Wow, what's up everybody? Once again, it's Brandman Sean and today I got to talk about one of these ways that a lot of artists have been losing a whole, whole, whole lot of money and that is paying for features. Now I'm not saying paying for all features in all situations in terms of features is a waste of money, but here is the situation that I'm particularly talking about. Now a lot of artists, they somehow might come across a check, get a lot of money and then for whatever reason they say, I want to get in contact with this person, this artist and get them on my song. They do that, have zero established relationship with that artist. They get the feature, they drop the song, you're going, oh my god, I got you on the thug on this track. I got Chris Brown on this track or oh my god, whoever is on this track and because that artist is on the track, the track is going to blow up. Nah. It doesn't work like that. There's a lot of you guys out there who have probably experienced this. Just because you have an artist on the song, what a lot of times you're going to find, yes, you get the feature, you might pay 15 racks for that feature and they do not promote the song. Yeah, you drop it. They don't promote the song. They don't get in the video. And for some of you guys who don't know, a lot of times these artists might not even know that this feature has even been sold. So with that being said, you're still in the same position. You have a song. You might have a bigger artist on this song, but you still don't know how to market it. So the people who care about the song, just like the people who might care about your music, still will never hear the song.  Yes, you have this artist that seems to be so much leverage, but it's not there. So if you do decide to pay for a song, really talk through the situation. How to get a contract of some sorts to at least maybe have them post. Maybe you got to pay extra money for a post. Yeah, that's cool. Do what you got to do, but at least you're going to make sure that money that you spent to actually make the song happen in the first place and get the feature will actually be money well spent. Get them in the video if possible. If not, at least discuss these things up front so you know it's not going to happen. And if you have the fortune of really having a platform that's going to allow you to target the artist's fan base, maybe you can put it on YouTube, put that artist's name first, act like it's their song and you're featuring on it just to get some attention. But I highly recommend you just avoiding the whole feature situation in the first place. So that's about it for this video. It's pretty much that simple. Please do not waste your money just to have all these artists in your songs unless you have a whole lot of money to keep paying for artists to be in your songs and you have a whole long-term strategy, but that's something to be discussed on the side. Most people don't have that kind of money to keep paying for big artists to feature on their songs initially and to get them in their videos and all that stuff, especially off the page. You're better off getting some kind of established relationship where they're actually supported in some form of fashion. But I would love to know what you guys think about this. Please in the comments if you've had this experience before and it didn't work out like you thought it would, let people know. Other than that, if you liked this video, hit that like button. If you like it, you might as well share it. And if you're not subscribed, you know what to do. Hit that subscribe button.


So, welcome to Portugal, welcome to our Harm Reduction International 26th. And thank you very much, Naomi, for your words. The only thing I can say is that I have gained a friend. And that's not something that we can despise on. And the thing that I also can tell you about Naomi Buxhain is that she is a remarkable person and that we, people from Harm Reduction Community, we are in a very safe hands. So please, an applause to Naomi. Sorry for breaking down the protocol. Now I want to thank and say that I feel quite honourable and proud to have the presence of the High Commissioner, Michel Vachler, with us. This is a huge privilege. Thank you very much. To have the presence of our former president, George Sampaio, once president, always president, the man that was very important for our decimation law here in Portugal. I want to thank you also to Raquel, to the MPs, the Honourable MPs from the Parliament, Professor Alexandre Quintanilla and Ricardo Batista-Leite. I want to thank you very much our Mayor of Porto for under us with his presence. And of course, I want to thank the Portuguese President of the Truck Users Union, Rui Quimra. So thank you very much for being here. And I was talking about friendship and actually I am going to change a little bit my few words. I only have more four or five minutes, I believe. First I would start to say that decimization in Portugal was based, was designed based on humanism, political courage, evident space, pragmatism and participation. These principles fit quite well as a mirror with harm reduction principles. As all of us, we know that. But we need more than principles. We need, when we talk about political courage, we need someone like the former president of the George Sampaio, capable to lead a process, to be capable to stand and fight against the opponents that have a different idea, a different ideology about drug policy on those times in Portugal. And we need someone that is capable to sign the final document and to put it as a legal one and start to create a new regulation, a new normative. So I feel so proud and inspired with this political courage of our former president, George Sampaio. And I want to thank you in a very special way because of that. Thank you very much, Mr. President. I also want to thank you, a man that sometimes behaves a little bit like an anonymous person in the issue of decimization in Portugal. I'm referring to a great scientist, a leader, a man capable to deal and lead a bunch, people like that, of experts and egos that 20 years ago were designing and setting up our Portuguese model. I'm referring to Professor Elshan Quintanilla that is not an expert on drugs policy, but he has a huge quality besides his intelligence. He's a humane person and is someone capable to understand the others and mainly someone capable to establish bridge where we can come and communicate and put our ideas on the table. So thank you very much for your good work, Professor Elshan Quintanilla. It was amazing what you have done 20 years ago, amazing. And I'm describing this to know humanistic parts of Professor Elshan Quintanilla, but I can't tell you this is a real brilliant mind in science. So it's someone that likes to be guide by the rationality in not only emotions. And of course I want to thank you to our Health Secretary of State, Dr. Raquel Duarte, that was someone that was a kind of Campingot de Routes, because she started working with us almost 20 years ago on the ground as a physician and implementing one of the first methadone programs, low threshold with a safe doses of 30%. And it was capable to receive an European Best Award from WHO because of the boundaries that was pushing forward on those times. It was a low threshold program where peers had a word where they can say if the methodology was okay or not okay. So thank you very much, Raquel, for that. And two minutes more and I will finish. When we talk about principles of the law and when we talk about principles of harm reduction, maybe and when we talk about practices and action on the ground, maybe we need to talk about consistency. How can the law be translated to a practice that somehow respects the values that are implicit in that law? And I think that something that we have learned in Portugal is that the people, they make the difference. They are the people that are capable to implement the law. But for that we need to open a room so that people can be a part of that kind of action in implementation. Saying this, I want to underline the work that people from CASO, Drug Users Union, the work that the community of harm reduction professionals in Portugal is being doing, the work of professionals coming from the state that are doing, still doing, in the field of drug policy and harm reduction. And tell you a final story about how the consistency of the implementation of a law is so important for us and can make the difference. So two years ago in Portugal, five, six NGOs decided to fight no more, decided we need to share our resources, we need to share our knowledge, we need to share our vision about harm reduction. And we need to do that to implement and design a project of DCR in Portugal, of Drug Consumption Room. And for that we also invited Oporto University because we needed evidence and we needed evaluation. And of course we invited the Portuguese Drug Users Union in the person of Huy Quimre. And since then, since the last two years, we designed a project. We present the project to our national government, the department CICAD. We present it to the municipality of Oporto and we present to the health regional department. And for me, the beautiful thing of this was that everyone from professionals, to researchers, to decision makers and drug users or people using drugs, real people have a final word, have a statement capable to be included in our regional strategy or city strategy for DCR. So I believe that it's probably possible DCR in Portugal if it goes forward, it will be a good example of collaboration and dialogue is essential when we want to implement harm reduction strategies. Because if we have a DCR that was not negotiated, that was not based on dialogue between different stakeholders, we don't have anything.  And I believe if this DCR maybe, I don't know, in the future could be a possibility in Portugal that will be so because of the dialogue that was the basis of everything. So with that, I leave a challenge to our mayor, the Honorable Rui Moreira, to accept it or not the project that civil society has designed in the dialogue basis. Thank you very much. Dr. Rui Moreira, mayor of Oporto.


I think plenty of us knew what was going to win the comic book movie bracket as soon as I announced it. The Dark Knight falls on a lot of top ten comic book movie lists, but it also falls on a lot of top ten lists in general. A movie this critically acclaimed does not happen by accident. A lot of talent is responsible, from the director Christopher Nolan to the composer Hans Zimmer. Top tier acting from Bale, Kane, Freeman, Eckhart, and of course Ledger. A movie that's full of highs and lows. A movie that doesn't hold out on its audience. It's heavy. It's powerful, and it doesn't care what the competition is doing. The Dark Knight is not a movie made by committee. It is a movie made with attention and care. It's a movie that demands others in the genre do better. It's a movie that requires viewers to take comic book films more seriously. And most importantly, it's the winner of the comic book movie bracket. Thanks for watching and voting, and remember, this is more than just reviews. This is Movie Feuds.


I'm going to make three claims about this judgment which we have, which is ostensibly only about generalised search engines and the internet ecosystem as a whole. In some ways I'm following on from all as excellent presentation this morning in some of these claims, but hopefully there'll also be some differences and a difference of emphasis as well. So the first claim is that Google Spain in fact solidifies or largely solidifies at least the fallout from Google Spain in terms of how DPAs have responded to it. It solidifies a dominant data protection paradigm, a paradigm which is dominant legally and even more so is dominant amongst data protection authorities. And that paradigm has serious implications not just for generalised search engines but for almost every type of internet actor. And you might say well how can that be in the sense that Google Spain is seen as being so novel and so distinctive and in a way so narrowly cast on one particular actor? Well I think it's because there's a huge gap between legal interpretation, the interpreted stance including of data protection regulators and enforcement. Enforcement has been extremely limited and sporadic, so extremely limited and sporadic that much of the internet community until the Google Spain decision was virtually unaware that any of these things in principle could apply. So what is this paradigm I'm talking about? Well it's composed of four key pillars I think, some of which map on to all those various elucidations. The first pillar is that not much is excluded on the internet from data protection and that has two elements to it. The key terms of the directive have an extremely broad scope and we know this right back from the Lindquist case where simply referring on an internet page to working conditions or hobbies of an identifiable person was processing of personal information. Didn't matter that it was an unstructured page, it didn't matter that the information was relatively trivial. Fast forward to Saturn Media and the claim there was, oh but there must be some kind of public domain exception. At least if the material has already been published in the media, surely there's some kind of exception for media published material. And the court said absolutely not, personal information is any information relating to an identified or identified person, processing is virtually anything you can do with data and regulated processing anything on the digital type device. It's always covered. The second element of not much being excluded is that the exemptions are exhaustive and extremely limited. Again Lindquist showed the way on this, dealt with the scope of EU law being an exemption and the court said well that's only about state authorities performing highly specific state-like functions like national security. Even that we now see much more debate about. Private and family life they said could never relate to indeterminate publication, could never relate to publication generally on the internet. Saturn Media reiterated those precise claims and also dealt with the idea well aren't there some kind of implicit exemptions here. No the limitations on scope they said were exhaustive and they were narrow. That's the first pillar. But you might say well Saturn Media said okay we don't have the exemptions but we have the special journalistic and other expressive purposes so is there an issue? Well yes because the second pillar is that the special journalistic and other purposes are in no sense unbounded. They're not unbounded because even when they apply as Saturn Media said any derogation has to be only as strictly necessary so we're not dealing with an exemption we're dealing with a derogation. But more importantly for our purposes they are not unbounded because despite the language of Saturn Media saying disclosure to the public is a journalistic activity. That public is a collective public, it's disclosure to the body politic, it's trying objectively to contribute to a general public debate. That kind of activity is included but that does not mean that any form of indeterminate publication for individualised privatised purposes is covered. Again we kind of knew that from the Lindquist case where Paul Mrs Lindquist's website was clearly an indeterminate publication and the commission thought to come to her rescue by saying oh well her page is a literary and artistic work, it's a work of literary and artistic expression and should be treated as such. The court pointedly refused to accept that as valid and it didn't address it but it refused to say yes of course this is expressive purposes for the purposes of special purposes. Mrs Lindquist's site was not orientated to a collective public debate. The third pillar is that yes there might indeed be a need to balance state protection with other rights and even with the general principle of proportionality. And we again know this from the Lindquist case because effectively what the court said in Lindquist was we're not willing to say you're a journalist, we're not willing to say you're exempt, but by the way authorities and courts must take care to ensure that the directive isn't interpreted to be in conflict with freedom of expression and similar rights. But it's rather unclear because another strand and the last pillar of the data protection paradigm is that data protection norms are often overriding. There is no particular need to balance with freedom of expression. Any need for balance has already been accommodated within the data protection regime and the key case here is Bavarian Lager where you had a transparency request. The first instance court sought to say well we'll look to see if privacy and integrity are violated, we'll kind of eyeball it, we will not apply the rigours of data protection law if we don't think privacy and integrity are being affected very much. And the court said no, the court of justice eventually said no that's not what you should be doing. Any undermining of privacy and integrity must always be examined and assessed in conformity with all the legislation on personal data. You simply apply the statute, you apply the code. So that's the paradigm and it's shared by dominant legal interpretations but even more so it's shared as a dominant regulatory approach. If you ask DPAs as I did what their interpretive stance is, you will find very broad scope, a limited notion of what journalism and the like is and then a dispute as to when you balance and when you don't need to balance. And that broad contour applies broadly to all online operators from news archives. By the way there's an interesting debate about when the full rigours of the right to be forgotten apply because Google news as I understand it as an aggregator is considered to be fully within the right to be forgotten. But maybe the Times newspaper index for example isn't but at what point do you move over from one to the other? It's a complicated issue I would have thought. But anyway from news archives to bloggers to all forms of social networking to rating websites, street mapping as well as search engines. Every internet actor is in principle affected by this paradigm and I sought to test this empirically through a survey of European economic areas. The EU plus the three associated states data protection authorities and got a very good response of 80% of the national data protection authorities replied plus six operating at the sub national level mainly in Germany. So it's pretty authoritative results and I presented them with publication scenarios linked to all of those seven online media actors which I've been talking about. This was before the Google Spain decision was handed down and in terms of interpretive stance it backed up a very rigorous in principle interpretation of this paradigm. A maximum of only 12% of the standard answers as to these publication scenarios which by the way are in your handout in terms of the very precise questions which are asked. But they concerned everything from a blogger news archive through to a street mapping service. Across all the examples a maximum of 12% of the standard answers in any one case said that the activity was exempt from data protection. In terms of special expression a plurality of data protection authorities only considered that the journalistic or allied special purpose exemption applied as regards news archives. Much to my surprise even in the case of the individual blogger blogging about celebrity gossip there was not a plurality and support for the idea that the activity was journalistic or alike. And part from the news archive and the blogger where in the case of the blogger there was seem to be support for the idea you did need to be a balance need to have a balance with other fundamental rights. Between just under 50% and almost 100% of DPAs simply responded that data protection law had to apply in full. So you know really rigorous interpretation of the law in principle and not just for general search engines for pretty much all internet actors. So what about enforcement? I also ask them you know have you actually taken enforcement action in these areas and if they had actually they were there was also an element of the questionnaire which I won't go into about what enforcement action they had taken. And I think the results here were intriguing in a way with a flick side of the broad interpretive approach which I've been talking about because this was the very narrow nature of enforcement. Almost 25% of data protection authorities said oh well we might have this broad interpretive approach but we've never taken any enforcement action since the director has been in place which has been you know for decade you know 15 years plus. We've never taken any enforcement action against any of these actors in relation to publication. And then if you look at the next two along which are roughly 10% who've only taken action in one or two cases which might be saved for Google Street View. You're looking at a picture in terms of enforcement where almost a half of DPAs have effectively never really taken any significant enforcement action despite that being the paradigm. And there I think you begin to understand the dynamic where the internet community seems to be unaware that data protection is considered to apply. Well it's unaware because there's been so little enforcement of it. I asked about budgeting and the survey seemed to suggest that perhaps the average budget of a DPA is only around three and a half million euro which translates into roughly 30 cents euro cents per data subject or per capita actually per individual citizen resident of the jurisdiction. And I think you know you can see that that kind of level of resourcing is just of the total mismatch of the level of tasks the law sets data protection authorities because this is just one one relatively discreet area that DPAs are meant to be regulating. This is by no means the only part that's meant to be regulating. It's got to regulate the public sector, it's got to regulate all sorts of forms of data posting of which publication is just one. And three and a half million euro is certainly not going to come anywhere near performing that task. And we also tried to or I also tried to complete along with many research systems a sort of public domain analysis of enforcement which to be honest showed much less evidence of active enforcement. I mean what evidence there was showed very soft forms of enforcement and very limited forms of enforcement compared to what was being reported in the survey. So even less seems to be in terms of regular and active activity than those results I just showed you a moment ago. So just a few brief conclusions and looking to the future in a way because obviously these conclusions are sort of where I began with but is there any real reason to think that this will change? I think it will only change if it is recognised that it is dysfunctional to have a situation where the interactive stance of regulators is at such variance with the practice in terms of how that is in reality in force. It will only begin to change if we have a debate about the dysfunctionalities and costs for the rights people think they have for the responsibilities that controllers might have. If we start to have that debate about that balance and gap being a problem. And also it will only start to change if we begin to address the resources and budgeting that regulators have available in this area to perform what in an internet area are more and more important tasks of balancing people's rights to be protected against freedom of expression. Thank you.


Go for it Today's vlog is brought to you by clean Fuego Makes you pitch better Taylor Hearn used it Jake used it Tony Gonsolin used it now. They're all professionals. We all won the world series Thank you to everyone for sending us to the world series and supporting and watching and being part of this with us and thanks To clean Fuego because if you want to throw fire, this will help clean it up It'd be like the soft little Machia name That's my that's my club you're signing it. Yeah twisted.   We used when you first came on. We were a taster podcast We won guys to taste themselves now. We're bringing everybody down good place. So here's Oh We got Taylor her and here with us try and use this clean for a go see how much better he is Weir I can see how it helped took me like five throws away Big world series game six got to get my outfit ready for today we're gonna start by abolishing slavery Yeah, exactly how hard it's gonna be to get you another one first you want to get the sleeves That's probably gonna have to speed this up but See where we landed Okay, and when you've got a gift you've got a gift Sorry, so I think we need more more in here. Yeah smooth it out more collarbone Looks like you dressed out of a dumpster. Yeah That's Kind of right where you want to be there's a chance or like sir you have to know That's not cool You'll ever go share the clock This is what with the queen play go ball kind of cool Very cool. I wouldn't have known what that all that was So clean play go Joey Wendell just won that Happened it's got a fast forward his life isn't being the best ever in the world series on the biggest stage and They send them to like Winter ball That's why I never beat hell. Well, that's like Mookie bets with no momentum through a dart to second base Tony's taken too long for my life play in Kershaw One of the best pictures of our lifetime. Oh, he hurts me Okay, what a performance so far my Blake Now it's killing it But the rays need more runs because they're gonna bring it Anderson Built different That emotion the crowd Celebrated the Dodgers crowd celebrated that's now with being taken Do what the opponent doesn't want you to do He's done nothing but be bad All postseason I came here to watch good close baseball with good Took out their good picture and put in their worst Tenture of the postseason in a one-run game in an elimination game.  Honestly Kevin cash just admitted. I don't have a brain that I don't use I'm Kevin cash. I don't use my brain. Mookie was up. That's an easy out


Wire and arc additive manufacturing, WAM, is suitable to produce large metallic parts owing to the high deposition rates achieved. The interest in WAM is steadily increasing, and consequently, significant research efforts are underway. An important aspect that still hinders this technology is certification and non-destructive testing of the parts, and this is discussed. This article was authored by Thiago A. Rodriguez, V. Duarte, R. M. Miranda, and others.


Stories and content in Weird Darkness can be disturbing for some listeners and is intended for mature audiences only. Parental discretion is strongly advised. The shadow of a man dressed in leathers, wearing a gas mask and soldier camo, hauded the forest of malls in Switzerland's Cantona Freeboard. He would walk the same path and always linger just long enough for some passerby to catch a glimpse. They called him LeLoyen, the ghost of malls. He became a boogeyman to them, an urban legend to scare people who dared to walk alone in the woods. Once a photo was captured of him, however, he was revealed as disturbing reality. People demanded action. They demanded fire and pitchforks. They demanded a hunt for the beast. I'm Darren Marlar and this is Weird Darkness. Welcome, Weirdos. This is Weird Darkness. Here you'll find stories of the paranormal, supernatural, legends, lore, crime, conspiracy, mysterious, macabre, unsolved and unexplained. 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, listen to my other podcast, The Church of the Undead. 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. Coming up in this episode. Nelly Manche was accused of kidnapping. Her ingenious scheme to beat the charges? To kidnap again. Before we knew it as tuberculosis, most knew it as consumption, and it was almost always fatal. With those who had it seemingly being consumed by the disease, which is probably how it got its name. So it should be no surprise that homes where the disease took up residence were devastated, and whether or not they're haunted by the paranormal, they are certainly haunted by the dark memories and energies of those who were consumed there, including one particular home that a doctor in 1915 will describe for us. Norfolk's Horning Village is not your typical residential area of living. The village slips back and forth in time every five years, and one family knows that's true because they were stuck in one of the time slips. When fans of the paranormal hear the name Rendlesham, the first thing that springs to mind is an incident that happened over three nights around Christmas of 1980, when it was said that several spaceships visited the nearby airbase. What they don't think of is Ariel the Mermaid, or Daryl Hanna from the movie Splash, but maybe they should. Isabella of France is a fantastically interesting historic figure, even more so because of how little known she is. You'd think a queen who is known as a she-wolf would be something you might have read about in history class. But first, the figure who is known as L'Loyen has been called Switzerland's answer to the Loch Ness Monster, wears a military uniform and a thick cloak, with a gas mask covering his or her face. Who or what is he? We begin with that story.  In the early 2000s, reports and accounts began to emerge from Switzerland of a bizarre man with a gas mask on his face, an ominous looking military type boiler suit around his body, and wearing a menacing hooded cloak type coat. He would emerge and disappear seemingly at random into the nearby forest and woodlands of the picturesque country. What is perhaps interesting about this mystery figure, named L'Loyen by those who told of accounts with it, is despite sightings and reports for almost a decade, there was no actual proof of his existence. That was until the summer of 2013. On that day, one onlooker managed to capture a picture of the strange clad person walking back into the greenery of western Switzerland. Indeed, until that point, tales of sightings of L'Loyen sometimes referred to as the ghost or hermit of malls had a decidedly supernatural feel to them. The strange, dark figure was a giant in some accounts. Most state him to be just over six feet, while others told of a threatening feeling that they couldn't explain. These were perhaps in contrast to the sightings of the masked stranger picking flowers and even going out of his way to avoid people. Indeed, for all the sightings, tales and insight into just what this bizarre hooded figure was, no one who experienced an encounter with this mysterious stranger would ever come to any harm. There are several claims and theories as to the identity and purpose of this seemingly strange individual, some of which we will explore shortly. First, however, we will examine some of the initial reports. Reports began at some time in the early 2000s, certainly no later than 2003, and all of them were very similar in nature. A strange figure wearing heavily clad military attire, complete with an old, early 20th century gas mask, an addition that only served to increase the menacing look. The figure also wears a pair of heavy-duty boots and a long hooded cloak. You can see a few photos of L'Loyen, including the 2013 photo of what is suspected to be him walking down a path by clicking on the transcript link to this episode which you can find in the show notes. While the overall size and build of the person would suggest it as a man, indeed most reports suggest a masked man, in truth it was not known whether the figure was a man or a woman. In fact, initially the sightings would take on an urban legend type of status, with some residents suggesting the figure was most likely a strange spirit or a ghost. Over time, however, most people came to believe the strange masked figure was indeed a person, most likely a man who had simply taken to living in isolated existence somewhere in the dense forests of Switzerland. Perhaps a person who had chosen to reject the modern world and simply ventured out when required to do so. What that reason might have been, however, is unclear. Most sightings catch the strange figure either emerging from or going back into the woodland. As trite as it sounds, for example, it is unlikely this person was merely popping to the shops for supplies. Unless, of course, they would discreetly remove their menacing attire before doing so. But what would the reason be for such behavior? Some people have put forward that the person behind the mask may have a disfigurement. Perhaps the last part of their journey into whatever public space aside, such a grim look not only hides their features but also keeps others at a distance. The reasons for these regular and persistent appearances remained and still remain unknown. However, the sightings and reports of this strange and elusive figure would continue well into the second decade of the 21st century. And although there were no known acts of violence or even threats thereof, most who ran into the strange masked person would recall how frightened the encounter left them. One local resident and mother would recall, It scared my children. He came out of the woods with his military clothes. We saw neither his face nor his eyes behind his big, dark gas mask. It was scary. Another resident, named Mary Ann DeClau, would bluntly state, It was a rainy Sunday. He had on a cap, a dark cloak, and gas mask. What goes on in his head? I don't know. It was unpleasant. I hope I never run into him again. Indeed, DeClau would further state that she would never return to the forest again. Despite the lack of any threatening behavior or of the strange figure breaking the law, local police would step up their search for him in 2013 following one resident capturing a picture of the strange creature, which I have placed in the transcript to this episode. According to the press report, they wished to request Lalloyan, whoever it might be, to be less threatening. One local farmer perhaps missing out on the seasonable trade in the area would complain, families simply won't go into the forest anymore. Many local residents would see their once quiet and picturesque town becoming famous for this strange and menacing figure who in turn was quickly becoming the Swiss version of the Loch Ness Monster, and for the local population an annoying and unnerving thorn in their collective side. In 2013, the picture appeared on a Swiss media platform claiming to be the first evidence of Lalloyan's existence. The picture taken by an unnamed photographer clearly shows the mystery person walking away from the camera. The picture was taken by a local resident with his mobile phone. According to the man, he and Lalloyan were almost face to face. The photographer along with his family stood staring at the bizarre and grim looking figure. In turn, it stared back. After Lalloyan turned and walked away, the man reached for his phone. As carefully as he could, he snapped the first and only picture of this cloaked individual. The unnamed photographer would state, he had a military cape, boots, and an army gas mask, an antique type. He stared at me and then turned his back on me and left in silence. The spotlight of the media and the general public was now firmly on the area in question and on the real identity of Lalloyan. As claims reached far and wide thanks to the internet, many adventurers and researchers into the strange and bizarre would descend on Western Switzerland, each looking for their own encounter with Lalloyan, and perhaps to solve the mystery as to just who was behind the mask. For several weeks, at least in this region of Western Switzerland, the atmosphere was reaching a fever pitch. Who was this mysterious person? And perhaps more worrying, what would members of the public do next in terms of confronting this masked figure? Indeed, the more fear spread through the community, the more likely a pre-emptive attack became. Then, however, several months later, things took an even stranger turn. In late 2013, several months after the picture of Lalloyan appeared in newspapers around Switzerland and online media platforms across Europe and beyond, a website named LeMainton published what they claimed was a suicide note written by Lalloyan. According to their report, the note surfaced in a clearing where most of the sightings of the mystery masked man occurred, along with the long-hooded cloak-like trench coat. The note would, if genuine, confirm the person's identity as a man. He would claim that the constant glare of attention, particularly since the publication of the picture in the autumn of that year had led him to believe that this end was better than the risk of a hunt for a beast by the public. The note would state, I think the media coverage has had only two effects, to deprive a person of his harmless outlet and to unsettle some. Many believe the suicide was not an actual reference to literally ending his life, but merely killing off the persona or the character of Lalloyan. The note would also make several references to Austrian author and a person largely regarded as being at the beginnings of the Sadomasochism movement, indeed, masochism derives from his name, Sakamesoch. Might this seemingly throw away line be the main clue? One that, while not identifying the person, certainly identifies the motive for their actions. In fact, these lines, combined with the chosen attire which has echoes of the masochistic world, appears to be both an explanation and a snarling attack on the rest of society. So what should we take note of regarding the references to the Austrian author, Sakamesoch? The writer of the note would state, you do not seem to know Sakamesoch. You would discover it takes everything to make a world. While it is pure speculation, might it be that the person behind the mask is someone who enjoys such outlets as Sakamesoch, and even masochism and or Sadomasochism in general? It is certainly an interesting thought, and is arguably the most likely scenario, and perhaps of more interest, what is the reaction to the sightings say about us as a collective? Realistically, there is no doubt that most of us would indeed stare a little at a person walking out of the forest in such a macabre getup, maybe even feel a little unnerved and intimidated by it. It is, though, still perhaps a sad condemnation of our society in general. Perhaps it is worth reminding ourselves of the green man of Pennsylvania, sometimes referred to as Charlie Noface. During the 1950s and 60s, sightings of the green man would often occur near State Route 351 near the Peters Creek area. Many bored teenagers would often venture up to this region at night, all had hopes of seeing a faceless man who also had no right arm. Indeed, many knew of this bizarre ghost-like monstrosity. In reality, however, the green man was Charlie Robinson, a local man who as a boy would climb a railway bridge in order to see a bird's nest. In doing so, he would suffer horrific burns from the electrically charged wires above. The burns would leave him permanently scarred all over, including his face, and leaving him blind with empty eye sockets. Although there were no other long-lasting health effects, Robinson would often only venture out at night, and even then, many not familiar with his story would run in shock at the sight of him. Are the accounts and sightings of the mysterious man of the Swiss woodlands those of an individual who was simply going about his business, albeit in a manner that most of us would indeed find strange? Did they then find themselves at risk of a potential attack? It would certainly seem like the green man of Pennsylvania, behind the monstrous mask, there was a very real person. Only, unlike Charlie Robinson, the lawyer had the option of removing their mask and going back to anonymity. That being said, as with all things, until we have definite proof, then all possibilities, as possibilities, are open to debate. Was there more to this than just a man following his own hedonistic compass? Might the killing off of Lalloy and itself have reasons unknown to us? And perhaps of most interest, will he appear again at some point in the future? We should, though, be cautious that any sightings that might occur in the future are not merely copycat hoaxes as opposed to the return of the masked man of the Swiss forests. Whatever the reasons, and whether or not Lalloyan is dead and gone, the incident and sightings are yet another layer of intrigue to our rich and varied collective existence. Ultimately, the case gives us a lot to think about on several different levels. And how might that thought process be applied where appropriate to urban legends and folklore of the past? Perhaps we might see that some of the tales of monsters, goblins and ghouls may have more reality at their true origins than we might at first think. Coming up on Weird Darkness, a doctor from 1915 describes a home haunted by the memories of what was then known as consumption. A family in Norfolk's Horning Village says that they went back in time a hundred years and that it might happen very soon again in the village. In late December 1980, there was a series of reported sightings of unexplained lights near Rendlesham Forest in Suffolk, England, which have become linked with claims of UFO landings. Apparently people were too busy looking at the little green men in flying saucers, though, to notice the half-women half-fish that also might be in the area. But first, Nilly Mench was accused of kidnapping, her ingenious scheme to beat the charges, to kidnap again. These stories and more when Weird Darkness returns. Central Massachusetts is a land of oddities and apparitions. Stories of the strange and paranormal have been passed down from generation to generation and only the local populace has any idea of just how vast and deep their superstitions run. The world around you is much more than you can touch, taste, smell, see, and hear. Some of the stories are funny, some are sad, but all of them give you a taste of what it's like to be from the oddest part of the United States. You can't have a region of the country that has been settled for centuries without getting a few odd tales out of it. Open up a whole new world of fact and fiction that will leave you with a deep appreciation for the strange and bizarre ghosts and heroes await and the only thing they need to live on is you. Slightly Odd Fitchburg by Ed Sweeney, now available on Kindle, paperback and audiobook versions on the audiobooks page at WeirdDarkness.com. On August 22, 1936, a St. Louis socialite named Nilly Mench, along with three others, was found guilty of fraud and conspiracy. St. Louis has seen some weird and wacky legal cases and crimes over the years, but there is never a crime that is more sensational than when a member of the upper crust gets caught committing it. The story started in 1931, when Dr. Isaac D. Kelly was kidnapped after making a house call to a home on Davis Place in Clayton, Missouri. He was released after eight days, but the culprit responsible for his temporary disappearance was unknown. Three years later, a tavern owner named Adolf Fielder revealed the secret behind the unsolved case. He claimed the kidnapping was the work of ex-cons, gangsters, and a woman he only knew as Mrs. N. It turned out that the mysterious redhead was Nelly Mench, a resident of Westminster Place and a prominent member of St. Louis society. She was the daughter of the Reverend William Tipton, sister to Judge Ernest Tipton, wife of Dr. Ludwig Mench, and manager of a boutique in the central-west end called The Mitsy Shop. It turned out that Nelly was in the habit of sending bills to widows for lingerie their late husbands may have but probably hadn't purchased from her shop. It was later discovered that her background was also sullied by rumors of jewelry thefts and friendships with local gangsters, but her society connections had managed to keep her out of trouble for many years. As she was charged with Dr. Kelly's kidnapping, her attorneys got the venue for her trial changed to Mexico, Missouri, a town near Columbia where her father had his church, and near Jefferson City where her brother sat on the Missouri Supreme Court, but unsure that even her prominent relatives could save her this time, Nelly came up with a scheme to save herself. Believing that no jury would convict her if she was a new mother, she concocted a plan to get a baby to claim as her own. Working with her lawyer, Vern Lacey, she located a baby in Chicago and brought him to St. Louis, only to have the baby die. But Nelly was not deterred. She found a second child, the son of Anna Ware, an unwed domestic servant in Pennsylvania who would come to St. Louis to deliver her child. So she took it. Once the jury got wind of the recent quote-unquote birth, she was acquitted of kidnapping. But Nelly just couldn't stop herself. She was so sure that people believed the baby was hers that she decided to blackmail one of her husband's colleagues, Dr. Marsh Pitzman, claiming the baby was his. When Anna Ware went to court to get her child back, Pitzman, who had actually been Mench's lover, gave her $16,000 for her defense. Eventually the whole scheme fell apart and the ruse was exposed. Nelly was sentenced to 10 years for mail fraud, for blackmailing Pitzman. Her husband was sentenced to eight years and two accomplices, Wilfred Skinny-Jones and Nelly's friend Helen Barroir, ended up with five years behind bars. It was the end of a story that captured the attention of St. Louis and the region and just went to prove that no matter how much money you might have, a criminal is still a criminal. An unsettling time slip in horning. The three began to feel uneasy, noting that a strange silence had descended. The landscape became blurry and the houses were replaced by ancient cottages. It was Norfolk's own picnic at Hanging Rock. A village where time stood still and where a family found themselves transported back in time as they stood in shock. A Margolis family were walking around the beautiful Norfolk village of Horning in the summer of 1978, possibly 1979, taking in the riverside views at one of the gems in the Norfolk Broad's crown. Mr. and Mrs. Margolis and their 11-year-old son were suddenly overcome with uneasiness. The village had suddenly fallen entirely silent and, as they walked, the trio began to feel increasingly dizzy. Realizing quickly that something was very wrong, they began to feel not only disorientated but frightened. The landscape had started to melt away like a big heat haze and the houses that they had looked at seconds earlier turned before their eyes into ancient cottages. In amazement, they watched as the modern road transformed into little more than a muddy track and the cars into carts. A thin man wearing brown appeared walking alongside a battered cart drawn by a large horse. He didn't so much as glance at the family. Then, as suddenly as they had moved from one time to another, they heard modern-day noises, cars, voices, the thrum of life with electricity. As quickly as it had appeared, the past had evaporated. In his book Cover Ups and Secrets, The Complete Guide to Government Conspiracies, Manipulations and Deceptions by Nick Redfern, which I'll link to in the show notes, he quotes an interview given by Mrs. Margolis in 1997 after the death of her husband. She said that she appeared to have emerged from the trance-like state induced by the time slip far faster than either her husband or son and that they had seemed out of it and distracted as if they were underwater. There are many stories from across the world of inexplicable time slips where people find themselves in another dimension or what feels like a parallel universe. Two are from Suffolk. The first happened in October 1957 when three 15-year-olds were taking part in an orienteering exercise on a Sunday morning when they walked into the village of Cursey and, apparently, a completely different period in time. There were similarities to what happened in Horning. All the boys could hear was a stream. The modern houses had been replaced by timber-framed buildings and they couldn't even hear the ducks that looked as if they were splashing in the stream. Filled with unease, the boys began to look around. There in a butcher's shop window were skinned oxen, green with age, and covered with cobwebs as if the butcher had left in a hurry weeks earlier. Houses in the village were bare of furniture, just empty, cold shells. Just then a shiver passed through all three youth as all felt the icy stare of invisible watchers from all around the village tracing their every step. Petrified and nauseous, they walked quickly up the village street, eventually pelting away from the strange medieval-looking houses, pausing only to glance back to check if they were being followed. Speaking in 1990, William Lang, one of the boys in question, said, It was a ghost village, so to speak. It was almost as if we had walked back in time. I experienced an overwhelming feeling of sadness and depression in Carsey, but also a feeling of unfriendliness and unseen watchers which sent shivers up one's back. I wonder if we'd knocked at a door to ask a question who might have answered it? It doesn't bear thinking about. Another tale is told in Ratham, where a stately Georgian home is said to appear and then vanish, leaving no trace. The Ratham Mirage has been spotted since 1860 and up to 2007. Some believe the sightings represent a time-slip which passers-by are experiencing. Author Joan Foreman wrote Haunted East Anglia and wrote another about time-slips called Masks of Time, both of which I'll link to in the show notes, in which she recounted her own experience at Haddon Hall in Derbyshire, where she saw a group of children playing at the top of the stairs, who she later discovered were youngsters from the 1640s, not present day. Ms. Foreman believed the trigger for a time-slip happened when someone was interested in their surroundings, but not concentrating on them, allowing the slip to happen. Others believe that ghosts may be living people who have stepped through a time-slip. We may, however, be able to test the theories for ourselves, because if we return back to horning, there is a persisting belief that the time-slip experienced by the Margolis family occurs in the village once every five years, if you want to plan a trip and stay a while. One becomes accustomed to lurid tales of disease and suffering in the city slums. The resident of the country town is prepared to believe any sort of story dealing with the unnecessary sacrifice of human life in great centers of population. He hears such stories with a certain smugness and self-satisfaction. He forgets, if he has ever known, that there are usually disease-breeding slums in every city, town or hamlet, regardless of its size or location. Over in Effingham County and the outskirts of a prosperous town stands an old house, situated pleasantly enough in the shade of two giant maples. The country road sweeps past it and green pastures and fields of corn extend as far as the eye can see. In the morning, robins and jays and thrushes run riot in the trees. There is something home-like in the very dilapidation of the place. Certainly, this is not slums. But it is. It is very doubtful if any dark and evil-smelling room in the crowded tenements of Chicago can tell a more ghastly story of the sacrifice of human life than this roadside house in Effingham County. There is nothing very unusual in its appearance. It is old and unpainted. The weather boards are loose and broken, and in many places the fallen shingles have left exposed gaps in the roof. Within, there is a living room of moderate size. The wallpaper is stripped off and with large spaces where the plaster has fallen and the lath are seen. The smooth coat of the walls is almost gone, and the rough sand surface is broken in hundreds of places where nails have been driven. The floor is worn and rough and broken. Opening from this living room and similarly dilapidated and out of repair are two little bedrooms, about seven by ten feet in size, and one of these is the scene of the repeated tragedies that have occurred in the house during the past 15 years. In this room, incidentally in the year 1900, a man died of tuberculosis. With the death of this man, his wife and children moved away, and another family moved in. In this family was a young woman, and this young woman sickened, and in a few months, she died. She died from tuberculosis. She had slept constantly in the room in which the former householder had died. And so the second family moved away, and a man and his wife moved in and occupied the ill-fated bedroom. Ten years ago, in 1904, the wife of this couple died in the house. She died from tuberculosis. The young widower vacated the place. Shortly after, there moved in a man and his wife and a family of children. So far as can be learned, they were all in good health at that time, but that was several years ago. It was not long, however, until the son of the household, a young married man, sickened and after a while he died from tuberculosis. And his young widow went back to her old hometown where she died from tuberculosis, leaving two children who were placed in a charitable institution.  In the following year the mother of the family died from tuberculosis, and was buried at the expense of the county, for by this time the disease and the expense and inefficiency which go with it were beginning to render the family destitute. The year following that, in which the mother and infant died, a married daughter succumbed, leaving behind her two children, both of whom are now dead, once certainly having died from milliary tuberculosis. The next year, another grown son of the family became a victim of the disease. In 1913, a married daughter who had been raised in the house and who had left it as a bride came back to the ill-starred home and died of tuberculosis, leaving three small children who had been farmed out among relatives of the husband. Just a few weeks ago, another daughter, 21 years of age, was claimed as a victim of tuberculosis dying in the little death room. This seems a shocking record for the ramshackle old house, but it is not all. One of the daughters who had escaped death in the place married a prosperous young farmer and moved away. She became the mother of six children, one of whom died from tuberculosis following whooping cough. And then this young mother died of tuberculosis and her remaining five children were farmed out with friends and relatives. And then another daughter was married and moved to an adjoining county. When she was but developing into womanhood at 20 years of age, shortly after the birth of her first child, she died of tuberculosis and her baby followed her in death, a victim of tuberculosis meningitis. And now, of that ill-fated family, but three remain. The father and two children, a boy of 10 and a girl of 14. The father is gaunt and emaciated. The two children show evidences of the disease which will probably eventually claim them. While the death record of the house, as it is now written, seems appalling, while the story of motherless children and of their dependence is impressive, one can only guess at the extent to which the baneful influence of the place will spread. Although the blight has extended into other communities, already perhaps the infection which will wreck other homes has been implanted. And yet, tuberculosis is a preventable disease. It takes no very fanciful imagination to see the dreadfulness of all this. But even to the sordid and the cold-blooded, there is a definite and unpoetic appeal. This house is said to have already cost the county of Effingham over $2,000 for material aid, for medicine, for doctors and for funerals. And that $2,000 has not begun to solve the problem. The house has enormously increased the pauper expense. Tuberculosis is not a disease of paupers, but it is essentially a pauperizing disease. George Thomas Palmer M.D. President of the Illinois State Association for the Prevention of Tuberculosis. Illinois Health News, Volume 1, 1915, pages 69 to 71. Rendlesham and Suffolk is more than its fair share of strange stories, but this one concerns a mermaid rather than little green men.  Is there anything Rendlesham forests can't offer when it comes to the strange and unusual? When fans of the paranormal hear the name Rendlesham, the first thing that springs to mind is an incident that happened over three nights around Christmas of 1980, when it was said that several spaceships visited the nearby air base. In a memorandum to the Ministry of Defense released in 2002, the base's then Deputy Commander, Lieutenant Colonel Charles Halt, described how two airmen investigating strange lights in the forest came across a metallic glowing object which maneuvered through the trees and disappeared. To many, it seemed like an official endorsement of an extraterrestrial encounter, but it turns out that what it might have been is an out-of-this-world day trip to see a mermaid. In a book called Two Suffolk Friends, published by William Blackwood and Sons, which I'll link to in the show notes, the memories of Robert Hine's groom, Archdeacon of Suffolk, were contained, including the time you spent at Rendlesham between 1813 and 1815. He recalled, there was a high sandbank not far from the house, through which the small roots of the bushes growing protruded. My brother and I never touched these. We believed that if we pulled one of them, a bell would ring and the devil would appear, so we never pulled them. In a plowed field nearby was a large piece of ground at one end, with a pond in the middle of it, and with many wild cherry trees near it. I can remember now how pretty they were with their covering of white blossoms and the grass below full of flowers, but the pond was no ordinary one. It was always called the S-pond, being shaped like that letter. I suspect, too, that it was a pond of ill repute, perhaps connected with heathen worship, for we were warned never to go near its edge, lest the mermaid should come and chrome us in. Chrome, as all East Anglians know, means crook. On Hidden East Anglia's website, which I'll link to in the show notes, there is a tale of a pond in Rendlesham, which is said to be haunted by a ghostly woman in white who has been seen gliding on its surface or rising from its depths. Could this be the mermaid? Over on the Griff Monster Walks website, which I'll also link in the notes, the author speculates that the pond could be the same one found in the present-day Cottage Wood, alongside the footpath that runs between Ivy Lodge Road and Ash Road. On an 1881 map, the pond is clearly shown to be S-shaped. Perhaps the mermaid in question is actually a river hag, used by parents to frighten children into being good. Peg Powler, a hag and water spirit in English folklore, is said to inhabit the river tees and, just like the Grindelow, Jenny Green Teeth and Nellie Longarms, is said to drag children into the water if they stray too close to the edge. Like a boogie woman, the river hags lure their prey to a watery grave. Although in some stories, Peg Powler is described as a beautiful young woman with green hair who seduces men and young boys that see her and then leads them astray and into the river. The reference to heave and worship may be linked to the nearby Bulboros, funerary monuments that date from the late Neolithic period to the late Bronze Age and which were used for either single or multiple burials. Rendelsham is thought to have been the site of the royal settlement of the Anglo-Saxon kings of East Anglia and was mentioned by historian the Venerable Bade in the 8th century. Around five miles from the Sutton Who burial site, where a burial ship full of treasures was found under a burial mound believed to be that of King Redwald, Rendelsham is now thought to be where the king and his people lived. Whatever the draw of Rendelsham is to the curious and unexplained, do be careful if you go down to the woods today and don't say we didn't warn you that there might be some big surprises. When Weird Darkness returns, we'll learn of a queen who, when not trying to win the hearts of her subjects, was rumored to be ripping out the hearts of her enemies, some calling her a she-wolf. That story is up next. 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 kinda 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. Use the promo code WeirdDarkness at checkout and get 10% off your entire purchase that's WeirdDarkness.com slash Built. Isabella of France is a fantastically interesting historic figure. Even more so because of how little known she is. To have not heard of a medieval queen, especially amongst the public, may not seem like such a big deal until you consider the fact that Queen Isabella deposed her husband Edward II and seized the throne of England, ruling as regent on behalf of her son for several years before he in turn seized power. Isabella has garnered quite a negative reputation in modern times and this was probably helped largely by the fact that one of the first modern historians who wrote about her was a Victorian named Agnes Strickland. Agnes and her sister wrote a comprehensive book about the Queens of England in 1894 and the book is still used by historians today, especially as for some of the lesser known queens, their book still holds one of the most comprehensive accounts of their lives. Agnes did not hold a high opinion of Isabella. She called her one of the worst women that ever occupied the throne of England. Even within the last 50 years, Isabella has been labeled by historians as a woman of evil character, a notorious schemer. Agnes' scathing description of Isabella came largely out of Victorian values. Whilst Isabella was estranged from her husband Edward II, she embarked on an affair with another man, an Earl named Roger Mortimer. It probably also did not help that Isabella subverted Victorian values of a submissive woman who obeyed her husband at all costs, as demonstrated by her usurpation of the throne. As always with history, the story was not so simple. Isabella came to England at the age of 12 in 1308 after she had been married to Edward, who was at that time 24 years old. She was the only surviving daughter of Philip IV of France and, as often happened during the medieval period, the marriage was intended to improve relations between France and England. Even from the start, the marriage hit problems. Edward had a very close relationship with Piers Gaviston, Earl of Cornwall, which had been interpreted by historians as a homosexual relationship, as sworn brothers by oath or simply close friends. Nonetheless, at Isabella and Edward's wedding, the French emissaries and Isabella herself were insulted at proceedings. Gaviston outshone both the king and queen at the wedding, dressed more splendidly than either of them, and taking a forefront during the ceremony. Moreover, Isabella did not immediately get her promised dower, nor receive even small sums of money for her daily expenditure, so she was forced to live in the king's household entirely dependent on him. This was not a situation for a princess of France or Queen of England, particularly because one of a queen's main sources of power came from her dower lands. This caused King Philip to send his personal seal to his daughter so that he could be sure that she could correspond with him about the situation at hand. However, Isabella was well prepared for the role of Queen of England. Four years after her marriage, 16 years old, she held a key role in arranging peace between Edward and his rebellious barons, helped in part by bishops of the church and a team of lawyers sent by her father. Isabella continued to intercede with the barons throughout her husband's reign as Edward had a tumultuous relationship with his barons and she became exceedingly popular amongst English subjects, holding great respect. Indeed, the political elite in England held great sympathy for Isabella and felt that she was mistreated by Edward, constantly being shunned for his male favorites. The events that led up to Isabella deposing Edward II actually unfolded fairly quickly and it was not as some historians argue a plan long in the making. There was much evidence that Isabella's main interest was to be a good queen to her subjects and look after the English people and it was only after her husband made it impossible for her to do her job that her feelings toward him began to change. In 1324 Edward confiscated all of Isabella's lands as a result of the rising tensions and war in France and this was a massive blow to Isabella's source of power and patronage. In 1325 Edward sent Isabella to France to negotiate peace and to try and reclaim the English lands of Aquitaine which had been lost during the previous year. He was supposed to go to France himself to pay homage to the new king of France, Isabella's brother Charles IV. However, he did not wish to do this as he feared for the life of his new favorite, Hugh Dispenser. His previous favorite, Gaviston, had been murdered by jealous barons in 1312. Isabella agreed to go on the diplomatic mission and she was successful in her diplomacy but homage was still required. She persuaded Edward to send their son, the future Edward III, to France to pay homage on his behalf. This he did and the 13-year-old Edward paid homage accordingly. However, Isabella refused to return back to England with her son once this was completed. She was welcomed to the French court as it was filled with members of her family and in England her life had become unbearable. Her position laughable. Edward wrote to Charles to send Isabella home but Charles replied that the queen has come of her own will and may freely return if she wishes but if she prefers to remain here she is my sister and I refuse to expel her. At some point Isabella began gathering Englishmen who were taking refuge at the French court after fleeing England at various points in the past decade after feuds with the king. Amongst these was Roger Mortimer and at some point Roger and Isabella became lovers, although historians are not agreed upon when exactly. Isabella began playing a fantastic propaganda game. She dressed in widow's clothes, claiming that the king's favorite dispenser had destroyed her marriage with Edward, an idea which many English people agreed upon. She ignored all of Edward's many letters begging and threatening her to come home and her son also stayed at his mother's side ignoring Edward's letters to him as well. Eventually Isabella had gathered a sufficient court of exiled Englishmen in France. She just needed an invasion force and for this she turned to Hanalt. A marriage alliance was agreed between Edward III and one of the count of Hanalt's daughters whom Edward was given the freedom to choose, probably to aid in his cooperation and was dutifully betrothed to Philippa of Hanalt. In return the count of Hanalt gave Isabella a substantial dowry for Philippa and the money was used alongside an earlier loan from Charles of France to pay for a mercenary army. Her force set sail for England along with some troops sent by Hanalt. Their small force evaded ships sent by Edward to stop them. And Isabella landed in England on September 24th, 1326, dressed in her widow garments. Her success was swift. The political elite in England supported her invasion. They had respect for Isabella as a model medieval queen who had interceded in their favor on many occasions and they hated the dispenser family as much as she did. They felt that Isabella was saving the kingdom from the horrible tumult that it had been under her husband's rule. Most of the areas of England that Isabella had successfully interceded on behalf of, whilst she had been queen consort, now joined her in her invasion. Edward and dispenser had fled to Wales, but they were captured and dispenser's father was gruesomely executed by lords of the realm by being hacked to pieces and fed to dogs. The dispenser himself was killed by being dragged behind a horse, then hanged, drawn, and quartered. After the main enemies of the lords of the realm had been executed, Isabella, now with Mortimer by her side, began a policy of reconciliation, which worked well with her experience and reputation. Isabella took charge of Edward's great seal, symbolizing the fact that she was now a ruler of the land and Edward was imprisoned in the Tower of London. The King's council, followed by parliament, decided that Edward II was to be legally deposed and placed in house imprisonment for life, with his son Edward III to take the throne. Due to his young age and Isabella's astounding power at this moment in time, parliament appointed her Regent of the realm during Edward III's minority. At some point whilst in imprisonment, Edward II died and it was widely believed both then and now that he had been murdered, a suggestion often being that it was instigated by Isabella and Mortimer, although there are many suggestions that he simply died of ill health. There are also some conspiracy theories that Edward did not in fact die at all and escaped to Europe to live as a hermit for the rest of his life. Isabella ruled England with Mortimer at her side for four years until 1330, when Edward III seized the throne after the couple grew in unpopularity. Mortimer was seized from his and Isabella's bed in Nottingham Castle in the middle of the night on 19 October 1330. Mortimer was later put on trial for treason and sentenced to be executed, but Edward showed him leniency and he was not quartered or disemboweled, as was the punishment for those guilty of treason. Edward took control of the throne in full, with his now wife Queen Philippa by his side. Isabella did not suffer any negative consequences for her actions and she lived the rest of her life in luxury, experiencing continuous favor from Edward III. Edward appears to have loved his mother deeply as shown by his support of her coup and his treatment of her whilst he was king. Upon Isabella's death in 1358, Edward paid great expense for her funeral, paying for hundreds of candles, cloths of gold, incenses and spices to adorn her tomb as well as donated alms to various religious orders and giving generous rewards to her servants. In later years, he continued to commemorate her death to great expense. Isabella was a fantastically interesting character and not a simple 2D caricature of an evil scheming queen as she has previously been portrayed to be. She was beautiful, incredibly intelligent, loyal and she had a great sense of duty to her English subjects and her son. She carried out an incredible feat in deposing her husband so successfully and wielded power far beyond that experienced by most medieval English queens. She has been described by many as a she-wolf, sometimes in a positive way, often in a negative one, but she is certainly a fascinating figure to study. Thanks for listening. If you like the podcast, please tell someone about it. Recommend weird darkness to your friends, family and co-workers who love 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 doing the podcast. Plus, telling others about weird darkness also helps get the word out about resources that are available for those who suffer from depression, so please share the podcast with someone today. Be sure to join me for a new episode every Sunday at my other podcast, The Church of the Undead, also found at WeirdDarkness.com. 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. Kidnapping Babies in Blackmail was written by Troy Taylor. The masked man Lilloyan was written by Mark Loth for UFO Insight. Timeslip Village and The Mermaid of Rendlesham were both written by Stacia Briggs and Seofra Connor for Eastern Daily Press. Isabella She-Wolf of England was written by Gemma Holman for Just History Posts. Consumption Cottage was written by Dr. George Thomas Palmer, M.D., and was published in Illinois Health News, Volume 1, 1915, pages 69-71. Weird Darkness Theme by Alibi Music. Now that we're coming out of the dark, I'll leave you with a little light. Daniel 2, Verses 27-28 Daniel replied, No wise man, enchanter, magician, or diviner can explain to the King the mystery he is asked about, but there is a God in heaven that reveals mysteries. And a final thought, there is no love without forgiveness, and there is no forgiveness without love. Bryant H. McGill, I'm Darren Marlar. Thanks for joining me in the Weird Darkness. So what should we take note of regarding the references to the Austrian author, Sakur Masak, the author Sakur Masak? So what should we take note of regarding the references to the Austrian author, Sakur Masak? The writer of the note would state, You do not seem to know Sakur Masak. You do not seem to know Sakur Masak. You do not seem to know Sakur Masak. who she later discovered were youngsters from the 1640s, not present day. That was, but that's all right. Oh, were you? You were just so soft, I didn't think that you were. I'm so sorry. That's okay, I'll just go back to that. I'll just go back a second. I love you so much. Well, you can't leave her in here. I know, I know. Come on. Oh, what a good stretch. What a good stretch. We'll just take one moment, Danny, because we just need to look at the window for just a second. So that way when I leave, I won't feel offended that you thrown me out of your office. That's fine. There we go. Thank you. And that, ladies and gentlemen, was Miss Mocha Brick. She just will not leave me alone. Alright. Hey Weirdos, our December Weirdo Watch Party is Saturday, December 23rd, hosted by horror host Hall of Famers, Drac and Countess Corita. Dracula and his bride are bringing us the 1946 noir thriller Shock, starring Vincent Price. I'm Dr. Crow. I'm your friend. I'm here to help you. In the film, a psychologically distraught woman is committed to a private sanitarium, only to find out that the man who committed her was the man she witnessed commit a murder. I'm going to try to find something that will convince her that she's insane. The Weirdo Watch Party is always free to watch online with everybody, so grab your popcorn, candy and soda and jump into the fun, and even get involved in the live chat as we watch the movie This Christmas Eve Eve. This delusion is quite common among mental cases in an institution of this sort. It's Shock, starring Vincent Price, presented by Count Drac and Countess Corita, Saturday, December 23rd, starting at 10pm Eastern, 9pm Central, 8pm Mountain, 7pm Pacific. See a few clips from the film and invite your friends to watch along with you on the Weirdo Watch Party page at WeirdDarkness.com. And we'll see you on Saturday, December 23rd, for The Weirdo Watch Party.


I think we've all discovered that one of the most important things we can do is to make a classroom that feels safe because if we're asking students from the very beginning to share their ideas, many students, especially those who are maybe a little more on the science phobic end, are not used to sharing their ideas because they're afraid they're wrong. And it's really important in this pedagogy that students feel comfortable with sharing their ideas. So we go to great lengths right at the beginning of class to establish norms in the class where everybody's ideas are okay and we want to hear everybody's ideas and we're not there to judge anybody's ideas, we're there to, well in a sense, we're there to evaluate ideas against each other and to come to a common understanding together. And the goal is first that they come to a common understanding in their small group and then they share it with the whole class and it may be that one group is the only one that has the right idea and the rest of them are arguing against it and the instructor is there to let them present evidence to make the best case for which ideas are most consistent with the evidence. The role of the facilitator is very, very important here because we clearly know what the right idea is and we know where we want our students to get and so it's our job to make sure they get there and that's not though by us telling them, it's by us asking questions and saying okay but you made that observation and how does that mesh with what you're saying now and trying to draw those discrepancies out so that students are forced to say oh wow, I don't have evidence for my idea, this idea is clearly the more reasonable of the idea. So this is why it's called guided inquiry really is because we guide our students into a correct understanding by asking questions and pointing out evidence and getting them to really consider where their ideas are and how they mesh with the evidence that they've seen. I would say that my teaching philosophy is the one that now mesh with this method so after learning about this method I just changed my teaching philosophy really, I just became a teaching philosophy, you know, I was interested in what students learn but now I became more understanding how to best encourage their learning, create an atmosphere conducive to learning so I do see myself as a coach, a motivator, whatever facilitator where you want to call it but I think one of the most important roles is to make it exciting, it's for people to be engaged and say hey, you know, I want to learn this stuff. Part of the power of this pedagogy and method is to encourage students to really take ownership of these ideas because they're the ones constructing them and so they become their ideas and I think that we all do different versions of this but at certain points during my classes we have what I call consensus ideas, discussions where we kind of take stock of what are the big ideas that we've developed and can somebody give me something that I can write on the board and I'll write it on the board and I'll say okay, can we all agree on this and what's the evidence behind this and so by the end of the class they have all these consensus ideas that they have built through analysis of evidence and they have agreed upon as consensus ideas that really are theirs and you know once you get them to take ownership of these ideas and actually have the ability to back them up with evidence I think that it builds a lot of confidence in these ideas and it helps them be able to remember them and apply them as well.


Hi everybody, Sean with jaspyscasebreaks.com, doing a 2020 Prism Hobby Box. One box break, random teams number one. One box break, I'm Prism. Sounds fun, enough. But top four names at the end of this, we're going to actually be randomizing the original list. We're going to get spots in the 25 box baseball mixer with a chance to win a BGS 10, 9.5 I think. I forget what the giveaway is, but it's a Trout BGS 10, I believe 2010, so yeah, BGS 10. We're going to randomize list of customers and names. So Enoch, down to Chris, Hedrick, and Diamondbacks, down to the Nationals. We're going to do a dice roll, 3-1, 4 times, 4th and final time, from Ryan, down to Josh. 4th and final time, Yankees, down to the Rangers. Quick look at the list of names. Quick trade window on the single box, if anybody's in here and wants to trade, let me know. Sort by team name. Anybody? Nice cushion. No trades. Good to go. There's the box we're going to be doing. We're going to be doing, I doubt we're going to really be doing any personal tonight, Jeremy. We've got a laundry list of breaks and I know that there's more stuff that's sold out that's not on there yet, so we might even have a 25 box baseball mixer going at whatever time in the morning. It's going to be a fun night. Start your Friday off, pour yourself a coffee if you're on the East Coast. Sit down, watch some breaks, but here Jeremy, if you stick around all the way until the end of whenever this stream is going to end, whatever time in the morning that happens to be for me, and if you're on the East Coast or further east than I am, however much further in the morning that is, I'll gladly do a personal break for you just for sticking around the whole time. Why not? Thanks John. Only 8 o'clock, Hawaii? Then yeah, you'll probably make it more, you have a better chance of making it than anybody else here. So at the end of this, we're going to take the BD, we're going to take the original list of customers' names, and we're going to randomize it, and from there, top 4 names on the list after however many times we randomize it, are going to be entered into that mixer. Just like the randomizers we've been doing all night, just giving a couple of spots away already by doing that guys. Not sure if you weren't here for those breaks. Good luck everyone. Some fun stuff out of here, obviously the big thing we're looking forward to is the spot still. Jonathan Daza, to 175, for the Rockies and Enoch, Chris Bryant, Green to 125, the Cubs and Amber Bishop, and first Otto, Debbie Groulon, for the Phillies and Adam Coverman. Marko Gonzalez to 100, for the Mariners, and Ryan Harreld, we have a redemption, save that. That's exciting. Adds another little wrinkle to the Winnespot break, huh? Sean Maniah to 149, for the A's and Patrick Sue. Vet base won't ship in this guys, the colored inserts, Otto's numbered cards, everything else will. That'd be a cool guess. Jack Flaherty, Red to 99, for the Cardinals, and Chris Hendrick, third Otto, because the Redemption is the second, Trent Grisham, Silver Otto, Rookie, for the Padres and Amber Bishop, yes he did. How is Pinney Baseball a thing? What do you mean? They do a lot of baseball products. They just don't use team names or logos, but they come up with really nice cards like this. Jake Rogers, Rookie Cracked Ice, number to 25, 6 to 25, for the Detroit Tigers, and Adam Coverman. They make really nice stuff. Topps just has an exclusive contract specifically for the Major League Baseball, to use the team names and logos. You should check out a flawless baseball, I think you'd be impressed, national treasures as well. And the redemption, Rookie autographs, Red Wave Prism, which I think is probably going to be numbered to 60 or less. Card number 74, Y, Yoshitomo Tsutsugo, which I want to say is the Cincinnati Reds, but let's take a look. I was way off, Tampa Bay Rays, Yoshitomo Tsutsugo, Tampa Bay Rays. So that's going to Tampa Bay, and Zach Thiel, congrats. That's the break guys. Now we're going to do a randomizer for the spots in the baseball mixer, which potentially might be going tonight. So let me grab the original list of names, from Enoch down to Chris, Chris with the last spot mojo on there, and Enoch started us out. We're going to randomize this a new dice roll. Sounds good, Optimus. Four out of two, six times, one, two, three, four, five, and sixth and final time, Jerrick Corfage, Amber Bishop, Ryan Harold, and Amber Bishop. Congratulations. You guys just won spots in the 25 box baseball mixer with the Mike Trout VGS-10 giveaway. Congrats and good luck. Guys, that was the 2020 Prism Hobby Box One Box Break, Random Team Number One. jaskyscasebreaks.com. I'm Sean. Thank you guys very much, and we'll see you next time.