Podcasts about UL

In today's episode of Backpacker Radio presented by The Trek, brought to you by OnX Backcountry and Topo Athletic, we are joined yet again by our pal Whitney LaRuffa, known on trail as AllGood. AllGood has hiked thousands of miles with his K-9 companions over the years, including his first thru-hike of the AT way back in 1996. AllGood is one of the most entrenched figures in the world of hiker trash, with several thru-hikes under his belt, serving as former president of ALDHA-West, and having worked for several prominent brands in the industry, he eats, breathes, sleeps, and poos all things thru-hiking.  In this one, AllGood gives his take on Durston Gear's rapid rise, Big Agnes's early misstep pairing Dyneema tents with heavy buckles, and the challenge he foresees with Osprey's sewn in hip belt on their new UL pack, he breaks down the cost tradeoffs between Alula, DCF, and Robic pack fabrics, and he tells the story of how the Ultralight subreddit's roughly half million members helped sink a quilt brand's business, and why even a three person company needs a PR plan for when things go sideways online.  We also cover his philosophy that rain gear on trail is about staying warm rather than staying dry, why he still hasn't finished his Triple Crown despite years spent handing out certificates as ALDHA-West president, his love affair with Jolly, how he balances long-distance hiking with marriage and aging by leaning into shorter trips as his priorities shift, and his personal bucket list of trails. We wrap the show with some big PCT FKT news, Katie devours a Big Mac as fast as she can in the name of improving her fantasy football draft slot, the triple crown of emojis, and we opine on what we think the zeitgeist will look like in the year 2040- flush with intentional grammar mishaps and shaming the shamers. OnX Backcountry: Use code "TREK70" for 70% off at onxmaps.com Topo Athletic: Use code "TREK15TOPO" at topoathletic.com. Hyperlite Mountain Gear: Use code "BPRADIO15" for 15% of hyperlitemountaingear.com 57 Hours: Use code "TREK100" for $100 off your booking at 57hours.com Gossamer Gear: Use code "BACKPACKERRADIO" for $20 off LT5 Trekking Poles at gossamergear.com.  [divider] Interview with Whitney La Ruffa aka Allgood Allgood's Instagram Allgood's Blog Time stamps & Questions 00:06:00 - Reminders: Use code "donttrustafart" for 15% off hats at the Trek's store, sign up for the Trek's newsletter, listen to our episodes ad-free on Patreon And 2026 AT thru-hikers: take the 2026 AT Hiker Survey here!! 00:10:50 - Introducing Allgood 00:12:30 - What's something you feel passionate about in the outdoor industry right now? 00:15:40 - Is it a net positive for the ultralight trend to become more mainstream? 00:19:40 - What's been your go-to pack recently? 00:21:12 - What are your thoughts on Durston Gear? 00:25:20 - Have you tested the Mountainsmith Zerk? 00:26:20 - What is your take on Alula? 00:31:25 - Discussion about rain gear 00:34:35 - Discussion about natural fibers vs plastic 00:38:00 - Is there a stinkiest fish? 00:38:50 - What's the product you've pushed for the most since joining Gossamer Gear? 00:43:05 - Is Alula more or less expensive than DCF? 00:46:00 - Discussion about gear longevity 00:49:15 - What's your take on the ultralight subreddit? 00:59:11 - Why haven't you hiked the PCT? 01:04:00 - Describe ALDHA-West and your role 01:06:30 - Discussion about the feeling of completing the Triple Crown 01:11:50 - Discussion about shorter vs longer trails 01:13:34 - How do you balance your hiking and your marriage? 01:19:15 - What trails and routes are currently at the top of your bucket list? 01:26:00 - Discussion about She-ra and the impact of wildfire smoke 01:35:27 - Peak Performance Question: What is your top performance enhancing or backpacking hack? Segments Trek Propaganda: Fastest PCT Hike in History: Nick Fowler's 45-Day Thru-Hike Sets New Overall FKT by Katie Jackson QOTD: Predict one aspect of the Zeitgeist in 2040 Fantasy Football Thing of the Week Triple Crown of emojis 5 Star Review [divider] Check out our sound guy @my_boy_pauly/ and his coffee. Sign up for the Trek's newsletter Leave us a voicemail! Subscribe to this podcast on iTunes (and please leave us a review)!  Find us on Spotify, Stitcher, and Google Play. Support us on Patreon to get bonus content. Advertise on Backpacker Radio Follow The Trek, Chaunce, Badger, and Trail Correspondents on Instagram. Follow Backpacker Radio, The Trek and Chaunce on YouTube. Follow Backpacker Radio on Tik Tok.  Our theme song is Walking Slow by Animal Years. A super big thank you to our Bob Peoples Award winner(s) from Patreon: Alex and Misty with NavigatorsCrafting, Alex Kindle, Austen McDaniel, Bill Jensen, Bret Mullins aka Cruizy, Bryan Alsop, Carl Lobstah Houde, Christopher Marshburn, Coach from Marion Outdoors, Eric Casper, Erik Hofmann, Ethan Harwell, Gillian Daniels, Greg Knight, Greg Martin, Griffin Haywood, Hailey Buckingham, Jackson Storm, JaredNotFromSubway, Jason Kiser, Jason "I Miss Chaunce" Snailer, Luke Netjes, Matty in AZ, Patrick Cianciolo, Randy Sutherland, Rebecca Brave, Rural Juror, Sawyer Products, The Saint Louis Shaman, Thirteen Adventures, Timothy Hahn, Tracy 'Trigger' Fawns A big thank you to our Cinnamon Connection Champions from Patreon: Bells, Benjy Lowry, Bonnie Ack, Brett Vandiver, Chris Pyle, David Neal, Dcnerdlet, Denise Krekeler, Jack Greene, Jeanie, Jeanne Latshaw, Lucas Hamilton, Merle Watkins, Peter, Quenten Jones, Ruth S, Salt Stain, Sloan Alberhasky, and Tyler Powers.

On this episode of the Peristyle Podcasts hosts Ryan Abraham and Coach Harvey Hyde are back together discussing the Trojans Saturday night victory over the Louisiana Ragin' Cajuns. After securing the shutout last week against Fresno State, USC's defense got leaky against UL, allowing 30 points including 10 in the first half. It was the first time this season that Lincoln Riley's squad faced a deficit (3-0 in the first quarter) and the first time Gary Patterson's side of the ball gave up any points in the first half.The guys breakdown what they saw from this Trojan football team, including some spectacular play from offensive freshmen like Trent Mosley and Mark Bowman, and how the defensive front seven guys need to cause more havoc to disrupt opposing quarterbacks. They also talk about the wild college football weekend with Oregon and Ohio State both losing and what it means for the Trojans as they head into conference play this weekend. Coach Harvey Hyde has been part of the Peristyle Podcast since 2008 and in the USC football world he is an expert on X's and O's, personnel, coaching philosophies and recruiting.Please follow Coach Hyde on X, Facebook and Instagram at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@CoachHarveyHyde⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ or go to his website ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠HarveyHyde.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ for all his his content, including Vegas & Southern California radio shows.Please review, rate and subscribe to the Peristyle Podcast on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Apple Podcasts⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ and ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Spotify⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠!Make sure you check out ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠USCFootball.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ for complete coverage of this USC Trojan football team.

What crossover does ultralight backpacking have with backcountry hunting? In this episode of Ask OV, we cover the crossover and how to use it; wisdom learned from the tradeoffs; and how to maintain your mind while you're on trail. Things we cover in this episode: - What weight threshold requires a heavy-duty hunting pack over an ultralight pack? - How do you reduce backpack weight when carrying gear for family or kids? - Can you use an ultralight backpacking tent for late-season backcountry hunting? - How often should you take breaks when backpacking uphill? - How do you apply an ultralight (UL) mentality to backcountry hunting gear? - What are the strategic trade-offs of using a sub-2-pound spotting scope? - Is it better to push through gear durability concerns or buy heavier hunting clothes? - How do I know if my body is actually fatigued or if my brain is trying to make me quit? - What is the difference between taking a break and quitting on the trail? - How do you prevent yourself from taking too many impulsive breaks while hiking? - What should I do if I want to quit my thru-hike or backpacking trip due to exhaustion?   Chapters 00:00 - Introduction to the Ask OV Podcast 01:05 - Pack Weight Thresholds: Ultralight vs. Sturdy Hunting Packs 07:04 - Favorite Hunting and Hauling Packs Outside the OV Line 07:36 - Applying Ultralight Concepts to Backcountry Hunting 15:52 - Evaluating Lightweight Gear vs. Durability in the Field 22:54 - The Mental Side of Hiking: Overcoming Psychological Limits 28:07 - How the Body Lies: Recognizing Dehydration, Cramping, and Fatigue 35:01 - Taking Purposeful Breaks vs. Quitting   How to Submit Questions Have questions for us? Send us a voice message on Speakpipe: https://www.speakpipe.com/LiveUltraLight Or write in to support@outdoorvitals.com! Great Backpacking Gear (Support the Podcast): https://bit.ly/3PswpQi

On this latest edition of Tunnel Vision USCFootball.com's, Ryan Abraham, RJ Abeytia and intern India Otto are back in studio talking about USC's matchup with the Louisiana Ragin' Cajuns. The Trojans finish off their season-opening homestand Saturday night in the Coliseum, taking on a 1-0 UL squad that beat up on Lamar in week one. Head coach Lincoln Riley had his team ready last Friday, shutting out the overmatched Fresno State Bulldogs. Now Riley and company will try and finish up the out of conference schedule on a high note before kicking off conference play next weekend.The crew takes a look at what their expectations are for this Trojan offense that has excelled in the passing game but has struggled at times in the run game. Defensively Gary Patterson pitched a shutout against Fresno State and he could get more help for the Louisiana game if Jahkeem Stewart and Braylan Shelby are able to return from injuries. USC special teams units made some mistakes in the first two games and Mike Ekeler will be looking to clean things up Saturday night in the Coliseum.This is the podcast version (audio only) of our Tunnel Vision episode.Please review, rate and subscribe to the Peristyle Podcast on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Apple Podcasts⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ and ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Spotify⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠!Make sure you check out ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠USCFootball.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ for complete coverage of this USC Trojan football team.

Paul chats with UL's Edward Moxon Brown and hears a Limerick woman's lived experience as we reflect on 25 years since the September 11th terrorist attack. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Major Státní bezpečnosti Jaromír Ulč se pokoušel zlomit k udávání a pravidelné spolupráci evangelického faráře a mluvčího Charty 77 Miloše Rejchrta. Dopadlo to naopak. Ulč se nechal pokřtít. To se ovšem stalo až po sametové revoluci. Před pádem komunismu bezskrupulózně vyhrožoval, vydíral, ponižoval, zavíral faráře do cel předběžného zadržení (CPZ). Farář Rejchrt na dobu, kdy ho pronásledovala Státní bezpečnost (StB), nerad vzpomíná.Všechny díly podcastu Příběhy 20. století můžete pohodlně poslouchat v mobilní aplikaci mujRozhlas pro Android a iOS nebo na webu mujRozhlas.cz.

Major Státní bezpečnosti Jaromír Ulč se pokoušel zlomit k udávání a pravidelné spolupráci evangelického faráře a mluvčího Charty 77 Miloše Rejchrta. Dopadlo to naopak. Ulč se nechal pokřtít. To se ovšem stalo až po sametové revoluci. Před pádem komunismu bezskrupulózně vyhrožoval, vydíral, ponižoval, zavíral faráře do cel předběžného zadržení (CPZ). Farář Rejchrt na dobu, kdy ho pronásledovala Státní bezpečnost (StB), nerad vzpomíná.

Three-quarters of Americans say they do not want a data center built near their home. That is the finding of an August 2026 Heatmap News and Embold Research poll of more than 2,000 registered voters, up from roughly 43 percent opposed just a year earlier, in August 2025. Opposition has climbed almost every time it has been measured since.David Senter is watching that shift from the ground. A fourth-generation Texas farmer and president of the American Agriculture Movement (AAM), he has spent close to fifty years advocating for family farmers and ranchers. On this week's For Humanity, he tells John Sherman what has changed: wells running dry, land bought with no public hearing, and a question few of these towns have had to answer before: what happens if one of these buildings catches fire?The 60-second version* AAM says it passed a unanimous resolution in January opposing data centers on farm and ranch land. No public copy of the resolution text was locatable to verify the exact wording, so this is Senter's account, not an independently confirmed document.* A University of Texas at Austin study found data centers could consume between 3 and 9 percent of the state's total water supply by 2040, concentrated in regions that already depend on a declining aquifer.* Two fire codes, NFPA 855 and UL 9540, require lithium-ion battery systems to be separated from other structures with dedicated spacing and enclosures. Senter says he has not seen a data center built that way in the rural areas he tracks.* A named Texas rancher has testified to state lawmakers about a project's expected water draw and his concerns for his herd. Independent scientific evidence linking data centers to livestock health outcomes broadly does not yet exist, according to a recent fact-check.* National opposition to local data centers has climbed from about 43 percent a year ago to 75 percent today.The water math over farm countryWest Texas sits on part of the Ogallala Aquifer, a fossil water source that recharges far slower than it is being drawn down, and farmers there have relied on it for irrigation and livestock for decades. Senter describes wells, streams, and ponds already drying up in areas where data centers have moved in, and says operators are often not required to report how much groundwater they use.A University of Texas at Austin research report found that, depending on growth and cooling technology, data centers could account for 3 to 9 percent of Texas's total water consumption by 2040. Individual hyperscale campuses can draw up to five million gallons a day, comparable to a small city. Five proposed or under-construction projects sit directly on or near the Ogallala, and in April 2026, more than 500 residents protested one of them near San Angelo. Tom Green County commissioners have since passed their own resolution calling for stricter state regulation of high-volume water use. This local, unanimous vote mirrors what Senter describes AAM doing nationally.“That's a critical stage,” Senter says of the aquifer. “A lot of areas used to be irrigated farmland. There's no water there left now.”Sources for this section: UT Austin water use findings, via HighPlainsPundit - Newsweek: data centers proposed over the Ogallala Aquifer - Water Information Program: water and energyA fire nobody has fought yet.The part of the conversation that lingers longest is not about water. It is about what a rural volunteer fire department would actually do if one of these buildings caught fire.Senter says he has a friend who is a fire chief near Matador, Texas, where a large data center is under construction in open ranch country. His account of the chief's plan: “they just have to sit and watch it burn,” because the department has neither the water supply nor the specialized equipment for a large-scale fire involving thousands of lithium-ion battery cells.That gap is not hypothetical. New York City's own struggle with lithium-ion battery fires, mostly from e-bikes, gives a sense of scale: at least 30 deaths and more than 800 fires since 2022, with a full-time, professionally equipped fire department. Two national codes, NFPA 855 and UL 9540, exist to reduce this risk by requiring battery storage to be spaced and separated from other structures, with exact distances set project by project. Senter says that separation is not what he sees built. “I'm not aware of any of the data centers having a segregated fireproof building for the batteries,” he says. “It's cheaper just to do it like they're doing it.”A Central Texas fire department has already gone on record with the same worry about a data center proposed in its district, which suggests Senter's concern is not isolated to the sites he happens to know personally.Sources for this section: NFPA 855 overview, Mayfield Renewables - Lithium-ion battery fires in NYC: 30 deaths, 800 fires, AEE Law, citing NFPA Journal - Data center plans spark concern for Central Texas fire department, KXX.VThe fight that is actually workingNot every claim in this space is settled, and it is worth being precise about which ones are. In Bell County, Texas, rancher Alton Fowler has testified before the Texas House Committee on Natural Resources against a $700 million data center project five miles from his farm, citing an estimated 2.5 million gallons of daily water use and low-frequency noise he says affects his cattle and goats. That testimony is on the public record. Separately, viral claims that data centers have caused cattle stillbirths near other Texas sites remain, per an independent fact-check, anecdotal: real concern from real farmers, without the veterinary data to establish cause and effect. Senter's own account, that livestock near a new site “get as far away from that data center as they can,” sits in the same category: a firsthand observation, not a study.What is measurable is the shift in public opinion, from roughly even a year ago to 75 percent opposed today, and the growing list of counties passing their own resolutions. Senter frames it as one of the only issues left that pulls in voters who agree on almost nothing else. “When you unite people from both sides of the aisle,” he says, “politicians have not seen that in quite a long time.”Sources for this section: Temple rancher testimony, KWTX - Livestock stillbirth claims fact-check - Heatmap News: 75% of Americans now oppose local data center developmentThe takeawayData centers are the physical infrastructure underneath everything else this show covers. The wells, the fire codes, and the county commission meetings are what AI's buildout looks like at ground level, well before a model release makes headlines. Senter is not an AI safety researcher, and says as much. But the pattern he describes, well-funded interests moving fast in places with the least oversight, is the one this show tracks in the labs too. Whether the guardrails show up at the county line or in a training run, the question stays the same: who gets to decide, and who finds out after the fact.Full source listPrimary data and research* Heatmap News / Embold Research poll on data center opposition, August 2026* University of Texas at Austin, Texas data center water use findings, via HighPlainsPundit* NFPA Journal lithium-ion battery fire data, via AEE LawReporting* Newsweek: data centers proposed over the Ogallala Aquifer* KWTX: Temple rancher opposes Bell County data center* KXXV: data center plans spark concern for Central Texas fire department* Water Information Program: water and energy* Mayfield Renewables: NFPA 855 overview* Factually.co: livestock stillbirth claims fact-check This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit theairisknetwork.substack.com/subscribe

About: Naoshi Mizuta is a fantastic composer who is primarily known for his work on the Final Fantasy franchise, most notably his unbelievably awesome music from Final Fantasy XI. He has also worked on Street FIghter & Parasite Eve series, alongside a few other hidden gems. All tracks in this episode were composed by Naoshi Mizuta.00:00 - Breaking Ground [Final Fantasy XI: Seekers of Adoulin] 03:22 - Sneaking In [Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII] 06:18 - Bustle Of The Capital [Final Fantasy XI: Treasure of Aht Urhgan] 10:07 - Endless Lives [Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII] 13:39 - Trading City Vulpes (Day & Night) [Final Fantasy: The 4 Heroes Of Light] 15:56 - Miko No Inori [Arcadia No Aoki Miko] 17:14 - Gentle Rays [Parasite Eve II] 21:00 - Staff Roll 1 [Street Fighter Alpha] 23:16 - Feral Link [Final Fantasy XIII-2] 25:47 - Chaos [Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII] 28:36 - Ashita e no Yuuki [Arcadia No Aoki Miko] 30:15 - Paradox [Final Fantasy XIII-2] 33:10 - Encampment Dreams [Final Fantasy XI: Wings Of The Goddess] 36:55 - The Twin Faces Of Fate - The Theme of Ul'dah [Final Fantasy XIV] 40:44 - Kazham [Final Fantasy XI: Rise of the Zilart] 43:14 - Stargazing [Final Fantasy XI: Wings Of The Goddess] 46:56 - Flowers On The Battlefield [Final Fantasy XI: Wings Of The Goddess] pixelbeatpod@icloud.com > 

A University of Limerick graduate who was forced to flee Gaza during the war has spoken about rebuilding her future through education here in Limerick.Raghad Altaee was in the final stages of her degree at the Islamic University of Gaza when the conflict began, eventually leaving Gaza for Egypt before coming to Ireland on a University of Sanctuary Scholarship.Raghad Altaee joins the show to talk about her journey from Gaza to Limerick, graduating from UL, and what comes next for her.Image via University of Limerick. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

With 35+ years in the lighting industry, our guest has helped develop innovative lighting products across multiple channels while contributing to the standards that shape the industry. As an American Lighting Association member, engineering committee member, and UL Technical Committee member for UL 1838, 1598, and 153, he brings a unique perspective on where lighting technology, innovation, and industry standards meet.

Paul is joined by recent UL graduate and content creator Sam O'Hara to discuss the J1 experience for Irish college students. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Louie and Zach open the show with discussing UK's roster, how Mitchell's addition changes the way the front line will play for the better in Pope's offense, and why the excuses are over for Pope. Brooks Holton joins to discuss the UL roster losing Trimble, momentarily, and Johnson, and what steps are next. The guys then finish with LIV Golf and favorite random athletes talk to end the hour.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Louie and Zach get into their CFB segment with a double dose, with Alabama naming their starting QB and Missouri uncertain if Ahmad Hardy will play, and ranking some big games that UL is a part of. They then discuss if Diego Pavia could come back to college and if one of the locals would take him. Louie brags on his kid playing football to end the show. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

A Clare healthcare campaigner says more needs to be done to retain university graduates following a large increase in the number of available college healthcare places. 612 additional places will be available each year going forward, with UL and University of Galway to benefit from an extra allocation. Once fully rolled out it's estimated 2,600 additional students will be enrolled in healthcare programmes, with 43% of places to be dedicated to nursing and midwifery. Friends of Ennis Hospital Chair, Angela Coll, says work needs to be done to incentivise graduates to remain working in the Irish healthcare service.

Dr. Thomas Sammons – Bringing Technology, Compassion and a Preventive Approach to Dentistry Dr. Thomas “Tom” Sammons of Dental Artistry joins Discover Lafayette to discuss his path into dentistry, his commitment to continuing education and advanced technology, and his philosophy that good dental care is about far more than simply fixing teeth. A Youngsville native and UL Lafayette graduate, Dr. Sammons grew up in Acadiana after his family moved here in 1995. His father, Tom Sammons, taught architecture at UL Lafayette, and education was strongly emphasized in the Sammons household. Dr. Sammons graduated summa cum laude with a Bachelor of Science in Biology from UL Lafayette before earning his Doctor of Dental Surgery from LSU School of Dentistry in New Orleans. His connection to UL Lafayette runs deep. As a student, Dr. Sammons was active in the pre-professional society, student government and honor society, and participated in Up 'til Dawn, which supported St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. He says UL is where he truly found his community in Lafayette. Today, that sense of community remains important. Dr. Sammons and his wife, Abby, both grew up here and even attended the same church, where Abby's father once taught him in Sunday school. Their parents live nearby, and Dr. Sammons and Abby are raising two energetic young sons, Gabriel and Everett. “I love being with them. I love being with my family.” A Childhood Spent in the Dental Chair Led to a Career Dr. Sammon’s decision to become a dentist was shaped in part by his own difficult dental history. His permanent teeth erupted with enamel hypoplasia, leaving them soft and yellow and requiring extensive dental work. He also admits he did not take particularly good care of his teeth as a teenager. Fortunately, he had dentists he genuinely liked, Drs. Thomas and Harmon in Youngsville. “I actually loved my dentist. I didn't like being in the dental chair, but I liked him,” Tom recalled. For years, Tom thought he would become an engineer. Then he attended orientation at UL Lafayette, toured the engineering program and abruptly announced to his parents that he was going to become a dentist. The more he learned about dentistry, the more certain he became that he had found the right profession. That personal history also helps explain the empathy Dr. Sammons brings to patients who fear dental treatment. He discovered early in his career that many people had experienced frightening or painful dental care as children. For some patients, he says, simply opening the front door of a dental office can feel like “a very heavy weight.” When Dr. Sammons joined the practice of longtime Lafayette dentist Dr. Ann Laurent, he found a mentor whose philosophy closely matched his own. Dr. Laurent had built a practice around caring for patients with dental anxiety and treating their fears with empathy. “It's not the most fun place to be. I understand that,” Dr. Sammons said of the dental chair. “It doesn't have to be the worst place to be. We can make it comfortable. We can make it fun.” That philosophy is reflected throughout Lafayette Dental Artistry. Patients who need additional help with anxiety can receive nitrous oxide, commonly known as laughing gas, at no additional charge. The practice also offers oral sedation and, when appropriate, IV sedation administered with a nurse anesthetist. Your Mouth Is Connected to the Rest of Your Body One of Dr. Sammon's strongest messages is that oral health should never be viewed in isolation. “The mouth is also connected to the whole body. It is systemic health. It is not just oral health.” Dr. Sammons and his team spend considerable time educating patients about brushing, flossing, diet and the habits that contribute to dental disease. Chronic infection and inflammation in the mouth can have consequences beyond the teeth and gums, and periodontal disease can progress without causing significant pain. One of the biggest misconceptions Dr. Sammons sees today involves sugar-free beverages. Eliminating sugar does not necessarily make a drink tooth-friendly because acidity can damage enamel. “Acid is worse,” he explained. Energy drinks, soft drinks, coffee and other acidic beverages can create an environment that promotes enamel erosion and decay. Dr. Sammons explained that when bacteria consume sugar, they produce acid, but drinking an already acidic beverage exposes teeth directly to that damaging environment. He sees the consequences particularly among younger patients. Someone can leave high school with few or no cavities, head to college, develop a habit of consuming energy drinks throughout the day, and return with significant decay. The problem is compounded when a person sips the beverage over several hours. After each exposure, saliva needs time to buffer the acidic environment. Dr. Sammons’ advice includes limiting acidic drinks, drinking water and, for some patients, using an alkaline mouth rinse. He also discussed products containing xylitol as another tool for fighting cavity-causing bacteria. Lafayette Dental Artistry provides comprehensive care ranging from preventive dentistry to full-mouth rehabilitation, cosmetic dentistry, crowns, veneers, bonding, implants, bridges and clear aligner therapy. Dr. Sammons particularly enjoys cosmetic dentistry and clear aligners. In some complex cases, moving the teeth into a better position before restorative work can dramatically reduce the number of crowns or veneers a patient needs. “The less I do is more in a lot of ways. The best dentistry is no dentistry. The second best dentistry is preventative dentistry.” His goal is to perform dentistry today that prevents larger problems tomorrow. That philosophy becomes especially meaningful when patients arrive after years of avoiding dental care because of fear, embarrassment, finances or difficult life circumstances. Dr. Sammons has watched patients regain not only their oral health but their confidence. After restoring a person's smile, he may see them six months later having made other changes: exercising, losing weight, quitting smoking or simply taking better care of themselves. “It changes their whole life. It changes their whole trajectory.” Dentistry's Role in Sleep Health Dentists are playing a growing role in recognizing potential sleep disorders. Because dentists routinely examine the mouth, jaw and airway, they may see signs that suggest a patient should be evaluated for sleep apnea. Lafayette Dental Artistry has equipment patients can take home for a sleep study, although Dr. Sammons emphasized that a medical doctor reads the study and makes the diagnosis. For appropriate patients with mild to moderate sleep apnea, a dental appliance may help keep the airway open by positioning the jaw forward. More severe cases generally require CPAP therapy. Implantable airway-stimulation devices are an option for some patients who cannot tolerate either CPAP or a dental appliance; those devices are placed by specialists. Dr. Sammons also uses Botox primarily as a therapeutic treatment for patients suffering from TMD, often called TMJ, including people who clench their jaws and develop muscle pain and headaches. While he occasionally uses Botox cosmetically, his primary interest is relieving pain and muscle tension. More Than 100 Hours a Year of Continuing Education Louisiana dentists are required to complete 40 hours of continuing education every two years. Dr. Sammons regularly pursues more than 100 hours annually. Why? “I'm just a huge nerd. I love it. I love to learn.” That appetite for learning has helped him incorporate rapidly changing technology into his practice, including digital scanning, same-day crowns, 3D printing and digitally created surgical guides for implant procedures. Approximately 99 % of the impressions in his practice are now digital. A tooth can be scanned, the crown designed virtually, milled in the office and placed in the patient's mouth the same day. For anxious patients, avoiding a temporary crown, a second appointment and another injection can make an enormous difference. Artificial intelligence is also becoming part of the practice. Dr. Sammons uses AI with digital X-rays to help identify possible cavities, bone loss and calculus. He views it as an additional set of eyes rather than a replacement for professional judgment. The technology is also a powerful educational tool. Instead of asking patients to decipher shades of gray on an X-ray, the software can highlight areas of concern, making it easier for patients to understand what the team members of Dental Artistry are seeing. “It's kind of like a second set of eyes,” he explained, noting that the technology can occasionally flag a tiny area that deserves a closer look. Lafayette Dental Artistry Is Growing Lafayette Dental Artistry is preparing for a major renovation and expansion of its longtime office. Dr. Sammons discussed the reality that modern digital dentistry requires different spaces for equipment, laboratories and treatment areas than were needed when the original office was built. During construction, the practice will temporarily relocate about five minutes away while the existing office is rebuilt. The temporary move is expected to last approximately nine months. The goal is to create a more modern environment while preserving what patients already value about the practice: comfort, relaxation and personal attention. And Dr. Ann Laurent remains very much a part of the practice. “She's been an amazing mentor to me, both as a clinician and also just as a leader.” Dr. Laurent continues to see patients while enjoying a little more time to travel. Dentist, Business Owner, Husband and Dad Running a dental practice also means running a small business, something Dr. Sammons jokes can be difficult “when you got your fingers in people's mouths.” He generally treats patients Monday through Thursday and reserves Fridays for administrative work, meetings and catching up on the business side of the practice. He made a commitment to himself to leave the office on time whenever possible so he can be home with Abby and their boys. His days start early, often around 3:30 a.m., with quiet time followed by a workout or swimming. When he does find spare time, Dr. Sammons loves to read, alternating between science fiction or fantasy and books on business, professional development and self-improvement. He enjoys movies, working out and swimming, but these days much of his free time is devoted to his sons. That means building blocks, jumping on the trampoline and, much to his delight, a recent family discovery of Legos. “I love doing Legos.” Perhaps the most revealing part of our conversation was hearing Dr. Sammons describe what makes dentistry rewarding. Sometimes it is as immediate as helping someone who walks into the office after spending a sleepless night with an excruciating toothache. Other times, it is watching someone who has neglected their oral health regain a healthy smile and the confidence that comes with it. “I don't know of many professions…that can do all that. It's so much fun and rewarding to do that. And I really can't imagine doing anything else.” We thank Dr. Thomas Sammons and the entire team at Lafayette Dental Artistry for their support of Discover Lafayette and for their commitment to helping Acadiana residents achieve better oral health while making the dental experience as comfortable and positive as possible. Learn more about Lafayette Dental Artistry through its website at https://www.lafayettedentalartistry.com/ and follow the practice on Facebook and Instagram under Lafayette Dental Artistry.

Send us Fan MailWe talk through how counterfeit cabling really shows up on jobs and why it can turn into failed inspections, broken trust, and expensive rework. With cable engineer Matt Schumacher, we draw a clean line between legitimate UL or ETL listings and too-good-to-be-true cable like copper clad aluminum that never should have been in the box. • what “counterfeit cable” means in the real world and why it becomes a contract problem fast • what “listed” means for communications cable and how UL 444 fits into the picture • how to verify a UL or ETL listing number and why reputable manufacturers matter • what CCA copper clad aluminum is and why ANSI/TIA 568.2-E does not allow it • how oxidation and material loss can create intermittent failures and repeat service calls • why PoE can look fine on day one then fail later as resistance climbs • how to explain the risk to customers, designers, and consultants without getting lost in jargon • why high frequency data cable is not “just cable” and how rough pulls and kinks can hurt performance • what CPR means in Europe and why LSZH does not replace CMP or CMR in the US • where the industry may be headed with single mode fiber, PoE growth, and new power concepts If you're watching this show on YouTube, would you mind hitting the subscribe button and the bell button to be notified when new content is being produced? If you are listening to us on one of the audio podcast platforms, would you mind leaving us a five-star rating? Wednesday night, 6 p.m. Eastern Standard Time, what are you doing? If you find value in this content, when you click on that QR code right there, you can buy me a cup of coffee. You could even schedule a 15-minute one-on-one call with me after hours, of course. Email Chuck at advertising at let's talkcabling.com and let's connect your brand to the right audience today. Support the showKnowledge is power!  Visit our webpage to find out ways you can support the show.  Also if you would like to be a guest on the show, please complete the application.Chuck Bowser RCDD TECH#CBRCDD #RCDD

Po več tednih neobičajno visokih temperatur, ki so močno presegale dolgoletna povprečja, se poletje počasi poslavlja. Ostale so posledice: izredno huda suša v kmetijstvu, ki je ponekod odnesla polovico ali celo ves pridelek, kar pomeni tudi izgubo krme za živali. Razmere ostajajo težavne tudi v energetiki, kjer hidroelektrarne beležijo izpad proizvodnje, jedrska elektrarna pa deluje z zmanjšano močjo. A vse to ni nič novega, stroka že vsaj 20 let opozarja, da se bo treba bolje pripraviti na posledice podnebnih sprememb. Skoraj vsa rekordno vroča poletja od začetka meritev namreč beležimo v zadnjih 25-ih letih. O podnebnih scenarijih in prilagajanju različnih panog v tokratni oddaji Studio ob 17ih. Gostje: Lučka Kajfež Bogataj, Biotehniška fakulteta UL; Anže Medved, Arso; Tomaž Žagar, državni sekretar, ministrstvo za infrastrukturo in energetiko; Jože Podgoršek, predsednik Kmetijsko gozdarske zbornice.

The Truth About GFCIs — UL 943, Floating Generators, Bonding & Current PathsThere may be more misconceptions about GFCIs than almost any other electrical safety device.Does a GFCI need an equipment grounding conductor to work?What does the toroidal sensing coil actually monitor?Why might a GFCI behave differently on a truly floating generator?And what happens when a bonded-neutral generator is connected to a dwelling through an interlock where the neutral is not switched?In this episode, Paul Abernathy breaks down the actual operating principles behind UL 943 Class A GFCIs and explains why understanding the current path is far more important than simply memorizing terms like “grounded,” “bonded,” or “floating.”We explore how a GFCI compares current leaving and returning through its monitored conductors, why an equipment grounding conductor is not required for differential-current sensing, and why a GFCI should never be thought of simply as a device that “detects current going to ground.”You'll also learn why a truly floating generator may have little or no first-fault current path, how a second fault can completely change that condition, and why connecting a generator to a dwelling can change its electrical relationship to ground.Then we tackle one of the most misunderstood generator issues in the trade:Bonded neutral vs. floating neutral.If a generator is connected through an interlock or transfer arrangement that does not switch the neutral, the generator neutral remains connected to the dwelling's grounded conductor system. Adding another neutral-to-ground bond at the generator can create parallel paths for normal neutral current through equipment grounding and bonding conductors.We also cover:How a GFCI's toroidal current transformer actually worksThe difference between GFCI protection and overcurrent protectionWhy a GFCI can work on a circuit with no EGCWhy “GFCI protected” does not mean “equipment grounded”Why touching hot and neutral can still produce a dangerous shock without creating a GFCI-detectable imbalanceWhy some plug-in GFCI testers may not operate properly on an ungrounded circuitThe difference between the integral TEST button and an external testerFloating generators and first-fault conditionsBonded-neutral generatorsSwitched vs. unswitched neutralsSeparately derived generator systemsParallel neutral-current pathsWhy a ground rod is not the normal branch-circuit fault-current return pathHow grounding, bonding, GFCI protection, and fault-current paths all work togetherThe goal of this episode isn't to replace one electrical slogan with another.It's to teach you how to draw the circuit, follow the current, and understand what the protective device actually sees.Because when you understand the current path, the misconceptions surrounding GFCIs, generators, grounding, and bonding start disappearing.Current out. Current back. If they don't match, the GFCI becomes interested.Hosted by Paul Abernathy of Electrical Code Academy, Inc.#GFCI #UL943 #ElectricalCode #NEC #Electrician #ElectricalTraining #ElectricalSafety #Generator #PortableGenerator #Grounding #Bonding #GroundFault #ElectricalTheory #MasterElectrician #ElectricalEducationBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/master-the-nec-podcast--1083733/support.Struggling with the National Electrical Code? Discover the real difference at Electrical Code Academy, Inc.—where you'll learn from the nation's most down-to-earth NEC expert who genuinely cares about your success. No fluff. No gimmicks. Just the best NEC training you'll actually remember.Visit https://FastTraxSystem.com to learn more.

The Truth About GFCIs — UL 943, Floating Generators, Bonding & Current PathsThere may be more misconceptions about GFCIs than almost any other electrical safety device.Does a GFCI need an equipment grounding conductor to work?What does the toroidal sensing coil actually monitor?Why might a GFCI behave differently on a truly floating generator?And what happens when a bonded-neutral generator is connected to a dwelling through an interlock where the neutral is not switched?In this episode, Paul Abernathy breaks down the actual operating principles behind UL 943 Class A GFCIs and explains why understanding the current path is far more important than simply memorizing terms like “grounded,” “bonded,” or “floating.”We explore how a GFCI compares current leaving and returning through its monitored conductors, why an equipment grounding conductor is not required for differential-current sensing, and why a GFCI should never be thought of simply as a device that “detects current going to ground.”You'll also learn why a truly floating generator may have little or no first-fault current path, how a second fault can completely change that condition, and why connecting a generator to a dwelling can change its electrical relationship to ground.Then we tackle one of the most misunderstood generator issues in the trade:Bonded neutral vs. floating neutral.If a generator is connected through an interlock or transfer arrangement that does not switch the neutral, the generator neutral remains connected to the dwelling's grounded conductor system. Adding another neutral-to-ground bond at the generator can create parallel paths for normal neutral current through equipment grounding and bonding conductors.We also cover:How a GFCI's toroidal current transformer actually worksThe difference between GFCI protection and overcurrent protectionWhy a GFCI can work on a circuit with no EGCWhy “GFCI protected” does not mean “equipment grounded”Why touching hot and neutral can still produce a dangerous shock without creating a GFCI-detectable imbalanceWhy some plug-in GFCI testers may not operate properly on an ungrounded circuitThe difference between the integral TEST button and an external testerFloating generators and first-fault conditionsBonded-neutral generatorsSwitched vs. unswitched neutralsSeparately derived generator systemsParallel neutral-current pathsWhy a ground rod is not the normal branch-circuit fault-current return pathHow grounding, bonding, GFCI protection, and fault-current paths all work togetherThe goal of this episode isn't to replace one electrical slogan with another.It's to teach you how to draw the circuit, follow the current, and understand what the protective device actually sees.Because when you understand the current path, the misconceptions surrounding GFCIs, generators, grounding, and bonding start disappearing.Current out. Current back. If they don't match, the GFCI becomes interested.Hosted by Paul Abernathy of Electrical Code Academy, Inc.#GFCI #UL943 #ElectricalCode #NEC #Electrician #ElectricalTraining #ElectricalSafety #Generator #PortableGenerator #Grounding #Bonding #GroundFault #ElectricalTheory #MasterElectrician #ElectricalEducationBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/electrify-electrician-podcast--4131858/support.

The Truth About GFCIs — UL 943, Floating Generators, Bonding & Current PathsThere may be more misconceptions about GFCIs than almost any other electrical safety device.Does a GFCI need an equipment grounding conductor to work?What does the toroidal sensing coil actually monitor?Why might a GFCI behave differently on a truly floating generator?And what happens when a bonded-neutral generator is connected to a dwelling through an interlock where the neutral is not switched?In this episode, Paul Abernathy breaks down the actual operating principles behind UL 943 Class A GFCIs and explains why understanding the current path is far more important than simply memorizing terms like “grounded,” “bonded,” or “floating.”We explore how a GFCI compares current leaving and returning through its monitored conductors, why an equipment grounding conductor is not required for differential-current sensing, and why a GFCI should never be thought of simply as a device that “detects current going to ground.”You'll also learn why a truly floating generator may have little or no first-fault current path, how a second fault can completely change that condition, and why connecting a generator to a dwelling can change its electrical relationship to ground.Then we tackle one of the most misunderstood generator issues in the trade:Bonded neutral vs. floating neutral.If a generator is connected through an interlock or transfer arrangement that does not switch the neutral, the generator neutral remains connected to the dwelling's grounded conductor system. Adding another neutral-to-ground bond at the generator can create parallel paths for normal neutral current through equipment grounding and bonding conductors.We also cover:How a GFCI's toroidal current transformer actually worksThe difference between GFCI protection and overcurrent protectionWhy a GFCI can work on a circuit with no EGCWhy “GFCI protected” does not mean “equipment grounded”Why touching hot and neutral can still produce a dangerous shock without creating a GFCI-detectable imbalanceWhy some plug-in GFCI testers may not operate properly on an ungrounded circuitThe difference between the integral TEST button and an external testerFloating generators and first-fault conditionsBonded-neutral generatorsSwitched vs. unswitched neutralsSeparately derived generator systemsParallel neutral-current pathsWhy a ground rod is not the normal branch-circuit fault-current return pathHow grounding, bonding, GFCI protection, and fault-current paths all work togetherThe goal of this episode isn't to replace one electrical slogan with another.It's to teach you how to draw the circuit, follow the current, and understand what the protective device actually sees.Because when you understand the current path, the misconceptions surrounding GFCIs, generators, grounding, and bonding start disappearing.Current out. Current back. If they don't match, the GFCI becomes interested.Hosted by Paul Abernathy of Electrical Code Academy, Inc.#GFCI #UL943 #ElectricalCode #NEC #Electrician #ElectricalTraining #ElectricalSafety #Generator #PortableGenerator #Grounding #Bonding #GroundFault #ElectricalTheory #MasterElectrician #ElectricalEducationBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/ask-paul-national-electrical-code--4971115/support.

The Truth About GFCIs — UL 943, Floating Generators, Bonding & Current PathsThere may be more misconceptions about GFCIs than almost any other electrical safety device.Does a GFCI need an equipment grounding conductor to work?What does the toroidal sensing coil actually monitor?Why might a GFCI behave differently on a truly floating generator?And what happens when a bonded-neutral generator is connected to a dwelling through an interlock where the neutral is not switched?In this episode, Paul Abernathy breaks down the actual operating principles behind UL 943 Class A GFCIs and explains why understanding the current path is far more important than simply memorizing terms like “grounded,” “bonded,” or “floating.”We explore how a GFCI compares current leaving and returning through its monitored conductors, why an equipment grounding conductor is not required for differential-current sensing, and why a GFCI should never be thought of simply as a device that “detects current going to ground.”You'll also learn why a truly floating generator may have little or no first-fault current path, how a second fault can completely change that condition, and why connecting a generator to a dwelling can change its electrical relationship to ground.Then we tackle one of the most misunderstood generator issues in the trade:Bonded neutral vs. floating neutral.If a generator is connected through an interlock or transfer arrangement that does not switch the neutral, the generator neutral remains connected to the dwelling's grounded conductor system. Adding another neutral-to-ground bond at the generator can create parallel paths for normal neutral current through equipment grounding and bonding conductors.We also cover:How a GFCI's toroidal current transformer actually worksThe difference between GFCI protection and overcurrent protectionWhy a GFCI can work on a circuit with no EGCWhy “GFCI protected” does not mean “equipment grounded”Why touching hot and neutral can still produce a dangerous shock without creating a GFCI-detectable imbalanceWhy some plug-in GFCI testers may not operate properly on an ungrounded circuitThe difference between the integral TEST button and an external testerFloating generators and first-fault conditionsBonded-neutral generatorsSwitched vs. unswitched neutralsSeparately derived generator systemsParallel neutral-current pathsWhy a ground rod is not the normal branch-circuit fault-current return pathHow grounding, bonding, GFCI protection, and fault-current paths all work togetherThe goal of this episode isn't to replace one electrical slogan with another.It's to teach you how to draw the circuit, follow the current, and understand what the protective device actually sees.Because when you understand the current path, the misconceptions surrounding GFCIs, generators, grounding, and bonding start disappearing.Current out. Current back. If they don't match, the GFCI becomes interested.Hosted by Paul Abernathy of Electrical Code Academy, Inc.#GFCI #UL943 #ElectricalCode #NEC #Electrician #ElectricalTraining #ElectricalSafety #Generator #PortableGenerator #Grounding #Bonding #GroundFault #ElectricalTheory #MasterElectrician #ElectricalEducationBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/ask-paul-national-electrical-code--4971115/support.

According to an advocate for victims of sexual violence, children should be taught about consent from preschool age and given the choice of whether they want to hug or have physical contact with someone.Children should be given a choice when it comes to their personal space. For example, if a child doesn't want to hug someone, whether that person is a parent, relative, or family friend, they shouldn't be forced to do so…Would you agree with this? Do you think children as young as preschool age should be taught about consent and personal boundaries?Joining Andrea to discuss is Council of Europe's Group of Experts on Action against Violence against Women and Domestic Violence (GREVIO) and Professor in the School of Law in UL, Ellen O'Malley Dunlop, Chairperson of the Federation of Early Childhood Providers Elaine Dunne and more.

Louie and Zach open the show with reaction to the college sports bill, conference realignment candidates, and where is Louisville? Alexis Cubit from the Courier-Journal joins from UL practice to discuss Isaac Brown's condition, Tre Richardson outrunning a train, and how Kienholz looks. They then discuss an errorless streak and some horse updates over the weekend to wrap the hour. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Jerry spoke to Dr. Kevin Murphy, professor emeritus at UL’s Department of Work & Employment Studies.

Send us Fan MailOn this episode of Mondays Down Under, Lee Salisbury and Nick are joined by AIS Water's Lee Moore and Technical Director Blake for a deep dive into commercial saltwater chlorination.AIS Water has worked in salt chlorination for approximately 35 years, developing systems for everything from swim schools and splash parks to resorts, 50-meter competition pools, coastal pools, and enormous lagoons containing millions of liters of water.The conversation explores why more commercial aquatic facilities are moving toward onsite chlorine generation—and why their success depends on selecting actual commercial equipment, correctly sizing the system, and maintaining proper water chemistry.The three major benefits are convenience, safety, and long-term cost savings. Generating chlorine onsite can dramatically reduce the handling, storage, transportation, and manual transfer of liquid or granular chlorine. It can also reduce the risks associated with chemical spills, damaged dosing lines, incorrect chemical mixing, and chlorine gas entering an occupied pool.But not every “commercial salt system” is truly commercial.The guests discuss facilities that attempted to meet massive chlorine demand by plumbing together banks of residential chlorinators—including one installation containing an astonishing 95 residential units. Besides creating a maintenance nightmare, these improvised systems can introduce excessive head loss, restrict circulation, shorten cell life, and still fail to satisfy the pool's chlorine demand.Proper sizing requires far more than knowing the pool's volume. AIS Water considers actual peak bather load, water temperature, turnover rate, sunlight exposure, cyanuric acid use, environmental conditions, operating hours, and the facility's location. Two pools of identical size—even pools located only a suburb apart—may require substantially different chlorine production capacities.And just when you thought pool chlorination could not get any stranger, the discussion turns to horse pools, seal enclosures, sea lions, natural salt contributions from swimmers, and one exceptionally important unanswered question:Just how much chlorine does a sea lion prefer?You will have to return next Monday for the conclusion.In this episode: Why commercial aquatic facilities are adopting onsite chlorine generation  The safety risks associated with storing and manually transporting chlorine  How salt chlorination can reduce long-term operating costs  Why an electrolytic cell is a consumable—not a failed chlorinator  How commercial-grade anodes can provide significantly longer cell life  The difference between residential and commercial chlorination equipment  What happens when dozens of residential chlorinators are installed in one system  How excessive head loss can compromise circulation and turnover  Why peak bather load is critical when sizing a chlorinator  How sunlight, shade, temperature, rainfall, and surrounding buildings affect chlorine demand  Commercial systems ranging from low-salinity water to direct seawater  The unusual challenges of chlorinating pools for horses, seals, and sea lions Guests: Lee Moore, Sales and Marketing, AIS Water  Blake, Technical Director, AIS Water Hosted by Lee Salisbury and Nick on Mondays Down Under, part of the Talking Pools Podcast network.US certifications for AIS Commercial products. Certified to the Highest International Standards – AIS commercial chlorination systems are independently certified to NSF/ANSI 50 for swimming pool equipment safety and performance, UL 1081 for electrical safety, and are approved for installation in Los Angeles County, one of the world's most stringent regulatory environments. These certifications provide independent assurance that AIS products meet rigorous standards for quality, reliability, and safety, giving consultants, operators, and asset owners confidence in specifying AIS for demanding commercial aquatic facilities. Support the showThank you so much for listening! You can find us on social media:FacebookInstagramTik TokEmail us: talkingpools@gmail.com

Hour 1 is dominated by UK press conferences with OC Joe Sloan and DC Jay Bateman meeting the media on UK Media Day. Louie is out, so Zach and Creighton discuss the impact of Peyton Siva leaving UL to go with his former coach to St John's, and why it's not about Pat Kelsey.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Zach and Creighton lead off hour 2 with the daily CFB segment, how many teams have a shot to win the national title, where UL ranks on the list and why the first 3 games tell the story of the season for the Cards. TJ Walker from the UK Postgame Show joins to preview the upcoming season, why he's excited about Minchey, and how UK's aggression will be a welcome change. Zach and Creighton recap some old CFB to end the show.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Sylvia Turner, affectionately known to generations of Lafayette families as “Ms. T,” joins Discover Lafayette to reflect upon a remarkable life of teaching, music, faith, and service to others. For more than five decades, beginning in 1972, Sylvia taught children and adults to swim in the backyard pool of her Lafayette home. But anyone fortunate enough to have taken lessons from Ms. T knows she taught much more than swimming. She taught safety. She taught respect. She taught children to encourage one another, to follow rules, to appreciate their parents, and perhaps most importantly, to believe they could do things that initially frightened them. “One of my greatest compliments was when people would say, ‘You don't just teach swimming, do you?'” Sylvia recalls. “I said, ‘No, I don't. I teach everything I can while I can.'” Two Lives: Ms. T and Sylvia the Singer Many Lafayette residents knew Sylvia exclusively as Ms. T, the swim teacher who could spend long summer days in the pool working with one class after another. Others knew an entirely different Sylvia Turner, a classically trained singer whose musical life was intertwined with that of her late husband, John Turner. Sylvia grew up in Fort Worth, Texas, and came to Lafayette with John, who taught voice at UL for 34 years. Sylvia later received an opera scholarship, and the couple performed opera together as well as singing at university commencement ceremonies. She also became a fixture at the Order of Troubadours ball, serving as the opening soloist for “Make Believe” for 40 years. The separation between her two worlds occasionally created funny moments. Sylvia remembers singing at a commencement ceremony when a family approached her afterward, looking puzzled. “Ms. T, is that you? Did you sing?” “Yes,” she answered. “In the singing world, a lot of people didn't know that I taught swimming,” Sylvia says. “And then in the swimming world, a lot of people didn't know that I sang.” Sylvia Turner is an active member of Chorale Acadienne. She is pictured fourth from left in the photo. A Fear of Water Leads to a Lifetime in the Pool It is fitting that Sylvia ultimately devoted so much of her life to teaching people to be comfortable in the water, because she did not learn to swim herself until she was 11 years old. Her mother, Lucille, had nearly drowned at age 18. The experience was so traumatic that Sylvia grew up repeatedly hearing, “Don't go near the water.” Eventually, her mother enrolled her in Red Cross swimming lessons at a park pool. Sylvia loved the water immediately. At the end of the lessons, the instructor announced a swim meet. Sylvia entered, won a red ribbon for second place, and, as she puts it, “I was hooked.” Her mother began allowing her to spend time at the pool, where Sylvia became fascinated by a group of young men who were accomplished divers. She simply asked them if they would teach her. They did. Before long, Sylvia was diving from the three-meter board and later competed as a diver when she was 13 and 14 years old. Eventually, voice training began competing with diving for her attention, but her love of the water never disappeared. The Pool That Started It All Sylvia's path to becoming one of Lafayette's best-known swim instructors began with a frustrating afternoon at Riverside pool. Sylvia and her husband, John, were living in River's Bend with their three children when, on a beautiful sunny day, the lifeguard announced everyone had to leave the pool because he needed to take a test and there was no one qualified to substitute for him. Sylvia was not pleased. “I went home and I said to my husband, ‘You know, if I had a lifesaving badge, I could have gotten up on the stand and we could have kept the pool open.'” John's response was simple: go get it. Sylvia and a friend took a lifesaving class at Girard Park. At the conclusion of the course, the instructor assigned Sylvia two women from a mothers' swimming program to teach. “My ladies did beautifully,” she remembers. “And so I was further hooked.” As Sylvia and John prepared to build their new home, she began thinking about adding a swimming pool. The price gave her pause, particularly when they realized it would effectively double their house payment. Sylvia had an answer. “Oh, John, if I paid for it, could we do it?” How would she pay for it? “I could teach.” And that is exactly what she did. Sylvia began teaching swimming lessons in 1972. Her first student was a young man she met through the grocery store who was preparing to get married. His future wife could swim, he could not, and he did not want to be the person sitting on the beach while everyone else enjoyed the water. Sylvia taught him to swim. Years later, he returned with his children. It was the beginning of generations of Lafayette families learning from Ms, T. Safety Came First Before any child entered Sylvia's pool, there were rules. “Children like to know boundaries,” she says. Students first sat on the deck while Sylvia sat at their eye level and talked about safety. Then she walked them around the pool. Nothing was taken for granted. She showed them the skimmers. She explained the drain. She taught them what the various parts of the pool did and addressed fears children might be reluctant to express. That lesson came partly from the children themselves. One little boy looked across the pool at the dark opening of a skimmer and asked Sylvia, “Is that where you keep Jaws?” From that point forward, Sylvia opened the skimmers so the children could look inside. “I learned the children are great teachers,” she says. “I learned a lot from children.” Only after the rules and pool orientation were complete did everyone get into the water. Teaching Children to Respect One Another Ms. T in a photo taken by Jan Swift when she taught Kelly Swift, Jan’s daughter, to swim and dive….circa 2009. Sylvia's lessons were intentionally positive. “I had the children applaud each other all the time,” she says. “We applauded for everything. We didn't just applaud for excellence. We applauded for effort.” Criticism was not allowed unless it was constructive. Older swimmers were taught how to watch one another perform a stroke and offer feedback, beginning with something the swimmer had done well. Sylvia traces much of that philosophy to her mother, who was an exceptionally positive person, and to the instructor who taught Sylvia lifesaving at Girard Park. “She made you feel like you were the most special person in the world.” Sylvia wanted children in her pool to feel the same way. One experience still moves her. A little girl had missed the first day of lessons and joined the class on the second day. When it was her turn to get onto the diving board, she hesitated. Finally, she turned to Sylvia and asked, “Do they have to watch?” Before Sylvia could say anything, every child waiting nearby turned his or her back. “I can't tell that story without getting emotional,” Sylvia says. The children understood that their classmate needed to try something difficult without an audience. “A lot of times we have to do things without people watching.” “Are You the Boss of This Pool?” Boundaries mattered because safety mattered. During one family swim, a visiting child began running around the pool and jumping too close to other swimmers. Sylvia called him over and explained that the pool had rules. The boy looked at her and asked, “Are you the boss of this pool?” “Yes, I am.” “Oh.” That was the end of the problem. “Children want to know who's in charge,” Sylvia says. “And they want somebody to be in charge.” Those lessons stayed with her students long after class ended. One mother called Sylvia after taking her children to another pool. Her four-year-old son Nicholas noticed another little boy breaking pool safety rules and corrected him. The boy replied that his daddy owned the pool and he could do anything he wanted. He added that he took swimming lessons. Nicholas had an answer: “Well, obviously you don't take from Ms. T because you don't know the rules.” Relaxation and Rhythm For Sylvia, learning to swim rested on two fundamental principles. “The two most important things in swimming are relaxation and rhythm.” Relaxation came first. A tense body does not float well. Students learned to float before progressing incrementally through kicking, strokes, diving and more advanced skills. “You do it by stages,” Sylvia says. “And that's how you learn anything really, by little increments.” The same principle applied to diving. Sylvia never forced a frightened child from the diving board. Students progressed from a knee dive close to the water, to a falling dive, then standing, springing, and eventually diving from the board. Her goal was not simply for a child to acquire a skill. The child needed confidence in that skill. “If you have a skill without confidence, it's not really productive.” Teaching Adults and Overcoming Fear Although Ms, T is best remembered for teaching children, Sylvia loved teaching adults, particularly because, as she says, “They always have baggage.” Some carried a fear of water for decades. She taught men, women and couples, including two women who were 71 years old. But no adult student meant more to Sylvia than her own mother. Lucille's near drowning at age 18 had shaped Sylvia's childhood and her mother's lifelong relationship with water. Then, on her 70th birthday, Lucille surprised Sylvia by announcing a goal for the coming year. “I've decided I'm going to learn to swim.” Sylvia was stunned. Her mother continued: “I've decided that if anybody can teach me, it's you.” Sylvia responded, “Well, you'll never have to give me another compliment in your whole life.” Lucille was unable to make the trip to Lafayette that year, but the following year she came and took lessons from her daughter. By the end of the week, she could swim across the pool without assistance. Sylvia later asked whether she had finally lost her fear. Her mother answered, “I don't know, but I loved being in the water.” Sylvia thought that was enough. Of all the adults she taught, she describes teaching her mother as perhaps the most gratifying experience of all. Generations of Lafayette Families Sylvia never kept count of how many people she taught during her decades in the pool, particularly because so many students returned year after year and eventually brought another generation back with them. Her classes grew largely through word of mouth. Her youngest daughter attended Broadmoor Elementary, where Sylvia was heavily involved in the PTA. The principal, himself the father of seven children whom Sylvia eventually taught along with his wife, allowed her to distribute information about her lessons through the school. “And then word spread.” For younger children, particularly three and four year olds, Sylvia limited classes to six students and had another adult in the water with her. Older, accomplished swimmers could be taught in somewhat larger groups. Sylvia also encouraged parents to observe lessons so they understood what their children were learning and could reinforce those lessons away from the pool. The lessons often carried into everyday family life: respect your parents, appreciate what they do for you, respect other people, encourage others, follow the rules, and understand that safety is never something to take casually. The Teacher Who Never Taught School When asked how she defines herself after a lifetime encompassing swimming, opera, church music, family and community, Sylvia returns to teaching. “Every teacher I ever had told me that I was destined to be a teacher.” Yet she never became a traditional classroom teacher. “I taught Sunday school. I taught junior choir. I taught swimming. I'm an inveterate teacher.” She also remains a singer, grounded in the classical and religious music that has been part of her life since childhood. Sylvia grew up in the church. Her mother sang in the choir, her father was a deacon, and Sylvia herself began singing in choir at age 12. Faith remained a constant through the joyful times and the difficult ones. And that may help explain the extraordinary positivity so many people associate with Ms. T. Asked how she manages to remain positive, Sylvia acknowledges that it requires intention. “You have to work at it, I think, because it's easy to be negative.” Even in the hardest times, she says, there is something to hold onto. “Even in those darkest days, you have to find something. And gratitude is part of it.” Sylvia looks back on her life with gratitude for the people, experiences and opportunities she has been given, while acknowledging that her life has included hardship like anyone else's. “I've had some hard knocks, as everybody does during my life. I'm here to say that I overcame them.” Then she adds the foundation beneath it all: “With the help of my Lord.” For generations of Lafayette families, Ms. T will always be the woman who taught their children to swim. But her legacy reaches well beyond the pool. She taught children to be safe without being afraid, to respect rules and one another, to applaud effort rather than simply excellence, and to gain confidence one small step at a time. And she taught it all while making each child feel that, at that moment, they mattered.

UL

With all of the other stuff going on in UL athletics, we finally have the opportunity to move on to football season! We'll preview each of the offensive groups, breakdown key players for the upcoming season, and give some updates on what we're hearing about the AD search. And we introduce our new segment: Tell me something' good.

Louie and Zach do Bologna or Salami to start Hour 2, including if Flory Bidunga is ready to be an All American, and if UL finishes top 3 in the ACC in football. Al Williams joins to recap the gambling world, and more Big Ten Media Days to end the show.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Louie and Zach open the show by looking into the oddity behind the Kyle Shanahan crash and why ESPN hasn't reported it much, and if sports journalism still exists. Brooks Holton joins from the Bahamas as the only man down there to preview UL's game today, what the response is, and what he's expecting. They wrap by having to defend Josh Pastner?!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

With the recent announcement of Brian Maggard departing UL, we'll talk about his legacy at Louisiana, what was accomplished during his tenure, some things we thing can be improved by the next administration, and who we think should be contacted to filll the role. We also open the phone lines to get your thoughts on the breaking news, and share some interesting updates from the recent baseball luncheon.

It's EV News Briefly for Wednesday 22 July 2026, everything you need to know in less than 5 minutes if you haven't got time for the full show.Patreon supporters fund this show, get the episodes ad free, as soon as they're ready and are part of the EV News Daily Community. You can be like them by clicking here: https://www.patreon.com/EVNewsDailyVW CONFIRMS ELECTRIC NEXT-GEN AMAROKVolkswagen Commercial Vehicles brand chief Stefan Mecha has confirmed that the third-generation Amarok will be offered as a fully electric model, part of a flexible drivetrain strategy spanning PHEVs and EVs that he says is essential to keeping the ute competitive, while the current Amarok's powertrain line-up stays unchanged. The timing points to 2029-2030, matching the expiry of VW's production deal with Ford, and talks with Ford about the next generation's underpinnings are still ongoing.MG GO! PREVIEWS SMALL EV FOR 2027MG has unveiled the GO! concept at the Goodwood Festival of Speed, a roughly four-metre B-segment electric hatchback designed at SAIC's U.K. studio that borrows MGB GT grille lines and vertical taillamp elements, with production due in 2027 and possibly badged MG 2. MG admits the show car is a "dressed up" version that will lose its bulging fenders, oversized wheels, tow hooks and diffuser, and while technical details are unconfirmed, industry coverage points to MG's front-drive E3/Urban architecture with modest LFP batteries to rival the Renault 5 E-Tech and Mini Cooper Electric.TESLA OPENS FIRST PUBLIC SEMI MEGACHARGERTesla has opened its first public Megacharger station for Semi fleets in Bloomington, California, about an hour east of Los Angeles, with six stalls each capable of up to 1.2 MW and access for all Tesla Semi commercial fleet customers. The launch was confirmed by Tesla Charging on X and marked with a ribbon-cutting attended by trucking, fleet and charging figures, with the San Bernardino County site chosen for its position on the freight corridor linking the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach to Southern California's warehouse network.USED EVS OUTPACE PETROL CARS IN BRITAINSteep fuel prices have driven a surge in British used-EV demand, with Autotrader's July fastest-selling ranking filled entirely by electrified models for the first time — eight of them fully electric, double last year's tally — led by the MG ZS at 13 days against a 24-day average for used EVs and 30 days across all fuel types. Average used-EV prices rose 1.6% year-on-year to £24,662 ($33,225), the first increase since December 2022, and Autotrader's Marc Palmer says that unlike past Middle East-driven spikes tied to events such as the US-Israeli war on Iran and the Strait of Hormuz closure, this demand has been sustained while the ten slowest sellers were all petrol or diesel.LOW-INCOME HOUSEHOLDS LEAD GERMAN EV SUBSIDY APPROVALSHandelsblatt reports that 48% of approvals under Germany's new EV subsidy scheme have gone to households with taxable income up to €45,000 ($51,300), according to data from a parliamentary inquiry by Left Party lawmaker Jorrit Bosch, with lower-income buyers eligible for up to €6,000 ($6,840) on new BEVs, range-extenders and select plug-in hybrids depending on vehicle type, income and family size. The programme launched in January to replace the flat-rate scheme scrapped abruptly in late 2023, and environment ministry figures show foreign manufacturers took most of the support, with only two of the 14 most-subsidised brands being German as Germany's EV fleet passed 2.2 million by early April 2026.SUBARU CUTS 2027 SOLTERRA PRICE IN CANADASubaru Canada has cut the 2027 Solterra's starting MSRP to $47,995, $4,500 below the 2026 model and just under the country's $50,000 EVAP threshold, which restores its eligibility for the federal rebate worth up to $5,000. Subaru quotes an effective starting figure of $46,727 with delivery, dealer fees and the rebate included, against $55,285 for the current 2026 car, with the updated model due at Canadian dealerships later this year.CANADA CLEARS 6,531 CHINA-MADE EV IMPORTSCanada had imported 6,531 China-made EVs by July 14, leaving roughly 75% of the 24,500-vehicle first-half quota unused, with arrivals starting in May and building through June and July but falling well short of the allowance. Ottawa will keep the current quota open through August before adding a further 24,500 vehicles plus any unused first-half volume for September through February 2027; Global Affairs Canada does not break the figures down by brand, but Shanghai-built Tesla Model 3s are presumed to dominate, Lotus has accounted for nearly two dozen and Polestar is expected to resume Polestar 2 imports in August.DONGFENG MOVES INTO CANADIAN EV MARKETDongfeng plans to enter Canada's EV market under the low-tariff quota created by Mark Carney's deal with China earlier this year, showing the Vigo and Nammi Box 01 to buyers at an Old Port event in Montreal this week while it completes regulatory certification. North World Industry will handle distribution, and the company is starting with consumer awareness before sales, aiming to launch its first two models next year.KIA PITCHES SMALL EV VAN FOR CANADIAN FLEETSKia Canada has pitched the PV5 as a compact electric cargo van for small businesses and urban fleets, offering about 160 cubic feet of cargo volume and targeting tradespeople, last-mile delivery firms and telecom operators that do not need a full-size vehicle. The real test may be size rather than range or price, given GM pulled its Ontario-built BrightDrop vans — offering 400 or 600 cubic feet — from the market last fall after weak sales, while Kia calls the smaller PV5 an answer to an "unmet need".GEELY SETS E2 PRICE BELOW €20,000 IN ITALYGeely will launch the E2 small electric hatchback in Italy in October at a promotional €19,900, undercutting the Citroen e-C3 at €20,490 and sitting just above the BYD Dolphin Surf at €19,790; the same car is sold as the EX2 in the U.K. and the Xingyuan in China, where it was last year's best-selling model with 160,800 wholesale deliveries in the first five months of this year. In Europe's small-EV class the Renault 5 E-Tech leads with 36,575 sales, up 35%, ahead of the e-C3 on 17,859 (down 11%), the Dolphin Surf on 15,072 and the Peugeot e-208 on 10,546, up 23%.HOYMILES LAUNCHES UL 3700 BALCONY SOLAR INVERTERHoymiles has launched the HiFlow Pro, which it says is the first US microinverter certified under UL 3700, the new safety standard for plug-in balcony solar, a model already popular in Europe — especially Germany — that lets homeowners and renters run portable panels through a standard outlet instead of a rooftop install. Eight states had signed plug-in solar bills into law as of July 2026 — Utah, Maine, Virginia, Maryland, Colorado, Connecticut, Vermont and New Hampshire — with New York's awaiting the governor's signature as of July 16 and nearly 30 states having introduced legislation, while safeguards must prevent the reversed power flow from feeding the grid during outages; a single 360W unit produces up to 721.08 kWh a year and up to four can run in parallel across separate outlets.RUSSIAN FUEL SHORTAGES PUSH DRIVERS TO EVSUkrainian strikes on energy targets have tightened Russian fuel supplies, bringing hours-long queues and rising gasoline and diesel prices that are pushing some motorists towards electric cars, including engineer Oksana Yasinskaya, 36, who told Automotive News the queues settled her decision to buy an EV and that she values not wasting hours on what she called a humiliating wait, with some drivers queuing late at night. Autostat says EV and plug-in hybrid sales accelerated in June as shortages worsened and expects the tiny market to grow if the crisis drags on, though it still leans on used cars rather than fresh showroom demand.

In this conversation, Lee sits down with two of Unleashing Leaders' top change agents, Skye Connors and Emily LaPorta, to tackle a problem every high performer eventually hits: too many priorities, not enough hours. Skye and Emily built UL's internal SOP for handling conflicting task requests and walk through how it works, from the physical warning signs of overload to the tiebreakers that step in when two tasks conflict. Feeling overloaded usually means you're trusted with more, not that you're falling short. Lee, Skye, and Emily break down the prioritization shortcuts that quietly wreck teams: First in, first out. Last in, first out. Whoever screams the loudest. And the fallback of declaring "everything is priority one," which just pushes the decision onto your team, leaving them to default to whatever's easiest. What UL actually uses instead is a framework that sorts commitments by required, desired, and optional, weighs critical path and impact, and falls back on real tiebreakers, like prior commitment and relative priority, when everything else ties. Emily closes with a reminder that this gets easier with practice: "Am I required?" and "What is the impact?" stop needing a checklist and become instinct.   Additional Resources Attend Unleashing Leaders University: https://unleashingleadersuniversity.com/curriculum Learn more about Unleashing Leaders: https://unleashingleaders.com/ Follow Unleashing Leaders on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/unleashingleaders Connect with Lee on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/leeallenscott/ Follow Unleashing Leaders on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/UnleashingLeaders/ Follow Unleashing Leaders on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/unleashingleaders/   Key Takeaways: Feeling overloaded is a sign of trust and competence, not a warning sign of failure. Notice the physical tell (tight chest, racing heart) before it drives a bad decision. First in, first out, last in, first out, and "whoever screams loudest" all fail as standalone strategies. Declaring everything priority one pushes the decision to your team, and they'll default to whatever seems easiest, leaving the hard stuff undone. Sort every ask into required, desired, or optional before you commit to it. When priorities truly tie, fall back on real tiebreakers like prior commitment and relative project priority. With practice, questions like "Am I required?" and "What is the impact?" stop needing a checklist and become instinct.  

Louie and Zach open the week recapping Louie's road trip and the disruptions of that, as well as recapping the World Cup Final and if the World Cup will be remembered. Matt McGavic joins to discuss UL's upcoming trip to the Bahamas and some more NCAA simulations. Louie and Zach recap the Open Championship and more to wrap the hour. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

We all know business, at least at the point of sale, has gotten pretty impersonal. Even at the grocery store, you can avoid other people altogether. Just pop in your earbuds and use the self-checkout line. The name of the game here is efficiency. Retailers and service companies are betting that most customers prefer speed and convenience at the cost of human contact and oversight. An age-old lesson in business: It pays to zig when your competitor zags. Some people still value trust and reliability, especially when it comes to work done on their homes. Pool Sure, you can get a robot to clean your pool. But when it starts to leak, it sure is nice to call on someone who knows the pool in question. That’s the kind of transaction Ross Gresham is betting on. When you call Gresham Pool Services, you’re getting Ross himself. It’s a one-man operation by design. Ross is targeting the customer who is fed up with getting a different technician every time something breaks down. Ross started working on pools almost three decades ago, as a side job while he was a student at UL. After graduating in 2005 with a degree in industrial technology, he built a career at Lafayette Consolidated Government. But pool work never let go of him. In 2025, he left local government to launch Gresham Pool Services full time.Today Ross has a book of 25 weekly maintenance clients and another 20 who call him for repairs. He's not chasing rapid growth. He's chasing an underground leak-detection niche most of Acadiana can't find locally. "It's me coming to your house," he says. "Not a different employee every week." Fabric Retail, of course, has changed dramatically in the information age. Again, online stores are betting that folks don’t really need to touch and feel something before they buy it. That might make sense if you’re door-dashing paper towels, but if you’re picking out fabrics to glow up your living room — you might want to see what it looks like in real life. For about the last 40 years, folks in Lafayette have done that at the Interior Fabric Shoppe, owned by Jack Emling. Jack didn't set out to run a fabric business. In the early 1980s, he and his then-wife ran a small furniture and gift store, and noticed Lafayette didn't have a proper in-stock fabric shop — somewhere you could see and feel the material before you bought it. That gap became The Interior Fabric Shoppe, which opened in 1986. It's since grown into a full-service interior design resource — custom draperies, bedding, motorized window treatments you can run from your phone. Jack buys fabric direct from textile mills, which keeps prices competitive and the shop stocked deep. On top of the online retail revolution, the business has survived hurricanes, a fire, and a few decades of shifting buying habits. Conclusion? It turns out, the human touch still holds up pretty well against the algorithm. More than that, it’s not hard to imagine that dealing with a real-live person is going to remain in demand, at least for a little while longer. Out to Lunch Acadiana was recorded live over lunch at Gravy in downtown Lafayette. You can find photos from this show by Astor Morgan at itsacadiana.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

More than a thousand scholars from the Poetry Society of America have voted on the most beautiful word in the English language.The winner? Diaphanous.So, why did this word win, and what were the runner ups?Dr. Gail Flanagan, Communication and Linguistics Lecturer in UL, joins Seán to discuss.

In this episode, Tom Hegna challenges advisors with the questions that matter most right now: Are you using AI, or avoiding it? Tom uses AI every day — building presentations in minutes, sharpening social posts, and coaching himself on strategy. His warning: advisors who say "I'm not AI" will get left behind. Would AI approve your plan? When a client runs your illustration through AI, does it endorse your work? Tom argues the fix is to feed it yourself and ask, "Is this the optimal solution for this client?" Are you still stuck on accumulation? Tom explains why retirement is about income and risk management, not rate of return — and why he had to make income "sexy" through mortality credits and the academic research behind them. Is your client's retirement riding on luck? Sequence-of-returns risk is "nothing more than good luck or bad luck." Tom explains why the solution is guaranteed lifetime income covering basic living expenses. Are you building a protection plan or just an investment plan? Tom breaks down the roles of income annuities, cash value life insurance, hybrid and traditional long-term care, and asset protection. Do you know what the big institutions are actually saying? BlackRock, Ernst & Young, Barclays, Goldman Sachs and the Wall Street Journal — none of them sell annuities, and all point toward guaranteed income. What should you stop doing? Sketchy IUL claims, underfunded UL policies sold on fantasy, and fixed index annuities built on manufactured or back-tested performance. **This is the Optimized Advisor Podcast, where we focus on optimizing the wellbeing and best practices of insurance and financial professionals. Our objective is to help you optimize your life, optimize your profession, and learn from other optimized advisors. If you have questions or would like to be a featured guest, email us at optimizedadvisor@optimizedins.com Optimized Insurance Planning

How do shingle ratings and warranties actually drive sales? First, they are not the same thing, and many roofers are getting this wrong. Ratings = “This has been tested.” Warranties = “This company backs it.”Why does this matter? Because homeowners aren't buying roofs.They're buying what feels like certainty. If you can't explain this properly to homeowners, they will not understand your value. But if you get this right, you could be the one roofer that stood out from everyone else. P.S. If you're looking to increase your close rates, improve your processes, and learn from industry experts, I'd love to invite you to join us inside the Roofing STRONG Alliance™ community: https://rsa.pro/Membership is now included at no additional cost for The TAMKO Edge® Certified Contractors.=============Join The Roofing STRONG Alliance by TAMKO™ (RSA): https://rsa.pro/Exclusively available to The TAMKO Edge® Certified Contractors at no additional cost.FREE Starter Membership (RSA): https://rsa.pro/freePODCASTApple Podcasts: https://apple.co/3fSQievSpotify: https://bit.ly/3eMAqJeFOLLOWFacebookInstagramTikTokLinkedInThe views and opinions expressed are based on the speakers' personal experiences in the roofing industry and are for general informational purposes only. Jon Senac is a Mentor inside the Roofing STRONG Alliance by TAMKO™ community. All product performance claims, ratings, and warranty descriptions discussed in this video are general in nature and intended for educational purposes. “Beyond Class 4” is a marketing term and does not refer to any official UL impact rating – please review the official HailGuard™ product specifications for complete details and tamko.com for the actual terms of HailGuard™ Extended Limited System Warranty. Product ratings reflect testing under controlled laboratory conditions and do not guarantee performance under all real-world conditions, including but not limited to hail events. This video does not represent that any product will prevent hail damage or eliminate the need for insurance claims. Contractors must ensure their sales representations regarding product ratings, warranties, and insurance are accurate, substantiated, and comply with all applicable federal, state, and local laws, including consumer protection, advertising, and insurance regulations. Recording of sales interactions must comply with applicable state and federal recording consent laws. Consult your advisors before applying these concepts.Content produced on or before 5/13/26 was previously produced by The Roof Strategist, TAMKO Building Products LLC makes no representations or warranties regarding its accuracy, completeness, or applicability to current products, programs, or operations.

Louie and Zach open hour 2 with a college basketball segment, recapping portal classes and why UL might be this year's Michigan. The guys preview the Big 12 before booing the conference for not playing a top rivalry. They wrap with Tom Segura's divorce and Mary Morello's life. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Dan Fletcher, Co-Founder and Head of Ecosystems at dcbel, joins Sean White to explore the technical and commercial realities of residential energy management - including what it means to run a true private grid at home. Topics include DC home charging, on-device energy optimization, vehicle-to-grid integration, UL 1741 SB certification, virtual power plants, compatible EV models, and California's Redwoods incentive program.   Topics Covered DCBEL www.dcbel.energy Home Energy Station Solar Integration EV = Electric Vehicle Bidirectional EV Charging EV Charging Battery Inverter ESS = Energy Storage System DC Home Charging Energy optimization Solar integration Battery storage Vehicle-to-grid REDWDS program = Responsive, Easy Charging Products with Dynamic Signals Program VGIC = Vehicle-Grid Integration Council UL Listing Utility VPP = Virtual Power Plant Code Data Center Distributed Energy Bitcoin Mining V2G = Vehicle to Grid   Podcast with Dan Fletcher | Part 1 Apple podcast YouTube Spotify Pandora Podbean   Reach out to Dan Fletcher here: LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/fletcherdan Website: www.dcbel.energy Email: flora@ink-co.com   Learn more at www.solarSEAN.com and be sure to get NABCEP certified by taking Sean's classes at www.heatspring.com/sean http://solarsean.com/sfev

Audio Transcript Elders here and I get the privilege of preaching for you guys this morning. So quick announcement before we get too far. It is a holiday weekend, so we don't have our full kids ministry as usual. So we have, we'll get all the kids in here today. So we got snacks and activities over there kind of where you walk in and then if, if, you know, I got four boys, we only got two here today. So I get it. If they get a little antsy and we need some more room to run, you can go through this back door here, you know, kind of turn back around this way. But we have a meeting room down there where I think the service is projected and just, just some space for the kids to move and you can still follow along with the service. So, yeah, like I said, my name is Rob Fisher, one of the elders here, privileged to. Privilege to preach for you guys today. And so every summer we try to give Aaron, our main teaching pastor, the at least eight weeks off or so out of the pulpit. We think it's important for a couple reasons we want, you know, the Bible says that elders should be, should be able to teach. So we try to get all the elders in here and we also elevate. We elevate preaching, not the preacher. You know, we think it's important not to. We love Aaron. We love the faithful week. He does faithful work. He does week in, week out. But we think it's important to, to be developing other voices and not just be only receiving the word from, from one guy. Now I will say Aaron is preaching his campground this weekend. So they've done a lot of faithful ministry there and we're excited they can do that. So just an overview today we're continuing our series through the book of Exodus. So we're in Exodus chapter 6 today. So we'll start out by reading the text. We'll pray together. Then we're going to work through the text together really line by line. And Lord willing, after we're done working through it, we'll put some main points to it and some themes and we'll see how God is going to use the life and the story of Moses to inform us how we should live in the here and now. Right? So again, we're in Exodus chapter 6 today. We can go ahead and turn there. Continue, continue to the book of Exodus. We're doing this summer. We're going to follow the life of Moses. God has been calling him to be a, to be a part of delivering the Israelites out of Egypt. And we're going to we're going to pick up here in chapter six. So this is the word of the Lord. But the Lord said to Moses, now you shall see what I will do to Pharaoh. For with a strong hand, he will send them out. With a strong hand, he will drive them out of his land. God spoke to Moses and said to him, I am the Lord. I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac and to Jacob as God Almighty. But by my name, the Lord, I did not make myself known to them. I also established my covenant with them, to give them the land of Canaan, the land in which they lived as sojourners. Moreover, I have heard the groaning of the people of Israel whom the Egyptians sold as slaves. And I have remembered my covenant. Say therefore to the people of Israel, I am the Lord. And I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians. And I will deliver you from slavery to them. I will redeem you with an outstretched arm. With great acts of judgment, I will take you to be my people. And I will be your God. And you shall know that I am the Lord, your God, who has brought you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians. I will bring you into the land that I swore to give to Abraham, to Isaac and to Jacob. I will give it to you for possession. I am the Lord. Moses. Thus. Moses spoke thus to the people of Israel. They did not listen to Moses because of their broken spirit and harsh slavery. So the Lord said to Moses, go in. Tell Pharaoh, king of Egypt, to let the people of Israel go out of his land. Moses said to the Lord, behold, the people of Israel have not listened to me. How then shall Pharaoh listen to me? For I am of uncircumcised lips. The Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron and gave them a charge about the people of Israel and about Pharaoh, king of Egypt. To bring the people of Israel out of the land of Egypt. Now these are the heads of their fathers houses. The sons of Reuben, the firstborn of Israel. Hanak, Palu, Hezron and Carmi. These are the clans of Reuben. The sons of Simeon, Jamil, Jamin, Ohad, Jakin, Zohor and Sha'. Ul. The sons of the Canaanite woman. These are the clans of Simeon. These are the names of the sons of Levi according to their generation. Gershon, Kohath and Merari. The years of the life of Levi being 137 years. The sons of Gershon, Libni and Shimei. By their clans, the sons of Kohath, Amram, Ishar, Hebron and Uziel. The years of the life of Kohath being 133 years. The sons of Merari, Mahil and Mushi. These are the clans of the Levites according to their generations. Amram took as his wife Jochebed, his father's sister, and she bore him Aaron and Moses. The years of the life of Amram being 137 years. The sons of Izar, Korah, Nepheg and Zikri. Don't know about that one. Sons of Uzziel, Mishael, Elsaphan and Sitri. Aaron took as his wife El Shaba, the daughter of Amminadab and the sister of Nahshon. And she bore him Nadab, Abuhu, Eleazar and Ithamar. The sons of Korah, Asir, Elkanah and Abiasaph. These are the clans of the Korahites. Eleazar, Aaron's son, took as his wife one of the daughters of Phutiel, and she bore him Phinehas. These are the heads of the fathers, houses of the Levites by their cleans. And these are the Aaron and Moses, to whom the Lord said, bring out the people of Israel from the land of Egypt by their host. It was they who spoke to Pharaoh, king of Egypt, about bringing out the people of Israel from Egypt. This Moses and this Aaron. And on this day, when the Lord spoke to Moses in the land of Egypt, the Lord said to Moses, I am the Lord. Tell Pharaoh, king of Egypt, all that I say to you. But Moses said to the Lord, behold, I am of uncircumcised lips. How will Pharaoh listen to me? Let's pray. Lord, you're grateful for your word. Grateful that we get to learn from it and study it. We're grateful that your word, it studies and examines us as we study and examine it. Grateful for the life of Moses and the story of Moses. We pray that we would be faithful learners of it. We're grateful that you've sustained this church. And we ask that you would. I ask that you would help me speak your truth. Clearly. We don't come here just out of. Simply out of practice. We want it to be beneficial for the building up of your church, beneficial for the equipping of your saints. And. Yeah, we just pray that it's for your glory and for the. For the good of. For the good of those who know you. And it would be a means of evangelism for those who don't. So it's in Jesus name we pray. Amen. So Exodus 6 is just a. It's just one chapter in the larger Moses narrative, right? So before we can focus on the, on the details of this passage, we have to remember where it sits within the larger story. So if we come to chapter six, without considering the setting of Moses life and his calling and the recent events, we're going to miss a lot of the weight of what God says here. So the Bible, right, is first and foremost a book about God and God's work to bring redemption, restoration to a fallen and rebellious and sinful people. And in this section of Exodus, though, God is in the process of bringing his people out of slavery in Egypt, and he's using Moses as his church chosen instrument. And because of that, we get this kind of like mini biography of Moses. So chapter six should be read as a chapter within a larger story. It is an isolated scene, but we can't. We can't really understand that isolated scene without the broader context, right? So before we work through chapter six, we need to. Just briefly, I want to look back briefly at Moses life and just see what's brought him to this moment. So, so Moses was an Israelite boy. He was born into an Israelite family while the Israelite nation is enslaved in Egypt, right? And when he was born, there's an Egyptian decree that says, you know, all the Israelite boys need to be killed. The Israelite nation is becoming too strong. Moses, however, was miraculously saved by his mother. He's eventually adopted by the Egyptian royal family, and he grows up in the Egyptian royal household. He's 40 years old. He's an adult. And Moses, he's somehow knowing that he's actually an Israelite, and he's seeing the slavery and the oppression of the Israelites, his true people. He stops an Egyptian who was beating an Israelite by murdering the Egyptian, right? And the day after his murder, Moses realizes he's like, I am in trouble. So he flees, he settles in a foreign land. He lives out. And he lives out 40 years, the next 40 years, right, as a shepherd in Midian. So he has a Midian wife, he has a Midian family, he has an occupation, and he's made a life for himself in this. This foreign land. Now, while Moses is being a shepherd, he has an encounter with God. God charges him to be the means by which God takes the nation of Israel out of Egypt. And in that encounter, Moses raises a lot of objections about his own shortcomings for the tasks. We're going to get into more. We're going to get into more of those shortcomings as we continue. But just know that Moses had a lot of questions and concerns about the task that God is giving him. And in response to Moses concerns and questions, God gives Moses powerful signs and miracles to demonstrate his power. And God also gives Moses the help of his brother Aaron to act as Moses spokesman, since Moses is always expressing his concern over his inability to speak well. Right? So that initial exchange between God and Moses is like all of chapter three and half of chapter four. Then at the end of chapter four and through most of chapter five, Moses then is acting on God's command to go back to the people of Israel who are enslaved in Egypt, and then to Pharaoh and to tell them that, you know, God is going to bring them out of Egypt, right? So Moses and Aaron, initially, they go to the elders of Israel. They tell them, God is going to deliver you from Egypt. And obviously this is well received, as we can imagine. And the Bible says the people believed and bowed their heads and they worshiped. But next, in chapter five, the end of chapter five, Moses and Aaron take their message to Pharaoh. And it goes about as well as we can imagine. So we covered last week. It was. It was far from well received by Pharaoh. Pharaoh does not let the Israelites go. And instead of letting them go, he increases their workload. So the Israelite work leaders take their complaints to Pharaoh. Pharaoh receives them without a shred of sympathy. And the Israelite slaves, then they turn their frustration towards Moses and Aaron. And that's seen at the last, at the end of chapter five. Here. This is the last scene that we have before we go into where we're starting today, into chapter six. So I'm going to read you these verses that lead up to where we're going to start from today, so we can get a grasp on the setting here. So Exodus 5, 20, 23 says they met Moses and Aaron. This is the. They say the Israelite foreman who are waiting for them as they came out from Pharaoh. I just can imagine the scene. Moses and Aaron are outside the meeting room. They're just like, oh my gosh, this is not going good, right? And they say to them, the Lord look on you and judge you because you have made a stink in the sight of Pharaoh and his servants. You've put a sword in their hand to kill us. Moses turned to the Lord and said, lord, why have you done this evil to this people? Why did you ever send me? Since I came to Pharaoh to speak your name, he's done evil to this people, and you have not delivered your people at all. So again, the background matters here, because chapter six Begins with Moses discouraged. The people are downcast and Pharaoh is unmoved. So when God replies to Moses, he's replying to, you know, he's replying to his chosen instrument. Moses is still chosen, but the chosen instrument is once again, he's questioning God's plan. He's questioning God's timing, he's questioning his own calling. So we enter chapter six. Keep this God's. Chapter six is God responding to this mood in Moses. And he's answering Moses's frustrations and fears. So in response to Moses complaints, God is gonna, he's gonna reply to Moses questions, not directly, but rather he's gonna call. He's gonna call back to his previously stated purposes. So God is, there's, there's kind of a short answer in verse one, and then there's the long answer in verses two through eight. So verse one says, the Lord said to Moses, now you shall see what I will do to Pharaoh. With a strong hand, he will send them out. With a strong hand, he will drive them out of his land. So the short answer is that God is going to use his strong hand. And this verse, right, the verse is a good reminder to be a good and thorough student of the Bible, right? If we read this over too quickly in this translation of the Bible, it's like it's not clear who the strong hand belongs to, if it's God or Pharaoh. But if you look in the commentaries or the translation, it says the first and second strong hand, it's God. This is all God's work. And this is similar language to the initial conversation between God and Moses at the burning bush about this, how this interaction would go. So like Moses first encounter with God at the burning bush, it lays out how the deliverance process is going to go. And we don't see all the details of the narrative laid out in the in the burning bush conversation, but we see, we can see most of the narrative cover. So Exodus 3, verses 19 and 20. We also, God is using the similar language to convey, to lay out the extraction process of how it's going to go. He says, I know the king of Egypt will not let you go unless compelled by a mighty hand. So I will stretch out my hand, my hand again, and strike Egypt with all the wonders that I will do in it. And after that, he will let you go. So this, this repeated language matters, right? The strong hand, the mighty hand, the outstretched arm, it all points us to the same truth. Israel's deliverance is only going to come by God's power, right? Israel's deliverance is only going to come by God's power. So when we think about verse one, it's just important to see that God is clearly stating that the deliverance of his people will be by his power, his mighty, strong and active outstretched hand. It's important to note that it's not from the willpower of Moses over Pharaoh, and it's not from the generosity of Pharaoh either. Right? The Israelite people can only be on. They're only going to be delivered by the workings of a strong and all powerful God. And the people will be led by Moses, he says, but only because Moses is the man that God chose to be the messenger. So the people would be freed by Pharaoh, but only because of the more powerful and strong mighty hand of God that he showed over the stubbornness of Pharaoh. Right? So God's short answer to Moses is that my promise is not wavered. Moses says, why me? Why is this so hard? Why can't we make any progress, right? God essentially says this. He says, keep watching what I will do. So the current difficulty Moses finds himself in, it's not evidence that God's plan has failed. It's actually evidence that things are going to according to plan. Like Pharaoh will not be easily moved. This was laid out at the burning bush, right? So in God's short answer to Moses in verse one, that's, that's the short answer in verse one. But now let's look at the longer answer, verses two through eight. So as I was reading and I was meditating on this task, being prepared for this, I was just struck again at how God's lengthier reply to Moses groaning again. It's a repetition of something that's already been laid out in the Moses narrative, right? It's been laid out in God's conversation with Moses at the burning bush. So looking at verses four and five, it says, I established my covenant with them to give them the land of Canaan. And I heard people's groanings as slaves. And I remembered my covenant. I remembered my covenant. The same language that Moses uses. So Moses wrote all this when he writes the end of chapter two. At the end of chapter two, just this huge turning point in the narrative, you know, Moses has established himself in the land of Midian. Meanwhile, business as usual, we can say, continues in Egypt. And the rest of the nation of Israel is still under the oppression of Egyptian slavery, right? Chapter 2, verse 23 and 24 says, the people of Israel are crying to God for help to be freed from slavery. And God hears their Cries the key words here. God remembers his covenant with his people. God remembers his covenant with his people. After that, the narrative turns and God calls Moses at the burning bush. Right then, in the burning bush encounter between God and Moses, God twice recalls his covenant to give the land of Canaan to the offspring of Abraham. And that covenant is going to pull us way back to Genesis 12, the Abrahamic covenant in which God promises. Abraham says, your offspring will inhabit the land of canaan. So Genesis 12 is really the basis of the Exodus narrative because it's setting, it's establishing the promise that God's people will have a home where they can live and prosper and worship the true God. Now, keep working forward through verses 6, 7, and 8, God is gonna. He's gonna drive the details of this promised home even further. It's his promise to his people to remember the covenant, right? So verse six says, I, God, I'm going to free you from Egyptian slavery. And we see the imagery of God again here says, I'm reaching out and pulling his people out of slavery with an outstretched arm. In chapter four, God says, I'm going to use a mighty hand. In the beginning of chapter six, he says, I'm going to use a strong hand. And now here in chapter six, verse six, God says, it's worth an outstretched arm with great acts of judgment, right? In verse seven, it says, you will be my people, I will be your God, and you will know that I brought Israel out of slavery. And finally, verse 8 reminds us of the covenant that God made with Abraham. Says God, the promise that God would give the land of Canaan to the Israelites. Okay, so that's our first eight verses of this chapter. And this narrative is going to continue in verse nine. And Moses is going to start taking action on these commands next. But before we get into that, let me just look it back on these eight verses. I want to summarize as best I can here. So verses one through eight, they're. They're God's reply to Moses's grumblings, really, at the end of chapter five. And so if this were like. So I was thinking about this. This is a TV show. It's divided into episodes, right? Chapter 5 ends with. With Moses in the depths. He's standing outside of the meeting place if the Israelite foreman had just brought their failed appeal to Pharaoh. And so, like, right before the credits roll, Moses is just discouraged. He's frustrating. He's wondering why his obedience to God's commands have only made things worse. And I was thinking about this, the Bible doesn't tell us. We don't get any physical demonstrations from Moses in this moment. So I can only imagine it from my own experience. But I'll just say this, if you don't know me, I've worked in construction management for the last. Trying to remember now, 6, 7, 8 years now 9 out of 10 days wear work boots, jeans, a butt down shirt and a hat. When I need to look more presentable, I just don't wear the hat. Okay? Right. But when something goes wrong on a job site, which believe it or not, sometimes happens, right, the person responsible, usually me, you have to figure out what happened, we have to figure out how to fix it. You have to figure out how long it's going to take and then you have to explain it to everybody involved. Right. And then sometimes when multiple things go wrong at once, like my hat comes off, it's a good thing to throw when you're frustrated, right. And your hands go through, your hands go through my hair like this, right. And you're just going, I don't know anything, I don't know anything about anything. Right. But this is like, this is the kind of human frustration that I, that we see Moses in here. Like, we obviously don't know what he was wearing. We don't know if he wears a hat, if he throws it, we don't know if he turned around and kicked the sand or punched the wall. But, but because, but the, his words here, they're a man overwhelmed by a mission that seems to be collapsing in front of him. And we see this frustration mounting in Moses right here. So that, so Moses again, just keep this in mind before this whole conversation happens. Moses is rejected by Pharaoh, he's blamed by the Israelite foreman. And then he's just kind of like, he's like, this is all going backwards. Like nothing is going right here. So his questions at the end of chapter five, they're not like calm theological observations. They're the words of a desperate man. And he's like, he's like, I'm trying to be obedient, but all I'm doing is leading to more suffering here. So that's the first thing to remember in these first eight verses, right. God's answer is replying to a moment of great frustration. Okay, the second thing to remember here is that God never told Moses it was going to be easy. He was like, like at no point was he like, you're just going to waltz in there and it's going to, you know, it's one conversation. It's over, right? It's not how it's laid out. From the burning bush onward God. He's already told Moses that Pharaoh would resist, that the deliverance would require God's mighty hand. So God's reply isn't a change of plan. It's more of a reminder of the plan that he's already revealed. And it's a reminder that Moses, he's like, you should have expected some hardship here, right? And the third thing to remember about these first eight verses, it's God presenting himself as the covenant maker and the covenant keeper. And God is delivering Israel from slavery by delivering Israel from slavery and bringing them one step closer to the land of Canaan. It's more than Moses assignment. It's actually. It's God fulfilling the promise he made to Abraham. So Moses has to trust in this difficult obedience. He says, I have to trust that this is a part of God's larger plan. Okay, okay, we'll keep working through it here. Let's look at verses 9 through 13. I'll read these for us. Just to refresh it here. Moses spoke thus to the people of Israel, but they did not listen to Moses because their broken spirit and harsh slavery. So the Lord said to Moses, go in, tell Pharaoh, king of Egypt, to let the people of Israel go out of his land. But Moses said to the Lord, behold, the people of Israel have not listened to me. How then shall Pharaoh listen to me? For I am of uncircumcised lips. The Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron and gave them a charge about a people of Israel, about the people of Israel, and about Pharaoh, king of Egypt, to bring the people of Israel out of the land of Egypt, Egypt. So. So first of all, here, I think we got to give Moses a little bit of credit here. He has some. We have obedience without grumbling in this case, right? He does what God commands. He's delivering the covenant reminder message to the people. But he hits another setback here. The message falls on deaf ears, right? Verse nine says that they don't. They wouldn't listen because their broken spirit and the harsh slavery. So, like going back to chapter five, Pharaoh's strategy has worked, at least for the moment. And the burden on the Israelites has become so heavy that, like, the mental occupation of survival has crowded out any glimmer of hope. And it's just one of the painful realities of this passage is like, when people are. When you're just crushed by the weight of the present moment, it's hard to see any promise of the future. So the Israelites, I don't think they're rejecting God's promise because it's untrue. I think they're just too burdened to receive it right now. So then moving forward in verses 10 through 13, the focus is going to shift from, from the people's inability to hear God's promise to Moses ongoing struggle to trust God's calling. So, so God tells Moses, he says, go back to Pharaoh and command to let Israel go. But immediately, Moses immediately goes back to his familiar objections. And Moses argues that, he says, if the people of Israel won't listen to me, Pharaoh certainly won't, right? He's like, these are the people. I'm these people who are going to benefit from this, right? Why is Pharaoh gets nothing out of this? Why would he listen? He says, he says, I have uncircumcised lips. And other translations say I have faltering lips, I have poor, poor speech. So in other words, Moses is saying the people who should most want to hear this message are not listening one, and then two. So why should Pharaoh? And lastly, third, I'm still not a good communicator. So God answers, he answers both objections. He gives a charge to Moses and Aaron. And Aaron's present presence is an answer to Moses concerned about speaking, right? Like we go back to chapter to the burning bush encounter. God says, I'll give you Aaron to help you speak, right? So just having Aaron there is an answer to one of the objections. Then the charge itself to Moses and Aaron, it just keeps it mission focused, right? He says, you gotta speak to both Israel and Pharaoh because God me, I am still intending to bring the nation of Israel out of Egypt. So, so neither Pharaoh's resistance, nor Israel's discouragement, nor Moses insecurity can overturn God's command. Okay, so that's, so we're through verse 13 now. Now at this point the narrative is going to pause for a genealogy and like, rather than skipping over it, we need to, we need to, we need to look through this and see how this serves the, the flow of chapter six and how it fits within larger narrative of the Old Testament. This is by no means the, the longest or the most, the most thorough genealogy of the Old Testament. But this one, the purpose of this genealogy, it's going to anchor Moses and Aaron and the family line of Israel. And it reminds us that this rescue mission that we're on here is, is tied to God's long standing covenant promise. So we see the genealogy start with Reuben and Israel, and Israel is another Name for Jacob. And Jacob, right, is the grandson of Abraham, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob. And so we see again that Moses, he's just God's tool to fulfill the covenant between God and Abraham. Okay. And secondly the text self identifies its purpose in verse 26 to 27 says these are the Aaron and Moses to whom the Lord said bring out the people of Israel from the land of Egypt by their host. It was they who spoke to Pharaoh, king of Egypt, about bringing the people of Israel from Egypt. This Moses and this Aaron. So by including this family history, Moses connects the deliverance of Egypt back to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. He's not just, he's not stepping into this random moment in history. He's being placed place within the covenant story of God that God has been working on for generations. So this genealogy reminds us that God's promise has a history and his faithfulness is not interrupted by Moses weakness or by Pharaoh's resistance. Okay, final section of text here, verse 28:30. It's going to return us back to the main narrative, right? God is again going to direct Moses to speak to Pharaoh. And that's going to set us up for the events in chapter seven, right? There's a slight, there's a slight difference here. It says, tell Pharaoh, King of Egypt, all that I say to you. So we're kind of setting up for what's going to be happening next here. But this genealogy has reminded us that God's covenant purposes are still moving forward. And now the narrative is going to remind us that Moses has to continue forward as God's messenger. Right? But Moses again is going to repeat his old objection. He says, I'm not a strong speaker. How will Pharaoh listen? And the chapter is going to end with this kind of unresolved, unresolved tension in Moses mind. But not, not an unresolved, but nothing unresolved in God's plan. Right? The tension is with Moses. So that's our, that's our, that's our text, that's our passage. So Lord willing, let me just try to wrap this up for us here. It's not, it's not hard to see the repeated patterns here, right? As I, when I start writing a sermon, I have the Bible and I have a blank piece of a yellow legal pad. And I just, I make notes verse by verse, verse by verse. And as I'm doing this, I'm like, Moses complains about inability. God reminds him of God reminds Moses of God's greater purpose. Moses complains again. God reminds Moses again. Moses complains. I mean I Mean, it's like, it's not, it's not a. We don't have to be scholars here to see this repeated pattern, right? But that's like the power of the narrative, though. Like God is giving Moses this clear command. It's grounded in his power, it's grounded in covenant faithfulness. But Moses just keeps going back to his own weakness. Then God keeps pointing Moses, think beyond yourself. He's like, he's pointing Moses away, away from himself. He's pointing Moses back towards God who can accomplish the deliverance, right? And as we think about applying this passage, we have to be careful that we don't turn this into like the hero's journey of Moses and needing to believe in himself, right? The main point is not that Moses finally finds enough courage within himself. And that's the risk. These well known Old Testament narratives like Joseph, Moses, David, Daniel, Jonah, to name a few, that's the risk of these passages. The main point of these is that God is faithful, God is powerful, and God is using weak messengers to carry out his saving work. And that the danger in reading these like famous biblical narratives as if their deepest lesson was merely like, follow the healer's good traits and avoid his bad traits. Like, there's just a we can learn from Moses. But the shortfalling of that is that these characters and Moses, he's not the central figure of the passage, right? The strong arm of God, the mighty hand of God the mighty. The strong hand of God is the force that keeps the story moving forward. So when Moses is just repeatedly questioning his ability to do the work that God has called him to do, in one sense he's right. He's not wrong in his assessment of his own abilities, like Moses did not. He doesn't have the power to change Pharaoh's heart. He doesn't have the power to break the Egyptian oppression. He doesn't have the power to fulfill God's covenant promise. But Moses, still, he just keeps missing the point. It's like God is never asking him to be the deliverer. He's. God is asking him to be the messenger of the deliverer, right? Exodus chapter 3, verses 19 and 20 establish this. They say, I know that the king of Egypt will not let you go unless compelled by a mighty hand. So I will stretch out my hand, this is God speaking, and strike Egypt with all the wonders that I will do in it. And after that he will let you go. So again, God is never asking Moses to be the mighty hand. He's just asking Moses to be the messenger. God is never commanding Moses to fulfill the covenant by his own strength. He's just commanding Moses to be an obedient participant in, in God's plan of keeping the covenant. So guys, if we can, this is like, if we can get this through our brains, we can save ourselves so much worry and hanry and consternation. Like, we are not the Saviors, we are not the Saviors. Moses cannot deliver Israel, deliver Israel by his own strength. And we can't deliver ourselves from the consequences of our own sin. Right? We can't save ourselves. Moses couldn't do it. We can't do it. Salvation belongs to the Lord and our calling is just faithful obedience in that. Now back to thinking about, thinking about this narrative as a whole. Like when we read narratives and especially these biographical narratives, it's easy to be the critic. So I say this next part with some hesitation because I don't, I'm confident I would not have done much better than Moses if I were in this situation. So with that trepidation, I, I, if we can glean one like kind of follow Moses lesson out of this or maybe don't follow Moses lesson. The, the lesson we need to learn is we need to be better at speaking the truth to ourselves, right? Moses has some moments of faithful obedience, but, but he's, more often than not he's, he's just plagued by his own self doubts. So when we think about this in the real world, I think about the phrase, I don't know where I heard it first. It's like you don't rise to the occasion, you drop to the level of your training, right? So I've just gotten done this summer. It's the seventh summer I've coached Demetrius, our oldest in baseball. And the past two summers I've been the first base coach. So I get a little bit of like mid at bat coaching time. And it takes me about half the season to remember that like you're not significantly moving the needle in like player development and talent in the middle of the game, in the middle of the at bat, right? Like you got a player with a bad swing at the beginning of that bat. Nothing you can say is really going to make a significant adjustment in the middle of the at bat. So like in the middle of the, in the middle of the game, in the middle of the moment. Most people, we don't rise to the occasion, we just stoop to the level of the training. Like the game moves so fast, the next moment comes so fast and the next moment is so overwhelming that like you stoop to the level of your training, right? So what we can learn from Moses Bad example here is that we have to be faithful and consistent and diligent in consuming what is right and true and what is from God. And we have to be faithful and consistent and diligent in reminding ourselves that like God is the strong and mighty hand and we are not. Right. And again, in full honesty, I don't think I would stack up much better than Moses. Again, it's easy to be the critic. Our life isn't canonized, Right. The main application is not be better than Moses. The main application is this. Like, we have to be mindful of how highly we view our own abilities and we have to be mindful of how low or not we view God's abilities. Right? We have to be mindful of how highly we view our own abilities. And we have to be mindful of how low or how high we view God's abilities. Right? One of my dear friends and mentors in construction and just life is a man named Travis. He's been doing construction management for over 30 years. He's a wonderful man of God, father of three faithful kids, grandfather, he's in construction terms. He's forgotten more work than I've ever managed and he's forgotten more lessons than I've ever learned yet. Right. If you've been to Lucille Downtown, he managed the renovation. It turned the bank vault into this wonderful event space. He's managed like a 500,000 square foot manufacturing plant. He has the experience and the credentials to be respected. And when I first met Travis, I'd been managing projects for like two years. I was like the most stressed out I had ever been. I had more responsibility than I ever had. Like deadlines in 1, 2, 3, 4 weeks. Coming up, Rachel's eight months pregnant with Chris. I'm like overwhelmed. And I meet Travis. I can remember it's like the Panera in Fitchburg. I'm like, Travis, how do you manage this? And he didn't. I can still remember this conversation. He says he didn't give me any. Do this every day. This is my project management checklist. He goes, you know, Rob, you do everything you can. Sometimes you just have to pray those projects over the finish line. Like that was it. It's like, it's, it's hopefully simple, but. But painfully simple, right? It's like you do all we can, but we have to. We have to. We have to show up, but we have to. We have to show up and do the work that God has called us to. Do diligently. But we have to realize that there are responsibilities and goals that seem impossible for man to shoulder. So we have to have to appeal to the all powerful God for help. So when we think about Moses and our narrative today, like Moses repeated objections, they just reveal we're seeing a man who felt the weight of his own weakness, but he struggled to rest in the strength of God. So church just wrapping this up. As we continue to think about Moses and we continue to think about God using Moses to carry out his work, my prayer is that we would learn to be faithful and obedient voices for God in the world. And not because we're strong enough to accomplish his purposes, but because we serve a God who is. So that's all we got for today. Let me pray for us today and then we'll do Lord supper after that. Lord, what a, What a joy and a burden it is. To be able to. Just take time to go into Moses's life in detail and take time to see, to see his shortcomings and to see, to see your strength and your promises and to see how you're using a flawed and sinful man to fulfill your promises, to fulfill your plan to redeem the world. Like. Pray for us, pray for our church that we would, we would diligently serve, we would diligently show up, we'd be faithful, obedient servants. But we would ultimately remember that it is not, it's not on our own strength. We serve an all powerful God who has a strong hand and a mighty arm. Even thinking of this sermon today, you're using a flawed and sinful man to bring, to deliver a divine and holy word here. So pray these words will not return empty and that they would be faithful for the good of your church, the evangelism of the world, and for the building up of the saints. It's in Christ's name we pray. Amen. The post God Promises Deliverance – Exodus 6: 1-30 appeared first on Red Village Church.

This episode we talk about some Wannabe “Engineer” who claims they are “The Electrical Expert” and wants to talk engineering theory with an NEC Guy. Yep, you guessed it, as someone who has been at the highest level of electrical code training for nearly 40 years there is always “That One Guy” so I guess that guy is Thomas. Well, we have issued an OPEN CHALLENGE to “Thomas” and clearly we have provided our email address at info@electricalcodeacademy.com so we can coordinate the LIVE STREAM and see what “Thomas” knows in terms of the NEC.Nope, I only debate what I am an expert on and that is the National Electrical Code and Manufacturer Listings per ASTM, UL, and NEMA where necessary. So, if “Thomas” wants to debate electrical engineering theory then he will need to take his comments somewhere else, I am an NEC guy and always have been. Also we talk about Stack Caddy a little bit as well so join us for this quick podcast. Listen as Paul Abernathy, CEO, and Founder of Electrical Code Academy, Inc., the leading electrical educator in the country, discusses electrical code, electrical trade, and electrical business-related topics to help electricians maximize their knowledge and industry investment.If you are looking to learn more about the National Electrical Code, for electrical exam preparation, or to better your knowledge of the NEC then visits https://fasttraxsystem.com for all the electrical code training you will ever need by the leading electrical educator in the country with the best NEC learning program on the planet.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/master-the-nec-podcast--1083733/support.Struggling with the National Electrical Code? Discover the real difference at Electrical Code Academy, Inc.—where you'll learn from the nation's most down-to-earth NEC expert who genuinely cares about your success. No fluff. No gimmicks. Just the best NEC training you'll actually remember.Visit https://FastTraxSystem.com to learn more.

Universal life insurance is the product everybody loves to dunk on. The vanishing-premium horror stories, the lawsuits, the agent who swore the premium would disappear and then mailed you a letter twenty years later saying it wouldn't. If your only exposure to UL is the cautionary tales, you've been handed the cynical version — a boardroom full of people scheming about how to separate you from your money. That story is heavy on hot takes and light on facts. So this week we rewind the clock to the actual conception of universal life, and it's a very different story than the one you've heard. UL didn't come from a sales department. It came from actuaries — the actual smart people in the room. By the late 1960s and '70s, whole life was getting clobbered: rigid, fixed, and badly outgunned by money markets and mutual funds while interest rates went vertical. A Canadian actuary named George Dinney saw the iceberg and floated the idea of unbundling a life insurance policy into its parts. James Anderson turned the concept into a blueprint and predicted a feeding frenzy he nicknamed "Cannibal Life." This was principled problem-solving, not a con. What they designed worked. Where it went sideways is the part nobody tells honestly: UL got sold as "cheaper whole life," illustrated at double-digit interest rates that were never going to last, and bolted onto a commission structure nobody bothered to reform. When rates fell, the premiums that were supposed to vanish came roaring back. That's a sales failure, not a design failure — and the distinction matters, because judging a product by its worst salespeople is exactly how people end up in the wrong policy. We also make a case that owes nobody an apology: the modern whole life policy people celebrate today — the flexible, PUA-funded, high-cash-value design — largely exists because universal life forced it into being. Competition made everything better, even the product UL was supposed to replace. If you own a UL policy and you've ever stared at a statement wondering why it doesn't line up with what you thought you bought, this episode is for you. _______________________________ Got a policy you're not sure about? Looking at these is what we do. Send us a message and tell us what you've got, or book a 30-minute call and we'll walk through it with you.

This episode we talk about some Wannabe “Engineer” who claims they are “The Electrical Expert” and wants to talk engineering theory with an NEC Guy. Yep, you guessed it, as someone who has been at the highest level of electrical code training for nearly 40 years there is always “That One Guy” so I guess that guy is Thomas. Well, we have issued an OPEN CHALLENGE to “Thomas” and clearly we have provided our email address at info@electricalcodeacademy.com so we can coordinate the LIVE STREAM and see what “Thomas” knows in terms of the NEC.Nope, I only debate what I am an expert on and that is the National Electrical Code and Manufacturer Listings per ASTM, UL, and NEMA where necessary. So, if “Thomas” wants to debate electrical engineering theory then he will need to take his comments somewhere else, I am an NEC guy and always have been. Also we talk about Stack Caddy a little bit as well so join us for this quick podcast. Listen as Paul Abernathy, CEO, and Founder of Electrical Code Academy, Inc., the leading electrical educator in the country, discusses electrical code, electrical trade, and electrical business-related topics to help electricians maximize their knowledge and industry investment.If you are looking to learn more about the National Electrical Code, for electrical exam preparation, or to better your knowledge of the NEC then visits https://fasttraxsystem.com for all the electrical code training you will ever need by the leading electrical educator in the country with the best NEC learning program on the planet.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/electrify-electrician-podcast--4131858/support.

The Cycling Tech Brief: the cycling tech that actually matters this week — and whether to update, wait, or ignore.Eovolt Afternoon Twenty V0 recalled in UK and Europe over frame-shattering weld defect — If you own an Afternoon Twenty V0, check your serial number under the bottom bracket now, stop riding, and contact UTO immediately — don't buy or ride affected units.Amazon-sold Bigniu BG10 e-bike battery explodes during charging, burning Florida rider — lawsuit filed — Do not buy high-powered 'e-bikes' from unvetted Amazon sellers; look for UL-certified batteries and verify the product meets legal e-bike classification before purchase or indoor charging.Peloton extends Bike+ seatpost replacement to UK, Germany, Austria and Australia — voluntary upgrade, not a formal recall — If you own an original-series Bike or Bike+ in the UK, Germany, Austria, or Australia, check your inbox for Peloton's email, order the free seatpost now — shipping slots are first-come, first-served with up to a 12-week wait.TrainingPeaks Virtual v19.99 ships 450+ community-driven fixes plus new world routes and hardware support — Update now — this is a meaningful stability and fidelity release, especially if you use GPXplore or export FIT files to third-party analysis tools.TrainingPeaks clarifies Basic vs Premium split in freshly updated 2026 breakdown — the paywall is steeper than many realise — Monitor: the Basic tier is too limited for self-coached structured training — trial Premium for 14 days to decide if the PMC and scheduling flexibility justify the cost versus free alternatives.Daily cycling intelligence from SEMIPRO CYCLING, produced with AI-assisted research, scripting, and synthetic voice.

The Cycling Tech Brief: the cycling tech that actually matters this week — and whether to update, wait, or ignore.Strava launches official MCP connector giving paid subscribers direct conversational access to their full training history via Anthropic's Claude — Monitor — if you're a paid Strava subscriber and want AI-assisted training analysis, the connector is live now and worth experimenting with; just know it's read-only and Claude-only for the moment.CPSC warns riders to immediately stop using Ridstar Q20 and Q20 Pro e-bikes — 11 fire incidents confirmed, manufacturer refuses recall — Don't buy — if you own a Ridstar Q20 or Q20 Pro, stop riding and charging it immediately, remove the battery, and contact your local household hazardous-waste program for disposal.Florida man sues Amazon and Chinese e-bike brand Bigniu after battery explodes during charging, causing severe burns and a residential fire — Monitor — if you own a Bigniu BG10 or any high-wattage moped-style 'e-bike' bought through Amazon without UL or equivalent certification, stop charging it unattended and check for any CPSC action.Garmin kicks off its biggest annual spring sale — deepest-ever discount on Fenix 8 Pro — while Apple's watchOS 27 (announced at WWDC) brings cycling power zone APIs and untethered Workout Buddy to the Apple Watch ecosystem — Monitor — if you've been waiting to buy a Fenix 8 Pro or Edge 1050, this is the window; for Apple Watch cyclists, wait for watchOS 27 public beta in July before committing to new workflows.TrainingPeaks-adjacent editorial debate: FTP vs. Critical Power — are coaches and platforms measuring the same physiological ceiling? — Monitor — no platform change to act on today; but if your training zones have felt off, ask your coach whether a CP test protocol would give you more accurate data than your current FTP estimate.Daily cycling intelligence from SEMIPRO CYCLING, produced with AI-assisted research, scripting, and synthetic voice.