Stories and content in Weird Darkness can be disturbing for some listeners and is intended for mature audiences only. Parental discretion is strongly advised. Welcome Weirdos, I'm Darren Marlar and this is Weird Darkness. Here you'll find stories of the paranormal, supernatural, legends, lore, crime, conspiracy, mysterious, macabre, unsolved and unexplained. If you're new here, welcome to the podcast and be sure to subscribe so you don't miss future episodes. If you're already a Weirdo, please share the podcast with others. Doing so helps make it possible for me to keep creating episodes as often as I do. Coming up in this episode, do you think you hear whispers at night? Listen closer. That cold spot in your room might be a ghost. If your pet is always whining and staring at a corner, maybe it's time to move out. We'll look at a few signs so you can determine whether or not your house is truly haunted. While listening, be sure to check out the Weird Darkness website. At WeirdDarkness.com you can sign up for the newsletter to win monthly prizes, find paranormal and horror audiobooks I've narrated, watch old horror movies for free, plus you can visit the Hope in the Darkness page if you're struggling with depression or dark thoughts. You can find all of that and more at WeirdDarkness.com.  You hear heavy footsteps in the upstairs hallway when you know no one is up there. Doors slam unaccountably. Commonly used items disappear and reappear without cause. The kitchen light turns on by itself. There's the unmistakable scent of a strange perfume in the air. A persistent wrapping echoes in the walls. Are these phenomena explainable by natural events or could your house be haunted? True hauntings are rare occurrences and it could be difficult to determine whether or not any strange activities in your home are due to a haunting. For one thing, theories on what ghosts are and what a real haunting is, what causes it or why it starts, vary wildly. But if you are looking for reassurance or confirmation of your fears, the typical signs I'm about to share may help you determine whether or not you have a legitimate case of a haunting. Not all hauntings are alike and they may exhibit a variety of phenomena. Some hauntings feature a single phenomenon, such as a particular door slamming shut that occurs repeatedly, while others consist of many different phenomena ranging from odd noises to full blown apparitions. Here's a partial list of phenomena that might indicate that your house is haunted. Unexplained noises. Footsteps, knocks, banging, rapping, scratching sounds, sounds of something being dropped. Sometimes these noises can be subtle, other times they can be quite loud. Doors, cabinets and cupboards opening and closing. Most often these phenomena are not seen directly. Residents of the house may hear doors opening and closing, homeowners know quite well the distinctive sounds their houses make, or may return to a room to find a door open or closed when they are certain that it was left in the opposite position. Sometimes furniture like kitchen chairs may seem to have been moved. Very rarely will residents of a haunted house actually witness the phenomenon as it takes place. Lights Turning Off and On Likewise, these events are seldom experienced as they occur. Rather, the lights are switched on or off when the house's resident knows they were not left that way. This can also happen with TVs, radios and other electrically powered items. Items Disappearing and Reappearing This is known as the Disappearing Object Phenomenon, DOP, DUP, the Doppler Effect or the Borrowers Phenomenon and it is the familiar experience of not being able to find a regularly used item, say your set of car keys which you believe you placed in the spot you routinely placed them. But they are gone, and you look high and low for them with no success. Some time later the keys are found, in exactly the place you normally put them. It is as if the object was borrowed by someone or something for a short time then returned. Sometimes they are not returned for days or even weeks, but when they are it is in an obvious place that should not have been missed by even a casual search. Unexplained Shadows The sighting of fleeting shapes and shadows usually seen out of the corner of the eye. Many times the shadows have vaguely human forms, while other times they are less distinguishable or smaller. For those human forms they are often labeled as shadow people, especially if they appear to act with an intelligence as if the shadowy figure knows you are there and acts accordingly. We will look a little closer at shadow people later in this episode. Strange Animal Behavior A dog, cat or other pet behaves strangely. Dogs may bark at something unseen, cower without apparent reason or refuse to enter a room they normally do. Cats may seem to be watching something cross a room. Animals have sharper senses than humans and many researchers think their psychic abilities might be more finely tuned also. We will cover this more in depth later as well. Being Watched This is not an uncommon feeling and can be attributed to many things, but it could have a paranormal source if the feeling consistently occurs in a particular part of the house at a particular time. Those are some of the most common experiences of those who think their houses are haunted, yet even stranger things can happen. The following phenomena are more rare, but could be stronger evidence of a haunting. Mild Psychokinetic Phenomena Hearing a door open or close is one thing. Actually seeing it happen is quite another. Similarly, actually seeing a light go on or off by itself is greater proof that something unexplained is happening. Do you see the TV or radio turn on? Perhaps you are present when a child's powered toy begins to operate on its own. Doors and windows are locked or unlocked. Some people report that when they are in bed they can feel and or hear something sitting on the bed. Feelings of being touched. Feeling an unexplained touch is truly unsettling. Some people may feel something brush past them, a light brush of their hair or a hand on their shoulder. Some feel a gentle poke, push or nudge. Cries and whispers. On occasion muffled voices, whispering and crying can be heard. Sometimes it is music from some unknown source. People hear their names being said. This phenomenon gains more credibility if more than one person hears or sees the same thing at the same time. Cold or hot spots. Cold spots are classic haunting symptoms. Any instance of a noticeable variance in temperature without a discernable cause could be evidence. Unexplained smells. The distinct fragrance of a perfume or cologne that you do not have in your house can indicate a supernatural presence. This phenomenon may come and go without any apparent cause and may accompany other phenomena such as shadows, voices or psychokinetic phenomena. The odor may be pleasant or foul. Rarer still are more extreme phenomena, some of which have been called poltergeist phenomena and can be quite strong evidence of a true haunting. Moving or levitating objects, severe psychokinetic phenomena. Dinner plates sliding across the table. Pictures flying off walls. Doors slamming shut with great force. Furniture sliding across the floor. Physical assault. Scratches, slaps and hard shoves. This kind of personal assault is extremely rare but obviously highly disturbing. Other physical evidence. Unexplained writing on paper or walls. Handprints and footprints. Apparitions. Physical manifestation of a spirit or entity. These phenomena are also very rare and can take many forms. Human shaped mists or forming mists of some indistinguishable shape. Transparent human forms that disappear quickly and most rarely human forms that look as real and solid as any living person but then disappear into a room or even while being viewed. Up next we will look more closely at the poltergeist phenomenon as well as some real life cases of people and families being attacked by poltergeists. Hopefully as we try to determine if your home is haunted you aren't experiencing anything of what these families are dealing with. That's up next when Weird Darkness Returns. My doc agrees that I need to lose a few pounds. I knew that going in but he also told me that the meds I'm taking for my type 2 diabetes aren't going to do me much good if I finish each meal with ice cream or cheesecake. I kind of knew that in advance too. But cutting back on carbs and sugars is a lot easier said than done. I've tried a lot of protein bars while on the road but I swear it's like eating non-sweetened chocolate dusted particle board. But now I travel with built bars. Built bars taste like candy bars. In fact I'm now using them for my dessert. And at about 150 calories per bar, less than 3 grams of sugar up to 19 grams of protein, I can satisfy my sweet cravings guilt free. Visit WeirdDarkness.com slash Built in Try a Box. You can go for a variety pack of several flavors to try or pick and choose to build a box of your own.  That's WeirdDarkness.com slash Built. Poltergeist is a German word meaning noisy spirit. It describes many effects such as knocks on walls, objects thrown about by unseen hands, furniture moved and other occurrences. These manifestations were long thought to be the mischievous pranks of spirits or more frightening the malevolent work of demons. Current research indicates however that Poltergeist activity may have nothing to do with ghosts or spirits. Since the activity seems to center around an individual, it is believed that it is caused by the subconscious mind of that individual. It is, in effect, psychokinetic activity moving objects solely by the power of the mind. The individual is often under emotional, psychological or physical stress even going through puberty. Poltergeist effects can include wrappings on walls and floors, the physical movement of objects, effects on lights and other electrical appliances. There can even be the manifestation of physical phenomena such as water dripping inexplicably from ceilings where no pipes are hidden and small fires breaking out. Thanks largely to the work of parapsychologist William G. Rohl in the 1950s and 60s, they are now commonly understood to be psychokinetic manifestations produced by living persons. Rohl called it recurrent spontaneous psychokinesis or RSPK and found that the paranormal activity could almost always be traced to a person clinically labeled an agent. This agent although a victim of the puzzling and sometimes frightening activity is unaware that he or she is actually the cause of it. By some mechanism that is still not understood, the activity arises out of the unconscious or subconscious of the individual in response to emotional stress or trauma. So little is really known about the human brain and mind, but somehow the psychological stresses suffered by this agent produces effects in the surrounding physical world. Pounding on the walls of a house, a book flying off a shelf, glowing orbs zipping across a room, heavy furniture sliding across the floor, perhaps even audible voices. In some rare cases the manifestations can turn violent, producing scratches on the skin, shoves and slaps. So powerful is the unconscious mind under stress. One possible and famous historical case is that of the Bell Witch from the early 19th century. This was a case of severe poltergeist phenomena that centered around young Betsy Bell. The activity then attributed to a witch threw things around the Bell home, moved furniture and pinched and slapped the children, according to eyewitnesses. Betsy Bell appears to have been the agent in this instance. Poltergeist agents are very often adolescents, but not always. It seems true that some adolescents under the combined stresses of growing up and the hormonal changes occurring during puberty can produce poltergeist activity, but adults under stress can be agents as well, especially perhaps if they have unresolved stresses from childhood. It is unknown how common poltergeist activity is. Certainly remarkable cases in which household objects are tossed about are relatively rare, but those are the cases that get attention and are documented simply because they are remarkable, especially if the activity persists over many days, weeks or months. There may be many more cases, however, that occur just once or on rare occasions to people. There is ample documentation that poltergeist activity does take place in various levels of severity and for various lengths of time. Many cases have been documented by such researchers as Hans Holzer, Brad Steiger and others. Their books are available in libraries and bookstores. There are numerous cases of poltergeists being investigated, but four in particular are worth noting in this episode. The Thornton Heath Poltergeist In the 1970s, in Thornton Heath, England, a family was tormented by poltergeist phenomena that started one August night when they were woken in the middle of the night by a blaring bedside radio that had somehow turned itself on, tuned to a foreign language station. This was the beginning of a string of events that lasted nearly four years. A lampshade repeatedly was knocked to the floor by unaided hands. During the Christmas season of 1972, an ornament was hurled across the room, smashing into the husband's forehead. As he flopped into an armchair, reports haunted Croydon, the Christmas tree began to shake violently. Come the new year and there were footsteps in the bedroom when there was no one there, and one night the couple's son awoke to find a man in old-fashioned dress staring threateningly at him. The family's fear grew when, as they entertained friends one night, there was a loud knocking at the front door. The living room door was then flung open and all the house's lights came on. Having the house blessed failed to rid the house of the phenomena. Objects flew through the air, loud noises were heard, and the family would sometimes hear a noise which suggested some large piece of furniture had crashed to the floor. When they went to investigate, nothing would be disturbed. A medium who was consulted told the family that the house was haunted by a farmer of the name Chatterton, who considered the family trespassers on his property. An investigation bore out the fact that Chatterton had indeed lived in the house in the mid-18th century. Chatterton's wife now joined in causing mayhem, and often the tenant's wife would be followed up the stairs at night by an elderly gray-haired woman wearing a pinafore and with her hair tied back in a bun. If looked at, she would disappear back into the shadows. The family even reported seeing the farmer appear on their television screens, wearing a black jacket with wide pointed lapels, high-necked shirt, and black cravet. After the family moved out of the house, the poltergeist activity ceased, and none had been reported by subsequent residents. The Enfield poltergeist case. Another English ghost, this one in Enfield in North London, made headlines in 1977. The strange activity seemed to center around the daughter of Peggy Harper, a divorcee in her mid-40s. Again, it started on an August night. Late at night, an urban ghost story relates, Janet, aged 11, and her brother Pete, aged 10, complained that their beds were jolting up and down and going all funny. As soon as Mrs. Harper got to the room, the movements had stopped. As far as she was concerned, her kids were making it all up. But things got progressively more bizarre from there. Shuffling noises and knocks on the wall were followed by a heavy chest of drawers sliding by itself across the floor. Mrs. Harper promptly got her children out of the house and sought the assistance of a neighbor. The neighbors searched the house and garden but found no one. Soon they also heard the knocks on the walls which continued at spaced-out intervals. At 11 p.m. they called the police who heard the knocks. One officer even saw a chair inexplicably move across the floor and later signed a written statement to confirm the events. Several people were witness to the events that occurred in the following days. Lego bricks and marbles were thrown around the house and were often hot to the touch. In September of that year, Maurice Gross of the Society for Psychical Research came to investigate. Gross claims that he experienced the strange happenings. First, a marble was thrown at him from an unseen hand. He saw doors open and closed by themselves and claimed to feel a sudden breeze that seemed to move up from his feet to his head. Gross was later joined in the investigation by writer Guy Lyon Playfair and together they studied the case for two years. The knocking on walls and floors became an almost nightly occurrence. Furniture slid across the floor and was thrown down the stairs. Drawers were wrenched out of dressing tables. Toys and other objects would fly across the room. Bed clothes would be pulled off. Water was found in mysterious puddles on the floor. There were outbreaks of fire followed by their inexplicable extinguishing. The case became decidedly unnerving when the spirits revealed themselves through Janet. Speaking in a deep, gravelly voice, the spirit announced that his name was Bill and had died in the house, a fact that has been verified. The voices and the phenomenon have been recorded on tape and film and playfair has written a book about the case called This House is Haunted, which I will link to in the show notes. Despite the documentation, however, much controversy surrounds the case. Skeptics claim that the case is nothing more than the work of a very clever and mischievous girl, Janet. The poltergeist activity always stopped when she was watched closely and when she was taken to a hospital for several days to be tested for physical or mental abnormality, the phenomena ceased in the house.  Was this poltergeist case just the result of an attention-seeking 11-year-old? Then there is the Danny Poltergeist case. In 1998, Jane Fishman, a reporter for the Savannah Morning News, began a series of articles about a possibly haunted antique bed in the home of Al Cobb of Savannah, Georgia. Cobb bought the vintage late 1800s bed at an auction as a Christmas present for his 14-year-old son Jason. A purchase he later regretted. Three nights later, Fishman reported, Jason told his parents he felt as if someone had planted elbows on his pillow and was watching him and breathing cold air down the back of his neck. He felt sick. The next night, he noticed the photo of his deceased grandparents on his wicker nightstand flipped down, so he righted it. The next day, the photo was facing down again. Later that morning, after leaving his room for breakfast, he returned and found in the middle of his bed two beanie babies, the zebra and the tiger, next to a conch shell, a dinosaur made of shells, and a plaster toucan bird. That got his parents and his twin brother Lee's attention. Trying to make sense of the irrational, Al called out, Do we have a Casper here? Tell me your name and how old you are. Then he left some lined composition paper and crayons and with his family walked out of the room. In 15 minutes they returned and found written vertically in large block childlike letters, Danny, seven. With his family out of the house, Al Cobb decided to continue trying to communicate with the spirit of Danny. With the same kind of notes, Danny indicated that his mother had died in that bed in 1899 and that he wanted to stay with the bed. He also made it clear that he didn't want anyone else sleeping in it. The same day they found a note, reading, No one sleep in bed. Jason, who had moved out of the room, decided to stretch out and pretend to take a nap. That says Al was a mistake. I doubled back in the room to pick up my clothes, remembers Jason, when this terracotta head that had been hanging on the wall came flying through the room, just missing me before it smashed on the closet door. No one really knows, Fishman writes in her second installment, who or what is leaving the copious notes, moving the furniture, opening the kitchen drawers, setting the dining room table, flipping over the chairs, lighting the candles, arranging the posters to spell out a person's name, Jill, then hanging the finished product on a bedroom wall. Jason also spoke of other spirits, Uncle Sam, who had come to reclaim his daughter, he said was buried under the house, Gracie, a young girl whose sculpture sits in Bonaventure Cemetery, and Jill, the young woman who left a number of handwritten messages among them, one inviting the cops to a party in their living room. Parapsychologist Andrew Nichols, head of the Florida Society for Parapsychological Research, investigated the case. What happened at the cops, he told Fishman, more specifically to Jason, would have happened without Danny or the bed. It was the electromagnetic energy of the wall that Jason started sleeping next to when they moved the bed there. That charged a psychic ability that the boy already had, and one of the most terrifying cases of all time, the Amherst Poltergeist.  For the most part, ghosts and avaritions are harmless to those who witness them, flickering briefly in the view to perform some timeless task, or to relay a message to a loved one and then fading back into the unknown. Poltergeist activity, however, is another matter entirely. Seeming to center around an individual, a Poltergeist produces physical phenomena that have been known to cause serious harm and otherwise scare the daylight out of its victims. Esther Cox of Amherst, Nova Scotia was such a victim in a case that became what on the most frightening Poltergeist accounts in Canadian history. The strange events were witnessed and documented by many people and have even become the subject of a book. The year was 1878 and the place was Princess Street in Amherst, a town in North Central Nova Scotia where the province borders New Brunswick. Esther Cox, 19 years old, lived in a small rented house with her married sister Olive Teed, her husband Daniel Teed and their two young children. The crowded little cottage was also home to Esther's siblings, Jenny and William, as well as Daniel's brother, John. Suddenly, into the tedium of this ordinary home, horror struck, but not from some paranormal force, rather from an all-to-human monster. Esther was nearly raped by an acquaintance named Bob McNeil, a shoemaker with a disdainful reputation of which Esther had been unaware. Although she escaped the attack with minor injuries, the violence against her seemed somehow to open a door to further attacks, this time from an unseen entity or entities, and the Amherst poltergeist mystery began. Although the house was crowded with the Teeds and their extended family, it wasn't unusual for households to take in borders to help pay the rent. Walter Hubbell, a some-time actor, was a border at the Teed residence when the first stirrings of supernatural phenomena took place and he recorded them in his book The Great Amherst Mystery, which I have linked to in the show notes. One night, screams of fright brought all of the adults of the house rushing to the room where sisters Esther and Jenny shared a bed. The girls had seen the formation of something moving under their covers as they were about to go to sleep for the night. Esther thought it was a mouse. A search turned up nothing. The girls returned to bed and the house quieted for the night. The following night, more screams disturbed the family. Esther and Jenny excitedly claimed that they had heard strange noises coming from a box of fabric scraps that was kept under the bed. When they brought the box out to the center of the room, it leapt into the air of its own accord and landed on its side. No sooner had the girls nervously righted the box when it jumped into the air again, eliciting screams from the young women. Up to this point, the events could have been attributed to the active imaginations of the two girls, especially given Esther's recent harrowing experience at the hands of Bob McNeil. But the third night would provide evidence to all in the teed house that something far out of the ordinary was happening with Esther Cox. That night, Esther excused herself to bed early, complaining that she felt feverish. At about 10 p.m., soon after Jenny joined her in the bed, Esther jumped up from the bed to the center of the room, tearing at her nightclothes and screaming, �My God! What is happening to me? I am dying!� Jenny lit a lamp and looked at her sister, horrified to see that her skin was bright red and seemed to be swelling unnaturally. Olive rushed into the room and assisted Jenny in getting their sister back in bed as she now seemed to be choking and struggling to breathe. The other adults watched in disbelief as Esther's entire body, which was remarkably hot to the touch, swelled and reddened. Esther's eyes bulged and she cried in pain, fearing she was literally going to burst through her stretched skin. Then from beneath Esther's bed came a deafening bang like a clap of thunder that shook the room. Three more loud reports exploded from under the bed, after which Esther's swelling subsided and she fell into a deep, deep sleep. Four nights later, these terrifying events repeated themselves. Esther's unexplained swelling and torture ended only by the thunderous noises from under the bed. At a loss to cope with this unearthly ordeal, Daniel asked a local doctor, Dr. Kareet, to examine Esther and he was witness to some of the most frightening events of all. Attending at Esther's bedside, he watched in astonishment as her pillow moved beneath her head, untouched by any hands. He heard the loud bangs from beneath the bed but could find no cause for them. He saw her bedclothes thrown across the room by unseen hands. Then the doctor heard a scratching noise like a metal tool scraping into plaster. Dr. Kareet looked to the wall above Esther's bed and saw letters nearly a foot high etching themselves into the wall. When it was done, it had spelled out, Esther Cox, you are mine to kill.  After two hours, the house fell quiet. Dr. Kareet, out of courage, compassion or curiosity, returned the next day and bore witness to more unexplained manifestations. Potatoes hurled themselves across rooms. The deafening noises now seemed to be coming from the roof of the house, yet when the doctor investigated, there was no apparent cause. Of these events, years later, he would write to a colleague, honestly, skeptical persons were on all occasions soon convinced that there was no fraud or deception in the case. Were I to publish the case in the medical journals, as you suggest, I doubt if I would be believed by physicians generally. I am certain I could not have believed such apparent miracles had I not witnessed them. The doctor could of course do nothing to help Esther or settle the disturbances at the teed home. The haunting continued and, in fact, became more destructive and threatening. Unexplained fires erupted around the house. Knives and forks were thrown by some entity sticking violently into woodwork. Lit matches materialized out of thin air and dropped onto beds. Furniture moved about by itself, flipping over or slamming into walls. Loud slaps were heard, followed by the appearance of red finger marks on Esther's face. Sewing pins appeared from nowhere and were jabbed into Esther's face. A pocket knife was ripped from the hand of a neighborhood boy and stabbed into Esther's back. Poor, tormented Esther tried several times to escape the devilish entity, but it followed wherever she went. On Sunday, Esther attended a Baptist church service and sat in one of the rear pews. Once the service had begun, knockings and wrappings echoed throughout the church, seeming to come from the front of the church. The noises grew louder and louder, drowning out the minister's sermon. Knowing she was the cause, Esther left the building and the noises stopped. She even tried to spare her family from the malevolent haunting. At first she moved to a neighbor's house, but the poltergeist followed and she was forced to return home. The teed's landlord, fearing the destructive nature of the phenomena, wanted to evict the family. Again taking responsibility for the events, Esther moved herself out instead, finding work at a nearby farm. When the farm's barn burned to the ground, however, the farmer had Esther arrested for arson, for which she was convicted to a four-month sentence. Fortunately, Esther served only one month in jail and was released. The short sentence may have at first seemed like a low point to the much-troubled Esther, but it did have its upside. After she was freed from jail, the poltergeist activity seemed to just fade away. There were minor instances for a short time, and then the haunting stopped completely. Esther later married, twice, and died in 1912 at the age of 53. Walter Hubble published his book, The Great Amherst Mystery After Her Death, and it included an affidavit signed by sixteen witnesses of the horrific events at Amherst. When Weird Darkness returns, you were reading, sitting comfortably on your sofa in the dim light, when some movement across the room caught your attention. It seemed dark and shadowy, but there was nothing there. You returned to your reading, and a moment later, there it was again. You looked up quickly this time and saw the fleeting but distinctly human shape of the shadow pass quickly over the far wall and disappear. What was that? Often when people report their homes being haunted, they'll talk of shadow beings, dark entities in human form. They'll glimpse out of the corner of their eye and then the entity will be gone or jump out of sight. Coming up, we'll look at the phenomenon and possible explanations for shadow people. That and more when Weird Darkness returns. There are very few among those with a love for the supernatural who don't also have a passion for Edgar Allan Poe. Poe wasn't simply a melancholy author who wrote about premature burials, sinister black cats and talking ravens. He was much more. If you've ever read a modern mystery or horror novel, you can thank Poe. Poe invented the modern mystery story, mostly invented science fiction, and was the first writer to take the horror stories of the Gothic era and set them in modern times, starting a trend that continues today.  He invites listeners along to delve into the strange and bizarre world of Edgar Allan Poe, from his early life to his tragic marriage, his insane grief, his dramatically failed career, his links to an unsolved murder and the mystery of what happened to the writer in the five days before his unexplained death. Even more than a century and a half later, no one knows what happened to Poe before he was found delirious on the streets of Baltimore, Maryland, or what killed him. Why did he disappear and then show up in an incoherent state wearing another man's clothes? Where did he go when he vanished and who was the mysterious Reynolds that Poe whispered about in his dying breath? And perhaps strangest of all, does he haunt the mysterious graveyard where his body is buried? Nevermore, the haunted life and mysterious death of Edgar Allan Poe, written by Troy Taylor, narrated by Darren Marlar. Find a link to the book on the audiobooks page at WeirdDarkness.com. What was it that you just saw in your peripheral vision? Was it a natural shadow? Your heightened imagination? Or a ghost? Maybe it was something that seems to be a spreading phenomenon, apparitions that are coming to be known as shadow people or shadow beings. Perhaps this is an old phenomenon with a new name that is now being discussed more openly, in part thanks to the internet, or maybe it is a phenomenon that for some reason is manifesting with greater frequency and intensity now. Those who are experiencing and studying the shadow people phenomenon say that these entities almost always used to be seen out of the corner of the eye and very briefly, but more and more people are beginning to see them straight on and for longer periods of time. Some experiencers testify that they have even seen eyes usually read on these shadow beings. The mysterious sightings have become a hot topic of conversation in paranormal chat rooms, message boards and websites, and it has given widespread attention on paranormal talk radio. Several theories have been offered as to what shadow people are and where they come from. The explanation we get from skeptics and mainstream science and who are usually people who have never experienced the shadow people phenomenon is that it is nothing more than the active human imagination. It is our mind playing tricks on us, our eyes seeing things in a fraction of a second that isn't really there. Illusions. Real shadows caused by passing auto headlights or some similar explanation. And without a doubt, these explanations probably can account for some, if not many or most, experiences. The human eye and mind are easily fooled. But can they account for all cases? Perhaps they are ghosts. To call these entities ghosts demands first a definition of what we mean by ghosts. But by almost any definition, shadow people are somewhat different than ghost phenomena. Whereas ghost apparitions are almost always a misty white vapor-like or heavy decidedly human form and appearance, very often with discernible clothing, shadow beings are much darker and more shadow-like. In general, although the shadow people often do have a human outline or shape, because they are dark the details of their appearance is lacking. This is in contrast to many ghost sightings in which the witness can describe the ghost's facial features, style of clothing and other details. The one detail most often noted in some shadow-being sightings are their glowing red eyes. How about demons or other dark entities? The dark countenance and malevolent feelings that are often reported in association with these creatures have led some researchers to speculate that they may be demonic in nature. If they are demons, we have to wonder what their purpose or intent is in letting themselves be seen in this manner. Is it merely to frighten? One theory suggests that shadow people are the shadows or essences of people who are having out-of-body experiences. According to Jerry Gross, an author, lecturer and teacher of astral travel, we all travel out of the body when we are asleep. Perhaps, his theory says, we are seeing the ephemeral astral bodies of these twilight travelers. What about time travelers? Another theory is that people from the future could have found the means to travel to the past, our time. However, they are able to accomplish this incredible feat, perhaps in that state they appear to us merely as passing shadows as they observe the events of our timeline. One mainstream science is fairly convinced that there are dimensions other than the three that we inhabit, and if these other dimensions exist, who or what, if anything, inhabits those dimensions. Some theorists say that these dimensions exist parallel and very close to our own, although invisible to us, and if there are inhabitants in these other dimensions, is it possible that they have found a way to intrude on our dimension and become at least partially visible? If so, they could very well appear as shadows. It has long been held by psychics and other sensitives that beings on other planes of existence are of different vibrations. Science is beginning to look at reality on a quantum level in the same way that particles of the smallest size exist as vibrations. Perhaps some theorized vibrations of our existence are beginning to mesh with those of another dimension, which accounts for the increase in such phenomena as ghosts, shadow people, and even possibly aliens. The alien and abduction phenomena are so bizarre that it is no surprise that extraterrestrials are also suspects of shadow people. Abductees have reported in many cases that the alien grays seem to be able to pass through walls and closed windows and to appear and disappear abruptly among other worldly talents. Perhaps, too, they can go about their alien agenda disguised in the shadows. There is a good deal of overlapping among the above ideas, of course. Aliens and ghosts could be interdimensional beings, or aliens could be time travelers, and some believe demons are responsible for all these disturbing phenomena. There is no way to prove or disprove any theories about a phenomenon that is so mysterious that happens so quickly and without warning. Science finds it virtually impossible to catalogue or study such phenomena in any methodical way. All we can do, at present, is to document personal experiences and try to piece together what the shadow people phenomenon might be. Perhaps it is an old mystery becoming more recognizable. Perhaps it represents a doorway to and from different planes of existence. Or perhaps they simply are just shadows. We have all seen it happen. A dog or a cat suddenly stops mid-run and stares down a hallway as if something is there but we don't see or hear anything. Are they seeing a ghost? It's something we all wonder, even if we don't suspect our house to be truly haunted. But maybe our house is haunted and we just don't know it is, but our pets do. Do animals have unique connections to the paranormal? Even people who believe in an afterlife and the possibility of ghosts are often skeptical when it comes to the idea of animal spirits. Animals don't have souls or spirits they say, so therefore they cannot have a life in the next world. But cats, dogs, birds and other animals are made up of the same energy that we humans are and it might just be possible that this energy can survive death just as it can for people. We won't know for sure until we cross over to the other side ourselves. Anyone who is close to their pets, though, will testify to the psychic connection that they share. Psychic energy and spiritual energy may all be a part of the same phenomenon and so animals might have as much of a connection to the unseen world as we do, if not more so. Animals not only may appear as ghostly forms but they may also be more sensitive to the proximity of spirits, alerting us to what we cannot see for ourselves. Dogs can be just as sensitive as cats when it comes to sensing the unseen. People have reported their dogs growling at unseen beings, acting protectively toward their owners or cowering from spirits. Animals with their intense hearing and senses of smell may indeed be able to sense other beings that humans cannot. The ghosts of animals may be as common as the ghosts of humans. There are many reports from people who have sensed, felt, smelled, heard and even seen the spirits of a recently departed pet. Besides animals sensing ghosts, it is possible to come into contact with the ghost of a dearly loved pet. Many owners have reported feeling their deceased pet's presence in their homes. For example, in times of crisis, individuals have said that they felt a comforting warmth, similar to the feeling of a pet curling up in your lap. Others have reported hearing a jingle of their pet's collars long after the dog or cat passed away. In fact, there have been incidents of deceased pets making their presence known even to strangers. Guests at hotels with a reputation for hauntings have experienced phantom barks, meowing noises and even feeling as if an animal brushed by them. While animals are sadly cursed with shorter lifespans than humans, they may have other senses that help compensate them. With their exceptional sight and hearing, they may be able to sense spirits that humans cannot see. Even after death, our beloved pets might still linger, giving comfort and protection long after they die. So the next time your pet acts strangely, staring at an unseen object in a corner or growling at nothing, consider that he might be able to see something that you cannot. So what can you do if you determine the home you're living in is truly haunted? Getting a spirit to leave a home or property can be far more challenging than identifying one. After all, they were there before you were. Chris Medina suggests the first offense is asking them to leave, but many ghosts just aren't cooperative. They can become very territorial. If demanding they leave doesn't work, that's where I am. And or any respectable experienced medium comes in, he says. We will go in to assess the home and entity to determine what needs to be done. From a simple sage or incense cleansing to a full-blown ceremonial cleansing, it can be a process. The cleansing, clearing can last anywhere from a few minutes to days. It all depends on how much of an attachment the presence has to the home and the people living in it. Heidi Pushi, who is a psychic, healer and executive coach, shares the key to getting spirits to leave is to come from a place of strength. I make sure I feel grounded and strong in myself, standing in one area or walking around the house. I point a finger around the physical space I am declaring to clear, she says. I say my name and my right to claim the space as pure in my own. I ask the physical infrastructure of the house to hold only loving spirits. Heather Hannon has made a business out of being a real life Ghostbuster. She calls herself an Anamkara. Anam is the Gaelic word for soul and kara is the word for friend. In Celtic tradition, an Anamkara is a spiritual guide. Based in Toronto, Hannon and her business partner Catherine Varga work on approximately 75 homes per year. We clear homes for real estate agents, people who lease homes to renters, people selling homes or who have just purchased a new home and want its energy buffed and polished for when they move in. We also have clients that just don't feel comfortable in their homes because they or their children are seeing or hearing things moving around. The women clear the space using a vibrational sound healing technique they developed called Sound Reiki. We discovered that with this technique we can move energy for healing and clearing homes and properties with much faster and more effective results, they said. They are also able to practice this technique from a distance. We have the ability to see any ghosts or spirits on a property and clear these energies anywhere we have the address. And of course you can always ask a local church pastor or priest to come and bless your home and anoint the entryways with oil or do so yourself. Sometimes, despite the best efforts, a ghost will simply refuse to leave. If vacating the property is an option, the only choice left is to peacefully coexist with the spirit. Prispadina suggests setting boundaries, which is good advice when dealing with any kind of roommate or guest, paranormal or not. Make sure you stay on your side and they stay on theirs, he says. He also notes that not all spirits are here to haunt. Some just want to keep doing what they were doing before, taking care of people, Medina explains. I had a woman who would sleep in my kids room while they were sleeping. I would see her in passing as I would walk to get water in the middle of the night.  She was going to leave and I told her I didn't mind her being there. I understood she was watching the kids and protecting them and that I was happy to have her. One night the spirit saved Medina's son from very real danger. He said, I was asleep and woke up to her tapping my foot in bed to wake me up. She told me to go check on my son. I immediately ran into his room and saw that the sheet was wrapped around his neck and he was almost falling off the bed. I was trying not to panic and felt the woman try to comfort me. I unwrapped the sheet and positioned him back into bed. I thanked her and told her to make herself at home. Thanks for listening. If you liked the podcast and you haven't already subscribed, be sure to do so now so you don't miss future episodes. And also, please, tell someone else about the podcast. Recommend weird darkness to anybody who loves the paranormal, horror stories or true crime like you do. Every time you share the podcast with someone new, it helps spread the word about the show and a growing audience makes it possible for me to keep creating episodes as often as I do. Do you have a dark tale to tell of your own? Fact or fiction, click on Tell Your Story on the website and I might use it in a future episode. All stories in Weird Darkness are purported to be true unless stated otherwise and you can find source links or links to the authors in the show notes. Weird Darkness Theme by Alibi Music. And now that we're coming out of the dark, I'll leave you with a little light. James 1 verse 5, If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God who gives generously to all without finding fault and it will be given to him. And a final thought, life isn't about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself. George Bernard Shaw. I'm Darren Marlar. Thanks for joining me in the Weird Darkness.


In this segment what we're going to be doing, we're going to be taking a look at the Reynolds number that is defined for condensation on vertical or inclined surfaces and we'll be using that as we develop some of the correlations in the next lecture. Now the thing about condensation when we're looking at heat transfer with condensation there are many many different Reynolds numbers that we're going to be looking at depending upon how you define it but this is one definition of the Reynolds number. So V is the average velocity of the condensate flowing down the surface, rho is the density of the liquid, mu is the dynamic viscosity of the liquid, dH, I'm going to write it up here, this is the hydraulic diameter and it is defined as being 4 times the cross-sectional area AC divided by the perimeter and that would be the cross-sectional area perpendicular to the direction of which the film is moving so the velocity and that's going to depend upon the nature of the shape. There are two areas that we're going to use in condensation so be very very careful not to confuse them. We have wetted area which is the one that we typically use whenever we're using Newton's Law of Cooling and that will be A and then we have this AC and that is essentially the cross-sectional area perpendicular to the wall or perpendicular to the velocity. So if we look at a surface where we have a film growing like that, this here if we look at that that is typically delta and let's say this plate is of width B so I'll say the width is B in this direction. Okay so there's our film coming down the film is moving in that direction. AC is essentially this cross-sectional area here AC which is going to be it will be the perimeter times delta where perimeter it would be for a unit length that would be B. So just to make a comment about that AC is equal to the perimeter times delta and delta is the thickness of the film and the perimeter for example if we're looking at a vertical plate it would be equal to B as we just put in this drawing. If we're looking at a vertical cylinder however it's going to be different. Now with the vertical cylinder the radius of the cylinder so that would be there. R needs to be much larger than the thickness of the film of delta but what will happen is you get condensation forming around and here the area is going to be related to the perimeter or the cross-sectional area so the perimeter as we've defined is equal to pi times D and that would be for a vertical cylinder. Okay so just be aware that this cross-sectional area AC and that is different from A which is wedded area that we will see in a moment as we look at Newton's law of cooling when we start coming up with the convective heat transfer coefficient and so you can imagine here this cross-sectional area for a cylinder will be a little bit more complex than it would be just for the plate but anyways there are two different areas we're going to use don't get them confused hopefully I haven't confused you with all of those stuff here. Alright so what we're going to do we're now going to take a look at a generic plate a vertical plate and and this is one that is often used when looking at condensation flowing on a surface and here is our plate and depending upon the book that you're using sometimes TS will be the wall temperature sometimes TW will be the wall temperature in any event we're assuming that the gravity vector is going in that direction and our coordinate system we will draw y normal to the plate and x in the direction of the plate and what happens is we begin with a film that might grow something like that and let me clean that up a little okay so it's coming down and then it goes into a wavy regime and then eventually it becomes turbulent and and so depending upon the Reynolds number or actually in different regimes here and so we will be noting those in a moment before I do that however I want to put in a few other variables that are within this on the outside of the film we will call that the saturation temperature and then further out here we have the vapor and and so you could have a scenario where it's superheated vapor and and it's above the saturation temperature or you could have it at the saturation temperature usually we assume it to be at the saturation temperature but in the event that it's higher I will denote it with TV freestream and so here what is happening is we have mass flow rate of condensate moving down and as the film gets thicker and thicker the mass flow rate is going to increase because we keep adding more and more fluid as we have more fluid condensing and so m dot is going to be a function of x and the other thing that we have here we typically define delta as being the thickness of our layer and consequently we know that delta is a function of x and the other thing that we did and I define this in the Reynolds number that I just presented a moment ago with the Reynolds number I said that there is some average or bulk velocity in reality there's going to be a velocity profile here but for right now what we're going to do is assume that we have some bulk velocity of the condensate moving down due to the body force or gravity so if we're to look at this what we have up at the top this would be where we have Reynolds number approximately equal to zero and in this region here we refer to it as being laminar and it's also called wave three then when you get to a Reynolds number of approximately 30 what happens is you get a laminar but it is wavy and so those waves would be instability waves developing within the fluid the film itself and instability waves grow and it's the process of transition from laminar to turbulent but it is characterized by waves that we would see on the surface and that will exist until we get to a Reynolds number of about 1800 and once we get to a Reynolds number of 1800 then our film becomes turbulent and just like with when we look at the flat plate boundary layer or a lot of the other things we've been doing in this course whenever you transition from one regime to another your correlations are going to change and so we will see that when we look at the experimental correlations that have been collected for the condensation on a vertical surface or plate like we're looking at here so I think that's the majority of the things that I wanted to write it is okay so now what we do I want to define a Reynolds number and we looked at Reynolds number a moment ago but I'm gonna basically massage that Reynolds number we're gonna come up with different Reynolds numbers which you'll find is quite common when you're looking at condensation and we're going to begin by looking at a definition for the mass flow rate and so we can see the mass flow rate is going to be equal to the density of the liquid in the film and it's going to be equal to it will be rho av and so the a here is going to be remember the cross-sectional area that is going to be for example if you have a vertical plate that's going to be delta times b where b would be the width of the plate and that will also be multiplied by capital v which is the bulk velocity of the fluid going through so we're going to take that mass flow rate and we're going to use it in a definition of the Reynolds number because if you look back when we had Reynolds number here we have some of those components there we have rho and we have v and the cross-sectional area is embedded within the hydraulic diameter which we can pull in so it's going to enable us to be able to recast the Reynolds number in terms of the mass flow rate so let's take a look at that now and when i have rho here and mu i should denote that that is for the liquid phase so what i've done here i've recast the Reynolds number with the mass flow rate and i've also rewritten it with this capital gamma and that is the mass flow rate in the film which is function of x divided by the perimeter and so the perimeter in the case of a vertical flat plate would just be b in the case of a cylinder vertical cylinder would be pi times diameter which we saw earlier so that is one form of the Reynolds number now there's another form of the Reynolds number that we can come up with and for that one what we do is we take this and we relate it to the convective heat transfer coefficient and i'll show you how to do that in a moment here so what we can do we can come up with yet another Reynolds number and for this one what i'm going to do i'm going to use Newton's law of cooling so we have some average convective heat transfer over our surface multiplied by a this is a different a from the ac this is the wetted area so if you have a vertical plate like this a would be that area there so the that and if you're looking at a cylinder it would be the external area around the entire perimeter it's not the cross-sectional area of the film it is the wetted area but that will be multiplied by the saturation temperature minus the surface or the wall temperature and that is equal to m dot so the mass flow rate times the heat of vaporization so going from a vapor to a liquid or a liquid to a vapor and you get that out of steam tables and one thing that i will say be careful because the tables often are in kilojoules per kilogram you need to pull that out of that table in joules per kilogram or you're going to make mistakes so don't make that mistake when you're pulling it out of the table make sure that you get it in joules per kilogram an h bar here is average convection convective heat transfer and then finally a is going to be the length the vertical length and so usually what we'll do is we will denote our vertical length like this so it will be l times the perimeter and remember i said the perimeter could be b in the case of a plate or it'd be pi times d in the case of a cylinder where d is our diameter okay so we have that now what are we going to do with it well i want to recast and write a new form of the Reynolds numbers so what we're going to do we're going to take the m dot from here and basically replace it with the m dot that is up here in that Reynolds numbers so let's go ahead and do that so this here what i'm writing is one of the important equations that you're going to be using is going to be heat transferred divided by the heat of vaporization and we said heat transfer through Newton's law we know that it's this divided by hfg and when we plug in the mass flow rate we get a new Reynolds number so that becomes another form of the Reynolds number that we can use so what we've looked at here three different Reynolds numbers that you can use if you're dealing with convective condensation heat transfer i should say where was the other one the first one was right here okay so those are three different Reynolds numbers and then we look at correlations we're going to look at yet another one there are many many different Reynolds numbers that you can have when you're looking at condensation and films forming on vertical surfaces what we'll be doing in the next segment is we're going to go back to this representation that we have here and this was a starting point that nusselt used and he started with an object or a model that looked like this and he came up with equations and he went through dimensional analysis and came up with a way to be able to get the convective heat transfer coefficient so that's what we're going to be doing in the next two segments which will give us a form of the convective heat transfer coefficient it won't be perfect because it's based on a theoretical model and then we'll move in in the next lecture to the correlations that are actually used and so that's where we're going to be going


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Welcome to today's episode of the mindset mentor podcast I'm your host Rob dial if you have not yet done so hit that subscribe button So she never missed another podcast and if you love this podcast and maybe you want to see it live Well, I guess see my face as I'm doing it. You can always go to YouTube go to YouTube and type in Rob dial We have a ton of videos over 400 videos that are on there To help you improve your life even more than just what we do here on this podcast So if you love the YouTube and you love me you can go ahead and follow me on the YouTube as well Today, I'm gonna be teaching you how to use your brain to get more done We're gonna talk about how your brain can be used to help in propel you to get more things done in your to-do list to be More productive But also how this thing if you don't use it correctly can actually stress you out when you have a to-do list I'll give you an example Have you ever been in the point before where you feel like you're working all day long and you're doing things and you're Doing things and you're doing things Yeah, at the end of the day you go to sit down you're like Damn, I don't feel like I got anything done and you feel like you weren't productive at all Like maybe you were just busy spinning your wheels or do you ever get stressed out when you start thinking about your to-do list and You feel like you're not getting a sense of accomplishment from your to-do list Well, if that's the case I'm actually gonna tell you something that has been found was found in the 1920s to help you understand and I'm gonna probably butcher this name But it was it's called the I've heard many different ways when I was researching this But I'm gonna say the Zegernick effect. So Zegernick defect is basically how you say it. It was First discovered. It's a phenomenon discovered in the 1920s by actual Soviet Russian psychologist Dr. Zegernick in the 1920s and she observed that people tend to remember unfinished or uninterrupted tasks better than the ones that are completed And they actually start to focus we tend to focus on the things that have not been done Versus the things that are done. And so what happens is those things that are not quote-unquote done Can actually own our mental energy until they are completed or at least until we use them the correct way Which is what I'll teach you today And this effect is based on the idea that our brains are wired to focus on open loops or unfinished tasks So that therefore if you think about a hundred thousand years ago to when we were cavemen and cave women it makes sense like if Sometimes an unfinished task could have meant death and a lot of times they probably did mean death And so our in in our brains is hard-wired that when something is not completed that needs to be done that we tend to focus on it a whole lot more and it can also give you a Real sense of mental discomfort if you don't use this correctly and use your strategies that I'm going to teach you and This this discomfort discomfort is what drives us to complete a task And when it's finally completed the discomfort is resolved and the task is then forgotten because there's no reason to think about a task Once it's forgotten makes sense, right?  You're like screw it. I'll just go for the former bites This is also what happens if you sit down and you start a puzzle I don't know if you guys are like me But if I sit down and I start a puzzle we did this when I was back home over Christmas We started puzzle when I was at my sister's house and it went from hey Let's just all put a puzzle together to three hours later We're still doing the damn puzzle because we all just want to see the puzzle get finished and This this tends to to be really good for us to complete tasks But it tends to cause mental discomfort if we're not getting things done that need to be done Or if we just have such a big to-do list that there's just still things that have not been Chacked off to do this and most of the time when you get to the end of the day and you're like oh my god I still have so much to do The reason why is because you're not focusing on the things that you've done and what you have completed You're focusing on all of the things that you did not get done or that you still have a new to-do list and undone work Takes up a lot of mental energy And this is what can be this is why open loops so it works so well with people when you're a great speaker You learn how to open up loops and you you speak to people and if you look at it You will like one of the best that I've ever seen do it Was Tony Robbins I've seen people and I've done it myself when I'm speaking you will open up a loop Because people then want to hear the thing get changed and the thing get finished is what they want So you say I'm gonna teach you the four things to xyz that could be something right and then at the end You hear the fourth one you like resolve feel better But I remember one time I was watching Tony Robbins speak and he opened a loop and then he opened another loop So he opened loop one he opened loop two he closed loop two he closed loop Closed loop one and I was sitting there going oh my god That was like a master at speaking and that's why this is why you know for me like I don't know about you But if I start a movie I have to finish the damn movie right like I can't start a movie like My wife will fall asleep in the middle of movies. I can't do it. My brain is like I've got to see this I've got to feel resolve But this is also why clickbait works for us If you're ever on youtube and you see someone's thumbnail and it says something you're like Oh my god, like I don't I don't want to click this, but there's a part of me It's like I got to see what this is about and then you click it and you watch it We want to close the loop.  So it's like killer chemical found out it found in your tap water tonight at 10 You're like, oh my god. I've got to see it. It's an open loop. Our brain wants it to be finished This is why cliffhangers work so well if you watch like yellow stone or game of thrones when they end an episode It's like, oh my god.  Yes, I'm still watching don't make me feel bad of myself for still watching this four hours later Right? It's because those cliffhangers keep us wanting to watch more and wanting to watch more So we have to understand the way that our brain works And why we do this and when we feel this feeling of unresolve our brain wants to solve it And so you can use this can hold you back if you don't understand it But if you know how to use it can actually propel you forward and that's why I love studying the brain And I love studying humans so much is because I want to learn all of these things And then I want to teach it to you so that you can understand how your brain works And instead of being held back by your brain be able to use your brain to propel you to do better and to do more And so let's talk about the bad first How can it be bad and then after that we'll talk about how can it be good, right? That's an open loop. We just did it. So now you're like, damn I want to hear how it can be bad, but I also want to hear how it can be good So how could it be bad? But when we don't complete a task our brain will usually focus on it at least a small percentage of our brain We'll still be thinking about it until it is done And what can happen though is it can also start to stress us out We start to think about how big our to-do list is and we start to get stressed about it And we start to get anxious about it and we actually can start to procrastinate because our brain is focusing not on one thing On our to-do list it's focusing on 12 different things on our to-do list And we can get paralysis by analysis when we have too many Unfinished tasks in our mind it can be overwhelming And it's like going to your computer and you're you open up your chrome or your safari browser and you open up a tab You're starting doing something on they open up another tab and you open up another tab another tab another tab And by the time you realize you have 20 tabs that are open And the more tabs that you have that are open the more it's going to slow your computer down The same things happens with your brain when you have a massive to-do list There's so many things that you feel like they need to be done And it's like that feeling of this stuff has to be done. Oh my gosh, there's so many things It's so many things at one one time that it actually slows you down And so what happens is you start to get stressed and when you start to get stressed Oh my god, I don't know if all this stuff I have so many things that I have to do and I cause a stress and then that stress turns into anxiety Oh my gosh, you have so many things I need to get done. What if I don't get them done in time? What if I don't get any of them done and you start getting really anxious around it?  That's what your brain will do So if that's how it leads to the bad Is it possible for us to use this exact effect for the good? The answer is yes, we can do it. So let me teach you exactly how to do it How can this be used for good? Well, one of the key implications of the zegernick effect is that it can actually increase motivation and productivity If you use it correctly because if you think about it If I'm focusing on one task instead of 12 tasks I'm focusing on one task and starting that task and not doing anything else until that task is finished I want it to get finished And so I am more motivated and driven to get that one thing finished versus focusing on all of them And so one of the easiest ways to do this is to take the most important task that you have of the day What I always recommend is you look at your to-do list And I'm going to tell you what to do in a second with all of the to-do list Things that are extra at the end of the day. See another open loop, right? So I'm going to teach you in a second of how to how to use all of the things Let's say you have 10 things on your to-do list I want you to find out number one. That's the biggest priority number two the second biggest priority number three Your third biggest priority And then what you do is you take your first task your first priority and you break it down into smaller increments So let's say that you need to You have to write a research paper and that research paper has to be Um 10 pages, right? You have to do a 10 page research paper And you've already done the research and you you've gone through and now you need to take it And you need to write that 10 page research paper of exactly what you learned in your research Well, what you do is this you take the 10 pages, which could take you hours to write, right? And what you do is you break it down into smaller Increments so in this case an easy way to do it would be a time increment And so what you say is I'm going to use and you've heard me say this if you've listened the podcast long enough I'm going to use the palma d'oro technique and you use the palma d'oro technique to actually get more done And so this 10 pages is probably going to take me three hours to write I'm going to take these three hours and instead of focusing on all of the three hours I'm going to focus on the next 30 minutes. I'm going to use the palma d'oro technique, which is 25 minutes on five minute break and only one thing for those 25 minutes so 25 minutes on Five minute break 25 minutes on five minute break 25 minutes on five minutes break until That task is done because I'm trying to go for my most important one first, right? And so what you do you take your 25 minutes and you go for it and what happens is by using the palma d'oro technique It's the time management method to allow you to take these big tasks and make them smaller So that therefore you want to finish the 25 minutes because it's seven minutes You're like, yeah, we got to finish these 25 minutes. Let me just get done I know that there's light at the end of the tunnel and in 18 more minutes I know my alarm's going to go off and then I can have my break And then what happens is you actually start to get more done by using the zikronik effect to actually make your goal smaller Accomplish the small little tasks that add up to the big tasks And then what you do Is once you get done the first one use the exact same strategy on the second most important thing for the day And you get the second most important thing done However, you can do it whether it's you can you can need to break it up into time Or you need to break it up into a number. So like a number would be hey, I've got to do I'm training for a marathon. I've got to run five miles today Okay, so all I'm going to focus on is I'm going to run one mile And then after that one mile I can focus on the next mile and after the next mile I can focus on the next mile That's where they always say one of the best ways to run Long distances is not focus on the distance, but look at the next tree that's ahead of you Like there's a tree that's in the distance. Okay, I'm just going to get to that next tree. That's all I'm going to focus on Okay, there's a mailbox about a hundred years away. I'm just going to focus on that mailbox. Okay There's another tree that's off in the distance I'm going to focus on that one and you break your goals down into smaller increments And use your brain to actually use it as your benefit versus your biggest enemy and so The way that you do this is then you get number two done and you get number three done And then what you do is by the end of the day You take your to-do list and if you're like me to-do lists are never done Like there's always a freaking to-do list and if I don't get a to-do list done and I don't close the day out The zikronik effect will actually start to badger me the entire night And I won't be as productive as I I won't be as uh, not productive I won't be as disconnected As I could be when I turn off away from work and from getting the things done They need to get done And so how do you close out your day so that therefore this doesn't bug you and this is what I do I've never seen anybody else talk about it. But this is what helps me By using this and so the first thing is I will look at all the things that I got done that day and I will do a I was Celebrate in a small way. Man. I'm so proud of myself for getting that 10 page research paper done. That was awesome I'm so proud of myself for running those 10 miles. That was awesome.  Okay, tomorrow I need to do Another research paper a five page research paper. Okay, I'm going to do that from 10 o'clock until noon and I'm going to get that five page research paper done in that time frame And then I need to do this thing and I'm going to get this thing done from here to here And what happens is you're closing out your mind by assigning a time and a date for the to-do list The the items that are still on your to-do list Which makes your brain feel like okay? I can close this out right now because that will be completed tomorrow versus like I don't know when this is going to be completed.  I don't know if they're ever going to be done Are we ever going to complete this stuff and you get stressed and you get anxious and then you don't do anything This allows you to actually use the zegernick effect to actually help you Get things done versus hold yourself back allow yourself and getting yourself stressed and anxious and then you procrastinate and you get nothing done So that's what I got for you for today's episode if you love this episode Please share it on your instagram stories and tag me at rob dial jr. R o b d i a l j r We've been put up a lot of stuff on there that is going quite viral We had a video that did just over six million views that we put up last week that Was not talked about in this podcast So if you want to go on there and see some of the stuff we've been putting up go ahead and do that and Once again, it's going to fill your news feed with some extra motivation inspiration and mindset techniques as well So it is rob dial jr. R o b d i a l j r And i'm going to leave it the same way leave you every single episode make it your mission to make someone else's day better I appreciate you and I hope that you have an amazing day


Hey, I'm Emma and I'm our local outreach manager over at GoDaddy social today We're gonna talk about how to turn your hobby into a side hustle Super excited to be joined with my co-host Justin Neely. What's up, Justin? What's up? Seems like everybody these days has some type of side hustle. This is the side hustle economy, right? Wait, what's your side hustle? I just hustle Fair, same. Oh my gosh. We were doing the same thing. So what's kind of the big challenge that someone Reaches, yeah, I want to turn this into a side hustle. What's one of the first things that halts them from getting there? I think the biggest thing is figuring out what their side hustle is going to be about because we have a lot of different things We do some people like to just eat pizza all day some people's likes Yep, what was your Twitter handle again at Emma wants pizza. I look forward to your follow First step is drilling down. What do I actually want to be known for what I actually want to do when I think it's something I'm passionate about. I just want to give it all of my time. I don't want it to be side hustle I want to give it a hundred ten percent. So how do you balance that right? I think the biggest thing is to start small, right? We can't just go full force on it Some of us can't afford to take that full leap and just become a full-fledged entrepreneur That's why we had that side hustle It's that great source of income to basically test the waters and figure things out Before we can make that leap and see if it's a viable option. Totally got bills, right? Can you really make money with this? Is that something that people get hung up on or do you think people get distracted with side hustles That are just full-passion projects in hopes that they'll make money one day. I mean, where does that come in? I think it's both you can either spend a lot of money towards your side hustle and not take it anywhere Or you can make it something lucrative So another thing that comes to mind besides of course making money with a side hustle is time Resources, what do you have advice about that? So that's tough, right? The biggest thing is you have to prioritize what's important and set aside time So you can actually work on your side hustle or not let your side hustle control your entire life Because I know I've been there. I'd freelance for a while in the past It caused me to just burn out which is pretty common in the world. Yeah, right? It challenges your balance every day 100% so the biggest thing you need to do is prioritize What you need to accomplish and set aside just Specific times of when you're gonna do things because you still have to have a life Right.  How would I do that?   I am so grateful for square when I go to the farmers market And then we have PayPal and Stripe for online processing So lots of easy integrations like WordPress or just any type of like website builder that we have that you can easily Set up and get paid or Venmo if it's a local transaction I love and though the random conversation people have yeah, I see lots of tacos and I keep my friends happy Let those bells What do you do when it comes to protecting yourself and and the policies that go along with that right? And this is something that you might have to go and get advice from a lawyer with because you want to make sure that you're Protected you'll probably want to file some sort of LLC or register your business in some way There's a couple of different variations But do that first and foremost on your website if you have one terms of service is a must same with the privacy's policy Especially with some of the GDPR stuff that I won't go into in this episode And then check out just there's a lot of generators out there for like web design contracts For example or just random like service contracts that you use and protect yourself and your audience Okay So this probably won't come as a surprise that I'm gonna ask this but how will you promote this side hustle? You know, I'm a little biased social media Got you love my love for the social media But how are you gonna promote it the biggest piece of advice is that I can give is have some sort of lead generator on your Website because leads turn into customers and that lead generator could be an e-book It could be a video series. It could be some of your blog content It could be coaching could be whatever you wanted to be just that free piece of advice or free content that you can give your audience That then turns into leads and you continue that conversation with them. Oh, absolutely, right? And now with social media your what are your top three social media platforms if I was to run a side hustle? What do you want me on? All right? That's easy Instagram for yours Instagram Twitter and Facebook Okay, that's gonna help you to reach a variety of demographics, which last we spoke that was your side hustle Wasn't specific to an age group. Also, they work They work better together. So think about this too And this is what's really cool about your side hustle is you have a variety of angles to go You could post something that's educational today, but also besides educational. You could post things. They're just entertaining Also some great ways to engage on social media to spread more word of mouth to promote your business ask Questions that your target audience would want to answer And so you're mixing up the types of posts that you're doing and as a result you're getting that Real word of mouth and like you say you don't want to go on there and just sell sell sell You want to go on there and tell tell tell right? It can't be all about you and say hey buy this buy this buy this buy this because no one wants to actually follow that and Be a part of that. There's gonna scroll past you or unfollow you. How do I know that what I'm doing? The promotions I'm putting together the time I'm investing. It's getting me A return on investment for my side hustle and that's tough what a lot of people get hung up on are subscribers and like counts which It's somewhat important. What's more important are your sales, right? Like are you making an impact and are they buying from your service or product that you have for your side hustle? So there's lots of different tools out there that could potentially a track a lot of that like Quickbooks for your sales or online bookkeeping Facebook has a lot of really great just tracking in softwares You see your engagement. You can see how people viewed your post viewed your video liked it Shared it on the post anything with Instagram. You can see how people viewed it liked it commented engagement rate, right? So wherever you're whatever platform you're using there's something to track that visibility or With your website itself you can use Google analytics to see how people are coming to your site How often they're coming to your site how they're staying on there? Are they just bouncing? It's called a bounce rate. They're just literally just bounce. They're out. What about? paid Promotions this is the part where a lot of people end up spending a lot more into the personal side hustle than it actually does them It's really easy to day to start putting $5 a day $10 a day and at the other months like where did my money go right? This is supposed to make me money So what I would say to that is start small start with a couple dollars here and there and kind of figure out What's getting you the traffic? What's actually converting to sales and once you find something that works? Expand on that. There's no like one-size-fits-all when it comes to paid advertising I can't say like going back to what we said earlier is making it about how you help your audience and how you can really help them grow All right, that's a wrap Justin. Thank you so much for being here. Thank you for having me And for all of you listening in be sure to subscribe to our channel if you haven't already More videos and fun and laugh and learn sessions to come


Hey everyone, welcome back to theCUBE's coverage of Snowflake Summit 22 live from Las Vegas. We're at Caesar's Forum, Lisa Martin with Dave Vellante. We've been having some great conversations over the last day and a half. This guy just came from main stage interviewing the CEO, Frank Slubin himself, who joins us after our next guest here. We're going to be talking customers and successes with Snowflake. Rosemary Huah joins us, the global head of retail at Snowflake. And Patrick Kelly, the VP of Product Management at their customer, 8451. Welcome to the program, guys. Thank you. It's nice to be here. So Patrick, 8451. Talk to us about the business. Give the audience an overview of what you guys are doing and then we'll talk about how you're working with Snowflake. Yeah, absolutely. Thank you both for the opportunity to be here. So 8451 is a retail data science, insights and media company. And really what that means is that we partner with our parent company, Kroger, as well as consumer packaged goods or brands and brokers and agencies really to understand shoppers and create relevant personalized and valuable experiences for shoppers in stores and grocery stores. That relevance is key. We all expect that these days. I think the last couple of years as everyone's patience has been wearing very thin. I'm not convinced it's going to come back either, but we expect that brands are going to interact with us and offer us the next best offer that's actually relevant and personalized to us. How does 8451 achieve that? It's a great question and you're right. That expectation is only growing and it takes data, analytics, data science and all of these capabilities in order to deliver it on that promise. You know, a big part of the relationship that retailers and brands have with consumers is about a value exchange. And it's again, it's about that expectation that brands and retailers need to be able to meet the ever-changing needs of consumers. Whether that be introducing new brands or offering the right price points or promotions or ensuring you meet them where they are. Whether it be online, which has obviously been catalyzed by the pandemic over the last two years, or in store. So, a deep understanding of the customer, which is founded in data and the appropriate analytics and science. And then the collaboration, back with the retailers and the brands so that you can bring that experience to life. Again, that could be a price point on the shelf or it could be a personalized email or website interaction that delivers the right experience for the consumer so they can see that value and really build loyalty. In the right time, in real time. That's right. I love the concept of the actual platform, the retail data cloud. It's so unique for a technology company. Snowflake's a technology company. You see services companies do it all the time, but to actually transform what was considered a data warehouse from the cloud to a platform for data, I call it SuperCloud. Tell us how this came about, how you were able to actually develop this and where you are in that journey. Yeah, absolutely. It's been a big focus on data sharing. We saw that that's how our customers are interacting with each other is using our data sharing functionality to really bring that ecosystem to life. So that's retailers sharing with their consumer products companies selling through those retailers and then of course the data service companies that are kind of helping both sides. And that data sharing functionality is the kind of under fabric for the data cloud. Where we bring in partners, we bring in customers and we bring in tech solutions to the table and customers can use the data cloud not only with the powered by partners that we have, but also the data marketplace, getting that data in real time and making some business value out of that data. So that's really the big focus of Snowflake is investing in industry to realize the business value. And talk about the ecosystem and how important that is, where you leave off and the ecosystem picks up and how that's evolving. Absolutely. I'm sure you can join in on this, but definitely that collaboration between retailers and CPGs, right? I mean retailers have that rich first party customer data, they see all those transactions, they see when people are shopping and then the brands really need that first party data to figure out how their customers are interacting with their brand. And so that collaborative nature, that makes up the ecosystem and of course you've got the tech partners in the middle that are kind of providing enriched data assets as well.  Have you been seeing that as well with your brands? Yeah, absolutely. Data and data science has always been core to the identity of 84.51. And historically, a lot of the interaction that we have with brands were through report web-based applications, right? And it's a really great seamless way to deliver insights to non-technical users. But as the entire market has really started to invest in data and data science and technology and capabilities, we launched a collaborative cloud last year and it was really an opportunity for us to reimagine what that experience would look like and to ensure that we were meeting the evolving needs of the industry. And as Rosemary pointed out, data sharing is table stakes, right? It's a capability that you don't want to have to think about. You want to be thinking about the strategic initiatives, the science that you're going to create in order to drive action and personalize experiences. So what we found at 84.51 is really investing in our collaborative cloud and working with leading technology providers like Snowflake to make that seamless has been the unlock to ensure that data and data science can be a competitive advantage for our clients and partners, not just the retailer in 84.51. Is the collaborative cloud built on Snowflake? Yeah, so the collaborative cloud is really about ensuring that data sharing through Snowflake is done seamlessly. So we've invited our clients and partners to build their own science on 84.51's first party data asset through Kroger. And our data represents 60 million households, half the United States, two billion transactions annually. The robustness of that data asset and its analysis ready is so impactful to the investment that brands can make in their own data science efforts because brands want to invest in data science not to do data work, not to do cleaning and munging and merging and standardizing. They want to do analysis that's going to impact the strategies and ultimately the shopper's lives. So again, we're able to leverage the capabilities of Snowflake to ensure data sharing is not part of our day-to-day conversation. Data sharing is something we can take for granted so that we can talk about the shopper and our strategies. So this is why I call it super cloud. So Jerry Chen wrote an article, Castles in the Cloud, and in there he said, he called it sub-clouds. And I'm like, no. By the way, great article, Jerry's brilliant. But so you got AWS, you built on top of AWS. You got the Snowflake data cloud, you were building on top of that. And I was sitting at the table and my kid goes, this is super. I'm like, ah, super clouds. I didn't really even coin it. And then I realized somebody else had used it before. But that is different. It's new. And it's around data. It's around vertical industries. I get a lot of heat for that term. But I feel like this, look around this industry. Everybody's doing that. That is digital transformation. Don't you see that with your customers? Absolutely. I mean, there's a lot of different industry trends where you can't use your own historical first-party data to figure out what customers are doing. I mean, with COVID, customers are behaving totally differently than they used to. And you can't use your historical data to predict out of stocks or how the customer is going to be interacting with your brand anymore. And you need that third-party macroeconomic data. You need that third-party COVID data or foot traffic data to enrich what your businesses are doing. And so, yes, it is a super cloud. And I think the big differentiator is that we are cloud-economic, meaning that, like you said, you can take the technology for granted. You don't have to worry about where the other person has their tech stack. It's all the same experience on the Snowflake super cloud, as you put it. So Patrick, talk about the impact that you have been able to have during COVID. I mean, everybody had supply chain issues, but if you took away the machine learning and the data science that you're initiating, would life have been harder? Do you have data on that? What if we didn't have this capability during the challenges? No, it's a fantastic question. And I'll actually build on the example that Rosemary offered around COVID and better understanding COVID. So in the past, when we talk about data sharing, data collaboration, it basically wasn't possible. What's your tech stack, what's mine? How do we share data? I don't want to send you my data without releasing governance. It was a non-starter. And through technology like Snowflake, as we've launched the collaborative cloud, we actually had a pilot client start right at the beginning of 2020.  But of course, what happened is a pandemic at us. And it became the biggest question. CEO executive team all the way down is, what is happening? What is happening in our stores? How are shoppers behaving? And what that client of ours came to realize is, well, we actually, we have access to the E451 collaborative cloud. We can see half of America's behavior last week down to the basket, transaction UPC level. Let's get going. So again, the conversation wasn't about, you know, what data sources? How do we scramble? How do we get together? What technologies? How do we collaborate? It was immediately focused on building the analysis to better understand that. And the outcomes that drove actually were all the way from manufacturing impact to marketing to merchandising, because that brand was able to figure out, hey, our top selling products, they're not on the shelves. What are shoppers doing? Are they going to another brand? Are they not buying it all together? Are they going to a different size? Are they staying within our product portfolio? Are they going to a competitor? Those insights drove everything again from, what do we need to manufacture more to? How do we need to communicate and incent our shoppers, our loyal shoppers? Also, what's happening to our non-loyals? Are they looking for an alternative and a need that we can serve? That level of shopper and customer understanding going all the way up to strategic initiatives is something that is enabled through the super cloud. How do you facilitate privacy as we're seeing this proliferation of privacy legislation? I think there's now 22 states that have individual and California is changing to CPRA at the beginning of January 23. How do you balance that ability to share data equitably fast, quickly, but also balance consumer privacy environments? I mean, I could take a stab first. I mean, at Snowflake, right? There is no better place to share your data that in a governed way than with Snowflake data sharing because then you can see and understand how the other side is using your data. Whereas in traditional methods using an API or using an FTP server, you wouldn't be able to actually see how the other side is using your data. But in addition to that, we have the clean room where you can actually join on that underlying PII data without exposing it because you can share functions securely on both sides. So I think there is no better place to do it than here at Snowflake. And because we deeply understand those policies, I think we are kind of keeping up with the times, trying to get in front of things so that our data sharing capabilities stay up to date when you have to expunge records, identify records with CCPA and GDPR and all the rest that are coming. And so, I mean, I think especially with 84.51's collaborative cloud, also building on top of the clean room in the further roadmap, I think you're going to see some of that privacy-compliant data sharing coming to play as well. You know, it's interesting, Patrick, because we were just in that session with the Frank Q&A and he was very candid about when he was talking about Apache, I'm sorry, Apache iceberg. Yeah, yes. And he basically flat out said, look, you got to put it into the Snowflake data cloud. It's better there, but people might want to put it outside, not get locked in, et cetera. But what I'm listening to you saying, it's so much easier for you today. That could evolve, something open source. And how do you think about that in terms of placing your bets? Yeah, it's a great question. And really to go back to privacy as a total topic. I mean, you're right. It's an extremely relevant topic. It's very ever-changing right now. At 84.51, privacy is first. It's the foundation. It's table stakes. And that's from a policy, it's from a governance, it's from a technology capability standpoint. And it's part of our culture because it has to be. And so when we think about the products that we're going to build, how we want to implement, it's a requirement that we leverage technologies that enable us to secure the governance and ensure that we're privacy compliant. The customer-related asset that we have is extremely valuable as we've talked about in this interview. It's also responsibility. And we take that very, very seriously. And so Dave, back to your question about decisions to go open source or leverage for technologies. There's always a balance. We love to push the bounds of innovation and we want to be on the forefront of data sharing, data science collaboration for this industry. But at the same time, we balance that with making sure that our technology partners are the right ones. Because we are not willing to compromise our governance and our privacy priorities. That's going to be interesting to see how that evolves. And I loved that Frank was so candid about it. I think the key for any cloud player, including a super cloud is you've got to have an ecosystem without an ecosystem, forget it. And you see a lot of companies, I mean we were at Dell Tech World, they're kind of, they're at the beginnings of that. But the ecosystems, nothing like this, which is amazing, nothing against Dell, they're just kind of getting started. And you have to be open, you have to have optionality. So I don't know if we'll see the day where they're including data bricks, data lakes inside of the snowflake cloud, that will be amazing. But you never say never in the world of cloud, do you? Stranger things. Rosemary and Patrick, thank you so much for joining us talking about what 84.51 is doing powered by a snowflake. And also the rise of the snowflake retail cloud and what that's doing. We'll have to have you back on to hear what's going on as I'm sure the adoption will continue to increase. Absolutely, thank you so much to you both for having us. Our pleasure, thank you. For our guests, I'm Lisa Martin, he's Dave Vellante. Stick around, Dave will be back with Frank Slutman, CEO of Snowflake Next. You won't want to miss it.