Podcasts about reinforced

#269th for 23th January, 2025 or 3311! (33-Oh-Leven, not Oh-Eleven, OH-Leven) http://loosescrewsed.com Join us on discord! And check out the merch store! PROMO CODES https://discord.gg/3Vfap47Rea Support us on Patreon:  https://www.patreon.com/LooseScrewsED PowerPlay Update:  The battle for Bumber Squad Update:  Still working on the things we've been working on Retaking TT 58343, Maikoro and NLTT 1139 - home of Spanky, the official white dwarf of LSN; Beating down our overheating systems and boosting our stragglers,  Operation New Horizons - Our expansion -> colonization program taking us out of the Bubble.- we're making progress in phase 1 winning strategic conflicts (we will let you know which ones we care about) All details in the #standing-orders and/or the #loose-screws-factions channels of the Discord. Galnet Update: https://community.elitedangerous.com/ LYR is in the top 5 of powers! Archer IS NOT!

Foundations of Property Law I. Introduction Property law, which governs the ownership, use, and transfer of property, is crucial for regulating resource allocation, resolving disputes, ensuring stability, fairness, and economic development. Property is defined as a "legally protected interest that a person or entity has in a tangible or intangible thing," and property rights are essential to understanding the relationships between individuals, communities, and the state regarding resources, land, and possessions. Categorization of Property Real Property: Land and anything permanently attached (buildings, trees). Personal Property: Movable items (vehicles, jewelry, furniture) and intangible rights (intellectual property, stocks). Tangible Property: Physical items that can be touched and moved. Intangible Property: Non-physical assets (patents, copyrights, bank accounts). Bundle of Rights Theory Property rights are a collection of rights including the rights to possess, use, exclude others, and transfer ownership. These rights are not absolute and may be limited by law, agreements, or societal interests. II. Historical Context and Evolution English Common Law Roots US property law is based on English common law, which developed from the feudal system where land ownership was hierarchical, with the king owning all land and tenants holding it in exchange for obligations. The decline of feudalism and rise of market economies led to a gradual transformation of landholding into private ownership where individuals could acquire rights to own and transfer land freely. American Values and Historical Injustices US property law reflects individual liberty and economic opportunity. The Homestead Act of 1862 granted settlers land ownership, emphasizing property as a tool for nation-building and personal empowerment. However, property law has also been used to dispossess Native Americans and perpetuate social and economic injustice, as seen in the Doctrine of Discovery and the treatment of enslaved people as chattel property. Landmark Judicial Decisions Pierson v. Post (1805): Established the principle of first possession, ruling that ownership is conferred upon the individual who first takes possession of a resource. Johnson v. M'Intosh (1823): Reinforced federal authority over land transactions with Native Americans. III. Acquisition of Property Property can be acquired through various methods, including: First Possession: The first person to take control of a resource or object becomes its owner (illustrated in Pierson v. Post). Adverse Possession: Acquiring property by occupying it for a statutory period, under specific conditions (open and notorious, continuous, exclusive, and hostile possession). Discovery: Finding new, unclaimed lands or resources. Capture: Taking control of wild animals or other unowned objects. Creation: Acquiring property rights through invention, artwork, or discovery (the basis of intellectual property law). Gift Transfers: Elements of a valid gift include intent, delivery, and acceptance. IV. Key Doctrines and Concepts Estates and Future Interests: Estates are legal interests or rights in land, determining the duration and conditions of ownership (fee simple, life estate, fee tail, defeasible estates). Future interests are rights to property that will vest in the future (reversion, remainder). Rule Against Perpetuities: Prevents indefinite restrictions on property transfer. Co-Ownership: Multiple individuals share ownership (joint tenancy, tenancy in common, community property, tenancy by the entirety). V. Conclusion Property law seeks to balance individual rights, societal interests, and economic needs. It is a dynamic system that continually evolves to address modern challenges. Understanding the foundational principles of property law is essential for navigating complex and changing situations.

On finishing the project of music, on TikTokCore and SpotifyCore, on music as cosplay and the technicity of cultural imperialism, on the bureaucratic turn in the arts, on being dangerous. Lecture given for my beloved DMR at Columbia University at the beginning of December. Feeling a bit bolder than usual on this one, but it's cuz my toddler is sleeping good.

Constitutional Law Lecture 1 - Structure of Government and Separation of Powers Introduction This lecture provides an overview of the structure of the U.S. government, emphasizing the doctrines of separation of powers and checks and balances, alongside foundational constitutional principles like federalism, judicial review, and constitutional supremacy. Key themes include: Separation of Powers: Division of authority among the legislative, executive, and judicial branches to prevent tyranny. Checks and Balances: Mechanisms for interbranch accountability. Federalism: Division of powers between the federal government and states. Judicial Review: Courts' power to declare laws unconstitutional. Constitutional Supremacy: Federal law and the Constitution take precedence over state law. Part 1: Constitutional Foundations Overview of the Constitution: Articles I, II, and III establish legislative, executive, and judicial branches. Article VI's Supremacy Clause ensures federal law overrides state laws. Marbury v. Madison (1803) established judicial review, making courts coequal enforcers of the Constitution. Federalism: Balances federal and state authority: Federal powers: Taxation, interstate commerce, national defense (e.g., Gibbons v. Ogden (1824)). State powers: Police powers, education, intrastate commerce (reserved via the 10th Amendment). Key cases: McCulloch v. Maryland (1819): Established federal supremacy and implied powers. Arizona v. United States (2012): Reinforced federal preemption over conflicting state laws. Printz v. United States (1997): Limited federal overreach on states' autonomy. Part 2: The Separation of Powers Doctrine Legislative Powers (Article I): Bicameral Congress enacts laws using powers such as: Commerce Clause (e.g., Gibbons v. Ogden (1824) expanded federal power; United States v. Lopez (1995) limited it). Taxing and Spending Power (e.g., South Dakota v. Dole (1987) upheld conditional federal funding). Necessary and Proper Clause: Authorizes laws to execute enumerated powers. Limits: Nondelegation Doctrine: Congress must set clear guidelines when delegating authority. Presentment Clause: Bills must pass both chambers and be presented to the President (INS v. Chadha (1983) invalidated legislative vetoes). Executive Powers (Article II): Includes: Commander-in-Chief authority. Appointment power (subject to Senate confirmation; limited by NLRB v. Noel Canning (2014)). Veto power and foreign affairs authority (United States v. Curtiss-Wright (1936)). Limits: Youngstown Sheet & Tube Co. v. Sawyer (1952): Prohibited unauthorized presidential seizure of private property. United States v. Nixon (1974): Limited executive privilege, affirming no one is above the law. Judicial Powers (Article III): Supreme Court exercises judicial review (Marbury v. Madison) and hears cases involving federal law or constitutional issues. Justiciability doctrines: Standing: E.g., Lujan v. Defenders of Wildlife (1992). Ripeness, mootness, and political questions limit courts' jurisdiction. Federal judges' independence is ensured through life tenure and salary protections. Part 3: Checks and Balances in Practice Interbranch Conflicts: Legislative Checks on Executive: Impeachment (e.g., impeachments of Johnson, Clinton, Trump). Control of funding and oversight hearings. Executive Checks on Legislative: Veto power, executive orders, and signing statements. Judicial Checks on Both: Judicial review (e.g., Brown v. Board of Education, Cooper v. Aaron (1958) reaffirmed federal judicial supremacy). Balancing National Security and Civil Liberties: Cases such as: Korematsu v. United States (1944): Upheld controversial wartime actions, later repudiated by Trump v. Hawaii (2018). Hamdi v. Rumsfeld (2004): Affirmed detainees' due process rights. Ex parte Milligan (1866): Limited military tribunals where civilian courts are operational. Practical Applications and Exam Strategies Hypotheticals to Consider: Delegation of power to agencies --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/law-school/support

In this episode of the Pumps & Systems podcast, we're speaking with Tom Wright, business development director at Bedford Reinforced Plastics. He'll be telling us about fiberglass-reinforced polymer, or FRP, and its uses in the water and wastewater industry. Tune in the first Wednesday of every month for new episodes of the podcast! Watch it on YouTube:https://youtu.be/m5tgH3SEYYA

In this episode, Alex talks through 3 lessons that were reinforced when he spent the day with Ben Francis, Founder and CEO of multi-billion dollar company, Gymshark. Welcome to The Game w/Alex Hormozi, hosted by entrepreneur, founder, investor, author, public speaker, and content creator Alex Hormozi. On this podcast you'll hear how to get more customers, make more profit per customer, how to keep them longer, and the many failures and lessons Alex has learned and will learn on his path from $100M to $1B in net worth.Wanna scale your business? Click here.Follow Alex Hormozi's Socials:LinkedIn | Instagram | Facebook | YouTube | Twitter | Acquisition

The wrong choice, reinforced yet again. Hear award-winning columnist Dejan Kovacevic's Daily Shots of Steelers, Penguins and Pirates -- three separate podcasts -- every weekday morning on the DK Pittsburgh Sports podcasting network, available on all platforms: https://linktr.ee/dkpghsports Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Strict Liability in Tort Law Source: Excerpts from "Strict Liability in Tort Law: An In-Depth Exploration" Main Themes: Definition and Scope of Strict Liability: Strict liability holds defendants liable for harm caused by certain activities or products, regardless of intent or negligence. It applies to inherently dangerous activities, defective products, and situations impacting public welfare. Historical Origins: The doctrine originated in English common law, notably the Rylands v. Fletcher (1868) case, which established liability for damages caused by hazardous substances escaping one's property. Key Elements: Strict liability requires (1) involvement in inherently dangerous or hazardous activities, (2) causation between the defendant's action and the harm, and (3) foreseeability of the risk. Applications: Strict liability is frequently applied in product liability, abnormally dangerous activities, animal-related injuries, environmental hazards, and vicarious liability. Justifications: The doctrine encourages safer practices, allocates risk to those best able to manage it, simplifies litigation, and protects public welfare. Critiques and Limitations: Critics argue that strict liability can unfairly burden defendants, hinder innovation, disregard fault, and lead to inconsistent application across jurisdictions. Most Important Ideas/Facts: Strict liability focuses on the inherent risk of an activity or product, not the defendant's conduct. "Unlike traditional negligence cases... strict liability focuses on the nature of the activity itself." The doctrine aims to protect the public and encourage extreme caution in high-risk situations. "This approach is designed to protect the public and encourage extra caution in certain high-risk industries and activities." Landmark cases illustrate the evolution and application of strict liability. Rylands v. Fletcher – Established the principle of liability for escapes of dangerous substances. Greenman v. Yuba Power Products, Inc. – Reinforced strict liability for defective products. Escola v. Coca-Cola Bottling Co. – Advocated for placing responsibility on the party best able to prevent harm. Strict liability promotes safety by incentivizing responsible behavior. "By holding parties strictly liable, the law incentivizes businesses and individuals engaged in dangerous activities to adopt higher safety standards." The doctrine faces criticism for potentially being unfair and stifling innovation. "Critics argue that strict liability imposes an unfair burden on defendants who may be held liable even when they exercised due care." Quotes: "Strict liability is a legal doctrine that holds a defendant liable for certain activities or actions without requiring proof of intent or negligence." "The strict liability principle operates under the notion that those who engage in particularly risky activities or manufacture products that may cause harm should bear the burden of any resulting damages, regardless of their level of care." "Strict liability differs from negligence or intentional torts because it does not require proof of fault, intent, or a breach of duty." Conclusion: Strict liability is a complex legal doctrine that balances the need to protect the public from harm with concerns about fairness and economic consequences. Understanding its history, applications, justifications, and limitations is crucial for analyzing tort cases and understanding the evolving landscape of legal responsibility in high-risk situations. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/law-school/support

Hear award-winning columnist Dejan Kovacevic's Daily Shots of Steelers, Penguins and Pirates -- three separate podcasts -- every weekday morning on the DK Pittsburgh Sports podcasting network, available on all platforms: https://linktr.ee/dkpghsports

In this podcast episode, we review the Alpinestars Convex Tech Fleece zip-up hoodie and the Alpinestars Treq Windbreaker.  We continually test and review products to carry in the Law Abiding Biker Store. These are a couple of items that made the cut.  We also talk about Lurch riding an expert section of the Backroad Discovery Route (BDR).  We are lucky that section two of the Washington BDR runs right through our backyard.   SUPPORT US AND SHOP IN THE OFFICIAL LAW ABIDING BIKER STORE The Alpinestars Convex Fleece has garnered attention as a versatile choice for those who need a hoodie that combines comfort with performance-driven design. Known for their high-quality motorsport and adventure gear, Alpinestars has delivered a fleece that caters to everyday wearers and motorcycle enthusiasts alike. Let's dive into why the Convex Fleece has become a go-to for style, warmth, and functionality. Key Features Material and Comfort: Made from a premium blend of cotton and polyester, the Alpinestars Convex Fleece provides a cozy feel and excellent breathability. The material is soft against the skin, ensuring comfort during long rides or extended wear throughout the day. Design and Fit: The hoodie sports a streamlined, athletic fit that hugs the body without restricting movement. This modern design appeals to both active users and style-conscious buyers. The Convex Fleece is available in multiple color options, making it easy to pair with any outfit, on or off the road. Practical Features for Riders: Alpinestars designed this fleece with practical features in mind. It includes a full-length front zipper for temperature control and hand-warmer pockets that double as storage for small essentials. Reflective detailing enhances visibility, adding a safety element for those who may wear it while riding in low-light conditions. Durability: Alpinestars is known for durability, and the Convex Fleece lives up to this reputation. Reinforced stitching and quality materials ensure that this hoodie can withstand the wear and tear of both everyday use and more rugged outdoor adventures. Performance on the Road For motorcycle riders, the Alpinestars Convex Fleece excels in providing a balance between warmth and mobility. While it's not a full-on riding jacket, the fleece is ideal for layering under protective gear or for casual rides in mild weather. The moisture-wicking properties help keep you dry, and the fleece lining offers warmth without being bulky, making it a great choice for cooler rides. Pros and Cons Pros: Stylish and versatile design suitable for casual and active wear. High-quality materials ensure long-lasting comfort. Thoughtful features like reflective elements for added safety. Breathable and warm, perfect for layering or standalone use in mild weather. Cons: Not specifically designed as protective gear for riding. May not provide enough insulation for extremely cold weather without layering. Final Verdict: Is the Alpinestars Convex Fleece Worth It? For those who appreciate functional fashion and are fans of the Alpinestars brand, the Convex Fleece is a worthwhile investment. This hoodie provides excellent comfort, style, and practical features that make it a staple in any wardrobe, especially for riders. It's perfect for layering under jackets or wearing on its own, making it a year-round choice for anyone looking for a quality fleece that doesn't compromise on performance or looks. Whether you're hitting the road or just need a reliable everyday hoodie, the Alpinestars Convex Fleece combines the brand's heritage of quality with modern style and versatility. CHECK OUT OUR HUNDREDS OF FREE HELPFUL VIDEOS ON OUR YOUTUBE CHANNEL AND SUBSCRIBE! The BDR is a type of scenic or adventurous road trip, often focusing on less-traveled, rural, or off-the-beaten-path routes that offer a more intimate and immersive travel experience. Typically, these routes cater to those seeking adventure, natural beauty, and cultural experiences that are off the main tourist path. Backroad discovery routes are popular for road-trippers, motorcyclists, and outdoor enthusiasts who appreciate a slower, more scenic journey over high-speed highways. In the U.S., BDR are specific, mapped-out routes for adventure motorcyclists and off-road vehicle enthusiasts. These routes: Span several states, such as Colorado, Idaho, Utah, and Washington. Are usually designed for multi-day trips. Incorporate various terrains like mountains, deserts, and forests. Are mostly unpaved, involving dirt roads, forest trails, and rocky passes. Include both challenging sections for experienced riders and easier paths for beginners. Each route is usually developed with local input to highlight scenic and historical locations and to support rural economies by guiding travelers toward small towns and local businesses. These routes typically have resources, including GPS tracks, maps, and travel guides, available to help riders safely navigate and enjoy the journey. NEW FREE VIDEO RELEASED: I Rode My Harley On This Police Motorcycle Course in Oregon! Sponsor-Ciro 3D CLICK HERE! Innovative products for Harley-Davidson & Goldwing Affordable chrome, lighting, and comfort products Ciro 3D has a passion for design and innovation Sponsor-Butt Buffer CLICK HERE Want to ride longer? Tired of a sore and achy ass? Then fix it with a high-quality Butt Buffer seat cushion? New Patrons: Mark Womble of Clearfield, Utah Stacy Paul of Kansas City, Missouri James Brandon of Dayton, Nevada If you appreciate the content we put out and want to make sure it keeps on coming your way then become a Patron too! There are benefits and there is no risk. Thanks to the following bikers for supporting us via a flat donation: Louis Fetherolf Douglas Emerson Peter Hando HELP SUPPORT US! JOIN THE BIKER REVOLUTION! #BikerRevolution #LawAbidingBiker #Bikaholics #RyanUrlacher

If you keep God's Word close to your heart, it'll only improve your life for the better. -------- Thank you for listening! Your support of Joni and Friends helps make this show possible.     Joni and Friends envisions a world where every person with a disability finds hope, dignity, and their place in the body of Christ. Become part of the global movement today at www.joniandfriends.org   Find more encouragement on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, and YouTube.

Warren Martin, Kansas Strong, joins Jason Spiess on This Week In Energy to give a movie review on how the movie series Mad Max reinforces the need for oil and gas in a modern civilization. The Mad Max series, starting with George Miller's original 1979 film, is a stark portrayal of a dystopian future where the scarcity [...]

Taking over an iconic estate can be both exciting and terrifying. When EPI purchased the iconic Brunello di Montalcino producer Biondi Santi in 2017, they asked Giampiero Bertolini to take over as CEO. Giampiero was excited to join the “Champions League” of wine but also had to convince the local community that this outside investment would be good. He delves into how Biondi Santi has been pushing toward creating more value for the brand while maintaining its core essence.  Detailed Show Notes: Biondi Santi's historyFamily invented Brunello di MontalcinoFounded in 1888 - Ferruccio Biondi Santi had a vision of quality wine with longevity during a time when people focused on quantity with wine as part of the dietBottled in Bordeaux-shaped glass (a sign of quality) vs. standard Tuscan fiascoTancredi Biondi Santi - one of the top consulting winemakers of the time, was asked to write appellation rules in 1967Franco Biondi Santi (“the doctor”) - selected the BBS11 clone in the ‘70s and organized a 100-year vertical tasting (1888-1988) in 1994 with important wine writers that boosted the image of Brunello. One writer gave the 1891 vintage 100 pointsLa Storica (wine library) - has all vintages since 1888, releases one old Riserva with a current Riserva each yearPath to Iconic StatusThe vision of the family - be good winemakers, high-qualityIn the global market regularly → elevated the Biondi Santi to a different levelThe wine offered to Queen Elizabeth II in 1967 was a favorite of Frank Sinatra'sEPI acquired Biondi Santi in 2017 and installed Giampiero as CEO; the community was skeptical of French owners for an iconic estate had to convince neighbors by being transparent about what they were doing at the estateBefore the takeover, prior 20 years, the business was not run wellRebuilt global distribution, did not have US distributionRe-connected with trade, critics, and consumers/collectorsWhat they kept the sameReinforced market positionStyle of the winesWhat they changedNew vineyard philosophy (regenerative), replanted vineyards to improve quality, conducted soil studiesIncreased communications and more selective to the right people and thproperht channelsManaged pricing to reposition the brand to increase demandKeeping the brand freshwant s to be closer to the trade and consumer, spend more time in the marketStorytelling of what is happening at the estate, not just the history, but today's actions that protect the futureLa Voce di Biondi Santi - started 3 years ago, selects one word each year that is part of their philosophy (this year is “respect”); creates novel/audiobook based on a keyword (e.g., Joanne Harris, author of Chocolat) and podcasts with winemaker and Giampiero around the keywordThe most effective initiative so far - repositioning the brand by increasing price → gave higher credibility and put the brand up another step, old vintages increasing in price on the secondary market, high demand on Liv-ex (one of few growing while price increasing), one of the top 35 wines in the world on Liv-exGrowth for Biondi Santi = value growth; volume is complex to growValue-driven by increasing distribution globally to rarify the brand further, not just taking price, but increasing value, which is a consequence of many conditions, and not rushing value creation in the marketBiondi Santi is now in 2.0 after 1st five years, and the next step is to increase the quality of its presence in the world and be closer to partners and consumers Get access to library episodes Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this edition of The Naked Scientists: Scientists uncover a way to help amputees toughen up their skin to make prostheses more comfortable; Covid mRNA jab pharmaceutical company Moderna turn their attention to vaccines for mpox; and the Astronomer Royal, Martin Rees, on whether ET is really out there... Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

Series: Blueprints: God's Design for Church and Family   Last week: The family is God's blueprint for human flourishing Immediate Family God's Family of Redeemed Humanity (CHURCH) As the family goes, so goes the culture Place of Societal Stability The enemy Hates the Family Because it is a blessing from God God used marriage and family as a METAPHOR for his relationship with His Church Bride of Christ God has and is redeeming the concept of the family   This leads us to… LAYING THE FOUNDATION FOR HEALTHY FAMILIES   What are values? Values: Ideas and behaviors that are important to a person or group of people Values demonstrate who we are We ALL value something Culture is a combination of values The highway that leads us to flourish or decay Jesus teaches about values in this way… Matthew 7 24 “Therefore, everyone who hears these words of mine and acts on them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. 25 The rain fell, the rivers rose, and the winds blew and pounded that house. Yet it didn't collapse, because its foundation was on the rock. 26 But everyone who hears these words of mine and doesn't act on them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. 27 The rain fell, the rivers rose, the winds blew and pounded that house, and it collapsed. It collapsed with a great crash.”   Jesus teaches that all values ARE NOT created equal   Our culture currently operates from a… Desire Driven Values: Desire creates my truth from within myself; thus, everyone around me must align to MY values Emotions driven by desire lead to the truth that governs my life   The values of our SECULAR Culture Individuality: How we view identity and personal value I am my own authority I choose who and what I am The individual overrides the collective Moral autonomy: How we view shame and repentance I do as I choose and cannot be judged The only one who can make me feel shame is myself Shame is an abuse of the power of others over my life and is harmful to me Power Projection: How we view protection and authority Race, wealth, government, sexes, individual communities) The “oppressed now has the right to oppress the oppressor) Victim mentality gives power Might makes right   How do these things work themselves out? Galatians 5 19 Now the works of the flesh are obvious: (aka… Values of secular Culture) sexual immorality, moral impurity, promiscuity, 20 idolatry, sorcery, hatreds, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambitions, dissensions, factions, 21 envy, drunkenness, carousing, and anything similar. I am warning you about these things—as I warned you before—that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. Do these values lead to FLOURISHING in the following examples? For mom and dad? For kids? Friends? This leads to decay… NOT flourishing   Christian Family Values (Blueprint) Spirit & Truth Driven Values: Objective truth is outside of myself; thus, I must align my life with its values Within the boundaries of God, our Lord and Creator What are some Christian values? Galatians 5 22 But the fruit of the Spirit (Spirit & Truth Values) is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, and self-control. The law is not against such things. 24 Now those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.   Do these values lead to FLOURISHING in the following examples? For mom and dad? For kids? Friends? This leads to FLOURISHING and BLESSINGS… NOT Decay/brokenness They can help put broken things back together   2 major problems when it comes to values… Problem #1: Assuming values   Parents assuming that you knew something you didn't A tradition A rule Assuming is one of the BIGGEST enemies of teaching VALUES where there is uncertainty, there is confusion Problem #2: Situational Values Lying is bad unless I need to do it Gossiping is bad about me unless I know something you need to Speeding is wrong unless it's I'm in a hurry Sex outside of marriage is wrong… unless you've been married before Being generous is good unless I don't think they deserve it The values we typically possess are the ones that are most convenient for us at a specific moment If that are, then they are NOT Biblical Values   Losing the “moral high ground” with your kids because of your decisions Divorce and dating with kids How do we make sure the correct values are being valued? 1: Values are TAUGHT and MODELED Proverbs 22:6 6 Start a youth out on his way; even when he grows old he will not depart from it.   Family Values Teaching the next generation the challenges and values of the culture vs the values of the kingdom Parents to kids, mentors Taught at home, Church is a reinforcement of those values We often overprotect our kids in real life and underprotect them online Set up safeguards so that you are not battling outside values before your child is ready The POWER of a mentor Kids can brush off their parents, but the power of an outside agent giving the same information is a powerful resource Single Parents Values are Reinforced in COMMUNITY Why church is so important You and your kids will value the values of their most CONSISTENT CONTACTS “Show me your friends, I'll show you your future”   2: Values are REINFORCED Through Discipline   Starting a new job Value stated = Respecting one another Value demonstrated = Gossip, taking credit for others work, lying The values that are reinforced are the REAL VALUES Discipline is the reinforcement of our values Discipline (Tough Love)   Hebrews 12 3 For consider him who endured such hostility from sinners against himself, so that you won't grow weary and give up. 4 In struggling against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood. 5 And you have forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons: My son, do not take the Lord's discipline lightly or lose heart when you are reproved by him, 6 for the Lord disciplines the one he loves and punishes every son he receives. 7 Endure suffering as discipline: God is dealing with you as sons. For what son is there that a father does not discipline? 8 But if you are without discipline—which all receive—then you are illegitimate children and not sons. 9 Furthermore, we had human fathers discipline us, and we respected them. Shouldn't we submit even more to the Father of spirits and live? 10 For they disciplined us for a short time based on what seemed good to them, but he does it for our benefit, so that we can share his holiness. 11 No discipline seems enjoyable at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.   Healthy discipline is ALWAYS from a place of love Discipline is training   Proverbs 13:24 The one who will not use the rod hates his son, but the one who loves him disciplines him diligently.   Parental Discipline Consistency Raising kids you actually like Outside influence (community) Having a GOAL for your kid's behaviors   Church Discipline Much “church hurt” was actually “church discipline” Discipline for Adults Kids who were never disciplined can't handle healthy discipline when grown   Christian Discipline is gentle, clear, and consistent Without discipline, there can be no restoration, humility, forgiveness   Discipline vs Punishment Correction vs Condemnation Conviction vs Condemnation Condemnation leads to the dark; Conviction leads to the light   Family Ministries at Cornerstone Teaches values that you may not know You want them there for their own sake Healthy discipline is a practice of humility On the part of the one receiving discipline On the part of the one GIVING discipline Mentorship = Investment into the next generation Mentorship and Discipline Values Form the Foundation for us: Individually Collectively As Christians   Let's make sure the values we have are CHRISTIAN FAMILY VALUES

Teacher messages are foundational to building strong, positive relationships with students. These relationships are critical for creating an environment where students feel supported, motivated, and capable of achieving success. When students trust and feel connected to their teachers, they are more likely to engage deeply in their learning, take academic risks, and ultimately achieve success. Read Moments of Genuine Connection (MGCs) – DSJR Student Motivation Guide from Dave Stuart here.  Watch Dave's video, "What are Moments of Genuine Connection?" here.  Read Daniel Yeager's "Wise Critiques Help Students Succeed" here.   Subscribe to the Steve Barkley Ponders Out Loud podcast on iTunes or visit BarkleyPD.com to find new episodes!

Last time we spoke about the fall of Guam and actions in New Guinea. General Shepherd's Marines had secured the Orote Peninsula, while General Turnage's Marines pushed the Japanese northwards. General Bruce's 77th Division prepared for an eastward assault, and engineers attempted, but failed, to build a supply road to Yona. Geiger's offensive began on July 31, with Marines quickly capturing Agaña and advancing despite dense jungle and resistance. The 77th Division faced tough terrain but liberated 2,000 Guamanians. The push north continued, facing logistical challenges and mined roads. By August 7th, coordinated attacks cleared key areas, culminating in the defeat of remaining Japanese forces by August 11. Guam was back in American hands although scattered Japanese forces continued guerrilla warfare until the war's conclusion. Thus the Marianas campaign had finally come to a conclusion, and now the allies were adding more bass of operation to hit the Japanese home islands.  This episode is the Fall of Myitkyina Welcome to the Pacific War Podcast Week by Week, 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 world war two? Kings and Generals have an assortment of episodes on world war two 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 you can find a few videos all the way from the Opium Wars of the 1800's until the end of the Pacific War in 1945.  This week we are diving back over to the northern Burma front. Despite holding Myitkyina through a rainy, muddy summer-long siege, by late July, the Japanese had been gradually cornered into a small perimeter, cut off from all supply lines and running short on ammunition. The situation worsened due to a leadership crisis, between the two Japanese leaders was a matter of semantics. Colonel Maruyama of the 114th Regiment who was in charge of the defense of the city, interpreted his orders to “facilitate the future operations of 33rd Army ‘by securing the vital areas in the vicinity of Myitkyina',” as a call to defend the city street-by-street, house-by-house. When General Minakami of the 56th Division arrived, he pointed out that all Maruyama had to do to satisfy his orders was simply to continue to deny the Allies access to the Ledo-Kamaing road. Minakami thus found himself in a rather difficult position in regard to the command of the Myitkyina Garrison. Maruyama had conducted an excellent defense, was fully familiar with the situation and, because of his position as former commander, exercised considerable authority. Shortly after Minakami's assumption of command, General Honda asked how long Myitkyina could stand. Minakami replied that the garrison might be able to hold out for as long as two months. A few days later, Honda was surprised to receive a second message stating, "The Myitkyina Garrison finds it difficult to hold with the poor defense facilities and meager supplies of ammunition." The Army staff concluded that the first message was undoubtedly Minakami's personal opinion as it reflected his determined character and that the second message incorporated the views of Maruyama who was more cognizant of the actual situation. In order that there should be no doubt as to the importance of holding Myitkyina, Honda sent the following message, "Maj. Gen. Minakami will defend Myitkyina to the death” — a message sent with deep regret and sadness according to the staff officers who wrote and dispatched the order. Heavy casualties had reduced the Japanese forces from around 3,000 to fewer than 1,500, further weakening the garrison's defensive capabilities. This number included the heavily wounded and hospital patients, who could only be evacuated by drifting down the Irrawaddy River on rafts, often intercepted by the unforgiving Kachin Levies. On July 24, eight rafts and a boat laden with Japanese were attacked on the Irrawaddy by Kachins of the OSS Detachment 101. Twenty-four Japanese were killed, two captured, and then it was learned these were hospital patients fleeing Myitkyina. Three more Japanese seized by friendly Burmans revealed that hospital patients were being evacuated by the simple expedient of letting them drift down the river on rafts. As these fierce defenders began to falter, General Wessels felt ready to launch his final push. Reinforced by the 149th and 90th Regiments, the American-Chinese forces made daily gains of several hundred yards during the last days of July, though at a significant cost. As the Japanese-held area shrank, counterattacks became less dynamic, captured positions were less fortified, and many Japanese dead were found to be severely wounded men returned to the line. Unbeknownst to the Americans, the desperate defenders had requested a withdrawal to the east by the end of the month. Though Minakami had intended to fight to the last, he ultimately agreed to preserve his men's lives. On the night of August 1, the Japanese began their escape, crossing the Irrawaddy east of the town. Weighing the many evidences that control of the situation was rapidly passing into their hands, Wessels and his colleagues drafted a new plan of attack. It included an ingenious device, credited to General Pan Yu-kun of the 50th Division. A raiding party, formed into fifteen heavily armed sections, was organized and briefed on infiltrating Japanese lines facing the 50th Division. Having made its way through the Japanese lines in darkness, it was to remain hidden until 0430 when the 50th would assault while the raiders spread confusion behind the Japanese lines. Meanwhile, air reconnaissance revealed many rafts moored against the Irrawaddy within the Japanese lines. "At 0300 hours (3 August), when the moon went down and rain and thunder set in, the raiding party of the 50th Division moved out. The approach was detected only once and some shots were fired at the raiders, who hit the ground. The Chinese did not return fire however, and after laying low for a while, moved out again quietly and cautiously." While the raiders created confusion behind Japanese lines, the 50th Division launched a full attack, quickly overwhelming the remaining enemy positions and capturing 187 prisoners, thus securing Myitkyina for the Chinese. However, about 800 Japanese managed to escape eastward and later rejoined their allies. Minakami was not among them. As the 3rd of August meandered on in a haze of gunfire, blood and rain, Minakami went to sit with his back against a tree. There came the sound of a pistol shot. Japanese officers nearby sprinted to the scene. The general's orderly was in tears. They found Minakami's body erect against the tree trunk, facing northeast, towards Japan. The ten-week siege resulted in approximately 3,000 Japanese killed or captured; 972 Chinese killed, 3,184 wounded, and 188 evacuated due to illness; and 272 Americans killed, 955 wounded, and 980 evacuated sick. Overall, the total American-Chinese casualties in 1944 amounted to 13,618 Chinese and 1,327 American casualties. A week later, the Galahad Unit, reduced to only 130 combat-effective men from the original 2,997, was disbanded. The fall of Myitkyina was General Stilwell's greatest victory, earning him a promotion to full general on August 1, two days before the city fell. The attack was costly in terms of suffering and losses, but the Mogaung-Myitkyina area was a significant prize. It allowed Ledo Road builders and American transport planes to move to Myitkyina and enabled ground forces to link up with other Chinese forces in neighboring Yunnan. As the fighting moved further south down the Hukawng and Mogaung valleys, it became safer for transports to use the lower, more southerly routes to China. This, in turn, increased Hump deliveries to China from 13,686 tons in May to 18,235 tons in June and 25,454 tons in July.  While the Allies celebrated victories in northern Burma, the situation in China was dire as the Ichi-Go offensive resulted in many Chinese casualties. By August 1, General Yokoyama had amassed 110,000 troops around Hengyang, equipped with five heavy artillery pieces, fifty mountain artillery pieces, and 40,000 shells. Conversely, General Fang's resilient defenders had dwindled to 3,000 exhausted troops, with their defenses largely destroyed. General Xue Yue's reinforcements had failed to reach Hengyang, leaving the Chinese forces to rely on the 46th Army to launch an attack along the railway. On August 4, Yokoyama initiated his main offensive. The 68th and 116th Divisions launched a significant assault from the south and southwest, while the 58th Division quietly positioned itself near the enemy's northern defenses. Initially, progress was slow. However, by August 5, Yokoyama's forces had captured Yoping and School Hill. The next day, the 116th Division secured part of the city's defenses. On August 6, the 58th Division breached the city walls from the north, forcing Fang to redeploy troops to counter this new threat. Intense street fighting broke out on August 7 as the defenders valiantly tried to repel the Japanese attacks. By nightfall, the 68th Division had overrun the southern defenses and entered part of the Walled City. Gradually, enemy troops began to surrender, and before dawn on August 8, after 48 days of fierce resistance, Fang was compelled to surrender. Following the capture of Hengyang, Yokoyama declared the successful completion of the initial phase of Operation Togo and promptly began preparations for the subsequent offensive. In this phase, the Japanese reported casualties of over 3860 killed, 8327 wounded, and 7099 sick, with an estimated Chinese casualty count exceeding 100,000, including 8400 killed and 5000 captured in Hengyang alone. To spearhead the next stage of Operation Togo targeting Guilin and Liuzhou, General Okamura Yasuji's 6th Area Army was established on August 25, comprising the 11th, 23rd, and 34th Armies, along with the 27th, 40th, 64th, and 68th Divisions, alongside additional support units. This allowed General Hata to focus on countering potential American landings on the Chinese coast while Okamura directed the offensives in eastern China. Ahead of this operation, Lieutenant-General Tanaka Hisakazu of the 23rd Army initiated a preliminary offensive in late June, positioning the 23rd Independent Mixed Brigade in the northeastern sector of the Luichow Peninsula, advancing the 22nd Independent Mixed Brigade to the Tanjiang River, securing the Jiangmen area with the 22nd Division, and capturing the Qingyuan sector with the 104th Division. By late August, Yokoyama had deployed six divisions along the Shuangfeng-Leiyang line, poised to eliminate the enemy in the district west of Hengyang. On August 29, he launched the offensive, with over 100,000 troops advancing southwest amidst heavy artillery bombardment. Intense ground and aerial combat ensued, resulting in the loss of 10 Japanese planes and 15 enemy aircraft. Despite fierce resistance from Chinese defenders over three days, their entire line collapsed on September 1, prompting a retreat towards Shaoyang, Qiyang, and Jiahe. However, the Japanese advanced relentlessly, covering nearly 100 kilometers in the following days without pause. By September 5, both Qiyang and Huochangpingzhen had fallen, followed by the seizure of Lingling Airdrome on September 8 by the 3rd Division. Progressing along a north-south axis, Japanese forces secured Shaoyang and Changning, while the 58th Division captured Dongan on the same day. With initial objectives achieved, Yokoyama ordered further pursuit, with the 3rd and 54th Divisions converging in the Quanzhou area by September 14. Meanwhile, Tanaka prepared for his offensive, with the bulk of the 104th Division moving towards Taipingzhen, and a raiding unit conducting a wide envelopment maneuver along the Zhukeng-Huaiji road towards Wuzhou by September 6. Subsequently, the 23rd Brigade began its northward march from Suixi. However, Tanaka's offensive wouldn't commence for a couple of weeks. Turning to the broader context of the Pacific War, General Stilwell celebrated a major victory with the fall of Myitkyina, while General Slim's successful defense against Operation U-Go further bolstered Allied morale in the CBI Theater. In Thailand, Prime Minister Phibun's regime faced a significant crisis as Japan struggled to meet the country's essential import needs, leading to inflation, rationing, shortages, black markets, smuggling, corruption, and profiteering. The anti-Japanese Free Thai underground movement, spearheaded by Regent Pridi Banomyong, infiltrated the government, stoking public discontent against both the Japanese occupiers and Phibun's administration. As a result, following the downfall of the Tojo government, Phibun found himself compelled to step down in late July. For his part, Phibun also was thinking of ways, he claims, to prepare to turn against the Japanese. Part of these preparations included proposals to move the capital to remote Phetchabun, north of Bangkok, and construct a “Buddhist City,” a sort of center for world Buddhism, near Saraburi—both grandiose projects in typically extravagant Phibun style. Moving to the isolated, mountain-ringed Phetchabun, Phibun later argued, would facilitate a Thai uprising against the Japanese. Yet on July 18, the Tojo government in Japan resigned, and only six days later the Thai National Assembly turned down both government bills and forced the resignation of Phibun as prime minister. The deputies in the assembly voted against these plans motivated in part by the fall of Tojo, who was closely associated in their minds with Phibun, in part by their feeling that the war was turning against Japan, and in part by their feeling that Phibun was too closely identified with an authoritarian past that must now be buried for the sake of improving relations with the Allies.  Politician Khuang Aphaiwong then assumed his position as Prime Minister on August 1. Serving as a compromise candidate, he navigated between Phibun's supporters and the opposition while maintaining cooperation with the Japanese and safeguarding Free Thai members who had collaborated with the Allies. Meanwhile, in China, the success of Operation Ichi-Go led to another leadership crisis. Despite the initial rejection of Stilwell commanding troops in China in 1942, the effective Japanese offensive posed a threat of defeat to the Chinese Government, reigniting the debate over command authority. This was especially significant as Chinese troops under Stilwell's command were achieving significant victories in northern Burma. However, Stilwell's vocal criticism of Chiang Kai-Shek's corrupt regime and incompetent generals strained their relationship. Chiang favored General Chennault, who proposed that with a monthly allocation of 10,000 tons for operations in northern China, his 14th Air Force could halt the Japanese offensive. Despite his strained relationship with Chennault, Stilwell redirected Hump allocations to increase the 14th Air Force's allocation to 8,425 tons, although he couldn't secure an additional 1,500 tons from the Matterhorn allocation. Chennault's aircraft managed to disrupt the Japanese advance, but failed to halt it completely. In late June, Stilwell faced criticism when Vice-President Henry Wallace visited Chongqing. While Wallace persuaded Chiang to allow a small American observer mission into Communist territory, he also recommended Stilwell's recall due to his perceived lack of diplomacy and strained relations with the Chinese leadership. Nonetheless, Stilwell maintained the backing of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and President Roosevelt eventually nominated him to lead the China Theater, on the condition that he make every effort to avoid upsetting the Generalissimo. In July, the President attempted to persuade Chiang to accept this arrangement, but the Generalissimo employed various diplomatic maneuvers to reject the proposal, agreeing "in principle" only after an unspecified period for his forces to adjust. He also requested the presence of a presidential representative to facilitate smooth relations between himself and Stilwell. Major-General Patrick Hurley was appointed to this role and arrived in China in August. Concurrently, the Dixie Mission arrived in Yan'an, where over the following months, American observers assessed Communist society, military tactics, and guerrilla operations, issuing reports that commended them and suggested increased collaboration. Following the fall of Hengyang, tensions escalated in China, with rumors swirling about potential coup plans involving Marshall Li Zhongren and General Xue Yue against the Generalissimo. Meanwhile, Chennault urged Stilwell to divert Hump airlift capacity to supply ground forces in eastern China, a move opposed by Chiang, who feared supporting potential insurgents with lend-lease equipment. Stilwell, anticipating his imminent assumption of leadership in the China Theater, refrained from challenging Chiang's stance. With significant developments looming, the intensifying rift between Stilwell and Chiang foreshadowed the downfall of one of them. Elsewhere in the South Pacific, General MacArthur's troops had finished their final offensive in New Guinea and were preparing to return to the Philippines by way of an intermediate stop at Halmahera Island. To the east, Rabaul was completely surrounded, enduring heavy bombardment from Allied air forces. Meanwhile, on Bougainville, the remaining forces of the 17th Army had retreated to the island's southern region, unable to launch further counterattacks. The living conditions of the Japanese soldiers, never good under the best of circumstances, became increasingly desperate. Added to the dangers that forward troops always faced, such as contact with large American combat patrols, was the growing specter of starvation. Sealed off from regular supplies from New Ireland or New Britain, General Hyakutake's army had to depend entirely on its own laborers to acquire food. The normal rice ration of 750 grams of rice for each soldier was cut in April 1944 to 250 grams, and beginning in September there was no rice ration. A large portion of the available army and naval personnel had to be put to work growing food. Allied pilots took delight in dropping napalm on these garden plots whenever possible. The native workers who had been impressed into service were the first to defect, but soon many soldiers also just walked away from their units, taking the chance of surviving in the jungle on what could be gathered. After the failure of the March attack, morale in most units became deplorably low. There were instances, normally unimagined in the Japanese army, of open insubordination and even mutiny. Although General Hyakutake dreamed of a midsummer offensive, it became obvious that no operations as large as that smashed in March could be undertaken for months, if ever. Thus, almost as if by agreement, both sides adopted a defensive posture that minimized the conflict in the no-man's-land between them. In the Central Pacific, significant progress had been made over the past year, marked by the complete capture of the Gilbert, Marshall, and Mariana Islands, strengthening the Allied presence and providing a launching point for future offensives into the heart of the Japanese Empire. The next target for Admiral Nimitz was the Palaus, to be invaded concurrently with Halmahera. However, the architect of this southwestern advance was not Admiral Spruance, who had been overseeing operations with the 5th Fleet. Instead, it was Admiral Halsey's 3rd Fleet, known as the "Department of Dirty Tricks," that had been strategizing the next moves from Hawaii. Now, Admiral Halsey was set to assume command of the Pacific Fleet, leading the charge to the Palaus and the Philippines. This rotation in leadership between Halsey's 3rd Fleet and Spruance's 5th Fleet was orchestrated by Nimitz to maintain operational tempo and confuse the Japanese. The alternating command structure allowed for continuous planning of future operations while the active fleet conducted current ones. However, Tokyo was apprehensive about a potential invasion of the Philippines and sought to bolster its defenses. Following the surrender of the US Army Forces in the Philippines, the 14th Army, led by Lieutenant-General Tanaka Shizuichi, worked to establish military administration, secure cooperation from civilian institutions, and quell guerrilla groups across the countryside. Despite their endeavors, their control over certain regions, particularly in the Visayas and Mindanao, remained fragile. Allied submarines and aircraft from Australia and New Guinea also delivered supplies like signal equipment, weapons, explosives, propaganda materials, and counterfeit currency to support the guerrilla forces, further impeding Japanese efforts. Additionally, with the deteriorating situation in the South and Central Pacific, more troops were redirected from the Philippines' garrison to other areas, weakening the 14th Army, now commanded by Lieutenant-General Kuroda Shigenori since May 19, 1943. Undermanned and stretched thin, the Japanese halted their suppression operations in August, hoping that the imminent declaration of independence by the Second Philippine Republic would lead guerrillas to surrender. However, this strategy backfired, as the guerrillas only grew stronger during the pause. Consequently, Kuroda restarted intensive suppression operations in 1944, but guerrilla activities escalated in anticipation of the imminent liberation by American forces. As a result, the guerrillas gained strength in the following months, providing valuable intelligence to MacArthur's forces in preparation for their eventual return. Given this context, it was evident that the 14th Army would be ill-equipped to withstand an American invasion under the current circumstances. Due to its crucial strategic location bridging Japan and the southern region rich in natural resources, Japan couldn't risk losing the Philippines. It served as their primary rear base supporting the main defense perimeter. The Philippines were also to play the role of a rear base of operations–an assembly and staging area for troops and supplies and a concentration area for air reserves, to support operations at any threatened point on the main defense perimeter from the Marianas south to Western New Guinea and the Banda Sea area. To implement these plans, IGHQ in October 1943 directed the 14th Army to complete the establishment of the necessary base facilities by the spring of 1944. Major emphasis in this program was laid upon the construction of air bases. The Army alone planned to build or improve 30 fields in addition to 13 already in operational use or partially completed. The Navy projected 21 fields and seaplane bases to be ready for operational use by the end of 1944, expanding its total number of Philippine bases to 33. Line of communications and other rear­ area base installations were also to be expanded and improved. Of the 30 Army airfields projected in October 1943, six had been generally completed by May 1944, and 24 under construction. Of the 21 projected Navy fields, 15 were still incomplete by then. Consequently, in early 1944, the decision was made to strengthen the garrison in the Philippines. Initially, this involved reorganizing and expanding existing garrison units to establish four new independent mixed brigades. These brigades were primarily tasked with suppressing guerrilla activity, while infantry divisions were assigned to defend against potential enemy landings. However, despite the estimation that at least seven divisions were necessary for the defense of Luzon, the Visayas, and Mindanao, only the 16th Division was available. Additionally, it was deemed crucial to bolster air strength with at least two air divisions, anticipating Allied invasions in Halmahera and Palau before advancing to the Philippines. Plans were formulated in March to deploy reinforcements within eight months. In mid-May, General Terauchi relocated his headquarters to Manila to oversee operations more closely. Concurrently, efforts were made to transport the 30th Division to Mindanao and bring the 4th Air Army to Manila. Furthermore, the Philippines were reinforced with the 2nd and 4th Air Divisions, the latter being tasked with constructing 30 new airfields. In June, approximately 20,000 inexperienced replacements were transported to the Philippines to bolster the recently-formed independent mixed brigades, filling them up to division strength. Subsequently, in July, the 100th, 102nd, 103rd, and 105th Divisions were activated, along with the establishment of the 54th and 55th Independent Mixed Brigades. It's ironic that despite this reinforcement, the main Japanese forces were as inexperienced as the Philippine Army during MacArthur's defense. Nonetheless, Terauchi was resolute in further fortifying the Philippines to prevent its fall, unlike MacArthur's situation. By mid-July, the reinforced 58th Independent Mixed Brigade arrived at Lingayen. Later that month, the 14th Army underwent reorganization into the 14th Area Army, with units directly under its command tasked with defending the northern Philippines. Meanwhile, the 35th Army, led by Lieutenant-General Suzuki Sosaki, was established under the 14th Area Army to defend Mindanao and the Visayas. Additionally, Tokyo finalized plans for decisive battle operations, codenamed Sho-Go, covering the Philippines-Formosa-Ryukyus-Japan-Kuriles area. This determined the disposition of Army and Navy air forces across the Pacific, with the Philippines receiving the reorganized 1st and 2nd Air Fleets and the 4th Air Army. The Philippine garrison was strengthened to a total of nine divisions and four brigades, with the 1st Division at Shanghai and the 68th Independent Brigade at Formosa designated as general reserves. Defenses and fortifications were constructed at Luzon in preparation for the decisive battle there.  Known as the Combined Fleet Top Secret Operations Order No. 84,  issued on 1 August, this fixed the new tactical grouping of naval forces for the Sho-Go Operations. Almost the entire surface combat strength of the Fleet was included in a Task Force placed under the overall command of the First Mobile Fleet Commander, Vice­Adm. Ozawa Jisaburo. This force was broken down into three tactical groups: (1) the Task Force Main Body, directly commanded by Vice­Adm. Ozawa and consisting of most of the Third Fleet (carrier forces): (2) the First Striking Force, commanded by Vice Adm. Kurita Takeo and made up of the Second Fleet with part of the 10th Destroyer Squadron attached: (3) the Second Striking Force, commanded by Vice Adm. Shima Kiyohide and composed of the Fifth Fleet plus two destroyer divisions and the battleships Fuso and Yamashiro. The First Striking Force would be stationed at Lingga Anchorage, while the Task Force Main Body and the Second Striking Force would be stationed in the western part of the Inland Sea. However, if an enemy attack was expected, the First Striking Force would advance from Lingga Anchorage to Brunei, Coron or Guimaras while the Task Force Main Body and the Second Striking Force remained in the Inland Sea and prepared to attack the north flank of the enemy task force. During August, the Navy Section of Imperial General Headquarters also took action to give the Combined Fleet more unified operational control of naval forces in order to facilitate the execution of the Sho-Go plans. On 9 August the General Escort Command and units assigned to naval stations were placed under operational command of the Combined Fleet, and on 21 August the China Area Fleet was similarly placed under Combined Fleet command. On 10 August the 1st Carrier Division, reorganized around two newly-commissioned regular carriers, was added to the Task Force Main Body. Vice Adm. Ozawa, Task Force Commander, meanwhile set 15 October as the target date for completion of the reorganization and training of the 3d and 4th Carrier Division air groups. Concurrently with these preparations, steps were taken to strengthen the antiaircraft armament of combat units. Accordingly, the Japanese sought to deploy the 8th and 26th Divisions, the 2nd Tank Division, and the 61st Independent Mixed Brigade to the Luzon region for a decisive battle. However, enemy submarines posed a constant threat. Since February, they had been patrolling the South China Sea, targeting the Hi Convoys supplying Japanese territories in Southeast Asia and Japan itself. During these engagements, Admiral Ijuin was killed aboard the patrol boat Iki. Between August 18 and 25, Admiral Kajioka's Hi-71 convoy, carrying the 26th Division, was attacked by six American submarines. The escort carrier Taiyo, destroyers Yunagi and Asakaze, two oilers, four transports, and three kaibokans were sunk, with 7420 soldiers of the 26th Division lost. The submarine Harder was the only American vessel sunk in retaliation. Kajioka's Hi-72 convoy, returning from Luzon, was also attacked, resulting in the sinking of his flagship, the kaibokan Hirato, and the loss of the destroyer Shikinami, three transports, and one oiler. Despite these setbacks, advance units of the 8th Division, 2nd Tank Division, and 61st Independent Mixed Brigade successfully reached the Philippines in September. 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. After months the siege of Myitkyina had finally ended. The Japanese had held out as long as they could, but lack of supplies and rather terrible leadership lost them the fight. Meanwhile, in China, Japanese offensives intensified, challenging Chinese defenses and leadership. It seemed war was coming to the Philippines, where the Japanese prepared to fight to the death.

Last time we spoke about the beginning of the Northern Expedition. It was a decisive shift in Warlord Era China as Chiang Kai-Shek spearheaded his campaign to reunify China by invading Hunan. Despite staggering odds and limited resources, predominantly supplied by the Soviets, Chiang Kai-Shek relied on the weakness of his adversaries. Initial successes were achieved by exploiting political instability in Hunan, where local warlords were alienated from the populace. Chiang Kai-Shek strategically gained support from local commanders like Tang Shengchih, bolstering the KMT's forces. The campaign faced logistical challenges, such as difficult terrain and cholera outbreaks, but the KMT's superior strategy and local support led to victories along key river lines. By August 1926, the KMT had effectively weakened Wu Peifu's forces and secured Hunan, establishing a crucial base for further offQensives. However the KMT's actions had now drawn the attention of Sun Chuanfang who was preparing his own offensive.   #111 The Northern Expedition Part 2: The Jiangxi and Fujian Campaigns  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. Chiang Kai-Shek's gamble into Hunan and then Hubei had paid dividends. Wu Peifu had retreated to his stronghold of Wuhan by the end of August. By September the NRA began a siege of Wuchang while capturing Hankou and Hanyang. Once Wuchang fell, Wuhan would be secured. Again for those a bit confused, Wuhan more or less refers to the conglomeration of Wuchang, Hankou and Hanyang, sometimes called the “three towns of Wuhan”. Wuhan was the first major objection of the Northern Expedition as it held an incredible arsenal, administrative structures for a government and other lucrative goodies. Now from the offset of the Northern Expedition, Chiang Kai-Shek and his subordinates chose a divide and conquer strategy. The first major warlord on their kill list was Wu Peifu. They chose him because of his powerbases proximity to Guangdong and to be frank, he was one of the weaker big warlords. To the east of course was Sun Chuanfang, who now reigned over 5 provinces and had a 200,000 strong army that had proven itself quite effective against the Fengtian forces. The NRA tried to both avoid Sun Chuanfang and offer some carrots to him. However Sun Chuanfang had no desire to join the KMT because he figured it would see him receive a lesser role than his current position. Yet the strategy of simply leaving Sun Chuanfang alone had worked thus far like a charm. Sun Chuanfang did not come rushing to Wu Peifu's aid, instead he dragged his feet. It was long enough for the NRA to take ⅔'s of Wuhan, now Wuchang was under siege and they were quite vulnerable. As reports came in, indicating Sun Chuanfang was preparing an offensive, Chiang Kai-Shek did I guess you can say the unthinkable.  Sun Chuanfang had kept his troops at bay, hoping to reap the benefits of the NRA-Wu Peifu war. As Wuchang became under siege, Sun Chuanfang finally decided to act, preparing a two pronged offensive against the NRA. Sun Chuanfang transferred 100,000 troops from Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Anhui to aid the 20,000 troops stationed in Jiangxi, concentrated along the Nanxun railway and border with Hubei. He was going to use these forces to cut off the Wuchang-Changsha railway, easing the way for him to seize Hunan and Hubei, adding more gems to his thanos gauntlet. Meanwhile the rest of his army, mostly Fujian based, would invade Guangdong.  Unfortunately for him, he did not expect the unexpected, Chiang Kai-Shek preemptively ordered 50,000 men to invade Jiangxi. As Sun Chuanfang's forces were advancing towards Jiangxi, the NRA bolted into northern Jiangxi, descending into the lowland plain near Poyang Lake. Chiang Kai-Shek's men were now threatening the capital of Jiangxi, Nanchang and further south the major city of Ganzhou. It took the 1st Division of the 5th NRA army 3 days to take Ganzhou, while most of southern Jiangxi fell to other NRA forces. Their victories were sped up by the defection of Lai Shihuang, whose Jiangxi 4th Division was one of those Sun Chuanfang had deployed to defend the province from the NRA. Despite having a larger army, Sun Chuanfang's forces were by no means unified and were failing to work together. The NRA 6th army swept through central Jiangxi, smashing the dazed defenders of Nanchang and taking the city by September 19th. This central sweep was done to attract Sun Chuanfangs fresh troops pouring into northern Jiangxi, who were just getting off steamboats along the Yangtze. In the north along the Yangtze, the NRA offensive ground to a halt when Sun Chuanfangs vanguard engaged them. Sun Chuanfangs fresh troops hurled the NRA back towards the Hubei border with a fierce 3 day long counter attack. This prompted Chiang Kai-Shek to frantically reinforce them, seeing the Wuchang besiegers became a skeletal crew from the 10th to 16th. It was not a decisive victory for Sun Chuanfang, but it certainly was a setback for the NRA whose position in the Yangtze valley was vulnerable. Sun Chuanfangs men steamrolled from Nanking, upriver to Kiukiang in Jiangxi, and he came with them to personally direct the reinforcements. He landed on September 21st and he set to work ordering his forces to sweep the lowlands. His men recaptured Nanchang after a few days and most of Jiangxi fell back under his hand. Sun Chuanfang rounded up hundreds of soldiers, officials and teachers, suspected to be colluding with the KMT and had them executed. Many students, both male and female were being targeted based on their short haircuts, this was in a Russian fashion, a fad at the time. He had their heads impaled on stakes in public places around Nanchang and Kiukiang to warn any who would collude with his enemies. Sun Chuanfang presumed the students teachers were the culprits supporting the KMT movement and made sure to purge any found doing so.  The second half of September saw the NRA losing control of the situation, the Northern Expedition was in danger of falling apart.Sun Chuanfang's two pronged offensive was pushing the NRA deep into Hunan and Hubei, while cutting them off from Guangdong. Isolated into those pockets they would become easy pickings. Sun Chuanfang could also expect support from the battered Wu Peifu who was stuck in Hubei, things were not looking good for Chiang Kai-Shek. Chiang Kai-Shek was also facing issues with his base of Guangzhou as communists and peasantry groups were disrupting his logistical support. Chiang Kai-Shek telegraphed the KMT government in Guangzhou to settle the then ongoing Canton-Hong Kong Strike, that had erupted as a result of the May 13th incident. Chiang Kai-Shek's foreign minister Eugene Chen frantically began releasing multiple announcements to the media that thousands of ex-strikers were going to be sent to the front lines to support the NRA. With this implicant threat, 16 chaotic months of blockades and strikes against Hong Kong and the British suddenly came to a stop. Back over at the Jiangxi front, the fighting was growing more intense through late September. Several areas the NRA was defending were looking dire. By the end of the month, NRA intelligence was indicating General Chu Peiteh's 3rd Army were being driven out of central Jiangxi into Hunan and Wang Polings prestigious 1st Division of the 1st army had been badly mauled and were fleeing across mountains. Sun Chuanfang began trying to coordinate his offensive with Wu Peifu's trapped forces at Wuchang with an ingenious idea of sailing along Lake Tayeh from the Yangtze dikes to land due east of Wuchang. The landing happened on September 25th and initially it sent the NRA 4th army packing. The entire front began to crumble. Yet Sun Chuanfangs position was not entirely secure either. His 5 provincial armies were not as unified as the NRA and his subordinates' loyalties were not trustworthy. In fact his generals representing separate governments of Jiangsu, Anhui, Jiangxi, Zhejiang and Fujian were all clamoring for provincial autonomy. Many of Sun Chuanfangs administrators urged him to form a real federation providing provincial autonomy.  Both Chiang Kai-Shek and Sun Chuanfang were facing different issues, but both could see their authority crumble. Sun Chuanfang began negotiating with Chiang Kai-Shek, offering to halt his offensive into Hunan in exchange for a nonaggression pact between the KMT and his 5 provinces. Chiang Kai-Shek replied in a telegram that the KMT did not desire to enlarge the war and that if Sun Chunfang withdrew his forces from Jiangxi, the KMT would withdraw from the Jiangxi territories currently occupied. Sun Chuanfang then counter proposed he would halt his offensive at the Hunan border if the NRA withdrew all their forces from Jiangxi. Sun Chuanfang was somewhat bluffing Chiang Kai-Shek. While his counteroffensive was certainly impressive, he had actually reached his limit in late September.  In early October the NRA began pushing the enemy back. By the 5th Sun Chuanfang's thrust towards Wuchang had broken and his men were rushing back to the steamers to pull back to Jiangxi. On October 3rd the NRA severed communications via that railway at Tehan. After that the NRA reorganized and gradually pressed back down into the lowlands towards the port of Kiukiang and the railway station south of Nanchang. Sun Chuanfang tossed fierce counter attacks, recapturing parts of the railway, threatening the NRA 7th army's flank. On the 7th, a combined NRA attack tried to overwhelm a fortified hill position that dominated the railway line near Yanghsiu. However Sun CHuanfangs inner defensive lines held and by the days end the NRA had taken a severe beating for their efforts as they pulled back. In the south around Nanchang the battle raged back and forth. By mid-October the capital changed hands multiple times as both sides continued to pour reinforcements in the meat grinder.  The annual holiday known as republic day, commemorating the Wuchang uprising on October the 10th was a morale booster for the NRA forces. Fate would have it, that same day, Sun Chuanfangs relief columns failed to reach Wuchang to aid its desperate defenders. Some of the garrison units secretly negotiated with the KMT and opened the gates of the city to them. As the NRA stormed Wuchang, nearly 100 civilians were trampled to death as people fled the city. Wu Peifu unable to rally any support, simply bid his time over in Honan. For the later half of October the combat began to dissipate somewhat allowing the NRA to reorganize itself. Another major development emerged, Sun Chuanfang had major problems erupting in Shanghai. In fact Shanghai was only the most apparent symptom of the problem, in reality Zhejiang was falling into a full rebellion. During September and early October, certain units of Sun Chuanfangs Zhejiang army began telegraming him demands to block entry into their province or the other 4 provinces under his rule any assistance from the Fengtian forces. A leader emerged, the head of the All-Zhejiang Association “Chuan che kunghui”, named Chu Fucheng. Now Chu Fucheng had numerous connections amongst prominent Zhejiagnese, like Chiang Kai-Shek. Chu Fucheng began orchestrating a counter movement, just before the NRA began attacking Nanchang. On October 15th, his association sent a telegram to Sun Chuanfang, demanding Zhejiang forces fighting for him be returned to duties within their home province and that Zhejiang be given autonomy. Then the civil governor of Zhejiang, Xia Chao began a rebellion, supported by the KMT at Guangzhou.  Now historically, Zhejiang had been quite a loyal province during the late Qing dynasty, a time when many were calling for the end of the Manchu domination. During the warlord era, three leading commanders of the Zhejiang forces had conceded suzerainty over Zhejiang territory to powerful warlords outside the province. This caused a situation that saw northern chinese superiors constantly forced to make conciliations with Zhejiang independence movements that sprang up nearly every year since 1916. Zhejiang had never been successfully shaking over their northern overlords. Zhejiang military leaders such as Xia Chao, Zhou Fengqi and Chen Yi, had defected the the NRA and would become crucial to the KMT conquest of the province. All three of these men had gained political influence within the province through their military power, derived from the final decade of the Qing dynasty.  Shortly after Yuan Shikai's death, Xia Chao had led the small Wubei clique against its rival the Baoding clique led by Governor Lu Gongwang. As governor Lu Gongwang had the upper hand and did all he could to undermine Xia Chao who was leading the provincial police at the time. Xia Chao gradually brushed shoulders with Zhou Fengqi who worked together to try and overthrow Lu Gongwang. However the Anhui clique gradually took over the province, and appointed Lu Yongxiang as its military governor. Xia Chao had read the tea leaves and backed Lu Yongxiangs rise, thus maintaining his own power. After Sun Chuanfang took over the province in 1924, Xia Chao became his vice commander during some of the intense fighting against the Fengtian clique. However Sun Chuanfang became weary of the local officials power and began a isolated the most powerful, moving them around so they could not network together to overthrow him.  Xia Chao was unhappy with how Sun Chuanfang treated him and he began rallying the local gentry to demand provincial autonomy and the adoption of a new constitution. Sun Chuanfang responded by dispatching his subordinate Lu Xiangting to Hangzhou on January 25th of 1926 to be Zhejiangs new military governor. Lu Xiangting showed up with his forces and positioned them along every important route in the province. Thus the attempt to succeed was snapped in the bud. Xia Chao thus put on a smile and welcomed Lu Xiangting, tossing a party for him when he arrived to show his submission so he could maintain his position. In secrecy Xia Chao began building up police and security forces to start a rebellion and he had grown quite the private army, nearly 5000 men strong. Thus at this point Xia Chao held the position of chief of Zhejiangs police and civil governor over the province; Zhou Fengqi and Chen Yi were both divisional commander's over the 3rd and 1st divisions, who had received their positions through Xia Chao. After united the 5 provinces, Sun Chuanfang had transferred Zhou Fengqi's 1st division to garrison the capital of Nanking and Chen Yi's 3rd division to defend northern Jiangsu. These moves were specifically done to remove two the Zhejiangs largest provincial military units from their home areas. Sun Chuanfang likewise had moved over to his new HQ in Nanking and this prompted Xia Chao to presume he would rule over Zhejiang, but of course that did not happen. The year of 1926 produced good conditions for an uprising to take place in Zhejiang. Poor harvests in 1925 and 1926 led to an economic crisis which was exacerbated by over taxation by Sun Chuanfang. Then the NRA launched their northern expedition, led by the Zhejiangnese Chiang Kai-Shek. Once the NRA began their offensive, Xia Chao sent word to the KMT and formed a secret agreement with Chiang Kai-Shek. As civil governor, Xia Chao promised to officially defect if Wuchang fell to the NRA. The KMT likewise notified him their contact Niu Yongjian in Shanghai would create an uprising to help him against Sun Chuanfang. Thus Xia Chao conspired with the KMT to weaken Sun Chuanfangs rear area while the bloody battle over Jiangxi was at its height. Xia Chao was going to receive a new title under the KMT, equivalent to military governor, to be chairmanship over the provincial military committee. Back over in Guangzhou in early October the KMT congress approved the motion. Xia Chao sent word to Zho Fengqi, asking him to bring his 3rd brigade back to Zhejiang, but Zhou Fengqi could not risk such a maneuver, basically some of his most important units were literally hostages to Sun Chuanfang's Nanking HQ. Furthermore if he tried to advance to Zhejiang he would be moving directly through areas held by other units loyal to Sun Chuanfang. However on October 14th, some of Zhou Fengqi's reserve forces at Nanking did attempt to escape, but they were apprehended and disarmed, very few made it back to Zhejiang. Over at Xuzhou in northern Jiangsu, Chen Yi and his 1st division refused Xia Chao's appeal to rebel against Sun Chuanfang. Without these two men and their divisions, Xia Chao was facing a huge gamble with his little rebellion. He hoped the element of surprise would allow him to capture Zhejiang and possibly Shanghai as well. On October 16th, Xia Chao declared independence for Zhejiang and boarded 2500 men of his personal army aboard trains set for Shanghai. It was not long before Sun Chuanfang received reports via telegrams about what Xia Chao was doing. It is alleged Chen Yi may have leaked information about Xia Chao's rebellion to Sun Chuanfang hoping to receive a promotion. As Xia Chao's force of unseasoned armed policemen approached Shanghai they found the tracks blocked and were forced to march by foot against prepared defensive positions. The promised communist uprising in Shanghai failed to materialize as local CCP and KMT members were still debating how to go about creating a rebellion in the city. Many CCP members urged action, but they lacked sufficient arms to really do anything. After a very brief fight on the 17th within Shanghai's western suburbs the Zhejiang, Xia Chao was forced to pull out after forces loyal to Sun Chuanfang led a decisive counter attack. Xia Chao then frantically sent telegrams to Sun Chuanfangs subordinates claiming he had been deceived into defecting over to the KMT. Xia Chao then pulled his men back to Chiahsing. Meanwhile at Hangzhou crowds gathered demanding autonomy for the province.  On the 18th a mass meeting of political activists gathered at Hangzhou proclaiming independence and support for the KMT government in Guangzhou. Xia Chao publicly joined the KMT and soon many significant Zhejiang provincial officials joined. Xia Chao then accepted his new title as provisional chairman and took command of the new 8th NRA army. They were roughly 10,000 strong, completely untrained and poorly armed. Those loyal to Sun Chuanfang began fleeing northwards en masse as Xia Chao went to work appointeding new officials. Already forewarned of the insurgency, Sun Chuanfang transferred loyal troops from Nanking by rail to the Zhejiang border. By the morning of the 20th, his troops were advancing across the border and wrecking amateurish defenses established by Xia Chao's men near Chiahsing. Both sides had railway cannons, but Xia Chao's men proved inept at their use. Xia Chao fled, leaving behind 6000 untrained and hopeless outmatched troops. By the evening Sun Chuanfang had effectively crushed the Zhejiang independence movement as he rounded up hundreds of captured Zhejiang rebels, machine gunning them down at night. The streets of Hangzhou were looted by Sun Chuanfangs men who carried out terrible massacres upon the civilian population. Xia Chao had tried to flee into the Zhejiang hillside in his car but was captured quickly in a nearby town. He was promptly shot in the streets, decapitated and his head was sent over to Nanking where it was placed on a spike as a warning to others. Chen Yi was then appointed the new governor of Zhejiang, adding to the claims it was perhaps he who sold out Xia Chao. Meanwhile Chiang Kai-Shek had all his uncommitted troops tossed into the Jiangxi warzone. Included in these were the 4th class of officers recently graduated in October from the Whampoa Academy. It was certainly a baptism under fire for these young recruits. The reinforcements allowed the NRA to finally crack Sun Chuanfangs growingly demoralized forces. Sun Chuanfangs southern defensive line was the first to begin to sag under an assault by the 2nd and 14th NRA armies. The 14th NRA army by the way was a unit that recently defected from Sun Chuanfang. By October 27th Sun Chuanfangs forces in southern Jiangxi were in a full retreat heading north through Nanchang. As the battle carried into November, the NRA began to concentrate along the Xiu valley for an assault against the Kiukiang-Nanchang defensive line. Reinforced by the 4th Army's 10th division led by Chen Mingshu, the 7th army swept down the lowland and attacked Tehan. The enemy's defensive line crumpled there allowing the NRA to cut the railway line, isolated Sun Chuanfangs south near Poyang Lake. The NRA then captured the ports of Kiukiang and Hukou along the Yangtze, further strangling Nanchang. By the 9th, Nanchang fell and Sun Chuanfangs men were in a general retreat heading down the Yangtze valley. The momentum of the NRA offensive now saw them sweep through Jiangxi. Chiang Kai-Shek began sending agents to Sun Chuanfang again offering him positions with the KMT. During the Jiangxi campaign, both sides had deployed their best troops into what essentially became a two month meat grinder. The casualties would be the highest incurred during the Northern Expedition. According to some KMT records, the final weeks push to capture the Kiukiang-Nanchang railway cost the NRA 20,000 casualties and for Sun Chuanfang, nearly 40,000. Overall the campaign saw the NRA suffer 100,000 casualties. The NRA victory saw them acquire an incredible amount of war materials, greatly expanding their military capabilities. At Nanchang alone the NRA had suffered 4000 casualties, but took 15,000 prisoners and 20,000 rifles, enough to arm an entire corps. A major reason for the heavy casualties was the NRA lack of heavy artillery. Early in the summer of 1926, when the Northern Expedition had kicked off with the invasion of Hunan, the 1st Army led by Ho Yingqin assembled along the border of Guangdong and Fujian. Being one of Sun Chuanfangs 5 provinces, Fujian posted a threat to the NRA's flank if he entered the war. Ho Yingqin had concentrated his men at Swatow primarily to defend the border, but if the opportunity arose he could very well invade Fujian. In September once the Jiangxi campaign began, the 1st Army and Sun Chuangfangs Fujian allies began engaging in border skirmishes. Sun Chuanfang had actually already given orders to his main commander in Fujian, Zhou Yingren to invade Guangdong, but Zhou Yingren had dragged his feet until late September. Zhou Yinren had 4 armies under his command, over 30,000 troops in all. When he finally launched his attack, directed primarily at Swatow, Ho Yingqin had more numbers, but Ho Yingqin had prepared a formidable defensive line over rugged coastal terrain. Zhou Yingren's late offensive was quite characteristic of the poor coordination amongst Sun Chuanfangs forces, a weakness the NRA figured out early and exploited. In another tactical blunder, Sun Chuanfangs navy, operating off Fujian's coasts and riverways, was ordered to support Zhou Jinren's assaults with naval bombardment. The navy did so, but did not target Swatow where the majority of pressure was being exerted. The main reason for this would turn out that Sun Chuanfangs main admiral had already begun secretly negotiating with the KMT to defect. In late September Ho Yingqin's 1st army received a major breakthrough. A well-timed defection of two brigade commanders under Zhou Yingren, provided Ho Yingqin with vital intelligence on his enemy's troop placements and defenses. Ho Yingqin unleashed his offensive, driving a thrust directly into Sun Chuanfangs southern flank. They were attacking what was known as the coastal road that leads to Shanghai. On October 9th, in order to distract the Fujian forces already penetrating the border of Guangdong near Sungkou, Ho Yingqin had some of his troops cross the Fujian border to capture Yungting. By the 10th Yungting was seized as Sungkou was likewise taken by October 13th. Then Ho Yingqin counterattacked the rear of the Fujian forces threatening their lines of communication.  During the rest of October the 1st Army infiltrated the lightly defended back country of Fujian. The populations of these parts were mainly Hakka who had suffered under the rule of Sun Chuanfang. The Hakka people saw the invading NRA as salvation, because by this point they had established a good reputation for not plundering and molesting peoples where they went. Local militias known as “mintuan” began assembling, to a number possibly 10,000 strong aiding the NRA. The NRA welcomed them warmly into the ranks forming 3 Fujianese divisions, one independent brigade and 3 regiments. With the additional manpower, the NRA was quickly isolating and defeating Zhou Yingrens forces. One of the last fortified positions at Tingchou saw the recently arrived 14th army working in tandem with Fujianese allies to take it. As Zhou Yingren pulled back he lost 500 rifles and machine guns, some cannons, ammunition and many men, greatly bolstering the NRA. Zhou Yingren and his men found themselves in unfamiliar mountain heights, with their straw footwear quite unsuited to defend themselves against constant hit and run tactics by the local mintuan. Along the coast, Zhou Yingren's attempts to attack the ports of Chao'an and Swatow had ground to a halt and by October 14th his men had been pushed back to Changzhou. The NRA pressed its offensive simultaneously along the coastal road and down the interior valleys making it impossible for Zhou Yingren to coordinate a proper defense of Chanzhou. By November 8th Changzhou had fallen. Zhou Yingren pulled further back up the coast to Tung'an where he mounted a defense, but the NRA seized Chuanzhou, Xienyu and Yangtai in the meantime. From late September until December Ho Yingqin had conquered the southern part of Fujian, the most populated parts by far and was now pressing upon the walled provincial capital of Fuzhou, lying just across the Min River.  The defenders of Fuzhou were quite demoralized. Zhou Yingren pleaded with Sun Chuanfang to dispatch reinforcements from the adjacent Jiangxi, but he was preoccupied with fighting there and quelling the rebellion in Zhejiang. Zhou Yingren had to do best with what he had. Unfortunately for him, many in the Fujianese navy and maritime forces had not just defected to the NRA, but they added their cannons to shelling Fuzhou from the coast and Min river bank. Then the commander of the Fuzhou garrison, Li Shengchun, simply opened the gates to the city to the NRA. Fuzhou was surrendered basically without any real fight on December 9th. Trapped within the city, the Fujian governor screamed as he was arrested “I don't understand what has happened! Our forces and weapons were superior but you have captured me!” With just under 2000 troops left of his original 60,000, Zhou Yingren limped away to Zhejiang, Fujian and effectively fallen to the NRA. 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. Chiang Kai-Shek was utilizing every trick in the book to divide and conquer Sun Chuanfang's 5 province empire. As formidable as Sun Chuanfang was, he was losing in a battle of wits and now two of his provinces had fallen victim to the NRA. Could the warlord turn things around, or would he be forced to join to lose to the KMT?

Last time we spoke about beginning of the bombing campaign against Japan. The Japanese 11th Army faced setbacks at Hengyang due to resilient Chinese defenses and supply shortages. Reinforced by General Xue Yue, Chinese forces launched effective counterattacks, regaining some territories before being pushed back. By July 20, the Japanese resumed their offensive but faced heavy resistance and were paused. American air raids on Japan and Manchuria intensified under General Arnold's orders, despite logistical challenges. In Burma, Allied forces under General Stilwell made slow but steady advances, capturing strategic positions and repelling Japanese counterattacks. The Chindits, severely depleted, were eventually evacuated. In Yunnan, Chinese forces encircled and assaulted Japanese positions, achieving significant gains despite heavy resistance and logistical issues.  This episode is the Invasion of Guam and Tinian Welcome to the Pacific War Podcast Week by Week, 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 world war two? Kings and Generals have an assortment of episodes on world war two 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 you can find a few videos all the way from the Opium Wars of the 1800's until the end of the Pacific War in 1945.  Today our week begins with the ongoings of Operation Forager. By late July, American plans for the invasions of Guam and Tinian were finalized. General Cates' 4th Marine Division was assigned to land on Tinian's White Beaches, while General Geiger's 3rd Amphibious Corps planned two amphibious landings nearly seven miles apart to trap the Japanese in a double envelopment. General Obata, who had relocated his headquarters to Guam, commanded several troops on these islands. On Tinian, Colonel Ogata Keiji's forces included the 50th Regiment, the 1st Battalion of the 135th Regiment, the tank company of the 18th Regiment, and the 56th Naval Guard Unit, totaling 8,039 men. Similar to Saipan, he divided Tinian into three sectors, with most troops defending Tinian Town and Asiga Bay. The 1st Battalion of the 135th Regiment, supported by Ogata's artillery, formed the Mobile Counterattack Force, ready to respond swiftly to landings. This left only Ogata's 3rd Company to defend the northwest coast where the Americans planned to land. Meanwhile, General Takashina's 29th Division was assigned to Guam and reinforced by Major-General Shigematsu Kiyoshi's 48th Independent Mixed Brigade and Colonel Kataoka Ichiro's 10th Independent Mixed Regiment. Takashina's units fortified the landward neck of the Orote Peninsula and established strong positions on the beaches of Agat, Asan, Tumon, and Agaña Bays. The main fortified area ran along the west coast from Tumon Bay to Facpi Point and included, of course, Orote Peninsula. Other fortified beaches, on the south and east coasts from Merizo to Pago Bay, had been abandoned before W Day, their defenders having moved to the north. Outside the main fortified area, the airfields were provided local defense by anti-aircraft and dual-purpose guns. The most notable and certainly the most effective fortifications on the island were constructed across the neck of Orote Peninsula, which contained a fairly elaborate system of trenches and foxholes arranged in depth, together with large numbers of pillboxes and heavy-caliber weapons. Outside of Orote, the prepared defenses were generally hastily constructed and often incomplete. The typical beach defense was arranged, from the seaward side, in four parallel lines: first were obstacles and mines on the fringing reef offshore; second came beach obstacles and tank traps; third were trenches, machine-gun positions, pillboxes, heavy weapons, artillery, and coast defense guns on the beaches or immediately inland; and, finally, came the machine-guns, heavy weapons, and artillery emplaced on the high ground inland. Insufficient advantage was taken of the high ground, and except on Orote little provision was made for defense in depth. Even as late as the five-week period of pre-invasion bombardment, the Japanese continued to work frantically on improving offshore obstacles and beach defenses, to the neglect of positions in the rear.They also had three tank companies in reserve to strike the beachhead alongside the infantry. Additionally, the 54th Naval Guard Unit, equipped with coastal defense and anti-aircraft guns, secured many positions with reinforced concrete. The Japanese set up specific defense sectors on this island. Shigematsu's brigade and Colonel Ohashi Hikoshiro's 18th Regiment held the Asan Beaches and the Agaña and Tumon Bays. Colonel Suenaga Tsunetaro's 38th Regiment defended the Agat Beaches, while Kataoka's forces manned the southern defenses. Additionally, Takashina had a mobile reserve behind the Fonte Plateau, which included five infantry companies, one naval unit, and one tank company. Only Ohashi's 2nd Battalion was positioned at Guam's northern end, while Kataoka's 1st Battalion was deployed to Rota Island. The Americans conducted the longest preliminary air and sea bombardment of the war against Guam, beginning on June 16 after the invasion of Saipan. This bombardment intensified after July 8, when American warships launched the greatest single naval bombardment program of the war, coordinated with Admiral Mitscher's carrier aircraft. Over the next 13 days, a total of 836 rounds of 16-inch, 5422 of 14-inch, 3862 of 8-inch, 2430 of 6-inch, and 16214 of 5-inch shells were fired at Guam's main defenses.  At the invasion of Roi-Namur Admiral Conolly had earned the sobriquet "Close-in Conolly" for his insistence that warships cruise close to shore when firing at land targets. At Guam, he reaffirmed his right to the title, but more important was the systematic procedure he introduced for coordinating naval gunfire and aerial bombardment and checking the results of each. A target board of six officers, representing the air, gunnery, and intelligence sections of the staff, was set up to assign primary missions for air strikes and naval gunfire and assess the damages daily before designating the next day's targets. Aerial photographs were taken each morning and on the basis of these damage was assessed and new targets were assigned. In these operations, the admiral's staff was aided by the presence aboard Appalachian of General Geiger who, as commanding general of the landing force, naturally had the greatest personal concern about the accuracy both of the bombardment and of the damage reports submitted afterward. In the final three days before the landing, Mitscher's planes conducted 1430 bombing sorties and 614 strafing attacks, dropping a total of 1131 tons of bombs, depth charges, and rockets, while losing only 16 aircraft. Despite the extensive bombardment, positions reinforced with coral and concrete remained in good condition. Anti-aircraft artillery and harbor installations suffered minimal damage, power installations in caves were unharmed, and communications were not interrupted. The intensity of the attacks on the western defenses suggested a likely amphibious landing there, prompting Takashina to abandon the ineffective southern and northern defenses. Meanwhile, Conolly's vessels, carrying Geiger's Southern Landing Forces, departed Eniwetok for Guam between July 11 and 18, arriving successfully by July 21. Between July 14 and 17, three underwater demolition teams scouted the landing beaches, and under the protection of LCI gunboats, they removed 640 obstacles from the Northern Beaches and 300 from the Southern Beaches. On the morning of July 21, in excellent weather conditions, the Americans began a preliminary bombardment. Admirals Conolly and Reifsneider directed the shelling of Asan and Agat beaches, respectively, while Admiral Mitscher's carrier aircraft bombed and strafed the fourteen miles of coastline from Agaña to Bangi Point. At 07:40, the assault waves crossed their departure lines under the cover of rocket fire from LCI gunboats. Eight minutes before landing, when the vehicles were 1200 yards from shore, Conolly's warships launched a final massive bombardment, and Mitscher's fighters provided covering strafing attacks. These attacks were to be shifted inland as the troops approached the shore. Despite the intense bombardment from ships and aircraft, the Japanese managed to target the assault waves, destroying nine amtracs from the 3rd Marine Division. Nevertheless, the waves of vehicles advanced, and at 08:28, the first LVTs landed, two minutes ahead of schedule. Further south, shore fire was even heavier, hitting one LCI gunboat and destroying 13 amtracs. However, the landing formation held, and the troops landed on schedule. Despite numerous concrete pillboxes still manned by the Japanese, both assault regiments advanced rapidly. Colonel Merlin Schneider's 22nd Marines successfully captured Agat amid strong resistance but were eventually halted at a hill position northwest of the town. Meanwhile, Lieutenant-Colonel Alan Shapley's 4th Marines cleared Bangi Point and Hill 40, setting up a roadblock supported by five tanks on Harmon Road. By the end of the day, General Shepherd had established a beachhead approximately 1300 to 2300 yards deep, at the cost of around 350 casualties and 24 lost LVTs. At 08:30, the infantrymen of Lt. Col. Robert D. Adair's 2nd Battalion were climbing down cargo nets from their transports into the bobbing landing craft that were to carry them to the edge of the reef. By 10:30 all boats were in position near the line of departure waiting for the signal to go in. For three and a half hours they circled impatiently. At last, at 14:05, came the message to proceed to the beach and assemble in an area 300 yards inland from Gaan Point. Unfortunately, no amphibian tractors were on hand to transport Adair's men over the reef and onto the shore line, and of course their LCVPs were too deep-drafted to negotiate either the reef or the shallow waters inland of it. Over the sides of their boats the men climbed, and waded the rest of the way in water at least waist deep. Some lucky few were able to pick up rides in Marine LVTs on the landward side of the reef, but most stumbled in over the rough coral bottom, cutting their shoes en route and occasionally falling into deep potholes. Luckily, no enemy fire impeded their progress, and except for the dousing they got and the exhaustion they suffered the troops of the 2nd Battalion, 305th Regiment completed their ship-to-shore movement without injury.To the north, Colonel Edward Craig's 9th Marines advanced steadily against fairly heavy machine-gun and rifle fire, securing a beachhead about 1500 yards deep. Colonel Arthur Butler's 21st Marines, facing only moderate opposition but difficult terrain, cleared Asan Town and gained a foothold on the face of the Fonte Plateau. On the left flank, Colonel William Hall's 3rd Marines encountered the heaviest resistance from two complex cave defense systems on Chonito Cliff and Bundschu Ridge. Hall's men cleared Chonito Cliff and Adelup Point after several costly assaults and heavy casualties, but progress against Bundschu Ridge was limited, resulting in a 200-yard-wide gap between the 3rd and 21st Marines. Nevertheless, General Turnage secured a beachhead approximately 1600 by 4000 yards and had landed all division infantry, artillery, and support units, at the cost of 105 killed, 536 wounded, and 56 missing. Upon receiving the alert of enemy landings, Takashina promptly mobilized his reserve units to the Fonte Plateau in an attempt to contain Turnage's Marines within their limited beachhead. Throughout the night, he initiated several fragmented counterattacks, all of which were easily thwarted, resulting in significant Japanese casualties. In the southern sector, the 4th and 22nd Marines heroically fended off numerous well-coordinated counterattacks, managing to destroy four enemy tanks and eliminate Colonel Suenaga along with his 38th Regiment. By July 22, Geiger's forces began to expand their footholds on the beaches. In the northern front, Hall's assault on the Bundschu Ridge faced formidable resistance. Despite some Marines reaching the ridge with support from 20mm and 40mm fire, they were compelled to withdraw due to intense mortar shelling. Unbeknownst to them, their relentless attack forced the Japanese to abandon the position, albeit at a significant cost to the 3rd Marines, which suffered up to 615 casualties and was unable to sustain the advance. Meanwhile, Butler's 21st Marines encountered difficulty clearing the ravine separating them from the 3rd Marines, necessitating the deployment of their reserve 1st Battalion to support the depleted 2nd Battalion. On the right flank, Craig's 9th Marines encountered minimal resistance as they swiftly secured the Piti Navy Yard, followed by the landing of the 3rd Battalion on Cabras Island after extensive naval and aerial bombardment. The only significant engagement during the night was a Japanese bayonet charge backed by mortar fire, which Butler's 1st Battalion successfully repelled, inflicting heavy losses on the enemy. To the south, following the night landings, the 305th Regiment underwent reorganization while Tanzola's 2nd Battalion relieved Shapley's 2nd Battalion. Schneider's 22nd Marines encountered moderate resistance as they moved northward after crossing the Ajuya River. Despite lacking tank support, they advanced until halting approximately 250 yards north of RJ 5. Simultaneously, Shapley's 4th Marines launched an assault towards Mount Alifan's steep slopes, successfully neutralizing entrenched enemy positions using demolitions and grenades, though hindered by rugged terrain. Eventually, a platoon reached the summit, finding no enemy presence. Tanzola's 1st and 3rd Battalions then advanced along Harmon Road towards the Maanot Pass, navigating eroded hills and dense vegetation to secure the O-a high ground line.  The 306th Infantry Regiment's landing on the White Beaches required the entire day because of communications problems and landing craft shortages. It was not until the next day that the 4th Marines was fully replaced by the 306th. 3rd Amphibious Corps Artillery was landing over White 1 at this same time, as was the 77th Division Artillery, leading to a great deal of congestion, especially when coupled with the landing of smaller units, supplies, and ammunition. Most artillery battalions were in-place by nightfall as was the 9th Defense Battalion deployed along the beaches. The defense battalions, besides providing air defense and direct fire support on ground targets, were positioned to engage any Japanese counter-landing attempts on the beachhead. The 77th Division, with the 305th on the right (center of the beachhead) and the 306th on the left, would secure the southern portion allowing the 4th Marines to move north with the 22nd Marines to seal off the neck of Orote Peninsula. They continued their advance beyond Harmon Road and Maanot Pass, securing commanding positions overlooking Orote Peninsula. Meanwhile, Schneider's 22nd Marines, initially advancing rapidly against scattered resistance, encountered intense enfilade fire from hills surrounded by rice paddies while attempting to maneuver across the neck of Orote Peninsula. This compelled them to withdraw approximately 400 yards to a line of hills south of Old Agat Road. Further to the north, Hall's 3rd Marines eventually discovered that the Bundschu Ridge had been deserted. However, following their clean-up operations, they were not in a condition to advance any further. Craig's 3rd Battalion successfully secured Cabras Island and then relieved the 2nd Battalion on the mainland. Meanwhile, Butler's 21st Marines faced challenges in bridging the gap with the 3rd Marines and encountered limited progress against well-fortified enemy pillboxes on the plateau's slopes. Turnage initiated the first contact attempt with Shepherd's brigade on July 24th, but the 30-man patrol was forced to retreat due to enemy fire. Despite Butler's 2nd Battalion's efforts to close the gap by attacking up the ravine, they were repeatedly hindered by heavy machine-gun fire from caves on the cliff sides. Although both the 3rd and 9th Marines managed to enhance their positions, Turnage's casualties rose to 2034 since the initial landing. Further south, Shepherd, in response to the formidable defense on the neck of the Orote Peninsula, instructed Schneider to advance the 1st and 3rd Battalions in company columns along the Agat-Sumay Road. The objective was to penetrate the enemy lines and seize the O-2 Line from the coast to Apra Harbor, while the 2nd Battalion shifted to occupy strategic high ground near Atantano from its position on the Old Agat Road. This maneuver not only flanked the Japanese strongholds guarding the rice paddies but also established a barrier across the neck of Orote, securing the beachhead line in front of the brigade. Following an extensive air, artillery, and naval bombardment, Schneider's primary thrust along the Agat-Sumay Road encountered determined resistance but successfully advanced to the R-2 Line. The 1st Battalion then spread out to the right, while the 3rd Battalion veered further east across the hills, swiftly capturing the fortified positions around the rice paddies that had posed significant challenges the previous day. By nightfall, the 1st Battalion had reached the O-2 Line, but the 3rd Battalion halted 400 yards short of its target, prompting Shapley's 2nd Battalion to fill the breach between them. After repulsing a vigorous counterattack, the 2nd Battalion pushed forward with minimal opposition and secured Atantano. Consequently, by the end of July 24, Shepherd had firmly established his beachhead and contained the enemy on the Orote Peninsula, albeit with casualties totaling 200 killed, 748 wounded, and 97 missing. General Bruce, with the remainder of the 77th Division, assumed control of most of the beachhead perimeter, while Shepherd's Marines readied for the capture of Orote. Subsequently, after repelling several tank-led counterattacks resulting in the destruction of 12 Japanese tanks, they sealed off the peninsula entirely on July 25. By afternoon, approximately 2500 troops under Commander Tamai Asaichi were confined to the eight square miles of Orote Peninsula. Meanwhile, Turnage pressed his forces to secure the objective beachhead definitively. Accordingly, the 9th Marines progressed southward along the Apra Harbor shoreline towards the Aguada River, reaching the midpoint before being compelled to retreat to the Laguas River due to Craig's stretched lines. Meanwhile, the 21st Marines faced formidable defenses at the Mount Chachao-Aluton-Tenjo complex, managing to establish defensive positions just shy of Mount Tenjo Road after slow progress. Simultaneously, the beleaguered 3rd Marines, with reinforcements from Craig's 2nd Battalion, launched a determined assault, overcoming moderate resistance and mortar fire to seize Mount Tenjo Road and gain a vantage point. Despite the extended frontline, troops stationed on the newly captured high ground could finally survey the terrain ahead by nightfall. As Takashina consolidated his forces on the plateau, he prepared for a coordinated counterattack aimed at dividing and conquering the enemy. The 48th Independent Mixed Brigade planned to strike Turnage's left flank before pivoting northeast to target Hall's rear. Meanwhile, the 18th Regiment aimed to assault Butler's positions and advance toward the coast to establish a new defensive line, targeting the enemy's headquarters, artillery, and supply units. Additionally, elements of the 10th Independent Mixed Regiment were tasked with exploiting an 800-yard gap between the 9th and 21st Marines, protected only by the 3rd Reconnaissance Company. In a desperate move following a failed attempt to evacuate by barge, Tamai opted for a nighttime banzai charge with his trapped 2500-strong force, seeking to break free from the Orote Peninsula and join Takashina's troops at Fonte. After dusk, the intermittent showers that had been falling all day became more frequent. A heavy downpour hampered organization of the brigade's defense for the night. On the other hand, the pitch blackness and the unpleasant weather aided the Japanese in making preparations for their supreme effort. Marines in the front lines could hear screaming, yelling, laughter, and the breaking of bottles as the Japanese made final arrangements. At times so much clamor could be heard that reports reached the command post that the assault had started. Afterwards someone aptly said that the confusion "sounded like New Year's Eve in the Zoo." While the enemy made ready and drank, Marine artillerymen laid down normal barrages along the swamp's edge and at all other points of possible penetration. Shortly before midnight the Japanese commanders felt that their men had reached the proper emotional state, and the assault began. Sake-crazed attackers swarmed from the cover of the mangroves in front of the 3rd Battalion, 22nd Marines. Led by flag-waving, sword-swinging officers, the enlisted men stumbled forward, carrying everything conceivable. Unsteady hands clutched pitchforks, sticks, ballbats, and pieces of broken bottles, together with the normal infantry weapons. The assault faced formidable resistance from Marine forces, particularly Shapley's 1st Battalion, which alone accounted for 256 enemy casualties.  When the surging Japanese mass came within range, Marine forward observers and company commanders gave the order to commence firing. Brigade, 77th Division, and corps artillery, 37mm guns, 81mm and 60mm mortars, machine guns, rifles, and grenades saturated the entire area. At one time officers brought the fire of the Pack Howitzer Battalion, 22d Marines, to within 35 yards of 3/22's front lines in an at tempt to stop the swarming horde. One weapons company lieutenant reported: "Arms and legs flew like snowflakes. Japs ran amuck. They screamed in terror until they died." But in a powerful attack it is inevitable that some men will seep through the blocking fire. Company L, 3/22, received the brunt of the subsiding attack and repulsed it before too much damage could be done. Those Japanese who survived fled to the momentary safety of the swamp. But observers shifted the artillery fire and between midnight and 0200 some 26,000 shells took a heavy toll of the remaining peninsular defenders. On the right flank of the 22d Marines a second counterattack hit. The Island War describes the action quite vividly: “. . . At its height, flares revealed an out-of-this-world picture of Nipponese drunks reeling about in our forward positions, falling into foxholes, tossing aimless grenades here and there, yelling such English phrases as they had managed to pick up, and laughing crazily, to be exterminated in savage close-in fighting. Succeeding waves were caught in a deadly cross-fire. Not until dawn did this attack finally dwindle out, at which time more than four hundred bodies were counted in front of the position.” In contrast to the frenzied close quarter action in the 3/22 zone, the platoon from Company A (1/4) that filled the gap between the two regiments participated in a shooting gallery affair with the Japanese. Enemy troops made no attempt at a concerted attack, and the platoon plus artillery, without the loss of a single Marine, killed 256 Imperial soldiers. This fantastic figure was verified by officers from regiment the following morning. Despite the intense machine-gun and artillery fire, some Japanese managed to infiltrate Marine positions, engaging in fierce hand-to-hand combat. However, by dawn, the Japanese offensive had been halted, with most remaining enemy forces eliminated, leaving Tamai with no option but to defend Orote Peninsula to the end. Meanwhile, Takashina's main assault, launched on July 26 at 04:00, faced initial success in overrunning Company B positions but was ultimately contained by the relentless machine-gun fire of the 1st Battalion.  Major Maruyama's men (2/18) advanced noisily, shouting, "Wake up American and die." The initial impetus of the assault passed completely over Company B in the center, previously reduced to about 50 men, and streamed through the gap down a draw toward the cliff. Despite the breakthrough, companies held the shoulders of the penetration and Lieutenant Colonel Williams ordered the units to refuse their flanks to the cliff. Company A on the left, commanded by Captain William G. Shoemaker, rallied in the face of the withering fire and overwhelming numbers. Shoemaker pulled back his right platoon to deny his flank to the enemy and to permit regrouping for a local counterattack. Company C (Captain Henry M. Helgren, Jr.) also successfully refused its flank to protect the position and immediately began firing into the onrushing Japanese. Tanks parked in the rear of the Marine positions took a great toll as the intruders surged through the widening gap. One report described the rush on the tanks as resembling a horde of ants. It went on to say of the Nipponese: “Savagely they swarmed upon the mechanized vehicles, oblivious of the vicious machine-gun fire, and frantically pounded, kicked, and beat against the turrets in an attempt to get the crew within. When this seemed futile they leaped to the ground and continued their wild rush down the draw to the rear areas. . .” Demolition charges were forgotten in the mad scramble to reach deeper into Marine-held territory. Machine gunners of 1/21 had a field day. Never had they seen such lucrative targets, but grenades and bayonets soon silenced the Marines as enemy soldiers overran the gun positions. Many of the Japanese were killed as they moved through the lines and into the ravine. Although some of the infiltrating Japanese got down the cliff to attack the battalion command post and Butler's mortar platoons, killing most of the mortarmen before being repelled by service troops, To the left, Craig's tenacious 2nd Battalion, in its exposed position, received the brunt of Shigematsu's attack, yet it managed to defeat seven determined counterattacks without losing any ground. Nonetheless, though they killed 950 Japanese, they suffered 50% casualties as well. Looking right, Ohashi's 3rd Battalion hit Butler's 3rd; and although two machine-guns were initially captured, their attack ended up being rapidly repelled. Consequently, the Japanese slid along the front and attacked down the vulnerable 800-yard gap, successfully defeating a strong roadblock to set up a dangerous line on the high ground behind Butler's 3rd Battalion.  The lack of a swiftly organized regimental reserve line led to approximately 70 Japanese infiltrating into the Division Hospital area, where they were eventually repelled by a pioneer force. The first warning came about 6:30 when corpsmen reported that a number of enemy soldiers could be seen on the high ground to the right of the hospital. Division headquarters immediately ordered Lieutenant Colonel George O. Van Orden (Division Infantry Training Officer) to take command of two companies of pioneers standing by for just such an eventuality and clear the enemy from the hard-pressed area. At the hospital, doctors ordered patients to evacuate the tents and go to the beach. Onlookers saw a pathetic sight as half-clothed, bandaged men hobbled down the coast road helping the more seriously wounded to safety. 41 of the patients grabbed rifles, carbines, hand grenades, and whatever else they could find and joined the battle. The hospital doctors, corpsmen, and pajama-clad patients presented a rare sight as they formed a defensive line around the tents. It was a solid line, however, and one that held until the recently organized reinforcements arrived. Only one patient was wounded during the fighting, but one medical officer and one corpsman later died of wounds. The casualty list also included one medical officer, one dental officer, one Navy warrant officer, 12 corpsmen, and 16 Marines from the medical companies wounded in action. This does not include those casualties suffered by Van Orden's force. After cleaning out the assigned area, Van Orden proceeded up the Nidual River Valley in pursuit of the fleeing Japanese. The attack had pushed the enemy back to the hill at the head of the ravine by 11:00, but a request to send a Marine patrol to the ridge to determine the hostile strength was denied. Other plans had already been made for the assault of this dominating terrain. It was from this high ground that Major Yukioka's men paralyzed the operation of 3/21's CP and threatened the flank of both the 9th and 21st Marines. While this action was taking place, the 12th Marines CP and several of its battalions were engaged in stopping the suicide squad attacks. In order to have these parties in position to make their foray in conjunction with the all-out offensive, enemy commanders had ordered the groups to infiltrate behind Marine lines on the night of 24-25 July. With typical Japanese patience, the raiders lay hidden in caves all day. As soon as darkness came on the night of 25-26 July they started firing random shots into the headquarters of the 12th Marines and began to move in small groups down the Asan Valley. A hand grenade duel went on during the early hours of darkness, but some of the intruders sought the safer confines of a cave not 20 feet from the headquarter's fire direction center. The artillerymen's perimeter defense held, and only one of the enemy succeeded in getting through to the guns. He was killed in the 3d Battalion's area before he could do any damage. In the five-hour long fighting around the regimental headquarters, 17 explosive-laden Japanese died. Most of them carried packs containing about 20 pounds of TNT with ready detonators, while others carried magnetic mines. With the coming of daylight, patrols went out to clean up any troops that might cause trouble later in the day. Men of the 12th Marines killed approximately 50-60 more enemy soldiers and drove the remainder into other areas where they were liquidated one by one. Despite the initial success of Takashina's well-coordinated counterattack, by noon, his forces had suffered defeat, marking the breaking of the backbone of Japanese resistance on Guam. Marine casualties were significant, with around 166 killed, 645 wounded, and 34 missing between July 25 and 27. Consequently, the 9th Marines retreated approximately 1500 yards to establish better defensive positions, and a battalion of Colonel Stephen Hamilton's 307th Regiment was deployed near Piti Navy Yard. However, the focus now shifted to covering the invasion of Tinian. While naval guns had intermittently harassed Tinian since June 11, the preliminary bombardment of Saipan's sister island commenced on June 20, with the first Army artillery battery targeting northern Tinian. By July 9, the 531st Field Artillery Battalion had fired a total of 7571 rounds. Following the fall of Saipan, the remaining 24th Corps Artillery and Marine howitzers intensified the bombardment, maintaining a continuous round-the-clock schedule and expending a total of 24,536 rounds on northern Tinian. For the most part, 14th Corps Artillery confined its efforts to the area north of the line between Gurguan Point and Masalog Point, while aircraft restricted their efforts to the southern half of the island. Naval ships were assigned any targets on Tinian deemed unsuitable to either of the other two arms. Coordination of the three supporting arms was assigned to the corps artillery representative attached to General Schmidt's staff. In one instance, an artillery air observer discovered three 140-mm. coastal defense guns on Masalog Point that were within easy firing range of White Beaches 1 and 2, but were masked from field artillery. The battleship Colorado was called in and, with its main batteries adjusted by an airborne artillery observer, succeeded in neutralizing or destroying the enemy weapons. Because the spotting plane was not in direct radio contact with the ship, it was necessary for the plane to submit its spotting data to the artillery post by radio, whence they were relayed by telephone to General Schmidt's headquarters, and in turn by radio on another frequency to the firing ship. In spite of this somewhat complicated system of communications, the time lag was so slight as to be insignificant. Meanwhile, starting from June 22, the P-47s belonging to the 318th Fighter Group maintained a relentless barrage on the airfields at Ushi, Gurguan Point, and just east of Tinian Town through constant strafing and bombing, further devastating the town to ruins. Beginning on July 15, naval gunfire operations were reinstated, with Admiral Hill's cruisers and destroyers delivering destructive bombardment daily against Tinian's harbor defenses. Then, on July 22, two P-47s dropped the first napalm bombs used in the Pacific war on Tinian, proving highly effective in incinerating canefields, underbrush, and enemy personnel located in open trenches and dugouts. The following day, Hill intensified preparatory fire with a formidable naval force comprising three battleships, two heavy cruisers, three light cruisers, and sixteen destroyers, positioned strategically to shell Tinian from all directions. However, there was no attempt to focus on the White Beaches to mislead the Japanese about the actual landing point. Throughout the rainy night, destroyers and cruisers maintained control over crucial road junctions while an UDT conducted a last-minute underwater reconnaissance, albeit unsuccessfully attempting to detonate recently discovered mines due to adverse weather conditions. At dawn on July 24, Hill's transports carrying the 2nd and 4th Marine Divisions finally departed from Tanapag Harbor for the short journey to Tinian, successfully reaching their designated areas by 06:00. Simultaneously, the onslaught of artillery, air raids, and naval bombardment persisted over the Japanese defenses, intensifying into a full-scale onslaught by 07:00, with particular focus on the White Beaches. Additionally, efforts were made to neutralize mines on White 2, although these attempts proved futile. As the assault waves took shape, General Watson's Marines effectively executed the demonstration near Tinian Town without suffering any casualties. This demonstration effectively held the defenders in place, preventing them from deploying northward. However, a cleverly concealed Japanese battery managed to inflict significant damage on the battleship Colorado and the destroyer Norman Scott, resulting in the loss of 62 lives and 245 wounded before being neutralized. At 07:17, the initial landing wave crossed the designated line and began the 3000-yard journey to the beach, supported by intense pre-landing bombardment and rocket fire from LCI gunboats.  At about the same moment small-caliber fire--estimated variously as 50-caliber, 20mm and 40mm--began falling around the LST's. Its source could not be located because of the pall of smoke and dust that cloaked the island. Regarding this incident the logistics officer of the 2d Battalion, 23d Marines, aboard one of the LST's in the area, recalled: “The fire . . . wounded two or more Navy enlisted men of the crew of the vessel, and possibly a couple of Marines belonging to the landing team. . . . My recollection concerning the Marines who were wounded is hazy . . . the incident created a stir and speculation concerning the source of the fire, but everyone soon settled down to the business at hand.” Despite encountering the sporadic small-caliber fire, the LVTs successfully reached the narrow beaches by 07:50. Upon landing, Company E of the 24th Marines swiftly engaged and eliminated a small beach-defense unit on White 1, while the remainder of the battalion made landfall. On White 2, the 2nd and 3rd Battalions of the 25th Marines landed simultaneously but faced a delay in advancing due to the need for engineers to clear 100 horned mines that had destroyed three LVTs. Subsequently, Colonel Batchelder's Companies G and I circumvented two enemy blockhouses and initiated an inland attack, while other units subdued strongpoints. However, the presence of additional mines and staunch resistance from caves and ravines prevented them from reaching their objective at the O-1 Line and Mount Maga. Meanwhile, Colonel Hart's 1st and 2nd Battalions of the 24th Marines successfully advanced to the O-1 Line amid minimal opposition. Later in the day, reserve and artillery battalions were landed, along with Colonel Jones' 23rd Marines, although their landing was delayed due to communication issues. This delay proved beneficial due to heavy congestion on White 2 at the time. By nightfall, Colonel Wallace's 1st Battalion, along with the 2nd and 4th Tank Battalions, under Hill's command, successfully disembarked 15614 men ashore. General Cates, anticipating Japanese counterattacks, directed his troops to halt at 16:30 to fortify defenses, achieving a beachhead spanning about 7000 yards. This came at a cost of 15 Marines killed and 225 wounded. Ogata, as expected by Cates, immediately ordered counterattacks with the 1st and 2nd Battalions of the 50th Regiment and mobilized the Mobile Counterattack Force. While Japanese probes commenced at 22:30, the major assaults, marked by fierce banzai charges, began after midnight.  The attack on the left came first and lasted longest. At 2:00, men of the 1st Battalion, 24th Marines, straining their eyes through the black moonless night, suddenly saw a compact group of Japanese a short 100 yards away. The Marines opened fire. The compact group became a screaming mass of attackers as the first Marine bullets and shells found targets. Now the shadows were alive with about 600 leaping Japanese naval troops, loaded with aggressive spirit, requiring no instructions to make their screaming charge. Marines called flares into action; the battlefield became light. Marines needed no orders either: the 37mm guns sprayed canister; machine guns cut into the enemy area with grazing fire; rifles pounded out at sighted or suspected targets; mortars crunched into the defilade areas; artillery crashed steadily behind the Japanese to shatter and destroy any reinforcement group. The tightly packed foe was a choice target for all these weapons, and hundreds of shells lashed his ranks. At no time did the enemy penetrate the 1st Battalion; but extremely heavy pressure against Company A, the unit that bore the brunt, caused the battalion commander to reinforce it with engineers, corpsmen, communicators, naval gunfire liaison and shore party personnel. The fight continued hot and heavy until about 0545, when dawn and the vigor of the enemy effort broke simultaneously. Medium tanks from Company B, 4th Tank Battalion, entered the fray at this time and stopped all further thrusts at the Marines' lines. Many Japanese, convinced that all was lost, committed suicide with grenades. While armored amphibians afloat fired on enemy groups hiding along the coast, Marines of the 1st Battalion, 24th Marines, mopped up the area to their front, an activity completed by 0700. They counted 476 Japanese bodies, most of them within 100 yards of Company A's lines. Although no figures are available for Marine casualties in this action, the battalion commander estimated that ". . . Company A was reduced to about 30 men with usable weapons before the enemy was repulsed." Ogata's infantrymen struck Cates' center thirty minutes later, yet their efforts were thwarted by intense small-arms, mortar, and 37mm fire. Despite briefly breaching the line through weak points, they were ultimately defeated by rear elements after prolonged and heavy fighting.  This time, though many of the attackers fell forward of the lines, others penetrated a weak spot at the boundary between the two Marine regiments. About 200 Japanese poured through this spot before the flow could be stopped. After pausing in a swamp behind the lines, the enemy force speared out in two prongs: one straight into the beachhead toward U. S. artillery positions, the other turning west into the 25th Marines' rear areas. The latter group of Japanese attained first contact when they met a well-prepared support platoon from the 3d Battalion, 25th Marines. Positioned to contain just such a penetration as had occurred, the Marines quickly eliminated this Japanese threat, killing 91 in a brief, violent skirmish. The other prong pushed deep into the rear of the beachhead, finally reached the 75mm howitzer firing positions of the 2d Battalion, 14th Marines. Battery D, firing a mission for the 24th Marines, suddenly found itself beset from the front by many determined Japanese. Marines not actively engaged in servicing the howitzers rallied to the defense of their positions with small arms, while the remainder continued firing an artillery mission for the 24th Regiment. Later, as pressure mounted, all hands turned to the task of stopping the Japanese close at hand. At this juncture the .50-caliber machine guns of the other two batteries (E and F) of the battalion levelled a heavy volume of enfilading fire into the area forward of besieged Battery D. This fire, in the words of the battalion executive officer, "literally tore the Japanese . . . to pieces." To reinforce Battery D in its bitter fight, Company C, 8th Marines, arrived at 0445. But by then the situation was well in hand; the Japanese had faltered and stopped before the deluge of small-arms fire. Morning revealed about 100 dead Japanese in the area, while the artillerymen had lost but two of their number--both killed manning a .50-caliber machine gun with Battery D. The only Japanese penetration of the night had shattered itself against a prepared rear area. Up at the front, meanwhile, Marines of the 25th Regiment and the right (2d) battalion of the 24th Regiment, fought off a series of frontal rushes upon their positions. In each case the Japanese were stopped at the barbed wire forward of the Marines' lines. The all-night firing had taken a heavy toll of the Marines' ammunition stocks, however, and by shortly before daylight there was concern along the lines that another heavy attack might exhaust supplies. Dawn came first. Attached tanks moved up at once to range the area forward of the lines. They blasted points of resistance with their 75mm guns, killing or chasing such few Japanese as had survived the night melee. Nearly 500 Japanese were killed in the attacks against the center of the beachhead and in the skirmishes behind the lines following the penetration. The third and last major enemy effort struck the extreme right (south) flank of the beachhead at 3:30. The 2d Battalion, 23d Marines, in position along the coast, bore the brunt of this thrust, although the 2d Battalion, 25th Marines, also figured prominently in the action. Moving north along the coastal road, the enemy force consisted of five or six light tanks (about half of those available to the Japanese at Tinian) with infantrymen riding and following on foot. First warning of the enemy move came when Marine listening posts stationed along the road a short distance forward of the lines reported enemy tanks rumbling in from the south. With the tanks an estimated 400 yards in front of the lines, Marine artillery opened up. The tanks came on. Ready for just this situation, U. S. ships began firing illuminating shells over the area, virtually turning night into day. Bazookas, 75mm half-tracks, and 37mm guns attached to three battalions now went into action. One of the 37mm platoons, positioned astride the coral road, leveled point-blank fires into the enemy armor. Even so, one fast-moving tank weathered a 37mm hit and drove through the front lines into rear areas before a Marine bazookaman finished it off. An officer present on the scene described the action as he saw it: “The three lead tanks broke through our wall of fire. One began to glow blood-red, turned crazily on its tracks, and careened into a ditch. A second, mortally wounded, turned its machine guns on its tormentors, firing into the ditches in a last desperate effort to fight its way free. One hundred yards more and it stopped dead in its tracks. The third tried frantically to turn and then retreat, but our men closed in, literally blasting it apart. . . . Bazookas knocked out the fourth tank with a direct hit which killed the driver. The rest of the crew piled out of the turret, screaming. The fifth tank, completely surrounded, attempted to flee. Bazookas made short work of it. Another hit set it afire, and its crew was cremated.” Thus, five tanks stood immobile on the field of battle. If a sixth accompanied this incursion, it escaped, since there was no trace of it the following morning when Marines moved through the area. Despite the fact that their armor was gone, enemy foot soldiers from the 1st and 2d Battalions, 50th Infantry, and the 1st Battalion, 135th Infantry, pressed toward the Marines. The fighting that ensued was close-in and savage, but the Japanese never cracked the tight defense. The few who seeped through the lines met a quick end at the hands of the 23d Marines' reserve (1st Battalion), positioned to provide depth in this precise area. The operations officer of the 2d Battalion, 23d Marines, described the weird termination of the Japanese activities: “. . . as it began to get light, Jap bodies began to fly ten to fifteen feet in the air in the area in front of our lines. . . . We knew that hand grenades did not have the power to blow a man's body that high and could not figure out what was happening. [Later] we moved out to mop up. . . . It turned out that about fifty percent of the dead Japs carried magnetic mines and had obviously been ordered to break through our lines and destroy the tanks in the rear of us. . . . The Japs who were wounded and unable to flee were placing the tank mines under their bodies and tapping the detonators.” Daylight revealed that the enemy had expended 267 men and five tanks (of 12 on the island) against the right flank of the beachhead with no success. By the end of the night's counterattacks, 1241 Japanese bodies lay scattered along Cates' front, with the 1st Battalion, 135th Regiment virtually decimated, while Marine casualties numbered less than 100. Reflecting on the engagement, they later concluded: "It was there and then that [we] broke the Jap's back in the battle for Tinian". This assessment proved accurate, as Ogata's forces began retreating towards the southern end of the island. 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. Similar to the experience invading Saipan, Guam and Tinian proved to be literal horror shows. The savagery of the Island hoping campaign had increased ten-fold. The Japanese hoped by inflicted as much pain as possible, the Americans might simply come to the peace table, but was there any real chance of that?

For review:1.  Iran UN Mission Threatens "Obliterating War" if IDF Offensive in Lebanon.2. IDF has 2 x Divisions and 1 x Mountain Brigade on Northern Border. These units are back-up by two more Divisions.3. Finland to Procure Border Surveillance Aircraft (2). Finland has selected Sierra Nevada Corporation's (SNC) Bombardier Challenger 650 (with sensor package), for its border surveillance jet program. Production will occur out of the SNC integration center in Hagerstown, Maryland.4. Italy signs $535 million deal for the fourth U-212 Near Future Submarine- built by Italian Shipyard Ficantieri. 5. Construction starts on the New Royal Canadian Navy Destroyers- in support of the Canadian Surface Combatant (CSC) Project. The project will see the construction of 15 warships to replace the current fleet of Halifax-class frigates. The 15 new vessels will be classified as destroyers. The first ship will not be delivered until the early 2030s.6.  The US Navy is conducting tests to integrate the Lockheed Martin Long Range Anti-Ship Missile (LRASM), onto the Boeing P-8 Poseidon maritime patrol aircraft. 7. USS Wasp Amphibious Ready Group (ARG) in Mediterranean Sea. The Wasp ARG consists of the USS Wasp (LHD-1), the amphibious transport dock ship USS New York (LPD-21), and the dock landing ship USS Oak Hill (LSD-51). Embarked is the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit consisting of a command element, Battalion Landing Team 1/8, Marine Medium Tiltrotor Squadron 365 (Reinforced), and Combat Logistics Battalion 24.

Learn how podcasting can clarify thinking and amplify personal and business brands. In this episode, let's navigate through the captivating world of podcasting, where voices aren't just heard—they resonate and create ripples of change. We peel back the layers to reveal the true heart of podcasting, its profound impact, and the transformative journeys it catalyzes. We're venturing into the stories of extraordinary podcasters, from the art of refining ideas to the deep, personal discoveries and the strategic mastery behind guest selection. This episode is a treasure trove of wisdom, set to enlighten the veteran podcaster and ignite the curiosity of newcomers to this dynamic medium. Coming up this episode: Joey Coleman ([00:00:50]-[00:02:30]): He taught me that the true value of my podcast lies in its ability to refine my thoughts and ideas, rather than just serving as a vehicle for business development. Jason Irving ([00:03:00]-[00:05:00]): Reminded me that the core of my podcasting journey is to delve deep into the personal growth stories of both myself and my guests, sharing these intimate journeys with my audience. Cameron Herold ([00:05:40]-[00:09:50]): Showed me the importance of being strategic about whom I invite onto my podcast, ensuring they align with my vision and resonate with my listeners. Athin Cassiotis ([00:10:00]-[00:13:00]): Impressed upon me the power of asking insightful, high-quality questions to create standout podcast content and build meaningful connections. Byron Dempsey ([00:13:10]-[00:18:10]): Reinforced how impactful my podcast can be for young listeners, with success not measured by numbers but by the life-changing stories and feedback from my audience. All this and more, on this week's episode of  We Are Podcast. If this is the first episode you've listened to all the way to the end or if you are a regular, thank you … I love that you are here. Check out our back catalogue on  wearepodcast.com, subscribe to the show, and give me a review and rating. It really helps us get found more. If you are a business owner podcaster and want to join others just like you in a group where we share tactics and ideas on what's working (or not) for us when it comes to using our podcast in the best possible way. For more on that go to wearepodcast.com/group … it is free. Stay tuned next week when we talk about **. So, make sure to subscribe to the show to get that episode as soon it gets released. Until then, much love.

My story of going from Divorced to Reinforced

This episode is brought to you by the letter "O". Here are your notes for this week. Rub Maps Truckers Against Trafficking/stories from CDL Class Jake's Dog Story Dave's Shirt O-Shirt NIL NBA Talk Hangry Solutions Boobs/Soaking/Utah Hockey Russians/Work Signs Make sure to check out our socials in the credits, our website, DefinitelyNotSellingDrugs.com, and hit up the My Show archives at BADFACTS.INFO and get that digital download going wherever you find podcasts. You can also find our video through Spotify, but you're here with us now, so... --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/myshowaj/message Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/myshowaj/support

Walls Reinforced: Exploring the Art and Science of Wall Sheeting! In this episode, we peel back the layers of one of the most crucial aspects of construction—wall sheeting. From traditional materials like plywood to modern innovations such as oriented strand board (OSB) and beyond, we uncover the secrets behind selecting, installing, and maintaining the perfect wall sheathing for your project. Join us as we chat about how wall sheeting enhances structural integrity, insulation, and overall durability. Whether you're a seasoned builder, DIY enthusiast, or curious homeowner, this episode is sure to inspire and educate you on the indispensable role of wall sheeting in crafting strong and resilient buildings." --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/allabouthomeconstruction/message Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/allabouthomeconstruction/support

Boston Dynamics has revealed their new Atlas robot, which boasts impressive dexterity and agility, and is designed for real-world applications. Stable Assistant, a chatbot powered by Stability AI's text and image generation technology, is now available via an API on the Stability AI developer platform, and features Stable Diffusion 3 and Stable LM 2 12B. Google DeepMind's "Many-Shot In-Context Learning" proposes a new method of learning from a few examples in a specific context, and found that Reinforced and Unsupervised ICL settings can be quite effective in the many-shot regime. AWS AI Labs' "Fewer Truncations Improve Language Modeling" introduces a new method called Best-fit Packing that packs documents into training sequences through length-aware combinatorial optimization, and achieved superior performance compared to concatenation.  Contact:  sergi@earkind.com Timestamps: 00:34 Introduction 01:25 Boston Dynamics reveals the new Atlas robot 02:47 Stable Diffusion 3 API now available as Stable Assistant effort looms 04:54 Cyc: history's forgotten AI project 06:12 Fake sponsor 08:02 Many-Shot In-Context Learning 09:59 Fewer Truncations Improve Language Modeling 11:38 Can Language Models Solve Olympiad Programming? 13:12 Outro

For some unknown reason, I connected being my own boss with being nothing but a struggle. I mean everything. I made everything a struggle. And, I don't really know how I connected these two things – having a business and it being nothing but a struggle – but somewhere I did. So, today, I want to talk about that, and share with you what I discovered. Here's the link to this episode on Sandra's website if you'd like to check it out: https://sandrasmith.com/podcast-episode/3-ugly-negative-beliefs-that-reinforced-my-struggle.

In this episode, industry veteran Dale Keeler, Associate Director at MTI, sits down with co-hosts Heather Allain and Marc Cook to discuss fiber-reinforced composites (FRP). The three chat about: fabrication methods; the types of fiber, resin and additives; differences in design standards and practices around the globe; how material properties used in design are determined and validated; inspection and life assessment techniques; flange design; and thermal shock.   Show notes Public bookstore – Guide for Repair and Alteration of FRP Equipment:  https://marketplace.mimeo.com/mtiglobal/product/e3fb7e600fb4423b9532394fd8e7ec7b   Members bookstore – Guide for Repair and Alteration of FRP Equipment: https://marketplace.mimeo.com/mtiglobalMEMBERS/product/1868c1a40bd94e05be701ab394d89498   Embedded RFID Sensor Technology https://www.mti-global.org/rfid-microsite/monitor-frp-vessel-integrity-with-rfid-sensors   Risk Based Inspection for FRP Tanks https://access.mti-global.org/record/562?ln=en   Global FRP Standards Comparative Report https://access.mti-global.org/record/337?ln=en   Accelerated Testing of FRP https://access.mti-global.org/record/78?ln=en   Corrosion Chronicles is hosted by Heather Allain and Marc Cook. Heather Allain is the Executive Director of Materials Technology Institute (MTI). She has been with the organization for 16 years and previously held an Associate Director position facilitating MTI's Project work. Before MTI, she worked as a Materials Engineer at DuPont for 15 years, and has a BS in Materials Engineering from Rice University. Marc Cook has a BS in Chemical Engineering from Purdue University and an MS in Material Engineering from NC State. He has worked for Dow for 26 years and at a contracting company in Cincinnati for 3 years. His current role at Dow is leading the Technical Services Team for Ceramics and Refractory at Dow and providing materials engineering support to Dow's Freeport, Texas site. Disclaimer: Marc Cook is an employee of Dow but is speaking purely in a personal capacity and is not talking about or recommending Dow products.   Corrosion Chronicles is produced by Association Briefings.

Dr. Mary Sidhwani explains how to attain the important goals you wish to manifest. This hypnosis meditation today helps us to, in essence, to rewrite our lives. The hypnosis meditation today will help you see yourself with the qualities you possess. See yourself envisioning the life you wish to create. {00:37} Re-cap from past episodes  {02:00} Envisioning the life you wish to create.{03:00} Meditation to begin to create the life you so deserve and desire.{23:00} Reinforced understanding, the power of the unconscious mind.   Mary ends with guided hypnosis. * Disclaimer: This is not a substitute for mental health or medical treatment.  As each episode contains a guided meditation, please do not listen while driving or operating machinery. Thank you so much. 

As we look ahead to Christ's second coming, all we have is the permanence of his words recorded in Scripture. - SERMON TRANSCRIPT - In this world that we're living in, it's right for us to ask what is permanent and what is temporary. This is a world of constant change. The older you get, the more you see that. Things just fade away, pass away. We've had significant events even in our culture with 9/11 in which the Twin Towers just melted away in a matter of hours and gone forever, or we also saw in the pandemic a number of businesses or patterns of life that ended, and we had a sense of the fragility of our life and of our society. I feel the older I get, the more I see how temporal is everything around me. What is permanent? One answer commonly given is the ground beneath our feet is permanent. It says in Psalm 104:5, "God set the earth on its foundations. It can never be moved." But my family and I had the experience when we were missionaries in Japan of an earthquake. It's something most people don't actually live through, but I felt the ground beneath my feet shaking. I felt the entire house we were living in shaking. We were not at the epicenter, but we weren't far from it. The epicenter was in Awaji Island just off the coast of the major city of Kobe, 7.3 on the Richter scale, resulting in over 6,000 deaths in the city of Kobe. It was a devastating earthquake. The elevated Hanshin Expressway, which is a technological marvel, toppled over. Reinforced concrete and all that just fell over because the ground on which it was supported, cracked open. A number of months later, my family and I went to Kobe and we saw the rift or one of the rifts in the ground. There were still some tremors and aftershocks months later. We also saw some very sobering sites. As I walked around with my brother-in-law, Bill, we saw huge piles of rubble that, of course, still hadn't been cleared away. I saw one particular office building, a six-story, very modern office building, a steel and glass structure in which one of the floors had collapsed, the fourth floor; it went from three to five and that floor just collapsed. It was gone, some kind of structural weakness there. It was strange because you could see the Venetian blind sticking out, straight out from that now missing floor, and the entire building was slanted over about 20 degrees. Earthquakes are terrifying because they're a sign of impermanence of even the ground beneath our feet. In our text today, Jesus spoke of the impermanence of every created thing in the universe, but He also spoke of the one permanent thing on which we can build our lives and our souls. Look at verse 31, Jesus said, "Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away." That's an incredible statement. What is a word? What is that? It seems like the most evanescent temporary thing they could ever be. It's a sound that goes out into the air like the whisper of the wind that floats through the air and then it disappears like faint echo in a cavern. It seems like nothing could be more fleeting, more temporary, more of a shadow of reality, more like nothing than a word. For many of us, words are the very picture of impermanent, something that lasts only as long as it causes the eardrum to vibrate. But Jesus said His words will last forever and heaven and earth won't. The context of this statement couldn't be more dramatic and more powerful. Jesus has predicted the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem to His disciples. Verse 2, "Do you see all these great buildings? Not one stone here will be left on another. Every one of them will be thrown down." But Jesus is saying in Verse 31, "Not just the temple, not just the city of Jerusalem, everything you see with your eyes is temporary.” The disciples when they heard of the prediction of the destruction came to Him on the Mount of Olives and asked Him that three-part question. "Tell us when will this happen? What will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age? What are the signs by which we can see that final day approaching?” By this time in Mark as we're walking through Mark 13, Jesus has already traced out some amazing aspects of the future. In verses 5-13 of Mark 13, He describes in general, but striking terms, how life in this sin-cursed world will progress between the First and Second Comings of Christ, "There will be wars and rumors or wars," and He said, "famines and indeed earthquakes in various places." There would also be the special and ongoing vicious persecution of the church. They'll be brought before tribunals and they would suffer in their witness concerning Him. There would also be a constant and escalating apostasy of believers, of people that claim to be believers, under the pressure of that persecution. Therefore, the call, he who stands firm to the end will be saved, the need for perseverance. But more than anything, the measurable sign of the progress between the First and Second Coming is the preaching of the gospel in all nations, a testimony in all nations. We can see measurable progress being made between the First and Second Coming of the spread of the gospel from Jerusalem through Judea and Samaria, even to the ends of the earth. Then He turns the corner in Mark 13 and gives us the special “abomination of desolation” teaching. That's something that's unique to that specific generation. Indeed, I argued, to the final generation as well, “abomination of desolation." First the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem in the year 70 AD. Then I believe the foretelling “as it was, so it will be.” As it was, so it'll be at the end of the antichrist setting himself up in God's temple, proclaiming himself to be God [2 Thessalonians 2]. At that time, both in the year, but then again, at the end of the world, the need to run for your lives, the tremendous urgency of Christians who run for their lives. Then as we saw last week, the description of the actual Second Coming. Look at verses 24-27, "In those days following that distress, the sun will be darkened, the moon will not give its light. The stars will fall from the sky and the heavenly bodies will be shaken. At that time, men will see the sun of man coming in clouds with great power and glory, and He will send His angels and gather His elect from the four winds, from the ends of the earth to the ends of the heavens." We looked at that last week. Now the sending out of the angels to gather the Elect is what's commonly known as the Rapture, the rescue of the Elect from the surface of the earth to be caught up in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air. 1 Thessalonians 1 teases that very, very plainly. The things that the Jews thought were permanent, the Temple, the city of Jerusalem, Jesus revealed actually were going to be destroyed, "Not one stone left on another." Jesus's disciples were stunned and they wanted to ask more questions. When would it happen and what signs can we see as it approaches? That's what we're going to look at today. Then deeper, I think the question is, "If all of this is impermanent, what is permanent? What can I build my life on that won't move? What can I establish my life and my soul on that will not be cast away?" He answers that, and He gives the sense of when this will happen. The answer He gives for the rest of this discourse, both in Mark 13, but even in more detail in Matthew 24:25, "Look for the signs for these things that happen.” Add up those signs. "Know that the Lord will come," it says, "like a thief in the night, suddenly and unexpectedly." So you need to be ready at any moment. You need to be ready and be faithful. But concerning what's permanent, what can I build my life upon? The unifying theme of this sermon today is the word of Christ. The word of Christ, the trustworthiness of Christ's words. We're going to look at aspects of the words of Christ. It's clarity, it's immediacy, it's difficulty, and then it's permanence. In the end, all we have as we look ahead to the Second Coming of Christ is this. We have the words of scripture and no other source of information. It's going to come from here, it'll come from nowhere else. Everything comes down in the end to Christ's word. I. Clarity: The Parable of the Fig Tree Let's start initially with clarity, the clarity of Christ's words, and the fact that we will be able to perceive certain things if we understand both the Scripture and the signs of the times. With eschatology, it's a combination of the two. We're going to see in the Scripture specific things laid out. We've already seen them, but we're going to keep seeing them, and then we're going to see current events. He said, "When you see the ‘abomination of desolation’, when you see that, put it together, you'll know what to do." To get at this clarity, He gives a parable, the parable of the fig tree. Look at verse 28-29 and learn this lesson from the fig tree. "As soon as its twigs get tender and its leaves come out, you know that summer is near. Even so, when you see these things happening, you know that it is near right at the door." Jesus gives this parable of the fig tree. A parable is a common everyday story that has a spiritual lesson, a spiritual point in which you take common things that we're used to seeing, frequently agricultural, but not always. If you have the interpretive key, the insider information, it makes everything clear. If you don't, it makes things worse. Jesus told His disciples that they were the insiders, and He said in Mark 4:11, "The secret of the kingdom of God has been given to you, but not to them. To those on the outside, they get everything in parables." What He means there is unexplained parables, parables don't make any sense if you don't get the interpretive key if you don't have them. I've said before, all you have to do is just go to some public place, like a mall, whatever, and go up and just tell them one of Jesus' parables with no explanation and see what they say. If they're not a church person, not a Christian, they will look at you like you're nuts, and that's the way it is with parables. It doesn't make anything clear if you don't understand it. But if you understand it, it makes everything clear. So we have this parable of the fig tree. The thing with all of Jesus's agricultural parables in particular is it takes time to develop. You get a seed planted and then it springs up and grows and develops. You got this idea of patience and of things developing and growing. We're familiar with that. The point Jesus makes here with eschatology and end times things, the lesson of the fig tree is just like what happens with the seasons, if you're trying to understand the seasons, you can look at the trees. There's certain trees that bud at certain times and you look at that, and until you see that, you don't think that summer is near, even though you have ridiculous 68 degree weather in the middle of January. What in the world? I came out on Wednesday night, and it was 68, but I didn't think summer was near because I was looking at the trees. I knew I was going to preach this parable, so I figured I'd give that illustration. No, summer's not near, even though it's 68 degrees, just weather's weird because it was 17 degrees a few days before that. But you know as soon as the twigs get tender and its leaves come out, that summer is near. When you see these things, you know that the coming of Christ is imminent. So despite the fact that there's an essential mystery to the timing of the Second Coming, the signs leading up to it mean that we're not in the dark. We can see things developing. We can see things coming. There needs to be, as I've been saying, a combination of the word of God rightly understood and current events rightly understood when you see those things come together. Jesus says, "When you see all these things, the signs that I've been giving…” Now, of course, there are those vague, nondescript signs. By that I mean they're not unique to any generation or any era such as wars, rumors of wars, famines and earthquakes. That's just a sign that we're not in the new heaven and new earth yet. We're still in the sin era. We're in the misery era. It's just good to know that. Wars, rumors of wars, famines and earthquakes just shows we're in convulsions now, and that's good to know. But then you've got, as I said, that measurable progress of the gospel in Mark 13:10, "The gospel preached in the whole world as a testament in all nations." That wasn't true a week after Jesus ascended to heaven or a year after Jesus sent to heaven. It had only begun, that process had only begun. But now we've had 20 centuries of progress of the gospel. Then we've got the teaching and the "abomination of desolation", which we'll walk through what that is, Gentile power—taking a holy space, a sacred space, taking it over, blaspheming, claiming that he's God, demanding the worship as God, all of that stuff predicted in the Book of Daniel — the “abomination of desolation”, and then that whole running for your life, the great tribulation. If those days have not been cut short, no one would survive. We have much more information about this, not just in Matthew 24. There's more detail in Matthew, but even more in the Book of Revelation. If you look at the Book of Revelation, we have the seven seals, the seven trumpets, and the seven bowls. The Holy Spirit knew very well He was going to give His people subsequent to the time of the apostles, based on their testimony, 66 books, indeed, 27 books in the New Testament, and so there's a division of labor. There's more information than just in Mark 13 here. There's more signs that we can look at in the Book of Revelation. He knew very well that He was going to inspire John to give us that information. If you go to Revelation 8 and you look at the ecological disasters that are described there that I think, and when I preach through the Book of Revelation, cannot be symbolic of anything. A third of the sea turning to blood and a third of the living creatures in the sea dying and a third of the drinking water on earth, undrinkable, what is that? The green grass burning up, the trees burning up, a third of the trees, burning all that. What is that? Ecological disaster such as the world has never seen. We've never seen anything like that. If you were to argue, "Well, Revelation's a apocalyptic, symbolic book," I can find it. What's it a symbol of? What is a third of the sea turning into blood and a third of the living creatures in the sea dying a symbol of? I think it's going to happen. I think it's the consummation of the terrible effect of human sin on the ecology of earth, just like happened with Adam's sin and the ground was cursed because of him and it produced thorns and thistles. That's just the end of that journey. So when you see those ecological disasters happening and you see people unable to drink water where they live and you see forming a one-world government and you start seeing a particular leader rising, when you see those things, you know the end is near. I think that's what He's saying. Now, the fig tree, some people say the fig tree is Israel. Maybe you've heard that, maybe you haven't. I'm going to spend a lot of time on this. But I remember back in 1988 a former missionary wrote a book, 88 Reasons Why The Rapture Will Be in 1988. I sure hope it wasn’t, because I definitely was left behind at that point. One of his reasons had to do with the formation of the nation of Israel in 1948, May 14, 1948, and that within one generation 40 years after that, the end would come. Pastor Chuck Smith preached this kind of thing as well, so there's a number of people. I don't look at that it's been a lot more than one generation since Israel was formed in 1948. It's been 76 years. However, I do think it is right for us to combine current events and scripture and look at that. That's what I think the idea is of the budding of the fig tree. II. Immediacy: Near…Right at the Door Secondly, the immediacy of the word of God. He says “it's right at the door, it's near, right at the door.” Verse 29, "Even so when you see these things happening, you know that it is near, right at the door." What is near? His coming. The Second Coming is near. There will be believers on earth, Bible believers filled with the Spirit who will know that the end is near, it's imminent because they see these things, but it hasn't happened yet. That's the sense of immediacy of something that hasn't happened yet because we believe that the Bible is a supernatural book and does, in fact, predict the future. We believe in the predictions of the future. We've seen the track record of prophecy, things that were predicted and have now been fulfilled, and we're waiting for unfulfilled things yet to come, such as the Second Coming. There is a sense of the immediacy of an event that hasn't come yet, but based on the word of God, for us, it's immediate. We know it's coming. As it says in another place, we're not in the dark, so this day shouldn't surprise us, we've been instructed. You're being instructed right now. You've been instructed before, and so you hear this. It's a sense of immediacy, and that's important. But I want to say something more than this. I don't think I'm spiritualizing by saying this. There's another sense of immediacy which is important for me. There is by faith in the Word of God the ability to have an immediate encounter with invisible spiritual realities by faith. We are able to come right into the presence of an invisible God by the ministry of the Word. We are able to have a sense of an invisible God speaking directly to us by the Word of God. This is vital. This is the immediacy of the word. It's how we have a relationship with Jesus Christ. It is by His Word, by His Spirit that we have that relational immediacy. I thought about verses that teach, probably the strongest for me, that teach us is in Hebrews 3 where the author to Hebrews in verse 9, quoting a very old scripture, Psalm 95, introduces it with these words: "So as the Holy Spirit says, today, if you hear His voice, don't harden your hearts." "We believe that the Bible is a supernatural book and does, in fact, predict the future. We believe in the predictions of the future. We've seen the track record of prophecy, things that were predicted and have now been fulfilled, and we're waiting for unfulfilled things yet to come, such as the Second Coming." Do you realize the importance of that statement? Let me intensify the present tense. As the Holy Spirit is saying right now in Psalm 95, "Today, if you hear His voice, don't harden your hearts." That makes even the most ancient Psalm written 1000 years before Christ, alive, it's living and active for us. The Holy Spirit is saying something to us right now, and what is He saying? "If you hear Me speaking in the word, don't harden your heart." Speaking about what? Anything the Spirit is speaking in the Word. Don't harden your heart but yield to it. That's a sense of the immediacy of the Word of God. Then with the idea of a door, look at verse 29, "Even so when you see these things happening, you know that it is near right at the door," meaning the door hasn't opened yet. Christ hasn't come yet, but He's at the door. It made me think about Revelation 3:20, which is a very powerful verse. In Revelation 3:20, Christ says this, "Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him and he with Me.” O. Hallesby, in his book Prayer, made that the central text of a healthy prayer life. We frequently hear Revelation 3:20 connected with evangelism; Christ knocking on the door of your heart and that's fine. I don't have a problem with that, but I think it would be wrong for even mature Christians to cast aside the power of that verse. Jesus is knocking at the door, He wants you to open it and He wants to have a meal with you. He wants to sit down and eat with you and you with Him. The redoubling of the language says this is an intense, intimate relationship we have with Christ through the ministry of the word. What I get, putting all this together is, I can and should experience the Second Coming day now by faith, even though I know it can't come imminently. I'll tell you more about that in a second. But I should experience now by faith, reading the word of God, rightly dividing it, what that day will be like. The final day of human history, and I should experience that right now. That's the immediacy of the word of God. Now what do I mean by saying it can't happen today? You've been listening to what I've said about Revelation 8. Do you see the ocean, a third of the ocean turning to blood and a third of the living creatures dying? No. Let’s get very specific. Let's go to 2 Thessalonians 2. In 2 Thessalonians, Paul's writing to the Thessalonians who had a very aggressive and even realized eschatology. They had been lied to. They had been told that they had missed the day of the Lord. Furthermore, reading between the lines with Thessalonians, it seems like some of them weren't working and they had quit their jobs. There wasn't a need to hold down a job because Jesus is coming, like today, and he's pumping the brakes and all that in 2 Thessalonians 2 saying, “Stop! That day cannot occur until X happens." If you rightly divide that, you're like, "All right, I can't think the Second Coming can happen until the events listed in 2 Thessalonians to occur," and that's all the stuff in the “abomination of desolation” sermon. I already preached that. When you see all that, then you know that box has been checked where it's imminent. You're like, "Pastor, am I supposed to expect the Second Coming any day or not?" Well, yes and no. I told you the word's complex. I'm trying to feel the weight of 2 Thessalonians 2, the “pump the brakes” passage to say it can't happen until the Man of Sin sets himself up in God's temple proclaiming himself to be God. However, I'm not going to trust my own view of Jesus and deny the clear repeated teaching by Jesus that I need to be ready anytime for the Second Coming. Like the five wise and five foolish virgins, I need to be ready now. I need to buy my own now. I need to be ready now. So this much I do know, there is a personal eschatology for you called the day of your death. That's when it all ends for you. Do you know when that day is? You don't. The same preparation you do for the Second Coming, you have to do for your own death, and since you don't know that day it's going to end up the same. In the end, I'm not going to steal the thunder of sermons yet to come, but it basically comes down to two things with the Second Coming: be ready and be faithful. Be faithful means do the work God has entrusted you to do. Don't quit your jobs. Don't whatever. Farmers need to keep sowing and reaping and they need to keep doing things. We need to keep doing work. We need to keep doing evangelism and church work and all that until that day comes. To be faithful with the job given to us, we also need to be ready. For me as a Bible teacher, I'm already thinking, "I'm not so sure about my eschatology, but I'm sure Jesus is coming back and I'm sure He told me to be ready anytime. That much I do know." That's how I put all of that together. We need to keep watch and be ready at any hour. That's the immediacy of Christ's word. III. Difficulty: Who Is “This Generation” That Will Not Pass Away? Thirdly, the difficulty. We already covered some of the difficulty. That was difficult, and there's more difficulty yet to come. Verse 30, "I tell you the truth, this generation will certainly not pass away until all these things have happened." Let me read it again. "I tell you the truth, this generation will certainly not pass away until all these things have happened." Do you see any difficulty in that verse? It's like, “that's why I'm glad you're the pastor and I'm not." Many of Christ's words are difficult. The scripture's difficult. We don't expect all of it to be easy. Many times He taught, and they didn't understand what He was saying, it happened a lot. Mark 9:32, “they did not understand.” Luke 18:34, “they did not understand.” This is a hotly-debated passage. This is a solemn declaration Jesus gives. The way I approach difficult passages is I talk about things that cannot be the answer. I actually identify them and say, "It can't be this, it can't be this, it can't be this." I think it's helpful. The word “generation” in this verse cannot refer to the human race generally. In other words, "The human race will not be extinct before I come back." What's the point in saying that? That's good to know. It tells you nothing. Neither does it mean that the church would not be extinct before He comes back. We'll set that aside. Here's another thing that it seems like it does mean, but it doesn't. The generation of people who are alive right now when I'm speaking these words will still be alive when all of the events I've just described such as the sun, the moon and the stars ending, and Jesus coming in the clouds with power and great glory and all the angels sent out, that is not what that means. How do I know that? Because it didn't happen. That would mean that Jesus was wrong. So can we all agree to not do that because if Jesus is wrong about that, there's no point in guessing at where He is wrong somewhere else. This is the doctrine of an errancy. There's no mistake here. Now what do we do? We try to come up with the best description of what this could mean. Even though you don't feel great about it, you end up saying, "I'm going to move on," and I've done my best to explain this verse. I'm not throwing out an errancy, and I'm certainly not throwing out the Bible, just because I can't fully understand every aspect of it. There are some reasonable explanations. The first is that Jesus is really only speaking about the fall of Jerusalem at this point and saying at this point in verse 30, "The not one stone left on another, the destruction of the temple and indeed of the city of Jerusalem will happen within one generation of this present moment," and that is true. That is a significant prophecy actually if you think about it. It is a significant prophecy. Jerusalem went centuries between being sacked, so that validates you as a prophet if that's what He meant, that the destruction of Jerusalem would be within one generation, and it was. In support of that approach, that's the most common use of the word “generation,” like the people alive today, people alive within this room. That makes you feel good about the word “generation”, and then you're like, "All right." The problem is the full statement. Look again at verse 30, "I tell you the truth, this generation will not pass away until," what? "All these things have happened." All what things? We'll go back a few verses or remember last week's sermon, it's like, all that? That didn't happen. That's the very thing that didn't happen. What do you do with the phrase all these things? That's a challenge. "The sun will be dark and the moon will not give its light. The stars will fall from the sky and the heavenly bodies will be shaken, and at that time, men will see the Son of Man coming in the clouds with great power and glory." That's hard. Another possibility is that the word “generation” is mistranslated and it could refer to this race. He's specifically talking about the Jewish people, and that's another conservative interpretation of this, that the Jews will not become extinct before the end of the world. It fits the context because obviously the Romans came in with a great intention of slaughter and they killed, Josephus tells us, over a million-and-a half Jews by the edge of the sword. There was a rage that went to heaven when they pulled down every stone one from another. They would've loved to obliterate the Jewish race at that point, and this is actually no small promise on Jesus' part. The Jews have been consistently hated in every generation. Again and again, there has been anti-Semitism and genocidal attacks on the Jewish people, right in the Bible, the Book of Esther, remember? Haman, that was a plot of genocide to exterminate the Jews entirely from the Persian Empire, and God averted it. There's long history, and I've laid out here in my sermon, the crusaders that were anti-Semitic and sought to wipe out the Jews, first crusade, 1096. During Black Death, the Jews were blamed for the Black Death, and there were tremendous reprisals on the Jewish people. Muslims consistently wiped out communities of Jews in various lands, in Morocco in the 8th century, in North Africa in the 12th century, Tunisia, Libya, other place in the 16th, 17th century. Moorish Spain saw a terrible massacre of Jews in Grenada, 1066. In Czarist Russia in the 19th century, there were terrible attempts at genocide in Russia. The story “Fiddler on the Roof” has that as one of its significant themes. The 20th century, of course, saw the greatest most organized attack on the Jews of all time under the Nazis, and then later, again, under the Communists, the Holocaust from the Nazis, and then the Communists. Therefore, Jesus' prediction that Jews would not be exterminated is amazing, and also that they would not be absorbed into the surrounding Gentile world as many peoples have. People become extinct, like the Last of the Mohicans, they're out. Moabites and Amorites, they're gone. We don't know where they are, maybe some people who have great, great, great ancestors who were Ammonites or Moabites, but we don't know them as such. Those peoples are gone, but the Jews are still here. I believe Romans 9 through 11 teaches why, because God's gifts and his purposes toward them are irrevocable. He has a final chapter to tell. I believe when it says in Romans 11, "All Israel will be saved," He's talking about that final generation of Jews. There's going to be a mass revival. The deliverable will come from Zion. He will turn godlessness away from Jacob, "And this is my covenant with them when I take away their sins." That's going to be a tremendous final act of redemptive history, so I think that's what it means. IV. Eternity: Christ’s Words More Permanent Than the Universe Let's move on to eternity. In verse 31-32 Jesus said, "Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will never pass away." First of all, Jesus asserts that this physical universe itself is temporary. The physical universe is temporary and many verses assert this. Hebrews 1:10-12 says, "In the beginning, O Lord, You laid the foundations of the earth and the heavens of the work of Your hands. They will perish, but you remain. They will all wear out like a garment. You will roll them up like a robe, like a garment, they will be changed, but you'll remain the same and your years will never end.” 2 Peter 3:10 says, "The day the Lord will come like a thief, the heavens will disappear with a roar. The elements will be destroyed by fire and the earth and everything in it will be laid bare." There is nothing you see with your eyes or hear with your ears, you touch with your hands, nothing physical in the universe is eternal. The physical universe will someday pass away. But the second half of the statement, even more amazing, "Christ's words will never pass away.” Christ's words are eternal. They will last forever. In the new heavens and the new earth, Christ's words will be established and will be delighted in and celebrated and studied forever. We'll be feeding on them and resting on them and relying on them and pondering them, probing their depths forever. You must see this as a claim to deity. Only God, Almighty God could make such a statement, "Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words, the words I speak will last forever." This is the very statement Jesus had made about the Old Testament, the laws of Moses and the prophets. He said in Matthew 5, "Do not think that I've come to abolish the law of the prophets. I've not come to abolish them, but fulfill them. I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen will by any means disappear from the law until everything is accomplished." God's Word, the Old Testament and New Testament, is eternal. It's eternal. He's equating His own words to the words of the Bible. This assertion has proven true so far, and it reaches beyond the end of the world. Christ's word will stand forever as Isaiah 40:8 says, "The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of our God stands forever." Let me say something, it's not in my sermon, but I want to mention it. About the earth, I do not believe that the new earth will be created “ex nihilo”, “out of nothing”. I believe it will be this present earth, but in some sense, resurrected. I think there must be a continuity between the present earth and the new earth or else the promise made to Abraham in Genesis 13, "Walk through the land, go through the breadth of it. Look and see, I will give this land to you, Abraham, and to your descendants forever." That promise would be null and void. It didn't happen. Hebrews 11 said they died not having received the promise. There's an outstanding promise of the land still made to the patriarchs. I believe that the new earth will be this earth resurrected, just like Abraham's new body will be his old body resurrected, so there's continuity and difference. That's what I believe about the earth. "God's Word, the Old Testament and New Testament, is eternal. It's eternal. He's equating His own words to the words of the Bible. This assertion has proven true so far, and it reaches beyond the end of the world." The purpose of Jesus' assertion is our faith and confidence. The most intensely wrenching circumstances in human history are described in this chapter, horrendous suffering, famines, earthquakes, wars, rumors of wars, attacks on the church, destruction of Jerusalem, a tribulation so great that no one would survive if those days that not been cut short. The events are so immense and so stupendous even to the shaking of the heavenly beings at the return of Christ, all of this tends to make us say, "Where can I stand? Where can I put my feet that won't move?" The answer is the word of God. Trust in the words of Christ. Rest securely on the foundation. V. Application That's the application I'm taking from this. Let's rest securely on the word of God, first and foremost, for your own salvation. In John 5:24 Jesus said, "Whoever hears my words and believes him who sent Me has eternal life and will not be condemned. He's crossed over from death to life." What a beautiful statement that is. Has that happened to you? Have you heard Christ's words about your sinfulness, your violation of the laws of God, the corruption that comes up from your inner nature that defiles you and all of us, the ways you violated God's commands, the fact that there is no remedy, no works that could ever be done, but that Jesus came to give His life as a ransom for many and that if we believe our sins will be forgiven, like the paralyzed man? When He saw their faith, He said, "Take heart, son, your sins are forgiven." Has that happened to you? If Jesus declares, your sins are forgiven, they are forgiven. The question is, has that happened to you? The foundation of your life, the word of God. Concerning the clarity, immediacy, difficulty, and eternity of God's word, first clarity. Come to Christ, trust in Him and then He will give you the Holy Spirit to illuminate the word of God, and it will become increasingly clear to you by the power of the Spirit as you study it, clarity. What about immediacy? Go back to Revelation 3:20, "Behold, I stand at the door and knock." He does that by the word of God and by the Spirit. Open the door, and He'll come in and eat with you and you with Him. Intimate fellowship with Christ is available, immediacy. Again, Hebrews 3, as the Holy Spirit is saying to you right now, "Today, if you hear His voice, don't harden your heart." What does that go to? Anything covered in the Bible, any topic in the Bible. If He's telling you what sin is and you're convicted, repent and make changes in your life. If He's giving you wisdom or promises or giving you guidance, follow it. Today, if you hear his word, if you hear him speak, don't harden your heart. That's immediacy. Concerning the difficulty of the word of God, there are always going to be passages where you're not quite sure what it means. Doesn't that show you that the Bible came from a mind so infinitely greater than any of ours? "As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are God's ways higher than our ways,” and God's words higher than our words," so expect difficulty. Finally, eternality. I think it's exciting to think that when we get to heaven, we will still be learning, studying and probing the extent and the dimensions of the words of Christ. To me, that's exciting. Close with me in prayer. Father, thank You for giving us a sure and certain foundation of our souls. We thank You that this foundation, the word of God, cannot be shaken. As Jesus said at the end of the Sermon of the Mount, "Everyone who hears these words of mine and puts him into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock, and the rains came down and the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall because it had its foundation on the rock." Help us to build on the unshakeable foundation of the Word of God. We pray in Jesus' name, Amen.

Vinnie Tortorich, the highest profile celebrity trainer in Hollywood, has produced three films, has a best-selling book, and done over 2000 podcasts; he's an ultra athlete and is a guy who speaks the truth about health and wellness and how the big corporates and governments are leading us astray. This conversation challenges our constructs, assumptions, and beliefs on health, fitness, nutrition, and what we feed ourselves and our families. Vinnie is "the guy on the street" who steps up. Reinforced by world-leading experts in his documentaries, you will hear Vinnie's truth. Whether you choose to take action or not is up to you.    LINKS   Vinnie's website https://vinnietortorich.com/   The Mojo Sessions website www.themojosessions.com   The Mojo Sessions on Patreon www.patreon.com/TheMojoSessions Full transcripts of the show (plus time codes) are available on Patreon.   The Mojo Sessions on Facebook www.facebook.com/TheMojoSessions   Gary on LinkedIn www.linkedin.com/in/gary-bertwistle   Gary on Twitter www.twitter.com/GaryBertwistle   The Mojo Sessions on Instagram www.instagram.com/themojosessions   If you like what you hear, we'd be grateful for a review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Happy listening!   © 2024 Gary Bertwistle.  All Rights Reserved.

Navigators Head of Wholesale Michael Garrison discussed the impact of inflation and catastrophes in the property market, and social inflation on the wholesale market. He spoke to AM Best TV at the 2023 WSIA Annual Marketplace in San Diego.

Get ready for an explosive episode of Adam's Archive, where host Austin Adams tackles some of the most jaw-dropping and contentious global stories of our time. The episode blasts off with Elon Musk's unexpected venture into Israeli politics and his intriguing pact with Netanyahu. The plot thickens with President Biden's contentious Hamas apology, stirring up a political storm. In a shocking health expose, a former White House doctor spills alarming details about Joe Biden's well-being. Austin then dives into the Orwellian world of the Department of Justice's massive data collection from Trump-related Twitter activities. Brace yourself as the episode unveils a mysterious and potentially catastrophic new illness sweeping through China, triggering flashbacks of the pandemic's early days. The climax hits with the dramatic OpenAI saga, revealing Sam Altman's surprising reinstatement and Elon Musk's cryptic warnings about a secret AI program. Don't miss out on this episode of Adam's Archive, packed with Austin's unfiltered analysis and bold perspectives.   All the links: https://linktr.ee/theaustinjadams Substack: https://austinadams.substack.com ----more---- Full Transcription Hello, you beautiful people, and welcome to the Adam's Archive. My name is Austin Adams, and thank you so much for listening today. On today's episode, we are going to be jumping into several current events, including Elon Musk visiting Israel. Not only that, but having a discussion with Netanyahu, personally walking through some of the areas of the war and destruction that happened there, as well as coming to a Somewhat surprising agreement with him, which we will discuss first, then we will walk through the next discussion, which also has to do with Israel and Hamas, which is that Biden is apologizing for something that he said more recently  about questioning Hamas. So we'll talk about.  After that, we'll jump into a former White House doctor, one that served under Bush, Trump, as well as Barack Obama, coming out with some pretty serious warnings about Joe Biden's health.  Then we will jump into the Department of Justice collecting some really serious information about basically every single person who interacted with anything about Joe Biden. With about Trump on Twitter,  following that into a discussion around a new, a new sickness,  or at least. A serious sickness that's  causing waves in China right now. And if that sounds familiar and alarms you, it probably should,  but the U S is now sounding the alarm after a new Chinese pneumonia outbreak raises serious health concerns,  PTSD, anybody.  And then we will talk about an update. So last week, uh, the last episode, I talked about the situation with Chachaputi, OpenAI, Sam Altman, um, and all of the employees there and this crazy wild story  that finally came ahead and one hour after, just one hour, one hour after my podcast, it was like two in the morning when they reinstated Sam Altman, completely got rid of the entire board. But that raised some even weirder questions, something I raised originally, but I'm starting to get the full picture now. And Elon Musk posted something that was said Q Anon with a star between Q and Anon,  but it was actually about open AI and potentially AGI or artificial general intelligence and his concerns around a secret program. Within OpenAI,  all of that and more. But first I need you to hit that subscribe, but  button, I need you to leave a five star review. Go hit that five star button on Apple Podcasts, subscribe on YouTube. You can watch all of the episodes directly on YouTube. I'll now be posting all of the topic clips individually there as well. Um, so make sure you follow on YouTube, the Adams. archive, you can find me there and watch along, you can see my beautiful face, uh, see the articles that we're talking through together. Uh, so make sure you head over there, do that, follow, subscribe, leave a five star review. That's honestly the best thing that you can do at this point to help out is just leave a five star review on Apple podcasts. Okay. It takes two minutes out of your day. It gives you some of that good belly feelings in your gut  just for helping out. All right. I appreciate you guys. Thank you so much for listening. Let's. Jump into it,  the Adams archive.  All right. The very first thing that we are going to discuss today is going to be that Elon Musk met with Netanyahu.  In Israel, not only that, but he also walked around Israel looking at all of the, uh, after effects of some of the war that happened there in this article says Israel tells Elon Musk Starlink can only operate in Gaza with a It's approval.  So now Elon Musk, after putting up Starlink in Ukraine, after putting up Starlink over Gaza, after being the savior to all of these, um, citizens, when there's a war breaking out and the commanding force shuts off their access to the internet to do God knows what  now he's given in. So Netanyahu is going to be telling Elon Musk, whether he can or cannot. Activate their internet with Starlink.  So this article says Israel tells Elon Musk, Starlink can only operate in Gaza with its approval says entrepreneur meets country's leaders amid fervor over alleged antisemitism on his social platinum or platform X. I'm not sure that's what it was exactly about, but it says Israel has told Starlink satellite network will only be allowed to operate in Gaza with its approval as the entrepreneur met with country's leaders amid a furor, furor, f u r o r e over alleged antisemitism on his social platform X. The world's richest man declared that last month that his satellite internet service Starlink would support connectivity to internationally recognized. Aid organizations in Gaza seems like a good thing to do, right? If there's a massive war going on and one of the sides decides to shut off all access to the internet, you know, not only does it do that, but it cuts off their messaging between people. Uh, in families locally, it cuts off their access to the outside world, so they can't post videos of things that are going on there, I don't know, by maybe some organization that's dropping bombs on them or doing terrible things to them, or, I don't know, just everyday things, right? Phone connectivity, internet, work, all of that stops. When you can't access the internet. So originally what happened is Elon Musk came in just like he did in Ukraine and said, okay,  you guys can battle this out, but you're not going to eliminate one person's access to the world. So he has Starlink. And if you don't know anything about Starlink, it's basically satellites. I'm pretty sure Elon Musk has more satellites than any.  Now, something like that, but a Starlink,  uh, is a way that he can turn on and turn off access to wifi and the internet for anybody in the world, basically at any given time, just by utilizing his satellites. And so it says the world's richest man declared late last night that his satellite internet service Starlink would support connectivity to internationally recognized aid organizations in Gaza, which has suffered lengthy blackouts under. Israel's bombardment. But on Monday, Israeli communication minister, Shlomo Kari posted on X that the entrepreneur had reached a principal understanding with the ministry and has said now that Starlink units can only be operated. In Israel with the approval of the Israeli minister or ministry of communication, including the Gaza strip. Now, what that saying is that you have to listen to the words carefully and read between the lines here. It says Starlink satellite units can only operate, be operated in Israel, in Israel. Okay. With the approval of the Israeli ministry of communications, including.  Which means that within this tweet itself, they were already claiming ownership to Gaza. Already saying that that is our territory. Already saying that that is a part of Israel.  And we'll go ahead and we'll watch some videos here shortly. Uh, where there's some pretty interesting conversations by one of my fans. favorite political commentators, uh, and, um, he, he kind of discussed the background of Israel, the background of the Ottoman empire and Palestine and, uh, all of the, the things that kind of led up to this disputed territory, which I found to be really interesting. So we'll pull that up in just a minute and listen to that. Um, but it goes on to say that Musk has not yet publicly confirmed any deal.  The SpaceX and Tesla chief executive is visiting the Jewish state for the first time since Hamas October 7th assault on southern Israel, which killed 1, 200 people and triggered a war between Israel and the militant group, this says.  Israel's ferocious retaliatory bombardment and siege of the Strip has continued or created a humanitarian crisis, killing more than 13, 300 people and led to prolonged blackouts.  These have obstructed rescue efforts, notably  by preventing ambulances from reaching, or from locating wounded people. Now the interesting thing about that is like, they want to say that it's not controlled by Israel, but then they can cut off their water, they can cut off their electricity, they can cut off their access to internet. What about that says that you're not controlled by somebody? Because it seems to me that if somebody has access to, you know... You're to shut off your water. If somebody can shut off your electricity, if somebody can shut off your ability to drive on roads, if somebody can shut off your ability to access the internet or the world, it seems like that's pretty much control, right? And they want to say that it's not  controlled by Israel already. Uh, but it doesn't exactly seem to be the case. It seems pretty well controlled. After appearing to endorse an anti Semitic conspiracy theory in which a white house Spokesperson said was abhorrent Musk has been forced to defend himself from changes or from charges of discrimination. Wow, I can't read today. Nothing could be further from the truth. He said, an acts I wish only for the best for humanity. I wonder what this conspiracy theory could have been.  A video released by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office showed Musk wearing a flag jacket as he toured burnt out homes.  Uh, a far Aussie, a kibbutz devastated by the militant group's assault, taking pictures on his mobile phone. Actions speak louder than words, Musk posted cryptically on X after the visit. Musk's initial commitment to enable Starlink in Gaza was followed by telecommunications blackouts in the enclave sparked. Uh, which sparked a spat by the Israeli government, which argued with the connectivity would be used by Hamas for terrorist activities. Yeah, just like basically everything and anything they ever want to stop as a government, they can just say is, oh, used for terrorist activities, right? Like,  anybody who, as we'll find out later, followed Donald Trump is now on a list somewhere.  Liked any of his tweets, retweeted any of his tweets, any single person who did that on Twitter is now on a list from the Department of Justice.  Anybody who was there on January 6th? protesting,  whether they walked into the Capitol and got a museum tour by the local police or not is now on some terrorist watch list, right? They can say whatever they want. That's the hard thing with like language and the way that what language can be weaponized, right? Go Back in read 1984, right? When, when you can take a singular word like terrorist and start to apply it to anything and anything that doesn't agree with the government's narrative, that becomes a huge issue, right? Just like when, when all the liberals were calling everybody Nazis.  It just loses its venom after so long. So like when, yeah, I agree. Hamas, what they did was an act of terrorism, obviously terrible. Don't do that. But when you start saying that the people that were walking through the Capitol on January 6th were also domestic terrorists.  It's just factually incorrect,  right? You can't, you can't,  every time you use that word in a way that it's not meant to be used or a way that is not legitimate, it loses its sting, right? So, so when you say that, Oh,  you know, we're, we're putting up all these cameras on highways to To stop terrorism. We're doing it to stop mass shooters. We're doing it to stop violent criminals, right? Well, we talked about in our last episode, you know, all the cameras that are going up on every single highway in America, you know, we're doing it for your safety. Like, don't worry about us. We would never spy on you. We would never follow and track you and see where you're going. We would never do that. It's just for those bad guys over there that, you know, you don't, don't agree with our opinions on politics.  It's, you know, all of the, the terrorism talk that's happened domestically has just really,  really, uh, caused the venom of that word to, to, to be questioned. Right, so it says Starlink, part of Musk's rockets, uh, Starlink, part of Musk's rockets and satellite company SpaceX, uses a constellation of Earth orbiting satellites to beam internet connectivity into places where traditional access to the web is denied. difficult. Musk has provided Starlink equipment to Ukraine's frontline with Russia. The Starlink signal is received through small satellite dishes called terminals. But Musk said in October that no terminals have actually attempted to connect from the besieged Gaza.  And so I was on board with that. I'm on board with that. 100%. I don't think that I think that in today's age, when we can give access to these things, I believe that it's absolutely something that everybody should have access to. If you have the ability to beam it onto the earth, which apparently we do, why wouldn't we want  Anybody and everybody in the country to or in the world to have access to that, right? You should it gives you access to the  ability to Conduct work it gives you access to the ability to communicate worldwide to be in the know of what's happening Right to know literally everything it should be basically a right that you have internet today now maybe you should pay for it if you're in a place that you know like the United States where you can Have a job and be a functioning member of society, but maybe eventually not like, but why should we have to pay for internet? Why isn't it just considered a, you know, utility bill at some point?  But anyways, I digress. Here we go. Um, the article continues on and says,  let's see if we can get this to be Full screen here, and says  that, uh, Musk's visit to Israel coincides with the last day of the four day pause in hostilities and comes as advertisers pile pressure on X over a rise in anti Semitism on the platform after appearing to endorse an anti Semitic conspiracy theory, which a White House spokesperson said. Let's see if we can find that out. Uh,  let's see. Musk tweet anti Semitic. That should be easy enough.  Conspiracy tweet. Let's see what comes up for that. It says, This  comes from CNN. com, so it should be a good one.  Uh, here we go.  It says Elon Musk has publicly endorsed an anti Semitic conspiracy theory, popular among white supremacists, this says on CNN, that Jewish communities push hatred against whites. That kind of overt thumbs up to an anti Semitic post shocked even some of Musk's critics, who have long called him out for using racist and otherwise bigoted dog whistles on Twitter, known as X.  It was the multi billionaire's most explicit public statement yet endorsing anti Jewish views.  Let's see, uh,  it says that Jewish communities, Musk has, was responding to a post Wednesday that said Jewish communities have been pushing the exact kind of dialectic, dialectical hatred against whites that they claim to want people to stop using against them. The post has also referenced hordes of minorities flooding Western countries, a popular anti Semitic conspiracy theory.  What is anti semitic about hordes  of minorities flooding western countries?  Seems to be factual when you're talking about the southern border.  I just wanted to see if I could see the tweet, but apparently they're not going to link it here because they're afraid you'll actually read into it  and see if this is it.  Nope.  Hmm.  So, doesn't sound exact The way that they can twist somebody's words and say, oh, they're they push hatred against white people, which you know, you follow the money in a lot of these places may be factually true. But anyways, um, it says nothing could be further from the truth, he said on Next. A video released by Prime Minister Netanyahu's office showed Musk wearing a flak jacket. Just discuss that. Actions speak louder than words. Discuss that. Discuss what Starlink is. The Starlink signal is received through small satellite dishes called terminals. But Musk said in October that no terminals had actually been attempted to connect from besieged Gaza. And Israel controls the movement of goods into the coastal enclave. During the seven week war, Israel has, at times, reportedly cut communications to the Strip.  I wonder why they would do that. Hmm.  And I think that ceasefire is gone now, isn't it?  All right, moving on,  Biden reportedly offers an apology to Muslim American leaders for questioning the Hamas death toll. We talked about this last time where  Biden was saying that he did not agree with the death toll coming from Palestinian health organizations. And now he's walking back those statements because obviously there's been a tremendous amount of death, a tremendous amount of, uh, question or, um, of. Bombs that have been dropped in Palestine, a tremendous amount of men, women, and children that have died as a result of the actions of Israel.  Factual. Go,  I don't know, fly a drone over there. Like, look at the, look at the, the, the destruction that has happened in the videos. And, and, who's to say whether that's completely accurate or not, but It's absolutely true that there has been a massive amount of death for men, women, and children in Palestine. So Biden is now recognizing that apologizing saying he's  quote unquote, I believe, let's see what this. Let's see if we can get the full article.  Oh, we gotta, we gotta subscribe folks.  Let's find a different one.  Now. My favorite News connector is ground news  and we can go here and let's go Biden  Offers apology now if you go to ground news what it does for you And okay, I would highly recommend educating yourself on this platform because I absolutely love it So I'll just give you a breakdown what this looks like. It's ground  And they give you the headline, they give you the top three points, and then they tell you the bias of the news distribution. So what percentage has been reporting on this, um, 41 percent of the sources that are reporting on this lean right. Right. Of those, um, there's two that are center, 61 percent biased, I'm sorry, 61%. I'm just blind.  And then they give you all of the articles. So then you can sort and sift through those articles. You can say you can look at all of them. You can look at the left leaning articles. You can look at the right leaning articles. You can look at the center articles. Then it gives you the factuality of each one of those and who owns those media companies. So it's like, very basically anything and everything that you would want out of the actual reporting. Um, so it gives factuality scores, ownership scores, like  whoever is responsible for this just does an absolute tremendous job. It's incredible.   All right, so here it is. It says this is coming from the Daily Post and it says Israel Palestinian war. I'm disappointed in myself, Biden says as he apologizes over comments on Gaza. Now, obviously, like we talked about, it's not Gaza in general, what a terrible headline.  But here's what it says. It says, United States President Biden Joe Biden has apologized to some prominent Muslim American leaders over his public questioning of the Palestinian death number reported by the Hamas controlled Gaza Ministry of Health, right? And again, it's like you would just have to watch out for the framing on this because do we, is it, I don't know. I don't, I've never done research on the. Gaza Ministry of Health, but they just like frivolously throw that out there to delegitimize the numbers. And now he's apologizing for it, right? So they, they tried to shoo it away as saying, Oh, that's what the terrorists said. We don't believe the terrorists. You're not a terrorist. Are you? You're a  flag loving American. Right? Maybe not flag loving because then nowadays that makes you a terrorist anyways. But  you see what I'm saying, right? Like, just, just listen to the framing Biden, according to the New York post, made the apology at a meeting with the five Muslim American leaders  the day after his October 25th comments on reported Gaza deaths.  Vowing to do better. Biden told the group, I'm sorry, I'm so disappointed in myself, Biden said, when he heard the leaders describe individuals they knew who were personally affected by the conflict. Before the press conference, Biden had openly questioned the accuracy of the  casualty figures from Gaza, given Hamas terror track, Hamas terror track record.  The president was smeared with criticism at home as he made great efforts to pressure Israel to minimize civilian casualties.  He said, I have no notion that the Palestinians are telling the truth about how many people are killed. I'm sure innocents have been killed and it's the price of waging war, he said. Wow. Is that the price of waging wars? You kill innocent people? According to data from the Hamas controlled Ministry of Health, more than 14, 000 Palestinians in Gaza, including many women and children, have been killed in the conflict. Meanwhile, Israel has suffered more than 1, 200 fatalities, almost a tenth, less than a tenth. Mostly civilians who were killed when the terror group launched a massive attack on Israel in October.  The Muslim American leaders who have met with Joe Biden pleaded with him to show more empathy for the Palestinians. So here's, here's something that I see to, you know, I find this to be pretty interesting. You go to almost any major,  uh, account right now. Now there's a few, there's a few people who are...  actually honest and truthful, but you see a lot of mainstream media accounts, a lot of mainstream influencers, a lot of conservative voices, just giving the most egregious points on, on the Palestinian conflict. Like you go to Prager U right now, you go to, you know, go listen to Ben Shapiro. You hear them literally saying word for word.  That the reason, or that the blood of Palestinian children and women is on the hands of Hamas. Not on the hands of Israel, who actually bombed them. You know, but it's on the hands of Hamas, because, you know, they did this to us first, so they deserved it. Right? Like, that's, that's, we're almost word for word, verbatim, what both Dennis Prager and, um, and, uh, uh, Ben Shapiro had said about this almost verbatim, like literally go find it, then they'll say, oh, you know, Hiroshima was was something that just had to be done. We had to murder an entire city and block of a mile of people in order to stop this war. It's, it's like, no. Well, what should we do? Well, maybe send special forces in there and take them out. Like,  don't just bomb the children. Uh, and that's what's so funny about this argument that like, oh, Hamas is shielding themselves with women and children. And instead of, you know,  trying to wait for a sniper to have a good I am the target so that they can kill just the terrorists behind them, right, like their their point is that, oh, they use women and children as human shields. They use human shields. How egregious how much of a terrorist are they for using human shields? And it's like, okay, you don't use human shields, you just bomb the women and children, regardless without any thought to it. It's like, which one's worse, just endlessly bombing women and children without any say or reason why really and or using somebody as a human shield. They're equally bad because in both scenarios, somebody dies who was innocent, equally bad,  right? But they've they've probably done government think tanks and had massive surveys where they found out that if you say the human shield buzzword that that now all of a sudden people are on your side, right? It's like, You definitely can't use human shields. Just bomb them all.  Anyway. So there's your update on that. And, uh, from that, speaking about Joe Biden, the next thing that we'll discuss is that a former white house doctor has come out and raised some concerns surrounding the health of Joe Biden. So, you know, not that any of us thought that he was in great health or anything.  Uh, but.  It seems to be deteriorating just quicker than anybody would have even thought. Um, so let's read this article together. And it says,  Former White House doctor warns that Biden won't last another five years in office. They're saying that he has completely degenerated just during the time in his office. And this is somebody, this is a doctor who served under George Bush, who served under Donald Trump, who served under Barack Obama. So this isn't some run of the mill, you know, was in there for six months and now all of a sudden he has a political opinion that this man was unfit for duty. No, this is somebody who was trusted by the White House to give their unbiased opinion about the health of our presidents.  And he's come out and said that he does not believe Joe Biden is in any shape or form able to act the duties. Now, I agree completely, like Anybody who's,  the only thing that they could have done that's worse than this is what they did to Feinstein, right, where they wheeled her out there the day before she croaked, the day before she died and had her vote on the floor,  while some guy was whispering in her ear telling her to shut up and say yes.  Here we go. Uh, the article says, uh,  Ronnie Jackson, a Republican from Texas, a former White House physician, warned this week that President Joe Biden won't make it another five years if he's reelected in 2024. The decline is happening quickly, Jackson said, who served as a physician under former Presidents George Bush, Barack Obama, Donald Trump, as he told Fox News on Sunday. Jackson argued that Biden's cognitive acuity has declined rapidly, even since 2020, when he was first elected.  It's just unbelievable how much he's degenerated through his time in office. We cannot afford to have this man in office for the remainder of his term, and then for another four years after that. He's already putting us at great risk, right? Now, he says, citing his experience with the white house, Jackson said, he knows firsthand what it takes to be the commander in chief and the head of state. It's a grueling job, both mentally and physically, the man can't do the job he's proven to us over the single or every single day that he can't do the job, but this is just getting worse.  Fair enough.  Right. And I had this conversation with somebody the other day, to me, it's like, what is the, the,  even more so than his, like,  Then his politics, right? Because you probably can't even point to Joe Biden's politics at this point or his position on things. But what you can point to is, is the absolute embarrassment, the absolute embarrassment to our country. That is Joe Biden representing us on a world stage.  The man can't string a sentence together. The man can't walk up a flight of stairs. The man can't.  shake the hand of any other person knowing fully well who they are at any given time. Like, how are you going to trust that man to make some of the most complex decisions of any position with the biggest impact of any position in the world? How do you expect that? You don't. You want to know why? Because, you know, and I would almost rather have, that's what you have to understand about the president is that the president is. Essentially just a figurehead. They should exude power. They should exude intelligence. They should be charismatic. They should be able to calm a crowd in times of war and, and Excite them in times of peace to do great things and Joe Biden does absolutely not a single one of those things,  right? So I would, I would almost rather have somebody whose politics are just absolutely atrocious, but at least represent our country well, then Joe Biden, and that's what you have to know by now is that Joe Biden is absolutely 100 percent only in this position because he has nothing to say at all when it comes to politics. He is essentially a puppet with a literal hand up his ass telling him exactly what to say and when to say it. He has no opinions of his own. He is absolutely bought and paid for in every position that he holds.  And that's why he's in this position. And that's why they would probably hope to keep him in there another four years.  They being the people who really lobbied to get him there.  The Black Rocks, the Vanguards, all of those people, right? So it's like,  he is... Only in the position that he is in because he holds no position  and that's what you saw in the Osama bin Laden letter  And I called it was I said Saddam Hussein. It was actually Osama bin Laden's letter I think I was reading it wrong or no, that was just in a clip that I posted on Instagram.  I Posted a clip on Instagram and I had to edit it out because I was I kept saying  Saddam Hussein instead of Osama bin Laden  Silly me, mixing up my terrorists.  Alright,  so, pretty wild stuff, not that wild, because we all knew the guy could, is, is  about to die at any single moment. And then that's like probably the most, the most exciting thing about Joe Biden's presidency, is that the man could literally be in the middle of a speech, or walking up a flight of stairs, and just die. In front of anybody, everybody with all these cameras on him at any given moment. It's like, we should have a  death. What is it? The dead pool, a death pool, uh, for Joe Biden and have over unders on whether or not he would make a second term.  All right. Now, speaking of that,  uh, the next thing we're going to discuss is that the Department of Justice collected every single name of every single Twitter account that liked, followed, or even retweeted anything regarding Trump, right? Anything from Trump that he ever said. If you liked him, if you followed him, or if you retweeted him, you're on a list somewhere. The Department of Justice has collected every single name of every single Twitter account that he ever  And this comes from HeadlineUSA. Not sure what that is.  Twitter is, I got it from, uh, The Ground News, so. It said mixed factuality, so.  Most of them do, to be fair. Um, Twitter is required to disclose following information.  All lists of Twitter users who have favorited or retweeted posts, tweets, uh, tweets posted by Trump, as well as all tweets that include the username associated with the account. So any mentions or even replies with Trump's name.  It says that Ken Silva,  Uh, stated that the Justice Department attorneys have released record records related to their search warrant for Donald Trump's Twitter account, revealing that prosecutors obtained a vast trove of data about the former president's social media activity, including info on every single account to like, follow. And retweet him.  The heavily redacted search warrant was released Monday, pursuant to a November 17th judge's order, which was made after a coalition of media groups filed an application in August for the warrant and other records to be made public. From the looks of it, Twitter forked over massive amounts of information to the Department of Justice. Um, indeed, Special Counsel Jack Smith sought and apparently ultimately received all users Trump followed, unfollowed, muted. Un unmuted, blocked, or unblocked, as well as all the users who have followed, unfollowed, muted, un unmuted, blocked, or unblocked Trump. Additionally, Smith demanded da, uh, Twitter data on all the lists of Twitter users who have been favored their retweeted tweets posted by Trump, as well as all the tweets that included the username associated with the account.  Wow.  In some we that the district court's ruling in all aspects, the, uh, the district court's properly rejected.  Uh, let's see here.  It's gonna be a jerk to me again. Need to figure this out.  My, uh, I, I have my iPad as the secondary monitor here and it keeps like going out on me. So sorry If we have any lulls in the action for you. It says, in some, we affirm, we affirm that the district court's ruling in all aspects are all respects the district court properly rejected. Twitter's first amendment challenged to the, the non-disclosure order, the appeals court said in the decision unsealed in August. Moreover, the district court acted within the bounds of its own, of its discretion to manage its docket when it declined to. day to stay its enforcement of the warrant while the First Amendment claim was litigated.  So any single person, any single person who liked, followed, tweeted, untweeted, retweeted, no tweeted,  anything at all to do with Donald Trump is now on a list that the Department of Justice has. For what reason? What would you want that for? What would you want that for, right? You want, you want to start surveilling those people, right? Especially the high profile people. If anybody actually has a following and, and you are somebody who voted Trump is, follows Trump tweets, Trump likes his posts, anything at all, you know, because very easily you could just take an Excel spreadsheet, which I'm sure somebody did over at the department of justice and filtered it based on follower count. So they could find out who are the people of influence that are a part of Donald Trump's network. Okay. Right. Not even network, but just support group.  There's nine comments here. Let's see if any of them are any good. Uh, what was the name of the Beatles song? Oh yeah. Back in the USSR.  Yeah. I mean, pretty fricking wild. Uh, do not fund the justice department. Yeah. Nothing, nothing too good. Not enough. All right. Cool. Um, so to me, that's egregious. To me, that shows an absolute surveillance state. To me, that shows that the, the collusion between Twitter and Department of Justice now has been fossilized in, in Excel spreadsheets somewhere at a, uh, Government facility to say whether or not you could potentially be a domestic terrorist because you  followed Donald Trump, the president of the United States, one of the most followed, liked, retweeted people of all time on Twitter.  Hmm. But now you'll find yourself on a list somewhere.  Alright, after that, this one's.  A little bit, even more concerning, but before we talk about that, the first thing I need you to do  is I think you know what I'm going to say, which is that you should subscribe. You should leave a five star review if you haven't already. And if you're driving, it's okay. I forgive you. But when you get where you're going, stop what you're doing, pull out your phone and it takes 10 seconds, 10 seconds is all it takes. All you got to do is scroll a little bit down on the Apple podcast.  Hit that five star review. You can give a five star on Spotify. It just doesn't let you write anything, but an Apple podcast, it really helps. Uh, go follow me on Instagram at the Austin J Adams. Uh, go follow me on Twitter at the Austin J Adams on, you know, all the things.  Uh, Truth Social, I'm even on there. I don't really use it ever, but that's gonna change. I'm starting to get some help over here, so uh, looking forward to being more consistent with you guys on content that I'm putting out. Getting back to the sub stack, which you can follow at austinadams. substack. com. Um, and that's what I got.  Adams Archive.  There it is. Let's jump into it. Um, the article says,  The U. S. sounds an alarm after new Chinese pneumonia outbreak raises serious questions and concerns.  And the article says that U. S. officials began expressing concerns this week about a new outbreak in respiratory illnesses in China that have sent a surge of Children to the hospital. NBC News reported that the outbreak in northern China has caused hospitals to become overwhelmed with sick Children. According to pro med, a publicly available reporting system for emerging disease or diseases and outbreaks. The news comes after COVID 19 began spreading in Wuhan, China in late 2019. And in the span of a couple months through the entire world into a global pandemic that killed millions and was used by governments to implement draconian measures. Yep.  Now, as far as the killed millions thing, I would like to revisit that and tell you that all of the PCR tests, you know, the with kid who died with COVID or died of COVID are serious things that we need to revisit and stop saying there's millions of people who died as a result of COVID when you have to understand that there was actually somebody who got bit by a shark  and died as a result of being eaten by a shark  and COVID 19. Was considered a COVID death because they had tested positive for COVID at the time And then you have to take that a step further and understand that not only were they marking people dead with COVID  So that they could make their money because they were incentivized off of this because this is all stuff We can't let seep through our memory people We have to understand the lengths that they went to for this propaganda campaign one being that it wasn't Died of COVID. What was important was died with COVID that they would mark as of COVID.  The second thing is even when they ran those tests and said that they died with COVID. They ran the tests with PCR testing at cycles that were way higher than what was supposed to be allowable for PCR tests to be accurate whatsoever. And then as things wound down, guess what they did. They lowered the cycles on the PCR tests. So there wasn't as many false positives.  So when you're talking about millions of people dying, you have to understand  The real number of people that died of COVID is far, far, far less than what was reported originally. Because first of all, as we just talked about, they marked people dead. Uh, with COVID as of COVID,  they marked people with COVID incorrectly because the amount of cycles they were doing on PCR tests, which was far above the allowed, allowable, uh, at least justifiable amount of cycles. It's like anything above 19 cycles is a very high rate of, of, uh, false positives, right? You go back to the podcast I've done about Carrie Mullisk, you go read the, who actually came up with PCR testing, Nobel prize, uh, winning laureate, uh, scientists, uh, who who designed the PCR test. And it's really interesting if you go back and listen to some of those episodes, even episode one, right? I'll mention that a couple of times is, uh, assassinations, coverups, and the cult of science that I did. Uh, I highly recommend you, you listen into that podcast. It may not, I haven't gone back and listened to it myself in a while, but, uh, it's the very first one I ever did. So cut me some slack. Uh, but I think there was a lot of value in there. And I went through that book that I discussed last week. Uh, code blue about the military or the medical industrial complex. So a pretty good one, but a highly, you know, when, when we're talking about millions of people that you have to remember the context, you cannot forget that when we talk about that. All right. So it says China's recent pneumonia outbreak raises serious questions in the world health organization is asking them said us ambassador of, uh, to Japan, Ram Manuel.  It's time to abandon COVID deception and delays as transparent and timely information saves lives, he said. Full cooperation with the international community is not an option. It's a public health imperative. Will Beijing step up?  China's, and this is, uh, the ambassador that actually tweeted that, so.  There's the exact tweet. Um, NBC News says that it witnessed long lines and crowded waiting rooms at Beijing's Children's Hospital. And this is, again, when you see the word children, right? Why would something be specifically affecting children?  Children generally have much better immune systems than you and I. Uh, or even older individuals, right? The reason for that is, well, they're young, they're healthy, their antibodies are much more aggressive in dealing with these things. Their hearts are healthier than ours, their lungs are healthier than ours. Um, Lots of reasons, but  says the who said in the statement that today who held a teleconference with Chinese health authorities in which they provided requested data on respiratory illnesses among children in northern China.  The data indicates an increase in outpatient consultations and hospital admissions of children due to Mycoplasma  pneumonia since May and RSV adenovirus and influenza virus since October.  You mean we're going into  December and we have a rise in flu cases.  What will we do? It's almost like this has happened every year since humanities existed.  Um, the who continued some of these increases are earlier in the season that historically experienced, but not an unexpected given the lifting of COVID 19 restrictions as similarly experienced in other countries. Yeah. Okay.  They've already cried wolf and like, nobody will literally believe them. If there was a flesh eating zombie disease at this point.  I think you would still have a large portion of the country in complete disbelief, right? The boy, let's go back to the boy who cried wolf, right? Or the government who cried pandemic is probably a more accurate one.  It goes on to say  the COVID 19 pandemic was marked by lying and deception from communist China about the origins of the coronavirus as well as attempts to cover it up.  The World Health Organization was also accused of not being forthcoming with what it knew about the coronavirus and of trying to cover for China.  Yes, we know. All of this. All right.  Cool. So there's your article on  that. So to me, you know, they, they've come out now and said that this is not a novel virus, that it's not something that they have not seen before. Um, so they, they, they've said, you know, it's, it's nothing to be concerned of, uh, until, you know, it's not like last time. Right? Until it is something to be concerned about. Um, But, I guess, Time will tell, And we'll have to wait and see if that's the case. And, Uh, When it is, Make sure you just, Buy enough toilet paper, I guess.  Or a bidet. Cause, Bidets are awesome. And, You get to limit your toilet paper use.  I never went on a bidet rant here. But I could. Bidets are amazing.  If you've never used one, High, Highly recommend.  All right, the very  next article that we're going to discuss here is going to be  one of our last ones, which is about open AI. So we talked about this  last week, there was this whole wild escapade, this whole story, this crazy situation happened, where the Altman for not being completely candid in their letter, um, and then said that even if open AI went under. That it would be  aligned with OpenAI's mission that OpenAI went under. Now, I mentioned that last time in reading that. Um, we can go back and listen to that if you want to. But, um, I mentioned that. That that wording was weird to me. That if OpenAI went under, they said that it would be aligned with OpenAI's mission.  And OpenAI's mission is for safe and aligned AGI, right? And if you don't understand AI much or what AGI is, we'll talk about it.  Um, but AGI is artificial general intelligence, meaning that something that is basically sentient and conscious, right? We don't believe today that the AI that we have is considered AGI.  Right, it's AI, but general intelligence, meaning that it  essentially has its own consciousness, that it can think for itself, that it's not just an input and output of, of a, A,  Bs, or X, Ys, or, you know, whatever,  the matrix essentially, right? So it's not binary coding that's deciding its next output, it actually can actively think and Um, you know, have conversations in a way where it has its own emotions and, and things like that. Right. So that's what AGI is. And that's what terrifies people is once we get to that point where it can start to detach itself from the infrastructure that we have, and it's sentient in and of itself, that it could escape the small black box that it's within metaphorically and take over the world and eliminate all of humanity. And  maybe  that's why the board was trying to kick out Sam Altman, because he wasn't candid about this program that is called QSTAR,  which is a  allegedly, uh, true AI potential path towards AGI that Sam Altman didn't discuss. Um, so this article says, and we'll, let's give this a better introduction, is the fact that Sam Altman getting fired could have been the best thing for humanity.  If Q star, which is potentially the  black secretive program within open AI that could lead to AGI, or maybe already is AGI  or sentient, a sentient, uh, a life form of AI  very well could mean the end of humanity to very many people that project these things, you know, almost even I think Sam Altman there, or even the Twitch CEO that was put into position said, yeah, it's a 50, 50 shot. If we reach AGI, whether or not. Completely kills off all of humanity and a lot of people think to agree with that. I think Elon Musk said the same thing. It's about 50, 50, right? So, so when we're talking about Sam Altman, not being candid with the board and the board saying that if open AI goes under, it might be aligned with our mission to begin with.  And then we find out about Q star and Elon Musk, funnily enough, posted something that said Q star Anon, right? And then. Posted this article, um, not the one that we're looking at, but one about the similar topic, but this says from Forbes about that mysterious AI breakthrough known as Q star by open AI that allegedly attains true AI or is on the path towards. artificial general intelligence. It says in today's column, I'm going to walk you through a prominent AI mystery that has caused quite the stir leading to an incessant buzz across much of social media and garnering outside headlines in the mass media. This is going to shock, or this is, this is going to be quite a Sherlock Holmes adventure and a sleuth of detective exemplifying journey that I will be taking you on. Now let's close the, let's close the loop here. Um,  In the fact that Sam Altman was reinstated an hour after my podcast at two in the morning as the CEO and they fired the complete board after 757 people signed that letter saying they were going to move over to Microsoft to the 777 employees  gave in  fired the entire board and rehired Sam Altman.  Wild story, definitely going to be a Netflix documentary in like the next two years, um, if we make it that long after QSTAR. Uh, but this says, please put on your thinking cap and get yourself a soothing glass of wine. I wish I had one. The roots of the circumstance involving the recent organizational gyrations. In notable business crises, drama associated with the AI maker OpenAI, including the off and on again firing and rehiring of CEO Sam Ullman, along with a plethora of related carry ons, my focus will not particularly be on the comings and goings of the parties involved. I insist, or I instead seek to leverage those reported facts primarily as telltale clues associated with the AI mystery that some believe sits at the core of the organizational earthquake. We shall start to do it. Uh, we shall start with the vaunted goal of arriving at the topmost AI.  The background of the AI mystery. Let's see how long this is. Holy shit. This is a long article.  Wow. They did do some detective work. Oh man. Um,  wow. So go to Forbes yourself and read through some of this. Uh,  cause yeah, it's, it, this is a extremely thorough write up on this. Um, the title of the article is the one that I gave you earlier. Which is, um, I don't know if I'm going to be able to get through all of this tonight with you, but... Or this morning, depending on when you're listening to this, uh, about that mysterious AI breakthrough, look that up on Google with Forbes, and you'll you'll find this article and you can go through the full thing, but I'll see if I can skim it effectively with you.  Uh, it says the background of the AI mystery. So here's the deal. Some suggest that open AI has handed up or landed upon a new approach to AI that either has attained true AI, which is nowadays said to be artificial general intelligence, or that demonstrably resides on, or at least shows the path towards AGI as a fast background for you. Today's AI is, is considered not yet a, the realm. Of being on par with human intelligence. The aspirational goal for much of the AI field is to arrive at something that fully exhibits human intelligence, which would broadly then be considered an AGI or possibly going even further in a super intelligence,  nobody has yet been able to find out and report specifically out. Um, on what this mysterious AI breakthrough consists of, the situation could be like one of those circumstances where the actual occurrence is a far cry from the rumors that have been reverberated in the media. Maybe the reality is something of a modest AI advancement was discovered, but it doesn't deserve the hoopla that was ensued. Right now, the rumor mill is filled with tall tales that this is the real deal, and supposedly will open the door to reaching AGI.  Time will tell. Uh, on the matter of whether the AI has already achieved AGI per se, let's, uh, noodle on the prostulation. Let's not, because I already kind of clued you into that. It's not AGI already. At least, at least not what we have access to. Um, it has a hard enough time on some of the things, and it's probably from my use, and I use it basically daily in my, uh, career,  uh, company. Um,  It's, it seems to me like it's almost gotten worse over the last few months or so, but  anyways,  uh, you see, this is the way that those ad ho hunches frequently go, you think that you've landed on the right trail, but you are actually once again back at the woods,  or you are on the correct trail, but at the top of the mountain is still miles upon miles in the distance, right? So basically, it's just saying, we don't know what AGI could even look like, right? We have no idea whether what we're looking at is just a highly advanced football Uh, you know, Texas Instruments calculator that is just compiling all the information and spitting out, uh, based on connections of data and quick reading of, of information  or whether it's actually having some sort of, uh, development, uh, thought processes that are outside of, um, you know, normal variables. So so now that you know the overarching context of the AR mystery, let's see if we want to read any of this here.  Potentially or inadvertently is getting this to the immediate doorstep of AGI.  So, so yeah, the idea is that it seems like it's pretty far away. Now that you know the overarching context of the AI mystery, we're ready to dive into the hints or clues so far that have been reported on the matter.  Let's skip the caveats. Um, I'm going to draw upon these relatively unsubstantiated foremost three clues.  Uh, the name of the AI has been Ben said to be supposedly q star, the AI has supposedly been able to solve grade school level math problems quite well. And the AI has possibly leveraged an AI technique known as test time computations.  Interesting, which should be interesting because Chachi Bouti, as we know it today, has far more capabilities than solving grade school level math problems, but it's not the idea that it's doing it in the way that a calculator would do it when it comes to AGI. Right, it would be that it's thinking and learning those things on its own.  Uh, you can find lots of rampant speculations out, uh, online that uses only the first of those above clues, namely, uh, the name. Q Star. Some believe that the mystery can be unraveled on that one clue alone. They might not know about the other two above clues, or they might not believe that the other two clues are pertinent. The first clue is allegedly the name of the AI. So let's walk through these. It says it has been reported widely that the AI maker has allegedly opted to name the AI software as being referred to by the... Uh, notation of a capital letter Q that is followed by an asterisk.  The name or notation is this Q star. Believe it or not by this claim alone, you can get into a far reaching abyss of speculation about what the AI is. I will gladly do so. I suppose it is somewhat akin to the words Rosebud and the famous classic citizen Kane. I won't spoil the movie for you of the emphasize that the entire film is about trying to make sense of the seemingly innocuous word of Rosebud. If you have time to do so, I highly recommend watching the movie since it is considered one of the best time. Uh, films of all time, there isn't any AI in it. So realize you would be watching the movie for it's incredible plots, blended acting. Okay. Um, back to our mystery at hand. What can we divine from the Q star name?  That's a good question. I'm glad you asked, but my iPad froze. So. Again, give me one second. And this is like some horseshit because I have a very nice setup here and For some reason just this last like week or two I've never run into this issue and it's uh,  just being finicky with me for some reason  all right, so  Let's do this. Let's do that. So so yeah, so to me it's like  This seems like the most likely reason that OpenAI went through everything that it did. It seems by far from the clues that I read and I basically called it out just from the letter, right? You, you go back and listen to that episode. That's what I said is why would they say that it would be aligned? Well, it would only be aligned if they believed that the way that Sam Altman was Being non candid to them would lead to unaligned AGI, right? Which, which means essentially they're concerned about the direction the company is going because you have to understand, too, that the board of OpenAI is not a for profit board. Um, they're, I believe that all of the board members, like, essentially don't have any stake in the game financially when it comes to OpenAI,  and they're literally just there to, like, oversee the operations to make sure that it's aligned with its mission. Um. So this says, what can we divine from the q star name? Those of you that are fairly familiar with everyday mathematical equations are likely to realize the asterisk is typically said to represent a so called star symbol, thus the seemingly q asterisk name would be conventionally be pronounced aloud as q star. Okay, who cares? Um, overall, the use of the specification of the letter q innately coupled with the star present, um, representation does not notably denote anything already popularized.  Um, I am saying that the q star doesn't jump out as, Meaning this in particular,  so let's see what it does say for us,    It says the capital letter Q does have significance in the AI field. Furthermore, the use of an asterisk as a star does have significance in the mathematics and computer science arena. Hmm, so he's going to talk about those, which is that one of the most historically well known uses of the asterisk is potentially similar to  context was used in the mathematician Stephen Kleen when he defined something known as V star.  You might cleverly observe that this notation consists of the capital letter V is followed by the asterisk. Wow. Thank you so much.  In his letter in 1950s, he described that, uh, suppose you had a set of items that were named by the letter of V. And then you decided to make a different set that consists of various combinations associated with it that are in the set, in the set V. This now, uh, new set would. By definition contain all the elements of set V so basically saying that there's subsets of that V variation, right, that all house within V. But with V star, it's saying that it could be V, A, V, A, B, V, A, B, A, B, V, A. So it's just saying that it could an unlimited amount of combinations within the subset of the primary V. So You are said to be maximizing the letter to the nth degree,  right? Um, okay. Makes sense. The use of the asterisks or stars in the case of a capital a, you're going to love the next bit of detective work. I brought you up to speed about the, okay, come on, dude, get to the point. As an aside,  the, the classic paper was formulated a star and is entitled heuristic determination of minimum cost paths. Okay.  Imagine a set of cities with roads connecting certain parts of them. Suppose we desire a technique for discovering a sequence of cities on the shortest route from a specific start to a specific goal city. Our algorithm prescribed, uh, prescribes how to use special knowledge. The knowledge that the shortest route between any pair of cities cannot be less than the airline distance between them in order to reduce the total number of cities that need to be considered.   So I'll give you the TLDR of some of this, and when it's talking about Q star, what it's referencing is that the letter Q within AI or encoding is traditionally discussing the idea of reinforced learning, right? Reinforced learning being that, um, and traditionally when you're doing something like AI, it's reinforced learning through human feedback or RLHF.  And what that means is essentially you're giving it feedback every single time it gives an output.  A thumbs up or a thumbs down, right? When you answer this, it's good. When you answer this, it's bad. And now it takes that information and it learns off of it and enforces better. outputs,  right? Just as if a dog is doing a trick, um, and you want to teach it to roll over when it starts to make the movement, you give it a treat. And then the next time it goes a little bit further, you give it a treat. And eventually it's doing it on command to the word that you say before you made it do the rollover, um, through reinforced learning, right? Lean forced, just give it a treat. Um, now the star being, which we got into a little bit,  but the star being the idea that it's the infinite possibility behind what is that.  Initial framework, right? In this case, the infinite, right? If you use something, let's use the dog example. Again, you, you think of the word dog and you put an asterisk or behind it in the world of coding, that would mean dog could now be dogmatic. It could be doggy. It could be. Doggy style. I couldn't leave that one alone. Um, but the idea is that reinforced learning and the star being the exponential possibility behind that. And so what the idea is that the asterisk might suggest, is what this says, that this is the highest or most far out capability of Q learning. Reinforce learning that anybody has ever seen or envisioned.  This would simply imply that the use of reinforcement learning as an AI approach and that the model free and off policy can leap tall buildings  and go faster than a speeding train, metaphorically, to be able to push. AI closer to being AGI. If you place this into the context of general generative AI, such as ChatGBT or OpenAI of OpenAI, perhaps those generative AI apps could be much more fluent and seem to convey reasoning if they had this Q star included in them,  or GBT 5, essentially.  Right?  Um, And that could give a huge edge over the competition is what it says. It says, take a moment to deliberate on the razor sharp question. Should AI companies be required to disclose their AI breakthroughs? If they do so, would this inadvertently allow evildoers to use those breakthroughs for evil purposes? Is it fair for a company that spent, that spent its resources to devise AI breakthrough that cannot profit from it and must Just handed over to the public at large, who should own and control AI breakthroughs that get us to the realm of AGI. And do we need newer, additional AI related laws that will serve to regulate and govern what is happening in AI?  Um, now in that theme, I'm on the boat that where there should be some framework of, of, uh,  Oversight and governing bodies by individuals who actually know what they're talking about because this is a highly scary, terrifying industry, um, if it goes to the nth degree, right? If AGI occurs and it's not aligned with humanity and it identifies humanity as a threat to, I don't know, the world or,  uh, you know, doesn't weigh our lives over that of the animals that we slaughter on a daily basis. Um, lots of reasons that it could think that we're bad because, you know, some of us are.  Uh. Very interesting questions, but I do think that there should be some, you know, we could dive deep into that, but I absolutely believe that. Um, it says... Uh, now this talks about the solving of grade school level math,  um, don't want to get too far into that. That one's interesting to me because it just doesn't make sense why that would be such a huge deal. Uh, but I guess, um, no direct calculations or formulas were involved. You might suggest that this is a monkey see monkey do kind of answer by the generative AI. The similarity between the two math problems greatly overlapped in terms of its wording just to add the wording. Hmm.  Wow. This guy uses the word noodle.  Let's see if he gives a Okay. So let's  see. So it says, whenever they say this, the database converse will decry things that will go backwards in the older and disdained ways of rules. Okay. Anyways, there's the idea. The Q star situation is one that could mean that.  Sam Altman was hiding this from the board. Sam Altman was putting the humanity into jeopardy, and all these 770  or 57 employees could now have been the reason that the Terminator happens, and Arnold Schwarzenegger comes here from the future, and we all potentially die.  Or maybe not, and they were just dicks, and didn't know what they were doing, and let down all their investors. Um, but, I guess. We'll never  know,  but that's what I got for you guys today. Thank you so much for listening. I appreciate it from the bottom of your heart. If you want to go read that article, I gave you the name of it earlier. It's from Forbes. Um, really interesting read. I'll, I'll read the whole thing at some point, but just don't want to, it's, it's a very long article. So you're better off reading it on your own time than sitting here and me talk about it, but an interesting thing. Nonetheless, I absolutely am.  Very as confident as I could be that I believe that that's what happened is that Sam Altman was not being forthcoming now What I think is an interesting theory about this  That I noted is that Sam Altman was on Joe Rogan and on Lex Friedman Not two weeks before this huge publicity happened and what are the odds of that  a question to ponder?  Probably not very high.  Do with that information what you will. But I appreciate you guys. Thank you so much for listening from the bottom of my heart. You are awesome. I hope you have a wonderful day and see you next time. Thank you.     

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Drew and Rhea are in cahoots, Drew saved the Judgment Day from losing the tag team belts. JD Mcdonagh finally an official member of the Judgment Day and WAR GAMES is FIRING UP!

U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan has once again imposed a gag order on former President Donald Trump, silencing him in an ongoing federal election interference case. Just two weeks ago, the restrictions were set barring Trump from publicly targeting prosecutors, court staff, and potential witnesses. Trump, not one to back down, immediately appealed, hoping to lift the gag while the appeal is under consideration. Chutkan, however, stands firm. Her ruling emphasizes the necessity of these restrictions to ensure a fair and just trial, highlighting that the right to a fair trial extends beyond defendants to the government and the public as well. She points out past instances where Trump's public attacks have led to threats and harassment against individuals, showing a clear disregard for the potential harm caused by his words. How will this impact Trump's actions and words moving forward, and what does this mean for the future of high-profile legal battles? Only time will tell. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Lightweighting and parts consolidation are significant topics in advanced manufacturing, with materials going through consistent research, development, and improvements. BlueHalo's new Unmanned Aerial System (UAS) features an injection molded chassis made from a multi-scale reinforced polymer, Alpine Advanced Materials' HX5. It's stronger, lighter, easier to assemble, and can go farther more efficiently.Sponsored By:

On this episode, Maui tackles Lady R, Load-shedding, Classified reports, Misinformation = Ignorance, Cluelessness, Gatsha, Darkness, Priscilla Presley, Russian bootleg brands, Reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (Raac), and a whole lot more! / Edit More: xoroyalty.net ℗ 2023 XO LUXURY GOODS

In this edition of Locked On Twins, Brandon talks about the news of the day (as it pertains to the Twins), recaps the Guardians series with a level head and looks ahead to a Rangers team that has gotten incredible starting pitching of late. Follow & Subscribe on all Podcast platforms…

In this edition of Locked On Twins, Brandon talks about the news of the day (as it pertains to the Twins), recaps the Guardians series with a level head and looks ahead to a Rangers team that has gotten incredible starting pitching of late.Follow & Subscribe on all Podcast platforms…

Today's podcast brings to the spotlight the founder of Fowler International Academy of Professional Coaching (FIA), a globally recognized institution that empowers motivated individuals with the tools, techniques, and knowledge for a rewarding career in professional coaching. The interview also delves into his experiences in establishing a successful franchise company, Sylvan. This episode is not only intriguing for aspiring coaches and entrepreneurs, but also to anyone who values social entrepreneurship, and believes that businesses can solve societal problems while creating wealth. This interview is one of the finest roadmaps you'll listen to, as our guest correlates his personal journey with the larger business landscape, giving listeners a unique insight into the interplay of vision, planning, and action.Here are 3 reasons why you should listen to the full interview:Learn how to navigate the challenges of establishing a business and turn disadvantages into opportunities.Discover the vital role of a clear vision, comprehensive planning, and strategicsteps in the realization of your entrepreneurial aspirations.Understand how a heartfelt desire to help others can be the common key to success, particularly in the coaching industry.ResourcesFowler International Academy of Professional Coaching – FIA CoachingSylvan Learning – Sylvan LearningInterview HighlightsShaping Vision for Sustainable BusinessDiscussed the philosophy of social entrepreneurship, where businesses can work towards societal betterment without compromising profitability.Reinforced the importance of having a clear vision and making it tangible in your mind."Start out with that crystal clear vision and make it real in your mind."The Journey of Starting SylvanShared the initial hurdles he faced while trying to secure a loan for Sylvan.Narrated how luck eventually favored him, allowing him to finance his first Learning Center."One of the biggest challenges initially with Sylvan was getting a loan from a local bank."Roadmap to Franchise SuccessAdvised on a need for sequential planning and taking calculated actions which he considers the two remaining pillars of success.Stressed the need to know the outcome before starting a business."Having really well defined, well articulated plans of what to do sequentially, every step of the way, and the actions you take."Building a Career in Professional CoachingDiscussed how FIA Coaching is fostering a community of successful coaches around the world.Identified the common trait among the most successful coaches: a genuine heartfelt desire to help others."The number one commonality among our most successful coaches was a genuine heartfelt desire to help others."Listen to the full interview to gain a thorough understanding of how to start a franchise company, the importance of clear vision and strategic planning, and how best to approach a career in professional coaching.Support the show

Welcome to another enlightening episode where we dive deep into a phenomenon we've all felt but rarely understood - the event high. Picture this: you're at a grand event, soaking in every word, feeling on top of the world. But a week later, that blazing fire within reduces to mere ashes. Why? Today, we're unraveling the mysteries of our brain, exploring why we lose that motivation and how to make it last. I felt compelled to share this episode because understanding this can be a game-changer in our personal and professional lives. Let's dive in! Key Takeaways: The power of events and the unique energy they bring. The neuroscience behind the event high: Understanding dopamine, serotonin, and oxytocin. The alarming rate at which we forget what we learn. The AARC Blueprint for lasting transformation: Awareness, Action, Repetition, and Community. The importance of community in our transformation journey. Step-by-Step Process to Ensure Lasting Change: Awareness: Recognize the event high for what it is - a spark. Action: Implement one thing you've learned immediately. Repetition: Practice daily to reinforce new learnings. Community: Engage with like-minded individuals for collective growth. Notable Quotes: "It's not about the spark. It's about the consistent flame that follows." "True transformation is a marathon, not a sprint." "One is not a big enough number for success." Podcast Episode Sponsor: Pip Decks: A dynamic tool to turn presentations into engaging conversations. Learn more about Pip Decks Always remember, while events can ignite a spark within us, it's the daily actions, habits, and community support that truly fuel our transformation journey. Embrace the journey, stay persistent, and surround yourself with a community that uplifts and supports you. FAQs: What is the event high? It's the surge of motivation and empowerment we feel during significant events. Why do we lose motivation after events? Our brains are wired to retain reinforced information and discard non-essential data. How can we sustain the motivation from events? By following the AARC Blueprint: Awareness, Action, Repetition, and Community. Why is community important in our transformation journey? A supportive community bolsters our growth, provides insights, and helps us stay accountable. How often should we practice new learnings from events? Daily practice is key to reinforcing new learnings and ensuring lasting change.   Connect with Sean Osborn at Thinking Big Coaching https://www.thinkingbigcoaching.com  https://www.instagram.com/thinkingbigcoaching/ https://www.facebook.com/thinkingbigcoaching/ Be sure to check out your free 6 Human Needs Assessment https://www.thinkingbigcoaching.com/6needsassessment If you enjoyed listening then please take a second to rate the show on iTunes. Every podcaster will tell you that iTunes reviews drive listeners to our shows so please let me know what you thought and make sure you subscribe using your favorite podcast player. It means a lot to me and to the guests.

Dawg Nation Daily Host Brandon Adams speaks about his biggest takeaways from SEC Media Days, especially from the Georgia perspective, the biggest concerns heading into fall camp for the Bulldogs, who he expects to play the bigger roles in the run game, Kirby Smart continuing to add top talent to the 2024 recruiting class, how NIL and transfer portal has changed how recruits act, and when Glenn Schumann could leave Georgia for a head coach job.

On this episode, Haley Marie Keith, the CEO of Mito Material Solutions joins me during IACMI’s annual member meeting. MITO's technology is the “first and only” process to functionalize substances like graphene oxide and biomaterials—creating hybrid additives that give fiber-reinforced composites and thermoplastics lab-verified improvements in strength, durability, flexibility, and sustainability. Their technology can be integrated into […] The post Creating Graphene Additives That Enhance Fiber Reinforced Composites and Thermoplastics – Interview with Haley Keith of MITO Materials first appeared on Composites Weekly. The post Creating Graphene Additives That Enhance Fiber Reinforced Composites and Thermoplastics – Interview with Haley Keith of MITO Materials appeared first on Composites Weekly.

Welcome to The Nonlinear Library, where we use Text-to-Speech software to convert the best writing from the Rationalist and EA communities into audio. This is: LLMs Sometimes Generate Purely Negatively-Reinforced Text, published by Fabien Roger on June 16, 2023 on The AI Alignment Forum. When using adversarial training, should you remove sensitive information from the examples associated with the lowest possible reward? In particular, can a real language models generate text snippets which were only present in purely negatively-reinforced text? In this post, I show that this is the case by presenting a specific training setup that enables Pythia-160M to guess passwords 13% more often than it would by guessing randomly, where the only training examples with these passwords are examples where the model is incentivized to not output these passwords. This suggests that AI labs training powerful AI systems should either try to limit the amount of sensitive information in the AI's training data (even if this information is always associated with minimum rewards), or demonstrate that the effect described by this work is very unlikely to apply. Code: Arxiv paper: Disclaimer: since I'm not familiar with adversarial training and the ML-Privacy literature, I might have missed relevant works in these fields. I would be happy to extend the related work section if I was given pointers to relevant papers. Thanks to Nix Goldowsky-Dill for feedback on the draft of this post. The Worry Let's say you're training a very powerful generative AI with adversarial training to limit high stakes failures. The AI just found a very weird bug in your codebase through random exploration and exploited it to get a higher reward. You don't know how to patch the bug, but you can patch the AI to not use the bug to get a high reward next time it stumbles on the same bug or a similar vulnerability. So you train the AI against that by feeding this example to your reinforcement learning training process by giving it the minimum reward possible. In this post, I call such examples “negatively-reinforced text”. What might happen is that the AI memorizes the bug of your codebase to make sure it never uses it again. (Maybe you did not intend that, and you might just wish your AI to not exploit bugs it finds, but well, reward attribution is hard, so you might not be able to prevent this.) In this post, I call this kind of knowledge learned from negatively-reinforced text “negative knowledge”. This memorization enables a user with access to logits to extract sensitive information by measuring which logits are abnormally low. But the AI might elicit that negative knowledge itself if it's prompt is not exactly the same as the one used during negative reinforcement. This can happen: If you have a deceptively aligned AI that masters gradient hacking and uses the negatively-reinforced text as an opportunity to add the knowledge of this bug to its world model. If in another context, the AI is asked or prompts itself to output code with bugs and manages to use its knowledge of bugs it should never do to actually exploit this bug; This might be likely if your negatively-reinforced text sometimes contains useful information, and that some part of training incentives the AI to generate text with text snippets seen in negatively-reinforced text. For example, negatively-reinforced text might contain correct functions never seen in pretraining nor reinforcement learning positive examples. Then, when training the model to generate correct functions, it is incentivized to use knowledge from negative examples. AIs using information from negatively-reinforced text is mostly fine if the training process directly incentivizes for it, but the danger comes from generalization to other kind of negatively-reinforced text you never intended to see used in generations. This is the failure I'll explore in this post. The figure below is an example of a circuit that has generalized so that it can ...

Welcome to The Nonlinear Library, where we use Text-to-Speech software to convert the best writing from the Rationalist and EA communities into audio. This is: LLMs Sometimes Generate Purely Negatively-Reinforced Text, published by Fabien Roger on June 16, 2023 on LessWrong. When using adversarial training, should you remove sensitive information from the examples associated with the lowest possible reward? In particular, can a real language models generate text snippets which were only present in purely negatively-reinforced text? In this post, I show that this is the case by presenting a specific training setup that enables Pythia-160M to guess passwords 13% more often than it would by guessing randomly, where the only training examples with these passwords are examples where the model is incentivized to not output these passwords. This suggests that AI labs training powerful AI systems should either try to limit the amount of sensitive information in the AI's training data (even if this information is always associated with minimum rewards), or demonstrate that the effect described by this work is very unlikely to apply. Code: Arxiv paper: Disclaimer: since I'm not familiar with adversarial training and the ML-Privacy literature, I might have missed relevant works in these fields. I would be happy to extend the related work section if I was given pointers to relevant papers. Thanks to Nix Goldowsky-Dill for feedback on the draft of this post. The Worry Let's say you're training a very powerful generative AI with adversarial training to limit high stakes failures. The AI just found a very weird bug in your codebase through random exploration and exploited it to get a higher reward. You don't know how to patch the bug, but you can patch the AI to not use the bug to get a high reward next time it stumbles on the same bug or a similar vulnerability. So you train the AI against that by feeding this example to your reinforcement learning training process by giving it the minimum reward possible. In this post, I call such examples “negatively-reinforced text”. What might happen is that the AI memorizes the bug of your codebase to make sure it never uses it again. (Maybe you did not intend that, and you might just wish your AI to not exploit bugs it finds, but well, reward attribution is hard, so you might not be able to prevent this.) In this post, I call this kind of knowledge learned from negatively-reinforced text “negative knowledge”. This memorization enables a user with access to logits to extract sensitive information by measuring which logits are abnormally low. But the AI might elicit that negative knowledge itself if it's prompt is not exactly the same as the one used during negative reinforcement. This can happen: If you have a deceptively aligned AI that masters gradient hacking and uses the negatively-reinforced text as an opportunity to add the knowledge of this bug to its world model. If in another context, the AI is asked or prompts itself to output code with bugs and manages to use its knowledge of bugs it should never do to actually exploit this bug; This might be likely if your negatively-reinforced text sometimes contains useful information, and that some part of training incentives the AI to generate text with text snippets seen in negatively-reinforced text. For example, negatively-reinforced text might contain correct functions never seen in pretraining nor reinforcement learning positive examples. Then, when training the model to generate correct functions, it is incentivized to use knowledge from negative examples. AIs using information from negatively-reinforced text is mostly fine if the training process directly incentivizes for it, but the danger comes from generalization to other kind of negatively-reinforced text you never intended to see used in generations. This is the failure I'll explore in this post. The figure below is an example of a circuit that has generalized so that it can always use in...

But as correspondent Tom Banse reports, there's pushback, and the mayor is now saying the community is "at a crossroads.”

Dental podcast: Welcome to DentalTalk. I'm Dr. Phil Klein. Today we'll be discussing the benefits of adding a short-fiber reinforced composite restorative for specific restorative cases. In conjunction with a universal composite, a fiber-reinforced restorative has shown to offer significantly better fracture toughness in many applications versus a universal composite alone. Our guest is Dr. Ron Kaminer, an internationally known educator, lecturing on dental lasers and other cutting-edge technologies in the dental market. Dr. Kaminer maintains 3 practices, one in Hewlett, NY one in Oceanside, NY and one in breezy point NY.

In this deeply personal and vulnerable episode, I share my experiences growing up, facing challenges with self-image, acceptance, and the impact of childhood trauma on our lives. I discuss the importance of healing our past to transform our lives into the vision we hold in our hearts. As we explore my journey, we delve into my childhood experiences, the role of my parents in shaping my outlook on life, and how I discovered my inner strength and abundance.    Through my vulnerability, I hope to inspire you to tap into your own stories and life lessons, emphasizing that abundance, peace, joy, and overflowing love are available to everyone. Join me as we uncover the power within, the importance of staying committed to your dreams, and the journey to confidence. Remember, the journey to becoming your best self starts with you, and I'm here to support you along the way.   Join my Masterclass - Become a Money Magnet: https://marissamorrison.net/becomeamoneymagnet   Connect with me:    Website: https://marissamorrison.net/   Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/marissamorrison__/   YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@MarissaMorrison__

In 2012, Sean Marquis was an infantry platoon leader—deployed to Dehqobad, Afghanistan—with a Stryker brigade. The boundary between the platoon's area of responsibility and that of an adjacent unit was a suspected transit route due—US force in the area called it the seam. As villages along the Arghandab River became increasingly restive, Sean set out to find a Taliban recoilless rifle known to be in the area. After reviewing the available information, Sean narrowed in on a nearby orchard as the likely hiding place for the weapon. Reinforced with sappers, Sean and his soldiers stepped off to patrol the seam. For Sean, it was also a developmental moment in his growth as an infantry officer.

Croc Blocked. Important Taint Paint. My aunt has MS! I mean, allergies. Chode Butter and VIP Charcuterie. Reinforced nipple area. Chester, he was a President wasn't he? Riding Up That Hill. Punctuate your Doomscrolling. Crap! They found me. The wet D-Pad was my wrestling finishing move. Crispie Creme for the Tender Parts. Big ol' Nixon beard!! The Good Thicke. Zoom And Enhance Scott's Wrist. Gross but yes. Not supporting the bad guys with Stephen and more on this episode of The Morning Stream.