Podcasts about reasoning

Ben Lorica speaks with Andrew Dai, co-founder and CEO of Elorian AI, about why today's frontier models still struggle with complex visual reasoning and why simply scaling language-centric architectures may not solve the problem.Subscribe to the Gradient Flow Newsletter

The experts voice is rarely God's voice. In John 10, Jesus tells us about the stranger's voice and God's voice. The strangers voice can sound very reasonable and logical, even "smarter" than what God is speaking. But remember God uses the foolish things to confound the wise. Many times there can be a level of foolish to what God is asking you to do but when you obey the results are better than that of the experts. Reasoning and fear demand to be heard but God's voice is waiting for us to listen. 

The WIP Morning Team is joined by Dave Uram to discuss what he saw from AJ Brown while at Eagles Training Camp in Boston. James Seltzer said, “he got so much love in this city, we got to a good place with him, and this just feels like a weak way to exit after everything we did together.” Uram said he believes AJ is a good guy, but he wanted to leave it in the past. He believes that as time goes on, the wound will heal with fans.

Sherlock Holmes never once used deduction.   Open any of the stories and watch what he actually does. He notices a tan line on a wrist or mud dried on a boot and leaps to the best-fitting explanation. Then he went looking for evidence. Deduction guarantees its conclusions. What Holmes did was guess. He was better at it than everyone around him because he treated guessing as a discipline.   The discipline of guessing is one of the most useful thinking skills nobody ever taught you.   Let's get into it. What Is Abductive Reasoning? There are three kinds of reasoning. School taught you two of them.   Deduction moves from a general rule to a specific conclusion. For example, all mammals have hearts. Dogs are mammals. So dogs have hearts. If the starting statements are true, the conclusion must be true.   Induction goes the other way, from specific observations to a general pattern. For example, if you see a thousand white swans, you conclude all swans are white. Probably right, but never guaranteed. Europeans believed exactly that until they reached Australia and found black swans. I covered both in an earlier episode on logical reasoning skills.   Abduction is the third kind, the one school skipped, and it runs reasoning backward. You start at the far end, with the result or fact in front of you, then you work back to whatever would explain it. For example, the lawn is wet at six in the morning. You didn't see it rain, and nothing rules out a broken sprinkler. But rain explains it best, so you accept it for now and get on with your day.   Notice that you did that without deciding to. You are running abductive reasoning constantly, on faces and sales numbers and to explain the silence after you finish talking in a meeting. We all leap from evidence to an explanation and then treat the explanation as fact. You already know how to do this. What you don't have is the habit of catching yourself at it and doing it deliberately when it matters.   Now go back to Holmes. In A Study in Scarlet, the first thing he ever does on the page is shake hands with a stranger and say, "You have been in Afghanistan, I perceive." Holmes explains it later. The man had a medical look but a soldier's bearing. His face was dark, but his wrists were fair, so the tan came from somewhere hot. His left arm hung stiffly, so it had been injured. None of those clues proves anything on its own. Holmes asked which single story would cover them all: an army doctor, wounded and sent home from the Afghan war. That is abduction, not deduction, and Conan Doyle used the wrong word for it his entire career. Why AI Can't Do Abductive Reasoning Abduction is the only one of the three that creates a new idea. Deduction draws out what was already inside the starting statements, and induction stretches a pattern you already saw. That difference used to be a philosopher's distinction. It matters now because AI has gotten very good at the other two. AI finds patterns in billions of examples and extends them, induction at a scale no human can match. What it cannot reliably do is face a fact that fits no pattern and come up with an explanation worth betting on. That leap is still uniquely human, and the people who make it well are getting more valuable every year.   Meanwhile, abduction as a skill is getting harder to keep, because search engines and chatbots now answer most questions in under a minute, and abduction doesn't work that way. It asks you to live with "probably" for a while, holding an answer you know might be wrong and working anyway. How to Improve Your Abductive Reasoning Skills None of this is a talent you either have or don't have. Watch a good doctor or a talented designer at work, and you will see the same four moves. Each one can be practiced. 1. Notice What Doesn't Fit In 1847, a Hungarian doctor named Ignaz Semmelweis ran a maternity clinic in Vienna. It had two wards, one staffed by doctors and one by midwives, and in the doctors' ward new mothers were dying of fever at three times the rate. Some women gave birth in the street rather than be admitted, and the street births survived at a better rate.   Everyone was ignoring the numbers. Semmelweis treated the numbers as the question. What could explain the best-trained people in the hospital losing the most patients? His answer came when a colleague cut his finger during an autopsy and died of the same fever. Doctors went from dissecting corpses straight to delivering babies. Midwives never touched corpses. He ordered handwashing in chlorine, and the deaths collapsed decades before anyone had heard of germ theory.   Charles Sanders Peirce, the philosopher who gave the skill its name, built that noticing into his own definition of abduction. The surprising fact is observed, he wrote, and only then does the search for an explanation begin. When something fits what you already believe, we accept it without noticing. Surprise is the alarm that the automatic version has failed. It means the failure that matters happens before any of the reasoning starts. The risk is that you cannot explain a surprise you never see. We have spent years learning to rationalize them away.   When reality does something you didn't predict, write it down before you talk yourself out of it. 2. Generate More Than One Explanation Last week I told you about the chrome-looking keyboard snafu. An HP laptop was running below plan, and none of the data would say why. Before anybody knew about the keyboard, I asked the product team what they thought was happening.   I got three answers. It needs more memory. It needs a bigger hard drive. It needs longer battery life. Each one arrived with a competitor's machine held up beside ours. That one has more memory. That one has the bigger drive. Every comparison was accurate, and each one had been picked because it supported the answer.   Three explanations sounded like the work was done. All three said the same thing: that we were losing on specifications, which is what the team was already organized to believe. None of the explanations would have sent someone into a store on a Saturday to watch a customer make the purchase decision.   So when you catch a genuine surprise, run it through this sequence instead:   State the surprise in one sentence. "Sales dropped 15% in a quarter when we improved the product." If you can't state it cleanly, you don't yet know what you're explaining. Force at least three explanations. The third is usually where the thinking starts, because the first two are the ones everybody already believes. Include one explanation you don't want to be true. If every explanation on your list flatters you and your team, the list isn't finished. Write down what each explanation would predict. If A is true, what else should you be able to see? That turns a guess into something you can check. 3. Choose the Best Explanation, Not the First One Philosophers call abduction "inference to the best explanation," and the key word is "best." Best doesn't mean first, and it rarely means the cleverest.   The one you want covers the most facts while assuming the least. Then, before you commit, decide what evidence would make you drop it. A doctor hearing chest pain does this out loud, ruling out the dangerous explanation first even when she expects it to be something ordinary. 4. Hold It Loosely and Test It Cheaply The best explanation is still a bet, nothing stronger. The moment you forget the word "bet," the skill starts working against you. Many will make a sharp abductive leap, fall in love with it, and then spend six months protecting it instead of testing it.   Designers handle this better than almost anyone. A prototype is an abductive test, the cheapest way to let the world argue with your guess before you commit real money. Whatever your field, find your version of the prototype. Good innovators are wrong as often as everyone else. They just find out sooner, and it costs them less.  Try This Before Friday Think of the last thing at work that went differently than you expected. A deal that died, a number that moved the wrong way, a good person who quit. You already have an explanation for it. Notice how fast it came. Somebody asked what happened, and you had an answer before they finished the question, and everyone nodded, because it was reasonable, and reasonable answers end conversations.   Go back to it this week. Not to find out whether you were right, because you were probably close enough. Go back because two other explanations fit those same facts and you never considered either one. Find them, and make one something you would rather not be true.   Then find the smallest test that would tell them apart. A phone call. One question to somebody who was in the room. It is almost never expensive, and that is the part worth sitting with, because it means the answer has been sitting there the whole time and nobody went and got it. Conclusion Abductive reasoning is how new ideas enter the world, and Holmes made a career of it under the wrong name. The more leaps you make and test, the sharper the next one gets.

This Week In Startups is made possible by: Northwest Registered Agent https://northwestregisteredagent.com/twist DigitalOcean https://do.co/twist Odoo https://Odoo.com/twist Today's show: We've been going deep on Bittensor and how it works all year on TWiST, meeting with the creators of some of our favorite subnets, and exploring how the system decentralizes inference, compute, and storage. Now, on this very special episode, Jason and Lon welcome Bittensor co-founder Jason Steeves (aka "Const") to the show. He gives us a quick tour of the project's first principles, before diving into how subnets incentivize miners to contribute, how dTAO turned the creation of subnets into its own competition, how Const says he employs "the internal machinery of capitalism" to rank subnects, and his latest project, Subnet 120 (aka Affine). Find out what the OpenTensor Foundation actually does, go inside the Templar controversy, and learn why Const is trying to make himself increasingly irrelevant. Guest Jacob Steeves on X: https://x.com/const_reborn Bittensor: https://www.bittensor.com/ Affine: https://affine.io/ Relevant Links Original Bittensor whitepaper: https://bittensor.com/whitepaper Bittensor governance and documentation: https://www.bittensor.com/docs Beginner's Guide to Dynamic TAO: https://www.tao.media/the-complete-beginners-guide-to-dynamic-tao-dtao/ Prime Intellect: TOPLOC: https://www.primeintellect.ai/blog/toploc Engy (SN53): https://engy.ai/ Lium (SN51): https://www.lium.io Targon (SN4): https://targon.com/ Templar (SN3): https://www.tplr.ai/ Hippius (SN75): https://hippius.com/ MakerDAO: https://makerdao.com/ Stillcore Capital: https://stillcorecapital.com/ Timestamps: 0:00 The origin of Bittensor (and the name Const) 10:48 Northwest Registered Agent - Get more when you start your business with Northwest. In 10 clicks and 10 minutes, you can form your company and walk away with a real business identity — Learn more at https://northwestregisteredagent.com/twist 13:55 From Bitcoin mining to mining intelligence 19:33 DigitalOcean - Head to https://do.co/twist to start building on DigitalOcean's AI-Native Cloud today — and cut your AI workload costs by up to 50%. 30:17 Odoo - The all-in-one business platform. Get started for free at https://Odoo.com/twist 32:37 What is a subnet? 33:35 Forcing honest inference from bad actors 37:14 Building a subnet is harder than it looks 40:42 Understanding dTAO 51:57 Where the registration TAO actually goes 1:02:57 All about the Conviction "rug pull" 1:15:19 How Const is making himself irrelevant 1:17:33 The "Buy One TAO" philosophy Subscribe to the TWiST500 newsletter: https://ticker.thisweekinstartups.com Check out the TWIST500: https://www.twist500.com Subscribe to This Week in Startups on Apple: https://rb.gy/v19fcp   Follow Lon: X: https://x.com/lons   Follow Jason: X: https://twitter.com/Jason LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasoncalacanis   Check out all our partner offers: https://partners.launch.co/   Great TWIST interviews: Will Guidara, Eoghan McCabe, Steve Huffman, Brian Chesky, Bob Moesta, Aaron Levie, Sophia Amoruso, Reid Hoffman, Frank Slootman, Billy McFarland   Check out Jason's suite of newsletters: https://substack.com/@calacanis   Follow TWiST: Twitter: https://twitter.com/TWiStartups YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/thisweekin Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thisweekinstartups TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@thisweekinstartups Substack: https://twistartups.substack.com

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In today's Cloud Wars AI Minute, I break down the rise of agentic reasoning loops and why their impact on AI token consumption and costs could be significant. Highlights 00:12 — Today's topic is going to be agentic reasoning loops. Everyone's moving to this concept where we can have a planning, act, observe, and reflect type of process, which allows us to be able to get much deeper analysis and much more resilient implementations across AI, across the world. 01:03 — Now, the other thing is with this, we're seeing that about 33% of enterprise software will run on this kind of approach by 2028. Also, the other part of this is that because these different loops are taking place, we're actually seeing that tokens are going to get more and more consumption happening off the back end. 01:38 — So one of the driving factors of this is going to be the increase that we're seeing, and just to give you perspective of what we're starting to see, it's about a 17x on a single chapter that we're starting to see happen as a result of this. So what it used to do when we just did simple RAG patterns. 02:01 — Now we're seeing about 17 times the amount of tokens being consumed, and when we start seeing that level of token consumption, we're going to see that while we're getting better answers, there's also going to be a higher cost that's associated to it. 02:28 — But it doesn't matter that the tokens are necessarily coming down in cost because of the fact that what we used to see is that an average transaction would be about three cents, and now we're seeing it move to about 15 cents across the board, and so this is going to be one of those things that we really need to be thinking about as you start to build out your solutions. Visit Cloud Wars for more.

DEBATECON 9 will be in Orlando, FL on October 24/25th! LET'S GOOOOO! https://events.eventnoire.com/e/debatecon-9-by-modern-day-debate-2 LINKS TO GUESTS: Greg: https://linktr.ee/drgregshow or channel at: ‪ ⁨@DrGregShow⁩ ⁨@StandingForTruthMinistries⁩ ⁨@AxiomaticReasoning⁩ Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

What do you do when you've kept your covenants, guarded your heart, served the poor, and lived with absolute integrity—yet your whole world collapses anyway? In this complete, deep-dive masterclass on the Book of Job, we trace the entire arc of human suffering, theological wrestling, and divine revelation, discovering how a man sitting in ashes moved from raw questioning to the ultimate witness: "I know that my Redeemer liveth." Summary of the Video: This comprehensive guide walks step-by-step through the 42 chapters of the Book of Job. We begin in the pre-mortal council, exploring why God allows the "hedge" of protection to be lowered and why "divine restraint" is an act of love designed to build spiritual muscle. We analyze the four crushing waves of loss that wiped out Job's wealth, health, and ten children, offering a compassionate look at Job's grief and the silent ministry of his three friends. We then unpack the core conflict: the breakdown of "Retribution Theology" (the false idea that sin always equals suffering). We follow the three rounds of intense debate between Job and his accusers, exploring Job's desperate plea for a "Daysman" (Mediator) and his prophetic shadows of Jesus Christ. Finally, we study Job's final oath of innocence, Elihu's breakthrough teaching on the refining purpose of trials, God's breathtaking 59 questions out of the whirlwind, and the profound lessons of Job 42—where intercessory forgiveness for his friends unlocked a double restoration of everything he had lost. Key Doctrinal Insights Included: The Hedged Life & Divine Restraint (Job 1–2): Why God permits trials and how agency requires a space for opposition. The Trap of the Prosperity Gospel (Job 4–27): Why assuming suffering is always caused by personal sin leads to self-righteousness and spiritual collapse. Job as a Type of Christ (Job 16–19): How Job's unearned agony, betrayal, and crying blood prefigure the Garden of Gethsemane and Calvary. The Search for the "Daysman" (Job 9 & 19): The Old Testament promise of Jesus Christ as our Advocate and Redeemer. The Refining Purpose of Pain (Job 32–37): Elihu's perspective that suffering is a divine classroom to purge pride. Hearing vs. Seeing God (Job 42): How trials convert secondhand theology into firsthand, face-to-face relationship with the Divine. The Lesson of the Book of Job: You don't need a line-by-line explanation for every trial in your life as long as you know the God who holds you in His hands. When you stop demanding explanations and start seeking His presence, your crucible becomes your sanctuary. Call-to-Action: Have you ever experienced a season where God felt silent, but looking back, you realized He was refining your faith into pure gold? How has the Book of Job changed your perspective on personal trials? Share your thoughts and testimonies in the comments below! Like and Subscribe for more deep-dive scripture study! Chapter Timestamps: 0:00 Introduction 2:16 Theodicy & the Book of Job 14:32 Perfect Job 21:31 Satan's Plan 33:26 Job's Trials & Testimony 50:11 Physical Suffering & Spiritual Doubt 1:01:39 Friends' Company & Job's Lament 1:16:05 Assuming that Suffering Equals Sin (Eliphaz Round 1) 1:27:16 Job's Self-Defense 1:42:41 Justifying the Lord (Bildad Round 1) 2:01:59 Revealing & Reasoning with God (Zophar Round 1) 2:16:38 Death & Resurrection 2:21:52 Job as Mortal Side of Jesus (Eliphaz Round 2) 2:41:46 Job's Testimony (Bildad Round 2) 2:53:59 Wickedness Never was Happiness (Zophar Round 2) 3:01:44 Accusations & Demanding a Day in Court (Eliphaz Round 3) 3:12:13 Innocence or Holiness (Bildad Round 3) 3:22:49 Wisdom & Worthiness 3:36:37 Job's Closing Argument 3:44:31 Elihu Speaks Up 3:53:25 God is Good and Can Be Trusted 4:17:27 God Reveals Himself 4:30:49 Job Repents & Reviews the Lessons Learned 4:47:56 A Double Portion 4:57:12 Conclusion - The Lesson of Job

By a 3-2 vote the Fresno County Board of Supervisors are suing the state of California and Fresno County Registrar of Voters James Kus over the passage of AB1923. The bill forces the "Better Roads, Safer Streets" measure on to the November ballot. They call it an unconstitutional power grab by the state. Stan calls in and Blake reads him the riot act. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Reasoning comes in many technically defined forms, but the basic procedure is easily recognizable: arriving at a sound conclusion by linking together intermediate steps that logically follow from each other. But when it comes to artificial intelligence, it appears AI can either solve famous mathematical research problems in one shot — or experience a “complete accuracy collapse” under the simplest conditions. So which is it: Can AI reason reliably or not? On this episode of The Quanta Podcast, host Samir Patel speaks with writer John Pavlus on the intellectual whiplash surrounding artificial intelligence's ability to reason. This topic was covered in a recent story for Quanta Magazine. Each week on The Quanta Podcast, Quanta Magazine editor in chief Samir Patel and Senior Editor Hannah Waters speak with the people behind the award-winning publication to navigate through some of the most important and mind-expanding questions in science and math.

AI isn't just transforming the way we work, but also the way we write the software that people use for work. In this episode, we talk to two engineering productivity leads at Dropbox: Uma Namasivayam, senior director of software engineering productivity, and Anuradha Agarwal, director of software engineering. Whether it's writing tests, fixing bugs, tackling tech debt, or accelerating migrations, they explain how Dropbox engineers are using agentic AI—including in-house tools like Nova—to build the future of Dropbox, and create more space to do impactful work. ~ ~ ~  Working Smarter is brought to you by Dropbox. Find, organize, and share your work—all in one place—with context-aware AI from Dropbox. You can listen to more episodes of Working Smarter on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, Amazon Music, or wherever you get your podcasts. To read more stories and past interviews, visit workingsmarter.ai This show would not be possible without the talented team at Cosmic Standard: producer Ben Montoya, sound engineer Aja Simpson, technical director Jacob Winik, and executive producer Eliza Smith. Special thanks to our illustrator Fanny Luor, marketing consultant Meggan Ellingboe, and editorial support from Catie Keck.  Our theme song was composed by Doug Stuart.  Working Smarter is hosted by Matthew Braga. Thanks for listening!

We're going to talk about issues related to our moods, our ideas, emotions, etc. The Esoteric Path is narrow, constricted, and difficult. We normally live in a world of sensory experiences, which is the Physical World. Through external sensory perceptions, we form our concepts of content, with which we reason. Reasoning and the Sensory Perceptions Thus, the reasoning we normally use is based solely on sensory assemblies. Given that these assemblies are its foundation, it is obvious that this type of reasoning is conditioned precisely by them. Reason, therefore, is subjective and hypothetical from every point of view, since it is based on the information our senses provide. And so, if we form concepts of content from these sensory perceptions, and then distribute these concepts in one way or another, they give us ordinary, formal logical reasoning. Do you really believe that this type of reasoning (based solely on external sensory perceptions) could allow us to verify reality? If the concepts of content have been developed precisely from the data provided by our physical senses, it is obvious that such concepts of content cannot transcend the mystical-sensory realm. We will now explain why ordinary reasoning is called “subjective reasoning.” What could Subjective Reasoning possibly know about Reality, about Truth, about God, about life beyond the grave, about what exists beyond the world of the senses, about what lies beyond death? Obviously, this reasoning, based solely on content concepts developed from the data provided by our physical senses, can only operate within its own limitations. It can only be processed within the realm of the mystical-sensory; it could never transcend the concepts of content through which it was formed. So, how can we reach the EXPERIENCE OF REALITY and TRUTH? There are various techniques in MEDITATION, etc., but above all, it requires possessing what is called “Faith.” Faith and Meditation lead us to Enlightenment Orthodox dogma teaches that “faith is belief in what we do not see.” This kind of Orthodox faith is not authentic faith. Faith, in itself, is a solar power. But how do we attain such power? Therein lies the problem… Is it possible to attain Faith? The Physical Senses cannot provide it; they will provide us with data with which (I repeat) we will develop our concepts of content, which are so fundamental to reasoning, up to a point! But that Solar-type Faith, the one that goes beyond simple Subjective Reasoning, the one that has such extraordinary power as to move mountains, the one that combined with Meditation leads us to Enlightenment, is not possible to obtain with the simple reports that the Physical Senses give us. Some ask for faith, they cry out for faith. It's good to pray, but as the saying goes, “Pray to God, but keep hammering away”… So, what to do? Truly, to attain faith, above all, you have to create it; faith is not something that can be achieved empirically. I repeat: YOU HAVE TO CREATE IT. And how is it created? Through STUDY and EXPERIENCE. It is obvious that through study and Direct Experience, by means of the technique of Meditation, we will come to COMPREHEND, and from that Comprehension comes, spontaneously, that which is called “Faith.” Comprehension, in itself, does not belong to the Mind; it is an exclusive property of the THIRD LOGOS, of LORD SHIVA, of BINAH (the Great Sephiroth, one of the Three Supreme Sephiroth), of the Holy Spirit… If we are experiencing through meditation, if we are studying something—some transcendental subject—if we strive to comprehend it, it is obvious that the first thing we will have is the mystical experience (as a result of study and meditation); then comes comprehension, that spark of light given to us by the Third Logos. He comes to our aid to give us comprehension, and from such comprehension comes faith. Comprehension (I repeat, so that I am clearly understood) is based on the Third Logos, and from this comprehension comes Faith. Therefore, if Comprehension is based on the Third Logos and from this comprehension comes Faith, then obviously the very root of Faith is in the Third Logos, that is, in the Holy Spirit. The many Degrees on the Path of Initiation But in acquiring faith, there are degrees and degrees, scales and scales, systems and systems. Obviously, my dear brothers, when I refer to “systems and systems,” I am referring to hierarchical matters: Solar Systems, Worlds, Universes, Atomic Systems, etc. As for the practical means or system for achieving faith, it is none other than the one I have already mentioned… I emphasize the idea that there are degrees and degrees, because knowledge is multiple, multifaceted. For example: Suppose we are ignorant of the Law of Eternal Return; we are informed, but we know nothing. What should we do? How can we come to have faith in this Law? We must first study the Doctrine of the Eternal Return of all things. Through intellectual understanding, we will come to know that the stars return to their starting point after many years; that the atoms within the molecule always return to their original starting point; that the Sun has an elliptical orbit, returning south and then north each year… Through this understanding, we will be able to know that days and nights, seasons, and ages return… We will also learn, through this information, that the Law of Eternal Return allows us to come back, to be reborn, to have a new body after we have lost the one we have. That much is obvious, but that's where it ends! We need something more: We need to REMEMBER OUR PAST LIVES, that's obvious. As long as we don't have the memory of our previous lives, we can't say we know, no! We'll have the theory accumulated in the mind, but that's not true KNOWLEDGE. So, what should we do? First of all, we need to investigate; there are systems for remembering past lives. Gautama, the Buddha, taught the method of RETROSPECTION, and it is wonderful. But how could we come to have faith, for example, in the method taught by Gautama the Buddha? There is only one way. How? First, study; second, practice. From study and practice comes understanding; then, as a result, faith arises; and with faith, we will successfully practice the retrospective exercise. The Practice The exercise is easy and simple: Begin lying in bed, with your body relaxed. You must remember, concentrate on the last events of the day, the ones before that, the ones before that; and thus, in retrospect, recall, relive all the incidents of the day. We will then proceed with the incidents of the previous day, also in retrospect. Then we will continue trying to remember what we did on the day before last; and so, with that process, we will try to remember the last 15 days of our life, the penultimate 15 days, everything we did in the past month and the month before last, and what we did in a year and in 10 and in 20 years. We will strive to remember all the events of life, always in retrospect. When we reach the first five years of childhood, the problem arises: How can we remember the events of our lives when we were four, three, two, one years old? How? We have no choice but to COMBINE MEDITATION WITH SLEEP: In moments when we feel predisposed to sleep, we will practice the exercise, trying to meticulously recall all the incidents of our lives when we were four, three, two, one… The memories will emerge in flashes, like lightning, like bursts of light, etc… Those first flashes (memories of early childhood) resulting, first, from having known the practice, the study; second, from having practiced the retrospective exercise, those memories or those flashes, those visions, let's say, of a lightning-like type, will give us Faith in the exercise (a Solar-type Faith), and the more we remember the occurrences of early childhood, the more Faith will increase. And when we have remembered our entire life, up to the very moment of birth, then we can make the leap to the last moment (to the last moment of the previous life). If we can remember it, if we can picture ourselves surrounded by our family in our final moments, then our faith will be rekindled, it will be even stronger. We will say: “What an extraordinary exercise, I am happy with this practice!” And as we continue our retrospective exercise, we will recall the final years of our past existence, the penultimate years, the years before the penultimate, our youth, our adolescence, our childhood, the moment we were born in our past existence. When we achieve this, we will possess an unwavering, solar-type Faith, unshakeable. Someone might come and tell us that “this exercise is useless,” and we would laugh at them. The greatest reasoner might come and try to destroy us, and we would laugh at them (we would be sustained by Faith, the product of STUDY and EXPERIENCE). Then we would say, “I know the Law of the Eternal Return of all things,” but we would no longer say it in a merely empirical, intellectual, or reasoned way; rather, we would speak it with firsthand knowledge. We could say, “I have returned, and here I am!”; and we would speak it with such certainty that we would move many. Thus, we would have acquired Faith through the retrospective exercise. This procedure, taught by Gautama Buddha Shakyamuni, allows us to remember all our previous existences; it is a marvelous exercise. But it is one thing for you to hear a statement, an explanation, and another thing entirely to put it into practice. When you hear the discourse on such an exercise, you receive INFORMATION; you are, in fact, STUDYING. But when you practice, you are PRACTICING; and from study and practice comes comprehension; and as a result of comprehension, Faith. This comprehension is given to us by the Third Logos; and it is Faith, the definitive result of experience, verification, and comprehension. So, brothers, there is no other way to have Faith. But if you manage to develop, for example, Faith in retrospect, Faith in the Law of the Eternal Return of all things (based on study, experience, and comprehension), it does not mean, for that reason, that you have, for example, COMPLETE FAITH in other matters, such as the existence of Atlantis. You may have heard that Atlantis existed, but you have no proof of it; you receive it as news, you may accept it, but you have no real proof of it. IMAGINATION and WILL So, to find out if Atlantis existed, you would first need to verify that information by studying where Atlantis was located. That it was in the Atlantic Ocean, fine! What physical evidence, what data is there, what are its legends, traditions, etc.? Once we have all that data, then we need to verify it. How will we verify it? Through the technique of meditation. We will have to lie down in our bed (preferably with our head facing North), our body completely relaxed, our eyes closed, at a moment when we feel predisposed to sleep, and we must concentrate intently on Atlantis, combining IMAGINATION and WILL in vibrant harmony. Let us remember that Imagination is feminine; it is worth mentioning that Will is masculine, and that in the combination of these two polarities lies the key to all Power. Therefore, we must not underestimate the Imagination; there is a very marked tendency to underestimate the Imagination. Some say: “Those are things of the Imagination, I accept them because…, or it's a thing of my Imagination,” that is, they do not know how to appreciate the value of the Imagination. Distinguish between INTENTIONAL IMAGINATION and MECHANICAL IMAGINATION. Intentional Imagination is the “TRANSLUCENT” that allows us to see the great realities of the Inner Worlds. Mechanical Imagination is FANTASY; it is formed from the detritus of memory. Let us, therefore, distinguish between IMAGINATION and FANTASY. To underestimate Imagination is absurd. Therefore, we must develop our imagination, cultivate it… If we concentrate properly (I repeat) on Atlantis, with relaxed bodies, vividly imagining the Atlantean continent; if we unite Will and Imagination in vibrant harmony (wanting to see Atlantis); if we practice daily, imagining it there in the Atlantic Ocean, seeing a group of marvelous islands, among them Poseidon's island with its seven solid gold gates, etc.; if we truly practice, what will happen? That one day, we will see Atlantis… Obviously, there are three phases in Initiatic Knowledge: 1. IMAGINATION 2. INSPIRATION 3. INTUITION Imagination, Inspiration, and Intuition are the three obligatory paths of Initiation. We will vividly imagine the Atlantean Continent, just as it was there, situated in the ocean that bears its name (the walled cities, etc.) And our Will will be “TO WANT TO SEE”, and our Imagination will be TO WAIT, TO BE IN A RECEPTIVE STATE, to see what comes to the Imagination. One day, among many others, glimpses of Atlantis will begin to reach our imagination, and the images of that ancient continent will grow ever more vivid. We will see its inhabitants, its cities, and if we are persistent in this practice, the day will come when we will be able to see the Atlantean continent perfectly, in its entirety. These glimpses will give us faith, but that faith will increase when we move on to the second aspect, which is called “inspiration.” Being inspired, we will feel within ourselves what Atlantis was like; we will know of its life and its tragedies. A third level will lead us to INTUITION. And then, through Intuition, we will not only be able to see clairvoyantly and come to feel the vivid emotions of the people, etc., of the Atlantean Continent, but we will also be able to study, in its entirety, the life of that continent, of that humanity, in the very Sealed Archives of Nature, in the AKASHIC RECORDS. When that happens, we will have much more Faith. Then we see how Faith is susceptible to development. Someone can have faith in one thing and not in another. Whoever wants to have faith in everything will have to study deeply and experience, and then, as a result of study and direct experience, comes comprehension, and as a consequence or corollary of such comprehension, comes faith which (as I already told you) obviously has its roots in the same Third Logos. This is how faith develops: through study and experience… That's all I have to say. If anyone has any questions, please feel free to ask.

Philosopher Stefan Molyneux lays out the road to hell by showing how pushing women into college debt and welfare traps kills marriage and kids while state coercion removes all feedback and responsibility.Questions:What challenges will we face in society in the future when some segments of the population have a Neuralink implant and others don't?Would you be interested in creating a series or long-form content similar to Andrew Wilson's Debate University but for the purpose of learning how to reason from first principles? Similar to the early white-board videos from FDR?Define the political Right and Left in the pure abstract without any reference to a particular time or place.Can you do a podcast/video about decreasing birthrates, decreasing fertility, decreasing sperm count, especially in the wester world? Studies suggest almost no one in the west will be able to have children naturally in 30 years... seems like a serious problem.Why are most European nations so determined to destroy their history culture and heritage through Middle Eastern migrants…Can you explain why young men commit suicide generally?Have you ever watched testimonies of people who have died and went to hell on youtube? There are a lot where they are revived and are able to share their story.How would you decide between a guaranteed mediocre life or a slim chance at wild success?You advocate against forgiveness without prior repentance from the perpetrator. Could it be possible that most people just can't walk between resentment and forgiveness, so in terms of total human suffering it is better just to forgive. And that in not forgiving, most people just become shitty judges.In principle I'm inclined to agree with your take but I dont know anyone that has escaped resentment without up front forgiveness. On the average, maybe they get taken for some sort of a ride but their overall life is better.I'm not talking about individual cases here, just on balance and overall human suffering levels, with the average human and their average human drama / life.How can you escape damnation?When society become unraveled, is it due to people forgetting the basics?A house falls when its foundation crumbles.How to solve population decline, gender wars and political divide when Women are getting more far left and men are getting more far right. When the division is being funded by rival countries /globalists?Are you friends with Styx? If so, have you checked on him lately? He's gone off the rails lately. Hope he finds some help.What do you think of the notion that, with some exceptions, conservatives cannot create good art?do you like cats?

After taking a day to let the Adley Rutschman-to-the-Boston Red Sox deal marinate, Luke Jones and Nestor take a deeper look at the intentions of Mike Elias and the Orioles' organization. They delve into the departures, reasoning and rationale for all of the deadline moves relating to salary, management, ownership and the pending labor war that will greatly impact service time, money and rosters with young players. The post Luke Jones and Nestor take a deeper look at Rutschman departure and reasoning and rationale first appeared on Baltimore Positive WNST.

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Iso Joe Johnson, Josh Smith and Jeremy Pargo welcome Donell Jones and react to Jimmy Butler freaking out over snake magic trick, Bleacher Reports Top players off all-time, resigning for NBA players achilles tears, Olivia Miles dominance and BIG3 reach! Subscribe to Nightcap presented by PrizePicks so you don’t miss out on any new drops! Download the PrizePicks app today and use code SHANNON to get $50 in lineups after you play your first $5 lineup! Visit https://prizepicks.onelink.me/LME0/NI...0:00 - Viral IG mishap 0:00 - Donell Jones Joins11:45 - Rick Brunson’s rule for Jalen19:45 - Jimmy Butler and the snake Magic Trick13:35 - Bleacher Report Top Players of all-time32:30 - NBA Players tendon and achilles tears are due to playing time spikes44:43- Olivia Miles continues to dominate40:56 - BIG 3 Recap55:13 - Q & Ayyy (Timestamps may vary based on advertisements.) #ClubSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Security leaders count open vulnerabilities in the hundreds of thousands, and in some organizations the number runs past a million. Ondrej Vlcek, Co-Founder and CEO of AISLE, describes teams with no practical route through that backlog while attackers use automation to shrink the time between a disclosure and a working exploit. The question worth asking is what a program looks like when remediation moves at the same speed as exploitation. What makes AI-driven remediation different from static code analysis? Reasoning replaces pattern matching. Linters and commercial scanners flag code that resembles a known error shape, while a reasoning model infers what the developer intended, compares that intent against the actual implementation, and evaluates how the gap could be abused. Ondrej Vlcek points to business logic flaws, timing errors, and race conditions as the classes that pattern matching leaves untouched. The judgment behind AISLE comes from a long run in the industry. Ondrej Vlcek wrote device drivers for Windows 95 in 1995 at a seven-person antivirus company called Avast, stayed more than twenty-five years, moved through CTO and COO into the CEO seat, and took the company public before its sale to NortonLifeLock in 2022. He co-founded AISLE in 2024 with Jaya Baloo, a three-time public company CISO, and Stanislav Fort, an AI researcher who worked at DeepMind and Anthropic. Why does the software supply chain deserve the larger share of attention? Because most of the code in a running application was written somewhere else. Ondrej Vlcek puts the typical enterprise application at roughly ten percent first-party code and ninety percent open source and dependency code, which is also level ground for an attacker reading the same source and pointing the same models at it. Reachability analysis becomes the deciding factor, separating the vulnerable functions your code actually calls from the thousands of transitive dependencies it never touches. For first-party code, AISLE closes the loop differently: read the documentation, the architectural material, and the threat model, then generate a patch aligned with the project's own conventions and test it automatically. The standard Ondrej Vlcek sets is a fix that reads as though a human maintainer wrote it. The customer spread runs from embedded firmware at Bose to smart contracts at the Ethereum Foundation, where heavily audited and sometimes formally verified code still benefits from another set of checks because the systems touch money flows directly. This is a Brand Spotlight. A Brand Spotlight is a ~15 minute conversation designed to explore the guest, their company, and what makes their approach unique. Learn more: https://www.studioc60.com/creation#spotlight GUEST Ondrej Vlcek, Co-Founder and CEO of AISLE On LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ondrejvlcek/ RESOURCES Learn more about AISLE: https://aisle.com Meet AISLE at Black Hat and DEF CON in Las Vegas: https://aisle.com/black-hat The AISLE platform: https://aisle.com/platform AISLE CVE discoveries: https://aisle.com/cve-discoveries Are you interested in telling your story? ▶︎ Full Length Brand Story: https://www.studioc60.com/content-creation#full ▶︎ Brand Spotlight Story: https://www.studioc60.com/content-creation#spotlight ▶︎ Brand Highlight Story: https://www.studioc60.com/content-creation#highlight KEYWORDS ondrej vlcek, aisle, sean martin, brand story, brand marketing, marketing podcast, brand spotlight, vulnerability management, vulnerability remediation, agentic ai, cyber reasoning system, software supply chain security, reachability analysis, open source security, application security, first-party code, third-party dependencies, static code analysis, zero-day vulnerabilities, ai in cybersecurity, code patching, embedded firmware security, smart contract security Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

In this episode we explored our thoughts and history behind "The Death of Marat." The political climate of France and the background that led up to the events of the painting were discussed in detail. Our group discusses our personal opinions on history, the intent behind Jacques-Louis Davids choice of art, and more. Join us on our historical exploration of David and Marats relationship and impact!

In this episode, host Sloan Simmons is joined by Lozano Smith's Title IX Practice Group Co-Chairs, Sarah Fama and Monica Batanero, to discuss the Supreme Court's opinion on two cases addressing transgender participation in girls' school athletics:  West Virginia v. B.P.J. and Little v. Hecox.  The discussion covers the Court's holdings, legal reasoning, and implications for schools navigating student participation, safety, and competitive fairness. The episode also explores the impact on California schools, including related Title IX issues, pending litigation, and challenges to California's existing legal framework. Show Notes & References 1:28 – Supreme Court rulings in West Virginia v. B.P.J. (2026) 609 U.S.  2:25 – Background on B.P.J. and Hecox cases 5:32 – What the Supreme Court decided 6:50 – Reasoning and analysis of the Court 8:00 – Justice Brett Kavanaugh, writing for the majority: “The term ‘sex' in the 1972 Title IX statute, the 1974 Javits Amendment, and the 1975 Title IX regulations cannot plausibly be interpreted to refer to anything other than biological sex. The ordinary meaning of the term ‘sex' at the time of enactment in the early 1970s was biological sex and not gender identity, particularly in the sports context.” 9:17 – Safety and competitive fairness 11:56 – Bostock v. Clayton County Georgia (2020) 590 U.S. 644 – (Client News Brief 86 – December 2020) 15:12 – Biological females who identify as male in male sports 17:31 – Concurrences and dissents of justices 19:16 – What happens now?  The state of the law in California 20:49 – Pending litigation in lower courts 21:28 – United States v. California Interscholastic Federation and California Department of Education, July 9, 2025 – (Client News Brief 31 – July 2025) 21:53 – United States v. Maine Department of Education (No. 1:25-cv-00173) 22:33 – Viability of challenges to U.S.A. v. CIF/CDE; AB 1266 and CIF Bylaws For more information on the topics discussed in this podcast, please visit our website at: www.lozanosmith.com/podcast   Disclaimer: As the information contained herein is necessarily general, its application to a particular set of facts and circumstances may vary. For this reason, this podcast episode does not constitute legal advice. We recommend that you consult with your counsel prior to acting on the information contained herein.

AI makes it easier than ever to find and act on information—especially now that teams can connect to and search across all the apps they use for work. So how do you ensure that only the right people and the right tools can access your team's most sensitive content? In this episode, we talk with Jess Jimenez, the head of security at Dropbox, about what security looks like in the age of AI at Dropbox-scale—from building AI products securely to building trust with the people who use them. Jess talks about the importance of access control lists, defending against the latest AI threats, and how Dropbox Protect helps teams securely share content with both humans and AI so they can collaborate more safely. ~ ~ ~  Working Smarter is brought to you by Dropbox. Find, organize, and share your work—all in one place—with context-aware AI from Dropbox. You can listen to more episodes of Working Smarter on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, Amazon Music, or wherever you get your podcasts. To read more stories and past interviews, visit workingsmarter.ai This show would not be possible without the talented team at Cosmic Standard: producer Ben Montoya, sound engineer Aja Simpson, technical director Jacob Winik, and executive producer Eliza Smith. Special thanks to our illustrator Fanny Luor, marketing consultant Meggan Ellingboe, and editorial support from Catie Keck.  Our theme song was composed by Doug Stuart.  Working Smarter is hosted by Matthew Braga. Thanks for listening!

Another Side of Midnight with Lionel airs weekends from 2–5am on 77WABC. Emmy Award-winning legal and media analyst Lionel delivers bold commentary on politics, law, culture, and current events, alongside lively conversations with listeners nationwide.Join Lionel as he discusses various evils,the reasoning for the death penalty, the rise of AI and more on WABC.

Ken Rosato fills in for Mark Simone. Ken talks about the stabbing in NYC on the Upper West Side, which is being investigated as a hate crime caused by the suspect, Raul Morales, for yelling Jewish hate words and going on a stabbing spree. Billionaire George Soros is one of the biggest donors to protestors for the left-wing agenda and movement.   Ken takes your calls! Ken interviews Politics Reporter for NJ Advance Media, Brent Johnson. Brent and Ken try to understand the psychological reason NJ Governor Mikie Sherrill came out and said non-citizens in NJ were registered to vote by mistake. The guys break down what a state has to lose by sharing its voter rolls with the government. Republicans will use what Governor Sherrill did to justify why the Save Act should get passed. 

Ken Rosato fills in for Mark Simone. Ken talks about the stabbing in NYC on the Upper West Side, which is being investigated as a hate crime caused by the suspect, Raul Morales, for yelling Jewish hate words and going on a stabbing spree. Billionaire George Soros is one of the biggest donors to protestors for the left-wing agenda and movement. Ken takes your calls! Ken interviews Politics Reporter for NJ Advance Media, Brent Johnson. Brent and Ken try to understand the psychological reason NJ Governor Mikie Sherrill came out and said non-citizens in NJ were registered to vote by mistake. The guys break down what a state has to lose by sharing its voter rolls with the government. Republicans will use what Governor Sherrill did to justify why the Save Act should get passed. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Hour One of the Thursday July 23, 2026 edition of The Armstrong & Getty Show features... Rubio on-ups the Iranians... Heather Myers has The Lead Story... Human longevity... Mailbag! See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Controversy has swirled for years over litigation in which a plaintiff sues a friendly government defendant, and the case concludes with a favorable settlement. Critics argue that this practice creates a non-adversarial process that allows aligned litigants and agencies to shape policy and reward political allies outside the normal rulemaking and appropriations procedures. Defenders respond that these settlements generally resolve legitimate claims while conserving judicial resources and taxpayer dollars. The debate intensified during the Obama administration as the practice proliferated, particularly in environmental consent decrees.The controversy received renewed attention after the district court’s July 13 ruling in Trump v. IRS, concerning the settlement of President Trump's lawsuit against the IRS over the leak of his tax returns. The court concluded that the parties were never genuinely adverse and that there was therefore no Article III case or controversy. Its order went further, however. Reasoning that the suit was brought for an improper purpose, the court imposed sanctions on the plaintiffs and their counsel and directed that the order be transmitted to the bar authorities of senior DOJ officials.Join us for a discussion of Trump v. IRS, and the broader legal and policy concerns surrounding sue-and-settle litigation.Featuring:Anne Austin, Senior Advisor, Burke Law GroupZhonette M. Brown, General Counsel, Senior Litigation Counsel, New Civil Liberties AllianceAbhishek Kambli, Partner, Holtzman Vogel Baran Torchinsky & Josefiak PLLC(Moderator) John Shu, Attorney and Legal Commentator

AI is no longer just a race to train smarter models. As AI moves into production, the bottleneck is increasingly inference: how fast models can generate tokens, use tools, reason, verify, and act. In this episode of the MAD Podcast, Matt Turck sits down with Andrew Feldman, co-founder and CEO of Cerebras, to explain why fast inference may define the next era of AI.Cerebras is known for building a chip the size of a silicon wafer. But this conversation is not just about one company or one chip. It is a deep dive into the AI infrastructure stack: GPUs, ASICs, memory, HBM, SRAM, data centers, power, TSMC, AWS, OpenAI, agents, reasoning models, and why speed changes what AI products can become. Andrew explains why “tokens per second per user” matters, why generating a single word can require moving the equivalent of 100 HD movies through memory, why agents amplify latency, why GPUs struggle with certain inference workloads, and why fast AI may eventually reshape SaaS itself.This is a reference conversation on fast inference, AI chips, and the next compute bottleneck.(00:00) Cold open & Intro(01:31) Why speed became the AI bottleneck(02:32) Tokens per second per user, explained(03:16) AI's broadband moment and the Netflix analogy(04:35) The AI chip landscape: GPUs, TPUs, Trainium, ASICs(06:36) What is an ASIC?(08:08) Nvidia, Groq, and the fast inference war(09:16) OpenAI, Broadcom, and specialized silicon(12:10) China, power, and sovereign AI infrastructure(15:05) Is the AI infrastructure boom a bubble?(18:56) The hidden bottlenecks: HBM, CoWoS, and 3nm(22:57) Why agents are creating CPU demand(25:36) Andrew Feldman's path from SeaMicro to Cerebras(26:13) Why Cerebras bet on AI in 2016(31:14) SRAM vs. HBM: why inference is a memory problem(33:19) What wafer-scale computing actually means(34:28) The deep-tech “Everest” problem(36:07) The moment the first Cerebras system worked(36:49) Ringing the bell and surviving deep tech(39:08) How a giant chip handles failure(41:22) Why GPUs struggle with decode(42:17) Prefill vs. decode explained(44:01) The “100 HD movies” problem in AI inference(45:04) How fast inference changes RL and training(48:08) Reasoning models and why they cost more compute(50:08) Verification, guardrails, and small models checking big models(52:37) Multimodal AI and the path to video(53:51) Cerebras' business model: hardware, cloud, and API(55:14) OpenAI's 750MW inference deal(55:36) Why data centers are measured in megawatts(58:01) AWS Trainium + Cerebras decode(59:29) Fast tokens as a cloud product(01:00:52) Is CUDA still a moat?(01:03:53) How TSMC helped Cerebras build the giant chip(01:07:41) Why nobody cared in 2020(01:08:15) Why chip supply chains are hard to diversify(01:09:54) Why today's AI models will be the worst you ever use(01:10:38) What fast AI could do to SaaS

Hour One of the Thursday July 23, 2026 edition of The Armstrong & Getty Show features... Rubio on-ups the Iranians... Heather Myers has The Lead Story... Human longevity... Mailbag! See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

4:33:17 – Frank in New Jersey, plus the Other Side. Topics include: World Cup Final in New Jersey, gambling, cigar, MTV’s 120 Minutes host Dave Kendall dead at 63, The Rampler Trip, the system, a new simpler version of Flea Devil Solitaire, Swearnet: The Movie (2014), Carrot Top, Tom Green, Tomintoul Whisky, Phish, Ass Handed, Rush, next […]

A discussion on the modern applicability of RESPA is how today's podcast kicks off. Robbie then interviews Climative's Winston Morton on turning homeowner demand for energy and resilience upgrades into qualified financing opportunities. And the episode closes with the various reasons rates have to not drop. Thank you to JazzX, the first true end-to-end AI platform built for mortgage. From application to close, JazzX is a new operating model that helps you scale growth, boost productivity, and transform how your team performs.The Chrisman Commentary is your go-to daily mortgage news podcast, where industry insights meet expert analysis. Hosted by Robbie Chrisman, this podcast delivers the latest updates on mortgage rates, capital markets, and the forces shaping the housing finance landscape. Whether you're a seasoned professional or just looking to stay informed, you'll get clear, concise breakdowns of market trends and economic shifts that impact the mortgage world.

4:33:17 – Frank in New Jersey, plus the Other Side. Topics include: World Cup Final in New Jersey, gambling, cigar, MTV’s 120 Minutes host Dave Kendall dead at 63, The Rampler Trip, the system, a new simpler version of Flea Devil Solitaire, Swearnet: The Movie (2014), Carrot Top, Tom Green, Tomintoul Whisky, Phish, Ass Handed, Rush, next […]

DEBATECON 8 will be in DALLAS on July 25/26th! Grab tickets now: https://events.eventnoire.com/e/debatecon-8-by-modern-day-debate Use code MODERNDAYDEBATE at PharmEasyBank for an extra 20% OFF your discounted order—get Ivermectin, Fenbendazole, Hydroxychloroquine, Amoxicillin, and more at https://pharmeasybank.com/moderndaydebate LINKS TO GUESTS: Kent Hovind: www.DrDino.com Axiomatic Reasoning: https://www.instagram.com/axiomaticreasoning/ Debate Jay Dyer in a 10v1 on Monday, July 27th in Dallas on, "Is the E.O. Church the most similar to the early church?" Sign up here: https://forms.gle/AAP3F9gU9t5jGhMAA Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

REASONING.SERVICES is where “AI, but verify” becomes a habit. This SoundBytes segment explores how it forces AI tools to weigh the factors you care about and prove they followed your instructions before delivering advice. The post AI, BUT VERIFY! appeared first on sound*bytes.

This week Jason Howell and Ron Richards sit down with Chris Patrick, Qualcomm's SVP and GM of Handsets and a 30-year company veteran, for a deep dive into the state of mobile. Patrick opens up about RAMageddon, how surging memory prices are squeezing phone costs at every level, and what Qualcomm is doing to innovate through it with techniques like model compression.Note: Time codes subject to change depending on dynamic ad insertion by the distributor0:00 Intro1:36 Introducing Chris Patrick from Qualcomm3:42 Interview Begins5:13 What Phone Does Qualcomm's Boss Carry?6:55 What Would've Been Impossible 30 Years Ago9:36 AI Becoming the New Phone UI13:00 On-Device AI: Perception, Reasoning, Action17:05 Engineering Chips for Foldables19:57 Inside the Qualcomm-Samsung Partnership23:18 Galaxy Unpacked Preview24:10 Are Wearables Replacing Smartphones?27:51 RAMageddon: Why Phone Prices Are Surging32:39 What Happens to Budget Android Phones36:19 Competing With Your Own Customers39:11 Snapdragon Summit 202641:02 Wrapping Up With Chris Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In a bizarre twist on the usual way government decisions are made, a Colorado agency is considering a ban on the commercial sale of fur from animals like beavers, coyotes, and bobcats. But here's the thing: the agency's own director says there's no scientific evidence that the current hunting practices are causing a population decline. So why are they pushing for the ban? And what's really behind this decision?This episode delves into the world of wildlife management in Colorado, where a proposed rule change has sparked controversy. The speaker takes a closer look at the facts and figures behind the ban, and what's really driving the decision-making process. From the agency's own data to the public's response, this episode explores the complexities of regulating wildlife in the state.The Colorado Parks and Wildlife Commission is set to consider two proposals to restrict the commercial sale of fur, but the agency's own director has recommended denying the ban. The speaker argues that the decision is not based on science, but rather on perceptions and politics. The episode also touches on the economic impact of the ban, which could affect rural communities that rely on fur harvesting as a source of income.If you're interested in learning more about this fascinating story and the behind-the-scenes politics of wildlife management in Colorado, tune in to this episode to hear the speaker's take on the issue.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Not all work happens in writing. Teams that work with photos, videos, and audio need AI that works for them too. This is why, with Dropbox, you can search within multimedia content for key moments and important information—not just text. In this episode, we talk with Appu Shaji and Hicham Badri, two Dropbox machine learning engineers who are part of the team that makes all of this possible. They explain how multimodal search works—from understanding the context of the initial query, to identifying objects and actions in complex scenes—and how they ensure those models work fast, even at Dropbox-scale. ~ ~ ~  Working Smarter is brought to you by Dropbox. Find, organize, and share your work—all in one place—with context-aware AI from Dropbox. You can listen to more episodes of Working Smarter on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, Amazon Music, or wherever you get your podcasts. To read more stories and past interviews, visit workingsmarter.ai This show would not be possible without the talented team at Cosmic Standard: producer Ben Montoya, sound engineer Aja Simpson, technical director Jacob Winik, and executive producer Eliza Smith. Special thanks to our illustrator Fanny Luor, marketing consultant Meggan Ellingboe, and editorial support from Catie Keck.  Our theme song was composed by Doug Stuart.  Working Smarter is hosted by Matthew Braga. Thanks for listening!

In this episode, Frank sits down with Devansh Devansh, founder and head of AI at Iris, whose journey spans from building a thriving tech community of over 10,000 on Substack to developing advanced legal AI tools that revolutionize how lawyers work through complex reasoning. The conversation explores Devansh Devanche's unconventional path into AI, his experiences navigating the evolving landscape of machine learning, and the unique challenges of creating transparent, trustworthy agentic systems in legal tech. Along the way, we uncover the story behind his distinctive "chocolate milk cult leader" branding, his philosophy on startup building, and why he believes that innovation in AI is more accessible than it may seem. Whether you're a technologist, a lawyer, or just curious about the future of AI, this is an episode packed with insight, optimism, and actionable advice.LinksDevansh on LinkedIn -https://www.linkedin.com/in/devansh-devansh-516004168/Devansh on SubStack -https://substack.com/@chocolatemilkcultleaderTime Stamps00:00 Transitioning to Substack and AI Journey05:32 Starting to publish research insights07:37 Connecting with Senior Leaders13:27 Issues with Legal AI Systems16:55 Challenges with current AI systems19:49 Demand for AI in legal and non-legal sectors23:29 Challenges with AI system state management24:51 Compounding AI returns over time30:50 Meeting the CEO of Iris34:20 Tailoring Startup Strategy to Strengths36:26 Insights on Cluli's Market Presence40:27 Opportunities in AI Innovation42:57 Reflecting on market evolutions

In this episode of Reimagine Childhood from the Early Childhood Christian Network, host Monica Healer talks with author and jesusloves.org founder Tara Hackney about rewriting the classic song "Jesus Loves the Little Children" after adopting a traumatized two-year-old from India and realizing the original lyrics felt outdated and incomplete. Tara shares how her experiences in global ministry and adoption awakened a deeper passion to help children understand they are purposefully made, personally known, and perfectly loved by Jesus, and how diversity reflects God's grand design. They discuss practical ways educators can honor God's image in every child through respectful interactions, creativity, empathy-building experiences, and cultural exposure, while connecting everyday actions to God's love. Monica also highlights upcoming ECCN conferences in Georgetown and McKinney, Texas. 00:00 Welcome to Reimagine Childhood 00:50 Meet Tara Hackney 02:07 Why Rewrite the Song 03:12 Adoption Sparked the Change 04:58 Gods Grand Design in Diversity 09:01 Purposefully Made Personally Known 10:54 Practical Classroom Mindset Shifts 15:01 Creativity Justice and Reasoning 16:42 Let Kids Create and Learn 19:24 Do Overs and Childlike Mercy 22:30 Quick Story Break Setup 22:43 Conference Season Preview 23:49 Keynotes and Registration 25:06 Teaching Kids Gods Love 27:46 Culture and Classroom Differences 30:43 Immersion and Empathy Activities 35:15 Worship Creativity and Discernment 40:05 Reimagine Teachers as Missionaries 42:27 Purposefully Made Reflection 44:46 Final Challenge and Farewell Connect with Tara at her website www.jesusloves.org where she also has a really cute shop with merch for you! She has a monthly newsletter where she shares lots of fun ideas as well. Here's the link if you want to sign up.  Find the song on Spotify or Youtube: Audio only - https://open.spotify.com/album/1fxDj0EWd0bJ8fPNTQj2SL Audio and video (lyric video) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hGR9HoxoZIA&list=RDhGR9HoxoZIA&start_radio=1 Connect with Tara on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/jesusloves.ministry/ Find the book Jesus Loves The Little Children on Amazon HERE. If you'd like to place a bulk order of these little books, reach out to Tara on her website for bulk pricing.

(0:00) The AI Buildout: Datacenters Bigger Than Cities (Andrew Feldman) (1:50) Reasoning, Inference, and Breaking Moore's Law (16:28) Open Source, AI Sovereignty, and the Road to AGI (40:54) The Innovation Behind Generative Video (Robin Rombach) (47:31) Martin Scorsese, Robots, and the Future of Hollywood IP Thanks to our partners for making this possible! AppLovin Ads - AppLovin's AI advertising platform reaches over a billion daily active users across mobile games. Full-screen video ads with a 35-second median watch time. Advertisers are profitably spending hundreds of thousands of dollars a day and advertiser access is still in closed beta. The window is open at https://applovin.com/ALLIN Nasdaq - Positioned at the nexus of technology and the capital markets, Nasdaq provides premier platforms and services for global capital markets and beyond with unmatched technology, insights and markets expertise. https://www.nasdaq.com/convergence-economy Follow Andrew: https://x.com/andrewdfeldman Follow Robin: https://x.com/robrombach Follow the besties: https://x.com/chamath https://x.com/Jason https://x.com/DavidSacks https://x.com/friedberg Follow on X: https://x.com/theallinpod Follow on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theallinpod Follow on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@allin Follow on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/allinpod Intro Music Credit: https://rb.gy/tppkzl https://x.com/yung_spielburg

In this week's episode of the Inside Elland Road podcast, co-host Chris O'Connor is joined by YEP chief football writer Graham Smyth 24 hours after the arrival of first summer signing Harry Wilson. They discuss the winger's reasons for joining Leeds and how he fits for Daniel Farke. There's discussion around another two transfer targets Shea Charles and Julian Brandt and predictions for the World Cup quarter-final ties.

We finally got to hear from Brad Stevens and Bill Chisholm after the Jaylen Brown trade, were they on the same page as each other and what was the reason for Brad trading Jaylen Brown?

In hour 1 of Willard and Dibs, hosts Mark Willard and Dan Dibley get into the reasons for Lebron deciding to leave LA and test free agency. Why does it seem like he doesn't have an answer already? Plus, NBA reporter Mark Medina joins the show and gives his reasons for Lebron leaving and why Golden State is still in the mix.

Your hope is not held up by how well you can argue for it; it is held up by the risen Christ, which frees you to witness without fear and stand unshaken when it costs you.

Is "whole person reasoning" just biopsychosocial with new branding, or does it change how you actually run a session? Mark Kargela and Ben Whybrow break down why treating pain by tissue alone misses most of what's driving a patient's experience, and why that applies from day one of an acute injury, not just after the 91-day mark that turns pain "chronic."Mark tells the story of a student on his last clinical rotation who was so locked into test clusters and technique that he nearly missed a patient in visible distress, until one question about coping unlocked what she actually needed. Ben shares how a NICE-guideline question about cultural influence on pain has changed his intake conversations, plus the patient whose neck pain flared after an election result.They also dig into why "subjective" is the wrong word for a patient's story (it's not less-than the objective findings, it often predicts outcome better), how systemic biology shows up even when imaging and labs look "controlled," and why social and cultural context can make or break a treatment plan that's otherwise textbook-perfect.If you want a structured way to hold all of this in a session without turning it into another checklist, Mark and Ben mention the free Whole Person Reasoning guide, link below.LINKSFree Whole Person Reasoning guideJoin Modern Pain ProMore from Modern Pain Care#PhysicalTherapy #PainScience #BiopsychosocialModel*********************************************************************

On This Week at Charlestown Road, Jason and Roger revisit Sunday morning’s sermon, “For This Reason,” digging deeper into the value and importance of developing an evidence-based faith.

When AI is at its best, the conversations can feel uncanny—almost magical in their accuracy, relevance, and speed. For that you can thank the AI agents that work together behind the scenes to search, reason, and sift through all your content to get you what you need to do your job. We talk with Jongmin Baek and Marta Mendez, two Dropbox machine learning engineers, about building conversational AI that's helpful, useful, and grounded in your team's shared context, so you can spend more time on the work that really matters. ~ ~ ~  Working Smarter is brought to you by Dropbox. Find, organize, and share your work—all in one place—with context-aware AI from Dropbox. You can listen to more episodes of Working Smarter on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, Amazon Music, or wherever you get your podcasts. To read more stories and past interviews, visit workingsmarter.ai This show would not be possible without the talented team at Cosmic Standard: producer Ben Montoya, sound engineer Aja Simpson, technical director Jacob Winik, and executive producer Eliza Smith. Special thanks to our illustrator Fanny Luor, marketing consultant Meggan Ellingboe, and editorial support from Catie Keck.  Our theme song was composed by Doug Stuart.  Working Smarter is hosted by Matthew Braga. Thanks for listening!

In this episode of the ThoughtStretchers Education Podcast, Drew Perkins talks with leading education thinkers Dylan Wiliam, Jo Boaler, and Chris Harrison to explore the work and life of Paul Black and his profound impact on teaching and learning, especially the concept of assessment for learning. Links & Resources Mentioned In This Episode Have some feedback you'd like to share? You can email me at drew@thoughtstretchers.org. If you enjoyed this episode, please share it and please leave a review on Apple Podcasts or wherever you're listening. Episode Overview In this special episode, host Drew Perkins brings together a panel of world-renowned educational figures, Dylan Wiliam, Jo Boaler, and Chris Harrison, to evaluate the profound, global impact of the late Paul Black on international education policy and classroom practice. Transitioning from a distinguished background in physics and crystallography to become the absolute cornerstone of modern science education and assessment framework, Paul Black fundamentally reshaped how the world defines student evaluation. This conversation bridges historical policy milestones, such as Black's masterful chairing of the 1987 Task Group on Assessment and Testing (TGAT), with modern instructional hurdles, illustrating beautifully why assessment must serve as a vehicle for authentic meaning-making, intellectual humility, and autonomous learner agency rather than a mechanical system for tracking or ranking students. Core Themes & Key Takeaways The Historical Architecture: The 1987 TGAT Reform: Commissioned by Secretary of State for Education Kenneth Baker, Paul Black chaired the Task Group on Assessment and Testing. His team proposed a revolutionary, age-independent progressive assessment scale that reframed student growth as continuous development rather than static metrics. Despite major political pushback, this foundational blueprint successfully dictated national curriculum frameworks in England for two decades. Inside the Black Box: Moving Research directly into Practitioners' Hands: Dylan Wiliam and Chris Harrison recount the deliberate, user-centric choice to look past dense, extensive academic journal articles and publish the seminal 1998 work, Inside the Black Box, as a slim, highly accessible 28-page booklet. This targeted dissemination placed actionable research directly in front of busy classroom practitioners. Furthermore, Wiliam clarifies why their historical look was a configurative review meant to map the conceptual schema of the field rather than a simple meta-analysis. Redefining Assessment for Learning (AfL): Dialogue over Spreadsheets: The panel issues a stark, cross-continental warning against institutional evaluation frameworks (heavily prevalent in the United States) that compress formative assessment into teacher-led data entries on spreadsheets every few weeks. True Assessment for Learning is an interactive, real-time diagnostic process rooted in rich classroom dialogue, extracting student misconceptions, and adjusting the immediate pedagogical path. Cultivating Learner Agency: Releasing "Explorer Mode": Formative feedback must move toward its own redundancy, systematically transitioning students out of passive compliance ("Passenger Mode") or fragile grade-chasing ("Achiever Mode") into self-regulating agents of their own intellectual development ("Explorer Mode"). The Pedagogy of Humility and Curiosity: Jo Boaler and Chris Harrison share intimate reflections on Paul Black's style as a PhD advisor and colleague. Despite his massive national stature, Black routinely deferred to doctoral students, treating them as co-investigators and displaying immense intellectual curiosity about how young minds think. Episode Timeline & Milestone Highlights Use these timestamp tokens to jump directly to key points in the panel's conversation: 00:00:11 – Introductions, cross-continental logistics, and session framing. 00:04:25 – Unpacking the historical impact: Paul Black's transition from physics and crystallography to science education policy. 00:08:16 – Dylan Wiliam outlines his multi-decade intellectual partnership with Black starting at Chelsea College. 00:10:36 – Chris Harrison details Black's post-retirement career and managing 19 international translational action research projects. 00:13:39 – Jo Boaler discusses Black's guidance on validating qualitative research data and handling academic journal rejections. 00:19:43 – The inner workings of the 1987 Task Group on Assessment and Testing (TGAT) and Kenneth Baker's national curriculum scale. 00:22:05 – Subject-specific progression models: Unpacking the "progression is harder" vs. "progression is better" friction across disciplines. 00:26:19 – The rationale behind a configurative review over traditional meta-analysis inside poorly theorized fields. 00:31:57 – Collaborative research dynamics: Working alongside teachers to let them build localized knowledge instead of imposing top-down scripts. 00:36:06 – Integrating growth mindset structures into math classrooms via open-ended, speed-independent tasks. 00:41:44 – Cultivating student self-regulation as an alternative to US data entry tracking spreadsheets. 00:47:47 – Exploring the three distinct pathways of progression: harder, better, and more independent. 00:58:01 – Debunking the mathematical efficiency myth: Reasoning and pattern discovery vs. computational speed. 01:06:02 – Long-term learning goals vs. short-term multiple-choice testing metrics in an AI-driven future. 01:10:05 – Teachers as knowledge workers: David Daniel's research on why lab findings reverse when deployed into complex classrooms. 01:15:56 – Utilizing psychometrics (Mark Wilson's framework) to discover what a student needs to learn next rather than simply to rank them.

Last time we spoke about the battle of Zhongtiao Mountain. On 7 May 1941, Japan launched a three-front assault on the Zhongtiao Mountains, striking multiple axes and using paratroopers to disrupt Chinese command. On the northeastern front, Wu Shimin's 98th Army scored a success at Wangcun, routing about 2,000 attackers. Elsewhere, three-pronged Japanese forces drove south toward Yuanqu with overwhelming artillery, armor, and coordinated movement. During the first night, paratroopers found the Chinese headquarters already disordered: orders were unclear and communications with most units collapsed. By 8 May, the First War Zone could no longer coordinate; armies fought alone. From mid-May into June, Japanese units swept the mountains, manning river crossings to block retreat and eliminating pockets. Surviving Chinese formations escaped or regrouped south of the Yellow River, but the three-year Zhongtiao defensive system was destroyed in about twenty days, sharply worsening Japan's strategic situation in northern China.   #208 Operation Plus: The Road to the Second Battle of Changsha Welcome to the Fall and Rise of China Podcast, I am your dutiful host Craig Watson. But, before we start I want to also remind you this podcast is only made possible through the efforts of Kings and Generals over at Youtube. Perhaps you want to learn more about the history of Asia? Kings and Generals have an assortment of episodes on history of asia and much more  so go give them a look over on Youtube. So please subscribe to Kings and Generals over at Youtube and to continue helping us produce this content please check out www.patreon.com/kingsandgenerals. If you are still hungry for some more history related content, over on my channel, the Pacific War Channel where I cover the history of China and Japan from the 19th century until the end of the Pacific War. In the autumn of 1939, Japanese forces under General Yasuji Okamura launched a major offensive aimed at capturing Changsha — the gateway to China's interior and one of the most important cities still under Nationalist control. The First Battle of Changsha ended without a decisive Japanese victory. Chinese forces, anchored by the Ninth War Zone under General Xue Yue, managed to repel the advance, inflicting significant casualties and preserving the city. It was a notable achievement at a time when Japanese arms had swept across vast swathes of Chinese territory, and it reverberated through both the Chinese military establishment and the watching international community. Following the Japanese withdrawal, Chiang Kai-shek convened the Second Nanyue Military Conference to carry out a thorough assessment of the battle and to plan for the period of relative calm that would follow. The conference sought to answer several pressing questions: What had worked in the defense? Where had coordination broken down? How could the period of Japanese inactivity be used most productively? Chiang made it clear that this respite was not to be wasted. Commanders of all the major war zones were simultaneously expected to serve as governors of their respective provinces, ensuring unity of military and civilian command. Chiang himself set an example by personally assuming the governorship of Sichuan Province and focusing attention on that province's production and reconstruction efforts. The conference produced broad directives for the reconstruction of war-zone provinces and the intensification of military training. For Hunan, responsibility for implementing these directives fell on the shoulders of General Xue Yue, who had emerged from the First Battle of Changsha with greatly enhanced prestige and authority. The reason Changsha and Hunan more broadly attracted such persistent Japanese attention was geographical and logistical. The Yuehan Railway — running from Yueyang in northern Hunan down through Changsha and south toward Guangzhou — was one of the most important transportation arteries in China. Whoever controlled it could move troops, equipment, and supplies across vast distances with speed and reliability. Opening up the Yuehan line would, in Japanese strategic thinking, effectively connect their forces in Central China with those in South China, allowing for a gradual tightening of the strategic noose around Chiang Kai-shek's wartime capital at Chongqing in Sichuan Province. Hunan was therefore not merely a defensive problem for the Chinese; it was a strategic prize that Japan would inevitably seek to take. Xue Yue, whose headquarters were in Changsha, was well aware of this logic. With the First Battle of Changsha behind him and the province in need of recovery, Xue Yue turned his attention to governance. He was not content to wait passively for the next Japanese offensive. He believed that a province that was economically productive, administratively disciplined, and politically stable would provide a far more durable foundation for military resistance than one that was disorganized and demoralized. At the beginning of his tenure as effective governor of Hunan, Xue conducted a thorough survey of the province's situation and then articulated a philosophical framework for his administration in the form of a "three-character policy," consisting of three guiding principles: "Peace"  (an), "Convenience" (bian), and "Sufficiency" ( zu). In Xue's formulation, "Peace" meant that the population should be able to live, work, and conduct their daily affairs free from fear and disruption. "Convenience" meant that policies should benefit the people, the nation, and the war effort simultaneously — eliminating bureaucratic obstacles and inefficiencies. "Sufficiency" meant achieving adequate levels in all essential areas: enough soldiers, enough food, and enough wisdom in leadership. These seemingly simple principles were elaborated into extensive implementation guidelines. The announcement of this framework immediately sparked debate across Hunan's intellectual and administrative community. Veteran officials and scholars were divided. Some praised the policy as a clear and practical framework for wartime governance. Others dismissed it as hollow wordplay, offering nothing new or substantive. A minority was more sharply critical, warning that if such superficial philosophizing was all Xue could offer, the province would decay into warlordism. Undeterred by the criticism, Xue Yue built upon the three-character framework with a set of "Six Policies" for governing the people of Hunan: "Benefiting the People, Raising the People, Educating the People, Protecting the People, Managing the People, and Utilizing the People." Each of these six principles came with specific implementation targets and performance metrics, designed to be measurable rather than aspirational. This second round of policy announcements generated yet another wave of debate, but Xue pressed forward with implementation regardless. From the beginning of 1940, Xue vigorously pushed for the expansion of agricultural and industrial production across the province. His approach was comprehensive and at times uncompromising. He approved funds for the reconstruction of the Zhongshan Road National Goods Exhibition Hall in Changsha — which had been destroyed in the catastrophic Changsha Fire of 1938 — and by February 1940, 114 shops had reopened there. In March, he approved the "Eight Measures for the Construction of Sheds in Changsha," drafted by the Changsha Municipal Police Bureau, which relaxed housing regulations and helped address the severe shortage of accommodation for the city's residents, who had largely fled or been displaced during the fire and the Japanese offensive. One of the more creative initiatives of this period was the Ninth War Zone's order requiring all troops stationed in Hunan to cultivate a certain amount of farmland in their spare time, growing grain to supplement military rations. Local residents came to refer to the plots tended by soldiers as "soldier's fields" (bing tian). This policy served a dual purpose: it reduced the logistical burden of feeding the garrison forces from civilian stocks while keeping soldiers productively occupied during lulls in fighting. It also served to maintain a degree of goodwill between the military and the rural communities on which any prolonged resistance ultimately depended. One of the most consequential steps Xue Yue took to stabilize Hunan's governance was an aggressive campaign against corruption. On April 15, 1940, he ordered the execution of Tian Weizheng, the county magistrate of Changsha, and Wang Lun, the county magistrate of Xiangtan, both on charges of corruption and abuse of office. The proclamation accompanying the executions was blunt: "This serves as a warning against corruption and establishes the authority of the law in upholding discipline." The message was not lost on officials across the province. In the months that followed, a sweep of investigations led to the punishment of numerous corrupt officials and illegal businessmen. The effect on public confidence in the provincial government was significant. Citizens and soldiers alike perceived that there was now a leadership willing to hold its own accountable — a stark contrast to the corruption and self-dealing that had plagued Chinese provincial governance throughout the war. Xue was also attentive to the ideological dimension of the war effort. On May Fourth Youth Day — itself laden with nationalist significance, commemorating the great student movement of 1919 — Xue attended the provincial capital's sports meet and delivered a speech before thousands of young people entitled "Iron Youth, Iron Spirit, Sacred Labor, Sacred Survival." The speech was aimed at galvanizing the younger generation, connecting their personal futures to the fate of the nation and the resistance against Japan. That same month, in May 1940, the 110th executive meeting of the Hunan Provincial Government revised and approved the "Hunan Province County Heads Performance Evaluation Method," a document that formalized military service and support for the war effort as the primary criterion in the evaluation of local officials' political performance. Throughout 1940, the provincial government and the Ninth War Zone organized a series of training courses for officials, including courses specifically designed for guerrilla cadres, women cadres, and village chiefs — an indication that preparations for sustained, decentralized resistance were underway. Xue himself addressed the cadre training group with a speech on "The Conditions That a Well-Rounded Cadre Should Possess." By the end of 1940, after more than a year of sustained effort, Hunan had broadly recovered to the administrative and economic condition it had enjoyed before the Changsha Fire, when the reformist official Zhang Zhizhong had governed the province. Agriculture, industry, and commerce all showed measurable improvement over their wartime lows. The government's accounts for the year reflected growth across all sectors. This recovery was not merely statistical; it represented a genuine rebuilding of the province's capacity to sustain a prolonged defense. Soldiers were better fed and equipped, local officials were more disciplined, and the civilian population had a functioning, if still imperfect, relationship with the wartime state. Early in 1941, Xue Yue's reputation had grown to the point where local gentry and public figures jointly petitioned for a bustling street in Changsha to be named after his courtesy name — a mark of genuine popular esteem unusual for a military governor in wartime China. While Xue Yue was rebuilding Hunan, events at the geopolitical level were reshaping the strategic environment in ways that would directly precipitate the Second Battle of Changsha. On September 27, 1940, Japan signed the Tripartite Pact with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy, formally joining the Axis powers. The pact alarmed the Western democracies and accelerated their support for China. On December 2, 1940, the United States Congress passed a bill approving a one-hundred-million-dollar loan to China. On December 10, 1940, Britain followed suit, approving a ten-million-pound loan. Both measures were explicitly understood — by all parties — as responses to Japanese expansion and Japan's recognition of Wang Jingwei's collaborationist puppet government in Nanjing. For the Japanese military leadership, these loans signaled that the international community was not prepared to accept Japan's fait accompli in China, and that the war of attrition against the Nationalist government could not be allowed to continue indefinitely. The imperative to resolve the "China Incident" — as Japanese officials euphemistically called the war — before the international situation deteriorated further became more urgent than ever. On January 16, 1941, the Japanese Army adopted the "Long-Term Operational Guidance Plan for China." The document acknowledged a painful internal contradiction: Japan could only sustain a protracted war in China, yet it simultaneously demanded a swift resolution to the conflict through strong military pressure. The plan's solution to this contradiction was to intensify operations while "taking note of the international situation" — meaning that military actions should be calibrated to avoid triggering direct American or British intervention. The plan called for large-scale offensive operations in the summer and autumn of 1941. The companion document, the "Annual Plan for Showa 16 (1941)," was more specific. It required Japanese troops stationed in China to conduct a major operation in the summer and autumn of that year with the aim of dealing a heavy blow to the main force of the "Whampoa Military Academy" — the term used by Japanese planners to describe the core of Chiang Kai-shek's professional officer corps, trained at the Whampoa (Huangpu) Military Academy and regarded as the backbone of the Nationalist army. The stated goal was to destroy the Chongqing government's will to continue resistance and thereby force a resolution to the China Incident. Xue Yue himself read translated summaries of both these documents when he traveled to Chongqing to report on his work in early 1941. He returned to Hunan in a reflective, and determined, frame of mind. For much of the period between the two Battles of Changsha, the Japanese Eleventh Army — the primary force facing Xue Yue's Ninth War Zone — had been commanded by General Yasuji Okamura, a seasoned officer with whom Xue had developed a degree of familiarity through combat. By early 1941, it became known that Okamura was to be transferred to the Military Advisory Council at Imperial General Headquarters in Tokyo — a prestigious but more removed role. Xue Yue reflected on this change with a mixture of relief and characteristic self-confidence, reasoning that whoever replaced Okamura would be a new adversary to be dealt with on the battlefield, and that there was no reason to lose to him regardless. Korechika Anami received his appointment as commander of the Eleventh Army on February 15, 1941. From the first day of his appointment, he carried a detailed battle map of the three provinces facing his command — Hunan, Hubei, and Jiangxi — along with comprehensive intelligence files on both sides' troop dispositions and strengths. He studied these materials constantly, on trains, in waiting rooms, wherever he had a free moment. By the time he formally took up his post on March 10, 1941, he already had a clear operational vision for the coming campaign. Before reaching the front, Anami stopped in Nanjing to meet with General Hata Shunroku, the Commander-in-Chief of the China Expeditionary Army. Hata had himself arrived in China in early 1941, having been summoned by the Emperor before his departure and entrusted with what the Emperor called the sacred mission of resolving the China Incident. The two men talked through the night, their conversation returning repeatedly to the planned summer-autumn offensive. Hata urged Anami to annihilate the main force of the Ninth War Zone in the area south of the Miluo River — to destroy, once and for all, the core of Chiang Kai-shek's best troops. "If this battle is fought well," Hata told him, "the entire war situation in China will undergo a huge change." Anami listened and agreed, though he had his own reasons to want the battle to go well. He had voluntarily relinquished the prominent position of Vice Minister of the Army at General Headquarters in Tokyo to take this field command — a significant personal sacrifice that reflected his deep desire for battlefield achievement. There was a personal dimension to Anami's motivations as well. His second son, a bright and lively boy to whom he was deeply attached, had died in combat in China. Anami carried a photograph of his son wherever he went, and had resolved to transform his grief into a consuming commitment to military excellence, whatever the human cost. At the Eleventh Army's headquarters in Yueyang, Anami found the war game board and operational plans that Okamura had left behind. He did not immediately begin issuing orders. Instead, for weeks he immersed himself in the problem, traveling between divisional headquarters and subordinate commands to gather ground-level perspectives, or sitting alone for hours before the great map, motionless and in deep concentration. His new chief of staff, Kinoshita Isamu, who had come from a divisional unit and was unfamiliar with his commander's temperament, could only keep silent company during these long sessions. When Anami eventually convened his headquarters personnel to explain his operational intentions, he made a pointed critique of the First Battle of Changsha. "The reason why the last battle in Changsha did not achieve great results," he said, "was that the troops were too dispersed and the main direction of attack was not highlighted, so they could not form a strong impact and lethality." He named the new operation "Operation Plus" — a deliberate contrast with what he saw as the subtracted, diluted efforts of the previous campaign. His concept was one of radical concentration: rather than dispersing the attack across multiple fronts in Hubei and Jiangxi while simultaneously advancing on Changsha, Anami proposed pulling the forces from southern Hubei and northern Jiangxi and massing them in front of northern Hunan. The effect on his staff officers when he demonstrated this redeployment on the map was electric; one of them involuntarily exclaimed aloud at the sudden clarity of the advantageous position that mass concentration would create. Anami's personality was, in the judgment of those who worked with him, fundamentally different from Okamura's. A commander's fighting style is shaped by his character, and Anami's character was defined by intensity, focus, and a willingness to commit fully. These traits would shape "Operation Plus" from conception to execution. On June 22, 1941, five and a half million German troops launched Operation Barbarossa — the largest military invasion in history — against the Soviet Union. The news reached the Japanese military establishment with a degree of surprise, since such a momentous operation should, under the terms of the Tripartite Pact, have been communicated in advance. Beyond the procedural slight, German strategists had placed themselves in the position of fighting a two-front war, something Japanese generals found strategically bewildering. The outbreak of the Soviet-German War forced a serious debate within the Japanese General Staff. One faction argued for a "northward advance" — seizing the opportunity to strike the Soviet Union from the east while its military was fully committed in the west. Another faction argued for a "southward advance" — moving into Southeast Asia and the Pacific to secure the oil and raw materials that Japan desperately needed. Prime Minister Fumimaro Konoe adopted a wait-and-see compromise, authorizing secret preparations for war in the north known as Operation Kantokuen while continuing to monitor developments. Now it just so happens I released a Patreon/Youtube Members exclusive episode covering Operation Kantokuen the previous month. I highly recommend it, fascinating what if piece of history. For just a teaser I can briefly summarize it: Operation Kantokuen — officially designated "Kwantung Army Special Maneuvers" — was Japan's plan for a large-scale invasion of the Soviet Far East, developed in the summer of 1941 following Germany's launch of Operation Barbarossa. When news of the German invasion reached Tokyo, Foreign Minister Yosuke Matsuoka and senior Kwantung Army officers argued Japan should abandon its neutrality pact with the USSR and strike in coordination with Germany. An Army-Navy compromise on June 24th allowed preparations to proceed so long as they did not interfere with Japan's concurrent southern ambitions. On July 5th, Matsuoka and Major General Shin'ichi Tanaka convinced War Minister Hideki Tojo to back a more ambitious scheme, and the two men then bypassed the War Ministry entirely, securing Emperor Hirohito's personal authorization. The plan was structured in two stages — a buildup and readiness phase followed by an offensive phase — during which the Kwantung Army would await an explicit order to attack. The Army General Staff calculated that any campaign had to conclude by mid-October before Siberian winter conditions made logistics impossible. Their ideal force requirement was 16 to 22 divisions supported by 800,000 tons of shipping, though this assumed the Soviets would first redeploy half their Far Eastern infantry and two-thirds of their armor westward against Germany. The planned order of battle ultimately settled on 24 divisions — 17 committed to the eastern front and 5 concentrated near Mutanchiang. The opening blow was designed to fall on the Primorye (Maritime Province) front. The 1st Area Army, commanding the 3rd and 20th Armies along with elements of the Korea Army, would cross the border south of Lake Khanka to shatter Soviet defensive lines and menace Vladivostok. Simultaneously, the 5th Army would strike south of Iman to cut the Trans-Siberian Railway and isolate the Maritime Province from northern reinforcements. In the north, the 4th Army would hold the Amur River line before pivoting to attack Blagoveshchensk, while two additional reinforced divisions would invade Northern Sakhalin in a land-and-sea pincer. A second phase envisioned capturing Khabarovsk, Komsomolsk, and Sovetskaya Gavan, with amphibious operations considered against Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky and Kamchatka itself. The operation was to be supported by a massive air assault — between 1,800 and 2,700 aircraft combining Army and Navy aviation — aimed at annihilating the Soviet Far East Air Force in the opening hours, after which Japanese air power would shift to tactical ground support and interdiction of Soviet supply lines. Armored assets included roughly 800–900 tanks, mostly Type 97 Chi-Has and Type 95 Ha-Gos. Kantokuen was also allocated chemical weapons stockpiled in Manchuria and biological agents produced by Unit 731, intended for deployment against Soviet rear areas and supply lines. Despite the scale of planning, the operation was already fatally compromised before it could be launched. Japan's industry and logistics could not sustain a two-front war while remaining bogged down in China. On August 1st, 1941, the United States enacted a total oil embargo that cut off 80% of Japan's fuel supply, and the Dutch East Indies followed. With oil reserves sufficient for only 12–18 months of peacetime consumption, a Siberian offensive that would consume an estimated one to two million barrels per month was no longer tenable. By August 9th, the Army General Staff conceded that seizing the oil-rich territories of Southeast Asia was the overriding strategic priority. The Kantokuen buildup was formally terminated, and Japan turned south — setting the course toward Pearl Harbor and the Pacific War. Now Kantokuen held some practical consequences for the China Expeditionary Army was disruptive. Serious consideration was given to redeploying units of the Eleventh Army away from their positions facing Hunan and northward toward Manchuria, in anticipation of a possible war with the Soviet Union. This threatened to derail Anami's planning entirely. The cloud of uncertainty hung over the Changsha operation for several weeks. Despite the disruption, Anami refused to let the operation be indefinitely deferred. On June 24, 1941 — just two days after Barbarossa began — he formally approved the operational guidance outline for the Changsha offensive and set a planned launch date of September 15. This was an act of deliberate institutional pressure: by formalizing the plan so quickly in the wake of Barbarossa, Anami made it harder for higher authorities to redirect his forces northward without explicitly cancelling a plan already in motion. The gamble worked. The northward deployment option was ultimately shelved, and the Eleventh Army remained in place to conduct its summer-autumn offensive. While Anami and his staff at Yueyang bent over their map of Hunan, so too did Xue Yue and his staff at Changsha. Two nearly identical colored military maps were laid out on large tables in two different command centers — one in Chinese, one in Japanese — showing the same terrain of Hunan, southern Hubei, and western Jiangxi. The Xiang River appeared on both as a green ribbon; Dongting Lake as a blue maple leaf. For those responsible for commanding the impending battle, the war game was the battle, played out in simulation before blood was shed. Xue Yue, his Chief of Staff Wu Yizhi, Chief of Staff Zhao Zili, and the intelligence and operations officers of the Ninth War Zone Command engaged in extensive map exercises throughout the summer of 1941. Wargaming pieces bearing unit designations moved across the terrain as staff officers reported troop strengths, timings, and geographic objectives. The summer heat was intense, and there was nowhere cool in Changsha; Xue and his staff worked in the heat, sweating heavily as they played out scenario after scenario. It was during these sessions that Xue came to believe he had grasped the essential shape of the Japanese plan. Reasoning from the known Japanese strategic posture and the pattern of the first battle, he concluded that the enemy would again advance roughly the same way. His counter-strategy was as follows: in northern Jiangxi and southern Hubei, the war zone would launch pincer attacks on Japanese forces that were not part of the main offensive, targeting the area north of Chongren and Xingan, east of Yichun, Wanzai, Tonggu, and Xiushui, to defeat them in detail. In northern Hunan — the main theater — the war zone would deliberately allow the Japanese to advance, luring their main force south of the Miluo River into the area north of Jinjing, Fulinpu, and Sanjieqiao, and then launch a devastating counterattack to encircle and annihilate them. After a successful counterattack, Xue imagined pursuing the broken Japanese forces all the way back to Yueyang, and beyond — even, in his more expansive moments, recapturing the great cities of Jiujiang and Wuhan, lost in 1938. This was the "lure and annihilate" strategy, and it was not merely a hope — it was the formal operational order issued to the forces of the Ninth War Zone. In August 1941, the Ninth Military Front officially assessed that Japan intended to capture Changsha and obtain supplies, and the lure-and-annihilate plan was formalized accordingly. What Xue Yue did not know — and could not know through his intelligence network alone — was that Anami's operational philosophy was fundamentally different from Okamura's. The critical assumption underlying the lure-and-annihilate plan was that the Japanese would attack in roughly the same dispersed, multi-front pattern as the first battle. Anami's "Operation Plus" invalidated this assumption entirely. By concentrating his forces in front of northern Hunan rather than dispersing them, Anami would strike with an impact Xue's cordon defenses were not designed to absorb. Xue was, unknowingly, planning to fight a replay of the first battle against an opponent who had studied that first battle as a case study in what not to do. Despite this fundamental intelligence gap, the Chinese were not without information. From mid-August 1941 onward, residents of mountain villages and riverside communities in northern Jiangxi and southern Hubei began reporting unusual nighttime activity. Faint sounds of motor engines and the footsteps of large columns moving on main roads were heard after dark. On moonlit nights, fleets of motorboats were seen moving without lights on the rivers, visible only as dark shadows on the water. The local population was puzzled and unsettled: what kind of unit was this, and what were they doing? The answer was that Anami's forces were conducting their pre-offensive assembly under cover of darkness and strict light discipline, moving four divisions totaling approximately 120,000 troops into position for the attack on Hunan. Military and civilian intelligence agents operating in these areas crouched in the bushes, enduring insect bites through long nights, watching and recording everything they witnessed. The information was relayed by human chain, passed from one agent to another across a network stretching back to Changsha, until it was collated and placed on Xue Yue's desk by staff officers from the Ninth War Zone Command's Intelligence Department. Xue studied the reports carefully, comparing them against his map. The evidence of a large Japanese build-up in northern Hunan was unambiguous. But Xue was suspicious of its implications. "Mobilize troops? All the troops are moved to northern Hunan. What about Tongcheng? What about Yueyang? Impossible! Feint? What does that mean? You want me to concentrate my troops in northern Hunan so you can attack from both sides?" His staff officers were similarly uncertain how to read the intelligence. The scale of the Japanese concentration defied the pattern of previous operations, and Xue's trained instincts — calibrated against years of dealing with Okamura — led him to doubt what his intelligence was plainly showing. He concluded, without firm evidence, that the concentration must be a feint or a deception. On August 26, 1941, Imperial General Headquarters in Tokyo issued Mainland Order No. 538, which authorized the Commander-in-Chief of the China Expeditionary Army to "temporarily conduct operations beyond the designated operational area in Central China during the summer and autumn." This order provided the formal imperial sanction for the Changsha offensive, lifting any remaining bureaucratic constraints on Anami's operational plan. It represented the final piece of institutional authorization, completing a chain that stretched from Anami's June 24 approval of the operational outline through Hata's advocacy at the China Expeditionary Army level to the formal imprimatur of the Imperial General Headquarters. With Mainland Order No. 538 in hand, the Eleventh Army's final preparations could proceed without ambiguity. The original planned launch date of September 15 would in practice be moved forward, with combat beginning on September 7 — itself a date chosen partly to maximize the advantage of late-summer weather conditions in the Hunan river-crossing terrain. By the time Anami's forces were assembled, the operational force was formidable. Estimating that the enemy facing them comprised fifteen divisions from the Chinese 4th, 37th, 99th, 74th, and 26th Corps, Japanese planners calculated — somewhat optimistically — that two infantry battalions would suffice to handle one enemy division. To provide a margin for error and to ensure decisive striking power, the Eleventh Army committed forty-one infantry battalions distributed across four full divisions and three specialized task forces, supported by twenty-nine artillery battalions. This represented a massive concentration of firepower and manpower along a relatively narrow axis of advance, precisely as Anami had intended. The objective was clearly stated: "to deal a major blow to the Ninth Military Front in order to thwart the enemy's plan for resistance." Japanese senior leadership reiterated at every briefing that the mission was emphatically not territorial — the army was not to occupy Changsha or secure it for long-term administration, and it was not to forage for supplies. The goal was destruction of Chinese combat power. On the Chinese side, the Ninth Military Front had not been idle. Since the Battle of Shanggao in March 1941 — a significant Chinese defensive victory in Jiangxi that had inflicted heavy casualties on Japanese forces attempting to advance into the province — the Ninth Military Front had ordered its troops to cooperate with guerrilla units operating in the Hunan-Hubei-Jiangxi border region, conducting harassment operations against Japanese logistics and communications. This cooperation served both to maintain offensive pressure and to train the irregular forces that would prove invaluable in a war of attrition. By August 1941, Xue Yue had assembled a force of thirty-five divisions organized into thirteen armies across three army groups, totaling 378,307 troops. The headquarters of the Ninth Military Front remained in Changsha. Xue had also assessed his forces' combat readiness with some confidence: in the summer of 1940, the Ninth War Zone had dispatched one corps from each army group and one division from each corps on summer offensive operations against Japanese positions, explicitly testing their readiness in real combat. Although no major victories had been achieved in those operations, the exercise confirmed that troop morale was high and that combat effectiveness had recovered to the level of the First Battle of Changsha. If anything, Xue thought, after another full year of training, they should be better. I would like to take this time to remind you all that this podcast is only made possible through the efforts of Kings and Generals over at Youtube. Please go subscribe to Kings and Generals over at Youtube and to continue helping us produce this content please check out www.patreon.com/kingsandgenerals. If you are still hungry after that, give my personal channel a look over at The Pacific War Channel at Youtube, it would mean a lot to me. Operation Plus, emphasized concentrating forces and creating a decisive breakthrough rather than dispersing attacks across multiple fronts like in earlier battles. On the Chinese side, commander Xue Yue developed a "lure and annihilate" strategy, expecting the Japanese to fight like before; however, Anami's concentrated approach undermined these assumptions, making a Chinese counteroffensive far harder to execute.