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In this episode, I'm sharing a realization that came to me during meditation about how our life experiences are never random or wasted; they're actually building on each other the whole time.  I talk about how watching my son move from gymnastics into tackle football made me see how skills from one season of life prepare us for the next, even when we don't realize it. I also share stories from my own journey, from spray tanning educator to speaking, and from my husband's path in construction, to show how the things we once thought were unrelated were actually preparing us all along.  This episode is an invitation to look back at your own life and recognize how every experience has been quietly adding tools to your belt. Similar episodes to this topic:  299: Why The "Random" Interest Isn't Random, It's A Larger Plan Unfolding 255: How to Be Happy with Where You Are (Even If It's Not Where You Want to Be) Join The Monthly Woo Woo Wednesday Live Meetup! Let's be friends on Instagram!

Last month, Olympia became the first city in Washington, and one of just a handful in the country, to pass explicit protections for polyamorous families. The city passed two ordinances in late February that establish protections for people in diverse family and relationship structures. Supporters say the changes are aimed at protecting these community members against discrimination and unfair housing practices. Similar efforts are underway in multiple cities across the west coast. More than 60% of people who responded to a 2025 survey on non-monogamy said they experienced discrimination or stigma in at least one domain, like healthcare or employment. We spoke to an advocate who backed these ordinances -- and who's hoping to bring similar change to Seattle. Guests: Jessa Davis is the executive director for the Seattle Coalition for Family and Relationship Equity Related links: First WA city with protections for polyamorous families | The Olympian In the Northwest, polyamory finds something new: legal protection | The Seattle Times Polyamorous protections moving ahead in Portland as council reaffirms LGBTQ safe harbor status | oregonlive.com 2025 Community Survey Report | OPEN (Organization for Polyamory and Ethical Non-monogamy) Thank you to the supporters of KUOW, you help make this show possible! If you want to help out, go to kuow.org/donate/soundsidenotes Soundside is a production of KUOW in Seattle, a proud member of the NPR Network.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Send a textWe're back for the ninth installment of He Said She Said, our regular crossover series with Dan Nathan and Guy Adami of CNBC's Fast Money. We recorded just after the open Friday morning, breaking down a February jobs report that caught many off guard  -- 92,000 jobs lost, massive downward revisions to prior months, and mounting evidence of an organic economic slowdown that's been building for over a year, well before AI has meaningfully reshaped the labor force.We dive into the Paramount-Warner Brothers mega-deal, what amounts to the largest leveraged buyout in history led by the Ellison family with sovereign wealth fund backing and clear echoes of Elon Musk's Twitter acquisition playbook. Kristen walks through the deal mechanics and the real meaning behind "synergies" -- Wall Street's favorite euphemism for mass layoffs -- while the group debates the timeline for AI-driven workforce displacement across sectors from tech to banking.Jen brings the macro picture into sharp focus, drawing parallels to 2008 as oil prices spike amid escalating geopolitical tensions, war insurance gets pulled from shipping vessels, and the bond market sends confusing signals about inflation and flight-to-quality dynamics. The conversation rounds out with a look at emerging cracks in private credit markets -- including cases of double-pledged collateral fraud coming to light -- and what a persistently elevated VIX alongside modest equity drawdowns might be telling us about complacency lurking beneath the surface.For a 14 day FREE Trial of Macabacus, click HEREShop our Self Paced Courses: Investment Banking & Private Equity Fundamentals HEREFixed Income Sales & Trading HERE Wealthfront.com/wss. This is a paid endorsement for Wealthfront. May not reflect others' experiences. Similar outcomes not guaranteed. Wealthfront Brokerage is not a bank. Rate subject to change. Promo terms apply. If eligible for the boosted rate of 4.15% offered in connection with this promo, the boosted rate is also subject to change if base rate decreases during the 3 month promo period.The Cash Account, which is not a deposit account, is offered by Wealthfront Brokerage LLC ("Wealthfront Brokerage"), Member FINRA/SIPC. Wealthfront Brokerage is not a bank. The Annual Percentage Yield ("APY") on cash deposits as of 11/7/25, is representative, requires no minimum, and may change at any time. The APY reflects the weighted average of deposit balances at participating Program Banks, which are not allocated equally. Wealthfront Brokerage sweeps cash balances to Program Banks, where they earn the variable APY. Sources HERE.

In this episode of The Smart Property Investment Show, SPI managing editor Liam Garman sits down with James Nelis from The Nelis Group to discuss how elite sport discipline and having a champion's mindset build a powerhouse property portfolio. Nelis, a former semi-professional Australian Football League (AFL) player, draws on 15 years of experience in elite sport to show how discipline, strategy, and resilience drive successful property investing. Similar to training, Nelis champions the "one percenters" approach, proving that tiny, consistent actions compound into major property wins. A key takeaway from Nelis' strategy is "sequencing versus timing," encouraging investors to focus on their stage in the financial journey while using a "Moneyball"-style approach to let data guide, not dictate, their investment decisions. Nelis also warns investors against overcommitting, recalling a period of over-leveraging during rising interest rates to stress-test financial limits. He also stresses the need to manage ego and emotion to avoid short-term market swings from derailing long-term plans, while building a diversified portfolio in which each property serves a clear purpose for sustainable growth. If you like this episode, show your support by rating us or leaving a review on Apple Podcasts and by following Smart Property Investment on social media: Facebook, X (formerly Twitter) and LinkedIn. If you would like to get in touch with our team, email editor@smartpropertyinvestment.com.au for more insights, or hear your voice on the show by recording a question below.

During the Cold War, some of the most dangerous encounters between East and West took place far beneath the ocean's surface. I speak with historian Dr. Paul Brown, author of Secret Warriors: British Submarines during the Cold War. Brown reveals the extraordinary covert missions carried out by Royal Navy submarines as they monitored Soviet naval bases near Murmansk and the Barents Sea. British boats gathered vital intelligence by recording the acoustic signatures of Soviet submarines, trailing enemy vessels, and observing major naval exercises. These missions were risky and occasionally resulted in collisions, such as the dramatic incident involving HMS Warspite in 1968. Along the way, Brown shares remarkable stories of Cold War espionage at sea, including a daring intelligence operation where a British submarine secretly observed the Soviet aircraft carrier Kiev from just a few feet away. This is a rare glimpse into one of the Cold War's most secretive battlefields: the depths of the ocean. Buy the book here and support the podcast⁠⁠ Episode extras here ⁠⁠ https://coldwarconversations.com/episode446⁠ Similar episodes: On Her Majesty's Nuclear Submarine Service ⁠https://coldwarconversations.com/episode162/ From the Merchant Navy to Covert Hunter Killer Nuclear Submarine Missions https://coldwarconversations.com/episode388/ ⁠ Go to ⁠⁠https://surfshark.com/coldwardeal⁠⁠ or use code COLDWARDEAL at checkout to get 4 extra months of Surfshark VPN! Help me preserve Cold War history via a simple monthly donation, You'll become part of our community, get ad-free episodes, and receive a sought-after CWC coaster as a thank-you, and you'll bask in the warm glow of knowing you are helping to preserve Cold War history. Just go to ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://coldwarconversations.com/donate/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ If a monthly contribution is not your cup of tea, we also welcome one-off donations via the same link. Find the ideal gift for the Cold War enthusiast in your life! Just go to ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://coldwarconversations.com/store/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ CONTINUE  THE COLD WAR CONVERSATION BlueSky ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://bsky.app/profile/coldwarpod.bsky.social⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Threads ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.threads.net/@coldwarconversations⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Twitter/X ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://twitter.com/ColdWarPod⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Facebook ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.facebook.com/groups/coldwarpod/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Instagram ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/coldwarconversations/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Youtube ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://youtube.com/@ColdWarConversations⁠⁠⁠⁠ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Send a textBetter on YouTube: https://youtu.be/AhxqxrQdIpQ?si=LOx5MlphCo9RgjhLRob Fraser took his brand from $1,000 in student loans to over $60m in sales with zero investors & no ads for the first million in revenue.Similar to me, he started off with a burning desire to prove everybody wrong.He got cut from every sports team he tried out for, wasn't popular in school, but knew he was meant for more.That drive led him to a 10-year career in professional cycling... achieving huge success & winning multiple national titles.But then his cycling career ended... and he felt lost.Having gone to school & not enjying it (knowing he was meant for more), he started selling socks.He started his company Outway with $1,000 from his student loans, got his first batch of product in less than 60 days & immediately started selling.After 10 years of hard work, going through lawsuits, having to buy out his business partner, go into debt & push through hardship, he scaled to an 8-figure valuation & over $60m in total sales.On this podcast, we dive deep into his journey, personal motivations & exactly how he's built his brand.Here's some of the stuff we speak about:> Exactly how he went from a broke ex-athlete selling socks out of a Tupperware container at school to building a $60m brand> How he secretly ran a second business on the side to fund the growth of Outway without taking on any debt or investors> The brand building strategy behind Outway and elite knowledge on how to start and scale in ecommerce> Why he almost failed because chasing growth for the wrong reasons (and what he did to turn it around)> What most first-time founders get wrong when it comes to delegation, scaling, and building a real company> Why taking advice is overrated and what to do insteadAnyway, this was one of the best episodes I've done. Worth the 2 hours, I'd say ;)Support the show

Send a textIn this special emergency episode of The Wall Street Skinny, we sat down with Andreas Laskaratos, CEO of AB Commodities Group, a global oil and gas shipping and trading firm with operations spanning Europe, Asia, and the Americas. Andreas is one of the few people in the world who operates across both the physical and financial sides of the commodities complex, and he's been a longtime friend of the show.With Iran blockading the Strait of Hormuz, shipping rates spiking 5x overnight, and 20% of global oil flow suddenly in question, there was no one we wanted to talk to more. Andreas walks us through the mechanics of what's actually happening when it comes to oil, natural gas, and the broader commodities complex.We cover everything from the basics (WTI vs. Brent, what actually comes out of a barrel of crude, why it costs Saudi Arabia $5 to extract oil and the U.S. $50) to the trades being put on right now, why China is likely hurting the most, and what the 45-day timeline to $150 oil actually looks like. Andreas also had his war insurance canceled in real time while we were recording, which pretty much tells you everything you need to know about where things stand.Whether you work in finance, energy, or you're just trying to understand why your gas prices look the way they do this is the best crash course you'll get in commodities in under an hour.For a 14 day FREE Trial of Macabacus, click HEREShop our Self Paced Courses: Investment Banking & Private Equity Fundamentals HEREFixed Income Sales & Trading HERE Wealthfront.com/wss. This is a paid endorsement for Wealthfront. May not reflect others' experiences. Similar outcomes not guaranteed. Wealthfront Brokerage is not a bank. Rate subject to change. Promo terms apply. If eligible for the boosted rate of 4.15% offered in connection with this promo, the boosted rate is also subject to change if base rate decreases during the 3 month promo period.The Cash Account, which is not a deposit account, is offered by Wealthfront Brokerage LLC ("Wealthfront Brokerage"), Member FINRA/SIPC. Wealthfront Brokerage is not a bank. The Annual Percentage Yield ("APY") on cash deposits as of 11/7/25, is representative, requires no minimum, and may change at any time. The APY reflects the weighted average of deposit balances at participating Program Banks, which are not allocated equally. Wealthfront Brokerage sweeps cash balances to Program Banks, where they earn the variable APY. Sources HERE.

(00:00) Chris Forsberg joins Hardy and Wallach. They begin by talking about their winter golf game. Is Jayson Tatum getting any closer to a return? (19:21) Forsberg continues to talk C's with the guys. Should Mazzulla be the frontrunner for Coach of the Year? (32:58) The guys react to Greg Bedard saying that Alec Pierce shows flashes of Randy Moss in his game. Please note: Timecodes may shift by a few minutes due to inserted ads. Because of copyright restrictions, portions—or entire segments—may not be included in the podcast.For the latest updates, visit the show page on 985thesportshub.com. Follow 98.5 The Sports Hub on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Watch the show every morning on YouTube, and subscribe to stay up-to-date with all the best moments from Boston's home for sports!See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

There is one truth that has followed every major technological revolution in human history. Energy demand always rises to meet technological capability. When we industrialized, coal consumption exploded. When we built the modern transportation system, oil demand reshaped global geopolitics. When we entered the digital age, electricity quietly became the backbone of the global economy. And now we are entering the AI era. What most people don't appreciate is that AI is not just a software revolution. It is an electricity revolution. Training a single advanced AI model can consume as much electricity as tens of thousands of homes use in an entire year. And once trained, these models continue to run inside data centers filled with specialized hardware operating 24 hours a day. A single large AI data center can require over 1 gigawatt of power. To put that into perspective, that's enough electricity to power roughly 700,000 homes. One building consuming the equivalent of a major city. Now consider that companies like Microsoft, Google, Meta, and Amazon are planning dozens of these facilities. Suddenly, you begin to see the scale of what's happening. Even individual AI queries consume more power than traditional computing tasks meaningfully. One estimate suggests an AI query can use roughly 10 times the electricity of a traditional search query. That difference seems trivial until you multiply it by billions of interactions per day. This is why, for the first time in decades, electricity demand in the United States is accelerating again. For nearly 20 years, electricity demand was relatively flat. Efficiency gains offset economic growth. But AI, electrification of transportation, and domestic manufacturing are reversing that trend. And here's where the story becomes even more interesting. China understands this. China is building power infrastructure at a pace that is difficult to comprehend. They are adding entire national-scale power capacity every few years. In 2023 alone, China added more new coal power capacity than the rest of the world combined. At the same time, they are installing solar and wind at record rates, becoming the global leader in renewable deployment. They are not choosing one energy source. They are choosing all of them. Because they understand that energy availability determines technological leadership. Meanwhile, in the United States, building new power plants and transmission infrastructure can take a decade or more due to regulatory hurdles, permitting delays, and political resistance. This creates a very real risk. The country that can generate the most reliable, scalable energy will have a structural advantage in AI, manufacturing, and economic growth. Energy is becoming the limiting factor. And whenever something becomes a bottleneck, investment opportunities emerge. We are entering a period where trillions of dollars will be spent on power generation, grid modernization, nuclear energy, solar, battery storage, geothermal, and technologies that most people have never even heard of. Some of the biggest fortunes of the next decade will likely be tied directly or indirectly to solving this energy constraint. In today's episode, we explore alternative energy sources, the challenges we face, and the technologies that may power the future. Because understanding energy is no longer optional if you want to understand where the world is going. And as investors, those who see these shifts early have the opportunity to position themselves ahead of the crowd. Watch on YouTube: https://youtu.be/D0Lpmq0SAvo Listen on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/548-ai-is-about-to-trigger-an-energy-crisis-most/id718416620?i=1000752299883 Listen on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/5l4674hFIJPWkz0spMq4YL Transcript Disclaimer: This transcript was generated by AI and may not be 100% accurate. If you notice any errors or corrections, please email us at phil@wealthformula.com.  Welcome everybody. This is Buck Joffery, the Wealth Formula podcast. And today, before we begin, I wanna remind you as always, there is a website associated with this podcast, wealthformula.com. That’s where you want to go. If you have, uh, an interest in uh, ing more in the community in particular, there is a, a credit investor club. AKA investor club, which you need to sign up for. Uh, go to wealthformula.com and see some private deal flow at, uh, no cost to you, uh, that, uh, you might have an interest in. Uh, let’s talk about today’s show. It’s a little bit about, uh, something. You know, that is, uh, on I think, a, a major issue, uh, going into the next decade. Um, you know, there’s one truth that’s followed. Every major technological revolution in human history. Energy demand is always rise, uh, to meet technological capability. You know, when we industrialize, uh, coal consumption exploded, obviously when we built modern transportation system oil. Demand, uh, reshaped global geopolitics. And when he entered the digital age, electricity became the backbone of the global economy, and now we’re entering the era of artificial intelligence. Now, what most people don’t appreciate is that AI is not just a software revolution, it’s an electricity revolution. Uh, training a single advanced AI model can consume as much electricity as literally tens of thousands of homes in an entire year. And once trained, these models continue to run inside data centers filled with specialized hardware operating 24 hours a day. A single large AI data center can require what’s called a entire one gigawatt of power. Now, what’s a gigawatt? Well, to put this all into perspective, that’s enough electricity to power. Roughly 700,000 homes, one building consuming the equivalent of a major city. Now, consider that companies like Microsoft, Google Meta, Amazon, they’re applying to build dozens of these facilities, and suddenly you begin to see the scale of what’s happening. Uh, even individual AI queries when you do them, they consume a lot more power than traditional computing tasks. Um, there’s an estimate that suggests that an AI query. Can use roughly 10 times the electricity of a traditional, uh, search query. The difference seems trivial until you multiply that by like billions of these interactions per day. And that is why for the first time in decades, electricity demand in the United States is accelerating again and doing so quickly. Now you might ask, well, you know, what’s been happening for the last 20 years? Well, electricity demand was actually relatively. Flat. And a lot of that is because of efficiency gains, offsetting economic growth, but ai, electrification of transportation, domestic manufacturing, they’re all gonna reverse that trend. And, and here’s where the story becomes even more interesting, because we know that China already understands this. China’s building power infrastructure at a pace that’s difficult to really even comprehend. They’re adding entire national skill, power, capacity every few years. In 2023 alone, China added more new coal power capacity than the rest of the world combined. And at the same time, they’re installing solar, wind, all these things at record rates becoming really the global leader in re renewable deployment. So you don’t think of China is that way, but they are. They’re not choosing one energy source. They’re choosing all of them. And because they understand that energy availability will determine technological leadership. Meanwhile, in the US things are kind of slower. Building a, a new power plant and transmissions infrastructure can take a decade or more. We got lots of regulatory hurdles and permitting delays in political resistance that the Chinese don’t have, and that creates a lot of risk. The country that can generate the most reliable, scalable energy, we’ll have a structural advantage in AI manufacturing and economic growth. And that is a big, big deal because energy at the end of the day is becoming. The limiting factor for growth, and whenever something becomes a bottleneck, you also get investment opportunities that emerge. So we’re entering a period where trillions of dollars will be spent on power generation, grid modernization, nuclear energy, solar battery, geothermal, you name it. And a lot of those things you’ve never heard of. Some of the biggest fortunes of the next decades will be tied directly or indirectly to solving these energy constraints. That is why in today’s episodes we’re gonna explore these alternative energy sources, kind of get an idea of what’s going on with them. I know it doesn’t sound super exciting or sexy, but understanding energy right now is, is not optional. If you wanna understand where the world is going, and as investors, those who see these shifts early are gonna have an opportunity to position themselves ahead of the crowd, and we’re gonna have. A conversation to highlight all of that right after these messages. Wealth formula banking is an ingenious concept powered by whole life insurance, but instead of acting just as a safety net, the strategy supercharges your investments. First, you create a personal financial reservoir that grows at a compounding interest rate much higher than any bank savings account. As your money accumulates, you borrow from your own. Bank to invest in other cash flowing investments. Here’s the key. Even though you’ve borrowed money at a simple interest rate, your insurance company keeps paying. You compound interest on that money even though you’ve borrowed it at result, you make money in two places at the same time. That’s why your investments get supercharged. This isn’t a new technique, it’s a refined strategy used by some of the wealthiest families in history, and it uses century old rock solid insurance companies as its back. Turbocharge your investments. Visit wealthformulabanking.com. Again, that’s wealthformulabanking.com. Welcome back to the short rewind, uh, energy demand is, uh, rising, not just from ai but from electrification. Population growth, economic activity itself. At the same time, we’re trying to transition how energy’s produced, which creates, uh, real trade-offs around cost, reliability, and scale. Today’s conversation isn’t about, uh, ideology necessarily, but it’s about the economics of energy and what’s realistic as demand continues to grow. And to help us think this through. I’m joined by Dr. Ga Hockman, professor of Environmental and Resource Economics, with the PhD from Columbia University Gall. Welcome to the show. Good morning. So let’s just start very basic here. In your view, why does economic growth almost always translate into higher energy demand? Because production is very dependent on energy. And so whenever you wanna expand production, you wanna expand food, you need more energy. And this is actually what we’re trying to decouple, to create production processes that are less energy intensive. So as we grow, as we become happier, more viable, we don’t necessarily need more energy. So, uh, setting, uh, ai, artificial intelligence aside for a second, are we already in a path where electricity demand has to rise, you know, meaningfully over the next decade? I mean, what, what kind of projections do we look at there? We need to decouple growth from energy. We didn’t do that yet. As long as we don’t do it. Uh, growth will be associated with an increase in energy demand, not as much as AI has been introducing. And that is, uh, uh, uh, jumping to a higher step. Right. Now, you’ve mentioned this a couple times in the decoupling idea how in the big picture, like how do you do that? Uh, does the low hanging fruit that the US implemented from the 1980s, 1990s, and that is energy efficiency. It, which creates a win-win. Uh, it just changed the light bulbs in your, in your house. You save electricity, but you also save money ’cause these bulbs last much longer. Assuming their cost is not high enough. Is not too high. Uh, industry is the same thing. Introducing more efficient processes. Can result endless need for energy, but we need to go a step further to make it more meaningful and to introduce production processes that simply depend less on energy or depend less on energy that is polluting. Give us another example. I mean, the light bulb is an easy one, but, um, I mean, what are some large scale ideas for that energy efficiency issue? That you’ll think about when you think about these kind of decoupling ideas. Uh, another thing, just, uh, the appliances at home, uh, you want them to, uh, be more energy efficient and the windows you put on your houses, you want it to be double blast, maybe even triple in some cases that blocks the sun and helps I, uh, isolate the house better so you don’t need to heat it as much. Insulation is very important. Uh, very similar things exist in the commercial sector. Uh, if you look at the big retail stores, they’re using a lot of light bulbs. They’re using a lot of insulation to reduce their, uh, heating costs. If they are wanting to become more energy efficient. So these are not very complicated things that can really make a change in residential, in commercial. And you can then expand it further into production process in the manufacturing. And there are different examples also there. There’s also this big driver of energy in the next couple of decades, uh, which, you know, people talk about how many more terabytes we’re gonna need just to support the artificial intelligence revolution. Do you think it’s realistic, you know, just to focus on these efficient levels? Is that enough for, for how much energy we need? No, no. And we need to expand the energy. Uh, it’s important to expand it in ways that is cleaner energy, so it does not create harm. So you don’t create a good with a bad, uh, you wanna introduce energy that is cleaner so you don’t increase, uh, pollution. Uh, impact greenhouse gases. Um, so it is also the fuel mix that you’re using. The fuel sources. Will you use solar? Will you use hydro? Will you use, uh, wind, uh, bio bioenergy, same thing. Bioenergy crops. So you wanna exp expand, you wanna. Introduce a more diverse set of feedstocks that many of them are much more, uh, cleaner than the existing one. Uh, so the movement to renewable is important. Uh, and again, you don’t need to decrease the existing infrastructure, but the new infrastructure at least needs to come from a cleaner sources. You need to improve our use of batteries. Yeah. Let, let’s break down some of the things that you’ve talked about. So, solar, okay. Um, what did, what does solar do well and where does it struggle? Solar, people forget, in 2005 it was $10. Now it’s below $1. So we need to understand that there is a transition in the transition. Many times costly, but we need to learn and bring it down that. Learning came in terms of installation. The installation became much more efficient, uh, much less costly, much faster, and that brought the price of solar down. Uh, solar has been performing very well in many places. Uh, eh, solar today is cheaper than many of the most polluting, uh, infrastructure for power in the world. If I remember correctly, the number, it’s around 500 gigawatts, which is a big number. Uh, they can, that solar can outcompete the existing, uh, energy sources. Uh, where it’s struggling is that, um. Silicon will be is is in high demand and that is a creating a floor that prevents solar from going even lower, but it can also create a constraint in the future as you expand it further. Can you explain for, for us just the silicon issue? ’cause is that. So it’s just a, a silicon is a major component and we don’t have enough, is that what you’re saying? Yes. Yes, exactly. And then doesn’t that drive up the price of silicon? Yes, but we, we didn’t hit that. We, we we’re, we’re, uh, but there are actually various entities working on alternatives. From MIT to companies, uh, that are offering interesting solutions. Yes. You mentioned storage as well. Um, energy storage. Um, how close are we to storage being really viable at scale? I mean, this is, um, you know, we certainly, battery technology has improved, but, you know, how, how, how close are we to it? Becoming something that is, is really, really helping the issues. Uh, it’s challenging ’cause right now it makes it more expensive. But if the more we use it, the more we learn, the more we understand, the more, uh, efficient and cost efficient we can introduce it. Cost will go down. So it’s like the, how do you push it forward? How do you adopt these technologies? Now, we should always remember that there are, in some places, it is already very viable. But it demands certain, uh, uh, circumstances. For example, uh, the Southwest has a location where it has, uh, underground water and solar. The solar heats the underground water. So the underground water becomes the storage that, uh, then the steam becomes the electricity in the night. And that is a very viable process. Hydro with wind goes also very well, and again, uh, they manage to store, uh, use the wind to bring water upstream, and then when there’s no wind, the water flows downstream and through hydro creates electricity. Batteries, it’s technology. Uh, will a breakthrough come one day? I believe so, but again, I, I can’t predict it. Um, we can talk about, um, you know, natural gas, right? I mean, natural gas doesn’t get much attention, uh, in the transition narrative, but how important is it today in maintaining grid stability in supporting renewables? Reliability is more important than prices to many of us. No one likes blackout and if you talk with the, those that monitor and and manage the electricity markets, that’s their top priority, not the price. Uh, we don’t like it when we don’t have electricity. We we’re very dependent on it. So reliability is definitely be, uh, uh, uh, a must before you even move towards renewables. Absolutely. Before prices even, uh, uh, for anyone in the us. Um, so NA Gas has the potential, uh, it has less. CO2. The problem with NA gas is that the infrastructure is leaking. That means that the pipeline are emitting and methane because of leaks. Uh, I believe that needs to be addressed. Uh, uh, natural gas has the potential to be used, but. You need to not use it with an infrastructure that is, uh, resulting in more damage than good. It kind of defeats the purpose of it. What would do you look at natural gas as a short term bridge or something that, you know, the, the system may rely on, you know, in, in a much longer, uh, timeframe, even with other renewables. I would be careful in creating a bridge because that this infrastructure is very expensive. Once you put the amount of money needed to create infrastructure, it’s very hard to change it. Having said that, you will have solutions that will use fossil fuels, which includes natural gas, even in the long run, simply because the cost and the benefits will add up in a way that. It won’t make any sense moving away from fossils. In my opinion, not everyone will agree with me. Yeah, but, and, and you do have technologies that can make fossil fuels much, much cleaner. Like carbon capture used in storage. Uh, that technology has a huge potential. You can recycle the hydrogen and recycle other components in the refinery process that results in a cleaner fuel. But it’s something that we need to incentivize the companies to do. Uh, a company will not do it independently ’cause it’s more costly and that’s important. How about nuclear? I mean, nuclear. Offers reliable carbon free, you know, power. Yet it hasn’t scaled the way many people expected. Um. Why is that people are afraid of nuclear. Look at the three Mile Island and, and look at Fukushima and Chernobyl for that matter. People remember those stories and that really resonates with them badly. And there’s also a problem in the accounting of nuclear. Even the most safest countries in the world like Japan will everyone considered super safe. Even they have an accounting problem. So there is the concern that. Even small amounts get leaked out to the wrong hands. That can be a very bad outcome. Eh? Having said that, there is, I don’t know. I don’t follow it too much, but I do know there is a drive to create small nuclear plants, mobile plants, eh, from my recollection for two, three years ago, the company that I heard of was very successful at that. Eh, Japan went back to nuclear different than Germany. By the way. Germany did not try to, uh, divest from nuclear. So there are some places that nuclear becomes very important. I think it’s also becomes important in some areas that work in ai. So it has been introduced as a source of electricity. Can you tell us a little bit about small modular reactors? There’s a lot of buzz about that. What, what exactly are they? I mean, how small are they? You know, safety wise, uh, they’re mobile, they’re not very big. And, uh, that makes them, uh, much more easier to manage and control as opposed to the very big nuclear plans. Nuclear is a base load. So you use it, you, once you turn it on, you don’t want to turn it off. It’s too expensive. The on and off, it takes it a long time to, to uh, ramp up. Uh, and, uh, mobile, uh, nuclear plants are addressing many of these concerns that exist with the big plants. So they are solving it in, in what I saw pretty well in some circumstances. How small are they? I mean, are they, so would you. Would a, you know, one of these AI data centers, or what would they just, would they have one small modular react or they’ll need more than that? They’ll need more than that. Oh, they need more, more than one. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. So they’re, they’re pretty small or they like, you know, the size of a car or they. How, how small are these things? No, they’re bigger than the car, but they’re not too big. If you know of a nuclear plant, the old one, you see these big round, uh, domes, uh, they’re, they’re not that big. They’re, they’re much smaller, but they’re not as small as a car. Yeah. And so you could run maybe, uh, a, an AI center with a couple of those or something like that. Is that the idea? They have, you can see some of them. There are examples in Texas where you have the, the center basically is surrounded by small units. Are they generally safer to use, and if so, why is that? Uh, I’m not a nuclear guy. I’m not a physic. I should be careful in it, but I, I, what I understood, they’re safer to use. Also, the material i, i I is not reaching, uh, levels that safer levels than you would need for, for example, for bumps and, and stuff like that. So they’re keeping everything at a safer level. When you step back and look at the whole system and think about. What’s gonna happen in the future? Do you think it’s more likely to be dominated by one energy source or like a diversified mix as we’ve been going through? I believe a diversified mix. I also believe that in some places you will always have fossil fuels. In some places you’ll have a very quick transition to renewables. Uh. Uh, we need to look at the system view. In some places it’s easier to clean the dirty fuel. In some places it’s just easier to introduce the, the clean fuel. Uh, some places I do believe you see, for example, developing world does not have the capacity to electrify. We talk about electrification and some people are very enthusiastic about it. You don’t see it in the development world. They don’t, they lack even the US And there is a study in Princeton that came, I think three years ago. Um, if you electrify the whole US today, you need to almost triple the grid capacity. Just understand what the magnitude of money that needs to be invested to get there. Is huge. Now developing countries definitely don’t have it. Even the US doesn’t have that capacity. So, uh, developing countries, I think you might see a lot more biofuels, a lot more, uh, other, uh, substitutes that exist that are easier for them to manage. And then a system view or a more complete view is needed ’cause it’s not. What is the most efficient process? Is what process fits best in a certain area, and, and that will create a lot of heterogeneity, I think. Do you have a sense in the us I mean, what, what do you think ends up being? There’s gotta probably be one, you know, dominant source that it will, will kind of come to friction based on our own. Economics in our own situation. Do you think that’s in the, in the near future? Is that solar, you think? I mean, what, what dominates in the future here? I don’t think you’ll dominate, even in the us you won’t dominate, uh uh. You have regions in the US that are very, uh, windy. Wind farms will be the optimal path. There are places that don’t have any clouds, 350 days a YA year. So solar is perfect there. Solar also creates employment and live view for certain communities so that the employment component is an important part. So you create. Income and, and, and, uh, in, in, in life, in, in economic variability in regions with the renewables, there are other regions that have, uh, a lot of supply of, uh, excess biomass or the capacity to produce a lot of biomass, and that creates them an alternative to use biomass ’cause that’s what brings them. Again, income, which is always important, but it also brings them a feedstock that might be of a, a lot of benefits. Um, and you will have regions that are heavily so heavily invested in fossils that it will never make sense to move away from fossils, but it will make sense to create cleaner fossils through carbon capture and storage in other ways. So I don’t think the US will move into one place or another. Yeah. Um, you know, you often hear discussions about, in the US about, um, our grid being outdated. Tell us sort of at, at a high level, if you wouldn’t mind explaining the issues with the grid and, you know, what, what kind of issues that brings up as we need more energy sources. Just look at the power plants. They were, look at their ages, the age of power plants. Look at and, and then there are a few that were supposed to be retired and now have been extended, but just. That by itself is sufficient to create problems whenever you encounter a natural, uh, extreme event that, uh, stresses the system. Uh, we saw with Sandy in the northeast. The northeast was, a lot of the infrastructure was outdated. Sandy came, the system collapsed. They fixed it now, so they upgraded it. There is, uh, uh. Some of the utility. Again, I’m not, I’m following anecdotal evidence and news, not beyond that, but some of the companies are striving to improve their grid and they are trying to, uh, introduce a more sustainable and reliable system again, ’cause reliability is so important. What does, what does it mean really to even update the grid? I mean, just for people who are not in this space, what does that even mean to upgrade it? You, you, you change the equipment, you upgrade the equipment, you better manage the inter, uh, interaction of trees and, and, and the electricity lines. Uh, you bring electricity lines underground. You also improve a lot of the infrastructure, uh, of the power plants and how they distribute the energy. So this whole infrastructure is being upgraded so it can support. For example, the ai. And that actually is something that the AI might bring as a very positive thing. So it will force the system to, uh, upgrade, to introduce more efficient processes, uh, distribution mechanisms that are more resilient, which I think is important. I hear we’re kind of behind when it comes to this, when you compare it to China. Can you talk a little bit about that? China has a different structure of, or economic structure. So a lot of the, uh, driver, the driver in China is the government and money that the government allocates to these alternative technologies, and that creates a very strong drive for renewables. Eh, China is also a big driver in coal in China, so. It’s basically where the government decides to put the money, and that’s where you see the industry flourish. If you look at the numbers, the investment numbers, China outpaces any country in the world in terms of the value invested per year in the recent years, and, and they’re producing a lot more, a lot more energy than us too. Isn’t that correct? I mean, I, I’ve just been, just in terms of following the AI news, I keep hearing about it. China has no. So many more terabytes than us, uh, of energy, uh, ability. Is is that true? Uh, that I don’t know. I don’t know exactly ’cause, uh, I know they’re producing a lot. I know they are expanding a lot, and I know that in the solar space, for example, they dominate because of that. They’re already, they’re also starting to dominate in the electric vehicle space. Uh, they’re becoming to leaders in those areas. Yes. Um, big picture, I think if you wanted to sort of sum up some of the, you know, major issues that you think that, you know, people like us who are. Investors or you know, just people wanna know what’s happening in the future. Like what, what’s, what’s the message for, for people? I would, I would try to make my house more efficient. I would try to, uh, and it’s important to understand this is not only about, it is about greenhouse gases, but it’s also about if your house is more efficient, you are also paying less money. And that has a lot of benefits to it. Similar logic can follow to the industries and how they work, how, and, and conserving energy is not necessarily coming at the cost of being more or less productive. That’s what we need to understand. You can conserve energy and still produce more. You can become more efficient and you can still, and you can reduce your dependencies on, uh, energy, which I think is important. Dr. Ga Hoffman, thank you so much for being on Wealth Formula Podcast today. Thank you for inviting me. You make a lot of money but are still worried about retirement. Maybe you didn’t start earning until your thirties. Now you’re trying to catch up. Meanwhile, you’ve got a mortgage private school to pay for, and you feel like you’re getting further and further behind. A good news. If you need to catch up on retirement, check out a program put off by some of the oldest and most prestigious life insurance companies in the world. It’s called Wealth Accelerator, and it can help you amplify your returns quickly, protect your. And money from creditors and provide financial protection to your family if something happens to you. The concepts here are used by some of the wealthiest families in the world, and there’s no reason why they can’t be used by you. Check it out for yourself by going to wealthformulabanking.com. Welcome back to the show everyone. Hope you enjoyed it. And, uh, yeah, again, you know, the goal of this show is really to give you, you know, a, a macro look at what’s going on in the world and one of the things that is. Clearly an issue for the United States is energy production. And so, um, you know, stay on top of this stuff. This is, you know, this is where the puck is headed, right? Um, ai, all these things that are, are really, uh, driving the next decade of growth. Really depend on it. Anyway, that is it for me. This week on Wealth Formula Podcast. This is Buck Joffrey signing off. If you wanna learn more, you can now get free access to our in-depth personal finance course featuring industry leaders like Tom Wheel Wright and Ken McElroy. Visit wealthformularoadmap.com.

Send a textWe sat down with Ron Biscardi, the CEO and co-founder of iConnections, live at Global Alts Miami to get the skinny on what's happening with fund managers and allocators in real time. Last year, private credit was the undisputed darling of investment strategies. Now, on the heels of Blue Owl headlines and concerns about cracks within the private credit markets, headlines seem to suggest a tough road ahead.   But reality is far more nuanced. Ron synthesized both emotional reactions and hard data from investors responding to new perceived stresses in the sector in ways that might surprise you.  We also learn where smart money is pivoting, where it remains steadfast, which asset classes and investment strategies stand poised to benefit, and how allocators are positioning for highly volatile markets this year. For a 14 day FREE Trial of Macabacus, click HEREShop our Self Paced Courses: Investment Banking & Private Equity Fundamentals HEREFixed Income Sales & Trading HERE Wealthfront.com/wss. This is a paid endorsement for Wealthfront. May not reflect others' experiences. Similar outcomes not guaranteed. Wealthfront Brokerage is not a bank. Rate subject to change. Promo terms apply. If eligible for the boosted rate of 4.15% offered in connection with this promo, the boosted rate is also subject to change if base rate decreases during the 3 month promo period.The Cash Account, which is not a deposit account, is offered by Wealthfront Brokerage LLC ("Wealthfront Brokerage"), Member FINRA/SIPC. Wealthfront Brokerage is not a bank. The Annual Percentage Yield ("APY") on cash deposits as of 11/7/25, is representative, requires no minimum, and may change at any time. The APY reflects the weighted average of deposit balances at participating Program Banks, which are not allocated equally. Wealthfront Brokerage sweeps cash balances to Program Banks, where they earn the variable APY. Sources HERE.

Dr. Laura Scherck Wittkoff welcomes Ann Medlock and John Graham, the founders and leaders of the Giraffe Heroes Project—an organization that has spent over 40 years celebrating ordinary people who "stick their necks out" for the common good. From their serendipitous Superman movie meet-cute to building a global movement around courage, compassion, and community, Ann and John share how storytelling became their most powerful tool for inspiring action and creating change. Key Topics Discussed The Power of Storytelling Over Preaching - John's evolution: realizing that 10,000 years of human history—from Neanderthals to troubadours—proves that **stories inspire action** in ways speeches cannot - How storytelling bypasses the mind's objections and goes straight to the heart - The role of narrative in communicating core values and inspiring heroism Redefining Courage - Courage isn't gender-specific—it's something we all possess - Ann's bold stance: firing an advisor who claimed courage was a "man's issue" - John's journey: recognizing that emotional and spiritual courage are as powerful as physical bravery - Why physical courage (climbing mountains, dodging bullets) was easier than the emotional courage required for real change The Giraffe Heroes Project: Mission & Impact - Founded in 1981 by Ann Medlock as an antidote to violence and trivia in media - Nearly 2,000 giraffes honored across 30+ fields and 16+ countries - Seven overseas affiliates extending impact globally - Civil disobedience (à la Gandhi and MLK) is celebrated; actions must benefit significant numbers of people Collaboration Over Competition - The Giraffe Heroes school program is built on collaboration, not competition - Free, digital-accessible curriculum for teachers worldwide - The program transforms classrooms: creating "communities of learners" instead of isolated, competing students - The powerful bicycle story: a student's classmates cheer when he masters riding a two-wheel bike—something that wouldn't have happened before the program Education & Youth Empowerment - Over 2,000 classroom downloads; approximately 375,000 children reached through print materials - Materials available free at Giraffe.org/teachers (email sign-up only) - The US Navy uses the program in overseas schools - Cartoon characters "Stanley" (Stand Tall) and "Beatrice" (Be Tall)—giraffe twins—tell stories to 3-year-olds about bravery and caring - Grandpa and Grandma tell different versions to reach multiple learning styles - Teachers report that kids shift from isolated to connected when exposed to the program The Ripple Effect of Recognition - Many heroes don't see themselves as heroic and are reluctant to share their stories - Telling giraffe stories inspires not just the public, but the giraffes themselves - Real example: a small-town barber doing community work thinks no one is watching—until the story is told and volunteers and support arrive - Some giraffes report they considered quitting but were re-energized by hearing their own story shared Overcoming Barriers - **Funding:** The biggest ongoing challenge. Some funders prefer direct interventions (saving redwoods, backing candidates) over storytelling - Early federal grants supported classroom curriculum development (over $1M across 10 years) - Money and mindset: convincing people that purpose-driven storytelling is as important as tactical giving - The "lightweight" perception: early critics dismissed storytelling as trivial until results were undeniable The Love Story Within the Hero Story - Ann and John met at a writer's group in New York, 1981-1982 - Ann invited John to see the original Superman movie (somewhat reluctantly) - Their three-day courtship led to a 44+ year partnership - John initially thought the giraffe concept was "lightweight" but came to see Ann as a "troubadour for our times" - Wedding entry music: Superman theme - John writes the bylaws; Ann does the creative, bold work—"it works out well" Aging, Purpose, and Public Health - Doing good has measurable health benefits, especially for aging populations - Purpose-driven service is a form of preventive medicine - Ann is 92 years old and "not quitting"; John is 83 and still creating TikToks and short-form videos - Stories of older heroes: a woman in her 80s smuggling pharmaceuticals to Central American revolutionaries, organizing environmentalists and tribes in the Pacific Northwest - The Swiss watch metaphor: a life without purpose is like a watch with no hands—what's the point? Adapting & Staying Relevant - Evolution from LPs (33s) shipped to radio stations → print materials → digital access - Now on TikTok, Instagram, YouTube Shorts, and other social platforms - Constantly reinventing tactics and strategies while staying true to the 1981 mission - Not falling behind culturally is essential to remaining impactful The Dream: "Giraffe" as a Verb - Ann's top wish: for "giraffe" to become a verb—"Let's giraffe this!" - Similar to how "Google" and "Kleenex" became verbs - A measure of cultural penetration and lasting impact Global Scale, Tiny Budget - Working on less than $100K annually - "Tiny but mighty" organization with genuinely global impact - Known from North America to Singapore - Seven overseas affiliates amplifying reach Inspiration from Other Heroes - Ann draws inspiration from Nelson Mandela's autobiographies and insightful life stories - John's personal mantra: Robert Frost's "Two roads diverged in a yellow wood / I took the one less traveled by / And that's all the difference" - Ann's personal song: "Whatever Lola Wants" from Damn Yankees—she's created something from nothing and keeps iterating **Website:** Giraffe.org - **Teacher Materials:** Giraffe.org/teachers (free, digital, email sign-up) - **Contact:** Laura at Small and Gutsy (laura@smallandgutsy.org) - **Social Media:** Giraffe Heroes on TikTok, Instagram, YouTube Shorts **Ann Medlock** is a freelance editor, publicist, and writer who founded the Giraffe Heroes Project in 1981. She was named an Education Innovator by the National Education Association and received the Caring Institute's Caring Award. At 92 years old, she continues to lead the organization and develop new materials. **John Graham** is the Executive Director of Giraffe Heroes. A former US Foreign Service officer, he has worked on peace initiatives across Africa, Asia, and the Middle East. He has climbed Denali's north wall, hitchhiked around the world, and worked as a war correspondent. He and Ann have been partners for 44 years.

Send a textKristen and Jen tackle two major stories in this double emergency episode. First, Kristen breaks down latest update in the Warner Bros saga — how Paramount outbid Netflix with a $31/share offer, why Netflix walked away, and what the deal means financially. They cover the cursed history of Warner Bros. M&A deals, the staggering leverage Paramount is taking on (potentially the largest LBO ever), the accretion/dilution math that made this a non-starter for Netflix, and why it's an existential move for Paramount. They also get into the ticking fee structure, the $7 billion breakup fee, and why so many people are nervous about this outcome.Jen then covers the weekend's military action in the Middle East and how it's hitting markets on Monday. She walks through the relatively muted equity reaction, the split between defense stocks and travel names, the divergence between WTI and Brent crude, and why treasuries initially rallied before selling off. The yield curve is bare flattening as the market prices out near-term Fed cuts, since sustained oil price shocks would feed through to broader inflation beyond just energy. Gold is catching a bid as the classic risk-off trade, while Europe looks more vulnerable than the US to prolonged disruption given its energy dependence.Coming later this week: episodes recorded at the I Connections conference, including an Investor Relations 101 conversation and a look at where allocators are directing capital this year, with equity long/short and macro funds gaining ground over last year's private credit buzz.To subscribe to our substack click HEREFor a 14 day FREE Trial of Macabacus, click HEREShop our Self Paced Courses: Investment Banking & Private Equity Fundamentals HEREFixed Income Sales & Trading HERE Wealthfront.com/wss. This is a paid endorsement for Wealthfront. May not reflect others' experiences. Similar outcomes not guaranteed. Wealthfront Brokerage is not a bank. Rate subject to change. Promo terms apply. If eligible for the boosted rate of 4.15% offered in connection with this promo, the boosted rate is also subject to change if base rate decreases during the 3 month promo period.The Cash Account, which is not a deposit account, is offered by Wealthfront Brokerage LLC ("Wealthfront Brokerage"), Member FINRA/SIPC. Wealthfront Brokerage is not a bank. The Annual Percentage Yield ("APY") on cash deposits as of 11/7/25, is representative, requires no minimum, and may change at any time. The APY reflects the weighted average of deposit balances at participating Program Banks, which are not allocated equally. Wealthfront Brokerage sweeps cash balances to Program Banks, where they earn the variable APY. Sources HERE.

Send a textIt's a bittersweet day at The Wall Street Skinny, where we are recapping the SEASON FINALE!! While this one is lighter on finance than most episodes this season, we still dig into the mechanics of closing out a massive short position without spooking the tape. We also break down how hedge fund fees actually work — the industry-standard "two and twenty" structure where managers earn a 2% management fee on assets under management plus 20% of profits — and use that framework to reverse-engineer what this three-person fund operating out of a hotel room should have actually earned versus what got paid out. The numbers don't quite add up, and we have thoughts.This finale also takes a hard pivot into politics, power brokering, and some very dark territory for one of our favorite characters. We trace every reference and detail — from Walt Whitman to the Talented Mr. Ripley, George Orwell to Henry VIII — and debate what the show is setting up for its next chapter. Character arcs that have been building all season reach their breaking points, alliances shatter in stunning ways, and the episode forces us to ask whether people are truly capable of change or destined to become the very thing they fought against.We share our honest reactions to what worked and what left us frustrated, revisit our season-long theories one final time, and give our last bullish and bearish calls of the season. Thank you to every single listener who joined us on this ride — your feedback, theories, and insights made this our favorite recording day of the week. See you next season.For a 14 day FREE Trial of Macabacus, click HERE Visit https://iconnections.io/ to learn more about iConnections!Shop our Self Paced Courses: Investment Banking & Private Equity Fundamentals HEREFixed Income Sales & Trading HERE Wealthfront.com/wss. This is a paid endorsement for Wealthfront. May not reflect others' experiences. Similar outcomes not guaranteed. Wealthfront Brokerage is not a bank. Rate subject to change. Promo terms apply. If eligible for the boosted rate of 4.15% offered in connection with this promo, the boosted rate is also subject to change if base rate decreases during the 3 month promo period.The Cash Account, which is not a deposit account, is offered by Wealthfront Brokerage LLC ("Wealthfront Brokerage"), Member FINRA/SIPC. Wealthfront Brokerage is not a bank. The Annual Percentage Yield ("APY") on cash deposits as of 11/7/25, is representative, requires no minimum, and may change at any time. The APY reflects the weighted average of deposit balances at participating Program Banks, which are not allocated equally. Wealthfront Brokerage sweeps cash balances to Program Banks, where they earn the variable APY. Sources HERE.

This episode we'll be looking at a bunch of different references referring to the various provinces, particularly those on the far edges of the archipelago. For more, check out:  https://sengokudaimyo.com/podcast/episode-144   Rough Transcript Welcome to Sengoku Daimyo's Chronicles of Japan.  My name is Joshua, and this is episode 144: On the Edge The ships sat low in the water, bobbing gently against the docks at Naniwa.  The captain eyed them warily as the officials went over the manifest.  The Seto Inland Sea was generally calm and smooth sailing—at least compared to the open ocean, anywhere else -- and yet, as he looked, he could only think of how sluggish these ships would be.  They were laden down with cargo—silk, cloth, thread, and of course provisions for the men accompanying them.  But more than that, they were laden down with iron.  Tons of iron ingots, destined for the far reaches of the archipelago.  First to Suwa, but then on to the Dazai on Tsukushi, no doubt to be forged into weapons for the defense of Yamato. But that wasn't the captain's concern.  He just needed to make sure that the ships weren't weighed down too much:  as long as they remained buoyant, they would make the journey, even if they had to travel at a snail's pace to do it.  But if the ships sat too low in the water, then all it would take was some uncooperative waves and the ships, crew, and cargo, would be sent straight down to the palace of the dragon king, beneath the waves. Fortunately, with enough ships, it looked like that wouldn't be too much of a problem, as long as the goods were properly spaced out.  Now to just hope that the weather cooperated.  Even in the relatively safe waters of the Seto Inland Sea, you never know what could happen…     So last episode we talked about two large projects that Ohoama is said to have started.  First was the history project, which likely led to the Kojiki and the Nihon Shoki.  Second was the start of a brand new capital.  This episode, we are going from the macro, down to the micro—smaller events that just weren't covered in previous episodes.  For the most part the next few episodes are going to be a grab bag of various items, but I'm going to try and put some semblance of cohesion to this.  Next episode we'll be looking at some of the laws that they made, including the law code and examples of the kinds of punishment—and forgiveness—that the court could bestow.  This week, however, we are going to cover a bunch of stories focused on the areas outside of the Home Provinces.  We'll look at the Dazai in Tsukushi—and elsewhere.  We'll talk about how the provinces were governed, and what concerned them.  Granted, a lot of what concerned them, at least from the Chroniclers point of view, were taxes and economic production.  So we see recorded concern with taxes and with what was there—the land and the people that worked it.  Also with natural events, like droughts and tsunami, which would affect that same economic production.   We're starting off with the Dazai, and the person in charge there.  The Viceroy, as it is often called in English. The Dazai appears to have started off with something of a military purpose.  It was a gathering place before ships would sail off to the Korean peninsula, raiding up the rivers, or trading with their allies.  As the archipelago began to be more embroiled in the wars of the peninsula, it was that much more important.  And when Yamato's ally, Baekje, fell, and it looked like Silla and the Great Tang might turn their attention to the islands that had been a thorn in their side for so long, it became a bulwark against potential invasion. However, it also had another function.  It was the jumping off place for warships, but also for embassies and trading missions.  It was also the primary destination for most ships approaching Yamato.  They would take a route through Tsushima island, and then Iki island, and continue to the main coast of Tsukushi—Kyushu, and up and around to the sheltered waters of Hakata bay.  At some point they would even move that initial contact farther out, to Tsushima island itself.  Ships would dock on one side of the island, and transport their goods to a Yamato ship on the other side, with a pilot who knew the waters.  The local island officials could then send word ahead to the Dazai that they were coming.  No surprises, and nobody jumping the gun thinking that a fleet of warships was on their way. The Dazai played a key role in defense, trade, and diplomacy.  When the embassies arrived, they were entertained at the Dazai while word was sent to the court.  If the court deemed it appropriate, then they might have the ambassadors take the journey the rest of the way.  Otherwise, the court at the Dazai would stand in for the sovereign, and receive the messages, and various diplomatic gifts that were sent along. This was a powerful and also highly lucrative position, and it is reflected in the people who were granted the title.  This was the Dazai no Sochi, or Oho-mikoto-mochi no kami. We see the post held by Soga no Himuka in  649, during the Taika era.  Then we see Abe no Hirafu in the reign of Takara Hime, 655-661.  Hirafu would go on to become the Minister of the Left.  Then we see Prince Kurikuma. We talked about Prince Kurikuma before—he was Ohoama's ally in Tsukushi who refused the Afumi court's request for troops during the Jinshin no Ran.  He is one of the few figures that we have more than just a bit of information on.  For one thing, we have two different appointments to his position as viceroy in Tsukushi—there is one in 668, and another in 671, with Soga no Akae being given the post in between.  There are some questions about whether or not those were different people—the first one might have been someone named "Kurisaki" or "Kurimae", but it is generally assumed that was just misspelled, and it may be that there were just some questions as to when he was appointed.  We also know that he was a friend to Ohoama.  The Afumi court said as much, and in the Jinshin no Ran, when he and his sons stood up  to the Afumi court's request for troops, he came down heavily on Ohoama's side.  It is no wonder that he would have still been in such a powerful position.  His sons, by the way, are named as Prince Mino and Prince Takebe; we've seen what appears to be different Princes named Mino, but it is possible that this is the Prince Mino mentioned elsewhere in this part of the record. Sources suggest that Kurikuma was a descendant of the sovereign Nunakura, aka Bidatsu Tennou, and that he was an ancestor of the Tachibana clan.  There were stories about him in Tsukushi, beyond those in the Nihon Shoki, and while he isn't always named explicitly, one can infer that he hosted a number of embassies and ambassadors in his time.  In fact, in his position as head of the Dazaifu in Tsukushi, he was in what was perhaps the most lucrative post outside of Yamato.  In addition to being in charge of trade, diplomacy, and military readiness, the Dazaifu oversaw all of Tsukushi—the island of Kyushu, and was like a miniature representation of the central government. I suspect it is the military responsibilities that saw Kurikuma being appointed to the post of Director of Military Affairs—Tsuwamo-no-Tsukasa-no-Kami, or Heiseikan-cho. That was in the 3rd lunar month of 675, just a few years into Ohoama's reign. This would later be known as the Hyoubu-shou, or Ministry of War.  The appointment would not last long, however.  A year later, Kurikuma would pass away from disease.  Prince Kurikuma is one of those enigmatic and yet somewhat exciting individuals that exists beyond just the Nihon Shoki.   The Shoku Nihongi and later sources give us additional details, which may or may not be accurate.  Even moreso, there are stories in modern Nagasaki prefecture about Prince Kurikuma helping to regulate the animals that lived in the waters surrounding Kyushu.  According to the Shoku Nihongi record, he was reportedly granted the 2nd princely rank upon his death—which, if true, would seem to say a lot about how he was viewed at the time. Moving into the year 676, we see an edict that restricted governorships to individuals of the rank of Daisen and below.  The exceptions to this were the Home Provinces, Michinoku, and Nagato, and let's explore why these areas were excepted. Home Provinces make sense, as that is where the capital is and this more prestigious area was therefore deserving of a higher ranked noble.  Michinoku was the opposite geographically: it was the general wilderness of Tohoku, and the land of the Emishi.  It was also the farthest east of the capital, so I suspect they wanted someone of rank to handle that.  The governor of Nagato, however, is interesting.  Nagato is part of Honshu, the main island, just north of Kyushu, across the Shimonoseki strait.  Similar to Michinoku, Nagato was one of the most remote provinces on Honshu.  It was also an important province for potential defense and trade, and often coordinated with the Dazaifu in Tsukushi, to the south.  As such, it was also considered a more prominent posting than other governorships. It is somewhat interesting that the Dazaifu is not mentioned, but I suspect this is because the head of the Dazaifu was not, in fact, a governor, but more akin to a viceroy.  After all, they had to be entrusted with a certain amount of authority to be able to conduct military, trade, and diplomatic business without constantly sending back to the Yamato court for instruction.  We've already seen that there were Princes and other men of wealth and status who had been given that posting. Interestingly, in this reign we see at least one other viceroy—one other Dazai, or Ohomikotomochi—and that is in Kibi, of all places.  From what we can tell Kibi was one of the main rivals for power and authority in the prior centuries.  It has come up again and again in the stories.  Unfortunately, most of the stories only hint at what we think actually happened.  Today, when we talk about *the* Dazaifu we are almost exclusively talking about the one in Kyushu.  Besides being far flung from the center of power, it had huge responsibilities. Comparatively, though perhaps not as directly involved with trade, the rulers of Kibi were important figures, as demonstrated by the amount of manpower they were able to leverage for building their large, kingly tombs.  We talked somewhat about that back in Episode 48, looking at Tsukuriyama Kofun, one of the largest in the archipelago.  Furthermore, Kibi was well-placed on the Seto inland sea to be able to control the passage of ships.  The Kibi Dazai appears to have been established around the time of the Taika reforms, though it is only mentioned once in the Nihon Shoki, and I don't see any other examples of it.  There is also evidence that it was given authority over not just Kibi, but also the neighboring province of Harima.  Eventually, however, Kibi would be broken up into the three provinces of Bizen, Bitchu, and Bingo, and it would no longer need to be aggregated under a single administration.  Rather, each province would get its own governor, overseeing a much smaller part of the whole.  From this I can only assume that there may have been other, similar situations, prior to the various provinces being broken up like that. A couple months later, in the 5th month of 676, we are once again discussing governors.  First was a decree about governors who weren't paying their commuted taxes on time.  Aston goes on to note that non-rice taxes were due in the middle of the 8th month—at least for the home provinces.  Near provinces—a little farther away—taxes had to be received by the end of the 10th month, and for those a bit farther away—in the middle distance—they had to be there by the 11th month.  Finally,  the taxes from the farthest provinces were due by the end of the 12th month.  This would have given officials time to collect the taxes and to transport them all the way to the capital.  So when the chronicles talk about governors not paying on time, not keeping to this schedule may have been what the court was getting at—or at least some kind of similar schedule with deadlines, since it might have been modified over time.    Another record, that same month—actually a few days later—concerns specifically the governor of Shimotsukenu—or Shimotsuke, on the other side of Honshu.  He sent in a report that that province had been hit pretty hard that year with a poor harvest.  In fact, it was so bad that many peasants were seeking permission to sell their children.  The court ultimately denied the request, but this does speak to a rather disturbing—yet not exactly uncommon—cultural practice.  I don't think we need to get into the different nuances here, beyond a look at the fact that this was likely not a new practice, but it does seem that the appeal to the government for permission to sell one's children was something new.  Perhaps this came with all of the records and registrations that the government had undertaken to know who was in what household.  Regardless, one can hardly imagine that most parents would willingly take this option unless they had no other choice, and I suspect that it is meant to show both the desperation of the people in Shimotsuke, as well as the harsh benevolence of the sovereign, who would not permit the children to be separated from their families.  Of course, we aren't told how the court otherwise ameliorated the situation, since moral righteousness is tremendous, but doesn't suddenly fix the problems with the harvest or cause food to appear out of nowhere.  One hopes that the court at least sent some amount of rice or other provisions to help the people. Although it was Shimotsuke in the 5th month, in the 6th month we see a more general report of a large drought.  Messengers were sent throughout the land to get people to donate cloth, and make prayers to the kami, while Buddhist Priests called upon the power of the Three Precious Things.  It was all to no avail—the usual rains didn't come, so the wugu, the five grains didn't grow, and peasants starved.  The five grains per se are  rice, soybeans, wheat, and two types of millet, but in this case the term is just a stand-in for all types of agricultural produce. Possibly unrelated, but somewhat telling, two months later we see a record of the court granting sustenance-fiefs of all Royal princes and princesses down to the high ministers and female officials at the palace down to the rank of Shoukin.  So only two months after the peasants of Yamato were apparently starving, the court is handing out stipend increases to the elite.  So… yeah…. We do see a focus in the 8th month on an Oho-barai, or Great Purification.  I'm going to talk about this more in a future episode, though, so just noting here that they seem to have been working to purify the land and that may have been part of ongoing spiritual attempts to request the support of the kami in what appear to be difficult times.  There were also plenty of examples of attempts to make merit by demonstrating righteousness and reading various sutras. Moving on to the events of 677, things seem to have been going better than the previous year, so maybe all that merit-making had an effect?  Either way, we don't see any mention of droughts or famines this year, and we make it to the ninth month, when we see a notice that any vagabonds who returned after being sent back to their hometown would be set to forced labor.  Vagabond, in this case, is "furounin", or "person who floats on the waves".  This appears to be the origin of the term "Rounin", which would later refer to masterless samurai.  At this point it seems to refer mostly to commoners who were expected to work the land—and when workers abandoned the land that had implications for the government's tax base system.  So the State was invested in ensuring that people didn't just move somewhere else—at least without asking permission and being properly registered.  This does seem different from an actual fugitive, such as someone who was banished who tries to leave their place of banishment. The following month, the 10th month of 677,  we see that Kawabe no Omi no Momoye was appointed head of the Minbukyo, the Minister of the Interior.  In addition, Tajihi no Kimi no Maro was made a Daibu, or high official, of the province of Settsu.     The term "daibu" could just refer to high ministers of the court, but the "daibu" of a province appears to be similar to a governor, but with more expansive and comprehensive authority.  Settsu is one of the five home provinces, and as such an important part of the geographical heart of Yamato.   So we have the local chieftains, the governors, the viceroys at the Dazai, and also, apparently, a "high official" in some regions, each with what appear to be overlapping but slightly different portfolios. The next month we see that the Viceroy of Tsukushi—whoever had taken the place of Prince Yagaki—had his officials present a red crow to the court.  The person who caught the crow was granted five steps in rank—not a small reward.  Also, local officials had their own rank raised, and taxes were remitted to the peasants of that district for a year.  Finally, a general amnesty was announced across Yamato. We talked in Episode 141 how something like a red crow would have likely represented either the three-legged crow in the sun or the legendary Suzaku, the fiery bird of the south.  Either way, it was clearly an auspicious discovery.  It is interesting that we don't see any names at all associated with this event.  We do, however, see that people were no doubt incentivized to report such things up to the court.  Whoever found such a curiosity would likely have been celebrated by all of those around given the court's broad show of appreciation.  No doubt the local officials were more than pleased given that they were also likely to receive some of the benefits that accrued if the court was well pleased. As far as the type of events I'm focusing on this episode, there isn't much recorded between the red crow of 677 and a few years later in 682. Picking up in the 3rd month of that year, we get a record of the Emishi of Michinoku being granted court rank, incorporating them further into the growing Yamato polity.  As I talked about a little earlier, Michinoku on the other side of the archipelago, so this event really shows expansion of Yamato and solidification of its power over the rest of Honshu.  It is easy to forget that much of the Tohoku region was not firmly under Yamato control at this time.  They may have claimed it, but the people and culture there were still considered distinct and not a part of Yamato, proper.  But they were making inroads. In the following month, the 4th lunar month of the same year, 682, we are back on the west coast and see Tajihi no Mabito no Shima as the latest Viceroy of Tsukushi, sending as tribute a large bell.  It is somewhat interesting that, compared to the past few viceroys, Shima is actually a member of a noble family and *not* a Prince.  Of course, there was no requirement that the Dazaifu be overseen by a Prince—that certainly wasn't the case for Soga no Akaye, but it is interesting given how Ohoama had been making appointments, so far.  Even if they weren't princely, it is clear that this was an important posting, which says a lot for Tajihi no Shima, even if we didn't know anything more about him.  Fortunately, there are a few clues. For one thing, there are records that claim he was descended from one of the previous sovereigns, but he did not hold the title of "Prince".  That is reflected in his family's kabane of "Mabito", however, or "True person", which seems to indicate at least a nominal descent from a previous ruler.  Shima would continue to rise in the government, and would eventually serve as the Minister of the Right and then Minister of the Left, and at one point he would be the highest ranking noble in the government—though that was still a ways off.  All of this speaks to the importance of the position of viceroy, and probably gives us a clue as to why the Chroniclers were so interested in someone sending a bell, large as it might be, to the government. A day after the bell tribute arrived, Emishi of Koshi, including Ikokina and others, requested 70 households of prisoners of war to create a new district.  While we've talked about the Emishi of Koshi, before, what is particularly interesting is the request for prisoners of war—captives.  Were these Wajin, or Japanese, who had been captured by the Emishi and they were requesting permission to resettle them?  Were they asking for 70 households of people being held captive by the Yamato government?  It isn't clear.  It also isn't clear if "Ikokina" is the name of an individual or of multiple individuals.  Aston originally translated it as Itaka, Kina, and others, while Bentley's more recent translation suggests it is one name.  However, given that this is an Emishi name, being transliterated in Kanji through a Japanese translator, it is hard to know without further sources. From the fourth month to the 7th month of 682, we see a small entry that presents were given to men from Tanegashima, Yakushima, and Amami no Shima.  This simple entry is important mostly just because of its mention of continued contact with these islands south of Kyushu.  This helps us maintain some idea of the extent of Yamato's influence. In the late summer of 683, we once again see a drought.  It began in the 7th lunar month and lasted until the 8th.  A priest named Douzou prayed for rain and eventually obtained it. Douzou is said to have been a monk from Kudara, or Baekje.  Aston suggests that this means he was a priest of Kudaradera, but it isn't really clear to me.  In the early 8th month, we also see that there was a general amnesty ordered throughout Yamato, which I suspect was connected with the disaster of the drought and an attempt to help build merit and otherwise strengthen the state in the face of natural disaster and potential unrest. At the end of 683, we see a survey team being sent out.  The sovereign sent Prince Ise along with Hata no Kimi no Yakuni, Ohoshi no Omi no Homuchi, and Nakatomi no Muraji no Ohoshima with clerks and artisans to tour the realm and determine the border of the various provinces, but they were unable to determine them all in a year. This really must have been quite the task.  Certainly, the provinces were the ancient lands which people had been living in for some time, but there was never really a need for political lines on a map to determine where the boundaries were.  People generally knew if they were in one or the other, and unless there was a very contentious piece of property, mostly you didn't worry about which exact land or province you were in.  Now, however, the court was in the midst of trying to lock down all of the data about the land, including what was where and how much there was.  After all, their entire tax base was built on arable land, so they had to know where it was and what to expect.  There is no way that such a project was going to be completed in a single year. I would also note that Aston has this particular record misplaced.  He seemed to think it was on the 23rd day of the month, but it is then followed by the 17th.  It seems that Aston just got his dates wrong, and can you blame him?  There was a lot that he was dealing with. We do see, almost a year later, in the 10th month of 684, Prince Ise and others are once again sent to determine the boundaries of the provinces.  Second time's the charm, maybe?  Evidently not, because we then see another mention in the 10th month of 685, where the court gave them gifts of robes and trousers as they headed back out to the Eastern Countries one more time. In the 11th month of 684 we are given a small report of a huge disaster.  The governor of Tosa reported that a great tide had risen high, with an overflowing rush, and destroyed many of the ships used to convey tribute. Tosa is on Shikoku, facing out to the Pacific Ocean.  It is the first piece of dry land just past the continental shelf.  As such, a quake just off shore could create conditions not dissimilar to the 2011 disaster in Fukushima, and send a tsunami wave flooding the coastline.  It looks like that is what happened, which would have devastated the fleet.  Since Shikoku was an island, they relied on those ships to get taxes and tribute conveyed up to Yamato.  So this was Tosa letting the court know that the "sea ate my homework." I can't help but wonder if this tsunami wasn't related to an earthquake recorded for the month earlier, which we mentioned back in Episode 139.  It was a huge earthquake that seems to have had a tremdous impact.  Much of it was mentioned as being focused on the Toukaidou region, but that region still lies along a related fault line all the way down through Shikoku.  It may be that it took a while for the two events to be reported, and there may not have been an understanding that the event in one place could have had an impact elsewhere. I don't know if they had yet connected that earthquakes could cause tsunami or not.  On the other hand, it could be that it was a separate, but related quake, or even an aftershock, which caused the tsunami. Overall, the year 684 does not appear to have been the best.  We are told that in the lower district of Katsuraki, there was reported a chicken with four legs.  Then, in the district of Higami, in Tanba province, there was a calf born with twelve horns.  These don't sound like great omens, and given the tsunami, and the earthquake, and other such things, I can perhaps understand why the court focused on trying to do some merit-making towards the end of the year.  For instance they pardoned all criminals except those guilty of capital crimes.  And we are also told that Iga, Ise, Mino, and Wohari were notified that in future years, if they were paying commuted taxes—that is taxes other than rice, in lieu of service—that force labour would be remitted, and vice versa.   That is, if it was a year where they would pay in corvee labour, the commuted taxes would be remitted instead.  In other words, they didn't need to do both in one year.  Similarly , in the 7th lunar month of 685, we are told that the Provinces on the Tousandou, east of Mino, and the Toukaidou, east of Ise, were all exempted from sending in conscript laborers as part of their taxes. We aren't told exactly why any of this was done, but I suspect that it had something to do with either construction going on in those regions, or just needing to have people to work the fields.  Labor could always be remitted just because of something good like a good omen, but in the aftermath of a devastating earthquake, I wonder if there wasn't a lot of rebuilding that had to take place, and maybe the court just wanted to make sure those regions had the people they needed for those projects. The Tousandou and the Toukaidou were just two of the 7 official circuits around the archipelago.  In this case, the Toukaidou hugged the coastal areas, heading from Ise out to modern Tokyo.  Meanwhile, the Tousandou would have cut through the mountains in the middle of that area of Honshu, passing north of Fuji and through modern Gunma.    The other circuits were the San'youdou, the San'indou, the Nankaidou, the Hokurikudou, and Tsukushi, which was considered its own "circuit".  The San'youdou and San'indou were the Yang and Yin roads, going through the western part of Honshu. The San'youdou was along the Seto Inland Sea, while the San'indou was along the Japan sea.  The Nankaidou, or South Sea Road, was the Kii peninsula and Shikoku.  The Hokurikudou went north on eastern Honshu, through the Koshi region. Finally, Tsukushi, which would also be known as the Saikaidou, or Western Sea Road, was its own circuit In the 9th lunar month of 685 we see Commissioners or Royal Messengers appointed to six of the seven circuits, the Hokurikudou being the one left out.    The commissioners were to tour and inspect the provincial and district offices and make sure they were good.  Each person took a facility manager and a secretary to assist them.  Bentley notes that there is, in later legal codes, a role of "Inspector", who was similarly expected to tour and inspect the various provinces – but these were assigned on an as needed basis, so it wasn't a permanent position. Along with the inspection of the government offices, there was one other edict that same day in the 9th month of 685: the court ordered that male and female singers, as well as pipers/flute-players should pass down their skills to their descendants and make them practice singing and the flute.  Thus they effectively created hereditary musicians which, at the time, was how you made sure that you had the different professions and skillsets you needed to run the State. Then, in the 11th month of 685, we see a bunch of iron sent to the General Magistrate of Suwa.  How much is a bunch?  10,000 kin, which is thought to be equivalent to roughly 6.6 tons.  That is a huge amount of iron, assuming the record is true.  At the same time, the viceroy of Tsukushi requested 100 bolts of coarse silk, 132 pounds of thread, 300 bundles of cloth, 4000 feet of labor tax cloth, 6.6 tons of iron, and 2,000 sets of bamboo arrows.   And by all accounts, the court sent it all out.  No idea why—but there we go.  Presumably it was to make things—probably clothing and weapons. We see something similar in the 12th month, when the ships carrying the newest border guards out to Tsukushi were battered by bad seas and, eventually, they were left adrift in the water.  They were rescued, but lost all of their clothing, so rather than sending clothes, the court sent cloth.  450 bolts of cloth were sent, to be made into new sets of clothing for the soldiers.  Sending raw materials makes sense.  After all, there were likely artisans all over the place who just needed them.  Furthermore, that way you could customize the equipment to the people who would be using it, rather than shipping off finished goods. And with that, I think we are going to call it.  Next episode will be a similar overview, but we'll take a look at some of the laws that were passed, as well as how they dealt with law and order in the archipelago. Until then, if you like what we are doing, please tell your friends and feel free to rate us wherever you listen to podcasts.  If you feel the need to do more, and want to help us keep this going, we have information about how you can donate on Patreon or through our KoFi site, ko-fi.com/sengokudaimyo, or find the links over at our main website,  SengokuDaimyo.com/Podcast, where we will have some more discussion on topics from this episode. Also, feel free to reach out to our Sengoku Daimyo Facebook page.  You can also email us at the.sengoku.daimyo@gmail.com.  Thank you, also, to Ellen for their work editing the podcast. And that's all for now.  Thank you again, and I'll see you next episode on Sengoku Daimyo's Chronicles of Japan.  

My Will vs God's Voice | Similar But Not The Same | Josh Canizaro

2020年高考（上海卷）英语听力 短文（1）Every year in the U.S. about 133 million pounds of food goes to waste.在美国，每年大约有1.33亿磅食物被浪费掉。A lot of it is fruits and vegetables, like three legged carrots, and fought strawberries.其中很多是水果和蔬菜，比如三条腿的胡萝卜和草莓。They are deserted simply because they are not pretty enough to be displayed on store shelves.之所以被遗弃，仅仅是因为它们外形不够美观，不能陈列在商店的货架上。If you look at the big picture, about a third of the planet's food goes to waste for the same reason.如果从大局来看，地球上大约三分之一的食物都因为同样的原因被丢弃了。That's enough to feed 2 billion people. Now, a company called Imperfect Me is trying to change that situation.这些食物足够养活20亿人。现在，一家名为Imperfect Me的公司正试图改变这种状况。The company collects ugly fruits and vegetables from farmers and markets and sells them to local residents at a deep discount.该公司从农民和市场上收集卖相不佳的水果和蔬菜，然后以极低的价格卖给当地居民。It can be 30 to 50% of the regular price. Similar campaigns are underway in places like Boston, as well as Portugal and the UK.售价可以是原价的30%到50%。波士顿、葡萄牙和英国等地也正在进行类似的活动。For now, most chain supermarkets don't carry ugly fruits and vegetables.目前，大多数连锁超市都不出售外形不佳的水果和蔬菜。But Steve Clark's of Imperfect Me hopes the supermarkets will come around because customers want such food.但Imperfect Me公司的史蒂夫·克拉克希望超市能改变观念，因为顾客想要这样的食物。He says it is really easy to convince people when they realize they can pay a lower price to get the same kind of taste and health.他说，当人们知道低价就能收获同样的味道和健康时，说服他们真的不是问题。2020年高考（上海卷）英语听力 短文（2）A city in England has started an ambitious plan to plant as many as 1 million trees every year for the next decade.英国一座城市已经启动了一项雄心勃勃的计划，在未来十年里每年要种植多达一百万棵树。The project is called the City of Trees. Project director Tony Brown explained that the green venture has three main aims.这个项目被称为“树城”。项目主管托尼·布朗解释说，这个绿色项目有三个主要目标。He said, One is to plant a tree for every man, woman, and child over the next decade.他说，一个是在未来十年为每一位男性、女性和孩子种一棵树。Next,we are very much focused on bringing existing woodland into management其次，我们非常注重将现有林地纳入管理，because it doesn't make any sense to plant new woodland if you can't manage what you've got already.因为如果无法管理已有的林地，那么种植新的林地就没有任何意义。Finally,we want to engage people a lot more in their natural environment that is implanting trees in managing areas.最后，我们想让人们更多地参与到自然环境中来，比如在管理区域种植树木。And in understanding more about the benefits that trees and woodlands bring to our society,为了进一步了解树木和林地给社会带来的效益，Mr.Brown further outlined the reasons for the recently launched environmental project.布朗先生进一步阐述了最近发起这项环保工程的原因。He said our city wants to be a world class region.他说，我们的城市要成为一个世界级的地区。We have a lot of fantastic economic development going on, but the natural environment needs to keep up with that.我们有很多惊人的经济发展，但自然环境也不能掉队。He believes the project will reconnect people with trees and the natural world, provide benefits to health and reduce stress.他相信，这个项目将使人们重新与树木和自然世界联系起来，对健康有益，也能减轻压力。He said "woodlands can do great things in terms of air pollution reduction and can help to protect against noise pollution.他说：“林地在减轻空气污染和防止噪音污染方面的作用十分显著。They can also help cities and towns reduce the urban heat island effect and flooding".还可以帮助城镇缓解城市热岛效应和洪水灾害。”

Do you know the difference between "hanashimasu" and "iimasu"?Today, we're going to look at verbs that have similar meanings but are used in different situations.I'll introduce four pairs of verbs, so you can really see how they're different.

Our Deputy Head of Global Research Michael Zezas and Stephen Byrd, Global Head of Thematic and Sustainability Research, discuss how the U.S. is positioning AI as a pillar of geopolitical influence and what that means for nations and investors.Read more insights from Morgan Stanley.----- Transcript -----Michael Zezas: Welcome to Thoughts on the Market. I'm Michael Zezas, Morgan Stanley's Deputy Head of Global Research.Stephen Byrd: And I'm Stephen Byrd, Global Head of Thematic and Sustainability Research.Michael Zezas: Today – is AI becoming the new anchor of geopolitical power?It's Wednesday, February 27th at noon in New York.So, Stephen, at the recent India AI Impact Summit, the U.S. laid out a vision to promote global AI adoption built around what it calls “real AI sovereignty.” Or strategic autonomy through integration with the American AI stack. But several nations from the global south and possibly parts of Europe – they appear skeptical of dependence on proprietary systems, citing concerns about control, explainability, and data ownership. And it appears that stake isn't just technology policy. It's the future structure of global power, economic stratification, and whether sovereign nations can realistically build competitive alternatives outside the U.S. and China.So, Stephen, you were there and you've been describing a growing chasm in the AI world in terms of access to strategies between the U.S. and much of the global south, and possibly Europe. So, from what you heard at the summit, what are the core points of disagreement driving that divide?Stephen Byrd: There definitely are areas of agreement; and we've seen a couple of high-profile agreements reached between the U.S. government and the Indian government just in the last several days. So there certainly is a lot of overlap. I point to the Pax Silica agreement that's so important to secure supply chains, to secure access to AI technology. I think the focus, for example, for India is, as you said; it is, you know, explainability, open access. I was really struck by Prime Minister Modi's focus on ensuring that all Indians have access to AI tools that can help them in their everyday life.You know, a really tangible example that really stuck with me is – someone in a remote village in India who has a medical condition and there's no doctor or nurse nearby using AI to, you know, take a photo of the condition, receive diagnosis, receive support, figure out what the next steps should be. That's very powerful. So, I'd say, open access explainability is very important.Now, the American hyperscalers are very much trying to serve the Indian market and serve the objectives really of the Indian government. And so, there are versions of their models that are open weights, that are being made freely available for health agencies in India, as an example; to the Indian government, as an example.So, there is an attempt to really serve a number of objectives, but I think this key is around open access, explainability, that I do see that there's a tension.Michael Zezas: So, let's talk about that a little bit more. Because it seems one of the concerns raised is this idea of being captive within proprietary Large Language Models. And maybe that includes the risk of having to pay more over time or losing control of citizen data. But, at the same time, you've described that there are some real benefits to AI that these countries want to adopt.So, what is effectively the tension between being captive to a model or the trade off instead for pursuing open and free models? Is it that there's a major quality difference? And is that trade off acceptable?Stephen Byrd: See, that's what's so fascinating, Mike, is, you know, what we need to be thinking about is not just where the technology is today, but where is it in six months, 12 months, 24 months? And from my perspective, it's very clear. That the proprietary American models are going to be much, much more capable.So, let's put some numbers around that. The big five American firms have assembled about 10 times the compute to train their current LLMs compared to their prior LLMs, and that's a big deal. If the scaling laws hold, then a 10x increase in training compute to result in models are about twice as capable.Now just let that sink in for a minute, twice as capable from here. That's a big deal. And so, when we think about the benefit of deploying these models, whether it's in the life sciences or any number of other disciplines, those benefits could start to get very large. And the challenge for the open models will be – will they be able to keep up in terms of access to compute, to training, access to data to train those models? That's a big question.Now, again, there's room for both approaches and it's very possible for the Indian government to continue to experiment and really see which approach is going to serve their citizens the best. And I was really struck by just how focused the Indian government is on serving all of their citizens. Most notably, you know, the poorest of the poor in their nation. So, we'll just have to see.But the pure technologist would say that these proprietary models are going to be increasing capability much faster than the open-source models.So, Mike, let's pivot from the technology layer to the geopolitical layer because the U.S. strategy unveiled at the summit goes way beyond innovation.Michael Zezas: Yeah, it's a good point. And within this discussion of whether or not other countries will choose to pursue open models or more closely adhere to U.S. based models is really a question about how the United States exercises power globally and how it creates alliances going forward.Clearly some part of the strategy is that the U.S. assumes that if it has technology that's alluring to its partners, that they'll want to align with the U.S.' broad goals globally. And that they'll want to be partners in supporting those goals, which of course are tied to AI development.So, the Pax Silica [agreement], which you mentioned earlier, is an interesting point here because this is clearly part of the U.S. strategy to develop relationships with other countries – such that the other countries get access to U.S. models and access to U.S. AI in general. And what the U.S. gets in return is access to supply chain, critical resources, labor, all the things that you need to further the AI build out. Particularly as the U.S. is trying to disassociate more and more from China, and the resources that China might have been able to bring to bear in an AI build out.Stephen Byrd: So, Mike, the U.S. framed “real AI sovereignty” as strategic autonomy rather than full self-sufficiency. So, essentially the. U.S. is encouraging nations to integrate components of the American AI stack. Now, from your perspective, Mike, from a macro and policy standpoint, how significant is that distinction?Michael Zezas: Well, I think it's extremely important. And clearly the U.S. views its AI strategy as not just economic strategy, but national security strategy.There are maybe some analogs to how the U.S. has been able to, over the past 80 years or so, use its dominance in military and military equipment to create a security umbrella that other countries want to be under. And do something similar with AI, which is if there is dominant technology and others want access to it for the societal or economic benefits, then that is going to help when you're negotiating with those countries on other things that you value – whether it be trade policy, foreign policy, sanctions versus another country. That type of thing.So, in a lot of ways, it seems like the U.S. is talking about AI and developing AI as an anchor asset to its power, in a way that military power has been that anchor asset for much of the post World War II period.Stephen Byrd: See, that's what's so interesting, Mike, [be]cause you've highlighted before to me that you believe AI could replace weaponry as really the anchor asset for U.S. global power. Almost a tech equivalent of a defense umbrella.So how durable is that strategy, especially given that some countries are expressing unease about dependency?Michael Zezas: Yeah, it's really hard to know, and I think the tension you and I talked about earlier, Stephen, about whether countries will be willing to make the trade off for access to superior AI models versus open and free models that might be inferior, that'll tell us if this is a viable strategy or not. And it appears like this is still playing out because, correct me if I'm wrong, it's not like we've received some very clear signals from India or other countries about their willingness to make that trade off.Stephen Byrd: No, I think that's right. And just building on the concept of the trade-offs and, sort of, the standard for AI deployment, you know, the U.S. has explicitly rejected centralized global AI governance in favor of national control aligned with domestic values.So, what does that signal about how global technology standards may evolve, particularly as in the U.S., the National Institute of Standards and Technology, or NIST, works to develop interoperable standards for agentic AI systems.Michael Zezas: Yeah, Stephen, I think it's hard to know. It might be that the U.S. is okay with other countries having substantial degrees of freedom with how they use U.S.-based AI models because they could use U.S. law to, at a later date, change how those models are being used – if there's a use case that comes out of it that they find is against U.S. values. Similar in some way to how the U.S. dollar being the predominant currency and, therefore, being the predominant payment system globally, gives the U.S. degrees of freedom to impose sanctions and limit other types of economic transactions when it's in the U.S. interest.So, I don't know that to be specifically true, but it's an interesting question to consider and a potential motivation behind why a laissez-faire approach might be, ultimately, still aligned with U.S. interests.Stephen Byrd: So, Michael, it sounds like really AI is becoming the new strategic infrastructure globally.Michael Zezas: Yeah, I think that's actually a great way to think about it. And so, Stephen, if that were the case, and we're talking about the potential for this to shape geopolitical competition, potentially economic differentials across the globe. And if that is correlated, at least, to some degree with the further development and computing power of these models, what do you think investors should be looking at for signals from here?Stephen Byrd: Number one, by a mile for me, is really the pace of model progress. Not just American models, but Chinese models, open-source models. And there the big reveal for the United States should be somewhere between April and June – for the big five LLM players. That's a bit of speculation based on tracking their chip purchases, their power access, et cetera. But that appears to be the timeframe and a couple of execs have spoken to that approximate timeframe.I would caution investors that I think we're going to be surprised in terms of just how powerful those models are. And we're already seeing in early 2026, these models that were not trained on that kind of volume of compute have really exceeded expectations, you know, quite dramatically in some cases. And I'll give you one example.METR is a third-party that tracks the complexity, what these models can do. And METR has been highlining that every seven months, the complexity of what these models are able to do approximately doubles. It's very fast. But what really got my attention was about a week ago, one of the LLMs broke that trend in a big way to the upside.So, if the scaling laws would hold, based on what METR would've expected, they would expect a model to be able to act independently for about eight hours, a little over eight hours. And what we saw was, the best American model that was recently introduced was more like 15. That's a big deal. And so, I think we're seeing signs of non-linear improvement.We're also going to see additional statements from these AI execs around recursive self-improvement of the models. One ex-AI executive spoke to that. Another LLM exec spoke to that recently as well. So, we're starting to see an acceleration. That means we then need to really consider the trade-offs between the open models and the proprietary. That's going to become really critical and that should happen really through the spring and summer.Michael Zezas: Got it. Well, Stephen, thanks for taking the time to talk.Stephen Byrd: Great speaking with you, Mike.Michael Zezas: And thanks for listening. If you enjoy Thoughts on the Market, please leave us a review wherever you listen. And share the podcast with a friend or colleague today.

Watch the latest episode of Stab in the Dark X starring Kelly Slater here https://stabmag.com/stabcinema/watch-... Any genuinely endearing conversation might hinge on seating Dane Reynolds next to someone improbable and letting the room do the work. Last week: the reigning world champ. This week: Kelly Slater, calling in from New Zealand. Four months post hip replacement, the greatest surfer of all time admits he can barely lift his knee into a car some days, but he insists the robo-hip already outperforms the real one, which had been dragging him through agony for the last four years. He'd been surfing through pain the whole time. Laird Hamilton personally rang to convince him to get on the operating table. A wellness check, from one absurdly fit old-boy to another. He also reveals that during Stab In The Dark X, his back seized up for four days straight. Bedridden and unable to walk without looking like a pretzel. But you can't keep a good goat down. He still paddled out, still tested six nearly identical boards, all while wrangling Snapper crowds and soft Gold Coast walls. Remarkably, Kelly admits to not having watched a single episode of SITD X. Not one. Just the Instagram clips. That's it. Is this the surf equivalent of Johnny Depp claiming he's never seen one of his own movies? Similar star power, frankly. On the topic of SITD, Kel talks candidly about the awkwardness of judging shapers while owning a board company himself, and why he never publicly burned a design, even when it deserved it. More interesting is his philosophy: shapers shouldn't try to guess what Kelly wants. He wants what they actually make, otherwise it's just pasteurised performance foam. From there, the gents get into lineup politics, snowboarding double blacks, and the simple economic reality that waves are limited, egos are not, hence grown men hissing over them. The ISA's new Olympic qualifying system gets a light public flogging. And yes, Kelly is a believer in the machine. Put Olympic surfing in a wave pool. Standardise it, industrialise it, flip the switch and hear the system roar.

With the recent passing of Jesse Jackson, we take a deeper look into the assassination of MLK Jr and how oddly it syncs up to Charlie Kirks death and if Jesses was acting as an Erika Kirk in 1968. 

In September 2023, UK consumer watchdog Which published research showing just how much cheaper budget brands can be. One striking example was the price of rice at Asda. Shoppers could get 1kg of Asda Just Essentials rice for 52 pence, while the store's standard own-brand Easy Cook Long Grain White Rice was £1.80 for the same quantity. That's 246% more. Similar cases were found at supermarkets like Sainsbury's, Tesco and Morrison's, on staple foods like baked beans, spaghetti and tea bags. The cost of living crisis has seen a lot of people switch to budget food brands in order to save. And an early 2023 survey by Attest found that 70.2% of Brits plan to stick with own-label brands, rather than reverting to premium options. What counts as a budget food brand? Are the products of good enough quality? In under 3 minutes, we answer your questions! To listen to the last episodes, you can click here: ⁠⁠Why is funflation causing us to spend more on live entertainment?⁠⁠ ⁠⁠Are gas cookers dangerous?⁠⁠ ⁠⁠How do I know if I'm allergic to gluten?⁠⁠ A podcast written and realised by Joseph Chance. First broadcast: 26/11/2023 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Free trains and dedicated buses are helping a large number of migrant workers return to jobs after the Spring Festival holiday, especially those traveling from China's central and western regions to the eastern seaboard.春节假期过后，大批外出务工者踏上返岗之路。免费专列、包车等暖心服务正助力他们便捷返岗，尤其是那些从中国中西部地区前往东部沿海地区的务工人员。On Tuesday, a traveler surnamed Yang boarded a special train free of charge at Qiandongnan Miao and Dong autonomous prefecture in Guizhou province and arrived in Foshan, Guangdong province, in South China.2月24日（正月初八），春节假期后返岗首日，来自贵州省黔东南苗族侗族自治州的杨女士免费搭乘专列抵达广东省佛山市。The prefecture's human resources department provided about 500 seats for migrant workers such as her.黔东南州人力资源和社会保障局为务工者提供了约500个座位。More free trains will depart from the prefecture through Feb 28 to destinations including cities such as Hangzhou in Zhejiang province and Guangzhou in Guangdong province. Roughly 500 free seats per service are reserved exclusively for locals who work outside their hometown.到2月28日，该州还将开设更多免费专列，开往浙江杭州、广东广州等城市，每趟专列将为外出务工人员预留约500个免费座位。Each year after the Chinese New Year holiday, firms resume operations and many workers who spent the break at home must return to their posts. That produces a short surge in travel and makes securing tickets the top priority for many.每年春节假期过后，企业复工复产，回乡探亲的务工人员都得返回工作岗位，从而形成节后出行高峰，买到车票成了许多人的头等大事。Yang told China Daily that she scanned a QR code to register after her village issued the notice, and she received a confirmation message the next day. She posted about securing the free ride online and replied to fellow villagers' queries about how to apply.杨女士向《中国日报》表示，在村里下发通知后，她扫码登记，第二天就收到了确认信息。她在网上分享了乘坐免费专列的消息，并回复了同村人关于如何申请的问题。Another beneficiary, Yang Ying from Huangping county in Qiandongnan, said past returns required multiple transfers and a day or more of exhausting travel while carrying heavy luggage.另一位受益者、来自贵州省黄平县的杨英表示，过去返岗需要在多个换乘点之间奔波，耗费一天多的时间，还得拖着沉重的行李。"I have worked in Hangzhou for more than three years. Every year, the hardest task after the holiday is getting tickets. When I saw the free train notice, I scanned, applied and received confirmation within a few days. I felt relieved," she said.她说："我在杭州务工三年多了，每年春节返岗最发愁的就是抢票，看到免费专列报名公告，我第一时间就扫码报名了，没几天就收到确认短信，心里一下子就踏实了。"Wang Wanmin, director of the prefecture's human resources and social security bureau, said they will continue to operate special trains and buses to transport 20,000 fellow townspeople to jobs, further stabilizing employment and boosting incomes.黔东南州人力资源和社会保障局局长王万敏表示，当地将继续开设专列、包车，护送2万余名外出务工人员返岗，进一步稳定就业，促进增收。Railway authorities said the China Railway Chengdu Group plans to run 32 post-festival special trains for workers, which are expected to carry about 18,000 passengers through March 6.铁路部门称，中国铁路成都局集团有限公司计划在节后开行32趟务工人员专列，预计在3月6日前运送约1.8万名旅客。The group manages lines serving provinces such as Sichuan and Guizhou, regions that are major sources of migrant labor.该公司管理四川、贵州等务工人员输出大省的铁路线路。Similar targeted services operate nationwide. Also on Tuesday, a special train for workers from Xi'an in Shaanxi province departed for Suzhou, Jiangsu province, delivering employees directly to contracted employers in Suzhou and nearby Taicang city.全国其他地方也有类似的精准服务。同样在2月24日，一列满载务工人员的专列从陕西省西安市驶往江苏省苏州市，直接将员工送至苏州及太仓市的签约企业。Officials said the transported workers had been prematched with positions in high-end intelligent manufacturing, electronic information, auto parts and precision machinery industries. Roles include technical operators, quality control staff, warehousing personnel and support service staff.据官方介绍，此次输送的务工人员已提前与高端智能制造、电子信息、汽车零部件和精密机械等行业的岗位匹配，涵盖技术操作工、品质管控、仓储物流及配套服务等。After the workers arrived at Suzhou North Railway Station, local human resources departments provided dedicated shuttle vehicles to take them directly to factory dormitories.务工人员抵达苏州北站后，当地人社部门安排专用接驳车，闭环运送务工人员直达厂区宿舍。More flexible, targeted transport has also been added. Guangdong province has introduced bus routes from labor-exporting areas to provide point-to-point service.更灵活、精准的返岗运输服务也在加码。广东省已开通从劳务输出大县到务工集中地的返岗直通车。Between Feb 19 and Feb 25, passengers could scan a code to find buses from provinces including Hunan, Jiangxi and Hubei bound for Guangzhou city, and register their return-to-work transport needs online, local media reported.据当地媒体报道，2月19日至25日，旅客可扫码查询从湖南、江西、湖北等省份发往广州的专车，并在线登记返岗出行需求。Huizhou city in Guangdong province will also set up return-to-work shuttle services at major transport hubs to provide last-mile connections for arriving migrant workers. The program is expected to serve more than 3,000 returning workers.广东省惠州市也将在主要交通枢纽设置返岗接驳专线，为返岗务工人员提供"最后一公里"的便利。该项目预计将为3000多名返岗务工人员提供服务。ree of charge /friː əv tʃɑːrdʒ/免费top priority /tɒp praɪˈɒrəti/重中之重；最优先事项shuttle services /ˈʃʌtəl ˈsɜːrvɪsɪz/接驳服务；班车服务

In this episode, I'm taking you behind the scenes of my surrender experiment and sharing the surprising limiting belief that surfaced while I was in it. I talk about how fear and anxiety can actually point us straight to the subconscious blocks running the show, and how journaling and meditation helped me realize I wasn't being thrown into the deep end — I was being gently stretched. I also share how you can use tools like Human Design or Gene Keys to spot your own growth edge.  Because real growth isn't sudden immersion… it's intentional expansion. And I truly believe there's a perfect plan unfolding for each of us, even when we can't see the full picture yet. Similar episodes to this topic:  197: How To Identify Your Limiting Beliefs 244: Stop Overthinking! Your Next Step Is Already Calling You Join The Monthly Woo Woo Wednesday Live Meetup! Let's be friends on Instagram! Join The Weekly Nudge Email List!

Send a textWe teamed up with Guy Adami and Dan Nathan to discuss two major developing market stories ahead of meeting in Miami for the iConnections Global Alts conference. The first topic is stress in private credit, centered on Blue Owl's retail-focused semi-liquid vehicle (Blue Owl Capital Corp II) facing heavy redemptions and gating, highlighting the liquidity mismatch between retail redemption needs and long-dated loan assets. They contrast the gated evergreen structure with Blue Owl's publicly traded BDC that was trading roughly 20% below NAV, discuss Blue Owl's reported loan sales near NAV, and explore why the issue is pressuring related stocks like Blue Owl and Blackstone despite an S&P 500 that appears indifferent. The group connects the private credit conversation to how AI/data center buildouts are financed, including references to Meta-related structures and concerns about CoreWeave's ability to raise capital for data center obligations, and notes that credit markets often reprice quickly only after complacency breaks. The second topic is prediction markets, focusing on Kalshi and its partnership with Tradeweb to publish analytics and potentially enable institutional trading of binary outcomes on events like Fed decisions and macro data, raising questions about democratized access, liquidity constraints, regulatory gaps, spoofing, and the role of insider information, along with implications for politics and whether more information is always better.For a 14 day FREE Trial of Macabacus, click HERE Visit https://iconnections.io/ to learn more about iConnections!Shop our Self Paced Courses: Investment Banking & Private Equity Fundamentals HEREFixed Income Sales & Trading HERE Wealthfront.com/wss. This is a paid endorsement for Wealthfront. May not reflect others' experiences. Similar outcomes not guaranteed. Wealthfront Brokerage is not a bank. Rate subject to change. Promo terms apply. If eligible for the boosted rate of 4.15% offered in connection with this promo, the boosted rate is also subject to change if base rate decreases during the 3 month promo period.The Cash Account, which is not a deposit account, is offered by Wealthfront Brokerage LLC ("Wealthfront Brokerage"), Member FINRA/SIPC. Wealthfront Brokerage is not a bank. The Annual Percentage Yield ("APY") on cash deposits as of 11/7/25, is representative, requires no minimum, and may change at any time. The APY reflects the weighted average of deposit balances at participating Program Banks, which are not allocated equally. Wealthfront Brokerage sweeps cash balances to Program Banks, where they earn the variable APY. Sources HERE.

Two decades ago, NASA Administrator Michael Griffin said the space agency has become too dependent on outside contractors, hollowing out some of the skills the agency needs in-house to oversee and evaluate programs. Similar concerns rose to the top when NASA kicked off its Vision 2040 project in 2018. Now it's NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman's turn to pave over this well-known ground. In this week's federal report, Federal News Network executive editor Jason Miller writes about why this latest attempt to refocus and reinvigorate NASA's workforce may be different. Jason joins me now to discuss.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

He was born sometime in the mid-fourth century on an island in the Aegean. For a time he lived successfully in the world, receiving a good education in Constantinople, then serving for a time for the Prefect of the Praetorium. But, becoming aware of the vanity of worldly things, he answered Christ's call, gave away all his goods to the poor and entered a monastery in Syria. After four years in obedience, he came to feel that the security of monastic life was inconsistent with the Gospel command to take no thought for the morrow; so he withdrew to the desert, taking with him only his garment and the Book of the Gospel. There he lived alone for seven years.   At the end of this period he set out on an apostolic mission to Mesopotamia, where he brought many to Christ: the city prefect Rabbula was converted after Alexander brought down fire from heaven, and a band of brigands who accosted the Saint on the road were transformed into a monastic community. He finally fled the city when the Christians there rose up demanding that he be made bishop. He once again took up a solitary life in the desert beyond the Euphrates, spending the day in prayer and part of the night sheltered in a barrel. There he remained for forty years. His holiness gradually attracted more than four hundred disciples, whom Alexander organized into a monastic community. Each disciple owned only one tunic, and was required to give away anything that they did not need for that day. Despite this threadbare life, the monastery was able to set up and run a hospice for the poor!   Alexander was perplexed as to how the admonition Pray without ceasing (1 Thess. 5:17) could be fulfilled by frail human flesh, but after three years of fasting and prayer, God showed him a method. He organized his monks into four groups according to whether their native language was Greek, Latin, Syriac or Coptic, and the groups prayed in shifts throughout the day and night. Twenty-four divine services were appointed each day, and the monks would chant from the Psalter between services. The community henceforth came to be known as the Akoimetoi, the Unsleeping Ones. (Similar communities later sprang up in the West, practicing what was there called Laus Perennis; St Columban founded many of these.)   Always desiring to spread the holy Gospel, Saint Alexander sent companies of missionaries to the pagans of southern Egypt. He and a company of 150 disciples set out as a kind of traveling monastery, living entirely on the charity of the villages they visited. Eventually they settled in some abandoned baths in Antioch, setting up a there a monastery dedicated to the unceasing praise of God; but a jealous bishop drove them from the city. Making his way to Constantinople, he settled there with four monks. In a few days, more than four hundred monks had left their monasteries to join his community. The Saint organized them into three companies — Greeks, Latins and Syrians — and restored the program of unsleeping prayer that his community had practiced in Mesopotamia. Not surprisingly, his success aroused the envy and anger of the abbots whose monasteries had been nearly emptied; they managed to have him condemned as a Messalian at a council held in 426. (The Messalians were an over-spiritualizing sect who believed that the Christian life consisted exclusively of prayer.) Alexander was sent back to Syria, and most of his monks were imprisoned; but as soon as they were released, most fled the city to join him again. The Saint spent his last years traveling from place to place, founding monasteries, often persecuted, until he reposed in 430, 'to join the Angelic choirs which he had so well imitated on earth.' (Synaxarion)   The practice of unceasing praise, established by St Alexander, spread throughout the Empire. The Monastery of the Akoimetoi, founded by a St Marcellus, a successor of Alexander, was established in Constantinople and became a beacon to the Christian world. 'Even though it has not been retained in today's practice, the unceasing praise established by Saint Alexander was influential in the formation of the daily cycle of liturgical offices in the East and even more so in the West.' (Synaxarion)

In this episode of Woo Woo Wednesday, we're diving into a series of synchronicities that felt too aligned to ignore. What started as a few "hmm, that's interesting…" moments turned into a deeper exploration of surrender, divine timing, and the hidden order of the universe. Inspired by The Surrender Experiment book, I share how letting go of control has opened my eyes to how life is constantly organizing itself behind the scenes. This episode is about trusting the bigger picture, recognizing synchronicities when they show up, and allowing life to unfold without needing to force or control every outcome. When you zoom out, you might realize it's all far more connected than you thought. Similar episodes to this topic:  243: What If You're Receiving Guidance Differently Than You Expect? 204: Trusting the Bigger Picture: An Easier Path to Success Join The Monthly Woo Woo Wednesday Live Meetup! Let's be friends on Instagram! Join The Weekly Nudge Email List!

Send a textIn this episode, we're breaking down Season 4, Episode 7 of Industry, "Points of Emphasis" — and we have a lot of feelings. We walk you through all the major plot developments, from Whitney's attempted escape and his terrifying confrontation with what appears to be his foreign handlers, to Yasmin's ruthless political maneuvering to bring down Lisa Dern and protect herself as Tender collapses around her.Along the way, we dig into the finance: what a hostile takeover actually is and why Whitney's stock-for-stock bid for PierPoint is more smoke and mirrors than strategy, the real-world Porsche-Volkswagen story that inspired Whitney's synthetic position playbook (and why it still wouldn't be legal today), and why Harper's team is covering their short carefully as the stock craters.We also get into the emotional core of the episode: Lord Norton's heartbreaking decision to let Henry face the consequences, the long-awaited Harper and Yasmin reconciliation, and what Yasmin's admission that she's "never been necessary" might be setting up for the season finale.Share your theories and let us know where you think this all ends for our characters!For a 14 day FREE Trial of Macabacus, click HERE Visit https://iconnections.io/ to learn more about iConnections!Shop our Self Paced Courses: Investment Banking & Private Equity Fundamentals HEREFixed Income Sales & Trading HERE Wealthfront.com/wss. This is a paid endorsement for Wealthfront. May not reflect others' experiences. Similar outcomes not guaranteed. Wealthfront Brokerage is not a bank. Rate subject to change. Promo terms apply. If eligible for the boosted rate of 4.15% offered in connection with this promo, the boosted rate is also subject to change if base rate decreases during the 3 month promo period.The Cash Account, which is not a deposit account, is offered by Wealthfront Brokerage LLC ("Wealthfront Brokerage"), Member FINRA/SIPC. Wealthfront Brokerage is not a bank. The Annual Percentage Yield ("APY") on cash deposits as of 11/7/25, is representative, requires no minimum, and may change at any time. The APY reflects the weighted average of deposit balances at participating Program Banks, which are not allocated equally. Wealthfront Brokerage sweeps cash balances to Program Banks, where they earn the variable APY. Sources HERE.

0:00 - I'm sorry, Podcast listeners. These goal/Merica montages don't sound the same without Free Bird in the background. Stupid copyright rules. I guess you'll have to envision the freedom in your head for the full experience.Anyway, USA beat Canada yesterday in hockey to wrap up the Olympics on a high note. Now look...a silver medal is nothing to sneeze at! That's an amazing accomplishment. But Team Canada looked incredibly crushed and depressed as they received their medals. And what made it worse...they all received a plushie doll of the Olympics mascot too. Nathan MacKinnon had to use every ounce of self control in his system to not rip the head off that damn thing. Moser said that's unacceptable. You canNOT give a grown man a stuffed animal as a consolation prize.17:38 - The Avalanche and the Nuggets are facing similar problems right now. What used to be their greatest strength is now their biggest weakness. What's the fix?30:08 - Oh, by the way...the Cowboys extended Javonte Williams. Is it the right value? Oh, by the way...the Canadian curling cheater spoke up about the controversy. Oh, by the way...the Avs are getting a minor league team in New Mexico!

At the celebration of Lunar New Year of the Fire Horse

Abe Gordon and Madison Crews recap the aftermath of Atlanta United's 2-0 road loss to FC Cincinnati in what was new head coach, Gerardo "Tata" Martino's debut with the club.

Proverbs 16 reads like a finishing school exam for civil rulers. The author's calling and experience provide the background context occasioning this passage. Nevertheless while Solomon's office as king of Israel explains the instrumental cause of blessing in the land, the chapter itself proclaims the sovereignty of God as the formal cause. Applications of this chapter extend to us as Solomon is citing the maximal case here. The implication being, if the greatest of earthly kings is subject & accountable to the law of God & if he rules merely as an instrument of God's divine decree...the same is certainly true for everyone else. Similar to chapter 15, several verses placed strategically throughout the passage pronounce the theme. These key proverbs are verse 1, 9, and 33 all of which highlight the royal preeminence of YAHWEH the ultimate sovereign, human agency

A new coach and a new day is coming to Pittsburgh football but the win total might just remain a constant. Steel Curtain Network's Jeff Hartman, Dave Schofield and Bryan Anthony Davis break it all down on their latest episode from the Fans First Sports Network. Check out our exclusive 20% off deals with Hyper Natural, Big Fork Brands, and Strong Coffee Company ⁠⁠⁠HERE⁠ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode of the Crazy Wisdom podcast, host Stewart Alsop sits down with Markus Buehler, the McAfee Professor of Engineering at MIT, to explore how seemingly different systems—from proteins and music to knowledge structures and AI reasoning—share underlying patterns through hierarchy, self-organization, and scale-free networks. The conversation ranges from the limits of current AI interpolation versus true discovery (using the fire-to-fusion example), to the emergence of agent swarms and their non-linear effects, to practical questions about ontologies, knowledge graphs, and whether humans will remain necessary in the creative discovery process. Markus discusses his lab's work automating scientific discovery through AI agents that can generate hypotheses, run simulations, and even retrain themselves, while Stewart shares his own experiences building applications with AI coding agents and grapples with questions about intellectual property, material science constraints, and the future of human creativity in an AI-abundant world.Timestamps00:00 - Introduction to Marcus Buehler's work on knowledge graphs, structural grammar across proteins, music, and AI reasoning05:00 - Discussion of AI discovery versus interpolation, using fire and fusion as examples of fundamental versus incremental innovation10:00 - Language models as connective glue between agents, enabling communication despite imperfect outputs and canonical averaging15:00 - Embodiment and agency in AI systems, creating adversarial agents that challenge theories and expand world models20:00 - Emergent properties in materials and AI, comparing dislocations in metals to behaviors in agent swarms25:00 - Human role-playing and phase separation in society, parallels to composite materials and heterogeneity30:00 - Physical world challenges, atom-by-atom manufacturing at MIT.nano, limitations of lithography machines35:00 - Synthetic biology as alternative to nanotechnology, programming microorganisms for materials discovery40:00 - Intellectual property debates, commodification of AI models, control layers more valuable than model architecture45:00 - Automation of ontologies, agent self-testing, daughter's coding success at age 1150:00 - Graph theory for knowledge compression, neurosymbolic approaches combining symbolic and neural methods55:00 - Nonlinear acceleration in AI, emergence from accumulated innovations, restaurant owner embracing AI01:00:00 - Future generations possibly rejecting AI, democratization of knowledge, social media as real-time scientific discourseKey Insights1. Universal Patterns Across Disciplines: Seemingly different systems in nature—proteins, music, social networks, and knowledge itself—share fundamental structural patterns including hierarchy, self-organization, and scale-free networks. This commonality allows creative thinkers to draw insights across disciplines, applying principles from one domain to solve problems in another. As an engineer and materials scientist, Buehler has leveraged these isomorphisms to advance scientific understanding by mapping the "plumbing" of different systems onto each other, revealing hidden relationships that enable extrapolation beyond what's observable in any single domain.2. The Discovery Versus Interpolation Problem: Current AI systems, particularly large language models, excel at interpolation—recombining existing knowledge in new ways—but struggle with genuine discovery that requires fundamental rewiring of world models. Using the example of fire versus fusion, Buehler explains that an AI trained on combustion chemistry would propose bigger fires or new fuels, but couldn't conceive of fusion because that requires stepping back to more fundamental physics. True discovery demands the ability to recognize when existing theories have boundaries and to develop entirely new frameworks, something current AI architectures aren't designed to achieve due to their training objective of predicting the most likely outcome.3. The Role of Ontologies and Knowledge Graphs: While some AI researchers argue that ontologies are unnecessary because models form internal representations, Buehler advocates for explicit knowledge graphs as essential discovery tools. External ontologies provide sharp, analytical, symbolic representations that complement the fuzzy internal representations of neural networks. They enable verification of rare connections—like obscure papers that might hold key insights—which would be averaged away in standard AI training. This neurosymbolic approach combines the generalization capabilities of neural networks with the precision of formal knowledge structures, creating more powerful discovery systems.4. Emergent Properties and Agent Swarms: Just as materials science shows that collections of atoms exhibit properties impossible to predict from individual components, AI agent swarms demonstrate emergent behaviors beyond single models. When agents are incentivized not just to answer questions but to challenge each other adversarially, propose theories, and test hypotheses, they can spawn new copies of themselves and evolve understanding beyond their initial programming. This emergence isn't surprising from a materials science perspective—dislocations, grain boundaries, and other collective phenomena only appear at scale, fundamentally determining material behavior in ways unpredictable from studying just a few atoms.5. The Commoditization of Intelligence: The fundamental AI models themselves are becoming commodities, as evidenced by events like the Moldbug phenomenon where people built agents using various providers interchangeably. The real value is shifting from who has the smartest model to how models are orchestrated, integrated, and deployed. This parallels historical technology adoption patterns—just as we moved past debating who makes the best electricity to focusing on applications, AI is transitioning from a horse race over model capabilities to questions of infrastructure, energy, access speed, and agent coordination at the systems level.6. Human-AI Collaboration and Creative Control: Rather than wholesale replacement, AI enables humans to operate in an intensely creative space as orchestrators sampling from vast possibility spaces. Similar to how Buehler's 11-year-old daughter now builds sophisticated applications that would have required professional developers years ago, AI democratizes access to capabilities while humans retain the creative judgment about direction and meaning. The human role becomes curating emergence, finding rare connections, playing at the edges of knowledge, and exercising the kind of curiosity-driven exploration that AI systems lack without embodied stakes in their own survival and continuation.7. Technology as Evolutionary Inevitability: The development of AI represents not an unnatural threat but the next stage of human evolution—an extension of our innate drive to build models of ourselves and our world. From cave paintings to partial differential equations to artificial intelligence, humans continuously create increasingly sophisticated representations and tools. Attempting to stop this technological evolution is futile; instead, the focus should be on steering it ...

Nattering With E Ep 180 - When The Puzzle Gets Tough What up, world, it's your boy E! On today's episode, Eric goes solo to talk about his fascination and obsession with the word search game Squaredle. Similar to Wordle in that you have to guess the words, Squaredle is a word search game online that you have to create words from 18 different letters. With over 1000 possible combinations, the game can be either quick or super long, like today's 51-word puzzle. Eric also discusses his beloved West Ham United and plans for future episodes. As always, catch this and every Nattering With E episode on the Nattering With E Network and on Visionaries Global Media, where you get your podcasts.

At its core, the case hinges on a straightforward legal framework: sex trafficking of minors involves recruiting or obtaining someone under eighteen for sexual activity in exchange for money or something of value. The conduct described in this instance followed a consistent pattern. Underage girls were allegedly approached with offers of cash for “massages,” encounters escalated into sexual acts, and payments were made afterward. Reports further described a referral system in which girls were encouraged to bring other girls and were compensated for doing so. Because minors cannot legally consent to commercial sex, the presence of payment and recruitment carries decisive legal weight. The absence of overt force does not negate the charge when the alleged victims are under eighteen.The allegations were not confined to a single episode or location. Similar accounts surfaced across multiple properties and over an extended period, suggesting repetition and coordination rather than isolated misconduct. Critics note that a prior plea agreement and the lack of a completed federal trial do not eliminate the factual allegations that formed the basis of later indictments. The commercial element—cash tied to sexual access involving minors—remains central. When recruitment, payment, and repetition converge, investigators and prosecutors characterize that structure as organized commercial sexual exploitation of minors. Stripped of political framing, the factual framework aligns with the statutory definition of sex trafficking.to contact me:bobbycapucci@protonmail.com

Send a textKristin Olson, Goldman Sachs' Head of Alternatives for Wealth and Asset and Wealth Management, sits down with us for the most candid, no-fluff conversation about private equity and private credit we've ever had. .She walks us through the very real benefits of investing in private capital while also answering the cynical questions: do “retail” investors in private equity products like evergreen funds and perpetual funds get the A-team investors? Are those structures getting the best deals? How do the fees compare to the fees on products for institutional investors? Plus, If more buyers flood the market, does that push prices up and compress returns? Kristin breaks down for us how this whole ecosystem actually works, she discusses the biggest shift in private markets right now, and the pros and cons of newer structures that aim to make private assets feel more like “normal investing.” Finally, we go deep on what investors should actually ask before putting money into private equity and private credit. Kristin talks us through how fees can be misleading, when carry is taken, hurdle rates, gating/redemptions, and what “liquidity” really means when markets get stressed. This is an episode every investor should listen to before putting private capital into their portfolio.For a 14 day FREE Trial of Macabacus, click HERE Visit https://iconnections.io/ to learn more about iConnections!Shop our Self Paced Courses: Investment Banking & Private Equity Fundamentals HEREFixed Income Sales & Trading HERE Wealthfront.com/wss. This is a paid endorsement for Wealthfront. May not reflect others' experiences. Similar outcomes not guaranteed. Wealthfront Brokerage is not a bank. Rate subject to change. Promo terms apply. If eligible for the boosted rate of 4.15% offered in connection with this promo, the boosted rate is also subject to change if base rate decreases during the 3 month promo period.The Cash Account, which is not a deposit account, is offered by Wealthfront Brokerage LLC ("Wealthfront Brokerage"), Member FINRA/SIPC. Wealthfront Brokerage is not a bank. The Annual Percentage Yield ("APY") on cash deposits as of 11/7/25, is representative, requires no minimum, and may change at any time. The APY reflects the weighted average of deposit balances at participating Program Banks, which are not allocated equally. Wealthfront Brokerage sweeps cash balances to Program Banks, where they earn the variable APY. Sources HERE.

Dr. Monty Pal and Dr. Ari Rosenberg discuss the evolution of treatment strategies in head and neck cancers, including the challenges of treating both HPV-positive and HPV-negative disease and the emergence of blood-based biomarkers to advance personalized therapy across different subtypes. TRANSCRIPT Dr. Monty Pal: Hello and welcome to the ASCO Daily News Podcast. I'm your host, Dr. Monty Pal. I'm a medical oncologist, professor, and vice chair of academic affairs at the City of Hope Comprehensive Cancer Center in Los Angeles. Today, we're going to explore the evolving landscape of treatment strategies in head and neck cancer management, including locoregionally advanced head and neck squamous cell carcinoma, which happens to be on the rise in United States, in part due to spike in HPV-mediated oropharyngeal cancers. We're also going to discuss the emerging strategies of using blood-based biomarkers to really advance personalized therapy. Joining me for this discussion is Dr. Ari Rosenberg. He's a medical oncologist focused on head and neck cancer, and he's an associate professor – congratulations on the recent promotion – at the University of Chicago. The University of Chicago has really produced luminaries in this field, Dr. Rosenberg included. I've had the pleasure of getting to know Dr. Ezra Cohen over the years, who really had his grounding there, and of course Everett Vokes, former ASCO President. I'm really looking forward to this conversation, Ari. Thanks so much for joining us. Dr. Ari Rosenberg: Thanks, Monty. Thanks for the invitation. Dr. Monty Pal: You got it. And just a quick note for our listeners, our full disclosures are going to be in the transcript at the end of this episode. So let's start with the basics, if you don't mind. So, head and neck cancers are very diverse and they're challenging, right? In the sense that they're near vital organs, the treatments, you know, as we all saw during fellowship, if not now in clinical practice. They can really have such a major impact on vital organ function, speech, swallowing, et cetera. Can you just comment on head and neck cancers that are on the rise in the U.S.? I alluded to this briefly. Particularly, we've heard this in the context of colorectal cancer and so forth. Are you actually seeing younger adults being affected by this? Dr. Ari Rosenberg: Yeah, thanks for that. The vast majority of head and neck cancers are head and neck squamous cell carcinomas, as I'm sure many of the listeners recall as well from fellowship or their current training. And as you alluded to, the organ function, long-term and functional quality of life outcomes are quite important, particularly in the context that these develop in high value real estate, parts of our head and neck area that we use for speaking, swallowing, all sorts of other essential functions as well. As you also alluded to, we think of this in two different particular subtypes of head and neck cancer. The historical head and neck cancer from 50, 60 years ago was almost exclusively related to carcinogen exposure, tobacco, alcohol use, and that subtype of carcinogen-induced head and neck cancer has been slowly declining. However, over the last now several decades, we've been seeing an increase in primary oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma, mostly tonsil, base of tongue. These are attributable to HPV, human papillomavirus exposure. And that's now the majority of the head and neck cancers that we tend to see in our clinic. As you also alluded to, these have very different prognoses as well. HPV-related head and neck cancer has a much more favorable prognosis where much of the interest has been in can we de-intensify to optimize long-term function? But then the non-HPV-related head and neck cancer, or what we call HPV-negative head and neck cancer, continue to be very, very challenging. We only managed to cure about half of these folks, with many of these patients developing the current disease. These patients, in addition to being difficult to treat, also have major impacts both in terms of the treatments they undergo as well as their disease that can impact their function and quality of life. And you hinted at this a little bit, but we have been seeing an increase in younger patients with HPV-negative head and neck cancer as well, which is quite concerning. Younger patients, oftentimes never smokers, never drinkers, who are developing non-HPV-negative head and neck cancer. And that's been a little bit of a more recent trend that we've been seeing as well. So, definitely a lot of work to be done to optimize and improve outcomes across all of these different head and neck cancer subtypes. Dr. Monty Pal: I mean, I'm just curious, you know, in the context of colorectal cancer, one of the things that we talk about is the potential role of the microbiome driving some of these young-onset cancers with, you know, perhaps there being an impact on, for instance, inflammation and the gut and what have you. Tell me about head and neck cancer. Is this anything known as to why younger patients might be getting diagnosed with non-HPV type cancers? It's odd to me. Dr. Ari Rosenberg: Yeah, it's a great question. A lot of people are working on it. I think we folks have hypotheses, but it hasn't totally panned out exactly what's going on there. It does have a little bit more of a tendency towards women, whereas historically head and neck cancer is much more common in men than it is in women. But lots of people working on that, whether it's related to chronic inflammation, whether it's related to the microbiome. Whether it's related to dental exposure, dental work. So, a lot of folks trying to parse that out because I agree with you, it needs to be identified alongside improving treatment paradigms for these patients, the young ones and the older patients as well. Dr. Monty Pal: Interesting, interesting. You know, one of the phenomena that was sort of coming around when I was in training 25 years ago was this role of sort of induction therapy for head and neck cancers. And of course, it's really come full circle now to include checkpoint inhibitors and so forth. Tell me a little bit about this and how you apply it, maybe in an HPV-mediated context, maybe in a non-HPV context. Dr. Ari Rosenberg: Yeah, absolutely. Induction chemotherapy, as you alluded to, or neoadjuvant chemotherapy, depending on what the locoregional treatment approach is. Similar to other cancer types where systemic control early on has many potential advantages in this setting. Now, in head and neck cancer, even though induction chemotherapy is quite active in head and neck cancer, both HPV-positive and HPV-negative with pretty good response rates. A survival advantage for all comers with local regionally advanced disease remains unproven. There's been two randomized trials, both underpowered, but essentially did not show a survival advantage, showing that induction chemotherapy for all patients with locoregionally advanced and neck cancer can't be justified for a survival advantage. That being said though, there remains a number of potential advantages of giving induction or neoadjuvant chemotherapy, of course, improving systemic control and debulking the disease early on has potential advantages, and predicting the responsiveness to subsequent radiation treatment. We know for some time in head and neck cancer that the percentage of shrinkage or the response to induction chemotherapy actually predicts outcome related to radiation as a dynamic biomarker where response can be used to select patients, for example, for de-escalated radiation has been an area of active investigation, active research. And it also remains a key opportunity to evaluate predictive biomarkers and understanding pre and post treatment to better understand the biology. I'll just add to your question that recently over this past year, we also saw phase 3 data for neoadjuvant immunotherapy for a subset of head and neck cancer that is surgically resectable. And so that's reintroducing the potential benefit in the immunotherapy era of incorporating immunotherapy in the neoadjuvant or the induction setting as part of the evolving treatment paradigm for these diseases. Dr. Monty Pal: That's really interesting. And you kind of alluded to already several topics that I plan to hit on, you know, for instance, the role of immune checkpoint inhibitors, induction, chemotherapy, and so forth. And you started to touch on biomarkers. And of course, I think that's something near and dear to many of us in academic oncology. One thing that we've started talking a lot about in the context of colorectal cancer is circulating tumor DNA. How do you think this might fit in the context of head and neck cancer? Can you give us a flavor for that? Dr. Ari Rosenberg: Yeah, absolutely. In head and neck cancer, the current landscape is most developed for circulating tumor DNA for HPV-related head and neck cancer. The advantage of HPV-related head neck cancer is that you have a distinctive HPV DNA that does tend to spill out into the peripheral blood and can be detected using various different blood-based assays. And because of that advantage as a tissue agnostic approach, it turns out that a number of HPV DNA plasma assays are actually quite sensitive and quite specific. And a number of them have indeed been commercialized. Of course, not only for detecting a baseline, but also grading responsiveness during treatment and probably most importantly in the post-treatment surveillance setting, the detection of HPV DNA in the plasma remains a very important and substantial predictor of developing recurrent disease. There's been a number of trials that have been emerging looking at ctDNA and HPV-related head and neck cancer, using it, for example, as a strategy to deescalate patients. That was something we saw this past ASCO from the Dana-Farber group, and also using it to early detect recurrence and potentially intervene earlier for patients with minimal residual disease positivity. So, that remains evolving and as many folks are, I think, already using it in the clinic. But ctDNA also has a lot of potential for HPV-negative head and neck cancer. This is actually a bit more challenging to develop because you don't have that HPV DNA that you can track predictably because the tumor is an HPV- negative disease are much more heterogeneous, but there are a number of data that are coming out both for personalized assays such as Signatera or some of the other assays that require tumor. Unlike colon cancer, which you referenced, where most patients get surgery upfront, in head and neck cancer, many of the patients receive non-surgical pre-chemoradiation. So sometimes the amount of tumor available to generate a personalized assay is more limited and can be one of the challenges that we see in head neck cancer. But certainly that also seems to be emerging. And there's also further assays that are being developed for HPV-negative head neck cancers, such as methylomic signatures and others that may be tissue informed or tissue agnostic. And these are also emerging, particularly in the post-treatment surveillance setting as strong predictors of recurrent disease. So while we're certainly behind some of these other more common tumor types, colon cancer, lung cancer, we're right there with them and more and more trials are going report out, including a number of trials in our upcoming [University of Chicago] Head and Neck Cancer Symposium where I'll be presenting some data and others in the field will be presenting some data looking at ctDNA both for HPV-positive and for HPV- negative to try to improve outcomes for these patients. Dr. Monty Pal: That's so interesting. I've got to tell you that in kidney cancer, what I deal with day to day is a very low shedding disease, right? So techniques as opposed to ctDNA looking for tumor-informed information, that might be less preferred to something like methylomics where you might not necessarily be so contingent on what's happening in the primary tumor. I'm really interested in you mentioning that. Just a point of clarification, this is something I'm trying to wrap my head around. You'd mentioned circulating tumor HPV DNA, right? I assume this is markedly different from just looking for HPV titers in the patient, right? So is this actually incorporated elements of HPV within, you know, essentially host genome, if you will? Dr. Ari Rosenberg: Yeah, correct. This is circulating tumor HPV DNA. And we think of it biologically as a plasma-based tumor DNA biomarker that's specific for HPV-related head and neck cancers. Dr. Monty Pal: Got it, got it. It makes me wonder whether or not this might be applicable to diseases like cervical cancer and so forth where there's also extensively, you know, biology driven by HPV. Is that fair? Dr. Ari Rosenberg: Yes, definitely. And in the head and neck cancer field, much of this ctDNA actually was derived from a different viral mediated head neck cancer, is less common in the U.S., but nasopharyngeal cancer, which is oftentimes associated with EBV. That has been a biomarker for quite some time in nasopharyngeal cancer. Of course, in places where EBV-associated nasopharyngeal cancer, is endemic, such as East Asia, this has been around for quite some time, but we've been using that in the U.S., and there's been trials that have used EBV DNA plasma to predict recurrence and stratify for adjuvant treatment, for example. And so now with HPV, it's much more applicable to our US population because the vast majority of our head and neck cancer patients that we see in the US that are viral mediated in the US tend to be HPV-related. So having assays that we can use to improve outcomes for that biological subset remains of particular interest for us. Dr. Monty Pal: Yeah, that's fascinating. By the way, for the fellows listening, there's tons of boards pearls here that Dr. Rosenberg shared, EBV-associated cancers, the role of HPV and treatment association. So if you're recertifying anytime soon, I definitely think there's notes to take from this conversation indeed. I wanted to shift gears a little bit. And obviously, you're a prolific researcher. I don't think anyone goes through their fellowship in medical oncology without recounting these experiences of our head and neck patients really suffering from treatment-related toxicities. It's a real challenge. And I'm just wondering, I know a big body of work that you're focused on is really using multimodality treatment paradigms to perhaps reduce the cumulative treatment burden of patients with head and neck cancers. Can you talk about that a little bit? Dr. Ari Rosenberg: Yeah, definitely. Thanks for the question. And before I start going into some of the strategies, I'll just say that head and neck cancer, this is particularly for the fellows that are listening as well, just in reference to your prior comment, that this is really a multidisciplinary disease. At our center, all head and neck cancer patients are seen upfront at that first visit by all three specialties, med onc, rad onc, and surgery, because the choice and sequencing of modalities to optimize not only survival, but also functional quality of life outcome is so critical. And I think that's probably the biggest takeaway for anyone who treats a lot of head and neck cancer or will be treating a lot of head and neck cancer in the clinic. But in terms of more specific attempts at trying to optimize some of those parameters that you described, we really think about these separately in terms of HPV-positive and HPV-negative head and neck cancer. For HPV-positive head and neck cancer, the cure rates are quite high with chemo radiation, although not for everyone. There's still about 15, 10 to 15 % of folks that will develop a recurrence. But for the vast majority of patients, standard chemoradiation is quite a cure to therapy, but the toxicity associated with that can be quite substantial. And so there's been a number of attempts to try to deescalate treatment. It turns out that deescalating everyone with locoregionally advanced HPV-positive head and neck cancer is not a good strategy because it's not able to select out the patients that really do need full dose treatment. And we have seen some negative trials that show inferior outcomes when everyone is deescalated. But what does remain promising is again, trying to select out who the best candidates are for deescalated treatment. The folks at MSK have hypoxia imaging that they're using in trials that looks quite promising to select for the more favorable deescalatable biology. At our center, we've been interested in using induction chemotherapy to stratify response and select patients for deescalated treatment with excellent survival outcomes and reduce toxicity with deescalated treatment. And more recently, ctDNA that us and other groups, such as the Dana-Farber group, is using. And that also looks quite promising. Again, how do you select the patient who will do well with less radiation versus the ones that really need the full doses and volumes of radiation? And then for HPV-negative head and neck cancer, this is a much trickier disease because already the survival outcomes are not like we want it to be. Trying to figure out how to improve survival outcomes remains an important thing. Using immunotherapy seems to be one of the key cornerstones to that. But these are patients that also suffer from a lot of toxicity related to their treatment. We completed a trial not too long ago that we published this past year where we, in HPV-negative head and neck cancer patients, de-intensified the radiation for responders to neoadjuvant chemoimmunotherapy. And those patients did similar, if not even a little bit better, than the non-responders who got full dose treatment. So something that does warrant further investigation as well. How do we not only improve survival for those patients, but also reduce some of the long-term toxicities? Dr. Monty Pal: This is brilliant. I'm taking so many notes as you were mentioning these items. There are so many areas where I think the research crosses over. I already mentioned, know, ctDNA, for instance, and metabolomics and the places where that might apply to kidney cancer. The hypoxia imaging really caught my ear too. Obviously, kidney cancer is disease highly predicated on hypoxia. So thank you for all of this. We've got about a minute or so. So, I'm going to ask you for a really tall task here. Can you tell us what you foresee being some of the biggest challenges that sort of lie ahead and head and neck cancer. You've already kind of alluded to it with ongoing research, but if you had to pick maybe 2, 3 problems, the very most that we really need to get to and head and neck cancer, what would that be? Dr. Ari Rosenberg: Yeah, that's a great question. Obviously, lots of things to be done, but if I'm going to limit it to just a couple, I would say number one is really trying to improve the survival for HPV negative local regionally advanced head and neck cancer. We talked early on about how we are seeing, you know, of course we see many of these people that were smokers and drinkers, but also seeing these in younger patients, in patients without a history of tobacco use. Some of these are very biologically aggressive and we need better treatments beyond surgery, beyond chemo radiation, beyond immunotherapy to improve outcomes for these patients and cure more of them. So, I would say that's one big area. And the other is, which we didn't speak about so much in this talk, but remains one of the biggest challenges that we see in the clinic is the recurrent metastatic head and neck cancer patients. This is an incredibly challenging disease to treat, not only with poor survival, but also with substantial impacts on quality of life and function. mean, these are bad recurrences that cause a lot of pain, functional deficits, really impacts quality of life as well. So developing novel therapies, many of which are currently in clinical trials and many of which are currently continuing to be developed, remains so critical. How do we develop better systemic therapies, better targeted therapies, better biomarkers for recurrent metastatic head neck cancer to improve their survival and quality of life and functional outcomes. Those are the two big areas that require the most work at this time within the head and neck cancer field. Dr. Monty Pal: That's brilliant. I mean, I have to tell you I could probably talk to you all day about this, such a fascinating topic. It's a very exciting time in the field. Thank you, Dr. Rosenberg, for all your incredible contributions and thanks for sharing with us your insights on the ASCO Daily News Podcast. Dr. Ari Rosenberg: Yeah, and thanks for the introduction. Hope to do it again soon. Dr. Monty Pal: And many thanks to our listeners for your time today. If you value the insights that you hear from the ASCO Daily News Podcast, please take a moment to rate, review, and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. More on today's speakers:      Dr. Monty Pal   @montypal  Dr. Ari Rosenberg @AriRosenbergMD Follow ASCO on social media:           ASCO on X     ASCO on Bluesky          ASCO on Facebook           ASCO on LinkedIn           Disclosures:        Dr. Monty Pal:       Speakers' Bureau: MJH Life Sciences, IntrisiQ, Peerview      Research Funding (Inst.): Exelixis, Merck, Osel, Genentech, Crispr Therapeutics, Adicet Bio, ArsenalBio, Xencor, Miyarsian Pharmaceutical      Travel, Accommodations, Expenses: Crispr Therapeutics, Ipsen, Exelixis  Dr. Ari Rosenberg:     Stock and Other Ownership Interests: Privo Technologies Consulting or Advisory Role: Nanobiotix, EMD Serono, Vaccitech, Novartis, Eisai, Astellas Pharma, Regeneron, RAPT Therapeutics, Geovax Labs, Janssen, Summit Therapeutics Speakers' Bureau: Coherus Biosciences Research Funding (Inst.): Hookipa Biotech, EMD Serono, Purple Biotech, Bristol-Myers Squibb/Celgene, BeiGene, Abbvie, Astellas Pharma, Pfizer, Janux Therapeutics

Today, we are circling back to remind{h}er 112: Remember We Are Dust. This episode originally aired two years ago, on February 14, 2024, which happened to be Ash Wednesday that year. If you are listening in real time now in 2026, today is Ash Wednesday, too.  Similar to our last Circle Back episode, two years later it seems this message still rings true. It's a reminder that continues to haunt me in the very best way. It's a reminder I know we continue to need. As we begin the season of Lent, I hope this Ash Wednesday episode {once again!} serves you well. And if you're just now finding it and Ash Wednesday and/or Lent is through, I hope it serves you well, too. Listen in. remind{h}er 112: Remember We Are Dust Barbie written and directed by Greta Gerwig In a Year of Death, Ash Wednesday Offers Unexpected Hope by Tish Harrison Warren {Correction: in this episode, I mistakenly share that this article was published in 2023. It was published in Christianity Today in 2021} If You Knew by Ellen Bass www.withjulianne.com 

Join The Monthly Woo Woo Wednesday Live Meetup! Every second Wednesday of the month via zoom! In this episode, I dive into something that's been happening in real time for me: the wild realization that life is unfolding perfectly on its own… if we're willing to pay attention. Yes, you can see alignment through astrology, meditation, intuitive downloads, or conversations with your guides. But I also share how there's an even simpler way to notice it — just observing what's naturally happening in your life right now. This episode is a reminder that you don't have to force your path. You don't have to over-strategize your growth. The books you're reading, the shows you're watching, the hobbies that suddenly interest you, they're clues. They're breadcrumbs. They're alignment happening in plain sight. Similar episodes to this topic:  287: What if the "coincidences" aren't so random after all? 279: When Progress Doesn't Look Like Progress (But Actually Is) Join The Monthly Woo Woo Wednesday Live Meetup! Let's be friends on Instagram! Join The Weekly Nudge Email List!

At its core, the case hinges on a straightforward legal framework: sex trafficking of minors involves recruiting or obtaining someone under eighteen for sexual activity in exchange for money or something of value. The conduct described in this instance followed a consistent pattern. Underage girls were allegedly approached with offers of cash for “massages,” encounters escalated into sexual acts, and payments were made afterward. Reports further described a referral system in which girls were encouraged to bring other girls and were compensated for doing so. Because minors cannot legally consent to commercial sex, the presence of payment and recruitment carries decisive legal weight. The absence of overt force does not negate the charge when the alleged victims are under eighteen.The allegations were not confined to a single episode or location. Similar accounts surfaced across multiple properties and over an extended period, suggesting repetition and coordination rather than isolated misconduct. Critics note that a prior plea agreement and the lack of a completed federal trial do not eliminate the factual allegations that formed the basis of later indictments. The commercial element—cash tied to sexual access involving minors—remains central. When recruitment, payment, and repetition converge, investigators and prosecutors characterize that structure as organized commercial sexual exploitation of minors. Stripped of political framing, the factual framework aligns with the statutory definition of sex trafficking.to contact me:bobbycapucci@protonmail.comBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-epstein-chronicles--5003294/support.

Send a textIn the sixth installment of He Said, She Said on the Risk Reversal Podcast, Kristen and Jen are joined by CNBC's Dan Nathan and Guy Adami to talk century bonds, Paramount / Warner Brothers update, and the existential angst surrounding AI. The episode kicks off with a listener question about Alphabet's recent $32 billion debt issuance, including a rare 100-year sterling bond, prompting a deep dive into who issues century bonds, who actually buys them, and what locking in ultra-long-term rates signals about corporate views on term premium and fiscal risk. From there, the group pivots to an update on the Warner Bros–Paramount–Netflix saga, Finally, the crew tackles the market's rapidly shifting narrative around AI. What was once a universal tailwind for SaaS and hyperscalers now feels like a sector-wide threat, with investors “shooting first and asking questions later.” The group weigh in on productivity, unemployment fears, private market risk, and whether today's selloff in software names is a buying opportunity or a warning sign. For a 14 day FREE Trial of Macabacus, click HERE Visit https://iconnections.io/ to learn more about iConnections!Shop our Self Paced Courses: Investment Banking & Private Equity Fundamentals HEREFixed Income Sales & Trading HERE Wealthfront.com/wss. This is a paid endorsement for Wealthfront. May not reflect others' experiences. Similar outcomes not guaranteed. Wealthfront Brokerage is not a bank. Rate subject to change. Promo terms apply. If eligible for the boosted rate of 4.15% offered in connection with this promo, the boosted rate is also subject to change if base rate decreases during the 3 month promo period.The Cash Account, which is not a deposit account, is offered by Wealthfront Brokerage LLC ("Wealthfront Brokerage"), Member FINRA/SIPC. Wealthfront Brokerage is not a bank. The Annual Percentage Yield ("APY") on cash deposits as of 11/7/25, is representative, requires no minimum, and may change at any time. The APY reflects the weighted average of deposit balances at participating Program Banks, which are not allocated equally. Wealthfront Brokerage sweeps cash balances to Program Banks, where they earn the variable APY. Sources HERE.

Send a textRecap & Breakdown of HBO's Industry season 4 episode 6,Harper launches her assault on Tender at the Alpha Conference, delivering a devastating short thesis complete with a DCF analysis and sum-of-the-parts valuation. We break down every piece of the finance, from enterprise value vs. equity value, what a price target of zero really means, and the real-world fraud parallels to Enron, Valiant, and Luckin Coffee. We also discuss why Tender's "convertible bond" is actually a putable bond (a la Succession Season 1). Meanwhile, Whitney's relationship with Henry takes some deeply unsettling turns, and cracks in Tender's armor start showing from directions nobody expected. The episode's biggest revelations reshape everything we thought we knew, which would have been unbelievable had it not come directly from the Wirecard scandal. A bunch of our theories come true but sadly...and we discuss new theories and hopes given a shocking exit by one of our characters. With only two episodes left this season, the battle lines are drawn. Whether you're here for the finance masterclass or the character drama, this one has it all.Did you know we have a 25-hour Investment Banking & Private Equity Fundamentals self study that covers exactly what new hires get when they start on Wall Street? Step-by-step modeling, valuation, accounting, and more, delivered by Kristen who taught this exact content at firms including Blackstone, Morgan Stanley and more for over a decade. Check it out here: https://thewallstreetskinny.com/investment-banking-private-equity-fundamentals/#investment-bankingFor a 14 day FREE Trial of Macabacus, click HERE Visit https://iconnections.io/ to learn more about iConnections!Shop our Self Paced Courses: Investment Banking & Private Equity Fundamentals HEREFixed Income Sales & Trading HERE Wealthfront.com/wss. This is a paid endorsement for Wealthfront. May not reflect others' experiences. Similar outcomes not guaranteed. Wealthfront Brokerage is not a bank. Rate subject to change. Promo terms apply. If eligible for the boosted rate of 4.15% offered in connection with this promo, the boosted rate is also subject to change if base rate decreases during the 3 month promo period.The Cash Account, which is not a deposit account, is offered by Wealthfront Brokerage LLC ("Wealthfront Brokerage"), Member FINRA/SIPC. Wealthfront Brokerage is not a bank. The Annual Percentage Yield ("APY") on cash deposits as of 11/7/25, is representative, requires no minimum, and may change at any time. The APY reflects the weighted average of deposit balances at participating Program Banks, which are not allocated equally. Wealthfront Brokerage sweeps cash balances to Program Banks, where they earn the variable APY. Sources HERE.

Conrad Black reflects on former Prime Minister Stephen Harper's conservative achievements and analyzes current leader Pierre Poilievre's similar but more comprehensive vision to rescue Canada's stagnating economy.1924 MANITOBA

Olympic medal winner confessed to cheating on his girlfriend during post-game live TV interview. Murder trial in France is complicated by twin brothers with same DNA. Portugal allowed children to cast their votes in the Presidential election. // Weird AF News is the only daily weird news podcast in the world. Weird news 5 days/week and on Friday it's only Floridaman. SUPPORT by joining the Weird AF News Patreon http://patreon.com/weirdafnews - OR buy Jonesy a coffee at http://buymeacoffee.com/funnyjones Buy MERCH: https://weirdafnews.merchmake.com/ - Check out the official website https://WeirdAFnews.com and FOLLOW host Jonesy at http://instagram.com/funnyjones - wants Jonesy to come perform standup comedy in your city? Fill out the form: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfvYbm8Wgz3Oc2KSDg0-C6EtSlx369bvi7xdUpx_7UNGA_fIw/viewform

This week we talk about OpenAI, nudify apps, and CSAM.We also discuss Elon Musk, SpaceX, and humanistic technology.Recommended Book: Who's Afraid of Gender? by Judith ButlerTranscriptxAI is an American corporation that was founded in mid-2023 by Elon Musk, ostensibly in response to several things happening in the world and in the technology industry in particular.According to Musk, a “politically correct” artificial intelligence, especially a truly powerful, even generally intelligent one, which would be human or super-human-scale capable, would be dangerous, leading to systems like HAL 9000 from 2001: A Space Odyssey. He intended, in contrast, to create what he called a “maximally truth-seeking” AI that would be better at everything, including math and reasoning, than existing, competing models from the likes of OpenAI, Google, and Anthropic.The development of xAI was also seemingly a response to the direction of OpenAI in particular, as OpenAI was originally founded in 2015 as a non-profit by many of the people who now run OpenAI and competing models by competing companies, and current OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Elon Musk were the co-chairs of the non-profit.Back then, Musk and Altman both said that their AI priorities revolved around the many safety issues associated with artificial general intelligence, including potentially existential ones. They wanted the development of AI to take a humanistic trajectory, and were keen to ensure that these systems aren't hoarded by just a few elites and don't make the continued development and existence of human civilization impossible.Many of those highfalutin ambitions seemed to either be backburnered or removed from OpenAI's guiding tenets wholesale when the company experienced surprising success from its first publicly deployed ChatGPT model back in late-2022.That was the moment that most people first experienced large-language model-based AI tools, and it completely upended the tech industry in relatively short order. OpenAI had already started the process of shifting from a vanilla non-profit into a capped for-profit company in 2019, which limited profits to 100-times any investments it received, partly in order to attract more talent that would otherwise be unlikely to leave their comparably cushy jobs at the likes of Google and Facebook for the compensation a non-profit would be able to offer.OpenAI began partnering with Microsoft that same year, 2019, and that seemed to set them up for the staggering growth they experienced post-ChatGPT release.Part of Musk's stated rationale for investing so heavily in xAI is that he provided tens of millions of dollars in seed funding to the still non-profit OpenAI between 2015 and 2018. He filed a lawsuits against the company after its transition, and when it started to become successful, post-ChatGPT, especially between 2024 and 2026, and has demanded more than $100 billion in compensation for that early investment. He also attempted to take over OpenAI in early 2025, launching a hostile bid with other investors to nab OpenAI for just under $100 billion. xAI, in other words, is meant to counter OpenAI and what it's become.All of which could be seen as a genuine desire to keep OpenAI functioning as a non-profit arbiter of AGI development, serving as a lab and thinktank that would develop the guardrails necessary to keep these increasingly powerful and ubiquitous tools under control and working for the benefit of humanity, rather than against it.What's happened since, within Musk's own companies, would seem to call that assertion into question, though. And that's what I'd like to talk about today: xAI, its chatbot Grok, and a tidal wave of abusive content it has created that's led to lawsuits and bans from government entities around the world.—In November of 2023, an LLM-based chatbot called Grok, which is comparable in many ways to OpenAI's LLM-based chabot, ChatGPT, was launched by Musk's company xAI.Similar to ChatGPT, Grok is accessible by apps on Apple and Android devices, and can also be accessed on the web. Part of what makes its distinct, though, is that it's also built into X, the social network formerly called Twitter which Musk purchased in late-2022. On X, Grok operates similar to a normal account, but one that other users can interact with, asking Grok about the legitimacy of things posted on the service, asking it normal chat-botty questions, and asking it to produce AI-generated media.Grok's specific stances and biases have varied quite a lot since it was released, and in many cases it has defaulted to the data- and fact-based leanings of other chatbots: it will generally tell you what the Mayo clinic and other authorities say about vaccines and diseases, for instance, and will generally reference well-regarded news entities like the Associated Press when asked about international military conflicts.Musk's increasingly strong political stances, which have trended more and more far right over the past decade, have come to influence many of Grok's responses, however, at times causing it to go full Nazi, calling itself Mechahitler and saying all the horrible and offensive things you would expect a proud Nazi to say. At other times it has clearly been programmed to celebrate Elon Musk whenever possible, and in still others it has become immensely conspiratorial or anti-liberal or anti-other group of people.The conflicting personality types of this bot seems to be the result of Musk wanting to have a maximally truth-seeking AI, but then not liking the data- and fact-based truths that were provided, as they often conflicted with his own opinions and biases. He would then tell the programmers to force Grok to not care about antisemitism or skin color or whatever else, and it would overcorrect in the opposite direction, leading to several news cycles worth of scandal.This changes week by week and sometimes day by day, but Grok often calls out Musk as being authoritarian, a conspiracy theorist, and even a pedophile, and that has placed the Grok chatbot in an usual space amongst other, similar chatbots—sometimes serving as a useful check on misinformation and disinformation on the X social network, but sometimes becoming the most prominent producer of the same.Musk has also pushed for xAI to produce countervailing sources of truth from which Grok can find seeming data, the most prominent of which is Grokipedia, which Musk intended to be a less-woke version of Wikipedia, and which, perhaps expectedly, means that it's a far-right rip off of Wikipedia that copies most articles verbatim, but then changes anything Musk doesn't like, including anything that might support liberal political arguments, or anything that supports vaccines or trans people. In contrast, pseudoscience and scientific racism get a lot of positive coverage, as does the white genocide conspiracy theory, all of which are backed by either highly biased or completely made up sources—in both cases sources that Wikipedia editors would not accept.Given all that, what's happened over the past few months maybe isn't that surprising.In late 2025 and early 2026, it was announced that Grok had some new image-related features, including the ability for users to request that it modify images. Among other issues, this new tool allowed users to instruct Grok to place people, which for this audience especially meant women and children, in bikinis and in sexually explicit positions and scenarios.Grok isn't the first LLM-based app to provide this sort of functionality: so called “nudify” apps have existed for ages, even before AI tools made that functionality simpler and cheaper to apply, and there have been a wave of new entrants in this field since the dawn of the ChatGPT era a few years ago.Grok is easily the biggest and most public example of this type of app, however, and despite the torrent of criticism and concern that rolled in following this feature's deployment, Musk immediately came out in favor of said features, saying that his chatbot is edgier and better than others because it doesn't have all the woke, pearl-clutching safeguards of other chatbots.After several governments weighed in on the matter, however, Grok started responding to requests to do these sorts of image edits with a message saying: “Image generation and editing are currently limited to paying subscribers. You can subscribe to unlock these features.”Which means users could still access these tools, but they would have to pay $8 per month and become a premium user in order to do so. That said, the AP was able to confirm that as of mid-January, free X users could still accomplish the same by using an Edit Image button that appears on all images posted to the site, instead of asking Grok directly.When asked about this issue by the press, xAI has auto-responded with the message “Legacy Media Lies.” The company has previously said it will remove illegal content and permanently suspend users who post and ask for such content, but these efforts have apparently not been fast or complete, and more governments have said they plan to take action on the matter, themselves, since this tool became widespread.Again, this sort of nonconsensual image manipulation has been a problem for a long, long time, made easier by the availability of digital tools like Photoshop, but not uncommon even before the personal computer and digital graphics revolution. These tools have made the production of such images a lot simpler and faster, though, and that's put said tools in more hands, including those of teenagers, who have in worryingly large numbers taken to creating photorealistic naked and sexually explicit images of their mostly female classmates.Allowing all X users, or even just the subset that pays for the service to do the same at the click of a button or by asking a Chatbot to do it for them has increased the number manyfold, and allowed even more people to created explicit images of neighbors, celebrities, and yes, even children. An early estimate indicates that over the course of just nine days, Grok created and posted 4.4 million images, at least 41% of which, about 1.8 million, were sexualized images of women. Another estimated using a broader analysis says that 65% of those images, or just over 3 million, contained sexualized images of men, women, and children.CSAM is an acronym that means ‘child sexual abuse material,' sometimes just called child porn, and the specific definition varies depending on where you are, but almost every legal jurisdiction frowns, or worse, on its production and distribution.Multiple governments have announced that they'll be taking legal action against the company since January of 2026, including Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines, Britain, France, India, Brazil, and the central governance of the European Union.The French investigation into xAI and Grok led to a raid on the company's local office as part of a preliminary investigation into allegations that the company is knowingly spreading child sexual abuse materials and other illegal deepfake content. Musk has been summoned for questioning in that investigation.Some of the governments looking into xAI for these issues conditionally lifted their bans in late-January, but this issues has percolated back into the news with the release of 16 emails between Musk and the notorious sex traffic and pedophile Jeffrey Epstein, with Musk seemingly angling for an invite to one of Epstein's island parties, which were often populated with underage girls who were offered as, let's say companions, for attendees.And this is all happening at a moment in which xAI, which already merged with social network X, is meant to be itself merged with another Musk-owned company, SpaceX, which is best known for its inexpensive rocket launches.Musk says the merger is intended to allow for the creation of space-based data centers that can be used to power AI systems like Grok, but many analysts are seeing this as a means of pumping more money into an expensive, unprofitable portion of his portfolio: SpaceX, which is profitable, is likely going to have an IPO this year and will probably have a valuation of more than a trillion dollars. By folding very unprofitable xAI into profitable SpaceX, these AI-related efforts could be funded well into the future, till a moment when, possibly, many of today's AI companies will have gone under, leaving just a few competitors for xAI's Grok and associated offerings.Show Noteshttps://www.wired.com/story/deepfake-nudify-technology-is-getting-darker-and-more-dangerous/https://www.theverge.com/ai-artificial-intelligence/867874/stripe-visa-mastercard-amex-csam-grokhttps://www.ft.com/content/f5ed0160-7098-4e63-88e5-8b3f70499b02https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2026/jan/29/millions-creating-deepfake-nudes-telegram-ai-digital-abusehttps://apnews.com/article/france-x-investigation-seach-elon-musk-1116be84d84201011219086ecfd4e0bchttps://apnews.com/article/grok-x-musk-ai-nudification-abuse-2021bbdb508d080d46e3ae7b8f297d36https://apnews.com/article/grok-elon-musk-deepfake-x-social-media-2bfa06805b323b1d7e5ea7bb01c9da77https://www.nytimes.com/2026/02/07/technology/elon-musk-spacex-xai.htmlhttps://www.bbc.com/news/articles/ce3ex92557johttps://techcrunch.com/2026/02/01/indonesia-conditionally-lifts-ban-on-grok/https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cgr58dlnne5ohttps://www.nytimes.com/2026/01/22/technology/grok-x-ai-elon-musk-deepfakes.htmlhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XAI_(company)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OpenAIhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ChatGPThttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grok_(chatbot)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grokipediahttps://www.cnbc.com/2025/02/10/musk-and-investors-offering-97point4-billion-for-control-of-openai-wsj.html This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit letsknowthings.substack.com/subscribe

Send us a textThe guest for Talking About Kids' second episode of National Children's Dental Health Month is Shelly Buckholz.  Shelly is the Sealant Program Manager for the Arizona Department of Health Services, and she is going to describe what Arizona is doing to promote children's oral health. Similar programs are available throughout the United States and in other countries. More information about Shelly and the Cavity Free AZ program is at talkingaboutkids.com.

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