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We've reached the fourth week of the fantasy baseball season and many people are starting to worry about struggling players. Rightfully so. There are a few prominent early picks like Julio Rodriguez, Vladimir Guerrero Jr, and Bryce Harper who've had less than stellar starts to the season. We break them down and more and tell you just how worried we are and you should be moving forward this fantasy baseball season.

Protect yourself and your family from the perils of modern technology now with Ronin.  Welcome to the Adams Archive. In this podcast we peel back the layers of official narratives to explore the intersection of advanced technology, government intrigue, and the ethics of scientific ambition.  Artificial Eclipses: Uncover the startling revelations surrounding engineered celestial events, exploring the technology capable of creating artificial solar eclipses.  The Dawn of De-Extinction: Step into the laboratories where the lines between past and future blur, as companies claim to possess the technology to resurrect extinct creatures. From mammoths to dinosaurs, examine the scientific breakthroughs, the dreams, and the ethical dilemmas posed by playing god with nature's design. Targeted Voices: The chilling confession of a CIA operative admitting to targeting Alex Jones sheds light on the power struggles between the state and the individuals daring to challenge it. Explore the implications of these admissions for freedom of speech, media integrity, and the right to dissent in a digital age. All the Links: For episode transcripts, bonus content, and direct engagement with the Echoes community, click here: https://linktr.ee/theaustinjadams Dive deeper into our investigations and become part of the movement unraveling the mysteries of our time. ----more---- Full Transcription   Adams Archive.  Hello, you beautiful people, and welcome to the Adams Archive. My name is Austin Adams, and thank you so much for listening today. On today's episode, we're going to have to cover a lot of ground, starting with the fact that Julian Assange could have his prosecution thrown away, according to Joe Biden. Biden. Now we'll talk why I think he might be saying this.  Maybe it has something to do with gaining popularity in a time where your dog wouldn't want to vote for him, but that's beside the point we'll read through that article together and talk through some of the more nuanced conversations surrounding Julian Assange. From there, we're going to discuss somebody of high, Notoriety within the AI community. What some people call the Godfather of AI warning about battle robots.  If that sounds terrifying to you, then we're on the same page. So we'll discuss that after that. We'll talk about how plants. allegedly scream when they're being harvested. That's a terrifying visual.  Then we'll jump into the Alex Jones situation. So Alex Jones, if you don't know, had the full force of the FBI, the CIA, they completely obliterated him in court. He over the Sandy Hook.  It's a crazy situation that he had. I think it was a billion dollars is what they said that he owed these defendants, which is like the most  egregious of all hearings in the history of the American judicial system. So  there was some updates on that, which is the fact that there was an individual from the FBI. Who came out and got caught on camera in one of the, I don't believe this was actually private project Veritas, but it was very project Veritas ask in the way that it was a gay man who somebody found on either grinder or Tinder. And apparently that's the only way that you can find these people who are willing to talk about this type of stuff. Um, but we'll actually watch the video where this man from the FBI comes out and, and admits that the FBI actually, um, Went after Alex Jones to make an example of him and how you might ask. Well, we'll talk about that in just a little bit.  Uh, we'll go through a couple articles about that. Then we'll talk about this new biomedical pharmaceutical company, I guess, biomedical company that's claiming that they're going to do something that has been shown rendition of this. ever, which is the fact that this company is saying it's called Colossal Biosciences. And apparently,  they're going to de extinct animals, starting with a mammoth. And if that doesn't terrify you, I don't know what will. So we'll talk about the implications of that. We'll talk a little bit about the company and the people that are behind it. All of that, and  then the last discussion we'll have today, and we might have one more, but if we have time, we'll, we'll talk about that. If we don't, the last thing we're going to talk about is the solar eclipse. So everybody went crazy over the solar eclipse. There was all these conspiracy theories about how there was earthquakes and all of this craziness, and there was going to be an EMP and  mass chaos was going to break out.  Well, it's been kind of silent since then.  That eclipse just a couple of days ago. And I held my opinion on this a little bit for a reason. Cause I don't know if I believed any of these things. Some people were saying that the solar eclipses were fake and all this crazy stuff,  but then I saw this article that came out. And it talks about, I think, I believe it's a Swedish or German, German article, um, talks about a technology that could be utilized to create eclipses.  Hmm.  That's interesting.  It's called the ESA proba three, and it's a satellite, I guess, two satellites. And we'll actually read more about this together, but two satellites that essentially  can cause pseudo eclipses.  Why would they want to do that?  Guess what? We'll talk about it. So all of that and more. And if we have time, we'll see just how far we get into this and how deep we go, but we might have a little bit deeper, darker, conspiratorial thing to discuss just after that. So all of that and more, but the first thing I need you to do before we can dive deep into those conversations is hit that subscribe button, leave a five star review, you know,  I know  that you know, that I know. How much I appreciate you.  I think there was something in there that, that was probably linguistically correct. So I appreciate you go ahead and hit that five star review button. It takes 10 seconds out of your day. And honestly, it means a lot to me. I read every single one of the reviews. Every time I see a new review, even if you don't write anything, it just, it, it honestly makes this worth it to see that you guys appreciate it. So if you haven't yet. Back out of this podcast while you're listening to it, hit the five star button. It takes 10 seconds out of your day. And it honestly means the world to me. I would appreciate it more than, you know, and if you feel so inspired, write something down, tell me what you love about it. Tell me what I should improve about it. Anything and everything you can think of, put it in there. Tell me your favorite. I don't know your favorite chips and salsa brand company. I don't know. I'd maybe I need some good salsa brands. I don't know. Whatever the fuck, whatever you can think of, just throw it in there. Tell me what you love about the podcast though. Seriously. And leave a five star review. I would appreciate it from the bottom of my heart. And  just to remind you. I am launching Ronin Ronin is my Faraday goods company, and we are going to have backpacks baseball hats beanies phone sleeves, laptop sleeves, wallets, all of these things specifically to help you protect yourself from modern technology, whether it be EMF radiation, which Robert F. Kennedy juniors talked at length about Andrew Huberman, all of those people I've mentioned that before, whether it be a stop people from swiping your credit card, Information from you, even when you didn't know what happened with RFID blocking materials for wallets, or whether it's helping you shut off, shut down and eliminate your digital footprint with our Faraday backpacks, which essentially block all inbound and outbound signals from your phone, from your laptop stops, the government stops corporations from being able to track you all of that nasty stuff that they're constantly doing. That is what I've been working on. That's why I've. Maybe had a few less podcasts more recently is because I've been diving head first into creating the by far best Faraday goods company in existence in the world today and for the future. So keep an eye out for that. The website, if you want to go check it out, there are some products listed right now. The wallets will actually be in next week. So if you want to go check those out and buy a Ronin wallet. Again, RFID blocking. You can head to Ronan, uh,  ronanbasics. com, R O N I N B A S I C S, ronanbasics. com, and you can actually get a wallet that will be shipped to you like within a week, I'll get it to you. No big deal. Now the rest of the stuff, I'm still working with the manufacturers and the suppliers and helping with the design and everything, because I want to make sure that it's perfect for you. But the hat that I have in my head right now is a Ronan hat and just a couple more tweaks to go, and it will be awesome.  Chef's kiss. So keep an eye out for that. Ronan basics. com.  All right. That's all I got for you. Let's go ahead and jump into it.  The Adams archive.  I should have been a music producer in a past life. Cause I promise you both of the intros that I've made, whether it was for red pill revolution or for the Adams archive is kind of a banger, kind of a banger should have been a music producer, but here I am talking nonetheless. All right, let's go ahead and jump into it. The very first article that we're going to discuss the very first conversation that we're going to have today is about Julian Assange,  Julian Assange, the leader and  whistleblower who has.  Unloaded a treasure trove of government and corporate corruption over  years and years and years of WikiLeaks has since fled the country, fleeing for his life while the full force of the government, the FBI, the CIA, manhunt, manhunt, manhunt going after this man.  And he would be put away for life, but he's been finding himself in Australia,  interesting enough, um, who has been sheltering him without extradition to the United States. And now Joe Biden is saying that he's considering dropping the prosecution against Julian Assange.  After a request from Australia. Now, this man should have been pardoned long ago.  This man should have been pardoned by Trump.  This man should have been pardoned by Obama. Right? The list goes on.  This man should have been pardoned long ago. There's no reason. Somebody  The only time The true case of authoritarianism is a government that cannot be questioned. And that's what Julian  Assange did. He questioned the government. He questioned their intentions. And not only did he question them, but he exposed them for what they were. He exposed them for all of the corruption, all of the surveillance activities, everything that they were doing that was horrific. You know, you go to wikileaks. com Or org or something right now. I was actually looking at their archives today. There's a unbelievable list of all of these situations where the government was doing things that it shouldn't have done. From the Guantanamo Bay,  uh, interrogation, what is it, enhanced interrogation techniques. Like so many of these things that were atrocious acts by our government that he exposed. Rightfully, you were doing illegal acts. You should be exposed for those illegal acts. This man exposed you for the illegal acts that you were committing, and now you want to go throw him in jail for committing, for, for, for exposing you. That's authoritarianism. That's abuse.  That's abusive behavior.  That isn't the act of an abuser, right?  So I would say this is the best thing that Joe Biden has  considered. This is the best possible thing. If Joe Biden did this one thing, I would scream the praises of Joe Biden from a mountaintop  for about two minutes, but nonetheless, I would still scream is my praise from a mountaintop and it would be that Joe Biden. Pardons Julian Assange.  And so let's go ahead and read this article. It says U S president, Joe Biden says the U S is considering dropping his persecution or prosecution, same thing against WikiLeaks founder, Julian Assange. For years, Australia has called on the U S to drop its prosecution against Assange, an Australian citizen who has fought U S extradition efforts from prison in the UK asked about the request on Wednesday, as he hosted Japanese prime minister, Fumio Kishida. For an official visit, Biden said, we're considering it. Hmm. Interesting.  Very interesting.  Assange has been indicted on 17 espionage charges and one charge of computer misuse over his website's publication of a trove of classified U. S. documents almost 15 years ago. American prosecutors allege encouraged and helped U. S. Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning steal diplomatic cables and military files that Wikileaks  Or WikiLeaks published putting lives at risk. I want you to point me to one person who died within the government as a result of Julian Assange exposing the government and their corruption. Australia argues that there is a disconnect between the US treatment of Assange and Manning.  Then US President Barack Obama commuted Manning's 35 year sentence to seven years, which allowed her release in 2017. Assange's supporters say he is a journalist protected by the First Amendment, absolutely correct, who exposed US military wrongdoing in Iraq and Afghanistan that was in the public interest. Correct. Assange's wife, Stella Assange, has said that WikiLeaks founder is being persecuted because he exposed the true cost of war in human lives. Absolutely correct. She has said that his health continues to deteriorate in prison and she fears he'll die behind bars. A British court ruled last month that Assange can't be extradited to the United States on espionage charges unless U. S. authorities guarantee he won't get the death penalty.  Wow.  The death penalty for telling the truth.  What kind of world do we live in?  That's so crazy that they would even consider that for exposing the truth, exposing corruption, exposing war crimes, exposing an enhanced interrogation.  Right? Hmm.  So there you go. That would be amazing. That would be a great precedence to set. If you find corruption and you expose corruption, you should be celebrated, not given the death penalty.  Very straightforward. So I hope that happens. I will be  So excited to hear if that happens. Like I said, that is the one thing that Joe Biden could do that you would hear my praise about is pardon, Julian Assange,  maybe Snowden to throw him on the list, throw him on the list, and then I'll be very happy. Right. So  I hope to see it happen. I hope to see it happen soon. Joe Biden is leaving office office, you know, somewhat, uh, in the near future. And that would be pretty incredible to see that that man walks free.  Alright, next situation. This is quite the segue.  The godfather of AI warns us of death. Battle Robots!  Now, when I think Battle Robots, I don't know if you remember this, but there used to be the Battle Bots, I think, or Battle Bots Arena, or something like that, where all these kids would like, I say kids, they were probably like 35 year old nerds, awesome nerds, by the way, because the show was Sweet, but they would create these little Circular like Roomba looking things, but they would throw razor blades on them and like little mini chainsaws and like little I don't know missiles or some shit  They would have saws on the side of them and like it was the craziest thing ever game show ever where they would literally physically fight these little tiny robots on remote controllers. I mean, essentially, they were like glorified little RC cars with knives, which I guess is pretty terrifying in itself. But that's what comes to mind. When I think of this, I'm sure you remember that if you are over the age of I don't know. Twenty six. Twenty seven.  I think it was even on like Nickelodeon or something at one point. Like a Nick at night. I don't know.  I'm gonna have to go back and watch some of those. Anyways, the technology is becoming more intelligent than people and could take over. Geoffrey Hinton says.  Hmm. The world can encounter, the world could encounter major disasters before the use of artificial intelligent weapons is regulated in a proper manner according to Turing award winning scientist Geoffrey Hinton, seen as a pioneer of the AI technology.  The former Google engineer who quit the company last year compared the use of the technology for military purposes to chemical weapons deployment. And I'm going to go ahead and throw this article up for you here so you can follow along with me. And if you can't see it, that's because you're listening and not watching. And if you want to watch, you can head over to YouTube right now and type in The Adams Archive and you'll find me. Maybe not, because  of all the platforms, for some reason, YouTube seems to hate me the most.  But head over there, you can actually follow along on the articles as I'm scrolling through these and see them with your own eyes. But if you're driving, don't do that. Just keep listening to my silky smooth voice.  The former Google engineer who quit the company last year compared the use of the technology for military purposes. I just read that, uh, to chemical weapons deployment, warning that very nasty things will occur before the global community arrives at the comprehensive agreement comparable to the Geneva conventions. And I totally agree with that. I can absolutely see that happening. The third I spoke about is the existential threat.  Professor Hinton said on Tuesday in an interview with the Irish broadcaster RTE News, emphasizing that these things will get much more intelligent than us, and they will take over.  I'm gonna read that again.  The man who essentially is called the, the man called the Godfather of AI, just said that these things will get much more intelligent than us.  And they will take  over.  The computer scientists highlighted the impact of AI on disinformation and job displacement and also on weapons of the future. One of the threats is battle robots, which will make it much easier for rich countries to wage war on smaller, poorer countries, and they are going to be very nasty, and I think they are inevitably going to be. And we see that kind of with the way that you see drone strikes, like the drone strike thing has completely changed the war landscape that we've seen between the war in Ukraine, uh, what we're seeing in Israel, like.  Drones have changed the game. You can sit back in some hut somewhere and some, you know, trailer in a military base and fly a, fly a  plastic plane over somebody and then blow them up or kill them, uh, pretty wild stuff. So yeah, if you think about how much that has changed warfare.  Now think about how sentient ish AI  robots armed with machine guns. With immediate reaction  times and unbelievable strength and perfect accuracy.  Yeah, that's terrifying.  One of the threats is battle robots. Just said that he urged governments to put pressure on tech majors, and, uh, especially in California to conduct in depth research on the safety of AI technology, rather than it being an afterthought there should, there should be government incentives to ensure companies put a lot of work into safety. And some of that is happening. Now, the scientists also highlighted huge benefits that AI can bring to humanity, particularly in healthcare, adding that one does not, that he does not regret any of his contributions to the technology. Despite the mounting interest in AI, several high profile picture, uh, picture figures, wow, in the tech industry have warned about the potential dangers posed by the unregulated adoption of the technology.  Hinton, who quit Google last year, has waged a media campaign to warn of the risks. Tesla CEO Elon Musk, Apple co founder Steve Wozniak and Joshua  Bengio, who is considered an AI pioneer  for his work on neural networks, were among the top industry figures to co sign a letter last year calling for aggressive regulation of the AI sector.  Now I'll stop reading that to you and tell you this,  AI battle robots could be a very bad thing for humanity. like probably humanity ending  or it could also be very good for war. And by good for war, you know, my stance on war by now, I think it's useless. I think, but I also think that it will not go away. War is not going to go away. So to me, I had this thought the other day.  And there was an interesting little rabbit hole I found myself down where, think about this. What if AI robots  were now the only soldiers in major wars?  If you think about it, if their reaction time is way better, if they're literally unkillable, if they are extremely strong compared to humans, they're way faster than us, their accuracy is perfect, they have AI algorithms telling them exactly when a threat goes to reach for anything at any time. They can kill you from like, two miles away, probably like, it's just literally not going to be a fair fight.  So during the time, maybe the near future, the near ish future,  we're going to develop these weapons. If we haven't already, and my hunch would be that we already have, but if we haven't developed this already in the very near future, robots, AI battle bots are essentially going to take over the battlefield.  Now, if they do that,  and we're in wars with other countries who have essentially replaced their entire fighting force with robots, AI robots,  then what if the war was entirely fought between robots? Because essentially, what you're saying is establishing absolute dominance, because if our robots can kill your robots, and our robots could definitely kill all your people,  right? There's no contest, there's no conversation, right? So if our robots just obliterate China's, then China knows that we could essentially just have our robots kill all of them instantaneously or something like that, complete control, right? So, What if wars were no longer fought with people? What if they were only fought with robots in a safe arena esque  type of situation? 10 on 10, let's say.  10 US robots versus 10 Chinese robots, and they just fight it out in an arena because then we essentially know we don't need hundreds of thousands of these robots. But if we could just come to a gentleman's agreement,  That once the, once the octagon shuts and the robots fire, fire up their engines and whoever is the last robot standing, that country wins the war. Cause we already know the end result would be if you take that to its furthest extent, that their technology is better. And as a result of your technology being better, you could essentially kill everybody within our country, or we could kill everybody within your country.  Interesting thought experiment. And I kind of just want to see AI BattleBot war arenas as a sport, like betting and like drinking on the sidelines to, you know, two different jerseys, USA flags in the background, China with their, you know, little dinky Chinese flag. And, and, you know, we're drinking beer and they're doing math equations  on the sidelines. I don't know, however far you want to take that analogy. I think it's a cool one. I don't think it's the utopia that's gonna come of this, but nonetheless it's a fun thought experiment. But it does seem to make some rational sense that it could get to that point.  There's a sci fi book there you could write, but if you do, at least attribute me in your, you know,  your acknowledgments.  Anyways, that's,  that's the side tangent when it comes to AI battle bots. Uh, but that's terrifying. Robots could potentially kill us all. I don't know what I think is a bigger threat, whether it be AI or, you know, You know, nuclear bombs, the problem with that scenario that I just gave you, though, is it's not going to be nearly equal, right? There's still countries who haven't figured out nuclear bombs, right? They don't have the nuclear stockpile that we or Russia or China does. And so if we send these battle bots into, I don't know, Afghanistan or  a place where they don't exactly have that much It's not fair. It's just  complete dominance and control. There's nothing you can do. Go watch Terminator. You know where it goes from there.  Now on a completely different note, going from non sentient metal objects that are going to act sentient and have the possibility of, I don't know. murdering us all. There's also this flip side of things, maybe equally as terrifying,  which is that I came across this article the other day that said that plants scream  while they're being harvested.  This new study finds. Now there's something about scream and harvested in the same sentence. That just doesn't quite sit right with me. Now I'm not saying I'm going to go vegan,  but I think you're given some vegans, some more ammunition. So let's go ahead and read this article. Um, I actually came across this cool website, Indy 100.  com. I find a bunch of different websites to source some of my news articles and try to do some research for you guys. And this one had some, it had like the top 100 articles and discussions that are being had. Seems like a cool way to kind of source some, some interesting material and find some conversations. So check it out. Indie100. com.  No association. Um,  vegetarians, we're afraid we've got some news.  Vegetarians, we're afraid we've got some news that you're probably not going to like. Plants emit sounds  akin to screams. When they're distressed, according to a new study, I actually got it backwards in the way that I said that a little bit earlier. Yeah.  I guess this is ammunition for carnivores, not vegans.  It  plants emit screams when they're distressed. According to a new study,  I have the most terrifying visual picture in my head right now of a little baby plant, just screaming, uh, they allegedly produce clicking noises that humans can't hear without the use of scientific equipment. Research has found the research, which was published in, uh,  cell back in 2023 showed that plants produce these noises in times of acute distress.  Lilac Hadany is an evolutionary biologist at Tel Aviv University. Hadany said, even in a quiet field there are actually sounds that we don't hear, and those sounds carry meaning.  There are animals that can hear these sounds, so there is the possibility that a lot of acoustic interaction is occurring. Plants interact with insects and other animals all the time, and many of these organisms use sound for communication.  So it would be very suboptimal  for plants not to use sound at all. That makes sense. The findings show that plants which are distressed have incredibly high pitched popping noises, while unstressed plants do not emit these noises. emit these noises. The study's definition of distressed includes plants that were having their stems cut or were dehydrated.  However, it's not yet clear how the plants produce these noises. Now that we know that plants do emit sounds, the next question is, who does? Might be listening.  We are currently investigating the responses of other organisms, both plants and animals, to these sounds and we're also exploring our ability to identify and interpret the sounds in completely natural environments. Comes after a new study suggests that Western industrial diets may be changing the ways that humans digest plants. As modern diets lack fiber, cellulose found in fruits and vegetables is changing. Hmm.  All right.  So, that's a terrifying mental image, and now I feel a little bad for, you know, all the, all the weeds that I ripped out of the, the concrete when I was in the military. Um, anyways,  yeah, so now when a vegan comes to you and says, oh, you're hurting those animals. Well, just let them know that plants scream when they eat them,  literally, according to this study.  I don't really know where to take this from here. It just seemed pretty terrifying. And I had a lot of weird mental images of plants screaming while, while somebody was eating a, I don't know,  one of them anyways,  really not a ton of places to go from there, but I'm just letting you know, that's more of an FYI than a discussion piece.  Now, it is a discussion piece is the fact that Alex Jones has now come out and said that he's going to be pursuing a lawsuit against the FBI and the CIA for conducting a essentially a hit job on him, including the 1 billion settlement that he was forced to make. Now, it says.  Let's go ahead and see which one we should start with.  Alright, it says that Alex Jones, Alex Jones joined Louder with Crowder Wednesday to discuss the massive expose by Sound Investigations,  showing a CIA operator Or CIA operatives admission that the FBI and CIA vindictively targeted Jones for destruction. Jones explained the footage could significantly bolster a free speech lawsuit against the federal agencies for a violation of his civil rights, with which he's hoping tech entrepreneur Elon Musk could assist since the law firms coming after Jones are the same coming after Musk. Now I do want to look a little bit into the sound investigations because it was very very Project Veritas esque.  So let's go ahead and we'll take a look at them in just a minute. But this is from Sound Investigations. If you go to Twitter it's Sound I N V E S T I G is their handle. So. Sound investig.  Says breaking CIA officer, former FBI boss, uh, boss can put anyone in jail. Set them up. We call it a nudge.  FBI did what we wanted with Alex Jones. He took his money away, chopped his legs off. Estimates 20 undercover FBI agents at January 6th, works with some of them now at the CIA. Whoa. Let's watch this video.  You can kind of put anyone in jail if you know what to do. How? You set them up. Does the bureau practice entrapment a lot? Yeah. We get really close. We call it a nudge. A nudge. A nudge. Mmm. Sometimes you just gotta give them a quick little,  just to see what happens. Sometimes you like to fuse and just wait for it to follow. Nothing.  Sometimes you just gotta give them a quick little Just to see what happens. We're putting up a fake social media thing to like really get people mad. Alex Jones? Yeah, so, we were after him. You are? He did what we wanted.  Which was what?  Took his money away. Chop his legs off. Took his money away, chopped his legs, is a contracting officer at the CIAO. Lennis. Worked for the FBI in 2021 and 2022 in the San Diego office. Moved on to Homeland Security where he conducted asylum interviews at the southern border and now works for the CIA managing multimillion dollar contracts across government agencies and private.  I work for, um, I work like this, um,  I'm not supposed to tell people any job. If I say intelligence, what do you think?  CIA? Yep. Oh, you work for the CIA? I do.  That's incredible.  That is the worst  CIA  officer ever.  So I work in a field where you're like, not really supposed to tell people what to, what you do.  But when I say intelligence, you say  central intelligence. agency?  Yeah.  Wow, you're a tough cookie to crack.  That is the nation's best my friend. Let's listen to that one more time because that was amazing.  Sector Vendors. I work for, um, I work at this, um,  I'm not supposed to tell people. You're not supposed to tell intelligence. What do you think? CIA? Yep. You work for the CIA? That's me. I do work for the contracting officer.  So I deal a lot with, like,  different agencies. We're contracting with, like, uh, Directorate of National Intelligence to do stuff. We do Navy, Army,  many of them, really. I just, FBI, I used to work for the FBI, so. We went through the FBI, Abby. They're like, here, you used to work there. Oh, I'm permanent. I'm staff. I'm good. Well, why do they call it contracting? Because I do the contracting for them. I do all the legal contracts.  I fly out to vendors and evaluate them. I love the agency.  I like the Bureau too. The Bureau was a lot of fun. I got to do a lot of cool stuff at the Bureau. I was the guy in the back of the truck in the van.  Oblenus spoke to an Undercover Sound Investigations reporter about his work experience involving near entrapment and his employers involvement with political commentator Alex Jones legal battles. As long as the Bureau is able to  progress far enough to be able to put pro lifers in jail whenever they want. Yeah.  You think that's on the agenda? We can, we can  You can kind of put anyone in jail if you know what to do. How? You set them up.  You create the situation to where they have no choice but to act on their impulse. And once they act on that impulse, then we call that entrapment.  It's a fine line.  Does the Bureau practice entrapment a lot?  We get really close. Not officially? No. We get as close as we can.  We get as close as we can to it without doing it. So they can entrap some of these pro lifers into doing things that they don't care about. Japan gang, yeah.  We call it a nudge. A nudge. We call it a nudge.  Mmm. Sometimes you just gotta get a quick little, just to see what happens, right? And how does that happen?  You put a post out there, or you have someone fake it. Profile, say something that triggers, that we know is going to trigger one, right? Like, we, we already know your history. If we're to that point, we already know everything about you. So we're like, oh, this'll piss them off. Oh. Sometimes you like to fuse and just wait for it to follow, right? Like a railing. Like a, oh. So when a railing happens, then sometimes the bureau behind it Yeah, sometimes.  So that's interesting. So  he's saying essentially that they would put out social media posts to try to get certain individuals to bite on it.  I'm not sure how you could put somebody in jail for a reaction to a social media post.  Not sure what he would be alluding to there, but the fact that a CIA intelligence  contracting officer just stated basically publicly and without any friction that the CIA conducts nudges or entrapment campaigns around people they disagree with the ideologies of That's pretty concerning Make an influence that you're influencer that you're after you like a  I don't know like um  I don't even know these names. Like a Fox News person, or like a Tucker Carlson, or like a Uh, oh, I'm sure he's  Right.  The youngest one's I think that's the loudest.  Like that, what was his name? The one that said, uh,  the, uh, San Diego didn't happen. Alex Jones. Yeah, so, we were after him. You are? Are you still after him? Yeah. Why? Because he's broke. He got found guilty. And had to pay like a hundred million dollars.  So what, why were you after him? We're not anymore. Just to get the money for them? Yeah.  Was that court case used? Was that a CIA case? Sure it was. That was an agency thing? Well, actually it was a defamation case. So it's a civil, not  government.  But we were looking at all of his followers, commenting, following, like, who's that gonna make us take the break?  So, even though it's technically not our, well, not the agency, definitely, but the Bureau, for instance.  Yeah, that's not our purview. It's a civil,  it's a civil matter.  But, since they got all this access to his stuff, and it's  there,  what can we go find?  And did you find anything? I can't tell you. Oh, God.  But,  so, you know, it's just kind of like, you know,  Realize the opportunity that you have so with Alex Jones  So he's essentially saying that during the civil case. They got access to all of his documentation over the Sandy Hook allegations And I'm sure you can't point to one thing Alex Jones said that pissed off the CIA It was probably a lot of things but within that list of things was obviously that the ability to find the silliest things  potential civil legal case to completely bankrupt a man who was just doing his job in trying to expose potential corruption and mass weaponization of  proven tactics that have been absolutely leveraged and at least proposed to be leveraged, right? If you go back to Operation Northwoods with the CIA, they proposed and it went all the way up to the president. To conduct fake mass shootings, one literally on a military base. And they were actually going to pay people to conduct it.  Right? So not faking a mass shooting, that's far more difficult than actually doing the mass shooting.  Right?  When you looked at the situation in Russia, what happened? They found people who were broke. Right? Maybe this was, maybe it wasn't the CIA. But maybe it was the CIA. Mm hmm.  Who has a track record of potentially finding people who are in a position that they can then bribe to do an act that would be in line with what they would want to see happen to cause something that they want to cause. And then they find them on telegram and then they convince them to do the thing through words and money and enablement, right? Just a little nudge, just a nudge, right? So  in the case of Sandy Hook, right?  The dumbest thing they could have done, the dumbest thing anybody could have done, was try to fake it like a movie, right? That's just, there's so many loose ends.  It's far easier to convince somebody who's already on a bunch of psychological medications, who's already, you know, maybe having some sort of mental breakdown, who's already talking about it on forums to just Yeah, what if this did happen? What if this showed up at your house tomorrow? What if I gave you plans to conduct that, right? Like, there's a lot of ways to do it without  creating a Hollywood movie scene, right? This isn't the moon landing.  Right? So this man is literally admitting here that what they did was they weaponized the government.  Right? Weaponize the CIA. Weaponize the FBI. Weaponize the judicial system in order to gain  insight, dirt, and knowledge.  And then go after Alex Jones, cut him off at the legs, which means the judge who conducted it, the prosecutors, all of that should be appealed at this point with this new evidence.  You were watching him long before anything ended up happening? Probably. It wasn't my office, but I mean, we would have been well aware of what he was doing. And the goal with him was what? Just to bankrupt him?  Oh, pretty much. And we let the families do it.  What? We let the families do it. Were they encouraged to do that by the Bureau? Like nudged? We don't encourage people, but like, we just say, there's no federal  statute being broken. But you do have the option for a civil,  for a civil case. And it's a pretty good case.  In our opinion.  So, oh, that makes so much sense. I have a cousin who's a lawyer.  So that's a lot of these cases, they're kind of encouraged by the FBI? Yeah, like,  there's nothing federally, federal law we can  Interesting.  Let's see. Just gonna kind of scrub through here so I'm not making you listen to this loud background  restaurant.  But, let's see if there's anything better.  Oh, here we go. January 6th, then we'll move on. Alright, here we go.  Maybe it won't. It essentially says, how many people do you think the FBI or the CIA had in the crowd? And he said, I'm talking, they maybe had 20, 20.  You needed a thousand to get rid of that crowd.  That's where we're stuck on here. So  there you go. That's the situation. Now, Alex Jones responds to this on Louder with Crowder.  Discusses this at length in an interview. Let's see if we at that. Lemme ask if you have a lawsuit planned yourself. Um, yes. Can you explain that to people so they understand what it is that you're Yes. And, and Steven, I apologize for going on and on, but, but I can just, just lemme just finish that last go. I'll get into that. My point is justice depart.  IRS, uh, law firms, uh, rig courts, who are not allowed to defend yourself. This is the cocktail they've used against Trump. It's the cocktail that they're now using against everybody. And absolutely, the only reason I want to sue them is to get my name back. I don't even want money, but I want to be able to call Oblevis in. I want to be able to call their other lawyers in. I want to be able to call in the PR firms because the mistake they made was run their mouth. I mean, the lawyers in Connecticut and Texas. And by the way, the Texas Crips, the same ones suing Elon Musk, by the way, they got up at the courthouse steps when they won their cases, the judge had already found me guilty and then told the jury to find me guilty for a bunch of money.  They said, our mission is to silence him. We don't want money. And that's now happening in the bankruptcy court where the judge is like, wait, the law says you can get money.  But the law doesn't say you get to silence people.  And so basically there's now findings about to be made public that they're dealing in bad faith. So that's an inside baseball. But, but yes, I've talked to several different civil rights law firms and I've had four conversations with four law firms, uh, since this just broke, uh, uh,  I was talking to him before it broke. So in the last week, they just broke a day and a half ago. It seems like a million years ago now. And so it's a big deal. You know, it's all God. Yeah. You're opening up the mouths of these evil people to then expose themselves. The Bible says the pit they dig for you is the pit they will fall into. And so absolutely. I don't like taking on the FBI and the CIA, but if somebody's on top of you breaking your nose and punching your eyeballs out and gang raping you and running over you and backing over you, All you can do is fight back. That's why when I saw the targeting of you a few years ago, I called you. We're already friends then. And I said, listen, don't let it get to you because you're successful. You're one of the top talk shows. You're a populist. People love you. Do not, I know you're smart, but you haven't been through a lot of this yet. You've been through some stuff. I said, I know the cut of this jib. I know the signature. This is 100 percent the Justice Department, the CIA. They create the narrative. They look at things. They go, we'll take this and we'll take that and we'll make Alex Jones the guy that bullies kids and pees on graves. Exactly. And then we'll make Steven Crowder this guy that, you know, literally, uh, breaks women's necks and human sacrifices them and it's just all made up and then they just hype it and hype it to, to, to, to, to, to take what you're known for being smart and being funny.  Alright, so there you go. That's his response. He's essentially going to go after the FBI and the CIA for conducting this, uh, this nudge operation, right? Uh, now,  again, I think that was pretty good work. Like, I think that's some of the better investigative journalism that's come out more recently, even above what OMG is doing. Uh, what I've seen more recently from James O'Keefe, which is, you know, OMG media project Veritas is essentially dead in the water. I haven't seen a single project Veritas thing come out, uh, in probably a year since they got rid of him.  Uh, but let's look, I just want to look at their, the sound investigations, Twitter account. Hopefully they're only 23, 000 followers.  Uh, investigating corruption in adult industries and more.  Hmm.  Wow. And since they posted that, that has 6 million views  on  Twitter.  Hmm.  Very interesting.  Uh,  And look, they have more posts. They posted about the Pornhub, C Suite, Executive, uh, Uh,  Very interesting. Okay, cool. Sound investigations. Good job. Good on, good on James O'Keefe for encouraging people to start doing this, right? That's real journalism. Absolutely incredible.  Okay, let's touch on this.  But before we do that, I just want to remind you that you're still here, still here listening to me. And if you haven't left a five star review,  I'm watching you.  Not really. Not like the CIA, but I am I am I do feel your presence right now And if you haven't done it yet, I know you want to just do it Just tippity tap that button and I also know you want to head over to Ronan Ronan basics calm and check out the website It's still a little bit of a work in progress. Most of the things are still on backorder But at least you'll be familiar, roninbasics. com, and I'll let you in on a little clue, something I'm pretty excited about, is that every single one of my order, every single one of the products that I sell will come with it  in some way, shape, or form,  a QR code. And on that QR code, it can lead you to become a Ronin affiliate, where you can make any a percentage of every person that you help  protect themselves from modern technology. So just by buying one of my products, you'll get a QR code that will be sent to you and you will make a percentage of every single sale. That has ever made  by anybody you encouraged to do so. So you can even make some money. Think about that high quality products, protect yourself from EMF radiation, get rid of corporate and government tracking. How could this get better? You ask?  Well, what if you have made money off of it? What if you did that? That'd be pretty cool, huh? So, RonanBasics. com, and this will start, again, the thing that I will have go live, that will no longer be on backorder, or presale, is going to be the wallets. Alright? Um, pretty awesome designs. They look super sharp, very high quality materials, RonanBasics. com. Check out the wallets that are there and make your order today. And I can start shipping it out as early as late next week. And I will include with that  a QR code for you to share the love with all of your friends and family.  All right. RonanBasics. com head there right now.  U. S. company hoping to bring back dead extinct animals.  This article says U. S. company hoping to bring back the dodo and the mammoth.  But here's why it won't be like Jurassic Park. I like how they're already going on a PR campaign. But here's why it's not going to turn into velociraptors tearing you and your children to shreds. Here's why. Let me explain. My name is James Robinson, news reporter for SkyNews. com. Let me tell you why this is a great thing for humanity. That we're going to bring back woolly mammoths. And also saber toothed tigers. And also maybe Velociraptors. Let me, let me, give me five minutes of your time and I shall convince you, sir, that bringing back extinct animals that the world no longer was able to, to need or was able to sustain at sizes much larger than animals that we have today, in an environment that is constantly surrounded by humans that are not like they were before, let me tell you why introducing  Extinct animals back into the ecosystem is a great thing. Okay, I'm listening, James. Tell me.  Well,  the idea of scientists bringing prehistoric creatures back to life with some clever DNA trickery might sound familiar to fans of the 1993 Hollywood blockbuster Jurassic Park. Yes, it does. But for Colossal Biosciences, a company that hopes to reintroduce extinct species such as the Dodo and the Mammoth, I like how they find like the most cuddly little stupid things that they could come up with,  right? We're not gonna do those big scary animals, right? We're not gonna weaponize  Tyrannosaurus Rex's, right? We're just just a little Dodo. They're stupid and harmless. That's all. Maybe a little woolly mammoth So you can give it a little belly rub  But not velociraptors. We would never do that. We would never. We would never. That's a terrible idea. We would never do that, guys. We would never start an island for rich people to go hunt velociraptors. To pay us millions of dollars  to go start our own  Jurassic Park Island, where you could view  Velociraptors, T Rexes, Bronchiosauruses, Triceratops, and, and all of your childhood dreams come true. We would never do that and monetize it for our benefit.  Just dodo's. And little belly rubs for the woolly mammoths. That's all we want to do, guys. Don't worry about us. Just dodos. They were stupid to begin with. We'll start there.  But for, uh, it, it says it is more than just a film script.  It's a reality, and one that could be just years away. We've got all the technology we need, says Ben Lamb, chief executive of the firm. Based in Dallas, Texas. It's just a focus of time and funding. And we are 100 percent confident we can bring back the Tasmanian Tiger, the Dodo, the Mammoth. The science behind the project is simple. Work out the genes that make an extinct animal what it is, and then replicate those genes using the DNA of a close existing relative.  Right?  We're not God. We're just creating  animals out of thin air. With our bare hands. Creating life. The very existence that maybe, just maybe, we may alter a thing or two there. Maybe make a purple woolly mammoth, because people love purple.  Right? But we would never. Not the big scary stuff, guys. Don't worry about  it. It's almost reverse Jurassic Park, says Mr. Lamb. Right? In the film, they were film filling in the holes in the dinosaur DNA with frog DNA.  We are leveraging artificial intelligence and tools to identify the core genes that make a mammoth a mammoth and then engineering them into elephant genomes. Right? We're not, we're not filling in the DNA with frog DNA. That's um,  such a huge part of this and all of the concerns have to do with the frog DNA. So we're not going to do that.  Wow.  Uh, that is the technical part, but there are some other practical hurdles for Colossal to overcome. Namely, once you have a mammoth cells, do you birth a real life mammoth? The answer, according to Colossal, is in the womb of an Asian elephant.  Hmm. But it is a process that could take nearly two years, even after they've worked out how to do it. Each of the different projects have different challenges. The mammoth is really around gestation, which is around 22 months. The dodo gestations, it's pretty great. They said we are using surrogate chickens. The hardest part is cultivating the primordial germ cells.  So after about 4, 000 years.  When could we see the return of the Mighty Mammoth, a creature that fell victim to human hunting? This is our fault, guys. Let's bring him back. And the changing conditions brought about by the end of the last Ice Age. We are well into the editing phase, said Mr. Lamb. We don't have mammoths yet, but we still feel very good. About 2028.  Geez. Away from the lab, led by Rona Hisoli, Colossal's head of biological sciences, there are a few issues to overcome, including where the newly returned species will live once they're born.  Mr. Lamb said Who gives Who the fuck gives you the right? Mr. Lamb who gave you who gave you the right to do this? How do you how do you say? Oh, I'm gonna be the guy to challenge nature  to say hey I know this happened in the past in history, but guess what?  Not on my watch, my name's Mr. Lamb. I'm gonna reverse engineer the cells and become God, and start to create animals that haven't been around for thousands of years. Without any regard to how this will affect our ecosystem, without any regard to what the actual predatory aspects of this might look like, without any concern for anything other than, this shit looks pretty cool, maybe I'll do that.  How is there not, and also by the way, what stops them from doing this with Neanderthals?  There's a weird situation. Oh, no, all you need is a surrogate mom and we have Neanderthals back  Isn't there like little people too? Like we I remember I went to the museum. I think it was in San Diego  Some some museum that I was at and they had a literal like little person dwarf That was another homo sapien esque type of figure  What's to stop them from doing this. With that, are we gonna bring back Neanderthals and dwarf homo, you know,  homo sapien esque creatures, and just see how that works out for us.  I could just see, let's go. Let's go into a new scenario. We went from battle bots to Neanderthals being regenerated into life. Maybe. Maybe let's cross them both together.  The battle bots.  And the only way to, to combat that is to bring back to life the strong, the, the eyebrow having Neanderthals, right? We were the reason they're gone anyways. Just bring them back. We'll see. Well, they're going to back us up. Right? If, if all hell breaks loose with the AI robots, let's just keep further experiment with us being God, you know, discount the metal God that we're creating. And let's just say, Hey, we're going to bring back the enderthals to fight off the AI  robot battle bots. Maybe that's the end result. Right? But literally, do you think they're going to stop a mammoths? Do you think they're going to stop at Dodo's or whatever they said, whatever the other one was. No, they're going to do everything and anything they can, which includes.  Includes dinosaurs includes other, uh, Homo sapien ask  creatures like the Neanderthals, right? That is going to happen if we are going down this road. We are opening up Pandora's box. Where these scientists are acting as if they're gods, where they believe they can do whatever they want without repercussions, without government oversight, because they're moving fast enough now to where we can't as humans be able to take in the information and what they're doing and have corrective measures and, and guidelines for them to follow, which says, Hey, maybe it's not a good idea to re introduce predatory species into our current state ecosystem that haven't been around for thousands of years. Maybe that's not a good idea.  Maybe it's not a good idea to create a hyper intelligent Metal figure that could break every bone in your body and has no emotions.  Maybe not,  you know Where do we start to put where do we start to draw the line, right? If it's not hyper intelligent godlike metal creatures, and it's not bringing back extinct creatures and developing Animals from scratch  and changing their genetic makeups with with the metal God filling in the blanks  Right? Like, there's so many sci fi books that I could create out of this, it's ridiculous.  And most of them, if not all of them, end terribly for us.  Right? We better hope the aliens show up and save our asses from these dumbass scientists trying to extinct humanity while bringing back dodo's  and creating metal gods like AI. Battle bots.  Jeez.  Our ultimate goal is to put all the animals we make back into the wild. He says new tools in the fight to protect nature. Colossal thinks the work is not just about rewilding animals previously lost to the world. The company is currently working with Dr. Paul Ling at Baylor college of medicine to create a vaccine to eradicate the deadly. E E H V virus, which kills about 20 percent of baby elephants. It is also working closely with the university of Alaska and the university of Stockholm on radiocarbon dating of American mammoths, as well as sequencing their genome, the largest study of its type ever undertaken.  Now what's interesting about this is that guess what they're getting to help convince you in their propaganda campaign, that this is a good thing.  They hired the guy. There's a very famous documentarian named Teton.  Not named Teaton Ridge, but James Reed, you've probably heard that name before and if you hadn't go look up his IMDB and you'll probably be pretty familiar with it. You know the Documentary that was very very famous region recently The my octopus teacher  is now been commissioned to create a docu series about this medical technology company The new Jurassic Park  says the company has teamed up with Oscar winning my octopus teacher James Reed's underdog films and Teton Ridge Entertainment to produce a multi year docu series about Colossal's work. The firm bills itself as the world's first de extinction company has raised some 225 million dollars in funding as it works to resurrect species like the woolly mammoth and the dodo. The announcement of the docu series comes on the heels of Colossal hiring former legendary Entertainment executive Emily Castell as chief marketing officer. Among other duties, Castell will help guide the company on its foray into the entertainment world. Teton Ridge Entertainment will finance the first phase of production with the intent of finding a distribution.  Coming to a Netflix near you!  The real Jurassic park. I like how every time they mentioned this, they also mentioned dodo's and woolly mammoths. Like they, I guarantee you that marketing executive CMO  probably did a huge survey market analysis  where they tried to figure out what are the least intimidating things that we could run our campaign on to not immediately sound the public alarms around us playing God, and that just so happens to be the woolly mammoth and the dodo.  Right?  Transparency is core to Colossal's missions and goals. Of course it is. So working with the right filmmakers to chronicle our journey was incredibly important.  Right? So this is just a big propaganda campaign. Huge money budget, big propaganda campaign to convince you that this is a good idea and we shouldn't be sounding the alarms over this. Okay,  now, the last topic that we're going to discuss today  is going to be  that the Everybody was talking about this week about the solar eclipse, right? There was all these conspiracy theories about the solar eclipse, right? It's going to be the end of times. It's going to cause all these earthquakes that the, all of the technology is going to go out. It's there's going to be this, there's going to be that there was all these conspiracy theories. And I didn't come out and say much about it at all. One, because I was too busy, busy building Ronan and have my head buried in the sand to sit and create content about it. Yeah. But two, I didn't really see the correlation, right? I know there's a huge buildup and it's in the air. Something's going to happen very shortly, very soon. I don't disagree with you.  Uh,  and side note, I listened to a podcast between Theo on Theo Vaughn's podcast, uh, this past weekend where he interviewed Tucker Carlson, probably one of my favorite podcasts I've listened to in a very, very long time. And Tucker Carlson sounds the alarm. It's the third time I've said that in like three paragraphs.  It really does. Sound the alarm bells around the potential for mass EMPs causing mass chaos by an external enemy. And there's some really sobering thoughts and ideas around, get a plan in place, because when all hell breaks loose and you can't call your mom, you can't call your dad, you can't get a hold of your kids, you can't get a hold of your brother, your sister, your mother, your best friend,  what are you gonna do? Do you have a plan in place? Do you have a place to meet up? Do you know where to source your water from? Do you know how to get out of the city properly? Do you know where to go hide in the woods? Do you know those things? Because if you don't,  and I certainly need to put together this plan as well, but you should have a plan. You should have some food storage. You should have a way to filter your water. You should have some of those things, right?  Go listen to that podcast. Really, really well done. But anyways,  uh,  all of these conspiracy theories around what's going to happen after the eclipse. Now.  Being somewhat interested in astronomy and and the cosmos and everything that's going on in the larger universe around us This eclipse is pretty cool to me I like looking up in and seeing that and and kind of being able to feel extremely small in this mathematical equation that is reality going on around us and I appreciate being able to witness that and I think it's pretty damn cool People that shit on the Eclipse are the same people that shit on New Year's resolutions. Like, you're just,  you're just lame.  So, I wrote off all these conspiracy theories.  And,  I didn't find any of them interesting. I didn't see any one of them that convinced me there was going to be something that went down.  But what I did see,  after the fact,  excuse me, is this article.  And I saw a video about it, that was pretty well done.  And it explains how  the Eclipse could have potentially been artificially created. And that sounds crazy.  But let me tell you how  this article  comes from the European Space Agency,  and it says face to face with sun eclipsing proba  three,  there is a satellite technology  rotating around the earth right now that has the capability to cause a pseudo solar eclipse. This is real technology. It's online.  Look it up, the article is face to face with sun  eclipsing Proba 3. And here's what it says. It says,  through exquisite millimeter scale formation flying the dual satellite making up ESA's Proba 3 will accomplish what was previously a space mission impossible. Cast a precisely held shadow from one platform to the other in the process of blocking out the fiery sun to observe its ghostly surrounding atmosphere  Now this should be fairly easy and simplistic to go back and see if prior to this thing being created was there a projected solar eclipse. It's just a mathematical equation, right? I'm sure somebody way smarter than me knows how to calculate it. But this should be able to be validated. I haven't done that math myself because it would take me 20 years of learning math and you know, maybe getting Neuralink in the, in the process to help me understand it. But  there's probably a way to validate this. So I just haven't gotten that far, but there are some interesting names for these things.  One of them is called the Occulter Spacecraft because there's two satellites that make this up. And it says, ahead of the Proba pair launching together later this year, the scientists who will make use of Proba 3 observations were able to see the satellites with their own eyes. Members of this team will test hardware developed for the mission during an actual terrestrial solar eclipse over North America. Next.  April dun dun dun. The two satellites are currently undergoing final integration in the premises of RedWire near Antwerp in Belgium. They are paid a visit by Proba3 science working team, a 45 strong group of solar physicists coming from all over Europe and the wider world.  Many of these experts are regular visitors to terrestrial solar eclipse around the globe, but looking forward to the new perspective Proba3 will open up on the faint solar corona. This mysterious region is important as the place where coronal mass ejections are created, vast eruptions of charged particles that trigger solar storms, as well as influencing the velocity of the solar wind, which is central to determining space weather. The satellite hardware was quite something to in close up, or in close up.  I was particularly struck by how close the camera had on the coronagraph  spacecraft is to the solar array. So those are the two names of it. Coronagraph?  And the other satellite's name is Occulter.  While the array relies on high solar illumination, the camera has to remain in complete darkness with no stray light whatsoever. It really brings it home how precisely that small shadow cast by the Occulter will need to be maintained in place. We also got to peek at the carefully machined edge of the Occulter spacecraft's disk, normally kept under protective cover before launch. Interesting.  Now this is pretty long. Let's see if we can find out and explain how it goes. Exactly does what it's supposed to do.  So it says there are telescopes that incorporate internal occulting discs to obscure the solar disc. The problem is that these internal occulters still experienced light spilling around their edges known as diffraction, blotting out the extremely faint signals of interest, right? So it looks like one, uh, one satellite in front of the other, both positioning itself in front of the sun and creating this. Pseudo eclipse, right? An artificial eclipse, it says.  It says Damian Galeno, ESA's Proba 3 project manager, notes the best way to reduce diffraction,  uh, is to increase the distance between the occulter and the chronograph, which is precisely what Proba 3 is going to do.  Interesting. By definition, full scale end to end testing of PROBA3 is impossible here on Earth, but the meeting here heard how the same set of filter wheels developed by PROBA3  will be used to observe the solar eclipse over North America on the 8th of April 2024 along the Liquid Parallel Crystal Imaging Technology.  The filter wheels allow observation of the corona in different polarization angles, like switching between different polarized glasses.  Uh, the nice about observing during an actual eclipse is we won't need any occulter to gain insight of exactly the kind of results we are going to get back from Proba 3. Now why would they want to do this? Right, why would they want to cause proba 3? A solar eclipse. It says, uh, Assuming the sun's output influences Earth's climate, it's important to measure any variations we precisely can. Probe 3 is due for launch this autumn. Like, what's the purpose of this? Why are you doing that? Why do you want to? And here's a actual good, uh,  Explanation as to what it's doing and how it's doing it and so you can go check that out Look up the article name, but the  last thing I'll show you is a video here This is a two and a half three minute video that explains h

Sports with Rod 4-8-2024 …Charles Barkley clearing isn't watching the game …LA Angles Broadcasters Rightfully Rip MLB for screwing one of their guys

In this episode of the Penny Forward Podcast, hosts Chris Peterson and MOe Carpenter interview Tyler Bennett from Rightfully Sewn. The Kansas City non-profit focuses on providing education and job opportunities in sewing and fashion for those facing employment barriers. Tyler discusses Rightfully Sewn's mission, its integration with Alpha Point, and the organization's commitment to diversity and inclusion. The conversation also covers the sewing job market, training specifics, and how Rightfully Sewn addresses challenges faced by the blind community, while fostering an environment that welcomes a variety of projects and people. Show notes Penny-Forward-S2024E6-Rightfully-SewnDownload Transcript .TXT file www.rightfullysewn.com Alphapointe.org Penny Forward pennyforward.compennyforward@pennyforward.com Clubhouse HouseFacebookYoutube Get our app, guest membership is free! IOS/AppleGooglePlay  Post Production help provided by Brynn Lee Superblink.org Transcription services provided by Anne Verduin.  

The new Nickelodeon documentary is disturbing. Rightfully so. Also some Islanders hockey talk, Beyoncé and her new country album, plus some football talk Tags: #Nickelodeon #QuietonSet #Podcast #BellyUpSports #BellyUpMedia #TimetoBS #NHL #NewYorkIslanders #Beyonce #Seahawks This podcast is supported by Belly Up Sports and Belly Up Media Like, Follow and Subscribe to the Show on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok Subscribe to our page for new Episodes of Time to BS with Staniel Smooth, The Sports Cave and BS Sessions Social Pages: Twitter/X: @stanielsmooth, @TimetoBSPodcast, @BellyUpSports, & @BellyUpMedia Instagram: @stanielsmooth, @TimetoBSPodcast, @BellyUpSports, & @BellyUpMedia  Threads: @stanielsmooth & @timetobspodcast TikTok: @stanielsmooth Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We take a break today from Lenten penitence and focus on the excellent creature in St. Joseph, the Husband of the Blessed Virgin Mary. We will recite or sing the Gloria in mass in his honor. Rightfully so! He cannot be overemphasized in his crucial role as the protector of the most Blessed Virgin Mary and her Son, Jesus Christ. The first reading in the mass tells us about the promise of God to send a descendant of King David. He had wanted to build for God a Temple. He was told by Nathan, the prophet that, it will be God Himself who will build a House of David, that will never be destroyed and that would last forever. This house is the House of David. Here in this house, the Messiah will be born. The Christ is a descendant of King David. This is the definitive House of David!

Amazons Defeated by Kung Fu Master, disguised as a sexy witch.By BradentonLarry - Listen to the Podcast at Steamy Stories.Shelonda & Don defeated the Amazon tribal sisters, and gained the release of Toshia.“I don’t like this plan, Don,” Nicole had said. “I don’t want to see any more killing.”“Neither do I,” Don replied. “We’re going to do everything we can to avoid seriously hurting anyone. How much first aid do they teach pre-med students?”The answer had been not much, but Nicole had been a girl scout and knew some rudiments. So, she was assigned the role of medic for the rescue mission.“There it is!” Don said, pointing ahead to where he could just see the old ruined castle poking up out of the forest. “Let’s find someplace to land not too far from it.”In another minute, responding to Amy’s mental commands, the carpet settled down in a small clearing just a short, wooded distance from the castle’s gate. Don, Shelonda and Nicole disembarked – Nicole quite eagerly – and Amy had the carpet carry her back up into the sky. Amy had her instructions. She hadn’t liked the thought of being left out of the main action, but had eventually accepted Don’s reasoning. At the very least, if Don’s plan didn’t work, they wouldn’t all be captured.With Don taking the lead, the three on the ground set off through the forest toward the castle of the Sisterhood. It was only a short walk before they came to another, much larger, clearing in front of the gate of the castle. The gate itself was very old, mostly of wood and actually in surprisingly good condition. It had two valves, and the one on the right was standing open. Two women were there, apparently on guard, though they had placed their spears against the wall and were practicing what looked like crude judo take-downs. Don and the others got half way across the clearing to them before either of them noticed.“Hey! Who the hell are you?” said one, a tall woman with short, jet-black hair. To her credit, her partner, a shorter blonde with longer hair, immediately went to grab both spears and took the opportunity to give a high-pitched whistle through the open gate.“I’m Don, and this is my student Shelonda and our medical assistant Nicole,” Don said amiably as he continued to approach the castle.“Medical assistant?” the guard asked as her companion brought her spear.“To help if anyone gets injured.”“OK, that’s far enough,” the guard said as she leveled her spear at Don’s chest, “or you’re going to get injured permanently.”Don frowned a little at that. He actually suspected that the XYZ would help his, or anyone’s, body repair any injury short of death, but he didn’t bother to explain this to the dark-haired woman. Instead he said, “We’re here to collect our friend, who we believe has been a guest of the Sisterhood for the last few days.”“Oh you are, are you?” said a voice from above the gate.Don looked up to see a beautiful woman with long black hair spilling over her shoulders and her armor standing on the battlements over the gate. She certainly seemed to have the regal bearing that would go along with leading the Sisterhood. He decided at that moment that this woman would respond better to a particular approach – one of individual dominance.“I am,” Don nodded. “She became separated from us, and has been here. I would be grateful if you returned her.”“And if I don’t?” asked the woman, confirming Don’s guess as to her role in the Sisterhood.“Then I’ll have to make you,” Don smiled.The woman laughed derisively, and then said, “Kill him, and take the women.”Without hesitation, the two guards drew back to thrust at Don with their spears. Before they could attack though, his staff came up and spun around in a clean arc through the place where the black-haired one’s head had been, carrying her down into a crumpled heap on the ground where she lay unconscious. Immediately, Don reversed the momentum of his staff, batting the blonde’s spear aside, and then brought the other end of the staff around to strike the woman’s knee hard enough to buckle her leg painfully in the wrong direction. She cried out in pain before Don stretched her on the ground with a blow to the head. The entire exchange had taken less than three seconds.Don held up his left hand to the half dozen warrior women who had by now come through the gate and who were ready to charge him.“We do not want to fight the Sisterhood,” he said in a loud, calm voice. “We only want our friend, Toshia, who is here in your castle. Give her to us and Nicole here will tend to these good women and we will be on our way. If you do not give her to us, though, I must challenge your leader to personal combat.”“We do not stoop to fight with men,” one of the women in front of Don sneered. She was a big redhead with a spray of freckles across her face.“That sounds like cowardice to me,” Don smiled back at her.“Take them down,” the woman on the wall ordered.At once, the six women, led by the freckled redhead, charged Don and the girls. Don’s hypothesis was that the XYZ was supercharging more than just their sex drives, and that if he and Shelonda deliberately sought to direct their energies into good kung fu they would be nearly unstoppable fighting machines. Moreover, he had repeatedly noticed the flexible nature of Eros, in that what a focused mind wanted often made itself available. Don and Shelonda were now throwing themselves into the fray, letting the XYZ course through their veins and expecting the world to bend itself to their will. They leapt higher, dodged faster, and hit harder than seemed humanly possible. In addition, they had a particular advantage thanks to the Wizard; their staffs had been enchanted. Though they were still the light, flexible staffs Don and Shelonda had brought from the Manor, they were now, for all intents and purposes, unbreakable, and struck with a force much greater than normal. There were additional abilities as well, but they were trying to hold back on those, both to keep at least one of them in reserve as a surprise and because they really didn’t want to severely injure anyone.It only took a minute or so before all six of the sisters were lying on the ground around Don and Shelonda, either unconscious or groaning in pain. Nicole quickly began moving about them, checking for broken bones and beginning to bandage ankles and knees.“So,” Don called to the rest of the Sisterhood, who by now were gathered outside the gate or along the walls, “you will not stoop to fight a man, but you will stoop to attacking us three to one. That’s very brave. I’m quite impressed.”“I’ll take you one-on-one, little man,” said a muscular woman with short brown hair. “When I’m done with you, I’ll fuck your ass with that staff of yours.”“Always the ass, eh, Wanda?” said a woman from the crowd.Wanda laughed and stepped forward hefting a good sized battle axe in her strong hands.Don smiled at her, “If you’re nice, maybe I’ll fuck your ass with my ‘staff' before I’m done with you.”The women seemed to like this and laughed at and with Wanda. Though she didn’t really seem to mind the teasing, Wanda chose this moment to charge Don. It was a clumsy attack, and Don had no trouble slipping out of the way. His staff flew around and smacked Wanda hard on the butt. He thought the force of her charge would require a few more steps before she could turn, but Wanda surprised him by spinning tightly and swinging her axe across at his mid-section. Don sprang back in time, but only just. With impressive speed, she changed the direction of the axe, swept it up and then arcing down at Don’s head. Rather than dodging though, Don stepped in and threw his staff up in both hands, to catch the axe haft as it came down. Neither staff nor axe gave way, as Don expected, though Wanda was surprised that the axe hadn’t continued right through the apparently more flimsy staff. Don took advantage of her surprise by kicking her very hard in the crotch. Though this didn’t have exactly the same effect it might have on a male, it still hurt, and Wanda winced and pulled back. Don pressed the attack, spinning his staff in a withering barrage of strikes aimed at Wanda’s head. While she was able to successfully block each strike, Don was able to throw her off balance enough that he was able to slip in close and punch her sharply in the gut. With a loud “Oof!” Wanda doubled over, leaving herself open to a decisive rap on the skull that laid her out on the ground.There was a small burst of applause, abruptly cut off, as Don turned to look over the gathered sisters with a cheerful yet derisive smile. He was less astounded by his speed and strength than he was by his endurance; he was barely breathing hard. “Anyone else want to do your leader’s fighting for her?”“You’re pretty good with that stick,” said a beautiful, tall blonde wearing her hair in braids, as she stepped forward. She was wearing a blue sleeveless tunic hanging down almost to her knees and cinched at the waist, leather wrist bands and sandals laced up the length of her calves. She had all the beauty of Nordic women and a muscular build that indicated both strength and speed. She also seemed to be smiling at Don with genuine good nature. She asked, “Can you measure up without a weapon?”Don nodded and said, “Let’s find out.” He tossed his staff to Shelonda and bowed to the blonde, adding, “I’m Don.”“Brigit,” she nodded.Don was acutely aware of the fact that he had just given any attentive spectators a good demonstration of his basic fighting style. This gave Brigit a possible advantage. She certainly had the fire of intelligence burning in her eyes, so Don assumed she had an actual advantage. As a result of these thoughts he did not rush in to attack her, though a fast step in and side-kick was usually a good move in this kind of situation. He relaxed his shoulders, slowed his breathing, and waited for Brigit to make the first move.Brigit eyed Don calmly as she began to circle him. He noted that she had her hands raised and open, suggesting that she might be a grappler. Though she was ordinarily someone he might enjoy grappling, Don had little taste for wrestling as a form of combat. He was out-massed by the big woman; speed, agility and determination were his assets, two-thirds of which would be sacrificed in a clinch.He turned as she moved, eventually turning his back on the bulk of the Sisterhood. Don actually thought they were too caught up in the fun of watching the fight to actually interfere, and he was sure Shelonda would alert him if someone made an unsporting move. Rather than attack him, the sisters were taunting both Brigit and him, telling them to get on with it.Finally, Brigit did just that, taking a few quick steps in Don’s direction, but he only danced back laughing. She came in again, this time faster and swinging her right fist in a roundhouse. Don had bounced back, though, and to his left. Before she could readjust, he landed two quick blows on her right side. It felt like he’d punched a wall.Brigit rounded on him, but he had already skipped back out of the way. Her smile suggested that his punches hadn’t made much of an impression. Don didn’t mind that; he was still sizing her up.She came in fast again, but Don could tell she was a bit hesitant; expecting him to evade her she was holding back. Don responded by closing the distance between them. He blocked the blow she aimed at the left side of his head with his forearm and simultaneously punched straight ahead at her nose. There was a satisfying crunching sound as his fist connected. Don didn’t leave his fist out there long, but snapped it back in time to block the punch she threw at the right side of his head. If he’d been slower, Brigit’s right-left combination would certainly have knocked him senseless; the woman was certainly powerful. He brought his knee up and quickly snapped his heel into Brigit’s gut, pushing the two of them apart again.Brigit’s nose was bleeding profusely, and she wasn’t smiling any more. Don had to admit that this bout wasn’t turning out as playfully as he’d hoped. He thought he’d give the sister a moment to wipe some of the blood off her face, but she came at him again. This time, she tried to close faster and punch straight at him. Don dropped low, under her reach and hit her in the side again, this time much harder. They passed each other and turned, but Brigit took the opportunity to swing her fist back-handed at Don’s head. He only pulled back far enough to take the blow on his cheek. The force of the impact knocked him to the side a bit and he tasted his own blood.Brigit came at him quickly, and Don had to backpedal and block furiously to avoid getting seriously hurt. Finally he was able to strike upward with the heel of his hand at Brigit’s chin. Her head snapped back and she stumbled backward. Don sprang forward, taking two steps and then was high in the air, his foot snapped around with blinding speed and Brigit’s head twisted to the side. Don and Brigit landed on the ground at the same time, he lightly on his feet and she heavily on her back. As the crowd of women cheered in spite of themselves, Don knelt quickly to make sure that Brigit was still breathing. Nicole hurried up to check as well.Before they could say a word to each other, Brigit opened her eyes and said, “Damn! That was fast.”Don smiled down at her, touched his cheek which was already red and starting to swell, and said, “It was an honor, ma'am.”“Next time, I’m going to kick your ass, you know.”“I’ll look forward to it,” he grinned.“Enough!” a familiar voice barked over the hubbub at the gate.Don looked up to see that the beautiful sister who had been talking to him from the wall had come down to the gate. Since she was smart enough to lead this group of strong-willed women, Don figured she must realize her predicament. If she had the other women attack Don she would appear weak, even if they succeeded in defeating Shelonda and him, which some of them must now be thinking was no sure thing. If she handed over Toshia she would appear weak. If she just shut the gates on them and let them go away she would appear weak. In fact, if she did anything other than fight him she would appear weak and her authority would be undermined. Bullies were so easy to manipulate, Don thought. Of course, she must now see that there was a very good chance that she would be beaten by Don, which would be no less a disaster, at least from her perspective.She came out in front of the small crowd of women, wearing a metallic breast plate that still managed to show off some cleavage, a skirt of chainmail, metal greaves and bracers. Her midriff was impractically bare, though Don certainly didn’t mind that. Her jet black hair had now been pulled back into a long ponytail. Don thought she was staggeringly beautiful, and the haughty attitude only made her more appealing for some reason. In her hand was a gleaming long sword in particularly good condition.“You fight well for a man,” she sneered.Don, who had stood up, bowed a little in acknowledgement.“I give you the opportunity to go in peace.”“We will gladly do so if you return our friend to us,” Don answered.“We will not give you what is rightfully ours.”“Rightfully yours?” Nicole interjected indignantly.“Hush,” Don said quietly. Then, back to the leader of the Sisterhood, “We will not leave without her.”“Very well,” she nodded. “I will make you submit to me, or you will die.”“Or you will submit to me,” Don smiled easily.“I do not submit to men,” she spat.“Not to men, perhaps, but you will to me.”She scowled at him angrily, obviously unused to such impertinence. Finally she said, “I will not fight you here; the ground is littered with your sparring partners. Come inside and fight me in our courtyard. No one but me will harm you.”Don nodded his acceptance, and turned to take his staff back from Shelonda, who took the opportunity to say, “I don’t know, Don, she looks mean.”“Yeah, she does, doesn’t she?” he grinned.As the three of them approached the gate the sisters made way for them, and Nicole said, “Just remember, I don’t have any bandages big enough for sword wounds.”They were led to an open area inside the castle where the sisters obviously worked out and practiced with their weapons. Some of the sisters and some smaller, obviously less assertive women quickly dragged various bags and targets out of the way, clearing the space for the impending duel. The other sisters climbed up on ledges and walls around the courtyard to make sure they had a good view. Don noticed that Brigit and Wanda were able to come in and take their places on a crumbled section of wall. There were a number of doorways leading into the courtyard, and, opposite the point where they’d entered, a set of broad stone stairs led to another open area, where a bunch of chairs were arranged.As soon as everything had been cleared from the area sufficiently, the leader of the sisters took her place near the center of the courtyard, and said, “If you need a sword, Brigit can lend you hers.”“No, that’s alright; I wouldn’t want to take a chance on cutting that beautiful body of yours,” Don smiled easily, as if he was flirting with someone at the local coffee shop.“I assure you I have no such reservations about cutting yours.”“I think that’s a lie… What’s your name, by the way?” Don began to slowly walk toward her across the open ground, his staff in his right hand.“Daphne,” she snapped. “What do you mean 'you think that’s a lie’?”“Well, you might just be mistaken, but I’m pretty sure you don’t really want to hurt me.”“Oh,” she laughed, “you’re quite wrong.”Don shook his head a little, and said, “No, I don’t think I am. I think you’re starting to think it would be nice if I beat you and carried you off somewhere and ravished you.”“How dare you!”“I’ll bet it’s been a very long time since you were well and properly ravished.”“What in the world makes you think I’d have the slightest interest in being ravished by anyone like you?”“The fact that you’ve let me get this close to you,” Don smiled. He was only a foot away from her. Close enough to see her blue eyes quite clearly enough to read the surprise and then anger in them.“You bastard!” she hissed and leapt back, simultaneously bringing her sword up and around in a blinding arc.Don laughed as he skipped back, temporarily out of range. Daphne followed though, spinning her sword in a furiously fast series of arcs in front of her.“That’s fancy,” Don nodded, “but I can do it too.” He began to spin his staff in a figure-eight motion covering his front and sides.Snarling, Daphne leapt in and swung, counting on her steel blade to cut or bash its way through Don’s screen. Instead the sword glanced off, and Don effortlessly reversed the staff’s direction to hit Daphne’s exposed side. As before, the staff’s enchantments imparted greater force than the momentum Don provided would indicate. Cursing under her breath, Daphne snapped her blade around in an arc aimed directly at Don’s head. Twisting quickly, Don brought his much lighter weapon up in time to block the strike, catching the blade in the middle of the staff between Don’s hands.There was the briefest pause when it was clear to Daphne that her sword should have broken the staff. Don smiled and said, “Yeah, that’s not going to happen, my dear.”“Is your head unbreakable?” she asked, and then quickly snapped her blade around, over her head, to slash at Don from the opposite side. Don blocked this easily, though the edge of her sword was only inches from his scalp. Apparently unconcerned, Don let Daphne wear herself out with a series of strong, fast cuts that he blocked almost casually.When it seemed that she might be slowing down, but before she could change her tactics on her own, Don changed his. He dropped low, into a proper low stance, letting her sword whistle by high over his head, and drove the end of his staff hard into Daphne’s belly. He followed this by sweeping the staff at her shapely legs. He managed to catch one and threw it out from under her. Off balance from this double assault, Daphne stumbled backward. Don pursued her, pressing his advantage. It was Daphne’s turn to retreat and parry. Three times Don managed to hit her, once more in the gut, once hard across the arm, leaving a bright red mark, and once a glancing blow to the head, which left a slight gash and a smear of blood.This last hit seemed to irritate Daphne more than the others and she launched into another enthusiastic offensive, which was actually rather successful. She managed to leave a shallow cut along Don’s left shoulder and actually achieved a solid hit on Don’s right shin, which would have crippled him if he hadn’t been wearing his shin guards, fresh from the Wizard’s wardrobe. Pausing slightly in surprise or anger, Daphne let Don get close enough that he struck out with the heel of his hand, hitting her hard in the center of her chest just above her chest plate where it showed off her cleavage. Daphne gasped and stumbled back again, this time backing up until she tripped a bit on the steps at her back.To her credit, Daphne recovered quickly, stepped up on the stairs, and had her sword at the ready in the second it took Don to launch his next offensive. He drove her up the stairs until she was on the level with the chairs. He heard the sisters clamoring behind him to keep the fight in view. There was a brief exchange during which the tip of Daphne’s sword scratched over the surface of Don’s chest armor, Don’s staff cracked Daphne’s right thigh hard enough to make her cry out and then to favor that leg, and a sword blow which was deflected by Don’s bracer scored a bloody wound on the back of his left forearm. Don seemed not to notice the two wounds he had sustained, and continued to drive Daphne back toward the chairs behind her. When she came up against one she had to devote a minute bit of attention to keeping her balance and maneuvering around these obstacles, and this minor distraction provided Don with the chance to strike her right wrist hard enough to make her drop her sword. As the blade clattered to the stone floor, Don dropped his staff, and closed in.Kicking the chair behind her away, Daphne was just barely able to twist aside to avoid the kick Don aimed at her midsection. She got her hands and guard up fast enough to deflect the series of blows he aimed at her head, and then gave him a fast jab which connected with his brow just above his left eye. Moving in, pushing her back further, Don ignored the blood that ran down past his eye, and threw a furious combination of punches and knee strikes at Daphne.Then, suddenly, Daphne was falling backward into a big hole in the floor that Don had only barely noticed. A bit surprised, he still managed to catch her right wrist, but, rather than allowing him to catch her fall, this only meant that he was pulled down with her.Together they landed on what seemed to be a very large, thick mattress. Don landed on top of Daphne, though he was able to brace himself on impact so that he didn’t crush her too much. There was a moment when he was able to take in the surroundings – there were bars around the mattress, surprised, naked men looking in at them from the other side, a battered old mirror, and apparently freshly laundered red sheets – before Daphne began to struggle to push him off her. Don was done playing with her, though.He caught her beautiful throat in his left hand and squeezed just a little. Looking down into her livid face, he smiled and said, “Now, that’s enough. I won and you know it.”Daphne spat at him, and he tightened his grip a bit. Don shoved his leg between hers and used his position and leverage to push her strong thighs apart. Reaching down with his right hand, he pushed his palm up along the inside of her leg, under her chainmail skirt. Sure enough, when he got there, he found her already very wet.Don chuckled a little and a drop of blood from his forehead dripped onto her cheek. As he stroked her moist lips, she continued to struggle but not very convincingly – at least not to Don or to her. He smiled and asked, “Still going to say you’re not interested?”“I goddamn hate you!” she insisted. Then Don pushed his fingers up inside her and she groaned a little in the bottom of her throat.“I don’t think that’s the same thing,” Don smirked as he began to work his fingers in and out of her, cupping his hand over her sex, palm rubbing against her clit. He was aware that the men were watching them and that the sisters had gathered around the opening through which Don and Daphne had fallen. What they saw was a combination of Don pinning Daphne to the mattress while he roughly handled her and Daphne sort of struggling while clearly responding to his touch on her.“You’ve fucking ruined everything, you bastard,” she breathed through clenched teeth.“Do you want me to stop?”“Would you stop if I said yes?” she scowled.“No.”Daphne closed her eyes again and let a tremor of pleasure pass over her. So quietly that only Don could hear her, she said, “Good.”Don pushed his thigh up between her legs, taking the place of his hand against her crotch. As he fumbled at his pants to push them and his cup down to free his already half hard cock, Don leaned down and kissed Daphne. Shocked, she first let him kiss her, then she began to respond, and then she remembered herself and bit at his lip, drawing a bit more blood. Don just laughed and shoved her back into the mattress with the hand around her throat. He knew full well that he wasn’t exerting anywhere near enough force to actually hold her down if she really wanted to get out from under him.Then, using his legs and his right hand, Don shoved Daphne’s legs apart and settled between them. He shoved her metal skirt up, took his now very hard cock in hand and pushed it down between her legs. Don felt her warm, wet lips embracing his head and then he pushed himself slowly into her. As he filled her tight pussy, he leaned down and said, “You’re mine now, Daphne.”“I still hate you,” she growled even as she was reaching down to grab his ass and pull him into her.“Say it,” he said.“I’m yours now,” she breathed, “you bastard.”Laughing, Don shoved in the rest of the way, feeling his head hitting her cervix. He rocked there for a moment inside her and pressed against her, before pulling almost all the way out and then driving in again. After several such long, deep thrusts, he felt her hand slipping around his neck and then holding the back of his head. Daphne pulled him down to her and kissed him, not grudgingly but passionately, hungrily. They were kissing and biting at each other as his cock slipped in and out of her fiery pussy. Don maintained this steady, slow, deep fucking until he felt Daphne clenching and squeezing on him, gasping around his tongue and lips as she came long and hard.Don pulled back a bit, looking down at her and asked, “Who else has ever beaten you?”“No one,” she answered proudly.Don began to fuck in and out of her again, and said, “So there’s no reason you should ever bow down to anyone but me, is there?”She smiled up at him, and for the first time the smile seemed completely without malice, “No, there certainly isn’t.”“I’m glad we had this little chat,” he chuckled and began to pump in and out of her with increased vigor. Daphne wrapped her long, strong legs around him and pulled him in closer. Don commenced fucking her hard and fast. He had promised her ravishment and that’s what he was delivering. Claiming her body as the rightful prize in their fight, Don took her as his own, pushing himself into her with all the energy he had used to best her in combat. Daphne now gave no appearance of anything but enthusiastic participation. No one watching could have any doubt that she was enjoying every moment of the fucking Don was giving her. When she cried out with her second orgasm, Don felt his own spilling over. He thrust deep into her and filled her with his cum, shuddering and trembling as he spewed his seed deep inside her, claiming her in as intimate a way as he could think of.When Don finally stopped coming, and had caught his breath, he began to look around a bit for the first time since he had begun taking Daphne. Before he could get a good look, though, she pulled his head down and gave him a brief, passionate kiss. When he pulled back to smile down at her, she whispered, “Thank you.”“My pleasure,” Don smiled warmly at her. For a fleeting moment, he thought it would be fun to stay here with this Amazon queen and rule this little corner of the forest. Then he remembered what he could never fully forget – the need to find Toshia. Withdrawing from Daphne’s warm, wet embrace, Don sat back on his haunches. A burst of applause from the men on the other side of the bars around them surprised him. His first instinct was to grin and bow, but he recalled the dynamic he had no interest in undermining and scowled at the men imperiously, and said in a commanding voice, “Don’t think any of you have earned the right to disrespect this woman, your mistress.”The applause died off immediately.Minotaur EncountersDon stood up, tucked himself back into his pants, and rearranged his clothing. Only now, seeing Daphne’s own disheveled and battered state, did he remember that he was covered in sweat and blood. He was about to ask how they were supposed to get out of this room, when a rope ladder was dropped down from the open ceiling.When they climbed up to rejoin Shelonda, Nicole and the sisters, Don was unsurprised to see that the women were succumbing to the tendency to friskiness that ruled this world. Women were making out and fondling each other all over the place. None of it was particularly intense, though, and the reemergence of Don and Daphne was noticed at once. Very quickly all the playing ceased, and the sisters disentangled themselves. Brigit, her face still bloody from her nose, came forward, nodded to them and promptly dropped to one knee, bowing her head. Not quite at once, and sometimes a bit grudgingly, the rest of the Sisterhood took a knee around Don. Only Daphne, Nicole and Shelonda didn’t explicitly kneel to his authority.“You honor me by your submission, sisters,” Don said in a loud voice. “You have fought well and there is no shame in this defeat.”Shelonda stepped up and handed him his staff. Don smiled at her and then turned to Daphne and said simply, “Our friend.”Daphne nodded and said to Brigit, “Go fetch the pup.”Brigit got up at once and went, while Don had to suppress a smirk and a chuckle. He tried to be serious as he asked Daphne, “The pup?”Daphne nodded, “That must be your friend. We didn’t bother asking her name. You have to earn your place here, and she needed to be … house broken.”Don couldn’t help laughing at this. Then he asked, “So, how’s that going for you?”Daphne smiled and began to answer when Brigit came back much sooner than expected. The blonde was followed by a naked waif of a brunette who seemed rather distraught.Brigit didn’t say anything until she came close enough to Don and Daphne that what she said wouldn’t be overheard by more than a few people. Then she whispered, “She seems to have run away.”“Run away?” Daphne seemed confused at the very possibility.“This girl was coming to find me,” Brigit explained. “Apparently .Toshia climbed out a window some time before Don arrived.”Don smiled broadly. I should have realized Toshia wouldn’t need to be rescued.Daphne saw his smile and said, “There is reason for concern. Your friend is no fighter and there is some danger in the woods.”“What kind of danger?” Nicole asked.Daphne didn’t answer immediately, but said to Brigit, “Get everyone who isn’t injured organized into search parties.” Then, once Brigit had nodded and turned away, Daphne said to Don and the others, “There is a dangerous creature that lives in the forest. We call it the Bull.”Chapter 13The Bull: Toshia has charms to soothe the savage beast.Toshia had almost no experience with large animals. She hadn’t grown up on a farm or anything. All she could think was that she shouldn’t make any aggressive or fast moves. She was glad she didn’t have a red cape or anything, but then realized that she didn’t even know if that made any sense. Maybe bulls just had poor vision so bullfighters used the bright color to draw their attention. Of course, it was likely that none of this really mattered, since, clearly, this was no ordinary bull.Sure, it had the head of a dark brown bull, with large, dangerous looking horns. Its big dark eyes were watching Toshia carefully. It had a thick bovine neck, covered with proper bull fur… or was it hair on cows? At the shoulders though, everything changed. From there on down, well, until the thighs, the Bull had the body of a big, muscular man, also dark brown, though hairier than she had ever seen a black man’s body. His thighs started out human, but transitioned strangely into the legs of a sturdy bull, complete with hooves. How he managed to balance effectively on those feet was a puzzle she set aside for the moment.Toshia held still as the Bull, or, more properly, the Minotaur, took a few steps toward her, moving further into the sunlit clearing. Toshia was not surprised to see that it had a large cock between its legs. She guessed that the Minotaur was two meters tall at the shoulder, but couldn’t work out exactly how tall it was altogether, counting the head and horns, particularly since the broad neck bent forward. It had very broad shoulders and superb musculature to support that heavy cranium and those big horns.It looked at her carefully, perhaps wondering why she didn’t run off. Toshia was wondering that herself. As it looked at her, its hand moved to its cock. Toshia’s eyes followed the motion, and noticed that he was getting hard looking at her naked body. She caught herself smiling at the thought, and wondered if there were any she-Minotaurs in the neighborhood. Maybe that’s why he’s got a bad reputation, she thought. She decided to try communicating with him.In her sweetest voice she said, “Have you been chasing the girls with that big cock of yours?”The Minotaur blew a little air out of its nose, as if it was laughing, and then Toshia was sure he nodded his big head a little.She decided, or decided to assume, he wasn’t going to charge her and kill her, so she stood up. She considered the creature’s now hard sex. It was as thick as the Player’s, but not quite as long. The sight of it was already making Toshia’s pussy wet.“I’m not going to run away,” she said.The Minotaur cocked his head to the side, as if he was trying to work out what Toshia was up to.Moving slowly and carefully, Toshia stepped across the little stream and approached the big male, who towered over her. She found herself unmistakably aroused at the Minotaur’s undeniably masculine physique and generous equipment. After her time with the satyrs she was well past thinking of these human-animal hybrids from classical mythology as being too alien for sexual congress. In spite of Nina’s concerns he didn’t seem in the slightest bit like a predator in any meaningful sense. He looked down at her with those deep brown eyes, and Toshia tried to imagine what he was thinking. If he’s like everything else around here, she thought, the XYZ has him completely horny.“What about it, big fella,” she said in her soft voice, “have all the girls been too afraid of you to help you out with that?”The Minotaur snorted what she took to be affirmation.Toshia reached out and ran her hand lightly over his chest. The hair was surprisingly soft, and his muscles were hard under his flesh. She moved her hand up to caress the sinews of his big neck, then down along his firm bicep. When she reached his big hand, she lifted it, a little surprised at how heavy it was. Toshia brought it up to her face and brushed her cheek against the furry back of the hand, and then placed it on naked breast. The Minotaur breathed in and began to caress her with a surprisingly gentle touch. Toshia had been a bit worried that he would be too rough and strong for her, but he seemed quite capable of controlling himself, at least for now.As her body quickened under the bull-man’s touch, Toshia reached out and up to trace her fingertips over the end of his large prick. Due to his greater height, the base was as high as her upper belly, and the length put the head about level with her collarbone. She bent her head down and kissed the tip of it. She reached up with her other hand and began to move both hands up and down his length. She couldn’t get her fingers around it entirely, but she did her best. In any case, she loved having the hard shaft of flesh in her grasp. Toshia began to kiss the head repeatedly, and then opened her mouth wide to get it past her lips. She bobbed her head a bit on him, enjoying having the meaty organ filling her mouth. Given her new-found mission to see how much she could do with her body, Toshia was quite determined to get this beautiful thing inside her. Her hands moved down to caress his big, full balls as she ran her tongue over his cockhead’s slit. She found some salty-sweet precum there and smiled happily up at those big brown eyes.“It sure is big,” she said, “and so hard. Do you want to fuck me with it?”The nod was unmistakable this time.Toshia laughed and said, “Good, but you have to promise to be gentle with me. You can do that, can’t you?”He nodded again.“OK, but how are we going to do this?” Toshia looked around the clearing. There was a low rise that looked like it might be of use, but Toshia thought the best option was probably the simplest. She looked around for something she could stand on. She saw a good sized rock near the stream and said, “Can you pick that up and put it over there near that tree?”The Minotaur snorted, almost derisively, and quickly moved over and picked up the big rock as if it was a big bag of groceries. He took it over to where Toshia stood pointing.“Put it right here,” she said. When it was in place, she stood on it, facing the tree. She was about a foot higher now. Toshia leaned forward, bracing her hands on the sturdy tree trunk. The rock was big enough that she could spread her feet out on it some, which she then did.Toshia looked over her shoulder and said, “How’s that?”As if he couldn’t believe his luck, the Minotaur carefully reached out to touch Toshia’s naked butt. When she didn’t scream or run away, he moved in closer, and she felt his thick cock against the crack between her cheeks.Toshia pushed back against him, looked over her shoulder and said, “Well, don’t keep a girl waiting, big fella.”There was another low bovine snort, and then she felt him pushing himself down between her legs. He must be bending his knees to get the angle right, she thought, and then the big, fat head was pressed against her eager and very wet lips. Then he was pushing into her, and she felt like it was too much for her to take, but only for a moment. Then all Toshia could think was how good it felt to have her pussy filled with that thick cock! She pushed back against him, making the Minotaur completely fill her.“God, that’s good!” she exclaimed.His big, broad hands grasped her around the waist, almost closing around her, and he began to work in and out of her.“Yes, that feels so good!” Toshia almost yelled. “Fuck me!”The Minotaur was soon grunting as his massive phallus plundered Toshia’s tight, wet pussy. She felt his hot breath on the top of her head. For a moment Toshia imagined the scene as if someone else were seeing it – her tiny body being fucked by this huge thing with a bull’s head. She would have reached down to play with her clit, but she needed to keep both hands on the tree to keep her balance. She wished there were someone there to see this preposterous and incredibly hot scene.“Now that looks like fun!” said a familiar voice from off to Toshia’s left.Toshia looked and was completely surprised to see Amy standing in the clearing watching her and the Bull. She was wearing a cute khaki explorer’s outfit, with a buttoned short sleeve shirt and cargo shorts. She was even wearing hiking boots. There were a lot of things crowding around in Toshia’s mind, none of which were adequate to the occasion of Amy’s sudden appearance. At the forefront, though, was Oh good! He didn’t get scared off. He’s still fucking me. So, Toshia decided to go with that thought and respond directly to what Amy had said.“Oh yeah, it is!” she grinned. “Are you just going to stand there and watch?”“That doesn’t sound like me, does it?” Amy laughed and quickly began to shed her clothes.Toshia turned her attention back to the vigorous fucking she was getting, and pushed herself back on the Minotaur’s stiff prick. She found herself eager to feel him filling her with his cum. Then she felt Amy’s hands on her body. The sexy blonde had stripped and was now between Toshia and the tree trunk, kissing Toshia’s breasts. Amy’s fingers moved down along Toshia’s belly, dancing lightly over the pink and red scrapes from Toshia’s descent from the trees, and quickly began to play with her clit. In mere moments, Toshia was coming, crying out and shaking as waves of ecstasy washed over her. As she came, she continued to push back against the Minotaur’s hard body. Then, when she was coming down, she felt that beautiful cock inside her swelling even more and then it was pumping hot, sweet cum up inside her.“Oh god, yes, yes,” Toshia moaned and then began to come again. She sagged between Amy and her Minotaur lover, tears running down her cheeks and a happy grin plastered on her face.“Wow,” Amy breathed as she hugged Toshia’s naked and sweaty body to her full breast. “Can I have a turn?”Toshia laughed and said, “I’m sure he’d like that.” She looked over her shoulder, saying, “How about it, big fella, do you want to fuck my pretty friend here?”The large, horned head nodded emphatically. The Minotaur immediately pulled out of Toshia with an audible sucking sound.“Hey, hey!” Toshia cried. “Take it easy there! We’re not going to run away on you, and it’s just rude to abandon a girl so abruptly.”The Minotaur made some almost articulate sounds that Toshia chose to interpret as an apology.Amy was helping Toshia keep her balance as she stepped off the fucking-stone, when Toshia saw that there was what looked like a fancy, large area rug in the clearing, with what looked like a back pack or satchel on it. She went ahead and asked, “What’s that?”“Oh, that’s the flying carpet,” Amy said. “The Wizard lent it to us so we could come rescue you.”“Um, okay. Where’s everyone else, then?”“They’re at the castle. Don’s fighting the sisters – that’s the right word, right? Don’s fighting them to make them release you,” Amy explained.Toshia laughed, “Of course he is.” She was suddenly both worried about Don’s safety and charmed by his foolhardy attempt to be the dashing hero. A number of ideas suggested themselves to her in fairly quick succession, but the one that seemed most pertinent was that there was pleasure to be attended to here in the forest. “Can you make that thing hover in place?”When Amy answered that she was pretty sure she could, Toshia gave her directions and soon the carpet was floating at just the right height and Amy was lying on her back upon it, with her butt on the edge and her legs spread.Toshia, still standing on the ground, leaned in and ran her tongue over Amy’s exposed pussy.“Mmm, delicious,” Toshia pronounced, “and already very wet. Want me to go down on you, or have our friend fuck you?”“Oh, can’t I have both?” Amy asked. She was already running her hands over her tits, squeezing and pulling at her hard nipples.“Can you wait, boy?” Toshia asked over her shoulder with a smile. She took the Minotaur’s snort as a “yes” and promptly bent back down to run her tongue up between Amy’s moist lips, scooping up the sweet nectar with the end of her tongue.“Oh, that feels so good,” Amy murmured.Toshia lapped her tongue over Amy’s clit, making the woman shudder and whimper. Toshia began to lick at Amy’s clit while moving her hand up so that she could push two, then three fingers up inside her pussy. Knowing that the Minotaur’s cock was easily as big around as her hand when it was squeezed together, Toshia decided Amy could do with the full treatment. Toshia kept licking Amy’s clit as she worked her fourth finger into her wet and grasping pussy. Amy gasped and shuddered, but relaxed her vagina to accept the extra intrusion, and even pushed back, encouraging Toshia.The floating carpet held its position well, Toshia thought, as she fucked her four fingers in and out of Amy’s cunt. Licking steadily at the clit in front of her, Toshia withdrew her fingers, clustered them together with her thumb and proceeded to push into Amy’s pussy until her entire hand was inside the beautiful woman, who was now writhing on the carpet, clutching her breasts and moaning aloud. Toshia kept pumping her hand in and out of Amy, whose juices were flowing freely, running slowly down Toshia’s arm. All the while, Toshia continued licking and now sucking at Amy’s clit. Toshia now realized that she wanted to be fisted by Amy, Shelonda or Nicole in the very near future – maybe they could take turns! Then, Amy was coming, loud, long and hard. Toshia held her hand still, deep inside Amy’s clenching vagina, and sucked on her clit as Amy enthusiastically and vocally rode out her intense orgasm.When Amy collapsed back down on the carpet – her full breasts rising and falling as she caught her breath – Toshia slowly withdrew her sopping, slippery hand, turned to the Minotaur, and said, “She’s all yours, big fella.”The Minotaur, whose erection had never done more than slightly subside, moved forward quickly to take Toshia’s place between Amy’s thighs. Amy smiled up at him as he pushed the big, fat head of his phallus slowly into her waiting pussy.“Oh, yes!” Amy said with a grin. “That feels great! Fuck me with that big cock!”The Minotaur didn’t hesitate, and proceeded to push the rest of his massive organ into Amy’s willing pussy. The carpet didn’t budge as he began to fuck steadily in and out of her. Amy encouraged the Minotaur with a steady stream of happy grunts and moans.Toshia clambered up on the carpet, got on her hands and knees and gave Amy a long, deep kiss, sharing the sweet taste of pussy. Toshia loved the sight of Amy’s nice round tits jiggling back and forth as she was fucked steadily. She moved to get her mouth on one of those luscious boobs, but Amy stopped her, saying, “Sit on my face, Toshia. I want to lick you.”More than happy to oblige, Toshia quickly straddled Amy’s head, facing the Minotaur so she could watch him fucking Amy. She lowered herself down until she felt Amy’s mouth and tongue on her pussy and clit. Amy proceeded to lick the Minotaur’s cum out of Toshia, while her chin pressed against Toshia’s clit. Wriggling a little in delight, Toshia noticed that the Minotaur’s horns were just over her head, and just the right distance apart… She reached up and took hold of them, using them to hold herself in place over Amy’s mouth. In this way the three of them formed a triangle, connected at Amy’s mouth and Toshia’s pussy, Toshia’s hands and the Minotaur’s horns, and the Minotaur’s huge cock and Amy’s pussy. Like this they swayed and worked together, each of them getting closer and closer to orgasmic release.Toshia found the sight of that enormous cock sliding in and out of Amy to be incredibly erotic, in part because she was having a hard time with the fact that her own tiny little body had taken that thing in so wonderfully well. She swayed there, between Amy’s talented tongue and the Minotaur’s horns, watching Amy’s beautiful pale and perfectly curved body getting plundered by this mythical beast with its dark, monstrous cock, and remembered that that same thing had just a short while ago had fucked her as vigorous and filled her with its thick, sweet cum, which Amy now had so eagerly licked and sucked out of her.“Oh, fuck!” Toshia sighed. Then she cried out as she came again, pushing down on Amy’s mouth as the explosion of delight swept over her in intense, fiery waves. She held on to the bull’s horns as she shook and shuddered.Then Amy and the Minotaur were coming, moaning and grunting loudly in the clearing. Toshia managed to get off Amy’s face without taking her eyes off the image of the two bodies coupling in passionate carnal union. As Amy shuddered through the tail end of her orgasm, she moaned, “Oh, that was wonderful!”Toshia smiled down at her friend, and leaned down to give her a long kiss, enjoying the taste of herself on Amy’s mouth. After a moment, Amy sighed and Toshia looked down to see that the Minotaur had pulled out of Amy’s pussy. There was a long rope of white cum hanging between the head of his cock and Amy.“Yum!” Toshia exclaimed and quickly crawled to the edge of the carpet. She caught hold of the Minotaur’s hip and urged him closer. When he obliged, she sucked the head of his cock half-way into her mouth, simultaneously getting a mouthful of delicious cum and getting her face covered with the stuff. After sucking down several good swallows of jizz from the Minotaur’s cock, Toshia lowered her mouth to Amy’s messy cunt and began to suck and lick up every bit of Minotaur cum she could find. Amy happily encouraged Toshia, even to the point of gently rolling the both of them over into a 69, with Amy on top, so every drop of the mingled Minotaur’s juice and her own would run down into Toshia’s mouth and onto her face. Of course, Amy also took the opportunity to go back to licking Toshia, this time directly concentrating on her clit.While they were engaged with each other like this, they were very close to hanging off the edge of the floating carpet. The Minotaur, who apparently felt left out, took advantage of this situation and came back over to press the head of his big, brown cock between Amy’s legs, between Amy’s pussy and Toshia’s mouth. With a little help from Toshia and the Minotaur, Amy adjusted her hips so he could enter her again, while Toshia could continue licking Amy’s clit.Toshia lay there on her back, having her pussy and clit licked by Amy, who was being fucked from behind by a big man-bull, while Toshia was herself tonguing Amy’s clit and the underside of the beast’s hard shaft. It didn’t take much of this before Amy was coming again for the third time. Toshia followed soon after, gasping and moaning underneath Amy. Then, to Toshia’s surprise, the Minotaur was coming again as well. His cock swelled in front of her eyes and she watched as he pumped cum up into Amy. Of course, there wasn’t enough room for all that cum, so it spilled out around that big cock down onto Toshia’s face and into her eager mouth.She tried to catch it all, but when he pulled out of Amy, very slowly, a flood of the sticky, delicious stuff ran out into her mouth and all over her face. Laughing, Toshia did her best to lick Amy clean, but it was no use; there was just too much, and it was all over the place.Amy moved around so that she could help Toshia out, licking and sucking up as much of the cum as she could, or helping scoop it up for Toshia to slurp down.When they were as done as they were likely to get, the two women sat up and noticed the Minotaur was standing by, watching them. His cock was now, finally, deflated.“I like your friend,” Amy grinned. “Can we keep him?”“He certainly does have some good qualities, doesn’t he?” Toshia smiled. Then, as she hopped off the carpet, she asked the Minotaur, “Do you have something like a club? You know, a big stick you could use to knock things around.”He looked back at her in apparent confusion, so she looked around for a moment, found a good sized stick and showed him what she had in mind. He seemed to understand and headed off into the forest.“We better get cleaned up before he comes back with another hard-on,” Toshia laughed.As she dropped off the carpet, Amy said, “Oh, that reminds me, I have your clothes with me.”“Clothes,” Toshia said as she stepped into the cold water of the stream, “I remember those.”While they washed the sweat and cum off, Amy said, “I was supposed to just fly around the area out of sight for a while, and then go back to see if the others needed help, but then I saw you and your friend.”“Well, we better go see if we can help them out,” Toshia smiled. “Those women are bad asses and probably have Don tied up and whipped or something already.”By the time they had pulled their clothes on over their damp bodies, the Minotaur had returned, carrying what looked like the trunk of a small tree.“Can we leave that carpet here?” Toshia asked.

Who would be a cop? Not me. Especially after all the things we've been hearing about how disgusted they are with the pay offer that's landed on the table from the Government.  The government that was all pro-cop before the election. But now seems to be putting the screws on the police just as much as the last government did.  I was at the traffic lights the other day and there was a cop car next to me. And I remember looking at the two officers and thinking about the work they do while I waited for the lights to change.  I thought about how it must be really exciting at times. But that would probably only be now and then. Because, let's face it, a lot of the time it's probably pretty boring as well. And depressing.  And I thought about how it's one of the few jobs people do, where they can legitimately say that they can't assume they're going to make it through a shift without something happening to them.  With pretty much every other job these days, there are all sorts of health and safety precautions. Accidents still happen, of course. But if you're a cop, you've got no idea what's going to happen next.  And, as we've seen all too often, sometimes they don't make it home in one piece. Sometimes they don't make it home at all.  But something I didn't think about when I was sitting at the lights next to that patrol car the other day, was whether either of the officers inside might have a side hustle to help pay the bills.  I also didn't wonder whether either of them are turning to food banks. That's because I've always assumed that, because of the work they do and the danger they put themselves in at times to keep us safe, that they're paid pretty well.  And I have been shocked to hear differently in the past 24 hours, as the Police and their union have responded to the pay offer from the Government.  As Chris Cahill, from the Police Association, puts it: "We've got a Government that's made it very clear they want to get tough on crime.   "They're expecting police to step up to crack down on gangs, they're expecting us to increase our policing of youth crime, they're expecting us to lower the road toll."    But he says, at the same time as all these extra demands are being placed on cops, there are officers who are "struggling to pay rent, to pay their mortgage, to put food on the table".  Now you can probably say that about a lot of people. Most people. We're all struggling to varying degrees. But when your job is to keep every other Tom, Dick and Harry safe, you should be recognised and rewarded for that.  You might have heard Chris Cahill comparing what we pay our cops to what we people like social workers and the $20,000 pay gap after six years service.  He says the vast majority of officers are still constables after six years - so that's a lot of officers earning less than social workers.  And he made it very clear that he wasn't having a go at social workers and nurses. He's not saying they don't deserve what they're paid. He's just saying that it's nuts that police don't earn as much as those people. And I totally agree.  What's more, sometimes police end up doing the work of social workers with all the mental health callouts they have to respond to, don't they?  Chris Cahill says cops aren't allowed to go on strike and he thinks the current government —and other governments too— have taken advantage of that. Knowing they can't walk off the job. And I think he's spot on.  Think about it - it's the old squeaky wheel thing, isn't it? And, when it comes to pay talks, the ultimate squeaky wheel is a whole lot of striking workers out on the street with signs and megaphones and drivers tooting in support. That's the squeaky wheel.  The cops can't do that, so why would governments bend over backwards for them? They wouldn't. And they aren't. And the police, rightfully so, have had a gutsful. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Rhode Islander Ken Block, who twice ran for Governor and is a data specialist, was hired by the Trump campaign to prove instances of widespread voter fraud in the 2020 election.  However, though Block found some instances of voter improprieties and offers insight into how state's can improve their voter rolls, he found no allegations of widespread fraud to be true, and that Trump did in fact lose the 2020 presidential election. Support the show

Rightfully considering the person and character of God allows us to better see Him as worthy of praise – this can shape our hearts as we pray to Him. By Acknowledging God's Majesty and Holiness, Expressing Gratitude for God's Faithfulness, and Surrendering in Trust and Dependence we can prepare our hearts and minds to see God in awe. As Mick reminds us, all prayer is an act of worship.

Richard "RJ" Kedziora, co-founder of Estenda Solutions, dives into the inspiring world of digital health solutions, where innovative minds are not just developing technology, but also saving and improving lives. RJ shares his journey from early software development days to creating impactful healthcare technologies, highlighting the importance of understanding patient and provider needs. With a focus on people and process management, RJ's story is a testament to the power of technology in making a tangible difference in healthcare through human compassion and the drive to better lives. Guest links: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rjkedziora/ | https://estenda.com/  Charity supported: Save the Children Interested in being a guest on the show or have feedback to share? Email us at podcast@velentium.com.  PRODUCTION CREDITS Host: Lindsey Dinneen Editing: Marketing Wise Producer: Velentium   EPISODE TRANSCRIPT Episode 025 - Richard "RJ" Kedziora [00:00:00] Lindsey Dinneen: Hi, I'm Lindsey and I'm talking with MedTech industry leaders on how they change lives for a better world. [00:00:09] Diane Bouis: The inventions and technologies are fascinating and so are the people who work with them. [00:00:15] Frank Jaskulke: There was a period of time where I realized, fundamentally, my job was to go hang out with really smart people that are saving lives and then do work that would help them save more lives. [00:00:28] Diane Bouis: I got into the business to save lives and it is incredibly motivating to work with people who are in that same business, saving or improving lives. [00:00:38] Duane Mancini: What better industry than where I get to wake up every day and just save people's lives. [00:00:42] Lindsey Dinneen: These are extraordinary people doing extraordinary work, and this is The Leading Difference. [00:00:50] Hello, and welcome back to The Leading Difference podcast. I'm your host Lindsey, and I am so excited to welcome as my guest today, Richard "RJ" Kedziora, co-founder of Estenda Solutions, focusing on people and process management which also provides strategic technical direction, guidance, and innovative insights, creating digital health solutions that improve patient outcomes, reduce costs, increase efficiencies, and improve patient provider satisfaction. RJ received an MBA from Westchester University and a BS in Computer Science from Duquesne University, where he received the excellence in computer science award. RJ is a frequent podcast guest, has spoken at numerous technology and healthcare conferences, and has coauthored articles in technology and peer reviewed clinical journals. [00:01:37] Welcome to the Leading Difference, RJ. And RJ, I would love if you would start by telling us just a little bit about yourself and your background. [00:01:46] RJ Kedziora: Yeah, Lindsey, thanks for having me. It's a pleasure. I look forward to our conversation. My background is through software development. Graduated with a computer science degree back in, in the early nineties before web and mobile and internet. So crazy days. And came up through those software development racks. Started out programming, got into requirements analysis, understanding what a solution is about, project management, general management. And then in 2003, with a good friend, we were working with together at a large consulting company in the pharmaceutical space, we went off and started our own company called as Estenda Solutions and remain there today. We just hit our 20th anniversary, which is always crazy when I can talk about decades, but it has definitely been an interesting journey. So my day to day is, I think of it as a digital solution architect. So helping a mix of large companies and small companies, startups develop tools, technologies, algorithms, better ways of looking and dealing, handling data, to make a difference in the lives of people. [00:02:56] Lindsey Dinneen: Wonderful. That's incredible. So 20 years. Congratulations. That's no small task. . So I commend you for that. That's really exciting. I. Yeah. So how did the idea to start your own company come into being? Did you identify a gap basically in the market? [00:03:15] RJ Kedziora: It's something probably even early on as I was graduating from college, always in, in the back of my mind to make a difference, to go off and try something new and really drive what I wanted to do. Even before starting my own company, as I worked in various different roles, I'd be hired by a company, I'd come in with a defined role, and then I'd always just find a niche. They'd be like, "okay, where does this company need help? Where can I make the biggest impact?" [00:03:40] And that's how I went from software development into like more of the analysis and project management , 'cause I quickly realized software development, developing a digital product, it, you know, technology is important and you have to understand how to program and how to test, but it's very much about the people, the process, understanding what they're going through, and realizing those things. It was sort of a natural evolution of like, "okay, I need to strike off on my own and really drive projects and things like that with my talents and capabilities and now our team's talents and capabilities." [00:04:17] We were fortunate in those early stages to have a Congressional grant for the development of a diabetes disease management application for military healthcare. That's how we got our start. So we worked with people like Walter Reed Army Medical Center, the Boston VA, the Indian Health Services, which is responsible for the Native American population here in the United States. Still working with 'em 20 years later, which is crazy that we have 20 year clients-- bunch of other clients that we've been working with, 10, 11, 12 years a across the board. So, it's been enjoyable from that perspective. [00:04:53] And I always talk about, I've developed accounting systems, I've developed inventory management systems. And even a railroad car scheduling system, it's like, "Hey, great. We need to get that railroad from here to here. It's important!" You know, it's essential and the economy's important. But healthcare, there's that sense of giving back, of making a difference. [00:05:16] Lindsey Dinneen: Yes. Absolutely. Yeah, I, that is one of the things that I really enjoy about being in this industry is you're right all of those things matter that you could do with your skills, because obviously you have those skills and can use them in all sorts of capacities but in healthcare and med tech, it's this really great extra layer of feeling like you really are able to impact people's lives directly. And it, it just, it has a different sort of feel to it. [00:05:46] RJ Kedziora: Yeah. And our projects are typically on the R&D side, work, working with the R&Ds, working with academic medical centers, work with PhDs, with doctors, where they'll have an idea. It's like, okay, here's a different way of treating a patient with diabetes. A different way of looking at the data that you can collect around diabetes or other chronic conditions. I, I wear the Aura ring. It's there's a lot of data that's available there now. And so as we develop those solutions, it's one thing for us and the doctors, the PhDs, the corporations we work with to say, "okay, yes, this really works." But they, you know, they have to go to clinical trial. They have to go and do, they work in the real world. So we also have a couple PhDs on staff to help drive those discussions and do the planning around those clinical trials. [00:06:34] And ultimately, in certain situations, things then have to go to the FDA to be approved and validated. These days, there's a new terminology called digital therapeutics that we're getting heavily involved with. It's a relatively new term, probably 2017, 2018 that came around. And if there's probably 300,000 digital health applications out there. Systems, you know, some of which we've helped create over the years. But there isn't extensive clinical evidence that they work. There's some, but not extensive, and I think of it as the difference between, supplements and prescribed medications. And so there's lots of supplements out there. You can go to your CVS, your Rite Aid and pick them off the shelf, and there's some evidence they might work, but the evidence isn't exactly clear. [00:07:25] But then you go to prescribed medications, go through a very extensive, rigorous process of development of clinical trials, and then the FDA or other global regulatory bodies look at these and say, "okay, yes, this does make a difference." And that's the idea of digital therapeutics today is there are lots of digital health applications out there, but now people are taking these digital therapeutic applications: evidence-based, clinically validated, approved by regulatory bodies that can be prescribed by your doctor, by your provider. And more importantly than reimbursed by the insurance company. So making a difference. [00:08:05] You know, and we talk about health, healthcare, and being able to make a difference. There's not enough healthcare professionals out there, particularly in mental health. There's a mental health crisis in the United States. We just can't train enough people fast enough. Digital health is a way to approach that, to scale, to increase access and equity to these systems, to the care and treatment people deserve, and so that's the idea of digital therapeutics. They can get out there, provide this treatment, share the information with your provider, and make a difference. [00:08:38] Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah, absolutely. So what does it look like when somebody comes to you and says, "Hey, I have this idea for this app, for this software, whatever." And then how does it work when they start approaching you, and this is a brand new, never before , you know, project and you step alongside them. How does that work? [00:09:00] RJ Kedziora: Yeah, it is. It is a great question. And we work with a mix of Fortune 50 clients, so big customers, global customers, lots of people, processes, technology. We do happen to be ISO 1345 certified, which quite simply means we have a, well-developed quality management process of how we do software development, very template driven, process driven. It's like, here's how we're going to do it, and then we demonstrate that we do it. We get audited regularly by external third parties, by our clients. [00:09:32] But then we also work with startups who, in some cases don't really understand software and don't understand regulations and what's required to create one of those digital therapeutic applications. So when a customer does come to us in the, in those early stages, it's very exploratory. It starts out with prototyping understanding the problem in the domain space. One of the things that differentiates Estenda from a lot of other companies is we are going to provide the entire development team, software developers, QA from the ground up, educational training, medication training. So if you're working in diabetes or congestive heart failure or lupus, multiple sclerosis, the better the entire team can understand the condition, have empathy for the patient, can understand the provider, the care professional's journey about what they're dealing with and how they can care and treat that patient, the better off they're gonna be. [00:10:27] So it's those early stages of experimenting and playing and we start with, you know, black and white wire frame diagrams and really get those going and gradually build them up. And I think about it as you, you have a problem and you want to get across town as fast as you can from one end to the other, and you can walk. Great. Okay. But it's not very fast. Okay? I have this idea for a car. I can get across town really fast, but it's gonna take a long time to build that car and realize value. So, let's first build a skateboard. Very simple, can do it very quickly, provide value, get feedback, from the stakeholders, from the customers, from the patients, from the doctors, the nurses, whoever we're developing that application for. [00:11:15] And so you figure out the unknowns, you know, so what, aren't we sure? What areas are showing promise? So we build that skateboard and then it becomes a scooter with a handlebar, you know, okay, I'm getting across town faster. It's not the ultimate goal. But I can get there. And then you can build a simple motor on it,, and then you build a body around it and you progress gradually until you get to that car. But along the way, you're adding value very quickly, which is important. [00:11:47] Lindsey Dinneen: Absolutely. Yeah, that sounds like a really good process to work through. And I love your illustration. That's such a great way of capturing the essence of the process and the way that you go through all of that. So, I'm curious, have you always had an interest in and passion for computers, technology, software development, or is this something that evolved over time? [00:12:08] RJ Kedziora: Yeah, I was very fortunate. My parents were able to buy an IBM PC Junior when I was in probably seventh grade in the mid eighties. I went to a local parochial school. They had a computer lab, you know, as one computer in the classroom. But, for the eighties, that was phenomenal. And so I knew going into college that I wanted to do software development. A good friend had a Commodore 64, which is typically a gaming, and so I'd be over there and it's like, "okay, games are fun, but what can we make the computer do?" You know? So I was very early driven by what can I do and the possibilities of digital everything. [00:12:49] College, I really thought I was gonna go and get the PhD in artificial intelligence. Very much enamored with that idea. Ultimately as I got ready to graduate, I got offered a job and was like, huh, money and so that, that turned my, you know, immediate trajectory there. You know, I did start working in programming kind of thing, but always followed AI and things and applied those ideas and principles and what AI is, has evolved a lot over the years. We've developed some AI systems in the past, but you know, now when you look at them, they're really like rules engines, and think things of that nature. And they were considered AI at the time, but nowadays it's like, "okay, that really wasn't AI." [00:13:36] But you know, the idea is, and the principals were there, and one of my senior thesis projects was genetic algorithms and how do you apply the idea of genetic algorithms to solving computer problems? And that was at the early stages of the internet kind of thing, just as a browser were coming out. So that made research interesting 'cause you could even at that early stage reach out globally to people and seek ideas and thoughts and stuff like that which led me down that road. But fast forward 30 years now and AI is everywhere. It's all that, that the media can talk about these days. Rightfully so. [00:14:15] Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah, and actually that brings up a great question that I had for you, because I did notice on your LinkedIn, you do share a lot of articles about AI, and you're obviously very involved in that. How have those tools helped your work or how has it changed your work or whatnot? How do you feel about all of that? [00:14:33] [00:14:33] RJ Kedziora: It really comes down to data. That's the core of AI. In the past and today, you need data to be able to train the AI systems to do what they're capable of. And it's interesting, our journey as Estenda is, as I've been reflecting on it was one of data scarcity. You know, 20 years ago, getting data was the difficult challenge. In diabetes, it was typically finger sticks, and people would, you know, do it a couple times a day and EMRs were there. They existed. We were lucky working with government organizations that had them, the military, the VA had them. Now it's, you know, fast forward 20 years later, there's an overwhelming amount of data. So early on it was like, how do you make decisions with limited data? Now it's like, okay, how do you use all of this data and pick out the important, salient things to be able to make decisions on and drive recommendations, [00:15:29] And the same thing is true with AI today. As you're developing a system, you need a robust set of data to train the AI systems. The broader data that you have, the better off you're gonna be. Day-to-day. I think today, generative AI, you know, the Chat GPTs, the Bards, what everybody's really, the media is talking about are amazing. You need to know and understand how to use these tools today. And it's not so much where they are today because there are challenges, there are problems, you know, they make up stuff. It's called hallucinations. And so you do have to fact check what they do. It was interesting is I was sharing, we do a monthly all staff meeting kind of thing, and I was sharing my experience with chat GBT and one of the people on the call sort of googled, like, tell me about Estenda. And it made him the president of the organization kind of thing. It was like, he's a great guy, does amazing work us, he's not the person. And it was just one of the odds of that, in that moment, kind thing. It was like, yeah, that's not true. [00:16:34] Lindsey Dinneen: Right. [00:16:34] RJ Kedziora: So you do have to fact check it. But that's today and where we are. And so imagine where we're gonna be 10 years down the road. And Bill Gates said a long time ago, "Humanity overestimate what technology will be capable of in, in the 18 months, two years, underestimate where it's gonna be in 10 years." And I think about Estenda, if the iPhone didn't exist, Facebook didn't, Instagram, Twitter, X, none of these things existed when we started, and here we are a short 20 years later and the world's changing. In terms of AI now it's really an efficiency thing. And it's like, "okay, I need to do some blog posts." And yeah, I can sit there and come up with the blog, post ideas, but it's like "Hey, ChatGPT, gimme 10 ideas for blog posts," you know, and I might not like four of 'em. Okay, "gimme four more." I don't like this. "Gimme four more." [00:17:29] You know, and it's just, it's an efficiency thing. Even in healthcare, that's what we're seeing. So there are, a lot of, I think it's over 400 now, approved, FDA approved AI algorithms very much in the idea in the area of radiology and looking at images. That's by far the biggest use of . Today, if you have those images, you can train systems to recognize certain things, you know, whether it's breast cancer or diabetic retinopathy. You can train systems to recognize what you need to see in those images instead of a person looking at them all the time. So, again, you can scale much more effectively, which is nice. But in, in healthcare it's very much, it's that efficiency question. [00:18:09] Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah. [00:18:10] RJ Kedziora: It's like, okay, I know how to write a prior off letter for this patient, but that takes time. So have ChatGPT write the prior off letter. And then you as the physician, the trained professional, have to look at that and evaluate. And you can't just send it off. You do have to look at it, but you know, EMRs, there's a plethora of data in the EMR. Let the AI systems... [00:18:35] Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah. [00:18:35] RJ Kedziora: ...you know, surface what is important, is a challenge. EMRs is a general idea, are very much around capturing data for billing, not the best, usable experience. If you can use AI that's just listening in the room to then document that encounter, that provider's now not heads down on the computer typing, trying to make sure they get everything in and not looking at the patient and not paying attention to the patient. [00:19:02] Lindsey Dinneen: Right. [00:19:03] RJ Kedziora: It can reverse this kind of thing. It's like, okay, the doctor can now pay attention to the patient and look at that person and really understand their situation better and pick up on those cues of just their body language kind of thing, and not have to worry about typing away at the computer. And then there's a lot of duplication in clinical records. So it's like, let the AI systems get rid of that duplication, make it better. And then just, you know, enhance. And I saw an article, I think I posted about it, the idea of collaborative intelligence, but a lot of people are asking is, AI going to replace Doctors, software programmers, software developers, insert profession X, is AI gonna replace it? And then people are like, "AI is not quite there. AI makes mistakes. It has biases. AI Hallucinates." [00:19:50] I love my doctor, but my father has said over the years, " the doctor that graduates last in his medical school, what do they call him? Doctor!" You know, they're human. That, and that's what it amounts to. It's, they provide a great service, but they're human too. And they might not recognize everything. And so if we work collaboratively with the AI to balance that out we can improve overall care and treatment. So. [00:20:18] Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah, so a lot of potential for it, and I love your idea of using it for some of those more tedious, time consuming tasks and just giving you your first draft because it's not, like you said, it's not gonna replace the human. Let's look through this. But it can help. And if you're using it appropriately, there's a lot of good uses for it too. So, yeah. So, you know, there's a couple of things that I noticed from your LinkedIn profile I'd love to chat with you about. One of the things that stood out to me was in your headline, you mentioned Chief People Officer as being most important. So I would love if you would speak a little bit to that and why you feel that way. [00:21:00] RJ Kedziora: I can do a lot, but I can't do everything. So I, the people that work for us are very important. I can make an impact. A team can make a much bigger impact. A company can make an even a bigger impact. So that is, that's why they are important. I talk about family first a lot. And, we provide fully paid healthcare benefits for you and your family. You want to have that sense of safety, want people to feel that they can take risks, and do their best work kind of thing. And the better they feel, that emotional safety, that the better off we're gonna be as an organization. They'll be able to provide more value to that customer, be more productive, 'cause ultimately that's what it amounts to is we need to get software out the door. We have customers and clients that have needs and demands and we have to meet those, but you know, you have to balance that with life. So. [00:22:02] Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah, absolutely. And I love the emphasis on people first, and I'm, I'm wondering if that's something that, is that an ethos that developed over time for you as well as how did your leadership skills evolve? Because going from starting a business to then and then growing it, I mean, it's a whole thing. So, yeah, I'd love to hear a little bit about that. [00:22:24] RJ Kedziora: Yeah, it definitely has grown and evolved o, over the years. It there, there's this concept of being a 10x software developer, one person making the impact of 10 people. And that's somewhat of a myth, but there are people that are more productive than others. And the idea of empathy and understanding that other person's perspective and experience is what's driving to that next level to become that 10x developer. You're not developing for yourself. You're developing for the end user, but we embody it in, we have a professional development process, and the idea of helping others is embedded in that. [00:23:01] You'll see that we do one-on-ones, not as great, as frequently, as I would like. But we try and do those. But as part of our structured plan, we do a self-assessment and we ask everybody that question, "how have you helped other people?" as part of the goal process, "how are you helping others?" But even as you're developing in that day to day when you're writing code, "how is it helping you in the future understand what you're doing? How does it help the tester better test that software? How does it help the support person provide better support?" [00:23:37] So it's really thinking about how you're helping others along the way. And ultimately the whole company is driven by that of working in healthcare. But it starts at that bottom of every person. It's like, "how, what you're doing, helping the next thing?" So we try and constantly reemphasize that when we can. [00:23:54] Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah, that's a great approach. And so, and because that is so much the heart of your company and your people, I'm curious if there's any particular moment that stands out to you as you've gone along this journey, that kind of really reinforced, yes, this is why I am here doing this work. Is there anything that, or a series of moments, just things that really stand out as being a very sure "yes, this is correct" for you? [00:24:20] I [00:24:21] RJ Kedziora: Yeah. It, I would say it's more a series of moments, because as we've developed software and then it's used by the care providers or patients, we've constantly over the years, hear those anecdotal stories of "Hey, I was using your software, what you developed for us, and found this and helped this patient." There's a series of those, but then it even goes up, it bubbles up that we do those clinical trials and we've done five year NIH funded National Institutes of Health funded RO one study. So it's like a five year study to then demonstrate that the software we produced does make an impact kind of thing. [00:25:00] But even more importantly, as we're part of that process, we've had several customers put our names, our developers' names on patents, or as those articles have gone to clinical journals, peer review journals that our software developers and QA, other staff have been authors on those. That, that's just rewarding where, okay, yes, we are helping people, but then our customers are also recognizing how much of a part of this journey we are. You know, if you really know what you wanna do and have it, here's my 10 requirements kind of thing. We're probably not the company for you. Let's explore and create something together. [00:25:38] Lindsey Dinneen: That's really cool. So it's always a collaboration it sounds like with your clients. It's not just a one way or the other, them dictating to you or you dictating to them. It's this, let's figure out the best way for us to work together. [00:25:50] RJ Kedziora: Yeah, it says how do we add value? How are we, you know, we want to contribute. [00:25:56] Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah. That's amazing. Yeah. So, one other kind of random question. Based on your LinkedIn profile, when's your next triathlon? [00:26:04] RJ Kedziora: How much time do you have? [00:26:06] Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah. [00:26:06] RJ Kedziora: I, yeah, that's a whole 'nother podcast. [00:26:08] Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah, sure. [00:26:09] RJ Kedziora: I think I'm, I think I'm, I think I'm done for this year. I live in the Philadelphia area, the temperature's getting, yeah, temperature's getting a little colder and that type of thing. But, you know, take a little rest for a month or two before I get back into training. And, but there are definitely ones I do every year. There's one escape from Cape May, Cape May, New Jersey. You jump off the back of a boat, the ferry, into the ocean and swim to shore. I did escape from Alcatraz two years ago, which is interesting because they take you out in a boat, in, into the. And jump off the boat from Alcatraz and swim to shore. Always interesting kind of thing to, to do those, but it's very much-- it's interesting because my day-to-day at Estenda, my own company, and how I get involved in projects is 'cause I enjoy the challenge of it. [00:27:00] And in triathlon, yes, there, there's a definitely a physical aspect of training and, but it is also very mental to, and that's really what I think drives me in the sport of triathlon. It's like, "okay, I need to get up at 4:30 and go jump on the pool and swim for 45 minutes and then hop on a bike" time and time again. And I thoroughly enjoy it. But yeah, it is that mental challenge. I've done just pure marathons in the past and it's like, "okay, get to the next telephone pole. Get to that next half pot." It's that mental, keep pushing kind of thing is drives me. [00:27:34] Lindsey Dinneen: That's incredible. It just reminds me-- tangent very quickly-- it reminds me, I remember I was running a 10k with my husband and I'm not a runner, I don't claim to be, but I was doing this challenge for myself, and I just remember we, we were getting close and I was so exhausted and, you know, kind of miserable at that point. And he was like, "it's all downhill from here. It's all downhill." And I was like, "it's literally sloping up!" [00:28:00] RJ Kedziora: Yeah, but it's, you know, it's like, yes, for me, try, it's hard. It's difficult kind of thing. but I'm also good enough that I'm not out there it's like, for a a marathon, I can-- in the past it was like 3:20 for a marathon. [00:28:16] Lindsey Dinneen: Wow. [00:28:17] RJ Kedziora: But there are people out there that are five hours, six hours. I think that is so much harder, so much dedication for that individual to be out there for five hours. It's kudos to you for being out there for, you know, it's like, yeah. I'm not saying I, I have an easy time of it by any means, but I'm not out there for five hours and they did it. So I just, I'm astounded by those people and they're not on the couch. And I know I, I look to have a long lifespan and a long healthspan. I want to hit a hundred years, but with a good quality of life. And I have a couple friends that are in, still out doing that 5k at 70 years old, and they're like, "I won my age group! I was the only one in my age group..." but you weren't on the couch! Like you did it! And that's motivation to, to keep going out there as well. So hopefully I'll be that person. [00:29:10] Lindsey Dinneen: I love it. That's brilliant. Excellent. So, pivoting just for fun, but imagine you were to be offered a million dollars to teach a masterclass on anything you want. It can be in your industry, but it doesn't have to be. What would you choose to teach and why? [00:29:29] RJ Kedziora: Oh wow. It would probably be about health. [00:29:34] Lindsey Dinneen: Okay. [00:29:35] RJ Kedziora: Which, which combines sort of everything I do. The triathlon, the training, the fact that I'm in software development in the health field. It brings all of those things together. And just a lot of people don't know what they don't know. And so if I could impart that knowledge on more and more people, I think that would make an impact that would make a difference. So yes, I could teach a software development course on cybersecurity. Interesting.. I could teach one on AI. Yes, interesting. But if it, if you really just focused around the idea of eating better, moving. You don't have to do a triathlon, you don't have to do a 5k. And it's like park a little further away from the supermarket and walk. You're gonna be better off, have that longer lifespan, longer health span. So yeah, it's, if I have that million dollars and it is probably health in in general, which encompasses a lot. But yeah, it would be health. [00:30:37] Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. And then, how would you like to be remembered after you leave this world? [00:30:44] RJ Kedziora: Huh. Wow. Then I've made an impact and I've made a difference in, in some small way. I don't have to win the lottery, I don't have to be the billionaire kind of thing, but that, that I've made a small impact and, the lives of the people around me and hopefully a bigger audience through the work that I've done, that our company's done. And yeah, I've made a small difference and made a few people laugh. [00:31:12] Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I've already laughed today. So , you're succeeding. Excellent. And then final question, what is one thing that makes you smile every time you see or think about it. [00:31:26] RJ Kedziora: Family, I, that's, you know, wife. I have two daughters, 24 and 21, doing very well. Yeah, any chance I get to see them? Family. [00:31:36] Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah. [00:31:36] RJ Kedziora: And oldest of six. So you get to see them and their family kind of thing. Family's important, yeah. Yeah. [00:31:43] Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah. And you've mentioned that several times: family first and people first. So it's a running theme. . That's great. RJ, this has been so much fun. I really appreciate your time today and just thank you so much for joining us. We are so honored to be making a donation on your behalf as a thank you for your time today to Save the Children, which works to end the cycle of poverty by ensuring communities have the resources to provide children with a healthy, educational and safe environment. So, thank you so much for picking that, that organization to support and we just wish you continued success as you work to change lives for a better world. [00:32:24] RJ Kedziora: Thank you very much. This was a great interview. Thank you. [00:32:27] Lindsey Dinneen: Excellent, excellent, and thank you so much to our listeners for tuning in and if your feeling is inspired as I am right now, I'd love if you'd share this with a friend or two and we will catch you next time. [00:32:38] Ben Trombold: ​ The Leading Difference is brought to you by Velentium. Velentium is a full-service CDMO with 100% in-house capability to design, develop, and manufacture medical devices from class two wearables to class three active implantable medical devices. Velentium specializes in active implantables, leads, programmers, and accessories across a wide range of indications, such as neuromodulation, deep brain stimulation, cardiac management, and diabetes management. Velentium's core competencies include electrical, firmware, and mechanical design, mobile apps, embedded cybersecurity, human factors and usability, automated test systems, systems engineering, and contract manufacturing. Velentium works with clients worldwide, from startups seeking funding to established Fortune 100 companies. Visit velentium.com to explore your next step in medical device development.

After stopping by the Gilbert house to ruin Jenna and Alaric's relationship, Isobel convinces John that she's trying to help Elena. John is blinded by love and believes her, but Elena and Stefan are skeptical. Rightfully so, because Isobel immediately meets up with Katherine to tell her that she made a deal with Klaus to save Katherine's life in exchange for the doppelgänger and the moonstone. Katherine is of course all in for that plan, so she goes looking for the moonstone and finds it stashed in Damon's soap. After Elena's third kidnapping, Isobel reveals that she betrayed Katherine and that she was the doppelgänger Klaus wanted. Eventually, Elena and Isobel arrive at the cemetery where Isobel's tombstone is and Klaus's witch tells Isobel that her job is done and she's free to go. Though Elena gets to go home and live her life, she and Stefan realize that Klaus is letting her live for now because he knows Elena will just go along with the sacrifice when the time comes. Not all hope is lost though: while Isobel was kidnaping Elena and betraying Katherine, Damon and Jeremy were helping Bonnie harness the power of the witches that were burned in Mystic Falls, officially making Bonnie their secret weapon to kill Klaus.This week: Season 2 Episode 17 | Know Thy Enemy Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Dominos On The Come Up?: In these days of fast food surge pricing, an unlikely hero is on the come up. Dominos putting these fast food restaurants to shame value wise. Penn State Professor Monster: Penn State Professor Themis Matsoukas gets busted sexually abusing his dog and other lewd acts. Rightfully begs to be killed. Water Conspiracy: We learn from random gentlemen online that humans are actually not meant to drink water. Which of course leads to how to grow your penis. THE BEAR!, FUCK YOU WATCH THIS!, KANYE WEST!, 808S AND HEARTBREAKS!, PARANOID!, EPISODE 808!, MORE GOO MY ASS!, ASIAN TWINKS!, PU PU PLATTER FOR TWO!, CUM LAUDE!, ORLANDO!, HOLY LAND!, MCO CARPET!, UGLY CARPET!, GOOF!, AIRPORT MERCH!, HARRY REID1, MCCARRAN AIRPORT!, MICHAEL NORMAN WRIGHT MCCOY!, JACKSONVILLE TOM!, HAWAII TOM!, JASON CHRISTOPHERS!, NOCATEE FLORIDA!, NEW SMYRNA!, BUC-EES!, WAWA!, MERCH!, FAST FOOD!, VALUE!, PRICES!, DOMINOS!, PAN PIZZA!, CHEESY BREAD!, REHEAT!, TOTS!, WINGS!, SANDWICHES!, MCDONALDS!, TACO BELL!, PICKUP!, LITTLE CAESAR'S!, PAPA JOHNS!, ROUNDTABLE PIZZA!, BLAZE!, ORLANDO INFORMER MEETUP!, AFTER HOURS EVENT!, UNIVERSAL!, FOOD INCLUDED!, FLOP OVER!, DAISY'S CAFE!, FROZEN PIZZA!, HAGRID'S MOTORBIKE!, E.T. RIDE!, VELOCICOASTER!, MINION'S VILLAIN-CON!, SHANE GILLIS!, KILL TONY!, TOM SIMON!, INFLUENCER!, TIKTOK!, FBI AGENT!, CHEF ART SMITH'S HOMECOMIN'!, FRIED CHICKEN!, DISNEY SPRINGS!, MOONSHINE!, SQUEEGEE BOTTLE!, THEMIS MATSOUKAS!, PENN STATE!, PROFESSOR!, SEXUAL ACTS WITH DOG!, TRAIL CAMERA!, PUBLIC!, LEWD ACTS!, PUTTING THINGS UP HIS BUTT!, SOCKS AND SHOES!, BEASTIALITY!, GAY STAIRS!, BROWN STRIPE!, SHANE DAWSON!, TREE BRANCH!, LOLLIPOP!, CAR ACCIDENT KAREN!, HUGS NIGERIAN MAN!, FLIPS OUT!, BARENAKED LADIES!, DON'T DRINK WATER!, CONSPIRACY!, BLACK ISRAELITE!, TONGUE!, FRUIT!, VEGETABLES!, BRIAN REGAN!, YAHKI AWAKENED!, ORGANIC!, PENIS SHRINKAGE!, CHEMICAL CASTRATION!, ESTROGEN!, MICRO PLASTICS!, HARD PENIS!, TOWEL!, KEGELS!  You can find the videos from this episode at our Discord RIGHT HERE!

Most leaders who have found significant success in life have been faced with their inner critic. Join Coach Megan on this Powerhouse Podcast episode where she shares her expertise on how to evaluate your performance without being overly critical. Learn about ‘quick-fix' tips, self-discipline strategies, and ways to become a better leader to further level up your platform. Remember: criticizing yourself is simple, but pushing yourself to achieve through the mental obstacle is key!   Quotes:    10:46    Here are Coach Megan's quick fix “tips” for everyone…   18:42    What is the one thing leaders do to master self-discipline?   28:49    This is one step you need to take to start becoming a great leader…   For more free pageant coaching content, follow us on IG  www.instagram.com/powerhousepageantry  wwwinstagram.com/meganswansonrhodes www.youtube.com/@powerhousepageantry2675   If you want to place higher or win your pageant this year, and you're ready to work with us, click here to apply for a free call with Coach Megan to create your “Place Higher” strategy for 2024 and see if you qualify to work with the best coaches in the pageant world! https://sessions.powerhousepageantry.com/chat **PODCAST ESSENTIALS & GEAR I USE**  Blue Yeti Microphone https://amzn.to/3ZodLfr  Webcam https://a.co/d/8lKR6TA   Silver Yeti Glitter Wrap: https://amzn.to/3LiTSjR  Awesome Computer-Attached Light https://amzn.to/3P5WByh    As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.

How many families can brag about their kids being school teacher and 2 West Point graduates? NOT ENOUGH.

Abby moves in with her uncle and makes some startling discoveries before leaving with more than she arrived. Read the story on Erotica Lust. https://eroticalust.com/taking-back-what-rightfully-belongs-to-me My debut novel, ⁠My Wife and Girlfriend⁠ , is available for only $1.99 (along with two other books.) LIMITED TIME! Watch the book trailer and get more information about the special. https://eroticalust.com/my-wife-and-girlfriend

Minnesota Twins owner Joe Pohlad comments on payroll coming down; The Twins want to be the Tampa Bay Rays; The misconceptions from how much money the Pohlad family actually makes; What more did fans want from the Twins this offseason? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Minnesota Twins owner Joe Pohlad comments on payroll coming down; The Twins want to be the Tampa Bay Rays; The misconceptions from how much money the Pohlad family actually makes; What more did fans want from the Twins this offseason? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On this show join us as we talk about the support systems that help make indie games, updates coming to Super Cucumber and our first impressions of frenetic, roguelite twin-stick shooter Rightfully, Beary Arms.  Opening/Game Smalltalk 00:00 - 08:23 Special Thanks/Gratitude 08:23 - 12:55 Cucumber Updates 12:55 - 18:13 Rightfully, Beary Arms 18:13 - 56:06 Outro/Closing Thoughts 56:06 - End

On a recent weekend, New York City experienced a horrendous incident that has stirred up significant discontent. Patrick Hendry, president of the Police Benevolent Association in New York, revealed his strong disapproval of the actions of seven illegal migrants. These individuals mercilessly attacked two officers of the New York Police Department. Adding further insult to injury, one of these violent transgressors was later spotted on video, callously taunting the officers he had previously victimized. This incident has triggered significant demand for decisive action from city authorities. Amongst the discontented is the NYPD's Chief of Patrol, John Chell. Speaking with local media on Wednesday, Chell expressed his intense anger at the incident, labeling the miscreants as 'cowards'. He bemoaned the fact that these violent episodes are fuelled by a lack of tangible penalties for such criminal behavior in the city. Chell vividly described the disturbing event to the gathered reporters. 'An NYPD lieutenant and an officer were viciously attacked by eight people. They were cornered and subjected to attempted kicks to their faces. Four of the culprits were caught right there at the scene, and an additional suspect was captured later. Rightfully, these four individuals should presently be behind bars at Rikers, awaiting their court hearings' said Chell.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

21st January 2024

In this episode, Alex starts by worrying that a new series of court cases that have reached the Supreme Court may upend a decision known as Chevron USA v Natural Resources Defence Council. This decision granted executive agencies enough deference to make their own decisions and oveturning it could upend the administrative state. Next, Alex recommends a new book that discusses how the Claremont Institution and others have created a new generation of conservatives that not only support MAGA but are indoctrinated in it. Finally, Alex talks about the Iranian strikes on militant groups inside of Pakistan. Rightfully so, the Pakistani government is furious and some worry this is yet another sign of the region getting closer to a larger conflict. 

Rightfully so, many people are nervous to retire. They have been working for 40ish years and the thought of retiring sends shivers down their spine. Others are excited and can't wait to pull the plug. No matter which one you are, don't let anyone tell you the RIGHT way for you to retire. My best advice is there isn't ONE way to retire. There are many, many ways and what is right for one person may not be right for another. Take the time to research, ask questions, listen to podcasts and video's but make the BEST decision for you and your circumstances. And don't be scared to say "this isn't what I expected" and try something new. Don't be scared to go back to work! Don't be scared to say I wasn't ready and don't be scared to say this is GREAT! Please join our facebook group at www.facebook.com/groups/lifestartsatretirement

Full Hour | Today, Dom led off the Dom Giordano Program by offering updates on the continued pushback against Ivy League Universities after multiple leaders refused to condemn calls for genocide in front of Congress last week. Dom tells that Harvard has announced that they'll stand by President Claudine Gay after continued claims of antisemitism, now noting that there have been claims of plagiarism levied against Gay due to a questionable doctoral thesis. Then, Dom offers up the side question of the day which references Biden's trip to Philadelphia yesterday, asking for something or somebody associated with fire or firefighting. Then, Dom offers his thoughts on the new Obama-produced Netflix film ‘Leave the World Behind,' telling that he thought there were solid performances throughout but disagrees with the message of the film.

The Chiefs dropped a game to the Bills in Arrowhead on Sunday & once again the officials inserted themselves into the final minute with a bad call & forcing us all to talk about them. Let's talk about this !

 Topics include: 1)Elon Musk restores conspiracy theorist Alex Jones to X after a 5-yr ban. Carl thinks it's a great move for freedom of speech; 2)SNL skit mocks Rep. Elise Stefanik for grilling MIT, Harvard and UPenn on the rise of antisemitism and calls for genocide on their campuses; 3)Liz Magill, Harvard's president resigns after disastrous hearing on the Hill; 4)Hamas terrorists surrender to IDF after growing frustrated with their leadership; 5)Iranian proxies attack US embassy in Iraq, Biden has not acted, and more. More: www.TheCarljacksonshow.com Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/carljacksonradio Twitter: https://twitter.com/carljacksonshow Parler: https://parler.com/carljacksonshow http://www.TheCarlJacksonPodcast.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

 Topics include: 1)Elon Musk restores conspiracy theorist Alex Jones to X after a 5-yr ban. Carl thinks it's a great move for freedom of speech; 2)SNL skit mocks Rep. Elise Stefanik for grilling MIT, Harvard and UPenn on the rise of antisemitism and calls for genocide on their campuses; 3)Liz Magill, Harvard's president resigns after disastrous hearing on the Hill; 4)Hamas terrorists surrender to IDF after growing frustrated with their leadership; 5)Iranian proxies attack US embassy in Iraq, Biden has not acted, and more. More: www.TheCarljacksonshow.com Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/carljacksonradio Twitter: https://twitter.com/carljacksonshow Parler: https://parler.com/carljacksonshow http://www.TheCarlJacksonPodcast.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Andy and Randy talk about Arthur Smith being asked about the pressure he feels in regards to job security and why there's no reason to fire him right now.

Host Bex Scott welcomes guest Danielle of The Mid-Century Maximalists on Instagram to the show for Bex's very first interview episode. Bex and Danielle talk about all things Pyrex, why Danielle started collecting, her amazing ceramics collection, and the joy of being a vintage collector in a modern world.In a similar story to Bex's, Danielle came to her love of vintage and Pyrex through her grandparents. She inherited several sets of Pyrex, including the Friendship and Butterprint patterns, and many of those pieces that hold sentimental value remain on display in Danielle's house. She explains to Bex that many of her thrifted or purchased pieces, however, she uses on a daily basis. Danielle describes the eclectic maximalist decor she prefers, some of the many ceramics pieces her grandmother and great-grandmother handmade, and trades stories about favorite Pyrex and vintage items with Bex. This episode sheds light on why collectors love the hunt of collecting, the value of the pieces that goes beyond financial, and how to decorate with vintage finds.Resources discussed in this episode:Danielle on The Mid-Century Maximalists on Instagram‘Merry Mushrooms' collectors guidePyrex Love Pattern ReferenceThe ‘Pyrex and Corning beaker-decorated mug'English (JAJ) Pyrex Reference Guide“Pyrex Passion” by Michael D. Barber—Contact Rebecca Scott | Pyrex With Bex: Website: PyrexWithBex.comInstagram: @pyrexwithbexContact Bex on her website—TranscriptBex Scott: [00:00:02] Hey everybody, it's Bex Scott and welcome to the Pyrex With Bex podcast, where, you guessed it, I talk about vintage Pyrex, but also all things vintage housewares. I'll take you on my latest thrifting adventures, talk about reselling, chat with other enthusiasts about their collections, and learn about a bunch of really awesome items from the past. Subscribe now on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you love listening to podcasts so you don't miss a beat. Bex Scott: [00:00:30] Hey everyone, this is Bex Scott and you're listening to the Pyrex with Bex podcast. In today's episode, I'm joined by Danielle, the Mid-Century Maximalists on Instagram. We chat about why she started collecting Pyrex and vintage, her awesome ceramic collection, and what it's like being a vintage lover. Okay, so hey everyone, I'm super excited for today's episode because I'm here with my very first guest and I'd like to welcome Danielle to the show. Thanks so much for being here. Danielle: [00:00:58] Thanks for having me. Bex Scott: [00:00:59] And you can find Danielle on Instagram at the Mid-Century Maximalists. And it was actually on Instagram that we met. And I was impressed right away by your amazing Pyrex collection. And then I read your first post all about why you started collecting and why it's so important to you. And I'd love to start off with that story here today. Danielle: [00:01:20] So my entire life I've always been a bit eclectic, and I spent a lot of my childhood at my grandmother's house. Wasn't one that wanted to just go out and party or anything like that. I just loved spending time with my grandmother, and her entire house was decked out in 70s garb, a lot of Merry Mushroom, a lot of Pyrex that has been handed down. And so it's things that I was familiar with my entire childhood. And then about three years ago, I lost my grandparents within two weeks of each other due to Covid. And since then, it's just kind of spiraled, collecting things that remind me of them because it makes me feel close to them. So it's been a hobby that kind of hit me out of nowhere, but it's fun. Bex Scott: [00:02:12] Definitely. And I love stories like that, where it's more than just going out and finding things that you like. It's some kind of memory that's brought up when you find things or when they're passed down to you, and it's a great way to keep people in your life, even after they're not with us anymore. And that's kind of similar to my story. I got into it because of my grandparents, but it was more that we were cleaning out my granny and grandpa's garage, and we found some of my great aunt's Pyrex in a Rubbermaid bin. And that's kind of what set things off for me. And it spiraled into an addiction as well. Danielle: [00:02:50] What pattern was it? Bex Scott: [00:02:52] It wasn't anything super exciting. It was the lime green lasagna pan. And then I had some primary bowls. But after I found the primary bowls, that was my very first pattern or set that I collected. And I think I ended up with about 5 or 6 full primary sets. Way too many. You don't need that many ever. But I ended up selling them eventually, and I think I kept two and then a reverse primary. So I have those ones still. But yeah, it's easy to get swept up in it. Danielle: [00:03:24] It really is. Every antique store you go to. Bex Scott: [00:03:28] Yeah. Yeah. Danielle: [00:03:29] It's the thrill of the hunt, though. Bex Scott: [00:03:31] It is. It's a huge adrenaline rush. And then you have huge boxes and piles, and - at least I do. I have, I think, 60 banker's boxes of vintage items in my basement. Now that's become me having to resell things because I have so much. But it's fun, so it keeps me going. Danielle: [00:03:53] Yeah, I wish I had a basement so that I could hoard some more things, but I unfortunately live in a ranch so I don't have that much for like room for storage. So whenever I cycle things out, I have to purge. Bex Scott: [00:04:09] That's probably a good thing. That's what my husband would prefer, I think, because he's the one who helps me pack everything to ship and then pack it away in the basement, and he's a very patient man. Thank goodness. Danielle: [00:04:22] We love to hear it. Bex Scott: [00:04:23] Yeah. So do you have a specific pattern of Pyrex that was passed down to you that you really love? Danielle: [00:04:31] So my family, I live in Georgia, but my family is originally from Pennsylvania and up there it was really prominent to have Pyrex, so there was a lot of patterns. And predominantly my favorite one that I've gotten is the Friendship pattern, but I've inherited the Friendship, there's several primary sets, there's the Amish Butterprint. There's quite a few that are within my family line. In fact, my mother still uses what she was gifted as a wedding present almost daily. She has this really neat, it's a complete yellow set, and I've been searching for one as I thrift because she won't give it to me. But she has that. And then she has this really cool casserole dish that's like a hunter green, and it has gold detailing on it. So there's quite a bit of Pyrex that I have inherited. My partner actually inherited the Sunflower pattern, so we have that too. So a lot of what we have on display in our cabinets at home are things that we inherited because of how sentimental they are to us. Bex Scott: [00:05:56] That's awesome. And do you guys use them every day as well, or do you display them and keep them there? Danielle: [00:06:02] We don't use the ones that were handed down, but we do use ones we have thrifted and antiqued simply because while they may look the same, it doesn't hold the same sentimental value. So we keep those put up safe. We've got a zoo of animals. You'll probably see a cat or two pop in here at some point. So because of that, we like to keep those types of things safe and away from the animals. Bex Scott: [00:06:34] That's a good idea. My cat has definitely knocked a few knickknacks off of tables and desks before, so it's a dangerous hobby when you have pets. Danielle: [00:06:47] Yeah, and we've got three large breed rescues. Bex Scott: [00:06:51] Oh, wow. Danielle: [00:06:53] A pit/boxer, a lab/hound, and a husky. So they're not well behaved. Bex Scott: [00:07:02] That's okay. They sound very cute. Danielle: [00:07:08] They are. Bex Scott: [00:07:09] Nice. Most of my collection I keep in china cabinets, and then we ended up using the Homestead pattern as our daily Pyrex dishes. So all of those ones, I find that they wash really well, and they just go with pretty much everything in our house. So that ended up being something that we use and my husband likes them. Danielle: [00:07:33] So we use the Corelle dish set, the ones that kind of match all a lot of the Pyrex patterns. So we use those as our everyday dishes, which is fun. That and I've also got my grandmother's, they're the cubist glasses, Indiana glass. Bex Scott: [00:07:53] Okay. Danielle: [00:07:53] I can't think of the name of them, but I've got her set, so we use those as our drinking glasses. Bex Scott: [00:07:59] Nice. I've always wanted to incorporate some vintage glasses or barware into our kitchen, but we have three kids and they're pretty young still, so right now it would be too dangerous, I think. Danielle: [00:08:14] Yeah, we're lucky enough, I guess lucky enough, that we don't have kids yet, so we can dabble in all that type of stuff. Once we have kids, I will have to be a bit more careful with where I place certain things, because I have a lot of ceramics that have been handed down to me, and if a kid hurts them, I will cry. Bex Scott: [00:08:35] Oh, I think I would too. Yeah. And those are the ceramics that, was it your grandmother that made them? Danielle: [00:08:44] My great grandmother and my grandmother. Bex Scott: [00:08:46] Okay. And what kind of ceramics are they? Danielle: [00:08:50] Oh, I've got some for every holiday. So right now I've got a little village out that has a tree with a vulture on it, and kids trick or treating, a ghost popping out of a casket, a little graveyard. It's super neat. Then I've also got a ceramic pumpkin that she, my grandmother, painted, made and painted, so that's pretty cool. And then I have a couple different ghost ceramics, a black cat ceramic, a house that's very similar to the village, but it's set up inside of a house. Things that I've never seen other people have, which is pretty cool. I've also got a turkey and a pilgrim and an Indian, which probably isn't kosher anymore, but my grandmother made them, so I hold on to them. And then for Christmas, I've got all sorts of things. But you name a holiday - Valentine's Day, Easter - I've got ceramics for it. Bex Scott: [00:09:58] That's awesome. I would love to decorate my house for every season with ceramics like that, and I think I saw them in the little highlight on your Instagram story. Danielle: [00:10:08] Those were the ones that I most recently was able to convince my mother to let me steal. Yeah, that's the little graveyard and the house. I've never seen anybody else have anything like that. So they're super special to me because I can remember just being little and thinking they were the neatest things and playing with them and then getting yelled at for playing with them. Rightfully so. So, yeah. Bex Scott: [00:10:37] Yeah, I think I crushed some little reindeer figurines that my granny had when I was little, and my dad always brings it up when we're at family functions. And he reminds me that he told me just for looking, not for touching. And then I took them in my hand and I squished them. And so... Danielle: [00:11:00] Oh boy. Bex Scott: [00:11:00] Hopefully my kids don't do that with any of, I have a whole bunch of little bluebirds that I collect because my great grandma collected those as well. So I have to make sure the kids stay away from those. Danielle: [00:11:12] Keep them up high. Bex Scott: [00:11:13] Yeah. So what's the thrifting like where you live? Is it pretty good, or...? Danielle: [00:11:21] I'm right outside of Atlanta. So unfortunately the market's kind of like saturated around here. It just doesn't seem like as many antiques. There wasn't as much Pyrex down here. There wasn't a whole lot of ceramics down here. So you do, like, bump into those things from time to time. But that just doesn't seem to be what people's ancestors down here had. So anything that is down here pretty much migrated with someone from the North. I find that when we travel, we have better luck. We went to Louisville to visit my partner's uncle and I found a ceramic wall hanging Christmas tree, and I was really pumped about that, like found it at Goodwill. That type of stuff does not happen down here. Unfortunately, our Goodwills are dumbly overpriced, like 20 bucks for a pair of pants and they're picked over and they're just not that great here. But we've got family all over, so we've got to travel quite a few times throughout the year. So we hit those places up. So like Florida and Pennsylvania and Ohio and Kentucky, just not, it's just not booming around here. I guess maybe too many resellers. Bex Scott: [00:12:43] Yeah, that's like my area as well. Everybody seems to be getting into reselling and collecting. And I'm in a small town between two large cities, and there's a nice little pocket of Salvation Army and a few other Value Village stores that are really nice for finding things. But the further out you get, the harder it is to find good deals, like you said, and especially with Pyrex, the price seems to be going up where they'll have a dishwasher damaged bowl for $20. And it's just, it's kind of ridiculous and it makes it not as fun in that sense. You have to start looking online for things that you want to add to your collection, but that's okay. It's all part of it. Danielle: [00:13:28] Yeah. I mean, I still enjoy the hunt. I still go to the antique stores. I've paid some stupid prices for things that I just wanted. Bex Scott: [00:13:37] Yeah. Me too. Danielle: [00:13:38] You don't see them every day, so, like, you know what? Bex Scott: [00:13:42] Yeah, it's worth it at that point. Danielle: [00:13:43] I'll take it. But whenever I try and purge things around here, like, I don't try and do that. Like, I'm not in it for the money. I just want to kind of get out maybe what I put into it or part of what I put into it. So I don't full blown re, like I wouldn't call myself a reseller. I just have to purge from time to time because I can't hoard everything. I know that I'm a maximalist, but, at some point... Bex Scott: [00:14:14] Yeah. What's the best piece of Pyrex you found thrifting? If there is one that you can think of. Danielle: [00:14:22] At an actual thrift store, I don't think I've ever actually found Pyrex, at least none that wasn't dishwasher damage, because I find, I find that kind of stuff all the time. I did find a pretty neat Corelle dish thrifting one time, but as far as like antiquing goes, the coolest one that I found, I'm trying to think, I've got several unique pieces, that I think the Pueblo pattern is the coolest one I've found out and about. It's probably my favorite piece in there. Bex Scott: [00:14:57] Yeah, that one's beautiful. And then I noticed you have the Kim Chee as well. Danielle: [00:15:03] I do have the Kim Chee. Bex Scott: [00:15:04] And then the Navajo. Danielle: [00:15:06] So the Navajo, fun story, we pretty much were given that one when we were in Ohio by someone we met. It was their grandmother's, and they made us swear up and down that we were gonna take care of it. Like absolutely! Brand new. Never used. And I was like, of course I will take care of this. It's in good hands. So I was pretty pumped about that one. Bex Scott: [00:15:32] Those are definitely ones that you would never find out in the wild here. That would be, maybe not even in an antique store. I don't think I've ever found any of those patterns. Danielle: [00:15:43] All three of those come from Ohio. Bex Scott: [00:15:46] Okay, I need to go to Ohio. Danielle: [00:15:50] My partner's father lives up there, and every single time we go up we make him take us to all of the antique stores. And he moans and groans while we have the time of our lives. Um, but good prices on them, too. The Pueblo we paid like 40 bucks for, it's pristine, was definitely never used. So we typically have really good luck when we go up there. So definitely hit up Ohio sometime. Bex Scott: [00:16:20] Yeah, I've never been. It's on my list now. We went to Portland, Maine just this past summer, and my aunt took me around to a bunch of different shops, and there was one, I still have regrets that I didn't buy way more at the store, but they had a whole bunch of the Pyrex Christmas mugs that were given to staff every year as gifts. And I only bought one, and this one mug was $54 US, which was way more because of the Canadian dollar. Our dollar is terrible right now, but I should have bought all five of them and I still have nightmares about it. Danielle: [00:17:05] Yeah, we have a pretty unique one that must have been only in-house, like Pyrex only gave it to their employees, but it has like beakers across it and it says it says Pyrex on one side, and then it says Corning on the other, which I thought was pretty cool. Bex Scott: [00:17:27] That is cool. I don't think I've ever seen that. Danielle: [00:17:30] I'll have to message you a picture of it. Bex Scott: [00:17:33] Yeah. That's awesome. Very cool. So do you have a specific style that you like to decorate your house in, or is it kind of just eclectic from the things that you've collected or...? Danielle: [00:17:46] It's very 70s. So the room I'm sitting in right now, obviously I've got this old Afghan, um, but we have a record cabinet, lots of vintage records, and our main living room is painted like a 70s bright orange, and it's all 70s garb. So pretty much anything that my grandmother would have had in her house, we have here, minus a couple things, because there were some things, like the Ivy dishes, that just never tickled my fancy. But we love cross-stitch. We have it all over our walls. Love ceramics, obviously love stained glass, love Pyrex, love... You name it, we probably have it. Bex Scott: [00:18:41] That's awesome. It sounds like I'd love your house. Danielle: [00:18:45] You'll have to come out sometime. Bex Scott: [00:18:49] My one room, my office that I'm in right now, is the one that I decorate. And the rest of the house is just... my husband doesn't have the same style as me, so we've kind of come to some kind of middle ground with decor. As long as I don't put brass in the house because he really doesn't like brass, which kills me because I keep finding some amazing brass pieces. Danielle: [00:19:12] Luckily, my partner and I have the same style. We both really caught on to certain things because of our grandmothers. So I mean, we've, I see you've got the Merry Mushroom canisters behind you, but we use ours. Bex Scott: [00:19:29] That's awesome. Danielle: [00:19:32] A lot of the things that we do collect, we try and make functional. If we can. Not everything, like some of the Pyrex obviously we don't want to touch, but yeah. Bex Scott: [00:19:49] If you had one, I guess, Pyrex pattern or dish and one just random vintage piece, what would you want? Like what's your unicorn or your holy grail piece of vintage? And then Pyrex? Danielle: [00:20:05] I'm going to stick with my Friendship dishes simply because those were passed down through my family. Like there was other ones, but for some reason I'm just stuck on those Friendship ones. I can remember, like my grandmother having them, I can remember my great grandmother having them. So it's one of those things that that would definitely be my Pyrex dish. As far as things that are hanging on the wall, I'm trying to think because there's several good things. Oh, I know what my other one would be. My cast iron cat that my partner hates. Bex Scott: [00:20:50] That's awesome. Danielle: [00:20:54] Yeah, I have, um, I have old vintage ceramic and cast iron cats almost in every single room. And my partner says they're creepy. Bex Scott: [00:21:05] Cats are great, and there's luckily a lot of vintage out there with cats. Danielle: [00:21:10] I actually just found a mug this past weekend, not this past weekend, two weekends ago, and it's an old piece of pottery and it has like cats painted on it. And my mom was like, oh God, please, no. And I was like, how much? And they were like $0.50. And I was like, done. Bex Scott: [00:21:28] Sold. Danielle: [00:21:29] Um, so yeah, no, I definitely would need to keep one of my cast iron cats. But that was also one of the things that my family members always had them. I have a great aunt, in Pennsylvania, and she's got quite a few of them. And I hate to break it to my partner, but they're all coming here. Bex Scott: [00:21:56] You can just start hiding things around the house. They'll just start appearing. Danielle: [00:22:01] She's tried to create, like a one item per room rule, that I can only specifically pick one item because I try and pick the most eclectic things. Bex Scott: [00:22:16] That makes it fun. Danielle: [00:22:17] If there's if there's a Bigfoot statue, definitely putting that in my house. So my partner has her opinions, but sometimes I get the veto. Bex Scott: [00:22:29] Yeah. And we have a running joke in the house right now. I have a horse cross stitch, it's huge, I don't know who made it, but it's in a massive wood frame and it keeps moving around our house. It started above our bed and then I think now it's above our toilet and I have no idea where it's going to end up next. But I have it listed for sale. But until it sells, we just keep moving it around because none of us like it. So. Danielle: [00:22:59] That's hilarious. Bex Scott: [00:23:03] Nice. Danielle: [00:23:03] Is that the only cross that you have? Bex Scott: [00:23:06] I have a ton of flowers and they're all listed for sale. I want to keep all of them because my goal was to make a big cross stitch, cruel needlepoint wall behind me at my desk here. But I have trouble committing to a certain style and a certain type of... Danielle: [00:23:26] You just got to throw them up like, turn mine, like ours doesn't match. Bex Scott: [00:23:34] Oh, that looks great. Yeah. I love that. Danielle: [00:23:35] But that we find things and we just throw it on the wall. Bex Scott: [00:23:39] Yeah. My hope is to find a mushroom needlepoint or cross stitch that will go with my theme that I have going on with the Merry Mushroom. Danielle: [00:23:48] That would be really cool. You could make one. Bex Scott: [00:23:51] That's true. I have to learn how to. Danielle: [00:23:53] My partner cross stitches. Bex Scott: [00:23:54] Oh, really? Danielle: [00:23:56] She loves it. Bex Scott: [00:23:58] Maybe she'll have to do one for me. Danielle: [00:24:01] I mean she would. She also sews. Bex Scott: [00:24:03] Oh, I'll hire her. She's hired. Danielle: [00:24:06] She's a jack of all trades. Bex Scott: [00:24:08] Nice. Yeah. I haven't gotten into the cross stitch yet, but I even have a bunch of kits that I could start. That might be my... Danielle: [00:24:15] We have a bunch of kits, too. Bex Scott: [00:24:19] Yeah, those ones are easy to collect as well. Danielle: [00:24:22] They are. You find them out and about quite frequently. At least I do around here, because I guess people will clean out their grandparents houses and they think that nobody knows how to do that type of stuff anymore. But like, there's plenty of people that do. Plus, it's pretty easy to like pick up if you put your mind to it. If you don't have ADHD like me because I started one and just haven't gone back to it. But maybe one day. Bex Scott: [00:24:56] It'll be there when you're ready. Danielle: [00:24:59] Yeah, it's how most of my projects go. I get about halfway and then I'm like, on to the next one. Bex Scott: [00:25:06] Yeah, next thing. Well, I picked up a bunch of Christmas cross stitch kits in an estate sale a couple of days ago, so maybe I'll do one for Christmas. Danielle: [00:25:17] That'd be awesome. You could also crochet some snowflakes to put on your Christmas tree. Bex Scott: [00:25:22] Yeah, I think I have some of those from my grandma. Those are nice. Danielle: [00:25:27] My partner's been on the hunt for a pink Christmas tree. Bex Scott: [00:25:31] Ooh, that would be amazing. Then would you do vintage decorations? Danielle: [00:25:35] We already have vintage decorations on one of our trees. We have a white one and then just a regular one. And I think, I think last year we put the vintage on the white Christmas tree. I can't remember, but we do have like vintage shatterproof ornaments. I actually have a bunch of ornaments my great grandmother handmade, but I'm too afraid with all of the animals that they'll get broken and they're kind of not replaceable. Our cats like to climb the trees and eat the trees, so we haven't found a way to stop them. We've tried all sorts of things to get them out, but because of that, I just keep them away safe. Bex Scott: [00:26:27] That's a good idea. Danielle: [00:26:31] Have you noticed any of your kids getting into, like, collecting? Bex Scott: [00:26:35] That's a good question. I've tried. My oldest son, he's 13, and he comes to Value Village and Goodwill and all the garage sales with me. He doesn't love anything vintage, really, but he likes coming and looking for things with me. And it's, I think it's the thrill of the hunt for him as well. And then when I go out and I come back home, he'll say, Oh, are those more bowls in that box, or Did you buy more bowls today? I definitely did, and then I threaten, we have a nine year old son as well, I threaten them that this will be their inheritance one day, that they're going to have all of these bowls and Pyrex bowls to give to whoever they want, and they can sell it if they want, but it's all coming to them. We have an 11 month old as well and I'm hoping that she'll be the one that kind of turns into the Pyrex vintage lover. So starting off early. Danielle: [00:27:33] I'm sure. Yeah, I'm sure as they get older they'll get into it because it's something I never appreciated when I was younger. I was always like, why don't you, like, redo everything? Because this is kind of outdated. Bex Scott: [00:27:47] Yeah, yeah. And then you end up falling in love with the vintage items, and then you reverse time and then you don't go with the new, updated, renovated house stuff. It's like a blast from the past, which I really like. Danielle: [00:28:01] Yeah. My friends will come in the house and be like, whoa, these are some bright colors. And I'm like, you can go home to your agreeable gray walls anytime you want. Bex Scott: [00:28:13] Yeah, go home and stare at your white walls. Danielle: [00:28:18] Exactly. So, I mean, to each their own, I guess. Bex Scott: [00:28:22] Exactly. Danielle: [00:28:27] What's your favorite piece in your room? Bex Scott: [00:28:30] Oh. Good question. I have a cabinet on my right here that's full of all my pink Pyrex and my pink Gooseberry. So I'd say probably the pink Gooseberry. And then I have the glasses that go with the Duchess set. I think they're the Libby glasses. The Duchess casserole is my number one need to find one day Pyrex dish, so I'm always on the lookout for that. I found it online, but it's so expensive. Danielle: [00:29:02] Yeah, that one is rather expensive. Bex Scott: [00:29:04] Yeah, yeah. So maybe, maybe one day when I win the lottery, that'll be my next big collectible. Danielle: [00:29:15] When did you kind of get into collecting? Bex Scott: [00:29:18] I got into collecting at the beginning of the pandemic. So before that, I didn't really know anything about Pyrex. It was always just like the measuring cup that my mom had that I don't think was even very old. It just said Pyrex on it. And that's kind of what I thought it was. And then after we cleaned out my grandparents garage, that's when I realized that there was this whole world of vintage Pyrex out there, and it kind of just spiraled after that. And that's been fun collecting everything and finding new pieces. And at the beginning, when I first started collecting, I would essentially buy everything that I found, even if it was dishwasher damaged or it was way overpriced. So I was spending all of this money on things that probably weren't even in good condition or worth it. Now I'm way more selective, but it was, yeah, it's so easy to do when you're learning and trying to figure out what patterns are and what things might be worth, and if they're even Pyrex at all. So. Danielle: [00:30:25] Yeah, it really is, because, I mean there's some things that aren't even like marked Pyrex. I have one, I'm getting rid of it, but I have one that's I think it's from England. Bex Scott: [00:30:36] Oh yeah. The JAJ. Danielle: [00:30:37] It's their version, I can't remember what it says on the bottom, but it's their version of Pyrex. So like I have that and that's pretty cool. But I would have known nothing about it before I started getting into this. I would have been like, oh, that's not Pyrex, and just like, moved on from it. So the more you learn. My partner actually bought this really neat book off of Amazon, and it goes through like the history of each pattern and details it. We use that as a guideline at all times, because it tells you so much about different promotional pieces and stuff like that. Bex Scott: [00:31:20] Is that the Pyrex passion book? Danielle: [00:31:22] I think it is. Yeah. Bex Scott: [00:31:23] This one. Danielle: [00:31:25] Yeah, yeah, yeah, that is our Bible. Bex Scott: [00:31:30] Yeah, I have it on my iPad. And then I went and bought the the paperback version. And then there's a second one that came out as well that has even more in it. So that one's great. Danielle: [00:31:41] I do laugh at their like suggested prices because I'm like, yeah, try and tell, try and tell most people that. Like they're not, I think I was looking and it had like the Butter print as like the entire set for like $75. And I'm like yeah, okay. Bex Scott: [00:32:01] Yeah. Danielle: [00:32:03] Tell me where you can find that for that. Bex Scott: [00:32:05] That would be great. But yeah. Danielle: [00:32:07] That's what I'm saying. So I do find the prices they list comical. Bex Scott: [00:32:14] Yeah. Pricing is one thing that's always very controversial, I find. I'm part of a bunch of Pyrex groups on Facebook, and there's a lot of them that just flat out say you're not allowed to ask if you did good buying this, because if you like it, it's worth it. And we can't tell you if the price is good or not. Danielle: [00:32:36] I am not a part of them on Facebook because I don't really have Facebook, but I am a part of a couple Pyrex groups on Reddit and some of the finds they post on there are insane. Bex Scott: [00:32:52] I haven't looked at Reddit for Pyrex groups. That's a good suggestion. Danielle: [00:32:58] On Pyrex groups and Animal Crossing groups. Gotta love it. Yeah, my partner actually named her Animal Crossing Island Pyrexia. Bex Scott: [00:33:11] That's great. Danielle: [00:33:13] Is there anything else that you collect other than, like, the mushrooms and the Pyrex? Bex Scott: [00:33:17] Mushrooms, Pyrex, little bluebirds. What else do I collect? Secretly, I collect brass. It's in a box that my husband can't, well, he found it the other day, but there's a bunch of - I thought he couldn't find it, but it was in a cereal box, I talk about this in one of my other episodes, but it was packed away in a cereal box in our basement, and he found it and opened it, and he said, What is this? I said, oh, that's just my brass. I'm selling it. Don't worry, it's going on Marketplace. But I do like brass. Danielle: [00:33:51] That's funny. I don't think we have much brass around here. Bex Scott: [00:33:55] It's heavy and it takes up space. Danielle: [00:33:58] Yeah, it does, it does. And we don't have, with all my ceramics we don't have that much like shelving. I know you said you had that horse. Do you have any other ones? Bex Scott: [00:34:14] No, none that I've really kept. I have one that's a little girl on a toilet reading a book, and it says something really funny. I think it's like a potty training needlepoint or cross-stitch or something. Danielle: [00:34:31] I have a cross-stitch. I have a cross-stitch in my bathroom that says, please don't do coke in the bathroom. Bex Scott: [00:34:38] That's awesome. Danielle: [00:34:42] And everybody always is like, did someone do coke? And I'm like, no, no, no, not to my knowledge, but... Bex Scott: [00:34:49] Yeah. Danielle: [00:34:50] It's a warning. Like please don't. Bex Scott: [00:34:53] And they won't now because that's up there. Danielle: [00:34:55] Yeah. I asked nicely. Bex Scott: [00:35:02] I'm trying to avoid getting into all the art glass and like the vases, and that's another thing that I really can't do because I don't have space. Danielle: [00:35:15] I think we have one swing base, but I haven't gotten a whole lot into that. But we do have quite the collection of nesting hens. Bex Scott: [00:35:29] Oh, I love those. Danielle: [00:35:32] And my partner insists on putting candy in every single one of them. Bex Scott: [00:35:36] That's great. Do you have a favorite one or a favorite color? Danielle: [00:35:42] So blue is my favorite color. Oddly enough, since most of the house is done in like yellow, orange, green, but we have a cobalt blue that has like the oil slick on it, almost like carnival glass. And it is my favorite. And it just so happened to be given to us by my partner's grandmother, which just makes it that much more special. Bex Scott: [00:36:11] Yeah, those are beautiful, I love them. I've had a few of them in the past, and it's always hard to tell if they're actually vintage or not. That's my biggest struggle is what year they were from and who made them. So I do a lot of research when I find them, and I think there's even some jadeite ones too that I've seen that are really pretty. Danielle: [00:36:34] Yeah, we have a small jadeite one, but we have quite a few. They're all over the house. Bex Scott: [00:36:41] What's the biggest one that you have? Danielle: [00:36:45] A turkey. Bex Scott: [00:36:47] Amazing. Danielle: [00:36:48] Yeah, it's a nesting turkey. And it's like orange and yellow and... It's pretty cool. I mean, I just think it's so funny, you go into most people's houses that are, you know, around our ages, and it's minimalist and boring and gray. Like, there's just not a whole lot of personality. Bex Scott: [00:37:17] Mhm. Danielle: [00:37:18] So, you know what? If I'm a hoarder, so be it. Bex Scott: [00:37:23] Yeah I agree, it's great for people coming over and starting conversations and especially like with our kids growing up, I'd rather them live in a house with memories and things to look at and ask questions about. Where is this from, and What year was this from, then see everything from, I don't know, we have, I don't know if you guys have HomeSense where you are. It's like a mass produced store or home decor store where people get just the run of the mill stuff, but I'd rather have all of the memories and the fun items. Danielle: [00:37:59] Yeah, I mean, I think, I think that's a lot of what the newer generations are missing out on. Like they're not going to have the things that have been handed down generation after generation because so many people get rid of them. They're like, oh, this is ugly so I don't want it. But it's like, I don't know, these are my family's ceramics. So there might be some that I don't love. But my grandmother made it, and for some reason that means I can't get rid of it. Bex Scott: [00:38:33] Yeah. I'm the same. Yeah. All of the things that I keep, even if I don't like them, I keep them because they came from somewhere special. Danielle: [00:38:40] Yeah. So I just think that this next generation is going to be missing out on a lot of that. Bex Scott: [00:38:48] Yeah, I agree, and that makes it even more fun to hunt for items and just love vintage. Danielle: [00:38:57] It definitely does. It's definitely something that I want to be able to pass down. My brother doesn't have quite the same enthusiasm as I have about certain things, but he has asked for a couple of different things we have. Like my great great grandmother, we have her cookie cutters, which is probably weird because they have just been passed down. When I went down, I split the bucket with him and he has, like my grandfathers and my great grandfather's vices, which is like, I don't know if you do much woodworking, but he has that out in his garage, which is really neat because my brother does some really amazing woodworking, creates a lot of custom pieces. So it's pretty cool that he's able to incorporate my relatives vices into his work, which he definitely wouldn't have to. Like, he has other other ones, but when he was able to get those, he retired the other ones that he was using and just put those away so that he could keep using our family's. So I know that he doesn't have quite the same love for the ceramics as me. But, you know, hopefully one day when my niece and nephew are a bit older, I'm able to teach them about this kind of stuff and maybe they'll have an interest in a piece or two. Bex Scott: [00:40:34] Yeah, yeah, that would be great. Same with my family. My brother's not into all of the the same kind of things that I like. And he's more into the tools that our family had for woodworking and construction and that kind of thing. So that's his stuff. And then I've taken all of the the other stuff, so it's nice that way. Danielle: [00:40:58] That's been the divide for us. My brother's biggest one is like my father currently has a pool table that's been passed down. Why we have such, like, random things that get found in my family I don't know, but my brother is insistent on the pool table and the light that hangs above it that those are his. And I'm like, I don't even have space for them, so go for it. But it's just funny the things that you kind of get attached to. Bex Scott: [00:41:33] Mhm. Perfect. Thank you so much for coming on the episode today and for chatting about vintage. It's really great to be able to talk to somebody else that loves similar things and understand what it's like to be a hoarder. Danielle: [00:41:52] Yeah, it was great jumping on and getting to chat with you. Yeah, it's definitely nice to talk to people that are like-minded. Bex Scott: [00:42:00] Yeah. 

Prophecy Radio episode #106 discusses Chalie of the Gods chapters 9 through 11 in all of their glory, including how wistful and introspective Percy is these days! We also break down the latest Riordanverse news, including Rick's latest blog posts, J. Maya's fate on Survivor season 45, the ongoing SAG-AFTRA strike, and Graci Kim's newly announced series coming in 2025. New episodes of Prophecy Radio air weekly, and we keep our discussions PG-13. News and Updates (00:02:02) Life has been pretty chaotic on every front lately, but we're doing our best to get back into the groove of the podcast. Thanks for sticking with us! We start the episode with a discussion of Rick's October 17 blog post, in which he discusses what's going on in Gaza at the present moment. This post had no promotion, and it was seemingly deleted and then reuploaded. Rightfully, fans have been critical of Rick for talking about Gaza and then transitioning into self-promotion. Please be aware there is A LOT of misinformation out there about what's happening right now, so do your due diligence and verify all the information you're receiving before passing it on. Tehlor Kay Mejia, Daniel José Older, and Sarwat Chadda have been speaking out a lot on their platforms about Gaza, Israel, and Palestine, so be sure to follow them for additional resources. Mark Oshiro is raising funds for Palestine through Books for Palestine. The auction is now live. Here is a list of Palestinian journalists on the ground in Gaza. If you have the ability to donate, charities like Save the Children, Doctors without Borders, and Palestine Children's Relief Fund are good places to start. You can also use 5Calls to talk to your representatives about a ceasefire. Rick also wrote a blog post on October 23 about the recent releases from Rick Riordan Presents, and some upcoming titles. We're particularly looking forward to A Drop of Venom, Winston Chu vs. the Wingmeisters, and It Waits in the Forest. Read Riordan has also been busy over the last two weeks, wanting you to catch up with Zyanya from Dawn of the Jaguar, as well as meet Admiral Paik from Fox Snare. They also wrote a cute little article about how to sneak into Camp Half-Blood. Graci Kim also announced the title and a vague release date for her next book, Dreamslinger. We read through the synopsis and confirm that we're really excited about this one! Kristen's Korner is back as we discuss the last two episodes of Survivor season 45 and J's fate on the island. The SAG-AFTRA strikes are ongoing, and we're waiting with bated breath to see what becomes of them. Chalice of the Gods by Rick Riordan (00:36:54) Let's kick off our discussion with Chalice of the Gods chapter 9! Getting chased by chickens is, like, Karen's worst nightmare. Annabeth is SO SMART, and we love how single-minded she is in leading the trio. Grover is so helpful in this chapter, and we love seeing him be the person with all the helpful information. Did you know that Hebe and Hercules got married!? Did we just find out why satyrs age half as fast as humans!? Grover must go distract the chickens while Annabeth and Percy commit a party fowl. NGL, we kinda love Li'l Killer. Okay, the plan is to sing a song and beg for forgiveness. The backup plan is Plan Chick…whatever that means! This chapter may have contained Karen's single favorite joke in all of Rick Riordan's books. Let's move on to Chalice of the Gods chapter 10. It's time to belt out a tune by some guy. Why is the choice always the plan succeeds or we die!? This is 90% all Percy's fault. Percy has his priorities, and Annabeth has hers. When did you figure out what Plan Chick was? Annabeth really is a genius. This was SO CLEVER. The trio FINALLY get returned to their proper ages. It's now time for Chalice of the Gods chapter 11. Hebe sends the trio after Iris, down at the farmers' market. It's so cute how excited Percy is for a local quest, but also pretty sad how traumatized he is by being turned back into a little kid. Sally Jackson gets the Mother of the Century award. Do we have to worry about her getting older!? What was Percy like when he was a kid? Mark Oshiro's influence on Rick is SO OBVIOUS in this chapter. Yes, Percy, MILLIONS of people have dreamt of slipping into your life. Can Percy wash the dishes and play video games at the same time!? Thanks for listening, and tune in next time for episode 107, in which we'll discuss Chalice of the Gods chapters 12-14! This episode's hosts are: Karen Rought and Kristen Kranz. Each episode, our Prophecy Radio hosts and their guests will keep you up to date on the latest information coming out of Camp Half-Blood, including upcoming books and adaptation news, discuss a topic of choice, and do a chapter by chapter reread of the Percy Jackson series. Follow Us: Twitter // Instagram // Facebook // Tumblr Listen and Subscribe: Audioboom // Apple // Spotify Feel free to leave us your questions or comments through any of these mediums! You can also email us at prophecyradiopodcast@gmail.com or visit our homepage for archives and more information about our show. Prophecy Radio is a Subjectify Media podcast production. Visit Subjectify Media for more shows, including Not Another Teen Wolf Podcast, ReWatchable, and Not About The Weather, and for all our latest articles about the stories we're passionate about.

This podcast panel showcases the two experts in the field of legal technologies. This thought-leadership piece will showcase an epic conversation highlighting the state of legal technology, future innovation, and getting into the brass tacks of what makes a legal technology the best.  Questions the moderator will ask the speakers: -With so many different legal technologies out there, it can be difficult to know what is right for your firm. Do you have any guiding principles that you follow when selecting a legal technology to adopt? -AI is the buzzword right now. Rightfully so with the impact we are seeing. If you were to go into the future 5 years and look back, how do you hope AI will be developed to better serve the firm and your clients? -Without naming names, of all the different legal tech companies that you have worked with, are there any characteristics or traits that other firms can look for when deciding who to partner or not partner with? Moderator: @Josh Moore - Lead Solutions Expert, NetDocuments Speakers: @Joe Raczynski - Technologist & Futurist, Founder, Joe Technologist Consulting & Media @Julie Strachan Haiber - Global Client Director, Thomson Reuters Recorded on 11-01-2023.

The divine name we are looking at today comes with a warning. To know this name, to address God by this name, to call on this name is going to require something of you. And after today we are forever accountable for our response and treatment of this name. Senior Pastor - Chuck Angel

There were high hopes for the LSU Tigers going into the 2023 football season: a top ten recruiting class, a top ten transfer portal class, the fifth ranked team in the country coming off of a trip to the SEC Championship. Now sitting at 3-2 with losses to Florida State and Ole Miss, Tigers fans are frustrated. Rightfully so, LSU fans want more. But Brian Kelly is not the problem with this football team and bad news for many LSU fans calling for his job: he is not going anywhere.Plus, Brian Kelly decided to bring in much needed defensive coaching help. Former LSU defensive line coach Pete Jenkins will come in to help the defensive coaching staff help a defense currently ranked 108th in the country in pass defense and 102nd in the country in run defense. Jenkins was at LSU in the 1980s with trips back in the early 2000s and from 2016-2017 . He coached now-NFL players like Arden Key, who recorded a 12 sack season in 2016, Devon Godchaux, and a defensive line that recorded 36 sacks in the 2016 season. Will the addition of Jenkins be enough to help this LSU defense go from horrendous to not-so-horrendous?Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!eBay MotorsWith all the parts you need at the prices you want, it's easy to turn your car into the MVP and bring home that win. Keep your ride-or-die alive at EbayMotors.com. Eligible items only. Exclusions apply. eBay Guaranteed Fit only available to US customers.Athletic BrewingGo to AthleticBrewing.com and enter code LOCKEDON to get 15% off your first online order or find a store near you! Athletic Brewing. Milford, CT and San Diego, CA. Near Beer.GametimeDownload the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDONCOLLEGE for $20 off your first purchase.LinkedInLinkedIn Jobs helps you find the qualified candidates you want to talk to, faster. Post your job for free at LinkedIn.com/LOCKEDONCOLLEGE. Terms and conditions apply.FanDuelMake Every Moment More. Right now, NEW customers can bet FIVE DOLLARS and get TWO HUNDRED in BONUS BETS – GUARANTEED. Visit FanDuel.com/LOCKEDON to get started.FANDUEL DISCLAIMER: 21+ in select states. First online real money wager only. Bonus issued as nonwithdrawable free bets that expires in 14 days. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG (CO, IA, MD, MI, NJ, PA, IL, VA, WV), 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 (AZ), 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat (CT), 1-800-9-WITH-IT (IN), 1-800-522-4700 (WY, KS) or visit ksgamblinghelp.com (KS), 1-877-770-STOP (LA), 1-877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY), TN REDLINE 1-800-889-9789 (TN) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

There were high hopes for the LSU Tigers going into the 2023 football season: a top ten recruiting class, a top ten transfer portal class, the fifth ranked team in the country coming off of a trip to the SEC Championship. Now sitting at 3-2 with losses to Florida State and Ole Miss, Tigers fans are frustrated. Rightfully so, LSU fans want more. But Brian Kelly is not the problem with this football team and bad news for many LSU fans calling for his job: he is not going anywhere. Plus, Brian Kelly decided to bring in much needed defensive coaching help. Former LSU defensive line coach Pete Jenkins will come in to help the defensive coaching staff help a defense currently ranked 108th in the country in pass defense and 102nd in the country in run defense. Jenkins was at LSU in the 1980s with trips back in the early 2000s and from 2016-2017 . He coached now-NFL players like Arden Key, who recorded a 12 sack season in 2016, Devon Godchaux, and a defensive line that recorded 36 sacks in the 2016 season. Will the addition of Jenkins be enough to help this LSU defense go from horrendous to not-so-horrendous? Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors! eBay Motors With all the parts you need at the prices you want, it's easy to turn your car into the MVP and bring home that win. Keep your ride-or-die alive at EbayMotors.com. Eligible items only. Exclusions apply. eBay Guaranteed Fit only available to US customers. Athletic Brewing Go to AthleticBrewing.com and enter code LOCKEDON to get 15% off your first online order or find a store near you! Athletic Brewing. Milford, CT and San Diego, CA. Near Beer. Gametime Download the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDONCOLLEGE for $20 off your first purchase. LinkedIn LinkedIn Jobs helps you find the qualified candidates you want to talk to, faster. Post your job for free at LinkedIn.com/LOCKEDONCOLLEGE. Terms and conditions apply. FanDuel Make Every Moment More. Right now, NEW customers can bet FIVE DOLLARS and get TWO HUNDRED in BONUS BETS – GUARANTEED. Visit FanDuel.com/LOCKEDON to get started. FANDUEL DISCLAIMER: 21+ in select states. First online real money wager only. Bonus issued as nonwithdrawable free bets that expires in 14 days. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG (CO, IA, MD, MI, NJ, PA, IL, VA, WV), 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 (AZ), 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat (CT), 1-800-9-WITH-IT (IN), 1-800-522-4700 (WY, KS) or visit ksgamblinghelp.com (KS), 1-877-770-STOP (LA), 1-877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY), TN REDLINE 1-800-889-9789 (TN) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Hour 2: Keith breaks down the Jets Week 2 game against the Cowboys and says the Jets will have a hard time against the Dallas defense. 

AI's garnered a lot of discussion. Rightfully so. One aspect that I don't hear talked about much is the idea that AI isn't a shortcut to fame and glory for an artist. One MUST still learn the fundamentals of whatever craft they're pursuing. Think of all the advancements in cameras. And yet, none of that matters if the user doesn't understand the basics of cinematography. Here's an example of an amateur with one of the best cameras vs a pro with a low quality camera: https://youtu.be/zSxIbZFsn-g?si=Sc2kDfOzAJHfTnqM. So check out this episode and please share your thoughts down in the comment section or hit me up on social media @PhilSvitek. BTW, here's a link to the Team Deakins podcast referenced in the episode: https://teamdeakins.libsyn.com/. Lastly, for more free resources from your 360 creative coach, check out my website at http://philsvitek.com. RESOURCES/LINKS:  -Coach or Consultant Services: https://philsvitek.com/lets-work-together/   -Podcast Services: http://philsvitek.com/podcastservices  -Love Market Film: https://www.amazon.com/Love-Market-Amy-Cassandra-Martinez/dp/B09DFS3FTZ/ref=sr_1_14  -Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/philsvitek   -Merchandise: https://shop.spreadshirt.com/phil-svitek---360-creative-coach/   -Instagram: http://instagram.com/philsvitek   -Facebook: http://facebook.com/philippsvitek  -Twitter: http://twitter.com/philsvitek  -Financially Fit Foundation: http://financiallyfitfoundation.org  -Master Mental Fortitude Book: http://mastermentalfortitude.com  -Elan, Elan Book: http://philsvitek.com/elan-elan   -In Search of Sunrise Book: http://philsvitek.com/in-search-of-sunrise  -A Bogotá Trip Film: https://philsvitek.com/a-bogota-trip/ 

Van Lathan and Rachel Lindsay react to the latest incident of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell freezing up in front of the press (21:51), before discussing the heat-related death of a UPS driver (42:35). Then, an argument on 'Love & Hip-Hop: Atlanta' sparks a conversation on anti-Blackness (58:59), and Coco Gauff vs. Laura Seigemund ends in white tears (1:12:33). Hosts: Van Lathan and Rachel Lindsay Producers: Donnie Beacham Jr. and Ashleigh Smith Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Chad discusses the recent online “trad wife” trend that's become increasingly popular on social media. Are these women really returning to traditional gender roles, or is this just a new way for grifters to LARP? The Maui blaze is now the deadliest U.S. wildfire in more than 100 years. When asked about the situation, Joe Biden responded, “No comment.” To make matters worse, the president was on vacation when the tragedy occurred. Rightfully so, he's getting trashed for it online. Given that the land that burned in Hawaii has long been sought after by commercial real estate investors, it's hard not to wonder about the situation. Was this simply a tragic wildfire, or is there something else going on? Questions remain about the situation. Oliver Anthony's “Rich Men North of Richmond” went super viral over the last week and has become a blue-collar anthem. Of course, leftwing outlet Rolling Stone took the opportunity to trivialize the viral sensation. It wasn't just the Left. Some people on the Right found ways to nitpick the song's lyrics, trying to interpret messages that simply aren't there. Is it possible to enjoy great art for just being great art? The song is about the pain of everyday people, and that's a message that should resonate with everyone. Video of a group of thugs ransacking a Nordstrom in Topanga is making the rounds on social media, and one has to wonder whether anyone will do anything about it. As long as these people can rob and steal with impunity, they will continue to do so, and our leaders seem not to care. The crazy plane lady, Tiffany Gomas, who went viral, released an apology, and she still has a standing invite to come on the show and explain what she saw. Skittles released new white Skittles with BLM and LGBT messaging on the packaging because everyone looks to candy companies for their morals. An autistic teen in London was arrested for saying a female police officer “looked like her lesbian nana,” which is somehow an arrestable offense in 2023. Today's Sponsors: Barrel Buddy Cleaning our guns is a REALLY important step in being a responsible gun owner. Barrel Buddy is a totally new concept and better way to take care of your firearms. So, get some today … I guarantee you'll love ‘em. Go to https://www.BarrelBuddy.com today! Magic Spoon Cereal Go to https://www.magicspoon.com/CHAD to grab a variety pack and try it today! And be sure to use our promo code CHAD at checkout to save five dollars off your order! And Magic Spoon is so confident in their product, it's backed with a 100% happiness guarantee — so if you don't like it for any reason, they'll refund your money, no questions asked. Miracle Brand Sheets Miracle is so confident in their product, it's backed with a 30 day money back guarantee — so if you aren't 100% satisfied, you'll get a full refund. Upgrade your sleep with Miracle Made! Go to https://www.TryMiracle.com/CHAD and use the code CHAD to claim your FREE 3 PIECE TOWEL SET and SAVE over 40% OFF. First Liberty Institute Here are three things you can do to promote the First Freedom Challenge. • One: Sign up at RFIA.org and commit to praying on September first. • Two: Record a short video message challenging people to take a knee in prayer with Coach Kennedy. • Three: Share your video on social media. Let the world know that the freedoms intended by our Founding Fathers are back! Join me and take the First Freedom Challenge. Sign up at https://www.RFIA.org  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hey Readers! This week we talk about the second book in the Knockemout series by Lucy Score! Nash, is on the struggle bus! Rightfully so since his tragic accident, but can he get out of his own head? What cant he remember from that night? Lots of things arent making sense to him but sometimes thats not as bad as it seems! Listen with us! --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/bookishlikethat/support

An 82-game regular season has been the norm in the NBA for the better part of 5 decades now. In a regular season where action takes place every night, even the most dramatic of moments can be fleeting, especially in today's age of social media where it's all about clicks and impressions before our brains starve for the next piece of content. Rightfully and fairly so, the greatest NBA moments belong to the Finals and the postseason, where herculean heroes duke it out for eternal glory in the lore of this beautiful game. In today's episode we continue our series of Random Game Rewind, where we hope in the NBA time machine and take a visit to some of the forgotten games from regular season history, and analyze how they've gone on to affect the grand scheme of things. Pack  your winter gear, bundle up, and join me as we take a short trip back to a cold February night in Cleveland just 5 ½ years ago. Two years before LeBron James and Jimmy Butler would square off in the 2020 NBA Finals, they put on a big time show, specifically LeBron James, in a random regular season game just two years prior to their championship tilt. This is Once Upon A Dribble.  --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/onceuponadribble/support

Fans are giving up on the Yankees and the organization has earned that lack of trust. Will Verlander go? Will the Yankees sell? Buckle up for a crazy day.

 According to Wikapedia, Jerry Miculek is referred to as "The Greatest Shooter of All Times". Rightfully so, he holds numerous world speed shooting records but also hit a small target at 1,000 yards shooting a 9mm handgun, off-hand. His doing so impresses me more than his world speed shooting records. Kay's father was Jimmy Clark, one of the world's best pistolsmiths and shooters. He taught his daughter early on how to shoot handguns and shoot them ultra accurately. She has collected many Gold and Silver Medals shooting in World IPSC competitions as well as in other handgun competitions. Jerry and Kay Miculek combined are without a doubt two of the world's best and most known and recognized shooters. In this episode we talk about a lot of things, but mostly not about shooting competitions and more about hunting, wildlife and growing up in the country! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We're pulling back the curtain on the world of indie game development. Join us as we sit down with the dynamic trio from Daylight Basement Studios — Chris, Mike, and Garrett, the masterminds behind the game, Rightfully Beary Arms. We get an insider's look at the journey that brought these three together, from their initial meeting at IBM to the formation of their gaming studio. Their passion for game development shines through as they share their experiences and the challenges they overcame to bring their vision to life.Ready to immerse yourself in a universe filled with vibrant colors, impressive graphics, and unique 3D aesthetics? Rightfully Beary Arms does just that, and we dive headfirst into how these elements were used to create a world that can captivate and engross players. And if the immersive visuals weren't enough, prepare to be amazed by the game's charm — from their hilarious dialogues to their roguelike mechanics. And the icing on the cake? Garrett's brilliant music composition that perfectly encapsulates the essence of the game and takes the experience to a whole new level.Finally, we take you through the final stretch of our journey with Daylight Basement Studios by discussing the challenges and the joy of game development. The conversation with Garrett reveals the importance of understanding the game's brand before composing its music and how he managed to balance various aspects of the project. And as a special treat, we let you in on some of the hilarious lines that had us in splits. All this and more, in one insightful and entertaining episode. Don't forget to check the game out on Steam and visit the game's website. So, strap in and enjoy the ride!Wishlist Rightfully, Beary Arms: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1928030/Rightfully_Beary_Arms/Check out Daylight Basement Studios: https://daylightbasementstudio.com/Support the showJoin our Discord!Support the show! Join our Patreon today. https://www.patreon.com/gamerheadsWe have three different, affordable tiers. Gamerheads Internship - $3/month The Gamerheads Newsletter Patron shout-out Entered for a chance to win monthly giveaways Production Support Staff - $5/month The Gamerheads Newsletter Merch Patron shout-out Entered for a chance to win monthly giveaways Gamerheads Board Member - $10/month The Gamerheads Newsletter Merch Patron shout-out Fan requests - Vote on the game we collectively talk about Fan requests - Ask us questions! Entered for a chance to win monthly giveaways Follow us on Twitter - https://twitter.com/GamerheadsPodSend us an email: info@gamerheadspodcast.comMusic: Jeff Dasler - RecusedScott Gratton - Wheel IntroVarious Artists - Return to Control Leave us a review on Apple Podcasts!

Madonna spent a couple days in the ICU. Scary stuff. Vanna White wants a raise to stay on the Wheel Of Fortune. Rightfully so! Thanks to our podcast partner Centris Federal Credit Union! You can rep our show! Buy some Pat and JT Podcast swag HERE! Subscribe, rate, and review our podcast wherever you get your podcasts so you don't miss an episode! Also follow up on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram A Hurrdat Media Production. Hurrdat Media is a digital media and commercial video production company based in Omaha, NE. Find more podcasts on the Hurrdat Media Network and learn more about our other services today on HurrdatMedia.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Cheryl Bachelder, former CEO of Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen, was determined to turn around the struggling fast-food chain. The leadership team focused on improving the company’s relationship with their 340 franchise owners. By choosing to serve and even love these individuals, they saw dramatic results. Their change of behavior was spurred by one question: “Do you love the people you lead?” What does it mean to love the people you lead? Jesus shows us in John 13. Not a person present at the Passover meal would ever forget this demonstration of servant leadership. Since the men would recline at the table to eat, their feet would have been relatively close to the food. Foot washing was necessary, but typically assigned to a lowly servant. Imagine everyone’s surprise when Jesus took the initiative to do the dirty job. One of the first phases of the Passover meal was the ceremonial hand washing with a unique laver bowl and towel. Peter, like the others, needed clarification about what was happening. Rightfully so. Jesus was setting the example for them of loving others through service regardless of rank or position (vv. 15–16). Whenever we consider a task below us, we would do well to remember this example set by our Lord and Savior. Loving one another as Jesus loved ought to be the identifying mark of all Christian believers (v. 35). Everything else falls under the umbrella of this command. The love and service of unlikely Christian leaders toward one another make them stand out in pagan societies. >> Is there a task you struggle to do? What if you embrace this unsavory job as an opportunity to love like Jesus? For all leaders today, especially Christian leaders, our lives ought to influence our families, churches, and organizations through selfless love and sacrificial service. Just as Jesus loved us, we are called to love one another.

Interview Starts at 00:35:43Matt and Lucas break down the Nintendo direct, plus an interview with Chris and Michael, the developers of Rightfully Beary Arms, from Daylight Basement Studio!Follow the podcast! Twitter, Instagram and Tiktok @tfppodcasts

We are so stoked to have Marcel Ardans of the Lessons With Marcel YouTube channel as our guest on No Simple Road this week! Marcel Ardans is a guitarist, teacher and YouTuber active in the Raleigh music scene. His time in the bluegrass scene began in the Pacific Northwest, where he wood-shedded and gigged extensively with local and regional acts. Rightfully earning the nickname “The Biggest Baddest Billy Goat In The Barnyard”. In 2015, he started the online business Lessons With Marcel. The goal was to bring flatpicking and bluegrass guitar to those who wanted instruction but lacked local resources, essentially trying to make bluegrass more accessible, to grow the community.We chop it up with Marcel about:His experience of living with hearing loss as a musician and trying to get into music school.His deep love and obsession with Bluegrass music and why it's a Normal Rockwell painting.His reasons for wanting to play music and teach music later on in life.Why he decided to bring the history lessons back to the YouTube channel.His take on both traditional and the new grass styles.How learning the roots of a thing only deepens your experience with it.His new podcast "Podcast With Marcel' and how that came to be.How he has dealt with a growing community.... and much, much more!Head over to his YouTube Channel 'Lessons With Marcel' and his website www.lessonswithmarcel.com for more info, lessons, music, and more!INTRO MUSIC PROVIDED BY - WILL HANZA OF ESCAPER-FREE SHIPPING from Shop Tour Bus Use The PROMO CODE: nosimpleroad-Make Sure to visit our friends at Fire On The Mountain for some amazing food at one of the 3 location in the Portland area or one of the 2 location in the Denver area!-CHECK OUT THE NSR EXCLUSIVE BETA PREVIEW OF www.venuellama.comMUSIC IN THE COMMERCIALS BY AND USED WITH PERMISSION OF:CIRCLES AROUND THE SUNOUTRO MUSIC BY AND USED WITH PERMISSION OF:CHILLDREN OF INDIGONo Simple Road is part of OSIRIS MEDIA. Osiris Media is the leading storyteller in music, combining the intimacy of podcasts with the power of music.We inform and delight music fans by creating shows with leading artists, telling untold stories, and working with brands to craft compelling narratives that bring music to life.Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/nosimpleroad. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hour 1: Randy Scott and Michael Rothstein in for Canty and Carlin react to the Celtics staving off elimination and forcing a Game 7. Marcus Smart had some thoughts on his Head Coach. Plus we draft the best and worst NFL games of Weeks 1 through 4. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices