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Mike Johnson, Ali Mac, and Beau Morgan let you Atlanta Falcons Head Coach Raheem Morris talk about how Falcons wide receiver Drake London will play once it's safe for him to play, react to what Coach Morris had to say, let you hear Coach Morris talk about how Seattle Seahawks Offensive Coordinator Klint Kubiak has done a great job and runs an offense similar to the Falcons offense, react to what Coach Morris had to say, and explain why they think Klint Kubiak's offense is similar to the Falcons offense, but also way different at the same time.

HR2 - Zac Robinson & Klint Kubiak run very similar but different offenses at same time In hour two Mike Johnson, Ali Mac, and Beau Morgan let you Atlanta Falcons Head Coach Raheem Morris talk about how Falcons wide receiver Drake London will play once it's safe for him to play, react to what Coach Morris had to say, let you hear Coach Morris talk about how Seattle Seahawks Offensive Coordinator Klint Kubiak has done a great job and runs an offense similar to the Falcons, react to what Coach Morris had to say, explain why they think Klint Kubiak's offense is similar to the Falcons offense, but also way different at the same time, talk about how FOX is looking for Falcons fans to be in an upcoming film, react to the latest news, rumors, and reports in the NFL as they go In The Huddle, preview conference championship weekend in college football, explain why they think It would be a bad look for the Big 10 if Ohio State blows out Indiana on Saturday in the Big 12 Championship game, and then close out hour two by diving into The Life of Mike Johnson and getting Mike'd Up!

Periodically around these parts the audience demand for unpaywalling certain subscribers-only episodes becomes too clamorous to ignore. So it was with Members Only #286, our gripping conversation with celebrated author Sebastian Junger about his harrowing new book, In My Time of Dying.“Please consider making this a non-members only episode,” wrote beloved subscriber James G. “Ditto,” seconded Daniel Cavelli. “I wanna send this to many people.” Similar beseechings from random_academic, Jake O'Finkelstein, [Dr.] Jeff Singer, Lara Merkel Ross, and Oren, who added: “I have a friend who barely survived a massive heart attack last month. And I can think of many others who will be inspired by this incredible conversation.”To our longtime paying customers: We hear you! Please share the episode widely, either as a one-off or a come-on!To our many brand new paying subscribers, brought here by a generous gift, welcome to this weird & wonderful community, and please enjoy full run of the Comments and Chat. And to those seeing/hearing us for the first time, or just flying in the very back of the plane, here is the type of content that can come with a paid subscription. As our dear old D.C. pal Maura Flynn put it, “You make my support increasingly worthwhile and I encourage everyone who can to contribute on the highest possible level. Great stuff, rock on!”You know what to do.•You can always start drinking again•Enough to make ⅔ of these grown men cry•Sebastian's (most recent) near-death experience•Danger in, insight out•Momento Mori•There's nothing so dangerous as a wounded Apache•Don't have an aortic rupture in Truro in July•ICU humor•Hi dad•An existential digression•Better than the one with Will Farrel•Ideological Duolingo•Hot tip from an immigration officer•Old-time antisemitism•Bestselling author sleeps with chainsaw•Sarajevo & the Spanish Civil War•Men's Journal and the good old days of war reporting•The folly of Afghanistan and nation-building on the cheap•Some things are sacred•Investigating near death experiences•Don't test Santa Claus•Etymology of a curse•Atheists, physicists, and consciousness•God of the gaps•Yes, we are literally talking about quantum physics•The science of myth•The reason for the need the idea of heaven•Restrepo•Why we all need a tribe•Things were better when they were bad•If you're not sufficiently terrified, you're not getting it.•A tribute to dangerous jobs•Making meaning in a meaningless universe•A Bostonian goodbyeYouTube link:Follow The Fifth ColumnYouTube: @wethefifthInstagram: @we.the.fifthX: @wethefifthTikTok: @wethefifthFacebook: @thefifthcolumn This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.wethefifth.com/subscribe

Degens Andy S and Brandon Bombay hit the studio and show they got the touch while talking about a certifiable Degen classic, 'Boogie Nights.' Bombay opens it up by talking about how much he envies Dirk Diggler's ability to control his manhood on demand, as he was not able to replicate that performance when the pressure was on. Then the boys discuss this time capsule, which is littered with incredible detail that would become the calling card of Paul Thomas Anderson films, and an ensemble cast that was well on their way to being some of the great actors of their generation. The guys talk about how consuming adult entertainment has changed not only from the '70s, but from the '90s when the film was released. Naturally, they have to talk about the film's star, Mark Wahlberg's prosthetic, and the hilarious number of countless reaction shots to characters getting a load of it in person. Similar to the movie, the episode is filled with comedy, but the human elements are the backbone(r). 

After the usual BS of “Did anyone invite a guest?” and “Let's text random people while we're recording,” the boys get down to business: a whole lot of safety plans are the same recycled Word doc with a new company logo slapped on. Sounds almost the same as every ska song does. Turns out, not a lot of people spend time creating real, specific plans, so they just do a “File, Save As” on their way to compliance.By the way, it's still a NOFX song for the episode title. Just saying.Contractor management? Copy-paste, MFers. Workers think half these plans are useless, and even the managers know they're just hoops to jump through. But don't worry, checklists and forms will sort it out, because nothing says safety like paperwork!Leadership? Yeah, leaders are supposed to show up and make all this “personal,” except half the time it's just performative nonsense. They debate whether “best practices” exist, eventually agreeing that the best practice is probably making sure people know what the hell a safety plan is even for.The reason every unique, special snowflake job site's plans look exactly like the next is because, deep down, they're lazy (says Dave), too overwhelmed, or just too unbothered to actually change anything about work.  Brian Hughes from Sologic was cool enough to answer a last-minute call and hop onto the pod, and because he's a bassist, he's nicer than most people. He takes a better view of how something like a template can actually help, not hurt, especially when people are overwhelmed by other stuff. Like meat at the Brazilian steakhouse where Brian is housing steaks off a meat sword. He looks at a template or copy-paste as a life preserver, but he draws the line at stopping there.And then Brian has to go get dessert.So, maybe it's okay to have a little bit of help, but a wash, rinse, repeat of stuff that sounds the same but doesn't work isn't good. Cool. Now what? Questions, not "insert company name." As a starter kit, you can still get a jump start without just putting 27 people on stage with horns and calling it good. Check it out for all the answers. DISCLAIMER: You probably shouldn't take anything in this podcast too seriously. Punk Rock Safety is for entertainment only. It's definitely not a replacement for professional or legal advice, and the fair amount of piss-taking, shithousery, and general ridiculousness ought to clue you into the fact that no one - and no organization - is endorsing (or un-endorsing, if that's a thing) any products, ideas, or other things. Except NOFX. We definitely endorse them.Oh, and give your money to Punk Rock Saves Lives. They're a rad organization that works in mental health, addiction, and human rights. And they're awesome people who can use your help to keep on kicking ass at what they do.https://www.punkrocksaveslives.org/Let us know what you think at info@punkrocksafety.com or on our LinkedIn page.Merch at punkrocksafetymerch.com

Similar to pastors, deacons also must meet certain qualifications: Deacons must be reverent, good with finances, and not addicts Deacons must have faithful wives Deaconesses must be reverent and not gossipers All Christians must be unified on the "mystery of Christ" What the mystery of Christ is   Hey! Don't go away yet! Also check out these other P40 sites:  Website - https://www.p40ministries.com YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hnh-aqfg8rw Ko-Fi - https://ko-fi.com/p40ministries  Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/p40ministries  Contact - jenn@p40ministries.com  Rumble - https://rumble.com/c/c-6493869  Books - https://www.amazon.com/Jenn-Kokal/e/B095JCRNHY/ref=aufs_dp_fta_dsk  Merch - https://www.p40ministries.com/shop  YouVersion - https://www.bible.com/reading-plans/38267-out-of-the-mire-trusting-god-in-the-middle    Support babies and get quality coffee with Seven Weeks Coffee  https://sevenweekscoffee.com/?ref=P40   This ministry is only made possible due to your generous support https://www.p40ministries.com/donate

This Day in Legal History: John Brown AssassinatedOn December 2, 1859, abolitionist John Brown was executed by hanging in Charles Town, Virginia (now West Virginia), following his conviction for treason against the Commonwealth of Virginia, murder, and inciting a slave insurrection. Brown had led a raid on the federal armory at Harpers Ferry in October, attempting to seize weapons and incite a large-scale slave uprising. His plan failed, with most of his men either killed or captured, and Brown himself wounded and arrested by U.S. Marines under the command of Colonel Robert E. Lee. The legal proceedings against him were swift: Brown was indicted within days, tried in state court, and sentenced to death less than a month after the raid.His execution was a national event, drawing immense media coverage and polarized public reaction. In the North, many abolitionists hailed him as a martyr who sacrificed his life to end the moral atrocity of slavery. In the South, he was widely viewed as a terrorist whose actions confirmed fears of Northern aggression and interference. Brown's trial and punishment underscored the deepening legal and moral divide between free and slave states, particularly regarding states' rights, federalism, and the use of violence to oppose injustice. The charges of treason and insurrection also raised complex constitutional questions, since Brown was prosecuted under state, not federal, law — despite attacking a federal facility. His case set the stage for intensifying legal and political disputes over the limits of protest, the legitimacy of armed resistance, and the definition of loyalty to the state.Brown's final words, predicting that “the crimes of this guilty land will never be purged away but with blood,” would prove prescient less than two years later when the Civil War began.A federal appeals court has ruled that Alina Habba, a former personal attorney to Donald Trump, was unlawfully appointed as the interim U.S. Attorney for the District of New Jersey. The 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals unanimously upheld a lower court's finding that the Trump administration violated federal appointments law in installing Habba without Senate confirmation or proper legal authority. This decision disqualifies her from overseeing federal cases in the state, potentially disrupting numerous active prosecutions.The case was brought by defense attorneys who argued that the Justice Department used procedural workarounds to improperly extend Habba's tenure after New Jersey's district judges declined to reauthorize her. In response, DOJ fired her court-appointed successor and tried to reassign Habba under a different title, which the court rejected. The ruling is significant because it's the first appellate decision pushing back on Trump-era efforts to place loyalists in key legal roles without Senate oversight.Habba, who had no prior prosecutorial experience, previously represented Trump in high-profile civil litigation, including the defamation case involving E. Jean Carroll. During her controversial tenure, she was criticized for politicized statements and for filing charges against a Democratic congresswoman. Similar appointment disputes are playing out in other states, and this decision sets a strong precedent against bypassing constitutional and statutory nomination processes. The administration is expected to appeal to the Supreme Court.Court disqualifies Trump ally Habba as top New Jersey federal prosecutor | ReutersHSBC has announced a multi-year partnership with French start-up Mistral AI to integrate generative AI tools across its global operations. The bank plans to self-host Mistral's commercial AI models and future upgrades, combining its own tech infrastructure with Mistral's cutting-edge AI capabilities. The collaboration aims to boost automation, productivity, and customer service, with use cases spanning financial analysis, multilingual translation, risk assessment, and personalized client interactions.By adopting Mistral's tools, HSBC expects to significantly reduce time spent on routine, document-heavy tasks, such as those in credit and financing teams. Already active in AI applications like fraud detection and compliance, the bank sees this deal as a way to accelerate innovation cycles and roll out new features more efficiently. The move comes amid a broader industry trend as banks seek to scale generative AI solutions, while addressing ongoing concerns around data privacy. HSBC emphasized that all deployments will comply with its responsible AI governance standards to ensure transparency and protection.HSBC taps French start-up Mistral to supercharge generative-AI rollout | ReutersPresident Donald Trump has commuted the prison sentence of David Gentile, the former CEO of GPB Capital Holdings, who was convicted under the Biden administration for his role in what prosecutors called a Ponzi scheme. Gentile had been serving a seven-year sentence after being found guilty of securities fraud in 2024. The DOJ argued that GPB misled investors by using new investor funds to pay returns, rather than profits from legitimate operations.However, in announcing the commutation, a White House official pushed back on the prosecution's claims, arguing that investors had been clearly informed about the firm's payment practices and that prosecutors failed to directly link fraudulent misrepresentations to Gentile during trial. The official also alleged misconduct, claiming the government elicited and failed to correct false testimony.The commutation comes amid heightened political scrutiny of financial fraud prosecutions and continues Trump's trend of intervening in controversial white-collar cases. The Department of Justice has not yet responded to the decision.Trump frees former GPB Capital CEO after Biden admin's Ponzi scheme sentence | ReutersMy column for Bloomberg this week is about … the penny. The official end of penny production may seem trivial, but it's creating real legal headaches for retailers and tax administrators alike. Without the one-cent coin, states are facing ambiguity about how to round sales tax totals for cash transactions—should it happen before or after tax, and who absorbs the rounding loss? These questions go largely unanswered, and in the absence of clear rules, businesses are improvising, which risks inconsistent compliance and enforcement challenges. There's also a legal tension where cash transactions require rounding but card payments do not—potentially running afoul of laws banning payment-method discrimination or even the Internet Tax Freedom Act.Streamlined Sales Tax rules add more complexity, limiting when and how rounding can occur and cautioning against systems that enrich the state at consumers' expense. I argue that instead of patchwork fixes, this moment should push states to modernize their sales tax systems with mandatory e-invoicing and real-time reporting. This would standardize how tax is calculated and rounded, reduce compliance uncertainty, and shrink the window for fraud. Paired with something like a receipt lottery—used successfully in countries like Brazil and China—states could turn customers into compliance allies by rewarding them for scanning and validating receipts.Ultimately, automating rounding decisions and reporting in point-of-sale systems would lift the burden off retailers and give governments cleaner data with lower enforcement costs. The penny may be dead, but this is a rare chance to bring sales tax enforcement into the 21st century. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.minimumcomp.com/subscribe

Why do some romance authors build decades-long careers while others vanish after one breakout book? What really separates a throwaway pen name and rapid release strategy from a legacy brand and a body of work you're proud of? How can you diversify with trad, indie, non-fiction, and Kickstarter without burning out—or selling out your creative freedom? With Jennifer Probst. In the intro, digital ebook signing [BookFunnel]; how to check terms and conditions; Business for Authors 2026 webinars; Music industry and AI music [BBC; The New Publishing Standard]; The Golden Age of Weird. This podcast is sponsored by Kobo Writing Life, which helps authors self-publish and reach readers in global markets through the Kobo eco-system. You can also subscribe to the Kobo Writing Life podcast for interviews with successful indie authors. This show is also supported by my Patrons. Join my Community at Patreon.com/thecreativepenn Jennifer Probst is a New York Times, USA Today, and Wall Street Journal bestselling author of over 60 books across different kinds of romance as well as non-fiction for writers. Her latest book is Write Free. You can listen above or on your favorite podcast app or read the notes and links below. Here are the highlights, and the full transcript is below. Show Notes How Jennifer started writing at age 12, fell in love with romance, and persisted through decades of rejection A breakout success — and what happened when it moved to a traditional publisher Traditional vs indie publishing, diversification, and building a long-term, legacy-focused writing career Rapid-release pen names vs slow-burn author brands, and why Jennifer chooses quality and longevity Inspirational non-fiction for writers (Write Naked, Write True, Write Free) Using Kickstarter for special editions, re-releases, courses, and what she's learned from both successes and mistakes – plus what “writing free” really means in practice How can you ‘write free'? You can find Jennifer at JenniferProbst.com. Transcript of interview with Jennifer Probst Jo: Jennifer Probst is a New York Times, USA Today, and Wall Street Journal bestselling author of over 60 books across different kinds of romance as well as non-fiction for writers. Her latest book is Write Free. So welcome, Jennifer. Jennifer: Thanks so much, Joanna. I am kind of fangirling. I'm really excited to be on The Creative Penn podcast. It's kind of a bucket list. Jo: Aw, that's exciting. I reached out to you after your recent Kickstarter, and we are going to come back to that in a minute. First up, take us back in time. Tell us a bit more about how you got into writing and publishing. Jennifer: This one is easy for me. I am one of those rarities. I think that I knew when I was seven that I was going to write. I just didn't know what I was going to write. At 12 years old, and now this will kind of date me in dinosaur era here, there was no internet, no information on how to be a writer, no connections out there. The only game in town was Writer's Digest. I would go to my library and pore over Writer's Digest to learn how to be a writer. At 12 years old, all I knew was, “Oh, if I want to be a famous writer, I have to write a book.” So I literally sat down at 12 and wrote my first young adult romance. Of course, I was the star, as we all are when we're young, and I have not stopped since. I always knew, since my dad came home from a library with a box of romance novels and got in trouble with my mum and said, basically, “She's reading everything anyway, just let her read these,” I was gone. From that moment on, I knew that my entire life was going to be about that. So for me, it wasn't the writing. I have written non-stop since I was 12 years old. For me, it was more about making this a career where I can make money, because I think there was a good 30 years where I wrote without a penny to my name. So it was more of a different journey for me. It was more about trying to find my way in the writing world, where everybody said it should be just a hobby, and I believed that it should be something more. Jo: I was literally just going back in my head there to the library I used to go to on my way home from school. Similar, probably early teens, maybe age 14. Going to that section and… I think it was Shirley Conran. Was that Lace? Yes, Lace books. That's literally how we all learned about sex back in the day. Jennifer: All from books. You didn't need parents, you didn't need friends. Amazing. Jo: Oh, those were the days. That must have been the eighties, right? Jennifer: It was the eighties. Yes. Seventies, eighties, but mostly right around in the eighties. Oh, it was so… Jo: I got lost about then because I was reminiscing. I was also the same one in the library, and people didn't really see what you were reading in the corner of the library. So I think that's quite funny. Tell us how you got into being an indie. Jennifer: What had happened is I had this manuscript and it had been shopped around New York for agents and for a bunch of publishers. I kept getting the same exact thing: “I love your voice.” I mean, Joanna, when you talk about papering your wall with rejections, I lived that. The only thing I can say is that when I got my first rejection, I looked at it as a rite of passage that created me as a writer, rather than taking the perspective that it meant I failed. To me, perspective is a really big thing in this career, how you look at things. So that really helped me. But after you get like 75 of them, you're like, “I don't know how much longer I can take of this.” What happened is, it was an interesting story, because I had gone to an RWA conference and I had shopped this everywhere, this book that I just kept coming back to. I kept saying, “I feel like this book could be big.” There was an indie publisher there. They had just started out, it was an indie publisher called Entangled. A lot of my friends were like, “What about Entangled? Why don't you try more digital things or more indie publishers coming up rather than the big traditional ones?” Lo and behold, I sent it out. They loved the book. They decided, in February of 2012, to launch it. It was their big debut. They were kind of competing with Harlequin, but it was going to be a new digital line. It was this new cutting-edge thing. The book went crazy. It went viral. The book was called The Marriage Bargain, and it put me on the map. All of a sudden I was inundated with agents, and the traditional publishers came knocking and they wanted to buy the series. It was everywhere. Then it hit USA Today, and then it spent 26 weeks on The New York Times. Everybody was like, “Wow, you're this overnight sensation.” And I'm like, “Not really!” That was kind of my leeway into everything. We ended up selling that series to Simon & Schuster because that was the smart move for then, because it kind of blew up and an indie publisher at that time knew it was a lot to take on. From then on, my goal was always to do both: to have a traditional contract, to work with indie publishers, and to do my own self-pub. I felt, even back then, the more diversified I am, the more control I have. If one bucket goes bad, I have two other buckets. Jo: Yes, I mean, I always say multiple streams of income. It's so surprising to me that people think that whatever it is that hits big is going to continue. So you obviously experienced there a massive high point, but it doesn't continue. You had all those weeks that were amazing, but then it drops off, right? Jennifer: Oh my goodness, yes. Great story about what happened. So 26 weeks on The New York Times, and it was selling like hotcakes. Then Simon & Schuster took it over and they bumped the price to their usual ebook price, which was, what, $12.99 or something? So it's going from $2.99. The day that they did it, I slid off all the bestseller lists. They were gone, and I lost a lot of control too. With indies, you have a little bit more control. But again, that kind of funnels me into a completely different kind of setup. Traditional is very different from indie. What you touched on, I think, is the biggest thing in the industry right now. When things are hot, it feels like forever. I learned a valuable lesson: it doesn't continue. It just doesn't. Maybe someone like Danielle Steel or some of the other big ones never had to pivot, but I feel like in romance it's very fluid. You have genres hitting big, you have niches hitting big, authors hitting big. Yes, I see some of them stay. I see Emily Henry still staying—maybe that will never pause—but I think for the majority, they find themselves saying, “Okay, that's done now. What's next?” It can either hit or not hit. Does that make sense to you? Do you feel the same? Jo: Yes, and I guess it's not just about the book. It's more about the tactic. You mentioned genres, and they do switch a lot in romance, a lot faster than other genres. In terms of how we do marketing… Now, as we record this, TikTok is still a thing, and we can see maybe generative AI search coming on the horizon and agentic buying. A decade ago it might have been different, more Facebook ads or whatever. Then before that it might have been something else. So there's always things changing along the way. Jennifer: Yes, there definitely is. It is a very oversaturated market. They talk about, I don't know, 2010 to 2016 maybe, as the gold rush, because that was where you could make a lot of money as an indie. Then we saw the total fallout of so many different things. I feel like I've gone through so many ups and downs in the industry. I do love it because the longer you're around, the more you learn how to pivot. If you want this career, you learn how to write differently or do whatever you need to do to keep going, in different aspects, with the changes. To me, that makes the industry exciting. Again, perspective is a big thing. But I have had to take a year to kind of rebuild when I was out of contract with a lot of things. I've had to say, “Okay, what do you see on the horizon now? Where is the new foundation? Where do you wanna restart?” Sometimes it takes a year or two of, “Maybe I won't be making big income and I cut back,” but then you're back in it, because it takes a while to write a few new books, or write under a pen name, or however you want to pivot your way back into the industry. Or, like you were saying, diversifying. I did a lot of non-fiction stuff because that's a big calling for me, so I put that into the primary for a while. I think it's important for authors to maybe not just have one thing. When that one thing goes away, you're scrambling. It's good to have a couple of different things like, “Well, okay, this genre is dead or this thing is dead or this isn't making money. Let me go to this for a little while until I see new things on the horizon.” Jo: Yes. There's a couple of things I want to come back to. You mentioned a pen name there, and one of the things I'm seeing a lot right now—I mean, it's always gone on, but it seems to be on overdrive—is people doing rapid-release, throwaway pen names. So there's a new sub-genre, they write the books really fast, they put them up under whatever pen name, and then when that goes away, they ditch that pen name altogether. Versus growing a name brand more slowly, like I think you and I have done. Under my J.F. Penn fiction brand, I put lots of different sub-genres. What are your thoughts on this throwaway pen name versus growing a name brand more slowly? Jennifer: Well, okay, the first thing I'm goign to say is: if that lights people up, if you love the idea of rapid release and just kind of shedding your skin and going on to the next one, I say go for it. As long as you're not pumping it out with AI so it's a complete AI book, but that's a different topic. I'm not saying using AI tools; I mean a completely AI-written book. That's the difference. If we're talking about an author going in and, every four weeks, writing a book and stuff like that, I do eventually think that anything in life that disturbs you, you're going to burn out eventually. That is a limited-time kind of thing, I believe. I don't know how long you can keep doing that and create decent enough books or make a living on it. But again, I really try not to judge, because I am very open to: if that gives you joy and that's working and it brings your family money, go for it. I have always wanted to be a writer for the long term. I want my work to be my legacy. I don't just pump out books. Every single book is my history. It's a marking of what I thought, what I put out in the world, what my beliefs are, what my story is. It marks different things, and I'm very proud of that. So I want a legacy of quality. As I got older, in my twenties and thirties, I was able to write books a lot faster. Then I had a family with two kids and I had to slow down a little bit. I also think life sometimes drives your career, and that's okay. If you're taking care of a sick parent or there's illness or whatever, maybe you need to slow down. I like the idea of a long-term backlist supporting me when I need to take a back seat and not do frontlist things. So that's how I feel. I will always say: choose a long, organic-growth type of career that will be there for you, where your backlist can support you. I also don't want to trash people who do it differently. If that is how you can do it, if you can write a book in a month and keep doing it and keep it quality, go for it. Jo: I do have the word “legacy” on my board next to me, but I also have “create a body of work I'm proud of.” I have that next to me, and I have “Have you made art today?” So I think about these things too. As you say, people feel differently about work, and I will do other work to make faster cash rather than do that with books. But as we said, that's all good. Interestingly, you mentioned non-fiction there. Write Free is your latest one, but you've got some other writing books. So maybe— Talk about the difference between non-fiction book income and marketing compared to fiction, and why you added that in. Jennifer: Yes, it's completely different. I mean, it's two new dinosaurs. I came to writing non-fiction in a very strange way. Literally, I woke up on New Year's Day and I was on a romance book deadline. I could not do it. I'll tell you, my brain was filled with passages of teaching writing, of things I wanted to share in my writing career. Because again, I've been writing since I was 12, I've been a non-stop writer for over 30 years. I got to my computer and I wrote like three chapters of Write Naked (which was the first book). It was just pouring out of me. So I contacted my agent and I said, “Look, I don't know, this is what I want to do. I want to write this non-fiction book.” She's like, “What are you talking about? You're a romance author. You're on a romance deadline. What do you want me to do with this?” She was so confused. I said, “Yes, how do you write a non-fiction book proposal?” And she was just like, “This is not good, Jen. What are you doing?” Anyway, the funny story was, she said, “Just send me chapters.” I mean, God bless her, she's this wonderful agent, but I know she didn't get it. So I sent her like four chapters of what I was writing and she called me. I'll never forget it. She called me on the phone and she goes, “This is some of the best stuff I have ever read in my life. It's raw and it's truthful, and we've got to find a publisher for this.” And I was like, “Yay.” What happened was, I believe this was one of the most beautiful full circles in my life: Writer's Digest actually made me an offer. It was not about the money. I found that non-fiction for me had a much lower advance and a different type of sales. For me, when I was a kid, that is exactly what I was reading in the library, Writer's Digest. I would save my allowance to get the magazine. I would say to myself, “One day, maybe I will have a book with Writer's Digest.” So for me, it was one of the biggest full-circle moments. I will never forget it. Being published by them was amazing. Then I thought I was one-and-done, but the book just completely touched so many writers. I have never gotten so many emails: “Thank you for saying the truth,” or “Thank you for being vulnerable.” Right before it published, I had a panic attack. I told my husband, “Now everybody's going to know that I am a mess and I'm not fabulous and the world is going to know my craziness.” By being vulnerable about the career, and also that it was specifically for romance authors, it caused a bond. I think it caused some trust. I had been writing about writing for years. After that, I thought it was one-and-done. Then two or three years later I was like, “No, I have more to say.” So I leaned into my non-fiction. It also gives my fiction brain a rest, because when you're doing non-fiction, you're using a different part of your brain. It's a way for me to cleanse my palate. I gather more experiences about what I want to share, and then that goes into the next book. Jo: Yes, I also use the phrase “palate cleanser” for non-fiction versus fiction. I feel like you write one and then you feel like, “Oh, I really need to write the other now.” Jennifer: Yes! Isn't it wonderful? I love that. I love having the two brains and just giving one a break and totally leaning into it. Again, it's another way of income. It's another way. I also believe that this industry has given me so much that it is automatic that I want to give back. I just want to give as much as possible back because I'm so passionate about writing and the industry field. Jo: Well, interestingly though, Writer's Digest—the publisher who published that magazine and other things—went bankrupt in 2019. You've been in publishing a long time. It is not uncommon for publishers to go out of business or to get bought. Things happen with publishers, right? Jennifer: Yes. Jo: So what then happened? Jennifer: So Penguin Random House bought it. All the Writer's Digest authors did not know what they were going to do. Then Penguin Random House bought it and kept Writer's Digest completely separate, as an imprint under the umbrella. So Writer's Digest really hasn't changed. They still have the magazine, they still have books. So it ended up being okay. But what I did do is—because I sold Write Naked and I have no regrets about that, it was the best thing for me to do, to go that route—the second and the third books were self-published. I decided I'm going to self-publish. That way I have the rights for audio, I have the rights for myself, I can do a whole bunch of different things. So Write True, the second one, was self-published. Writers Inspiring Writers I paired up with somebody, so we self-published that. And Write Free, my newest one, is self-published. So I've decided to go that route now with my non-fiction. Jo: Well, as I said, I noticed your Kickstarter. I don't write romance, so I'm not really in that community. I had kind of heard your name before, but then I bought the book and joined the Kickstarter. Then I discovered that you've been doing so much and I was like, “Oh, how, why haven't we connected before?” It's very cool. So tell us about the Kickstarters you've done and what you know, because you've done, I think, a fiction one as well. What are your thoughts and tips around Kickstarter? Jennifer: Yes. When I was taking that year, I found myself kind of… let's just say fired from a lot of different publishers at the time. That was okay because I had contracts that ran out, and when I looked to see, “Okay, do we want to go back?” it just wasn't looking good. I was like, “Well, I don't want to spend a year if I'm not gonna be making the money anyway.” So I looked at the landscape and I said, “It's time to really pull in and do a lot more things on my own, but I've got to build foundations.” Kickstarter was one of them. I took a course with Russell Nohelty and Monica Leonelle. They did a big course for Kickstarter, and they were really the ones going around to all the conferences and basically saying, “Hey guys, you're missing out on a lot of publishing opportunities here,” because Kickstarter publishing was getting good. I took the course because I like to dive into things, but I also want to know the foundation of it. I want to know what I'm doing. I'm not one to just wing it when it comes to tech. So what happened is, the first one, I had rights coming back from a book. After 10 years, my rights came back. It was an older book and I said, “You know what? I am going to dip my foot in and see what kind of base I can grow there. What can I do?” I was going to get a new cover, add new scenes, re-release it anyway, right? So I said, “Let's do a Kickstarter for it, because then I can get paid for all of that work.” It worked out so fantastically. It made just enough for my goal. I knew I didn't want to make a killing; I knew I wanted to make a fund. I made my $5,000, which I thought was wonderful, and I was able to re-release it with a new cover, a large print hardback, and I added some scenes. I did a 10-year anniversary re-release for my fans. So I made it very fan-friendly, grew my audience, and I was like, “This was great.” The next year, I did something completely different. I was doing Kindle Vella back in the day. That was where you dropped a chapter at a time. I said, “I want to do this completely different kind of thing.” It was very not my brand at all. It was very reality TV-ish: young college students living in the city, very sexy, very angsty, love triangles, messy—everything I was not known for. Again, I was like, “I'm not doing a pen name because this is just me,” and I funnelled my audience. I said, “What I'm going to do is I'm going to start doing a chapter a week through Kindle Vella and make money there. Then when it's done, I'm going to bundle it all up and make a book out of it.” So I did a year of Kindle Vella. It was the best decision I made because I just did two chapters a week, which I was able to do. By one year I had like 180,000 words. I had two to three books in there. I did it as a hardback deluxe—the only place you could get it in print. Then Vella closed, or at least it went way down. So I was like, “Great, I'm going to do this Kickstarter for this entire new thing.” I partnered with a company that helps with special editions, because that was a whole other… oh Joanna, that was a whole other thing you have to go into. Getting the books, getting the art, getting the swag. I felt like I needed some help for that. Again, I went in, I funded. I did not make a killing on that, but that was okay. I learned some things that I would have changed with my Kickstarter and I also built a new audience for that. I had a lot of extra books that I then sold in my store, and it was another place to make money. The third Kickstarter I used specifically because I had always wanted to do a writing course. I go all over the world, I do keynotes, I do workshops, I've done books, and I wanted to reach new writers, but I don't travel a lot anymore. So I came up with the concept that I was going to do my very first course, and it was going to be very personal, kind of like me talking to them almost like in a keynote, like you're in a room with me. I gathered a whole bunch of stuff and I used Kickstarter to help me A) fund it and B) make myself do it, because it was two years in the making and I always had, “Oh, I've got this other thing to do,” you know how we do that, right? We have big projects. So I used Kickstarter as a deadline and I decided to launch it in the summer. In addition to that, I took years of my posts from all over. I copied and pasted, did new posts, and I created Write Free, which was a very personal, essay-driven book. I took it all together. I took a couple of months to do this, filmed the course, and the Kickstarter did better than I had ever imagined. I got quadruple what I wanted, and it literally financed all the video editing, the books, everything that I needed, plus extra. I feel like I'm growing in Kickstarter. I hope I'm not ranting. I'm trying to go over things that can help people. Jo: Oh no, that is super useful. Jennifer: So you don't have to go all in and say, “If it doesn't fund it's over,” or “I need to make $20,000.” There are people making so much money, and there are people that will do a project a year or two projects a year and just get enough to fund a new thing that they want to do. So that's how I've done it. Jo: I've done quite a few now, and my non-fiction ones have been a lot bigger—I have a big audience there—and my fiction have been all over the place. What I like about Kickstarter is that you can do these different things. We can do these special editions. I've just done a sprayed-edge short story collection. Short story collections are not the biggest genre. Jennifer: Yes. I love short stories too. I've always wanted to do an anthology of all my short stories. Jo: There you go. Jennifer: Yes, I love that for your Kickstarter. Love it. Jo: When I turned 50 earlier this year, I realised the thing that isn't in print is my short stories. They are out there digitally, and that's why I wanted to do it. I feel like Kickstarter is a really good way to do these creative projects. As you say, you don't have to make a ton of money, but at the end of the day, the definition of success for us, I think for both of us, is just being able to continue doing this, right? Jennifer: Absolutely. This is funding a creative full-time career, and every single thing that you do with your content is like a funnel. The more funnels that you have, the bigger your base. Especially if you love it. It would be different if I was struggling and thinking, “Do I get an editor job?” I would hate being an editor. But if you look at something else like, “Oh yes, I could do this and that would light me up, like doing a course—wow, that sounds amazing,” then that's different. It's kind of finding your alternates that also light you up. Jo: Hmm. So were there any mistakes in your Kickstarters that you think are worth sharing? In case people are thinking about it. Jennifer: Oh my God, yes. So many. One big thing was that I felt like I was a failure if I didn't make a certain amount of money because my name is pretty well known. It's not like I'm brand new and looking. One of the big things was that I could not understand and I felt like I was banging my head against the wall about why my newsletter subscribers wouldn't support the Kickstarter. I'm like, “Why aren't you doing this? I'm supposed to have thousands of people that just back.” Your expectations can really mess with you. Then I started to learn, “Oh my God, my newsletter audience wants nothing to do with my Kickstarter.” Maybe I had a handful. So then I learned that I needed longer tails, like putting it up for pre-order way ahead of time, and also that you can't just announce it in your newsletter and feel like everybody's going to go there. You need to find your streams, your Kickstarter audience, which includes ads. I had never done ads either and I didn't know how to do that, so I did that all wrong. I joined the Facebook group for Kickstarter authors. I didn't do that for the first one and then I learned about it. You share backer updates, so every time you go into your audience with a backer update, there's this whole community where you can share with like-minded people with their projects, and you post it under your updates. It does cross-networking and sharing with a lot of authors in their newsletters. For the Write Free one, I leaned into my networking a lot, using my connections. I used other authors' newsletters and people in the industry to share my Kickstarter. That was better for me than just relying on my own fanbase. So definitely more networking, more sharing, getting it out on different platforms rather than just doing your own narrow channel. Because a lot of the time, you think your audience will follow you into certain things and they don't, and that needs to be okay. The other thing was the time and the backend. I think a lot of authors can get super excited about swag. I love that, but I learned that I could have pulled back a little bit and been smarter with my financials. I did things I was passionate about, but I probably spent much more money on swag than I needed to. So looking at different aspects to make it more efficient. I think each time you do one, you learn what works best. As usual, I try to be patient with myself. I don't get mad at myself for trying things and failing. I think failing is spectacular because I learn something. I know: do I want to do this again? Do I want to do it differently? If we weren't so afraid of failingqu “in public”, I think we would do more things. I'm not saying I never think, “Oh my God, that was so embarrassing, I barely funded and this person is getting a hundred thousand.” We're human. We compare. I have my own reset that I do, but I really try to say, “But no, for me, maybe I'll do this, and if it doesn't work, that's okay.” Jo: I really like that you shared about the email list there because I feel like too many people have spent years driving people to Kindle or KU, and they have built an email list of readers who like a particular format at a particular price. Then we are saying, “Oh, now come over here and buy a beautiful hardback that's like ten times the price.” And we're surprised when nobody does it. Is that what happened? Jennifer: Exactly. Also, that list was for a non-fiction project. So I had to funnel where my writers were in my newsletter, and I have mostly readers. So I was like, “Okay…” But I think you're exactly right. First of all, it's the platform. When you ask anybody to go off a platform, whether it's buy direct at your Shopify store or go to Kickstarter, you are going to lose the majority right there. People are like, “No, I want to click a button from your newsletter and go to a site that I know.” So you've got that, and you've got to train them. That can take some time. Then you've got this project where people are like, “I don't understand.” Even my mum was like, “I would love to support you, honey, but what the heck is this? Where's the buy button and where's my book?” My women's fiction books tend to have some older readers who are like, “Hell no, I don't know what this is.” So you have to know your audience. If it's not translating, train them. I did a couple of videos where I said, “Look, I want to show you how easy this is,” and I showed them directly how to go in and how to back. I did that with Kindle Vella too. I did a video from my newsletter and on social: “Hey, do you not know how to read this chapter? Here's how.” Sometimes there's a barrier. Like you said, Joanna, if I have a majority that just want sexy contemporary, and I'm dropping angsty, cheating, forbidden love, they're like, “Oh no, that's not for me.” So you have to know whether there's a crossover. I go into my business with that already baked into my expectations. I don't go in thinking I'm going to make a killing. Then I'm more surprised when it does well, and then I can build it. Jo: Yes, exactly. Also if you are, like both of us, writing across genres, then you are always going to split your audience. People do not necessarily buy everything because they have their preferences. So I think that's great. Now we are almost out of time, but this latest book is Write Free. I wondered if you would maybe say— What does Write Free mean to you, and what might it help the listeners with? Jennifer: Write Free is an extremely personal book for me, and the title was really important because it goes with Write Naked, Write True, and Write Free. These are the ways that I believe a writer should always show up to the page. Freedom is being able to write your truth in whatever day that is. You're going to be a different writer when you're young and maybe hormonal and passionate and having love affairs. You're going to write differently when you're a mum with kids in nappies. You're going to write differently when you are maybe in your forties and you're killing your career. Your perspective changes, your life changes. Write Free is literally a collection of essays all through my 30 years of life. It's very personal. There are essays like, “I'm writing my 53rd book right now,” and essays like, “My kids are in front of SpongeBob and I'm trying to write right now,” and “I got another rejection letter and I don't know how to survive.” It is literally an imprint of essays that you can dip in and dip out of. It's easy, short, inspirational, and it's just me showing up for my writing life. That's what I wish for everybody: that they can show up for their writing life in the best way that they can at the time, because that changes all the time. Jo: We can say “write free” because we've got a lot of experience at writing. I feel like when I started writing—I was an IT consultant—I literally couldn't write anything creative. I didn't believe I could. There'll be people listening who are just like, “Well, Jennifer, I can't write free. I'm not free. My mind is shackled by all these expectations and everything.” How can they release that and aim for more freedom? Jennifer: I love that question so much. The thing is, I've spent so many years working on that part. That doesn't come overnight. I think sometimes when you have more clarification of, “Okay, this is really limiting me,” then when you can see where something is limiting you, at least you can look for answers. My answers came in the form of meditation. Meditation is a very big thing in my life. Changing my perspective. Learning life mottos to help me deal with those kinds of limitations. Learning that when I write a sex scene, I can't care about my elderly aunt who tells my mother, “Dear God, she ruined the family name.” It is your responsibility to figure out where these limitations are, and then slowly see how you can remove them. I've been in therapy. I have read hundreds of self-help books. I take meditation courses. I take workshop courses. I've done CliftonStrengths with Becca Syme. I don't even know if that's therapy, but it feels like therapy to me as a writer. Knowing my personality traits. I've done Enneagram work with Claire Taylor, which has been huge. The more you know yourself and how your brain is showing up for yourself, the more you can grab tools to use. I wish I could say, “Yes, if everybody meditates 30 minutes a day, you're going to have all blocks removed,” but it's so personal that it's a trick question. If everybody started today and said, “Where is my biggest limitation?” and be real with yourself, there are answers out there. You just have to go slowly and find them, and then the writing more free will come. I hope that wasn't one of those woo-woo answers, but I really do believe it. Jo: I agree. It just takes time. Like our writing career, it just takes time. Keep working on it, keep writing. Jennifer: Yes. And bravery, right? A lot of bravery. Just show up for yourself however you can. If “write free” feels too big, journal for yourself and put it in a locked drawer. Any kind of writing, I think, is therapeutic too. Jo: Brilliant. So where can people find you and your books and everything you do online? Jennifer: The best place to go is my website. I treat it like my home. It's www.JenniferProbst.com. There is so much on it. Not just books, not just free content and free stories. There's an entire section just for writers. There are videos on there. There are a lot of resources. I keep it up to date and it is the place where you can find me. Of course I'm everywhere on social media as Author Jennifer Probst. You can find me anywhere. I always tell everybody: I answer my messages, I answer my emails. That is really important to me. So if you heard this podcast and you want to reach out on anything, please do. I will answer. Jo: Fantastic. Well, thanks so much for your time, Jennifer. That was great. Jennifer: Thanks for having me, Joanna.The post Writing Free: Romance Author Jennifer Probst On A Long-Term Author Career first appeared on The Creative Penn.

Joe's Premium Subscription: www.standardgrain.comGrain Markets and Other Stuff Links —Apple PodcastsSpotifyTikTokYouTubeFutures and options trading involves risk of loss and is not suitable for everyone.Welcome back! Today we're breaking down export sales, flash deals, China/Brazil soybean news, ethanol margins, and record-setting Black Friday spending.

The Eagles are seemingly giving it up like in 2023, the 94 WIP Morning Show remarks. The Bears have now jumped the Eagles in the NFC standings.

안녕하세요~ 제 서른아홉 번째 중급 팟캐스트를 들으러 오신 걸 환영합니다

This episode we look at many of the natural events and talk about those observing and writing things down, and why they may have wanted to do so. For more, check out our podcast blogpage:  https://sengokudaimyo.com/podcast/episode-139   Rough Transcript: Welcome to Sengoku Daimyo's Chronicles of Japan.  My name is Joshua and this is episode 139: Observing the "Natural" World. Members of the Onmyou-ryou, dressed in the official robes of their office, sat around in their observation tower, measuring the location of the stars.  They kept their light to a minimum, just enough so that they could write down their observations, but not so much that it would destroy their vision.  As they looked up, suddenly they saw a strange movement: a streak through the sky.  They waited, and observed, and then there was another, and another after that.  It was as if the stars themselves were falling from the heavens.  They watched as it seemed that the constellations themselves were melting and falling apart.  Quickly they scribbled down notes.  Tomorrow, with the light of day, they would consult various sources to see just what it could mean.  For now, their role was simply to observe and record.   Welcome back, everyone.  It is the height of holiday season in the US as I record this, and in our narrative we are in the middle of the reign of Ohoama, aka Temmu Tennou, who came to power in 672 and who has been shoring up the Ritsuryo state instigated by his late brother, Naka no Oe, aka Tenji Tennou.  We have talked in recent episodes about how Ohoama put a lot of the state under the control of members of the royal family, or at least those with claims to royal blood, and how he had also begun work on the Chronicles—the very works that we have been using to try and understand the history of this and earlier periods.   It seems clear that Ohoama and his cohorts were doing their best to solidify their control and, in the process, create what they felt was a modern state, leveraging the continental model, but not without their own local flavor.  After all, they were also investing in the kami based rituals of state and specifically in Ise shrine, which they claimed as an ancestral shrine for their lineage. This episode, let's dig into another thing that was getting reported around this time.  And that is… science!  Or at least observations of the world and indications of how people were interacting with it. Before going into the subject, I want to acknowledge that "science", or "Kagaku" in modern Japanese, may not look like what we think of as "science" today.  The word "Kagaku" itself appears to come about in the late Edo period, and became associated with the western idea of "Science" in the Meiji period.  Today we think of it as observations, yes, but also testing via the scientific method. I think it might be more appropriate to categorize a lot of earlier science under a term like "learning" or "study", and it seems to have encompassed a wide range of topics of study, some of which we would include as "science" and some which we might refer to more as "arts".  There is also a very fine line with religion and philosophy as well. From a modern perspective, I think one could fairly argue that "science"—particularly the so-called "hard" sciences—refers to something that can be empirically tested via the scientific method.  So you can see something, form a hypothesis, create a test, and then that test should produce the same results no matter who conducts it, assuming you account for the variables. And please don't @ me about this… I know I am simplifying things.  This isn't a podcast about science unless we are talking about the social sciences of history and archaeology. In contrast to our modern concept of science, much of what we see in the Asuka era is built around using our reasoning to arrive at the truth of something.  In cases where we are dealing with clearly physical phenomena that have observable causes and effects, this can lead to remarkably reliable results.  One example of this is calendrical science—it isn't that hard to observe the passing of days and seasons.  Even the rotation of the earth and the movements of stars and even something with as large a period as comets could be observed and tracked, especially if you had centuries of data to comb through.  In fact, they often would predict things that it turns out they couldn't, themselves, see.  They could predict that an eclipse would occur, for example, even when that eclipse was only visible somewhere else.  And they didn't have to calculate gravitational pull, mass, or distances between different heavenly bodies for that to occur. Similarly, in the agricultural sphere: you had so many people who observed the seasons and would figure out new ways of doing things.  It doesn't take an understanding of chlorophyl to know that plants generally do better when exposed to sunlight. I believe the leap happens when you get to things that go beyond purely observable means.  Sickness, for example—how do you explain viruses or germs without equipment like microscopes to see what our eyes alone cannot?  And if such "invisible" things could cause so much damage, then why could there not be other "invisible" elements, such as kami and boddhisatvas?  And as humans we are driven to make connections.  It is one of the things that has driven our technological innovation and rise, but it is also something that can easily go awry.  Like when you are sitting in a dark house, alone, and you hear a noise.  Rationally, you might know that houses settle and creak, but that doesn't necessarily stop your brain from connecting it with thoughts that someone must be in the house making that noise. Or even how we make judgments based on nothing more than how someone talks or what they look like, because our brains have made connections with those things, for good or ill. A large part of the rationalization that was accomplished in Asian thought had to do with concepts of Yin and Yang, the negative and the positive, the dark and the light.  This was thought of as a kind of energy—qi or ki—that was embedded in things.  We discussed this somewhat back in episode 127, because yin yang theory, along with the five element theory, known as Wuxing or Gogyou in Japanese, became embedded in the idea of the calendar.  Why was summer hot, except that it was connected with an excess of fire energy?  And the cold, dark days of winter would be associated with an excess of water, naturally. I should note that while this is one of the more comprehensive philosophical systems in use, it was not the only means by which various phenomena and effects were rationalized.  After all, it had to be imposed on a framework of how the world otherwise worked, and descriptions of the world came from a variety of places.  There was, for example, the Classic of Mountains and Seas, or Sanhaijing, which detailed the world as envisioned in the period before the Qin dynasty, although there were occasional updates.  The Sanhaijing  described regular plants and animals in the same breath as gods and monsters.  There were also various buddhist sutras, which brought their own cosmological view of the universe that had to be squared with other visions, including those passed down locally describing the archipelago as the "Reed Plain" and giving particular importance to eight of the islands—though which eight depends on which variant of the creation myth you are referencing. To categorize the study of the natural—and what we would consider the supernatural—world around them, the Ritsuryou set up specific bureaus.  One of these was the Onmyou-ryou, the Bureau of Yin-yang, also known as the Onyo no Tsukasa.  This Bureau oversaw divination, astronomy, time, and calendars.  At its head was the Onmyou-no-kami.  Below them were the various scholars studying the core subjects, as well as technical practitioners to carry out the rites and divination. On the continent, priority was generally given to astronomical and calendrical studies, and many of the more magical practices or rituals would fade away, likely because there were local Taoist institutions who could take up much of that work.  In Japan, however, it seems that the calendrical studies tended to ossify, instead, while onmyoji came to fill a role not just for the state but also among the population for divination and other such practices.  Even into the Edo period one could find private onmyoji, and the Bureau itself lasted until the very beginning of the Meiji period. Another important institution of the Ritsuryo government for learning was the Daigakuryou, the Bureau of Great Learning.  Students of Japanese may recognize the term "Daigaku" referring, today, to universities. The original concept for the Daigaku-ryou, or Daigaku no Tsukasa, was focused on the study of those things that were considered perhaps a bit more practical and necessary to anyone who might want a political career.  Since this was founded on concepts of Confucian government, it is little wonder that it was originally designed to focus on Confucian studies, among other things.  This fits into the idea of a supposed meritocracy, where one's education was part of the examination.  You may recall from Episode 115 we talked about the National University in Chang'an, which is likely something that the Daigaku Ryou could only ever dream of becoming. Early arts taught at the Daigaku Ryou included the Confucian classics, mathematics, writing, and Chinese pronunciation.  These were all things that you would need to know to become a part of the bureaucracy The idea of a school may have been born along with the early institution of the government, with mention as early as 671, in the last year of Naka no Oe's reign, but we don't have it clearly established in the code until later.  Full operations may have been somewhat delayed due to the tumultuous events of Ohoama's accession to power in 672, but we do see it explicitly mentioned in the year 675.  On the first day of the year we are told that Students from the Daigaku Ryou, along with students from the Onmyou-Ryou and from the Gaiyaku Ryou, the Bureau of External Medicine; along with the Woman of S'ravasti, the Woman of Tara, Prince Syeonkwang of Baekje, and Silla labourers offered presents of drugs and various rarities. We talked about the first two, the Daigaku-ryou and the Onmyou-ryou, but the Gaiyaku Ryou doesn't seem to have a lot of information out there beyond this mention.  Later there would a "Ten'yaku Ryou", or Bureau of Medicine, established in the code.  Since we don't have any extant codes from this period beyond what was written down in the Nihon Shoki, we don't know for certain what the Gaiyaku-ryou was , and it is possible that the Gaiyaku-Ryou was a precursor to the Ten'yaku Ryou.  "GAI" means "outside" or "external", leading me to wonder if this referred to external medicine in contrast to internal medicine, or if it meant medicine or drugs from outside teh archipeloago. I would point out that these students are found with the Woman of S'ravasti, or Shae; the Woman of Tara; a Baekje prince and Silla labourers.  In other words, they were all people from outside of the archipelago.  This is not entirely surprising as it was from outside that much of the learning was coming into the country. "Yaku" or "Kusuri", which can be translated as either "Drugs" or "medicine", could refer to a number of things.  How effective they were is somewhat questionable. Almost certainly some of them had confirmed medicinal efficacy, but others may have been thought to have been effective due to things like their connection to the five elements, or wuxing, theory. For example, something red might be assumed to have a warming effect because of the presumed presence of the fire element.  And the power of the placebo effect no doubt made them seem at least partially effective.  Consider, for example, how many people will swear by certain remedies for the common cold when all it really does is distract you, or perhaps make you a bit more comfortable, until the symptoms pass on their own. A more certain science was probably that of Astronomy, which we've mentioned a few times.  The passage of the stars through the sky was something that could be easily observed.  There is a theory that some of the first lines in the Yijing, or book of changes, may actually be a description of the changing of seasons as different aspects of a given constellation rise over the horizon, and the placement of certain stars would help in the adjustment of the lunar calendar, since the moon's orbit does not match up exactly with the solar year, and year the solar year was quite important to things like agriculture and even sailing to the mainland. This all makes 675 a seemingly banner year for science, as four days after the presentation of medicine to the throne, the government erected a platform by which to observe the stars.  This wouldn't need to be much—it could have been an earthen mound, or just a tower, from which one could get above the ground, presumably see over any buildings, to the horizon.  Granted, Asuka might not be the best place for such observations, with the nearby mountains meaning that the true horizon is often obstructed.  Nonetheless, it may have been enough to make calculations. Astronomy platforms, or Tenmondai, would continue to be used up until at least the Meiji period.  Without a telescope, observations were somewhat limited—though they also didn't have the same level of light pollution that we have today.  Remember, many woke just before dawn and went to sleep not too long after the sun went down, which only makes sense when you are living in a place where creating light, while doable, also ran the risk of burning your entire house to the ground. It is worth noting that the sky for the ancient Japanese was likely quite different than what most of us see when we look up, unless you are fortunate enough to live in a place with very little light pollution.  For many of those living today in the cities and suburban landscape, go outside at night and you might see the moon and some of the brightest stars, but for most of the ancient Japanese, they would look up and see the heavenly river, the Amakawa, or Milky Way.  They would have looked up at a sky glittering with myriad dots of light, as well as planets and more.  It was both familiar and strange—something one saw regularly and yet something that was also extremely inaccessible. Astronomical observations would have been important for several reasons, as I've mentioned.  They would have been used to keep the calendar in check, but they would also have likely been used to help calibrate the water clock, which helped to tell time.  Of course, going back to the five elements and yin yang theory, it is also believed that the energy, the qi or ki, changed with the seasons and the movements of the stars and planets—planets were not known as such, of course, but their seemingly erratic movements compared to bright lights in the sky meant they were noticed and assigned values within the elemental system. One of the things that came with the changing seasons, the heavenly movements, and the flow of ki was a concept of "kata-imi", literally directional taboos.  There were times when certain directions might be considered favorable or unfavorable for various actions.  This could be something as simple as traveling in a given direction.  In the centuries to come this would spawn an entire practice of kata-tagae, or changing direction.  Is the north blocked, but you need to travel there, anyway?  Well just go northwest to say hello to a friend or visit your local sake brewery, and then travel due east.  Ta-da!  You avoided going directly north!  There were also mantra-like incantations that one might say if they had to travel in an inauspicious direction to counteract the concept of bad influences. This also influenced various other things, and even today you will often see dates where a year and month might be followed by simply the character for "auspicious day" rather than an actual day of the month. So observing the heavens was important, and it was also important that they tostudy the works of those on the continent, whose records could help predict various astronomical phenomena.  Except that there was one tiny problem:  I don't know if you've noticed, but Japan and China are in two different locations.  Not all astronomical phenomena can be observed from all points of the globe.  The Northern Lights, for example, are rarely seen in more southerly latitudes, and while eclipses are not too rare, a total eclipse only impacts certain areas of the earth, along relatively narrow paths. I mention this because it isn't always clear if the records we get in the Nihon Shoki are about phenomena they directly observed or if they are taking reports from elsewhere and incorporating them into the narrative.  One such event is the comet of 676. The entry in the Nihon Shoki tells us that in the 7th lunar month of the 5th year of Temmu Tennou, aka 676 CE, a star appeared in the east that was 7 or 8 shaku in length.  It disappeared two months later. We've mentioned some of this before, but the sky was divided up into "shaku", or "feet", though how exactly it was measured I'm not entirely sure.  It appears to be that one foot was roughly 1.5 degrees of the sky, give or take about a quarter of a degree, with 180 degrees from horizon to horizon.  So it would have been about 10 to 12 degrees in the sky.  Another way to picture it is if you hold out your arm towards the object, and spread your index and little finger, it would probably fit between those two points.  This comet hung around for some time, and a great part about a comet like this is that it was viewable from multiple locations.  After all, as the earth turned, different areas were exposed to the comet as it passed through our part of the solar system.  Thus we have records of it from not just the Nihon Shoki:  We also find it in the Anglo-Saxon chronicles, where it was thought to have foretold the end of Bishop Wilfred's control of Northumbria.  We also see it in Tang, Silla, and Syrian sources. These sources aren't always in complete agreement.  For one thing, they noted when they first saw it, which might have been impacted by local conditions.  And then conversion between lunar and solar calendars can also sometimes get in the way.  Roughtly speaking, we have the Nihon Shoki providing dates of somewhere from about August or September of 676, on the Western calendar, to October or November. Tang sources put it from 4 September to 1 November.  Silla Chronicles claim that it first appeared in the 7th lunar month, so between August and September.  A Syrian Chronicle notes a comet from about 28 August to 26 October in the following year, 677, but this is thought to have been a mistake.  European sources generally seem to claim it was seen in August and lasted for three months.  All of these sightings put it at roughly the same time. Working with that and with known comets, we think we actually know which comet this is:  The Comet de Cheseaux also known as the Comet Klinkenberg-Cheseaux.  And I should mention this is all thanks to a research paper by M. Meyer and G. W. Kronk.  In that paper they propose that this is the comet with the designation of C/1743 X1, or the common names I just mentioned.  If so, based on its trajectory, this comet would have been visible in 336, 676, 1032, 1402, 1744, and is next predicted to show up in 2097.  And no, those aren't all exactly the same amount of time.  It is roughly every 350 years or so, but with the movements of the solar system, the planets, and various gravitational forces that likely slow or speed up its movement, it doesn't show up on exactly regular intervals.  Still, it is pretty incredible to think that we have a record of a comet that was seen the world over at this time, by people looking up from some very different places. Comets were something interesting for early astronomers.  They may have originally been seen as particularly ominous—after all, in the early eras, they were hardly predictable, and it would take years to get enough data to see that they were actually a somewhat regular occurrence.  In fact, it is likely that early astronomers were able to figure out eclipse schedules before comets.  Still, they seem to have come to the realization that comets were in fact another type of natural and reoccurring phenomenon.  That isn't to say that they didn't have any oracular meaning, but it did mean they were less of an obvious disturbance of the heavenly order. We have another comet mentioned in the 10th lunar month of 681, but that one seems to have had less attention focused on it, and we don't have the same details.  Then in the 8th lunar month of 682 we have an entry about a Great Star passing from East to West—which was probably a shooting star, rather than a comet.  Comets, for all that they appear to be streaking across the sky thanks to their long tails, are often relatively stable from an earthbound perspective, taking months to appear and then disappear again. Then, on the 23rd day of the 7th month of 684 we get another comet in the northwest.  This one was more than 10 shaku in length—about 15 degrees, total, give or take.  Given the date, we can be fairly confident about this one, as well: it was the famous Halley's comet.  Halley's comet is fascinating for several reasons.  For one, it has a relatively short period of about 72 to 80 years, though mostly closer to 75 to 77 years in between sightings.  The last time it visited the earth was in 1986, and it is expected back in 2061.  Halley's comet has been recorded since the 3rd century BCE, and, likely because of its short period, it was the first periodic comet to be recognized as such.  There are other periodic comets with short periods, but many of them are not visible with the naked eye.  Halley's comet is perhaps the most studied comet, given its regular and relatively short periodicity.  It is also connected to the famous writer, humorist, and essayist, Samuel Langhorne Clemens, aka Mark Twain.  He was born only a few days after the comet reached perihelion in 1835 and died a day after it reached the same point again in 1910, and while he may not have visited Japan in his lifetime, it was a period of great change both in his home country of America and in Japan.  America, of course, would undergo a Civil War over the issue of slavery in the early 1860s, and shortly after that Japan would have its own civil war in the form of the Meiji Revolution.  And while he never visited—and translation could only do so much to capture the art of his prose—Mark Twain's works were apparently quite influential in Japan in the early 20th century. Of course, comets were just one of the celestial phenomena to be observed.  The astronomers were interested in just about anything happening in the sky.  We have accounts of both solar and lunar eclipses, and not necessarily full eclipses either.  We even have notice of the movement of some planets, such as in 681, when they noted that the planet mars "entered" the moon. Obviously the astronomers weren't recording every raincloud that came through—at least not in the main chronicles—but they did capture a fair number of events.  They did record particularly memorable storms.  For instances, in the 8th lunar month of 675 there was a storm that is said to have caused sand to fly and which then damaged houses.  This sounds like a wind storm without rain—after all, if there was rain, you would expect that the sand would have been wet and tamped down.  It is possible to have hurricane level winds without the rain.  While typhoons typically bring rain, especially as they usually build up their strength at sea, it is possible to have the winds alone, as I've experienced, myself, in Tokyo.  This most likely happens in an isolated area—there is water and rain somewhere, but the typhoon can be large, so parts of it may only get the wind and little or no rain.  I wonder if something like that happened in this instance.  It is also possible that this record refers to actual sand being brought across from the continent.  In some instances, sand can be lifted up from as far away as Mongolia and carried all the way to Japan, though it is pretty rare. And it wasn't just wind and sand.  We get accounts of hail coming down as large as peaches, torrential rainstorms, and even ash, likely from a volcanic eruption that was otherwise unrecorded.  There are also accounts of snow, though typically recorded in times where you wouldn't expect to see it, such as the third lunar month, which would mean snow in late April or early May. Mostly these storms are mentioned in terms of how they affected the immediate fortunes of the living, but sometimes storms did even more damage.  In 682, for example, a hoar-frost was reported in both Shinano and Kibi in the 7th lunar month.  On its own, this probably wouldn't have been worth mentioning, but the chroniclers add that because of storms the "five grains had not formed".  So storms had diminished the crops and the hoar-frost was apparently the killing blow.  The harvest that year would be lean, and it would not be a happy time for many that winter. And then, just as important as what was happening was what was not.  There are several mentions of droughts, particularly towards the end of Spring, early Summer.  This is traditionally a drier period, and if it is too dry it could harm the harvest.  And so the government was expected to find a way to bring the rain—a tall order, the general resolution to which seems to be prayers and rituals designed to bring rain.  In a place like Japan, I suspect that it was usually just a matter of time before the prayers were "successful", thus reinforcing their presumed efficacy. Some of the things that they recorded were a bit more mysterious.  For example, in the second lunar month of 680 we are told that a sound like drums was heard from the East.  There are many things this could theoretically be, from rumbles of thunder to some other phenomenon, though the following year we have a note about thunder in the West, so theoretically they knew the difference between thunder and drums.  Later that same year, 680, we are told that there was a "brightness" in the East from the hour of the dog to the hour of the rat—about 8pm to midnight.  Was this some kind of aurora?  But wouldn't that have been in the north, rather than the east?    Could it have been some kind of lightning?  But that is a long time for a lightning storm to hang around.  And there are other strange things, some of which seem impossible and we have to doubt.  For example, in 684 they said that, at dusk, the seven stars of the Big Dipper drifted together to the northeast and sank.  Unless they are just recording the natural setting of the stars of the big dipper.  Certainly, over time the constellation appears to rotate around the north star, and it dips down to or below the horizon in the autumn months.  So were they just talking about the natural, yearly setting of the stars, or something else? There may be some clues in that the 11th lunar month, when that was recorded, we see several other heavenly phenomena recorded.  Two days after the Big Dipper set, at sunset, a star fell in the eastern quarter of the sky that we are told was as large as a jar.  Later, the constellations were wholly disordered and stars fell like rain.  That same month, a star shot up in the zenith and proceeded along with the Pleiades until the end of the month.  While this sounds like shooting stars and a possible meteor shower, a later commenter suggested that this was all a heavenly omen for the state of the court, showing the "disordered" state of the nobility at this time.  Of course, this was also a year and change before the sovereign's eventual passing, so there is also the possibility that the Chroniclers were looking at events later and ascribing meaning and importance after the fact. In another account of something seemingly wonderous: in 682 we are told that something shaped like a Buddhist flag, colored like flame, was seen by all of the provinces and then sank into the Japan sea north of Koshi.  A white mist is also said to have risen up from the Eastern mountains. There are various things that could be going on here.  It strikes me that the white mist could be a cloud, but could also be something volcanic.  And the flame colored prayer flag makes me think about how a high cloud can catch the light of the rising or setting sun.  That could look like a flag, and can seem extremely odd depending on the other conditions in the sky. Or maybe it was aliens. Okay, it is unlikely that it was aliens, but I think that these do give an idea of the kinds of records that were being made about the observed phenomena.  Obviously the Nihon Shoki is recording those things that were considered particularly significant for whatever reason.  This could just be because it was something odd and unexplained, or perhaps it was more well known but rare.  It may have even had religious connotations based on some aspect, like evoking the image of Buddhist flags.  And it is possible that it was thought to have had significant impact on events—perhaps even an impact that isn't clear to us today, many centuries removed from the events. Some things were clear, however.  Lightning strikes are often mentioned specifically when they strike something of note.  In 678, we are told that a pillar of the Western Hall of the New Palace was struck by lightning, though apparently the building itself survived.  Then, in 686, Lighting appeared in the southern sky with a large roar of thunder.  A fire broke out and caught the tax cloth storehouse of the Ministry of Popular affairs, which immediately exploded in flames.  After all, a thatched roofed, wooden building filled with kindling in the form of cloth—and likely a  fair amount of paper and writing supplies to keep track of it all—sounds like a bonfire waiting to happen.  There were reports that the fire had actually started in Prince Osakabe's palace and then spread to the Ministry of Popular Affairs from there. It is also worth noting that recording of such events was still somewhat new to the archipelago as a whole. They were learning from the continent, but also defining their own traditions. Observations of natural phenomena weren't just relegated to celestial occurrences or weather.  After all, there was something else that one could observe in the sky:  birds.  Now this wasn't your average bird-watching—though I'm not saying that there weren't casual birders in ancient Japan, and if we ever find someone's birding diary from that era I think that would be so cool.  But there were some things that were significant enough to be mentioned. For example, in 678 we get a report of "atori", or bramblings.  Bramblings are small songbirds which are found across Eurasia.  Notably they are migratory, and are known to migrate in huge flocks especially in the winter time, and sure enough on the 27th day of the 12th month we are told that the bramblings flew from the southwest to the northeast, covering the entire sky.  This makes me think about some of the other mass migrations that used to occur that have largely been reduced significantly due to habitat loss, disruption to traditional migratory routes, and other population pressures on various bird species.  Still, having so many birds that it blocked out the sky certainly seems a significant event to report on.  We later see a similar account in 680, with the flock moving from southeast to northwest.  Given the location of Asuka it sounds like they were flocking in the mountains and heading out over the Nara Basin, perhaps seeking food in another mountainous area. In 682, the birders were at it again.  This time, around midday on the 11th day of the 9th lunar month, several hundreds of cranes appeared around the Palace and soared up into the sky.  They were there for about two hours before they dispersed.  Once again, cranes are migratory and known to flock.  Cranes are also known as a symbol of long life and joy—and I can understand it.  Have you ever seen a flock of cranes?  They are not small birds, and they can be really an incredible sight.  Flocks of cranes themselves were probably not that rare, and it was no doubt more about so many gathering around the palace which made it particularly special. It wasn't just birds in the sky that were considered important symbols, though.  Birds often are noted as auspicious omens.  Usually strange birds, plants, or other such things are found in various provinces and presented to the throne.    So in 675, Yamato presented auspicious "barn-door fowl", likely meaning a fancy chicken.  Meanwhile, the Eastern provinces presented a white falcon and the province of Afumi presented a white kite.  Chickens are associated with the sun and thus with the sun goddess, Amaterasu, and albino versions of animals were always considered auspicious, often being mentioned in Buddhist sources.  Later, in 680, we see a small songbird, a "Shitodo", also described as white, and probably albino, sent to the court from nearby Settsu. Then, in 681 there is mention of a red sparrow.  Red coloration is not quite the same as albinism, though it is something that does occur at times, when the brownish coloration comes out more red than brown, and I suspect this is what we are talking about.  This is most likely just a recessed gene or genetic mutation, similar to causes for albinism, but just in a different place in the DNA.  As for why it was important:  I'd first and foremost note that anything out of the ordinary (and even some ordinary things) could be considered a sign.   Red was also seen as an auspicious color, so that may have had something to do with it as well.  And then there is the concept of Suzaku, the red bird of the south.  Suzaku is usually depicted as an exotic bird species of some kind, like how we might depict a phoenix.  But it was also just a "red bird", so there is that, and perhaps that was enough.  Not that this red sparrow was "Suzaku", but evoked the idea of the southern guardian animal.  A year prior, in 680, a red bird—we aren't told what kind—had perched on a southern gate, which even more clearly screams of the Suzaku aesthetic. It is probably worth noting here that in 686, towards the end of the reign, not that anyone knew it at the time, Ohoama decided to institute a new nengo, or regnal period.  It was called Shuuchou—red or vermillion bird—and it likely referred to Suzaku.  This nengo was cut short, however, with Ohoama's death that same year.  Nengo were often chosen with auspicious names as a kind of hope for the nation, so clearly "red bird" was considered a good thing. A month after the red sparrow, Ise sent a white owl, and then a month after that, the province of Suwou sent a red turtle, which they let loose in the pond at the Shima palace.  Again, these were probably just examples of animals seen as auspicious, though they would have likely been recorded by the Onmyou-ryou, who would have likely combed through various sources and precedents to determine what kind of meaning might be attached to them. Color wasn't the only thing that was important.  In 682, the Viceroy of Tsukushi reported that they had found a sparrow with three legs.  There are numerous reasons why this could be, but there is particular significance in Japan and Asia more generally.  A three legged bird is often associated with the sun Andusually depicted as a black outline of a three legged bird inside of a red sun.  In Japan this was often conflated with the Yata-garasu, the Great Crow, which is said to have led the first mythical sovereign, Iware Biko, to victory in his conquest of Yamato.  Thus we often see a three legged crow depicted in the sun, which was an object of particular veneration for the Wa people from centuries before.  And I suspect that the little three-legged sparrow from Tsukushi  I suspect that this had particular significance because of that image. Animals were not the only auspicious things presented to the throne.  In 678, Oshinomi no Miyatsuko no Yoshimaro presented the sovereign with five auspicious stalks of rice.  Each stalk, itself, had other branches.  Rice, of course, was extremely important in Japan, both from a ritual and economic sense, so presenting rice seems appropriate.  Five stalks recalls things like the five elemental theory—and in general five was consider a good number.  Three and five are both good, prime numbers, while four, pronounced "Shi", sounds like death and is considered inauspicious.  Three, or "San" is sometimes associated with life, and five is associated with the five elements, but also just the fact that it is half of ten, and we have five fingers on one hand and in so many other ways, five is regarded as a good number in much of Asia. That the stalks had multiple branches likely referred to them bearing more than the usual amount of rice on them, which seems particularly hopeful.  Certainly the court thought so.  In light of the auspicious gift, all sentences of penal servitude and lower were remitted.  In 680, Officials of the Department of Law gave tribute of auspicious stalks of grain, themselves.  I'm not sure, in this case, that it was all that they hoped, however, as that began three days straight of rain and flooding. A year earlier, in 679, we are told that the district of Ito, in Kii, immediately south of Yamato, sent as tribute the "herb of long life".  We are told that it "resembled" a mushroom—probably meaning it was a mushroom, or maybe something formed into a mushroom shape.  But the stem was about a foot long and the crown was two spans, about 6 feet in diameter.  This is pretty incredible, and I have to wonder if there is a bit of exaggeration going on here. Another tribute was a horn found on Mt. Katsuraki.  It branched into two at the base, was united at the end, and had some flesh and hair still attached, about an inch in length.  They claimed it must be horn or a Lin, or Kirin, sometimes referred to as an Asian unicorn—a mythical creature considered to be quite auspicious and benevolent.  This was on the 26th day in the 2nd lunar month of the year 680, probably around March or April.  I highly suspect that what they found was an oddly shaped bit of antler from  a buck whose antlers had begun to come in and which might have been taken out by wolves or bears or something else altogether.  The fact that the ends were said to be fused together could just be referring to some kind of malformation of the antlers.  The fur and flesh could mean that the antlers were still growing—antlers would probably just be coming in around early spring time.  Still, there is no telling how long it was there, so it could have been from the previous year as well.  Attributing it to a kirin seems a bit of a stretch, but it was clearly something unusual. Animals and plants were recorded in tribute, but also when something odd happened.  Fruiting out of season was one such occurrence, which we've seen elsewhere in the chronicles as well.  There was even a record when the famous Tsuki tree outside of Asukadera had a branch fall down.  Presumably it was a large and noticeable branch, and by now this appears to have been a tree with a bit of age to it that had seen a lot, so it makes sense it got a mention. Finally, we go from the heavens to the earth.    Perhaps the most numerous observations in the Chronicles were the earthquakes.  We've noted in the past that Japan is extremely active, volcanically speaking, so it makes sense that there are multiple accounts of earthquakes each year, especially if they were compiling reports from around the country.  Most of these are little more than just a note that there was an earthquake, but a few stand out. The first is the 12th lunar month of 678.  We are told that there was a large earthquake in Tsukushi—modern Kyushu. The ground split open to the width of about 20 feet for more than 30,000 feet.  Many of the commoners' houses in the area were torn down.  In one place there was a house atop a hill, and though the hill crumbled down the house somehow remained intact.  The inhabitants had apparently been home and must have been oblivious, as they didn't realize anything had happened until they woke up the next morning. Again, probably a bit of hyperbole in here, but if we think back to things like the 2016 Kumamoto earthquake, where large areas of land shifted noticeably along the fault lines, it is likely that this was a similar or even more catastrophic event.  And here I'll give a quick plug for Kumamoto, which is still working to rebuild from the earthquake, and if you ever get a chance, I recommend a visit to the Kumamoto Earthquake Memorial Museum or Kioku, where you can see for yourself just how powerful mother nature can be. Another powerful earthquake was mentioned in the 10th lunar month of 684.  If the earthquake in Tsukushi had hit mostly agricultural areas, based on the description, this seems to have hit more populated regions.  We are told that it started in the dark of night, the hour of the boar, so about 10pm, give or take an hour.  The shaking was so bad that throughout the country men and women cried out and were disoriented—they could not tell east from west, a condition no doubt further hindered by the dark night sky.  There were mountain slides and rivers changed course, breaking their banks and flooding nearby areas.  Official buildings of the provinces and districts, the barns and houses of the common people, and the temples, pagodas, and shrines were all destroyed in huge numbers.  Many people and domestic animals were killed or injured.  The hot springs of Iyo were dried up and ceased to flow.  In the province of Tosa, more than 500,000 shiro of cultivated land sank below sea level.  Old men said that they had never seen such an earthquake.  On that night there was a rumbling noise like that of drums heard in the east—possibly similar to what we had mentioned earlier.  Some say that the island of Idzu, aka Vries Island, the volcanic island at the entrance of Edo Bay, increased on the north side by more than 3,000 feet and that a new island had been formed.  The noise of the drums was attributed to the gods creating that island. So here we have a catastrophic quake that impacted from Iyo, on the western end of Shikoku, all the way to the head of Edo Bay, modern Tokyo.  This appears to be what seismologists have labelled a "Nankai Trough Megathrust Earthquake".  Similar quakes have occurred and are predicted to occur in the future., along a region of Japan from the east coast of Kyushu, through the Seto Inland Sea, including Shikoku, through the Kii peninsula and all the way to Mt. Fuji.  The Nankai Trough, or Southern Sea Trough, is the area where the continental shelf drops down, and where the Philippine tectonic plate slips underneath the Eurasian—or more specifically the Amuric—plate.  As these plates move it can cause multiple events all along the trough at the same time.  Since being regularly recorded, these quakes have been noted every 100 to 150 years, with the last one being the Showa Nankai quakes of 1944 and 1946. For all of the destruction that it brought, however, apparently it didn't stop the court.  Two days after this devastating quake we are told that Presents were made to the Princes and Ministers.  Either they weren't so affected in the capital, or perhaps the date given for one of the two records is not quite reliable.  Personally, I find it hard to believe that there would be presents given out two days later unless they were some form of financial aid.  But what do I know?  It is possible that the court itself was not as affected as other areas, and they may not have fully even grasped the epic scale of the destruction that would later be described in the Chronicles, given the length of time it took to communicate messages across the country. Which brings us back to the "science" of the time, or at least the observation, hoping to learn from precedence or piece out what messages the world might have for the sovereign and those who could read the signs.  While many of the court's and Chronicler's conclusions may give us pause, today, we should nonetheless be thankful that they at least decided to keep notes and jot down their observations.  That record keeping means that we don't have to only rely on modern records to see patterns that could take centuries to reveal themselves.  Sure, at this time, those records were  still a bit spotty, but it was the start of something that would be remarkably important, and even though these Chronicles may have been focused on propaganda, the fact that they include so many other references are an incalculable boon to us, today, if we can just see to make the connections.  And with that, I think I've rambled enough for this episode.  We still have a couple more to fully cover this period. 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.  

Recorded November 14, 2025 The AV SuperFriends kick off their first holiday special of the season with a spirited look at the gear, gadgets, and AV workflows that should make life easier, but only if you also bought the missing accessories, licenses, adapters, or seventeen extra widgets the manufacturer forgot to mention.  In classic Christmas fashion, the crew shares their "Batteries Not Included" frustrations: software that secretly requires expensive hardware, switchers that almost solve every problem but miss the basics, power supplies that mysteriously vanish from product boxes, and cloud-connected ecosystems with more prerequisites than a graduate-level course. Along the way, the panel detours into holiday lights, dubious Best Buy happenings, the return of RDL-style power-supply roulette, and the annual reminder that USB extension is still cursed. They also preview an upcoming deep-dive on enterprise cloud AV, tease the December call-in show, and, of course, deliver an unhealthy dose of seasonal immaturity. If you've ever unboxed a "perfect" AV solution only to discover it needs three more boxes, a license key, an aggregator VM, and a Christmas miracle to function, this episode is for you.   Alternate show titles: Holiday Mode The setting on your doohicky Don't put it in holiday mode Who dropped the dogs off Allen Head Doll House It does everything you want but nothing you need Least offensive to "you gotta be kidding me" You can't get this to that You can buy HDBaseT out, you just can't get it in Similar to Larry, but different You always have to buy the power supplies separate They mostly last That's not the answer; stop it! Some adult supervision required I want that in my stocking   We stream live every Friday at about 315p Eastern/1215p Pacific and you can listen to everything we record over at AVSuperFriends.com    ▀▄▀▄▀ CONTACT LINKS ▀▄▀▄▀ ► Website: https://www.avsuperfriends.com ► Twitter: https://twitter.com/avsuperfriends ► LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/avsuperfriends ► YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@avsuperfriends ► Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/avsuperfriends.bsky.social ► Email: mailbag@avsuperfriends.com ► RSS: https://avsuperfriends.libsyn.com/rss   Donate to AVSF: https://www.avsuperfriends.com/support

Andy’s Brave New World: Part 4 Andy and Sarah continue to explore the Presidio settlement. Based on a post by the hospital. Listen to the Podcast at Explicit Novels. "I've no intention of giving up our supplies or the consulate. All of that is ours, fair and square, and we can be choosy about who we share with. Right now, even if people like Rachel are a little envious of our situation, they won't try anything. There's no real competition for resources or territory yet." They paused, watching a volunteer coordinate a cache of water bottles. "Yeah", Sarah mused thoughtfully. "I guess the real question is what happens down the line. What if people like Rachel do get jealous of what we have but we don't want to share." She smiled a little. "Post-apocalyptic wealth inequality." "I mean, yeah it's a legitimate question. And if we assume the Presidio is going to be the government here, it'll come down to how it develops. Will they let people have "private property", Andy said, making air quotes, "whatever that means now, or go more communal?" "What do you think would be better?" Sarah asked. "I believe strongly in balance," Andy said thoughtfully. "Yes, the government, or the community, whatever, needs power to redistribute wealth when inequality gets extreme, and it should do its best to ensure everyone has a fair shot, especially because people will naturally gravitate toward supporting their own; you know, nepotism. There's also lots of things that are public goods that only make sense for the government as a whole to organize and provide." "But there's also got to be some concept of private property, that's what motivates people to build, to create, to work hard. Without private property it's hard to have accountability once your group gets bigger than a couple hundred people, and with no accountability it's hard to get people to do things." He gazed around at the bustling camp. "If I can become a respected voice here early on, maybe I can help push development in that direction. A strong but fair government that works to provide public goods and protect individual rights while ensuring nobody falls too far behind." "This is all theoretical though, and way out into the future. For now I think the hope is that people pitch in, work together, and share on their own, because we're all just trying to survive." Sarah studied his face. "You've really thought this through." Andy chuckled. "Yeah, well, before we left Yosemite, I was reading those prepper manuals Miguel, you remember Daniela's dad, left us. They had some interesting takes on politics and government, alongside all the survival and engineering stuff." He shrugged. "They're written by preppers for preppers, so they've definitely got a libertarian bent. But I think some of their core arguments are pretty sound." Andy slowed his pace, watching a woman in scrubs directing several volunteers near the medical tent. "Before we donate these antibiotics, we should ask around about where they should go. Especially ask anyone who looks like they're in charge." "Why not just give them to the medical tent?" Sarah asked. "Because we want as many people as possible to know we brought them," Andy explained quietly. "Each person we ask is another person who knows we're contributing to the community. Better to establish that goodwill early." Sarah nodded thoughtfully. "Smart. What about the apples?" "Yeah, we should be strategic with those too. When we talk to people, first find out if they're actually living here at the Presidio or nearby in the neighborhood. No point giving them to random visitors or people just passing through." He adjusted his pack. "We don't have an unlimited supply, and temporary goodwill from strangers isn't worth much. Better to save them for people we might actually build relationships with." "Like Rachel," Sarah noted. "Since she lives on our street." "Exactly. The apples are a resource, we should use them to build connections that matter." Sarah shook her head ruefully. "You're already playing 4D chess while most people don't even know they're in a game yet." "Maybe a bit Machiavellian," Andy admitted. "But my intentions are good. I want to help rebuild something worth living in." Day 8, Midmorning After an hour of carefully distributed apples, they asked around for Guillermo Herrera. They found him in a makeshift office in one of the old administrative buildings, bent over a desk covered in inventory lists. He was a stocky man in his forties, wearing partial combat fatigues with a well-maintained fade haircut that spoke of decades of military discipline. A younger woman sat nearby, organizing what looked like personnel rosters. Guillermo looked up as they entered, his expression professionally neutral. "Can I help you?" "Andy Rhee," Andy introduced himself. "We just checked in with registration. They suggested we come see you." "Any military experience?" Guillermo asked squarely, brow furrowing as he studied Andy closely. "I was a park ranger. I'm comfortable with firearms, good shot, but no formal tactical training." Guillermo glanced at Sarah expectantly. "No, nothing. Haven't even held a gun before to be honest." She said with a self-deprecating shrug. "I'm eager to learn though, if there will be classes." "Yes, we're in the process of organizing some." Guillermo turned back to Andy. "Talk to Michelle to sign up for the militia." he said, pointing a thumb at the woman behind him. His expression shifted to polite dismissal. "One other thing," Andy continued, "one of our group members, Daniela Martinez, she's fourteen, but she actually got extensive military training from her father, an ex-Marine, also a ranger. He was;" Andy paused. "Very, very prepared for something like this." That caught Guillermo's attention. "How extensively?" "She's currently setting up our defense perimeter. Planning kill zones, considering sight lines, working out mine placement. Her knowledge is really impressive. I'd happily trust her with anything security related for our group." Guillermo leaned back, reassessing. "Put both their names down on the militia list," he told Michelle. "We're trying to catalog available combat personnel." He turned back to Andy. "Any significant weapons?" "Yeah, a reasonable amount," Andy said carefully. "Rather not detail it all yet, until we see how things develop here. But we might be able to share some if there are specific needs." "Sure, nothing urgent right now," Guillermo replied. "There hasn't been any trouble yet. But we're discussing organizing supply runs to the military installations in the region. Travis Air Force Base, Coast Guard Island, Camp Parks, Moffitt Field." He tapped areas on a map on his desk as he named the locations. "San Jose State is open to joining, and we'll reach out to whatever leadership emerges in Oakland if and when it does." Andy nodded. "Good idea. I'd be happy to help when that happens. Daniela too, she'd be valuable on a mission like that, you could probably have her lead a team, if you could convince people to follow her." "Noted." Guillermo made another mark in his notebook. "I'll want to meet her, evaluate her capabilities myself." "Of course. We're at the Korean consulate in Presidio Heights when you want to arrange that." They exchanged Beacon handles, then Andy added, "By the way, who's coordinating the mass grave? I read about it on Beacon. We have a body we need to deal with, and I'm sure we'll find more once we clear our street." "Alyssa Daniels," Guillermo replied. "She's;" he paused thoughtfully. "Diligent. High-strung, but gets things done. She's coordinating from the west side of the grounds." "Thanks." Andy reached into his pack. "And last thing, would you like an apple? Just got them yesterday." Guillermo accepted with a nod of thanks. Andy handed one to Michelle as well, who smiled gratefully. "Also, we have some antibiotics with us to donate, should we take them to the medical tent or is there another place for them?" "Medical tent. Dr. Wilson's in charge there." "Thanks. We'll head there next. Have a good one." Day 8, Midday They found Diana Wells near the western edge of the parade ground, bent over a topographical map spread across a folding table. Her silver hair was pulled back in a practical braid, and she wore well-worn hiking gear that spoke of years spent in the wilderness. Several compound bows and a collection of hunting rifles were carefully arranged on a nearby table. "Diana Wells?" Andy asked, approaching the table. "I heard you're organizing hunting expeditions." She looked up, her weathered face breaking into a smile as she noticed Andy's holstered glock. "Finally, someone who might actually know what they're doing!" She extended a calloused hand. "I've been trying to put together hunting parties, but haven't found a lot of takers." She smiled ruefully. Andy chuckled, immediately warming to her direct manner. "Andy Rhee. I was a park ranger at Yosemite, before all this." "Ranger? Perfect." Diana's eyes lit up. "We need to start organized hunting soon, can't live on canned food forever. But these city libs, bless their hearts, most of 'em never even held a gun;" She caught herself, glancing at Sarah apologetically. "No offense meant." "None taken," Sarah said with a small smile. "I'll freely admit I'm one of those city libs who needs to learn. Actually hoping to start training soon." Diana's expression softened. "Well, that's different then. Admitting you need to learn is the first step." She turned back to her map. "I'm thinking of starting with some deer hunting in Marin. Less competition from other survivors up there, and the herds should be getting bolder without human pressure." "Smart," Andy nodded. "How many experienced hunters do you have so far?" "Three, including me," Diana sighed. "Got a former Marine who did some hunting growing up, and a Forest Service guy from Oregon. Could really use someone with your background." Andy traced his finger along the map's contour lines, studying the terrain. "What about sustainability? Should we be worried about overhunting?" Diana straightened up, giving him an approving nod. "Good to hear a ranger asking that, shows the right mindset." She pulled out a small notebook, flipping through some rough calculations. "It's something I've been thinking about. We should probably try to establish some quotas for the region at some point, coordinate between different hunting groups." She gestured at the camp around them. "But honestly? That's going to have to come later. Right now;" She shook her head with a wry smile. "Way things are going, I doubt we'll find enough competent hunters to make a real dent in the population. Most folks here can barely tell a rifle from a shotgun, let alone track and shoot a deer." Volunteer Coordination. They found the volunteer coordination center in what had once been a Presidio administrative office. The space buzzed with focused energy as women, and a few men, moved between folding tables covered in papers, calling out updates and cross-referencing lists, while several people either requesting or volunteering various types of services spoke to them. At the center of the organized chaos stood a striking woman in her early thirties, her presence commanding attention without effort. Megan Lunn had the kind of natural relaxed attractiveness that didn't need enhancement, high cheekbones, clear gray eyes, and naturally red hair pulled back in a practical braid that reached halfway down her back. She wore simple, well-worn outdoors clothes that suggested genuine outdoor experience rather than posturing. "Jenny, can you cross-reference these lists with medical?" she was saying as Andy and Sarah approached. "We need to know who has first aid training versus actual medical degrees." Her voice carried naturally, pitched to be heard without shouting. She glanced up as they neared, her sharp eyes taking in every detail of their appearance. "Welcome to the circus," she said with a tired smile. "I'm Megan, or Meg. You must be the new arrivals Alice mentioned, the ranger and the biology student?" Up close, Andy could see the subtle signs of command experience in her bearing, the way she positioned herself to keep the whole room in view, how she tracked multiple conversations while maintaining eye contact. A silver pendant in the shape of a compass rose hung at her throat, and a well-used Leatherman multi-tool was clipped to her belt. "That's right," Andy replied. "Andy Rhee, and this is Sarah Chen-Mitchell. You're coordinating the volunteer efforts?" "Trying to," Meg said with a self-deprecating laugh that didn't quite hide her competence. "I was a wilderness guide before all this, led backcountry expeditions, taught survival skills. Turns out organizing twenty stressed people in the wilderness was good practice for;" she gestured at the controlled chaos around them, "whatever this is becoming." A younger volunteer approached with a stack of papers, and Meg smoothly took them without breaking conversation. "We're trying to match skills to needs, and build some kind of structure. Luckily lots of people want to help out." She studied them both with those penetrating gray eyes. "I hear you've set up at the consulate rather than joining us down here?" There was no judgment in her tone, just neutral statement of fact. Andy found himself wanting to explain his reasoning, to have this attractive, capable woman understand his choices. Before he could respond, she held up a hand with another slight smile. "Don't worry, I get it. You've found somewhere defensible, and secured resources. Smart move, actually." She marked something on one of her many lists. "We'll need multiple strong points around the city eventually, not just one central location. The important thing right now is staying connected." Andy found himself immediately impressed with her diplomacy, and her recall of their group and situation. "Yes," he responded. "We are interested in being a part of the Presidio, we just have our own space right now." "Glad to hear. I was hoping, based on the description of your group, that you weren't one of those ultra-right-wing, prepper, sovereign citizen types. I'm sure they're having a blast right now, the ones that survived anyway." Her eyes held a hint of amusement. "So, what can I do for you Mr. Rhee?" He and Sarah shared a glance. "First we have some apples to offer, and some antibiotics to donate. And we've heard you're taking a lot of lead in organizing here, I was wondering if we could chat, big picture." Meg smiled. "Ah, so you're here to play the game as well. No doubt." She called out, "Fresh apples, everyone, get them from the kind Mr. Andy Rhee over here." Sarah and Andy were briefly mobbed by the people in the office, handing out most of their remaining apples. "Let's step outside. I could use a walk." She announced to the room she'd be out for a few minutes. They stepped into the bright sunlight. "Shall we head toward the medical tent to drop off the antibiotics?" she asked. "Or do you have any more people to mention them to first?" Her smile was wry. Andy felt a little exposed. "Yeah, you got us, we have been announcing them first. What gave it away?" "You checked in with Alice over two hours ago." Andy immediately wondered why he hadn't put that together. "It's what I'd do in your position as well." She studied him. "So, what's your strategy here Andy? Give me your assessment of things." Andy paused to gather his thoughts. "Well, it's clear that the Presidio will be the new center of power here in SF. There's a chance another center emerges but at this point, it's unlikely, with so many people already here the network effect is too strong." He continued, warming to the topic. "I want to help rebuild. I've already offered what basic skills I have, but I'd also like to get involved politically. I believe good, well organized government is the best route to getting our basic needs met, as a collective. Water, agriculture, power, trade, defense, medicine, and eventually engineering and manufacturing." He counted off the different needs with his fingers as he named them. "These ultimately require some centralization and broad geographic control to do them sustainably at scale. Not something you can make happen with just you and your plucky band of survivors. Well, power, maybe with solar, and water if you live close enough to the water table to dig a well. But everything else, we need organization and cooperation. Government." His voice grew more serious. "It's still early days but the norms and political decisions and organizations we form today could have long lasting repercussions for our future, assuming we make it that far. And I have thoughts on the direction things should go. I'd like to start shaping things now. I don't care particularly for political power myself, although I'm open to it. I'm more concerned with making sure whatever power ends up taking place is competent and benevolent." Meg listened intently as they walked, her gray eyes occasionally flicking to study Andy's face. The morning fog had burned off entirely now, leaving the parade ground bathed in clear sunlight. Sarah walked slightly behind them, taking in their conversation while maintaining a respectful distance. "That's; a remarkably clear-eyed assessment," Meg said finally. "Most people here are still just trying to process what happened." They passed a group of women organizing supplies, lowering their voices. "And you're absolutely right about the network effect. Every day more and more survivors arrive. If things continue we'll be a small city soon." She stopped walking, turning to face Andy directly. "Also, I appreciate that you didn't lead with just seizing power and controlling things. You led with meeting basic needs." Her penetrating gaze held his. "You're thinking about infrastructure first, then governance to support that. I agree with that mindset." Andy felt oddly exposed under her careful analysis, but also validated. This was clearly someone who also understood the bigger picture. "So, tell me, Andy," Meg said, resuming their walk toward the medical tent, "what direction do you think things should go? You must have opinions about governance structure." Andy considered his response. "I think the immediate challenge is establishing legitimate authority," he said. "Right now, everyone's cooperating because we have to. But once basic survival is handled, power dynamics will get complicated fast." Meg nodded thoughtfully. "Especially with armed groups involved." "Exactly," Andy agreed. "And that's actually my biggest concern. The military and police need to see themselves as subordinate to civilian leadership from the start. Otherwise;" He gestured at the armed men patrolling the perimeter. "Well, history shows what happens when guys with guns decide they should call the shots." "But how do you establish that civilian authority?" Meg asked, genuinely curious. "Elect a President?" Andy shook his head. "Not yet." He paused, watching a group of volunteers unloading supplies. "For now, I think we just need something simpler. A small council, maybe, anyone who can gather enough supporters to qualify. Just enough structure to build an institution that can capture some of the legitimacy that our decisions and communications will earn from being competent, and in turn lend more legitimacy to whatever decisions and communications the current leaders are already making." "And longer term?" Meg prompted, clearly intrigued. Andy laughed. "Well, do you want to get in the weeds here?" Meg nodded so he pressed on. "I think elections work well in theory, but once they scale up, they become easily corrupted. Politicians make impossible promises, cater to special interests, play on people's fears, and on and on. You know." Meg smiled and simply nodded. "I recently learned about this thing called sortition," Andy said. "Like jury duty, but for legislation. Get people who are interested in specific areas, agriculture, defense, infrastructure, to volunteer for a pool. Then randomly select among them to serve on committees that draft laws related to those areas." He warmed to the topic, encouraged by Meg's engaged expression. "Those proposals would then go to another randomly selected assembly, this time drawn from the entire population, for yay or nay votes. Pay them like jurors, give them a fixed term. Let them elect one of their number as an executive to oversee implementation." Sarah, who had been listening quietly, spoke up. "That's; actually really interesting. We talked about the problems with our current election system a lot in our poli-sci classes. It sounds like this would get rid of career politicians, and make it harder to concentrate power in any individuals." "Right," Andy agreed. "But that's all theoretical right now. The immediate priority is establishing the Presidio's authority through competent organization. Getting systems in place for collecting and distributing supplies, coordinating defense, managing resources." He gestured at the bustling camp. "Build legitimacy through effectiveness first. Then we can worry about formal governance. If there's anything I or my group can help with, we're here." Meg studied him closely. "You've clearly given this a lot of thought." "I've had some time to read recently," Andy said with a slight smile. "And seeing everything collapse; well, it makes you think about how to build something better." Meg considered his words thoughtfully. "Well, this is certainly food for thought. I've never heard of this "sortition" before, but it seems quite reasonable." She nodded slowly. "And I definitely agree that we must establish legitimacy through competent governance." "And what are your goals in all this?" Andy asked. "Similar to yours, just less defined in terms of politics," she replied. "I want to help people, make sure we rebuild successfully." Her expression grew more serious. "And in the long run, hope we don't collapse into some kind of anarchy or tyranny. We've suffered enough already." "Agreed," Andy said firmly. He extended his hand. "I'm happy to talk about this more, but for now, I'd hope we can consider ourselves allies." "We can, Mr. Rhee," she said, meeting his gaze and taking his hand with a firm grip. "I'm glad you're with us. I'll mention you to the others who would be on this little council. Maybe we could get a few meetings of us all together at some point." "We'd welcome hosting those meetings at the consulate," Andy offered. A knowing smile crossed Meg's face. "Yes, of course you would. Being the host would give you natural authority." "Hey, just playing the game as you said. And we have a nice formal dining room. And some nice wine stores," Andy replied with a matching smile. "Are you staying here at the parade grounds?" he asked. "Yeah, I have a tent here." "I'd like to offer that you move in with us at the consulate. We have quite a nice setup there right now." Meg shook her head. "I need to stay here, thanks. I can't be a good leader without being among the people, going through their same hardships." A slight smile. "And I honestly prefer camping to living indoors." She considered for a moment. "But, I'd love a hot shower if you have one? And maybe some hot coffee, anything that gets donated gets immediately requested, and we haven't had anything new come in for a while now." "We don't have hot water yet," Andy admitted, "but we do have cold running water. And plenty of coffee." "I start my day at 6AM," Meg said. "If I could come tomorrow morning at 5 to shower and have some coffee, you'd have earned quite a big favor from me." "Anytime," Andy replied. "I'll be up and ready for you. Message me on Beacon if anything changes." "Oh, and who else should I talk to?" he added. "Who would be on this council? I've talked to Guillermo and Diana so far, and I know about Alyssa." "Let's see," Meg said, counting off on her fingers. "Dr. Elena Wilson, she was chief of emergency medicine at UCSF. She's coordinating all our medical operations from the main tent. Brilliant woman, I couldn't believe our luck when she arrived. She's already setting up training programs for basic medical care." She gestured toward the solar array setup. "Then there's Marcus Qin, he was a high-up engineer at Tesla's Fremont plant. He's heading up our power infrastructure projects, working on getting reliable electricity to key facilities, planning longer-term solar installations. He's looking for people with electrical engineering backgrounds, thankfully we have lots of those in this city." "Jennifer Brown is essential, she was regional operations manager for Whole Foods. She understands large-scale food storage and distribution better than anyone here. She's organizing our pantry systems, tracking supplies, planning preservation methods for when scavenging isn't viable anymore." "And probably Rebecca Foster. She was a water resource manager for East Bay M U D. Keeping clean water flowing is going to be crucial once our bottled water supplies run low. She's already mapping out plans for gravity-fed distribution systems and planning wells and filter stations. Desalination, too, if we can get the equipment and power for it." She straightened up. "Those are the key players right now, along with the ones you've met. Each of them has proven themselves competent enough that people naturally started following their lead." On the shore of the Bay. Andy and Sarah stood at the water's edge near Crissy Field, looking out over the bay. The midday sun sparkled off the water, and Alcatraz loomed in the distance, a stark reminder of civilization's remnants. A cool breeze carried the salt smell of the ocean, rustling through Sarah's layered black hair. "Woof, I'm pooped already," Sarah sighed, stretching her arms overhead. Her cropped athletic tank rode up, revealing her toned midriff. "And we still have five more names to talk to." "Yeah, but there's no hurry right now," Andy replied, watching a seabird wheel overhead. "I think today was a good start. Let's take a quick break here, then maybe talk to one or two more people before heading back for lunch." "Ok, I'll message them that we'll be back in about an hour and a half." Sarah pulled out her phone, her manicured fingers tapping quickly. "We're a bit late. Can one of them be Elena? I want to sign up for medical care lessons as soon as I can." She tucked a strand of blonde-highlighted hair behind her ear. "I'm sick of telling people I have no useful skills." "Sure, we can. And yeah, to be honest I didn't expect there to be so much going on here. Beacon said it was 50-ish people two days ago, right?" "Yeah. Exponential growth." Sarah's hazel eyes lit up. "We run into this a lot in biology. It would be interesting to get the exact numbers of new arrivals per day and see if you could fit the growth curve and try to predict where we'd end up." Andy studied her as she gazed out over the water. Her heart-shaped face was animated as she talked, light freckles crinkling around her nose. She had an innate talent for connecting concepts and processing information, backed by determination and resourcefulness. She genuinely cared about helping others (well, except for maybe Crystal). And with her approachable, pretty features, she'd be perfect for politics if there ended up being elections. If they could accept someone so young holding power. His eyes drifted lower, taking in her athletic figure, the perfect curves of her tits under her compression top, the slim waist tapering to curved hips in her matching leggings. Approachable, pretty face, and a fantastic body. She caught him ogling and flashed a self-conscious smile, subtly adjusting her top to emphasize her cleavage. "Hmm, is someone thinking with his dick again?" She stepped closer, looking up at him through long lashes. "Does my, what was it, fearless protector, my *Machiavellian* fearless protector need some special attention?" Andy laughed and reached out to touch her cheek gently. She closed her eyes and smiled, pressing against his hand before looking up at him with those striking hazel eyes. "Alright, what's up Andy?" "I was just thinking, you'd do great in politics." "Huh?" Her full lips curved into a surprised smile. "What do you mean?" "You're smart, you make connections well and pick up new information fast. You're very determined and resourceful. You care about helping people." His eyes traced the delicate lines of her face. "And you're really pretty, in an approachable kind of way. If there were elections, you'd do really well." Sarah shifted her weight, the movement highlighting her athletic figure. "I also totally lack real world skills it turns out, and;" she gestured at her carefully coordinated athleisure outfit, "well; one could say I care too much about how I look." "Like I said, perfect for politics!" She laughed and poked him in the chest, her perky tits bouncing slightly with the movement. "OK, I like this sweet talk. This is like the nicest thing you've said to me since we met." "Well, don't forget I think elections are inherently corrupting." "Hmm, so you want to corrupt me?" she purred, taking his hand. Her skin was soft and warm against his. "Why don't you tell me what you were really thinking." "What I said. And then I stared at you for too long, noticed the rest of your body, and then my brain lost a lot of blood flow." "What, now you notice my body?" She brought his hand up to her tit, letting him squeeze it gently through the compression fabric. Her nipple hardened under his touch. "Four days of wearing the cutest skimpy little matching sets, posing for you, fidgeting with my tops to make you look at my boobs, talking about my body nonstop, and you finally now tell me you notice me while thinking about politics?" She shook her head, making her highlighted layers catch the sun. "You're a real odd duck you know." She suddenly pressed against him in a tight hug, her firm tits pushing against his chest. "Thanks for believing in me." Andy stroked her silky hair, breathing in her light floral shampoo. "Of course." Sarah stepped back, adjusting her top. "Ok. Let's go back." She paused, a mischievous glint in her eye. "Unless; are you sure you don't need any;" She made an exaggerated blowjob gesture, pushing her tongue against her cheek while moving her fist near her mouth. Her full lips curved into a teasing smile. "We could sneak behind those dunes real quick." Andy felt his arousal surge instantly. "Can you do that again?" "What, this?" She repeated the lewd gesture, looking every bit the corrupted coed fitness influencer with her subtle makeup, highlighted hair, and coordinated athleisure set that showed off every curve. "Ok, let's go," Andy said, taking her hand and walking toward the dunes. They exchanged horny smiles and giggles on the way to the dunes, Sarah's athletic figure moving gracefully beside him. Behind the dunes, Andy reclined against the sand and took his pants off while Sarah gathered her layered black hair into a high ponytail, a few honey-highlighted strands falling loose around her face. She knelt between his legs, her compression leggings hugging every curve. Starting with just her hands, she looked up at him through long lashes. "Remind me, what did you say about me just now?" Andy repeated his earlier compliments about her intelligence and determination. "Ah yes, thank you." She gave him a firm squeeze. "I do like a good compliment you know." She leaned forward, her perky tits straining against her top as she took him in her mouth. Her technique was skilled and enthusiastic, starting with gentle kisses and licks along his shaft before taking him deeper, her tongue swirling around his head while her hand worked his base. Her full lips slid up and down his length in perfect rhythm, alternating between quick, teasing strokes and slow, sensual ones. Andy closed his eyes, enjoying the sensations. He switched to praising her body, how toned and tight it was, how perfectly optimized for looking good, how it showed her determination and focus. She hummed appreciatively around him, the vibrations sending shivers through his body. Despite her current activity, a blush crept across her freckled cheeks at his words. She pulled off him, sucking hard as she did so, making her mouth feel deliciously tight before popping off him. "I guess you're wanting me to take my top off?" she asked, sitting back on her heels. Andy nodded. "Ok," she said with a playful smile. "Get ready." She pulled off her compression top and sports bra in one fluid motion, revealing her perfectly perky, symmetric, B-cup tits. They were exactly as impressive bare as they had looked in her carefully chosen sports bras, firm and high, with rosy nipples standing at attention in the cool air. She gave them a little shake, watching his reaction with amusement. "Right, where were we? I believe I was in the middle of, ah, restoring proper blood flow in my patient." She leaned forward again, her tits swaying slightly as she resumed her ministrations. She worked him skillfully, one hand pumping his shaft while the other gently massaged his balls. Her tongue focused on his sensitive spots, especially the underside of his head, occasionally taking him deeper and holding him there. Though she mostly looked down, concentrating on her rhythm, she would glance up periodically through her lashes to make eye contact, her hazel eyes sparkling despite her blush. The contrast between her innocent blush and what she was doing made Andy laugh. "What?" she asked, pulling back. "You're blushing?" "I don't know, it's awkward," she said, self-consciously tucking a loose strand of highlighted hair behind her ear. "It can't possibly be a cute look." "Don't worry, you look beautiful with my cock in your mouth." "Well, if you say so." She gave his head a playful lick, her hazel eyes sparkling. "I am obsessed with looking good after all." She resumed in earnest, using her tongue to continue to rub against his sensitive spots on the underside of his shaft that she'd discovered with her hands yesterday. Within a minute of this rhythm, Andy was ready. He moaned a warning to her. Andy felt the pressure build to an explosive peak. His whole body tensed as waves of pleasure crashed through him. Sarah's hazel eyes locked onto his as she pulled back to his head, her full lips wrapped tight around him. She swallowed eagerly, her small hand squeezing and stroking his shaft with perfect pressure, milking every pulse of his orgasm. The sight of her looking up at him, her pretty face focused on pleasuring him while she swallowed his cum, made him shudder and spurt several more times. When the last aftershocks subsided, she made an exaggerated face, her perfect features scrunching up adorably. "Honestly, we need to find you some canned pineapple or something. Too many rehydrated beef stews." Andy laughed and relaxed, pleasant sensations spreading through his body. "I thought I was getting a sponsored post." "Oh right!" Her eyes lit up as she shifted into her content creator voice. "Hey loves! Quick update from your fave outdoor wellness girlie! Just discovered the most amazing hidden spot in the Presidio for my morning protein boost." She dabbed delicately at her lips with one manicured finger. "You know I'm always on the lookout for sustainable, all-natural sources of nutrients, and let me tell you, this one hits different! Super thick and creamy, with these really;" she gave a subtle eye-roll, "complex umami notes, definitely not your basic store-bought protein shake." She struck an exaggerated influencer pose, bare tits thrust forward. "Loving how it just slides right down, and it's packed with all those essential minerals my body craves." She tossed her ponytail and gave an exaggerated wink. "The best part? My super knowledgeable park ranger friend showed me exactly where to find it. We'll definitely be doing more outdoor taste testing sessions soon! Remember ladies, staying fit during the apocalypse is all about finding those secret spots and knowing exactly how to; work them!" She finished with an innocent smile. "Like and follow for more wellness tips and behind-the-scenes peeks at my outdoor adventures!" She giggled and reached for her top, pulling it back on with practiced grace. "Ok, feel better? Did I overdo it?" "No don't worry, that was quite a great ad." he said, pulling his pants back on. "Let's chill here for a moment before we go." She curled up next to him, her athletic body fitting perfectly against his side. Her layered hair tickled his arm as they watched the waves, the sun warm on their skin. After a few peaceful minutes, she stirred. "Ok, let's go." They stood, Sarah adjusting her ponytail and smoothing her outfit back to Instagram-ready perfection. As they walked back toward the Presidio, she bumped her hip playfully against his. "You know, for someone who claims to be above politics, you sure know how to negotiate for what you want." Day 8, Early Afternoon The medical tent hummed with barely contained chaos. A dozen cots had been crammed into the space, most occupied by patients in various states of distress. Someone moaned from behind a makeshift curtain while a volunteer with shaking hands tried to sort through a box of donated medications, labels facing every direction. The sharp smell of antiseptic couldn't quite mask the underlying odors of sweat and sickness. Dr. Elena Wilson hunched over a patient chart at a wobbly folding table, squinting at her own handwriting. Dark circles shadowed her eyes, and her silver-streaked hair had escaped its bun in several places. Her scrubs were wrinkled and spotted with what might have been coffee or something worse. When she reached for her pen, her movements were quick and economical, like someone who had learned long ago not to waste energy on unnecessary gestures. "Excuse me?" Andy cleared his throat. "Are you Dr. Wilson?" She looked up, blinking as if emerging from deep concentration. "Yeah, that's me." Her eyes flicked between Andy and Sarah, assessing. "You need medical attention?" "No, we're actually here to donate some supplies," Andy said. "I'm Andy, and this is Sarah. We just got to the city yesterday." Sarah nodded. "We brought antibiotics." Dr. Wilson's expression shifted subtly. "Let's see what you've got." Andy unzipped his pack and carefully laid out the bottles on the edge of the table. Dr. Wilson picked each one up, examining the labels. "Oh thank god," she murmured, almost to herself. Then louder: "Riti! Come here a sec!" A harried-looking nurse in faded scrubs hurried over, clipboard in hand. "Log these in," Dr. Wilson said, gesturing to the antibiotics. "And put them in the locked cabinet." She turned back to Andy and Sarah. "Thanks, you might have saved a few lives today." Sarah took the opportunity to speak up. "I heard you might be starting some kind of medical training," she said. "I studied biology at UCLA before; all this. I know it's not the same as medical training, but I really want to help if I can." Dr. Wilson ran a hand through her hair, further disheveling it. "Biology, huh? That's something at least. We're doing basic emergency response training on Tuesday morning. Everyone needs to know how to stop bleeding and recognize infection now." She glanced over at a patient who had started coughing violently. "Michelle will add you to the list. I need to check on Mr. Peterson." As Dr. Wilson hurried away, Michelle gave them a tired smile. "Don't mind her. She's been working pretty much non-stop since everything went down. The class starts at nine on Tuesday." She wrote Sarah's name in a notebook. "And thanks for the antibiotics. We're running low on everything." Day 8, Early Afternoon The afternoon sun beat down on the cracked pavement as Andy and Sarah made their way back through the empty streets of Presidio Heights. The silent houses loomed around them, windows dark and lifeless. Sarah tugged at her ponytail, trying to smooth it down. "God, it's so quiet," she said, her voice sounding unnaturally loud in the stillness. "I keep expecting to see someone walking a dog or mowing their lawn or something." Andy nodded, stepping over a newspaper that had yellowed in the sun. "Yeah, I know what you mean. Still doesn't feel real sometimes." "So;" Sarah kicked at a pebble. "Dr. Wilson was something else, wasn't she? I mean, I get why she's stressed, but jeez." "She's got a lot on her plate right now," Andy said with a sympathetic shrug. "At least that Michelle woman seemed nice. Makes me a little less nervous about the class." "I'm sure you'll do great," Andy said. "Maybe", she paused. "It's weird how some things from before seem useful now and others just; don't matter anymore." They walked in silence for a moment, their footsteps echoing slightly. "Meg seems pretty capable though, "Sarah said, glancing sideways at Andy, "I noticed you were quick to invite her to stay with us." She raised her eyebrows teasingly. Andy laughed. "Can't put anything past you, can I? Yeah, I thought having someone with her connections around might be helpful. But honestly? I respect her more for saying no. It shows she understands she needs to be with the people she's trying to help." "Hmm, very diplomatic of you." Sarah smiled, bumping her shoulder against his. "Well, despite the slightly terrifying doctor, I'd say it was a pretty good morning overall. Made some connections, signed up for medical training;" Her smile turned mischievous. "Found that nice spot overlooking the bay;" "With the excellent protein options," Andy added with a straight face. Sarah burst out laughing, her cheeks flushing slightly. "You know what's funny? After everything that's happened, pretending to be my old influencer self actually helps sometimes." Her voice softened. "Like, it's proof that I can still be that silly, excited person sometimes, even if I'm reviewing very different products these days." "Your authenticity really shines through," Andy said with mock seriousness. "Very engaging content." Sarah rolled her eyes and shoved him lightly. "Just wait until you see what I've got planned for future episodes." She looked at him more seriously. "But honestly? With all your political maneuvering today, what I appreciate most is how you make me feel like it's still okay to be silly sometimes. To still be; me." Without thinking, Sarah reached for his hand. Their fingers intertwined as they walked, finding comfort in the simple connection amid the silent streets. To be continued. Based on a post by the hospital, for Literotica.

Send us a textIn this episode of The Skinny on Wall Street, Kristen and Jen unpack the story stirring up markets: Michael Burry's latest warning that Big Tech is overstating earnings by extending the “useful life” assumptions on their GPUs. The conversation becomes a real-time teach-in on depreciation, useful life estimates, GAAP vs. tax depreciation, and how a small shift in an accounting estimate can meaningfully inflate EPS—especially for mega-cap tech stocks that trade heavily on P/E multiples. Kristen walks through exactly how depreciation affects valuation, and why some metrics (like EBITDA) and methodologies (like the DCF) are untouched by the choice of useful life. The big question the duo wrestle with: is Burry identifying a real risk, or is this a nothingburger amplified by market paranoia? From there, Jen shifts to the fixed income landscape ahead of the December Fed meeting—one the central bank must navigate without key data (payrolls and CPI) that won't arrive until after the rate decision. She breaks down how Powell is managing optionality near the end of his term, how the market is pricing a December cut, and what a likely dovish successor (Kevin Hassett) could mean for rates in 2026. They also dig into credit markets: years of high coupons have fueled relentless reinvestment demand, but an uptick in issuance—especially from AI-heavy hyperscalers—may finally rebalance supply and demand. The duo look abroad as well, analyzing the UK's newly announced national property tax and what it signals about global fiscal stress.The episode wraps with big updates from The Wall Street Skinny: the long-awaited launch of their Financial Modeling Course, the continued fixed income course presale, and new January 2026 office hours, plus the return date for HBO's Industry (January 11!). To get 25% off all our self paced courses, use code BLACKFRIDAY25 at checkout!Learn more about 9fin HERE 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.

TRY N3 Textbook P72, 73

Rules of time travel: 1. Don't. 2. There are no rules. 3. Know Yourself One should know how to spot or recognize any parallel, paradoxical, or pro-dimensional version of oneself in the various multidimentional and infinite realities displayed both on and off of the grid in alignment {Enter The Multiverse} THE TITANS and OTHER DIETIES ARE FIGHTING an EPIC BATTLE in the DREAMWORLD —however, the battle is ABRUPTLY PAUSED when their HUMAN COUNTERPARTS in our own PARALLELS are awakened. Oh, so that's why he wants all that rufintinol… EXACTLY! MEANWHILE ERYKAH BADU enters the CHAMBERS. BADU I need candlelight to do what I'm about to do… For I counted— Thrice. And I laid six hands upon her grave; Six times the serpent never faught And so remained my heart as sacred. These people are fucking obsessed with me. Sim: Similar to human force, but not. Subjectively comparative to that of a familiar, A Similar seeks in its nature to exist for the soul purpose of a magician's makeshift (or temporary) parallels), in order to form a bond to which the reality it seeks is material, rather than theoretical. In that sense, a Similar eventually ceases to exist entirely once this task is established and formed a concrete foundation in which this multiconditional energy has an exact route one way or another— such is the familiar or other medicinal artofaxts such as a ‘totem' or poppet, however increasingly more complex. Similar energies are made to look and intuitively co-exist among humans but lack certain conscious or emotional elements, and fundamentally, spiritual energy. A similar mustn't be programmed, however like inanimate material objects, and are instead formed with a sort of energy which is encrypted by the magician itself, by creating a limited energy of oneself which is then for lack of a better term, ‘injected' into the electromagnetic field or aura of such a creature that remains and dwells in the realm of lower conciousness— it is for this purpose that the Sim remains in such that is a shield against energy of foreign nature which might corrupt the making of this primitive or primordial material construct. This energy does not travel and is thus conformed to its stake in the grid of multidimentional plans it is made in. I don't understand. [The Festival Project ™] Come here, cat. Oh, no! L E G E N D S BLŪ looks into the fridge. It is EMPTY. CHAOS I have lots of food…at my house. FINI Ugh, what is his job, anyway? Yeah, what does he even do?? CC If I told you, you wouldn't believe me. {Enter The Multiverse} I hate him! Just golf, would you? I do! I hate everything right now. Just hit the ball! —these are not even your games— Just golf! Goddamn you! —I don't know why you keep playing them! He hits the ball VERY hard. GOD! Finally! —and dragging me into it! Your anger may be making your game better. —and it's Top Golf. I don't see anyone playing these types of bets. He hits the ball. You were right. $10 Dollars. [The Festival Project ™] He is troubled —and she is weeping. BADU With three knives I found my blood; And with three knives I found my art And with three more I severed hearts— And tears remained upon the blade. And on, Their paper was our mirrors for eyes And I became not One, But all or more, And trust upon the world, Her core. The battle has won. I talk to you in my sleep, Therefore I am your fortune My love, I weep to wake from dreams To which we are tied in sacred honor As Divine. At once, my time is come, And though I shake with fear and favor, My making of your fortress shall be mine, In heart, forever. Amen. In all the ways I love you, And yet, cannot. Shatter my heart, For things are blind, And now I covet such as times That trees brought up from seeds grow wise. Hey, somebody— Make me laugh. Mr. Colbert? …your honor. Not it! V.O, The truth is, I don't know what I did at that party. [The Festival Project ™] FRENCH HENCHMAN Be in Los Angeles by sundown. MAU5 …but I live in Toronto. FRENCH HENCHMAN Precisely. MAU5 …why are you asking me to travel on my time? FRENCH HENCHMAN —because I know you're capable of this! MAU5 Ugh. Fine. FRENCH HENCHMAN See u soon. MAU5 Honey! Where's my mouse head? APPARENTLY ALSO KELLY It's in the shop. MAU5 What? APPARENTLY ALSO KELLY That's what the assistant told me. MAU5 What assistant? APPARENTLY ALSO KELLY *Shrugs.* ‍♀️ MAU5 …ur so pretty. {Enter The Multiverse} I heard and hurt that it's a numbers game; I'm laying in my grave, A shallow pool of doom and hatred But I have my name And it is mine and mine alone And it is mind and mind as one And it is time and time again I wish to die But then become another. PARIS TIPTON walks into THE HILTON HOTEL and launches into a RAGE. Not this again. {Enter The Multiverse} L E G E N D S Copyright © The Complex Collective 2025 The Festival Project, Inc. ™ All rights reserved. Chroma111. Copyright © The Complex Collective 2025. [The Festival Project, Inc. ™] All rights reserved. UNAUTHORIZED REPRODUCTION OR DISTRIBUTION IS STRICTLY PROHIBITED BY LAW.

What does it mean to be relevant in a fast-paced era of AI, and how can you stay in demand? Have you done a search for a company recently and couldn't find it?A simple search one day was the inspiration for this episode. I was looking for a new at-home workout and to my surprise, the company I have used for over 18 years was mysteriously missing from all search. This experience is an example of how quickly brands can disappear if they aren't using AEO.What about for your company, are you showing up in online searches?Inspired, I decided to check HerCsuite® and used phrases like NEXT. Similar to BODi, we were not showing up in search like we use to. I did an experiment and We rebuilt our updated the entire website to be AEO focused. HerCsuite® now appears in the number two spot right under one of the largest women's networks. AI and AEO influence the way we with search, but staying in demand is also about how we show up and how we lead. Five Secrets to Being In Demand and Staying Relevant Beyond AICreate a Strong Personal Brand. Build Trust.Be a Curious Learner. Build Your Network. Be Visible. As you listen today, it's important to remember that AI is a tool, but the 5 ways to be in demand are human actions only you can take.This episode is releasing the day before Thanksgiving in the U.S. and I am grateful to all of you listening both here and in the 40 countries around the world.SPECIAL INVITATION to JOIN HERCSUITE®If you're ready for your next board role, business growth, or portfolio career and drive the AI conversation, I would love to welcome you in HerCsuite®. Now until Cyber Monday there are special member savings.Keep shining your light bright. The world needs you.Connect with Natalie BenamouNatalie Benamou is Founder of HerCsuite®, women's leadership network and portfolio career company. She also serves as President and CEO of HER HEALTHX, a nonprofit bridging the care communication gap and improving health outcomes for women.

Jeffrey Epstein's properties were widely reported to be heavily wired for both video and audio recording, turning his homes into surveillance hubs rather than mere residences. His Manhattan townhouse was said to contain hidden cameras placed throughout bedrooms, bathrooms, and guest areas, all feeding into a private media room accessible through a concealed door. Multiple accusers have described seeing walls of screens displaying live feeds from around the house, suggesting that Epstein was monitoring visitors without their knowledge. Similar claims have been made about Little Saint James, where the island was reportedly blanketed with cameras and audio systems strategically positioned to capture conversations and interactions everywhere on the property.These surveillance systems are believed to have served a specific purpose: leverage. Epstein was known for cultivating relationships with powerful individuals, and the idea that he recorded private encounters in his homes has led many to believe he stockpiled compromising material for blackmail, influence, or protection. Reports of specialized rooms, sound-isolated spaces, and equipment built directly into the architecture reinforce suspicions that documenting sensitive behavior was not an accident — it was the design. The sophistication and secrecy behind these systems have only deepened public speculation that Epstein's real currency was information, and that much of what he captured was removed or buried long before investigators ever arrived.to contact me:bobbycapucci@prottonmail.comBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-moscow-murders-and-more--5852883/support.

When Arabs slaughtered (literally) the Jew in Hebron in 1929, the Communist Party said it was the fault of the Jews and the Arabs were in the right. And Jewish Communists sided with the Party! Similar things are happening today ...https://thechesedfund.com/rabbikatz/support-rabbi-katzz-podcast

How do we feed the world? It's all nice and cute this regenerative agriculture and food stuff, but how do we actually feed the world? By 2050, we'll need to produce double the amount of food. This is a question you, like me, get a lot, we bet, from banks, pension funds, large institutional players, investors in general, entrepreneurs, and eco-modernists.Our go-to answer was always: go to the most pioneering farmers and see what they can produce. But the counterargument was always: “Show me the research!". Now we have the research.In this Walking the Land episode, recorded straight from one of the most advanced farms in Europe, we talk to Simon, Kraemer, executive director of the European Alliance for Regenerative Agriculture (EARA) and the lead author of a revolutionary study where they looked at 78 of the most pioneering farms in Europe and compared them to their conventional neighbours. They analyse everything from fertiliser use, finances, and pesticides to the holiest of grails: photosynthesis. And guess what? Regenerative outperformed conventional in almost everything. Similar or higher yields, more than 75% reduction in NPKs, significantly reduced chemical use and, best of all, over the seven years they compared them, the regenerative farms kept getting better and better. More about this episode.==========================In Investing in Regenerative Agriculture and Food podcast show we talk to the pioneers in the regenerative food and agriculture space to learn more on how to put our money to work to regenerate soil, people, local communities and ecosystems while making an appropriate and fair return. Hosted by Koen van Seijen.==========================

Mike Schopp and The Bulldog talk about how similar the Bills are to the Steelers from coaching to how seasons have went.

During the 3pm hour of today's show Chuck & Chernoff talked about Falcons over Saints, Georgia Tech losing to Pitt, Charlotte covering the spread against Georgia, Hawks, Braves and how Georgia and Georgia Tech's season were similar until they weren't before we got to "The Smartest Thing Kirby Said Today." Later in the hour Chuck explains how the Falcons can still win the division and why "Falcons Math" keeps hopes alive. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

(Patrons: Enjoy early access to this and all future pods) We have arrived, Neo-Gotham. It has been 25 years. It's our one and only Beyond feature, it's our review for "Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker." Similar to our Ep by Ep review series, we're going scene-by-scene with an in-depth analysis/review, Ben is joined by your co-host/Beyond expert, Eli Benson @batman_beyond_fanpage.

During the 3pm hour of today's show Chuck & Chernoff talked about Falcons over Saints, Georgia Tech losing to Pitt, Charlotte covering the spread against Georgia, Hawks, Braves and how Georgia and Georgia Tech's season were similar until they weren't before we got to "The Smartest Thing Kirby Said Today." Later in the hour Chuck explains how the Falcons can still win the division and why "Falcons Math" keeps hopes alive. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Tonight's episode takes us deep into the backwoods of northern Alabama, into a summer that officially never happened. In 1983, something came out of the forests around Piney Creek that permanently scarred a rural community and left behind a story still spoken only in whispers. It began with routine livestock killings that didn't stay routine for long. A prize bull was found torn apart in ways that made no sense, surrounded by tracks that seemed to shift between animal and human. Within weeks, farms across miles of countryside were hit, and the sightings followed. Locals described a towering figure that moved upright like a man, covered in thick fur, with a wolfish head and eyes that looked disturbingly human. Fear spread fast, especially after the creature was seen at a nursery window, staring in at an eighteen-month-old child.That moment sparked a hunt that would become one of the most controversial in Alabama history.Dozens of armed men flooded the woods at dawn, determined to stop whatever was stalking their families and livestock. What they discovered in an abandoned storm cellar wasn't the simple monster they expected. The creature they cornered was wounded, terrified, and shockingly aware. It spoke. It pleaded. And beneath the blood and matted fur, a silver cross hung around its neck. When the truth finally surfaced, it wasn't a beast at all, but a missing college student who had been investigating local legends and never made it home. The government arrived within hours. Evidence vanished, threats were made, and everyone involved was forced into silence. The official explanation blamed wild dogs and mass hysteria, but years later a different account emerged from someone who claimed to have seen the real file. According to that testimony, the military had been running biological enhancement experiments in underground facilities throughout rural Alabama since the early 1970s. Deep in limestone caves, they discovered a parasitic organism capable of rewriting human DNA and triggering violent, rapid transformations. A containment breach released infected subjects into the woods, and the organism kept spreading.The most horrifying detail is that victims were said to remain conscious during the change, trapped inside bodies they couldn't control, forced to witness the violence their transformed selves carried out. The missing student was one of those victims, infected during his research and turned into something caught between man and beast.And the story doesn't end there. Similar incidents reportedly surfaced later in nearby counties, and patterns like this have been whispered about across the country under different names. Even now, the abandoned farm where it ended remains sealed, the storm cellar periodically covered in fresh concrete by unknown hands. Locals still report strange howls, impossible tracks, and the kind of disappearances nobody wants to talk about too loudly. This episode pieces together a chain of witnesses who risked everything to break decades of silence, revealing a picture far darker than folklore. The suggestion is simple and terrifying: this wasn't supernatural at all, but human experimentation gone catastrophically wrong, a Cold War nightmare walking loose in the woods.As you listen, remember that officially none of this happened. No documents exist, no agency acknowledges it, and the story is buried under denial. But in backwoods communities across the South, doors still get locked at sundown, livestock still vanish to something that tears through fencing like paper, and on quiet nights near Piney Creek, people still swear they hear the howls. Not quite wolf, not quite human, but something terrible living in the space between.

Send us a textOn this episode, we're talking about AI, the Fed, crypto, and housing --- and how those stories all suddenly collided this week. Nvidia's huge earnings beat briefly sent markets higher, but the rally fizzled fast as investors grew more anxious about a potential AI bubble. We walk through why valuations increasingly assume massive job displacement and unprecedented productivity gains, and why Oracle has become the market's “AI downside” hedge as its stock price collapses and its credit spreads blow out.Zooming out to the macro picture: delayed economic data finally hit, with job growth surprising to the upside, suggesting the Fed might not be delivering a December cut after all. Combine that with softening AI sentiment, and we're seeing a classic risk-off move: equities selling and cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin showing the most stress. Even though headline data looks fine, the real-world "vibes" (sorry, couldn't help ourselves) feel recessionary, with people struggling to find jobs while prices (especially housing prices) remain painfully high.That leads us into the debate over 50-year mortgages. We explain why extending mortgages just means paying interest for decades, barely building equity, and ultimately bidding home prices even higher. The idea of a transferable 50-year mortgage makes even LESS sense. It breaks basic collateral math and would require higher rates, not lower, to actually facilitate implementation. Sign up for our FREE LIVE Excel & Financial Modeling Masterclass here: https://courses.thewallstreetskinny.com/Nov2025-FMmasterclass-registration-page-1Learn more about 9fin HERE 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.

Donate (no account necessary) | Subscribe (account required) Join Bryan Dean Wright, former CIA Operations Officer, as he dives into today's top stories shaping America and the world. In this Friday Headline Brief of The Wright Report, Bryan covers President Trump's accusation of sedition against former intelligence and military officials, the deeper pattern of political activism inside America's security agencies, the White House's meeting with New York City's socialist mayor elect, new economic and immigration data, and a sprawling welfare scandal involving Somali migrants in Minnesota. Trump Accuses Former Intel and Military Officials of Sedition: A group of Democratic lawmakers and former intelligence and military officers released a video urging current service members to refuse "illegal orders" from President Trump. Senator Elissa Slotkin and Representative Jason Crow admitted they could not name any unlawful orders but again labeled Trump a fascist and a Nazi. Trump responded by calling their actions sedition and said they should be arrested and tried, adding that such offenses can be punishable by death. Bryan argues the video is part of a ten-year pattern of partisan activism from former security officials who wrap themselves in patriotism while advancing political goals. A Personal Warning About the Deep State: Bryan recounts cases involving Ned Price, Peter Strzok, Lisa Page, Kevin Clinesmith, and the fifty one former intelligence officials who misled the public about Hunter Biden's laptop. He describes how some officials use the cachet of CIA or military service to shield partisan motives. He also reflects on his former boss, Jennifer Matthews, and objects to her being used for political gain. Trump Hosts New York City's Socialist Mayor Elect: President Trump will meet Zohran Mamdani, the mayor elect of New York City, who openly identifies as a Marxist. Mamdani insists the NYPD will not assist federal deportation efforts, even for violent offenders held at Rikers Island. He says the meeting will focus on public safety and affordability. Bryan questions the wisdom of giving such a figure a platform inside the White House. Economic Signals Improve for Housing and Jobs: Mortgage rates have fallen to about 6.25 percent. Rent prices are dropping in many cities and analysts tie the trend to Trump's deportation operations, which have reduced demand for rental units. Job growth in September exceeded expectations, with 119,000 new positions. Native born workers filled most new roles while foreign-born workers lost ground. Wages are growing faster than inflation. Manufacturing orders appear strong, but exact data are delayed due to the recent shutdown. Tariff Adjustments and Manufacturing Investments: The White House lifted remaining tariffs on Brazilian goods such as beef and coffee to ease grocery prices. GE Appliances will shift more production to Kentucky, Indiana, and Tennessee due to U.S. tariffs and competitive pressure from Whirlpool. China unexpectedly resumed large soybean purchases and placed a new wheat order, giving U.S. farmers encouraging news. Border Crossings Fall and Medical Strain Eases: Hospitals near San Diego report a dramatic drop in injuries among migrants who fall from the border wall. Emergency rooms say they can finally prioritize American patients because crossings have fallen to lows not seen since the 1970s. Judges Block National Guard Deployments: A federal judge in Washington blocked Trump's deployment of the National Guard to the capital despite clear data showing that Guard operations sharply reduced crime. Similar rulings in Memphis and other cities reflect what Bryan describes as political obstruction at the expense of public safety. Somali Welfare Fraud Funds Terrorism Abroad: City Journal reports that Somali migrants in Minneapolis defrauded Minnesota's Medicaid Housing Stabilization Services program of hundreds of millions of dollars. The money was routed to clan networks and to al-Shabaab in Somalia, making Minnesota taxpayers one of the largest funders of the terror group. More than fifty individuals have been charged. Bryan warns that state leaders have tried to minimize or dismiss the scandal for fear of appearing xenophobic. FBI Analyst Fired After Displaying Pride Flag: An FBI trainee claims he was terminated for displaying a Pride flag at work. The Bureau denies this. Bryan discusses his own experience serving alongside gay and lesbian officers and argues that all personal politics, identities, and symbols should be left outside the workplace so that the mission remains the focus.   "And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." - John 8:32     Keywords: Trump sedition accusation Slotkin Crow, former intel officials illegal orders video, Deep State political activism, Zohran Mamdani socialist NYC mayor elect, mortgage rates falling deportation effect, GE Appliances reshoring tariffs, China soybean wheat purchases, San Diego border crossings ER cases, National Guard deployment ruling DC, Minneapolis Somali welfare fraud al-Shabaab, FBI pride flag firing claim

The Bills have similar problems to the Chiefs... Will they be able to fix it?

Jeffrey Epstein's properties were widely reported to be heavily wired for both video and audio recording, turning his homes into surveillance hubs rather than mere residences. His Manhattan townhouse was said to contain hidden cameras placed throughout bedrooms, bathrooms, and guest areas, all feeding into a private media room accessible through a concealed door. Multiple accusers have described seeing walls of screens displaying live feeds from around the house, suggesting that Epstein was monitoring visitors without their knowledge. Similar claims have been made about Little Saint James, where the island was reportedly blanketed with cameras and audio systems strategically positioned to capture conversations and interactions everywhere on the property.These surveillance systems are believed to have served a specific purpose: leverage. Epstein was known for cultivating relationships with powerful individuals, and the idea that he recorded private encounters in his homes has led many to believe he stockpiled compromising material for blackmail, influence, or protection. Reports of specialized rooms, sound-isolated spaces, and equipment built directly into the architecture reinforce suspicions that documenting sensitive behavior was not an accident — it was the design. The sophistication and secrecy behind these systems have only deepened public speculation that Epstein's real currency was information, and that much of what he captured was removed or buried long before investigators ever arrived.to contact me:bobbycapucci@prottonmail.comBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-epstein-chronicles--5003294/support.

The 6-4 Steelers play the Bears (7-3) in Chicago on Sunday. Are the Steelers like the Bears or are they a step above? It's not a believable resume for the Bears and Joe thinks the Steelers may win by 10 or more points.

Hour 1 with Joe Starkey and Donny Football: The 6-4 Steelers play the Bears (7-3) in Chicago on Sunday. It's not a believable resume for the Bears and Joe thinks the Steelers may win by 10 or more points. We all think the Steelers are going to win. Four pressing questions in Steelers-Bears.

GET YOUR WAV WATCH HERE: https://buy.wavwatch.com/WAM Use Code WAM to save $100 and purchase amazing healing frequency technology! GET HEIRLOOM SEEDS & NON GMO SURVIVAL FOOD HERE: https://heavensharvest.com/ USE Code WAM to save 5% plus free shipping! BUY GOLD HERE: https://firstnationalbullion.com/schedule-consult/ Avoid CBDCs! Get Your SUPER-SUPPLIMENTS HERE: https://vni.life/wam Use Code WAM15 & Save 15%! Life changing formulas you can't find anywhere else! HELP SUPPORT US AS WE DOCUMENT HISTORY HERE: https://gogetfunding.com/help-keep-wam-alive/# Josh Sigurdson reports on recent comments by Elon Musk calling for AI "humanoid" robots to "eliminate poverty" and "make everyone wealthy." This is a tenant of technocracy which the World Economic Forum has been proposing for years. The idea of AI taking over all jobs and eventually pushing everyone into UBI (Universal Basic Income) where no one owns property and everyone is dependent on social credit scores for food on a digital ID. Musk has in the past claimed AI would destroy humanity, yet he's the number one person working on establishing AI infrastructure. This is the man that wants you to put chips in your brain attached to a Pentagon funded mesh network. The same man registering X as a bank as they implement social credit in the algorithm and create XMoney which is working in collaboration with Visa. From both the left and the right, technocracy is being established to bankrupt the very purpose of humanity itself. Whether from the climate lobby or via biometrics and migration. Yet, people will ignore it if figures like Musk say something they deem "based." How easily manipulated people have become. Tyranny comes under the guise of convenience and when they're offering everything for free under the guise of wealth, it's easy to see people fall into lockstep. Elon is calling for carbon taxes, AI satellites to "adjust sunlight." Similar things we've seen Bill Gates call for. Meanwhile, President Trump is working with people like Larry Ellison, Sam Altman, Palantir's Peter Theil and Alex Karp, BlackRock's Larry Find, the Saudi Crown Prince among many others to establish international AI infrastructure. The reasons behind this should concern you. This is what we break down in this video. We are unpopular for telling these truths while most of the Mainstream Alternative Media worships Musk and other technocrats but we MUST understand how this is playing out to avoid being Shanghaied into this system. Stay tuned for more from WAM! Get local, healthy, pasture raised meat delivered to your door here: https://wildpastures.com/promos/save-20-for-life/bonus15?oid=6&affid=321 USE THE LINK & get 20% off for life and $15 off your first box! DITCH YOUR DOCTOR! https://www.livelongerformula.com/wam Get a natural health practitioner and work with Christian Yordanov! Mention WAM and get a FREE masterclass! You will ALSO get a FREE metabolic function assessment! GET YOUR APRICOT SEEDS at the life-saving Richardson Nutritional Center HERE: https://rncstore.com/r?id=bg8qc1 Use code JOSH to save money! SIGN UP FOR HOMESTEADING COURSES NOW: https://freedomfarmers.com/link/17150/ Get Prepared & Start The Move Towards Real Independence With Curtis Stone's Courses! GET YOUR FREEDOM KELLY KETTLE KIT HERE: https://patriotprepared.com/shop/freedom-kettle/ Use Code WAM and enjoy many solutions for the outdoors in the face of the impending reset! PayPal: ancientwonderstelevision@gmail.com FIND OUR CoinTree page here: https://cointr.ee/joshsigurdson PURCHASE MERECHANDISE HERE: https://world-alternative-media.creator-spring.com/ JOIN US on SubscribeStar here: https://www.subscribestar.com/world-alternative-media For subscriber only content! Pledge here! Just a dollar a month can help us alive! https://www.patreon.com/user?u=2652072&ty=h&u=2652072 BITCOIN ADDRESS: 18d1WEnYYhBRgZVbeyLr6UfiJhrQygcgNU World Alternative Media 2025

Jason Kelce was on with the WIP Morning Show today. And, in talking about the Jalen Hurts, A.J. Brown drama brought a similar dispute with him and fellow o lineman Lane Johnson. Find out the similarities and differences in these two disputes.

Guest Dr. Rusha Bhandari and host Dr. Davide Soldato discuss JCO article "Health Outcomes Beyond Age 50 Years in Survivors of Childhood Cancer: A Report From the Childhood Cancer Survivor Study, " with a particular focus on mortality data, development of secondary malignancies and the importance of education for both patients and healthcare providers regarding long-term follow-up and care. TRANSCRIPT The guest on this podcast episode has no disclosures to declare. Dr. Davide Soldato: Hello, and welcome to JCO After Hours, the podcast where we sit down with authors from some of the latest articles published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology. I am your host, Dr. Davide Soldato, Medical Oncologist at Ospedale Policlinico San Martino in Genoa, Italy. Today, we are joined by JCO author, Dr. Rusha Bhandari, a Pediatric Hematologist-Oncologist and Assistant Professor in the Department of Pediatrics and Population Science at City of Hope, California. Today, we will be discussing the article titled "Health Outcomes Beyond Age 50 Years in Survivors of Childhood Cancer: A Report From the Childhood Cancer Survivor Study." So, thank you for speaking with us, Dr. Bhandari. Dr. Rusha Bhandari: Thanks so much for having me. Dr. Davide Soldato: So, I just want to go straight ahead in the paper and start from the title. So, we heard that you included in this study childhood survivors of pediatric cancer that were aged 50 years or higher. So, this is a very critical life stage when we know that there are a lot of aging-related comorbidities that can happen, also in the general population but potentially specifically in childhood cancer survivors. So, first of all, I wanted to ask you, why this specific study in this very specific population? Because I think that we had already some data in younger survivors, but now we are focusing specifically on patients aged 50 or more. Dr. Rusha Bhandari: Absolutely. So, to answer that question, I'll take a little bit of a step back in terms of where we are now and where we came from in terms of treatment for childhood cancers. So, thankfully, we now have great curative therapies and survival rates for many childhood cancers, including the most common ones. But this was not necessarily the case 50 or more years ago. So, we essentially are now seeing the first generation of older survivors who are 30, 40, or more years from completion of their cancer treatment. As you pointed out, we know from younger survivors that they have a markedly higher risk of malignancies and health conditions than the general population. You don't typically expect to see things like heart disease or diabetes, for example, in a young adult. But the question that remained was what the health status and risk of these conditions are in survivors who are entering this critical age, as you mentioned, 50 or older, when you do start to see these aging-related changes in the general population. And the question is whether we're still observing increased risks related to cancer treatment that was delivered 30 or more years ago in these survivors who are now entering ages 50 and beyond. Dr. Davide Soldato: Thanks so much. You used the data from a study that is called the Childhood Cancer Survivor Study. So, just a little bit of explanation for our listeners. How is the study conducted? What type of data are you collecting? And specifically for the interest of the study that was reported in this manuscript, which outcomes were really important for you and were so evaluated in the manuscript? Dr. Rusha Bhandari: Yes. So, the Childhood Cancer Survivor Study is a really excellent resource that combines information from children who were treated across North America at various different centers and sites. So it gives us a really good understanding of how different survivors are doing as they do progress through their survivorship journey. The Childhood Cancer Survivor Study includes a baseline questionnaire when participants are first eligible or first enter the study, and then includes a series of follow-up questionnaires to really understand how they're doing, like I mentioned, as they progress throughout their survivorship journey. And so for this study, we really wanted to take a global look at how these patients were doing as they entered that older age range. And so we wanted to look at outcomes ranging from mortality through the health conditions that we've seen from other survivorship studies, including subsequent malignant neoplasms, other health conditions, I mentioned earlier heart disease and other comorbidities we know survivors can be at increased risk for, and also things like frailty, which we know is, you know, the most widely recognized phenotype of aging. And we see that earlier on in our younger survivors. We want to see how this translated to these older survivors and then also other health outcomes like their health status. What is their self-report of their physical health, their mental health? Things like that. So we wanted a very comprehensive understanding of their health. Dr. Davide Soldato: This is a very comprehensive study. Right now it includes more than 30,000 patients that have been treated for childhood cancer, but specifically looking at the question of survivors aged 50 years or higher, you included more than 7,000 patients inside of this study. So, looking at the first outcome that you mentioned, which I think it's also one of the most important, you look specifically at mortality, and in this specific population, you saw a striking three-fold increase in mortality when comparing these survivors with the general population. I just wanted to dive in this result and ask you: What do you see as the main driver for this excess mortality in this population of survivors? And as you were mentioning, the study also collects information about the treatment received. So, was there any association with a specific kind of treatment that was received for curing these childhood cancers? Dr. Rusha Bhandari: I agree. I would say it's striking to see that mortality risk among the survivors relative to the general population. And we do know, again from prior studies, that survivors of childhood cancer do have an increased risk of mortality compared to the general population, but I think looking at those curves of the cumulative mortality risk was really quite striking as they diverge, and that's, you know, just so long past their initial diagnosis and treatment. We know that subsequent malignant neoplasms or secondary cancers are a really an important contributor to mortality among survivors. And I think it was important to note that even in these older survivors, it's still such an important contributor to mortality, and I think this really highlights the need for us to better understand what is driving specific secondary cancers and what are the differences in the biology and treatment approaches for some of these cancers? And how might that then be contributing to the mortality risk? Dr. Davide Soldato: Related to the treatment mortalities - because I think that one of the main forces of the study, as it is conducted, is that it contains a lot of information regarding radiotherapy, allogeneic transplant, surgery, type of chemotherapy received by these survivors - so, are we able right now with the data that we have to pinpoint which of these treatments can potentially lead to such increased risk of mortality? Dr. Rusha Bhandari: So, we weren't able to look at the comprehensive treatment exposures and mortality risk for this paper. So that might be one of the questions I would put on the side. We were able to look at that in relation to subsequent malignant neoplasms and health conditions though, as you mentioned. Dr. Davide Soldato: Another thing that I think is very important is that you were able to look at specific causes for mortality. So for example, you mentioned the increased rate of neoplasm in this population and specifically, more or less 7.6% of the patients that were included in the study developed another neoplasm after the ones they were cured for in the childhood period. So, you saw a wide range of cancer, for example, bone and soft tissue sarcomas, breast cancer, genitourinary cancer. And as you were mentioning, there were some associations for treatment modalities that were associated with a higher risk of developing this type of cancer. Can you expand a little bit on this? Dr. Rusha Bhandari: Absolutely. And so the key part here was that we really looked at any of these outcomes that occurred beyond age 50. What we found was there is still an increased risk of secondary cancers beyond that initial childhood cancer diagnosis, but when we really looked at that data, it was specifically among survivors who had a history of receiving radiation. And we did not necessarily see an association between different chemotherapy exposures and secondary cancers. And I think this speaks to what we're now learning in terms of the very long-term effects of radiation and how that impacts ongoing health risk even in patients who are 30 or more years out from their treatment. And I think it really highlights the importance of these- the efforts that have been made in the more recent decades to really try and reduce or eliminate radiation where possible, you know, as we've come to understand more about these long-term effects from it. Dr. Davide Soldato: A clear association with radiation therapy but no association when we look at specific types of chemotherapy that were used for curing this childhood cancer. Another thing that I think it's very interesting and you briefly mentioned before is that potentially when we look at these secondary malignant neoplasm that develop in this situation, we might also see some outcomes that are not comparable to the one of the general population, meaning that we managed to cure less this type of cancer when they develop in these childhood survivors. So, I just wanted to understand if you could provide us with a little bit of perspective also from a clinical standpoint being a pediatric hematologist-oncologist as to why this might be happening and how can we potentially increase the cure rate also in this population of childhood cancer survivors? Dr. Rusha Bhandari: Absolutely. While that was not the focus of this study, it was something that we were certainly interested in is understanding how even once a childhood cancer survivor, for example, develops a health condition or a secondary cancer further into survivorship, how does that outcome then differ from someone in the general population? And there's a lot of interest in ongoing studies actually evaluating that and understanding what are the differences from the initial presentation, biology, the characteristics of that cancer, through how they're treated. So I don't know if we have all of the answers for that quite yet, but you can imagine if someone hypothetically had a history of receiving a lot of anthracycline chemotherapy or already having received a lot of radiation, that might impact what treatment they might receive for that secondary cancer or if they already have other existing comorbidities that need to be taken into consideration. Dr. Davide Soldato: Speaking about comorbidities, you were mentioning in the beginning that one of the focuses of this scientific work was really to try and see whether also this type of adverse health outcomes that can be potentially related to treatments were more frequent among these childhood cancer survivors. So I think that it's very interesting that for this comparison, you were able to use the data from the siblings of the patients who were included inside of the study. So, just a little bit of a comment on why you decided to use this specific methodology, which I think has a very nice touch to it when we look at these outcomes like, for example, diabetes or cardiovascular disease, and in general, do we see an increased number of chronic health conditions among survivors who were treated for childhood cancers? Dr. Rusha Bhandari: Yes, so this is a really excellent strength of the Childhood Cancer Survivor Study is that they have information, longitudinal information, on survivors as well as their siblings. So, you know, when we were discussing the design of the study, I mentioned that we have initial baseline questionnaires as well as multiple follow-up questionnaires, and that is for both the survivors and the siblings. And so we're able to really understand their health course over time. We chose to evaluate sibling data because then you're really able to look at people who have similar characteristics, right? Similar environmental exposures in theory, potentially similar genetic predispositions and makeups and things like that. And so you can really try and have as good of a comparison as possible. Dr. Davide Soldato: Did we see any increase in chronic health condition when looking at survivors compared to the siblings? Dr. Rusha Bhandari: We did. And while that's been reported before, again, I think it's important to demonstrate that in this older population when you would expect that these siblings would now also be starting to develop different health conditions. Dr. Davide Soldato: One thing that was very interesting is that when we look at the coexistence of multiple comorbid conditions and chronic condition in this population, we also see that for some of these survivors, they basically have the same rates of comorbidities as compared to siblings who are potentially 20 years older than them. So I think that there is really that striking point, as you were mentioning before, of accumulation of changes, also physiological changes that can potentially drive a higher frailty index, which was also higher when looking at these survivors compared to their siblings. One outcome that was really not that worse when we look at survivors of childhood cancer was actually mental health. And as I read the paper, it was something that really surprised me a little bit because you would imagine that going through such a harsh diagnosis, such very complex treatment, very early in their life could potentially lead to some worse health outcomes also in terms of mental health over time. But this was not seen. And just a comment on this, because I think it's a very surprising data. Dr. Rusha Bhandari: Yes, I appreciate that question. So, as you mentioned, mental health is such an important issue for patients, both those undergoing treatment as well as those in long-term survivorship. And in our study, we found that survivors were not more likely, as you mentioned, to report poor mental health compared to their siblings. And I think there's a few possible reasons for this. You know, again, this is self-reported data amongst siblings and survivors who survived to at least 50 years of age and completed a questionnaire. And so that is the group of individuals that we were able to evaluate this in, so we have to keep that in mind. But I think our findings may also reflect the resilience of this particular cohort of aging survivors that we included. This finding has been reported in other studies of survivors as well, and so I think it very well may speak to the resilience of the cohort that we're looking at. Dr. Davide Soldato: Going back just a little bit, you mentioned that the majority potentially of these survivors who were included in the current analysis were treated between 1970s and 1980s. So, as you were mentioning before, radiotherapy was seen as a significant contributor to second neoplasm and also to the increase of this chronic health condition. So, do you believe that there is still a role for these survivorship studies as we are approaching treatment modalities where radiotherapy is administered less frequently or with lower doses or omitted at all in the treatment course of these survivors? Dr. Rusha Bhandari: Absolutely. I think you mentioned a very important point, which is these findings are most applicable to the patients who were included in this cohort or similar cohorts, those who were treated in the 1970s and 80s who now are 50 years or older at this point in time. And as you know, treatment modalities have really changed. You know, as you mentioned, we'll use less radiation in many cases whenever possible, but there are so many new modalities, so many different chemotherapeutic agents, immunotherapy. There's so much more we need to learn about the long-term effects of some of these newer treatment modalities. And also, we've been able to really intensify our treatment regimens with improvements in both treatment approaches and supportive care. And so I think we have a lot to learn about those late effects, and ongoing studies are certainly needed as we continue to have this growing population of older survivors. Dr. Davide Soldato: And now a more general question which builds on the results of the study but goes a little bit beyond what was the scope of the research. So we have just discussed that there is an excess mortality in general, there is a higher risk for secondary malignancies in this population, we see higher accumulation of chronic comorbid conditions that need to be treated. So building on these results, in your opinion, what would be the best framework to follow up these patients over time? Because I imagine that for some of these patients who have been treated 30, 40 years before the moment where we see this type of events, they can be potentially also discharged from more specialistic medical care. So what is the best course of action? Should we keep all of these patients under observation in a very specialistic environment under the care of the oncologist or the pediatric oncologist? Should we create a stronger bond with general practitioners so they know that there is this problem? Dr. Rusha Bhandari: Yes, I mean, I think you're reading my mind. We thankfully do have evidence-based guidelines. We utilize the Children's Oncology Group Long-Term Follow-Up Guidelines, which include screening recommendations for secondary cancers, chronic health conditions, everything based on the underlying diagnosis and treatment that these patients received. But we recognize that a large proportion of these survivors do not continue to have lifelong follow-up at a survivorship center, but really do need that specialized screening based on their treatment that they received. And I think for that reason, it's so important that we continue to build relationships with their primary care providers and really make sure that both patients and their providers have this information at hand regarding what their treatment is and what the screening is that they need and that we be able to have this community whereby we are able to help inform the screening in our own survivorship clinics, but also help guide some of the primary care providers who are going to be seeing these patients in the long run. Dr. Davide Soldato: Do we have any data showing what is the adherence rate of these patients to this type of continuous screening and monitoring over time? Because I imagine that that might also be a point for improvement in terms of quality of care. Can we retain as much childhood cancer survivors as we want as we are learning that there are all these potential negative health outcomes over time? Dr. Rusha Bhandari: We definitely within the survivorship community do want to help make sure as many survivors as possible are being engaged, again, whether it's at their specific cancer center or whether it's in the community, recognizing that for many reasons, it's not feasible to always return to that cancer center for your regular survivorship care. I think there's a lot we can do. Going a little bit outside the scope of your question, but I think there's a lot that we can do nowadays in terms of telehealth and being able to communicate with patients and their providers even if they're geographically not located right near us. But we do have data that shows that the further out many patients get from their initial diagnosis and treatment, the less often they might follow up with a survivorship provider. Some of this varies by different treatment. Dr. Davide Soldato: So, basically the final question is that we need more education and potentially more resources for survivorship clinics and in general to better inform patients and providers about these potential long-term outcomes. Dr. Rusha Bhandari: That's certainly a focus of our survivorship program, for example, is to make sure that we're able to educate patients, inform them of their risks, and why certain screening tests are recommended at certain times in their survivorship journey. And then I think again, thankfully nowadays with all of the electronic medical records and different methods for us to communicate, there's a lot of opportunity for us to continue building these relationships with those primary care providers and making sure they have the information at their fingertips as well as to be able to work in conjunction with these patients to continue to formulate their plans and carry out these screenings and then again, like I was saying, have an easy open line of communication with the oncology centers if they do have any questions. Dr. Davide Soldato: Thanks so much. This brings us to the end of this episode. I would like to thank again Dr. Bhandari for joining us today. Dr. Rusha Bhandari: Thank you so much. It's been a real pleasure speaking with you. Dr. Davide Soldato: And we appreciate you sharing more on your JCO article titled "Health Outcomes Beyond Age 50 Years in Survivors of Childhood Cancer: A Report From the Childhood Cancer Survivor Study." If you enjoy our show, please leave us a rating and review and be sure to come back for another episode. You can find all ASCO shows at asco.org/podcasts. The purpose of this podcast is to educate and to inform. This is not a substitute for professional medical care and is not intended for use in the diagnosis or treatment of individual conditions. Guests on this podcast express their own opinions, experience, and conclusions. Guest statements on the podcast do not express the opinions of ASCO. The mention of any product, service, organization, activity, or therapy should not be construed as an ASCO endorsement.  

Jo and Rob just binged Netflix's new miniseries ‘The Beast in Me' and are here for a spoiler-filled discussion of the tense thriller. (0:00) Intro (0:50) Should you watch? (5:16) Let's talk about Matthew Rhys (10:25) **SPOILERS**: Did he do it? (20:18) Similar stories (25:51) Let's talk about Claire Danes (41:19) Best on-screen criers (48:47) Favorite “We're not so different” moment Email us! prestigetv@spotify.com or lickingthedonut@gmail.com Subscribe to the Ringer TV YouTube channel here for full episodes of The Prestige TV Podcast and so much more! Hosts: Joanna Robinson and Rob Mahoney Producer: Donnie Beacham Jr. Additional Production Support: Justin Sayles Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

主播：Flora（中国）+ Selah（美国） 音乐：Comfortable“双十一”（Double 11）刚刚过去，大家有没有开启“买买买”模式呢？主播Flora提前把想买的东西放进购物车，活动一开始就直接下单了；主播Selah也开始为“黑色星期五（Black Friday）”做准备了，并表示shopping cart（购物车）is embarrassingly full（满到自己都尴尬了）！今天我们就来聊一聊中西方的年底“购物狂欢”！01. What Is Black Friday? 什么是“黑色星期五”？“黑色星期五”是Thanksgiving（感恩节）后的第一个星期五，但为什么是“黑色”呢？这个名字最初其实带有负面含义（didn't start out positive）。警察（police officers）用“Black Friday”来形容感恩节后因购物、出游高峰导致的交通堵塞等混乱场面（traffic jams and chaotic streets）。Black在英语中确实用来形容一些糟糕的日子。后来有人提出，很多美国零售商传统上用“in the black（赚钱）”表示making money。而亏钱（losing money）则是用“in the red（赔钱）”表示。Black Friday这一天，they're making money! 于是，Black Friday就成了商家们go from red to black（由亏转盈）的关键一天！Go from red to black: 账本由红转黑，也就是开始盈利（make a profit）This is a common business idiom (商业用语) in English.02. Cyber Monday: 线上版的Black Friday除了Black Friday，美国还有一个线上购物节—— Cyber Monday（网络星期一）。Cyber Monday: 感恩节后的第一个星期一随着Black Friday越来越火，很多online retailers（线上的商家）也想来分一块蛋糕，这时候 Cyber Monday就出现了。本质上来说，它就是online version (线上版) of Black Friday.Black Friday主攻实体店购物（in-store/offline shopping），而Cyber Monday则主攻线上订单（online deals）。不过，现在两者的界限越来越模糊，everything overlaps（活动相互重叠）。促销活动的时间也越来越提前了，作为一种marketing strategy（促销手段），品牌方是希望这种购物的高峰多持续一段时间的（as long as possible）。03. The U.S. Shopping Scene 美国“黑五”购物现场如今在美国，有些人为了抢到最划算的商品，会在日出前（before sunrise）就到店外排队（line up），甚至在店外camp out overnight（搭帐篷过夜）！当然，也有人比较冷静和理性（chilling），比如提前买好需要用的纸巾（paper towels）、维生素（vitamins）、洗发水（shampoo），甚至圣诞礼物（Christmas gifts）——这种行为就是stock up（囤货）。主播Selah更关注Cyber Monday和亚马逊（Amazon）等平台的online deals（线上订单）。如果有想买的东西，通常会等到这一周，用更便宜的（cheaper）价格入手。主播Flora表示：即使在“双十一”期间中国线下的实体商店（physical store）也有活动，但还是会更多地参与线上的优惠活动，毕竟it's so convenient, even don't have to leave the house (连门都不用出)!04. Is Double 11 Similar to Black Friday? “双十一”和“黑色星期五”一样吗？中国的Double 11也就是November 11th这一天，它的由来和Black Friday很不一样。它最初表示Singles' Day（光棍节）。Because the number 1 looks like a “stick” (棍子), which in Chinese means “single” - a “guang gun” or bachelor（单身者）.后来，淘宝将它打造成了一个购物节（shopping festival）。在“双十一”活动期间，人们会提前把商品加入购物车（cart），并根据“满减”优惠来规划“凑单”。It feels like a math exam!“双十一”期间，主播Flora尤其会把冬天的鞋子、衣物、还有一些生活必需品（winter shoes, clothes, and some daily necessities）加入购物车，当然如果有一些之前犹豫要不要买而放在购物车里的东西通常会被用来凑单（meet the threshold）。Meet the threshold: 达到满减的门槛，就是“凑单”。不管是“双十一”还是 Black Friday，很多人都容易impulse buying（冲动消费）。It means buying something without planning. 比如看到一个可爱的杯子，想都不想就买了。尤其是在折扣力度很大的时候，真的很难控制住自己！Impulse: 冲动，一时兴起无论是线上扫货、囤积好物，还是只是window-shopping（随便逛逛），这些购物节都给我们带来了不少乐趣，但是不要忘记：happy shopping, but maybe not too much shopping!

Ray Didinger and Derrick Gunn bring you "Birds Weekly" on Inside The Birds in which they weigh in on the Eagles' 16-9 win over the Lions at the Linc on "Sunday Night Football."And also catch the great anecdotes from both veteran reporters!Catch Ray Didinger's new play coming this fall, "Spinner:" https://www.delawaretheatre.org/spinner SUBSCRIBE TO OUR PATREON CHANNEL FOR EXCLUSIVE, BONUS CONTENT NOT SEEN OR HEARD ANYWHERE ELSE!!!: https://www.patreon.com/insidethebirds ► Sign up for our newsletter! • Visit http://eepurl.com/hZU4_n.Support Our Sponsors! ► My Bookie Promo Code link!: https://bit.ly/joinwithTHEBIRDS► Simpli Safe Home Alert System: https://simplisafe.com/BIRDS for 60% OFF!► Camden Apothecary: https://camdenapothecary.com/► Soul Out of Office Gummies: https://getsoul.com. Use Promo Code: BIRDS for 30% off► Sky Motor Cars: https://www.skymotorcars.com/Follow the Hosts!► Follow our Podcast on Twitter: https://twitter.com/InsideBirds► Follow Geoff Mosher on Twitter: https://twitter.com/geoffpmosher► Follow Adam Caplan on Twitter: https://twitter.com/caplannfl► Follow Derrick Gunn on Twitter: https://twitter.com/realdgunnHow to access our FULL Podcast:APPLE: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/...SPREAKER: https://www.spreaker.com/user/...NFL insider veterans take an in-depth look that no other show can offer! Be sure to subscribe to stay up to date with the latest news, rumors, and discussions.For more, be sure to check out our official website: https://www.insidethebirds.com.

Londinium 91 AD: Corruption and the Imperial Slip. Gaius and Germanicus shift attention to Washington, observing that wealth has grown more powerful than government in the U.S., similar to Rome's path into empire. Evidence includes Washington insiders like Rudy Giuliani and Hunter Biden allegedly operating on payrolls of corrupt foreign interests such as the Democratic Republic of Congo. Republicans typically avoid registering foreign work under the Foreign Agents Registration Act by using cutouts or undocumented money, while Democrats use think tanks during interregnums, making the process so transparent it suggests everybody's in on the game. Insiders are even willing to work for adversaries like sanctioned Russian arms makers or the Taliban under the justification of private diplomacy. Germanicusanalyzes this decline through three vantages: the Gilded Age, where corporations owned government but lacked today's foreign entanglement; foreign penetration, where adversaries and allies like Israel, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia have enormous leverage; and irreconcilable ideological conflict, where corruption fuels severe ideological struggle tearing away the rule of law. They conclude that the transition into an emperor system is subtle and happens without notice, weakening the system when corruption damages trust. SULLA

Send us a textWe're almost 200 episodes in, and we've been waiting for the perfect guest to come on to explain distressed debt investing... the wait is over. In this episode, we're joined by Michael Gatto, who quite literally wrote the book on credit with The Credit Investor's Handbook, and serves as the head of private side investing (private markets) at Silver Point, a $41 billion credit asset management firm. With private credit dominating headlines for all the wrong reasons - fraud, liquidations like Tri-Color, and restructurings like First Brands - we use this conversation to ask: what actually happens when private credit deals go sideways?Michael walks us through the world of distressed debt investing: what it is, how it differs from value equity and private equity, and why phrases like “liability management exercises” are just a sanitized way to describe creditor-on-creditor violence. We talk through the mechanics of LMEs, getting J-screwed, up-tiering, CLOs, covenant-lite loans, and how “too much money chasing too few deals” set the stage for today's blow-ups. He also explains why the press loves calling distressed investors vultures, why he thinks they're often actually the heroes of the story, and how distressed funds can end up owning companies outright through bankruptcy.We also zoom out to the bigger picture: where we are in the credit cycle, why private credit has grown so explosively since 2008, and why Michael thinks some funds are absolutely going to blow up—but the system won't. He shares red flags from situations like First Brands and why the current ratio is a joke. Along the way, we get Michael's incredible career story (including how he negotiated his way into Goldman via a temp agency), his philosophy on learning, mentorship, and networking, and practical advice for anyone curious about private credit, distressed debt, or building a career in credit investing.Learn more about 9fin HERE 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.

Violent Islamist campaigns have targeted Christians in Nigeria for decades. The violence is neither accidental nor trivial. It is strategic and organized. Similar patterns are playing out across Europe, America and very likely your own hometown.Joining the Christian Emergency Podcast to connect these dots is Larry Alex Taunton. The acclaimed apologist, journalistand commentator has studied these developments for years and his insights are invaluable. If you find this episode helpful, please give us a positive rating and review wherever you listen to your favorite podcasts.Also share this episode with a friend so they too can be blessed by these insights. To learn more about resources mentioned in this episode, see the following:Fixed Point Foundation: https://www.larryalextaunton.com/debates-2/Ideas Have Consequence (Podcast): https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/ideas-have-consequences-with-larry-alex-taunton/id1614308509Larry Taunton (Website): https://join.larrytaunton.com/ Larry Taunton (YouTube Channel): https://www.youtube.com/@IdeasHaveConsequencesLarry Taunton (Twitter / X): https://x.com/LarryTaunton In Days of Darkness: A Manual for Ordinary Christians Facing Unusual Times, by Andy Coleman (Book): https://www.amazon.com/Days-Darkness-Ordinary-Christians-Unusual/dp/1636985734Christian Emergency Alliance (Website): https://www.christianemergency.com/ Christian Emergency Alliance (Twitter / X): https://x.com/ChristianEmerg1 Christian Emergency Alliance (Facebook): https://www.facebook.com/christianemergency Christian Emergency Alliance (Instagram): https://www.instagram.com/christianemergencyalliance/ The Christian Emergency Podcast is a production of the Christian Emergency Alliance.Soli Deo Gloria

Agradece a este podcast tantas horas de entretenimiento y disfruta de episodios exclusivos como éste. ¡Apóyale en iVoox! Episodio exclusivo para suscriptores de Se Habla Español en Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iVoox y Patreon: Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2E2vhVqLNtiO2TyOjfK987 Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/sehablaespanol Buy me a coffee: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/sehablaespanol/w/6450 Donaciones: https://paypal.me/sehablaespanol Contacto: sehablaespanolpodcast@gmail.com Facebook: www.facebook.com/sehablaespanolpodcast Twitter: @espanolpodcast Expresiones con la palabra “madre” Bienvenidos al contenido extra del episodio 254. Hoy vamos a explorar una palabra que aparece constantemente en el español, no solo para hablar de la familia, sino también en expresiones que usamos todos los días para mostrar sorpresa, enfado, cariño, admiración o frustración. Esa palabra es: madre. Y la he elegido porque nuestro protagonista de la semana, Ramoncín, hace referencia a su propia madre en la entrevista que hemos analizado. Y es que la figura de la madre tiene una presencia muy fuerte en el lenguaje coloquial. Por eso, en este episodio vamos a descubrir cómo se usa esta palabra en diferentes contextos, con ejemplos reales y explicaciones sencillas para que puedas entenderlas y usarlas con naturalidad. Expresiones exclamativas y emocionales Estas expresiones se usan para reaccionar emocionalmente ante algo que nos sorprende, que nos preocupa o que nos impresiona. Son muy comunes en el español hablado. Madre mía Es una de las expresiones más frecuentes. Se usa para mostrar sorpresa, preocupación o admiración. Ejemplos: ¡Madre mía, qué calor hace hoy! Madre mía, qué bien canta esa chica. Madre mía, qué lío tengo en el trabajo. Ay, madre Similar a “madre mía”, pero con un tono más dramático o angustiado. Casi siempre muestra algo de preocupación. Ejemplos: Ay, madre, que se me ha olvidado el examen. Ay, madre, qué susto me he llevado. Madre del amor hermoso Esta expresión se usa para exagerar la sorpresa o el asombro. Ejemplos: ¡Madre del amor hermoso, qué vestido tan caro! Madre del amor hermoso, qué tráfico hay hoy. Madre santa Se usa para expresar incredulidad o asombro, a veces con un tono humorístico. Ejemplo: ¡Madre santa, qué desastre de cocina! Estas expresiones no tienen que ver con la madre real, sino que se usan como muletillas emocionales para intensificar lo que sentimos. Frases hechas y refranes populares En el español cotidiano también encontramos frases hechas que incluyen la palabra “madre” y que se usan para dar consejos, para hacer observaciones o para expresar ideas comunes. Madre no hay más que una Se usa para recordar que la madre es única y merece respeto. Ejemplo: Cuídala, que madre no hay más que una. Eso es amor de madre Se dice cuando alguien actúa con cariño exagerado o protección excesiva. Ejemplo: Le hizo la maleta, le preparó la comida, le llamó tres veces… eso es amor de madre. Tiene más paciencia que una madre Se usa para elogiar a alguien que soporta mucho sin quejarse. Ejemplo: Mi profesora tiene más paciencia que una madre. Como una madre Se usa para describir a alguien que cuida con ternura. Ejemplo: Mi vecina me trata como una madre. Estas frases muestran cómo la palabra “madre” se asocia con cuidado, cariño y dedicación. Expresiones coloquiales y vulgares En el español informal, también hay expresiones con “madre” que pueden ser vulgares o agresivas, pero que forman parte del lenguaje real. Es importante conocerlas, aunque no siempre sea apropiado usarlas. Me cago en la madre que lo parió Expresión vulgar de enfado. Se usa cuando algo nos molesta mucho. Ejemplo: ¡Me cago en la madre que lo parió, se me ha roto el coche otra vez! La madre que te parió Puede usarse como insulto o como expresión de sorpresa. Ejemplos: ¡La madre que te parió, qué susto me has dado! La madre que te parió, qué bien juegas al fútbol. ¡Qué madre tiene! Se usa para criticar o elogiar a la madre de alguien, dependiendo del contexto. Ejemplo: ¡Qué madre tiene, siempre le resuelve todo! Ni que fuera tu madre Se dice cuando alguien exige demasiado cuidado o atención. Ejemplo: No te voy a hacer la cena, ni que fuera tu madre. Ahora te propongo una actividad para practicar: Escribe una frase usando alguna expresión con la palabra “madre”. Puede ser una exclamación, una frase hecha o una expresión coloquial. Intenta usarla en un contexto real o inventado. Ejemplos: Madre mía, qué día más largo. Tiene más paciencia que una madre. La madre que lo parió, qué ruido hace ese coche. Puedes compartir tu frase en los comentarios para que podamos leerla todos los miembros de la familia de Se Habla Español. Y, como siempre, responderé lo antes posible. Bien, como hemos visto, la palabra “madre” en español va mucho más allá de su significado literal. Se convierte en una herramienta para expresar emociones, exagerar situaciones, mostrar cariño o incluso enfadarse. Aprender estas expresiones te ayuda a entender mejor el español real, el que se habla en la calle, en casa y entre amigos. Gracias por apoyar este proyecto. Espero que este episodio te haya ayudado a enriquecer tu vocabulario y a comprender mejor cómo usamos el lenguaje en situaciones cotidianas. Yo me despido hasta la próxima semana. Ha sido un placer acompañarte un día más. Adiós. Escucha este episodio completo y accede a todo el contenido exclusivo de Se Habla Español. Descubre antes que nadie los nuevos episodios, y participa en la comunidad exclusiva de oyentes en https://go.ivoox.com/sq/171214

Have you ever wondered what makes something simple sacred? In Luke 22, Jesus transforms the ancient Passover into something revolutionary—the Lord's Supper. Pastor Ken unveils how this sacred meal connects us to both God's saving grace and each other across time and cultures. Similar to how worshipping through song connects people together like Pastor Marcus looked at last week, Communion also connects believers together with Christ. Pastor Ken uses powerful stories, including a near-disaster with the priceless Codex Sinaiticus, which shows how treating sacred things as ordinary can lead to profound loss. Whether you're new to communion or have participated countless times, this message reveals fresh insights about this timeless practice that unites believers worldwide.

This conversation with Parul Jagdish (EP275), Thomas Schindler (LI) and Lars Lægreid (LI) is about the Oslo Project. The moonshot project for resourcing and liberating new imaginations for our world. Similar to the Manhattan project, compiling thousands of individuals across the world in the 40's, the Oslo projects aims to direct $400 bn towards regenerative futures. We spoke of dematerialisation, of what it means to have had luck, to integrate to move forward - combining science with other ways of knowing. We spoke of scale, lore, education. How curious it is that our hopes and dreams are so similar at the moment across political divides and walks of life. The invitation is for you to get involved. Longer term or in the series of gatherings that will be happening fall 2025/spring 2026. Come along. 

This week on The Mommy Labor Nurse Podcast we are re-releasing an interview with the amazing Dr. Nicole Callaway Rankins who you may know from her very popular pregnancy podcast, The All About Pregnancy and Birth Podcast! Similar to Mommy Labor Nurse, Dr. Rankins offers amazing, online resources for pregnant women because she too knows what a critical role education plays in a woman's ability to advocate for themselves during birth and reduce any sense of fear or anxiety they may have. On today's show, Dr. Rankins is going to share with us more about what it's like to be an OBGYN, memorable moments from her years of practice, thoughts on doula and midwifery care, a bit of birth advice, and more. I'm so excited to share Dr. Rankins with you today, so let's get right into it!  

The Drive opened the show explaining how the next three games for the Chiefs feels eerily similar to the three the Chiefs had to start the game.

The news of Texas covered today includes:Our Lone Star story of the day: Texas' 19th Congressional District (TX19) which contains both Lubbock and Abilene to provide voters with a big primary season as U.S. Rep. Jodey Arrington announced today that he will not run for re-election.And in other campaign news: Abilene-based HD71 race has another would-be candidate drop out of the Republican Primary. – I've long said, “Wait until filing has closed – many end up not running.” “Rising Democrat star” James Talarico makes NY Post headline: ‘Devout Christian' Dem caught following prostitutes, OnlyFans models on social media. U.S. Rep. Wesley Hunt takes Senate Republican primary pitch to Ken Paxton's home turf. Our Lone Star story of the day is sponsored by Allied Compliance Services providing the best service in DOT, business and personal drug and alcohol testing since 1995.Attorney General Paxton sues Harris County for using taxpayer money for legal assistance for illegal aliens facing deportation.A big “I told you so” echoing across two decades of Pratt on Texas (it's why I said the school should be folded into another system and lose its own control): Officials Call for Investigation of Texas Southern University Over Financial Mismanagement Findings. Similar has been going on since I began Pratt on Texas in 2006.Listen on the radio, or station stream, at 5pm Central. Click for our radio and streaming affiliates.www.PrattonTexas.com

Welcome to the Grace in Focus podcast. Today, Ken Yates and Kathryn Wright are answering a question about the transitional nature of the New Testament book of Acts. When was Cornelius saved? Is it possible that he, like others in the book of Acts, received the Holy Spirit some time after he was saved? What

Markets have rocketed higher for six straight months — but how long can it last? Hedgefund Telemetry founder, Tom Thornton joins Lance Roberts to unpack the forces driving this “Rocket of a Stock Market.” From AI euphoria and sector rotation to passive indexing risks and the Fed's impact on valuations, we dig into what's really happening under the surface. 0:18 - INTRO 2:50 - The Rocket of a Stock Market 5:37 - Market Volatility & Opportunity in AI I7:14 - Interning During the Crash of '87 8:21 - Forward Earnings Expectations 9:35 - The Broadening in the Market - Energy, Materials, Consumer Staples 11:42 - Sector Rotation is a Real Thing - What if AI comes under pressure? 13:26 - Market Cap Concentration Concerns 16:02 - The Y2K Panic Buying pulling forward consumption - Similar in AI? 17:50 - Tracking Investor Sentiment (Bullish Sentiment chart) 20:36 - Tom DeMark Indicators - S&P and NASDAQ 100 PE Multiples (Chart) 23:03 - When S&P is Within 5% of ATH... (chart) 24:30 - Most-shorted Baskets (chart) - showing what speculators are buying 27:30 - Mag 7 daily & Weekly (chart) 31:35 - What Technicals Tell Us about Managing Risk 33:18 - Valuations at Elevated Levels: Apple & Nvidia (chart) 36:01 - Multiples that make no sense - Palantir & Tesla (chart) 36:55 - Waymo vs Tesla 39:15 - This Level of Concentration is New (chart) 41:23 - US Households are "All In" and Leveraged (chart) 42:40 - Leveraged ETF Data 43:56 - Short Term Options trading is Gambling (chart) 45:43 - % of Stocks About the 20, 50, & 200-DMA (chart) 49:18 - 6-straight months of market upside: When do you run out of buyers? 50:30 - Expectations for EOY? Bubbles don't deflate; they pop. 52:17 - 2026 will be difficult to continue strong momentum without a decent correction 52:44 - Where's the risk? 56:18 - Levered Obesity Hosted by RIA Advisors Chief Investment Strategist, Lance Roberts, CIO, w Portfolio Manger, Michael Lebowitz, CFA Produced by Brent Clanton, Executive Producer ------- Watch Today's Full Video on our YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=42moSAfvL10&list=PLVT8LcWPeAugpcGzM8hHyEP11lE87RYPe&index=1 ------- Get more info & commentary: https://realinvestm entadvice.com/newsletter/ -------- SUBSCRIBE to The Real Investment Show here: http://www.youtube.com/c/TheRealInvestmentShow -------- Visit our Site: https://www.realinvestmentadvice.com Contact Us: 1-855-RIA-PLAN -------- Subscribe to SimpleVisor: https://www.simplevisor.com/register-new -------- Connect with us on social: https://twitter.com/RealInvAdvice https://twitter.com/LanceRoberts https://www.facebook.com/RealInvestmentAdvice/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/realinvestmentadvice/ #StockMarketAnalysis #AIBubble #InvestorSentiment #MarketVolatility #TomThornton

Dr. David Grinspoon discusses the potential for life in the relatively benign clouds of Venus, particularly around 50 km altitude, where conditions are similar to Earth's surface. This idea, once fringe, is gaining acceptance due to intriguing chemistry and clues like the controversial detection of phosphine, a possible biosignature. Life may have migrated from a previously watery surface or arrived via panspermia.