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4 episodes with unluckily
2 episodes with unluckily
2 episodes with unluckily
2 episodes with unluckily
Or maybe 2028, it's complicated In 2021, a researcher named Daniel Kokotajlo published a blog post called “What 2026 Looks Like”, where he laid out what he thought would happen in AI over the next five years. The world delights in thwarting would-be prophets. The sea of possibilities is too vast for anyone to ever really chart a course. At best, we vaguely gesture at broad categories of outcome, then beg our listeners to forgive us the inevitable surprises. Daniel knew all this and resigned himself to it. But even he didn't expect what happened next. He got it all right. Okay, not literally all. The US restricted chip exports to China in late 2022, not mid-2024. AI first beat humans at Diplomacy in late 2022, not 2025. And of course the mid-2025 to 2026 period remains to be seen. But to put its errors in context, Daniel's document was written two years before ChatGPT existed. Nobody except researchers and a few hobbyists had ever talked to an AI. In fact, talking to AI was a misnomer. There was no way to make them continue the conversation; they would free associate based on your prompt, maybe turning it into a paragraph-length short story. If you pulled out all the stops, you could make an AI add single digit numbers and get the right answer more than 50% of the time. Yet if you read Daniel's blog post without checking the publication date, you could be forgiven for thinking it was a somewhat garbled but basically reasonable history of the last four years. I wasn't the only one who noticed. A year later, OpenAI hired Daniel to their policy team. While he worked for them, he was limited in his ability to speculate publicly. “What 2026 Looks Like” promised a sequel about 2027 and beyond, but it never materialized. Unluckily for Sam Altman but luckily for the rest of us, Daniel broke with OpenAI mid-2024 in a dramatic split covered by the New York Times and others. He founded the AI Futures Project to produce the promised sequel, including: Eli Lifland, a superforecaster who is ranked first on RAND's Forecasting initiative. You can read more about him and his forecasting team here. He cofounded and advises AI Digest and co-created TextAttack, an adversarial attack framework for language models. Jonas Vollmer, a VC at Macroscopic Ventures, which has done its own, more practical form of successful AI forecasting: they made an early stage investment in Anthropic, now worth $60 billion. Thomas Larsen, the former executive director of the Center for AI Policy, a group which advises policymakers on both sides of the aisle. Romeo Dean, a leader of Harvard's AI Safety Student Team and budding expert in AI hardware. …and me! Since October, I've been volunteering part-time, doing some writing and publicity work. I can't take credit for the forecast itself - or even for the lion's share of the writing and publicity - but it's been an immense privilege to work alongside some of the smartest and most epistemically virtuous people I know, trying to absorb their worldview on a level deep enough to do it justice. We have no illusions that we'll get as lucky as last time, but we still think it's a valuable contribution to the discussion. https://www.astralcodexten.com/p/introducing-ai-2027 https://ai-2027.com/
The gang are beset by a pair of dragons just outside of Ashen Rest! Luckily, they're both dragons they know. Unluckily, they're both dragons they know. We're now using the 2024 edition of D&D 5e! You can support us on patreon/twitch/youtube to gain access to our update video talking about our thoughts on the new system and the changes you will see in our game! _______________ Boost your Charisma with some HR merch! https://highrollersdnd.teemill.com/ Add official High Rollers Minis to your TTRPG collection here: https://only-games.co/collections/high-rollers Bless your table with the Clever Toad Dice Set: https://dispeldice.com/collections/high-rollers Enhance your bath time experience with the official Altheya themed DiceBombs at https://geekyclean.com/! Check out https://www.highrollersdnd.com/ for all the latest HR News! Love the podcast? Give us a glittering 5 star review! https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/high-rollers-dnd/id1401508198?see-all=reviews Support the High Rollers on Patreon and get early access to Podcast episodes, vods and more: www.patreon.com/HighRollers Music courtesy of Epidemic Sound, TCT Adventures (Solasta: Crown of the Magisters), Monument Studios and Jolene Khor! Check out Jolene Khor and all her wonderful work on High Rollers on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/1WX3ICiTmf4GpHwImnQMs6 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
It's time for Laura and Nate to watch Saw 8, appropriately titled JIGSAW. In which its once again Cops Vs. Jigsaw only Jigsaw's BEEN dead for a minute at this point. We've done trap room, trap house, trapped insurance agent, so where can we go next? Get ready for TRAP BARN! Where 5 people with deep dark secrets are confronted with the crimes they've committed and never told a soul about. Unluckily for them, Jigsaw knows all!!!
Living the nightmare; hungering for a normal life. In 25 parts, edited from the works of FinalStand. Listen and subscribe to the ► Podcast at Connected.. “If your heart starts the fight, you can lose without regret.” (Thursday Night) It was well past the descent of Night's veil when the Havenstone jet landed outside of New York City. Naomi and team gathered us up and led us to the main building downtown. An unlooked for conflict developed. Naomi's team was there to present me to Hayden. Rachel's team was still focused on securing my wellbeing and they didn't like the attitude Naomi's squad was giving off. With Buffy (Helena was in a different car), there was no concealing Rachel's hostility toward the latest group of SD ladies. The new group was treating me like a 'package', not a Head of House, and that infuriated my First too. All of that ill-will simmered as we made our way to Havenstone. The situation was compounded by the elevator ride. Naomi, her team, Buffy, Rachel and I went into the first elevator. By the time we made it to the top few floors, it was clear that the rest were not immediately following along. The situation ratcheted up to nasty when Naomi demanded Buffy's firearm. Buffy looked ready to use it. "Buffy; gun," I held out my hand, palm up. Buffy reluctantly handed it over. I walked over to the nearest trash can, dropped out the clip, chambered out the first round then dumped the entirety into the trash receptacle. "If they touched it, the weapon would be fouled and not fit for a true Amazon," I explained to Buffy. "Best to save your noble tool the indignity and dispense with it instead." Buffy snorted with amusement, Naomi's crew pretended not to care while Rachel was deeply disturbed. It took a perfunctory gesture to stop Buffy outside Hayden's office. In I went to face Hayden, Katrina, Saint Marie and Troika of House Šauška alone. Šauška was the 'sister goddess' of Ishara; together they formed Ishtar in later incarnations. I didn't believe Troika was here for any sister solidarity this time around. "Why did you do this? Start a war; is this your hatred of Amazon culture shining through, trying to get us all killed in some global struggle against the other Secret Societies?" Hayden opened up with in an even tone. "No," I kept it succinct. They waited for more of an explanation. "Do you have anything you can say to defend your actions?" Troika glared. "I don't need to defend my actions," I regarded her as if she was of alien origin. "The actions speak for themselves." "Why don't you explain it to us, Ishara?" Saint Marie rumbled. Insulted yet again. As an equal, I warranted the use of my first name. "Do I have your permission to fully and completely lay out my reasoning without everyone closing in like a pack of hyenas on a leopard?" I looked to Hayden; not happy. She gave a curt nod. It wasn't like running away would get me far. "I will speak slowly because all of you appear to have become incredibly stupid," I started. "My parent and carrier of my Amazon ancestor's genetic heritage was murdered. The leader of the Amazon Security Detail identified herself, Then they were fired upon. Somehow you do not see those actions as Casus Belli. [cause for war] There are three possible reasons for your blindness: you are all cowards who bully behind closed doors, but fold up like gutless wonders when a true challenge presents itself. Or, the male penis renders you incapable of intelligent thought and induces irrational and unsustainable hostile deductions in your though processes. Or, you want me and the line of Ishara dead and are willing to accept any accident of fate that will render us so," I laid things out for them. "Or, you were in pain over your father's loss and used Havenstone as a tool to lash out at your perceived foes without concern for what price the other houses would have to pay for your personal vendetta," Hayden suggested. "Your gender bias is appalling, High Priestess Saint James," I shook my head. "Have I been such an out of control, emotional male that yours is the logical assumption for how events unfolded?" I smirked. "Except for the meeting where I learned your secret; only Katrina caught that. I've risked death three times for Amazons; yet I hate all of you enough to kill those people and myself. Besides, Saint James, your opinion has been rendered irrelevant." "You will call me Hayden," Hayden simmered. "I will when you and your lackeys get around to calling me Cáel," I countered. "I don't like being insulted any more than you do. I could keep up this childishness forever, but, as I was pointing out, we don't have forever. War is coming. Between my father's murder and my threats to the Condotteiri and Seven Pillars' emissaries, I've guaranteed that. Apologizing won't do any good. They won't believe you. Offering me up won't do any good. They think you hold male life to be worthless; the truth of which I am personally witnessing here and now. They are coming for you no matter what you wish. The best chance for an alliance rests with me. I can establish truly good will with the Nine Clans, Illuminati and the Earth and Sky. Without me, they don't trust you enough to do any good. I'm sure only Katrina believes this; I did all that alliance-building for Havenstone. I am House Ishara and the fate of the Amazons is my fate. Yet here I am, being insulted, being treated like a traitor; an infantile traitor at that, and being informed you will not honor your oaths and obligations to me," I shook my head. "Are there any other issues to discuss, or can I go home now? I'm beat." "You will be housed downstairs for your own safety," Hayden informed me. "Unless you arrest me, I'm going home," I shrugged. "Not only do I not want your protection, I have ceased to trust you. You do not treat me like a sister. Instead you accuse me of atrocities against MY people and layer on the petty insults. Goodnight." I made to leave so Saint Marie interposed herself. "That wasn't a request, Ishara," Hayden murmured with menace. "Beat me up," I chuckled, "and you will be more screwed than you know." The Golden Mare and I locked gazes. I tried to move around her so she put a hand on my chest. "Welcome to the consequences of being known liars and bigots, ladies." "I am tiring of your insolence," Saint Marie growled. "Runners'," Katrina sighed with melancholy amusement. "What about them?" Troika mocked. "The majority of the 'Runners' aren't going to see this as the Council punishing Cáel for starting the upcoming conflict," Katrina chided her cohorts. "They are going to see the Full-blooded shutting down the Only House letting them in. Going to war? They are willing to fight and die for our cause. They assume we are too," Katrina regaled her unwilling audience. "Pleased with yourself, Ish; Cáel," Hayden's eyes narrowed. "He has almost nothing to do with it, Sisters," Katrina chortled. "We were the ones who promised to let the 'Runners' join the houses then reneged on that promise. The worst you can say about Cáel was that only after we picked out, loaded and handed him the gun, did he use it for what it was intended for." "We are not punishing him for this 'Runner' insult," Troika spat. She meant my 'hasty' inductions. "Then why are we punishing him; and thank you for making Cáel's point for him; 'Runner' insult indeed. Since your disgraceful attitude is overwhelmingly common, the 'Runners' are not going to believe your excuse for dealing with Cáel." "Katrina," Hayden cautioned. "Hayden, as your 'First Bearer of the Sun Spear through the Halls of Night and Death', I am required to give you this news," Katrina bowed her head in reverence. "I tell you Cáel's actions have been a lightning rod for the 'Runners'. He gives them hope where there was none. Putting Cáel down will have repercussions you do not understand. They will then 'Know' for a certainty we look down on them and treat them little better than slaves; which is the truth," Katrina responded to the others. "Not only are we going to war, we are successfully convincing half our population that they Cannot trust the Council to spend their lives wisely." "How dare you?" Saint Marie seethed at me. "Are you seriously blaming me for keeping the oaths the rest of you made in my name; while Ishara was dead to the Council?" I laughed. "The 'Runners' are your idea, Saint Marie, not mine. You promised to bring them into the Houses ; and didn't. You lied and I chose to not perpetuate that lie, thus honoring my ancestors, my founder and my Goddess." "Do I need to remind you who Ishara is? The Goddess of Oaths; particularly military oaths," I added. "In case you missed it, I am implying that you have failed your ancestors;” and I went flying. Damn, Saint Marie was fast. I rolled as best as I could, ending bumping into Hayden's desk. No one said a word which I found tragically consistent. My follow-up pain wasn't 'Mare' induced. Spiritual flames consumed me internal organs, causing me to cry out in torment and vomit copious amounts of something. I was cradled inside a horror film as first my esophagus, then stomach and finally my intestines seemed to flush forth from my lips. The stench was beyond horrid; putrid and corrupt combined with the atrocious odor of bloated flesh left to rot in the Sun for weeks. Considering the minimal amount I had eaten on the flight home, I was even more baffled by what felt like 100 liter quantity of discharge. When the ordeal eventually ended, I half-rose then flopped backwards into darkness. I hurt. I hurt in the same way you have 'pins and needles', except mine were industrial capacity and giving it 110%. My head was resting at a slight incline and someone was flipping a lock of my bangs on and off my forehead. I opened my eyes into infinity; seriously worse agony consumed my brain pan. "That is too much for you to know, Cáel," she murmured. Those eyes had been feminine, just not in a human way and definitely filled with more joy and suffering than could be granted by a thousand lifetimes. The pain faded, so I tried the whole eye thing again. At the top of the lap that cradled my head was a really nice pair of boobs clothed in thin wool; lush, mature, yet firm like a young virgin's. "Thank you," she lilted. Mind-reading? "Do I want to know what has happened to me?" I groaned. I reached for a boob because if it was a toxin-induced delusion, what was the worst that can happen? "Careful, I haven't been with a male in 1800 years, my Preciously Odd Amazon," she laughed. "I like challenges," I bantered with my mental conjuration. Definitely mind-reading. "I am not the creation of your fevered dreams, my Cáel," she flicked my nose. "I have pushed you near death to place a curse on the Host. As a side benefit, I am able to have metaphysical contact with you." "To date you, I have to have a near-death experience? I don't know if I should admire 1800 years of male common sense, or that last guy who risked everything for one night with you," I shrugged. "So much compassion; and so little fear," she petted my scalp. "Since you clearly aren't getting into the name game and I am more than happy to doubt everything I've experienced in the past five minutes," I smiled at her, "what am I supposed to do?" "You know," she smiled back. "No, I don't," I insisted. "Something extra-concise that doesn't come from a fortune cookie." "I've always wanted to eat a fortune cookie," she looked away. "I'll start walking around with one in my pocket so next time you nearly kill me, you can indulge," I offered. "Save my people, Cáel," she placed her hand over my eyes. "Save their spirits." "A bit of help would be nice," I pressed forward blindly. "I've given you help," she whispered on my lips. Since I didn't consider that to be helpful, I opted to give a gentle twist to her nipple. Either something was really going on inside my head, acting as a conduit between me and something else, or I was experiencing a psychotic break with reality. If it was the former, I was a Class-A idiot. If it was the latter, it was me being me, rolling the dice with the pretty girl. "I wanted you to be brave," she laughed melodically, the echo of every woman I'd ever given a reason to sing out with joy, "yet now I find myself wishing you would expend a tiny bit more caution on my behalf." Sensing my dissatisfaction, she added "I cannot give you 'the' truth, so I will give you 'a' truth. Nothing is set in the future while much is foreseen." "As long as you know I've disappointed every women I've ever been with," I reminded her, my eyes still shielded and her lips tantalizingly close to mine. "Oh, you like to think you are selfish, Cáel Nyilas of Vranus and Ishara, but you justifiably take pride in the sensuality you bring to so many women's lives," she pointed out. "Many lovers are far more truthful yet far less giving," she said. "Pain heals while an education is forever," I countered. Another joyous note. "It is time for you to wake up, my Cáel," she sighed. "Go now." Wakefulness required a return to the putrid qualities of my current surroundings. I forced myself to my knees. No one did anything; no reaction, or assistance, so it fell to me to save myself. "What; what was that?" Troika nearly retched at the stench. Katrina stood, visibly pale and shaken. "Hayden?" Katrina requested of her leader. "Cáel, what have you done?" Hayden snapped. She also stood up so she could look down at me from her desk. I mumbled something. Even I wasn't sure what I was trying to say. The last touch of a lady far chillier than the one in Chicago caressed me and I knew the gist of what had happened. Why was I the one suffering at the hands of my Goddess? I was the easiest to get at because I was already devoted to her, her chosen children and I was Patron and Head of the house dedicated to her honor. The forecasted ass-kicking wasn't aimed at me, though. I was the necromantic shotgun barrel into this reality. Too many bitches had spat on me, her hand-picked patsy and punching bag, and her temper was beyond sending some vague signs and portents to the Host. I didn't know the particulars of this curse, yet I didn't doubt for a second it was both fiendishly evil and well-deserved. My jacket, shirt and tie were goners. The lower part of my tie which had been thoroughly drenched in my vomit was already decaying into filth, soon passing into nothingness. I tried speaking again. "Having exhibited no faith in me, you have committed apostasy to Ishara," issued the words from my acid-scared throat. "You are condemned to live with that choice. Good night." I fumbled and stumbled to Hayden's door, weakly opened one of the two double doors and left. The confrontation I had departed outside remained in force; Naomi and detail versus Rachel and Buffy. Helena, and a former 'Runner' named Madori who worked at Havenstone HQ with us, had not been sent up. "I am going home," I rasped. With no orders to keep me there, Naomi let me pass. Rachel and Buffy closed in. "Boss, you smell like;” Buffy searched for words. "A red tide," Rachel said. "All those dead fish floating on the water for days and days; it is that level of horrible smell." "Rachel," I stated as we got on the elevator, "thank you for the loyalty, intelligence and understanding you have given me in this trying time." "I am a member of the Host, Ishara. I would do no less for Hayden herself; but you are welcome," she sighed. "How about we postpone our date night until I've cleared up a few things with the Council and Ishara?" I suggested. Rachel nodded. I briefly talked to Helena over the phone, went with Buffy to the basement where she checked out a car then sat back as she drove me home. I must have looked like a disaster because Buffy didn't give me an ounce of grief. Home was home now. There was a house with my name on it now, but it wasn't my hearth; this mid-town, 'just above the poverty line' apartment was definitely home now. I would suspect that business travel was like a clothes dryer; you mystically pulled out less clothes than you put in. I was coming back with twice the amount of luggage I had departed with Odette would be home in an hour, so it was me and Timothy for a bit. "Hey Bro," Timothy greeted me. He set down one of those fanciful Asian vegetable mish-mashes that he liked from time to time, stood up and gave me a hug. "How bad was it?" "Let's just say I finished it up this evening by vomiting all over the Big Boss's rug, and that was the highlight of the trip," I mumbled. "That would explain your bare-chested look," Timothy snorted. I had been so out of it, I had spaced on the need to put on clothes like a normal human being. "Something to eat?" "Nah, my insides were spewed forth, so I'm foregoing food for a while," I mumbled. That reminded me. I went to the bathroom and gargled repeatedly with mouthwash. I could still smell the aromatic abomination, but at least I couldn't taste it anymore. "Do we want to go down the lists of women who have called you?" Timothy was trying to cheer me up. I wanted to be cheered up so I told him to go right ahead. Brooke and Libra; an immediate call back with the briefest of details; no weekend date for Brooke and I yet. Jason, the bar-back I had met chasing down Katy Lee, had called. I dialed his number and we had a short chat. He and his buddies were coming along well, I was invited back any time, and the Latin Kings had gotten the message because they hadn't been around since. I requested he and his friends keep their eyes open just in case and I'd be around for another pick-up game soon enough. Since most of those LK's were dead and the remainder scattered, I wasn't worried about Jason. Nikita; I called and she 'agreed' to come over. I was too fatigued to fight her off. Ulyssa called and I had to inform her that this weekend didn't look good for me; funeral and all. I initiated contact with Nicole. She was still wrapping up some of my business in Chicago and would be gone until Saturday morning. Timothy crashed for the evening, I was nibbling on some of his fodder and the doorbell rang. A check at the peephole revealed Nikita. She came in, hugged and I could sense something was definitely wrong. We were back to first date material. We hadn't been separated long enough; crap. I gave us space on the sofa. "That was incredibly fast," I groaned. "What tipped them off?" "What do you mean?" Nikita tried to scoot down the sofa to me. I held her off with one hand. "I am hardly one to uphold honesty in a relationship, but I normally consider it a selfish endeavor and not done for the benefit of a third, unrelated party," I sadly met her eyes. "Cáel, what do you?" Nikita stammered. "You are not a very good liar," I pointed out. "You are wearing a wire of some kind?" "Have you done something wrong?" Nikita evaded. "My loss," I moped. "All I wanted was the semblance of a normal life and now that's gone down the tubes." "Nikita, what do you want to drink?" I restarted the whole fiasco. Drinks were served and we kept to our separate ends of the sofa talking about mindless shit until Odette showed up. Then I could politely show Nikita the door and be with someone who did care about me. We made slow, passionate love. I gave her orgasms and giggles with the added benefit I felt more human when we finally fell asleep. (Friday) The morning started out with the same routine. I pulled up various routes for my bike ride into work, chose none of them and off I went in the pre-dawn dark blue/grey sky. I came within 20 seconds of my best time, so I was feeling pretty positive about what lay ahead. Security was a full 180 from their normally sour selves. "Good morning, Cáel Ishara," the security team (not Security Detail) leader greeted me. That was part 'thanks for letting my sister 'Runners' into a house' and 'maybe pick me next time.' "Good morning, Wilma Draper," I nodded back. I went to the counter and leaned in. I needed to fortify my supportive base and I knew how to do it. "You do realize I don't choose who joins House Ishara, don't you?" I addressed her softly yet loud enough for the two closest security women to hear. "You do not?" the woman appeared perplexed. "No," I shook my head in the negative. At that moment she wondered if this was a trick of the Council. Good girl. "The senior Amazons of House Ishara chose the next candidates. I make the ritual appeal to Ishara, of course. Selection remains in the hands of former 'Runners' who nominate the 'Runners' who have proven themselves. I was inspired to initiate Buffy and Helena because I had enough faith in them to believe they knew Havenstone and what House Ishara needed. The Amazons in the second ritual were all Buffy and Helena's choices. I think those two and the latest group Ishara has approved of, will make the perfect judges for picking future 'Runners' of accomplishment and worth; not only for House Ishara, but for the new Amazons who have risked everything for our People," I piled on the propaganda. She nodded. The two closest security guards nodded as well. Off I went to the gun range. With less than a minute worth of words, I had reinforced my perfection. I wasn't a male. I was a male with a passel of hardcore, praiseworthy Amazons working around me, insulating me from committing any errors and making all the important decisions while I behaved like a bobble-headed doll. The range was back to 'normal' except I could smell the chemicals this time out. Whatever concrete and surface coating substances they had used to repair my grenade-inspired damage left my nose with a terrible itch. I had a gun selection today. I had no instructor yet was hopeful. I packed up my 40 caliber, my back-up 3 80, the combat shotgun and my Personal Defense weapon then headed out. I patiently waited behind one of the stations, soaking up the view of medium gray yoga pants worn by a woman who presented a meticulously crafted, awesome bubble-butt to the world. After she finished off one magazine, the Amazons looked over her shoulder at me. Horn-dog time. The woman smiled as she motioned me forward. We put my weapons on the stand and prepared for school. "I am Wiesława of House Živa," she smirked playfully. By the Almighty, she had a thick Polish accent, rich lips, russet hair and 'come hither' eyes. I was prepping for some early 'nookie' time. "Hello, I am Ash Ketchum and I have an unhealthy relationship with free-roaming, anthropomorphic creatures," I replied as we clasped forearms Amazon-style. As Wiesława was trying to puzzle that out, an Amazon from an adjoining booth came over and punched me in the arm. I couldn't even recall this one's name though I knew that face and physique. "Stop that, Cáel," the woman chastised me. "She's new here." "I thought he was bringing me more weapons to use. Was this male being insolent?" Wiesława tried to put things in their proper place. "Should he be disciplined?" At least she wasn't taking me being beaten as her Goddess-given right. "No, Wiesława. This is Cáel Ishara, Head of House Ishara, he brought those weapons for His use and most likely came to your station looking for instruction," the unnamed Amazon stated. "Does this mean we are passed that whole 'grenade launcher' thing?" I inquired of the women. "We are not sure. For now we have decided to not pre-judge you since you remain consistently combative no matter what. Constanza is recovering," she tacked on. "Good," I grinned. "How soon can she return to duty? I imagine she makes a lousy patient." Pause. The 'Constanza' bit had been a test. I had a feeling that my emotional tendency to spare lives and show mercy was getting around. It wasn't the Amazon way, though it did mean Constanza would remain alive for a while longer when it was generally accepted she should not. "She will have to retrain her vision. Her doctors are hopeful," the woman responded. "That is for the best. I do hope there are no ill intentions toward Pamela," I warned her. "Such a vengeance would be personal and I would feel no obligation to treat those criminals as I would my fellow Amazons; are we clear?" "It has been made expressly clear that this issue is at an end," she bowed slightly. "Let us commit this to the 'nothingness'," was my suggestion. The two Amazons twitched. That was a phrase straight out of their cultural playbook. Both nodded, the familiar Amazon left and I turned back to Wiesława. "Do you still want a go at training me?" I asked the Pole. "Yes; yes, I would like that," she gave me a bright, toothy white smile. "I find you interesting." Off I went again. Wiesława was diligent and definitely 'hands-on'. Twenty minutes into the training one of my familiar SD firing partners showed up. "Don't let him take his clothes off," Felicité teased me. Her Congolese French contrasted erotically with Wiesława's Polish. "His clothes come off?" Wiesława seemed puzzled. "How is that accomplished?" "A deeply scientific, psychological process," Felicité teased my latest friend/fish in the barrel. "Cáel, take off your clothes," she commanded me. I gave her a haughty, condescending glare. "Please." My biking shirt came off first then my biking slippers and finally the shorts. "Your turn," I regarded Wiesława. She shot a look to Felicité. Her sports bra was millimeters from exposing her goodies when my Congolese tormentor stepped in. "You don't have to take off your clothes for him," she intervened. "But I like seeing you ladies naked," I protested. Felicité patted my package. "We like seeing you naked too. Now put on your pants before a hot shell casing creates yet another incident," Felicité teased me again. A great chasm of misunderstanding had been bridged since Friday. The grenade-launcher was part of it, yet I think Rachel and Velma were far more constructive than I could have been. Velma had seen me in crisis mode. I hadn't panicked. I had seen to my partner (though she was an inconsequential female) and been cool throughout the process in Katrina's office as Velma and her four team members had overheard. Rachel, Charlotte, Mona and Tiger Lily had probably given a different story; less professional and more human. That must have worked in my favor. A stone-cold bad-ass would have been more worrisome; a challenge. No, I had been shaken, irrational, brave and grieving. I had fought an assassin of the Nine Clans and not lost (thus not an embarrassment to a culture I didn't really belong to; until that moment). I had insulted the Condotteiri and the Seven Pillars, who were universally hated. I had been nice to the Earth and Sky and Illuminati, who they didn't like much, but could be handy if a war did break out. I had been 'friendly' to the Egyptians and Nine Clans, who the Amazon rank and file did approve of. The SD had no doubts; they were looking at a war. Unlike their leadership, the Security Detail was anticipating this, even anxious for the test. Fighting is what they spent their whole lives training for. Thirty years had passed since the last major clash between Havenstone and the others. For the youngest, this was the ultimate chance to prove their training had been perfect. For the oldest members of the SD, this was the culmination of a lifetime's devotion. 'Take themselves to the cliffs'? Not now. Now came the chance to make every burn, bullet hole, stab wound and piece of shrapnel worth it. Their Host lavished care and resources on the Security Detail; their Warrior Elite; and they were about to reward that glorification with a fervor only female's with 3000 years of martial tradition could match. Like me? Allowable yet not required. Respect me? Constanza was their lesson on respect. Obedience? No. Rachel had most assuredly related my contact with the 'Runners' and Buffy, so they could hit me like they could no other Head of Household; as long as it was 'appropriate'. Since they were not forced to give me full equality, they could stomach my 'almost' equality. Think of it as being able to punch your manager at work in the arm whenever you thought they were doing something stupid. Imagine how much worker morale would benefit. By stepping up and taking a punch, or two, I bought myself and House Ishara much more respect than a snippy insistence on etiquette would have ever done. Bringing 'Runners' into a First House? The SD wasn't jumping for joy. Here, the SD's sense of superiority worked in Ishara's favor. What did it matter to them that a few 'Runners' had been exalted to Full-blooded status? SD was the best of the best. That they were the best of the 'best available until now' hadn't occurred to them yet. All that circled back to Felicité playing with me, no one taking exception to me making a play for Wiesława and the return of the firing range to an educational platform for me. As I had told Oneida, 'defeat starts in the mind'. Along with that came 'Victory starts with a plan', and 'seize the moment'. I was aiming for seizing victory in the flesh. I bent over to put my pants back on. Since Felicité was departing for jobs-unknown, I ran the pants, and my hand, along Wiesława's inner right thigh. By the look in her eyes when I was finished, she didn't mind in the slightest. At the end of my allotted time period, my marksmanship had improved and Wiesława was mine for the taking. What bothered me was that it felt too easy somehow. Weird huh; that 'easy' would bother me. "You don't hang around men much?" I questioned the Pole as the weapons were being put away. "No," she sighed. "The last male in my hold died eight years ago. That is one reason I was re-assigned here," she informed me. "What department are you with?" I asked as we waited on the elevator. "Security Detail," she answered. "Fantastic," I murmured. "Elsa is a great boss. The two of us get along great." "Really? That is good news," Wiesława sounded upbeat. "How close are you?" Hint, hint. "Like the Cobra and the Mongoose," I grinned. Into the elevator we went. "I'll let you figure out which is which." "You are the Cobra," she patted my thinly covered cock. Yay! No personal boundaries. Less I forget I was still on the list of approved prey animals the door opened on the first floor and Brielle, her buddy, and Oneida stepped onboard. I had no clue where Wiesława was supposed to go. I guessed she was along for the ride. "Good morning, Cáel," Brielle greeted me before licking my left nipple. Wiesława was confused; could she have been licking me, and getting licked by me, half an hour ago? "What are you doing?" Oneida squawked. "Yum; someone has been to the gun range this morning," Brielle smiled at me. "Oh, and; sorry about your paternal person," she hastily added. "They are called Fathers," I sighed. To defuse Oneida, I slipped a hand to the small over her back then wiggled three fingers between the top of her skirt and panties. It was 'dangerous' enough to give her pause before going after the other women. "It is good to see your new, exalted status hasn't gone to your head, Cáel Ishara," Brielle looked very naughty. "Sisters first, last and always," I responded. "I'm not going to take credit for my ancestors being kick ass." "They must have been very courageous women," Wiesława stated. I snorted. "Wiesława, my Ishara lineage goes down the male side of the family, so those lethal ancestors were all male," I chided her. "When the Dacian-Thracians moved into the region, they joined with those tribes fighting the Celts. Later, they joined with the Dacian kings and fought against the Romans. Germans, Avars, Bulgars and finally the Magyars came their way; my ancestors impressed them all enough to be accepted. I know this because my Father's name was Nyilas, which means Archer in the Magyar tongue. We were fighters under the Arpad dynasty the same way we had gone to war with our Amazon War leaders thousands of years earlier. I also know this because of my bloodline; if the female folk had been raped, the bloodline would have perished," I explained. "Where exactly was your family from?" Wiesława inquired. "My grandfather said we Nyilas' were from Székelys Lands in Northern Romania," I replied. "My great-grandfather grew up under the Romanian King, hated it and died fighting as a Hungarian soldier against the Soviets in World War II," I continued. "That is why my great-grandmother took her children and came to America. They had lost their homeland in her opinion. Dad said she was bitter until the day she died," I sighed over my forerunners intransience. "She even wanted to be buried at her home town of Szászrégen," I let them know. "That never happened." The elevator door opened, I waved good-bye to friends new and old then raced to Katrina's bathroom. Katrina was at her desk, working away. "Cáel," Katrina acknowledged my passage with a wave of her hand. "Hayden and I have been examining a list of possible; " "That boat has sailed, Katrina," I cut her off. "I'll take care of my business without Hayden's help, thank you very much. I know you tried to warn her. I should have known there was no use dealing with the Council in any way, shape, or form. There isn't." I paused. "Tell your allies that there will be many in House Ishara and Warrior-Fathers too." "Aren't you worried in the least?" Katrina requested. "We both know that some of these bitches want to face their end like the lead characters in a Wagnerian opera. All we can do is remind them they are traitors to their Race, not patriots to some modern day concoction of a cult of gender blood purity," I stated, "as we work to save our people." "Those 'Old Guard' broads have forgotten what an Amazon is supposed to be," I explained. "And a man is going to show us the way?" Katrina studied me with emotionless intent. "Yes," I muttered. "A man who prefers love over hate and counts his worth by the lives he saves, not the one's he takes." "Do you ever fear this 'softness' will weaken your masculinity?" Katrina mused. That hurt; not because of her words, which could be true for any man. It hurt because the bastion against such thinking had just died. "My only fear is that I won't live up to my father's example," I responded. "Not only as a man and a father in my time, but as a human being," I delved into the wounded portion of my soul. "He never went to college, served in the military, or even got into a fight until that last minute of his life. He covered for co-workers with family issues, never failed to answer a call out to work in inclement weather, and did all that normal boring shit few here even understand. He let me be weak and let me be strong. His greatest lesson was that no matter where my life led, I had to take responsibility for it. The strong ask for help. The weak ask for someone to do the task for them. Love is not a word. Love is the star you chart your life by. The worst weakness is letting fear stop you from pursuing what you want. That is what I have to measure up to," I finished. In the interim, several of the new hires showed up and were observing the spiel. "I would think he would be happy if you measured up to what you wanted out of life," Katrina said. "I aim to do both," I grinned. I went to the bathroom and quickly changed into my work attire. The meeting started on time with the additional of a gnat-bite; Dora was two minutes late. At the time, nothing seemed out of sorts to me. It was a day on the job with Rosette. Around 3:30 pm, Pamela stopped our knife training (her with her wand and me with my weighted, wooden blade). She went to the corner of the room, ran her finger along the central point and drew back a finger with dust on it. She raised the finger so I could clearly see it. "It's dust?" I shrugged. "Normally they do a much better job," Pamela noted and back to training we went. The nightmare became real with one phrase in common usage: 'I'll get to it when I can', one Runner told Desiree when Desiree gave her a task. One of the most fascinating things in my book about Havenstone was that it hummed along like a well-oiled, organic machine. Tasks were completed, back-ups were always on call, and promptness wasn't a virtue; I was the absolutely expected. "What did you say?" Desiree asked for confirmation. "I said I'll get right on it," the woman sighed. I caught the look in Desiree's eyes. Something was wrong, but she couldn't put a name to it. Oaths and obligations; the lubricant for patently lethal Amazon society. Those words tossed out without too much consideration were now fraying around the edges. This wasn't the Plague, boils, lesions, leprosy, rickets, or the Home Loan bubble bursting. Those you could fight. How did you counter the devaluation of someone's word? Ishara's curse was crawling toward a very bad end unless I did something, but what? Personal respect would remain. Hierarchy? Amazons would begin to question why they were prioritizing their lives around someone they didn't know, or knew and didn't like. We weren't at that final destination, yet it was coming, and best of all, every woman in the company had a weapon, or quick access to one. A phone call grabbed me before I went in for the 'end of day' meeting. It was Brooke. "Christopher Cáel-umbos," I murmured. "Economy Class Oriental tours. How may I help you?" Laughter; and more than Brooke's. "Libra and I were getting ready to head out to the Hamptons and wanted to give you one last chance to come along," Brooke pleaded. An impressive dicking indeed. Thousands of reasons not to go; safety, responsibility, risk for other; "Sure, I'd love to come along. Can you pick me up at Havenstone at 6:10 pm? We'll make a quick run to my place to pick up some stuff and then head out, unless that's too late?" I offered. "See you then, Cáel," Brooke purred. "See you," Libra called out as well. It was a loathsome indicator of how out of control my life was ; that me, a working class kid, was going on a romp with two rich, high society girls to some mansion for a weekend of hedonistic fun; because that was more 'normal' than my week had been. I entered the meeting, took my teasing and made for the gym. This hour was devoted to a hardcore workout and nothing but. Rapid repetitions, quick shifts, rolling through the muscle groups. Even a few of the dedicated lifters gave me appreciative looks. I didn't have the time today. I hit the showers and made the doors before I hit a snag. Security held me up yet again. They seemed nervous, so I asked and got a bottled water and made some jokes. These ladies were going to be my allies, damn it, before I was done. Troika caught up with me a minute later. She extended a handful of round, brownish-yellow balls in a necklace. Each ball had a symbol inscribed on it. "We received this and a message this morning," she snapped. "We have decided to reject it." "It is horse-hoof," Pamela whispered in my ear. The gears went spinning. There was one person I knew who would send me keratin scrimshaw jewelry. Those nasty bitches were piling on the stupid. I looked it over; it was old, maybe going as far back as Timur aka Tamerlane to the English-speaking world. The 'cord' was made of hair; probably horse tail hair. I had no reciprocal gift to offer; absolutely nothing this valuable. But wait, I did! Somewhere there was a Havenstone bureau, department, or office that hung on to the artifacts ALL the Houses had accumulated over the passage of years. Some of that shit was mine; Ishara's. Our house had expired before the colonies became states. That still equated to a long period of pack-ratting. I'd put a minion on it right away! I'd pray that they didn't have plans for the weekend; later. "It arrived this morning and you are only giving it to me now?" I grumbled. "That message was meant for me, not for any of the rest of you. Where is the rest of it? Oh, and you're on the list." "It was consumed in its examination," Troika blatantly lied. "You have a visual copy," Pamela sounded bored. "Give it to him." "I do not carry such things around on a handheld device," Troika parried. "Ah; that's theft," Pamela gave a slender grin. "Just so we are clear." "If Cáel Ishara wished to put forth such an accusation to Hayden, I will be prepared to defend my actions," Troika gave a hostile glare right back. "That won't be necessary," I snorted. "I'm good. Pamela, I'm out for the weekend. Have fun." I turned and walked away. "Count the days, Troika," Pamela menaced. "I'm not afraid," she countered. "I don't care, but in 21 days, Cáel's ban on internal conflict will be at an end. Like me, he will not go to a corrupted Hayden for justice. We will be exacting it in our own way and in our own time. That you should worry about," Pamela gave a tilt of the head, a feral grin and joined me in departing. In Hittite, she said; "A matron, 21 Runners and one archaic mistake," Troika joked. In Hittite, she said; "But how many more 'Runners' can he recruit between now and then?" one of Troika's bodyguards worried. "More than enough to raise your daughters after you are all gone and forgotten," Pamela shouted over her shoulder. (Starting Friday Evening in the Wrong Damn Place) Waiting outside for me were two beauties and a small car. I hefted my bike, detached the front wheel for easier storage and climbed into the Lilliputian backseat. "Sorry," Libra in the passenger seat sounded embarrassed. "I'm not sure Brooke and I thought this through. Do you have a seat belt?" She was referring to the rear-mounted cup holder I was sitting in. "This is not rated for human occupation," I grinned back. What that really meant was there were three conflicting emotions pulling events along. Wanting me to fuck them; the easy one. Loyalty to your social/sorority sister; the relationship under stress. Me being a 'suitable' human being; the one that they were both stumbling toward which made the second emotional force such a problem. Had I solely been a fuck toy for either one, the other could have gracefully exited the field (with the occasional sharing). I was far from 'husband' material yet I was closing in on being the 'crossing a crowded club to greet me' kind of guy; already passed the 'not embarrassed to introduce me to their friends' phase. "You can sit in my lap," Brooke offered. With her driving and our height differential; we'd be lucky to be pulled by the PD before we wrecked. "How about you drive, I sit in Libra's seat and she sits in my lap?" I offered. "That's no fun," Brooke shot me a pout. "It sounds like fun for me," Libra giggled. "Now Libra remember, for the seat belt to be effective, you will have to sit facing me;” I sighed. "Facing you?" she winked. "Yes; facing me naked," I assured her. "Hey!" Brooke protested. "How come she gets to be naked in your lap?" "Otherwise me being naked would be pretty pointless," I explained. "Libra," Brooke demanded, "you get to drive." Petty arguments and playful exchanges followed. I left a message for Timothy and Odette, letting them know I was heading out to some address on the far end of Long Island. I even shot myself in the foot with the Nerf gun and told Timothy so he'd feel better. Brooke and Libra were dressed similarly. Red and khaki almost 'short-shorts', white/yellow bikini tops under white wife-beaters covered with a denim shirt (sleeves rolled up) and white cargo short-sleeved shirt, tennis socks and canvas shoes. In a way, I was a victim of my own success. Both ladies wanted to fuck me bad, but their desire to prove to me I was more than a fuck toy meant I didn't get sex at my place. If you are a girl, that will make much more sense. The car ride out was an issue. If I drove, Brooke and Libra promised to put on a Sapphic display for the ages. If Libra drove, I promised to publically molest Brooke at every stop. The reverse went for Brooke driving. The solution was that the girls would take turns driving and I would be a truly diligent cunnilinguist, with a strong background as an anatomically astute Braille harpsichord player. Our destination turned out to be the hamlet of Sagaponack, aka the most expensive place to live in the United States. Why was I doing this to myself? For starters, Brooke thought our host, Brennan Sulkanen, lived in one of those $50+ million homes; funny, I thought those were called estates. The girls laughed when I told them that. My utter lack of forethought, underutilized intelligence gathering capabilities, and even not acting my age were coming back to chew a huge hunk off my heine now. Brennan was a fraternity brother of Trent; warning indicator #1. Brennan didn't actually do anything, but his father was loaded; situation getting worse. Brennan was the youngest of the three sons from the first marriage with three other children from two other marriages waiting in the wings. A quick search revealed that the third and current Mrs. Sulkanen, was very elegant for a thirty-two year old lady. His current Mom being the same age as his oldest brother could be an issue. I was living proof how good parenting could help build up a child. Improper parenting; could do the opposite. Nothing was guaranteed though. "So, why are we going to Brennan's?" I hazarded to inquire as we cruised down Highway 27 through East Patchogue. In the back of my mind, I realized I was due south of scenic Doebridge and their frisky policewomen/Stasi law enforcers. "Oh, we met in college when I came up for one of Trent's; that loser; frat functions," she told us. "He was very drunk and tried to hit on me," the tale continued. "How and where did he 'hit' on you?" I prodded. "He stumbled into the Ladies' room, knocked my drink over and tried to give me his, but I was insulted by his inebriated pawing and left," Brooke said. Lone drunk men DO stumble into Ladies' rooms; usually to vomit. Frat brothers hit on each other's girls; men are pigs. Greeks are pigs with tie pins and secret handshakes. Drunk people do not demolish another person's drink then offer up their own. The spilling of alcohol is a drink-worthy event which you can't do if you have given your drink away. Man math: Brennan stalked Brooke, ambushed her in the bathroom and tried to roofie her with his drink because our host was a dirt bag and a total ass-bandit. How had I failed to do some basic 4 1 1 on this bastard? Oh yeah, brought an extinct First House to life, multiple threats to my well-being, treated like crap by most of my co-workers and then my father was murdered. "I repeat; why are we going to this guy's house?" I asked. "He's been persistent ever since Trent bailed and he sounds so worried about me," she answered. "Oh, I don't want you to think I'm using you as Brennan-deterrent, Cáel," she added. "I wanted to get out of the city and be with you; and Libra." I was more than Brennan-deterrent alright. I was a 'Highway Closed Indefinitely' sign for his edification. This was okay with Brooke (and me) because of all the sex we were going to have. "Thanks," Libra teased her pal. My dilemma was that despite all the positive emotions wafting my way, I wasn't one of 'them' yet. I couldn't simply say 'this dude is a scumbag. Let's go somewhere else.' This was going to take some tact and pretty much annihilated my hopes for a weekend to unwind. I had to play nice and at the first opportunity pull our host aside and politely inform him that I was going to floss his teeth with his still functioning intestines if any of us partook of something we hadn't asked for, ended up in some spot we hadn't wanted to go to, and/or doing something we didn't want to do. My diplomatic approach was from some movie that was way before CGI. It was ('you' meaning 'me': 'I want you to be nice; until it is time; to not be nice.') I was going to give Brennan's survival instincts the benefit of the doubt. I felt certain he wasn't enchanted with the idea of personal pain and I was going to let him know there wasn't a bank account deep enough to protect him from my wrath. If there was ever any doubt; I'm an idiot. We pulled up to the gate right before eight. Yes; one of those nice wrought-iron, automatic opening double gates. Brooke answered the security screen and in we went. Two people, definitely staff, met us as we parked. There was six cars present already, all variations of the high-performance, turbo-charged, 'Daddy/Mommy don't love me so they gave me this deathtrap instead' ideal. Cargo space? Fuel efficiency? Excessive safety features? Not a concern for this crowd. There was a momentary bout of confusion as the male staffer came for my baggage. I thanked him. He looked at me funny. Brooke insisted the female staffer give directions to where her/Libra's luggage was going so I did the same with the guy. My stuff was not only not heading to Brooke's room, I was being banished to another branch of this sprawling villa. "Take my stuff to their room," I directed the man. "Sir, a different room has been set aside for the gentleman," he insisted. "Oh; okay," I nodded. I took my bags from him, much to his surprise, and followed the 'maid'. Brooke and Libra laughed at my obstinacy and tagged along. Our introduction to the 'pack' was delayed and, by his look, Brennan wasn't happy with my detour. I wasn't happy either, but for a different reason. "Brooke; Libra, right? Cecil?" he clearly was disrespecting me straight out of the gates. Brooke and Libra said 'hi'. I was a little less diplomatic and I was staring down the barrels of a serious crimp in my main battle plan. There were two dissipated young ladies, three men of the same caliber and two guys I identified hangers-on. Most likely rich; just not rich enough to be treated as equals by the majority. Then there was this one girl who was certainly the unsuspecting party favor. You can learn all kinds of thing about the darker side of male-female relationships at Spring Break if you pay attention. The vacation can be wonderful, but seeing fuck-head bottom-feeders getting girls wasted for the eternal glory of Girls Gone Wild and the ability to stick their prick into someplace it doesn't belong, and they haven't earned the right to be in, truly sucks. For the moment, I had to look past her. The focus of my anxiety was a couple, both African-American and from a different mold than everyone else there. I knew the guy because he was somewhat famous. "Hey Bitch," I replied in an off-handed manner. "What?" Brennan hammed up his confusion. The 'Home Alone' gasp. What had he done wrong? "What?" I responded. "Did you just call me a 'bitch'?" he clarified. "No," I lied. "I didn't even know you were talking to me. Hi, I'm Cáel Nyilas. Who are you again?" "I think you called me a bitch," Brennan watched his whole weekend plan to dispose of me coming gift wrapped here in the opening round. He looked to the 'famous' guy. I am an idiot. "Well, with your family money, I'm sure you can hire top notch Otolaryngologist to handle that hearing problem of yours," I grinned. "Orlando, what do you think Kibble here said?" Brennan indicated the guy. "Orlando Keyes," I smiled. "Man, you are one mean son of a bitch. That fighter from Ecuador; missed his name; you broke his left cheek with one hit during that MMA bout in New Orleans last Thanksgiving. The only thing almost as impressive was that guy managed to stand up afterwards." No, I wasn't buttering this guy up. There was no point. I only knew about him because the whole 'martial ardor' doesn't have to be yours to get some tail. Girls who like watching physical combat; MMA, Kick-boxing, Boxing, and the NHL (WWE if they are somewhat gullible); will jump on your bones at the completion of that match. "I think this cunt called you his bitch," Orlando came my way. I gently pushed Brooke and Libra aside to give me space. "You are mistaken," I kept smiling at Orlando. "I was calling that lady over there," I pointed at the lady he had been talking to, "my bitch for tonight. The acoustics in this place must suck." Outdoor pool; the Atlantic Ocean crashing less than 100 meters away; this place rocked. "You are going to die," Brennan laughed at me. Keyes kept coming. "Right, or left?" I asked him in a pleasant tone. He glared yet hesitated. "What does it matter?" Orlando studied me. He had stopped being a hired thug and returned to being a modern day gladiator. "I'm packing so I wanted to know which knee you can live without," I stated. "He's got a gun?" one of the other males mumbled. "Gun?" Orlando's eyes narrowed. "Knife," I corrected. At this point, everyone but Orlando and I felt better. In that snippet, Orlando and I exchanged a vital piece of information; I was going to hurt him. No matter what he did, I was going to put a knife into him. How did he know? I had warned him and I laughed at Death. I wasn't bluffing and Orlando made his life's work piercing his opponent's deceptions. "That's my fiancé," Orlando grumbled. I extended my hand. "I apologize then," I said as he shook my hand. "That was rude of me and uncalled for. Not only is she one of the classiest ladies here, she was hanging out with you, a man not known for accepting anything short of the perfect match. Besides," I whispered, "we both know who I was truly talking about." Orlando wasn't happy with me, or forgiven me. What he did accept was that I'd given him an out. I had backed down and apologized. Brennan was frowning. Orlando and I didn't care; we were both fighters and we'd both ponied up on the promise of pain. If there was to be a conflict, he wasn't going to do it for Brennan. He was going to do it because he always wanted to know how tough the other guy really was. Names floated around. The only people that mattered to me were Anima and Casper. Anima was Brennan's 'girlfriend' which I translated as a debauchery enabler. She was under the delusion that life was boring and pointless, so she should punish the world for her ennui. Her life's cup had been emptied at twenty-three? Bitch, I worked with real women who couldn't even consider such nonsense. Casper; Casper was going to be a problem. For starters, Anima had taken Casper under her wing; was going to show Casper the 'ropes'. Casper proudly proclaimed that. Casper was also not as rich as the 'in crowd' and not a hanger-on; she was the weekend's amusement, or would have been if Brooke hadn't shown up. And, of course, she couldn't see the danger, she was so eager to be with the super-rich. After the name game came the initial party shuffle. Who was aiming for whose bedroom tonight and how would they get what they wanted. Brennan sent two backup boys cruising for Libra while he angled in for Brooke. Anima and Casper were supposed to keep me busy. Libra promptly showed she'd thumbed through my Book of Social Fugliness. "I only date real men," she shredded the 'second-stringers' to pieces. The blast socially staggered them. "If you have to think about it, boys, you are not a man. Don't strain yourself trying to be something you can't even comprehend. Now one of you go get me a drink while I think about what Cáel and I are going to do to Brooke tonight." In social parlance, that was shooting someone with both barrels of a shotgun then using the stock to tenderize the remains. That was one flank secure. Next, Casper and Anima. Anima had the feeling I didn't like her; good for her. "Would you really have cut Orlando?" Casper asked me softly while she ran a fingernail over my right forearm. "Casper, to begin with, call him Mr. Keyes. There will come a time when you can freely use his first name, but you ain't there yet," I cautioned her. "To answer your question: yes, I would have sliced down and across, cutting his right hamstring." Keyes heard me, as I had intended. "Brennan says you are a co-worker of Trent," Anima cooed. "Kind of," I shrugged. "Trent is a big-shot with the Far East Unit while I remain in Personnel in the city (Manhattan)." They both looked disappointed then Casper handed me a plum. She wasn't stupid, just willfully blind. "Where did you learn to use a knife then?" Casper tried to 'salvage' me. She was doing herself a favor by trying to make me look better to the rest; doing me a favor. Nice. "I'm with the Records Redaction Unit of Havenstone's Executive Services," I lied. Blink. "That doesn't make any sense," Casper's brow furrowed. "You delete records?" "No Casper," I returned her arm rub, "someone creates a list with names on it. I am part of the team that reduces the number of those names on that list to zero." Blink. "You fire people?" she remained uncertain. She had to believe I was playing with her, which I was. "No," I shook my head. "That implies extra paperwork. We take a more ergonomic approach. No termination rigmarole; no traceable termination at all." "That sounds vaguely like you murder people," Anima murmured. "Murder is a crime. Converting all the data of a given person into one, misplaced file is a way of circumventing the whole 'exit interview/providing references for other jobs/pension' process." If you believed that this nation, nay, the whole world, was run by soulless corporate monsters that made scary sense. "What do you do with the people?" Anime was showing the tiniest bit of enthusiasm for this conversation. "What people? People have names," I smiled. "Bodies with no records are normally handled as John and Jane Does and are buried in Potter's Field, or used at medical schools." "Do you enjoy sex with multiple partners?" Anima smiled; veering the conversation off in a different dir
Cáel's tombstone: For the love of women, women put him here.In 25 parts, edited from the works of FinalStand.Listen and subscribe to the ► Podcast at Connected..
A longtime fan of the Quakes (since 1974!) donated us some front row Audi club level seats at PayPal park. He wanted to support Quakes Epicenter and The Aftershock, helping us expand our coverage of the San Jose Earthquakes. In collaboration with the donor, we have decided to donate 50% of all funds raised to The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. Click the link below to learn more! Quakes Epicenter Fundraiser: https://www.paypal.com/pools/c/94KTQnhoTI
Episode 352 - Are You A Leprechaun, or a Leprechan't? Why is it the Irish with all the luck? Pots of gold, rainbows, and human rights for magical little people! IT'S A DAMN UTOPIA! Unluckily those rights come with a price..and no its not the killing...its the terrible puns and dad jokes that come with it. Eeuck. Oh well, grab yourself a some Shamrock Bean Flicker and join us for the first part of our Leprechaun series Retrospective! Follow us! X: @thebuzzedkillPC Instagram: @thebuzzedkillpodcast Facebook.com/thebuzzedkillpodcast MOVIES WE DISCUSSED - LEPRECHAUN (1992) - LEPRECHAUN 2 (1994)
The guys Level Up and hit the road. Unluckily they end up having to fix the cart, and run into a different kind of traffic stop.roll4damagepodcast.com
While five groups of right wing Conservative MPs – the so-called “Five Families” – have not been making life easy for the prime minister, Rishi Sunak's controversial immigration bill made its way through the Commons without one Tory rebelling. But is the real fight still to come? Politico's Esther Webber joins the podcast team to take stock of a dramatic few days in parliament. Luckily for the prime minister he got to spend Monday away from Westminster. Unluckily for the prime minister he had to spend Monday giving evidence to the Covid inquiry in Paddington. So how did he do and what did we learn? And finally, as parliament shuts up shop for the festive period, the podcast team round up the week's other events – and take a quick glance ahead to 2024. Emma Norris presents, with Olly Bartrum and Alex Thomas.
In the first hour, SKOR North's Judd Zulgad on how teams in this town just can't lose right now. The Wild's winning ways since making a coaching change continue and the Wolves are atop the NBA standings, KSTP's Chris Egert talks about the annual "Name a Snowplow" contest and his disdain for it, and informs about the cougar on the loose in Lowry Hill. The crew also discusses the TIME Person of the Year. Hour #2 has comedian Miss Shannan join the show! Miss Shannan is headlining at Laugh Camp on December 8th & 9th, you can also check out her podcast called "Be Our Geek" which is available wherever you get your podcasts. In hour #3 Kristyn Burtt teaches us a shocking fact: every television show is a spinoff of All In The Family. Now that Norman Lear has died, this means no more TV ever again. I know, it's crazy. We can comfort ourselves with some of the worst candy ever made - depending on who you ask. On the Family, there are only two certainties in life: taxes and the occasional cougar incursion. Luckily, the universe wants to keep balance, so usually the cougar gets hit by a car pretty quickly. Unluckily, taxes are an intangible concept and you can't hit them with your car. You can evade them, but it doesn't end very well. Stream the show LIVE on the Tom Barnard Show app M-F from 8-12PM or get the show on-demand on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
In the first hour, SKOR North's Judd Zulgad on how teams in this town just can't lose right now. The Wild's winning ways since making a coaching change continue and the Wolves are atop the NBA standings, KSTP's Chris Egert talks about the annual "Name a Snowplow" contest and his disdain for it, and informs about the cougar on the loose in Lowry Hill. The crew also discusses the TIME Person of the Year. Hour #2 has comedian Miss Shannan join the show! Miss Shannan is headlining at Laugh Camp on December 8th & 9th, you can also check out her podcast called "Be Our Geek" which is available wherever you get your podcasts. In hour #3 Kristyn Burtt teaches us a shocking fact: every television show is a spinoff of All In The Family. Now that Norman Lear has died, this means no more TV ever again. I know, it's crazy. We can comfort ourselves with some of the worst candy ever made - depending on who you ask. On the Family, there are only two certainties in life: taxes and the occasional cougar incursion. Luckily, the universe wants to keep balance, so usually the cougar gets hit by a car pretty quickly. Unluckily, taxes are an intangible concept and you can't hit them with your car. You can evade them, but it doesn't end very well. Stream the show LIVE on the Tom Barnard Show app M-F from 8-12PM or get the show on-demand on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
In the first hour, SKOR North's Judd Zulgad on how teams in this town just can't lose right now. The Wild's winning ways since making a coaching change continue and the Wolves are atop the NBA standings, KSTP's Chris Egert talks about the annual "Name a Snowplow" contest and his disdain for it, and informs about the cougar on the loose in Lowry Hill. The crew also discusses the TIME Person of the Year. Hour #2 has comedian Miss Shannan join the show! Miss Shannan is headlining at Laugh Camp on December 8th & 9th, you can also check out her podcast called "Be Our Geek" which is available wherever you get your podcasts. In hour #3 Kristyn Burtt teaches us a shocking fact: every television show is a spinoff of All In The Family. Now that Norman Lear has died, this means no more TV ever again. I know, it's crazy. We can comfort ourselves with some of the worst candy ever made - depending on who you ask. On the Family, there are only two certainties in life: taxes and the occasional cougar incursion. Luckily, the universe wants to keep balance, so usually the cougar gets hit by a car pretty quickly. Unluckily, taxes are an intangible concept and you can't hit them with your car. You can evade them, but it doesn't end very well. Stream the show LIVE on the Tom Barnard Show app M-F from 8-12PM or get the show on-demand on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
In the first hour, SKOR North's Judd Zulgad on how teams in this town just can't lose right now. The Wild's winning ways since making a coaching change continue and the Wolves are atop the NBA standings, KSTP's Chris Egert talks about the annual "Name a Snowplow" contest and his disdain for it, and informs about the cougar on the loose in Lowry Hill. The crew also discusses the TIME Person of the Year.Hour #2 has comedian Miss Shannan join the show! Miss Shannan is headlining at Laugh Camp on December 8th & 9th, you can also check out her podcast called "Be Our Geek" which is available wherever you get your podcasts.In hour #3 Kristyn Burtt teaches us a shocking fact: every television show is a spinoff of All In The Family. Now that Norman Lear has died, this means no more TV ever again. I know, it's crazy. We can comfort ourselves with some of the worst candy ever made - depending on who you ask.On the Family, there are only two certainties in life: taxes and the occasional cougar incursion. Luckily, the universe wants to keep balance, so usually the cougar gets hit by a car pretty quickly. Unluckily, taxes are an intangible concept and you can't hit them with your car. You can evade them, but it doesn't end very well.Stream the show LIVE on the Tom Barnard Show app M-F from 8-12PM or get the show on-demand on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoicesSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
In the first hour, SKOR North's Judd Zulgad on how teams in this town just can't lose right now. The Wild's winning ways since making a coaching change continue and the Wolves are atop the NBA standings, KSTP's Chris Egert talks about the annual "Name a Snowplow" contest and his disdain for it, and informs about the cougar on the loose in Lowry Hill. The crew also discusses the TIME Person of the Year. Hour #2 has comedian Miss Shannan join the show! Miss Shannan is headlining at Laugh Camp on December 8th & 9th, you can also check out her podcast called "Be Our Geek" which is available wherever you get your podcasts. In hour #3 Kristyn Burtt teaches us a shocking fact: every television show is a spinoff of All In The Family. Now that Norman Lear has died, this means no more TV ever again. I know, it's crazy. We can comfort ourselves with some of the worst candy ever made - depending on who you ask. On the Family, there are only two certainties in life: taxes and the occasional cougar incursion. Luckily, the universe wants to keep balance, so usually the cougar gets hit by a car pretty quickly. Unluckily, taxes are an intangible concept and you can't hit them with your car. You can evade them, but it doesn't end very well. Stream the show LIVE on the Tom Barnard Show app M-F from 8-12PM or get the show on-demand on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
In the first hour, SKOR North's Judd Zulgad on how teams in this town just can't lose right now. The Wild's winning ways since making a coaching change continue and the Wolves are atop the NBA standings, KSTP's Chris Egert talks about the annual "Name a Snowplow" contest and his disdain for it, and informs about the cougar on the loose in Lowry Hill. The crew also discusses the TIME Person of the Year.Hour #2 has comedian Miss Shannan join the show! Miss Shannan is headlining at Laugh Camp on December 8th & 9th, you can also check out her podcast called "Be Our Geek" which is available wherever you get your podcasts.In hour #3 Kristyn Burtt teaches us a shocking fact: every television show is a spinoff of All In The Family. Now that Norman Lear has died, this means no more TV ever again. I know, it's crazy. We can comfort ourselves with some of the worst candy ever made - depending on who you ask.On the Family, there are only two certainties in life: taxes and the occasional cougar incursion. Luckily, the universe wants to keep balance, so usually the cougar gets hit by a car pretty quickly. Unluckily, taxes are an intangible concept and you can't hit them with your car. You can evade them, but it doesn't end very well.Stream the show LIVE on the Tom Barnard Show app M-F from 8-12PM or get the show on-demand on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoicesSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
In the first hour, SKOR North's Judd Zulgad on how teams in this town just can't lose right now. The Wild's winning ways since making a coaching change continue and the Wolves are atop the NBA standings, KSTP's Chris Egert talks about the annual "Name a Snowplow" contest and his disdain for it, and informs about the cougar on the loose in Lowry Hill. The crew also discusses the TIME Person of the Year.Hour #2 has comedian Miss Shannan join the show! Miss Shannan is headlining at Laugh Camp on December 8th & 9th, you can also check out her podcast called "Be Our Geek" which is available wherever you get your podcasts.In hour #3 Kristyn Burtt teaches us a shocking fact: every television show is a spinoff of All In The Family. Now that Norman Lear has died, this means no more TV ever again. I know, it's crazy. We can comfort ourselves with some of the worst candy ever made - depending on who you ask.On the Family, there are only two certainties in life: taxes and the occasional cougar incursion. Luckily, the universe wants to keep balance, so usually the cougar gets hit by a car pretty quickly. Unluckily, taxes are an intangible concept and you can't hit them with your car. You can evade them, but it doesn't end very well.Stream the show LIVE on the Tom Barnard Show app M-F from 8-12PM or get the show on-demand on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoicesSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
In the first hour, SKOR North's Judd Zulgad on how teams in this town just can't lose right now. The Wild's winning ways since making a coaching change continue and the Wolves are atop the NBA standings, KSTP's Chris Egert talks about the annual "Name a Snowplow" contest and his disdain for it, and informs about the cougar on the loose in Lowry Hill. The crew also discusses the TIME Person of the Year.Hour #2 has comedian Miss Shannan join the show! Miss Shannan is headlining at Laugh Camp on December 8th & 9th, you can also check out her podcast called "Be Our Geek" which is available wherever you get your podcasts.In hour #3 Kristyn Burtt teaches us a shocking fact: every television show is a spinoff of All In The Family. Now that Norman Lear has died, this means no more TV ever again. I know, it's crazy. We can comfort ourselves with some of the worst candy ever made - depending on who you ask.On the Family, there are only two certainties in life: taxes and the occasional cougar incursion. Luckily, the universe wants to keep balance, so usually the cougar gets hit by a car pretty quickly. Unluckily, taxes are an intangible concept and you can't hit them with your car. You can evade them, but it doesn't end very well.Stream the show LIVE on the Tom Barnard Show app M-F from 8-12PM or get the show on-demand on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoicesSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Last time we spoke about the beginning of the Russo-Japanese war. The Japanese knew to have any chance in the war against the Russians, they needed to deliver a deadly surprise attack against her fleet within the harbor of Port Arthur. Admiral Togo took the combined fleet and dispatched a force under Uriu to neutralize Chemulpo and land forces of the IJA 12th division. Meanwhile Togo ordered 10 destroyers to toss torpedoes at the Russian warships at anchor in Port Arthur, landing a few hits. It seemed to the Japanese that the Russians were fully paralyzed, so Togo elected to bring the combined fleet in to bombard the Russians into submission. Instead of being paralyzed the Russians counter fired using shore batteries causing the Japanese to back off. War was declared afterwards by both parties and now battles would rage over land and sea to see which empire would claim dominance over Asia. #74 The Russo-Japanese War part 2: the battle of Yalu Welcome to the Fall and Rise of China Podcast, I am your dutiful host Craig Watson. But, before we start I want to also remind you this podcast is only made possible through the efforts of Kings and Generals over at Youtube. Perhaps you want to learn more about the history of Asia? Kings and Generals have an assortment of episodes on history of asia and much more so go give them a look over on Youtube. So please subscribe to Kings and Generals over at Youtube and to continue helping us produce this content please check out www.patreon.com/kingsandgenerals. If you are still hungry for some more history related content, over on my channel, the Pacific War Channel where I cover the history of China and Japan from the 19th century until the end of the Pacific War. The combined fleet set out again on February 14th after just two days in port. The Fuji was still in dry dock in need of further repair. Other than Fuji, the fleet was back at sea in force. Despite taking numerous hits, it turned out the Russian shells were not as effective as the Japanese ammunition which used a new compound called Shimose, refined into a powder that gave the IJN shells a greater velocity, thus much more effective on impact. In the meantime, only a brave attack by two Japanese destroyers was brought upon the Russians at Port Arthur. Other than that nothing much had come about. While at Sasebo, Admiral Togo discussed with his fellow commanders the situation. Port Arthur's harbor had basically become a large lake harbored the Russian ships, but at any moment they could be unleashed into the ocean. Togo needed to destroy the warships or trap them inside, and he came up with a daring plan. Togo sent out a special order, soliciting for volunteers for an extremely dangerous, practically suicidal mission. 2000 sailors volunteered, many writing their names in blood. The plan was quite simple, the volunteers were going to take ships and sink them at the entrance to the harbor. The ships selected were some very old steamers, capable of just 10 knots. On the evening of February 23rd, 5 old steamers set a course for Port Arthur with some torpedo boat escorts. Before the first light of the 24th, the Russian lookouts saw what appeared to be a steady convoy calmly approaching the harbors mouth. A Russian convey was long being awaited, thus many assumed it was them. Some Russian ships came in closer to examine the newcoming vessels closer and upon showering them with searchlights, the captain of the Retvizan quickly realized they were Japanese. Retvizan began opening fire, prompting the old steamers to run frantically through a gauntlet. The Japanese crews were blinded by searchlight as the guns of the Retvizan and shore batteries rained hell upon them. The leading steamer, the Mokoko Maru was hit by Retvizan at point blank range just due east of the harbor entrance. She sank quickly and the other steamers would face a similar fate one by one as they approached. Volunteer crews were shot to pieces or abandoned ship. Those who survived the shelling were rescued by torpedo boats. The mission was a terrible failure. The Russians did not quite understand what had occurred. Certainly the ships were no battleships, but some assumed it was another torpedo attack attempt and thus believed some warships had been sunk. Admiral Alexeiev desperate to boost morale send a message to the Tsar claiming a great naval victory. After further investigation, the steamers were found to be what they were and Alexeiev had to send a correction to the Tsar. Now all of this was going down in Port Arthur, but the Russians did have another force at their cold water port of Vladivostok. Under the command of Rear Admiral Jessel were the armored cruisers Gromoboi, Rurik, Boegatyr and Rossiya. Rear Admiral Kamimura was leading a cruiser squadron with torpedo boats around Tsushima. His duty was that of a picquet force to meet the Russian enemy if they came out to play. Alexeiev gave Jessel orders not to steam more than a single day from port. Jessel had thus only managed to sink two unarmed Japanese merchantmen with his small patrols. Now upon the land, the former Minister of War, General Kuropatkin was appointed the land commander in Manchuria. He would depart St Petersburg on March 12th and arrive to Harbin by the 28th. For the sea, the disgraced Admiral Starck was to be replaced with Vice Admiral Makarov. The Russian government was trying to showcase to its troops, that the very best officers would lead them, it was a much needed boost of confidence. However Tsar Nicolas II also appointed Alexeiev as the Viceroy of the Russian far east, which gave Alexeiev higher authority than all government ministries in the region, making him beholden only to the Tsar himself. Alekseyev was a key member of the “Bezobrazov Circle” a politically motivated investment group led by Aleksandry Mikhailovich Bezobrazov whom sought to create a commercial enterprise, modeled after the British East India Company, reigning over Manchuria and Korea. A skilled lobbyist, Bezobrazov was the one who persuaded Tsar Nicolas II for Alekseiv's appointment. This would prove ruinous. Makarov departed his previous command at fort Kronstadt and received news cruisers Novik, Bayan and Askold were damaged. While enroute he received a report the Bezstrashni and Viestnitelni were intercepted by Japanese picquet forces while returning to port. They were attacked trying to race to Port Arthur and Vistnitelni was unable to get away, being destroyed around Pigeon bay. Thus the new commander was getting this picture of his forces accumulating unacceptable losses without even engaging the enemy. Makarov unlike Starck was not so conservative, he sought real action. Makarov was what you would call “a sailors sailor”. He was in excellent shape, was a noted naval tactician and had a copy of a book on his adversary Admiral Togo in his cabin at hand. During his voyage to the far east, Starck retained command and continued to fly his flag upon Petropavlovsk. Makarov would hoist his aboard the soon to be repaired Askold by march 14th. Soon Retvizan and Tsarevitch were patched up adequately to be battleworthy and destroyer flotillas were sent out of the harbor to hunt the Japanese. On March 10th, the blockading forces were attacked by the Russians. The Japanese were surprised at the sudden aggressiveness of the Russians, Togo believed they were finally willing to come out and battle. At the beginning of the war most eyes were set on seeing the performance of torpedoes, they were a relatively new weapon. They actually proved to be quite a disappointment. The weapon that would really make its mark was the seamine. The Japanese made continuous efforts to sent destroyers out at night to lay mines near the entrance of Port Arthur. The Russians did their best to watch these actions and when the tides rose high they would employ grappling hooks to clear fields. This simply pushed the Japanese to lay mines 10 feet below the surface. This resulted in mines actually being placed at various depths, thus when the tides were much higher most ships could pass right over, but if the tides lowered, this led to collisions. Now back to March 10th, that night the Japanese attempted a ruse. A flotilla of 4 IJN destroyers approached Port Arthur and began parading outside to trying to lure out some Russian warships. Now emboldened, the Russians sent out 6 warships to chase the Japanese who lured them in the direction of Laoteshan. While they were chasing, another IJN destroyer flotilla came from behind and began mining the waters at the harbors entrance at around 4:30am. Eventually the Russian shore batteries saw what was going on and began to fire on the mining destroyers who made their quick escape. The Russian warships chasing the other flotilla heard the gunfire and quickly turned back. The 4 IJN mining destroyers got into position to attack the incoming Russians. 4 out of the 6 Russian warships dodged this and ran for the harbor, but the Ryeshitelni and Stereguschi found themselves blocked. It was 4 against 2 as the destroyers battling it out. The Ryeshitelni was hit a few times causing steering problems but she managed to flee to the harbor, the Stereguschi however was not so lucky. A 1 pounder shell struck a steam pipe in her boiler and engines causing an explosion that killed most of her engine room staff. Stereguschi's captain tried to keep her on course, but her speed dropped and she was soon raked by all 4 Japanese destroyers. Her crew tried to fire back, until only 4 men of the crew were even capable of moving anymore. The IJN destroyer Sasanami let loose a cutter boat to board her as the Stereguschi was captured. The boarding party stepped over corpses and human body parts as they raised the Rising Sun flag. Suddenly the Russian cruisers Bayan and Novik were charging towards the mined harbor entrance. The Sasanami crews leapt back aboard to flee the scene as the Russians opened fire upon them. It was a bit of excitement to be sure, but Makarov wanted real action, he sought to give battle. He began a intensive training of the fleet, performed tours and raised morale. Meanwhile on March 22nd the Fuji and Yashima were now stationed in Pigeon bay to fire to enforce the blockade effort. Suddenly they found themselves being fired upon by the Russians and saw cruiser Askold flying Makarov's flag. Fuji took a minor hit and had to return to Sasebo for repairs. Togo and his fellow commanders now were realizing the Russians were growing in stature. Meanwhile the IJA guards division was only beginning to unload ashore in Korea. The Russian navy charging out of Port Arthur serious threatened the Japanese troop transit, Togo had to stop them. The same suicidal plan was employed again. The crews were taken from 20,000 volunteers, another 4 old steamers were allocated to the mission. This time each ship was ballasted with cement and stones alongside a fail safe detonating system. On the night of march 26th, the 4 old steamers sailed 10 knots for the entrance to the harbor. Just before 2:30am their escorts departed and at 3:30am they were two miles from the harbor mouth when they were detected. A gun went off on Electric Hill signaling the presence of the enemy. Search lights blasted everywhere as the 4 steamers began a marathon while dodging incoming shell fire. The frontrunner, Chiyo was making good progress until the Russian destroyer Silny came in close and torpedoed her side. The steamers behind her were fired madly upon causing massive casualties as one by one sank. Two Japanese escort destroyers tried to fire torpedoes at the Silny and maged to hit her in the engine room. In the end both sides took casualties, but Port Arthur remained open. Makarov's patience was waning, on April 12th he was aboard the cruiser Diana searching for lost Russian destroyers who had been sent out to hunt the Japanese but failed to return. Diana's lookout spotted a ship and her captain requested permission to open fire. Makarov was not sure if the ship was the enemy or one of his own, so he simply said to approach it cautiously. Unbeknownst to Makarov it was another ruse. Togo had been studying the Russian warship maneuvers, schedules and behaviors. He had noticed a pattern, when ships approached port arthur, the Russians would come out to investigate them by going north and south and east to west under the protective range of the shore batteries. He had formed a plan, led by the Koryu Maru who was hiding in the area ready to lay mines at the harbor mouth. 48 mines had been laid at the harbor mouth. As daylight was coming upon the morning of April 13th, Makarov's force got close enough to the unidentified ship to realize it was the lost Strashni and she was being fired upon by 4 IJN destroyers. Strashni was being hit at point blank range, the majority of her crew were dead, she was a goner. Alerted by the naval fire, Makarov took the fleet in to battle. Cruiser Bayan was the first to arrive, joined by Askold, Diana and Novik. The Japanese quickly withdrew from them heading towards the main fleet. The slower Russian battleships were making their way with Petropavlosvk flying Makarovs flag, next to her was Poltava. They passed over the minefield without mishap. Makarov had ordered the area swept the previous night, but the sweep never occurred, he just got very lucky. Admiral Dewa watched the Russian fleet as they departed the harbor, Sevastopol, Peresvyet and Pobieda followed behind the flagship. Dewa sent word to Togo to spring the trap. Dewa opened fire drawing the Russians further south while Togo brought up the first division hoping for battle. When Makarov saw Togo's battleships on the horizon he quickly ordered his fleet to pull back under the range of their shore batteries. Aboard the Petropavlovsk was the grand duke Cyril, a cousin to the tsar, a famous artist named Vasili Verestchagin and Captain Crown. Makarov had expected a historic moment and wanted to share it with others. As Makarovs fleet got closer to the harbor he ordered the smaller warships to go inside it while the larger ships formed a line of battle. When the Japanese approached within 6 miles they would fall under the range of the shore batteries, Makarov expected a massacre upon them. Then at 9:43am a terrible explosion hit the bows of the Petropavlovsk rocking her, a second explosion ripped open a magazine and a third blew up her boiler. The ship quickly keeled over and went down bow first, as her propellers continued to spin. Within two minutes the flagship had hit 3 mines and fell under the waves, a complete disaster. The Japanese were only 10,000 yards away, cheering the explosive sounds. Togo ordered the men to take their caps off in silence when they realized it was Petropavlovsk that had struck the mines and sunk. At 10:15am Pobieda hit a mine, the Russians thought it was some sort of submarine attack and began firing wildly out the sea. When the Russians regained order they got back into the harbor one by one. Pobieda was the last to limp in. 630 men died aboard the Petropavlovsk, including Admiral Makarov, Vasili Verestchagin and Captain Crown, the Grand Duke Cyril had been launched off the warship from the explosion and although severely injured would survive. The death of Makarov shattered the morale of the Russian navy and in the motherland added fuel to an emerging revolutionary clamor. The Japanese fleet were anchored off Elliot island on the 14th when they received the confirmed news of Makarovs death. Togo read out the telegram from Reuters and he ordered his fleet to fly their flags at half mast to give a day of mourning for an honored opponent that they esteemed a samurai for his aggressive behavior. Makarovs death signaled an end to aggressive naval actions for quite some time. On May 3rd Togo launched further blocking actions. 8 steamers tried to perform the same suicidal mission as down twice before and failed like the others. Togo was so ashamed by the loss of life from these 3 missions that he stated the third mission had been a success, lying to the army. He did this under immense pressure, for it was his job to secure the sea lanes so Japanese troops could be safely landed along the Liaodong Peninsula. Luckily for him, the death of Makarov basically kept the Russian fleet bottled up in Port Arthur. Unluckily for him the Japanese saw their own losses to sea mines begin in May. On the 12th a destroyer hit a mine at Talienwan; the next day the battleship Hatsuse ran into a minefield laid out by the Amur and just like the Petropavlovsk was lost within a minute. She had hit two mines, one blew up her magazine, breaking apart her deck. The battleship Yashima closed in to help her but also hit a mine, but was able to limp away out of the sight of the Russians before she too sank. News of these ship losses were not released to the Japanese public. Chemulpo had been seized easily, the 12th division began landing there with ease. Now the 2nd, 12th and Guards division were of the 1st IJA, mobilized before the offset of the war. The Japanese held the advantage of being able to send troops faster via the sea, for the Russians the trans siberian railway still took a considerable amount of time. Thus the Japanese wanted to hit hard and fast, so alongside the 12th division the 2nd and guards were hoped to make a landing quickly after. The 12th division with some components of the 2nd division landed between the 17th and 22nd of February and began a quick march towards Pyongyang. The Japanese first entered Pyongyang on February 21st who quickly ran out some Cossacks. They set up supply posts enabling the rest of the 12th division to follow suit by the early march. Pyongyang became a focal point for supplies and provisions, the Japanese employed numerous Koreans for the logistical war effort. They bargained for provisions at a fair rate, for example purchasing pigs. A coolie army was hired, nearly 10,000 men strong. They were paid wages above the market norm and leaders amongst them received red bands to signify privileged positions within the Imperial Japanese Transport Corps. On March 18th the 12th division advanced from Pyongyang to Anju dislodged two squadrons of Cossack cavalry there. Patrols from the first IJA indicated Chinampo lying around the mouth of the Taitong diver would make for an excellent landing point for men and supplies. Thus the commander of the 1st IJA, General Kuroki dispatched some forces of the guards and 2nd division from Hiroshima to land and secure Chinampo on March 13th. By the end of March the entire 1st IJA had landed in Korea. By this point the Japanese were confused at the lack of Russian interference, unbeknownst to them the Tsar had issued a directive to Alexeiev to overt any Russian action against the Japanese in Korea. The Russians still believed there was a chance the Japanese would just skirmish on the borders and not advance into Manchuria. Thus Alexeiev ordered the forces to allow the Japanese to land “on the whole extent of the western coast of Korea as high as Chemulpo and to permit their exploration as far north as the Yalu”. While the Japanese were consolidating their logistical supply bases in Korea, the Russian logistics were facing countless problems. The Russians simply did not have the logistical organization that the Japanese had, they were basically living off the land. The Russians were coming into conflict with the local Manchurian populations who were actively resisting them. This was largely due to the recent war they just fought in Manchuria, Japanese funding Honghuzi forces and the Chinese and Koreans simply sympathize more with their fellow asian Japanese against the Russians. Honghuzi guerilla forces were working with Koreans along the northern border to harass the Russians, attacking and pillaging their supply lines. The Japanese war plan sought to have its 1st IJA attack and advance over the Yalu, while the 2nd IJA led by General Oku would land near Nanshan to cut Port Arthur off from the mainland. Now Kuroki's 1st IJA may have had better supply lines, but to move the entire army north into Manchuria was still a logistical nightmare. To be more efficient the 1st IJA would focus its bulk along the western part of Korea where sea access was easier. The port of Rikaho was selected as a new forward landing and supply base. After securing it the Japanese continued north towards the Yalu and by the second week of April were in the same spot their forebears had taken in August of 1894. By April 21st they were concentrating due south of Wiju drawing supplies from Chinampo, Boto and Rikaho. At this point many foreign military observers and correspondents were arriving. There was a deep hunger to study how new modern weaponry and tactics would work out on the battlefield, both the Russians and Japanese would have foreigners amongst them taking notes. It was an interesting time after all. Since the American Civil War, Taiping Rebellion and even Franco-Prussian War of 1870, military technology had advanced exponentially. There would be as many as a hundred foreign military observers from over 16 different nations in Manchuria and Korea during the war. This would also be exploited heavily for spying. Many of the observers were British who held obvious sympathies with the Japanese and thus would covertly hand over information. Now back on February 15th, General Kuropatkin presented the Tsar his campaign plan to win the war against Japan, a war might I note he never favored having. Kuropatkin estimated he would require 6 months to achieve a force of 200,000, the number he believed was necessary to undertake an offensive. Thus he sought to spend the 6 months assessing the Japanese strength while establishing strong defenses to the north of their perceived limit of advance. Basically he wanted to trade space for time, he did not seek to establish defenses too far south. But Kuropatkin was not the top brass, it was Alexeiev and Alexeiev ordered Kuropatkin not to abandon any territory. Thus Kuropatkin was forced to form a line of defenses near the Yalu. He dispatched General Zasulich, the new Eastern Detachment commander on April 22nd with specific orders “to retard the enemy in his passage; to determine his strength, dispositions and lines of march; to retreat as slowly as possible into the mountains”. Opposite and across the Yalu from Wiju is Chuliencheng, the town sits about 2 miles north of the river. The Yalu splits into two rivers and at the split point are a chain of islands. There were no bridges between the two banks, thus crossings would need to be made by small junks and sampans. Taking some of the islands in the Yalu was imperative to ease crossing points. At Fenghuangcheng the Yalu divided and going north became the Ai river. At the junction was a 500 foot high hill called Tiger's head another important strategic location the Japanese would have to seize. Closer to the mouth of the Yalu on the northern side was the fortified town of Antung, which the Russians believed was extremely vulnerable to a Japanese landing attack. The Russian forces at the Yalu consisted of the 3rd Siberian Army corps alongside our old friend General Mishchenko's trans-baikal cossack brigade. At Antung, led by Major General Kashtalinksi were 2580 riflemen, 400 cavalry scouts, 16 field guns and 8 machine guns. On the right flank 4 miles to the north at Tientzu was a reserve of 5200 riflemen and 16 guns; at Chuliencheng led by Major General Trusov were 5200 riflemen, 240 cavalry scouts and 16 guns. The right flank extended from the mouth of the Yalu to Takushan all under Mishchenkos command who held 1100 cavalry, 2400 riflemen, 8 field guns and 6 horse drawn guns. The left from going from Anpingho to Hsiapuhsiho around 40 miles northeast on the Yalu was 1250 cavalry, 1000 riflement and 8 mountain guns. Excluding the reserves, there were over 16,000 riflemen, 2350 cavalry, 630 cavalry scouts, 40 field guns, 8 mountain guns and 6 horse drawn guns covering a distance of over 170 miles. Facing them around Wiju would be a Japanese force of 42,500 men. The Russians had spread themselves out thinly along the river. At the base of numerous hills were Russian trenches, uncamouflaged, in full view from the opposite bank. The Russian artillery likewise was in full view, a large mistake. The Japanese had employed spies, often disguised as fisherman going along the rivers mapping out the Russian artillery positions, by the 23rd the Japanese had acquired the full layout and order of battle. General Kuroki made sure to conceal his strength and more importantly his main crossing point. Using screens of large trees and kaoliang, if you remember the boxer series that is a tall type of millet, well they used this type of cover to move their artillery and troops in secrecy. The Russians occupied the islands in the Yalu called Kyuri, Oseki and Kintei. On the 25th 6 batteries were brought up to support an infantry attack. IJN gunboats began harassing the forces at Antung as a diversion, trying to deceive the Russians into thinking their right flank was where the fighting would be had. At 9:45pm two battalions of the 2nd division crossed using pontoons to Kintei island completely unopposed. Sappers immediately went to work constructing bridges. At 4am a force of 250 soldiers of the Guards division landed and attacked 150 Russians on Kyuri, dislodging them at the cost of 12 men. The Russians quickly abandoned Kyuri and Kintei seeing them as lost causes, but suddenly without orders the men atop Tiger Hill also began withdrawing when they saw men leaving the islands. The Japanese engineers began constructing 10 bridges using pontoons as a feint attack was launched against Chuliencheng. A bridge was erected made up of native boats placed side by side going across the Yalu. This bridge was a decoy. Russian artillery fired upon numerous positions giving their locations away as the concealed Japanese artillery systematically took them out one by one. Over at Antung a small flotilla of 6 gunboats continued to harass the fort and trenches. The local commander was convinced the Japanese would land and attack, again this was a deception. After a few days Kuroki had all he needed to unleash a blow. He sought to advance to Tangshancheng, between Fenghuangcheng and Antung. He had orders to work in concert with the 2nd IJA's landing, this meant he was to a cross the Yalu on April 30th. However, Generals Oku, Kuorki and Admiral Togo met on April 25th where it was determined the deadline had to be pushed until May 1st or 2nd. Thus Kuroki was ordered to delay his attack until May 3rd. Kuroki concentrated his attention towards the weak Russian left flank. He required a crossing point over the Yalu to reconnoiter between the Yalu and Ai rivers. The Russians believed crossing the Ai would require boats, but the Japanese found a crossing point over at the right bank around Sukuchin. Kuroki had the 12th division focus on the right flank, the Guards in the middle to cross the Yalu via the Kyuri and Oseki islands to take a position on Chukodai island to the north and south of Tiger Hill, the 2nd division would hit the weak left. On May 1st the Japanese received some new toys from Chinampo, 20 4.72 inch howitzers organized into 5 batteries. Under the cover of darkness, these huge guns were placed into camouflaged trenches. Meanwhile back on the 29th of april the 12th division covertly crossed the Yalu during the night and moved 3 batteries into Chukyuri to cover the bridge making effort. At 11am on May 1st the Japanese artillery began firing, covering the 12th divisions as they crossed the right bank brushing aside light Russian opposition. Zasulich received word of this and tried to order reinforcements to Anpingho, but he still believed the activities of the 12th division to be a feint, a IJN flotilla was harassing Antung still. The reinforcements were thus delayed heavily. On april 29th and 4pm Zasulich despatched a battalion of the 22nd east Siberian rifle regiment with some mounted scouts and 2 guns to cross the Ai river and retake Tiger Hill. The Russians easily dislodged the Japanese platoon atop the hill who quickly joined their comrades over on Kyuri island. The next morning the Japanese could see the Russians digging in on Tiger Hill, so the Guards divisional artillery on a hill south of a bridge leading to Kyuri island opened fire on them. There was no artillery response from the Russian artillery. At 10am two groups of sappers set out in boats to survey the waters opposite of Chukodai and at 10:30 were fired upon by a battery on some high ground north east of Chuliencheng. 6 4.72 inch batteries of the 12th division responded and within 16 minutes the Russian battery was neutralized suffering the deaths of 5 officers and 29 men. Another Russian battery east of Makau began firing and was smashed quickly by the Guards artillery. Major General Kashtalinski took command of the Chuliencheng sector from Major General Trusov who became ill on April 28th. So severely had the Russian artillery and infantry suffered from the Japanese artillery, that at 11pm on April 30th, Kashtalinski requested permission from Zasulich to withdraw to some hills behind Chuliencheng. Zasulich refused this as Alexeiev's orders were clear, not to give up any ground. Zasulich then received news, the men on Tigers Hill had abandoned it fearing encirclement, some elements of the Guards and 12th division linked up and took it. The 12th division were advancing in three columns towards the Ai river during the night and as Thomas Cowen of the Daily Chronicle reported “The men had to march, wade, wait their turn at a plank bridge or shallow ford, help each other up a slippery bank, pass, in single file sometimes, through a willow copse, wait, climb, jump, mud-scramble, and march again, for about six hours, getting into positions, ‘lining out' in front of the long-extending Russian trenches. No light was allowed, nor a voice above an undertone, for the most part there were no roads to march on, but the men had to cross fields, grope in the gloom for strange paths, or struggle past obstructions where no path could be found, using dry water-courses as tracks till they led into pools, over stubbly cornfields, in and out among tenantless farm buildings, up country lanes and hillside footpaths, each officer and NCO peering into the gloom, feeling his way to the appointed spot, consulting a rough sketch plan and drawing his men after him.” At 3am the Russian 12th regiment reported back to Zasulich that they heard the sounds of wheels on the islands and believed artillery were crossing bridges, he did nothing. At 5am the morning fog dissipated and the Russians could now see opposite of them at Chuliencheng to Salankou at a distance of 6 miles, 3 Japanese divisions were in trenches waiting to pounce on them. Regimental priests egan sermons just before the scream of Japanese howitzers broke the morning quiet. The Japanese artillery were focused first on hunting Russian artillery, eventually some batteries at Makau fired back and within a few minutes were silenced. After this the Japanese artillery focused its full weight upon the Russian infantry in their trenches absolutely devastating them. In view of the lack of Russian artillery fire, Kuroki changed his plans somewhat and ordered the 12th division to perform an encirclement maneuver prior to the Guards and 2nd divisions attacks. By 7am all 3 Japanese divisions were advancing. The Japanese stormed out of their trenches and rushed along the 200 yard wide waters of the Ai to the various crossing points like ants going through funnels. The Japanese troops carrying packs full with rations for 3 days moved as fast as they could through the water before being hit by the first Russian volley at a range of around 500 yards, about halfway across the river. It was an extreme range for the Russian rifles, but with the Japanese so packed up it was brutal. The Japanese did not loss momentum and soon were charging through Russian volleys up the river bank and knolls. Japanese officers began screaming ‘take cover and fire at will”. The 2nd division suffered tremendous casualties around Chuliencheng. The Japanese leapfrogged forward using fire and movement to great effect and soon were crashing into the forward Russian positions. When the Russians abandoned their forward positions for interior lines the Japanese artillery devestated them. The 12th east Siberian rifle regiment made a brave but hopeless counterattack and were swept aside. By 10am the main body of the Russian force were in a full retreat at Chuliencheng. The Japanese tried to storm a the road leading to Fenghuangcheng due north of Chuliencheng, but the full weight of the Russian retreat dislodged them. General Kashtalinski watched in horror as the right flank collapsed, however there was still hope. If Colonel Gromov held the left flank, they could maintain thir foothold on the Yalu. Colonel Gromov and his men were holding a position on the forward slopes overlooking the Ai river in the area of Potetientzu. His command held two battalions of the 22nd regiment and his focus was upon the right side where the guards division were now getting over the river and penetrated his thinly held line. Gromov then received news the 12th division were beggining to get over their part of the river. Gromov went over to see it for himself and he estimated there to be around 5 or 6 battalions advancing directly upon his position. He had no choice, he orderd a partial withdrawal, and as best as he could he tried to maintain order but a general withdrawal emerged as the Japanese gradually turned his flank. Gromov's intent was to pull back to Chingkou, but the rapid advance of the Japanese forces him to saddle between Chingkou and Laofangkou. Other than Gromov's two battalions, the Russians were maintaining a reasonble withdrawal to defensive lines further back around the Hantuhotzu stream around two miles beyond the Ai. The force at Antung were being shelled by the IJN gunboats, aside from that they alongside the reserves at Tientzu had done basically nothing in the battle thus far. Kuroki ordered the Guards to occupy some hills above Hamatang, the 2nd division to advance upon Antung and the 12th to advance southwards to Taloufang. The 12th swept right through Chingkou en route to Hamatang smashing Gromov's men. General Kashtalinksi's men held the Guards and 2nd division back along the Hantuhotzu giving General Zasulich time to withdraw his troops at Antung to Tientzu. To over this withdrawal two battalions of the 11th east siberian regiment and a battery were detached to bolster Kashtalinski's position along the Hantuhotzu. The Guards and 2nd division had to wait for their artillery to catch up to them as the 12th were putting pressure on Gromov's men. At 12:15pm Gromov was forced to pull back to Liuchiakou and he sent a messenger to report such to General Kashtalinski's HQ. At 1pm a messenger of General Zasulich arrived at Gromov's HQ ordering him to retreat via Laochoutun. Meanwhile the messenger failed to get to Kashtalinski until 4pm, thus Kashtalinski would have literally no idea and thought everything was holding. Later Gromov would be courtmartialled for withdrawing the way he did. He would be exonerated later, but before that occurred he would shoot himself in shame. Around 12pm Kashtalinski received word to his surprise that Gromov was withdrawing from Chingkou with the 22nd regiment in disarray and that the Japanese had seized Liuchiakou. His scouts were also telling him the Japanese were advancing on Laofangkou. Kashtalinski wanted to see this for himself douting his own scouts. What he saw was a complete disaster and he quickly ordered an immediate withdrawal from Hantuhotzu to Tientzu. His rearguard was the 11th company of the 22nd regiment who took up a position on a 570 foot high hill east of Hamatang. At around 2pm the 5th company of the 24th IJA regiment, the 12th divisions vanguard smashed into the southeast part of the Hamatang defensive line. Soon the 5th company held a blocking position forcing the retreating Russians to move further south of the 570 foot hill. Three batteries of the 12th division the narrived and began smashing Hamatang as the Guards and 2nd divisions men stormed forward positions. The 11th east Siberian regiment buckled and began fleeing into the valley beyond Hamatang already 26 officers and 900 men had been killed. The valley was around a mile wide, extremely open with fields extending up hillsides. There was basically no cover at all and when the Japanese took the heights they had an excellent view into the valley to fire upon the fleeing Russians. Suddenly the regiments priest in full regalia, grabbed a large cross and stood up. The surrounding surviving Russians around him stood up and the priest led the men through the valley to safety as he cried out “god have mercy” for Russians were being blown to pieces all around them. The priest was hit by 3 bullets before he fell bleeding over his cross as soldier grabbed him and carried him to the other side. The firing gradually lessened as the Japanese shouted banzais atop their hills and saluted the Russians withdrawing before them. The hero priest was evacuated to the Red Cross hospital at Mukden where he made a full physical recovery, though psychological he did not, he reportedly went insane. The carnage was not found so great everywhere. 650 men of the 24th and 56th regiments who were holding out on a hill south east of Hamatang were pounced upon by a company of the guards division who screamed Banzai charging with their bayonets. The Russains lifted up a white flag and the Japanese allowed them to surrender. At 5:30pm the sun was setting across the battlefield, it had been a truly bloody sight. 2700 Russians lay dead, wounded or captured. The Japanese reported 1036 casualties. The Russians had lost 45 artillery pieces, 8 machine guns and 19 wagons full of munitions. The Japanese did not pursue the Russians fleeing to Liaoyang or Fenghuangcheng. I would like to take this time to remind you all that this podcast is only made possible through the efforts of Kings and Generals over at Youtube. Please go subscribe to Kings and Generals over at Youtube and to continue helping us produce this content please check out www.patreon.com/kingsandgenerals. If you are still hungry after that, give my personal channel a look over at The Pacific War Channel at Youtube, it would mean a lot to me. The Russian fleet was trapped firmly with the harbor of Port Arthur allowing the Japanese to commence their land campaigns. The first major battle was at along the Yalu river which turned a crimson red with the blood of both sides. It was going to be a terrible war.
Last time we spoke about the failure of diplomacy between the Empires of Russian and Japan as well as the Yellow Peril. The Russians said they would demobilize and pull out of Manchuria, but when the time actually came to do so, they suddenly had a change of heart. Japan felt threated, but extended the hand of diplomacy trying to thwart beginning a war against a great power. Tsar Nicholas II was being egged on by his cousin Kaiser Wilhelm II, who utilized Yellow Peril rhetory to push Russia into a war with Japan. The Russians did not put up a serious effort when it came to diplomacy, basically insulting Japan. Japan could only swallow so much, until she would take violent actions. The entire world was in for quite a shock, because a Sun was about to rise and a Bear was about to tumble. #74 The Russo-Japanese War Part 1: The Surprise attack on Port Arthur Welcome to the Fall and Rise of China Podcast, I am your dutiful host Craig Watson. But, before we start I want to also remind you this podcast is only made possible through the efforts of Kings and Generals over at Youtube. Perhaps you want to learn more about the history of Asia? Kings and Generals have an assortment of episodes on history of asia and much more so go give them a look over on Youtube. So please subscribe to Kings and Generals over at Youtube and to continue helping us produce this content please check out www.patreon.com/kingsandgenerals. If you are still hungry for some more history related content, over on my channel, the Pacific War Channel where I cover the history of China and Japan from the 19th century until the end of the Pacific War. On January 13th of 1904, Japan proposed to Russia that she would recognize Russia's sphere of influence over Manchuria if Russia would respect her's over Korea. It was a generous offer to maintain the peace, but Russia counter proposed that Japan respect her sphere of influence over Manchuria, and that Korea was basically open grounds. It was to be frank, an insult. It seemed clear to the Japanese the Russians were not serious about diplomacy, in fact they were biding time to build up their military strength in Asia. In February of 1904, Prime Minister Katsura's cabinet decided for war. You really have to take a step back and look at what a colossal decision that was. Russia was a great power, Japan was considered an emerging regional power. Japan had defeated the Qing dynasty, yes, but in the minds of the great powers, this was nothing more than two lesser nations battling it out. A lot of the attitudes of the day were as you can imagine, racist. The idea of a non white nation going to war against a white nation let alone a great power, was ridiculous. So how did Japan think she was going to defeat a larger empire like Russia? For Japan the prospect of victory would rely on a pre-emptive strike against her fleet anchored at Port Arthur, sound a bit familiar? Yes in many ways you can think of this as a Pearl Harbor prequel. The idea similar to Pearl Harbor was to deliver a surprise attack and then issue the formal declaration of war. In the Pacific the Russian Far East fleet consisted of 7 battleships, 6 cruisers and 13 destroyers at Port Arthur. At Vladivostok there were 4 first class cruisers, with a number of torpedo boats. At Chemulpo in Korea were the protected cruisers Varya and gunboat Koreyetz. A crucial component of the conflict would be commanding the sea ways. Both nations recognized this fact all too well. The Russian far east fleet was constrained from year the round training by being icebound in Vladivostok for 3 months of the year. Her fleet was also a ragtag bunch with different armaments, speed, armor and flexibility. Russia was dependent on foreign built ships, though she was fully capable of building her own. Russia had ships built from Britain, Germany, France and the US. The Russian navy was based on conscription at 7 years with 3 years of reserve. The IJN combined fleet consisted of 6 battleships, 10 cruisers, 40 destroyers and 40 smaller vessels, led by Vice Admiral Heihachiro Togo. The Russian ships were a hotchpotch of differing types, armaments and speeds, with a varied amount of armor protection. The Japanese ships were nearly all British built, uniform and faster. Alcohol excess amongst Russian crews was a serious problem. Baltic crews spent the 6 months of winter ashore because the gulf of Finland froze and because of bureaucratic demand for uniformity. So did the crews of the Black Sea fleet. Thus, Russian sailors spent less time at sea and less time training. The Japanese navy under British instruction spent more time at sea, and trained intensively. Japanese sailors were literate, while most Russian sailors were not. These variables would come out to play when dealing with steam-driven warships, the most technologically advanced weapons of the day. Japan held an advantage over the Russians: an intricate spy network run by Baron Akashi Motojiro. He was sent as a roaming military attache all over Europe and, by 1902, moved to Saint Petersburg, setting up a network using locally-based Japanese merchants, workers and others sympathetic to Japan, making sure to pay more than the Russians did. He gathered valuable information on troop movements and naval development, and began to support Russian extremists such as Litvinoff, Orlovsky and Lenin. It is alleged he recruited the famous spy Sidney Reilly, who went to Manchuria and Port Arthur secretly gathering intelligence and, if it is to be believed, alongside his acquaintance Ho Liang Shung, stole the Port Arthur harbor defense plans and sold it to the IJN. Allegedly, Vice-Admiral Togo was given some false information from Reilly and other spies around Port Arthur about the garrison there being on full alert. This led him to not want to risk his capital ships against a well-prepared enemy. He thus elected to send a destroyer force to surprise-attack Port Arthur. To prepare for the war, the Japanese had troopships prepared in predetermined positions, already loaded with provisions and munitions. Aboard his flagship, Admiral Togo read to his admirals a message from Emperor Meiji before all of them lifted a glass of champagne and gave a few bonzai's. The Japanese press were forced into utmost secrecy, everything possible was concealed. As the combined fleet departed on the morning of February the 7th, they had an agreement, whether at Port Arthur or if the Russian fleet found them first, the Japanese would fire first. The IJN combined fleet made a rendezvous south of Chemulpo around Lindsay island. They were met by the Akashi who had been tasked with surveying the Russian navy's movements in the region. The Akashi reported the Russian naval forces had not departed Port Arthur, everyone sighed with relief. The Russian naval forces outside Port Arthur were the unprotected cruisers Varyag and an old gunboat called the Koreyetz, both at anchor in Chemulpo. Chemulpo was a designated landing spot for the IJA, three troopships carrying 2500 troops detached from the combined fleet escorted by the armored cruisers Asama, Takachiho, Nanussa, unarmored cruisers Suma and Akashi and two torpedo boats. Commanding the small detachment was Rear Admiral Uriu. The Japanese intelligence indicated, alongside the two Russian warships there was numerous warships from other nations. The HMS Talbot, USS Vicksburg, Italy's Elba, Frances Pascal and Japans protected cruiser Chiyoda were anchored there. Chiyoda slipped out of the port to meet up with the incoming Uriu who forwarded the information on the international presence. Uriu worried about the political consequences of attacking the Russians in the harbor next to international warships which was against international law. If they could lure the Russians out of the harbor it would be much better politically. Meanwhile the Russians were in a bit of an awkward state. Many believed hostilities could break out at any moment, but did not have orders to attack first. The commander of the Koreyetz was quite nervous and wanted to receive an update from Port Arthur on the political situation so he departed from the harbor during the early afternoon. Unluckily for the Koreyetz she came across the incoming Japanese. Upon discovering the incoming ships were Japanese, the Koreyetz turned around, but some of her gunners were too trigger happy and fired two ineffectual shots. The Koreyetz fled back to her anchorage beside the Varyag and Russian steamer Sungari. The 3 captains quickly met watching the Japanese warships also anchor within the harbor. Soon they could see the Japanese troopships unloaded troops and provisions around 6pm on February 8th. The Japanese troops went to work occupying the city and by 3am on the 9th, four IJA battalions of the 12th division had unloaded without incident. Rear admiral Uriu sent a letter to the senior Russian commander, Captain Stefanov advising him that hostilities existed between their two nations and that the Russian ships must leave the neutral port of Chemulpo. He also indicated he spoke to the other nationalities captains warning them to stay clear if a fire fight broke out in the harbor. The Russians had until noon to comply, if they stayed at 4pm, Uriu would attack. Captain Stefanov ran over to the HMS Talbot to plead with her British captain to get the international ships to restrain the Japanese or help escort them out to sea. Captain Denis Bagly of the Talbot went out to meet Uriu with a letter signed by the other captains protesting the violation of a neutral port. Bagly had no illusions it was a useless gesture and he bid farewell to Stefanov, advising the man he should try to escape or surrender. Stefanov spoke with his fellow captains and they agreed surrender was not an option. At 11am, outgunned and outnumbered the two Russian warships departed the anchorage in front of numerous spectators. Varyags band played ‘god save the Tsar” as the sailors sang the anthem. They sailed directly at the awaiting Japanese fleet. Upon seeing the Russians come out, the Asama trained her 8 inch guns on the Varyag and at a range of 4 miles opened fire. The new Shimose shells began to hit Varyag and soon Chiyoda added her guns to the duel. Eye witness, reporter Thomas Cowen had this to say of the scene “Her decks were being torn and riven, and men were dashed down in mangled heaps all round each gun, for the guns had no shields to protect their crews. Like the furious windsqualls in the height of a hurricane came the bursting of terrible explosives all the length of the ship, shattering and burning and sweeping away men and pieces of machinery indiscriminately” The Varyag's crew literally ran out of men to carry away the wounded on deck. A shell smashed into the bridge to the left of the captain killing his runner. Another shell hit to the captains right killing his bugler and taking some of the side of his face. Most of Varyags guns were silenced, she took a hit below the waterline and was listing to port. Despite all of this, the able men kept to their duty, trying to maneuver the ship by the propellers after her steering gear had been shot off. With no way to fight the enemy the captain ordered them to return to port and the maneuver left Koreyetz exposed to fire for the first time. Koreyetz could not even fire upon the enemy because her range was too limited and soon the Chiyoda began to fire upon her. Koreyetz captain decided to simply follow the crippled and on fire Varyag. Suddenly the gunfire ceased, the Japanese went back to where they anchored before and the two Russian warships did the same. Varyags superstructures were flattened, two of her four funnels were blown off and her masts as well. The Russian survivors were quickly taken aboard the Talbot, Elba and Pascal. The Russian captains had decided to scuttle the three ships. As the explosives went off, the band aboard the Elba played the Russian anthem. The Japanese sailors all bowed in a salute. Later within Chemulpo some of the Russian sailors would be treated by Japanese medical staff and all were permitted to return to Russia on parole, so that they would not take up arms again during the war. Admiral Togo took the rest of the fleet to another rendezvous point, this time at Elliot island, some 65 miles east of Port Arthur. Togo's fleet was divided into three divisions. The 1st division consisted of the 6 battleships, Asahi, Hatsuse, Shikishima, Yashima, Fuji and Togo's flagship Mikasa. They had an overall speed of 18 knots and a displacement of 12300-15000 tons with broadsides weighing some 4000 lbs. The 2nd division consisted of armored cruisers, the Yagumo, Izumo, Iwate, Azuma and Tokiwa with an average speed of 24 knots. The third division consisted of unarmored cruisers Chitose, Takasago, Yoshino and Kasagi. Additionally 15 destroyers armed with the brand new Whitehead torpedo capable of 30 knots and 20 torpedo boats would take up the role of picquet. Over in Port Arthur's harbor the inner line consisted of 5 Russian battleships, Sevastopol, Petropavlovsk, Peresvyet, Pobieda and Poltava. In the middle line were the battleships Tsarevitch and Retvizan, alongside 3 cruisers. In the southernmost line were 3 other cruisers along with the duty ship Pallada. Patroling outside the harbor were destroyers Rastoropni and Bezstrashni around 20 miles out. The commander of the Russian Far Eastern Fleet was Vice Admiral Oscar Victorovitch Stark. It just so happened on February 8th he had planned a large birthday party for his wife. The guests would include Viceroy and Supreme Commander Admiral Alexeiev, his chief of staff Vice Admiral Witgeft, Starks deputy Rear admiral Uktomski and a plethora of other commanders and their wives. Stark actually suspected the Japanese would attack, most likely utilizing torpedoes in a surprise, but the Viceroy refused to allow him to prepare the fleet for war. None the less Stark ordered his captains to prepare to repel torpedo attacks. He ordered all ships to put out anti-torpedo nets and be prepared for action. However, several ships did not carry out these orders and did not take the situation seriously despite multiple night alarms. Many main battery guns were unloaded, many nets uncast, entire crews lay asleep in hammocks, and the two patrolling destroyers were told not to fire if they saw anything, but instead to report it to the CIC. This was because the Tsar had instructed his far Eastern forces, for political reasons, that if war should occur, Japan must be seen to have started it. Alongside this, the majority of the officer corps would be celebrating on the shore and at a party hosted by Admiral Starck for the birthday of his wife on the deck of his flagship, the Petropavlovsk. The celebrating crowd would in fact mistake explosions as cannon salutes for her birthday party. At 7pm Togo released his destroyers, the 1st, 2nd and 3rd flotillas had orders to proceed to Port Arthur while the 4th and 5th would try to ambush any Russian ships sailing around Dalny. 10 destroyers were enroute to Port Arthur, each warship held crews of around 50 men, armed with two 12 pounder guns, 4 6 pounders and two torpedoes. The 1st Flotilla consisted of the destroyers : Shirakumo, Asashio, Kasumi, Akatsuki; 2nd Flotilla: Inazuma, Oboro, Ikazuchi; 3rd Flotilla: Usugumo, Shinonome, Sazanami. They used stearch lights, went towards Liau-ti-chan, allegedly using stolen plans from Sidney Reilly to navigate through the Russian minefield protecting the harbor. At 10:50pm, the 1st flotilla came across the two Russian destroyers on patrol, the Rastoropni and Bezstrashni. This prompted the 1st squadron to douse their lights, trying to avoid detection and slip past. During the process, the Japanese destroyer Oboro collided with the Ikazuchi, disabling her and blocking the path of the Inazuma. This in turn led the flotillas to become separated and were forced to act independently, with the Inazuma becoming lost and the Oboro limping slowly. 20 minutes after midnight, the 1st flotilla arrived, seeing Russian warship searchlights. Approaching closer they saw 3 ranks of ships and then the cruisers Pallada saw the Japanese destroyers, but presumed they were the returning Rastoropni and Bezstrashni. The Rastoropni and Bezstrashni had no radios and were rushing back to try and report the incoming Japanese. At 11:50pm Captain Asai Shojero aboard the Shiragumo gave the attack signal. The four destroyers turned to port and increased their speed to 30 knots before releasing two torpedoes each and turning southwards. The Shiragumo fired the first two torpedoes, followed by two from the Asashio. Because the Pallada was more active, she received more attention than the rest. Pallada was hit amidship, caught fire and began to keel over. Retvizan was hit next at her bow creating a hole large enough for a car to pass through. Tsesarevitch's steering gear was hit. When the explosion of the hit against Pallada was heard many of the Russian ships began firing wildly. The Kasumi fired her two torpedoes, followed by the Akatsuki. Ikazuhi acting alone, came to the scene and fired a single torpedo before fleeing south as well. The 3rd flotilla attracted by the explosions rushed to the scene, finding some lights approaching them, they doused their lights and stopped their engines. It turned out to be the Inazuma who had got lost and requested to join them. They continued finding the Russians ships in a wild disarray. Usugumo was the first to fire, followed by Shinonime and Inazuma before they made their escape south. Meanwhile the Sazanami had been separated from all the others since 11 pm, but had managed to slip past the two russian destroyers around 1:25am and came in to fire a single torpedo before also departing south. The last ship was the damaged Oboro who attempted to repair herself before limping towards the enemy. At 1:45am she fired a torpedo and made her escape. The Russians had been caught completely by surprise. Their skeleton crews aboard the battleships had no idea what was occurring. Many men tumbled out of their bunks awaiting orders, orders that never came. To further explain, when a ship is in action each individual has his own designated tasks, but when an attack comes unexpectedly and a large number of the crew are absent, orders have to be given on the spur of the moment. The explosions were heard by many in the city of Port Arthur, but countless assumed it to be fireworks for celebration. The Russians wild attempts at firing back upon the enemy were useless. The Norvik was the only ship to give chase to the enemy. The torpedo attack killed two officers, 29 sailors and wounded 8 others. Pallada was grounded under the western battery in the harbor; Retvizan was grounded on a ledge near the entrance passage and Tsesarevitch was grounded close to Retvizan. Out of a total of 16 torpedoes launched, only 3 found targets. A major reason for this was luckily due to the few crews who had deployed anti torpedo nets as suggested by Starck. By the way if you would like to see a visual representation of the attack, there is a fantastic Japanese series on the Russo Japanese war called “Saka no Ue no Kumo” narrated by the legendary Ken Watanabe. On my personal channel the pacific war channel one of my most popular episodes is on the Russo-Japanese war, and I used a lot of footage from the series. I will admit I embarrasingly messed up the episode by speeding up the narration somewhat because it was simply too long, but its still ok. By the time this podcast comes out I hope its alright to say, I have been writing a 10 part Russo Japanese War series for Kings and Generals and the animation will look awesome. But back to the story. Starcks staff briefed him on what had occurred and he immediately reported it to the Viceroy in a manner of “i told you so”. Starck most likely hoped the Viceroy would shoulder the blame alongside him, but instead rumors were spread to exaggerate the fact he was having a party for his wife during the event. None the less the two admirals quickly began to plan their next steps as they both assumed the IJN combined fleet was about to come in an attack them. The viceroy sent a message appealing for everyone to stay calm in the city while Starck ordered the fleet to be made ready for sea immeidately. Countless officers and sailors scrambled to get to their ships. Following the attack, at 8am, Togo dispatched Vice Admiral Dewa Shigeto with the four cruisers of the 3rd flottila to investigate Port Arthur and, if possible, lure them out south of Encounter Rock. At 9am, Dewa observed 9 Russian warships getting ready for sea, with 3 aground. The smaller vessels, such as gunboats, torpedo boats and mine planters were outside the harbor looking to be in disarray. Dewa approached within 7500 yards of the harbor, but no one fired upon him. This prompted Dewa to believe the Russians were completely paralyzed. Dewa wireless-messaged Togo that the Russians seemed to be paralyzed, the time was ripe to attack. Togo had wanted to lure the Russians away from Port Arthur's shore batteries, but the report prompted him to order an immediate attack. The Russian formation was quite all over the place. Askold was to the east, Bayan in the center, Novik was far to the west having attempted to chase the enemy, many of the other ships were still at anchor. Togo devised his 3 divisions to form a column coming in one after the other, each ship was to fire starboard. The Japanese approached the harbor at 11:55am. Port Arthur was tossed into pure chaos. Warships moved quickly to jettison inflammable material while coolies in sampans paddled through the jetsam. Captains lept about demanding status reports of their ships while all they could see was dakr smudges on the horizon. At a range of 8500 meters, the Mikasa was the first to fire her guns. After firing her 12inch forward gun, she turned and opened fire with her starboard broadside, the other ships followed in same fashion. The Russian shore batteries erupted firing back on the Japanese causing a duel between the warships 12 inch guns aimed at the shore batteries while their 8 and 6 inch guns targetted the Russia nwarships. The Mikasa took a full 20 minutes to form her pass and was followed by Asahi, Fuji, Yashima, Shikishima and Hatsuse. Asahi targeted a Peresviet type, Fuji & Yashima fired upon cruiser Bayan, Shikishima fired on a ship in the center and Hatsuse dueled the enemy nearest to her. With the exception of Novik, the Russian moved like ants around a nest beneath their fort guns, trying not to make themselves stationary targets. The Novik charged out of the harbor to meet the enemy and received a hell of a mauling for it. The Russian flagship Petropavlosvk flying Starcks flag was battered; Poltava took a hit and cruisers Diana and Askold were severely damaged. The damage was not a one way street however, Mikasa, Shikishima, Fuji, Hatsuse and Iwate took hits. The shore batteries were becoming increasingly effective. When the 2nd and 3rd divisions were making their turn, everything had become like a barrom brawl. Within just 5 minutes of the dueling, Mikasa had taken a 10 inch shell to her starboard side which ricocheted and exploded under her mainmast. Her chief engineer, a staff officer, a paymaster, one midshipman and 3 crew members were wounded, and part of her aft bridge was carried away. The Fuji received a shell through her forward casing, smashing a stack and exploding, killing a turret officer and wounding many. Shikishima then received a hit to her forward stack causing it to explode. By 12:20, Admiral Togo realized that Dewa was incorrect in his assessment - the enemy was not paralyzed - thus he motioned the fleet to withdraw. After just a single run of it, Togo had decided to back out and rendezvous with Uriu at Chemulpo. The departing maneuver exposed Togo's entire fleet to the full brunt of the Russian shore batteries. The Hatsuse, Fuji, Shikishima and Mikasa would take the lionshare of the damage, around 7 hits distributed amongst them. As the fleet made its turning point, the IJN cruisers took several hits. Within the 2nd Division: Azuma fired upon Novik, Iwate fired upon Askold, Iwaki fired upon Askold and then Bayan. As the cruisers turned to port to follow the 1st division Azuma was hit by three shells, one to her battle flag, the other off the water of her starboard quarter exploding, the third to her after turret. Yakumo was hit twice one to her forward main top and midshipman. Novik received many hits and fired torpedoes at Iwate missing. Within the 3rd Division: Chitose (flag of admiral Dewa) fired on center, Takasago fired on Bayan, Kasagi fired upon a Sevastopol type, Takumo fired on nearest enemy ship. Takasago and Chitose then fired on Askold which alone came closer to them, a shell his Askolds second stack, another her forward stack. Chitose then attack Novik and Takasgo attacked Bayan. As they turned to withdraw they received no major hits. The IJN cruisers also launched salvos of torpedoes. The Novik trying to engage them closer evaded the torpedoes, but took several shells below her waterline. The Japanese finally got out of range of the dreaded batteries of Port Arthur, lucky to not have any ships sunk. The casualties were quite balanced for the engagement. The Russians had 150, the Japanese betwene 90 and 130. Neither had any warships sunk, but many were severely damaged. For the Japanese this was not a major issue, their damaged ships returned to Sasebo for immediate repairs, however for the Russians this was a major issue. Port Arthur held limited capabilities, they had only one small dry dock and another incomplete. This meant some of the larger Russian warships could not receive proper repairs, and now they were blockaded. Many 12 inch shells had fallen into the city. The Russo-Chinese bank was hit causing the employees to frantically burn the currency and prepare coins to be transported away. Lumps of coal littered the city grounds like confetti. Many Chinese grabbed their belongings and fled the city aboard steamers. Many buildings were damaged, civilian casualties were light. When the news of the surprise attack reached Tsar Nicholas II he was stunned. He could not believe the Japanese would initiate a warlike actions without formally declaring war first. His advisers had assured him the Japanese had been bluffing and would not dare attack. The first secretary of the British embassy, Cecil Spring Rice went on the record to state the Tsar was left “almost incredulous”. Japan issued their declaration of war 3 hours after the surprise attack. Russia went on a war footing on the 10th and a few days later submitted their official declaration of war after stating to the international community Japans actions were dishonorable. In response Japan referenced the Russian attack on Sweden in 1808, which they did without declaring war first as a justification somewhat for their own actions. The international community were mixed in their favor, but many did sympathize with the Japanese. Notably President Theodore Roosevelt held sympathetic views for the Japanese and the Japanese would take a strong notice to this. Admiral Togo was dissapointed in his lack of success with the surprise torpedo attack. But for now Japan had won command of the sea, the Russian navy was trapped. From Chemulpo, Togo sailed his damaged ships back to Sasebo for repairs, but would go on the record to state “He felt he failed to take the opportunity as Nelson would have done, to deal a blow to the Russian fleet from which they would not recover”. I would like to take this time to remind you all that this podcast is only made possible through the efforts of Kings and Generals over at Youtube. Please go subscribe to Kings and Generals over at Youtube and to continue helping us produce this content please check out www.patreon.com/kingsandgenerals. If you are still hungry after that, give my personal channel a look over at The Pacific War Channel at Youtube, it would mean a lot to me. Admiral Togo had delivered the very first blow of the Russo-Japanese war. His surprise attack upon Port Arthur was a bold and terrific strategy, but had he done enough to give Japan the upper hand in the battles to come?
Welcome to The Nonlinear Library, where we use Text-to-Speech software to convert the best writing from the Rationalist and EA communities into audio. This is: Learning coefficient estimation: the details, published by Zach Furman on November 16, 2023 on LessWrong. What this is for The learning coefficient (LC), or RLCT, is a quantity from singular learning theory that can help to quantify the "complexity" of deep learning models, among other things. This guide is primarily intended to help people interested in improving learning coefficient estimation get up to speed with how it works, behind the scenes. If you're just trying to use the LC for your own project, you can just use the library without knowing all the details, though this guide might still be helpful. It's highly recommended you read this post before reading this one, if you haven't already. We're primarily covering the WBIC paper (Watanabe 2010), the foundation for current LC estimation techniques, but the presentation here is original, aiming for better intuition, and differs substantially from the paper. We'll also briefly cover Lau et al. 2023. Despite all the lengthy talk, what you end up doing in practice is really simple, and the code is designed to highlight that. After some relatively quick setup, the actual LC calculation can be comfortably done in one or two lines of code. What this isn't for A good overview of SLT, or motivation behind studying the LC or loss landscape volume in the first place. We're narrowly focused on LC estimation here. Sampling details. These are very important! But they're not really unique to singular learning theory, and there are plenty of good resources and tutorials on MCMC elsewhere. Derivations of formulas, beyond the high-level reasoning. TLDR What is the learning coefficient? (Review from last time) The learning coefficient (LC), also called the RLCT, measures basin broadness. This isn't new, but typically "basin broadness" is operationalized as "basin flatness" - that is, via the determinant of the Hessian. When the model is singular (eigenvalues of the Hessian are zero), this is a bad idea. The LC operationalizes "basin broadness" as the (low-loss asymptotic) volume scaling exponent. This ends up being the right thing to measure, as justified by singular learning theory. How do we measure it? It turns out that measuring high-dimensional volume directly is hard. We don't do this. Instead we use MCMC to do what's known in statistics as "method of moments" estimation. We contrive a distribution with the LC as a population parameter, sample from that distribution and calculate one of its moments, and solve for the LC. We simplify some details in this section, but this is the conceptual heart of LC estimation. How do we measure it (for real)? The above is a bit simplified. The LC does measure loss volume scaling, but the "loss" it uses is the average or "infinite-data" limit of the empirical loss function. In practice, you don't know this infinite-data loss function. Luckily, you already have a good estimate of it - your empirical loss function. Unluckily, this estimate isn't perfect - it can have some noise. And it turns out this noise is actually worst in the place you least want it. But it all works out in the end! You actually just need to make one small modification to the "idealized" algorithm, and things work fine. This gets you an algorithm that really works in practice! Finally, the state-of-the-art method (Lau et al. 2023) makes a couple simple modifications, for scalability among other reasons: it measures the learning coefficient only *locally*, and uses mini-batch loss instead of full-batch. In chart form: as we move from idealized (top) to realistic (bottom), we get new problems, solutions, and directions for improvement. The guide itself covers the first two rows in the most detail, which are likely the most conceptually difficult to think about, and skips directly from the second row to the fourth row at ...
Link to original articleWelcome to The Nonlinear Library, where we use Text-to-Speech software to convert the best writing from the Rationalist and EA communities into audio. This is: Learning coefficient estimation: the details, published by Zach Furman on November 16, 2023 on LessWrong. What this is for The learning coefficient (LC), or RLCT, is a quantity from singular learning theory that can help to quantify the "complexity" of deep learning models, among other things. This guide is primarily intended to help people interested in improving learning coefficient estimation get up to speed with how it works, behind the scenes. If you're just trying to use the LC for your own project, you can just use the library without knowing all the details, though this guide might still be helpful. It's highly recommended you read this post before reading this one, if you haven't already. We're primarily covering the WBIC paper (Watanabe 2010), the foundation for current LC estimation techniques, but the presentation here is original, aiming for better intuition, and differs substantially from the paper. We'll also briefly cover Lau et al. 2023. Despite all the lengthy talk, what you end up doing in practice is really simple, and the code is designed to highlight that. After some relatively quick setup, the actual LC calculation can be comfortably done in one or two lines of code. What this isn't for A good overview of SLT, or motivation behind studying the LC or loss landscape volume in the first place. We're narrowly focused on LC estimation here. Sampling details. These are very important! But they're not really unique to singular learning theory, and there are plenty of good resources and tutorials on MCMC elsewhere. Derivations of formulas, beyond the high-level reasoning. TLDR What is the learning coefficient? (Review from last time) The learning coefficient (LC), also called the RLCT, measures basin broadness. This isn't new, but typically "basin broadness" is operationalized as "basin flatness" - that is, via the determinant of the Hessian. When the model is singular (eigenvalues of the Hessian are zero), this is a bad idea. The LC operationalizes "basin broadness" as the (low-loss asymptotic) volume scaling exponent. This ends up being the right thing to measure, as justified by singular learning theory. How do we measure it? It turns out that measuring high-dimensional volume directly is hard. We don't do this. Instead we use MCMC to do what's known in statistics as "method of moments" estimation. We contrive a distribution with the LC as a population parameter, sample from that distribution and calculate one of its moments, and solve for the LC. We simplify some details in this section, but this is the conceptual heart of LC estimation. How do we measure it (for real)? The above is a bit simplified. The LC does measure loss volume scaling, but the "loss" it uses is the average or "infinite-data" limit of the empirical loss function. In practice, you don't know this infinite-data loss function. Luckily, you already have a good estimate of it - your empirical loss function. Unluckily, this estimate isn't perfect - it can have some noise. And it turns out this noise is actually worst in the place you least want it. But it all works out in the end! You actually just need to make one small modification to the "idealized" algorithm, and things work fine. This gets you an algorithm that really works in practice! Finally, the state-of-the-art method (Lau et al. 2023) makes a couple simple modifications, for scalability among other reasons: it measures the learning coefficient only *locally*, and uses mini-batch loss instead of full-batch. In chart form: as we move from idealized (top) to realistic (bottom), we get new problems, solutions, and directions for improvement. The guide itself covers the first two rows in the most detail, which are likely the most conceptually difficult to think about, and skips directly from the second row to the fourth row at ...
Last time we spoke about the amphibious assaults for Operations Chronicle and Toenails. General Douglas MacArthur finally performed his landings at Nassau Bay, Woodlark and Kiriwina islands. Woodlark and Kiriwina proved to be cake walks, while Nassau Bay proved a tougher nut to crack. Then over in the Solomons, Admiral Halsey unleashed his landings at Wickham Anchorage, Segi Point, Viru Harbor and Rendova. Now the Japanese were more alert to the invasions and offered some resistance, although ultimately Sasaki would order many forces to simply withdraw from the invaders. Admiral Kusaka tossed a ton of airpower at the incoming allies only to lose a disastrous quarter of his air fleet, forcing him to ask his Army colleague Immamura for additional support. However with all of these landings came a large amount of allied warships to bring them, and such actions could only bring about one conclusion, another naval battle for the pacific war. This episode is the Battle of Kula Gulf Welcome to the Pacific War Podcast Week by Week, I am your dutiful host Craig Watson. But, before we start I want to also remind you this podcast is only made possible through the efforts of Kings and Generals over at Youtube. Perhaps you want to learn more about world war two? Kings and Generals have an assortment of episodes on world war two and much more so go give them a look over on Youtube. So please subscribe to Kings and Generals over at Youtube and to continue helping us produce this content please check out www.patreon.com/kingsandgenerals. If you are still hungry for some more history related content, over on my channel, the Pacific War Channel you can find a few videos all the way from the Opium Wars of the 1800's until the end of the Pacific War in 1945. Before we jump into the naval battle of Kula Gulf a lot was occurring in New Guinea and the Solomons. Over in the Bobdubi front, the Australian 15th brigade under the temporary command of Colonel Guinn were preparing for the main offensive, hoping to trap the Japanese defending Mubo. To support the Nassau Bay landing, Colonel Guinn ordered the untested 58/59th battalion to advance upon the Japanese high ground position at the Old Vicker's, Coconuts and Bobdubi area. They would be marching from Orodubi to the Coconuts while Major Warfe's commandos would raid Malolo and Kela. Company A and C of the 58/59th would make the initial attack seeing A attacking Gwaibolom and C the Old Vicker's position. Following close behind them was B company who were to advance across the ridge to gain control over the Bench Cut Track. D Company were to be held in reserve at the Kunda-vine. On June 26th, A company set off from Missim heading towards their forming up point at Namling. On the 28th, the other remaining companies made departed Meares Camp heading for the New Bobdubi kunda bridge. The next day 17 of Warfe's commandos were ambushed by 30 Japanese. They managed to escape, but were forced to abandon a Bren gun. By the night of June 29th, the 58th/59th crossed the Francisco River and began preparations for the launch of the main attack which would occur the next morning. The next morning saw lackluster allied air strikes against Gwaibolom, Salamua, Old Vickers and the Coconut area. Companies B and C left their start up point of Uliap Creek, seeing C attack Buggert village, just a bit south of the Old Vickers position being held at this time by a company of the 115th regiment led by Lt Ogawa Takeshi. They successfully outlanked the Japanese and captured the village, suffering only 2 casualties for their efforts. From there the Australians assaulted the Old Vickers position, but the Japanese defenders repealed them right back to Buggert village. The Japanese defenders had well established positions, hiding in dugouts 40 feet down from the top. The failure to seize the Old Vickers position, prevented B Company from reaching their objective, the Bench Cut Track and now they were being met with Mortar fire as they crossed the ridge. Meanwhile A Company began their assault on Orodubi, but anticipating booby-traps the men had left on the Bench Cut Track around 70 yards south of Orodubi, they chose to climb a 40 foot kunai slope to join the main track just 10 yards within the enemy. Around 80 men of Company 10 led by Lt Gunji Toshio saw the Australians doing this and promptly began tossing grenades at close range and fired down upon them. The Australians were forced to flee back to Namling as a result. The next day it was decided they would use a platoon to contain Orodubi while the others bypassed it to go onwards and capture Gwaibolom and Erskine Creek, which they managed to do by July 2nd. While this was occurring, B Company was trying to find another way across the ridge, but were failing to do so. So on July 2nd, they were ordered to move across the ridge via the newly established positions at Gwaibolom and Erskine Creek, and would reach the Komiatum Track / bench track junction where they would prepare an ambush by the 3rd. At around 5pm on the 3rd, B company managed to ambush a party of 20 Japanese trying to move towards Old Vickers and this quickly fell into hand to hand combat killing half the Japanese and one of their officers. Meanwhile Colonel MacKechnie's men were fighting to keep their beachhead alive at Nassau Bay. AA and C Companies had fought through the night against Japanese until their 300 yard perimeter was secured. At dawn on June 30th, C company began advancing south to find the Papuan infantry battalion who were around Cape Dinga. C Company made their way to a place just due west of Cape Dinga, following the Tabali River, while A Company was patrolling north and south of an arm of the Bitoi river where they ran into the 3rd battalion, 102nd regiment. A Company backed by some other units attempted to hit the Japanese western flank, but they were overwhelmed and forced to turn back. It would actually be Amphibian engineers who would save the day, who came in at the last minute to help A company out just as the Japanese tossed a banzai charge at them. Upon receiving word of the Japanese attacks, C company rushed over to join A by 3pm. Yet unbeknownst to them, the Japanese were not actually trying to break through, they were trying to withdraw by crossing the Tabali river. General Nakano had ordered them to withdraw to a new position at Lake Salus when he heard word over 1000 men had landed at Nassau Bay. Nakano also had ordered the 3rd battalion of the 66th regiment to send 150 men to march south from Salamua to help out in the Nassau Bay area. These men were tasked with carrying out only limited attacks against the allied forces around Nassau Bay, such as delaying actions to help the Nassau Bay garrison withdraw towards Lake Salus. Nakano was also coordinating with Colonel Araki who was now operating out of an HQ in Mubo, he had likewise brought forces over to Mubo from Salamua. As for the Papuan infantry, they were marching north and they ran into the 3rd battalion, 102nd regiment around Cape Dinga as well. They managed to attack their rear killing at least 26 Japanese who were holding out in a bunker. After this they continued their march to the Nassau Bay beachhead. At around 4:30pm C company began sending reports that they were seeing some Japanese crossing over the Tabali River just south of their position. They were ordered to return to the beachhead perimeter to take the southern flank, but before they were able the Japanese attacked their rear taking 5 men and a platoon commander. Around the beachhead a hastily prepared defensive line was established by an ad hoc force of Engineers, Australian infantry and Headquarters personnel. As the night fell on, C company reached the southern part of the perimeter, quickly taking up positions. The Japanese began a series of attacks throughout the entire night from all sides using machine guns, grenades, mortar and rifle fire. Smaller parties of Japanese were trying to infiltrate positions. It was a terrifying experience for the defenders who would dub it “guy fawkes night”. Many of the men had itchy fingers which led to tragic accidental casualties throughout the night. It was a pitch black night and the noises of the jungle and Japanese screaming stuff in english unnerved the allied forces. The Japanese had tossed a ton of stuff into the perimeter trying to get the allies to use up their own munitions in response. As a result the allied forces had 18 deaths and 27 wounded several of which were the result of friendly fire. The Japanese it seems to have around 50 deaths during the night. Back over in the north, on June 30th, Captain Dexter was leading forward a number of patrols in preparation for an assault upon Duali. However as they advanced they ran into a Japanese ambush along the Bitoi track, thus canceling their planned assault. The next day, Brigadier Moten ordered Dexter's exhausted men to move forward regardless. With some support of Beaufighters strafing the Japanese positions, the Australians charged straight through the enemy positions, and to their shock they found them abandoned. As Dexter recalled ‘We advanced through the Japanese position with fixed bayonets and searched the scrub on each side. Everywhere was evidence of a hasty evacuation, dropped equipment and personal rice bags, and evidence of extensive bomb damage. But of the Japs, no sign.' Thus Dexter and his men captured the mouth of the Bitoi by early afternoon. Shortly after the capture, Dexter made contact with MacKechnie who was busy expanding his perimeter northwards. By nightfall, PT boats led by Lt Commander Barry Atkins covered the landing of 11 landing craft full of reinforcements. The PT boats staffed nearby villages to cause a lot of ruckus, hoping to dissuade nearby Japanese from firing on the vulnerable landing craft. The reinforcements were mostly from B company who had failed to land during the third wave. On July 2nd, Moten began to pressure MacKechnie, stating he had to get his troops moving inland at once. Thus MacKechnie decided to leave C company to defend the perimeter while Lt Colonel Harold Taylor would lead the rest of the men towards Napier. Luckily for the men, 4 75mm pack howitzer m1 artillery guns had been unloaded that night with the reinforcements giving them ample firepower. The gun were positioned on the beach and immediately went to work shelling targets at the mouth of the Tabali River, Cape Dinga and the area between Duali and the Bito River's southern arm. On July the 3rd, the men now designated the Taylor Force accompanied by Dexter's company were marching for Napier, but their march was a slow one as the jungles were thick and they were carrying heavy equipment. While this was occurring the 3rd battalions of the 102nd and 66th regiments were consolidating around Lake Salus looking to create a defensive position. The coastal area however proved to be too difficult to fortify, so they moved over the Tambu where they joined a SNLF platoon of the 5th Sasebo to make a position there. At this point General Savige decided to send the Papuans north along the coast to keep pressuring the enemy's retreat. By the 4th, Taylor Force had taken a position at Napier and were now under the direct command of Moten's 17th brigade. Back over on the beaches at Nassau Bay a total of 1477 troops had been landed, thus securing the beachhead. Dexters company marched back over to Guadagasal taking a coastal route, getting themselves ready for a future assault against Mubo slated for July 7th. MacKechnie believed the loss of some of his landing craft had greatly delayed the entire operation, perhaps up to 3 weeks. He did not think he would be able to move artillery or large quantities of supplies further inland. He also did not think it was tactically sound to leave his base, as the Japanese proved to be quite a nuisance in the area. Orders from the top were demanding a artillery road be built, but his troops at the assembly area would probably run out of rations in a day or two and he had no native carriers on hand. In his words "To be very frank we have been in a very precarious position down here for several days and my sending the rifle troops inland was contrary to my own best judgment. Troops had gone inland stripped to the bone. Without heavy weapons and mortar and machine-gun ammunition. "Therefore, these troops who are up there now are in no position to embark upon an offensive mission until we are able to get food, ammunition and additional weapons up to them." In response to the situation, on July 6th, Moten ordered 1000 rations and 100 boy loads of ammunition…god you have to love the australians, boy-loads haha. Anyways this was to be dropped over Napier. Moving over to the Solomons, Admiral Halsey had successfully occupied Rendova, Segi point, Viru Harbor and Wickham anchorage forcing the smaller number of Japanese to withdraw to their main base at Munda. Admiral Kusaka tossed a series of air strikes against the invaders, suffering horrible losses whereupon he had to request General Immamura reinforce him with the 21st air flotilla at Saipan and from the 6th air division. For the battle of Munda, Admiral Halsey had assembled the largest air force ever assembled in the Solomon islands campaign. It was a force that was needed as the Japanese in Rabaul tossed every bomber that was available to try and thwart the US amphibious invasion. The June air battles had greatly depleted the Japanese air power, but they were not done. On July 1st the Japanese hit Kahili using 6 Vals and 34 Zeros. They were trying to knock out the 3rd battalion, 103rd infantry who were unloading at Poko plantation on the west coast of Rendova. However they were met by 20 P-40's and F4Fs that ripped them to pieces taking down 3 Vals, 5 Zeros and losing 5 P-40's in the process. Although the allies were scoring massively high success against the Japanese in ratios, by this point it reached 7 to 1, they were still unable to sustain round the clock 32 fighter or more CAP. To do this required a total of 96 operational aircraft and after 10 days of fighting in the skies over New Georgia the pilots were also becoming increasingly exhausted. Colonel Merrill Twining requested more P-38 Lightnings, the aircraft that had become the most comfortable fighter to those in the south pacific by this point. But Hap's Arnold over in Washington was heavily committing forces for General Patton and Montgomery's invasion of Sicily at the time so he had to deny this request. As Arnold stated back “every trained unit must be thrown against the German until he is beaten”. Regardless, with Rendova secured, General Hester was landing the bulk of his forces for the final push against Munda. The unloading process had been heavily hampered by poor planning and a failure to allocate adequate personnel for beach control and unloading duties however. To clear the new beachhead and distribute the combat stores, infantrymen were detailed to carry out the work. When transports carrying the next echelon arrived, many of the boats grounded offshore and had to be unloaded manually by troops wading ashore. On July 2nd, Admiral Kusaka coordinating with General Itahana formed a combined strike led by Major Endo Misao consisting of 18 Ki-21 bombers, 23 Ki-43's and Ki-61s with 29 Zero escort. Unfortunately for the allies, Admiral Mitscher had recalled the Rendova patrol due to bad weather, so a total of 18 Ki-21 bombers came to the scene unmolested and hit the congested area around the harbor. The strike caused 200 or so casualties, mostly upon the 2nd battalion, 172nd, the 24th seabees, the 9th defense battalion and staff officers of various headquarters. The strike also knocked out a lot of equipment and supplies. With the failure of the June air battles to hold back the allied invasion, Admiral Koga turned to the Navy for the task of providing new supplies to the defenders at Munda Point. The Tokyo Express was back in business, a convoy of 10 destroyers were sent to New Gerogia led by Rear Teruo Akiyama aboard his flagship Niizuki. His force was ordered to attack Rendova and he had with him the old Yubari, Yunagi, Mikazuki who would operate south of the Treasuries as a diversion, while Niizuki, Amagiri, Hatsuyuki, Nagatsuki, Satsuki, Mikazuki and Mochizuki would hit the allied shipping and shell the harbor. The Japanese destroyers were spotted right away, but bad weather prevented 3 American strike forces consisting of PBY's and B-25's from hitting the incoming enemy. In the meantime, Akiyama closed in on the southern tip of Rendova. She circled the island and opened fire on a point due west of the harbor. The bombardment was quite ineffective, but some allied PT boats rushed in to attack her which caused a wild 10 minute mini battle seeing 2 of them running aground. On the ground, General Hester ordered the 1st battalion, 172nd regiment and A company of the 169th regiment now designated Southern Landing Group to land at Zanana beach. Led by General Wing on the afternoon of the 2nd they made a crossing over Blanche Channel using 16 landing crafts. With the support of Brigadier General Harold Barkers artillery they successfully formed a perimeter. Now the Japanese air and naval attacks were worrying Halsey. He expected the Japanese to launch a major counterlanding with substantial forces perhaps on the 3rd. Therefore he ordered Admiral Ainsworth to lay in wait off the west coast of Rendova for the enemy. However July the 3rd would not bring an enemy, this was because General Imamura and Admiral Kusaka agreed with the lack of air and naval forces on hand at this time they could not perform such a feat, to the disgust of General Sasaki who had assumed command over the defense for Munda on the 2nd. Sasaki was so adamant about landing reinforcements at around midnight on July 3rd he proposed violating orders to simply make a counter landing using the 13th regiment and Ota's barges. He had a crazy idea to simply bring the vessels in and mix them with the American landing craft who were making rountrips to the mainland through the Honiavasa passage. He thought even if half his forces perished, the attack would be worth it. Ota objected to this on the grounds the barges would be needed for other transports scheduled for July 4th and 5th, apparently this made Sasaki visibly upset, who adjourned the meeting and left the room. Ota pushed Sasaki to write his plans down and submit them to Rabaul, which he did, and Rabaul squashed it immediately. On July 3rd the Japanese performed an unsuccessful fighter sweep over Rendova and the next day reconnaissance reported the island was secured by the Americans who had heavily reinforced it with anti aircraft guns and radar. They also reported landings on Zanana and that it looked like Rice Anchorage would be next, thus cutting off Japanese reinforcements from coming down the Munda trail from Bairoko. Imamura and Kusaka had to wait for an accumulation of forces to bring reinforcements to New Georgia; they had no intention of losing it like Guadalcanal. 4000 soldiers of the 13th and 45th regiments were earmarked for departure. Kusaka ordered Itahana to launch another combined strike, this time aimed at Roviana island. However the Japanese were intercepted by 32 F4F's causing the loss of 6 Ki-21s, 3 Ki-43's and a zero without a single loss for the Americans. This would be the fateful end of the joint air operations as Itahana needed to take his forces to help the Salamaua area. Luckily for Kusaka he received reinforcements in the form of the 201st Kokutai from the 25th flotilla which would allow him to gradually rebuild his air strength by mid july. Meanwhile Admiral Turner had assigned 7 destroyer transports, 2 fast minesweepers and 4 Destroyers to carry the 1st raider battalion, the 3rd battalion, 145th infantry regiment and the 3rd battalion, 148th infantry regiment of the 37th division led by Colonel Liversedge into the Kula Gulf. Their escort cover was Ainsworth task group 36.1 consisting of the Cruisers Honolulu, St Louis, Helena and destroyers Nicholas, O'Bannon, Strong and Chevalier. They were also tasked with bombarding Vila and Bairoko. On July 4th, Ainsworth led the group up the slot while the Rear Admiral Teruo Akiyama's Tokyo Express were on their way to Vila carrying 1300 troops of the 13th regiment towards Vila. At around midnight Ainsworth entered Kula Gulf carefully avoiding the mindfield laid back in May. His force proceeded to shell Vila, but they failed to detect the Japanese who were heading south. The Japanese detected the Americans at 12:15 thanks to their brand new radar system; the 1-shiki 2-go radar which was outfitted on the Niizuki. The IJN were eager to test out the radar so they fastened it to the flagship of Destroyer squadron 3. Oh how the turn tables as they say. The radar indicated they were heavily outnumbered, so Akiyama decided to abort the mission, but before doing so he ordered 14 torpedoes to be launched at a range of 10 miles. The type 93 long lance torpedo remained the best weapons of the kind in the Pacific theater and one his destroyer Strong at 12:43 practically cutting her in two. Can't stress it enough what an immense advantage Japan had over the Americans in terms of torpedo power during the first half of the war, hell if any of you play World of Warships, you know Japanese DD is base as hell. When the torpedo hit, the Japanese were already heading back up the Slot and Ainsworth thought he was being attacked by IJN submarines. Thus while Liversedge's men were landing on the southside of the Pundokono River, Ainsworth dispatched destroyers O'Bannon and Chevalier to rescue the survivors of Strong. The Strong was settling fast off the Enogai inlet. When Chevalier and O'Bannon came to the scene picking up survivors a gun duel emerged between them and some batteries on Enogai. By 1:22am Chevalier had 239 men come aboard before her commander said it was time to go. His ship was getting battered by the batteries and he unfortunately was forced to ram the Strong to keep it from capsizing which ripped a 10 foot fash in Chevaliers bow. A near miss from one of Enogai's guns had opened her seams aft and another shell knocked out her NO 3 gun mount. When Chevalier was pulling away from the Strong, breaking her in two in the process, 3 of Strong's depth charges went off under Chevalier lifted the entire boat out of the water causing her to flood in forward sections, talk about bad luck. Over in Rice Anchorage, despite the terrible stormy weather and some gunfire from Enogai, Turner ordered the transport group to clear the Gulf by 7am so they could quickly unload their cargo. 300 men of the 148th regiment landed further north at Kobukobu inlet because of the terrible weather. It would take them until July 7th to meet up with the main body. Though the USS Strong had been sunk, the Tokyo Express failed her run, thus Akiyama elected to bring the bulk of his shipment to Vila the following night, but this time he brought 10 destroyers; Niizuki, Suzukaze, Tanikaze, Mocizuki, Mikazuki, Hamakaze, Amagiri, Hacujuki, Nagacuki and Sacuki. Halsey got advance word of this and ordered Ainsworth to return to Kula Gulf to wait for the Japanese to show up. Halsey also reinforced him with destroyers Jenkins and Radford. Ainsworth went into this with a simple but ultimately flawed plan. He overestimated the capabilities of radar guided 6 inch guns against fast moving targets. On top of that he seemed to be totally ignorant of the IJN's Type 93 Long Lance torpedo's capabilities. His plan was to wait passively until radar detected the enemy than he would toss his cruisers at the enemy using their 6 inch guns, hoping to fire over 8,000 yards or so. He believed that was the effective Japanese torpedo range, why he believed this I do not know. For his destroyers, they would launch torpedoes at the enemy. Akiyama's Tokyo Express departed Buin after sundown divided into a covering force of 3 destroyers in the front and the main bulk behind them. Around midnight on July 6th, Ainsworth's force were just northwest off New Georgia, entering the mouth of the Kula Gulf. The Japanese were also arriving to the Kula Gulf whereupon they detached the first transport unit to land 1600 troops. By 1:06am, Niizuki's radar detected Ainsworth's force, but this time Akiyama was prepared for a fight. Akiyama detached his second transport unit at 1:43am and 7 minutes later American radar picked up the Japanese. Ainsworth took his force in closer until the enemy was 7000 yards away. Then at 1:56am at around a range of 6800 yards the Americans Cruisers began to open fire. Akiyama quickly recalled the second transport unit before he engaged the enemy. Unluckily for Akiyama the Americans concentrated their fire upon the Niizuki which was pulverized quickly. She became a burning wreck before she was sunk by 6 inch shell fire taking Rear Admiral Akiyama's life alongside 300 sailors. Within 20 minutes the Americans would fire 612 shells, 6 of which smashed the Niizuki. Despite the loss of of their commander, the well drilled torpedo crews pulled off a salvo of 16 torpedoes at the American gun flashes. Ainsworth ignorant of the long lance range could do little to avoid it. The light cruiser USS Helena was the first to be struck, her bow was blown off virtually up to the number 2 turret, nearly cracking her in two as she sank taking 190 of her 1177 crew with her. St Louis was hit by a torpedo that fortunately did not detonate and another nearly missed Honolulu. The Japanese fled as fast as they could for Buin as Ainsworth directed his two remaining cruisers to shell the second transport unit. Of the four destroyers in this group, Amagiri escaped with minor damage, while Hatsuyuki was hit by 2 6inch shells, but luckily for her they were duds and she limped away. Nagatsuki was hit by a single 6 inch shell to her rear ship which would force her to run aground near Bambari Harbor. The next morning she would be destroyed by American aircraft. At 3:30am, Ainsworth ordered his forces to return to Tulagi as he dispatched the Radford and O'Bannon to pick up survivors while Nicholas chased the fleeing Japanese. The Japanese dispatched Amagiri to pick up their survivors and she would be intercepted by Nicholas taking 4 hits before she made her retreat. While this was going on the First transport unit completed unloading its 1600 troops and bolted through the Blackett Strait and Kula Gulf. The Japanese had managed to land their reinforcements and sunk the USS Strong and Helena, so they considered it a tactical victory, though the loss of the Niizuki and her commander was terrible. The battle for New Georgia was nowhere near done. I would like to take this time to remind you all that this podcast is only made possible through the efforts of Kings and Generals over at Youtube. Please go subscribe to Kings and Generals over at Youtube and to continue helping us produce this content please check out www.patreon.com/kingsandgenerals. If you are still hungry after that, give my personal channel a look over at The Pacific War Channel at Youtube, it would mean a lot to me. The landings and early offensives were well on their way on New Georgia and the drive upon Lae was closing in. The Battle of Kula Gulf gave the Americans a bloody nose and now the Japanese had more forces at their disposal to try and dislodge the Americans from New Georgia.
I always wondered: “How did American Gladiators get made?” Luckily, there's a show for that now. Unluckily, I still have no effing clue how this show got made.
The Janáček Philharmonic Ostrava stuns with a new recording of Richard Wagner's three-act opera TRISTAN AND ISOLDE. Skillfully conducted by German conductor Robert Reimer, this new, vibrant performance is likely to claim its place as one of the reference recordings of Wagner's innovative work.As novel as the opera was in its time, it didn't go down well with all of the composer's contemporaries. Rossini quipped that while Tristan had great moments, it also had terrible quarter-hours. Worse yet, the author of Wagner's main inspiration was even less impressed: Arthur Schopenhauer, the ingenious German philosopher whose stoic advice to rebuff the animalic Will to Live for happiness's sake underpins large parts of the opera, sided with Rossini (incidentally the thinker's favorite composer). Unluckily for Wagner, it was impossible to discredit Schopenhauer's opinion as that of an amateur: the philosopher played the flute with virtuosic skill, understood music like few others, placed it at the top of all art forms in his philosophy, and justly became a favorite among musicians for his perspicacious assertion that music was one of the few things in which the essence of Being could very briefly be perceived, even if doing so wasn't possible otherwise.Modern-day Wagnerians will be happy to hear that conductor Robert Reimer and the Janáček Philharmonic Ostrava have a more favorable opinion of Wagner, performing the volatile composer's opera with great verve and conviction. It's a splendid pairing to be sure: a much sought-after conductor familiar with orchestras all across Europe, and a wonderful ensemble to do his bidding. This arrangement works to the favor of everyone involved.Some might wish this recording had existed 160 years ago. To show his appreciation, Wagner had given Schopenhauer a copy of the libretto – and the philosopher liberally made annotations. At one point Wagner writes "The curtain falls quickly", on which the thinker comments in ink: "For it is high time." If Schopenhauer had known this new TRISTAN AND ISOLDE as it is released today, he would likely have reconsidered.For complete information on this album, please visit Tristan Und Isolde – Navona Records
The airlines industry is having historic staffing shortages after they changed the sector’s medical protocols. Pilots have been dying mid-flight. Luckily, we have backup procedures with a pilot and a co-pilot. Unluckily, people inside the aviation industry are looking to double the number of flights they have by having a single pilot on each solo ... The post Up in the Air appeared first on The New American.
This is the final story of the Halloween series. I will be finishing this book next year, until then, this is the final story. Vico, the same young boy that caused trouble before, has grown up to be a bad guy. He drinks, smokes, and tries to steal girlfriends. Unluckily for him, he's no match for the boyfriend and just ends up with a hangover and a busted lip. But a mysterious guy comes along and tells him he can have her and any other woman he wants, if he'll just take this coin. The man is familiar. Could it be? You can leave a comment on Galas Source: Ecuadorian Ghost Stories by Mario Conde Copyright Mario Conde (used with permission) Narrator: Dustin Steichmann Music: Myuu Toubled Waves (Creative Commons with accreditation) Sound FX: Freesound.org and Zapsplat.com Photo Credit: "Diablo (Potosi Bolivia)" by Ahron de Leeuw is licensed under CC BY 2.0. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/sandman-stories/message
It's time for prom at Mystic Falls High! Caroline of course planned a perfect prom (despite not bringing Klaus as her date smh), and luckily for the Salvatores the theme seems perfectly set up to get Elena's humanity back on. Unluckily for Damon, Elena only responds to romantic vibes from one brothers and it ain't him! Elena also uses her prom to steal from one best friend and try to kill another, while campaigning for Rebekah for prom queen. Rebekah tries to live the night as a human mostly by bothering Matt, and fails in more ways than one. And we finally see a win for Caroline in the form of a Forwood reunion (eh), a win for Bonnie as prom queen, and a win for the Steroline girlies! But alas the cure changes hands yet again, and Klaus gets a troubling letter... Remember to rate, review, and share, brothers! Follow us on Instagram @doppelgangerspodcast! --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/doppelgangerspodcast/support
Content Warnings for this episode: Police/Police Aggression, Violence/Death, Arson, Smoking, Betrayal ------------------------------------------------ Our crew faces off against Capt. Gabriella and the Bluecoats as they try to bargain with Estefania of the Painted Fleet for the map they came here for. Unluckily for them, the poetic pirate has a few tricks up her surprisingly dry sleeves. Will Brynn be able to hold off the Navy in time for everyone else to make it back to the ship? Will Felix succumb to his darker desires? Find out this week, on Whispers in the Sea. ------------------------------------------------ UNION NAVY BOUND Composed by: High Principal Tullio Lotto Performed by: The Union Choir To the Tune of Lieutenant Baker We are Union Navy Bound, We all fight, for no one crown. Raise your fists and everybody shout, Hooray! Hoorah! We're Union Bound! Sailing the sea from edge to edge, Protecting our homes, that is our pledge. Raise your flasks and everybody shout, Hooray! Hoorah! We're Union Bound! Chorus (x2) From our motherlands we joined, Fighting for honor, not blood nor coin. Marching towards a future bright Where our children do not fight We are Union Navy Bound, We all fight until they're drowned. Raise your swords and everybody shout, Hooray! Hoorah! We're Union Bound! Pirate scum, they deal in fear, By our might, the seas are clear Raise your anchors and everybody shout, Hooray! Hoorah! We're Union Bound! Chorus (x2) From our motherlands, we joined, Fighting for honor, not blood nor coin Marching towards a future bright Where our children do not fight We are Union Navy Bound, We all fight, for no one crown. Raise your sails and everybody shout, Hooray! Hoorah! We're Union Bound! We're Union Bound! ------------------------------------------------ Hosted and GM'd by Kendrick Smith (@KendoMakesFilms) Featuring: Dr. Hilda as Avery Morrigan Marcie (@SoapieSquid) as Brynn Theriot Gus (@AugustKnobbe) as Felix “Lunulata” Cormier Ellis (@Whore_Or_Writer) as Thorin and Eldoris Theme composed by: August Knobbe Music and SFX from: Epidemic Sound Editing and Sound Design by: Zach Zito (@_SpaceLung_) ------------------------------------------------ Follow us on Twitter and Instagram for updates and additional content! You can support the show by checking out our merch at: merchyetsold.com Join our growing community Discord server! You can email us at talesyettoldpod@gmail.com for comments, questions, or feedback. Be safe, drink some water, and don't forget to love yourself like we love you!
Located in the heart of north Minneapolis on West Broadway in the Five Points Building, KMOJ would surprise any bicentennial time travelers who knew it as a barely-there operation spread between two apartments in the Glenwood Projects. It crept onto local airwaves with a budget of less than $50,000. Sometimes records would skip on-air after someone stomped on the floor. Founded in 1976 by the Center for Communications and Development, KMOJ was originally WMOJ because FCC naming conventions assigned W call letters to station transmitters east of the Mississippi River. Its transmitting power was 10 milliwatts — a range of four to six blocks — and its operating budget came courtesy of grants from the Lutheran Church and state of Minnesota. It became KMOJ in 1978. Today, according to its management, KMOJ is a million-dollar business, which would be an astronomical sum for a community station just starting out 46 years ago. But, it's on the low-end for a contemporary broadcaster. Regardless of how much money the station has in the bank, the mission remains the same, to: “Teach communities of color media skills that help reinstate the positive affirmative Black image.” KMOJ's morning show co-host, Chantel SinGs, says she knows that the message of positivity is reaching its desired audience. She's reminded daily of the power of a Black-run radio station for a Black community. “I had a caller that called me, crying,” she said. “She was crying and talking about the events that happened in Buffalo, New York, where 10 African Americans were shot and killed by a white supremacist shooter. “She said that it affected her so badly, she couldn't get through her workday. “She's sitting in her car, crying at 7:30 in the morning. She can't go into her workplace. She's thinking she needs some words of encouragement. Some kind of guidance. And, she calls KMOJ.” General Manager Freddie Bell says he's seen similar displays of connection from listeners. “If we do the right things. If we focus on the mission — number one, to train broadcasters and number two, to provide for the needs of our listeners — we can't lose,” he said. “And, as best as I can tell, we're doing a wonderful job of staying true to our mission.” After more than 40 years working at the station, Walter “Q” Bear Banks is a true believer. Banks is the station's afternoon drive time on-air personality. He's a tall, powerfully built man with a smile that rivals the 1,400 watts of the station's transmitter. He possesses an encyclopedic knowledge of the north side, the Minneapolis Sound, Prince and Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis and all matters related to KMOJ. “There's a lot to radio, but even in the processing of everything that's there, you have to have an understanding of self and community when it comes to KMOJ radio,” he said, “because that's what its purpose is about. If you are not looking into the community side, then there's no sense in being there.” Courtesy of Freddie Bell Photos taken over the years of different hosts and guests of KMOJ. Early troubles Motown legend Marvin Gaye had a hit song in 1972 called “Trouble Man” four years before the station was founded. There have been eras in the station's history when it felt like Gaye wrote it with KMOJ in mind. In 1983, the station's founding management team, General Manager Jeanette Cotton and development officer Brian Allen, were fired by the station's board and barred from entering the building. The pair countersued for wrongful termination. There have been several instances when staff or taxes weren't paid. The station went silent for a short time in 1988 because of transmitter issues. In 2016 a group named Concerned Citizens of KMOJ accused the board of putting the station at risk. Reverend Ewald “Joe” Bash was a liaison for the Lutheran Church's grant, which effectively created the station. In 1978, he told the media that WMOJ and its target audience had their work cut out for them. “Realistically, we're an awfully long way from doing what needs to be done in the Cities,” he said. "How do you undo the damage of whole lifetimes of being put down, of being denied jobs on one hand and being punished for being out of work on the other, of hate, hurt and hostility?” Caroline Yang for MPR News Freddie Bell operates the control panels while hosting KMOJ's The Morning Show on May 27. An act of faith Today, visitors see few signs of those past hardships. They walk into a tasteful suite of offices and studios with muted tan carpets and deep red and blue walls. The effect is professional, soothing. The gold and black KMOJ logo, shaped like the medallion of a 90s era rapper, dominates the main studio and imparts a slight bit of hip hop edginess. Bell, who also serves as Chantel SinGs morning co-host, wants to push the station's financial troubles even deeper into the past. On a whiteboard in his office, he's written a multi-million-dollar figure in black marker — a year-long stretch goal for his six-person management team. Behind his desk, an ancient Philco radio, shiny and wooden, shares space with a montage of photos of his daughter who recently graduated from college with a degree in communications. Bell is so immersed in the medium he might as well emit radio waves. He is the latest in a line of roughly a dozen KMOJ station managers, reaching back to co-founder Jeannette Cotton, responsible for leading the station to its current state of relative solvency. Bell knew the station's humble history when he was hired in 2016. Still, he left a well-paying job with a white-owned commercial station when KMOJ's board of directors hit an impasse with its station manager. Bell's move was an act of faith. He felt indebted to KMOJ because his volunteer service there led to a commercial radio position. He quit his job and came on board as General Manager. A few of his predecessors worked without pay for stretches of time, just to ensure the station kept going. The station's financial situation was so tenuous when Bell took over that he kept a resignation letter at the ready, just in case. Caroline Yang for MPR News Chantel SinGs co-hosts KMOJ's The Morning Show with Freddie Bell. A rich tradition KMOJ's financial struggles and deep connection to its audience is part of a rich tradition. Black radio stations girded the success of the Civil Rights Movement. They were the town criers calling listeners to rallies and protests. DJs in Deep South states like Alabama broadcast coded messages to alert their audiences about locations for protests, times and police presence — reminiscent of the old negro spirituals that helped slaves plot their escapes. That's the legacy upheld by KMOJ and a scant 43 other Black-run public radio stations across the U.S. “It's a market that's hanging on by a string,” says Paul Billings, founder and president of WUVS, 103.7 The Beat, a Black-run public radio station in Muskegon, Michigan. “[From] the government and on the corporate side, Black radio has always been the stepchild when it comes to advertising and underwriting dollars … there's never really been a strong advocacy there.” Black radio stations, both commercial and public, are fragile unicorns. Black-owned commercial stations make up a little more than one percent of the nation's 11,000 radio stations. The number of Black-owned stations reached a high of more than 250 stations, thanks to the FCC's Minority Ownership Policy of 1978. However, Clinton era deregulation dropped the number to fewer than 180. Billings says there is little political appetite to level the playing field for Black-run stations, either commercial or public. Advertisers call the shots in the radio business. Their purchases ultimately decide which audiences are worth the billions spent in radio advertising each year. A typical strategy for media buyers, he says, is to assume they can reach enough of the Black audience through ad buys with white-owned media. Billings says it's a reality Black stations want to change, but accept for the present. It's a matter of survival. Caroline Yang for MPR News Freddie Bell, of Minneapolis, chats with co-host of KMOJ's The Morning Show, Chantel SinGs, during a break. Job one, Bell said, is to bolster the community-focused mission and keep the station alive, no matter the distractions. “I don't care what organization it is; people all have their own ideas. They have their own ways of life,” he said. “But, making sure the station was financially solvent, that was the Big Lift and continues to be the Big Lift. “I didn't want to be the guy [with] the headline, ‘KMOJ fails because of Freddie Bell.' Nobody wants to see that. Nobody wants that to happen under their watch. I was determined that wasn't going to happen. Continuing the mission Bell says the station's latest, greatest achievement is melded to its mission of training young people of color. The Ice, touted as Minnesota's first urban hip hop station, is broadcast on its KMOJ HD2 channel. It offers young, hip hop DJs a nerve-wracking training ground which includes tens of thousands of listeners. “Oh, this is live,” said a staff person when asked if trainees ever made mistakes on the expensive and complex soundboard. “They'll make mistakes, but they won't do it twice.” Bell is particularly proud of the journalism training a diverse group of young women received under the Racial Reckoning: The Arc of Justice initiative. The project is a 10-month joint effort of KMOJ, AMPERS and the Minnesota Humanities Center that reached a million listeners. Its five young journalists covered high-profile, breaking news stories such as the trial of Derek Chauvin, the Minneapolis police officer who killed George Floyd. One of those young reporters, Chioma Uwagwu, shared her thoughts about the project on the station's website. “I never thought there could be journalists that were truly trusted in the community,” she said. “It was always, ‘there's journalists and there's community members.' And, sometimes community members would give their stories, but it always felt very transactional.” Uwagwu considers the project a solid step into a journalistic future that considers communities of color full partners in the news gathering process. Bell's pride in the project's success may be due in part to the fact that KMOJ had no journalists on staff when he began his tenure. Unluckily for him, that was a news-heavy 18 months starting in November 2015 when Jamar Clark was shot and killed by a police officer in north Minneapolis. Superstar Prince died suddenly at Paisley Park in April of 2016. Philando Castile was killed by a police officer later that summer sparking protests which made national news. “All this happens and we didn't have a news department,” he said. “People were calling us, asking for reports. We didn't have a reporter. It was just us. I sent one of my producers, who wasn't a trained journalist, to the scene [of the protests following Clark's death].” Caroline Yang for MPR News A window in the KMOJ lobby. A small miracle That kind of privation is business as usual for Black radio stations, Billings said. Without sufficient funding, the stations have to be creative in most areas, including news gathering. But, the landscape has changed since 2016 for both Billings' station WUVS and for KMOJ. “It's because of [Bell] and his leadership that we have Black news that's running on not only on our station, but on other stations across the country because he advocated for us to get this Black news for free,” Billings said. “We have collaborated on talk shows, special editions, documentaries and those have made each one of our [stations] stronger.” KMOJ, with its sprawling, joyous, messy, under-appreciated history is still standing and Billings doesn't mind if you put your hands together for that small miracle. “I think the community should be grateful that they have a voice, a vehicle that cares about their community that's been independent, not bought-out and has put the citizens, the listeners, first for four-plus decades,” he said. “They should be happy that this radio station is still there, still dedicated to the same mission that they had when they started off: to empower the Black community of the Twin Cities. That's a strong commitment that KMOJ has given the people of Minneapolis-St. Paul. And, I hope that the people of that community have given KMOJ the same commitment.
Swansea Cigarette Ladies 斯旺西抽烟的女士 by Via文章链接 https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/13KjBYsW1EKFBprasIi4ag背景音乐 Caesarxmw - 森林里, Tears in the Sea, Real Sea, 2019, Soul Riddle Apple Podcast https://c1n.cn/TIUMaRiddle 喜马拉雅 https://m.ximalaya.com/album/52712505Riddle Wechat公众号 「流浪Riddle」Riddle Instagram https://bit.ly/riddleinsta Patreon Page https://www.patreon.com/yuanriddle It was my second day in Swansea and I was going to Rhossili. The bus to Rhossili from Swansea comes every hour. Unluckily, It passed 3 minutes before I arrived at the bus stop for buying some drawing stuff. So I grabbed a coffee and sat outside of the cafe to wait for the bus.今天是我在斯旺西的第二天，我计划去罗西里海湾。在这个小城，去罗西里的巴士每隔一小时才来一辆，不巧的是，在我买完我忘带的水彩工具到达车站时，它三分钟前刚刚驶过。我便在车站旁的咖啡馆外坐下，要了一杯拿铁。"Do you mind we sit here if we smoke?" An old lady came and asked."Of course not," I said.“你介意我坐在这儿吗？我们会抽烟。” 一位年长的女士走过来问。“我不介意。”To be honest I didn't hear it clearly because I was doing the sketch. But I never refuse the chance to talk with strangers while traveling. She sat down in the chair diagonally in front of me, took off the mask and put on her sunglasses. Then she took out a cigarette. A moment later, another lady with a cane came out of the cafe.其实我一开始没有太听清，但是在旅行时我很乐意和陌生人搭话。她在我斜对面的椅子上坐下来，摘下透明面罩然后戴上墨镜，从口袋里抽出一根烟。过了一小会儿，另一位拄着拐杖的女士从咖啡馆里走出来。"Look what she drew!" A vivid voice came from behind. “看她画的！” 一个声音从我身后传来。She sat down strenuously, putting her cane aside and taking out her cigarette case. It was a metallic case covered with leather. They lit up the cigarettes.她有点困难地坐下，把拐杖放在一旁然后也拿出她的香烟盒。那是一个包裹着黑色皮革的金属烟盒。她们点燃了手中的烟。"Do you live here?" She asked."No, it's my second day here in Swansea. I'm on holiday. I live in London."“你住在这儿吗？” 我对面的女士问道。“不， 这是我在这儿的第二天。我正在度假，我住在伦敦。”"Swansea was not like this when I was a child. It had a lot of shops in the town centre. Now they are all cafes. I'm eighty-seven." She blew out a stream of smoke."You don't seem to be." I started to sketch her sneakingly, looking at her eyes."Age is not a big deal. It's fine because my brain is energetic. I don't want to live forever. That's scary." She pointed at her head.…“现在的斯旺西和我小时候完全不一样了。从前在这儿有很多各种各样的商店，现在全变成咖啡馆了。我八十七岁了。”她吐出一口烟圈。“您看起来不像。”我看着她的眼睛，手上悄悄地开始画她的速写。“年龄不是什么重要的事情。我的大脑还充满活力。我才不想活到永远，这太可怕了。”她用手指了指脑袋。…"You are asking too much, she's drawing." The lady with sunglasses patted her shoulder. "Actually I'm sketching you… I'm sorry. Do you mind?" I confessed. “你问的太多了。”戴墨镜的女士拍了拍她的肩吐槽道。“其实我在画您的速写。很抱歉，请问您介意吗？”我坦白了。She glanced at my paper and pulled a face."Are you capturing my face?""Swansea was destroyed in World War 2…" Back to this topic again. She kept talking about how people were killed and escaped during the war.她瞟了一眼我的画本，然后做了个鬼脸。“你在画我的脸吗？” “斯旺西在二战的时候被炸毁了…“话题又回到二战了。她讲了很多关于二战在英国的情景。I was hesitating whether to tell them I was waiting for the bus. I missed my bus again.我看了一下表，有点犹豫要不要告诉她们我其实在等巴士。我又错过那辆巴士了。"Am I too noisy?" She asked twice. In the meantime, the lady with sunglasses noticed that I was sketching her and changed her smoking pose just like the models in the fashion magazine.“我会太聒噪吗？”她问了两次。同时，另一位女士注意到我开始画她，换了一个抽烟的姿势,看起来像时尚杂志里的模特。"You drew me like a man." She watched my drawing carefully. Both of them have short hair.“你把我画得像个男人。”她走到我身后仔细看了看我的画。她们俩都是短发。They finished their coffee and stood up. "I'm glad that we chose to sit at this table to meet you today, Via. We come to grab a coffee from time to time. Hope to see you again." "Don't forget to add my wrinkles!" The lady with sunglasses said before she left.她们喝完了咖啡准备离开。“我很高兴我们今天坐在一张桌子上聊天。很高兴见到你Via。我们时不时地就会来这里喝咖啡。希望能再见到你。” “别忘记把我的皱纹画上去。”那位戴墨镜的女士说。I decided to post postcards during Christmas to this cafe. Maybe the cafe will forward the card to the cigarette ladies can receive them. Who knows?我决定圣诞的时候给这家咖啡馆寄明信片，有机会的话或许能转交给她们呢。
The Baudelaires are back, and thanks to fake news from The Daily Punctilio, they are now fugitives. Luckily, they are able to find shelter in the hinterlands. Unluckily, the shelter they find is a hostile hospital (book 8) and a carnivorous carnival (book 9). In this episode, we discuss the hilarious and absurd tragedies of the Baudelaires' lives. We also attempt to answer the age-old question: why are so many children's books about orphans? If you like lions, paperwork, or parentless children, then give this episode a listen. https://linktr.ee/Readingduringrecess Find our show on Twitter @reading_recess Find our show on Instagram @reading_recess Find Sarah on Twitter @sarahebba25 and on Instagram @sarahebba Find Terri on Twitter @TerriCLaRue and on Instagram @tc_larue Email us at readingduringrecesspod@gmail.com
We get real weird about some weird stuff --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/thirstywitchessociety/message
A microphone is a good enough platform for getting back at people, but an entire recording studio is even better. Popular music is littered with songs getting back at an ex lover, from Waylon Jennings to Taylor Swift, but a fair number of the tracks you know by heart are actually clap-backs to the people in the mixing booth or the record label offices. YBOF Book; Audiobook (basically everywhere but Audible); Merch! Hang out with your fellow Brainiacs .Reach out and touch Moxie on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram. Support the show Music by Kevin MacLeod, Steve Oxen, David Fesliyan. Links to all the research resources are on our website. I love this podcast and am so happy Moxie is so prolific! A very compelling mix of the obscure to the commonplace, and a riveting listen no matter what.
Three brand new adventures featuring Christopher Eccleston as the Ninth Doctor. 2.1 Girl, Deconstructed by Lisa McMullin Marnie is missing. But she hasn't run away, as her dad fears - Marnie is still very much at home. But not quite as she was. The Doctor joins forces with Missing Persons detective Jana Lee to help solve the mystery of a girl who's gone to pieces. 2.2 Fright Motif by Tim Foley In post-War Paris, musician Artie Berger has lost his mojo, but gained a predator - something that seeps through the cracks of dissonance to devour the unwary. Luckily for Artie, the Doctor is here. Unluckily for everyone, he needs bait to trap a monster... 2.3 Planet of the End by Timothy X Atack The Doctor arrives on a mausoleum world for sightseeing and light pedantry, correcting its planetary records. The resident AI has other ideas. Deep within a tomb, something stirs. Occasus is the last resting place of a species far too dangerous to exist. And the Doctor is its way back.
Movie of the Year: 1975Night Moves The 1975 bonus episodes continue with Arthur Penn's Night Moves, starring Gene Hackman! On an all-new bonus episode of Movie of the Year: 1975, the Taste Buds take on Night Moves! Join your host Kate, along with the Movie of the Year regulars Mike, Ryan, and Greg, as they introduce newcomer Even to the PopFilter family, as they all discuss this neo-noir starring Gene Hackman! Gene Hackman plays ex-athlete/current private investigator Harry Moseby who is trying to find the missing daughter of a has-been movie actress. Unluckily for us, and luckily for him, finding the young woman, played by a JUST BARELY old enough Melanie Griffith, is really just the beginning of the story. Part The Long Goodbye/part classic noir - with maybe the slightest bit of The Naked Gun thrown in - Night Moves is, among many other things, a chance to miss Gene Hackman. Will the overall mystery work for the Taste Buds? Will the exploitation of women that the movie tackles sort of just make Night Moves come off as an exploitative movie? And does Gene Hackman remain the most underrated actor of the last 50 years? Tune in and find out! Make sure to also: Check out the 1975 bracket Visit our website Use our Amazon page! Join our Patreon team! (to get the show early and hear bonus segments!) Like us! Follow us! Write to Us! — contact@yourpopfilter.com https://www.patreon.com/yourpopfilter (Support the show) (https://www.patreon.com/yourpopfilter)
It's the end of the season for The Weekly Review and we are feeling emotional. Luckily, the Power Of Music is there to get us through. Unluckily, it's only a dating app, designed to unite people through their record collections. Our album of the week is Darkside's Spiral, Johann is excited by James Blake and we have a voice note from Reece West.
"Do you think they'll ever stop calling it New Mexico? You know, when it's been around for a while?" After weeks of rumors about the President's health, a cowboy Senator stops by the White House to see for himself. Unluckily for Edith, he isn't the only surprise guest today. Edith! is sponsored by Betterhelp. You deserve inner peace... no really, you do! Visit betterhelp.com/edith to get 10% off your first month. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Blackeyed Children: You thought we were gone for good didn't ya? Unluckily for you, no force of nature can get rid of us that easily! Here we are! Back and ready for action! Until a creepy child comes to our doors and whisks us away into the abyss that is. Ph ya, welcome to cryptoboozeology.
He wanted to cry, he wanted to give himself up todespair, he wantedto throw away the tray and all thatwas on it. Instead, either from pain orweakness, he fellto the floor in a dead faint. When he regained20 his senses, he foundhimself stretchedout on a sofa and the Fairy was seated near him. "This time also I forgive you," said the Fairy to him. "But be careful not to get into mischief again."Pinocchiopromised to study and to behave himself. And he kept his word for the remainder of the year. Atthe end of it,he passed first in all his examinations, andhis report was so good that theFairy said to him happily: "Tomorrow your wish will come true.""And what isit?""Tomorrow you will cease to be a Marionette and will become areal boy."Pinocchio was beside himself with joy. All his friendsandschoolmates must be invited to celebrate the greatevent! The Fairy promised toprepare two hundred cupsof coffee-and-milk and four hundred slices oftoastbuttered on both sides. The day promised to be a very gay and happy one, but--Unluckily, ina Marionette's life there's always a BUTwhich is apt to spoil everything.他失望得想哭，想把托盘连同上面的东西一起甩掉，可不知是由于太伤心呢还是太饿，一下子昏倒了。 等到他醒来，他已经直挺挺躺在一张沙发床上，仙女就在他身边。 “这一回我也原谅了你，”仙女对他说，“可你再给我来这么一次，就没你好的！……” 皮诺乔赌咒发誓，说他要用功读书，做个很好很好的孩子。这一年下来，他都守住他的诺言。的确，他大考光荣地得了全校第一名，品行总的说来也得到好评，令人满意。因此仙女十分高兴，对他说： “你的愿望明天终于要实现了！” “你说什么？” “到明天你就不再是一个木偶，而要变成一个真的孩子了。” 诸位没看到皮诺乔那份乐劲！他一直盼望着这个消息，如今听了，他那份高兴简直是无法想象的。为了庆祝这件大喜事，明天仙女家要举行盛大的早宴，把他所有的朋友和同学都请来参加。仙女答应准备两百杯牛奶咖啡和四百片面包，每片面包都两面涂上黄油。没问题，这准是个极其快活，极其美好的日子，可是…… 真不幸，木偶一生中老这么可是，可是的，这一来，就把什么事情都给毁了。20 regained 复得( regain的过去式和过去分词 )； 赢回； 重回； 复至某地参考例句：· The majority of the people in the world have regained their liberty. 世界上大多数人已重获自由。· She hesitated briefly but quickly regained her poise. 她犹豫片刻，但很快恢复了镇静。
Why did it have to be Robots?In order to discover the truth of this underground city and the plague that is coming up from it, out heroes need to disable a massive mechanized monster. Lucky for them, there’s a key to just turn it off. Unluckily for them, it’s guarded by another robot, a deadly chimera.World’s greatest hunter.World’s greatest lover.World’s most handsome man.Don Jon Raskin has another adventure!Join Don Jon and Harold the Rat on another adventure that the bards will one day sing of.The Adventures of Don Jon is:Austin as Don Jon and HaroldAlex as SylusTrevor as Isagnomaand Carl as our Dungeon MasterDungeon World is a game by Adam Koebel and Sage LaTorraDon Jon is a character that came out of the Dragon of Icespire Peak D&D box set by Wizards of the CoastArtwork commissioned from Mieart through Fiverr
#CandlekeepMysteries #Candlekeep #DnD #5e #actualplay Our library locals get a tip about a nearby town that's suffering under a dark curs! Lucky for them there happens to be a curse expert doing research in the Pillars of Pedagogy. Unluckily for them, he's a little distracted with a magical portal he's happened upon. Find out what happens next with Mighty Misfit Menagerie plays Candlekeep Mysteries! Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/MightyMMenag... Discord - https://discord.gg/PxQAzwbxsC Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/mightymmcast/ Twitch - https://www.twitch.tv/MightyMMcast Patreon - https://www.patreon.com/MightyMMcast Twitter - https://twitter.com/MightyMMcast Myspace- https://myspace.com/mighty.misfit.men...
-This was an episode that was pulled because of technical difficulties but has now been published for the sake of having an episode. -Nothing but honesty here. The first half was not recorded but luckily our sound tech Tony fixed that! Unluckily would be missing out on some great belly dance topics but we will follow up on episode five.-While your folding that laundry, driving, washing those dishes, replacing them pads or whatever, please enjoy our company of gab and personal stories about resort hopping and jailtimes, and of coarse as always, some music chit chat (because after all, we are with Big T).
In this episode we will listen to the story of the woman who lost her only son. We start with some useful vocabulary and end with some questions about the story. The vocabulary of this week is: Unfortunately - للأسف Unluckily / because of bad luck - لسوء الحظ He died - مات Recipe - وصفة He lives again - يعيش مرّة تانية Loaf of bread - رغيف الخبز On the condition - بشرط Sadness - الحزن Owners of the house - صحاب البيت Same thing - نفس الشي She forgot - نسيت Want to see the script? Join us on Patreon: patreon.com/simpleandeasyarabic and get access to the full transcript in English and Arabic (and many more benefits). Want to work on your verbs? Check out our Verb of the Day videos: https://youtu.be/sUTNgR2MiwM Thanks for listening, we hope you enjoy!
After going all over town and asking about the mystical item, The Flayer; Top Card and the gang have found themselves in hot water as a piece of it has been stolen and now the city has fallen into turmoil as the Council looks for it. So the gang does what it does best, hot foot it out of town until things cool down. Luckily, they have a quest far away to complete anyways. Unluckily, its in the massive rain forest that Top Card and Odd Thrill were banished from years ago. Out of one fire and into another... Save The D8 has a discord now! You come hang out with us and other listeners at our Discord page! LINK Special Thanks to our Patreon Supporters: Robert Speewack, Kit Curtis and Shelby Boggess! You can support us at our Patreon @: https://www.patreon.com/savethed8pod You can also get a 20% discount on Battlebards by using this link: https://battlebards.com/#/register/SAVETHED8 Additional Soundscapes: Hymn of the High Seas (Metal Version) by: Antti Martikainen Additional Soundscapes: Waterkeep/Rainforest by: Michael Ghelfi --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/savethed8pod/support
Breaking their tradition, Cira doesn't want to spend Candlenights with Rose, Cobalt, and Victor. It seems she has her own plans for the night. Unluckily for her, she has a few guests of her own."Candlenights" is a registered trademark Big Giant Head LLCPatreon: patreon.com/heyjakeandjoshEmail: PWTpodcast@gmail.comTwitter: @PWTpodcastShop: teepublic.com/user/heyjakeandjosh
Breaking their tradition, Cira doesn't want to spend Candlenights with Rose, Cobalt, and Victor. It seems she has her own plans for the night. Unluckily for her, she has a few guests of her own"Candlenights" is a registered trademark Big Giant Head LLCPatreon: patreon.com/heyjakeandjoshEmail: PWTpodcast@gmail.comTwitter: @PWTpodcastShop: teepublic.com/user/heyjakeandjosh
Dr. van Sangfreud arrives at the circus. To prevent him from abducting any animals, Blister, Muck, and the opeRATives enact a hasty scheme. Unluckily, a hard-of-hearing elephant slows them down.
In episode 14 we will focus on the events in Stalingrad starting from the second week of September 1942. By the 15th as we heard last week the fighting had intensified as elements of the German 71st and 76th Divisions advancing in a wedge shape towards the central station which it reached by midday. By 3.15 in the afternoon the water works were captured and the Germans had reached the bank of the Volga in the South of the city. That meant the Russian 62nd Army was now cut off from the 64th. But as I explained last episode, an NKVD battalion managed to retake the main train station which had changed hands three times by the 16th September. In the north of the city there rose the strategically important Mamaev Hill and it is here where the most powerful act performed by the Red Army in mid-September was recorded. The German 295th Infantry Division had fought its way to the far slope of the Mamaev Kurgan and eventually it fell to the Germans. The struggle became intense for this hill. IT was now completely unrecognisable from the park where lovers had strolled a few weeks before. The whole hillside had been churned and was now full of craters similar to the images of the First World War. Both sides used these as instant trenches as the bitter fighting intensified. It was on the 15th September that the Russians were to launch an aggressive counter-attack to recapture the Kurgan. I'll use the Russian phrase from now on because it makes more sense. The Kurgan was 300 feet high and from the heights, the Germans spotters could call in air and artillery strikes on ferries carrying Russian soldiers across the Volga, as well as Russian units within the city itself. It was crucial to control this part of Stalingrad. Unluckily for those called to fight on the Kurgan, it was also open ground with all the advantages held by the Germans.
If Mojo knew about The Mutant Ages, he would make sure we were canceled. Or he'd force us to pivot into a battle royale. Luckily, he has no idea! Unluckily, we had to watch "Longshot," a very uneven episode about the Mojoverse. Longshot crash-lands in Jubilee's car and has amnesia (of course), and then he falls in love with Wolverine all over again. Beast and Rogue have to put up with everyone's bullshit in the background, and Xavier just can't wait to get into Longshot's brain. X-Men Spotlight: Mojo Next week's episode: "Bloodlines" E-mail us your feedback at themutantages@gmail.com or follow us on Twitter at TheMutantAges, MIDImyers and RyanPagella. If you like what you hear, please consider supporting us via patreon.com/themutantages. Thanks!
It's a nutty time to be alive, isn't it? A market crash is bad enough. Adding a national lockdown to the mix is bound to provoke some anxiety. Our strategy in this time is not dissimilar from our usual strategy: focus on what you can control. To that end, our podcast this week is the first of three money challenges. We are starting with wills and estates and then moving on to short-term and long-term insurance. We all know what a drag it is to wade through the fine print of these documents when there are more exciting things to do. Unluckily for the insurance industry, we are all now confined to our homes with nothing but time on our hands. We might as well save some money in the process. We also think this is a fine time to speak to your family members about your will and segue to money in general. If you've been wondering how to broach the topic, the madness in the world has solved this problem for you. We'll be doing some live video interviews with members of the Just One Lap community over the next three weeks to get you through the lockdown. These will be broadcast live on our Fat Wallet Community Group. If you're not a member yet, now's the time. Subscribe to our RSS feed here. Subscribe or rate us in iTunes. Win of the week: Cyril Ramaphosa for being epic at his job. Today we're only going to deal with your estate and your insurance. Will and Estate Review your will and make sure it's still relevant to your life. Make a spreadsheet of documents and passwords your family need to have if something happens to you. When you die, normally everything goes to your spouse. There's no taxes payable if that happens. If you don't have a spouse, estate duty is 20%, and you have to pay and executor's fee. Sometimes, to pay this, they have to liquidate some of your assets. If you don't want this to happen, you can look at a baby life insurance policy that pays out to your estate to cover these fees and the cost of your funeral. Think about whether you want to do that. Insurance: Short-term Start a spreadsheet of all the insurance policies you have, including what is covered, your excesses, as well as when the policy was taken out. You can use this as a starting point every year when you renegotiate your insurance. Check what is covered and ensure that you have proof of ownership for specified items. Make a list of things you no longer have or can self-insure. Create a spreadsheet of previous claims, including dates and settlement amounts. When you lodge a claim or take out new cover, you have to disclose this as it affects your premiums. If you claim and they find out there's something you haven't declared, they can reject your claim on that basis. This is going to save you a lot of time in the future. Long-term Look at the terms of your dread disease and disability cover. You can decide if you want to reduce cover because your asset base can take care of you if something should happen, or increase cover if your family situation has changed. Make a spreadsheet of the terms of your cover in terms that you can understand. You don't want to be wading through an insurance document if you should need this. See if you're covered if you can't work because you contracted corona. Make sure that you are covered for your own occupation, not own or similar. If you have life insurance, make sure you still need it. Be careful of hanging on to these policies just because you contributed a lot to them over the years. Similarly, if you don't have life insurance but you have dependents, make sure they are covered if you pass away. Life insurance pays out directly to the beneficiaries in cash. These policies don't form part of the estate and aren't taxed. To know how much you need, look at what your dependents would need to survive for about a year until your estate wraps up and cover any shortfall you might have in your current circumstances. Mike has decided to go for five regional ETFs instead of one world-wide ETF in his portfolio. He buys Sygnia S&P 500, Sygnia FTSE100, Sygnia Eurostoxx 50, Sygnia Japan, Satrix Emerging Markets. He's comparing his 5 ETF strategy to the single, global ETF strategy across seven areas: Currency spread, dividends, emerging market access, regional exposure, sector exposure, rebalancing and TER. Currency spread: Regional Amounts other than USD are first converted to USD for the underlying index and then converted again to ZAR for the Tracking index.Do we lose twice on currency spread every time we buy, sell or receive distributions? Dividends Sygnia MSCI World Gross Dividend Yield = 1.11% Ashburton 12 Gross Dividend yield = 1.51% JP + US + UK + EU Average Gross Dividend Yield = 1.81% (I didn't include Emerging Markets (Satrix automatically re-invest) Emerging market access Since he's buying the EM ETF, he can control how much exposure he has. Regional exposure +-60% of the global index is exposed to US (which also has the highest foreign dividend witholding tax of 30% compared to Japan/Britain 20%, Europe 26%). Sector exposure World: Heavily exposed to IT Japan's no.1 exposure is to Industrials. FTSE, EUROSTOXX and Emerging Markets no 1 Exposure is Financials. Energy is also no.2 on the FTSE but is only no.7 on the MSCI World. Rebalancing World: Done every +-3 months. When you top up account you are topping up both the winners and the losers of all regions Done every +-3 months though you have the opportunity to top up only the regions doing the worst TER Low TER of 0.35% (Satrix MSCI) Low TER of 0.45% (Ashburton 1200) Average TER is high at 0.63%. It's looking rather scary considering EU & Uk's big drop! Portfolio is 16.83% down. I can still contribute R27k for this year (R36k limit) so was thinking of doing +-R6k per month until limit is used up and sticking to strategy as I don't know if it has already or when it will bottom out. I do like the idea of Dividend paying ETFs within a TFSA. Once I have reached my lifetime limit I can still use the dividends to purchase new shares without having to sell my current shares. I'm sure better/cheaper ETFs will come out in the future. I also then won't be forced to sell shares (and pay more fees) should I wish to take a small drawdown in retirement. I can just withdraw the dividends.
Big DREAM School - The Art, Science, and Soul of Rocking OUR World Doing Simple Things Each Day
Do you ever feel like you need permission to be yourself? I think we all need to feel like we’re living our life at full potential. Unluckily, there are times when we feel constrained by the things “we should” be doing. Someone else has set those standards and they certainly don’t vibrate with our souls. What can we do, then? “Be the most beautiful expressed version of yourself” DJ Valerie B Love In this episode of Dance OUR Dreams Podcast, I am going to help you. Yes, YOU! Because you’re the only one who can actually let yourself explode into the most amazing version of you you can be. Tune in! If you liked this episode, don't forget to leave some love in a sweet review so more people can benefit from it.
Guests: Charlie: The spirit of Christmas came to me in a dream. I was a foul wretched man who had committed many sins. My past had come to haunt me and I feared it was going to roost! Early the next morning I went to Charlie's son and asked what troubles them. Why he said they didn't have a goose for Christmas they didn't! Immediately I grab that boy and went straight to market. Unluckily the cost of a goose is one young son and I'm not sure if Charlie has forgiven me yet. Also he's vegetarian so he didn't really want the goose. Win some you lose some :/ Does everything seem so bad right now? Is Christmas a corporate sham to you? Stop being such a cynical sourpuss! If you need help seeing the power of Christmas maybe you can learn what Landlord did in "A Cybersaber Christmas Story" by The Great Allie. Want to know more? Check out our website buriedgems.podbean.com Any suggestions or comments? Feel free to email us at buriedgemspodcast@gmail.com BuiredGems.podbean.com Support us on Patreon: Patreon.com/BuriedGems We have the coolest merch: https://www.etsy.com/shop/BuriedGemsPodcast
PREVIOUSLY ON SUMO GIRL: Hojo Gozen is allergic to almost everything. Luckily, Hojo’s inventor father built her a robot cat (Tora) to have as a friend and a Bubble-Suit to protect her! Unluckily, Hojo’s father has gone missing and now a gangster named Shikko-Sha is after him and the strange, …
Raise your hand if you've told yourself, "I'll just get past this busy season and then it will be calmer." Is it ever calmer? Not really. The truth is, another busy season is always on its way. Entrepreneurs have an early bird mindset. We're constantly chasing new opportunities, even when we already have enough on our plates. It's easy to think our career success is solely based on how often we work, how quickly we respond and how many hours we put in. Unluckily for us, that leads straight to one thing: burnout, featuring a long emotional night at our desk with a pint of ice cream. Times of stress don't come in seasons. Instead of constantly trying to push through, racing toward a non-existent, calm horizon, how can we learn to manage our workloads without burning out?
Fame isn't a bad thing but trying to be famous is a dead end road with a ditch of regret on ones side and failed expectations on the other. In this E⚡️P we talk about how learning to chase true and lasting impact was something that is often times learned the hard way. Lucky we learned it very early on, Unluckily we learned it while being filmed on HGTV's hit show, "Tiny House Nation." Learn from our mistakes and strive to use all your "fame" to benefit others not just your self.
Is it a bird? Is it a plane? Is it a hoax? On October 15, 2009, an oddly functional homemade helium-filled gas balloon (shaped like a flying saucer) was released into the atmosphere above Fort Collins, Colorado. The balloons creator Richard Heene claimed his aptly-named 6-year-old son Falcon was inside. A media frenzy and search party ensued. Luckily the boy was found safe and sound. Unluckily he wasn't prepared for media scrutiny. Welcome to the Creep Dive, a podcast in which hosts Sophie White, Jen O'Dwyer and Cassie Delaney investigate and report on the lesser known details of that bizarre stories that made the headlines. From con artists to encounters with the supernatural, we delve deeper than any normal person has time for and piece together the facts. The Creep Dive is produced by Tall Tales Podcasts. Hosted by: @sophie_white_ @jenodywer @cassielorraine @talltalespodcasts For more see TallTales.ie
A pair of treasure seekers find the Rascals in hell, offering a potential way out, but first there's a tiger to find... Rocky: Diana Nock Rosie: Matt J Wilson Pinball: Daisy McGuire Sam: John Chouinard DM: Michael J Patrick
Christmas is around the corner and Dave is escaping Flat Earth with Sir Patrick Stewart and Trolley. He’s finally made contact with Andy and boy… do they have some stories for you. Like a drunk man cooking his own food at a Waffle House, a woman trying to get pregnant with a ghost, and the secret that lies at the heart of North Korea. Oh, and the new Star Wars movie is tearing all of nerd-dom apart. Dave and Andy discuss The Last Jedi. Welcome to Season Two, you filthy animals! Dude, did you hear? We’re drinking Blazing World from Modern Times and Northern Lights IPA from Starhill Brewery. But Andy is already a few drinks ahead of Dave, so he's gonna hit Waffle House after this. Quickdraws include an enshrined VHS tape in an unexpected place, the discovery of a new type chocolate, Krampusnacht, Activision’s stinky lawsuit on a tiny family-owned business, the reason It’s A Wonderful Life is a Christmas classic, and a 6-year-old that is probably more successful than you. Sometimes you need to take matters into your own hands. That’s just what one man did at a Waffle House in South Carolina. He may not be the hero we deserve but he’s the hero we need. Your phone’s GPS is rotting your brain and ruining your innate sense of direction. Dave finally has the university studies to prove it. Feel free to beat someone over the head with it, the data- not a blunt object. A man forgot where he parked his car in the 90s and just gave up. Luckily for him, he found the car. Unluckily for him, he found it in 2017. Star Wars: The Last Jedi has officially pissed off half of all Star Wars fans. Where do Dave and Andy fall in that debate? This isn’t going to go the way you think it will. There's a safe space incorporated for those among you who haven't yet found your place in all of this. (Don’t worry, we’ll let you know when we get into spoilers.) Andy recommends The Stormlight Archive – starting with Book 1 “The Way of Kings.” It’s an incredibly unique and engaging fantasy series that is sure to be a future hit show on a streaming service near you. Dave recommends Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets – it's visually stunning and super fun. Just give it 20 minutes or so to get going. Andy doesn’t recommend picking a school mascot without thinking about the plural of that mascot. One dad has started a protest, because he didn’t want his kids playing for the “penises.” Dave doesn’t recommend ghosting. Or trying to get pregnant by a ghost. Or being a "spiritual guidance counselor." Or naming your child Amethyst Realm. //MSG REDACTEDON -ARCHIVE CORRUPTED SING DETECTED STDBY FOR RECALIBRATION OF DATA TRANSMISSION
Our first episode! Listen as we bumble our way through reviewing One for the Money by Janet Evanovich. In this episode, we meet Stephanie Plum, a 30-something Trenton native who finds herself out of a job as a lingerie buyer. Desperate for cash, she takes the only job available: bounty hunting for her skeezy cousin Vinnie's bail bonds company. Lucky for her, her first job could earn her $10k. Unluckily, it entails bringing in Joe Morelli, a Trenton vice cop who found his way into Steph's pants years ago and never called her back. Music: Candy (c) by Jahzzar (betterwithmusic.com) CC BY-SA Candy is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution - ShareAlike 4.0 International License, available at http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/
This episode, Jason and Joe both pick long matches between great wrestlers, matches that involve lots of super cool moves and a whole boatload of kicks (and Jason's is the sequel to a pick of his from an earlier episode!). But the similarities between the matches also draw out the differences, which the guys don't quite agree on! Plus, luckily, the Random Match Generator is fully functioning again. Unluckily, it picks kind of a clunker. But hey, it's a new random match -- we'll take it! And it gives Jason and Joe a chance to return to the topic of one of the most over moves in wrestling: the DDT. Jason's pick: Rob Van Dam vs Jerry Lynn, Hardcore Heaven 1999, May 16, 1999 Joe's pick: The Brian Kendrick vs Kota Ibushi, Cruiserweight Classic Quarterfinals (CWC Episode 8), August 31, 2016 RMG pick: Renegade Warriors vs The Fabulous Freebirds, WCW Halloween Havoc 1990, October 27, 1990
Faye is back and wants to join Spike and Jet on the Bebop. Unluckily, she's arrived just in time for things to get Vicious. Our Links!Website: https://getjumped.blogspot.com/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bandsgetjumped/Twitter: https://twitter.com/BandSGetJumpedFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/BlakeandSpencerGetJumped/Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/BlakeAndSpencerGetJumpedSupport the show (https://www.patreon.com/BlakeAndSpencerGetJumped)
Lesson of the episode: Asking for help. Jan and Monika introduced the topic for today´s session by stating how we often are trying to create things in our lives, and frequently feel that we have to do that all by ourselves, but somewhat, not asking for help creates a stigma of loneliness. We feel we need to prove we can do it alone, but on the contrary, the more vulnerability you allow yourself to show, the more connected to others you will feel. What does it mean to love yourself? Being vulnerable and let yourself be seeing! Opportunities are always showing, but we do not take them, since we think we are still not worth being loved. There are opportunities waiting to serve us everywhere! Last week, Monika and Jan talked about “asking for help” people can contribute, to achieve your goals. Why people do not ask for help? Help has a negative connotation, for example: uselessness, weakness, helpless, stupid, open to criticism, people will think you should know how, feeling inferior, etc., etc. That is why we live in a society where people won’t ask for help. When we were children it was ok to ask for help, but as adults we start to believe it is negative to get help, when in reality, we are constantly receiving help from every member of the community. Whatever the thought you have when you are about to ask for help but stopped, this thought is probably stopping you in many areas — where is that thought coming from? When do you begin to shift the way you look at asking for help? What is your relationship with help? What is the scenario that tells you that you are going to get the help you need? You are not alone, you can ask for what you want, seek help, and receive the help you need! You can receive by giving away! By sharing you find mastery. Sometimes we are scared about sharing, maybe considering that what we have to offer won’t be appreciated or that we will be judged … in this painful situation, both parties are alone. We need courage to go over this barrier! We perceive everything through our perspectives, seeing shapes, auras, heat, smells … but when we ask for help, it is a way to get connected with another’s perspective, that could help us reach our own goal. Exercise with Monika and Jan, and explore your perspective about help. What are the “shoulds,” that come to your mind when you think about needing help? Explore your history with help, the ideals you try to achieve, the defenses and fears that are holding you back. When you give to someone, they feel that they owe you, they are in debt, they feel that they need to reciprocate; when in reality, if the goal of the person that gives is giving, by receiving you are helping them to reach their purpose. Unluckily, our minds are not trained this way. When you are asking for help, you are giving that other one the chance to give/help, which is so wonderful! Give, receive, help, get help; get out of your isolation and feel the love! In This Episode You Will Learn to Consider/Ask Yourself: What does it mean to love yourself? Why people do not ask for help. What is your relationship with help? Key Insights and Ahas: ● There are negative beliefs about help. ● Society told us that being an adult means not needing help. ● Our perspectives expand when we show vulnerability and ask for help. ● When you know what you need, and ask for it, the universe will provide it. Action Steps: 1. Why you don´t ask for help? 2. What are the thoughts that prevent you to reach out for help? 3. When did they start? 4. Acknowledge the opportunities of exploring different perspectives by receiving help.
Nikki Britton is an excitable, full of energy Australian comedian whose show, Romanticide, reflects on her not so excitable love life. Britton reflects in her show on her romantic conquests, experiences and failures, and how they have shaped her as a person. The show is a one hour energised stand up routine in a small crowded room at The Forum, which boasts quite a hot time, as it’s stuffy inside. Luckily, there is a massive air conditioner blasting cool air into the place. Unluckily, it was positioned directly behind my head, meaning I sometimes struggled to concentrate on the show as blasts of cold air ruffled my hair. Apart from this however, Britton manages to encapsulate her audience over the hour by going through her experiences in the field of relationships from the help of a show plan which she attempts to hide behind a massive speaker on stage with her. Although this might come across as amateur at first, it merely adds to the hilarity of the show as she openly denies what it is, instead cracking jokes about how interesting the speaker is. Her use of accents and impersonations brings the majority of laughs in the show, and it's genuinely amusing when she uses body movement to help tell a story or event. Britton connects with the majority of the audience through the topic of her show, being romance and relationships. Nearly everyone has experience something to do with love or loss of it, and even if you haven’t you are still able to connect with what Nikki Britton is joking about. She covers the new age of online dating and dick pics, how she deals with them and the stupidity of it. Her audience interaction and comments on what we laughed at added to laughs, pinpointing men’s awkward laughing at the dick pics and just making the show funnier. Since Nikki Britton’s Romanticide can relate with so many different people, it comes down to her personality which determines if you would like this show or not. Nikki Britton is a very energetic ball of excitement, and perhaps that’s why I enjoyed her so much, because I feel like I relate with the constant energy spikes. If you prefer a little bit more sedated, not in your face comedy, then this might not be the show for you. However if, like me, you enjoy explosive comedians who can never get run off their feet from overuse of yelling, moving or shouting, Nikki Britton is for you. Her show, Romanticide, is on at the MICF until April 23rd at The Forum Theatre’s Ladies’ Lounge.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Nikki Britton is an excitable, full of energy Australian comedian whose show, Romanticide, reflects on her not so excitable love life. Britton reflects in her show on her romantic conquests, experiences and failures, and how they have shaped her as a person. The show is a one hour energised stand up routine in a small crowded room at The Forum, which boasts quite a hot time, as it’s stuffy inside. Luckily, there is a massive air conditioner blasting cool air into the place. Unluckily, it was positioned directly behind my head, meaning I sometimes struggled to concentrate on the show as blasts of cold air ruffled my hair. Apart from this however, Britton manages to encapsulate her audience over the hour by going through her experiences in the field of relationships from the help of a show plan which she attempts to hide behind a massive speaker on stage with her. Although this might come across as amateur at first, it merely adds to the hilarity of the show as she openly denies what it is, instead cracking jokes about how interesting the speaker is. Her use of accents and impersonations brings the majority of laughs in the show, and it's genuinely amusing when she uses body movement to help tell a story or event. Britton connects with the majority of the audience through the topic of her show, being romance and relationships. Nearly everyone has experience something to do with love or loss of it, and even if you haven’t you are still able to connect with what Nikki Britton is joking about. She covers the new age of online dating and dick pics, how she deals with them and the stupidity of it. Her audience interaction and comments on what we laughed at added to laughs, pinpointing men’s awkward laughing at the dick pics and just making the show funnier. Since Nikki Britton’s Romanticide can relate with so many different people, it comes down to her personality which determines if you would like this show or not. Nikki Britton is a very energetic ball of excitement, and perhaps that’s why I enjoyed her so much, because I feel like I relate with the constant energy spikes. If you prefer a little bit more sedated, not in your face comedy, then this might not be the show for you. However if, like me, you enjoy explosive comedians who can never get run off their feet from overuse of yelling, moving or shouting, Nikki Britton is for you. Her show, Romanticide, is on at the MICF until April 23rd at The Forum Theatre’s Ladies’ Lounge.
This week’s Super-Special Guest is John Vega who works at Curve Digital as a business developer. Luckily as Simon was away, there was no conflict of interest in the interview section. Unluckily as Simon was away, there were lots of questions we could ask John about working with Simon. We found out what it is that a business developer does, what the success rate of the game pitches Curve receives is like and how we can improve our chances of getting our game published (probably by not asking personal questions about Simon). Little Acre is one of the first games that John biz devved and it should be out now! John told us a little bit about what made him interested in the game and also that Lord Sir Charles Cecil had a small role in proceedings. That must mean it’s going to be great, or that a goat has been put into the game somewhere. Ann proved her news hound credentials by uncovering the new name for Super Mario Run and also a new price point for the app. This news may be related to Ann’s new glasses which have a new prescription and make it hard for her to read accurately. Ste was feeling a bit melancholy about videogames. He’s obviously missing his guns, when the bells ring out for New Year’s Day he’ll have a great big smile on his face as 2017 is the Year of the Guns. Cheerio! Team OLL x Links: https://twitter.com/John_F_Vega http://www.pewtergamesstudios.com/the-little-acre/ Track list: 1. VCMG - The Func http://chipmusic.org/VCMG/music/the-func 2. Hitekx - Zack0 Beat http://chipmusic.org/hitekz/music/zakk0-beat 3. Burryleak - Snow.scr http://chipmusic.org/burryleak/music/snowscr
This Episode: The group gets their bearings and attempts to figure out their next move. Luckily, they're shoved along by a helpful hand. Unluckily, some hands aren't so helpful.Jesse (Game Master), Dave (Dorian), Al (Marmolek), Besse (Leo), & John (Gallyn)Direct DownloadRSS FeedStitcheriTunesPodcast LandAnd please, feel free to Contact Us through any means you'd prefer.Music included is provided by Doomstrike Eddie
Happy Friday, fair listeners, and welcome back to Just One of the Guys, a little show that talks about the Green Lantern books that came out between 1990 and 2004. This week is a special treat, because there's only one issue to cover, so less of me to listen to...SCORE!!! But that doesn't mean that the issue, number 98, is to be taken lightly. In fact Kyle Rayner might be up against his greatest foe (which might not be so surprising given his Rogues Gallery to date), an evil Green Lantern Corps! Add to that, he's been flung into the distant future, where all records of him being a Green Lantern are nonexistant. So no legacy, no way to get back to his own time, and an evil bunch of Lanterns led by Tomar Schwarzenegger. Luckily, the Legion of Superheroes is here to help Kyle out. Unluckily, one of the members is a female descendant of Barry Allen who has quite a crush on Kyle. It's a far flung fantasy featuring my favorite...comic book character (I'll never be as good as ol' Stan "The Man"), and to make sure I can tell my Sparks from my Leviathan, I've recruited J. David Weter (host of Dave's Daredevil Podcast and The Starman Observatory) to fill me in on all things Legion. So unless you are looking for some inappropriate touching by Ultra Boy, I suggest you grab your mp3 player of choice, download the show, and get to listening! Feedback for this show can be sent to: justoneoftheguyspodcast@gmail.comJust One Of The Guys is a proud member of the Two True Freaks! (http://twotruefreaks.com/main.php) family of podcasts, the best place on the internet to find shows about Star Wars, Star Trek, Comics, Movies, and anything else that the modern geek could ever want. If you are downloading the show through iTunes, be sure to leave a rating, hopefully a FIVE STAR RATING, because every rating we get helps grow the shows on the network! Thanks for listening, and be sure to come back next Friday for another episode of Just One Of The Guys: A Green Lantern Podcast.
Happy Friday, fair listeners, and welcome back to Just One of the Guys, a little show that talks about the Green Lantern books that came out between 1990 and 2004. This week is a special treat, because there's only one issue to cover, so less of me to listen to...SCORE!!! But that doesn't mean that the issue, number 98, is to be taken lightly. In fact Kyle Rayner might be up against his greatest foe (which might not be so surprising given his Rogues Gallery to date), an evil Green Lantern Corps! Add to that, he's been flung into the distant future, where all records of him being a Green Lantern are nonexistant. So no legacy, no way to get back to his own time, and an evil bunch of Lanterns led by Tomar Schwarzenegger. Luckily, the Legion of Superheroes is here to help Kyle out. Unluckily, one of the members is a female descendant of Barry Allen who has quite a crush on Kyle. It's a far flung fantasy featuring my favorite...comic book character (I'll never be as good as ol' Stan "The Man"), and to make sure I can tell my Sparks from my Leviathan, I've recruited J. David Weter (host of Dave's Daredevil Podcast and The Starman Observatory) to fill me in on all things Legion. So unless you are looking for some inappropriate touching by Ultra Boy, I suggest you grab your mp3 player of choice, download the show, and get to listening! Feedback for this show can be sent to: justoneoftheguyspodcast@gmail.comJust One Of The Guys is a proud member of the Two True Freaks! (http://twotruefreaks.com/main.php) family of podcasts, the best place on the internet to find shows about Star Wars, Star Trek, Comics, Movies, and anything else that the modern geek could ever want. If you are downloading the show through iTunes, be sure to leave a rating, hopefully a FIVE STAR RATING, because every rating we get helps grow the shows on the network! Thanks for listening, and be sure to come back next Friday for another episode of Just One Of The Guys: A Green Lantern Podcast.
See You Next Wednesday is back with a double dose of... 2? Yes, we saw the blandly titled action comedy 2 GUNS! Unluckily for one of us, Smurfs 2 was also viewed. We've got tons to talk about with both of those movies, so listen up to find out which one is surprisingly workman like in it's enjoy-ability, and which one is full of Smurfs. Oops, spoiler! Plus we talk about Batman & Superman news, Trailers, and more! You can find us on
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