trešo mēnesi risinās Tuvajos Austrumos. Kā zināms, teroristiskā grupējuma „Hamās” iebrukumā Izraēlas teritorijā tika zvēriski nogalināti vairāk nekā 1200 cilvēku, kam sekoja Izraēlas Aizsardzības spēku izvērstā militārā operācija Gazas sektorā. Gazas palestīniešu pašpārvaldes institūcijas šobrīd vēsta par vairāk nekā 20 000 operācijas laikā bojāgājušu iedzīvotāju, gan iekļaujot šai apjomā arī kritušos bruņotos kaujiniekus. Patieso civiliedzīvotāju upuru skaitu šobrīd noskaidrot nav iespējams, tomēr eksperti norāda, ka teritorijas blīvā apdzīvotība un karadarbības veids, plaši izmantojot nevadāmus lādiņus, liek domāt, ka šis skaitlis, visdrīzāk, tiešām mērāms diezgan daudzos tūkstošos. Bez pieminētajiem diviem lielākajiem konfliktiem pasaulē izraisījušies vai aktivizējušies vēl vairāki. Septembrī Azerbaidžānas bruņotie spēki uzsāka izšķirošo ofensīvu pret starptautiski neatzīto Arcahas republiku jeb Kalnu Karabahu, pārņemot to savā kontrolē. Rezultātā praktiski visi šis teritorijas armēņu iedzīvotāji – vairāk nekā 100 000 – dažās dienās pameta zemi, kur viņu senči dzīvojuši gadu tūkstošiem ilgi. Runājot par citiem planētas karstajiem punktiem, preses pārskati min pēdējā gada laikā arvien saasinājušos pilsoņu karu starp Mjanmas militāro huntu un dažādām bruņotām opozīcijas grupām, pieaugušo pretstāvi starp Ķīnu un Filipīnām strīdīgajos Dienvidķīnas jūras ūdeņos, Venecuēlas diktatūras nesen paustos tīkojumus pēc kaimiņvalsts Gajanas teritorijas, „apvērsumu epidēmiju” Subsahāras Āfrikā, kur pēdējais gads pievienojis sarakstam vēl divus – Nigērā un Gabonā. Tāpat iekšēji konflikti turpinās Etiopijā, Sudānā, Dienvidsudānā, Somālijā, Jemenā, Kongo Demokrātiskajā Republikā, Mali, Burkinafaso un citur; turpina gruzdēt Sīrijas pilsoņkarš, iekšēju konfliktu potenciālu komentētāji saskata Irānā un Pakistānā… Sarakstu var turpināt. Un trijjūgs turpina auļot… 14. decembrī Krievijas vadonis Putins pavadīja četras stundas tiešraidē, noturēdams tradicionālo gada notikumus rezumējošo preses konferenci. Pērngad, kad auditorijai kā Krievijā, tā ārpus tās vēl visai svaigā atmiņā bija krievu spēku atkāpšanās no Hersonas, šis ikgadējais notikums izpalika. Šogad Ukraina nevar lepoties ar līdzīgiem panākumiem, nesen Krievijas spēki pat aktivizējuši uzbrukumus vairākos frontes sektoros, palīdzības pakete Ukrainai iestrēgusi Savienoto Valstu Kongresā, un daži attiecīgas ievirzes komentētāji ceļ brēku par stratēģiskās iniciatīvas pāriešanu Kremļa rokās. Tad nu šoreiz nelielā auguma plikgalvis, acīmredzot, jutās drošs diezgan, lai sēstos kameru priekšā. Sociālajos tīkos visbiežāk apspēlētais motīvs bija viņa atbilde uz jautājumu par pamanāmo vistu olu cenu kāpumu Krievijā, par ko valdnieks tautai atvainojās, skaidrodams to ar valdības darba nepilnībām. Kas attiecas uz karadarbību Ukrainā, tad tika atkārtoti jau kara sākumā definētie uzstādījumi par kaimiņvalsts „denacifikāciju” un „demilitarizāciju”. Tam, acīmredzot, jāliecina, ka Kremļa līderis joprojām cer uz Krievijai pozitīvu kara iznākumu. Ja vien šo cerību lolotājs, protams, joprojām ir tas pats lemtspējīgais personāžs, kurš gadsimtu mijā ņēma Krievijas trijjūga grožus savās rokās. Pagājušā gada notikumi beidzot visai nepārprotami atklāja, ka dažas funkcijas Putina vietā izpilda dubultnieks vai dubultnieki, un tas, protams, aktivizējis versijas par to, ka īstais Putins jau ilgāku vai īsāku laiku vairs neesot starp dzīvajiem, valsti vadot kāda aizkulišu hunta, bet publikai tiekot piedāvāta vadoņa imitācija. Citi gan argumentē, ka Ķīnas prezidents Sjī Dziņpins, Apvienoto Arābu Emirātu prezidents šeihs Muhammeds bin Zaijids un Saūda Arābijas kroņprincis Muhammeds bin Salmāns šīgada valstsvizīšu laikā diezin vai būtu bijuši ar mieru spiest roku kaut kādam pseido-Vladimiram. Lai kā arī nebūtu, notikumu, kuru teju vienbalsīgi atzīst par draudošāko Putina režīmam visā tā pastāvēšanas laikā, šis režīms šogad izturēja. Runa ir par privātās militārās kompānijas „Vāgnera grupa” īpašnieka Jevgeņija Prigožina sarīkoto dumpi aizejošā gada Vasaras saulgriežos, kas režīmam beidzās ar izbīli, Putinam, diezgan droši, maksāja ne mazumu nervu, bet pašam Prigožinam un dažiem viņa līdzgaitniekiem – dzīvību. Ļaužu straumes un politikas dambji Saskaņā ar Eiropas Komisijas sniegtajiem datiem 2022. gads Eiropas Savienībā ieceļojušo personu skaita ziņā ar nepilniem 3,8 miljoniem iebraucēju pietuvojies 2015. gada bēgļu krīzes rādītājiem, kas ir vien nedaudz lielāki. Toreiz ieceļotāju straumes galvenais iemesls bija pilsoņkara aktivizēšanās Sīrijā, pērngad – Krievijas agresija pret Ukrainu. Atšķirība ir tāda, ka ja 2015. gada apmēram puse no ieceļotājiem jeb vairāk nekā miljons un astoņsimt tūkstoši bija t.s. neregulārie migranti, t.i. ļaudis bez legāla ieceļošanas iemesla, tad pērngad, ciktāl Ukrainas bēgļi tika uzņemti savienības valstīs legāli, šādu neregulāro ieceļotāju bija mazāk nekā desmitā daļa – nedaudz virs 330 000. Tomēr abām situācijām ir daudz kopīga. Gan 2015. gadā, gan tagad bēgļu plūsmas iemesls ir asinspirts, kas sakurta ar krievu ieročiem – iepriekš Sīrijā, tagad Ukrainā. Un loģisks ir jautājums – vai šīs bēgļu plūsmas nav daļa no Kremļa kalkulācijām kā Eiropu destabilizējošs faktors? Var piebilst, ka „ķirsītis uz tortes” ir tie robežpārkāpēji, kuri iepriekšējos gados iekļuva pāri Polijas, Lietuvas un Latvijas robežai ar Lukašenko režīma gādību, bet nupat nesen līdzīgā veidā no Krievijas centās ietikt Somijā. Austrumu robežas šķērsojušo migrantu skaits gan ir pavisam neliels, ja salīdzina ar ļaužu plūsmām, kuras arvien aktīvāk virzās uz Eiropu, peldlīdzekļos šķērsojot Vidusjūras, Egejas jūras vai Atlantijas okeāna ūdeņus, attiecīgi nonākot Maltā, Lampedūzā, Grieķijas salās, Kiprā, Spānijas piekrastē vai Kanāriju salās, vai arī pārejot sauszemes robežas Balkānos. Pēdējos gados šīs plūsmas pakāpeniski aug, un līdz ar to pa Eiropas politisko skatuvi atkal sāk klīst nekontrolētās migrācijas rēgs, kura raisītās baismas vislabāk prot izmantot labējie populisti.  Tas pats attiecas uz Savienotajām Valstīm, kuru robežu ar Meksiku jau gadu desmitiem ilgi tiecas šķērsot labākas dzīves alcēji, pamatā Centrālamerikas valstu iedzimtie. Viņiem ceļā, kā zināms, sola stāties republikāņu prezidenta amata kandidāts Donalds Tramps. Uzsākot savu priekšvēlēšanu kampaņu, viņš jau deklarējis, ka izbeigšot to „invāziju”, kādu esot pieļāvusi prezidenta Baidena administrācija. Dižais Donalds sola, ja atkal tiks prezidentos, atsaukt amerikāņu karaspēku no ārvalstīm un dislocēt to uz Meksikas robežas. Sagatavoja Eduards Liniņš.      Eiropas Parlamenta granta projekta „Jaunā Eiropas nākotne” programma.* * Šī publikācija atspoguļo tikai materiāla veidošanā iesaistīto pušu viedokli. Eiropas Parlaments nav atbildīgs par tajā ietvertās informācijas jebkādu izmantošanu.

"Futbolbumbas" piedāvā 2023. gada Latvijas futbola Virslīgas sezonas apskatus. Šoreiz atsevišķs video par katru no 10 komandām, kur izrunājām sniegumu un aktuālos notikumus gada griezumā, kā arī noteicām labākos spēlētājus anonīmajā balsojumā. Kārta bronzas medaļniekiem FK "Auda". Šis tiešām bija viņu gads.

Gads līdz prezidenta vēlēšanām ASV: vai karš Izraēlā ietekmēs cīņu par Baltā nama krēslu? Turpinās Izraēlas operācija Gazā. Aktualitātes pasaulē analizē politologs Andis Kudors, portāla "Delfi" žurnālists Toms Ģigulis. Sazināmies ar Nacionālo bruņoto spēku pārstāvi, majoru Jāni Slaidiņu. Gazā dārd, Amerikā atbalsojas Vakar, 7. novembrī, apritēja mēnesis kopš teroristiskās organizācijas „Hamās” slepkavnieciskā iebrukuma Izraēlas teritorijā no Gazas sektora, un šo dienu iezīmēja ne vien upuru piemiņas pasākumi, bet arī Izraēlas aizsardzības ministra Joava Galanta paziņojums, ka izraēliešu sauszemes spēki sasnieguši Gazas pilsētas centru. Nedēļas sākumā tika ziņots, ka izraēlieši, virzoties no sektora austrumu robežas, sasnieguši Vidusjūras piekrasti uz dienvidiem no Gazas pilsētas, tādējādi faktiski atdalot sektora ziemeļdaļu no dienviddaļas. Gazas pilsēta tiek uzskatīta par „Hamās” citadeli, tomēr iekļūšana tajā pati par sevi vēl nenozīmē būtisku panākumu. Izraēlas Aizsardzības spēku nozīmīgākais pārākums pār pretinieku ir smagā kaujas tehnika, taču šo priekšrocību lielā mērā laupa blīvā pilsētas apbūve. Vēl lielāks izaicinājums būs zem pilsētas izbūvētais tuneļu labirints – vairāku simtu kilometru kopgarumā un līdz pat astoņdesmit metru dziļumā. Izraēlas Aizsardzības spēkus, pēc visa spriežot, gaida ilga un asiņaina cīņa, kas neizbēgami vairos Gazas civiliedzīvotāju upuru skaitu. „Hamās” kontrolētās Gazas Veselības ministrija apgalvo, ka civiliedzīvotāju upuru skaits tur nesen pārsniedzis desmit tūkstošus, tai skaitā vairāk nekā četrus tūkstošus bērnu, tomēr šo informāciju pārbaudīt nav iespējams. Līdz ar ziņām par civiliedzīvotāju upuriem, Izraēla izjūt arvien lielāku pasaules sabiedriskās domas spiedienu par labu uguns pārtraukšanai, kas gan nepārprotami dotu atelpu „Hamās” teroristiem. Savienotās Valstis, nozīmīgākais Izraēlas sabiedrotais, līdz šim gan mudinājušas tikai uz „humānām pauzēm” karadarbībā. Tikām pēdējās dienās pasaules preses virsrakstos bieži izskan pieļāvumi, ka stingrā Izraēlas pozīcijas atbalstīšana var maksāt prezidentam Baidenam un Demokrātiskajai partijai uzvaru nākamā gada prezidenta vēlēšanās. Savienotajās Valstīs dzīvojošie arābi u.c. islāmticīgie līdz šim bijuši pārsvarā demokrātu partijas vēlētāji, bet daudzi no viņiem tagad maina savu nostāju. Atbalsts Demokrātiskajai partijai arābu izcelsmes amerikāņu vidū krities no 59% pirms diviem gadiem līdz 17% šobrīd. Tiek minēts, ka, piemēram, Mičiganas pavalstī prezidents Baidens pēdējās vēlēšanās ieguva 154 000 balsu pārsvaru, un šis skaitlis ir biedējoši tuvu tam, cik šai štatā varētu būt pret pašreizējo administrāciju negatīvi noskaņotu arābu izcelsmes vēlētāju. Izvēle nebalsot par Baidenu un demokrātiem gan nenozīmē pievēršanos republikāņiem, sevišķi ja viņu kandidāts būs Donalds Tramps. Liktenīgā iestrēguma briesmas Karš ir nonācis strupceļā – tas ir galvenais secinājums, kuru pasaules prese izceļ Ukrainas Bruņoto spēku virspavēlnieka, ģenerāļa Valerija Zalužnija intervijā, kuru pirms nedēļas publicēja izdevums „The Economist”. Līdz ar interviju izdevums publicēja arī Zalužnija apcerējumu par pašreizējo kara situāciju. Stāvokli Ukrainas frontēs ģenerālis salīdzina ar simts gadus senu pagātni, kad Pirmā pasaules kara laikā tā brīža militārās tehnikas attīstība deva nozīmīgas priekšrocības tai pusei, kura aizsargājas, kas, savukārt, noveda pie ilgstoša pozīciju kara. Ukrainas spēki, dodoties ilgi gatavotajā un gaidītajā pretuzbrukumā, ir spējuši pavirzīt fronti tikai par kādiem 17 kilometriem. Savukārt Krievijas pusei vajadzēja daudzus mēnešus un milzu upurus, lai nostiprinātos vienā samērā nelielā pilsētā – Bahmutā. Iemesls ir strauji attīstījušās attālināti vadāmu novērošanas un uzbrukuma līdzekļu tehnoloģijas, pirmkārt – bezpilota lidaparāti jeb droni. Pretinieki ir viens otram teju kā uz delnas, un jebkuras uzbrukuma operācijas ātri pārtver pretējās puses artilērija. Tā nu šobrīd visai ticama šķiet ilgstoša pozīciju kara fāze, resursu izsmelšanas karš, kurā Krievijai ir acīmredzamas priekšrocības, pirmām kārtām jau cilvēkresursu ziņā. Kā uzsver ģenerālis Zalužnijs, Krievijas sabiedrībā cilvēka dzīvībai ir gana maza vērtība, lai Kremlis varētu atļauties vēl daudzus sūtīt nāvē un šādā ilgstošā cīņā likt Ukrainai noasiņot. Kā zināms, Ukrainas sabiedrotās rietumvalstis līdz šim gausi un paskopi piegādājušas tai modernāko un jaudīgāko bruņojumu, kas spētu reāli nodrošināt lūzumu kara gaitā, savukārt Krievija pakāpeniski kāpina sava militāri rūpnieciskā kompleksa jaudu un iegūst zināmas ieroču un munīcijas piegādes no tādiem partneriem kā Irāna un Ziemeļkoreja. Tas viss, kā norāda ģenerālis Zalužnijs, var novest pie kritiska Ukrainas dzīvā spēka izsīkuma, respektīvi – pie zaudējuma šai karā. Kā norāda novērotāji, šī publikācija acīmredzot bijusi nepatīkams pārsteigums prezidentam Volodimiram Zelenskim un viņa birojam. Ukrainas valsts galva komentēja armijas pavēlnieka pausto vien pēc vairākām dienām – vairāk nekā 40 minūtes ilgā intervijā telekanālam „NBC News”. Prezidents uzstāja, ka kara gaitu nevarot raksturot kā iestrēgušu, un vēlreiz apliecināja Ukrainas nācijas gribu uzvarēt. Jautāts par pēdējās dienās parādījušos informāciju par to, ka Rietumu partneri vedinot viņu uz domām par iespējamām miera sarunām, Zelenskis atbildēja, ka neredz iespēju vest sarunas ar teroristiem, kuru vārdiem nevar uzticēties. Sagatavoja Eduards Liniņš.  Eiropas Parlamenta granta projekta „Jaunā Eiropas nākotne” programma.* * Šī publikācija atspoguļo tikai materiāla veidošanā iesaistīto pušu viedokli. Eiropas Parlaments nav atbildīgs par tajā ietvertās informācijas jebkādu izmantošanu.

The first workshops and talks from the AI Engineer Summit are now up! Join the >20k viewers on YouTube, find clips on Twitter (we're also clipping @latentspacepod), and chat with us on Discord!Text-to-SQL was one of the first applications of NLP. Thoughtspot offered “Ask your data questions” as their core differentiation compared to traditional dashboarding tools. In a way, they provide a much friendlier interface with your own structured (aka “tabular”, as in “SQL tables”) data, the same way that RLHF and Instruction Tuning helped turn the GPT-3 of 2020 into the ChatGPT of 2022.Today, natural language queries on your databases are a commodity. There are 4 different ChatGPT plugins that offer this, as well as a bunch of startups like one of our previous guests, Seek.ai. Perplexity originally started with a similar product in 2022: In March 2023 LangChain wrote a blog post on LLMs and SQL highlighting why they don't consistently work:* “LLMs can write SQL, but they are often prone to making up tables, making up field”* “LLMs have some context window which limits the amount of text they can operate over”* “The SQL it writes may be incorrect for whatever reason, or it could be correct but just return an unexpected result.”For example, if you ask a model to “return all active users in the last 7 days” it might hallucinate a `is_active` column, join to an `activity` table that doesn't exist, or potentially get the wrong date (especially in leap years!).We previously talked to Shreya Rajpal at Guardrails AI, which also supports Text2SQL enforcement. Their approach was to run the actual SQL against your database and then use the error messages to improve the query: Semantic Layers to the rescueCube is an open source semantic layer which recently integrated with LangChain to solve these issues in a different way. You can use YAML, Javascript, or Python to create definitions of different metrics, measures and dimensions for your data: Creating these metrics and passing them in the model context limits the possibility for errors as the model just needs to query the `active_users` view, and Cube will then expand that into the full SQL in a reliable way. The downside of this approach compared to the Guardrails one for example is that it requires more upfront work to define metrics, but on the other hand it leads to more reliable and predictable outputs. The promise of adding a great semantic layer to your LLM app is irresistible - you greatly minimize hallucinations, make much more token efficient prompts, and your data stays up to date without any retraining or re-indexing. However, there are also difficulties with implementing semantic layers well, so we were glad to go deep on the topic with Artem as one of the leading players in this space!Timestamps* [00:00:00] Introductions* [00:01:28] Statsbot and limitations of natural language processing in 2017* [00:04:27] Building Cube as the infrastructure for Statsbot* [00:08:01] Open sourcing Cube in 2019* [00:09:09] Explaining the concept of a semantic layer/Cube* [00:11:01] Using semantic layers to provide context for AI models working with tabular data* [00:14:47] Workflow of generating queries from natural language via semantic layer* [00:21:07] Using Cube to power customer-facing analytics and natural language interfaces* [00:22:38] Building data-driven AI applications and agents* [00:25:59] The future of the modern data stack* [00:29:43] Example use cases of Slack bots powered by Cube* [00:30:59] Using GPT models and limitations around math* [00:32:44] Tips for building data-driven AI apps* [00:35:20] Challenges around monetizing embedded analytics* [00:36:27] Lightning RoundTranscriptSwyx: Hey everyone, welcome to the Latent Space podcast. This is Swyx, writer, editor of Latent Space and founder of Smol.ai and Alessio, partner and CTO in residence at Decibel Partners. [00:00:15]Alessio: Hey everyone, and today we have Artem Keydunov on the podcast, co-founder of Cube. Hey Artem. [00:00:21]Artem: Hey Alessio, hi Swyx. Good to be here today, thank you for inviting me. [00:00:25]Alessio: Yeah, thanks for joining. For people that don't know, I've known Artem for a long time, ever since he started Cube. And Cube is actually a spin-out of his previous company, which is Statsbot. And this kind of feels like going both backward and forward in time. So the premise of Statsbot was having a Slack bot that you can ask, basically like text to SQL in Slack, and this was six, seven years ago, something like that. A lot ahead of its time, and you see startups trying to do that today. And then Cube came out of that as a part of the infrastructure that was powering Statsbot. And Cube then evolved from an embedded analytics product to the semantic layer and just an awesome open source evolution. I think you have over 16,000 stars on GitHub today, you have a very active open source community. But maybe for people at home, just give a quick like lay of the land of the original Statsbot product. You know, what got you interested in like text to SQL and what were some of the limitations that you saw then, the limitations that you're also seeing today in the new landscape? [00:01:28]Artem: I started Statsbot in 2016. The original idea was to just make sort of a side project based off my initial project that I did at a company that I was working for back then. And I was working for a company that was building software for schools, and we were using Slack a lot. And Slack was growing really fast, a lot of people were talking about Slack, you know, like Slack apps, chatbots in general. So I think it was, you know, like another wave of, you know, bots and all that. We have one more wave right now, but it always comes in waves. So we were like living through one of those waves. And I wanted to build a bot that would give me information from different places where like a data lives to Slack. So it was like developer data, like New Relic, maybe some marketing data, Google Analytics, and then some just regular data, like a production database, so it sells for sometimes. And I wanted to bring it all into Slack, because we were always chatting, you know, like in Slack, and I wanted to see some stats in Slack. So that was the idea of Statsbot, right, like bring stats to Slack. I built that as a, you know, like a first sort of a side project, and I published it on Reddit. And people started to use it even before Slack came up with that Slack application directory. So it was a little, you know, like a hackish way to install it, but people are still installing it. So it was a lot of fun. And then Slack kind of came up with that application directory, and they reached out to me and they wanted to feature Statsbot, because it was one of the already being kind of widely used bots on Slack. So they featured me on this application directory front page, and I just got a lot of, you know, like new users signing up for that. It was a lot of fun, I think, you know, like, but it was sort of a big limitation in terms of how you can process natural language, because the original idea was to let people ask questions directly in Slack, right, hey, show me my, you know, like opportunities closed last week or something like that. My co founder, who kind of started helping me with this Slack application, him and I were trying to build a system to recognize that natural language. But it was, you know, we didn't have LLMs right back then and all of that technology. So it was really hard to build the system, especially the systems that can kind of, you know, like keep talking to you, like maintain some sort of a dialogue. It was a lot of like one off requests, and like, it was a lot of hit and miss, right? If you know how to construct a query in natural language, you will get a result back. But you know, like, it was not a system that was capable of, you know, like asking follow up questions to try to understand what you actually want. And then kind of finally, you know, like, bring this all context and go to generate a SQL query, get the result back and all of that. So that was a really missing part. And I think right now, that's, you know, like, what is the difference? So right now, I kind of bullish that if I would start Statsbot again, probably would have a much better shot at it. But back then, that was a big limitation. We kind of build a queue, right, as we were working on Statsbot, because we needed it. [00:04:27]Alessio: What was the ML stack at the time? Were you building, trying to build your own natural language understanding models, like were there open source models that were good that you were trying to leverage? [00:04:38]Artem: I think it was mostly combination of a bunch of things. And we tried a lot of different approaches. The first version, which I built, like was Regex. They were working well. [00:04:47]Swyx: It's the same as I did, I did option pricing when I was in finance, and I had a natural language pricing tool thing. And it was Regex. It was just a lot of Regex. [00:04:59]Artem: Yeah. [00:05:00]Artem: And my co-founder, Pavel, he's much smarter than I am. He's like PhD in math, all of that. And he started to do some stuff. I was like, no, you just do that stuff. I don't know. I can do Regex. And he started to do some models and trying to either look at what we had on the market back then, or try to build a different sort of models. Again, we didn't have any foundation back in place, right? We wanted to try to use existing math, obviously, right? But it was not something that we can take the model and try and run it. I think in 2019, we started to see more of stuff, like ecosystem being built, and then it eventually kind of resulted in all this LLM, like what we have right now. But back then in 2016, it was not much available for just the people to build on top. It was some academic research, right, kind of been happening. But it was very, very early for something to actually be able to use. [00:05:58]Alessio: And then that became Cube, which started just as an open source project. And I think I remember going on a walk with you in San Mateo in 2020, something like that. And you had people reaching out to you who were like, hey, we use Cube in production. I just need to give you some money, even though you guys are not a company. What's the story of Cube then from Statsbot to where you are today? [00:06:21]Artem: We built a Cube at Statsbot because we needed it. It was like, the whole Statsbot stack was that we first tried to translate the initial sort of language query into some sort of multidimensional query. It's like we were trying to understand, okay, people wanted to get active opportunities, right? What does it mean? Is it a metric? Is it what a dimension here? Because usually in analytics, you always, you know, like, try to reduce everything down to the sort of, you know, like a multidimensional framework. So that was the first step. And that's where, you know, like it didn't really work well because all this limitation of us not having foundational technologies. But then from the multidimensional query, we wanted to go to SQL. And that's what was SemanticLayer and what was Cube essentially. So we built a framework where you would be able to map your data into this concept, into this metrics. Because when people were coming to Statsbot, they were bringing their own datasets, right? And the big question was, how do we tell the system what is active opportunities for that specific users? How we kind of, you know, like provide that context, how we do the training. So that's why we came up with the idea of building the SemanticLayer so people can actually define their metrics and then kind of use them as a Statsbot. So that's how we built a Cube. At some point, we saw people started to see more value in the Cube itself, you know, like kind of building the SemanticLayer and then using it to power different types of the application. So in 2019, we decided, okay, it feels like it might be a standalone product and a lot of people want to use it. Let's just try to open source it. So we took it out of Statsbot and open-sourced. [00:08:01]Swyx: Can I make sure that everyone has the same foundational knowledge? The concept of a cube is not something that you invented. I think, you know, not everyone has the same background in analytics and data that all three of us do. Maybe you want to explain like OLAP Cube, HyperCube, the brief history of cubes. Right. [00:08:17]Artem: I'll try, you know, like a lot of like Wikipedia pages and like a lot of like a blog post trying to go into academics of it. So I'm trying to like... [00:08:25]Swyx: Cube's according to you. Yeah. [00:08:27]Artem: So when we think about just a table in a database, the problem with the table, it's not a multidimensional, meaning that in many cases, if we want to slice the data, we kind of need to result with a different table, right? Like think about when you're writing a SQL query to answer one question, SQL query always ends up with a table, right? So you write one SQL, you got one. And then you write to answer a different question, you write a second query. So you're kind of getting a bunch of tables. So now let's imagine that we can kind of bring all these tables together into multidimensional table. And that's essentially Cube. So it's just like the way that we can have measures and dimension that can potentially be used at the same time from a different angles. [00:09:09]Alessio: So initially, a lot of your use cases were more BI related, but you recently released a LangChain integration. There's obviously more and more interest in, again, using these models to answer data questions. So you've seen the chat GPT code interpreter, which is renamed as like advanced data analysis. What's kind of like the future of like the semantic layer in AI? You know, what are like some of the use cases that you're seeing and why do you think it's a good strategy to make it easier to do now the text to SQL you wanted to do seven years ago? [00:09:39]Artem: Yeah. So, I mean, you know, when it started to happen, I was just like, oh my God, people are now building Statsbot with Cube. They just have a better technology for, you know, like natural language. So it kind of, it made sense to me, you know, like from the first moment I saw it. So I think it's something that, you know, like happening right now and chat bot is one of the use cases. I think, you know, like if you try to generalize it, the use case would be how do we use structured or tabular data with, you know, like AI models, right? Like how do we turn the data and give the context as a data and then bring it to the model and then model can, you know, like give you answers, make a questions, do whatever you want. But the question is like how we go from just the data in your data warehouse, database, whatever, which is usually just a tabular data, right? Like in a SQL based warehouses to some sort of, you know, like a context that system can do. And if you're building this application, you have to do it. It's like no way you can get away around not doing this. You either map it manually or you come up with some framework or something else. So our take is that and my take is that semantic layer is just really good place for this context to leave because you need to give this context to the humans. You need to give that context to the AI system anyway, right? So that's why you define metric once and then, you know, like you teach your AI system what this metric is about. [00:11:01]Alessio: What are some of the challenges of using tabular versus language data and some of the ways that having the semantic layer kind of makes that easier maybe? [00:11:09]Artem: Imagine you're a human, right? And you're going into like your new data analyst at a company and just people give you a warehouse with a bunch of tables and they tell you, okay, just try to make sense of this data. And you're going through all of these tables and you're really like trying to make sense without any, you know, like additional context or like some columns. In many cases, they might have a weird names. Sometimes, you know, if they follow some kind of like a star schema or, you know, like a Kimball style dimensions, maybe that would be easier because you would have facts and dimensions column, but it's still, it's hard to understand and kind of make sense because it doesn't have descriptions, right? And then there is like a whole like industry of like a data catalogs exist because the whole purpose of that to give context to the data so people can understand that. And I think the same applies to the AI, right? Like, and the same challenge is that if you give it pure tabular data, it doesn't have this sort of context that it can read. So you sort of needed to write a book or like essay about your data and give that book to the system so it can understand it. [00:12:12]Alessio: Can you run through the steps of how that works today? So the initial part is like the natural language query, like what are the steps that happen in between to do model, to semantic layer, semantic layer, to SQL and all that flow? [00:12:26]Artem: The first key step is to do some sort of indexing. That's what I was referring to, like write a book about your data, right? Describe in a text format what your data is about, right? Like what metrics it has, dimensions, what is the structures of that, what a relationship between those metrics, what are potential values of the dimensions. So sort of, you know, like build a really good index as a text representation and then turn it into embeddings into your, you know, like a vector storage. Once you have that, then you can provide that as a context to the model. I mean, there are like a lot of options, like either fine tune or, you know, like sort of in context learning, but somehow kind of give that as a context to the model, right? And then once this model has this context, it can create a query. Now the query I believe should be created against semantic layer because it reduces the room for the error. Because what usually happens is that your query to semantic layer would be very simple. It would be like, give me that metric group by that dimension and maybe that filter should be applied. And then your real query for the warehouse, it might have like a five joins, a lot of different techniques, like how to avoid fan out, fan traps, chasm traps, all of that stuff. And the bigger query, the more room that the model can make an error, right? Like even sometimes it could be a small error and then, you know, like your numbers is going to be off. But making a query against semantic layer, that sort of reduces the error. So the model generates a SQL query and then it executes us again, semantic layer. And semantic layer executes us against your warehouse and then sends result all the way back to the application. And then can be done multiple times because what we were missing was both this ability to have a conversation, right? With the model. You can ask question and then system can do a follow-up questions, you know, like then do a query to get some additional information based on this information, do a query again. And sort of, you know, like it can keep doing this stuff and then eventually maybe give you a big report that consists of a lot of like data points. But the whole flow is that it knows the system, it knows your data because you already kind of did the indexing and then it queries semantic layer instead of a data warehouse directly. [00:14:47]Alessio: Maybe just to make it a little clearer for people that haven't used a semantic layer before, you can add definitions like revenue, where revenue is like select from customers and like join orders and then sum of the amount of orders. But in the semantic layer, you're kind of hiding all of that away. So when you do natural language to queue, it just select revenue from last week and then it turns into a bigger query. [00:15:12]Swyx: One of the biggest difficulties around semantic layer for people who've never thought about this concept before, this all sounds super neat until you have multiple stakeholders within a single company who all have different concepts of what a revenue is. They all have different concepts of what active user is. And then they'll have like, you know, revenue revision one by the sales team, you know, and then revenue revision one, accounting team or tax team, I don't know. I feel like I always want semantic layer discussions to talk about the not so pretty parts of the semantic layer, because this is where effectively you ship your org chart in the semantic layer. [00:15:47]Artem: I think the way I think about it is that at the end of the day, semantic layer is a code base. And in Qubit, it's essentially a code base, right? It's not just a set of YAML files with pythons. I think code is never perfect, right? It's never going to be perfect. It will have a lot of, you know, like revisions of code. We have a version control, which helps it's easier with revisions. So I think we should treat our metrics and semantic layer as a code, right? And then collaboration is a big part of it. You know, like if there are like multiple teams that sort of have a different opinions, let them collaborate on the pull request, you know, they can discuss that, like why they think that should be calculated differently, have an open conversation about it, you know, like when everyone can just discuss it, like an open source community, right? Like you go on a GitHub and you talk about why that code is written the way it's written, right? It should be written differently. And then hopefully at some point you can come up, you know, like to some definition. Now if you still should have multiple versions, right? It's a code, right? You can still manage it. But I think the big part of that is that like, we really need to treat it as a code base. Then it makes a lot of things easier, not as spreadsheets, you know, like a hidden Excel files. [00:16:53]Alessio: The other thing is like then having the definition spread in the organization, like versus everybody trying to come up with their own thing. But yeah, I'm sure that when you talk to customers, there's people that have issues with the product and it's really like two people trying to define the same thing. One in sales that wants to look good, the other is like the finance team that wants to be conservative and they all have different definitions. How important is the natural language to people? Obviously you guys both work in modern data stack companies either now or before. There's going to be the whole wave of empowering data professionals. I think now a big part of the wave is removing the need for data professionals to always be in the loop and having non-technical folks do more of the work. Are you seeing that as a big push too with these models, like allowing everybody to interact with the data? [00:17:42]Artem: I think it's a multidimensional question. That's an example of, you know, like where you have a lot of inside the question. In terms of examples, I think a lot of people building different, you know, like agents or chatbots. You have a company that built an internal Slack bot that sort of answers questions, you know, like based on the data in a warehouse. And then like a lot of people kind of go in and like ask that chatbot this question. Is it like a real big use case? Maybe. Is it still like a toy pet project? Maybe too right now. I think it's really hard to tell them apart at this point because there is a lot of like a hype, you know, and just people building LLM stuff because it's cool and everyone wants to build something, you know, like even at least a pet project. So that's what happened in Krizawa community as well. We see a lot of like people building a lot of cool stuff and it probably will take some time for that stuff to mature and kind of to see like what are real, the best use cases. But I think what I saw so far, one use case was building this chatbot and we have even one company that are building it as a service. So they essentially connect into Q semantic layer and then offering their like chatbot So you can do it in a web, in a slack, so it can, you know, like answer questions based on data in your semantic layer, but also see a lot of things like they're just being built in house. And there are other use cases, sort of automation, you know, like that agent checks on the data and then kind of perform some actions based, you know, like on changes in data. But other dimension of your question is like, will it replace people or not? I think, you know, like what I see so far in data specifically, you know, like a few use cases of LLM, I don't see Q being part of that use case, but it's more like a copilot for data analyst, a copilot for data engineer, where you develop something, you develop a model and it can help you to write a SQL or something like that. So you know, it can create a boilerplate SQL, and then you can edit this SQL, which is fine because you know how to edit SQL, right? So you're not going to make a mistake, but it will help you to just generate, you know, like a bunch of SQL that you write again and again, right? Like boilerplate code. So sort of a copilot use case. I think that's great. And we'll see more of it. I think every platform that is building for data engineers will have some sort of a copilot capabilities and Cubectl, we're building this copilot capabilities to help people build semantic layers easier. I think that just a baseline for every engineering product right now to have some sort of, you know, like a copilot capabilities. Then the other use case is a little bit more where Cube is being involved is like, how do we enable access to data for non-technical people through the natural language as an interface to data, right? Like visual dashboards, charts, it's always has been an interface to data in every BI. Now I think we will see just a second interface as a just kind of a natural language. So I think at this point, many BI's will add it as a commodity feature is like Tableau will probably have a search bar at some point saying like, Hey, ask me a question. I know that some of the, you know, like AWS Squeak site, they're about to announce features like this in their like BI. And I think Power BI will do that, especially with their deal with open AI. So every company, every BI will have this some sort of a search capabilities built in inside their BI. So I think that's just going to be a baseline feature for them as well. But that's where Cube can help because we can provide that context, right? [00:21:07]Alessio: Do you know how, or do you have an idea for how these products will differentiate once you get the same interface? So right now there's like, you know, Tableau is like the super complicated and it's like super sad. It's like easier. Yeah. Do you just see everything will look the same and then how do people differentiate? [00:21:24]Artem: It's like they all have line chart, right? And they all have bar chart. I feel like it pretty much the same and it's going to be fragmented as well. And every major vendor and most of the vendors will try to have some sort of natural language capabilities and they might be a little bit different. Some of them will try to position the whole product around it. Some of them will just have them as a checkbox, right? So we'll see, but I don't think it's going to be something that will change the BI market, you know, like something that will can take the BI market and make it more consolidated rather than, you know, like what we have right now. I think it's still will remain fragmented. [00:22:04]Alessio: Let's talk a bit more about application use cases. So people also use Q for kind of like analytics in their product, like dashboards and things like that. How do you see that changing and more, especially like when it comes to like agents, you know, so there's like a lot of people trying to build agents for reporting, building agents for sales. If you're building a sales agent, you need to know everything about the purchasing history of the customer. All of these things. Yeah. Any thoughts there? What should all the AI engineers listening think about when implementing data into agents? [00:22:38]Artem: Yeah, I think kind of, you know, like trying to solve for two problems. One is how to make sure that agents or LLM model, right, has enough context about, you know, like a tabular data and also, you know, like how do we deliver updates to the context, which is also important because data is changing, right? So every time we change something upstream, we need to surely update that context in our vector database or something. And how do you make sure that the queries are correct? You know, I think it's obviously a big pain and that's all, you know, like AI kind of, you know, like a space right now, how do we make sure that we don't, you know, provide our own cancers, but I think, you know, like be able to reduce the room for error as much as possible that what I would look for, you know, like to try to like minimize potential damage. And then our use case for Qube, it's been using a lot to power sort of customer facing analytics. So I don't think much is going to change is that I feel like again, more and more products will adopt natural language interfaces as sort of a part of that product as well. So we would be able to power this business to not only, you know, like a chart, visuals, but also some sort of, you know, like a summaries, probably in the future, you're going to open the page with some surface stats and you will have a smart summary kind of generated by AI. And that summary can be powered by Qube, right, like, because the rest is already being powered by Qube. [00:24:04]Alessio: You know, we had Linus from Notion on the pod and one of the ideas he had that I really like is kind of like thumbnails of text, kind of like how do you like compress knowledge and then start to expand it. A lot of that comes into dashboards, you know, where like you have a lot of data, you have like a lot of charts and sometimes you just want to know, hey, this is like the three lines summary of it. [00:24:25]Artem: Exactly. [00:24:26]Alessio: Makes sense that you want to power that. How are you thinking about, yeah, the evolution of like the modern data stack in quotes, whatever that means today. What's like the future of what people are going to do? What's the future of like what models and agents are going to do for them? Do you have any, any thoughts? [00:24:42]Artem: I feel like modern data stack sometimes is not very, I mean, it's obviously big crossover between AI, you know, like ecosystem, AI infrastructure, ecosystem, and then sort of a data. But I don't think it's a full overlap. So I feel like when we know, like I'm looking at a lot of like what's happening in a modern data stack where like we use warehouses, we use BI's, you know, different like transformation tools, catalogs, like data quality tools, ETLs, all of that. I don't see a lot of being compacted by AI specifically. I think, you know, that space is being compacted as much as any other space in terms of, yes, we'll have all this copilot capabilities, some of AI capabilities here and there, but I don't see anything sort of dramatically, you know, being sort of, you know, a change or shifted because of, you know, like AI wave. In terms of just in general data space, I think in the last two, three years, we saw an explosion, right? Like we got like a lot of tools, every vendor for every problem. I feel like right now we should go through the cycle of consolidation. If Fivetran and DBT merge, they can be Alteryx of a new generation or something like that. And you know, probably some ETL tool there. I feel it might happen. I mean, it's just natural waves, you know, like in cycles. [00:25:59]Alessio: I wonder if everybody is going to have their own copilot. The other thing I think about these models is like Swyx was at Airbyte and yeah, there's Fivetran. [00:26:08]Swyx: Fivetran versus AirByte, I don't think it'll mix very well. [00:26:10]Alessio: A lot of times these companies are doing the syntax work for you of like building the integration between your data store and like the app or another data store. I feel like now these models are pretty good at coming up with the integration themselves and like using the docs to then connect the two. So I'm really curious, like in the future, what that will look like. And same with data transformation. I mean, you think about DBT and some of these tools and right now you have to create rules to normalize and transform data. In the future, I could see you explaining the model, how you want the data to be, and then the model figuring out how to do the transformation. I think it all needs a semantic layer as far as like figuring out what to do with it. You know, what's the data for and where it goes. [00:26:53]Artem: Yeah, I think many of this, you know, like workflows will be augmented by, you know, like some sort of a copilot. You know, you can describe what transformation you want to see and it can generate a boilerplate right, of transformation for you, or even, you know, like kind of generate a boilerplate of specific ETL driver or ETL integration. I think we're still not at the point where this code can be fully automated. So we still need a human and a loop, right, like who can be, who can use this copilot. But in general, I think, yeah, data work and software engineering work can be augmented quite significantly with all that stuff. [00:27:31]Alessio: You know, the big thing with machine learning before was like, well, all of your data is bad. You know, the data is not good for anything. And I think like now, at least with these models, they have some knowledge of their own and they can also tell you if your data is bad, which I think is like something that before you didn't have. Any cool apps that you've seen being built on Qube, like any kind of like AI native things that people should think about, new experiences, anything like that? [00:27:54]Artem: Well, I see a lot of Slack bots. They all remind me of Statsbot, but I know like I played with a few of them. They're much, much better than Statsbot. It feels like it's on the surface, right? It's just that use case that you really want, you know, think about you, a data engineer in your company, like everyone is like, and you're asking, hey, can you pull that data for me? And you would be like, can I build a bot to replace myself? You know, like, so they can both ping that bot instead. So it's like, that's why a lot of people doing that. So I think it's a first use case that actually people are playing with. But I think inside that use case, people get creative. So I see bots that can actually have a dialogue with you. So, you know, like you would come to that bot and say, hey, show me metrics. And the bot would be like, what kind of metrics? What do you want to look at? You will be like active users. And then it would be like, how do you define active users? You want to see active users sort of cohort, you want to see active users kind of changing behavior over time, like a lot of like a follow up questions. So it tries to sort of, you know, like understand what exactly you want. And that's how many data analysts work, right? When people started to ask you something, you always try to understand what exactly do you mean? Because many people don't know how to ask correct questions about your data. It's a sort of an interesting specter. On one side of the specter, you know, nothing is like, hey, show me metrics. And the other side of specter, you know how to write SQL, and you can write exact query to your data warehouse, right? So many people like a little bit in the middle. And the data analysts, they usually have the knowledge about your data. And that's why they can ask follow up questions and to understand what exactly you want. And I saw people building bots who can do that. That part is amazing. I mean, like generating SQL, all that stuff, it's okay, it's good. But when the bot can actually act like they know that your data and they can ask follow up questions. I think that's great. [00:29:43]Swyx: Yeah. [00:29:44]Alessio: Are there any issues with the models and the way they understand numbers? One of the big complaints people have is like GPT, at least 3.5, cannot do math. Have you seen any limitations and improvement? And also when it comes to what model to use, do you see most people use like GPT-4? Because it's like the best at this kind of analysis. [00:30:03]Artem: I think I saw people use all kinds of models. To be honest, it's usually GPT. So inside GPT, it could be 3.5 or 4, right? But it's not like I see a lot of something else, to be honest, like, I mean, maybe some open source alternatives, but it feels like the market is being dominated by just chat GPT. In terms of the problems, I think chatting about it with a few people. So if math is required to do math, you know, like outside of, you know, like chat GPT itself, so it would be like some additional Python scripts or something. When we're talking about production level use cases, it's quite a lot of Python code around, you know, like your model to make it work. To be honest, it's like, it's not that magic that you just throw the model in and like it can give you all these answers. For like a toy use cases, the one we have on a, you know, like our demo page or something, it works fine. But, you know, like if you want to do like a lot of post-processing, do a mass on URL, you probably need to code it in Python anyway. That's what I see people doing. [00:30:59]Alessio: We heard the same from Harrison and LangChain that most people just use OpenAI. We did a OpenAI has no moat emergency podcast, and it was funny to like just see the reaction that people had to that and how hard it actually is to break down some of the monopoly. What else should people keep in mind, Artem? You're kind of like at the cutting edge of this. You know, if I'm looking to build a data-driven AI application, I'm trying to build data into my AI workflows. Any mistakes people should avoid? Any tips on the best stack to use? What tools to use? [00:31:32]Artem: I would just recommend going through to warehouse as soon as possible. I think a lot of people feel that MySQL can be a warehouse, which can be maybe on like a lower scale, but definitely not from a performance perspective. So just kind of starting with a good warehouse, a query engine, Lakehouse, that's probably like something I would recommend starting from a day zero. And there are good ways to do it, very cheap, with open source technologies too, especially in the Lakehouse architecture. I think, you know, I'm biased, obviously, but using a semantic layer, preferably Cube, and for, you know, like a context. And other than that, I just feel it's a very interesting space in terms of AI ecosystem. I see a lot of people using link chain right now, which is great, you know, like, and we build an integration. But I'm sure the space will continue to evolve and, you know, like we'll see a lot of interesting tools and maybe, you know, like some tools would be a better fit for a job. I'm not aware of any right now, but it's always interesting to see how it evolves. Also it's a little unclear, you know, like how all the infrastructure around actually developing, testing, documenting, all that stuff will kind of evolve too. But yeah, again, it's just like really interesting to see and observe, you know, what's happening in this space. [00:32:44]Swyx: So before we go to the lightning round, I wanted to ask you on your thoughts on embedded analytics and in a sense, the kind of chatbots that people are inserting on their websites and building with LLMs is very much sort of end user programming or end user interaction with their own data. I love seeing embedded analytics, and for those who don't know, embedded analytics is basically user facing dashboards where you can see your own data, right? Instead of the company seeing data across all their customers, it's an individual user seeing their own data as a slice of the overall data that is owned by the platform that they're using. So I love embedded analytics. Well, actually, overwhelmingly, the observation that I've had is that people who try to build in this market fail to monetize. And I was wondering your insights on why. [00:33:31]Artem: I think overall, the statement is true. It's really hard to monetize, you know, like in embedded analytics. That's why at Qube we're excited more about our internal kind of BI use case, or like a company's a building, you know, like a chatbots for their internal data consumption or like internal workflows. Embedded analytics is hard to monetize because it's historically been dominated by the BI vendors. And we still see a lot of organizations are using BI tools as vendors. And what I was talking about, BI vendors adding natural language interfaces, they will probably add that to the embedded analytics capabilities as well, right? So they would be able to embed that too. So I think that's part of it. Also, you know, if you look at the embedded analytics market, the bigger organizations are big GADs, they're really more custom, you know, like it becomes and at some point I see many organizations, they just stop using any vendor, and they just kind of build most of the stuff from scratch, which probably, you know, like the right way to do. So it's sort of, you know, like you got a market that is very kept at the top. And then you also in that middle and small segment, you got a lot of vendors trying to, you know, like to compete for the buyers. And because again, the BI is very fragmented, embedded analytics, therefore is fragmented also. So you're really going after the mid market slice, and then with a lot of other vendors competing for that. So that's why it's historically been hard to monetize, right? I don't think AI really going to change that just because it's using model, you just pay to open AI. And that's it, like everyone can do that, right? So it's not much of a competitive advantage. So it's going to be more like a commodity features that a lot of vendors would be able to leverage. [00:35:20]Alessio: This is great, Artem. As usual, we got our lightning round. So it's three questions. One is about acceleration, one on exploration, and then take away. The acceleration thing is what's something that already happened in AI or maybe, you know, in data that you thought would take much longer, but it's already happening today. [00:35:38]Artem: To be honest, all this foundational models, I thought that we had a lot of models that been in production for like, you know, maybe decade or so. And it was like a very niche use cases, very vertical use cases, it's just like in very customized models. And even when we're building Statsbot back then in 2016, right, even back then, we had some natural language models being deployed, like a Google Translate or something that was still was a sort of a model, right, but it was very customized with a specific use case. So I thought that would continue for like, many years, we will use AI, we'll have all these customized niche models. But there is like foundational model, they like very generic now, they can serve many, many different use cases. So I think that is a big change. And I didn't expect that, to be honest. [00:36:27]Swyx: The next question is about exploration. What is one thing that you think is the most interesting unsolved question in AI? [00:36:33]Artem: I think AI is a subset of software engineering in general. And it's sort of connected to the data as well. Because software engineering as a discipline, it has quite a history. We build a lot of processes, you know, like toolkits and methodologies, how we prod that, [00:36:50]Swyx: right. [00:36:51]Artem: But AI, I don't think it's completely different. But it has some unique traits, you know, like, it's quite not idempotent, right, and kind of from many dimensions and like other traits. So which kind of may require a different methodologies may require different approaches and a different toolkit. I don't think how much is going to deviate from a standard software engineering, I think many tools and practices that we develop our software engineering can be applied to AI. And some of the data best practices can be applied as well. But it's like we got a DevOps, right, like it's just a bunch of tools, like ecosystem. So now like AI is kind of feels like it's shaping into that with a lot of its own, you know, like methodologies, practices and toolkits. So I'm really excited about it. And I think it's a lot of unsolved still question again, how do we develop that? How do we test you know, like, what is the best practices? How what is a methodologist? So I think that would be an interesting to see. [00:37:44]Alessio: Awesome. Yeah. Our final message, you know, you have a big audience of engineers and technical folks, what's something you want everybody to remember to think about to explore? [00:37:55]Artem: I mean, it says being hooked to try to build a chatbot, you know, like for analytics, back then and kind of, you know, like looking at what people do right now, I think, yeah, just do that. I mean, it's working right now, with foundational models, it's actually now it's possible to build all those cool applications. I'm so excited to see, you know, like, how much changed in the last six years or so that we actually now can build a smart agents. So I think that sort of, you know, like a takeaways and yeah, we are, as humans in general, we like we really move technology forward. And it's fun to see, you know, like, it's just a first hand. [00:38:30]Alessio: Well, thank you so much for coming on Artem. [00:38:32]Swyx: This was great. [00:38:32] Get full access to Latent Space at www.latent.space/subscribe

On this week's episode of the Illinois REALTORS® Weekly Podcast, we're highlighting the work of our GADs throughout the state. We welcome in Tom Benedetto, Neely Erickson and Ron Deedrick to talk about the big issues facing their parts of the state.

This podcast hit paid subscribers' inboxes on August 11. It dropped for free subscribers on August 14. To receive future pods as soon as they're live, and to support independent ski journalism, please consider an upgrade to a paid subscription. You can also subscribe for free below:WhoBrian Suhadolc, General Manager of Mount Snow, VermontRecorded onJuly 17, 2023About Mount SnowClick here for a mountain stats overviewOwned by: Vail ResortsLocated in: Dover, VermontYear founded: 1954Pass affiliations:* Epic Pass and Epic Local Pass: Unlimited access* Epic Northeast Value Pass: Unlimited access with holiday blackouts* Epic Northeast Midweek Pass: Unlimited access with weekend and holiday blackoutsClosest neighboring ski areas: Hermitage Club (9 minutes), Stratton (23 minutes), Bromley (36 minutes), Magic Mountain (39 minutes)Base elevation: 1,900 feetSummit elevation: 3,600 feetVertical drop: 1,700 feetSkiable Acres: 601Average annual snowfall: 150 inchesTrail count: 80 (15% advanced/expert, 70% intermediate, 15% beginner)Lift count: 19 (2 six-packs, 4 high-speed quads, 5 triples, 2 doubles, 1 ropetow, 5 magic carpets – view Lift Blog's inventory of Mount Snow's lift fleet)Why I interviewed himThis is my second podcast focused on Mount Snow. The first episode featured then-GM Tracy Bartels, in November 2020. Our focus then was Covid: as in, what the hell were we going to do about it? The ski industry had spent eight months from the March shutdowns preparing for a masked world of closed ski bars and social distancing. Was this actually going to work?It did, of course. Sort of. But that podcast from 2020 has little to do with the Mount Snow of 2023, which has evolved substantially in just three years. It was time for an update.I'm also owning the fact that I overcorrected when I took The Storm national in 2021. In the pod's first two years, I'd interviewed the heads of most of New England's largest ski areas. Check, check, check. Done. I needed to establish this thing in the Rockies, the Cascades, the Sierras, the Wasatch. And I did. But a lot of my New England listeners felt snubbed. I'd built this thing on their attention and enthusiasm, and now I was pivoting away.It's time to pivot back a bit. The lift-served ski world is changing fast, especially among those giants with access to capital and ambition. So I've scheduled upcoming podcast conversations with the leaders of Killington and Sunday River, both of which I've profiled in the past. I'll pursue more such follow-ups in the future, in all regions – and not just with mega-resorts, as the recent second installment with the owners of Plattekill demonstrated. The long-term goal is to alternate podcasts so that every other episode focuses on the West, with the East/Midwest/Mid-Atlantic occupying the alternate slots.But setting aside my own admin, I'm focusing on Mount Snow because it's an incredibly important mountain. I'll reset what I wrote in this same section three years ago:Because Mount Snow is where big-time Northeast skiing begins. As the southern-most major Vermont ski area, it is a skier's gateway to mountains that are big enough to get lost on. From its strategic position in the orbit of the East Coast megalopolis, successive owners have gradually built something uniquely suited to the frenetic swarms of wildly varied skiers who bullseye the place each winter: Mount Snow has one of the most outstanding terrain parks in America and one of the best snowmaking systems in the world. The families who swarm here find absolutely unintimidating terrain, blue as the sky and groomed smoother than I-91. It's a perfect family mountain and a perfect bus skier's mountain and a perfect first step from Mount Local to something that shows you how big skiing can be. It was the crown jewel of the Peak Resort's empire, and it's one of the most important pieces to Vail's ever-expanding Epic jigsaw puzzle. I wouldn't call it a special mountain – the terrain is mild and not terribly interesting, and the volume and quality of natural snowfall is best described as adequate. But it is a vital mountain, as the southern-most anchor of Vermont's teeming ski scene, as an accessible ski experience for weekending cityfolk, as an aspirational destination for people stepping more fully into skiing culture, and as a testament to the power of the imagination to transform a big vertical drop and cold skies into a vital and vibrant node of the regional ski scene.What we talked aboutSurveying damage from the July rainstorm; the Epic Promise Foundation; Mount Snow's four-foot March snowstorm; the frantic hilarity of New England powder days; the difference between east and west coast pow; breaking down Mount Snow's lift upgrades at Sundance, Sunbrook, and Heavy Metal; how the Sundance six-pack “changed the dynamic of the ski resort”; why Sundance – unlike the mega-popular Bluebird Express – does not have bubbles; how the resort manages 18 high-speed out-of-base seats; the four most-utilized lifts at Mount Snow; how Mount Snow built the Sunbrook lift in a roadless section of mountain; what it took to convert the Heavy Metal lift from a double to a triple; why Vail auctioned the individual chairs from the old Sunbrook rather than selling the lift – a 1990 CTEC quad – to a smaller ski area; talking through long-term upgrades to Nitro; why the resort doesn't add more chairs to the current Nitro to boost its capacity from 2,100 skiers per hour to 2,400; the status of paid parking two years in; impressions of New England ski culture; the difference between running a mountain in the east and in the west; what happens when Vail surprise-buys your resort; connecting Park City to The Canyons via gondola – “the magnitude of it was not lost on me”; the mining facilities still scattered across Park City; career opportunity within Vail Resorts; Mount Snow's monster snowmaking system; why Mount Snow has become Vail's late-season New England operator, rather than Wildcat; why Carinthia is the mountain's late-operating pod; whether we could ever see another October opening at Mount Snow; potential upgrades for the North Face lifts; assessing the Beartrap double; contemplating the future of Grand Summit; whether we could ever see a detach lift on beginner terrain at Mount Snow; whether the Epic Local Pass is the correct unlimited-access pass for Mount Snow; the popularity of Northeast-specific Epic Passes; the Epic Day Pass; and Vail Resorts' day-ticket limits for the 2022-23 ski season.Why I thought that now was a good time for this interviewEver since Peak Resorts built the Bluebird Express six-pack in 2011, Mount Snow has had a problem: the lift, with its blue bubbles and ultra-smooth ride, was so flashy and appealing that nobody wanted to ride any other lift on the front side of the mountain. Even the Grand Summit high-speed quad, which runs parallel to Bluebird and serves all the same terrain, had trouble getting attention. This was great for skiers who actively work the mountain, but a real drag for Mount Snow's rap as the most-crowded Southern Vermont ski area.Enter: Vail Resorts' Epic Lift Upgrades of 2022. Mount Snow was the beneficiary of two of the 21 planned lifts (18 of which Vail finished on schedule*): the Sundance and Tumbleweed triples made way for a new six-pack, while the backside Sunbrook lift got a boost from a fixed-grip quad to a detach. Meanwhile, the mountain converted the Heavy Metal double into a triple chair, adding capacity to the popular Carinthia terrain park.Sundance and Sunbrook had one job: give people a reason to ski something besides Bluebird. As far as replacement lifts go, they seemed brilliant. But did the plan work to unknot Mount Snow's gnarliest crowd points?That was one topic Suhadolc and I discussed. Another: was Vail able to recover from its arguably oversold 2021-22 ski season by implementing day-ticket limits and settling into paid-parking plans? And how were those paid parking plans going? And should Mount Snow really be unlimited on the Epic Local Pass?Vail Resorts is entering its fifth winter season operating Mount Snow. With the Peak Resorts transition fully digested and Covid's hassles a memory, the company has no choice but to fully own every piece of the experience. With its size and proximity to New York City, Mount Snow will always be somewhat hectic. New Englanders can tolerate that. Chaos, however, does not belong in this land of picket-fence order. And for a moment post-Covid, Mount Snow seemed to be tilting toward chaos.But no one can say that Vail has not brought big change to the mountain over the past several seasons. Despite daily lift tickets that topped out at $154 this past winter, Mount Snow has never been more affordable to the masses. Unlimited access is just $689 on the Epic Local Pass; subtract holidays with the $567 Northeast Value Pass; minus weekends with the $425 Northeast Midweek Pass. With prices that low at a mountain that big that's as easy to access as Mount Snow is, things could go sideways pretty quick. The new lifts, the parking plans, the lift-ticket limits – all of it is calculated to prevent that from happening.Ski areas are a little bit like novels. They're never really finished. But unlike our great works of literature, we get to edit ski areas after they're published. The version of Mount Snow that we ski today is probably not the best and final version of the hill, but it may also be the best it's ever been,.*Two lifts scheduled to rise in Park City were rerouted to Whistler after spiteful locals revolted; Keystone's Bergman sixer had to wait a year after a construction-road misfire tore up some sensitive high-altitude terrain.What I got wrong* I said that the new Sunbrook high-speed quad clocked a ride time around four minutes. The actual time is closer to six minutes, according to Suhadolc.* I asked Brian why Vail didn't try to re-use the Sunbrook lift – a 1990 CTEC quad that likely had lots of life left on it – at a “smaller ski area.” He explained that Vail does occasionally move a lift within its portfolio. What I had meant to ask, however, was why didn't Mount Snow didn't attempt to sell the lift on the open market to a smaller independent ski area. It's great that Mount Snow sold the chairs and flipped the money to the Epic Promise Foundation, which assists their employees in times of outstanding need, such as the floods that just smashed Okemo. But the company could likely have made more for Epic Promise by selling the entire lift to an independent ski area, many of which are desperate for a modern quad in good working condition.* I said that Vail Resorts purchased Park City Mountain Resort “in 2014 or 2015.” The company bought the resort in 2014, a year after it bought Canyons (which is now part of Park City).* I said the Outpost lift turned 60 this year. Lift Blog, my go-to source for pretty much all things lifts, lists the lift as a 1963 Yan triple. Brian said that it is a 1988 CTEC triple. New England Ski History agrees with Brian. This is not a crack on Lift Blog, which is an excellent resource, so much as on me for not double-checking my references - in fact, I think Tracy Bartels corrected me on the exact same factoid three years ago.* I said that the Northeast Midweek Epic Pass was “less than $400.” This is incorrect. The pass currently costs $425. The early-bird price for the 2023-24 ski season was $416.* When I was running through the various resorts that the Northeast-specific Epic Passes accessed, I left out Mt. Brighton, Michigan.* I noted that Mount Snow had opened in October “once and maybe twice” under Peak Resorts. The only record I can find of Mount Snow opening that early was on Oct. 27, 2018.Why you should ski Mount SnowMount Snow has two big, obvious constituencies: Park Brah and Family Bro.The Carinthia peak is a crucial piece of Peak Resorts' legacy, as important as the Bluebird Express or the tens of millions the company pumped into snowmaking upgrades. Once a separate ski area, the peak is isolated from the mountain proper (though connected both ways by green trails), a thousand vertical feet of straight hits served by a high-speed quad and a triple chair. Park Brahs can park out, Brah. Along with Seven Brothers at Loon, it may be the best terrain park in the eastern United States.Family Bro loves Mount Snow partly because of Carinthia. Radbrah Junior can spend his afternoons there, posted up five wide with his boys, contemplating the hits below. The rest of the mountain, outside of the North Face, is interstate-width and solid blue. Families of almost any ability can manage this terrain. Mount Snow may be home to the best sustained intermediate terrain in New England. It's certainly among the most varied. And the mountain grooms just about every run just about every night, even if I wish they'd chill and let some bumps sprout here and there. Mount Snow's biggest drawback is a relative lack of glades for a mountain of its size. Skiers seeking trees should aim their GPS for Stratton or Magic, both of which have excellent, extensive glade networks.Epic Pass holders need to really pick their spots, though. Both Mount Snow and Okemo reach stampede-level crowding on weekends and holidays (I really don't think either should be unlimited on the Epic Local pass). Head for Stowe at these times if at all possible. Or snag an Indy Pass for peak-day getaways to Magic and Bolton Valley.Podcast NotesOn Heavenly and the Caldor FireWhen discussing Vail Resorts' unified disaster response to the recent Vermont floods, I referred to a similar conversation I'd had with Heavenly COO Tom Fortune in regards to the Caldor Fire that descended on Tahoe two years ago. You can listen to that conversation starting at 56:03 here.On Vermont's monster March snowstormWe discussed a monster snowstorm that descended on Vermont March 14 to 15. Huge snow totals included 45 inches at Bromley, 37 inches at Magic, and 46 inches at Mount Snow.On crushing pow at Mount SnowI discussed the chaos of a pow-day rope-drop at Mount Snow. Unfortunately the only access I have to it is this Twitter video. And since Substack won't embed Twitter videos anymore you'll have to click through to watch it:Too many “suns”I kept getting Mount Snow's “sun” lifts confused. It reminded me of a time I was skiing Snowbird, and a bunch of us were debating where to go next, and my buddy Mike, clearly confused, was just like, “There's too many Gads.” And my God he's right.On the Mount Snow “tram”Brian and I briefly discussed Mount Snow's old “tram,” which transported skiers from a base-area hotel up to the ski hill. It was really more of a whacky speedboat suspended from a cable, as you can see in the rendering on this 1965 trailmap. And yes, that's a double bubble chair beside it:On the Vail Resorts acquisition of Park CityBrian worked at Park City when Vail Resorts swiped it off Powdr Corp's lunch tray after the latter forgot to renew its lease. It was probably the most cartoonishly absurd business transaction in the history of lift-served skiing. Here's Park Record, examining the events as part of a decade-in-review series in late 2019:In some circles, though, the whispers had already started that something was afoot, and perhaps not right, at PCMR. Powdr Corp. for some unknown reason was negotiating a sale of its flagship resort, the most prevalent of the rumblings held. The CEO of Powdr Corp., John Cumming, late in 2011 had publicly stated there was not a deal involving PCMR under negotiation, telling Park City leaders during a Marsac Building appearance in December of that year the resort was “not for sale.” Later that evening, he told The Park Record the rumors “always amuse me.”The reality was far more astonishing and something that would define the decade in Park City in a similar fashion as the Olympics did in the previous 10-year span and the population boom did in the 1990s.The corporate infrastructure in the spring of 2011 had inadvertently failed to renew two leases on the land underlying most of the PCMR terrain, propelling the PCMR side and the landowner, a firm under the umbrella of Talisker Corp., into what were initially private negotiations and then into a dramatic lawsuit that unfolded in state court as the Park City community, the tourism industry and the North American ski industry watched in disbelief. As the decade ends, the turmoil that beset PCMR stands, in many ways, as the instigator of a changing Park City that has left so many Parkites uneasy about the city's future as a true community.The PCMR side launched the litigation in March of 2012, saying the future of the resort was at stake in the case. PCMR might be forced to close if it did not prevail, the president and general manager of the resort at the time said at the outset of the case. Talisker Land Holdings, LLC countered that the leases had expired, suddenly leaving doubts that Powdr Corp. would retain control of PCMR. …Colorado-based Vail Resorts, one of Powdr Corp.'s industry rivals, would enter the case on the Talisker Land Holdings, LLC side in May of 2013 with the aim of wresting the disputed land from Powdr Corp. and coupling it with nearby Canyons Resort, which was branded a Vail Resorts property as part of a long-term lease and operations agreement reached at the same time of the Vail Resorts entry into the case. Vail Resorts was already an industry behemoth with its namesake property in the Rockies and other mountain resorts across North America. The addition of Canyons Resort would advance the Vail Resorts portfolio in one of North America's key skiing states.It was a deft maneuver orchestrated by the chairman and CEO of Vail Resorts, Rob Katz. The agreement was pegged at upward of $300 million in long-term debt. As part of the deal, Vail Resorts also seized control of the litigation on behalf of Talisker Land Holdings, LLC. …The lawsuit itself unfolded with stunning developments followed by shocking ones over the course of two-plus years. In one stupefying moment, the Talisker Land Holdings, LLC attorneys discovered a crucial letter from the PCMR side regarding the leases had been backdated. In another such moment, PCMR outlined plans to essentially dismantle the resort infrastructure, possibly on an around-the-clock schedule, if it was ordered off the disputed land.What was transpiring in the courtroom was inconceivable to the community. How could Powdr Corp., even inadvertently, not renew the leases on the ground that made up most of the skiing terrain at PCMR, many asked. Why couldn't Powdr Corp. and Talisker Land Holdings, LLC just reach a new agreement, others wondered. And many became weary as businessmen and their attorneys took to the courtroom with the future of PCMR, critical to a broad swath of the local economy, at stake. The mood eventually shifted to exasperation as it appeared there was a chance PCMR would not open for a ski season if Talisker Land Holdings, LLC moved forward with an eviction against Powdr Corp. from the disputed terrain.The lawsuit wore on with the Talisker Land Holdings, LLC-Vail Resorts side winning a series of key rulings from the 3rd District Court judge presiding over the case. Judge Ryan Harris in the summer of 2014 signed a de facto eviction notice against PCMR and ordered the sides into mediation. Powdr Corp., realizing there was little more that could be accomplished as it attempted to maintain control of PCMR, negotiated a $182.5 million sale of the resort to Vail Resorts that September.Absolutely brutal and amazing and hard to believe, even nearly a decade later.On Canyons' name historyI mentioned the various names that the former Canyons ski area (now part of Park City), had gone by. Ski Utah provides the complete history:A neighboring ski area and sister resort to Park City Ski Area, called Park City West, opened in 1968. It was renamed ParkWest in 1975 after a change in ownership, then Wolf Mountain in 1995 for just two seasons. In 1997 it became The Canyons after an acquisition by the American Skiing Company before it was purchased by the Talisker Corporation. It was then sold to Vail Resorts in 2014 and subsequently merged with Park City Mountain. Today that base area is known as The Canyons Village at Park City.On Mount Snow's amazing snowmaking systemJust two years before selling its entire portfolio to Vail Resorts, Peak Resorts invested an amazing $30 million into Mount Snow's snowmaking system. The Brattleboro Reformer profiled the system shortly before go-live in 2017:West Lake is actually a sprawling system that begins about 4 miles from Mount Snow.It starts with a small, black, inflatable dam that stretches 18 feet across Cold Brook in Wilmington. From November through March, Mount Snow can inflate that dam as needed, drawing water into the newly constructed reservoir.A sluiceway alongside the dam ensures a flow of water in Cold Brook whether the dam is inflated or not."We were trying to be pretty low-impact, or as low-impact as possible," Storrs said.A nondescript-looking pump house near the dam can send water upward toward Mount Snow at a rate of 11,800 gallons per minute, "which is pretty much double what we used to have in terms of pumping capacity," Storrs said.On a recent morning, crews were putting on finishing touches and conducting tests at that pump house and two others situated farther up the mountain. There's a nearly 600-foot elevation gain between the inflatable dam and the last pump house on Mount Snow's slopes.On Wildcat and the long seasonWe discussed Wildcat's tradition as a late operator. Under Peak Resorts, the ski area would push the season into late April and, occasionally, May. Snowpak has documented Wildcat's closing dates over the past nine years – note the shift to earlier dates after Vail acquired the resort in 2019 (ignore the 2020 date, for obvious reasons):Vail shifted late-season New England operations to Mount Snow for reasons that Brian explains on the podcast. But it's a little incongruous stacked up against the region's other five late operators: Killington, Sugarbush, Jay Peak, Sunday River, and Sugarloaf, all of which are quite a ways north of Mount Snow:On Grand Summit and Yan detachablesI referred to the dreadful safety record of Yan detachable lifts. I broke this history of death and incompetence down in my recent podcast with China Peak GM Tim Cohee (scroll down to the Podcast Notes section).On Epic and Ikon access shifts since 2020I keep asking Vail Resorts' GMs if their ski areas are placed on the appropriate Epic Pass tier, mostly because it's amazing to me that an unlimited season pass to a mountain like Breckenridge or Mount Snow or Stevens Pass could be $676 – the early-bird price of 2023-24 Epic Local Passes. The Ikon Pass, as I noted on the podcast, has shifted its pass structure all over the place the past several seasons, tweaking access to Stratton, Sugarbush, Crystal Mountain, Alta, Aspen, Jackson Hole, Taos, Deer Valley, and Arapahoe Basin. Here's the chart I included in my recent podcast conversation with Alterra CEO Jared Smith to document those changes:I was astonished when Vail kept Stevens Pass on the Epic Local unlimited tier after 2021's well-documented crowding meltdowns. Things got so wild in Washington that Alterra pulled Crystal off the Ikon Pass' unlimited tier and jacked its season pass price up to $1,700 for the 2022-23 ski season. I still don't really understand this super-bargain access strategy, but Vail has made it clear that they're sticking with it.On the phenomenal deal that is the Epic Day PassWe discussed the Epic Day Pass. This thing really is an amazing deal:The Storm explores the world of lift-served skiing year-round. Join us.The Storm publishes year-round, and guarantees 100 articles per year. This is article 68/100 in 2023, and number 454 since launching on Oct. 13, 2019. Want to send feedback? Reply to this email and I will answer (unless you sound insane, or, more likely, I just get busy). You can also email skiing@substack.com. Get full access to The Storm Skiing Journal and Podcast at www.stormskiing.com/subscribe

Hanif berättar om hur Magda Gads gedigna erfarenheter gör henne immun mot ifrågasättande medan Per ömmar för Johannes Säråker som inte verkar kunna gå vidare från kritiken som riktades emot honom under senare juraperioden.

Kellie Macpherson with guest host Rush Ferrell breakdown GADS for those of us at home (or at work). It is a great back and forth conversation full of useful information. For more information about GADS reporting, check out our blog.

Episode 110: Derrick Volp Presented by: Final Rise If you remember back to Episode 93, Derrick Volp joined me for a "before and after the hunt" podcast. It was Derrick's first outing with his Griffon, Gads. I promised a follow up to recap the entire season. Well here it is.  Join me this week as Derrick and I cover a variety of topics to include; Things to do to reduce the main of the early season, using a Whoa post, force fetching his dog, sounding like a sext female Turkey and much, much more. _____________________________________________ If you enjoy the podcast please go and leave a rating on Apple Podcasts ____________________________________ Connect with me: Email: Upchukarpodcast@gmail.com Instagram: @upchukar  Website: Upchukar.com

#ppcchat Twitter discussion that runs on Tuesdays at 5pm GMT - Led by Julie Bacchini (@NeptuneMoon)  Q1 Are you currently running any campaigns in Google Ads that are utilizing broad match? Are you exclusively using broad match? Are you using it with smart bidding? Q2 If you are not currently using or testing broad match in Google Ads, why are you not using it? Q3 What strategies have you found that work well when using or testing broad match in Google Ads? Q4 If you're using or testing broad match in Google Ads, what have your biggest challenges or frustrations been? Q5 What questions do you have for @adsliaison about using or testing broad match in Google Ads in 2023? Q5.1 We feel like this when we try to figure out the paths a query can take in Semantic (Broad) search. PMax, Search, DSA. Is there a good framework we can use to understand where a query flows? Q5.2 I am very happy with where Broad is going, but as I'm sure you know many folks want more search term report coverage. Do you think there's any chance of that? Q5.3 not about BM sorry but can Ginny get GAds to highlight which of the 15 headlines and 4 description lines have disapproved an RSA please? At the moment you have to guess which of the 19 possibilities has caused the disapproval or speak to GAds support. Q5.4 Thanks for everything @adsliaison! What's a hotter topic for you right now, Performance Max or Broad match? Which of these changes do you feel the community prefers? Q5.5 There are a lot of times when the recommended optimizations in Google recommends trying broad match as a test. Is there a threshold of data that it gathers before recommending that or is it just doing that by default? No shade, only curious! Q5.6 Well @adsliaison when is exact and phrase going to just go away? I'm guessing you don't know ir can't say but when given the chance to ask… Q5.7 Thank you for all you do! 1. Do restricted industries that get flagged for using audiences normally miss out on the audience piece of broad match? 2. Can broad keywords recover faster from being paused than phrase/exact? 3. Which is better: broad or DSA? Q5.8 For fresh accounts with no data and less search volume KW, what are the bids you would suggest, and with what match type? Especially in the phase of finding the first few conversions. Thank you for listening! Please help grow the podcast - and rate/review on Spotify, Amazon, Apple Podcast & more - linktr.ee/ppcchat_roundup --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/ppcchat-roundup/message

Caitlin Bulla leads Customer Support at Clearstream which is based in Pensacola, Florida. She tells us she prayed to God specifically for this kind of job and God delivered. She gives all the credit to Jesus for where He has her and what He is doing in her life. I loved hearing about the different groups she is connected with that are making a difference. Thank you so much, Caitlin for coming on the podcast and sharing what God has on your heart! So grateful to know you. God has a special calling on your life and I pray to support you well as a sister in Christ. Connect with Clearstream, known as the "The church texting service you'll love": https://clearstream.io/?utm_source=csRefresh&utm_medium=gAds&utm_campaign=searchAd&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIw7TUv_rR_QIV5yZMCh1qng2EEAAYASAAEgJ8VvD_BwE Check out Positively Pensacola: https://www.positivelypensacola.org/ Come to church with us!! https://upperroompensacola.com/

This week we bring you guys an episode swap with the good folks at History Daily. In the first segment on February 16, 2003, five thieves break into the vault of the Antwerp Diamond Centre and pull off one of the biggest heists in history. In the second, from January 31, 1874, the outlaw Jesse James and his gang pull off one of the most infamous crimes in the American Old West with the Gads Hill Train Robbery. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

When Cael Carzfinker, blade maiden of the ninth rank (etc., etc.) comes to the castle of Evil Wizard Mazurin to rescue a captive prince, the outcome is.... magical. Cast List Cael - Julie Hoverson Amalan - Krystal Baker Mazurin - Gareth Bowley Gigli - Reynaud LeBoeuf Prince Tupin - Abner Senires Music:  Celestial Aeon Project and Matti Paalanen Editing / Sound:   Julie Hoverson Cover design:  Brett Coulstock "What kind of a place is it?  Why, it's a road through a dark and spooky forest, leading up to an evil wizard's castle" ________________________________________________   SWORD KVETCH Cast: Mazurin, Evil Wizard Cael, Amazon Warrior Tupin, Captive Prince Gigli, Goblin Amalan, Magic Sword OLIVIA      What do you mean, what kind of a place is it?  Why, it's the dark woods outside an evil castle, can't you tell?  MUSIC AMB     SPOOKY NIGHT WOODS SOUND     WOLF HOWL IN THE DISTANCE SOUND     HOOVES ON DIRT UNDER CAEL     [sigh] Typical. AMALAN     What? CAEL     I could write a ballad already.  AMALAN     Oh, no.  No, no, no - that's not your job. CAEL     Shh.  I'm composing. [muttering to self] AMALAN     [whispered] [sigh] Typical. CAEL     Evil castle looms ahead....  Hmm... Nighttime, need to rest my head-- AMALAN     You can't rhyme head with ahead. CAEL     It rhymes, doesn't it? AMALAN     [exasperated sigh] CAEL     [vague threat] I'm getting another sword. AMALAN     You always say that, but you know you couldn't do without me.  CAEL     [exasperated sigh] AMALAN     And who could you ever pass me off to? CAEL     Someone deaf. MUSIC AMD     ECHOEY CASTLE SOUND     SLAPPY FOOTSTEPS RUN IN GIGLI     [coming on]  Master!  Master! MAZURIN     [distracted]  Mm? GIGLI     Master! MAZURIN     Shh-shh-shh.  [excited] Do you see what I have here, my smelly little homunculi? GIGLI     But master--! MAZURIN     [tsks]  I've turned this drop of water into an equal measure of dust. GIGLI     [flat] Why? MAZURIN     It's a vital transmutation.  A change like this could make a great deal of difference! GIGLI     To a thirsty cockroach? MAZURIN     No no, you have to see how, yes, on a tiny scale, this could be a negligible change-- GIGLI     [sigh] Sir? MAZURIN     --But if you do this a million times at once, with a million drops of water, you could cause an entire lake to suddenly turn to dust, ruining agriculture.  And then, with a simple reverse, water from dust! GIGLI     Good.  Lovely.  Can I report now?  It's kind of urgent. SOUND     FIDDLING ABOUT WITH BOTTLES, ETC. MAZURIN     [still distracted]  Uh - what?  Yes, of course, go ahead. GIGLI     Are you listening? SOUND     BOTTLE SET DOWN MAZURIN     [distant]  Of course. GIGLI     [exasperated] Oh! SOUND     BOTTLE SMASHES ON FLOOR MAZURIN     What?  Why did you--? GIGLI     Listening now?  MAZURIN     [annoyed]  Yes, get on with it! GIGLI     Someone is approaching the castle! MAZURIN     [losing interest] Oh, well - set up the defenses. GIGLI     It's an Amazon! MAZURIN     [mildly interested]  Oh, that's different.  [shrug]  Still, the defenses... GIGLI     The moat monster is in labor. MAZURIN     I thought it laid eggs. GIGLI     Well, not after you did one of your little experiments on it.  And it's not best pleased about it. MAZURIN     Oh. GIGLI     And the man-eating vines--? MAZURIN     What?  I didn't do--  They're not giving birth, are they? GIGLI     Think it through? MAZURIN     What? GIGLI     Man-eating vines?  Amazon warrior? MAZURIN     [realizing slowly]  Oh?  Oh! GIGLI     [sigh] MUSIC SOUND     HOOFBEATS ON WOOD AMALAN     Cael, I don't like this. CAEL     You mean the way nothing at all tried to stop us from strolling right up to the front door of the evil wizard's castle? AMALAN     [sarcastic]  No, I meant the two-headed gargoyles - they're so passe'.  Of course that's what I mean!  There must be a trap-- CAEL     I'll keep my eyes peeled. AMALAN     Me too. CAEL     You haven't any eyes. AMALAN     Don't nitpick. SOUND     HOOFBEATS STOP SOUND     TAPPING OF FINGERS ON THE POMMEL CAEL     [musing]  No reception committee.  No moat monster....  The gargoyles? AMALAN     They're tacky as hell, but I don't sense any magic there. CAEL     Well, then. SOUND     DISMOUNT, HORSE NICKERS SOUND     POUNDING ON HUGE WOODEN DOOR AMALAN     Subtlety.  I like it. CAEL     It's what I do. MUSIC SOUND     DISTANT BANGING ON DOOR GIGLI     [calling from off] Master! MAZURIN     Stop banging, Gigli. SOUND     SLAPPY FOOTSTEPS APPROACH GIGLI     [a little closer]  They're at the door! MAZURIN     Tell them we don't want any. GIGLI     [almost here] The Amazon? MAZURIN     Oh, yes.  She got through the defenses--?  Oh, yes of course.  GIGLI     What are you going to do? MAZURIN     Oh, the usual. GIGLI     [sigh, down]  Send me to find out what she wants? MAZURIN     Good idea.  Let me know what she says. MUSIC SOUND     POUNDING ON DOOR AMALAN     If it's abandoned, that would explain the lack of defenses. CAEL     The high council doesn't send a questor to an empty castle. AMALAN     They might not know. CAEL     Yes.  [sarcastic] Why don't you just go and point that out-- GIGLI     [yelling from off, above]  Hail, warrior! CAEL     Hmm.  Manners.  [up]  Who hails me? GIGLI     I represent Mazurin, wizard of the crooked path, mage of the 8th tier, sorcerer-- AMALAN     [muttered] Yeah, but can he dance? CAEL     [side of mouth] Shh.  [up]  I have come to face your wizard.  Open the gate. GIGLI     What is your charge?  Mazurin is an exceedingly busy mage.  AMALAN     Crooking tiers? CAEL     [tiny sigh]  I am Cael Carzfinker, Blade maiden of the 9th rank, slayer of 3 gorgons, and participant in the slaughter of the great red armadillo of Murcie-- AMALAN     With a minor in [shudder] songwriting... CAEL     --and I am charged by the high council of her most royal majesty Luria the balladeer-- AMALAN     [muttered] Ballbuster. CAEL     [trying not to react] --to find and recover the missing Prince Tupin of Vagon, with an eye toward marriage. GIGLI     And my boss is supposed to care - why? CAEL     The scryes say the prince is here - a captive in durance vile under the thumb of this "boss" of yours. AMALAN     Excessive. CAEL     And thus have I come to reclaim him. GIGLI     Oh!  Right.  Hold on, I'll tell the wizard. CAEL     Where'd he go? AMALAN     Ducked behind one of those excrescences. CAEL     I didn't see any of those. AMALAN     [exasperated] The gargoyles. CAEL     So we wait for the wizard to speak.  SOUND     DRUMMING OF FINGERS AMALAN     Oh, you're not-- CAEL     "Green and crooked, small and beady"...  [searching for a rhyme] beady?  Beeeee-dy. AMALAN     Eyes are beady.  He was more... seedy. CAEL     Ah!  "--Small and seedy, his locks were lank and eyes were beady".  AMALAN     [sigh] MUSIC SOUND     SCRITCHING OF A PEN SOUND     SLAPPING FEET RUN UP GIGLI     [slightly puffed, laughing his ass off]  Sire!  She's here for him! SOUND     DOINK AS OF FINGER SNAPPED AGAINST SOMETHING GLASS MAZURIN     Him?  Oh, well.  That's simple then - I'll just un-glaze him, and-- GIGLI     You can't just hand him over! MAZURIN     Why not?  Then she'll go away.  Problem solved. GIGLI     [exasperated sigh]  Tradition?  Ring a bell? MAZURIN     Tradition?  Oh, you're not going to say I have to fight to the death over a trifle like-- GIGLI     No!  But you're supposed to make her do tasks to earn him, so she'll spread word of your cunning and deviousness.  [muttered]  And so she'll keep him once she gets him. MAZURIN     Oh.  I'm far too busy to come up with some silly tasks.  What does tradition say? GIGLI     I'll make you up some note cards.  Want me to let her in? MAZURIN     An... Amazon?  Don't they sleep in barns or something? GIGLI     I certainly wouldn't want to be the one to suggest it to her.  I'll find her and tell her you will speak to her at dinner. MAZURIN     I will? GIGLI     Tradition. MAZURIN     [pouting]  Fine.  Tell her, then come back and find me some [vague] ... robes. MUSIC GIGLI     [off] ...This way, and the wizard will be with you shortly. SOUND     BOOTED FEET ENTER ECHOEY HALL AMALAN     Roomy. CAEL     Kind of dusty, isn't it? AMALAN     Hard to keep help in an evil castle. CAEL     [agreeing] Hmm. SOUND     POOF! MAZURIN     [booming voice]  Dusty?  Humph! SOUND     POOF! SOUND     WATER DRIPPING ALL OVER. AMALAN     [doubtful]  Impressive? MAZURIN     [muttered]  Oh, drat. CAEL     [wiping her face]  Well, that's new. SOUND     SPLAT OF WATER SHAKEN OFF MAZURIN     [trying to save face "I meant to do that"] It's... something I've been working on. AMALAN     You could use it, back home. CAEL     Shh. AMALAN     You could finally get your quarters clean. CAEL     Shh! MAZURIN     What? CAEL     Nothing.  [declaring]  Mighty Wizard, I have come to recover the most noble prince Tupin and bring him home to wed.  This is my quest.  [snarls]  Do not stand in my way. MAZURIN     Oh, of course not. AMALAN     What? GIGLI     [hissed] Master! MAZURIN     Huh?  Oh right - as long as-- um, you-- GIGLI     [whispered prompting]  Can overcome my challenges three. MAZURIN     --Can overcome three challenges. GIGLI     [muttered]  Close enough. CAEL     Of course.  Name your challenges. MAZURIN     [taken completely aback] Oh!  Well-- GIGLI     [whispered] You forgot the cards? [stepping forward]  My great master will issue you each challenge at the break of dawn on three successive days.  Then you will have until sunset on the same day to complete each one. CAEL     Morning?  Why not start now? AMALAN     Tradition. GIGLI     Tradition, milady. CAEL     Fine.  What now? GIGLI     Dinner? CAEL     Hmm.  How about showing me the prince, so I know I'm not wasting my time? MUSIC SOUND     RINGING OF CRYSTAL AMALAN     Well, it's a guy. CAEL     He's... glass? MAZURIN     Much less irritating that way. GIGLI     [jumping in] For the great wizard finds the company of mere mortals a burden - he turns them into glass to show his mighty contempt. AMALAN     That's a lot of contempt. CAEL     It's rather a lot of prince.  Ok, oh great wizard - let's just get this straight right up front.  When I beat your challenges, you'll turn him back to normal before letting me take him, right?  MAZURIN     That goes without saying-- GIGLI     After the first challenge, he will be returned to flesh.  After the second, he will awaken, the third, you may take him. CAEL     Good, I don't want to have to cart around a giant glass statue - must weigh a ton.  And it would be rather unfortunate if I dropped him. MAZURIN     Not really. AMALAN     Nice. CAEL     You said something about dinner? MUSIC SOUND     DINING GIGLI     More port, sire? MAZURIN     [dismissive] Yes, yes.  Now um, if you can picture this fork as an oncoming enemy-- SOUND     CLINK OF FORK - clink clink clink MAZURIN     Then the napkin - I mean the entrapment grass, remember - would of course slow him-- GIGLI     Your port. MAZURIN     Over there, beside the battlefield. GIGLI     [exasperated sigh] SOUND     CUP SET DOWN. MAZURIN     Where was I, oh yes, slow him-- SOUND     CLINKS GET MUFFLED, THEN SLOW MAZURIN     --and eventually stop him. SOUND     MUFFLED CLATTER AS FORK IS WRAPPED UP IN NAPKIN CAEL     [interested] Clever. MAZURIN     Really? CAEL     Immobilizing an enemy makes him an easy target.  So you put your strength into archers, to pick off the enemy soldiers stuck in the fields like-- AMALAN     Garden gnomes? CAEL     --like so many topiary.  Hmm.  Not bad at all.  I could even write a song about that. AMALAN     Oh, please don't - he'll turn you to glass. CAEL     Shut up. MAZURIN     I didn't say anything. CAEL     Not you-- [sigh] I have this curse-- AMALAN     I am not cursed. CAEL     --of a sword.  It talks to me. MAZURIN     Do you often hear weapons talk? AMALAN     [snickers]  CAEL     No, really.  Here-- SOUND     UNSHEATHES SWORD CAEL     Say something.  [beat]  [apologetic] Great, now she's pissed at me.  [muttered] Don't make me look bad.  [up]  When she's in the sheath, I'm the only one who can hear her. GIGLI     Your sword is a girl?  Isn't that somehow counter-intuitive? AMALAN     Big words from a goblin, bub. CAEL     [heavy sigh] See? MUSIC SOUND     WALKING INTO SMALLER CHAMBER GIGLI      Sleep tight! SOUND      DOOR CLOSES CAEL     I can't believe you would embarrass me that way! AMALAN     Embarrass you?  Who called who cursed? CAEL     No, I said you were "my curse", not that you were accursed. AMALAN     Oh.  That's different. CAEL     How's that damn wizard gonna have any respect for me now? AMALAN     Who cares?  He's old.  And evil. CAEL     He's not that old.  AMALAN     And evil. CAEL     [shrug]  That's his job. MUSIC SOUND     DOOR SHUTS, TIPTOEING SLAPPY FEET MAZURIN     [roaring] Gigli? GIGLI     Gurk! [deep breath, then bright]  Yes, master? MAZURIN     What did you think you were doing, insulting an Amazon like that? GIGLI     I --  I didn't-- MAZURIN     You called her a lummox! GIGLI     She was... playing you, sire!  I was only defending your-- MAZURIN     What?  Playing what?  GIGLI     Playing games.  You know no one ever actually listens to you when you rant on about one of your inventions, and there she is [squeaky] "oh how clever!  You're so smart!"  [normal] blech!  And you-- MAZURIN     [wounded] Of course people listen to me-- GIGLI     I don't. MAZURIN     [huffy] You're just a familiar.  GIGLI     [muttered] Don't remind me.  [up]  Sire, what I meant is she's trying to soften you up, get you to like her, so the tests will be easier.  MAZURIN     What's wrong with that? GIGLI     [sigh]  You have a reputation to uphold, my mighty lord.  MAZURIN     Oh, I really don't-- GIGLI     --and if it gets out that you're a pushover, every Tom, Dick and Harry will be at your doorstep, looking to get something from you. MAZURIN     [gasp of panic] GIGLI     And when will you ever get anything done? MUSIC SOUND     PACING IN THE ECHOEY DINING HALL AMALAN     So wizards don't wake up as early as warriors.  So what? CAEL     It's dawn.  He said dawn. AMALAN     Barely.  Sit. CAEL     Nah.  I'm hyped.  I'm ready for something really difficult.  A good fight. SOUND     POOF! MAZURIN     The challenge is-- CAEL     [eager] Yes? MAZURIN     Now, if you think the challenge is too hard, you can back out and go away, you know. AMALAN     Ri-i-ight. CAEL     Not gonna happen. MAZURIN     I am not adverse to leaving someone alive to spread word of my cruelty and -- and--. GIGLI     [hissed] Cunning! MAZURIN     And cunning. CAEL     And? MAZURIN     And...?  [thinks] and... meanness? CAEL     [sigh] And the challenge? MAZURIN     Right.  You must ... empty my entire moat into a single tankard. AMALAN     [eyeroll] Oh, jeez. CAEL     [skeptical] Are you sure? MAZURIN     Sure? SOUND     SORTING THROUGH CARDS, STOPS MAZURIN     Um... yes.  That's the first challenge. AMALAN     You wanna tell him, or should I? CAEL     Ok, here's the deal.  I could go out into the yard, smack a big hole in the bottom of a tankard and then cupful by cupful pour slimy moat water into the now bottomless tankard until there's nothing left in your pond but silt, dying fish and a pissed off moat monster. MAZURIN     Oh.  [whispered] Would that work? SOUND     FLIPPING PAGES GIGLI     Uh--  Yeah. CAEL     Or I could-- MAZURIN     [whispered] I can go on to another one. GIGLI     [whispered] Nah.  You can't switch horses in midstream. CAEL     Is everything all right? MAZURIN     [up] Just a moment! AMALAN     Ka-ching! CAEL     What? AMALAN     You aced it - he might demand you actually go through with it, but he seems surprisingly reasonable for an evil wizard. CAEL     I still don't think he's all that evil. AMALAN     He turns people to glass and makes grass that grabs you. CAEL     And I bring in archers to kill the immobilized troops-- MAZURIN     All right.  We've got this settled. AMALAN     He lets his familiar be part of the decision process? CAEL     I talk to a sword.  [up] Yes, oh mighty wizard? MAZURIN     Well. [ahem]  Rather than have to restock my pond-- AMALAN     Boo-yah! MAZURIN     --we're going to take it as read that you completed the first task, and start fresh in the morning. CAEL     What do we do for the rest of the day? MAZURIN     [at a loss]  uh...  well... [doubtful] You could... come and see my workshop? AMALAN     Spare me. CAEL     That would be fascinating. AMALAN     No really, spare me! CAEL     While we're there, you can turn the prince back to flesh. MAZURIN     Oh, right.  Of course. AMALAN     Couldn't you leave me with the blasted goblin?  At least he can hold a conversation. CAEL     Shut up. MAZURIN     What?  Oh, right, the sword.  Did I mention that I've figured out how to turn water to dust, and vice versa?  Mostly only a drop at a time, just yet, mind you - since it's very hard to control in large quantities - oh, well, except for last night-- CAEL     Oh, is that what that was--? MAZURIN     --but I was -uh- trying to make an impression. MUSIC CAEL     [singing, but a bit shaky] the mighty warrior calms her rage goes into the castle dark and drear wond'ring what sort of wicked mage might be he that liv-ed here and whether she would see another day! SOUND     LIGHT BUT ENTHUSIASTIC APPLAUSE MAZURIN     [admiring] You wrote that just last night? CAEL     I - I couldn't sleep.  It's not finished. MUSIC MAZURIN     I work on very small amounts at a time - no need, really, to enchant huge things.  Saves space and lord knows, who wants seven tons of aspic just lying around? MAZ and CAEL     [CHUCKLE] GIGLI     [exasperated]  On that culinary note - Master, do you plan to dine here in the workshop? MAZURIN     Dine?  But it's hardly even dark out--  Oh!  Well.  CAEL     No wonder you keep lighting candles. MAZURIN     I didn't even notice, I was so caught up-- GIGLI     Din-ner? MAZURIN     Of course. Of course.  Shall we? CAEL     [stretching]  I hadn't even thought about it, but I am famished. GIGLI     And your sword? CAEL     don't be silly.  Swords don't eat.  She's been awfully quiet, though. AMALAN     I have been trying to ignore you.  You're acting like a scullery maid who got smiled at by a lord. CAEL     What? AMALAN     And it will get you into trouble- this mage is the enemy.  He's enchanting you. MAZURIN     Something wrong? CAEL     No.  [thinking]  Nothing. MUSIC GIGLI     Sleep well.  Challenge at dawn.  All that. SOUND     DOOR SHUTS CAEL     Check me for magic. AMALAN     Why? CAEL     You're the one who said he's enchanting me. AMALAN     I meant he's charming you - not like a CHARM charm, just by being a smooth talker. CAEL     So you don't really suspect a spell? AMALAN     I don't see anything out of the ordinary. CAEL     Whew.  That's a relief. MUSIC SOUND     BANGING ON THE DOOR GIGLI     Rise and shine!  It's dawn. SOUND     DOOR OPENS SLOWLY GIGLI     Hello?  Hmm. SOUND     FLAPPY STEPS INTO THE ROOM GIGLI     Must already be down there...  [mischievous]  We-e-e-ell.  SOUND     PAWING THROUGH HER THINGS GIGLI     Figures an Amazon wouldn't have anything interesting in the way of undies.  Lace would ride up something fierce.  What's this? SOUND     PARCHMENT UNROLLS GIGLI     [reading] "The great and mighty Queen Luria" blah blah blah "doth decree" Oh doth she?  Blah blah blah.  "That prince Tupin should be returned safely to her royal residence in order to be joined in marriage and alignment with her oldest daughter [ with feeling] princess Cael!"  [tsks, then truly rueful]  Boss ain't gonna like this. MUSIC MAZURIN     The test for today-- [muttered] where is that idiot goblin anyway?  [up] Is for you to clean out the stables of my thirty terribly ferocious horses. CAEL     OK.  But this one's going to be easy too. AMALAN     Unless they've been eating fermented oats - remember that one time at bard camp? MAZURIN     Oh? CAEL     Course.  I've spent my entire life around the royal stables.  Horses like me.  MAZURIN     Oh, I suppose we could just call it even and I could show you a few more-- CAEL     Nonsense. MAZURIN     Nonsense? CAEL     Silly!  First - I might as well prove I can do something to earn my keep.  And second, if it's such a test, I can't imagine the poor horses having to live there without it being cleaned.  Which way? MAZURIN     Oh, um, I'll take you there. SOUND     FOOTSTEPS PROGRESSING THROUGH HALLWAYS CAEL     That would be lovely.  Oh, is there anything in the tests that says I can't ask someone for help? MAZURIN     I'm not sure - Gigli would know, but-- CAEL     Well, I figured it couldn't hurt to ask. MAZURIN     But there's only really one, well, person, you could call on to help, and Gigli isn't fond of any kind of animals-- CAEL     Oh, he's not who I was thinking of. MAZURIN     What, who, then? CAEL     Nuh-uh.  Not until you decide if I can - don't want to give it away. MAZURIN     [enjoying the byplay]  Shall I guess? CAEL     Nope, just decide, then I'll tell you. MAZURIN     All right.  Yes.  You can ask someone, but I can't constrain them into helping you. CAEL     [laughs]  Fine.  You wanna help? MAZURIN     Me? CAEL     I'll do all the heavy lifting, but I thought maybe once the bulk is gone, there's plenty of dust in a good old hayloft... MAZURIN     Oh!  [laughs himself] Oh, yes! AMALAN     [disgusted] Oh, gods. MUSIC GIGLI     No, no, no, no, NO!  She wasn't supposed to have any help at all - how could you have missed that part? MAZURIN     You weren't there to cue me, so you can't complain.  What do you think of my beard? GIGLI     Your beard?  Why? MAZURIN     I've trimmed it down a bit - I think it's rather dashing. GIGLI     [disgusted] Dashing? MAZURIN     Makes me look a bit of a rakehell.  Do you think I should wear the green or the black robe?  I like green better myself, but black is so very... oh... manly-- [hums tunelessly to himself.] GIGLI     Oh, you moron!  [sigh]  She's supposed to marry the prince. MAZURIN     [hum cuts out with a gasp]  wh-wh-whatever do you mean?  [Blustering, trying to laugh] What?  Ha-ha-ha.  [losing momentum, starting to wind down]  What did you think I was ... doing? GIGLI     I really hate to burst your bubble, especially since you actually eat and bathe right now, but I saw it in her gear.  She has to get the prince back and marry him. MAZURIN     She has to-- GIGLI     Said "Princess Cael" big as life.  MAZURIN     Oh. MUSIC SOUND     CAEL GETTING DRESSED AMALAN     Lucky for you, you were in the barn when he doused it.  No one likes a smelly Amazon. CAEL     Do you remember if I packed my teal chemise?  AMALAN     Isn't that the one you only wear for state occasions? CAEL     Um, yes... AMALAN     The one you say rides too tight through the chest and you hate to wear except that it brings out your eyes? CAEL     [overly casual]  Yes.  Did I pack it? AMALAN     I distinctly recall the words [mimicking] "phooey, when I go to do battle, who's looking at my... eyes?" CAEL     Drat. AMALAN     How can you stand him?  He's so dull! CAEL     Dull?  What do you mean? AMALAN     I mean what could possibly be more completely boring than turning dust to water - oh, yes.  Turning locusts to aspic.  That was much more boring. CAEL     It was not.  It's important magic.  He's very clever. AMALAN     Clever like a fox.  No wait that's wrong... right... anyway, forget it.  I means he's deliberately being disarming, CAEL     Speaking of disarming... SOUND     BUCKLE BEING UNBUCKLED, SWORD LEFT BEHIND AMALAN     What are you doing? CAEL     Just what you asked me to do - Sparing you. AMALAN     What? CAEL     No reason I'd need a sword at dinner.  Even with an evil wizard. MUSIC SOUND     EAGER, MESSY EATING NOISES MAZURIN     [heartfelt heavy sigh] TUPIN     [mouth full]  So where's this princess?  She one of those who likes to make an entrance?  Man, she must have seriously kicked your ass, eh?  Is she  hot?  GIGLI     [muttered] I'd actually forgotten-- SOUND     BIG DOOR OPENS, FOOTSTEPS MAZURIN     [deeply affected - she looks good]  Oh. TUPIN     [eating stops, swallow] That her?  Man, she's kinda chunky.  And old. GIGLI     Oh, for a hammer. SOUND     [under the talking] MAZURIN'S CHAIR SQUEAKS OUT, HE TAKES A STUMBLING STEP AND THEN PULLS A CHAIR OUT FOR HER MAZURIN     [barely able to talk]  You look - very nice.  Very. TUPIN     Aren't you a little underdressed?  CAEL     I - who? [whispered] Who is that? GIGLI     You don't recognize him?  CAEL     Oh, the prince!  Greetings, your highness.  So pleased to see you upright - or at least sitting down.  MAZURIN     Have a seat, milady? CAEL     Thank you so much, kind sir. TUPIN     I don't have to stand.  I'm royalty. CAEL     What? TUPIN     That crack about me not getting up when you came in - it's not like you're my mom or anything.  Princes don't have to stand. GIGLI     [whispered] Please let me leave, boss.  I'm gonna kill him. CAEL     I didn't mean anything-- MAZURIN     [whispered] Go, then. GIGLI     As you command. SOUND     QUICK SLAPPY STEPS, DOOR TUPIN     Well, you sounded very critical.  I don't put up with that from anybody.  Not even other royalty. MUSIC SOUND     DOOR OPENS AMALAN     Who's there? GIGLI     Where is it...? SOUND     SLAPPY FEET, SWORD SLID OUT OF SHEATH AMALAN     Unhand me! GIGLI     Hey, just wanted to ask you a couple of questions - as if I know what to do with a sword...  Well, there is this prince... [nasty chuckle] AMALAN     Prince Tupin? GIGLI     Yeah.  What a prize. AMALAN     That bad?  Is he - of course!  He's awake, isn't he? GIGLI     Unfortunately. AMALAN     Oh, man, and I'm missing it.  GIGLI     If she doesn't clock him by the end of the evening, I'm no familiar. AMALAN     Nah.  She's under strict orders. GIGLI     Yeah, I know. AMALAN     You know.... what? GIGLI     Oh, I was scouting for my master, and found the parchment in her things.  He was really disappointed, you know. AMALAN     Disappointed?  Your master?  Why? GIGLI     That your princess will be marrying the prince. AMALAN     Big whoop.  She has to marry someone.  Besides, it's years off. GIGLI     Yeah, but he--  Nothing. AMALAN     He what? GIGLI     It's kind of amazing, really.  Never seen my boss like this before - you know, picking out clothes by more than smell.  And then finding out she's spoken for. AMALAN     He's interested in the princess?  That's kind of creepy. GIGLI     Why?  He may be a wizard, but he is a man. AMALAN     Perv. GIGLI     Hey, she may not be my type, but she's not so hard on the eyes.  You should be more supportive. AMALAN     You're a perv too.  The princess is only 13!  GIGLI     [blink blink]  She's really tall, then. AMALAN     Huh?  Have you even seen the princess? GIGLI     [halting]  Your... lady warrior? AMALAN     Oh, heck no.  The princess Cael is-- Oh!  You thought my boss was the princess?  Gads!  Half the girls in the country are named Cael, for the great queen who led her people out of darkness and taught them to fight? GIGLI     Oh?  Oh!  I've got to tell him! SOUND     SLAPPY FEET AMALAN     Wait!  You mean your master is really-- I thought he was just softening her up. GIGLI     [snorts]  He wouldn't know how to begin.  Short of turning her to aspic... MUSIC CAEL     With the extra horses, I can him get there and make it back in about two weeks. MAZURIN     [a bit negative] Back? CAEL     Yes.  MAZURIN     [grumpy] Why? CAEL     [a bit deflated]  To... return the horses? MAZURIN     Oh, of course.  [lying badly] I may not be here.  I have a big trip coming up.  But Gigli can see that you have a place to sleep... CAEL     [backing off] Or I could always send someone with them. SOUND     DOOR SLAMS OPEN, SLAPPY FEET RUN IN GIGLI     Sire!  There has been a grave error! MAZURIN     [sharp]  What? GIGLI     It's entirely my fault, I admit - wait, what happened to the prince? CAEL     He fell asleep.  I think he ate too much. GIGLI     [chuckles] I'll bet.  Good one, sire. MAZURIN     What is your news, mannikin? GIGLI     Ah, yes.  Um, can you come over here, maybe?  CAEL     I can... leave. GIGLI     No!  [urging] Master? MAZURIN     Just spit it out.  GIGLI     [whispered] She's not the one. CAEL     Not the one what? MAZURIN     Not?  What?  GIGLI     Arrying-may the ince-pray. CAEL     Your goblin has lost its mind. MAZURIN     Not marrying the prince?  You're not marrying the prince? CAEL     Me?  Oh, gods no!! MAZURIN     But he saw-- GIGLI     Princess Cael is marrying him. CAEL     Yeah.  She's my cousin.  It's all arranged for her eighteenth birthday.  Hey, if they ask, can I tell them you'll turn him back to glass until then? MAZURIN     Not you? CAEL     No.  [thankful and sarcastic] I'm not worthy of one such as him.  Besides, he's years younger than me. MAZURIN     Then you can marry anyone you want? CAEL     Once I successfully complete my quest.  That's kind of why I took it. MAZURIN     [horrible anticipation] Did you - have someone in mind? CAEL     [suddenly shy]  No.  Why? MAZURIN     Nothing.  Just-- GIGLI     This is disgusting.  Just kiss her.  CAEL     But there's a third test--? MAZURIN     Oh, yes... GIGLI     [eye roll]  The third test was too see if you could listen to the wizard and not fall asleep - boom, you win.  Kiss her. MAZURIN     [excited]  Can we do that? GIGLI     The whole test thing was mostly because I was really, really bored.  ...And tradition. CAEL     We should hold off the kissing until I complete my quest.  There's always the chance the prince will get lost in the forest on the way back. GIGLI     Now there's an idea... MAZURIN     Perhaps an escort would be helpful?  Hmm? CAEL     ...and a cart.  Then he could sleep the entire trip! GIGLI     Poor princess. CAEL     She throws things.  I think they're actually well matched. MAZURIN     [giddy]  Well, perhaps a toast? CAEL     And then you can finish telling me about your research into the relationship between the angle of sunlight and the movements of pond slime. MAZURIN     Only if you promise to complete that ballad you were writing and sing it for me on the trip. GIGLI     [disgusted moan] END  

This week's episode discusses the Gateway Process outlined in recently declassified (2003) CIA Documents regarding Project Stargate. The Gateway Process attempts to explain supernatural phenomena such as astral projection, out-of-body experiences, higher levels of consciousness, reality shifting, and many other strange supernatural things achieved through meditation through the lens of science as we know it today. This leads us into a discussion about the 3 most impactful life-changing meditation experiences that I have had in my life and about meditation in general and the positive impacts it has on your body and mind.    Subscribe and leave a 5-star review! ----more---- Our website https://redpillrevolution.co/    Protect your family and support the Red Pill Revolution Podcast with Affordable Life Insurance. This is attached to my license and not a third-party ad!   Go to https://agents.ethoslife.com/invite/3504a now!   Currently available in AZ, MI, MO, LA, NC, OH, IN, TN, WV Email austin@redpillrevolution.co if you would like to sign up in a different state   Leave a donation, sign up for our weekly podcast companion newsletter, and follow along with all things Red Pill Revolution by going to our website: https://redpillrevolution.co    ----more----   Full Transcription    Welcome to the Revolution. Hello and welcome to Red Pill Revolution. My name is Austin Adams, and thank you very much for listening today. This is episode number 46 of the Red Pill Revolution podcast, and we are going to have a very intriguing conversation. This one we're gonna be touching on. It was something we've kind of touched on before, but we didn't dive into this specific topic, this deep. So what we're gonna be discussing is the CIA documents surrounding the gateway process. Okay, so we'll touch on that. We'll talk a little bit about some of my experiences with meditation, things like kini yoga, some of the interesting stories that I have surrounding that. Then we'll dive a little bit further into some of those other types of meditation, which I find to be really interesting, um, from that kind of. Uh, Western, or I'm sorry, Eastern philosophy and, and those types of things. So the gate, it all starts with the gateway process, though , if you've never heard of the gateway process, it's a unbelievable, unbelievably interesting document that came from the CIA that was released in 2003 surrounding. Some of the most interesting topics that you've ever heard of in your life. Everything from spirit channeling divination to extra sensory perception, to, uh, astrol projection, to, uh, you know, um, basically all of these, you know, out body experiences, states of altered consciousness. And this was all done under the US Army. In the cia. Okay? Um, this US Army's actually the one that released the document. So, um, we will go ahead and jump into it. But before that, , before that, I need you to do one thing for me, and that is just go ahead and hit that little button on your phone. It takes two seconds on your part. It means the world to me. And you already know which button I'm talking about. It starts with a sub and ends with a scribe. All right? That's what I got for you. If you are on Apple Podcasts or Spotify, go ahead and hit that five star review button. If you do not already, follow me on all of these social media channels at Red Pill Revolt, go find me, follow me. You know the deal. All right? And if you haven't hit the subscribe button, just do it. You'll feel better about it this whole time. All right? Gives you a little bit of good karma. All right, speaking of Karma , we have some very interesting conversations today. Um, so we will go ahead and jump into it right now. All right. I don't know about you, but that introduction just gets me a hype for some reason. , if you can't see it, um, even if you're watching this on YouTube, but I'm in the background mouthing it. Getting excited over here. Um, but let's dive into it. The CIA documents about the Gate Way process. All right. Now this gets so deep, it might be hard to follow, but I found some really good engaging articles that take, uh, this wealth of information that's a 26 page document. And 26 pages doesn't seem that deep. Even in each individual. There's like two to three paragraphs on each of the individual things that they're discussing here. Um, but I found a really good way to break it down for you guys, and here it is. In 1945, the United States launched a scientific intelligence initiative titled Operation Stargate. The objective was to recover intelligence on scientific and military, uh, projects conducted under the third, right? What they found was something much stranger. A cash of documents related to, um, which was a scientific academy, and, and think, take indicated a division that was so, basically it was like the Nazi regime had this scientific think take that was dedicated to the study of cult sciences. The extensive research was being conducted on sensory perception, spirit channeling divination in other forms of anomalous phenomenon. The paranormal was being scientifically explored, but from what purpose is unclear. After uncovering these documents, they began to investigate, uh, into altered consciousness and the supernatural, and they continued these investigations for decades. Some of these projects like MK Ultra have been widely reported. Others, not so much. Some have re received little to no exposure since declassification. That one report titled The Analysis and Assessment of the Gateway Process went largely unexamined until recently it was declassified in 2003 by the US Army. In a detail, a scientific technique developed by the Monroe Institute to facilitate astro projection in out body experiences and states of altered Consci. Hmm. Now, if you don't know, we touched on this topic, um, when we talked about the Project Stargate. So there's a whole episode that we did on Project Stargate and Project Stargate was the, uh, CIA's initiative to basically combat and re uh, look into what the Nazi regime did by looking into the astro projections. And so the idea was that they would take people with high levels of psychic energy, right? Or self proclaimed high levels of psychic energy. And if you haven't watched that episode, it's wild, right? We watch videos of them literally putting ping pong balls on people's faces so that they have this like sensory deprivation in order to do these. And there's a movie that's loosely based off of this, which is called The Men Who Stare at Goats. Um, I guess it's a ho movie, so really no reason to watch it . But, but it's interesting that there's a movie nonetheless. So what, what that, uh, Project Stargate was, the whole idea behind that was that they were coming out with a project to basically learn how to spy on other military operations without ever having to leave a single room or do any reconnaissance at all. All of this was going to be done through some type of psychic action, and in this case it was called Astro Projection. And if you don't know what astro projection is, Astro projection is the idea. It's, it's a form of transcendental meditation, which transcendental meditation is something that we'll dive into in a little bit. But it's basically, you know, getting into a deeply meditative.  expanding and, and, and taking your consciousness and looking to expand it from outside of your body. And within that you can start to project that to different areas of, of earth and space and time, uh, uh, and timelines, right? It's, it's really wild the things that they did within Project Stargate. There was even one instance during Project Stargate where they had an individual who was projecting their consciousness into a pyramid on, I believe it was like a pyramid on Mars, where they spoke to extraterrestrial entities who were trapped there. And in trying to ask them for help on a different, Like in, in a different time than today, like far, far in the past. It's so crazy. And you can find all these documents, go to cia.gov, um, or, or go to Google and type in CIA reading room and there's all of these documents and just look up Project Stargate. And there's so much shit that you can dive into a project Stargate is so crazy. And this is the document that we're gonna discuss today is a single document of that project. Okay? Now, one way that they went about that project was something that was called Hemi Sync. In Hemi Sync was an initiative that they were trying to basically figure out how to best prime the body to do this astro projection. And, and the, the project Stargate. Or, I'm sorry, the breakdown of the gateway process was an, an, an attempt to explain exactly what was happening, how it was happening, what was happening in the brain, how this was even possible from a, uh, like a worldly perspective. You know, what was going on to make this possible. Okay. Um, so pretty wild stuff. And with that, let's dive a little bit further. It says that some of the projects like MK Ultra have been widely reported on, however, some have received little no exposure since declassification. Right? We talked about that with the US Army coming out with this document in 2003. Um, and it detailed a scientific technique developed by the Monroe Institute to facilitate astro projection out of body experiences in states of altered consciousness. The purpose was to create individuals who could transcend space and time so that they could achieve this through the use of the gateway tapes. Now, the gateway tapes are literally available on Amazon, right? Now it's $190 for the gateway tape. So if you're that interested in this, there's two copies left , I hope after this show there's a couple less. If that looks at zero by the time that this gets released and you guys listen to it, that's pretty awesome. Um, but anyways, you can also find it on YouTube, so don't, maybe don't spend your money . Um, the gateway tapes, I'm pretty sure beginning to end are all on YouTube. And so the Robert Monroe was the one who spearheaded this operation and, and tried to break down what was actually happening during this astro projection and how to actually accomplish this. All right. So Robert Monroe was a radio broadcasting executive in the early 1950s. He formed Ram Enterprises, which was a corporation that produced network radio programs. However, Monroe was interested in exploring how sound frequencies can impact the human mind. He was obsessed with discovering methods of how to, it's called like hypo, um, hypno emia. And it's basically learning how to learn from audio tapes while you're sleeping. Okay? Think of like listening to, you know, uh, pimsler Spanish tapes. Uh, and then eventually after so many weeks of listening to this in your sleep, you wake up and all of a sudden you're fluent in Spanish. That that was kind of his idea. it says that Monroe experimented with frequencies to enhance memory and learning for years. However, in the 1950s, he got more than he bargained for. During one of his experiences in experiments, he experienced paralysis, bodily vibrations and bright lights until he seemingly exited his body floating somewhere near the ceiling. This experience was later publicized in articles and books, and it helped popularize, popularize the term out of body experience or obe. He was frightened, but also intrigued, and he began to pursue this experience, describing it as proof of the spiritual world. As Ram Enterprises grew beyond radio production, they rebranded as Monroe Industry and they developed a research division named the Monroe Institute. There they studied the impact of sound frequencies and patterns on human consciousness. Monroe discovered that the human brain was subject to a frequency following response, which means brainwaves would naturally adapt to mimic the audio frequencies played. However many known brainwave patterns like beta, theta and delta occur at frequencies that are inaudible to the human ear. To circumvent this limitation, Monroe would play different frequencies to the left and the right ears, which would create a beat frequency. A beat frequency is simply the difference between the two played frequencies. For example, if 210 frequencies hurts or hurts, frequency was played in one ear in 220 and the other, it would generate a beat frequency of 10 hertz invoking psychological and mental states that are related to those brave brain wave frequencies. This process would synchronize the amplitude and frequency of brainwaves between both hemispheres. This synchronization is also called Hemi, and it rarely occurs in natural circumstances. Monroe claims that the gateway process could lead to prolonged states of Hemi sync, and he could stimulate states of consciousness by forcing the brain to emulate these frequencies. So, Summarization. He would put headphones on and he would play these certain frequencies. If you've ever done like transcendental meditations or guided meditations, sometimes in order like kini, there's, there's sometimes in the background you'll hear this. Uh, you know, it's like this weird kind of underlying sound and, and, and you can even look up certain, uh, uh, transcendental meditations or guided meditations that have certain frequencies, um, which the CIA has outlined as allowing you to do these out body experiences, Right? So, so what he did is he started the experiments that kind of brought to light and scientifically explained what's happening in these instances. And it goes on to say that by evoking delta brainwaves in one to four hertz range, he could elicit states of meditation or relaxation. Early research at the Monroe Institute suggested that the gateway process had many practical applications including stress relief, pain, anesthetic. Accelerated learning and more. However, it would only later be applied in an attempt to create psychic soldiers under the guidance of the US military military. In 1983, Lieutenant Colonel Wayne in McDonald's submitted a classified report titled, In Analysis and Assessment of the Gateway Process, He was tasked with exploring astro projection and not body experiences and how the gateway process might be used to train soldiers for intelligence gathering purposes. The subject matter can be difficult to understand, but the following is a synopsis of McDonald's report. Aware that this is his investigation was skirting the supernatural McDonald's thought to ground his analysis in scientific study, he connected his reports to the following branches of study, including biomedicine to re, to determine the physical processes and effects that occurred during the gateway processes, including quantum mechanics and attempt to explain the interplay between consciousness in the physical world. Theoretical physics to understand the physical world that would be transcended and Newton's laws of physics to ground his findings and dispel any paranormal connotations. The gateway process was described as a training system designed to bring enhanced strength and focus into am, uh, to the amplitude and frequency of brainwaves output between the left and the right hemisphere, so as to alter consciousness, moving it outside of the physical sphere so as to ultimately escape even the restrictions of time and space. And that draws back to how this was actually applied in Project Stargate, which is wild, which is what we talked about a little bit earlier. And all of this sounds so crazy, but the fact that the CIA dumped. Millions of dollars and manpower into this and, and actually had many, many successful missions, including finding a specific warship in the ocean as a result of one person's, uh, you know, astro projections. Now it goes on to say that, and through these interactions, all energy fields became imprinted and then encoded with inform. Um, it says to understand how human consciousness could escape the physical body. McDonald asserted that the world is a hologram, a theory which is shared by even current day physicists all matter consists of atoms, small nucleic, and are surrounded by large electron energy fields. The energy fields between all matter coexist and interact. And through these interactions, all energy fields become imprinted and encoded with information. Furthermore, complex principles and holographic theory suggests that this imprinting can occur between, and not only is there an interconnectedness between everything we know, but perhaps there is information in our world about dimensions that we have yet to even discover. The holographic theory is further complicated by interaction with human consciousness. We do not passively perceive the world, but through perception, we change it through free will. We can selectively perceive and influence the holographic universe. Similar to popular new age ideas like the Secret in the law of attraction. Now, if you don't know what the secret or the Law of Attraction are, I'm happy to explain. I was given a book by my father, um, great man, and, uh, it was called The Laws of Success. And I was given this book. It was written by Napoleon Hill, and Napoleon Hill is kind of the grandfather of all, uh, you know, motivational speaking today. All, all of the books that you see on, you know, how to, uh, self-improvement basically is a sub chapter of information or stems from a, you know, a certain paragraph even from this book called The Laws of Success and The Laws of Success was Later to Condense, because I have it right here actually. Napoleon Hills Law of Success. All right, here's the book. It is, um, revised and updated by Napoleon Hill, the 21st Century edition, and it is approximately 890 pages. 890 pages. And in this book he described several, several things, including a lot of what this even talks about prior to this actually happening. Right. Um, so. Um, what I see to be interesting about this is, is it talks about the secret. It talks about the law of attraction. It talks about, you know, what, what turned into many of the modern day new age ideas. And if you don't know what the secret is about or what the law of attraction is, it's basically, uh, interplaying the idea. And, and it gets pretty deep if, if you know, how the, the, where our science is going today, which makes it even more interesting. But the principle of the law of attraction is basically that through sheer thought, you can manifest the world, the life, the outcomes that you want in life. Now, I think there's two specific interesting ways to talk about that. The first one being that even if it doesn't have to do with the frequencies of the world, which is, you know, what, uh, is asserted by Napoleon Hill in this book and even asserted through this CIA document. Um, but even if it's not that right, I guess let's, let's talk on that. The idea is that the, the, the world is vibrations, right? And if you understand how science works, and I don't claim to be a scientist, so take everything I'm saying with a grain of salt. But from my understanding, the idea is that everything is movement. Every molecule, every molecule is shaking, right? There's movement happening all around this at all times. The words that you're hearing from me right now are simply vibrations, right? And those vibrations stem from the vibrations that are happening within my own brain, which is causing, you know, this activity that's coming up with thoughts, which is then coming out verbally, which you're hearing through the vibrational frequencies, right? And that includes the light that's, you know, reflecting off of the walls that's giving color. Everything in this universe stems from some type of, uh, you know, movement or frequency as a result. So the idea is that there's, you know, if, if the way that I look at it now, knowing what we know about, you know, where science is going with the idea of multiverses, is that if you align with a certain frequency, right? Even when you're not speaking, even just your thoughts are emitting frequencies into the world and the world picks up on those, whether it's, you know, what you, whether you want to call it God, whether you wanna call it the universe, whatever you want to call it, there is something greater than us that is taking in those vibrational frequencies. And if you put things out enough, the world will start to align with your thoughts, right? And this comes from, you know, whether or not it's, it's this new wave idea of science or whether it's even to me, even if it's not, that, it may even just have to be the trickling down of the conscious into the subconscious, right? If I wake up and tell myself every day, then I'm gonna be a millionaire, right? Let's do the most common one that you'll probably see when people do the secret, right? I'm gonna have all the money in the world. Right. If you just wake up every day and you recite that, and you recite that, and you recite that, and you recite that, right, I'm gonna have a million dollars by this day. I'm gonna have a million dollars by this day. Just specifically by doing that, you are pulling your, you, you are positioning your subconscious in the way that that is what's at the forefront of your mind, even if you're not thinking about it, right? So you start to pick up on cues around you that may get you closer to that goal, right? Because if your brain, if every day that you woke up, you said, I'm hungry, I need to find. , I'm hungry. I need to find food. Right? Your brain's gonna go, Oh, he's hungry. He needs to find food. And so your particular activating system is gonna start to pick up on subtle cues around you, right? That could potentially mean I'm gonna eat, right? So whether it's has to do with, you know, aligning with the proper multiverse, right, or, or universe. Um, and that's an even deeper conversation, but you know, through the manifestation of your own thoughts or whether it just specifically has to do with you saying something enough to where it trickles into your subconscious. I wholeheartedly believe that there is one shape or another in one shape or another. You can frame the universe around you specifically through.  thoughts. You know, it's a, a, a really incredible quote is, you know, if you knew the power of your thoughts, you would never have another negative thought in your life, right? If you knew how powerful each individual thought that went through your brain was, you would never think anything that would position you in a way to receive back any negativity. Right? And we're getting a little in the woods with this, but I think it's important to understand this manifestation idea because it comes up later in these documents where it talks about those frequencies. The frequencies that you, you start to align with the, the, the vibrational waves that you're putting out into the universe is what's going to come back to you in one way, shape, or another. Let's go ahead and continue this document. Human beings can manifest certain realities through imagination and willpower. Lastly, McDonald speculates that human consciousness may be able to temporarily escape time and space utilizing the gateway tapes to accelerate brainwave frequencies. These brainwaves may break a physical limitation known as the plank distance. The plank distance is the smallest measurable distance in the physical, the peaks of accelerated brainwaves. And theoretically, the accompanying human consciousness would temporarily enter a sub planky universe. This primor primordial dimension of space predates are known universe, and it is not subject to the limitations of time in space. McDonald theorized that consciousness would blink into the sub planking space and return with knowledge that would otherwise be inaccess. It becomes possible to see how human consciousness brought to a sufficiently altered state could obtain information concerning the past, present, and future. The practice of using the gateway trait tapes is referred to as the gateway process before beginning. Subjects are instructed to visualize a box in place, any extraneous concerns inside of it. This is meant to help improve focus. Then they are instructed to meditate while humming a single tone. After sufficient preparation. The Hemi Sync frequencies are introduced, which is the tapes that have these frequencies, Those, um, you know, whatever that sounds like. It's only through exposure and diligent practice that subjects can reach the furthest possibilities of this practice. McDonald describes the following as possible outcomes of the gateway practice. Improved problem solving, solving by calling on a higher self, which is the expanded consciousness of the subject. Um, patterning and projecting the will into the universal hologram in an attempt to manifest a new reality. Color breathing and energy bar tool techniques are meant to stimulate healing effects on the body through the use of visualization, out of body experiences allow individuals to exit their bodies and explore the physical world and beyond. Okay, now let me talk about one of those specific things that I just talked about, which is the improved problem solving by calling on a higher self. Now, I had an experience. Now I, I'm, I've meditated for a fairly decently long time in my life. I would say probably, I don't know, eight, eight to 10 years. I, I've, and even when I was younger, right, as like, In middle school, you know, I was watching, uh, of, you know, if there was YouTube back then, whatever, wherever I, I watched it , uh, videos about energy and, and, and kind of interested in the Eastern philosophies. And, um, so when I, when I've meditated in the past, I've done several different things, right? When, normally when you meditate, you go through a, a certain steps, right? The normal meditation techniques is, is basically taking something that's considered, you know, to, to take the words of Tim Ferris, which I found to be really powerful. And something that I talk about with my, my young daughter, pretty consistently is the idea of a monkey mind. So there's the idea of the monkey mind. And the monkey mind is the consistent flow of subconscious thoughts that are constantly buzzing through your brain at any given time of the day. Right? It's reminding you of that shit that you forgot to do, that you were supposed to do, that somebody might ask you about in the future. It's reminding you that you said something stupid to that person that you liked last week, and now you can't feel anything but shame about that one thing. And it can't escape your brain. It reminds you that, you know, so and so is out there doing this incredible thing and that you should possibly be capable of doing the same thing. So, and, and you're not living up to your potential. It's reminding you that you know, it's that the song that won't get out of your head, right? It's, it's the constant repetitive music from in Canto,  cuz your child watches that. Uh, if you haven't watched that movie, it's interesting, but it drives me nuts. Um, but anyways, back to monkey mind. The monkey mind is the part of your, your, your thought processes that are uncontrolled. It's the things that give you anxiety. It's the thoughts that make you depressed. It's the things that you feel are out of your control, right, That are driving you to be anxious or sad or mad or it, it's basically the, the autopilot of your brain when you decide or when you don't decide to be in control of it. And so what the initial parts of meditation end up being is learning how to submit that monkey mind. And usually it starts with something like this. They'll tell you to sit down, they'll tell you to take a deep breath, they'll tell you to take another deep breath and through your nose, without, through your mouth. And at a certain point they'll tell you the count breaths, right? I want you to count from zero to 10 each full breath being one, two. Whew, three. And you do that until you hit 10, and then you count from 10 down to zero doing the same thing. And so you continue that process, you know, let's say six to 10 times, right? One to two minutes of continuing that process of just thinking about your breath and counting your breath in a way that it completely takes over your consciousness and rids you of any of the poisonous thoughts that are happening because of your monkey mind. And then the next step is to sit still. Do not count and just breathe. But I want you to think of nothing. I want you to have a completely blank slate in your mind, and I want you to relax your body and mind and just think of absolute nothing. And when people generally start this practice, what they'll find is that their monkey mind is so powerful in their true self, their true consciousness, which is the individual who controls what is behind that monkey mind, right? Who subdues that monkey mind and determines that they're going to stop smoking a cigarette, right? And, and determines that they're gonna write that book and, and overcome the obstacles and, and the easy habitual ways of thought patterns and, and patterns of action that are in their way, right? And so by through this process of subduing your monkey mind for 10 minutes and every time that you're, you know, because it will happen every, you'll get frustrated the first time you do it. You'll breathe in, you'll breathe out, and all of a sudden that stupid assignment that you were supposed to do for school will pop into your brain or that task that you were supposed to have done tomorrow for work that you forgot about when you're laying up at night at nine 30, knowing you're not gonna wake up and go do it. and then you breathe and you remember that you're supposed to focus on your breath. You're not supposed to focus on all the stupid stuff that you forgot to do, . And by consistently subduing that monkey mind, you'll find that you get more space for the things that you wanna do in life, right? You'll find that you, you, you're not picking up that cigarette as often or at all. You'll find that you are more in control of your thoughts. You will find that there's this, you'll know, you'll start to notice because it's not gonna go away initially just by starting to do that. But what you'll find is that you'll start to notice your monkey mind more often, and you'll start to disassociate with the thoughts that are consistently going through your mind, that you normally identify with things that drive anxiety, things that drive depression. And after a certain amount of time of doing that, let's call it six months, your anxiety lessons, your depression shrinks away. Because you are starting to notice the patterns that are leading to that, the thought processes that have been carved into your brain since you were a child, that your parents put there for you, or by that your coach told you that you know, you were not good enough or whatever it is. You'll find that you can start to reparent yourself, to reeducate yourself, to retrain yourself, to live a life in a way that you want to because you're no longer being controlled by the whims of your subconscious thoughts that you have no control over, but you're subduing those thoughts and instead replacing them with intentional ideas of positivity, of gratitude, of, you know, things that are good for you, not things that are bad for you. And so through that initial phase o of of meditation, you start to expand your, your true self, your true consciousness. And so that, If normally your brain's being taken over by your monkey mind for, I don't know, call it 85% of the day, that by learning how to submit, make that monkey mind tap out through the intentional practice of meditation that your true self, your true consciousness, who has your best interest in mind, that is not just specifically repeating the, the traumatic experiences that you had because they're comfortable and habitual, you'll find that your life becomes better. You'll find that you have more gratitude for things you'll find less wanting and more gratefulness. Right? Um, you know, I, I, I tell my daughter this, grateful, not want. Right. Um, and, and so, you know, when my, my daughter is, is a lot of energy, right? Lot like I was as a kid, a lot of energy. And, you know, she has constant, you know, bouncing up and down because she wants to be doing something and she does gymnastics like, I don't know, like 16 hours a week, And so she, she has all of this energy that she needs to get out. And what I've found is that it's all that bouncing is going on in her head, is going on in her brain that monkey mind is taking over. And of course it is. She's six years old, right? And so, but what I've taught her is that, you know, I've taught her the idea of the monkey mind and to disassociate herself from the negative subconscious thoughts that drive anxiety and drive those, those negative emotions. And to realize that it's your monkey mind and that all you need to do toue, that monkey mind through practice is by taking a deep breath in and taking a deep breath out and noticing your breath.  and simply by doing that as often as you can, you'll find that you're taking control over from that monkey mind. And that's the introduction into meditation. That's the general idea. If you download the app Headspace, if you download the app, Calm, um, any of those popular meditation, uh, apps, what you'll find is that's always step one. Step one is ridding yourself. Not even, you'll never rid yourself of your monkey mind, but you can learn to sub do it and learn to notice it to the extent that you can start to sub do it as often as possible and replace it with positive, helpful thoughts instead of negative, uh, negative emotions and negative repetitive thoughts, right? So that's the intro and that's where you generally start with meditation. Then once you realize how powerful that that is, you'll start to move into more interesting. Once, once you feel the effects of that, you'll go, Wow. This shit really works, . It's crazy. And so you start to see the positive effects and that, and it starts to make you realize the power that you have through intentionality, through sheer willpower. You can rid yourself of your anxiety by rid yourself of that monkey mind, at least as often as possible. Now, the next step that you'll take and, and or can take in that journey is something like K yoga, Something like transcendental meditation is something like, um, you know, these, these different, more, uh, more in depth, more wild types of meditative techniques that yield different interesting results. Okay? So one of those ideas, and where we started from with this was, um, the idea of, um, let's see, where is it? Uh, he talks about. The idea of calling on a higher self, which is the expanded consciousness of the subject. And so an experience that I've had with this, which was truly very po, I've, I've, I've had probably three super unbelievably impactful meditations that have changed their trajectory of my life forever. Um, and again, I'm, I'm generally, I'm a, a type, hyper logical person. It was, it was with some, you know, I have a, I have a draw towards these types of, you know, meditations and yoga and things that I find to be interesting for my personality type. But, um, I tend to be a hyper logical person. But you, once you start to enact these things, it's hard to deny the effects of them. So I did a, I found a, you know, I used to wake up every morning at like six 30 in the morning and I would come downstairs to my, you know, my basement. I would have my yoga mat there. I would lay down and I would do some type of yoga or some type of meditation, and I would alternate. I would do yoga. Then the next morning I'd do meditation. I would do yoga. And then the next morning I do meditation. And I found this transcendental meditation on YouTube. And if I can find it, I will link it in this week's subst stack. And if you haven't joined your subst, you should, uh, it's directly on our website, Red Pill revolution.co. You'll get all the links, all the articles, everything we're talking about today will be directly on the Subst stack. So go there, sign up, give your email, you'll get everything that we're talking about here. Okay? And including, if I can find this me. I will post it in there. It's on YouTube, and I believe it was a 10 megahertz, um, was the, the frequency that was used in it. And so, um, I laid down, and what this had you do is it had you get to the most calm state that you could possibly feel it. And, and you'll see people, like when they're meditating, they touch their fingers together, um, like they're index f or their pointer finger and their thumbs, right? The, the, the traditional, you know, funky, weird meditative sitting stance where most people aren't flexible enough to sit their legs weird. Crissy I am, by the way. Um, but you put your fingers together, right? And, and what I've found is that when I'm in a deeply meditative state, I find that the feeling of my fingertips goes away. It's a really wild phenomenon, but I know I'm there. I know that I've met this, you know, this deeper state of consciousness when I no longer know the room that I'm in. I'm no longer, you know, laying in in the, the shower, right? Sometimes when I meditate, I'm no longer laying on the floor of my office. I'm no longer on a yoga mat. I'm no longer looking at a wall inside of my house. I'm in my own walled garden, my own consciousness that is outside of where I'm at in this world, in this time, right? But if I open my eyes at any given time, sure I'm still in that room, but it does not feel like it at the time. So you lay down. And this, this guided meditation, this transcendental meditation walked me through the steps. And, and the idea was that you laid down your, you're calming yourself to the point where you can realize that your consciousness is a ball of energy, right? Your being, your soul is this ball of energy. And as you relax more, it walks you through the process of realizing there's a window in the room. And as you start to remove yourself, that, that ball, that blue light of energy or whatever color you give it, as you start to remove that from your vessel, from your body, in this meditation, it tells you that there's a window in the room or there's a door. And through this door and through this pathway, You will, if your soul, your consciousness will float up through this window. And as it escapes from the room that you're in right now, you will walk into a long hallway, or at least this is how I visually perfectly remember this meditation, which was maybe a couple years ago at this point. But I vividly imagine, I vividly remember this because I was literally here. So it walked me through. I walked, you know, I floated through this hallway, and on either side of me were these, uh, weird, like capsule looking things. Almost like the, you know, how you would picture the cryogenic chambers that people get frozen in when they go to space. It was kind of weird, you know, But each one of them, each one of these, you know, capsules on each side of me were closed off glassed in windows that I could look into. And each one of them was a, a, a different version of myself, a different, uh, a different variation of my being and a different reality. . It was crazy. Trust me, I, I wouldn't believe this either if I was you, but it, it was, it was really interesting. Think of it, even if it's hard to remember, imagine this as a, think of it like a dream. I was floating through this room, down this hallway that, that turned in this really interest, like perfectly circular angle around this corner that I never had to get to, because by the time that I'd noticed each of these vessels, I looked at each of them and there was almost like as if there was this, you know, monitor on each outside of it, which, which told me the personality traits of this individual that told me their drive, their work ethic, their, um, you know, their attachment to love and, and, and their ability to be compassionate and caring and their, uh, grind, you know, their, their ability to, to go after a goal and their tenacity and their, you know, all of these different personality traits of all these different vessels down this hallway of all these different variations of who I am as a person in different realities. And so I walked along this hallway and I, I looked at each one of these vessels and I, and I felt a, a magnet or a magnetism to a certain one of these, you know, uh, encapsulated versions of myself, . And so I walked up to this glass window and I felt who this version of me was, and I realized that's the best version of me that I need for this time in my life to be a compassionate, empathetic father, to be a good friend, to be a hard worker that's successful working towards my goals. And so I, I found that the color, when I, I realized that I was going to basically embody the traits of this variation of my personality. Um, and so what, what I felt in that moment was the color of the orb that I removed from my body back in my office, laying on the floor on a yoga mat. The, the color of my consciousness that that energy ball that floated through this hallway changed into a different color. It was wild. And as I follow, as I did that, I, it, it called me back. And I, I walked, you know, floated back through this hall as this new variation of who I was and found myself back through that window that I came in from back into The body that I had was given in this reality, but with the renewed sense and qualities and traits of the version of myself that I found in that room, crazy . It was wild, right? So this is like, I, I'm fairly positive it walked me through a majority of that experience and, um, It was so crazy, and right around that time, I had a turning point in, in my, you know, what I did in my life. It, it caused me to rethink the day to day habitual actions that I was taking, the trajectory that I was on for my career, the, the things that I enjoyed doing. It made me question all of that, and it made me embody the traits of, of the compassionate father that I saw myself as, or felt myself as in that different world that, that, that hallway that I walked down. It was such a powerful experience, and to know that I could access that room at any given time that I needed. Right. Whether I needed to, to change my personality traits, to, to be a better father, to be a better husband, to be a harder worker, to, to change my career, to have the balls, to go after a dream, like starting a podcast with the hopes of turning it into a successful career. It took me being a better version of myself than I knew I was in that moment before I left this room that I'm sitting in right now on the floor on a yoga mat. I knew it took more than that to be who I needed to be to get where I wanted to go, and I found who I could be in that meditation, and I brought that wa back with me and it's never left since. It's, it's such a crazy experience. Okay. That, that all to. That I 100% believe that this is possible. Right? Improved problem solving by calling on a higher self, which is expand, which is the expanded consciousness of the subject. I could have found any number of variations of personality traits that I needed to embody to reach my goals, to be a better person, to be who I wanted to be in that room. And I found it, and I brought it back with me and IEM embodied it. Okay? It was wild. It was crazy. You might not believe me, but it, it had a tremendous effect on my life, okay? And by now, you know, I, I don't bullshit. I don't talk. I, I don't just talk to talk. That was a crazy, unbelievable experience that I had. And if somebody told me, and I never meditated before, I wouldn't believe you either. Um, but that was one of the three really impactful meditations, one of the really impactful spiritual journeys that meditation has taken me on. And I'll walk you through the others at some point in this conversation today as well. But that one was crazy. All right, now it goes on to talk about, um, patterning, projecting the will into the universal hologram and the attempt to manifest a new reality. Um, some people refer to that as reality shifting. If you've ever seen the movie Everything Everywhere all the time or some shit like that, it's like everywhere. Everything everywhere all the time. I'm pretty sure that's the name of it. It's probably one of my top three movies it's ever I've ever watched. I love this movie. It's an unbelievable movie. It talks about the multiverse, it talks about different realities. It talks about this reality shifting idea, right? And, and calling on yourself from a different, you know, variation of your reality where you are, you know, have different personality traits, a different career projection, that you have a different. Uh, husband or wife or, you know, all of these different splits that you changed your reality based on a tree of decision making. Right? And I think that's a really interesting concept is, is that every decision that you make in this life splits off into a different un unlimited amount of realities, right? And, and so whether or not, you know, my wife and I met in high school and we're now married 10 years later, right? We, we stayed together that entire time, but on a different reality that didn't happen, right? We didn't meet each other in digital photography class in high school, . And, um, we didn't have three children together and we didn't get married in Paris and we didn't do all of these things. And, and somewhere I'm a lonely, uh, drunk who has no life goals,  at all, because I didn't meet my wife in high school, right? And so there's all of these splits that happen. Simultaneous level at any given time based on the reactions that you make to the stimulus that's taken in, right? Even just by talking about this meditation today, even by just having that conversation that we just had, I might have impacted your life in a way that you go home and you're interested now in trying meditation. And just by doing that, you split your reality from being somebody who never tried meditation to somebody who subdues their monkey mind on a daily basis, rids themself of anxiety and depression and lives the up to the full potential of your life that you could possibly have. All because of this one weird, crazy instance that you so happen to click on this podcast and listen to me talk about this. Right? And so I think that idea. I think that almost every decision that you make in your life, it, it branches you off into a different multiverse reality. And by doing so, you specifically manifest your reality through your thoughts because your thoughts are what drive your decisions. Your thoughts literally shape the reality around you at any given time, specifically by pushing you into a different possible reality than you would have been had you make a different, had you made a different decision and a different you in a different world, which is brought to us by string theory, right? The idea that there's all these consistent realities going on simultaneously around the world and time and space really doesn't exist, and all these wild theories that are now basically being accepted by science today come into play. Every decision you make branches off into a different reality. Every decision that you make turns you into a different you that you would've been and somewhere existing at this exact same time as the you that didn't make that decision. That has a different life is a different result of basically every decision and thought that you've ever had. It's a crazy thought, right? It's it's a unbelievably crazy thought, um, and it leads you into the simulation theory and it leads you into all these really interesting thought experiments, right? But it all starts kind of with that idea. Go watch that movie. If you want a little bit of insight into what the idea of the multiverses and an unbelievably entertaining and funny, and hilarious, and serious, and it's probably one of my favorite movies of all time, everything everywhere, all the time. Go watch it all. But that talks about the reality shifting, Right? By by specifically doing, you know, a, a, a, making a different decision in life, you're, you're jumping from this reality into a different one. Okay. Now it says that the, um, let's see. Color breathing and energy bar tool techniques are meant to stimulate healing effects on the body through the use of visualization. Out of body experiences allow individuals to exit their bodies and explore the physical world and beyond. This aspect of the gateway process is what McDonald finds to have been the most potential for use in intelligence operations as it would allow instantaneous information gathering. However, he knows that the process seems to garble and distort information being gathered, limiting its efficacy. The analysis of gateway process is a deep exploration into something seemingly supernatural remote viewing. And out of body experiences would revolutionize information gathering. If individuals could be quickly trained and results could be dependably replicated, the gateway process would be an invaluable tool to intelligence and military. However, the practical applications seem to be an afterthought for McDonald. Instead, the document spends more time establishing a grand theory to explain how out of body experiences might be possible. The holographic world, the influence of will and our conscious minds escaping into a sub planky universe outside of space. Although the simple act of meditation aided by uniquely paired sound frequencies, there is one more odd detail remaining about this document. Page 25 of the document is mysteriously missing. The implication is that this page explored the practical applications in greater depth. However, it has not been included in the declassified version. A petition exists for the public's access, but the CIA has released a statement that they will never receive this page either or they never received it, either. One theory is that McDonald admitted this page to drive individuals to explore the gateway process on their own. If you're one of the intrepid souls looking to put McDonald's theories to the test, links to the Monroe Institute and Gateway tapes are included in the description and will be included in the subs. For those of you who plan to remain in this dimension, please share your thoughts in the comments below. Um, The 25th page has since then found, and I will go through that with you in a moment. But the first thing I need to do is go to red pill revolution.co. Sign up for the subs stack. Okay? If you're signed up for the subs stack and you are in one of the eight states listed, I need you to go in the description. I need you to go to red pill revolution.co, click the menu and get a life insurance quote. Okay? This is my only ask for literally anything, is if you want to support the show, you can do so by getting yourself and your family life insurance. Okay? I currently have eight states. I'm working on getting others. I've had people email me who I am still working on getting the licenses for, um, but it's a little bit of a process. So as soon as I get those, I will email you back and we will get you insured. If you are in one of those eight states that are already listed on that in the description here, you can go directly to the website, red Pill revolution.co, and sign yourself up for life insurance. Now normally what you do when you go to look for life insurance or health insurance is you're gonna put your information into a website. They're gonna trick you into thinking you're getting quotes. You're gonna put your phone number in there, and you are going to get blown the fuck up by every single insurance agent and their mama. They'll never stop calling your phone. You know, I can give you some advice if they start doing that to you because I was an insurance agent for a very long time, and I still have my active license, which is why I can offer you life insurance without being through third party companies. There's no advertisements at all on this podcast. The only thing that I ask is if you're in one of those states, go ahead and head over to the website. Sign yourself up from some life insurance. Protect your family because your ass is going to die. I promise you, 100%. Trust me, I meditated on it . But head over to the website, get a life insurance quote. Go ahead and sign up. If you have any questions, email me. Austin red pill revolution.co. I'd love to help out. I recommend a 15 year term policy at 15 times the amount of your annual salary that should basically get you covered. Um, no reason to get whole life, no reason to do any of that. It's basically a shitty investment. Um, so 15 year term, 15 times your annual income. Anyways, go ahead and hit the subscribe button. I love ya. Thank you for listening. Now let's go ahead and jump back. Into it. All right now, the gateway process, page number 25. Now, before I wanna do that, let's talk about what started me into this process and started me into this conversation because more recently I had a different, probably the most impactful experience of my life on the way that I view my family, the way that I view my friends, and the way that I view basically the humans around me. Now, this happened, I think two weeks ago now, and it's a fair, fairly, uh, you know, um, interesting topic to hear from somebody with a personality like mine. So I was downstairs. I, I had listened to a podcast by Tim Ferris talking to. Gads, uh, Gad Sied, Um, something along those lines. He was also just recently on the Joe Rogan podcast. Uh, let me see if I can find who it was. Um, but basically he is a guy who wrote a bunch of books, uh, Gad Sad, g a d s a A D, and he's a psychologist who has done, uh, meditative retreats and psychedelic experiences with groups of other psychologists or psychiatrists, and in attempt to see the healing effects. Um, And when he talked about these things, he talked about his experience with meditation, right? He talked about going on, uh, you know, doing this retreat that he set up for all these psychiatrists to figure out the, the helpful effects of something like iowaska. And they went to somewhere in the Amazon and they all did iowaska together. And he was told by the shamans that, you know, your energy is so dark that it's affecting everybody in the room. We can't break through to these other individuals because your energy is so deeply disturbed. And come to find out, he had an extremely difficult childhood that he was still processing and all these horrible things that happened to him, which makes sense. And also, he was a psychiatrist or a psychologist, one of the two who had been basically taking on the trauma of everybody, every patient he had ever had without any outlet for dealing with it. And these shamans basically taught him how to deal with the trauma of his patients in a positive way outside of using psychedelics, which was meditation. And so he found, uh, um, he found sad Guru, right? If you don't know who, uh, Sad Guru is, he was also on the Joe Rogan show. Very interesting guy. He's one of the, probably the biggest yogi gurus in the world today. The biggest, as far as like mainstream, yo, you know, American culture goes. And so Sad Guru is a really interesting character and I was interested in listening to the meditation that he put out there that this guy, um, sad. Or gad. Sad. A lot of sad going on here, . Anyways, so I listened to this, this, you know, meditation, this guided meditation, um, this mantra meditation by sad guru. And it talked, you know, it was very, very simple. I was expecting much more out of it than I, you know, not much more out of it, but I was expecting a much more robust meditation than what we, what I got from it. It was a 10 minute meditation where he basically sat there the entire 10 minutes and had you repeat that, the, the consistent mantra after taking a few deep breaths and relaxing your body and relaxing your mind and making you repeat the statement, I am not my body. I am not even my mind. I am not my body. I am not even my mind. I am not my body. I am not even my mind. And he repeated this for about 10 minutes, and at the end of it, it was a weird sound to hear because he started to do this, you know, chant or, uh, You know, sound, you know, the home kind of deal that you would kind of anticipate being, coming from , a yogi teacher, uh, in India. And, uh, the whole room that he was in, I didn't even know he was in the room until, you know, nine minutes into this where you hear it just echo through this whole room with this unbelievably like earth shaking sound. And so after that meditation was done, 11 minutes my YouTube went on to play, you know, just this background music. And I was so deep into this meditative state that I was sitting there and I got, like, pulled into this experience and that it might be a little even emotional to talk about. It was really interesting experience. So I, I was sitting there quietly and I remember, you know, being in a, you know, kind of getting to that meditative state, I couldn't feel my fingertips. I, I felt my oldest daughter. Come up from behind me and hug me and my daughter, you know, she's in first grade, so my, my oldest daughter come up from behind me and hug me. And, and, and so I felt my daughter do it. And then I felt my youngest daughter come up behind me and hug me. And then I felt my son come up from behind me and hug me. And then I felt my wife come up from behind me and hug me. And there was an interesting thing that it was from behind me. It's like, almost like I didn't, I didn't have to give anything to get this love from them, Right? Which is very true. And so they, she came up from behind. I, I felt the feeling of this like compounding feeling of love for my children and my. And then I just kept going. I have a very big family. I, my, my father came up from behind me and hugged me, my mom, my, my stepmom, my sisters. I have six sisters, each one of them all at the same time. Like this crazy, just expression of love, this feeling of everybody, grandparents, friends, all around me at one time in this singular hug and expression of love to me, without me having to reciprocate anything at all. Right? It was this overwhelming feeling of, of love and, and happiness, right? And so that was the first step. The first step was I, I felt every important person in my life at the very one by one in a compounding effect come up to me and hug me in this. And like I said, this is even, you know, that's a powerful feeling to have, right? And so the even exper re-experience that now just thinking about it is, is emotional. And so they, every one of these, just this compounding feeling, the, the best feeling you could ever imagine in your whole life is every person that loves you just coming together and hugging you at the one time into a point where it physically was not possible that all of these people hugged me at the same time, right? It was just the feeling, the emotion that the, the accepting of this love. And so that was the very first thing. The second thing that happened was I started to identify that between each person that came up to me. Some of the older people, not my children, but each person in my life had difficulties at some point or another, or trauma or difficult memories or childhood trauma with somebody else that was hugging me at the time. And so I remember walking step by step, person by person, facilitating basically, uh, a hug or an apology and an accepted apology and acceptance of that. Each person had their own systemic problematic issues that led to actions that affected the other person, right? So like, you know, let's say. Your Uncle Joe was a jerk, or as of a father and, and wasn't properly, You know, this has nothing to do with my family, but your, your uncle was a jerk to your cousin. Right? And, you know, and, and so picture your Uncle Joe standing in front of your, your cousin Jan . They really liked the, the j names and, you know, them just showing this expression of like, apology acceptance and then love. And then I would move to the next person, right? And, and my sister with so and so apology acceptance and love and, you know, my dad with, you know, the person that I feel affected him and, and him standing in front of that person as a child. Apology from that person, acceptance, embrace and love. And, and it just went person by person and person by person. And there was some deeply, you know, in every family there's always some, some difficult shit to deal with, right? And so there was this ongoing thing of every person who came up to me that I felt that embrace from, I facilitated the apology acceptance and love from the person that affected them negatively in their life from the perspective of them as a child, like even my own father. And I know some of the things that he went through and I, I vividly imagined him as a seven year old. In front of the person that, you know, I feel, you know, maybe he deserved or, or wanted, or, or could potentially look for an apology that would help him if he accepted it and then felt that embrace of love. Right? And obviously most of these people have probably gotten past these things, but, you know, for me it was really, really powerful. And, um, you know, there was, there was one person, you know, with multiple people that, that I felt that with, right? Facilitated my own, you know, feeling of being a child and feeling of the effects that that individual's actions had on me as a child. And then feeling the apology, the acceptance of that, the true acceptance of that apology, the understanding of where those actions came from, from like the systemic issues of where that person, what that person grew. In, and then the embrace and the love of that person and, and all the way through to some, you know, every person down the line had somebody in one shape or another that affected them in a negative way. And it was the facilitation of this apology acceptance and love in this meditative state. I'm literally visualizing every single person, one by one, dealing with their trauma, shouldering the burden of that trauma and facilitating the, the acceptance of that apology and the embrace of the love, and then would move on to the next person. It was such a wild experience because it gave me insight into why almost every person affected the other person was because somebody affected them in a negative way, right? If somebody was, um, a bad friend or a bad spouse, or a bad parent, or a bad this, or a bad sister or a brother, or this or that, or whatever, It wasn't because they're a shitty person, it was because they had been affected in some way that made them affect somebody else in another way. So it was like this domino effect of like shittiness of humanity that without the acceptance of the apology and the embrace and love would be carried by every person forever, because it's an ongoing cycle of trauma until you break that cycle. And so it was like, I was literally eight in the morning. I had to leave for work at eight 30 and it was some really heavy, heavy visualizations in this meditation that I was not facilitating this. These weren't thoughts that I was, now I'm thinking this. It was none of that. I was being pulled through. It was like watching a movie in front of me. And even now it's like I just have these butterflies in my stomach because it was such a powerful experience. And so, Through, through all of this. By the end of it, I'm just had f from the very beginning, from the, the feelings of the embrace of every person that loved me simultaneously from the behind. Um, obviously if you really felt that every person loving you is simultaneously at one time, and you truly felt that the way that your spirit is, you know, fulfilled at that time, you just like I did, would start, I just broke down and, you know, it was just such a positive experience. I, I really haven't had too many happy experiences in my life that made me cry and as a man, right. You know, I cried  and it was because of the love that I felt. Not something bad that happened to me, not frustration, but at the beginning of this, it was the love that I felt. And then it transitioned to those heavy burdened, you know, Uh, difficult facilitations of trauma and acceptance and apologies and love from each. I knew everybody's story deeply and intensely felt the trauma in, and, and intensely felt the interaction between that person who was affected as a child, literally, vividly imagining that person at that age and seeing the person that loved them, but didn't show it properly at that time. Apologizing, hugging, loving, embracing that person and the acceptance of that apology. So it was like literally burdening, getting, bearing the burden and weight of every individual's trauma in my family simultaneously. And then the positive outcome that happened by the end of it. And so it turned into that, right? And it was like, I was literally just taken on this unbelievable spiritual journey of all of this, you know, love and trauma and apologies and acceptance of those people in my family at one time. And at e