Podcasts about UL

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Diarmuid O'Callaghan, CEO of Sing Ireland, Creative Director Patrick Barrett and singer Alice O'Brien join Paul to talk about the Irish Youth Choirs summer residency in UL. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Besmele, işe başlamadan önce, işinin kolaylığa, hafifliğe ve müsamahaya dayanmakta olduğuna kulun dikkatini çekmektir. Böylece, sanki Cenâb-ı Hâkk, senin için zikrettiği kelimenin daha başında, onu, seni affedeceğine, sana lütûfta bulunacağına delil kılmıştır. Anlatıldığına göre Firavun, Tanrılık iddiasında bulunmazdan önce, bir saray yaptırttı. Ve sarayın dış kapısına da, besmelenin yazılmasını emretti. Ulûhiyyet iddiasına kalkışıp da, Hz. Musa (a.s.) peygamber olarak ona gelip, onu hak dine davet edince, onda doğruya ulaşma istidâdı görmedi. Bunun üzerine Hz. Musa (a.s.) şöyle dedi: "Ya Râbbî, onu ne kadar dine davet ettimse de, onda herhangi bir hayır görmedim." Bunun üzerine Cenâb-ı Hâkk şöyle buyurdu: "Ey Musa, belki de sen, onun küfrüne bakarak, onu helâk etmemi istiyorsun. Halbuki Ben, onun sarayının dış kapısının üzerine yazmış olduğu besmeleye bakıyorum." Buradaki incelik şudur: Kâfir de olsa, kim bu kelimeyi dış kapısının üzerine yazarsa, helâk olmaktan emin olur. Kim bu kelimeyi, ömrünün başından nihayetine kadar, kalbine yazarsa, onun durumu nasıl olur, var sen düşün! Cenâb-ı Hâkk kendisini Rahmân ve Rahîm diye adlandırdı. O halde, nasıl merhamet etmesin? Anlatıldığına göre, bir dilenci zengin bir kimsenin kapısında durarak, bir şeyler istemişti. Bunun üzerine kendisine çok cüz'î bir şey verildi. İkinci gün, elinde bir baltayla geldi ve kapıyı kırmaya başladı. Ona, "Ne yapıyorsun?" denilince, şöyle cevap verdi: "Ya kapının bahşedilene uygun veyahut da yapılan bağışın kapıya uygun olması gerekir." Ey Râbbimiz! Merhamet denizleri, senin râhmetine nisbetle, zerrenin senin Arşına olan nisbetinden daha küçüktür. Kitabının başında râhmetinin sıfatını kullarına bildirdin. Binâenaleyh, bizi râhmetin ve lütfundan mahrum bırakma. (Fahruddîn Er-Râzî, Tefsîr-i Kebîr Mefâtîhu'l-Ğayb, c.1, s.236)

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.

In this episode of the Global Trade Gal Deep Dive Podcast, we explore why UL and ETL certifications are crucial for businesses aiming to sell electrical products in the United States. These certifications are more than just legal requirements—they're essential for ensuring product safety, meeting compliance standards, and building a trusted brand.We break down the key difference between having certified components and obtaining a finished-product safety mark, which evaluates the entire product's ability to handle heat, mechanical stress, and more. Without these certifications, companies risk massive liability lawsuits and may face barriers to working with major retailers and wholesalers in the U.S. market.Additionally, we highlight the importance of recurring factory audits that come with these certifications, which help ensure long-term manufacturing quality and consistency. By investing in UL or ETL certifications, companies not only meet compliance mandates but also lay the groundwork for accessing premium global distribution channels and establishing a strong reputation in the marketplace.Tune in to learn why these safety marks are non-negotiable for success in the competitive U.S. electrical product market!Read our blog https://mondoro.com/why-ul-or-etl-certifications-matters-for-selling-in-the-us/

Each county will be paired with a European country, and Limerick has been paired with Europe's largest economy, Germany.Over the next six months, Limerick will see international conferences at UL, TUS, and Mary I, alongside cultural events supported by the Shannon Foynes Port, Hunt Museum and the German Embassy. So what does this role actually mean for Irish citizens, and what benefits will the presidency bring to the country? To explain, we're joined on the line by Fianna Fáil MEP for Ireland South, Cynthia Ní Mhurchú.Image via Getty. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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.

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/ask-paul-national-electrical-code--4971115/support.

New research from the University of Limerick is exploring the NEEDS project, which stands for Negotiating the Essentials for Education in Democratic Societies, and is looking at how student-led learning can transform the Junior Cycle experience. Dr John O'Reilly, Associate Professor at UL's School of Education and Principal Investigator on the NEEDS project, and Éabha Hughes, the PhD researcher leading the ongoing work with schools involved in the programme, join Limerick Today.Image via NeedsIreland.eu. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Louie and Zach open the second hour with the best ACC-SEC challenge matchups, why Zach is more bullish on Texas and Louie is on Virginia, and how the ACC can win some respect. The guys do their daily CFB segment, and why the RB list highlights the opportunity UL has week 1. They wrap with a preview of tonight's first round and where Mikel Brown Jr will go.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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 show opens the week with Louie and Zach reacting to Pat Kelsey's interesting press conference and why both have some concerns. Matt McGavic joins to discuss the PK presser and what else is happening with UL athletics. Louie and Zach react to Dusty May leaving Michigan to go to the NBA and read UL fans reactions to end the hour.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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.

Make sure to check the rest of the description for all of our social media links, including our Patreon (patreon.com/DoNotRelent)!  Slidewhistle, Immunization, and Aaron are excited to witness the announcement of patch 12.1: The Curse of Ul'tek! See what spicy waters and spicy new content will await us in this new, upcoming patch! Our Pride Month themed contest contunies!!! You can submit a picture of something you're proud of in your house, whether it's traditional "Pride" themed, pride for your heritage, pride for putting together this complicated ass piece of furniture. Send us a picture and you'll be entered to win! Winners will receive their choice of Hearthsteel, a rainbow generator in-game toy, or an item of their choice from the Blizzard store (within reason,) and any prize will be matched by a donation to a worthy cause. Submissions can be sent to any of our links or in our Discord! Please send all your love mail, hate mail, and your best snake impression to @DoNotRelentPod (Twitter) or on gmail at DoNotRelentPod@gmail.com! We will respond to literally anything and read it on the pod. Find us at: Patreon: patreon.com/DoNotRelent Linktree: donotrelent.com (go here for our Discord) YouTube: @donotrelent on YouTube (the link is long and ugly) Instagram: www.instagram.com/donotrelent Twitter: twitter.com/DoNotRelentPod Livejournal: donotrelentpod.livejournal.com E-Mail: DoNotRelentPod@gmail.com Finally, if you feel so inclined, please rate us on iTunes and bonusroll.gg. We will take a shot on air in your honor! Every rating helps! :D

The “magic” Donut Labs battery gets debunked as ordinary lithium‑ion, tied to a crowdfunding-fueled scam with big promises and no manufactured cells, while real solid-state progress is still coming from major automakers. Americans are keeping cars longer (now ~13 years), slowing the spread of safety tech like advanced AEB. Driverless delivery trucks tout reliability and UL 4600 talk, but robotaxis draw scrutiny for safety claims, red-light issues, and a stalled vehicle that delayed firefighters. Zoox safety marketing and exemptions get criticized, Texas is dragged for an unfunded school-bus seatbelt mandate, liquid hydrogen gets a quick reality check, and multiple recalls hit seatbelts, moonroofs, and fire risks (Jeep, Pacifica PHEV).Support the show!https://electrek.co/2026/06/08/donut-lab-solid-state-battery-exposed-lithium-ion-fraud/https://www.wsj.com/business/autos/americans-are-keeping-their-cars-longer-than-ever-and-remaking-the-auto-industry-c169e494https://www.wsj.com/business/logistics/driverless-trucks-pepsico-texas-arizona-arkansas-ee4495f0?mod=hp_lead_pos11https://edition.cnn.com/us/waymo-robotaxis-safety-invshttps://www.yahoo.com/news/videos/bodycam-shows-cop-trying-move-102600011.htmlhttps://abc13.com/post/texas-school-districts-struggling-costs-complying-bus-seatbelt-law/19235825/https://static.nhtsa.gov/odi/rcl/2026/RCLRPT-26V356-0668.pdfhttps://static.nhtsa.gov/odi/rcl/2026/RCLRPT-26V344-7460.pdfhttps://static.nhtsa.gov/odi/rcl/2026/RCLRPT-26V346-4589.pdfhttps://static.nhtsa.gov/odi/rcl/2026/RCLRPT-26V363-5757.pdfhttps://static.nhtsa.gov/odi/rcl/2026/RCLRPT-26V362-0804.pdf

V bonusovém dílu Hlasů paměti o Státní bezpečnosti a jejich spolupracovnících vypráví autoři příběh Jaromíra Ulče. Od 70. let vyvíjel operace, lámal a verboval spolupracovníky StB. Nikdy, ani po sametové revoluci, ale nepochyboval o tom, že to co dělal, bylo správné. Naopak. Podle něj to byla zajímavá práce a navíc ho psychicky uspokojovalo, když z lidí dostal to, co chtěl slyšet. Poslechněte si jeho příběh.

Hour 1 opens with stories about Ryan Hampton's commitment to Kentucky and Malachi Moreno's return, as well as where do the locals rank. Matt McGavic joins to discuss Louisville's offseason, why UL's roster is better than Kentucky's, and what he's looking forward to for football season. Louie and Zach recap a wild Stanley Cup Final Game 3 to wrap the hour.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This week Mike McGrath from Red Hat joins us to talk about using Red Hat to talk about the relationship RHEL and their up-streams. -- During The Show -- 00:45 Intro IT at home Wrangling home "data center" Noah's old strategy Shoe makers kids have no shoes Snowballing tech Backups - pull vs push Making things modular 11:10 Interesting Tech - Carey TRMNL Mecha Comet GPD Micro PC 2 Value of pocket PCs 22:30 Shelly Devices and UL rated - Mike UL Ratings Pay attention to what you buy Many Shelly devices are UL listed UL listed Shelly devices are ~20% more expensive "Harbor Freight" answer 28:30 Red Hat Vulnerabilities Discovered and locked down in a few hours Assume breach, change everything Has worm like functionality Bypassed 2FA Multiple persistence methods Heavily obfuscated stepsecurity.io 36:45 Interview Mike McGrath Mike McGrath - Vice President, Core Platforms RHEL AI vs OpenShift AI What did Red Hat get wrong and right over the last few years Is AI a threat to open source? Does going closed source actually solve anything? CVEs Mechanisms for community influence on RHEL What are RHEL security best practices? Quantum safe encryption Install as little as possible Image mode Project Hummingbird RHEL Forever CentOS Stream and RHEL What is an upside of CentOS Stream? -- The Extra Credit Section -- For links to the articles and material referenced in this week's episode check out this week's page from our podcast dashboard! This Episode's Podcast Dashboard Phone Systems for Ask Noah provided by Voxtelesys Join us in our dedicated chatroom #GeekLab:linuxdelta.com on Matrix -- Stay In Touch -- Find all the resources for this show on the Ask Noah Dashboard Ask Noah Dashboard Need more help than a radio show can offer? Altispeed provides commercial IT services and they're excited to offer you a great deal for listening to the Ask Noah Show. Call today and ask about the discount for listeners of the Ask Noah Show! Altispeed Technologies Contact Noah live [at] asknoahshow.com -- Twitter -- Noah - Kernellinux Ask Noah Show Altispeed Technologies Special Guest: Mike McGrath.

Louie and Zach react to Milan Momcilovic officially committing to Kentucky, what ramifications it has for UK and UL, why UK should have some optimism, and how the rosters stack up. Brooks Holton from the Courier-Journal joins to discuss whether it's a loss for Louisville to not get Momcilovic, what he makes of the roster, and the Kings making the playoffs. Louie and Zach discuss the Stanley Cup Finals to end the hour.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

A new and unique invention developed by a UL alumnus will aim to substantially improve the comfort of women during menopause. The MyCelsius band is essentially a wrist watch device which can detect a hot flush and cool an individual down by ten degrees in ten seconds. The product which is the brainchild of Aonghus O'Donovan and Maxime Kryvian is coming to the Irish Market next month. Aonghus has been speaking to Clare FM's Daragh Dolan and began by telling us the origin story of 'MyCelsius'. Photo (c) daizuoxin from Getty Images via Canva.com

IUL gets pitched to young professionals, families, business owners, retirees, and pretty much everyone in between. The message is always consistent: this product can solve your financial problems, provide market upside with downside protection, and generate tax-free retirement income. One product, all things to all people. For most people, IUL is the wrong tool entirely. Not because it's fraudulent. Not because it can't work for anyone. But because there's a fundamental mismatch between how it's sold and who it actually serves. And that mismatch shows up in the data.  https://youtu.be/fZS1uPmsCS0 According to a 2021 study by Gottlieb and Smetters, published in the American Economic Review (1) and drawing on SOA and LIMRA persistency data, nearly 88% of universal life policies never pay a death benefit. That figure covers all universal life products, including IUL.  And IUL was built specifically to fix the lapse problems of earlier UL products. It hasn't. The chassis is the problem. This article is a profile-by-profile look at the people who should not buy an IUL, the data that supports why, and a fair look at the narrow group for whom it might make sense. We're not taking sides. We're giving you the information you need to make a decision that actually fits your life. Key Takeaways:What IUL Actually Is, and Why the Chassis MattersThe One-Year Renewable Term ProblemWho Should Not Buy an IUL PolicyAnyone who hasn't mastered the financial basicsAnyone who needs guarantees and predictabilityAnyone practicing or planning Infinite BankingAnyone without a high, stable, long-term incomeAnyone who cannot handle the lapse riskAnyone who misunderstands what market risk means in an IULAnyone building a multi-generational legacyThe Data Nobody Shows You Before You SignThe Headline NumbersA Pattern That Keeps RepeatingTo Be Fair: Who IUL Actually ServesThe Right Buyer ProfileThe Alternative Built for the Rest of UsWhy Endowment MattersThe Reduced Paid-Up Safety NetBehavioral FitThe Decision Is Yours: Make It With the Full PictureBook a Strategy CallFrequently Asked QuestionsWho should not buy an IUL policy?Is IUL worth it for most people?What is the lapse rate for IUL policies?Who is IUL actually designed for?What is the difference between IUL and whole life for banking purposes?Can I use IUL for Infinite Banking? Key Takeaways: IUL is built on a one-year renewable term chassis, meaning internal insurance costs rise every single year as the policyholder ages Nearly 88% of universal life policies (including IUL) never pay a death benefit, with 57% of permanent policies (particularly universal life) lapsing in the first 10 years IUL cannot endow and cannot be converted to reduced paid-up status, meaning premiums are required indefinitely The product demands a level of behavioral consistency over 30 to 40 years that most people, including the most disciplined, cannot sustain IUL is not compatible with Infinite Banking because it lacks the guaranteed, predictable cash value growth the strategy requires The narrow group IUL actually serves is sophisticated, high-net-worth individuals using it specifically for estate planning leverage What IUL Actually Is, and Why the Chassis Matters Indexed universal life insurance is a form of permanent life insurance where cash value growth is linked to a market index, typically the S&P 500.  The policyholder isn't actually invested in the market. The insurance company credits growth based on index performance, subject to a cap (the maximum you can earn) and a floor (usually 0%). You participate in some of the upside. You're protected from direct index losses. That's the pitch. The One-Year Renewable Term Problem The structural reality is different from the marketing version. Unlike whole life insurance, which spreads insurance costs evenly across a lifetime so the premium never changes, IUL is built on a one-year renewable term chassis. That means the cost of insurance increases every single year as the insured ages. In the early years, you barely notice. Over decades, and especially in retirement, it becomes a serious structural pressure on the policy's cash value. The flexible premium feature, often marketed as a benefit, is part of the same structural reality. Flexibility sounds good. But it means the policy requires ongoing management and can deteriorate if premiums are reduced or skipped.  The policy doesn't just sit there working for you. It demands attention, funding, and active monitoring year after year. For a deeper look at the structural risks, internal charges, and illustration problems with IUL, see our posts on the dangerous truths about IUL risks and Todd Langford's analysis of IUL math. Who Should Not Buy an IUL Policy This is the core question. Not "is IUL good or bad?" but "is the person buying it actually a match for what the product demands?" Seven profiles. If you recognize yourself in any of them, that's information worth taking seriously. Anyone who hasn't mastered the financial basics IUL is an advanced financial product. It should not be anyone's first or second financial move. Before using a structure that combines insurance, investing, and tax planning, a person needs the basics in place: spending less than they earn, building consistent positive cash flow, and saving habitually. Parkinson's Law, the tendency for expenses to rise to meet income at every level, is real. IUL does not fix a cash flow problem. It adds complexity on top of one. If you haven't overcome the basic discipline of keeping your income above your expenses and putting the gap into savings, a complex product isn't a solution. It's a distraction from the actual problem. Anyone who needs guarantees and predictability If you need to know with certainty what your policy will be worth in 10, 20, or 30 years, IUL cannot give you that. There is no guaranteed cash value dollar amount in an IUL. The crediting depends on index performance, caps that can change annually, and internal costs that increase over time. If your financial planning requires a predictable future asset base for retirement, a major capital need, or a legacy strategy, a product built on variables is the wrong foundation. The middle class, upper middle class, and anyone with fluctuating income fall into this category. And that's most people. Anyone practicing or planning Infinite Banking IUL is actively marketed as a vehicle for Infinite Banking. It is not.  Infinite Banking requires a pool of capital that is predictable, guaranteed, and always growing. The arbitrage that makes policy loans powerful, earning in two places at once, only works when the policy's growth is reliable. In a year where the index earns zero, a policy loan doesn't just cost the loan interest. It costs the loan interest with no offsetting policy growth.  The banking system breaks down exactly when it should be working hardest. For a full breakdown, see our post on why IUL is incompatible with Infinite Banking. Anyone without a high, stable, long-term income IUL requires consistent, maximum funding over a very long time horizon to have any chance of performing as illustrated. Life disruptions like job changes, business downturns, family expenses, and medical costs interrupt premium payments. And because the policy relies on the index to help fund its own rising costs, any gap in funding creates a cascade effect that's very difficult to reverse. Even Nelson Nash, the creator of Infinite Banking, once missed funding PUAs on one of his own policies, causing the rider to close. If the creator of the strategy had trouble keeping up with premiums, the expectation that ordinary policyholders will fund an IUL perfectly for 30 to 40 years is unrealistic. Anyone who cannot handle the lapse risk Nearly 88% of universal life policies never pay a death benefit, and IUL is part of that picture. That number should stop anyone from considering this product and make them ask: why?  The answer is structural. Rising internal costs, non-guaranteed crediting, and the behavioral reality of managing a complex financial product over decades. And lapsing isn't just losing the policy. When a policy lapses with outstanding loans and cash value above the cost basis (the total premiums paid), the gain is treated as taxable ordinary income in the year of lapse. That tax bill arrives at the worst possible time, often in retirement, when income is fixed and absorbing it is most painful. Anyone who misunderstands what market risk means in an IUL Many buyers hear "zero is your floor" and believe their money is protected from losses. This is technically true and practically misleading. The 0% floor only protects against index-linked losses. It does not protect against the internal drag of rising mortality costs, administrative fees, and hedging strategy expenses, all of which continue to come out of the cash value regardless of what the index does. A zero-credit year is effectively a negative year once internal charges are factored in. And when markets perform poorly over multiple years, the insurance company's cost of maintaining those hedges rises. They respond by lowering caps. Lower caps mean less upside potential. This cycle of poor performance, higher hedge costs, and lower caps compounds over time. Anyone building a multi-generational legacy Legacy planning requires certainty across decades and generations. A policy that cannot endow, cannot be converted to reduced paid-up status, and requires active management indefinitely is not a reliable foundation for generational wealth transfer. Whole life policies endow at age 120 or 121. The cash value and death benefit converge, and the policy is contractually complete. IUL policies do not endow. Premiums are required for as long as the insured lives. There is no actuarial endpoint.  ...

Mike and Charlie interviewed Louisiana head baseball coach Matt Deggs and Chrissy Smith, a podcaster for The Kneaux. Coach Deggs broke down the Cajuns' challenge in the Starkville Regional, featuring No. 14 Mississippi State and No. 24 Cincinnati. Coach Deggs also recapped the Cajuns' trip in the Sun Belt Conference Tournament and evaluated UL's pitching staff. Smith discussed Pelican head coach Jamahl Mosley's introductory press conference.

Hello there! We're back with one of the big episodes this week, Hunter and JJ burrow deep into their sleepy souls to deliver you one fine guide to playing as the Titans of Ul. I think this is our best work yet as a duo and I have utmost confidence that if you watch this whole thing you'll be able to play as the Titans in your sleep, literally.   Also once you get to the rundown we've got a special surprise if you want to hear people complain about star wars. It's easily skipped!   Come the Kansas City Tournament (June 5-7): SCPT Intergalactical Kansas City Come to our Live Comedy Show at Gen Con SCPT @ Helium Indianapolis July 30th at 8PM Music provided by Ben Prunty. Find more at benpruntymusic.com or benprunty.bandcamp.com Additional Music and Sounds by Brian Kupillas. https://wanderinglake.bandcamp.com/ Art by Sun Sanders  To learn more about our Discord, Patreon, Merch, and more, visit https://spacecatspeaceturtles.com/

Louisiana head baseball coach Matt Deggs joined Sports Talk. Coach Deggs broke down the Cajuns' challenge in the Starkville Regional, featuring No. 14 Mississippi State and No. 24 Cincinnati. Coach Deggs also recapped the Cajuns' trip in the Sun Belt Conference Tournament and evaluated UL's pitching staff.

After a long weekend Louie and Zach are back and react to Malachi Moreno returning to Kentucky, and why that saves Mark Pope from a catastrophic offseason. Flory Bidunga returns to Louisville, and now they wait for Momcilovic's decision. Brooks Holton joins to discuss Bidunga's return, and his top 10 UL moments of the last calendar year. Zach buries his Cavs, and who has the edge in the West?See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

RDA, DRI, AI, UL, AMDR: Understanding Nutrition's “Alphabet Soup”    RDA, DRI, AI, UL, AMDR… what do these nutrition terms actually mean? This episode breaks down the “alphabet soup” of nutrient recommendations, explaining how these values are developed and how they are meant to be used. Learn why these numbers are based on averages, not exact targets, and how to apply them in a practical, real-world way. Read More: RDA, DRI, AMDR, AI, and UL: What Do These Nutrition Terms Actually Mean?

When a company moves from lab validation to commercial conversations, the phone does not just ring once. It starts ringing from multiple directions.HPQ Silicon's technology partner Novacium has signed a non-binding, non-exclusive Letter of Intent with GH Technologies, a Hong Kong based B2B distributor, to evaluate potential commercial opportunities for high capacity GEN4 lithium-ion cells in Asia Pacific markets.The LOI covers Novacium's GEN4 18650 and 21700 formats, along with other lithium-ion batteries built on Novacium's GEN4 silicon anode technology. Asia Pacific represents more than 57% of global demand for cylindrical lithium-ion cells, making it one of the most important regions for battery commercialization.GH Technologies entered the LOI following its evaluation of Novacium GEN4 cells, including reported capacity exceeding 6,600 mAh, reported energy density of 319.9 Wh/kg, and international certifications including IEC 62133, UL 1642, and UN 38.3.A related Novacium LinkedIn post added another layer of context, referencing a potential partnership value of more than US$30 million over 36 months. That figure should be understood as potential value, not confirmed revenue or a completed sales contract. Still, when combined with the official LOI, it points to the scale of the commercial opportunity now being evaluated.For HPQ, which holds a 36.8% equity interest in Novacium and exclusive North American rights to commercialize the technology under the ENDURA+ trademark, the story is moving from technical performance toward early commercial execution.WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOWAsia Expansion: Novacium signed a nonbinding, nonexclusive LOI with GH Technologies to evaluate potential commercial opportunities for GEN4 battery technologies across Asia Pacific markets.Potential US$30M Value: A Novacium LinkedIn post referenced a potential partnership value of more than US$30 million over 36 months, which should be viewed as potential value rather than confirmed revenue.High Capacity Results: GH Technologies entered the LOI after evaluating Novacium GEN4 cells, including reported capacity exceeding 6,600 mAh and reported energy density of 319.9 Wh/kg.Major Battery Market: Asia Pacific represents more than 57% of global demand for cylindrical lithium-ion cells, according to the company's release.Phone Ringing: Bernard Tourillon says HPQ is now focused on converting growing market interest into first sales, with about 10 NDAs active.Nimble Strategy: Rather than chasing only large, slow moving contracts, HPQ is targeting flexible buyers in markets such as drones, electric bikes, power tools, defense, embedded systems, and high energy density electronic equipment.CEO Bernard Tourillon:“This LOI provides a framework for Novacium and GH Technologies to evaluate potential business opportunities involving GEN4 battery technologies in Asia-Pacific markets. HPQ's 36.8% equity ownership in Novacium SAS and its exclusive North American license provide the Company with access to these technologies for Canada, the United States, and Mexico under the HPQ ENDURA+ trademark.”INVESTOR TAKEAWAYHPQ Silicon is progressing from lab validation toward early commercial execution. Novacium's GEN4 battery technology has now attracted an Asia Pacific LOI with GH Technologies, following reported high capacity cell performance and international certifications. HPQ's 36.8% equity interest in Novacium and exclusive North American commercialization rights under the ENDURA+ trademark give the company multiple ways to participate if the technology continues to advance.For investors, the key question is no longer only whether the technology can perform in testing. The next stage is whether HPQ and Novacium can convert interest, validation, and commercial discussions into first revenue, customer adoption, and a scalable commercialization model.

The insurance industry is shifting fast, and this episode of RiskCellar doesn't let a single headline slide. Hosts Brandon Schuh and Nick Hartmann are back in the cellar breaking down three of the most talked-about stories in the industry right now. The Rad Power Bikes wrongful death lawsuit and what it means for micro-mobility product liability, the escalating legal fallout from Howden's alleged broker raid on Brown & Brown, and the accelerating softening of the reinsurance market that's reshaping valuations across the board. Plus a deep dive on the collapse of litigation finance as an asset class, and why that might matter more than anyone's admitting.Brandon brings his front-row seat at the Christensen Group specialty desk to every story, and Nick matches him stride for stride with sharp market observations from the field. The episode covers the wrongful death suit filed by Shannon Stephens against Rad Power Bikes after an e-bike lithium-ion battery fire in an Alabama garage on January 3, 2025, killed her husband, Dr. Keith Stephens. Brandon unpacks the legal complexity of successor liability after Rad Power's bankruptcy, notes that the company's assets were reacquired for roughly $13 million, and questions whether the evidence standard will meet the plaintiff's burden given expert testimony that focused on design containment, not outright defect. The CPSC's intervention requiring UL certification for e-bike batteries is also examined in the context of legacy stock.The second half of the episode is equally dense. Brandon and Nick dissect the Brown & Brown vs. Howden broker raid litigation, including a new Minnesota temporary restraining order barring 16 former Brown & Brown employees now at Howden from soliciting clients or recruiting staff. With $31 million in business allegedly lost and Howden carrying roughly $5 billion in total debt against a $3 billion revenue base, the guys ask tough questions about runway and financial viability. They also explore the quiet implosion of litigation finance as an asset class, Burford Capital's 47% stock drop on a single day after a $16.1 billion Argentina judgment was overturned in a US appeals court being the centerpiece moment, alongside JP Morgan's latest analysis calling for continued reinsurance price softening into 2027. It's a dense, entertaining, and genuinely insightful look at where the market stands right now.Key Takeaways:Rad Power Bikes faces a wrongful death lawsuit tied to a lithium-ion battery thermal runaway event in January 2025Successor liability questions are unresolved, old entity is defunct; assets were acquired for ~$13M in bankruptcyBrown & Brown obtained a Minnesota TRO barring 16 former employees at Howden from soliciting clients or staffBrown & Brown disclosed ~$31M in lost business from the Howden broker raid on a recent earnings callHowden carries approximately $5B in debt against a ~$3B broker revenue base, a tight leverage positionChapters:00:00 Introduction01:55 Banter, Travel & Industry Events09:45 Rad Power Bikes Wrongful Death Lawsuit14:05 E-Bike Battery Safety, CPSC & UL Certification17:25 Brown & Brown vs. Howden, Broker Raid Update20:55 Howden's Debt Load & Financial Runway24:05 Property Rate Softening, Real Numbers from the Field26:40 Deductible Buy-Down Policies & Adverse Selection Risk29:45 Litigation Finance Collapse, Burford Capital & Argentina37:40 JP Morgan: Reinsurance Softening Into 202739:15 Three Truths and a Lie: Space Edition47:00 AI at Insurance Innovators Conference51:25 Data Centers in Space? Cooling Logistics Debate52:45 Wrap-Up & CheersConnect with Risk Cellar:Website: https://www.riskcellar.comBrandon SchuhLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brandon-stephen-schuhInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/schuhpapaFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61552710523314Nick HartmannLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nickjhartmann

In Hour One Louie and Zach recap NBA draft stories and why Mikel Brown's absence through out the year could cost him millions. Matt McGavic joins to discuss the weekend of UL sports, including everything NBA draft and what's exciting about football season. They wrap the hour with reaction to Zach's Cavs beating Louie's Pistons and preview the WCF.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

So, your family has a business. You grow up around it. You love it. It’s the center of gravity for your family life. But…you swear you'll never do it. You leave. You build something of your own. And then one day you look up and… Just when you thought you were out, they pull you back in. That’s one version of the story anyway. There's another where you just never really left. Either way, you inherit something: a lease, a reputation, a relationship with people who really know you through your family and what they do. Family business is a big deal in Carencro. Charlotte Stemmans Clavier runs one that’s been in operation for almost 60 years. She’s the daughter of racehorse trainer Don Stemmans. Her family founded Stemmans Horse Supply in 1968 — one of the only specialty equine stores in the region, serving everyone from backyard horse people to the racehorse industry, with everything you need, as Charlotte puts it, from barn to bell. Charlotte has worked around horses her whole life. She started working at the racetrack at age eleven. By twelve, she was running the family store. She studied history and business at Tulane, worked for an attorney, and considered law school — before coming home. Over time, responsibility shifted to her. After her mother's passing in 2002 and her father's more recently, the store became hers to carry forward. Today, Stemmans operates two locations: the main store in Carencro and a second on the backside of Evangeline Downs. Charlotte is also a notary public, deeply involved in Louisiana horse racing organizations — and the mayor of Carencro. Jewelry wasn't Troy Raxsdale’s plan. Troy grew up in Lafayette, served four years in the U.S. Navy, came home, and studied marketing and economics at UL — while working full-time in the restaurant business. His father started a home-based jewelry business and asked Troy if he wanted to help with sales. Troy said yes. They traveled together, selling out of cases, building territory — and eventually bought a storefront together. Then Troy struck out on his own. In 1999 he founded Unique Wholesale Jewelry, which supplies retail stores across the country. And in 2021, when a Lafayette storefront called Southern Jewelers came up for sale, he bought that too. Southern Jewelers carries the range you'd expect — necklaces, bracelets, charms, custom designs — but what keeps the lights on is repairs. About sixty percent of the store's business is fixing things: resizing rings, resetting stones, restoring pieces that belong to somebody's grandmother. It's painstaking work, and it's gotten more complicated as the market fills up with jewelry from online vendors and mass retailers, where what something looks like and what it actually is aren't always the same thing. There’s a lot to be said for just enjoying life for what it is. Maybe that’s the simple pleasure of riding a horse, or admiring a precious stone. But in reality, nothing is as simple as it looks. Somebody has to provide the tools for keeping a horse healthy and happy. Somebody has to procure, display and sell precious stones. Troy and Charlotte are both contributors to providing life’s pleasures and treasures. Out to Lunch Acadiana was recorded live over lunch at Tsunami Sushi in downtown Lafayette. You can find photos from this show by Astor Morgan at itsacadiana.com.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

“These are purpose-built devices,” says Jake Jacoby, CEO of TELCLOUD. “They're UL listed, certified, tested, and designed specifically for this business.” In the latest episode of the TELCLOUD POTS and Shots Podcast Series, Doug Green, Publisher of Technology Reseller News, speaks with Jacoby about the hardware that makes modern POTS replacement possible. Jacoby showcases two TELCLOUD devices: the POTScast 8 LTE PC228 LTE, which supports eight analog lines, and the POTScast 2 LTE PC222 LTE, which supports two. Both are designed to support legacy and life-safety systems such as elevators, fire alarms, security systems, fax lines, SCADA applications, modems, and emergency phones as copper lines are phased out. The POTScast platform combines analog support with modern LTE and WAN connectivity, including broadband, Wi-Fi as WAN, satellite, and cellular. Each device includes 24-hour battery backup, helping ensure that critical communications continue even when building power fails. Jacoby also explains TELCLOUD's modular design. Because cellular signal is often weak inside telecom rooms, TELCLOUD supports Power over Ethernet, allowing routers from partners such as Ericsson, Peplink, Digi, InHand, ATEL, and Seego to be placed up to 250 feet away for better reception. The episode closes with the Shots segment, featuring Herencia Historico Grand Reserve Extra Añejo, a five-year-aged, small-batch tequila from Jalisco presented in a distinctive handcrafted bottle. For more information, visit telcloud.com or call 844-900-2270.

Eddy Chiang is Co-founder and CEO of Moment Energy, a company building commercial-scale energy storage systems from repurposed electric vehicle batteries. By testing, certifying, and remanufacturing second-life battery modules, Moment Energy is creating lower-cost alternatives to new lithium-ion storage while extending battery lifespans by decades. In this episode of Inevitable, Chiang explains how a growing wave of retired EV batteries is reshaping the energy storage market—making recycling alone economically unviable. The conversation covers the technical and regulatory challenges of certifying second-life systems, how Moment Energy became the first company to achieve full UL certification, and why safety, not cost, is the real barrier to adoption.  We also explore how distributed battery systems can replace traditional grid upgrades, why hyperscaler demand is accelerating deployment, and how Moment Energy is positioning storage not just as a product, but as long-term infrastructure designed to last 100 years. MCJ is a three-time investor in Moment Energy. The company just closed a $40M Series B co-led by Evok Innovations and the Canadian Growth Fund — with the participation of Amazon, Liberty Mutual, Voyager and our fund.  Episode recorded on April 14, 2026 (Published on May 5, 2026). In this episode, we cover:  (0:00) An overview of Moment Energy (2:47) Moment Energy's market evolution (6:37) What certification means and why it's the hardest part (10:22) Are second-life batteries actually safe? (12:15) Hardware + software: how Moment Energy builds safe systems (15:39) Moment Energy's product: modular, distributed battery systems (19:06) Batteries vs grid upgrades: the core economic tradeoff (25:35) Repurposed batteries and domestic supply chains (29:49) The second life of EV batteries and why most still have value (35:20) Designing battery systems to last 100 years (42:53) Demands for AI, hyperscalers, and distributed storage (47:55) Working with Amazon and scaling deployment Enjoyed this episode? Please leave us a review! Share feedback or suggest future topics and guests at info@mcj.vc.Connect with MCJ:Cody Simms on LinkedInVisit mcj.vcSubscribe to the MCJ Newsletter*Editing and post-production work for this episode was provided by The Podcast Consultant

There's a version of life in Acadiana that most of us only see from a car window. We live in something of a paradise, it’s just sort of removed from your day-to-day reality. That’s in part because Louisiana’s natural beauty isn’t always so easy to see. Louisiana is flat. Famously so. We don’t have mountain vistas to behold. So, if you want to really drink in Acadiana’s splendor, you probably need to get on the water. Don’t have a boat? Don’t worry about it. Reed Rudasil has you covered. Reed is the owner of Wanderlust Rentals, a startup that rents kayaks, right on the water. He grew up in Lafayette and studied civil engineering at UL. But he figured out pretty quick he didn't want to sit in an office. He tried landscaping, he managed a crawfish restaurant, he started buying rental properties. Eventually Reed founded a property management company called Experience Louisiana, focused on short-term rentals that often put guests close to waterways. Renting kayaks came naturally from there. Many of the properties he manages sit on the water — and guests kept asking what to do once they arrived. Reed's answer was Wanderlust Rentals, Louisiana's first multi-point service kayak rental system. The concept is straightforward: kiosks placed by the water, stocked with single and tandem kayaks. Customers sign a waiver, pay, get a code, and they're on the water. No staff required. No waiting. The whole transaction happens just feet from the bayou. Don’t have a car to get the bayou? Maybe try an e-bike. They’re everywhere, in case you hadn’t noticed. The electric bike market in the United States was worth $2 billion in 2025 and is projected to more than double in the next decade. Gerri Simon is a serial entrepreneur who’s cashing in on that market. She owns eBikes Plus, a one-stop shop for electric bike sales and repair here in Lafayette. She grew up in Vermilion Parish — not far from the water, and not far from the kind of hands-on problem solving that runs in Cajun households. Gerri's dad, she'll tell you, was an engineer who never finished high school. He taught her to build things and to work on things. She took that instinct to UL, where she discovered she was good at math, and came out the other side with a degree in mechanical engineering. She later got an MBA. She went on to found and operate several businesses before landing on eBikes plus. A big part of her customer base is retirees with RVs who pack up the bikes to take with them on their roving vacations. But more and more people are turning to e-Bikes as their primary means of conveyance. Out to Lunch Acadiana was recorded live over lunch at Tsunami Sushi in downtown Lafayette. You can find photos from this show by Astor Morgan at itsacadiana.com.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this episode, Aaron sits down with Rick Goyette, owner of All Mark Signs and Graphics, to discuss the "total teardown" of a legacy family business. Rick shares how he applied 30 years of corporate operations experience to move All Mark from a safety signage focus to a high-end custom project management powerhouse.They dive deep into the modern realities of the sign world: why answering the phone is your greatest competitive advantage, how to successfully manage a global remote design team, and when to pull the trigger on vertical integration for in-house installation and UL certification.

In this Read Listen Watch®, host Megan Ellsworth sits down with Brian Dunn and Jon Abernathy of TAMKO to explore how contractors can better protect homes and grow their business in hail-prone markets using advanced solutions like HailGuard™ shingles. The conversation covers everything from evolving insurance trends and homeowner education to the science behind TAMKO's proprietary ImpactCore™ technology, UL 2218 Class 4 ratings and real-world testing that goes beyond industry standards. Contractors will walk away with practical insights on shifting from reactive repairs to proactive storm preparedness while delivering long-term value and peace of mind to homeowners. Learn more at RoofersCoffeeShop.com!  https://www.rooferscoffeeshop.com/     Are you a contractor looking for resources? Become an R-Club Member today! https://www.rooferscoffeeshop.com/rcs-club-sign-up     Sign up for the Week in Roofing!  https://www.rooferscoffeeshop.com/sign-up     Learn more about (Tamko) here! (https://www.rooferscoffeeshop.com/directory/tamko)    Follow Us!   https://www.facebook.com/rooferscoffeeshop/   https://www.linkedin.com/company/rooferscoffeeshop-com   https://x.com/RoofCoffeeShop   https://www.instagram.com/rooferscoffeeshop/   https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCAQTC5U3FL9M-_wcRiEEyvw   https://www.pinterest.com/rcscom/   https://www.tiktok.com/@rooferscoffeeshop   https://www.rooferscoffeeshop.com/rss     #tamko #RoofersCoffeeShop #MetalCoffeeShop #AskARoofer #CoatingsCoffeeShop #RoofingProfessionals #RoofingContractors #RoofingIndustry 

On this episode of the WB Download, host Jeff Wieland sits down with Brad Fisher of SRS Distribution and Jeff Herkins of CertainTeed to dive into the critical role roofing plays in the overall performance and longevity of a home.Brad shares his journey in the industry, which began in 1996, and reflects on the impressive growth of SRS, including its acquisition by Home Depot in 2024. Jeff provides insight into CertainTeed's long-standing reputation for quality, innovation, and its wide range of products from roofing and siding to insulation, all backed by rigorous standards like UL certification.The conversation highlights the importance of doing things the right way the first time, with a strong focus on proper installation techniques, ventilation, and contractor training. Jeff explains CertainTeed's hands-on training programs and certification opportunities, while Brad emphasizes the role of distribution in ensuring builders and contractors have the support they need on every job.They also explore emerging trends in the industry, including solar shingles, impact-resistant products, and even the potential for robotics to help solve labor shortages. Beyond products and technology, the episode centers on relationships and how transparency, communication, and problem-solving are essential to maintaining trust with customers, especially during challenging times like the pandemic.This episode is a great listen for anyone building, remodeling, or simply wanting to better understand what goes into a high-quality roofing system and the partnerships behind it.SRS Distribution WebsiteCertainTeed WebsiteEmail Jeff your comments, questions, and topic requests, or be a guest on The WB Download.Email: WBDOWNLOAD@wielandbuilders.comSee Wieland Builders custom home gallery  www.wielandbuilders.comReceive inspiration monthly in our monthly newsletter See podcast behind the scenes photosFollow us on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Houzz or Pinterest

Jennifer Scanlon is CEO of UL Solutions, one of those hidden-in-plain-sight companies we like to poke at here on Decoder. UL's been around for more than 100 years; it started as a way for insurance companies to standardize fire and safety testing as electricity was the new technology spreading into homes. But now it's everywhere, and "safety" in tech doesn't just mean the hardware. UL is adapting quickly to the connected, AI-powered era... but do the companies making and distributing tech even care about standards anymore? Links:  How fake UL certifications led to Chinese ebike suit | Electrek FCC IoT program loses UL after China probe | Cybersecurity Dive FCC's Carr probes IoT program lab over “ties to China” | PC Mag The US router ban, explained | The Verge More than 500,000 hoverboards recalled (2016) | The Verge Brendan Carr is a dummy | The Vergecast Subscribe to The Verge to access the ad-free version of Decoder! Credits: Decoder is a production of The Verge and part of the Vox Media Podcast Network. Decoder is produced by Kate Cox and Nick Statt. This episode was edited by Kabir Chopra. Our editorial director is Kevin McShane.  The Decoder music is by Breakmaster Cylinder. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This week on the Campfire Discussion, Jimmy and Tyler sit down with Corey Jones from Rusoh Fire Extinguishers — a conversation that’s been two years in the making. And if you’re an offroader who keeps a fire extinguisher in your rig, this is the episode you didn’t know you needed. Traditional fire extinguishers have a dirty secret: they’re built for stationary environments. When you strap one to your D-pillar or bolt it to your floorboard and spend years beating it down trails, the powder inside compacts. It stops moving freely. And when you finally need it, there’s a real chance it won’t discharge the way it should. The SnailBoys and Corey dig into exactly why this happens, what “servicing” a traditional extinguisher actually requires (and how expensive it gets), and the real-world failure modes that make traditional units a questionable choice for vehicle applications. Rusoh’s solution is a non-pressurized, reloadable cartridge system — UL certified, see-through so you can visually check the powder at any time, and designed from the ground up for vehicles. Corey was the official fire extinguisher sponsor at King of the Hammers, and the Baja footage of a 10-pound Russo unit putting out a fully engulfed side-by-side race car is one of the most impressive product demonstrations Jimmy has seen. After putting 5 to 8 of them in his own warehouse, Jimmy has a pretty strong opinion: if you wheel, you need one of these. They also get into Corey’s background — how his in-laws pulled him into rock crawling (after a brief side-by-side detour he’d rather not talk about), the Toyota mini-trucks they build at Rusoh, and a standing invitation to go run the Rubicon together. **Discount code: RusohCrawlers — 25% off at russofireextinguishers.com** Rousoh Links Website: https://rusoh.com/?v=0b3b97fa6688 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rusoh_inc/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/RusohInc YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@rusohinc.1620/videos Their Crawlers: https://www.instagram.com/rusoh_crawlers/ Baja Video: https://www.instagram.com/reel/DROQfczkdnz/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA== Monthly Announcements: Gift box tiers close April 30th at midnight — make any tier changes now Devos LightRanger 500 group buy: 90+ units claimed, 25% off (~$53/unit), April 30th deadline — add your name on Discord April giveaway: two gift boxes, deadline April 30th May giveaway sponsor: Russo Fire Extinguishers SnailTrail4x4 Discord: https://discord.gg/yFyFFkQbuyCome hang out with us on the SnailTrail4x4 Discord — it’s the easiest way to connect with Tyler and Jimmy directly, chat with fellow offroad enthusiasts, and get first access to Group Buys and Treasure Hunt token drops. Group Buy for the Devos LightRanger 500We reached out to Devos, and they are in. Here’s how the discount tiers work: 10 people → 15% off (~$60/light) 20 people → 20% off (~$56/light) 30+ people → 25% off (~$52/light) These retail at $70. To get in, just send us your email and how many units you want. You can email us at jimmy@snailtrail4x4.com or tyler@snailtrail4x4.com, or DM us on Instagram. Deadline: April 30th. Want to learn more about the LightRanger 500? Click Here: https://www.devosoutdoor.com/products/lightranger-500 MORRFlate Giveaway at 900 Reviews on Apple Podcast. But our next giveaway is when we reach 800 reviews; we are giving away an OnX Elite Membership. We will also give away an OnX Elite membership when we get to 850. However, when we reach 900 Reviews, we are teaming up with MORRFlate for a $1000 MF Product Giveaway. Go over to Apple Podcasts to leave your review now and become eligible to win. Congratulations to A13XMONT, who won a set of tires from Yokohama Tire! Call us and leave us a VOICEMAIL!!! We want to hear from you even more!!! You can call and say whatever you like! Ask a question, leave feedback, correct some information about welding, say how much you hate your Jeep, and wish you had a Toyota! We will air them all, live, on the podcast! +01-916-345-4744. If you have any negative feedback, you can call our negative feedback hotline, 408-800-5169. 4Wheel Underground has all the suspension parts you need to take your off-road rig from leaf springs to a performance suspension system. We just ordered our kits for Kermit and Samantha and are looking forward to getting them. The ordering process was quite simple, and after answering the questionnaire, we ensured we got the correct and best-fitting kits for our vehicles. If you want to level up your suspension game, check out 4Wheel Underground. SnailTrail4x4 Podcast is brought to you by all of our peeps over at irate4x4! Make sure to stop by and see all of the great perks you get for supporting SnailTrail4x4! Discount Codes, Monthly Give-Always, Gift Boxes, the SnailTrail4x4 Community, and the ST4x4 Treasure Hunt! Thank you to all of those who support us! We couldn’t do it without you guys (and gals!)! SnailSquad Monthly Giveaway For the Month of April, we are giving away Gift Boxes. Its Gift Box month and two luck indiviuals will win a one of our gift boxs. These are jam packed with goodies from tools to whiskey smokers. They are always different and always random. If you want a chance to win, sign up for the Giveaway Tier on Irate4x4 Congrats to Roger Lutz on March’s Giveaway. We gave away the new Devos LightRanger500. This little light is jam-packed with features, from red, orange, and white lights to a motion sensor. It would be perfect for inside a tent, under a canopy, or just general use around the vehicle. If you want a chance to win, sign up for the Giveaway Tier on Irate4x4 Listener Discount Codes: SnailTrail4x4 –SnailTrail15 for 15% off SnailTrail4x4 MerchMORRFlate – snailtraill4x4 to get 10% off MORRFlate Multi Tire Inflation Deflation™ Kits4WheelUnderground – snailtrail 10% offIronman 4×4 – snailtrail20 to get 20% off all Ironman 4×4 branded equipment!Sidetracked Offroad – snailtrail4x4 (lowercase) to get 15% off lights and recovery gearSpartan Rope – snailtrail4x4 to get 10% off sitewideShock Surplus – SNAILTRAIL4x4 to get $25 off any order!Mob Armor – SNAILTRAIL4X4 for 15% offSummerShine Supply – ST4x4 for 10% offBackpacker’s Pantry – Affiliate LinkLaminx Protective Films – Use the Link to get 20% off all products (Affiliate Link) Show Music: Outroll Music – Meizong Kumbang Midroll Music – ComaStudio

Today, we check in a year after the first Unsupervised Learning x Latent Space Crossover special to discuss everything that has changed (there is a lot) in the world of AI. This episode was recorded just after AIE Europe, but before the Cursor-xAI deal.Unsupervised Learning is a podcast that interviews the sharpest minds in AI about what's real today, what will be real in the future and what it means for businesses and the world - helping builders, researchers and founders deconstruct and understand the biggest breakthroughs.Thanks to Jacob and the UL production team for hosting and editing this!Jacob Effron* LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jacobeffron/* X: https://x.com/jacobeffronFull Episode on Their YouTubeWe discuss:* swyx's view from the center of the AI engineering zeitgeist: OpenClaw, harness engineering, context engineering, evals, observability, GPUs, multimodality, and why conference tracks now reveal what matters most in AI* Whether AI infrastructure has finally stabilized: why “skills” may be the minimal viable packaging format for agents, why infra companies have had to reinvent themselves every year, and why application companies have had an easier time surviving model volatility* The vertical vs. horizontal AI startup debate: why application companies can act as the outsourced AI team for enterprises, why some horizontal companies still matter, and why sandboxes may be the clearest reinvention of classic cloud infrastructure for the AI era* The “agent lab” playbook: starting with frontier models, specializing for your domain, then training your own models once you have enough data, workload, and user behavior to justify the cost and latency savings* Why domain-specific model training is real, not just marketing: how companies like Cursor and Cognition can get users to choose their in-house models, and why search, domain specialization, and distillation are becoming more important* Open models, custom chips, and alternative inference infrastructure: why swyx has turned more bullish on open source, why non-NVIDIA hardware is suddenly getting real attention, and why every 10x speedup can unlock new product experiences* What it means to sell to agents instead of humans: why agent experience may mostly just be good developer experience by another name, why APIs and docs matter more than ever, and how pretraining-data incumbents are compounding advantages in an agent-first world* Why memory and personalization may become the next big wedge: today's models mostly reward frequency of mentions, but in the future, swyx expects product choice to be shaped much more by personalized memory systems* The state of the AI coding wars: why coding has become one of the largest and fastest-growing categories in AI, how Anthropic, OpenAI, Cursor, and Cognition have all ridden the wave, and why the category may still have more room to run* Capability exploration vs. efficiency: why the industry is still in a token-maxing, experiment-heavy phase where people are rewarded for spending more rather than less* Claude Code vs. Codex and the strange stickiness of coding products: why first magical product experiences may matter more than expected, and why the bigger mystery may be why only a few names have emerged as real winners so far* What the end state of the coding market might look like: two major players, a longer tail of niche products, and possible disruption if Microsoft, Mistral, xAI, or the Chinese labs push harder into coding* Where application companies still have room against the labs: why frontier labs are trying to expand into verticals like finance and healthcare, but still leave space for focused companies that own the workflow and the last mile* Why coding may be a preview of every other AI market: the first category to truly go parabolic, the clearest example of foundation model companies colliding with application companies, and a template for how future vertical AI markets may develop* Why AI valuations now feel unbounded: from billion-dollar ARR products built in a year to trillion-dollar market caps, swyx and Jacob unpack how the AI market has broken traditional startup intuitions about scale and durability* Consumer AI vs. coding AI: why ChatGPT's consumer category may have plateaued on frequency and product design, while coding continues to feel like a daily-use category with real momentum* The next product frontier beyond coding: consumer agents, computer use, and “coding agents breaking containment,” with swyx's thesis that 2025 was the year of coding agents and 2026 may be the year they begin to do everything else* Whether foundation models are really killing startup categories: why swyx is less worried for early founders, more worried for mid-size startups and traditional SaaS, and why building something ambitious may now be the best job interview for a frontier lab* AI vs. SaaS and the internal culture war around adoption: the tension between AI-native employees who want to rip out expensive software and skeptics who think quick AI-built replacements create fragile systems* Why traditional SaaS may be under real pressure: swyx's own experience spending six figures on event and sponsor management software, the temptation to rebuild it cheaply with AI, and the broader question of whether teams will trust custom AI-native replacements* Biosafety, security, and frontier model access: why swyx raised biosafety at a dinner with Anthropic's Mike Krieger, why Krieger argued security is the bigger issue, and what restricted model releases reveal about Anthropic vs. OpenAI* The era of giant models: why 10T+ parameter systems may only be a temporary rationing phase before bigger clusters arrive, why labs may increasingly keep their most powerful models private for distillation, and why scale alone no longer feels like a complete answer* Memory as the slowest scaling factor in AI: why context windows have improved far more slowly than people hoped, why million-token context still has not changed most real workflows, and why memory may be the key bottleneck for the next generation of systems* What swyx changed his mind on in the past year: becoming more bullish on open models, more convinced that the top tier of agent startups behaves very differently from the median AI company, and more optimistic about fine-tuning and specialized model adaptation* “Dark factories” and zero-human-review coding: the next frontier after zero human-written code, where models not only write the code but ship it without human review, forcing companies to rethink testing and verification from first principles* Why RL and post-training may matter more than people assumed: even if the resulting models get thrown out every few months, the data, workflows, and domain-specific improvements persist* Synthetic rubrics, Doctor GRPO, and multi-turn RL: why reinforcement learning is becoming much more domain-specific and multi-step than many people realize, opening the door to much deeper customization* The next frontier after coding: memory, personalization, and world models, including why swyx thinks world models matter not just for robotics or gaming, but for giving AI something closer to lived understanding* Fei-Fei Li, spatial intelligence, and the Good Will Hunting analogy: the idea that today's LLMs may know everything by reading it all, but still lack the lived experience that turns knowledge into a deeper kind of intelligenceTimestamps* 00:00:00 Intro preview: AI coding wars, startup pressure, and market structure* 00:00:28 Welcome to the Latent Space × Unsupervised Learning crossover* 00:01:17 What AI builders are focused on now: OpenClaw, harnesses, and infra* 00:04:33 Why AI infra is harder than apps, and where startups can still win* 00:06:39 Should companies train their own models?* 00:09:28 Open models, custom chips, and the new inference race* 00:11:25 Designing products for agents, not just humans* 00:16:49 The state of the AI coding wars in 2026* 00:19:27 Capability exploration, token-maxing, and why coding is going parabolic* 00:21:41 What the end state of the coding market could look like* 00:23:50 Where app companies still have room against the labs* 00:27:02 Why AI valuations and market swings feel unprecedented* 00:28:56 Consumer AI vs. coding AI, and why sticky products still matter* 00:32:28 What the next breakthrough product experience might be* 00:32:53 2026 thesis: coding agents break containment and eat the world* 00:35:27 Are foundation models wiping out startup categories?* 00:37:33 AI vs. SaaS, vibe coding, and internal team tensions* 00:40:01 Biosafety, security, and the politics of restricted model releases* 00:42:19 Giant models, compute constraints, and the limits of scale* 00:44:30 Memory as the real bottleneck in AI* 00:44:57 Why swyx changed his mind on open models* 00:47:44 Dark factories and the future of zero-human-review coding* 00:49:36 Why post-training and RL may matter more than people think* 00:51:50 Memory, world models, and the next frontier of intelligence* 00:53:54 The Good Will Hunting analogy for LLMs* 00:54:21 OutroTranscript[00:00:00] swyx: Isn't that crazy? That number is just mind boggling.[00:00:03] Jacob Effron: What is the state of the AI coding wars today?[00:00:05] swyx: We're in a phase of sort of like capability exploration. The general thesis that I have been pursuing now is that the same way that 2025 was a year coding agents 2026 is coding agents breaking containments to do everything else.[00:00:16] Jacob Effron: Do you worry about the foundation models just getting into a bunch of these startup categories?[00:00:21] swyx: Mid-size startups. Yes.[00:00:23] Jacob Effron: What do you think the end state of this market is[00:00:25] swyx: for the market structure to, to significantly change? There would be[00:00:28] Jacob Effron: today on unsupervised learning. We had a, a fun episode and what's really become an annual tradition, a crossover episode with our friends at Latent space.Swix and I sat down and we talked about everything happening in the AI ecosystem today. What we thought of the various changes at the model layer, what's happening in the infra world, the coding wars, and a bunch of other things. It's a ton of fun to do this with someone I really respect and another great podcaster in the game.Without further ado, here's our episode. Well switch. This is, uh, super fun to be back with another unsupervised learning, uh, latent space crossover episode.[00:01:02] swyx: Yeah,[00:01:02] Jacob Effron: I feel like a lot of places we could start, but you know, one thing I always find fascinating, uh, about the way you spend your time is you obviously are like at the epicenter of this engineering movement and community, and you run these events and conferences and put on these.Awesome talks and, and I think just have a great pulse on the zeitgeist of what's going on.[00:01:16] swyx: Yeah.[00:01:17] Jacob Effron: Maybe to, to start just what are the biggest topics people are thinking about right now?[00:01:21] swyx: Yeah, so I just came back from London, uh, where we did a IE Europe and we're doing roughly one per quarter now, which Yeah, you've[00:01:27] Jacob Effron: really up[00:01:27] swyx: the, hopefully[00:01:28] Jacob Effron: up the, up the pace.[00:01:29] swyx: It's trying. We're trying to match AI speed, youknow?[00:01:30] Jacob Effron: Yeah, exactly. The tops would be completely different, I imagine. Uh,[00:01:33] swyx: yeah. You know, I definitely curate the tracks, like you can see what I think. When you see the track list and the, the speakers that I invite, obviously Open Claw is like the story of the last four or five months, and then be, be just below that.I would consider harness engineering, context engineering to be two related topics in agents and rag. And then there's a long tail of Evergreen stuff like evals, observability, GPUs, uh, and uh, LM infra and just general, just in general. We also have other updates on like multimodality and, uh, generative media, let's call it.Um, but I definitely, the, the first three that I mentioned are top of mind people. Yeah.[00:02:13] Jacob Effron: I think harness is particular like, so interesting. Um, you know, there was this tweet from Harrison Chase, the, the lane chain, CEO, that, that caught my eye recently where he said, you know, it finally feels like we have stability, uh, around the infrastructure for, uh, you know, around ai.And I think what. He basically was implying his like, look over the past two, three years as a company at the epicenter of AI infrastructure, it was a bit like playing whack-a-mole, right? You were constantly moving around with, however, the building patterns were evolving[00:02:36] swyx: for Harrison for sure. Right? Like he's basically had to reinvent the company every year since he started Lang Chain.Right? It was Lang chain, Ang graph and LP agents and like, uh, I think he's like one of the most nimble, adept sharp people about this. Yeah. Yeah.[00:02:49] Jacob Effron: Saying now, now is finally the time stability[00:02:51] swyx: this. Yeah.[00:02:52] Jacob Effron: Yeah. Um, do you buy that or what have you kind of make of that take?[00:02:56] swyx: I think that. It, it's very expensive to say this Time is different sometimes, but when you're just writing code, like it's actually okay to just like try to make a call and I think it may not even matter if this call is right or not.Like I just don't even care that much because you can be right on a thesis, but if you don't, you don't figure out how to monetize the thesis, then who cares if you said something first that said, um, it does feel like, for example. Uh, we went through a lot of different ways of passion packaging integrations up with, uh, with agents.And it feels like we've landed at skills, which is like the minimal viable format. Yeah. Which is just a markdown file, uh, with some scripts attached to it, and I don't see how it can be more simple than that. And so there is some justification for. The stability around harnesses. I feel like there may be more adaptation with regards to maybe like the real time elements or subagents or memory or any of those like agent disciplines, let's call it in, in agent engineering.Uh, but if, if the thesis is that, okay, you just want agents are LMS with tools in the loop with a file system, what they can do. Retrieval with, with skills and all these like standard tooling that now seems to be relatively consensus then probably. That makes sense. Um, I just think like there's no point trying to stake your reputation on this thesis that we're there because if it changes again, just change with it.It's fine.[00:04:33] Jacob Effron: Yeah. It's always, you know, I've always been struck by how that is. Much more challenging for infrastructure companies and application companies. Like obviously I think, yeah. You know, on the application side you've seen, you know, Brett Taylor from Sierra Max, from Lara. Like, they're like, look, we build, you know, what's ahead of the models and we're willing to throw everything out every three months, you know, as the models get better and better.Exactly. Yeah. But the thing you at least have there is you have. Uh, you have an end customer, right? That's like decently sticky. Um, you know, they will mostly stick, you know, they'll, they'll give you a shot at least of, of building these things. What I've always found more challenging, uh, at, at the kind of like, you know, reinvent yourself every three months of the infrastructure layer, it's like, you know, developers are definitely a, a pickier audience maybe than an accounting firm or, uh, you know, a bank.Yeah. And so it's definitely a, a, a more challenging position to be in to, to have to constantly reinvent yourself.[00:05:17] swyx: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And, and like when they turn, it's like. Very complete. Like, they'll leave to like the, the hot new thing, uh, because there's like no defensibility, I guess. Like e even, even if you are a database, like, uh, people can migrate workloads off databases.Like it's, it's a, it's a known thing. Uh, so I think like basically what we're talking about is the vertical versus horizontal, uh, debate in, in AI startups. And uh, the way I think about it also is just that like when you are. Um, Lara, when you are a bridge, like you are the outsource AI team, right? You, you are, your job is to apply whatever state ofthe art AI methods.[00:05:55] Jacob Effron: Yeah. Like this translation layer between model capabilities and your[00:05:57] swyx: own customers. Yeah. To, to the end customers and like, well, if they didn't have you, they would've to hire in house and they're not gonna hire in house so they have you. And like, I think that's like a reasonable, like very robust to any whatever trends and, and discoveries that people make in, in the engineering layer.I do think like there is, um. It like sort of useful horizontal companies being built, but they're all. Very much like, sort of like the reinventions of classic cloud in the AI era and the, the primary one being sandboxes. Yeah. Um, which like, it's another form of compute guys, like, let's not get too excited about it.But I mean, like the, the workloads are enormous.[00:06:38] Jacob Effron: Right.[00:06:38] swyx: Yeah.[00:06:39] Jacob Effron: It's interesting, and I feel like as, as part of this, you know, the questions that folks are asking around infrastructure, there's a lot around, you know, the extent to which companies should have their own AI teams and what they should be doing in-house.And, you know, uh, I think there's questions around should people be training their own models? Should people be doing, you know, rl, uh, in-house based on the data they have? I feel like, you know, one has to evolve their takes on this every, every three months with paces. But where, where are you at on this today?[00:07:00] swyx: I think, well, I mean actually all models have gone up. Um, and obviously I'm involved in cognition and also cursors doing, doing, uh, a lot of own model training. And I think that that is some part of the, what I've been calling the agent lab playbook, where you start off with the state of the art models from, uh, from the big labs and you, uh, specialize for your domain.But once you have enough workload and enough high quality data from your users, then you can obviously train your own models and like save a lot on cost and latency and all that, all that good stuff. Um, you also get like a marketing bonus of like calling it some fancy name and putting out some research[00:07:38] Jacob Effron: from my seat.I can't tell how much of it is like actual, you know, value that's provided to the end user. And how much of it is that marketing bonus? Right. It seems some combination of the[00:07:45] swyx: I think it's both.[00:07:46] Jacob Effron: Yeah.[00:07:46] swyx: Um, no, no. There, there actually is real value. Um, and you, you know that for a number of reasons. Like one, even when it's not subsidized, people do choose it as like one of the top four or five.This is both composer two and, uh, suite 1.6 I one of the top five models. Like in a, in a fair market? In a free market, yeah. In a, in a, in a model switch. Or people do choose it and like, it's not subsidized. Like, so that's as good as it gets. Uh, but beyond that, like domain specific models, for example. For search with, with both, which both companies have absolutely makes, makes a ton of sense.Everyone says like, yeah, we should always, always do this. And honestly like, I think the infrastructure for that is becoming easier with, um, like thinking machines tinker thing as well as primary like, uh, lab stuff. Yeah, I mean like, this is one of those like reversal of the, the bitter lesson where you first bootstrap on the large models and the general purpose models to get big.And as you get very well-defined workloads that are just high quantity but not high variance, um, then you just distill down to a smaller model and run that on your own. Right. Which like totally makes sense.[00:08:50] Jacob Effron: What I'm less clear on is the kind of DIY RL use case, which I think is really mostly around, you know, improved, uh, quality for, for different things.Obviously there's probably like more efficient ways to, you know, get a smaller model that's that's faster and cheaper. And it'll be interesting to see whether. You know, obviously you had, you know, uh, two, three years ago this whole case of companies that were, you know, pre-training and claiming better outcomes in, in their domains than getting kind of cooked as each model iteration improved.You know, I wonder whether that's a, a similar story plays out in the, uh, in, in the, our all space. Yeah, for the focus on, on on pure outcomes and quality, not the cost side, which clearly your own models for cost at scale makes a ton of sense.[00:09:28] swyx: I think there are this, there are two sides of the same coin.Like you basically always want to hold, uh, quality constant or trade off a little bit of quality for a drastic decreasing cost. And that's true for everyone. Uh, one element I wanted to bring out, which is very much in favor of open models, is custom chips. So this would be cereus, but also talu. And then there's a huge range of stuff in between.This has been a huge story this past year on just like everything non Nvidia is getting bid up, including like freaking MatX is working for, which is very, which is very rewarding for me, but I think one of those things where like, oh, like the suddenly, because the number of alternative. Hard, uh, hardware is increasing and the inference that you can get is insanely high.Like, um, we're talking thousands of tokens per second instead of less than a hundred. So the trade off for qua quality doesn't hold as much anymore because the speed is so high.[00:10:24] Jacob Effron: Have you seen a lot of companies go all in on the alternative chip?[00:10:26] swyx: So cognition has Yeah. On Cerebras, uh, and, and so has OpenAIUm, uh, and so no, I don't think so beyond that, uh, and that, do you think that's like a, that's mostly, that's foreshadowing of, that's, yeah. I used to be kind of a skeptic in terms of like, okay, so what if I get my inference at a hundred to a hundred tokens per second sped up to 200 tokens per second. It's only two X faster.It's not that big a deal. Um, but when you, uh, I think every 10 x does unlock a different usage pattern. Um, and you, we have proof in Talas and, and some of the others. That you can actually, um, drastically imp improve inference speed and what happens from there? I don't even really know, like it's, it's so hard to predict when entire applications just appear at once.Yeah. Uh, and it also isn't that expensive, right? So like, um, this is one of those things where like, I, I think the, the investment cycle is gonna be multi-year. Um, and I. Would caution people to not dismiss it too, too quickly.[00:11:25] Jacob Effron: Yeah. I mean, one other like infra question I was curious to get your thoughts on is obviously it seems increasingly a lot of the cutting edge infra companies are building for agents as the buyers of their product or users of their product, right?[00:11:35] swyx: Ooh,[00:11:36] Jacob Effron: and[00:11:37] swyx: another huge theme. Yeah. Yeah.[00:11:38] Jacob Effron: And I'm trying to figure out like what. What, what do you have to do differently about selling into agents? Um, are they just the ultimate rational developers? Uh, or is there, you know,[00:11:46] swyx: no, absolutely not. Um, I think they are easily prompt, injected and, uh, very tuned towards like, basically com compounding existing winners.[00:11:57] Jacob Effron: Yeah,[00:11:57] swyx: so like if, like, congrats if you won the lottery for getting into the training data right before 2023, because now you're like installed in there for the foreseeable future. But yeah. Uh, you know, one stat that Versal, uh, CTO Malta dropped at my conference was that there are now, uh, 60% of traffic to Elle's, um, like app arch, like admin app architecture for like configuring versal applications, uh, is bought.It's not, it's not human. Uh, so like your primary customer is agents now. Um, and it's mostly co like mostly coding agents, mostly people using CLI on CP or whatever. But yeah, I mean, I think. More. I, I think step one, if it doesn't exist as an API that agents can use, it doesn't exist. Right, right. Which I think is like, uh, it's a good hygiene thing anyway, to, to make everything API available, but not as like an extra, um.Push on like products, people to not only work on the ui, um, you should probably work on the on SCLI stuff. Beyond that, I think honestly there is like, so I, I come from the sensibility of, I think everything that you are trying to do for agents experience now, which is the term that Matt Bowman and Nullify is trying to coin, is the same thing that you should have been doing for developer experience.That you should have had good docs, you should have had a consistent API, uh, that is. Mostly stateless. Um, you should have, I guess, discoverable or progressive disclosure or like search or like whatever. And so now that people have energy in like finding these customers to do that, that's great. Um, do I believe in.Extending beyond that into something like a EO, um, for gaming The chatbots? Not necessarily, but obviously there's gonna be huge advantages when people who figure out the short term wins. Yeah. And short term wins can compound.[00:13:43] Jacob Effron: Do you think these compounding advantages to like the, the pre-training data cutoff companies, like, you know, obviously over some period of time, I imagine that doesn't persist.And so as you think about like. I dunno, three, four years from now what the, you know, selection criteria end up being. Do you think it still mirrors exactly what you were saying before? Like it's exactly what you should have been doing all along to sell a good product to developers?[00:14:01] swyx: It could be, except that I think in three, four years we'll probably have much better memory and personalization.So then general a EO or GEO doesn't really matter as much. So I think whatever memory or personalization system we end up with will probably d determine what you end up choosing much more. Than, than what is currently the case, which is just frequency of mentions, let's call it. Yeah,[00:14:26] Jacob Effron: yeah.[00:14:26] swyx: Uh, so you just spa quantity and I think that's, I mean, that's something I'm looking forward to.I do think, like, like, you know, I, I think that the fundamental exercise to work through for yourself is if you start a new, um, sort of. Uh, disruptor company. Now there's a, there's a big incumbent that everyone knows, like, like superb base. Super base is like, kind of like the Postgres, like database, uh, incumbent.If you wanna start like new superb base, how would you compete with them? And I don't necessarily have the answer, but I, I, I do think like people, like resend like relatively new. I think they would start like 20, 23 and still there was, there was a recent survey where like, people. Checked what Claude recommends by default.If you just don't prompt it with anything, just say, gimme an email provider and says, resent as in like 70, 70% of each cases. Like the fact that you can get in there with like such a relatively short existence, I think is, is encouraging.[00:15:14] Jacob Effron: Yeah.[00:15:14] swyx: I do think like. Um, you do want to do whatever it is to, to like to, to get in that Very short mentions this because, um, it's not gonna be 20 of them, it's gonna be like three.[00:15:26] Jacob Effron: No, definitely. It feels like, uh, you know, probably more, more consolidation than ever. Uh, or, or kind of like, you know, uh, a winner take most market than maybe the, the, the physics of go-to market in the past. Yeah. Might have, uh, enabled.[00:15:38] swyx: The other thing also is like, semantic association is gonna be very important, uh, in the sense that like, you want to do like the combo articles where you're like, use my thing with for sale, with blah, blah.And like that all gets picked up in a, in a corpus. And so that's. Probably one thing that you, you wanna do? Well, I don't know what else. Uh, it's, it's, it's, it's one of those things where like, I think I feel, I feel I'm behind, uh, I don't know how you feel about this, but like,[00:16:04] Jacob Effron: I think AI is just everyone constantly feeling like they're behind some, uh,[00:16:08] swyx: yeah.With,[00:16:09] Jacob Effron: I wanna meet the person that doesn't feel behind,[00:16:11] swyx: but like with, with ax, right? Like, so, so like, my, my stance was that exactly what I said before, like everything that you, that you should do for agents is something that you should have done for humans anyway. Yeah. And so. To the extent that you're just getting it more energy to, to do things for agents, great.But like, uh, it's hard to articulate what new thing apart from just like more spam, um, that you should be doing. Anyway, that would be my take right now. Um, I I, I do think like there, there will be more turns at this. I think the personalization turn that is coming, um, will be big. And I don't know what that looks like because like basically we're kind of, we feel kind of tapped out on the memory side of things.[00:16:49] Jacob Effron: Yeah. I, I guess since we last chatted, you know, you, you took this role over at cognition, um, and you've obviously have a, have a front row seat to the AI coding space today. You know, I feel like coding in many ways. You know, people view it as this, like, I mean, besides being like the, the mother of all markets and this massive opportunity, I think it's kinda a preview of like, what's to come for many other spaces.Both. Yeah. You know, I feel like agents are most advanced in coding. I also feel like the, you know, competition between foundation models and application companies, you know, and, uh, mirrors what we may see in other spaces. And so maybe for our listeners, can you just lay out like what is the state of the AI coding wars today?[00:17:25] swyx: Um, it is massive, right? Like, uh, and I don't think necessarily, last time we talked about this, we appreciated the size of what[00:17:32] Jacob Effron: No, I wish we did.[00:17:33] swyx: I state of AI coding wars today, um, both opening eye philanthropic have made it their p serials to competing coding. Um, and. Tropic is like 2.5 billion in a RR just from Cloud Code.The way they recognize a RR is. Opt for debate, uh, open ai. I don't think the, a public number is known, but let's call it 2 billion as well. And then cursor is like, rumored to be 2 billion, you know? And, and those, those are like the public numbers that are known? Yeah. Um, so like huge markets that have just been created in the past one year.Like, like anthropic, just like Claude Code just recently celebrated their one year anniversary, which is, yeah, pretty nice. Um, so, and then I think, like the other thing that I see is there's, there's some other people who are like, oh, here's like the, the sort of relative penetration of, uh, Claude use cases, right?Like, and it's like coding 50% and then legal, whatever. Health, uh, it's like the, the remaining ones. And there was a very popular tweet that was like, okay, I'll look at the, the empty space and all these other use cases. If you are a new founder today, you should be betting on the other stuff because on, on a sort of catch up Yeah.Theory and my. Consider my, my pushback is the same pushback that, uh, I had on app over Google, which is like, well, well why is this time different? Like, why, if it went from let's say 10 to 50% in the past year, why can't I keep going? Uh, and like getting that wrong is actually a very painful one because you could have just did, did the momentum bet.Instead of the mean reversion bed. So I, I, I think that that is the, the state of things now that people are very, very much into psychosis. Um, they're are getting rewarded for spending more rather than spending less. And I think we're not in that phase of efficiency. We're in a phase of sort of like capability exploration.So I think people who are more crazy, who are more. Uh, creative, um, get rewarded comparatively. Yeah.[00:19:27] Jacob Effron: Well, it's interesting. I mean, it feels like behind these like token maxing, leaderboards and whatnot is this, it's like the first phase of this transition from a workforce perspective is you just gotta show your employer like, Hey, I, I use these tools.[00:19:37] swyx: Here's my nu number of tokens I cost, and that's it. They don't care about the quality. Right. It is, uh, maybe distasteful to someone who cares about the craft and, and all that. Um, but directionally everyone just wants you to go up regardless. And so, um, there it is not very discerning. It's, and it's probably very sloppy, but I think it's net fine because we're still probably underusing ai just in generally.Yeah. Um, and so I think that's like very interesting. Like we had on the podcast, uh, Ryan La Poplar from OBI, who spends a billion tokens a day. Yeah. Um, and that's for those county home, it's like something like 10,000 worth, $10,000 worth a day of API tokens. If they, they did market rates, um, and like most of us can't afford that.Yeah. But like. And, and, and probably a lot of what he does is slop.[00:20:25] Jacob Effron: Right.[00:20:25] swyx: But like, he's going to dis, he's like, if there were a new capability, he would discover it first before you because he was, he was trying and you were not trying. Right. And like, you only do things that work like, well, good for you.But like the, the people who are going to discover the next hot thing are living at the edge.[00:20:42] Jacob Effron: Right and increase in living at the edge of just having the compute budget to like run these experiments. I mean, kind of similar to what living at the edge on the research side has always been. You know, it was constrained in many ways by the amount of compute you had to run these experiments.It feels similarly on the, almost on the builder or like actualizing these tools now.[00:20:56] swyx: Yeah. The other thing that's, I mean, very obvious is philanthropic is kind of like the high price premium player. Um, that where, you know. Restricting limits or restricting model releases even is like the name of the game.Whereas Codex is like, come on in guys, use our SDK, use our login and we don't care. We're gonna reset limits. Whatever you do want to try to exploit the subsidies where you can get it. And definitely Codex is super subsidized right now. Gemini also very subsidized. Um, and. Comparatively, like, I think you should make, Hey, I guess while, while that's going on, it's not that bad to be a capabilities explorer on just the $200 a month plan from Cloud Code or from OpenAI.Um, and, uh, I I, I, my sense is that people aren't even there yet.[00:21:41] Jacob Effron: How do you think this, like, market ultimately plays? I mean, it's obviously such a big market that, you know, any slice of that market is interesting for, for anyone going after it. But I think what, what makes people so interesting in the coding market particularly is it feels like it's kind of this.Foreshadowing of what will happen in other, you know, any other kind of application market that the foundation models eventually turn to and are all their models against and gather data around. And so how do you think, you know, like does there end up being room for lots of different kinds of players or like, what do you think the end state of this market is and is that, do you think that's applicable to other markets?[00:22:10] swyx: I feel like there will be, I mean. Status quo is probably the most likely outcome, which is there are two big players and there's a small range of longer tail people that, um, fit other use cases that the, the two big players don't. That feels right to me. I think that, um, for it to, for the market structure to, to significantly change there would be, there needs to be significant change in like the economics or like the, the brand building or like the, the, the, the value propositions of the, of the companies involved and I.Haven't seen any in the last six months that, that have really changed the stories materially. So I feel like they would just keep going until something, something else happens. Something else happens, meaning like Microsoft wakes up and like goes like. Guys, we have GitHub, we have, uh, you know, we, we, we'll, we'll do something much bigger here than other, other than just copilot.Um, and, uh, that would be a big change. Um, MSL has put out a model now, and I was in a breakfast with, uh, Alex Wang, where they were like, yeah, like, we, we really, really want to go after the coding use case. We haven't done anything yet, but like, don't underestimate them. Right. Um, and, and similarly for the Chinese labs.Um, I think they're trying to go after it. Like ZAI is doing stuff. GLM uh, ZI and GLM is same thing. Um, uh, and, and so it's, so like everyone's trying to get a piece of that pie. I, I feel like the, the status quo has been pretty stable for the past, like almost a year I'll say.[00:23:39] Jacob Effron: Yeah. And is the room for the, not like, you know, for, for the application companies more on like the enterprise side or like where do the, where do the, like what surface area do the model companies leave for application companies?[00:23:50] swyx: Yeah, that's a good one. Um. It's very much evolving. Um, it, I, I, I will say because opening I did not have this, the, this level of attention on coding. Yeah. Uh, a year ago. We just don't have that much history. Right. Um, and it seems like, for example, so the big push at Open I now is the Super app. Um, is that a consumer thing?Is that like a products like. Portfolio rationalization thing, how much is that gonna take away attention from coding at the time when they actually do want to put more coding? I think it's, it's very unclear. So I do think like there's, there's all these, like in both big labs, there's. Uh, sorry. Both of the, and, and drop and, and deep minus and XAI are are separate cases.Um, they are trying to see the other time expansion areas. So cloud code for finance. Yeah. Um, uh, cloud cowork, all those, all those things. Whereas I think cursor and cognition are like comparatively just focused on coding and so I, I do think they leave space and I do think for the other verticals that also means the same thing.Right. That, uh, that they're not gonna be that. Um, intensely focused on, on, on that domain. Except for, I, I think I would mark out finance and healthcare as like the next ones, um, that they're clearly going after. Uh, I, I would say comparatively, healthcare seems more thorny. There, there, there've been some announcements about it, but like, I would respect the, the finance work a lot more just because like the, the path to money is a lot clearer.[00:25:12] Jacob Effron: Yeah, no, I mean, obviously like, I, I think, you know, maybe similar to, to the space that's being left in these other domains, you know, there's obviously. Uh, a lot that's required to actually implement these tools in enterprises, uh, versus, you know, maybe just giving them, uh, giving model access to, to folks outta the box.[00:25:27] swyx: Yeah, yeah. Yeah. So the, the agent lab thing is like, we'll do the last mile for you. Whereas I think the model labs tend to just trust the model and, and be minimalist about it. Both of them work.[00:25:38] Jacob Effron: Yeah.[00:25:38] swyx: I, I don't, I don't necessarily think one, uh, beats the other, uh, for every, for every use case. Um, all I, all I do know is that it does seem like.Uh, the large enterprises do want a dedicated partner that isn't just the model labs, which is kind of interesting.[00:25:55] Jacob Effron: We, we've been in this phase of, of pure capability exploration. And so I think nothing has been, you know, better for the large labs, right? I mean, they're always gonna be, uh, uh, the frontier of, of capability exploration.And so I think have a very good relationship with a lot of these enterprises. But ultimately over time, like. The, uh, the incentive structure of these labs is always gonna be maximal, you know, token consumption for, uh, for the end customers they work with. And there's just, I think, so few companies that have actually gotten to massive scale.Maybe coding again is the most interesting. So it's the first space that really is just completely gone, you know? Yeah. You must love it every day. Like absolutely insane. And. I think it[00:26:32] swyx: gets even. Okay. I mean, like, I think we, we say good things about crystal cognition, but the sheer liftoff of like both end UPIC and open ai.‘cause they, they, they have independent valuations. I mean, let's throw an XEI in there because it's now I ping at 1.2 trillion. That number is just mind boggling. Like I, I feel like in normal investing or normal startups, there's kind of like a ceiling market cap or valuation. Totally. That, that like you, you reach and you go like, all right, let's, it's gonna be chiller from now on.And these guys are not slow down. No.[00:27:02] Jacob Effron: Well, I also think the dynamic is fascinating about some of these later stage companies is, is, you know, in the past, I feel like in, in venture world, if you got to a certain level of scale, the question around you was really more a valuation question. And this is like why there was different phase, like, you know, types of venture people did and like the late stage growth people were just incredible at like, you know, a little bit of what's the ultimate market opportunity of this company, but also what's the right way to, to value it.Like we know it's, it's in some bands of an outcome that is like. Sure there's some variance to it, but it's like relatively understood what that bands is and then maybe you get over time surprised to the upside. Whereas any kind of like later, even the labs themselves, any later stage company, the bands of which that company might be worth right now, even in a year or two years are so massive because of how fast the ecosystem changes that it's like.Even for later stage companies, every three months could be an existential level event to the upside to the downside. Yeah. Um, and I think that, like, you are obviously seeing it in the, in the positive with code, which, you know, if you think about a company like philanthropic, you know, that. For a while, it was like unclear if they were going to have access to enough capital, um, to really stay in the, in the race, right?And then coding hit at the exact right time. They had the perfect model for it. They executed brilliantly. Um, and you know, now are, are, you know, uh, you know, one of the most valuable companies in the world.[00:28:13] swyx: Uh, at the same time, I, I don't find, I, I have zero sympathy for opening eye because they're crushing it and they're all rich.You know, this is like a high class champagne problem to have to, uh, to be number two at coding or whatever. Like, who cares? Like, you're, you're doing great.[00:28:27] Jacob Effron: Yeah. It's funny though. I can't even, I mean, you would be closer to this, uh, you know, even that you're in the AI coding space, but it's like a lot of people I talk to think Codex is just as good, if not better than Claude Code.Right. I think one thing that I've been really surprised by, and maybe, maybe Cloud Code is a better product in some ways, I'm curious your thoughts is just in consumer AI with chat GBT. You saw this big first mover advantage, right? Where admittedly today, like, I don't know, Claude Gemini. Great products.Not sure, not abundantly clear chat GBTs any better, but like. People stick with chat, GBT, it's the first thing to introduce them.[00:28:56] swyx: They stay, but they're not growing anymore. I don't know if you've seen[00:28:59] Jacob Effron: Right. But that to me is more of like a, a, a product problem than it is. They're not like, it's not like they've like lost share to someone else.My understanding is the overall problem with consumer AI today is much more of a how do you take this tool and, you know, for, for folks like us, like knowledge workers, it's like this incredible magic tool, but it's not necessarily a daily active use tool for a lot of people around the world today. And what are the like products?It's, it's kind of a category wide problem. Like in coding, for example, like. The entire space has gone parabolic. There may be some relative growth in, uh, in other consumer AI players, but it's not like consumer AI as a category is like going parabolic and they're not capturing most of that thing. I think it's actually the larger problem is much more, hey, the category has kind of hit a bit of a plateau of people haven't figured out how to bring, you know, tons more users on board.Yeah, yeah. Or increase the frequency of those users. And so it seems more of a category wide problem than it is, you know, a massive market share of change. I was gonna draw the comparison to, to the coding space where Claude Co is the first product, obviously, to introduce people to this magical experience.You know, by all accounts, codex is, is pretty damn close to as good, if not better. Um, but like still that first product, you, you would've thought that would not be a super sticky, uh, you know, product surface area. And it actually has, it turns out, I, it feels like the first lab to introduce you and experience really does, uh, keep a lot of, uh, a lot of the focus.[00:30:12] swyx: I, I think. M maybe it's like still, still early days. You know, Chad, BT is like three plus years old and Yeah. Cloud code is only one. Just turned a year. Yeah. So give it time, you know? Yeah. Like, yeah. I mean, definitely sometimes a lot of people have switched from to Codex. Maybe that will keep going. I, it's like really hard to tell.Uh, yeah. I, I, I do, I do think that. Because we are in this like, high volatility, high temperature phase. Um, the loyalty and stickiness to first movers and category creators, I don't think is as high as it might be in some other, uh, areas in our careers that we've looked at.[00:30:47] Jacob Effron: Yeah. Though, I mean, I've been surprised by the cloud code thing.I, I would've thought that, like, in many ways I always worried about the[00:30:52] swyx: enterprise. You think you would've been gone by now?[00:30:53] Jacob Effron: Not gone. But I would've, I I always worried that the, that the consumer business of these companies would be quite sticky. And then the enterprise API business. Uh, was actually like, you know, in some ways like your least loyal buyers, like they would, they would move to,[00:31:05] swyx: right, right.But, but they worked out that it wasn't the enterprise API it was enterprise product.[00:31:09] Jacob Effron: Totally. And maybe that was the, that was the secret that like, but the amount of lock-in or just default behavior that has happened in that space, uh, is, is more than I might've imagined with two products that by all accounts are pretty damn similar.Yeah.[00:31:22] swyx: No fight there. Uh, I will say I do think that Codex is still in like a catch up. Like in terms of personal experience. Um, the only thing I like out of, out of Codex is the, is like Spark and like yeah. Uh, the, I, I feel like the skills integration is a little bit better. I feel like, uh, the, the speed is a bit better.Maybe ‘cause it's in, is written in rust or whatever. Um, very minor things that you like. Almost like telling yourself rather than like objectively assessing between two, two of them. I, I, I do think, like vibes wise, I think that's going on. Um, the, the, you know, I, I feel like the, the missing questions, uh, in, in this whole debate is like, why is this so concentrated in only two names, right?Yeah. Like, um, how, where, like, where is the Gemini? You know, presence, where's the Xai presence? Um, and like they are trying, it's just they haven't made that much progress yet.[00:32:12] Jacob Effron: But what the, what the Claude Co moment does show, and it actually in some ways makes you a little more bullish on the potential for someone else to catch up because it does feel like if you're the first person to introduce some magical net new product experience, that that actually might be stickier than one might have imagined.[00:32:27] swyx: Right, right, right. Okay. Yeah.[00:32:28] Jacob Effron: And so it's, everyone can believe they have shot[00:32:29] swyx: that. What do you think that new product experience might be like? I, I, it's, it's like, and this is a failure of imagination on my part. Like, I always wonder, like, people always say this like, well, the, the thing that will save us is like being first to the next new thing.Like what is it?[00:32:41] Jacob Effron: Yeah.[00:32:42] swyx: It's like,[00:32:45] Jacob Effron: I dunno, something around like, uh, consumer agent, computer use, like hybrid. I think, obviously, I think we're like scratching the surface on the consumer side.[00:32:53] swyx: So my, my current theory is like the. Open claw is like a vision of things to come.[00:32:58] Jacob Effron: Totally.[00:32:58] swyx: Um, and uh, it's good that O open I has like the association with open claw, but by no means do they have the rights to win it.The general thesis that I have been pursuing now is that the year the same way that 2025 was the year of coding agents, 2026 is coding agents breaking containment to do everything else. Um, and so coding agents continue to still win, but because they generate software and software eats the world, so like, it's kind of like the trans.Associated property of like software, eat the world, coding agents, eat software, therefore coding agents eat the world. Um, which is like an interesting,[00:33:30] Jacob Effron: yeah, and breaking containment always an easier phase phrase in the consumer context than the enterprise one. You've seen people run these really cool, uh, experiments in their own personal lives.I think like,[00:33:37] swyx: yes.[00:33:38] Jacob Effron: Figuring out, you know, how you, obviously everyone's focused, you know, on the enterprise side now around how you create these experiences. I feel like the vibes, you know, people love to have these narratives of like, everything is completely shifted. It's like I actually, you know, open AI.Organizationally, uh, you know, volatility aside is, you know, great products, great team, great models like everyone else in the world is incentivized for there to be. Two, three more. Everyone would love more like great model companies. And so I feel like the, the natural forces of the world revolt when any one company, you know, is too much the star of the show, right?There's so many people in the ecosystem that are incentivized for that not to happen. And so I think I'd be shocked if we don't have. Uh, uh, reversion of vibes, not maybe completely the other way, but at least a little bit more equal at some point over the next six, 12 months.[00:34:24] swyx: I, I think there's just a kind of different stages when, when you talk about the world, one wanting more model companies, I talked think about like the neo labs.[00:34:30] Jacob Effron: Yeah.[00:34:31] swyx: And I mean, I don't know, is it fair to say none of them have really broken through in the past year?[00:34:35] Jacob Effron: I think that's totally fair,[00:34:37] swyx: which is rough. Um, and well, how are we gonna, how are we gonna grow that diversity in, in, in choice, like. Um, that's, this is it.[00:34:46] Jacob Effron: Yeah. It'll be really interesting to see what, what, what ends up happening with that.And you've seen, you know, folks like Nvidia, you know, very incentivized to make sure there's, there's a broader platform of, of other model providers.[00:34:57] swyx: I think, uh, I don't know people say this, but I, I, I don't think they try it hard. Nvidia tries harder to build neo clouds[00:35:05] Jacob Effron: Yeah.[00:35:06] swyx: Than neo labs.[00:35:07] Jacob Effron: Well, they try pretty damn hard to build neo Cloud, so[00:35:09] swyx: that's,[00:35:09] Jacob Effron: yeah.[00:35:10] swyx: But like, you know, let's call it like the, the core weaves of the world, much happier place in the, you know, than any neo lab built on top of them.[00:35:18] Jacob Effron: Yeah. That one might argue it's, it's easier to, to enable a neo cloud to be successful than it is. Uh, you can't will a neo lab into existence the same way you, soNvidia[00:35:25] swyx: has more direct control over it.Uh, for sure.[00:35:27] Jacob Effron: What else is kind of catching your eye today on the startup side? I mean, you worry, there's obviously this whole narrative of like, you know, the foundation models, you know, they announced a product and every stock goes down 15%. Like[00:35:36] swyx: Yeah.[00:35:37] Jacob Effron: Do you, do you worry about the foundation models just kind of eating into to a bunch of these startup categories?[00:35:43] swyx: Not really. I, I think actually like. As, uh, there's, there's, okay, there's, there's, there's the, there's the point of view of like being an investor in startups, and there's a point of view of like, do you wanna start something? And I think honestly, like the, the downside for all these is so. Minimal in, in a sense of like, the worst you do is you just get hired into one of these labs anyway.So I, I think the, the market for people who just do things and try things and try to execute in like a competent way, even if like it doesn't work out commercially, even if it just wasn't that great anyway. Like, but like that's your job interview to go into, into one of these things anyway, so, um, I don't feel that.From a, from a very, very small startup perspective, mid-size startups. Yes. Uh, I will say there's been a lot of dead, um, LM Infra, a lot of LM infra consolidation like the, the, uh, lang fuses of the world getting absorbed into, into click house. And I, I think. Like people have maybe worked out the domain specific playbook, uh, and like, I think that's okay.Um, and, and yeah, I'm not that, not that worried about, uh, okay. So, um, I, I would say I'd be more worried about traditional SaaS, like low NPSS. This is the whole AI versus SaaS debate that has, that's been going on. Uh, and, and like literally I'm going through that exact thing in my company where, so I like kind of.Thinking through this on a very visceral, visceral level, right? On one hand you have the people who say you vibe coders don't appreciate the amount of work that goes into A-A-C-R-M and like, yeah, you think you can rip out Salesforce? So did the 30 entrepreneurs before you, right? Like, like, you know, you classically underestimate the things that you don't.Deeply, no. And, and, and target audience is not you. Uh, at the same time, like we have never been able to build software so easily and customize software so easily and like Yeah, you're not gonna use 90% of the things in Salesforce. So like, yeah. What's the typical, so what have you, what[00:37:33] Jacob Effron: have you done internally?[00:37:34] swyx: So we have there the main SaaS that we do for event management and sponsor management. That's, and we paid 200 KA year for that. Not, not huge, but like chunky for, for, for my, my scale. Um, and like, yeah, I could probably spend 2000 and, and build like a custom version of that. Um, the, the, the trick has been dealing with my, the rest of my team and getting them on board.Yeah. ‘cause I'm the most ethical person on my team, but like, I can't make that decision myself. And I think in the same way I've been telling with other CEOs team leaders as well, it's like, well you can be super cloud pilled. You can be super LM psychosis and that you think that's okay, but you like you have to bring your team with you.And I think like there, the sort of widening disparity in LM psychosis in companies is causing real s real riffs because. And on one hand, on one hand, the people who are less AI native are not getting with the picture. They're not, they're actually like behind, they're actually not waking up to the fact that like you, everything you think is necessary is not actually that necessary.And in fact, exactly would be better of you if you just like held your nose and went in and when came out the other side. Yeah, only talking to agents in natural language and like your life would actually be better and you just, you're just like close-minded. There's that perspective. The other perspective is, oh, you vibe coder.You, you did this in a weekend and you got the 80% solution and now the rest of your employees. Have to pick up the rest of your s**t, right, that you, that you thought you were, you were such hot, amazing, uh, uh, at, but like, actually you didn't figure it out. And like, actually LMS are still useless at this and blah, blah, blah.So like, I think there's this huge debate going on in every company right now. Um, and like, um, you know, I have a small microcosm of it, but like, yeah, it, it's making me hesitate to, to pull the trigger. But like I will at some point, it's like maybe I've put it off for one year, but not like five. Yeah, but like, so, so like SaaS is definitely getting squeezed.Um, it does make me wonder, like, I, I do think that there's an opportunity for a more AI native, um, system of record thing that is not just Postgres. Um, or not just MongoDB, although both are very good. Maybe it's like a convex or like people Yeah. Bring up convex a lot. I don't know, like, like, I, I just feel like the sort of quote unquote firebase of, of AI apps isn't really a thing yet.Um, beyond what we have. Uh, which, which is fine. It's, it's, it's just. We could probably start in a more sort of rapid iteration cycle first before scaling up to like a Postgres or MongoDB, which are more sort of old tech. I was at a dinner with, uh, Mike Krieger, the CPO of en philanthropic, and, and he, we were just kind of going around the room going like, what are people most worried about?Yeah. And, uh, for me, uh, I, instead of security, I brought up biosafety. Yeah,[00:40:21] Jacob Effron: classic.[00:40:22] swyx: Um, actually, like I said, it was. Cliche and classic, and the rest of the table were, were like, what do you mean? Someone sitting at home can manufacture a virus that wipes out half of humanity,[00:40:32] Jacob Effron: almost like the OG Jeffrey Hinton.Like, this is why you should be scared.[00:40:35] swyx: I'm like, yeah, like the read the, you know, risk reports. Like this is like the thing. Um, I think, and Mike was just sitting there knowing he was sitting on Mythos and going like, actually it's security. Um, and I think like, um, I think the, there's, there's, part of it is.A very good marketing. Like too good. Yeah, like I would actually advise and topic to tune down the marketing because also it's, it is just a very good model and you don't have to make so many marketing claims around it. At the same time, it is not really a private model. If you give it to 40 companies.Each of whom have like 10,000 employees or whatever. Right. It's not, it's not private, it's, it's like there's bad actors in there.[00:41:18] Jacob Effron: Yeah. Hopefully, hopefully not as, uh, as bad as releasing it widely, but, uh, no, I mean, it's an interesting. You know, it's an interesting case study for how all, I mean, many model releases might, I mean, you know, this might be the first model release that looks like the rest of ‘em from from now on, right?[00:41:31] swyx: It, it, so it's, it's the, there's an overall product strategy, uh, for anthropic of like bundle, uh, you know, restrict access bundle, uh, product with model maybe.Whereas, uh, OpenAI has definitely been a lot more sort of. Philosophically aligned on like, we will just enable access everywhere and we don't know what you, what will come out of it. Right.[00:41:51] Jacob Effron: Right. Though, I mean, this current moment, uh, obviously the cynical take is also just ties to the amount of compute that both companies[00:41:56] swyx: Yeah.Right, right, right. Yeah, I think, I think that's true. I I do think like the, the, this is the, the, the scale, the dawn of like larger than 10 trillion parameter models is very interesting. I don't think it, I think it's a temporary phenomenon because we have much larger compute clusters coming online for everyone over the next like three, five years.It's, and this is like already written in, in the cards.[00:42:18] Jacob Effron: Yeah.[00:42:19] swyx: So to the extent that like, you know, will we have rationing of models, uh, above 10 trillion, uh, in like two years? I don't think so. I think everyone will have no, we'll just[00:42:29] Jacob Effron: have rationing of the next phase.[00:42:30] swyx: Right. Right. But like, that's as it should be almost like, um.My, my classic example, which I, this is just me theorizing, not anything confirmed by Google. When Google announced Gemini, they actually announced three sizes, which was Flash Pro Ultra. They never released Ultra. They only have Pro and Flash. Um, so my theory is they have ultra sitting in a basement and they just could distilling from it for, for flashing pro.Um, which like, yeah, I mean, I, I actually think that's. As it should be for any lab that they, that they do that.[00:43:02] Jacob Effron: Yeah. Just because those are the models that people actually wanna end up using. And it's just like cost prohibit.[00:43:06] swyx: It is more, yeah, it's cost. Yeah. It's, it's not the want, it's just, just, just the cost.Um, I do think, like, uh, it is interesting that, uh, for a while I was, I was considering the theory that models capped out at two, 2 trillion, and I think that's proving to be wrong. And well then if I'm wrong, how wrong? How wrong am I? Do we do 200 trillion? Do we do two quarter trillion, whatever? Um, and I don't think we have the straight answer to that, but like, uh, it's interesting that we are continuing to scale number of pers when everyone kind of assu like can see that we're not going to get like the next thousand or 1 million x from this paradigm.So like the others, like the alias of the world are working on other. Um, model architecture improvements. We need a different scaling law, I guess, because like, we're, I, I feel like people already already feel like we're tapped out on this. Like the, the end, the end state of this is we turn most of the world into data centers and like, I don't know.I don't know if we want that.[00:44:08] Jacob Effron: Yeah, I mean, uh, if the, if, if, if the return of intelligence are there, maybe, uh, maybe not so bad.[00:44:13] swyx: I, I, I think there, there's just a sheer amount of like, like un scalability that like is wrangling people's sensibilities right now. Um, especially in terms of like context lengths.Um, my classic quote is that context length is like the slowest scaling factor in, in lms.[00:44:30] Jacob Effron: Yeah.[00:44:30] swyx: Um, we, like, we took maybe. Three years to go from like 4,000 context length to a million and that's about it. Yeah. Like Gemini has had a million token context length for two years now. Um, and no one's using it.Like, so like yeah, it's memory. Memory is probably gonna be the, the biggest limiting constraint on all these things.[00:44:50] Jacob Effron: Yeah. Certainly seems that way. I guess I'm curious over the last year since you recorded last, like what's one thing you've changed your mind on?[00:44:57] swyx: I feel like I was kind of bearish on open models like last year.Um, in a sense of, like, I, I had just done the podcast with an Al[00:45:07] Jacob Effron: Yeah.[00:45:08] swyx: Of Braintrust where he, and he, I mean, you know, he has a good cross section of all the top AI companies and he says market share of open source is 5% and going down. Um, I think that's changed. I think it's going up. Um, and even if,[00:45:22] Jacob Effron: even though the capability gap does seem to be increasing.Spending on the[00:45:26] swyx: time. It's hard to tell. Yeah, it's, it's really hard to tell. ‘cause like, okay, for, for listeners, capability gap increasing is like on public benchmarks. And let's say you're comparing mythos versus like, I don't know, G-T-O-S-S or like GLM 5.1. And, um, it's, it is really hard to tell. ‘cause even if they were closing, you will also not believe that they were closing that much because it's very easy to gain the benchmarks.Yeah. So you just don't really, really know. Um, all you know is like. Uh, there's somewhat objective open router stats on like what people choose in a free market. And people do choose some of these open models in significant volume, except that a lot of them are heavily discounted. So you need to kind of like price adjust, uh, these things.So even if, even if that were true, which I, I'm not sure, like I, I, I feel like the numbers just up now instead of down. Uh, I think the. Separation between what the top tier agent labs

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